The Texture Pop: Episode 8: This Is Not a Destiny Podcast

I don't know exactly how it happened... but it happened. We brought up Destiny as a one-off joke in the intro, and we somehow spent almost a significant chunk of the podcast talking about it. The best part is that none of us own the game, so we have no reason to really give out our opinion on it. Garrett and I played the beta, but that's it (though I hear not much has changed between then and the main release).

And that really hampered the rest of the cast, because it left us much less time to really talk about what we wanted to talk about. Although we continuous fail to do so, we really are trying to shorten up these podcasts. It's just that one conversation leads to another, which leads to another. By the time we realize it, we've spent 20 minutes discussing cupcakes and no one has any idea why that is.
It's both the shows greatest strength and weakness.

Having said that, here's the show.



The MP3 of this episode can be found here.

0:00:00 Introduction
Sam, I just want you to know that THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!

0:03:34 Viewer Question
"Have you guys ever played the original Unreal or Unreal 2? If so, what did you think of them?"
My youth betrays me when these types of questions come up. Not only are these games before my time more often than not, but even if they were from my time, I haven't been using my PC for gaming for very long. I've only had a computer capable of playing smaller games fairly well for a few years now, so I missed out/am missing out on many good PC games. In many ways, I'm still playing catch-up. Part of me hopes that when I graduate college, I'll be able to upgrade to a really good gaming PC and get much deeper into it. Until then, I have other things I need to use my money for.

0:08:50 Chris has a question about manga.
While I myself don't read a lot of manga, I have many friends who do. Sam is very right, MangaFox is the place to go for manga. Though I am less familiar with it, Sam also recommended All Mangas Reader to check out.
As a child, I used to read many of the popular Shonen Jump manga, but not many of the less known ones. Growing up, money became more tight, and when it came time to start cancelling subscriptions, Shonen Jump was one of the first to go. When my friends introduced me to MangaFox much later, I was already too far behind and didn't want to spend all that time playing catch up.
I only really gave up on manga because I used to be really into Naruto, but a particular moment in the series pretty much destroyed any interest I had in it. After Pain killed so many characters, and then almost immediately brought them back to life, I stopped caring. It showed me that death is completely meaningless. Once that happens, it becomes much harder to invest yourself in the events that go on, since you know they is a good chance they will be made meaningless.
Is it unfair to judge all mange/anime because on one? Yes. Will that stop me from doing precisely that? No.
Having said that, that isn't just a problem you see in manga/anime. ANY series that goes on for too long with suffer from that. That's probably why my favorite animes (Code Geass and Death Note, for the record) only had two seasons and ended before they had a chance to turn into crap. Sam has recommended a lot of anime to me, and I probably should watch a few of them sometime.

0:21:26 I joke about Destiny... and come to regret it.
I'm sorry listeners. I truly am.
I still can't fathom why they wouldn't put the database containing all the game's story in the actual game, even as just a text file. It boggles the mind. The database exists in RPGs for precisely that reason. Some people don't care about story, but the ones that do can look up any extra details they might be curious about.
This game was clearly over-hyped, even worse than Watch_Dogs was. It's not what I would call a bad game, but it is totally outclassed by many of its contemporaries. Honestly, if Destiny interests you, you are simply better off playing Borderlands 2.
In the premier episode of this podcast, I made a joke that Destiny was about "fighting the darkness with my keyblade," but it is worse than that. Shit all you want about Kingdom Hearts, but it has characters than make an impact, with their own personalities and motivations. Furthermore, light and darkness are very strongly defined concepts. Destiny lacks both of these.
I just cannot see the appeal of it. It doesn't even seem all that ambitious to me. In fact, the game looks very safe.

0:41:05 Chris talks a bit more about Serious Sam (and we stop talking about Destiny)
Hearing Chris talk about Serious Sam 3 on the 360 really, really sucks. That should NEVER happen on a console. There really isn't an excuse for that. If the devs didn't have time to port it to the console properly, they shouldn't release it on that console.
Even on the PC, some of the things Chris is talking about are simply inexcusable. I get the distinct impression that the developers were probably pressed in terms of either time or money, possibly both. Most developers don't release games in a state like that unless they have to, because they take pride in their work. What a shame.

0:48:45 Chris talks about Fist of the North Star and Dynesty Warriors-esque games.
Not much for me too add here, unfortunately. It's Dynesty Warriors, you either know about it or you don't.

0:51:30 The conversation transitions into Gundam, then Zoids.
It has been so long since I watched the Gundam anime that most of the finer details elude me. All I remember is some anime dude putting on a rubber suit, stepping into a cockpit, and then air boxing the shit out of other robots.
For some reason, I have significantly stronger memories of Zoids. Though many names elude me, the characters, faces, and overall storylines are still in my mind. This is probably because I kept up with the series with greater frequency as a child.

I should apologize for my belligerence during this segment. There were two main reasons for that. One of them is something you might have noticed from the recording. I was sick, and my voiced might have given that away.
The other reason is that I has to be up super early for work, so I didn't want the recording to go on for too long.

1:00:55 I am getting sick of Project X Zone.
It was a very interesting game at first. However, the game doesn't really add a lot in terms of variety as it goes on.
Oh sure, the initial objective might vary from mission to mission. However, once that is complete, the game will ALWAYS make you kill everything afterward. At the start, the game is content with making you simply kill a boss to end a mission. However, that stops really early on.
As a result, one single chapter (in other words, one battle) can take over an hour to win, sometimes more than 2 hours. And the game has 48 chapters. The game does have a quicksave, but since I only play for 20 minutes at a time (the length of my commute to either work or school), I don't feel like I'm making progress.
It's boring, it's slow, and it's annoying.

1:05:33 I play more Digital Devil Saga
On the other hand, this game has been getting more and more interesting as I play. It's like most SMT games in that it is much more important to get the right skills than to level up. With the right setup, a low level party can easily topple a high level boss by striking weaknesses to get extra turns and using their own skills to absorb enemy attacks.
As for the story, it's good, but even in this space here, I would not be able to explain it. I know it's weird to ask you to trust me on that, but I'm asking you to trust me on that.

1:12:05 I tell the cast that I've been sick.
Y'know. I just assumed everyone used Petroleum Jelly to heal dry skin on their nose when they got sick. I was surprised that Sam was surprised.
Tissues, Petroleum Jelly, and Cold Medicine... I try to make sure I have all three readily available when I am sick.

1:18:35 Garrett played Half-Life 2 and League of Legends: Ascension .
I wish I knew a bit more about League, because I'm always at a loss with regards to what to put down here whenever Garrett talks about that game. I'm not a huge MOBA guy, so I don't get into them. I'm the kind of gamer who needs a sense that I advancing towards some goal, typically the advancement of a story, in order to keep playing. In multiplayer games, I don't typically get that, so I don't play them too often except to hang out with friends.

1:28:18 Garrett purchased FaceRig and Among the Sleep.
FaceRig is technically more of a software than a game, but it still sounds really cool. Basically, it's a program that maps your facial movements onto a 3D character, though a low-res webcam. It's still in testing, but the developers are apparently comfortable enough to put it out to the general public.
This brings us to the general topic of Steam Early Access. Like Greenlight before it, Early Access has a lot of problems associated with it. I still don't know if I support or renounce the concept, as there are very strong cases for its inclusion and its removal from Steam.

1:31:55 I ask the cast if they prefer the close-garden or open approach to Steam.
I ask this mostly out of curiosity. Again, I haven't fully formed my opinion on the matter. I think there is some nuance to the issue.
In either case, some quality-control should be taking place. I think that much is clear.

1:37:40 Garrett talks about his Game Design class.
It is interesting how many parallels there are between the classes Garrett goes through and what I go through. I am going for a general Bachelor's of Science in Computer Science, with a concentration in Game Design. Garrett is going through a specialized Game Design class.
In terms of programming, you can teach a lot by just asking students to program video games. All sorts of skills are necessary for even the simplest games. As you advance to higher level courses, this becomes less true, but it is still interesting to take note of.
Having said that, the pitches Garrett talks about from his class all seem really bad, just on a fundamental level.

1:47:20 Sam has been playing Diablo 3.
And he is super-bored by it. Then again, his character sounds super OP. Not much more to say about it.

1:53:00 Sam finished the new Strider game.
Not much to say about that.

1:55:45 Sam got to play the Dark Souls 2 DLC
And it's somehow difficult even by Dark Souls standards, which I thought was impossible.

1:58:50 Sam watches non-David Cage movies.
And they sound interesting enough for me to want to check out at some point.
Though at this point, I actually had to drop out of the podcast because I really needed to wake up early the next day.

2:12:25 Sam finished Muramasa: Rebirth.
And I am a bit sad I missed out on that. I mean, it would be me gushing about the game, but I would have loved to talk about it.

2:13:30 The guys wrap up the cast without me.
At least the guys are aware of how ungodly long this particular session seemed to run too. I wonder how much more bearable it would have been if I wasn't literally sick and tired. They aren't wrong about us being able to talk forever. These types of discussions, even outside the cast, are fairly normal for us. That's just how we roll, I suppose.
As for shout-outs, I wrote an article on RPG Combat I forgot that I wanted to talk about during the cast. I'll make sure to bring it up next week.

The Texture Pop: Episode 5: The Late Late Late Show

You guys are probably wondering why it took so long to post this episode. That is a perfectly valid question. The reason for that is that since Sam was late to the recording session, Chris had to take up the slack and perform hosting duties.

However, since Sam is the editor as well, Chris had to send him all of the audio files and has too busy to do it promptly. Once Sam got it, his work kept him too occupied to do much with it as well. That also explains why the title isn't that great this week either.

Further, since Chris's connection is worse than Sam's, there may be a drop in this episode's audio quality. I apologize on both my behalf and the behalf of the others for this.

Also, we have a guest today. My good friend Nick joined us for this cast. We'll likely consider bringing other guests in from our friends list because why not.

Having said that:



And the MP3 version can be found here. (When it goes up...)

0:00:00 Introduction
This rather unprofessional nature of this introduction can again be chalked up to the rather scatter-shot nature of the recording. We were kinda just winging it, which explains a lot of the awkward pauses and what-not.

0:03:00 We talk about seismic emergencies across the world.
And I'm honestly not entirely sure why.

0:04:45 We talk about the upcoming Fantastic Four movie (and Marvel comic books... and Hollywood)
Honestly, the thing about making Johnny Storm/Human Torch a black man that bothers me is that if they do that, than they might as well make Susan Storm/Invisible Woman (his sister) black as well. Feels like a wasted opportunity to me.
Like I said, I am okay with movie makers re-imagining old characters and putting them in new situations. However, this just feels a bit too textbook Hollywood to me. Far too safe for its own good, despite how different it is.

This does bring up a question though, why DOES Sony want the rights to Spidey so badly? It's not like he's bringing in a whole lot of money for them anymore. It would probably be best for anyone if they just stopped making Spidey movies.

The "laughing scene" I was talking about during this segment, in comparison to Spider-man 3's jazz scene, was the scene from Final Fantasy X. You know the one. My horrible voice combined with Chris's internet made that hard to hear.
Here is the picture of The Thing's look that Nick was talking about.

0:20:45 Chris's internet craps out and briefly ruins the Skype call.
Which is why Chris doesn't host often...

0:22:30 Nick talks about his week.
And we didn't really go into detail about much.
One thing we did go into briefly was Phil Fish. I hope that, for his sake, that he stays out of the industry. No matter what he says, he's going to get shit. That may be deserved on occasion, but not all the time.
We also talked briefly about X-Com and it's expansion.

0:29:30 Nick plays Elder Scrolls Online.
This goes into a broader discussion about MMOs in general.
Also, we go into an Elder Scrolls discussions briefly. For reference, the quest I'm referring to is this week. Like I said in the cast, I like Oblivion a bit more because it's quest design is a lot more interesting than Skyrim's.

0:40:05 Garrett talks about his week.
The train did come through, Chris. Choo choo!

0:40:30 Garrett plays Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer
And good god I hate this topic. I know it's been years since the controversy was a big thing, but Mass Effect 3 still gets under my skin. It was that perfect, critical mass, where everything went wrong in all sorts of ways at the same time.
The multiplayer was just a symptom of that in my opinion. While still good, it felt super tacked on. I had the impression that, like the weapon crafting in Dead Space 3, it exists only for the microtransactions. The article I mentioned (here) talks about the sliminess of them a bit more. Even worse is that it's not for a F2P game, but for a game you're expected to put $60 down for.

0:46:00 Garret and I talk about bows and archery.
I don't consider myself much of an outdoors-man, but it is fun to shoot arrows at a target. It's much more of a mental activity than a physical one, at least for me. I often think back to my physics classes when shooting.
We also went into a discussion about all the various recent games that used bows in some capacity.

0:50:30 Sam joins us.
And Chris's internet REALLY impacts the cast here.

0:53:00 Garrett talks about Clive Barker's Jericho
And likes it more than most people.

0:58:00 I played Project X Zone.
It's an interesting game, to be sure. If I'm being honest, the whole crossover thing doesn't hold my interest as much as I thought it would. It gets a little monotonous the farther you go, because every chapter is more of the same. I'll keep playing because I need something to do on my commutes, but otherwise I don't know how much I'd play it.

1:03:10 Chris, Sam, and I play Dragon's Crown.
Chris and I have even played a few matches.
This game's art direction is equal parts amazing and off-putting to me. On one hand, the environments are cool and some of the characters look really nice. On the other hand, many characters just look so disproportional that it's almost comical.
I still think it's silly that you have to unlock going online. I should like to ask the developers why they decided to do that. The answer is bound to be interesting. Other strange decisions also crop up, especially with regards to online play and pacing, which make it an interesting game to talk about.
Still, I cannot deny that the game is super fun. It's a great brawler/RPG hybrid. The animation is fluid and the gameplay is solid. Playing with friends is awesome, and the risk/reward system encourages you to keep playing as much as possible. It's a game that works in many ways, despite its polarizing art style.

1:24:50 I play Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon.
What many people may not know is that the Megami Tensei series actually pre-dates Poke'mon in the monster capture. Only instead of capturing cute animal creatures, you capture gods and demons from various world religions (which is more awesome in my opinion).
Out of all the SMT games, the Raidou Kuzuhona sub-franchise is one of the better games to introduce someone into the franchise as a whole. Having said that, it is still an SMT game and has some of their usability issues.
I do like how the game encourages you to have a party that is balanced between combat, investigation, and negotiation ability. Lacking in any one aspect will cripple another aspect in some way, so keeping them in balance is the key.

1:34:50 I switch from Twitter's site to Tweetdeck.
As much as I like Twitter, I'm getting tired of all the shit they are trying to do with it. I don't care about what other people are favoriting. I don't need them to censor my feed like Facebook does. All I need is for them to do what they've been doing. It's like YouTube in that every update is making it worse and worse.

1:40:10 Chris plays Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls
It's actually really interesting to note how much they've changed Diablo 3 since launch day. When that game launched, it was an absolute mess. I mean the DRM is still on it, but at least they got rid of the auction house.
It seems like every time microtransactions enter the equation, the developers make their game worse to help justify spending money. Not to say that developers are actively doing this, just that it subconsciously breeds that mentality.

1:48:15 Chris gets a really bad acid burn at work.
Fortunately, he'll be fine. I just hope that it heals quickly and it doesn't scar.

1:52:10 Sam picked up his Vita and played Muramasa: Rebirth
And we spend a lot of time just gushing about that game (and Vanillaware in general) without saying much of substance in this conversation.
We did mention how important it can be to consider usability and other features like subtitles and rebindable controls. It's amazing how not doing small things like that make things work so much better.

1:59:10 Sam talks about how the Vita is doing well.
Compared to how bad some of those old, launch window Vita games were (like Uncharted and AC: Liberation), a lot of the ports and newer Vita games are doing so much better. I can safely recommend the Vita now, because what it does, it does very well.

2:08:35 Sam talks about computer gaming accessories.
And I make fun of him. Can you tell which one of us more serious about PC Gaming?
We also talk stupid titles for PC Gaming Keyboards/Mice. I think "corporate cool" is the best way to think about these kinds of titles. It's clearly trying to look "cool" for younger audiences, but it gives off the impression of trying too hard.

2:17:45 Viewer Question
"Do you think Doom would be a better game if it stayed true to Tom Hall's vision, or do you think it's simplicity was one of the reasons it was so successful to begin with?"
Honestly, I think Hall's vision wouldn't have work. It was too ahead of it's time. In this era, it might work. Back then, it wouldn't have. I submit System Shock 1's failure as evidence supporting my opinion on this matter. System Shock 1 had something more akin to Hall's vision, and it failed. In retrospect, people enjoy it. At the time, it wasn't highly rated. As much as I don't like to admit it, the evidence supports that line of thinking.
Nowadays, that flat out would not work. Games need a story to tie them together today. As a result, the old school mechanical thinking no longer applies. Games have changed a lot in recent years, and their presentations have to change along side them.
The Super Bunny Hop episode Sam refers to is here.

And the podcast cuts off. Again, this is because of the "seat of pants" way we recorded this episode. I apologize for it and promise we'll make up for the low quality next week!