2PP Episode 11: Literally Hours of Moderate Fun
We start off by introducing our new pundit, Brian. Then we explain why we don’t care about Metal Gear Solid 4, and Bucky admits he is clinically insane for not liking Ninja Gaiden. Daniel is disappointed with the Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit demo. We attempt to explain Yen to Dollar conversion for some reason. Daniel explains to Netflix how to expand their business, by adding video games to their catalog. Brian has purchased and played Wii fit and he thinks it is creepy. Bucky and Brian think Will Wright doesn’t know what he is talking about, oh and Bucky thinks Daniel is a Jack @$$. And amazingly we made it through the whole episode without burning Michael. Daniel is sick of the internet cloud, and everything on it.
score:
+1 Topical Humor
+1 New Pundit
+2 Friends of Bucky
+1 First!
+3 Poos
links:
- Corey Hart - Sun Glasses at Night : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9p0Ac5bLlI&feature=related
- Street Fight: The Legend of Chun Li : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0891592/
- Devil May Cry Movie : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0932986/
- Duke Nukem Forever Sneak Peak: http://crackle.com/c/Jace_Hall/Jace_Hall_Ep_1_DUKE_NUKEM_FOREVER_-_SNEAK_PEEK/2298717/#ml=o%3D12%26fpl%3D297045%26fx%3D
- Age of Conan Bust Nerf : http://www.gamingnewslink.com/2008/06/03/age-of-conan-bust-nerf/
- Cambrian explosion : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambrian_explosion
- Limbo of the Lost Screen Comparison : http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=310683
- Famicon Disk System : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famicom_Disk_System
- Great Image of SF Ryu : http://www.gamasutra.com/db_area/images/news2001/18784/Image1.jpg
- Valve Perspective on Game Development : http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=18843
- NY Times Article about Miyamoto : http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/arts/television/25schi.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=1&adxnnlx=1212769006-fhd535269tyJsyb48rFLZQ
Episode 10: Off the Reservation
We discuss Wii Fit and how it tells fat kids they are fat. Bucky explains again why legislatures need to get over it and make parents do their job. Daniel believes the new breed of gamers want work not fun. GTA breaks entertainment records, Yeah! Is PC hardware classification a good thing?. A good Brit proves that video game violence does not cause real world violence…nanny nanny boo boo! Daniel asks the question on everyone’s mind… Shouldn’t Guitar hero be Band Hero?
link
- Body Mass Index : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_mass_index
- Liberty City and New York Side by side : http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewj/sets/72157604988911230/
- Interview with Ray Muzyka of Bioware : http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3667/a_new_future_under_ea_ray_muzyka_.php
- Jack Thompson needs mommy’s permission to submit legal docs : http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080520-judges-report-in-jack-thompson-case-guilty-on-27-charges.html
- Half Life 2 Havoc Mod : http://www.hlhmod.com/about.html
- History of Physics in Video Games : http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/534/physics_in_mass_market_.php
- Mobile phone Snake : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_(video_game)
- Thomas Hobbes was a realist Chump! : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobbes
- The Mattel Power Glove : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Glove
Repetitive repetitive games Or: why I’ll never finish Forza 2
Games are too damn repetitive these days. Seriously. I’m looking at my Xbox 360 games that I haven’t finished and out of 9 games (not including GTA IV, which I’m currently playing), I have finished 4. That means out of 9 ‘next gen’ games, I only had the endurance to finish 45% of them. Compare that to finishing about 96% of every other game I’ve ever played that didn’t suck. What the hell does this even mean?
Simply: ‘Next Gen’ games are too freaking long and too freaking repetitive. Before we go on, I just want to say that I loathe the term Next Gen. What a freaking lame-ass marketing-asshole-type buzzword that means nothing. Damn it. Anyway, I digress. Xbox 360 and PS3 games are ridiculous. I appreciate the thought: It seems right that game developers are trying to give us our money’s worth. It would be great, it really would, if the developers who had wanted to give us our money’s worth on length didn’t skimp out on content or gameplay mechanics, but alas, it seems that with ‘Next Gen’ we get our choice: good gameplay or good graphics and a long game. It seems that most shops are going with the latter, rather than the former.
Well, what’s the big deal? I’ll tell you: Imagine picking up your favorite book, let’s for the sake of this example, say it’s How Stella Got Her Groove Back. Imagine picking up your favorite book, and seeing that instead of it being a hearty 900 pages, the author, who is probably Oprah, has actually increased the length of the book to over 25,000,000 pages! Hooray!! More of whatever the hell it is that’s in How Stella Got Her Groove Back!! But upon turning the page to 901, you realize that the next 24,999,099 pages contain nothing but the first 900 pages repeating themselves 27,777 times. That is what it’s like playing Assassin’s Creed. It’s reading How Stella Got Her Groove Back over. And over. And over. And over again.
Compare that to games that came out for the Super Nintendo. Legend Of Zelda: A Link to the Past is like going out to your mailbox and getting the best-of edition of Penthouse Forum. It’s chock full of things you love reading, and right as you’re about to get sick of reading and go blow up some anthills with m80s, the game ends and you’re left wanting more.
I think we took a wrong turn back in Albuquerque. I mean in the weeks leading up to Forza 2’s release, I could barely sit still. I almost called in sick to work the day it came out. I played it for three weeks straight. I loved it. And then I slowly realized that I was driving on the same tracks that I had been driving on for the past three weeks. Except before, I was only driving two laps around the track instead of six. And those two laps only took four minutes, instead of the fifteen it took to finish six laps. Sorry, Forza 2, I don’t feel like devoting fifteen minutes to driving around the same piece of asphalt that I’ve been seeing for the past three weeks, even if I am driving a wicked awesome M3. Yes, it’s more realistic with longer laps, but some times (most of the time) realistic racing simulation does not make for fun video games.
Somewhere along the way, games went from being fun and providing a great experience to pumping out the sickest graphics and longest gameplay. How is it, that I could devote over 90 hours to Oblivion (which I consider a ‘Last Gen’ game with good graphics) and its two expansions, but I can’t find it in me to finish twelve minutes of driving on a track? I don’t know, maybe it’s that Oblivion provides diverse, rich, unique environments. Maybe it’s because I loathe repetition, which is ironic, because NES and SNES era games are chock full of doing the same thing over and over again, and that’s what I’m sitting here pining for, but I’m seriously becoming disenchanted with the ‘Next Gen’ experience.
Episode 9: Fatslob or Need More Monkey Island
We start off going over the big releases. Followed by all the GTA news we could gather. Daniel compares Choose Your Own Adventure books to GTA. Some guy thinks he knows more about good games than Daniel and Bucky. XBox’s are the new Patch Adams. There are a slew of great games coming to the Nintendo DS! Daniel is over Spore, and all their lies and propaganda. Gamestop is the reason why Daniel will never be a millionaire. Diablo 3 Is Offical, not really but…maybe. We created a new bit for the podcast…listener email, thanks to TimTom for the first question.
links:
- Team Fortress 2 Free Weekend : http://www.steamgames.com/goldrush
- Meet the Scout : http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=game&AppId=5032&cc=US
- Fewer Mechanics, Better Game : http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3621/fewer_mechanics_better_game.php?page=1
- Mummy’s Tomb (Choose Your Own Adventure, No. 24) : http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FMummys-Tomb-Choose-Your-Adventure%2Fdp%2F0553152947%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1209695741%26sr%ZD8-1&tag=danroo-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325
- Game Theory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory
- Tim Tom : http://suckit/
Episode 8: Ambient Occlusion
We explain why we are a duo not a trio, then jump right into the only news for the last month, EA trying to buy Take-Two. Somehow Bucky and Daniel are lead into a conversation about the nuances between SimCity and SimIsle, and even thogh Michael isn’t with us, we still manage to rip on him. Bucky will not shut up about GTA IV, and we talk about the Gears of War meat Cube.
It wouldn’t be an episode of 2nd Player if Bucky didn’t flame some nationality, so take that Aussies! Oh and Daniel declares he is a white supremacist, and is offended by the mockery of the obesity problem facing lumas.
There is a STRONG BAD VIDEO GAME, and Bucky schools Daniel on Adventure games, and YES MYST SUCKS!
links
- SimIsle : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimIsle
- GTA IV Magazine Scans : http://www.gtagaming.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1772627#post1772627
- Unreal 3 Engine Tech Demo from GDC (2 words: meat cube): http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q0gNJfAkPSw&feature=related
- Jack Thompson Strikes Again : http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17738
- Gamers In Real Life Competition (G.I.R.L) : http://www.station.sony.com/girl/
- Silicon Knights On Development : http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17789
- Corey Bridges on Online Distribution : http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17782
- Virtual Property Rights Panel @ SXSW : http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17783
- Angel Devoid : http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/angeldevoid/
- Last Dynasty : http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/last-dynasty
Episode 7: Stop and Pop
In this episode we start off with excuses for why we haven’t been producing any episodes lately. Followed closely by plugs for our other side projects (TallyHoh.com and ProjectPudding.com) and then we actually talk about game stuff.
We explain our goals for the podcast/website and how YOU, the user, can contribute.
We go over all the stuff we got for Christmas. Michael explained how much he hates his favorite game of all time. Bucky mocks him, and Daniel finally got Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 and an XBox 360.
We confirm what the rest of the internet has said about the repetitiveness of Assassin’s Creed. Bucky gets a brand new used PS2…that’s right: PS2. He is so 2000. Oh and Surprise, Surprise, he offends another group of people!
Publishers are going the way of banks and merging into the One Publisher! The console makers respond by removing the need for a publisher via Microsoft XNA and WiiWare.
Editors Note: Sorry I had some mic issues (with placement) that I wasn’t able to fix in editing… I am a little out of practice.
links
- Microsoft GDC ‘08 Keynote http://www.gamespot.com/video/943273/6186465/microsoft-gdc-2008-keynote-address
- XNA http://www.xna.com/
- Fairuza Balk http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000103/
- No More Heroes Cover Art http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/46/No_More_Heroes.jpg/256px-No_More_Heroes.jpg
- Show notes Image Mistake http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2260/2276473379_2eb8ef3368.jpg?v=0
- Monster Party http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_Party
- Soulja Boy Yahhh http://youtube.com/watch?v=UfCmYyG-yg4
Episode 5: Spark of Intuition
In this episode Bucky claims that all things good in video games is doomed. All the players apologize to Too Human, because we are all excited about the game. Michael tries to claim that Daniel is stupid for playing video games on his Mac, and we discuss the big news about LucasArts and BioWare working together on a Mystery MMO.
Dragonball Z is explained, and compared to the likes of Tekken, and Street Fighter IV, and we all wonder if GTA IV is going to be as bad as GTA San Andreas. Finally we wrap up discussing some of the news that came out about Nintendo over the last few weeks.
Thanks again to our sponsor Pudding by Ataraxis Software. Go check out the promotional site, and sign up for a free trial.
links
- BioWare Interview with Gamasutra about EA Acquisition : http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=15840
- Pandemic Interview with Gamasutra about EA Acquisition : http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=15834
- GameSpot Hands on With Too Human : http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/toohuman/news.html?sid=6181072&om_act=convert&om_clk=multimodule&tag=multimodule;picks;title;2
- Cyrsis System Specs : http://www.joystiq.com/2007/10/09/crysis-pc-requirements-a-new-pc/
- Nintendo Press Conference wrap up : http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=15804