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/
Nintendo DSs, PSPs, and iPhones…Oh My!?
Congratulations Gamers, Mobile Gaming has arrived! In the interest of full disclosure I am an Apple Fan boy and the Steve distortion field probably hasn’t worn off just yet. I am a big propoent of the single device to rule them all, and I think Apple is working towards that as well.
Incase you didn’t know Apple announced the details of the iPhone/iPod Touch SDK last thursday. You might ask yourself, why is this chump talking about Apple on a Video Game blog? Because Sega, EA, and ID have either already produced games, or have announced producing games for the iPhone. As well as various smaller mobile gaming studios. So you might ask yourself, is this another N-Gage? Maybe, but I don’t think so. Will this kill the DS or PSP? Probably not, but it will create a whole new type of portable games much like the Nintendo DS did when it was released.
What does the platform offer that we can’t get out of our existing protables?
- Always Available
- I am not sure about you, but I don’t carry my Nintendo DS with me everywhere, but I do carry my cell phone everywhere. So when I need to kill a few minutes, waiting in a long line, or sitting in a waiting room, I can pop out my phone and play some monkey ball.
- Multi Touch Pad
- The DS introduced what a single touch pad can give to a gaming platform. Clones of the popular DS touch heavy games are sure to be ported so look for iPet and iBrain. There is a difference though, there is not a traditional d-pad or buttons, but you do get multi touch capability and an accelerometer. This will cause game developers to think outside the box, and hopefully come up with interesting control schemes. Some will be good, some will be bad, and this is where the potential disaster will come in.
- Accelerometer
- Much like the Wii Controller, the iPhone has an accelerometer. So games like Super Monkey Ball make a lot of sense, maybe that is why Sega already made it! But the accelerometer makes for an interesting control in other ways, like a steering wheel for a racing game, or reset for a drawing game. I am not a game designer, so I will not pretend to know all the ways this control can be used.
- Microphone
- I am not sure if the SDK allows access to the phones microphone, especially since I don’t think the iPod Touch has one, but this can make for an interesting control.
- Online Distribution
- This an interesting point all around. The games will be distributed through the iTunes Music store, or purchased in the App Store right on the iPhone/iPod Touch. This allows beginning developers to push out their work to millions of potential gamers without a traditional publisher. So like we discussed in our last episode, this is another avenue for the independent developer to create and publish his/her game idea and distribute it to the masses. And the exciting part about this environment is you get 70% of the profit from whatever price you set. So if you decide to sell the game for $10 you get $7 for every sale. If you decide you want to give away your game for free, then it costs you and your user nothing.
So where can this go wrong? This can go wrong in a lot of ways. I believe the touch screen has fixed the game control schema that apple tried to push on us in the iPod classic. Someone was kidding themselves when they thought they could make a good game with a scroll wheel. Even Mrs. Pac-man was horrible! The controls however, are where the device can fail as a gaming platform as well, unless creative and inventive people develop for the platform. We need a developer or group of developers to take the controls and use them to their best abilities, instead of trying to apply old game styles like FPS, or Platformers to this new control device. Those kind of games still work on the DS because there are standard controls. The iPhone/iPod touch don’t have that luxury, so instead new game types need to be developer, or old ones need to be re-imagined. For instance an RTS could work really well with a touch screen with some inventive controls. Turn based RPGs could work really well, if a clever exploring control was created to navigate the world in-between battles. Even action games could work if they emplored a game mechanic like Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword.
All in all I think this is good news for the mobile gaming market. Hopefully with some creative minds we will see some neat games come out of it.
UPDATE:Namco, PopCap and THQ have joined in to the iPhone fun announcing plans to release games for the platform.
2 commentsDigimon World: Dawn
To purchase this item click here!Digimon Word: Dawn
Anyone who has ever watched an episode of Digimon could never forget the songs, the monsters, and most importantly the goggles. Well fortunately the songs are the only thing missing from this gem of a game.
Anyone who has ever watched an episode of Digimon could never forget the songs, the monsters, and most importantly the goggles. Well fortunately the songs are the only thing missing from this gem of a game. So lets begin with the basics, this is a game for the Nintendo DS ~$30 at the time of this review. I would file it under the farming genre much in the same vein as pokemon games. The main story line should take you roughly 30 hours to finish, but that puts you at about 60% quest completion, and even lower on the digimon completion. If you are a completionist you could probably find at least another 30 hours. Finally, it comes in two versions Dawn and Dusk.
In my reviews I am sure you will see that I find three things very important. First, is the game fun to play? Second, does it satisfy some genre craving I am having at the moment? Lastly, does it have a good story (I am very forgiving)? As I said in the podcast, I was having a craving for a DS game either in the card battle or farming genre. Well I decided to go with the farming genre, and I think I made the right choice with Digimon World: Dawn. I haven’t played any of the Digimon World games since the first one on the PSX, and that game was horrible. After a co-worker told me since Digimon World 3 they have really improved the series I decided to give the latest incarnation a go. If you read the reviews on the major game sites, they will all tell you this is more of the same, but fortunate for me I haven’t played any of the previous games, and some times I just want more of the same, so that works for me. More importantly, more of the same is good when you have the right formula.
If you have never played a Pokemon or Digimon game because you think they are for kids I would encourage you to get over that fact and pick one up. They are probably some of the best RPGs out there. You have hundreds of potential characters, with even more combinations of abilities, and in Digimon you can evolve and devolve almost indefinitely, from what I can tell, to make the most powerful digimon team in existance.
So how about the story? Well the story is fairly weak in this game, and if there was anything about this game that is “for kids” it is probably the story. It isn’t bad so much as it just isn’t very deep or complex. The two versions are basically the same. I know this because I have a friend who got Dusk when I got Dawn. The main differences are the available starting sets of digimon, starting locations, exclusive islands to travel to for digimon gathering, and most importantly different exclusive digimon. If you want to collect all the available digimon you will have to trade with a friend or create digieggs through the Nintendo Wifi connection.
This game was my first experience with the Nintendo DS online experience. Let me say, Nintendo needs to get their act together. I am not sure how much control the developer has over the experience but they make it very difficult to find anyone to play with online. I tried numerous times to log in and start a random match with someone, and the game never found a competitor after letting it sit for five minutes. I could have let it run longer, but I assume most people get bored pretty quick, so why would they wait any longer than five minutes.
There are a few items I believe could be improved on future versions. First I think it is great to see the Digivolution path for your digimon, but Armor and DNA digivolution are not included in the Digivolution path, so unless I check a guide online it is just guess and check. This does not make for a fun experience. Next I am glad they don’t try to incorporate any of the television story elements or characters, I always got annoyed with that in the Pokemon games, but I would like to see a deeper story. Most importantly my favorite thing about digimon is the song they play as the digimon evolve. It gets me pupped up, and it isn’t in the game at all. I would have enjoyed the game so much more if when my Agumon digivoles to Greymon I heard that class voice….”Agumon Digivolve to…..(in a deeper voice) GREYMON!”. Not quite as important but still a nice to have would be a more complete list of digimon. They added new digimon, but they haven’t even included all of the classic characters like Raidramon, or Pegasusmon.
In summary if you are a fan of the Digimon series, farming games, or looking for a great RPG where story doesn’t matter, than Digimon World: Dawn or Dusk is for you. If you don’t fit into any of those, than go play some more Halo 3.
My rating: stars
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
Episode 4: Bungie’s the Chick
Episode 4 is, as they say, in the can. I think we figured out most of our audio issues this time, I personally think the sound is an order of magnitude better than previous episodes, and hopefully it will continue to improve.
We have our first sponsor, thanks to Pudding by Ataraxis Software. Go check out the promotional site, and sign up for a free trial.
In this episode we talk about Bungie going out on it’s own, but not straying far from home. Michael asks to mooch a game that Daniel hasn’t even acquired yet. Bucky tells us we can get over our Wii Slippage by ordering the free remote sleeves from Nintendo, especially since the Wii has the most abundant game Christmas lineup.
We all are getting discouraged with the numerous SKUs per console and can’t wait for the 6-axis Dual Shock controller from Sony. Michael rants about another Mech game, which destroys a perfect transition about missing release dates. We talk about Team Fortress 2 some more, and unfortunately at the time of recording we didn’t yet play Portal, although we are extremely excited about it. Finally we want better niche reviews, so we are asking you the listener to send us your suggestions, and if it is an audio file we will tag it and include it in the feed, for the world to hear.
links
- Pudding: http://projectpudding.com
- Free Wii Remote Glove: http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/jacket/jacketrequest.jsp
- Team Ninja Interview: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=15699
Amazingly enough we managed to retain all the audio tracks this time. Which is good because we were using close range microphones, so we wouldn’t have been able to publish the episode without them!
2 comments