Episode 12: It’s an Activation Blizzard
We finally take the time to explain why we have been doing episodes with just Bucky and Daniel. In case you haven’t heard already Blizzard announced at Blizzcon that Diablo III has been underdevelopment and will be amazing. E3 wrapped up this week and there was a lot of news, but not anything groundbreaking. Daniel gives more free advice to big corporations, and suggests that Sony cut their loses and focus on blue ray players. Bucky calls Daniel out for making a stupid comment about Albert Einstein.
Nintendo announces full motion 1 to 1 control…wait wasn’t that what the Wii did already? Don’t fret though Nintendo fans Nintendo did not intend to disappoint this year at E3. They have announced another revolutionary product, WiiSpeak, the ability to communicate while playing online.
Microsoft made some announcements, the most exciting are the Final Fantasy releases and the partnership with Netflix. Somehow the conversation digress to a debate about how awesome Voltron is, and somehow Bucky manages to insult the Japanese yet again.
Finally we close out the episode with a quick news rundown, including a rant by Bucky about the Fallout censorship in Australia.
links:
- Deckard Cain Rap : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMAbNFptzAA
- Meet the Sniper : http://storefront.steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=app&AppId=5051
- Gamasutra E3 Wrapup : http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=19486
- Ctrl+Alt+Del SPORN Comic : http://cad-comic.com/comic.php?d=20080627
- Duke Nukem Trailer: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36746.html
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
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
Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3
To purchase this item click here!Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3
If you are into fighting games, this is a great game to get.
You either love or hate Dragonball Z, but if you love it you will probably enjoy this game. If you hate it, you may enjoy the unique fighting controls that the game has to offer. But regardless of whether you love or hate Dragonball Z you will be disappointed, nay, angrily bitter about the online play.
So lets get this out of the way. If you are purchasing this game because you want to beat up your friends in multi-player online ecstasy, you should probably look into other games. The online component is a train wreck to put it nicely. There were many attempts by the community to encourage Atari to get off their butts and fix the problem. Nintendo even made a press release stating they were aware of the problem and provided Atari with code samples that they could use to correct the problem. But, alas, Atari let us down, and that is probably why they keep needing to borrow money to stay afloat.
Even though the online game is inexcusably bad, the actual game is enjoyable. If you are a fan of the series you will appreciate the new story mode. In previous titles you had a series of single match battles you would go through for each saga. Each saga might contain 5 to 10 battles, but in this installment their is an entirely new mechanic. Each saga is a single battle with trigger points. I know a lot of people in the community complained that a full story mode was not present, but I certainly appreciated the new approach to the story mode.
Another plus for the game is the wealth of re-play value…if you enjoy the fighting mechanics. There is the new story mode, tornament mode, ultimate battle, and I am sure a whole ton that I didn’t mention. Each mode has it’s own slant. Tournament mode is basically the same as it has been in previous games, but the difference is that you can only play certain tournaments at certain times based on the internal game clock (not real time). So if I fight in 3 tournaments it might adjust the game time by 3 hours. Each tournament also has it’s own special rules, for instance Yamcha’s tournament randomly selects the character your are going to play with.
Ultimate Battle was in the previous game but it worked differently. In Tenkaichi 2 you had numerous totems you could work your way up, sort of like Mortal Kombat 2+. In Tenkaichi 3 there are actually 3 games types inside of Ultimate battle; Dragon Sim, Mission 100, and Survivial.
Dragon Sim is a game where you select a character and train him between battles. Training consists of selecting what you want to work on, for instance attack. If you select attack you may either gain or lose attack points, and you almost always lose defense points. You need to plan your training carefully to ensure you have decent stats before the next battle. Your health is also persistent in this mode, so if you take a lot of damage in the first battle you are going to need to rest more during training to regain your health for the next battle. When you rest you lose attack and defense strength though. Overall this is a fun mode to master, although there is a lot of chance involved with the training.
Mission 100 is…100 battles. They are basically package battles with teams that you fight, with specific rules. This very much acts like the Ultimate Battle mode from Tenkaichi 2, but you don’t see the totem you are walking up, it is simply a tag battle. I found the later battles to be the most difficult battles in the entire game.
Survival is an exhausting tag match. The general idea is You as your character of choice, vs a crap-ton of fighters. After each fight you regain a little health, but you have to be able to win fights without taking a ton of damage to win. I found Cell especially helpful in these matches because you can use his life drain ability to restore your health if you get low, and his transformations give him life back as well.
And of course you have standard Duel matches that you can beat your friends up in.
During each game modes you unlock Z-Points, the games currency. There are so many ways to collect Z-Points it is unbelievable. You use Z-Points to purchase Porta’s (attribute modifiers) for your characters. Unlike in Tenkaichi 2, these are not single use items, and they don’t gain experience. Instead it is more like you are unlocking the power-up to be used on any character. I like the unlock aspect a lot, but I still preferred the original power-up scheme in Budokai where you unlocked attacks and transformations as well, so you could really customize your character, instead of just modifying the characters stat attributes.
Overall if you are looking for a good fighting game, I think this game would be a good purchase on either the Wii or the PS2. I have the Wii version and the game controls are a lot better than for Tenkaichi 2. From what I understand not much has changed for controls on the PS2 side. If you did play Tenkaichi 2 you will need to give yourself a little time to adjust to the new control scheme on the Wii but it is well worth it.
My rating: stars
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
No hope in sight for Tenkaichi 3 online lag issues
I have been following various different online communities and the efforts going into getting Atari/Nintendo to get something moving with the whole Tenkaichi 3 lag issue, but it seems like it is a lost cause. I haven’t written my review yet, because I was really hoping they would fix the issue prior to me having to put an opinion on the game. All those disappointing things asside here is what information I have gathered about the issue.
There have been different tips and tricks for getting better performance out of your wii connection to possibly help out the lag issue. Both of which I had to link to the google cache because the actual forum posts were missing and both of which I have tried with relatively no results. However, I haven’t been able to hook up with someone local to see if that helps, but apparently the closer the person is to you the better the performance. This makes sense because you have to cross across less networks blah blah blah.
In addition to people trying to hack their hardware to fix the lag issue, their have been groups complaining and trying to get Atari to fix the problem. It has even birthed a petition. The Atari representative on the atari community forums has said she passed this petition onto customer service, but doesn’t promise any results. I signed the petition, but I don’t have high expectations.
So there is that, I hope Atari steps up and does something. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like they will. The shame of it is, the game is actually really good, and if they had excluded the online play entirely and just released the game, so many DBZ fans wouldn’t be upset. Look for my review over the next week or so.
2 commentsDragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 Online Issues
The purpose of this post it to put a little more fire into the blaze of complaints that are surrounding the online issues with Tenkaichi 3. For those of you who don’t have the game, or haven’t tried the online component yet I will fill in the details.
It is the equivalent to fighting in slow-motion, with your hands tied behind your back, while having a seizure! The online piece is completely unplayable. If you don’t believe me watch this video of an online game, and then this video of a single player game! If you are interested in following the problem, a couple sources have attempted to pull together resources describing the state of a fix. If you just want a summary of the major events you can keep checking back here, and I am sure as soon as a fix is presented, and I know about it. It will be on here!
The basic state of a fix is that everyone spammed Nintendo and Atari with complaints about the problem. Nintendo has responded with:
Message(#6851-000639-1203\6391203)
Hello, I’m sorry to hear about the issues you’re having playing Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 online. Our role in online play is matching players up. Once the match, race, or fight starts, you’re connected directly in a peer-to-peer format and no longer connected to Nintendo servers.
From the reports we have received, we have determined that this is an in-game peer-to-peer latency issue and not something that occurs through Nintendo’s servers. We have provided Atari information on how they can address this issue and recommend contacting them.
To get their contact information, go to the following web address and click on Atari: http://www.nintendo.com/corp/licensees.jsp
Nintendo of America Inc.
R.M. Rickets Nintendo’s home page: http://www.nintendo.com/ Power Line (Automated Product Info): (425) 885-7529
Atari has blamed in on the wireless network
Thank you for contacting Atari Support. Atari would like to sincerely apologize for any multiplayer lag issues you may be experiencing within Dragon Ball Z®: Budokai Tenkaichi 3.
If you are experiencing multiplayer lag, this may be due to Wifi wireless internet connections or poor signal from the your ISP. To resolve this issue, please ensure both players involved in multiplayer gameplay use a hard wired connection – this should solve current lag issues.Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience this might have caused you from enjoying Dragon Ball Z®: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 and thank you for your continued support.Thank You,Atari Support
but if you read over the Fix Budokai blog, you will notice references to numerous people who have attempted to fix the bug using a wired adapter for the Wii with no luck.
I don’t really care who fixes it, I just want it fixed. The game is great, and when I write up my review I will explain why it is a good game regardless of this feature. But this is ‘the feature’ that makes Tenkaichi 3 amazing as opposed to just great. Atari, Spike, and Nintendo need to put the Wii’s patching system to the test, and get this corrected ASAP.
No commentsCircle gets the square!
Ok, so I tried to exchange my Espanol version of Forza 2 at Best Buy, but all they had were the Spanish versions! So I got cash back instead. My wife volunteered to go to Gamestop for me and buy Forza 2 - THE ENGLISH VERSION.
I come home from work today and she says, “I hope I did the right thing…..”
Apparently people are trading in their Marvel Ultimate Alliance/Forza 2 pack-ins at a blistering rate. She was able to grab a copy of the combo for $20 and spent the rest of the refund money (+$10 from her mother - the original purchaser of THE SPANISH VERSION) to buy an extra 360 controller.
Side note: Dan and I were bitching up a storm about how much current-gen controllers cost. I believe I would have to trade in my entire Gamecube collection to equal the cost of a Wii remote/nun-chunk combo.
Anyway, my wife and I had a great time playing the X-Men Legends games, but we had a bad experience with Ultimate Alliance for the Wii (thanks to Dan & our another co-worker for lending us the Wii and game.) with it’s tacked on Wii controls and blurry as hell graphics - blurry on my HD TV anyway.
We’re having a much better time with the 360 version. It plays like it should and the graphics are awesome. The frame rate is rather slow at times. We’re still within the first few hours of the game so I’ll report back on wether or not the frame rate is universally…. ug.
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