At the signal, prepare to unleash hell; its time for another edition of EpicBattleCry! In this week’s skirmish we discuss Alpha Protocol (now that its been officially dated), Brutal Legend being cancelled for the Wii, the rumors that Uncharted is headed for the PSP, and the news that World of Warcraft players will soon be able to switch factions.
In today’s main course, we talk about the state of affairs in stealth gaming. With core franchises moving in a more action oriented direction, what’s become of the beloved sneaking genre. Next up, we open Pandora’s box and diss on whether or not gamers are getting pumped at retail by higher prices and exclusive DLC.
The Battle Cry of the Week goes to the ScrewAttack Gaming Convention, the Metroid Prime triology art book, the Gamestop pre-order exclusive demo for Uncharted 2 multiplayer, and InstantAction.com for serving up fun, browser-based gaming.
Remember to sound off below and each week, we’ll pick a new comment to become the next Member Battle Cry! Strength and honor.
-iPod compatible mp4 download-
good show as allways
my battle cry goes out to the people makeing MAG as they are trying to make the best game as they can.
The pre-orders for ratchet and clank are available in game except for the extra moon.
Everything else can be acquired later in the game, so most of the pre-order packs are just giving you in game items at the start of the game (which is kinda pointless anyway).
Just thought I’d clear that up for you guys. Great episode though
my battle cry goes out to Powerstone 1 and 2 on the dreamcast. Multiplayer was a blast, everything was just crazy about it.
I really hope they port or make a third game for PSN and LIVE with online. It’s perfect as a downloadable title.
(Completely ignored powerstone collection on the psp, or Pisp as you guys put it. Made no sense whatsoever to release a multiplayer heavy title on portable system when you would be lucky to find someone with the console let alone the game. I don’t think it had online either which makes it worse)
I am tired of publishers screwing the gamers. Example recent fight night round 4 was shipped with game freezing bugs. And basicly force gamer either seek the solution for it or get versio of game what doesn’t have the bugs. I feel like in this time and age it is unforgivable to publisher to publish game what clearly aint polished from bugs what destroy the fun.
I remember back when xbox LIVE and other DLC services came online there were mass grumblings for months about micro-transactions and how they were going to ruin gaming. For a while, things were done right, with additional game content being released for games post launch. Now, however, companies and retailers (gamestop) are just raping and plundering our wallets through these micro-transactions, exclusives, and pre-order shenanigans. This needs to come under control and developers need to stand up for the consumer and do things the right way.
This leads me to also thanking 2 major publishers for stepping up and demanding that sony lower the price of the PS3. Bravo, and I hope more companies see the the bullshit and give us some lovin’.
Hey Daniel, How can I join the self respecting gamers club ?
My Battle Cry goes to USK (Germany’s software rating organization)… whats you’re doing is just wrong. Mature games had to be censored so they can be released in Germany (but its also affects countries like Switzerland or Austria, because publishers dont want to release uncut german in these countries so they get cut german version). Just slow down and let ppl enjoy uncut mature games.
Example l4d:
PPP
-no blood, just some kind of smoke (wtf)
-no gore…
-no dead bodies (zombies disapper just after you kill them)
-no burning zombies (when zombie runs in fire he disappers)
-valve had even to change the cover of the game… all 5 fingers!!! http://www3.schnittberichte.com/www/SBs/5975591/cover.jpg )
Gears of War or God of War were never released in germany. Some cut versions are really funny ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQKnOUhs6KY )
sorry for my horrible english
I know this has been talked about to death and its like beating a dead bloodied horse but I remember the good old days when everything was in the box when you bought a game. When you paid full price for a game you were sure that everything was there and it was a complete game. In today’s business gaming age many companies feel that it is smart by giving us a game and then charging us for even the most minuscule thing.
Good example is the costumes in Street Fighter 4. I remember the days that when I bought a fighting game (I.E. Soul Calibur) all the costumes where all included by only accessible by doing certain in-game tasks like beating certain characters. I just want the day when games will be complete products when I buy them and so I can enjoy it all out of the box.
Weighing in on the pre-order-exclusive content issue…
As a completionist gamer, if I really like a game, I’m going to go out of my way to do everything in it. If a game comes out with extra content that can only be acquired by pre-ordering from a specific store–or even worse, multiple stores–I am less interested. I will not be able to do everything in the game, so I won’t enjoy the experience as much, and may not buy the game because of it.
Honestly, I don’t think the solution is to not buy from the stores that are offering exclusive content. I can’t claim to know how these deals get made, but I suspect the game company gets the same amount of money from the retailer regardless of how many copies are pre-ordered. Not buying from a specific store might make the store think that future pre-order deals aren’t in their best interest, but I’d rather the decision to stop such deals come from the developer/publisher, and that’s only going to happen if overall sales are lower.
So I think the solution is to not buy the game at all. Show the game companies that people want the whole game at purchase no matter where or how they purchase it.
My battlecry this week goes out to game sequels.
I feel like every delevoper that creates a supposively succesful game seems to plan on making a sequel, or at least sveral DLCs. While I generally like the idea of playing more of a game that I’ve already enjoyed in the past, I still feel like being screwed over.
My problem is that I never get to really finish a game, because developers just won’t stop continuing it, and therefore never giving the story a real ending. Sometimes they even change game mechanics in order to make the game suitable for further sequels.
The best examples that I have in mind are Half Life 2, Assassins Creed and Mass Effect.
Even though they are all great titles, it’s frustrating to see how Half Life 2 has been out for five way too long years, Mass Effect assumably coming to an end at around 2012 (at the very best), and Assasins Creed covering every age in the history of the world.
A challenge to Daniel Kayser:
Get through an entire episode without using the phrase, “…at the end of the day…”
Game on.
Good show dudes and dudettes (Daniel).
I would give half a battle cry to the PSP Go in relation to the Gamestop talk. The first half is for Sony cutting out the middle man of retail rip offs and allowing people to not get screwed over for the game. But the second half will be given to Sony if they cut the price of the full games on the store ie $50 at retail, $40 on PSN.
Make it audio only again, since its with video, I have to pay attention to it, instead of doing something else and listening to the sound.
Aaaand props for giving me something to listen to ^_^
aaand my battlecry goes to, Idk no one, shame on everyone!
I wonder why you offer just an “audio only” download link for the epic battle cry podcast? Is it too much work for you guys to put a simple link to the “.flv” file next to that? Personally I’ll load the video and copy it from my cache folder to somewhere else anyway, so I can watch it whenever I want. If I don’t watch it right away, that is.
Apart from that, great site and great podcasts.
My battle cry goes out to the lies of game length these days.
I remember in march when they said RE5 was going to be just as or even longer then RE4.
Guess what? u where even rewarded buy completeing the game in under 5 and a half hour,
witch was extremly easy. I just completed Prototype for the second time and although I’ve had fun
I can’t help but feel a little cheated. In sevral interview’s they said the main missions was going to take
anywhere from 10-15 hours and that the side missions would add a total of 15+ hours.
The first time I completed the game I had gotn Gold on every sidequest before the final main mission
and the time said 15 hours. Then I completed it a second time, did not do any sidequest and when
I was done the time said 19 hours. Listen I had fun and 19 hours these days is quite a good time to
get out of a game. But the reason I get a little pissed is not that the game was too short, it’s that
we don’t get the truth about how long it was. I think that in every review they should post the time
it took to playthrough it just for comparison, and the truth would be nice.
A short/okey length game doesn’t have to be bad either. I got Dead Space recently really cheap and i clocked in
at about 12 hours but it was one of the best games I’ve played this year (and I’ve played more games
this year then the last 2 years combined, witch I’m not sure is that great. But hey I got many of the
cheap lol).
Oh and one final thing. Can u plz make a podcast where u don’t edit it? I would just want to know how long Brent’s intro is before u have to edit it :p lol
My Battlecry this week,
Is about DLC, Don’t get me wrong but some DLC content are really good and worth paying for, its the whole micro-transaction that involves paying money to unlock contents in the game, that I think is just plain wrong.
Ever since the evolution of DLC, its seems game developers today are just milking it dry, getting players to pay for every little thing, a good example is Streetfighter 4, which I totally agree with Shabran who posted earlier, at this rate games in the future is gonna involve paying to use a gun in FPS, or paying to get a grade A license in Gran Turismo 8. Small significant contents should really be just free, or only attainable through some achievement.
Which brings me to my next point about paying “money” to unlock contents in game….. I am sorry but if you are willing to pay a game, and then pay money to unlock contents which you can get for free by actually “Playing” the game, then you are not a gamer period. Its pretty much like paying someone to finish a game for you, or paying someone for their save files. People can argue that its for people who don’t have time to unlock everything….Again I am sorry but, the day you walked into that game store, and picked up that game, you already knew what you were getting your self into, if you didn’t have time then you shouldn’t be playing games at all, every gamer out there knows they “Make” time for gaming.
My battle cry this week goes out to Sony that sometime in July will be coming out with its response to Microsoft’s Xbox 360 elite game of the year bundle. The bundle comes with an 80 GB PS3 with Metal Gear Solid 4 and Kill zone 2 which was leak out by a best buy employee who had also took a picture of the boxing and also other employees have confirm this.
I get that people are pissed at gamestop for the pre order ingame stuff u get in games these days.
But belive me if someone is getting raped it’s my gamestop and not the other way around. I’ve never payed full price for a game there, and here’s the deal. I live in Norway and we have to pay about 95$ for a new game. What I usually do is only pay full price if I know it’s an extremely good game, if it’s an okey game I usually get some sort of deal or I’ll wait for the game to get cheap.
What I do to get great deals is not to buy games from gamestop, We usually get some sort of deal like, trade in 2-3 games and get the game for free with a gift card on 15$ or something like that.
What I do is trade in games I’ve payed a total of value of maybe 40$ I get about 15$ witch I can use there.
Now did I buy the 2-3 games for 40$ at gamestop? Of course not I go somewhere else where I get a great deal on a 1 year old game or something.
I already had a 360 but wanted a ps3 aswell but we have to pay about 615$ for a new ps3. I’m not kidding, we actually had to pay 995$ for a ps3 when it first came out.
But Gamestop had a deal where I got Killzone 2, MGS4 and Godfather 2 for about 615.
When u added all the value of those three games at the time I got my consol for about 400$. I then thought Godfather 2 was such a bad game I went to sell it, but instead they gave me all my money back for Godfather 2 (not the consol obviously) witch I used to buy Prototype.
So there are ways for not getting totaly screwed over by gamestop.
U just can’t go straight to the store and pick up their games :p
I’ve made som calculations and with all the games I’ve bought this year I’ve actually saved about 250$, If I had lived in the US and gotn the same deals %wise I would have saved about 370$.
, cause I was getting really tired of paying more then rest of the world.
But by making the deals I’ve made I’ve payed about the same as the US does for games this year. Witch is nice that there are flaws in the system
Bacbi out
[...] post by Viking Brent [...]
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptI feel like every delevoper that creates a supposively succesful game seems to plan on making a sequel, or at least sveral DLCs. While I generally like the idea of playing more of a game that I’ve already enjoyed in the past, … Make it audio only again, since its with video, I have to pay attention to it, instead of doing something else and listening to the sound. Aaaand props for giving me something to listen to ^_^. aaand my battlecry goes to, Idk no one, … [...]
My battlecry goes out to game developers and their phone it in attempts to make “unique” achievements that require grinding or a map to locate the items. I’m talking about Gears of War “Seriously” and their relentless online achivements and GTA IV “Endangered Species” which requires me to search online, download a map, and just sit aimlessly playing without any real challenge.
It would be nice if achievements meant you had actually achieved something with some type of skill in the game.
My battle cry goes out to the assholes who thought it was a good idea to change the date of EBC from Sunday to Tuesday. What the hell? if you are going to do that, at least tell somebody. Last week I waited by my computer for a good 3 hrs only to find out on Tuesday that you changed the update time. Seriously guys, get the Net.
My Battlecry goes to gaming itself. Since the Sega Genesis I had a console of every following generation, and the same goes for my PC. But ever since Consoles were granted to connect to the internet it all started to loose something i cant really find words for. Starting off with patching consolegames (which to some point i can really forgive) over “trophy/achievment-whore-shiping” to the whole pile of DLC-shit. I have to admit that there are some cases on every point when it makes at least some sort of sense. But what about the good old times when gamedevelopers where able to give gamers a pretty much bugless and high polished gamingexperience on their machines. In addition: the games were fucking complete and were extendet (!) with expansion packs that sometimes brought a whole new twist or characterclasses to games and dozens of hours you could spend on. (i.e. Diablo 2 Lord of destruction) you paid about twenty bucks (in germany) for having a whole new game in some way. Mappacks from developers where for free and are still mostly on a PC game so why the hell do they charge their customers on consoles for something that they in some sort owe to their fanbase? (honestly i never bought any DLC for any of my PS3 games) Of course you could say that the DLC is the todays expansion pack but then please do me the favor and take a look around and check what you got for your money when you bought something like Starcraft Broadwar or Bloodmoon for Elderscrolls III. there is just no comparison possible except for a few exceptions. But the direction its going seems pretty clear to me and maybe its just a matter of time when valve will charge gamers for a single halflife chapter instead of giving away a whole Episode. In conclusion i want to say: “Please dear Gaming. Please become what you once were.”
My Epic Battle Cry goes out to Rare,
Back on the N64 they made some of the best games that changed every thing. For example Golden Eye with 4 player multi player and perfect dark with Ai’s to battle against with 4 players at the same time. But mostly Conker’s Bad Fur day the game that almost got a M by the ESRB. Wish they would go back to some grass roots games that were bad ass
My Battle Cry goes to to Microsoft. I’m sick and tired of seeing the Xbox 360 logo at the end of commecials for games that are cross platform. Specifically games like Fight Night Round 4. It’s misleading advertising no matter if they are paying for it or not. Game publishers should not be putting up with this.
One day Brent will run out of epic things to say when you all introduce yourselves . It’s sad but inevitable. It has really become one of the highlights of the show (for me at least).
[...] See original here: EpicBattleAxe » Blog Archive » EBC Skirmish 036: Backdoor Snowjob … [...]
What do you guys think about people moding xbox’s and Nintendo Wii’s? Do you think its wrong? Or smart for getting the upper hand on the video game industry and all its stupid marketing schemes. Also do you think games will one day only be available through online download to avoid this issue?
My Battle Cry goes out to you guys EBC, what happened to the standard Sunday release of the podcast. I remember last week it was said it would be on tuesday but is this becoming a regular thing right now. You guys are awesome and I think you should get paid just to sit around and discuss this stuff, you have excellent points and the podcasts are always exceptional… So I guess this is a a small complain but general props to you guys.
My Epic Battle Cry goes out to Bethesda Games for actually getting DLC right. So many companies don’t understand that DLC needs to be released periodically, not 3 hours every 6 months! It seems like as soon as I finished Point Lookout, I was looking forward to Mothership Zeta!
The best example of bad DLC is Mass Effect, where is the second DLC pack? It should have been released three months ago! I looked forward to Mass Effect’s first DLC with baited breath, but instead was disappointed with three hours of mediocre gameplay. Compared to Point Lookouts 6 hours, it seems so sloppy on Biowares part.
Hey guys, great show as always.
My battle cry this week goes out to Visceral Games, the studios developing Dante’s Inferno. i got to see some of the gameplay for this game and let me just say it looks awesome. The whole idea of traveling through the 9 circles of hell seems really interesting.I dare say it looks as good as God of War.
my battle cry goes to bioware and mythic merging i mean come on EA why merge bioware (people who make freakin awsome games) with mythic (people who make some pretty crappy game). the name better stay bioware to and mythic better not screw with bioware or else the games are going to suck ass
MY Battle cry goes out to the gaming industry, for making me rob a bank, all the games they are pumping out is insane. so from November 2009 Ill be on the news!
Grate Show guys!
My Epic Battle Cry is here:
I saw when first reviews of most anticipated 2D fighter game BlazBlue hitted on IGN, 1UP, GT. It got very proud 9+ reviews everywhere and in addition im fan of their earliest games like Guilty Gear series so this game is a must have for me.
Then i figured out that the game isnt going to be published EVER in europe! even when asked from ZOO entertainment they just replied that they wont publish it in europe so that i should import it from us.
Well its a must have so i did order it from us gamestop(sorry for that, i know gamestop is evil. but im desperate). well the price was pretty fair 59$, but when confirming my address the price pops up 25$ more because of “package handling”, well okay okay i just want the game BADLY!!!
Its been four days and the woman from customs calls me that my package is going to be Finland (yes its a cold and rainy summer thx for asking) next week…well okay ill wait, i just want the game. then that b***h adds 22% to the price because of Finnish tax sh**. now its like 102 USD, well if that wasnt enought that c**t adds even some Finnish “package handling” fee’s which they propably have learned from the US and price goes all the way to 120$
Like how much does ppl have to take in europe? we get games later than other or we just dont even get the game EVER. Ordering products from US is easy, but what is it with all these taxes and “package handling” in every country that where the product goes trough. When i checked wheres my package it was on German, i wonder why didnt they bill my by their “package handling”.
In this world its just not possible to do anything whitout taxer or package handlings, but in my dreamworld games that are not published in europe should have lower tax or package handling fees.
….Just for fun could Tony say PERKELE!?
I think gamespot is becoming this idea that they are into gamers when they really not. The trade-ins, and the pre-orders are just plain bullshat (great name whoever got that). BTW don’t you think extras in the game like a gold plated gun or a unlockable level should be a cheat code rather than a money scheme? If their was a strike with gamestop or any other place that makes you pay to purchase invisible crap (That’s right, Fucking said it), i would atttend it in a viking outfit so they knew where it came from.
Epic Fucking Battle Axe
My battle cry goes out to companies in the game industry that are all about the games. To many companies this gen have dumb downed their games to appeal to the lowest denominator, saturated the market with costly DLC that should have been included in the game, and just straight up make games that are half of what they should, or could be. So to companies, whom i shall leave nameless, that put quality over quantity, listen to their fans, and think outside the box, i salute you, you are an example that this generation of games so desperately needs, keep up the good work.
Hey there,
Quite like the ‘cut-through-the-bullshit’ outlook, cause for once its for real… Enjoyed the show, will keep posted on it…
My battlecry goes out to the Dev’s behind Starcraft 2… I know its a touchy subject, for some being a godsend, for others one of the biggest gripes with the gaming industry, but in a recent interview, I recollect the dev’s addressing the problem with games today holding the player’s hands through a major portion of the game.
Its not like in the old days of Contra, where there really wasn’t a ‘Tutorial’, it was just, “Here’s your gun son, go have some fun…”
And the dev’s stated that, while they’re working to remove any unnecessarily steep learning curves, they’re not mellowing it down for the average housewife… Because Starcraft 2 is a game for the hardcore, and you don’t make a competitive e-sports game with flowers in the box…
Kudos to the team, can’t wait for the game…
Never Say Never !
Another great podcast guys!
Here is my Battle Cry for the week and it relates to a subject you talked about this week. Are gamers getting ripped off?
Is it just me or does it seem like there is a growing trend of publishers releasing broken games? Sure a few bugs or glitches are always going to occur and I can live with that but what about the games that are so obviously broken and ruin gameplay and have bugs and glitches that are so blatantly obvious that you know the developers had to know about them but the game was released anyway. (the game Two Worlds comes to mind among others) Who is to blame here I wonder? Is it the developers putting out a shoddy product just to get it out the door and then “fix” it later or could it be publishers putting unrealistic release dates where the developers are rushed to have something broken or not to put out? Just seems like this is happening more and more and I would really like to see this trend go away.
Im sure Im not the first one to say, but my epic battle cry will have to go out to not only the show but everyone behind it and more importantly the 3 dudes delivering it. The information and news feed to teh outside world is outstanding and up to date, but what keeps me coming back to listen to these is the way in which it is presented. The humor, side remarks and just even having the sheer balls to rip on the industry giants and speak your minds is both refreshing and keeps me attentive and rofl’ing through out the entire show.
Keep on cutting away the crap, to get to the good shit!
chicka chicka yah
~Nicklovin
My Epic Battle Cry goes out to brent, for beeing metal.
Hey!
My Epic Battle Cry goes to Daniel for allways saying ” But at the end of the day “. I mean come on it’s so damn funny! And the weird thing is that his the only one that can pull it off ;P “if you know what i mean// TNT – AC/DC
Btw great show “ass” allways, and this one is for you daniel
oh one more thing sorry for my bad english I’m from sweden ^^
My battle cry goes to October this time around…. seriously developers… really? you want me to buy all these games in october?
Do i look like im made out of money?
Do i have a gold farm in china i run?
Did i recently win the lottery and no one told me? NO!
None of these things apply and even if they did where would i find the time to play all these titles?
look i understand your trying to grab the share of the market that is most likely to grab your game which is near christmas holiday season…
i get that but can you spread it out throughout that season a little? I mean there’s like 6 hot games comming in the span of october to november alone.. and its not 6 crappy games its like six really good games..
sigh…im gonna be so broke at the end of this year.
AGAIN…
My battle cry goes to Mario. In my whole life, I have never witnessed a mario-centered game that I didn’t love. Even the stupid little games like mario party have their quirks. With the sequel to Super Mario Galaxy coming out, I couldn’t be more happy. Nintendo hit gold with Super Mario Galaxy, anyone complaining about a sequel is whining for no good reason. At the end of the day, Mario kicks everyone’s ass.
Very nice podcast has always.
My battlecry goes out to the importance of graphics over gameplay, while i’m not gonna say it’s the same for every recent game, most of them look pretty nice but aren’t very challenging, they all pretty much have the same controls and the variety is starting to lack, like every FPS has stealth stuff, or every RPG is also a platform game, it’s like its more important for the games to look good and have mind blowing cutscenes than to have a “personality” of their own, the thing is if we look at the most played games, like WOW, the Madden series, CS, PES, none of them are played because of the graphics but because they are fun and challeging to play, for example(i’m probably in the minority here)i think the Fire Pro Wrestling series totally own the Smackdown series, but since it looks like crap compared to smackdown it doesn’t sell, this actually could be applied to every aspect of life, would anyone really buy a Katy Perry album if she wasn’t hot has hell? (don’t answer if you’re under 15).
So my real question is, are we losing in gaming experience for better graphics or am i just a idiot?
My battlecry this week goes out to sony for not making their console fully affordable yet. The ps3 has been out for a while and for most gamers it is WAY to expensive.
the Ps3 slim really isn’t an answer to that problem either because it will obviously be cutting features.
Sony, do the right thing.
my battlecry this week goes out to Dice. Dice has been in the shooter buisness for awhile and they have come out with some pretty ignored games. Battlefield Bad company was a truely good game and it was ignored by most. Now, with the release of battlefield 1943, I really hope the shooter fans come to terms with the fact that DICE is really trying to cater to the hardcore shooter fan, and not milk the franchise.
My Battlecry goes out to the makers of the Witcher, CDProjekt for bringing http://www.gog.com (Good Old Games) to life. Good Old Games offers fantastic old PC games, and some new, at bargain bin prices with bonus content and absolutely no DRM. Cheers to them
My Battle Cry goes out to everyone participating in the discussions on this site.
Gaming forums and sites are like flies on a sugarcake; they’re everywhere. But just like those cakes, they’re bad for you. The countless fanboys, trolls, spambots, hyper 12-year olds, they’re all spamming these forums full of low-level crap, and it’s destroying what we have from the inside.
We real gamers, we’re a smart folk, we understand stuff other people can never see, we have great creativity, talent and imagination in our hands. The Voltaires, Shakespeares and Delacroixs of history are now Hideo Kojima, Peter Molyneux and Team ICO’s. We will go down in history! And we’ve all been a part of this great thing! Surely we can do better than the crap i’m reading on those sites!?
And yes, finally, there comes a site where only the true gamers sound off, where the people speak with sense, reason and intelligence. A place where we can at least pretend to be civilized and educated. A place where it’s not a showbreaker to disagree. A place where gamers can finally be a tight community, instead of a fractured group of high-school drop-outs!
A BattleCry for this community, on EpicBattleAxe.com, safe-guarding a positive image and place for real gamers!
The pre-order goodies that come with the various places to purchase the new R&C will all be available to all owners at some point, if not through unlocking then through DLC.
My battlecry goes out to Lucasarts
They announced recently that they have made several games available on STEAM…..
Some of the games they showed you can still buy in shops and others can be found on the internet for free….
When are they gonna get off their asses and make some good games??
Star Wars Fans want sequels to good games like KoTOR, Republic Commando and Battlefront…. If they can’t do that then remake the classics….. update the graphics…… not many younger people want to play games that look bad compared to today!
Why won’t they listen to us?
My battlecry for the week goes out to not october but november. Sure there are alot of games coming out in october but Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is a November release as is Assassins Creed 2 and Halo ODST. These three games will crush every game that is released in October. I don’t honestly know how we as gamers can afford all these games that are being released within two months but damn there must be a way.
My battlecry goes out to humor in games.
The games of today are way too gritty and dark in my opinion. I play games to have fun and to forget how shitty things can get sometimes. But games like COD4 or Killzone 2 are constantly reminding me that the end of the world might as well be after the next checkpoint.
So I wanna give props to Tim Schaffer of Double Fine, also Insomniac, Naughty Dogs, Sucker Punch and a few others that I can’t remember, for making colorful, lighthearted, funny games that make me feel good when I pick up the controllers.
So games companies, please stop making gritty games with bald space marines, stop looking into the post-appocalyptic setting, stop trying to be dark and edgy; instead try to make the game with just a little more charm and humor, that would be all I really want.
On a side note, good work with the show, Epic Battle Crew! You guys’ podcasts are the best.
… and Daniel, you’re such a dork! But we love you, you know that? I know Tony and Brent love you too, they just have a weird, albeit funny, way of showing it…
Great show guy, always love it. It’s always nice to come home AT THE END OF THE DAY and listen to the intelligent banter.
My battle cry goes out to the strange step (I believe) the video game hardware has taken, and that is the embracing of the disc. I love Blu-ray, movies look and sound great on them, but wouldn’t we all have benefited if hard/flash drive/cartridge technology kept moving forward? This is coming from a PC gamer go figure (but not PC gamer born), but hard drives with lots of space are incredibly inexpensive and you would not need to worry about space if a console was built around some sort of 500GB cartridge.
But you know, it’ll be a while before most console gamers understand how great direct download services are.
*cough* Steam
My battlecry goes out to Sony concerning their price cut.
It just seems almost stupid that Sony isn’t willing to offer a price cut on the PS3 after years of demand and even with the Activision/Blizzard announcing that they would stop publishing games for the PS3 if there wasn’t a price drop presented. Sure the economy sucks, sure you need to make a business, but the fact is that customers and loyal fans should be kept in mind in your business. Without us, the consumers, you would not have a business. The reality is that if they did offer a price cut and didn’t think it was always about making an extra buck, they would actually make more money in the end because I know that alot of people will end up buying the PS3 since they have been waiting on the PS3 price drop for so long.
My battlecry goes to all remakes of old fuking games
iz it that hard to use the zounds of starving newcomers with great game ideas that cant get any1 to look their way
Stop beeing foking lazy and try doing something other than 3d fuckups of old 2d games
my battle cry goes out to blizzard being a greedy pain in the ass.
i like how they just now put the faction thing when its been out what for 7 years and finally implements this feature when people have probably have made several accounts and spending hundreds of dollars going through all the classes,class stories, and class game play.. seriously why do it now ..
yeah they will most likely get gullible people into this to try and get more people into it. but could it also be a last resort to get money as these new MMO’s like Aion,star wars old republic,blade and soul and etc come out before they can release there next title..
if you don’t know what i mean .. look at the fan base that Aion is getting and it finally has a release date. yeah it maybe quite small now but this game is getting many compelling reviews from top critics.
could pose a threat to blizzard’s income monthly
My Epic Battle Cry goes out to the Wolf Team Beta which I partook in. Graphic are amasing. They make me paw at the screen and say Rawr! (For Daniel). That’s all wor this week, now I have to go take a shower because the waters been out for 3 weeks!
off topic: I just hate the fact that you have to beg on forums just to get codes for specific clothes for “Playstation@home” when it should be implanted inserted specific trophy instead.
So actually people who have bough the game, goes around with the attire you see in the game.
My BattleCry
My battlecry this week goes out to all the guys that still continue to this day play Call of Duty: World at War for the Nintendo Wii. Since I can’t afford any of the other systems, the Wii’s been my dearest friend when I’m down, and nothing makes a guy happier than killing the entire opposing team by throwing a single molotov cocktail…at an exploding barrel.
That and sicking some dogs on some helpless fools (who I don’t pity, ’cause they’d do it too if given the chance).
Thanks guys, for giving me noobs to pwn, and people to kick my ass. Either way, it’s f-ing fun.
My battle cry goes out to racisme in games.
Somehow the whole RE5 discussion seems more potent now than before the game, maybe thats just my luck, either way, its pissing me off! Sure i agree there are some games with alot of unnecessary stereotypes, but people come on, mansion with white zombies? sure, mexican village? why not, somewhere in africa? NO! because thats racist, fine let me bring this in a little wider spectrum;
So, a white man (and a black woman) finds himself trying to survive a VIRUS infestation to get to the root of the problem and solve it, killing infected i.e. african people in africa, who would’ve thought, to reach said goal, now i am not a dictionary or wiki on games but i can only think of 2 other games set in africa (although im positive there are a few more) far cry and africa.
And why didnt Far cry 2 get the same attention, seeing as how its pretty much the same premise, except they are in fact NOT killing infected, but actual human beeings, why? answer : NOONE NITPICKED IT.
Someone, i wont say names (n’gai) threw a small snowball down a hill and watched it grow, noone noticed it before because people dont see capcom trying to show their intent hatred towards black people, no, they were making a game at a specific location, wich obviously will bring the logical conclusion that the enemy will most likely be locals! am i not right?
Let’s take a look at other examples real quick, how many games feature evil nazi’s both in a ww2 setting and\or alternate future setting, with the evil German and their plot to take over the world, or Russia, how many f****** games feature those nasty evil mid-to-north europeans that only want to go around showing their palms in the air like they just dont care? i’d say 50ish, but i dont know the actual number, agree with me on, alot!, so how is it not racial profiling that we (yes i am in fact Norwegian i.e. north european) are the evildoers of doom who wants to eat your soul and teabag your dead body, but oh look, by the grace of god there comes an american hero wearing full sleek army uniform, hanging off a helicopter with a huge cigar in his grinning mouth with a m16 in one hand and the american flag in the other, here to rescue everyone from the godforsaken devilspawn europeans! yay! is that how Americans really view us non-english here in europe? NO! and its not because we’re all white, its because racisme is only propelled by the ones pointing it out, sure i have more than a few black friends who say the same thing, they we’re outraged that RE5 came out looking like a melting pot of culture and races in their native land.
Obviously racist awareness is important, but doing stupid s*** like saying RE5 is racist because its featured in an african setting is like saying mario kills koopas in their castles and whatnot, and thats racist.
i know i went on a REALLY long tirade here but its good to get it out of my system, if i am featured in the show, feel free to cut it down as much as you can.
oh and if i dont make it in the show…i blame Daniel, go bare biowares friggin lovechild! and stop with the mass effect mentioning all the god damn time (i think ur cool though, and i loved ME too, but come on)
ps sorry if my english was inconsistent or just wrong\stoopid
yours truly Tommy – Norwegian viking warrior
(lvl. 81)
Perhaps not a proper battlecry, but I find it a bit ironic how you guys talk down on GameStop and tell people not to buy there, and then we see “$100 Off Guitar Hero World Tour At Gamestop”, “start searching for your car keys” and “we wish you all luck on grabbing these deals now” on your page.
http://epicbattleaxe.com/100-off-guitar-hero-world-tour-at-gamestop/
By the way, love your show. And as an European, I don’t know much about GameStop, nor do I care. Your show is supreme though.
my battle cry goes out to gamestop as they are a bunch of liars and thieves. i went to a gamestop recently to purchase something and told the lady about a story i heard where gamestop employees would take new games home, play them and then come back and sell them as new. she then had the balls(yes she had the balls) to tell me because their still new. and i said no you idiot they are not! when you open the SEALED packaging take out the NEW, NEVER been used game, get their dirty little pizza grease fingers on them, put them in their system and USE them, then no they are not new they are USED!!!
My battle cry goes out to Atlus. I think they’re one of the best publishers.
A lot of their games come with art books and sound tracks for normal price. Most publishers would call that a CE and make you pay 10$ more. When Atlus DOES ask for more money like with Demon’s souls deluxe edition, they add even more.
They reprint or remaster some of their older games, so even new fans can play old Altus games without paying the big $ for classics.
PLUS! I’ve never seen them give GameStop extra love. These Exclusive Limited/Collector Editions (Forza, Ninja Gaiden) I’m starting to see is Just 100% BS.
Love the show and site guys!
You guys are F***ing awesome. I’m sorry I’m really crying out for u guys to help me right now because I am so confused and so angry. You don’t have to answer the second part of this comment if you don’t want too. And I’m sorry that this is extremely long
Part 1
My battle cry goes out to kingdom under fire II which is from what I’ve been reading is going to have 2 versions of the game one on the pc and one of the console and the console versions multiplayer is different from the pc (I only care about the multiplayer but I don’t have a strong enough computer or the money for it because I have a 360) but I quote from an interview from one of there developers on gamespot that
“The goal is to develop both versions to be almost alike in terms of online multiplayer. However, the control scheme of PC and that of consoles are quite different, so we expect there to be some small differences in that regard. Eventually, all game modes are to be available for both PC and consoles”
So what I think he said is that there going to be the same game but only the control scheme is different but right after he said that he says this
“but where we put the focus in the beginning will be quite different. For example, with the PC online version, the game is to be started off in the multiplayer online mode, and the aspect of online multiplayer holds much weight.”
“Our plan is to have console versions support story campaigns with heroes as default”.
Before all of this he says
“There are going to be more than 10 thousand players registered in each server, and players will be able to travel around the online world in something called a mothership. The persistent online world will be rendered in full 3D, and on it you will see numerous ships flying and exploring. There are many cities in this world, and soon everyone will be engaged in territorial conquests. There will be guilds and factions that you can join, and you will partake in the campaign of territorial expansion for your group. In many different geographical locations, many types of battles will take place, including multiplayer field match, online co-op missions, and the all-new castle siege battle. We are preparing different types and sizes of battlefields: small ones for two-vs.-two and three-vs.-three, or huge maps to accommodate possibly a maximum of 15-vs.-15”.
So I am assuming when he means the pc is going to have more dept in the multiplayer, none of this is going to be on the console.
Please help me out.
Heres the link
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/kingdomunderfireii/news.html?page=1&sid=6205411
Part 2
My battle cry is about Kingdom Under fire II. Why the F*** are they make me wait like 7 years for the real time strategy sequel on a next gen console to come out
My Battlecry goes out to Eternal Sonata.
I was reluctant to pick up this game at first as I am not a fan of JRPG’s, but since I found it in a discount-bin the other day I felt I owed it to myself.
The game-play itself is fun but nothing special for me, however I LOVE the art-style, the character and enemy-designs are not that great but work well with the theme.
I am sick and tired of games with “realistic graphics” that end up being a brown/grey mess.
The only reason I made my parents pick up a Link to the Past for me back in the days was because of the funky colors flashing on the screen (yes I was 8). I fell in love with the art-direction which was akin to a fairytale. Since then I always had a weakness for games with similar art-direction. That is not to say that I don’t like a good go-‘round of a gritty shooter. I just feel we’ve had a lot of the same lately.
My Battle Cry of the Week:
This one goes out to the guys wielding the axe. Yes, you guys from EpicBattleAxe because you are being true and you have not sold yourself to publishers like cheap whores do in times of crisis. In my honest gamer opinion I think more websites and editors should take an example from you guys’ book because the industry would be going in a much better direction. I know you won’t be including this in your next podcast because it’s not fair but just wanted to let you know
.
Now if only DK Money Shizzle could use his mind control rap to drop the price of the PS3 so i won’t have to play it at my friend’s house, and eat his food, and use his toilet, and shower in his bathroom, and sleep in his bed…. hmmm … yeah I guess it’s better this way.
I need to say something to every gaming company why always any good games come only to consoles First then they think about the pc version and sometimes they don’t even think about the pc version and they say exclusively on these consoles.
An in example gears of war 2 y its not on pc its mush easier on pc and Uncharted 1&2 y it’s not for pc too the things that need moving camera and moving person its batter on pc but the pc gaming is going down the hill no 1 is making games for pc all the good game that comes to consoles and they say the pc version will come after it and may be not and it not going to come well that’s just BS.
Well if some 1 with me in this situation plz speak up and thnx for listing.
Forgive me about my English
My battlecry goes out to EA and their new game C&C4. EA confirmed that they will release only on PC.
C&C Kane’s Wrath was insane game on X360 but in huge battles or maps the game was lagy, and it sucked. I think everybody would love to enjoy fixed game with new mechanics, graphics and gameplay.
My battle cry goes out to Natal and the effect it could have on parental controls and educational programs. With Natal’s built in facial and vocal recognition i think it would be possible for Natal to usher in a new wave of sophisticated and interactive parental controls. Now I’m fucking horrible at explaining what i see in my head so I’m going to just give you guys a scenario.
Little Timmy boots up his 360 equipped with natal and when he gives the command to boot up say Halo Reach natal would give Timmy an English quiz using the ten spelling words he got from school. Natal would then play the word that would be prerecorded by his parent or guardian and ask him to spell it correctly. Based on how many words Timmy spelled correctly he would be allowed to play longer. So it rewards Timmy for studying for school with entertainment and lets face it no one likes to be told “hey go study dumb ass and come back when you can spell”. With a system that rewards the child more for the effort he puts in to his studying it would encourage them study more often because in turn they get to play Halo and tea bag more often.
Now this isn’t just limited to English spelling tests. With built in voice recognition and a simple program where Natal records a question/answer from the parent the quiz can easily become a series of math, history, geography, science etc… questions. This is assuming natal works as advertised. All this is shit tho if my son ever figured out to hide a piece of paper in his palm with all the spelling words written down. So maybe my idea is shit but if there was some way to make it work correctly and relatively cheat proof then this could be a new way to getting our stupid kids to actually use their brains.
Hey guys at EBA! My BattleCry goes out to Penn and Teller for doing a Bullsh1t episode on Video Games! They even nabbed an interview with Jack Thompson! I’m sure you guys have seen it and if you haven’t you probably will want to!
IrishTank68 *ahem* 69 here…
My battle cry goes out to Co-op in action/shooter games.
Is it really necessary? Look at RE5. What the co-op in that game basically boiled down to was just another person to help you pull a switch at the same time, jump a ledge, or climb a ladder. It is the same case in sooooo many other games this generation. I feel that co-op in games is going to be the next “quicktime” shenanigan where every game is going to have it, hence becoming extremely generic.
The only game to do co-op right was Army of two…but do we really want ALL games centered around co-op?
Peace.
I love ratchet & clank, but I’m not going to drive to the UK/Germany to buy it at gamestop just for some dlc (I’m from belgium)…
My battlecry for the week goes out to Game Freak for milking the Pokémon series so bad, they even announced Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver. I wasted so much time on gold & silver (& crystal
), and I can only hope they improve the graphics and don’t r*pe the gameplay.
—DANGER— If you are a frustrated little 12-year-old, don’t read this post —DANGER—
Crawl back under your rock, please.
The guys from sony know a lot more about the game industry than you ever will.
If you can’t live with that, please buy a gun and stop living. Or just vote -1 and think you’re tha boss
Why is it so hard to find Downloadable game reviews? I played Braid recently for no other reason than word of mouth and I loved it. I know some downloadable titles, like Shadow Complex, are being hyped, but there wont be any reviews to let me know if I should spend my money on them.
So if anyone (say GameTrailers) is reading this- help a gamer out.
My battlecry goes to Metroid Prime Trilogy. The series is fantastic (which is something you don’t see much in Nintendo games) and it’s cool that they’re remaking them with Wii controls, which were excellent on Metroid Prime 3, without having to pay $60 or more; just $49.99, which is an incredibly low price for three great games (and maybe a multiplayer mode). I’m really looking forward to this and would recommend it to anyone. It’s really worth your money.
My battle cry goes out to the people at high voltage software.
Because some one is finnaly makeing quality adult games for the wii such as the conduit, the grinder, and gladiator ad,showing that the wii is also a next gen system, like you guys said how the wii verson of brutal legond isnt happening give it to these guys and they would pull it off with flying colors and make it just as succesful.
Ps sorry i did preorder from game stop to get the conduit
that was epic.
my battlecry goes out to release dates
how long has it been since a release date has been accurate on the first or even up to the third date given. if developers could just give a release date and call it an estimation until they are about 2 months from release and then release a date, it would allow shops and customers to properly anticipate the game. so props to game developers for inaccurate information and for always keeping us on the edge of our seats
i love gametrailers.com and this site(epicbattleaxe.com)
but then i saw this……
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcO3VcdWCvE
OMFG
myepicbattle cry goes to the guy in that video
My battle cry goes out to goozex.com. It allows serious game traders like myself and many others to trade in their games for points based on how new, rare or crappy they are. These points then can be used to acquire other games based on their availability and with such a serious community of gamers it’s not to hard to find the game you’re looking for. The reason I’m giving this shout out is because it says FUCK to Gamestops and other douche bag companies monopoly on used games. Why the hell would I want to go to Gamestop and trade in Street Fighter 4 for $20 when I can go to Goozex.com and trade it in for full value.
so did i. sorry guys
My battlecry for the week goes out to all the good games getting released within 3 months of each other. If it wasnt for the Gamestop lay away plan (pre order) I would have to get a real job! Yes i am using pre order like its a layawy.I am going in and droping $5 on each game i want every week. I already have Call of Duty, Splinter Cell, and Mass Effect paid for, know i just gott to work on the other 300 hundred titles comming out.
I need to learn to proof read first…
My battle cry goes out to goozex.com. It allows serious game traders like myself and many others to trade in their games for points based on how new, rare or crappy they are. These points then can be used to acquire other games based on their availability and with such a serious community of gamers it’s not to hard to find the game you’re looking for. The reason I’m giving this shout out is because it says FUCK YOU to Gamestops and other douche bag companies monopoly on used games. Why the hell would I want to go to Gamestop and trade in Street Fighter 4 for $20 when I can go to Goozex.com and trade it in for full value. kthxbye
My Battle Cry goes out to all game stop employees (including my self).
In ep.36 you guys talked about games like Ratchet and Clank having exclusive DLC with specific retailers like game Gamestop and Amazon, and how it is a rip off and Gamestop being monopolistic. I agree with you guys. I agree that it’s up to the gaming community to put a stop to this “Sh**nanigans!” But I don’t think it’s reasonable to tell people, “Boycott this game!!” Because “at the end of the day” people are still going to buy it no matter what because they want to play it. That method of change I don’t think will ever work. What I think will work and/or start an anti-Gamestop (for lack of a better term) movement. Are the employees of Gamestop taking this into their own hands. By selling less used games, and more new games. Tell costumers to buy just the normal edition of a game, if the collectors edition is crap/overpriced (Gears 2, Batman Arkham)” Also just let people know about smaller lesser known games like Muramasa and Madworld just to name a few, games that are amazing but no one knows about them “ya know.” “Because at the end of the day,” We Gamestop employees are gamers our selves, and are sick of this “Sh**nanigans!” and have the ability to start something.
PS
Love the show; keep up the lame puns and sarcastic remarks! They are great.
This is a bit old but I got pissed off at it again after seeing Invisible Walls’ latest podcast.
One of the guys said that someone from Blizzard (ex) was working on Champions Online or whatever the latest spin off of that is and somewhat made an argument that since a blizzard guy is working on it – it should be good.
The response to that was something along the lines of “yeah, because Hellgate was such a great game”. I got the feeling that he was sort of implying that the makers of Hellgate weren’t good developers or something. Could be wrong. But I need to rant about it.
Hellgate being not what it was supposed to be isn’t because the developers sucked, those were many or most of the guys who gave us Diablo.
It seems that people like to bash Hellgate and its team a lot but no one really comes to defend the guys. After all they had to make a game quickly, develop the technology for it and make it playable and a hit right off the bat because otherwise they’d sink. That isn’t really possible with the limited funds and other problems they had. No one really takes that into consideration, they couldn’t afford to “bring it when its ready”.
They are great developers and if they had the time I am sure that Hellgate would have been the amazing game that everyone thought it would have been. Give the guys a break, ok?
Thanks,
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