Wait till they’re over the wall then open fire; its time for another edition of EpicBattleCry! In this week’s skirmish we check out the next Team Fortress 2 update, ponder the PS3-exclusive Dante’s Inferno Divine Edition, discuss the details of Splinter Cell: Conviction‘s recently unveiled co-op multiplayer modes, and revel in the news of Mega Man 10.
First up in the main course this week, we discuss star power and how the recently revealed celebrity voice cast of Mass Effect 2 may help or hurt that title. Next up, in light of the recent announcement of Dead Space 2, we talk survival horror and pontificate on whether or the burgeoning franchise can dethrone Resident Evil.
The Battle Cry of the Week goes to Fight With Photos: Photo Fighter X, Revenge of the Wounded Dragons, Shoot 1UP, and calls on developers to clone more than five people for their bad guy armies.
Remember to sound off below and each week will pick our favorite to become the next Member Battle Cry! Stay sharp.
-iPod compatible mp4 download-
Hey guys, dunno if you didn’t know at the time of recording this or someone else already told you, but you keep ranting how the PS3 get the “Divine Edition” and the 360 gets nothing. The 360 DOES get something, they get the “Death Edition” atleast here in europe, might be exclusive to us? (I think it’s pretty much the same thing, with different names)
Anyway, good ep, keep it up.
I do see DK’s side of the Mass Effect cast argument, but I am totally on Brent’s side with this. Mass Effect 2 is also interesting in the fact that many of the “Big Name Stars” that are lending their voices to the game, are actually game voice veterans. Keith David has been in so many of the most influential games in the last 10 years. Fallout, MW2, he was the freakin’ Arbiter in Halo 3.
Adam Baldwin, Tricia Helfer, most on this list have been in a game at one time or the other. For me, I enjoy hearing these people in the games I play. I enjoy watching them in a visual form, and can equally enjoy them in an audio one.
And if I may be so bold….
My epic Battlecry goes to Game Developers that are listening to the fan base when entering into the creative process of sequels. If Assassin’s Creed 2 proved anything, it was that when a game company looks at what the audience enjoyed, or had a problem with, and if they find that it is a valid concern, they act on it. Assassin’s Creed 2 was definitely a better game than the last, and I can only hope this kind of interactivity will continue with games like Batman Arkham Asylum and Dead Space 2.
My “Battle Cry” goes to Poliphony Digital and their Grand Turimo 5 upcoming title.
There was GT5 Prologue, witch was like a demo but with money and then we’ll have GT5 Academy witch is another darn demo. How much this game will get demoed instead of actual release? Could the not releasing of the Prologue cut maybe 1 year in development of the game? I’ll say it could!
On the Leipzig show they had boards with a december ’09 release date, later they delayed thad because they wanted to add a more complex damage system in the game. Don’t they have clear schedule to follow? What’s next? they will delay it again because they want to add pearled pain on the cars?
Now they said GT5 will get released, in Japan, on March 2010 and for EU/NA in the summer (2 months later). WTF!?! Is it a RPG!? does it have voice script acting or something? Why P.D. needs two fukin’ months to have the NA/EU versions of the game ready.
You know what … I’ll not buy this game. GT5 may be the best car/racing sim ever, I do not care anymore.
the Death Edition is a special edition (that will cost more) for the PS3 and 360 while the Divine Edition is a standard edition for the PS3
why Visceral/EA did this? because it’s release will get awfully close to GoW3 release date and people will save money for GoW3 not Dante’s; and they’e hoping to catch some of that money
I agree with both sides on the subject of well known actors (or at least too many of them) in video games. BUT I tend to lean more toward Brent’s side – they are good actors. They have proved themselves years ago. It’s not as risky and if they handle it well – explain their parts, give them the back story of their characters and so on the actors will take the part seriously and really make them stand out and feel alive.
I believe and am confident that Bioware have chosen the right actors for the right characters.
Also, Dead Space 2 – hell yeah! DS1 was my favourite game in the year it came out. I just hope that the marketing team behind Dante’s Inferno stays the fuck away from Dead Space 2. And hopefully they won’t release it in the busiest window competing with the well established franchises, which was the main reason, imo, for the few sales of the first game.
My (not so) Epic Battle Cry goes out to EA and Visceral. Fuck you guys. Dead Space 1 and 2 will come out on the PC but no Dante’s Inferno? And they haven’t given any reason for this decision. From my perspective, it doesn’t make sense.
Oh yeah, and Valve FTW – L4D2 DLC containing the characters of the first game and the awesome update to TF2 – you guys rock!
My battle cry goes to Lucas Arts and Star Wars
This Saturday as we all know took event VGA’s, I was expecting Battlefront 3, but the Force Unleashed 2 isn’t bad(and I did love the first Force Unleashed), my problem is that Star Wars as a movie is 100% suited for coop game play: a Master Jedi and a Padawan, so why we didn’t get a Star Wars game with COOP???!!! Come on Lucas Arts give us some bad ass coop in a Star Wars game!!!
My battle cry goes out to humor in video games, there are so many games that take themselves way to seriously like modern warfare 2 for instance. don’t get me wrong i loved that game but we need more games like borderlands which have plenty of humor(the zombie island of doctor ned) and are still REALLY fun to play. i mean whats better then being really tense from some crazy fight then being let down by a little laughter. and there are a lot of games that could benefit from this to,i mean with the correct mix of humor and fun gameplay some games could be so much better.
anyway thanks guys im a HUGE fan and have been watching since skirmish 12
see ya later
my battle cry goes out to the people at dead space for basicly makeing a aliens game with out the alien, this is good and so cool because if you sit down and look at the 1st one and now the 2nd, its playing out so much like alien. first one is 1 dude and aliens. 2nd is 1 dude who has fought them before and is takeing the fight to them, maybe its just me but it seems like alien, and its freakin great!
My EBC would like to go out to the juvenille battles that are happening in the struggle for consumer dollars. Now I understand that companies like Microsoft and Playstation will forever have their struggle to try to one-up another in trying to get our hard earned cash with console exclusives , thats fine. Although, what I fail to comprehend is the stupid and moronic exclusives one of these two factions feels the unnecessary urge to obtain, like for instance the Dante’s Divine edition for PS3. Now when I heard of the concept of this game from E3 this year, it grasped my attention and when the gameplay revealed trailer was shown, I was sold right away. And I’ve been anticipating the release of this game since then, I’ve even read the book. But when you go and bring out an exclusive for only PS3 and not 360 for the same price as the original about less then 2 months from release. By all means, that is some messed up shit! And I know that you guys already touched on this, but I felt the need to put this out there that it is one hell of a stupid and immature move on Playstations part. They already have God of War 3 and the PS3 has been doing really well for this year, so why deny we the 360 crowd an exclusive version of this epic, God of War like experience and just let it be for both. Plus as an artist, I would love to get my hands on the digital artwork of Wayne Barlowe and soundtrack of the game. I just think this was stupid and if it were not for God of War 3 coming out next year in march and my love of the franchise, for the douchebag move they pulled, I wouldn’t support Playstation and buy a PS3.
For character models hardware does play a role, each unique model, texture and animation has to be loaded into memory, so the more enemy character model variations you have, the more RAM is taken up, load times will also be longer and more storage space will be taken up for the model files.
Then there’s more work for the artists to create each model, the animations and the textures.
With Uncharted 2 almost all the enemies are human male soldiers and humans don’t really vary much in size and shape, it’s also fairly realistic so the enemies don’t live very long. Compared to other games there was plenty of variation and the behavior of the AI helped as well.
The idea of having a smaller number of enemies that are unique is kinda cool though, I guess Shadow of the Colossus is probably the best example of that.
my battle cry goes out to microsoft and sony
why dont they just partner up on a console together if you add up the sales of ps3 and 360 together youll end up with a much larger number then the wii’s total sales worldwide. basically showing that the dominant market still belongs to the hardcore gamers plus think of the less development costs and less marketing costs they would completely own the living room if they wanted to.
The problem is in the competition between consoles people just want the games no one really cares about the label on the console call it shitbox or pissonme who cares. there is tons of healthy competition inside the devs studios games will always be trying new and creative things because people want to push it further not because microsoft or sony says so
I understand you guys try touching upon subjects that other people don’t, but did you honestly just make the fact ME2 having an all-star cast a bad thing? That’s pretty ridiculous..You’re basically asking for every gaming studio to continue finding unknown people. Why? Why shouldn’t they be able to use actors and actress’s who’ve already established they’re talented. I doubt when you watch Will Smith movies, you don’t constantly sit there going “oh hey that’s will smith.” Same with when movies have all-star casts. It’s the same concept with video games. If the performance is done properly, you’ll stop caring who’s behind the voice and simply enjoy the character. We gamers constantly complain how people treat gaming differently than other mass media(with M rated games compared to R rated movies and whatnot), yet here you are fueling the wrong side.
My Battlecry goes out to all the voice cast, especially in games.
Carefully selected cast – thats it.
Im not against a well known voice cast in general. But for me it has to fit! for example in ‘Batman Arkham Asylum’: we all know (and love) Mark’s voice for the joker. So that fits really well because you always see The Joker if you hear his voice.
imagine mark hamills joker-voice on droopy dog. something wrong, right?
or steven seagal as a announcer on a raffle..
- Voice and character has to fit because voice suits character! -
I dont like to play a game where every voice reminds me of an episode of a friday night show or whatnot.
When im playing a game i want to get to know the character im playing as but i cant because i hear his voice and my brain immediately starts reminding me of a character in a movie..
Im not saying that Batman was a success because of the well known voice cast.
Me, personally i dont want to hear a voice i am very familiar with.
If i play a game and there is a voice i hear every friday night i cant enjoy the game as im supposed to.
My point, a recognizable face is pure marketing.
My Battle Cry this week goes to all of you, I love the show, and enjoy watching it, but when you started arguing how Sony took the special edition of Dante’s Inferno alone BUT when MS took a WHOLE FREAKING SPECIAL EDITION XBOX 360 MW2 CONSOLE!
How is that fair?
I know this won’t be on the show, but what the hell, I wanted to get it off my chest.
thanks!
:p
I think with the Devine Edition they’ve thought
“PS3 gamers see this as a God of War rip off, so let’s give them some reason to buy this”
So, yeah… I might buy it now…
my EBC goes out to Spike and their dumb VGA, I’m sorry Daniel, but that show just sucked, I don’t know who wrote these stupid jokes like Hawk’s “girlfriend” joke and why does Spike keep getting sluts and douche-bags that present the games but they have no f%#@ing what are they’re talking about up there.
nice episode tho.(56)
My EBC goes out to Halo Legends, it sucks. I am pretty generous when it comes to big name companies ruining their once great franchises, whether it be Halo, Star Wars, or whatever. 343 Industries was made for the sole purpose of making Halo content, and they suck at it already. The whole idea that a studio should focus squarly on one franchise is bullshit in itself, and that goes for the Sonic team, Madden, Treyarch ect. A franchise does not have to die when the original developers say “this is our last game”, but put some common sense into where your money goes. I can see where “Lets make a Halo RTS and put Ensomble behind it” sounds like a great idea, but who the fuck said, “You know what Halo fans like, Inuyasha!!!. Is there any way we can make money off this”.
My battle cry goes out to the PC getting sabotaged by publishers and developers.
they say developing games for the PC isn’t profitable.
however it are the same people who have put the PC into such a position by releasing platform exclusive games.
it is understandable that PC exclusive games like Crysis exist because of technical differences between the PC and consoles.
however there is nothing the PC can’t handle that a consoles can.
another thing that is destroying PC gaming is the fact that that a lot of games for the PC are simple ports.
best examples are: modern warfare 2, Far Cry 2 and GTA 4 (which even didn’t have proper mouse control, making it feel as if you were using a analog stick).
aside from my battle cry i would also like to say some things about piracy.
it is often said that piracy is hurting the game industry.
but this is very over exaggerated because a downloaded copy doesn’t mean a lost sale.
because often the people who download the games don’t (yet) have the money to buy those games in the first place.
one thing that pirating does is slightly redirecting where the money goes because people can experience the value of a game, or the lack of it.
the most important thing that needs to be done is to research the actual effects of piracy instead of saying:”piracy is bad… end”.
and as for the myth that the PC is a platform you cannot profit from because of piracy, is complete nonsense.
how about taking a look at the amount of pirated games for the Xbox, Xbox360, Wii, PS2 and PS3 (btw the first pirate version of Modern Warfare 2 was for the Xbox360).
although there isn’t so much on the PS3 for a number of reasons (blue ray biggest one of them).
the best way to combat piracy is to simply “make a game worth buying”.
i think it is important to discuss these things without any prejudice and in a open and rational way.
…and i really hate having this much to tell.
unfortunately big posts scare away some readers.
My Battle Cry goes out the great support for indie games. With the VGAs having its own category for best indie game and Mountain Dews next great game god, indie developers are really breaking out. I love indie games like Flower and I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1 and really hope all the support continues.
Well, all that stuff about AAA actors not supposed to be showing up in games … I don’t quite agree with that position.
One of the points repeatedly mentioned here was recognition with the actor’s previous work and I see some validity in this.
BUT
Ya mentioned Metal Gear for example. The guy that did Snake’s voice will be known amongst gamers.
Now what you’re saying is basically that this guy should never work in gaming again since every time people hear the new character speak they’ll see Snake instead of his new new character. Somehow that’s not quite right ya know.
Even w/o using AAA actors, it’s always possible to have different projects using the same voice actors. It happens in animation all the time (although in gaming I don’t really know).
Another point is that many games simply have crappy voice work PERIOD. If they’d instead get some guys that actually knew how to act, they’d have been able to bring some personality to a game. After all, crappy voice work … not so good.
On the other hand, I don’t think a game should be 10 bucks more expensive just because they gotta pay for Tom Cruise’s salary either. After all, if ya want AAA actors, you’re gonna have to pay ‘em too.
Still, good voice work only benefits a game, so if it’s in the budget to get some decent actors then I’m all for that actually.
Just to reiterate two previous posts:
Visceral isn’t releasing the Divine Edition as a “screw you” to X360 owners. It’s because they KNOW Dante’s Inferno is very similar to God of War, a PS3 exclusive. With God of War 3 coming out a month or less after Dante’s Inferno, they would definitely see disappointing sales for their game if they didn’t do something to draw the attention of PS3 gamers.
Remember: Not all gamers receive review copies or are minted enough to shell out $60 every month for a triple-A game.
My Battle Cry goes out to Daniel Kayser and his sweet Kaiser Buns
. Just Kidding. My Battle Cry really goes out to all developers except some of them (yes, a reference to skirmish 56). 99% of developers are releasing their game with some sort of special/limited/collectors edition. I mean, it’s cool and all to have something extra, but it seems to be the standard thing to do.
I dunno bout anyone else, but to me, it’s really annoying. I remember back in the day, when collectors editions/limited editions only came with a franchise that had already been established and was a big name. An example (and probably a bad one at that) would be halo. Halo: CE came, and was a big success, and with Halo 2, you got your limited edtion case, extra dvd, and a alternate booklet/manual. Short and sweet, a little something extra for the fans who made it what it is.
Now, every new game that comes out is OMG BUY THIS EDITION FOR 49583409 DOLLARS MORE AND GET A CD, FIGURE, BIG BOX, AND HELL, EVEN HAVE A DEVELOPER.
It’s sort of like the multiplayer becoming the standard but hey, thats another topic.
Anyways keep up the good work guys, and DK MoneyShizzle, you are very “punny.” (apologies to Tony and Brent, please forgive me)
I don’t agree that sony payed for dante’s inferno exclusive content. think of it this way: if you are an xbox owner and you see god of war media flud, you think of getting dante’s inferno, so there is really no need for promoting it on xbox. since the game has a dangerous rival on ps3 (god of war), all the extra funds should go into promoting the game on the ps3, and that is why ps3 owners are getting all the special stuff, and this will probably sell more copies. sony didn’t get paid for it or payed anyone, they just probably helped to fund the promotion on their system. it is basically god of war’s fault that ps3 is getting exclusive dante’s inferno content
.
My EBC this week goes out to the sudden appearance of the “Franchise Reboot”. In some ways I’m for these, in others not so much. It seems that companies have seen that they’ve driven games into the ground and have decided to “reinvent” them. In some ways this is good, where we get more games in a franchise that used to be good and are attached with warm memories of gaming goodness (Medal of Honor and MechWarrior come to mind), but I remain trepidatious about these titles because, well, they’ve been driven into the ground before when they were good and how long will it be before history repeats itself?
Really? I thought Dead Space was just as gun campy as RE4 (both of which I loved though, RE5 on the other hand…), even on Impossible the difficulty wasn’t that “horrifying” if you prepare yourself and conserve.
My comments don’t seem to appear.
Hey guys my EBC goes out to the more and more common era of modern times in video games. Ever since Modern Warfare, there have been tonnes of new games coming out in this time period, as well as some old franchises (Medal of Honor) copying Infinity Ward.
Is modern warfare going to become the next WWII? Are we going to become sick of AC130s and AK47s? I loved MW2, but more and more games are coming out during modern times, and it’s starting to become a common sight for gamers.
Cheers guys
My EBC goes out the the Natal hype. Some people see it as the next big thing, but to me its just a glorified eyetoy. If we want to enjoy a AAA title we got to have one of the most basic things, precision. There is no way that it can substitute a physical input over the motion controller. I’m sure it will have some smaller features integrated within the game but not as the only input device you will have for a hardcore game. Wouldn’t it just piss you off if you died in a game just because your cat happens to chase a fly right between you and your screen? Sell it as an addon, not as the second coming of…the xbox controller.
As said before, Dante’s Inferno wants to be GoW. Since the game only has a month “to live” before GoW3 ships, they must put the bells and whistles on the PS3 version to boost sales, wile on the 360 no such stunts are needed because if a 360 owner wants his GoW fix, he will buy Dante’s Inferno no matter what.
On a totally unrelated note, I’m a PS3 owner so I don’t mind some tacks under the 360 cart
My EBC goes out to the MORONS of Spike TV and thier partnership with Burger King for the Spike VGA awards. Ive no idea if u can cuss in this but WHAT THE F*** was all that shit on thier website about a live stream? apperently u had to sit there for 2.5 hours and wait for the media to load, then they only showed the things they wanted to, not the entire freaking show, just whatever the hell they wanted. 4 cameras, 2.5 hours of wait time to be able to watch it. I mean really, what the hell, didnt they learn anything from example blizzcon? that s*** streamed the entire freaking show, and i dont know if this was because BK is a S*** partner that doesnt spend any money other then to make ppl fat or if Spike just plain old suck.
Apperently alot of the countries in Europe doesnt show the VGA’s, for example Sweden where i live. This means that if we see something like a live stream, we get pumped cause hell yes, now we can finaly see who wins what etc etc. I sat up untill 3 am on saturday, waiting for the live stream to commence, but what happens, ABOSLUTELY F****** NOTHING!!! I started reading the comments a bit later, then some ppl say that u have to wait freaking 2 and a half hour for the stupid media to initialize. So just because we happen to live in a different part of the world, all of a sudden, companys like Spike just decide that european gamers arent as good as american or wth? How many % of the worlds best gamers do we have in sweden, like 30-40%? This is a country with 9 million people living in it and we pretty much rule the pro scene of gaming.
Alright, ill stop with all this crap now cause i cant figure out more bad s*** to say to spike. But that s*** really just pissed me off…. asswipes…
I’d like to give my EBC to the voices in our games… the voice cast talent.
Like the esteemed hosts, I’m in abit of a devided camp here. I do belive that having high-level screen actors is moving some really talented unknowns off the main radar but I’m also of the opinion that having people who know their craft and that are that good that they can make a good living out of it can and will return a better level of experience and immersion to the gamer.
In terms of the recognition of well known actors or voices it comes down to this: if you can’t differentiate the actor/voice from the character that you assiziate it to then how would it ever be possible to see actors like Martin Sheen or Adam Baldwin as anything else but Josiah Bartlet (Sheen) or Jayne Cobb (Baldwin) in any other movies and/or tv-series? The same applies to the voice actors doing anime dubs to english. There are a few outstanding ones that get used over and over because they are that versatile and that good (example here Crispin Freeman: Hellsing-Alucard / GitS-Togusa and tons of game work) and thus become very recognizable.
If you are stuck to just seeing one character when you hear a voice and associating that voice to that character and it’s mannerisms, then you are seriously screwed. You might just turn off all voice in all future games for all eternity since voices will return, no matter how many games you play or what rock you crawl under.
Bottomline is: as long the voice is cast with what the character in the game is about in terms of background and motivation and a pro actor can deliver that character and make it come alive by only using his voice (bodylanguage being in the hands of the animators) who are we to fault anyone for using that kind of talent? Sure it might cost the company a buck more, but also it might get said company to shell out some more money to make sure they make the game that good that people will buy it and enjoy it. I’m refering of course to games that rely on dialogue to carry the narrative forward.
A coin-up brawler might not benefit from say Christian Bale growning every 10 seconds for the duration of the match. But it might be a good payback for Terminator Salvation
Hello, my brethren of battle, my fellow footsoldier of Shredder. How art thou?!
My epic battlecry goes out to the godawful VGA’s this year, which in the end DID happen to have a suprising winner even when everyone expected that Activision had enough money to bribe the judges to win all categories. However, what I think was the godawful part was the nominees of this year’s GOTY. I mean, come on. 2009 isn’t over yet, but generally the amount of games released this year has been absolutely massive. 802 games world-wide in just 2009. And the only games they could summon up was a couple of sequels in Q4, with the exception of Batman.
I’m not saying that these are bad games. I just think the nominees are quite rushed. Let’s put it to an example. Assassin’s Creed 2 had been released less than a month before it got a nomination, no? Why wasn’t a game like.. Prototype there instead? Me, personally I didn’t like Prototype that much. But alot of people did. It was hugely famous in it’s glory-days and everyone and their grandmother played it. But why isn’t it at least nominated? Because it’s not a sequel of a famous title. Nobody even had the time to properly clear Assassin’s Creed 2 before it was nominated, I mean come on. The gaming industry is moving quickly, but not quickly enough to just blantantly toss good titles to the side to get publicity for new games.
And my side-EPC goes out to Epic Games. It’s an old article, but dear god it’s funny with their statement of Natal.
And I quote,
“I have no idea what we’re going to do from a game standpoint, but from an engine standpoint, it’s definitely cool stuff and we will support it.”
They don’t even know what to do with it either. Nobody does. Which is why I think – if Natal is released 2010, it will be the turkey of the year.
my ebc goes out to game developers that puts coop mode in thier games, i own all coop games i know of for my ps3.
and i think most people these days want to play games in coop mode on thier console or on lan partys.
i would like to see more games like rainbow six vegas 2 where they added in two coop modes with ranks, unlocks, badges and other awards, ive never had so much fun actually playing games at a lan!
if a game has got multiplayer i think it should have the option to play coop to, it couldnt that hard to squeeze it in
Dead space is a freakin scary game, but re5 is still more fun, not only because me and my girlfriend played it in COOP, but because re5 was a game with replayability. and im not just thinking about all the extra weapons and alternative costumes
PS, sorry about the bad english
Ah, right. I’ve gotta pay better attention. Honest misstake tho, sorry!
My EPC goes out to developers that release games with trophies that make you buy DLC in order to unlock all of them.
cause for someone who does not really spend money on DLC it really makes it difficult on me to obtain all the trophies if I have to purchase DLC in order to unlock them all.
My epic battle cry goes to the halo “milk” propaganda. It seems everytime they show something new about halo, people cry out “MILKING!”… 3 games and 2 spinoffs in over 10 years isnt milking in my book. Maybe those people should educate themselved on franchises such as, but not limited to; Final Fantasy, Zelda, Mario, Metal Gear, Call of Duty, and Star Wars to name a few. Whenever they see any new titles from the franchises listed above its considered an “installment” but when there is a new halo title its considered “milking”. I ask you epicbattleaxe, do you beleive Halo Milked?
My Battlecry goes out to 4RealGaming.com. The site was started just over a year ago as an alternative to competition-based sites that offer nothing but drama and kids selling their own livers to get another win up on the leaderboards. I’m sure you know which I’m talking about.
4RG also has bar-none the greatest community I’ve ever been a part of. We’re all welcoming to anyone looking for fair, friendly competition and some ball-busting forum antics.
My Battle cry goes out to hipfire aiming in first person shooters. Why is it so inaccurate? I mean even when a solider holds a gun at the ready and is not aiming down the sights, he doesn’t pull a scarface and shove the butt in his crotch, it’s right there on his shoulder. 2 games that have gotten this right are Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Killzone 2, I mean at least I can fire off a few bursts if nothing else to give me some time to get to cover, and expect to actually hit something. I can’t stand playing games like MW2 and being essentially nut to butt with an enemy and not being able to hit him until I move the gun from my shoulder to… my shoulder. I mean come on, the gun litterally moves about 6 inches and goes from being a water sprinkler to an actual weapon.
Hey guys, my battle cry this week goes to not just the state of the gaming industry, but the state of gaming journalism.
The last few years have seen a skyrocket in interest about the process of video game design, hence the success of podcasts like Epic Battle Cry and Invisible Walls or programs like Attack of the Show. This also shows how DK made it to the C-list.
Why do you think this is? Is it simply a response to the growth of the industry, or is this because gamers themselves are growing more mature, and are taking a greater interest in the process?
My Battle Cry this week goes out to the guys and gals of Rocksteady. Im very happy and pleased that they got the studio of the year award, and on top of that, they announced part 2 in the BAA now officially franchise.
Though i heard some people say they arent to pleased with the fact it is coming out next year, well first off, in the teaser trailer it isnt stated when the game will come out, only that it does. Secondly, BAA was so freaking awesome, i wouldnt mind that it would come out again. Yes its an analogy to L4D2, but in a way it could make more sense, cause they do not need to rewrite the engine, only tweak the glitches that remained in the first game. Dont ask me why i had a kinda not okay feeling with L4D2 while Batman Arkham Asylum 2 im like YEAH BABY YEAH!!! and once again offcourse as you hear the giggle of the Joker, its Mark Hamill again:D
I can not wait till this game comes out again!!! I played part 1 almost straight on, the story was incredible and i would love to see Gotham and the new area for Arkham interact. GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME!!!!
Great episode as usual guys. A few comments and then my battle cry.
- Good to see TF2 is still getting updates and developer attention 2+ years out, always good to see that in games. I haven’t touched TF2 in a long ass time so maybe I’ll check out what’s going on.
- Dante’s Inferno: I honestly thought you guys were showing footage of God of War 3. Seriously, could these games be any more similar? I said the same thing when I saw the preview of it initially. It’s God of War with a Hell theme instead of ancient Greece. I mean really… the footage you just showed looks like a carbon copy, even the HUD is exactly the same looking, and the mini-QTE’s where it zooms in and slow-mos on the enemy…WTF. Good point about how they should have made it a 360 exclusive. Could have been a good console battle with Dante’s vs GoW.
- Agreed on your points about multiplayer. I still think it’s stupid that every game has to have it by default now. I highly doubt that the mutli in most games give them any sort of competitive edge, since most of the time it’s half assed and no one plays it more than once. The best multiplayer games, and those that have the most longevity are (obviously) those that either focus only on multiplayer, or put a lot of time and resources into it. This, as opposed to just tacking it onto the game at the last minute. How do these developers not get that? Instead of wasting time and money on a half-assed multiplayer that no one gives a crap about, they could reinvest those resources into polishing the single player.
- Celebrity voices in games: if they are being used just for an attention grab, it’s dumb, but if it actually bring quality voice acting to the game then it’s a great addition. If game still has a crappy script though, that’s another problem entirely :p
Seeing some of the actors from BSG in ME2 is cool, definitely a bonus for all the scifi fans.
I do agree on your points about recognizable voices removing the player from immersion in the game.
- Agree with Daniel on RE (being the bearer of its own demise), but I’d still be surprised if Dead Space knocks it off the top of the famous horror game charts.
I still haven’t played the first Dead Space. I really want to but the PC controls are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO crappy (they were an afterthought, if one at all) and I really really cannot play “shooters” with console controls… not sure what to do.
This brings me to my Battle Cry:
It goes out to lazy dirtbag developers who refuse to make proper controls and/or mouse support in the PC versions of their games. These days with the copout being having the Xbox 360 (for Windows) controller as the default control scheme.
Why even bother porting to PC if you are just going to severely piss off every potential buyer in that market?
It just gives people more reason to pirate the game — the mindset being, why should I bother paying full price for this game when I can’t even play it with a mouse and keyboard properly? When in order to (maybe) enjoy it, I have to buy a $40 accessory.
Dead Space as an example is one of the worst I’ve seen in a while, where it doesn’t even let you select your own key binds (outside of letter keys that is). wtf
In this case, it specifically resulted in me not buying the game.
I find this especially insulting when there are developers out there who work hard making games that play well on both consoles AND PC, with excellent controls on both, such as Bethesda (Fallout 3), Infinity Ward, and Valve (L4D, etc).
- That DSiWare game looks fucking hilarious. Probably right about it never showing up stateside though
- All your battlecries this week were about old-skool type games. awesome.
- Member battlecry is great. I get mad about that all the time. I think they did a pretty good job on this with Left 4 Dead, where you have hordes of zombies coming at you but they don’t all look exactly alike.
One of the worst examples from my memory is from Hitman: Blood Money, the Marti Gras level in particular, where you have crowds of people with only like 4 different character models.
Do you believe that the strategy gaming market has failed? the reason i ask this is because the recent amount of games that have the tag line strategy have absolutely little to no strategy. my favorite strategy game of all time has to be Commandos:Behind enemy lines and the original Age of Empires with the Roman expansion. sure the squeals are good but it seems that the level of actually plotting and think has merely been reduced to point that you raise a huge army and attack while you pray all your units are balanced evenly in order to win. No i don’t want an anal game thats hard as shit and i also hate simulator games as well, especially war ones. if i wanted to see what war is like i’d rather join the army than play a real depiction of what war is like.
anyhow i’m not a older gamer thats infatuated with the good old days. I’m only 20 and i can see the decline in that genre and PLEASE to GOD don’t call starcraft strategy when you just try to bum rush each other as fast as possible. its a good game but not a real think tank.
Sweet episode! Love listening to u guys before i go to bed
Ahn… someone probably noticed that aswell, but on the audio-only version, the title is wrong. It’s the one from skirmish 53 (“You will have our Borderlaaaands!!”), but hey, just thought i’d give the heads up.
will post a battlecry as soon as it hits me. Keep rocking!
My Epic Battle Cry goes to the guys over at Activision.
I’m mad at them because video game TV spots are fairly new in my country and Activision takes almost every single space there is. Which leaves no room for other games that need and actually deserve them.
It would make more sence to use just a few of them to announce a group of games of the same genre, like the “Hero” games, and let other companies have a shot in selling their own games.
I have to say I completely agree with Daniel over Brent here for a change. Getting these movie actors to do the voice cast is a lazy and creatively cheap way of marketing a game to the masses. I didn’t play the original mass effect so I don’t know much about the game but I have lost respect for the developers and I’d hate to see the gaming industry go down the same road as the tv and movie industry.
My battle cry goes out to glitches in video games, particularly Modern Warfare 2. It’s an amazing game with a solid multiplayer, but as I’m sure you know, glitches, such as the infinite grenade launcher glitch, the javelin glitch, etc, still found their way into the game and basically render it unplayable. After a long day, I like to unwind with a little MW2, but every time I enter a game, it lags out, due to somebody manipulating the game and ruining it for everybody else. I think that the abuse of glitches like this is the developer’s fault. They knew that millions of people would be playing their game, and yet multiple major, game ruining glitches still found their way in. I don’t know what sort of time constraint they were under, but for a game to have glitches such as these is completely unacceptable. I think Infinity Ward should have taken more time on its game to make sure that it actually worked right, and that major bugs like these didn’t pass through.
omahgahd. Dead space 2… with multiplayer… i… i simply don’t know how to express my excitement here.
Dead sapce has been a long awaited horror game for me. no games have really scared me other than doom 3. like
at all. then i find myself playing dead space as you say, for no more than half hour incriments simply
because of my complete and total fear of the game… I also have a tendency to play at night… with the
lights off… also I have custom pc with lights just perfect to give the room a nice creepy ambience to it,
and sound reactive lights to boot, so whenever something jumps out at me and it goes “DAHN!” my whole
room flashes…. and I sh** my pants…anyway, Dead space is a great game, I haven’t even finished it yet,
it never gets old. cannot wait for the next one, only thing i can think to hope for is more weapons.
also, I think there’s an excellent chance of it overpowering resident evil. this may be kind of a bad
example but when guitar hero first came out, I was one of the only people to know about it. I’d tell people
about it and they’d be like “woah, that sounds awesome, can’t wait to try it!” etc. etc. but the game
never really did truly take off until after the second one. another example being ratchet and clank. It’s
still admitally not an all known game, but it’s a kind of cult classic by this point. but when the original
came out, no one. and I mean, NOBODY, knew about it. now there into their what, like, 9th game? It also
bacame a bit of a crutch for sony when the ps3, well, sucked. in any case, I feel Dead space is going to do
the same thing. It’s going to take off much quicker at the launch of the second game, and I think won’t
completely overpower r.e., simply because of it’s amazingly large fanbase, but will pose an amzing threat
to it to say the least.
anyway my epic battle cry goes to lack of originality in consoles. I mean 360 took the miis from wii, ps3 took motion
control, and the wii is just a bunch of old nintendo sequels that they found new ways to control. I mean while there have
been a lot of new and original ideas coming from each company, they all still have stores where you can buy old
games, and games they made special for it as downloadable content which as a whole feels like an excuse for not being a
pc. honestly, in this day and age i feel like they should be able to come up with 100% new things all of thir own, and if
they did, then gaming itself would flow better. obviously the wii is more for casual gamers, but it shouldn’t be so. it
should be coming out with more shooters and games rated t-m (and to be perfectly honest, not to sound pervy or anything,
the wii seems to have completely and totally overlooked it’s
possibilties for ao games. just sayin’.) that way, each
console would have a good range of games to choose from, but
each would have a unique playing style. I mean actually
unique. anyway, that’s my epic battlecry.
My Epic Battle Cry goes out aimed at DLC. Sometimes the idea is great (e.g. Fallout 3/ GTA4), but when L4D2 comes up with a DLC with new weapons when the game has been out for a week or whatever, it just takes the piss, just like Force Unleashed DLC when the development team got sacked months beforehand. A bunch of developers now have started releasing minimalistic games (cos as far as joe public is concerned, it’s finished :S) before then coming up with stuff that should have come out with the original game being rebranded as ‘Downloadable content’ so they can net themselves an extra 25-50% pure profit. It just isn’t right, release the whole game ffs
I disagree with you. I mean, no, you wouldn’t think 5 games in 10 years would be milking, but somehow they manage to pull it off as such. it’s just something special about the way their doing that i can’t quite describe. maybe it’s the fact that the games should have ended with halo 3. I mean don’t get me wrong, the
rts looked pretty cool, however I haven’t played for more than five minutes so I can’t REALLY judge, but it fealt like it was just a game they threw out there because they knew they could get money for it, since the series was already famous as all hell. and the same goes for odst. i mean they took away your super health and gave you awesome nightvision… that’s it. and reach is coming out, i haven’t heard much about it, but I’m assuming
it’s the same thing. really, I’ve never been a huge fan of halo. it’s just been a lot of advertising, so more people found out about it, so more people bought it, so more people realised other people were already playing it and wanted to play it with all their little friends, and so they started playing it aswell, and then microsoft saw it’s chance to make a bunch more games. and you’re right, those other series have milked the living hell out of themselves, but at this point, really, it’s just expected of them and so we’ve come to accept it. the same will probably won’t happen with halo though, I’m pretty sure microsoft will realise that if they try
anything past reach, they’ll be pushing it too hard and if they try and go any further, they’re just gonna end up turning into another mario series. or they’ll realise that and go ahead with it knowing it’ll only mean more money for themselves. in any case, that’s my answer for you. please reply as suited.
I haven’t finished the podcast yet, but DK is right about the “Spy v Merc” game modes for Chaos Theory. It was also for Double Agent, but the Spy v Merc multiplayer dated even back to Pandora Tomorrow. Fact check.
Hey
My EBC goes out 2 all PC gamers.I was just watching trailers from Darksiders and it lookes fre@king awsome,they were talking about new experience in games and this and that BuT,
Hmm new experience,i can get where they are going with this,but why not do it for PC aswell.Im not a PS3 or XBOX hater,i just wanna see this kind of games on PC,like dante’s inferno and god of war.I know they are exclusive but im just sad i cant play these games.
Ow ye and for those who are gonna say than buy a console,fuck that i luv my pc all my money goes 2wards it so im gonna stop bitching now.
Pe@ce
My Battle Cry this week goes out to Spike and Geoff Keighly
I have no fucking clue why he leaked footage very few hours before the VGA’s (Seriously, was that necessary?). I mean if a Game Developer pays for getting his trailers up on the VGA’s he can exspect that they (MTV/Spike) will not fucking leak anything. But guess what, here comes Geoff Keighly with his HD Camera along and leaks these games. Its kinda like pissing somebody in his face and getting paid for it.
But lets not forget the actual VGA’s. What the FUCK were these morons from Jersey Shore doing on Stage? They dont had anything to do with Videogames. And thats something were MTV failed misserably.. this is a show about videogames. Asides from E3 this is the only time in the year when Video Games actually have a chance to show up in Spot Light. This show belongs to everyone who is involved in creating games you know the game designer, the programmers, the art designers… basically anyone who is resposible for what the VIDEO GAME Awards are all about. Instead MTV just throws a bunch of celebs in who dont know a shit about video games. I know that Mike Tyson and Tony Hawk both have a background in gaming as playable charakters, but to me they were always part of the marketing for these games (Oh this game has Tony Hawk in it? Must Buy!)
My Battlecry goes out to Gamestar and PC Guru, two gaming magazines from Hungary. While all I hear from newssites that magazines get cancelled, it is good to see the that some of these magazines can keep up with the online press. Well how do they keep the fanbase that they have, and make more, you ask?
Well first of, with every issue you get a full pc game. And not crappy ones either: Sam & Max Season 1, Gears of War, Gothic 1-2-3, and this month freaking MASS EFFECT(!)
Also there are other stuff that makes buying these magazines worthwhile. While they make a live online tv show every week, most of the content comes from the disk you get with the mag.It also helps that the mags are not very formal, but littered with jokes, anekdotes, and this makes them very personal, and a fun read. Also the community is very tight and friendly with event such as Camp Gamestar which is pretty much a weeklong party, games, and sunshine at Lake Balaton.
So thanks for keeping the Gaming Magazine alive, and keep up the good work!
By Epic Battle Cry goes to all game developers that are actually so focused on trying to reach the largest audience as possible… they just screw up all our games by trying to make them more accessible by adding crappy features like Auto-Aim (all games), 3rd Person Cover (R6V2)System, Lunging Strikes (Halo + MW2), Killstreaks (MW2), Noob Perks such as Stopping Power, Pain Killer, etc.. (MW2), etc.
Hey! A controller isn’t a mouse + keyboard: it’s a damn! game controller that is fun to use because it is a game controller. By adding auto-aim, it takes out the challenge and reward of aiming. Gamers aren’t supposed to take a game and master it instantly, because that’s the main fun factor of a video game; mastering the controls and the gameplays. A real casual player will not even notice auto-aim and a player that ask a game developer to add auto-aim is just a player with a large EGO.
The lunging strikes doesn’t make any sense and with lag issues, it makes the game even more ridiculous, because the players have no time to react to an eventual melee attack, so there is no anticipation. That sort of thing makes MW2 even more absurd, because that game also offer Perks that exploit that situation. Do you really find it fun to see an opponent performing an auto-kill at 5 meters away by vanishing from your screen and killing you instantly? WTF is wrong with you guys?
Mario Bros and Tetris were fun because these games are what they are. It would make no sense to make jumping or block placement easier. It would screw up the game like most of the game developers are doing right now to all our multiplayer games.
I want “normal games” back! To make games easier doesn’t make them better.
Great podcast.
I enjoyed the discussion on ME2.
It’s going to become more popular having these stars voice acting in games, because these big “houses” have more money to splash around. It’s not optimal, but it is pretty much inevitable.
Thanks for the show!
I think saying it would be another Mario series isnt the best way to support your opinion. Mario series has been great ALWAYS. Although every year there are crappy spinoffs, the big Mario titles have never let anyone down and they have always been successfull in everyway, especially Galaxy.
Another hole in your opinion is saying that 5 games in 10 (3 and 2 spinoffs) wouldnt be concidered milking but halo managed to pull it of…. How? Simply because Microsoft choses to capitalize on it? All the franchises i mentioned in my original comment have been overtly capitalized by their producers. What microsoft has done with halo has little to no difference to what they have done.
If you are not a Halo fan, do not complain about it being too similar to the past installments. We dont complain about mario or zelda being to similar to the last installments. Halo Reach shouldnt actually change that dramatically because the only people who want it to get completely reimagined are the people who dont like it in the first place.
I became a fan of Halo since Combat Evolved for the exact same reason that DK explained the “halo phenominon” on a past BattleCry. There was something about the feel and the gravity of the vehicles and the scale. There was nothing like it on consoles and it was the only FPS worth playing other than Perfect Dark and Goldeneye. I, for one, like what they have been doing If i want a different experience, ill play other FPS games (which i do). Halo is not Overrated since the core fans have always appreciate it and continue to appreciate it, Its understandable if others do not appreciate it, its no big deal.
I love Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Call of Duty, Street Fighter, Final Fantasy, Splinter Cell and other games that have had a ton of installments and i dont concider them being milked. By the time Halo reached 4 titles, Call of Duty has already reached 6 and they will have 7 by next year, thats a franchise that also changes verry little except for the timeline. Even God of War has 4 titles under its belt and its a fairly new franchise.
This was interesting. Though I disagreed about voice actors in gaming… that’s like saying that watching an actor on screen is all you see and not the character they portray. When you play a game, it’s the character that’s portrayed and fleshed out, not whoever voices it.
As for Dante’s Inferno, I was a little bummed about the PS3 getting the Divine Edition. Until I found out that 360 owners will be getting the Death Edition. So, that’s fine and I’m looking forward to it, as Visceral make great games.
I totally see Dead Space replacing Resident Evil as the premiere Horror title. That game’s use of story, action, horror and not to mention, sound… were second-to-none. It made Resident Evil 5 look like a couple taking a picnic on a beach.
Keep up the game journalism, guys. Whether I agree or disagree, it’s always great to hear your thoughts on EBC!
Ok so you are saying that, although 3 main titles and 2 spinoffs in 10 years generally wouldnt have been concidered Milking, Halo manages to pull it off. How exactly does that workout? It sounds like you are saying that halo is exclussive in the fact that it managed to milk while doing something that isnt concidered milking when its done by another franchise.
Another hole in your opinion is that you are insinuating that halo doesnt change much. Does Mario or Zelda change much? Does Call of Duty Change much other than the timeline? Has God of War changed much. Fans want to play the games and franchises they fell in love with. I’ve been a fan of Halo since Combat Evolved for the reasons that DK talked about in a past BattleCry podcast. The feel of it was different and the gravity of the controls and vehicles were different then anything before it. Before halo there were NO good FPS games on consoles except for Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. So i, for one, do not want it to change dramatically because if i wanted a different experience i will play other FPS games (which i do).
Halo becoming another Mario is not a bad thing at all. Although Mario has countless mediocre to bad spinoffs, the main titles have never disappointed and have always delivered in every way especially the last installment(Galaxy).
You say you have never been a huge halo fan yet you say that they shouldve stopped with Halo 3…. but then what about the people who are Halo fans? You think they should stop making this game just because People, who dont like it in the first place, think its overrated and milked, even though the hardcore halo fans will not get what they want? Thats like saying mario shouldve ended with 64, or zelda shouldve ended with Ocarina of Time when you “never been a huge fan” of those franchises.
EpicBattleCry always says that Gaming should be about what the gamers want. If halo fans want more halo, let them have more halo. If anti-halo gamers dont want more halo, why dont they just go about their day?
My point is, whenever they release a new Mario Galaxy trailer or when they announced a new Zelda in the works, or a new Final Fantasy trailer or a Call of Duty trailer. People dont post “MILKING!” so why should they do it for halo? My theory is that they are self rightious and they think by crying “MILKING” they feel like they are being rebelious and uprizing against Microsoft,Bungie, and Halo capitalism. Simply because they cannot (pay attention to this part)… Simply CANNOT APPRECIATE THE FRANCHISE. It is that simple. But thats ok because not everybody likes everything… There are so many Hypocrites who call halo milking even though it releases a new installment every 2-3 years, those same people will cheer for a new starwars game, a new Call of Duty, and a new Final Fantasy.
My Epic Battle Cry goes out to a game called Dungeon Fighter Online. It is a free mmorpg with an old arcade style beat em up for game play (like golden axe and final fight) from Nexon (please don’t hold that against the game). It allows you to chose from five unique character classes: priest, gunner, slayer, fighter, and mage. When your character reach level twenty they have four different subclass to chose from. This game has stuck out to me because you can play into in 10 to 15 minutes and actually feel like you have accomplished something. The only issue with the game is that there is zero free character creation. So finding your character in town is like playing an intense game of where’s waldo. Besides that it is a really fun game that I think yall should check out.
My Battlecry goes out to the M rated downloadable demos. I work in media retail, (not Gamestop), and I am all for parental control in gaming. I believe that it’s up to parents and merchants to help keep M rated games away from children and in the hands of adult gamers such as myself. Yet, M rated demos, with all the adult content in tact, are fully accessible to everyone. Anyone can download a demo of RE5 and blow off some noggins, or play a demo of Dante’s Inferno and see some chick’s bare chesticles. It’s as if the game companies are telling the people that they may be too young to play the full version, yet part of the game is ok. I understand that the consoles have parental control access, but how many parents really know that, or even understand how to set it. I rely on demos to make educated purchases since money is usually so tight in this tough economy, so I’m all for free demo downloads. I’m just worried that with the easy accessibility of the Mature game demos with full adult content might end up hurting the gaming community in the long run.
My Battle Cry goes out to the Silicon Knights and Crystal Dynamics. What happened to the Legacy of Kain series? It was a great game! It had a great story, great graphics for the time and other than some minor combat problems, was a solid game that was left hanging after five games. The Blood Omen saga was weak but the Soul Reaver saga was really good. Any chance thats coming back?
WHAT’S UP! MY GUMMY-BEARS OF LOGARITHMIC PAIN! MY EM-EN-EMS OF GALVANIC DESTRUCTION! HOW ART THOU?!
My Battle Cry of the week goes out to the brave Soldiers out in the fields. Praise them and their courageous souls for leaping into the heat of battle, testing weapons beyond a sane man’s most stoned nightmares. And above all, dying for the greater good.
Yes, the greater good.
my battle cry goes out to all the gamers in India. we may be a niche but we are passionate about gaming. i am a gamer and enjoy my ps3 but sometimes i have to wait for weeks to get my hands on new titles. we also dont have PSN in India so its sad not to be able to download all the cool stuff. but thankfully we can still play games online which is pretty cool. i also wish gaming becomes as big here as it is in the US, UK, AUS, Japan, etc.
One thing that bugs (no pun intended) me alot, is that although the progress of consoles has reached a generation where every console is built with online features available from day one, we still have games that are seldomly patched or in the worst case never patched. I’m talking about both Fallout 3 (PS3 version) and Borderlands. Eventhough Bordelands has been out for more than 2 months there are still some great flaws in the game causing crashes, loss of skillpoints, mic problems etc. In the previous generation if you bought a broken game it was deemed broken for all eternity, this is not the fact for this generation, yet some of the greatest succeses and hyped titles are not fixed. Off course ther are exceptions like when IW had patched MW2 three or four times within days of release and Uncharted 2 has gotten several patches and tweaks during the months following the release.
Why is it that there are still developers who don’t give a shit about their customers? If you buy another product you can get your money back if it is defect but there is no way to get al your money back on a broken game unless there are actual physical damages on the game that were there from the start.
The gaming industry needs alot of growing up to do and the developers need to start caring about their customers more.
[...] the last thing you want is for the game itself to yank you from your suspension of disbelief. Enter EpicBattleCry, Skirmish 56. There was a question posed on this week’s EpicBattleCry that brought to light an interesting [...]
my battlecry goes out to the spike vga`s crew, cast and planners.
OMG i felt right out dissgraced as a gamer who have played all of these tiltles they where honoring that night.
the first thing the cast, maybe the wors cast ever to be at a video game awards.
seriously i thought that after modern warfare 2s realese numbers we could acept the gaming industry for what it is, and for what it are not.
it seemed like they tried to pull off an oscar award show but i have to ask why in the “#%!%&¤ (/¤¤ did they invite jersys shore.
and get them to show their &#%/(# chest out.
can i ask what that has to do with the ”biggest night in gaming”.
and i think we should all give a real aplause for the lame ass script writers, it felt like watching some pre match wrestling interviews.
the only thing good about this award show was the previews but they where only glimths of game related goodness before Mike tyson foregetting his lines up on stage.
forgive my bad english: shaid11
My Epic Battle Cry goes out to voice acting in, well, any medium, but games in particular. Games can have the best writers, designers and producers in the world backing them, and this will certainly give you an engaging gameplay experience, but to truly create something that grips the player and stays with them, you need good voice-actors. One of my favourite examples of this is The Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver II with Michael Bell and Simon Templeman in the two lead roles, but a more recent, and perhaps better example are the Hellbook developer diaries for Darksiders. If you simply read the text that’s being narrated, I dare say it would sound fairly trite and overblown; the wording is overly bombastic and the names are, well, not all that cool (Chaos Eater, seriously?). But do as the designers did, and give it to an experienced and talented voice actor (Mark Hamill in this case) and it becomes solid gold. I think developers in general (and Capcom in particular) should look to these diaries as examples of what they should be doing: getting competent voice-actors to play their characters, because few things ruin an otherwise excellent gaming experience more thoroughly than having a main character you can’t bear listening to (I’m looking at you, Altair and Dante).
Keep it up, you Cavorting Crusaders of Cathartic Clashing.
My epic battle cry goes out to that weird, pleasant feeling when you discover an old ass game, that you never played before. I recently discovered that Stubbs The Zombie…etc was not a Xbox exclusive and i managed to buy it. Playing it right now and loving it, and this just proved to me that these “next-gen games”(not all of them) are missing something very important that games like Stubbs have. (i am not gonna say what, cuz it’s gay).Now it’s all about marketing the sh*t outta people, and you can tell when game is fun because the developers wanted to sell a fun game, or it’s fun they wanted to make a fun game.
Hey guys,
I’ve been dying to have this question come to light in the public eye so PLEASE let it be your next Epic Battle Cry…was that a haiku or something?…
ANYWAY, I used to be a huge Halo fan, but the way MS and Bungie run their DLC and other content like ODST over the years has absolutely alienated me as a fan.
Any game I’ve played online including GRAW, RS: Vegas, COD4, Gears of War 1 and 2 has always given you the option that if you don’t want to buy a map pack you simply can’t play those maps. However, Halo 2 and 3 have always made it that if you don’t have the newest map pack when it releases they lock you out of a good amount of the playlists. Last time I logged on, I was locked out of more than half including the standard team deathmatch…what game doesn’t allow everyone to play TDM?
Since these map packs only provide you with new maps, how is MS and Bungie allowed to lock you out of content like playlists that are on your Halo 3 disc, which you already purchased and were able to play at the day 1 release? Essentially they’re forcing you to repurchase old content to get you to buy the new stuff. Much like how they tacked 2-year-old Halo 3 MP onto the ODST disc that most fans already own to turn a $20 to $30 purchase into a $60 sale.
These methods of business have discouraged me from purchasing Halo: Reach. What do you think?? PLEASE CONSIDER THIS for your EBC!!!
My epic battle cry goes out to the digital comic for the PSP
In a year of bad decision of marketing and development for the PSP, it’s good to see some brilliant concepts slipping through the cracks. The controls are very simple to use with an easy access menu to compliment it. Comics are reasonably priced from $0.00 to $1.99, which is below their paper counterpart and the small file size does allow for a few dozens of comics to be stored on a PSP at one time. The only problem is the selection due to it’s small size but the catalog does contain a good amount of reads such as Iron Man, Spider Man and my new favorite read, Dynamo 5. Congrats to sony for making a good app to the PSP.
Dante’s Inferno Divine Edition-I am very surprised that the first thing many of you failed to think of about why this version is only for the PS3: BluRay capacity. If they did it for 360, it would probably need at least one more regular DVD and add $10 or more to retail price.
probably…?
My EBC goes out to the developers out there who are actually willing to try something new and different, like new gameplay mechanics, new IPs, new ways to play the games etc. I think the industry as a whole should reward those developers more. Just look at the VGAs, there were four 2s nominated for the game of the year award, and no Daniel, Im not talking about a gay orgy
Take Mirrors Edge for example. Very interesting gameplay, but a lot of video game critics just bashed it for not being perfect. They tried something new, they should be rewarded even if its just decent! Props to those kind of developers!
My battle cry goes out to Rockstar San Diego. GTA is a great franchise but these guys are capable of doing so much more as well and Read Dead Redemption looks to be a step in the right direction, something different using something similar. What I mean by that is, they are creating an entirely new universe in a really different time, using the engine they created for GTA4 which was an amazing engine. I can’t wait to see what they do with it.
what do you think of the rumor that Sony may soon start charging for PSN…is it fair to do so with people you bougth ps3 for its free psn?what do you think?
what do you think of the rumor that Sony may soon start charging for PSN…is it fair to do so with people you bougth ps3 for its free psn?what do you think???