Repel their cavalry and advance, its time for another Skirmish of EpicBattleCry! In this week’s episode we relish the news that Gearbox Software will be completing Duke Nukem Forever, place our bets on the Call of Duty: Black Ops wager matches, ponder the possibilities of Dead Space 2 and Batman: Arkham City getting multiplayer, open a savings account to but a 3D television and Killzone 3 next February, and run down the deals from Microsoft’s Fall Game Feast.
First up in the main course this week, we discuss the recently announced $10 per year price increase for Xbox Live and whether this is a necessary bump or just taking advantage of gamers ahead of the fall gaming onslaught. Next up, with the recent introduction of a new iPod Touch, price drops across the Nintendo DS line, and the announcement of a God of War: Ghost of Sparta PSP bundle, we talk Handheld gaming. Are casual games all that portable platforms are good for?
The Battle Cry of the Week goes to Epic Games’ Epic Citadel demo for iOS, Retro City Rampage, and Mafia II
If you’ve got a comment on the show, sound off below, if you’ve got a Battle Cry you want to share, click here and sound off on the latest topic-started post! Stay sharp.
Fuck yeah new podcast and as always its epic great show guys
Mondays Are BACK!!!
CHEA!
My only concern with the whole in-game currency progression and wager system in COD – Black Ops is that Activision will monetize it (ie. $5000 in-game dollars for 500 Microsoft points or what have you). Besides that looks good.
Sony are opposed to a right hand side analog period.
The PSP has been needing one for ages and the Sony Wand (of Move) is missing one as well forcing the user to mouse to the screen edges to turn instead of just having a RHS analog stick that moved the perspective camera.
I’m with you Lorin. People have gone into Mafia II expecting a whole different kind of game. Mafia has always been about a strong narrative in a living breathing world full of atmosphere.
I personally replayed Mafia just before playing Mafia II and yes, the stories are similar (but it’s the “standard” rags to riches story no different from Scarface). The game is a clear improvement over the original despite being in the same vain.
Additionally unlike Mafia, his motivations for entering the family is under different circumstances and the story is not a 1:1 copy of its predecessor.
<3<3
Awesome as always!
I miss DK…sorry but it is true. He is a passionate dood and I like his puns!
Microsoft is LAME ASS GREEDY… No but, WHAT SO EVER. No mater what the extra stuff is, in the service.
And it is really stupid, that you CAN*T say no to that stuff.
- – - -
Duke Nukem Forever is coming… I can’t be more happy
Let us hope the 13 years wating time… Is worth it
handheld? casual? hello Pokemon? Niggas go hard in pokemon.
Pokemon not graphic? Pokemon promotes cock-fighting Micheal Vick would love playing pokemon
The psp would be perfect if it was the size of the psp go, with the same slide up screen, yet had a 2nd analog stick and still played umds . The Go didn’t sell well because it’s download only, and people still like to have a physical product or buy used games. So a psp go with a 2nd analog stick and plays umds….. nuff said!
for the psp2…..put some hardware and an lcd screen mounted on a dualshock3 controller and im sold =]
HAHA “He paid me a hundred bucks *****es!”
That made me laugh.
Good job once again guys. That whole week without EBC sucked, but it’s good you guys are back. Now it’s time for me to get back to the stellar Metroid: Other M (a game which I feel isn’t getting enough credit as well, the controls are not that, the combat, story, visuals and bosses absolutely own too!)
What up doe thats how we say hello in Detroit
If you talk about shovel ware in the gaming industry you can look no farther than the hand held market.You can easily go to sears and go to the 15 dollars and under bin and it will be mostly hand held games. Its easier to develop for the systems,also moms are picking up the games for their kids and just they just grab any thing. Metroid is probably the only thing close to a good first person shooter on the DS. No body else has made a decent fps. About nine out of ten games that is ported to every console the portable one is the worst one. X-MEN origins: Wolverine, modern war fare and whole bunch of other crap. This is probably because games that are ported to every console are movie tie ins. People complain about how many crappy games come out on the wii but with the wii the graphics are better or the screen is bigger than any hand held and you can see what the hell your looking at. With the 3ds, psp 2 and better iphone games will see if it gets better.
Sidenote: no one has mentioned that on the 3DS might able to use the stylus just like a mouse with would be better than a second analog nub
@ Tony – Monster Hunter actually started on PS2. Mostly credited to the fact that Capcom did not even attempt to advertised it, The first Monster Hunter game sold Horrible in America. Monster Hunter 2 never even came stateside as a result of the first games poor sales.
Its too sad that Monster hunter 3 is still selling a bit poorly here though, but I guess thats what happens when your on your third console game and no one has heard of your first two games and the only fanbase you have is the PSP market.
Im actually glad you mentioned it though, because it gave me a perfect idea for what to mention in my battle cry.
Great show as always
I thought you guys might miss Daniel’s dynamic edge that he brings to the show, but Lorin does such a good job and the topics were so good that it wasn’t that noticeable.
Lorin is so right with mafia 2. So…so..soooooo many games still really on repetitive action, where you are a rock against a near endless tide of ‘bad guys’ because there isn’t enough depth in the game without the hordes. Don’t get me wrong, hordes of faceless baddies are cool sometimes but so often games are not going for zombie apocalypse angle, and yet theres still… well a billion dudes to kill/shoot/chop or destroy. not only does it get tedious an repetitive but more importantly it takes you out of the games immersion. same thing applies for enemies who take forever to kill when we all know they shouldn’t.
Whats up my punisher’s of puns! my sultans of sin.
GREAT EPISODE!!!!! although I must say I like when DK annoys the crap out of TG and Brent, thanks for bringing the goods Lorin
Hey! anyone who plays online games and hack suck a battle axe. :0
Dead space multi player… holy shit I just got excited for that!
And I’m with Tony I got hard at the new pinball game. MAN!
Also PSN is FREE vs 360=50$………….Dont pay for HD Tv and movies, you know? Fuck hulu plus.
The cat is out so the mice will play! Pun-o-rama.
I never thought I’d say this but please DK don’t ever leave again. There’s something to say about quality of puns. And ofcourse it’s easier to HATE just one guy for doing them.
And don’t play with your food, jeez.
sick my nick name is meatball
Gawd I love EBC
Regarding the handheld debate, I do firmly believe there is a good chance that the amount of hardcore games on handhelds will increase in the coming years.
Regarding the “BioWare’s coming to an end” and “Mass Effect 2 was dumbed down” comments from these past two episodes, I would just like to point out what RPG stands for: Role Playing Game. Not “Complex Inventory and Looting Game”, not “Turn-Based Combat Game”, but Role Playing Game. In Mass Effect 2 the player does just as much, if not more, actual role-playing than in the original Mass Effect and while the story of ME2 wasn’t as good as the original’s (which I attribute to middle-of-the-trilogy syndrome), the story was still great and the characters were far more interesting in ME2 than in the original. Now onto BioWare; I think they are going mainstream in the sense that their games are more action-oriented now, but it is their job to make great games, not make games that fit into rigid, outdated genre conventions. Mass Effect 2 is a masterpiece that is overall superior to the original. While I would like to see Mass Effect 3 strike a middle-ground between ME and ME2, even if the shooter/RPG ratio is like ME2′s in ME3, as long as the story delivers I’m good.
Handheld hardcore:
Sony aren’t the ones dropping the ball, the consumers are.
MGS Peace Walker has gameplay deeper than MGS4 (which is one of my favorite games of all time, BTW), and a story that actually makes sense and is interesting. In my opinion it stands as easily one of the best games this year, to me so far only rivaled by Mass Effect 2.
Valkyria Chronicles 2 was just released, being better than the first title, a PS3 exclusive often quoted as one of the most overlooked games of recent years. Does any part of VC2 need a second analog stick? Nope. Will that stop people from whining about it? Nope. Will anyone actually buy VC2? Nope, it’ll be completely overlooked, and then people will whine about how there are no hardcore games on the PSP.
Seriously, this “there are no games” was already overplayed years ago. Final Fantasy Crisis Core, God of War, Persona Portable titles, Dissidia, GTA Stories series, Ratchet & Clank … the list just goes on and on. There are plenty of great titles for the PSP, but when it becomes time to show the money, consumers look away.
When Kojima releases Peace Walker and other developers can tell that this is a AAA grade Kojima title, what do you think that tells them when consumers still look away?
Once God of War Ghost of Sparta fails (which it will) I wouldn’t expect many other top hardcore games to be announced for handhelds for quite some time. Death of handheld hardcore: Consumers claim to be interested, but they aren’t, not really.
Ah yeah here we goooooooo! EBC KAPOW! Nothing is gonna stop us!!!
And yes… a 100 bucks isnt enough to stop the punnery
My comrades of carnage, my brothers of brutality and my sisters of savagery how art thou!
The portal-able gaming market can be as hardcore as any game on any system too date. Why do I say this, is because long ago there was a time where games only had 16 bit music and were completely drop in and drop out. There were no real in depth story and you could argue with most “real games” that there still isn’t much of one in most “hardcore” games (call of duty being an example or any of the many shooters out there).
Just because a system that is relatively new with it’s ui is different to what we the gamers are use to does not make it any less in its potential to tell a great story, with outstanding eye candy and great gameplay. It just means people have to use their brains and think for a while to make sure they can get the best out of an already great piece of hardware.
So, don’t be so quick to slap it down on the handle devices just because you can’t see how it could work. Otherwise you run the risk of sounding like a snob.
Great show as always! Loved Lorin’s battle cry since this is 100% what I’ve been telling everyone about Mafia II.
Keep rocking guys!
Hail to the King, and to his return! And of course I mean EBC!
My problem is that we here in The Netherlands, pay for all services we don’t have!
We don’t got netflix, or hulu etc. But we pay the full price for it.
PSP2 specs in a nutshell: OLED screen, flash based game media
(for god sake sony UMD’s use more batteries and made more load times what were you thinking!) second nub(duh)
getter graphics (basically a handheld PS3,seeing as the first one was basically a PS2) and since the the shock prone
UMD is gone rumble support would be icing on the cake.
but as tony said ya most likly won’t ever happen.
PROBLEM:
PSP getting killed in the Hand held market by Apple and Nintendo.
RESAON:
Apple have millions of ready units for gaming. People carry Apple iPhones/Pods/Pads every day, every where. Even if they do not want to game! So if a game arrives that is good, they wont hesitate to buy it.
Nintendo have the casual market locked up. the advertising appeals to everyone. Even the people who will buy it and leave the DSi in a draw and only use on a quite Sunday afternoon. Casual games only, and they will sell!
Sony have a hand held console. console, as in, they want the same experience from a home console, in your hand. Problem with this is, people have to take an extra device out and about along with the phone/laptop ect. So most just leave it in a box at home until they have a train,plane or long coach journey. this means that less people are willing to buy the device and the software, as they don’t get a healthy usage for their cash. It also alienates the casual market as the games are not directed at them. so lose lose.
SOULTION:
Build a device that can game and be used as other devices. One unit that can play games in HD, record video, play music, take pictures, surf the web, receive emails, make phone calls and look slick enough to hold in plain view and not look odd…oooh, wait, that sounds familiar to a device we have now that is ruling this hand held market?!?!
Sony, just make and PSPhone and be done with it. Two sticks, nice buttons and HD screen, all styled in a slick shell. Until then, the PSP will just be that product that is to much hassle to carry around with you day to day, and not casual enough to just sit in the box and turn on during the half time breaks during the football season.
Thats my cry! Keep it up EBA!
PSp,Wii, and what ever is out there.. “iphone” is for casual gaming only.. it will and i repeat never be for hardcore gamers.Fact 1 can you sit and play your game with DD 5.1 or above?? no!!… Fact 2. does any off em have killer grafic´s game with uber awsome controls?? NO!! … can you put a 30 Gb game on any of the handhelds??.. Ohh let me see,im thinking.. no!!.. this is why i never really played with my psp.. it was fun the first month or 2,but then it got old… really fast.
Btw.. i guess i have to write this,cause i whont get noticed if i dont
Nice show as allways
Where is Monkey Dany???
Brutally epic as always gents!
BC:
I too am flabbergasted at the $10 price increase for Live. As a long time PC Gamer it always hurt having to pay for the service, but since many of my mates can’t afford a decent PC I did it just for the online play in Battlefield, Gears, Borderlands etc…
…but as time went on I fully expected the price to go DOWN, not up!?
I think it’s a great service in general, and I’m happy to pay something – as you can really see the difference the investment makes in the infrastructure when compared to PSN.
With more gamers than ever before using the service I just don’t understand the logic of the price hike, and I will be considering seriously NOT renewing in 6 months time.
$10 may not seem like much, but I already feel MS are taking the piss a bit with the recent price increase for arcade titles, and now with this increase it’s full on bend over time…
Good show again, very nicely put in that pun Lorin. A pun once in a while keeps the doctor away. Or something like that.
Multiplayer in Batman Arkham City, is personally not something I would have expected. But now to think of it, Splinter Cell also managed to do a multiplayer in a stealth game. Two operatives (read Bats and Cats, yeah that sounded bad) against a group of mercs(read: henchmen). They managed to do it before so why isnt it possible in the Batman universe. Im not quiet sure if im suppose to sput in my MBC here, or that a different starterpoint will be made.
The precedent was set by Bad Company 2, in that you can buy the weapon unlocks for real money. Activision will most certainly do this, even if Treyarch doesn’t agree.
I know what DK has been doing, he made a youtube-video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq64B99QKSY
You must admit they look a bit alike…
That’s f***ing AWESOME!!!
Just a note on the XBL price increase. As far a scaling goes it definitely does not scale 1:1. The more users the cheaper it gets to maintain each user. Larger more powerful equipment, bigger internet connections and so on are able to handle more users per dollar. Combine this with the fact XBL servers might only need to handle a quarter of subscribers at any one point in time, and as more users subscribe that percentage drops. In theory the more users the higher the margin.
I MISS DK $ SHIZZLE SO MUCH, u guys where ok without him but he is 50 percent of the reason i watch his show on a weekly basis. i mean loren brought the goods but i still love DK so much and his sense fo humer
i love what the sigh said in he beginning THIS LEADS ME 2 BELIVE THE STIG IS ACTUALLY DK MONEY SHIZZLE
Epic as always guys, you guys are the reason i look forward too mondays
what’s up, my pedestrians of plastering, my cyclers of clobbering, how art thou?
my battle cry goes out to the iphone 4 and its HOLY FRICKIN GRAPHICS !
I just bought a new gaming laptop of 1249 euros, about 1400 dollars i think, and it doesn’t run as smoothly as that iphone did with those graphics.
my mind is on the verge of exploding, thinking about how they put that much horsepower in somthing that fits in your pocket.
by the way, i think portable gaming should stay the way it is, mostly casual with some good hardcore, cause afterall, portable gaming is mostly about on the fly fun.
good episode as usual guys. just a few comments:
- First off, I hope you realize that these “new” gameplay features you were touting in COD Black Ops are not actually new. Treyarch pretty much ripped them off of Counter Strike mods that have been around for years now. That said, CS and COD are different games, the ability to play these game types on a stored profile that you level up is somewhat different.
- I hope you are not misplacing your optimism with the multiplayer aspects of Dead Space and Batman AC. Both games were STELLAR single player experiences, the likes of which are becoming increasingly rare these days due to focus on story-less multiplayer and co-op. Even though the teams behind the games have been solid thus far, too much attention to or lackluster implementation of a multiplayer in either of them could easily gimp the SP experience. Frankly I’m surprised that games are still jumping on the MP bandwagon. I thought that was starting to die off.
- Tony, how dare you defend MS. How DARE you! :p
- Handheld consoles and casual games go hand in hand (oh god, I’m sorry). As Tony mentioned, the nature of the handheld is that you are going to have it to play games on the fly, not so much as ones you want to sit down and really engross yourself with (which is what you’d have a PC or TV-based console for). I think this would not apply to people who solely have a handheld, but to those who have both, their handheld will be for more casual titles for obvious reasons. You carry them around with you, to play on the bus, while waiting for things, on the metro, maybe in bed before nodding off — all instances when you don’t have a lot of solid, uninterrupted play time. I don’t think the publishers necessarily cater to casual markets for any other reason than the console type demands more simplistic games. Generally speaking, if I want to sit down for several hours and get completely lost in a game, I’m going to do it on something with a bigger screen and more robust features, in a place where there aren’t interruptions, and I can relax and block everything out. It’s kind of difficult to accomplish that on a handheld.
- My issues with touch-screen controls is not so much the tactility (although that is certainly an issue), it is the screen real estate they take up. Touch screen controls by nature have to be on the screen, which takes up a significant portion of what you see. On top of that your fingers/thumbs are using them, which blocks out even more of the screen, and for me, breaks immersion with what you are seeing. I’m pretty shocked none of you have brought this up before. It would be like playing a game on your PS3 whilst standing directly next to the TV with your hands and arms covering 1/4 of it.
It is very hard to make this show bad even if you take out crew members,but I still miss DK !!!!!!!!
Finally, someone said it. All these new features are actually quite old. Not only is there a money system, with an actual use in CS, but there is a crap load of CS servers where you can place wagers and have accounts, which you can use to deposit and withdraw money for each round and more.
Why is everyone saying Treyarch is innovating and thinking outside the box when they are just adopting a system that was there ages ago? It happens all the time, actually. Another example of that would be car damage. Need for Speed High Stakes had car damage that actually affected car performance. There was an ingame economy based around that and it was possible to lose a race by totalling your car. Nowadays, car damage is suddenly something new.
It kinda sucks because you take recognition away from the actual innovators and give it to someone who doesn’t deserve it as much.
Great show like usual, look forward to this every week.
I myself play a lot of portable games. I have a DS, a PSP, and an Ipod. The one I use the most is usually the DS. Reason being, I find the games on there more enjoyable. There are tons of harcore games in the portable market, just they are usually overlooked because they are in a sea of casual, and shovelware titles. The PSP has MGS Peacewalker, Valkyrie Chronicles 2, the God of War games, Final Fantasy Crisis Core, and there are many others. Just as you said, the PSP never really took off in the west so these games were usually overlooked, and therefore suffered.
Even take a look at the DS. Pokemon, Dragon Quest 9, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days, and others. These might not always seem like hardcore games, but when you dive into them, there are many things to them. In pokemon, if you just look past the grind, and battles, there is much more. A deep system for creating the best team using IVs (Individual Values), EVs (Effort Values), natures, movepools, and so much more. Then you have to deal with how you use your team. Dragon Quest 9, the massive loot system, the amount of side quests, the 40+ hour game experience just with the story, and the story itself is a good one to. Then Kingdom Hearts. The multiplayer aspect, all of the missions, the different characters you can use, the exploration throughout the levels, and the story also.
Now with the Ipod, I have not found to many games that I feel like spending my money on. The only one I’ve ever actually bought has been Dark Void Zero. But thats not what I got the Ipod for, I got it to listen to music, and there are small games on the side to play when I get really bored.
So with portable gaming you have to look for the hardcore games admist all of the shovelware ones.
As far as the PSP goes it just has to do with Sony not making a substantial upgrade to it in the years it’s been around. The iPhone (and iPod Touch) works because it’s a great multimedia device in most aspects. The PSP, through bad firmware and hardware updates, has failed to evolve in to a better device. Adding a 2nd analog stick and better graphics isn’t going solve the handheld’s problem. Something like killing UMD and adding a phone or a 3G network won’t do (since they’d lose to Apple if they tried).
It doesn’t have to be a PSP2 or a yearly upgrade like Apple does, but something in-between. Keep UMD in the next model, add some flash memory (2 to 4gigs) w/ MS duo slot, put in a better processor and more memory for new model-exclusive game features ( the no-brainer pause and resume play feature like the PSPgo for starters), and more music and video formats.
And most of all, a better fucking battery life out of the box. Seriously, every model since the PSP-1000 has lost battery life, Sony say they improved battery life but puts in a smaller battery pack with less juice in it. Sony should look at the subtle but obvious things that could make the PSP better, like not being able to use your music while playing any/all of the system’s games for example.
Regarding the handheld debate, I think there is still a strong market for “hardcore” games even on the Iphone/ipod.
With games like Dissidia Final Fantasy, The God of wear games, The New Kingdom hearts games,Valkyria Chronicles , Dragon Quest IX,Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, etc this all all great “hardcore” games for the handhelds. And as per the Iphone/Ipod i believe there are some “hardcore” game on there that do require some amount of time such as, Final Fantasy 1&2, N.O.V.A (a halo ripoff), HAWX, Street FIghter 4, and a game call Battle bears(awesome game I recommend it) So the handhald being a “casual” game market, i don’t think it will happen any time soon with great game this this out there for them.
OMG WTF??????? this video is painfull to wacth
Great show guys, but seriously,you guys seem to know nothing about the PSP or you just dont like games or something? I cant seem to play my PSP fast enough! MGS Peace Walker took a ton of my time since you end up seeing the credits at least 3 times before you actually beat the game. Now Valkyria Chronicles 2 is out and I have been playing that over 2 weeks. It’s at least 80hrs deep and there is a ton of post game stuff to do. Next week is Phantasy Star 2! They all have a ton of great things to do and great story and multiplayer… The PSP is on top in Jpn and I dont know why it isnt here. Yes I’d love a second analog, but the games have been top notch for a while. Though it seems I have to wait until next year for Parasite Eve PSP, but just VC2 and PS2 will take up all my portable time for this year. PSP has been on point for me. Before those games Persona 2 remake and Persona 3 PSP came out too. Where is this mysterious drought you speak of?! Maybe before this year there were issues but not now. Pay attention guys…
Great show as always! Just wanted to point out that Monster Hunter actually started out on the PS2 way back in 2004. I’m a huge fan of the series, been playing it since the beginning so of course I noticed when Tony said it started out on the PSP. These days I only play Monster Hunter on the PSP as I do not own a Wii, that being said even though I play the game on a portable console I do not use it out of the house. I don’t think it’s fun playing a game that needs your undivided attention in public.
If hand held consoles are destined to go down the road of casual gaming maybe its for the best or maybe our perception of whats casual or hardcore needs to change. One could argue that Mario is Hard core but I would rather play that on the go than game like Final Fantasy or God of War. Those games belong on a big fuck’n TV to be enjoyed the way they were meant to be enjoyed. Or better yet stop complaining about the PSPs lack of dual analog sticks.
My Battle Cry about the handheld market is this…I honestly (maybe nievely) believe that Sony is clawing and scratching it’s way back into the hearts of loyal consumers and hardcore gamers. I fully expect that at next years E3, there will be the mind blowing reveal of a PSP phone or PSP2. One that will have the latest upgrades to visual/sound/memory/etc; that is needed to produce almost PS3 level graphics/games. They’ll have dual analogs and everything that the fans have been screaming for. It’s a necessity if they plan to combat Nintendo and the 3DS. I’d love to see Sony pull a Nintendo and let them get all hyped up by the 3DS; then smash them with the unveiling of the new Sony portable. I say this because the PSP was originally supposed to be a portable PS1/PS2 and when they make a good game using all that tech it actually is. Look at MGS Peace Walker, Valkyria Chronicles 2, KH:Birth by Sleep, God of War:Chains of Olympus, and soon to come God of War:Ghost of Sparta. They’ve put Persona on the PSP, Monster Hunter, Phantasy Star is coming, Twisted Metal, Final Fantasy:Crisis Core, and others. There are good games for the PSP and with these new titles coming for it, I really believe Sony is slowly waking up from it’s slumber over the past few years. You know what they say about waking a sleeping giant!
My battle cry goes to the 3DS (which you guys seem to have forgotten exists) which has a game line up that will make any gamer think twice about getting one.. Have you seen that list..? Metal Gear, Splinter Cell, Resident Evil, Ocarina of Time remake and many more. I think the 3DS will bring a new age of core titles to portable gaming. Yes, there is a gimic to milk but 3D vision can actually contribute to gameplay. Have you ever misjudged a jump in a 3D platformer, I sure have and I would really like to see the 3DS change those problems we’ve always had with 3D games in video games. I await and trust developers to use 3D for the powers of good! Graphics shouldn’t be an excuse as we all have seen some great footage for the 3DS games. Nintendo, now seeing that online is an important part of games now said they were going to create a better online system for the 3DS which is long overdue from nintendo systems..
If a company tried hard enough they could create a good FPS on with the combination of the 3DS nub and the touch screen (which I know you guys love FPS) so I look forward to future possiblities of genres that usually suffer on handhelds to actually work and be enjoyable.
Great show as usual. Wish i could know what DK’s opinion is on some of the topics discussed. I don’t think he’s a fanboy. The man is just PASSIONATE about things, he should be and that’s what make EBA what it is …no numbness whatsoever! My take on the whole handheld gaming: as long as you don’t dumb it up, cripple the industry and call it “the future of gaming”, go right ahead.
It does, and microsoft offers the best services, but like I mentioned before, what about countries outside the us?
It’s like we don’t got Netflix or Hulu, Facebook isn’t ‘that’ popular here.. But we still need to pay extra.. Sounds like a rip-off for people outside the U.S.
Great cast as always gentlemen
Why Loren? I like the puns personally but I can imagine Daniel doesn’t just put them on for the show. Brent and Tony have to live with that small school child infatuation and cat-like “ohh it’s shiny” distraction based complex and the one show they had off from that, you punned? Hang your head in shame sir! (I’m joking of course I’m sure Brent and Tony totally deserve it).
As for the show:
I’ve got a PSP and to be honest it needs a touch screen, another analogue stick a lack of a UMD replaced by an HDD / SSD hell you could sell it for more money and I’d still repurchase and sell on my old PSP.
On the subject of hardcore vs. casual games I think it depends on how you define both. Sure pokemon is hardcore, if you want it to be but I’m fairly sure it can be casual too. You can play it at a slower pace if need be and fit into quick rounds on the commute to work or if you turn up early when meeting people etc.
At least you have the option of playing it for a short or long while some games that are hardcore on portable systems require more time, planning and effort and aren’t as easy to put down once started. In effect these games negate the purpose of the platforms which are mobile to be convenient and in their own way perhaps more casual in as much as you cannot or do not want to dedicate the time to your console, T.V. and couch but would still like to get some gaming in if you can.
In some ways Sony have crippled this ability by having a UMD that takes precious time to spin up, a poor control system (2x analogue sticks please) and aging hardware which has neither kept pace with technology of the day nor improved despite various iterations and one complete redesign.
These weaknesses are being directly exploited by Nintendo and the iPhone / iPod Touch.
In Apples’ case they continue to iterate new technology annually while building from a solid base their touch screen and acceleromter tech is almost unchallenged technology when applied to mobile gaming.
Nintendo iterate the technology even more frequently opening new avenues and customer bases with each passing type of DS, every time they do people go: “Really? Why?” And yet they fly off the shelves and people buy and (somewhat key) enjoy playing the rapidly growing catalogue of quality games.
In comparison the PSP has had updates that ostensibly have made it thinner and lighter, which is welcome but the 3000 and the portable weren’t just conceptually flawed they weren’t actually updates. 3000 offered a literal iteration on some very minor issues and the portable was a repackaging with a smaller screen. Nintendo package a 93% larger screen I get why people might want to upgrade or buy that one if they’re older and have a tough time seeing but who’s going to opt for a smaller screen and half-assed support for downloadable content? Oh yeah. No-one.
It’s sad really because games like MGS Portable Ops can be played in relatively small doses, are hardcore and are great fun although somewhat limited by the technology platform. Hopefully with the release of DLC like Epic Citadel Sony will to begin realise that they’re last in line at the mobile table because they haven’t given the PSP much thought or support in the last few years and developers need to be given the new technology and controls to give the end users something worthwhile buy.
On the other hand they need no more proof that the market is ripe for a good handheld mobile gaming platform, they’ve still sold 64 million of the mediocre platform. Here’s a crazy idea….what about talking to that mobile phone company they own?
In the case of Bioware I’ve long been a proponent that roleplaying is less about stats and more about how you feel about a game.
Having said that while I was playing ME2 I thought maybe it is worse that ME1 but when I played it through again while the combat can get repetitive I realised that actually it’s a lot better than ME1 and that even though my stats weren’t there in the same way my choices in game made the second Shepard just as much my creation as the first one did.
For my money Bioware is showing us that our decisions with characters is how you roleplay not a dependency on numbers and a character sheet which has it’s place in pencil and paper RPG but perhaps needn’t be relied on too heavily in the interactive medium of games.
Oh yeah and they sell more too, so just about everyone who isn’t set in their stat page ways is a winner. Maybe they could slide too far into numbing mediocrity but with all the quality titles under their belt, I doubt it.
Just my thoughts, sorry it’s so long to read….
Tell DKMoneyShizzledaTobascoDrizzlePimp we were pun-ished without him on the podcast this week! Great show nevertheless
I don’t think you guys understand whats going on with that Epic demo.
It says nothing of the power of the iPhone but the power of Epic’s programming. It’s an amazing feat of programming. But I do not believe they can reach that quality in an actual game.
With the amount of power in the PSP GPU they could easily do the same.
The iPhone 3GS and 4 have the same GPU a PowerVR SGX 235. Which can produce 7 million triangles per second, and fill at rate of 250 million pixels per second.
The Sony PSP GPU can do 33 million triangles per second, with a fill rate of 664 million pixels per second.
Please don’t say things like the PSP needs a better GPU like what’s in the iPhone, you sound stupid.
Still love the show.
my battle cry goes to console gaming online services. I think things have become to dependant on it now.Whats going to happen say in 10 years will i still be able to access all the games i once downloaded and perhaps have to re download them or if i fancied a game of say dragons age would i still be able to download any updates that were released
Whats up! My Consoles of Carnage, My Handhelds of Hatred, HOW ART THOU!!!
My BattleCry goes out to what I feel if the biggest thing holding back the PSP (aside from the need for a second stick)
I Love many of the games on the PSP, and the biggest issue I have with the PSP is lack of being able to play online without having to jump through hoops. Take Monster Hunter or for example, the game is alright on its own, but its by far at its best when you have four players. All I ask is to be able to pick up the game and be able to play it with friends online, but unless are connected to a PS3 its impossible to play online, which really ruins the idea of being able to play anywhere when your on a portable system.
Take the DS for example, playing online and locally is considerably more user friendly, and with the new power hidden away in the 3DS im going to have to say that if the great and online and local multiltiplayer games, like monster hunter, move to the 3DS and more games that provide great similar experiences (that are usually only on consoles and are even better when you can just meet up and play anywhere), then Im afraid the PSP will be put in a much worse position.
I’m glad Brent did his battle cry to Retro City Rampage. Brian Provinciano, the creator, is a good friend of mine, and I have been testing the game on and off through it’s development since he first began. It’s a fantastic game, and everyone able should definitely check it out.
Another great podcast guys, keep it up
My Abbots of Annihilation, My Dons of Destruction, My Fellows of Frag. My battlecry goes out to the psp and ps3 remote play. In a past battlecry you discused the ps3 ability to download and play past popular ps one games on your ps3. What you unfortunately failed to mention (if I remember correctly) was that you can play some of these titles on your ps3, with remote play, on your psp. That ability is not limited to just digitally downloaded games either. The remote play feature does not cost anything extra to the ps3 and psp owner and is something unique to the psp.
It is limited to range of the network the ps3 is connected to. The application does have the option to do remote play online but it is so choppy that its not worth it. If sony could find a way to tweak the remote play, so it worked less choppy online. It could be less expensive than a re-design of the system but allow it to do something no portable device or console, at the moment, can do. This remote play application could also lead future handhelds the ability play their home console counter-parts on the go.
Currently working on a business degree. While I consider myself a hard core gamer, I looked at how we define the difference between the casual and hardcore. I like to use a continuum.
Casual — Core — HardCore
Note that there is actually no sudden change between the different “groups”.
The differences in behaviour depend on their level of interest and investment into video games.
When we put graph lines to these we’ll see that the Population is highest in the Casual side and drops down to the HardCore. When we look at the amount the individual invests into games, it is highest in Hardcore and lowest in Casual. These two graphs form an X.
Developers see this data and try to aim for the middle. Nintendo aimed for casual users because they make money off of individual consoles, developers like to aim for the Core and Hardcore because they buy more games.
This is what holds the PSP back, Sony wants to sell lots of PSPs; however, their main market want more games and does not have as high of a population as the more casual markets.
Handheld gaming isn’t going casual at all, but rather it’s a matter of what people consider to be “hardcore”. The vast majority of people today seem to equate “hardcore” gaming with first and third person shooters and rarely give other genres as much attention. The PSP isn’t designed to play those types of games well and let’s face it…Nintendo hasn’t really become well known for violent shooting games.
Does this mean handheld games as they are now can only be casual? Hell no. You just have to be open to different genres and a wider variety of games. Deep RPGs with epic storylines can be found on both the PSP and DS as well as many good platformers, puzzle games, strategy games, fighting games and everything in between. Shooters are pretty much the only thing they CAN’T do and rather than focusing on that, we should focus more so on the great games that do come out.
As for the iPhone…I can’t see it ever being anything BUT casual, but that’s because the iPhone isn’t a gaming console. It’s a phone. It just happens to have games attached to it that control horribly due to lack of buttons. I have a complete lack of faith in a self proclaimed gaming platform marketed specifically to non gamers. Anyone remember the N-Gage? Yeah, me neither.
Great podcast!
Apple just introduced gamecenter for all you achievement loving gamers ! think it´s gonner change the iPhone games a bit.
Does the psp have any thing like that?
I kinda hope DK is mysteriously absent from every skirmish from now on.