John the regular crew, as well as Area5.tv’s Ryan O’donnell as we discuss a host of games. OK, actually we mainly talk about StarCraft 2, but we also touch upon some iPhone games as well as the new Transformers DLC and some other minor games. If that isn’t what you’re looking for, you can listen in to our letters segment, where we pick the letter of the week and give that person a collector’s edition of SC2.
This week’s music, in order of appearance:
TO BE ADDED
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Downloading right now.
Are you guys ever going to have a SC2 game night? Please excuse my transgressions if you mention it in the podcast.
Also, do you guys have any recommendations for comfy chairs or flight joysticks? I’m trying to make my addiction to gaming that much more enticing.
Downloading right now as well, but would love a SC2 game night (or strategy armchair discussion).
Didn’t they say at one time they’d hold game nights regularly? They did do a Singstar stream or something like that and, to my knowledge, never did it again.
Bring it back, guys!
How bout they bring back game club instead…
Anthony is on three podcasts a week already and has to write as well as play quite a bit. I think expecting him to dedicate time to both play old games AND record another podcast is unreasonable.
whats the third?
Call me crazy, but I really don’t think it is given that the gamespy debriefings is done on the clock as far as I can tell, Game Club is games the guys like playing anyways, and I’m sure people would understand no-shows whenever needed. Then again, why not try getting IGN to sponsor it? Or maybe shorten the flagship Rebel FM. While the relationship letters were a fun diversion at first and the discussions sparked are sometimes humorous, there’s no need for the glut of loveline letters read every week.
And what’s the 3rd podcast anyway? I’d like to check it out.
Time to get some Rebel on
Downloading + in a proper pissed off mood so this shall cheer me up 2:20 is not a good time in the morning to be ranting at walls physical or cyber :¬(
Weekend complete!
I am at a college program and I had to download the podcast on a public computer. It had old software and would erase anything new after restart so I couldn’t sync my mp3 player. I ended up having to format my player and sync on windows media player 8. I will be listening to Rebel FM, and only Rebel FM, until I get home. Worth it.
Matt is right about what ambient occlusion is; it’s basically a cheap way to fake lighting. It does stress the system quit a lot depending on the setting when rendering it real time. However, that’s now how the game industry uses ambient occlusion. Most studios bake the ambient occlusions into a map, which basically turns it into a part of the texture. This way the game engine can handle it without rerendering it real time frame by frame.
Regarding the Battlefield troubles, I’m having those same exact problems on the PS3 side of things as well. I don’t even bother with the knife anymore.
I also find that the lag tends to happen more on the desert maps, and the issue with the wrong title screen showing usually happens on Valespario or whatever that jungle map is called.
I only play rush, so I don’t know if these problems are as bad on other modes.
What’s the proper link for the direct download?
click it, then there’s a file on that page.
The Midnight Meat Train line was golden.
Dirt 2 WAS amazing, Arthur. I’m sure you already own it on 360, but I hope you got a free copy with your 5850, if not simply revel in the beauty at 1080p with DXs turned up to 11. The Colin McRae Memorial Rally was nothing but pure class on the part of Codies as well.
Dirt 3 trailer debuting this weekend during x games makes me want to DVR whatever I can for the commercial alone. My wish list for the third installment is simple: mud, snow, and Baja-type endurance runs. Maybe do something to marry the stadium runs with the rest of the track types, as they stuck out a little.
OMG OMG OMG the Dirt 3 trailer has rain and snow, and looks effing sweet all around. 2011!
Another great podcast, thanks for reading my letter. Also hearing you guys talk about StarCraft II makes me want to play it so much.
Why does Ryan keep saying that he is poor when he just bought an iPhone 4 and iPad? Does he know what poor means? Twat.
Just a clarification.DoW 1 single player only had a 10 mission Space Marine campaign. The expansions brought campaigns for a new race(one campaign for each expansion). Except for Dark Crusade which added a Rise of Nations like conquer the planet mode.
Loved the podcast as always, was somewhat sad Anthony did not play multiplayer since he’s such a CoH fiend.
As a multiplayer rts fan, I loved Starcraft 1 as well as am loving Starcraft II both sp and mp.
I’ve played from total annihilation to CoH to C&C4 and the Starcraft II campaign is the best singleplayer experience I’ve had in an RTS.
DoWII is a close second but that campaign was more like an action game.
For people who are really good at RTS and is familiar with starcraft mechanics, play the campaign on BRUTAL.
The other modes are varying degrees of easy but BRUTAL difficulty is just on an entirely different level. Templars storming everywhere, never enough mineral, time feels extremely compressed, enemies have +1/+1 upgrades over you, etc. I got into the beta and played a few hundred games getting into top 10 platinum/diamond and I still have to make save points at specific portions because those sections were insanely hard. You need decent macro but more importantly EXTREMELY GOOD micro because your resource reserves are always extremely low which means you can’t go around throwing away 200/200 armies until you break them through pure macro.
There was a Dinobot combined form in some comic book that was released with a dvd collection. It was not exactly a good thing, though.
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Beast_%28G1%29
Ikaruga is a better game than Deathsmiles. It’s not really a comparable exercise, though, and Deathsmiles is pretty good for people who are into shmups. $50 is maybe a little much, but I imported Mushihimesama for $70, and it didn’t have a faceplate or soundtrack.
Deathsmiles was also developed by Cave, who, you may notice, is not Treasure. Treasure’s last Shmup was Bangai-O Spirits in 2008, and Hiroshi Iuchi’s (The baller mofo responsible for Ikaruga) last new shmup was Gradius V in 2004.
Oops, sure enough, it was Cave. That’ll teach me to double check my facts before writing in. I could have sworn I read that Treasure made Deathsmiles at some point somewhere.
You’re partly mistaken though, you forgot Sin and Punishment: Star Successor on Wii which was more recent than Bangai-O Spirits. However, I think that’s not a traditional Shmup, so that’s probably why you said Bangia-O.
Good ass alkaline trio song at the end there. Before they started sucking.
Good show too.
That was actually well after they started sucking, which was right after Maybe I’ll Catch Fire.
Tyler I demand that you speak more. Seems like the past few weeks you talk for what seems like a total of five minutes per episode.
Great interview with Patrick Stewart. It’s about his hair loss but you can apply it to anything in life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXOK-ZVJMaU
Thanks for the video man, you’ve actually helped me. It is stupid to worry about that shit so much. I’m the guy who wrote the hair letter by the way, and this video was truly helpful, so thanks a lot for it.
Hey Patrick,
I’m really glad his story has helped you. I love that clip. Take care, man.
ARTHUR – what processor are you running in your work rig with dual GTX 260s? If SC2 is running poorly as you described, your CPU could be bottlenecking your powerhouse video card setup, or it could be that SC2 doesn’t handle SLI well.
Regarding the BFBC2 discussion, for about 2 solid months it was unplayable for me (PS3) but in the last 2-3 weeks I have experienced virtually no lag, but like tyler was saying the victory screen is mixed up for me on an alarming basis and yeah, knives are really hit or miss right now. It’s so bad that when I sneak up on some unsuspecting person I don’t bother trying to knife them – I just shoot them. That’s bad.
Me and a friend I play online with regularly have experienced lots of instances where the person who kills you is displaying 0% health and their rank isn’t showing. We can’t determine if that’s the game or people cheating, but it happens a lot – basically every time we play and on every map.
To the listener who wrote in about the lack of fanfare around the re-launched EGM, I’ll celebrate with you! So far I think the magazine is fantastic, and there have been some really great editorials and interviews (David Jaffe and Warren Spector).
Thanks for another great podcast, Arthony and crew.
Raynor is voiced by the same person who did the original.
I just had to be “that guy”
Interesting how you seem to have liked the StarCraft II soundtrack. Personally I was really disappointed by the generic movie soundtrack style music that plays in-game (it doesn’t even play full songs, it just fades in and out randomly, even with continuous music on), though I loved that the first track the jukebox plays in the ship sequences is the rock song that was played in the intro movie for StarCraft 1, just before hell breaks loose. Sure, the soundtrack for the original StarCraft wasn’t the best ever made, but it was interesting and went in a very different direction than the other RTSes at the time (Total Annihilations intensive orchestral score, and the more contemporary rock and dance music of C&C, Dominion, Conquest Earth etc.), the soundtrack in StarCraft II – while it does contain some homages to the original SC soundtrack – mostly just screams generic video game/movie soundtrack to me.
Other than that I love the game so far though.
So I was listening to one of the recent podcasts and a general hatred for Demon’s Souls came up. While DS is probably my favorite game this gen, I can definitely see how it’s..um..not for everyone.
But I do wonder how much Arthur played, since I’m a bit surprised he doesn’t like it. I’m also a huge fan of the original Ninja Gaiden (one of the best games of last gen), and DS scratches that same itch.
Much like Gaiden, DS has a steep learning curve and super precise combat where the smallest slip can mean failure. Success in both games is based more on learned player skill than any in game leveling. And lets not forget that both games feature practically meaningless stories that float around in the background.
Certainly DS is a massive time sink, is that the issue? Is the review schedule too fast to slow down and learn a game like DS? Or did DS get a fair shake and it just doesn’t make your bacon sizzle?
@Arthur I was one of those braniacs that went to the college for art learning in photographies. I’d suggest that you get an old DSLR. Tons of stores have’m on eBay or Amazon.
Search long search hard [pause], but you can get a quality camera new/and used that isn’t a damn fortune.
The bubbles that are larger than you in Osmos kinda look like slices of tomato to me. That game is a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. It has multiple ways to avoid the frustration of not being able to complete a level so it’s relaxing as well.
p.s. Thanks for bringing Ryan on the show again.
i run eerything on ultra in 1920×1080 execpt for ligh which i haqve to run on medium. if i run it on ultra i get som realy wierd grapich errors… which i get in a few games whit my stupid nvidia 295gtx card…
Good show
fuckin loved alkaline trio at the end of the show good shit
What was the fps iphone game they were talking about? I missed the name.
It was Archetype. I gave up on FPS on iPhone ever since Eliminate, but it’s only like 2 or 3 dollars, so you could give it a shot.
Hey Chuff,
I lost all of my memory as well (2 separate characters in Mass Effect 1 & part 2) when I formated one of my memory cards which in turn erased everything. The most painful part about all of it is that I have to play through Mass Effect 1, not once, but twice! Everything else pales in comparission.
Excuse the poor typing as I’m writting this with a Palm Pre keypad.
What was the closing track ???
I really don’t like Ryan. Something about him just irks me and i can’t articulate why. Otherwise great show, and i agree with the “Needs more Tyler” sentiment.
In response to the Level Design question from this episode I wish to share this link (http://www.psychologyofgames.com/2010/07/27/the-psychology-of-immersion-in-video-games/) which shows a small, but significant, chunk of what a good level should do and how it does it. Level design in games is a huge component of the game and, generally, is what makes a game “good” or not.
What was the name of the jetski game talked about?
Please add music credits!
Uniross Dell Latitude L400 ,
Want understand how to fuck that asshole… after all she are an asshole!
Fairly Exciting. I might like to learn yet another.
Christine and Terry, you are both very right about a person only getting comfortable with a language if they are exposed to it enough. That’s the way I will try and learn: trial by fire, I guess one would call it. My plan is to immerse myself in a provincial area where it will be sink or swim. Wish me luck