This is usually the part where I promise there won't be any technical difficulties in this week's Podtoid. After last week, however, I've come to understand that something will go wrong with Podtoids I host no matter goddamn what. What do you have to look forward to, gentle listener? Glitchy stereo audio? Massive delays? Odd pitching problems that make Linde sound like Barry White? Your guess is as good as mine. Head to the official Podtoid page, give it a listen, and send me the usual irritated emails pointing out what I need to fix.
This week, Aaron Linde, Daniel "Husky" Lingen, Jim Sterling and I discussed 2007 -- now generally referred to as the "best year ever" for videogaming -- in between numerous jabs at Jeff Minter and convoluted (but efficient) metaphors for gaming in general. Topics of discussion include:
-The Games we Play - Jim accidentally buys GH3, and Space Giraffe: Irritating and pretentious, or really irritating and pretentious?
-Was 2007 indeed the "best year ever" for videogaming? - Linde commits PC sacrilege, Husky is a sk8er
-If 2007 was the best year ever for videogaming, what the hell do we have to look forward to in 2008? - Just delayed stuff, mainly
And, of course, reader questions. This week's best discussion came from Sharpless, even though I sort of summarized and misinterpreted his original question. Either way, buddy, you've won 25 bucks, so don't hassle me about it.
[The intro/outro song is "Once Again" by Girl Talk.]
Contest:
9:23 AM on 01.03.2008
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Something tells me these people didn't make it very far in the game.
If you do like action-packed abstract shooters that require skill and concentration, then it's brilliant once you get in the zone, and the game facilitates getting into the zone very quickly.
It's far deeper and more strategic than it appears at first glance, and once you get a handle on it it's not even super hard. It's far less punishing than Tempest 2K, that's for sure.
I think a lot of people are mistakenly letting the "blogosphere" make up their minds for them, which is a shame.
Like I said though, if you try it and you don't like it, that's fair. I don't like Bioshock and apparently it's the bee's knees. I won't say it's a big pile of crap just because it didn't stimulate me.
MOAR please
Are you implying that instead of listening to the opinions of the Destructoid staff, we should listen to people who use the word blogosphere?
You may have noticed the scare quotes there.
I think "blogosphere" is a terrible neologism. I actually still dislike "blog."
Congrats on being an antisocial prick I guess.
Absolutely. It takes a little practice but once you get to know the "rules", for lack of a better term, the complexity and fun of the game is revealed. There is a learning curve involved and you won't be able to master it after playing it for 30 mins or an hour, unlike 99% of the games out there today, but if you do take that time to get the hang of it instead of immediately dismissing it as garbage it will be a very rewarding experience. I would think that any hardcore video game blog would appreciate it.
that picture
As someone who totally digs the whole synthenesia concept, I have to disagree. This game IS a waste of money. I played it repeatedly for hours and it's just a punishment to slog through it and pretend you're having fun. I even bothered to figure out how to "play" the game by bulling and building up huge combos. Still not fun.
I made it up to like level 38 and I just gave up. It wasn't worth the effort to build up your score that high just to be taken out completely by some random fucking flower hitting you and then being a weak ass fucker again with a shitty score and a zeroed out multiplier.
I'll take REZ over SG any fucking day of the week.
1) You can beat it and become good at it through a little trial and error. The game is very challenging but never unfairly so. I used to get my ass handed to me in the teens levels and now I can make it to level 50 without using a continue (many can beat all 100).
2) Calling it garbage is just plain ignorant. It may not be your kind of game, but it is not garbage.
AND I'M LONG-WINDED, DEAL WITH IT. :)
The levels spinning around? Shit jumping behind you and shooting you? The flowers becoming invincible? It's just too much.
And don't get me started about the I Love My 64 achievement. Spinning level? Blurred vision? Shit flying at you that you can't even see? I must have played for two hours trying to get it, and the best strategy was to spin around the edge and hope for the fucking best.
That being said, I still like the game. I wouldn't compare it to something like Rez though, which is actually fun to play.
I don't absolutely hate the game -- like I said initially, I was willing to deal with a game whose ethos was "throw a bunch of shit at the player and force him to make sense of it." It's an unusual game mechanic, but I was willing to work through it.
As others have said, however, it becomes infuriating after the three or four hour mark. The gameplay itself is enjoyable, but the fact that Minter seems to take some fetishistic pleasure in actually obstructing gameplay with weird visuals and confusing enemy models to the point where I was constantly dying in unpredictable, irritating ways which impeded my ability to actually, like, play the game. I'm willing to deal with a bunch of random, psychadelic shit being thrown at me for a while, but not once it becomes so confusing and random that I die over and over and over again.
He admitted in the interview I mentioned during the show that he didn't intend the confusing visuals to actually make the gameplay hard to see, and didn't think that to be the main game mechanic (as Jonathan Blow would have you believe to be the case). In this sense, I can't help but enjoy certain aspects of SG, but become incredibly irritated and angered by others.
Sharpless:
What's your email address? I'll send you a message personally, or get Niero to do it and we can go from there.
matthewjsanderson(AT)gmail.com
I was going to just PM you, but... I can't?
8 is better: one for the monocle.