As Aaron Linde and Tiff Chow will be spending tonight going to game events and doing actual work, they've been temporarily and guiltlessly replaced by two members of everyone's favorite podcast that isn't Podtoid or Podcastle, RetroForceGO!.
That's right: tonight at 8 pm PST, Chad Concelmo and Topher Cantler join myself and Jim Sterling as we run down interesting news stories of the past week. Finally free from the viselike grip of their retro dictator, Chad and Topher will, for once, be able to talk about modern games, if only for a few hours before returning to that most familiar realm of 8-bit graphics and unforgiving difficulty levels.
As always, we need questions (the best of which will net the person who asked it $25) and a sonnet (the best of which will be read on air).
We'll be talking about all manner of random stuff tonight, from homophobia to sequel trailers, so don't hesitate to make your questions as random as possible.
The theme for this week's sonnet is the blogocube, which, as we discussed last week, is a much more realistic spatial interpretation of the blog universe than the unbelievably irritating "blogosphere."
Anyway, hit the jump and start asking stuff.
Contest:
4:04 PM on 05.14.2008
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Also, why didn't we consider the potential of the 'Blogotesseract'. Tesseracts are bad ass.
Are you excited by all the upcoming Super Dodge Ball releases, and say, how awesome was that remix album on the front page yesterday? (all two: Virtual Console and DS)
AWESOME!
Also, Rev, I'm sorry and Jim made me do it :-/
Will the BioShock movie suck? To put the argument for why it could actually be good in a sentence; the best parts of BioShock can be translated into a film (visuals, story, characters), unlike most games.
When you import a PS1 game from Japan, they come with a little cardboard sleeve that goes over the left side of the packaging, but basically falls off after you remove the plastic wrap. From what I understand, these are usually kept, part of having the "complete casing." My question is...what do you do with them? Try to keep them on the CD case, or store them separately, or do you just not bother?
Also, do you think the Xbox Live community reported "TheGAYERgamer" because they thought his name was offensive to homosexual's, or because they themselves are homophobic?
I mean, jeez. The Wii shelves make me thing that Nintendo gave gave the thumbs up to every single developer/publisher who wanted to make a game for the Wii. Is this probally because of terrible 3rd party support on the Gamecube?
Do you guys personally care about any kind of simulation games, and, if you don't are their any simulation type games that you feel "cross over" into the realm where normal people can enjoy them?
"Outbox" is awaiting being sent/received, "sent box" has been sent or read.
What do you guys think of the recent Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts new? As many people have said before, it is very difficult to satisfy the fans of gaming franchises. They often do not like change, but complain when a game is very similar to the previous entry in a series. How do you think the hardcore Banjo-Kazooie fans will react to the change in the series? I think it's great that Rare is trying to do something new, but it is often very hard to appeal to both the hardcore and casual audience at the same time, and it seems like this is what they are trying to do. Do you think they'll succeed? If not, which audience do you think "Nuts & Bolts" will appeal to most?
Ohhhh! Thank you so much, you don't know how long I've been wondering about that!
Chad is you, because I despise everything both of you stand for.
Or is that question completly stupid because of EA minority stake in the company?
How is that not worth a LVL 3 Flourish?
Yes there are still plenty of game movie tie ins but I'm talking about publishers looking at films that are outside the whole summer blockbuster type.
So do you believe that the reason the game publishers are hesitant to try the classic film to game route is that they know that since there is such massive difference between the two media that they could never hope to completely satisfy the fans of the original film?
eech i could of probably made that a lot more concise, erm talk more about the differences between film and games please.
Last year, nearly every major release was squezzed into the month of November, leaving many quality titles to sit on shelves in favor of more popular titles.
Would you like to see gaming releases spread out all year, and does the release of Burnout and GTa so early in the year set a precedent for other developers to release their game in any other month than November?
Is there anything we gamers can do to force this change on the industry? Do I need to vote with my dollar?
TORCHWOOD 4 LIFE
The great "revelation" is Bioshock(at the 12 - 15 hour point in the game) dealing with the nature of control in the medium: is that something people feel can be accurately transported to the big screen? Could that same reveal be just as effective in a movie capacity as in a game?
What would you like to see from a Bioshock movie? Do you think Verbinski could get away with remaking the original game? If so, do you think that game's "revelation" could translate to the screen? If not, what other angle would you like to see the film approach?
Also, what's your opinion on the WiiWare launch titles?
Blogosphere or cube
Can't we all just compromise?
Blogosphereocube?
That may be a horrible marketing buzzword (like Next-Gen, or Gamer) but I have fond memories of playing the games that pretended to teach you something. I have fond childhoom memories of Oregon Trail, Math Blaster, the Treasure series of games from The Learning Company, and, the coup de grace, The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis (ZOO-BEAN-EES)
With the success of the brain-training games on the DS(and, of course, Professor Layton) do you think there is a market for children's games that tried to teach instead of pander?
I mean, I learned how to tell time from Video games. Why can't we teach.....our children well? (with Videogames!)
Also
iPod & crazy energy drink in MGS4. Do want or are you in the same boat as every slobbering dope on the internets and flipping a shit?
I liked my sonnet last week better, Gentleman Dinosaur was a much better topic.
Some random people writing about things
All together, they form some sort of shape
Some tend to write about what their day brings
People read these as some sort of escape
Though unrelated they are all alike
Blogging together, but still far apart
The gamer, the call girl, your uncle Mike
Many are douche bags, most not very smart
If you were to put them all together
What form or shape do you think they would take?
The ones about trends you see in weather?
The ones about furries whose anuses ache?
Some say Blogosphere is the term to use
But Blogocube is the term I will choose
But how else can I get my post count up? I gotta make it onto the leaderboards somehow!
speaking of leaderboards, is there any classic franchise left that you'd like to see remade/updated for XBLA or the Playstation Store? (not the Wii, obviously. The VC focuses just on straight emulation, without any of those modern bells and whistles(like leaderboards! Everything connects!
Also, what are your thoughts on the new Banjo?
What games are you guys looking forward to now that GTA IV has landed?
I WOULD TOTALLY PLAY AN OREGON TRAIL MMO!
Come on guys, I just bought the party enough wagon tounges and wagon axles! Lets head to the instance! We've gotta float that wagon across the river somehow!
Aw man, you guys. I want to go shoot some buffalo, but the buffalo's are being camped! Now I know why I can only bring back 40 pounds of meat!
Hideo Kojima mentioned on Kotaku that he woudn't mind making a Zone of the Enders 3. How stoked would you be if Konami anounced a Zone of the Enders 3?
Also, Assassin's Creed suit in MGS4. Discuss.
Lets try not have knee-jerk reactions about it.
I personally don't think it is pointing to escapism per se, because people have always watched a shit load of stupid television. Im going with the latter, but I have heard the argument.
Also, have you been surprised with the incredible sucess Telltale has had in delivering timly episodic content? While Valve's "episodic Half-Life" has basically been a lie, Telltale has been delivering the hits for two awesome Sam and Max seasons. Are you surprised that the adventure genre would have been the style of game to benefit from episodic content? Do you think another genre of game is poised to have as much sucess with episodic content as
1) Now, with GTA IV finally out, many expected as much negativity and GTA-bashing. What happened, though, was that some news-people actually defended the game. Do you guys think that people are getting smarter, or what?
2) Now that it's been confirmed that Solid Altair is actually in MGS4, do you feel any different about that?
3) With Wiiware now begun, do you expect more casual games to invade the Wii's library, or more non-casual ones. That said, are there any Wiiware games you guys are looking forward to?
That said:
Is there anything american gamers can do, domestically, to force Nintendo to up the Wii releases here in the States? Here in upstate New York, the local Circut City still sees lines form up for the console before the store opens on Sunday!