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This week: L4D2 possible reclassification, Sony sells their US headquarters, Sony settles with Jerry Lambert, Jay Wilson/Rob Pardo/the state of Diablo 3, Atari files for Bankruptcy, Codemasters layoffs, low DMC sales, and a lengthy discussion of Phil Fish/Fez and Notch/Minecraft.
I’m fairly certain that they originally changed their name from Kentucky Fried Chicken to KFC to save money on signs. Also, fried chicken is not particularly unhealthy if it’s done properly, but proper technique is uncommon in the mass-produced food context.
Also, Penny Arcade said the new DMC is good, even if it’s not in the same space as the originals. No one I know has it or plans on getting it though so I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to try it myself.
From what I’ve seen the combat isn’t bad (though not nearly as good as the other games) and the stages are complete eye-candy, it was just the absolutely INSUFFERABLE characters and the fact that the series didn’t need a reboot that brought it down.
It’s the way that the Style system works that makes DmC such a bastardization of the series. It works on damage dealt rather than combo variety, and ranking doesn’t downgrade over time, only if you take damage. As a result, DmC’s combat system is completely different from previous games. It fails to reward aggression in favor of mashing the Demon Axe and attacking from a distance in order to max out the style meter.
DmC’s biggest sin is calling itself a Devil May Cry game while having basically nothing in common with the previous games beyond sharing some character and weapon names. If it had been an original IP people would have been far more forgiving.
All this talk about design documents makes me want developers to release them. It would be an interesting read.
I felt the minecraft movie was scraping the bottle of the barrel content wise. A good chunk of the film was based on the minecraft community. Which is fine, but I was expecting a more focused film.
I’m a late to the game with Minecraft, and to me, it feels like a complete game. A mod API would be great, considering what people have managed to mod without it. Also I really miss Rob, Tim and of course the master of horrible puns: Cameron. Thanks for the cast!
I would appreciate it if you could badger Kyle to record the podcast at a time when non-Americans (the lowlife scum that we are) are awake.
The comparison with Lego was foolish. With Lego, you aren’t restricted to that single box or that single model. That’s just a limitation of your own imagination, not the tool’s.
Why the hell did I reply here?
Also, what is wrong about passing a law regarding ratings? On a slightly related note, what’s wrong with having armed guards at schools? What is wrong with America/ns?
This podcast is a little old at this point, but there’s one thing I need to say. Notch’s programming is probably worse than his design skills. Minecraft may have pretty mediocre design, but the game is programmed terribly. Not to mention, Java was not built for games, especially not games like Minecraft. Pure and simple, a better developer would have either ported the game early on, or not bothered with Java in the first place.
I think that Notch is basically Toady from another, much less exciting universe. They are both incredibly ambitious people, but only one of them has either the cojones or the ability to pull off a big project well. At the end of the day, there are many games that “do Minecraft” a lot better than Minecraft, especially because of the game’s popularity. Dwarf Fortress is just an obvious example, in many ways.
I’m a new listener to this podcast, and this was the first episode I listened to and I enjoyed it very much… except for the people who are always irrationally spouting /v/ opinions.
In general, it seems that two or three of the speakers seem to be incapable of thinking for themselves, especially in regards to their opinions of Phil Fish and Notch. Hearing what one person had to say about Notch and Phil Fish after watching their movies was interesting. The movies were probably biased, and that was mentioned, fair call.
But then the other two are just mindlessly lambasting Fish and Notch. Near the end of the episode, on guy said that Notch ‘ripped off’ other games when he made flash games similar to arcade games from the 80s to practise his skill.
Then you have the guy who said something to the effect of ‘Sony has a niche market of people who buy their system solely for anime games’, which I found to be a terribly mis-informed opinion.
By no means do I expect nothing but good things to be said, but I just wish they’d put some more thought into why they don’t like it instead of just spouting whatever else they’ve heard someone else say. I’m not defending Notch or Fish, I just think hating them without reason is ridiculous.
My ideas are scattered because I’m tired but whatever. Still, I liked the podcast and enjoyed listening to it for the most part, especially to the gent with the deep, strong voice who opens the show and always brings up new points of discussion, he’s definitely worth listening to.