PCGP Episode #171: Box Quotes
A podcast containing info-y bits about Will Wright’s whereabouts, Dragon Age’s lifespan (long enough to grow a medieval length beard), and whats up with Borderlands’ art direction. Don’t forget, we also Q some A’s and tell what there is to play.
April 9th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
I have run out of things to say when I am excited for the podcast. OH NOES.
Wait, no I haven’t.
GREAT MISTER CHRISTY’S CRACKERS! 171 EPISODES!
April 9th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
If we had a box, that would surely go on it.
April 9th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
Don’t you mean “Borderland’s”?
April 9th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Was gary eating something during the podcast?
April 9th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
Noclipping in Left 4 Dead’s single player, and taking a screen while you are half in the ground while being beaten by a Smoker is… strange looking, to say the least
April 10th, 2009 at 5:38 am
wait till you read 1ups “BORDERLINES” news article. lots of typos.
April 10th, 2009 at 6:31 am
Has anyone noticed that Braid has finally released on PC? Haven’t listened to the podcast yet, but I don’t know how this game managed to escape my radar after all that praise its gotten on the 360. Has anyone purchased and played it yet? I’d like to hear some feedback on it because there’s no reviews out for it yet.
http://www.playgreenhouse.com/game/NNONE-000001-01/
April 10th, 2009 at 9:46 am
In regards to “LIPS”:
An editor at GR (shame on me) beat the game by putting a white noise generator beside the mic and left it there for a few hours.
April 10th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Uh, why do you guys keep talking about Half Life 3? Valve has stated numerous times in interviews that the Half Life episodes ARE Half Life 3. Here’s an article from 2006 from IGN.
http://au.pc.ign.com/articles/711/711560p1.html
The headline states: Don’t expect Half Life 3 - Turns out Half Life Episodes are Half Life 3. Valve also have admitted that naming the episodes Half Life 2: Episode x was probably a bad idea, and is what led to the confusion.
So unless Valve had a change of plans, I wouldn’t hold my breath for Half Life 3.
April 10th, 2009 at 11:52 am
So uhh…Evan….love your contributions in the magazine and on the podcast, but seriously man, you gotta do something about those “mouth noises”. Not sure what it is…but it’s kinda gross dude. Sorry to be a dick here.
Anyway, I’m not really sure what Gary was going on and on about with Valve and how “risky” their strategies are. How is it more risky to release a free map that no one has to pay for, and that people could easily avoid if it’s bad, than release the same map for pay? If you make people pay for a free map that’s crappy, they’ll be hurt far worse than if customers don’t have to pay for it.
Similarly, the episodes aren’t Valve’s “DLC strategy”. The HL2 episodes are not “DLC”. They’re complete, professionally designed single-player expansions stretching between 4-8 hours long, and priced as expansions.
Valve’s DLC strategy is to release free content for TF2 and Left 4 Dead, and have that boost sales of the original games, instead of trying to make money on selling DLC itself.
April 10th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
@dLMN8R
They may not technically be DLC, because they’re standalone, but everything else about them screams DLC. There’s been almost no changes since Half-Life 2.
April 10th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
@Fopington The episodes are the third part of the story, but they’re not the third game. Anybody who thinks that Valve is going to just up and abandon a popular and immensely profitable franchise without making another full game, inevitably titled Half-Life 3, is crazy. It’ll be a while, but it’ll happen.
@dLMN8R I think you misheard Gary. He was saying that releasing a map is *not* risky, but releasing game-changing updates like new abilities for classes *is* risky because it could potentially foul up the balance of the entire game.
April 10th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Peggle and Peggle: Nights are together for $9.99 (US) on Steam as the weekend deal.
April 10th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
I don’t know about Braid, but Darksector for PC zoomed under my radar.
April 10th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
@Dan. Of course the series won’t end. What I’m trying to say is Valve originally intended the episodes to be released as one game titled Half Life 3. However, they thought that instead of making people wait for six + years for another game, they would release the third in the series in parts.
And thats what they did. Valve have said that naming the episodes Half Life 2: Episode x was probably confusing and that Half Life 3: Episode x would have been more appropriate.
It’s entirely possible that the episodes will be packaged into a full package titled Half Life 3, because as far as Valve is concerned, this is Half Life 3. You’re just playing it a bit at a time.
April 11th, 2009 at 12:26 am
Is it just me, or is that second caller a big fan of Buzz Out Loud? And I am going to get Braid right now. Stupid timed 360 exclusive.
April 11th, 2009 at 5:44 am
@Fopington
Wrong again Half-Life 2: episodes were originally the Expansion pack AFTERMATH. Valve never said the episodes were Half-Life 3. They said there would be 3-part series.
Half-Life isn’t over yet. Even after Episode 3, that I can guarantee you.
April 11th, 2009 at 5:52 am
I accused you lot of being internationally myopic a few weeks back and i must now accuse you of being myopic once again (sorry!). Just because you have not been bothered to explore the wider casual PC games scene does not mean that it does not exist. Guys, go and explore sites like pogo/club pogo, bigfishgames, iwin, MSN Games, Real Arcade, Playfirst, cafe.com, Shockwave.com, Yahoo Games, sandlot, and reflexive (there are hundreds more). These sites are generating millions (and in many cases 10s of millions of players each month) and are targeted almost exclusively at the 25+ female market. Go to http://www.casualcharts.com/games/worldmap to see what they are buying. This has become a substantial international industry. The mainstay of the industy is premium downloads ($20 game purchases). The best selling games like the Diner Dash and Mystery Case Files have sold in the millions and spawned countless sequels. EA reported that Pogo generated $100m mostly from subscriptions, microtransactions and premium downloads in 2008 with a widely publicised demographic that is 60-75% female. Bigfishgames would not have been able to raise $83m in vc funding last year if it was not making good money. Oberon, a white label provider of casual games service primarily aimed at older women employs 500 people and has done so for several years with limited VC backing during that time. I reckon the Neilsen stats are spot on - after all they simply repeat what every other study of online/offline gamers has found over the last decade or so (just look at the ESA annual fact books).
April 11th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Thanks for fielding my question.
A couple quick notes:
1) A tossed hamster ball would still be deadly to its occupants regardless of whether the zombie tank doing the tossing was able to smash said ball.
2) Libraries are not like colonial williamsburg, and are still quite relevant. While much of the research material has gone to online databases, it’s still copyrighted and not something you can get at home without paying for. Unless Gary was talking about English libraries. They have been having a hard time. But then these are also people who set their national anthem to the tune of My Country Tis of Thee, so go figure…
3) Another thing you can get from your library? “Pride, Prejudice and Zombies.” It’s a retelling of the classic, but made actually interesting and relevant for today’s troubled times.
April 11th, 2009 at 10:05 am
@Lord Firefox
“Gabe Newell: Errr… I… I think that Aftermath was almost a temporary name. I always thought of it as Episodes One through Three because that’s how we planned the products out. I think people thought we’d need a name for them, and Aftermath ended up being more confusing than helpful.
Probably a better name for it would have been Half Life 3: Episode One, but these three are what we’re doing as our way of taking the next step forward, but Half-Life 2 was the name we used.”
The games are episodic releases of what together makes up Half Life 3. I’m willing got bet that all three episodes will be bundled together as a single product titled ‘Half Life 3′.
However, Valve could have changed their minds, that interview/article is from 2006 after all. If you have a source saying that it is not Half Life 3, I’d like to see it.
P.S Oh and also, I think I made it pretty clear that I’m certain that the series won’t end with Episode Three.
April 11th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
@Fopington I’m not sure what you’re arguing here. First you claimed that we shouldn’t be talking about a Half-Life 3 there isn’t going to be one, because Valve said that the episodes are HL3, but then you say that of course the series will continue. Given that regardless of what they originally conceived of they ended up with the naming scheme we have, the next product will inevitably be called Half-Life 3, since they’re unlikely to go from Half-Life 2: Episode 3 straight to Half-Life 4. And since we’re all in agreement that this will almost certainly happen, can we drop the semantic argument?
April 11th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
@Dan
Sorry if I came across as rude or something, I was just trying to say that weather or not you guys consider the Episodes to be Half Life 3 doesn’t matter seeing as Valve does (Or at least, did). I still think that Valve will release the episodes as a full package titled Half Life 3, and then continue the series in a couple of years with Half Life 4.
But if they don’t, I agree that the next game will be called Half Life 3. Mostly to avoid confusion.
And thats all I have to say about that.
April 11th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
GO PIRATES
Ok im not big on people dying, but really the u.s. needs to realize that other country’s(other than the middle east) can do dammage.
April 11th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
@padan
We all know that pirates can do serious damage but the problem is that nobody wants to fight them. These cargo ships SHOULD be escorted by the navy but since they don’t want to do that, the shipping companies SHOULD arm the ship’s crew members and put razor sharp barbed wire around them because these pirates are armed the sailors aren’t, making the battle hopeless.
I know that wasn’t gaming related but I just wanted to address my political opinions about this piracy issue.
April 12th, 2009 at 9:10 am
I think I would have liked the idea of Valve doing more dlc content for Half-life 2 than tf2, if only they couldn’t do both. The only hl2 dlc release was the lost coast. The episodic content should come out on a regular basis. If they are not giving us episode 3 this year, they should make some dlc content, while hopefully not delaying other projects.
Anyone else in the same boat and would rather see more hl2 dlc content, possibly instead of all the tf2 dlc?
April 12th, 2009 at 10:02 am
I think that valve just update counter strike source. u know the average stuff, update the graphics maybe add multiple core support and some new levels, alot of people left when it got stale
April 12th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
I’m just trying to think what exactly could be a new breakthrough innovation for a Half-Life 3. In HL2 we got the gravity gun which is still very innovative and nobody managed to copy yet. Maybe the next breakthrough innovation would be the use of the Portal gun in actual combat instead of puzzle solving. What do you guys think?
April 12th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
So I bought Tales of Valor fully expecting the three new campaigns to be well fleshed out and even introducing a new race or two, but I have been pretty let down by what I’ve purchased so far.
I am a huge CoH nut, and even reviewed Opposing Fronts for Gamer 2.0
http://www.gamer20.com/gamehub/company-of-heroes-opposing-fronts-pc/review/1202/
And as a CoH nut, I feel really let down by ToV. Don’t get me wrong… it isn’t “bad” by any means… it just feels more like a well put together mod package than anything else.
It also doesn’t feel like CoH… If I want to play this style of action oriented RTS, I’ll load up DoW2. But when I start CoH, I expect to play a certain sort of game, and this expansion just lacks the CoH identity. I hope this is a one off thing, because Relic are certainly treading dangerous waters here.
I heard rumors of a Pacific campaign, and I expect that to be the proper expansion CoH fans have been looking for.
This, I liken more to a Sims “fun objects and items” style of expansion… which isn’t really an expansion, but a pit stop, and a bit of a cash-in.
April 13th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
That pirate conflict was resolved i think yesterday or the night before, 3 of the pirates were shot and one was captured. the guy that was hostage was saved w/o any wounds. sorry my grammer is not good
nice podcast keep it up. btw i think i played one of u on l4d, i know ur voice lol
April 13th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Hey whoever the douche chewing the gummy bears the entire episode is please stop.
April 13th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
http://www.threadless.com/product/1779/The_Gaming_Revolution
April 13th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
First, to get this off my chest:
@Padan, you are ridiculously ignorant on this topic. First, you cheer on criminal action that results in people being held ransom for millions of dollars. They are murderers and thieves. Then you say they equate to a foreign nation? Second, no, they aren’t a nation, they are seaborne criminals, operating out of chaotic port-lands (mostly Somalia), and operate as such. They would, and have, targeted any ship of any flag, including Somalia (if it had any ships to fly the flag with). Their own country/whatever relates to that for them would abandon them for any sort of power or monetary supplement. Thirdly, its not easy to “stop” piracy, and the fact that this concluded like this is downright amazing. No other country can stop it, hell even after this I doubt the US could do much.
Now, as for thegamepro8171, that is not the solution. Speak to any merchant, Coast Guard, or Navy sailor, and they will all tell you that not having firearms available is something that will never change. This is because of the worlds dependence and trust of shipborne mercantile. That trust needs to exist at every port, or else we get the wonderful empire-driven companies like the East Indian Trading company back. And that is bad. Even in today’s fragile world, US flagged merchant ships are openly welcomed into North Korean ports, mostly because of the “code” mercantile ships follow. The Navy can’t be protecting every mercantile ship, because it would just create a logistical nightmare, even if the ships were dedicated to that task, which they aren’t.
Well, ok I am done with that.
Video Game speak time!
I just wish Valve would freakin release Episode 3. They got the episodic gaming thing wrong lol.
April 14th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
@ The people talking about political issues:
Take it somewhere else please, that’s all I’m going to say about it. This is a PC Gaming channel not a political forum.
Now with that out of the way; About will Wright leaving EA, I say “WOOHOO ABOUT F-ING TIME”
I hope his next move is to buy his “Sim” series back from EA and turn it back into what it was originally. Probably not but I can dream.
And I think he should make another game like Spore, but put what HE wants into it. It probably won’t be called Spore, but I can imagine it would be more interesting than the dumb-down toy that EA released.
And I don’t care how complex Will Wright’s version of Spore would have been, I still would play it, even if I have to read a 600 page manual to understand it all. A game from Will Wright is worth the effort.
April 14th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Anyone playing Men of War? Maybe you guys could talk about it next week.
April 15th, 2009 at 10:57 am
I’ve got an interesting question for the PCG staff and the rest of the board too (I got my political jam out, Firefox, even if it was a subject mentioned on the podcast
):
Every year around Festivus-time (October, November, December), there is the glorious deluge of AAA releases plus the ridiculous level of sales of older games, priced to move. I find myself completely ignoring quality releases (even now!) after the last gaming flood. How many games are still on everyones shelves, waiting to be played/finished? What games from the deluge kept you from playing all the other goodness?
Myself, due to the flood of holiday releases, the purchase of an Xbox360, and the incredible post-Christmas Steam sale, have purchased, and not played:
Spore
STALKER Clear Sky
FarCry 2
GTAIV
NHL09
The Dawn of War Complete Pack (Finished the vanilla campaign, going through Winter Assault now, great game)
Civ IV complete pack
Reasons:
Left 4 Dead
Fallout 3
TF2 (Scout Release)
Sins of a Solar Empire
The Witcher (Long game! still haven’t finished it!)
So, who else has found they are buying games and not putting any time into them because of some other game?
Oh and Steam officially is crack-cocaine for PC gamers…
April 15th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
I still haven’t finished:
Titan Quest\Immortal Throne
Prey
GTA: San Andreas
KOTOR
Battle For Middle Earth I or II
and a bunch of others
Mostly because of:
X3: Reunion and my computer getting messed up a lot because I wasn’t using Firefox at the time.
April 15th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Any1 notice that ea is sorta trying to buy everything they possibly can so that all creative ideas can be ietrher destroyd or controlled only by them? Im some what new to the whole pc gaming scene so im not quiet sure wat all the talk is about.
April 15th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
It has been almost 5 months since GTA 4 came out on PC and after 3 patches it still has lots of technical issues.
1)What the F*ck does Rockstar social club do? Why do we need it? Why does it take so much resources?
2)Why is there still no SLI support?
3)Why can’t my rig with 3GB of ram, 2 8800GTS (320mb each), and a 2.94ghz quad-core cpu at least run this game on the same visual settings as the ps3 with just 256mb of ram, a custom nvidia gpu, and a powerpc cpu.
4)There are over 250,000 views on the steam support forums alone, so why didn’t they delay this game to get it done right the first time?
I think that cheap ass sloppy console ports are a greater threat to pc gaming than piracy because the paying customer will become frustrated that he needed to upgrade his hardware which didn’t fix the problems. He will move to consoles simply because they are easier to deal with.
April 15th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
@ Padan:
What the hell are you talking about.
@thegamepro8171
I have to agree, I ended up getting an Xbox360 and buying it for that instead (but its not the reason I got a 360, that was for Street Fighter IV and NHL09) because of the PC issues. Rockstar, from my experience, has always done shoddy console ports since GTAIII, full of frustrating bugs and crappy controls. Sorry to hear your pain.
April 15th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
I’ve only played GTA IV for a little bit on my friend’s Xbox 360, but sprinting while crouching in that game is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Has anyone else here tried it?
April 16th, 2009 at 1:26 am
I still haven’t finished:
Far Cry 2
Red Alert 3
A Vampyre Story
Valkyria Chronicles
Pnembra Black Plague
Every Peggle Nights Challenge
Reasons:
Work
GF
Ski Season
It’s coming around though. I’ve just spent more time with Vampyre story and Red Alert 3. Very satisfying games.
April 16th, 2009 at 10:34 am
I agree with dLMN8R about Evan and the “mouth noises”. Maybe Evan’s mic is too sensitive or something, but the noises are so distracting (and stomach turning)! It’s like someone else said, it sounds like someone eating gummy bears…but only while Evan is talking. Sorry Evan!
April 16th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
It’s not that big of a deal. Listen to the content.
April 16th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
I hear it too, but honestly it doesn’t bother me. Before people started pointing it out, I never even noticed it.
April 16th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
maybe you shouldn’t listen when you are hungry because your body won’t think about anything but food. lol.
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:17 am
This episode of Sine Language has a segment on how to deal with “mouth clicks” from a podcast producer’s perspective, and it has techniques on A) preventing it in the first place, and B)removing/reducing it in post:
http://www.audio2u.com/?p=593
I love his contributions to the podcast, but when he’s clicking and ticking away it’s all I hear…