PCGP Episode #175: Shoot Furry Things
It’s a little more intimate this week with Logan, Evan, and Josh returning to the saddle of the podcast horse. It gallops around discussing DNF footage, Th4if 4, average rated but full of fun games, and updates to the TF2 Sniper class which break in the middle of recording. Also, the hosts try not to get bucked off by hard hitting listener questions - keep ‘em coming good folk, excellent job. pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com or 877-404-1337 ext 724
May 14th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
first!!! Nice job fellas
May 14th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!
May 14th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
Im going to guess the big cover story is Blizzards new MMO. Anyone have any other guesses?
May 14th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Great podcast, as always.
And also I hate you for those bleeps.
May 15th, 2009 at 1:33 am
Something I’ve noticed in the last few weeks: my security software (avast!) is detecting and blocking access to a malicious site (bl4ckst4r.cn/blog/go.php?sid=17) whenever I come here (and only here). It’s doubly strange as I can’t find any trace of that address in the source code for the webpage.
Anyone else getting something similar and know why?
Also, damn you beeps!
May 15th, 2009 at 4:17 am
Right about at 48:16 they bleep most of it, but the last word comes out, is -ware,
Like(from ***** ****ware)
I am guessing its valve software and blizzard dont have ware in its title, it is just blizzard or Activision Blizzard. And Logan is talking about features so it has to be Valve
May 15th, 2009 at 4:23 am
Still don’t understand the bleeping, christ it is a podcast - we deliberatelly d/l it so we know what we r in 4 , why the censorship ?? Every other podcast I listen to drops as many F bombs as u guys did in the war but hey - its fun and amusing.
May 15th, 2009 at 7:38 am
@Archaos: Avast! does the same thing for me here. I don’t know why. Makes me slightly uncomfortable.
Hey Evan,
I think you mention about how Thief 4 is likely going cross platform, which obviously brings issues. My question is, do you think that cross platform is less of an issue now that we are passed ugly PS2 ports? PS3 and 360 do bring better textures, models, shading, than previous console generations. Still though, controls continue to be quite different.
There’s also the idea that it’s the potential additional console game sales that allow for a game like Thief 4 to get green lit.
Thoughts?
May 15th, 2009 at 10:22 am
I cannot wait for Deus Ex 3 or Thief 4. I don’t care how console-y they’ll potentially get. I just want Thief 4 to not be modernized… keep it in the old steampunkin’ days!
Also, just wanted everyone to know that Ex-Intern Intern Andy has hit 2,300 hours in World of WarCraft.
Sad.
May 15th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Informing us in early May of a scoop you have and telling us that we can read about it in the August issue is right there a major illustration of why paper media is being superseded by its online counter part.
And I know, the August ish is probably available in July and you couldn’t blog or post about what exactly the scoop is about due to an NDA but still . . . . Like it or not, this is the age twitter. Not month by month, day by day or even hour by hour updates. You demonstrated this yourself in the same podcast with the direct relay the moment the Sniper class info from TF came out.
The fact that any dope can throw up a game blog and get scoops or opine means that quality games journalism doesn’t have the show to its self any more in the way it did when expensive printing and distribution etc kept the hacks at bay.
I don’t regret the end of print games mags and you guys and others are still clinging on but it’s inevitable that the switch will be completed eventualy. I just hope that all the quality from the print world can rise to the top when they are mixing it up with the fly by nighters.
Sorry but phrases such as ‘you can read about it in August’ just drive this point home.
May 15th, 2009 at 11:19 am
@Vagabond Re:2,300 hours. Pfffft Lightweight! I had 100 days /played on my rogue before the first expansion came out! Wait… That’s not something I should be proud about is it? D’oh!
May 15th, 2009 at 11:51 am
I always hear discussions about emotional points in games, yet everyone always seems to forget about the ending to Half-Life 2: Episode Two. How do people forget that amazing ending? Merle Dandridge deserves some sort of award for a performance.
Portal was a great game with some fantastic storytelling, but to me the whole companion cube was much more of an inside joke meme than actual emotional point. Episode Two was totally genuine, through and through.
May 15th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
If I were to point out a game that was a good experience, but not necessarily a good game, it would have to be Armed and Dangerous, by Lucasarts. Hello Shark Gun!
May 15th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Yes there is seriously something wrong with the website.
When downloading the podcast, my download manager, Free Download Manager also automatically downloaded a PDF file from bl4ckst4r.cn/blog/go.php?sid=17. I scanned the PDF with AVG free which found a virus in it!
This really freaks me out, because I had just entered my details to buy games off Steam!
May 15th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
I agree with Evan that I longed for Duke Nukem for no other reason then to play an FPS that didn’t take itself so seriously. It seems like pretty much every shooter is in the same dark, gritty, realistic vein and I would kill for another NOLF or something.
Also, yes, the end of Half-Life 2: Episode 2 is certainly an emotional moment for me, especially since it spent so much time in the previous two incarnations of the series developing those characters. While it was a “twist” that occurs in a lot of action games, usually it’s so poorly developed storywise that it doesn’t really bother you. But in this case, well, when I’m shooting combine in the face in Episode 3, it’s going to feel far more personal than ever before.
May 15th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Just thought whoever runs this site should know you have some JS injection going on in your http://www.pcgamerpodcast.com/wp-content/plugins/sociable/description_selection.js file.
Anyone running firebug checkout the net monitor tab and look for a site loading to:
http://bl4ckst4r.cn/blog/go.php?sid=17.
If you wanna fix it just remove the offending javascript from the above file.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Logan
A while back you recommended rainbow six Vegas. I went out and found it for like $10 at Target, but didn’t really like the game*console-idis*. But you also recommended the Sidewinder gaming mouse, and that mouse is the shit.(3 days submerged in salt water and it still works) But pretty recently you recommended the new Punisher warzone movie. I was watching HBO and hitman was on,*yawn* I then had itch for a violent and bloody film. I thought of what you said and headed to the red box. HOLY SHIT MAN!!!! That movie really hit the spot! My craving of bloody violence satisfied. Though the previews look terrible, the movie is really not that bad. Like a good comic book movie. But gory. Glad you are back on the podcast.
May 15th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
If it’s Valve software it probably has to do with HL2: Episode 3
May 15th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
@Spellchrome:
It isn’t the graphics side of playing multiplatform releases on PC that bugs me. Other than maybe a few optimization issues, I’m almost always getting the best visual experience on PC–COD5, Wanted, Wheelman, and Terminator have all shown me that after reviewing them.
I’m not going to call it a trend, but I’m more irked by games (especially PC legacy titles) being designed in a way that accommodates gamepad controls/console interface. It’s not simply UI–FEAR 2 might be the best example I can provide. The first FEAR felt like a genuine, PC-centric title: more emphasis on neat slide/melee moves, and the weapons (Penetrator, disintegratin’ particle cannon) had a tint of that Counter-Strike precision and recoil nuance that’s lacking in nearly every single weap in FEAR 2. The autosave system is another example of this: no option to turn it off, and the game dragged every 4-5 minutes when it went to save. Anyway, I think it’s smart business for publishers to make their games more accessible to a larger audience; I just want the nuance, airtight control, and spirit of complexity in games like Thief to be retained when they’re doing a remake.
@Poita:
You’re perpetuating myths, but our weird schedule is partly to blame. Subscribers started getting our “July” issue last week, and our “August” issue goes out on June 3. But the argument you’re making is that the web is replacing paper media because it’s more timely, and can publish minute-to-minute information. Well, okay. Here are some games we’ve covered exclusively this year:
-First ever hands-on with Dragon Age: Origins
-First reveal of Star Wars: The Old Republic
-First hands-on with Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor
-First reveal of Borderlands’ new art style/direction
-First review of The Sims 3
-First review of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
-First look at Supreme Commander 2
-First hands-on/announced Red Orchestra 2
-Announced Red Alert 3: Uprising
-[August’s mind-shattering feature]
I’m just glancing at the covers on my desk. Timeliness isn’t the only thing that produces value in written content, but if you’re judging us there, I think we’ve been successful. You’re dead, morgued-and-funeraled wrong when you characterize print readers as “clinging on,” against an inevitable switch, Poita. And I’m sorry to drum up such a response, but I really think I speak for a readership that values content that isn’t a disposable, symmetrical “feed” of square paragraphs and stock images with no customized design, sense of flow, or prominence–that’s fast food. There’s inherent advantages to a format that doesn’t rely on generating traffic, clickthrus, and “unique users” with how it frames and publishes content, for one. We’re designed, packaged, plattered and served for readers, and I hope our pages evoke the same pride, detail, and commemoration that I feel when we’re putting the magazine together.
May 15th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
While you guys were discussing humorous FPS games I just noticed that no one mentioned Serious Sam….those games were pretty funny.
May 15th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
@ fiveht You are a rock star. I’ve sent your comment to our web gnomes and they are on the case. Thanks!
Again, everybody: Please disable Adobe Acrobat reader, or at least disable it as the default handler for PDFs in your web browser. If anybody’s uncertain how to do this, let me know and I’ll post links to instructions. A thousand thanks for your patience!
@ KrazIIvan What was your mouse doing in salt water for three days? Did it have flu symptoms? And yeah, PWZ had me at the first shootout over the dinner table. Now find a way to see Dead Set!
@Stryc9 Right you are. Croteam is working on a new one!
@Evan Rock on brother. Long may you wave!
May 15th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
hi
with the sniper update making the spy useless,
the spy is getting an update,
because of the spy update I’ll buy the game,
http://www.teamfortress.com/spyupdate/english.htm
Does any one need a necromancer in there guild wars guild
May 15th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Not great game that I loved: Rune.
Remember it? I think PCG rated it 67%, but I loved the Viking setting and bloody hack-n-slash combat. Sure, the ending was lame, but multiplayer was a blast (with friends) and who can turn down the chance to hack off an enemies arm, then beat him to death with it?
May 16th, 2009 at 9:04 am
@ Evan.
A very good response. An eye opener too.
Your mag costs $26 an issue here in korea in the bookshops that have English sections and they security wrap them in thick plastic to prevent browsing so i haven’t read a PC gamer in a while I admit.
That’s quite a list of exclusives. I guess if a game company is not ready to release details in the now then they can plan a ‘reveal’ months in advance and that can work with magazines still. I think though that for regular news flow though they can never keep up with websites. I think games mags today are to games sites what quarterly periodicals used to be to weekly magazines.
Don’t get me wron’g. I truly love holding an actual magazine in my hands and having a good read while drinking a cup of tea at home. I also get your point about presentation. Although, I have to say that comming from the UK i used to have an issue with American mags (of all kinds) exactly for the problem you described (blocks of text with regimented blocks of photos) I guess the likes of Gary Whitta an other Brit editors have had a European influence on American magazine design (as they did with car design).
So, quality writing and exclusives and more artistic and thoughtful layout is all that seperates paper magazines from online content then??? Well, can’t websites just about provide those things too? I personaly won’t read many games sites because of the migrane inducing horrible layout but if i find a site with a nice layout, quality writing and good feature stories then I’m not gonna miss magazines as much as I currently do.
I didn’t mean that the readers of your mag were clinging on. I mean that as Games for windows/CGW and others folded and PCG looks quite slim (as does Wired) I’m sure it’s only a matter of time, probably years, until there is only one or two mags left. I hope PCG is one of them but probably it will be relegated to a section of a general PC mag and eventually even that mag will go the way of the Video and now DVD rental shops which are also being superseded by the net.
I an’t ‘ever’ going to buy a Kindle but if some very cheap, good quality, colour e ink sollution comes out then I would subscribe to something like PCG. But, even though my computer is 6 years old (slightly newer graphics card) I bought a 30″ monitor for $1,300 because i not do almost all my newspaper and magazine like reading activities online and at full screen with font magnification it’s quite comfortable.
I didn’t mean my post as an attack on what you guys do. Just the general trend of things. You can’t stop progress. I actually have a great appreciation for the work you guys put in. Especially on the podcast.
May 16th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
About the whole RPG empty nest syndrome… I can finally let some of this out since my fellow geeks were doing so as well.
When I finished the Baldur’s Gate II expansion for the first time and read the end stories for Jaheira, Minsc, Viconia etc, I WAS SO DEPRESSED. I was only 17… maybe that’s it… but shit, I WAS SO SAD!
It took so long to get over that feeling.
And that’s an interesting point about MMOs. Maybe that’s why people never want to end their subscriptions!
May 16th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Guys,
I know it isn’t a coop, but you could play Psychonauts with your kids. I played it with my cousin’s 10 year old daughter, and she had a blast for two hours she was visiting.
May 17th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
I don’t see why 3D Realms shut down after looking at the DNF footage that was released. It obviously shows they are quite adept at making a game, it looked promising for the year 2009, and the game would be a major success (duh). Why couldn’t they just stick at it? I’m sure the company is full of people who are stoked for the game, but even if they didn’t have the moolah, I really wish they could have just stuck at it and said to their employees, “Times are tough and we’re not making money, but please just finish this game anyway for the gamers out there,” or somethimg like that.
May 17th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
@Pugnate,
That was one of those games that you just didn’t want to end. Like when you’re all alone after what looked like the climax battle.
@Poita and Evan
As for the magazine discussion and whether or not published, retail-type, magazines will ever disappear, I’d have to disagree. Even with the digital transition coming along over the years, people still purchase products for a sense of utility. As simplistic as it can be to purchase a video game over the internet and have it downloaded within minutes, or an hour, as Logan Decker has repeatedly shown and mentioned, having the readme and the box and all the little goodies that the box held for the trip home no longer exist in the digital era.
Sure, we don’t get a map cloth when we purchase Fallout 3’s regular retail edition, but even grabbing a game, and taking it home to play for the first time itself has a satisfaction. Retail video games will never completely die out because there’s always the special released editions along with the fact that some people, regardless of how many, need the feeling that they are getting something material and real out of their purchase.
Steam may seem to be permanent in the PC market now, but if Steam and Valve suddenly disappeared forever, all of our digitally owned games might go away without warning, never to be played again. However, people who purchased their games out of retail have nothing to worry about aside from keeping the condition of their DVDs or CD video games intact. Some people just like to play it on the safe side in these conditions as they worry about putting all their reliance on a non-tangible product.
Others use the boxes as displays, I have a couple dozen games on my shelf right now that in a way show the type of gamer I am just by looking at them.
All of this can be the same for a paper published magazine. Some people just want to keep and hold the magazines, they look nice on a shelf. It feels like we’re getting something real that will always exist unless we ourselves don’t care for the objects, and it will always feel like this with every periodical arrival. Every step of the process of reading my magazine can and will never be replicated with a digitally distributed Adobe Acrobat PC Gamer issue. It just won’t happen. My PC can’t offer those tangible utilities, and therefore I would almost always subscribe to PC Gamer’s physical magazine publication.
Also Poita, how much does a yearly subscription cost in Korea? I know retail prices for the magazine are expensive, they’re $10 in the US. But it’s only about $20 in the US for a yearly subscription. With that comparison, the subscription is a steal beyond anything I’ve ever seen, aside from Valve’s 2008 Holiday Steam Sale.
May 17th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
u know like the podcast when they played L4D live wile recording the podcast i think they should do the same thing with Demigod. Only they should have it vidoe recored. how many other poeple think this is a great idea.
May 18th, 2009 at 12:53 am
They were planning to turn that into a video podcast until a patch wiped out all the recorded demo files or whatever they call in-game recordings these days.
May 18th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
This, I’m sure, is obvious to many people, and will probably sound like a stupid question but… why is the issue that comes out on June 3rd dubbed ‘the August’ issue? Wouldn’t it make more sense to call it the June issue?
May 18th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
I know everyone hated it, but one of the very few games I’ve managed to get my wife interested in was American McGee’s Grim. She liked the comments he’d spout out “Oh no, the smelly man is coming!”. I think kiddies would enjoy it too.
I used to play adventure games with my folks back in the day too. I remember each of us would have our own save game on Indy and the fate of atlantis and so whenever we’d get stuck, we’d just ask help from one of the other family members who were also playing.
Spore is very kiddie friendly too. The first two stages particularly are just good fun. It’s also neat to be able to “buzz” each others planets if one is way ahead of the other.
@wildcat - I agree with Demigod. Its a game I’ll probably pick up when i see it on special offer and when all the bugs have been completely ironed out and I’d like to see the PCG guys play it to increase my interest.
May 18th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
@ Logan
My house flooded from hurricane Ike last year. 5 1/2 feet of water, it was then only thing that worked. My computer was on my dresser in my room, it was less then an inch from being flooded. The dresser was the only piece of furniture in my house that didn’t move.
May 18th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
@Pani- thanks and thats wat i was thinking i havent picked up the game either although seeing PCG guys playing it would spark my intrest even mor. although i do plan to buy it this weekend and try to deal with all the bugs.
@KrazIIvan- ouch well its a good thing that ur computer survived but sorry about ur house that really sukes.
May 18th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Anyone see that the sniper was killed by the spy?
May 18th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTj6tauY1JU
May 18th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Somewhat average games: Spiderweb Software. I love the games in general. They’re not what I’d call stellar games. We’re talking top-down, 2-d with limited 3-d rpgs. No mindblowing graphics. What the originals have had, at least (I haven’t bought the most recent titles yet), was an interesting world. I recall seeing a couple reviews in PCG, mostly in the low 70s, one might have gotten a mid-80s. Also the Escape Velocity series from Ambrosia Software — nowadays, buying just the last one — EV Nova — will let you, with addons, able to play the first two as well. It’s a 2-d space game. Start off with a small ship, fly around do cargo run missions, buy low and sell high if you want, and get involved in intergalactic wars. Again, it doesn’t look like all that much, but.. Part of it is the ease of the game, part of it is the extensibility, part is the replayability, and part is the story. For a space game, I love the controls. Arrow keys, space bar, shift, tab, and a couple letters. No complication. I’ve played the 3-d ones, and I almost always eventually end up yelling at the ship as I have trouble bringing it around to gun down enemies or dogfighting — the X series is a prime example. A fairly large base of user-created content — ports of the original two into the engine for the third. Replayability — multiple factions you can side with, in a fairly large universe. The third game had six distinct factions, I seem to recall, not counting the smaller missions you might never find the first time through. The stories usually yanked at me pretty good too, heroic deaths and all that sort of thing.
As for cutscenes making me cry, I can’t really think of any. RPGs in general are pretty good at emotion though, connecting you with your party. Half-Life 2 and the Vance family have already been mentioned. KotOR, by involving your party’s past and family in the story made it pretty emotional at times. System Shock 2, a little — you go through a good part of the game with a certain somebody as your only lifeline quite literally — your only connection to something living that isn’t trying to kill you. And then.. . Heh. The emotion of anger, with the G-Man in HL, and the end cutscene of Soldier of Fortune 2.
May 18th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
One of my favourite tutorials was when you first get the gravity gun in Half-Life 2, and use it to play fetch with Dog. The whole scene really let you connect with Alyx and Dog because you actually felt safe for a moment, as if the world hadn’t been taken over by aliens because you screwed up an experiment like a dumbass in the first game.
The way the mechanics of the gravity gun were integrated into the scene made it very fun and memorable, the whole bit was brilliant. All I could think of then was “OMG! Dawg iz so awsum!” I twittered it, actually (this was just this past February).
May 19th, 2009 at 12:42 am
Logan, there may have been a new Montauk Monster siting:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30742498/
May 19th, 2009 at 10:23 am
DUN DUN DUN.
May 19th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
@ Pugnate That’s what I looked like after last weekend.
May 19th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
hey when i go to steam to get the warhammer 40,000 dawn of war II sound track i couldnt find it. Dan siad you can get it off steam but im just not seeing it can some one pleas help me out.
@logan i was looking into getting an entire new PC what do you recomend. i was thinken about going with all decked out new alineware but its kindaa exspensive. so wat do suggest?
May 19th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
@Wildcat The link is right above the System Requirements on the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II store page on Steam http://store.steampowered.com/app/15620/
Also, if you’re looking to build a system, Logan puts together a great list of what components to buy for an entry-level, mid-level, and dream system in every issue. In the last (June) issue, the Hard Stuff Trinity is on page 94
May 19th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
@Josh-thanks im looking at it now damn I must be blinded if i didnt see that before oh and im looking at the issue now but i want to get all the stuff for tthe dream colume im going to have to start saven up some money:). oh and are any of you guys sined up for thSCII beta coming up.
May 19th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
I just recieved the july 09 issue today and one thing I noticed was that the reviews no longer have the Pro/Cons of the games, just the score and the bottom line. Is there a good reason for this because the Pros/Cons are very important to me since they help simplify my understanding of the score’s justification. Everything else is good though so just keep up the good work anyways.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
@thegamepro8171
Scores are dumb and arbitrary, and should be abolished. Just read the review.
May 20th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
@Aeshir I like scores AND the review - what what?
May 20th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Numbers versus words: who will survive?
May 20th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
There are a lot more numbers than words, they could zerg ‘em.
May 20th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
@Evan
THIS SUMMER…
@AndyB
It makes for a very long conversation, but the takeaway is that you simply can’t measure a game’s quality with a number, and that people rely on the number too much, which often results in people passing up a game that would otherwise appeal to them because of unique traits or gameplay. Trying to apply an arbitrary number like a score takes away from the objectivity of the review; while (as Dan once said on the podcast) a review shouldn’t read like a list of features, it also shouldn’t use a score to put down aspects of a game that are not purely quality based (technical quality of graphics, etc.), just because the reviewer doesn’t like said aspects.
Case in point: Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts for the 360: I like to build things, which this game lets me do with its robust vehicle creator. This game would probably be my game of the year for 2008, but because not everyone likes to create their own fun, it only has a Metacritic score of 80. If I hadn’t been such a big fan of the previous Banjo-Kazooie games on the N64, I might’ve passed up the game because of the score, as many others who would have enjoyed it inevitably have.
I need to top using run-on sentences.
May 20th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
@Aeshir
In a world…where some gamers would rather use two digits to describe how they feel about a game over 700+ words, he dared to be literate.
Soundbyte: “If this game review drops below 7/10 miles an hour, this magazine is going to explode!”
Malcolm McDowell is: The Game Reader II: The Literacying
May 20th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
lo0l the new meet the spy video is hilarious
May 20th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
@Aeshir
I thought the whole point of the words was to justify the scores awarded, right?
I don’t just read the numbers and skip the words, I read the full review after I look at the numbers to understand the score’s justifications.
You’re missing my point though. I’m not complaining about numbers vs words debate, I’m just wondering what happened to the Pros/Cons section that was right above the “Bottom Line” section. I really liked the pros and cons section because it helped summarize the reviews for me.
Don’t get me wrong though, I don’t use the score and the Pros/Cons as a shortcut from reading the full review, I still read the whole review but the Pros/Cons with the scores, help me understand the review better.
May 20th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
@thegamepro8171
I know, I know, I just really hate review scores. Sorry lol.
May 20th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
@Aeshir - i have to agree with you beacse the score isnt wat should difnen a game but the pros and cons is some thing that i like becuae it can help you understand the game more then you all ready do.
But a game could be a good game if your into your gender but when you look a reivee it could be bad so you mite over look that game wich isnt good.
May 20th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
@Evan
And Jeff Gerstmann can star in it! It’s about a global conspiracy to traffic illegal review scores and frame words in order to get them outlawed!
It’s PERFECT!
@thegamepro8171 @wildcat
I agree with you guys about the pros and cons though, they are definitely handy.
May 20th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
@thegamepro8171 Actually, the number is decided on based on the review text, not the other way around. If they don’t match up, the score changes, not the text.
As for the decision to ditch the highs/lows boxes, that came from looking at the reviews pages and thinking about what we could do to get more useful information on there (see the improved Vitals listings and higher word counts) by removing less useful and redundant information. The highs and lows are just summaries of what’s already in the text, so they’re really just taking up space to say the same thing twice. They do serve as a quick way to see if the game is good or not, but that’s what the score itself is for, so that function is redundant, too. So we’re trying something new that does make some small sacrifices, but we think it’s a net improvement. It’s a broken eggs/omelet situation.
May 20th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
@Dan S
OK, I see what you mean, the Highs and Lows were basically just snippets from the review itself. I guess I’ll have to find the highs and lows from the review itself but in return there are more words in the review and vitals so I’ll try to enjoy these changes.
Also, the “Meet The Spy” video is very funny. I reccomend you all watch it.
May 21st, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Would all the beeps cover up for ‘Relic Entertainment’ and ‘Homeworld 3′? Maybe?
Let’s dream big…
May 21st, 2009 at 5:25 pm
I just came by today to make sure there was no post about a lack of podcast today and my AVG installation said there was a threat detected on the page in file:
http://www.pcgamerpodcast.com/wp-content/plugins/sociable/description_selection.js
saying it was an “Exploit Link to known exploit site”. Just want to make yall aware of it
Hmm seems that people have already posted about this.
May 21st, 2009 at 6:20 pm
The podcast might be posted a bit later today than usual, but (fingers crossed) you will be well rewarded for your extra patience…
May 21st, 2009 at 7:26 pm
I might know, but I still don’t know for sure.
Think of the ______ware phrase.
All the developers that have ________ware as a name. Relic Entertainment is out, EA Games is out, Activision is out, Ubi-out, Blizzard-out, Maxis-out, Crytek-out.
Valve Softawre-IN
Id Software-IN
I asked Evan if it was Doom 4, he said no. Not that he’d tell me if I was right.
Also note the repeated mentioning of heads and brains exploding or going into space upon exploding. Evan even told me that it would melt my brain, and then told me to wear a helmet upon ending the conversation and leaving Steam.
I think it’s Id Software. Doom 4 is supposed to be a special project that is neither a reboot, nor a continuance from Doom 3. So what’s special about it?
May 21st, 2009 at 7:47 pm
He could’ve been mumbling stuff randomly for all we know. It was going to be beeped in the end anyways….. Maybe Logan actually said ‘….at the offices of YourMotherWare to see the world premiere of Super Galaga 64….’
I still want hope for HW3.
:)
May 21st, 2009 at 8:14 pm
He actually said cucumber-ware if I remember.
May 21st, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Oi, wheres my podcast at?!!!
Like 15 minutes late!
Im a busy man, stuff to do ppl to own.
May 21st, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Yeah, I figured as such about the bleeping.
But there has been repeated head explosion of head melting mentioning.
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:01 am
@Lupin Saiko, yhea same thing happened to me, it said firefox been infected, so i disabled pcgamerpodcast site using my noscript addon in firefox, nothing is coming up now.
@The Typer dude, i did the investigation of what -ware it was like 40 or 50 post before you, give me back my thunder. And now where were we? Oh yes, my conclusion is its Coconut-ware