Codicier

Woop!Woop!

Think we need to add another one Though of course in this category as in life it must be remembered Big Dog IS a threat.

I'm Playing Brutal Legend atm, it is a flawed gem but totally worth talking about IMO. I'd love to hear the guys discussing it because often the most interesting insights we hear from the crew are on why games were so nearly (but not quite) great.

I think what you need to remember is that he went to Zynga via EA's social gaming division, so its not like he's someone who got lured into the industry by the promise of a big pay packet, he was in all likelihood (as heretical as this may sound) interested in the possibilities offer by social games. Outside Popcap no one has yet really made a critically praised and successful social game, so I can imagine to someone who has already helmed what is arguably the biggest IP in strategy gaming that the challenge that presents could have been a interesting one. For all we know now Soren might be joining Stardock to produce a Facebook version of Gal Civ or Elemental Anyway my point broadly speaking is that social gaming isn't inherently evil, and perhaps we should actually be a little sad that all these great designers don't seem to be able to quite find the formula for a breakout strategy hit, because personally I want as many people playing strategy games as possible.

Sorry I'm way behind the majority here but I've only just finished Cloud Atlas partly due to having a near fatal reaction to the Lusia Rey and Cavendish parts leaving me feeling utterly unmotivated to read on for a long while. I really enjoyed both the 1st and 2nd part of the sextet but when I hit those stories I felt like I was dragging myself forward. Unlike a lot of people I shot through both Somni and Sloosha's parts with the language causing me no problems at all. I wonder if that may be because being dyslexic a lot of the rules and rhythms of written languish bounce of me anyway, so I shouldn't be surprised that a pattern of speech which discarded a lot of their trappings didn’t bother me too much. The first thing I wanted to ask about is that contrary to what a lot of people are saying is that I think within the 'reality' of the tale Buenas Yerbas is a real city. Why? Because Meronym mentions Buenas Yerbs (on page 285) while talking about the old cities that her ship visited while searching for pockets of civilisation. A few possible implications come to mind: 1. Somehow the fictional Buenas Yerbas has become a semi-mythical “Atlantis” type city for Meronym's people. 2. It's one tiny facet different about the world of cloud atlas, which actually means nothing in the bigger scheme of things. 3. If we assume their overlapping lifespans means one or another is a fictional character within cloud atlas's greater world, then Buenas Yerbas existence could mean Lusia Rey's story arc could be 'real' and Timothy Cavendish could be the invention (possibly of Lusia Rey in later life). The last ones a bit of a stretch but I think it's interesting that perhaps Chris and Sean's decision to decide Lusia Rey's arc is fiction could be influenced because they live on the west coast, and to them the non-existence of Buenas Yerbas is a very immediate thing. On another note while I do agree the brand verbs did date it, I can see where Mitchell was coming from. I'm not sure its as a result from our status as a island nation but in the UK there are certain brands who's usage in language has outstripped their ubiquity as products. The most obvious one is Hoover. Sometimes I watch a US drama and I hear people talking about Vacuuming a carpet, but that’s a term I’ve never heard anyone use in the UK, its always “hoover”. Despite the fact in the UK Dyson's have long become far more common than Hoovers. Apart from hoovering, googling is probably the best modern example and something that could conceivably become a generic term (although as a friend pointed out this happens constantly with drug names). Would be interested in particular what people think about Buenas Yerbas existence within the world of this particular Speculative Fiction means (or does not mean).

HTRM repairman I think the way you describe the difference between Eurogames and Ameritrash while generally pretty accurate, missed out on the heart of the problem. In a Eurogame victory goes too who ever understands the game the best and works within its constraints. It is as you so put it about building your engine. However a Ameritrash game isn't necessarily a less detailed or complicated game, in fact as you say they often have far more parts than their euro counterparts. The difference I feel is that Ameritrash games allow the disruptive effects of luck and competitive interaction free reign often meaning that understanding the system becomes far less important to the end result than taking advantage of your luck to effectively break free of the constraints that bind others, and using any advantage you have to further punish your opponent. To try and put it succinctly, In a Ameritrash game you win by controlling the board, in a Eurogame you win by understanding the game. I don't know if that would change Chris mind at all about the comparison, and I haven't played enough Anno myself to say whether that's true in this case.

ooh thanks for that link I've really been in the mood for a good documentary or two recently and that was pretty nice

Can anyone recommend a few good ww2 eastern front documentaries? Getting back into playing UoC has really got me interested in the era again but i'm sadly a little ignorant of where i should start.

I was gifted Blankets for christmass and really enjoyed it. In a strange way it reminded me a bit of The Sense of a Ending, with the way it reflected on the uncertainty and subjectivity of memory. I'm thinking of giving Habibi a read next, anyone here read that one and can recomend it / warn me off it?

That actually makes me sorta cautiously optimistic. They must have reasonable financial muscle behind them, and they already have a community who's tastes overlap to a extent. Plus the Wildman concept & SupCom both are unusual among RTS's by having a embodiment of the player in the game, which could give them a great way of anchoring someone in a MMO.

Good episode and I'm glad to know UoC did great on steam, though would have loved some exact figures on sales. It so hard to judge what size the strategy game community actually is at times. I don't think increased visibility is the only reason games get more sales on steam though. For me at least there's considerable value in buying from a big vendor who already has my details. Just a little side question for Rob: do you guys give Developers a heads up on the sort of topics you are going to ask them about before a podcast? or do you try & keep things more informal?

oooh god damn it I made a promise to myself i was gonna be a good boy & not buy any new games until i'd cleared some of my steam backlog then along cam At The Gates, and now this.... Guess i'll have to get around it with a bit of good old fashioned self delusion. After all AtG wont be released till 2014, & this was first released years ago so technically I'm not going to be putting any money on a 2013 release....

I think that actually depends on how the map models the changing seasons and depleted resources. Do we find out a river is frozen over or a herd of deer is still present as long as we uncovered that tile at some point, or is it more dependant on the sight radius of our unit. Some really interesting game play situations can arise when a player suddenly finds himself without a resource he was counting on (it's not necessarily fun for your tribe to starve to death, but still cant have it all). The new X-Com's maps were a bit like that I think, sometimes you'd catch a glimpse of a enemy then base a plan around the idea that he'd stay put, then round a corner to find he'd buggered off (or that 3 of his mates have arrived). Having to use a scout as something more than just as armed cartographer was nice for once.

Think i remember something said about it on QT3 i'll have to give it a re-listern

Argggggggh so conflicted. There's so much i like about what they are doing with this, but equally there's just one or two things that just bug the heck out of me. In terms of theme its right up my street. King of Dragon Pass has been one of my favorite games on the iOS and it covered much of the same territory (admittedly from a semi-fantasy viewpoint). I can't help projecting KoDP's systems onto AtG equivalents be it the the tribal politics, the seasonal weather, or the map exploration, but that's no bad thing since i got so much enjoyment out of those system in a game with a lot simpler base game. Then you add all the possibilities that a randomly generated map allow and i see a possibility for replayability that KoDP sometimes lacked. but.... The first 2-3 minutes of that trailer just seemed so similar to civ, which just feels wrong to me. The conceit of the whole world being unknown worked for me Civ because we were supposed to be starting from the very beginning of prehistory, but this isn't supposed to be a prehistoric tribe. This is late antiquity, it feels wrong somehow to me that any tribe existing in this world would have no knowledge of the world or their neighbours. I suppose the same conceit KoDP uses can work here too (that of a tribe being driven into a new territory), it's just with this game being grounded in real history i find myself giving it a much harder time than i would if it was just a fictional world. Haha it's not far off what you said, perhaps you should charge John a consultation fee Also do you (or anyone else) have any additional suggestions for good factual books about the era? I caught the QT3 part of the blitz as well as 3MA, and its also worth checking out with the bonus of John pulling Tom Chicks own trick on him.

So after years with people saying " wouldn't it be great if Creative Assembly made a Warhammer Fantasy Battles game" it looks like it finally is happening, which makes me a very happy bunny. I loved the old Shadow of the Horned Rat & Dark Omen games so the news that one of the only true AAA strategy game developers taking a shot at the mythology is pretty big for me. All in all it seems a great deal for all parties involved, GW get their license worked on by some of the best in the business and CA get to work on something that will not constraint them in the way their historical franchises might have. Might we see CA attempt a narrative campaign? or will they stick to their tried and tested formula of a grand strategy over map and tactical battles? Anyone have any thoughts of which way it would be most interesting for CA to take this? or fond memories of the old WFB games?

Bryan and Mary Talbot's Dotter of Her Father Eye's has just won the Biography section of the Costa Prize (which is a reasonably respectable set of book awards in the UK), if they could win the overall prize it would be a great achievement. However that's probably unlikely since they are up against the awards juggernaut that is Hillary Mantel's Bringing up the Bodies(don't take that as me knocking Mantel btw, the awards & praise are entirely justified). Alice in Sunderland (another Bryan Talbot book) was the graphic novel that first gave my interest in comics a legitimacy in my parents eyes after I brought it home with me for a family visit, and which eventually led to them slowly acquiring a small graphic novel section on their own bookshelves. So I hope the equally excellent Dotter will grab the attention of a new crop of people who otherwise wouldn't have considered reading a graphic novel.

If what you mean is people talking about the one or two books that brought them personally to the medium, I think that would be something I'd be interested in reading. However I'm not sure i feel the same about big "introductory lists" . I mean for a sub genre (like superheroes) within comics I can see how it would be helpful, but for the whole medium? it feels like it would be difficult to pin down a selection of works that would suit a wide range of individuals.

Pluto is probably the closest thing the manga community has to the Watchmen, although it's far more limited in scope. I also think it's author Urasawa lacks Moore's talent for making his audience feel smart, and when he attempts some of the same interconnected plot tricks that Moore pulls off so effortlessly in Watchmen they often feel laboured. Not sure if I'd recommend it overall but I think for someone who had more affection and knowledge for the material its examining (I've never read any of Tezuka's Astro Boy stuff) I can imagine it being worth a look. The only ongoing manga I follow at the moment is Vinland Saga, who's creator Makoto Yukimura wrote one of my all time favourites Planetes (although this information is almost irrelevant because the two stories' themes and styles have very little in common). It gets compared a lot to Berserk, although I find it more grounded (for better or worse) and also more focused on character development than Berserk (which can fall victim to frequent bouts of exposition regarding its grand meta plot).It's also a long series (at volume 12 at time of writing, with no sign of approaching a end) but my experience with Planetes makes me hopeful that the author has the a definite ending in mind and the discipline to steer the series to it without meandering too much off course.

I've just finished Grant Morrison's Supergods: Our world in the age of the Superhero. If you've read any of Morrison's work you probably know better than to expect a dry "history of superheroes", it's part autobiography, part spiritual journey, part history, part hymn to the superhero meme. The central conceit seems to be (to grossly simplify it) is that our cultural taste's are in constant flux between optimism and nihilism,(or as he puts it between hippies and punks) and that we can track this oscillation by looking at the heroes who are popular at different times. The book is a very rambling, very personal lens that Morrison has chosen to look at his theme thorough and so I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but if you can put up with it author's idiosyncrasies then its a interesting journey to take.

The recommendation was made because it's a good book for anyone who's interested in understanding how and why superhero's came to dominate the sales charts. I thought understanding the process that lead comics to this point, in a book written by someone who is a well articulated advocate of the superhero concept might be something people would be interested in checking out. I'm really confused by I can totally understand if the themes that Supergods tackles are not something your interested in exploring, however I don't see why it shouldn't be mentioned. (and I can't see any reference to the book in the thread anywhere, or any references to "no mentioning of books that discuss the medium of comics & it's history") I feel that the domination of superheroes is overplayed, and that the perpetuation of that myth is harmful. It can genuinely put people off from trying a entire medium, because they worry they will have to wade through a river of crap to find a story that will speak to them. Perhaps it was that way 10 years ago but I don't think it is now. Perhaps it's silly of me, but I feel if someone values the things that comics (or "sequential art" if you want to use Scott McClouds more catch all term) can uniquely do, they need to try and debunk the myths surrounding it. You make some really strong points but I feel your just being too negative. There so much good stuff out there now supported by a variety of different publishing models that there's a lot of reasons to feel genuinely positive about where comics are now, and where they are headed.

I'd say the genre you put Maus in is far more specific than the superhero's one. If we widen that to "personal drama taking place in a society in upheaval" (which is broader but still pretty specific) we can bring in things like the wonderful Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Which gives a child's eye view of the Islamic revolution in Iran and its consequence on the day to day life of the young narrator and her family. Or If your willing to stretch a bit further still, there's Palestine by Joe Sacco. Which is takes a look at the day to day lives of Palestine's living in Gaza and the west bank from a quasi journalistic viewpoint. Those are just two I've read, I'm sure with a little digging you could find more. And if we widen it even further and slip out of comics to anime for a moment there's Grave of the FIreflies, which is a very personal WW2 story. Don't get put off by the idea that all superhero comics are the same. Yes that basic premise of the power fantasy is still there at the heart of them but there is enough scope within that broad concept that the best writers can produce works like The Dark Knight or Watchmen which have radically different choices of outlook, tone, style, and pacing , and yet can still fit under the same umbrella of "Superhero fiction". I've just finished reading Grant Morrison's Supergods, Which is half autobiography, half history of superheroes.I'd recommend that if your interested in catching a glimpse of the full range of stories people have told to tell within the genre (& also the life of a quite strange but equally interesting man).

As silly a concept as GOTY is, I find I can take it a bit more seriously (if only for a moment)if i split it between my favorite system based game and my favorite story. System Based Game/s: FTL - In terms of a game which compelled me to explore i feel FTL was peerless this year. I'm not sure how many horrible deaths i had before i finally completed the mini campaign, but each one was unique and not one of the felt cheap Crusader Kings 2 - God i wish this game wasn't so intimidating because it deserves a far bigger audience than it has. I had so many interesting experiences with this game just because I utterly fouled up what i was doing, and the world kept turning around me instead of grinding to a stop. Narrative: Thomas was Alone - A small but perfectly formed game. Well balanced game play, pitch perfect narration and music, plus a well paced and succinct story which managed to make likeable characters out of rectangles. Reminded me of why i was so fond of Bastion last year, both relatively modest in what they aimed for but hit their targets perfectly. Overall X-Com, Borderlands 2, and Walking Dead all get honorable mentions. Sidenote: I also kinda feel the Witcher 2 enhanced edition should be eligible, which brings up the thorny issues of DLC etc so i wont push it too much.

I tend to agree with you here, but in some ways isn't that itself a argument against them? not that they are overrated, but that they aren't (as) relevant any more, and that it's impossible for anyone to fully recapture the context that would allow them to fully understand why they were important? Edit: Perhaps in some ways Sean's Monkey Island story was a great example of a classic work that got a enormously positive reaction from people who have no connection to it's context. So It's probably a case of remember why your heroes were your heroes in the first place.

In my ideal world Firaxis will have looked at how Relic and CA have took GW's existing successful IP's that fit well with their engines, and thought just that. Honestly it's a near perfect fit. It's much harder to get excited about Space Hulk actually being developed by a relatively unknown studio, than it is to fantasise about a dream combo (even if that combo is unlikely to actually happen).