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Chris

Idle Thumbs 158: P is for Podcast

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Chris, your dream Wario game is: Wario creating a death dungeon for Mario or Lugi but little did Wario know.... WARIO ACTUALLY CREATED THE DUNGEON FOR HIMSELF TO GO THROUGH! Then shit gets trippy.

Edit: Sean talking about his cat reminded me of the beginning of Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye.

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The "about" page in You Have to Win the Game's menu is great, it explains how the creator (and his brother, the guy who made Eldritch) got in to computer and / or video games.

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A "P" word to describe a sagging pop screen would be pouched, perhaps?

 

Sean I'm in the same boat as you described. I put a ton of hours into DayZ, but basically all but 90 minutes or so of that time is prior to the day of the Least Dangerous Game. Even as fast as they were issuing iterations (extremely fast for a stable game state), everyone could consume it faster. I think time away just for the pure ability to have new experiences in the game is healthy for it and for me.

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The last computer game I played on a CRT was a little adventure game called Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? :)

 

whereintimecarmensandiego01.jpg

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I was disappointed that Sean's dilemma of which type of cat food to pick was not compared to his similar dilemma of which version of Watch Dogs to get.

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Talking about retro look games. In Syder Arcade you can choose between a lot of different shader effects to emulate various old systems like CGA, EGA, VGA, C64, Spectrum ZX, Amiga, etc.

But most of them really make the game terrible to play.

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I actually still use a CRT for my PC gaming...albeit a very very nice CRT running in 1920x1440 resolution that I managed to find new in box in 2008 (it was made in the early-mid 2000's by Sony for Silicon Graphics Workstations or something (hence the sgi branding on the front).  Its a standard professional Trinitron PC monitor.  Its lack of blooming and high dot-pitch means that it doesn't really look like an oldschool CRT at all...so I end up using shaders with it to get that look with emulators (though I don't need quite as many effects in my shaders).  The shaders do a decent job of simulating an old TV that I would have played old games on (and by decent I mean good enough for me right now)...its not perfect but it all comes down to preference (some people want really sharp pixels scaled up to a high resolution...some want the thing to have RGB phosphor dots (simulated or real) and scanlines (I would fall into that category)).  Here's the CRT I'm playing games on now (usually at 1920x1440...though one of the nice things about a CRT is that it handles lower resolutions really nicely so Diablo 2 at 800x600 still looks nice and sharp):

 

http://i.imgur.com/YDeinO2.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/GwDawh0.jpg

 

Some day (when I have more room) I intend to get a Sony PVM CRT or some other sort of broadcast monitor to hook old games up to and just set up a little retro-gaming corner.

 

Edit: the reason I included the second pic was that it was my best attempt at trying to show the black levels of the thing...but its hard as fuck to take an accurate picture of a CRT...they aren't the most photo friendly of displays.  I thought I'd add some close up pics of the thing through a micro lens:

 

640x480: http://i.imgur.com/BSMEiIa.jpg

 

1600x1200: http://i.imgur.com/wJRlY5B.jpg

 

1920x1440: http://i.imgur.com/KBoQLaz.jpg

 

Its really hard to get the RGB stripes of the aperture grille photographed right and they always look different in every single photo...but these turned out the best.  I probably need a tripod or something.

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I used one of those widescreen Trinatron SGI displays for years but it slowly drifted to yellow irreparably and I was unable to use it for design work anymore so I recycled it. (I think mine was from the late '90s, not as new as yours.) The guys at the recycling center were stoked to get it since it was such a weird thing.

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I played Mass Effect 3 without the Javik DLC. Then I bought the DLC for Captain Hastings' play-through. Whenever the game's narrative comes up, she get's kind of righteous about how unfathomable it is that they would have removed what she feels is a significant part of the game. She seems to equate it with the hypothetical of "What if they removed Legion from Mass Effect 2 from the standard edition." I don't know what I'm missing.

It reminds me of this:

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Javik isn't done like the ME2 extra characters. He's way more core to the overarching story and he's one of two new characters introduced.  I also think he's pretty good.

 

I dunno if the Legion comparison works. Legion is a great character but ME2's story isn't as tied to what he is as a character. Mostly because that game is basically Side Story: The Game. It's more like if Legion was in Mass Effect 1 and they removed him.

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Yeah but those are all actual SKUs that are being sold. It may include DLCs that aren't PLAYABLE yet, but they are still being SOLD as part of these SKUs.

To be honest I really feel like watch_chart_gate_dog has been blown way out proportion. Different skus exist for every game and I imagine just about anything you've played that is a major release in the past 10 years could plot a similar chart if someone cared to. I think as a primarily steam gamer my choices boil down to 'with or without all the DLC' and thats pretty normal. 11 SKUs world wide, some of which are identical (Uplay Deluxe Edition is the same as Digital Deluxe Edition but on Uplay instead of Steam and PSN).

RE uPlay's continued existence, I believe what you're probably remembering is them winding down the always-online DRM requirement, which they did do. It's a bit of an annoyance still but its pretty harmless at this point. I'd rather they just fully steamworks their games up instead of depend on their own shitty encrypted cloud posts, but watcha gonna do.

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To be honest I really feel like watch_chart_gate_dog has been blown way out proportion. Different skus exist for every game and I imagine just about anything you've played that is a major release in the past 10 years could plot a similar chart if someone cared to. I think as a primarily steam gamer my choices boil down to 'with or without all the DLC' and thats pretty normal. 11 SKUs world wide, some of which are identical (Uplay Deluxe Edition is the same as Digital Deluxe Edition but on Uplay instead of Steam and PSN).

RE uPlay's continued existence, I believe what you're probably remembering is them winding down the always-online DRM requirement, which they did do. It's a bit of an annoyance still but its pretty harmless at this point. I'd rather they just fully steamworks their games up instead of depend on their own shitty encrypted cloud posts, but watcha gonna do.

 

Yes, in a practical sense our choice boils down to the same thing, and we said as much on the podcast. (Usually it's just "buy the cheapest one on Steam.") But we also were making a larger point about what the actual intended experience of the game is. Small creative choices are still creative choices, and they are not interchangeable. Just because not every single one of these minor content pieces is actually interesting or important doesn't mean that none of them ever MIGHT be, and when this is the attitude taken in shipping games, it just declares that such choices can never be taken seriously. It's not specific to Watch Dogs; pointing out that this has been happening for years simply means that something dumb has been going on for years, not that it's less dumb.

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Yes, in a practical sense our choice boils down to the same thing, and we said as much on the podcast. (Usually it's just "buy the cheapest one on Steam.") But we also were making a larger point about what the actual intended experience of the game is. Small creative choices are still creative choices, and they are not interchangeable. Just because not every single one of these minor content pieces is actually interesting or important doesn't mean that none of them ever MIGHT be, and when this is the attitude taken in shipping games, it just declares that such choices can never be taken seriously. It's not specific to Watch Dogs; pointing out that this has been happening for years simply means that something dumb has been going on for years, not that it's less dumb.

 

Are there any other games that would be a better example?

 

Deus Ex: HR had the Rescue Tong mission that was gameplay wise just a few rooms with guards roaming about if I remember correctly. FNV had the 4 DLC that were all well crafted but told a story that wasn't really integrated into the main game. 

 

There's DLC for FNV, Witcher 2 (this one is free to download since release but was a preorder bonus), probably other games that give you a bunch of bonus stuff for buying at BestShop, in FNV at least it just ruins any sort of pacing and scraping together enough to get some gear before exploring. Witcher 2 has Geralt start with little to no stuff on him. Deus Ex had some extra guns as well.

 

Starting items for that sort of game is a worse because your supplies should have an influence on how you experience the beginning of a game. 

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Are there any other games that would be a better example?

 

Deus Ex: HR had the Rescue Tong mission that was gameplay wise just a few rooms with guards roaming about if I remember correctly. FNV had the 4 DLC that were all well crafted but told a story that wasn't really integrated into the main game. 

 

There's DLC for FNV, Witcher 2 (this one is free to download since release but was a preorder bonus), probably other games that give you a bunch of bonus stuff for buying at BestShop, in FNV at least it just ruins any sort of pacing and scraping together enough to get some gear before exploring. Witcher 2 has Geralt start with little to no stuff on him. Deus Ex had some extra guns as well.

 

Starting items for that sort of game is a worse because your supplies should have an influence on how you experience the beginning of a game. 

 

I think that EA's policy towards Bioware games has been the best example. They seem disturbingly willing to parcel off full characters and entire quests into DLC that remains referenced throughout the game, while at the same time giving you different gear with every different retailer's preorder package that varied wildly between totally useless and the best in the game. People have already referenced the Mass Effect 3 preorder DLC that seems to have rivaled the Batman: Arkham City Catwoman DLC for placing a substantial portion of the game's central plot on contingency.

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This thread reminded me that I wanted to replay ME3 with all the DLC and the new ending, since I originally played on release day but without the pre-order DLC.

Then I remembered that I was half way through my ME2 hard with all DLC play that I need to finish.

Then I looked at my backlog and shrivled up inside a little.

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This thread reminded me that I wanted to replay ME3 with all the DLC and the new ending, since I originally played on release day but without the pre-order DLC.

Then I remembered that I was half way through my ME2 hard with all DLC play that I need to finish.

Then I looked at my backlog and shrivled up inside a little.

 

I have a Dragon Age 2 and a Mass Effect 2 re-playthough each stalled about halfway through the game. In my head, I desperately want to finish both, but in my heart, I don't know if I can. I might just be gassed out on big games for the foreseeable future.

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Dude... Chris. Play Perfect Dark Zero if you haven't. Co-op. It's an old school shooter, and the best thing I remember from it is on one mission, sitting next to my brother, we carefully took out two lookouts in two different towers at the exact same time. And not because the game required it, or even suggested it. It's because they'd notice if the other was dead and hit the alarm, and then there was too many enemies. So we just totally set up the dual lookout snipe simultaneously because it was the thing to do.

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