The Gaming Pop Quiz is back! Last time, we did a pre-summer edition to start the lazy sunny days off right, and now we return in anticipation of the gaming to come. Seriously, I can barely contain myself for Halo: Reach. It’s weird, because while I don’t really consider myself a Halo fanatic, few games make me more excited than the Halo games do. There’s some kind of mystique around the whole event that really gets me going.
Anyway, because I have nothing better to do than to clear out my backlog and play the incredible Tomb Raider: Guardian of Light (seriously, go play this), I come bearing a few questions for you dudes to answer. As always with our getting-to-know-you type games, feel free to answer with as much or as little as you like. Obviously, some of these things you might not remember, but answer to the best of your ability. Go!
1. What game always seems to elude you on your backlog?
2. What game mechanic do you think is underutilized (cover systems, destructible environments)?
3. If you could turn a portable game into a full-fledged console game, which one and why? And vice versa.
4. Would anything make you consider boycotting a game?
5. What game would immediately inspire you to upgrade to spend money on a new PC/console?
6. What do you feel like you’re still waiting to do in a game that you’ve never done before?
7. What game changed the way you view video games?
1. Old games that have been out for a while and have dated features.
2. Does balance in multiplayer games count (I’m looking at you, CoD)?
3. Not sure, but Halo would be amazing on handheld.
4. If Activision pulled one of their dastardly stunts before a game of their’s came out I would consider.
5. Well Star Wars TOR inspired me to upgrade my PC this year, and I’ll probably do it again for another game in a few years. And I’ll upgrade my console as soon as a new one comes out.
6. Not really sure, I’ll know when I do it.
7. Two. Halo 1 was my first, and it really transformed me to the gamer I am today. And Mass Effect completely changed the way I viewed story telling in gaming, and has made me have a huge standard for game stories, and has had me crave more from the games that do story right (Halo, Warcraft and WoW).
1. FF13 ever since i got red dead back ive been doing free roam
2.destructible enviro is more underutilized than the cover system which is slowly becoming a staple in 3rd person shooters.
3. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is the obvious choice as for vice versa I cant really say.
4.Nope
5. Elder Scrolls Five HL3 or a new Counter-Strike
whoops for got the last 2
6. can’t really say right now.
7. MGS1 and Shadow of the Colossus
1. Oh man my backlog is scary, around 30 games by my last count spanning across Steam, Physical PC games, Gamecube, Wii and DS games. I would say the witcher, even though I only got it a few months ago I really want to play it but always seem to get distracted by a new release or another backlog game.
2. Movement beyond walk, sprint, crouch, prone and jump. Mirrors Edge and it looks like Brink have really awesome movement systems. I really hope Brink blends the awesome movement and online play well because it sounds awesome on paper. Mirrors Edge would have been cool if it had a solid story/less indoors parts, the movement was a-ok with me.
3. I would love a full console ace attorney game done in the style of Edgeworth:Investigations but with Court scenes added in and all in 3d of course. Can’t really think of any I want a portable version of, whatever game it is would have to be severely butchered to work on the ds/psp. I guess something like world of goo would be cool.
4. I was a big supporter of the L4D2 boycott, it still seems so uncharacteristic of valve to suddenly drop support of one of their games and sell a slightly better one just a year later (and getting rid of the awesome characters we had all come to love). It wasn’t our right to get such amazing support but Valve had always provided it in the past so that it was like a sudden 180 change, hopefully it was just a one time thing as they seem to be supporting L4D2 with new gamemodes just fine. But for the most part it was the way some people thought it was a crime to dare boycott anything. Don’t get my wrong I’m a HUGE valve fan (I legally changed my name to freeman for petes sakes) but even Valve can make BS moves, they aren’t untouchable. I have still yet to buy it, again because people seemed to think everyone would give in. I guess I’m stubborn. So yes, apparently that’s what it takes for me to boycott a game. That’s my opinion and I’ll stand by it.
5. PC wise I just upgrade whenever I feel things getting sluggish, not counting babbys first dell I’ve had 2 custom builds 2004-2007 and 2007-2010. Planning new build for october. Console wise I got a wii for zelda/mario and I liked (and stlll do) the concept and regret nothing. Console wise I said I would get a 360 or PS3 when it has 10 exclusives I want to play (360 has 0, PS3 has 5 so far) and the 360 would have to get their failure rate down under 45% or just change it from a when to an if.
6. First Person fighting sort of like Mirrors Edge but with tons of moves. Always something I wanted to see.
7. Half-Life 2 way back in 2004 made me realize what an experience a game can be and how characters can become believable instead of soulless sounding blobs or girls who are just lampposts with melons taped on. Bioshock told me that a good story can make all the difference. Portal showed me that all new game mechanics are like finding a diamond in a sea of brown bloom fps games.
On a related note Halo taught me that if a game sells well it’s doomed to have hundreds of ba£$%d offpsring copying it’s game mechanics even if they weren’t anything special to begin with. (Sorry Halo/Health Regen fans) Also that my childhood CAN die when I have someone telling me Halo was the first ever FPS made.
There’s probably two controversial opinions in this comment but they are just that, opinions.
1. Games that are way too predictable and have no variety.
2. Out of those two, destructible environments. Outside the box, near-endless variety.
3. Portable to console would be the Zelda games. A 3D remake of A Link to the Past would be great, but it would have to be done right. Heck, if anything, I’d love to see it as like a OoT mod. For console to portable, none come to mind. The only portable console I have now is the DS, and I can’t think of anything that would work well on that.
4. No, not really, no.
5. Well, I don’t think I’ll need money on a new PC any time soon XD. I don’t think many games would actually make me do that. Got the N64 for Zelda, got the Gamecube for just the sake of having it, and got the 360 originally for Force Unleashed and GTAIV.
6. Hm. Can’t really think of much.
7. That’s tough. I think generally all games have had some effect on how I look at them.
1. Bioshock. I purchased it, and have installed it 3 times.. It just never grabs me enough to finish it…
2. Good writing 😉
3. I can’t think of anything for this one. Not much of a portable guy, although I did just receive a free DS, so I’m gonna get some games for that.
4. A PC game that wouldn’t allow you to change your controls. (Mafia 2 ONLY has low/medium/high mouse sensitivity… that was almost enough)
5. Deus Ex 3 / Half life 3 … games I’ve been waiting 4 or 5 years for. Luckily Mafia 2 runs fantastic on my 1 year old Machine.
6. This is a great question… Try hard? (lol)
7. There have been quite a few. Braid/Machinarium have definitely spiced things up in the last few years, and since we’ve been talking so much about them they’re the first thing that comes to mind.
Nice, another WYR!
1. Well, I already cleaned out my backlog; not to mention, I specifically limited my log of games this year because of the fact that we’re living off of savings.
2. lol I agree with SK Beans. But uh, I’d like to see more Map Editors. Hmmm…I feel like I’m forgetting obvious features that are awesome and should be more common, but idk. Easy movement, like in Brink and Assassin’s Creed, would also be cool.
3. Golden Sun (1 and 2). Those games were absolutely amazing on the GBA, and #3 is coming on the DS, but it neeeeds to be on the console.
4. Um, I’d just not buy it if I hate it that much. Or I could just suggest my ideas to the developers or on a forum that the developers read.
5. Well my problem is that my connection sucks laser beams because I’m living in an apartment complex, so there’s not much I can do. Believe me, if I could upgrade my computer, I would have done it a long time ago.
6. Fly. Like a motherfucking Pterodactyl.
But…hmmm…well, throughout my gaming career, I’ve had moments of genuine awesome (like feeling like a cog in a massive war machine when I play BFBC2 with a good team, or feeling like a badass and being anxious outta my mind at the same time in L4D) so I suppose I’d like to play a game that consistently let’s me have a great time and stuff.
I mean if I knew what I wanted to do, someone would have made the idea by now.
7. Hmmm…Fallout 3, Shadow of the Colossus…in fact, games have affected the way I view my life more.
EDIT
7. Oh yeah, what the heck, HALO. Halo 1 for the PC was the first game that was all mine. I had previous watched my brother play games on the TV (but I still enjoyed it; I wasn’t pressed A, but I was suggesting things and finding secrets and stuff) and shared games on handhelds, but Halo was the first game that I played alone on my own computer and it really made me more independent, since I later bought an Xbox 360 which I play almost exclusively.
Great questions, though I feel I’ll be trying to answer them for a long time. Haha, but seriously, when I’m a game designer, I’ll have to think “What have I always wanted to do in a game that I’ve never done before?” Deep stuff.
1. The Hitman games. Some people tell me I’d love them, some tell me I wouldn’t, I own them, but I never get the time to finally see if I’d like the series or not. Not a big stealth guy, but most of my friends who like stealth games say it’s not really well made for stealth players anyway. I guess I’ll see.
2. Dual wielding weapons. I’m not a terribly big fan of Halo, but when Halo 2 showed the awesome dual wielding of almost any weapon, I thought that it would become huge in gaming. Maybe there’s more of it on consoles, but on the PC I haven’t seen any other game deciding to use such a fun mechanic.
3. I would probably turn most of the Castlevania games on the GBA and DS into full, Symphony of the Night length/quality titles. I’d also really like Little Big Planet on a Gameboy DS. It seems like they’d be a perfect fit for eachother.
4. Several things would make me never buy a game, but not as much organize a boycott. There’s too many things that would make me never want to buy a game to list, so I’ll just say that I’m really picky and move on.
5. I wouldn’t even have a PS3 if it weren’t for Little Big Planet. Played games like God of War 3, Infamous, all that jazz… I’d stick to PC if there wasn’t Little Big Planet.
6. I still want to play a game that has RPG elements, explorable areas so large they fell infinite, good first person combat, and doesn’t screw itself up by spreading itself too thin. Fallout 3 came really close, but the combat was clunky and the area felt pretty small after after a while. It probably sounds like I’m being picky but really everything else I’ve wanted to do in games has been pretty well satisfied.
7. I grew up on a lot of platformers like Sonic, Mario, Vectorman, Rocket Knight Adventures, and that kind of thing. The closest I had to good PC games was Wolfenstein 3D and “Catacombs” on my old Mac Performa. Three games that I can think of really changed things up though. One was Duke Nukem 3D, which I played years before I discovered Doom, and it was one of the first games with graphics that I considered really good. The combat was awesome, the enemies were awesome, the environments were awesome, and Duke Nukem was awesome. I used to love playing through the moon episode and running around on the space stations, looking out the windows at earth while fighting Octabrains and Protozoid Slimers. After Duke Nukem 3D, though, I discovered Ico. By this time I was playing a lot of N64 games like Banjo Kazooi, Turok, and Super Smash Bros. When we first got a PS2 and popped in the demo disk for Ico and I played it, suddenly everything changed. For me, games went from toys and action movies to art. I would explore the walls of the castle and I remember climbing all over stuff. And the combat was like nothing I ever played before, because it didn’t involve a whole lot of weapon gimmicks, it just involved me frantically swinging a stick and the shadow monsters until they went away. The last game that really changed everything for me was Half-Life 2. I can’t really describe how much that’s changed my outlook on games in words, so I’ll just let those who understand nod knowingly here.
A super secret fourth game would probably be Halo, which I didn’t really like that much, but it’s the first game that really introduced me to the really hardcore gamers and fanboys who would yell at me for not understanding their game at worst and take over parties with a game that I didn’t really like that much at best. I think that because of how many people around me played Halo, Halo 2 is probably the game that I’ve played through the campaign the most times despite that I really don’t care for it. That was when gaming went from something that I enjoyed having fun with to something that was capable of getting me mocked or left out just because I liked or disliked games that somebody else had a differing opinion on. That’s the fault of the ridiculously overzealous fanboys, though, not the game.
1. Like you guys talked about in a previous podcast, at some point you have to just give up on certain games in your backlog otherwise they’ll be there forever. I know in recent memory Brutal Legend and Assassins Creed 2 would be in backlog but after getting Heavy Rain, GOW3, Read Dead Redemption, and Star Craft 2 I gave up on worrying about those two. In short, I’m caught up.
2. I think interaction with people and gadgets. One of my all time favorites is Deus Ex and I loved in that game being able to talk to random NPC, sometimes resulting in muggings, good deeds, and misc info. I also loved being able to interact with the doors, computers, and electronics to hack, repair, or lock pick my way through levels. I also think destructible environments it underutilized.
3. Counter Strike. Play CS anywhere on psp. Word.
4. If a company completely screwed over its customers or had business practices I couldn’t support.
5. Well StarCraft 2 defiantly had me worried, but my rig is good enough to handle it. Other than that Deus Ex 3, the new MechWarrior, and Mass Effect 3 might force me to upgrade.
6. GTA in space. Seriously. Grand Theft Spaceship. Like living in the firefly universe. Or an updated GTA version of the game Privateer. Bases, ships, planets, moons, asteroids, people, missions, mercenaries, commerce, shooting, etc, etc.
Also as a previous user said, Mirrors edge first person free movement integrated with combat for a extremely lucid free flowing type of FPS.
An exploration game, like the old point and click games, but with modern graphics and in beautiful crazy locations (think exploring a dig site that felt like the Mars Background in Heavy Rain.
7. GTA4, my first 3rd person shooter. I bought a PS3 for that game and MGS4 which taught me games could be movies. Heavy Rain proved this. HL2 made me feel like I was the protagonist and not just someone playing as him. Mass Effect re-lit my imagination as far as Sci-Fi, the universe, and the beginning and end of all life and existence. Deus Ex made me realize the awesomeness of Trans-humanism (Human Augmentation). I will sign up for augmented eyes when they become available. Red Dead Redemption made me realize how good and deep video game stories can be. Fallout 3 had a similar effect. It also is responsible for the most time I have ever spent on a single game.
Awesome quiz. Your articles are great guys, keep up the good work. Can’t wait for the next podcast.
1. Thankfully, being a student, I have enough time to clear any game bar FF’s, I’m doin three of them right now. Also, since I don’t have enough disposable income to buy all the games coming out it forces me to choose wisely which game gives me value for money.
2. Destructible environments. BFBC shows how awesome it is so give me a cover based FPS (Killzone?) with destructable environments.
3. Pursuit Force. Make it bigger, faster and more OTT. But it would have to be like no.1. The sequel wasn’t as good.
4. No. I’d just not buy it rather than act like those boycotters for MW2 or L4D.
5. A new MGS or Hitman. A game that showed as much ‘Pure Awesome’ as COD4 would also do the trick. It was the final catalyst on making me upgrade from the PS2. Same with my friends only for a few of them it was the ONLY reason.
6. I’m still waiting for an FPS where everyone works together to win. It would be about the size of MAG, but where there was a flawless system of communication and co-ordination between the entire team and would feel more like real life (ie. Slow but sure with swift decisive moves like BFBC, not Lone Wolves and the K/D ratio is the ONLY thing that matters a la COD).
7. Things like MGS 1/2, Farenheit (Indigo Prophecy) or *I forget but there’s another one I’d mention* as they prove how story and emotions (or choices you make) can be essential to making the gaming experience unique.
1) Fallout 3 and Bioshock. Own both of them, but because I play most of my games on my laptop, both games barely run. So these will probably stay in my backlog till I get a new computer. I also never finished Zelda: Spirit Tracks either
2) Can’t think of anything to be honest. I guess if I could they wouldn’t be underused.
3) Stealing what I’m pretty sure would be Mitch’s answer – I’d like to see a full blown console version of Pokemon. Proper 3D environments and battles, actual polygonal character models rather than sprites, I think it would be good, and it would certainly sell like hotcakes. Why hasn’t it been done before?
As for the other way, if Nintendo could get permission from Microsoft to put Banjo-Kazooie and Tooie on the 3DS I would be in heaven.
4) What I don’t understand is how boycotting would affect the developers and publishers. All they would see is a very slight dip from expected sales, if anything at all. So no, I may not buy a game, but I don’t see the point in actively boycotting it.
5) Mass Effect 3
6) No idea, like SK Beans said, I’ll know it when I see it
7) Mario 64 was my first ever game so that has to be on there. Like many others, Half Life 2 definitely had a big impact. The other 2 are probably Mass Effect and KOTOR 2 (I played it first). Aside from mario, all of these are very story-driven games. Probably why I usually play single player only games, or very rarely get deeply engrossed in the multi-player side of a game. Really the only multi-player game I got into was TF2…and Halo LAN’s at friends places
1. Bioshock and Fallout3. Bioshock never grabbed me, but I still want to finish it at some point. And Fallout3 I had to quit because I needed to re-roll my character. Would love to get through both of those if I ever had a free couple of weeks, haha.
2. I think destructible environments and quality stealth mechanics. Only a few games EVER have done the stealth thing well, which is kind of strange to think about.
3. I think I would turn the FF remakes into console games (I’d buy them in a heartbeat) and vice versa. I would get FF6 remade on either handheld or console any day.
4. I’m actually not sure. There are plenty of reasons not to buy games, so I might leave it at that.
5. Halo, Mass Effect, Valve games.
6. I mentioned the stealth thing earlier, but also an RPG that really makes you feel like you can go everywhere and do anything. Red Dead Redemption actually scratched that itch pretty well, and it wasn’t an RPG really.
7. Final Fantasy VII was the first RPG and probably the most magical, despite its flaws. It showed me that games could be like interactive books, with characters you come to really care about over their course. Metal Gear Solid showed me that games could be like interactive movies. KOTOR showed me that some day games would let you do whatever you wanted.
1. Eh, none, really. I’m caught up.
2. Destructible environments for sure. Bad Company has amazing multiplayer because of this. More games need Mass Effect’s dialogue system, I feel.
3. MGS: Peace Walker really should have been a PS3 game. Come on, co-op on the PSP? Get real. I would say Pokemon, but every single console version has been total fail.
4. Nah, I’m not one for boycotting.
5. Crysis 2. That, and anything from Relic. Their RTS games are such a graphical treat.
6. Really good stealth. Aside from Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, nothing has come close to mastering the feeling of being sneaky.
7. Knights of the Old Republic. I still can’t believe some of the evil things they let you do in that game.
1. Mass Effect 2, mainly because I gotta go out and buy it at some point.
2. Realistic Ballistics and Stealth. Well, those and a Cover System.
3. Eh, I was never used portable games and thusly have no opinion.
4. Not really.
5. A new Star Wars Republic Commando… Or Civ V. I see an upgrade in m future.
6. Be involved in a Massive Online battle in a shooter where everyone is coordinated and squad actually function as squads.
7. Star Wars: Republic Commando, that game made me fall in love with squad-based shooters and start to think tactically when I’m playing a shooter.
1. Never understood the idea of a game backlog, I do have a lot of games I want to play, but I’ll do it when I have time or money to get the game. I believe this difference in thinking comes from the fact that here in Finland buying/selling used games is not that common because of our way of thinking that a used game disk might somehow be defective. So I don’t buy games so that I can beat it as fast as possible so I can trade it in for something else (even if I wanted to do that I’d have to travel at least 100 miles to do so)
2.I’d like to see more of combing different play styles, i.e FPS + RTS in BattleZone
3.Never owned any kind of a portable device so can’t say
4.When a company/publisher shows no interest in listening to feedback from the people who buy their game. Just as an example MW2 taking online PC gaming back to where it was 10 years ago with P2P gaming.
5.If I had the cash, I’d upgrade my PC in a heartbeat to play ARMA II and Empire Total War
6.Can’t think of anything worth doing in a game that you can’t already do. Maybe play Finnish Baseball
7.Playing the old Lucasarts adventure games (Monkey Island I&II, Indiana Jones games) showed me that games can actually have a good story.
Sorry for the long answer on the first one…