We’re back with an on-topic cast as the crew gather to talk all the video game news that’s fit to print…or talk about. Whichever.
Leading off, Eddy gets sad about Watch_Dog’s delay (much disappointment), Anthony bemoans the current direction of Final Fantasy, I talk about Ryse: Son of Rome’s crunch, Jeff soliloquizes about The Wolf Among Us and we close with some Grand Theft Auto 5. So, it’s a pretty full cast.
Listen, rate the podcast (it’s very important that you do this since we lost all our previous ratings) and enjoy life. We’ll be back soon with another episode.
0:00 – 2:48 Intro
2:49 – 12:24 Watch_Dogs Delay
12:25 – 21:03 The Death of Final Fantasy
21:04 – 33:14 #RyseFacts Crunch Tweet
33:15 – 43:06 The Wolf Among Us
43:07 – 1:05:48 Grand Theft Auto 5
1:05:49 – 1:09:34 Outro
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Great cast guys. On the topic of Ryse’s tweet, I’m glad that people are blowing it out of proportion. As soon who will soon be entering the industry, crunch and the mismanagement in the industry is terrifying to me. I can’t imagine myself choosing a different career option, so I can only hope that I land at a studio that does not have such crazy conditions.
Talking about GTA V, I’m glad Eddy brought up the “gun down the police” heist, as it touches on my number one complaint with GTA V. Rockstar has it in their head somewhere that gameplay=shooting, so you better not have the player be without it for too long. And this mentality drove me insane. The first heist was so fantastic because I chose the “stealthy” approach and I didn’t fire a single bullet as I executed an intelligent plan. Many later heists forgo the ability to choose completely, like the mission Eddy described. You know that feeling you get when you get detected in a stealth game, and have to resort to shooting your way out? Well that’s a feeling I abhor (which is why I always revert to last checkpoint when that happens) and I constantly get that feeling during missions and heists that play this way. It feels like I’m cheating. Here are a bunch of career thieves, and the best they can come up with is “face the entire town’s police force and some paramilitary troops to boot?” What kind of plan is that? And what’s even worse, for the later missions that do have a choice and you select the stealth approach, Rockstar will have you be detected and make you enter a gun fight regardless of how well you are doing in the heist. This infuriated me on the Agency heist towards the end of the game, as I was feeling cool and everything was going to plan, then all of a sudden after successfully completing a segment where I was avoiding paramilitary detection, Rockstar has me get detected in a cutscene. Seriously? And the character’s reaction is not “quick drive away with our score!” It’s “hunker down and let’s kill these guys and every wave of reinforcements they have until they run out”. This shit wouldn’t fly in any other medium, and I found it nagging at me throughout my playthrough. /endrant
I’ve been meaning to comment on this for a while but ironically I’ve also been in crunch. I thought it was a great cast again, I especially liked the talk about crunch. You guys, while pointing out your views, also played a little devils advocate with the reasons for and I appreciate that, not many people do when crunch is brought up.
I had heard nothing about The Wolf Among Us until it came out on Steam, I’m desperately trying to hold off until all episodes are out. That’s how I enjoyed The Walking Dead.