[Episode 16] Play It Again, Samus

[Voodoo]

http://image.colonyofgamers.com/imcast.png

It has been said that to understand the present, one must look to the past. Game developers and publishers seem to have taken that to heart in a very serious way as of late, shifting attention away from the creation of new properties (though we've had some wonderful examples of those as well), and putting sizable workforces behind re-creations of old favorites. The last years have seen us graced with new iterations / re-imaginings of Bionic Commando, Mega Man, Klonoa, Sam & Max, Monkey Island, Battlefield 1942, and just this month, the granddaddy of all FPS's, Wolfenstein. And when they aren't pulling directly from the nostalgia pool with a title, developers are happy to take inspiration from designs of ages past, as with the exquisite re-tooling of the Metroid formula in Shadow Complex.

Far from rebelling against this attempt to re-sell us our childhoods, the Immortal Machines podcast crew welcomes it with open arms - if you can do an awesome thing right, please, feel free to do that awesome thing more. (You do have to do it right, though. Bionic Commando Re-Armed? Right. Bionic Commando dreadlocks? Maybe not so right.) This week, Eric [Ravenlock], Adam [Grifter], Clayton , Bryan [Smoof], and Jacob [MagGnome] dig back through their memory banks to come up with other gameplay styles we'd like to see given the Frankenstein treatment, because we think there just might be life in them yet. What's old is new again! Or so we hope.

Our freeware/indie segment takes a brief trip into last weekend's Steam sale of Droplitz before continuing the Metroid-remade vibe with the delightfully short (and delightfully hard) "In 60 Seconds (http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=5762.0)", and for the retro title we take a look back at Battlefield 1942 [B]before the Frostbite engine and XBox Live got their paws on it. Also, as per usual, a look into what we've been playing and some surprisingly lengthy news discussions (damn you, WoW) scattered throughout the show.

As always, if you want to get in touch with us, podcast@immortalmachines.com is the address to send an email to, or just toss your thoughts in this here thread. Which you may notice we explicitly command you to do, this time. Be gentle.

Immortal Machines presents... Play It Again, Samus
(http://www.immortalmachines.com/public/podcast/Immortal_Machines_Podcast_Play_It_Again_Samus.mp3)
iTunes (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=301414682) | Zune (zune://www.immortalmachines.com/public/podcast/immortal_machines_podcast.xml) | RSS (http://www.immortalmachines.com/public/podcast/immortal_machines_podcast.xml)

[Lint of Death]

Bloody awesome podcast title :D

[Voodoo]

BTW, the hosting server is having a bit of technical difficulties. They've got a denizen working on it so downloading of the podcast ought to be good to go in a while.

[Ravenlock]

Bloody awesome podcast title :D

Why thank you! I was proud of that one. ;)

[Voodoo]

Server fixed, DNS sync'd, XML written and podcast is GO for downloads.

[Hawkzombie]

Oy...I hate you guys. Never went in for Podcasts before, but the sheer TITLE of this one has be DLing it.

[Ravenlock]

Excellent. When you're done, let us know what you think. ;)

[Ravenlock]

So "Pipe Dream" is the name of the old puzzle game I was trying to compare Droplitz to.

No idea why I couldn't come up with that when we were recording.

[civil]

I also popped in to applaud the title of said 'cast. Then I saw that Ravenlock is one of those people, so I'm changing my applause to an approving snort.

[Ravenlock]

I can accept that.

[Vigil80]

The lukewarm (at best) reveiw of Champions was an affirmation for me. In my hunger for an MMO to pledge fealty to - that isn't WoW - I gave Champions cursory investigation. After the comments from this show, the waiting continues. I had a feeling that it would be CoH 2 at best. I'm actually a little relieved.

[Ravenlock]

Well, my comments should be taken in light of the fact that I only played the beta content, and only that for probably in total 6 to 8 hours or so. The upper-level, or even mid-level content is a complete mystery to me.

In the scope of what I did see, CoH 2 is a pretty good description. They have improved the travel abilities greatly, and they give them to you very early, which helps a lot with conveying the superhero feeling. Being able to fly, or tunnel through the ground, or ride on a wave of ice, or simply teleport around, pretty much right from the get-go feels pretty great. They've also adopted some "open quest" ideas similar to what Warhammer does, where a bunch of people will join and contribute to a quest event simply by being in the area, and those are fun.

But the combat and general feel are certainly still very CoH. You can pick up and chuck heavy objects with some physics interactions involved, but it isn't as fun as it initially sounded to me. I didn't get to try out the nemesis structure, though, which I am sorry about. That sounded like it had a fair amount of promise. If you end up with a chance to try it free or cheap, go for it, that's how I end up playing most MMO's. ;) If not, you probably don't have to sweat it too much.

[MagGnome]

I also popped in to applaud the title of said 'cast. Then I saw that Ravenlock is one of those people, so I'm changing my applause to an approving snort.

Why don't you download the show and give it a listen?

[tacitus]

Enjoyed the Podcast

"Darkstar One" is available on GOG.com.

[Ravenlock]

Yup, and on Steam, I found out. Haven't picked it up yet because I'm spending too much on games right now, but will be keeping it in mind. :)