[Episode 17] Paxalicious

[Voodoo]

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

Seattle has never looked more attractive than when inside a convention hall, filled with video gamers of both the PC and Console camps. Our intrepid PAX travelers Clayton [Voodoo] and Eric [Ravenlock] share their tales of PC games, PC goodies, and PC gals, all up close and videoed with Robert [Trebor] and Jacob [MagGnome].

From the halls of PAX we swing into the what will be known as the best Batman PC game ever made, Batman: Arkham Asylum and give our early, and very favorable impressions of this superhero translation of the Caped Crusader in rather dire circumstances. Funny how he can never just have a "normal" day at the office? But then again can you see Batman sitting being a desk or in a cubical? No, I could not either.

From superhero to super spy the Retro Gaming segment discusses "No One Lives Forever" starting our favorite female sleuth Cate Archer. To live in the 60's again, oh the joy! And what does UNITY and H.A.R.M stand for? Tune in and find out.

From the streets of London we move on to the land of Indie game with a discussion of Canabalt and Osmos with all the gaming goodness and playing pleasure. We finally wrap it up with our DWGAS segment covering topics such as free to play DDO, used game "conspiracy" not being isolated to just Gamestop, 2D Sonic, a new IP from Lucas Arts, and a pirated version of Batman give those naughty gamers the gas. So stop playing your marathon game of Solitaire and give us your ears.

Immortal Machines presents... Paxalicious
(http://www.immortalmachines.com/public/podcast/Immortal_Machines_Podcast_Paxalicious.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)

[MosBen]

Man, I really loved the NOLF games. Oh how I wish we'd get upgraded XBLA releases in advance of a sequel/relaunch.

[tacitus]

I loved the original NOLF, but I just could never get into NOLF2. I must try it again.

[tacitus]

As great as the Batman: AA poison gas trick was; I am a little concerned about that becoming widespread. After all copy protection is notorious for exploding in the faces of innocents and the pirates escaping. And if I bought the game for $40-50 I would be pretty pissed if that happened to me and then to be suspected of piracy on top of that. But at least its an obvious symptom and opposed to the alledged Titan Quest copy protection which seems to progressively make playing worse. It backfired horribly because some claimed that legal buyers were being affected as well.

As far as destroying your hard disk upon pirating; I heard a pre-internet story that a variety of this sort of protection had been used in commercial software. Luckly it wiped the disk of a legitimate user who was a lawyer and legal hillarity ensued. Which is why that form of copy protection went out of fashion.

[Ravenlock]

Yeah, as I said in the episode, I can't get behind intentionally destructive copy protection. There's too much potential for it to go wrong and harm legitimate customers - and even if there weren't, it isn't really ethical. You wouldn't sell a car that would wreck itself and potentially endanger the life of the driver if it "detected" that it had been stolen, and similarly you shouldnt' be selling software set to potentially damage someone's property if it "detects" that it's been pirated. (In one case lives are obviously at stake and in the other they are not, of course, but that doesn't really make much difference to the point. And it isn't too hard to come up with scenarios where taking down a computer system can endanger lives, though one would hope those computers aren't playing Batman. ;) )

As for the "can't progress past this point"-style copy protection that Batman: AA is employing, though, I have no problem with it. If it starts impacting legitimate customers, that would suck a lot, but it's the risk they're taking and that's their business. If it should happen, obviously it becomes their responsibility to make it right for the customers impacted by it. Personally, I can say that my legit Batman copy is behaving just fine. In fact it's damn near perfect. But that's a different discussion. :p

Switching topics - Clayton, the iTunes feed still hasn't updated with this episode. Have a look?

[Voodoo]

Switching topics - Clayton, the iTunes feed still hasn't updated with this episode. Have a look?
It's been like this for me since my posting on Thursday...
http://i34.tinypic.com/28mi98w.jpg
...perhaps your iTunes is messed up. I remember you also saying that you couldn't download the complete podcast through iTunes.

Hey look! Someone finally posted a review of the podcast in iTunes. :) BTW, please take the time to also review the podcast in iTunes. It is great to hear & read feedback on these as we release them. :)

[Ravenlock]

Yeah, I'll make a note to mention iTunes review in the next episode. I do see it showing up on the store page, just not in my subscription. Weird.

[Ravenlock]

Having finally had a chance to listen to some of this, there's a moment in our Torchlight discussion where I very abruptly mention that Travis Baldree might have been willing to come on our show, if not for something that happened 35 seconds before.

If that seems confusing, it's because there's about a minute of audio (appropriately) missing before that. I won't tell you what was cut, but thank you Clayton for editing it. ;) In the future maybe we should throw the "censored beep" in whenever we have to judiciously remove material. :p

EDIT: Oh, and hey, I promised links! Osmos (http://www.hemispheregames.com/osmos/), by Hemisphere Games, and Canabalt (http://adamatomic.com/canabalt/), by Adam "Atomic" Saltsman. Enjoy. :)

[Voodoo]

Having finally had a chance to listen to some of this, there's a moment in our Torchlight discussion where I very abruptly mention that Travis Baldree might have been willing to come on our show, if not for something that happened 35 seconds before.

If that seems confusing, it's because there's about a minute of audio (appropriately) missing before that. I won't tell you what was cut, but thank you Clayton for editing it. ;) In the future maybe we should throw the "censored beep" in whenever we have to judiciously remove material. :p

:p How about some on-hold Muzak instead? :eek:

[Ravenlock]

That would also work.

[Voodoo]

That would also work.
Ja?
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[Wraith]

I looked in iTunes. When I view it under Podcasts (I'm already subscribed), this episode isn't there. Keep trying Update Podcast, still doesn't show. When I click the iTunes link above, it shows the episode (like in the screenshot above). I clicked Get Episode, then it starts downloading like normal, shows up under Podcasts. Weird.

[Voodoo]

I looked in iTunes. When I view it under Podcasts (I'm already subscribed), this episode isn't there. Keep trying Update Podcast, still doesn't show. When I click the iTunes link above, it shows the episode (like in the screenshot above). I clicked Get Episode, then it starts downloading like normal, shows up under Podcasts. Weird.
I believe I found the error. In the xml, the publish day was listed as Thur instead of Thu. I've since corrected it and am waiting for the cache to catch up. :)

[Ravenlock]

Delayed response - yes, the System Shock elevator music should be our "we censored something here" music. ;)