The Death Rattle Episode

[fishbang]

Or is it more of a death...hairball? Prepare to evacuate soul at the following link (http://ingamechat.net/audio/IGC20090915.mp3).

The Pox remains among us, by which I mean that Scott will be hacking and coughing his way through this episode like Clint Eastwood in Honkytonk Man, without there being a Marty Robbins to jump behind the mic if he throws a lung. Of course it's not really that bad, and I see that we've had two movie references in as many sentences for a paragraph that should be about videogames, so moving right along...

We were sad to have missed the Dreamcast's 10th anniversary on the show, but each of us celebrated - or mourned, as the case may be - according to our own traditions. After a decade it's clear that this machine was forward thinking to the point of being prescient. Who knows what sort of praise we'll be heaping on it in another 10?

We're happy, as always, to be joined by the occasional Dennis, who promises to be much less occasional from here on in. He seems to have learned a lot in his time away, and will be held accountable for how he uses this knowledge. He also seems to like the Wii a whole lot less, which makes it difficult for us to corner him for opinions on Nintendo games. I guess we know what Matt's job will be when he gets back from the sand.

[lucklesswonder]

Ah, wonderful! Really wanted to dive into this today (well, yesterday), but I generally save you guys for the commute to work.

I did listen to a minute, though. If you guys are looking for a good, recent Sonic game, then I recommend Sonic Rush for the DS. You can play as Sonic on every Zone, and it gets the old feel right. When you got right down to it, the old Sonic games on the Genesis weren't just about running fast as hell. There were a lot of platforming elements that really made you slow down. And as much fun as it was to speed through the level, there were a few penalties for doing just that. You could miss power-ups or special stages, or you could plow right into an enemy or spike trap. Rush recaptured a lot of the old vibe for me.

Now, if only Tails would shut the fuck up.

[Count Elmdor]

Great to have the show back.

James hit on something that's been bugging me for a bit now; the notion of value of games today. When James mentioned it, it was in reference to how much Toys R Us might give you for an Atari game. Well how the hell are we supposed to assign a value to one of those when prices of new games vary so insanely?

Pricing is all over the place these days, and seldom does it fall in line with what you might consider the value of the game. I got 99 cent iphone games over here that shit on the $35 DS games over there. I got $10 N64 games on Virtual Console, and I got $10 XBLA and PSN games that shit on those. I got $60 360 and PS3 games and $50 Wii games and $100-$250 plastic instrument games. I got Direct2Drive selling me amazing PC games for $5 right now, and Steam and Impulse regularly joining the party as well, and then I got ported-from-PS2 games for PSP that sell for $40.

Who the hell knows anything about game pricing anymore? I want to go buy Halo 3 ODST, but I could get 12 great PC games for the same price today!

[Ravenlock]

James - While I'm not your resident Wii podcaster, I'm certainly your resident Wii listener, and I feel like I sometimes spend as much time over on the Immortal Machines podcast talking about Wii stuff as I do about PC stuff (sorry Voodoo ;) ), so let me tell you that yes, Muramasa is very good. It isn't the deepest game ever (though there is depth in there) and it's Japanese as all hell, but the combat is fluid and satisfying and it's maybe the prettiest game on the system.

Well worth trying out. I've been splitting my time between that and Arkham Asylum on the PC and not regretting my purchase of either at all.

Oh, and no, there is no waggle in Muramasa at all. In fact, my preferred method of playing it is to use the Classic Controller. Gamecube controller is also supported, so break out that Wavebird if you've still got it.

[Psykoboy2]

I'll never part with my Wavebird...not any single one of the 3 I still have.

[Ravenlock]

It really was one of the best controllers ever.

[lucklesswonder]

One final word on Arkham Asylum:

tVKjoRd-fWI

[kyrieee]

Diablo's hardcore mode was extremely rewarding
When you're putting months of work on the line every time you play your heart really starts pumping! And then when you die (because you do eventually) you feel really empty. Even though it's not exactly a positive emotion the game at least elicits an emotion in you. It also, to a surprising extent, makes playing games where you can't lose all your stuff really pointless. If you've played HC it's hard to go back

It's a lot like EVE in that you get a rush out of putting your stuff on the line. Today I made a pretty big fuckup though. I was soloing in 0.0 in a battleship (not really a smart thing), in a quite camped area as well. I wasn't really expecting to make it out alive, but I had pod jumped down there and forgot to update my med clone. So if I would've died I would've lost ALL my skillpoints in the game. Years worth of training. Pretty harsh. If I had known that at the time I would probably have freaked out :D

Flight sims:
Falcon 4 with mods is still the best study sim for combat jets on the market, which is kind of sad, but the mod community has been amazing. The triumph of that game was that it simulated an entire theater of war. There were no scripted missions and it makes such a huge difference.

Those games are hard on so many levels. The falcon manual alone is like 600 pages, and it stuff that you need to know by heart. Mod manuals are typically at least the same size, sometimes bigger. Then when you know the avionics there's the actual flying part. Orienting yourself in 3D against other moving airplanes is incredibly difficult.

Just keeping situational awareness (SA) is a skill onto its own. Positions are called in relation to a bullseye which is just a point somewhere on earth. So you're never given direct info where someone is in relation to you, you're told where they are in relation to something else. SA is basically knowing exactly where you are in relation to everything else, where everything else is, what it is, what you have, fuel, weapons, speed and 100s more factors

The problem with the really hardcore flightsims is that they're trying to require you to be as much of a 'real' fighterpilot as possible but they have no chance of ever teaching you how to be one. But yeah, they can be incredibly rewarding. Especially in multiplayer

[Hawggy]

Man - you said it.