[Episode 25] I'd Buy That for a Dollar!!

[Voodoo]

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

On this edition of the Immortal Machines Podcast your dedicated cast of Robert [Trebor], Eric [Ravenlock], Adam [Grifter], Jacob [MagGnome], Jeremy [Lord Don], Clayton [Voodoo], and now three time offender J Arcane return to discuss the crazy digital distribution sales than have been going on for the month of December. In Retro land, fond memories that were first though forgotten are recalled when discussing Funcom’s The Longest Journey. Backing into Indie games comes next with a very special review of Gratuitous Space Battles along with Tuper Tario Tros, and an update to Spelunky. And then a final wrap up with what we have been playing. So if you can stop buying games for a damn minute from Steam, GOG, or wherever, right click on the link and download this, that last IM podcast for 2009.

...I'd Buy That for a Dollar (http://www.immortalmachines.com/public/podcast/Id_Buy_That_For_A_Dollar.mp3)!!

Hosted & Summarized by Robert [Trebor]
Participants are Eric [Ravenlock], Jacob [MagGnome], Jeremy [Lord Don], Adam [Grifter] and J Arcane as himself!
Produced by Clayton [Voodoo]

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)

[Ravenlock]

To ease your browsing woes, the promised links:


Space Asshole (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcUBI-YVRY8), the finest song about Red Faction Guerrilla ever recorded.
The MechWarrior: Living Legends mod (http://www.mechlivinglegends.net/content/view/396/1/) for Crysis (and also this sweet gameplay trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNFeE8mIlxQ&feature=player_embedded#), which was hard to find on their page)
The aforementioned Sugar Free Gamer list 10 indie games you should play (http://sugarfreegamer.com/?p=96) (and you really should).
Here's the listing of Steam sales (http://steam.addhawk.net/) I used to get my numbers during that discussion.
I don't remember why I said I'd link to the Nexus: The Jupiter Incident Steam page (http://store.steampowered.com/app/6420/), but apparently I did.
From the indie segment, the Mario / Tetris mashup Tuper Tario Tros (http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2009/12/browser_game_pick_tuper_tario.html)...
and Mountain Maniac (http://tigsource.com/articles/2009/12/17/mountain-maniac), for those who want something a little more violent.
Also, the brand spanking new version (http://spelunkyworld.com/original.html) of the wonderful Spelunky.
Finally, if you never did, go check out Gratuitous Space Battles (http://positech.co.uk/gratuitousspacebattles/) and decide whether I'm crazy for not really wanting to buy it. ;)

[Ghostbear]

I loved The Longest Journey, one of my favorite adventure games.

[Seika]

Good Stuff. :)

Three... What... What?!

[Wraith]

Note: the news announcement on the CoG side has white text, rather than default colors, which is pretty much unreadable with the Default theme.

[Rune_74]

Hmm I wonder if I could talk Basilisk into doing a podcast with you guys....

[PathMaster]

Note: the news announcement on the CoG side has white text, rather than default colors, which is pretty much unreadable with the Default theme.

Yep. Very strange when I opened the COG feed in Google Reader. All I saw was white with a link here and there. Threw me off, so I of course clicked on the link to see the actual post.

Darn, I have Longest Journey, and I keep forgetting to install and play it. ARGH!

[Voodoo]

That was odd. Fixed it via my phone. Let me know if its okay now. Thanks.

[MagGnome]

Hmm I wonder if I could talk Basilisk into doing a podcast with you guys....

That would be great! Then I could drool all over Eschalon 2. :D


I love Longest Journey as well, as you guys will find out when you listen to the podcast and hear me ramble about it.

[Rune_74]

That would be great! Then I could drool all over Eschalon 2. :D


I love Longest Journey as well, as you guys will find out when you listen to the podcast and hear me ramble about it.

Had a pretty long chat with him today...he isn't so open to a podcast because he is worried he might say something that he can't take back. I however got him to agree to doing another interview, the added bonus is it will be comming with a teaser video as well, if you guys are interested.

[MagGnome]

Had a pretty long chat with him today...he isn't so open to a podcast because he is worried he might say something that he can't take back. I however got him to agree to doing another interview, the added bonus is it will be comming with a teaser video as well, if you guys are interested.

Another interview sounds good to me. You did a great job with the last one. :)

[CappinCanuck]

Link is broken :(. That or server went offline, will keep checking since that might be the case.

Not Found

The requested URL /public/podcast/I'd_Buy_That_For_A_Dollar. mp3 was not found on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.


Edit: Probably that apostrophe :).

Linky: http://www.immortalmachines.com/public/podcast/I%27d_Buy_That_For_A_Dollar.mp3 (http://www.immortalmachines.com/public/podcast/I%27d_Buy_That_For_A_Dollar.mp3)

[Voodoo]

Link is broken :(. That or server went offline, will keep checking since that might be the case.

Not Found

The requested URL /public/podcast/I'd_Buy_That_For_A_Dollar. mp3 was not found on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.


Edit: Probably that apostrophe :).

Linky: http://www.immortalmachines.com/public/podcast/I%27d_Buy_That_For_A_Dollar.mp3

I removed the apostrophe now. :) Thanks!

[Doogie2K]

I think I spent something like C$120 or C$130 on Steam sale stuff. My final haul:


Beyond Good and Evil
BioShock*
Civilization IV Complete*
Crysis Pack
Machinarium
Max Payne Pack* x 2 (the other for a friend)
Osmos
Red Faction: Guerilla, or should I say, Space Asshole ;)
Resident Evil 5
STALKER Pack
Torchlight (for a friend: another friend had already gifted it to me)
Trine
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

The three with asterisks are games I already owned (with the exception of Civ IV: Colonization), but were cheap enough I could justify the convenience. So that's 13 new games and DD versions of six I already had. Not a bad deal, all told.

Of course, now I probably can't buy another game until my birthday in September at this rate, but fuck it, between my Christmas gifts (Prince of Persia, Dragon Age 360, Wolfenstein), this sale, the XBLA sale (Shadow Complex, The Maw, Castle Crashers), my recent pickup of Assassin's Creed II, and my leftover backlog from last year -- including Fable II, which I've played about an hour of -- I'm not going to need any.

(Well, okay, maybe Mass Effect 2.)

[CappinCanuck]

On Borderlands:
They've already said they were going to turn it into an MMO, if I am remembering correctly. I'd be all gung-ho should they ever patch Borderlands to my satisfaction, and I'm not even looking for perfection. I've just learned not to trust any dev house that considers the game "finished" as soon as it's out the door. I don't know of any devs who have made a 100% complete/bug-free title at release; let alone one without major problems; which, by the way, is all I want from Borderlands.

On Cheap Steam or Iphone Games:
Two points.
1) As for the flood of cheap $5-20 games, most are worth their cost. It's not really just that they're selling cheaper to get more distribution. Yea, they're cheap compared to big titles ($49-59), but their values in production, length, replayability, a bajillion other things are lower. I won't buy something just because it's cheap and I'll give no credit to pubs or devs for putting out something at a lower price point until they prove value. Like, I bought Braid for $2.50. I wasn't going to buy it at $10. I got through it in about 1.5 days. A lot of big name titles will give me a product I'd play for longer than a week at $50. I don't care if it is only $10.

2) I must be the odd one out, but I'm with the guys that won't even shell out 2.99, or less, for some things. I've run into plenty of cheap titles that weren't even worth the couple of bucks. I spend on the value of the game, period. It might be on sale, it might not. Something new with Steam sales/cheap sales or other places, perhaps also with the standardization of micro-transactions, is that devs and pubs seem to think that as long as it's cheap enough, it's alright. But it ain't for me. I won't ever pay $1 for a costume. I won't pay $5 for 2 maps. I may or may not buy a $3 Iphone game, because I've seen more $3 Iphone games that aren't worth the money than ones that do. Yeah, worth even less than $3. I don't think devs should be blaming consumers.

[Zecon]

Space asshole makes me miss Idle Thumbs...
But had they not stopped, It would have been longer till I started up IM.
So it worked out for the best.
Btw I'm sure it has been asked before, but where does your intro come from?
The only steam title I picked up was the Crysis pack for 13 bucks. even with the crap DRM it was too good for me to pass up.
I played a little bit of it, but I may put it off until I get a card where I can run it nicely at something other than the lowest settings possible.
I have been thinking about trying out The longest journey, I keep debating it every time I browse Steam,so I may just go ahead and just finally pick it up, since it sounds good.
And I have been hearing quite a bit about gratuitous space battles on Rebel FM, but it sounds a bit heavy on micromanagement, which I tend to shy away from.

[Voodoo]

Btw I'm sure it has been asked before, but where does your intro come from?

The Immortal Machines intro is the combination of two songs and a voice-over. The songs are Marilyn Manson's WOW and King Kill 33. The voice-over is from the game System Shock 2.

[Zecon]

The Immortal Machines intro is the combination of two songs and a voice-over. The songs are Marilyn Manson's WOW and King Kill 33. The voice-over is from the game System Shock 2.

Wow, that's a pretty excellent intro.

[MagGnome]

I have been thinking about trying out The longest journey, I keep debating it every time I browse Steam,so I may just go ahead and just finally pick it up, since it sounds good.

If you like adventure games at all you should definitely play The Longest Journey. It's one of the best, as I said on the show.

[Voodoo]

Wow, that's a pretty excellent intro.

Thanks! It took me a while to find a good combination for the intro. I've got several other intros as well but this remains the best of 'em.

[LordDon]

Thanks! It took me a while to find a good combination for the intro. I've got several other intros as well but this remains the best of 'em.

QFT, I love the latest intro.

[BrassGecko]

And I have been hearing quite a bit about gratuitous space battles on Rebel FM, but it sounds a bit heavy on micromanagement, which I tend to shy away from.

I'm not sure if you've just got a different definition of micro-management than I do (I think of say, Warcraft III), but as there is no input at all during the battle this comment was odd to me! I guess there can be a fair bit of management before clicking "fight," but I don't think of that as the same thing.

[Lint of Death]

And I have been hearing quite a bit about gratuitous space battles on Rebel FM, but it sounds a bit heavy on micromanagement, which I tend to shy away from.

I agree with BrassGecko about the management nonissue. In any case, ach, there's a demo. You have no excuse!

The Longest Journey is also one of my favorite games of all time, and I only played it a year and a half ago.