The Capacity For Disappointment Episode

[fishbang]

We’ll try not to let you down at this link (http://ingamechat.net/audio/IGC20090203.mp3).

We’re a bit down on our uppers for this show, much like the poor child featured in the introduction. Sadly, for us, we’re not head-lolling after a righteous dose of pharmacology, but are sick after the loss of yet another 360, and at the prospect of being dramatically mislead by our own hopes for quarter one games. It would be horrible to see this anomalous batch of major brands suffer from shoddy craftsmanship - despite the volume of letdowns we’re sure we could endure.

But don’t mind the tone. It’s the by-product of too much natural enthusiasm. We’ve got more to look forward to than we have to keep us occupied during this one particular evening. It’s best to read between the lines for what we intend to have fun doing in mere days. Besides, the future of this episode is happening as I write this, and I can already tell that at least some of what we’re hoping for will come to pass.

[Ravenlock]

Another 360 down, huh? Yikes.

Should I feel reassured that I got a Jasper unit? Or do those die left and right too, just with a slightly lower frequency? I had read that they were more reliable, but given the ubiquitous experience of red ring horror that seems to accompany 360 ownership I never really figured out what "more reliable" meant.

[kyrieee]

The last 3-4 episodes have all stopped with 15 minutes remaining (I can't listen to it after that)
Have you guys changed anything in your production?

[Psykoboy2]

The last 3-4 episodes have all stopped with 15 minutes remaining (I can't listen to it after that)
Have you guys changed anything in your production?

It stops playing or continues to play with no audio?

[phoenyx]

I think he is trying to say:

When you sign off and "end the show", there is still roughly 15 minutes left on the timer.

I though I saw that, but I had to go do something before I had a chance to confirm it.

[Psykoboy2]

Well, you know, you should just keep listening. Never know what might be there.

[Iron Past]

Ha! I'm not done listening yet, but I must be the only person in the world who sets up my camera like they have in Afro Samurai by default. I always invert the Y-axis, and in third-person games I invert the X-axis, too. Guess I'm weird. :)

[kyrieee]

No no, it stops 15 min before the show ends. I've listened to the last 15 minutes on my PC. Might just be something with my iPod I don't know

Anyway, the timer (or whatever you call it) stops ticking, the playing 'arrow' is still visible and the ipod gets laggy as hell. Only happens with you guys :p

No biggie though I don't mind listening to it in EVE =D

btw, random thing
on P. Kollar's new show they talked about the RE5 demo vs the real game and they said that the demo was not representative of the full game so don't lose all hope

[Straximus]

No no, it stops 15 min before the show ends. I've listened to the last 15 minutes on my PC. Might just be something with my iPod I don't know

I'll use some different encoding on the next Tuesday show, and see if it helps.

[Spigot]

on P. Kollar's new show they talked about the RE5 demo vs the real game and they said that the demo was not representative of the full game so don't lose all hope
I sure hope so. I wasn't super excited about RE5 as it was but that demo really cooled any real desire to run out and play the game. Plus I hate being forced to play a game co-op. Most of the complaints James had about the fact that the game is no longer a survival horror but is instead an action game with the RE license were really evident in that demo.

I'll still rent the game, but I'm in no rush. I'm just glad to hear other people felt the same way I did about the demo, esp. the RE nuts. Why companies bother putting out lackluster demos boggles my mind. Sure, the game might be better than the demo but if that's the case, they should put out a better demo, not try to convince us after the fact.

Oh, and I was also seeing that there was an extra 15 minutes tagged onto the end of the last couple of shows on my iPod timer but it would just skip the end of the timer once it hit wherever you guys ended the show proper.

[Shrinn]

I've had experiences where the timer runs out long before the shows over, and I'm listening to a good 5-10 minutes of it with 0:00 on the timer.

Audio still works fine though.

[MDPaul]

I lost my 360 about 2 weeks ago, not a red ring, apparently it was a GPU failure. The console still worked fine, it just failed to output any video signal :P Not much use. Fortunately it was still under warranty, and i'm expecting it back this week.

I didn't have a Jasper unit, but i had one of the 20gb Pros that were apparently less prone to failure. I'm curious to see whether i get a new console back, or just mine refurbished.

[Ravenlock]

Some delayed responses to James from the first half hour of the episode (try to bear with me, this might be long)...

Regarding Prince of Persia DLC on the PC, I am totally that guy, and while I'll agree with you that it isn't a tragedy, it is pretty annoying for a few reasons. At the time that I picked it up on the PC (pre-Christmas last year) I didn't have a 360, so PC was my only option for playing it, but as it happens there actually would have been pretty good justification for getting the PC version even if I did have my 360 then:

(1) They chose to release the game with no DRM whatsoever. No Securom, no Starforce, none of that junk. This is obviously an ideological thing that some people will care about and others won't, but it made purchasing the game (for me) a gesture of support.

(2) Price difference. PoP on the PC released at $50 rather than $60, and several stores (Toys R' Us and Target, I know, and maybe others) sold it for a dazzlingly low $30 on release week.

When you can get [what we thought was] the exact same game for literally half the price, especially given the game's reported short length and lack of replay value, it almost doesn't make sense not to do it. I mean, the game looks just as gorgeous in 1280x1024 on my monitor as it would on an HDTV (which I don't have anyhow), it's a very solid port that plays the same with a decent joypad, and there's no multiplayer aspect to miss out on. Achievement points are (or at least were) the only thing missing from the package.

So it does feel like kind of a sharp one to the nuts for them to not release the DLC for the PC version, meaning if I want to experience that content (which I almost certainly do) I'm either going to have to re-buy on the 360, or take up a Gamefly slot for a couple of weeks re-beating the game on 360 and then beating the DLC. Neither of those options is very attractive, and it's a shame because I really like the franchise, this is a good entry in it, and I want to support it and see it succeed.

So that's that. You next mentioned Dead Space on the Wii, to which I will say: when used correctly, the Wii's shooting control is better than dual-analog has ever been. Period. After Metroid Prime 3 and Medal of Honor Heroes 2 I knew without a doubt that given the choice, I would rather use a well-constructed Wii FPS control scheme than a dual analog one any day of the week. It's easy, it IS precise, and it simulates a mouse-keyboard relationship (which, let's be honest, is all dual analog has ever been trying to do) better than any other console control scheme so far.

Of course, that's only when it's done correctly. By far, the majority of Wii FPS attempts have not done it right, and I'll readily agree that when it's done wrong, it's a mess and nobody would want to use it. For Dead Space, I would be most concerned about them downgrading the graphics without either (1) making it look like utter crap, (2) destroying the framerate, or both. Quantum of Solace Wii actually had a really good control scheme, but was ruined by having a shitty framerate because apparently they tried to directly port too much of the CoD4 engine and the Wii just couldn't do it. It's a shame, because I really wanted to like that game, but it was nigh unplayable. (As opposed to CoD: World at War, which got to the Wii pretty much intact, looking good AND moving well.)

So yeah, if they get the framerate smooth and manage to make the graphics not a mess, I think Dead Space could work on the Wii just fine. Whether anyone else will buy it or not, that's another question (I suspect they won't). As for Tenchu on the Wii, it's getting good reviews and supposedly works fine on Wii, so I'm not sure where the hate for that is other than you just not being terribly fond of the Wii, but dude, whatever. If it's a good game, it's a good game. I'm Gameflying it soon, I'll let you know how that goes.

You're quite right to say that every publisher in the world is trying to figure out how they can monetize the Wii. I think you're wrong, though, to assume that's necessarily a bad thing. The Wii is obviously in the hands of more people than any other current system, and a lot of people are putting shovelware on the system hoping it'll at least catch suckers at Walmart - exactly, I'll remind you, as they did for the PS2 did a generation ago. In the long run, I think the level of quality on Wii will go up as more talented devs put their games on it, and I have a hard time seeing how that's bad for anybody. I don't think the 360 and PS3 markets are going anywhere.

Final comment: As for "nobody expects the Wii to impress visually", actually I think that's less true than it was. I think as the Wii has gotten more and more marketshare, and more devs have started to try to take their franchises there, that has in turn dragged more "core" (or whatever nonsense term one wants to use) gamers into a position of scrutinizing the system and saying "you guys can and should do better". Take a look at Shaun White's Snowboarding, from the end of '08. Look at the upcoming Murumasa, or the Overlord prequel, or The Conduit. There are some games coming on the Wii that look much better than anything from its early lifecycle aside from Twilight Princess and Galaxy, and I think getting as much as possible out of the system graphically will be a selling point going forward.

Wall of text over. Looking forward to hearing the rest of the episode during my workday. ;)

[Commissar Rob]

No no, it stops 15 min before the show ends. I've listened to the last 15 minutes on my PC. Might just be something with my iPod I don't know

Anyway, the timer (or whatever you call it) stops ticking, the playing 'arrow' is still visible and the ipod gets laggy as hell. Only happens with you guys :p

No biggie though I don't mind listening to it in EVE =D

I've run into the same thing a few times lately. The show is over, but the play timer shows about fifteen minutes left of nothing. No big deal, but there you go.

I didn't catch whether the wee lad discovering the joys of dentistry was one of yours or a random internet kid. Either way, poor guy! That'll haunt him in years to come. :D

[Spigot]

I didn't catch whether the wee lad discovering the joys of dentistry was one of yours or a random internet kid. Either way, poor guy! That'll haunt him in years to come. :DHere's David The Dental Kid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs) in all his internet glory.

[Straximus]

Here's David The Dental Kid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs) in all his internet glory.

And here's (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70r-Ca8wcVg) my favorite mash-up of that. :)