saladbone

I feel like Nintendo always treated their manuals with a greater sense of whimsy and color than others. And I think flavor text about monsters like that would have made perfect sense to my 7 year old brain. Mouser sounds like an ok guy with the right attitude, to me.

@frostyryan: haha this was before I developed late-onset motion sickness. Now looking down at my phone for 5 seconds in the car gets me seasick. I don't know how my child lead-belly survived car ride gameboy marathons.

@gruebacca: And OF COURSE my irresponsible younger self super lost that thing. I'd kill to have that back and hang it up.

This gives me hope! Unfortunately I haven't played Witcher yet but it's great that those are thrown in on the basic version of the game. I also remember the map that came with my Skyrim copy and I thought that was a nice touch (another item I lost)

What happened to instruction booklets, man?

I remember back to my little gamer jr. days, ripping open a new game and poring over the instruction manual in the car as soon as I could pull it out of the packaging. Rifling through the pages like the toy catalogs around Christmastime, I would eagerly pick apart every image and feature in anticipation of the game awaiting me. I remember bringing 3 to 5 instruction booklets of games I had already finished with me on long car trips: Smash Bros, Pokemon Silver, Ratchet and Clank, just so I could be engrossed in the game while real life forced me away from them (i choose not to think about whether or not that's healthy). And even if I was already familiar with the game, I still enjoyed looking in the back of the booklet to see if they had voice acting credits and whether or not they left a "notes" section. (Did anyone even use the "notes" section of the manual?)

At any rate, a couple years ago when opening Assassin's Creed Brotherhood for the first time I noticed that there was no manual to be found. Merely a Uplay login card, some ads for other Ubisoft games, and directions to the in-game manual. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think many games this gen are packaging-in manuals either, aside from collector's editions. I understand the importance of cutting down on paper and packaging costs but I was still disappointed that the game was lacking a little booklet. In fact, the latest instruction booklet worth reading I can think of came with Fallout 3 GOTY Edition (a.k.a. the Vault Dweller's Survival Guide).

I guess this is my "back in my day" disgruntled old man side showing and my nostalgia for gaming as a kid is intensifying my love for these little reads. Also as we move further toward all-digital copies of games I don't see the instruction books of old making a triumphant comeback. There's just simply no need for them anymore, but when a game puts one in anyway that's worth reading like the aforementioned Survival Guide it brings back little gamer junior and I am happy :D

Anyway, figured I'd ask the you guys about this. Anybody else miss game instruction manuals, or hold them near and dear the way I do? Anybody collect them? What were your favorites? Thanks for reading, y'all are great.

@darth_navster: I feel like the way things are going we may not get another game as pivotal as Gears or COD 4 until somebody nails VR in a big way. Which we may see in less than 9 more years. Which is kind of weird and scary.

During my lunch break today I re-read Jeff's review of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition and was reminded of how important and influential the original Gears of War was for the titles that would follow. According to Jeff:

"Gears of War popularized the idea of cover systems... ...It was also a game that helped make cooperative campaigns feel like they should be standard, rather than occasional treats. On top of that, it ushered in Unreal Engine 3, the engine that more or less defined the previous generation of consoles... ...It was influential, too, touching off a healthy round of knock-offs and its specific ways of hiding behind things would seep into plenty of other games."

I got to thinking about the games, this gen, we will look back on in another 9 years (wow that's a long time) with as much reverence for what they established. "The Destiny Platform"? MGSV's level of player agency? Mario Maker's depth of level creation while remaining easy and intuitive?

My question is, what game or games on this current generation of consoles struck you as important or influential in a way similar to how Jeff described the original Gears to be? What aspects of these games are so groundbreaking? Where has their influence been felt (or where will their influence be felt)? Basically, what games, so far, have the most potential to be looked back on as the "Gears 1" of the Xbox One and ps4? Have there even been any yet?

Edit: Feel free to include PC/Wii U titles, I am just using XboxOne and PS4 to signify a period of time that we refer to as "current-gen".

Curious as to what you duders think and I know this is a difficult question since we are still early-on in the life cycle of these boxes. Thanks!

Hotline Miami 2 was the soundtrack I listened to most outside of the game this year. Mainly bc it featured tracks by Scattle and Perturbator that were fucking killer. it made for some pretty reckless night driving in my slow slow compact car. ("Bloodline" by Scattle and "Future Club" by Perturbator)

A yellow honda fit. so basically a yellow doorstop with wheels.

I'm also pushing Dan Carlin's Hardcore History especially if I'm doing some mindless character progression/grinding like patrol missions in Destiny or running errands in Skyrim. Basically as long as the gameplay isn't too engaging or complicated because I find that Hardcore History requires you to pay more attention than humor or gaming podcasts. What's great about Hardcore History is that it really feels like Dan Carlin is telling a cohesive and compelling story, instead of just reading from a history textbook. He weaves in loads of primary sources as well as contradicting opinions from historians to give you a full grasp of whatever era or conflict he's tackling. His episodes are also a good length for a game session (His WWI episodes are around 4 hours each).

I was super excited about the escalator etiquette upon visiting London where it seemed as though everyone adhered to the "stand on one side, walk on the other" rule. Though I do not remember which side was which, for a brief moment I felt as though we as humans were on the same team! Until of course, I returned to America, where the obliviousness of the common man is quite astounding. The escalator (and moving sidewalk) situation is a chaos-ridden mess of inconsiderate oafs who stare either at their phones or at the ceiling while remaining sedentary on both sides of the path. Leaving those in a hurry the herculean task of weaving through this Aggro-Crag of mouthbreathers. Toppling suitcases and elbowing toddlers on the way to their destination. Is the escalator etiquette just a Europe-thing?

@naoiko: Um, actually I haven't seen confirmation either way, I just meant "soon" as in like maybe in the next few podcasts or so. But ditto on the well wishes!