Thursday Night Throwdown: 02/23/12

Wubwub

Duders my xbox account name is in the thumbnail sweet

This is already amazing.

Words

He tried to invite me, but the game was already full, THEN the Syndicate servers blew up when he was looking to get one more game in. Bummer!

Any Bombers wanna roll, add Woodroez on XBL! My blinged-out shotgun will be of great service to you.

Woo, only caught the end of this earlier.

@chickenfeet5029 said:

Duders my xbox account name is in the thumbnail sweet

and kessler's too! now YOU decide if that's a good or a bad thing ...forever documented to be cooperating with the kingtern!

Jeff is the CEO of Giant Bomb Heavy Industries.

Yep that makes sense.

I'd love to see realistic riot shields. Ones that aren't 100% impervious to bullets.

gary whitta and asking the obvious. its like every game is introducing brand new concepts to him, where we've seen it all by now.

I love how Gary acts like he's a small child walking into a giant candy store whenever he sees a game that he hasn't heard about before.

It's my internet and you can't have it!

Man, Jeffs teammates for the China level were awful. They did everything tactically wrong, shot at shields forever, ran straight into the enemies, and forsook the objectives. Come on GB community step your co-op game up.

Actually, Patrick, the main reason I'm worried about Mass Effect 3 is the same reason I worried about Uncharted 3 (and those fears turned out to be true). The game is coming off of a stellar sequel that made huge leaps over the first, good game all using the same hardware. In addition, this game has only been worked on two years. I suspect I'll mostly be playing Mass Effect 2 again at best, but with the 1,000 whatever variables they said they had to address, and only taking two years to do it, I don't know. I think it'll be like Uncharted 3, a good game with minimal gameplay additions that doesn't capture the same magic as part 2 and lacks the polish an additional year would've given it.

first time i made it onto a TNT, was a good time. GBHeavyInd, rise that stock.

I want Starbreeze to remake Mass Effect as a first person shooter.

I approve of the giant walking The Haunted reference that made up a large part of this TNT.

My approach is to assume that not everyone watching already knows everything about the game, so I ask stuff that people who aren't familiar with the game might want to know. Sorry if that irritates some of the gaming Masters of the Universe up in here.

@gwhitta: <3

@gwhitta: I wouldn't worry we can defiantly say you're not the problem in this equation. People who complain in the comments can go watch something else if this offends them so much.

Every TNT should end with Klepek pulling a Home Alone.

the first TNT I've ever participated in. lots of fun :D

@NekuCTR said:

Man, Jeffs teammates for the China level were awful. They did everything tactically wrong, shot at shields forever, ran straight into the enemies, and forsook the objectives. Come on GB community step your co-op game up.

In my defense, that was the first time I had played that level, so I wasn't sure exactly how it played out. Not to mention those dudes with the electro-maces are fucking assholes. It's definitely not the easiest game in the world, but I certainly don't remember myself or anyone else intentionally running into enemies or shooting at shields without taking them down first. I think we ended up doing pretty well until the end bits.

In any case, I feel lucky having gotten to play in this TNT given it's brevity and the small number of players per game. I had a lot of fun though. Looking forward to helping GBHeavyInd rise to the top!

Man, Gary Whitta is great. Always nice to see him guest starring on TNTs.

I suddenly want cinnamon rolls for some reason.

Great TNT, and Whitta is always a great guest.

Gary was great yesterday all around. He hosted This is Only a Test and sparked good discussion on TNT.

seems like bad guys often pop into existence from thin air... that would frustrate me

Patrick: "If you played the first two (Mass Effects), you're gonna buy the third one."

Nope.

@DeF: Oh god i didnt think about that

Damn you Rorie, why did you have to compare this to Republic Commando.

Now I have to get it!

To me personally, Bioware fucked up when they started with DLC. I don't revisit games I've already finished, but if I want to play ME3, I have to revisit ME2 and do the DLC to get all the choices and talk to the missing characters and shit like that to get the full package. I just can't be assed to do it.

@gladspooky said:

Patrick: "If you played the first two (Mass Effects), you're gonna buy the third one."

Nope.

Indeed. But that's exactly what EA is counting on, they know that people will feel coerced to buy it so they can milk it for all it's worth. Giving in to that "absolute need" for ME3 is only going to perpetuate the problem though, even if you swear that you won't buy from them again after that. Gamers need to have a backbone and not support the companies that only intend to abuse us. Personally, I've had enough. This is something they've been doing for the last decade, seeing how far they can get away with screwing us over. I know they are a business, but customer support and PR cannot be ignored for the sake of cash.

They have destroyed so many of my favorite developers, I cannot in any good conscious give any more money to EA.

Great Mr. Show reference by Rorie! Good video too :P

wow, gary whitta just said the first smart thing i've ever heard him say, "need for speed: road rash". i really hope EA is listening to this video because THIS is how you'll bring the nfs franchise back from semi-obscurity. nostalgia franchise + current franchise = $$

@Draxyle said:

@gladspooky said:

Patrick: "If you played the first two (Mass Effects), you're gonna buy the third one."

Nope.

Indeed. But that's exactly what EA is counting on, they know that people will feel coerced to buy it so they can milk it for all it's worth. Giving in to that "absolute need" for ME3 is only going to perpetuate the problem though, even if you swear that you won't buy from them again after that. Gamers need to have a backbone and not support the companies that only intend to abuse us. Personally, I've had enough. This is something they've been doing for the last decade, seeing how far they can get away with screwing us over. I know they are a business, but customer support and PR cannot be ignored for the sake of cash.

They have destroyed so many of my favorite developers, I cannot in any good conscious give any more money to EA.

I just haven't seen anything about Mass Effect 3 that makes it look better than 2. It's got multiplayer, I guess, but I don't care about that. And it continues the story, but I don't care about space video game worlds (except for atmosphere). So, eh.

More protesting boring games and less protesting monolithic companies, I guess.

Damn game freezing up...I missed my chance to play with Jeff.

Awesome TNT and some great discussion. I would love see Whitta on the bombcast. Him, Jeff and Patrick worked really well together.

As a resident of Colorado I greatly look forward to the far flung future version of Denver.

@Javes said:

This is some funny shit.

@xobballox said:

@Javes said:

This is some funny shit.

I'm absolutely horrified, but I would buy some shares.

RORIE!!!

GB Heavy Indiana! ALLRIGHT! LET'S DO THIS! :)

I came for Syndicate and stayed for Mass Effect.

@Draxyle said:

@gladspooky said:

Patrick: "If you played the first two (Mass Effects), you're gonna buy the third one."

Nope.

Indeed. But that's exactly what EA is counting on, they know that people will feel coerced to buy it so they can milk it for all it's worth. Giving in to that "absolute need" for ME3 is only going to perpetuate the problem though, even if you swear that you won't buy from them again after that. Gamers need to have a backbone and not support the companies that only intend to abuse us. Personally, I've had enough. This is something they've been doing for the last decade, seeing how far they can get away with screwing us over. I know they are a business, but customer support and PR cannot be ignored for the sake of cash.

They have destroyed so many of my favorite developers, I cannot in any good conscious give any more money to EA.

Perpetuate WHAT problem? If you don't want to support the DLC schemes, but want to play the game, then don't buy the DLC and buy the game.

It's ironic that you mention having a backbone as consumers, while at the same time talking as though, if you buy the game, you will have no choice but to buy the DLC as well.

Big game publishers will always experiment with finding ways to extract more money from the products they put out. Tons of other industries are doing the same thing. If you don't want to support the extra bits they try to charge for, then don't buy them. If you have no self-control in this respect, then how is that their fault?

It isn't "abusing" you. I suspect Mass Effect 3 will be plenty long and satisfying enough with or without added DLC, if ME2 is any guide.

I'm with Patrick (and the rest of the GB crew for that matter) on this one - having day-one DLC makes for kind of bad optics, but that's about it. If they start shipping games with incomplete stories, then try to nickle and dime you to essentially buy the conclusion, then I'll agree that they are "abusing" their customers. Separately selling interesting side-stories and superfluous companion characters to the main game isn't abuse - even on day-one.

The funny thing is, these DLC schemes probably keep lots of non-permanent artists, writers, and coders employed, who otherwise would be let go a month before the game ships because their role in making it was done.

EDIT: Also, "they know they will feel coerced to buy it"? No - they know people WANT to buy it, because they care about the story and want to see the conclusion. I suspect those people eagerly pre-ordering the game, and anticipating it's release, aren't feeling "coerced" at all.

@Scotto: Because of this: http://au.gamespot.com/features/the-dangers-of-gamer-entitlement-6350732/

the sense of ownership that makes some gamers believe that they own the games they play. That's a common mistake; gamers buy games, so naturally they feel entitled to them. But games are, and have always been, the property of the people who made them. [...]

Out of context perhaps, but the argument is still powerful. Some gamers feel that they own games and can dictate what they want. There is a reason why there is a stereotype of the misogynistic, neck beard, jobless, virgin, basement dweller gamer. It's entertainment for your eyeballs. Games won't change the election or feed the poor - it's virtual escape from your normal life. I think for some, that escape is far more compelling than reality, which is why they define philosophical lines around their entertainment. Games mean that much to them.

Or a lot of gamers are cheap (teenagers/college students) and want to pay as little as possible for fun. See: copyright infringement.

@GiveUpNed said:

@Scotto: Because of this: http://au.gamespot.com/features/the-dangers-of-gamer-entitlement-6350732/

the sense of ownership that makes some gamers believe that they own the games they play. That's a common mistake; gamers buy games, so naturally they feel entitled to them. But games are, and have always been, the property of the people who made them. [...]

Out of context perhaps, but the argument is still powerful. Some gamers feel that they own games and can dictate what they want. There is a reason why there is a stereotype of the misogynistic, neck beard, jobless, virgin, basement dweller gamer. It's entertainment for your eyeballs. Games won't change the election or feed the poor - it's virtual escape from your normal life. I think for some, that escape is far more compelling than reality, which is why they define philosophical lines around their entertainment. Games mean that much to them.

Or a lot of gamers are cheap (teenagers/college students) and want to pay as little as possible for fun. See: copyright infringement.

I think having a strong philosophy surrounding your interest in gaming is fine, and even healthy. And like I said - if there ever comes a day when an EA game actually keeps the conclusions to one of their games behind an additional paywall, I will be on the frontline complaining about them abusing their relationship with consumers, and shipping an incomplete product.

But complaining about side-content? That's just gamer entitlement, and a sad lack of self-control. And as Patrick explained in this video, the day-one stuff is generally made during the period when the main game is out of their hands and off to QA, or Cert, or whatever.

It's good that Scandinavia is represented in the game as a map. Not many games takes place here. I can only think of Project Gotham Racing 2 which had the Stockholm track. I envy people in cities like NY, LA, Paris, London, Tokyo etc who can recognize their cities in games. I do not live in Stockholm, but at least that is a city I know fairly well, unlike LA and such. I never get to experience that "Hey I've totally been here in real life." feeling that so many seem to get from playing LA Noire and other games that are using real life locations.

dont be mean to perry. he is totally the most competent question asker you have ever had. YOU OWN YOUR ROLE PERRY.