CAGbag: Get your questions answered on CAGcast

For some reason, I tend to buy multiple games at once only to find that I don't have time to play all of them. Sometimes good games don't get played more than a few minutes before something else captures my attention and they are ignored. Sometimes, I end up selling them on eBay only to buy them up and not play them again (especially when there's a great CAG Deal). Examples for me are Deus Ex: Invisible War, COD 2, and Breakdown. As a CAG, this is probably not the best use of my funds, but I wondered...

What is the most significant good game that you have purchased (maybe even multiple times) that you just haven't got around to playing?
 
Before the trailer comes out next week, what are your predictions for GTA4? Do you think it'll have a huge jump in format, scope and gameplay; like the jump from 1&2 to GTA3, or will we just get more of the same?
 
Wombat: Will the new Ratchet and Clank persuade you to buy a PS3? You've mentioned that you like the series before.
 
I'm not one to usually comment on the podcast, but the whole "disappointment" comment kind of bothered me. You two, as well as the rest of the gaming world, have the right to be a bit disappointed with the recent game releases. You guys have mentioned Crackdown, and it's a great example. After about 8-10 hours there's not much left to do. When I compare this to my recent purchase of Viva Piñata, which is $10 less and has kept me busy for about 20 hours already, I see a problem. I also see a problem with paying another $60 for more of the same GRAW action.

Wii games have also been having problems. This isn't necessarily Nintendo's fault, the system just came out. Developers are still discovering new ways to use the Wiimote. But, this doesn't change the fact that there aren't many big, content packed games beyond Zelda. There’s also the complete lack of online play to take into consideration

I personally haven't been buying many new games at all, and have been depending on GameFly to try them out. All this complaining aside, it's the beginning of a new console generation, games are going to be mediocre. There will be a few absolutely fantastic games, but most will fall under the category of simply being "ok." The games will get better as the current gen continues, but this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t point out the flaws of the current games. I don’t see you guys as being “Jaded” I see you as doing what you should be doing. I don’t know, maybe I’m just a bitter gamer who complains too much. That’s more of a rant so I guess I should ask a question too, what game have either of you been the most disappointed with from each console so far this generation?
 
So Cheapy, I was on yahoo today and I saw this article titled

"Is Wii winning the console race?" http://us.i1.yimg.com/videogames.yahoo.com/ongoingfeature?eid=509116&page=0.

In it, it discusses how the wii is still being sold out everywhere and killing the sales of the 360 and Ps3. It even stays that the race might even be over already.

Of course, the war is obiviously not over (halo 3 hasn't even fucking come out yet), but in your opinion and Wobat's, do you think the 360 and PS3 can catch up? Wii is cheaper, more innovative, and has Metroid, Mario, and Pokemon still to come out. I myself am a 360 fan and am pulling for it, but I'm starting to shake in my boots :(

And also that yahoo columnist is dumb :p
 
All time listener , first time poster(on Cagbag):
1.Do you ever feel like you look forward to a game so much but when you actually get it its "meh." Im not suggesting that it is necessarily a bad game. You look forward to a game and you believe that it is the only game you'll need but once you actually get it you just start looking forward to another game and the cycle continues.
2.How do you feel about the recently announced halo 3 packages? Do you think Microsoft/Bungie is taking advantage of its loyal fans (overcharging something that probably costs very little to produce, not the actual game of course.) or do you think that more publishers should do this?
3.Do you miss the days when games used to be $50? Today more and more "deals" are being posted on $60 games that cost $50. Are people now okay with paying $50 for a title even though many were not when they were $50 in the previous generations? I am basing this question on some of your beliefs that today's generation of games are just another brick in the wall.
 
Cheapy and Wombat:

Love the podcast; figured I'd chime in with a few words of encouragement (nothing videogame related, of course):

Cheapy: You're down because you're lucky to have sex twice a week? I don't know how long you've been married, but as one who walked down the aisle a few years ago, let me fill you in: Marriage doesn't mean sleeping withe one woman the rest of your life. It means sleeping with zero women the rest of your life. Oh, and wait until you have a kid. Seriously, dude: Twice a week? Count your blessings. And next time you're down because you're the only 6-foot-4 bald white man in Japan, think what the only 3-foot-4 bald white man in Japan must be feeling.

Wombat: So your wife's therapist is saying YOU should masturbate more? You must be married even longer than Cheapy. Whoops -- I was supposed to be encouraging here, wasn't I? Sorry. By the way, I'm here in NYC, so let me know if Scores reopens. I can't think of a better way to blow through $400 in 17 minutes.
 
G'day guys,
Even people from Australia listen to you guys and have been listening for at least 10 or so months now, so keep up the good work. First time poster and have been starting to DIGG you guys as well. Cheers, heres my question.

I just have a quick thing to say about the length of video games today compared to the early days with regards to the nes and sega master system etc...

Quite a few games back then could be completed in one sitting. Games like Super Mario Brothers. People are doing speed runs of that game in 10 minutes, but everyone still thinks its a fantastic game never the less. I could clock Alex Kidd in miracle world for the SMS and Ninja Gaiden in an afternoon.

Getting to my point. When you guys talk about a new game out and say that its a 'so so game' because it only lasts 8 hours or so, I don't get it. I call myself a casual gamer if that. Like Wombat at the moment, playing a few hours or less on the weekends. 8 hours of game play can last quite a few weeks for someone like myself. Which in turn can translate into a fantastic game experience, cause the time taken to complete it isn't the deciding factor whether the experience is fun or not.

I see RPG's and what not and just can't put the time into them to get into those types of games. But games that are 5 to 15 hours a good, cause over a few weeks or whatever, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Anyway,
take it easy guys..

Maggoty :D
 
What do you all feel about the UI in games. Is it time to innovate from the classic design? With games starting to harmonize with the use of on screen injuries in replace of health bars (IE CoD2 or Gears of War), is this a good direction?

Basically, is it time for the developers to start thinking of clever ways around the traditional use of an interface?

I feel its time to make interface a thing of the past...
 
Hi guys, long time listner, first time writer.
So I'm listening to the latest show and I'm hearing Wombat regale the audience the tale of the Christmas gift he wanted but just recently got. In his retelling he even makes it sound as if this is a hard to find item.

I was sitting in the office, finishing up some code, and all of a sudden I started laughing my ass off. People in other parts of the office started giving me strange looks and wanted to know what was so funny. It would be a long inside joke that wouldn't make any sense.

In short, I wanted a Wii or PS3 for Christmas. What did I get? Under the tree on Christmas morning was a shiny Cusinart Griddler GR-4. Don't get me wrong, it's just as Wombat describes; enabling you to make all manner of pressed/grilled food items.

However, it doesn't have a high definition disc player in it, nor does it incorporate innovative motion sensitive user controls.

Maybe next year Santa will get it right.
 
CheapyD,

Just started listening to the podcast this past week, been listening to the back episodes. Thanks for keeping me entertained during the workday.

Since you have now infiltrated the gaming industry, and you are headed to the scaled down E3, what is the general perception of the industry, mainly the developers and publishers, towards cheapassgamer? Do they hate us for waiting to buy their games cheap, or love us for buying more games than the average gamer?
 
Wombat, since you're so in tune with the marketroids, this question is for you.

Do you think that games will be more likely to have settings that are amenable to in-game ads, since it presents a higher profit for the publisher?

So we'd see fewer games with elves and knights and more modern games where billboards are normal.
 
Has the cagcast become a biased show?! Im not talking about gaming dicussion but of the way they portray the community here (forums). While listening back I have noticed that in the cagbag the same user's questions keep popping up. Just because someone may not be very skilled in grammar doesn't necessarily mean they can't ask a question and have it be heard/answered! The people who's questions are often answered have well formatted grammar. I also noticed how when someone uses bad grammar they are often criticized for it. Recently, you guys have only been playing "cag related" 80's songs. I can't be the only one who finds this unfair...

With that put aside I can see myself listening for a while but mostly because of the combo of both of you. If one of you went MIA the world as we know it would be in jeopardy. WOMBAT you are the syrup on the waffle that is cagcast.
 
While playing on Xbox Live, I've noticed that lots of ladies use "their man's" username so they can play stuff like Uno and Tetris Evolution. They say it's because only one profile is Gold so they can't use their profile which is sliver. Why doesn't Microsoft offer a "girlfriend subscription" that let's them play certain games online. For example, online play for Uno on Xbox Live would be 100 points (one member must be a Gold member on the system). That way the lady can be herself, having fun without needing to reply "this is Cheapy's wife playing Lumines" whenever a friend invite pops up.
 
[quote name='thorbahn3']While playing on Xbox Live I've noticed that lots of ladies use "their man's" username so they can play stuff like Uno and Tetris Evolution. They say it's because only one profile is Gold so they can't use their profile. Why doesn't Microsoft offer a "girlfriend subscription" that let's them play certain games online. For example, online play for Uno on Xbox Live would be 100 points (one member must be a Gold member on the system). That way the lady can be herself and all like "this Cheapy's wife playing Lumines.[/QUOTE]

...Why?
 
Dear Cheapy,

All inquiring minds want to know, since Wombat won't spill the beans on his personal life, how did you meet Mrs. Cheapy?

And if Wombat cares to tell, how did you meet Mrs. Wombat? And why do you need to masturbate more? The world needs to know, you sonavabitch....just kidding.
 
I remember Cheapy Mentioning this on the CAGCast when answering a question about the ratings system.

Do you think Take Two is right in suing Jack Thompson?
Furthermore,
What are your guys' opinions on the response of Jack Thompson to the lawsuit filed against him from Take 2? Do you think that it is Jack Thompson doing the right thing, or just becoming a nuisance himself?

By the way, the response can be seen here http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2007/03/17/jack-thompson-responds-to-the-take-two-lawsuit
 
What do you guys think about all of the supposed exclusives being lost by (mostly) sony but also Microsoft. Some people seem really angry when and exclusive is lost but if you have say a PS3 and Devil May Cry is announced for other platforms.. can't you still be happy and play it on your PS3 or is the experiance of playing the game somhow runined by the fact that your friend with a 360 can get it as well? Or are you now conflicted since you have both and are now confused about which system to get it for. This seems to be a huge topic in many forums but for me I can only see this as an issue for the companies themselves as their systems can not get these titles as well and the publishers as they can sell to more customers now also.. Thoughts?
 
Cheapy,

The other night while watching TV I noticed the original Gremlins movie was on, which I hadn't seen it for some time. As a young kid when first released I remember various toys for this movie. One in particular was a small 1 inch tall Gremlin figures, usually found in those plastic $0.25 machines found at Wal-mart & other stores. You put it into the Gremlin into a large glass mason jar & filled with water. The toys after a period of time would grow the size of the jar, basically 10-15 times larger. The gremilins looked really fleshy at full size.

Do you remeber ever seeing or having any items like this? I wish they still made them possible in various sizes and characters.
 
Cheapy,

I was wondering if you could do a segment each week on Rail Fan. I really enjoy hearing about your exploits in the crazy world of train sims. In fact, I think you should remove the Wombat's Burrow and put this segment in its place. I know it's what Wombat really wants, he's just too shy to tell you. So how about it!?
 
Cheapy.. Speaking of Railfan.. I was wondering if you had ever tried the train sims for the PSP. I have a few and at least one has the real time video which is really cool to be playing while on the go..
 
Wombat,

We all know your love for comics and super heroes as you have showed us throughout the CAGCast. I know you aren't a big PC gamer, but have you ever expressed any interest in City of Heroes/City of Villains for the PC? It's the MMORPG where you get to create your own super hero. It seems like this game would be right up your ally. You could make the tallest, baldest, whitest guy in the game and name him, "Super Cheapy," or you could make the first wombat themed super hero. It's you choice -- you decide...

P.S. Love the show and keep up the great work guys!
 
Usually after a popular game gets released we start seeing similar games (call them inspired by the popular game, clones, rip offs, or whatever you want) coming out shortly afterwards. Are there any games that you want to see more "clones" of?

Personally I would love to see more Oblivion style games, since the only games similar games I've seen is Two Worlds and Lord of the Rings The White Council, both of which are in development. I would also love to see some Resident Evil 4 style games, since aside from RE 5, the Wii game, and the new Alone in the Dark I haven't seen much that seems to be in the same style.
 
With the shortages of launch units running rampant through all launches this generation, developers are complaining about how they can't make a profit on these games. This brings up an intruiging question since some games have gone to the download-only circuit.

Do you think that at the next generation of game consoles we'll only see downloadable titles at launch? I'm not talking like 5-25 gb games here, but 200-500 mb games that cost $5-$10.

This way install bases could grow and small developers could get profits early while big developers come in at the start of the new year with bigger titles and not have to worry as much about breaking even.
 
Now that all of the "official" details about the Elite 360 have come to surface, I'm intrigued by how a three console launch season would've looked if the Elite 360 was the first 360 to come out and they didn't rush to be out first.

Let's say it's November of 2006, the Elite 360 (just 360 for this scenario), Wii, and PS3 (both 20GB and 60GB models) are all coming out in the next few weeks. Each console has it's launch lineup (adjust yearly titles for the 360 to what the PS3 has, except for sequels like GRAW 2, and push the 2006 exclusive 360 releases to being 2007 releases) as what you know it now to be and the consoles are the same prices that we know they are now ($250 Wii, $500 and $600 PS3, $480 360).

How do you guys think the next-gen market would differ from today's market as all three consoles launched at once? Would it be an overload of new consoles with the immense shortages that they had at their high prices for the consoles and games? Oblivion, GRAW would've come out at the same time for the 360 and PS3 while exclusives likes Motorstorm and F1 for the PS3 and DOA 4 for the 360 would be out early on in the lives of the PS3. Since neither system would have a large install base this early in their lives (they're probably neck-and-neck for the most part), would you see Dead Rising and some of the previously 360-exclusive games being on the PS3 at their release? Would the Wii's quick start create a sizable lead that starts to give them an insurmountable lead? Is that enough questions for you guys? :lol:

Go for any other situations that you'd see as interesting changes in history between what has really happened, but the main question for it all is "how would you see the console war taking shape if the Elite 360 was the main SKU for the 360 that MS launched with alongside the Wii and PS3 in November of 2006?"
 
Have you ever thought of adding a PC Gamer to your podcast? I feel that Cheapy D and Wombat do a fairly good job of representing the console side of gaming, but both tend to ignore the PC side of gaming.

Heck, if you need someone to do it, I'd be willing ;)

Brandon Mills
Allston, MA
 
Cheapy,
You mentioned that you got "Worms" and you've been playing it a lot. Any tips on ways to win the war?
 
Hey guys, great job on the cagcast as usual. I really enjoy the opening classic midi file and love the feeling of nostalgia, but hate the feeling of, "Crap, what was that game again?" Would you mind mentioning which game you pulled that from at the top of the show?
 
[quote name='Jaster']Hey guys, great job on the cagcast as usual. I really enjoy the opening classic midi file and love the feeling of nostalgia, but hate the feeling of, "Crap, what was that game again?" Would you mind mentioning which game you pulled that from at the top of the show?[/quote]

It's from Blaster Master, and Cheapy always lists any intro/outro music in the show notes: http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=132838
 
Another great show!

Question for both of you - When discussing games recently, you both seem to mention that if the game dropped to 20-30 bucks you may get it, etc. I feel like before we (CAGs in general) talked about budget games being in the 19.99price point. I also remember everyone being up-in-arms about the then proposed 59.99 price of "next-gen" games. Have you two now accepted the "new" 59.99 price of games, thereby meaning you now consider 30 bucks for a game a deal? I miss last-gen :(
 
Cheapy - What could Microsoft be thinking by introducing the Elite.. a unit with a higher price tag to Japan where the system itself seems to be on life support already. Not sure the Japanese market (who do like different colors and stand in line for a new PS2 each time it is released in some new color) will pony up the extra cash on a system that most of them do not seem to want in the first place. What are you thoughts on this and the Xbox troubles in general in Japan. When I was there last it seemed like the xbox shelves were collecting dust..
 
The DC Metro area had a great meet-up a month back....has the grand Poobah, yes that's you CheapyD, ever thought of putting together a nationwide CAG meetup. I couldn't think of anything more fun or weird. But I think that a lot of CAG would put the effort to get to a CAG-palooza.
 
I'm wondering what you guys think about the current state of affairs at Circuit City.

They're laying off over 3400 employees and asking them to "reapply" in an attempt cut salaries (costs). In my mind, it appears that CC is frantically trying to stay afloat in that they seem to be copying the competition's methodologies in getting gamers / DVD collector's into their stores. Lately they've started a $20 Gift Card guarantee if they don't have a particular game in stock at a certain time on release date, customers get a $20 Gift Card. CAG'ers seems to be getting a lot of free gift cards which of course CC does NOT want to do on an ongoing basis.
And as an unintended result of the "layoff / reapply for your job at a lower salary" announcement, I'm starting to sense an undercurrent of resentment towards CC as well as people beginning to state that they'll be shopping LESS at CC or not at all.

I hate to throw this out there but could it be possible that CC might be on the same path that led them to going under (out of business) as they did once before?

I just don't know how much more time CC has before they either go under or get their ship in order.

I'm new to the CAGCasts but I'm liking what I'm hearing. Great stuff guys! :applause:
 
Hey, why does wombat have an outrageous new york accent and cheapy D does not? Being from the south I have a hard time understanding what wombat is saying sometimes.
 
Hey Cheapy and Wombat


Do you think that the shortage of good games on the Wii is due to developers and publishers underestimating just how many Wii consoles were going to sell.

Now that the Wii seems to be outselling the PS3, has a fairly solid number of consoles in the market and in many parts of the world is still fairly hard to come by that maybe developers and publishers may change their strategy and place more focus on developing games for the Wii or do you see the current trend continuing?


Keep up the good work, the show is always the highlight of my train ride to work.


Zeek
 
Love the show, been listening since the first. Congratulations on the upcoming #70 milestone!

I guess I could be considered a Nintendo "fan boy". I always buy the latest Nintendo console but wait on all others until they're in the clearance bin. I didn't own a PSOne until they were down to $50 new in 2003. Lately I've been stockpiling cheap PS2 games but the system hasn't crossed the $100 threshold yet. Do you think Sony is going to cut the price and continue to sell the PS2 or quietly end production like Nintendo and Microsoft did with their last consoles?
 
hey cheapy and wombat hows things going.
im lovin the show, keep up the good work, im a musician and an audio engineering student and wanted to know if you guys wanted your own theme song? id love to do it, for free of course.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top