CAGcast #119: Go Dick!

CheapyD

CheapyD

Head Cheap Ass
Staff member
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Wombat and Cheapy discuss Xbox 360 and Wii broken promises, new releases, the latest video game industry and shopping news, your CAGbag questions and much more!
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Win one of five copies of Critter Round-Up (WiiWare)
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Catch CheapyD Monday Evenings on ScrewAttack's Hard News

[media]http://media.libsyn.com/media/cheapyd/cagcast119.mp3[/media]Download - 100 minutes, 40MB
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Past CAGcasts


Show Linkage/Notes (click the button below to expand):
Intro: Icewind Dale (PC)

CAG Party Pictures (Shipwreck - Del Far)

Xbox 360 Broken Promises - E3 2005

Hard News - UGO Complaints

New screens tease more MADWORLD

Community sites are the future for Sony games
Itagaki says Ninja Gaiden Sigma was 'no good'
Madden NFL 09 PSP Entertainment Pack
BioShock Confirmed For PS3
PlayStation Store Update: We Already Miss DBZ

Microsoft Explains "Gaywood" Ban
Infinite Undiscovery Finds Release
Microsoft To Start Pulling Underperforming Titles From Live Arcade
Xbox Live size limit upped to 350MB, price limit to 1600 MS points
Xbox.com 'tool' to fix XBLA DRM fiasco next month
Microsoft: No spring dashboard update this year
Another Xbox magazine confirms 360 motion controller, Mii-like caricatures

Target / Circuit City / Best Buy Video Game Prices: May 25 - May 31, 2008

Pachter Earns Financial Times' Number One Award

CAGbag

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Outro: Sears Tele-Games

Bonus Pictures:


By popular request, bjwoodruff's CAGs On News Theme Song
[media]http://www.cheapassgamer.com/podcast/cagsonews.mp3[/media]
 
[quote name='CheapyD'][/QUOTE]

Look out Hayden... Shipwreck and Wombat are out for your head!
 
Looks like a fun CAGtogether. Wish I lived in the area so I could attended. Too bad I live on the complete other side of the country in Seattle. We should get the CAGs together before or after PAX this year, that would be sweet.
 
My comments: Cry Moarrrrr.... cry cry Customer Service sucks... who gives a shit. I don't need to be pampered like a baby when I go to the store. Go in, get out, and go home. Push as many people out of the way on either way.
 
The News channel is wii 24connected. If you turn Wii 24connect off the download for new articles takes way longer. The loading you see is just loading the data from storage. Same with weather.
 
I want me one of them console shirts. Unfortunately googling "console shirt" didn't exactly work.

Don't worry, Wombat. I show up to every "event" first too.
 
i must say i like the fact that cheapy and wombat talk about random stuff every week at the begening of every show,before they start talking about games.i dunno anyone else like this?also the show is very loose not meaning it doesnt feel to scripted.ala the major nelson podcast.
 
[quote name='thorbahn3']The News channel is wii 24connected. If you turn Wii 24connect off the download for new articles takes way longer. The loading you see is just loading the data from storage. Same with weather.[/quote]

I believe this is right. The Wii always has the latest headlines scrolling across the channel when I fire it up (as does the weather).

However, I think Cheapy is right about the Brawl levels; those seem to download when you connect to Wi-Fi on Brawl. Then again, I don't know if Nintendo ever said Brawl levels would specifically download overnight.
 
Has Microsoft give any arcade names that they will remove? I want to get them before they remove it. I hate that they are doing that.
 
Also, WiiConnect 24 has no leaderboards to speak of. But for News and Weather, WC24 gives you that. Downloadable levels, not so much. The Wii should just have a Wi-fi Connection Channel.

Also, your Bill Clinton impressions were terrible.

The PS3 had a single track from Lair on their store a few months ago, and it was free. I don't know if it's still there or not.
 
100% Agree with Cheapy on the tipping issue... I've teaching English in South Korea where we also don't tip for anything and all service I receive is awesome and not forced....

Its going to be hard to move back home in the next 3 months
 
[quote name='paintball745']i must say i like the fact that cheapy and wombat talk about random stuff every week at the begening of every show,before they start talking about games.i dunno anyone else like this?also the show is very loose not meaning it doesnt feel to scripted.ala the major nelson podcast.[/QUOTE]

Haha I think its my favorite part of the show
 
Interesting analysis of the supermarket industry guys. I used to work for a supermarket in high school and part of college, and I was by far the fastest cashier in my checkout department (I ended up winning some big money once the company started doing "competitions" for speed and customer service at the end of my tenure).

I know I got a lot of flack from my fellow employees for working so quickly. It was a two-sided thing for me, for one, it impressed my bosses, which I suppose was a bit of a suck-up move, but the more impressed they were with me, the more hours I got. It also was great to have a lot of return customers know me and come through my line each time they came because they knew I was working about 3x as fast as anyone else.

The downside of this of course is that my co-workers would constantly question me as to why I would work so fast when I was getting paid the same. I tried to explain to them that it's not the point, that lots of people get paid the same thing to do the same job as someone else but do more or less work. I tried to keep my level of speed and consistency as high as possible regardless of how much I was getting paid.

Probably the most upsetting thing to me was getting thrown in the express lane (10 items or less). The problem with express, which is universally despised by cashiers, is that most people bring 30+ Items, and since you're bagging and scanning yourself, you have to do a lot more work, and you end up doing about 3x as many sales as the regular cashier due to the smaller size of the orders. My bosses would constantly put me on express BECAUSE I was the fastest cashier, despite the fact I despised it, and could move the larger orders far quicker if I had a bagger assisting me.

When I confronted my managers at the time about it, they stated that someone as fast as me had to be put on the express register every shift. So I went ahead and slowed down as slow as humanly possible as Cheapy described, and the next week was allowed to move back to the regular registers because my productivity numbers had dropped to among the worst on the front end.

This unfortunately is a common practice among most supermarket chains, and the best piece of advice I can give people is to never use an "express lane" unless the store is getting "slammed" (3+ people waiting in line at a register), the employees there are usually disgruntled and unhappy about their situation, because of the way who is going to work there is determined. In other words, the best cashiers often felt they were being "punished" for doing good work instead of getting a raise by getting thrown to the crappy express registers.
 
I think Cheapy and Wombat got the 360 user-created content wrong. Microsoft has been working on this and it is beginning to pay off. A recent post from Major Nelson covered this exact topic (I cannot get link from work)

Xbox Live Community Created Games

Also, regarding the underperforming Xbox Live titles, I am assuming they will not be "listed" as a game for purchase, but it will still be listed in your account for redownload if you already purchased it. I seriously doubt they will deny you the ability to redownload a title you purchased from XBLA.
 
WOW, how ironic that mrs. shipwreck wasn't there when Wombat had a dog emergency.

btw Cheapy, i thought you did well on Hard News considering the lack of time you had to say anything. People just wanted to break your balls on UGO (and i think it was broken). ;)
 
[quote name='hoofrog']I think Cheapy and Wombat got the 360 user-created content wrong. Microsoft has been working on this and it is beginning to pay off. A recent post from Major Nelson covered this exact topic (I cannot get link from work)

Xbox Live Community Created Games

[/quote]

[quote name='Microsoft at E3 2005']But maybe most exciting, the Marketplace is going to be a way to get VelocityGirl reengaged with our market and reengaged with games. Because on the Marketplace, she's going to be an active member of the community, the community of people that play games like Tony Hawk.
Now, she might never pick up a controller, never take a run in the halfpipe but she'll be able to design and sell stickers, shirts, boards, sound tracks and even design her own skate park for those hardcore gamers like Striker.
[/QUOTE]

Clearly this and XNA are two different animals.
 
[quote name='CheapyD']Clearly this and XNA are two different animals.[/quote]

Definitely. Hell, even designing a level for an FPS game is extraordinarily difficult.
How is a normal person going to program a game?? I wonder if anyone would ever make an RPG creator game, like the ones from last gen, but have it where you could put that content online (possibly for sale).

If you make a custom paint job in Forza 2, is it for sale? How do you get paid (in game points?)? I remember this being something like what they're talking about...
 
Oh and with Amazon, their hourly seller list is complete bs in most cases. I think some of the items on the list are paid for advertisements... especially when some items haven't been in stock for weeks, yet they remain high on the list that are allegedly updated hourly. Shady shady.
 
cheapy, you were awesome on hardnews on Screwattack. all the complainers suck! good job and i'll prob pay more attention to their show now b/c i know you are involved.
 
Cheapy,

I agree that Amazon sales-related "news" is pointless and not very informative. For one, Amazon is not Wal*Mart. I'm sure Amazon is one of the largest online retailers, but I doubt they move anywhere near the volume of the big box stores. Even if a game is doing well (or not doing well) on Amazon, it is not entirely predictive of the overall results when you take into account all sales channels. Also, it is not very telling because the rankings are just rankings, not actual sales figures.

I think a recent example of this is with GTA IV 360 vs. PS3 sales. Tons of blogs were reporting that GTA IV 360 was outselling the PS3 version on Amazon because the 360 version was #1 and the PS3 was #2. How is this news when we don't even know how much the 360 version was outselling the PS3 version? Was it by 1%? 15%? 75%?

IMO, leave all the sales reporting to NPD.

/rant off :bomb:
 
Nice CAGcast Cheapy and Wombat.

One comment though, Cheapy could you have anymore more of a boner for Penny Arcade?
"The game got some bad reviews but those guys are probably just jealous of Penny Arcade", do you actually believe that, I mean come on !!!

Yeah, the game actually would have been as well reviewed as GTA, if everyone wasn't jealous of how awesome the guys at Penny Arcade are. :roll:

Time for someone to hail a cab and ask for Real Street.:D
Nice mid-cast burping though. Credit where it's due and all that.
 
Cheapy - I've run into your credit card issue before myself. It usually happens to me after I go on vacation, where my credit card company puts a hold on the card until I verify that someone hasn't stolen it. Also, another time someone actually did steal my credit card and was trying to make charges in Paris and China.

So yeah, hopefully a quick call to your credit card company should fix that problem with your credit card & your xbla points =)
 
Just started listening to the 'cast when you and Wombat started mentioning the tip system, and I have to disagree. While the tip system is considered a mandatory gesture when dining out, 10%-20% is the norm for people who don't want to think and plop down that amount regardless of their service.

As the customer, we can tip anything we want (including nothing if the service sucks enough), and the amount tipped is really up to the one giving it. While larger groups may have an 18% gratuity based on where you dine, I personally will tip anywhere from 15-25%, usually rounding it up to the next $5-10 increment on the bill (i.e. $32.50 Bill + $7.50 Tip = $40.00).

However, I will certainly go up to 50% tip if the service is good enough, which to date has only occurred once, at a Denny's of all places, where the waitress put in a lot of effort to ensure that Crimson was well taken care of, and that is what's important to me when we dine out. Granted, a 50% tip on a $25 bill is only $12.50, but that's still probably 3-5x more than what they might see with people thinking that 10% is a mandatory tip, regardless of service.

All in all, I think it's up to each individual, and the criteria for determining tip (or lack thereof) is inherently our right to choose.

~HotShotX
 
I have to say Cheapy, I agree with you 100% about one thing.

You're absolutely right about service across Asia where they are literally tripping over themselves to help you as opposed to North America where retailers look at you like you're scum unless they are either getting a tip or earning by commission.

(Except for taxi drivers in Korea, who are some of the biggest assholes on the planet.)

Tipping is like giving someone a reward for good service when it's their god damn job to so in the first place.

That said, Wombat did make a valid point about some places that will remember you if you give a good tip and return again later.
 
Couple things after listening to CAGcast.

In regards to service in America (no one wanting to work) - I agree in some aspects there are those people who just don't want to work and treat you like shit. But being in the retail service myself I've noticed that certain people I just won't give a shit about, others I will treat fairly well. Those customers who come right in and boss you around on what they want, and act like they are superior to others I find disrespectful. Yeah I am an employee and on my job description I am supposed to kiss their ass, but I am not going to waste my time on a customer who treats you like shit. I would much rather service someone who treats you like a human and not some slave.

Second comment - as for the Pixeljunk Monsters soundtrack download, we did previously have a single track from Lair for a free download months ago. It wasn't a full soundtrack, but it was a solo track.
 
[quote name='gamer4432']Couple things after listening to CAGcast.

In regards to service in America (no one wanting to work) - I agree in some aspects there are those people who just don't want to work and treat you like shit. But being in the retail service myself I've noticed that certain people I just won't give a shit about, others I will treat fairly well. Those customers who come right in and boss you around on what they want, and act like they are superior to others I find disrespectful. Yeah I am an employee and on my job description I am supposed to kiss their ass, but I am not going to waste my time on a customer who treats you like shit. I would much rather service someone who treats you like a human and not some slave.
[/QUOTE]

Great comment gamer, there is definitely a real different attitude here in America by the consumer, and it's not a good one. How many times even on these boards have we argued about trying to trick a cashier into letting us use a coupon in combination of a sale, etc. Then to go and complain to the manager if it doesn't work?

That and these same jerk consumers are also the people working at these places...

Ever since I worked as a cashier, I am incredibly polite and cordial to everyone who works at these places because I know how ridiculous people can be to them all day.
 
Good 'cast, as usual!

One thing Wombat, I must disagree with you with, is that Blu-ray is equal to downloadable movies in Sony's eyes.

In my eyes, and the eyes of anyone who looks at the details, they are far different. Current HD movie downloads, through XBL or Dish, at least, are 720p, 5.1 dolby digital, and you can watch them for maybe a day.

Blu-ray is 1080p with high-defintion sound, extras, etc. It's not the same market.

Downloadable content is great for casual viewing... and features a lot of content not on Blu. If you just want to see the movie, but it's not something you need to own/see in best possible way, then downloadable content is cool, especially when you can't even rent it in HD.

A disc-based, keepable content platform is not something that will go away soon. Movie collector nerds like myself like to see my content lined up on my shelf. However, if I want to see something that I KNOW I don't want to own, and can't rent (like an average comedy), then HD dlc on Xbox Live or Dish is the preferred format.
 
[quote name='stakis']100% Agree with Cheapy on the tipping issue... I've teaching English in South Korea where we also don't tip for anything and all service I receive is awesome and not forced....

Its going to be hard to move back home in the next 3 months[/QUOTE]

Damn!
 
although the beginning was different, i enjoyed it. Interesting points about tipping by cheapy. I felt like other parts of this cagcast were giving me deja vu, the "dont bring back any blackies" and the randall gay points have come up before. thanks as usual wombat and cheapy
 
Wombat (and Cheapy), while it's true that you can control a character on the top screen and a character on the bottom screen in The World Ends With You, thankfully you can set the top screen character to play completely automatically when you aren't controlling them. I personally can't concentrate on both screens at the same time usually, so I just have the AI fight for itself and it does a pretty decent job of doing it. From time to time I'll have a chance to manually enter a combo though.
 
I may have a solution for your MS points dillema without getting it shipped from the USA.

This is how I get my XBL gold subscriptions every year. Simply go to ebay and buy your points there. What some of the members (with a lot of positive feedback) do is EMAIL the code to you within an hour after purchasing the points card. Not only is this time efficient but also massively convenient. Here is an example:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/XBOX-LIVE-4000-P...yZ139969QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Make sure you check their feedback first to see if a couple of other people have done this before you and done so successfully. :D
 
[quote name='Davinator']Cheapy - I've run into your credit card issue before myself. It usually happens to me after I go on vacation, where my credit card company puts a hold on the card until I verify that someone hasn't stolen it. Also, another time someone actually did steal my credit card and was trying to make charges in Paris and China.

So yeah, hopefully a quick call to your credit card company should fix that problem with your credit card & your xbla points =)[/quote]

Well, I just tried it now and it worked. Very odd. There was a good two days there where it was a no go. I remember having a problem like this when the COD4 maps came out.
 
This is why console exclusives are good, or rather why multiplatform games are always bad for the game:

With a console exclusive, you're going to get (or are supposed to get) a game that is tailored to the strengths of the system, whether that be taking advantages of the hardware architecture or controls.

There are several ways go about multiplatform development:

1) Simultaneous development with one of the platforms being the lead platform:

Example: Oblivion. Developed at the same time, but the PC version ended up with a terrible interface that works fine for a console but is subpar for the PC.

2) Simultaneous development with no lead platforms:
All versions of the game are likely to suffer because considerations are made during development that affect platform A based on something going on with platform B. Generally a lack of optimization to each system's strengths.

Examples: Generally not the AAA stuff. Probably more along the lines of movie tie-ins and smaller developments. No big names off the top of my head.

3) Console Exclusive with a port to another system later on:
If you believe that the first game was made with no considerations made to a future port, then only the port is compromised. Bioshock on the PS3, even if its a better game than the 360 version, is necessarily worse than a game built from the ground up for the PS3 exclusively.

Another Example: Resident Evil 4 for PS2. Major things had to be compromised to make it work. No less than a miracle from the good people at Capcom.
_______________________

In every case, multiplatform development hurts the game. Either every version of the game, or just some versions of the game.

I want as many true exclusives as possible.

Now, there is a case of multiplatform development where each console's game is built from scratch with an engine tailored to that console, but this basically never happens.
 
[quote name='thorbahn3']Damn![/quote]

To be fair, I didn't teach students to write much when I was in S. Korea either.
 
[quote name='Nephlabobo']I have to say Cheapy, I agree with you 100% about one thing.


(Except for taxi drivers in Korea, who are some of the biggest assholes on the planet.)
.[/QUOTE]

HAHAHA.... I have to second that!!!
 
[quote name='CheapyD']

[/quote]

"That's no moon!"
sorry Wombat, I don't like that people make fun of your weight, but it was the first quote that popped in my head.
 
Great show, guys!!!

I've downloaded the PA game demo, but I haven't tried it out yet. I'm probably going to buy it, as I'm a big fan of the comic and I like to support the indy stuff. I wish it were $15 per episode, though. At that price, 4 episodes = 1 complete game = $60.

The entire flap over Richard Gaywood not being able to use his name as his XBLA username is just ridiculous. However, I went to school with Richard Handler (if I'm not mistaken, he wasn't the first in his family with that name...), so I think Dick Handler is worse than Dick Gaywood. And even though it's not a dick joke, my brother named his son Otto Maddock (and our last name is pronounced Pilot) so my nephew is Otto Maddock Pilot or automatic pilot, which is pretty awful, too...

/tk
 
CheapyD and Wombat both of you guys expressed concerns about :ds: "The World Ends With You". Let me (as I'm sure countless others before me have done) highly recommend the game.

This is a game which like "Boom Blox" doesn't translate well in to words. It sounds very complex and to be honest it's pretty deep. However one of my favourite things about this game is that it's very very scalable. It sounds daunting to control both characters at once and it can be but the game has all sorts of fail-safe systems so if you want to just control the bottom screen you can do that and gradually start to take over the top screen at your own pace or not at all. There are numerous mechanisms which let you fine tune the difficulty of the game.* Don't let this one pass you buy guys, and thanks for the show.



*Plus on your off days you still get experience
 
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