CAGcast #212: What's a Game Journalist To Do?

CheapyD

CheapyD

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[preview][IMG-L=5838]15060[/IMG-L]This week's topics include Mass Effect 2 & Mafia 2 DLC, games journalism, the latest game shopping and industry news, your CAGbag and Twitter questions and so much more!

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Show Linkage/Notes (click the button below to expand):
Intro: A-Team Theme

The Video Game Release List of 9/4 - 9/12


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Outro: Ice Hockey + R.C. Pro Am

 
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Cheapy its your birthday
And God bless you this day
You gave us the gift of Cheap Ass Gamer
And I'm proud of you today

Cheapy its your birthday
Happy birthday Cheapy
Cheapy its your birthday
Happy birthday Cheapy

I wish you love and goodwill
I wish you PRAISE and joy
I wish you better than your heart desires
And your first kiss from a boy

Cheapy its your birthday
Happy birthday Cheapy
Cheapy its your birthday
Happy birthday Cheapy

Yeah!

Cheapy D FTW!
 
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Happy 37th!

Anyway, Randy Pitchford has said his wife egged him on to buy DNF after the news hit. Given that DN3D was one of the first games he worked on, I guess there was also a "full circle" moment.
 
Happy Birthday, Cheapy! Good show! I'm looking forward to hearing about what's going down at TGS and the live Halo Reach broadcast!
 
Pachter's request for better games journalism is totally vaild, even if his off the cuff idea wasn't. (Give the guy a break, he had knocked back a few.) Too many game sites lazily copy the Joystiq/Kotaku formula: lots of posts of breaking news with the occassional review. No wonder they fail and all look the same. Just like it would be publishing suicide for a magazine to try weekly mainstream news like Time and Newsweek. You've got to come up with your own voice. Gamasutra looks at gaming from a business point of view. Giant Bomb is focused on creating a video game wiki. Plastic Axe specializes in music games. And, of course, Cheap Ass Gamer spotlighting the best video game deals.
 
The great thing about having a three man show is that when one is out the other two can still do a pretty good podcast. While Cheapy is my favorite, if he's out for Tokyo Game Show or vacation I'd still like to hear Ship and Wombat talk about the week's events.
 
SHIPWRECK!!!

Check out Birth By Sleep. It's really good! It's apparently got the best battle system in the series, looks great, high production values, and the like. I haven't played a KH game since 2 though so I'm not burnt out on the series. You shouldn't just write this one off though.

It's a little annoying to hear that the next game being released in the series, Re:Coded, isn't a story advancing home console release with a "III" latched on to the end of the title. Hopefully at TGS we'll hear something about III.
 
Great show so far!

One point of clarification regarding the Gamestop GH: Warriors of Rock though. The Soundgarden cd is not exclusive to Gamestop. The first million purchasers of GH:WoR get the cd, it doesn't matter who they buy it from.

The axe guitar body is exclusive though.

Personally, RB3 looks way more interesting than GH Pig Transformers. GH will probably still outsell it just from the name :(

Happy Birthday Cheapy!
 
Just listened to the part where you guys were talking about Duke Nukem Forever..I'm not sure it's going to be that big of a disaster at all. I couldn't have been happier with the news that it got picked up by Gearbox, which lead all the major blogs to run 3-5 different articles about it. I think it was a smart move on Gearbox b/c the game is probably 75% done. All they have to do is add their flavor of drop-in/drop-out co-op and make it accessible to good DLC episodes, and it may print money. I think anybody in the over 25 crowd definitely has a soft-spot for The Duke and would gladly pick it up at launch. But then again, we felt the same way for Wolfenstein and I think we all know how that went down last year..
 
I'm a little surprised that Shipwreck is having so much trouble with Valkyria Chronicles II... The first couple of chapters are really easy.

Quick Basic Guide On the Units:
Scouts: Can move very far across the map. They are great for taking the flag, but they are not the most deadly class. They only have one hand granade, so use it wisely! However, they have fairly high accuracy so go for head shots at close range.
-Scout Elites: Like the scout, except they are more deadly and have healing abilities.
-Snipers: Headshots!

Shocktroopers: Armed with a machine gun, these guys can easily kill any type of infintry. However, they can't move nearly as far as the Scouts. (I use these guys the most.)
-Trooper Veteran: Like the Shocktrooper, except they kick more butt and they have three hand grenades along with healing abilities.
-Gunner: These guys are armed with a gatling gun and have higher HP than the shocktroopers. Their gatling gun can mow down multiple guys are once with a wide range of fire.

Lancers: These guys kill tanks. Aim for the core on the back and kill it with one shot! They also kill gatling guns and bunkers (aim for the core on the back).
-Lancer Veteran: Like the lancer, with higher stats and healing abilities!
-Mortarer: These guys are armed with mortar lances which can devastate infantry

Engineers: These guys heal tanks and your units, but it's best to keep them out of harms way since they have low hp and they kinda suck at combat. I would never use them at the start of a mission unless if it was required.

Armored Tech: I have found them to be completely useless. They are slow, but they have high hp. Only use them to go save someone useful.

Changing Class:

It's a good idea to change class because it makes your character stronger. However, you use up points every time you do so. So if you change to a gunner, then change to a trooper vet, then back to a gunner you are using up points each time. Find a track you like and keep to it instead of going back and forth. Otherwise, you might be stuck with a class you don't like for a couple of missions.

Who to use at the start of the mission:

The only characters I usually use at the start of a mission are Ivan, my tank and some Shocktroopers. At the start of a mission you really don't know where the tanks are on a map, so I'll usually find them and call the Lancers only when they're needed. (You can leave a slot open for this.. I usually do.)

How to kill V2s:

See those big dudes covered in blue? You can't kill them right now. Ignore them until you find the tank with spikes coming out of it. Use a Lancer to kill the tank. This cuts off their shield and a headshot with the Tank should kill the V2s in one shot. There are probably other ways to kill them, but I like my tank method.

*Note: Killing the tank only shuts off the shield for the V2s in that specific area. If you want to kill them in other areas, you'll have to kill that area's tank.

Research and Development:

Research Tiers: Every new chapter unlocks a new research tier and stuff becomes less expensive. However, the more specialized equiptment requires materials. You get materials in missions, so that shouldn't be much of a problem.

Field Suits: Scouts, Shocktroopers and Engineers all use the same field suits. So if you level up the one under "Scout" you also upgrade the field suits for the Shocktroopers and Engineers.

Tanks: You get to custom build tanks with different tank bodies and stuff. Personally, I like the medium tank with ragnite rounds, but each person is different.
-Shoulder Parts: These parts are used to negate effects in certain areas. So if you are in a snowy map, equipt the heater to the negate the negative effects. However, these effects are only negated in the area of the tank.
-Markings aka Camouflage: Snow camo should be used on snow maps, desert in desert, ect.
-Stickers: These guys are relatively cheap and give you specific bonuses. I like my Sega sticker.

Grades:

The higher the grade, the more experience points and money you earn.

Your grade in a mission is based on how many turns it took you to win a mission. If a mission only requires you to capture the flag, then you will get a higher rank if you capture the flag in less turns than if you kill everyone on the map in more turns.

Keeping this in mind can be very helpful in some missions. For example, if there is a tank in front of you and you have no way to destroy the tank you can just go around it to capture the flag instead of trying to destroy it.

If you get stuck, don't be afraid to come to the PSP board and ask for help.
 
I've yet to get stuck (I'm playing on Easy), there's just a lot going on in this game and it's a genre I don't typically play. Thanks for the tips and such though.

[quote name='KillerRamen']I'm a little surprised that Shipwreck is having so much trouble with Valkyria Chronicles II... The first couple of chapters are really easy.

Quick Basic Guide On the Units:
Scouts: Can move very far across the map. They are great for taking the flag, but they are not the most deadly class. They only have one hand granade, so use it wisely! However, they have fairly high accuracy so go for head shots at close range.
-Scout Elites: Like the scout, except they are more deadly and have healing abilities.
-Snipers: Headshots!

Shocktroopers: Armed with a machine gun, these guys can easily kill any type of infintry. However, they can't move nearly as far as the Scouts. (I use these guys the most.)
-Trooper Veteran: Like the Shocktrooper, except they kick more butt and they have three hand grenades along with healing abilities.
-Gunner: These guys are armed with a gatling gun and have higher HP than the shocktroopers. Their gatling gun can mow down multiple guys are once with a wide range of fire.

Lancers: These guys kill tanks. Aim for the core on the back and kill it with one shot! They also kill gatling guns and bunkers (aim for the core on the back).
-Lancer Veteran: Like the lancer, with higher stats and healing abilities!
-Mortarer: These guys are armed with mortar lances which can devastate infantry

Engineers: These guys heal tanks and your units, but it's best to keep them out of harms way since they have low hp and they kinda suck at combat. I would never use them at the start of a mission unless if it was required.

Armored Tech: I have found them to be completely useless. They are slow, but they have high hp. Only use them to go save someone useful.

Changing Class:

It's a good idea to change class because it makes your character stronger. However, you use up points every time you do so. So if you change to a gunner, then change to a trooper vet, then back to a gunner you are using up points each time. Find a track you like and keep to it instead of going back and forth. Otherwise, you might be stuck with a class you don't like for a couple of missions.

Who to use at the start of the mission:

The only characters I usually use at the start of a mission are Ivan, my tank and some Shocktroopers. At the start of a mission you really don't know where the tanks are on a map, so I'll usually find them and call the Lancers only when they're needed. (You can leave a slot open for this.. I usually do.)

How to kill V2s:

See those big dudes covered in blue? You can't kill them right now. Ignore them until you find the tank with spikes coming out of it. Use a Lancer to kill the tank. This cuts off their shield and a headshot with the Tank should kill the V2s in one shot. There are probably other ways to kill them, but I like my tank method.

*Note: Killing the tank only shuts off the shield for the V2s in that specific area. If you want to kill them in other areas, you'll have to kill that area's tank.

Research and Development:

Research Tiers: Every new chapter unlocks a new research tier and stuff becomes less expensive. However, the more specialized equiptment requires materials. You get materials in missions, so that shouldn't be much of a problem.

Field Suits: Scouts, Shocktroopers and Engineers all use the same field suits. So if you level up the one under "Scout" you also upgrade the field suits for the Shocktroopers and Engineers.

Tanks: You get to custom build tanks with different tank bodies and stuff. Personally, I like the medium tank with ragnite rounds, but each person is different.
-Shoulder Parts: These parts are used to negate effects in certain areas. So if you are in a snowy map, equipt the heater to the negate the negative effects. However, these effects are only negated in the area of the tank.
-Markings aka Camouflage: Snow camo should be used on snow maps, desert in desert, ect.
-Stickers: These guys are relatively cheap and give you specific bonuses. I like my Sega sticker.

Grades:

The higher the grade, the more experience points and money you earn.

Your grade in a mission is based on how many turns it took you to win a mission. If a mission only requires you to capture the flag, then you will get a higher rank if you capture the flag in less turns than if you kill everyone on the map in more turns.

Keeping this in mind can be very helpful in some missions. For example, if there is a tank in front of you and you have no way to destroy the tank you can just go around it to capture the flag instead of trying to destroy it.

If you get stuck, don't be afraid to come to the PSP board and ask for help.[/QUOTE]
 
how can you guys not like Dead Raising? the time thingy really never bother me because once my stat level was higher you can kill bosses and save victims way faster. DR2 is going to be Double Awesome with its drop in and out online co-op mode can't wait!
 
I have listened to a couple of these cagcast episodes and feel the need to comment. First off, are you guys married to the hour and a half time slot? I always have the same reaction every time I listen; they are so long. I would be an avid listener if they were shorter, or if there was a way that they could be segmented so that I could skip over certain parts that are uninteresting (like the $10 arcade games or the obscure juvenile games that nobody plays). Maybe you can shorten them but cutting out the fluff, like when you guys are talking about how you cant do the show next week, or that you need to go to the Cheesecake factory for example.....

In response to the "Used games" dilemma:
Anyhow, as an adult gamer, it's not so much the $60 price tag for new games. A lot of times it's a combination of that and when they come out. Look at the next couple weeks for example. Starting next Tuesday we have Halo Reach, deadrising 2, medal of Honor, FO New Vegas, Fable 3 and Spec Ops, pretty much every week! These are all big-budget highly anticipated games but i don't have $360 to spend on these games. So I have to pick and choose. Last time this happened I choose Red Dead Redemption instead of Alan Wake Hoping to pick up AW a couple months later used. I try to play one game at a time.

My 2c.
 
Cheapy and Wombat,
I always enjoying hearing about your ed-Jew-cation.

I was interested to learn (on the Bombast) that Gearbox Founder Randy Pitchford worked quite a bit on the old Duke Nukem games and that part of the reason he was interested in the series. But I think it's a smart move, people will buy it.
 
Woah woah...Dead Rising 2

In Dead Rising it's not just about the main story, and you can't confine yourself to the story; hell in the 1st game you weren't going to be able to finish the story on your first play through. It's all about trying to level frank up and taking advantage of other things the game offers. On the first few play throughs I got to know the mall and went through rescuing people, and killing psychos and in general just leveled my character up to the max level. Then after maxing out and completing achievements that earned you in game rewards that made the game easier.

When I say "easier" I don't mean cake walk. like you got the mega buster and it was really effective against bosses, not so much the horde though and it was conducive to a speed play though where you just wanted to play through the main story rescuing as many survivors as possible and killing all the psychos.

Dead Rising was a total blast! One of the best games on Xbox360 and the achievements were actually worth getting, hopefully the 2nd time around they do just as good a job implementing them.
 
@john8686

I normally don't reply to idiots, but dude go kill yourself. If you don't like the "fluff" then don't listen to the show. The fluff is the best part. So GTFO and don't die from cancer you moron.
 
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I really enjoyed your transition from PS3 to XBOX this week I thought you were talking about PS3 until Wombat mention Crackdown.

I would be interested in hearing what GT5 preorders are like at this time? Also I have yet to preorder the Move bundle because one I have a Wii, and I haven't seen any games that are appealing. K-mart seems to have a good deal though with there $25 credit, so its kinda tempting since I've been waiting to pick up the PS3 camera. As far as the Amazon preorders go, maybe only 30 some preorder the motion controller is because they probably already own the camera, and don't care about the sports game. My cagcast theory for the week.
 
Pachter is right.

Sites need to do something different to stand out. EVerybody posts the same news with the same snarky tone that just gets (all) the more annoying the longer you visit those sites. My message to these guys is that you just aren't that funny every PR News release you regurgitate. It also gets too formulaic.

What I would do is make a site that devotes coverage only to products that are out or coming out in a week or two. Man do I hate to read about products a year out or 2 years out or 6 months out, etc....

What's the point? Everything looks (great) that far out. Yes that means no previews. I'd do more stories about games that are being played rather than games yet to be played.

I would also eliminate all trailers and screenshots that don't show gameplay. I might as well look at porn instead. It has as much to do with the game as those bullshots and cutscenes.

I would review games less as a feature checklist and more as an experience. I might not even do reviews unless I can find more of an angle with them as not sure what I can add except to not turn game reviews into feature checklists.

I would give updated reviews of multiplayer games that get patched as time goes by. I would update on the glitches going on and in general tactics that are going on and whether the game is "broken" or not. I would update on the size of the communities playing the various games. Multiplayer tips from real world players would be good too.

I would interview folks that work on games more as was mentioned in the podcast. I'd interview gamers and what they play. Might be one game they play or might be they play every game. I'd report on their gaming lifestyle. GAming setups. etc. REal world stuff. Not PR crap.

I could go on. But I'm already at the point where I have to kill anybody that reads this. YOu know too much.

Of course I'm not a 15 yr old and that's where Cheapie's counter-argument has some merit. 15 yr olds like to read about games coming out next year and the year after. They have the attention span of Wombat in a room filled with lobsters. They are highly gullible as well. Have little experience how PR works. And don't care because this is fun to read previews even if they are all lies. IT's all new to them. So the audience of many of these sites might not give a crap about how I think a site should be run.
 
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Happy bday Cheapy!

I'm also still greatful for the addition of Shipwreck, he adds a lot to the show.

I also enjoy Wombat's financial analysis take on whatever the topic of the cast is... Duke this time. And thanks, Wombat, for the recommend of the WTF podcast last week, I'm enjoying the hell out of it.
 
i also bought Jimmy's Vendetta for Mafia 2 and on the official mafia 2 forums almost everyone is going crazy. it is stuff they had ready but cut from the game not just that but a ton of other things like 8 levels. alot of people have dug through the pc files and found a ton of cut stuff, even some stuff was cut from JV

Here is the starting message pre-installation of JV:
http://img525.imageshack.us/i/28551852.jpg/

After installation of JV:
http://img839.imageshack.us/i/97865505.jpg/

it went from four men to two men. seems like a lot of shady stuff is happening with mafia 2 and there planned dlc, just look at the official forums, its a zoo there.

i enjoyed mafia 2 story but JV is hard to get into like cheapy said its just steal cars and kill people for 30 missions.
 
Happy B-Day.

I think Pachter was right. Game sites all have the same content. Personalities of the journalists are the only
difference between them.

40 minutes!?! Yikes. Were you on dial-up? It took me a total of 8 minutes for the whole process.
 
[quote name='blacksanta87']@john8686

I normally don't reply to idiots, but dude go kill yourself. If you don't like the "fluff" then don't listen to the show. The fluff is the best part. So GTFO and die from cancer you moron.[/QUOTE]


@blacksanta87 that is fucked up. what comes around , goes around
 
AH! I got mentioned in the show! Weeee!

I was really surprised to hear Fluxx mentioned. I've been playing Fluxx for about 2 years; it's sort of become the default "party game" for all my friends any time there's a gathering and Munchkin isn't an option. The people who make Fluxx also make several other games, Aquarius, Chrononauts, Are You the Traitor?, and even a unique set of colored, nesting pyramid game pieces called "Icehouse" that is used to play dozens of different game types. These guys win awards for creating games all the time and I would urge anyone remotely interested in card games and board games to check them out at their main website: http://www.looneylabs.com/

On the topic of Deadspace 2's multiplayer and the monsters vs humans concept, Left 4 Dead has that gameplay nailed in their multiplayer. A human vs human competitive multiplayer goes against the survival horror ideology UNLESS they can shoehorn some sort of sense into it; for example maybe you're fighting over supplies, or a seat on the escape pod, but in general you would want to conserve all that ammo and energy for fighting off the real enemy.

As for Duke Nukem, I'm really, really excited. Gearbox is based right here in Dallas, Tx, or to be more specific, Plano, Tx... mere miles from my apartment. I don't think their purchase of Duke Nukem was necessarily a goof move, there is a big chance they will lose out on it, but I'm confident that Gearbox will at least finish and release a quality game (with piles of obligatory DLC). Duke Nukem couldn't be in better hands (or could he? *wink wink*). 3D Realms is based in Garland, Tx, practically in the same neighborhood, and similarly focused id Software is in Mesquite, Tx, still in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Gearbox being a fresh, healthy and thriving game developer, they were very likely approached with an offer by 3D Realms, but either way they are definitely a good choice to carry on the Duke Nukem franchise. And speaking of Gearbox and Borderlands DLC, the 4th DLC pack "Claptrap's New Robot Revolution" comes out September 28th and I know I'm buying it the moment it hits Xbox Live!!

The Crackdown 2 "Toy Box" stuff sounds great, but in essence isn't it just the good old fashioned cheat codes turned into a DLC pack? I always had the most fun in GTA (GTA III on PC in particular) just using cheat codes to do whatever I wanted to do. Spawn a tank, make the cars fly, make the cars all blow up instantly, give everybody double ended dildoes instead of weapons (I think that was San Andreas), crazy stuff like that which has been taken out of this past generation's games.GTA IV had a few cheat codes... but nothing crazy. And most games that have cheats scare people away because they disable Achievements or Trophies.

Anyway, really great show this week! I hope you guys scrape something together over the next couple of weeks, and happy birthday Cheapy!
 
[quote name='maxim2boobles']@blacksanta87 that is fucked up. what comes around , goes around[/QUOTE]

Yea I know, I was really pissed off when I wrote that comment. Sorry.
 
[quote name='shipwreck']I've yet to get stuck (I'm playing on Easy), there's just a lot going on in this game and it's a genre I don't typically play. Thanks for the tips and such though.[/QUOTE]

Like I told you on Twitter Shipwreck, I think the PS3 version is superior so if you like this enough I would suggest getting the PS3 original. MUCH better story/characters and probably doesn't ramp up the difficulty as quickly and suddenly as VC 2.
 
I agree completely with you guys about the Dead Rising stuff, that's why i never finished the first one and it's why i probably wont even finish case Zero.

WHY is the timer so fucking tight? i had to play through it twice because you don't have time to waste to find stuff, you have to figure it out, restart and then rush like a crazy person. sigh...
 
It wasn't the timer or stuff that I didn't like about Dead Rising, it was pretty irritating and was one reason for never completing the game; for me it was the constant having to take pictures and safely escort the people back to safety. It just really wasn't 'open-world' which I think a lot of us believed when it launched. We were just like, "Wow, the first game for the 360 that looks like a sandbox game and OMG there are zombiiez!" Once we saw the gimmick of killing the zombies and some of the different things we could do, we put it aside..L4D made a ton of money b/c they were able to capitalize on the rampant mowing down of 'better' zombies in a fashionable manner. That would be the go-to reference game on how to do a zombie game right this generation. It also showed that you can't milk-the-cow, a-la L4D2 ;)
 
Hey guys, since I heard Pachter's panel I thought I'd give a couple thoughts. While I don't agree with everything he had to say, I think he's right about the need for actual journalism. Reviews, previews, press events and all that stuff is not journalism, though yes, it is needed. What he said was that most sites--and especially print mags--are basically advertising for upcoming games, and I have to agree. While I don't necessarily consider that evil or anything, I'd love to see it supplemented by more legitimate stuff.

Given, GameInformer is moving this direction, but that's more of a survival technique; if they just regurgitate everything everyone else does they'll be eaten alive since the online groups will have it out there much faster, and even then there's too much fluff in the mag driven by exclusives secured by throwing their weight around. Most sites just seem to have no personality. Giant Bomb is about the only site where I recognize most of the names, but that's because I enjoy their style and respect how they write stories (which is why I'm now a member, but that's a different topic). It's just sad that every site seems to have the same stories with the same quotes and the only things different are shock stories designed to drive clicks.

Also: Randy Pitchford not only worked on Duke Nukem 3D, but Duke Nukem Forever for a brief time as well before the days of Gearbox. Triptych Games is still involved in the project, too, so it might not be so out-of-the-blue as you think.
 
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