Untitled Podcast FTW

Once again, we return to bombard you with correct opinions.

We start out with our usual jibba-jabba, then delve into actual games we've been playing like Alan Wake, Dragon Age: Darkspawn Chronicles, and a random assemblage of random shit.

From there, we talk a little about Steam on Mac, Guild Wars 2, and then launch into an exhaustive preview of Summer 2010 for gamers. From games to books about games to E3, we cover it all.

We're also soliciting requests for what you wanna hear about in our upcoming PRE3 podcast. What do you wanna see @ E3? What do you think will be there? What's got you pumped about this year's show?

So, enjoy the podcast, and comment away!

-Blaine

Time to Catch Up

That is often the mantra of the barren wasteland of gaming that takes hold in May-July. Of course, Starcraft 2 is now going to announce the end to that period with gusto, but until then we are left with almost nothing new that I am looking forward to. There is a chance that Alan Wake or even Alpha Protocol may turn out to be worth my cash (much in the same way Red Faction did last year) but until then I am catching up on some random gaming.

What is odd is that I fear that Starcraft 2 will be a 95% single player experience for me, and Super Street Fighter IV is shaping up to be the same way (as a side note, to even get SSFIV to work online I had to open ports not needed for any PS3 game to date, including SFIV). There is just something about recent games that seem to cause people to get a bit fanatical about them, and if you don't pick one or two games to spend 90% or more of your gaming time on, it often feels like it is not worth ever trying.

This came up first when trying to play Dawn of War 2 (before the recent patch that apparently caused it to run like ass on my computer, strangely at the same time they switched from Nvidia to ATI, hmm) online, as I quickly realized I was getting shut out every match. Now I have gotten past the phase where I need to win every game, but not being able to get a single point sucks the fun out FAST. The exact same thing happened in my attempt at playing the Starcraft 2 beta, and watching the replay was just hilarious to see how terribly I got beat.

The thing is, these games are just a couple examples of a growing issue - matchmaking has just not caught up to where it needs to be. I thought the entire idea of the 'Trueskill' systems was that I would play people of equal skill, but from Modern Warfare to Forza that never seems to hold true (though Forza is one of the few games I can always hold my own, maybe the last game besides Dirt that I win on a regular basis online). What is the point of keeping track of all these stats if we are not using them to make truly even matches? Win or lose, I think most will agree those are the most exciting parts of competitive gaming.

If I can beat everyone I know in person in Starcraft and Street Fighter, why do I never get matched with anyone close to them online? I know those of my skill level exist, the games just haven't figured out a good way to match me up with them (even searching forums now, it seems SSFIV is currently dominated by those who never stopped playing the last incarnation, with many 'I am 5-90 right now, should I give up' topics). Then again, maybe the other people like me are doing exactly what I am - playing 5-10 matches, losing horribly, and then just saying 'Fuck it.'

That being said, I am still enjoying the hell out of Killing Floor mainly because I can scratch the online itch and everyone helps one another. Maybe I am part of a dying breed that plays a lot of games but doesn't master any of them, and that is part of the problem. Maybe all those 2 liters I drank when I was younger served to be the steroids of a gamer, and without them I am nothing. Maybe 28 is past my prime by 14 years. Either way, I refuse to believe there are no more middle-skill level players out there, even for the hardcore games. I just need to find a game that can tell the difference.

The FUTURE! (of Bioware DLC)

First, and most importantly, we did podcast recently, if you'd like to partake of our dark ... something or whatever.

That being said, I keep checking my damn RSS feeds because there is, for the first time in months and months, no forthcoming Bioware DLC announced. That's just damn peculiar. OR IS IT?

Words can't describe the disbelieving chuckle that fell out of mouth when their super-secret announcement a few weeks ago turned out to be the Bioware Bazaar. What the fuck were they thinking, hyping that up like that?

Anyway, I enjoyed both Stolen Memory and Awakening, as both showed promise, and teased some amazing characters, but I felt both fell short in fleshing those characters out as well as they could have. I'd like it if future Bioware DLC/expansions actually focused more on building characters (and less on sullying our HDDs with horrid platforming vehicles.)

Of course, I would argue that DLC is problematic for RPGs, unless it takes place after the core adventure. This isn't to say that it will never work properly, but I would've much rather had my first experience with Return to Ostagar be in the context of the initial playthrough, whereas much of it fell a little flat dramatically when played after the core game, when I knew that my warden was dead, and Alistair had ascended to the throne, and I was playing in some weird pseudo-context that existed outside of the actual game that I'd played.

Within the game, it works pretty nicely, After the game, kinda like Stolen Memory, it doesn't quite work. It's hard to get nearly as worked up when a) the world in which you're playing is in some weird 'frozen' state, and b) the overarching stakes are no longer raised.

Expansions, though, work quite well, even if Awakening totally dropped the ball on the dead warden import. Instead of being able to import your world, and start a new warden, they instead imported your dead warden as being alive, thus disregarding the great sacrifice he/she made.

Anyway, as I was saying, it's my belief that I'd rather play a 30-40 hour expansion with full characters rather than a mission at a time.

I do like the ME2 guns n' armor downloads, though.

Also, I should mention the Lost Odyssey DLC, Seeker of the Deep. THAT was an interesting way to do RPG DLC. While it could only be played in an active save, it was pretty much a balls-out hardass dungeon, and totally awesome in terms of challenge. It's the kinda shit that RPG vets live for. It got so insanely hard, I never finished it.

Honestly, when it comes Bioware games, I think I'd be okay with nothing but massive expansions a la Awakening, but I'd like them to be more fully integrated with the original world. By that, I mean, import the dead warden as dead, have the maps stitched together and allow movement between the worlds, import all the DLC stuff, etc.

What about you? How do you like your RPG post-release content?

-Blaine