Podcast: The Tales of Lord British
As Fortengard best puts it in the episode, Richard Garriott is one of the first (if not the first) writers as video game creators. It’s for that reason that the Ultima series stands out, not to mention the drastic direction change of the middle three “avatar” games. Jam can’t make it so Fred joins guest Fortengard to discuss the legacy of “Lord British” and the unique franchise he created.
***PLEASE NOTE: We are aware of the echo effect added to Fred in this episode. It has been fixed and should not appear next episode. Sorry.***
Cross Talk: What You Should Know About Pokemon Go
Cross Talk is a blog that Fred writes that appears at the same time on both Gaming History 101 and The B-Team Podcast.
Unless you’ve been under a rock, it’s hard to ignore the presence of a game called Pokemon Go that released about a week ago to most mobile devices (July 6, 2016 in Australia and the United States). Those of you in Europe and Asia, don’t fret, it’ll be out in your neck of the woods hopefully by next week unless you’ve figured out the way to bypass iOS or Android region locks. If you’ve ever played a Pokemon game, then you basically know what to expect. The game uses your GPS and your phone camera to embed Pokemon in the real world, AR (augmented reality) style, and then have you go chase after them and capture them in your poke balls. You can level them up, keep collecting, and of course battle them. I cannot stress enough how ridiculously addicting and fun this is. Much like we have seen with other crazes, this transcends “gamers” and moves into the universal world of all mobile users as potential (and eager) customers. Pokemon Go manages to merge the popular concepts of Facebook, Twitter, Snap Chat, and even Tinder into one universal, easily used for free, app that has gotten it wide attention from games press and mainstream press. It also resulted in a surge in Nintendo (and other) stocks adding a reported $7.5 billion in net value yesterday. So it’s an essentially free social app – there are microtransactions but they can be easily avoided – that makes companies a ton of money and is a blast to play? Too good to be true, right? Yep, it totally is.
Now I’m going to go on record right now and say the point of this piece is to inform, nothing more. If you’re going to let a lowly retro blogger decide whether or not to put an app on your phone, you’re going to have trouble with your security. I’m merely pointing out what has been brought up as a point of concern and inform my readers of the potential ups and downs of this game. It is up to you whether or not you want in, but at least you’ll be prepared for the decision. If it sounds like I’m making a big deal out of downloading a simple app, you should probably read on.
The Technomancer Review
The Technomancer reminds me of one of those relationships before I got married. It’s dynamic and I enjoyed it, but ultimately I got to this point where I knew our time would have to end. Much like those relationships, it probably lasted a bit longer than it should have, but that doesn’t mean that it was a waste of time. Far from it. Regardless of your opinion of nitpicks like whether or not the faces compete with modern powerhouse franchises or exactly what genre it should be labeled as, The Technomancer is offering a throwback to the complete package of RPG we saw often last generation. That wouldn’t have made it stand out were it not for the fact that a title like this is somewhat rare these days. Sure, everything is going open world, but releases of RPGs that heavily integrate decision and story are somewhat scarce and especially if you’re looking for sci-fi or cyberpunk. So despite its flaws and not necessarily being able to keep up with its more established peers, The Technomancer is a worthwhile experience.
I’m guessing not many played developer Spiders’ first title Mars: War Logs, which you may be surprised to know is now available on PC and even Xbox One thanks to 360 backward compatibility (also on PS3). It really is the early version of what would eventually become this title and established the lore of human colonization on Mars and the core of what the technomancers are. That title was short, the combat was harshly integrated (especially for gamepads), and while I liked what it was doing I couldn’t get too invested. Having played Mars: War Logs did allow me to appreciate how far Spiders has come in its sophomore effort on the concept, but it’s in no way necessary as a buffer for this title. Newcomers and veterans alike will be introduced to Zachariah, a graduating technomancer that is coming to terms with his newfound powers and prepared to utilize them in an effort to keep the peace and eventually find a way back to Earth. He’s not unique, many technomancers work for Abundance, a mega-corp that provides security on Mars and all technomancers are to guard the order’s secrets in an attempt to discover a way back home to Earth. Beyond that you are free to hit the ground running in an open-world chock full of icons that represent main and side quests. Along the way you will inevitably face combat, both in and out of hub locations, where your action fighting skills will be tested from start to finish. I’ll return to the combat in a minute, but it’s important to note that the separation between non-combat zones and combat zones is blurred here, which I don’t often see in the modern world of RPGs that includes MMOs. It may not be much of a change, but it struck me as somewhat unique.
Podcast: Playstation 2 Top 10
40 games enter – 20 from each cohost – and only a fourth emerge in the coveted Top 10. We have various debate mechanics, odd conversations, and personal bias to get this unique take on a traditional topic. Don’t agree with us? Of course not. Please send us your own top 10 for the community episode in 2 weeks.
Podcast: Emulation, Version 2.0
When Fred first started Gaming History 101, he was quite opposed to emulation and of course the piracy that comes with it. Now, five years later, things are a bit different for a several reasons. Since Jam got stuck trying to get home from holiday, Fred flies solo to discuss his new take on emulation, why he feels this way, and most importantly his list of the best emulators to use when playing almost any game from your past.
The referenced GDC 2016 talk that Frank Cifaldi gave can be found here.
Podcast: E3 Franchise Legacies
Lots of games were announced at E3 this year and many of them come from long running franchises. With Jam on holiday, Fred brings in guests Vos and Shawn (from the Horribly Awkward podcast) to discuss the lineage of what was announced. Some franchises are stronger than you may remember, whereas others…not so much.
Hard Reset Redux Review
There’s this constant complaint heard all too often by the PC gaming crowd: why don’t more PC games come to consoles? The reality is some combination between controls, marketability, and code development, but I always like to say, “it’s just more of a PC game.” That wasn’t always the case though, as we’ve seen in the past with the original first person shooters like Doom and Duke Nukem 3D that seemed to have mass appeal beyond the keyboard and mouse. Hard Reset felt like it was airlifted out of that time period in the way it played and handled game design and it made more sense that developer Flying Wild Hog’s first effort come to console gamers. Now the updated Hard Reset Redux seeks to ask how interested console gamers really are. It has updated controls for gamepads, it has seemingly enhanced graphics (although PC players may disagree), and it has a re-balanced campaign all for the sake of the console gamer. This is a tailor-made conversion from the world of PC and if you’re wondering if it was all worth it the answer is a resounding, absolutely.
Fantastic Indie Gaming Shorts (All Free)
When you think of video game movies there are probably a glut of mostly bad films that come to mind. Whether or not you like the big budget stuff, there’s no denying that the secret best work is done in the independent scene, for free. My favorite three examples can be found below and each are short and worth watching instead of me writing about them. Hopefully you enjoy them as much as I did. And yes, I’m aware the free indie film Pixels was turned into the high budget divisive film of the same name.
Player Two by Zachary Antell (This suggestion was submitted by community member Blake aka JediSlurpee)
Pixels by Patrick Jean
Portal: No Escape by Dan Trachtenberg
Dishonored Play Diary
Trying something new here. Dishonored is a game I (Fred) have not been able to play properly and the first video in this series shows why. As a result, I’m trying to be more laid back and complete the title without worrying about perfect stealth and perfect pacifism. Instead of a “Let’s Play” I’ve decided to do a new type of series called a “Play Diary” and here’s what these will be. This video series currently only has one video, but will update as it grows. No new posting will be created for each video. If you want updates, I recommend subscribing to Fred’s channel.
Let’s Play videos are tough because the person playing them has to constantly be speaking to an audience, it stifles gameplay, and it’s a bunch of work to get live. A longplay is easy because you just capture and upload, but only a handful of people watch it. We’ve noticed that the commentary gets more views, but that people watch them for short periods, whereas a longplay is only seen by a smaller group but they watch often to entirety. The Play Diary starts with a full length “quick look” of an hour or two with commentary followed by update videos that are about 5-15 minutes that cover several hours of gameplay and commentary. In addition, the entire longplay is uploaded as a playlist for those that want to see the full playthrough. Hopefully this is a more user friendly way for everyone to see what they want. This will not completely replace my “Let’s Play” videos because certain rare games will want to be viewed from start to finish. The video below is the playlist for the diary and the longplay playlist can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlLaoX7aLm9_32Aqpog3OgW2ZenWg_mV8
E3 2016: All Games Zelda Treehouse Impressions
Nintendo has finally broken its silence and after a whole year of waiting, we now have good idea of what to expect from the next title in The Legend of Zelda. For starters, a name: Breath of the Wild. In this podcast the All Games team takes in the many demos coming out of Nintendo’s Treehouse streams and discusses what we can expect when the game finally lands next year.
Gaming History 101 