Jonathan’s sick.  Sam’s leaving town.  Alex is in his own little world.  Should be a fun week!

First, an almost forgotten announcement: we own http://thewayofthegame.com/ now!  Maybe that’s exciting?

In terms of games, Jonathan’s finished El Shaddai.  No, it still doesn’t make any sense, and the gameplay is a bit samey, but it’s so damn pretty he just doesn’t care that much.  Knight’s Contract, on the other hand, isn’t special enough to overcome some really weird design choices.

Sam’s been obsessed with Dead Island.  Beating the hell out of zombies never fails to get old, apparently, although the game’s numerous glitches certainly do.  Also, New Game Plus gets some love in Bastion, as Sam takes the Kid on another trip through the Calamity.

Meanwhile, on another day, Alex and Jonathan give some mad love to Forza 4.  It is what Gran Turismo 5 should have been, namely fun.  So many options, so much fun, so pretty.  Alex has also been spending quite a bit of time with Metal Gear Ac!d, as well, and it’s scratching the itches that Forza can’t quite reach.

In our topic this week, we cover the sin of Envy.  Jonathan targets Konami’s E3 presentations, Sam accuses Quantam Theory of wanting to be another game, and Alex goes personal talking about Minecraft.

No game this week, but we’ll have a Casting Call next week.  Also next week, Sloth!  See you then!

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Minecraft Duck Hunt

The more I read about Minecraft’s upcoming “Adventure Update,” the more I worry that Notch and Mojang don’t understand what they’ve created.  Notch and others have said they like what Terraria is doing with the summonable boss monsters, and that they want to add something like that to Minecraft, and I don’t get it.  In a way, it would be cool, but in another, that’s not what Minecraft has evolved into, and Terraria will always do it better.

Terraria works as an exploration/monster-slaying game because building massive structures on a 2D scale just isn’t all that terribly impressive.  Add to that, Terraria has a huge amount of stuff you can find, build, buy, and earn.  In comparison, Minecraft really has a very limited toolset, and I think that toolset lends itself to building up structures and making the world your own, because it’s not that difficult to hit bedrock, and it’s not that difficult to reach the sky, so what else is there but to build?  Plus, in 3D, huge structures feel huge, and can be explored from all angles, making them incredibly impressive.

Terraria also makes some design choices that promotes exploration and monster killing, rather than staying put and building.  Items don’t have durability, and stacks are considerably larger than in Minecraft.  Even your inventory is larger, I believe.  You can load up on wood and torches and have no need to return to the surface for a very long time.  Granted, you can take a workbench and furnace with you in Minecraft, and rebuild your tools and whatnot, but I’ve almost always found it more desirable to have a base of operations to return to on a regular basis, even if I’m playing on “Peaceful” difficulty.

The “Better Than Wolves” mod guy has the right idea.  We need more stuff to build in Minecraft, more ways to interact with the world, not more animals and monsters.  If I want to explore dungeons, hunt monsters, and collect loot, I’ll play Terraria.  I play Minecraft to pull an Ozymandias and say, “Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!”

Granted, you and I may play Minecraft in completely different ways.  Granted, Minecraft is still in beta, and perhaps “Terraria in 3D” has been Notch’s intentions all along.  Granted, the Adventure Update could come along and cause me to drop Super Metroid as my greatest game of all time.  Granted, it’s not like anyone at Mojang is going to see this and suddenly cry, “How did we get it so wrong!”

I’ll grant you all of that, but I still think it’s important, because if someone comes along and combines the Minecraft formula with the “Better Than Wolves” philosophy, I could very easily be convinced to switch.  I’ve gotten my $15 of enjoyment out of Minecraft, and then some.  Notch can do what he pleases, but if someone else scratches my itch in just the right way, I won’t be ashamed to jump ship.

This week, we try to cover a topic, and fail.  We have some good conversations about games, though.

First off, Alex and Jonathan talk about the wildly different whether in their wildly different states.

Alex discusses Shadows of the Damned, a grindhouse-type game with an angry Mexican and a lot of penis jokes.  Despite Jonathan’s reservations, Alex also has nothing but good things to say about Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon.  We’re also looking to start up a regular, monthly AssBrodeo.  Check the forums for more info.

Jonathan pimps the Steam Summer Sale, which has ended already, and reminds everyone just how much fun Team Fortress 2 is.  He also talks about HOARD, a game about dragons, and Terraria, a game with Minecraft‘s addictiveness AND a purpose.  Bonus!

Sam wishes F.E.A.R. 3 was scarier, wishes Far Cry 2 was less realistic, and wishes Crysis 2 was eligible for marriage.  Jonathan and Alex are suitably disturbed.

Alex brings a themed version of Name That Game! to bear this week: Lousy Games!  He scraped the bottom of Metacritic’s barrel, and brought a number of truly terrible games to the table.

Next week, we really do get to our topic.  See you then!

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Page 2: Mojang’s New Title, Scrolls, to Have Minecraft-style Release:

It sure as hell worked once, so why not try it again?  Daniel Kaplan of Mojang, developer of Minecraft, stated at Gamelab 2011 in Barcelona that Scrolls, Mojang’s new title, will follow a similar release schedule as Minecraft.  The game will be released to the public early, as an alpha build, and updated, fixed, and tinkered with as the months go on.  This time, though, there will be five people working on the game from the start, as opposed to the one-man show that was Notch.

Perhaps they’re hoping for lightning to strike twice?  While I’m an avowed Minecraft addict, there are certainly some areas where Notch’s piecemeal approach has been detrimental.  Mostly those come in the form of community expectations: players want one thing while Notch is working on another.

Releasing a finished project, you have the option of saying, “This was my vision.  Take it or leave it.”  Releasing piecemeal, you get people expecting a certain level of input on the development of the project, with disappointment a factor if visions diverge.  Definitely interested to see where the model will go when it’s repeated.

Gratuitous Accessories: Minecraft Tissue Box Covers

Ten bucks for a two-and-a-half-inch cube of lacquered dirt?  I’m not that addicted to Minecraft, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there are buyers out there.  

Hey folks!  This week we talk about what keeps us from playing more RPGs.

Before that, Alex forgets that the show is time-delayed, and that we’re a video game podcast, and tries to talk about Osama.  We indulge him for a couple of minutes, and then move on.

Sam does a lot of self-mutilation in order to avoid hearing anything about Portal 2 on his vacation.  The beginning doesn’t hook him as hard as Portal did, and the humor’s not as effective, but he’s sticking with it.  He’s also continued to play and enjoy Forza 3, but he really wishes they’d give him some power to play with.

Alex talks about Far Cry 2, a game that he wishes he had discovered months and months ago.  He’s also getting into Metal Gear Ac¡d, and figuring out the game’s timing.  A collectible card game tied with a strategy game, it’s like heroine in the vein for Alex.

Jonathan contributes nothing to the banter.  Well, except for a story about fire and tragedy in Minecraft.

In our topic this week, we bitch about RPGs.  We’ve all got a long history with RPGs, but none of us are particularly jazzed to play them anymore.  We discuss RPG burnout, citing the grind, the disconnect of the story from the gameplay, and more.

Finally, we wrap up with the start of a kinder, gentler Name That Game season.  We’ll see how long that holds out.

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Sorry about the delay, folks.  Between Jonathan’s semester coming to an end, and a network snafu somewhere between Alex and Jonathan, things have been weird this week.  That said, we’re still here!

Video game news has been exploding over the past few weeks, and so despite Sam’s absence, we’re bringing you a headline show this week.

Portal 2 is the big news for Alex and Jonathan’s gaming of the week, despite Mortal Kombat’s release.  Jonathan gets all philosophical about Portal, while Alex just likes that GLaDOS calls Chell fat a lot.  (That may not be fair to the views expressed in the episode.)  Jonathan talks a bit about Minecraft, and tries to avoid arguing with Alex about Texas Heat and Full House Poker.  He almost succeeds.

Our headlines are dominated by the PlayStation Network outage, with a little talk about new consoles, and a new religion.

• PlayStation Network Down for Fifth Day as Sony ‘Rebuilds’ from ‘Intrusion’ (Updated)
• Sony PlayStation Network Breached, 77 Million Users Private Data Stolen
• Sony sued for PlayStation Network data breach
• Press Release: Some PlayStation Network and Qriocity Services to be Available This Week
• Nintendo announces Wii successor for 2012
• It’s Official, The PSPgo Is Dead
• File-Sharers Await Official Recognition of New Religion

No game this week because, well, there are only two of us.  Sam’ll be back in episode 68, as is NTG.

Until then, have fun!

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Alex was unable to record with us this week (yeah, sure, we believe that). Since we’d planned a topic that pretty much revolved around his presence, we sent out a call for guests on the tubes and the Pimp of the Internet, Tony Mast, joined us for the episode.

Tony talks with us about Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, comparing parts of it favorably to Batman: Arkham Asylum.  He’s also been playing Star Wars: Force Unleashed 2 on the 360, and while he bemoans the lack of motion controls, he’s still having fun with it.

Sam breaks out Forza Motorsport 3, and makes it sound like what Gran Turismo 5 should have been.  He’s also been pulling co-op sessions with listeners: Halo 3 with WilliamPall, and Resident Evil 5 with Zatala.  Silent girlfriend also gave Sam Two Worlds 2 for… some reason he can’t remember (way to be a good boyfriend!).

Jonathan compares Crysis 2 to Crysis 2, as he received both the PS3 and 360 versions from GameFly.  He also talks up the Hand Brotherhood, which, despite sounding like a gay porn title, is the group of Minecraft builders that’s been gaining traction on the RPG.net multiplayer server.

After that, as is tradition, we tear into Tony’s Top Ten.  He brings a surprisingly unique list to the table, and also manages to ruin Jonathan’s attempts to build up stats around the lists.  (Alphabetical order? What’s up with that?!)

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