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Giant Bomb #22 | Drew, F*** This Tank

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Wensih

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I wish there was someone else interviewing Cowboy as Brad was playing. There's a lot of "hold on I need to play this before I ask a question".
 

Myggen

Member
I wish there was someone else interviewing Cowboy as Brad was playing. There's a lot of "hold on I need to play this before I ask a question".

Not sure if anyone else on staff care enough about tech like that to ask good questions, which is probably why they went for one interviewer while they normally always have two people for stuff like that. Maybe Jeff but he dislikes the Uncharted franchise.

Either way I've watched the first half now and don't really feel that there's a need for a second guy. Great stuff.
 

Megasoum

Banned
Not sure if anyone else on staff care enough about tech like that to ask good questions, which is probably why they went for one interviewer while they normally always have two people for stuff like that. Maybe Jeff but he dislikes the Uncharted franchise.

Either way I've watched the first half now and don't really feel that there's a need for a second guy. Great stuff.

They could have had somebody else playing
 

Myggen

Member
They could have had somebody else playing

Maybe but then you'd probably have a lot of guiding around to get the person to look at the right stuff etc. That's what you see in a lot of dev demos of games, and that's despite them having rehearsed that shit to death. There's advantages in having the interviewer also play the game. No big deal regardless.
 

Spaghetti

Member
Always nice when someone familiar with the matter comes out of the woodwork and chimes in.

I'm curious how they'll update all the IMHO outdated systems (or won't they?) of shenmue and still capture the same atmosphere.
Modernisation does seem high on their to-do list (e.g, a whole segment of stretch goals dedicated to combat upgrades), but it seems in a lot of ways that modern game development has "caught up" with Shenmue. A lot of gamers now value varied game systems, lite-RPG mechanics, melee combat with a counter system, world-building, fine attention to detail, non-linear quest design, etc. Shenmue had all of that. A lot of it will need to be brought up to current standards of course, but I'd say Shenmue fits in to the gaming landscape more than it ever did in 1999.

It'll likely never be a megahit, but I look at games like Gone Home, Life is Strange (and so on), and I see their audience being perfect for a game like Shenmue. It could even transcend that audience with its strong action-oriented focus that may appeal to parts of the mainstream.

This can also be a huge double edge sword. Every change to characters or systems could be met by resentment by the team working on the game or it ending up as a budget remake of the last game.
That's kind of a cynical interpretation. I think if they signed on to do the project, they knew Yu Suzuki desired changes to update the formula.

Some of these changes won't really be dictated by the virtue of this being a modern Shenmue, however. Yu Suzuki always said Shenmue III would have been a more inward looking game that explores the characters more, so new features like the Rapport System (think of it like an advanced collection of data and parameters, or a personality test) that influence relationship dynamics with characters fit with the same ideas he had decades ago.

A system like that was demoed twice in Shenmue II, and I think that kind of consistency in vision helps a lot to defuse the issue you're proposing.

I wouldn't exactly say that people aren't sticking up for the game in any kind of malicious way, just that a lot of people had the same reaction to the announcement that Jeff did--tepid, or "what just happened?" Shenmue was the last game anyone expected to be announced (other than if you were following Yu's twitter) precisely because it's such a fan game. As has been discussed by them, it will be interesting to see if Shenmu3 continues with the gameplay that fans want, or if they'll make concessions for a wider audience.

I think right now it's impossible to say how the game will do.
I mean yeah, I don't think much of the apathy for Shenmue is malicious at all. It's a series that was notoriously niche, that came out on a struggling platform (though the original is a 1.2+ million seller), that hasn't seen a sequel in 15 years. It's possibly the biggest underdog story gaming has ever had, and I just think the almost... gleeful anticipation for it to potentially fail is a really weird thing. Whether you like Shenmue or not, I think we should all at least hope it comes out, satisfies people, and does well, because it proves that game series aren't just done when the publisher has had enough of them.

There's no real indication so far that it's going to hit any major snag in development. I know I'm invested emotionally (and monetarily) in the project, but I take a very deep interest in the actual development process of the game and I see nothing to be alarmed about at the moment. Yes there's the Payrus font (which is being changed, and Suzuki gave a rational explanation for its existance), yes we're still waiting for the PC version to appear on the Slacker Backer site (although recently it was definitively said it would be available on there), and yes the company running the Kickstarter were inadequate for a project this high profile (they weren't Yu Suzuki's first, or even second choice, both Ryan Payton and 8-4 were asked), but that was almost a year ago now, and the game seems to be shaping up just fine.

As for concessions, as I said at the start of this post, I don't think what fans want and what the gaming landscape is like currently are totally at odds with each other. I also think a lot of people who wonder about these things might not have played Shenmue II, which goes a long way to making Shenmue a more palatable and accessible experience, especially with an increased sense of pacing.

We'll have to wait and see. Even today I see people playing the original games for the first time and enjoying them.
 
This Uncharted video is TOO GOOD, even though I cannot grasp everything Cowboy is saying.

Thanks, Brad and Jason.
Yeah, that was fantastic. The way they built the train level in UC2 was very interesting. Watching Brad play the boat level in UC3 made me want to build some sort of water simulation or something. Really cool stuff.
 

Myggen

Member
Do they complete the mission in the Hitman quick look? I only realized today that I haven't seen it.

Which QL? They complete the first episode in the first QL. They do not complete the second episode in the second QL, so they did a Premium video of them finishing it.
 
I haven't seen Uncharted 1 since it came out, but graphics have come a long way having just beat 4.

Uncharted-drakes-fortune.jpg
 
Uncharted video was great, hopefully we see more stuff like this and the Witness video in the future.

A little bummed they didn't spend some more time with UC4 as I would have liked to hear a bit about the two big set-pieces as well as the various new additions to the series that were in that game, but there's still a lot of cool behind the scenes info in there.
 
Just a heads up, any one that supports the Kinda Funny Games Patreon at $1 can now watch/listen to the Patreon Exclusive for May of the Gamescast. It's a one on one interview between Greg Miller and Jeff Gerstmann. The normal Gamescast (out for all next week) also features Jeff. I think I'm more excited for the former instead of the latter, as the exclusives tend to dive deep into the interviewee's history (typically in the video game industry), whereas the other has more general topics.
 

Mr. F

Banned
No, what did they say about it?

I listened to it today. What rubbed you the wrong way?

It just felt sloppy and distracted in general.

I appreciated that they were referring to Gawker as a media company rather than a journalistic outlet, but then after some flip flopping on the ethics around the situation, they went on to posit what the implications could be for this lawsuit potentially scaring other journalistic outlets to be afraid to report on certain stories. It's not equivalent in my mind.

Russ then went on to explore Gawker's side of the argument, which felt a bit gross. Using the example of a closeted republican politician railing against lgbt rights as something that is in the public's best interest to be exposed feels like something completely different than the situation around the lawsuits, especially given the fallout of Gawker's previous actions in outing individuals. Generally it felt a bit off base, compounded by Bakalar then going on some weird tangent about why we worship people with money, in reference to the story of the lawsuit being backed by a billionaire tech investor who Gawker outed as gay previously.

Maybe I'm particularly sensitive to the situation around the story as a gay person, but the notion of outing individuals regardless of 'public interest' is fucked. It's one of the most deeply personal decisions you can make for yourself in coming out and to have that taken away from you is just sad. And by their own admission Gawker is a tabloid rag beholden to their own ethical standard that is of course flexible to their convenience so 'ethically' the whole thing felt pretty open and shut in my eyes. I can generally get the arguments they were trying to make for the question being raised - the implication of wealth silencing media - and I do believe it's something worth discussing. But for my liking they just kind of played too fast and loose with some false equivalences between what Gawker's particular situation is compared to what this means for journalism on a greater scale, which to me isn't similar enough to warrant discussing interchangeably. (The Hogan thing is a separate mess).
 
GB Unplugged: Gunpla

Would not actually mind a static camera of Vinny and Austin building those gunpla that got sent in while casually chatting.

Maybe I'm particularly sensitive to the nuances of the story as a gay person, but the notion of outing individuals regardless of 'public interest' is fucked.

You're certainly not the only person who feels this way. Even in cases where "public interest" might be a thing, it's still super gross to go digging that deep into someone's life.
 
I built my first master grade recently. I like that you build the entire skeleton first and then put the armor on. Building was actually way easier than I thought it would be because most of the parts are pretty big. It was certainly a smoother affair than the one real grade I put together.
 
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