Podcast 13-7: What I’d Do With a Third Arm

Photo of Robert Allen Robert AllenJanuary 7, 2014
82 90,261 Less than a minute

Third Arm

This week the crew discusses next-generation user interfaces, Knack, Ryse, Killzone: Shadow Fall, Battlefield 4, Madden 25, and The Cat Lady. We also have an extended edition of Indie Outlook to pique your interest and tickle your funny bone, where Say and Robert offer impressions of the OUYA console, BombSquad, Gaurodan, EFMB, Poöf vs the Cursed Kitty, Stick It To the Man, and Holy Crap, Bears!!

Download: Podcast 13-7: What I’d Do With a Third Arm
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Photo of Robert Allen Robert AllenJanuary 7, 2014
82 90,261 Less than a minute
Photo of Robert Allen

Robert Allen

Since being a toddler, Robert Allen has been immersed in video games, anime, and tokusatsu. Currently, his days are spent teaching at two southern California colleges. But his evenings and weekends are filled with STGs, RPGs, and action titles and well at writing for Tech-Gaming since 2007.

82 Comments

    1. It’s kind of true. When I was in China, there’s the notion there that American’s can’t apologize. There’s the notion that they’re too proud to do it.

    2. That’s pretty interesting, ElectricRelaxation. It does sort of highlight the cultural aspect of apology, and maybe I dismissed the “American-ness” of it a little too soon. For which I apologize. It was out of my hands. 😉

    1. Seems like a short show, but we didn’t have to wait months for it.

      Didn’t the Penny Arcade thing happen last week? Not too fresh…

  4. No trivia, but IndieOutlook is great. It doesn’t feel like like Robert talking for 15 minutes, Sage talking for 5 minutes and Jeremy talking for an hour.

    1. How did you manage to get there so quick? I’m still at min 15! Kinda anxious to hear the final thing, with Robert you just never know what would make the cut, lol.

      1. I’ll admit, sometimes I skip straight to trivia and jump back later.

        Robert edits the show too? For some reason that’s surprising.

  5. The OUYA is a piece of shit. Take it from someone that kickstarted it. Free games were advertised, but it really they’re almost all just demos.

  7. If you were amused by Knack’s story you are either 8 years old or rode the short bus to school.

    The game is awful.

      1. The problem is so many publishers have employees post a “user review” that Metacritic and Amazons reviews are almost useless.

        1. As someone who works in the field (video games, at least), I can say that much is not true for most publishers. While most may still have a problem understanding community work, they get burnt and they are forced to change practices so this is not something you’d think it’s an on-going scenario even for those that have known to do so.

          Having said that, 120 users is in no way shape or form representative of publishing shady practices – even if that much were true in this particular scenario, it’d be perhaps less than a 5% of all that, if anything.

          1. I’ve worked for three different developers and it’s always kind of hidden and shady, but it most definitely goes on. Sometimes they farm it out to China, PR agencies, Fiverr gigs or whatever, but it happens. Some say it’s to counteract the trolls, who like to give zeros when they don’t like something about your game.

            Look at some games they gave a bunch of 10/10 reviews that almost say the same thing. There as made to pump up the aggregate score.

          3. Telltale got caught doing it.

            http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2243789

            And if you want to real laugh look at the user reviews for Namco’s Star Trek game:

            – “I’m not going to ruin it for other players but just to say, if you like Mass Effect type adventure games with a brilliant story, great action scenes then you really need to consider this game.

            If your a Star Trek fan then why are you still reading this? Get down to your local store and grab a copy RIGHT NOW.” – SoulLessBoot (Previous reviews = 0)

            – “Refreshing take on Star Trek Enjoyable Gameplay, Excellent Story, Good Atmosphere, Good Graphics, Excellent Music and Sound, Good Platforming and Puzzles, overall a game well worth its money and can compare with some high-profile titles.”Girland (Previous Reviews = 0)

            – “Got the PC version on-line today (Save $10 and do the online download). This won’t be game of the year, but is still a fun game. The rating is an 8 if you enjoy the story of star trek and movie you’ll enjoy the adventurous storyline.” – AmerFreedom (Previous Reviews = 0)

          4. Yeah, user reviewers are pretty much worthless.

            Bioware got caught gaming the system as well: http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/g3td7/dragon_age_2_conspiracy_highest_rated_metacritic/

            It’s well known that trolls brought down Tales of Graces f and Meruru’s Metacritic scores as well (the Anti-Deagle!) to 1.3/10 from 5.6 in less than 24 hours.

            All these are the cases where employees got caught, or it was so flagrant there’s no doubt score tampering was going on. I’m sure it’s much bigger than that.

          6. Remember developers and publishers are not the same. Even though some publishers may be clueless sometimes, don’t assume developers are actually connected to what publishing business practices are about – the fact developers are forced to self publish, doesn’t mean they know what they’re doing. Online it all comes through one name, but in practice these teams are sometimes as separated as buildings and even countries away.

            What publishing does is that they tap on media resources and they try to contact people by providing the game – if they do their homework right, they get to reach out to the right audiene and it will guarantee others will play and actually enjoy the game providing the means of them to talk about this introducing their game to different audiences. That itself is PR work, mass reach through key areas.

            I understand how it’s far too easy to become cynical about it nowadays. Even though you’d be mentioning 20 studios (devs or publishing) that you’re certain they consistently do so – 20 is not a representative group of what the video gaming industry as a whole really is. I don’t say it doesn’t happen, I am saying please don’t automatically assume it’s all the same because some actually do.

          7. I know people from our dev team go online and give high scores on Metacritic or iTunes (we’re have mobile-based games) It’s not an organized effort, or even one that’s talked about opening but it happens.

            If you spend months or years working on a product and your livelihood depends on the success of said product (as well as spouse, children, etc) there’s going to be some shady promotion.

            Sorry about being anon, but of course I can’t be connected to this.

    1. People have different tastes. No one’s an idiot for seeing the positive parts of a piece of hardware.

    1. Gasp! I got cut? It can’t be! I talked for like an hour solid!

      A couple of people have mentioned some weirdness with the download. If this is still going on, let us know.

      1. Worked fine for me. I noticed when the podcast first ‘airs’ things get a bit slow. Ok, sometimes really slow.

  10. Great show so far!!!

    About Americans not apologizing- it’s a common thing that people outside the US say. But I do know a few Americans that do so not it’s not true for all.

    Like hearing about indie games. May I request a shooter for you to play?

  11. Mike from PA is an ass. I surprised that it’s taken so long for the industry to become aware of this and take action.

    1. From where I sit, people have known about Mike’s issues for a while… but nothing ever really “sticks.”

      As little interested as I am in the details of this particular person, though, I am kind of interested to see whether the larger community IS willing to forgive, if it’s really deserved. I think it’s fair for people to evolve in their attitudes and outlooks on things, and for others to give people the latitude for that to happen.

      1. To me it’s funny to see how much influence Penny Arcade the comic has in the industry, having their own Expo. It’s something that even IGN hasn’t done.

        Not that they should, it would surely be awful.

        1. That’s true! And I think that’s super cool too. Most situations are not “good guy – bad guy” even though that would make it easier to digest.

          I haven’t actually read a PA comic for like a year. I tell myself I’m saving up for one day of gargantuan hilarity.

  16. Remember Major Nelson says changes are coming, but yes the Xbox One interface is awful. I had some of the same problems.

    1. I recently finished Attack on Titan. It was pretty good.

      Um, I also watched From Up on Poppy Hill this weekend. I liked it quite a bit. Does that count? 😛

    1. We did our best to get interviews lined up for the podcast, however time availability is a factor to consider with guests, too – I’m sure we’ll be able to get more trivia and stuff for the next podcast.
      Also, thank you of the nice comment about IndieOutlook!

  19. Indie Outlook was great this week.

    Pretty sure user reviews are faked. Ive read too many glowing ones for crappy games. Also, good games get their scores pounded.

    1. I was surprised to see the extra length version up there, but glad to read you guys liked it. Thank you for the feedback, brutus!

      1. Am I missing out on something? I only see a show that’s about an hour. No extra length here.

  23. The Xbone part pretty much was my experience…stalled installs all the time. Pissed me off enough that I packed up the machine. Got store credit and two days later scored a PS4. Much better system.

  24. Seems like the Xbone backlash is starting to gather steam.

    Wombat on the Cagcast didn’t have a single good thing to say about the system and complained about the lack of sales for digital games.

    Ive had friends complain about the dropping to small screen and the Kinect making Need for Speed a huge pain in the ass. Meanwhile, it seems like the initial sales flurry is over. Everywhere I go there’s Xbox Ones and Wii U’s while PS4s get sold as quick as they come in.

  27. You owe me a fresh pair of boxers after suggesting Holy Crap, Bears. That game is pure wickedness.

    1. Just Googled “Holy Crap bears”.

      Image of a girl licking her own nipple popped up.

      You win internet.

        1. Saw the licking too. I noticed a number of other sites have the same game. Did they steal it from Adult Swim?

  28. Subscribed to two podcasts this week. Yours and Joystiq (based on recommendations). Your show was much better, a lot less awkward, and more fun to listen to. Especially IndieOutlook.

    1. It’s lovely to know those who listen to us may appreciate us enough to recommend us to those they know. Also, thank you so much for listening to the show, such kind feedback and subscribing; always happy to read IndieOutlook feedback 🙂

      1. I told three gaming buddies bout the show. I think at least two subscribed. I can’t be sure if they listen to EVERY show though.

    2. Good for NOLA!

      Haven’t listened to the podcast since 2010 or so. Seems like it’s like every other game podcast where they talk about their lives and not games. 8-4 is doing that as well, now too.

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