DualShockers.com ShockCast

ShockCast Ep. 189 - Orcs Are Bad by DualShockers Staff

Join the crew as they discuss comic con hijinx on top all the latest happenings in the world of videogames.

The gang chats about Microsoft's spending spree.

The gang talks about Destiny for a good long while. Special Guest: Tony Polanco from theKoalition.

New Host, same nonsensical talk about videogames.

Whether people want to accept it or not, the future of the video game industry is moving more and more towards digital distribution. This was underscored once again this week with EA announcing their Access program for the Xbox One. With this being a potentially huge game changer (pardon the pun) for the industry, we had to make it our main topic this week.

We also run down some of the featured posts from the past week including Ryan's preview of Super Smash Bros for the Wii U and 3DS, my review of Crimsonland and Fabian's review of The Last of Us: Remastered. Speaking of that game, we give our initial impressions of it. We also give our final thoughts on the Destiny beta and how we felt that played out and how the future looks for this franchise. We round things out by running down the week's newest releases, news and what game's we've been playing.

This week I was joined by my fellow staff writers: Ryan Meitzler and Jorge Jimemez as well as our Deputy Editor, Joel Taveras. Thanks as always to Shawn Daley for our custom intro and outro tracks.

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We finally got some much needed respite from the summer drought with the Destiny beta. This has been THE game that's consumed a lot of gamers' time during the past week and we here at DualShockers are no different.

Destiny is the subject of our main topic. We discuss the game's various features, some of our experiences while playing it, just what type of game this is and what the game signifies for the industry. Does Destiny have the potential to topple Call of Duty as the top selling game this year? Can it be the next CoD in terms of popularity? We delve into all of this.

Our second main topic was inspired by the recent Nintendo event that we attended. Ryan and I talk about some of the games we played and what we thought of them. We also get into how we see some potential for Nintendo to grow given the amount of solid releases which they're releasing fairly soon.

We also have our usual features such as our latest reviews for Final Fantasy III, and Divinity: Original Sin, a breakdown of the week's latest video game releases and of course, some of the week's notable gaming news.

This week I was joined by my fellow staff writers: Ryan Meitzler and Jorge Jimemez. Thanks as always to Shawn Daley for our custom intro and outro tracks.

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Video Games are praised for being an interactive media. Unlike movies, books or television, video games allow people to become part of the story or to test their reflexes. Though this is an interactive hobby by nature, lately, more and more people are enjoying others play games. YouTube is filled with “Let’s Play” videos and sites like Twitch and Ustream specifically cater to those who want to watch others play games.

Video games as a passive hobby is the subject of our first featured topic. We discuss why people enjoy to watch others play and why we find the whole thing baffling.

For our second topic, we discuss female protagonists in video games and how they are portrayed nowadays versus how they used to be. This topic was inspired by Marvel’s recent announcement that the person who would wield Thor’s hammer Mjolnir would be a woman. Comic book readers don’t seem to mind female lead characters that much yet the same can’t be said about a lot of video gamers who would rather play as a man. We talk about why (male) gamers have a hard time playing as a female lead and why we need more females in leading roles.

We also discuss some of this week’s featured posts including Joel Taveras’ editorial about Destiny’s Digital Guardian Edition being the best bang for the buck and our reviews for Sniper Elite III, Blazblue: Chrono Phantasma, One Piece: Unlimited World RED and The Wolf Among Us Episode 5. As usual we do a rundown of the week’s game releases, news and what we’ve been playing.

This week I was joined by my fellow staff writers: Thomas Luke, Ryan Meitzler and Jorge Jimemez. Thanks as always to Shawn Daley for our custom intro and outro tracks.

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Have you ever gone back to replay an older game and were surprised by how well its held up? How about when you play one and find that the years haven't been kind to it? This forms the core of the main topic this week as we discuss what it's like to revisit games from the past and seeing how well (or not so well) they've stood the test of time.

We unexpectedly had a second main topic come up when we discussed the potato salad Kickstarter campaign. Some of us see this as a fun, good natured Kickstarter while others see this as an insult to other projects which are more deserving of being funded.

As usual, we break down the week's newest releases, news and talk about some of the games we've been playing.

This week I was joined by my fellow Staff Writers Ryan Meitzler and Jorge Jimenez as well as our (awesome) community manager, Dianna Lora. Thanks as always to Shawn Daley for our custom intro and outro tracks.

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Compared to other forms of media (books, film, television), video games are relatively young. It has only been a few decades since the world first saw pixels simulate a game of ping pong. Since that time, graphical power and storytelling have improved considerably and now the gaming industry is one of the biggest forms of entertainment on Earth. Despite all of these advances, the medium still hasn’t (metaphorically speaking) hit puberty yet and still has a ways to go before it fully matures.

This was brought to light recently when Bioware announced that its upcoming title, Dragon Age: Inquisition, would feature the company’s first “fully gay” playable character. Some people who are against gays being in video games (and even some gay supporters) took offense to this and a mini-controversy ensued.

Frustrated over the fact that people were discussing the character’s sexual orientation and not his in-game country of origin (the Tevinter Imperium), I decided to channel that anger into something positive. With the help of some gay friends (Emily Lemay, Johnathan Gibbs and Ryan Bates), I wrote an editorial which talked about why many in this industry still get offended when a company creates openly gay characters.

This editorial and the comments it fostered are the basis for this episode’s main topic. Jorge Jimenez and I discuss the actual controversy about Dorian’s sexual orientation and how the video game community as a whole deals with subjects which are controversial. We also get into how pleased we were that this subject sparked a healthy debate in the comment and how it didn’t devolve into the usual name calling which (unfortunately) is what usually happens. While some ignorant things were said, the discourse was mostly pretty civil and we were quite proud of this.

Since this is the fourth of July we also talked about some games which have something meaningful to say about the United States of America. In particular we bring up how games such as the Bioshock, Metal Gear Solid and Grand Theft Auto series show us things about this country which are true even if they present them in a satirical or extreme way.

We also discuss some of our reviews which we posted this week including my review of Battle Princess of Arcadias and Jorge’s review of Spoiler Alert. As always, we run down the games which were released this past week as well as talk about what games we’ve been playing recently. Thanks as always to Shawn Daley for our custom intro and outro tracks.

Have a happy and safe Fourth of July weekend everyone!

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