Weekend at Dave's

Well, we’re three quarters of the way through what can only be considered one heck of a PAX East 2019. The crowd has reached its peak, and despite all the excitement and clamor echoing through the halls of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, I’m far too tired to match the energy.

Doesn’t mean I can’t still appreciate the rather excellent games on display, though! Plenty of thoughts to go around after this Saturday, so be sure to give a listen.

http://punishedbacklog.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/PAX-2019-Day-3.mp3

Weekend at Dave’s – PAX East 2019 (Day 3)

0:00 – 0:50 — Intro

0:51 – 4:24 — Cyber Shadow

4:25 – 5:37 — Mortal Kombat 11

5:38 – 9:42 — Tunic

9:43 – 11:25 — Gensou SkyDrift

11:26 – 15:02 — The World Next Door

Out now on Nintendo Switch and Steam.

15:03 – 17:46 — Tales of the Neon Sea

Demo available now on Steam.

17:47 – 20:25 — Kunai

20:26 – 22:15 — Samurai Shodown

22:16 – 26:15 — Get in the Car, Loser!

26:16 — Outro

Thanks for listening! Check back soon for another episode of Weekend at Dave’s.

(Episode music credit: “The White” by rolemusic)

The post Weekend at Dave’s: PAX East 2019 Edition – Day 3 appeared first on The Punished Backlog.

PAX East is officially halfway over (though it feels like we’ve been here for a week, at this point). The more time I spend at the convention, the more I’m noticing the following trend: Indie games are the lifeline of this industry. We wouldn’t have nearly as many creative experiences without them, and we certainly wouldn’t have as many risky, boundary-pushing ones, either.

Virtually every game we played today was independently developed (or at least wasn’t from a major publisher). Listen to my thoughts on the day’s games below!

http://punishedbacklog.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Weekend-at-Daves-PAX-2019-Day-2.mp3

Weekend at Dave’s – PAX East 2019 (Day 2)

0:00 – 2:04 — Intro

2:05 – 5:56 — Heave Ho

5:57 – 8:20 — Pascals Wager

8:21 – 10:02 — Ultra Bugs

10:03 – 14:47 — Panzer Paladin

? Upcoming Game: ? PANZER PALADIN

Eject from the Paladin to control the small but swift Squire pilot! Use your laser whip to attack enemies, swing across gaps, and recharge the Paladin’s energy.

Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news! https://t.co/2rYBNImikD pic.twitter.com/ztrtujTVRV

— Tribute Games PAX East Booth #17116 (@TributeGames) March 13, 2019

14:48 – 18:25 — The Sinking City

18:26 – 22:04 — Lemnis Gate

Sign up for the closed beta here.

22:05 – 24:07 — Super Crome: Bullet Purgatory

Available now, in early access, for two bucks.

24:08 – 26:51 — Boyfriend Dungeon: Level Up Your Love

26:52 – 28:31 — Mowin’ & Throwin’

28:32 – 31:32 — Rubi: The Wayward Mira

31:33 — Outro

Thanks for listening! Check back soon for another episode of Weekend at Dave’s.

(Episode music credit: “The Little Broth” by rolemusic)

The post Weekend at Dave’s: PAX East 2019 Edition – Day 2 appeared first on The Punished Backlog.

PAX East has started with a percussive bang, and we have plenty of games, panels, and announcements to discuss from Day 1. Take a listen below!

http://punishedbacklog.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Weekend-at-Daves-PAX-2019-Day-1.mp3

Weekend at Dave’s – PAX East 2019 (Day 1)

0:00 – 1:12 — Intro

1:13 – 2:05 — Days Gone’s killer booth (literally)

2:06 – 3:24 — Indivisible

3:25 – 5:06 — Falcon Age

5:07 – 6:20 — Risk of Rain 2 and Pathologic 2

6:21 – 8:45 — Borderlands remasters and Borderlands 3

8:46 – 9:30 — Panel: “Scrappy AF: How the Hustle is the Key to the Game”

9:31 – 11:40 — Trover Saves the Universe

11:41 – 12:21 — Eternal

12:22 – 12:47 — KungFu Kickball

12:48 – 13:11 — Foundation

13:12 — Outro

Thanks for listening! Check back soon for another episode of Weekend at Dave’s.

(Episode music credit: “The Great Madeja” by rolemusic)

The post Weekend at Dave’s: PAX East 2019 Edition – Day 1 appeared first on The Punished Backlog.

It’s been a while! After a lengthy hiatus, Weekend at Dave’s is finally back, and it’s bringing some juicy topics this time around. In this episode, we explore the state of open-world games, and why developers and publishers may have strayed a bit too far from the essence of their original design. Next, we talk the buzz surrounding Google’s just-announced Stadia platform, and how it might shape the future of gaming. Finally, we close by talking about the joys of attending PAX East.

Strap in. It’s going to be a good one!

http://punishedbacklog.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Weekend-at-Daves-Episode-4.mp3

Weekend at Dave’s – Episode 4 (Download Link)

0:00 – 1:57 — Intro

1:58 – 17:26 — Horizon: Zero Dawn and the state of open-world games

17:27 – 25:38 — Google Stadia

25:39 – 28:58 — PAX East 2019

28:59 — Outro

It’s easy to come up with open-world games that were executed poorly and failed to meet expectations. The recent duds that were Crackdown 3 and… One Piece: World Seeker (*hysterically sobs*) are but two examples, and I could just as easily throw out names like Watch Dogs, Fallout 76, and No Man’s Sky—though I should say that NMS looks markedly better, now.

Even easier is to come up with open-world games that were by no means bad, but came short of true greatness. Immediately, my mind goes to series in which side content is abundant and even comforting, yet truly meaningful content is far harder to come by. Prototype, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, and even several titles in the Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry universes are prime examples.

If most open worlds fall into the latter two categories, then which ones end up being actually successful, then? Simply put, the ones that beg to be explored. The ones that, whether you played them for one hour or eighty, provided quality content from beginning to end. Simply put, they’re the ones that offered freedom without compromising on engaging gameplay.

Here, in my opinion, are five games that did open worlds right:

PAX East is right around the corner, and we’ll be on the show floor interacting with developers and playing all the newest titles. While much of what’ll be playable is still a bit of a mystery, here are a quick list of confirmed games you can expect us to check out this Thursday through Sunday:

Thanks for listening! Check back soon for another episode of Weekend at Dave’s.

(Episode music credit: “J2E Fine Tune” by RMB)

The post Weekend at Dave’s: Episode 4 – Open-World Games, Google Stadia, and PAX East appeared first on The Punished Backlog.

(Editor’s note: Apologies in advance for the “plosives” feedback in the microphone this week. Sound quality got an upgrade, at the cost of regular-sounding Ps! I’ll add a pop filter to the setup moving forward.)

It’s sure been a packed week for entertainment news. Between studio acquisitions, E3 shakeups, and live-action childhood horror films, there’s been practically no time to breathe during the exciting days leading up to Thanksgiving.

Not all the news was good, however, as we also learned of the passing of Marvel juggernaut and creative legend Stan Lee. While I can’t claim to have had much of a connection to the comic-book mogul or his work—aside from the MCU films—his passing leaves an indelible mark on the world of entertainment and its followers. Stan Lee may have passed far too soon, but his legacy will be remembered forever.

With that, let’s tune into the full episode:

http://punishedbacklog.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Weekend-at-Daves-Episode-3.mp3

Weekend at Dave’s – Episode 3 (Download Link)

0:00 – 0:37 — Intro

0:38 – 7:22 — Microsoft

7:23 – 10:48 — Sony

10:49 – 12:19 — PlayStation VR

12:20 – 19:08 — Square Enix

19:09 – 23:02 — Toy Story 4 and Detective Pikachu

23:03 – 24:26 — Stan Lee

24:27 – 27:25 — The Game Awards

27:26 — Outro

At XO18, Head of Microsoft Studios Matt Booty officially announced that the company would be adding two new studios to its growing arsenal of first-party talent. The first: inXile Entertainment, headquartered in Newport Beach. The second: Obsidian Entertainment, headquartered in Irvine.

While the news of Obsidian’s acquisition shouldn’t come as much of a surprise for those who’ve read up on recent reporting from Kotaku’s Jason Schreier, the most interesting part of this announcement is—perhaps—the fact that Microsoft is making room for not just one, but two RPG studios. Isometric ones, at that.

The similarities between these two studios don’t end there. Obsidian and inXile are both mid-sized developers with a focus on hardcore, pen-and-paper-influenced, lore-heavy role-playing games. Both are headquartered in California—inXile in Newport Beach, Obsidian in Irvine—and are a short 20-minute drive from one another. Heck, they both have the word “Entertainment” at the end of their names.

The studios are so similar, so like-minded, in fact, that the two even signed an agreement in 2013 to share technology with each other in order to cut down on development costs for their respective projects at the time. So it makes sense—if not conceptually, then financially—that Microsoft would choose to pull the trigger on both studios at once, in effect doubling the magnitude of its acquisition while giving it a solid foothold in what has, up until now, been one of the weakest genres for the Xbox’s portfolio of first-party exclusives.

The addition of Obsidian and inXile only serves to strengthen a growing list of Microsoft studios. Counting the five new development teams revealed at E3 2018, Microsoft has essentially ramped up its internal studio count from six in 2017 to a whopping thirteen in 2018. Here’s the full list:

Even when you set aside Mojang (since it’s essentially just Minecraft) and Microsoft Studios (which is a publisher of second-party games, and not strictly its own development team), that’s still one heck of an impressive list. 343 and The Coalition still look to be Microsoft’s flagship studios, given their important IP, but the addition of new talent from Obsidian, inXile, and others completely opens the door for new, creative content across a wide range of genres: RPG, FPS, open-world game… you name it.

While nothing concrete is in the works for most of these studios just yet, expect the landscape to shift quite a bit two or three years down the line for Microsoft. Sony may have caught Microsoft off guard with the PlayStation 4, but next gen could bring a whole new set of surprises from the men and women in green.

My backlog is as bloated as ever, but that won’t stop me from taking advantage of some fantastic Black Friday deals on PlayStation VR. I mean, have you seen these prices?

I’m torn between the two choices. The $199 bundle is unquestionably the better bundle from an entertainment standpoint; Astro Bot is considered to be one of the best platformers in years, while Moss has been described as a fantastic, whimsical adventure game. That said, the $249 bundle is likely the slightly better deal, considering the fact that two Move controllers are bundled in with the SKU.

Do I take the plunge on the more expensive bundle, knowing I’ll have to settle for a decent Creed game if it means netting those colorful wand peripherals? Or do I kick that motion control nonsense to the curb, cut right to the chase, and have one hell of an evening playing as tiny, cute little robots and an even cuter mouse?

Black Friday, you are tearing me apart!

Final Fantasy is my favorite game franchise of all time. I started in 2004 with Dawn of Souls—a collection housing remastered versions of Final Fantasy I and II—on a blue Game Boy Advance SP that I was gifted by my grandmother during the same year. While it was hardly the greatest experience I’d ever had (I secretly longed after the copy of A Link to the Past my brother had been given for his SP), it was my gateway into the Final Fantasy universe.

I ultimately gave up on Dawn of Souls, aggravated mainly by the difficulty spikes and obtuse world design. (To be fair, I was nine at the time, and despite the sheen of the 2004 remaster, the fact remained that Final Fantasy I and II were from 1987 and 1988, respectively.) It wasn’t until January 2007 that I made contact with the series again, except this time, it was at the complete other end of the Final Fantasy spectrum.

Final Fantasy XII is, to date, my favorite game in the series. It’s grounded. It’s mature. It’s vast, beautiful, melancholic, and oddly soothing, all at once. Some people may hate it, as I’ve detailed thoroughly in the past, but to me, XII represents the very best of Final Fantasy.

Around the same time that I started playing XII, I began following a pair of upcoming games that had been announced at E3 2006: Final Fantasy XIII, and its sister title, Final Fantasy Versus XIII. While both games would end up seeing development hell, Final Fantasy XIII really got off pretty easily, in retrospect. People weren’t exactly uniform in their opinion of the game, by any means, but at least it came out within five years of being revealed.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII? Now, that’s a different story completely. The game went mostly silent in the months and years following the launch of the mainline XIII game. It popped back up at one point, was pronounced “Dead” at another, was resurrected and renamed Final Fantasy XV, and ultimately became the quirky, “Stand by Me” road trip game that we know today. Through it all, the game was altered, slowly but surely, from the Versus XIII that I’d known when I was in middle school to the XV that I would ultimately play as a senior in college.

I won’t lie and say that I wasn’t disappointed by XV. The game had simply been in development for too long for me not to have the wildest and most unreasonable of expectations for the final product. Shakespeare! Opera! Romance! Teleportation! Versus XIII was ahead of its time in 2006, and it still was in 2016.

We’ll never know for sure if Versus XIII would have been an attainable goal for a game, let alone a JRPG, in any year. That said, regardless of whatever qualms I have about the final product, I have mountains of respect for the man who took up the mantle of “director,” midway through development, bringing XV to the finish line.

The news of Hajime Tabata leaving Square Enix left me at a loss for words, as someone who followed his creative direction of XV, read his numerous interviews, and watched practically all of those lengthy (and, frankly, superfluous) Active Time Reports. Through my appreciation for Versus XIII, I came to admire Tabata’s contribution to the project, even going so far as to poke fun at the game’s original director, Tetsuya Nomura, who—for one reason or another—just couldn’t seem to get anything productive done with the original game.

In a weird way, seeing Tabata—this macho, mature-looking dude—come in to “save” XV was cathartic for me. He was the superhero coming to save the day: an icon for Final Fantasy fans this generation, and the clear face of the series up through the anticipated launch of XV in 2016.

So to see someone I’d identified with leave, get let go, or whatever the case was… it’s sad. The truest “end of an era,” if ever there was one.

Thanks for the memories, Tabata, and I wish you the best of luck with your future endeavors.

Fellow writer Sam Martinelli is back with his Punished Notes series, and his writing is as sharp (and his takes as hot) as ever.

Sam provided some thoughts earlier this week on everything from Red Dead Redemption 2 and the Halo series to Forza Horizon 4’s changing seasons and the controversy surrounding Blizzard with Diablo Immortal. I highly encourage everyone to drop what their doing and go check it out (unless you’d be “dropping” my podcast, in which case y’all better finish that first, now).

Among the most interesting points of discussion brought up by Sam in Punished Notes Vol. 6 is the notion that The Game Awards is a bunch of overblown hoopla. To be honest, I had never thought to be critical of the show itself—mainly because I’ve always associated it with sleek trailers and exciting reveals. Remember the reveal of Batman: Arkham City at the 2010 VGAs, or the (now-infamous) announcement of No Man’s Sky at the 2014 Game Awards? Or the hilarity caused when Reggie Fils-Aime dropped the juicy tidbit at the 2013 VGX that Cranky Kong would be in Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze?

Okay, so not every reveal is made equal. But at the very least, I would argue that every one of Geoff Keighley’s self-produced shows has offered some form of entertainment and value to the gaming community over the years. Well, except the VGX. That was actually horrendous, from beginning to end (Cranky was bad, but Joel McHale hosting was even worse).

However, Sam brings some compelling evidence to back up his argument. The fact that the Game Awards cuts off nominees before the end of the year and is hosted in early December. Inconsistencies in the award categories themselves, from a Best Independent Game award (isn’t this unnecessary in a world where indies can be nominated for overall GOTY?), to a Games for Impact one (does this mean to suggest that the actual GOTY nominees provide, essentially, less of an impact than the ones nominated here?). And, of course, the prevalence of esport awards, even when nominees aren’t for games released this year.

I’ll be upfront: I don’t agree with most of these takes. While I don’t love the idea of an awards ceremony cutting off nominees before the actual end of the calendar year, the Game Awards isn’t the only offender here—the Oscars has a similar cutoff for films (even if the show itself is typically hosted in February, well after the end of the calendar year).

Sure, I’ve seen several favorite games get shafted by The Game Awards—Super Smash Bros. for Wii U in 2014 and Xenoblade Chronicles X in 2015, in particular. Heck, we’re at the point where history is even beginning to repeat itself—Xenoblade Chronicles 2 missed the deadline in 2017, while Super Smash Bros. Ultimate missed it this year… but do you notice a pattern here? The same game franchises are getting punished, year after year, for one simple reason: they’re being released after the deadline. It’s that simple. Oscar season is a real thing, and “Games season” should be, too. I don’t necessarily agree with the practice, but it is what it is.

As for the award inconsistencies, I don’t see too much of a problem with overlap between categories. Many outlets, ours included, have platform awards that are predictable in nature, just based on the fact that nominees are shared with the public before the actual winners from each category are announced. Simply put, there’s bound to be some cases where certain games snowball with their wins. To that, I say: let the best game in each category win, no if, ands, or buts. That said, there’s still plenty of room for diversity in ceremonies like The Game Awards, which is why categories like Games for Impact are so important. God of War and Red Dead Redemption 2 have already made a tremendous impact on gamers worldwide, and the nominees for the Games for Impact category won’t take away from that fact in the slightest, the way I look at it.

So is The Game Awards, in its current state, a bunch of hoopla? Depends on who you ask.

Personally, I enjoy the event for what it is: a celebration of how far games have come, and a tease of where games can still go. It might not get everything right (and, oh boy, it sure doesn’t) but when everything is firing on all cylinders, we get gems like this:

I think I can end this segment here.

Finally, it would be criminal of me to wrap up without reiterating the massive impact that Stan Lee had on the entertainment industry, consumers, and the world at large.

In honor of the man himself, I’d like to share a list of just a few of the phenomenal things from this year that Stan Lee, either directly or indirectly, helped provide for us:

And then, of course, to share a quote that many have probably already seen or read, but just needs to be posted once more on the internet (it’s too good):

I used to be embarrassed because I was just a comic-book writer while other people were building bridges or going on to medical careers. And then I began to realize: Entertainment is one of the most important things in people’s lives. Without it, they might go off the deep end. I feel that if you’re able to entertain people, you’re doing a good thing. When you’re seeing how happy the fans are — as they [see up-close] the people who tell the stories, who illustrated them, the TV personalities — I realize: It’s a great thing to entertain people.

–Stan Lee, The Washington Post

Excelsior, Mr. Lee!

Thanks for listening! Check back soon for another episode of Weekend at Dave’s.

The post Weekend at Dave’s: Episode 3 – Final Fantasy XV, Trade Shows, and Detective Pikachu appeared first on The Punished Backlog.