Diecast #300: Three Hundred!
Three hundred is a lot of podcasts. If podcasts were a physical object and not audio files, and if you took all 300 diecasts and stacked them up, then the resulting pile would be tall enough to fall over. Amazing.
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Hosts: Paul, Shamus. Episode edited by Issac.
Diecast300
Link (YouTube)
Show notes:
01:10 Mailbag: Games that are too Good
Dear Diecast,
Sometimes when I’m done with playing a game that I really liked – and had a particularly good time with it – it can result in a situation where I don’t want to replay it ever again, in fear of my memories being better than reality (because, who knows, maybe it wasn’t so good after all? Maybe it correlated with the interests/obsessions I had then, but not now?). Has this ever happened to you? If so, why?
Regards,
Darek
04:24 Mailbag: Sci-fi Books
Dear Diecast,
I really like the fact that you’re a videogame podcast named after tabletop RPGs, whose hosts like getting sidetracked by all number of other topics!
So, I’d like to ask: would you like to get sidetracked into talking about sci-fi books? What sci-fi books have you read recently (or not so recently) that have left an impression on you? What did you like/not like about them? Do you think any of their ideas can be adapted to videogames?
Keep being Awesome,
Lino
15:35 Mailbag: Trial and Error Games
Hi Paul! Hi Shamus!
(For some reason this order of names sounds better than the reverse one)
Is there a game (or series, or genre) where the trial and error approach to gameplay situations is frequently present, but that’s not frustrating to you, but the opposite – it’s fun and you enjoy the game?
Also, happy This Is Sparta Diecast! Congratulations!
Best regards, DeadlyDark
23:52 Mailbag: Borderlands 3
Hello Shamus and Paul,
This question is as much for your readers as for you. I picked up Borderlands 3 when it finally released on Steam. I have really been enjoying the game, but have been curious about my experience. Six months and 2 DLC’s later, have you gone back and seen if the experience was the same for you? I haven’t been experiencing what you did (which kind of had me on the fence before playing it) and I was wondering if your experience with the bullet sponges and weapon power have changed? Also, I enjoyed your dissection of the previous games, and wondered what your opinion of the overall plot and tone of three were? Recently rereading your earlier posts, I think some of the unanswered questions from earlier games (i.e. Zarpadon and blowing up the moon) were answered. How would you rate or compare this and is there ever a chance we might get a series of articles on it?
Anyways thank you for your website, in these times it is even more enjoyable than ever,
-Chris
30:44 Mailbag: Gamedev Podcasts
Dear Diecast,
You guys seem to have vaguely complimentary skill sets. Why don’t you make a game together? Then the podcast could just be about game development!
Followup question: If you don’t want to do that, can you recommend any good game development podcasts/blogs?
Congrats on three hundo,
Chris
35:44 Mailbag: Fading Genres
Dear Diecast,
In the last Diecast you mentioned as an aside that Tower Defense games have “sorta vanished”, despite having been very popular for a while. This got me thinking of other genres of games that have, if not died, then faded to a shadow of their former selves: point & click adventure games, real time strategy games, and now tower defense.
So my question is: what genres do you think are on their way out, and are there any where you’d hope that they’d vanish? Is there anything you think is due for a renaissance, like how Rogue/Roguelikes have reappeared?
Thanks for the great content,
GoStu
43:56 Mailbag: 4 Producers 1 Sample
Dear Diecast (mostly Shamus),
Have you been following Andrew Huang’s 4 Producers 1 Sample series on Youtube
(https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9UYOmoXTQmEQecw3OwifUBEWCrMf625)?
The summaries where they go over the sample manipulation and music composition techniques they use seems right up Shamus’ alley. I know you’ve mentioned Huang’s Youtube channel and music lessons before.
Do you think (given the opportunity) participating in something like
that sounds like it might be fun? Maybe if it was with a bunch of peers of similar skill level?
Regards,
Kowh
49:56 Mailbag: Historical Accuracy
Dear Diecast,
Recently I’ve been in a mood for anything related to the French Revolution – including games. This led me to playing two titles – We. The Revolution and Assassin’s Creed: Unity. Both of these games take certain „liberties” with source materials, but from different reasons, which I found interesiting.
In „We…” the player acts as a judge in the Revolutionary Court. Therefore you can occasionally change the way certain trials concluded (for example, you can decide that Danton is innocent and let him live). Players agency, combined with the huge integration of the story with events that took place during that historical period means that the game can’t remain faithful to these events – which in my opinion is the correct approach in an interactive medium. But then the game went so far in its third act that it wasn’t really about Revolution anymore. You couldn’t experience that period because there was so much changes that it made the whole affair almost unrecognizable (hard to say anything without spoilers, but I suspect that the developers wanted to make sure that players’ choices would still have an emotional impact).
But then AC: U happened, which somehow managed to create a story that is almost completely detached from the French Revolution – it might as well never have happened, story-wise nothing would be different. When it finally does something related to that historical period (practically at the very end), it’s only to push its own story about the struggles of assassins and templars with each others, which is much less interesting than the actual events that happened. And it actually pushes the story even further from the French Revolution (my guess is that Ubisoft was really afraid to say something about such a controversial topic).
But that made me think – how far you can go with altering historical events in a video games? Should there be limits for players’ interactivity in the name of historical accuracy or the other way around – should events always be determined by their choices? AC: U didn’t want to change anything (or even say anything) and it turned the French Revolution into unnecessary background noise. We. The Revolution has changed too much and it wasn’t about this subject anymore. Is there a line to draw? Some elements that shouldn’t be changed no matter what? Certain topics, themes? Or maybe the deveoplers should go all-in and changed everything they want?
Regards,
Darek
58:28 Mailbag: Value of Games
Dear Diecast,
One of my earliest memories is the first time I ever played a video game at a neighbour’s house. The cheerful music, colourful visuals and apparent miracle of the input/feedback loop by which I was able to control the little blue hedgehog made me an instant convert to gaming for life.
What I’ve always loved most about games is the way you can become completely absorbed in the activity of playing them – to become an inhabitant of the universe of the game. It isn’t just that they’re fun, although I’ve played many fun games. I’ve always struggled to articulate exactly what I mean by this, but the best way I can describe it is that, at its best, gaming somehow manages to achieve a state of meaningfulness.
Even among the enthusiast press, when the value of games is discussed, it’s often in terms of their potential for social or personal improvement, or as a jumping-off point into the rabbit hole of how we define capital-A art. But I seldom recall seeing much discussion of the value of gaming just as it is, in spite of the the livelihood it has made for thousands and the passion it inspires in millions. At best the nebulous benefits of leisure time and escapism are acknowledged, only to be countervailed with concerns about laziness, toxicity and retreat from reaility. The wider media takes an even dimmer view.
I’d like to know what other people think about this. Do games matter? Can gaming be meaningful? Have others found an instrinc value in playing games, or are their potential benefits considered to be more limited and utilitarian?
Congratulations on reaching 300 episodes,
Asdasd
1:03:01 Mailbag: Taking Notes
Dear Diecast,
conglaturations* on another milestone reached! You guys make my Mondays far less of a pain than they could be, thanks for all the entertainment.
Recently I was digging through my physical game archive and I came across my notes for Pokemon. I used to keep track of which ‘mon I saw where and at which levels so I could return there after fighting the Elite 4 (or after defeating Red in Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal). I also took careful notes on where I saw trees that could be cut down, pools of water that could be crossed, and other such obstacles that may hold points of interest.
Nowadays I still do a bunch of note taking, even though ever more information is easily accessible online and there is less need for me to do so.
How about you guys? Do you take notes while playing? I imagine Shamus jots down a lot for articles on the site.
Vale,
-Tim
1:07:51 Mailbag: Game it out
Hi Shamus and Paul.
I’ve been watching a Youtube channel that I think you guys would find interesting. It’s called “Let’s Game It Out” – most videos focus on one of the myriad of low-budget ‘tycoon’ or ‘simulator’ style games out there, playing them in the most absurd way possible. He finds hilarious ways to exploit broken mechanics and push systems past their breaking point). As an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVt5my65WL8 – playing Smartphone Tycoon, he designs terrible phones and sells them at ridiculous prices, but somehow is successful enough to sell 34 quadrillion phones by the end.
He’s also done a whole series of videos on Satisfactory, – the first of which is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vYYhL9Vt8o. They get progressively more ambitious (and physics-breaking) as they go.
Hope you enjoy them.
Daniel