The GamerSushi Show, Ep 5: Gamebots In Disguise

TransformersWe’ve taken a few weeks off since our epic E3 2010 podcast so that Nick and I could finish slaying the titan known as Web Zeroes. But now we’re back, despite the current drought of gaming related news, and we still manage to talk for a ludicrously long time.

That’s partly because in this episode, we go off on a wild series of awesome nerdy tangents, which includes a great discussion on old school Saturday morning cartoons and how they are full of both nostalgia and win. Also, why mono is God’s gift to gamers.

Anyway, give it a listen, rate it on iTunes if you want, and feel free to continue the conversation we had here down in the comments. Enjoy!

Here are this week’s topics:

What Are You Playing?
Bayonetta, video game rentals and the perfect gaming difficulty
Transformers and Saturday morning cartoons
Crackdown 2
Alpha Protocol
Sacred 2 and Diablo-style games
PSN Plus
Bad Company 2
Red Dead Redemption and falling action in video games

Community Topics

Co-Op against Versus?
Our biggest gaming binge?

Gaming News
Roget Ebert and the Games as Art debate

 

All of that doesn’t even come close to representing everything discussed here, so hopefully there are lots of great moments for you to listen to. I really love the back and forth we’re starting to establish, particularly as we talk about the Games as Art issue.

Written by

I write about samurai girls and space marines. Writer for Smooth Few Films. Rooster Teeth Freelancer. Author of Red vs. Blue, The Ultimate Fan Guide, out NOW!

9 thoughts on “The GamerSushi Show, Ep 5: Gamebots In Disguise”

  1. Loved the podcast, it was nice to have it going on while I was grinding XP in Red Dead. The versus vs. coop debate intrigued me, I voted for versus because of games like Gears and TF2, not CoD. CoD and other games like it can’t really be called team games, because it is basically lone wolves just you can’t shoot certain people (that’s why people scream at you for “stealing” their kill). Gears is a great team based online experience because it’s 5 on 5 with no respawns, so you cling to your teammates because the match depends on it. I have so many great memories of me and my friends playing and my buddy gets shot and is down, and an enemy stands over him preparing to curb stomp him, and I blow the enemies head off and I revive him to win the game. There are just a lot of those moments and if you try to go alone you will fail. Halo also is great for this, I mean come on, everyone has their favorite “me and a buddy hopped into a warthog and then…” moments, and that kind of versus is just pure bliss. Also Eddy I think you know now why I encouraged you to finish Red Dead’s story.

  2. Yeah dude, I really dug the ending of the game, even if some others didn’t. Loved the way it winded down and the way it all wrapped up. Fantastic game really, in the running for GOY 2010 already.

    Thanks for listening to the podcast. Interesting points about gaming memories. I seriously want to know more about how that poll went down.

  3. I feel like I should expand upon my dislike of RDR’s ending, especially considering Anthony’s vitriolic reaction (it’s alright bro. I still like you).

    SPOILERS AHEAD

    Falling action in gaming, like we discussed on the podcast, is rare, which is a given considering the titillating nature of gaming. Gamers seek to be thrilled at every second, and if a game is not catching our interest, we toss it aside quickly. Video games have long conditioned us to expect slam bang action at every second, meaning that we expect a different experience than reading a good book or watching a movie.

    While I appreciate what Rockstar was trying to do, I personally felt that 4+ hours of falling action is a bit much, considering that John’s family wasn’t especially thrilled to have him back (at least in my eyes). The reunion felt especially flat when John was met with scorn from his wife and indifference from his son. Maybe I interpreted the scene differently, but I spent the whole game trying to preserve John’s fragile morality and sense of fatherhood and the lukewarm reception after hours of running errands left me a little empty.

    I understand that the game tries to come full circle with the banal life of a farmer, but a few missions could have been cut out just to keep a sense of pace going. While RDR’s ending is by no means terrible, it just didn’t strike home for me the way it did for others.

    By comparison, the entry into Mexico is a strong moment, one of my favorite in gaming. That scene has no action besides the galloping of your horse, but it managed to pull more emotion out of me than the ending did.

    While I hate to sum this up in a “too long; didn’t read” paragraph, my feeling is that RDR should be congratulated for trying to tell a mature story and succeeding in large part. Where some people saw great falling action, I saw gameplay padding. Is that a failure on my part? Possibly. Regardless, RDR is a fantastic game, and it is my front-runner for GOTY. I hope there is some more story-related DLC, but this game is so fully realized that it would be a shame not to capitalize on it.

  4. SPOILERS
    I think the falling action and ending stressed the point Dutch made before he died, and I think it was better that his family didn’t welcome him back in a huge open armed fashion and acted like everything was great, because it wasn’t. The final hours instead of blowing away hordes of more enemies, it had you attempt to repair the relationships you had with your wife and son. The final hours really drove home the themes the game had been showing throughout the story, at least for me.

  5. * Zombies Ate My Neighbours IS on Virtual Console (SNES) for Wii dude!

    * Most of our users are PC gamers? I thought there were only a few of us. . . and I didn’t even vote on the poll, for the reasons I posted.

    * LAN Parties =). Some of my favourite moments in gaming hands down. It’s

    been about 2 years since my last one, where we played FarCry, Half-Life 2 Death Match, Left 4 Dead and a few other small games. It was great.

    * The Matrix is a masterpiece.

    So many things to say, but just keep doing what you’re doing guys. Great work!

  6. [quote comment=”12116″]* Zombies Ate My Neighbours IS on Virtual Console (SNES) for Wii dude!

    [/quote]

    Yeah, but you can’t play online with other people, which would be so awesome! Thats why they need to bring it to PSN or XBLA

  7. Another great podcast, guys. Each one seems to get progressively longer, but that’s not a bad thing 😉

    It was really interesting hearing about all your guys’ gaming binges. Mine was Oblivion during Christmas Break of 2008. I became hooked to it. There was a period of two days where I played that game for 24 hours straight (8 AM to 8), stopping only for the bathroom, food and drinks. I slept for about an hour or two, had breakfast, and then played more Oblivion until about 5 PM. I have never been so hooked to a game before. Granted, I’m only 17, but even so it is a major binge.

    I don’t really like to ponder controversial issues, but the idea of games being an art is one I connect with. I don’t like Ebert anyway, but I never condemned him for his statement. I’ve never really played games that bring up pure emotions (stories like Twilight Princess or Bioshock were good, but they never pulled anything out of me). However, I think what makes games art is what makes dozens of things art; the pleasure aspect. Art gives us pleasure when we observe it; music gives us pleasure when we listen to it; dancing gives pleasure to both the dancer and the audience. Transformers gives pleasure to Eddy, Nick and the gang. Therefore, if it gives you pleasure, it’s art. THat’s just my opinion though.

    Sorry for that rant. Anyways, Crackdown 2 and Transformers sound pretty fun, and when I get a 360, RDR is going to be at the top of my list. 🙂

  8. I agree, the Matrix is a masterpiece. The rest of the series… not so much. But that first one struck sci-fi gold in them there hills.

  9. I think it is a hispanic thing Eddy, my dad taped everything with several VCR’s when I was a kid haha. Nowadays, when I tell him I bought an older movie on dvd he always responds… “why? we got that on vhs somewhere around here.”

    Lovin’ this podcasts you guys are doing….keep up coming and I’ll keep listening.

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