July 6, 2017
The Spodcast #7: VR, SNES Classic, and the Han Solo Blues
With everyone on vacation, we’ve got a skeleton crew this week, but Glitch, Josh, and Campster manage to get together to talk about Nintendo, the current state of VR, the new Han Solo director, and more!
5:15 – Nintendo Switch travel impressions
18:00 – The Current State of VR
35:35 – Steam Sale
42:45 – SNES Classic
53:10 – Han Solo Director Troubles
1:08:10 – Mailbag
1:08:45 – Who would play you in the movie adaptation of Spoiler Warning?
1:14:25 – What do you think of the new XBox and do you have unfiltered wheat bear?
1:20:20 – What are your favorite game reviewers?
1:25:45 – Do you plan on watching the solar eclipse on the 21st of August?
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Pre-Reshoot Rogue One wasn’t much different. They added a couple scenes and shortened the ending.
People keep saying they did a lot, but they really didn’t. What they lost pre-Scarif was minor.
And what they changed on Scarif wasn’t bad, they combined the Data Library and Antennae into the same building, so they lost the shots of Jyn and Cassian running across the beach.
There is a little evidence of giant changes some seem to think happened.
That Robert Yang blog about VR is great and people should go and read it: http://www.blog.radiator.debacle.us/2017/05/the-war-in-heaven-three-dimensional-vr.html
I bought three indie games this steam sale, because I didn’t want to add to my backlog too much. So instead I picked up The Magic Circle, The Beginner’s Guide, and Stories Untold. Short, interesting and hopefully I’ll actually play them soon rather than leaving them languishing in my library.
I played much more stuff from SEGA than from Nintendo growing up, so share Campster’s bemusement about how easily they get let off the hook for their odd decisions. I like the idea of a mini-console, but I’d much prefer if the Nintendo back catalogue was available on Steam or elsewhere, much like the SEGA stuff (legally available, I mean!).
The only place I routinely go for games news/reviews is Rock, Paper, Shotgun. They’re very much focused on PC games though, so for PS4 (currently my only console) I rely on either word of mouth or people I follow on twitter.
Aye. Eurogamer & Ars Technica are also good for PC reviews, but they pick & choose the games they cover (AT particularly). So, useful for good writing about games-you’ve-probably-heard-of-anyway; less good for discovery of hidden gems and thus & such.
I know Gareth Edwards but I think he’d gracefully decline the opportunity to work with Josh, unfortunately, citing creative differences.
For reviews, folks might want to check out ACG. It’s easy to be led astray by the presentation – the main guy looks like an amped up Hell’s Angel, and you could be forgiven for thinking, “wow, this is the bro-est bro that ever bro-ed a bro.” But he’s surprisingly subtle and has a fascinating, unique lingustic style. And … well, put it this way: the game I’ve heard him talk about most glowingly in recent times was Oxenfree.
https://youtube.com/user/AngryCentaurGaming
(I gather the channel name was originally a joke, and he’s kinda stuck with it now. A parable for our times, perhaps. Anyway, that’s why he sticks to the initialism nowadays.)
The Folding Ideas video on Ludonarrative Dissonance reminded me of another thing I like about ACGs reviews. On the surface, they are apparently very regimented: he’ll cover Graphics; then Sound, Music & Voice; then Gameplay (& Story); and finally Fun Factor. So far, so reviewey.
However, there is always more to it than that, and these rigid categories always intermingle. So, for example during graphics he won’t just cover framerate & anti-aliasing, but how well what’s on the screen conveys the atmosphere the game is going for. Same with audio – he’ll talk about how an emphasis on the higher range plays into an animé aesthetic, for example, or how separation helps you locate enemies, or how the bass contributes to the kinaesthetic, etc. etc. So, by the time you get to the Gameplay/Story sections you’ve already begun to get a good sense of what’s involved, based on the seemingly more-mechanical factors that he’s covered.
If nothing else, this approach is a good demonstration of how all the different aspects of a game are inextricably linked, and can’t be separated even when it might appear as if they specifically are being.
I’ll repost my name suggestion from the last spodcast comments: “Cuftberts Corner”. It beats Spodcast at least 🙂
Alternatively: “The Spoiled Cast”
Although I’m not sure anyone but Chris is unhappy with Spodcast anymore 😀
reg. XBOX: If Microsoft does ever just launch a pc-in-a-box, it would be interesting I think. They could maybe build a mid-to-high range gaming rig with for a good price due to bulk purchasing. If they’d just go with an ITX standard or something like that, so you could switch parts out yourself, it might actually be a “safe” purchase for people who would rather not build themselves.
I like SpoiledCast. Also possible variations like:
-The SpoilerCast
-The SpoilCast
-The SpoilSpool
-The WarnSwarm
-The TightBeamNotLiveStream
Er, sorry, I went flying off-track somehow, there.
How about SpodWarcast?
For me it’s the ‘spod’ bit spiffickly that needs to go! 😁 However, that’s given me a few more ideas:
-SpowarCast (although this sounds like it has something to do with the military)
-SpowaCast (errr, this sounds somehow racially problematic)
-SpwaCast (this sounds … actually I don’t know how this sounds as I’m not sure how you’d go about pronouncing it)
-Spoilwarpod (I think this pretty much has all three of the above problems combined)
Eh, maybe SpodCast ain’t so bad after all! 😝
Call it the Bonnetcast!
It’s not video games related, but no one downloads a podcast because it had “video games” in the name, and it’s not taken by anyone.
Plus, you could make a cool symbol for like text wearing a bonnet or something.
How about Cospocast. pronounced Cuspocast
“Crew of SpoilerWarning Overtime Podcast”
Thanks very interesting blog!