• Page 26 of 35 Post Archive • The Lifecast Network

Super Robot Wars OG: The Moon Dwellers – Thoughts So Far

August 30, 2016 dan

Super Robot Wars OG: The Moon Dwellers came out a while ago, and I’ve been playing it nonstop since. I still haven’t beaten it, though, because on top of being really long, it’s hard as hell. I’m only a fraction of the way into the game and I’m already having trouble beating stages, something I haven’t really seen in a Super Robot Wars game in a long time. So, since my inevitable review of this game is still a ways away, I would like to at least give my thoughts on the game so far. Super Robot Wars is a series very dear to my heart, so prepare for a lot of hyping up, especially since this is the first time we’ve seen an English release of a Super Robot Wars game since the Game Boy Advance.

The Soul Saber finishing an attack (image courtesy of Gematsu)

Mechanically speaking, it’s more of what you’d expect from Super Robot Wars, but more optimized, which is a good thing. It’s still a standard turn-based strategy game, but with some if its own unique twists. Your team is composed of pilots and mechs, and each have their own individual stats. The pilots’ stats serve as modifiers for their mechs’ stats. Pilots have special abilities that offer different temporary boosts, like being able to have your next attack be a guaranteed hit, or taking 1/4 damage from enemies for a turn. There’s also terrain efficiencies, equippable weapons alongside the mechs’ base weapons, and the double up mechanic. You’re given a lot of ways to strategize for this game. The maps are very well-designed, and you actually have to use the terrain to your advantage to get hits in and damage done. They effect your accuracy and evasion rates, which are ridiculously important. Not only that, but the game has yet to feel unfair. Hard, yes, but not unfair. I feel like every time I lose, I lost because of a poor decision, and not because the game was screwing me over.

The game runs beautifully , and is absolutely gorgeous to look at. I never get tired of watching attacks; they’re so flashy and over-the-top, and literally everything ends in an explosion. The combat scenes have this great 2D-on-3D look to them, and the quality of the sprites and environments themselves look fantastic. The animation is fluid, and they transition from the smaller sprites to a full sized image of the mech seamlessly.

The Compatible Kaiser about to attack (image courtesy of Gematsu)

I’m especially enjoying the soundtrack to the game. JAM Project do their usual thing of being Japan’s best musical export with the opening theme. On top of that, the rest of the soundtrack brings back the songs from the previous games and makes them even better. When I first heard the new version of Ash to Ash (Lamia’s theme) and Brass Sincerity (Latooni’s theme) I had the biggest grin on my face. The music here is masterfully made, and I can’t wait to hear even more of it as I progress through the game.

As for the story, well, I don’t believe I’m far in enough to truly give it a go. I’m only just now getting to the point where stuff is like, actually happening. So I can’t really say. As for the characters, though, there’s not a single unlikeable one so far. This is something I really like about the SRW games. Their characters are always so well-made and so likeable. Be it Akimi’s love of all things super robots, Excellen and her stupid jokes, or even just the genuine coolness of someone like Sanger Zonvolt; All of the characters are insanely likeable.

Overall, I’m thoroughly enjoying Super Robot Wars OG: The Moon Dwellers, and am certain that by the time I’m done with it, I’ll love it even more. Everything about this game in incredibly charming, and I can’t wait to experience more of it.

Moral Choices in Games, Why do we Love Them?

August 27, 2016 Ricky

We’ve all had to make tough choices in games that will affect the story and the characters we care about. Weather it be to save something for ourselves or use it for the benefit of everyone. Moral choices are EVERYWHERE. Most often times they can affect the ending you get. This adds a layer of replayability, but it always gives players a sense of real control over the story. It allows them to react to it a little closer to how they would in actual life.

Oftentimes this can be done very well. Certain moral choices can be hard and not always lead to a good outcome However there are times where obvious black and white scenarios are presented. This you would see in games like Spiderman: Web of Shadows. Worst of all, the times where moral choices are done the worst are when they have very little impact on the story, such as the case in Telltale’s Game of Thrones. It doesn’t work to have a choice that doesn’t matter. Bioshock Infinite however takes that idea and spins it on its head.

No matter how you choose, Bioshock Infinite shows that the choice is yours, but no matter what you pick, another you chose differently. Image Source: videogamesuncovered.com

Within that game, the game presents some choices where good and evil are obvious. However, it also presents choices that are meaningless. The brilliance of this is that the game is built around the fact that no choice matters. The one you did not make in this universe, you made in another. This isn’t cheating away the importance of a choice, but strengthening the theme of the game, so much so that you actually experience it and see that nothing changes as a result.

Adding the element of choice also helps make the playable character different depending on how you play the game. This can be seen most especially in games like Infamous. Cole Macgrawth of Delsin Rowe can either be saviors for the cities they are fighting in. Although, they can also choose to

Infamous Second Son has you choose weather you want to do something for yourself or for someone else. Image Source: gamerheadlines.com

be feared and become the most powerful. The moral choices you make also effect how you play in the game: using more neutralizing and acrobatic powers for good or more lethal and destructive powers for evil.

Weather they’re done well or not, it seems that moral choices aren’t going to be going away any time soon in the gaming community. And why should they? They invest players in the story. Add more control over the narrative. And make the protagonist feel more like the player themselves. Choose good or choose evil, but we can all agree, its a hell of a time making the choice.

TLC’s D&D 5E Homebrew: The Elements: Water

August 26, 2016 Greg

The Lifecast’s Dungeon Master Greg Fernandes shares some of his D&D 5e homebrew ideas. This edition attempts to create more spells for the elements that got less love. This week, Water.

Titanfall 2 Tech Test Impressions – Week 1

August 25, 2016 Adam

Something very important happened in between the release of Titanfall 1 and the upcoming release of Titanfall 2. That important thing is that Call of Duty Advanced Warfare came out and did it’s job significantly better than the first Titanfall. Sure, it didn’t have big ridable mechs. But it really solidified how futuristic first person shooters should feel. The past weekend Respawn Entertainment ran a technical test for Titanfall 2, and it feels like a piece of the core from the first Titanfall is among the missing.

Titanfall-2-640x353

With the time I spend with Titanfall I learned a few very important things. There wasn’t a SINGLE, not a single issue with any technical aspect of this game. It ran beautifully, no latency in any of my matches and I found matches absurdly quickly. This is all stuff they learned from the first Titanfall, during the Titanfall’s technical tests and on release date, it was a mess. So it’s nice to see that Respawn has figured out their server issues.

I also learned that this game plays surprisingly different from the first one. The controls feel clunkier than before, and it feels significantly slower paced. The thruster packs don’t seem nearly as fast and useful and the wall running also seems substantially slowed down. It also showed me the only bad grappling hook I’ve seen in a video game. It feels absurdly limp and almost useless. Whenever a game adds a grappling hook it’s almost always a positive thing, this is the exception. Something I really enjoyed from the first one was how snappy and quick the game felt at all times, even if it was often erratic.

During the test, they were showing off three game modes. Amped Hardline, which is your standard Domination game mode. Pilot vs Pilot, which you should never play if you’re playing Titanfall in the first place. And finally Bounty Hunt, which is a new game mode that really intrigued me. When you start the match, the team is drawn to a location where there’s going to be a bunch of grunts. When you kill those grunts you get money added to your player. At certain points during the match, the bank will open up. This is when you take the money you’ve earned and you deposit it to your teams score. The team that reaches a certain amount of money first wins the match. While all of this is going on, the other team is still there to stop you from killing these poor helpless grunts. Also, during specific points in the match, higher valued targets will spawn randomly and teams will have to get together to take them down. I had a good amount of fun with this game mode, even if it can get a little hectic at times it’s a neat twist on the stale Horde modes we’ve seen for a long time now.

During this test, they had two maps available and they are making a third one available for the second test weekend. Out of these two maps neither of them had any interesting points in them. Maybe it’s because Overwatch spoiled me with cool looking maps, but they just seem super generic and grey-washed. If you can picture what a generic Titanfall map would look like, I promise you, that’s what they look like.

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They also made some massive changes to the mechs themselves. Now each of the mechs have MOBA like abilities that are on cool downs and they even have ultimate abilities. This is definitely a good change and it helps making the mech gameplay more diverse rather than just running around and shooting things. It also makes the mechs feel like much more of a formidable opponent.

I’m excited to see what the future holds for Titanfall, but it seems like the need to make some fundamental changes to how this game plays. Even Respawn Entertainment agrees with me.

Rest in Peace, Pitbull | Ep.27

August 24, 2016 The Lifecast

There’s no half-episode this week and we didn’t keep up with gaming news, but we did play a lot of games and do some other things.

Host/Producer: Deanna Minasian

Guests: Sydney Smith, Adam Osmani, Pat Bowden, Dan Silvia, Monica Navarro

Intro/Outro: Fluffing a Duck by Kevin MacLeod

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TLC’s D&D 5e Homebrew: The Elements: Earth and Acid

August 22, 2016 Greg

The Lifecast’s Dungeon Master Greg Fernandes shares some of his D&D 5e homebrew ideas. This edition attempts to create more spells for the elements that got less love. This week, Earth and Acid.

Games that Especially Deserve a Digital Re-release

August 21, 2016 Kennedy

I recently managed to finally get a game called Shadow Hearts on the PS2. I’ve been wanting to play this game for a while, but it’s been pretty difficult because it’s considered a rare game on the PS2 due to its limited release, and unlike several other games in this day and age, isn’t available on the PSN or any other digital game distributor. After years of hoping I’d find it–and if I did, that I’d find it at a decent price–it finally made its way into a favorite local game store of mine that I happened to have a gift card for. Due to its rarity and price though, I would’ve much rather have bought this game on a digital game distribution network like PSN or Steam, play it there, and then buy a physical copy if I ended up really liking it. Shadow Hearts is very much a hidden gem, and like many other underrated games, has managed to go under the radar of PSN and Steam for years. If its quality wasn’t enough to warrant putting it on a digital distribution network, then its rarity should. It’s very hard for new fans like myself to get into the franchise without emulation because the games are so hard to find–and because of their rarity, they’re usually pretty overpriced, too. Shadow Hearts is far from the only case of this happening to a game, though. There are many games right now that deserve to be put on PSN, Steam, Nintendo E-Shop, etc., especially as the modern market seems to heavily lean toward digital releases in the future. For some reason though, they simply aren’t there yet. Here are some other games such as Shadow Hearts that especially deserve to be made more accessible by being put on a digital distributor sooner rather than later.

The entire .hack franchise

thegeekclinic.wordpress.com

I will sing the praises of .hack until the end of time. The .hack franchise–particularly the .hack//G.U. trilogy–is one of my favorite game series of all-time. This is why it breaks my heart all the more because this is such a difficult franchise for people to get into. There are two main series for .hack: The Infection quadrilogy and the G.U. trilogy. All of them are on the PS2. Each series had a pretty limited release, and the short of it is, they’re very expensive games. The first 3 games in the Infection series will cost you $20-$40 each depending on the condition, and then the final game, .hack//Quarantine, is worth about $150 if its in decent condition. Each game in the G.U. trilogy is worth between $60-$80 each depending on their condition. In total, you’d be spending at least $200 on the Infection series and $180 on the G.U. trilogy–$380 if you wanted them all. These games are amazing, but that’s just ridiculous. These games have a rather vocal cult following who all vehemently ask for an HD collection or digital re-release or some legal way of making these games more accessible. If nothing else, the G.U. trilogy turns 10 this year. What better way to celebrate than by breathing new life into an amazing franchise by bringing countless amounts of new fans into it?

Rule of Rose

via neogaf.com

If you thought $150 for a single .hack game sounded insane then strap in your seat belt because this game is undoubtedly the most expensive game on the PS2. Prices for Rule of Rose tend to run between $170-$350 depending on its condition. Why is it so expensive? First of all, it’s an Atlus game. Atlus games–especially at the time this came out (2006)–were pretty notorious for having low print runs despite generally being good games. Second, and there’s no way to sugar coat this so I’ll be plain about it, this game contains violent and sexual depictions of children akin to Lord of the Flies. Thankfully the sexual depictions are never explicit, but the implications are all there. It was banned in Italy and the UK, made European politicians want a re-evaluation of the PEGI rating system, and even got mentioned at the French National Assembly because of the moral controversy it caused. It even appeared in The Times.

via hardcoregaming101.net

It’s pretty easy to see why it almost wasn’t released in the States. After almost a year of court battles, it received a very limited English release–even by Atlus standards. On top of that, despite all its controversy it didn’t sell particularly well and received only lukewarm reception. It’s pretty easy to see now why it’s so expensive, right? I completely understand why Atlus probably wants to forget about this game and not start more controversy, but it’s because it’s such a controversial game is why I wish it were more accessible. Just as Lord of the Flies received lots of controversy at its time, so has Rule of Rose–yet despite this, that’s why a lot of people read it: To see what was so controversial about it. Rule of Rose is no different. After all, it’s not every day politicians try to ban a game as hard as they did Rule of Rose. With a price tag as hefty as Rule of Rose’s, it’s out of the question for almost anyone to play it without emulation, and I’m sure there are plenty of willing players out there who would pay the standard $10-$15 on PSN to add it to their library and see what all the fuss was about.

Any Fire Emblem game before Awakening

via youtube.com

Many fans agree that Fire Emblem Awakening breathed new life into the Fire Emblem franchise once it released. A previously niche franchise with few fans in the States, the Fire Emblem games that came out prior to Awakening spiked in price once the popularity of Awakening started catching on in 2012–even more so when Super Smash Bro’s on the Wii U came out in 2014 featuring several Fire Emblem characters. Ever since, more and more fans have been clamoring for more accessible, budget-friendly ways to play the Fire Emblem games that were released before Awakening–and even ones that weren’t released in the States. This isn’t the first time Nintendo has ignored the cries of the devoted fan base of one of their beloved but outrageously expensive franchises, and it certainly won’t be the last. Nintendo seems to be adding a lot of notable games to the Virtual Console lately, so why not show some love to one of its older franchises that goes largely underappreciated by them? Between Awakening, Smash, and Fates, Fire Emblem is enjoying a well-earned streak of popularity right now: Strike the iron while it’s hot, Nintendo.

Skies of Arcadia

via heypoorplayer.com

Oftentimes called one of the best JRPGs on the Dreamcast and Gamecube, it’s hard to believe that this game isn’t more available as it is. Whether it’s the original Dreamcast version or the enhanced Gamecube port, Skies of Arcadia is definitely one of the rarer games on both systems–but it’s far from forgotten, both by fans and by Sega. In fact, Sega gave cameos to the main characters of Skies of Arcadia in Valkyria Chronicles. Moreover, this game has a very devoted fan base keeping this game still frequently talked about to this day. Yet somehow, Sega still continues to bank on the shaky odds of success in producing new Sonic games rather than re-releasing one of their other most well-loved games that’s otherwise pretty difficult–not to mention pricey–to obtain. If Shenmue can get a sequel after all these years, then surely there must be hope for another wonderful Sega franchise that’s been forcibly overshadowed by Sonic.

Obviously, these aren’t the only games out there in desperate need of a digital re-release: Feel more than free to comment with other games that you think especially deserve a digital re-release and why. The common thread in the games I think most deserve to be made more accessible are that they’re hard to obtain physical copies of: They’re all rare, expensive, and generally at least 10 years old. If you have any other major reasons you’d like to see a certain game or a group of certain games getting re-released for, be sure and let us know.

Magnum Opus, Eternal Rebirth, Complete Extinction | Ep.26½

August 18, 2016 The Lifecast

Our bonus content and listener questions come in the form of an extra podcast this week! If you asked us a question, we definitely answered it.

Thanks to these lovelies for sending us things!

Colin Barry (@ColinKrash), Derek Chaplin (@KingDerekX), Sydney Smith (@_FezAnt), Nick Rosaasen (@20SlyDucks), and Kennedy Parker (@RedBardIsCool)

Thanks to Greg Fernandes (@STGHazard) for the pretty sweet game.

Host/Producer: Deanna Minasian

Guests: Sydney Smith, Adam Osmani, Pat Bowden, Dan Silvia, Greg Fernandes

Intro/Outro: Fluffing a Duck by Kevin MacLeod

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No Man’s Sky: One Week Out

August 18, 2016 Deanna

It’s been a week, give or take a few hours. And it feels like a long one, at that. No Man’s Sky has released for PC and internationally as of August 12, last Friday, and it’s been a ride. Now, I’m not here to talk about everything that Hello Games had promised that didn’t make it into the final game. It’s been well documented at this point. I am here to speak about my experience with this game in its first week. This isn’t a review, just my early impressions of the game at around 9 hours in.

Be excellent to each other. | Ep.26

August 17, 2016 The Lifecast

It’s another week for limited gaming news, though we all have something to say about No Man’s Sky. Some of us are more harsh than others.

If you don’t hear your question during this episode, stay tuned! Our bonus section ran overtime… by another hour. So you’ll get a double dose of The Lifecast this week.

Host/Producer: Deanna Minasian

Guests: Sydney Smith, Adam Osmani, Pat Bowden, Dan Silvia, Greg Fernandes

Intro/Outro: Fluffing a Duck by Kevin MacLeod

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Why Did Guitar Hero and Rock Band Fail?

August 17, 2016 Ricky

We all at some point plugged in Guitar Hero or sat at the drums with our friends for Rock Band, but it seems like none of that is around anymore. Rock Band and Guitar Hero each tried a comeback last year, but they only received mixed to average results. The problem? It seems like the concept could have had a great progression, but with its over saturation a few years back, it just ended up becoming a fad.

And what happens to fads? They die. That’s by definition what will happen. They have their glory and then are quickly dropped for the next big gimmick. In order to find out how this came to be, you need to take a look into what caused this failure.

For both series, they each came out with a new entry every year. Not only that, but variations of those entries (Rock Band Beatles, Guitar Hero Van Halen, Rock Band Aerosmith, etc.). It came to the point that nearly three games a year were coming out for both series. As that goes on, it isn’t hard to see that people got sick of it. Why continue to buy the same thing over and over again with slight variations in graphics and different songs?

Everyone remembers the ease of difficulty but still being able to test you more and more. Image Source: Amazon.com

Guitar Hero had a good flow of difficulty but still being able to test you more and more. Image Source: Amazon.com

What could have worked is if they sold less entries but consistently released track packs. This was back in the days where DLC wasn’t as popular, so track packs eventually overlapping into DLC would have been the natural progression. You have people who can buy the entry for a year or so and still be able to get all the songs they want to use.

However, while the various developers could have thought more proactively with their success, they decided to cash in as much as they could as quickly as they could, fearing when it would die. But you can’t over-saturate fearing death of an entry or a genre, what you need to do is see how you can improve it and plan a natural life for it, being more rewarding as the years go on.

If you plan a system like it’s going to die, it WILL die. And that’s not to say that any of the games that came out were bad. They functioned well and had songs everyone loved. Of course they started running thin on music when more and more entries came out, but that could still have exposed people to great unknown rock music. However, the public’s mentality was that it was the same thing with a different coat of paint. Strikingly similar to how people view games such as Call of Duty or Assassins Creed today.

Trying to relive the magic, but not strong enough to make us want to. Image Source: Gamespot.com

And when they tried to make a comeback last year, they had a few good ideas thrown into the games, but it wasn’t nearly enough to recapture the attention of the public. Live action bandmates only seemed to raise the cheese level for Guitar Hero Live. Rock Band 4 was hurt by a weak soundtrack and bad publicity.

Hopefully as time goes on these games can reclaim their place as a giant in the gaming world. But for now, plug in your Playstation 2 and relive the nostalgia while you wait.

Smash and the FGC: Both Sides are in the Wrong

August 16, 2016 dan

Drama happens all the time in whatever community you look at. It’s a fact that you just have to deal with. As of a few years ago, Smash has been getting into the spotlight more and more as a competitive game, and for good reason. Not only does its competition get really intense, but the games are incredibly accessible, and generally easier to follow than most other competitive games. Sadly, Smash has obtained this reputation in the FGC for not being a “true fighting game” for almost no reason other than it being different. This whole debate between whether or not Smash is a true fighter has been going on for literal years.

Though, as of late, it’s gotten worse. Not only are Smash players being verbally attacked at basically every chance someone gets, but members of the FGC who encourage Smash and allow them good treatment at tournaments, such as Alex Jebailey, organizer of Community Effort Orlando, who I have seen multiple people on social media openly go after, are attacked for essentially being “smash sympathizers” and also get disrespected by members of the FGC. Basically, everything I’m talking about with community disrespect from the FGC can be summed up in this Redditor’s letter to the Smash community (WARNING: tons of harsh language). Now, before you say anything, yes, I know that post is from r/Kappa, and while r/Kappa is a generally toxic place anyway, this letter still does a good job at showing many people outside of r/Kappa’s position on Smash as a game.

The conflict between the FGC and Smash doesn’t stop there, though. It also spans into actual tournament organization. Smash 4 was handled horribly at EVO. Hardly any setups per pool in the 2nd or 3rd largest tournament there, some setups not having all the stages unlocked, inefficient space for the size of the tournament, and more. Smash 4 had it the worst at EVO.

These are just two accounts of the FGC’s disdain towards Smash; there are many more. And all of them are acting like god damn children.

Now that we know a bit of the FGC’s side of the conflict, let’s look at how the Smash community responds to it. Spoilers: They’re acting just like the FGC; like god damn children.

Let’s look at CEO 2016. Smash players drowned out the awards ceremony for Guilty Gear Xrd by screaming “Melee!” constantly, not only disrupting the event, but completely disrespecting the players who put in just as much effort, if not more, in their game of choice, just like how those Smash players do in their own game.

As for responding to the fiasco at EVO, the way they treated it wasn’t much better. The community has every right in the world to be mad at the organizers for messing up as badly as they did. That said, the community had lashed out in a way that only harms them and the reputation of their community. Yes, EVO was a mess, and yes, you should be mad about it. But what you should be doing is not whining about how you’ll never go back to it, and instead try to work things out in a civil manner through connecting with members of the community that want to support you, because they are there.

This kind of behavior, from both the FGC and the Smash community, is completely unacceptable. Not only does treating games like this completely undermine all the hard work and effort the members of each community put into their games and events, but it also horribly damages the look that competitive gaming has today. Do we want to be seen as a group of kids who just argue about video games all day, or do we want to be seen as actual competitors in something much bigger than we could imagine? Do we want respect, or do we want to be looked down upon? Because right now with the way the communities are acting, the outcome is not respect. This kind of drama is what holds back competitive gaming as a whole, because instead of working together to improve the overall scene as much as you can, you feud and nitpick and piss and moan about how wavedashing isn’t as demanding as doing an FADC. In order to better the community as a whole, this fighting needs to stop entirely, and we need to work together to make both Smash and the FGC as great as they can possible be.

I love competitive gaming; I love the sense of community it brings to people. We need to strengthen this sense of community as best we can, and it’s impossible to do so if all that’s happening is people being pushed away from both sides. The only way we’re going to reach the point where both communities are working at their best is by having both sides get off their high horses and get it through their thick skulls that everyone is playing their games for the same reason: For some good matches and some good fun. To improve themselves and each other.

To get hype.