Categories
Episodes

Season 7, Episode 20

We’re setting course for the status quo at the following link.

We’re not sure if a reversal of of its policy will lead to a reversal of fortunes, but Microsoft has taken unprecedented action in response to overwhelming negative sentiment by removing the XBox One’s DRM.  This solves one very important issue with the new system, but leaves us wondering if maybe we’ve only seen the first of many adjustments to come between now and the release of the console this fall.

This should have been our chance to talk in detail to one another about The Last of Us, but out of respect to those hosts who couldn’t attend this show and the many listeners who haven’t quite finished the game, we’re leaving spoilers out of the conversation for the time being.  We made a deliberate exercise of talking at length without talking in depth, and it’s a testament to the quality of the game that there was still so much to say.

Categories
E3 Episodes

Season 7, Episode 19

We’ve been ridden hard and put up wet at the following link.

I dearly love E3.  It is dramatic and excessive and extraordinary in a way the other fifty one weeks of the year could never be.  I also deeply despise the aftermath, and the obligatory post-E3 discussion.  Anyone who has attended the show is afflicted with shell shock, and those who’ve followed closely from home are lost somewhere between the signal and the noise.  But we’ve got to get it done with, yes?  One great, giant heave of fact and opinion, spun nearly out of control.  I honestly can’t wait to spend an hour again covering a solitary PR fuckup from EA.

Categories
Episodes

Season 7, Episode 18

My heart is in the Gold Saucer at the following link.

There’s simply no ignoring Microsoft at the moment; the leanest piece of news, the merest fraction of information about their designs on the future of games demands our full attention.  Every pound and ounce of us screams to leave the story be for just a few more days so that history can be a judge and we can pretend to have been wise and judicious in a time of boiling rage and bombast and vile, stinking stupidity.  But we’ve got designs of our own, and we have our own thoughts to share, and we’re wrong so often we can’t help but keep clawing away in an effort to be right.

Whatever is said on the many stages of E3 this coming week, you can be sure that our beloved hobby will have suffered its most painful growth spurt, and that the easy, effortless fun of the past is well and truly gone.  There’s plenty of fun left to us, make no mistake, and it may well be the best we’ve ever had, but we’re going to pay for it, and we’ll pay in bitter cash.  I remember a time when I wished desperately that my hobby would grow up; that it would put on big-boy pants and engage the world with an adult’s sensibilities.  Whichever god or djinn or monkey’s paw happened to be listening in clearly misunderstood what I was after.

Categories
Episodes

Season 7, Episode 17

A high tide lifts all boats at the following link.

Much has been said, by this show and others, about the supposed schemes and restrictions we’ll face with the new consoles when they arrive later this year.  There’s a lot of (forgivable) wailing and gnashing of teeth when you consider the worst of all possible outcomes, and what effect it’s likely to have on our darling hobby.  But there are reasons to be optimistic.  There are reasons to believe our pastime will be improved in many, if not most, respects, and that this will be true for all platforms, if not all players.  It’s certainly best to remain skeptical as all hell right now, but the bad dream has hardly come true, and good news is still a possibility.