Tag Archives: maxis

Here’s what I learned from CheckPoint S3E18.

  • MadKatz is a relevant company again? Whoa.
  • The Ellen Page Simulator gets a joke-mention at the top of the show. This bodes well!
  • The guy that pretty much created the legendary Goldeneye 64 multiplayer mode by himself has now created a game/art experiment–yeah, this sounds like a swell creation from that distinction alone–that promotes spontaneous sexual peer pressure. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t need Kathleen’s example played for me by a person I don’t know for the sake of “entertainment”.
  • PunkBuster required for Battlefield 4? I suppose this is just another win for the upcoming console generation thanks to PB’s notoriously couldn’t-give-a-fuck license agreement, which a player agrees to as part of the installation process for the game it’s attached to. Then again, it’s BF4–everyone’s going to have at that when it comes about, and even with the newest console generation being able to display some pretty impressive polygons, shaders, and textures, it won’t be able to hold a candle to investing in a gaming PC for about three times the price.
  • Dragon Quest for phones? I’m still waiting for Final Fantasy VI. Unless that’s out already. In which case I really couldn’t care for the Dragon Quest series because Square Enix finally released Final Fantasy VI for phones.
  • MadKatz is going to make an Ouya-clone? So… still irrelevant, then.
  • Madden 25 (and, really, any sports game) has fans stupid enough to think that [insert MSFT innovation here] is a legitmate feature that can be used without fail while adding value to their gaming experience. Don’t be fooled–tablets as controllers haven’t really worked out as well as one could hope. Case and point: the Wii U.
  • So… Maxis. Has that whole screwing-up-your-best-franchise plan worked out for you? No? Well, at least you’re trying to fix it. Why not just come clean and admit you made a mistake at the same time? That’d be great.

Here’s what I learned from CheckPoint S3E17.

  • Sadly, the dancing will not be happening. Rumor is that the HL3 trademark listing is bogus.
  • SMT4, it’s a game.
  • Oh, this Red Cross bit. Yeah, including war crimes in games just sounds like another bit of red tape for hyper-unrealistic worlds to conform to. By the logic of the Geneva Convention, faction warfare (where one ethnicity of humanoids battles another over control of a bit of space) in the game EVE Online is practically genocide and should have repercussions for the players involved. Yeah, this is going somewhere.
  • SimCity is going to add modding? I thought Maxis was already happy that their title has already been shat on by the collective gaming community and gaming media for the sake of progress.
  • I don’t get how many people get motion sickness from the slightest discontinuity from your body and a display sitting three inches from your eye. I haven’t had the chance to use VR goggles like the Oculus Rift before, but I don’t see what the problem is. Also considering that iOS 7’s minuscule parallaxing feature is causing motion sickness, I wonder if it’s not just a genetic thing.
  • Eidos is relevant… how?
  • Obvious point about trademark registration is obvious.
  • Mighty No 9 = MegaMan. DUH.

Here’s what I learned from CheckPoint S3E15.

A later than usual post. Hadn’t gotten around to actually watching CheckPoint until my lunch break, today. Another post coming this evening regarding some esports business news.

  • Of course all we’ll be talking about is GTA V. This is expected.
  • That opening is excellent, Graham. Kathleen’s troll is effective, though.
  • Wii U game? PASS.
  • Man, the Ouya news is something I could just care less about. Sure, they’re pretty new at the whole Android-based console world thing, but at least they’ve fixed the mistake and it only took three bad eggs to spoil what could’ve been a massively abused loophole in indie-game funding. Even so, I still can’t bring myself to spend any more time on an Android console than I already do. It’s called my Nexus 4. It also doubles as a phone. It’s pretty damn impressive, if I’m honest.
  • I’ve used the iFruit app on my iPad at home and I have to say, it’s definitely a fun little toy. It’s also nice to have cars ordered for you that are already upgraded and appear without the whole difficulty of finding a decent car to steal and spending time and money liberating it and upgrading it in the game. Once you’ve done it for each character, however, that part of the functionality ceases to be useful. Chop makes up for this shortfall, even though the minigames you play with the dog to increase his skill are a bit hectic and not very smooth.
  • Atlas is bailed out by Sega. I’m with Kathleen on this one: Sega’s history points towards destroying most franchises it absorbs by mashing them up with each other. I hope they let Atlas keep making RPGs.
  • “Madden games: I may not play you, but I respect you.” It’s too bad all of that attention to detail couldn’t be put towards other EA titles.
  • Kathleen and knives? It’s Paul’s fault. I can accept that.
  • SimCity is still trying rip players off? Oh Maxis. How far you have fallen.