Here’s what I learned from CheckPoint S3E28 and S3E29.

Yeah, double post. Because holidays.

  • TV integration is half of the point of the Xbox One, isn’t it? This joke is trying to be funny. Eh.
  • Goth Kathleen on this episode? I don’t even.
  • Another DragonBall Z game that’s better than most of the television series? Standard.
  • Nintendo’s naming schemes for their first-party games reeks of some sort of Engrish that was corrected by native-English speakers for the sake of trying to save what’s left of Nintendo’s honor as a great gaming company. The only two titles holding that honor as close as possible are the latest Fire Emblem and Zelda titles for their 3DS handheld as far as I can tell.
  • I fully support CheckPoint being included in MSFT’s Xbox Live content plan for the upcoming year. They used to have Major Nelson and those two Brits do stuff on nearly a weekly basis. Why not bring those guys back? Oh wait–because Larry Hyrb is nothing more than a corporate mouthpiece and the two gamer tag show people weren’t funny at all.
  • More Nintendo news? STOP IT.
  • EA is just stealthily trying to rip off new IP to blow them up into the annual sequel plan, as most of their studios seem to be actually trying to make great new games for the latest generation, with this hackathon business.
  • Baww. But they’re Canadian, right? DEM JOKES, FOLKS.
  • Zach Galifinakis as Sonic? Comedy and game-to-film adaptations must be the two worst genre of movies that exist. Combining them surely creates a black hole of cinema, right?

  • A console commentary! Yaaay~!
  • Shin Megami Tensai 4 and Saints’ Row 4 as their games of the year? Boo.
  • ShiftyLook has some pretty funny stuff. The latest Scott & Kris creation is published there. And now a dating sim based on classic Namco properties’ characters? And the ship from Galaga is a romantic option? Is this the new CandyBox? It could be the new CandyBox.
  • A Tomb Raider card game for iOS? PASS.
  • A tie at retail but a clear win for the PS4 when you consider the second-hand market. Although the same number of systems have been sold overall… so maybe it’s still more of a tie, with the stipulation that PS4 owners are more likely to throw obscene amounts of money away in marked up prices.
  • Zoo… what?
  • A best-of-season sequence masqueraded as a finale review. Pretty good stuff.
  • DANCIN’

And the ultimate sad news: I’m not going to cover this anymore if it means having to watch Twitch videos-on-demand. Having to watch unskippable pre-roll commercials longer than 10 seconds is not acceptable. I hope they continue posting these episodes to YouTube.

Here’s what I learned from CheckPoint S3E27.

  • First of all, is MSFT trying to sell the fact that in some awful and unreasonable way the Xbox One is backwards compatible? Oh, I need to hear more about these claims.
  • “[…] I think we might have blown our seasonal load too early.” So, this is a thing.
  • I believe the reason that No Man’s Sky will be a success isn’t because of the first-person shooterism or the fact that it’s a four-man game developer entering the same genre arena that Bungie’s attempting to claim next year with Destiny, it’s because of the art direction. Those colors and the way that everything is rendered just screams Mirror’s Edge to me. Even though Faith’s runabout-is-fair-play adventure didn’t sell that well because EA marketed it, any competently created game that includes procedurally generated anything will.
  • Metal Gear Solid V preorders for the Playstation 4 will get a DLC mission where you play as Solid Snake, but Xbox One variants will get a DLC mission where you play as Raiden circa Revenegance? I liked MGR for the challenge it provided, but console-specific exclusives always irks me. I’ve thought twice about buying a Xbox One lately, and if this sort of polarity becomes a trend, it will only add more complexity to making a decision.
  • Good Ol’ Games is one step away from Steam with regards to being trustworthy game distribution methods. DRM-free classics that don’t require a front-end to acquire, and now they’re offering refunds? Perhaps they’re more trusting than Steam is at this point.
  • Oh, it’s just a scam. Morons who brick their Xbox Ones deserve to have voided their warranties and ruined their systems. Backwards compatibility? Odds are your Xbox 360 is setting right beside the Xbox One you just bought AND IT STILL WORKS.
  • 100k user registration spike? 10% of all content on Twitch came from PS4s since launch? Time to start shaming MSFT for not including Twitch streaming in the Xbox One launch software suite.
  • Another adventure game from Telltale that everyone will care about except for me! Yay!

Here’s what I learned from CheckPoint S3E26.

  • Cue the Playstation kids that are angry they have to finally get their parent’s credit card out for another thing besides the M-rated game they recently fell on their face begging for.
  • I imagine that “You shut your filthy, seasonal mouth” is a tasteful way of saying “GET ON WITH IT!”
  • Obvious report about service subscription sales going up tremendously when an updated service requires aforementioned subscription.
  • Vlambeer releases a parody of the parodies generally being released about their own games? “We Must Clone Deeper” indeed. My head hurts after trying to suss that one out.
  • Even CheckPoint caught onto to Apple picking up PrimeSense, the manufacturers of the first generation Kinect for Xbox 360 and SDK for PC. Guessing from how long it took the biometrics company’s product to the integrated into Apple products in a very Apple manner, these sensors probably be expected no earlier than the 2015-2016 models of upcoming Apple products.
  • Skylanders? PASS.
  • Barcode Battlers sounds like a mobile game property that can be made awesome right now.
  • Typing of the Dead mention is awesome. Plus… an expansion pack to add Shakespeare quotes as lines to type? Man, I think I need to get on this train and fast.