Hmm, what could it mean?
Collectors' Curse
For some reason I have recently decided to always have a new game coming from Ebay at all times. This is like reasoning that one must always be drunk, except slightly less expensive (for the record I have not formally come to this second conclusion at the time of writing). Since I now must always be receiving new gifts, I was on Ebay last week and saw the Megaman Legacy Collection for the PS4, which includes Megaman 1 through 6. It was a reasonable price, and although I am officially the world's worst 2d Platformer I decided to get it. Even though my PS4 is constantly ejecting discs. Again.
So I got it in the mail today, and I realised, "Wait a minute!, this feels familiar". Racing to the library, (with a brief visit to the beer fridge), I perused my PS2 section and found Mega Man Anniversary Collection, which features Megaman games 1 through 8! EIGHT! Plus two bonus games! That's, mathematically derived, four additional games over the game I just bought.
D-oh!
So the moral of this story, folks, is don't go collecting 3,000 video games. The secondary take away is that I guess Mega Man at some point became Megaman. Thanks Obama.
They Do What Game Undoesn't*
When there are no new episodes of the Game Under podcast, what is there to listen to, really? The Endless Backlog podcast, sure, but what if you've listened to all their episodes? Then there's literally only two other options, Sup, Holmes and the Bithell Games podcast.
The former is a series of interviews conducted by Jonathan Holmes who, amid being born, getting fat, tired and bald, found the time to interview some of the luminaries of the indie gaming world, from Jonathon Blow to Zoe Quinn. But the best introduction to his work, I think, is his interview with Lorne Lanning.
Lorne Lanning, co-founder of Oddworld, has no qualms about openly criticising his contemporaries, swearing and making reference to other mediums or—gasp!—the world at large, regardless of the context of the interview. This makes him the perfect subject for interviewing. Yet this completely normal—in the gaming world eccentric—way of speaking often brings out the worst in the interviewer, compelling them to interrupt him, change the subject, or attempt to appear as well-versed in the subject of which he speaks by making contrived references of their own to related articles they've read.
Jonathon Holmes simply lets the man speak or, when relevant, is willing to join in to keep the conversation going by using for reference his own personal experience and opinions—or his own interpretation of outside sources.
- Tom Towers
Phil Fogg here, and since I've been summoned from the grave to contribute something, I'd absolutely endorse the Bithell Games podcast. Number one, they put up a show on a regular basis, which I've always believed is key to the success of any podcast, it certainly holds true for us.
Secondly, like our podcast, they always keep things concise and on-point resulting in a podcast that is a short, crisp presentation of well-constructed thoughts. Beyond that though, what Bithell Games Podcast provides that you cannot get anywhere else is an insight into how a small development house is run, with interviews with all types of people who are never usually given voice in games enthusiast publishing. Beyond that, Mr. Bithell, (and the other host), are charming enough fellows to listen to.
- Phil Fogg
*Specifically, produce new episodes. Which isn't actually true of Sup, Holmes. - ed
Cibele Review - Phil Fogg
I had a couple of different ways to go with this review, I went with the one that provided the greatest challenge to me, which was to set aside the baggage so I would not have to unpack it.
Due to an annoying checkpoint marker I had to play the last third of the game twice, which may have also given me a unique perspective on the experience, having seen not a dash of variation between the two playthroughs. In any case, here it is.
The world designs are mostly Inspired by Georgia O'Keefe
Cibele
After reading a top-secret essay by my co-host Tom Towers on Cibele, I downloaded the game and played it for a short while. I think my meta-meter broke.
Playing a game about playing a game.
Which by no means is a denigration. I mean, I am about four minutes into it and I've forgotten I am playing a game inside a game, and am just playing a game. Which is a lot more involving than the other game I started yesterday Ryse: Son of Rome.
Looks very promising, some more updates soon.
- Phil Fogg
Phil Fogg, Around the World in 128 Days
Well, it's been 128 days since our last podcast, and strangely that is exactly how long it took for me to get around the world in the game 80 Days, which is a touch-pad version of my namesake's voyage Around the World in Eighty Days.
Not be the first time.
It is surprising how little interest my name, Phil Fogg, has brought over my lifetime. Fortunately for me all of my schoolyard bullies were illiterate, and even since then my name is rarely recognized name as being shared by one of Jules Verne's most notable characters.
As for the game, which was awarded Time magazine's Game of the Year in 2014, (a selection that only served to confirm that the last time Time got anything more wrong was in 1938), I was left not feeling fully serviced. But I'll save that for a review.
- Phil Fogg
Jazzpunk Director's Cut
Jazzpunk, what would have been my 2014 Game of the Year had I played it in 2014, is receiving a Director's Cut version on the Playstation 4 next month.
I've exchanged e-mails with the creator of the game Luis Hernandez (as discussed in Episode 60) and found him to be as thoughtful, charming and memorable as his game would suggest.
Jazzpunk is available on Steam for $15 USD and I encourage all listeners to the podcast to play.
- Phil Fogg
Inside Update
From what I can tell I am about halfway through Inside and am enjoying it considerably more than Playdead's debut game, Limbo.
Since it is a game with sparse audio design I decided to make a playlist with songs with the word, "inside" in the title. This worked out pretty well, with a fair few happy coincidences popping in as I played.
So the songs in my MP3 folder were:
Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again - Bob Dylan
Devil Inside - INXS
Inside My Mind - Groove Armada
Step Inside Love - The Beatles
Inside Job - Don Henley
Inside My Love - Trina Broussard
I'm Hurting Inside - Bob Marley
Deep Inside of You - Third Eye Blind
I have no idea how 80% of that got into my MP3 folder (I actually do, as an I.T. worker in the aughties I used to harvest MP3's off of PC's I worked on), but in any case... it was a mostly satisfying experience, as is playing Inside.
-Phil Fogg
"The match was described as 'manly but fair'."
In David Cage's debut game Omikron: The Nomad soul, you play as yourself; possessing characters in the game. Probably. So far, at least.
Anyway, as soon as you arrive in the apartment of the man you are possessing, you may urinate in the bathroom. After you zip his Robocop cosplay up, his girlfriend arrives home.
You inform her that you are not, in fact, her boyfriend. But it's time for some very awkward dry humping nevertheless. In her defence, I wouldn't have believed you either.
Strangely for a David Cage game there is no post-coitus shower scene. Indeed, you don't want to shower! What the fuck?
Now that your bladder and testicles have been relieved, it's time to explore; smelling of God-knows-what. As you enter the first circle of hell, it's not long before you begin to wish you were possessing a body with some new possibilities. Or at least two big ones staring you in the face. And maybe a third: showering in a more suitably David-Cage-shower-scene body?
As you leave the first circle of hell and enter the second, you discover that Minos punishes the lustful with angular dildos...
..and a spasmodic David Bowie.
I am sorry Dante, but there are more circles to explore yet.
Inside Inside
I really wanted to get a hard copy of this game for a console, because I think it's going to end up being one of the remembered games of the generation. But not wanting to wait for the inevitable limited run collector's edition (possibly including Limbo), I bit the bullet and downloaded Playdead's Inside today.
This is not what it looks like.
So far, it's visually arresting. Having just completed Limbo for the first time I am finding the controls to be easy to pick up.
More impressions soon.
- Phil Fogg
This would be a great format for a Stranger Things game.