Hatred’s release grabbed headlines and then sort of fizzled out this week, but not before we put together a Top 5 about games that let you live out your worst bully fantasies by indiscriminately murdering innocent civilians. With that out of the way, it’s on to the last conversation we’ll ever have about Hatred, as well as some talk about Massive Chalice, (pre-announcement) Fallout 4, and your favorite advergames and/or game ads.
Question of the Week
Have you ever felt bad about killing a character in a game? Tell us about it.
*NOTE* We’ve been getting some AMAZING donations lately but hardly anyone is attaching a name and the intended recipient of said donations. Please try to make note of which podcast the donation is going to so maybe we can get some new equipment and thank the right people for all their support.
Theme song by Matthew Joseph Payne. Break song is I’m a Shark by I KILL PXLS. Haunting and beautiful New Releases Theme by David B. Cooper.
Follow us on Twitter @VGApocalypse!
If ya haven’t checked out the Laser Time YouTube channel, here’s something swell you might’ve missed!
UPCOMING VIDEO GAME PRE-ORDER BONUSES
Call of Duty: Black Ops III
-Pre-order for early access to the Black Ops III beta.
Mad Max
-Pre-order and unlock The Ripper vehicle early
Payday 2: Crimewave Edition *NEW*
-Pre-order before the release date to receive the “Hardtime Loot Bag.”
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain *NEW*
-Pre-order the Day 1 Edition to get a physical map + DLC content which includes: • Adam-ska Special Handgun • Personal Ballistic Shield (Silver) • Wetland Cardboard box • Fatigues outfit (Blue Urban Snake Costume) • Metal Gear Online XP boost
Star Wars Battlefront
-Pre-order and get early access to 2 map packs, including one based on The Force Awakens
Batman: Arkham Knight
–Pre-order to play as Harley Quinn. Utilize her unique weapons, gadgets, and abilities. Plus, contains 4 Exclusive Challenge Maps
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege *NEW*
-Pre-order for FREE guaranteed Beta Access
Although I had a look at the Top 5 article, it’ll be interesting to hear it discussed on the episode.
Great to hear Carmageddon get discussed on the show. Having a more PC focused childhood, it’s rare to hear some of my old favorites get discussed on VGA. Will there be a Patreon tier where I can fund Dan Amrich to show up and discuss nothing but the CB radio poetry from Interstate 76? Or Charlie Barratt explain the many reasons why Gabriel Knight: Sins Of The Fathers is the greatest games ever made?
QOTW: Wrex in ME1. That was a shitty decision to make and I didn’t have the Paragon points to win him over. On the opposite end of the spectrum was Kaiden. Less personality than two short planks.
QotW: Spec Ops: the Line, but I don’t want give any spoilers. Just go play Spec Ops: the Line. It is brilliant and underrated and I spent weeks thinking about it afterwards.
Cosign.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was the first MGS game I finished and a lot of the characters in that game deserve sympathy. The End is a notable one, an old man whose remaining life can be counted in moments. Worse than actually killing him is letting him die by adjusting the PS2 clock or just waiting a week, getting berated for it by the Colonel doesn’t help either.
Still, I really felt awful about killing The Boss, especially because of how beautifully done the entire ending scene was. When you’re the one to literally pull the trigger, using her weapon, bringing her life to an end and then finding out just how much she sacrificed not only for Big Boss but also the United States… it’s one of the saddest stories in any game I’ve ever played.
I felt bad about letting Ben go in the Walking Dead: Season 1. Yes, he did stupid things at times, but somehow I felt immediately afterwards that letting him go was the wrong decision, despite the fact that he was willing to sacrifice himself for everyone else. Not a decision I thankfully made in real life, but thankfully that experience has taught me to always save a person’s life, even if it isn’t the most popular thing to do considered by others. That is unless the person in question is literally trying to kill you and you have no other means to avert it.
QOTW: I felt bad about letting Ben go in the Walking Dead: Season 1. Yes, he did stupid things at times, but somehow I felt immediately afterwards that letting him go was the wrong decision, despite the fact that he was willing to sacrifice himself for everyone else. Not a decision I thankfully made in real life, but thankfully that experience has taught me to always save a person’s life, even if it isn’t the most popular thing to do considered by others. That is unless the person in question is literally trying to kill you and you have no other means to avert it.
I liked the discussion about GTA3. That’s always been my favorite. I honestly wish they would do a remake of it adding features of the later games while keeping the basics of the game the same. Vice city was nice that it had bikes and being able to swim in San Andreas was cool.
But you guys are right about the characters became more bound by the story the farther the games went along. By San Andreas I felt the game was too big. It was more trouble to get around than was worth it.
Granted now that I’ve got kids running around the house the GTA games are just one more thing sitting on Steam that I’ll never bother playing.
Megalodon Draper killed me
QOTW: The Myth series is the only strategy game where I felt bad when my units died, since each were randomly named or could be named by you and would have stats that carried over through each level. So when they died the game would not only announce “casualty” but display their names at the end of the level, really shoving the fact in my face every time I had failed as a general and must dwell on their demise to sorrowful music.
…that I killed them, not the undead horde, even if it saved many more.
QOTW: The worst time I can say is when I was playing Watch_Dogs, and I was killing some security guards. You see, Aidan can find out the names, professions, salary and a personal fact about every NPC in the game, which is kind of neat. However, as I was in a shootout against some security guards, one of the factoids that popped up over a enemy’s head was the fact that he was a cancer survivor. My mind wandered and thought, “Oh come on, he overcame cancer! You really expect me to kill him! Sure he has an assault rifle pointed at me, but c’mon!” Then another fact from another guy was that he was a frequent charity runner, like he’s doing his job but he’s dedicating his time off to raise money and awareness. Made me wonder who the true villain was in that game.
QOTH: At the end of the game I felt bad about killing the colossi on shadow of the colossus, I mean they were just innocent giants. Also I felt horrible about my Dark Souls character, he died so many times…. but Pudintane refused to hollow and over came my failings to complete his mission.
QOTW: I always try to avoid killing any friendly characters in games with the exception of Lydia in Skyrim. I think everyone can agree that she was the worst companion in the game. She never stayed in stealth with me and would always get knocked out unconscious with in a matter of seconds. I took absolutely no remorse in killing her, and the best part about killing her was that later in the game her floating dead body showed up uninvited to my wedding ceremony.
So. Many. Shark jokes. And I seriously agree with Chris: ‘Hatred’ is not worthy of being a controversy. In Mortal Kombat X, you can literally have a father tear though his own daughter’s sternum and make a ‘The Shining’ joke. Next to that shit, ‘Hatred’ is absolutely fucking nothing.
As a quick aside, I should point out that you went on at length about how it’s disappointing you have to kill people in Postal 2 when you really don’t. The game even points this out if you successful finish it with no crimes, let alone murders committed.
Here’s the victory screen for a non-violent playthrough: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5b/Postal2-Jesus-Rank.png
FUCK ALL Y’ALL!
I love Corn Chex. And Honey Nut Chex are goddamn divine.
Great episode, do you think Hatred would have gotten the coverage it did if it wasn’t released in Summer? The cynic in me thinks games media were happy to make Hatred a controversy as they have nothing else to report on right now apart from E3 rumours.
QOTW: Killing the dogs in Hotline Miami always bothered me, the Russian gangsters deserved what they got but the dogs did nothing to deserve to be killed.