We get a little silly in this week’s episode of Vidjagame Apocalypse and talk about BIOSHOCK INFINITE OMG.
Episode 8 of Vidjagame Apocalypse is all about our favorite alcoholics with a very healthy helping of BioShock Infinite talk. Don’t worry, we don’t get spoilery. Also, we highly recommend NEVER drinking Four Loco. It’s awful and makes us all want to cry.
The song playing during the break is, of course, Too Drunk to Fuck by Dead Kennedys.
Question of the Week
Do you think when you have a smaller team or even an individual working on a game it produces more interesting or maybe better quality games than when you’ve got a large team with perhaps a more fractured vision? This isn’t necessarily indie games vs AAA games. Do you think game designers nowadays suck because often they don’t really have to have the skills to actually create their games or does that not matter? Something we didn’t mention in the episode: Is a good game with a small team behind it more impressive than a great game created by a large team?
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Geeeez that’s a doozy of a question. I’ll have to listen to the episode first before trying to answer.
Also I really fucking hope everyone’s drunk this episode. It would be amazing and almost terrible but in a great way?
Hopefully it’s better than last week.
The only way it could be better is if it’s 2 hours of them saying “bro” and nothing else.
brogreed!
It wont be better than last be because you can’t get better than perfect
Why u hating brah? That episode was bro-tastic.
just finished infinite and Im not pleased with the final reveal and ending.
Wait, do they spoil the ending of BioShock Infinite in this episode?
no
Agreed. Over complicated and unsatisfying. Real shame too because the rest of the game was excellent.
I wouldnt say its complicated, just not explained. Nothing is really explained or elaborated on.
This applies to both “comstocks plot”, why the final part happens/needed and just cool stuff like the songbird, we learn really nothing about the songbird, it just exists and you never do anything with it as it was played up to be.
Yeah I suppose that is a better way to put it. Plot details are left unexplained. I too kept waiting for the big reveal for the songbird that never really happened. I found the ending somewhat complicated in that I had to read an article (http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/03/27/an-attempt-to-understand-bioshock-infinites-brilliant-and-bizarre-ending/2/) to completely understand it, which maybe isn’t as much evidence of the games flawed ending as it is of my simple, easily confused brain. Anyways great game!
I disagree in part. I understood the ending just fine. There are some vague elements to it but the big reveal IS explained. Granted there is a lot to take in, in the last 10 minutes although that key final moment is clarified in the dialogue, just in a few subtle words. Although I do agree about Songbird, both gameplay and plot wise.
I understood it, it just doesnt make sense when you think of what it implies. Why does blanking our blank get rid of all the blanks if there are infinite? Why does blank take our blank and rename her if he doesnt remember? many other questions of both this part and others not addressed.
Just dont think they tied it to the story well.
Overall Im just not happy with the story decision to make blanker into blankock.
My best guess is that we’ll learn more about Songbird in a future DLC. There were tons of audio logs that I did not find and I looked all over and took my time (including finding the optional quests) so that also reaffirms we’ll get more later in DLC. That ending was the typical plot twist of Irrational Games and it was a doozy!
Yeah… I think we need to move to a thread haha!
Answer of the week: No, see BioShock Infinite. If any other game is looking for GotY, they better delay to 2014. Sorry, Last of Us.
I just listened to last week’s episode and broved it. Glad to see there’s another episode this week! Love the show so far, keep up the good stuff guys!
Possible Top 5 idea if it hasn’t been done already, Top 5 characters you wish you could have killed in a video game that you couldn’t.
LUCAS?! YESSS!
I’m very amused at hearing Richard Garriott say that modern game designers “Suck” when the last relevant thing Garriot made was over 6 years ago, and it was Tabula Rasa…
you guys, just let these episodes be as long as you want… 3 hours, 17 hours, i’m good. i’m drawing while i listen to these, and love every minute. the silence in between episodes is almost too much for me to bear.
maybe you guys should do a gaming livestream once a week no?
Hey bros! You should have used 4-lokos for the last weeks episode. Total bro drink. I don’t think game devs necessarily suck at big companies, they’re just worried about the company’s bottom line. In the case of Diablo 3, a delayed production schedule put a lot of pressure on the devs to have a good product on release. The higher-ups at blizzard knew the game would be profitable either way, so they launched prematurely. From the recent patches, it’s clear that a lot of ideas the devs had going into the initial launch had to be put on pause last year. Even if an indie game had as much hype as D3, I believe most people at that company would be more concerned with releasing a good game than meeting their deadlines.
Never apologize for the bro, bro
No clip from Nichijou this week?
I don’t think you can be a designer without having some idea of the limitations and intricacies of your team, and I think that most designers HAVE learned that sort of stuff. If you’re doing your job right, it comes with the territory. Personally entering the code is not required. Helping your dev team reach its full potential is.
Alternate Cowboy Name for Wikiparez – Django Unshaved.
This site doesn’t have a +1 button like imgur? – (That’s a question that is a statement.)
I LOVE the 2 hour length. It would suck if they were shorter. This podcast gives me something awesome to listen to while getting crap done everyday. If you keep them at 2 hours I will name my first born child Mikangela.
It would totally be a headline on the news, think about it.
I agree it really helps the hours go by at work and my close friends here now exactly what I’m listening to when I’m laughing uncontrollably at my desk.
Browitdaba da bro a bro diggy diggy diggy said the boogy said up jump the bro-ey
Browitdaba da bro a bro diggy diggy diggy said the boogy said up jump the bro-ey
sorry had to, first thing I thought of during the “BRO” puns
Fun fact: sleeping pills make a nice, crunchy snack for special occasions such as alcoholism and suicidal tendencies. This is what I’ve learned from television.
I’m surprised this guy didn’t get mentioned: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHKKq7kMF8w
Love it, love it, love it, oh Tdar drunkin ‘nostalgia! Ah so yeah in Bioshock Infinite I’m totally going through the game on my 2nd playthrough, also beat the game in 2 days straight, on hard focusing on guerrilla tactics. I’m planning on using the sky-line attack, shoot a few guy and use powers then jump back onto the sky-line. It’s cool that they gave the Handyman the ability to shock the sky-line to counter a player abusing this awesome new transportation system.
I would just like to sincerely thank you for the past 3 episodes. They just sustained me through a 6-hour long ride on a Greyhound bus, on which there were 2 Indian babies (dots, not feathers) who bawled continuously throughout the entirety of the journey. Thanks for making me chuckle at awful bro puns during what may have been the most excruciating experience of my life had I forgotten headphones.
As for the QOTW:
My short answer is that under the right conditions and with passionate people, it’s possible for large teams to create amazing, unparalleled worlds and experiences. However, due to the obvious reasons, that doesn’t happen often, or at least not as often as smaller developers are able to make equally (if not more so) innovative and solid games on a smaller scale due to their lesser restrictions.
My long answer is:
I think that having a larger team can result in games of infinitely greater scope and quality than what a handful of guys could accomplish. However, once you pass a certain density of cooks in the kitchen, it becomes exponentially more difficult for everyone to get along and commit to the same vision. This generation, a lot of artistically ambitious triple-A games have tended to had figure-heads associated with them (ex: Ken Levine, Peter Molyneux, David Cage, Kojima, etc.).
Save for open cultured studios like Valve, innovation and ambition from Triple-A studios that follow a corporate hierarchy tend to be spearheaded by visionary studio heads who have proven themselves enough to gain freedom from publisher concerns. I see it as similar to how a showrunner like can fight to keep an overall artistic vision, like a videogame auteur. In addition, many large publishers don’t like to pay or wait for proper QA testing, which results in buggy messes being sold on a shelf for $60.
Meanwhile, one-man or small team games, especially unfunded ones, are almost always works of passion, and by limiting their scope developers can focus on what matters: good gameplay. Risky ideas are much easier to carry out when you don’t have an accountant telling you they aren’t financially viable.
* I see it as similar to how a showrunner like DAN HARMON can fight to keep an overall artistic vision, like a videogame auteur.
I hate to correct myself, but I hate making typos more.
It seems like last week’s episode is the most polarizing yet. Some people (like myself) thought it was one of the funniest podcasts ever, others didn’t like it at all. To each his own, I guess.