I'm excited to hear what Jonny thinks of Bioshock 2.

I recently beat it. I won't go too much into it, but I thought it survived largely on its art direction. The story was interesting, but not nearly as good as the first game. Lamb's takeover of Rapture isn't really explored in depth (she's just kind of in charge now), and I thought there'd be more back-and-forth with Tanenbaum, but she disappears after the first hour. I very much liked exploring these more "civilian" areas of Rapture. It gave a better "global" look at the city. The gunplay was better, and I liked the bigger focus on trap-setting. The last few hours of the game (after the "twist," which wasn't really a twist at all) dragged on for me. I could tell the end was in sight, but...I had stopped caring. The biggest jaw-dropper for me was playing as a Little Sister for like ten minutes, and seeing the world through her eyes. Anyway. I haven't even listened to the podcast yet, but I clearly had something to get off my chest in regard to that game.

I'd like to thank James C. for subbing in my absence.  It was on very short notice thanks (or rather, no thanks) to a medical emergency here at the Lindemann household.  Hopefully things will be quieter for my wife and I this week and I'll be back in full force.  Or full-frontal, whatever comes first.

I can't wait to listen to this. I love listening to the podcast (especially Greg, and not just because he sounds like Malcolm Reed from Star Trek: Enterprise).

Based on the description, it sounds like my letter got read (I asked about Wii/DS connectivity and DSiWare-backwards compatibility with the 3DS).

No probs Lindy, at first I'd tried my best to avoid joining in with the Lindy-bashing, but I think peer-pressure won towards the end and I actually ended up starting some of my own.

"You're welcome"

;D

Sweet!

:P:

Haha, "Zed"

I just learned you say the "batteries are flat" rather than the "batteries are dead."

I say Zed and I'm American. Also, I spell grey not gray (sometimes colour and defence as well!)

I guess we'll have to keep an eye on you...

I never had trouble with the stabbing in RS2 but then again it wasn't my main combat move, I used it for barrel breaking and finishers mostly. Also it doesn't matter how much force you use but how wide you swing, I basically did 180° swipes for my heavy attacks like I was slapping the enemies silly. Unlike Wii Sports RS2 didn't give me any muscle aches afterwards.

You're right that RS2 technically asks you to swing wide rather than hard to execute a strong slash, but in practice I oftentimes ended up doing both because I was trying to get my attacks in quickly. Especially when facing the bosses or the big armoured enemies on the hardest difficulty, you only have a certain window to inflict damage, and so my instinct was to follow through hard on the wide swings in order to speed things up and get the maximum number of attacks in. Regardless, I didn't find it to be an issue, and you can always configure the options so that you don't have to swing as wide anyway.

Here are some professions Link could have in future Zelda games:

Convient store cashier
Sea World trainer
Chimney sweaper
brick layer
hotel manager
welder

Welding could actually work. Use the motion control to draw a bead across the screen, solve puzzles like repairing iron bridges, make extra cash by doing spot work, can't use the cutting torch in certain dungeons because of flammable gas, the possibilities are really endless.

Point of correction: The NyxQuest review was written by yours truly, not Neal.

This episode didn't feature NEARLY enough Jon-bashing. :-D

I'm curious about Red Steel 2, but I'll probably ignore it until the price plummets. I'm turned off by the fact that it's not 1:1 motion sensing. I really had a problem with Dragon Quest Sword's "stab" problems, so I'm not enthusiastic about revisiting that particular flaw in Red Steel 2.

Also, ShyGuy: Welding could be good. It worked fine in Metroid Prime 3.

Aviator is likely, I know Malstrom had a tirade about Aonuma designing Zelda for his kid and throwing the train in because that kid loved trains, later he stated something about flight.

I would prefer one of these:

Convient store cashier
Sea World trainer
Chimney sweaper
brick layer

I particularly prefer the chimney sweaper. You could use the motion plus to swab chimneys and imagine Link being covered in suit after doing his job. Does anyone else have any ideas for what he should do for work?

On the basis of our discussion during the show, I'm guessing Jonny would say "gigolo."

Definitely going to check out the new newscast.  I have to take all sorts of painkillers for my pathetic back and neck, and for some odd reason, once they kick in, all I wanna do is listen to RFN and play Mario or Sonic Kart.  Thanks for the heads up!

Apologies to the Zachasaurus! (I guess we were all clueless because no one corrected me)

I think Greg edited out most of the Lindy bashing, because I know for a fact we recorded for about 5 hours, 2 of which were exclusively about his shiny head.

Ever thought of starting a fourth NWR podcast, LindyBashCast?

Wow, ten years of schooling. John, is like... Really smart.

On the other hand, When the sexbots take over the world, I know who to blame.

Greg seemed so uncomforatble answering that question which equals to podcast gold!

Great show!

I do not want to get too political because I know the rules on this forum, but Nintendo is doing well financially. However, this could hamper their status as a successful company: http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/the-coming-economic-collapse-of-japan-and-why-you-should-be-extremely-concerned-about-it

After listening to the episode I feel like we need more British. What are the chances of us getting Greg and James C to sing Dick Van Dyke's Chim Chim Cher-ee in rounds?

I'm surprised how little cutting Greg did on New Business. There weren't a lot of tangents or redundant comments to begin with, but we had a string of unusually long impressions for a fairly small set of games. I hope no one got too bored with it. Some people probably like the long format discussions, and others likely prefer a quicker pace.

I like the longer discussions as long as I'm interested in the games, so just make sure everyone plays games that I like.

Or, J.J. can play a bad rogue like and go into RAGE, cause that's entertaining too.

I hate doing new business when I like a game. I'll spend a good deal of time thinking of how I plan to describe it, but once I get talking I just fumble around with it.

It happened here and with Infinite Space.

It won't happen with ATV Quad Kings, the first racing game I've ever though "well I've seen all there is to this" after a single race. Christ Almighty...

To clarify, I will not talk of the Kings of Quad in 193 except to say "ew." I'd rather take a mulligan on Sakura Wars before I spend a single second more than I am obligated to thinking about that game.

I'd rather marathon OB64 and deliver my new business in (poor) French than I would speak of Quad Kings.

I wish The Kings sucked more than it does, then I could be funny...but alas they did not do me the favor when they ported it from the LG cell-phone it must have come from.

How would you guys feel about a Bioshock game for the wii? I know mature games do not do so hot on the system, but I have never played the games and would be interested in how motion controls with Big Daddy could work out.

Do you guys think a GTA game for the wii will ever come out, or will it be revealed at E3 2010? I mean I loved China Twon wars and would love to see how Rockstar worked motion controls into the series.

The controls for Bioshock (one at least, haven't played the second one) are pretty much traditional FPS controls with a secondary weapon of plasmids.

IIRC, The first Bioshock ran on Unreal Engine 2.5, which has been ported to the Wii. The game is crazy with bloom and surface effects though, so that would have to be toned down a lot. It also has a fair amounts of physics with the weapons and unless they spent a lot of time converting it over, it would probably turn out pretty lousy.

Bioshock Extraction

Bioshock: Harvest Till You Drop.

Bioshock: Desperate Harvest

Bioshock: Body Harvest.

Oops, I broke it.

Just Splice.

*imagines a Big Daddy Break-dancing on-screen, and shudders.*

Let's splice, let's splice! Choose a splicing game!

Agreed, this week's was a great episode! Lot of laughs mixed with some good discussion too, really hit the spot. Greg almost seemed to be channelling Charlie Brooker when answering that final question, very funny indeed.

Incidentally if anyone hasn't seen it I'd seriously recommend watching Brooker's one-off programme on videogames, Gameswipe. You can find it on youtube, and it sort of attempts to give a broad overview of gaming as a whole and some of its history, at least in Britain, and while some of the things like explaining gaming genres are probably slightly redundant to people like us it's done in a very amusing, tongue-in-cheek way, and it even includes a segment on some of those legendary British indie computer games like Jet Set Willy that Jonny referred to, which being British I have to admit it brings back fond memories of the Amiga when those titles get mentioned!

Welcome to the adventures of Cocoto Adam Harvester.  Come experience a new kind of game on Nintendo Wii! Play as Cocoto and  search his world for the five millennium fish little sisters! Only they can keep the  magic cauldron Rapture from overflowing with lava Big Sisters and thus prevent the world  from being destroyed! 

  With Cocoto Fishing Master  Adam Harvester for Wii, fishing harvesting has never been so fun!             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

I haven't listened to this yet, but I feel that I'm going to have to come to the next recording with a prepared response, much like Jonny did when he went off to that music festival and we branded him a dirty, stinking, granola, Birkenstock-wearing hippie.

I'm surprised nobody harped on your age. If I'd been on there, I would'a been all like, "Man, that John Linemann, yo, when he was comin' up the only games he had involved sharp pieces of obsidian and mammoths."

You only got one life.

Jon is more fun to bag on in person. Jonny "controls" the flow of conversation, so he can cut us off if he's there.

It's not as fun to bag on Jonny in person, you're right.  He tends to reply in a logical manner to any ribbing, whereas I will provide a string of expletives, homoeroticism, or a combination of a string of expletives and homoeroticism.

I've seen this happen. You can listen to it happen on the PAX Drunkcast.

That reminds me, I still haven't listened to the Drunkcast.

I get it every week.  I'm pretty sure the worst I could do would be to compare Jon to JaMarcuss Russel but he'd never speak to me again.

That would be like comparing Greg to Bill Belichick.  Just not a smart move.

Ideas

And thus I guarantee that this comparison will be made at some point down the line.

Does that make James Terrel Owens, in that he has talent but it's usually overshadowed by his big mouth and his ability to devolve any situation into nonsense?

LOL!

I'm more a JP Lossman.  I'm good enough for the job but I'm not going to be an all-star with the talent I have around me.

Wait, I either just complimented JP Lossman or insulted myself by association...

I prefer to think of myself as the Terry Bradshaw of RFN.  I have no real talent, but damn am I entertaining thanks to the depths to which I will debase myself.

Also, you're bald.

HEY-OH!

And old.

Jonny is Howie Long?

I can't support any method that would cause poor Greg to end up as Jimmie Johnson.

Indeed. Long before Bill Belichick started making my life a misery with the Patriots, Jimmy was doing it with the Cowboys and Dolphins, only he was way more irritating and used so much hair spray that the top of his head was bullet proof.