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Jon couldn't make it this week, but we were fortunate to have Billy Berghammer fill his seat this week. Most of you know Billy as the founder of our website and former editor at Game Informer as well as G4 TV; he's got a new gig in the works but isn't spilling the beans just yet. Billy is a true gaming cosmopolitan these days, playing all the big hits like Halo 3: ODST, Uncharted 2, and Borderlands. He's still a Nintendo freak at heart though, so he also talks about his most anticipated games, like New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Sin & Punishment 2. Greg has updates on Kirby Super Star (VC) and Mario & Luigi 3; James dips into Last Remnant; and Jonny is more current with LostWinds 2, Abbey Road DLC for Beatles: Rock Band, and the recent sleeper hit, Little King's Story.
Greg's signature feature segment is next, with a sprawling and perhaps even provocative conversation about the role of difficulty in gaming. We traverse sub-topics from "cheapness" to grinding and draw from examples like Contra 4 and F-Zero GX. It's one of our best feature discussions yet!
Listener Mail continues the drama, with an intense debate over the merits of The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and our hopes/fears regarding the upcoming Spirit Tracks sequel. We also talk about reality vs. perception in review bias against Wii games, and there's a glowing Shout Out for The Simpsons: Hit & Run.
We're always looking for great Listener Mail to read and discuss on the show, so please send your questions or comments! (We really love seeing your praise and feedback regarding the show itself; however, in the interest of time, we may edit your letter to be read on the podcast.) Credits:
This podcast was edited by Greg Leahy.
Music for this episode of Radio Free Nintendo is used with permission from Jason Ricci & New Blood. You can purchase their newest album, Done with the Devil, directly from the record label, Amazon.com, or iTunes, or call your local record store and ask for it!
Additional music for this episode of Radio Free Nintendo is copyrighted to Nintendo, and is included under fair use protection.
Anyway, that PH mail smells like trolling. Since when is the sailing a positive side of Zelda PH and WW? It's terrible. That's not exploration, that's just tedium.
You know what they did in the proper 2D days with connecting areas and exploration? They had a continuous overworld that you could explore on foot, what an amazing idea! Why can't we just dump this whole horse, ship, train bull**** and actually make the overworld continuous again without vast stretches of nothing intended only to make the world seem bigger and requiring some transportation and endless going in one direction? Why can't we have something interesting every 20 steps?
I don't think it's trolling to be concerned about your favorite series that, in your opinion, has gone off the rails a bit.
I'm really really looking forward to Greg 'n Lindy Action Hour next week.
I'm really really looking forward to Greg 'n Lindy Action Hour next week.
On the agenda...
- Brett Favre: Man, Myth, or Legend?
- JaMarcus Russell: Does his talent match his girth?
- Redskins: Zorn to Win, or entering the Twilight Zorn?
- Bills: Is Fitzpatrick the Future?
- Matt Ryan: Perfect Human Being, or God Among Men?
- Colorado Football: What, They Still Have a Team?
Stay tuned!
I'm really really looking forward to Greg 'n Lindy Action Hour next week.
On the agenda...
- JaMarcus Russell: Does his talent match his girth?
Stay tuned!
I'm surprised nobody mentioned racing games in the difficulty segment. I think Motorstorm Pacific Rift is one of the best examples I've seen this gen. You've got about 10 different ranks, and each one gradually ups the anty to where you're finally getting your a## handed to you, but only due to the mistakes you're making.
I was disappointed though that no one brought up how the superior processing power of the HD systems in particular are rarely being utilized to beef up the AI. Or did I just miss that part? It's true that some games have better (not necessarily "harder") difficulty due to improvements in AI, but it saddens me that the leap in, say FPS AI since Goldeneye has been a mere hop compared to the Olympic-class triple-jump made in graphics. I wish more developers took a cue from Civilization IV, and focused on making the game more fun by making a better AI system.
On the subject of gaming difficulty, I've played a number of games that have tackled this in different and interesting ways: the Sly Cooper series had dynamic difficulty, where the game got gradually just a bit easier if you continued to die in particular parts of the game. In Sly Cooper 1, the game would start giving you up to 2 magic horseshoes so you could get hit up to 2 times without dying if you kept dying at one section of the game. In Slys 2 and 3, the game would gradually decrease the damage enemies did to you while gradually increasing the damage you did to them until you cleared the checkpoint. At no point was the overall difficulty of these games compromised (with its 1-hit-kills, Sly 1 is actually a pretty hard game), just that for that moment in the game the game would adjust itself to allow you to clear it and move on.
Then you have a more modern example with Prince of Persia, where it is impossible to lose and your penalty for screwing up is to have to repeat a section of platforming or combat until you get it right. That was fine by me, and watching my best friend play the game now I can say it was exactly the right move for them to make. He still dies quite often, but the penalty for failure isn't especially large so you can just enjoy the game and get into the flow.
When it comes to games with difficulty levels, my favorites are those where the higher difficulties (as mentioned in the podcast) force the player to adapt to new techniques and strategies they never even considered before. Take for example Bioshock, a game which on normal difficulty is impossible to lose. Anyone can pick up the game and eventually beat it, even if they have to continually die and respawn at the Vita-Chambers. But for those who want a bigger challenge (or are trophy hunters like me), you can increase the difficulty 2 more levels and turn the Vita-Chambers off. This radically changes how you play the game. For example, on Normal Difficulty Big Daddies are more of a major nuisance since you can just respawn nearby until you kill them off. But on Survivor Difficulty with the Vita-Chambers off, those things can easily kill you in one hit. So I had to think more about the level design and using the environment to my advantage: setting traps, hacking turrets, using weapons I wouldn't ordinarily use (like the Electric Buckshot in the Shotgun), and just improvising in general. It was truly a fight for survival, it was thrilling, and it gave me a much greater appreciation for the options the game gives you.
I was disappointed though that no one brought up how the superior processing power of the HD systems in particular are rarely being utilized to beef up the AI. Or did I just miss that part? It's true that some games have better (not necessarily "harder") difficulty due to improvements in AI, but it saddens me that the leap in, say FPS AI since Goldeneye has been a mere hop compared to the Olympic-class triple-jump made in graphics. I wish more developers took a cue from Civilization IV, and focused on making the game more fun by making a better AI system.
One game that has been praised for its excellent AI is Killzone 2. I can vouch for this; its bot AI is noticeably better than virtually any FPS I've ever played (especially on the hardest difficulty setting, geez). Heck, the fact that it even has bots says something. But you're right on the money when you say that AI hasn't progressed much. I honestly think that there just aren't that many good AI programmers out there. It's still a new frontier in programming, really.
With the rise in multiplayer online gaming, you also have to think that many companies don't want to spend money on good in-game AI, since the majority of players will wind up playing other people online anyways. Take CoD4 for instance; you play through the single-player maybe once or twice, and then spend months and months playing online multiplayer exclusively. It's just not worth the effort to have killer AI, because it'll go unappreciated for the most part.
The best type of difficulty to me is the type that leaves no doubt that iit was YOU that screwed up, and that if you get better you can win. See: Goldeneye 007, Super Ghouls'n'Ghosts, etc.
The best type of difficulty to me is the type that leaves no doubt that iit was YOU that screwed up, and that if you get better you can win. See: Goldeneye 007, Super Ghouls'n'Ghosts, etc.
The best type of difficulty to me is the type that leaves no doubt that iit was YOU that screwed up, and that if you get better you can win. See: Goldeneye 007, Super Ghouls'n'Ghosts, etc.
I remember the adjusting difficulty in Soul Calibur 2, each loss would reduce the enemy's AI strength a lot so it'd make sure you'd never grow, any time you lost you were given the easy route and in the end could beat it all with button mashing because eventually the enemy would sink below your level.
I'm not sure SC2 does it in the missions, I only noticed it in the Arcade mode.
See there, I had no idea that Jon was a fellow inductee into the Milon Club.
See there, I had no idea that Jon was a fellow inductee into the Milon Club.
Yeah, I played the hell out of that game during the summer of '89, I believe.