On the topic of big, full games as downloads, I'm really hoping for Animal Crossing 3DS to be available that way. The nature of that series, as something you play a little bit every day over a long period of time, would be ideal as a download on a handheld, so you don't have to worry about carrying the cartridge of it with you in addition to other games you're playing. I want to be able to pull out my 3DS wherever I am, regardless of what games I have with me, and be able to play Animal Crossing for 15 minutes when I've got the time.

This was your best episode yet! Damn, I love RetroActive!!!! Who thought of it? I want to give you a kiss!!!!

Also, will there be an E3 "hotel" podcast like before?

What's up with James in this episode? Is it his time of the month?

Pre-E3 has him on edge?

I used to piss my flatmates off so much whenever I used that excuse to explain my grumpiness. IT'S REAL.

Playing against PD bots will do that to you.

Good AI depends on what the AI is supposed to do. If it's supposed to just run and gun that's easy, making it work for objectives is harder. Making the bots cheat in order to pose a challenge is frowned upon as it distorts the way the game works.

BTW, grabbing items so nobody else gets them is a valid strategy in FPSes and high level play involves perfectly timing your movement to be around for when a given pickup respawns.

I have a technical question: How come my Sansa Clip+ MP3 player classifies things like Weekend Confirmed as a podcast but RFN as a music track?

Which version are you getting (mp3 or AAC)?

I just noticed that my AAC file has a tag showing RFN as an audiobook. That explains why my iPod throws it on both as a podcast and an audiobook...

MP3.

Also, Crimm deserves 12 bad jrpgs in a row for his John Candy dis.

I love that Jon's go-to example of an '80s movie is Splash. And Crimm would have played 12 bad jrpgs in a row anyway, so I don't see how you'd consider it a punishment.

A lot does, actually. Waiting to sign a lease on a new place (right after E3 - blah), E3, work is wrapping up a major project, and I had been drinking before the show.

I don't know that I was in any worse a mood during this episode than any other, but I haven't listened yet.

I've played quite a few games as long as JRPGs last, the problem is that it's not the JRPGs I play that long. I got over a hundred hours in AI War and Monday Night Combat.

Another issue for the JRPG is the narrow definition for it. You stick an FPS on a CRPG and people still call it a CRPG, you stick basic brawler combat and no battle transitions on a JRPG and people call it an action RPG.

Oh god, is it one of those episodes? :-D

You know who was in Splash? JOHN CANDY

Mannequin

John Candy is in the Ernest series isn't he?

Grats?

I'm happy about it, but its stressful.


Also I need new chairs. CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIRS

New chairs are terrible hard to find.  I ended up going through a couple to replace my desk chair... and ended up getting one of those ergonomic kneeling chairs.

Another great episode!

Musings ...

1. Not all John Candy movies are great (some suck), but for the most part, John Candy is awesome.  Planes, Trains and Automobiles? Classic.

2. Yea, James was noticeably more curmudgeon-y than usual.


Responses ...

1. The added objectives in 1P are what made GoldenEye a great game for me.  I really loved that it felt kind of like being a spy.  So many FPSs, even ones with a spy backdrop, only have one objective: "blow the sh*t out of everything... repeat."

2. Does the mediocre online experience of DOA mean that Nintendo has not made enough improvements in their new online strategy?  Or was this Team Ninja's call? Or what?

3. I would love if Zelda (or any game) could be "as long as the content supports." But, unfortunately, so many foolish reviewers (and the foolish gamers who believe them) regard completion time as perhaps the most objective metric of a games value.  Any game whose completion time is "5 hours too short" of what the reviewer/gamer thinks it should be? will flappin' crucified!!

4a. Yeaaaaaa, Mop_it_up!!

4b. I don't miss bots, but I do really miss more co-op options and the idea that you don't have to be an expert to play a given game online. =\

I honestly don't see where you guys are coming from on James.  Maybe its because of been doing a reverse marathon of RFN, I'm down to 212, but my opinion would be that James sounds like James.  In fact I would even go as far as to say he is in better spirits then he has been.  He doesn't sound sick or jaded, really isn't that argumentative, and he seems to be having fun.

Well, I certainly miss the days when it was considered standard to have an offline multiplayer mode with computer bots if you didn't want to deal with human opponents.  I think Killzone 3 is the last game I can think of in a long time that had that option (and even that's not as robust as what Perfect Dark did), as even Black Ops requires that you be online to play against bots.

As for the need for more Co-op, though, I certainly agree.  My experience playing through the Portal 2 Co-op campaign was pretty awesome, and I really enjoyed the Co-op online multiplayer levels in Uncharted 2 a few years back.  Sadly, Naughty Dog didn't feel the same way and only really supported competitive multiplayer.  And I really dislike what Perk systems have done to multiplayer.  Sure, if you have a decent matchmaking system, you should always be paired up with players of your skill level. 

However, I've seen several multiplayer games that just lump everyone together, allowing the veterans to just making multi inaccessible to anyone not willing to grind for 5 hours memorizing maps and slowly obtaining Perks.  And what if you want to play multiplayer and there are no players of your skill level around to match-up with?  You either don't get to play anything or you get lumped in with the veterans as fresh meat.  Bleh.  Players who are already good at the game shouldn't be given ways to kill everyone even easier.

As for Game Length, I agree that a game should only be as long as its content can support.  However, IMO if your main game can't support an experience that fits the price you're charging in the eyes of the fans, you need to either have supplementary game modes to fill in the gaps or something about the content that changes to encourage replay value (GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, and Timesplitters 2 were masters of this).  It really troubles me seeing so many games you can easily finish and pretty much see everything there is to see in 5 or so hours with no incentive to play any more of it.

Hah!  I just discovered RFN 6 months ago and I'm up to (or down to) #181!  Step up your game!  :-)


James, don't change!  Your grumpiness and sharp-tongued insults are an essential part of the show. 


Oh, and I don't think enough people have brought up Greg's assertion that the DS has had a profound effect on how we play RPG's.  I'm a dad of 2 girls and despite the fact that in my country (Los Angeles) we don't use public transportation much, I only play RPG's on my DS.  In fact, I think I stopped playing RPG's in general during the PS2 era (when I got married, go figure).  Missed it, but just never could find the time to sink into that kind of game.  The DS has been a godsend, for exactly the reasons that Greg brings up.  Loving it!

I came back in May and I've listen out of order Drunk Cast, Episode 78 (Gregs First appearance),  Episode 148, and a Correction its 217.  So yeah your ahead of me.  I've been listening to all the other Podcasts as well.

Personally i thought James was on-fire this ep, but thats coz his quips and random side-bar outbursts usually make me cackle on the tube.

Sometimes James quips sound like they are commentary. Somebody will say something, James fires a zinger and they continue on like he said nothing.

I say some of them under my breath, knowing that Greg will hear them during the edit. Some of them nobody hears anyway.

James' mood in this ep did not need this much attention.  I'm sorry I contributed to it!  The RFN crew are the best in the biz and even at his most cantankerous James is more level-headed than most game journalists.

@ broodwars

I really wonder why co-op gaming has, thus far, not gotten more attention.  Do developers really find the human nature to compete that much more lucrative than the desire to cooperate?

@ everyone

I gotta say, when I was younger and had more time but less money, I loved when a big RPG took up dozens and dozens of hours.  I also liked how those experiences were on the TV because I felt the details in the setting really helped set the mood.  I also do not have an "in transit" life style, so the idea of RPGs on-the-go doesn't really sweeten that deal for me.

PS - I'm playing Chrono Trigger DS now.  I just got Ayla.  All I will say is: not every game can be for every one.  I think ChronoTrigger is "ok" ... but I think there is a reason why I tried starting it in '99, '02, '03, and '05 but never finished it.  It really is so rare for me to do that, but something about this game just doesn't hook me.

And this game should have several unfair advantages: I like anime, I like Akira Toriyama, I love frogs!, I like katana, and I like diverse casts.  But, I dunno, something just never clicks for me.

If I were to try and guess why this game never hooked me, I think it is because though the characters and settings are very diverse on the surface, they don't actually have much backstory to flesh them out and make them interesting.  I mean, maybe more will be revealed later ... but aside from Frog, I don't think anyone in the cast even has much motivation to be on this quest.

Crono was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Marle just wants to have adventures outside royalty.
Lucca invented the thing for fun.
Robo could have been reprogrammed as anything.
Ayla fights and "is tough" and fends off evil lizards.

At least Frog has a sense-of-duty/failure thing to make his character interesting.

Also, the different locations (so far) just don't have much personality.  Much like the characters that originate from them, the lands are given very flat personalities.  This is "the future" so everything is futuristic and post-apocalyptic.  This is "the distant past" so there are dinosaurs and loin-clothes.

Lastly, it would probably help if the enemies felt like even they were on the same side.  But it's mostly just like "we're in the mountains and here's some birds... let's kill them!"  Like, are these birds supposed to be under the control of Magus or something?  I've only felt like I've actually fought "the bad guys" a small handful of times so far.  Everything else is like "oops, sorry I stepped in to your domain... I guess now we have to kill each other." =P

Perhaps a game with such diversity does not have time to flesh out so many backstories? But a little more would have gone a long way!

On the plus side: This is one of the few times when I have truly found a soundtrack to be memorable (and in a good way!). So, there's that!

But who knows, maybe the best is yet to come and my opinion will totally change by the end of the game!

And remember, just because this game isn't blowing my mind, it doesn't mean I'm saying you are any less awesome if you love it.

Yes, actually, they do.  Plus, making your standard-issue deathmatch and team deathmatch is so much easier than building levels/campaigns specifically designed and balanced for 2 or more players working together.  And honestly, the masses (inspired by Call of Duty most recently) have shown that they far prefer competitive deathmatch multiplayer to thoughtfully-designed Co-op.  Back when I was playing Uncharted 2, I'd submit for a Co-op game and have to wait up to 10 minutes at some points to get three players together for a match.  You select team deathmatch, you're in-game in less than a minute.  I've seen a similar thing with Killzone 3, where finding a game for Guerilla Warfare is nearly instantaneous, but I've yet to find a game in the cooperation-centric Warzone and Operation modes.  I've also seen this in Bioshock 2's multiplayer.

That casual shooter audience (if such a thing can be called that) has not in my experience shown the interest in Co-op that is needed to force developers to focus on Co-op.  They want their kill-fix, and they want it immediately.  It's sad, too, because Uncharted 2's Co-op stages and Killzone 3's Warzone mode are IMO the best multiplayer modes in those games.  Give credit to Naughty Dog, though: they've put a lot of emphasis on cinematic co-op stages for Uncharted 3.

Incidentally, as for the characters in Chrono Trigger, make sure you do all the sidequests and then finish the game.  IMO, there's a lot more depth to those characters than they let on early on, and you especially see it in the character-centric sidequests.

Yea... I think you are correct on the co-op even though it saddens me.  Think it will ever change?  Any idea how it could?

As for the side-quests in CT, I don't feel like I have even come across one.  Do they only become available later in the game?

It is also possible that I'm just not sure what is side-quest and what is main-quest.  I like the freedom in this game, but I feel that came at the sacrifice of a strong sense of purpose.

I just finished assembling the Masamune and am about to bring it to Frog.  I assume that is the main quest, right?

UPDATE: Frog has officially been given a backstory and it's awesome! ^_^  One down, most everything else in the game to go!

Btw, I don't trust this bat following me.  No, sir, I do not.

James was very different today.  :P:

You have a long way to go, NinSage. There is definitely more to those characters, if you keep playing.


We recently discussed this amongst ourselves, but I don't think we were recording at the time. James often makes comments over the discussion without asserting himself (my term for how we grab a place in the conversation). There is a LOT of crosstalk, some of it natural and some caused by the environment (Skype lag, no visual cues). When one person is speaking and another wants to get in a comment, it often takes us a few stunted attempts to do so. Greg is a master at cleaning up this process and making it sound very polite and orderly on the show. James has learned to take advantage of this rigorous editing to drop in his jokes and comments in such a way that the rest of us won't really hear it. That's why you often hear him say really funny things without a reaction from the rest of us. I often find myself laughing out loud at James when I listen to the final episode.

Yeah most of the character specific quest that flesh out the characters come later. I guess the assembling of the Masamune is part of the main quest since it pushes along the main plot. Also a few things that you may want to do to get the most out of the plot is to talk to everyone.Some people will tell you about the plot while others can take you to other sidequests and other times its kinda just telling you about whats going on in the time period you are in.

Aside from the characters you listed Sage there is one other character that you can use in your party.Magus but this is later in the game and you have to make the right choice to get him in your party.He has the biggest backstory in the game.

All this Chrono Trigger talk is making me want to pick up the game again. I'll bump up the main topic for the game when I get done with one of the endings.

Having played some mutliplayer (mostly challenges and some others for achievements) I do still find it fun.  I haven't played online or against real people.  I've just with bots so far.  I don't really have any gamer friends although I'm hoping to play some with you guys. 

This is the type of game that would probably be more fun with friends, but for a game I really want to kick ass and have fun in I kinda feel that Transformers is what I would go with (the only online game I've every really played).  And I'm really looking to the one tied to the new movie because of the online will be a second iteration by the same team that did War for Cybertron's online.

Oh and Maulers are the best pistols.  Secondary fire is an instant kill if you don't have a shield.

Since you can same game setups I found it surprising that Jonny had them written down.  But as was said on the podcast the combat simulator is pretty cumbersome so maybe he missed that part.

I'd like to once again draw attention to Greg's amazing editing skills.

I literally stopped listening to a Pokémon podcast that had good content, but was surrounded with just minutes and minutes of empty rambling and constant hiccups related to cross-talk.

RFN is just so sleek and professional by comparison.  Keep it up!

WOOOT! I got quoted  :cool;

For future reference oohhboy is a reference to Scott Bakula/Quantum leap and trouble. It can be pronounced long or short to whatever comfort level you desire.

I paid full price for Perfect Dark back in the day, that's $120NZD in year 2000 dollars which according to Wolfram Alpha, cost anywhere between $47.04USD to $63.05USD. Not only that I bought an expansion pack for another $60NZD, making Perfect Dark the single most expensive game I have ever brought and nothing else comes close since. I feel no buyer's remorse for spending so much money on a single game, however it will remain a unique experience as I will never do that again.

The Coop campaign should be quite interesting. As innovative as it was, the N64 had no hope rendering enough frames to be playable for Coop. I look forward to hearing about how well it could have played.

The campaign itself, style and general openness of a level hasn't really been done since. Almost everything these days are corridor shooters, roller coaster rides. They sometimes try to give you an illusion of a branching path, but more often than not there's nothing there or it's "Intel". PD places additional objectives down multiple paths and gives far greater leeway as to how to reach an objective.

Carrington Villa Hostage One on Perfect Agent is a great example of this. You get dropped off by your transport and the first thing you have to do save the negotiator. Most games would take control and lead you to a sniper rifle forcing you to play how it wants you to play. Of course the easiest way to finish that objective is to snipe, but should you feel obligated, you can use a pistol. Same thing with the rooftop snipers, on agent you don't have to, but killing them helps, on special and perfect, it's an objective. There are whole sections of the villa you don't have to go to, but now contain objectives and partially randomized like the Datadyne hackers. Your told to take a prisoner, but it is completely up to you who to knock out, they don't force you to look out for a specific guy who can only be ID with some small difference, or scanning. The power generator is a fixed objective, but on Perfect you have to hit to switch than the one. Rescuing Carrington has two complete separate paths you can use.

It is example of excellent level design that directs you to a final objective, with tasks that are logical and doesn't hold your hand. It doesn't make it harder only by making enemies do more damage, more health, more/faster respawns, more accurate like all modern shooters, but make you confront more situations that need resolving. One really neat feature that is used in Chicago Stealth and Airforce One: Antiterrorism is actions performed on one level carry over to the next. In Chicago, PD remembers where you placed a remote mine last mission and opens up that door when you extract. In Airforce One you get access to a hover bike next level if you performed a certain nonobjective action.

The level design in PD and games like it during that period is so different as it doesn't use scripting to like chewing gum and duct tape to hold separate elements of a level together like with modern shooters. Enemies are placed into a level and given standing orders. Unless there is an alarm, there are more or less enemies to kill.

Timesplitters, while descended from GE and PD, doesn't have quite a wide scope with it's level design and contain so obnoxious objectives like find and destroy X number of some object inside linear levels. It makes TS the lesser game.

So your saying we only get James by Enhancement Production.

Oh and I heard you slip the Costume Quest letter I sent answer in.

Ah ha, I knew it.  I'm actually a Quantum Leap fan.

YouTube has slightly failed me.  I can find a Knight Rider Turbo Boost Compilation but not a Quantum Leap Oh Boy one.  Oh well this will have to do.

Have you listened to 103?

Hahahaha...after listening to the episode (finally), I can see why everyone was crowing about James. However, I've always taken the philosophy that Jonny and James are natural oppositions. When Jonny's on, his presence repells James' more obnoxious commentary. Certainly that kicked in after Metts got on the second half of the show.

James did have some good zingers though, I'll give him that.

And Greg, truly a shame about DoA. Random matches are just not that much fun, and I can't play co-op Tag Team without a friend. :-(

Greg seemed tired this podcast. If I were him I would be tired every early morning hour podcast. Lindy was the Fonz as usual.

Seems like in Japan the idea of local wireless multiplayer is not a problem.  But doesn't it seem like they entirely ignore the fact that in America it IS a problem?

I mean, there are so many DS (and now 3DS) games where I read about some awesome multiplayer feature, only to be disappointed when I notice the word "local" in the sentence. =\

~

As for Crono Trigger, things are going much better.  The different timelines are starting to have connective narrative threads.  Most of the characters are still flat.  But Ayla got a tiny bit and it's looking like Magus will have plenty.

Also, worth mentioning: the buy/sell/equip system in this game is the best in any game I've ever played.  It's so damn convenient and future games should realize it renders lesser system obsolete!

Dad of two very young boys here.  I don't think I'd even be able to play RPGs without a DS, though I do wish the Wii at least provided an option.  TV time is at a premium, and any gaming that I do normally can't be done until after 9 PM.

I've been trying to get through Radiant Historia for a month now.  My time log is much higher than it should be because I've fallen asleep a couple of times trying to play it in the wee hours of the morning. :(

If you're struggling to get through Radiant Historia - just know that your end reward is this song (not a spoiler in anyway).

It's stuff like this that made me wish I could play the piano better than a trained Walrus at Seaworld San Diego.

VIOLA 4 LYFE

I just got over to the Facebook page to take a look.  James has such a baby face lol.  I'm always surprised how small Zach is.  Dr. Metts is different then what I imagine him.  Greg has no picture and Lindy I had seen before.

I'm...5'9".

When I hear you I think about one of those Southern Bayou good 'ol boy Pit bosses.  The ones with the White suit coat, white hat, cigar, rings, colored shirt, maybe some gator pets, and a belly.

Also did you have to check your license for height ;)

For reference I'm 6' for all intents and purposes with a 34''-36'' waist and 11.5US shoe size with AAA feet.

Admittedly, given my CF, I'm usually a little underweight. I think I was back at E3, I certainly am now after my extended hospital stay.

Southern pit boss? Haven't heard that one yet. LOL! I do have plenty of skulls around my house, no gators though (workin' on it).

I tend to be a little underweight or the perfect BMI.  No gators... But Dinosaurs man Dinosaur.  Also have you been to Dinosaur World?  Its sort of interesting for a one time through.  I live about 2hrs away from the Kentucky one.

James was a model for the Boy Scout Handbook in 1953.

:-\

I'm still not sure how I feel about Chrono Trigger.  I agree that the character backstories feel a little light; I'm quite late in the game, and it seems that characters like Ayla and Robo might as well not even exist.  Their side stories happened so early in the game's chronology that they're forgotten by the end.

Chrono Trigger is really good, but I do find myself having to push through it at times (understatement of forever).  Things come together after you get the Epoch, but there's still a lot of, "OK, now where the heck am I supposed to go again?" I think other games do a better job of keeping you on-track with some sort of hint system.  More often than not, you complete a major chapter of Chrono Trigger and don't really know what to do next.  Square Enix also had a nasty habit of having respawning enemies in areas in which you'll want to backtrack through, making doing so a chore.

At the same time, it always amazes me how the game crafts truly touching moments out of these little cartoony characters.  It just goes to show you that dialogue and characterization trumps anything visual every time.  Frog's regrets regarding Cyrus are truly sad at times, and there are several other instances in the game with thought-provoking statements from characters.  It's excellent; perhaps not on the level of some of the best games in the Final Fantasy series, but nonetheless very well done.

So Jon, when are you starting Chrono Cross?

Yeah, some games just really hit a nerve and get me to feel for it.  I just beat Ouendan 2(SP?)  Not that great of an achievement but I actually sort of cried a little when they "killed them" even though I knew they would and they be cheered back by their burning spirit.  I can identify with the character because I can get their helping the average man even though I have now idea what anyone is saying because its in Japanese.  They care about the weird problems no one elses does and are willing to step to the plate in the end.  All this conveyed without any dialog.

Bwahahaha.  Actually, I do own a copy of Chrono Cross, but I don't even think I've booted it up.  I'm sure that surprises no one.

I wouldn't bother with Chrono Cross, your precious gaming time should be spent on good games.