Summary: Episode 15 is flying off the shelves! Who're we kidding - we're not on any shelves. We have music from the ineffable Kawfy - check out Kawfy's Bandcamp at http://kawfy.bandcamp.com. Get the album Longcat Central - it's free, but you should add on a couple dollars when you get it because it's AWESOME. We also have music from Borderlands by Jesper Kyd, Gratuitous Space Battles by Jesse Hopkins, and Monster Party by Masaki Hashimoto. Thanks for being awesome! A huge array of topics are covered, but mainly we (tried) to focus on whether broken games could be avoided or if the complexity of said games and the ready availability of patching is a crutch; The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited; the effect of YouTube and Twitch streams on game quality and attention for games; whether cinematic playthroughs are piracy; and if the 10% off from Sony for the PSN downtime around Christmas was ample. Music Borderlands - Welcome to Fyrestone By Jesper Kyd The game was originally advertised to have "87 Bazillion" types of guns (Obviously a fictional number). The actual amount is 16,164,886. Gearbox's Randy Pitchford had previously stated the number was around 17,750,000, somewhat close to the actual gun count. Monster Party (NES) - Level 1 World of Horror By Masaki Hashimoto This was a request from Misha. This game is interesting, because prototype images released in Japan before release in the US showed a much darker and more graphically complex version. Interestingly, the game was allowed to retain large amounts of blood and the use of the word “hell.” This is interesting mainly because Nintendo was extremely strict in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s with regards to censorship. Strangely enough, the game was never released in Japan. Tegaki By Kawfy Kawfy is a Caffeine Powered Robot from central CA. Working on a few albums and will continue to release singles both included and separate from the albums. Check out and support on bandcamp. His very first album, Longcat Central is available for free download or your choice price. http://kawfy.bandcamp.com Gratuitous Space Battles - Alliance Battle By Jesse Hopkins GSB got its start as a “dictator simulation” in the same vein as Kudos and Democracy which are games by the same developer, eventually finding its roots as the 2D space warfare simulation we find today. Topics DEFINITELY: Elder Scrolls Online re-launching as The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited. It won’t be fully free-to-play, as you still need to buy the game to play, similar to Guild Wars 2. However, you can subscribe for 30, 90, or 180 day durations to ESO Plus, which gives access to all DLC released during that time. Along with that, ESO Plus members get character progression bonuses and a monthly allotment of purchasable currency much like SW:TOR does. MAYBE: Broken games on release - are developers and publishers relying too much on patching and DLC? IGN put out a good article covering how back in the olden days of gaming, once a game was released that was it - no patching, no DLC, no content updates. It was released and it had to work. Nowadays we have games that have portions that don’t work for days and in some cases weeks at a time. http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/01/19/how-you-can-help-put-a-stop-to-broken-games From Ben Burnes: What do you think the effect has been that YouTube Let’s Plays and Twitch gaming streaming has had on the market of games in general? Do you think it has helped keep poorly created games out of the spotlight since it is so easy to access reviews and playthroughs? Also from Ben: Should watching playthroughs showing off cinematics (ie Cinematic Playthroughs) be considered pirating the game, as you see the entirety of the game without paying for it? Ben says he utilizes these sorts of things to help him know a game when he doesn’t have time to play it. Does this damage the industry as a whole or is it free advertising about the game quality?
