

By Jeff Mattas, Feb 22, 2013 11:00am PST


Weekend Confirmed Ep. 153: 2/22/2013

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  • Assassin's Creed 4 could be one of the greatest video games ever.

    If you need me to tell you why an open world ship-based game in which you visit ports and islands is one of the most exciting concepts then kindly return to your parents and ask for a real childhood.

    Red Dead Redemption is one of my all time favourite games cause it was an open world cowboy simulator. Cactuses, trains, deserts, coyotees, riding into sun-sets, revolvers, dynamite, bank robberies, hats being shot off... That's what video games is all about, letting you step into a fantasy. And ever since Wind Waker I've ached for someone to make an open world sea captain simulator.

    Sailing through trecherous storms,naval battles, sinking ships, swinging from ship to ship, climbing to the crows nest with a telescope, tropical islands, burdied treasure ... This game feels like it could be incredible. And there's some amazing possibilities with co-operative and competitive play. Imagine a naval based multiplayer death match.

    But this game could also be the biggest disappointment ever. After AC3 was a buggy, sloppy effort with so much supurflous junk weighing it down, I'm worried this game could sink.

  • This was a rough show for me, especially coming off the Valentine's show, which I thought was fantastic. Let me get that out first: I LOVED the Valentine's show.

    A few things to bring up:

    1) A general point: Garnett spent a lot of time bashing the presentation. A LOT of time. But we don't care about the presentation! Nobody will remember this presentation in November. I'm never going to watch this presentation again, but I'm going to spend the next 5-10 years with whatever console I buy. What do you guys think of the system itself? Apparently Garnett thinks it looks great, which is good to know, but until I read the comments, all I knew was that he thought the presentation sucked.

    2) The sticks: Oh man, the sticks. Both controllers are fine. Aligned, offset, whatever. I have never bought into the "They love XBox!" thing, but this is the one case where it's clear that you just like the controller you use more often. That's fine, but I can't believe it's an issue. When you play a FPS on an XBox, your right thumb is down low on the stick for hours at a time, and it holds up just fine. Please, lord, let stick positions never be mentioned again.

    3) I can't believe the second segment started with Christian (who I love!) saying, "When are journalists going to hold Sony accountable for breaking these promises?!" The system hasn't even come out yet!

    4) You guys played Crysis 3 and the new Metal Gear game and couldn't find one segment to tell me about them? This is why I listen to the show. I get that you have restrictions and can't do rambling three-hour podcasts anymore, but Whatcha Been Playin is the key to the whole show. You can't leave it out in a week with two huge game releases, even if there's a console conference.

    5) Garnett's reaction: Please don't play the fanboy card. There are a lot of well-reasoned critiques here of an episode that went a little bit off the rails. Everyone is here because we're fans of the show. Bashing the fans probably isn't the right move.

  • Hey everybody, I like many of you have been a fan from way back during the 1UP days and I honestly think that Garnett does an amazing job at being able to play devils advocate and balance the show from swinging too negative or too positive. I very much appreciate that aspect of the show, and to be honest it is what keeps me coming back. It also helps that you have a great cast with Canatta and Mattas being the regulars and sprinkle on some random guest here and there for flavor. Now obviously this perfect balance can't happen every show, but there usually is some semblance of that balance. Sadly last episode there wasn't any trace of that. It was all very negative and the only person who seemed to say anything positive was Mike Schramn. This by no way gives anyone the right to harass Garnett and i really hope you don't take this all too personally. It's the internet, they're dicks. They are only venting because of they want you to be as excited as they are. You have a great show, the only one I CAN'T miss every week. Keep up the good work!

  • I want everyone who is involved with Weekend Confirmed to know I really enjoy the show and I appreciate all the work you do every week. I’ve been listening for months and I look forward to a new episode every Friday. I listen because it’s like hanging out with friends having an interesting and fun chat about games. I like that the crew will sometimes talk about other personal interests outside of video games because it’s an opportunity to be introduced to something great that I may have missed otherwise. I’ve noticed there are responses about the negativity of the last episode but I think its fine. More often than not I agree with the crew but when I don’t it points out another perspective that I can still appreciate. I enjoy getting more than one side of a discussion. I don’t think the crew should worry about the tone that comes across because I still have the choice to listen. This show is not the end all, be all of opinions. If I didn’t enjoy it I’d go somewhere else. Don’t feel like you need to cater to an audience. Just be yourselves and let’s have some fun and interesting discussions. I’ve expressed the same feelings with a great review on iTunes as well because the crew deserves it and I would miss this show if it was gone. The show is free so it’s the least I could do. Keep up the good work and I’ll be back on Friday! :)

  • I've been thinking of saving up for a doghouse PC rather than a new console what with steam sales and my desire for a nicer PC to work with. But PS4 is kind of tempting for me, I never owned a Sony system and still don't own a blu-ray player (assuming it's still built in), unfortunately few new games pique my interest (maybe infamous, I had fun on PS3 demos) and honestly I'd rather pay to download a game I want vs. pay a monthly fee to play any game.
    At any rate this last gen has convinced me that launch day purchases are 90% not worth it, so I'll just wait and see.

  • On the used games controversy, Shuhei Yoshida SWW Studios' head said Sony's official pr statement is that "all disc games on PS4 will work with any PS4." So that exact phrasing reminded me of one of the "SuperDae" leaks about the then Orbis allowing "multi-user" sign ins on one PS4 console (pictured in this fun graphic: http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18cbv4k6xjv7fjpg/original.jpg ) So if you'll notice in the bubble next to SEA Account, the text reads "Rights" ie your license to play a game.
    So what I think is interesting about Shuhei's quote is that it seems to allot for exactly this possibility. Basically publishers could still block the selling of disc games, but if you want to share your game at another person's house you can log into their system and allow that content to play. The point is I guess that I might not conclude that used games won't be blocked next gen just yet. It seems like Sony's vagueness would indicate that they themselves will not at least at first, but companies like EA, Activision etc might.
    I think what could happen is that we just start to rethink retail games as being these big premium products, and/or games that we buy on become a much longer term part of our playing life. Like the whole thing about Destiny is that it will last for 10 years. Instead of the CoD model, you're just going to add and add content. Madden PS4 could finally be that supposed holy grail of a single purchase where you upgrade the roster every year. On the other hand, we could see a spate of singular game PSN accounts being created every time a major release comes out.
    Or what could develop is that like with Netflix a certain number of users can be logged into an account simultaneously. Maybe if you and your house mates all of consoles, you can essentially buy every game once between you. If that happens though, perhaps you need a second layer of accounts for like "micro transaction" style purchases, where you let players buy that purple hat they want (apparently Team Fortress players love hats?) individually. It is kind of a "brave new world" but it is also exciting because it could finally mean the ascendancy of a digital market and a unified distribution model for all kinds of media.




  • I'm not a Sony fanboy. I own a PS3, but do the majority of my gaming on 360 and PC and I was really turned off by all of the snark this episode.

    Now, obviously, if you think that the conference was a disaster, that's fine. That's your opinion. But it really seemed to me like the whole episode was a competition to see who could come up with the best burn on Sony and then high fives all around. Take Killzone, for example. "30 seconds to brown" oooh! Burn! But that's really unfair. That trailer wasn't very brown at all. If you don't like it, fine. But you can do it without the unnecessary snark.

    As I posted earlier, I feel like the show, in general, has gotten excessively negative. I dont' know if people are trying to be funny or entertaining or what, but it really doesn't work for me..

    All in all, a very echo-chambery episode. Usually, I feel like Garnet tries to make sure that there's a balance of opinions, but this time, he didn't even try.

    For me personally, I didn't think that the conference was a home run, or anything. It was okay. I liked that they focused on gamers and am looking forward to see what games they show at GDC and E3.

  • I always wonder why people have separated Graphical Fidelity with Game Performance in their minds. Since Graphics represent not only things looking good but behaving appropriate when manipulated by the player. In that respect David Cage is right, creating emotive visceral experiences does become better as those experiences gain in tech because it frees developers from having to cut corners because the machine can not handle this or that. It is like way back in 07 when Crysis and Stalker came out and there were things built into those games for DX10 that could not be normalized because the game had to allow people with DX9 to play.

    Graphics begin to really affect performance when consoles switch out because it creates a standard and a bar at which everyone has the same machine and thus nothing has to be cut out for the curve.

  • Garnett: just saw your angry tweet about the reaction to the podcast. I have to say that I also was surprised at your negative reaction to the Sony show, but not because I'm a Sony fanboy hiding behind "castle walls" as you put it. I just thought that your critique was mostly about the context in which Sony operates. I would think that the best way to evaluate the show would be to say, considering Sony's past mistakes and the current (before the show) expectations, and considering the markets and state of games in general, what is the best they could possibly do? And in that sense, they did very well. Your response felt like an emotional, instinctive response rather than a careful analysis of the big picture. But don't let the internet get to you, man.

  • let me wax philosophic on the Media Molecule presentation. I know there was not really a game there, but what if they didn't even want to make a game? What if this was something you could add to Playstation Home?

    What if i could literally build the world of Playstation Home with a move controller and way more time and creative energy then i have? That would be awsome. Beyond that, what if instead of manipulating clay and building materials i could manipulate cloth? What if I could take a bolt of cloth and form out clothing and hats and shoes? What if I could design objects and assign them animation triggers? Basically I'm talking about allowing players to design all the things that Microsoft is selling me on their Avatar section of Live. Then we just need a market place, and we've created an even better version of what Steam/Valve started with TF2 and the hat store. Now players are actually creating the models and the skin and stats and not just using them in home but importing them into other games.

    I import the Killzone app into my Media Molecule thing, then I'm able to craft gun attachments and character skins on a 3D level and I'm doing it with a Move controller and actually painting instead of trying to use the sticks on the contoller to do it.

    I mean it's way more then anything I think Sony is actually going to do, but ya know....someday....maybe....probably not.