Ludwig returns from his self-imposed exile this week and decides to take the intro for his very own as a "welcome back" gift to himself. Then Chris ruins the show twice in like the first fifteen minutes, breaking his own personal record.
We've also got game news discussion, your emails and some of the first entries from the "Now You're A Songwriter" contest. Oh, and big ups to Wesley Johnson of the JPAG for the Photoshoppage.
We've also got game news discussion, your emails and some of the first entries from the "Now You're A Songwriter" contest. Oh, and big ups to Wesley Johnson of the JPAG for the Photoshoppage.
Get the podcast:
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[MP3] Download the MP3 directly
Hosts: Chris Grant, Ludwig Kietzmann and Justin McElroy
Music: "Get Ready for Love" by Nick Cave and a surprise.
For fans: Joystiq Podcast Facebook group
For the "Now You're a Songwriter" Contest: The instrumental version of "Now You're a Hero."
See all of this week's links after the jump.
NEWZ:
EA announces Fight Night Round 4 (with Mike Tyson!)
LittleBigPlanet slated for October (Also no beta)
Killzone 2 dated February 2009
GTA IV snatches $500 million in first week
Rock Band Track Pack Vol. 1 coming to PS2, Wii this July
BIG THREE:
3. A guided tour of the Nintendo Channel
2. Colbert none too pleased about loss to Miyamoto
1. Doom 4 announced, id Software hiring
The "Now You're A Songwriter" Contest: 1. Download the instrumental. 2. Rewrite the song with your own lyrics over it about your favorite video game moment. 3 Submit your official entry here. Get the official rules here.
(Page 1) Reader Comments
The podcast is made available to Facebook group users TWO HOURS earlier than to you rif-raf. TWO HOURS - that's such a considerable margin, I used the Caps key when writing it!
Come on, guys. I know you like to cruise 'round your hood with this blaring out of yo' speakers, so imagine being the first homieboy on your street to play this ish out loud. You'd get mad-looks. Hella-cool...
Ok, I'm not convincing you, so how about begging? We need to beat the Buzz Out Loud Facebook group BEFORE Joystiq's 50th show. We only need another 30 members - if you've got Facebook, sign up now. Yeah, I know - gurls might see it on your profile. But come on, Joystiq - it sounds French. So you can tell them you speak French. French is the language of love.
The Joystiq Facebook group WILL GET YOU LAID.
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-I work Monday-Friday. Facebook is blocked, Joystiq is not. And since I listen to podcasts at work, obtaining the ability to listen to this podcast a full two hours before it goes live on the site is hardly incentive enough. Especially considering I wouldn't have access anyway until the afternoon defeating previous point.
-Get us laid, huh? Fat chicks who are into elves and shit? I wouldn't fuck them with the torch of Gondor.
-Dude, I get enough odd locks as I'm cranking anything from M-Flo to Basement Jaxx. Car time is not talk time.
This is why many women don't read Joystiq. Misogynist assholes with outdated stereotypes.
Fortunately the JPAG is 100% asshole-free.
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Oh well, I'm gonna go have a glass of wudder.
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Ok, I guess that is still pretty arbitrary.
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To Justin: The narrative is nothing special at all. 90% is "i got a problem, go solve it"..and the rest is paper thin relationships w/ characters who are pretty meh... If you want a great narrative, look at Silent Hill 2 or Dreamfall/Longest Journey.
And the city is nice for what it is, but its not anywhere near as exciting as its been made out to be. Character models constantly repeat, those funny moments that people were talking about (like running from the rain) are scarce and only funny the first time you see them, the .1% of the buildings you can actually enter have nothing interesting to offer (kat williams sucks, the mini games are awful), and just in general it does absolutely no justice to new york city at all. They picked maybe a dozen landmarks and a dozen specific ethnic neighboorhoods to put in the right place and the other 90% of the city is absolutely wrong and filled in randomly it seems.
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- I'll give you the fact that it's not a perfect 10, but it is a lot of fun and certainly not a disappointment to many of the people who bought it. I think it's one of first extremely high rated games (9-10) in a while that hasn't disappointed me on some level (I'm looking at you Assassin's Creed and Twilight Princess).
- As far as the narrative, it's not so much the missions it's conveyed in (and you're right, they are very repetitive), but the spoken dialogue between characters. A lot of the voice acting is very good and many of the characters have some pretty funny one-liners. Sure, the story isn't the apex of modern literature, but, for a videogame, it's pretty damn good and contains a few good twists here and there.
- The funny moments you mentioned are a lot more prevalent than you're saying though. The physics engine alone accounts for half of them. The majority of the others are a little more subtle (radio station banter, strangers' cell phone conversations, etc.)
- As far as the resemblance to actual New York, though, to an outsider, I'd say they are pretty damn close. I've only been to New York once and my memory isn't great, but from what I do remember - they have captured it perfectly. I kind of wish I did live there so that I could see my city in the game - even if there are some flaws. Hearing you say that it isn't that accurate though is actually kind of surprising - I thought I read somewhere that they actually went around taking pictures to recreate the majority of the city in the game. Oh well, probably would have been too much work.
The physics engine I think is also very overstated. Its still basically rag doll physics w/ just a couple of new behaviors mixed in. Its good enough for the game, but its nothing special; much less "mindblowing" as its been called. Saints Row had just as good a physics engine and I didnt hear reviewers kissing ass like they are w/ the Euphoria people.
I live in NYC and have been wanting a next gen simulation of it, so I was extremely dissapointed by how shallow this rendition was (especially considering that Rockstars corp. offices are here in NYC). From the reviews, I wouldve thought there would be tons of recognizable places besides the major landmarks, but unfortunatly there are very very few, and some noticeable places are missing/or presented very incorrectly. Most of all, so much is extremely under represented in the game. For example, Central Park is about fifty blocks; its has like 8 lakes, a zoo, 2 skating rinks, theaters, playgrounds, massive trees, historical statues left and right, etc...... Middle Park is 6-7 blocks and has crap in it. I have a crappy little third rate park by my house thats bigger and has more going on than Middle park. And again, Liberty City is very good for what it is and I praise Rockstar for the great job theyve done, but any comparisons to the real New York are beyond ridiculous. It captures some superficial aspects, but it comes nowhere near a realistic depiction at all. Driver: Parallel lines, I think did much better job capturing NYC but that too left so much to be desired.
With Luddy's amazing intro it's official-FIRE JUSTIN MACELROY. Just kidding J-mac
Scary thing... I just started playing Solitaire again like last week. That song freaked me out.
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Plus, after having my copy of GTA4 stolen out of my mail, it was super awesome to win another copy. Trust me, the irony of having Grand Theft Auto STOLEN is not lost on me...
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Where are you from in North Jersey? Those Philly accents saying 'back home' killed me when I went to school in New Brunswick.
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I grew up in a small burg called Long Valley, in Morris County. Heard of it?
Yep Rutgers for me.
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I've always called them jimmies and didn't know they were referred to as anything else until I went to college.
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