Last Frontier Gaming

We planed on launching Games For Thought this week, but we ran into some troubles. Things are being fixed and the site will be ready to go next week. Make sure to check out our brand new site and podcast, GamesForTought.com

This is the final episode. The adventure of LFG is almost over. It isn’t all sad though, we are moving on to a new site. Next we you will need to either check out gamesforthought.com, or search games for thought on the itunes music store. Enjoy the final show.

Want to hear about video games? TOOOO BADDDDDD. We do mention them, but mostly we just ramble.

With Both of us in Alaska and even in the same room, this weeks show is as awesacular (awesome + spectacular) as ever. With this year’s holiday rush over, we revisit some of our favorite games. We also half hardly go over some crappy news. ENJOY!!!!

Just one week away until Seth and I untie to be Sejeth. In the meantime, listen to this podcast to pass the time.

You know how most game designers know that frustrating the player is generally a bad thing? Some of them don’t.

If the title of this post is off-putting, I really don’t give a shit. BioWare has severely FUCKED UP the save system in what is otherwise a decent game, effectively FUCKING anyone who wants to play the damn thing.

I’ve recently gotten to the nice, pretty snow level and got the snow buggy thing that handles like ass and for whatever reason can’t shoot uphill - but that’s a conversation for another day. The buggy section takes about 10 minutes or so, once you die a few times getting a hang of the controls, but there’s no chance to save within the whole section. This would be fine, and not too punishing, if you got an auto-save point at the end of that suction. But you don’t.

You then get to fight a half-dozen Geth (bad guys with a name that would be cooler if the first letter were changed…) in a garage. Cool, so I died there, and had to go back to the start of the buggy section. This is like your third time in combat in all of Mass Effect, and they expect you to have it perfected the system. So, the third time fighting these guys, I beat them - go me! - and proceed to fight another three dozen enemies and mini-bosses, and complete a puzzle.

At this point, I’ve put a solid 40 minutes into a single life, making tons of forward progress, the entire time trying to save from the start menu. The entire time, I was unable to save. It said “You cannot save while in combat”. EVEN WHEN I WAS SAFELY IN ONE OF THE FOUR FUCKING ELEVATORS I rode in the section. I came to a slew of enemies, prepared to use a force throw deal, and was ambushed from behind.

Then I died.

And respawned at the first garage in front of that goddamned buggy.

So fuck you, BioWare. Your game has a shit-ton of technical bugs that I haven’t touched on here, largely because I can actually play through a game with a dipping frame rate and texture pop-in issues. Mass Effect needed a few more months of quality assurance testing and polish. Because you rushed it out to make more money this holiday season, I might not pick the damn thing up again.

I’m gonna go play Uncharted…

Back in the day, my good friend Jesse Cherry and I spent an entire evening (something like eight straight hours or so) playing Burnout 3 for the first time. Needless to say, it was mind-blowingly kickass and remains one of my favorite gaming memories.

The spiritual follow-up to Burnout Revenge hits PS3s and 360s in January, but the demo goes live NEXT WEEK. Seriously, NEXT EFFING WEEK. HOLY BALLS! Read the rest of this entry »

The site is fixed. YAY!!!!! We talk for an hour about gaming, just for our two fans Chad and David. Hope you guys appreciate it!