Welcome to the GamerPops Roundtable, Volume 2. Looking to build on the tremendous success of our first Roundtable, your heroes Jeff, Greg, and Robert are back to wax poetic about what’s going on the gaming world right now. As always, we’re looking for any questions you’d like to see us tackle, so drop us a line or leave a comment if you want to know what we have to say about the things you care about most. So, without any further adieu, let’s get rolling with this edition of the Roundtable.

Greg: Topic #1: You’ve seen my listing of the 5 (ok, 6) games that I’m looking most forward to. What’s on your own personal radar?

Robert: Well, with Scribblenauts and NHL 10 just released, I suppose I have to revise my list:
1)Left 4 Dead 2
2)New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Jeff: 1) Uncharted 2
2) New Super Mario Bros. Wii
3) Lego Rock Band
4) Split/Second
5) Bayonetta

Greg: How the heck is Uncharted 2 on your list, when you haven’t even played UNcharted 1 yet!

Jeff: Don’t remind me. And I’m still not 100% on Bayonetta, but it looks intriguing, in a dirty sorta way.

Greg: It has a very specific appeal.

Robert: I’m actually drawing blanks on the rest.

Greg: Uncharted 2 is supposed to ship with a mode in which you can make your own machinima.

Jeff: I’m interested to see the track list for Lego Rock Band, but I have a feeling Oldest Son would like it, cause he’s into Lego stuff hardcore right now.

Greg: I just don’t “get” LEGO Rock Band.

Robert: Neither do I. What does it have that regular Rock Band doesn’t?

Jeff: Lego

Robert: Besides Legos.

Greg: Iggy Pop Lego

Jeff: Likely family friendly stuff so your kids can get more into it.

Greg: Iggy Pop? I can’t wait to see LEGO Kurt Cobain.

Jeff: Yeah, Lego Iggy Pop is a playable character. Shirtless, of course.

Greg: True story: Iggy Pop does not own any shirts.

Jeff: There’s a bad joke I could make about Lego Kurt Cobain that I won’t.

Greg: Worse than the joke of making him a playable character in Rock Band or Guitar Hero or whatever it is?

Jeff: Guitar Hero 5.

Robert: Well, our non-existent lawyers thank you. I’ll admit I’m intrigued by alpha protocol, but I’m not sure about it.

Greg: Which one is that? There seem to be an abundance of spy type games coming.

Robert: Spy game from SEGA.

Greg: Is it MMO type?

Robert: http://www.alphaprotocol.com/us/main.php. It’s a a spy action/RPG.

Greg: I was tempted to put MAG on my list. It’s insanely ambitious.

Robert: Yeah, but I think it’s going to be too ambitious. Modern Warfare 2 is tempting, but I don’t know how interested I really am.

Jeff: Given my apathy towards first-person shooters, I’ll be staying away from both of those, myself.

Greg: My biggest concern is that with team play being so essential in MAG, will the dynamic work, or will you get the 12 year old run and gunner in your group?

Jeff: If it was on XBox Live – Yes, you’d get the 12 year old run and gun. Who would curse.

Greg: I still have Warhawk to fall back on, so MAG isn’t necessary.

Robert: I bought Warhawk 6 months ago and still havent played it.

Greg: Got it with my system. Played it ALOT. Never flew though

Robert: Man, I love these 12 year olds who boss adults around. Not to pick on a group, since I have a 11 year old cousin who is a gamer, but that has to be the most obnoxious group of online gamers yet.

Greg: I think it’s more a Halo stereotype than anything else

Robert: Nah it exists in other games. I’ve seen it in COD and L4D.

Greg: Another reason Jeff doesn’t play FPSs. That and his horrific lack of skill.

Jeff: Oh, God. I’m terrible at FPS.

Greg: I tend to play online in specific titles, where I can generally ignore the chatter if I want to. Burnout Paradise for example.

Robert: That’s a good one.

Jeff: Most of the folks I’ve gone online with in Burnout Paradise have been pretty good.

Robert: I generally choose to play with a group so that I can just choose party chat and talk to my friends. The biggest reason I am looking forward to Left 4 Dead 2 was because it provided one of the more fun gaming experiences I had last year. One of my friends got stuck in a tree as he got knocked there by the tank and needed to be helped up. Except he was in a tree, so we couldnt get to him. The solution? We had to kill him.

Greg: Glitches are awesome

Robert: So the three of us just kept shooting him with our pistols. Eight months later and it still cracks us up.

Jeff: Nice

Greg: Two things I noted from our combined lists. One, we’re all eager to play Super Mario Wii. And two, for being PS3 owners, none of us are terribly excited about God of War.

Robert: Never played it, and have never been terribly interested in it.

Jeff: I’m not sure why I don’t care as much about it. Maybe I’ll look at the remade GOW 1 and 2 when it comes out for PS3, though I can’t see it at this time with the queue of stuff I need to play.

Greg: I played the first one, thought it was a fantastically executed game. But it seemed to tell the story perfectly in one game. A sequel just never seemed interesting.

Robert: Shall we move on to our next topic?

Greg: Topic #2: Retro remakes are being increasingly popular. Both old school remakes, and new versions. What classic games do you want to see get a makeover?

Robert: Bugs bunny’s crazy castle. I kid, I kid.

Greg: For me, there’s one game that’s #1 on my list. River City Ransom.

Jeff: BARF!

Robert: That was a fun game, but I feel like the brawler genre has not done well at remakes.

Greg: I loved that game. It had a great mix of 2D brawling, plus some actual strategy and character building.

Jeff: You really don’t see many good brawlers anymore. I remember playing a lot of Double Dragon back in the day. I’m really not sure if I’d want to see a modern remake of that though.

Greg: As a secondary question here, with remakes, do you want to see the old school revamps like Bionic Commando Rearmed, the new Bonk, etc, or full on remakes?

Jeff: Full On Remakes. Easy.

Robert: I don’t care if they are revamps or remakes, as long as they are quality.

Jeff: It’s relatively easy to get your hands on the classics these days, legitimate or not. And I find for the most part they just don’t age well.

Greg: Bionic Commando remake good. Bionic Commando revamp bad. At least with a remake, they tend to be cheaper. I’ll pay $10-15 to relive old memories. But not $60.

Robert: I think my top choice for a revamp/remake is Baseball Stars. To this day, it’s still my favorite baseball game. Heck, my favorite SPORTS game.

Greg: Great game. It was so unique to have a semi-deep team building component to it.

Robert: I still play Baseball Stars, creating teams, etc. With 2k Sports having exclusive 3rd party baseball rights, it would be the perfect chance for another company to step in. If someone remade it with online league/multiplayer and kept the team building aspect I think it would be a cash cow.

Jeff: Speaking of sports games, put me down also for bringing back old school NFL Blitz.

Greg: Allegedly, EA is working on an arcady-football title, like last year’s NHL 3 on 3. That could be the game.

Robert: Yeah, I heard about that

Jeff: I’m keeping an eye out for that.

Robert: Of course, I didn’t buy that NHL game last year. I stuck with NHL 09.

Jeff: I got both. I played 3 on 3 a lot more.

Greg: It wouldn’t be a retro discussion without saying this: Give me Sonic in 2D and HD. Please Sega.

Jeff: Are you even allowed to make 2D platformers anymore?

Robert: Not good ones.

Greg: In a world with Extreme Lawn Bowling, everything is possible. Contra got a WiiWare remake. Castlevania is getting one.

Robert: Yeah, I am interested in that one

Greg: So, it’s possible. The key is, you have to start with good source material.

Jeff: If you think the Wii has a tonne of shovelware, check out the iTunes App Store some time.

Greg: You mean the App/Fart Store?

Robert: There is plenty of quality in the App Store, you just have to sort through a lot to find it.

Jeff: Same with the Wii. It’s just on an even bigger scale in the App Store.

Greg: At least with the Wii, if you know it’s $20, you can just ignore it

Robert:

Jeff: Excellent point.

Greg: OK, before we move on, there’s one retro franchise that we can’t forget: Duke Nukem.

Robert: Needs to stay dead i think.

Jeff: Duke Nukem. That ship has sailed. A decade ago, it was significant. Now it’s just another FPS that we’ll never see.

Greg: I have so many fond memories of Duke Nukem. My first experience with LAN multiplayer

Jeff: Same here. Those were the days.

Robert: Good times.

Greg: Which segues nicely into our next topic: What retro franchises should stay dead.

Robert: I hate to say it, but Sonic.

Jeff: Yeah, Sonic.

Greg: You’re killing me guys.

Jeff: They just can’t recapture the magic with anything they try.

Greg: Sonic CAN be good, it just needs to be done right. No more open worlds, not more werehogs. Just speed, speed and more speed.

Robert: Here’s the thing, I dont know if I have any interest in revisiting Sonic. Even old school. Speaking of things I don’t want to revisit, Legend of Zelda DS. No thanks.

Greg: I have a love-hate thing with Zelda games. On one hand, they tend to be wonderful. On the other hand, they tend to be the same game repeated anew.

Robert: Twilight Princess is a prime example.

Jeff: Twilight Princess lost me after about 30 hours.

Greg: I finished it. But I never did finish Wind Waker. I got bored collecting tuning forks.

Robert: I got bored with both of those games.

Greg: Technically, they are always fantastic, but it’s time for a new story. Which I don’t think is possible, in a core Zelda game.

Robert: Every game is a new gimmick. I think its time for a traditional Zelda game.

Jeff: Like old school top-down?

Robert: Yeah, but not stylus controlled, which is a trend I am not enjoying in my DS games.

Jeff: Speaking of, is Scribblenauts as hard to control as the reviews make it out to be?

Robert: Yes and no. It’s straightforward, but sometimes interacting with objects is a pain. Like sometimes a character will stand in front of something you need, and you won’t be able to pick it up. But it’s still really fun.

Jeff: Control’s sort of a big deal for me, so that’s always a red flag when I see control issues.

Greg: Good time for our next topic. Putting away the controller, and embracing new ways of game controls. From the stylus, to the Balance Board and skateboard, to doing pantomime in front of a camera.

Robert: Whoo boy, thats a tough one. On the one hand, I’m all for innovation. On the other hand, when I won’t play Tiger Woods because it’s a bit of a pain and exhausting…

Jeff: It’s all too gimmicky right now. Wii waggle is either tacked on or token. Natal looks HUGELY overrated. And the motion sticks that Sony are doing don’t float my boat yet either.

Robert: DS games that use only a stylus to do anything are aggravating.

Greg: I can see natal being fantastic in a very small number of custom titles, mediocre and shoehorned into a bunch of others (like the Burnout example), and then just being crap in a LOT of others.

Robert: I’m going to sound like an old man, but what’s so wrong with using the control pad to, you know, control the character?

Greg: Because people can’t do it. It’s too hard. There’s something to be said for the simplicity of a lot of Wii controls, even if it’s token. Shake the stick, you do an attack. A lot easier than quarter circle X X triangle circle square.

Jeff: Robert, I’m more “casual” than you two, and even I’M partial to a real controller, and I usually find them a little daunting. Of course it’s hard, but you learn.

Robert: At the very least, give me the option. Like Punch Out. You can use motion controls to punch, but you can also go old school and use the controller.

Jeff: Good point, Greg. But for the most part, developers haven’t done a good enough job with non-traditional control yet. Nintendo have done a terrific job. I’m thinking of the Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii controls. They’re there if you want them. But you can also use a number of different control schemes.

Robert: Exactly, that’s all I am asking.

Greg: And Nintendo is happy to sell you accessories to accommodate all those different control schemes.

Jeff: Wavebird controller FTW, at least in Brawl.

Greg: The PS3 and XBox controllers are definitely not really new-user friendly. With the PS3, at least it’s the same controller that Sony’s been using for what, 15 years?

Robert: And the Xbox controller is just a variation on it.

Jeff: If a game can map its control scheme properly, the controller doesn’t get as daunting. inFamous I found was a good example of using pretty much all the buttons, but it was as intuitive and simple to figure out as you’re going to get.

Greg: I think we need to go back to the Atari 2600 days. One stick, one button. And we liked it that way!

Jeff: Stop it. I’m longing for my old Commodore 64 again.

Greg: There’s an App for that.

Robert: Sounds like a slogan.

Jeff: No, Greg, there’s not.

Greg: Give it time. Again

Jeff: BTW, that App stinks. I had a lot of C64 games. I’d NEVER heard of any of those turds that it came with.

Robert: Haha.

Greg: Well, there were a lot of lousy C64 games. They couldn’t all be California Games. The problem with Natal and the Sony version, like you said, is that they are gimmicky right now. Nintendo managed to avoid the gimmick pretty quickly because people adopted it on a new machine. And those people weren’t necessarily the same old type of gamer. Now, Microsoft and Sony are trying to come up with something that pushes ahead of what Nintendo’s doing, but it’s going to feel as gimmicky as a Tony hawk skateboard or Buzz controllers. It’s hard to get past gimmick when you’re introducing it now.

Robert: Very true.

Greg: Call me crazy, but of the wacky stuff announced at E3 this year, I can see more successful possibilities for the Wii finger sensor. Not just in playing games, but imagine a Metal Gear-type stealth game where your heart rate actually matters.

Jeff: I think it’s more an effort to lure casual gamers. The hardcore gamers likely avoid Natal and motion stick games.

Greg: True. Those things may work in a small number of real games, but otherwise, it’s going to be about minigame collections.

Jeff: I also wonder how deep we’re venturing into the Uncanny Valley with this stuff.

Greg: Like Milo? I think we’re still a ways off of that. I don’t think the technology is far enough along to allow for enough variety of behaviour.

Robert: I, robot. Declare other robots not ready.

Jeff: I don’t think AI is there yet to do anything of great significance with something like a Milo.

Robert: No, I think that’s decades away, at least on a mainstream level.

Greg: From what I read, that was not anything close to a 100% authentic experience, as demoed. We’ve got 100,000 WW2 games, and Nazi AI is still far from great.

Robert: And zombie AI could use some work, not authentic enough IMO.

Jeff: You’d think Zombie AI would be easy to do, to. Find brains. Go.

Greg: That said, if anyone right now can do it, it’s probably Peter Molyneux. You know, if you exclude Tim Schafer for being WAY too awesome.

Robert: Tim Schafer is starting to enter into overrated territory.

Jeff: Are you referring to Legendary Golden God of Gaming Tim Schafer?

Robert: You’d think brutal legend was going to fix the economy.

Jeff: Oh, Jesus. I can’t believe that Uncharted 2 has the NERVE to come out on the same day as Brutal Legend. Brutal Legend already cured Cancer, AIDS, and Syphillus. What else does it need to do, bring Patrick Swayze back from the dead?

Robert: If it does, Game Of The Millenium.

Jeff: It’s already wrapped that up. We’re shooting for Game of the Deca-Millenium

Robert: Shoot. Well, there really isnt anything gaming to discuss anymore, is there? I don’t know why I bothered to buy any new games.

Greg: We could talk about Brutal Legend 2.

Jeff: I heard it’s already halfway done.

Greg: Brutal Legend is so awesome, it was the only thing able to create its successor.

Robert: It prints money for the user.

Jeff: If you have 5 dollars and Tim Schafer has 5 dollars, Tim Schafer has more money than you.

Robert: Wrong. If you have 5 dollars and Tim Schafer has 5 dollars, Tim Schafer has 10 dollars. I’d like to see Schafer and Chuck Norris in the same room, except I’m worried it would mean Armageddon.

Jeff: Isn’t that what the book of Revelations was based on, essentially?

Greg: Brutal Legend isn’t coming to the PS3 or the Xbox 360. It’s coming to your living room to rock your world! SO, figure we’ve run this one into the ground?

Jeff: Oh, there’s a lot more we could do, but it’s late, and my brain stopped working about an hour ago.

Robert: Haha, not sure mine works at all.

Greg: Anyway, I think it’s time to call it a night.

Jeff: Sounds good.

Greg: Excellent. Talk to you guys later.

Robert: ‘Night.

Jeff: Till next time.

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