The Gamers' Inn

Episode 78 – E3: I Don’t Know What’s On Me

Ryan — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 15:48:17 +0000

This week we’re joined by Paul “The Swick” Swickard to discuss more E3, and he was there! First up we get Nintendo out of the way, but what was meant to be a quick talk turned into a large discussion. In our second half of the show Paul tells us what he saw on the show floor and Ryan talks pre-ordering his next gen console.

The E3 Special, Scott Johnson Style

Ryan — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 01:54:56 +0000

Scott Johnson joins us on The Gamers’ Inn to talk all the things from the big E3 press conferences. Jocelyn, Ryan and Scott chat about what Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft, and Sony had to show. Tune in on our normal time this Friday where we wrap up our E3 talk with Paul “The Swick” Swickard.

Episode 77 – Because Octopi

Ryan — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 03:34:06 +0000

E3 is coming up super fast, so here’s a quick Gamers’ Inn to tide you over! Jocelyn has been playing some games that make her angry (Age of Empires 3 and SimCity) while Ryan completed The Swapper. Also as a special treat Ryan gives us an early impression of Free Play, and there’s a sneak peak in there for you too! Our topic this week revolves around the newly announced policies for the Xbox One on Always On, Used Games, and the new Kinect.

Quick News
Diablo III Smashing Current Consoles On September 3rd
SimCity for Mac is Delayed
Fable Anniversary Announced!
Bethesda takes heat over trailer release
Canadian Economy Sees Big Bucks From Games
Major Layoffs at Zynga
New Halo Game Exclusive to Windows 8
Cofounder of Oculus Rift has died

Episode 76 – Rage Quit Writer

Ryan — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 20:25:56 +0000

This week on The Gamers’ Inn Ryan shows off his Luigi’s Mansion commission that Joel Duggan drew for him and Jocelyn describes her first jump into League of Legends. Ryan also educates us on the beginning of the Year of Donkey Kong with Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis March Again and Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D. Finally, Ryan gives a quick nod to The Swapper on PC, which is part Dead Space, part 2D Metroid, and part Portal. Our topic this week revolves around an interview with Susan O’Connor (writer of Bioshock and Tomb Raider) where she has become fed up with the limitations of telling stories in video games.

Quick Fire News
Sony President and CEO Confirms PS4 is a Game Console
The Xbox is all about games too guys!
Naughty Dog Will Use Existing Engine for PS4
Public Hearings into the debt of 38 Studios begin
Blizzard May Have Hit Reset on Titan
EA begins to removed online passes
What’s Inside the Cube Revealed!
EA shows their support of LGBT Issues

Luigi’s Mansion Commission by Joel Duggan

Penny Pinching & Barrel Scraping – Hawken

Lou — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 18:29:11 +0000

Free to play games are all the rage right now in the gaming world. You can’t throw a rock without hitting a free to play MMO, Facebook, or mobile game. That makes this market really hard to find great games. Most free to play games try to get you to spend money between quests or missions on things that would normally be a regular unlock, had this not been a free to play game. Some people enjoy this and others like me find all this micro-transaction crap just that, CRAP!

All is not lost! For about the last nine months or so I have been jumping in and out of a free to play game that has held my attention. They have not gone crazy with the micro-transactions or with any of the other various annoyances of free to play. Hawken is the kind of free to play game I have been hoping would come out of this free to play craze. Instead of being an MMORPG, Meteor, the creators of Hawken, decided to rebirth the Mech Simulation game. That is a genre I thought would never come back but Meteor has done it with some great success.

Each player is a pilot of his or her own battle mech and starts out with the same basic model. As you play the various modes, such as Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, or Siege; you earn point and experience the gives you new abilities, mechs, and equipment. They are really generous with the points compared to most free to play games. An evening of playing got me my second mech without much effort. You can buy points to get extra stuff a head of time, but I have not had to do this yet. All of the aesthetic things like paint jobs are only available through buying points. They have to make their money somewhere.

Hawken also has some other unique features that other free to play games don’t have. Recently they put out a graphic novel that explains their universe. They also have a web series in production that appears to look very interesting. It takes some major bank to put forth risky projects like a graphic novel or a web series.

If their presence at PAX East was any sign of what they have coming then I think Hawken is going to be sticking around for a while. They were at every PC maker’s booths and free points were going out like candy. It might be best to gear up now while they are still a bit under the radar. I could see this becoming a great game for the MLG.

(Penny Pinching & Barrel Scraping is writer Lou Page’s column on low cost indie games, bargain bin discoveries, and free games. These are not reviews but looks at hidden gems that readers may have missed in our ever broadening market of video games. You can find Lou at @BusyZombieLord on Twitter.)

Episode 75 – TV, TV, TV, TV, Sports, Call of Duty

Ryan — Sat, 25 May 2013 17:23:01 +0000

The Gamers’ Inn is back for it’s second episode of the week featuring more Gears, more WoW, and more Xbox! Ryan played through Gears of War Judgement and liked it better than the other March prequel, God War Ascension. Jocelyn has been consumed by WoW and patch 5.3. Our topic of the week continues with the Xbox One talk we started on Tuesday, focusing on the new tidbits of info released about avatar support, multiple OS’s, backwards compatibility and of course used games. Finally we announced our first E3 special that will be recorded June 10th after the Sony conference, less than 16 days away!

Quick Fire
Nintendo Direct for E3 Gets a Date
EA Engineer states the WiiU is Crap
EA Plans to Support Current Gen Through 2017
OUYA – The people’s console
Try Defiance for Free This Weekend
More features are coming back to SimCity
38 Studios Preparing to Sell Off IP
We have even more proof people!

Xbox One Reveal Special

Ryan — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:27:44 +0000

Today at 1 PM Eastern Microsoft unveiled their new console named Xbox One. After the presentation Jocelyn and Ryan jumped on Skype to give you their thoughts on the reveal event. Do we like the new Kinect features? What about the name? Where are all the GAMES?!? Listen and find out!

Episode 74 – Run Around the World Punch

Ryan — Sat, 18 May 2013 14:38:09 +0000

Happy long weekend fellow Canadians! What games will you be playing? Well in the last week Ryan has been enjoying Injustice: Gods Among Us and FEZ on the Xbox 360 while Jocelyn has been testing out the Neverwinter Beta. Later on in the episode the inn keepers discuss the news story about Nintendo claiming ad revenue from Live Players on YouTube. This really pissed off the internet in a time when Nintendo needs the internet on their side. Enjoy the episode and have a great weekend!

Episode 73 – Cover the Hole and Pray!

Ryan — Sun, 12 May 2013 18:03:09 +0000

This week on The Gamers’ Inn, Jocelyn and Ryan talk with special guest Scott Dewar about the new OUYA console, available now to all Kickstarter backers. We also talk what we’ve been playing, including Minecraft, Red Dead Redemption and Dishonored. Listener feedback this week deals with how gimmicky we think the Oculus Rift is or isn’t. Also, for more info on the Quick News IdrA story, check out Starcast Episode 150 for an overview of eSports, and Episode 151 which talks about IdrA’s dismissal from the team. Enjoy!

Episode 72 – Darling of Arkivanstan

Ryan — Sat, 04 May 2013 14:23:14 +0000

After a busy week The Gamers’ Inn has returned! Ryan has been unwinding by playing a free beta version of Papers, Please. Jocelyn seems a tad worried that Ryan would use a border control simulator for a country threatened by terrorists as a way to unwind, but really, the game is super fun! Jocelyn is working towards her Long Strange Trip Achievement by bringing orphans into battlegrounds in WoW (which seems super irresponsible Blizzard).

For topic of the week we cover Gimmicks in Video Games, which was inspired by Microsoft Research’s Illumiroom concept. And of course Nintendo is thrown into the mix with talk of motion control and 3D.