Episode 2: The Fanboy's Lament

"It's October 15th, 2008, and Richard Garriott is in space."

Official description
Tokyo Game Show and BlizzCon may be over, but they live on in our hearts, and our podcast. Stay awhile and listen for hands-on reports, commentary, and the heart-rending ballad of a once-proud console warrior. This episode probably not sponsored by Gamer Grub.

Games Discussed
Diablo III, Starcraft II, LittleBigPlanet, Fable II, World of Goo, Hinterland, Scene It? Box Office Smash, Gears of War 2

Other Games Mentioned
Age of Conan:Unchained, No More Heroes 2, Infinite Space, Halo 3: ODST, Blackthorne, Warcraft: Orcs &amp; Humans, Diablo, Garry's Mod, Scorched Earth, Gorillas, Star Wars Galaxies, Second Life, Spore, Far Cry 2, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, Oblivion, Tekken 6, Spider-Man 2 (PC)

Synopsis
Nick went to BlizzCon and played both Diablo III and Starcraft II. (Nick finished both of them several times.) He discusses skill runes in Diablo III, and the three of them discuss the newly-announced class: The Wizard. Starcraft II has been announced as episodic, which has caused turmoil in the gaming community. Blizzard's campaign for the game is not very well thought-out, and people are paranoid that Blizzard will steal our money. The guys seem to agree Starcraft and Diablo will be okay in the end.

Chris talks about Infinite Line/Infinite Space, which is a Space RPG by former porn-game-makers NudeMaker. It's not a porn game. World War II navel vessels were influences on both Infinite Space and their former adult games, according to connoisseur Jake. Chris and Nick decided they could talk about the first few hours of Fable 2, since everyone has covered them. Chris likes a number of things about it. It almost feels like an elder scrolls game with simplified mechanics. nick sort of agrees. Fable 2 feels bigger, and Peter Molyneux encouraged people to Buy the Castle and have a non-gamer play the game. Chris thinks a non-gamer would be infuriated at this game, because there are things which make things difficult. Chris relates a story: he tries to finish the childhood portion of the game, his sister is stuck on some geometry and prevents him from progressing until he frees her. Nick had a similar problem where he was blocked in an alley by an NPC. Chris believes non-gamers would not tolerate such problems, because they have no experience with weird bugs and game problems. Overall, though, Chris likes Fable II. Chris especially loves Blacksmith, which sounds like a goofy Atari game.

Memorable quotes

 * "So you could basically make an amazing snowglobe out of Diablo III." -- Jake, on rainbows and wizards in the game.
 * "I gotta go take a Strategy Chocolate." -- Jake
 * "...when you die in that game, you're not like 'Ah, shit!' Most of the time you're like 'Aw, fuck!'" -- Nick, on Little Big Planet deaths
 * "Finally, my gamer sense kicked in: I can't leave without my buddy Superfly!" -- Chris, on Fable 2

YouTube Version Timestamps

 * 01:16 — Theme
 * 01:47 — Intro - Richard Garriott is in space
 * 01:59 — Scene It? Box Office Smash - Better than a game based on DVD menus
 * 04:21 — XBox Avatars - Jake is a goth chick
 * 05:05 — J Allard - Is at a BMX event
 * 07:01 — Xbox Avatars - J Allard is the Hitler Mii of Avatars
 * 08:08 — Bizzcon - More exciting than TGS
 * 09:37 — Diablo III - Skill Runes and ideal builds
 * 11:44 — Diablo III - The Wizard
 * 13:52 — StarCraft II - Split single-player campaigns
 * 16:28 — Blizzcon - Unwelcome announcements
 * 17:42 — Allocating Dev Resources - A gamer's perspective
 * 19:00 — Fallout 3 - Bethesda doesn't think their fans are horrible
 * 20:00 — Blizzcon - Unwelcome announcements
 * 21:08 — StarCraft II - Dialog trees and everything
 * 21:56 — Diablo III - The Wizard is wizard
 * 23:03 — No More Heroes 2 - Grasshopper's design guys are the secret bosses of games
 * 24:17 — Infinite Space - Based on WWII naval vessels, just like their porn games
 * 25:30 — Bungie - Newly independent! And still making Halo
 * 26:38 — Bungie - Every new game might be Marathon
 * 27:53 — The Halo Movie - Did not end up happening
 * 28:37 — Zack Snyder and Slow Motion - Also the Max Payne movie sucks
 * 30:02 — Blizzcon - The Bilzzard museum
 * 31:02 — Appreciating Older Games - Warcraft doesn't have drag select
 * 32:30 — Tekken 6 - Non-exclusivity scandal
 * 34:32 — The Fanboy's Lament - (song)
 * 38:47 — Console Exclusives - Only on N!
 * 40:11 — Spider-Man 2 (PC) - Spider-Man Math!
 * 40:33 — Crossplatform Multiplayer - Chris is a hypocrite
 * 42:44 — LittleBigPlanet - Designing levels
 * 45:10 — LittleBigPlanet - Enforced aesthetics in user-generated content
 * 45:48 — LittleBigPlanet - Jumping and movement
 * 46:34 — LittleBigPlanet - Sharing user-created content
 * 49:56 — Community-Based Games - Maintaining involvement
 * 54:02 — Fable II - My sister was caught on a column 40 feet away
 * 59:01 — Fable II - Blacksmith II
 * 1:01:00 — Fallout 2 - The "unreleased" game
 * 1:01:19 — Reader Mail - World of Goo - It's Awesome
 * 1:01:45 — Reader Mail - Gears of War 2 - Multiplayer modes
 * 1:03:27 — Reader Mail - Oblivion - The 220 hour guy
 * 1:04:14 — Gaming Paralysis - Jake's life
 * 1:04:50 — Hinterland - Featuring shameless name dropping
 * 1:05:46 — Reader Mail - Shogo - Half of Darth Vader's head on the box
 * 1:06:30 — Reader Mail - Donks are Unacceptable - Except when Jake does them
 * 1:06:56 — Ultra Boost - A trillion bottles of balls on the walls