The regular Mobcast crew is all together on this one with the addition of Matt Chandronait from Area5 sitting in on this one.
There are some interesting topics this week including one on adventure games. Adventure games seem to be making a small comeback with the likes of Sam & Max, The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition and Heavy Rain. One idea that is put here is that there are more adventure games than we think, it’s just that they don’t adhere to the classic formula, for example, Brutal Legend.
Rage quitting is another entertaining topic. As we have all experienced sometime in our lives, games can be frustrating. The guys have more than a few tales to tell about rage quitting.
Another week, another guest drops in. Area 5′s Matt Chandronait decides to play 5 guys, 5 topics along with Dan “Shoe” Hsu, Demian Linn, Greg Ford, and Robert Ashley. Rage-quitting, best/worst movie-licensed games, the resurgence of adventure games, and the usefulness of game reviews highlight this week’s discussion.
Runtime – 1:21:15
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2 Comments
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Great podcast but I have to disagree with you on what killed the adventure genre. That genre was the one genre that was impacted by graphics and physics improvements in a negative way. The better the graphics the more artificial the genre became. Gabrial Knight 3 is a perfect example of the artificial nature the genre dead ended into: contrived puzzles that make no sense in a realistic world.
The new growth of the genre seem to be tales that are not realistic such as Wallace and Gromit and Sam and Max where such puzzles are a strong part of the immerson. Of course part of the whole adventure genre can be found in such games as Uncharted and the Tomb Raider series.
Some great points there. I think you may be onto something with the idea that nonsensical puzzles make sense in nonsensical worlds, thus adding to the immersion.
At the same time, while Uncharted and Tomb Raider have adventure elements, they seem to missing some of the slow-burn puzzle-solving gratification that the old style games had. A lot of this also has to do with exploration through character interaction as well. There must be some medium to be found between nonsensical and complete logic/action based puzzles.