Weekend Confirmed Episode 32

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Videogame consultant and columnist N'Gai Croal joins Garnett, Brian, and Jeff on the show this week. Heavy-hitters like Star Wars Force Unleashed 2 and Fable 3 step to the plate in Whatcha' Been Playin? along with hands-on reports from Blizzcon on Diablo 3 and the upcoming custom StarCraft 2 maps. A quick consideration of whether game design stagnates at times by falling in to habits leads off the Warning which moves on to topics including whether derivative design is inherently bad and why we care so much about achievements. And wrapping it up in the Front Page are details on the relaunch of the Games for Windows Marketplace, Zenimax beefing up its development resources with the addition of Shinji Mikami's new Tango Gameworks studio, and more.

Weekend Confirmed Ep. 32 - 10/29/2010

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Weekend Confirmed comes in four segments to make it easy to listen to in segments or all at once. Here's the timing for this week's episode:

Whatcha' Been Playin: Start: 00:00:00 End: 00:31:12

Whatcha' Been Playin and Cannata-ford a New Game: Start: 00:32:16 End: 01:06:30

The Warning: Start: 01:07:40 End: 01:44:34

Music Break featuring "El Cuerno": 01:44:34 End: 01:47:48

The Front Page: Start: 01:47:48 End: 02:16:09

NFL Pick Three: Start: 02:18:09 End: 02:26:30

Music Break this week features "El Cuerno" by 44th & Filth co-founder Andy Reid. Latin percussion lays a strong foundation for the track but it's the wicked horn line that really makes it possible to not get moving to. This brand new track is available now in the iTunes Music Store and on Beatport. On Facebook you can connect with both 44th & Filth and Andy Reid.

Original music in the show by Del Rio. Get his latest single, Small Town Hero on iTunes. Check out more, including the Super Mega Worm mix and other mash-ups on his ReverbNation page or Facebook page.

Jeff can also be seen on The Totally Rad Show. They've gone daily so there's a new segment to watch every day of the week!

Our Official Facebook Weekend Confirmed Page is coming along now so add us to your Facebook routine. We'll be keeping you up with the latest on the show there as well.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    October 29, 2010 1:27 PM

    I thought Shinji Mikami was apart of Platinum Games?

    • reply
      October 29, 2010 2:00 PM

      [deleted]

      • reply
        October 29, 2010 3:02 PM

        Interesting. Will be curious to see what he does next. He does good work. ZeniMax is getting rather beefy lately.

        • reply
          October 30, 2010 10:56 AM

          Can't say I care about this much. I actually don't have much respect for Mikami's sense of gameplay design. I've ranted about this before, but I think Resident Evil is a perfect example of everything wrong with Japanese game design: make a game difficult by making your character impossible to control, and make saving your game and actual task to accomplish. Ugh.

          The only things Vanquish does right are the elements that are ripped directly from Gears of War or Halo. Boring level design, bad enemy design, laughable voice acting and character portrayal, and sloppy controls.

          I guess we'll have to see what he comes up with next.

          • reply
            October 30, 2010 11:06 AM

            Wasn't he also in charge of Resident Evil 4? That was pretty dope. (See, I'm learning the terms, Del Rio!)

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