Qt3 Games Podcast: Hurricane Halo

Posted by on November 7, 2012 in Game Podcasts

This week we talk about the aftermath of Hurricane Halo and the detritus left behind. We also talk about the fate of THQ and their stock, what’s inside Peter Molyneux’s Curiosity, whether Need for Speed: Most Wanted is better than Forza: Horizon, the part of Assassin’s Creed 3 that you’re missing, and just what the heck Sound Shapes is. Because, pictured.

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  • Barac Wiley

    I’m the guy who loves Desmond. Well. I should qualify that. At this point I’ve only played the first and half of the second Assassin’s Creed, and the stuff where you run around and do platforming and keys and such outside of the Animus really hasn’t been a thing. Maybe I’ll hate that. And maybe that’s all you guys mean. And Desmond himself I can take or leave as a character. But the single most frequent complaint I’ve heard about the series since day one has been “why do they feel the need to wrap this nifty historical city-climbing dude-stabbing sim in all this silly scifi gobbledygook and constantly take us out of that context? I hate it and I wish they’d stop.” And if that’s the sense you mean, I am the guy who wholeheartedly disagrees with you. I mean, I’m not saying that the series wouldn’t be interesting without that metalayer. It probably could be. But that layer is easily the most exciting thing about the plot to me and I love all the conspiracy stuff and hint-dropping and secret marks and weird stuff around the Pieces of Eden and so on. Maybe they fumble that down the line. Wouldn’t entirely surprise me. But I absolutely do not want it gone. Heck, I even enjoyed their silly Project Legacy Facebook game, because it hinted at some intriguing backstory elements to the series.

  • tomchick

    You’re still on the Desmond honeymoon. Wait until you have to play the Tron puzzles and put up with the whinging and sit through his home movies and generally deal with his crap for another two and a half games. :)

    I do appreciate your comment, though, because it’s nice to be reminded there was a time when Ubisoft could have done some cool stuff with the conceit.

    Oh, I also hate Desmond because he’s not Nathan Drake. Poor Nolan North did such a great job with the voicework in Uncharted that he basically ruined himself when I hear him in other games!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Sören-Höglund/799188495 Sören Höglund

    Did you like the bit where the game decided you’d been having fun as Altair for too long and decided Desmond needed to go to bed? I loved that bit*.

    *By which I mean threw my hands up in disgust and gave up on the game.

  • Thongsy

    Loved the discussion on game reviews and scores. I’m with Tom on this. Reviews need to be more diversified as movie reviews are. And like he is with movies, I’m that way with games. I won’t read reviews of games too much as it has the potential to spoil me. I remember playing AC:R and Uncharted last year and then decided to look up how others thought of the game and was a bit surprised but not shocked that all the scores were basically in the same 9.0 plus range with very few exceptions. I saw that Tom’s was one of them and gave it a look and actually sent him an email about it and had a nice back and forth exchange on the subject. Some games are just bad, even if they’re if cost tens of millions to make and have a lot of publicity behind it. Just like movies, you could have a hundred million dollar game or one with very high critical praise that is terrible regardless of the hype.

    One thing that McMaster mention is something I always do when looking at reviews, whether it’s games, movies or products. Looking at bad review will tell you what the potential faults and problems of the product could be. So sometimes the bad reviews are the ones you want to pay more attention to instead of the overly positive review that just tells you what you already know.

  • Barac Wiley

    That was never arbitrary. You’d accomplish your mission, and then you’d get another chunk of the “real world” plot, and then you’d get to go back into the Animus. I thought that was a perfectly smooth pacing and didn’t mind it in the least. It’s not like you ever had to spend very much time as Desmond.

  • CB

    Yeah people just read reviews to reinforce the opinion they’ve already formed. Looks like that’s what went “wrong” with the Halo 4 review. I remember reading the review of Medieval 2 on CGW and it only got like… 3.5 stars? I hadn’t played the game yet, but remember being upset that a publication I liked as much as CGW could possibly conceive of giving it less than 4.5 stars. Then I actually got the game and played it and… well… yeah. The CGW score was justified.

    I still played the game a lot and enjoyed it, but that’s when I started down the slow but edifying road of trying to temper my hopes and expectations with views I didn’t necessarily want to agree with. It is a helpful mindset to have, even outside of the realm of video game reviews. Maybe ESPECIALLY outside of that realm. But who does anything other than play games? Ammiright?!

  • RedHerb

    I’m really enjoying NFS: most wanted as a spiritual successor to Burnout Paradise. There’s a few things though, firstly I do like how each car has their own set of races but they always happen to start at someplace I’m not. Say what you will about BO: Paradise there always seemed to be a thing to do close by.

    Secondly, I like checkpoints as sort of directional way points, they’re pretty lenient but also kind of restrictive. In BO: Paradise it showed you the start and finish point and finding the way there could be problematic until you knew your way around the city. Then you could cut corners, take short cuts and alternative routes with ease. In Most Wanted I find myself mainly sticking to the main roads with the AI. Although accidentally flying off road through a bunch of gates and bursting through debris and dust back onto the main road to find your impromtu short cut has netted you a lead, is awesome.

    Just a note on BO: Paradise I think they did a stellar job updating that game with a ton of free content (including a reset race option in an early patch). It was some pretty impressive post launch support by criterion.

  • Scott McNeill

    I am shocked and/or appalled by the lack of discussion about Hotline Miami and Cargo Commander. You’ve posted some preliminary thoughts on both already, Tom, but this dearth must be rectified, either by review or by podcast!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason-McMaster/607680289 Jason McMaster

    I really, really like Cargo Commander. I need to play Hotline Miami

  • Pogue Mahone

    I too like the Desmond sections, if only because that’s where the insane B-movie plot is happening. Those weird Pre-humans, the 2012 apocalypse, the daddy issues – ok, I guess I could do without that last one, but I want to know if everyone is going to get a really deep tan. Plus, I got vertigo from that skyscraper sequence, and that’s always cool.

  • Scott McNeill

    CC is really growing on me; it could be the game that helps me “get” asynchronous competitive play. If I may suggest an arbitrary connection between it and Hotline, I would say that they’re both about making the best of a bad situation. And dying…a lot.

  • rsimmon

    There’s a scyscraper sequence? That could be cool I’ve only played 1 & 2, where Desmond is all about walking around in a confined space. I don’t mind the crazy time travel plot, but it’s also not at all what I like about the games (which are the fantastic, unique, open settings), so it just gets in the way for me.

  • rsimmon

    I’d love to play both, but … SO. MANY. GAMES. It’s been an unusually good fall (Guild Wars 2, Torchlight 2, Borderlands 2, XCOM, Dishonored) that’s already added to my (far to large) backlog. It’s a good problem to have, but frustrating.

  • Pogue Mahone

    Well, I don’t think I’m really spoiling anything since you play through the “bleeding effect” in AC2, if I remember correctly, where Desmond learns Italian while he sleeps. Or something. But yeah, you get to play some parkour with Desmond and it’s kind of cool seeing this taken to present day.

  • rsimmon

    I’m not worried about spoilers, just happy to see that there’s *something* redeeming in the Desmond storyline.

  • anon

    There are still tons of psp games getting released in Japan. It’s actually hurting the Vita quite a lot.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Tomaso-Monteverdi/100000507367510 Tomaso Monteverdi

    Pretty sure Roseanne was not running for anything…ever.

  • Brad Grenz

    Sound Shapes is gorgeous, but, man, it doesn’t even really start until you get to the deadmau5 and Beck levels.

  • Inver

    I think my curiosity reveal would be “Be sure to drink more ovaltine”

  • MikeO

    The only AC game I’ve played was Brotherhood. I liked it well enough, except for the fact that it sort of assumed that you had experience with the other games, since it didn’t really explain much of the interface or how to do things. (which is funny, since it appears that AC3 overdoes it on the tutorial stuff)

    But I quit the game when I got stuck on some Desmond puzzle thing, and I never went back to it. Seriously — the game is gorgeous and amazing in Rome, and completely tedious in the Desmond part. And yet there was just.so.much. of the Desmond part.

    So AC3 has intrigued me. Even better if, as I understand it, those parts can be skipped for the most part in the new game.

  • tomchick

    It all comes down to whether you want a review to just reaffirm your own opinion, or do you want it to convey some insight into the game? If it’s the latter, then whether or not you agree with a review is completely irrelevant to the value of the review.

  • tomchick

    My name is Tom Chick and I approve of Cargo Commander and especially Hotline Miami.

    That’ll have to do until I get time to write something more formal. :)

  • tomchick

    There are some odious Desmond bits in AC3 that you can’t skip, unfortunately. But the crazy precursor gods backstory bits — what the holy heck is going on????? — can be skipped.

  • tomchick

    Classic!

  • tomchick

    Mr. Herb, you know you can just instantly jump to the beginning of a race, don’t you? It might not be immediately obvious, but it’s always an option. Personally, I like driving to the races, since each car also has milestones you earn as you use them. Furthermore, driving to races is a great way to find new cars, billboards, speedtraps, and security gates.

    Good point about the checkpoints. There are still shortcuts, but there’s really none of the “make your own route” that they did in Paradise, is there?

    And also a good point about the post-release support. Criterion brought the game a loooong way from the state it was in when it was released.

  • cgears009

    Inside the rock is another rock.

  • Nik

    When I played the “regular” Assassin’s Creed multiplayer for the first time in Brotherhood I was really impressed, but I quickly got kind of bored with it. The hide-and-seek dynamic was a bit ruined because inevitably whenever you got the kill someone else would see you doing so and then start chasing you down. Maybe the animations were too long or something? It was a really interesting idea though.

    Also Tom, you lump the 2010 Hot Pursuit in with the deservedly ignominious Black Box Need For Speed Installments, but it was developed by Criterion (like Most Wanted) and I thought it was really good. In particular, playing Hot Pursuit (the mode) online was excellent. And I’m not really a racing games guy for the most part (that is to say, when you say racing games, I think “Mario Kart” or “Burnout” before “Gran Turismo” or “Forza”). Did you play it much, and if so, why didn’t you like it as much as Most Wanted?

  • tomchick

    The Brotherhood multiplayer pretty much introduced the concept. Revelations made it even better. And AC3 made it even better again, as well as added co-op. Suffice to say, it’s come a long ways since you tried it in Brotherhood, Nik! I think you’d be pleasantly surprised!

    Thanks for the correction on the Hot Pursuit developer. I didn’t remember that was Criterion as well. I reviewed Hot Pursuit for Gameshark and gave it an F. I pasted the full text of my review in the comments section under the Most Wanted review if you’re interested in the details. I’d be happy to talk more about it over there if you’re interested.

  • JQR

    Wait, what Desmond bits can’t you skip in AC3? I really thought the strength of the game was that ALL the Desmond stuff (those awful first person puzzles) were purely optional, so I simply skipped all of them. It was a nice finale for Ezio and I was basically able to completely avoid Desmond, so I quite enjoyed it. Am I blocking out something traumatic?

  • bluegh

    Considered upgrading to a newer version of flowplayer? Seeking back and forth in a podcast is really a hassle as it is, and I prefer not downloading the podcasts. I’d rate the searchability of the podcast 1/5 stars, but I am not sure I can handle the response.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason-McMaster/607680289 Jason McMaster

    haha, I’ll take a look at it this week.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kelly-Kintner/740129373 Kelly Kintner

    I loved the show. Thanks for doing your shows. I can tell when a critic really plays a game from the words they say about it, not necessarily the score they give it. Although, I’m inclined to disagree with all the 7-9 score hate. If you think about school, 7 means a “D” or “C”. 8 means a “B”. 9 means an “A”. Below 7 is an “F”. Above 9 is a perfect score. Most “grades” fall into the “D” to “A” range I reckon. I think an “F” grade would be reserved for a broken game that was obviously phoned in on the bus to school. And, likewise, a 100 “A+” would be an exceptional game better than all the rest in it’s class. This doesn’t seem like rocket surgery to me. I could care less for scores, though. I understand we have to have them but if I am really trying to figure out how someone thinks and if I’d like what they have experienced, I’m going to need more than a grade.

    This brings me to why I love reading and listening to you guys talk about games so much. I know you actually play them. I appreciate your opinions and you freely giving them to me. I even feel compelled in some cases to play the game myself and give you my opinion back. It should be said, that even though I might be a podcast “fanboy”, I very rarely (if ever) agree 100 percent with Tom. It simply isn’t why I listen to him. I listen to him because he has a lot of opinions that come from playing a lot of the game in question. I want to know about the game from someone whose really really played it, and can entertain me while talking about their experience. I would be so bored if I agreed with everything that was said. I don’t require a pat on the back for my 60 buck purchase. But I do enjoy focused conversation and opinions of good humored, intelligent, and friendly souls. I need more than stars, grades, or scores to get that fix.