Qt3 Games Podcast: call it duty

Posted by on November 14, 2012 in Game Podcasts

Rudy Basso is here to update us on Natural Selection 2 and the now free-to-play Star Wars Old Republic, one of which sounds pretty darn awesome. We also discuss whether you should skip Call of Duty: Black Ops II, which games you need to get when you pick up your Wii U, what the guys behind Fallen London are up to now (or should we say “down to now”?), and which downloadable Rock Band songs are going strong. Finally, no one will be seated during the thrilling finale, in which Tom Chick recants his Halo 4 review!

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  • luke

    I didn’t hear this mentioned by any of you, but I think it’s a pretty big deal. According to Gamespot:

    http://www.gamespot.com/call-of-duty-black-ops-ii/reviews/call-of-duty-black-ops-ii-review-6399924/?page=2

    Black Ops 2 has this league play feature that makes two significant changes to the competitive multiplayer mode. One, an attempt at skill-based matchmaking. Did you know Call of Duty has never done that in the past? And two, everything is unlocked from the start. Every gun, every perk, every toy. I can’t wait to get in there and try out all the gizmos in Treyarch’s massive multiplayer sandbox. I never expected the AAA series that popularized locking content behind a grind wall to be the first to tear it down.

  • tomchick

    Whoa, that is huge! I knew about the league play and I’ve been meaning to level up my weapon of choice before jumping into the fray. But I didn’t realize everything was unlocked. That simultaneously thrills me and scares me!

    (BTW, if you just want to test the toys, everything is unlocked when you play custom games against bots. I tend to use that as a sandbox to test stuff.)

  • :)

    This made me go back and play Lost Planet 2..

  • Mark L

    I bet you surprised the hell out of your first victims in CoD, It sounds like your enfilade went very well, and even if I don’t personally go in for that kind of attack myself, I’m friends with a lot of people who do, and I totally support equal rights for people who evince a preference for your francophonic backdoor shenanigans.

  • Rob Harvey

    On the one hand I am not sure how much I would keep playing CoD without the Pavlovian grind. I tend to love a gun only as long as I can unlock all of its beautiful toys and then toss it aside the second it is maxed.

    On the other knee, skill match making might help me to actually have a chance to deploy a “death machine” (not entirely sure what that is, but my money is on discount corded boot warmers 90 days after purchase) or whatever other toys that I usually only provide the fodder for others to get to deploy.

    Either way, this is a surprising e-sport turn for a franchise that seems to be built around the annual grind reset. Is the balance team up for it though? Previous titles seem to suggest otherwise.

  • BlackCocks

    black ops 2 makes me diarrhea.

  • http://twitter.com/CHGardiner Chris Gardiner

    Thrilled to hear Below and Failbetter Games get discussed! Thanks!

    If anyone’s interested in trying the Below prototype, you can find it here: http://below.storynexus.com/s

    I’m more than happy to discuss it and answer any other questions over on the Qt3 forums: http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=71184

  • spelk

    Enjoyed the discussion this week, thank you for the shout out to Story Nexus – I’m always intrigued by narrative games and their mechanics, so Below (and the other games available) will be on my “check it out” list. I’ve played the likes of Syrth before, which is more or less a very descriptive online narrative RPG, with some limited graphical content.

    I’m not entirely sure of the chronology of releases, but I know another game that followed a similar RTS/FPS hybrid was the original Savage: Battle for Newerth (and Savage 2). I played the original Savage competitively, and whilst it had similarities with the original Natural Selection, it heavily featured melee attacks and a timed blocking mechanic that really required practice and training to become proficient in. Collecting resources, and sabotage of enemy commander’s land/flag grab was key. A good commander was hard to find, but could orchestrate a medium skilled team to Victory. Savage had top end units, on the creeps side that were towering Behemoths, massive Elephantine bipedal creatures that would swing a huge tree trunk as a club! There was a vibrant and almost familial community built around Savage with many Ladders and Tournaments. Even one on one sword/shield and claw battles.

    Savage is essentially the RPG/Fantasy companion to Natural Selection’s Sci-Fi theme. Savage 2 refined the whole game, graphically and skill wise – but I don’t think it was ever as popular as the original title by S2Games. However, they branched out into a League of Legends style RTS hero game, Heroes of Newerth.

  • http://www.facebook.com/rudy.basso Rudy Basso

    Yes! I remember Savage and its sequel, very fun indeed. I really liked that you could have NPC builders as the humans in that game as well, made it much easier for players to expand out and not have to worry about building up the home base. Maps were much more open and sprawling too, unlike the cramped close quarters of Natural Selection. Neat game, although I don’t think either Savage 1 or 2 did very well financially. I believe Heroes of Newerth is generally considered the least popular of the current MOBA releases – I guess those guys just can’t catch a break, which is a shame cause there’s some real talent over there.

    Last year-ish a sci-fi shooter called Nuclear Dawn came out that features a commander of both sides, but it’s somewhat of a run-of-the-mill shooter. Commander mode is an awesome feature, but you still need to make the shooter part of the game interesting enough to get people away from the AAA stuff.

  • anon

    Grinding for persistent advantages is the bane of competitive multiplayer games for me, I honestly don’t see how people can take any game that uses such a system seriously to any extent. The fact that the rot has spread to 1on1 fighting games too now(SFxT gem system(may be paying instead of grinding, which is worse, but still)) is laughable.

    Unfortunately it’s an effective way of monetizing F2P games, which are spreading. I wonder how EA will handle the upcoming CnC F2P game, though I didn’t have much hope for it pre-F2P announcement regardless. Hopefully there will be a counter-movement in traditional business model games. Shootmania might be interesting in the fast paced shooter genre…

  • merryprankster

    So McMaster is a camper and Tom’s strategy is to run away. Sheesh. Small wonder you guys have low K/D’s. :P

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=53602138 Matt Smith

    I’m sad about the lack of love for Nintendo. No interest in NSMBU or ZombiU at least? Oh well.

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

    Oh, I wouldn’t say camper – I move a lot, but I’m careful. I’m not Tom “high steppin” Chuck

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

    I want to, but I just don’t feel they are interested in me as a consumer, and that’s OK. I think they’ll do fine but won’t see the level of the Wii on this one.

  • Pogue Mahone

    Also, don’t listen to Tom – Below is a pretty great little movie. I endorse it heartily: if you’re only going to see one haunted WWII submarine movie, make it Below.