Blogs Gaming 25 - Hegway Seaven

It's only a short week this week what with all the bank holidays and such like but Paul, Joe and Clive still managed to find time to sit down and mull over some of the goings on in the gaming world.

http://www.bit-tech.net/blog/podcasts/2011/05/01/gaming-25-hegway-seaven/

 

I don't think its the move towards mainstream that is responsible for less portable walls in portal 2 I think it was more a move away from the chain portal annoyance. Think more of the part where you had to create a portal entrance and exit, then place a portal while moving and hit that portal to get "double momentum" to reach the ledge. while that is still there its been change with the introduction of "the gels" meaning that the building of momentum by chaining portals is no longer needed. Also the areas arn't as well "thought out" to test since glados only puts you through what is available until she gets the place up and running and wheatley just combines anything and everything, therefore the levels aren't well designed. I'll have to listen to the commentary in portal 2 sometime to see.

On developer commentary, Valve's is brilliant. Its interesting to see how their minds work and gives helpful tips into how to think about different ways to "control" the user without using old handles like "playing the game for them" or just using "cutscenes". In the likes of hitman I've been caught as the splitscreen comes up leaving me with an awkward view trying to concentrate on the guy drilling me or civilian fleeing rather than the target using a frying pan etc. FEAR also had ghosts appearing usually introduced by flickering hub, but I've still often missed them by being distracted by a health pick up. Valve have created Alyx to help the player and the commentary give good insight how they make her seem normal without having her do all the work for the player, or without being a distraction be getting into trouble, ie. constantly having to go rescue her.

 

I really miss the double momentum puzzles in Portal 2, I think they should have had at least one chamber that made use of this. I first played Portal 1 on a PS3 and these puzzles were still fun on a joypad.

Interesting to hear the point of view about Steven Merchant playing Wheatley, I've never actually seen or heard of him before as I have never been a particularly big Gervais fan so didn't have the problem you guys had. Also I guess this would not have been an issue for the majority of players from USA and Europe either.

Oh, and yeah I agree the game was too easy and I felt more like a tourist playing it then challenged. But rumors are that there is FREE DLC coming this summer that will add challenge maps, which I always expected and I'm happy to wait for.

 

I would listen to the commentary of these podcasts.... no seriously i would

 

Oh and I blame you BT for killing my productively. I was all geared up for a nights worth of dedicated Maya learning and now I just can't help myself but to go and check out Portal 2's dev commentary

 

No More Heroes on the Wii used the speaker on the wiimote. Before each battle you would get a call from the bint (whoose name I forget) announcing your next title bout.
Just saying.

 

Thank god you agree with me on steven merchant. I absolutly hate him, all i could see when he spoke was his face, i tried to run away from him in game, jump off railings. Not buying portal 3 if he is in it

 

Can we have podcasts with swearing too please, I'm not 5, I can handl e all your swear words.

 

what does "Hegway Seaven" stand for?

 

It's a though, it'd make my life easier when it came to editing them certainly. I think we made a choice a while back to keep them clean though and doing so means we get the 'clean' tag on iTunes which should help broaden the appeal of the cast.

Slip of the tongue when I was trying to say segue heaven - I'm aware it's spelt wrong but it's done now and changing it would break the URL so I'll just have to live with it.

 

Do you have any solid research when it comes to your target audience? I'd expect vast majority of listeners are 18+, but that is just my wild guess.

Re: swearing. I don't mind it and bleeping out the 2 or 3 swear words sounds a bit ridiculous. Having said that, I am a bit worried that if the reins are loosened then we will end up with a torrent of swear words. There are podcasts, (mainly gaming sites) that have potentially interesting content, but they are just irritating to listen to when you have to wade through so many f***s etc. I guess you know for yourselves how you talk off air.

 

I'd assume that too but we have no solid evidence about our listeners. There is no way to get any either unfortunately.

I'll look into whether there is an appetite within the office for slackening the rules off slightly. My perception is that Alex was pretty certain he wanted the casts to be clean but James may have a different take on it now he's editor.

 

Can we not have a clean cast and an unclean one then? We miss out on content, you talk about red river puns, but never mention any it's a bit "huh ? :S "

 

email us a red river pun and we'll send you some back

 

I'm actually sad that I can't regester my PS3 version of portal to play co-op over Steam with everyone else. By the time the PSN is active again all the steam users will have moved onto something else (probably.....).