RadioRadar podcast 020: Holiday hangover

Even though I have a huge backlog of games to finish I made the mistake of downloading Star Wars the Old Republic when it went free to play. Granted the free to play only lasted 2 days for me before subscribed but now I am spending most of my time playing TOR.

Haven't played much else other than Chrono Trigger and The Walking Dead. Also, how could you choose the winning comment of these? We're just saying what we played, are you going to choose who absurdly wrote the biggest comment or just whoever played your favourite games or something? BUT, ANYWAY, this episode was fecking hilarious. I've been laughing far more at RDar than Lasertime lately. This podcast is getting better all the time guys, but LUCAS. Lucas sometimes just laughs at all the jokes in the background! I want to hear your godly voice, man, we all do. We all need a little weekly Sullivan. And Henry's booing.

Over the break I played Fall Of Cybertron, my favorite game of the year and recognized by nobody for nothing. I also played Halo 4, the promethean weapons were cool as was the didact but I was slightly weirded by cortanas haggard look with her hair a mess, eyes wide, philtrum, and breasts and butt that gravity has plaqued. But the one I want to talk about was Resident Evil 6 as I rented it twice, it had some control issues and such but critics were way too harsh on it(3/10 Really?) the mass attempt at the cross storylines was engaging. I played on amateur and still had problems with not enough ammo at first and enemies swarming or being too hard. I was however terrified by the Ustanak in Jakes campaign and gaseous titty monster in leons, that kills a whole room of people because I let it out and only left a blind woman that I completely ignore. Also The giant zombie trex was cool. Yolo

The game I played over the break was Skyrim Dragonborn DLC. I chose to redo my first playthrough just to experience the DLC more. There is alot more in this DLC which makes it way better than when I first bought the game. The new items, weapons and armor make my nerdy parts tingle with glee. I hope Tom Magrino is here when you read the answers since he is so awesome and it's been awhile since I heard him on a podcast and that was thehotspot :)

I've got a terrible habit of playing backlog in lieu of all the amazing new games that came out in 2012. Long story short; Resident Evil 4.

I WOULD have played Far Cry 3, but I haven't actually been able to get a copy yet :/ I have plenty of backlog anyway though. I think the main game that occupied my time in the holidays was dishonored, pretty fun game, and a fresh breath of air. Instant saves kinda make the game absurdly easy though. Still liked it enough to platinum it, so that's a good sign! Also finally got to play Super Mario 3D Land. Fun, but man did they water Mario down for the casuals lately... Save the special worlds later on, the game is fairly easy to begin with, made even easier by a Tanooki suit that removes the need for precise jump timing... OH! and if you die a couple times, the game even offers you extra power ups, and even an invincible power up for, y'know, ruining the entire point of the game in the first place >_>

Im gonna guess they were trying something by making 2 seperate set of worlds, they even said it was for the people who wants more challenge, though i will agree for the most part it was easy. The different concepts scale in difficulty to how you'll handle it, the flip floors by jumping was annoying for me, aswell as that stage that dissappears/reappears blocks to the music. Some segments were built around the Tanooki suit which is why it looked like they "removes the need for precise jump timing" but It can screw you over sometimes. Fun fact: Your never getting that 5th Star on your profile if you ever in any moment use the Help Block whether its the item, invincible Tanooki suit (Doesnt stop you from falling to your dead, or touching lava either you know) or the WAY TOO EASY Feather to go straight to the flag pole. Its stupid, even if its pity but hey, no one told us to use it. My only issue is how soon you realize you finished the game, it was a short but sweet experience but i just wasnt satisfied with it ending simply like that. They even confirmed the game was rushed so it makes you wonder what would happen if it didnt rush.

"Fun fact: Your never getting that 5th Star on your profile if you ever in any moment use the Help Block " Actually, you're wrong. You CAN get the fifth star even if you use that. The only thing you're not getting, is the glittering stars, which is a merely aesthetic detail, and thus, not a real deterrent or punishment for using what is essentially an in-game presented cheat code. "hey, no one told us to use it." Um, yes, yes they do. The game is essentially offering it to you in the most blatant way possible. You don't even have to go out of your way to find it, the game automatically, no matter where, offers it RIGHT NEXT TO YOU if you start failing too much. If that's not a clear "Hey, pssst, hey, yes you, you suck at this game, you should use this!", then I don't know what is. I mean, let's face it, what the game is offering you with those power ups (You just said it, one makes you invincible, and another straight up teleports you to the frigging finish line.)is essentially cheat codes like the ones you'd find in say, a GTA or a starcaft game. But at least in those games, you HAD to seek the codes out and actively WANT to cheat, here the game straight up hands them over to you. And, forced or no, this speaks very badly of the developer's view of the gamer, feeling that nowadays they HAVE to include these built in "win" buttons or other crutches that render the game chellenge-less, (And thus pointless.) or else the consumer may not get their product. Simply put, are the older SMB games amazing or not? did they needed win buttons? Oh and, regarding the tanooki suit, you're wrong again. the entirety of the game is designed so you can all beat it without the use of power-ups. And when one of said power ups can potentially allow you to completely skip large chunks of a stage's challeneges, then you know you have a game-breaking power up.

Yeah that was my mistake, got it mixed up. Touche, and Kudos for detail. I give, your right. However it wouldnt always seem this way to those who didnt know or have simple minds. Otherwise i see where your getting at. either way the experience is still rich but on the subject itself, theres many different views on it whether its game-breaking or a pity route for those who just cant do it and will otherwise stop playing the game, however as you said, thats the point of the challenge and it kills it if it simply hands it over, most specifcially, when its a power up and easily taken compared to when you need skill to use the Super Cape right in world, and getting the flute to skip most of SMB3, and for the good part, New Super Mario bros U doesnt give any helps for their challenge modes that rely on pure skill, which hopefully they use on future 3D mario games without giving a game breaking help but more of an exceptable help and leave the challenging parts to the skilled players, be it Wii U or 3DS.

"However it wouldnt always seem this way to those who didnt know or have simple minds." ...Are you suggesting that game companies should cater to these people then? :P It's just- Again, it kinda angers me to see such blatant dumbing down and hand holding in franchises that traditionally didn't do or NEED these kinds of things in the past. This is precisely why I am honestly so adamantly opposed to Dark Souls II getting an easy mode or becoming more "Approachable". It's a slippery rope, and in your bid for trying to appeal to more people, you risk diluting the very core of what made your franchise memorable to begin with. I mean, this game is fun, but ultimately, I betcha not many people will be talking about it in 5 years, hell, they barely talk about it now as it is, whereas people will always be talking about SMB, SMB3 and SMBW.

If your implying Super Mario World, its not SMBW :P It is a slippery slope, but its also a hard world, especially with decisions, as its not easy to cater to both the core and newcomers, its not like the old days, but thats not to say games didnt do anything because there are games that still catered to both audiences. We can only hope things get better in the future, as i said, New Super Mario Bros U already did a good job catering to both and didnt dumb down anything, and frankly 3D land is more of a in-between, being a mash up of 3D Mario and 2D Mario, if it ends up with a sequel, heres to them not dumbing it down.

I played a lot of SimCity 4 and FTL, which i bought on steam. I also bought sleeping dogs and mass effect, but because i sprung my knee i was tied to the bed, so i went with the smaller games, that my laptop could handle :P

"World war 2 Borderlands" Ah yes, THAT GAME, it wouldve been interesting. IM THE CEO, WAVING SOFTWARE, KISS MY ASS XD DUAL SCREAM, YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES, Damn man, your making Weegee sound awesome, cant freaking WAIT The intro song reminded me of Carpaccio's battle music from Wario Master of Disguise Ive been intrigued by the Xbox live holiday sales, ive bought Third Strike Online, and being the Obscure Underdog fighter i am, im trying to main Q, the last day was Skyrim at Half off, which my brother brought, though he still wallows in Black ops 2 because he just cant stop. *Meanwhile in Shawksta's game cabinet* Mass Effect 3: Play me Me: Later

when i got sonic all star racing transformed i assumed it would be a lame attempt to copy Mario kart 7. Mario kart 7, however is the one that cannot not live up to sonic racing. While in MK7 the gliding is not really important to the race, and driving underwater is just a change of scenery, sonic racing has 3 equaling important and completely different feeling types of racing. With levels that are creative representations of Sega classics that change depending on the lap the races never get old. Anyone who was a fan of Diddy Kong Racing on the N64 will find sonic racing a nice change of pace from the tired Mario kart formula. As a now $40 game, it was definitely worth my money and has ate up my entire winter break.

Just more UMVC3. Trying get Doom and Ammy infinities down. Oh and Silent Hill 3 on Christmas and New Years instead of socializing

Been playing Borderlands 2 since Black Friday. Joined in the Swissmas celebrations in TF2. Hawken, Jak 3, PS Battle Royale.

Happy new years, everyone. I played Far Cry 3, but like, a lot of Far Cry 3. I got the platinum trophy and then immediately started a new game and kept going. Just before christmas I managed to fall of a stage I was playing on and break my leg so Far Cry 3 kind of saved my christmas. Knowing I was bedridden, my friends also came and played quite a lot of Rock Band. I usually play the drums but with my leg that wasn't possible so I discovered the joy of karaokie. Overall, a pretty good christmas considering the circumstances.

My wife got me Assassin's Creed Revelations and Brotherhood, as well as Dead Island, so naturally I spent the entire break playing Wind Waker for the first time. (When I loaded it up, my last save was from November of 2003. I deleted it and started over.) What a great game so far!

Well, I successfully acquired 6 games for under $5 each from the Steam sale, so I had no shortage of great games to play! As for what I got around to playing, I played straight through The Walking Dead and Bioshock (FINALLY), so I had two of the greatest gaming experiences I've ever had in a row. I also finished the Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage DLC for Borderlands 2, and I started really getting into Symphony, a game I picked up from the Steam sale. Let me put it this way- I was thrust into an intense boss battle as I was playing through Never Gonna Give You Up. One of the most sublime moments of my life.

I had to temporarily move my computer, so I had to stop playing First Person Shooters for most of the break. After looking for something worthwhile to do, I went back to Tecmo Super Bowl for the Super NES. I got to the second round of the playoffs! I'm not sure if I should continue or not, because I don't want to lose and make all of the time that I spent worth nothing. (On a similar note, I really hope an actual athlete suffers from that problem)