Game Buoy Podcast Episode 22 – SONY Meeting 2013
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Ahoy, mateys, and welcome to the Game Buoy podcast – your twice monthly port of call for gaming news and views that maybe aren’t on your radar, but most definitely should be! On this episode, recorded Saturday, March 2, 2013, Captain Spike and his first mate, Slagkick, discuss the SONY Meeting 2013 and the announcement of the PlayStation 4!
Captain Spike and First Mate Slagkick would like to apologize for not getting this episode to you earlier – there was a bout of plague on the Game Buoy vessel that forced us to postpone our recording.
This episode was recorded in memory of Kenji Eno, the Japanese video game auteur who passed away on February 20.
FOLLOWING UP
– Rayman creator Michel Ancel protested the Rayman Legends delay along with other members of Ubisoft Montpellier. In happier news, the Wii U “exclusive demo” is now a challenge mode.
– Journey bankrupted thatgamecompany, so its next title will be multiplatform.
– Hideo Kojima will be showing a demo of the FOX engine at GDC.
– Wargaming has purchased Gas Powered Games.
– Take Two will be publishing WWE games. WWE 2K14 is slated for arrival this fall.
– Shin Megami Tensei 4 hits Japan on May 23.
– The free-to-play Kingdom Hearts browser game will be called Kingdom Hearts X. The X in the name is the Greek letter chi, which is being pronounced as “key” – get it?
– The final single-player DLC for Mass Effect 3 will be out March 5.
– Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX is coming to North America this fall!
– The Vita entry in the BioShock franchise still has not entered development.
– The so-called THQ “legacy auction” is now underway. Final bids are due April 15.
– Zeus and Isaac Clark are upcoming DLC for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, along with a new stage that is a crossover of MediEvil and The Unfinished Swan.
– A trailer for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag has been leaked online.
– The Bravely Default: Flying Fairy Twitter says they hear Western fans!
OMG NEWS
– Due to restructuring of IGN, 1UP, UGO, and GameSpy are shutting down. 1UP’s closure is particularly hard-hitting news for Game Buoy, and Captain Spike and First Mate Slagkick eulogize the spectacular site and thank Jeremy Parish and the grew for their superb work.
– A new Batman Arkham game is coming this year!
– Tank! Tank! Tank! is now free-to-play in Europe.
– Pokémon Rumble U will be coming to the Wii U eShop in Japan. A Western release has not been announced, but it is likely to hit before Pokémon X & Y drop in October.
– Terraria is coming to consoles this month!
– A Nintendo Direct aired on February 14!
- New Super Luigi U is an upcoming single-player expansion for New Super Mario Bros. U. It will feature new, challenging maps for every level in the game for players to guide Luigi through.
- Donkey Kong Country Returns is coming to 3DS, and Captain Spike wonders if this might be the definitive version of the game.
- Animal Crossing: New Leaf is coming to North America on June 9, with the European release launching June 14.
- Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, a new RPG in the Mario & Luigi series, is due out this summer.
- If you buy a 3DS XL and either Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon or Pokémon Mystery Dungeon
and register your purchases on Club Nintendo between March 21 and April 30, you can choose a free game download: Super Mario 3D Land, Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, Art Academy: Lessons for Everyone!, StarFox 64 3D, or Freakyforms Deluxe: Your Creations, Alive! - Mario Golf: World Tour from Camelot “tees off” this summer!
- Some great 3DS eShop releases are coming up. Kerploosh, a puzzle game about dropping things in a well, is set for March 7. Dillon’s Rolling Western: The Last Ranger will be out on March 11. Game Freak’s rhythm platformer HarmoKnight will have a demo available on March 14, with a release date of March 28. Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move was also announced, but no release date was given.
- The surprisingly cool Wii Street U (powered by Google Maps) is free for a limited time.
– Rock Band DLC will be ending in April.
– Nintendo will be returning to GamesCom in 2013.
– Nintendo is putting a 60Hz version of F-Zero onto Europe’s Wii U Virtual Console.
– Another Nintendo Direct aired at the end of February, this one only in Japan. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages was announced for 3DS Virtual Console and hit February 27. A Western release is confirmed to be in development. The other big announcement was an app for Wii U that allows Japanese players to play Monster Hunter 3G online with their 3DS.
– Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate will get cross-region play and off-TV play after an April patch.
– PlayStation Vita has had its price cut in Japan only.
– Persona 2: Eternal Punishment finally came out as a PSOne Classic. PSP and Vita support is currently not available but was always intended, so Atlus is working on a solution.
– Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R for Vita will have a Western release!
– Devil Survivor 2: Break Code is coming to 3DS this summer in Japan. The game is an update of Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 with new story content
RUMOUR HAS IT
– A listing for a Wii U version of Kid Icarus: Uprising on France’s Amazon page seems to lend credibility to this long-standing rumor.
DISCUSSION TOPIC
As we expected, SONY revealed the PlayStation 4 at their SONY Meeting 2013. Captain Spike and First Mate Slagkick start their discussion of the upcoming console by looking at its rather impressive stats and just how powerful this beast is in comparison to the PS3, let alone other consoles. They discuss their impressions of the games they were announced, including the controversial console release of Diablo III – which will not have cross-platform support with the PC version. Captain Spike and Slagkick also share their thoughts on the tech demos shown at the event.
The discussion continues with a look at some details and features of the new system. The PlayStation 4 will not require an always-online connection, despite rumors to the contrary prior to the system’s announcement. However, what’s more interesting is SONY’s partnership with Gaikai, which opens up the possibility of streaming PS1, PS2, and PS3 games from the cloud. The system will not have native backwards compatibility, even for PSN titles – though SONY addressed their awareness of this being an issue consumers care about. Slagkick wonders if gamers feel entitled, at this point, to have backwards compatibility as a feature of the console. SONY says that the PS4 will not block out used games, but Ben Kuchera at The PA Report has some thoughts on the matter.
Captain Spike and Slagkick round out the discussion with their overall concerns, impressions, and hopes for the PlayStation 4. Slagkick, in particular, is impressed that SONY is trying to “think social” this time around, and he discusses the social features with Captain Spike (who thinks they are cool, but does not personally see himself using them). To close out the discussion, they each share a #PlayStationMemory in the spirit of SONY’s attempt at a trending topic on social media.
WHAT’S UP
Slagkick talks about putting some time into two monster-battling games: Pokémon White 2 and Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. Captain Spike discusses his time playing Fire Emblem: Awakening, Final Fantasy XI, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
SMASH OR TRASH
In this revamped version of a classic Game Buoy segment, Captain Spike and Slagkick share a great gaming article (Smash) and a poor gaming article (Trash) to highlight the best and worst of gaming journalism.
SMASH: The Incredible Rise and Fall of a Hacker Who Found the Secrets of the Next Xbox and PlayStation—And Maybe More (Kotaku)
This lengthy article about SuperDaE, the hacker known for gaining access to information regarding SONY and Microsoft’s next-gen consoles, is an extraordinary piece of investigative journalism by Stephen Totilo.
TRASH: So No Final Fantasy Versus XIII, Huh (Kotaku)
Brian Ashcraft reports on the lack of a FF Vs. XIII announcement at SONY Meeting 2013 by posting quotes from forum posts where people are complaining about it. Enough said.
SOCIAL LINKS
This episode’s Social Links Question of the Week asked for your impressions of the PS4. However, nobody replied! Sniff, sniff, cry. Feel free to share your belated thoughts and stay tuned for our next Question of the Week!
@nintendoug was eager to know when the next episode of Game Buoy was due out. (Here it is!)
@Flaco_Jones loved Game Buoy’s presentation of the DICE 2013 Awards!
Join in the discussion over at Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or Google+!
FAREWELLS AND SHOUT OUTS
– Qoopa Klub, a Nintendo-centric LGBT podcast
– Retronauts, the legendary retro gaming podcast from 1UP
– Orange Lounge Radio, where EVERY gamer has a voice
– Reading is Fundamental, our seasonal side project with Rob Roberts where we dish on RuPaul’s Drag Race
– Nerdgasm Network, the wildest 3 hours of shock jock video game radio
– Horde House, the show about World of Warcraft but NEVER too seriously
– Girls Gone WoW, for a female perspective on the world’s most popular MMO
– Video Game Outsiders, a podcast for the “average gamer”
– Theme music by Zelda Reorchestrated