You folks have any burning questions? About anything? This is Ask Me Stuff, which does exactly what it says on the tin. Leave me a question in the comments below and I’ll endeavour to answer it before the day is out.
Ask Me Stuff
Comments
67 responses to “Ask Me Stuff”
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Glenn
Are you keeping your expectations low for The Last of Us or did the trailer hype blow your mind?
Personally I have trust in Naughty Dog, but gamers have been burned before.
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Tracey Lien
I am sure Mark will also answer this but I have been meaning to say something about this so I will jump in right now and do so!
Remember the trailer for Dead Island? Remember how it blew everyone’s mind and made people think “Wow, could this be a video game that will finally make us cry?” Well, remember how the final game was actually nothing like the trailer?
I think Naughty Dog are good at what they do, and the trailer for The Last Of Us definitely gives us a very clear idea of what this game will be about. But the thing to keep in mind is that this trailer didn’t show any gameplay footage *at all*. Anyone can craft a CGI trailer to look incredible and load it with emotion and story, but it ultimately comes down to how well the game plays and whether the game itself — not its trailer — is able to push boundaries and provide a worthwhile experience.
As I said, Naughty Dog are really good at making things! They understand level design! All their games look incredible! There is nothing wrong in having faith in them since they have proven themselves to be Very Good Game Developers in the past. I expect the game to be at least a bit decent! But no, I don’t have a boner for it or anything. I don’t even know what the game is like. It’s just a trailer! A perfectly scripted and directed and beautifully-presented trailer. My expectations are kept where they’re kept for every game: tucked away discreetly in my pants.
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Glenn
I fully get the Dead Island reference but comparing Dead Island trailer to The Last of Us trailer is like comparing Michael Bay film trailers to Christopher Nolan film trailers.
What I mean by that is Naughty Dog have delivered quality products before, whereas Techland’s only recognisable release was the Call of Juarez games, which were fairly mediocre. Michael Bay releases flashy movies that lack any real sense of purpose, whereas Nolan has earned respect by releasing some really good quality movies. It’s all about faith in your provider really.
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Tracey Lien
That’s why I said I expected at least a half-decent game as opposed to “I think it will be ponce!”. It doesn’t change the fact that the trailer doesn’t actually show us the game, and Naughty Dog being Naughty Dog (i.e. skilled creators of stuff) I am not surprised they were able to create such a cool-looking trailer. The game might be just as cool, if not cooler! But maybe my excitement sensors are just broken. I’ll moonwalk out of here and let Mark share his thoughts, lol.
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Glenn
Sometimes it’s good to have a pessimistic outlook on things. The optimist expects the best and things can turn to shit quite quickly. The pessimist expects the worst, and things turn out either as expected or are much better off. It works quite well for me!
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oggob
I agree, but I also think Naughty Dog are one of the more ‘honest’ developers out there when they release trailers, the final product generally resembles what they showed us, if you search on the original Uncharted reveal trailer you can see it didn’t change too much.
Think the game has been confirmed as 3rd person, so one would expect that it handles somewhat like an Uncharted games, so that’s enough for me.
Naughty Dog has created 3 great series, so I think they deserve the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise.
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Bryce
Are you even remotely interested in Knights of the Old republic: Not Kotor3?
With all the back and fourth on whether or not we’ll be getting it this year, next year or the year after that and the general “Release it and patch later” mindset all MMO’s seem to roll with, I am hesitant to even consider it.
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James Mac
You mean he was complaining on twitter aboout a FINGER?!??!
Man up, he’s got nine more.
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The Cracks
With the end of the year looming, is there any word on whether we’ll be seeing the 10 GBA games for ‘3DS ambassadors’ this year as Nintendo stated?
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Braaains
How could Award Winning Gaming Journalist Mark Serrels not have known about The Last Of Us, considering it was in development for the last 2 years at one of the industry’s premier developers? How could a developer like Naughty Dog expand enough to become a 2-game studio and work on this second game for 2 years without falling victim to Award Winning Gaming Journalist Mark Serrels’ Award Winning Journalism? Are you now having a crisis of confidence in your Award Winning Journalism skills? Are you now questioning everything you know (or don’t know) about what’s happening in the games industry? Are you worried that your failure to find out about this before it was officially announced might have an impact on your chances of winning future Awards for Journalism?
It’s OK, Mark, just let it all out – we’re all here for you! All you can do is pick yourself up, dust yourself off and carry on as best you can.
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NovaCascade
Award Winning Gaming Journalist Mark Serrels does not fail. His Award Winning Gaming Journalism skills have not atrophied. He knew about The Last Of Us before Naughty Dog had even com up with the idea. But as a fair and honourable Award Winning Gaming Journalist (and Scotsman), Mark Serrels allowed Naughty Dog to develop their idea in secret, so that they may have their moment in the sun.
Now, I think I need a break, too many capitalised words makes me dizzy 🙂
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FatShady
Also I approve of the above question about bending tracks very much..
Finally, Lisa needs braces.
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Nuddy
Did that boy say what’s a battle?
..No he said What’s that rattle, it’s about the heating duct.
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Tracey Lien
We have the public holidays off (xmas eve, xmas day, boxing day, NYE, NYD) but that’s it. Between Dec 23-Jan 3 (or something?) there will only be one of us on the site because it’s generally a very quiet time (the site will still get updated every day, there just won’t be as much content as usual because publishers/devs/etc will be on holidays, and many readers will also be having a break!). Everyone is back with full steam in Jan 9.
TL;DR
We’re only taking public holidays off.
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Samus can make my babies any time.
What’s your opinion on regional pricing, and when if ever is Kotaku AU going to promote the issue in a similar way to the successful R18+ campaign?
For example, currently on Steam Batman: Arkham City is selling for ($AUD):
Australia: $99.85
United States: $49.95
United Kingdom: $54.15
Russia: $25.15To me and I’m sure many others this extreme difference is far from acceptable.
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N3RD1001101
We get screwed down-under in more ways than one… I think i need to befriend a russian on my steam friends list… that way i can wire them money and get themto gift me the games 🙂
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Tracey Lien
Wow, Russia! Let’s’a go!
The problem with this topic is it’s a very different beast to the R18+ debate. There was a very clear path to R18+. There’s a very straightforward legislative process. The difficult part was just convincing people to say “yes” to it, and the rest could be left to government processes. (I mean, it was still a bit more complicated than that, but the main hold-up was in getting politicians to listen to people and pass a bill.)
Something like game pricing isn’t as clear-cut because there are so many elements involved. There’s the exchange rate, there’s the separate markets, there’s the currency each business deals in, there’s the individual business and distribution preferences involved, etc etc etc. When it comes to gaming and money, so much of it is privatised; it’s not as easy as getting a politician to say “OK, all game prices must now be lowered!”.
In any case, this is a topic we’ve covered before and it always goes around in circles because private businesses are obliged to talk about the way their businesses work. If anything new come sup we will be sure to cover it, though!
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Matty
Wathammer Space Marine been thinking of getting it, seen on PSN ’12 days of Christmas’ 50% off & PSN+ memeber discount $50 – Sweet I thought.
Checked eBay – $25 Buy it Now from UK
Do Sony think we are idiots in Oz?
I always have a pile of shame so will wait for post.
On the same note I’m sure Skyrim is a great game but GOTY? How would I know as I won’t buy until sales time, seems over hyped & others like LA Noire / Portal / Dark Souls have been forgottoen as we get to the Christmas rush….
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Tracey Lien
We stopped posting them because a) they weren’t very popular and b) we don’t want to just find some mediocre flash game each day to put on the site. When we post about a game, especially for LunchTimeWaster, we want it to be a genuine recommendation, and unfortunately we often ran out of time and would either forget to post one or we’d look at Newgrounds or Kongregate on a particular day and think “Meh… today’s games are a bit average…”.
Do people really want to see it come back? I could potentially see it being a once a week regular because it would give us more time to find something we really like. I’m just not sure it’s popular enough to warrant a daily post… Let us know what you think! We’re flexible with these things. 🙂
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Wonko
I loved the lunchtime timwaster but I can see that to find one every day can be tough. Once a week ie Monday would be cool though!
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Beavwa
Given the upcoming holidays and a decent amount of time to spend in the company of a significant other, are there any further recommendations on co-op / multiplayer games? We both enjoyed your write-up on pixeljunk monsters. (Going to have to pick up an extra ps3 controller at some stage)
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N3RD1001101
+1 That site is awesome… though i wish they could implement game system requirements so that you can select the say a cpu, gpu and ram and it filters out to show you what you can run.
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HungryHendo
Is it possible to bump this post back to front page when you have completed your replies?
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N3RD1001101
Have you guys played The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky for the PSP? I’ve been hooked on it for about a week ¶:Þ
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Unicron
Why do i not find Tim Rogers articles funny or interesting?
I know i have a sense of humour, i can remember that i laughed at something yesterday.-
James Mac
Because he’s a hipster… and a vegetarian.
You subconsciously know that his kind are not to encouraged… in any way.
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Tracey Lien
They can be a bit hit and miss with lots of people, but Mark and I really enjoy them!
I think Quintin Smith’s (he used to be a writer at Rock paper Shotgun) write-up about Tim sums it up pretty well: http://videosgames.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/tim-rogers-is-invited-to-my-party/
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Brendo
If The Last of Us was being made while Uncharted 3 was in development, isn’t it strange Naughty Dog had recently announced they were’nt sure what was next in line for them… Interesting, maybe that’s why we only have cinematics.
Also, do you think that JB card might arrive in time for the boxing day sales? That would be awesome!
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Brendo
I have been for the past few Ask Me Stuff articles, so I think it’s all organised now. I was just looking for some confirmation, cheers!
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CF2K
Anybody tried youtube on xbox yet? Does it work the same as the web browser. I’m highly looking foward to all those videos where people get hit in the groin. Is there anything funnier, I ask you.
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Vaporeon
Does anyone actually know when Bioware are going to cut the crap and straight-out with KoTOR III?
Or do I have my hopes set either too high, or in the wrong business model?
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Vaporeon
More importantly, why don’t Kinect voice controls work with DVD playback?
Does America have this functionality?
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