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[Blog Post]

The pieces finally fall into place on the video show as the team discusses Heavy Rain, Bioshock 2, Darksiders, the shakeup at Infinity Ward, the PSN outage, and Portal 2!

http://www.fall-damage.com/podcasts/26_FD_The_Heavyshocksiders_Show.mp3

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[Dr. Scares]

I'd buy a game called The Heavyshocksiders.  But only if it was a sequel and subtitled: "The Reckoning"

[kragg]

Bioshock 2 mp:  There are run n' gun power ups.  You can take photos of dead players for speed and power boosts, and you can have two plasmids at a time.

Darksiders:  There is a hook shot.  Good call on LoK Aevan.  I thought it was more like SoulReaver than Zelda,  you know, except the horse and the hook shot.   Anyway, it's awesome.  Especially Mark Hamil as The Watcher.  But ESPECIALLY the rock people gates that totally ripped off The Neverending Story.

[TripleJ]

About the whole "stop with sequels" thing, some games need sequels to expand on the world/lore from the first.  Also, some are meant to be trilogies, similar to how Mass Effect is meant to play out.

Sequels should only be made when it makes sense for the story, not just a cash in like Bioshock 2 basically is.  God of War 3 for instance actually makes sense for how the story needs to evolve. The developers set up the ending of the first game because they weren't sure if the game would do well, so they wrapped the ending up in a way that the game could stand alone, but the game was originally intended to have sequels.

Capcom is one of the main offenders here, Resident Evil and Street Fighter being good examples.  Using RE as the main example, sometimes the sequels are better - RE2, RE:CV, RE4, sometimes weaker - RE3, RE0 (prequel but should still apply), RE5 (The co-op was an excellent element, but the game never really felt as good as the best games in the series).

Developers need to try harder, not just steal ideas.  If you use an idea from someone else it needs to evolve or be expanded upon to really feel like its own game.

[Mixmoff]

Sequels in and of themselves are not necessarily bad. I agree.  But when you're operating in a marketplace where one or two failed games can ruin a developer, it's often tough to avoid a sure thing. 

Artistic vision is compromised when a sequel is made for a game that doesn't need it.  Bioshock is the most recent example, but it's far from unique.

[TripleJ]

The best way to protect the investment of games that aren't surefire hits would be to link them with the guaranteed successes.  Similar to Crackdowns beta invite to Halo 3.  People picked the game up to get in on their surefire hit and found an awesome game in Crackdown, which in turn has allowed them to develop a sequel for Crackdown.

These risky games need more exposure and protection to ensure they get a chance on the market.  Developers and publishers need to be more creative when it comes to advertising their games.  Steam has the right idea with their discounted game offers.

[kragg]

I think THQ has been taking an interesting approach, by giving people a free copy of Red Faction: Guerilla, which I heard was a pretty fun, and bundling it as a bonus with Darksiders, and the upcoming Chaos Rising expansion for Dawn of War II.

I think the draw of getting a second free game would be a great way to draw people to so called "riskier IPs"  much like what was previously mentioned about the Halo 3 beta being included with Crackdown.

[Blazinglight]

Cant we just go back to the good old days of saving the princess or killing the big bad guy and saving the day?  Don't get me wrong, all the new "Indy" games are great and the storytelling in games has drastically turned into a form of art.  More and more people would rather play through an adventure rather than read a book these days.

Bioshock 2 wasnt much of an improvement over the first.  It was definately running off the greatness of the first installment.  Rapture didnt change much between the two games.  If they had changed the location and title of the game I dont think it wouldve made any money and wouldve been lost in the sea of first person shooters on the market.

Darksiders was a refreshing delight.  Even on the hardest difficulty setting most action game fans probably just walked through the game.  But you're playing War, a freaking horseman of the apocalypse and you should be a badass even if you are nerfed at the start of the game.  The acting in the game was superb.  The sword he was running around with bothered me a little.  Looked way too much like Frostmourne from Warcraft.  But maybe thats the audience they were shooting for.  Apparently they're turning Darksiders into a franchise and they want to target the multiplayer audience.  If they can make four horsemen running around slaughtering things with a good framerate im all in.

[Necromancer]

your just making me think of Diablo 3...I like thinking of Diablo 3

[Blazinglight]

Yeah Diablo 3 will be great but Starcraft 2 is 3 months away!!!

[yarb23]

Holy cow! So I guess I'm listener of the month. Sorry for the hiatus gals and pals, but I'm the proud father of a new baby girl!!!!!!!! She is awesome and takes precedence over all games and such. I am shamed to admit I have missed 4 or 5 pod-casts so i was very surprised to hear my gamer tag on my way to work this morning.

I was stoked for the d&d by post or skype but i really got occupied fast, sorry TFK.

Also, Mix in my top 5 game list i was talking about MGS for ps1. I admit MGS3 was a better game, but i enjoyed the experience of MGS better at that moment and time. What is wrong with Immortal for nes?     

[Mixmoff]

Immortal sucked because it was one of my least liked type of games... trial and error.  Any game where I can't know how to progress until I die multiple painful deaths is just jackassery at its greatest level.  I mean even Demons Souls telegraphed attacks a little for you... Immortal just says "Oh sure come on in! Oopsie! Next time you'll know the right tile to step on because it won't result in you getting splattered on the ceiling!"

[kragg]

Immortal sucked because it was one of my least liked type of games... trial and error.  Any game where I can't know how to progress until I die multiple painful deaths is just jackassery at its greatest level.  I mean even Demons Souls telegraphed attacks a little for you... Immortal just says "Oh sure come on in! Oopsie! Next time you'll know the right tile to step on because it won't result in you getting splattered on the ceiling!"

I think your problem was that you played it on NES, and not PC or Sega Genesis, the way it was meant to be played.  Now, it was still the same "trial and error" game play, but there was a lot of really clever gore.