Episode 60: Mass-ive Effect | New Dad Gaming

[0:00] I don’t have you played any VR I’m still I’m so definely curious how that’s going for you um I’m put my money on no given the week he’s said no like not that’s

[0:08] what I’m thinking not since Friday but I did play more I just can’t remember what games the the ones I was talking on messenger Resident Evil yeah okay yeah

[0:20] so I’ll never play that one again yeah that’s I perfect that’s that’s our lead that’s what I want to hear

[0:33] we left that as a cliffhanger to viewers last week game shouldn’t have been made the adult beverages are poured the

[0:45] kids are asleep welcome to New dad gaming a show about fatherhood gaming and new fathers figuring out their gaming lives my name is Trevor and I

[0:52] have a one and a halfy old my name is Gavin and I have a one and a half-year-old and I’m Jeff I got a six-year-old and a almost four-year-old

[1:01] man he’s sming so close to the C like I almost want to call him two he’s on the cusp I think it’s better representative although perhaps saying one and a half

[1:09] kind of lowers his expectations he’s eating a lot of pace there one and a half he doesn’t observe any normal uh

[1:21] nice kind rules no you know one and a half year old Z eventually they be like he’s been one and a half for a couple years

[1:31] had to keep him back yeah constantly back yeah that’s the biggest fourth grade I’ve ever seen you know one and a

[1:42] half as right off the top so the um couple things to get into for the show but right off the top I want to dive into new dad

[1:52] reality specifically Jeff how was your week in virtual reality um resident evil should never have been made it’s

[2:03] just too much for the heart to handle it needs to come with like a heart monitor to warn you and shut off when there’s palpitations that go too high they do

[2:13] like a collaboration with Fitbit just yeah exactly just send the results to your doctor like live stream just heart R is too high it’s just a the

[2:23] screen just fills with puppies yeah you need eye bleach please kittens it fills up with puppies from the bottom so it obscures enough of your

[2:34] view so walk us through so so this is the you did the kitchen demo or you did the full Resident Evil 7 demo the full Resident Evil 7 demo so in virtual

[2:43] reality in VR so one thing I did notice though is that you do have to kind of fiddle around with the settings um because if

[2:52] you go in it measures where your pupils are so the lenses are kind of well probably calibrated to yours so my are different yeah to my fat head so right

[3:03] so put who wears but it’s like a software setting I guess and it adjusts it kind of like scales the game almost it pins where

[3:14] your eyes would see things so when I started Resident Evil it was kind of like I was walking through a dollhouse like things were really like small

[3:21] that’s a terrible like pinning your eyes is a terrible way to describe oh yeah okay I guess yeah but uh I’m thinking of the the scene in um Dead Space

[3:32] like don’t do that in VR that would suck too need through the no but no I uh kind of fiddled with the settings and it made it a whole lot

[3:44] scarier and I’ve played the demo just normally and you can drop down to like a like the basement and it’s dark yeah do that in

[3:53] VR it’s totally different it’s not even on the same level anymore like nope nope I’m out sorry it’s too much sound it’s the sound everything’s behind you and in

[4:04] you and no noton do you’re enjoying the future you’re saying yeah future of horror movies and heart attacks that’s

[4:15] not gonna happen did you make it through did you play the whole demo or did you not get did you to stop almost almost all the way through um I didn’t go down

[4:24] in the basement screw that um but I played like the old videotapes which it’s like if you seen the movie The Ring so in VR it’s like you’re in it’s like

[4:33] you’re in the ring now because it’s got like that filmy VHS tape look to it and you’re looking around the same way oh man no

[4:42] thanks I’m out so the um before we move on to Gavin any other uh notable gaming or uh Parenthood experiences this week uh not

[4:52] so much gaming um Parenthood uh my wife had to go to the hospital um for well it was a severe asthma attack I guess we’ll call it they’re still trying to figure

[5:02] it out so just as a an FYI it’s it’s hard running around with two kids and uh thank God I had some family close by to drop uh the kids off but uh to work the

[5:13] hospital come back here kind of live the uh the Family Life clean up uh and try to take care of things it’s it’s hard so Props to everybody that does it as a

[5:24] single parent like wow got a heart of Steel so it’s uh but other than that uh it’s been okay for uh Parenthood and fatherhood so but uh she’s on the men

[5:38] she’s fine she’s she’s getting better she’s just in there for observation for a bit so the kids can hang out with me for a couple more days just

[5:47] me course so the yeah the constant theme of NAD gaming around the respect for single parents and how on Earth they I don’t know how they do

[5:57] it when they outnumber you it’s hard yeah props to you for doing what you need to do and obviously thoughts uh thoughts go out for fast healing and

[6:09] yeah appreciate it she’s good back the uh so Gavin yourself how was your week in fatherhood and gaming uh good fatherhood was uh was solid uh lots of

[6:18] fun play time uh she’s uh today she tried out my uh wcom tablet um because D for the day uh so that was pretty adorable my wife got some good

[6:31] pictures of that uh and it was weird because like she actually started to see the correlation of moving the pen because it’s just a standard uh drawing

[6:40] tablet where you don’t draw on the screen so she started to actually understand the correlation of moving this like basically this crayon thing on

[6:49] this big pad and then seeing a cursor moving around on a monitor and she was sort of like watching it do its thing and uh that was really weird because

[6:59] it’s like she kind of was like intuition about it I’m like oh oh it’s Daddy’s girl there so yeah know that was really cool

[7:07] to see her interacting with that was I think one of her first with the exception of like playing like a tablet game to like pop Bubbles and stuff it

[7:13] was one of her first interactions with uh with tech um to that scale other than just swatting out a phone or taking a selfie um so that was kind of neat uh

[7:23] seeing that um but no it’s been it’s been a good week with with dad’s stuff um and uh yeah um as far as gaming goes I finished a second playthrough of spec

[7:35] ops line uh just second time through well the second playthrough in my lifetime not not over the last week or so um and just as solid as I remember it

[7:48] um really enjoyed it uh also finished off rise of the Tomb Raider uh cannot praise that game enough uh just the use of the tools that you unlock um

[8:00] to solve environmental problems and puzzles is just so clever because it’s the tools that you use all the time unlike with sometimes with Uncharted a

[8:09] lot of puzzle elements are like kind of bolted to the scenery um whereas in tumerator there are puzzle elements bolted into the scenery but you interact

[8:18] with them with the tools that you have required through the playing of the game um and that you’ve learned how to use uh but then sometimes if you use them a

[8:27] little bit more abstract than you before to try to solve a puzzle and really really interesting puzzle design really fun boss battle at the end um yeah I’m

[8:37] excited for what’s next and what what they want to do next so far it’s two for two uh I really like what they’re doing with the new Tomb Raider games they’re

[8:44] they’re real pleasure U this one was a little bit less violent than the last one um that’s one I have it’s that’s kind of like the re like was it that the

[8:56] Xbox one ex it was just called Tomb Raider yeah yeah yeah it was a little brutal but I think it was supposed to tell her story of like learning a life

[9:07] of violence um but yeah so yeah finished those two off I decided to pick up Batman Arkham Knight because uh it was on for a really solid price and I’m like

[9:17] yeah okay for that price I’ll roll the dice and I like the Arkham games they’re usually you know the first two were really solid I know this one didn’t

[9:26] really quite get to the bar as those ones but I also get to drive around in the 1989 Batman Batmobile so if if I get to do that I’m fine with that there you

[9:36] go yeah um and then yeah this evening I just cracked into System Shock 2 uh because I’ve always wanted to check it out and never really had a chance back

[9:44] when the first oh you never played it oh that would be interesting it so far it is very interesting just just because the game mechanics are totally outdated

[9:55] weird how like the user interface and even just like like the way they use wsad is not the same like uh so I had to like rebind a bunch of the keys and then

[10:07] just that weird sort of toggle between use mode and shoot mode and all this stuff like wow so uh but I’m really enjoying it and

[10:16] the atmosphere especially the audio design is really cool and that music is so techno 90s yeah kick through a

[10:27] window yeah no it’s pretty cool like it makes me very curious to see like that sort of aesthetic that like deep space sci-fi like Event Horizon but with

[10:38] less Catholicism uh Vibe like it’s really cool like I’m I’m I wonder what would happen if they had have gone more that

[10:48] route with Bioshock as opposed to this uh the other way that they went so yeah so that’s about it for me jeez that’s how end it’s a full plate

[10:59] that’s an enviable plate that’s a it’s a fantastic list of games to be get through yeah well it was really everything was like all the games I beat

[11:08] were they on the ropes like they were just like I had like 30 minutes left in them um it was a long time coming it just they all sort of toppled over at

[11:16] the same time and then I just refreshed the queue shortly after so it was just a perfect storm of yeah this is all it really the same duration of gameplay

[11:24] that I usually get it just it was it felt very rewarding to just check them all off the list in a week it’s like Sucker Punch like one after

[11:33] the other like down like boom down boom exactly I’m the greatest gamer ever oh the uh yeah con so opposite to that I don’t barely touched the

[11:46] game the only thing that what what I’m curious about is that what I’ve what has been interesting to find is that now that um I had beaten final fantasy nine

[11:56] on my mobile there actually it’s left this like weird hole for like what I would call kind of a a deep gaming experience for those type of mobile

[12:05] moments which really presents a lot of opportunities like the inet but so it’s something I might want to research into to see what else I

[12:14] could find for it but uh despite that the only other thing I did was play a little bit of No Man’s Sky trying to get one of the new vehicles they released

[12:22] like I really want to get one of the planet buggies and zip around it sounds like so much fun but to do so you got to get a certain number of resources and

[12:30] then find certain people and then at some point I had it I had to jump off to another planet which or to another system which hopefully was a certain

[12:39] system that have this certain guy in it so he could build me a car and I’m just like all right that’s uh that’s been enough of this for

[12:47] today thank you I zip around Planet Side on like some crazy lunar rover thing I will boot up Mass Effect one yeah there we go

[13:00] now if ever there was a t-ball for a segue so the interesting topic discussed around is the whatever just ship it and generally the concept of games running

[13:14] out of time and having to launch oh so quickly oh too early or conversely having to continue to push back their timelines further and further and

[13:24] one of the thing one of the impetuses and really interested in getting the dad’s thoughts here was was Mass Effect and some of the I guess really some of

[13:34] the controversy quote unquote started around the animations and the facial animations where people thought that could have used a little more time in

[13:41] the oven not sure if you guys had thoughts similar some of the footage I’ve seen especially even more so the walks like seeing some of the Walk

[13:49] movements and stuff got a bad strut like oh it’s so good you can tell by the way I walk yeah it’s weird because I think

[13:58] with um like the original Mass Effect Trilogy was not devoid of its fair share of bugs um but I think the overall uh artistic Direction in regards

[14:11] to how they Ed the technology that they had at the time um I think was utilized a little bit better um especially when you see with the facial animations the

[14:22] Fidelity of the original trilogy wasn’t as high the graphical power that the systems had were not even close um but what they did with those brush

[14:31] Strokes uh what they did with that ability to construct a human face and allow it to emote they were able to get more from it and sometimes more polygons

[14:43] and higher resolution doesn’t always equate to better um and I think that’s sort of what we’re seeing with some of the movements like I’m not gonna rag on

[14:52] the animation team that had to do this because Lord knows what sort of restraints and uh and deadline issues and stuff that they’re being held to um

[15:04] certain conditions it’s hard to really produce your best work uh Mass Effect one when it first came out it was a bit of a launch title in a way like it was

[15:14] kind of a flagship one to sort of like show the power of the Next Generation that was coming in at the time but like I think they were given a little bit

[15:21] more time to sort of like yeah yeah no you’re good just go ahead take your time figure it out uh with this one I think they were trying to meet certain

[15:29] deadlines and what I think sometimes a lot with triple A Studios is that they’re held under the pressures of the larger

[15:37] company and them wanting to meet certain demands to have things released within certain quarters so that way they can hit certain targets and when you’re

[15:46] dealing with something that can be somewhat veny like animation and Art and Design and even programming sometimes that just they

[15:55] don’t jump um it’s not like regular manufacturing industry where it’s like well we know how to make the thing just make the thing it’s like well no this

[16:03] isn’t a sedan this is a video game they entirely different and sometimes this takes more time the a so like I I feel sorry for the team that made it in the

[16:13] sense of like they’re really getting ragged on but also I feel like like a lot I think I think the focus shouldn’t be on the team that made the game

[16:22] because I think I wouldn’t be shocked if the team was shoting give us more time please and the publish was like no um I think that might be more the case uh but

[16:34] we don’t know the whole story so it’s it’s I think we should maybe hold off on you know getting the funeral P lit uh and maybe wait and see you know I think

[16:45] a good postmortem on this game would actually be very beneficial both to The Gamers and to other game developers Jeff

[16:54] um Jeff yourself I mean did you have that type of reaction in seeing footage or even the trailer um well first off all the

[17:04] glitches and and animations um with the montages I’ve seen are hilarious because they put them to music rewind fast forward them and make a whole new game

[17:14] out of it um I get what Gavin’s saying about you know the animation team there’s probably other pressures that we don’t know about but it’s almost like

[17:22] they released this game and it was two steps back from where they were it was like the lighting engine wasn’t there like people have dead eyes looking at

[17:30] you The Voice work is like God awful like I don’t reading from dictionary especially when you see the the side by side

[17:38] comparison to like Mass Effect two yeah like facial animation comparisons of of this of Andromeda and Max Mass Effect 2 and you see two characters both just

[17:50] caring for regular dialogue nothing too dramatic nothing too heavy as far as trying to emote things but just delivering standard dialogue and the

[17:59] previous iterations the subtlety of movement and the attention to detail in regards to how the human face moves when it talks uh it was just it was just

[18:09] there um and this new one just doesn’t quite have it there’s a certain sense of a a robotic uh marionette sort of nature to it uh I think it might be maybe a bit

[18:21] of a pinch of uncanny valley maybe because they’re looking so much more realistic in regards to texture uh but even then like the like I think the

[18:29] Stills are doing fine but the movements okay like the clip I saw the animation and the trailers looked good yeah like the clips is another one those

[18:42] like the marketing for the game yeah different than what we see in the final product and I think a lot of the people that were at bio BioWare for Mass Effect

[18:52] two or three have since left so I don’t know if it’s just a matter of you know they stuffed new people in and they’re not quite sure where their direction is

[19:02] or maybe they have a different Vision but it just seemed like nothing looks to be jelling quite right in that yeah they could have also been using a different

[19:13] sort of uh like procedure to the animation yeah they could have had a new team come in and they’re like oh we like to produce facial animations in this

[19:22] method and maybe that method just didn’t work as effectively listen but listen to the female Krogan that’s in there that voice

[19:31] is just God awful like there should not have been green lit and I remember Mass Effect 2 I never played three I just played the demo I think of it but I

[19:39] remember Mass Effect 2 like there’s a whole like history on how there’s no female Krogan ever and like their the race is like dying and all of a sudden

[19:49] the the playthroughs I’ve seen is like hey here’s a female Krogan like no explanation just hey whatever it was like yeah

[19:58] oh yeah one of the other alien races released like a the salarians right like thean released a virus that basically killed off the entire

[20:08] female mind uh hold on hold on I think we’re gonna get that’s not that’s not spoilers not spoilers I don’t think that’s how they just they just made it

[20:16] so they couldn’t procreate it wasn’t about male and female oh wait yeah that was it yeah like no

[20:24] no just to be clear and this that happened to be one of that still helds up as one of my favorite game series I’ve ever played through so

[20:33] to be clear it was relased they were females they just uh they could not procreate because of the virus man the man who no

[20:42] longer has to wear glasses literally just pushed his glasses up his nose and went point of point of water no hold on he I wasn’t going to say it but then

[20:53] you started to double down on it it’s like all right all right that’s the voice thing so the animate

[21:01] The Voice the face is okay that that’ll take you out of the moment a little bit um the voices that’s especially painful to hear because I mean the problem is

[21:09] like so much of it is I mean shooty shooty space time simulator great okay there’s a bunch of those in many ways though like that connection those

[21:20] stories like the reasons to be part of it like they became so integral to the Mass Effect series and to here that there’s there could

[21:29] these momentous soaring emotional moments of the story it’s like what do you mean how can we possibly do this I do not think

[21:39] that’s how it work like just rip you out of the moment that that is so troubling to hear I I either hope it’s overblown or it’s something they could actually

[21:49] pack they’ll pull a Dinklage and just completely remove maybe switch the language see if the other languages are bad or something

[21:59] just subtitle it watch like the Spanish version be like amazing they got the beat they good at passion so

[22:08] yeah oh I’ll say this I mean especially if you’re going to from a dad perspective if you’ve decided to a put your limited game resources and B put

[22:17] your limited game time into a series that seems to have been pushed out too early as opposed to taking the additional three months to get it right

[22:26] that’s that’s especially kind of painful like that is not a lot of time and resources you’re playing with and is it done like is it starting

[22:34] another series is Andromeda I didn’t read up on if it was like new Trilogy oh God not to like they can always improve

[22:48] obviously like it’s great maybe you know they work like again postmortem they work on it they come out bigger and better uh Stronger Faster but you have

[22:57] to put put the time in to something that it it’s very cringeworthy at some points and you’re just rolling your eyes and I don’t know if you can get through it 40

[23:08] hours well it’s been adjusting sort of how I look at purchasing games now like I I tend not to I’m very reluctant to pre-order because yeah I’ve been to many

[23:18] times and especially now like that I’m a dad my time is limited when it comes to gaming having that sense of it’s not done yet it’s like yeah but sold it to

[23:29] me it’s in my hands yeah but it’s not done yet yeah exactly full price like with the like just caus three and then basically like the load times

[23:38] were just unbearably long for me so I had to wait for it to get patched and then even then there was some issues that I I kept running into uh there’s

[23:50] been a few games actually of recent last couple years where it’s like yeah I just can’t I I need to wait like I think maybe it

[24:02] comes down as well as like maybe if less people pre-ordered like maybe they need to maybe the companies that are demanding these releases I think also

[24:10] the if Gamers kind of uh relaxed a bit when a studio says hey we’re going to need a little bit more time because it’s the other issue too is like people

[24:19] they’ll get they’ll sharpen their pitchforks if the game comes out Half Baked and they’ll light the Torches if the game is delayed and it’s kind of

[24:27] like well what are the developers supposed to do it’s like if they say hey we need to delay this game a bit so we can get it done right how dare you go

[24:35] back on your promise and it’s like hey we got the game done on time it’s not done right I would like to I would like to be

[24:44] in Sony and Microsoft shoes too because I can see the PC market kind of fixing any issues like I bet you fans and mods will be done where they voice over the

[24:55] entire game I can see that happening but on Console you’re kind of stuck right so you know what does Sony and Microsoft have to say where they’re you know they

[25:03] do big bucks with I think it’s EA is publishing it so they’re not going to like you know close the door on them but they kind of be burnt a little bit too

[25:12] because I can see people that want to play it will probably go the PC version if they have that choice just for that opportunity this with as much with

[25:19] exclusives as we are with multiplatform because like if you think of like Horizon zero dawn like that was an exclusive and that one was that that

[25:29] came out without any glaring issues y um you know I’m trying to think of the recent uh XBox exclusive I’m not trying to be clever or humorous here but

[25:40] because I don’t own an Xbox I’m having trouble kind of I’m at a loss but I think Halo Wars 2 just launched and that was pretty well received yeah that was

[25:47] welled as well Forza is usually a winner at the gate actually yeah Forza was another that was exive and it came out and it was like very well received

[25:55] everybody really liked it it didn’t come out with any like oh we need that day one patch where just not work I think Gears Award last one wasn’t it whether

[26:04] or not whether or not like maybe it wasn’t the greatest game no but it was still like okay they did great work this is yes this is a gears game yeah there

[26:13] wasn’t as wasn’t any issues I think with functionality or quality it was more just the um story wasn’t as captivating um it more had more to do

[26:25] with the Zeitgeist of of you know our current gaming atmosphere that it did to actual you know the developer doing their job um like they they handled

[26:35] their work really well I think just sometimes the zist of Gamers changes over time and what they’re looking for and what is being requested sometimes

[26:45] changes um but a lot of people playing gears that I’ve seen really enjoyed it so yeah I don’t really see it as much as the exclusives it seems more like a

[26:54] multiplatform thing and I think I’m not sure like maybe there’s some issues going on with trying to please both platforms or all three platforms um and

[27:06] also trying to satisfy releasing on three markets simultaneously and not going over their budget um yeah it’s it’s weird but something I don’t think

[27:16] we saw as much maybe it’s also because we’re so inundated with games coverage and news and stuff and podcast people just talking about games that

[27:28] it doesn’t really let game devs just go do their thing and then like hey next week our thing’s coming to enjoy um but even the launch window they launched at

[27:37] the wrong time like Zelda just got 10 out of 10 everywhere and Horizon zero Dawn and you know they might not be in the same ballpark in terms of genre but

[27:47] they’re pretty close and then you get this janky animated thing and you can’t help but compare something you’re like okay well I know they took 10 years to

[27:57] build their game but people are going to have a choice they’re going to go it’s also building off of a very beloved Legacy too so they Long Way Fall they

[28:06] dropped it yeah it’s like you look at the duration of time like with in between Halo games like a Halo game doesn’t come out till it’s ready and

[28:13] very like I can’t really think of a Halo release that was ever like this game is broken um like it’ come out and maybe the story might not have resonated with

[28:23] some people as much as others but that was sort of the same like gears it’s like sometimes the story just doesn’t resonate with the audience as much but

[28:30] the overall pedigree of the product is still high um but yeah as I’m Mass Effect like that was a very simar genre but I don’t know maybe it’s

[28:42] also part of the course like I know each installment of Mass Effect um was received less and less favorably as we went through um like one everybody

[28:54] really loved two it was kind of divided three people were not exactly thrilled with at the ending um like I know myself I enjoyed the trilogy uh but I I’m just

[29:05] basing it off of like how I’ve seen overall audience reaction maybe this was just sort of the direction it was sort of going it’s I don’t

[29:15] know hopefully yeah it’s just I don’t know it’s really tough because like you want a franchise to do well you want them to

[29:23] continue on some of the things I’ve seen from L the mass effect look really intriguing to me it looks really fun and some of the planets look really

[29:31] interesting and I want to explore them but if there’s this other stuff I have to get through to get to I just don’t know if I have the time or the patience

[29:38] I always sorry go on I always love the combat of Mass Effect though like just you get the the powers bionic I don’t know C remember that something that and

[29:50] like you mixing that with weapons and all sorts of other powers running and ducking Squad kind of management it was a cool feeling at least Mass

[29:59] Effect 2 like it was a great experience I just never had the time to get into three but this game kind of looks cool that way it’s just the frame of it the

[30:08] shell is falling apart and it’s hard to go against the other games that are coming out even with like Indie titles and stuff um yeah so what would um so if

[30:19] I might pose the question then what would the two of you suggest be the remedy I mean is that as simple as saying

[30:27] find a way to ask for some forgiveness from the populace and get more time so like pushed back deadlines and and is that totally reasonable to ask for like

[30:38] we need another six months and it’s like you know we have to we can’t keep the lights on like if you to build this and perpet this can’t be Duke not every game

[30:46] could be Duke Nukem oh God or Last Guardian Last Guardian had time in the oven thank God that you know somewhat turned out I think you know like it’s

[30:56] not perfect that was a thing where sometimes time in the oven like it affects like the Ze I yeah that word like eight times tonight

[31:05] but last by the time it came out what people were craving from a game had changed substantially so what they were trying

[31:16] to satisfy the audience they were trying to satisfy didn’t exist anymore because they’ve changed they’ve grown they’ve they’ve adapted to new forms of puzzle

[31:25] mechanics and stuff like that and new Nar of styles that the game felt like a retro game with a really good coat of paint um but

[31:35] that’s because the mindset and sensibilities of when it was the main core mechanics were designed they were designed back then not now um I think

[31:45] asking for more time is not bad if a studio can swing it like if a studio has the resources to keep going and to make the thing and with these larger triaa

[31:58] a lot of times they could if if shifting things around uh you see smaller Studios doing it you see Indie Studios doing it um Night in the Woods I believe released

[32:07] a little late uh this other indie game called strafe which is like a first- person shooter kind of throwback to Old Quake uh that one’s getting pushed back

[32:16] a little bit because they need to adjust some things I think alboy alboy took nine years or so oh yeah yeah yeah um cppy maybe an extreme case yeah Cappy

[32:26] pushed back um and they haven’t even really given a another alternative release date they’re just kind of like it needs to be done

[32:35] right we’ll let you know when it’s ready um they caught some Flack for that but I don’t know I think there’s a there is a point like from a Dev end

[32:45] where it’s like yeah when it’s done you you got to find a time where you say yes this is done it’s not perfect but it’s done um but I think sometimes there’s a

[32:54] difference between it’s not perfect but it is done and it’s done enough ship it and there’s a fine line between those two and

[33:04] understanding where that fine line is sometimes can be a very difficult job I think part of that Indie scene too is that they could like live and die off

[33:12] one game so it better be good like that’s the other thing too is like all their eggs are in that basket yeah it’s like dude this is your first shot first

[33:20] impressions count and it’s not like a like a Michael Bay Transformers movies where they just kind of pump them out like whatever the idea of expendable

[33:29] loss very so it started to become interesting I mean obviously uh Greenlight and other platforms but more you know

[33:39] obviously with steam and those these early releases where it’s that very well-defined um relationship with the between the de developers and the early

[33:50] adopters where it’s just like look this is very much in process um ideally it’s very much a playable game but uh you know there’s going to be changes and I I

[33:58] want quick feedback so I mean suppose in some for some types of games that is the opportunity I mean darkest dungeon um man that had to be a I don’t

[34:09] know if it’s green light what’s the other system that’s called where it’s uh oh like Early Access thank you yeah some Early Access so I mean dark dungeon had

[34:19] to be in early access for ages before that ever like finally got a full release and they it had this like rabid fan base like walst in yep access now

[34:27] that I now I would surmise or propose that that type of game certainly lends itself to that because it’s you know it’s very much kind of a little bit

[34:36] random like you’re just going to go through like it doesn’t particularly matter the thought that you could possibly have Early Access for something

[34:42] like Mass Effect which is super story driven like what like what are you on Earth are you gonna do the second third time through that’s true because a lot

[34:52] of the other ones I can think of like Kerbal Space Program was was an awesome hit um subnotica is still being developed yeah um there’s a couple hits

[35:01] that I think are more sandbox like where there the input could be adjusted um from players but if it’s narrative it’s kind of it’s that’s a closed door kind

[35:09] of we have a plotline to surprise you with you can’t really be let in on the details maybe the game mechanics but not really the story but then you think of

[35:19] like the other side of the coin where you know just ship it already it’s like the Star Citizen like raising $150 million or ever and they’re still in

[35:29] development like Alpha Al alha yeah it’ll never come out it’s like just ship it just get it out the door and have people have fun with it yeah I think

[35:39] again from a dad perspective it’s just not you don’t have time for this like you can’t be putting around with like you have such a limited game play like

[35:48] I’m going to accept you know a big Studio release that just didn’t live up to par I don’t have the money or the time um like a

[35:57] game that’s in pre-release that you’re kind of playing with it’s like if I’m really desperate for this particular world but I mean otherwise

[36:03] there’s a lot of polished wonderful games to get to with my very limited time I mean the gez I saw you know I saw like Witcher like down to like 10 bucks

[36:13] oh yeah that oh yeah yeah just like yeah don’t buy it though you spend your life in there that seems like a man there’s just yeah

[36:24] there’s no way I can’t I just can’t do that world that’s too big it’s too much maybe with Andromeda right going back to Mass Effect you know weight it’s

[36:31] probably going to hit the Bargain Bin pretty early if it’s not getting it numbers well you know just the initial reception I don’t think people are

[36:39] running out to buy it they’re waiting it’s like a wait and see which is going to hurt them and I’m not spending

[36:45] $80 which not I don’t I don’t like to see decent Studios hurt but at least that hopefully will drive impetus to improve it they need to know like I’m

[36:54] not I’m not narking on the artist right like the the people behind it it’s the company needs to know hey you can’t do this especially too when people are

[37:04] going to be comparing it to their own work it’s not like we’re trying to hold them up to a bar from another Studio it’s like this is the that people expect

[37:13] from this brand like it’s it’s not like we’re just comparing them to some other random game with facial animations it’s like of other BioWare games the

[37:24] animation quality has always been really really solid so to release something with these issues um how whatever their

[37:36] causes uh to have a company publish something with that glaring of an issue and just to do it uh that that seems hard on the on on the players uh

[37:51] especially given it’s like well last time I gave you 80 bucks I got this yeah EX exactly even Dragon Age like they did

[38:00] Dragon Age Dragon Age was beautiful it’d be like if you went to your favorite restaurant and you kept getting a beautifully medium rare steak and then

[38:12] you sit down and they they they they just put down like you know a hamburger like from a frozen patty or something um you know getting hungry now yeah yeah or

[38:26] even doing that I talking about but no it’s if you went to a restaurant and you’re expecting a certain level of quality

[38:33] that you’ve gotten there consistently and the meal just didn’t meet standards I’m not saying it has to be a frozen hamburger but if if your usual steak

[38:42] that you always got if if they accidentally burnt the steak and they didn’t take the time to refire a new one you’d be disappointed in them if they

[38:52] came to you and said hey when you accidentally burnt your steak we’re going to need another 10 minutes to do another one for you is that okay then

[38:58] you say pitch exactly so it’s all right yeah so the um all right to wrap up the episode I’m gonna have

[39:09] you both run through an exercise so I’d like you in your best fatherly manner to sit BioWare on your knee so come here my boy BioWare and like to explain to them

[39:21] the life lesson and the go forward path for so fatherly advice about releasing games to BioWare uh let’s start with you

[39:32] Jeff BioWare what you did was wrong was bad behavior you have to think about your actions take your time focus on what

[39:42] you’re doing I don’t want you to rush I want you to produce the best quality work you can do it’s the effort it’s about the effort not the end product

[39:51] although in this case the end product does count but try your best you you didn’t try your best do it over go to your room think about what you’ve

[40:03] done harsh would Fair Gavin if you want to call over little little bware there to your knee and

[40:13] uh okay little buddy now it’s saw your homework and I got to say you’ve had much better marks than this um now you know your mom and I are

[40:28] are proud of you but you handed them something that you knew wasn’t done and all you had to do was just ask for a little bit more time so next time

[40:43] be honest so you can do it justice and do it right and that way we can put your stuff on the

[40:53] fridge done I like on the fridge I go ahead and uh we are going to mail that to bware that’s uh I think that’s good yeah I agree that it’s that is fair

[41:03] it’s fair yes and I think that’s a real leave leave it to the beaver moment I I’m never working in the industry again

[41:15] thank yeah this video will pop up whenever you go for an interview yeah but yeah no I think at the end of the day they need an opportunity to do

[41:24] good solid postmortem on find out what happened how this stuff got out uh because you know it’s easy for us to point out the flaws but it’s

[41:34] it’s a lot harder to figure out why um but I think at the end of the day it’s like sometimes work just needs time to be finished uh we have to be patient

[41:44] with that as Gamers so yeah and I think you know it’s a just a really strict lesson in the fact if you don’t take the time that’s needed there can be massive

[41:52] effects oh jeez so everybody this has been new dad gaming thank you so much for listening you were thinking about that the entire

[42:01] episode weren’t you that came up at the end during Gavin’s speech probably the reason do the topic it starts with a pun and it grows

[42:12] out from there the thank you everybody for listening this has been new dad gaming uh we record this podcast weekly you can

[42:21] find the podcast on iTunes Google Play and any other podcasting service if you’d like to reach out to the new dads you can find us at our website at newad

[42:29] gaming.com as well as our Facebook group and our Twitter uh Twitter account we’ love to hear from you and

[42:38] um sh did I mention that to give us questions and show ideas I think you did neat two times a charm I’m still just really I’m just sitting here in the glow

[42:48] of that pun so I oh my God the so we love to hear from you guys please reach out uh rate and subscribe to our show and pass along to friends

[42:58] most notably new dads who game um until next week thank you so much for listening my name is Trevor and I have a one and a halfy old my name is Gavin and

[43:07] I have a one and a halfy old and I’m Jeff I have a six-year-old and a three-year-old bye everybody see you good

[43:17] [Music] night