20 thoughts on “Benheck Dot Com Podcast the 28th”

  2. I got a pretty good buzz going thanks to that Andrew Ryan game, but then you guys laid off it for a while, so I just did those last two shots and am calling it a night.

    *I* am Andrew Ryan!

  3. Have you looked into the top selling games, most of them are not M rated games, PokeMon and Mario and Nintendo in general dominate the top 20 selling games of all time.

    If you include bunlded games (most people bought those consoles for the game anyway) nintendo tend to have over 3/4’s of the top 10 games.

    The issue is that just because a game is a M or an 18 over in the UK it doesn’t mean its a mature game it normally just means they are full of blood, guts, swearing. Does that make the game better? typically no..
    I play alot of games from “for all” games to the 18 (M rated gaes), and to me it makes no difference what the rating is I play the game for the game, not the rating.

  5. @Ross

    I did mention in the podcast (unless Ben edited it out of course LOL) that the Mario and Zelda games are some of the top selling games of all time. 🙂

    The article that inspired the topic is at the following link. It uses cold hard data to make the point about M rated games both selling better and getting reviewed better than games in the other rating groups.

    http://www.gamespot.com/news/6178510.html?tag=result;title;0

    I agree with you in that I enjoy games across the rating spectrum, although much like with movies, the majority of the games inevitably end up being M rated. I enjoy games like Viva Pinata, Lego Star Wars, and Forza Motorsport 2, but I love games like Oblivion and BioShock.

    If you include bundled games, then Hexic HD for the 360 would have outsold respectively both Halos, all the Metal Gear Solids, Pacman, all the Zeldas, all the Metroids and the list goes on and on. Is Hexic HD M rated? No, but I think it helps illustrate that counting the bundled game sales is a little suspect…

    I think maturity is a moving target in all of this. It is in the eye of the beholder as to what maturity a person should be to play a game. That’s why we end up with these arbitrary ratings systems in the entertainment industry. Hypocrisy is rampant in all of it, but that’s another rant for another time.

    Would I want my kid to play a game like Oblivion when they are 10 years old? Yes, I would. As long as I am there to answer his/her questions. Much the same as with R rated movies. Would I sit my child down with Oblivion Nanny Edition and go off and do whatever I feel like leaving them to the game with no guidance? No, most certainly not.

    I would agree with you that blood, guts, and swearing in and of themselves do not make for a good game. But when the story the game is trying to tell lends itself to that subject matter than it is paramount that the games are able to go there and explore the story in rich detail. Could a game like BioShock be made with less than an M rating? Perhaps… Would it have had the chilling atmosphere, depth of play, and the feeling of dealing with the consequences of the decisions you make throughout the game? I highly doubt it. It would have been neutered and not nearly the achievement that BioShock has become.

    For the sake of amusement I should go through my library of 360 games and see how many of each rating I have. I’m sure the results will surprise me. 🙂

    Good discussion though!

    Glad people are enjoying the drinking game. 🙂

    “I am Andrew Ryan.”

  7. Awesome Podcast as usual. Thanks for discussing food.

    Next week. BRUCE CAMPBELL, Again.

    I have two ZX Spectrums 😀 Zx Spectrum 128k and the ZX Spectrum 2+. There rubber membrane keyboards are excellent.

    Then I am in the UK.

  8. Hey Ben, when you said that the camera in Metal Gear Solid 3 was bad, they fixed it in Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence.
    I thought that onion ring smelling crap was funny.

  9. @Jones
    I do see where you are coming from with bundles, but I was meaning the ones that do say on the box “included is this game X”.
    The Nes and Game boy are great examples of this, most people bought a Nes for Mario bros which came with the console and most people bought a game boy for tetris.

    I have nothing against M (18) rated games but are too many games seem to be trying to push the rating further just to get media coverage and thus sell the games off it. Rock* have become the masters of that with GTA, manhunt and bully. None of which are that good a game, but the “M” rating and the media frenzy of the games help them sell. (For the record I felt that GTA 1 was an ok game, but the rest of the games have added nothing to the series even putting it in 3D added very little. Which is part of the reason I like Nintendo yes they do farm there games for all they are worth but atleast they add loads to each new one. It’s not just the same game.)

    One of the biggest things I hate is when a M rated game is classed as adult and anything bellow is called “Kiddy”. Does matter that there are more good games with out a M rating. What ever happened to gameplay over everything: GFX, sound, rating??
    Thankfully most of these people are teens who see playing a M rated game as being grown up and that playing these so called kiddy games as damaging to their manhood.

    To take your’s and Ben’s stance with the Wii (that if it wins its the death of “real game”, which I don’t believe) and strech it to M rated games; If publishers started seeing that M rated games sell more then all other age ranges we would start seeing more and more with devs less likey to take a chance and make low rated games because of sales. Good bye puzzle games, good bye games you can leave your kids with, etc etc. Ok that is pushing it to its limit but with the way the games industry seems to be tided into marketing its a road we could see.

    Ok that was never planned as becoming a book.

  12. Sweet Jesus, your listeners are going to start gaining weight. 😀
    Enjoying it though. The spontaneous food tangents just feel/sound “right” in your podcasts.

    And by the way, yes, Dave & Buster’s is heavenly. It combines some of life’s greatest things: Greasy bar food, games and booze. I was surprised at how much fun shuffleboard can be when coupled with a high-quality tequila.

  14. @Ross

    I can see what you’re saying about the pendulum possibly swinging to far the other way towards M-rated games. I don’t think that will happen unless things go the way of The Running Man in the future, but anything is possible.

    As you imply this would definitely be a bad thing. I think there is plenty of room in the industry for all types of gaming to co-exist (evidenced by the success of games as varied as BioShock and Pokemon). The danger is… When companies take the straightest path to the bottom line we, the consumers, usually end up suffering.

    I did find it refreshing that Nintendo said that they have no plans at this time for a Wii Sports 2. They indicated they didn’t want to just toss something out there for the sake of making a quick buck. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come from them and they will actually try to start pushing the envelope with the motion control concept.

    Although they did just release Mario Party 8 recently, so I guess they’re somewhat selective when it comes to this philosophy. 🙂

  15. @Jones

    Thankfully I don’t see the gaming market ever going 100% down the “in it only for the money” direction and there will still be games made just for the idea that it would be a good game rather it would sell well.

    Yeah I was also shocked and happy at Nintendo saying no plans for Wii sports 2 but I can help but laugh at mario party 8, at there current rate they might take over FF and EA’s sports games for most sequals.
    Or (fingers crossed) now that the wii has a mario party they will do something else.

  16. In Call of Juarez while playing Reverend Ray you can read from the Bible and all of your enemies stop and listen to you instead of attacking you…………then you shoot them.

  17. @Ross

    I agree. I can see it going down a similar path as the film industry. Every year we get buried in garbage by the big Hollywood studios, but every now and then a film comes out that is well made, challenging, and a pleasure to behold. This seems to be where gaming is going. No matter the console, a large number of games are quite lame and just shoveled out to “cash” in. But then there are the companies that care about their product and image and they unleash the memorable titles on us. I hate to see it go the way of the film industry, but that seems to be where we’re headed.

    As long as a few great games are released a year though, I think we’ll be able to manage. Right now we’re in kind of a Golden Age of gaming, but it won’t last forever. So I guess we should enjoy it while it lasts. 🙂

    @ChrisS

    That’s interesting. I remember reading that one of your “weapons” in that game was the bible. So I guess this explains it. Is that game any good? Westerns are my favorite genre of film, but rarely is there ever a quality video game released in this genre. I enjoyed Gun, but it wasn’t exactly mind blowing…

  18. @Jones

    If you enjoy GUN, odds are you will really like Call of Juarez. I’m not into Western films much, but loved GUN even though it’s not exactly a game of the year or anything. I guess it’s being able to be in a virtual Wild West that had it’s appeal to me. It’s really fun and that’s what makes it stand out, and for the $11 you paid, it’s a really sweet deal.

    Call of Juarez is a worlds apart from GUN with some primary differences, a couple major differences that will really drive you nuts because they are idiotic in a “WILD” West setting. Definitely not a $60 game, but I think it has price dropped to $40 and may be worth it at that price point. The graphics are outstanding compared to GUN because GUN was just a port over from the original Xbox. The storyline is nothing spectacular, decent, and you get to switch off between two characters, “Billy” and “Reverend Ray,” you play both the protagonist and the antagonist. The game play and controls are pretty good, riding a horse and shooting from the horse seems solid. Using the whip to latch onto branches and leap across gaps on a mountain side is difficult and frustrating, you may lose a 360 controller to anger. The bow and arrow play absolutely rocks.

    Here are a couple of things that may turn you off completely:

    1.) You cannot kill or harm any innocent people who are not enemies in the storyline. For instance, you walk into a saloon and the card player at the table calls you something and verbally threatens you, naturally you draw your gun to shoot him in the face. Then the game pauses and a window pops up that says “Harming innocent citizens, horses, or corpses, will NOT be tolerated in this game” and then it states that it will restart if you continue to do so. Naturally, I wanted to test the boundaries so I tried to shoot the guy 3 or 4 times ignoring the warning and it kicked me back to my last save point. It’s suppose to be the fricken “WILD” West so I don’t understand this concept and it’s Ubisoft, which makes it even more puzzling. I’ve never had a game do this before. However, as a consolation, there is plenty of gunning down bad guys, gore, and violence elsewhere in the game.

    2.) Many parts of the game rely on sneak tactics, it’s not a basic run and gun like GUN is. Again, a really odd choice for a Western, but it’s not horrible, but can be frustrating. Many times there will be a group of bad guys that are next to a fire you have to sneak by and then there is a whole section during a lightning storm where you have to sneak by a really large group of baddies using rocks for cover, but if lightning flashes they may still see you. Also, in the beginning you need to steal a few things and you have to sneak by or either be sent back to the beginning of the scene or shot by the person. I don’t want to give away any serious spoilers so I won’t go deeper into it.

    Most FPS lovers walked away from the game, Western fans still loved the game. I’d say you at least have to give it a try and if you can find it for $30 or less it’s probably worth it to have in your collection. Again, odds are if you like GUN you’ll like Call of Juarez.

  19. @ChrisS

    Well that’s annoying. For some reason my response post never showed up. Hmmmmm….

    Anyway, I heeded your advice and snagged Call of Juarez on eBay for $30 including Shipping! So I will hopefully be playing it next week. Looking forward to it as it sounds like a good time based on your description.

    Thanks for the in depth response!

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