Hard as a rock...

Konami should have Jim and Hideo Kojima co-helm the next Silent Hill. Although there would be tension and awkwardness at first between the two, possibly over the inclusion a monster called Inverted Pyramid Anus who suspiciously resembles a certain Destructoid staff member, the two will eventually form a strong bond following a series of classic sitcom hijinks and produce the best Silent Hill ever made, and consequently bring us the best reality show of all time: Hideo & Jim: Making Scary.

Look at all those video games in the first paragraph.

Holmes asks Jim to sing about football, Jim doesn't want to do it but does it anyway because he's a good friend. When has Holmes ever done ANYTHING Jim asked him to?!? I don't know if I can go on seeing Jim pour his heart and soul into this relationship and get so little back. Jim, if you read this, you deserve someone who'll go grave robbing with you, someone who eagerly agrees to go through with your brilliant plan, someone who doesn't hate wild west styled saloons and brothels - someone who cares about YOUR feelings. Shame on you, Holmes. Shame on you.

Don't tell me this is one of the ones where videogames are discussed. :(

Good show.

I sort of disagree.

Japan and the west are in big trouble

Capcom games upcomning I want

AA 5
monster hunter ultimate

It saddens me they missed AA 5

that being said I am fairly happy with capcom this gen. I loved the megamans, the monster hunters, the AA's, okamiden, ghost trick, ect

I mean did they make retarded decisions? sure

but what company doesnt?

I've heard the worst part of Fable the Journey is getting the horse to do a 180 degree turn!

Stealth is incapable of putting everything he wants in one comment before clicking on the "Add Comment" button.

@flint, these podcasts are freakin long

every time I think I have nothing else to to say I do

Besides big boing deserves her own comment

Just a heads up, this isn't up on iTunes yet for some reason.

Nevermind. It's there.

Now to furiously masturbate for the next 1:37:22.

Jim, I was thinking while you were talking about your RE review, you should just start giving every game a 10. Don't change the content of your reviews but just give it a 10 and you will probably lose quite a bit of the negativity.

Jim's statement of the industry being "bewildered" really resonates with me. It's a feeling I've been getting from a lot of studios recently, especially Japanese studios, but I've never really thought to put it that way.

They are kind of abandoning what makes their games appealing because they think they need to have the same appeal as Western games to appeal to a Western audience, but they just end up making something that's not as good as the game they're trying to emulate, simply because they don't really have the expertise or experience in what makes those games appealing. Some games also seem to only half-heartedly try to embrace that Western appeal, and cling on to aspects of Japanese game design, and they often clash. They sometimes bring out the worst of both in those cases. It's sad.

Although obviously the very niche Japanese games will never find appeal outside of Japan, but the Japanese games that are successful in the West do so largely because of their Japanese personality, not in spite of it. Things like Final Fantasy and other JRPGs, Metal Gear, the Team Ico games, the Atlus games, Gran Turismo, all the Nintendo 1st party IPs, Monster Hunter, etc. Even if some of those didn't become massively mainstream, they have succeeded and created established franchises, and they are deemed worthy of being released in the West over and over. These games are usually successful because of their Japanese elements, not in spite of them. It's a big part of their appeal.

While Japanese games that try to be as non-Japanese as possible are often lacklustre and get mostly ignored and disregarded and just a shallow rip-off of already big franchises, which they often are. People don't play the Persona games in spite of its art style and off-beat themes, they play them because of them. But no-one really cares about Binary Domain because it just looks like a crappy Gear of War with robots. People already have GoW, so they're not interested in it, regardless of how good the game actually is.

The West is kind of bewildered too. Like Jim often mentions, there's this stupid idea that developers and publishers need to include online multiplayer in every single game. If it doesn't have it then the game is lacking at least 40% of the content it would have otherwise. Every single game has to include everything from a generic check-list, and every game is a complete failure if it doesn't become the biggest game in the genre for the next half-decade, and a game isn't complete unless it has at least five DLC packs released for it, and all this unnecessary crap they've tacked on to the idea of a "game". The idea that you can just buy a game that is a complete experience in just being a well designed game is totally lost now, it seems.

Not buying a console because it doesn't support achievements is just sad and pathetic. The fact that someone thinks that achievements are not just a selling point, but the tipping point of why you buy a console is a terrible and shallow position to hold. Is that what gaming really is to people now? Games are worthless unless they give you an arbitrary Pavlovian check-list with a ding tone?

Don't get me wrong, I get the appeal. I like getting achievements, and I think at least some of what makes Minecraft so appealing shares something with them (I love the pop noises when you break a block or pick up an item), but for people to be so completely manipulated by this to disregard an entire console with a potentially awesome library? Something which has next to nothing to do with actual game design or quality too. Perhaps people who think of gaming like that should try to find a different hobby.

I'm glad to hear Cliffy B is still making games too. I thought he might be calling it quits like so many others have done recently. I love that he's going to try and do some more stuff with his freedom. Kind of like what Molyneux has done, except not completely bat-shit insane.

Also Jim, I think you should be kind of careful with this Konami "job" thing. It's all great fun and all, but what if Konami decide to take it very, very badly and decide to sue you, or get you prosecuted for fraud or something? It could turn very ugly. Some companies take Facebook profiles very seriously.

^ pretty inciteful

which is why the best japanese companies and the best games from them are japanese

and not western games in japanese clothing

@Stealth

Nice tits

oh jonathan holmes you're so weirdly lovable

Love you guys! I listen while coding and people just hear random laughter from my little corner. The best part of my working week. It makes the time fly.