2014 Video Game Preview Podcast

2014 Video Game Preview Podcast – Part 1

Introduction

Giuseppe Jones leads his panel of “Red Knight Rises” Casey, “Better Than Buble” Dan, “Angry” John, “Gamer Girl” Emily and “Calorie Free” Kevin begin their discussion regarding a general outlook on the possible success 2014 may or may not be. Trends like game delays, announcements, console vs. PC and the impact of indie games are all mentioned as significant factors that influence the “greatness” of any particular year in gaming.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare releases November 4th 2014, but is our panel impressed by the presence of Kevin Spacey? CBN’s Kevin seems to need more from the FPS mega franchise as he discusses fixing gameplay issues to take CoD to the next level. Is the FPS formula running dry for Activision? Will fans accept futuristic warfare that isn’t Halo? And what about all those fancy bells and whistles that were revealed in Advanced Warfare’s trailer? Will players be able to actually use all that gear or will they be limited to small segments of the campaign? We’ve all been teased something visually in the past and we’ve been burned before. Kevin and Dan discuss this game’s possible similarity to Titanfall.

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Advanced Warfare, Kevin Spacey specifically

CoD is still one of the kings of games, but will Keyser Soze/John Doe/Frank Underwood infuse some extra credibility to Advanced Warfare, specifically the single player campaign? Angry John shows some love for the K-Paxter and announced his reservation for this game based on Spacey’s presence alone. Obviously, competitive FPS is all about multi-player, but death match mode alone does not a “great” (as in critical success) make. If CoD were to reinvest into a more satisfying campaign, would the overall quality of the game rise? Emily seems very frustrated with the FPS formula and most of our panel feels the game must have more than Spacey to break away from same old CoD. Giuseppe would love to see more social commentary about world issues like Private Military Contractors being expressed through games.

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Watch Dogs

Giuseppe recaps his opinion concerning the seemingly abandoned project: Rainbow 6: Patriots. Watch Dogs is one of the most anticipated games of the year and it releases May 27th 2014, but most of our panel isn’t as excited about it as Giuseppe. How similar will this game be to GTA, Assassin’s Creed or even Far Cry? The panel discusses what the game play is presenting itself to be, specifically player interaction within the game outside of team matches as well as the inclusion of tablets and smart phones as supplemental modes. Who watches the Watch Dogs?