This episode of Destructoid is brought to
you by Host Gator.
Coming up on Destructoid, the Playstation
Vita finally has a US release date, Harrison
Ford plays Uncharted 3, and Saints Row the
Third is somehow more ridiculous than what
we thought.
All that and much more heading your way on
Destructoid.
Hey there, welcome to Destructoid, I'm Tara
Long
And I'm Max Skogel
Happy Wednesday, Max.
Happy Wednesday, everybody- it's Wednesday
again.
Yeah!
Happens every week, but we're still excited
about it.
I'm always happy, every day of the- ok, let's
talk news.
Ok.
We've actually got a really good show today.
We've got a big new Saints Row preview, another
preschool Kinect game from double-fine that
adults will want for themselves; but the big
news right now is a western launch date for
Sony's Playstation Vita.
The United States, Canada, Latin America,
and Europe will all have access to the Vita
on February 22, 2012; that includes the Wi-Fi
only model for $250 and the 3G version for
$300.
Still no word on the launch titles but we
do have a date now, so that's cool.
In other ‘Expensive Sony Products I Wish
I Had More Money For' news, they also announced
a release date for that 3D gaming TV that
got thrown back at E3.
I remember that.
Yeah; fancy, fancy machine.
It'll be available November 13th for $500,
and that gets you the TV, a pair of 3D glasses,
an HDMI cable and a copy of Motorstorm Apocalypse,
which actually does look pretty cool in 3D.
Its- you know, that's cool, it's a TV, whatever,
no big deal- it has the glasses that you can
wear and your friend can wear a pair too and
you can play two player and it literally splits
the screen so that both people are saying
different screens-
You're looking at the same screen, and seeing
two completely different things.
It's like having TVs inside your eyes.
It's really cool.
Yeah.
So that's a neat thing.
That's kind of its really cool selling point.
Also, you can put it on your desk in your
dorm room- if you have$500.
Anyway, that's November 13th for the TV and
February 22nd for the Vita.
So stop not paying for stuff that isn't those
things.
You know, Matt, February 22nd is only 4 days
before my birthday-
But I already got you that Texas-shaped waffle
iron!
Really?
No, I'm kidding.
Oh- well I'd rather have that than a Vita
anyway, so please get me that.
Also, stash away a few pennies for Uncharted
3, which is still on track for its November
1st release date- we kind of seem to be at
the point in the game cycle now where Sony
is literally just throwing piles of money
at people to speak on behalf of the game,
and the latest celebrity to lend their name
for a commercial is Harrison Ford, the original
adventureman, and my personal pick for Hollywood's
silver fox- although creepily he looks a lot
like my dad.
Anyways, the commercial basically just shows
him sitting on a couch, playing Uncharted
3 for like 6 minutes, and he's kind of reacting
to it- but the important thing to note is
he's enjoying himself, you guys.
You know, because of all the money he got
paid to sit in front of a camera and play
video games for 10 minutes.
I guess it's not all that different than what
we do.
Or maybe I'm just bitter because I don't have
my own Japanese commercial-
Soon.
Sooner or later.
It's the hallmark of success.
Japanese television aside, though, Sony did
release the official launch trailer for Uncharted
3 on their YouTube channel a couple days ago-
and it looks a lot like a movie trailer, even
down to the cheeky one liners and comic relief.
It's an Uncharted game, though, so, you know,
you expect to chase a lot of cars, and punch
a few guys, and look really handsome while
you're doing it, not unlike Harrison Ford.
Sony's also announced that there is a season
pass plan for the game called The Fortune-Hunters
Club, which for $25 gets you access to the
first four of seven planned multiplayer map
packs that they have planned for DLC, as well
as three skin packs.
Naughty Dog has already said that they are
not planning on creating any single-player
DLC for the game, but the first multiplayer
DLC could be available as soon as mid November,
so-
Hey, Tara-
Yeah?
If Drake came up to you and tried to kiss
you, would you kiss Drake?
Totally, I'd make out with him- I'd put my
tongue in his mouth.
Oh, awful, you're dreadful-
Yeah, I know that's gross, I know it's gross,
I know.
Yeah, he is a heartthrob though.
Anyway, last Friday I got to pay a visit to
Doublefine studios, the guys behind games
like Brutal Legend, Stacking, and whatever
it was they changed the name of Trenched to.
Most recently their Sesame Street Kinect game,
Once Upon a Monster, convinced me that do
want a Kinect, and now they're unveiling another
Kinect game that's actually really fun- it's
called Happy Action Theatre and it's a game
without rules.
It's like somewhere between a virtual toy
and an interactive visualization- very psychedelic-
for instance, it covers your living room floor
with molten lava, or, you know, makes you
underwater so you can catch fish- but basically
it's a weird- it's just playing with the Kinect.
It's some weird stuff you can do.
Tim Schafer was there to talk about how even
when video games are really simplified, like
in Sesame Street, they can still be frustrating
for little kids to figure out, so they wanted
to make a thing that's, you know, sort of
open ended and fun to play with, which is
pretty cool.
He also pointed out that it could be fun for
a dorm room full of college kids under the
influence of- things- I got a chance to play
a bit of the Happy Action Theatre with our
good pal Anthony Carbone, it was really neat-
we kicked a bunch of balloons and I got really
sweaty ‘cause we're in a room, and then
I went in the other room and ate corndogs
and drank the beer.
So thank you Tim Schafer, you just gave me
one more reason that I want a Kinect: so that
I can stomp around my tiny apartment and knock
things over and piss off all my neighbors,
so-
It actually sounds, and looks kind of Japanese,
also; ‘Happy Action Theatre'
A little bit, yeah.
I could see that, maybe.
It's pretty fun though- I think it's gonna
be something to keep an eye on.
Definitely.
So, we usually make it a point not to cover
sports games on these shows, because our producer
really likes them and we also- you know, we
just like to make him mad.
But, when I saw my Twitter blog this morning
after the news broke that EA is remaking NFL
Blitz, I thought that we should probably at
least mention it, so here goes.
EA confirmed today that they've been busy
developing an HD remake of the popular Midway
title NFL Blitz, set to release on XPLA and
PSN in January 2012, for $15.
The game will feature the same set of crazy
non-regulation rules as previous games in
the series, but with a few modern updates.
For example, you will be able to play 1 on
1 or 2vs 2 if you want now, both locally or
online, and they've added a couple new modes,
including a single-player one called Blitz
Gauntlet where you go up against NFL teams
with exclusive fantasy character bosses, which
sounds so lame- EGM has the full exclusive
on the game, and I have a friendly tip for
you EGM: use a light when you shoot video
next time, K?
Also, the new Blitz looks like fucking bullshit
according to Zach Meitner, our producer; he
says it's not nearly as crazy as the old game,
so-
Well, it's a new modern era.
As long as you can light a guy on fire and
punch him in the nuts, I'm a-ok with that.
Speaking of crazy, crazy things- we'll be
back in a second to talk about Saints Row
the Third- but first, let's have a word from
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Well, here we are again.
As you guys probably know, my two most anticipated
games of the year are Skyrim and Saints Row
the Third, and last episode I summarized my
2600 word Skyrim preview, which you should
go read- and then afterwards, a few people
ask me why, or when I was going to be talking
about Saints Row the Third-
It's been like 4 days!
Yeah, that's crazy- well, unfortunately the
last big Saints Row preview event happened-
like, until they release it- and that was
the day after I played Skyrim and it was down
in LA and I didn't get to go- apparently I
didn't really miss much, though.
I mean, they were only- they only had pole
dancers and, you know, free Saints Flow energy
drinks, and t-shirts that said I Heart Rimjobs,
and then Lindsay Lohan showed up and all the
gossip sites talked about her yellow teeth
and her possibly bloodstained hands, supporting
my theory that she is in fact an incubus,
and I'd also like to point out that she got
her probation revoked this morning and is
going back to jail most likely- I feel like
THQ's PR department might have pulled some
strings to make it extra exciting.
You didn't really miss much from the sound
of it.
So that was all last week, and today Honza
put up his full preview of Saints Row the
Third on Destructoid.com- I think he got 6
hours with it- he was let loose on the game
starting from character creation.
Now, if you've played any of the Saints Row
games, you just stop paying attention to what
I'm saying.
Look at her- look at her go.
You know how extensive the character creation
is.
You can do pretty much whatever you want with
your character's body, and they pushed that
further now, apparently.
Honza considered modeling his character after
a reviews editor Jim Sterling, but instead
fell to his baser instincts and made a naked
Asian chick with big boobs-
Oh- that's a good look for him-
See, you can adjust your character's breast
or penis size with a sex appeal slider, and
as you can see some of those characters had
the sex appeal turned all the way up.
So, after that Honza started the game at his
first mission and he got to play through the
ill-fated bank robbery and then the daring
sky-diving escape from the syndicate's plane-
you can find both playthroughs of these online.
Once on the ground, though, in the new city
of Stillport, Honza's character went to the
gun store, bought some guns, and then went
to rob a weapons depot where they got the
new Reaper drone, which is a remote-controlled
missile launching baby helicopter, apparently,
which is really cool.
I use it during my demo, it's actually really
fun- now, back to the character customization,
keep in mind it shows up in like every aspect
of the game, this is true with the second
one too- but you make a character, you're
like “Oh that's cool!” and then you get
to a cut scene and that character does stuff
that you're not controlling, which is a little
bit unsettling.
So during the cut scenes, all the characters
in the game were taking orders from Honza's
naked Asian trick who happened to be wearing
a gigantic Professor Genki foam Japanese cat
head- on top of that, you can change your
character's voice, and there are now seven
voices to pick from, one of which is the zombie
voice which apparently just makes your person
grumble incoherently, and other characters
in the game will react to this.
For instance, they'll talk down to you if
you're just “Rworwaorwwaooarwaooo” and
they're like “OK, yeah, sure, all right.”
You can also customize the vehicles, like
this ridiculous street sweeper of death, which
I want to play with so much.
Yeah- you can make a killing machine- that's
a rocket powered street sweeper of death.
That's pretty cool.
So this is all footage that Volition sent
over to us of all the crazy gameplay footage,
so let's- we're gonna take a look at that
for a little bit.
Yeah, let's do it.
I actually haven't seen a lot of this yet.
This is actually so offensive.
I think I need to put a big thong on my character,
when I make her.
Yeah- I was like, “I'm gonna make it look
like me,” but look at- it's so offensive,
and tawdry, and- look at that ass-
Really admire those jiggle physics, also-
Seriously!
I didn't know they were working on that, I
thought it was just the Soulcalibur team who
does the jiggle physics that much.
I really feel they put a lot more effort into
the physics of genitalia in this game-
I hear that they actually tone it down compared
to the early build I saw, apparently- hey-
Naked skydiver!
Naked skydiver.
That's gotta be cold.
Yeah.
That's- whoa-
Do not want to do that.
Yeah, so, Saints Row the Third- oh god I want
this game- one thing that Honza pointed out
in his preview which you should go read on
our website, is there's a radio station that's
all Adult Swim stuff, so it's like Deathklok
and Tim and Eric songs and weird shit like
that- which is pretty neat.
Here's the trailblazing activity that's a
holdover from the second Saints Row, where
you just drive an ATV on fire through stuff,
and this looks like most of the press events
we go to.
I think I have that shirt.
Yeah!
I'm a Games Journalist!
The worrisome part is they had to get people
to actually make those movements.
I'm just mad they didn't ask me to help out.
I would be happy to let them mo-cap me staring
at the stripper.
Humping the air, yeah?
Yeah, I don't know-
I'm sure you'd be good at it.
It's going to be a dirty game.
I want it.
So, Saints Row the Third.
There you have it.
Before you go, as you may have already seen
on our Twitter feed, we now have an Android
app.
There's been Destructoid apps before, but
this one is just exclusively for the show-
you can watch any episode you want on the
go whether you're on a phone or a tablet-
pretty soon you'll be able to actually watch
our lives shows on there which is really cool.
So, big shout out and thank you to Evan at
Revision 3 who built the app for us with his
bare hands- good job putting it on the Android
market because it's totally free.
Yeah, check that out.
That's kind of rad, that sort of legitimizes
us one step further.
Also, a quick programming note.
We'll be back on Friday at 3:30 PM Pacific
Time for another live show, but it's going
to be a little bit different this week.
I actually won't be here because I'll be attending
Blizcon and fighting the crowds of sweaty
nerds, but you will be here with Anthony Carbone
doing God knows what-
We're going to be doing some things.
You never know what- some fun things, probably.
We're going to probably be talking about news
a little bit, but we're also going to be playing
a game.
It's going to be sort of like- you know, Don't
Tell Mom the Babysitters Dead, but with us-
Do you know what game you're playing yet?
Let's leave it a secret- it'll be entertaining
to watch, put it that way.
Ok, so watch that on Friday, and as for Blizcon,
expect to see our coverage popping up over
the weekend on this YouTube channel.
I've got some hands-on time and an interview
scheduled for Diablo 3 so far, so if you want
me to talk about something specific or you
have something that you want me to ask in
an interview, head over to our Facebook page
at Facebook.com/DTOIDSHOW and leave your suggestions
there and I will read them tonight before
bed.
Excellent.
Excellent- alright, Destructoid is go.
That's our show for the night.
See you guys.
