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Nude Clan: A Video Game Podcast

From the creators of Ultima Final Fantasy comes the ultimate video game podcast! News, reviews, and discussions about everything in the video game world. Subscribe for weekly episodes, or go to nudeclan.net to find out more!
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Now displaying: 2016
Jul 3, 2016

This week, we discuss the formation of Steam, Valve Corporations greatest accomplishment. We discuss the programs ups and downs, and talk about our history of computer gaming, and how Steam changed it all. Enjoy!

Jun 25, 2016

This week, the clan discusses Heavy Rain. Enjoy!

Heavy Rain is an interactive drama action-adventure video game developed by Quantic Dream in 2010. Heavy Rain is a noir thriller, with four different characters the player takes control of, each of these characters are involved with the case of a serial killer who uses rain water to drown his victims.

The players decisions and actions made during the game affect the story. main characters can be killed, and certain actions can lead to different scenes and endings. Heavy Rain was a critical and commercial success, it won several game of the year awards and selling over three million copies.

It was re-released for the ps4 with enhanced graphics and resolution. Heavy Rain uses technology that was used in a demo at E3 2006 called The Casting included full body and facial motion capture, real-time tears and wrinkles on the face, advanced skin shaders, and some advanced rendering features, such as depth of field, spherical harmonics, auto exposure and high dynamic range rendering. The technology enables animations of pupil dilation, tongue, eyes, fingers, and dynamic hair with physics.

 

                               Craig                   Joe

Story                         7                         6

Gameplay                   8                         6

Design                        9                         9

Sound/Music                9                         9

Replayability                6                         10

NUDECLAN TOTAL 79/100

 

Jun 19, 2016

This week, we discuss our favorite moments of this years E3 conference. Kaleb Craig also covers a little back history on the expo's history. Enjoy!!

 

A brief history of E3.

1995: The first E3 saw the unveiling of Nintendo's virtual boy system, and the entrance of Sony to the gaming industry with the PlayStation. in its first year E3 had 50,000 attendees.

1996: E3 saw the beginning of the Nintendo 64 and Mario 64, Capcom showed up with the first resident evil, naughty dog had their PlayStation start with crash bandicoot, Edios interactive showed off tomb raider, the first unreal engine was shown for the first time, Starcraft in an early form made an apperence, and Square showed its first PlayStation game Tobal no. 1, it also showed a preview for final fantasy 7.

1997: The third e3 saw the rise of some first person shooters like, quake 2, Starwars dark forces 2, half-life, and unreal. metal gear solid for the PlayStation was unveiled, as well as panzer dragoon saga for the Saturn and Superman for the N64. (which is considered one of the worst games of all time) One of the first offline Esports competitions the Red Annihilation Quake tournament was held at E3 1997.

1998: Duke Nukem Forever was shown for the first time, and the final version of Ocarina of Time was presented.

1999: A new generation of consoles, the Sega Dreamcast, and Nintendo announced the dolphin which was the codename for the GameCube.

2000: The sixth E3 saw the PlayStation 2, and the early form of the Xbox, and Halo: Combat Evolved.

2001: The GameCube and Xbox were featured with a line up of games for each. it was also the last appearance of the Dreamcast.

2002: Xbox Live was unveiled, and several big games made an appearance like, Ninja Gaiden, Warcraft 3, Doom 3, Super Mario Sunshine, Legend of Zelda Wind Waker, Metroid Prime, Starfox Adventures, Rachet and Clank, Sly cooper, Red Dead Revolver and Kingdom Hearts. Nintendo also unveiled the first major wireless controller called the Wavebird.

2003: Half-life 2, Halo 2, the Sims 2 and Call of Duty were all unveiled. it was also the first time the PSP was mentioned.

2004: The PSP and Nintendo DS were featured, and Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess was shown.

2005: The first time E3 was shown on TV. Sony debuted the PS3, Nintendo showed the Wii, and Microsoft unveiled the Xbox 360.

2006: Focused on the upcoming releases of Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii, along with the next wave of games for the Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable, and mobile phones. some games shown were Fable 2, Gears of War, Super Smash Bros brawl, Super Mario galaxy, Grand Theft Auto 4, Final Fantasy 13.

2007: Attendance to E3 2007, the 13th annual E3 summit attracted only 10,000 attendees due to a change in format.

2009: Electronic Entertainment Expos beginning from 2009 reverted to the show's previous format before its 2007 restructuring. The show was greatly expanded in terms of size from previous years, it has been reopened to all qualified computer and gaming audience. The first show to revert to this format.

Jun 12, 2016

Join Kaleb, Cameron, Kaleb, and Dylan as they discuss the original Doom game. Enjoy!

Doom

How do you begin to do a review on a game as iconic and game changing as doom?

Who developed Doom?
ID software
John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack.

The company was also heavily involved in the creation of the first-person shooter genre. Wolfenstein 3D is often considered as the first true FPS,Doom was a game that popularized the genre and PC gaming in general, and Quake is the first shooter to have online multiplayer, which is a widespread feature used in today's games of the same genre, as well as id's first true 3D first-person shooter.
What is doom?
1993 science fiction horror-themed first-person shooter (FPS) video game by id Software. It is considered one of the most significant and influential titles in video game history, for having pioneered the now-ubiquitous first-person shooter. The original game was divided into three nine-level episodes and was distributed via shareware and mail order. The Ultimate Doom, an updated release of the original game featuring a fourth episode, was released in 1995 and sold at retail.
In an interview I watched about it by John Romero, he said that Doom is the most downloaded software because of how good it was, and because of it being free. In fact, Microsoft wanted to jump onto the success of doom with their release of windows 95:
Show clip

The version I played was the Ultimate Doom, the one sold on the BFG edition of Doom three on the xbox 360.

Plot

Doom, a science fiction/horror themed video game, has a background which is given in the game's instruction manual; the rest of the story is advanced with short messages displayed between each section of the game (called episodes), the action as the player character progresses through the levels, and some visual cues.

The player takes the role of an unnamed space marine ("Doomguy") who has been punitively posted to Mars after assaulting his commanding officer, who ordered his unit to fire on civilians. The Martian space marine base acts as security for the Union Aerospace Corporation, a multi-planetary conglomerate, which is performing secret experiments with teleportation by creating gateways between the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos. Mars is considered by space marines to be the dullest assignment imaginable. This all changes when the UAC experiments go horribly wrong. Computer systems on Phobos malfunction, Deimos disappears entirely, and "something fragging evil" starts pouring out of the gateway, killing or possessing all UAC personnel.

Responding to a frantic distress call from the overrun scientists, the Martian marine unit is quickly sent by ship from Mars to Phobos to investigate, where the player character is left to guard the perimeter with only a pistol while the rest of the group proceeds inside. The marine hears assorted radio messages, gunfire, and screams, followed by silence: "Seems your buddies are dead." The player cannot navigate the ship off of Phobos alone and sees that the only way out is to fight through the Phobos complex.

As the last man standing, the player character's mission is to fight through the entire onslaught of demonic enemies by himself in order to keep them from attacking Earth. Knee-Deep in the Dead, the first episode and the only one in the shareware version, is set in the high-tech military bases, power plants, computer centers and geological anomalies on Phobos. It ends with the player character entering the teleporter leading to Deimos, only to be overwhelmed by monsters.

In the second episode, The Shores of Hell, the marine has successfully teleported to Deimos. He fights his way through installations on Deimos, similar to those on Phobos, but warped and distorted from the demon invasion and interwoven with beastly architecture. After defeating the titanic Cyberdemon, the marine discovers the truth about the vanished moon: it is floating above Hell.

The third episode, called Inferno, begins after the marine climbs off Deimos to the surface. The marine fights his way through Hell and defeats the Spider Mastermind that planned the invasion. Then a hidden doorway back to Earth opens for the hero, who has "proven too tough for Hell to contain". However, a burning city and a rabbit's head impaled on a stake (named in The Ultimate Doom as the marine's pet rabbit, Daisy) show that the demons have invaded Earth, setting the stage for Hell on Earth. The sequel retcons the events of Doom as an alien invasion of the Mars moon bases.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In The Ultimate Doom expansion, in the fourth episode Thy Flesh Consumed, it tells that the marine fought valiantly against the hordes of demons that the Spider Mastermind sent through that hidden doorway but ultimately the forces of Hell prevailed in the invasion of Earth. The locales of Thy Flesh Consumed are varied, including a mix of high-tech bases and demonic temples, though the atmosphere appears to be Earth.


Development
The development of Doom started in 1992, when John D. Carmack developed a new 3D game engine, the Doom engine, while the rest of the id Software team finished the Wolfenstein 3D prequel, Spear of Destiny. When the game design phase began in late 1992, the main thematic influences were the films Aliens and Evil Dead II.
Tom Hall wrote an elaborate design document called the Doom Bible, according to which the game would feature a detailed storyline, multiple player characters, and a number of interactive features.[8]However, many of his ideas were discarded during development in favor of simpler design

Technology
Doom's primary distinguishing feature at the time of its release was its relatively realistic 3D graphics. The advance from id Software's previous game Wolfenstein 3D was enabled by several new features in the Doom engine, including height differences (all rooms in Wolfenstein 3D have the same height), full texture mapping of all surfaces (in Wolfenstein 3D, floors and ceilings are flat colors) and varying light levels and custom palettes (all areas in Wolfenstein 3D are fully lit at the same brightness). The latter contributed to Doom's visual authenticity, atmosphere and gameplay, as the use of darkness to frighten or confuse the player was nearly unheard of in games released prior to Doom; palette modifications were used to enhance effects such as the berserk power-up which tints the player's vision red.

How did you feel when you stepped into a room that was lit only by a strobe effect?

Doom's primary distinguishing feature at the time of its release was its relatively realistic 3D graphics.[9] The advance from id Software's previous game Wolfenstein 3D was enabled by several new features in the Doom engine, including height differences (all rooms in Wolfenstein 3D have the same height), full texture mapping of all surfaces (in Wolfenstein 3D, floors and ceilings are flat colors) and varying light levels and custom palettes (all areas in Wolfenstein 3D are fully lit at the same brightness). The latter contributed to Doom's visual authenticity, atmosphere and gameplay, as the use of darkness to frighten or confuse the player was nearly unheard of in games released prior to Doom; palette modifications were used to enhance effects such as the berserk power-up which tints the player's vision red.

John Carmack had to make use of several tricks for these features to run smoothly on home computers of 1993. Most significantly, the Doom engine and levels are not truly three-dimensional; they are internally represented on a single plane, with height differences stored separately as displacements (a similar technique is still used in many games to create expansive outdoor environments). This allows a two point perspective projection, with several design limitations: for example, it is not possible in the Doom engine to create one room over another room in a level. However, thanks to its two-dimensional property, the environment can be rendered very quickly, using a binary space partitioning method. Another benefit was the clarity of the automap, as that could be rendered with 2D vectors without any risk of overlapping.

Another important feature of the Doom engine is its modular data files, which allow most of the game's content to be replaced by loading customWAD files. Wolfenstein 3D was not designed to be expandable, but fans had nevertheless figured out how to create their own levels for it, andDoom was designed to further extend the possibilities. The ability to create custom scenarios contributed significantly to the game's popularity (see the section on WADs, below).

Music
A heavy metal-ambient soundtrack was supplied by Bobby Prince.[6], heavily influenced by metal
Show video of comparisons

The iconic E1M1

If you want to see that interview with John Romero, look for Meet John Romero: One of the Godfathers of the First-Person Shooter

Jun 4, 2016

This week, the clan discusses video games that are either hated by critics and audience members, that we love to play. We discuss which ones we hold dear, and discuss ones that we know are bad, but are so good.... We also talk about the games we've beaten this week, Joe having the only one with Final Fantasy X-2. The clan touches on a bit of news, including the announcement of VR porn at this years E3. Thank you for joining, and live always in the nude!

May 29, 2016

This week, the guys talk DMC, and have a new VR idea they're ready to bring to market. Enjoy!

DMC: Devil may cry is a hack and slash action game developed by Ninja Theory and published by Capcom. DMC is technically the fifth game in the series, but is a reboot and is set in an alternate universe. Capcom called for a reimagining of the series and capcom chose Ninja Theory to make the game. Capcom worked alongside Ninja Theory to make sure the the gameplay was reminiscent of the older games but different enough to be special. The game started to receive a lot of flak even before its release as fans did NOT like the redesign of dante. Critics and new fans of the game praised gameplay, art, story, and music, but because of fan hate towards the new Dante the game did not meet Capcom's expectations. Later capcom claimed they were satisfied with the sales probably due to the definitive edition that was released on ps4, xbox one, and pc 2 years later. Dante's design was supposed to be similar to the original but capcom told ninja theory to make it completely different to appeal to a younger audience. So while the original dante was a japanese perspective ninja theory made him from more of a western perspective. The redesign was so hated that members of the ninja theory staff started receiving death threats. (apparently some in the form of comic books and a metal song.) early reception for the game was negative especially with the original creator hideki kamiya, and reuben langdon Dante's voice actor from the 3rd and 4th' games bagging on the game before release. producer alex jones said that some of the harsh response had turned positive. langdon changed his tune a little and urged fans to try the game. Rich Stanton from Eurogamer was about Dante's re-design, calling it one of the best reinventions of a character in gaming history. In contrast, Chris Schilling from VideoGamer.com was negative about the redesign, as he found the new Dante lacking some of the original's iconic features.

 

                      Schweiss                     Craig

Story                  6                               8

Gameplay           10                             10

Design                9                               10

Sound/Music        9                                9

Replayability        9                               10                     

 

 

May 22, 2016

This week, we discuss the history of Rhythm games, such as Guitar Hero, and Rocksmith. We dive into the origins, dating back to the Magnavox, and discuss the eventual downfall of the genre. We discuss a glass filled story behind Kaleb Craig's acquiring of a PS3, and discuss Joe's hike. Enjoy the episode guys!

May 15, 2016

Diablo II

Kaleb Schweiss

Diablo II is an action based, hack +-and slash rpg by Blizzard north. The game was published in 2000 for Windows and Mac. The game’s design was done by David Brevik and Erich Schaefer, who acted as a project lead for the game.

Diablo II built on the success of the first game in the series, and was one of the most popular game of 2000. The continuation of it’s fanatsy themes from the first entry, and the access to Blizzard’s free online play service through Battle.net were a major factor in it’s popularity. The servers are still available through Battle.net, and they even had a major patch release in March of 2016. There was an expansion for Diablo II, titled Lord of Destruction released in 2001, of which I have played about half of.

 

The game progresses through four portions, divided up into acts. Each one follows a set of objectives, but still holds true to the random generated areas of the first game. Diablo II also introduces more side quests, mainly in the form of optional dungeons with an uber loot chest at the end. Diablo II has much more variety in environments, where Diablo I only had the floors in, and below, the monastery.

 

Diablo II also introduces three difficulty levels. Normal, Nightmare, and Hell are unlocked once the game is beaten on normal. Higher difficulty means harder enemies, and less resistances, but it also means better loot. The player can return to a lower difficulty at any time.

 

Diablo II brings a couple more character selections to the table. You can play as an Amazon, Necromancer, Barbarian, Sorceress, and Paladin. Lord of Destruction also added the Druid and Assassin classes.

 

Diablo II’s story begins right after the events of Diablo. The great and powerful warrior, Husk, defeated Diablo in the first game, and tried to contain his essence within his body. Since then, Husk has become corrupted by the demons spirit, and has caused demons to enter the world.

 

Stories begin to be told in reference to this “Dark Wanderer”. We later find that the soulstones were originally designed to capture the Prime Evils who were banished to the mortal realm after being overthrown by their lessers. When Diablo’s soulstone became corrupted, the demon was able to control the Dark Wanderer. THe soulstone of Baal, another demon, was united with the mage Tal-Rasha, who volunteered to absorb the spirit into his body and be imprisoned. The story is told from the perspective of a drifter named Marius. Marius is following the Dark Wanderer, and finds that he means to unite with the other Prime Evils.

 

Act I: Rescue Cain from Tristram, follow Dark Wanderer. Wanderer gets Andariel to corrupt the Sisters of the Sightless Eye and take over their monestary. Overcome, yada yada.

Act II: You head east, in search of Tal Rasha’s tomb. Marius and the Dark Wanderer get there first, and Marius is deceived into removing Baals soulstone from Tal-Rasha, and Tyrael, an Archangel, orders Marius to take the soulstone to hell to destroy it. THe dark wanderer joins Mephisto and Ball, opens a portal to hell, and sheds his skin to become Diablo.


Act III: Mephisto is killed guarding the entrance to The Temple of Kurast. The character takes his soulstone, and goes to Hell.

Act IV: Slay Diablo, and destroy the soulstones of Mephisto and Diablo on the Hellforge, preventing their return.

 

                Kaleb Schweiss             Joe

Story            8                                 8

Gameplay    10                                10

Design         10                                10

Music/Sound 10                              10

Replayability 10                              10

 

 

May 7, 2016

This week, we announce that Kaleb and Kaleb's next game will be DMC: Devil May Cry. We move on to discuss a video submitted by Cynyr featuring the showdown between a Fallout character, and a Skyrim character. Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBlhXKjSy6M We then move on to discuss our experiences with multiplayer gaming, and move on to discuss what kind of multiplayer games we prefer, ranging from fps to rts. We top it off with a bit of Getting Phat. Enjoy the NUDE!

May 1, 2016

This time on Nude Clan, Cameron and Kaleb Craig review the 2015 game "Dying Light". The game was praised for its music and replayablility, with good gameplay, design, and serviceable story to boot. Zombies and Parkour, oh my!

 

                                Cameron            Kaleb

Story                        7                       8

Gameplay                  7                      9

Design                       8                       7

Music/sound               10                     10

Replayablility              8                       8

 

Overall: 82/100

Apr 24, 2016

History of Video Games 2: Attack of the Clones

 

The first generation of videogame consoles were all related by the following characteristics:

  • Discrete transistor-based digital game logic gate. (an idealized or physical device implementing a Boolean function; that is, it performs a logical operation on one or more logical inputs, and produces a single logical output)
  • Games were native components of consoles rather than based on external or removable media.
  • Entire game playfield occupies only one screen.
  • Players and objects consist of very basic lines, dots or blocks.
  • Colour graphics are basic (mostly black and white or other dichromatic combination; later games may display three or more colours).
  • Either single-channel or no audio.




Manufacturer

Magnavox

Type

Dedicated console

Generation

First generation

Retail availability

Introductory price

US$99 (equivalent to $560.05 in 2015)

Discontinued

1975[1]

Units sold

330,000[1]

CPU

None

Controller input

Two paddles

Successor

Magnavox Odyssey²



  • The system can be powered by six C batteries, which were included. An optional A/C power supply was sold separately.
  • The Odyssey lacks sound capability.  Ralph Baer proposed a sound extension to Magnavox in 1973, but the idea was rejected.
  • The Odyssey uses a type of removable printed circuit board,[7] called a game card, that inserts into a slot similar to a ROM cartridge slot
  • The system was sold with translucent plastic overlays that players could put on their television screen[8] to simulate color graphics,[7] though only two TV sizes were supported. Some of these overlays could even be used with the same cartridges, though with different rules for playing.
  • Odyssey came packed with dice,[8] poker chips, and score sheets to help keep score, play money, and game boards much like a traditional board game.
  • The Odyssey was also designed to support an add-on peripheral, the first-ever commercial video "light gun" called the Shooting Gallery. This detected light from the television screen, though pointing the gun at a nearby light bulb also registered as a "hit". Only 20,000 sales were made and the peripheral could only be used with 4 compatible games.
    • This was also the first involvement of Nintendo in video games. According to Martin Picard in the International Journal of Computer Game Research: "in 1971, Nintendo had -- even before the marketing of the first home console in the United States -- an alliance with the American pioneer Magnavox to develop and produce optoelectronic guns for the Odyssey (released in 1972), since it was similar to what Nintendo was able to offer in the Japanese toy market in 1970s"
  • Magnavox settled a court case against Atari, Inc. for patent infringement in Atari's design of Pong, as it resembled the tennis game for the Odyssey. Over the next decade, Magnavox sued other big companies such as Coleco, Mattel, Seeburg, and Activision and either won or settled each suit.[14][15]In 1985, Nintendo sued Magnavox and tried to invalidate Baer's patents by saying that the first video game was William Higinbotham's Tennis for Two game built in 1958. The court ruled that this game did not use video signals and could not qualify as a video game. As a result, Nintendo lost the suit and continued paying royalties to Sanders Associates. Over 20 years, Magnavox won more than $100 million in the various patent lawsuits and settlements involving the Odyssey related patents.[16]
  • A total of 27 games distributed and 12 different game cards were released for the Magnavox Odyssey. All of them were developed by Magnavox in 1972, except for Interplanetary Voyage, which was developed in 1973. (Almost all were sports games).

 

The Magnavox Odyssey never really caught on with the consumers, possibly because of its limited functionality.

 

In 1974 Magnavox was bought by a company called Phillips, and they were put to work making newer and newer versions of their console to compete with the competitors that began popping up in 1975.

 

First Competitor

Japan

On September 12, 1975, Epoch released Japan's first console, the TV Tennis Electrotennis, a home version of Pong, several months before the release of Home Pong in North America. A unique feature of the TV Tennis Electrotennis is that the console is wireless, functioning through a UHF antenna.

 

Pong

USA

By the middle of the 1970s the ball-and-paddle craze in the arcade had ignited public interest in video games and continuing advances in integrated circuits had resulted in large-scale integration (LSI) microchips cheap enough to be incorporated into a consumer product. The first Arcades were being built, and multiple Pong Clones - Starting with the original smash-hit HOME PONG in Christmas of 1975. were being produced for arcades and at-home consoles.

 

Binatone TV Master

Uk copy of Magnavox odyssey, also came with paddles and a light gun.

 

Telstar Colortron produced by Coleco

USA Pong clone that ran a series of consoles from 1976 to 1978

 

Nintendo's Color TV Game

Japan's most successful console of the first generation was Nintendo's Color TV Game, released in 1977.[4] The Color TV Game sold 3 million units,[5] the highest for a first generation console.

 

ARCADES

 

While all of these at-home consoles and pong clones were coming out, another surge of electronic gaming was happening in the form of Arcades.

Now, arcades already existed with physical games like pinball, but starting with Atari’s pong in 1972, video games were coming on in with companies  Ramtek, Allied Leisure, Williams, Chicago Coin, and Midway producing coin-operated arcade game machines.

 

Not long into the market, these companies began to produce more than just pong copycats, but racing games, dueling games, and target shooting games.

 

Hits include:

Gran Trak 10 (1974)

Tank (1974)

Wheels (1975)

Gun Fight, (1975)

Sea Wolf (1976)





COMPUTER GAMES

 

In the 1970s computers at universities were beginning to outgrow the game “spacewar” and various creative programmers were creating a whole new type of game.

 

As opposed to the real-time graphics of the at-home consoles, most mainframe and microprocessor computers lacked the display capabilities of those games, and instead opted for text-based input games. These games would often be printed in books as code to input.

 

Notable games include:

  • Colossal Cave Adventure created in 1976 by Will Crowther by combining his passion for caving with concepts from the newly released tabletop role-playing game (RPG) Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). Expanded by Don Woods in 1977 with an emphasis on the high fantasy of J.R.R. Tolkien, Adventure established a new genre based around exploration and inventory-based puzzle solving that made the transition to personal computers in the late 1970s.

 

In the late 1970’s, more computers were available that could handle graphics that weren’t text-only, allowing for a first person view of primative vector graphics mixed with text-input. Notable Games like these in the first generation include:  Moria (1975), Oubliette (1977), and Avatar (1979)

 

IN CLOSING

 

In 1977 video games both at home and abroad began to lag in sales, possibly due to a crowded market and possibly due to electronically enhanced pinball games, but that would all change with Midway’s Space invaders in 1979.

Apr 17, 2016

This week, the guys review the new and noteworthy Far Cry Primal. This time, all four members of Nude Clan team up to bring you all the girth you could possibly want. We give a standardly sloppy retelling of the games light story, where you play as Takkar of the Wenja tribe. You essentially gather your people together again, after they were scattered across the land by Ull, the leader of the Udam people of the north. You build homes for your villagers, and help them vanquish their mortal enemies. You eventually bring peace to the land, and begin accepting peoples from the other two tribes into your camp. We then move on to gameplay.

The Gameplay in Far Cry Primal is stellar. The ability to tame wild animals and turn them against your enemies is a lot of fun. The extra missions available on the world map allow for hours of content aside from the main storyline, and are a great way to explore the land of Oros.

Far Cry Primal is beautiful. The game is probably the best looking thing any of the Clan have played, and we can tell that they spared no expense to make this the most immersive game possible. The animations are fluid and precise, the characters look excellent, and the animals are stellar.

The games sound and music portion was a bit of a step down from the design of Far Cry Primal. The music is used sparingly, yet always feels right. The sounds are accurate for the most part, but still cut out prematurely at times, and creates a jarring effect on the immersion into the game.

 Replayability.... This game has lots of things to do. There are animals to tame, hunts to participate in, extra quests to do, people to save...etc. There are also a ton of extra items you can grab, and the new patch has added a much more difficult way of playing the game. You'll definitely be able to get your money's worth with FarCry Primal.

 

Ratings      Craig    Schweiss   Cameron    Joe

Story            7            7                8           7

Gameplay     9            9                9           9

Design          10          10              10          10

Sound/music  8            8                7           10

Replayability  9             7                8          10

TOTAL: 172/200 or 86/100

 

Apr 10, 2016

This week, we go full hog. We discuss our stance on achievements, trophies, and gamerscore. We talk about the elements that we like, and dislike about these systems. We then reveal Kaleb Craig as the top dog in these categories, and discuss why him and Schweiss are a cut above the rest. We also answer an excellent question from Pixel on the forums regarding whether or not video games are art. This question was derived from comments made years ago by Roger Ebert. The Clan discusses his comments, and also what they feel video games need to do to be considered a stand alone art form. Enjoy the episode!

Apr 3, 2016

This week, we review the infamous Super Mario Bros. film from 1993. We discuss the overarching plot, wherein King Koopa transverses between realities to kidnap Princess Daisy. Daisy has a piece of a meteorite on a necklace she's had her whole life, and this piece connects to a meteorite that slammed into earth 65 billion years ago. The brothers then rescue her, and yada yada... We discuss the well produced functions of the film. The special effects were actually quite well done, and there were a few laughs throughout the film. There are also references a plenty, though we still wouldn't recommend the film to anyone. Enjoy the episode!

Mar 27, 2016

This week, we discuss our history with Moba's! We've each extensively played League of Legends, Joe and Craig have hit up Dota in the past, and none of us have delved into the other mainstream titles. We then move on to discuss the toxic nature of the League of Legends community. We answer a question around what makes a great villain in video games, and round things out with some PHAT. Enjoy!

Mar 20, 2016

This week, we review Bungies juggernaut. No, not Halo...the other one. Destiny! We discuss the rocky back history, from the firing of Michael Salvatori, legendary Halo composer, and the last minute scrapping of the story in Destiny. We dive into the cost of the game. Bungie layed the foundation for later additions to the Destiny series. This cuts the otherworldly budget down to size. Kaleb and Cameron move on to touch on the story of Destiny, citing it's ten hour campaign as a bit of a downer. The game also leaves a lot to be desired, and the ending of Destiny feels more like a midpoint. We move on to what is easily the best feature of Destiny; it's gameplay.

Destiny flawlessly melds it's campaign with it's multiplayer aspects. You accept quests with other users walking around, can use the same equipment for campaign missions and online versus mode, and you can work on classes in each area. You run into other players out in the field, and can participate in world events, where a massive creature will spawn, and anyone can help kill it. Destiny brings a pretty solid online experience, only lacking in new player immersion. It's a little difficult to get over the initial underleveled approach, and the game lacks the amazing matchmaking of Halo. Destiny throws all skill levels together as one.

We then get to design. praising the beauty of Destiny. They did an excellent job of accounting for everything happening in their giant world. From the ships flying overhead, to the shadows cast by beams of light, Destiny flaunts its excellent lighting, and amazing graphics the whole way. Destiny also has a solid soundtrack, and there is never a moment where you are taken out of the moment due to game sounds, or voice acting. It's not stellar, but it's never anywhere near bad.

The replayability is another excellent part of Destiny. The game has daily quests for leveling, and has constant world events. The DLC content associated with the games also keeps us coming back. Raids are also a plus, featuring co operative play amongst fire teams of 3. Enjoy the episode!

 

Ratings:               Cameron     Schweiss

Story:                       4             5

Gameplay:                 8               8

Design:                      9               9

Sound/Music:              8               8

Replayability:             10              10

OVERALL:                          79/100

Mar 13, 2016

This week, we have a special episode. We dive into the beginnings of video games with Joe's History of Video games, prelude to the first generation of consoles. We discuss the first video game Space War, a cathode ray tube of awesome. This game was the first interactive electronic video game. We discuss the evolution of this form of entertainment, which led to it's eventual mainstream success. We dive into a controversial question for the week. We discuss why violence in video games is more accepted in North America, whereas sexuality is shunned. We also get in touch with our PHAT goals, discussing both the successes and failures of our new years resolutions. Enjoy the discussion!

Mar 6, 2016

This week, we review Game Dev Tycoon. The game was released by Greenheart Games on December 10th. The game begins with the player in their over expensive garage, building games. We begin by discussing the games storyline. It includes actual trends within gaming history, allowing the player to predict the marketplace and develop a successful game. We discuss the function of hiring employees, and training them to create better games for your company. The games story lasts a thirty year period, and it's sink or swim as you create game after game. We also try to break down the costs associated with your business expenses in the beginning of the game... HOW THE F*** ARE YOUR EXPENSES 8K!?!?!? YOU'RE IN YOUR FUCKING GARAGE IN THE 80'S!!!!

We then head on over to gameplay. Joe and Kaleb praised the strategy aspects of Game Dev Tycoon. We discuss managing your budgets for advertising, and making the jump to the next generations of gaming consoles. You get the chance to manage your team members, allowing you to fully utilize individuals for specific projects. You place emphases on particular parts of each game, such as graphics, gameplay, storyline, etc. You receive technology points, research points, design points, and bugs while playing. These portions go toward the overall game. There is also a hype engine associated with the games, and hype falls with the passing of time. Bugs will wreck your game. You may be able to release the game with tons of hype, but the bugs will destroy your sales.

The games design is mostly unappealing. This isn't really an important part of this simulation game, but it is notably unappealing to watch on Twitch. You're unable to edit your surroundings, and the text bubbles tend to get in the way of things.

Game Dev Tycoon features a single song. This song is fairly catchy, but it eventually begins to grind on the sanity of the player. The sound effects are fun and inviting, adding to the overall experience.

The final category is replayability. This game has fairly decent, to excellent replay value. Craig praised its replayability, citing personal growth as the main factor for him replaying the game. Joe says that he'd love to play it again, but with some of the mods on steam.

NUDE CLAN Official Rating:

                                 Joe                      Kaleb

Story                          10                        10

Gameplay                    9                          9

Design                         5                          5

Music/Sound                 7                          6

Replayability                 7                          9

                               

                                      Overall 77/100

 

Feb 28, 2016

This week, we invite Dylan, and Drew on to discuss some Pokemon. We each go around and tell our history with the series; ranging from the video games, movies, and all the way down to the Pokemon manga. We touch base on the legacy of the Pokemon series, which is the third highest selling video game franchise in history. Once we tell our alcoholics anonymous-esque history with the series, we move on to discuss the release of the  Pokemon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition. The re released Pokemon Yellow offers enhanced color graphics, and also brings an interesting Trade and Battle function, where you can do battle with your friends, or perhaps, your rival!

Then we bump uglies with the occult. We discuss the story in which two hundred children, ranging from the ages of 7-12, committed suicide as a result of the eerie Lavender Town theme. We read the theory aloud, with the creepy music in the background, and then weigh our opinions on the incident. Then we discuss our complete and utter failures in the Getting Phat section...

Enjoy the episode!

Lavender Town - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sOadAaGiq4

Pokemon Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GQyd7Hkrx8&list=PLC3BDFD4AEFFF56DF

 

Feb 21, 2016

This week, we review Joe and Cameron's pick, Fable. We power through the quick storyline within Fable, and discuss the bloodline lore, and the overarching dread that the realm of Albion. We talk about the duality of Maze's situation with the Hero, and discuss the various moral choices that Fable presents to you. We move on to discuss the gameplay of Fable. Fable features a morality engine, where your choices influence how the game plays. If you are a generally good person during your playthrough, you will be cheered, and the villagers will revere you. If you are evil, they will flee from you, and distrust your every move. Fable employs a very simple, quick battle system. This system is akin to God of War, but feels more RPG-esque. We touch on the mini games that Fable has to offer, and delve into a little about the side quests, demon doors, etc. We then move on to Fable's design. Fable features a semi cartoon style of animation. It's not quite the cell shading of Borderlands, but it's not quite Elder Scrolls. We praised Fable for the visual effects associated with dying, and getting hit within the game. It's also a lot of fun to see your character grow beard, and longer hair. The games soundtrack is very well done, featuring an introduction track by Danny Elfman. The rest of the tracks are excellently atmospheric, and really pull the player into the world of Fable. The fact that the game has two different paths to choose, it's replay value is solid. The choices you make in Fable don't necessarily alter the story, but they definitely alter the interactions you have with the NPC's around you. Here's our official score.

                                 Joe                                       Cameron

Story                           9                                               9

Gameplay                    8                                               7

Design                         8                                               8

Sound/music                10                                             10

Replay Value                8                                                7

                                        Official NUDE CLAN Rating

                                                   84/100

E3 2004 TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9dgkbaHNdg

Feb 14, 2016

This week, we discuss our experiences with MMORPG's. The two Kaleb's have the most saturated background with the genre, exploring titles such as Guild Wars 2, Final Fantasy XIV, Runescape, and The Elder Scrolls Online. Joe has extensive history with Final Fantasy XIV and Final Fantasy XI. Cameron has only played Runescape, but had a strong interest in Elder Scrolls Online, until he saw the gameplay. We also discuss our progress in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, and Fable. Finally, we briefly touch on our life goals, discussing our progress there. Thank you for listening, and live always in the NUDE!

Feb 7, 2016

This week, we discuss the cult hit Ico. Schweiss and Craig both played the game on the PS3 HD remaster disc, which includes Shadow of the Colossus. We go into detail about the games sparse, yet interesting storyline. We also touch on the interesting, yet difficult at times gameplay elements of the game, praising the puzzles, but docking points for the precision based stances the game takes. Then comes the design of Ico. Neither of us had a problem with the look of the game, especially for when it was initially released. We move on to highly praise Ico's melodic, and unforgettable soundtrack. The games sounds were also believable, and it seemed like they left no stone unturned when it came to the sound quality. Last, but certainly not least, comes replayability. We both rate this game highly on it's replayability.

                            Schweiss                     Craig

Storyline                    8                              8

Gameplay                  7                               7

Design                       10                            10

Music/Sound               9                               9

Replayability               8                               7

Overall, official [Nude] Clan ranking will be 83/100.

 

Enjoy the episode! 

Jan 31, 2016

This week, the guys give their two cents about video game formats. They discuss the pros and cons of both the digital and physical copies of video games, and other forms of media. We weigh in on the positive aspect regarding digital, and praise it for the space saving aspects, and the ability to download game from anywhere. We praise physical on it's visual aspects. We enjoy seeing the shelf of games, and they have a certain permanence to them. We then go over our PHAT goals for a long ass time, and have some heated debates.

 

Enjoy the show!!!

Jan 24, 2016

This week, we start off the episode reading a rebuttal to last weeks episode on Piracy. This rebuttal was submitted to the Clan via our website, from Intercept. We disagree with some of the rhetoric, but appreciate the rebuttal. It's all about the conversation!

We then move into the main event. Reviewing Diablo 1. We discuss each element of the game, from it's simplistic and satisfying story, to it's incredible gameplay. We move into the eerie, and quite effective design of Diablo's scenery and Satanic imagery. This, naturally, leads into the games sound and music. We felt like the music really cemented the overall dark, and brooding tone of the game. Last, but certainly not least, we discuss the games replay value.

Once the Diablo review is done, we move into PHAT. We discuss both our sucesses and failures of our show resolutions, and go into some detail about the films we watched for the week. Enjoy, and special thanks to Intercept for the rebuttal!

 

                                               Rating Rubrick

                      Joe                               Kaleb

Story              8                                      7

Gameplay        8                                     9

Design             10                                   10

Sound/Music     8                                     9

Replay Value     10                                  10

 

 

Jan 17, 2016

This week, the guys weigh in on their stances on the hot, and often divided, discussion of piration in gaming. We talk about the way piration damages the economy, and how if everyone were to do it, there would be no games. We delve into some statistics, proving the loss of revenue, and jobs that is caused as a result. We move on to discuss Joe and Kalebs progress in Diablo, and find out why Joe has to restart the whole game.

We move on to discuss our PHAT goals, and where we are thus far. Enjoy the episode!

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