{"id":35660,"date":"2016-11-28T06:00:36","date_gmt":"2016-11-28T10:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=35660"},"modified":"2016-11-28T09:35:49","modified_gmt":"2016-11-28T14:35:49","slug":"diecast-178-ubisoft-nintendo-3ds-pokemon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=35660","title":{"rendered":"Diecast #178: Ubisoft, Nintendo 3DS, Pokemon"},"content":{"rendered":"


Direct download<\/a> (MP3)<\/small>Direct download<\/a> (ogg Vorbis)<\/small>Podcast RSS feed.<\/a><\/small><\/div>
\nHosts: Josh<\/a>, Shamus<\/a>, Campster<\/a>, Mumbles<\/a>. Episode edited by Rachel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Like I said on the show: I’m going to be travelling during the second week in December. I’m not sure how well I’ll be able to keep up with comments, or if I’ll be able to queue up enough content to get us through. <\/p>\n

Also, things may be disrupted a bit this<\/em> week because I’m moving my home office.<\/p>\n

My daughter Rachel moved out in early 2016. We left her room empty for a while, just in case she boomerang’d. But it’s been over half a year and she’s living stable, so I think she’s out for good. So we moved my son Issac into her room, and I’m taking Issac’s old room. This is a pretty big step for me. For two years I’ve been running this site from my living room where I’m constantly distracted by the television, guests, stuff going on in the kitchen, people playing music, people chattering on the phone, and a dozen other living-room things. But now I’m going to have my own room with a door.<\/p>\n

That’s all good for the long-term, but in the short term it means tearing apart this gigantic command center of equipment and re-assembling it in another room. I know that’s bound to disrupt things around here, so please be patient if I’m worse than usual at moderating comments and answering emails.<\/p>\n

Show notes:
\n0:00:33: Tablet Computer Q&A<\/strong>
\nI’m looking for a machine that can let me create content and admin this site. At the same time, we really don’t have a lot of money right now, since we’re spending it on the trip. <\/p>\n

On the show I said we were looking at a Surface 2 Pro. I was wrong. The model my wife suggested is the Microsoft Surface, which is currently under $150 and comes with a keyboard. (Compare to Surface 2, which is around double that without the keyboard.) The other wrinkle is that after the trip, I won’t really have use for either device. But if we get the Surface, my wife could use it for digital art. So Chromebook is cheaper but useless once the trip is over, while Surface is more expensive but potentially will continue to be useful after the trip. The best way I can think of to make this decision is to gather as much information as possible before choosing.<\/p>\n

So, anyone have any general advice for these devices? Things to watch out for? Have you used a Surface, or a Chromebook? Sure, I can read random reviews, but I find our discussions here to be a lot more useful.<\/p>\n

0:09:36: Ubisoft exec says Vivendi takeover could “Damage culture of innovation.”<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

I talked (snarked) about this on Twitter, and the response I got from a lot of people was “What about Child of Light and Valiant Hearts!?” as if I was being unfair. <\/p>\n

Sure, once every few years Ubi puts out something experimental and different. But the vast bulk of their resources go into making a bunch of games that feel very similar and feel like design by focus group rather than having any sort of creative spark. It’s not that they never do anything interesting, it’s that claiming to have a “culture of innovation” is like saying that Batman has a “mirthful personality” because he’s gotten nailed by the Joker’s laughing gas a couple of times.<\/p>\n

0:25:38: Josh and the 3DS<\/strong><\/p>\n

0:42:55: Pokemon Sun & Moon<\/strong><\/p>\n

Having never played a Pokemon game, it’s amazing to me just how impenetrable this stuff gets. I think this is a good thing. It irritates me when people are dismissive towards Pokemon because the premise (capture animals and train them to fight) is simple. Mechanically, I’d say this game sounds pretty deep.<\/p>\n

0:57:57: Physical Sales are down.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stipulated: Discussing boxed sales and ignoring digital sales doesn’t paint a full picture of events. Having said that, this does make for an interesting collection of headlines:<\/p>\n

Top 10 UK Sales Chart: Watch Dogs 2 Sales Down 80%<\/a>
\nCall of Duty: Infinite Warfare Sales Fall 48% Compared to Black Ops 3<\/a>
\nThe Less Obvious Reason ‘Titanfall 2’ Might Be Failing<\/a>
\nCall of Duty holds No.1 as Watch Dogs 2 launch sales fall 80% over the original<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hosts: Josh, Shamus, Campster, Mumbles. Episode edited by Rachel. Like I said on the show: I’m going to be travelling during the second week in December. I’m not sure how well I’ll be able to keep up with comments, or if I’ll be able to queue up enough content to get us through. Also, things […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[287],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diecast-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35660\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}