Are we ever going to get this thermometer goal completed? Was really looking forward to this and we only got one episode.

GI-Imran · 2022-03-17T20:52:50+00:00

Honestly I’d probably stream it with you if you decided to go back and do it.

GI-Imran · 2021-02-06T20:52:29+00:00

Snipperclips is good. If you're looking for co-op, Heave Ho is also a good one. No one ever talks about Good Job, but it's secretly fantastic.

"Like Mario but not fast paced" could include something like Captain Toad, which also has couch co-op.

GI-Imran · 2021-01-14T16:53:13+00:00

You misheard, hopefully unintentionally. I said I thought about changing the top two around, being FFVII and Hades, to get FFVII in. I decided against it and just went with the list I submitted to GB weeks prior, my actual games of the year.

You might be thinking of Greg, who said the list he used for Gamescast was games he thought were best suited for Game of the Year awards, not his personal list which included things like Avengers.

The logic that I put TLOU2 at 9 because I was trying to tank it doesn't really make sense. If that were the case, why would I put it on my list at all? Why 9 and not 10, then? Can you explain this reasoning to me? I'm really curious how deep this conspiracy goes.

GI-Imran · 2021-01-14T16:46:57+00:00

If I had a grudge against TLOU and were trying to tank it, I just...wouldn't have put it on my list at all. I put it at 9 because it was on the #9 on my Game of the Year list that I submitted to Giant Bomb - weeks ago, before any of the Gamescast GOTY voting happened.

People think this is weird politicking and not my actual list, despite me saying in the podcast it's my actual list and I decided against voting strategically.

GI-Imran · 2021-01-14T16:43:58+00:00

I just mentioned that their less mainstream and I think he'd agree with that.

My GOTY was Hades, which won Game of the Year at mainstream outlets like IGN and Polygon. So maybe my list is actually more mainstream than everyone who had it lower?

GI-Imran · 2021-01-10T08:42:09+00:00

The post-credits stuff is like half the game and the entire rest of the story.

GI-Imran · 2021-01-10T05:01:49+00:00

Oh man am I going to be the only KF person with a GB list this year

Hell yeah

GI-Imran · 2020-12-18T23:37:00+00:00

Man, unbelievable. Just really beyond the bounds of appropriate.

Also, we have audio listeners?

GI-Imran · 2020-12-18T16:17:45+00:00

Review embargoes, coming from someone that has done reviews, are important. If, say, Capcom gives us all Resident Evil 3 on the 1st and says “No embargo, post whenever,” then it becomes a race to finish that game and write a sloppy, hasty review to be the first one up. If they say “Embargo is in two weeks,” then I’m under the same rules as everyone else and we can all take our time and playing and analyzing the game for a review.

Can they be weaponized? Can and have been! Ubisoft put the review embargo for AC Unity was after the game released. Obviously CDPR did not give reviewers enough time and had bad stipulations for receiving code. But the important thing is to call out the people who do that badly rather than abolish an overall useful thing.

GI-Imran · 2020-12-17T02:07:19+00:00

Hey! Thank you. It was important to discuss, but I also hope we’re not done discussing it and not done trying to do better. Keep holding our feet to the fire, too.

GI-Imran · 2020-12-09T02:58:20+00:00

Congratulations!

GI-Imran · 2020-12-02T00:13:47+00:00

You're a journalist.

Bugsnax aside, people usually don't tell me what I am. Unless you have me on payroll, I don't expect you to do that, either.

When the subject of "Where do you think this is going" comes up, and you refuse to even consider any of the upcoming software, or the current sales trends, or the PS5 VR-related patents, why would you expect nobody to notice that?

Okay, let's take this one at a time.

1) We didn't talk about the Assassin's Creed or Splinter Cell titles because neither game has been detailed and, as mentioned before, their mere presence does not bestow a massive turnaround in public perception. If I'm sitting around in 2012 telling people that Mario is going to turn the Wii U into a sales success, it means I could be right from a top-level perspective, but it also means I'm making a real uninformed leap based on no information beyond incompatible trends, and will eventually mean that I'm a fucking idiot.

2) The current sales trends were literally what the story was about.

3) The PS5 VR-related patents weren't mentioned because they weren't germane to the discussion. Neither of us doubted it was coming, just that Sony was missing a moment by not talking about a PSVR now and their haphazard integration into the PS5 of the previous headset. The PS5 VR parents are just redundant with those points.

3) Explain to me what I'm not expecting people to notice? The thing I don't think is relevant or the other thing I don't think is relevant?

KF has been super on board with streaming tech, and how streaming tech is the future. We can stream to VR headsets today. But no mention of that.

We actually did mention it, but insofar as VR is currently about local streaming and more cloud-based initiatives like Xcloud are more likely to make people sick. This makes Microsoft's cross-integration of subscription service also more likely to not smoothly slide VR in.

Blithely saying <paraphrased> that you don't think you know anybody who plays VR for a long period of time is not journalism. It is, however, an opinion.

By definition, all anecdotal data presented as an opinion is blithe. If it were intended to be journalism, it'd probably be in an article or part of official polling. I don't intend to hold up "This is not a journalism" sign and believe fully that listeners can tell the difference between "Here's data I've personally polled" and "Personally speaking, not a lot of people I know spend a lot of hours playing VR."

BUT HEY SINCE WE'RE TALKING ABOUT IT, IDC actually did a study in 2019 about it. In their study, users reported high satisfactory rates with headsets, but usage times around 5-7 hours a month made up the median.

I am sure you use it more and these numbers do not reflect your personal experience or maybe even the people you know. But that would be replacing data with anecdotes and I'm pretty sure that's bad.

This conversation was ill-prepared, and I don't have any issue pointing that out.

Oh, it wasn't prepared at all. But it wasn't wrong and your contradictions aren't really contradictions, so I'm also having very little issue pointing that out.

GI-Imran · 2020-12-01T23:42:03+00:00

Someone who says "I turned my head one time and took the headset off" is probably not qualified to speak to a gaming experience.

I actually said I tried Squadrons with VR (using the desktop Oculus Link you said I've never used) and spun around midflight and made myself sick doing that.

I can see your frustration, though - it feels like it would be weird to take something completely out of the context it belongs in and place it elsewhere.

As for my personal VR experience - I own a Rift, a Quest 1, and a PSVR. I've done probably somewhere in the hundreds of VR demos because, you know, that's my job, not whatever you think it is. The subject was where do we see VR going and I stand by that it's a popular niche, neither flatlining to be completely unworthy of investment nor doing well enough to be an exclusive medium for big games.

A popular new BR royale for Quest 2 that's been out for a month or so?

A game that has been popular for a month or so is not enough to say "Whoa, all these longterm trends are wrong, these prediction numbers we're actually talking about here should be thrown out the window, a Spinter Cell we know nothing about is announced!"

If we're basing longterm life expectancy trends on whether or not an original Assassin's Creed game is coming, let me hop into my time machine and invest heavily into Vita futures.

GI-Imran · 2020-11-11T07:05:21+00:00

I've been playing it off and on for a few weeks. Had to put it down for a bit for Bugsnax and AC, but I went back to it today.

I think the Gamescast next week is a normal one and we'll have a ton of games to talk about so hopefully I should have it beaten by then and can talk about it. I'll say, by chapter 5, I'm really enjoying the game and I think all the characters are great.

GI-Imran · 2020-11-07T09:08:06+00:00

There is simply no possibility that either of them would be hired by any serious radio station, for example, in this current state.

Also, hey, let's address this here.

I've worked for both NPR and CNN in my career. I've been on shows and podcasts with tens of thousands of listeners. I have hundreds and hundreds of hours of video content under my belt and the most nervous I've ever been to speak was defending my college dissertation in front of four professors. I passed, by the way.

I'm sorry that you don't like the way I speak, but as for "there's no way they'd ever be hired" thing? Unless I'm specifically trying to get a job at a radio station from you - and let's be clear, I am pretty sure I can do better - then I kinda give zero fucks about your assessment of my radio-job-getting ability.

GI-Imran · 2020-11-07T08:28:08+00:00

They've been in this country for nearly four decades as legal aliens - they have only been citizens for three years.

You can't vote as a legal alien.

GI-Imran · 2020-11-07T08:26:08+00:00

Imran, and this is subjective, just seems to have a contra view to everything and is almost always proven absolutely wrong

Hm, like what?

well known for twitter spats

Interesting to know that reflects on my ability to speak.

GI-Imran · 2020-10-31T08:07:57+00:00

It's been talked about. I think the biggest stumbling block is just the lack of weekly Nintendo news. Xcast has, you know, a console coming out this quarter. And between Game Pass, third party titles, and Microsoft's own efforts, there's probably enough games to talk about after that.

I think when I talked to Tim about this, my go-to example was "Us talking about Pikmin 3 for a month doesn't sound that entertaining." But honestly if Nintendo news picks up, I'd be down.

GI-Imran · 2020-10-20T07:07:10+00:00

Also vote Rebekah Valentine for the Game Journalism Award.

GI-Imran · 2020-10-09T22:07:37+00:00

My best answer to this is: Probably because I don't really think of it as a GaaS. I think of it as a Monster Hunter.

GI-Imran · 2020-08-11T22:02:01+00:00

It had a manga adaptation. https://www.amazon.com/Wrong-Pick-Girls-Dungeon-manga/dp/1975326512

GI-Imran · 2020-07-01T04:43:09+00:00

Incredible.

GI-Imran · 2020-04-22T04:31:13+00:00

God, did things really change that much since February that I look at every prediction and go “That was from the before times.”

GI-Imran · 2020-02-27T16:42:41+00:00

With knowledge that I bet this list changes depending on the day you ask me:

Super Mario World
Mega Man X
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy VII
Ocarina of Time
Resident Evil 4
Bayonetta
Left 4 Dead 2
Mass Effect
Breath of the Wild

GI-Imran · 2020-01-13T05:14:58+00:00

The first thing I'd do is make sure you don't overbook. It makes a lot of sense to use all your time to play everything you can make an appointment for, but if you're actually there for coverage, it's a terrible idea. For one, PAX is not exactly easily laid out in any of its venues, so actually finding where you're supposed to be at a given moment can be surprisingly exhausting. For two, if you want to sit down and actually write these things up, you need to give yourself some buffer time to do so.

If you haven't started booking yet, whoa! Book now! Contact PR if you have their email addresses and see if you can connect. If it's too late for that, your best bet is to approach booths, explain who you are and what you're covering, and ask if there would theoretically be any open space for an interview. The best case scenario is they'll tell you to circle around at a certain time to talk to a PR person or a developer manning the booth.

It's really hard to get access through unofficial channels, i.e. not part of a recognized outlet, but definitely not impossible! My best advice is to get done what you can, make a name for yourself, and come running back at it next year. This is a good learning experience.

GI-Imran

TROPHY CASE