733 - Open Worlds feat. Josh Sawyer (5/19/23)
🕑 Added 2023-05-19 15:34:25 +0000 UTCWe’re joined by video game designer Josh Sawyer (Pentiment, Fallout: New Vegas) to talk the wide world of gaming. We discuss Josh’s new game, Pentiment, a murder mystery set in 16th century Germany, then get into labor in the games industry, developments and limitations in video game art and style, trends in game play as a matter of business, and how to make quality builds in real life.
Comments
Sardonic
A whaling game set in the Dishonored universe would be pretty sick
Albert Gordon
I was playing 1985 bards tale on my steam deck while listening to this... I remember
Sybil-Shanks, the Prison Cat
IWD rules
Jim from Fond Du Lac
Love New Vegas so much, thank you Josh Sawyer!!!!!
nintendo is the mark twain of video games. not elaborating.
catsjvk
Dishonored mentioned W Disco Elysium snubbed L
J
Listen i gotta walk my dog after work and I'm counting on you guys to come through for me with an ep by then. Please report back to the podcast factory asap
Sparky
My gaping maw needs that sweet slop poured down my gullet
I Let the Dogs Out. Me, Me, Me, Me.
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE
chimpsuh
WHERES MY SLOP??
Jonathan G
*checks day and time*
Chris T
Meanwhile Nintendo is and has always been the coolest
Thomas Carroll
Not cool enough for them
Reece Coren
felix i’ll stop dming u if u give me the soup boy’s number
Jonathan G
just so little nintendo love from the group here
laserwilliams
Kinda savage that they made Matt sit through this
Alec
Pl
Nolan
3. Wizard 101 2. Club Penguin 1. Webkinz beat that.
Josh Mattyasovszky
Felix's game pitch at the end just went on and on
Christopher Anastasia
Good episode, but not one Alpha Protocol question? Sad.
AKorgar
Realized while listening to this that we must be entering a period of time where more and more game designers are too young to be familiar with guys like John Carmack or John Romero, or the old 3D Realms stuff. And that's fine, but it just makes me feel old lol
gamers
Dan
Please no. Certainly not as a Patreon Episode.
Will
Bring back tabletop game theory
Harry
Sick ep, more game content please
Scott Miller
Another game Matt should play is Return of the Obra Dinn. It's a murder mystery game about identifying sailors by race.
Chris T
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the best game I’ve played since Elden Ring. 10/10
mad turtle
NERD
foxy
And I don't care who knows
Top 10 episode holy shit
Pelican Grief
I like sports
Andrew Cross
I think it was on his Twitter or something https://twitter.com/jesawyer/status/1658567623943286784?s=46&t=NSc7Pct0DwGcGFDKmKgikw
Sean Marshall
Card collecting game from Final Fantasy 8 also comes to mind. If you got the good cards you could use them in battle
Sean Marshall
Subnautica is a lot like this when it comes to just vibing. And of course gwent from The Witcher series became its own thing.
J. A.
Yeah man.... how do you think they support the bigger dev team?
Matt Boi
Microtransactions are another big thing associated with AAA games
Nick Muscatiello
Hasn’t Pentiment been out for like a year? Also psyched for Outer Worlds 2, didn’t know that was in the works
Michael
Can anyone link Josh's list of favorite games? I couldn't find it online.
skrrt vonnegut
HBO All Stars is a tight idea. I wanna see Cyril OReily face off against Bodie
Ian Michael
BOTW and TOTK should have gotten way more love. Elden ring and TOTK truly redefine open world video games.
EVERY MORNING I WAKE UP AND OPEN PALM SLAM A VHS INTO THE SLOT. ITS CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK AND RIGHT THEN AND THERE I START DOING
who is Sean, i wanna play eu4
Dick Van Sexel
Valient hearts: the great war was another amazing historical indy game. I 100 percent did not cry. Not once!
Brian Lancaster
I was at a dark place in my life and about to rob a bank but the Icewind Dale 1 soundtrack changed my perspective and stopped me from throwing my life away.
Burt Chintas
I got into some video games to help with my ms-related right hand weakness. Did they talk about rdr2? Loved that game. I'm playing totk right now. It's almost too big.
Claire Casey
I want this but also his twitch plays are really good. But yeah if he did an entire mini series on games it would rock. Could be like movie mindset, maybe he brings on Hegelbon or Scott Benson guests maybe a Disco Elysium guy...God it sucks so bad I run out of left gamers after three (technically Zoe Quinn is a fourth but I doubt them appearing after how much Felix has mined laughs at Depression Quest)
Claire Casey
Chris if you somehow see this, next ep please play some Smiths as an outro in honor of Andy Rourke, any of their songs with sick bass which is most of them, he's so under appreciated and might be the best Smith even beyond Marr
Drew McGill
Gaming mindset
Drew McGill
I’d watch Matt play that Moby Dick sequel game for real lol
Will Wade
When I read Josh Sawyer I was thinking Josh Halway and was super confused before listening.
Gabriel Bowater
Great ep. Felix vidya games miniseries plox
Sean Brocklehurst
I absolutely loved pentiment. Can't wait for Matt to just play EU4 and become a map game nerd.
Nasai
Matt just start in 1444 wtf. Nobody starts partway in. Hit up Sean and play with us
Wilko
Also: no mention of Disco Elysium? For me, one of the best games of the past decade and it has nothing to do with the chapo involvement.
Wilko
What I find frustrating about the obsession with graphics is that while environments look more and more realistic (characters less so, esp. faces still look off) the way the player character interacts with this world still FEELS artificial. And I'm not just talking about the fact that mostly your interactions consist of shooting and punching, but also things like physics, that are in many ways still as unconvincing as they were ten years ago. I have yet to see a game where characters climb stairs in a convincing way or touch a wall in a way that seems realistic. This is where I wish game studios would attempt a leap forward.
Devin Willie
I didn’t know he worked on Icewind Dale. I adored that game as a kid.
Jack Sherman
Holy shit yea
Steven Hedley
Whaling simulator is a fucking awesome idea
Josh's criticism of Hitman is a little unfair, the game definitely punishes you for going guns blazing, it'll give you severe XP penalties and especially on higher difficulties the guards will brain you. Felix is definitely correct that they just released them wrong, H3 went out of its way to make sure all the maps were included in purchase or free, and they finally released an all-in-one version of the trilogy a few months ago
Yarblockos
No love for TF2
Torgosaves
42:25 Dishonored mention! I want to go back to that world.
Andrew Cross
fuck yeah
Felix mostly plays FromSoft games and competitive shooters right. Listening to him describing the state of AAA games with josh sawyer on the call had me clasping my head with both hands
Poppy Chulo
Eight days without a politics episode. Bummer.
Making him the non playable end boss is the only option.
Ethan
So good it made me buy the game lmao
Dan
Even AoE 2 ?
Stefan Catinella
Because fragments of your soul are contained in seven different Xbox 360 discs?
Is edge runners worth checking out?
Seth Jarrell
This dude’s top 10 sucks. BOTW topping the list isn’t recency bias, it’s just better than the other games on the list and has only been beat out by TOTK.
DM
cyberpunk is exhibit a in the no nothing corporate bosses pushing the devs to release buggy, unpolished work. thank god for edgerunners sparking interest back into the one of the GOAT titles.
realm lich
video games ruined my life for over a decade, this is some weird shit to listen to. interesting guest regardless.
I’m dumb, was Felix dunking on cyberpunk there?
Dustin
So, we had a Matt miniseries, we are currently in a Will miniseries, Felix video game miniseries when!!!??
T.A. Martin
I love the idea of an HBO game, but how would you keep Kenny Powers from being too OP?
DM
Should have roped Matt into talking about Overwatch and how Bobby Kotick is running activision/blizz into the ground, folks he is the irl bad guy from ready player one
grant brown
Microsoft products make me sad
Major Powers
Holy shit what a crossover!
David Steiner
Thank you for interviewing a guy at obsidian! Please send him thanks for making so many games that I've enjoyed! Very cool
Mae
Night in the Woods mentioned! Based
TangiePower
Freedom Fighters?
calvin kilby
Yeah that shit was boring, also can I say I genuinely was put to sleep by cyberpunk 2077 and I refuse to play any more of it.
ZZA
Nerrrrrrrrrrrrrdddddddddsssssss
Brian Rooney
Splinter Cell fuckin’ rules.
Robert Karnick
GoW Ragnarok feels like a walking and opening doors simulator with some small combats sections for variety
Doug Cartel
shout-out to Io for making that game about doing guerrilla war in NYC against the Soviets, that game was wild and I think the alt history scenario involved the soviets nuking berlin with an H-bomb in 1945 even though people had barely figured out fission, never mind fusion, bombs back then and the protagonist and his brother were both plumbers living in NYC
Jimmy Murphy
Let’s fucking go
Meadow Green
I will not tolerate gaming discussions
Alison Buki
hell yes let's gooooo
nick
NOOOO FUCKIN WAY I HAD A fonv CRAVING THIS MORNING
J.P. McD.
My second podcast (Retronauts is the other) to cover FO: NV this week. Might have to finally play the copy I bought from a used game store in Portland in 2017.
the lord commander
Feeling bad for Matt. Wondering if he just logged off