• Miserable Podcast of Secrets #3



        "It's almost too real for its own good."

        This week, we focus on open world games, but we talk about dozens of other topics as well. With the release of Saints Row: The Third and the recently revealed Grand Theft Auto V as inspiration, we look over the genre and even some of its not-so-obvious precursors.

        There are a lot of improvements coming to The Miserable Podcast of Secrets. There are some unmistakable things to fix: compression, sound levels, stuttering, pacing, direction, research. None is glaring, but all are significant.
        • Introductions - Eric, Nick, Chris, Mzo, Chuck
        • The-nextlevel: that damn hyphen
        • Forum and contest news
        • Need for Speed: The Run - Q.T.E. with my M.P.H
        • Zelda nerdrage and number ratings
        • How reading spoilers is like eating peanuts
        • Is Enslaved better than you think?
        • D&D Anthology: The Master Colection and the dwindling art of game dialogue
        • Does The Legend of Zelda need spoken dialogue?
        • Grand Theft Auto 3 and the revolution of open-world games (with bonus nose-blowing)
        • How did GTA: San Andreas and later games contribute to the open-world genre?
        • The overworld in L.A. Noire
        • Is Elder Scrolls too open a world?
        • The self-destruction of point-and-click adventure games (and Mzo)
        • Is Saints Row too goofy?
        • How Modern Warfare 3 takes the series back on track
        • Cave Story 3D and Super Mario Bros. 3D Land (with bonus meowing)
        • Roving gangs of Raccoon Marios
        • The joy of Oto X (shopping for a shapely shooter)
        • Witcher 2 and its quality choices
        • Chris's bizarro take on Sonic Generations
        • The glorious absurdity of littering and one-shot kills in Skyrim
        • Chuck lives Metal Gear now
        • Why are you playing inFamous?
        • Even jaded folk want Skyward Sword
        • "Wang camo"
        • Uncharted 3 gripes
        • [An Athena mention]
        • A defense of Otomedius Excellent (but not the horrible documentation)
        • Scribblenauts Remix - nagas and Paris (well, Odysseus)
        • and a lot of stuff in between
        On the way:
        • Better sound
        • Intro/outro music
        • iTunes link
        • The lost episodes
        Three ways to listen:

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        Miserable Podcast of Secrets - Episode 3.

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        Please comment below, especially if it isn't about the issues noted above.


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        Comments 29 Comments
        1. MechDeus's Avatar
          MechDeus -
          That's what I said, but what I meant was influence. They gave that excuse at some point, probably related to people doing what I was doing in SA.
        1. Mzo's Avatar
          Mzo -
          Quote Originally Posted by Some Stupid Japanese Name View Post
          GTA WAS THE FIRST OPEN WORLD GAME?! Have you never read any of Neozeedeater's threads on open world games? You've learned NOTHING!! No wonder he left! (I may be exaggerating what was stated)
          I'm pretty sure I mentioned there were probably some shitty PC games that qualified but no one cared about.
        1. Some Stupid Japanese Name's Avatar
          Some Stupid Japanese Name -
          NEO CARED!
          I wouldn't trade one of him for twenty of you miss ohs!
        1. Nick's Avatar
          Nick -
          Metroid was also the first survival horror game.
        1. Chux's Avatar
          Chux -
          Faceball 2000 was the first balls in the face simulator.
        1. Josh's Avatar
          Josh -
          Now, you know that isn't true.
        1. Razor Ramon's Avatar
          Razor Ramon -
          These still suck?
        1. Changeling's Avatar
          Changeling -
          88mph theme for the podcast please.
        1. gamevet's Avatar
          gamevet -
          Quote Originally Posted by Mzo View Post
          I'm pretty sure I mentioned there were probably some shitty PC games that qualified but no one cared about.
          Seven Cities of Gold (C64) was an open world exploration game. It was quite popular in its day.
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