Bungie's Destiny Uncovered: New Art and Video.

GDC (Game Developer's Conference) 2013 is coming to a close, but before the lights go out, Bungie has decided to release new information regarding their new game 'Destiny'. The former 'Halo' development studio has been hard at work on their new IP, showing only scarce tidbits of information. At Bungie's March 28th press event, the team released all new video of Destiny's characters and some information about them. The four enemy types detailed were the Fallen, Cabal, Hive and Vex. The three playable classes listed were the Titan, a super soldier type class, the Warlock, a magic user, and the Hunter, a quick, stealthy character.

Also discussed during the presentation were seven Pillars that Bungie considered throughout the entire development process.

Pillar #1: "A World Players Want to Be In"

The game has to be one of a fully realized world that is unique and interesting that keeps players coming back for years to come.

Pillar #2: "A Bunch of Fun Things to Do."

Once they're in the game, players have to have something to accomplish. Bungie is seeking to make a myriad of awesome activities that a player can complete anytime they jump in.

Pillar #3: “Rewards Players Care About.”

For completing goals and objectives, players will receive upgrades and customization options for weapons, armor, vehicles and more.

Pillar #4: “A New Experience Every Night.”

For most game's, the death rattle of its online community is the monotony of "same shooter, different day". Bungie wants to offer players more than just Team Deathmatch for years on end.

Pillar #5: “Shared With Other People.”

Bungie doesn't just want people to play the game, they want them to play the game with people they like. Building this idea, Bungie is hard at work on making sure the connection and communication with friends is simple and fun.

Pillar #6: “Enjoyable by All Skill Levels.”

Players can feel alienated when playing with others who are of vastly different skill levels. Whether the player is too unskilled to help the team or too skilled so that the other team is ridiculously outgunned, Bungie wants to level the playing field so that no matter how much time or skill you have to offer, you will always feel like you are doing something worthwhile.

Pillar #7: “Enjoyable by the Tired, Impatient and Distracted.”

So many video games require hours of preparation and grinding to accomplish something that players can often lose drive or interest when they have other things on their mind. By accommodating these players, Bungie is trying to communicate that they want their game to be enjoyed at any place at any time, opening up new opportunities for play and discussion that may not have existed before.

Bonus: Longtime Halo composer Marty O'Donnell will return for Destiny's soundtrack, bringing with him a collaboration with former Beatle Paul McCartney.

Bungie wow'd the world when they developed a vast, interesting world in the 'Halo' universe, but now they're trying to move beyond that by creating a living, breathing entity that players will enjoy for the next decade.

The Bancast Live @ Anime Matsuri

Anime Matsuri is an Anime and Japanese Pop Culture convention held in downtown Houston at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Why three white guys that talk about video games have a panel there, I have no idea. But that doesn't matter! What matters is that if you're at the con and looking for something to do on Saturday March 30th, 2013 from 7-8 p.m., look no further than The Bancast Live. This is the Bancast's 3rd live show and, if the past is any indicator, things can get pretty crazy. I flipped a table once. Actually, twice. So there's that.

During the show, we'll also be revealing our super-secret Indie GoGo project that we've spent entire hours planning. 

For more information, visit

Anime Matsuri

The Bancast's Anime Matsuri Page

The Bancast.com

Age of Empires II HD Announced

There are few games released in the past 20 years that hold a place in my gaming heart like Age Of Empires 2. In a rather surprising move, Microsoft announced today that Age of Empires 2 would be re-released on Steam, remastered for today's modern, HD screens. Boasting an enhanced visual engine and taking advantage of newer, larger screens, AGE 2 HD aims to capture the attention of a new generation of conquerors. 

Another welcome addition to the AGE 2 repertoire is the addition of not only the use of Steam servers for matchmaking and multiplayer, but the compatibility of the Steam Workshop as well. This means that there will be one centralized hub for all custom creations and maps relating to AGE 2. If the mapping community is as active today as it was in it's heyday, there will be plenty of player driven content for years to come.

Age of Empires 2 HD is currently set for release on April 9, 2013 for $19.99 or $60.00 for a 4-pack. Pre-orders are now open.

Why I Quit Part 2: Cash Money Dollar Dollar Bills, Y'all.

          It's no surprise that video games are a time suck the likes of which the world has never seen. We've established that (see: Why I Quit Part 1). You might, however, be surprised to learn that games are also a BILLION dollar commodity and an ever-growing market, heavily invested in finding new ways to separate gamers from their, or their parents', money. Then again, you might already know this. You might be aware that companies do their best to draw consumers to their products with the intention of squeezing every last cent out of their stupid, troglodytic pockets. If you already know this, Congratulations, you're ahead of the game. You know what those sneaks are up to. You'd never get suckered. "In fact," you probably wonder, "who in their right mind WOULD get reeled into such an obvious money vacuum?" Well...this guy.

Cost And Effect

(WARNING: This is about to get HEAVY with numbers. Like, numbers EVERYWHERE. And most of the time, the numbers are REALLY depressing.)

So last time on "Why I Quit", I calculated the time I sunk into some of my most played games. This time, I'll be taking a broader look at my game library and seeing what the grand total of my addiction hobby has cost me. For practicality's sake, I'll keep a running total of all expenditures, comparing it to some sort of real world expense. For instance: The unpaid portion of my student loans.

COST: Loans - $6544, Games - $0

This graph is in no way foreshadowing amounts to come.

Steamed

First Up: My Steam Library

(Big thanks to @LambentStew for the wonderful Steam Account Analysis tool.)

Ah yes, here I am.

Most of this seems like fairly standard information. Except...that can't be right. I own 266 games but have only played 99 of them? That seriously can't be right. There's 167 Steam games sitting in my library that I haven't even touched? If only there were a graph specifically showing me what percentage I have played and have never played.

Well, ok then. Showed me. Wow...I haven't played a sizable percentage of all these games that I paid for. This is going to be even worse than I imagined.

Delving deeper into the Steam Account Analysis tool, I find my itemized list of individual game prices. Uh oh... 

(WARNING: Super Long and Convoluted Picture. Summary found below.)

WOW. That's actually a lot of information, but what does it mean? Well, mostly that depending on when I purchased a game, the price could have fluctuated higher or lower than its current price. Considering I obtained many, but not all, of these games during the infamous "Steam Sales", we'll use the current price as opposed to the maximum or minimum. So let's see that image condensed.

$2836?! Geez. This doesn't take into account in-game transactions or some of the smaller Downloadable Content (DLC) purchases. Throwing in just my Team Fortress 2 Backpack (174 items obtained through both purchase and gameplay), bumps this total to well above $3000. I spent $3000 on Steam games and didn't even bother to play them. Ouch.

COST: Loans - $6544, Games - $3000

Well...that took quite a jump.

Thinking Inside the Box

Next Up: My Xbox 360 Game Library.

I'm not proud of all these purchases.

Adding up everything seen here, there are over 100 Retail Release Xbox 360 games. (I'll use 100 since it's a nice, round number.) Factoring in games that I've purchased at discount, on release day, and games that exceed the average value (Collector's Editions), as well as applicable taxes of 8.25%, I'm putting my average purchase price for said games at $50. After intense calculations, I've determined that the total cost of this library of games is around $5000. Well...suck.

COST: Loans - $6544, Games - $8000

And that about covers it.

I'll be honest, that cuts deep. Having wasted that kind of money on a console that's only been around since 2006 (I purchased my first 360 in 2007) kinda sucks, but here's where it gets worse: I haven't even scratched the surface of Xbox Live and its built in Marketplace. On the Xbox Live Marketplace (XBLM), gamers can purchase a myriad of content straight from their Xbox 360. Much of this content is comprised of full, digital versions of retail releases, Downloadable Content (DLC), Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) Games, Indie Games, and even clothing and accessories for you digital avatar (Yes, I'm serious). Most major releases will eventually come out with some sort of add-on content that will inevitably make its way here. It could be anything from new levels and entire campaigns to something as minuscule as Horse Armor. Yes Oblivion, I AM still mad about that.

On XBLM, much like Steam, I can't even fathom how much DLC I've purchased, so I'll stick with XBLA games that I have installed. My current game count is 114 locally stored games, 16 of which are installed from discs (already counted). This leaves 98 games that I've purchased via the Marketplace. Games on this service are usually shorter and cheaper than those released at retail, and can range anywhere from 400 Microsoft Points (MSP) ($5) to 1600 MSP ($20). Over time Microsoft has sought to capitalize on this growing market and the cost of XBLA games has steadily risen over the last 7 years. On average, these games are in the $15 range. Taking our 98 games from earlier and pricing them at this $15 price point nets us  a whopping $1470. Oh geez...that's $1470 worth of games that I can only use on one machine...that will probably be outdated in 6 months.

COST: Loans - $6544, Games - $9470

That's it for Xbox Live right? WRONG. Xbox Live is a subscription service. That means to access its content and services, you need to pay $50 per year. So how much did I drop on THAT? For me, it started with Halo 2. It was THE go to game for online multiplayer on the Xbox. That was 2004. I've been paying ever since.

$50 x 9 YEARS = $450.

COST: Loans - $6544, Games - $9920

COOL, XBOX. Got anything else for me? Oh that's right: the Failure Rate. Current estimate put the Failure Rate around 54.2%. That means that a little over half of all Xbox 360 users will, at some point, experience a general hardware failure. Me? I got lucky. I'm on my third.

1st Xbox 360: $300

2nd Xbox 360: $250 (not covered under warranty)

3rd Xbox 360: $200 (cost of newer model after trade-in)

Awesome. $750 just to keep making sure that I can still use the discs I've already paid for. Fantastic.

COST: Loans - $6544, Games - $10670

Woo-hoo! Cleared $10,000!

And, everything else.

While the previous two platforms can be described as my main sources of gaming entertainment, they aren't the whole story. The following are the rest of my unfortunate spending decisions.

Extraneous PC Games not on Steam: ~$200

Nintendo DS Lite Console (x2) + 10 Games: ~$600

Playstation 3 Console + 10 Games: ~$700

Nintendo Wii Console + Extra Controllers + 14 Games: ~$700

COST: Loans - $6544, Games - $12870

Pew!Pew!Pew! Looks like a volcano made of debt...

So, I could have paid off my student loans twice by now, or made a hefty investment, or put some money towards a major project I've spent the last few years developing, or even bought a car that doesn't get me put on some sort of watchlist if I drive by a playground. Sure, all hobbies are going to cost some skrilla, but few rival gaming in its ability to tack on costs both before and after launch. For me, an unemployed college student, this cost just isn't feasible anymore. This is why I quit.