Apr 20, 2016
018 - Oh No… BETA!
This week's show is all about
betas. We look to have a good fruitful discussion about alphas,
betas, server tests and the like. Maybe it'll even turn into a
"de-beta" *groan*.
Show notes are available
on http://www.zedtozed.com/
Please give us a rating or
review on
iTunes and in your favourite podcast application, it
will really help us spread the word and make the show a success,
and is a free, easy way to support the show!
Contact us on Twitter
@zedtozed or email us at contact@zedtozed.com, we'd love
to hear from you! Also check out the
Zed to Zed Podcast
Leaderboard on
TrueAchievements and
zzUrbanSpaceman's blog.
Opening/closing music: "Jive
Bot" by Jake Kaufman from the game Mighty Switch Force! developed and published by WayForward Technologies
Break music:
"Game Cool Dubstep Mode Logo" by Sparximer
Gamerscore Boot Camp music:
"Tally Screen" by Jake Kaufman from the game Mighty Switch Force! developed and published by WayForward Technologies
Jo’s Review music: "Dalmation
Station (It Gets Better Mix)" by Jake
Kaufman from the
game Mighty Switch Force! developed and published by WayForward Technologies
All audio production and podcast
backend support provided by Tarragon Allen.
Show notes by Jo and Damien and
Jo and Tarragon…
Hosts:
Brandon Fream aka "Freamwhole"
- TrueAchievements -
Xbox
Tarragon Allen aka
"zzUrbanSpaceman" - TrueAchievements -
Xbox
Randy aka "Crandy" -
TrueAchievements -
Xbox
Also featuring:
Jo aka "angelsk" -
TrueAchievements -
Xbox
0:00:00 - Intro
0:09:16 -
Housekeeping
- What
do you think makes more sense: 'Fream Early Access' or 'Tarragame
Preview Program'?
- Great
Random To-Do List (beta) - need some testers - sign up on the
Leaderboard (exclusive):
Zed to Zed Presents: The Random To Do List (Beta)
- Dark
Souls Fream-cast - April 23rd 10PM Central Time (Zed to Zed Twitch
Channel)
- Achievement Hound Community Show #100
featuring Fream - available to download now (Tarragon was on
episode #98)
-
Game Trials you can earn achievements (incomplete, via Sinacide), also thanks to
griffey95. Send the Z2Z crew your messages.
- PSA:
Dirt 3 VIP Pass
is currently free (was
GwG)
- Donations of game codes from WaterDrip37 and
BuckMarley155, thank you
- Lots
of codes to give away, keep eyes peeled on our Twitter
feed
0:17:24 - Backlog and
Recap
- Tarragon
- Elite: Dangerous
- ZHEROS (local co-op) - non-stacking
achievements, *boo*
- Threes!
- Tachyon Project
- Whispering Willows
- Elite: Dangerous!
- Blast
'Em Bunnies
- Project Spark
- Elite: Dangerous (GRAW in space, Destiny with
Spaceships)
- Crandy
- Not
GRAW
- Killer Instinct (Ranked matches)
- Red
Faction Guerilla (completion)
- Perfect Dark Zero
- Universe at War: Earth Assault
- Pool
Pro Online 3
- Fream
- Destiny (new patch) - you need to
sleep!
- Ben
10: Rise Of Hex (speed run walkthrough?)
- Project Spark
- Quantum Break
- Stikbold (only the first player gets
achievements, *boo*)
0:45:11 - Listener
Feedback
- Thanks to MattQuin89, KaibaChaos, angelsk,
Supernova x360a, NBA Kirkland, Big Ell, KinectKid333, Planting42,
Lucky32468, Seb/The Nyghty, McLovin Legend, Spazpol, Facial la
Fleur, HandyDarkness, 1updan, James Vexed, SaucySlingo,
smrnov
- Appropriate age to start on TA?
- Catch
the achievement hunter bug when first visit TA.
- 100k
nice milestone, top 10% (ish) on TA
- Community banter is good!
- You
know you're addicted to gamerscore when you play out your living
room to fit Kinect when you move house :)
- Runescape in space
- Crandy has a problem. 365 days of play time on
Runescape
- *tongue-face*
- This
makes no sense. I am too old to have played Runescape.
- Crandy's 99s
- Attack
- Constitution
- Strength
- Smithing
- Defense
- Herb
Law
- Ranged
- Thieving
- Cooking
- Prayer
- Crafting
- Fire
Making
- Magic
- Fletching
- Wood
Cutting
- Farming
- Construction
- Summoning
- Threes Solver - you need to build it - watch
this space
- Quantum Break - approach, start it on Hard, no
guides (collectibles are easy)
- KinectKid333 - Crandy, how do you make the MIDI
Macros?
- To be
discussed in detail in a later episode.
- Lucky34268 - How to clean up 0GS games like on
the xbox 360?
- MattQuin89 - Finally heard my shout-out.
What are your favorite ID@Xbox title? Mine is
http://www.trueachievements.com/Stick-it-To-The-Man/achievements.htm
- Tarragon:
- Randy:
- Brandon:
- Seb/The Nyghty: Cross-play concerns
- Some
games (FPS) PC may be unfair against console gamers.
- Concerns about mods.
- Real
time strategy (RTS) are just bad on console (Tarragon + Randy
agree)
- Christian Allen feedback:
- McLovin Legend: Best interview so far. Been
waiting to see which one of you would swear first :) [It was
Brandon]
- Spazpol: listening to the Christian Allen
interview podcast at 15,000 feet! Awesome in flight
entertainment. [Don’t die on your race BTW]
- Facial: Takedown: Red Sabre game on the grounds
that he seems like a likable dude.
- HandyDarkness: Wife is home and OK.
Suggests having a 4th person on standby to avoid 2 host
shows.
- Seb/The Nyghty: Facebook vs Twitter users
[Randy needs to ask his mom to take off the parental
controls]
- Daniel Proulx @1updan: 3 hour show length is
good.
- SaucySlingo & Smrnov: Ducks vs horses.
The debate continues.
- McLovin Legend: Randy needs a rant
section
1:53:49 - News
- Fable
Legends is officially dead.
- Red
Dead Redemption 2: Leaked map?
1:57:34 - Talking Zeds: Beta
Season
- Oh No... BETA!!
-
Beta Release Schedule
from MajorNelson
- If
it's broken, it's a Beta.
- Usually; beta = Software that is feature
complete but known to be buggy (beta to iron out the rest of the
bugs). With games it's more of a stress test
- Beta
= a good way to cancel pre-orders :)
- Rainbow 6 Siege beta
- Gears
of War Ultimate edition
- Evolve
- Homefront Revolution
- DOOM
- plays like Quake, not old Doom.
- Leaderboard achievements like Quake 4?
Hopefully not.
- Season Pass - Crandy rant
- Exclusivity from a beta? e.g
Sonic 2 Beta cartridge (this is a promo copy, not a beta)
- Mega Hype Train *choo choo*
- "Betas are the problem of the people who play
them" - Crandy
- DOOM
- If the game is coming out in 2 weeks, it's already printed…. So
the demo isn't really going to change any features. This is
where the stress test comes in, it's tweaking the servers
pre-launch. And hopefully any game-breaking bugs.
- Destiny beta - balancing exercise in
multiplayer
- Halo
5 - missing some very key user interface pieces… this is more of an
alpha
- Huge
response from the community on betas
- McLovin Legend: Achievements? No, some demos do
(as discussed) - but not betas.
- Limits play time because no achievements :)
- We,
as a community, do have bad habits when it comes to games that
don't have achievements.
- Preview program: Elite Dangerous, Arc, Solus
Project
- "We"
are backlog junkies
- Sometimes you can get perks in the preview/
beta releases
- LordChabelo13: Waste of time for Achievement
Hunters
- AHP
TheNyghty: Preview program, still in active development (Arc,
DayZ)
- Dev
state not a bad thing
- Minecraft - for years was essentially an alpha/
beta
- More
involved when in active development
- 3
years is not long for a large game (e.g: Elite Dangerous) - you are
seeing more of the development time than with triple As
- People yelling at clouds
- Kez001: Avoid betas…. Or maybe keep playing if
they convince you not to buy games. Only play betas for games you
are interested in.
- Decoy1982: Wizards who come from the moon
- spankyNspronkle: Battleborn
- MightyMango: Why bother doing a beta if retail
release is borked?
- Facial la Fleur has a good response
here.
- Where
do you go to report bugs? Sometimes not obvious…. Or they're not
looking for you to find bugs.
- PvZ:GW2 beta had a really good forum for
reporting bugs (Jo)
- Time
commitment
- Dead
Rising Demo
- Term
"Beta" is a marketing tool (open vs closed beta)
- Different expectations
- Tons
of people bought Crackdown for Halo 3 beta - balance testing and
marketing… something has to be exclusive
- Abundant codes are annoying
- Bungie good with communication and
betas
- Big
Ell: Betamax and LaserDisc
2:52:33 - Bootcamp:
GRAW
-
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced
Warfighter
- Not
for completionists!
- Cheats do not void single player
achievements
- 550
GamerScore available fairly easily
- Avoid
the multiplayer if you don’t like odd-achievement
values
- Multiplayer can mostly be done
split-screen
2:55:16 - Jo’s Reviews: Final
Fantasy XV
3:02:28 - Knobs and
Discos
-
FIFA Street (2012): Friendly
Publicity fixed
- Project Spark (both versions):
- Conker and Seph level 10 and level 20
achievements were broken for ages but have been modified by the
developer - new criteria is based on number of times played through
Crossroads, e.g. level 10 = play through Crossroads 10
times.
- Rumours the Freamer (log in each day)
achievements are buggy and not unlocking or updating progress -
unconfirmed at this stage
- Project Spark developer appears to be winding
down, if you want to get the most of out Spark now is the time to
do it!
-
Pure Pool: Maximum Break
is fixed
-
Rise of the Tomb Raider (360):
Witch Trials - currently
unobtainable
- Total
Conquest (both versions) - level 30 achievement popped for someone
at level 100, speculation is that the level 100 achievement may
unlock at a higher level again. Huge grind to get there
though.
-
Panzer Geekz: We Hear
You was buggy but now
fixed - thanks to Montana97 for the tip and a shout out to the
#forgottengladiators of the Potentially Endless Bean
Dive
3:13:16 - Game Delays and
Backwards Compatibility
- New
to BC:
- Garou: Mark Of The Wolves
- Duke
Nukem: Manhattan Project
- Sonic: The Fighters
- DOOM
3
- Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine
- (sort
of new) Lego Batman JP
- Lego
Batman JP - a confirmed sighting of the non-working version in
Japanese consoles? Thanks Sinacide for the tip.
3:16:03 - Zombie News
3:18:07 - Giveaway
Time!
- Congratulations! Alan Wake: American Nightmare
code winners:
- Facial La Fleur
- @ShelbyGT5252
3:19:32 - Outro
- Elite
Dangerous
- Thanks for all of your feedback! Sorry if we
missed you.
- Freamwhole is now a member of the Community
Events Team on TrueAchievements. Sell out.
Glossary of Xbox Gamerscore and
achievement jargon and terms:
http://zedtozed.com/xbox-gamerscore-and-achievement-glossary