411mania - When’s the last time your job was the focus of a novel? What about a movie? TV Show? How about a video game? Lets face it, unless you’re living the incredibly exciting life of a cop, drug dealer, vampire, teenage mother, Surgeon, space Marine, work in a restaurant of some kind, or are Mark Cuban, your career is probably underrepresented in terms of faithful representations in media - “Video Game Critic 2013” isn’t happening anytime soon folks. But that tide is changing rapidly. Farming simulators, truck driving simulators, robot vacuum simulators (seriously), and more are gaining both word-of-mouth buzz, and some critical praise too - it seems finding the joy in the mundane is what’s hot in gaming right now, a “new wave” of interactive experiences that ditches the laser guns and damsels in distress for something a little closer to home. Case-and-point: “Smooth Operators”, a charming-as-hell call center management simulator, that was recently ported to iOS.
After 7 long years it has finally happened. Fallout 4 has arrived! The crew jumps on it like radroaches on irradiated toast. Does it live up to the years of expectation? Is a post apocalyptic Boston a good setting? Can you shoot without using VATS!? Oh, and now everyone on the podcast has an Xbox One so they talk about that but… FALLOUT 4!!!
SteamFirst:Right up front, I will tell you: my day job, the one that many of you have advised that I should not to quit, is working at a call center. While working there, I have been both on the front lines taking the calls and in leadership positions. I would say that I have a pretty good handle on how they work. Thus, it was with tongue firmly planted in cheek that I pulled Andreas Heydeck’s Smooth Operators: Call Center Chaos out of our review backlog and said “I am going to review the crap out of this.”
John Bedford (Modojo): Five great games you can enjoy for less this Columbus Day.
