Karen is back this week and the cast starts with the story that explains her absence last week– prickly pears were involved. The game talk starts with a little Red Dead Redemption, but quickly moves on to Ryan S’s thoughts on Metroid after finishing it. He is with the consensus that the first person gameplay mechanic doesn’t quite fit, and that the story is decidedly “Japanese.”
The price hike for Xbox Live Gold has the crew somewhat divided, but Alice is argues that it really isn’t that drastic of a change. Brock...
Very lately or very punctually — depending on your viewpoint — it’s the Oddcast. (With profanity and eating noises from the start.)
Sam is back from Germany and Holland, where he visited Cologne’s Gamescom and Amsterdam’s Amsterdam. He briefly reports on Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One before telling of the results of drinking at conventions. The Least Popular Character Tournament rages on, and they commentate on the results.
In odd news, Valve talked about their cancelled fairy game and what was so bad about it. Microsoft...
Something Apple-related happened this week. Incidentally, Gary Whitta is back.
Before they get to Apple’s announcements, Norm has been using Amazon’s new Kindle e-reader, which has recently been given a smaller, sleeker redesign. Gary’s sticking with the iPad Kindle app for reading, and Will has been tinkering with coffee beans.
CyanogenMod 6.0 — a community-built version of the Android mobile OS — was released this week. It’s the main alternative to manufacturers’ own interfaces, which slow phones down...
The GWJ crew has been a little excited about Mafia II up until now, so the opening of the show is even more disappointing as a result. Everyone but Lara has been playing it and they all seem to agree that the gameplay is sorely lacking with respect to the style and cutscenes, resorting to repetitive shootouts and overly mundane tasks. Shawn steers the conversation towards the far more positive, sharing his impressions on the co-op campaign of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. In the game’s five hours or so, he didn’t think it dipped...
This week’s /Filmcast begins with Devindra discussing some of the movies he’s been watching. Salt receives some positive feedback along with Centurion and The Pallbearer.
On the news front, Blockbuster’s impending bankruptcy stirs up a discussion about the company’s historically questionable decision making and the value of competition for Red Box and Netflix. Anime director Satoshi Kon passed away recently, and Devindra and Adam lament the loss of a great film maker in his prime. Looking ahead, the next installment in the Mission:...
Alan is back, and that means that there is more than a bit of Telltale Games talk. He shares some details about his new workspace, including the joys of getting to work with the Back to the Future and Jurassic Park franchises.
Mike and Jade touch on For the Love of Game, 1UP’s latest blog that focuses on fan-made, game-inspired goods. The crew also shares some details about their plans for PAX Prime, including community meet-up details.
Jade’s movie recommendation, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, was passed-on by CM’s very...
It’s episode 50(!), so get ready for an EPIC-ly normal show. Notable mentions in the podcast section start with news of the Bethesda Podcast (featuring Nick Breckon), the last The Idle Thumbs Podcast, and the addition of Alice Liang on The Geekbox.
The games section has Jon talking about his disappointing time with Kane & Lynch 2, and better time with the well-realized world of Mafia II. We also hit the Xbox Live price hike, which garners some wildly differing opinions.
It’s a big week in tech with Apple’s annual iPod event...
As always after some off-topic chats about Greg Fords new sports game podcast and Phil moving it’s onto actual game talk, starting with Shank. Everyone but Phil got a chance to try out the game so they share their thoughts on it, first up is the style. From the visual style to the extremely impressive animation Shank certainly looks amazing, however the one part of the presentation that doesn’t impress CJ and Sewart is the voice acting. Greg Ford is really impressed by the very deep combat system which he likens to a big budget action...
A short episode this week — forty minutes of Bitmob’s Shoe and Demian, joined by Area 5′s Matt Chandronait and GameXplain’s Andre Segers.
The first topic is a serious one — the treatment of modern warfare in games. Medal of Honor has caught flack for featuring the Taliban, and Six Days in Fallujah was dropped by publisher Konami for daring to deal with a war that isn’t over yet.
Next, they talk about what makes games immersive. Although Andre and Matt like cohesive universes and good stories, they spend as much...
Adam Kempanaar is joined by Michael Phillips for this week’s episode of Filmspotting for the review of Animal Kingdom. While Michael admits that he internally compares this film to something like Goodfellas, he doesn’t want to shoulder it with that particular execution of the crime drama. Unlike Scorsese’s style, director David Michôd tries to capture a seemingly more realistic look at the situation, with the “protagonist” not really having the same natural charisma as Ray Liotta. The guys have a lot of good...
The cast starts out with some stories from Germany as Daemon shares his experiences at and around Gamescom. Though extra-curricular activities occupy a good deal of the conversation, they bring it back around to what was great about the con itself. BioShock Infinite appears to have been the real gem, with a demo that seemed too good to be true.
After briefly discussing live action trailers for video games, Mafia II gets a look. The group sees this game pretty clearly as good, but not amazing (less enthusiastic than some other sites and reviewers).
The...
This week’s Engadget Podcast is very similar to last week’s, covering mostly mobile devices and cameras, but lacks one Nilay Patel. The Samsung Galaxy Tab opens things up, though there’s not too much to say about it. The 7-inch Android tablet doesn’t seem to have anything particularly innovative, though does have a Hummingbird processor and a high pixel-density screen.
A handful of Android and Windows Phone 7 phones have been leaked or revealed in the past week, probably the most notable and interesting being the T-Mobile...
Apple is trying to keep the Rebel FM down, and has caused computing difficulties again. The second half — or, as I like to call it, the best half — of the show is missing, making for an hour-long podcast.
Perhaps Steve Jobs’ disdain is due to Arthur’s alleged love of Microsoft. The Xbot — as trolls like to call him — has given a bad review to a PlayStation exclusive. The downloadable Top Gun game does sound bad though. He appreciates ideas in Kane and Lynch 2 more, but poor action lets it down. He has similar...
For Podcast Beyond’s 150th episode, a short Roper Report opens things up as per tradition. Sony is thinking about having an EA Pass-like service for the games it publishes, which the Beyond crew really can’t be too bothered by. In other news, both Greg and Colin have been tracking the perks they’ve gotten out of Playstation Plus thus far, which has shown that Colin has quickly pushed into the green after only eight weeks.
Instead of a more normal topic of the week, the guys spend the segment on the listeners, allowing them to call...
Metroid: Other M starts the show as Jeff and Garnett discuss the cumbersome control system and awkward first-person mechanic. Brian previews Halo Reach and also gets a chance to show his effusive praise for Civilization 5. Elemental: War of Magic’s unfortunate early release gets some attention and Shank is well received by the guys.
For Cannata-ford, Garnett seems smitten by Beat Hazard while Jeff goes in a different direction with the card game Dominion.
Prompted by forum discussion, the crew revisits shooting as a mechanic in games, as well...
