Need for Speed: Shift is the first game up and impressions continue to be middling. With Halo 3: ODST‘s release mere days away it gets a lot of discussion. Jeremy is excited about the departure in mood and over-world structure of the game. He does mention that this is probably not exactly what hardcore Halo fans are really looking for though.
Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story continues to entertain with its light-hearted action and clever writing. John has been playing Gran Turismo PSP and is unimpressed. He cites the game’s lack of a fleshed-out career mode and simple re-purposed GT2 tracks as big knocks against the title.
The final segment finds the guys focusing on market issues starting off with the rumored Wii price drop. With the slowly declining sales of the Wii it seems like it may be time to get to $199. The PSP Go is still in a somewhat baffling position in the marketplace and at least 1 European retailer is not going to carry it at all. Activision becomes the focus with their CEO’s recent controversial comments and the guys don’t see good future sales for Activision’s peripheral-focused games.
Covered games and topics: NFS: Shift, Batman, DJ Hero, Modern Warfare 2, Halo 3: ODST, Mario & Luigi, Scribblenauts, Gran Turismo PSP, Wii price drop, sales projections, PSP Go dilemma, Activision’s poor plastic prospects, Twitter integration, TGS
With Sam already in Japan, Jeremy joins David, John, and Garnett for the week before TGS show. In the first segment Whatcha Been Playin covers Halo 3: ODST, Modern Warfare 2 Multiplayer, Mario & Luigi, DJ Hero, Gran Turismo PSP, and more. Holiday hardware moves from a rumored Wii price cut to the rapid momentum gained by the PS3 start off the second segment before giving way to whether Nathan Drake really needs to Twitter, and John’s checklist for TGS.
Runtime – 2:03:38
Links → [web] [mp3] [iTunes] [rss]
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The addition of Jeremy Parish was fantastic. It’s still a bit unfortunate that this site doesn’t cover the Retronauts podcast, hands down one of the best gaming podcasts available – miles ahead and far, far better than Player One, Joystiq, Major Nelson, CAGcast and, god forbid, The HotSpot. He had some really great insight and I feel a bit sheepish admitting I was surprised he knows so much about modern games that aren’t role playing games. Hopefully he’ll be featured on Listen UP’s upcoming Tokyo Game Show podcasts. Him along with Bettenhausen, of course.
Agreed. We are planning to add Retronauts soon. Jeremy is by far one of the most old-school gamers around.
Why so much hate for The HotSpot though? They were never huge FF fans, but I see what you are saying about Parish and Bettenhausen. I am the biggest JRPG on the cast, but even to me it really feels like that genre has been surpassed with games like Fallout 3.
Thanks for being involved though. You have been one of the most involved people here and I appreciate that. Biases aside, we all want great games and want to hear discussion about great games. A dialog is the most important thing around here. Never feel apprehensive about sharing your opinion.
The HotSpot just lost it after the all their well known staff left (at least for me). It began as soon as Rich Gallup left, and once Jeff was gone it was all over. They just never regained it for me. It’s hard for me to listen to too many podcasts, so I’ve got a limited spread, but I do have to credit this site for getting me hooked onto the IGN podcasts (Game Scoop and Beyond, that is). I don’t understand why they get so much hate. I think they’re awesome, and the “hyperactivity” is a welcome break from the often flat tone of straight news-based podcasts.
I’m glad we helped you expand you horizons. Much in the way that IGN has received a lot of hate over time, I think Joystiq has become the new target. I mentioned it in today’s post, but check out the 52:35 mark of the Joystiq Podcast and I dare you not to laugh.
Jeff Gerstmann and Rich Gallup were big losses, but the HotSpot seems to have rebuilt themselves with Brendan Sinclair and Tom McShea. That said, GB is still at the top of my favorites.
I agree, the IGN podcasts are worthy of much more praise than they get. The CM Podcast is possibly guilty of being a bit “flat” as well, but we will get over that. Podcast consistency is under-rated.