It’s the final episode of Listen Up with Garnett leaving to head-up GameFly media. He has been a staple at 1UP since the beginning. In a lot of ways, the 1UP podcasts are what defined 1UP and brought them the community they now have so his departure will certainly have a significant impact.
Garnett finally got around to playing Yakuza 2 and the group discusses that before moving onto Uncharted 2. Left 4 Dead 2 gets some time with David talking about some of the new modes. Pixel Junk Monsters Deluxe leads into a general discussion about the...
With this final Tokyo Game Show podcast from 1UP, 1 thing has been made abundantly clear: 1UP gives you hard games coverage and IGN gives you flavor.
While the group here agrees that there wasn’t too much big news coming out of TGS this year, that is not going to stop them from talking about every singly game they saw. There are so many games covered here that it is almost impossible to point out anything specific. Look at the list below and if you want to hear about those games, listen to this.
Mark MacDonald does take a moment at the end...
It’s the speculation episode. The guys are on site at TGS, but the real festivities don’t kick-off until tomorrow with Sony’s keynote address. There are no huge announcements expected, but there may be some follow-ups on things that are in the wings including Sony’s motion controller.
The group does note that almost all presentations so far have been targeted at the western press which is strange for a show taking place in Japan. 1UP will have a video roundup tomorrow and the final TGS podcast on Friday will cover all of...
Get ready for an onslaught of Listen UP episodes this week because Garnett and crew are doing daily podcasts from the Tokyo Game Show.
The first half of this one is taken up by Justin Epperson, John Ricciardi and Mark MacDonald talking about Dragon Quest and Monster Hunter. These games dominate the Japanese gaming landscape for reasons that don’t translate in the Western Market.
The second half is where the really interesting discussion takes place. The group discusses the state of the Japanese game market and game developers. This generation...
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...
The Listen UP panel that was recorded at PAX is finally here after word from Garnett that there were problems with the audio. Things have not been completely smoothed out, but it is still listenable.
After hitting 2 of the most talked about games at PAX, Brink and Shank, Shane points to the new Ratchet and Clank as one of his most anticipated games. Assassins Creed 2 gets some love from Andrew as he points out that they have really taken the game design seriously this time around.
The really interesting topics surprisingly start with the audience...
Torchlight, a game from the team who brought us the ill-received Hellgate: London is the focus of the discussion at the beginning here. Although Hellgate: London was not a huge successe for Flagship Studios and they were forced to disband, many of the main team members have gone on to pursue another game in the Diablo-style click and collect RPG genre. In a surprisingly short time span they have delivered a $20, back-to-basics take on the genre. Platforms are yet to be announced, but XBLA and PSN are targerts for the game’s release.
John...
John is absent this week, but David starts this one outwith some Osmos impressions. It’s nice to get some indie game talk and this one has been getting some good buzz. Sam saw EyePet while in Germany and it sounds like it will be a cool little, out of the norm style game.
The guys talk a little about Star Trek Online which has become a different game than it was going to be initially. Instead of being a crew member on a ship, now every will have their own ship. Racing games also get some coverage with a lot of big-name titles due for...
Don’t let this week’s Listen UP fool you with it’s shorter length and only 2 man crew, there are a ton of games covered here. Garnett and Sam are recording from Germany and they are hitting everything.
First up is the PS3 slim news and the guys are understandably excited, but Garnett doesn’t feel like the new system is too handsome looking and the lack of backwards compatibility brings some disappointment. Moving onto Microsoft, the Fable III and episodic Fable II announcements go over well, with Garnett positive that...
This week’s “Whatcha been playin?” is dominated by digitally distributed games, with Sam Kennedy spearheading the segment with an apathetic impression of Turtles in Time, a lukewarm opinion of Fat Princess, and a positive recommendation of Xbox Live indie game Veks and Silence. Garnett follows up by retreading some ground with the previously mentioned PSN game Shatter and has an all too familiar hopeful but disappointed experience with Madden ’10. John brings the first segment to a close by shining some light on the Wii version of Madden...
Who knew Little King’s Story was such a big game? It seems like one of the more notable games for Wii recently and Alice Liang is in to talk about it. Unfortunately she is not completely positive on it even though Garnett is trying to defend it. If you are looking for a rather fresh Japanese style Wii game this may be one to check out though.
Along with the Joystiq guys, this week seems to the “back catalog week.” Guest, Christian Nutt, has gone back to Lost Odyssey and David Ellis has gone back to Mass Effect. Each have...
David starts out this week’s cast talking about Shadow Complex. He seems to be enjoying it a lot and for anyone with some nostalgia tied to retro Metroid or Castlevania titles, it sounds like a must buy. $15 for a title like this is a steal.
Borderlands continues to get good press. It’s been said before, but the change in art style has revolutionized peoples excitement level for the game. That doesn’t mean that the core mechanics weren’t good before, but don’t underestimate making a great game accessible with...
Wii Sports Resort get a good chunk of time near the beginning here and it sounds like a home-run. John puts it well when he says that Nintendo are the masters of making peripherals that ship with software that makes it really hard not to buy them. Will this give the Wii its 2nd wind after the recent decline in sales?
The World of Warcraft movie has “hit” written all over it. Sam Raimi, like him or not, has proven he can make good/marketable movies. Once you add Legendary Pictures and WoW’s 15 million current players into...
Wii Sports Resort is proving to be more than just a simple Nintendo cash-in. The game seems to offer a whole lot of fun that takes advantage of Wii MotionPlus well. Don’t make the mistake of going into it thinking you will get a sports experience of a game that was dedicated to a specific sport and there is a lot of fun to be had.
NPDs are the big news this week and the numbers are not too good compared to last year. The games industry is down overall and looks to stay that way for the coming months. Prototype did much better than...
As you ca see from the covered games/topics list, this week’s episode is jam-packed. Splosion Man was featured on this week’s 1UP game Night and it looks like a lot of fun. It could just be one of the first games to recapture the fast 2D action of the classic Sonic the Hedgehog games.
The new Tales of Monkey Island episode is getting a lot of good press. It sounds like it captures the classic games’ sense of humor, but you can only buy all of the episodes in a package on Steam. This seems to defeat the purpose of episodic...
