Contest: Win a Free Season of Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures

wallaceGameStooge, 2Old2Play and Gaming Podcast have joined forces with Telltale Games and are offering three chances to win the PC version of Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures – the entire four episode season!

That’s right – you can win the entire season, a $34.95 value, which includes:

  • Fright of the Bumblebees, which comes out March 24
  • The Last Resort (May)
  • Muzzled (June)
  • The Bogey Man (July)

Winners get the order code to get each chapter as it comes out for free!

For Gaming Podcast, you merely need to post a comment stating your favorite brand of cheese. Just let us know which cheese makes you drool – whether it’s the tanginess of cheddar or the mildness of Gouda. The majesty of Roquefort or the commonness of American. You don’t even need to restrict it to cow’s milk cheese, too – if you love goat cheese, let us know! Only one entry per user, and you have to impress us with your love of that fine dairy product. The contest ends March 24, 12 noon EST.

You have two other chances at GameStooge and 2Old2Play – please head over there and checkout their contests!

Related Post

Google is Not Looking to Buy ValveGoogle is Not Looking to Buy Valve

Yesterday a rumor started which said Google was looking to purchase Valve Software, the makers of Half-Life, Team Fortress and, of course, Portal. While Valve Software boasts a 20-million unit sales on their archive of awesome games, what interest would google have in gaming?

From google’s own corporate mission statement: “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” How would gaming fit into the dynamic of organizing the worlds information?

Some have said they’d be interested in Valve’s Steam system for distributing games and products. That seems far fetched considering all the CDN solutions on the Net, especially those focused towards media related projects like Liberated Syndication (Wizzard Media), which we use to host our gaming podcast, or other video solutions which would fit more into the Google playing field (considering the large purchase of youtube.com)

Today, Doug Lombardi of Valve, pubically said that Valve Software is willing to be purchased but stated the Google rumor was “a bit of fiction.” (kotaku) While Valve Software has shown they can make awesome titles with stability and dedication, knowing their open to being purchased is slightly disturbing.

I’m always happy for those “little guys” that make it in the big world of cut throat game development, there is some satisfaction knowing the smaller developers are making big waves against publishers like EA and Activision. Valve has changed the way we download games electronically and continues to expand their dominion; if Valve Software was purchased by a bigger company, would we still get the same quality and innovation from the developers?

Episode 496: Two Becomes ThreeEpisode 496: Two Becomes Three

This week starts with two hosts and mysteriously turns into three without any warning. It’s scary. Otherwise, this week’s Gaming Flashback is the source of scorn from the hosts: Spore. Yes, SimEverything was SimDisappointing. Listen in and find out why.

The news for this week includes:

  • Xbox head tweets support of PS4/Xbox One crossplay on Fortnite
  • Warhammer: Vermintide 2 has already sold 500,000 copies
  • Writer Drew Karpyshyn leaves BioWare for a second time

Let us know what you think.

Bethesda’s Hines: Don’t Shoehorn MultiplayerBethesda’s Hines: Don’t Shoehorn Multiplayer

Bethesda Softworks vice president of marketing Pete Hines is critzing publishers and developers who shoehorn multiplayer into their games that doing such a thing is “a waste of time” and advises, “Just drop it, don’t bother…it’ll make for a worse game.”

In an interview with Next Gen BIZ, Hines states that using online multiplayer as a tool to prevent used game trade-ins and rental simply doesn’t work, and robs developers of valuable man-hours.

Hines stated:

“(People ask us) for a game like Skyrim or Prey 2, why doesn’t it have multiplayer? Well, our question is always the opposite when we talk to a developer. If you’re doing multiplayer, why are you doing multiplayer? What are you trying to accomplish?

“If you’re doing it just to check a box or because every other publisher says you’ve got to have multiplayer, then just drop it, don’t bother, it’s a waste of time, a giant distraction and it’ll make for a worse overall game.

“We want the best game possible. If that’s a singleplayer game that’s 15 to 20 hours, then make that! Don’t waste your time on features that don’t make the game better.”

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Prey 2 are two Bethesda properties that will lack multiplayer, but one of the tools to encourage games to keep both games will be downlodable content and, even more important, good communications with the game communities and nurturing the fandom for both games.