March, 2009 -

Gaming Podcast 116: We Can’t Get To The Cloud!Gaming Podcast 116: We Can’t Get To The Cloud!

March 31, 2009| schommer| 0 Comment| 9:49 pm

This week’s gaming podcast covers a wide variety of news, we also argue a bit about the Wow restrictions on taking donations and cash (again) and touch on some gaming history involving The Sims and the history of Infocom. For news, we’ve tackled

EA Leaves SecuRom out of Sims 3
Sony Enticing Independent Developers to be Exclusive to PlayStation Network
Steam Makes DRM Obsolete
Blizzard Rolling Out New Game Franchise?
OnLive to Kill off Consoles as we know them?
PS3 Rumors and Price Drops

This weeks question, is the Nintendo Wii killing off gaming as we know it?

EA Listens To The Public: No SecuROM In The Sims 3!EA Listens To The Public: No SecuROM In The Sims 3!

March 29, 2009| schommer| 0 Comment| 10:57 am

sims It seems Spore was the staging point for the SecuROM revolt and the massive amazon 1-star reviews and backlash have not gone on deaf ears. Electronic Arts has opted to leave SecuROM out of The Sims 3, an upcoming release for just that reason.

“We have heard your requests over the past months and here is our plan for The Sims 3,” Sims development head Rod Humble stated on the official website. “The game will have disc-based copy protection – there is a serial code just like The Sims 2. To play the game there will not be any online authentication needed. (casualgaming.biz)

We wonder, did they do this primarily because of the Spore revolt or because the demographic for The Sims is even more casual than that of Spore? Casual gamers expect a casual experience from install to un-install because they don’t want to be hassled with silly copy protection. Or, perhaps casual games like The Sims is less likely to be hacked because it’s not a “hardcore” game?

We’re sticking with the thinking that this is a “good faith” jesture to the gamers for how they “rocked the vote” on the last title as The Sims is one of the best selling series on the PC gaming platform. Lots of sales with lots of fans, why interrupt that momentum with ugly DRM whiplash?

Gaming Podcast 115: Poo Poo’ed ItGaming Podcast 115: Poo Poo’ed It

March 24, 2009| schommer| 0 Comment| 3:39 pm

This week we’re working with our skeleton crew, Don was stuck at work so we’re flying duelies. Speaking of duelies, we’re flashing back to Rise of the Triad and covering some gaming history on Ralph Baer, a very important person in the gaming industry. This week, in the news, we’re a bit Wii centric with:

Wii Supply finally meeting demand
Nintendo Wins Lawsuit
Wii Fit outsells Halo 3
World of Goo Creator, Ron Carmel, Poo Poos DRM
Blizzard has changed the UI add on development policy
Bioshock Coming to the iPhone??

Also, listen in for your chance to win Peggle for Xbox Live Arcade with a simple question. We forgot to ask the question of the day on the show, so, here it is: Should Blizzard halt income made from addon develoment?

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

March 18, 2009| schommer| 0 Comment| 1:20 pm

wallace GameStooge, 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!

Gaming Podcast 114: The Paz CastGaming Podcast 114: The Paz Cast

March 17, 2009| schommer| 0 Comment| 8:28 pm

We’re flashing back to a holographic arcade title, Time Traveler from SEGA and take a reflective walk down memory lane with Apogee and touch on ROTT. We’ve got a light set of community comments and some good game news including:

Microsoft Settles Law Suit
Capcom charging for Resident Evil 5 features
Blizzard Holding Creative Writing Contest
Metal Gear Solid Touch
Sony May have to cut the Price of the PS3
Lionhead Studios Planning more DLC for Fable 2

If you’re looking to enter the World fo Warcraft writing contest, check it out here. Thanks for the write-in’s and, as always, we look forward to hearing more. Question of the week: Would you buy a game that sold you half of other titles in content and made you pay for the rest later in DLC form?

Gaming Podcast 113: How Do You Say Gyro?Gaming Podcast 113: How Do You Say Gyro?

March 10, 2009| schommer| 0 Comment| 9:55 pm

This week we’re overwhelmed with awesome listener comments, including new ones from folks we’ve never heard from on the show. We’re also taking a flashback look at the original Diablo and some of the sequels that followed it. This weeks gaming news includes:

6,200 Reasons to buy iphone/touch games
MTV Thinks Rock Band Beatles is worth $59.99 on the Wii
Wii Motion Plus Delay Rumor
Associated Press is reporting Circuit City officially done
Killzone 2 Gets Patched for Multiplayer
Wii New Play Control Lineup

We’re also reviewing the downloadable content for GTA IV known as “Lost and the Damned.” Learn why Derrick is afraid of Motorcycles.

Rumor: Wii Motion Plus DelaysRumor: Wii Motion Plus Delays

March 9, 2009| schommer| 0 Comment| 9:05 am

Wii Motion Plus is Nintendo’s next big hardware up sell, an add-on that should make the Wii controller more realistic and flexible when playing highly sensitive “real movement” games. The hardware has been looked at by many in the industry as fixing imperfections in the current hardware, a patch of sorts.

wiimotionplus The Wii Motion Plus is going to be bundled with Wii Sports Resort, a title that’s obviously playing off the biggest Wii hit Wii Sports. Latest reports are showing the game title missing from the upcoming release lists, so, it’s not too far fetched to assume the hardware will be delayed along with the game, considering this was the first game to rely on the Wii Motion Plus hardware.

The delay is rumored to be due to a few problems with the Wii Motion Plus, more than likely during the final stages of testing the prototype products. In Nintendo’s defense, they’re usually very good about due diligence when it comes to producing hardware and software, taking the time that is needed to get something into the customers hands that’s acceptable quality. All eyes are on Nintendo with the Wii Motion Plus because people see this as the final “fix” to make the Wii controller do everything it was promised to do.

While Nintendo doesn’t see the original controller as broken (nor do the millions of customers buying them everyday), this new hardware should make it more sensitive for games that require perfect movement… games like Wii Sports Resort?

At this point we’d expect to hear news of a slight delay by Nintendo soon. We’d rather see it arrive late than utterly broken and useless.

(Thanks, Kotaku)

6,200 Reasons To Buy iPhone/Touch Games6,200 Reasons To Buy iPhone/Touch Games

March 8, 2009| schommer| 0 Comment| 10:30 am

The iTunes App Store is jam packed with video games! There are 6,200 games in the App Store to take advantage of, with 23% of those games for our puzzle gaming friends with arcade following a distance second place with 13% App Store market share. In that bulk of games, 1,485 are free download games but we’re not sure how many are “lite” versions of pay-for-games in the store, with limited game play. If you too are looking for ways to optimize your phone, see here the plans available at Circles.Life mobile.

chart-app-store

Apple could cut down on that clutter if they let developers publish one game with a demo/shareware release and a full release, perhaps than we would be able to wade through a realistic amount of game titles. Of course, Apple isn’t exactly the most friendly of companies when it comes down to allowing us to share our thoughts and opinions of their closed box products.

Unfortunately for the new game developers, they’ve got a few games to compete against in the App Store space. While great games should rise to the top like cream in your coffee, it’s obvious that 6,200 items can clutter up an otherwise friendly space. iTunes tends to have a very unintuitive interface and isn’t really built for great online game shopping experiences, we’re sure they can exploit many of the great games in this archive of titles if they had a bit of a re-design.

You’ll find plenty of educational games in the 6,200 titles, matching if not exceeding that of the strategy genre.
(Thanks, kotaku)

The Beatle’s Change Wii Price Point, Rock Band StyleThe Beatle’s Change Wii Price Point, Rock Band Style

March 8, 2009| schommer| 0 Comment| 10:18 am

By now everyone is used to paying more for Rock Band than meets the eye. The game disc is usually packed in several bundles for guitars, drums and, of course, stand alone. With The Beatles: Rock Band, MTV Games plans to release one product SKU, a game only disc. That game only disc, on the Wii is going to cost the same as other consoles: $59.99.

beatles You remember when Wii games were $49.99 and everyone made titles that hit this price point or lower? MTV isn’t going to stick to this standard, regardless of “last gen graphics” because you’ll buy it anyway, right? Rock Band is one of those games that has hit huge strides in the market over the last few years as people buy big plastic instruments to rock their house.

Now we’re going to see if those same people willing to pay $10.00 more than normal in order to play The Beatles songs. The Wii has a large audience of gamers but they’re the style of gamer that wants a good value for their product, after all, the Wii is cheaper than every other console and the games probably should match its differences compared to games for the other consoles.

This is an interesting decision, as the market plunges into despair MTV gouges games for $10.00 more because “The Beatles” happens to be in the title. Are you going to pay more for the Beatles? Not us.

(Thanks, 1up)

Gaming Podcast 112: Ubiquitous, Is That a Word?Gaming Podcast 112: Ubiquitous, Is That a Word?

March 3, 2009| schommer| 0 Comment| 10:22 pm

This week we’re flashing back to Zaxxon and into a bit of a reflective history on the NES Satellite accessory. We reflect upon how bad Don sucks at Mass Effect and get tips from the community. We’re also checking in on some news this week including:

Microsoft Xbox 360 Outsells PS3 and Wii in Japan
Nintendo DSi not competing with cell phones or iPods
PlayStation 3 hard to develop for on purpose
EA admits they need to try harder
Killzone 2 sells 750k after launch
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li KO’ed at theaters
Tabula Rasa MMO Shutting Down After 1.5 years
Xbox Live Bans Gay Gamers

We’re also asking a few questions of the week, you can answer them all, one or none (but we’ll give you sad face)! What’s your favorite video game accessory since you started gaming, what actor can make a video game movie a success?