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Episode 238: No Free PornEpisode 238: No Free Porn

November 9, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 8:06 pm

This week’s episode is also abbreviated, as Jordan is somewhere in Pennsylvania looking for a gingerbread house while Paul is still trying to pack his entire NES library into a single suitcase. Jonah and Paul still got in enough time to do a Gaming Flashback on Thief: The Dark Project, and the following news items:

Steam forums hacked
Xbox 360 failure rate down to 10%
Sony revamps< PSN sharing policy
BioWare and EA send cease-and-desist order to NeoGAF over Mass Effect 3 spoilers

All this and Reader Feedback, too, as well as a new Question of the Week, “If you have the opportunity to read or view a highly anticipated game’s story months before it was released, would you do it or would you deliberately turn it away to preserve yourself from spoilers?” Let us know!

Episode 234: An Episode to ForgetEpisode 234: An Episode to Forget

October 13, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 12:18 am

A microphone issue during the podcast made Jonah’s voice thin and tinny. That, and Paul not in the podcast, flying to California to enjoy Disneyland, makes this an episode to forget. It’s unfortunately, since it’s one of the better podcasts in terms of content. The Gaming Flashback this week is Leisure Suit Larry in The Land of the Lounge Lizards.

The news this week includes:

Netflix drops Qwikster
Xbox 720 popping up on LinkedIn resumes
320GB hard drive announced for Xbox 360
Rocksteady: Superman “bad fit” for videogame
Bethesda: We were “forced” to sue Mojang

We also received some great Reader Feedback as well. Next week, we promise to have great sound – or at least not so tinny.

Episode 232: Remember Pong?Episode 232: Remember Pong?

September 21, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 7:44 pm

This week, there’s no Gaming Flashback or Gaming History, but there is a ton of news and Reader Feedback as Paul is finally present to react to some hate mail.

The news includes some huge items, like:

No PSN unless you waive lawsuit
Netflix adds game rentals to Qwikster
DC Universe Online goes free-to-play
Xbox Live officially a part of Windows 8
Microsoft: Xbox TV this Fall
Rogers Cable ordered to stop throttling gamers
Nintendo and Valve say no to smartphone games

The Question of the Week: What was the very first home videogame you ever played?

Episode 230: Zombie Nazi MonkeysEpisode 230: Zombie Nazi Monkeys

September 7, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 8:23 pm

This week, Jonah Falcon rants about the bosses in Deus Ex: Human Revolution while Jordan Lund expresses a desire for cold, rainy weather. This week’s Gaming Flashback is The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, with the following news items:

Lord British wants to make another Ultima, EA not so much
Crytek rebukes “unlawful layoff” claims
Gabe Newell wants Steam on Xbox Live Marketplace
DICE addresses console “limitations” in Battlefield 3
Black Ops map packs hit 18 million sold
Sony targets teens with new PSP
Angry Birds PS Mini problems

The guys also read more reader mail, and pose this week’s Question of the Week: What was the worst game mechanic you ever dealt with in a game you liked?

Episode 226: Line SteppingEpisode 226: Line Stepping

August 9, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 2:29 pm

This week’s episode is light on news but heavy on features, as the Gaming Flashback checks in on the coin-op arcade classic I, Robot, while the Gaming History takes a look at the career of Danielle Bunten Berry.

As for the news, the gang comments on the following items:

New Mass Effect 3 multiplayer rumors arise
Duke Nukem Forever profitable for Take 2
Bethesda says Xbox 720 three years away

This week’s Question of the Week: What board games, if any, do you love to play? Let us know!

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

July 23, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 12:00 pm

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.

Episode 222: Gorilla LoveEpisode 222: Gorilla Love

July 13, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 7:44 pm

This week is a big episode, as it is chock full of surprising news this week, as well as some long, long reader mail. If that weren’t enough, we take a look back at the IntelliVision game Maze-a-Tron, deal with too much love for Paul, and the mystery that is the popularity of gorillas.

This week’s news includes:

Electronic Arts buys Popcap Games
Microsoft: Only Master Chief in Halo from now on
PlayStation Vita dev costs closer to PSP
Netflix takes aim at usage based billing
Expert glitcher hired to clean up Modern Warfare 3’s multiplayer
Skyrim ‘less confusing’, not ‘more accessible‘

There’s no Gaming History this week, but the Question of the Week is: “What old game do you most want to see remade?” There’s no contest behind it, but you can always take heart in the fact that your question was probably the most awesome.

Episode 221: FireworksEpisode 221: Fireworks

July 6, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 10:08 pm

It’s the Smurfiest post-Fourth of July podcast ever, as Jonah Falcon and Jordan Lund look back at the ColecoVision classic Smurfs: Rescue from Gargamel’s Castle, probably the easiest videogame ever Smurfed.

If that weren’t Smurfy enough, Jonah and Jordan, working without Paul S. Nowak this week, also check out this week’s Smurfy news:

Xbox 720 with Halo 4 launch in 2012?
PS4 also in 2012, with embedded Kinect-like motion control?
Crytek says Kinect development is “really, really easy.”
Sony working on new PSN redesign?
Questions over alleged early close of Sony’s Welcome Back offer.

This week has a ton of Smurfy reader feedback, as well as reaction to Sony’s crackdown of Star Wars Galaxies shutdown petitioners. If that weren’t Smurfy enough, the Question of the Week is pretty Smurfy as well, as readers are asked, “What game that you can’t find anywhere anymore do you wish you could play again?”

As usual, hit us up on iTunes and leave some comments!

E3 2011 Preview SummariesE3 2011 Preview Summaries

June 19, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 4:45 pm

You might notice that I’ve been pretty silent on E3 2011 previews, despite hustling around the entire time. That is because I’ve been writing almost all of them for Strategy Informer.

So, those of you who are regulars at Gaming Podcast – and judging by hits, there are tons of you – here are excerpts of the previews I’ve written for Strategy Informer for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 titles, plus a link to the full article.

UbiSoft’s Pre-E3 Briefing:

At the briefing, they showed off the following games: Rayman Origins, Driver: San Francisco, Far Cry 3, Brothers In Arms: The Furious Four, The Adventures of Tintin, Ghost Recon: Future Warrior, Trackmania 2, Raving Rabbids: Alive & Kicking, Just Dance 3, Rocksmith, Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. (Read more…)

Dead Island (PC, PS3, 360):

Getting back to the mood of the game, missions are similarly realistic and grim. Nothing in the game seems artificially tacked on; the flow and the suspension of disbelief are extremely well done. During a mission, sometimes you’ll rescue another survivor and they will have a mission for you to do right there in the middle of your current quest. You can opt to help them, ignore them, or even screw them by driving them off in their vehicle. This is survival, and sometimes, jjust sometimes, you may give in to temptations to make choices that will make you normally wince. It’s a zombie dog eats zombie dog world and in the middle of an apocalypse, sometimes you have to fortify your own safety at the expense of another. (Read more…)

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2M Users Sign Up for COD: Elite Beta2M Users Sign Up for COD: Elite Beta

June 14, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 1:12 am

Activision’s Dan Amrich posted in his One of Swords blog that two million users have signed up Call of Duty: Elite‘s beta, who said the number “blew his mind” when “they hit that number in less than two weeks. That should give the dev team at Beachhead plenty to work with to kick off the beta, which officially starts July 14.”

“The official start of the beta is a month away, so there’s still plenty of time for you to sign up. When the studio head at Beachhead said this would be a live beta, he was not kidding — your participation really can make a difference in how Elite evolves,” added Amrich, “And don’t be discouraged by the big number, thinking you shouldn’t bother because they already have enough people — two million volunteers among 30 million Call of Duty players is a small amount. More would be even better. Once you’ve signed up, just watch your email inbox for an invite.”

The 2M beta applications aren’t necessarily an endorsement for Elite. Rather, users are probably curious to see the beta and if it pleases them. The paid subscription portion reportedly only represents 10% of Elite, anyway, and is aimed at more “professional” and “hardcore” gamers, aka clans.

Users can apply for the beta here.