Xbox 360 Explored / Borderlands

This week we continue our console focused episodes in the run up to Christmas and take a look at the Xbox 360. So that we don’t come off like fanboys we tear into its flaws first, before taking a look at the strengths that make it worth buying.

Following this we give a full review of one of the sleeper hits of the year; Borderlands. If you haven’t played this yet then find out why you should. If you already have then enjoy the warm, fuzzy feelings associated with people saying nice things about a game you like.

But how do you follow up on an episode where you get to interview Dominik Diamond? It’s almost impossible folks and I will tell you truthfully now, that this episode was one of the hardest to edit in our long run of shows.  The original recording was 135 minutes long so rather than giving you a boring, long show I cut it to the bone and then, inspired by the podcasts of Robert Ashley and Kevin Smith I filled every inch of it with interesting, mood-setting music, employing a few unusual editing styles along the way. The result took me more than ten hours to edit, twice as long as the average show, so you may love it or hate it, but I won’t be doing it again.
There’s an Easter Egg at the end. I hope I made this show worth the wait.

Alex

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Dominik Diamond on Gamesmaster.

We’re immensely honoured this week to bring you Dominik Diamond, presenter of the greatest show about games ever to grace television screens; Gamesmaster.

For nearly seven years (barring one brief hiatus) Dominik presented this classic British production with a mixture of wit, charm and innuendo sending challengers, both unknown and celebrity into gaming tasks set by a techno-wizard played by Patrick Moore and commentating on their progress as though it were the most exciting sports action ever. The formula worked and Gamesmaster consistently drew audiences from the 16-Bit era all the way through to 1998 when the Playstation held full sway.

Dominik has been a journalist, and a DJ for XFM simce then and has moved to Nova Scotia; Canada with his family. He very kindly gave us two hours of his time to reminisce about his experiences, and the interview we now have here is probably one of our favourites in all our long years of podcasting.

You’ll definitely find out some things you didn’t know, learn behind the scenes tidbits and see how Dominik got in and out of the show. For those new to it, YouTube is a vertitable treasure trove of clips and if you’d like to see shows recommended by Dominik himself, that followed in Gamesmaster’s footsteps, check out Consolevania and Video Gaiden.

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Swapgame / Mario Wii / Assassin’s Creed 2

This week we’re privileged to interview Marc Day; CEO and founder of Swapgame.com We discuss the ups and downs of game rental by post and how over the years it’s expanded to a successful trade-in plan. Tony and I have both used Swapgame for a long time now and can honestly  recommend it to all our listeners in the UK.

After that Tony talks Mario Wii and Alex discusses Assassin’s Creed 2 in-depth after a week each of hard gaming. Find out if the worlds most famous plumber lives up to the rose-tinted memories of his 2D era peak, and if Ubisoft can deliver another killer blow. The music at the end of the show is Jonathan Coulton, whom Tony and I (along with Plex, Lizz and Sharon) saw live in London for the second time this year last week. The song is about cybernetic enhancements and is called “Better”.

Many many thanks to Marc for the interview.

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Modern Warfare 2.

This week, following the release of what may be the fastest selling game of all time we take a deeper look into Modern Warfare 2.

You all know what it is, so we focus on the details and the sparking controversy surrounding its release, but also the mechanics of the game and its strengths as well as its flaws. This is a candid and unflinching look at a title that follows a tried and tested formula and despite the slick delivery, there are definitely some sore points worth talking about.

The last section is a clearly flagged spoiler zone filled with plot details so make sure you’ve completed the main campaign before you finish listening.

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Nintendo Wii Special

This week we launch our first of three console-specific episodes in the run up to Christmas where we will be exploring the strengths and weaknesses of the big three and whether they will be worth buying for our listeners.

To assess the Wii we employed the expert opinions of James Batchelor, staff writer for MCV and veteran of The WiiDS podcast. We asked him why we or our listeners should consider purchasing a system so often dismissed as casual.

After that Alex reviews Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony and Tony talks about how a game aimed at tweenage girls has stolen his heart this week; Band Hero.

You can find James’ podcast here at www.wiids-podcast.com and we’d like to warmly thank him for coming on and giving our show a long-needed dose of Nintendo perspective.

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Last week Tony and I were guests on Big Red Potion. Hosts Sinan Kubba and Joe Delea have been on our show before for Episode #123 when we talked about game genres and reviews for AAA games.

On their episode #29 the four of us debated the Grand Theft Auto series andwhether it’s really matured over the years. In the wake of The Ballad of Gay Tony being released, is it now showing it’s age and will it ever be free from the media shit-storm that always follows a GTA release?

You can listen to it here, and we do thoroughly recommend you checking out BRP on a weekly basis. Also we hope Sinan gets well soon, as he’s been suffering from the Shingles., which is like Super-Chicken-Pox

In this week’s packed show we talk to Jamie Cheng; CEO of Klei Entertainment. We get some insight into the creation of the game he’s currently overseeing; named Shank. I got to play it at PAX this year and since then I’ve been dying to get Jamie on the show to talk about it. The project is still shrouded in secrecy but we do get to know a little more about the thought processes that went into it’s design, some info about the team behind it and some of Jamie’s gaming opinions. You can find out more about Shank here on the official blog.

http://shankgame.com/

As well as that, Tony reviews DJ Hero in-depth and we assess whether it’s worth the hefty asking price. We also discuss our time at the Eurogamer Expo in London. The games of note are Alien vs. Predator, and God of War III. We finish off with an appraisal of the Heavy Rain presentation we attended, hosted by David Cage and how we felt when we got our hands on the updated demo.

Many thanks to Jamie Cheng for the interview and Carolyn Carnes for arranging it. We hope to hear more as Shank’s development continues.

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This week we welcome to the show; James Portnow – CCO of Divide By Zero games and accredited game designer. We’re talking about the words ‘Game’ and ‘Gamer’ after an article on Gamasutra by Tynan Syslvester prompted us to ascertain if new words and descriptions could be used for them in the face of an ever-changing medium.

James lends us his considerable experience and expertise as we chew over public perception and how we cling to the idea that games are more than just frivolous entertainment.

After that there’s some frivolous entertainment in the form of our Brutal Legend and Scribblenauts in-depth reviews. Two of the most hyped games of 2009. Find out if they meet expectation. Also discussed are the Beatles and Queen Rock Band DLC.

Check out James’ work in conjunction with Daniel Floyd in brilliant animated lectures here.

The music at the end is Rain by Mark Tschanz from his album; Blue Dog, since on this week’s show we talk about how important Heavy Rain is likely to be in the case of serious games.

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Uncharted 2

Since we’ve both been playing it to death and it’s one of the most important and critically acclaimed games of 2009 Tony and I decided to take a break from interviews and spend this week’s show talking about Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

We explore every game element and argue the toss as to how this fits into the general evolution of the action-adventure game.

Even if you don’t own a PS3, this makes for a great deconstruction of the genre and highlights what it takes to get a title like this so very right. Is it game of the year? Even game of the decade? Find out here.

Thanks so much to Steven Jones our Community Manager who helped us out in the background for this show.

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We welcome to the show this week; Burnie Burns and Geoff Ramsey from Rooster Teeth productions two of the guys responsible for Red vs Blue; a web-based animation series utilizing the Halo engine.

We give them a full 90-minute interview and discuss the show from it’s humble inception as a five-part joke about pink armour all the way through seven series and three Halo engines to their close relationship with Bungie (they even contributed an Easter Egg moment in Halo 3).

If you’ve not yet experienced the show go here to roosterteeth.com and at least watch some of the PSA’s first, if not the entirety of Reconstruction.

Many thanks to Burnie and Geoff for coming on, we’ve been long-time fans and this was something of a special occasion for us.

There are samples of their work in audio form throughout the show. The music is by Trocadero and comes from the RvB series.

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