Christmas Video Gaming Quiz.

To celebrate the holiday season we’ve thrown an inter-podcast quiz on the subject of video games. Tony is quizmaster (and a very strict one) and I’m competing against Chris O Regan from Superhappyfuntimeshow, Ratso Albion of Gamerdork and Sinan Kubba of Big Red Potion.

Find out who among us is the king of gaming knowhow.

Also as a special treat we had a bit of a Christmas sing-song at the beginning, the video of which can be found here.

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Retro Review: The Sony Playstation.

This week, Commander Tim joins us to take a close look at the original Sony wonder machine. We examine how it came about, how Sony made it it THE console to own and the legacy of game franchises it left in its wake.

We were originally going to talk about the Playstation 3, but considering last weeks show, we wanted to wait until we had a stronger angle, so that episode will be coming in the new year.

Remember for the next week there’s still a competition on to win a $40 to spend at Casually Hardcore. To be in with the chance of winning check out this thread on the forum.

Many thanks to Commander Tim, who came on at relatively short notice and made this a mature and entertaining debate, rather than the playground scrap it would have been without him. You can find Tim’s website here, Gamehounds here and The Widget here.

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I just wanted to make sure our contestants got their time in the sun so here are the entries for our fan art competition from a few weeks ago.

Runner Up: Darth Cuddles

Second Place: Darth Cuddles Again

First Place: SeijinAxeman

Well done guys.

For this week’s competition , which will actually run for a fortnight until episode 136 Digital Cowboys has teamed up with Casually Hardcore These guys sell geek-friendly clothing, perfect for our listeners. They operate out of the USA, but ship very reasonably worldwide. To be in with the chance to win a $40 gift voucher from them simply design a T-Shirt that we find amusing or clever. No need to make something particularly artistic, a simple phrase or slogan will do. There is no guarantee that Casually Hardcore will use any of the entries for an actual T-Shirt but you never know.

One of mine is www.youaresoignored.com

So jump onto this thread on our forums and start spreading the geek lore with pride.

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