Podcast 10-8: Booth Babes, Swag Hags, and the Insufferable Bores

Photo of Robert Allen Robert AllenJune 15, 2012
70 9,748 Less than a minute

E3 PokemonBeyond offering a unique analysis of the merits and misdirections of the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo, the crew offers impressions of Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, Babel Rising, and even dips into the archives to reflect on both Sonic CD as well as an import Sailor Moon title. You’ll also want to stay plugged in for our customary serving of gaming trivia along with our answers to reader mail.

Don’t forget to send your questions for our next mailbag, and subscribe to the Tech-Gaming Podcast on iTunes. Leaving a review would be an awesome thing to do and keep us from begging for feedback every show.

Download: Podcast 10-8: Booth Babes, Swag Hags, and the Insufferable Bores
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Photo of Robert Allen Robert AllenJune 15, 2012
70 9,748 Less than a minute
Photo of Robert Allen

Robert Allen

Since being a toddler, Robert Allen has been immersed in video games, anime, and tokusatsu. Currently, his days are spent teaching at two southern California colleges. But his evenings and weekends are filled with STGs, RPGs, and action titles and well at writing for Tech-Gaming since 2007.

70 Comments

  2. For the guy buying the entire PSVita collection, he really should wait a few months. Prices for games are already dropping. He could save 50% of his money if he just holds out.

  3. I stopped listening when they starting talking shit about game stores. How original? Aren’t you guys so clever?

    1. Most of them are pretty bad. If everyone just accepts it, will they get any better?

  5. I hate to leave an anonymous post, but I work in the PR field. I’m sure you understand.

    After hearing what you said about Codemasters and/or WB, you really should let the companies know about how their product is being repped. When someone from the media asks a question the second worst thing that you can do is say “I don’t know”. (The first being to give a factually incorrect response)

    Professional PR doesn’t come cheap and if I held a position at Codemasters or WB, I would want to know about ineptitude, so I could deal with it. Let them know.

    1. Honestly, they don’t really care. They hire attractive people to rep their stuff during E3, and it seems they’re pretty aware that they’re paying for looks not brains.

      1. I still hope you follow through. Developers aren’t always aware of a publisher’s marketing practices. I’ve seen some people that work very hard only to be let down by PR. It’s a tough field, for sure.

  6. Thanks for the info on Metal Gear HD, NOLA. You think they’ll be able to patch the load times and framerates or not?

    1. They’re pretty unobtrusive. Like I said, the framerate only drops after you die, so it’s not like it affects the gameplay, and the loadtimes are still better than the PS2 version. It’s just that nowadays, games work loadtimes in a little more secretly, so they’re less obvious.
      I doubt they’ll patch anything, but it’s still worth a look if you liked the games to begin with.

  7. “God doesn’t have a tech tree”

    Damn Deagle sometime you come with some real zingers.

      1. Can’t wait to see someone post a picture of a cybernetic ninja, front row, middle, on opening night.

        Toasty!

  9. I remember that MS statement, Desert. Thanks for opening up sore wounds. I think it’s good that you guys remind us of the promises that were broken by these companies.

  10. “Too Moe for Deagle”?

    Is that even possible? What game were you guys talking about?

  13. Love Deagle’s conspiracy theory. It fits and all, but I’m sure it’s accidental.

  14. Why do you guys only have 19 hit points.

    Also: beware of booth “babe” there’s no gender indicator.

    2. Why the hell is the hot pockets commercial THREE MINUTES long? Only made it for 1:13.

  16. Boobs? On TV, Ubisoft opening with some guy rapping with a giant mic which made him look like he had a shiny beard.

    1. So they didn’t show the boobs at the beginning of the Farcry 3 trailer? Hm.

      Sidenote: the rapper was FloRida. I thought it was Pitbull. We couldn’t decide if that made me racist, since Flo Rida is black, and pitbull is latino.

      1. I can confirm: no boobs exposed boobs. Some of the Ubi girls had loose bras and were bouncing to the music, if that counts.

  18. Good show this week. I like the way Des added some gossip. But next week, Sage better play some games.

    1. I eBay’ed it. I’m not an emulator kinda guy (except for the Wii’s Virtual Console). eBay and small/local game stores are the best place to find import games like that.

        1. IIRC, I got it for $10. Can’t say I haven’t gotten my money’s worth out of it. 🙂

  22. It was Danny Pena and HHG who helped themselves to a shitload of Pachter’s swag. Way to show that people of color can handle themselves professionally, you guys!

  26. Sure, I’ll listen to one more podcast complaining about E3. Actually two, because there was a new CAGcast today.

  27. Speaking of IGN, I work for an exhibitor that and had to endure several rude comments from the IGN/Family Guy Announcer as I walked by. I was completely covered and pretty pissed about it. I tried talking to someone, but they were really dismissive about the whole thing, saying the guy “meant no harm, and was just channeling the spirit of the show”. They tried to give me some swag, but at that point, I wasn’t interesting in any further contact.

    1. I heard a few people mention IGN was showing Family Guy. Since when did they start promoting games? Not that they’re exactly credible anymore, but that seems like a conflict of interest when you’re running new and reviews.

    2. Yea, the Family Guy booth was pretty obnoxious. I made the mistake of showing up early on the 2nd day, and ended up waiting in line next to the booth. Had to put up with an HOUR of that “comedian” parroting lines from the show and complaining that no one was paying attention to him. “What, you guys don’t appreciate a chance to get FREE BACON FLAVORED MINTS?!” No, sir. We don’t.

      1. Did you look at the game? I spent 10 minutes with it and walked away unimpressed. No attempt and lip synching, looked super simple, and pretty unpolished considering the release is pretty soon.

        1. I didn’t really spend any time with the game. It’s browser-based, right? I think it might be running on the Unity engine? I didn’t really expect it to be too high of quality.

  28. All the major sites are run by corporations now. IGN=Fox, Joystiq=AOL/Time. Even Giant Bomb, who I gave money too, because they were independent and struggling is part of CBS (Which runs Gamespot)

    Corporations want to dictate the message and buying game sites are one way of doing it. And if you think that IGN will run a less than favorable review of Family Guy, a have a patch of prime real estate in Florida, I want to sell you. Seriously, it’s going to get worse.

    Say what you want about Destructiod, but big props for them for staying indie. If they can lose Jim Sterling, they’d be my favorite site, because they’re not corporately guided.

    1. Yea. I’m getting toward the end of MGS2, and I’m hitting the part where they’re really driving home the idea of digital information control and how data filters and search engine optimization can control the public’s opinion on pretty much everything. I can’t help but go “yep. Kojima was right, 12 years ago. That crazy sonuvabitch.”
      It really is amazing how, even in a day and age where literally anyone can make their opinion known, that the loudest voices are still the ones that are most easily controlled.
      I’m not saying I doubt GiantBomb’s integrity or anything – those guys seem to know waht they’re getting themselves into, and CBS has made it very clear that they want GB to stay relatively independent while they help GameSpot with their publicity problem. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt until I start seeing some shady dealings. IGN pushing games is something else entirely. So far, they’ve mostly been free-to-play MMOs (like Family Guy) which they don’t seem to really cover, but there have been a few cases like Transformers that have been pretty seedy ventures. That raises some red flags.

      2. Oh yeah?

        http://pc.ign.com/articles/121/1217933p1.html

        http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/07/e3-2012-adam-west-talks-family-guys-road-from-tv-series-to-video-game

        http://media.pc.ign.com/media/111/111512/imgs_1.html

        http://pc.ign.com/articles/122/1222958p1.html

        http://tv.ign.com/articles/122/1222981p1.html

        http://pc.ign.com/articles/122/1222527p1.html

        http://pc.ign.com/articles/121/1217933p1.html

        http://pc.ign.com/articles/118/1182626p1.html

        and so on. The amount of IGN Family Guy coverage is deafening.

        1. Yeah, Ive noticed some Family Guy links on their regular pages. They’re covering it more than Dead Space 3.

        2. Sorry, I meant to say “review” not “cover.” I actually don’t mind ad articles so much. I think they’re a necessary part of previews, but if a team that has been actively involved in ad previews turns around a reviews that title, I don’t think that sets the stage for a very trustworthy review. If a site agrees to heavily preview and co-sponsor a game, it’s in their best interest to give it a thumbs up.

          1. Let’s hope NISA doesn’t co-sponsor anything here, then.

            But, why do I have a feeling that it’s on the horizon?

      3. Rock Paper Shotgun is my destination now. I don’t even visit 1up or IGN because of the drop in quality.

  29. Never understood the appeal of Giant Bomb. Besides being kind of funny, they’re reviews are pretty average. I guess people like the everyman approach.

  31. Great intro song. Liked the Gotye talk. I don’t feel anything for hardware makers anymore. Been that way since Sega left.

  33. Loved the opening chiptune and Deagle going all crazy with his theories. I hope they allow him to podcast from the nuthouse. Hehe.

    J/k was pretty entertaining.

  35. To all the “Anonymous” posters leaving trash and hate–>Stop Hatin’! Or at the very least own up to your hateful and thoughtless comments by posting under a name. Sheesh, so cowardly.

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