Podcast 11-1: The Things Cooking Mama Can’t Fix
This week DesertEagle, SeanNOLA, BlueSwim and Jeremy “Lawman” LaMont climb aboard Guns of Icarus’ dirigibles, dig their fingers into Spelunky, visit the Rainbow Moon, stumble around with The Walking Dead: Episode 2 and even careen through Dyad’s neon-hued corridors. Not satisfied with just examining the latest releases, we also offer post-mortems on Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, Soul Calibur V, as well as the PS Vita version of Mortal Kombat, before offering our requisite dosage of gaming trivia and 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.
Correction: Guns of Icarus will not be free-to-play, but offered through Steam at a reasonable cost.
RSS Feed: The Tech-Gaming Podcast
Yeah, new show. But why isn’t it up on iTunes yet?!?
Here’s my theory: techno music opening=better than average show.
This should be good, as long as there’s some JRPG talk.
Old guys like techno. See also: CheapyD and Garnett Lee
Why is Mama trying to frost the ghetto? That’s not going to be too effective.
If liking this song makes me old (birthday was yesterday, so bonus LOL), I don’t want to be young:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ6qmCvxorg
So the open song was Deagle’s pick I’m assuming…
So what the pick up price for Dyad? $5 or a full $10?
I don’t have great reflexes. That’s why I like…difficultly levels.
It’s $15. And although when you buy the game there’s a “Demo” and an “Unlock Key”, apparently there is currently no demo.
Probably at some later date, though, I assume.
Happy Birthday Blue!!!
Ah, Sony. You have demos all lined up and ready to go, but you choose NOT to publish them. I have to question your judgment.
To be honest, that’s probably how I’d personally do demos if I had a game to publish. Let the early adopters who are stoked buy it up. Give a demo a few weeks later to those who are unconvinced. Don’t risk your demo giving people “enough” that they don’t want to buy your product.
Just one guy’s (controversial?) opinion.
But what about the people who of course read your reviews, but need to play before buying. If the demo comes out weeks after launch, then the game usually gets lost in the shuffle. I end up buying first week (with a good demo) or during a sale, with very little other times.
Music this week was from the Tempest 2000 soundtrack.
Wow, that was pretty rocking. I may have to find a Jaguar emulator!
BTW, Question for the next show, and I expect (read DEMAND) a shout-out.
What video game best handles death?
A great question. I hope we get to answer that one! What’s your favorite way to handle death in games?
Sean, how can you consider yourself a gamer/reviewer if you haven’t really played the Mario games. That’s like a artist not knowing who Picasso was.
I think it’s more like an art critic that doesn’t appreciate Picasso – which I’m sure you’ll find are plentiful. I never said that I hadn’t played SMW, just that I didn’t appreciate it enough to spend significant time with it. I don’t regret it. The Mario series never clicked with me, which opened the door to other experiences. I have a lot of friends that are chained to Nintendo, and they’ re perfectly happy waiting for the next Mario or Zelda, but having hitched my cart to a sinking shp (read “SEGA”) I was forced to expand my horizons and feel more well rounded because of it.
Really, an apathy toward any particular work should never blacklist a critic. In fact, forced acceptance would essentially negate any varied opinion. That woul d be pretty boring.
Damn, Sean why did you have to nail Wushu like that? 😉
Point well made.
Good point. I actually think that’s part of the industry’s problem- we have game’s that everyone feels compelled to like. We need more debate, not less.
Now, you’ve cursed the house of Sonic? Shame on you NOLA, may you receive the uninvited embrace of a Big the Cat cosplayer.
Jeremy, I TOTALLY agree with you on Spelunky. It’s just too hard for it’s own good. I didn’t have fun playing it.
But comparing Dyad to Tempest is madness. Dyad you’re going through the tube, but most of Tempest you are on the outside, shooting in.
I don’t mind when something is hard. Super Meat Boy is one of the hardest games around, and not only did I play a ton of it, but I’d replay levels just to get higher scores.
My issue is that I don’t feel like I’m really GETTING anywhere or making progress. I’ll go back and play it again, just to make sure.
The Dyad/Tempest thing is just a matter of perspective. Literally! 😉
You know what would have made this show? An interview with this guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41TbGi7u598
I looove video game postmortems.
Everyone should check out THIS link to the GDC Vault website.
http://www.gdcvault.com/search.php#&category=free&firstfocus=&type%5B1%5D=1&type%5B2%5D=2&type%5B3%5D=3&keyword=postmortem&conference_id=
That’s a pretty awesome link. Bookmarked!
Walking Dead: Ep. 2 hard crashes all the time on PS3. Pissed at the developers because the first one was so good.
BTW- Yeah, it wasn’t hyped beyond podcasts.
Pretty good show this week. But what happened to Deagle’s interviews?
Jeremy, it’s not your aging. Both Spelunky and Dyad are balls hard.
Hey Raiden, how about a match sometime?
No Samurage this week? At least no tasteless rehab jokes from Desert.
Anyway so far so good. Great energy and connection between the hosts. Any no one laughed at the tentacle reference?
I don’t FEEL that old. And I can even put up a respectable showing on the Dyad leaderboards, but it definitely makes me wonder what the negative delta is on your reflexes over the course of a single year of your life.
Lean, mean show.
I’m thinking the show might be better as Deagle, NOLA and Jeremy with Sage or Blue on once a month. Not that I don’t like either of them, but you gotta talk bout new games. I always have opinions of old games, or I don’t need an opinion because they’re $10 anyway.
Having a month between shows would lead to rustiness. Regardless of whether or not I’ve played much worth talking about, I show up each and every time because, among other things, I don’t want to get out of the habit of doing the show. Once you get out of the habit, it takes time to get the chemistry and rhythm back (usually, 2/3’s of a show). And, lets face it, podcasting is fun. Why deprive myself of two hours of good times when people can fast-forward at the click of a button?
One problem I’ve had is that there hasn’t been much that’s come out recently that I’ve been chomping at the bit to play. Fortunately, Persona 4: Arena, Dead Or Alive 5, and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 are all coming out over the next couple of months, so maybe that will change.
Don’t even let them bother you, Blue. Everyone has different tastes.
Who else covers fighting games like Blue?
Give the haters a falcon punch to the balls!
Oh Blue how I envy you 🙂
There ain’t nothing in this world that Mama can’t fix. They should send her to the middle east.
The risk is too great!
Nobody would be able to understand what she said to them.
Tempest with a steering wheel might just be the greatest hack ever.
I’m pretty sure it was a Spy Hunter cabinet. It was in the Diamond Jim’s in Columbus, GA, if anyone on the internet remembers that place.
Bonus points if anyone can take a pic of this thing! (assuming it’s still there. Both cabinet and arcade)
Unfortunately, Diamond Jim’s closed in 2001.
I once saw a sit down Spy Hunter hacked into SF Rush. But never Tempest.
Ever notice how bitchy Deagle gets when anyone talks about old arcade games? Mama can’t fix that.
Too many grumps this week. Great show through and through.
I tried not to be a grump, just a conscientious skeptic. 😉
Actually, nobody has really shown me the error of my ways in the comments here, so… hm.
Wait, What about the Tempest/Dyad comparison?
No, sorry, about being a grump and “not getting” games like Spelunky or Dyad or whatever else. During the show I invited listeners to tell me what I’m missing about these games.
Good show. Light on humor, but good on video games. Need to play Guns of Iracus, so If you have some keys, share ’em.
Where have the interviews and the contests gone? The podcast used to be a great bunch of everything.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s still good, but a bit too much like the format of other shows.
Dyad is to Tempest as Pong is to Street Fighter.
Ouya that was a kick ass show. Sure no interview or Sage, but I listened in one go which I almost never do.
So what did you guys think of the PA Kickstarter ?
I think if they can get a certain segment of their readership to pay for them to not have ads, great! I’m not worried about their authorial integrity, generally speaking, and I’m not contributing. But good for them if they can do it!
They don’t make enough money through the PAX shows to run a website those doesn’t show video? I wonder who is their business manager???
I don’t really know about their finances, but it’s not clear to me that PAX is a giant money maker for them. They still had ads before, and they just want to get rid of them, I guess!
Why not be funded by your readers and people who love you? Better than companies who want you to get people to buy their stuff!
Actually I didn’t know about Walking Dead Episode 2.
Might have to grab the Steam version.
Good show this week. Fun, light on controversy and everyone got along.
And all this time I though Jeremy worked for Sony. Not after hearing his take on Dyad.
It’s not that I HATE it or anything, I’m just not convinced that it’s as good as everyone says it is. It just doesn’t grab me.
And I wish every game would grab me. I like being grabbed.
I’ll give it a few more chances, along with the other games (Spelunky, Fez, Journey), but the thing that bugged me the most was the press hype by people who are friends with the creators, etc.
DES mentioned focus testing with Jeremy, like it was a cure for gaming problems. What’s your opinion of focus testing.
If you guys could assist a kickstarter (and one that doesn’t just promote your own site) would would it be? Can be real or fictitious….
The Manthing, of course!
Hope I win!
I am MURDERISTIA! I was born in the blood of my family, they were wealthy and involved in a crime syndicate…. Some “superhero” vigilante killed them, didn’t realize my pregnant mother birthed me as his bullet flew through her skull… I live to avenge their death, and slay all these so called “heroes” and anyone who supports them… Using the vast wealth I inherited…. I always have the latest deathray to weild to my liking…….
HOPE TO WIN!
The Rubber Chicken. The hero created by falling into a irradiated vat of rubber. He now can transform into a large rubber chicken striking uncontrollable laughter into evil doers. Would love to win thanks for the chance.
The Tackler – The name kind of says it all.
All hail Sakura, who spreads out cherry blossom dust to incapacitate any villain who is mean to kittens.
Mama, come fix my Fez game. I lost my progress, downloaded a broken patch and now Phil Fish won’t fix my game and is placing the blame on Microsoft.
Help me, Mama!
Superkult Tankdestroyer. Use one of the 4 names to call him short @_@
Iron Pan Man.
Armed with two frying pans and coated in bullet-deflecting teflon.
I am the Cinnamon. I sprinkle cinnamon on perps faces and eat churros and snickerdoodles.
my fictional super hero name would be caption furious
Toilet man! I used to draw him everyday in middle school. I’ll post a picture a little later.
I feel a winner in this one!
Jonathan J. Smith was born on June 21, 1960, to the indifference of Richard and Julie Smith, a tax accountant and an order entry clerk, respectively. Having no younger nor older siblings, Jonathan was treated with the utmost banality; this led to Jonathan aspiring to follow in his father’s footsteps from a very young age, and at the age of six, he was given his very first adding machine and three spools of wax ribbon paper. Jonathan plodded through them with proper moderation. Throughout his high school years, Jonathan managed a meager salary sorting through mail and filling envelopes with account statements at the very bank where his father worked. In his college years, Jonathan became self-sustainable by making a fortune in hand-crafted toothpicks, and when he wasn’t whittling, he would spend his free time constructing shockingly accurate World War II reenactments out of postage stamps.
Jonathan’s first job came to him shortly after college graduation, when he became the worker in the toothpaste production line whose job it was to stamp the expiration date at the end of the tube. And with this first job came his first romantic love interest: a cap twister named Anne Bankroft. Jonathan, being a completely uninteresting-looking man, was not able to keep Anne, however, and the couple’s relationship was in turmoil during that fateful night in which mutated postage glue turned Jonathan invincible, removing his left testicle and giving him an astigmatism in his right eye in the process. Anne had met a legal documentation writer and found him to be much more dynamic and charming than Jonathan; in fear for her life, she fled and eloped with him. Anne went on to become a very successful mouthwash tester, but that’s an entirely different story.
Jonathan does not realize that he’s a superhero and does not go by any self-proclaimed pseudonym; the media tabloids, however, have deemed it fit to refer to him as THE BORE.
Despite his mundane and destitute back story, the monocled, limping, tuxedoed Bore is not to be taken lightly. Every villain he has ever come across, mostly out of sheer circumstance, has had no choice but to succumb to his almighty and omnipotent power of dull and disinterest. In fact, it is literally impossible to defeat him; The Bore stops all his foes’ attacks with a reserved chuckle over a tasteless, unfunny joke he’s just told, followed by an extended period of him ceasing laughter and quietly reflecting upon the idiosyncrasies of marine turtles in their natural habitat. His ensuing counterattack is an unavoidable, slow, awkwardly sustained hand-shake, followed by a tedious and uninteresting yarn about the history of his favorite covered bridges, including build dates and assembly plans. Any enemy who does not submit to this dreadfully long, yet unavoidable, monologue will be forced into watching a demonstration on chiaroscuro shading techniques using graphite pencils of varying lead hardness. This technique alone is enough to compel any adversary into an indeterminably long, self-induced coma, due partially to the fact that he’s innately a perfectionist and partially to the fact that he’s not very good at drawing. The now hapless antagonist cannot escape and is forced into the deep recesses of their own mind while their brain liquefies inside their skulls. Any further techniques he might use are as of yet unknown, as there has never been a survivor of chiaroscuro shading, but I imagine one of them has something to do with handwriting analysis.
Do not underestimate The Bore; he may just surprise you by not being surprising at all.
Metal-man, defeating people through the power of loud rock music.
megaHappyBiscuit would be my superhero name!
my cookies and biscuits and can good and fight evil at the same time!
The character I came up with is Miles Paxton (aka Shifty) who has the ability to bend the forces of gravity. I know its essentially Kat from Gravity Rush but I don’t think I’ve heard of a comic book character with this power. Good thing this contest isn’t being judged on creativity haha. Thanks for the contest!
Scat Man, who defeats people through the sheer force of scat.
You can take that whatever way you want.
EZ Cheese Man…
Shoots liquid cheese at his enemies inducing them in a cheese coma as they try to eat their way free.
Invisoman – The ability to turn and remain invisible. Sorry, I would use the ability to turn invisible for evil, though. Imagine, free access to everything.
Moldman – Has the ability to grow mold on anything/one.
Conspirator – He is the master of conspiracies.
X-Lax —– The power to make people have bowel movements on command is an overlooked but crippling power!
SwaggaMan. With the power to blind his enemy foes with the possession of all his swagger. Accompanied by his trusty side kick, BlingBoy, they ride down the streets in their trusty SwagonWagon with 20″ rims and a Gold grill on his 67 Chevy nothing can get in his way.
Moves:
YAY-YAY Blaster (A halting screech performed by SwaggaMan to stop any criminal in their tracks.)
Whatcha Lookin’ at Foo'(Signature backhand)
You Damn RIGHT! (Knockout punch)
So there’s my superhero, set in the early 90’s, 6’5″ White boy 180 lbs. and a giant fur coat.
Captain Cupcake – This superhero fights crime using the power of sugary treats.
Dr. Afro-This assassin specialize superhero has lightening speed and a fully teched out super suit full of weapons and gadgets for any problems that he may come across. His strongest and most powerful weapon being of course hidden in his Afro.
Liked your FB as John W.
Thanks for the contest!
My super villain would be Hellshroud. From the depths of hell he rises, a new kind villain. No rest for the wicked is his motto.
P.S here from CAG hope a villain works 😛 I always wanted to create a comic with this idea. Thanks for the contest by the way 🙂
The Solid Devastator- An evil overlord who will destroy mankind with his ship shafting powers. He is simply indestructible in his liquid form. P.S.-Thanks for the contest
Heya! I understand this is kind of off-topic but I needed to ask.
Does building a well-established blog such as yours require a massive amount work?
I’m completely new to writing a blog but I do write in my diary on a daily basis. I’d like to start a blog so
I will be able to share my own experience and thoughts online.
Please let me know if you have any kind of recommendations or tips for brand new aspiring blog owners.
Appreciate it!
We stumbled over here from a different website and
thought I might as well check things out.
I like what I see so i am just following you.
Look forward to looking into your web page again.
Hi there, just became aware of your blog through Google, and found that it
is really informative. I’m gonna watch out for brussels.
I’ll be grateful if you continue this in future.
Lots of people will be benefited from your writing. Cheers!
My page effective weight loss diet (sosblogs.com)
Great weblog right here! Additionally your web site rather a lot up
fast! What web host are you using? Can I am getting your
associate hyperlink in your host? I desire my site loaded
up as quickly as yours lol
It’s very good to read all this useful information on dog training.
I have a concern however. How do you train an older dog?