Podcast 13-6: My Summer in Middle-Earth

Photo of Robert Allen Robert AllenDecember 28, 2013
110 58,274 1 minute read

Podcast 13-6: My Summer in Middle Earth

Looking back over the past year, the crew laments the loss of developers, publishers, and artists as well as examines the titles which defined 2013. Unsurprisingly, a discussion of our favorite games of the year erupts,as well as a debate of what is needed by the industry during coming year. Beyond impressions of Gunpoint and Cat Lady, the team also comes together for another engaging round of gaming trivia. Listen in to find out how to win a copy of Volgarr The Viking; additionally we’re giving away season passes for Cognition. Please note: listeners yearning for installments of Indie Outlook and game impressions will be happy to know that the wait for episode 13-7 will be arriving shortly- expect the show to air next week.

Show Notes
0:00.00-1:46.00 In Memoriam, 2013 In Review, Games of the Year
1:47.00-2:15.00 Impressions, Trivia, Outro

Congratulations to Alexander, Kourtney, ArrenDusk, Skeletor, Matt, Gram, Shawnsig, Croq, Zach H., Matenshi, our Volgarr the Viking winners!

Download: Podcast 13-6: My Summer in Middle-Earth
RSS Feed: The Tech-Gaming Podcast

Photo of Robert Allen Robert AllenDecember 28, 2013
110 58,274 1 minute read
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.

110 Comments

    1. C’mon man. Treat the waifu with respect. Always take her on. You want the baggage guys handling her?

  4. My Games of the Year (in no particular order)

    Last of Us
    The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
    Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
    Super Mario 3D World

    1. A solid list… that I’ve only played one of the games from! I feel like I really need to give 2013 a second pass to catch the stuff I missed. Because there was a lot of it.

  6. GTA V game of the year. I think people stopped talking about it during the hype of new game/systems/holidays. I think it might pick up again.

    It was getting talk when the multiplayer stabilized.

  7. Not to be nit-picky, but there’s a hyphen in Middle-Earth, just like Tech-Gaming.

    Also Metro: Last Light GOTY!

  8. Thanks for the bio on the man who shares my name. Very touching. You have a very good podcast. I’m going to subscribe.

  10. Good show, I like the host and Sage. Jeremy is good but talks too long. The other one seems disorganized.

    1. It’s been a busy, crazy two months since the last show, so I was a bit out of practice.

      By the way, I’m Blue. B-L-U-E. 😉

      1. Sing it:

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H25lz7gchaw

        “Yo listen up: here’s the story
        About a little guy
        That lives in a blue world
        And all day and all night and everything he sees is
        Just blue like him inside and outside
        Blue his house with a blue little window
        And a blue Corvette and everything is blue for
        him
        And himself and everybody around him
        ‘Cause he aint got nobody to listen…

        I’m blue (If i was
        green i would die, if i was green i
        would die, if i was green i would
        die)
        I’m blue (If i was green i would
        die, if i was green i would die, if i
        was green i would die)”

        1. I’m almost sure the (If i was green i would die, if i was green i
          would die, if i was green i would die) is total bullshit. It’s be da da type scatting.

        2. ROFL!!! I have that song on Now (That’s What I Call Music) Volume 4. It’s so bad, but so good. XD

  11. What’s the official podcast schedule?

    Also, Jeremy is right about LucasArts

    From the Wikipedia: “LucasArts was acquired by The Walt Disney Company through the acquisition of its parent company Lucasfilm in 2012. On April 3, 2013, Disney halted all internal development at LucasArts and laid off most of its staff. However, LucasArts remained open so that it could retain its function as a licensor”

    and

    “However, LucasArts remained open with a skeleton staff of fewer than ten employees so it could retain its function as a video game licensor.”

    1. I have it on good authority that they went from 170 employees to about six. Its OK to pour one out for old Lucasarts.

  12. How do people listen to the show so quickly?

    It showed up about 90 minutes ago and it’s a 2 hour and fifteen minute show.

      2. Haha, you should have heard the talk before.

        JEREMY. 90 SECONDS.

        I try, I really do. For about 45 seconds. Then I give up and run with it.

  14. The in memoriam section was really good, except for the conspiracy theory. I could have done without that.

  17. 2103 was most definitely the year of the Indie game. If you ask me, they’re one of the best things to happen to the industry, because they bring back genres (like run and gun and shmups) that are ignored, as well as lot of new ideas.

  20. Some great trivia this week and great discussion topics!

    I’d love to win Volgarr, so my GOTY is TLoU.

  21. This week I finally figured it out.

    Eric is most like me. He sounds like he 3 thoughts going on at once. That’s why he’s my favorite.
    Jeremy is the ultimate guest. He knows a lot of stuff, is funny, and fun to listen to.
    Robert is an all around great host, just like his gaming interests.
    Sage is the person I’d love to game with. Cool, funny. Passionate.

    1. Awwww, thanks for the kind words for all of us Amazing Blake. And for the wanting to game–I take that as a big compliment. If you ever want to game over the nets, just let me know what you play! 🙂

      1. My Xbox One is ready, Sage! I just greased it up with Axe, so it’s ready to roll.

        😉

        Couldn’t resist.

  25. Listened for the first time and I have to say I liked the podcast. Pretty different from most shows- I like that. I’ll be adding the feed to my phone.

  26. GOTY is easily BioShock: Infinite, IMO. Amazing base game with a WTF ending, and DLC that puts you back in Rapture. You’d have to be the Antichrist to think anything bad about it.

    1. I feel like Saint’s Row IV is one of those “sticks out like a sore thumb more people should have it on their lists but don’t” kind of games.

      It’s not on my list. I sorta didn’t play that one either. 🙁

      But I recognize that it’s sticking way out there.

  35. my gotys this year are Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Bioshock infinite and Payday 2. must have for pc 😀

  37. Having not played key titles this year, I gotta say ALBW edges out Tomb Raider for my GOTY.
    My not 2013 GOTY played in 2013 goes to Uncharted 3 though. Also Blue and I couldnt be anymore on the same wave lengt… bird ;P about Rogue Squadron for the Gamecube, I yearn for an HD rerelease D:

      1. “Back in my day we got the first reliable wireless gamepad, It didnt have rumble and we liked it that way!” 😛

    3. The Gamecube might as well have been called the “Rogue Squadron II Machine”. It’s about the only thing I really played on it (exaggerating, but not by too much). XD

  38. nothing really interested me this year. think i’m getting jaded. My GoTY is the console version of diablo 3.

    don’t starve is the runner up.

    1. Just wrapped that up last night. By-and-large, I thought it was great. The island and the mystery surrounding it was a fantastic setting that sucked me right in. I will say that the abuse inflicted on Lara was a bit too much for my liking. It seemed like Crystal Dynamics was trying to use various injuries to show Lara as being more than just a knock-out supermodel tomb raider. The previous Tomb Raider trilogy had PG-13 popcorn action flick violence in it, whereas this one was straight up horror movie. The germaphobe in me was wincing every time something happened to her, especially the part where she SPOILER SPOILER swam in a river of blood SPOILER SPOILER. Aside from that, I really enjoyed it.

  41. My GOTY is definitely Guacamelee! The game has wonderful visuals and a fantastic soundtrack, as well as being a delight to play. A fantastic metroidvania style game and good for a smile with the additional humor it provides.

  42. I suppose my GotY would be GTA V, but I feel like I’m not remembering all of the great games I played this year and that’s just fresh in my mind.

    A Cognition season pass sounds great too.

  43. I would say Game Of The Year would obviously be Zork I. But second place would be Zeno Clash II for me.

    That is if handhelds don’t count. If they did, Shin Megami Tensei IV all the way!

  45. My GotY this year is Ni No Kuni hands down. Easily the best JRPG in years and probably second only to Mass Effect last generation.

  47. In it for Volgarr, so here’s my GOTY: Rogue Legacy. Played that game so damn much that it’s not even funny.

  48. GOTY for me is Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons, but Gone Home, Papers, Please, and The Stanley Parable we very good as well.

  51. I am a pc gamer. I really loved Shadow Warrior. It has really impressive fighting techniques.

  53. Out of the stuff I’ve found the time to play, Tomb Raider would be my GOTY. Though I just started playing Rogue Legacy and that seems pretty great.

  57. Don’t quite understand the title (“This Star Wars Game Was So Bad They Should Have Made More Of Them”) but Kotaku’s thoughts on Star Wars: Yoda Stories.

    “There was no story tying the thing together; you just started playing and were given unrelated quests to complete. To give you an idea of the kind of tone these quests would take, each game starts with Luke landing on Dagobah, circa Empire Strikes Back. Note that he doesn’t crash in a swamp. He just lands, jumps out and says:P

    Dagobah! Yoda must be around here somewhere. I better find him and see what’s on his mind…”

  58. Also:

    “As you can see in the footage, the game was dreadful. Combat was torture, the dialogue was awful and the repetitive nature of the missions began to grate after around ten minutes. If you ever see a novelty list of the “WORST STAR WARS GAMES EVER”, this game is normally right up there near the top.”

    Don’t understand why we need more. I guess the author is a sadist.

  59. My personal game of the year would have to be Limbo. I’m especially impressed with the iOS release for both iPhone and iPad, and how well cloud sync worked with it.

    Also keenly interested in winning Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller, that looks like quite an interesting game.

  60. Yoda’s Stories is a wart on the ass of Star Wars games. Along with Star Wars: Masters of Teras Kasi, the dark side was strong in the 90s.

  61. Star Wars: Yoda Stories?

    Afraid, are you? You will be. You will be.

    Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear of a game that my butt cheeks sucks.
    The dark side clouds everything. Or this games horrible, horrible graphics.
    Your weapons. Need them you will not. Useless and weak your weapons are. Patience only you will need, patience, in order to play through the boring environments. Speak backwards, I do. Play this game, you must not. Rather, play Big Rigs instead. Strong this game is in the force, stronger than this pile of steaming Bantha turd is.

    This game not WINNER is. Big Rigs, the Light and the Way is.
    Disgrace the Vita not, the system needs quality.

  62. Long time Fan, 1st time listening to your podcast and I’m gonna stick around to see what the future holds. And E-Swat should make a comeback.

  63. My top games of the year by far are:

    Fire Emblem: Awakening

    Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix

    Ni No Kuni

    Bit Trip Runner 2

    I just wish I could put the HD remake of FFX.

  64. My GOTY would probably be The Last of Us because I am a sucker for a good story.

    Also I’d love a shot of a copy of Cognition (over Volgarr even! *hinthintnudgenudge*)

  65. Game of the year for me would be Marvel Heroes. They keep improving it and it looks like it will keep getting better.

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