Podcast 5-6: Shadow Kat Is Standing Next to Me!

Photo of Robert Allen Robert AllenDecember 17, 2010
79 921 Less than a minute

The week the crew welcomes uber-gamer Sage into our gaming-loving family. The newly-formed quartet discusses the faults of Fable III and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker as well as the strengths of several recent indie releases, all while one of the crew grinds through Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood. We welcome returning guest Aubrey of SouthPeak Games, who discusses recent release nail’d as well as next month’s tantalizing geekfest, Two Worlds II. It wouldn’t be a show without controversy, and this week it erupts riotously during our trivia and mailbag sections.

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Photo of Robert Allen Robert AllenDecember 17, 2010
79 921 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.

79 Comments

  2. Almost two hours? Hell yes!

    Adam what caused the back pain? Do you stretch do any kind of yoga?

  4. Welcome Sage! Sounds like you make a great addition to the team. Maybe you can referee NOLA and Deagle.

  9. Ive been waiting for the fourth chair to be filled. So far so good, except for TideGear’s interruption.

    Calling Fable III crap warms my heart, Sage. Man, that game is no fun to play. But I did like the second game just for the setting and feel.

  10. I liked the way TideGear decided it was time to quit talking about Fable III and move on to Tower of Goo.

    BTW- I’m coming to Pasadena for New Years, NOLA! Make room for me.

  11. I bought Nail’d on a whim. Turned out to be a really fun game. I can’t wait for 2 Worlds. Aubrey is a riot.

  12. I totally agree with all of SNOLA criticisms of MGS:PW. I almost stopped playing after two hours.

    None of the control schemes really felt ‘right’ on the PSP.

  14. Hip Hop Gamer is a walking stereotype. As an EDUCATED gamer who happens to be Black, I wouldn’t mind if you never mentioned him again on the she show or in writing.

  15. WAIT A MINUTE NOLA- Saying this guy isn’t a journalist doesn’t make people any more racist than saying Kotaku isn’t real journalism.

    So anytime you criticize a person of color, you’re racist?

  16. I don’t know how I feel about this guy (I don’t know who he is) but when NOLA talked about press in the Sony Home section, he lost me. Does the industry really care about Home still?

  17. My question is what will you guys be playing during the winter break? Will you still be reviewing and podcasting? I hope so.

  20. This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

    I worry if this guy ever gets popular we’ll see shit like Video Gamin’ Vato and other stereotypes. Dude is setting back minorities 20 years.

  21. Kitty Fantastic is NOLA’s new name. Make it happen.

    Sage is already a X-Men name, so we have to keep that. What about GamingSage?

  23. I think these Christmas song have been verified written by either a Jewish lyricist or music writers:

    Sleigh Ride
    It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year
    White Christmas
    The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
    Winter Wonderland
    Let It Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! (Sammy Cahn aka Cohen)
    l’ll Be Home For Christmas
    Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
    Holly Jolly Christmas
    Rocking Around the Christmas Tree
    Silver Bells

    Deagle’s right!

  26. No disrespect, but we have to change the spelling to “Saige”. Thats sounds and looks like a good name to me.

  28. Much ado about nothing with the trivia.

    From the Wikipedia:

    Kitty Pryde appears in Konami’s 1992 X-Men video arcade game, as a non-playable character (NPC). In this game, she is not known as “Shadowcat;” instead, she plays the “damsel in distress” role. So technically, it’s a right answer.

  29. Expect more next week.

    Spoiler: It’s hard. REAL hard. Every ‘Baby mode” is kicking my butt.

  30. Blame Sean “Comic Book Genius” NOLA for that one. I only take responsibility for the trivia flubb.

  32. All true statements. I got nail’d in yesterday and really like it so far. Review coming shortly.

  40. Ok, I’m officially preordering Two Worlds 2 today. The spider minion talk got me too excited.

  42. BUT the X-Men Arcade game is based on the 1989 pilot, “Pryde of the X-Men,” wherein Kitty Pryde earns the codename, “Shadow Cat.” Since the game follows the plot of the pilot, it can be assumed that she is Shadow Cat by the end of the game.

    I WILL NOT BUDGE!

  53. As soon as hip hop gamer stops spamming site and talking in slang maybe people will treat him that just a fanboy.

  56. Yo yo check out this game, yo. This shit is crazy fly. I mean its so dope…

    Yeah, that’s journalism…

  59. I work for a small-medium sized developer. At one junket about 9 months ago, HHG’s behavior was troubling enough to put him on the ‘do not invite list’. I didn’t think it was so bad, but a number of journos from a fairly big outlet complained.

  62. Mark Rein said, “The numbers below do no reflect the total sales”

    He’s also been tweeting about it. “Great Infinity Blade success stories today however the Game Center numbers being reported are quite a bit lower than the actual sales,” he said, adding, “I thought it would be pretty obvious that not everyone on iOS is on Game Center. Did people really think Game Center numbers = actual sales?””

  67. You know, I’ve listened to NOLA for at least 20 podcasts. He’s usually right on the money, and is my favorite person on the show. But his comment about racism caused a HUGE loss in creditability. How can people who criticize Hip Hop Gamer for his lack of professionalism be so easily labeled racist? If you call a white journalist inept would that still be racist?

    When you toss the term like that around, racism loses its meaning. I expect an explanation on the next show.

  70. I don’t think Deagle should be off the hook for calling him smart. If that’s your benchmark, I think you need to aim higher. Much higher.

  71. My issue is that HHG get’s picked out when really he is no different from Greg Miller or Ryan Davis. They use hyper-kinetic caricatures of themselves to set themselves apart from other journalists. That’s okay – It’s called “branding.” The only major difference is that Greg and Ryan are directing their rambunctious antics directly toward the “core” audience, while HHG is trying to corner a different market. The complaints about his “professionalism” are coming from a group of people suffering from “not for me” syndrome, where anyone trying to sell something they like to someone else. Let’s face it, everyone plays video games now – men, women, kids, adults, skaters, hipsters, engineers – there’s something out there for everyone, and not everyone wants to turn to Jeremy Parish for their gaming news. Does HHG seem a little pnadering when you’re on the outside looking in? Sure, but to the right crowd, he is entertaining – and let’s not forget that games “journalism,” as it is called, is really just entertainment.

    Back to the issue of “professionalism:” let’s not forget that our industry is made up primarily of man-children. We go to these events to see something we love, and yes, things get out of hand sometimes, and HHG isn’t the only one who makes a lot of noise – The Sony presser isn’t held in a mausoleum, it was in the Nokia Center…you know, the same place where teen girls scream for the Jonas Brothers. Hell, DEagle will tell you that I just about had a kiniption fit when Nintendo announced Golden Sun 2 years ago – you just get swept in the moment. Are there business men there? Absolutely, but then again Wells Fargo sends execs to Comic Con, and no one is expecting that to be a somber affair.

    So, to get address the the “racism” comment, my problem was the question : if we were being asked “what do you guys think about games journalists acting unprofessional to increase page views and expand their audience” my answer would have been “I think it’s great. These people are lucky to be able to do something that gets them so excited. We should all be so lucky.” I think the industry is broad, and everyone should be exposed in a way that entertains them. If someone makes “Country Gamer” or “GTL Gamer,” I’d be fine with that, too. Instead, the question singled out the one character who is different from the rest of the crowd, and I didn’t think that was right. My answer to the question doesn’t change, I do still think that what HHG is doing is great, and he’s attracted a lot of attention, and has arguabley navigated the business end better than we have, but I’m not his target audience, so that’s one opinion that I didn’t have to make.

  72. The fact that I read your site daily and have just now heard of “HHG” should tell you, you’ve doing fine with the business end of things. But attracting attention=success. Otherwise, you should get started on a “Keeping up with the Kirklands” reality show.

  73. This article doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. What makes this guy a Capital-J “Journalist?” Is it that he’s been published by reputable sites? Me too, I don’t throw a title around. Hell, so has HHG, so that can’t be the criteria. Is it because he went to school for Journalism? John Davison didn’t. Neither did Damon Hatfield or Jeremy Parish, so that can’t be the criteria either.
    I don’t disagree that HHG is an entertainer, but nothing chaps my hide more than when Game Jouros throw that “J” word around like it means something. I had to go through 5 years of school and 3 years of apprenticeship before I could take the series of tests to decide whether or not I could legally call myself an Architect. That is a title that means something. It means that, by law, I have shown that I have the knowledge to keep buildings from leaking or falling down. Until someone makes some solid criteria to determine who we consider a “journalist” then it really isn’t worth writing an article complaining about who we arbitrarily leave out of the club.
    We are ALL entertainers, and the day you guys stop being entertained here is the day I hang up my reviewers hat and say “so long.”

    As for the plagiarism, what he does (reposting GameBiz articles when he doesn’t have content) is lazy, and unethical, but technically not plagiarism. He links back to the original article, which is enough as far as the law is concerned (otherwise, Tech-Gaming is owed some serious money!)

    Oi….why am I wasting so much effort for this guy? I don’t even really like him!

  74. The 2010 E3 Sony presser was at the Shrine Auditorium. Unless you guys went to one that I wasn’t invited to.

    I guess that fine if people like HHG as a persona. Personally, I’d rather read your reviews or listen to the podcast, but as they say about different strokes.

  75. Sorry, I got my pressers mixed up. Nintendo was in Nokia. The Shrine isn’t where the Jonas Brothers play, but teen girls will still scream at Arcade Fire.

  76. Black, white, brown, whatever, if you act like a fool, prepared to get called out-it’s as simple as that.

    HHG is a obvious and obnoxious Sony fanboy, whose reputation has been damaged by plagiarism, lies, and worse- a lack of anything important to say. Give him credit reduces your respectability. Ne careful.

  77. The difference between you, John Davison, Hatfield, Parish and HHG? They speak English, not some broken phrases strung together with “like” and “you know what I’m saying?” every 10 seconds.

    I don’t care if you went to school or not, make fucking sense.

  78. Ok, I think it’s time to let the HHG discussion die and to not mention his name around these parts again.

  79. I just wasted 2 minutes listen to him respond to Bit Mob. Does he always say what he’s going to talk about twice then dance around the topic, and never really cover it? That’s really annoying.

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