Category: Interviews

We love August. Ever since last year when it brought a few EvAv’ers together at PAX, we’ve looked forward to doing it again, and finally, August is here. And with it, just like last year, we’ve kicked off a month long celebration of the Penny Arcade Expo with the first of four interviews. This episode brings us Kristin Lindsay (her 5th appearance on the show) to talk to us about the Enforcers of PAX and she answers every question asked to her. In keeping with tradition, I also hang up on her.

Not something I’m proud of, but then again, I hung up on an astronaut, so I think it’s catching on.

After the show…well, you should download it. Jeremy and James go back and forth on the subject of DLC (or in this case, SDK) and its relation to developers versus publishers. This discussion then goes on to spawn all sorts of further talk in, around, and outside of the subject matter.

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If that show title doesn’t get you to listen, well then we give up. Oh sure, other titles presented themselves, all spoken by our special guest for this episode, David Hayter. But then he busts out with that line and all of us in the studio looked at each other just knowing. Not only that, but you guys in the chat room picked up on it as well. Glad to see you’re catching on.

Speaking with David was a great thrill. Listen as he talks to us about voice acting, how he got started and what it’s been like, plus his screen writing career where he tells us of his time with the first two X-Men films and he drops plenty of info on his latest work, “Watchmen”. Listen also to Rogue Hunter call in and practically wet himself as David says his name as Snake and TrackZero and David share Canadian memories.

We pretty much spend the entire first hour talking to David with the second hour spent more on Metal Gear Solid 4, a mention of (NDA), and an interesting little game revealed to us by Jeremy- MMORPG Tycoon.

After it’s all said and done, we take time in the after show to come down off the high of speaking with David and continue our talk about MGS4 – this time without the restraint of the FCC.

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And a “hootenanny” it was. This episode of Evil Avatar Radio was pretty special. Ever since the current crew began as “In-Game Chat”, we’ve been trying to have Tycho & Gabe on the show. When we became “Evil Avatar Radio” we thought it might be easier, but it wasn’t. And then, finally, after more than 50 episodes and a year of attempts, we welcome Tycho to the show!

It’s a different sort of interview as we basically just talk news with him including the iPhone (No. I didn’t hang up on him.), RooGoo, demos, & Pokemon. We were glad to have him on and now we focus our efforts towards Gabe.

Also in this episode we talk of the Battlefield: Bad Company demo and have a belated look at the hidden gem of Lost Odyssey. Plus, Paul O’Connor from High Moon Studios talks to us later in the episode about “The Bourne Conspiracy”.

The show that takes place after the show was seemingly reserved for PC talk as we discuss box building, PC Gaming, modding, game content…well, it’s PC focused, trust us.

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We have a running theme of giving a title to a show based on something said by our guest, should we have one. That was the case here. It’s Joel DeYoung’s answer to why Hothead Games released “Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rain-Slick Precipice Of Darkness: Episode One” on Windows, Mac, & Linux. The alternate title to this episode was spoken by our very own danielout when talking about Age Of Conan: “Well, time to go collect some sandstone, better take off my clothes.” It’s funny. Trust me.

In this episode of Evil Avatar Radio we talk of a whole lot more than GTA4. We discuss Lost Odyssey, MGS4’s cut scene scenario, the co-op of Resident Evil 5, my recent venture back into the world of City Of Heroes, and our thoughts on PS3’s Haze. As mentioned earlier we spoke with the COO of Hothead Games and producer of Penny Arcade Adventures, Joel DeYoung, who called in and answered your questions. Not only that, but we also hear from Shodan and the man himself, Evil Avatar, gives us a call towards the end of the show.

Once we officially wrap things up, we take things off-the-air for a bit and discuss, specifically, two things. One of those is Age Of Conan and the other is our thoughts on the new Indiana Jones film. One of those we love, and one of those we hate. Care to take a guess?

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Sometimes when you talk to PR you get the answers you want, and sometimes you don’t. Then there are other times when you get an answer like the title of this episode of Evil Avatar Radio, and really, it’s the answer you were looking for, in a round about way perhaps.

Originally when I was told we’d be speaking with Constantine Hantzopoulos from Sega Of America, I was informed that questions need to be related to Condemned & Condemned 2: Bloodshot. That wasn’t anywhere near the case when we actually did speak to him on the air. This guy let loose with everything and it’s really one of the more informative interviews we’ve had on the show. Take special note of his answer when we asked Evil’s question of why there is multiplayer in Condemned 2. Not only does he speak about the Condemned series, but he also goes on to answer questions you asked in the thread…as best he could anyway. NOLF 3, Blood 3, Shogo 2 – all are answered, sort of.

Not only that, but we start the show off with BAPenguin calling in to tell us about his time spent with GTA4 last week and we grilled him to no end on the topic. Trust us, the drool hasn’t stopped flowing since the multiplayer announcement made last week, and Bap’s experience relayed to us only increased our salivating.

But the conversation doesn’t stop there. After the show, we attempt to get Hawggy on the line without success, but redeem that by having S|1pstream, Bone, and thaGirl, join us for a bit to talk about drunken gaming, Texas, gamers making games, and my shame. Afterwards, we top it all off with a long discussion about the Stargate television series.

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The Dammit Slam – In gaming, the act of being so frustrated at something that just happened you violently throw the controller (and all accessories attached) to the floor while at the same time yelling the word “dammit” and other variations thereof. You know, just in case you were curious about what that meant. Our very own fishbang is a scholar of the method.

We have to apologize for the opening of this episode of Evil Avatar Radio as the stream cut out right before we went on the air. We’ve gathered what we could of the beginning and present it to you here in somewhat of a duct taped fashion. Again, sorry about that.

In this episode we cover the usual news and new releases of the week and we’re joined on the phone by Slava Zatuchny and Jason Faller of Silverlode Interactive to talk about Saga (the free version of which was released today!).

Also in the show we’re joined by Evil Avatar‘s TurboKinny/Sara. She’s passing through and stops by to answer your questions and even joins us for the after show where we hear exactly why James loved the film, Sunshine.

Seriously, he loved it.

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For starters, we’d like to apologize for the technical glitches we had during this episode. At one point during the interview with Steve Demeter, the stream just stopped. It was revived, but then Steve let loose one of those words the FCC deems inappropriate and so another skip of audio happens. We apologize for both and to Steve himself. We’ll be having him back on the show soon though, so no worries.

As mentioned before, on this episode of Evil Avatar Radio, we speak with Steve Demeter about the other projects he’s worked on and his current gem, Trism, for the iPhone & iPod Touch. And if you want to talk indie game development, it probably doesn’t get any more independent than with Steve.

Also, it’s a Red Letter episode early on when Phil “Kefkataran” Kollar calls into the show to announce his new position at 1UP. We at Evil Avatar Radio wouldn’t be bringing you this if it wasn’t for Phil. We owe him a lot and are happy to see him moving up in the industry of video games journalism. All of us know that this guy is going to be doing some great things and we’re honored he chose Evil Avatar Radio to announce the news. Thank you, Phil, from all of us.

After the dog and pony show, we take the conversation off the air and talk of a number of things. James/fishbang contemplates his anger management along with his intentions of building a new PC gaming rig, we discuss a few plans for the 100th episode of EvAvRadio, our plans for the first EAR Video GameCast, and announce a special in-studio guest for next week.

Meanwhile I try to go for the longest show description written for EvAvRadio.

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The title comes from our friends at Metanet Software, Mare Sheppard & Raigan Burns, developers of the XBLA game N+. It’s actually the title of their next game they are currently working on. But that’s not all they tell us in this episode of Evil Avatar Radio. From them we find out a little about what it takes to bring an already existing game over to Microsoft’s console, the good and the bad. They comment on the recent rumors of royalty cuts, a few regrets in the process, their inspirations, and 2 of their current favorite games, both of which I personally love them for (Burnout Paradise & Pac-Man CE).

We also give some time going over the releases for this week as well as covering what we can of a few announcements from GDC including Champions Online, APB, and a few XNA titles (fishbang loves planting flowers).

After the show, we give more time to the new Aliens game announced, talk a bit about Portal, PAX (of course), and give our accounts of the recent tornado a few of us went through last week.

Meanwhile I try to figure out how many links I can shove into one post.

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That’s a beautiful title, isn’t it? And it comes directly from the lips of Blair & Craig Fraser of Ironclad Games, developers of the PC title “Sins Of A Solar Empire” – which itself is a pretty good title as well. In fact, if you are curious as to how the guys at Ironclad came up with the title then all you need to do is listen to this episode of Evil Avatar Radio.

It was pretty refreshing to speak to these guys. With most developers, their answers to questions are hidden behind, and filtered through, a PR wall, never getting the chance to get their opinion least it be the opinion of the publishing company or parent. It really is something when you hear one of the Fraser brothers say, “We don’t like to treat our customers like criminals.” Spread the word, these guys are awesome.

Not so awesome, however, are our feelings on the city we broadcast the show from, as evidence by this week’s extra content. Forgive us for a moment as we bitch and moan for a bit. It doesn’t last long as we’re brought right back into a discussion we had on last week’s show – PAX and marriage plans.

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“Life, for ever dying to be born afresh, for ever young and eager, will presently stand upon this earth as upon a footstool, and stretch out its realm amidst the stars.”

– H. G. Wells, 1920

This episode of Evil Avatar Radio is a special one for us and we hope for you as well. Now, it’s one thing to have both BAPenguin and Kefkataran on at the same time. It’s one thing to talk about a new game from Team Ico. But to have all of that and then top it all off with talking to astronaut Charlie Duke – well, you’d think it was our 100th episode or something.

None of us on the show can really express what it was like to talk with Mr. Duke or even have him on the show. It is an experience not a single one of us will ever forget. He tell us of his experience with NASA and his time spent on the moon as well as traveling to it plus his return to Earth. What is it like to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere? What’s it like to stand within such a magnificent desolation? To see the dark side of the moon and to witness an Earth-rise. Charlie Duke tells us of those things along with many others (cosmic rays penetrating the eyeballs, anyone?).

So, how do you follow someone who’s walked on the moon? You don’t really. We attempt to, however, in the after show
by talking of the recent Mass Effect “brouhaha”, along with a note about next week’s episode, followed by an explanation of the questions chosen to ask Mr. Duke.

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We’ve done our best in this episode to elevate things to the level of spectacle, as evidenced by the addition of our high-tech supercam for the broadcasting of in-studio hijinks. We hope you enjoyed it. We worked awfully hard to make ourselves presentable for live video. It’s a shame we failed.

As for the show itself, we apologize for the absence of Philip “NoShow” Kollar, but he must not like us nearly as much as he lets on. Regardless, we welcome anyone who wandered by for Kef, but chose to stay for us.

And do yourself a favor by sticking around for the aftershow. Special guest voice Porkfry stops by to swap howdies and to pin fishbang down on some of his bullshit.

Our apologies for the audio quality during Porkfry’s visit. No need to go into detail about the problem, but we have since figured it out and assure you it won’t happen again.

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If you’ve ever read on the internet about a good deal on a video game, chances are that tidbit of information originated at CheapAssGamer. Personally I’ve saved quite a bit of cash and frequent the site daily looking for game deals. And CheapyD, the cheapest ass of the cheap ass’ers, stops by on this episode of Evil Avatar Radio (and he’s also joined by Wombat). He tells us of the beginnings of CheapAssGamer, his move to Japan, being a gamer and a father, the Circuit City Saga, and the deliciousness of the “Mega Mac”.

Also in this episode we talk more of our experience with Mass Effect, the wonderful bullet points of Resistance 2, how NOT to let Condemned scare you, the week’s releases, and just a tiny bit on Cloverfield. Plus we hear from Sl1pstream who calls in all the way from Belgium to tell us a bit about “The Club” demo and his possible plans for PAX’08.

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The Fruit Fucker strikes again! And does so during one hell of an episode of Evil Avatar Radio. The little bastard struck during our interview with Kristin Lindsay from Penny Arcade while talking to her about Child’s Play. The conversation stops quite abruptly and then a technical glitch happens to our microphones. It’s a little annoying, but it doesn’t last the rest of the show. Sorry about that, folks.

While this isn’t our Christmas show, it might as well have been for everything that took place. Hell, within the first 30 minutes 2 people on the show announce their engagement, and another gets a PS3. Not only that but Kristin tells us about some of the really cool things that were a part of the silent auction at the Child’s Play charity dinner, and then we get Rick Roll’d, live on the air. And no, I’m not linking that.

Once we’re off the air, we Rick Roll ourselves for a bit and then look to you for suggestions of a year end wrap-up. We’re making lists, and we could use your ideas on what kind of categories we should have. Got any? Email us.

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It won’t take you long to realize what you are listening to during the opening of tonight’s show. It’s Jeff Gerstmann’s video review of Kane & Lynch. But it’s really not about the game as it is about the reviewer and the future of his former employer. With that, we jump right into the show and from there we go on to talk about our feelings on the situation and how a place can recover after this sort of thing. Even Larry Hryb, Xbox Live’s Major Nelson, chimes in with his thoughts on the situation. He also answers, as best he can, your questions…even the Tootsie Pop and Klondike ones.

That voice you hear after the show belongs to Hawggy. You’ve most likely seen him in the chat room on show nights or possibly played with him some in CoD4. He’s the reason you hear this show at all after we broadcast live. Thanks Kevin.

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Are you enjoying that Evil Avatar Gamerpic? We are too. And while we do go over some of the bigger news stories of the week, there was no doubt among us that the biggest of news stories this week was not the announcement of a Ghostbusters game, nor the release of Mass Effect – it was, in fact, the Evil Eye to display on our gamercard.

That wasn’t all we talked about though. We talked about our experiences with the new releases of last week. Assassin’s Creed was more than we’d hoped for, Super Mario Galaxy is everything we hoped it would be, and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is the best we’ve seen (and hoped for) on the PS3.

Speaking of Uncharted, we spoke with two guys from Naughty Dog. Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann join us to hear your praise of their game and answer your questions as well.

Finally, we end the show with…even more show. Come on, you didn’t think we’d go without mentioning COD4, did you?

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