In-Game Chat

The Monday, November 17th episode, though late, is here.

Three out of four co-hosts agree that Mirror’s Edge meets, exceeds or misses expectations, depending on the scenario in question.  The fourth spent too much time on pinball this weekend to have an opinion.  Meets/exceeds was the commonest choice, as misses only applied to the occasional squirrelly combat sequence.  So it’s not much of a surprise that we like it, but it’s nonetheless reassuring to know that what was delivered is what was sold. 

How Scott has gone even a week without mention of the upcoming DeLorean “time machine” in Burnout Paradise is unknowable, as it represents an intersection of his most cherished virtual and fictional worlds.  Maybe the joy was simply too great to share.  But regardless of hover-mode and burning tire trails, I think just about anyone can appreciate the after-market support EA continue to lavish upon this game.  Maybe it’s safe to believe this long term care may one day be more rule than exception.

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The weekend edition of In-Game Chat is up.

Apart from being hip deep in our games of choice tonight (about which there is plenty to tell) we’re particularly interested in hearing about the new XBox interface that we’ll all be subject to by the middle of next week.  With only one early adopter among us, we can’t exactly claim a comprehensive understanding of all the changes in store.  But Scott, in particular, has spent a significant amount of time with what turns out to be a surprisingly deep and user friendly UI.  

This isn’t the first time we’ve had words about the 360’s front end, and it probably won’t be the last, but there are enough of the right kinds of changes in place that harsh words may become exceedingly rare.  Now we simply need to cross our fingers and toes and hope like hell the rollout doesn’t cripple the Live service altogether.  3 days and counting…we’ll know for sure soon enough.

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The Wednesday episode of In-Game Chat is available now.

It’s an hour of catch-up, plain and simple.  Monday’s episode was given over entirely to the launch of this year’s Child’s Play charity drive, which took precedence over every topic we’d have otherwise covered, and rightfully so.  But having dealt with that, it’s back to our usual jaw-wagging, and we’ve got an awful lot more in mind to cover than we can ever get to in the time allowed.

Gears of War 2 and Mirror’s Edge feature prominently in our lives this week, and the Left 4 Dead demo left a deep, life-threatening mark on everyone.  Of course, at the time of our recording, Wrath of the Lich King is mere hours away from launch, and therefore dominates my own personal landscape.  Now, at the time of this writing, the expedition to Northrend is underway, and I have serious business to attend to in Howling Fjord.  So if you’ll excuse me…

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The Monday, November 10th episode is now available here.

Our final live broadcast is in the can, and what better send off than to use it to launch the Colony of Gamers Child’s Play fundraiser.  As has been done in the past, we’ve invited Kristin Lindsay to the show to discuss the particulars of the charity and to help us inaugurate our efforts.  Charitable giving is often its own reward, but we’re always happy to cajole and to provide incentives designed to stimulate participation.  We hope that you find this year’s incentive package compelling enough to add your support.

There’s hardly enough space here to list everything up for grabs, but donations of original hand-crafted items from the community or a personalized voice-mail message from the likes of David (yes, Solid Snake) Hayter or Jonathan Coulton are among the initial prizes available, with more to follow in the near future.  The details of this year’s drive, and a detailed listing of the unique items and opportunities you could win through participation, can be found at Colony of Gamers (colonyofgamers.com).  Keep an eye to the list on CoG and an ear to the show in the coming weeks for updates and additions.  As always, we thank you immensely for listening, and thank you further now for giving in whatever way you can.

Direct link to the Child’s Play thread here.

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The weekend edition of In-Game Chat is available now.

Every so often we find that gaming news and important headlines are so blessedly scarce that we can avoid them almost entirely and can instead spend a whole show focused on subjective concerns.  But this is usually a spring or summer affair, the second half of the year being amply supplied with current and upcoming releases.  We’ve done our part for this meeting, sure.  Scott and I love the added value of the Mirror’s Edge time trial, Daniel is the first among the hosts to take a swing at the Left 4 Dead pre-order demo, and Jeremy suspects he’s finally closing in on his old man in Fallout.

We really like ordered and orderly discussion of well researched topics, but sometimes, in an effort to avoid repetition, we have no choice but to surrender to word association or stream of consciousness to develop a flow.  Today’s flow, for whatever reason, had something to do with Cliffy B and the 360’s prettiest games.  Apropos of almost nothing, I swear.

For this writing I’d like to include one last note on the shameless self-promotion of our final LIVE broadcast on Monday the 10th.  We continue to tap-dance all over this subject not because it marks the end of our singular, original format (IGC was once all-live), but because it marks the beginning of the Colony of Gamers community Child’s Play drive.  We are very fond of this event, and we hope for the sake of charity that you can indulge our goading one last time.  Charity is good for the soul, but in the event you’ve misplaced yours, we aim to make it worth your while.

intro – Ace Combat 5, game over

outro – Ghost Recon, anthem

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Your post-election episode of IGC is now available for download.

Our expectations for Mirror’s Edge haven’t waned in the least, but we’d begun to let our excitement slide in favor of games we have in the here-and-now, rather than what we see over the horizon, no matter how near that may be.  But this was before Scott shared with us a slice of his experience with the game’s time trial mode.  We were truly excited for Faith’s adventure to begin with, but to know that it actually delivers on the promise of re-playability and competition renews our enthusiasm altogether.

Our enthusiasm this week for Fallout isn’t so much renewed as it is sustained.  The cast still has a ragbag of ways for relating to the game, each as different as the user, and each one continually reinforced by Fallout’s unique rewards system.  We don’t necessarily refer to tangible rewards, of course.  Not bottlecaps or perks, but scenes and scenery and the refreshingly powerful magic of one person comparing his story to another’s; host to host, listener to podcast.

Intro music is the Warhammer theme, outro is from World of Goo.

Thanks to Ten19 for both.

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Your Monday, November 3rd episode is now available for download.

Thankfully, today’s title doesn’t refer to the show as a whole, but rather to it’s live broadcast component.  IGC has only one more show to produce in this manner, but we can assure you it will be among the most rewarding.  While we’d love to discuss specifics, we think it best to let the content speak for itself come Monday the 10th, so mark calendars and clear schedules as necessary, and join us for the end of our long-held tradition.

As for the content of this particular episode, we devote a predictable share to further notes on Fallout, which include, but aren’t limited to, performance comparisons, character flaws manifested in our play styles, and the strangely consistent weight of minor objects in the mid-future. We also retrace our steps through the Mirror’s Edge demo, all the hosts now being on the same page, though not necessarily of the same mind.  Finally, we cast an appropriately grim look at our wallets after eyeing the weekly release, and recognize that we’re helpless to resist 8-way coop or a gang of thick-necked thugs.  Hard times indeed.

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Your Friday Episode of IGC is now ready for download.

By the time of this posting, most anyone with the inclination to do so will have played the Mirror’s Edge demo on at least one of the consoles where it can be found.  It’s probably safe to say that opinions will be divided – in some cases greatly.  From the first viewing of the first teaser, Mirror’s Edge has been captivating and consternating, and it hasn’t stopped being either now that we’re collectively hands-on.  

For my own part, I thought the demo was exhilarating, and I find myself rooting even more for the leaf-turning coalition within the Electronic Arts power base.  But I’m also prepared for the inevitable schism, something that’s sure to develop around a game whose qualities are so thoroughly subjective.  Something that may well develop within our own studio.

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The Wednesday, October 29th episode is now available here.

Fallout 3 is nearly all we have to offer this episode, and if you’ve played the game at all you’ll know precisely why.  Of the three hosts present in this episode, none of us has gotten past the first real turning point after having left our vault sweet vault, yet the air is already thick with stories and comparisons of one experience to another.  Discussing how we chose to spend our formative years in vault 101, as well as the manner of our leaving, has given unto us a podcast bounty.  Assuming you’re not squeamish hearing about character creation, we invite you to share the bounty within.

In all fairness to the rest of the world, stuff happens regardless of any triple-A title that may have dropped into our world.  Penny Arcade Episode 2 is ready for us now, and Tomb Raider, Banjo-Kazooie and Mirror’s Edge demos demand to be heard, seen and played.  We just don’t know where the time is going to come from, but we promise strong opinions of all the above based on at least a little bit of playtime for our next meeting.

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The episode for Monday, October 27th can be found here.

There’s no question what the cast is looking most forward to during this episode – what we’ve been looking most forward to for several weeks running.  Fallout 3 is mere hours away for those of us with a midnight launch retailer nearby, and no more than a restless night’s sleep for the remainder.  We’ve only just sunk our teeth into Far Cry and Fable sequels, and there’s still a zombie invasion to mop up in Azeroth.  But no matter – all games not taking place in and around the post-apocalyptic remains of Washington D.C. are headed directly for the back burner.  God willin’ and the creek don’t rise we’ll have plenty to say on Wednesday, and that all good.

Sadly, this episode marks the last regular appearance of co-host Dennis.  Real life and a real need to play the games we go on about so often have taken a toll, and he’s recognized that those things have to come first.  What point in talking about what you don’t have time to play?  We grudgingly agree, but fully expect him to treat us with occasional guest appearances.  Your chair is always open, man.

We’d also like to add a special note regarding future Monday episodes.  Our live show fills a very narrow gap in time for the radio station from which we work, and we produce it by the grace (or in some cases, ignorance) of the management.  Actual paying customers have shown up on the scene now and stolen our airtime, so we’ll be unable to broadcast in our usual slot.  We’ll still deliver a show on Mondays, but starting soon it will more closely follow the format of our Wednesday and Friday episodes.  We have plans still for listener involvement during that hour, so keep an ear out for whatever changes that may bring.

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Another episode for another random day of the week.  Download it here.  

As of this writing, Fable 2 is busy spreading mirth and fulfillment to all who fall under its spell, be it through the joy of quests completed or a public display of scatological humor.   The specter of mediocrity that dogged the first game has been exorcised completely with this entry, as our friends lists can attest, but it seems that’s only made room for a much greater evil to take its place.  

You’ve no doubt heard reports of troublesome code and wonky behavior – bugs which can, in some cases, be utterly game-breaking.  But having suffered some of these issues ourselves, we at the show can’t help but classify this release as a gross failure, one made all the worse by how much concentrated fun the game had delivered in the short time before we chose to flap our gums to the abbot in Oakfield.  We know to expect a fix at some point in the near future, but those affected have already moved on.  With so many games just within reach, there’s little chance of going back any time soon.  Sad pandas all around.

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What should have been a Wednesday episode is now available here.

The cast is several shades of livid about the theatrical adaptation of Max Payne. How it happened that Max has moved from an unapologetic revenge tale known for stellar gunplay and justifiable homicide to something so ponderous and uptight is well beyond us. This is hardly the first time we’ve seen Hollywood drain the blood from a compelling game world, and you might say our best defense against disappointment is to expect this treatment at every turn; to accept corruption as the default state of affairs. You may well be right, but Max Payne’s tragedy should muster a sense of rage from someone, and if it can’t be from the man in question then we can damn well provide it from the gallery.

We’re also pretty grouchy about…whatever it is we managed to focus on during the second half of our program. Microsoft is toying with technology that will allow real-time censoring of objectionable content over Live’s voice service. We’re not terribly sore about MS censorship, but we expect that something like this, if implemented, wouldn’t work to any useful degree, and would more likely degrade the general experience. The additional point is that, to us, objectionable content is far less about dirty words (of which we’re quite fond) than it is about the people themselves – people responsible for the kind of ingenious douchebaggery that technology cannot selectively repress. We’re unable to segregate ourselves online with the same degree of finesse and reliability as in the world, and sometimes the existing solutions feel woefully inadequate.

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The live episode for Monday, October 20th is available for download.

Saint’s Row 2 and the lasting appeal of the World at War beta spoke for a large portion of our weekend gaming, but we did manage to come in just under the wire with a complete run-through of Dead Space.  Everyone could smell the influence of John Carpenter, System Shock 2, and Event Horizon (among many others) from a mile away, and we’re certain we can’t remember the last game we found so openly derivative. 

But, having borrowed so heavily (and often so heavy-handedly) from other properties, the developers managed the one feat that excuses their license: they made a fantastic game that is quite a bit more than the sum of its parts.  Sure, we’ve seen the story before, and while we were expecting to be fearful, we were barely ill at ease. At the end of things, though, the quality of the experience simply wasn’t in question, and Dead Space had proven itself a worthy competitor for even the most potent of holiday releases.

This week’s live show also sees the return of the newly-married man from his whirlwind tour of Orlando’s finest destinations and attractions.  Eight theme parks in nine days is more than reason enough for not having played a game in the last week and a half.  We’d all make the same sacrifice, to be sure.  And in our last minutes we take time to celebrate Scott’s thirtieth birthday on-air, and what better way to begin the examination of one’s own mortality than with butchered-barbie Dexter-themed cupcakes?  Red velvet, natch.

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