The Dude Wait What Podcast- Episode 4: Silly Flailing About

Get the Episode

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Did you know that in Chinese culture, the number 4 is associated with death and bad luck? That has nothing to do with this week's episode, unless you die and break a mirror while listening to it.

In that case, our apologies.

We actually talk about:

- What our listeners are looking forward to

- Elder Scrolls 5: Oblivion 2

- Time Lord (Not Matt)

- Sword and Baseball bats

- Musical Break (Tekken 6 OST)

- Microsoft Natal and Playstation Move

- Combat knives vs. Assault Rifles

- The Nintendo 3DS and other jerk moves

- Throwing rocks at space carriers

- How's your riot shield, Moon?

Listen to us and send us listener questions for next week. We'll pretend to care this time, I swear.

The Heroes of the Games. Super Mario part 1

From time to time people have always had disputes over who is the better video game hero. Now I don't mean the best player, but the best character in a game. Let's start with who most people think was one of the 1st and that is Mario.

Mario started in Donkey Kong. He was the guy trying to save the girl from Donkey Kong. From there he want onto Mario Bros. Game in which he and his brother had to fight monster that where coming out of pipes. These games where basic jump and kick games and the only weapon you got in Donkey Kong was a hammer. Then this home gaming system came out called The NES or The Nintendo Entertainment System,and Super Mario Bros. was born. The NES was an 8 bit gaming system which gave more play and better graphics. This gave the programmers more room to give Mario better skills and abilities. In the 1st Super Mario he was given POWER UPS such as a mushroom that made him bigger ;) a flower that gave him the power to shoot fire ball at his foes,and last but not least the star that would make him invincible for a short time. The story of this game was that Mario and his brother(who I will discuss later on) must save the princess form the evil KING BOWSER,why are they there who knows and who cares. The game to this day is still very playable and fun. His story went on in Super Mario Bros.2. This game was not a true part to this story line,because Japan had a part 2 that the US developers thought was so close to the 1st game it was not released to the USA system so we got what we know as Super Mario Bros. 2.

Super Mario 2 did give you a choice of playing as Mario,Luigi,Toadstool or The Princess,in which each one had unique abilities,Mario had his fire power,Luigi had a faster run,Toadstool was a fungus..lol and The Princess could fly in short distances. I would try to explain this game more but some people agree this game little to no sense. It was very random and the monster could be used as weapons after you jump on them and pick them up.

The next part of this series I will talk more on Mario in two more games Super Mario 3 and Super Mario world for the Super NES.

Until next time, My name is Shawn and this game token is on me.

We're Out There...

*stands up and looks around nervously*

Hello everyone! My name is Jennifer, and I am a gamer chic...

In a predominantly male gaming world it's not unusual for me to get the occasional look of disbelief, or sarcastic eye roll when somebody learns that I've got big love for a little thing called the video game. It's nothing for me to spend an entire day off in front of my 360, or whittle away at the wee hours of the morning questing with my guild mates on World of Warcraft. I will, with few exclusions, play just about any game on any gaming console.

For me it's the challenge of solving a puzzle, unlocking an achievement, exploring an engaging world with beautifully done graphics, or playing with charismatic and endearing characters. Then there are those times when, lets face it, you gotta just get on and give somebody the ass kicking of a lifetime. Or, in my case, depending on the game, be the one at the receiving end of said ass kicking... Either way, very rarely do I ever go an entire day without playing some sort of game.

I was posed the question: What is it like to be a female gamer in a mostly male dominated gaming world? Let's, for example, explore my adventures with Rock Band or Guitar Hero. When I do really good against somebody, and I mean when I totally nail a face melting solo against a male player, more often than not I get asked the question, "Are you really a girl?"

*face palm*

The usual answer is, "Are you really a moron?" Then on to the next match I go. On the other hand, if I play against a fellow female player and I do well, I usually get a "good job" and a request to do battle again sometime. This is not always the case, but it's what I've experienced on several occasions.

A couple of weeks ago two of my managers and a few other guys from work were standing around discussing the first Bioshock. When I spoke up and said that I couldn't wait to get my hands on Bioshock 2, they all looked at me like I had suddenly transformed into Cerberus right before their eyes. They were stunned that I played. One of my managers was totally down with it. Score for me because he brings me games all the time, and talks to me about different games when we should be working! The other one still pokes fun at me a bit, but he's coming around. It's okay though, because mine's bigger than his! Gamer score, you guys...head's out of the gutter please.

All in all, it ain't bad being a girl in the gaming world. It's not like you boys don't accept it, you just don't know what to do with us sometimes. By now, though, we're used to that! Besides, according to The ESA (The Entertainment Software Association), us ladies are responsible for forty percent of the gaming community. Better watch out boys, the gaming world could soon become a woman's world!

*excuses herself to go harvest her crops now*

Episode 3: It Did What It Did

GET THE EPISODE HERE: http://dudewaitwhatpodcast.podomatic.com/entry/2010-03-19T16_40_09-07_00

This episode we talk about our favorite games of all time. An hour, yes an hour of baseless fanboy gushing and half-assery.

In this episode-

- Lost is the greatest/worst TV show ever

- Combine = Covenant

- Touya agrees with everybody but Shawn

- Jamie: Stealth guest

- Moon leaves for pizza halfway through. Can you tell when? Fun drinking game!

- Sami knows big words. In japanese. Ehh? Ehh? Yeah.

Tune in. Disagree with us. What do we care? You never call, you never write. Sometimes I think you don't love our podcast anymore. We need to talk.

Game design 101: Batman vs. Juggernaut

About five years ago, my ex introduced me to the game known as Heroclix. Heroclix, if you didn't know, is a boardgame in which players form teams of superheroes and using a system of rules, battle it out. One of my favorite moments of the teaching game she played with me was having her stealthed Batman perched atop a semi, flinging batarangs at my lumbering Juggernaut who could not for the life of him find the Batman. According to the game rules, Juggernaut could not target a character who is stealthed and Batman could not harm Juggernaut once my dice rolls stated that he was in the clear. What followed was me and my ex laughing uproriously at the scene we had created.

*Plink* "Dammit" "Huh?"

However, that same weekend, she would take me to play with a group of folks at a comic store in Portland OR. Now these guys got together and gamed almost every weekend, but they weren't what you might consider competitive. Even so though, there was none of that story-building in their sessions that my ex and I had experienced during the course of our game, these fellows were far more concerned with building an optimal team within the limitations of the game rules and did not consider character personality paramount when playing their turns. Moments that I found hilarious, like the Hulk flinging Spiderman into battle only to have him crash through a glass window on his way there elicited not even a smile from the player, but an inquiry as to whether or not Spiderman's agility would allow him to move further.

I'm not saying either way to play is right, but it does beget analysis. How is it that the same game with the same rulesets can elicit two wholly separate methods of play, even when the goal is the same? Is it also possible to achive such a balance in computer and video gaming?

Games like the Sims and Spore and nefarious for being procedural with storytelling, this much is true. No set script is produced and the story elements are produced out of the player's

interpretations of mostly random game events. On the other end of the spectrum, take almost any story driven game, let's grab God of War and Halo for two disparate markets, and see that the narratives of these games are driven by a focused and directive prose. The ability to create a story is taken away from the player but it allows them to still experience a crafted story while contributing in the form of progression of the main character's skill sets and perhaps a modicum of significant choices or branching pathways. Thus playing the game relies not on building upon the established narrative but on the manipulation of the games rules and resources to progress and reveal more of the narrative.

Have we seen any games that lay in between? Heavy Rain seemed to be unable to make up it's mind which it wanted to be. The overarcing story was a fine example of pre-disposed narrative, but the minor actions and everyday minutae seemed to want us to be so involved with them as to tell our own stories. I could, for example, brush my teeth agonisingly slowly, simply to express my character's world-weariness and lethargy. On the other hand, Half Life 2 surrounded the player with a focused narrative, but gave them an arm's length of sandbox and physics with which to experiment with. I could tell you a story about running out of bullets in Ravenholm and being forced to do brutal combat with the crowbar, but you probably never had that happen because you were too busy raining explosive barrels upon the zombies.

My point is simply this, these are two ends of a spectrum of game design. There is meeting place for them in the middle, and for me at least, that seems to be a sweet spot that engages me

emotionally with story and intellectually with gameplay mechanics. Other players may find one end or the other of this spectrum to be more palatable, but as a whole, the industry needs to take

notice of this dichotomy and start exploiting it accordingly, for the good of the player.

*Plink* "Dammit."

Apparently only right handers play videogames

It's not very often that I get excited over XBLA releases, however my lust for this one was almost palpable. Perfect Dark, the N64 classic was released today for the Xbox 360 as a downloadable title and no sooner had I risen from slumber this morning than that bad girl was in my download queue. One race in Pure later and I was firing up code and ready to go!

Let's see, yes, yes, options, start, singleplayer, hmm....that's annoying...options...controls....

Yes folks....no left handed gameplay support.

That is to say no support for swapping the sticks. There were control method alternatives, sure, but they seemed more geared towards moving the buttons around ever so slightly in order to make the game play more like your favorite FPS ("Spartan" and "Duty Calls" indeed, Rare, you have earned a single guffaw).

Now don't get me wrong, I'm left handed but not militantly so (if such a thing is indeed possible) and I did play through all of Bioshock with nary a swappable stick option in sight. What does irritate me however is that lo those many years ago I spent at a friend's house playing Perfect Dark, I distinctly remember there being not one but at least two options for left handed controls...and this was on a SINGLE ANALOG STICK CONTROLLER.

I get that porting a game is no small task, especially when it requires redoing a good amount of the graphics, but one has to account for a significant portion of the populace simply not being able to play your game because of this decision. It's not as though it's a life choice we can simply overcome, our BRAINS, our very engines of emotion and function are wired differently and an option to make things simpler for us would have been appreciated, especially since it USED to be there!

I'm continually mystified by developers who leave out left handed options or customiseable controls on the whole, particularly when Microsoft themselves have taken the pains to hardwire support for it into the console itself (your profile options on your Xbox allow you to set action games to left handed swapped stick support) and I was incredibly thankful for the "bumper jumper" setting in Halo 3 which eliminated my one hurdle at becoming good at the game. You ever try pushing forward on the RIGHT stick while pressing A? Task and a half, lemme tell ya.

I'm also confused by developers who don't count on the hardware supporting such a feature. Attempting to play Lego Batman with my niece garnered some initial confusion upon loading up the game when I was only allowed to move Batman around with the D-Pad or Right Stick. Switching my Profile setting to right handed allowed me to play the game normally, but there was NO in game option to select my preference.

Perhaps preference is too lax a word? Mental routing? Orientation? No, I think that one's taken.

All I'm saying is, game developers, we're here, we're Leftys, get used to it. And let us swap sticks if we want. S'all.

The Retro Rewind EP1

BREAKING: Bungie re-registers "Marathon" trademark

Good lord, I think I just peed a little.

CVG reports that game maker Bungie (now independent once again of Microsoft) has registered the Marathon franchise for a renewed copyright as of March 11th.

Marathon, those of you old enough to own your own homes, may remember, was Bungie's arguably breakout hit on the Apple Macintosh in 1994. The series which spawned the sequels Durandal and Infinity was a series based on themes of space colonization, alien infestations and AI companions who frequently went insane.

Sound familiar? It should. It's long been a running joke by Bungie to allude that at some base level, the Halo franchise is linked to the Marathon franchise. Frequently have they hidden the Marathon logos or leitmotifs of music within the Halo games.

Nothing solid does link the two franchises together, but should we see a resurgence of the Marathon franchise (only speculation at this point) we may have our questions answered.

Those of you wanting to see what the hullabaloo is all about may want to purchase Marathon on Xbox Live and give it a whirl. Dated graphics aside, it's quite a good gameplay experience, and you Halo fans can see where your series originated from. Of course, if you didn't know Marathon in the first place, how much of a Halo fan could you even be? ;) OH SNAP!

Strum real strings in new guitar game

Want to Rock with a real guitar on your console?

There's an upcoming musical video game that lets players strum a real six-string electric guitar instead of tapping buttons on a fake instrument. The game is called Power Gig: Rise of the SixString!

Seven45 (who are the makers of the game & guitar) hopes “Power Gig” will lure gamers ready for a new challenge, one that feels closer to playing a real instrument than strapping on a “Rock Band” accessory and tapping buttons.

Power Gig: Rise of the SixString will hit shelves in the fall on Playstation 3 & Xbox 360, the new guitar will be compatible with existing guitar hero & rock band games.

More info on the game can be found here at SentinelSource: http://sentinelsource.com/articles/2010/03/14/features/technology/free/id_393282.txt

Video Games ruin Marriages?

Something that's been an issue with married couple for a good number of years, when one of the spouse's passion with gaming. Their are stories of a marriage falling apart because of this.

"Catholic marriage counseling service Accord said that internet use has been blamed for problems in about 1,000 marriages in the last year."
"It said 15 per cent of its clients faced major difficulties as spouses brought extra work home or turned to pornography, online gambling and video games."

A more recent marriage breakup happened with soap star Kim Marsh and ex-husband EastEnders actor Jack Ryder.

In an interview on ITV tonight she states: "Jack didn't like to go out or socialise. He was really into computer games, which makes him sound about 12... we just weren't getting on. Jack wasn't really a party-goer. He didn't drink."

Ok first just because you don't drink doesn't mean you cant be a party-goer and have fun, that being said, I like playing games, I like going on the internet, but I know what are my priorities are. If your in a relationship you have to find a balance between your hobby & your loved one. The same has to be with the other person too, we're in an age where adults are playing games more and more, it does not mean their over grown children, you have to respect them and not bring them down about it. It just needs to come down to getting to know each other really well and find their quirks and see if it can work then you decide to get married.

Have fun with your games and your lover :D

CVG: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=238989

Episode 2: Touching the Gorilla

Download here: http://dudewaitwhatpodcast.podoma...m/entry/2010-03-13T10_47_17-08_00

Yes folks, Episode 2 is here. This week we talk

about the worst games we've ever played. There

are only tears beyond this point, people.

Points of contention:

-Road House is the best Pokemon movie of all time
-Lex Luthor is a midget
-It was Tuesday
-Rascal Scooters
-Queen RPG: Brian May's Quest
-Freddie Mercury and awkward silences
-Mentally challenged people in helicopters

I swear we talk about videogames at some point.

WARNING: MATURE LANGUAGE.

You were warned. Right there. In your face. **** you, I'm an anteater, and other assorted memes.

Final Fantasy XIII First Impressions

Final Fantasy XIII. A game I said I would not buy as soon as it was released. A game I said would be terrible. A game I said was not a proper Final Fantasy.

I was wrong on all 3 points.

I bought it on Tuesday when I was released and so far I have managed to find the time to play about 6 hours of it. So far I have to say, this could be the best FF since VIII.

The story is relatively fast paced and quite engaging. Only 1 of the main characters so far is incredibly annoying, Hope, in fact, is possibly the most annoying character in an RPG ever.

The combat system is different from all previous but works very well. Certainly better than the abortion of XII. The game does not throw all the changes at you at first, buts gives you most of them over the first 4 Hours. This works wonderfully as it is so different without the game tutorials I fell I would have been lost and currently trying to remove my PS3 controller from the TV.

You only control the main character of a party, so far the game selects this for you. If that character loses all his or her HP, it’s game over. The abilities of your character are limited to the Paradigm, or role, they have currently. Other party members will do tasks depending on what Paradigm they have been given.

Paradigms include Commando, who attacks with normal attacks be they swords or guns. Ravager who attacks with Magic and Magic based strikes. Saboteur who issues negative effects to enemies. Sentinel who works like a tank having defence moves and aggro spells. Medic who heals and finally Synergist who issues buff spells to part members. The AI is competent at working with its Paradigm effectively and I have had no problems with it doing what I wanted.

You setup what Paradigms your party can select from in the Main Menu. The basic ones the game gives you for each part will always need more added to it. Luckily this is simple to do. You can also select which set your party starts off with in combat. In combat you can shift the Paradigms of your party by doing a Paradigm shift this can be done at any time and changes who is doing what at any time. It works wonderfully.

Combat has far more depth than this but I don’t want this write up to be all about the combat. Though it does play a major part of this game. Overall the combat is relatively deep but NOT complicated.

This is meant to be a quick overview and I will talk about it in more detail in the future. But so far the story has been good, with interesting character flashbacks. It has great FMV like all FF games and it plays a large part of the game. Combat is brilliant fun and the music is amazing.

For the first 6 hours this game so far scores a 9. I will update my progress on this game as time goes on.

Have Fun

Bob Bateman

Final Fantasy XIII Director Explains Lack of Choice/Nonlinearity

Image Via Exploding Dog

One of my personal fears going into Final Fantasy XIII was the Japanese media's claim that the game was linear to a fault, a sentiment I still hear echoed even though other contributors to this blog seem to be enjoying the game immensely. I can't help shake the feeling that I'm missing something by not having a town to run around in and I wondered why this was the case.

Director of Final Fantasy XIII, Motomu Toriyama offers this explanation:

"Personally, the Final Fantasies that I have worked on have been very story-driven, so in terms of the development I wanted to, of course, use my personal strengths which where those. I call it a bento box system, where you have all of the different little things in there. So we had minigames or towns were you were able to talk to all of the townspeople. But with the HD console you’re not really able to do that because it takes so long to develop.

"Now that we have that base technology… The next time you see a Final Fantasy, we might be able to pack in more of those elements that existed in the past. And I also think that a game doesn’t need to have all of those items in the future. We can create additional downloadable content for people to add, too. It doesn’t have to come with that game itself."

So not this time but next time. Frankly I think that until technology reaches the point where we can easily output the level of graphics that the FF team seems to require, they should stick to just making a game where you can actually make choices.

Now if you'll excuse me, there are some kids on my lawn I need to yell at.

Via Gamasutra

TANGO, SUCKER!

Full story here

OXM has posted a complete list of what all the terminologies and foreign languages in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.

Regardless of my last name, I still hadn't got a clue what most of them were saying.

Via OXM

NES Time Lord game review or "How to get Shawn to start drinking again"

I am one of the retro gamers on here so I guess I would write up a quick review on a NES game called "TIME LORD". NO NO NO its not based on Dr. Who,but it is on time (some what) travel. In this game you play THE TIME LORD and you go threw different times looking for,hold on for it....GIANT BALLS! OK I have played this game for a while and you have to jump thew so many hoops looking for these things and you have only 30 mins. to beat this game,with NO SAVE POINTS. I would talk more about this but I need a beer!


This is Shawn and this game token is on me.

EA Games weighs in on the Infinity Ward Debacle

EA CFO John Schappert has offered his opinions on the goings on between Activision and Infinity Ward. If you will recall, last week the heads of Infinity Ward, Vince Zampanella and Jason West were abruptly dismissed from the company. Activision has said that it was because they were shopping the company around, West and Zampanella claim it was simply to not have to pay them bonuses earned from Modern Warfare 2, one of 2009's best selling games that the duo helped produce during their tenure.

"I'm disappointed on a couple of fronts," says Schappert. "I'm disappointed because I think Jason and Vince, on the human side, are two great guys, I know them personally, they've done great things. And I think they're two of the best creative leaders in our space.

"And to think they're going to spending their future dealing with litigation and lawyers rather than crafting the next great experience, I don't think that's a win for them, I don't think that's a win for our industry. I think that's disappointment. I hope that they find a way to continue to make games and focus on that during this period."

It is interesting to note that EA once housed the studio 2015 Inc. which produced the Medal of Honor games. Many of 2015's members left EA to form Infinity Ward.

Via CVG

I kid because I love

An Open Letter To Capcom

New War For Cybertron Video.

Video Games | Transformers: War for Cybertron | GDC 10: Civil War Story Interview

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

A new video is out showcasing some new gameplay along with a interview with Game Director Matt Tieger giving some very interesting details about the game

WFC WARPATH BABY!

OnLive gets a Release Date & Price.

Last year at the Gaming Developer's Conference they unveiled OnLive. An On demand game streaming service. Sounds great but no release date or what the price for the service were announced.

Well the wait is OVER!!!!!

At this years conference they've announce that OnLive will go Live on June 17th in the U.S with the pricing set at $14.95 USD per month.

In addition to that, OnLive is comping the first three months worth of service to the first 25,000 qualified people who sign up for the service and promises multi-month pricing "loyalty programs". More info on this will be revealed the closer E3 arrives.

Some down Sides to this though, as of right now it is only available in 48 states, leaving Hawaii & Alaska out of it. Also the $14.95 will not include renting of games or purchasing of games, the prices for those two will be available around E3 aswell.

more info on what the monthly fee will cover is here: http://kotaku.com/5490382/onlive-starts-streaming-games-on-demand-this-june-for-15-a-month

Will this be a BIG HIT or a BIG MISS? We'll find out come June.

PS3 motion controller named.

The new motion controller hitting the PS3 is named Playstation Move. It has the same look as the Wii-mote

Here is the USA Today article
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/post/2010/03/sony-details-playstation-move-motion-controllers/1

War For Cybertron at GDC

Destructoid reports on new(ish) information regarding War For Cybertron.

New information garnered suggests that the player will control Optimus Prime at some point in his "Pre-Prime" phase. Whether this means Orion Pax or him being called simply Optimus is not made clear as yet though.

Supposedly the game opens as Cybertron, the home planet of the Transformers, is already deep in the clutches of a massive civil war.

Known gameplay details like character-specific abilities are reiterated (there is some detail on Optimus' rallying Warcry ability) while some new gameplay details have been confirmed such as melee attacks and detachable turrets which change to the colour of the character you're using. Also, transforming between two modes is said to be fluid and well animated, making the crux of the gameplay the ability to link together attacks through transforming.

Blah blah blah giant robots that turn into cars. Nuff said.

The Hakan Reveal Trailer

Via Youtube

Hakan finally confirmed for Super Street Fighter 4

THIS

What.....what did I just watch?

The long road to re-establish Mac gaming.

Full story at Kotaku

Not since quite possibly the Marathon series has Mac gaming been relevant to the mainstream. A recent trend in the ubiquity and convenience of iPhone gaming has, however, rekindled a kind of subconscious faith in the masses that Apple do indeed, got game.

Kotaku, at the link above, has a full writeup on the process of getting the Mac brand back in good graces with gamers, not the least of which has been the move by Valve and it's Steam distribution platform to bring their library of top notch wares to the Apple platforms.

It's a good time to be a Mac.

Lady Gaga in Rock Band?

news story here

...so fess up. Who's happy about this and also, who is going to sing [i]"Poker Face"[/i] in their best Eric Cartman voice?

GDC Coverage

GDC begins today and while we haven't sent any intrepid reporters, we will surely be discussing a lot of the discoveries and announcments of the show here and on The NerdSphere.

Stay tuned as we break the news for you about all your favorite forms of interactive entertainment.

"Truly next gen"

Episode 1- "I've talked to a lot of British Guys"

Get the Episode HERE

Our first podcast! A little rambly but stick with it, it gets better. This episode we talk about -Portal 2 and overused cake jokes
-The Infinity Ward Legal Battle or "how to mess up a good thing"
-ARRGH! PIRACY, MATEY!
-Why Halo fans suck ( <3)
-Why God of War 3 sucks
-Why saying inflammatory things makes you popular

Subscribe to us on Nerdsphere, and your subscription numbers will help us find our worth as human beings. Remember, subs = love.

Stay tuned after the ending for two minutes of unrated bonus material. You know, like on the DVDs but not as obnoxious.