Midwest Gamer Podcast Episode 12 - "The E3 Show"

Hey guys,

Episode 12 is up. Download here or on itunes. Enjoy!

Show Notes:

News

L4D2
XBL Improvements
Crackdown 2
Shadow Complex
Halo ODST/Halo:Reach
Super Mario Brothers Wii
Golden Sun DS
Metroid: Other M

Now Playing

Bionic Commando: Rearmed
Twilight Princess

Looking Forward

Red Faction: Guerrilla

Misc.

Justin.tv stuff

Crackdown 2 Trailer

Crackdown 2 is lookin' tasty. I like the subtle art style adjustments. Looks a tad bit more realistic, but still has that outlined/graphic look. I've been meaning to add Crackdown to my list of "must-play-before-sequel-comes-out" games.

Matt (MWG)

L4D2: Now with chainsaws.

Don't get me wrong, I'm excited for L4D2. This means I can just hold off buying another copy of L4D while I wait for the sequel. But I was really just expecting Valve to put out some more DLC for the original. L4D2 looks like more good old zombie killing action. I guess it's not really a zombie game til you throw in the old chainsaw. Anyone think the graphic's look a little more Team Fortress-ish? This could be good news for gamers with weaker internet connections.

Matt (MWG)

Borderlands Shaping Up

Finally, Gearbox shows off some gameplay of Borderlands. Can't wait to see more this week at E3!

Matt (MWG)

Bud Finally Finishes Prince Of Persia......

.....and is pissed as hell. Ok, first of all this post is gonna have a spoiler, as the ending is what made me pretty mad. I don't know about anyone else but what keeps me playing a game or even interests me in a game, is almost 80 percent of the time, the story line. I mean its what drives me to keep playing, that thought of, what happens next? How does it all end? This is the reason why I decided to marathon the game till the end. In this games case it makes the repetitive tasks worth it. Worth it till the end sequence, in which you have to run and undo everything that you just did for the past 10+ hours......all to "save" the female character in the end. Now I don't get mad easily over bad or crappy endings in games, but this literally made me want to throw the game in the trash. I also regretted even purchasing the game in the first place. The end honestly ruined any fun or memorable experiences I had with this game. I dunno, it just strikes me as stupid to say: "Hey we are gonna offer you this awesome experience of sealing away this ancient demon lord that was set free by a father trying to save his daughter, ok now that you sealed him away, set him free upon the world to save the same character that this whole mess started off with"

Ok I think im done ranting, does anyone else have any thoughts on this if so please share. As for me i will be trading it in for red faction: guerilla. Lets hope it fetches a decent amount so I can get something worthwhile out of this experience.

Matt's Top 5 games @ E3

So there's a ton of info about to drop next week at E3. But some games have me a little more excited than others. Here's a peek at which games I'm looking forward to hearing more about.

1. Mass Effect 2

It's predecessor was one of my favorite games of last year. Dare I say, of all time? Yes, sir, I dare. It's about time Bioware squelched all of the "Is Shephard dead?" rumors and I'm definitely looking forward to getting a closer look at all the HUD and gameplay changes I've been hearing about.

2. Lost Planet 2













Even though I wasn't terribly into the first game. The recent LP2 trailers and announcement of 4 player co-op have me interested. I'm always on the lookout for a decent co-op game, something the 360 doesn't see too often.

3. Borderlands













Ever since the Gameinformer reveal months ago, I've been interested in this game. Details, aside from the game's bi-polar art direction, have been pretty scarce. I know I'm going to be able to choose from 80 bajillion different weapons, but gimme something else to get excited about.

4. Alien vs Predator













I wouldn't have expected this to be on my list a few weeks ago. I watched a friend of mine play alot of AVP back in the day, but lacked a PC and never got the chance to get into it. Sounds like this one's going to be alot like the old one, and if so, I'm sold. There's opportunity for an amazing multiplayer experience here.

5. Alpha Protocol













This game seems like a really sweet idea, but I also get the feeling it's going to be hit or miss. Hopefully Obsidian will show off some more in depth gameplay vids explaining how this spy/RPG hullabaloo is going to work.

Games that didn't make the top 5, but I'm still mucho excited about.

Brutal Legend - I already know enough. Jack Black, Tim Schafer, Metal...I'm there.
Bayonetta - DMC on steroids with bewbs. So there.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 - So many good memories of the first, gotta play the sequel.

What are you guys excited about?

Matt (MWG)

inFamous Demo Impressions

Well at this point in the games development I would have to slap you silly if you haven't heard about the comparison of inFamous to Prototype. It seems it has been an on going comparison ever since the two games have been announced but now that everybody has gotten to play inFamous, the comparisons are now being made to Crackdown more so than Prototype. Now I haven't played Crackdown so I have no idea what it's like but to my understanding of things, inFamous plays like Crackdown but looks something more similar to Prototype's more grungier look. Anyways, comparisons aside, the demo is awesome!

The demo puts you in the middle of the action with just enough gameplay to give you an idea of what to expect of the retail copy. The first thing I took notice of is the landscape and how great everything looks. The city really feels like its living with life with everyone grasping just to survive. Its really great to just walk around and notice the sights and see the devastation that has been brought upon everybody (now that I think about it, that almost sounds disturbing). Aside from the pretty graphics, its the gameplay that really impresses me. The controls in inFamous are really fluid and simple to learn. Everything just seems like is meshes well together whether it be aiming at and enemy or jumping from building to building. I never found myself confused or frustrated with the controls which is something I'm always a fan of.

Now inFamous is an open world game so you can only expect that there will be your main story missions, side missions, hidden packages, etc.... Of course I'm not dissing the game, but you can only expect that from these types of games. In the demo, your also granted a taste of the hero side and the evil side, both of which have their own types of powers. To me, being evil looks like it would be more fun to play because you just cause all sorts of destruction where as the hero side is more about precision aiming to take out your enemies. Either way, inFamous is a game where it looks like I'm going to be playing multiple play throughs just to see what both sides have to offer.

Now I could talk about this game all day but I think I'll end it here. As you can probably tell, I had a blast with the demo and it definitely looks like inFamous is going to be a welcome addition to my PS3 library as well as everybody elses.

Travis(MWG)

Sign me up for Red Faction: Guerrilla

I don't know how much you guys have been looking into Red Faction: Guerrilla. The Single player, and now multiplayer demo are both available via XBL. I played through the single player demo a few times when it came out. I felt like it had potential and the destruction aspect was amazing, but honestly I didn't really think about it much afterward.

Until today. I queued up the multiplayer demo to download last night and booted it up a few hours ago. I seriously just got a good 2 hours out of it, and I still want to go back for more. First of all, what a great demo. Although it restricts you to playing only one gametype across two levels, you're actually able to level up and unlock items as you will in the full game. I'm not sure how to explain why the multiplayer, and not the single player really sold me on this game. Maybe it was just a bad level choice for single player, I'm not sure. But I feel like the depth and enjoyment I found in the multiplayer kind of proves the worth of what the single player could be. I dunno about you guys, but I'm ready to buy this game day one. Make sure to check out the demo and lemme know what you think!

Matt (MWG)

We're too lazy to cover E3, But GGTL's not!

So I'm sure we'll get around to posting some impressions from all the happenings at E3...eventually. Honestly though, I'm too busy playing old ass games that no one talks about anymore, Bud's sitting at home trying to get his Prince of Persia disc to work, and I guarantee you Travis is lost somewhere in the Fallout wasteland and has no idea what the eff is going on.

However, if you're interested in some up-to-date E3 goodness, I have some exciting news for you. Our friends over at Gamer's Guide to Life have created a site solely for their 2009 E3 coverage and will be updating throughout the show.

Here are some awesome things you can look forward to from GGTL before and during E3:

- Full coverage of all the major conferences, including Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo
- Live Blogging of all the major conferences
- Previews and news relating to E3 and E3 announcements
- Loads of other E3 related content
- Coverage starting a week before G4TV and GameSpot

NAOW that's what I'm talkin' bout. Check out ggtlate3.com starting May 25th through the end of the show.

Matt (MWG)

Midwest Gamer Podcast Episode 11 - "Bud's a sucker for chainguns"

We are back with Episode 11! Download it here or subscribe on Itunes. Don't forget to leave us a review on Itunes if you wanna be super nice.

Now Playing

FFX, Castlevania, Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp, Fatal Frame 3, Xmen Originis: Wolverine

News

E3 buzz, Duke Nukem, BS Deals of the week

Looking Forward

Red Dead Redemption, Brutal Legend, E3 stuff

Thanks for listening, guys.

Matt (MWG)

Inspired by Faith...

It's ironic that this is the second post I've made about something Mirror's Edge related, and I've never really had an interest in playing the game. But It's always awesome to see game-inspired art/performance, and this will be especially interesting for you Mirror's Edge Fans. Savage Land Studios has an entire photo collection of Mirror's Edge inspired photos up on Flickr. Everything from shot angles and locations down to the color pallete of each photo very closely resembles the game. Pretty awesome stuff. Check the album out here.

Excuses for Matt's possible future absence.

So I wanted to let everyone know about this before you hate me for not posting as much as usual. I fully intend on spending as much time as possible with MWG, but I've been given the opportunity to write for another really rad gaming blog. This new gig will most likely take priority being that it's something a little bigger than what we've got going here. But, no worries, compatriots, I will not abandon you in the heat of battle. My heart and soul is with MWG. Who knows, I'm known throughout the lands as a mad awesome multi-tasker, so perhaps nothing will change. But if it does, and I can't post my normal 2-3 a week-ish, don't hate my guts.

oh yeah, 100th post! woo!

Matt (MWG)

Wal-mart automated game trade-in kiosks.......FTW?????

Wal-mart is currently testing this system in the Northeastern part of the nation. Basically you scan the bar code on the game your willing to part with, the machine then gives you a quote, and upon accepting the quote you get credit on your credit or debit card.......in 2-3 days. E-play, the company that is partnering with Wal-mart for this awkward idea, has said that if successful they may offer Wal-mart store credit.

Eh...I was wondering when Wal-mart was gonna get there slimy tentacles into this area. The only action I think these are gonna get are wii games from desperate soccer moms who need the money.

On a lighter note, we will be recording episode 11 this thursday. If you guys have any questions or have something you would like us to talk about on the show just leave us a comment.

Bud (MWG)

Wait, I had fun in Home??

Well, we all know that Home is forever going to be in a beta form. I don't think Sony even knows what they want Home to be at this point and the word beta always gives a product an excuse of just sucking, it seems. At least Sony thinks so because they're obviously still funding it and to my surprise, so are other companies.

Well today I decided to delve into the world of Home and see what new excitement it had to offer. I did hear about the new apartment you could grab for free this week and thought I would see what all this talk about Xi was about. Now that stuff wasn't too exciting but, I did however find something in Home that I thought was step in the right direction. Looking through the new locations that were available, I noticed that an area for Siren was available and to my surprise, the Siren area was actually pretty enjoyable. What made it fun was the Ward of Despair mini-game that pit you with 4 other players to make it out of an hospital within 5 minutes while collecting items throughout the hospital. What makes it interesting is that they have zombies that pop out that you have to avoid and of course if you get hit by them, then your done. Apparently your supposed to get new costumes or something if you collect all the items or something but all I got was a shirt... I'm sure there's more to it, I just have to go back and play it again. Still though, what amazed me most is that I had fun in Home.

Siren was the only area I was able to visit but it seems like Sony is heading the right direction with Home. Now all they need to do is just keep adding games like that because it actually gives you something to do. I know Sony said they have a bunch of stuff in store for Home later this year and hopefully it will be more areas like the Siren location because it actually makes Home, dare I say it, fun.

Travis (MWG)

One JRPG at a time.

It's good to be picking up a genre I left behind for so many years. In preparation and as a result of getting psyched for Final Fantasy XIII, I've started my first play through FFX. The last Final Fantasy I attempted was FF8, that was probably close to 5 or 6 years ago. I never completed it, but really enjoyed the characters and got really involved in the story. I got stuck and one point and either couldn't go back and grind to level up or wasn't aware that I could. So, I'd like to finish at least one Final Fantasy before XIII comes out, and FFX seems to be the right choice. It may turn into an all summer affair,(considering JTV peeps have said they've logged between 60-80 hrs.) but I'm already loving the story and taking the combat a little more seriously and strategically to prevent myself from another unfortunate Final Fantasy experience.

That reminds me. I should go read how FF8 ended. I'm guessing I wasn't the only one who had a crush on Rinoa?

Matt (MWG)

Ghostbuster's Multiplayer Footage

They crossed streams!

Matt (MWG)

The Short But Sweet Modern Warfare 2 Trailer

Though the trailer is small, the anticipation for this game is huge. I still go back to play COD4 from time to time and still have a ton of fun with it. It makes you almost wonder what they could do to improve on the original. Well I'm sure we will find out more at E3 but for right now all we have is a tease of in-game footage that spans all of a full 17 seconds. From it though, it looks like they have added more melee moves and are now making vehicles apart of the single player. Another thing to point out is that it looks like the developers are taking you out of a hot and humid Middle Eastern environment and sticking you into a very cold winter wonder land.

If anything, Modern Combat 2 is sure to look just as stunning as its predecessor. Now I'm pretty sure that there will be a beta for Modern Combat 2 and I'm guessing something will be announced somewhere here in the next couple weeks during E3....at least we can hope right?

Travis(MWG)

JTV Summer Schedule

Now that I've finished up school for the semester, I'll have more opportunities to broadcast on our JTV channel. I've been wanting to come up with a set schedule to make it easier for everyone to show up for live broadcasts. So, for the summer at least,I'll be broadcasting every Wednesday and Saturday starting around 8pm EST. Wednesday broadcast will last til around eleven. Saturday will last later as long as I don't have to be up early the next morning. In addition to gaming broadcasts, were going to start broadcasting podcast recordings whenever we can. Live podcasts will be all over the place, so I'll make a blog post and tweet it out before it happens, thanks for listening guys. Schools out for the summah!

Matt (MWG)

Midwest Gamer Podcast Episode 10 - "The Bud had to leave early show"

Hey guys,

Episode 10 is here! Download it here or subscribe on Itunes. Don't forget to leave us a review on Itunes if you feel so inclined. Thanks for listening.

Now Playing

Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Red Dead Revolver Finished, Bioshock, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, Fallout 3, Viva Pinata, Metroid Prime Hunters

News

Marvel vs capcom, Turtles in Time, The Backtrack Show

Matt (MWG)

Scarygirl....play it.

Bud wrote a post about a flash game called Scary Girl awhile back, in addition to speaking about it on the show a bit. If you're not convinced that the game is worth playing yet, check out this trailer and stop being a TOTAL MORON!!!

Play it here, it's free.

Newbs.

Matt (MWG)