CO-OP 0305 -- Oscar Mike -- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Part 1), Dragon Age Origins, DJ Hero
matt chandronaitLiving in a large, metropolitan area can be great for midnight launch-lines. Particularly in San Francisco you run the risk—or, shall I say, opportunity—of bringing out the crazies, gamer and non-gamer alike, into one location and being able to observe the menagerie up close and personal. More after the show:
We were there for a San Francisco midnight launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 so that we could cover the single-player, at least, on this week’s show. It’s the first of a MW2 two-parter. We believe it takes longer than a few days to evaluate multiplayer so we’re going to give it a good shakedown before talking about that part of the game. David Ellis from 1UP joined Ryan and JayFresh to talk about the sometimes controversial, usually awesome, sometimes played-out trek through the single-player experience.
Jason Wilson and Demian Linn of BitMob seemed to get as much out of Dragon Age Origins as I did and we all agree that it’s one of the best PC RPGs of all time. While Ryan had tons of other games to play over the last few weeks, he did make a significant dent in the PS3 version. There are some nagging problems to be sure, but it’s hard to go wrong with this latest BioWare epic. If you’re even a sort-of, on-again-off-again RPG fan this game is an experience you simply must add to your memory bank.
DJ Hero definitely seems to be worthy of having yet another plastic peripheral in your living room. Richard Li of 1UP drops by to share his thoughts as an expert with the game with Cesar and Jason.
Reader Comments (27)
ive watched you guys religiously ever since the 1up show. who needs cable tv these days?
I'd much rather just have a website that carries everything on-demand. HULU in HD and ad-supported would be my ideal :) -- hell, I might even subscribe to something like that if they could carry everything!
Digg link is busted. "This link does not appear to be a working link. Please check the URL and try again."
Once again Area5 knows its showmanship!
I love how there are millions of people in the world playing Modern Warfare 2 right now and not realizing how much time they've wasted in thier lives. If Modern Warfare 3 came out right now, they would sell like hotcakes. Activision can make crap into beautifu CRAP!
God Bless America!
@Matt
I noticed that 1up has made this new show that's like a condensed 3:00 minute version of the 1up show, and at the end of it said that Area5 produced it! Is there something going on? Are you going to get your old job back, or was this just a little jig?
Is gdgt's Ryan Block one of the people you talked to queueing outside gamestop? The guy who suggests a gun licence?
It is ok for me to shoot Russian, South American and Middle Eastern civilians but not Americans, raciest anyone? A level where you are a Russian paratrooper invading America would have really upset Fox News.
Dragon Age looks great makes me wish my PC was not 5 years old.
Regards
Al
Great show as usual guys, have one question though.
I noticed that you come up with these spoiler warnings every time, which is great, I seem to recall I asked about them, when you started the show out.
But it makes me think, when you talk about these games, is it a review you are doing of the game, or a fly on the wall show where you talk about games?
Allow me to come with an example if you were going to talk about say The Usual Supects, would you be talking about and revealing the "surprise" at the end of the movie?
My understanding of a review, is you try to tell people how good or bad the movie or game is, so that people will go out and buy the movie or game, because you want them to have the same great experience that you had, but when you reveal key plot points in the story, the experience will be ruined for those who wants the game, or see the movie.
I my self see your show as a "hey I've just played through this game to the end, can't wait to hear what Area5 has to say about it."
and not for the "hmm I wonder if this game is anything for me, lets see what Area5 says about it"
How would you Guys describe it?
And if you will excuse me, I gotta check out this Avatar Demo on a non 3d monitor 8-)
Oh and about the No Russian scene in Modern Warfare: 2
I was not affected by it, for that to happen I need to have established some kind of relationship, or emotional connection with the people, other than the screams and runing away from me, they diden't succed in that.
Makarow however felt really cold and dangerous, just by his way of talking, you really hate this guy from the get go.
The Longest Journey is still the game that has affected me most emotinal.
Excellent show guys! Your MW2 discussion was very well delivered. I come away from it with new perspectives to mull over. Very thought provoking. Makes me wonder how people can get into positions like this:
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/modern-warfare-2-on-fox-news/CD14E884B093080EFEE1CD14E884B093080EFEE1
I believe you cover a good point. The No Russian scene is "revolting"! I didn't shoot either! Even if kids play the game and play this part they need to understand what it means and what the story is trying to convey(hard to follow as it is) and that is what parents should be doing when this game is in their household. The ultimate device of the single player is to make us all hate war and it does rightly so. Now if only the multiplayer was the same story...... oh well, back to pwnage. Tango Sucka!
man i love you guys
Great episode! At first I had wanted to buy DJ Hero, but now the difficulty puts me off (I don't have a lot of experience with musical games. Plus, most people I know at school play MW2 for multiplayer, not single player... guess that applies to everyone out there too :P
I love Co-op, the Area5 show and the newly hot mode in video games. I also played MW2 for the single player. Actually, I also played through the Call of Duty 4 single player, and not even one minute of the multi-player. I just don't have enough people on my friends list and playing with strangers doesn't excite me. So there, it's Gears of War and Left 4 Dead, for me, when it comes to multi-player. It's also funny to hear comments about how hard DJ Hero is when my 5 year old daughter loves that game. Play on the beginner mode and it's really pretty straight forward. Also, with DJ Hero, I don't want to mix my own songs. I want the pros to mash up the songs and I'll just push some buttons and pretend I'm DJ-ing. Very similar to every other rhythm game. And once again let me say I love the Area5, much more than any full grown man should love people he's never met.
I appreciate you guys putting me in this episode. It was nice meeting all of you guys, and especially nice seeing Jay again after all this time. I have since been playing the game pretty consistently and am in my early 60's in multiplayer. I was expecting the game to be good, and definitely wasn't let down at all.
Great show, guys. Keep up the great work.
Great episode. For some reason I can't Digg it. It says the link is not working.
Hey Matt, I see that there are no diggs on this episode yet and when clicking on the link, it says that "This link does not appear to be a working link" on Digg. Just thought I'd give you guys a heads up on that as diggs are very important ;)
Digg link should work now. Dunno what was wrong, I literally just cut and repasted it and tried the link. Now it works. *shrug*
@Novato ... haha! Yeah that's "Live Update" and it's exclusively about Xbox Live stuff. They hired us, as a company, to produce the show for them. :)
@Al ... I think that's a very interesting point. What would the outcry be if the player was shooting Americans? Still, the proper context is everything, but you can always count on people to throw out said context when it serves their interest.
@KennethHoegh ... we view it, oddly enough, somewhere in-between. We try not to spoil the most important things about a game, but sometimes it's necessary to the critique to address things that people are going to see as spoilers. Also, for a game like Dragon Age, it's actually hard to spoil anything about that game unless you deliberately talk about the results of all player choices so we went ahead and showed/talked about some of the late game stuff. Other games have already been spoiled so much in other places (Russian mission in MW2) that there's no point in NOT talking about it and pretty much showing the whole thing. Basically, we try to decide what's in best service to gamers out there and to our fans and carry that through to the final editing. Not a very concise mission statement, but there you have it :)
@Ryan P ... Nice to meet you man! And yeah, it's always fun running into blasts-from-the-past at events like these :)
I can live with that Matt, just nice to hear how your openion of this, thx for that 8-)
Looking forward to your look at Assasins Creed 2, which i'm getting tomorrow here in Denmark.
Excellent show! I think your best actually. I really enjoyed the launch event coverage. It's cool to hear from average, unpaid gamers like me.
I just ordered modern warfare 2 online and my parents are detaining it till further notice. What can I say to convince them otherwise? So far my arguments are thus: I recently viewed WWll in HD on History channel, most kids my age are playing it, and I have played many other M games before.
Good episode but I gotta say I disagree with your thoughts on two games...
DJ Hero:
Personally, I strongly disagree with Richard when he said that he hated the DJ hero tracklist from the beginning to the Daft Punk set. I'd say that 20 out of the 30 first songs are pretty good and fun to play. Also, I think with easy/medium mode that it isnt too hard. There is absouletly no learning curve on beginner so I dont think its overly difficult for casual players.
Modern Warfare 2:
I disagree with Ryan when he says that you get no connection to the characters. I love Soap and Price, and I think they are great characters. Also, Gaz/Ghost are fun to fight along side with. Also, here is a slight spoiler but the guy who dies at the end that you played as. If you didnt want to see him survive or get up so you could kick your murders ass then wth guys. I don't know, maybe I'm strange. I feel a bigger connection to these characters though than what we have in games like Gears of War or Killzone which focus on only one character
Richard Li was great. Bring him back.
Another great episode.
awesome episode, keep up the good work!
@Mattmythbuster333 ... Unfortunately, man, no one gets to determine what's best for your household other than your parents. And while I disagree, personally, that M-rated games need to be withheld from all minors at all times, I strongly agree with the parental prerogative and actually applaud them for taking an active role in the life of their child. That being said, if you think you have a case to make, make it! Do research and planning. Present it politely and with consideration for your parents' point of view. "My friends are doing it" is not ever going to hold water as that's nearly the same as saying you're weak-minded and just want to go along with the crowd. If they still object to you playing the game and continue to withhold it, be gracious enough to back down since getting upset can only hurt your ethos (look up that word if you don't know it yet) in the future.
@MattG ... Heh, yeah, musical tastes are definitely something that's going to vary by each individual. I tend to agree with Richard ;). I think the learning curve is pretty steep when you consider the input method, but then again I haven't put the controller and game in front of someone totally new to rhythm game experiences to see as such first hand. I have yet to play MW2's single-player but in MW1 I definitely felt a disconnect from anything that was happening to the the player (me). I think a lot of that has to do with personality type as well, just like music preferences. Certain character archetypes are really going to appeal to some people while others will find them flat or clichéd. My girlfriend, for instance, couldn't get past how cheesy she thought the dialog in Dragon Age is while I was lapping it up like the Tolkienesque fantasy nerd that I am.
@Protopet ... we'd love to have him back! He needs to be playing games we're covering on the show, of course :)
@Arunei ... we shall do our best! And thank you!
Hey, great show as always, but I do have one hope for the next episode:
talk about the MW2 multiplayer in an objective way - meaning address the map issues (they're very cluttered, vertical, and make you practically paranoid with how many places bullets can come at you from), the camping issues, the killstreak rewards that make you positively godlike, the unfixed spawning system, the lessened health and lessened recoil, etc.
Yeah, Matt C... I just wanted to share my opinion on those two games. I seem to disagree with most when it comes to MW2's single player (Idk whats wrong with me lol). I can't even imagine playing DJ Hero on Veteran, but I do think that people can pick it up and learn pretty fast if they start on beginner for a few songs and then move to easy. Maybe that is just me. I can't judge the whole music crowd. Personally, I find DJ Hero easier than Guitar Hero. On Guitar Hero, I couldn't play that well past easy mode. This game I did pretty well on medium early on. Oh well, it doesnt matter because we all have different opinions when it comes to games/music/entertainment.
I'll just say it again, good episode. I hope you guys cover AC2. I'm LOVING that game right now. If you guys hate on it then expect some fighting words :P
Man, it means so much to be able to rely on this show week to week. Keep up the good work.