The new stuff this week consists of Cesar’s pretty sweet travel log of his time in Japan during TGS. Japan is certainly unique and here within are some great reasons why.
Since we’re on vacation we were struggling with what to put in a show when we’re not even supposed to have a show. The idea came up to post something most of you probably haven’t seen. Prior to CO-OP being part of the Revision3 family of programming, Area 5 produced the show solely for our YouTube channel and it was in Standard-Definition. CO-OP 0004 was a test-bed show for Revision3 where we actually produced the entire thing in HD so that they could try out their compression settings and what not in advance of our first, actual premiere on the network. Here, for the first time anywhere, along with Cesar’s Tokyo adventures from a few weeks ago are the two game segments from CO-OP 0004 in HD:
Dan Hsu may no longer maintain the Sorethumbsblog, but yeah, that’s what the titles for that section say in this episode because back when this segment was shot that was still before the launch of the awesome BitMob. Ryan and Cesar are also in this segment that talks about what makes The Lost and the Damned such a compelling bit of DLC.
Miguel Lopez now works for GameTrailers, but back when he and Ryan had this chat about Street Figher IV he was still going strong at GameSpy. In a an excellent segment that is part reminiscing about past SF glory days and part review of the latest incarnation, it’s one of the segments we are most proud of from our “Season 0” time period.
We’ll be back in full form next week with Uncharted 2, Bit Trip Void (including some awesome time we spent with the indie developer, Gaijin Studios), and more.
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Only one of us got to go to TGS this year, but thanks to returning friends an ample amount of game footage was sent back for our (and your) enjoyment. We’re sort of on vacation at the moment while we’re in-between seasons. While this special episode is longer than even our normal episodes, particularly because we have two full game segments on top of our TGS wrapup (!) it doesn’t have a narrative. Next week’s show will be shorter ‘cause we’ll still be on our break. Make sure you’re paying attention on the 20th though as that’s when Season 3 will premiere! More after the show:
Justin Haywald of 1UP fame joins our crew for both full-on game chats, the first of which is the Wii prequel to one of last-year’s best games. More than a mere “light gun” game, Ryan, JayFresh, and Justin all agree that Deadspace Extraction should sell way more units than it probably will.
Hmm, how’s this list strike you? Final Fantasy XIII, Crackdown 2, Lost Planet 2, Dead Rising 2,Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Last Guardian and some anecdotes about Project Natal on the show floor. Many thanks to David Ellis, also of 1UP for coming by and sharing his thoughts and some of his game footage with us!
Justin Haywald then hops back on with me for a talk about a game that should have been so much better than it is. Sadly, Justin and I both agree that Scribblenauts is an amazing idea harmed irrevocably by poor execution.
We’ll be back in full form October 20th but make sure to check out next week’s special as well!
Remember to help support CO-OP by making a donation at the link over in the sidebar and leave us some comments. We like ‘em.
Camping. It’s cheap, easy, and thanks to the DS and the PSP we can bring our games with us! It’s an all-portables week as we go primal. Well, primal for us, being the technology-urban dependents we are.
One of the benefits to living in San Francisco is the ease with which one can be out into the wilderness, partaking of the state of California’s wonderful parks system. Fortunately, even with a lack of power outlets we are not gaming-deprived! After camp is set, it’s time to start up the blowtorch, PSPs, and DSs. One of those three doesn’t require a battery for the fun.
Jason and Ryan are two of the biggest SoulCalibur aficionados to ever hold a PSP. It has long been Ryan’s dream to take his favorite fighter on the go and Jason seems to agree that this portable installment of the venerable franchise is everything the fan could have hoped for. SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny definitely measures up.
Thanks be to JayFresh, for without him Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story may not have received its due on CO-OP. Ryan poses a bit of skepticism to Fresh about the game, but Fresh is able to hold his own as he details the unique quirks that make this one a keeper.
Motorstorm: Arctic Edge, much like Broken Destiny, is very much like bringing it’s big brother with you. A hallmark of graphic fidelity on the PS3, the Motostorm Franchise has done a fantastic job of thrilling the pants of the Area 5 crew. Matt and Ryan have been fans since day one and the opportunity to bring the game with was a no-brainer. Ryan’s convinced it equals its nearest relatives in both scope and fun.
You may have heard about the PAX 2009, confirmed case of Swine Flu. A few of our friends got it. We didn’t. Of course the part of the Area 5 crew that stayed at home didn’t know that. More after the show:
Could the latest HALO be the best HALO? If you listen to Anthony Gallegos and I, it may very well be. Sacrilege? Perhaps! Rob is jealous of our trip through HALO 3: ODST as we got to play it at a review event about two weeks prior to the game’s release, but he got to play Firefight like a month before we did. So screw him! But the story-driven parts of the game as well as the new Firefight mode offer some fantastic new twists on the solid game design of it’s predecessors though there are some minor gripes that we go into.
If you know us, you know that we don’t go to an event without spending quality time with indie games and PAX was no exception. Jason and I had a chance to play a bunch of games from XNA’s Dream Build Play contest, among others, and interview Microsoft’s Kathleen Sanders. Quite a few of the games stood out and so we took their newly acquired free-time to reflect back on better times. What games? Dust, Kaleidoscope, Max Balstronaut, Hurricane X2, Sol Survivor (which can be bought here), Hot Potato Online (which can be bought here), and Rotorscope. When these become available on Xbox Live, you should really try out the demos and see if they’re your thing. They’re pretty bad ass and some rival full retail releases even though they’re priced as indies!
Not surprisingly, a bunch of people wanted to come over to join us in playing Beatles Rock Band. It’s a loving tribute to an iconic bands with lots of great music. Dan ‘Shoe’ Hsu, Raychul Moore, Justin Haywald, and Jade Kraus rock out with Ryan and Jason and hang out to talk, and sometimes argue, about the pros and cons.
10 years ago the Dreamcast launched. The sytem was so beloved by its fans that it was a shocker to many when SEGA pulled the plug on their hardware division, ending one of the most venerable of living-room gaming dynasties. More after the show:
As you know, Jason and I were the only ones that made it to PAX to make sure the CO-OP Panel went down as smoothly as possible. The home team held their own panel/roundtable for this incredible, fifteen-game retrospective while Jason and I gathered stories from fans at our Panel and around PAX about what the Dreamcast meant to them. From people that remembered the Dreamcast from day-care to a woman that worked with the voice of Seaman to a Ryan O’Donnell cosplayer (he insists he “just looks like him”), this episode is one of our most epic yet. Here’s a list of the games we and the kind attendees at PAX touch on:
Soulcalibur
Marvel Vs. Capcom 2
Jet Set Radio
Shenmue 1 & 2
Sonic Adventure
Power Stone 1 & 2
Skies of Arcadia
Phantasy Star Online
Samba De Amigo
Tennis 2K2
Crazy Taxi
Seaman
House of the Dead
Typing of the Dead
Chu Chu Rocket
Thanks again to PAX 2009 for once again being our favorite convention of the year, the PAX staff and convention services, the Totally Rad Show crew for shooting and attending our Panel and just being all around awesome people, and all you wonderful PAX attendees that came to our panel in spite of the snaffus, hung out with us at the joint Totally Rad Show, CO-OP meet up, and told use your stories on-camera. We’ve been reminded again why we love doing what we do, and we owe that to you.
We had an amazing time at PAX! In spite of the kerfuffle of events that conspired to keep the majority of the team San Francisco-bound, I think the panel went exceedingly well. Wondering what a room of something between 250-300 CO-OP fans looks like? Well thank you, "timothygarcia"! I don't know who you are and have no way to email you, but hopefully you don't mind us linking to your Flickr stream that has a bunch of CO-OP Panel pictures. Let me know if you want me to take this link down and I will. You have to go about 5 pages in before you start seeing our panel. Fortunately the other pics are pretty cool and will give you a good idea of what PAX looks like.
If you've seen the pictures, you can tell that we were able to MacGuyver up some serious web-cammage in order to bring in the rest of Area 5 to say "'sup" to the crowd. Only they didn't really say "'sup" 'cause that would be lame. Even though the net connection crapped about with about 15 minutes left in the panel, everyone seemed to have a good time and we're really into the idea of sharing their Dreamcast stories with us and with the rest of the audience. Next week's show is our Dreamcast Anniversary Special and we will have footage from the panel included as a part of the show. A big, phat, THANK YOU to everyone who attended! I was seriously afraid no one would show up being as it was so last-minute and that there was this giant, see-all-this-exclusive-stuff-revealed-for-the-first-time panel happening at the same time. But, apparently I underestimated you as the room was full and they had to turn people away (sorry 'bout that :( )!
Jason and I couldn't believe our eyes and the emotional pick-me-up and support you get from something like that is really indescribable. I really wish the rest of the team could have made it just to have experienced that as we did.
Someone asked us, literally, how they could give us money to support the show. That floored me. We're always hearing from people that are supposed to be in-the-know about Internet stuffs about how no one wants to pay for entertainment online. And perhaps that's right, from a certain point of view. From another point of view, it means a lot more to be able to support, directly, the stuff you care about and I think that's where that question came from.
We've been trying not to put the donation link back up. Asking for contributions is never easy but the plain truth is that we're running out of cash. Yes, we've signed a deal with Revision3 for CO-OP, but the ad market is very tough during a recession and we're only seeing a percentage of that tough market. On the positive side of things, our viewership is on a steady incline and Revision3 loves us and our show. Still, they can't squeeze blood from a stone; so we've been doing contract work. Ryan just finished up an awesome video for Turn 10's Forza 3 announcement of the Bugatti Veyron which you may have seen online and we've done some other work for them in the past. We've had other off-and-on-again contracts and we're essentially working double-time so that we can do great work for our clients so they'll pay us and come back to us again as they acquire more video needs. Then we're using that money to keep us afloat. Without that contract work we'd have been out of business months ago and CO-OP would have died in the cradle. Ugh, kind of a lousy mental image, that. Sorry. Looking at the numbers, it turns out we're facing some equally tough times ahead and all the meals of ramen and/or peanut-butter sandwiches can't stave it off (believe me, we've tried).
So, we're putting the donate link back up. I'd rather we could give you something for your contributions--T-shirts and other gear--but we're not there yet. We haven't had the time or money to invest in their production. We're close, though! If you'd rather wait until we've got some merch online so that you've got something to show for your support, more power to ya! For now, if you want to contribute directly, the PayPal link is going to be resting in the sidebar on this site from now until such a time as we don't need it any longer. We took it down once before when the future was looking up, I'm a positive person and I think we'll get to do so again!
Thank to all of you that have gotten us this far and that especially includes our friends at Eat. Sleep. Game./RebelFM. Since our sponsorship for PAX pulled out and our plane tickets got screwed up, no one from Area 5 would have been able to have been at PAX if it wasn't for that crew letting Jason and I hitch a ride up. We couldn't afford to buy tickets or spend money on hotels without the sponsorship, so not only did they drive us up there, bought us dinner and a few drinks, but they let us crash on the floor of their hotel room! I love you guys!!
And that was pretty much the feeling that summed up PAX. It's my favorite convention of the year because it shows, once and for all, that the community of gamers is far broader and far better than any of the common stereotypes associated with our ilk; online or off. Thanks for coming out and saying hi!
There’s been a lot of Metroid in the gaming world lately. We all know how JayFresh was introduced to the Super Nintendo versions last week and now, it seems, the Super Nintendo has sunk its claws into him and won’t let go. More after the show:
I was always a ginormous fan of the Batman animated series. I watched it every day after high school and loved how it treated its audience (me) as worthy of the kind of intellectual and emotional exploration usually reserved for prime-time dramas. No, it wasn’t quite The Wire, but it certainly seemed to take the subject matter as seriously as anything ever had before and at the time I felt like I was actually experiencing commentary on the human condition in animated form. Of course, I was in high school; everything was commentary on the human condition. Still, when I found out Arkham Asylum was written by the same dude behind the animated series, I knew there was going to be a story there I could delight in. The game itself, though offers up far more game than we thought possible. Ryan, myself, and JayFresh have, admittedly, a bit of a love-fest over what really is the best Batman game to date and one of our favorite games so far this year.
The iPhone may very well be more powerful than developers realize. This game proves that not only can you bring a near-GTA experience to the iPhone, but that it can be done with controls that are fairly intuitive and with gameplay straight out of the early PS2-era. It was a surprise to both Jason and Cesar that such a game even existed, but, as they mention, it’s not without its flaws.
Perhaps it would have been more awesome to have a new Metroid Prime, but re-releasing the entire trilogy, complete with improved, Wii controls a la Corruption is nothing to sneeze at. Ryan and special guest Torrey Holbrook Walker (you may recognize that name from our music credits) step out into the depth of night in order to discuss the finer points of what makes this series so particularly special.
So it’s been a rough road. As some of you may have noticed, we’re slated for a 5:30-6:30pm panel on Friday in the Raven theater at PAX. Up until a few minutes ago, it was unsure if were going to be able to make it. Things haven’t gone according to plan and the panel isn’t going to be what it once was, but I’ll explain that in a bit. You can download this PDF , which is just a cut-out of the PAX floor plan that shows where we are.
Also, there’s going to be a joint Totally Rad Show and CO-OP fan meet-up at PAX. It’s going to be from 7pm to 10pm, here:
The Blarney Stone
1909 3rd Ave
Seattle, WA
And for the lazy (Hello, cuz!), here’s an already-filled out Google Map!
So what happened? We’re a startup and we make very, very little money at what we do which means that in order to attend an event like this we need a sponsor. Yes, someone to foot the bill. The sponsor pulled out. Then the plane tickets we were supposed to get got screwed up at the last minute leaving only a few options available to us, all of which are too expensive to seriously engage if we want to keep ourselves in business. So, the original idea of the panel at PAX was to do a live taping of CO-OP and a brief tutorial on how we go about making our video podcast in the hopes that people in the audience could learn from us and start making shows of their own. Why? Because we’re self-serving bastards and we want to watch them! Unfortunately those plans are now scrapped, mostly because we’re only sending two of the team. Myself and Jason. Now, I know, JayFresh is the clear, fan favorite, Rob’s the funny one, Ryan’s the hardest-core and Cesar is like a more-handsome Mario Lopez, but Jason and I aren’t going to be entirely alone! We’re bringing a laptop and the folks at PAX are going to be kind enough to hook us up with a projector and an audio jack so the rest of the crew can (Internet Gods permitting—convention Internet always sucks big, sticky, elephant weenie) join us via webcam during the panel. We’re going to have to forego the tutorial session, but if you’re curious at all about our process please drop on by and grill us! We have no industry secrets! We want people to go out there and make great video podcasts and if we can help you in any way, come by and ask!
We’re also looking to ping you about the 10th anniversary of the Dreamcast! Yes, it’s already that old (and that means yes, you really are older than you thought) and we’d love to chat with you during the panel about what the Dreamcast means/meant to you or just to share fond memories of some of the games of yesteryear. We also want to know your thoughts on PAX, in general. We really dig the show for a lot of reasons, but PAX isn’t about the people covering the show, it’s about the people attending it! So with those few topics in mind, come and hang with us (some of us more virtually than others), chat with us during the panel and then come on over to the meetup to really dig into our personal lives and ask us awkward questions about our relationships and innermost demons. Huzzah!
Finally, a GIANT FUCKING THANK YOU to the RebelFM crew for squeezing Jason and I into their cars for the road trip to PAX and to letting us crash on the floors of their hotel rooms. Without those cats there would be NO Area 5 at PAX at all. If you see Anthony, Arthur, or Tyler wandering around the show floor, give them a big hug and then bow to them and say “Your penis is as fat as I’ve heard.” They’ll know what you mean.
Yes, it is 1994 all over again thanks to JayFresh missing out on the Metroid classics the first time around. Such outrages will not stand! It was a good opportunity to bring back a classic and give it the full, CO-OP treatment. Shadow Complex isn’t the only game that’s inspired a kind of Metroid revival around here. Yes, the Prime trilogy was released recently, but even the new Batman owes a lot of it’s design legacy to Samus and her classic, Chozo-driven ways. Would you want to see us cover more classic games like this, or should we just think of this as a one-off inspired by current events? Your feedback matters! More after the show:
Remakes of classic franchises are all the rage these days, and Wolfenstein is certainly the, um, latest of these. Fortunately it’s taken some cues from modern game design and proves to be able to stand proudly amongst its competition. BitMob’s Dan Hsu, Arthur Gies from RebelFM & Eat. Sleep. Game. and 1UP’s Justin Haywald talk it over with JayFresh. Find out what separates it from the pack as well as what could’ve used some more attention before it could have become a new classic all on its own.
The iPhone continues to deliver evolutions in game design that are surprising and Spider is simply the latest we’ve discovered. Ryan, Jason, and Cesar are all suitably impressed by the game’s structure and unique approach to narrative. It’s kind of a platformer while being a puzzle that crosses boundaries with Tempest and holds a unique approach to narrative that is surprising.
And, as I already mentioned, our recent coverage of Shadow Complex struck some extremely nostalgic chords here at Area 5 and when we found out that JayFresh’s gaming education lacked a certain, related, classic franchise we knew it was time to bring back the past and present it as fresh! Pun intended. Also from 1UP and her own, classic-gaming blog Dusty Pixels, Jade Kraus pops in to talk with Dan Hsu, Justin Haywald, Ryan, and Fresh about just what a momentous occasion it was to experience Super Metroid for the first time!
Ever thought of combining a café, laundromat, arcade, and deli? Brainwash is just that and seems tailor-made for the Area 5 team as a prime hang-out spot. Cesar and Ryan get into a classic nerd debate over their lamest and coolest T-Shirts while the rest of the team just hang out and enjoy the atmosphere. More after the show:
Drawing obvious inspiration from games like Metroid and Castlevania, 1UP.com’s David Ellis and BitMob’s Dan Hsu came by to discuss with Cesar and I whether Shadow Complex be rip-off or well intentioned homage to classic and all-too-soon-discarded styles of gameplay. Regardless, its scope and polish make it one of the best downloadable games of the year thus far.
We also tread familiar waters to check out Wolfenstein RPG for the iPhone. Does shooting Nazi’s (in the standard forms of soldiers, zombies, and skeletons) in corridors blend well with role-playing elements? Ryan and Cesar take a break from laundry to discuss.
I’ve been attempting to take over the world, one territory at a time, for weeks with Little King’s Story. This Pikmin-like adventure looked simple at first but ended up spanning over dozens of hours of invading, building, and decorating in service of conquering the unworthy while expanding my empire. Anthony Gallegos of GameSpy.com and Eat-Sleep-Game.com is joined by 1UP.com’s Alice Liang follow up with me about whether the task ended up being more than we bargained for.
matt chandronait