Tuesday
Jun092009

CO-OP 0116 -- CO-OP @ E3 2009: Post-Show Memories - Mass Effect 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Dragon Age: Origins, Tony Hawk: Ride

by Authormatt chandronait

This really was the best E3 in recent memory. The spectacle of the big show returned while being workable enough to allow us time to see nearly all our favorites on the show floor. The big publishers had decked out their booths with almost all playable games. The main complaint heard around the show floor this year: “How am I gonna afford all this shit?” More after the show:


Before meandering our way up the desolate (and yet amazingly beautiful) 5 freeway from San Francisco to California, we had one, final, incredible day at E3. Getting to play some Left 4 Dead 2 was certainly a highlight, but the impromptu Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins hands-on experiences pretty much blew our pants off. Yes, we were pants-less in front of Drs. Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, the two heads of BioWare that, prior to inviting us to come spend time with ME2 and DA:O graced us with a solid interview surrounding both those products and their upcomming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Tony Hawk: Ride introduced yet another plastic peripheral you’ll likely have to find storage space for.

Next week’s show will be a compilation of some of the best moments from the live streams we had at E3—which will be in SD since our live streams were in SD—and then the following week we’ll be back with our premiere of Season 02! Hard to believe we’ve already gone through a complete season of CO-OP. We couldn’t have done it without you!

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Thursday
Jun042009

CO-OP 0115 -- CO-OP @ E3 2009: Show Floor Tour - PSP Go, God of War 3, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Scribblenauts, Split/Second & More

by Authormatt chandronait

Finally we had some time to look at the E3 show proper! Hands-on time with the Sony PSP Go, God of War 3, Soul Calibur: Broken Destinies, Gran Turismo PSP, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Scribblenauts, Split/Second, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. There are some big names in there, but E3 always has some great surprises and Sribblenauts and Split/Second are exactly those. Also, it’s usually dangerous to just let Jason run free with a camera on him.


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Wednesday
Jun032009

CO-OP 0114 -- CO-OP @ E3 2009: Nintendo + Sony - Mario, Metroid, God of War 3, Mod Nation Racers, The Last Guardian, PSP Go, PS3 Motion Control

by Authormatt chandronait

The “big 3” publishers have all had their say and it’s really been a banner year for top-flight announcements. These past years have seem some rather humdrum presentations and it’s been difficult to upkeep the ZOMG-face one is expected—nay, required to have upon attendance at The E of Three. This year, I’m pleased to say, the opposite has occurred and there’s far, far too much awesome to discuss to fit even into three episodes (last one’s tomorrow, folks!) and three live streams (last one of those is tomorrow, too!). More after the show:


We really could have spent two full episodes on what we saw yesterday and, to be honest, both Sony and Nintendo’s announcements deserve more in-depth discussion. Time, however, is not on our side and we figure we’re doing better by y’all if we bring many things into focus instead of few. Still, we’re not trying to be comprehensive and I think there’s much to be said for maintaining some brevity in light of the mountains of awesome this E3 has shoveled all our way! And, of course, where would we be without our friends? Dan “Shoe” Hsu of BitMob stuck around after the Sony event and talked with Ryan and Cesar about all we’d seen that day. Strangely enough, the view of LA was best from on top of the parking garage outside of Sony’s event.

Nintendo was a bigger contender for the core audience than it has been recently with the announcement of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Mario Galaxy II, Metroid: Other M, and while it may not look like the contender in light of present company, Women’s Murder Club: Games of Passion may actually surprise us when it’s released. C’mon, you can admit it!

Sony was not to be outdone, though, and it was there that we, at last, were able to gaze upon the graces of gameplay inherent in Assassin’s Creed 2. The Last Guardian made an appearance in a newly-redone trailer that actually caused me to tear up a little given the pedigree of the team (Ico and Shadow of the Colossus) and a character setup that’s clearly intent on tugging on your heart strings. Uncharted 2 was also granted a lengthy demo to many a gasp and cheer, the PSP Go garnered nearly as tepid a response as Uncharted and Creed did rampant frothing at the bit, though it did have an array of software announcements to accompany including Gran Tourismo PSP and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Maker. The PS3’s foray into the world of motion-control impressed the crowd even with a rather early tech-demo it’s only visual aid. Until, that is, Peter Molyneux came out and introduced their Milo project. Hard to explain, just watch.

Our very last E3 special goes live tomorrow and will feature a broader look at E3 and some on-floor shenanigans. And, as well, it will be the final live RevisionE3 episode from the show floor featuring us and the TRS guys! By the way, working with those guys this week has been everything we ever hoped it could be. Jeff, Dan, and Alex are freakin’ awesome and the only bad thing about hangin’ with those guys is that they don’t live close by and we can’t do that kind of stuff more often!

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Tuesday
Jun022009

CO-OP 0113 -- CO-OP @ E3 2009: Microsoft - Splinter Cell: Conviction, Forza 3, HALO: ODST, Project Natal, and More

by Authormatt chandronait

It’s the first official day of E3 and this is our first of three E3 special episodes, but the real announcements started yesterday. Driving the sexiest, purple Chevy minivan you ever did see (it’s so hot there are boob-prints on the passenger and driver-side windows both), we braved the wilds of central California to arrive at the Los Angeles Convention Center in plenty of time to catch the Microsoft event Yesterday. Since then we’ve seen both Sony and Nintendo press conferences, but this show just captures our immediate impressions right after the Microsoft blowout and documents, briefly, our trip south. Note to concerned parents: yes, you CAN draw penises vehicle-to-vehicle through PictoChat. More after the show:


Being at E3 is weird for games media people. At E3 we get to see everything early, we’re not immune to the hype or the excitement of that fact, but everything for us is always tempered by the workload hanging over our heads. Video, in particular, is a difficult beast as we can’t even begin editing until we get back to our hotel after the show is long over. That’s not a complaint—we wouldn’t do it if we didn’t love it—but it’s a fact that simply makes E3 lose a little of it’s luster. Ya just can’t help pine a bit for the opportunity to just wander about with a curious eye and no responsibilities save enjoyment of the senses.

Dionysian gamer fantasies aside, this show is a ton of work for us and a ton of fun and the rest of our plans for the week are finally taking shape. The Live Stream will be up again tomorrow at 4pm from the WOOT booth (we’re hoping… technical difficulties involving an utter lack of an Internet connection postponed today’s live show) and we’ll have some live interviews to break up the commentary. Thursday’s live show will be even better with demos of both HALO: ODST and Splinter Cell: Conviction! My personal excitement level for Conviction borders on the inappropriate, so you can guess which of those two demos I’m looking forward to most.

Lastly but not least-ly, we love you. To the fans we’ve run into so far at E3, it’s made our day several times over to know that you’re still with us and following us and are excited to see what we’ll do next. We’ll endeavor not to disappoint!

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Tuesday
May262009

CO-OP 0112 -- Punch-Out!!, E3 Predictions, Patapon 2 -- Alcohol Endurance Training

by Authormatt chandronait

We all know that E3 is the most anticipated event of the year for the world of video games, and those of us at AREA 5 are going to do everything we can to bring you with us! Next week CO-OP will have three recorded/edited shows and three LIVE shows! Check out the full schedule for both us and the Totally Rad Show guys at http://revision3.com/e3. More after the show:


We take a bit of a breather at The Napper Tandy again (the local, Irish beer-me-and-food-me), this week, and talk with G4’s Patrick Klepek about what we’re most excited to see at E3 next week. The big three, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are on everybody’s lips and we’re all planning to Sam Fisher our way into their events, but for us it’s all about the games we already know will have a showing. Follow our predictions and then share with us what you’re most excited about!

Patrick was also kid enough to hang around after our E3 chat and talk with me about the enigmatically difficult Patapon 2. We both agree that it may be too much for the typical adult life to handle, but there’s still real genius there. Honestly, after the Patapon piece was done I felt I’d been a bit overly-harsh, but then I thought back on it and disagreed with myself. No, indeed, that game needs some adjustment before it’s going to rope me in. I think were I a teenager and with nothing else to occupy my time I could really get into it… it makes me wonder a lot about growing up/old and holding on to this medium for all I’ve got. Andrew Fitch’s post over at BitMob touches on such feelings as well. His post mentions that Dan “Shoe” Hsu calls it “old-man hands,” I call it Father Time.

It’s not every day you get to have a conversation with 1UP’s David Ellis and Scott Sharkey on our balcony. They do us a solid and come by to share the love over Nintendo’s latest nostalgic rehash: PUNCH OUT!!. Will there ever come a time when our childhood gaming memories will be insufficient cause to make us open our wallets? May that day never come.

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Tuesday
May192009

CO-OP 0111 DROP AND GIVE ME E3: BEHIND THE SCENES

by Authorjason bertrand

 

In the intro scene Ryan and I are playing with a cootie catcher, also known as a fortune teller. Did you know the cootie catcher dates back to the 1600's in Japan?  That's older than the first origami that is said to be made in 1680.

We needed a montage! So we threw Cesar in the trunk and drove over to McKinley Square Park. 

Once there we ran, did push ups, jumping jacks. We had a little funny bit where me and Jay are on a swing set and Rob and Ryan are pushing us, but that ended up on the editing room floor. This episode had a lot of funny moments that just didn't make it in the final version of the show, which happens. You have to use what makes the piece work and flow. 

There was another moment during the "name the developer" flash card game where I say "the Bioware Doctors" and Jay goes off on me. Jay's delivery was hilarious. If you look closely to that edit you can see that Jay starts to go off for a second, before it cuts to the close up of the cards. Maybe someday we'll take all the funniest out-takes and put them together in a episode.

If you were wondering why Miyamoto has pointy ears, it's not to look like Link or Zelda. It's more because we saw Star Trek that weekend.

Before I glued the faces on, Cesar was drawing the outlines of the bodies. On the one that happened to be Miyamoto's, he drew the body all buff to look like Bruce Lee, but the face looked more like Spock and that's when he drew on pointy ears. 

Thanks again to Carl and the guys at kidsamurai.com for sending us the awesome t-shirts. 

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Monday
May182009

CO-OP 0111 -- Drop and Give me E3 -- Bionic Commando, Plants vs. Zombies, Zeno Clash and Sway

by Authormatt chandronait

Please make with the Digging. Our marketing budget is $0--which means all we've got is you!

JayFresh, it must be known, is secretly the harshest taskmaster of Area 5. His boyish good looks and easy demeanor belies an inner demon whose sole purpose is to expunge, nay murder inefficiency. In this episode, the aforementioned demon comes forth in a manner rather resembling a coach from a popular network television program. We'll leave it up to you to figure out which one. His mission? E3 preparedness. More after the show:


We can generally get behind the idea of the "series reboot" as, for the most part, they've been successful at selling our nostalgia back to us while simultaneously gifting us some original gameplay that's easy to get in to. Bionic Commando is, fortunately, no exception. Well, unless you're David Ellis, but who really listens to him anyway? Okay, okay, we do. He and Ryan hash out the good and the bad.

For those of you that don't know Jeff Green, you may not know it, but you wish you did. For those that don't even know of him, watch the Plants vs. Zombies segment, Google/Wikipedia him, maybe go back and read some old issues of Computer Gaming World, GFW Magazine, EGM (I wish the entire archive of GFWRadio was still available) and then tell me he doesn't measure up to all myths and legends. This is not to besmirch the contributions of the always-brilliant Tiff Chow and our own JayFresh and Cesar, but, really, it's Jeff Green!

Of course brilliance distinguishes itself in packs and Giant Bomb's Brad Shoemaker lends his to the roster in our piece on Zeno Clash. Dripping "unique" from its very core, it's a game that he, Ryan, and I all agree should be experienced in it's entirety by anyone with the means to do so!

Lastly but not leastly, Cesar and Jason call out Sway for being simply being awesome. Thanks, iPhone!

E3 is only two weeks away! What are you most looking forward to?

UPDATE: As someone so kindly pointed out in the comments, the GFWRadio Archives are still available via the podcast's page on 1UP. Thanks!

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Monday
May112009

CO-OP 0110 -- Barbecued Amends -- X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Demigod, Excitebots, Trixel

by Authormatt chandronait

Please Digg us if you get the chance! It’s the best way to get more people watching!

Yes, we sorta left Jason in the dust last week, but we make it up to him with a good ol’ fashioned summer BBQ resplendent with delicious eats! We figured it would be a good idea to take some cameras along and reminisce about the week’s gaming adventures. And yes, that screenshot is, indeed, JayFresh partaking directly from the mini-keg. BBQ=success. More after the show:


Big congrats to our friend, Sterling McGarvey, for landing his gig at G4TV.com and an even bigger thanks for stoping by to share his thoughts with JayFresh about X-Men Origins: Wolverine. After hearing these two talk about the game it actually made me want to see the movie, but I’ve since been told the film lacks both slicing and dicing—a much emasculated narrative of the great chopper-in-chief in my opinion, so I’ll forego it. Still, the game ain’t half bad and for a movie-licensed game that’s a-sayin’ somefin’!

I’m also of the opinion that more people need to be playing Demigod! Philip Kollar, whom many of you know from 1UP and from our show has won himself a new position as the gaming editor for Current.com’s gaming channel! Fortunately, unlike Sterling, he’s staying here in San Francisco so we’ll be seeing more of him (and hopefully more of the Current staff!) in the future. Oh, and he’s with me in this segment of our show. Thanks Phil!

The Wii seems to be hitting it’s stride this year with yet another non-Mario, non-Zelda, non-Metroid release that may serve to pull in a wider audience of kart-racing enthusiasts. Excitebots: Trick Racing is what Excitetruck should have been and is ROBOTS on top of that! Dan “Shoe” Hsu comes along for the Area 5 BBQ and hashes it out with Ryan over whether this game is all it’s cracked up to be.

This week’s iPhone shoutout goes to the brain-meltingly difficult puzzler Trixel. I takes a few minutes out of stuffing his face to explain it to Shoe. I love/hate this game so much I find that words fail me.

Give us a shout in the comments! I promise we read them all! <3

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Saturday
May092009

THE HOE DOWN 0001 -- INTRODUCING THE HOE

by Authorjason bertrand

Michael Donahoe: some people love him and some people want to kick him in the nuts.

I've known Michael for a few years--since back in the 1UP days--and I hafta say Michael is full of surprises. Every project we work on together, whether we're going out to film interviews or skits, you never really know what you're going to get or what crazy characters you're going to run into. Sometimes I don't think Michael does either, but I think that's what is going to make The Hoe Down a very interesting show. 

This week The Hoe brings the viewers along to the Resident Evil Launch Party. The Hoe Down Episode 1

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Monday
May042009

CO-OP 0109 -- Another Day at the Office -- Fat Princess, Red Faction: Guerilla Demo, Phantasy Star Portable

by Authormatt chandronait

You'll notice that the Digg link goes to a title different than this week's show. That was my fault. Every week I send show notes over to Revision3 with the title of show and its description and this week I forgot to change the title. I'm lame. Anyway, don't let that link fool you, it is, indeed, for this week's show! More after the show:


The Fat Princess beta is certainly not the kind of exclusive club you get thrown out of for wearing the wrong kind of khakis, but it's one of those times where you can't help but take stock and be grateful for life's little kindnesses. Even though the demo is only one level, David Ellis, Cesar and I all agree on the game's inherent charm and potential. I'm very eager to learn what changes the final game will bring, but it definitely seemed appropriate to us to bring this game to your attention again as it seems thus far to be a necessary addition to your short-list of game purchases should you be lucky enough to own a PS3.

A welcome surprise--to me, at any rate--is the demo for Red Faction: Guerilla. The demo for a game all too often harms the perception of the unfinished product. I knew several people that never gave RE5 a chance simply because of how crappy their experience was with that demo. Luckily for them (and us), the RFG demo is a little slice of demo-done-right heaven. For a game I wasn't paying attention to at all, I'm now thoroughly engrossed in the details of it's release. All praise Cthulhu that I won't have to wait long. Also, I figure I should throw out an "All praise" to JayFresh for pointing the demo out to me in the first place! We experimented with a live phone conversation between he and Rob discussion the merits of the demo in this week's episode. We actually had one camera on each end of the conversation (we only have one boom mic which is why Fresh's audio ain't the best). I think the experiment was largely successful, but we know now that we really need the person on the other end of the line to be more engaged.

Yes, it's pretty clear that I'm schilling for our sponsor, GameFly, in regards to Phantasy Star Portable, but I'm dead serious that I likely would never have played this game had I not been able to GameFly it. I'm poor and I can't buy every game that I might play the way I used to. Both Ryan and JayFresh encouraged me to give this game a go and I'm glad they did. It's an experience I never got the have back in the original's Dreamcast days and now I feel less like I missed out. In the last segment of this week's show, JayFresh and I share our thoughts while sitting in a tree (yes, that's a set-up).

Ever get the feeling that you're stuck in a situation in which the power to do what you really want is beyond your control. Mostly, for those of you familiar with office/cube life, this means the constant desire to be outside on a beautiful day. Recently, we realized there's no one to tell us we can't do exactly that.

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