My afterthoughts on podcast episode 11

[benol]

first, Ben, PLEASE don't ask us for topics ever again. That "Zombie Appocolypse" thing was stupid. and the "best games of 2006" should have been called "Talk about Oblivion for the rest of the podcast". other than that, pretty good

[gamemasterAS]

I didn't have time to listen. Does anyone have a direct link to the download so i can put it on one of my portable devices.

[jones]

first, Ben, PLEASE don't ask us for topics ever again. That "Zombie Appocolypse" thing was stupid. and the "best games of 2006" should have been called "Talk about Oblivion for the rest of the podcast". other than that, pretty good

We would have talked about more games, but Ben wanted to keep the topic short since everything else ran over. Believe me, I would have loved to have talked about more games and for longer. There were other games I enjoyed from last year that I didn't even get to mention such as Viva Pinata, Lego Star Wars 2, Empire at War, etc.

I would have prefaced my picks with "Best 360 Games of the Year" since I had the chance to play a large number of them, but only got to play 2 PS3 games, 3 Wii games, a handful of PC games, and I don't play portable systems (Gasp!).

So you have my apology that this topic was not fleshed out properly. Hopefully we'll allocate a significant amount of time to this topic next year.

All that said, Oblivion was hands down the best game I played in 2006.

Since 2006 is in the books now, here is my list of the Top Ten Games I played in said year for those who care. Feel free to share your own.

1. Oblivion (X360)
2. Test Drive Unlimited (X360)
3. Lego Star Wars 2 (X360)
4. Dead Rising (X360)
5. Rainbow Six Vegas (X360)
6. Viva Pinata (X360)
7. Gears of War (X360)
8. Empire at War (PC)
9. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (X360)
10. Lumines Live! (X360)

HM: G.R.A.W. (X360)
Wii Bowling (Wii) - not the rest of Wii Sports, just Wii Bowling

Biggest Surprise : Viva Pinata (X360) - Animal Crossing meets Harvest Moon meets The Sims. Way more fun than it has any right to be.

Most Disappointing: Street Fighter 2 (X360) - Looks as great as ever, but the controls are not as tight as they need to be and the CPU is way tougher than it ever was in the past. This could be a result of the sloppy controls though. It made me long to be playing the SNES version again.

Call of Duty 3 (X360) - The online gameplay is greatly improved from CoD2, but the single-player campaign lacks the energy of CoD2's campaign. Lots of glitchy behavior like getting literally stuck in spots where you should be able to walk freely and it relies on gimmicks such as the shellshock state that felt innovative in CoD2, but gets used so often in this version that it actually becomes annoying kind of like the rum jokes in the 2 Pirates of the Carribean movies. Fun the first time. Make you want to pull your hair out the second.

Worst Game: Call of Duty 3 (Wii) - My lack of love for the Wii is well known to all of you, but I can admit when it does things well. Unfortunately, in the case of CoD3, little to nothing goes right. I played it for about an hour and it was a very painful hour to say the least. I don't know how many times I blew myself up trying to throw grenades, but it was definitely more than I did in completing the game on the 360. The Wii remote worked well for games like Wii Bowling (actually a lot of fun when playing with friends) and Zelda (even though it felt tacked on), but here it is an obstacle that I could not overcome which left this version of CoD3 sadly unplayable for me.

PS: You're right, the zombie topic was really sloppy on our part. I can't speak for Ben, but I admit that I didn't put a whole lot of thought into it. We'll do better with the next forum question. Promise!

[benol]

Thanks, Jones. That cleared some up

[benheck]

Even as it was I had to edit out about 10 minutes to get it down NEAR and hour. I didn't cut anything important, but yeah, we really went over on time.

-Ben

[SpongeBuell]

So, does that mean the intro I narrated will go on the next podcast?

[siegeshot]

Could you maybe have a short version, and an extended version? Some of us listen to it during activities where it'd be ok if it was 1.5 or even 2 hours. I listen to it during my comics, and when it doesn't run very long, I have to find like a 2nd thing to listen to. And if George doesn't have one of his podcasts up, I have to stop and set something else up to listen to.

Optional extended version! With more features!

Btw I loved the movie, watched it like 5 times already.
-a

[Gump-in-space]

Since 2006 is in the books now, here is my list of the Top Ten Games I played in said year for those who care. Feel free to share your own.

1. Oblivion (X360)
2. Test Drive Unlimited (X360)
3. Lego Star Wars 2 (X360)
4. Dead Rising (X360)
5. Rainbow Six Vegas (X360)
6. Viva Pinata (X360)
7. Gears of War (X360)
8. Empire at War (PC)
9. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (X360)
10. Lumines Live! (X360)

Uggg... I'm so tired of people only showing titles respect if they exist on a next gen system... There were good games on PS2, and GC that nobody evem brings up.

[benheck]

Yeah we're pushing [the intro you helped record] to the next podcast to give us time for a more complex intro for the podcast after that. If that makes sense.

-Ben

[jones]

Since 2006 is in the books now, here is my list of the Top Ten Games I played in said year for those who care. Feel free to share your own.

1. Oblivion (X360)
2. Test Drive Unlimited (X360)
3. Lego Star Wars 2 (X360)
4. Dead Rising (X360)
5. Rainbow Six Vegas (X360)
6. Viva Pinata (X360)
7. Gears of War (X360)
8. Empire at War (PC)
9. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (X360)
10. Lumines Live! (X360)

Uggg... I'm so tired of people only showing titles respect if they exist on a next gen system... There were good games on PS2, and GC that nobody evem brings up.

That may very well be, but I didn't play them. If I worked for a gaming magazine (where they get everything handed to them) my list would probably be a little more varied I imagine.

Yeah we're pushing [the intro you helped record] to the next podcast to give us time for a more complex intro for the podcast after that. If that makes sense.

-Ben

That doesn't make any sense at all.

[Bessa]

A possible topic for the next podcast.............

How about looking back through your predictions from your earlier podcasts and seeing how accurate you were. I seem to remember at one point Jones, you said that GoW was a title you were least excited about, now it's on your best games of '06 list.

[SpongeBuell]

Yeah we're pushing [the intro you helped record] to the next podcast to give us time for a more complex intro for the podcast after that. If that makes sense.

-Ben

That doesn't make any sense at all.

I'll assume you are serious... if not, I'll just help those that are confused

Sure it does... [intro I helped record] will go on podcast 12, the next one coming up. Then, because of the nice time gap between now and 12 without having to worry about making an intro, there can be a really nice intro for podcast 13. At least, I think that makes more sense

[jones]

A possible topic for the next podcast.............

How about looking back through your predictions from your earlier podcasts and seeing how accurate you were. I seem to remember at one point Jones, you said that GoW was a title you were least excited about, now it's on your best games of '06 list.

I like that idea! I think that could be fun. Of course that would require Ben and I to remember what we talked about all those podcasts ago.

I'll assume you are serious... if not, I'll just help those that are confused

Sure it does... [intro I helped record] will go on podcast 12, the next one coming up. Then, because of the nice time gap between now and 12 without having to worry about making an intro, there can be a really nice intro for podcast 13. At least, I think that makes more sense

I was joking, but thanks anyway. Damn Internet! Hopefully someday there will be a way to somehow put your "tone of voice" into forum posts. Dare to dream I guess.

Whether or not the intro for podcast 13 is anything special will probably depend on your opinion of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

[benheck]

Yes Sponge is right, we save time on Ep 12 intro to make time for Ep 13. Which I haven't really started yet, but the idea is cool.

One topic we talked about for Ep 12 is videogame movies - the least bad ones we've seen, the worst, what ones they're making and shouldn't (Hitman, Spy Hunter) what games they WANT to make but shouldn't (MGS, Halo) and what game movies they SHOULD make...

I didn't mind the zombie thing, it was an interesting diversion.

BTW Jones, I think I still like Resistance: Fall of Sony better than GoW.

-Ben

[jones]

BTW Jones, I think I still like Resistance: Fall of Sony better than GoW.

-Ben

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Seriously though, I probably should wander over one of these days and log a decent amount of time on it. The little bit I did get to play it didn't allow me to get any sort of sense of the story which is, of course, an important piece of the puzzle.

At this point though, neither of them hold a candle to Rainbow Six Vegas!