This week! Game talk, game talk and more game talk. And not much Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 this week since we’ve kind of exhausted that in the last two episodes. But we’ve got a little New Super Mario Bros. Wii, 1 vs. 100 Live, Madden NFL Arcade, Phantasy Star Zero, LEGO Indiana Jones 2 and plenty more.
Own an iPhone/iPod touch? We’ve got an app for that–the Player One Podcast player app is available now. Play shows new and old, read show notes, access the show Twitter, website, email, voicemail line and more! Plus, you’ll be able to access bonus audio and video content (soon, once we figure out what that is). Click here to download.
I’m used to having a Thanksgiving with tons of time to play games, but when you have a wife and daughter, game time during the holidays gets cut drastically.
Thank goodness I chose to pick up a PSP GO… I was able to finish Assassin’s Creed Bloodlines, and I started Disgaea, which I had never played before.
We also pulled out the Wii, and played a bit of Wii Sports (not Wii Sports Resort, I never wound up playing that more than a couple of times, then traded it in). Still fun, and demonstrates that (Super Mario Bros Wii aside), our family treats the Wii more like a board game… something to pull out at Thanksgiving, and then put back in its box when you’re done.
And finally, I have been playing Assassin’s Creed II with the small windows of single player time I’ve gotten. It’s so, so much better than the first. Very exciting, very hard to put down.
And so… on to the subject of my post! Monster Hunter. With Ad Hoc party finally out in the US, I’ve decided to download that, and I’m hoping that there are POP community members interested in playing. If you are, please leave a note, and let’s play! I remember going to Japan a few years back and being amazed by how many people were playing… I always wanted to try it.
This week! First up, voicemails from listeners where we talk about Ratchet & Clank spoilers, the airport scene from Modern Warfare 2, the difficulty in adventure games, and more. Then, we go into the games we’ve played this week, including Modern Warfare 2, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, God of War Collection, Phantasy Star Zero, Excitebike World Rally, LEGO Indiana Jones 2, Pokémon Rumble, Left 4 Dead 2, Forza III, Beatles Rock Band and Adhoc Party.
Own an iPhone/iPod touch? We’ve got an app for that–the Player One Podcast player app is available now. Play shows new and old, read show notes, access the show Twitter, website, email, voicemail line and more! Plus, you’ll be able to access bonus audio and video content (soon, once we figure out what that is). Click here to download.
CJ tells me that we’ve been getting an awful lot of angry voice mails this week in regards to my discussion about Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time during the What Ya Been Playing segment in episode 160.
While talking about the game, I mention that I recently finished it (which I totally did). I then proceed to “ruin” the game for the other guys by giving away the “spoiler” that Clank sacrifices his life in order to save Ratchet, thus providing the final, tragic end to the Ratchet & Clank series.
This offending remark occurs at about the 1:00:35 mark, and boy howdy did some people get steamed. Apparently these folks turned off the episode in a huff before they heard me reveal that I was kidding about the whole thing a few seconds later (~1:00:52).
No, people, I’m not going to blurt out the ending for a new game without some sort of warning. I’m not that big of a jerk.
So there you go, everyone. You can stop writing those strongly-worded e-mails and leaving those angry voice mail messages. Of course, if you’re leaving the voice mails by using the fantastic one-touch voice mail technology made possible with the official Player One Podcast iPhone App (buy it today!), then feel free to call and be as pissy as you’d like.
In short–It was a joke, people! I said as much! Clank doesn’t die at the end of Crack in Time!
This week! Everyone’s back and talkin’ games. Topics include Activision’s next music game, New Super Mario Bros.’ lack of online play, flawed games we love, the PSPgo’s effect on the platform and Project Natal. Then we move into games and talk about Modern Warfare 2, LEGO Rock Band, Excitebike World Rally, Rabbids Go Home, Pinball Heroes and Ratchet & Clank A Crack in Time, among others.
Own an iPhone/iPod touch? We’ve got an app for that–the Player One Podcast player app is available now. Play shows new and old, read show notes, access the show Twitter, website, email, voicemail line and more! Plus, you’ll be able to access bonus audio and video content (soon, once we figure out what that is). Click here to download.
It would be really easy to sit here and dump on The Animals for a few hundred words. After all, not only is this a lame “edutainment” title, but it perfectly presents exactly why this kind of software never belonged on the Sega CD in the first place – what with its limited color palette and postage-stamp sized videos.
But that would be a bit unfair. You kind of have to take yourself back to the early 90s, and really think about where CD-ROM was as a medium back then. These little silver discs represented a brave new world of computer and video game softare. No one seems really certain exactly what to do with them at first, though large databases of interesting information seemed a logical choice given the massive amount of storage they had.
Remember, video – even crappy, tiny, grainy video – was not really something you saw too often on a computer screen back then.
And when you do a bit of digging, you realize that this particular bit of software was actually a landmark event. It was one of the most successful, early CD-ROM encyclopedia programs, selling over 3 million copies in its first three years. The developer – now-defunct Arnowitz Studios – was well known as a pioneer of educational and teaching programs back in the day.
The Sega CD version (along with the 3DO version) are basically just products of a new technology trying to find its way. When you think about it, most of the early CD console libraries pretty much fit that description.
That being said, though, the transition from PC program to Sega CD disc was obviously a pretty rocky one. This game cries out for a mouse in order to navigate the slightly confusing Zoo Map front end. And when you get into the sub-menus, it’s still pretty slow going as your little dude, “Ping,” ambles from one entry icon to another.
Not to mention the extremely grainy video and images you get to look at. I’ve never seen the PC version of this program, but I’ve got to believe the VGA/SVGA images and video were a lot prettier than what the Sega CD’s extremely limited color palette could offer.
Publisher Mindscape is still around, though you’d be forgiven for never having heard of them, as they’re mostly doing more edutainment sofware nowadays (a lot of it on the DS). The publisher was a bit more prominent in the 16-bit days, though. And while researching their history for this article, I was reminded that they are actually the group that brought the seminal Wing Commander PC game to the SNES, and touched off my subsequent love of the series. I actually bought a 3DO when I learned that Wing Commander 3 was coming to that system. I also based my first computer purchase largely on whether it could run Wing Commander 4.
So I’m totally not certain whether I should love Mindscape or not…
Next Up: One of the greatest games of all time – Batman Returns.
Got three games recently that’ve come in Microsoft’s new Wagon Wheel 360 keepcases – DJ Hero, LEGO Rock Band and now Modern Warfare 2. And it got me thinking about packaging. Basically how at least on Microsoft’s side it’s done nothing but deteriorate over the years. Multi-disc games on one spindle, now we get a keepcase with gaping holes making the whole thing feel less solid or protective. I can appreciate so-called “Green” packaging. But I think the Wagon Wheel keepcases just feel cheap.
And of course on the publisher side you get a game like Modern Warfare 2 which is an assured hit/million-seller/what-have-you and the manual is six pages, black & white, with just two images….one a stock photo of the 360 controller and the other a crude wireframe of the in-game HUD. Thank you for providing me the absolute minimum experience for my $60. I understand that no one reads manuals anymore and what have you but MW2 is a game in a million-selling franchise. I’ll have to check but I think Oneechanbara, one of the worst 360 games I own, got a better manual that this.
What the hell man?
Am I alone in my dislike for the Wagon Wheel? And could the impetus for the new packaging actually be to be “environmentally conscious” or is it just cheapening out?
And while I was surprised at the black and white manual for MW2, I was also shocked that Activision hadn’t sold ad space on every corner of the manual as they do in some of their games. Anyway…thoughts? Just me?
A little over three months ago, I excitedly wrote about Philo and Moxie, the two new kittens that my wife, Dana, and I adopted. A few weeks prior, we had lost our beloved cat Mia, whom had been our pet for nearly ten years. We were thrilled to have two such wonderful, energetic animals in our house, and we were looking forward to spending many years getting to know them.
Early this morning, we had to put Philo to sleep. He was a little over six months old.
About two weeks ago, Dana and I noticed that Philo wasn’t quite as energetic as he normally was. He was known for getting into mild mischief by climbing up on our bookshelves or hopping up onto my computer desk to find small items that he could knock to the floor and bat around, but he hadn’t been doing anything like that lately. Figuring that he was simply feeling a bit under the weather, we didn’t worry about this change of behavior too much until it seemed to go on a bit longer than usual. After a few days, we noticed that he felt a bit warm, so we took his temperature (yes, the way you’re imagining). Sure enough, he had a fairly high fever (104.something°).
The next day, November 3, I took Philo to the vet while Dana was at work. They took his temperature again, and it had risen a bit into the 105° range. Severely high temperature aside, the vet also expressed concern with Philo’s relatively large abdomen, which Dana and I had attributed to him getting a little chunky. The vet used a syringe to take a sample from Philo, and she discovered that his gut wasn’t getting large with fat; it was fluid.
This was a sure sign that Philo was suffering from a disease called feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) that is caused by a mutated virus in the cat’s system. It’s a fairly rare disease (roughly 1 in 5000 cats suffer from it), and it only strikes very young or very old cats. This big problem is that it is currently incurable and always fatal. There are actually two forms of the disease, commonly dubbed “wet” and “dry.” Philo had the more common “wet” form which, sadly, is the faster acting of the two.
The vet told me that when a cat is diagnosed with FIP, they usually have to be put to sleep within a month, but two weeks or less is more realistic. With this knowledge, there was little we could do for Philo but try to make him comfortable as his body slowly began to shut down.
Philo lasted six days after his diagnosis, and it was tremendously difficult on Dana and I. Sure, we “only” had Philo for three months, but in that time, we had grown incredibly attached to him (my frequent nickname for him was “little buddy”).
During his last week, Philo’s health seemed to randomly rise and fall. One day, he would barely move, only occasionally getting up to nibble on his food, drink a little water, and use his litter box. At times like these, Dana and I were convinced that it was the end. The next day, however, he would be surprisingly alert. He would still be rather lethargic, but he would have a sudden burst of energy and start to play like he did when he was healthy. This would convince Dana and I that he might be able to fight through for another week or two.
This cycle continued until last Friday when we noticed that he had stopped eating. We figured that his swollen abdomen might be putting pressure on his stomach, making it uncomfortable to eat. Indeed, it made it difficult for him to turn around to groom his hindquarters. We set up an appointment on Saturday to have the fluid drained.
The next day, the vet drained him, removing about 2/3 of a liter of fluid from his lower body. He initially perked up immediately afterward, which gave Dana and I hope, but despite his regained ability to groom himself, he continued to not eat. With his weight and energy levels dramatically dropping over the weekend, the vet advised us to attempt to feed him with a food syringe, which we did on Sunday afternoon. He seemed to enjoy it at first, so things were looking up. Unfortunately, late Sunday night, everything began to fall apart.
Philo vomited up the food that we had given him earlier in the day, along with his pills. He then spent the night periodically coughing up saliva, which had turned thick and foamy. He also wandered over to his cat bed and urinated in it. This was the only time that he had ever not used his litter box.
When he was first diagnosed, the vet told me that FIP strikes hard and fast. Things may seem OK one minute, and the next, everything breaks down. She also told me that some signs that he is ready to go would be a lack of eating, vomiting, and incontinence–all of which Philo was suddenly suffering from.
It was time. As soon as the vet opened this morning, we called and filled them in on our situation. Within minutes, Dana and I were standing in a room, petting our dear Philo for the last time as he slowly went to sleep.
He was far too young for this to happen, and it was far too soon after Mia’s death. Dana and I have been crying an awful lot this week.
Philo was a pretty fantastic cat. When we first saw him, we were instantly charmed by his large, hairy ears and the little mark on his lip that made it look like he had been sipping coffee and stained his fur. We also loved that he was so close to his sister, Moxie. Moxie, by the way, is most likely safe from getting FIP. We had her checked out immediately after Philo was diagnosed.
Philo was trouble, but never harmful trouble. Like I mentioned, he simply loved to explore and climb where he probably shouldn’t. He was also extremely active and very playful. We didn’t have to worry about Philo clawing up the furniture or anything like that, but he might give you a friendly nip on the finger when you were petting him.
I do take some comfort in the fact that both Dana and I got some quality time with Philo before he died. A couple nights ago, he cuddled on our bed with Dana for hours as she played Zuma’s Revenge on her laptop. Last night, he sat on my lap for a few hours as I wrote an article for work (a review of Rabbids Go Home for G4). Of course, I was frequently distracted by my need to pet the little guy, but I’m exceptionally glad that I never took him off of my lap so that I could better concentrate. Moxie also gave Philo a few licks on his face before we took him off to the vet this morning. It was simultaneously the sweetest and most depressing thing that I have ever seen. Dana and I both lost it when it happened.
Luckily, we have lots of pictures of Philo and evenafewvideos, so there is plenty to remember him by. And of course, we still have Moxie, who I must admit has made dealing with this loss a bit easier. The video I am posting below is the last footage that I recorded of Philo. It was recorded on November 5, two days after his diagnosis. This was one of his aforementioned bursts of energy that showed Dana and me that he wasn’t ready to check out just yet.
It looks like Sewart didn’t make a post when he posted the episode, so here we go. And for the record, this episode title is boring. I suggested “Further Activision Gameplay Spoilers,” but apparently that was just too darn clever.
This week! CJ is missing! We’ve got a new theme song! Also, some more talk on Modern Warfare 2 (listen for the spoiler alert)!
Other games discussed in this episode include Forza Motorsport III, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, LEGO Rock Band, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed–Ultimate Sith Edition, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, The San Diego Zoo Presents: The Animals, and more!
Thanks for listening! Don’t forget to visit our new web site at www.playeronepodcast.com. You can leave us a voicemail by calling 713-893-8069 or you can send a comment via MP3 to our email address, playeronepodcast@gmail.com. Don’t forget to join our forums if you haven’t already! Thank you everyone for listening and supporting the show for the three years we’ve been podcasting.
This week! A packed show! We’ve got Modern Warfare 2 leaked footage (if you’re trying to remain a MW2 virgin it’s between 12:45-29:35), Nintendo’s DSi LL/XL announcement, a Game Club segment on Luigi’s Mansion for GameCube, then we launch into the games of the week before playing through the finalists in our theme song contest. Games discussed in this episode include Tekken 6, Loco Roco Midnight Carnival, Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 4, Uncharted 2, Ratchet & Clank A Crack in Time, DJ Hero, GTA IV: Lost and Damned and Ballad of Gay Tony and more!
As mentioned we played the finalists in our theme song contest. You have until Friday, November 6 to get your vote in on songs 1, 2, 3 or 4. Email your selection to playeronepodcast@gmail.com.
Thanks for listening! Don’t forget to visit our new web site at www.playeronepodcast.com. You can leave us a voicemail by calling 713-893-8069 or you can send a comment via MP3 to our email address, playeronepodcast@gmail.com. Don’t forget to join our forums if you haven’t already!
It would be really easy to sit here and dump on The Animals for a few hundred words. After all, not only is this a lame “edutainment” title, but it perfectly presents exactly why this kind of software never belonged on the Sega CD in the first place – what with its limited color palette and postage-stamp sized videos.
owitz Studios – was well known as a pioneer of educational and teaching programs back in the day.
Publisher Mindscape is still around, though you’d be forgiven for never having heard of them, as they’re mostly doing more edutainment sofware nowadays (a lot of it on the DS). The publisher was a bit more prominent in the 16-bit days, though. And while researching their history for this article, I was reminded that they are actually the group that brought the seminal Wing Commander PC game to the SNES, and touched off my subsequent love of the series. I actually bought a 3DO when I learned that Wing Commander 3 was coming to that system. I also based my first computer purchase largely on whether it could run Wing Commander 4.
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