Player One Podcast

This week! A little GDC (3DS/NGP), Great Gatsby, BIT.TRIP RUNNER, Days of Thunder, Dead Space 2: Severed, Zelda memories, Dreamcast or Saturn, Super Mario 3DS, character idle animations and oh so much more. Like Flubber.

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.

Got an Android device? You can now download our app on the Android Marketplace. Find out all about it here.

Follow us on twitter at twitter.com/p1podcast.

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!

This week’s link:
The Great Gatsby

Running time: 1:15:37

Direct download: 03_07_11-Episode228.mp3

Chris Johnston Episodes, Video Games 3DS, Bit.Trip Runner, Days of Thunder, Dead Space 2 Severed, dreamcast, GDC, Great Gatsby, ngp, Saturn, Super Mario 3DS, Zelda

This week! Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, Earthworm Jim HD, AlanWake (some spoilers ahead), Transformers demo, new Mortal Kombat, Dreamcast games on XBLA, Rock Band 3, E3 speculations and Telltale Games’ Jurassic Park and Back to the Future games.

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.

Follow us on twitter at twitter.com/p1podcast.

Thanks for listening! Don’t forget to visit our new web site atwww.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!

Running time: 1:10:18

Direct download: 06_14_10-Episode190.mp3

Chris Johnston Episodes alan wake, Back to the Future, Crazy Taxi, dreamcast, e3, Earthworm Jim, episode, Jurassic Park, Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, Mortal Kombat, podcast, Rock Band 3, Sonic Adventure, Transformers

This week! We talk about our favorite games no one’s ever heard of, the best year for games between 2008 and ’09, sequels that live up to the promise of the first game, the new EGM, favorite Dreamcast games and more. Games we discuss include Modern Warfare 2, Uncharted 2, 1 vs. 100 Live, Cobra Command iPhone and more. Modern Warfare 2 talk between 4:00 and 21:00 and Uncharted 2 talk between 43:30 and 56:45 is spoilery.

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.

Follow us on twitter at twitter.com/p1podcast.

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!

Running time: 1:33:07

This week’s links:
Player One Podcast iPhone App

Direct download: 12_07_09-Episode163.mp3

Chris Johnston Episodes 1 vs 100 Live, Cobra Command, dreamcast, episode, modern warfare 2, podcast, Uncharted 2

As I write this, the green flag has just dropped on the Rolex 24 hour race at Daytona, and thus, on the 2009 racing season. I caught a few of these American Grand Am (or Le Mans, whichever) races last year, and the drivers usually put on a really good show. I’m going to make sure to catch a few more of those this season.

Anyway, there is a gaming bent to this post. The 24 at Daytona reminded me about a great racing game from a generation ago – Test Drive Le Mans on the Dreamcast, and the PlayStation 2 re-release, Le Mans 24 Hours.

I remember first hearing about the game back during my EGM days, and thinking Infogrames (the French publisher that eventually became the new Atari) was completely nuts. NASCAR and F1 are generally the only licensed racing leagues you can hope to release to any sort of success. But basing an entire game on a single, 24 hour race? How could that possibly work out?

Well, that’s not totally true. Test Drive Le Mans was really a series of championship seasons across various, licensed tracks, along with the ability to run the 24 hours of Le Mans if you so desired. And yes, the option to run the real-time, 24 hour race was in there.

And it was designed really well, too. With a full day and night cycle, as well as the option for random weather changes, the whole thing felt very authentic. Plus you could save your game every time you pitted, which made the whole thing quite manageable.

The key thing to note, though, is that the game was just a hell of a lot of fun to play. The graphics were great for the time, with some very impressive lighting and that shiny, metallic look a lot of us came to expect from Dreamcast racers. They don’t hold up incredibly well today, but the game still has a pretty unique look.

The reason I remember this game so well, though, is because it was awarded EGM’s Racing Game of the Year back in 2000 (I think that was the year, anyway). That and it seemed like the cornerstone of a series of quite enjoyable racers to come out of Infogrames. While they never had an amazing reputation, a lot of racing fans were really well-served by Infogrames and some of their developers over the previous generation. Places like Melbourne House, Ratbag, and Monster Games in particular. The publisher released great, grass-roots style racing games that covered World of Outlaws Sprint cars, dirt-track stock car racing, great rally racing, and even NASCAR. Even destruction derby style racing (along with figure 8 racing and all that sort of stuff) was well served by Test Drive: Eve of Destruction.

So if you’re a racing fan, you could do worse than looking up some of Infogrames’ stuff on the PlayStation 2.

Greg Sewart Video Games dreamcast, playstation 2, racing, test drive