Player One Podcast

Listen up, pardners, it’s our 25th Game Club, and to celebrate, we’re tackling the most recent (although still seven years old) entry in Lorne Lanning’s Oddworld series, Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath. It’s an (*ahem*) odd hybrid of first- and third-person shooters set in a whimsically bizarre version of the old west. You play as the Stranger, a bounty hunter looking to score loads of moolah by bringing in the orneriest outlaws in the land. Of course, there’s much more to the story, but to spoil it (and its twist) would be a disservice.

The game’s biggest gimmick is the literal “live ammo”–living critters that you must first hunt before loading them into your crossbow to use against the enemy. You also have the choice of bringing your quarry in dead or alive. You’ll earn a higher bounty if they’re still kickin’, but it’s usually more difficult to do this than finishing ‘em off first.

Originally released on the Xbox (and sadly not backwards compatible on the Xbox 360), we were lucky enough to get an updated version of the game recently. Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD is currently available on the PlayStation Network for $14.99. The regular ol’ version of the game is also available on Steam for $9.99 (with a free HD update coming in a few months).

We’ll be discussing Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath in episode 275 of the Player One Podcast. So get playing and share your comments and/or memories. You can post them in this thread, in the official thread on our forums, on Twitter (@p1podcast), drop us an email, or leave a voicemail (713-893-8069).

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It’s that time again! Time for another entry in our increasingly infrequent Game Club! As we discussed on a recent episode, we’ve decided to tackle Michel Ancel’s beloved Beyond Good & Evil. The game is currently available on PS2, Xbox, GameCube, and PC. Ubisoft just released an HD port on Xbox Live Arcade for a measly 800 Allards (that’s only $10 in regular monies). It’s also coming to PSN, well, sometime later.

Beyond Good & Evil may not have set the sales charts on fire when it was originally released in 2003, but it received tons of praise from professional reviewers and fans alike. Why do you love this game so much? Let us know! Maybe–just maybe–this Game Club will convince Ubisoft to finish up Beyond Good & Evil 2.

We’ll be discussing Beyond Good & Evil on episode 230 of the Player One Podcast, so get playing and share your comments and/or memories. You can post them in the comments section of this blog post, in the official thread on our forums, drop us an email, or leave a voicemail (713-893-8069).

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As I’ve mentioned on the show before, I rather enjoy Telltale Games’ adventure games. The ol’ point ‘n’ click was my genre of choice back when I first started getting into PC games (in the early ’90s), and it’s great to see this once dead gameplay style revived.

The first episode of Telltale’s Tales of Monkey Island is due out in a couple days, and time is fast running out to pre-order the entire season and score a bonus DVD of the game. Of course, the “get the DVD copy with purchase of the whole season” is the standard Telltale incentive, but the Tales pre-order DVDs have an exclusive cover painted by Sam & Max creator (and original Monkey Island cover artist), Steve Purcell.

I was reminded to pre-order my copy today when I opened up my mailbox to find a package from Telltale Games inside. It was my DVD copy of Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People from when I pre-ordered that season ages ago.

Here’s an official pic of what the cover looks like:

It’s certainly a bright, eye-catching cover, but the design isn’t anything too special. I busted open the package to check out the innards and was mildly amused by the manual (made up to look like a composition notebook) and the DVD (with “Sharpie” writing claiming that it contained the original source code).

The real treat was when I went to put the manual back. I noticed an odd bit of color coming up through the holes by the little, clippy manual tabs. Did Telltale sneak in a reversible cover?

Oh, you betcha they did.

OK, sure…the recent Venture Bros. DVD set makes this a bit of an old gag, but who cares? Atari 2600 homage!

Phil Theobald Homestar Runner, Strong Bad, Video Games Atari 2600, Homestar Runner, PC, Strong Bad, Telltale Games, Videlectrix