Speaking of the podcast, there has been a change. Geoff Brewer, Jamie Sherer, and Axel Anderson join me through Skype now. They are old friends and veteran podcasters from the way, way, way back ago days of Alt Source Games. The quality isn’t as great as if we were all in the studio together, but the energy is better than ever. We tend to run extra long because no one wants to stop talking and that’s a great sign that we are having fun. Here’s to many more 3 hour episodes.
The 3DS has been getting plenty of exercise lately. Fire Emblem: Awakening came along with me for the vacation and I had a great time with the Strategy RPG. The problem is after stepping away from it for about a month, I’m having a hard time picking up where I left off. It got pushed to the sidelines because Animal Crossing: New Leaf took up near permanent residence in my 3DS. You can read my review for it here. In the review, I tried to explore what mechanics in the game make it so damn addicting. I highly recommend playing either game since they both are so fantastic at what they do.
The summer Steam sale is in full swing and steadily chipping away at so many wallets. It’s extra difficult to say “No,” to the hot daily deals not because the collecting of silly Steam trading cards has a hold on me, but because I have a PC now. It was handed down to me by my extremely generous stepfather and it works better than expected. It does lack a proper graphics card and I’ve been pricing a few prospects after getting enlightened by a helpful co-worker. Besides playing PC games that I haven’t had access to in years, I’m also planning on using the PC to record some videos. Diving into the screen capturing and streaming scene is intimidating mostly because my PC understanding has atrophied after disuse and my patience for making computer things work has followed a similar trend. It’s also a slippery slope since after I beef the PC up a bit I might become spoiled by the higher quality of recording coming from it and no longer satisfied with the grainy, low fidelity ones I’m getting using my Mac Book Pro and a cheap capture kit. Money is the limiting factor especially with having to set aside coin for the new consoles coming during the holidays.
Go get your appetite whetted by some of these video: There is a GTA V gameplay video that made Kojima envious or there is a very Kojima Metal Gear Solid V trailer; both are awesome. The next update for Street Fighter IV is dubbed Ultra and will include new characters and stages ripped from Street Fighter X Tekken. Killer Instinct looks super pretty and has a dearth of smart systems and reverent attention to detail as explained in these IGN videos. Patrick of Giant Bomb interviews Scott Rohde in this very genuine audio log about the PS4. Divekick will be coming out August 20th for PS3 and Vita Cross Buy at $9.99. Pokémon has been knocked off and out Pokémon’d by a brilliant little illegal game called Pokémon Generations. There is a new Ratchet and Clank game subtitled Into the Nexus. You can bid on Sony props based on how many Gold Trophies you have on PSN. Reggie is very aware of your internet jokes based on his Animal Crossing video. Go watch something Ryan Davis related in his late honor. I suggest this episode of Time Trotters.
Thanks to all the usual sources for reporting on this stuff first and to the developers, publishers, and content creators who make the world a more fun place. Gameinformer, Giant Bomb, IGN, and NeoGaf.
By Griff Hoffmann