Fantastic Episode Four has arrived! 45 minutes of debate and banter, direct to you. What could be better on a Tuesday morning?
Join Black Eagle, Kona Kona (Kael), Chan and Emile, along with our now-regular guest Blue Ink from Blue Ink Alchemy as they discuss the following topics and more on this, the third edition of the Classholes Podcast:
- SW:TOR flight system
- Final Fantasy XIV Fatigue Controversy
- Best of Gamescom Awards
- Buying used vs new games (the THQ/Penny Arcade pro-developer argument)
- What we’re looking forward to at PAX
As always, remember that the Classholes is rated R for strong language and B for bacon, so keep your headphones on at work.
(downloadable link here for mp3 player, on-the-go goodness)
This wait for both PAX and the fall game release system has been brutal and unforgiving, and I’ve been bored. So bored that I’ve been hitting the casual game circuit a little hard lately. I actually own the complete PopCap series on Steam; most of those games I’ve never played but a few minutes, but generally I enjoy them. They’re good for keeping my mind busy at the end of a long day while I wait for my brain to run down.
Some of these games, though, they’re pretty… weird. I find myself asking more often than not what, exactly, PopCap was smoking when they produced these winners.
Without further ado, I give you: The 5 Biggest WTF PopCap Moments.
Continue reading 5 Biggest WTF PopCap Moments
Our resident Frenchman, and Podcast Whipping boy, Emile, decided to appear from the mists. He handed me this review, which smells strongly of wine and cheeses. Read away, lads. Read away. – Kona
Holy fuck, this game is awesome. You should buy it, and buy it now. Anything less would be a heresy unto the gods of the internets and gaming, and all heretics, as you well know, shall be purged. To further illustrate this point, today was my first day of classes, and I consider myself to be a generally good student. I stayed up all night, getting absolutely no sleep, playing this game. I feel precisely like ass right now, but it was more than worth it. And I’m planning on doing it again tonight.
…
According to Kona, the above doesn’t quite meet his standards for a blog post. It’s, evidently, far too short and scant on details. Needless to say I’m paraphrasing. His exact words were far more colorful, to put it quite mildly. To put it quite accurately, I’ve never before heard the words penis and fuck used more eloquently. He really is a master at his art. But I digress. In the interest of appeasing the all powerful blog master, I suppose I’ll go ahead and write a more full review.
Continue reading Mafia II: At First Glance
Social gaming has been the “hot” trend in online games for the last couple years or so, much to to chagrin of longtime traditional-style gamers. It’s easy to look down on Farmville, or Frontierville, or CafeWorld or whatever it is all my aunts and cousins are playing these days. I can be a painfully casual gamer (I own just about every PopCap game) and tend towards games with a social component (hence my love of MMOs), yet I never could get into any of those Facebook offerings. Maybe it was the lousy graphics that turned me off. Maybe it was just the idea of giving any app on Facebook permission to touch my personal information. Or maybe it was my inane need to feel cool and hate on things that are popular.
Fortunately for me, social gaming isn’t just for that terribly invasive social network anymore, and it’s gone from casual home- or cafe-building into a game reminiscent of a true role-playing adventure. All that I needed to become a social gamer was one that would appeal to my inner MMO addict; one with an amazing RPG world and that “just a little while longer” stat-grinding goodness. Let me introduce you to Echo Bazaar from Failbetter Games, my little indie social gaming guilty pleasure.
Continue reading Echo Bazaar: Social Gaming, RPG Style
