posted by Chris on July 21, 2008 7:26 PM in Podcast
In the aftermath of E3 2008, Chris, Qais and Jinny discuss what ensued during the Nintendo and Sony conferences, and other great games announced at the now stripped down show. They raise questions such as: is Nintendo in the business of making money or making video games? And: what is the plural of "red headed stepchild"? Whether or not you want to have this information in your head is immaterial! It is here. Would you like to hear about our frothing demand for Mirror's Edge and EA's offerings? You can experience this.
posted by Chris on June 2, 2008 6:48 PM in Podcast
With companies catering to the swelling masses of "casual" gamers, hardcore gamers are starting to feel slightly underrepresented. This week, Chris, Qais and Jinny talk about (more like obsess about) The World Ends With You and what it does to shake up the RPG formula, how Guitar Hero for the DS may actually be good, Beyond Good and Evil getting a much-deserved sequel, and the strange subset of hardcore Warcraft III custom map players. We then proceed to rip through the mailbag, where we actually read your actual letters on the air. I don't know how it works, I'm not a scientist.
posted by Chris on May 19, 2008 6:22 PM in Podcast
This week, Qais, Chris and Ross the Transparent Underground Gnoll meet at the Fortress of Geekitude to discuss the state of video game trade shows, Konami's new Rock Revolution and what a new drum peripheral could mean for crowded living rooms everywhere, making worthwhile games for children, the Great Slipper Collapse of 1985 (includes bonus Fraggle Rock discussion) and then the boys dip into the mailbag. Which isn't a euphemism.
posted by Chris on May 12, 2008 5:03 PM in Podcast
It's ladies night on The Weekly Geek, as Colette and Jinny join the very manly Chris and the always testosterone-heavy Mack in what is possibly the ladiest podcast ever. Is Guitar Hero IV going to rock Rock Band? Is Lost Winds Colette's favorite game evar? (Protip: it is!) Other topics include mini map dependence, Emerald City Comic Con, Crisis Core, and more great TV. Enjoy the brisk flavor of this special podcast... ladies.
This week isn't ALL about Grand Theft Auto IV, though it's hard to talk about anything else this week as its been ruling most gamers' lives. In a good way. Chris and Qais discuss the greater value of Grand Theft Auto as a piece of high art, completely without sarcasm! No, seriously! Why don't you believe me?! We then move on to Guitar Hero's brand being diluted, and Qais talks about insomnia and what kind of snacks he likes when he's pulling an all-nighter.
posted by Chris on April 21, 2008 6:19 PM in Podcast
This week Chris is joined by Mack and Ross to talk about those playground perpetuated secret levels we all remember from childhood, the Iron Man/Hulk movie crossover, the Mortal Kombat vs. DC crossover, and our frothing demand for GTAIV. These and other geeky discussions can be yours this week, for the low, low price of zero dollars! Will these geeks ever get over the childhood trauma of finding out there's no cow level? Find out by downloading this podcast!
Subscribe to our feed to get these updates automatically! Show notes after the jump.
posted by Chris on March 11, 2008 1:46 PM in Games
The rise in popularity of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and other fake-plastic-instrument music games has led to a golden age of videos of those games being played on YouTube. Indeed, we are seeing a virtual renaissance of watching a video screen display color bars to music and now we have an entirely new medium ready to set the world ablaze: Guitar Hero for the Commodore 64.
Tony Westbrook of Synthetic Dreams has created Shredz64, a Guitar Hero sort of game for the Commodore 64 (which he dubs "the best selling computer of all time"). Here we see a video of young Tony, straight off of his job as an extra in Miami Vice apparently, explaining how using a controller works to move around in menus and other boring things. Then at around 4 and a half minutes things get exciting when he demonstrates a suspiciously familiar theme song...
Shredz64 boasts the ability to load new and user-generated music and also the ability to make you look really nerdy and awkward when you talk about it at parties. Check out the video and enjoy.
posted by Chris on February 25, 2008 5:36 PM in Podcast
With HD-DVD dead, the geeks from The Weekly Geek somehow manage to make a podcast in these most dire of times. Yea, though the apocalypse is upon us, we can still enjoy ranting and raving about video games and movies. This week, Chris, Mack and Qais discuss the wonders that are Wondercon and the Game Developer's Conference, expanding into discussion of community games, digital downloads, media wars, how much cooler Rock Band is versus Guitar Hero, the virtues of Leonardo DiCaprio and how DC will never really kill off their characters, even though they say they will. Liars.
I apologize for the audio quality of the podcast, we had technical issues again which makes me and Qais sound quiet and Mack sound really loud. Good for Mack, I guess!
posted by Qais on December 3, 2007 1:53 PM in Games
Activision Blizzard chairman and CEO Robert Kotick, announced the company's plans to exploit the successful release model of EA Games and start cranking out the franchises. Predictably, those franchises will include Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, and Tony Hawk.
Koetick was quoted thusly:
"You can expect virtually every one of those properties (its 10 multi-million unit-selling franchises) will be exploited on an annual or close to annual basis."
It appears that Guitar Hero 4 and Call of Duty 5 are already in the pipe for release. Activision Blizzard taking on this strategy begs the question of content quality and whether we'll see a dive in quality taken over the desire to get franchise releases out on schedule.
Just quick update on the auction of this one of a kind geek artifact, there's only one day left and the bidding is already over $500! If you're feeling (at this point extremely) generous please feel free to bid. All proceeds will go to the Child's Play charity.
posted by Chris on September 28, 2007 12:46 AM in Games, Music
The Phendrana Drifts theme is probably one of my favorite tracks from the stellar Metroid Prime soundtrack, and in today's Your Personal Soundtrack we see some sort of strange Guitar Hero hack for the Metroid Metal version. It looks pretty intense for such a slow, relaxing song.
Metroid Metal by Stemage is available for free from their website.
posted by Qais on September 10, 2007 11:11 AM in Games
When news of a Guitar Hero DS port first reached my horribly deformed ears I reacted in the way I suspect many people reacted, with utter confusion. I hear the kids these days are saying something along the lines of "WTF". How could you possibly port Guitar Hero, a game that relies on having a fair amount of room at your disposal in which to rock, to the DS, a system that is best played while on the bus crammed between two smelly hobos so fat they defy description. Somehow, the developers at Vicarious Visions, the company I suspect we will grow to hate immensely for releasing this, intend to deliver portable illusory rock god status right into your hot little hands.
However the big news isn't that the DS is getting a Guitar Hero port, it's that you won't use your stylus, one of the main input devices for the DS, with the game. Adrian Earle, design manager for Vicarious Visions, reported that they're developing a new peripheral for the DS on which to tap furiously thus irritating the ever living fuck out of everyone around you. Keep in mind the tapping bit is simply speculation on my part, I'm hoping for some kind of light emitting theremin control so that next PAX there will be rows of enraptured gamers, twiddling their fingers over light emitting boxes, thus fulfilling my "the future is now" wet dream.
In addition to the intriguing prospect of a new peripheral, Adrian Earle informed the folks at GAF that they won't be adapting the graphic style of Guitar Hero to a cartoonish 2-D style, instead keeping the iconic Guitar Hero look. I only hope they can reproduce the Guitar Hero feel as well.
Overview: You know it, you love it. It's Guitar Hero. Now for the Xbox 360, this version features an all-new X-Plorer controller and 70 tracks (some of which aren't on the PS2 version). Also featuring downloadable content, this is the definitive version of Guitar Hero II. It's fun and difficult, the multiplayer is solid and the achievements come steadily. But how is the controller? Song selection? How does it look? Do you still get that weird optical illusion where everything is slowly moving upward after a song? The answer to most of these questions and the rest of the review after the jump.
posted by Chris on April 9, 2007 6:15 AM in Podcast
This week The Geek and Frodo (now known by the clever Internet moniker "Chris Furniss") rant about why April Fool's Day sucks, the virtues of Guitar Hero II for the Xbox 360 (and why unlocking things is excellent), Super Paper Mario, Red vs. Blue ending, Subway and the bullshit obesity epidemic, Steven Colbert's ice cream, using Mitch Hedburg quotes in real life, and then finally in the end Chris sells out. Download the podcast now or subscribe in your favorite reader. You do have a favorite reader, don't you? Click the thing for show notes.
EA, MTV and Harmonix took a moment from their insipid love fest to announce something incredibly cool and exciting. Rock Band! It is apparently going to be using guitar, bass, drum and microphone peripherals and will span all genres with master recordings of most of the songs. An official website has been launched which you can see here.
This seems to go hand in hand with EA's announcement of more music partnerships, and is the big secret project we have all been waiting for from the creators of Guitar Hero. Hopefully EA doesn't crap it up. More details as they come to us. Maybe we will see a playable version at E3?
Unfortunately for the Wii, it's only for PLAYSTATION 3 and Xbox 360. Another nail in the coffin. Full release after the jump.
posted by Chris on February 19, 2007 8:05 PM in Games
Guest Article by Jonny Lupsha
Video game music has seen a thirty-year transition from silence to orchestrated scores by modern classical composers that was so smooth, it's hard to imagine how it all happened.
Any gamer worth his or her salt remembers what they heard the first time they flipped on the NES and prepared for the quest to slay Ganon, Bowser, Dracula or Mother Brain. My brother and I would run from the other end of the house every time we heard my dad throwing his first punches in Kung Fu. Little eight-minute MIDI symphonies seemed as good as it could get and, many would argue, still are.
The next logical step was the analog keyboard version of Alice in Chains' "Angry Chair" in Doom II, which might as well have been my CD collection in a video game.
Trent Reznor's score for Id’s Quake was, to me, mind-blowing. The eerie industrial-ambient drones – complete with embedded grenade-bouncing sounds in one of the tracks – chilled me to the bone. I had a running conspiracy theory that violence-inducing soundwaves were hidden in that album and experimented on it for months on end. Years later, Akira Yamaoka's Silent Hill scores paralleled Reznor's Quake score for the survival horror series.
posted by Chris on January 25, 2007 10:01 AM in Games
I am actually surprised that more companies haven't tried to copy Guitar Hero. It's such a horrifically successful franchise, it demands clones. Gilligames announced today they are working on a title called Shady O'Grady's Rising Star, which claims to be a sort of band creation RPG for the PC. Curious naming decisions aside, this actually sounds quite interesting. You get to build your band from the ground up, choosing clothes and hairstyle, genre and more. You even get to trash hotel rooms! From the release:
In Rising Star, you start out as an eighteen year old rookie musician in one of ten music types: rock and roll, jazz, ska, rap, pop, blues, metal, punk, folk, or country. Choose your home sweet home from over 120 cities located throughout the U.S., and recruit compatible musicians for your band. You’ll start off as poor, starving artists, as you landscape the local parks and deliver beer to the area pubs for a little cash. The jobs can be grueling as often you’re expected to drive like a bat out of hell to cover 3/5 of a mile in ten seconds in your beaten up ‘band-van’ to complete some insane delivery run for a couple hundred bucks. However, in this game, just as in life, money changes everything. Some spending cash will allow you to get familiar with the local club scene. Make enough connections with the club owners and bands, and soon you’ll score your first gig. You’ll get to enter Battle of the Bands, where initially you may be outshined by more experienced bands. But with some practice, you’ll be getting better and winning prize money in these competitions. Eventually, you’ll deal with larger venues, managers, producers, record contracts, product endorsements and more. You’ll write songs, and practice practice practice, until you’re ready to R.O.C.K in the U.S.A. Initially, the audience will wonder, “who are you?” But if you stay hungry and put on a couple great shows, your fame will rise until everybody wants you. You’re success in Rising Star won’t be some sort of mystery achievement – it’s all hard work and a lot of pressure to get to the top. It’s sad but true, but something as simple as a van breakdown on the way to Baltimore could mess with your career and have you crying bitter tears.
That's a pretty tall order. Sounds a bit like a scripted adventure game mixed with Guitar Hero mixed with SimCity. There's even a map editor. Wait, what exactly is this game?
posted by Chris on October 2, 2006 8:31 AM in Podcast
Join The Geek and Frodo on this week's geek culture and video game podcast as they discuss freelance reviews, the Gamestop trade in bonus, mega man, okami, DS Lite Cracks and Weird Al's new album. You will join them. You cannot stop the joining.
posted by Chris on September 22, 2006 9:05 AM in Games
In a juvenile turn of events, the creators of the awesome wireless flying V Guitar Hero controller we talked about on the podcast last week, The Ant Commandos, are counter-suing Red Octane and Activision, claiming that both companies copied the design of their guitar controllers from a company called Topway Electrical Appliance, Co. specifically the colored fret buttons. This comes after Red Octane and Activision sued The Ant Commandos for copying the packaging design of their proprietary Guitar Hero controller, trademark infringement, and general hooliganism.
Red Octane used to be a third party DDR pad manufacturer, so it's very odd to see them get on top, and then get down on the little guys for doing the same thing they did just a few years ago. Granted, the trademark infringement stuff is a bit iffy, but in my opinion the Wireless Flying V guitar that "TAC" sells is far superior to the built-in Red Octane controller. What does this mean for you, the consumer? You get to laugh at companies being worse than little kids on the playground. It's fun. Hit the jump for the full press release.
posted by Chris on September 17, 2006 6:29 PM in Podcast
This week's extra long podcast features Frodo, The Geek, White Mage, Rikki Simons from Invader Zim, Tycho from Penny Arcade and Eliza Gauger from Kotaku.com. They all discuss the big Wii release news, destroying the planet, the Canadian Game Awards Frodo attended, and then you get to hear the voice of Gir say naughty things. DON'T MISS IT.
EA, MTV and Harmonix took a moment from their insipid love fest to announce something incredibly cool and exciting. Rock Band! It is apparently going to be using guitar, bass, drum and microphone peripherals and will span all genres with master recordings of most of the songs. An official website has been launched which you can see 
I am actually surprised that more companies haven't tried to copy Guitar Hero. It's such a horrifically successful franchise, it demands clones. Gilligames announced today they are working on a title called Shady O'Grady's Rising Star, which claims to be a sort of band creation RPG for the PC. Curious naming decisions aside, this actually sounds quite interesting. You get to build your band from the ground up, choosing clothes and hairstyle, genre and more. You even get to trash hotel rooms! From the release:
In a juvenile turn of events, the creators of the awesome wireless flying V Guitar Hero controller we talked about on the 