Press Start To Start

It's been a long week, ladies and gents, but we finally are back with a big bad review on a very special game. It's a secret as to what game, but here's a hint: it's in today's title, and it involves guns! Many guns. Many varied guns. Along the way we'll also shoot some thoughts and reflections on the recently-released Torchlight 2, the not-so-recently released Pikmin 2, the leaked Mass Effect 3 DLC, the final verdicts on the new PS3 model, and even more! So stick around, catch a ride, and listen to your ears' content.

There was a minor explosion within the video gaming community sometime last Thursday, and we are here to finally discuss it: all of the stuff going down with the Wii U. Release dates, models, prices, and games are ready to be picked over and talked about. Chuck in the Half-Life remake/remix Black Mesa finally being released after seven years, as well as some rumors about the future of Playstation 3 [which were not official at the time of this recording] and a couple other surprises, and you have a PSTS episode not to be missed!

We kick you off as we always do, spreading the opinions and minor reviews of what we've been playing, old or new, including platforming-amazer Super Mario 3D Land and cute-capitalist Recettear, discuss the minor glimpses of genius in Planetside 2, and round you off with our newest impressions of League of Legends. Which brings us to our main topic: how not to be a jerk, and why it helps you in the end. After that is Valve's big announcement of the week, which may or may not be a harbinger of bigger and better things, some speculation, announcements, and upcoming events for the Wii U, and some discussion on a recent patent for the XBox. We round it off with yet more rumors and some results from Steam Greenlight, just in time for supper!

We have a special surprise for all of you love birds out there! Now you can listen to Jeff and JD muse and meander in even higher quality audio as their voices are caught up in a microphone of dreams and sent in high definition through the internet directly to your ears. But that's not all that we have in store for you in this sweating and sultry episode of Press Start to Start: in addition to reviews of games that you played five years ago, like No More Heroes, we also have news from the most exciting gaming convention in the northwest, the Penny Arcade Expo!

You're looking at this from your phone or pod-type thing, but you should know that this episode is the world's first Let's Podcast! That's not necessarily true. It's probably been done. But this time, if you like, you can listen to us prattle on while the other plays one of the greatest GameCube games ever rereleased for Wii. Check out our YouTube page! In the meantime we'll talk about the topic on everyone's lips, the legendary "girlfriend mode," as well as a beta both of us are in, some disappointing announcements, and why long-form reviews are, ultimately, more useful than dumb ratings!

We've crawled out from under our respective rocks to bring you one hundred million tiny news stories served in one thousand courses. First we'll refresh you with a shiny review of the new New Super Mario Bros game for the 3DS, then warm your palette with reflections on Skyrim and the recently-defeated Lost Odyssey. Our main course will serve up the latest controversial things that game devs have been saying, both about other games and about their own; there will be a side dish of remakes (modelled to tasted), several drinks of rumors and ideas involving PC ports and cancellations of several looked-forward-to games, and we'll round the meal off with a lovely reminiscence of a bygone time when news exclusively was received on bound, glossy paper. For dessert we have a special, not-so-secret, almost-forgotten announcement to reveal to you, our lucky listeners. So dive in, bring a napkin, and get ready for Press Start to Start.

Jeff and JD have been playing a few games from the GameCube era and wish to discuss their faults and weaknesses in ways that only PSTS can. Also there's news from the gaming homefront in the strange concept of the Crossbuy system for the PS3 and Vita, along with the new bizarre update of Team Fortress 2 (it introduces co-op!) and an interesting game mode for Hitman: Absolution. Finally, we deliver a dessert to you on this delicious discussion platter entailing the concept of gaming level archtypes and the annoyances and enjoyment therein.

JD and Jeff take you through an auditory feast, to discuss exactly what it is that makes video game soundtracks so memorable, what makes them geek out about them so much, and what makes them stick in your brain so perfectly. Gathered here are twenty-or-so songs, most of them slightly shortened for time, with extensive commentary in-between, that we here at Press Start to Start consider the top of the line. They aren't ranked in any way, and we definitely had to cut a number that we consider possibly greater than some on the list, but these are the best of the best.

This week we're talking about all of your favorite subjects: JD has played a bit more Skyrim, Jeff has finally braved the ridiculous intricacies of Ubisoft's DRM/software service Uplay, and we both have a lot to talk at you about in regards to the various games we're Let's Playing on YouTube right now (our user is PressStart2Start, in case you missed that). We also have some news from the front including an interesting "secret owner" of the rights to the next STALKER game, exactly what Gabe Newell thinks about Windows 8, and when a specific failing MMO is going to be free to play.

In this mind-freaking episode of Press Start to Start we'll be discussing Skyrim, its difficulty level, and its lack of RPG elements compared not only to other Elder Scrolls games but other RPGs overall, and whether that's a good or a bad thing. We'll talk about the neato cyberpunk world of Hard Reset and why Jeff should have gotten into it way earlier. We'll drool over Rare and the rumored Nintendo buyout of it, why Banjo-Kazooie should (or should not) be owned by Nintendo again, and why video game movies are probably never a good idea.

You might feel like you're missing out a bit in this episode of PSTS, because it is secretly a video podcast! Check out our YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/pressstart2start to view it. If you absolutely cannot, don't worry, because all of the audio is here, where you'll hear more than you want to know about the Steam Summer Sales, Xenoblade's New Game Plus and what we think of the concept, if Epic Mickey 2 will finally be epic, and more!

This episode you get to hear about games you may like, games you may have played, and games you’ve never heard of! Games like Battlefield 3, The Binding of Isaac, or Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest! We’ll also be chatting about yet more Mass Effect 3 DLC that has been announced, including more single-player additions, two video game movie adaptations that have been on everyone’s tongue, and just how petty some of the console wars are getting.

We promised last week that we would return with news and reviews, and we deliver! This very special episode brings you are opinions on Kid Icarus: Uprising, the claw-inducing game for the 3DS, as well as our feelings, tears, and annoyances at the latest revelation in the continued drama of Mass Effect 3 and its new DLC ending. We follow those up with a butt-load of minor news items, including a possible HD remake of a game neither of us have played, yet more people being banned from Diablo III, and a very anticipated game that will require a big chunk of your 360's hard drive space.

We kick off this episode with a discussion on Nintendo’s recent conference where they revealed their new 3DS XL and plans for New Super Mario Bros 2. Nintendo hopefully won’t disillusion their customers with plans of their first “real” DLC, all while we talk briefly about more DLC for other companies: Mass Effect 3 and Skyrim, specifically. All of this pales in comparison to the news that “Meet the Pyro” is finally coming out!

No more than two weeks late do we bring you a juicy review of all things E3, as well as some healthy discussion on a lot of things we didn't see there. Along the way we talk about what the Wii U needs to do in order to actually have some sales when it comes out, how hilarious it is that the XBox 720 is still being called that, just how much money the next Steam Summer Sale will steal from Jeff's wallet, and round it off with an awesome review of just how spectacular Borderlands 2 should be.

This podcast is dedicated almost exclusively to those men and women who are in sweaty conference halls the world over, for we are talking pretty much only about that wonderful event E3 today. We recorded this in a furrer just last night so that we can bring you only the freshest, ripest, pulpiest news, and our completely uninformed discussions about it.

In which we discuss a few final things before E3 gets started, then muse a bit on the differences we encountered between the 360 and PC version of Minecraft, what makes a good stealth game, and, of course, just how awesome Tales of Symphonia was (and why you really need to play it).

In which we discuss a bizarre crossover Retro Studios is supposedly making, a revised Wii U controller, the comforting formula of JRPGs, and just how annoying it would be to share a car ride with Wario for eight hours.

In which we discuss the siren song of the Wii U, anything of interest being at this year’s E3, the rampant speculation about Sony Battle Royale, and the futility of saying words without vowels.