We know there are lots of podfish in the intersea, but hopefully you saved some room for our extra-late, extra-fantastic fifth episode.
Show description:
Our usual cast of house cats are joined by Area 5.tv‘s Ryan O’Donnell and Jay Frechette, along with freelancer Kat Bailey. We discuss the Dawn of War II Beta, RE5, and Afro Samurai, before getting into an epic debate about the nature of shooters (featuring Half-Life and Killzone 2). And, yes, we finally select the first Backlog 2.0 game, along with some listener letters.
Skate 2 Rebel FM logo (thanks, Josh S.!)
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Don’t sell yourself short, I’ve been waiting for it.
Been stuck without power since last Tuesday, can’t wait to get to work tomorrow so I can pop open RebelFM 4 and 5. Keep up the great work guys.
Ha Ha, In time for my commute this time – glad you guys hit up DoW II, can’t wait to listen…
Damn. I wish this was up before my hour trip to work. After the 1up/UGO clash, its gotten to the point where I have a podcast to listen to from everybody every night of the week. I love it. Thanks guys.
Anthony, you can play the RE5 demo with an invited friend. At the co-op screen just change the game to private and then invite someone from your dashboard friends list. I thought the game was horrible until I played co-op with a friend.
[...] (Rebel FM) Related [...]
Having heard the Zero Punctuation Far Cry 2 review, I can now hear Nick’s South African accent ever so faintly. Mostly when he says “every.”
I was happy to wait until that damned “or pie” bullshit.
God damn it!!!
People should stop with the yaaaayyy…Anthony.
Do you guys think that the character you are controlling in a game should affect the feel of the shooting or combat. For example COD 4, should he feel more accurate fast and deadly with a weapon he is proffesionally trained to use vs say Gordon Freeman who can use a gun but should it really feel the same as in COD4?
Show is great keep em coming.
http://familyofpets.net/
AHAHAHAHAHA!
Is Call of Cthulhu still planned for Backlog 2.0? I picked up a used Xbox copy last year but I haven’t had a chance to play it beyond the first hour or so. But I do look forward to going through it and seeing what everyone’s reactions to it are. Doesn’t look like it’s on Steam, but a digital copy is available to purchase through Direct2Drive.
Keep the shitty arguments out of all future episodes of Rebel FM.
Thanks.
Ugh. I really disliked the long, protracted and absolutely monotonous fps debate in this episode. The points of contention between those involved (especially Arthur’s, excuse me for saying) were often roundabout and scatterbrained. Also, I wanted to hear more from Jay Fresh and Kat, but the fps rambling between the other dudes didn’t leave room for them to speak. Otherwise I love your podcasts.
the shooter argument was horrible. this is why “hardcore” gamers should go shoot themselves.
Sounds to me like you don’t like shooters where the protagonist has different weaponry to the enemy. All the games you mentioned that have ‘bad shooting mechanics’ fit into this category, and you skimmed over TF2, CS and HL2:DM where the sides are equally matched for reasons I can’t fathom.
Perhaps what you’re missing is the feeling that you and your enemy are fighting on equal terms, either you’re overpowered or underpowered in HL2, and Valve use this effectively to build suspenseful or euphoric segments of play – light and shade.
Obviously you can get some Combine weapons in HL2:* but the moments where you’re pitted against enemies with the same load out as you are relatively rare.
Great episode. Without a doubt my favorite podcast on the netz. Keep on truckin’.
I just hope ryan appears as a regular he IMO is a true non-fanboy if there ever was one, simply put everyone has a favourite console but ryan has favourite games and that makes his opinion that much more valid. MORE RYAN MORE RYAN (chant). HOPEFULLY HE IS ON NEXT WEEKS SHOW AND SUSEQUENT ONES.
I don’t mean any offence but are all Americans ignorant to the existence of Third Person Shooter or is it just the guy’s on this pod cast?
I thought the shooter discussion was supposed to be about what makes a good shooter but instead it just sounded like a fanboy argument between Halo and Half-life fans, without any satisfactory conclusion being reached.
Someone made the comment that a lot of people play shooters solely for the single player experience, but I think the majority of people buy a shooter with the intension of spending a lot of their time in online matches. So in my opinion, the areas that should have been looked at are things like the ability to customise certain things in a game (e.g. perks), the way controls are set-up, perspective (i.e. FP or TP), game modes, etc.
Overall great podcast, it’s just the shooter discussion that I didn’t like.
Call of Duty 4 and Counter-Strike:Source are the best controlled FPS games for me. i also consider recoil to be awesome because it make it that much more realistic when i’m shooting and it feel so much rewarding when my skills get better then that of Halo 3
Oh my, well, iTunes must hate me. I’m halfway through the episode now, but in the first 15 minutes, I was hearing short bits from the Player One Podcast spliced in. The podcast file was still playing, and things picked back up soon, but that was a bit weird… maybe I’m just going crazy, it was bound to happen sooner or later.
You can invite friends to the RE5 demo. Just scroll up to the part before you start where is says random players and switch it to invite. It will then ask you to invite a friend.
Just in time for the RE5 demo on PSN! I like your guests, it’s always nice to hear their voices on the podcast.
Thanks for another week! This will make the work day tolerable. I owe you guys.
Thanks guys! Love the show, again, great guests this week (I could listen to Ryan O’Donnell talk about any game for hours and hours).
I’m a little sad to say though, it’s true that Arthur has a negative effect on the show
The shooter debate was pretty long and pointless. Please, no more semantics arguments.
I’ve been enjoying the podcast so far, but I honestly have to say the shooter discussion was very boring. After nearly every point brought up in the discussion I kept thinking “who cares?” Trying to extract a single mechanic from game and judge it based entirely on that mechanic seems absurd to me. The whole reason games like CoD, Half Life and Halo are great is because they offer more than a single mechanic, they blend the mechanic with story and level design to make different expiriences. I think the whole discussion could have been improved by taking shooter games overall expiriences and compare contrast rather than trying to extract a single nebulous component.
Anyway keep trying guys, I like most of the stuff so far.
Just to give you guys a heads up it appears that Call of Cthulhu has spotty backwards compatibility on the 360. Apparently some of the audio is replaced by loud static and specific levels actually have no music when playing on the 360. It also seems to be fairly difficult to find (nothing under $15 for the xbox version on amazon). It seems like the best bet for all looking to participate is just do the direct2drive on pc.
@Patrick
@D
No offense to the guy, I’m sure he’s cool and all that, but as the other commenters have remarked, I’m not liking Arthur’s participation on the show. For a person who honestly I’ve heard of the least (I migrated to this podcast after the 1up fiasco), he sure has a tendency to 1up (see what I did there?) and interrupt the other speakers. Not to mention he sounds like he has a very aggressive and argumentative personality. I don’t know if that is true in person, but that’s the impression I get from listening to the podcasts. One compliment: at the very least, he has strong opinions, no matter how arbitrary they might be *cough* fps “debate” *cough*
I personally enjoy Arthur’s personality and addition to the old 1up crew. I do think he seemed especially argumentative this episode and there were a few points that it seemed the fps discussion got off track but I enjoy his contribution if not for anything other than seeing a different view. I applaud him for being unafraid to speak his mind and find him to be fairly eloquent in his disagreements. I do think the fps argument was a little semantic heavy but I think this could be remedied by more preparation in the future for discussions of that nature. Thanks for all your hard work Rebel FM and thank you for making a terrible work day manageable.
Whoever that guy is that keeps interrupting and talking over people, please don’t let him near a microphone again.
It’s actually tiring to listen to, because you have to try to decipher what is being said.
Apart from that his “know all” attitude does not fit in with the show, which I usually enjoy.
Hey guys,
Love your show! I just want to correct you on something with the RE5 Demo. You can, in fact, choose who you play with in co-op. When you set up a match, there’s an option at the top of your screen to host a game for “everybody” or to hos for a “partner”. If you select “partner” you can then invite a friend to join you.
Great podcast guys. Best one yet as far as subject matter and sound quality. Keep up the good work. The first person shooter discussion was interesting and got me thinking.
I think Arthur’s take on HL2 being more of an adventure game is because there are a lot of aspects of HL2 that set it apart from your average shooter: An unusual emphasis on environmental based puzzles which you’d find in a 3rd person adventure game. And while there are a few sustained gun fights in the HL2 games (particularly in episode 2 which has some fucking epic fights) it seems like the bulk of them are fleeting hit-and-run type skirmishes. Also making HL2 more like an adventure game are the long driving sequences and the breaking open of wooden crates to find items.
Whereas with a game like Call of Duty 4 you’re always in a heated firefight against a ton of guys and the action is non-stop, there are a lot of scripted events and you have lots of NPC’s fighting at your side.
Then you have more RPG-esque shooters like Deus Ex 1, Stalker, and Fallout 3.
The FPS genre is evolving in such it way that it probably wouldn’t hurt to define sub-genres.
Hardcore shooters: CoD4, Resistance 2, and other shooters where the action is mostly non-stop and the level design is very linear. Aside from the occasion switch to open a door, there are virtually no puzzle solving elements to be found.
Adventure Shooters: Halo, Half-Life 2, Far-Cry 2 and basically any shooter that has larger, more open ended levels and involves, if only very sporadically, non shooter elements such as driving, puzzle solving, minor NPC interaction etc.
Tactical Shooters: Rainbow 6 vegas, etc. Obviously you have a small squad at your disposal and must use them effectively to advance through the game.
RPG Shooters: Deus Ex 1, Fallout 3, Stalker, Bioshock etc. The story, item interaction and upgrades, inventory system and the world you play in are more fleshed out. The actual shooting is average when compared to a hardcore shooter.
A good backlog2.0 game would be No More Heroes for the Wii.
why does anthony hate rebel fm so much (and seemingly podcasting in general)?
he always is trying to end segments and move things on faster, trying to end shows early, and telling people to make their comments concise. He also always sounds really downbeat and grumpy about being present (taking off his mic, not saying much, etc).
It’s so painful to listen to Nick and Arthur criticize HL2′s shooting as a peripheral element instead of a core, inherently joyful mechanic.
In HL2, I find each individual weapon is satisfying in its own way and has a particular skill requirement/curve and application. Successfully applying the weapon to the purpose is extremely satisfying given the sound of the weapons, difficulty of the enemies, the way they attack, and the way they animate when they die.
Games like Halo or Call of Duty give you muliple tools for the same purpose. HL2 gives you the ability to approach a scenario in many ways, depending on which weapon you are using. I can’t believe that this open-endedness would somehow take HL2 out of the realm of a pure shooter in the mind of anyone. To me, leaving you open to deciding how you want to use the guns and leaving you to develop the skill to pull it off is the triumph of Half-Life 2, and is why it is a better shooter than most.
I love the show but Arthur’s really needs to dial it back a little. Just too many pointless comments (the havok comment in the FPS argument for example), getting in the final word (did he ever let someone else finish a discussion), splitting hairs, talking for other people, and interruptions this episode.
That FPS argument was painful to listen to. (Long time lurker, but felt I had to say something cause I want to keep listening)
Please invite Jay Fresh on the show more often
On a positive note: Excellent choice for backlog, Cthulu was one of my favorite single player games on the xbox.
This show is going downhill, and picking up speed quickly.
I was genuinely excited to see what direction Phil, Nick, and Anthony took their podcast after what happened at 1up. But since it’s inception, RebelFM seems to have tainted the awesomeness and general goodwill that made 1upFM the show we all loved.
Specifically, Arthur seems to have a horrible attitude and really brings down the show with his argumentative jabs. I’m all for an open forum for debate, and listening to that — it’s good radio. But after listening to this episode, Arthur’s tone and snarky remarks pretty much cemented what it was that I wasn’t enjoying about this new podcast.
He has no credibility, bases his comments on subjective and select factors (not from the whole), and contradicts himself countless times within the span of one show (let alone the past four shows). The professional journalists in the room obviously know what I’m talking about. You can hear it in their voice when they question his rants. He sounds like a twelve year old fanboy.
I understand that he’s Anthony’s roommate, and that everyone has to start somewhere. I just hope that somewhere isn’t RebelFM, or I’m going to have to cancel that iTunes subscription.
LEAVE ARTHUR THE FUCK ALONE HE IS NOT THE BAD GUY YOU MAKE HIM OUT TO BE.
Jay Fresh is awesome:
http://www.familyofpets.net/
Arthur and Nick are wrong. Valve makes great shooters, end of story.
Enjoyable podcast once again – thanks guys!
I can’t help but wonder if it’s the tactile “putting you in the game” element that you guys miss in the Valve shooters. It’s something I always notice when I switch to playing HL2.
Whereas games like Halo and CoD, etc. move a little slower and the camera bounces a little and all that, in Half-life it’s more like old school shooters where you sort of glide across the ground. The rest of the game more than makes up for it, but that always bothered me a bit about HL2 as well.
Whoever brought up third person shooters has a good point as well. I found the shooting in MGS4 to be very satisfying. It has a great blend of giving you a good understanding of your character, but also putting you right behind the gun when you’re aiming, etc. I am sure others like Gears give the same feeling.
There’s also two Megami Tensei movies. One based off the NES game, and one that came here as Tokyo Revelation. Devil Children got two animes and Persona 3 did as well. Yes, it did suck.
There was indeed an anime series based on Persona. Persona: Trinity Soul.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persona_-trinity_soul-
It was an original story not based on any of the existing games (though it is said to take place 10 years after Persona 3) and only finished airing a couple of months ago.
It was an alright show, nothing to write home about. But I really am quite shocked that that women, who lived in Japan never heard of it.
With all these new ‘negative’ comments I have to say:
Keep up the good work guys! I’m really enjoying the show and just love cruising around in Burnout Paradise and listen it =D
And think I can’t think of a bad thing this episode, maybe the DS RPG talk, but that was short.
So waiting for the next one =)
Heres an idea.
Keep Anthony ON a microphone the whole time, and let the pseudo-intellectual, hair-splitin’, semantic-spitin’, argumentative, insulting,indefensible opinion havin’, rudely interuptin’, needlessly vulgar Arthur take a seat in the corner and watch the professionals work. Seriously, this guy produces more wahjah than a 45 year old Naruto cosplayer performing a live action fan-fic skit at a retirement home.
Thanks for another great podcast. I’m sure Arthur is a great guy, but yeah I agree that he takes away from the flow of the podcast. Lots of interrupting, needless negativity, and always talking over others. I’ll keep listening though. Keep up the good work.
The funny thing about this episode is my reaction to Cat Bailey. In my previous experience, anytime a girl is brought onto a video game podcast, the results are questionable at best. So when Cat Bailey was introduced on this week’s show, I groaned inwardly. Not again, I thought– this is going to be awful.
But as the show went on, I began to relax. Cat Bailey isn’t annoying at all. She’s quiet until she has something of value to contribute, and then when she does so, she’s well-spoken and considerate. When she spoke up about Team Fortress 2 in the midst of the godawful shooter discussion, her voice was like a splash of cold water after wandering through the Sahara for half an hour.
It was at that point that I finally realized: After five episodes, the only enjoyment I get out of Rebel FM is from the contributions of people who are -not- regular members of the cast. And I may continue to listen, if only to hear those people. For now, though, this show is going to the bottom of my podcast lineup; and if future episodes are anything like this one, most of my listening time will be spent praying that the guests start heading over to Comics Conspiracy so I can hear them on Geekbox and delete this thing from my lineup entirely.
“Arthur has such a negative effect on this show that I’m going to quit listening. He is very abrasive and constantly interrupts other people without having anything insightful to say. I can’t be the only one that feels this way. Nick and Philip, you’re good guys but I quit this show.”
Some guy up there said it, and it perfectly summarizes my thoughts. Some people love Jerry Springer, but I personally don’t dig the arguments.
Arthur is awesome.
Also, I really liked the Persona – Trinity Soul anime.
@Devon
There are no Persona 3 animes. Trinity Sould happened 10 years after Persona, and could hardly be considered a P3 anime. Outside of that show no other Persona animes have come out in recent years.
I love RebelFM, but it needs more chuf. Anthony, I thought, had some of the best counters in the shooter debate. I have to agree with other posters in saying that Arthur’s presence on the podcast is unnecessary and overwhelming. It reminds me of Shawn Elliott’s presence on GFW radio (which is why I enjoyed GFW). However instead of having thoughtful monologue and criticism about a game, it is subjective miscalibrated points spouted to be the one who is “right.” There is nothing wrong with someone being the prominent voice/arbiter, but I don’t think that he is the right man for the job.
Still a big fan of the show, and looking forward to the return of backlog, although I don’t think topic comments are the best forum for the community discussion. Any thoughts on this if you’re reading this guys? I’m sure you hesitate to create a new forum community and repercussions and responsibilities that come with it, but are there any other communities we could lean on for this segment? If you do choose to go that route, I strongly you suggest you make yourselves more active in the actual conversation between the community. It was great hearing you talk about it on the podcast before, but from my point of view it really made you all feel detached and having a separate conversation from us even when you injected a view comments from the topic. It would be a lot more interesting if you could make it a single conversation instead of two separate ones.
Also I really appreciate what Arthur has done for the site, as he’s one of the core reasons we have the show and the site to back it up right now, but I can’t disagree with what everyone’s saying about this episode. I definitely disagree that he should be taken off the podcast, because 90% of the time I think he has good shit to say, even if he can be kind of negative sometimes. I think he does add something new to the show and will help send it in a good direction, and just because you don’t agree with what he has to say is a stupid reason for unsubscribing. Oh shit someone happened to make an uncohesive argument one fucking episode, shit happens. Anyways I ordered my copy of CoC off amazon today (Sorry I didn’t wait to click a link you mentioned you might pick up, but I wanted to hurry and get started on it!) Keep it up guys, you’re all doing an awesome job and you’ve got my support 110%
Loved the show but one tip, arguments over semantics are NEVER interesting to listen to. The main problem with the shooter argument is that no one actually classified what a shooter is, leaving some to make strange comments and criticisms.
I think it’s time for Arthur to retire.
Love the show, but agree that Arthur can be a little frustrating. If you could just turn down his mic or turn up the others he always seems a lot louder then the others.
Nick, Phil, Ryan and Jay Fresh should have had dedicated mics and Arthur needs to be more backround noise. Again love the show and want to keep listening, but when he said FPS are better on consoles, I nearly spit my coffee all over my laptop.
ah, feedback
There’s no need to give Arthur a bad rap, he just needs to find a more relaxed spot on the podcast. This, I think, is exemplified by the shooter discussion. The first problem, as DJ said above me, is no one actually defined a shooter or broke down shooters into their components. If you guys would have taken the time to classify why a shooter differs from another shooter without biting the other person’s head off, the discussion would have been far, far more interesting.
When you look at Halo versus Half-Life, start at the differences between the two and build a bridge to common ground; nothing is more stressful than listening to a tense and snappy argument over “feel” and how high the player can jump. There is so much more to a shooter than that. Trying to build and define the character of a game is much more rewarding than undermining another.
But back to the podcast, there is something odd about having some people in the room, but off mic. The best thing about GFW, and 1UPFM was that everyone in the conversation seemed to be part of the conversation, but with Arthur’s voice towering over all others and with Anthony and some of the other podcasters seemingly yelling from the other side of a BART platform, it felt somewhat scattered as opposed to the more intimate GFW discussions. Cat’s insights, however, were great, I loved how she managed to breathe life into the debate with informed and well thought-out little tidbits.
I’m enjoying the podcasts, just keep refining the formula all the time! Arthur, don’t take the comments here too harshly, it’s nothing personal, it’s just the internet. =)
I would have to agree with most of the people on these boards. Arthur’s negative tone throughout the podcast is bringing down the show. He is constantly negative, he seems to hate everything and when questioned on why he hates something he has no legitimate reason. I am sure Arthur is a good guy. Lets here more about the things he likes and less about the things he hates.
Call of C’thulu is extremely buggy! I keep getting frozen on the spot and only able to lean left and right.. After checking the forums it seems to be pretty wide spread and the game is no longer supported. I really hope there’s some way to get past the freezing. I really love the atmosphere of what I’ve played so far. Very creepy.
Arthur,
We’re grateful that your site provided a home for the ex-1Up’ers that were displaced and needed a new place to host their podcast.
That being said, understand that the reason that eat-sleep-game has a number one podcast is because we subscribed to listen to the 1Up’ers. They’re the stars we want to hear. No one has any problem with you as a new voice, but when you interrupt Nick, Matt, Jay, and Ryan constantly, make snotty comments about Area5 (“Subtitle: Area5 defends RE5″), and use phrases like “over your dead body” to Phil Kollar…. You’re seriously misjudging your place in the pecking order.
It’s Their Goddamn Show.
Whether or not the criticism regarding Arthur is true or not, I believe most of the hate in the comments are because they disagree with his position. Which in my eyes must be applauded, I respect his position and willingness to stick with it whether or not I agree with it or not.
Anyways, keep up the great work guys..
@Zvolen: No, it is the argumentative tone. The interruptions. The sheer negativity. It’s just a drag to listen to him.
Good show. One thing, the levels need an adjust. Arthur is the clearest voice by a lot, everyone else sounds like they are far away.
Shooters aren’t my particular genre of interest, so I suppose it might be that relative ignorance that left me reasonably satisfied with this podcast.
While this one might not be the penultimate example, I would defy anyone to disagree that informed debate & discussion makes for a meaty listening experience.
I wonder if gamers haven’t fallen victim to the anti-troll plague of grinning agreement that’s gripped many other fanbases now retorting commands of ambivalence as blindly as any vintage vendetta-wielding “hater.”
If there’s a criticism consistent among the podcasts it might be that these discussions could include a foundation of some more basic information. Quick details for the uninitiated that won’t drag the hardcore too much.
Presumably people just want Arthur to earn his stripes before he gets the loudest mic, but if he’s the ‘cake or pie‘ guy, meaning it wasn’t from the terminally hamfisted satchel of forced cutesy from “chuf,” then damn. Burn the witch! RUINING THE PODCAST!!!
Thanks for the great podcast guys. Personally I found the fps discussion really fascinating and it got me really thinking about what I like in fps and why. And after reading all the above comments I’d like to give Arthur a hug (I’m a chick – don’t freak)and send him a box of cookies. I seem to be listening to a different podcast than everyone else because I’m just not hearing the negativity. Anyway, I love the show and I always put my money where my mouth is at
Important!
So everyone on the podcast seem to dislike the demo completely. That is not the experience my friends and I had with it. We played through both scenarios several times. We loved every minute of it. So two question:
Did anyone actually like the demo?
If the main game is so much different from the demos, does that mean we might not like the main game if we liked the demo?
If you cant play strangers wraith you might as well play the ripoff of it. Razes Hell.
It’s the Playa Hatas Ball! Hate Hate Hate! Lets just consider all of this growing pains.
Wow.. people complaining about free shit as usual.
Keep up the good work guys, if you all agreed with each other.. I wouldn’t listen.
You guys brought up some great points about RE5.. everyone makes such a big deal about the co-op, but fails to realize a large portion of that fan base probably aren’t going to be into that. Those who try to experience it as a solely single player experience will find themselves extremely frustrated as they stumble over the nuances of the co-op system (ie. inventory)
Also, the whole HL2 argument is completely valid. The notion that game relies on its shooting mechanics is absurd. The guns in that game fire like an arcade shooter, not to mention sound like cap guns. If the story/world wasn’t so captivating it would play like most mediocre shooting games out. If HL2 had no guns and played like Mirror’s Edge, it could still be carried by its story alone.
Call HL2 the best game, I might agree.
Call it the best shooter, you probably never fired a real gun.
Arthur, dawg, chill pill. Its ok to love things, try it its nice.
Damn! I was so excited when Bully was brought up for backlog, I’ve wanted to play it recently and it seems a relatively easy to find.
I really can’t see where Arthur and Nick are coming from on the shooter argument, I’ve always found the combat in the Half-life series really satisfying. I think Ryan was right when he said Disagreement stems from difference of opinion on what makes a “good shooter”.
I think a big part of the reason why the Shooter Debate failed is because it was a pre-scheduled, planned argument. I think that’s an entirely bad idea when you announce at the top of the show that you’ll be debating something. Differences of opinion CAN work on podcasts, it worked all the time on 1up Yours, but that was spontaneous.
Call of Cthulhu?! Did you guys just make that game up just to fuck with us or something?
I might check it out (if it actually exists). Bully would be awesome for next time.
Arthur seems like a good guy, just doesn’t substantiate his argument very well. What I got from Arthur is, CoD4 and Halo “feels” better, are more compelling, has tighter controls, has more fluid interaction between gunplay/environments/other side (how so? enemies take cover, enemies throw grenades over cover, sound effects when hitting enemies, destructible environments, and etc.).
To me, what makes great gunplay are the shooting animations, the reload animations (CoD4 and CSS do this very well), sound effects–reload and burst fire, mouse or analogue stick acceleration, dead zones on controllers, customization of controls, autoaim feel (console versions of CoD4 and Halo have autoaim automatically built in, this could be where the “feels better” comes from), interesting guns to shoot with, good AI to validate the gunplay–shooting dumb AI “feels” horrible even with great gunplay, and most importantly the gunplay benefits from interesting environments to shoot in–great gunplay, is only fun as the level allows it them to be–not just shooting down some endless corridor without anything interesting to look at: set pieces.
I know Arthur likes Half Life and Valve games in general, but he just needs to clarify his position better.
I wouldn’t mind these segments if they were more objective rather than subjective. I’ll still be listening, after all this is just one low to an otherwise great podcast. Cat, Ryan, Phil, Anthony, Matt, and Jay Fresh were still awesome. Just some honest criticism–Like Nolan says, don’t take the comments personal, just learn from them.
I didn’t realize so many people use Rebel FM to meditate to. Arthur is “abrasive” and “negative”? Sorry he ruined your good vibes, dudes, but it’s a podcast, not an easy listening tape of whales moaning.
Researching CoC I found that 1up never actually posted a review for the game – or least it no longer exists if there was one. Check out the 1up Show from 12/2/05 and about 10 minutes in there’s a little about the game.
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/305
I ran to the mall and bought a book with the HP Lovecraft stories the game is based on and will be reading that until the game arrives from ebay. (assuming it will work on my PC)
Please let us know where to comment and how far to play soon.
Thanks!
You know the guy in your social circle at high school that was a complete douche, and everybody knew it, but it went unaddressed because he was the only one with a car? That’s Arthur.
His response to Phillip jokingly “banning” him pretty much sums things up… motherfucker has this podcast hostage.
Erick’s snarky comment above sounds eerily similar to the podcast I just listened to.
I’ll give it one more week, but I’m afraid I’ll be moving on if the attitude persists.
The only problem I found with the debate is that it didn’t go anywhere, which I think is because the more controversial side (Arthur and Nick) didn’t articulate their positions well to themselves before it started. So they were both reiterating what they were saying over and over with different vocabulary, trying to find the right words that would hit the nail on the head.
Their opinions did have some merit, though. I think Arthur was right when he said Half-Life is a “competent shooter.” Some games are just arenas FOR shooting. People like to shoot stuff and some games are developed solely as a context for shooting stuff. I think what Arthur and Nick mean is that Half-Life is a game in the first-person perspective, with guns, but whose raison d’etre (holy shit I used that somewhere) isn’t kill rooms or infinite spawn points, things that exist because people like to shoot stuff and shoving you in a room with some monsters and closing the door is a decent way to make that happen. Half-Life 2 is an adventure in a world that you happen to need guns to navigate. You don’t even have a gun in Half-Life 2 for the first twenty minutes. You’re just navigating the train station, the town, and then the apartment complex. Then there’s a huge part of the game where you are just driving a boat and solving puzzles along the way. Then in Ravenholm you’re solving more puzzles in order to escape. I feel like Half-Life is more a puzzle game that forces you to fend off enemies while you progress through the level and think about what to do than a shooter that makes you solve a few puzzles.
The only “Call of C’thulu” game that was last generation was eternal darkness. I’m going to have to go look this up and maybe play along. Should have comment before, would have loved to play along with that one..
…Just looked it up, damn that cover looks famillar really wish I had this.
On you argument for HL. I do agree that it is more of an adventure game. All the games that you said was a “shooter” were war games. Is that what makes a game a shooter then? It seems that the defenition to a shooter seems to be a bit open ended because then HL2 you still shoot things so its still a shotter ?
Ehh I’m not sure on where this is going, maybe I’m just getting hooked on the defenition.
Later
And for the record, I had no problem with Arthur’s alleged attitude. He even said he liked Half-Life, he just thinks it’s a shooter whose existence is justified by more than just its ability to make things go boom. As someone above said, if everyone on the podcast agreed, I wouldn’t listen. I love to hear unpopular viewpoints, even ones I don’t agree with. It sucks that a lot of gamers so heavily identify themselves with the things the games they surround themselves with that their knee-jerk reaction is to dismiss anything that might break the spell. And to the guy who said the 1UPers are the only people he wants to hear, go to Hell, because Arthur ranks pretty high in the area of who I prefer to be speaking at any given moment.
Crap.. need to read my post before posting… sorry…
Was ment to say..
The only CC Game that I know of was Eternal Darkness.
Sorry
I’m only going to be listening to the podcast a few more times to see if Arthur quiets down and actually lets the original 1UP cast speak which is the reason most of us are here in the first place. I loved 1UP FM for the interplay between Nick and Phil but we hardly get that anymore with the new podcast. It seems like now it’s the Arthur show with occasional quips from the rest of the cast which would be bad if Arthur wasn’t so uninteresting and abrasive to everyone else.
I thought the debate on FPS was great and the show is getting stronger. One criticism– I wish Arthur wasn’t so defensive. At one point he argued that TF2 also lacked, like the other Valve works, and when asked how he asked if he really needed to go there. Yes. When you sign up for a show about conversation, the listeners like to hear it. You may be right, but we won’t know as long as you try and push the disagreement as far from you as you can. Hopefully it’s just an issue of confidence. More of it may = less need to deflect. Just take it and give it.
Sorry guys just like many of the rest, the shooter discussion was boring. Also, not enough of Anthony, Nick, and Phil.
too bad for jay and kat who had to settle in and try to get into the flow only to witness a train-wrek troll argument
Really enjoying this one. I especially found your discussion on Resident Evil interesting. I liked the demo but I know a lot of people were disappointed. Glad to hear that the demo barely hits the tip of the iceberg.
I really didn’t want to make a negative comment critiquing Arthur for being negative but I couldn’t help myself. I am a huge fan of 1upFM and I am concerned about the trajectory of RebelFM.
The 1up podcasts were awesome because they were unscripted and uncensored but still maintained a very high level of professionalism. Listening to some of Arthur’s comments during this episode literally made me cringe.
Arthur, I am sure you are a nice guy, don’t take this personally, but you are bringing this show down big time. Your negativity, constant interruptions, crude comments(the penis stuff? really?) and confrontational attitude make this show a lot less fun to listen to. Everyone appreciates you jumping in and getting RebelFM up and running, but if you care about the future of this show you may want to reevaluate your roll.
Nick and Philip, you guys did a phenomenal job running the show on 1upFM. Take the reins.
I really hate to make such a negative post, but I think I speak for a lot of us.
Arthur, don’t be the Yoko. Seriously.
Well, at least the folks at neogaf still support you guys! Oh, wait…
yes, arthur REALLY needs to dial it back. there were many points when you could feel people getting annoyed, like ryan when he was trying to talk about resident evil and arthur just wouldn’t stop pointlessly berating.
i’m sure he’s a nice guy and hes just trying to have some fun, but it really is too much. it gets annoying FAST and having to sit through it during the entire episode is taxing.
if he wants to talk and make point then fine, but if he wants to throw insults, make baseless criticisms and interrupt everyone all the time constantly, then no thanks.
I like the cast as is with the rotating guests. You guys should just have more topics for discussion and don’t drag smother beat then kill your topics like you did with the most recent episode. I’ll keep listening but that shooter topic was a dead horse 5 minutes in.
Just so everyone knows, YOU CAN MAKE PRIVATE GAMES IN RE5 DEMO. On the screen with the options of “host game/join game,” look above it. There’s a setting to change to private.
Hang in there Arthur! Apparently, nobody likes the new guy. Easy there community. I mean this guy is Chuf’s buddy, doesn’t that count for something? You act like Arthur’s been hitting on your girl at the Prom. Besides, I want this show to be as long as possible, what the hell else am I doing that I can’t listen to these guys debate about whatever? Arthur, I agree, Metal Gear 4 stinks. I mean, those cut scenes, yikes! If I wanted to watch 10 hours of bad anime I would have bought a $30 DVD player and not a $400 gaming system.
oh, and bring back shelf life. Keep up the good work!
Okay, first I just wanted to thank you guys for the best episode of Rebel FM ever. (not to mention the best podcast you guys have made in months) I thought this one was great. I also wanted to commend Arthur for being ballsy enough to argue some of his points about Half Life 2. Most people wouldn’t try saying anything negative about a Valve game. I respect your opinion and almost agree with you.
However, the biggest reason for my comment here is to slap you guys in the head a little. Last week you were talking about well executed narrative in games and some of your favorite examples of it. This week you touched on Braid and Psychonauts, but everyone has still failed to mention what I consider to be the best implementation of a story in a video game: Silent Hill 2. I played this game for the first time about a month and a half ago, so there is no nostalgia polluting my opinion. Did you guys play it? J. Fresh must have if he likes horror games so much.
Silent Hill 2 has an amazing implementation of symbolism and plot details into the environment. It does have short cutscenes, but they are only used for dialog between characters. Anyway, I just thought I’d mention it since nobody seemed to have thought of it. Even if you disagree with me, I still think it’s worth a mention.
Damn, was it just me or was there some hostility in the air? Got awkward a couple times, like with the “over your dead body” part.
Wow, ahem… Mark of Kri ay? I heard someone get the vapors when the name was mentioned. Picked it up and Rise of Kasai on Amazon for $24.05 from the same 3rd party seller.
It fells like the episodes have gotten crappier and Arthur certainly doesn’t help.
should rename it Arthur FM