Vidya Game News – December 1, 2016
– The new Pokemans games have sold 3.7 million copies in two weeks, making them the fastest sellers ever for Nintendo, according to press releases given to Polygon and other sites. You can listen to our Pokemans show here!
– In other Big N news: Although they announced a Japanese partnership with Universal for theme parks last year, the effort has spread to the U.S. now too, per Den of Geek and other sites.
– In other, other Big N news… The NES Classic Edition is still impossible to find, but ThinkGeek is doing a sweepstakes for some. They might also have some for sale this week. Huzzah!
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– November 30 is a popular day for PC releases. Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness came out in 1995, Diablo came out in 1996, and Baldur’s Gate and Starcraft: Brood War came out in 1998. You can listen to our shows on Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo here, here and here.
– November 30, 1999 was also popular for RPGs. Koudelka and Vandal Hearts II both came out on that day. They’re both considered cult classics, and Koudelka continued on via the Shadow Hearts series, which is for the PS2 and awesome.
– Quake III Arena came out on Dec. 2, 1999. While it wasn’t horrible, it was a bit of a misstep by id Software, as Unreal Tournament was generally more popular.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Vidya Game News – November 10, 2016
– Unsurprisingly, Gandhi remains an asshole in Civilization 6, per Kotaku. Check out our show on the original Civilization here!
– On Kill Screen, Emma Kidwell has a nice essay about how video games helped with language when she spent her summers in Japan.
– The NES Classic Edition comes out Friday in the U.S., and some reviews are coming in for it. Kotaku also notes that the old Nintendo call-in lines will be active, too.
– Also, as you may have heard, new Genesis consoles are being made… in Brazil. Polygon’s Charlie Hall notes that the system won’t have HDMI support or ship internationally, but it does come with 20+ games preloaded. Sega in Brazil is like Spinal Tap in Japan, or David Hasselhoff in Germany.
– Kyle Orland of Ars Technica writes about four “found” Kirby games for the SNES, and the difficulty of preserving old digital games, here. You can find our Kirby show here.
– From Matthew Figueira and other sites, Blizzard won’t be doing remakes of Warcraft 1 or Warcraft 2 anytime soon. Also, no news on a potential Warcraft 4 either. But hey, listen to our show on the old series!
– Obduction, the new game from Myst creator Rand Miller, will be released for the PS4 and VR in 2017. Read about that and more in Miller’s interview with Dean Takahashi of Venture Beat. And listen to our Myst show here!
– From Kotaku: What should you feed your pregnant characters in The Sims?
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Golden Sun, a popular RPG series by Camelot and Nintendo, first hit U.S. shores on Nov. 11, 2001. It’s 15 now! Almost old enough to drive.
– It was only a year ago, but the sweet baby boys can scarcely remember what our lives were like before the release of Fallout 4 on this day in 2015. We have a lot more time… Stupid, pointless time without Fallout 4. Bethesda’s masterpiece has had several DLC expansions and mod support added, and people are already clamoring for the fifth installment, or a side game, or anything else because Fallout is LIFE.
– Also, Skyrim came out on Nov. 11, 2011. It’s now five years old! A regular sweet kindergarten baby boy. Bethesda sure loves to spoil us in November.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Vidya Game News – September 29, 2016
Happy birthday, Nintendo 64!
– GamesIndustry.biz has an awesome, long interview with Rand Miller of Cyan Worlds on Myst, Obduction and releasing a game without a strong publisher. You can read it here, and listen to our show on Myst here!
– Brian Shea at Game Informer has a good piece on how Sega and Nintendo finally made peace over the years, and how Sonic appeared on a Nintendo platform. You can read it here.
– The spiritual successor to River City Ransom, River City: Toyko Rumble, has scooped up a good review from GameSpot. Listen to our show on the original game here.
– The early reviews on Sonic Mania are good so far.
– From The Daily Dot and other sites, the Warcraft movie now has an Honest Trailer out for it. Listen to our review of the game series here!
– PCMag.com has a slideshow on seven Mario games that never made it to the U.S.
ON THIS DAY (OR CLOSE TO IT!) IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– The Nintendo 64 came out for everyone today in 1996. It was kind of a big deal. Past N64 games we’ve covered: Quest 64, Superman 64, Mario Kart 64, Goldeneye and Star Fox 64.
– By the way, it seems weird, but Pokemon Red and Blue came out in Sept. 28, 1998 – two years AFTER the Nintendo 64 was released.
– A little game called Fallout came out for the PC on Sept. 30, 1997. Amazing, a sequel came out only a year later. Both games had more in common with the X-Com series than the action-RPG Fallout has become, but they were very well-reviewed.
– Tales of Destiny, the second game in that popular series, came out on Sept. 30, 1998 for the PlayStation. In this game from Namco and Wolf Team, you play as Stahn and kill things with a big sword. It’s a weird kind of RPG-action game, but well-reviewed and well-received.
– Crash Team Racing, a completely and utterly original kart racing game, came out on Sept. 30, 1999. For more on Crash Bandicoot, check out our episode from a few weeks ago. And if you’d prefer our thoughts on some other racing game, try this episode.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Vidya Game News – September 15, 2016
– Aaron Couch of The Hollywood Reporter has a good, long interview with Darkwing Duck creator Tad Stones, which you can read here. Among the revelations? The show wasn’t a spin-off of DuckTales, as instead, it took place in an alternate dimension. And by the way, check out our DuckTales episode here.
– The AV Club’s William Hughes spoke to Myst creator Rand Miller on his favorite puzzles, and how that game almost became a Disney ride. Read it here! And listen to our Myst episode here!
– In a good interview with MCV’s Alex Calvin, Sega’s European boss Jurgen Post admits that the company was pushing out too much crap during the Wii-era.
– From Polygon and other sites, Blizzard’s Chris Metzen is retiring. He was serving as the senior vice president of story and franchise development, and joined the company in the early 1990s as an illustrator and animator. He was responsible for expanding the lore of Warcraft, Diablo and StarCraft.
– And speaking of Blizzard… One of its low lights, the cancelled Warcraft Adventures, has made its way to the Internet. Check out our show on the actual Warcraft series here.
– Did You Know Gaming covers Super Mario World this week, via Nerdist.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– Animal Crossing came out today in 2002 in North America. It was yet another blockbuster series established by Nintendo.
– Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance was released on Sept. 16, 2002 for the Gameboy Advance. It was fun! It mixed the classic gameplay with RPG elements.
– A Dragon Quest IV remake, Chapters of the Chosen, came out on Sept. 16, 2008. It took the gameplay of the original, but included manual control for the later chapters (yay!), but also gave everyone weird accents (boo!). New this week is a remake of Dragon Quest VII for the 3DS, which turns it into a much better, playable game, per Attack of the Geek’s Dean James.
– FTL: Faster Than Light came out on Sept. 14, 2012. No, it’s not a classic game, but it’s hella good! You definitely need to play it if you like games.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Vidya Game News – June 16, 2016
– Want to know how the Warcraft movie did? Well, Paul Tassi of Forbes.com has a piece on it, and the headline probably says it all: “The ‘Warcraft’ movie is a crushing disappointment in almost every way.” Well, then. On Rotten Tomatoes, it’s sitting at 27 percent with critics, but surprisingly, 82 percent with the audience. However, shockingly, the movie opened up to $156M in five days in China, which beats out the opens of the latest Star Wars and Fast and Furious franchises. For more on that, read this piece from Wired.
– To look at the reverse, Evan Hoovler of blastr has a fun list of the worst video games based on movies or TV shows. Included on the list is past YPB subject Superman 64, of course.
– Also on blastr, Dany Roth has another good list, this one on 10 SNES games that deserve a comeback. Spoiler alert: Two are on the schedule for future YPB episodes.
– Simon Parkin of Ars Technica has a good, long read on the history of Team17, makers of the Worms series.
– In honor of E3, Nintendo has deeply discounted some older games, like $5 for A Link to the Past. Check out the full list on their site.
– This week’s James and Mike Mondays game is Kung Fu Heroes for the NES. Check it out here.
ON THIS DAY IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY…
– In 2002, Neverwinter Nights was released for the PC on June 16, 17 or 18, depending on the source you use. The BioWare RPG was the company’s follow-up to its Baldur’s Gate series, and it was both well-reviewed and well-bought by consumers. Elements of the game engine were used later for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Dragon Age.
Video game history information comes from GameFAQs and Moby Games. And as always, if you’d like to support the show, do so via our Amazon link.
Episode 058 – Warcraft series (1994, 1995, 2002, 2004)
Episode 058 – Warcraft series (1994, 1995, 2002, 2004)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we are amassing our armies to destroy vile orcs and corrupted humans! From 1994 to 2004, we’re playing the games of the Warcraft series by Blizzard for the PC. We’re joined by special guest Pascal’s Pager, a.k.a. Paul Christian Glenn!
And oh yeah, Todd Brisket is back too, if you’re into that sort of thing.
AT OUR COMMAND, you can manually download this week’s podcast here or subscribe to the show via the iTunes store. To manually subscribe, use this link in the device / podcast player of choice. You can also follow us on Twitter, or ‘like’ us on Facebook.
As always, if you like the show, support us by buying from Amazon! You can use this link to go to Amazon, and any purchase you make will kick a couple bucks to the show, with no extra cost to you. It’s a win-win!
Want to have an email or comment read on the air? Send us a message on the ole Twitter or Facebook, or, shoot that mail to parentsbasementpodcast@gmail.com.
TIMESTAMPS
- 0:00 – Intro, which features the awesome YouTube collection that Huell refers to on the show.
- 1:02:30 – Emails! What IS Q-Bert anyway?
- 1:17:00 – Snifferoo. Maybe we’ll actually play a certain game next week…
SHOW NOTES
– The first three Warcraft games are often available in a “battle chest” edition for modern systems that runs from $10 to $20 new. It can be dicey to buy used copies though, given that Blizzard can be sticklers for authentication codes.
– On the show, we talk briefly about Titan, an ambitious MMORPG that was cancelled by Blizzard despite years of work because it didn’t meet their high-quality standards. Kotaku has an impressive story on the issues of the game here, which sounds ambitious for now, nevermind a few years ago.
– A past episode was about StarCraft! If you missed us talking about that Blizzard game, go here!
– Q*bert is awesome! Here he is.
– You can watch the South Park episode “Make Love Not Warcraft” on the show’s website for free.
Episode 028 – StarCraft (1998)
Episode 028 – StarCraft (1998)
This week in Your Parents Basement, we’re locked up and good to go! From 1998, we’re playing StarCraft for the PC, because the third installment of StarCraft 2 is finally coming out this week!
You can manually download this week’s roughneck podcast here or subscribe to the show via the iTunes store. To manually subscribe, use this link in the device / podcast player of choice. You can also follow us on Twitter, or ‘like’ us on Facebook.
As always, if you like the show, support us by buying from Amazon! You can use this link to go to Amazon, and any purchase you make will kick a couple bucks to the show, with no extra cost to you. It’s a win-win! (Might I suggest the second expansion pack for StarCraft 2?) Want to have an email or comment read on the air? Send us a message on the ole Twitter or Facebook, or, shoot that mail to parentsbasementpodcast@gmail.com.
TIMESTAMPS
- 0:00 – Intro, which are various marine quotes from this wonderful YouTube collection.
- 51:30 – Emails. The best games from 27 years ago, and the best vehicles in video games.
- 1:10:15 – Snifferoo. We’re experiencing dinosaurs and classical music.
SHOW NOTES
– According to Price Charting, StarCraft 64 is very expensive, at $47 for a loose cart to around $100 for the box and manual included. It’s a console port of StarCraft that is seen as OK, but nothing special. The original PC game is sold in a slew of formats, typically with the expansion Brood War included, and ranges in price from $5 to $20.
– This news came out after the show recording, found by Brisket on a site: Blizzard is looking to hire staff for re-releases of its older games.
Your Parents Basement 