Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 35

Forza 2, Shadowrun, Overlord, Double Dragon, An Interview With Lord Of The Rings Online Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel, News, Threads and more!

With Sean Sands down and out with a bad cable modem, forum regular Desram joins us for the Conference Call! This week we cover a ton of games and have a great interview with Jeffrey Steefel about the future of Lord of The Rings Online and what might have been. Mad props to the Escapist Magazine for reaching issue 100!

Want to support the show? Hit the Digg link just above (it's fast and easy to register) or review us on iTunes! Read on for show notes.

To contact us, email [email protected]! Send us your thoughts on the show, pressing issues you want to talk about or whatever else is on your mind. You can even send a 30 second audio question or comment (MP3 format please) if you're so inclined.

Sponsor
Liongames.com

The Links
Forza 2
Overlord
Shadowrun
Del.icio.us Grab Bag o' Fun

Thread of the Week:
1) PC Gamer editor slams Penny Arcade in same issue as cover story - LockandLoad

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

"Long Midnight" (Benoit Casey) - 0:19:50
"LOTRO Track 2" Lord of the Rings Online - 0:24:38
"LOTRO Track 1" Lord of the Rings Online - 0:48:04
LOTRO Tracks

Comments

Great show! Love the interview especially even though I will probably never play LOTRO. There is a lot of love for the 360 and PC lately, but that's just cause the PS3 was made for mocking and there hasn't been anything interesting on the Wii that wasn't made before the Clinton administration. Also, NES Ice Hockey rules.

momgamer wrote:

And killroy, do you have something out for the PC? Preferably something that does not require a Cray to run?

My fun web/pc/download game of the month: http://frontiermux.com/news.php

My first driving lessson was with my father, my sister and myself. My sister already had her license, I didn't even have a permit, and it was a manual transmission car. I had never driven before. My sister went first, stalled immediately, and almost gave us whiplash. Overall it did not go particularly well.
I ended up learning from an instructor - six hours with the instructor, another two or three with my parents before the test, and I passed my first time, at the DMV considered to give the toughest test in the area. Thank you instructor Rubio!

Clearly my many hours of Mario Kart training were a big factor.

Scaphism wrote:

Clearly my many hours of Mario Kart training were a big factor.

Did you drop a banana peel after flipping off the cops at the lights?

kilroy0097 wrote:

I'd suck as a guest since I don't play any Xbox games and that seems to be over 60% of the podcast as of late. It seems like those without a console are considered almost a lesser gamer to a point.

I own a PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS Lite and a PC. I don't care about which system I play on, I go where the games are. Virtual Console is full of old games, not original games. The PS3 hasn't seen a meaningful release since Motorstorm and Calling All Cars. The Wii gets plenty of love when there's an actual game released for it.

So I don't buy the occasional belly aching about not giving equal attention to all platforms. We need something worth discussing first.

Yeah, but why aren't you guys playing Wii VC titles?

I've bought a few, but they just haven't grabbed me at all for the most part. Do you really want us to talk about Super Mario World, or Mario 64? Final Fight maybe? I don't know, talking about games we all played a decade ago is something we do once in a while as a theme, but day to day it feels like it could be a bit tedious.

Certis wrote:

I've bought a few, but they just haven't grabbed me at all for the most part. Do you really want us to talk about Super Mario World, or Mario 64? Final Fight maybe? I don't know, talking about games we all played a decade ago is something we do once in a while as a theme, but day to day it feels like it could be a bit tedious.

Except Double Dragon. Double Standard more like!

I wouldn't want to see Virtual Console games featured just because they're there - if it's a great game you're revisiting and is a highlight of the week, sure. But the spotlight shouldn't be fair and equal - the spotlight should focus on the big names. I'm not here for equality, I want to know what stands out and why I should consider playing it.

Duoae wrote:

Did you drop a banana peel after flipping off the cops at the lights?

I was always a fan of shooting the banana peel ahead and flipping off the person I passed.

Scaphism wrote:
Certis wrote:

I've bought a few, but they just haven't grabbed me at all for the most part. Do you really want us to talk about Super Mario World, or Mario 64? Final Fight maybe? I don't know, talking about games we all played a decade ago is something we do once in a while as a theme, but day to day it feels like it could be a bit tedious.

Except Double Dragon. Double Standard more like! ;)

Hear, hear!

But what about PC games. My memory is probably crap but did you talk about stalker or Test Drive unlimited when they came out? (Yeah, you're right though, at the moment there's a bit of a game drought except MMO and 360... :/ )

Duoae wrote:

Did you drop a banana peel after flipping off the cops at the lights?

I was always a fan of shooting the banana peel ahead and flipping off the person I passed.

I did not know you could do that...

kilroy0097 wrote:

I'd suck as a guest since I don't play any Xbox games and that seems to be over 60% of the podcast as of late. It seems like those without a console are considered almost a lesser gamer to a point.

Just remember that console gamers aren't real gamers.

kilroy0097 wrote:

I'd suck as a guest since I don't play any Xbox games and that seems to be over 60% of the podcast as of late. It seems like those without a console are considered almost a lesser gamer to a point.

Seeing as they spend half of every podcast talking about LotRO (and occasionally other PC MMOs), I'm not sure this is valid. Once the big PC games that are coming up hit stores, I bet you'll be happier about the 'cast.

At least, that's what I tell myself about the RPGs/"kick-ass shooter!"s coming up, since I don't play MMOs or racing games like Forza.

Dude, I write reviews about BOARD GAMES for petes sake. I play the games where the games are... Plus, yaknow, Bioshock is a PC title, so is shadowrun, and then there were all those weeks where we salivated all over gametap, sam and max, C&C... But I guess those don't count.

My memory is probably crap but did you talk about stalker

Shawn and I talked a couple of weeks about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and came to the conclusion that it seemed like a game we should like but just couldn't drive ourselves to keep playing. Given the option I would only play PC games, but there's just not enough out there right now. I know listeners probably don't want a weekly update on World of Warcraft, so it's just a little difficult to find good PC material to talk about.

But, Rabbit makes a good point. C&C, Sam and Max, Gametap, Civ IV, LOTRO, Wow and other games definitely get mention.

Yeah, you're right. I'm talking crap.

Elysium wrote:

I know listeners probably don't want a weekly update on World of Warcraft, so it's just a little difficult to find good PC material to talk about.

But if Rob made compelling stories out of them like his little "vignette" a couple of weeks ago then we'd all listen to them

And bioshock. Have I mentioned I'm eager for Bioshock? I could swear I mentioned it once or twice. Let's ask Ken, maybe he'll remember.

rabbit wrote:

And bioshock. Have I mentioned I'm eager for Bioshock? I could swear I mentioned it once or twice. Let's ask Ken, maybe he'll remember.

Or Slashdot, or Bill Harris, or Joystiq. Or we could ask Google.

Rabbit's famous! I bet admission for Rabbitcon went up this year...

You have no idea.

I got an honorable mention. CEJansen = CEJ! I'm so Del.icio.us