The Rumble Pack Posts

Tony, Tom and Kaz we sad to hear that both Justin and Nicolo were detained for the week. Without them the podcast would be very silly. So to keep the silliness under control they invited friend of the show Jarrod Maistros (Jard) to keep the peace. They found out that there is some silliness that you just can’t control.

 Things start off with a bang concerning Galaga Legions and Final Fantasy IV DS. Which turns into a short trip down memory lane to revisit some SNES RPG classics. Then in a Rumble Pack first, we seriously discuss World of Warcraft, seriously. And we pick apart the short gameplay demo of Force Unleashed, is the force with this one?

Looming deadlines, exhaustive reading assignments, and late night study sessions – it’s all rushing back to me now. Though I’m completely overwhelmed by the size of the Champaign Urbana campus and back to square one on the social front, it feels good to be a student again. I’m sure this sentiment will change in a few short weeks when I’m downing (heavily caffeinated) Dews and stalling out on my lead paragraphs, but right now the “professional journalist” title seems within my grasp. I’m just one “intensive” year away.

The bad news is that this fast track comes at a price. If I learned one thing from last week’s orientation, it’s that I’m going to have very little time for recreation. Couple that with the discovery that my dormitory internet connection is tenuous at best (though this probably will change as the semester progresses), and it should come as little surprise that I will need to drastically decrease my involvement in The Rumble Pack Podcast. Believe me, this is a hard sacrifice to make, but my perpetual loafing had to come to an end at some point. That doesn’t mean I’ll be leaving the show completely. Right now, we’re considering pre-recorded addresses or rants to tag to the end of our shows (think Andy Rooney of “60 Minutes,” except maybe even more crotchety), and you can check back here for weekly blog posts every Monday and reviews every Tuesday Saturday.

This week in the The Rumble Pack. Tony, Nick and Tom dissect exactly how they’re having fun with Bionic Commando: Rearmed.  Tony talks up The Marriage and a boat load of other fancy “indie” games.

Then Tony and Kaz try and determine if Madden ’09 has improved from 08, except one of them played ’08 and one played ’09. Hilarity ensues. And Kaz ignites Tom’s love-hate relationship with Interactive Fiction (Text Adventures), by talking about Frotz for the iPhone.

Oh, and the whole group gets sidetracked by Too Human’s review performance.

The first annual meeting of The Rumble Pack Art Appreciation Club convenes. Justin’s love for Pixeljunk Eden begins to wilt, Nicolo brings the goods (and a super villain sighting) from this year’s Otacon, and Tom, Tony and Kaz rave about Braid’s fourth dimensional fun. And while we’re all pleased with the downloadable gaming push, we ponder why gamers are so quick to pack away their old favorites

Later in the episode, the group breaks into a discussion of  game pricing which winds, as is traditional for The Pack, into something totally different. Enjoy!

**Sunday Night Community Match: Soul Calibur 4 on the PS3 agan (hopefully the soul still burns!)

Click here!

As far as I know, this is the first game that allows users to instantly upload videos. Expect more video reviews if this feature is made available in future releases.

Just to reiterate, I don’t dislike Pixeljunk Eden. Just look at the final verdict. I know that the above video has a negative spin, but that’s only because the few missteps are so glaring in a game that gets almost everything else right. Eden is so often transcendent, with one of the few virtual worlds that truly feels alive (one of the few instances in which “organic” is not at all pretentious). Not even the vomit stained walls of Garden 6 can take that accomplishment away from Q Games.

Are you ready for some Soul Calibur IV minutiae?! Guard Impacts, heaving bosoms, and rebalanced characters – par for the course with fighting games, but is it still enough? The Rumble Pack sounds off. If fighting games aren’t your thing, we also discuss some downloadable heavy hitters. Tom and Justin offer valuable Geometry Wars 2 pro-tips, while Tony extols the virtues of Pixeljunk Eden’s artsy-fartsy swinging to a skeptical Kaz.

After the break, we talk about the Fat Princess weight debate. We discuss gaming obesity, virtual depictions of women, and broader implications of an irritated gaming community. Put a smile on your face, grab some cake, and listen up!

All hands, brace for impact! Sound the alarm! The full cast of the Rumble Pack has assembled for a mission of great importance. Nicolo updates everyone on the massive amount of titles he’s been playing (and keeps one secret), Justin tries to talk about important edutainment, while Kaz, Tony and Tom laugh about the fun they had revisiting old XBLA titles.

In the second half of the show we bring back one of our newer segments in the form of Retrospective: Metal Gear Solid 4, and we guarantee that the analysis here on The Rumble Pack won’t be found anywhere else (for better or for worse). Then we take a Side Quest to visit the recent movie theater phenom The Dark Knight.

All that and a Watchmen update in this week’s episode.

**Sunday Night Community Match: Soul Calibur IV (PS3 only, folks! Give yourself to the Dark Side!)

It is time to make amends. When you listen to episode 55 this week, you will unfortunately hear my co-hosts ridiculing me for purchasing Elefunk, Sony’s pachyderm-infused civil engineering crash course (selling for a paltry five bucks). Unfortunately, I was only a few stages into the game, and thus unprepared to counter their baseless ridicule. That, and the game is really frustrating for the first hour or so. However, now that I’ve warmed up to this PSN sleeper, I thought I’d help provide the tutorial that the developers mysteriously forgot to include. Hopefully these quick (admittedly common sense) tips will make up for the outright dismissal of Elefunk on this week’s podcast.

1. Pay attention to your happy accidents – Some of the principles you discover early on will be used frequently throughout the later stages. Be sure to keep track of what works and what doesn’t.

2. Put the bulk of the weight against the walls of the chasm – Watching your bridges collapse in on themselves can be maddening, but you can alleviate some of the burden by taking the weight out from under the center and moving it to the ends. Triangular pieces work wonders here (think arches).

Nothing a history major can’t handle!

3. You’re not supposed to use all of the pieces! – Each utilized piece will deduct points from your final score, but you’ll have bigger problems if you use everything at your disposal. Remember, heavy bridges can barely support themselves, let alone three hulking elephants.

The Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network may have rekindled interest in dusty coin-operated classics like Pac-Man and Galaga, but at their worst, they’ve also served as reminders of why arcades died in the first place. For every Everyday Shooter or Geometry Wars, there are dozens of me-too shooters that serve only to congest the online catalogs. There seem to be two ideologies currently battling for virtual shelf space: nostalgic celebrations of gaming roots and experimental indie pet-projects. 1942: Joint Strike is a solid example of why the latter is winning.

Revisionist history

Backbone Entertainment’s revival of Capcom’s 194X series does many things well. Decent graphics (much truer to the original inspiration than their Commando retread), responsive controls, and smooth online play are always welcome, while the slower pacing makes the second-player wingman easier to keep track of than in your typical “Bullet Hell.” However, even though this 30 minute tour through the Pacific Theater will keep your trigger fingers busy, your mind will wander elsewhere – perhaps to the lush jungles and crumbling cityscapes of Assault Heroes or the monochromatic skies of Ikaruga. Joint Strike just cannot compete in terms of clever level design and enemy variety (TWO boss palette-swaps?!).

1942: Joint Strike is a decent time waster, but the game’s value hinges almost entirely on nostalgia. And as much as I revere 1944 (and the Strikers 1945 homage), this remake does nothing to evolve the series. Don’t let the name brand lure you away from games more deserving of your 800 space bucks. ESPECIALLY during this August!