At PC Gamer, we hate redundancy. We hate redundancy so much that we won’t even tell you how much we hate redundancy. But we hate it. That’s why during this weeks podcast, we decree that the two Dakotas shall be consolidated into one. And in between our political proclamations, we discuss all manner of PC gaming news, including:
Epic-length two-hour podcast! Evan, Logan, Josh, Dan, Andy and newcomer Chris Comiskey relay a flood of news coming out of Germany’s Gamescom. Relic’s Dawn of War II expands while Dawn of War III peeks over the horizon, Torchlight 2’s co-op trailer triggers a Pavlovian drool response, Jagged Alliance goes online, and Microsoft brings back Age of Empires and Flight Simulator – sort of. Then we play World of Warcraft: Cataclysm’s Collector’s Edition: buy or no buy, answer listener questions and interview the CEO of hardcore strategy publisher Paradox Interactive.
This episode’s busting its seams with people eager to talk about all the latest video game news (and a few things that aren’t video game-related at all). The author of LOVE, Eskil Steenberg joins us this week to offer developer insight on the news and explain why he’s still using a decade-old mouse. Logan tells us all about his trip to the Bioshock Infinite announcement in New York, including why his skepticism turned to optimism with a single video of gameplay. The whole gang, including guests Andy Salisbury from the official World of Warcraft magazine and ex-PCG EIC Gary Whitta, tackle RUSE’s lack of DRM, League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth latest additions, Fallout New Vegas’ star-studded voice casting list, and our big scoop on the next big TF2 update.
Fresh off his guest-writing stint at Penny Arcade, Hollywood scribe Gary Whitta joins Dan, Josh, Erik and Andy to talk about what brought him back to PC gaming after a real-life rage quit and his plans for building a new PC. Then we cover announcements ranging from Battlefield to Batman to Worms, speculate on what Irrational is up to, and discuss the best way to entice gamers back to an older game – and that’s before we even get to answering listener questions and what we’re playing.
On today’s podcast, Evan, Josh, Dan, and Erik recap the results of yesterday’s office StarCraft 2 tournament and offer their first thoughts on the launch of the game, the campaign (spoiler-free, of course), and Blizzard’s mostly issue-less worldwide launch of one of the biggest multiplayer games of all time. Yesterday’s SC2 tourney champ, Tyler Nagata, senior editor at GamesRadar, also joins us.
At the end of today’s episode we interview “HDStarcraft,” one of the prominent StarCraft 2 professional match broadcasters in the SC2 community. If we can encourage you to subscribe to one YouTube channel (after ours), let it be HD’s elegant, entertaining StarCraft commentary.
StarCraft 2’s new trailer: analyzed. Valve’s surprise free game, Alien Swarm: talked. ArmA 2: Operation Arrowhead’s incoming British DLC…sconed. Erik “Level 80″ Belsaas, Andy “Cat Murderer” Bauman and Evan “Caramel Nougat” Lahti talk about all this, plus our insight on the often unnecessarily-long lead times gaming publishers make between the announcement and release of a game.
Intern Robert rallies the PC Gamer crew to chat about the Mass Effect-izing of Dragon Age 2, why League of Legends has our attention, our hopes for the next Batman: Arkham Asylum and the brand new talent trees of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Podcast producer Andy Bauman shares a rare gripe with Monkey Island 2, too.
Quote of the week, courtesy of Evan: “One time, I was The Hamburglar for Halloween.”
Evan & Co. celebrate the return of some of their favorite games as the Starcraft II beta comes back online amidst Blizzard’s Real ID controversy, Dragon Age 2 is officially announced, Microsoft announces a new strategy game, and the Engineer marches back into our lives with all sorts of mechanical wizardry ain Team Fortress 2’s latest update. And if that isn’t enough podcast to keep you satisfied for another week, we answer all of your Cataclysm questions with the crazy minds behind Outlandish Podcast, the bluntest, funniest WoW podcast you’ll ever listen to.
Dan bravely leads his crew of Josh, Evan, Erik, and Robert to the farm to steal copious amounts of cheese and talk about the Cataclysm beta, Heroes of Newerth, Portal 2, and lasing targets in Homefront. We also take your calls and see why Robert likes to be “passively entertained” by Modern Warfare 2.
On this week’s show Evan, Josh, Eric, Robert, and waveform-oligist Andy talk about Portal 2’s new techniques, the upcoming summer game lineup (is Singularity worth playing?) and debate the sustainability of the tank, healer, DPS “trinity system” seen in most modern MMOs.
We recorded just before the Counter-Strike: Source update rolled out yesterday, so look forward to commentary on that next week. While you’re here, watch the incredible, feline-threatening ad Andy made for us. Our recent history of pointing weapons at cats continues.
