Podcast #6

Hello all,

It's been a while coming, but we are really pleased to present to you Podcast #6.

We're joined by newcomer Alex and his refusal to believe in games produced in the last 10 years, and we discuss E3 at length.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Download Episode 6

Cheers,
Paul

No Disassemble Number Five!

Ladies & gentlemen, welcome to Alternate Endings Episode Five!

Download Alternate Endings Episode 5

Pete joins Mat, Nick and Paul this week (I was off on holiday in Italy; I know, total lack of commitment!).

• Pete talks about Miles Edgeworth Ace Attorney on the DS
• Pete and Paul have played Alan Wake. Matt has been playing, but he's still back in Episode 2 looking at the scenery
• Matt has been playing Sin and Punishment 2
• Nick, Pete and Paul have been playing Red Dead Redemption
• Nick's been playing with his iPad a bit - ooh shiny..
• Paul's been playing Frozen Synapse
• Paul's looking forward to Joe Danger

The guys talk about Episodic gaming a bit (and the incomplete episodic Stephen King book they mention is The Plant in case you're interested).

Forgotten Favourites

I think Nick correclty pointed out in a previous show that the "Forgotten Favourites" section should more accurately be renamed "Remembered Favourites" (as if they were forgotten, we wouldn't be..... oh you get the idea).

So the guys sit back and fondly reminisce over their gaming past. Nick chose Mega-lo-Mania on the Sega Megadrive (pictured), while Pete went for Roll Cage Stage 2 on the Playstation. Paul went all the way back to his BBC B days and talks about Repton.

According to IGN, Matt's choice of Dreamcast game Shenmue cost an unprecedented $70 million to make. Every Dreamcast owner would have to have bought the game twice in order for Sega to turn a profit!!

As always, we hope you enjoy the show, and it would be great to read your comments, tweets or emails!

Dan

I would prefer even to fail with honor than to win by cheating

Maybe old Sophocles was onto something. Woody Allen was, afterall, thrown out of college for cheating on his metaphysics exam; he looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to him.... so the Alternate Endings team use our first topic show to grapple with the thorny issue of "Cheating".

Download Alternative Endings #4

Of course, the first difficult task we have is actually defining what cheating is. From the days when we used to enter cheat codes for infinite lives, to buying game guides or looking at walkthroughs on GameFAQs - is it cheating if we're only cheating ourselves? Mat really relishes the satisfaction of completing a game completely unaided - whereas I'm quite happy to look things up online if I'm stuck. Am I actually cheating?

At one point, Nick's ponders whether it counts as cheating to elbow your mate in the ribs during a co-op play session.... and so of course we get to the idea of a level playing field in multiplayer, and the things people can do to stack the decks in their favour. We talk about PC client side hacks, wall hacks, auto aims and macros - though of course consoles are better protected than PCs. But what about console exploits and glitching then?

Here's some food for though while you download the podcast:

• Is camping cheating? (In which case all snipers are cheats)
• Does hacking your achievements count as cheating, and does it really affect anyone else?
• Is quitting multiplayer when you're loosing cheating?
  

Answers on a postcard, please!

Anyway, we hope you enjoy the show. Now I'm just off to peel all the stickers off my rubics cube.....

Dan

Three is the magic number

Three, by a strange and wonderful coincidence, as well as being the magic number is also the number of this episode of Alternate Endings!!

Download Alternate Endings #3

I managed to battle back through volcanic ash to get to the Reading Bunker for this recording, and was once again joined by Mat, Paul and Nick. As well as congratulating Mat the arrival of his second baby boy (who contributed somewhat to the late recording of the show, but we'll forgive the little fellow), we embarked on an extended "What we're playing" show. For your listening pleasure, we disect Splinter Cell Conviction at some length, we delight in PopCap Games' iPhone/iTouch offerings, we dive briefly into BlueBlaze and Sin & Punishment 2, we dance around Mass Effect 2 momentarily, and deviate wildly from our planned schedule to comprehensively review everything Paul has ever played in his life ever (perhaps I exaggerate!). Anyway, here is the full list:

• Final Fantasy XIII
  
• BlazBlue
• Splinter Cell: Conviction
  
• PopCap Games (Plants vs Zombies, Bejewelled 2, Peggle, Bookworm, etc)
  
• Mass Effect 2
  
• Wonder Boy
• Raystorm HD
• Canabault
• Edge
• Cross fingers
• Hell
  
• Castlevania Rondo of Blood
  
• Wave Race (because Paul is that cutting edge!)
• 2010 FIFA World Cup
  
• Heavy Rain (Taxidermist DLC)
  

A good time was had by all, and we hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed recording it! Please send us comments, suggestions, abuse and death threats (we're not fussy) either here on the blog or via the email and twitter addresses on the right.

Until next time.... enjoy!

Dan

Pete's Very Sweary Review of Leisure Suit Larry

Due to popular demand, here's Pete's extended, directors cut, triple X review of Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust.

NOTE: This contains quite a lot of swearing and is Not Safe for Work - unless you work in the navy, with people suffering from Tourettes syndrome, or in the school round the corner from my house. Perhaps we mean that the show is less family friendly than usual - unless your kids happen to go to school round the corner from me! We had to take Pete outside afterwards and wash his mouth out with soap and water (by which I mean beer).

Download it here!

Alternate Endings Podcast #2 (08 April 2010)

Hello again!

We are back for our second show!

Dan is mysteriously replaced by Pete in this episode and he makes a fantastic first contribution!

We discuss some games:
God of War III
The Ballad of Gay Tony
Grand Theft Auto IV
Just Cause 2
Popcap Bookworm
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Batman: Arkham Asylum - The Villain Challenge Map

Best of all (I'm biased) we have a guest reviewer of Dante's Inferno!

We talk about some news that's got us interested, and we review the terrible, terrible games that we picked for each other last time.. Lucky us!

Finally, you get a chance to choose what we talk about next time - get voting!

Thanks for listening.

Paul (& everyone!)

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Subscribe to Alternate Endings via RSS:
Alternate Endings Podcast RSS

Or you can download here:
Download Alternate Endings Podcast #2 (MP3)

Alternate Endings Podcast #1

Hello!!

Alternate Endings is a new podcast from 4 video gamers in Reading, UK. We are Dan (hello!) Paul, Nick and Mat, and our show is about computer games, gaming, and the gaming comunity.

The best introduction will be to listen to the first episode - which is up on iTunes now. As this is our first podcast, we talk about who we are, how we got into video gaming, what we like, and why we are recording the show!

We then talk a bit about some of the games we've been playing recently:
Heavy Rain
The Saboteur
Darwinia+
Picross 3D
Eufloria
Final Fantasy XIII

We also learn about Paul's obsessive Xbox 360 games collection - and he has a surprising and rather dubious homework challenge for his fellow hosts!

The format of the show will develop and evolve over time, and it would be great to hear your feedback and suggesions about the show and what you might like to hear in future! Please feel free to leave us a comment, send us an email, or follow us on Twitter - links to all of those on the right!

I hope you enjoy the podcast - and if you did, please pass it on to your friends! We will be recording Podcast #2 on 8th April 2010 - though as I am going to be away we will have a special guest podcaster with us!

Thanks for listening.

Dan

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Subscribe to Alternate Endings via RSS:
Alternate Endings Podcast RSS

Or you can download here:
Download Alternate Endings Podcast #1 (MP3)

Some of the Game Collection...

Here's an idea of the scale of a 'big' game collection!

Welcome!

Welcome to the blog for the Alternate Endings podcast.  

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