CJ's away in San Francisco, which means Phil and Greg are taking over this week and spending way too much time talking about one of their favorite systems--the Sega CD. Thrill to stories of the Sega CD launch; the greatest pack-in software bundle of all time; the synergy of Hollywood and Silicon Valley; and an in-depth review of the greatest Sega CD game you've never played. Dan even says two or three words during the segment! Of course, we begin things this week with Whatcha-been playin'? Here ...
Mar 26, 2007•1 hr 18 min
Welcome to a very special edition of the Player One Podcast. This is not a regular episode. It's a fan commentary for Episode 1 of Captain N: The Game Master (available now on DVD from Shout Factory). Note: You must have a copy of the set for most of the audio in this podcast to make any sense whatsoever. Here's how it works: Load up Disc 1, and go into the Episode Selection menu. Start listening to this episode, and when you hear the Mario "pipe" sound effect press enter on your DVD remote to s...
Mar 22, 2007•28 min
Welcome to a very special edition of the Player One Podcast. This is not a regular episode. It's a fan commentary for Episode 1 of Captain N: The Game Master (available now on DVD from Shout Factory). Note: You must have a copy of the set for most of the audio in this podcast to make any sense whatsoever. Here's how it works: Load up Disc 1, and go into the Episode Selection menu. Start listening to this episode, and when you hear the Mario "pipe" sound effect press enter on your DVD remote to s...
Mar 22, 2007•28 min
The February NPD numbers are out, and we take the opportunity to talk about each company's strategy or lack thereof for the upcoming months. Is Nintendo's continued success with the Wii going to peter out at some point soon as PS3 gets its sea legs? What does Sony need to do to emerge from its sales pit? When Game Boy Advance is outselling you, there's a problem. Next up, we tackle an issue that recently bubbled back to the surface when Silicon Knights' Denis Dyack appeared on EGM Live: How revi...
Mar 19, 2007•1 hr 3 min
The 2007 Game Developers Conference was held last week in San Francisco. While Greg, Chris and Phil did not attend, the "magic" of the Internet allowed us to keep tabs on the goings on. The major news? Sony's formal announcement of PlayStation Home -- your Home away from home that you can log onto from home. Is this the light at the end of the tunnel to the streak of bad press that Sony's been getting? And is it what Sony needed to match Microsoft's Xbox Live service? Listen in as we talk about ...
Mar 12, 2007•1 hr 23 min
Outside of the first segment, this week's episode is all about the latest news surrounding the PS3. Some good, some bad, but we haven't talked about PS3 much lately so we decided to devote the whole episode to it. Last week Sony and Immersion kissed and made up, which could mean the return of rumble to the Sixaxis controller (hurray!)--question is, how soon? Then there's the infamous rumor that Sony introducing a Mii/Achievements hybrid called PlayStation Home this week. Not only is the concept ...
Mar 04, 2007•1 hr 18 min
This week we present to you a very special episode of the Player One Podcast. Greg and Phil sit down with Al Lowe, creator of the Leisure Suit Larry series (not including the recent and craptacular Magna Cum Laude) and other classic Sierra On-Line graphic adventures. Listen as we pick Al's brain about everything from game design in the old days to the fall of Sierra to his opinions on the current state of games for adults. Caution: There might be some bald jokes and at least one major error by o...
Feb 26, 2007•1 hr 10 min
This week there's no one overarching segment. Instead, we talk about a few little things, starting with the top 10 entries in Next-Gen.biz's list of the Top 100 games people played in 2006 (though the list does not include three very important entries, at least in Phil's mind). We also discuss retailer Gamestop's new program where their Aeris automated call system dials you up to ask if you want to trade in a game you bought two months ago. And we thought Aeris was six feet under. We go off on a...
Feb 19, 2007•55 min
There's no more controversial figure in console role-playing game fandom than Ted Woolsey. During the '90s he worked at Squaresoft and was responsible for the English translations of games like Final Fantasy III and Chrono Trigger. His work is either loved or totally reviled by fans on the Internet, with FF III's translation taking the brunt of that criticism. Nintendo and Square Enix re-released the game last week on Game Boy Advance under its original Japanese title, Final Fantasy VI, with a b...
Feb 11, 2007•1 hr 34 min
Virtua Calamity? Should a game reviewer be allowed to review a product when they were involved in its development, however little? Last week this question came to the forefront as word came that characters with attributes selected by editors from IGN, Ziff-Davis, Wired's GameLife (and others as well) will be included in Sega's upcoming Virtua Fighter 5, and that some of these same editors will be the ones reviewing the product. But it's not an isolated incident -- game journalists are sometimes ...
Feb 05, 2007•1 hr 41 min
It was supposed to be a nice little segment about Zelda... ...But oh how it derailed. Yes, it's true -- in this episode we spend a fair amount of time talking about Nintendo's beloved Legend of Zelda series. From the 8-bit NES games to the current Wii (and GameCube) installment, we talk about it all. The highs, the lows, and all the heartfelt nostalgia we all feel for the series. Of course that's not all we talk about this week. A short (because no one seems to have played anything) what'cha bee...
Jan 29, 2007•1 hr 22 min
World of Dreamcast It's a special podcast this week, and not only because it's very long (and what you have here is still the result of quite a bit of editing). In Episode Lucky 13 we talk about Sega's Dreamcast, the system that became Sega's last hope as a hardware manufacturer, ultimately sending them reeling into the world of third-party publishing for competing hardware platforms. Join us as we talk about the highs, the lows and everything in between. After listening to this segment you may ...
Jan 22, 2007•1 hr 37 min
Tackling Difficulty This week we take on the question of difficulty in games. Discussion includes talk of how game difficulty has changed in the past 20 years, the hardest games we've ever played, and what it's like to have to review or write a strategy guide on an extremely difficult game under the deadline crunch of a print magazine. Sometimes, it's not pretty. Our What'cha Been Playin' discussion this week centers on Capcom's new Xbox 360 game Lost Planet. We have trudged through frozen tundr...
Jan 15, 2007•58 min
The Dead Pool This is an episode you may want to keep around to reference later. Why? Because it's our first-annual 2007 Dead Pool episode, where we go 'round the circle and choose three games each we think (using absolutely no scientific means other than a "feeling") will either be canceled outright or delayed into 2008. Who will be right, who will be wrong? We'll just have to see what 2007 brings us. But rest assured there are a few interesting predictions here. We probably should've put some ...
Jan 08, 2007•1 hr 26 min
Player One's Shiny New Year Happy New Year everyone! While other podcasts have settled in for a long winter's nap, we hopped in the studio yet again for one more episode before all the Auld Lang Synes were sung. In this episode, Phil and Dan become "series regulars," and join Greg and CJ to talk about such things as what we'd like to see happen in 2007 (though we tried to avoid predictions outright, we stray into that territory too). Here's a trend for '07--most of the discussion in this episode...
Jan 01, 2007•1 hr 30 min
A Festivus for the rest of us! Although our crew are traveling to various parts of the globe for the holidays, that didn't stop us from getting together earlier in the week and recording a special episode for you, dear listener, on this most busy of holidays. Special thanks to Phil Theobald and Dan Dormer, who join CJ and I once again for the final episode of the year. In lieu of our regular "whatcha been playin'" segment, we hop right into our probably-longer-than-it-should-be year in review, w...
Dec 25, 2006•1 hr 37 min
The shame in our game This week we return to a topic brought up in the last 'cast: our greatest gaming shames. In the final segment of the podcast we share some things we're not proud of. And joining in the fun is this episode's special guest, freelance writer Dan Dormer, who shares an inexplicable shame -- playing a bad/painful game not only to the end, but over and over again to see its multiple endings, sinking at least 100 hours into it. Why? Also this week, we continue our retrospective on ...
Dec 18, 2006•1 hr 11 min
It's a Cube, not Box nor Station This week we take a look back at an old friend called GameCube as he gasps his final breath on Tuesday with the release of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Phil Theobald joins us as we talk about third party support, Nintendo's own lack of great games, farming out of the classics to second-party developers, the lack of a "real" Mario game and more. Also in this segment, CJ reveals one of his greatest gaming shames. But we start this week (of course) by tal...
Dec 11, 2006•1 hr 30 min
This week marks our return to a regular posting schedule. In this episode's first segment, we discuss Zelda (Wii), F.E.A.R (360), the Wii Virtual Console versions of Solomon's Key, Sonic, Bonk and Mario 64, Red Steel (Wii), Call of Duty 3 (Wii), and we get a brief update on Greg's adventures with the PS3. Next up we talk about the Wii. It's only two weeks old and they've sold over a million units between the US and Japan (and releases in other areas of the world later this week). What do Nintend...
Dec 04, 2006•1 hr 15 min
This week it's all about Xbox 360: Year One. The ups, downs, and everywhere in between. We talk about microtransactions, Xbox Live Arcade, the January-March game drought, the digital distribution model, achievements, online play, everything Xbox 360. Naturally we also do a What'cha Been Playing segment at the beginning where we discuss Elite Beat Agents, Zelda on Wii, Resistance and Ridge Racer on PS3, and Bonk's Adventure. And sandwiched in at the end of this episode is a section where we read ...
Nov 29, 2006•1 hr 11 min
Episode 04, 11/20/06 This week we talk all about the system launches, PlayStation 3 and Wii. Ex-GameNOW and GameSpy editor Phil Theobald joins Chris & Greg for the discussion, where we discuss the lines, the shortages, getting the systems home, the games, and more. So much more that this is a much longer show that normal. Also interspersed within the show are various interviews CJ did with people who lined up in Houston for the systems, both PS3 and Wii. You probably won't be all that shocke...
Nov 20, 2006•1 hr 42 min
It's a crazy-stuffed episode for an insanity-filled hardware launch week. In this episode, we: - Talk about what we've been playing, mainly Gears of War and Wii since CJ got some extended playtime with Zelda and Excite Truck this weekend. - Talk about PlayStation 3 launch games being delayed/canceled in the last week and what that could mean for the system's short-term future. - After a quick musical interlude we discuss Nolan Bushnell's comments that Sony could fail with PS3. Could one of the i...
Nov 13, 2006•1 hr
In this episode ex-video game journo Chris and freelancer extraordinaire Greg: - Blatantly thieve the "what'cha been playin'" segment popular in many podcasts and use it to talk about Final Fantasy XII, Sam & Max, Phantasy Star Universe, Elite Beat Agents, DDR and Strawberry Shortcake(!). - Talk about preorders. Gears of War, the various Halo 3 editions, and Gamestop's ability to sell you slips of paper that say you have a game on reserve a year before it's due out. - Talk about microtransac...
Nov 06, 2006•1 hr 2 min
This episode of the Player One Podcast comes in four sections: Phantasy Star Universe, the Rainbow Six Vegas demo and region-locked content, the 6th anniversary of the PlayStation 2's launch, and games that are "scary." Enjoy! Here are the pictures from the PS2 launch in 2000.
Oct 30, 2006•49 min
Hear! A Canadian speak at a low volume, a guy who lives in Texas breathe heavily into the microphone, and discussion of some of the big topics in video gaming in between. Keep in mind we're really just working out the bugs with this episode...we know there are problems. So be kind when commenting on this one. In this week's episode: Segment 1: We shoot the breeze about Rockstar's latest, Bully (PS2). A fantastic school daze simulator that lets you relive getting picked on but gives you the cojon...
Oct 23, 2006•43 min
