This week we finally have a real show! Excitement! We discuss the grand ole’ time we had at Midwest Gaming Classic in Wisconsin, and all the crazy stuff we did there! Afterwards, there’s a load of new music, games, and movies. There’s also a few anime to keep an eye on, but the “new” anime season doesn’t come into full swing until another few weeks.

That's Andrew and Tony!

 30 - The Wild Wild Midwest [93:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (209)

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intro:
week: Po-Po shut us down!

Segment: Midwest Gaming Classic

Music: Red Sparowes, Gucey Guce Doe Boy, Florence + The Machine, Dillinger Escape Plan, Erykah Badu, Deftones
Anime: FLCL, Summer Wars, Fairy Tale, Chu-bra, Revolutionary Girl UTENA.
Gaming: Mars Matrix, deadly premonition, wartech, rumble roses, trigger heart exelica, shoot 1up, ninja chop, bullet witch.
Movies/TV: Zombieland, Invention of Lying, Little Miss Sunshine, Survive Style 5+, Beer Wars, Strictly Sexual

That’s what this game is quite guilty of.

Too bad there’s already a game called Mother, because it also would have been fitting for Final Fantasy XIII! It holds your hand, like a little child whose eyes are blinded by the bright lights of the shiny new world.

Import hype for this game dictated preemptive poor impressions for this title. It was called “hallway simulator” and “too linear” by many netizens. Many of these qualms were crushed under its domestic release here in the states. Whereupon playing the game in English, many understood why it was so linear for a good chunk of the game.

Without spoiling it, let’s just say that the party is “on the run” from an enemy. To me, it made sense to have a very narrow scope of travel between destinations. There are exceptions for older games in which a party is on the run only for a brief while, where you get to ride in airships etc.

Oddly enough, its linearity wasn’t what bugged me about Final Fantasy XIII, it was the fact it held your hand like an all-knowing matriarch trying to convince you that it’s for your own good. Why does this bug me so much, though? Why can’t I just shut up and act like the good fanboy that I am (truly)?

Because this game takes its audience for granted, and that is a bit upsetting coming from this particular series. Remember in that one book where the guy says, “Stay gold, ponyboy. Stay gold?” I don’t mind change, there are some ridiculous changes in series that I actually appreciate.

This game didn’t stay gold. When Final Fantasy X got rid of the world map, that took me a while to get used to; however, it was still gold. The player can’t level up, change party positions, can’t upgrade, and is severly limited on a few other fronts for a majority of the game.

Many games these days are guilty of this sort of behavior. They are programmed to hold our hand, I feel, because of the mainstream acceptance of gaming. Making an awesome game like Ys where it just drops you on a world map and says “Go!” just wouldn’t fly in this modern era.

This is an age where JRPGs are being accused of being stagnant and not changing up the formula enough. FF13 changed up the formula, and is nowhere near stagnant. But at what cost?

The game doesn’t give you certain features until it “logically” makes sense in the game. After playing through most of it, it makes sense to leave some things until later. For some stuff though, it’s MUCH later.

I rather enjoyed my play time with Final Fantasy XIII, but it’s guilty of holding my hand just like many other AAA games are guilty of. Some do it via QTEs or cutscenes instead of letting you fight (RE5, MGS4, UC2). FF13 does it by simply not introducing certain game elements until much later, and it’s somewhat insulting.

I suppose they have realized that their audience has changed, and that’s OK too. This sort of thing is a staple of modern gaming. I just hope that the series at least makes attempts of sticking to its roots. Do something to remind me that it’s a Final Fantasy game, and not just some random Square-Enix quota-meeter.

The game is still pretty fun, once you can get over the fact that it’s so drastically different. Once you realize that it’s just adapted for what the series has truly become, I think you can start to enjoy it. It’s not exactly a shining star at first, but then it really grows on you.

We are just a few days away from BFMGC (aka MGC) and your humble hosts meeting each other in person for the first time. We have an exciting weekend in store with a live show and some other fun surprises. Our live show will be held in our hotel room and broadcast live on Ustream (provided everything goes ok). We’ll have myself, Andrew, and Rebelj12a from VGEvo along with some possible special guests we may drag down to make an appearance. Stay tuned to our Twitter and our Facebook for room location and Ustream details. Be sure to check back next week for recordings or whatever shenanigans go down at MGC and stay tuned to Twitter for pictures from the weekend.

As for this current episode of BFM, I’ve decided to play a bunch of new music. Now, some of it is really old in blog years, but it’s still pretty new: 6 months is the oldest song I have on here. I have a lot of hip-hop, some pop, rock, metal, ska, and an electronic song. You’ll find something you’ll like, I’m sure of it. Also, bonus points if you get what the title of the episode is from without using Google. What do you win? Respect.

 29.75 - The Newest In New [62:11m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (208)

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Playlist:
Major Lazer – Keep It Goin’ Louder (feat. Nina Sky and Ricky Blaze)
Intro [3:45]
T.I. – I’m Back [4:40]
Freeway & Jake One – Throw Your Hands Up [8:18]
Gorillaz – Rhinestone Eyes [12:00]
Drake – Over [15:18]
Midtro the First [19:07]
Big Boi – Fo Yo Sorrows (feat. George Clinton and Too $hort) [20:13]
Broken Bells – The Ghost Inside [23:52]
Four Tet – Angel Echoes [27:06]
Lady GaGa – Telephone (feat. Beyonce) [31:03]
Midtro the Second [34:42]
KiD CuDi – Enter Galactic [35:19]
High on Fire – Frost Hammer [39:22]
The Dillinger Escape Plan – I Wouldn’t If You Didn’t [45:26]
Streetlight Manifesto – Such Great Heights [49:35]
Outro [52:59]
Nujabes – Reflection Eternal [56:27]

No, it’s not entirely black metal. In fact, there’s only one black metal song in the entire bunch! This episode is dedicated to people who feel the need to sing about Satan. One of ‘em is a Pagan band, but here in the Dirty South everything’s considered the devil if it ain’t Jesus! We start out smooth, then get into some heavier stuff, and finally top if off we have some devilish feminist glossolalia.

DDL | RSS | Itunes

 29.5 - Ave Satanas [52:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (213)

Playlist:

At one point during the show, one of the artists say erection, I bet you can’t figure out which one!

A little bit LTTP on this, but late is better than never. Andrew and Tony take a little bit of time to discuss and spoil Heavy Rain for you. So, if you’ve played the latest and greatest PS3 exclusive, give it a listen. If you haven’t, give it a listen anyways. It’s like playing the game, but in audio form!

 Heavy Rain SPOILERZ!!! [26:54m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (225)

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This episode took a long time to sit down and record. In the weeks leading up to midterms, my motivation to podcast has been weakening. Excuses aside, we have a cool show in store. This time, we complain about lists and awards shows. The oscars were recently, so we talk about how useless they are.

We promised a Heavy Rain spoilers episode, and it will come in the form of a special edition. There won’t be any more full episodes until the live show. We’ll put out some stuff, but only special episodes and some music podcasts.

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 29 - Kids in a Sandbox [1:27:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (230)

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Anyone with a Playstation 3 has probably heard of the new reality TV show Sony’s been pumping out every week called The Tester.

The show has a full cast of unique characters, one of which goes by the name “Barmy.” This fella was known for being exceptionally awkward and saying the creepiest things. I feel that he represented a large majority of gamers out there, and it’s a shame he was voted off so quickly.

Now, I’m not saying that all gamers are exactly like this character, but many of us share certain socially awkward characteristics. Chances are you know some gamer guy exactly like Barmy.

This is what he looks like:

Parrots are zygodactyl!

This is a caption contest, so in order to further analyze the situation it would be in your best interest to watch the first episode of The Tester. It might be a bit painful to sit through, but it’s worth it for free stuff. Right? Right.

The contest starts immediately and ends a week from today. The two funniest captions will each receive 1 one-year membership to the ECA.  Winners will be announced shortly thereafter. Please post your comments in the comment section and use a valid email address so that we can redeem your prize. Nobody except for me will be able to view your email address, so don’t worry about spam.

This contest is open to everyone. If you haven’t seen the tester, go here for details. I also hear they have clips on youtube.