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Six Alliance of Awesome members gathered last week in Earl’s Court, London, for the Eurogamer Expo. Some of them played games. Some of them abused their press pass privileges. Some of them were Men of Science.
But this incredible geographical concentration of writing talent has delivered a baby. The long-awaited sequel to the original Alliance of Awesome podcast is here, freshly wrapped in plastic just like Laura Palmer in the Twin Peaks pilot.
My God, it’s full of stars. This is what you will hear:
01:20 Mat C (Tap-Repeatedly) talks RAGE, Modern Warfare 3 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
04:00 MMORPG specialist Lewis B (Tap-Repeatedly) pulls no punches when contrasting Guild Wars 2 with The Old Republic. He then indulges his RAGE. As if he hadn’t already.
10:50 Martin Watts (Chief Satanic Overlord of BnB Gaming) covers Skyrim, RAGE, Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the aging Wii and Lord of the Rings: War of the North.
15:20 Tom Rippon (BnB Gaming) laments the lack of Assassin’s Creed: Revelations single-player action at the show and then slobbers over Modern Warfare 3 and Skyrim. And is ashamed by this.
19:50 Gregg B (Tap-Repeatedly) talks about sweat. As a bonus, he also touches on the games. Renegade Ops, Indie Games Arcade, TrackMania 2 Canyon and then Gregg gets all emotional on us when talking about Special Effect. Finishes up with Dark Souls and arse-death.
27:40 HM (Electron Dance) confesses how badly his meeting with ex-RPS Quinns went and touches on his Indie Games Arcade highlights again. And teases Prey 2 some more.
Use the player below to listen or grab a direct download of the podcast. Apologies for the sound quality in places but… well, you’ll see. Or hear.
Further Reading
Lewis B has already done a wayyy long piece on his Guild Wars 2 experience over on Tap. Tom and Martin have been writing a shedload of Expo reports and my particular highlight is the interview with OnLive.
And as you probably know, I’ve written up all my thoughts on the Eurogamer Expo already with a ten-minute video to boot although you can still enjoy the original, unfettered live feed.
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Tom: You should have played Oblivion on the PC to really enjoy it. 😉
Gregg: You old softy. Glad you covered the disabled person’s control system. That stuff is absolutely moving, and it makes me very happy.
HM: How did you interview yourself! It’s like, magic! Also, Prey 2 does look like something really cool that’s going to sneak up on us.
Armand, I think Gregg’s bit on Special Effect is the best moment of the whole podcast. So much focus on playing as many games as possible that I didn’t see the Special Effect stuff at all.
Prey 2 definitely looks great, but I felt the developer session was either heavily scripted or – controversially – a video. It wasn’t made clear. Time will tell as to whether it Prey 2 turns out to be a repetitive experience or, as I hoped, something closer to the unpredictability of Far Cry 2. But then again, you’re not an FPS person, right, Armand?
FPSs aren’t my first choice in gaming, but I think they can provide a solid, entertaining experience. I loved Bullet Storm, Bioshock, Borderlands (for multiplayer), L4D 1&2, and have been very tempted by all the positive press RAGE has received. Hell, I even thought Far Cry 2 had some really great things going for it.
I thought Prey 2 was going to have some RPG elements to it though, something closer to a Bethesda game than a straight up shooter. Am I wrong about that?
You might be right about the RPGness, although not so obvious to tell from the Prey 2 session. There was emphasis on the array of weapons and some of the clever devices (like jetpack on the go). It has a certain Mirror’s Edge feel too, to make the chase and combat fluid.
Still, what I saw, felt closer in template to GTA than an RPG to me.
Even GTA got pretty RPG like at some point. San Andreas had enough stats and leveling to confuse the untrained eye into thinking you were playing an action heavy RPG.
I’ll wait to see more for Prey 2 at this point though. Never played the first one, though it did catch my eye at the time it came out.
And, shockingly, I’ve just discovered that some podcasts can be incredibly enjoyable. How lovely.
“…freshly wrapped in plastic just like Laura Palmer in the Twin Peaks pilot.”
Laughed out loud.
Nice to see the podcast broken down into sections, always handy! Thanks for interviewing us all Joel, it was a pleasure and was great to finally listen to what the others had to say about the expo. I kinda wish we’d had a chance to do another on Sunday! Maybe next time! 😉
Thanks Gnome!
Gregg- yeah, it was a bit tricky as it wasn’t your “overall impressions” as you had another day yet. But I have a feeling none of you guys would have been in the mood for talking on Sunday evening!
I will also quickly note – for everyone else – that Gregg B and Mat C have now put up their enormous write-up about the expo on Tap. Which exclusively reveals Gregg B’s sad descent into Facebook gaming. I think that was exclusive, right?
Seriously, I approached the developer with 30 minutes of the expo left and said “What’s this about? Is it a sim meets tower defence” and he was like “That’s exactly what it is” and I was like “I’m listening”. Then he told me you could trash your friend’s cities then I was like “Oh my, this could be fun”. I’ve been playing it since the expo and it’s like a real game but with a more casual quirky Popcap bent. And it’s pretty funny too. I just need more friends to make cities that I can trash. Boo hoo.
I just listened to this- great stuff! Your intense announcer voice makes you sound 15 years younger, Joel.
I will say that I was partly disappointed that the interview with OnLive wasn’t an interview with the system itself. Words and meanings…
Thanks Beam! I’ll intend to be crazy faux American at all times, like I’m doing right now. If you were looking for a conversation direct with OnLive itself (the same number of letters as the proper noun “Skynet” I should add) then you can always try this.
“God was a dream of playing cutting-edge games on low-end systems.”