The Rumble Pack

Raw and uncut. This is the episodes the way they come out, no edits, no corrections, no music. Just pure gaming podcast.

Also, many tangents.

This episode features: everything lost the first time around except the GotY discussion, a phone call from Tom and a lot of Tony Nick and Kaz making obscene jokes.

Merry Christmas!

 

 Episode 25: Part 2 [61:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

There are lights hanging in every storefront, dozens of folks are sporting Santa hats, and the streets are packed with eager Chinese shoppers embracing the crass commercialism of the season. However, even with these familiar sights, I couldn’t be any less enthused about Christmas this year. At the risk of sounding like a broken record (see my Thanksgiving post), the holiday season just isn’t the same without my friends and family. Well, Christmas in general has been a bit rocky ever since my grandma passed away a few years ago, but I still would be infinitely more enthusiastic if I was in Monroe, Connecticut or Cleveland right now.

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The type of snow falling now is the kind you see rarely in life but often in movies - large round flakes falling slowly in uniform patterns and sticking perfectly to the grass and pavement alike, perfect for leaving footprints in or making snowmen with. At this time of the night the shops are all closed, darkened storefronts displaying careful arrangements of aesthetically pleasing items. It’s a few days before Christmas, and the night is given a dream-like glow by the reflections of multicolored lights hanging from the roofs of houses in the snow. The only sound comes from the snow crunching under my feet and the occasional acoustic guitar strum in the background…there isn’t much to do at this hour, but there’s a certain romance I feel wandering this sleeping town on a winter night.

Back in the real world, it’s hopelessly green outside for December 24th. Some stubborn, dirty snow piles cling to the corners of parking lots, and it’s entirely too windy and cold to lure me outside for any reason. It certainly doesn’t feel much like the type of atmosphere promised by all of the seasonal films they’re showing on TV this week.

Perhaps this is what prompted my return to the digital town of Brahms, a place I used to come to at least once a day for a good amount of time roughly a year ago. Returning to it now after so long yields a strange feeling of familiarity and foreignness - I’ve been here before, but it’s not quite the same as it used to be. Everything is where it used to be, but the occupants of the houses are all different. My own home is filled with cockroaches and weeds and clover patches punctuate the snow-covered ground over every square inch of the town… doesn’t anyone know how to pull weeds in this place? (Clearly this is not the same pastiche of cleanly modern living seen in Nintendogs: your home and surroundings grow dirty and unkempt with neglect in this universe.) Yet there’s something about the music that takes me back… Read more

The five players are back to talk about what they’ve been playing in this, the first part of a de facto two part episode. This half of the episode contains the tray section, including a penultimate discussion of the merits of Assassin’s Creed. Listen in and get ready for the Christmas Special Part 2.

 

 Episode 25: Part 1 [61:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Due to technical difficulties only half of Episode 25 will appear, and should be up by the end of Thursday. The second half should hit around Christmas, like all good things should.

Don’t fret, half of Episode 25 is about an hour. As it turns out, recording for two and a half hours is taxing on a computer. Who knew?

Both people, and content-wise.

First of all, a big welcome to the King himself, the Master of Might and Sultan of Salami, Mr. Tony “Gorbo” Divito.

Oh God, what have we unleashed…?

He’s the newest kid to join the cast, and probably the last regular we’ll have for the main show.

There are more people that know this man than don’t - I suggest you become acquainted.

And we love this guy so much, he’s already got his own blog! What a lucky feller! Check him out at http://tony.therumblepack.com

He’s already brought a lot of energy our way, so you just wait until you see what he’s got up his sleeves.

You won’t be able to dodge…I assure you.

And now… Read more

There was a time when Sonic Team was synonymous with stellar art direction, inventive play mechanics, and bold ideas. They created Sega’s answer to Mario, they experimented with plastic maraca peripherals years before Guitar Hero caught on in the States, and they were the ones to introduce online RPGs to the console owning masses. But somewhere along the way, this hardcore darling lost its way. I don’t know if it was because of the departure of guys like Naoto Ohshima (now at Artoon) and Yuji Naka, or if it had to do with Sega’s internal restructuring of its development departments after the collapse of the Dreamcast. Hell, maybe Sonic Team just doesn’t know how to meet modern gaming expectations. All I can tell you is that the little blue hedgehog’s head is no longer a seal of quality, and that this apparently compromised team had no business trying to create a worthy successor to NiGHTS: Into Dreams.

Don’t get your hopes up yet…

We’ve been waiting eleven years since that dorky purple jester first took to the pastel colored skies of Nightopia, so I think it is fair to say that fans have been very weary of the Wii sequel NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams. Though the motion controls seemed well suited to a flight game (on paper), the aforementioned decline of its developer only inspired dread. Well, even if the signs were there, I still believed because I figured that such a special property would get the treatment it deserved. Sonic and his crew gave up their integrity in exchange for guns and human lovin’, but NiGHTS just had to be different. Foolish, foolish Justin. While Journey of Dreams is far from a turd, the developers have chosen to bury the core game in broken platforming levels and endless cut-scenes that only take away from the overall experience. Quite a nightmare after all of my anticipation. Read more

In three weeks, The Wire returns for its final season. If you’re unfamiliar with the greatest television show ever made (no hyperbole, I promise), The Wire was first conceived as HBO’s answer to the cop show genre but quickly became so much more. Former journalist David Simon and his team of super writers (seriously, Richard Price and George Pelecanos!!) have turned this show into a sprawling epic, showing how the Baltimore drug trade and political scene effect nearly every social institution, from the actual police department hierarchy to the city’s crippled school system and beyond. This fifth chapter turns its focus towards the press, but the setup from last season indicated that many old favorites, including the Greek’s crew from season 2, will return, making this a wonderful summation of the series. Please, please give the show a chance this time. Now that the strike has wiped all other contenders off the map, what else do you have to watch? All of the previous seasons are out on DVD, and I guarantee you that you’ll make it through all of them in no time. Starting from the beginning is essential if you really want to get the most out of The Wire. Trust me, it’s worth it for Clay Davis alone (above).

*A couple warnings - give it a couple episodes to sink in. The pilot in particular is a little rougher than the rest of the series. Also, don’t be too intimidated by the ridiculous amount of characters. Sure, there are tons of players to keep track of, but the writing team does a magnificent job of juggling all of them.

Nick, Tom, Kaz and Justin unite to talk about the past year and what they’ve been slapping in their trays. Justin has been revisiting PSP titles from this year. Tom blazed a trail through Silent Hill: Origins and downloaded some PSP Store merch. Nick conquered Ninja Gaiden Sigma, hot ninjas and all. Kaz got absorbed into Call of Duty 4, real bad.

In the second segment, friend of the show Tony Divito joins as a special guest to help compile a list potential games of the year, insult Spike’s VGA list and talk about the Street Fighter IV screens. This is followed by the news and an especially dry On the Horizon section. The best of the year is behind us.

 

 Episode 24: Grabbed by the Goonies [111:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Welcome to America: Land of the free and home of the First-Person Shooter. Let’s face it – if you’re an American gamer, you’ve probably played an FPS in your life. You know the deal, grab the gun, go for the headshot, lob the grenade, “Terrorists Win!” At a rudimentary level, the genre seems crude, overly-violent, and twitch-heavy. These are “gun games” made for “gun fans.” Is it really a surprise that we see so many shooters like this, especially living in a country where you can buy a gun at Walmart?

As someone who doesn’t play a lot of FPS (I’m pretty awful at Halo, and haven’t owned one since Goldeneye), I’m kind of sick of seeing one mindless shooter after another being crapped out of western game studios. The angsty inner teenager within me’s“why should I care?” attitude was quickly taking over my thought process. Then a little game called The Orange Box (you might have heard of it by now) came out, and for the first time ever I stepped into City 17. Read more