Backloggers Anonymous

So you may be wondering why it's been two months since you last heard from us, and I'd be happy to tell you, but first, go ahead and play this YouTube video. Trust me. So, remember on the last episode when I discussed the shock curse? Well, over the course of playing this game we all had a ton of technical and scheduling difficulties which we discuss briefly in the show. Unfortunatly, one became apparent only after I recorded this episode; My headset broke while we were recording. What this means for you guys, and I'm horribly sorry about this, is that I've had to edit this episode rather heavily. There's gonna be some popping and cutting in and out from my microphone, and sometimes a conversation may sound kind of awkward due to having to edit out a portion of it, but hopefully you guys still enjoy it, and hopefully I won't have to do another Shock game for a while. Oh, something else I forgot, my first Xbox 360 went red ring on me while playing Bioshock for the first time, so yeah, I'm probably going to av

So, funny story, I think Backloggers Anonymous is cursed when it comes to handling games designed by Irrational. The reason? Well, this is actually our second first recording for System Shock 2. The first one somehow disappeared from my computer after we recorded it, and the backup is gone too. I half expected SHODAN to email me something like I'VE DELETED YOUR PODCAST, INSECT, but that didn't happen, so I'm gonna chalk it up to the curse. What curse you may ask? Well here's a little trivia for you. Originally, I wasn't the guy in charge of Backloggers. This was actually JD's idea, and he had the helm for our first series of podcasts. The topic? BioShock. Guess what, those are gone too. Weird stuff. Anyway, curse or no curse, we're soldiering on. This time I'm joined by Julian and our site director, Nick. We talk about the game's historical relevance, how it's aged, and why you should never trust someone with a face like this guy.  Seriously, what is it with future people? If you create a super pow

Final thoughts: Pigsy is a pig, Monkey is kinda like a monkey, and Trip is... kinda hot. What, you want to know more? Well listen to the 'cast! The play button is over there -----> What I did want to do is let you know about an upcoming poll we'll be hosting here where you, the listeners will be determining what games we play next. I've posted a blog about it, and quite a few of you have already sounded off on what games you'd like us to play. We have plenty to choose from, but the nominations aren't closed yet! If there's a game you'd like us to play, be it current gen or retro, let me know either there or in the comments below and, if it's possible for us to play it, I'll put it in the upcoming poll. Contributers for this cast: Angelo @pixlaj, JD @AMythKnownAsJD, and Julian @Julian_Titus

We're digging into another game from our backlog:  Ninja Theory's Enslaved. We start by getting Julian's take on backlogged games from 2012, then we talk about what kind of a game Enslaved is. Rather than bog you down with what we discuss in the podcast (which you're gonna listen to anyway right? right?) I figured I'd show you some of the stuff we talked about on the podcast. So here's a video of Super Monkey Daibouken: Here are the bonus bosses from Mega Man: The Wily Wars along with the characters they parallel in the Chinese epic: Buster Rod. G (Sun Wukong, the monkey king) Mega Water. S (Sha Wujing, the water buffalo) Hyper Storm. H (Zhu Bajie, the pig guy) While I'm at it, here's Infernape, the pokemon JD brought up in the 'cast: Also, there's this, just for fun: Feel free to hit us up on Twitter or just reply in the comments below. We really want your feedback on stuff like this, and we're always looking for input about what games you want us to cover on Backloggers. I'm Angelo Grant (@pix

I'm gonna keep this brief because frankly, I'm not feeling so great. We finished Darksiders. We had more fun talking about it than we did with the back half of the game. We get into some pretty weird things to talk about like sound effects and... horse physics. Maybe my fever started earlier than I thought. Oh, I did manage to find a monkey that pulled off the tough guy thing better than War, so there's that... Anyway, as we've already discussed, this is an out and out spolier 'cast, so make sure you've finished the game or given up on it before you listen to it. We pick up at the Ash Lands (the desert section) and play all the way through to the end. You have been warned! One thing I fogot to mention and I feel horrible about, there's a zombie Mr. Peanut hidden in the game. I found him in two places, but apparently he has a few more appearances. He's actually pretty fun to fight as well, so hunt him down if you want to, and feel free to discuss him in the comments! Also, suggestions! We do have the next tw

Great news! Well, for me anyway - I’m on vacation. What this means is we won’t be talking about Darksiders this week. Instead, I’ve decided to solo this podcast and talk about one of my favorite things about modern gaming: the music. We’ll get started talking about the awesomeness that is Capcom, whose 8 bit chiptunes are in an elite class with the likes of Konami and Nintendo themselves. There’s a big reason why they were my favorite developer as a child, and a lot of that had to do with their music. We won’t be stopping there though. What do Link and Gene Wilder have in common? What was the one redeeming quality about some of utter garbage Ocean crapped out on the SNES? It’s all here, so put on your headphones and start listening, because those lousy PC speakers aren’t gonna cut it this time! I do have one bit of bad news. At the end of the podcast I promised a link, however, the creator's site is apparently down as none of the links to their MP3s currently w

Angst! Rage! Epic House Cleaning! It's all on this week's Backloggers Anonymous! THQ is in the news yet again, and this time it seems like it's over for those guys. Jesse give us the lowdown, including who owns what properties after the auction, and we discuss this a bit before digging into the game proper. We talk a little bit about the story, the combat, the soundtrack, and of course the dungeons. Believe it or not, as lacking as we found some of the story elements, we did find ourselves enjoying the characters a bit, and even finding some humor in how over-the-top War can be. Natrually, the star here is the gameplay, and it is solid, so if anybody out there was holding out, just know that after a slow start, the game does get fun once you get into that first dungeon. Also, this is how I picture Jesse cleaning his house now: We had some interesting things happen around this podcast, so make sure you stick around after the music for some outtakes, unless you hate fun or something.

Welcome to our little group. This time on Backloggers, I'm joined by Jesse and JD as we discuss Darksiders, and it's publisher THQ. Before that though, JD tells us about his journey through Journey. We then discuss the videos he recorded and narrated for PIxlbit which I would encourage anyone who can't experience the game for themselves to check out. We then move on to the topic at hand. Like Silicon Knights, the developers of Too Human, THQ has been in the news recently as well, and for all the wrong reasons to boot. Jesse has been watching this from the sidelines, and and explains what's going on in the confusing world of bankruptcy, asset acquisition, and sale of intellectual property. (Jesse's article, entitled THQ is not having a fire sale, can be found here.) We also speculate a little on what may become of THQ in the future.  Finally, we talk about the game itself. What do we expect from it, what kind of game it is, stuff like that. And these bad boys are darkSLIDERS

On this, the final episode of Backloggers Anonymous covering Too Human, we discuss the final two missions, the overall plot and story, and dig a little deeper into the issues we had with some of the choices the game designers made. Joaquim gives up on his quest for dragon armor, Julian explains his love/hate relationship with Denis Dyack, and I, now free from pain meds, discusses my difficulty understanding Baldur as a character. Finally, we say our goodbyes and offer our final opinions of our journey though Too Human. A few ideas were discussed in this podcast that turned out to have pretty solid evidence behind them. Joaquim restates his theory that ODIN may not be an actual person, but something digital. Angelo supports this theory with some information he found in the game. Turns out, all we had to actually do was look in the instruction manual (remember those?) We found out that ODIN stands for Organically Distributed Intelligence Network. He is, in fact, a digital construct and not flesh and b

Welcome back to Backloggers Anonymous for part two of our three part series on Too Human. At this point, we've finished half of the game (the first two missions) and have gotten a pretty good feel for what the title has to offer. We get started by talking about the assorted issues that get in the way of really enjoying the title. Some gameplay issues and interface problems get a pretty fair tongue lashing from the team. The game is not without its virtues though, and they get their fair share of time in the spotlight. If you've been playing along, you've probably got some experiences of your own to share, so sound off in the comments below and let us know how you're experience has been so far. Fair warning, I'm recovering from a recent surgery, and that means pain meds (don't worry, I'm fine.) Basically, I've been on my couch for a week now watching some of the weirder stuff on the TV, not shaving, and letting my hair grow out of control. In other words, I'm a quick spray tan away from being this guy: S

We call it our library, our collection, our pile of shame. They are games we meant to play, meant to finish, or even just meant to take out of the shrink wrap. We had to own them, had to experience them, and yet there they sit collecting dust. Gamers call it their backlog. We call it a problem, and we aim to deal with this problem one meeting at a time.  Welcome to Backloggers Anonymous  a program dedicated to dealing with this problem by checking these games off our list one title at a time. For the next few weeks, we'll be dealing with a title that had garnered some infamy for a few different reasons: Silicon Knights' Too Human. After multiple revisions, platform changes, delays, and even an engine change, Too Human was released in August of 2008 to some less than positive reviews, causing some purchasers to shelve their copies in favor of other titles. Once intended to be the start of an epic Xbox 360 exclusive trilogy, the series seemed destined to be forgotten by a