1up.com - The Oddcast

Aye Dios Mio... we can't seem to put Chris down the well this week, so we get good ol' Frank to fill in once more. The news portion is filled with PC and Mac talk, Sam manages to suggest an indie game, Sharkey makes fun of bad pirates, we learn why we all secretly want a zombie apocalypse and Tina likes shooter. Surprise!

What? We're on time? That's new. Our buddy that we keep down the well escaped this week, so we have Frank as a temporary replacement. The news is filled with good comments from users, except those dudes who think 30 frames per second equates to being slow as hell. Tina's thrilled about Stephen Hawking comments, Sam likes the PSP Go, and Sharkey asks us all to buy indie games for a good cause. And then we finish off with our call-in questions.

The gang rants about California's violent game law going to the supreme court, Halo 2 players valiantly staying logged in to Live, and a free game that places Link, Samus, Megaman, and the Contra Guy in Super Mario Bros. before taking calls from the public. Oh, and Nintendo once sent Sharkey a cease and disist for writing a webpage about how much he wanted to have sex with Pikachu. Just thought you should know that.

Bring out your hankies and your snuggie for comfort! This week's podcast is a downer. Sam tells us about the SEGA layoffs, Tina wants to group Xbox Live friends into categories before obtaining more, and Sharkey is himself. Chris can now hear user questions and we have our usual fun with them.

Wii Fit is your fast track to orgasms, more of the Activision vs. Infinity Ward playground fight, championship Starcraft is about as legitimate as pro wrestling, we're skeptical of X-Com as an FPS, and we run through a bumper crop of listener call-in questions. Oh, and James Mielke crushes all our hopes and dreams by going and getting married like a big jerk.

Cliffy B gets snubbed, CNN acts like rape games are new, Godfinger is awesome even if it's not what it sounds like, Suda51 makes games on the toilet, and we interview Passage and Death is Sleep creator Jason Rohrer. Then we take some calls from the public.

This week, we have plenty of Odd news to discuss; Major Nelson's account is violated, Pac-Man is on a moon, and Chris will buy your Hot Coffee checks! Sharkey has us try some more Recession games, and Tina hates the one containing Priests and children. Really, it's bad. Oh, and big apology for Sam making you learn about Justin Bieber. Barf.

We share our personal feelings about a giant sandwich and whether paying girls to play videogames with you over XBL is a bad idea or a goddamn horrible idea, then we read aloud some astoundingly overwrought poetry about Aeris's death and interview a couple of the guys who made Scrap Metal.

The 1UP office has a fever! People are either coughing up a lung, or wont stop trading pokemon. We prefer the former. Some dummy breaks his hand gaming, we officialy become fans of Kevin Butler, and Sharkey intervews a few good Dans.

GDC has us exhausted, but what would the week be without an Oddcast? So, we wipe the sleep from our eyes, knock back a cup of coffee (maybe a couple) and report for duty. This week, we recollect our favorites from the show floor: what we saw, whom we met and where we got the best finger foods. Plus, we speak with Nathan Fouts, the developer behind Xbox Indies Shoot 1UP and Weapon of Choice.

We unofficially renamed this week's show the "waaah cast." The apocalyps3 brought out the worst whiners, and Activision creates some drama. Sam rants about PR, Chris thinks "Cowboy" is dead, and Sharkey's recession game couldn't be played. Oh, and Tina brings more community WTF comments to the table. Throw your hankies away, you won't cry too much.

A lot has happened since Sam was on the show, so we spend some time catching up with him and what he did at DICE. Also, we explore how throwing money at a company is the same as boycott their products (it isn't), Itagaki settles with Techmo, and Sharkey gives us his recession picks of the week.

On this episode, we talk about the StarCraft II beta, our hopes for more news on Dishwasher 2, and of course, Sharkey's Recession Gaming segment. Due to lack of an ability to edit podcasts (ahem, TINA), this is going up after Mike Cruz came back from vacation! Sorry for the delay!

This week we talk about how a game idea on neogaf may become a reality, and what inspires Miyamoto to make games. Sharkey finds the best flash game with robot unicorns, stars and rainbows (really), and we have a few user blogs to share. Oh, and with Valentine's day almost here, gaming should be included in the romantic schedule.

This week, the gang talks about PS3-powered supercomputers, High Voltage's Wii fighting game and a blogger's challenge to 1UP's readers. Sharkey also carves out some time to discuss US tax law.

Tina attempts to get people to care about FIFA games, Sam raves about the iPad, we chat about RPGs, and share the weirdest comments we've seen on 1UP this week.

Joy! A new week, another oddcast! We're joined by 1UP's Alan Johnson as we ask folks to play Halo for Haiti, joke about how DSi XL is for old people, and Sharkey tells us about vvvvvv. Yes, that's a real game.

So this week we discover the Chinese made another game rip off, talk beat-em ups, and that "party bus" and "final fantasy" somehow blended together. Two new recession games are shared and we close with a video games and their endings topic discussion. How fitting

The Oddcast wobbles back to the airwaves with a yuletide hangover. Grouchy, with eggnog stink still on our breath, we commiserate over lame Christmas gifts and pick a bone with 2009. But before allow ourselves to succumb to total self-pity, we carve out some time to discuss Genetos, an indie game Tina likes!

Happy Holidays everyone! For our final podcast of the year, we decided to do things a little differently. We close out the year with the first-ever Oddcast Awards, share our favorite gaming moments of 2009 while also reading listener submissions.