Rant Theory Podcast #2: Run Run Run Dead.

Here it is folks. Number 2. If you liked the last one, we promise, this one is better.

We hit on Mirror's Edge, Dead Space, Fallout 3, Rock Band 2 and tell tale of all our idiotic adventures in Playstation Home. This and MORE!

Direct high quality download from here: Rant Theory Podcast #2 Jan 09 edition
(Right Click and save as)

Or stream it right from the page


And don't forget to subscribe and review us on iTunes! It helps us heaps.

-N

PS Big ups to Mister Metal on the audio, you sir, are a wizard. Like with a beard and shit.

Madworld gets Australian date. Wait......... What?

Well, I guess us Aussies will be getting the chance to check out the new ultra violent Wii game Madworld after all as its been given the OK for a March release. That's right. A game that was just branded 18+ in the UK will be sold on OZ shelves in less that 3 months.

Seriously OFLC, do ya even know what your looking for anymore? Or is it just games with the words "Grand", "Theft" and "Auto" in the title that need your finely tuned skills?

Maybe they thought it was a game based on that soothing but sombre Gary Jules tune of the same name. Maybe. Its an easy mistake to make if your a f'ing moron.

Mr Metal

PS. Its a funny old country we live in.

The Walking Dead: Get on it.

I've always liked comics, they have sweet art and often feature robots and superheroes. But as much as I've liked them, I've never been a full on fan. That seems to be changing and I believe it's because of a single book.

The Walking Dead series by Robert Kirkman has me by the balls. I picked the first volume up not long ago, and since then have been getting as many at a time as I can get my hands on.

The premise is a familiar one. Zombie apocalypse. Rag-tag crew of misfits fight to survive. Don't have you yet, do I? So why is this better than the standard zombie adventure? To be honest, a lot of zombie based outings are kind of brainless. Fun maybe, but the story often consists of "LOOK OUT! THERE BE ZOMBIES! LET'S BASH A FEW AND RUN! LOOK THERE'S A COP ONE! WOAH!" And then blood squirts out someone's eye. It's a well documented fact and is lampooned perfectly by the excellent Shaun of the Dead.

Here's why its good. The Walking Dead uses the zombie outbreak as a setting to look at how people might react in that situation. How would you cope? Would the stress eat away at you until you snapped? Could you face the future if everything you've known is lost?

The amount of zombie killin' action is actually kind of minimal. It's still present, but takes a back seat to the amazingly told human drama.

Funny in places, surprising and will genuinely make you feel something. I promise.

Seriously, get on this one.

-n

PS If you are already, then you know exactly what I'm talking about. Let's just sit here and smile with smug satisfaction.

Resident Evil 5 Demo hasty review: High Hopes

In normal day to day conversations with the general public, I often randomly bring up the fact that Resident Evil 4 was one of my favorite games of the last generation of consoles. I'm actually not even that huge a fan of the Resident Evil series, having only ever really played a little bit of number 1 & 2 on the Playstation and dabbling a little bit in "Nemesis". RE4 bought a fresh feel to the series, an evolution that I feel went hand in hand with the gamers that grew up playing it. That, and it was just a straight up awesome game.

Since then, I have been looking forward to a next gen equivalent for me to sink my teeth into, and I nearly had it thanks to the very admirable efforts of Dead Space. The over the shoulder view point and edge of your seat "dick in the wind" gameplay* was very reminiscent of RE4 but it also brought new gameplay elements such as Zero-G movement areas and object manipulation all wrapped up in a pretty, blood soaked package. And lets not forget, its balls scary too.

Then I played the Japanese Resident Evil 5 demo, which rekindled distant memories of how RE4 really was. Then I got tonnes excited.

Upon first impressions, it feels like a sequel to RE4 rather than the 5th game in the RE series. An extremely pretty sequel. Seriously, this game looks absolutely stunning but none of its gritty vibe has been lost in the next gen sheen. Fans of RE4 will instantly be at home with the characters handling, and the addition of the 2nd player has all sorts of potential. I'm looking forward to checking out the co-op action asap, even if the split screen leaves little to be desired.

One thing I will say is that if you aren't sure how you feel about this game yet then I suggest NOT playing the demo. Like Dead Space, the demo does not really do that game any favors as far as showing off the gameplay. These kinds of games are only really enjoyable when you slowly dip your feet in, not cannonball into the deep end, which is more or less what the demos does. Starting from the top, getting to know how your character controls, how his/her inventory works, weapon effectiveness etc etc. Its pretty overwhelming facing off against hordes of "infected" as a novice player.

For me personally? Even after such a brief peruse of the demo, its displaying everything I am hoping for. I'm well and truly sold. I have no doubt in my mind that RE5 will deliver the underwear filling goods the series is so well know for. Without question, this will be one of the top titles of 2009.

Its due for release on Friday the 13th of March, 1 day before the expected due date of my first child. What a month!

Mr Metal

PS: I have no idea how I got the RE5 demo so early, so don't ask.

PPS: I would also just like to add that after playing the RE5 demo, I now have an even greater appreciation for what Dead Space has given us. As derivative as it seems, I really think it offers a slightly different approach to this style of gameplay which I now understand a little better having revisited what I initially thought was its inspiration. I was searching for a replacement for RE4, but what I got instead was something new and fresh to enjoy. Cheers EA!

*Listen to the Rant Theory podcast #2 for a better explanation of "dick in the wind" gameplay. Coming very soon.

Skate 2 Demo impressions: Easy-fication syndrome

So I was one of those people who was a HUGE Tony Hawk fan. I loved the first two games, but as the third rolled around (sorry) I was kind of beginning to feel the series start to slip. And slip it did. Into a giant pool of gooey product placement and horrible game design decisions.

So when I played the Tony Hawk's Project 8 demo, I rejoiced. It seemed to be what I had been looking for. A skating game that properly represented skating. Thank god I rented the retail version. What I expected was realism, what I got was a guy in A BEAVER SUIT asking me to SKITCH a REMOTE CONTROLLED CAR so I could jump up and break open the LARGE IRON GATES OF MY UPPER CLASS CUL-DE-SAC. After playing it, I blacked out, fell off the couch and woke up tasting copper.

Next up was Skate from Black Box. I followed this game closely for a long time, ever sceptical of their 'realistic skating'. But after playing the demo...a thousand or so times, I was sold. This was the one. Physics meant something. Grinding too practice. It was about short runs of solid tricks, rather than finding and jumping over 6 hobos and it looked THE BALLS. I played the retail to death.

Skate's one downfall was its difficulty. My girlfriend started leaving the room when I'd play it, claiming that I'd become some kind of profanity monster. She may be right. But it was rewarding difficulty. All the moves where there from the get go, you just had to learn them.

So here comes Skate 2. The demo dropped last week and wow, are there some changes. I'm going to hold off judging the graphics until retail, but the demo shows a much higher frame rate, but at the cost of polys and texture detail. The controls remain pretty much the same, there's just a bit more button pressing rather than relying on the sticks and triggers alone.

So where's the easy-fication? The physics. Gone are the tiny fuck up crashes of Skate, it's much easier to land tricks now. It also seems faster and jumps feel a lot higher. The slower pace that allowed you to line tricks up has also been sped up, along with a seemingly higher jump, changes the overall feel of skating around.

Good thing? Bad thing? I don't know just yet.

Full Review incoming.

-N

PS I didn't mention Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, because it felt like I was kicking a man when he was down...with a dead horse.

We be on iTunes.

Yes that's right, finally, the Rant Theory Podcast is on iTunes


Go click subscribe and write us a review!

n

I heart Trent Reznor

Trent Reznor is always one step ahead of the pack. A musician I aspire to be like someday, who rewards his fans for making him the success he is today. For example, his last album The Slip was released as a free legal download in 4 different formats and is still available for zero cost 6 months after its initial release. Ghosts I-IV Limited Edition (which is one of my albums of 2008) came with a host of extras including a DVD containing all multi-track session files for all 36 tracks which gave owners the option of being able to remix the tracks. Not to mention the constantly updated Flickr page with everything from live photos to NIN wallpapers. And that is just some recent examples i can think of off the top of my head! Trent Reznor is the definition of cutting edge and I have just the slightest man-crush on him.

To put him further into the goodest of all books with his fans, he has posted a news article on nin.com with a gift for all the Nine Inch Nails fans out there. Over 400gb of raw, unedited HD footage from three separate complete shows of NIN Lights in the Sky tour available for free download.

Freaking WOW! Its pretty useless for us mere mortals with standard DSL conections and 20 gig limits but still, thats damn cool. So does anyone want to download this and put together a kick ass edit for me to watch?

And just to repeat myself incase it was unclear: I love Trent Reznor.

Mr Metal

PS Theres nothing weird about it, its just Guy Love!

PPS

A podcast appears!

Holy crap! Is this the fabled Rant Theory podcast in the wild?!

Yes it's true, we the 3 chumps behind the Rant Theory blog have entered the world of the podcast.

In this episode we get comfy with a bowl of candy corn and go to town on the games that owned our lives this last quarter.

Download it direct from here: Rant Theory December 08 edition
(Right click and save)

Or stream it right here in the page.



Hope you like it, please leave us some feedback either way!

And feel free to subscribe.

N

ps Coming to Itunes...soon.