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Jumping the Shark Podcasts #197 and #198

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Believe it or not, we’ve been recording podcasts. Not that you’d of read about them here, of course. That’s on me. I checked-out over the holidays. It was rather nice, true, but it’d also be cool if you folks who don’t use services like iTunes knew it when we’ve actually, you know, done stuff. So here’s the official JTS catch-up post, covering our two year-ending shows.

Episode #197 (not embedded; just follow the link instead)

It’s our last episode of the year, so Brandon and Todd do it right with Ye Olde Traditional Game of the Year Shenanigans. Hear all about our picks for best and most disappointing titles for the year in gaming that was 2013. On the list in one capacity or another, Gone Home, Fuse, NFS: Most Wanted, God of War: Ascension, Papers Please, Mark of the Ninja, Tomb Raider, Bioshock, Beyond Two Souls, FTL, Fire Emblem: Awakening, GTA V, and XCOM: Enemy Within. You’ll have to tune in, though, to find out what we slotted where.

iTunes Link
Past Episodes
Edit Type: Skype

Episode #198 (embedded below)

Brandon and Todd are here (even if Brandon’s voice isn’t) to talk about their most anticipated games of 2014 as well as Todd’s problems with the Xbox One and NBA2K14 and Brandon’s problems with The Walking Dead Season 2. Yay! Hope and complaints!

iTunes Link
Past Episodes
Edit Type: Skype

READ ALSO:  Jumping the Shark Podcast #186

Todd Brakke

Todd was born in Ann Arbor with a Michigan helmet in one hand and a mouse in the other. (Never you mind the logistics of this.) He grew, vertically anyway, and proceeded to spend over 16 years as a development editor for Pearson Education, publishing books, videos, and digital learning products under the Que and Sams Publishing imprints. Because that wasn't enough of a challenge, Todd has also been a 20-year part-time snob about video games, writing reviews, features, and more for multiple outlets. Follow him on Twitter @ubrakto or check it out his website at ToddsFoolery.com.

6 thoughts to “Jumping the Shark Podcasts #197 and #198”

  1. It’s more difficult to get excited about new consoles nowadays than it was in previous generations. They all came with a very identifiable promise of better looking games. Something kids could really grasp and understand. It’s tough to get a kid to understand that having more enemies on screen or tougher AI (which I still doubt we’ll see) will bring about a whole generation of new and exciting.

    I can remember when my grandpa brought over a Gamecube on launch day out of the blue…I was so pumped. Thinking back I can see how disappointing that would be if we weren’t as excited as we were. So it’s a good thing your Dad didn’t do that 🙂

    1. Oh, I’m so relieved that my dad wasn’t there for the big opening. They’ve been playing with it a lot now that it’s hooked up, but yeah, just sort of blank stairs for a minute when they opened. Huge contrast with getting iPad Minis last year (my father overdoes it every year). Those the kids went nuts for. 🙂

      1. I was going to wait for Calendar Man, but since it’s on a similar note: my niece and nephew *love* the Skylanders that Brandon picked out. They were the first things they wanted to play with once the presents were all opened, and they’ve been at it ever since.

        Combat has been no big deal since ‘Easy’ is extremely forgiving, but I was surprised by the challenge of some of the early jumping puzzles. The edge detection is a little hit-and-miss, Particularly with the larger Giants characters, so even I had to try a couple of those sequences to help them out. It doesn’t help that my niece almost exclusively wants to play as Ninjini, a Skylander whose invisible legs make lining up jumps especially tough.

        The kids only get momentarily frustrated, though, and otherwise love finding treasures, switching hats, and beating up the bad guys. Definitely a great Christmas gift!

  2. I’d like to thank Brandon for talking about Borderlands and Saints Row so much on the podcast. I have both Borderlands 2 and Saints Row The Third installed currently and am enjoying them both immensely.

    I just need to balance my time between them now instead of mostly running around doing stupid shit in Saints Row…

    1. I bought SR3 back during the summer Steam sale. Played the intro bit and actually enjoyed it and, for whatever reason, never launched it again. I really need to get back into that at some point.

      1. I’ve only done about 3 of the actual story missions so far. I got a building with a helipad on it and every time I start the game I run out and jump off of it and parachute to the street because that’s just awesome.

        I have a hard time getting into the stroyline not because I think it’s bad or boring but just because I’m having more fun screwing off doing other things like driving around trying to toss grenades into other cars and driving down the wrong side of the road.

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