Weekly Wrap Up: Episode 14, Quake 3, More Horror, AGP Gran Prix, and New Program

Happy Halloween folks, I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable day.  Once again, here we are to bring you some of the stuff you may have missed on Another Game Podcast as well as some announcements of upcoming features. 

Weekly Wrap up
Episode 14 of Another Game Podcast covers Fallout: New Vegas to a large extent.  There is a very distinct post-apocalytptic theme this episode as 4A Games Metro 2033 is covered as well.  Check it

Chris takes a look at Quake 3 and its oddly popular maps with massive fan followings on Facebook.  Read it here

Chad writes about his obsession with Capcom's beloved franchise, Resident Evil. I, however, don't share the same sentiment.

Upcoming Features

For our loyal listeners looking forward to the AGP Gran Prix this week, we will be putting up a post with the titles we will be playing.  For those unfamiliar with the AGP Gran Prix, Eric proposed a challenge to Chad saying he could beat Chad in any racing game. 

Chad, who considers himself the God of all racing games, laughed in a mocking manner and said "Let's fucking do this"  So every week in November we will have a faceoff between Eric and Chad, while I do the color commentary.  We will also have some of our listeners invovled in the fray.  The post will be up this week and we need some suggestions for some racing titles.  We are looking for two arcade racers and two simulators.

In other site news, we have finally developed our first orginal weekly video series.  It will be out every Sunday and we will formally announce all of the details this Wednesday as well as the title.  Some really good things on the horizon.  Keep your eyes peeled for the final Games of Horror video later this evening.

Blast From the Past: Quake III (1999)

Quake III ArenaQuake III Arena is the follow up to the wildly successful Quake and Quake II games.

The game makes a departure from the single-player game play of its predecessors, instead shifting gears and focusing heavily on multi-player gaming so much so that playing the single-player game is simply playing a multi-player campaign against computer controlled bots.

The technology behind the game play was a step up in PC gaming. The id Tech 3 engine was fast, and detailed. Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force and Star Trek: Elite Force II are just a few games that used the engine.

AGP Episode 14: The Wasteland



Hey ladies and gents guess what?  Greatness has arrived in the form of this incredible podcast.  Chad and Jon discuss 4A's Metro 2033, Sonic The Hedgehog 4, Sonic Adventure, Hating Sonic, Loving Sonic, Wild Arms, and some lame game called Fallout New Vegas.  They focus on the beautiful wasteland that is New Vegas...which ain't so new.  What are you waiting for?  Don't act like you're not impressed.


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Games of Horror: Resident Evil Series

So It Begins...with Resident Evil 2? Check out Jon's thoughts
Post Written by Chad W.
To see the entire game you have to play through both of their  scenarios. This,to my knowledge, is the first game to have two characters with branching paths where one directly affects the other. For example if you leave a gun in a particular part of Leon’s game A, that gun will be there when you boot up Claire’s game B using Leon’s end game save.

When you arrive the entire city has been taken by the undead and it is up to you to survive the horrors. I still remember the first time in the police station when you first encounter a licker creature. The terror that engulfs you when you hit the hall and a cut scene plays and you are introduced to a creature that is walking on the ceiling and has a 5 foot deadly tongue.



In Case You Missed It: NYCC, New Podcast, and Horror Games, Oh My

Welcome to AGP's weekly wrap up of all the things you may have missed in the last week. It's a nice lazy Sunday, a good time to catch up on some the things we've done in the last week.

Our latest podcast covers New York Comic Con, Dead Space 2, The Lunch, and an accidental feature presented by none other than Eric The Remarkable Douchebag.  AGP Episode 13: The Con

It's October and we have our obligatory Halloween feature, Games of Horror: Four Games In Four Weeks.  The first two weeks are done and it would be tragic if you missed out.  Check out our take on Dead Space and Silent Hill

We finally got around to recording some video for AGPTV.  Watch us make jackasses of ourselves here.   Good stuff.

Chris, one of our awesome contributors, wrote a killer piece on finally getting around to playing Quake.  A must read.

If you missed out on any of our New York Comic Con coverage, you can find it all here

That pretty much covers it.  Tons of stuff to listen to, read, and watch.  Enjoy

Games of Horror: Silent Hill



Some would argue that Resident Evil is the Godfather of the survival horror sub-genre.  You could definitely make a strong case for that, however, Resident Evil never really terrified me. But it would be foolish of me to ignore it.  After all, it is because of Shinji Mikami that we now have so many other great survival horror games to play.  There is one game that could be considered the best video game horror franchise period.  That honor would go to Silent Hill.

Fresh off the success of 1998’s blockbuster Metal Gear Solid, Konami decided to release a psychological horror title named Silent Hill in 1999.  There was nothing like it at the time. “Silent Hill's creators remarked that one of their main goals with the game was to frighten people on an instinctive level, and that's something that, in my mind, they've clearly succeeded at doing.”(Gamespot review Feb. 1999).  I love that.  The creators wanted to terrify you like no game before it. 

Silent Hill is frightening on a very different level.  Akira Yamaoka’s haunting soundtrack plays an enormous factor in this.  Using ambient industrial music and guttural sounds, the music is a character within itself.  When you aren’t being attacked by skinned dogs, demonic midgets or flying aberrations, the music is always there to remind you that you’re never safe.  While games like Resident Evil relied heavily on cheap scares, Silent Hill toyed with your head.

The game preys on our fear of the unknown.  For instance, Harry Mason is drawn to this town called Silent Hill to find his adopted daughter.  Why this town?  Why does the town seem abandoned?  Why is there a cop in an abandoned town?  Why are things getting so weird?  What are these creatures?  Why does the town turn into Hell at night?  These are all the questions to the player and to Harry, and while you may be completely taken aback by what’s occurring, the only way to find out is to go forth.

That’s what makes Silent Hill so…Silent Hill.  While playing the game I noticed myself remembering the first time I played it, and how I found myself in positions where I didn’t want to go any further because I was afraid of what was behind the door.  What other unknown and shocking surprises could there possibly be?  I was afraid, but I had to know.   I wanted to be scared because that’s what makes the experience so damn fun. 

The game does an excellent job of making you feel conflicted all the time.  You’re scared to go any further, yet you have the inexplicable desire to keep going.   Silent Hill may have lived in the shadow of the more popular Resident Evil, but manages to create its own legacy in the process.  Silent Hill is a hell of a game.  You can scoop it up on PSN for a mere $5.99.

AGP Episode 13: The Con




 We were fortunate enough to experience the greatness that was New York Comic Con.  This episode is full of amazing.  We have Chad's triumphant return, a hefty Dead Space and Dead Space 2 discussion, hands on with Undead Nightmare, Goldeneye, stories from the show floor, Chad's boring yet good racing game, Chad and Eric's AGP Gran Prix, and so much more.  One hell of an episode that requires your absolute undivided attention.


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Blast From the Past: Quake (1996)

QuakeI'm new here. Thanks for having me aboard.

It only took me 14 years, but I finally played Quake. It comes to some surprise to me that I had never played the original Quake before, which makes it all the more interesting that Quake II was and still is one of my favorite games. I wasted hundreds of hours of my life playing this game. Did I say wasted? No. Enhanced. Bettered. Some out there may not like the painfully simple first-person shooter video games – the kind where you hit some buttons, switches or levers spread around a map and kill a bunch of bad guys, but hey - they're my action film in video game form.

Taking Wikipedia's word for granted, Quake first reared its head with the first Commander Keen game in 1990. Originally titled The Fight for Justice, it would follow a character named Quake, "the strongest, most dangerous person on the continent." Quake in its final form is an odd mix of fantasy addled middle-ages to futuristic space-age building. It is literally Heretic meets Doom. The clash apparently comes from John Romero wanting to make a fantasy hand-to-hand combat game, while level designers Tim Willits and American McGee wanted a Doom-like game. Or so the story supposedly goes. That would make a lot of sense since the designs seem to really clash that way.

Games of Horror: Dead Space.



Dead Space put you into the shoes of Isaac Clarke, a name that  references great science fiction of the past. Mainly the writers Isaac Asimov and Author C. Clarke. Everything in this game has a deeper meaning, for instance, Ishimura means Stone Village.

In 2007 EA studios was a company that iterated non-stop on its key franchises to make money. It was not what you would call an innovative company by any means. EA printed money off Madden and The Sims. In September 2007 EA Redwood Shores announced Dead Space a Sci-Fi Horror 3rd person shooter for the 360 and the PS3.

Isaac Clarke, an engineer from the USG Kellion, is dispatched to investigate the sudden distress signal of the planet cracker ship the USG Ishimura. The Game starts with the fly in and eventually crashes aboard the Ishimura, which leaves our hero and two others to find a way off and home.

The game is claustrophobic as you investigate the ship. Eventually you encounter the games main protagonist, the necromorphs. This is an enemy that jumps out at you at every turn and always when you do not expect them too, and can't be killed by conventional means. You must tear them apart, limbs, heads, legs, tear them in half. To do this you us your arsenal, which consists of basic mining tools.

The game breaths atmosphere, you are fully engaged in the game at all times. Dead Space includes no HUD at all; all necessary information is included on Isaac himself or on his weapons. The games non-playable characters communicate with you through holographic projections that play in front of Isaac  and do not interrupt the game. As is you can be killed watching a cut scene, or checking your health. It makes for an environment where you are always on guard. I have not been this on edge since the first Resident Evil game.

This game is a survival horror game in its truest sense. The ammo is scarce; you are surprised and terrified around every corner. Dead Space has become the measuring stick against which all other survival horror games should be measured going forward.

NYCC: Hands-On With Dead Space 2

I don’t even know where to begin with this.  It took me about 45 minutes of solid wait time to get hands-on with the title.  They came in droves out of nowhere thirsting for some play time.  Of course, I’m not complaining (I totally am) no other booth with the exception of maybe the Starcraft tourney was seeing nearly as much action.  I bitched, I moaned, I sighed, and then I smiled.

A booth employee directed me to a claustrophobic space in front of a shwank Samsung LCD, fitted me with equally sexy headphones ,and simply said “enjoy”.  You bet your ass I’m going to enjoy.  I start the game (PS3 version because its apparently sexier?) and it all comes back to me.  The controls feel familiar, secondary fire, stasis, d pad for weapon switch, etc.  As I’m becoming acclimated to the controls, it hits me.  The game is bigger, better, and stronger.

NYCC: Hands On With Red Dead DLC Undead Nightmare

It only took me 5 minutes on the exhibition floor to make a b line to the first hands on experience of the weekend. I got to take the new Red Dead Redemption DLC, Undead Nightmare for a spin. In this run through you step back into the shoes of John Marston and you stand on the edge of a cemetery on a quintessential dark and stormy night.

Cemetery's are the new gang hideouts and zombies are the new bandits that you need to clear out. I started out with two pistols, double barrel shotgun, and the new blunderbuss, which ends up being my saving grace in this level. Also a torch, which is exactly what it sounds like.

Your mission is to burn the several coffins that are spread out amongst the graves. As you do that, a bunch of the undead begin to harass the crap out of you. Head shots are the only way to take these guys down. I was automatically on the defensive the entire time. Constantly running through the graveyard, zig zagging through graves, and taking pot shots at zombies that were relentlessly pursuing me.

This DLC is great and one that I WILL buy once it becomes available. There is just something about zombies and DLC's....

Games of Horror: Four Games In Four Weeks


October is one of my favorite times of the year. I love the fall weather, great seasonal brews, good food, and of course there is Halloween.  Every Friday for the rest of October we will be putting up a post and video describing some of the games that effected us the most. We had a huge list of potential games (13 to be exact), but we managed to cut it down to four games that genuinely terrified us.   In Week 1 we will cover Visceral Games Dead Space.  A master of atmosphere and mood, Dead Space would make John Carpenter quite proud.  Post will be up this Friday with Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and Siren Blood Curse to follow.  Trick or treat yo.

AGP @ New York Comic Con 2010


The time has finally come for New York Comic Con.  There is now a dedicated page to all things New York Comic Con on the sidebar.   AGP will be podcasting live from New York City in a seedy Manhattan hotel room.  We will also be bringing you some hands-on impressions of several games on the floor, liveblogs of specific panels, and of course an AGPTV video wrap up on Sunday.  Be sure to keep tabs on our twitter and Facebook page for all updates and shenanigans.

AGP @ NYCC 2010 Page