Not even the Wii Vitality Sensor could measure the explosive force of our E3 episode. Press conferences! Motion control! Overpriced handhelds! And of course, games, games, games. It's the Internet's only source for E3 analysis, so of course you won't want to miss it. Featuring "Big Daddy" Brad Gallaway, "Horror Geek" Mike Bracken, "Canucklehead" David Stone, and "Nicknameless" Tim Spaeth.
Download: Right click here and select "Save Target As…"
Subscribe: iTunes | Zune | RSS
Please send feedback and mailbag questions to podcast (at) gamecritics (dot) com.
Cleveland native Tim Spaeth grew up in a happy household – a household with a father whose major client happened to be an Atari games distributor. This led directly to Tim's first nickname: "The kid who got Atari games before anyone else." Indeed, he knew Pac-Man and E.T. were colossal bombs weeks before the rest of the world, and the resulting celebrity brought him great pleasure.
Through the years every aspect of Tim's life has been touched by gaming. He mastered typing thanks to Space Quest, honed his poker skills on The Sierra Network, and learned to hate after a particularly traumatic game of Tecmo Super Bowl.
Today, Tim lives in Chicago with his three kids and strives to find that perfect balance between family, career, and Warcraft. He enjoys broadcasting, martial arts, rock and roll, growing and shaving his beard, singing show tunes to the homeless, and losing at Mario Kart to his lovely, talented, and amazing girlfriend.
In late 2008, Tim became the producer and host of the GameCritics.com Podcast, and he's thrilled to be bringing GameCritics' unique editorial voice to a brand new medium.
Through the years every aspect of Tim's life has been touched by gaming. He mastered typing thanks to Space Quest, honed his poker skills on The Sierra Network, and learned to hate after a particularly traumatic game of Tecmo Super Bowl.
Today, Tim lives in Chicago with his three kids and strives to find that perfect balance between family, career, and Warcraft. He enjoys broadcasting, martial arts, rock and roll, growing and shaving his beard, singing show tunes to the homeless, and losing at Mario Kart to his lovely, talented, and amazing girlfriend.
In late 2008, Tim became the producer and host of the GameCritics.com Podcast, and he's thrilled to be bringing GameCritics' unique editorial voice to a brand new medium.
Latest posts by Tim Spaeth (see all)
- GameCritics.com Radio 2018 GOTY Celebration - January 12, 2019
- GameCritics.com Radio 2017 Holiday Awards Spectacular - January 13, 2018
- GameCritics.com Radio Episode 5: The Switch and Zelda - April 7, 2017
I don’t think you were listening to the same thing we were saying: “The Nintendo whining was over the top. “Nintendo is abandoning the hardcore who put them there.” Was that meant to be a joke? Also, insisting that they shouldn’t have focused on stuff like “Women’s Murder Club” because the audience doesn’t care is hopelessly naive. Retailers and maintream press easily outnumber the enthusiasts at E3 nowadays. Thinking that the Motion Plus is going to fail because Wii owners don’t buy any games for it? Clearly someone hasn’t been looking at software sales for the past three years. Of… Read more »
Wow, I’m the most cynical gamer I know, and even I found the negativity in this podcast too unbearable to finish. I don’t know any other site that managed to see so much to vent about over what was easily the best E3 in years. The Nintendo whining was over the top. “Nintendo is abandoning the hardcore who put them there.” Was that meant to be a joke? Also, insisting that they shouldn’t have focused on stuff like “Women’s Murder Club” because the audience doesn’t care is hopelessly naive. Retailers and maintream press easily outnumber the enthusiasts at E3 nowadays.… Read more »
[quote=Mike Bracken]I still don’t buy this argument that E3 is for the mainstream media. That’s just more of that “gamers needing mainstream acceptance to validate their hobby” crap that’s been floating around for the past few years. E3’s as much for mainstream media as the Adult Entertainment Expo is–the mainstream outlets show up to cover it, but the people involved in putting the show on understand it’s the adult press and fans who keep their industry running. If gaming doesn’t understand that, they’re doomed to fail–because gaming may be big at the moment, but people are fucking fickle and most… Read more »
I think a lot of people like porn, they just don’t particularly care about the porn industry.
But yeah, the industry and its “expos” are always relegated to niche coverage or coverage in their own outlets like Hustler or whatever.
I want to counter-point the Adult Expo arguement. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, and everyone else in between, do NOT want to be a niche market like the Adult Industry. They WANT to be like Hollywood. Mainstream media covers TV and movies in little entertainment snippets, why can’t games be included? The Adult industry will never see that kind of coverage because of content and because of the limited appeal. After all, you kinda have to admit to being a perv if you’re interested in the Adult Industry, and what church going family member is going to openly admit that? Good… Read more »
Mike, Let’s get off Nintendo for a minute. Tell me why Sony, the leader of the last two generations of consoles and the company with the most fanboys/hardcore following, would reduce its press conference to a boring-ass Powerpoint presentation full of graphs, charts and statistics. It’s because in that audience–next to the fanboys who sneaked into E3 and the enthusiast press (other fanboys who conned their way in)–were members of the mainstream media. That is who represents the mainstream. That is who gets the message out to them. That consumer is sitting down to catch FOX News, CNBC or whatever… Read more »
[quote=Mike Bracken]Even if I were to say “okay, I can accept that argument–gaming press are only at E3 as a tool to create the spectacle”–then how big of an epic fucking failure is debuting Women’s Murder Club during the press conference now? Are mainstream outlets supposed to run to the media room and write about some game that was met with complete and utter indifference from the very people who’re supposed to be passionate about these things? You can’t have your cake and eat it too.[/quote] I get what you are saying and I feel the same way about these… Read more »
Even if I were to say “okay, I can accept that argument–gaming press are only at E3 as a tool to create the spectacle”–then how big of an epic fucking failure is debuting Women’s Murder Club during the press conference now? Are mainstream outlets supposed to run to the media room and write about some game that was met with complete and utter indifference from the very people who’re supposed to be passionate about these things? You can’t have your cake and eat it too. I still don’t buy this argument that E3 is for the mainstream media. That’s just… Read more »
[quote=Mike Bracken]I’ve covered E3 for years–99% of them have no clue what I’m talking about despite being people who play games. At the very least, showing stuff like Women’s Murder Club during a press conference shows that Nintendo grossly overestimates the importance of casual gamers at E3.[/quote] The general population doesn’t have to know what E3 is. The point of a tradeshow is to create a spectacle/event to attract mainstream outlets, who wouldn’t normal cover the industry, to write about your wares. Gaming media cover the industry all year around. Technically, E3 isn’t for them, but organizers need the hardcore… Read more »
[quote=David Stone] Thanks for having my back, Chi. It’s the Electronic Entertainment Expo, not Hardcore Wankfest. Like it or not, Women’s Murder Club is big-money ELECTRONIC ENTERTAINMENT. [/quote] You guys are in denial. You can bring Oprah to the press conference or Cosmo or Time Magazine–doesn’t change the fact that 99% of the audience at any E3 is comprised of “hardcore” gamers. We’ve all been to the show, we’ve all seen the people there. Hell, we’ve all SMELLED the people there. It’s hardcore wankfest central. You can argue that James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club is something worth seeing at the… Read more »
[quote=JimWood]I also dont understand the hate on Galaxy 2 while Assassin’s Creed 2 is so anticipated. Why wouldnt you want more of a game that was near perfection instead of more of a game that was flawed? Plus, how can Galaxy 2 be a cash-in when the period between the two games is longer than the period between AC games?[/quote] Not all sequels are equal. I think there’s a general sense that Nintendo is creatively bankrupt and all they do is churn out these sequels that have very little vitality in them. Almost all their big franchaises are for the… Read more »
[quote=Chi Kong Lui] I also don’t have a problem with Nintendo showcasing Agatha Christie’s Mystery Whatever at E3. E3 is considered the Mecca for gamers, but its also a tradeshow designed to attract media that wouldn’t normally cover this sort of thing. [/quote] Thanks for having my back, Chi. It’s the Electronic Entertainment Expo, not Hardcore Wankfest. Like it or not, Women’s Murder Club is big-money ELECTRONIC ENTERTAINMENT. [quote=JimWood]I also dont understand the hate on Galaxy 2 while Assassin’s Creed 2 is so anticipated. Why wouldnt you want more of a game that was near perfection instead of more of… Read more »
[quote=Chi Kong Lui] I also don’t have a problem with Nintendo showcasing Agatha Christie’s Mystery Whatever at E3. E3 is considered the Mecca for gamers, but its also a tradeshow designed to attract media that wouldn’t normally cover this sort of thing. [/quote] This is the thing that the core audience cant get over. EA and Ubisoft showing their line of games for girls and Nintendo showing these games that clearly arent for the core but are vital for these companies to show. Its not all about the core games and we need to just deal with it. I also… Read more »
[quote=Dean]I think the best comment in your podcast was that you’re “outgrowing the 18 to 34 demographic”. How much longer are you guys going to be into gaming as a hobby if you hate where it’s going and you don’t care what value things have to people unlike yourselves?[/quote] Not all games are made for 18 to 35 year olds and I think we have to accept that at some point we will become (if we aren’t already) the minorities. There are pocket markets already for Sierra-style adventure games, flight sims, etc. I think console gamers just need to get… Read more »
Great pod guys.
The only thing i would add is my own game pick of the E3 show was Splinter Cell: Conviction. If the demonstration is any indication of how/what the gameplay would be like i can’t wait.
I think the best comment in your podcast was that you’re “outgrowing the 18 to 34 demographic”. How much longer are you guys going to be into gaming as a hobby if you hate where it’s going and you don’t care what value things have to people unlike yourselves?
[quote=Vince]Listen to the comments about Assassin’s Creed 2 and Mario Galaxy 2. Miyamoto is the one guy who admits to re-using old assets while the rest of the industry doesn’t admit it? Now, I’m sure God of War 3 has all new material, but you can’t tell me that you think God of War 1 and 2 have no shared assets. Meanwhile, you jump on Assassin’s Creed 1 for the repetition, and then you start hyping the sequel just based on the trailer. The producers say they are changing the play style, more missions and less pick-pocketing. Well, la-dee-da. That… Read more »
I think the difference is that, typically, Mario game have been handled with greater care than other franchises. (I don’t mean the whoring out of Mario; I’m referring to the canon platformers.) It’s all very subjective, and of course money talks. It’s never a question of enjoyability. I know that I’d enjoy SMG2, I just don’t want to buy it. I would agree with you about Animal Crossing Wii, though, and I think the sales numbers (and its lack of footprint like the GCN’s game) reflect this. I think at the end of the day, it WILL be a subjective… Read more »
[quote=David Stone]What was nice about the games that Sony and MS announced is that, for the most part, there were so many games that needed to be played. Mario Galaxy 2? It didn’t need to be made, let alone played. I”m sure it’ll be a lot of fun – I’ve yet to play a real “Mario” game that isn’t at least a little fun – but it’s a bit of a cash-in feeling. Mario Galaxy 1 was a damn near-perfect experience as far as pure platforming went (at least for me; I know a large contingent of the internet hated… Read more »
Glad to hear some feedback for the podcast. It’s a lot of fun to do, and with E3, it’s such a meaty topic that we were pretty bushed by the time we finished recording. I just wanted to address two points: 1) Vince, I’m really glad to hear your comments. What was nice about the games that Sony and MS announced is that, for the most part, there were so many games that needed to be played. Mario Galaxy 2? It didn’t need to be made, let alone played. I”m sure it’ll be a lot of fun – I’ve yet… Read more »
This was such a good podcast guys, I don’t even know where to start. Firstly, I was happy to hear your criticisms of the Nintendo conference. I watched the conference live and a lot of people were pretty skeptical for a large portion of the conference, but gave it a pass when Other M showed up, and that just boggled my mind. Am I interested in a team ninja developed Metroid game? Yes, because of the sheer surprise factor, but it hardly seemed like the home run that a lot of people are championing it as (the graphics are atrocious,… Read more »
I hope you guys do come back and listen to this podcast next year. I’m humbled that you took time to mention my post in the forums. I think it would have been better to mention how sequel heavy the entire E3 show was. Instead it seemed most of you were more than happy with harping on Nintendo for spitting out sequels while gushing over sequels coming out on other platforms. But I don’t blame you. Only because I believe you don’t see it the way I do. You seem to have eternal hope that these hi-def games are going… Read more »
I don’t hate *everything*–I’m just comfortable being very vocal about the shit I don’t like.
I vote to for Tim “Gentleman” Spaeth and change for Mike “Hates Everything” Bracken.
From Chi “North/South” Lui