Brad's review was just the beginning; we debate the exhilarating highs and inexplicable lows of Mass Effect 2. Plus: Tim quits games, classic sequels we love, and statistics, statistics, statistics. With Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Mike "The Outlier" Bracken, Richard Naik, and Tim Spaeth.
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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
Hey Tim, I’m surprised that no one’s commented on your game quitting experiment, so I thought I’d chip in my two cents even though I don’t have anything wig-popping to say. Naturally, as a forum commenter I find such measured, mature reactions to your self-imposed sabbatical as “Oh? Why so? Explain.” un-fulfilling and lacking the necessary interweb blood and thunder. So I’m going to pull a Call of Duty: Nazi Zombies history rewrite and pretend that when you announced your grand ambitions Brad screamed “Blaspshemy!” while Chi promptly jumped across cyberspace to bite your face off, pausing only to leave… Read more »
I played as a Soldier because before ME ever came out, I had no idea how the Biotics/Techs would be implemented. Would MP be limited? Would i run out often? Had no idea, so I chose a straight soldier since I had a good idea of how that would play out. (it’s the same for other RPGs. Until I know how a system works, I try to pick a class that won’t be too dependent on resources that may be limited.) I continued with a soldier since that was what my ME save was based on, and wanted to keep… Read more »
Just out of curiosity Brad…. If you didnt want the game to feel like Gears of War, why did you play the game as a Soldier, which Bioware clearly made for the shooter fan? Makes no logical sense.
I suggest you play the game as a Sentintel or Adept.
I never made the connection between Puzzle Quest and the original Warlords series, despite the presence of the latter’s name in the former’s subtitle. I used to play Warlords (might have been the sequel) as a hot seat game on a friend’s Macintosh a very long time ago.
My Galactrix hate stems from it being 1) Ridiculously overdesigned and 2) A buggy mess on the NDS. Loading screens? Stylus controls that work 80% of the time? No thank you.
The original Puzzle Quest was also based on “Warlords” lore, so there’s even more reason for a lore switch having such horrible results. I would not blame anybody for not knowing about Warlords; basically it was a turn-based PC build units and conquer the world game from the VGA / shareware era. After Warlords II the series sort of petered out on several CD versions, largely a casualty of RTS’s like warcraft and better turn based games like Heroes of Might and Magic or Alpha Centauri. In its time, though, it was supreme. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warlords_(game_series) At least M&M Clash of Heroes… Read more »
Props to Brother Gallaway, who correctly surmised that the entire denouement was designed as a platform for me to talk about Space Quest. The topic, however, was never meant to be “Sequels We Love,” rather, it was supposed to be “Sequels That Do Something Clever With Their Sequel-ness.” For example, Mass Effect 2, Quest for Glory II-V, and Golden Sun: The Lost Age all let you import game saves from their predecessors. Space Quest IV is a game about Space Quest sequels. That sort of thing. But I couldn’t articulate that angle during show prep, so we generalized it out… Read more »
Part of the reason there was probably such a disconnect between Puzzle Quest 1 and Puzzle Quest: Galactrix was that Galactrix was originally intended to be its own separate property. See: http://www.joystiq.com/2008/02/23/puzzle-quest-galactrix-re-announced/ The two games share a developer and code, but D3 stuck it with the “Puzzle Quest” moniker rather late in the development process (much to everyone’s chagrin, particularly those who played it). Shrewd marketing, yes. A good way to build up expectations for an unproven property? No.
The actual Puzzle Quest II will be out later this year, supposedly.
The movie in question is “Comic Book Villains.”