This week's topics include:
- Impressions/reviews of the New Xbox Experience and A Kingdom for Keflings
- Listener Q&A:
- Why do critics compete to give a game the highest possible score?
- How has the Wii changed the landscape for gamers?
- Why are videogames still regarded as children's games when gamers have gotten older and games more sophisticated?
- Can a bad game be good, either in the sense that its development resulted in positives for gaming as a whole, or in the sense that its fundamental badness was a "quality" unto itself?
- Do you prefer a game to do only one thing for its duration or that it aim to do everything in small amounts?
- Do you guys have the same problem as me with playing single player games in that they feel terribly lonely?
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Please send 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
throw out some ideas, yo!
Definitely one of the better GameCritics.com podcasts. I think one of the things that has hurt this podcast was that it wasn’t touching on bigger issues like those suggested by the users. More podcasts in this vein are needed I think.
Thanks for answering my question. If I may defend using Portal as an example of a game which tries to do everything: It seemed to be a puzzle game, but then it had action (with even a boss fight) and difficult movement, which are very different kinds of gameplay. “Humor” was maybe not the best word- I should have said “comedy”. Listening to a comedy story is absolutely an activity in itself. So even though Portal is short, it absolutely is trying to do everything. A focused version of Portal would either just be a puzzle game, or just a… Read more »