The crew reunites and wastes no time getting back to doing what they do best: angering the Internet with a brutal dismantling of Bastion. Plus: Sexism in Ms. 'Splosion Man, the failures of L.A. Noire, the joys of Ghost Recon 3DS, and the magnificence of Lost Odyssey. We also debut our new movie segment, and if you like surprises, well, hold onto your wigs and keys, folks. Featuring Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Mike Bracken, and Tim "Fresh Beatz" 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
I stand corrected then. I didn’t think one of Nintendo’s own would do such damage to one of their strongest characters, but seems I was mistaken. =[
[quote=Anonymous]Other M was written by Yoshio Sakamoto, a video game designer for Nintendo. He was one of the directors for this game as well. I’m not saying Team Ninja is guilt free, but the negative portrayal of Samus seems to rest on Nintendo’s shoulders. [/quote] Anonymous is absolutely correct. Nintendo — specifically Sakamoto — is 100% to blame for the abomination of Other M. Read interviews with him (for example, Gama Sutra, or Iwata Asks). It’s pretty clear that he believes that he reason people liked games like Metroid II and Super Metroid were because of the “dramatic moments” that… Read more »
[quote]While you’re right to highlight Other M, I don’t think the blame for any sexism can fall entirely at Nintendo’s feet – it’s Team Ninja who are the ones behind it. Not surprising, then, since they also make the Dead or Alive games, or, more specifically, Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball.[/quote]
Other M was written by Yoshio Sakamoto, a video game designer for Nintendo. He was one of the directors for this game as well. I’m not saying Team Ninja is guilt free, but the negative portrayal of Samus seems to rest on Nintendo’s shoulders.
Listened to all the podcast now, and thoroughly enjoyed it. A couple more things though: – I was one of those guys back in the day saying how great Lost Odyssey was, and I still consider it the best 360 exclusive game. However, I don’t like it for the same reasons as you guys – the core story, to me, is actually quite generic and unemotional. Now, I don’t have children myself so can maybe see why you guys find that cutscene so powerful, but to me the game isn’t particularly strong at having an interesting narrative. In fact, the… Read more »
I really don’t think Ms. Splosion Man is sexist at all, since it’s pretty clear she’s a parody character. If anything, the character of Ms Splosion Man is making fun of all the negative female stereotypes by embodying it. Splosion Man was similar with lines like “Get to Da chopper”, but I’ll admit to a lesser degree.
Games like Other M are more qualifying for sexist complaints, since Nintendo somehow expected gamers to take Samus’ new emotionally weak and defenseless-unless-she’s-with-a-man portrayal seriously.
I haven’t listened to all the podcast yet, but just wanna throw in my angle on the LA Noire debate. The only Rockstar game I genuinely like is Red Dead Redemption, so I have no reason to defend LA Noire in that regard, though the fact I’m saying Rockstar and not Team Bondi is perhaps one of the reasons why many gamers are underwhelmed by the game. You see, I followed LA Noire’s development very early on, and was always aware that the game wasn’t going to be like GTA. Team Bondi, like their previous game, The Getaway, don’t focus… Read more »
Chris – Agree with you 100%. The narrator is serving the same function as a BioShock or Dead Space audio log — telling you the history of this world without interrupting gameplay. It’s delivered abstractly and non-linearly (just as the game world is abstract and non-linear) but having finished the game I could certainly tell you the story of the Calamity, the conflict between its inhabitants, the history of the kid, why [redacted] does what he does, etc. — it’s a complete story, just told in a non-traditional format. Indeed, when the game falls back on the occasional cutscene, or… Read more »
Excellent. Never played Silver Surfer, but Darn that is some killer chiptune. Ok, but I want to put into my 2 cents on Bastion (since talking at my iphone doesn’t seem to work when the podcast plays). 1) I understand the point that the “story” in bastion isn’t really compelling as a story, or way to connect the player to the event. Show don’t tell, as they say. However, as I’ve been playing it I haven’t really felt that the unfolding events as they’re narrated were meant as a typical story. In other words, I don’t think Supergiant were really… Read more »
[quote=Chris Johnson [TechnologoDoom]]Love the podcast! Always listen through it. One question, though: where is the intro music from? I absolutely love it but can’t think of a game it could be from…[/quote]Wonder no more, good sir: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J0H5ah1G7A
And I just found this too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irsVSyoBkuo
I’ve already gushed about this game to Brad on Twitter, but it can’t be stressed enough how great Lost Odyssey is. That game’s ending will always stick with me, and I agree that the end of Disk 1 was really powerful. Although the game could’ve used some trimming, I think some of those simplistic quests have more importance than you guys gave them credit for. Even if they seem silly at the time, such as the quest where the kids sneak around a city and steal a spaceship, many of those scenes ended up being what I thought about after… Read more »
Love the podcast! Always listen through it. One question, though: where is the intro music from? I absolutely love it but can’t think of a game it could be from…
So glad you guys are back. You have been missed. This is definitely the perfect way to end my work week!