Don't Forget...

The People's Choice Podcast Awards are now officially accepting nominations! If you would like to nominate us, please click the banner below and make sure to follow the sites rules very closely. We would be honored to at least to be nominated.





As always, your support means the world to us and we couldn't have made it this far without you, the viewers.

-Nick

Indie Games, Something Learned From the Austin GDC

For the people who are out there saying Games Are Not Art, fuck you. Nothing personal. I don't know your address. I'm not going to sneak attack you or wait for you after work. But I think you don't know what you're talking about and therefore not able to have an opinion about it.

I'm not out to say that ALL games are art. We all know that you can't lump everything together and have the one size fits all mentality. There are those crapper games just like there are those crapper movies. But to go out and say that Games cannot be an artform. Those people are full of shit.

Here are three games I recently found out about through being an attendee at Austin GDC. I don't want to say anything about the games. I hope that you will download and try each of them. I'll post my thoughts about them under the comments section so you can read about why I decided to post about these. They are all very simple games.

Gravitation [Jason Rohrer] - [download]

Passage [Jason Rohrer] - [download]

Execution [Jesse Venbrux] - [download]


Thanks,
David

More sweet art from the forums!

(CLICK TO ENLARGE PICTURES)

Keep them coming guys!

Brad

Back To School? I Thought I Was Done

Yesterday was our first day at the Austin GDC. Brad and I attended a few lectures throughout the day. Although much of the information was aimed towards developers and people making games, a lot of the information made sense and we enjoyed ourselves.

Today, I'm sitting down waiting for the "Why Game Composers MUST Become 21st Century Artist or Face Extinction" and I am reminded of being back in school. I walked in with my backpack on. The groups were already settled. The people who knew each other had sat together. There was that slight awkwardness when I slowly found my isolated seat in the corner. Some people look to see if you're someone they recognize. Others keep to themselves working on their laptops or chatting away with colleagues.

I'm reminded of a talk I had with my Dad when I was growing up and playing tennis. I'm a little fish thrown into a big pond with lots of other fish. It's much larger than I've ever experienced and I'm surrounded by bigger fish who have been around a while. I'm just barely able to find my own piece of the pond, let alone avoid being swallowed by something much larger than I.

I thought I'd left this all behind back in high school and then later in college. But I'm reminded and learning that it's a constant process that I and We will always be dealing with. We'll always just be trying to find our place and struggle to find what we want. It's not going to change, all we can change is how meet this process, either by dipping one toe in and slowly submerging ourselves or by jumping into the freezing water-buck naked with no regrets. Neither one is necessarily wrong. But it is a choice you make that will affect your life.


Thanks for listening,
David

Here We Go

So Brad's in the shower and I'm looking up driving directions. We're off to see what goes on in the world of Video Game Development. Highlights for today, the Independent Games Expo Hall.

See ya tonight,
David

Nominate 4PP Today!

The People's Choice Podcast Awards are now officially accepting nominations! If you would like to nominate us, please click the banner below and make sure to follow the sites rules very closely. We would be honored to at least to be nominated.





As always, your support means the world to us and we couldn't have made it this far without you, the viewers.

-Nick

Nick's Fall Laundry List Update 1

So as I type this, the credits of Beyond Good & Evil are still rolling. The game was beautiful and unique thanks to its colorful personality. I have a few minor complaints with the game so expect my full impressions of the game on this weeks podcast. I finished this up just in time for the fall insanity to begin because tomorrow night at midnight marks the launch of the first big title of the fall gaming season....


Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

But what is next for me in regards to my Laundry List?

I will be finishing up the Prince of Persia trilogy by playing through "Prince of Persia: Two Thrones" for the PS2. I'm excited.

Fall Laundry List:
Beyond Good & Evil - 100%

And on a side note... don't mean to get anyone excited... especially this early but....



-Nick

Peoples Choice Podcast Awards

Well guys, we have been doing this podcast for quite awhile now. We have recorded 80 traditional gaming podcasts and approximately 19 Top 5 Podcasts. For the longest time, we didn't even have many listeners but our hard work is finally starting to pay off. The 2008 Peoples Choice Podcast Awards are upon us and we would love to at least be nominated for an award. So this is where you come in. So if you listen to our show or watch our broadcast and enjoy it, we would greatly appreciate anyone who takes the time to nominate us. If you haven't already, subscibe to our podcast and blog via the following links. Whenever a new podcast is uploaded, you will be alerted and the show will automatically be downloaded for your listening pleasure!

Blog:  Subscribe in a reader

Podcast:


That concludes step 1. If you would like to view our Podcast archive directly, please visit: Podcast Archive

Now for the actual nomination process. There are very specific rules for nominating a podcast so please follow them. Here are the rules exactly as they are listed on their web page:
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-You can nominate / submit Podcasts One Time Only.
-You can nominate a show for Podcast of the Year or Best Produced, and also submit it to an individual category
-You should not submit the same show in multiple categories multiple submissions are not allowed.
-Duplicate nominations will result in nominations being thrown out!
-Do not abuse the system and submit a single show in multiple categories!

-The nomination form will contain the following:
     Name of Podcast you are nominating
     Podcast URL (www.4playerpodcast.com)
     Your Name
     Your Verifiable E-mail Address
Comments are critical so the reviewing team understand why a show is deserving of being nominated to the category.

-Also keep in mind, that people who submit a nomination may recieve a confirmation email several days after their submission so be sure to keep you eyes peeled for that email.
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Nominations are accepted starting 9/15/2008! Thank you to all who nominate us! We appeciate everyone's continued support!

If you have any questions please email any one of us! Emails are in the menu to to the right.

-4Player Podcast

RUMOR: Ico 3 Queen Reveal at TGS 2008!

A teaser website for TGS 2008 refers to a game called "Ico 3: Queen" which more than likely refers to Team Ico's long anticipated follow up to Ico and Shadow of the Colossus! Keep in mind, this is still a rumor and even if this is referring to Team Ico's game, the title is more than likely not final. Does that really matter though? FUCK NO!!! ITS TEAM ICO! Can't wait for TGS.

Check out the Source

You will also notice a date... Oct. 9, 2009. This is more than likely the Japanese Release date which the US version will most likely follow shortly there after.

***SOURCE HAS BEEN CHANGED AND NOW CONFIRMS THAT THIS IS MERELY AN ART MOCK UP AND IS NOT CONFIRMATION OF ACTUAL GAME. SORRY GUYS, GUESS WE WILL HAVE TO WAIT A BIT LONGER.***

***CONSIDER THIS RUMOR DENIED***

-Nick

The Final Frontier

Space... Never ending. Whisps of stars flying though my hair.. or something like that.

In Spore, the reward (in my case) is space. Everything else has limits to how far you can progress. You can only get so big in cell stage. Only eat so many species in animal stage. Conquer so many tribes and civilizations in those stages. In space,
oh in space, there are literally thousands, if not millions, of stars systems to explore and live in. There are countless amounts of civilizations to interact with, positively or negatively. Your choice of how you want to live is completely up to you. Of course I conquer and destroy.

Living in space is really divided into three things. War, Trading, and caring for you planets and allies.

War is very simple, but surprisingly hard. This being that you will get destroyed if you think you can take out a civilization with your puny starting ship. Not much strategy is required to take out said species. You can of course bring allies, but they tend to be useless. You can go in a series of bombardments to make them eventually bow to you. You can get an ally to destroy them for you. Maybe you bought the planet buster and just want to blow them up. Whichever way you choose is fine. It is simple, but hard to do until you have access to these options. Before hand, your pee shooter can't do too much.

You of course can make plenty money off of trade. You are still trading spice, but now there are many different types of spices rather than the one generic one you get on your first planet. There are automatic trades and manual trades. Automatic trades are just the basic exchange of the goods rather than getting any money. This only happens between two start systems. Manual is something you follow up the automatic with, or just do normally. It requires you to go to all your spice producing planets and pick up all the spices. After this you should find a species that has a planet that does not produce that spice. Better yet, find a species that does not produce it on any of their planets. One more perk of trade. If you have a trade route with a species for a long enough time, eventually it opens up the option to buy their system. Some food for thought if your a wussy pacifist.

Third. Frequently plants call out for your help. I guess you are the only person in the whole system with a heart. Any ally or planet of your own my call out for some... deed that needs doing. This is optional of course, but its recommended that you do it. When you help out, it keeps relationships from going down the drain, keeps planets producing spices and it "levels" you up.

Oh leveling up. It's what keeps me going. Everytime you do something... out of the ordinary. Whether it be trading, helping planets, building ecosystems, discovering rare star formations... whatever. You gain some points for earning a badge in that area of... "expertise". When you gain badges it eventually adds up to gain you a new title, which in turn lets you have more ships in your fleet. I don't care about fleets though. What I care about are those badges. Normally when you gain a badge, you are allowed to purchase new upgrades for your ship, making the game take new twists and turns on how you can interact with it. Buy a new cargo hold, A bigger laser, Different tools to warp planets to your liking. Tools to warp species to your liking. Tools to let you fly farther and through warp holes. And so on.

This game gives you the ability to keep flying and keep enjoying just... creating. Even when you are way past done making your own species. Space is nothing more than everything you could hope for in this game. Space is all the other stages combined, and then some.

If you love Sims, Rpgs, Rts, MMOs, Creating art... whatever. Play Spore. If nothing more because I said so...

Because I did say so.

Always Watching,

-Travis