Hey Got Gamers,

This is another in the series of blog posts that we’re making to recognize the games that we saw at E3 2012. I am posting this one because Focus Home Entertainment, the publisher behind Of Orcs and Men, has released a whole whack of screen shots to show off what their game looks like. Here are some of those images.

Now I’ve been trying really hard to be less cynical, I am told it is bad for my health, but old habits due die hard. That’s why I raised an eyebrow when I found the above images labelled as screen shots. It is theoretically possible that they’re screenshots taken from the game’s cut-scenes, but that would mean that we still have no idea what this game is about.

That’s why our very own Christine Chubb cornered Sylvain Sechi, from the Of Orcs and Men development team, to ask about the game. You can find her discussion about Of Orcs and Men, with Sylvain, in the audio file below this paragraph.

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Hey Got Gamers,

Let’s continue our series of interviews from E3 with Nintendo. For reasons we don’t understand, Nintendo held an hour long E3 press conference were they talked about nothing except for the new Nintendo Wii-U.
 
And even when they were talking about the Wii-U they really were not saying anything. We still don’t even have a price or release date which is kind of crazy.

That’s why we jumped at the chance to talk to Nintendo Canada’s John Asevado, and we grilled him for whatever information we could. Everything we got, including the number of launch titles that the Wii-U will have, can be found in the audio file below this paragraph.

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Also, here’s an image of the new Nintendo 3DS XL beside the normal sized 3DS. The 3DS XL was announced late last week when Nintendo released the latest in a series of announcement videos that they release from time to time.

We’ll be going to a Nintendo press event this week, so tune into Got Game this Sunday at 5 pm and we will hopefully have some news for you regarding this XL version of the 3DS.

Hey Got Gamers,

This week was a strange one for news story, and it has lead to some strange conversations that you can hear during the show. One conversation lead us to remembering the musings of Ken Rodney. If you only started to listen to Got Game after Ken left us a few years ago, then you should know that when Got Game first hit the air the original crew consisted of:

• 1. Ken Rodney
• 2. Zack Cooper
• 3. Momin Qureshi
• 4. Bryan Calhoun

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Luckily, not everything about Got Game has changed. This week, like all weeks, you can find the post-broadcast podcast version of Got Game in the audio file below this paragraph. However, we just call it the June 26th 2012 edition of Got Game.

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This week the Got Game crew discusses:

• A) The results of the NHL13 cover vote
• B) Microsoft’s announcement of a tablet called Surface
• C) A rumor that the Wii-U is coming out on December 21st for $500
• D) News that the Lingerie Football League is getting their own officially licensed game
• E) Mike Tyson becoming a playable character in WWE’13

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Plus we talk to Dee Brown, the studio head of Montreal’s Beenox Studios, about next week’s release of The Amazing Spider-Man.

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AND IN OUR REVIEW SECTION WE TAKE A LOOK AT DIRT SHOWDOWN…

… AND BABEL RISING.

Hey Got Gamers,

We’ve spent a lot of time taking about NHL13 , and we do it with good reason. NHL13 looks to be off the hook, but let’s not ignore another staple of sports gaming.

To talk Madden, we cornered Clint Oldenburg, one of the associate producers working on Madden 13. We’re going to have him on the show again to talk about his amazing story of going from a seasoned NFL offensive tackle to game producer; however, today we’re speaking to him about Madden 13.

But before we get to that discussion I have a bit of homework for you. You see, this year each conversation with the Madden development team always started with the Infinity Engine. It’s the new game engine that handles things like collision detection between virtual players. I’m not going to bore you by trying to explain the mechanics behind the engine, but instead I was just hoping that you would click on the video below this paragraph. If you do that you’ll see what the results of the new engine are in terms of game-play.

Now that you have a visual reference, let’s figure out what you can expect in this year’s version of Madden. You can find our discussion with Clint in the audio file below this paragraph.

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Momin talkes with Madden NFL Football producer Clint Oldenburg.

And while you’re listen to that, I must take a moment to mention that I found it a little strange that there wasn’t a bigger focus on visuals with Madden 13 at E3. I say this because it seems like they’ve stepped up their visual game also. This first image you see uses Washington to compare what a game of Madden football would look like in both Madden 12 and 13.

This next image shows what a game could look like at 5 different times points throughout a virtual game day.

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Now, I know what you’re thinking, and I don’t know why these images are so small either. At E3, we were given a USB drive with a ton of images and videos to show off all the games that EA/EA Sports was showing at E3, and the 2 images above this paragraph were the ones on the drive. I also checked a separate visual media vault that EA keeps around so that press can download assets like these screenshots. Those 2 images were the same size in that vault as well; therefore, I grabbed all of the images below this paragraph from that vault, and I am posting them here in the hopes that it will give you a better idea of what the visuals in Madden 13 look like.

Unfortunately, there are no image in the world that can explain virtual Phil Simms and Jim Nantz.

Hey Got Gamers,

This week we spent a lot of time discussing very few topics, so I am not going to waste your time with filler sentences. Let’s get right to the heart of this matter. You can find the post-broadcast podcast version of our June 17th 2012 show in the audio file below this paragraph.

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This week on Got Game the crew discussed:

1) NHL 13 with one of the game’s producers: Sean Ramjagsingh.

2) Peter Molyneux‘s first Game/science project from his new 22 Cans development studio.
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3) We also get the band back together for one night only.

Hey Got Gamers,

Let’s continue our look at E3 2012 with the need… the need for speed.

To do this, I decided to go hands-on with the game for a time, and then I used what I had learned to break down the game with one of the designers from Criterion Games.

For some reason he wanted me to call him Professor (most likely a reference to his sage like knowledge of this game), but his name is actually Matt Follett. Not only does he have his hands all over this title, but right now he’s the man to beat on the mean streets of whatever city Most Wanted is set in.

However, enough about the man behind the game. Let’s talk about the game itself, and you can hear that particular discussion in the audio file below this sentence.

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Also, here are some images that EA says are screen captures of the game. I don’t feel like I had enough hands on time to confirm that this is true or false, but it should at least give you some idea of what the game will look like.

Hey Got Gamers,

Rockband, Guitar Hero, Rocksmith and Power Gig: Rise of the SixString are all variations on a similar idea: having fun with music. However, we live in a time when Guitar Hero has been sidelined, and Harmonix is is making more money on dance games then music games. Simply put, the music game in 2012 just doesn’t turn a profit like it did in 2008.

That’s why it was curious to find another music game appear at E3 this year.

However, one called BandFuse did show up, and we wanted to know what made this newcomer tick. That’s why we dispatched Christine Chubb to investigate the situation and report on the game. You can hear Christine discuss the game with John Heiner, the Game Director of Bandfuse, in the audio file below this paragraph.

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Screen capture of the song Yellow by Coldplay inside the game Bandfuse being played.

Hey Got Gamers,

Over the course of this week or so we’re going to roll out a number of interviews that we recorded at E3 2012. However, we’re going to start with one that we recording just before E3.

It’s been a while, but you may remember that just before E3 we played a small portion of this discussion, that I had with Ed Martin from Eutechnyx, on our weekly radio show. We’re finally posting the full interview that lasts roughly 27 minutes, and you can find it in the audio file below this sentence.

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Hey Got Gamers,

Unfortunately, only those with jobs in media, PR, or retail can get access to E3. However, I can use my experiences to take you on a tour of the events that surround the Electronic Entertainment Expo.
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It all starts at 9 am on the Monday morning when everyone lines up in front of the Galen Center for the Microsoft press conference.

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At about 9:30 am everyone is finally in a seat and we listen to Microsoft talk about Halo and Gears of War for an hour or so. Here’s a video of our thoughts of this year’s Microsoft presser that we shot on sight a few minutes after the presser ended.

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As soon as that’s done we rush over to see EA talk about making Need for Speed and Madden football games. This is one of the few times we get to take our time since the EA presser doesn’t normally start until 12:30 pm-ish.


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Then you have just enough time to run for a seat at the Ubisoft presser, and you better hurry because there are many people who get rejected at the door due to space restrictions.

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Once the Ubisoft presser is done you head for one of the conveniently placed shuttle buses that Sony supplies and take a ride to the grounds that housed the 1984 Summer Olympics. Once you’re off the bus it is finally meal time. Remember that you’ve been running around since 9 am and that you haven’t had a chance to eat anything. Sony for the last few years has been nice enough to round up a bunch of food trucks and let everyone eat for free. It’s kind of awe inspiring to you think about how much food is being consumed in the couple of hours before the Sony conference starts.


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Eventually, there will be a call for all media to report to their seats for the start of the Sony presser. We had a chance to take a look at what they had to offer, and we expressed our thoughts in this video.

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That’s the end of Day Zero. All the press retire to their rooms to write, or go to parties to drink. Drinking is actually a favoured pass time for all people at E3, but that doesn’t mean that the PR representatives or retailers don’t also retire to prepare for their work on the show floor.
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Regardless, people attending E3 will spend their nights as they wish, and before you know it Tuesday will arrive. Therefore, make sure to make it to the Nintendo presser at 9 am sharp because it is going to start with or without you.

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Nintendo had a strange press conference this year, and somehow managed to say nothing at all. We were on location and recorded our thoughts on the presser as soon as the conference was done.

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At this point you wait a few hours for noon on Tuesday to roll around, and E3 officially begins. Along the way we get to do some really cool things like be part of a round table with legendary game developer Warren Spector.

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However, E3 is now open, so it’s time for 3 days and 3 nights of game demos and developer interviews. If you have a few free seconds you may even have a chance to run to a far corner in one of the halls and look at something you’re interested in personally.




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Then at 5 pm on Thursday E3 ends, and traditionally it is a time to go out and drink with your fellow expo-goers. This allows you to decompress from many days of flashy lights and big crowds.

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Sometimes a zombie may also show up.

Hey Got Gamers,

There will be a very short show blog this week because we only talked about is E3. However, as usual the post-broadcast podcast of this week’s show can be found in the audio file blow this paragraph.

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However, saying that WE ONLY talked about E3 may under sell things a bit. The full Got Game crew went down to Los Angeles to cover the events one day at a time. You can listen to the following shows for in depth analysis of everything we saw:

• E3 DAY ZERO
• E3 DAY ONE
• E3 DAY TWO
• E3 DAY THREE

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Also, don’t forget that you can download each episode of Got Game directly from our website, or if the iTunes Got Game page if you use an iOS device.
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Also, if you haven’t seen it, here’s that video of Calhoun playing NBA Baller Beats that we keep referencing throughout the week.