DualShockers.com ShockCast

For decades, gamers have dreaded the notorious "summer drought": the time of year that sees the fewest new game releases. Game companies typically like to release their biggest titles during the holiday season which has left the summer almost a barren wasteland as far as games go. However, thanks to Steam and other sales, the summer drought is quickly becoming ancient history.

On this episode of the ShockCast, we discuss the latest Steam sale. We talk about how the sale works, why it's a great way to check out games we missed, what games we've bought off it and how it's making our backlogs that much harder to clear out. As usual, we have our regular features like new game releases, game news and games we've been playing.

This week I was joined by Thomas Luke, Ryan Meitzler and Jorge Jimemez. Thanks as always to Shawn Daley for our custom intro and outro tracks.

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It's hard to believe that E3 has come and gone. Although this year's event seemed like a giant teaser trailer for what we'll get to see next year, it still had a lot of cool announcements and plenty of that fanfare that we've come to know and love.

On this episode, Ryan Meitzler and I provide a first hand account of what we saw and what we played while out in Los Angeles for the event. Jorge Jimenez and Thomas Luke give us the spectator's point of view of what they thought of the show.

Thanks as always to @shawndaley for our custom intro and outro tracks.

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While in Los Angeles covering this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3 as the kids call it, we recorded this here episode of the ShockCast. We had intended to get it to you last week but the madness of E3 prevented that from happening.

We recorded this on the morning after the big press events that happened on Monday, June 9th. We go into detail about what we thought of the events put on by Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and Sony.

We want to thank our friends Chris Sealy and Emilio Lopez for joining us on this episode. Thanks as always to @shawndaley for our custom intro and outro tracks.

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We’re just a few short days away from the biggest week in all of gaming. The Electronic Entertainment Expo is the single most important event for video games and this year could be one of the biggest yet. With that being the case, this episode of the ShockCast is heavily about gaming’s Superbowl. We predict what each of the big companies will do as well as talk about what we’d like to see.

Since we're just a few short days away from it starting, this episode of the ShockCast is heavily about gaming's Superbowl. We predict what each of the big companies will do as well as talk about what we'd like to see.

As usual we break down the week's new releases, discuss some news and end things off with what we've been playing lately.

This week I was joined by Jorge Jimenez and Crystal Mills. Thanks as always to @shawndaley for our custom intro and outro tracks.

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On this week's episode of the DualShockers Shockcast we have an in-depth discussion about the geo-political climate of China...

Just kidding.

The title pretty much says it all. Watch_Dogs has finally been released and we spend the majority of the show talking about what we think of it. We discuss how we feel about the game's various mechanics, its story, and multiplayer component. We also talk about all of the hype and build up surrounding the game and whether that was justified or not now that we have the game in our hands.

Watch_Dogs isn't the only item of interest on this show. We talk about some of our featured posts including: My editorial about my arcade game experience, Jorge's micro review of MLB 2014: The Show, his review of the AOC’s G2460PQU Gaming Monitor, Allisa's Mario Kart 8 editorial and her hands on preview of the Nintendo eShop AR Cards.

We round things out with the week's game releases and what games we've been playing (besides Watch_Dogs).

This week I was joined by Jorge Jimenez. Thanks as always to @shawndaley for our custom intro and outro tracks.

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Before I began to write about video games I had a certain image of what being a video games writer was all about. Some of my long held beliefs about the people who work in the industry and how things were supposed to be done were quickly shattered when I got on the other side of the fence and saw how things really worked.

This subject is what constitutes our main topic for this week. We discuss some of the things we thought we knew about what it was like to be a video games writer and compare those views to what it's actually like actually being one.

Since this is the 175th episode of the podcast I wanted to make it special by having two guests. JakeJames Lugo from The Koalition and Yamilia Avendaño from Twinfinite joined us and definitely gave the show that special "pop" that I wanted it to have. I look up to these two as fellow writers so it was great to have them on the show to share some of their insights and crack some fun jokes along the way.

Aside from the main topic we also discuss some of the original content posted this week including my interview with the men behind the music of Wolfenstein: The New Order and my review of Drakengard 3 (which inspired the main topic). We also talk about some of the more notable gaming news from the past week as well as list the new game releases and what we've been playing.

We also have new intro and outro songs which were produced by Shawn Daley. Shawn is a comic book artist who also creates amazing chiptunes pieces. I hope you guys enjoy the new songs as much as I do.

As always I was joined by my fellow staff writers Ryan Meitzler and Jorge Jimenez (who I am convinced is out to ruin my introductions for this podcast).

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This, my friends, is what we call a dramatic turn of events. This week, Microsoft announced that it would cut the price of its current gen Xbox One console by $100 dollars thus making it competitively priced with Sony's PlayStation 4. How were they able to do this? By dropping the Kinect 2.0 peripheral.

Obviously this was a very Microsoft heavy episode of the ShockCast due to all of the news that came out of the MS camp. Not only do we go into detail about what this price drop means for the company and the gaming industry but also the Kinect's real importance (or lack thereof) to the Xbox One experience. On top of that we also talk about the other Microsoft related announcements such as the dropping of the Xbox Live Gold pay wall for apps like Netflix and also how Games with Gold is now mimicking the PlayStation Plus model.

This show wasn't completely about the green machine though. We talk about some other news items as well including our skepticism for Watch_Dogs and why we think it's awesome that Bruce Lee is in EA Sports UFC. As usual, we do a run down of this week's new game releases and chat about what games we've been playing.

This week I was joined by my fellow Staff Writers Ryan Meitzler and Jorge Jimenez along with Deputy Editor Joel Tavares and DualShockers TV Host Al Zamora. Many thanks to @elblanconino for our custom intro and outro.

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We live in an age of super powerful consoles and PCs which can display some of the most realistic and technically complex graphics ever seen. Despite this, there has been a proliferation of independent games over the last few years. While big stupid AAA titles still rule the market, independent developers and their games are quickly becoming the most influential and innovative in the industry.

On this week's episode we delve into why independent games are becoming more prominent and why they're being accepted so readily by the gaming press and community. We talk about why the rise of independent studios is a good thing for the gaming industry and how their influence will make this the strongest console cycle yet.

As usual, we talk about some of our featured posts including Ryan's review of Ragnarok Odyssey Ace and Jorge's Best Games You're Not Playing editorial. We round things up with a look at what games were released this past week, some of the big news that happened in the industry and what game's we've been playing recently.

This week Tony was joined by my fellow Staff Writers Ryan Meitzler and Jorge Jimenez. Many thanks to @elblanconino for our custom intro and outro.

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Earlier this week, Nintendo announced that they wouldn't be attending this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo. This is the second year in a row that they've done this and it got me thinking about the Expo's importance. Nintendo will now save money and better control their message with videos directed to their fans. Should the other companies follow suit or is E3 something that is still vital for them and the gaming industry as a whole?

We also discuss games that are universally praised but we weren't exactly keen on and also discuss the future of Star Wars games and the franchise now that most of the stories of the expanded universe have been made non-canon.

As usual we also talk about some of the features that were posted on the site including our reviews for Child of Light and Kirby: Triple Deluxe. We round things out with gaming news and what we've been playing.

This week I was joined by my fellow Staff Writers Ryan Meitzler, Thomas Luke and Jorge Jimenez. Many thanks to @elblanconino for our custom intro and outro.

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After this year's PAX East, a few folks tweeted to me telling me how great it was to meet another fellow Latino writer. This threw me off because, even though I'm Dominican, I don't style myself to be a "Latino writer"; I write for everyone. I've been thinking about how minorities gravitate towards each other in this industry and in other geek centric media ever since then. I brought this topic to the show so that we could discuss why minorities "stick together" and also why there are so few minority game developers.

We also discuss Watch Dogs' multiplayer mode which leads into a conversation about how the multiplayer component of games has evolved in the last few years. Whereas in the past, multiplayer was a separate mode, we are now seeing more of a convergence between it and the single player portion. With games like Journey, The Division, Destiny and Watch Dogs, it seems that multiplayer and single player are becoming one.

This episode is rounded up by us discussing some of our reviews including MLB 14: The Show, Octodad: Dadliest Catch and The Wolf Among Us: Episode 3.

Side Note: The title of this episode is "Satellite Delay" for a reason. We were experiencing some weird delays last night so this show was a bit off because of that. It wasn't THAT horrible but it was definitely noticeable.

This week I was joined by my fellow Staff Writers Ryan Meitzler and Jorge Jimenez. Many thanks to @elblanconino for our custom intro and outro.

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