Happy Game Family Go!

Two and a half years in the making, this podcast becomes a travelogue of our gaming, and our lives. Dad played the entire Mass Effect trilogy, Dead Space 1 and 2, lots of different Calls of Duty, and paid for a number of MMOs without playing them. Noah built his own gaming PC, and became a part of the PC master race. We cover E3 2011, and really do a poor job of remembering what happened in E3 2012. As a family we get to attend the WiiU Experience, and then find ourselves not experiencing an actual WiiU. Oh and Vita came out. And Mom played WOW--as did Noah--and Sabrina and Dad enjoyed Resident Evil 6, so forget the haters. Sporadic Game Family!

The longest production schedule ever produces a podcast that becomes a travelogue of Our Gamin' throughout the summer. Catching up with 360 greats he has missed, Dad tackles Gears of War 1 and 2, while Noah goes late-night nuts with Steam shooters like Team Fortress 2 and Garry's Mod. Sabrina enjoys the latest Sims 3 expansion pack, Ambitions. We give a few E3 impressions waaaaay after the fact, too. Unbound by a set topic, a casual family WOW Pow-wow wanders all over the realms of Azeroth. Finally, Mom and Dad ponder some real-life as Dad accepts a new job.

This episode, succinct yet forever in the making, covers a whole lot of Our Gamin'! Dad and Son get to be current for once, describing their impressions of both Heavy Rain and God of War 3. Then Dad, Noah, Sabrina, and Hannah tackle the thorny topic of Backseat Gaming, having a spectator give you "help" on what to play and how to play it. Calving joins in with the others for another hysterical attempt at a Kid's Bedtime segment on the topic. The Family Wow Pow-wow finds the Backseat Gaming in Azeroth, and some more Our Gamin' celebrates our newest family platform, the X-Box 360!

Dad gives it the old college try, getting the kids to play some classic arcade and Atari games like Pinball, Tempest, Asteroids, and Outlaw. We then discuss the merits of buying games used versus buying them new, and dad teaches the kids about some of the tactics publishers are using to discourage the buying of used games. Then it's NEW Bedtime as the kids try the segment by themselves, with fun results. Mom and Dad talk about buying used during OLD Bedtime, and Dad runs through some news and thoughts about upcoming Old is New game projects like Goldeneye: Source and Microsoft Game Room.

Our exploration of scary games starts with Noah and his friend Calvin taking on the Half-Life series. Then Hannah, Sabrina, and Noah dive into deep, spoiler-filled discussions of Silent Hill 2, SH: Shattered Memories, and SH: Homecoming. Everyone gets a chance to weigh on on other recent scary conquests like Juon for the Wii and House of the Dead: Overkill, too. The family WOW Pow-wow covers anything scary in the MMORPG, and Mom and Dad talk about when horror games are best introduced to kids at Bedtime. Finally, Dad gripes about the trials of being a survival hour fan in the HD generation.

We start with Our Gamin', covering a bit more of Super Mario Bros. Wii, Dad's play with Legendary, Tank Battles, and Magic Ball… wait, Magic Orbz! Noah discusses Spiderman 3, plus iPhone games Angry Birds, Nova, and others, and everyone weighs in on our newest horror-title favorite, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. Then a light discussion of cheating in games gets heavier as it turns to the topic of cheating at GETTING games, game piracy. The family WOW Pow-wow hits on hacking and other questionable stuff, and Mom and Dad dive into the moral concepts of stealing, and relating them to kids, at Bedtime.

Our multiplayer-themed episode starts out with Sabrina exploring her surivial-horror co-op experiences with her friend Hannah. We follow it up Noah and Dana running through their various multiplayer game memories and opinions, at which point Dad goes off on a rant about how hard it is managing a multi-user gamer household across a variety of platforms like Steam, the Wii, and the PS3. Monica and Noah continue to school dana in the ways of the World of Warcraft in the Family WOW Pow-wow, with a full survery of The MMO component of the MMORPG. Finally, Mom and Dad discuss their co-op past during Bedtime.

Listen in as Dad and Noah let you eavesdrop on one of their Super Mario Bros. Wii sessions, and Sabrina, Dad, and Hannah go about their business after Garageband apparently freezes.

In our first episode we rough out the format of the Podcast, with an introduction by Dana (Dad) and Noah (Son) about their earliest memories of gaming. Next, Sabrina (Daughter) discusses her most recent experiences with the Sims and Survival Horror Games such as Obscure, with Josh (Nephew) joining in on some Resident Evil fun. Then, Aunt Sarah and Josh talk about the rise of Farmville on Facebook, and Friends: the One With All the Trivia. Dana and Noah cover their recent play, including Noah's new iPod Touch adventures with Jelly Car and Paper Toss: World Tour, the father-son co-op fun of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and the fun of Left 4 Dead 2, which sadly is not co-op in the same room. The Family WOW Pow-wow debuts with Monica (Mom), as does Bedtime, when Dana and Monica discuss the reasoning behind their permissive attitude with game ratings.