Podcast – 101 Video Games That Made My Life Slightly Better

It’s here! It’s here! The long-awaited sequel to 101 Video Games! Well, almost. Next week our new series of podcasts begins – 101 Films You Should Have Seen (Probably). To whet your appetite we have a short introduction to the podcasts: a trailer if you will. As you’ll have guessed from the new title, we’ve followed in the footsteps of Street Fighter, Resident Evil, House of the Dead and Super Mario Brothers and turned from video games to films. And if our conversion is as half as successful as some of those films, then boy you’re in for a treat!

So join us on our new journey every Thursday. We’ll try to get through it a bit quicker and a bit more regularly than the last one – head to http://101films.wordpress.com on Thursday 13th October to listen to the first in our next illustrious series of 101.

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Podcast 25: 101 Films Intro

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Ian and Lewis: The Boys Are Back.

Ta ta for now.

Ian & Lewis

In part 2 of our round up of the games that didn’t quite make it, Lewis questions why on earth he didn’t write anything about these frankly brilliant games:

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Podcast 24 Games That Didn’t Quite Make It Part 2 – Lewis

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Although seeing as this is the last podcast, if you’re only just subscribing now you’re a little bit late to the game. Ho hum.

There are a few games we talked about that deserve a bit of a special mention, as they came within a gnat’s hair of making it into the magic 101. Here’s a video of the stunning (for the time) Hunter in motion. Long before GTAIII, Amiga owners were stealing power boats and hijacking tanks in 3D:

Then, of course, there’s Rez: it came so close but in the end it didn’t quite make the list, mostly because Lewis couldn’t think of anything worthwhile to add to the mountains of fawning praise that have already been heaped at its door. However, if you’ve never played it, click the video below to see what all the fuss is about. And make sure you have the sound turned up.

Global Gladiators is probably one of the more obscure games on the list, and the cynical McDonald’s advertising that runs all the way through the game is a little hard to stomach at times, but it’s an undeniably brilliant platformer with some superb animation.

Finally, Point Blank was an absolutely wonderful light gun game that unfortunately Ian doesn’t seem to remember. Hopefully the video below will jog his memory:

And that’s that. The end of 101 Video Games That Made My Life Slightly Better. It’s a sad day in many ways, but we’ve really enjoyed writing the blog over the past couple of years, and we hope you’ve enjoyed reading it too. Thanks for listening to our ramblings and reading our musings, and special thanks to everyone who’s left a comment. (Unless it was a negative comment, in which case don’t bother next time.)

We’ll be back in the summer with a new (non-games-related) project, but right now it’s time to climb back into our big Morecombe & Wise-style comedy bed and turn the light off on 101 Video Games.

Goodnight all.

Lewis & Ian

We know, we know. Surely Post 101 was the end of this thing? Well it was. Kind of. But we couldn’t finish without having a not-so-quick look at the games that didn’t quite make the magic 101. The games that made an impression, that were loved, that were remembered, but lacked that special something.

The next post and podcast will feature Lewis’s games that for some reason weren’t quite up to scratch. In this post though we will be looking at Ian’s selection. Games that due to the pressure of time he never got round to writing about. And by pressure of time we of course mean laziness.

Just to warn you this is a long podcast, but it feels fitting to give these games that time. C’mon, you owe this random collection of old games at least that!

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Podcast 23 Games That Didn’t Quite Make It Part 1 – Ian

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Ian & Lewis

Format: Dreamcast Genre: Racing, Arcade, Sandbox Released: 1999 Developer: Hitmaker

Here at 101 Video Game Towers we often enjoy games that somehow turn mundane activities into fun adventures. Yes, you may have a good time being a space fighter pilot, or the heroic saviour of a post apocalyptic wasteland, or even a low-level gangster in the 1980s clubbing someone round the head with a baseball bat, but it can also be just as satisfying walking a dog, fishing or running a railway business.

Despite this fine pedigree there must have been some consternation when, during a meeting at Hitmaker HQ, the Big Boss pointed with his fat cigar at a lowly, nervous looking  programmer and demanded he make a game that recreates the thrills and spills of driving a taxi.

The advertising was very subtle.

Still, they don’t call Hitmaker ‘Hitmaker’ for nothing. They know how to make hits. In case you haven’t noticed it’s literally their name. Hitmaker… a maker of hits. If they didn’t know how to make hits their name would look stupid and boastful. Which it certainly isn’t. Though they did change it a couple of years ago to Sega AM3 which suggests they tired of putting so much pressure on themselves and instead became extremely early risers.

Anyway, all it took to turn mini-cabbing into a successful game was to add a bit of *pause* ‘Crazy’ (raise eyebrow when reading the word ‘Crazy’).

A taxi flying into the air? How crazy.

Welcome to the 22nd 101 Video Games Podcast! Listen as Ian and Lewis discuss Crazy Taxi on the Dreamcast, the disappearance of Tower Records, how pretty much anyone can’t help but like Offspring while playing this game even if they don’t usually, what a British version of the game would be like and once again reminisce about wasting time at university.

So, as someone with some kind of throat problem once said, ‘Hey, Hey, Hey its time for Crazy Taxi!’

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Podcast 22 Crazy Taxi

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In many ways Gena is Ian's perfect woman - beautiful, cool and, most importantly, she can drive.

Ian & Lewis

Format: Xbox 360 Genre: Action Role-Playing Released: 2008 Developer: Bethesda Game Studios

So, Fallout 3. It’s buggy. Occasionally awkward to control. The in-game characters sometimes know stuff they shouldn’t and/or the conversations get stuck in odd loops. It is also fantastic.

Fallout 3

2008 was not a great year for Ian. All sorts of horrible things happened and his life took a very different direction to where he thought it was going. Come November he found himself single and living with his Mum. The best laid plans of mice and men eh? Ian’s personal misfortune coincided with a global misfortune, as the economy went belly-up. Basically to Ian circa November 2008 everything seemed f*****d.

So what did he do? Ian sulked for a bit, then went out and bought an Xbox 360 and Fallout 3.

Now let’s just stop a moment and think about this. Ian’s not happy. Banks are going under. The Russians are showing off in Georgia. Global Warming. The possibility, however slight, that McCain and Palin might actually win… The sense (and admittedly that sense is still kind of around today) that the world was falling apart, that we are, in best Daily Mail tradition, going to hell in a hand cart. And what does Ian buy? A game which depicts a horrific, post apocalyptic waste land. Where the inhabitants live hand to mouth, struggling with radiation, marauding gangs, mutants and monsters.

Take that mutant!

It was just the tonic! Ian plays the game as a virtual saint, becoming a hero to the people of the Wasteland.

Fast forward to Christmas 2010. Lewis receives Fallout 3 from the kindly old soak that Ian has become. Lewis is newly promoted, happily living with the love of his life in his own flat (bought that year) in a trendy-but-not-to-trendy-but-still-nice bit of London. Lewis is happy and comfortable. He plays the game as a ruthless evildoer, enslaving, murdering and looting as he goes.

There’s an important lesson there. Do write in if you work out what that lesson is.

Lewis's trusty companion Sergeant RL-3 - never leave home without one. His 'lively' phrases have a knack of sticking in the memory, such as: "Do that again and I'll put my boot so far up your ass you'll cough up boot polish!"

It’s the 21st 101 Video Games That Made My Life Slightly Better Podcast! In this one we discuss Fallout 3. For ages. Seriously, it’s about 45 minutes long. Sorry about that.

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Podcast 21 – Fallout 3 (Post #99)

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We’ll leave you with something that goody-two-shoes Ian never got to see – the stirring sight of Megaton being annihilated…

Ian and Lewis

Welcome, wanderers of the SuperInformationCanalPath, to the Podcast of Champions: an entire 26 minutes (count ’em!) dedicated to the MIGHTY BEINGS of Amiga Power (and other, lesser gaming magazines).

It's Doom... but on the Amiga.

Pay attention as we DISSEMINATE ESSENTIAL INFORMATION about Stuart N Hardy, the Amstrad CPC464k (NOT the Amstrad CPC6128k), Bob The Hamster, Office Joust, Doom… but on the Amiga, “Orwellian dandies” and AP’s dreadful, hateful magazine rivals: we’re looking at you, (“Michael Jackson” – Ed).

Despite receiving some devastating feedback from a certain anonymous, whining, childish hatemonger, and despite Ian’s repeated attempts to torpedo the conversation, we struggle through to produce the finest podcast the world has ever seen. With hilarious consequences.

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Podcast 20 Amiga Power

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And if this podcast has whet your appetite for more Amiga Power shenanigans, we recommend you hasten forthwith to AP2 (it’s Amiga Power – but on the computer) and Stuart Campbell’s forum for the chastising of useless, cretinous morons, World Of Stuart.

Ian lines up another laser-guided conversation torpedo, yesterday.

Lastly, here’s a video of Bob The Hamster*. BYE-BYE BOB. YOU WERE A GIRL HAMSTER.

*Not the actual Bob The Hamster. Natch.

Lewis & Ian

(Cover image from Amiga Magazine Rack)

Format: Playstation Genre: Survival Horror Released: 1998 Developer: Capcom

It’s been quite a journey for this podcast. Way back in early 2008, right at the very beginning of the blog, Ian decided he was going to write a post about a Resident Evil game. Problem was he couldn’t decide which one. Do you go with the original? Or Resident Evil 2, the game of the series he probably played the most? What about Resident Evil 4? Arguably the best of the series… Although saying that Resident Evil 3 has its moments as well.

Welcome to Raccoon City!

So rather than make a decision Ian did what he has done so many times with this blog. He didn’t bother. Flash forward to early 2011 and there are less than 10 posts left to do. Time is running out so he knuckles down and chooses Resident Evil 2. Ian finds it difficult to write though. What’s his ‘hook’? Can he restrict himself to just talking about Resident Evil 2? What can he say that’s not been said a thousand times before? So, again, he doesn’t bother starting. Eventually Lewis suggests ‘Let’s just do it as a podcast’.

I don't care what people say, anything called 'Licker' must be friendly.

So welcome to the 19th 101 Video Games That Made My Life Slightly Better podcast. A testament to Ian’s laziness and Lewis’s limitless patience. Enjoy!

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Podcast 19 Resident Evil 2

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Oh, and before we go here’s a clip from ‘Spaced’. Other than the cheap speed and the fact the bean bag was green not blue, this is pretty much Ian at University.

Ian & Lewis

Another year, another 101 Video Games That Made My Life Slightly Better Christmas Special Podcast. During the last Christmas Special Ian made the bold claim that it would be the only Christmas Special, as we would have finished the blog by the end of 2010.

He was proved wrong.

So join us in what will almost definitely be the last ever 101 Video Games Christmas Special Podcast. Yeah, almost certainly the last. Probably.

And a Merry Christmas to all our listeners at home!

The podcast is even more ramble-y than normal, with a very tenuous link to Christmas and games for long stretches, so apologies in advance. Not only that but both Lewis and Ian are full of cold, so only listen if you’ve had your flu jab. They talk about Christmas Present and Future, Lewis’s 1000 page book, VAT, Lewis’s Mum’s coding, the surprise success of Xbox’s Kinect and the march of time. They also exchange presents!

What we'll all be doing on Christmas day in about three years.

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Podcast 18 Christmas Special 2010

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Ian & Lewis

Format: Xbox 360 Genre: Third-Person Shooter Released: 2009 Developer: Terminal Reality

(SCENE: The Ghostbusters are facing Gozer. He/She/It speaks to them in a voice that can be heard throughout Metropolitan New York and parts of New Jersey).

GOZER: SUBCREATURES! GOZER THE GOZERIAN, GOZER THE DESTRUCTOR, VOLGUUS ZILDROHAR, THE TRAVELLER HAS COME. CHOOSE AND PERISH.

WINSTON: What’s he talking about? Choose what?

STANTZ: What do you mean “choose?” We don’t understand.

GOZER: CHOOSE!

SPENGLER: I think he’s saying that since we’re about to be sacrificed anyway, we get to choose the form we want him to take.

STANTZ: You mean if I stand here and concentrate on the image of Roberto Clemente, Gozer will appear as Roberto Clemente and wipe us out?

SPENGLER: That appears to be the case.

VENKMAN: Don’t think of anything yet. Clear your minds. We only get one crack at this.

GOZER: The choice is made. The Travellers have come.

VENKMAN: We didn’t choose anything! I didn’t think of an image, did you?

STANTZ: I couldn’t help it! It just popped in there! Look!

(Looking south past Columbus Circle, the Ghostbusters see part of something big and

VENKMAN: What is it? Ray, what did you think of?

(Two massive shapes pass behind some buildings, offering a glimpse of what appears to be a giant t-shirt with some kind of retro/ironic design on the front).

STANTZ: It can’t be! It can’t be!

(The thundering footsteps continue to plod as the things start to emerge from behind the buildings. Now we can see a giant hand holding a cheap microphone, another hand holding an enormous can of beer).

STANTZ: I tried to think of the most harmless thing… something that is completely pointless… something that most people have never heard of…

(At that moment a deafening laughter emerges from the monsters mouths, they seem to find their own jokes very amusing. No one else is laughing).

STANZ: It’s… It’s… It’s the 101 Video Games That Made My Life Slightly Better Podcast!

(Winston, Venkman and Spengler gape).

As a kid I had the Stay Puff action figure. It was the same size as the other figures which made it extremely disappointing.

It’s the 101 Video Games That Made My Life Slightly Better Podcast! This time, if you haven’t already worked it out, we take a look at the extremely fun Ghostbusters Videogame. Enjoy!

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Podcast 17 – Ghostbusters The Video Game

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Oh, and if you like Ghostbusters, don’t forget to check out the original 1950s film:

Ian & Lewis

Welcome to the 1st BEST EVER CONSOLE FINAL! I think we would all agree it’s a been one hell of a journey. Over the weeks we’ve seen Japanese women slapping each other, Big Daddy, Miss World Competitions, the image of Lewis in a red bikini, a picture of Shigeru Miyamoto with a turnip for a head and our first swears. There’s been some laughs… and some tears. Finally we reach the, er, final.

So fans (cough), enjoy this slightly poor sound quality podcast. Who will win? There’s only one way to find out, listen! Or just ask one of us. Whatever.

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Podcast 16 – Best Ever Console Final

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Here’s the way things look at the Final stage:

Ian & Lewis