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EAR Episode 96: “Cripple Smash”

For starters, we’d like to apologize for the technical glitches we had during this episode. At one point during the interview with Steve Demeter, the stream just stopped. It was revived, but then Steve let loose one of those words the FCC deems inappropriate and so another skip of audio happens. We apologize for both and to Steve himself. We’ll be having him back on the show soon though, so no worries.

As mentioned before, on this episode of Evil Avatar Radio, we speak with Steve Demeter about the other projects he’s worked on and his current gem, Trism, for the iPhone & iPod Touch. And if you want to talk indie game development, it probably doesn’t get any more independent than with Steve.

Also, it’s a Red Letter episode early on when Phil “Kefkataran” Kollar calls into the show to announce his new position at 1UP. We at Evil Avatar Radio wouldn’t be bringing you this if it wasn’t for Phil. We owe him a lot and are happy to see him moving up in the industry of video games journalism. All of us know that this guy is going to be doing some great things and we’re honored he chose Evil Avatar Radio to announce the news. Thank you, Phil, from all of us.

After the dog and pony show, we take the conversation off the air and talk of a number of things. James/fishbang contemplates his anger management along with his intentions of building a new PC gaming rig, we discuss a few plans for the 100th episode of EvAvRadio, our plans for the first EAR Video GameCast, and announce a special in-studio guest for next week.

Meanwhile I try to go for the longest show description written for EvAvRadio.

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Episodes Interviews

EAR Episode 95: “Robotology”

The title comes from our friends at Metanet Software, Mare Sheppard & Raigan Burns, developers of the XBLA game N+. It’s actually the title of their next game they are currently working on. But that’s not all they tell us in this episode of Evil Avatar Radio. From them we find out a little about what it takes to bring an already existing game over to Microsoft’s console, the good and the bad. They comment on the recent rumors of royalty cuts, a few regrets in the process, their inspirations, and 2 of their current favorite games, both of which I personally love them for (Burnout Paradise & Pac-Man CE).

We also give some time going over the releases for this week as well as covering what we can of a few announcements from GDC including Champions Online, APB, and a few XNA titles (fishbang loves planting flowers).

After the show, we give more time to the new Aliens game announced, talk a bit about Portal, PAX (of course), and give our accounts of the recent tornado a few of us went through last week.

Meanwhile I try to figure out how many links I can shove into one post.

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Episodes Interviews

EAR Episode 94: “No DRM”

That’s a beautiful title, isn’t it? And it comes directly from the lips of Blair & Craig Fraser of Ironclad Games, developers of the PC title “Sins Of A Solar Empire” – which itself is a pretty good title as well. In fact, if you are curious as to how the guys at Ironclad came up with the title then all you need to do is listen to this episode of Evil Avatar Radio.

It was pretty refreshing to speak to these guys. With most developers, their answers to questions are hidden behind, and filtered through, a PR wall, never getting the chance to get their opinion least it be the opinion of the publishing company or parent. It really is something when you hear one of the Fraser brothers say, “We don’t like to treat our customers like criminals.” Spread the word, these guys are awesome.

Not so awesome, however, are our feelings on the city we broadcast the show from, as evidence by this week’s extra content. Forgive us for a moment as we bitch and moan for a bit. It doesn’t last long as we’re brought right back into a discussion we had on last week’s show – PAX and marriage plans.

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Episodes

Evil Avatar Radio: The No Show

Trying to come up with something to say about this show has been difficult. Even finding a name within the episode, as we normally do, has been a challenge. The thing is, this episode that almost never was is so all over the place that I just can’t pinpoint any one thing. Hell, we open the show by talking about the Sarah Conner Chronicles, then the Super Bowl, Sins Of A Solar Empire, PAX, marriage plans (that’s a show, and apparently a thread, in and of itself), and tons of other things. It’s Jeremy, Hawggy, and myself on this one along with a TON of help from the folks in the chatroom.

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Episodes Interviews

EAR Episode 92: “Fireworks In Your Eyeball”

“Life, for ever dying to be born afresh, for ever young and eager, will presently stand upon this earth as upon a footstool, and stretch out its realm amidst the stars.”

– H. G. Wells, 1920

This episode of Evil Avatar Radio is a special one for us and we hope for you as well. Now, it’s one thing to have both BAPenguin and Kefkataran on at the same time. It’s one thing to talk about a new game from Team Ico. But to have all of that and then top it all off with talking to astronaut Charlie Duke – well, you’d think it was our 100th episode or something.

None of us on the show can really express what it was like to talk with Mr. Duke or even have him on the show. It is an experience not a single one of us will ever forget. He tell us of his experience with NASA and his time spent on the moon as well as traveling to it plus his return to Earth. What is it like to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere? What’s it like to stand within such a magnificent desolation? To see the dark side of the moon and to witness an Earth-rise. Charlie Duke tells us of those things along with many others (cosmic rays penetrating the eyeballs, anyone?).

So, how do you follow someone who’s walked on the moon? You don’t really. We attempt to, however, in the after show
by talking of the recent Mass Effect “brouhaha”, along with a note about next week’s episode, followed by an explanation of the questions chosen to ask Mr. Duke.

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Episodes Interviews

EAR Episode 91: “The 30 Second Delay”

We’ve done our best in this episode to elevate things to the level of spectacle, as evidenced by the addition of our high-tech supercam for the broadcasting of in-studio hijinks. We hope you enjoyed it. We worked awfully hard to make ourselves presentable for live video. It’s a shame we failed.

As for the show itself, we apologize for the absence of Philip “NoShow” Kollar, but he must not like us nearly as much as he lets on. Regardless, we welcome anyone who wandered by for Kef, but chose to stay for us.

And do yourself a favor by sticking around for the aftershow. Special guest voice Porkfry stops by to swap howdies and to pin fishbang down on some of his bullshit.

Our apologies for the audio quality during Porkfry’s visit. No need to go into detail about the problem, but we have since figured it out and assure you it won’t happen again.

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Episodes Interviews

EAR Episode 90: “I’m The White Godzilla”

If you’ve ever read on the internet about a good deal on a video game, chances are that tidbit of information originated at CheapAssGamer. Personally I’ve saved quite a bit of cash and frequent the site daily looking for game deals. And CheapyD, the cheapest ass of the cheap ass’ers, stops by on this episode of Evil Avatar Radio (and he’s also joined by Wombat). He tells us of the beginnings of CheapAssGamer, his move to Japan, being a gamer and a father, the Circuit City Saga, and the deliciousness of the “Mega Mac”.

Also in this episode we talk more of our experience with Mass Effect, the wonderful bullet points of Resistance 2, how NOT to let Condemned scare you, the week’s releases, and just a tiny bit on Cloverfield. Plus we hear from Sl1pstream who calls in all the way from Belgium to tell us a bit about “The Club” demo and his possible plans for PAX’08.

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Episodes

EAR Episode 89: “It’s Fisher Price: The UI”

We were away for a while, but no more. We’re back on the air talking about what we did over the long holiday and thanks to the lovely voices of BAPenguin, and TrackZero, the last half hour wasn’t a total wash as we talked about Kane & Lynch (better than you might think), CES, Rock Band, and home theaters.

Not only that, but after the show we have a longer discussion than should be had on the topic of hamburgers. Then fishbang (the real one, not that fake guy on PSN) goes on to talk about his thoughts on Mass Effect and his response to TrackZero on how Burning Crusade can be considered as a Game Of The Year contender. It’s also where the title comes from, in case you’re curious.

It’s all in the first episode of the year of Evil Avatar Radio! Enjoy.

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Episodes

EAR Episode 88: “Evil Avatar Radio’s Christmas Vacation”

Season’s Greetings from all of us at Evil Avatar Radio. This week on the show we try to cover what little news there has been. James tell us of his adventure in the land of PS3 (apparently “fishbang” isn’t as unique a name as James thought), we cover what little we saw of the Duke Nukem teaser, and Crackdown and it’s lack of appearing on anyone’s “Year’s Best” list (except ours).

It’s a shorter episode than usual and it’s all wrapped up in the end with a big red bow of your Holiday Greetings to other members of Evil Avatar.

Also of note is that Evil Avatar Radio is now available on the Zune Marketplace.

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Episodes Interviews

EAR Episode 87: “In Case Of Fuck, Break Glass”

The Fruit Fucker strikes again! And does so during one hell of an episode of Evil Avatar Radio. The little bastard struck during our interview with Kristin Lindsay from Penny Arcade while talking to her about Child’s Play. The conversation stops quite abruptly and then a technical glitch happens to our microphones. It’s a little annoying, but it doesn’t last the rest of the show. Sorry about that, folks.

While this isn’t our Christmas show, it might as well have been for everything that took place. Hell, within the first 30 minutes 2 people on the show announce their engagement, and another gets a PS3. Not only that but Kristin tells us about some of the really cool things that were a part of the silent auction at the Child’s Play charity dinner, and then we get Rick Roll’d, live on the air. And no, I’m not linking that.

Once we’re off the air, we Rick Roll ourselves for a bit and then look to you for suggestions of a year end wrap-up. We’re making lists, and we could use your ideas on what kind of categories we should have. Got any? Email us.

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Episodes

EAR Episode 86: “I Eat Better Than You”

While it may have been a thin week for news, it doesn’t stop us from filling in two hours of information (even if that does include our…eating habits, as it were). We answered your emails and talked about Blizzavision, GTA4, the games we played over the weekend and the game(s) we have to look forward to from the week ahead (Burnout Paradise demo FTW).

On the subject of the show that follows the show, or extra content consists of an in-depth talk about what it means when you mix something like MTV and cable TV with something like the video game industry. And we don’t even mention G4.

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Episodes Interviews

EAR Episode 85: “The One With Xbox Live’s Major Nelson”

It won’t take you long to realize what you are listening to during the opening of tonight’s show. It’s Jeff Gerstmann’s video review of Kane & Lynch. But it’s really not about the game as it is about the reviewer and the future of his former employer. With that, we jump right into the show and from there we go on to talk about our feelings on the situation and how a place can recover after this sort of thing. Even Larry Hryb, Xbox Live’s Major Nelson, chimes in with his thoughts on the situation. He also answers, as best he can, your questions…even the Tootsie Pop and Klondike ones.

That voice you hear after the show belongs to Hawggy. You’ve most likely seen him in the chat room on show nights or possibly played with him some in CoD4. He’s the reason you hear this show at all after we broadcast live. Thanks Kevin.

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Episodes

EAR Episode 84: “The MotherBAP”

Most of the time we come here and write about the show and what took place during the broadcast. But there is very little you need to know concerning this episode with the exception of 3 things:

1. A Nightelf Mohawk

2. Child’s Play

3. Evil Avatar Child’s Play Charity Drive

Sure, the show had other moments within it. We spoke of playing Rock Band and our time spent with Assassin’s Creed and Mass Effect, but seriously, you only really need to direct your attention to Child’s Play. We’re well on our way to becoming a Gold sponsor and having our logo sitting amongst names like Valve & Microsoft. Achievement unlocked, indeed.

Now maybe you are thinking you heard the show live and all of this is repetitive to you, but it isn’t. There’s new content for you to enjoy. Talk of Deus Ex 3 and Warren Spectre, working for a game store, and game collecting all collide to wrap up Episode 84 of Evil Avatar Radio.

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Episodes Interviews

EAR Episode 83: “This Is The Easiest Interview Ever”

Are you enjoying that Evil Avatar Gamerpic? We are too. And while we do go over some of the bigger news stories of the week, there was no doubt among us that the biggest of news stories this week was not the announcement of a Ghostbusters game, nor the release of Mass Effect – it was, in fact, the Evil Eye to display on our gamercard.

That wasn’t all we talked about though. We talked about our experiences with the new releases of last week. Assassin’s Creed was more than we’d hoped for, Super Mario Galaxy is everything we hoped it would be, and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is the best we’ve seen (and hoped for) on the PS3.

Speaking of Uncharted, we spoke with two guys from Naughty Dog. Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann join us to hear your praise of their game and answer your questions as well.

Finally, we end the show with…even more show. Come on, you didn’t think we’d go without mentioning COD4, did you?

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Episodes Interviews

EAR Episode 82: “Well Then You Should Go Hire John Williams Goddammit!”

The title of this episode is a line that, originally in the broadcast that aired, was dumped. However, due to having the interview with Jesper Kyd (composer of the Hitman series, Freedom Fighters, Kane & Lynch, and Assassin’s Creed) pre-recorded, the line is now back for the podcast. It may seem strange to hear us react as though we dumped it, but well, now you know. And knowing, as they say, is half the something or another. Along with the interview, we also cover the releases of the week (yeah, there’s a lot), COD4, Kane & Lynch (of which T-Shirts were given away), and you’ll witness first hand fishbang’s ability to read reviews of Assassin’s Creed before they are even published and without having played the game itself.