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15 Minutes of Fame: e-sportscaster tracks WoW tournies Part 2
WoW as an e-sport currently is actually pretty awful. Two, for example, are the Electronic Sports League (ESL) who have a world wide tournament, the finals being in March 2009, and Major League Gaming, a console-centric league who expanded to PC earlier this year with WoW. There are not a lot of amateur tournaments out there for WoW.
15 Minutes of Fame: e-sportscaster tracks WoW tournies
15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about. First off, let's establish this for the record: yes, there are people out there who play World of Warcraft professionally. There are pro teams, well known player personalities and an entire tournament scene. And behind it all, there are podcasters – "e-casters" – reporting on every twist and turn.Meet JP McDaniel, a 22-year-old college journalism major and podcaster for ArenaCast. JP has combined the game he loves with school and work in what he hopes will be a springboard to a print journalism career in gaming. He's managed to roll his main up to 80 in the midst of podcasting, news updates, tournament travel and his studies. We talked with JP about his road into e-casting and his perspectives on where e-sports -- and competitive WoW, in particular -- are heading.
1UP goes for two-fer, hints that Shane Kim is leaving MS
Last week, Shane Bettenhausen caused an internet uproar, an e-debacle if you will, when he hinted that an anticipated Microsoft first-party title would soon be canceled. The title turned out to be Marvel Universe Online, and while it hasn't been officially canceled, it sounds like production is at a standstill. The second, less sexy part of the rumor: A top Microsoft exec is on the way out. The 1UP team tossed out another hint about the possibly-soon-to-be-departed on this week's episode of the 1UP Yours podcast.Towards the end of the show while the topic was being discussed, host Garnett Lee asked guest host N'Gai Croal, "Do you watch any Nickelodeon like Something Possible?". If you're not as adept with afternoon TV trivia as we are, allow us to drop some knowledge: He's talking about Kim Possible. And that points squarely at Microsoft Games Studios boss Shane Kim. We have no substantiation for the rumor save for 1UP's own credibility, but that's nothing to sneeze at. We'll keep you posted.
Banjo-Kazooie not cancelled ... so what is?
On a recent episode of the 1UP Yours podcast, EGM's Shane Bettenhausen shared the rumor that "a big Microsoft first-party title that has been in the works for a very long time, that people are very excited for, sounds like it's being canceled." That had a lot of people turning their eyes towards a new Banjo Kazooie game, which, though announced sometime in the Nixon administration has been receiving zero buzz. Now Rare has come out to confirm that, if a Microsoft title is due for the chopping block, it's not Banjo Kazooie. So that has us wondering: Was Bettenhausen off the mark? Or is there another long-in-the-works title we're just not thinking of?
1UP's Shane: DualShock 3 is "confirmed"
A listen to the latest episode of the 1UP Yours podcast reveals that the rumbling DualShock 3 is "confirmed," at least according to 1UP's lead Sony fanboy, Shane. He says that TGS will ultimately reveal the long-awaited rumbling controllers and the now-legendary 2.0 firmware, which will magically allow you to run many XMB tools from within a game. We're sure Sony's going to playing hardball at TGS, and you'll probably want to tune into our continuing coverage of the event, starting this Wednesday. [Thanks to everyone that sent this in!]
PAX 07: 1UP Yours podcast still John's
As the special live PAX edition of the 1UP Yours podcast kicked off in front of a densely-packed crowd (hence the distance and over-some-guy's-shoulderness of the picture), the team (including Special Guest Luke Smith, for the classic 1UP Yours lineup) made an announcement that should be comforting for fans of the show. John Davison may be leaving the 1UP Network, but he won't be leaving the his most publicly visible task as a member of the team: the podcast. After he makes the big move (he says his new office is "a block away"), he'll continue to appear as normal on the 1UP Yours podcast. Bless his commitment to giving people things to listen to idly during work.Tonight's podcast isn't online yet, obviously, but look for it within a few days.
Podcast Rodeo for May 20: Ear's Johnny
This week at the P-Cast Ranch, game audio had to compete for ear time with the release of a new They Might Be Giants album. Was it tough to find the time? You bet. Was it worth it to help our beloved readers out? Yes, yes, 1,000 times, yes.Downloadable Content: As many of you have pointed out, the Penny Arcade guys have taken much more regular breaks from earning mad coin to record their podcast. Here, Gabe does battle with V.Smile and (as near as we can tell) is defeated.
Major Nelson co-host burns Epic in 'free' debate
Those of you who regularly listen to the podcast for Xbox Live's Major Nelson may have noticed your clicking finger heating up as you moused over the "Download" link this week, probably because the Major's co-host "e" used the show to totally burn (In l33t parlance: own) Epic. It's either that, or you were having a stroke. Let's hope it was the totally sick burn.The burn-a-thon started last month with Epic's Tim Sweeney's complaint on 1UP Yours that they wanted to give their new Gears of War maps away, but Microsoft was forcing them to charge. On this week's cast, the Major's fellow Xbox Live staffer e retorted: "I do find this amusing though; a lot of people may not remember this but a year ago Epic was bragging about how they cost us one billion dollars." OMG! Burn!
Luke Smith leaves 1UP to be Master Chief's poolboy
No, we don't actually know that 1UP's news editor will be fishing leaves out of the pool at the Spartan's summer home. But we do know, thanks to the most recent 1UP Yours podcast, that Smith, who has wasted no opportunity to express his love for Halo, will soon leave the world of gaming journalism for an unannounced position at Bungie. Smith did hint that he would still be in front of a mic at his new job, and Bungie's Frankie said in recent update that something was in the works that "might make the next official Bungie podcast that much better," so we probably have a pretty good idea of what he'll be doing. Smith's path may remind readers of that of Che Chou, who left his job as 1UP's managing editor for community management at Microsoft Game Studios or former Gamespot chief Greg Kasavin who left the site to work as an associate producer for EA.
RSS this!
Every week PSP Fanboy brings you a great new podcast that you can use your PSP's RSS feature to subscribe to. We like to call it RSS this! This week's spotlight is one that many gamers probably already subscribe to, but that doesn't make it any less worthy of praise. 1up Yours is 1up.com 's premiere weekly podcast. A typical episode can consist of developer interviews, rumors, news, community features and general conversation about games. The cast usually consists of John Davison, Garnett Lee, Luke Smith and Shane Bettenhausen. One of the most listened to and respected video game podcast around, 1up Yours is a passionate, informative and humorous journey into what makes gaming great and what it needs to do better. When the podcasters aren't attacking their separate viewpoints on gaming, they mock their sexuality. The best part though is since everyone is so honest, you get to know them and even if you don't agree with them, they stay endearing. If you haven't yet heard 1up Yours and you want to add it to your PSP's RSS, just bring up this site with your PSP through our mobile version at m.pspfanboy.com and click on this link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/1up/podcast. Then you can exit your web browser and the show should be in your RSS channels. From there you can set a timer for auto-download of episodes or stream them so you don't take up memory stick space. Got something you have RSS'd and would like us to feature it? Just let us know in the comments, or let other readers know what you think of 1up Yours.
Us to 1UP: where's our PSP stuff?
The newest episode of The 1UP Show was supposed to have the "really awesome" PSP game that was mentioned in the last 1UP Yours podcast. So ... what happened? It appears that the Ziff Davis people are constantly taunting us, as the latest 1UP Yours podcast talks about more good PSP news. Shane elaborates more on EGM Rumor Mill's rumor about Square Enix's support on PSP: "This isn't the end of Square Enix's bizarre love affair with the PSP. There's more s**t coming. The 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy is not over and you'll be really surprised by some of the stuff you'll see later this year (emphasis added) ... You're not going to see a remake of Final Fantasy VII on PSP, but you will see some exciting, unexpected Final Fantasy games on PSP."To ease your fears, we're not getting Chocobo Adventure or Chocobo Racing. Shane explains: "There's specifically one PSP game that nobody could ever guess ever that will blow everybody away." Also, there's going to be a ton of ports heading our way as well: "There are some other remakes and ports that aren't Final Fantasy from Square Enix on PSP and DS."So ... what's your guess? The guess that nobody could ever guess? Mine is a new version of Ehrgeiz (oh yeah, I went there!).
"Really awesome" PSP game to be unveiled soon [Update 1]
The latest episode of the 1UP Yours podcast has editor Shane revealing that he's been playing a "really awesome" game. And surprise, surprise ... it's a PSP game. The only clue we have is that it's from the San Francisco Bay Area, which includes companies like: Factor 5 (Lair), Ubisoft, Digital Eclipse (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for Xbox 360), oh... and Sony Computer Entertainment of America.We'll find out for sure during The 1UP Show's premiere next week, but until then, let the speculation begin![Via IGN][Update 1: A tip from one of our readers leads us to the PSM Podcast. The critically acclaimed developers of Daxter, Ready At Dawn, are working on another game. This could be the "awesome" game that 1UP is referring to. Hopefully.]
Vice City Stories to be PSP exclusive
The latest episode of the 1UP Yours Podcast held an interesting revelation about the highly-anticipated Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. Some fans felt burned by Rockstar's decision to bring the beloved Liberty City Stories over to the PS2 in a direct port. Well, according to the podcast, an editor that had a chance to play the game found out that Vice City will not makes it way to the PS2. Why? Because the game's going to be completely optimized for the handheld, making it more difficult to do a straight port Considering how Liberty City sold 2.2 million copies worldwide, it doesn't seem like a bad decision at all. [Via IGN Boards]
