Enslaved: Odyssey to the West's Trip and Monkey are brought to life by a combination of sharp writing and top-notch performance capture techniques

Today’s episode is about the recent debate over how the Writer’s Guild of America chooses games to nominate for its annual awards — and what its justification is. Close your eyes, open your heart, and enjoy the smooth sounds of a few dudes sitting around a kitchen table talking into a Rock Band microphone for forty minutes.

Note: As it turns out, a five-year-old MacBook just isn’t cut out to record a podcast without putting some serious pressure on its old dual-core processor. We hope the fan noise won’t deter you from listening, and from here on out we’ll be recording on faster, quieter machines. For your health.

Intro: The Decemberists – “The Engine Driver,” from Picaresque
Outro: The Decemberists – “Rise to Me,” from The King is Dead

It’s been a long time, hasn’t it? The last podcast we recorded took place when Mass Effect 2 was still new. We certainly have a lot to catch up on.

We’ve used the last year to do some hard thinking about what worked and what didn’t with our first run of podcasts, and I think we’ve got some good stuff in store for you this time around.

For our second season, we’re going to be producing podcasts on a weekly basis that will be released every Monday morning. Our topics will vary depending on whatever we think is pertinent and interesting at the time, but our plan is to keep things shorter — think 30 to 45 minutes per episode. We’re also recording podcasts in-person this time around to help avoid problems like disjointed conversations and desynchronized audio stems.

This first episode has the three of us discussing preliminary information on the two major upcoming handheld game systems, Nintendo’s 3DS and Sony’s NGP. We assess what we know about pricing, features and market strategy and weigh the relative strengths and weaknesses of each in the rapidly evolving portable gaming marketplace. After all, you have to wonder what does a several-hundred dollar dedicated portable gaming system means in the age of Android and iOS.

Enjoy the new podcast, and please let us know what you think of the new format! If you’d rather not leave a comment, feel free to drop me an email (nick at siliconsasquatch dot com) instead. I really want to make this podcast as awesome as it possibly can be, and your input is invaluable.

Cheers!

- Nick

(Subscribe on iTunes!)

Intro music: The Black Keys – “Everlasting Light,” from Brothers
Outro music: Girls – “Laura,” from Album

We’ve got another podcast for you, and despite what the oh-so-clever title might suggest, it’s utterly devoid of references to The Doors. This latest podcast — our eighth so far — is so named because each participant on this recording has played Mass Effect 2 at least twice. And Aaron and Tyler, well…they’ve played it a lot more than that.

This one was recorded a couple of months back, but the discussion is hopefully just as relevant as ever. We’re hoping to jump-start things again over at Sasquatch HQ, so please stay tuned.

Well, would you look at that — another podcast! And this one’s blessedly much shorter than the previous, meaning you get plenty of on-topic discussion and analysis without having to meander through dozens of games and several months of backlogged news to cover.

This podcast picks up where the last one left off, with the gang discussing the myriad top-tier releases of the first quarter of 2010. A near-complete list of titles is available after the jump for your perusal.

As always, thanks for listening, and let us know what you think!

(P.S. Wanna receive our latest podcasts automatically? Subscribe with iTunes here!)

JANUARY
Bayonetta (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3) — Jan. 5th
Darksiders (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3) — Jan. 5th
Army of Two: The 40th Day (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3) — Jan. 12th
Dark Void (Xbox 360, PS3, PC?) — Jan. 12th
Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360, PC) — Jan. 26th
MAG (PS3) — Jan. 26th
No More Heroes 2 (Wii) — Jan. 28th

FEBRUARY
Star Trek: Online (PC) — Feb. 2nd
BioShock 2 (Xbox 360, PS3) — Feb. 9th
Dante’s Inferno (Xbox 360, PS3) — Feb. 9th
Red Steel 2 (Wii) — Feb. 16th
Lost Planet 2 (Xbox 360, PS3) — Feb. 23rd
Splinter Cell: Conviction (Xbox 360, PS3, PC?) — Feb. 23rd

MARCH
God of War III (PS3) — Mar. ??
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC) — Mar. 2nd
Final Fantasy XIII (Xbox 360 – 57 DVDs, PS3 – 1 BD-DVD) — Mar. 9th
Command & Conquer 4 (PC) — Mar. 16th
Just Cause 2 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC) — Mar. 23rd

APRIL
Red Dead Redemption (Xbox 360, PS3) — Apr. 27

MAY
Mafia II (Xbox 360, PS3, PC) — May ??

UNDETERMINED
Alan Wake
Dead Rising 2
Heavy Rain
Gran Turismo 5
Max Payne 3
Fable 3
Metroid: Other M
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
Crackdown 2
Alpha Protocol
Fallout: New Vegas
Crysis 2
Epic Mickey
Super Mario Galaxy 2

We were called back to life by the gods of Olympus to fight through a terrible side-scrolling action game "classic". Let death be quick and merciful.

Welcome back to the show, everyone! We’ve been absent for a couple months, but the whole gang is eager to start producing shows on a more regular basis.

Because we’ve been negligent in recording over such a critical period of time for major game releases, this episode features us playing catch-up on the infamous fourth quarter onslaught of top-tier blockbuster games — and it doesn’t even cover all the bases.

Initially, we’d planned on a show with three thirty-minute segments:

1. Reflections on the games of the past few months
2. A debrief on the controversies surrounding Modern Warfare 2 (“No Russian,” lack of dedicated server support on PC)
3. A look ahead at the major releases waiting in the first quarter of 2010

After more than two hours of discussion, we only made it through part two. That was when we decided it was best to call it a night and give people a chance to actually listen to this episode.

We’re hoping to get together and record the final portion of this discussion soon, but this hefty hunk of Sasquatch-y goodness ought to provide you plenty of entertainment and keep you warm at night. Let us know what you think, and thanks for listening!

In this episode, Aaron, Doug, Nick and Tyler discuss the sights, the sounds, and — unfortunately — the smells of the 2009 Penny Arcade Expo.

I’d like to apologize for the long delay between episodes. Ever since losing most of one of our stems on the third show, we’ve become wary of technical difficulties in podcasting. On this latest episode, however, there are a number of problems throughout. My microphone apparently didn’t fare too well in the bring-your-own-computer section at the Penny Arcade Expo this year, resulting in uneven recording levels. As if that wasn’t bad enough, our discussion grew very long-winded and wasn’t exactly up to the standards I set for myself when I set out to produce podcasts for Silicon Sasquatch.

It was only after a great deal of deliberation with the rest of the crew that I decided to post this episode, primarily for two reasons:

1. It’s better that we make our mistakes public and acknowledge that we’re learning from them, and
2. There’s actually some good discussion to be found within this episode

Thanks for listening, and please check back soon for a new — and much more digestible — episode.

This week’s podcast centers around Shadow Complex, one of the latest and most critically acclaimed games on Xbox Live Arcade. While most people will agree the game is a worthwhile trip down memory lane in the spirit of classics like Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, that isn’t the focus of our discussion. Instead, we’re taking a look at an opinion piece penned by Christian Nutt of Gamasutra, who responds to a debate that arose on popular video game forum NeoGAF over whether it’s reasonable to boycott a game for ethical reasons. From there, we discuss the reasoning behind boycotts and petitions that gamers engage in and the ramifications of their actions.

At just over 30 minutes, this is our most succint podcast — but I think it’s also safe to say it’s the most engaging episode we’ve produced so far.

Finally, I wanted to mention that this entry marks the 100th post on Silicon Sasquatch! On behalf of Aaron, Doug and myself, I just wanted to say we’re all deeply grateful to our fans (and critics) and we hope you’ve enjoyed the ride so far.

If you want to help us, just spread the word! Follow us on Twitter, subscribe to our RSS feed, or post a comment on an entry or two. We’re always grateful to hear from you.

We’re all familiar with the summer doldrums — the scorching heat, the long days and short nights, and the almost total lack of good games being released in stores. But was it always like this? And thanks to the digital distribution market, are things changing?

Site editors Nick and Aaron were joined by our number-one (and possibly only) fan Tyler for this discussion. Although the show weighs in at a mere 40ish minutes this time around, we did find ourselves sidetracked a few times. It just goes to show that if you get a few nerds together to talk, the discussion will invariably devolve into an argument over which Final Fantasy is the best.

Editor’s Note: It’s Final Fantasy VI.

We’re pleased to announce that the Silicon Sasquatch podcast (irksomely referred to around these parts as the SquatchCast) is now available for your downloading and subscribing pleasure through the iTunes Music Store. For a one-time price of nothing, every podcast we produce will download straight to your computer and mp3 player of choice.

In other podcast news: We’re set to record episode 2 tonight, and with any luck it’ll be posted sometime on Wednesday.

Please give it a listen and let us know what you think. We’d love to hear from some of you; for all we know, nobody else besides us ever reads the site, so even just a “hello” would work wonders for our self-esteem.

At long last, we’re ready to unveil the latest branch of the Silicon Sasquatch media empire: The Silicon Sasquatch Podcast! Or, as I’ve taken to calling it, the SquatchCast. Each episode seeks to address one major theme or issue related to video games. Our mission is to deliver a podcast that’s engaging, thought-provoking and entertaining.

What you shouldn’t expect from the podcast:

1. Everybody being drunk
2. Fart noises
3. Long, rambling discussions about what games everyone is playing

This week’s episode is titled The Day the Music Died: Has the rhythm game bubble finally burst? We discuss the future of big-name franchises like Guitar Hero and Rock Band and debate whether the writing’s on the wall or they’re just warming up.

We’re looking to deliver new episodes on a weekly basis, so be sure to subscribe with your RSS or podcast aggregator of your choice!

Download the first episode here!