The world of podcasting is a cruel and fickle one, but this morning we awoke to a pleasant surprise - finding our podcast listed on iTunes's Top 25 Gaming Podcasts for the US.
As you can see by the screenshot, there at #20, nestled in between
the 1Up Show, Major Nelson's Radio and the Hotspot is our own Top
Secret, looking slightly nervous and out of place. How iTunes
calculates those top podcasts is a bit of a mystery, and we know that
we will be off the Top 100 again in a few days, but all we know is
that this is the highest we've placed yet, and that means one thing: gloating gratitude!
Many thanks to Ben, Jon, Miguel, Andrew, Brandon, all of our many wonderful guests, and you, the listeners. We are, of course, not going to rest on our laurels (as we cannot afford laurels) - we have big plans for the podcast in future. But while we're on the subject, what do you, our loyalest of listeners, want to hear more of? More Bionic Commando? More info about our other wonderful Capcom products? More Gearoid (that one's a given)? More fiddlesticks? Any and all ideas for guests, topics and content welcome - it saves us from having to think of them ourselves!
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All the above, mates!
I want more "FORKS" (I eat with chopsticks). I want more info on the next gen "Big dude with a big metal bionic arm and big guns". I want humor and witty banter like all y'all have delivered at a regular pace. I know it may be difficult to obtain, but if Mike Patton sat in on the podcast, you would have an audience that you never knew existed in this particular idiom. (He has a LOT OF FANS that didn't buy ANY video games up until now because of his presence as a voice actor!) I would love some sort of a very vague idea of when I need to re-instate my xbox live membership for Rearmed. The only reason I bought one in the first place was for this particular title. At the same time though, the fact that I'm typing this makes me one of the very impatient folk that I can't stand. What can I say ? Y'all are getting a brain storm at 2:11 am Central time. Keep up the good fight. Rock on brothers!!!You damn fools!
I was listening to Ryan Payton's podcast on Snake's iPod while playing MGS4. Maybe you could talk about how something similar could be done with the communicator/wire-tapping device on BC. GTA4 has a virtual internet. All y'all (word to ty) probably could come up with something just as unique and clever.What I Want
I would like to hear more about Bionic commando Rearmed. I would also like to hear more about were all of you think PC gaming is headed now that the consoles are taking huge chuncks of the market. Will Capcom support PC gamers in the future or will the consols push the PC out of the gaming sceen?PJS
El Paso Texas
Big fan of Top Secret here and I keep telling people about it. I think what I'd like to hear on the podcast is about the graphics production. E.g. about the artists working on the game. It would be some pretty illuminating stuff.
Id also like to hear more about the bionic arm Ben has been asked to create and wear. It would be legendary! It would totally bitch slap Peter Moore's GTA 4 tattoo.
Huzzah!
Congratulations, Top Secret guys! Hope you get even more popular.Celebratory Question to Ben Judd: When can we expect to see Devil May Cry 2 Bowling on Xbox Live Arcade?
More Capcom....and other stuff, what else?
I finished listening to the new podcast only moments ago and was shocked to see I got another mention on the show...wow. I either strike a nerve, or I write stuff worth reading, I dunno. But I didn't see that coming.I don't want you guys thinking I'm a buzzkill, I just want you to watch out for yourselves is all, cause if all these games work out, and with the wealth of IP's that can be mined, if the opportunity arises, it leaves me wondering what could be next. (If I had a company to work for, I would work for Capcom too, they are a virtual institution of awesome games)
And I second Berghammer's comment on Igarishi, with my hope that BCR is a smash hit, so he wakes up and makes CV in that same manner. (For consoles that is, not just PSP)
Anyway on with your question.
More Capcom, as I stated. You guys mentioned a few games at Captivate '08, how's about more producers of other games at Capcom, maybe their thoughts on BC, their games, ect.
Old interview ideas (or interviews recorded) that were scrapped, like the BC team interview that was scrubbed at the last minute. You guys want to sell me on the game well get the people making it on here and tell me why I need to buy it. (other than the obvious of course) ;)
The announcement that Simon Viklund is doing all the music for the new BC game and all other Capcom products (if you can't tell I really dig his music) Pipe dream, I know, but hey a guy can dream...or dream big. (BCR2 or MM2:remake) Simon's a cool dude, make him the unofficial 5th (or 6th) member of the podcast crew.
The podcast overall this week was good, (I don't mind the ragging on Shane, he needs a reality check after some of his old EGM reviews) =P except the sound quality (which has been mentioned before) I found myself rewinding it in places 2-3 times because I couldn't hear what was said, and even then still couldn't make out what I missed. And with that the right balance of humor (I was laughing pretty good during the chat in Ben's room, what I could hear anyway) and you tell John he better watch it, otherwise we'll have to settle things with an old school video game showdown. Heh. ;)
Lessee, more Japanese game journalists, you know why not, you mentioned Famitsu was at Captivate, so what does the Japanese press think of practically anything (similar to the western journalists) I know you guys invited one to the multiplayer test of BCR but (to my knowledge)have never really interviewed any member of the Japanese press, only western press living in Japan.
I'd say more podcast x-overs, but who's left now? So take that or leave it. Bottom line from me on profanity, no problem with it being used in good fun, but not in a demeaning manner.
Congrats on the Top 25 gaming podcasts, you'll get to #1 yet, keep at it. Umm and more Gearroid and Ben on the road, sorry nothing else comes to mind, but that should be enough to keep you guys busy for awhile. =)
Steam FTW
I realize this is out of character for me but:I think you guys should use steam for both PC Bionic Commando games, they do a good job of preventing cheating also as much as I enjoy piracy...
For some reason steam games are impossible to pirate so ya I recommend steam since it's the biggest distributor and also it's extremely user friendly.
Although why am I even saying this?
Why does anyone ask questions when it's all been pre-determined for public information distribution?
I'm sure you've already decided to go with steam, because the game seems extremely balls to the wall developed from everything that has been released...
So I decided to just assume everything is in good hands and it's all going to be top of the line.
In-fact I have a theory that you guys are going to give bionic commando re-armed away for free. I mean some trash card game went up on x-box 360 for free and BAM more downloads than any other game of all time on their service.
It would be the most brilliant marketing scheme of all time, anyways I've been out of character for too long.....
-end
@Steam
Most likely we will try to get the 3D version of BC up there as well. But we'll see. Steam uses something called Securom which is the current "anti-pirate" coding that everyone is using these days.Don't worry... it's in both BCR already but not implemented in nearly as an annoying fashion as how it was with Bioshock.
Ben
Beyond Bionic Commando
I think you should take advantage of being an english speaking podcast in Japan and be the podcast for Japanese gaming. I honestly don't know how practical this would be considering you're CAPCOM and beyond them, it could be difficult but at a minimum, other CAPCOM products could be interesting.The inside info on BC and BCR is always great, especially to hear the progress, the internal excitement from the developers and you guys, and the fun (and not so exciting) times in the game development process, but what is the plans beyond those games? I think your doing a great job building something here, but when the games eventually come out, what's the future of the site and the podcast?
Other suggestions:
Guest - Other designers, for example, members of the Street Fighter 4 Team (it could be interesting to hear the overall perspective from another team taking on a retro game...) Perhaps members of the CAPCOM community site, Dare I say... Itagaki (Okay, I know, fat chance...)
Video - I'd kind of like to see video of the guys doing small segments (maybe no longer than 5 mins) showing the interesting things going on behind the scenes, interviews, game progress, japan, screwing around, etc...
I kind of like the idea someone had about putting "fiddlesticks" in game as an easter egg. Probably too late for BCR but BC? - what a cool inside joke...
Okay, enough for now, as always - great podcast and look forward to the next installment!
Jason
@Longlr713
Well, we probably couldn't be the Japanese games podcast because there are plenty of those and we would probably come off biased. Itagaki would never happen as a guest. I've put my feelers out and it just wouldn't happen. He's gone on record and slammed Capcom multiple times saying that Ninja Gaiden is a much better series than DMC so I don't think the company would appreciate it either.We have already had the Ace Attorney team, Zack and Wiki team, and Inafune himself so you've already heard from a lot of different Producers. We'll see about the SF4 guys but I would rather them stick to production for now.
As far as some inside podcast jokes... well, just try to beat BCR... you may find we slipped in a nice little Easter Egg already.
Ben
Rock on!
Ben,All in all, sounds exciting! Can't wait to play BCR now and see for myself and continue to look forward to the "big plans for the podcast in future"
Jason
Right on Longjr713!
I agree whole heartedly that a couple of little video quips from the podcasts would be hilarious. Listening to y'all talk is funny enough, but to see the debauchery in action has great potential for spraying beverages out the nose goodness.Running questions @Ben Judd
Here's a quick question since I have been watching the videos of bionic commando (3D version) and have been worried if it will run on my computer.The main bottle-neck of my computer is the processor which is a dual core 2ghz AMD 64 socket 939.
I was wondering if you are implementing programming that allows the game to run optimizing dual core performance using seperate threads for perhaps graphics and AI.
My computer can run Bioshock at full settings with only a hick-up once and a while. I realize that Bioshock is 100% pre-rendered because of the lack of flashlight.
Still the constant need for fast pace processing of graphics due to the swing mechanic frightens me. I have an nvidia 8800 gts graphic card and 2gigs of DDR (one not two) ram.
I'm about 100% sure I can run the 2-D version max settings without a hitch, but the processor problem seems to be my biggest threat....
As much as I want to play the next-gen 3-D version I have worries as I cannot afford to buy a new motherboard to upgrade my processor, but of course I would have to get a DDR2 motherboard to do that, which would mean the need for new ram also (not sure if DDR2 ports as backwards compatible, but I doubt it).
So we are talking like 600 buckzz that I hope I will not have to scrounge for. So please have top of the line dual or quad or whatever core compatibility and optimization.
Is Hit... uh, Master D going to call Spencer a DARN fool and yell FIDDLESTICKS when his head explodes?
Hmm...
I'd actually like to hear more from different Capcom producers about any new/original games that they are working on. That and I'd love to hear Matsukawa-san on the podcast again (she's so cute!) and hear more about Gyakuten Kenji.I’d also like to hear more about other female gamers or have a female gamer guest on the show. I know the game industry is mostly male dominated, but it would be interesting to get a female's perspective on it (too little/much violence and sex) as well as everyone’s opinions on females gaming in general.
I also wouldn't mind hearing about some of the differences in what gamers in Japan want vs what gamers in the US expect and I guess on how different/same the game communities are from each other.
Hmm…I think there should be more wacky round-robin games. Maybe you could make a drinking game while recording, like every time Gearoid gets insulted or Ben makes a lascivious remark take a shot (or three). Drunkenness is always entertaining.