The first episode of the new Pod TV season is finally here after much delay and a lot of re-recordings. We hope we can keep up with a more consistent schedule in the future, but while we are still in college, it will be slow going. For this first episode, we interview uhh oh oreo from the forums as the member highlight for the show. We also show off our first custom map of the show and campaign tip. It’s quite lengthy, almost 18 minutes, so sit back and enjoy.
NOTE: We’re still trying to decide whether or not to put this up on iTunes. If there’s enough interest, we will make a feed for it. Download links will be available later today.
This past weekend was the first event of this year’s MLG Pro Circuit in Dallas, Texas. This year had a great kick-off with a great new venue with a fantastic layout. We got to see some new teams step up to the plate with the newly added Halo: Reach. I don’t think the stream did the venue all the justice it deserved, but it was the place to be for the weekend. This show features some of the people that went to Dallas and that I hung out with during the event along with a few other MLG followers around the site. Enjoy
Last year on April Fools Day, Bungie teased that Halo: Reach would be all about chess and going back to roots of strategic gameplay. It was a great tease and people were actually a little sad that the game type wasn’t included in the game. Well guess again, because a year later, this April Fools has become reality and Bungie has released the gametype that will let you play chess in Halo: Reach. Achievement Hunter teased this feature in their latest Fails of the Weak and now have a “How To” video detailing how you can set up Halo to play chess.
Whenever you switch up games in an event, it seems to always open doors for new teams to come in and take up the spotlight. This year’s underdog seems to be Impact, made up of Neighbor, a crowd favorite and some other new team members to the scene. We saw transitions like this take effect when Halo 3 took the place of Halo 2 on the MLG Circuit and no doubt the same thing is happening here. Top teams like Final Boss and Status Quo are going up against teams of equal or greater caliber that are new to the scene.
In a way, this makes sense, since these new teams have had a little more time to focus on a new game over the pros which had to focus on Halo 3 through the remainder of last year’s circuit. The fact that the game mechanics are different also contributes to newer players making a name for themselves as they work better with the new system. With 343 Industries at the helm of the Halo Franchise, we are likely to see numerous Halo titles come out within the next few years. With that in mind, MLG has to consider rotating these games in and out of the MLG circuit, which begs the question: will there ever be a point where MLG will stick with one game for a few years despite new releases, or will MLG try to stick with the times and have the latest game in the circuit?
Despite that pro teams are being defeated by underdogs, it is always nice to see new faces at events like these make a name for themselves. While I still don’t consider gaming a sport, it does very much reflect the rotation of underdog teams coming out surprising a good majority of spectators.
Usually when you watch the live stream or you go to an MLG event, you are used to seeing a venue filled with booths scattered along the walls with play stations lined up in the middle of the room. Main stage had this arena feel to it where the commentators were on high rises behind the bleachers of fans and spectators. Well, this ain’t your daddy’s MLG venue anymore. This year’s venue is held at the Dallas Convention Center instead of the Hilton Anatole like it has been for the past two years, and it’s a nice change with convenient parking, a beautiful courtyard that’s just outside the exhibition hall, and a lot more space.
Everything in the venue no longer feels cluttered and you can actually walk around to the different events without having to squeeze through numerous groups of people. All of the booths are located in the front of the venue where you enter and the three main events take up the middle and back sections. All three games have their own section of the venue: Call of Duty (PS3) and StarCraft (PC) on either side and Halo (Xbox 360) down the middle. Each of the the events has their own play areas and main stages. As you’ll see in the accompanying video, there is no longer one big main stage and there are no longer bleachers for crowds to sit on. There are now rows of chairs on the venue floor where spectators can sit with the first three rows reserved for media, VIP, players, family, etc. Many people I have talked to like the change of having more space in the venue and that the layout is a lot better, but not having the high rises and bleachers just doesn’t make it feel like MLG. The commentators are located behind the curtains where no one can see them, which may make it look better on the stream, but the atmosphere on stage is definitely different.
Many of the familiar booths are at the event, including Astros, Sony, Dr. Pepper, etc. but with new sponsors comes new booths. Three new booths at this event include Sony Ericson, Warheads, and Alienware: supplier of the computers used for StarCraft. The venue is nicely prepared and done this year and it looks like MLG is stepping up their game for their events.
Finally, here’s a challenge: the StarCraft fans on Friday completely outnumbered those of Halo and CoD combined. When an event is near you, I encourage to go out and have a watch and support your game.
Shownotes
So the Defiant Map pack has been out in the wild for about two weeks now and it’s time to reflect on what the community thinks of the first non-Bungie Map Pack for Reach and the beginning of 343 Industries’ take over of the Halo franchise. While the maps are amazing pieces of art, some of the Forge functionality is missing, which leads some people to question the ability of 343 Industries. They are still young in the Halo franchise and we are hopeful that they produce quality Halo content. Brent plays switch-er-roo with GLewis and we have Kete from The Running Riot and CMNeir, MidgetDance, and DoobsMcGee from Halo Reach Tricks and Social Stupidity. We may have been partially side-tracked from playing while recording… Enjoy
Shownotes
The discussion around the possibility of a remake is still very much alive where we still have no idea what to think about the whole situation. We hare hoping that this year’s E3 will shed some light on the situation. In the mean time, all we can do is speculate and talk about what changes we would like to see and not see. Greg and I are alone again this week, but we managed to crank a new one out within a week. Enjoy
iTunes
Zune
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch