Episode 4 : Chaps My Hide

Bill and Joel co-op with the community to discuss co-op. First off, positive co-op examples of the past and then a thought provoking discussion regarding the future of co-op specifically what we'd do with the genre if we had an unlimited development budget and no technological limitations.

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Madden-ing Football

I mentioned on the podcast how Madden NFL videogame football hasn't been cooperating in recent years with my PlayStation 3 and I decided to do some research in order to get this problem resolved. For those who didn't hear that, I've been experiencing a freezing issue with the last few iterations of EA's Madden NFL. Happens right after I snap the ball and is jarring enough to throw off the gameplay fluidity which causes me controller errors (trying to take my player to the left before I have control of the player, passing the ball at a moment the game won't let me pass and when it finally gives me control I end up making a passing mistake, etc.)

Was really hoping, and for some reason the demo didn't include this freezing, that the issue had been finally fixed. Madden NFL 13 stepped it up this year with some nice additions so I really want to play the game. The new physics engine for example is a fantastic improvement.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised but in my optimism, I thought the issue was something to do with my specific PlayStation 3. In other words maybe I could get this fixed by addressing an issue with my console. Fortunately and unfortunately (depending on how you want to view this I suppose), this problem is effecting more than just myself; Check out this discussion at Operation Sports.

I took this video with my iPhone 4S to document and share my experiences. Sorry for it not being a direct screen capture.

I am using an upgraded hard drive (500gb) but I do not experience problems in other games, so although the advice from some is to revert back to my original PlayStation 3 hard drive, I personally find that to be an inconvenience and therefore not an optimal solution. I do own an XBOX 360 which provides another option.

Community Members Spotlight : AddedXP

This current generation of gaming comes with many positives and negatives that we as gamers love to argue about debate back and forth. For me, one of the highlights of this generation is the community that has been built up around gaming. I love being able to play, talk about, and listen to others discuss something that has brought me countless hours of fun, gaming. We have Twitter, Facebook, Google Circles, podcasts, console friends lists, and great sites like Retroids, A Band of Gamers, and many, many others that help this happen. Gaming has always been fun; Now, with and among others, it’s only better.

That sense of “gaming with others” is what started a conversation between Jeff (Rman5k) and myself (DriveForSix) a few years back. We both love and have a passion for gaming with larger communities, but first and foremost, we love gaming most with a much smaller community, our families. Having that in common led us to starting a podcast where we could share that passion for gaming with wives, husbands, significant others, and/or kids with our larger community of gamer friends.  We started a show called SharedScreens, got off to a decent start, but ultimately had to stop after very few episodes as real life got in the way. Since then, we’ve been itching to start again, but we wanted to make sure that we did it right. Well.. after waiting and planning for over a year and a half, we’re both beyond excited to announce that we’re back in business with a newly branded show called AddedXP.

AddedXP is a podcast all about being a gamer in that in ultimate co-op experience of living with more than just yourself. We plan on discussing more than just games (books, movies, music, media in general) but make no mistake, what we do will be gamer-centric. I would be hard pressed to think of many gamers I know that don’t carry the same sense of enthusiasm they have for games across those different media genres. We want to discuss with each other (and with you!) that additional experience (wink) of sharing those passions with those you hold most closely in your life. So, give us a listen, join in the conversation. We look forward to it!

You can find episode 0.5 at our site: addedxp.podbean.com where you can stream, download. or subscribe to it (via RSS) and we’ll soon also be available on iTunes.