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overcast #034

posted by overman — Fri 25 Jul 2008 9:56 am

 
icon for podpress  overcast #034 [103:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (268)

Ricky and Phil kick off this massive show with some machinima news and current events, before launching into an in-depth discussion of Bioware’s epic video game, Mass Effect. SPOILER ALERT: Some of what is discussed in this show is directly related to the game’s storyline, so if you’re concerned about preserving a sense of surprise before you experience the game, please be advised.

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19 Comments »

  1. Pingback by Overman’s Blog » Podcast Interrupted — July 25, 2008 at 10:52 am

    […] http://theovercast.com/overcast-034/ […]

  2. Comment by Johnnie Ingram — July 25, 2008 at 11:52 am

    Hey guys, I still have to play Mass Effect and I’d rather avoid the spoilers, but I still want to get my regular o’cast goodness. Any chance you can give me an approximate timecode in and out for the “You’ll never guess what Rosebud really means” Mass Effect bits?

  3. Comment by Rgrove — July 25, 2008 at 12:18 pm

    As I recall, Johnnie, there are no serious spoilers, but our conversation is so wide ranging, I’m not sure we can give you timecode specific places to avoid. You might consider listening to the news section which is fairly long, and then putting the ME part aside until after you play the game. Let’s see what Phil says about the amount of spoilers. Frankly, I think you could listen without any important story reveals. What do you think, Phil?

  4. Comment by overman — July 25, 2008 at 1:59 pm

    I agree with Ricky. The disclaimer was for fellow spoiler purists who want an absolutely unblemished novelty of game experience, but we don’t talk about the ending / outcome of the story, and I thought we were careful to avoid discussing particulars of the story for the most part.

    There’s one section I’d recommend avoiding in particular for spoiler’s sake, Johnnie: timecode 38:45 to 40:30. That bit is fairly spoilerific. Other than that, I think you should be safe.

    If you’re a purist, though, then like Ricky said the News section is clearly sectioned off from the Mass Effect discussion with an audio clip of a scene from the game; and on the back end of that, I’m pretty sure 1:19:15 to the end is very safe - that consists of Securom discussion, wrap up, and closes with Ricky’s Wonderful World of Sound.

  5. Comment by 3dfilmmaker — July 25, 2008 at 5:32 pm

    That was awesome guys. It was so great hearing such constructive discussion about ME and how deep into the game you got. Its funny because it was so much fun to make but at the price that we can never experience it as a fresh experience.. we have to live that experience through you guys.

    Also kudo’s on the Monkey piece as well… it was actually mailed out to the whole Edmonton studio by marketing… a very rare occurrence outside our internal newsgroups!

    I’ll keep my eye on this thread for a few days in case there are any pressing questions anyone would like answered. Otherwise, thank you for your ongoing support!!

    Ken

  6. Comment by Rgrove — July 25, 2008 at 7:41 pm

    Oh, man, thank you, Ken! (we are not worthy!) I”m so glad our conversation was interesting to you. And big fat kudos to you on your cinematic work and to the rest of the team. And thanks for offering to answer questions. I’ve got one, but I’m not sure it wouldn’t be better to do this in the Overcast forum. What say, Phil?

  7. Comment by Rgrove — July 25, 2008 at 7:44 pm

    Of course, I could kick myself for not mentioning Josh Whedon’s “Dr. Horrible” 3-part internet series in the news section. We (my partner, Lisa, and I) watched it with glee. But Hugh’s hot on this topic with a good post about the relative success of Whedon’s efforts at “Machinima for Dummies” site. I was thinking the same things myself. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s really wonderful.

  8. Comment by Mu — July 26, 2008 at 3:06 am

    Finally got around to listening. Awesome podcast guys. It really is great to hear you guys go so deep into your experience. I’ll probably even forward it to some of the leads. I think they’d appreciate it.

    There’s about an hour of work from the Cinematic Animators in the game. All space scenes, plus planet arrivals, party member intros (except Liara) and the stuff that’s generally more difficult to animate.

    I did Feros, the planet with the Thorian. You got Ken’s planet right, though, with the Matriarch (those aliens are called Rachnids, the one in the cage was the Queen), and the planet is called Noveria.

  9. Comment by Mu — July 26, 2008 at 3:11 am

    Oh and Cpt. Andersen was played by Keith David. Yes, the guy from Pitch Black. He was also in Something About Mary…”Don’t make me open a can of whoopass on you boy.”

    - Admiral Hackett was done by Lance Henriksen (Alien movies)
    - Matriarch Benezia was Marina Sirtis (Councilor Troi from ST: TNG)

  10. Comment by Mu — July 26, 2008 at 3:26 am

    oh and (2): definitely play the downloadable content. If you liked ME, it’ll definitely be a nice little addition.

  11. Comment by Rgrove — July 27, 2008 at 1:37 am

    Should’ve looked all those names up. “David Keith” (slapping forehead). Thanks, Nathan, for clearing all of that up. Playing through the game the second time was were it’s complexity and artistry became clear to me. Can’t stop saying how great this game is. The sequel should be (hard to believe) even better. My only request: add the ability to JUMP! Yay!

  12. Comment by HatHead — July 27, 2008 at 6:15 pm

    Great show!

    There was mention of some sort of collection of mdot strange’s clips for remixing? I would LOVE to get my hands on those! Google will not easily give up the goods, do you have a link handy? :)

    Peace!

  13. Comment by Xanatos — July 27, 2008 at 11:11 pm

    Another good episode, and I think you guys covered the vimeo thing real well. I’m for it, and there shouldn’t be any complaints unless some actual machinima on the site comes under fire with the whole ‘purging’.

  14. Comment by Russell — July 28, 2008 at 8:04 am

    Thanks again guys. Some interesting discussion and I love the tips in Ricky’s Wonderful World of Sound - I’ll be giving that cutting frequency tip to make the dialogue clearer a go.

    I’m not that interested in Mass Effect, apart from the occasional passing glance, so the amount of time spent on that discussion was a bit off putting when waiting for more machinima related topics.

    I hate to sound negative when you guys are doing this for us (for free), so to try and be constructive - maybe if you are going to have such a lengthy game discussion then perhaps that could go at the end of the podcast so those interested could continue to listen, while those not so interested can end it at that point?

  15. Comment by Johnnie Ingram — July 28, 2008 at 8:37 am

    I’ve just ordered a copy of Mass Effect, so soon I’ll be able to understand what the heck you’re all talking about.

    Actually, judging from the reaction of those who’ve played the game so far, you can expect me to disappear from the face of the earth for a month while I lock myself in my room and play ME until my eyes bleed.

  16. Comment by Mu — July 29, 2008 at 1:50 pm

    See, the idea that discussing Mass Effect lacks in any way relevance to machinima is the misconception we’re fighting.

    btw, “Bring Down the Sky,” the DLC for ME, is now available for free for PC version owners. I imagine you can get it at the usual sites. This is the module Paul and I worked on.

  17. Comment by Russell — July 29, 2008 at 2:50 pm

    “the idea that discussing Mass Effect lacks in any way relevance to machinima is the misconception we’re fighting.”

    You misunderstand, Mu.

    And fighting hardly ever helps to clear up misconceptions.

  18. Comment by overman — July 29, 2008 at 2:57 pm

    @Russell - Sorry this one wasn’t of high interest to you. I agree with Mu in that I think discussion of this machinima-infested game (worked on by a number of former amateurs just like you and I) is highly relevant.

    I think we did save the Mass Effect discussion for the latter half, the only exception being Ricky’s sound segment which was tacked on the very end (thank you, Todd Stallkamp, for that excellent suggestion). But maybe the outline notes didn’t make that clear enough. In any case, rest assured that it will be rare that we devote an entire episode to talking about one video game. This just happened to be an exceptional video game, with exceptional machinima made by some very talented machinima folks many of whom we also happen to know personally.

    Thanks for the feedback!

    @Xanatos - Thanks for your comment! It’s great to have you as a listener.

    @Johnnie - Yes, I highly expect that you’ll experience Mass Effect Witness Protection. See you on the other side! :)

  19. Comment by alec — August 6, 2008 at 8:48 pm

    lol For when you were talking about onejovialsim its ‘eat me drink me’ lol bite me :P

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