Editorial: Where are they now?

Dear Reader,

If you haven’t already guessed, the X3F Defense Force Podcast is dead.

The team has decided that producing the show has become more of a chore than a fun experience, and that it would be better to cancel the series than let the quality deminish. Some listeners may have noticed that shows were being released less regularly as time progressed. This was down to multiple reasons including conflicts with work & leasure/editing time and technical problems which resulted in multiple “lost” episodes. we appologise to all our listeners and thank them for taking the time to listen to us voice our opinions. We’d also like to say thanks to the guests which populated quite a few of our episodes, including the guys from Xcast, Knuckles Dawson from Achievement Hunter and who can forget the interview with Sean Baptise From Harmonix.

And now we would like direct you to some of our current projects, so without further adieu, let the plugging commence…

Jonah

Jonah is still one of the major bloggers over at Gamestooge.com. With daily news post and a personality to bring a smile to your face, those who want a site to get a more general view of the gaming news (X3F is kinda restriced) should definatly check the site out.

Matt

Matt Jo is still as achievement mad as usual and can be found at his new home over at gogaminggiant.com. He’s teamed up with Yaniv & Dalibor from the JPAG to build a brand new gaming site centered around reviews, podcasts and a growing community. The first podcast is coming soon but in the meanwhile, check out the forums and reviews already posted.

Patrick, Holly & Richard

Matt’s not the only one pursuing new opportunities. Patrick, Holly and Richard have all come together, along with the JPAG’s Randall Smith, to produce the Mega Extreme Awesome Podcast, a podcast which covers just about anything Mega, Extreme and/or Awesome, including the Xbox 360. In the coming weeks they will be doing a Best (and worst) of 2008 Awards show so make sure you add the subscription link into itunes or podcatcher of your choice. Richard has also focused his creative juices into producing Highlight reels for his Grifball Team, Sarge’s Angels. If you have 10 minutes you wish to fill, go and take a look and marvel at the sport which is being considered as the replacement for every event in the 2012 Olympics, Grifball.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to download and listen to our shows. We hope you will continue to support us in our chosen paths and the X3F team.

Regards,

The Xbox 360 Fanboy Fancst Defense Force Team

Left 4 Dead Preview

[Originally posted at GameStooge.]

As you may have already found out, those who preordered Left 4 Dead have access to the demo, which is a fairly meaty experience, as you can sample the gameplay from both single player and co-op multiplayer for two levels. Not included is the versus multiplayer experience, in which a group of people take the role of the hording undead.

The game really stresses a cinematic experience – players “star” as one of the four survivors on the poster of the “movie”. Bill, my personal favorite, is the grizzled Vietnam vet, Louis is basically Ben from Night of the Living Dead, Francis is a biker dude, and Zoe is the rich girl. They interact with each other nicely – calling each other by name, shouting out orders and information (ie. “I’m reloading!”), and even calling out targets. It’s one of the rarities in a game in which you can truly identify with the heroes of a shooter, especially since they rely on each other for survival.

X3FFDF Podcast Episode 6 – Bangers and mash

Hey everyone! We have returned from the pit of nothing-ness. Finally another podcast! We know it has been forever but we managed to round up Jonah, Rich and Matt to do a show. It’s not a full show and it’s not our usual format. We talk about two big games (Fable 2 and Fallout 3) and Matt and Jonah give their 2 cents, whilst Richard takes a back seat and decides which one to buy. We also find time to talk briefly on the NXE which hits November 19th and the preview available a few weeks ago.

We apologize that it’s not a full show but we decided to put a little something together as it has been so long since our last “show”.

We hope to return next week with a full show, with everyone and in our usual format. Next week we will discuss Fable 2 and Fallout 3 much more in depth, both games are so big that we have so much more to say about them than we did in the show and we’ll also talk about Gears of War 2, Guitar Hero World Tour and the mirrors edge demo next week. Stay tuned!

X3FFDF Podcast Episode 6 – Bangers and mash (Right click and save as)

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Remember to email us with any questions, concerns, feedback or fanmail at x3ffdf@gmail.com

Also please subscribe and leave a review on iTunes. A good or bad review, it doesn’t matter, all reviews help.

Enjoy!!

Guitar Hero World Tour Review

If you listen to the podcast then you will know I am a huge Guitar Hero fan. I have defended it against Rock Band 2 multiple times. Guitar Hero World Tour was one of my most anticipated games this year but is it a disappointment? Or is it really a Rock Band 2 killer?

So here we are again. Another music based rhythm game for the current generation of consoles. I’d like to think I’m a professional in the music genre by now. I started with Guitar Hero 2, and since then I’ve played Guitar Hero 3, Rock Band, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Rock Band 2. I have not yet played the most recent music game, Rock Revolution, but then again I don’t think anyone played that. Music games are always very similar, consumers usually make their purchasing decision based on songs and what new features the game has added to make itself stand out.

Saints Row 2 Review

[Review originally posted at GameStooge.]

The original Saints Row was a delightful surprise in the summer of 2006, an open-world game that was very much a Grand Theft Auto III clone, right down to the gang theme and colors of San Andreas. However, what made it delightful was that it fixed most of the problems that plagued the GTA3 series: bad aiming, no GPS system, and other niggling issues. Most of all, it was goofy fun with a surprisingly effective storyline, buoyed by the excellent voice acting by such notable actors such as Keith David, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Michael Rappaport.

Fallout 3 Review

Exceptional, groundbreaking and defining are not words I throw around much when it comes to videogames. Every once in a while though a game will come by that just amazes me; a game that simply floors me, Fallout 3 is currently that game. No game is perfect and I don’t think any game will ever be perfect but Fallout 3 is probably the closest any game has ever come (sorry Bioshock and Call of Duty 4).

X3FFDF Vs JPAG Special Edition Podcast

Some of you may know that we at the Defense Force have a small rivalry with the Joystiq Podcast Appreciation Group (JPAG), who run their own little podcast (the JPAGP). On October 18th (that’s tomorrow), we’ll be fighting it out once and for all to raise money for Sarcastic Gamer’s Extra Life charity gaming day. The X3F Defense Force and the JPAG will be going virtual toe-to-virtual toe over xbox live to see which cast is the most 1337 and which is the biggest bunch of n00bs.

3 games, 2 teams and only 1 winner.

You can get up to the minute results from the event Live from the X3FFDF Twitter feed.

To get into the mood, the guys from both podcasts have come together to produce an ultimate-super-mega-explosive-over the top-once in a lifetime-spectacular combination show, where we discuss what’s happened recently on each respective site and talk about why we’re doing what we’re doing. As you can tell, I’m rambling, so what are you waiting for?!? Hit that download link below! And while you’re at it, you can sign up to donate to extra life here. Thank You.

X3FFDF Vs JPAG Special Edition Podcast (Right click and save as)

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Remember to email us with any questions, concerns, feedback or fanmail at x3ffdf@gmail.com

Also please subscribe and leave a review on iTunes. A good or bad review, it doesn’t matter, all reviews help.

Enjoy!!

PS: Stay tuned to the site because we will be bringing you our written review of the higly anticipated Fallout 3

X3FFDF Special Edition – Interview with Sean Baptiste from Harmonix

We are not being lazy, I promise!! With the lack of a full show for the past few weeks it may seem as if we have gotten lazy and forgotten about our loyal listeners. This is not the problem though, we have encountered, audio problems, scheduling conflicts and many other terrible things that have prevented us from having a full show. This week looks promising though and we hope to bring you not only a full show but we promise to have it out on time!!

Despite the fact that we don’t have a full show we still got something for you. We have a special interview with Sean Baptiste who is the community manager for Harmonix, which is the studio that developed Rock Band 2. Best of all Sean answer’s your questions, if you participated in the post over at X3F where you could post questions for Sean than most likely your question will have been read and answered.

We let our Rock Band fanboys/girl(Patrick and Holly) conduct the interview but we are all there in spirit. So tune in and give it a listen. As always don’t forget to subscribe on iTunes and leave a review.

Any questions or comments can be sent to x3ffdf@gmail.com

Remember to leave a review on iTunes, good or bad it doesn’t matter!!

X3FFDF Special Edition – Interview with Sean Baptiste from Harmonix (Right click and save as)

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X3FFDF Podcast Special Edition – Patrick Young ft. Richard Elliott – Pokémon

Dear loyal fanboys,
Well, it happened. We suffered show crippling bugs (our show file got corrupted) and now we can no longer use the “haha, you missed out an episode” line on our JPAG counterparts. But never fear, the Defense Force is here (Sorry for the corny line). Instead of leaving our listeners in the dark for another week (here’s looking at you Randall), we’re going to release a track which we intended to be featured in the break of this week’s show.

I know it’s not like having a fresh podcast to listen to but trust us, next week we’ve got one hell of an episode on our hands. At the end of next week’s episode we will be interviewing none other than Sean Baptiste, Manager of Community Development at Harmonix Music. Have you got a Rock Band related question to ask Sean? If so you can visit the dedicated post on X3F and leave a comment with your question. If it’s any good we’ll read it on the show, but act fast, because we’ll stop taking questions tomorrow afternoon. In other Rock Band news, our own Patrick Young will be attempting the endless setlist tomorrow from 8 am to 3 pm est and will be streaming it live to the interwebs . To see if he’ll make it, tune into his Ustream page.

Once again, I apologise (The English spelling. What? I spell Defence with an S for you people. I’m not giving up another word to the American way of spelling things) for the inconvenience. I’d also like to thank Frank Romano(TheMan661) from Xcast Online and Phil Meza(SempraFi) from Xcast Online and Talking About Games and for coming on as guests on this “Lost show”. We appreciate your time and maybe next time you’ll get a full episode released.

Richard Elliott

Podcast Producer at X3FFDF

The following track is taken from Patrick Young: Greatest Hits Coming Soon

Patrick Young ft. Richard Elliott – Pokémon MP3 (Right click and save as)

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X3FFDF Podcast Episode 5 – Unleashed

On this week’s show we have Jonah, Richard and a sick Matt. We talk about Duke 3D, Rock Band 2, the Halo 3 update and many other things.

X3FFDF Episode 5 MP3 (Right click and save as)

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