ButtonBandits.com

What happened to episode 6 of the ButtonBandits.com podcast I here you cry? Well fear not, although it’s been a long time coming the latest episode is planned to be record this coming weekend! Otherwise known as The Sam and Dave show Episode one, this months times episode will have an E3 theme as we look at what games will be worth parting money with in the coming months. One of our expert industry insiders will be giving their thoughts on what to expect from the big three press conferences not forgetting the now regular three minute game review feature. We also take a look back at E3’s gone by and pick out some of the worst (and therefore best) moments from E3’s history. Keep a look out for it popping up on our podcast feed sometime next week!

Apologies for the lack of updates over the last few days. We are experiencing a few technical problems. Normal service is planned to resume on Monday 30/06/08 at the latest all being well.

We managed to pick up a Race Driver: Grid tshirt and umbrella while attending a community day for the game at Birmingham’s Omega Sektor.  We are of course giving these away to one of our lucky readers. To be in with a chance to win them both, all you have to do is tell us why you want to win the umbrella and tshirt so badly. Please make your reason as funny as possible as the competition will be judged on who’s reason is the most amusing. Do not send a serious reason.

To enter, please email your reason to gridcompetition@buttonbandits.com along with either your full name, online name, Xbox Gamertag, whatever you prefer really. The closing date is midnight on the 31 of May 2008. This competition is open to residents of the United Kingdom only. Judging and the announcement of the winner will take place on the all new Sam And Dave Show Episode One, which is basically just the old podcast with a different name and more focus on entertainment and comedy rather than in depth discussion.

Show host Frosty will have the final decision on who should win and his decision is most definitely final. A select amount of entries will be read out on the show so you enter on the understanding that the text of your email (not the address) may be read out on the show or published on the website. The winner will then be contacted to obtain full name and address details to be able to post the prize. There is no limit to the number of times you can enter, but each entry must be a unique reason as to why you want the prizes so badly. Good luck and look out for the first episode of the relaunched podcast to find out who wins! Actually I think you should subscribe to the Itunes or RSS feed at the top left of this page right now so you can pick the show up as soon as it’s released!

After much deliberation the all new buttonBandits.com review scoring system is now ready to be announced. In the end we decided to stick with the industry standard 10/10 system but with a new slant. First off, all games will be reviewed out of three in three different categories.  1 star is poor, 2 stars is good and three stars mean excellent. The end result is that most games will receive lower review scores than you would normally expect from other sites. The three categories are: 

Presentation:

The presentation score encompasses Graphics, sound and story. The general atmosphere of the game and the way this is put across to the player is also considered. Story is grouped into here rather than having its own category as not all games actually have a story. e.g a game like Geometry Wars looks good but doesn’t have a  story as it’s not needed for that type of game so not having a story does not harm it’s presentation score. Similarly, a game like Bioshock where the story is central to the presentation of the game, having a bad storyline or bad acting harms it’s presentation and so if the story or voice acting was not up to scratch then it’s score would suffer because of this. Continue Reading »

Coverage of the Race Driver: Grid day we attended today will go live at 10am on Monday Morning. We got a good hands on with both the single and multiplayer modes of the game as well as an interview with Chief Game Designer Ralph Fulton.

Well I say we… Unfortunately Audio and Video Manager Frosty, failed to attend due to an illness of some sort leaving me to fend for myself and unexpectedly having to carry out the interview instead of just playing the game. The stress must have got to me as when stopping off at a supermarket to pick up some batteries on the way, I forgot damage modelling was turned on and crashed my car into the trolley park. Sadly the flashback feature was not available so I’m stuck with the damage.

We thought it was time to provided another update about the site itself. First off, following the publication of our first four game reviews we are deciding on a new review score system. The new system, while not fully agreed amongst site contributors yet will see the scoring split into individual categories such as presentation and gameplay. The overall score will then be arrived at based on the scores of these sections. We hope this will provide a fair and open method of how we ended up at the score a game receives. The exact categories and how the overall score is calculated from these is still being debated.

Continue Reading »

Alright lucky listeners it’s that time again! It’s the latest installment of the Button Bandits Podcast! With, as always, your hosts: Frosty and GiantHaystax!

Highlights of this episode include a new 3 minute review feature where we attempt to review a game based on only the first three minutes of play. For this episode it’s the turn of Fusion Frenzy 2. We also give one of our secret industry insiders a ring to find out their opinion on the latest rumours floating around the Internet. Here what he has to say about the rumoured motion sensor controller from Microsoft amongst other things.

So download,stream or subscribe in Itunes. Have a listen and come join the fun!

Warning: Explicit Lyrics

 

 ButtonBandits.com Podcast: Episode 5 - GTA 4 [26:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Just when you thought episode five of the ButtonBandits.com podcast was never going to materialise, along comes this post to put your mind at rest! Recording of the latest episode took place today and features non other than your favourite hosts Frosty and GiantHaystax. The latest episode contains all of your favourite features such as another one of our secret industry insider’s giving their views on the latest gaming rumours floating around the Internet. This week we also try out a experimental new feature called the three minute review. Meanwhile the Game over feature contains an announcement about the what will be happening in the future to your favourite podcast (that’s this one). For the ultimate audio experience, don’t miss episode five, set to be released any day now!

As discussed in this weeks podcast, we will unfortunately not be able to follow the news in the gaming world from now until Wednesday 23rd of April. But don’t worry! In the style of the content drought that occurred during the recent PlayStation store upgrade, you can look forward to all the stuff we missed being summarised in a bumper news post on the day normal service resumes.

 But thats not all! The site will still be updated on Monday with Frosty’s review of Super Smash Bros. Brawl US import for Wii. On Tuesday his his review of Sega Superstars Tennis will make an appearance then on Wednesday a review of Rock Band US PlayStation 3 import will go up. Normal service will then resume Wednesday Evening.

Alright lucky listeners it’s that time of the week again! It’s the latest installment of the Button Bandits Podcast! With, as always, your hosts: Frosty and Giant Haystax!

This weeks show features all of the great regular features such as calling our industry insider for the latest exclusive news.

We also discuss:

• - National Newspaper offers cash for anti-games stories
• - Fusion 08
• - National Paper slates games - Times, Telegraph
• - Author’s Book gets bad reviews
• - BBC Games Teletext dies
• - Rock Band Price
• - PlayStation 3 Iplayer
• - Camping out for GTA

So download,stream or subscribe in itunes. Have a listen and come join the fun!

Warning: Explicit Lyrics

 

 Standard Podcast [36:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download