One of Swords Podcast 022: Clobbered By Reality

by Dan on June 24, 2010

Raven’s Jeff Poffenbarger joins us to talk a little bit about Singularity (which ships next week) and gives us some insight into how Raven operates up in the frozen tundra that is Madison, Wisconsin. You’ll get very little insight from co-host Hugh Sterbkaov and myself as we discuss Activision’s image problem, almost-too-good-to-be-true deals on Blur, Hugh’s adventure at the big Activision E3 event, why the hardcore audience will never like Kinect, and why, just this once, Christopher Walken is the wrong answer. Plus, freebies in the form of Transformers: War for Cybertron trivia!

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More info after the jump…

Co-host: Hugh Sterbakov, screenwriter, comic creator, and Emmy-nominated writer/toy wrangler for Robot Chicken

Special Guest: Raven Software’s Jeff Poffenbarger, Senior Producer of Singularity

Soundtrack: Yameen – available on iTunes, Amazon MP3, and all online music stores

Relevant show links:

  • Thomas Tippl’s interview with IGN about Activision’s desire to improve its image
  • Until June 30, save (at least?) $20 on Blur with this coupon
  • Singularity
  • Hugh’s gamertag:


    • Hugh has now been appropriately compensated for his co-hosting duties. For real, I got him some good stuff.

    • mvbooth

      There's a new ONLY STUFF THAT MATTERS jingle!

    • http://oneofswords.com/ Dan (OneOfSwords)

      Nope, that's one of the original five…I guess I just don't use it as often. :)

    • mvbooth

      man, I failed almost as bad as those guys that leave the “FIRST!” comment and wind up being the 3rd or lower comment on a post.

    • D Marten

      FIRST!!!1!

      Er… Third?

      Looking forward to listening to this first thing in the morning at work. Yay, thanks Dan for thursday podcasts!

    • DogFacedGod

      I'm one of the lucky ones who picked up Blur for $10 at Best Buy. Thanks for the tip!

    • http://twitter.com/histerin Dave Roy

      Nice to have my question talked about on-air! I feel, like, almost famous or something.

      Still in the middle of listening to it, but it's sounding good so far. Poor Hugh. Even a great experience like a huge concert event has to have a downside.

    • http://twitter.com/karlcramer Karl Cramer

      Going to strongly disagree with Hugh about The Transformers. As a long-time fan I'm really interested in seeing the origin of the G1 Transformers. Cybertron is a great setting that's exciting to see brought to life. Looking forward to this game for the game itself but mostly for the story.

    • Ben Schmiel

      Just watched Warren The Ape…..AWESOME!!!! i loved Greg the Bunny, and cant wait for it on DVD.

      Also got Transformers and Blur (for $10) on tuesday and loving each. From now on Im just gonna buy whatever you tell me to

    • HughSterb

      I'm interested too. As a prologue. Not as a whole game.

      I got through the second part of the campaign last night. The sections are long and satisfyingly challenging. The game is great. It's just not the part of the story I'm most interested in. Can't win 'em all.

      Weird combo of movie sound effects and cartoon characters. But it works.

    • Hugh

      Thank you for understanding my plight.

    • HollywoodHugh

      For once, Hugh's “”hollywood”" (I added quadruple quotes because…well…it's required) knowledge was useful. I didn't know there were 2 red carpet lines.

    • Mean

      Did you really suggest to the Raven guy that there might be a parallel between Natural Disaster's and their studio and/or Singularity? Ouch! That's just mean Dan. He'll never let you interview him again.

    • http://oneofswords.com/ Dan (OneOfSwords)

      File under “joke.”

    • http://oneofswords.com/ Dan (OneOfSwords)

      Cool, then. Buy me lunch.

    • http://oneofswords.com/ Dan (OneOfSwords)

      +1 for Stan Bush music in the credits, though.

    • http://twitter.com/Paranerd Paranerd

      There was this funny moment on Giantbomb where Leigh Alexander stated Bobby Kotick paid $775 million for the Activision event.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11_ywaTT-MY

    • Pingback: Singularity reviews are in — and positive — One Of Swords

    • http://twitter.com/Johnnybricks29 Johnnybricks29

      I agree that the Kinect is a gimmick, but I still think the same thing about the Wii and it has sold well (i still haven't bought one). The difference for Kinect is, gamers like me that have already have a 360, and have a young family (two girls 4 and 2). They are too young to work a wii-mote. They will be able to play games with me on Kinect. Plus my wife, who belongs nowhere close to technology, was interested enough in the fitness game and Dance Central (Kat's review pushed her over the edge) that she wants another 360 for our 2nd TV that she and the kids can use without interfering with my gaming time. I wouldn't write it off yet.

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