8-4 Play

Played Shadows of the Damned? You should! Why? 1) Read the reviews, it's a great game! 2) We here at 8-4 worked on it! 3) Oh yeah, so did some other guys, Suda 51 and Shinji Mikami. 4) You will enjoy this podcast a helluvalot more, since we discuss the soundtrack with legendary game musician Akira Yamaoka and talk shop about creating the script. When you tire of our self-congratulatory nonsense, t...

Frankly, it's too damn hot in Tokyo to spend much energy writing up a fancy description of our latest episode, so let's just cut the crap, OK? We talk about Operation Rainfall's attempt to bring Wii JRPGs to the West, Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D save file-gate, Journey (the game and the band), Wii U, famed game director Yasumi Matsuno moving to developer Level-5, y...

Child of Eden is finally out, and who better to discuss it with than Q Entertainment's own James "Milkman" Mielke? Fresh from LA, the former EGM editor-in-chief and 1up.com superstar joins us as we talk about Tetsuya Mizuguchi's latest opus, the big three's E3 press conferences, hands-on impressions of Wii U and PS Vita, and more. Hosted by internet celebrity and 8-4 superfriend David "CheapyD" Ab...

E3 is almost here! Join us for one last round of rumor-mongering and baseless speculation on what'll go down at next week's big event. Former 8-4 intern and Resident Evil superfan Alex "cvxfreak" Aniel joins us to talk about Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, Kojima Productions' pre-E3 announcements, the merits (or lack thereof?) of calling your handheld "Vita," and our very own E3 predictions.

With E3 approaching quick, the 8-4 crew are buried in all manner of pre-expo prep work -- they've hardly had time to think about any other of them vidja games, much less play them. But when has that ever stopped them from talking about them?! Tune in for thoughts -- and maybe a feeling or two -- about PSN's revival (outside of Japan), Namco's new Soul Calibur game and Tekken movie, Modern Warfare'...

Bin Laden is dead. The galaxy is at peace. What better way to celebrate than with 8-4 Play and a ton more talk about Nintendo's Wii successor and Sony's ongoing PSN woes? To help brief us on the latest intel, we called in former US Navy Seals Shane "Bill Rizer" Bettenhausen and Evan "Lance Bean" Shamoon, who also share thoughts on Portal 2, the new Sony tablets, El Shaddai, and Sonic's legitimacy...

What's this? An episode of 8-4 Play where the crew actually talks about what they do all day: game translatin'? Believe it, spoony bard! Localization legend Richard Honeywood, he of such Square Enix favorites as Xenogears, Chrono Cross, and Dragon Quest VIII, joins us to talk shop, 64DD development, and being best buds (well, buds) with Nintendo prez Satoru Iwata. And speaking of Nintendo -- did s...

In this very special episode of 8-4 Play, we recap our live-to-tape hosting of the Grasstream2 Japanese tsunami relief charity event, put on by the good people at famed developer Grasshopper Manufacture. You will (hopefully) laugh, you will (probably) cry, and in the end, you might just learn something -- about Pandora's Tower, Hip Tanaka, Yakuza of the End, and how you (yes, you!) can help Japan...

A lot has happened in the four weeks since our last episode. The Game Developer's Conference came and went, Charlie Sheen jumped the tiger-shark (-blood...or whatever), Winter gave way to Spring, and the largest earthquake in Japan's recorded history rocked our tiny island home. But the show must go on, as they say, and so the 8-4 five are back in action with personal quake stories, first-month 3D...

The Nintendo 3DS is out in Japan, and the 8-4 crew is back from launch morning chaos with a pile of brand new 3DS gear and a bevy of special guests ready to give hands-on impressions, including Brad Douglas of Sony (shock!) and Che Chou of Microsoft (awe!). Tune in for first thoughts on the hardware, the games, the 3D camera, the AR cards, and much, much more.

Pop quiz: What do Cave Story, Catherine, Dead Space, Dead Island, Hard Corps, Dark Souls, Butt-head, Tactics Ogre, Super Bowl Monday, Ys, the 1979 Iranian revolution, Dragon Quest, Haruki "Peppy" Epperson, Billy Mitchell, and Voltron have in common? Give up? ...Nothing! Except that they're all topics discussed during this super random episode of 8-4 Play. Enjoy!

PSP2...NGP...whatever you want to call it, Sony's new handheld has the gaming world in a tizzy, and we've got just the thing to satisfy your next-generation portable cravings: two hours of hardcore, hands-on impressions fresh from Sony's PlayStation Meeting 2011 in Tokyo. Matt Leone of 1UP, Phil Kollar from Game Informer, and podcast phenom Shane "El Shaddai" Bettenhausen join the 8-4 crew for a h...

Live in Tokyo, do you? And you attended Nintendo's recent 3DS event? ...So you know everything there is to know about the upcoming glasses-free 3D handheld? Fine then, don't listen to this podcast. The rest of us will tune in to hear the 8-4 crew's full report on Nintendo World 2011, including first-hand impressions of playable games like Kid Icarus, Pilotwings, Resident Evil, etc. and thoughts on...

After an extended holiday break filled with snow, sake, and SASUKE! (look it up), the 8-4-some is back and they got some 'splainin' to do! (:LAUGHTER:) Good thing former EGM and Turn 10 hipster Che "China Warrior" Chou joins in to talk iPhone game shame, his personal wall of give a s*** -- basically ANYTHING but his current workplace (Microsoft's 343 Industries) and their shadowy Halo project. Com...

Let's make this perfectly clear: Like Kinect, sauerkraut, and inverted controls, this special holiday episode of 8-4 Play is not for everyone. How can you know? Take our simple quiz: 1. Do you enjoy Monster Hunter? 2. Are you curious about Monster Hunter? 3. Would you like to hear almost two hours of talk about one of Japan's biggest gaming franchises in the last decade? If you answered "yes" to a...

In Tokyo, the holiday season brings a mix of imported Western traditions and uniquely Japanese flavors (Google "Japan KFC Christmas" if you don't know what we mean), so that's exactly what this T-day episode of 8-4 Play delivers. A rundown on the best Black Friday gaming deals one minute, a detailed explanation of table-flipping arcade title Cho-Chabudai Gaeshi the next. Hardcore Final Fantasy IV:...

The 8-4 crew's too busy working on next year's games to have much time for this year's offerings, so they called in intern Alex "cvxfreak" Aniel to help discuss everything they wish they were playing (but mostly aren't). Tune in for baseless, uninformed talk about Donkey Kong Country Returns, Kinect, Monster Hunter Portable 3rd, Vanquish, 25th Anniversary Super Mario Bros., and (as required by law...

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the NES, 8-4 invites retro gaming legend Kevin "tsr" Gifford, founder of tsr's NES archive and keeper of the world's largest collection of obscure game knowledge, to take us back (back... back...) to the 80s to talk about the birth of the era's most popular 8-Bit system. But before that, listen to round-ups of the recent Level-5 and Grasshopper events in Japan,...

The demo for Monster Hunter Portable 3rd has hit Japan, and who better to discuss it with than Naughty Dog Community Strategist Arne Meyer? ...Well, just about anyone, actually. But Mr. Meyer does have plenty of interesting things to say about helping launch the Xbox and Xbox 360, working in the studio that brought us Uncharted 2, and more. Also: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Kirby's Epic Yarn, an...

Former Nintendo, Sega, EA, Zombie, Irem, Boss, and Enix superstar Jake Kazdal (now of indie newcomer Haunted Temple Studios) joins the 8-4-some to talk about his experiences working his way up the game industry ladder, from having the dream job of being a Nintendo game counselor in the 80's to...having the dream job of working on Space Channel 5 and Rez with Tetsuya Mizuguchi in Tokyo.

Fresh from Nintendo's big 3DS (re-)unveiling in Tokyo, the 8-4 crew is ready to drop all kinds of knowledge on the upcoming portable picked up at and after the show. Opinions on the price and date? You got it. Breakdown of all the new hardware features? Natch. Analysis of games and other announcements? Sure. List of questions used to point out show highlights? Done.

It's a guestacular second episode of 8-4 Play as two of the industry's finest - former EGM/1UP scribe Shane Bettenhausen (now of Ignition Entertainment) and Kojima Productions alum Ryan Payton (now of Microsoft's 343 Industries) join us to give their thoughts on this year's Tokyo Game Show, the state of the Japanese game industry, Dante's new hair, and a whole lot more.

Special Guest and 1UP.com podcast-legend Garnett Lee joins the 8-4-some in a game-by-game analysis of everything at the 2010 Tokyo Game Show, including Tactics Ogre, Parasite Eve, Yakuza, Castlevania, Monster Hunter, El Shaddai, Mega Man Universe, Child of Eden, and more. And before you start, be sure to listen to Weekend Confirmed Ep. 26 over at Shacknews.com to get the first half of our TGS 2010...