No show this week

Hey everyone,

As you may know, we lost a close member of our test family and the Banjo-Kazooie team last week. We wanted our next podcast to feature this great upcoming title, but we need to give everyone some time to take care and regroup.

Thanks for understanding, folks. We’ll have a show next week.

Podcast #005 - Questioning Listeners

Our fifth podcast (40 minutes).

  • We answer a bunch of questions from our listeners
  • Justin goes to Comic-Con, but does not rock a costume
  • Talk about what we’re playing, and the awesome Summer of XBLA
  • John tells us about his trip to Gamefest

Play:

Download: MP3

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Podcast #004 - E3 phone home

Our fourth podcast (37 minutes). Jeff holds it down in solo mode. Justin phones home from E3 to discuss the Microsoft Media Briefing, John is on vacation, and Jeff interviews Bob Bergen, a voice actor with a resume that includes Porky Pig & Luke Skywalker.

  • Justin calls in from E3 to discuss the Microsoft Media Briefing
  • Jeff interviews Bob Bergen (http://bobbergen.com) the voice of Porky Pig, Kai from Akira, and Luke Skywalker in a number of Star Wars games.

Play:

Download: MP3

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Our next show is coming, but it’s a little late

Looks like Wednesday’s show won’t be out till Thursday. With E3 it’s been a bit crazy. Thanks for your patience!

Scene It? Box Office Smash!

Hurrah! I can finally talk about what I’ve been working on all this year: Scene It? Box Office Smash has been announced during the Microsoft Keynote @ E3.

This new Scene It is the first retail game to support the new Xbox LIVE Avatars (also announced today) so that you can play as your own custom character. The other big new feature is online play for 16 people via LIVE.

We’ll speak more about Scene It? and the other announcements from E3 in an upcoming podcast.

Questions! We want questions!

Hey dudes and dudettes,

Just a reminder, if you have any questions for us for our next show, leave them in the comments. We’ll pick the best of the best to read and answer. Try to focus on process, testing, game development, or life at Microsoft. We can’t answer anything about unannounced release dates or features of upcoming games.

Ask away!

Join us on Facebook and MySpace

Hey guys,

Mining these links from the comments. Feel free to add us as friends on either of these sites:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1313389054
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=389171674

More to come when we get a chance.

Podcast #003 - Get a job

Our third podcast (51 minutes). Our mic levels are fixed, and we have an interview! Leave us comments or send us email, we’re going to read some on our next show. Also, find us on My Space, Facebook and Twitter. This week we talk about:

  • Finishing up Too Human
  • Battlefield: Bad Company, Devil May Cry 4
  • Breaking into the game industry with Porkfry

Here are the books mentioned in the interview:

  • Testing Computer Software by Cem Kaner
  • How to Break Software by James A. Whittaker
  • How to Break Software Security by James A. Whittaker

Play: 

Download: MP3

Subscribe:  RSSiTunesZune

Podcast #002 - Off the rails

Our second podcast (51 minutes). We loosened up and lost our structure this week, to see how things would work if we didn’t have anything specific to talk about. Hopefully it will give everyone a better feeling for our personalities, but I expect we’ll get back to more test-related stuff for the next show. Let us know what you would prefer to hear by leaving a comment. Also I promise to move further away from the mic next time.

  • Enchiladas vs. Hot Pockets!
  • Justin has so many computers
  • New Xbox 360 releases
  • The last days of Ninja Gaiden 2 development
  • The stuff we’ve been playing lately: Lego Indiana Jones, Age of Conan, Half-Life 2, and of course, Hot Wheels.

Play: 

Download: MP3

Subscribe:  RSSiTunesZune

On testing Crackdown…

As promised in the podcast, here is a link to a Gamasutra article about the talk at Gamefest 2007 that Jami Johns gave on testing Crackdown.

GameFest: Testing Crackdown’s 495 City BlocksChristian Nutt, Gamasutra