RPS Wireless Show Ep6: Erik Wolpaw Speak-O-Chat
In a very special sixth edition of the very "special" Rock, Paper, Shotgun Electronic Wireless Show, not only are all four overlords of RPS united, but also joined by a proper important guest. Mr Erik Wolpaw was lovely enough to join us in one of Valve's echoey metal rooms, so we could discuss co-op gaming memories, Left 4 Dead, and the trick behind decent voice acting. Along with all the usual excellent distractions and nonsense. Details below.
You can get the mp3 directly from here, subscribed to from here, or found on iTunes. We owe a massive debt of gratitude to Murray for his superb help with the audio in this episode - thanks man. Kieron's comprehensive running order follows.
Episode 6 Running Order
00:01: Introductions! The Gang's all here.
00:30: Plus Erik Wolpaw of the Valve Software Company.
00:50: Tekken and Erik's wife. We're off topic already.
01:42: Kieron may mis-use the word Egalitarian.
02:00: And the first proper topic - co-op games, where they came from, etc.
02:37: Which obviously leads us to Gauntlet.
02:56: Alec's favourite thing in Gauntlet is Bracken. Br...acken? We discuss Bracken.
03:56: Two player versus Co-op.
04:11: Jim brings in Doom. Walker gets all teary about the wonders of serial cables.
04:40: Alec starts talking about bandwidth. Man!
05:20: Unreal Tournament was Alec's first multiplayer experience. Alec's friend is on the strong Ribenna.
6:29: Erik on his first co-op experiences. Gauntlet and Double Dragon. PUNCH! KICK!
8:30: And the wonder of Hired Guns. Erik brings up the Chaos Engine too.
9:33: The Chaos Engine mod for Left 4 Dead. Go and make it.
9:40: Erik gushes about Left 4 Dead.
10:05: And Aliens Versus Predator's skirmish mode. And AvP1 vs AvP2. And then we have a ramble about AvP a LOT.
12:10: Jim misses really hard games.
12:54: Left 4 Dead's Versus mode and Erik being not very good at it and RPS being even worse.
17:00: The see-through-walls mechanic and why it actually works.
20:12: Who has startled the Witch? Monster discussion.
24:25: The growing sentience of the Director. Fear it.
26:00: The flesh of the walking dead examined.
26:50: Influences on the writing of Left 4 Dead and it being a hyper-violent Mario-Party.
29:20: On the changing of the character designs.
30:14: Erik quizzed on the general writing process at Valve. Plus the joys of swearing.
33:20: The voice-acting in Left 4 Dead. Mike Patton's odd career progression discussed.
35:50: TF2 Voice-actor crossover. And the mysteries of TF2's accents debated and mocked, much to Erik's chagrin.
39:00: Voice-acting in Valve in general. How does it work, eh? TELL US.
42:53: Favourite moments in terrible voice-acting.
43:43: And, inevitably, Hellboy. Nice Rice Hat.
46:00: And wrapping up and similar, including Erik mocking us for our weakness.