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The Book Club Episode

Monday’s episode of In-Game Chat can now be downloaded.

This episode was a bit like a run-on sentence for us.  We began with a small handful of good ideas and ended very far indeed from where we’d set out to be.  Satisfaction is high among the cast with Left 4 Dead, and we’re coasting through the final months of the year with the joy that comes of pawing through a bloated catalog.  But there’s a strong feeling that we’re entering the denouement of this year’s release schedule, or that we’re at the tail end of a passing storm – a strong one.   

We’re picking up the pieces now or pulling together the plot lines or whatever metaphor you prefer.  In any case we’re close to the end of another, unnecessarily crowded holiday schedule, with just enough time left in the holidays proper to gorge ourselves, purge, and gorge again before the new year, the resolutions and the discounts and sales.  The offerings  thus far have been more impressive than depressing, so we can only hope that sentiment will hold true when all is laid down for the final tally next month.

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Episodes

The Hard Lock Episode

IGC weekend edition is available here.

We throw around a lot of elbows in this episode, not so much due to any fundamental disagreements, but because its easy to get exceptionally irate about hardware issues when your beloved console starts rebelling against you.  The show suffered some unavoidable Mirror’s Edge lockups on the PS3 this week – a problem that was unresolved, but cleverly circumvented – as well as a constant stream of full stops on the XBox; problems almost certainly related to the new front-end.

While all of our issues have been corroborated by testimonials on the internet, it does our hearts no good to know that even a small percentage of the base shares our pain.  Our heads appreciate the statistic, though, and the thought that it may generate official support for our problems, however insignificant they may seem.  Meanwhile, we console ourselves with the ritual of trouble-shooting and problem solving that years of  PC ownership has made so familiar.  We apologize if our prickly tirade harshes anyone’s nxe-avatar-generated mellow.

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Episodes Interviews

The Big American Episode

A very special Wednesday episode of In-Game Chat can be found here.

This show marks our first opportunity to deliver an interview following the loss of our live format and broadcast studio. Fielding guest callers from the industry and community alike has been a fundamental part of our show’s history, and it’s just about the only thing that’s more difficult with our new format and equipment.  There was a bit of finger-crossing involved in getting things to work, and it was very nearly underscored by an unbroken stream of country music, but regardless of the overall quality, we think you’ll be pleased with the results.  Clues to the caller’s identity are in the show title and bumper music, and we’ll talk about him in other places soon enough, so enjoy the interview.

Once the call is complete, we settle right in to the righteous business of yapping about games.  The now-current X-Box experience is hours old, and we’re busying ourselves mastering new frames, bells and whistles, and whatever flaws and bugs the knowledge-base can put together.  There have been a few problems on our end, but we’re still optimistic about the future here.  We also feel pretty good about Left 4 Dead – no surprise, since it delivers on its promises and then some – as well the new Call of Duty – which really was a bit of a surprise, though apparently not to everyone.  You can find the details, and more, just on the other side of the link.  So enjoy, and thanks again for listening.

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Episodes

The Monday After Episode

The Monday, November 17th episode, though late, is here.

Three out of four co-hosts agree that Mirror’s Edge meets, exceeds or misses expectations, depending on the scenario in question.  The fourth spent too much time on pinball this weekend to have an opinion.  Meets/exceeds was the commonest choice, as misses only applied to the occasional squirrelly combat sequence.  So it’s not much of a surprise that we like it, but it’s nonetheless reassuring to know that what was delivered is what was sold. 

How Scott has gone even a week without mention of the upcoming DeLorean “time machine” in Burnout Paradise is unknowable, as it represents an intersection of his most cherished virtual and fictional worlds.  Maybe the joy was simply too great to share.  But regardless of hover-mode and burning tire trails, I think just about anyone can appreciate the after-market support EA continue to lavish upon this game.  Maybe it’s safe to believe this long term care may one day be more rule than exception.

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Episodes

The Interface Episode

The weekend edition of In-Game Chat is up.

Apart from being hip deep in our games of choice tonight (about which there is plenty to tell) we’re particularly interested in hearing about the new XBox interface that we’ll all be subject to by the middle of next week.  With only one early adopter among us, we can’t exactly claim a comprehensive understanding of all the changes in store.  But Scott, in particular, has spent a significant amount of time with what turns out to be a surprisingly deep and user friendly UI.  

This isn’t the first time we’ve had words about the 360’s front end, and it probably won’t be the last, but there are enough of the right kinds of changes in place that harsh words may become exceedingly rare.  Now we simply need to cross our fingers and toes and hope like hell the rollout doesn’t cripple the Live service altogether.  3 days and counting…we’ll know for sure soon enough.

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Episodes

The Unexpected Episode

The Wednesday episode of In-Game Chat is available now.

It’s an hour of catch-up, plain and simple.  Monday’s episode was given over entirely to the launch of this year’s Child’s Play charity drive, which took precedence over every topic we’d have otherwise covered, and rightfully so.  But having dealt with that, it’s back to our usual jaw-wagging, and we’ve got an awful lot more in mind to cover than we can ever get to in the time allowed.

Gears of War 2 and Mirror’s Edge feature prominently in our lives this week, and the Left 4 Dead demo left a deep, life-threatening mark on everyone.  Of course, at the time of our recording, Wrath of the Lich King is mere hours away from launch, and therefore dominates my own personal landscape.  Now, at the time of this writing, the expedition to Northrend is underway, and I have serious business to attend to in Howling Fjord.  So if you’ll excuse me…

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Episodes

The Child’s Play Episode

The Monday, November 10th episode is now available here.

Our final live broadcast is in the can, and what better send off than to use it to launch the Colony of Gamers Child’s Play fundraiser.  As has been done in the past, we’ve invited Kristin Lindsay to the show to discuss the particulars of the charity and to help us inaugurate our efforts.  Charitable giving is often its own reward, but we’re always happy to cajole and to provide incentives designed to stimulate participation.  We hope that you find this year’s incentive package compelling enough to add your support.

There’s hardly enough space here to list everything up for grabs, but donations of original hand-crafted items from the community or a personalized voice-mail message from the likes of David (yes, Solid Snake) Hayter or Jonathan Coulton are among the initial prizes available, with more to follow in the near future.  The details of this year’s drive, and a detailed listing of the unique items and opportunities you could win through participation, can be found at Colony of Gamers (colonyofgamers.com).  Keep an eye to the list on CoG and an ear to the show in the coming weeks for updates and additions.  As always, we thank you immensely for listening, and thank you further now for giving in whatever way you can.

Direct link to the Child’s Play thread here.

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Episodes

The Prettiest Episode

The weekend edition of In-Game Chat is available now.

Every so often we find that gaming news and important headlines are so blessedly scarce that we can avoid them almost entirely and can instead spend a whole show focused on subjective concerns.  But this is usually a spring or summer affair, the second half of the year being amply supplied with current and upcoming releases.  We’ve done our part for this meeting, sure.  Scott and I love the added value of the Mirror’s Edge time trial, Daniel is the first among the hosts to take a swing at the Left 4 Dead pre-order demo, and Jeremy suspects he’s finally closing in on his old man in Fallout.

We really like ordered and orderly discussion of well researched topics, but sometimes, in an effort to avoid repetition, we have no choice but to surrender to word association or stream of consciousness to develop a flow.  Today’s flow, for whatever reason, had something to do with Cliffy B and the 360’s prettiest games.  Apropos of almost nothing, I swear.

For this writing I’d like to include one last note on the shameless self-promotion of our final LIVE broadcast on Monday the 10th.  We continue to tap-dance all over this subject not because it marks the end of our singular, original format (IGC was once all-live), but because it marks the beginning of the Colony of Gamers community Child’s Play drive.  We are very fond of this event, and we hope for the sake of charity that you can indulge our goading one last time.  Charity is good for the soul, but in the event you’ve misplaced yours, we aim to make it worth your while.

intro – Ace Combat 5, game over

outro – Ghost Recon, anthem

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Episodes

The Time Trial Episode

Your post-election episode of IGC is now available for download.

Our expectations for Mirror’s Edge haven’t waned in the least, but we’d begun to let our excitement slide in favor of games we have in the here-and-now, rather than what we see over the horizon, no matter how near that may be.  But this was before Scott shared with us a slice of his experience with the game’s time trial mode.  We were truly excited for Faith’s adventure to begin with, but to know that it actually delivers on the promise of re-playability and competition renews our enthusiasm altogether.

Our enthusiasm this week for Fallout isn’t so much renewed as it is sustained.  The cast still has a ragbag of ways for relating to the game, each as different as the user, and each one continually reinforced by Fallout’s unique rewards system.  We don’t necessarily refer to tangible rewards, of course.  Not bottlecaps or perks, but scenes and scenery and the refreshingly powerful magic of one person comparing his story to another’s; host to host, listener to podcast.

Intro music is the Warhammer theme, outro is from World of Goo.

Thanks to Ten19 for both.

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Episodes

The Penultimate Episode

Your Monday, November 3rd episode is now available for download.

Thankfully, today’s title doesn’t refer to the show as a whole, but rather to it’s live broadcast component.  IGC has only one more show to produce in this manner, but we can assure you it will be among the most rewarding.  While we’d love to discuss specifics, we think it best to let the content speak for itself come Monday the 10th, so mark calendars and clear schedules as necessary, and join us for the end of our long-held tradition.

As for the content of this particular episode, we devote a predictable share to further notes on Fallout, which include, but aren’t limited to, performance comparisons, character flaws manifested in our play styles, and the strangely consistent weight of minor objects in the mid-future. We also retrace our steps through the Mirror’s Edge demo, all the hosts now being on the same page, though not necessarily of the same mind.  Finally, we cast an appropriately grim look at our wallets after eyeing the weekly release, and recognize that we’re helpless to resist 8-way coop or a gang of thick-necked thugs.  Hard times indeed.