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Episodes

The No Balls Episode

I have no clue why we used that name for this show, but the answer is bound to be somewhere behind this link.

E3 is just a few short days away, and at the time of this recording, none of the early news items had been distributed through the usual channels, so we’re left with plenty of editorializing and very little solid information.  Fortunately, our twitter and email correspondents have given us everything we need to fuel a second hour of the program.  Apologies all around for the garbled responses or for any questions that weren’t directly answered.  You’ll find yourselves at the top of the pile next week, we swear.

Scott’s LA itinerary is complete, the news tickers are filled with fresh tape, and we’ve all sheltered our own personal hopes for expo announcements even though we refuse to mention them on the air for fear of being horribly wrong.  Once they hit the feeds, however, we’ll be glad to say we knew it all along.  And, sadly, the one drawback to having a passenger on the hype-train is that we won’t be recording our program next week.  Scott is sure to have plenty to say during the show and more when he returns, but his absence makes our usual get-together unlikely.

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Episodes

The Beef Wellington Episode

A full helping of IGC, somewhat late to the table, is available at this link.

Much like the traditional preparation of beef tenderloin, this episode of In-Game Chat is both classy and succulent. In addition to your standard host assortment, we offer a side order of Matt and Dave – the very best the Air Force has to offer – and we invite you to join us in laughing at the antics of people you seriously don’t even know.  

We’ve spent just enough time with this week’s terrible games to confirm their terrible gameplay, and just enough time looking into the bright-light future of E3 to believe that there’s real salvation to be found on the show floor next week.  There are solid games from the recent past that still demand our attention, and the promise of some seriously polished gameplay in the near future, but we’ve always had a weakness for the sound and fury of E3, no matter how little it may actually signify.

We’d also like to note in this space, as we have in the episode itself, how much we enjoy it when the tweets drop during our recording.  We’re quite good enough at going on for hours on our own, but it’s nice to have an unexpected course correction at or around the 45 minute mark to keep us keen.  Much like the listener mail, this will become something we can’t live without.

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Episodes

The Trapped In Time Episode

We’re all out of bubblegum at the following link.

The hosts, much like the subjects in any given Star Trek plot, often find themselves trapped deep in the past.  For the trekkers there is often a desperate struggle to return themselves to their natural timeline and the space-time continuum to its natural shape.  For us, however, the goal is more and more often to lament the past we’d like to live in.  Or, more accurately, to paean for the future that damn well should have been.  In both cases, at least, technology is entirely to blame.

Duke Nukem had long been a part of our past, and was forever going to be a part of our future, but the hope is almost certainly gone following the collapse of 3D Realms, and with it go the sad memes and tired punch-lines of a generation.  If pending litigation happens to work in gamers’ favor, DN may well reappear in the future like a slain soap opera villain.  In the mean time, we’ll exercise our ability to disagree on points regarding Duke which even the internet saw well enough to leave alone.

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Interviews

The Space Invaders Extreme Interview

Space Invaders Extreme invading your space….extremely. Yeah, just click here.

In this interview episode, we talk with Sandra Lew from Foundation 9, parent company of Backbone Entertainment, developers of “Space Invaders Extreme” for Xbox Live Arcade.

If you’re curious how an idea comes about to take a classic game like “Space Invaders” and do to it what Backbone did, you’ll want to take a listen. From the idea to integrate music into the attacks to what it takes when making the transition into High Definition. Not only that, but we find out how those collectible prints came about and what games we’d like to see get a revision (Hint: @!#?@!).

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Episodes

The GRAAAAAW Episode

The scraping of claws and gnashing of teeth can be clearly heard at this link.

We’ve always been quick to nurture a preoccupation with licensed games and the terrible gulf in quality they display in comparison to the source material.  Wolverine is very much at a distance from its big-screen counterpart, but has the wonderful distinction of being the superior product in almost every regard.  

That a comic book movie could fail so spectacularly is no great shock, and that the game in question has done quite well by fans and critics is now a fairly old bit of news, but our surprise at this fantastic inversion is something we can’t quite repress.

We’ve finally had our Jeremy returned to us, and he’s made time after the welcome-backs to point out some terrible inaccuracies in our previous two recordings – at least the ones that pertain to him, which, given the tone of what had been said, I can’t blame him for doing.

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Episodes

The Fool Pitying Episode

In 1972 a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit.  These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade and clicked on this week’s new episode link.

At some time in the past, likely years ago at this point, the quality of the Lego Star Wars games led the hosts to suggest that the combination of Lego and any beloved series was a natural path to joy and success.  Putting aside the fact that we were completely wrong, we’re tempted to repeat that claim where Mr T is concerned, and we’d do it based solely on the strength of a single, meme-tastic game announcement.

Once again we have to point out the sad lack of our Jeremy for this episode.  He has a bountiful family, and those things come with birthdays and other wondrous obligations of kinship.  What we have left here are the misers and hermits with no obligations and no ties that bind.  We’re sure someone out there understands.