Friday, April 20, 2012
Episode 52 – “Scalpels Today, Daleks Tomorrow”
Running Time: 1:25:54
Show Notes
- Hologram Tupac shows up at Coachella 15 years after his death. Not really a hologram though.
- The space shuttle Discovery makes its final voyage to D.C. for its retirement.
- Scientists have finally created an real sonic screwdriver.
- The new iPhone may use liquidmetal for its outer case.
- ‘Tekken Tag Tournament 2′ will not have paid character DLC.
- Amazon ‘accidently’ leaks the news that there will be a new ‘God of War’ game.
- There’s a new demo out for the CryENGINE 3 and it’s amazing!
- Sony is coming out with Nasne in Japan. We sadly will never see this awesome PS3 accessory in the US.
- Google Drive all but confirmed. 5gb of free storage out of the box. You can pay for more. Launching next week?
- ‘Halo 4′ announced. Conan O’Brien and Andy Richter will be in it. Yeah, you read that right.
- Rumors swirl again about an iPad mini. Could they be true?
- ’007 Legends’ will allow you to follow in the footsteps of all the previous James Bonds.
- ‘Marvel vs Capcom 2′ coming to iOS. Bets on DLC?
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Roku app for iOS and Android
Jerry – ‘Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol’ on DVD and Blu-Ray
Jason – Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials
John – none
We want to hear from you! 219-292-GEEK (4335)
All links for the stories discussed can be found at the Delicious page for this episode.
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Saturday, April 14, 2012
Episode 51 – “$1,000,000,000″
Running Time: 2:06:02
Show Notes
- Facebook buys Instagram for $1 billion.
- The BBB comes down on EA and Capcom.
- The Department of Justice sues Apple over e-book price fixing.
- California makes Gamestop put warning stickers on used games letting consumers know free DLC is not available.
- Best Buy CEO ousted over an affair with a fellow employee.
- Sony fires 10,000 people to achieve their ‘unified Sony’ vision.
- Microsoft buys over 800 patents from AOL for $1 billion. They essentially own Netscape now. The 90s browser war is now over.
- Realnetworks, AltaVista and Webcrawler are all still around (mostly in name only). Who knew?
- The Wii U is rumored to have a price tag of $300.
- Nintendo registers SuperMario4.com. Maybe we will be buying a Wii U after all.
- People want to see Battletoads DLC for the new Double Dragon reboot.
- Capcom, Sega and Namco working on a huge crossover strategy RPG called Project X Zone.
- Apples files a patent for wireless charging inside of retail packaging.
- John Romero is working on another PC shooter. Good Lord…
- Xbox 720 rumored to sport a 16 core CPU.
- Castlevania Symphony of The Night turns 15 this week.
- Microsoft takes Vista out back and puts it out of its misery. Finally sets an end of life date for it.
- New pic of Catwoman from The Dark Knight Rises comes out. We like!
- Google+ gets a makeover.
- Etsy has a $3500 fully functional NES controller coffee table. We want!!
- Sony is hinting on their website that they may indeed be a God of War IV in the works.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – ‘I Am Alive’ on PSN
Jerry – ‘Uncharted 3′ for PS3
Jason – Ikea desks
Dale – networkawesome.com
We want to hear from you! 219-292-GEEK (4335)
All links for the stories discussed can be found at the Delicious page for this episode.
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Friday, April 06, 2012
Episode 50 – “Swish & Spit”
Running Time: 2:22:56
Show Notes
- Verizon is making new DSL customers sign up for home phone service as well.
- Sprint confirms that LTE phones can be used on unlimited data plans.
- More people are cutting the cable than ever before.
- Glass Glasses unveiled. Where can we pre-order?
- Ashton Kutcher is set to star as Steve Jobs. We have mixed feelings about this.
- New Total Recall trailer is out and we’re excited!
- New footage released from The Avengers shows us some great ‘action’ from Black Widow.
- Wii U release date leaked? Do we care? Does anyone really?
- MIT has developed ‘self-sculpting sand’. More sci-fi coming to reality.
- Double Dragin is gett a reboot on XBL and PSN. We debate if it’s going to be worth it.
- XBox 720 may have built in Blu-Ray and dual GPUs.
- Sonic’s co-creator has joined Nintendo. Maybe the Mayans were right.
- Doctor Who (the Mat Smith years) re-imagined as an 8-bit RPG. TIME TRAVEL!
- Sony is coming out with their own Smash Bros. clone.
- Think Geek has made their April Fool’s Captain Kirk inflatable chair. We want one!
- Amazon Instant Video hits the PS3.
- Bungie throws out some mind boggling stats as they say goodbye to the Halo franchise.
- Capcom takes a very dangerous stance on DLC in their rebuttal to the BBB.
- The Daleks have made a relaxation video on their hiatus. Prepare to be relaxed.
- John and Jerry share their thoughts on the 100 Best Video Game Weapons.
- The #300 challenge on the MK Challenge Tower has been completed. Insane!
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – ‘Tough Sh*t’ by Kevin Smith
Jerry – Justice League Doom on Blu-ray
John – Tales of Graces F for PS3
We want to hear from you! 219-292-GEEK (4335)
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Friday, March 31, 2012
Episode 49 – “Happy National Cleavage Day”
Running Time: 2:15:17
Show Notes
- Details about the Playstation 4 are leaked.
- Angry Birds Space is downloaded 10 million times in 3 days!
- Potential employers are asking applicants for their Twitter & Facebook passwords. DON’T!!
- Xfinity for XBox 360 On Demand is not going to count against your monthly Comcast bandwidth cap.
- Man cuts off own foot and bakes it to avoid going to work.
- Real life Portal gun coming soon.
- James Cameron goes to the deepest depths of the ocean.
- Jeff Bezos finds the Apollo 11 rockets.
- Netflix passes on extending ‘Terra Nova”s life.
- Netflix splits its DVD & streaming services again. Bet you didn’t notice.
- Best Buy closing 50 big box stores but opening up 100 mobile shops.
- Sega lays off a good portion of its North America operations
- Soul Calibur V didn’t have a full story mode because they ‘ran out of time’. Bullshit or an excuse for more DLC?
- The Art of Portal 2 book coming our this October.
- Soul Reaver reboot is in the works.
- Jerry is looking forward to Lollipop Chainsaw.
- They’re making a sequel to the comedy ‘Twins’. Why??
- The new Robocop talks a bit about the new movie.
- The makers behind American Reunion want to reboot Back To The Future. We must stop this!!
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Plex server
Jerry – Ikari Warriors on PSN
Jason – The New iPad
We want to hear from you! 219-292-GEEK (4335)
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Friday, March 23, 2012
Episode 48 – “T.A.I.N.T.”
Running Time: 1:55:29
Show Notes
- The New iPad sells 3 million units in 3 days.
- We don’t use traditional cameras anymore — we use our phones.
- Latest trailer for ‘Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter’ is kick ass!
- A new viral video is released for ‘The amazing Spider-Man’. Sadly, we cannot get through on the hotline.
- The new Doctor Who companion is revealed.
- What TV shows are coming back next year? We take a look.
- New trailer for the Battlestar Galactica Prequel ‘Blood and Chrome’ is released.
- Michael Bay is destroying our childhood yet again by ‘reworking’ the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
- Minecraft is coming to XBLA.
- We go over the video game releases for 3/27/12.
- We talk DLC. It has its pros and cons.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Path for iOS and Android
Jerry – Mega Man Maverick Hunter X for PSP and VITA
Jason – Draw Something for iOS and Android
We want to hear from you! 219-292-GEEK (4335)
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Saturday, March 17, 2012
Episode 47 – “Ready, AIM, You’re Fired!”
Running Time: 1:08:30
Show Notes
- iPad 3 is out! Should you get one?
- Diablo III gets a release date and it’s sooner then you think!
- Neo-Geo retro portable coming out in Q2 2012.
- Encyclopedia Britannica is stopping its print edition. Does anyone care?
- AOL kills AIM by getting rid of the development team.
- Google is apparently paranoid beyond belief in its data centers.
- Take a look at this awesome GameBoy Transformer made from Legos.
- XBox 720 rumored to have no optical disk drive. Huh?
- They are making a Garbage Pail Kids movie. Hello 1985!
- New wearable micro screen with the same resolution as the new iPad. We are Borg.
- Lego R2-D2 coming. Must have!
- We discuss the upcoming Growing Up Geek Network.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – AKG K44 studio headphones
Jason – D-Link DCS-932L IP camera
We want to hear from you! 219-292-GEEK (4335)
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Friday, March 9, 2012
Episode 46 – “One Claim To Fame”
Running Time: 1:18:04
Show Notes
- iPad 3 details are finally released. We hit the nail on the head!
- iOS 5.1 released. Cool new features.
- New Apple TV announced.
- Mass Effect 3 is released. Not really our kind of game though.
- Street Fighter X Tekken released. Trevor goes in-depth with his play experience.
- We talk about new games coming out this week and announced games for the rest of 2012.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Street Fighter X Tekken
Jerry – The Simpsons arcade game
We want to hear from you! 219-292-GEEK (4335)
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Friday, March 2, 2012
Episode 45 – “How To Shut Down Your Computer In 18 Easy Steps”
Running Time: 1:40:32
Show Notes
- Microsoft releases a public version of Windows 8 to preview. We don’t understand how to use it, and we’re not alone!
- We talk more iPad 3 rumors.
- Jerry talks about his online experience with Twisted Metal.
- The new trailer for The Avengers is out. Oh yeah!
- EverQuest is going to freeplay. We bid goodbye to Trevor.
- Gas is going up and up. Major suckage.
- We discuss the fun of summer trips and vacations.
- Top Gun 2 movie? WTF?
- Super Mario 3 airship built from over 8,000 Legos. Awesome!
- We let you know what games to look for this week at the store.
- Hands on with the PS VITA.
- We talk about Doctor Who: Eternity Clock.
- Do video game reviews actually help? We believe they do if you find the right reviewer.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Weather Live for iOS
Jerry – Uncharted for PS VITA
Jason – The Lord Of The Rings Extended Edition on Blu-Ray.
All links for the stories discussed can be found at the Delicious page for this episode.
We want to hear from you! 219-292-GEEK (4335)
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Friday, February 17, 2012
Episode 44 – “Oh My”
Running Time: 1:17:45
Show Notes
- Trevor is brining back the ascot.
- Apple announces the next version of OS X, dubbed Mountain Lion.
- Auto-pic upload to Google+ comes to iOS.
- We talk Google+.
- Google Drive. Could it be around the corner?
- We talk about upcoming storage service Bitcasa.
- Gatekeeper for OS X 10.8. Back to a walled garden?
- iPad 3 will have a Retina display.
- Twisted Metal is being made into a movie.
- Jerry talked about his experience with the new Twisted Metal game.
- PSP Vita. Why we’re going to wait.
- Mattel is going to sell a prop replica Hoverboard. Maybe.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Alfred for OS X
Jerry – Twisted Metal for PS3
Jason – Bucky Balls
All links for the stories discussed can be found at the Delicious page for this episode.
We want to hear from you! 219-292-GEEK (4335)
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Saturday, February 11, 2012
Episode 43 – “Rx Required”
Running Time: 1:49:59
Show Notes
- Why do we still Pirate? Is it an age thing?
- Upcoming movies and games.
- Jerry goes in depth on Soul Calibur V.
- Cutting the cord from your cable provider is great. Just have a plan.
- Trevor has no voice, Jerry has audio issues, and as always, we go on tangents.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Roku streaming box
Jerry – Soul Calibur V
Jason – Traxxas Rustler RC Car
We want to hear from you! 219-292-GEEK (4335)
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Friday, February 3, 2012
Episode 42 – “Until I Hit The Wall”
Running Time: 1:27:35
Show Notes
- We’re back from vacation.
- We talk about the upcoming movies for 2012.
- We talk about the upcoming games for 2012.
- We talk new iPads.
Picks Of The Week
No Picks This Week
We want to hear from you! 219-292-GEEK (4335)
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Saturday, July 2, 2011
Episode 41 – “That’s One Doomed Space Marine”
Running Time: 1:44:00
Show Notes
- Google enters The Social (again) with Google+.
- MySpace gets sold for a paltry $35million.
- Facebook to being Skype Video Chat to its site? Maybe.
- Google in talk to buy Hulu.
- Star Trek is now available on Netflix streaming.
- We discuss Duke Nukem Forever.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Peter Gabriel’s New Blood Tour
Jerry – Duke Nukem Forever
All links for the stories discussed can be found at the Delicious page for this episode.
We want to hear from you! 219-292-GEEK (4335)
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Monday, June 20, 2011
Episode 40 – “Hey, Cap This!”
Running Time: 0:56:46
Show Notes
- LulzSec hacks the CIA and US Senate.
- Sega gets hacked, LulzSec offers to go after the hackers and teach them a lesson.
- New cable tech promises 4.5 GPS download and 575 MBPS upload. Great, but useless with data caps.
- Netflix launches bandwidth tools for its US customers that suffer from monthly data caps.
- Sony and Starz pulls their movies from Netflix Instant Streaming due to ‘temporary contract issues’.
- NY Post blocks access to its site on iPad’s mobile Safari browser. Makes people subscribe to its app. WTF?
- Guy builds a Virtual Boy arcade cabinet. We’re seriously impressed.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Duke Nukem Forever
Jason – AppStorm Freelance Mac App Bundle
All links for the stories discussed can be found at the Delicious page for this episode.
We want to hear from you! 219-292-GEEK (4335)
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Saturday, June 11, 2011
Episode 39 – “Screenmote”
Running Time: 1:49:59
Show Notes
Special coverage of E3 2011. Click here for a listing of what we covered.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – ‘L.A. Noire’
Jerry – The ‘Portal’ franchise
We want to hear from you! 219-292-GEEK (4335)
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Saturday, May 14, 2011
Episode 38 – “Microsoft SKY(pe) NET(work)”
Running Time: 0:59:07
Show Notes
- Microsoft buys Skype for $8.6 billion. Hello Microsoft SKY(pe) NET(work).
- PSN is still down. ‘Duke Nukem Forever’ still not out. Carry on.
- Obi-Wan Kenobi killed! Elite team of Imperial soldiers responsible.
- Robots fight with lightsabers. Only in Japan.
- Osama bin Laden killed by Star Trek’s Maquis freedom fighters. At least, according to the Germans.
- ‘Lineage’ shutting down their North American servers.
- ‘Soul Calibur V’ coming to PS3 and XBox 360 in 2012!
- Info and screens from ‘Modern Warfare 3′ leaked.
- ‘Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection’ coming to PSN (stop snickering) and XBox Live in Q3.
- Nintendo launching 3DS eShop on June 7. Just don’t call it an ‘app store’.
- 3D Android handsets are demoed. Do we really need 3D cell phones?
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – ‘Army of Darkness Defense’ for iOS.
Jason – ‘The Final Hours of Portal 2′ for iPad.
Dale – ”Disc Drivin’ for iOS.
All links for the stories discussed can be found at the Delicious page for this episode.
We want to hear from you! 219-292-GEEK (4335)
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Saturday, May 7, 2011
Episode 37 – “…And A Reach-Around”
Running Time: 1:58:49
Show Notes
- PlayStation Network is still down. Their ‘Welcome Back’ package seems really weak.
- The Smithsonian is having a exhibit featuring Video Game Art next year. Road trip!
- Put a hot girl in a latex Mario outfit and what do you get?
- May 5th marked the 19th anniversary of ‘Wolfenstein 3-D’.
- The ‘arcade experience’ is something we dearly miss and cherish.
- There’s a new TRON pinball machine out. Looks awesome, but where can we play with with arcades gone?
- New ‘Duke Nukem Forever’ video released. Let the damage control continue.
- ‘Chrono Trigger’ finally coming to the Wii Virtual Console.
- The new Wii system will have 8gb of internal flash memory. Why even bother?
- “Resistance 3′ demo is being bundled with copies of ‘Battle: Los Angeles’.
- Aaron’s has been spying on its customers who have rented PC and laptops. Will companies never learn?
- ‘Duke Nukem Forever’ PC requirements are finally released. Be prepared to upgrade.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – ‘Masters of Doom’ by David Kushner.
Jerry – ‘In Plain Sight’ season 4 on USA.
Jason – ‘Super Crate Box’ for PC & Mac.
All links for the stories discussed can be found at the Delicious page for this episode.
We want to hear from you! 219-292-GEEK (4335)
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Tuesday, May 02, 2011
Episode 36 – “It’s On The PlayStation Network”
Running Time: 2:35:15
Show Notes
- Sony FINALLY admits that PSN was hacked…all 77 million accounts!
- Will you go back to PSN once it comes back? Can we ever trust Sony again?
- NVIDIA announces support for SLI with new AMD processors.
- We wax nostalgic about the tech of yesteryear.
- iBUYPOWER is offering customer built PCs thru Wal-Mart.
- Redbox will start to offer $2 a night game rentals in June.
- Nintendo discontinues the DS Lite.
- Nintendo set to demo new Wii system at E3 in June.
- Capcom makes it official — no more content planned for ‘Marvel vs Capcom 3′.
- Netflix now has more subscribers than Comcast.
- Microsoft is changing the BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) in Windows 8 to black. Still to be called BSOD.
- Sony releases a trailer for their new PlayStation certified tablets. Bad timing with PSN down?
- Friendster is shutting its doors and wiping its hard drives. Does any one actually still use Friendster?
- Delicious is sold to the founders of YouTube.
- Apple rumored to bs testing an iPhone on T-Mobile’s network. Makes sense since AT&T want to buy T-Mobile.
- Sharp making new ‘Thiner’ screens for the iPhone 6.
- A guy takes an iPad to Coachella and takes pictures during the concert with it, holding iit up like a cell phone. Bravo, good sir!
- Joss Whedon working on a sequel to Dr. Horrible.
- ‘Weird Al’ releases a new song (Lady Gaga parody) with a new album forthcoming.
- Amazon launches a new 69 cent music store.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Wuala online storage service.
Jerry – ‘The Fall of Sam Axe’ TV movie.
Jason – ‘Portal 2′ for PS3.
Dale – Pica Pic handheld game collection.
All links for the stories discussed can be found at the Delicious page for this episode.
We want to hear from you! 219-292-GEEK (4335)
]]>Here is the email we received from Sony:
===================================
PlayStation(R)Network
===================================
Valued PlayStation(R)Network/Qriocity Customer:
We have discovered that between April 17 and April 19, 2011,
certain PlayStation Network and Qriocity service user account
information was compromised in connection with an illegal and
unauthorized intrusion into our network. In response to this
intrusion, we have:
1) Temporarily turned off PlayStation Network and Qriocity services;
2) Engaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full
and complete investigation into what happened; and
3) Quickly taken steps to enhance security and strengthen our
network infrastructure by rebuilding our system to provide you
with greater protection of your personal information.
We greatly appreciate your patience, understanding and goodwill
as we do whatever it takes to resolve these issues as quickly and
efficiently as practicable.
Although we are still investigating the details of this incident,
we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following
information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country,
email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login,
and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data,
including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip),
and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may
have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your
dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have
been obtained. While there is no evidence at this time that credit
card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have
provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity,
out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit
card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have
been obtained.
For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email,
telephone and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive
information. Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email,
asking for your credit card number, social security number or other
personally identifiable information. If you are asked for this information,
you can be confident Sony is not the entity asking. When the PlayStation
Network and Qriocity services are fully restored, we strongly recommend that
you log on and change your password. Additionally, if you use your PlayStation
Network or Qriocity user name or password for other unrelated services or
accounts, we strongly recommend that you change them as well.
To protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss, we
encourage you to remain vigilant, to review your account statements and
to monitor your credit reports. We are providing the following information
for those who wish to consider it:
- U.S. residents are entitled under U.S. law to one free credit report annually
from each of the three major credit bureaus. To order your free credit report,
visit www.annualcreditreport.com or call toll-free (877) 322-8228.
- We have also provided names and contact information for the three major U.S.
credit bureaus below. At no charge, U.S. residents can have these credit bureaus
place a “fraud alert” on your file that alerts creditors to take additional steps
to verify your identity prior to granting credit in your name. This service can
make it more difficult for someone to get credit in your name. Note, however,
that because it tells creditors to follow certain procedures to protect you,
it also may delay your ability to obtain credit while the agency verifies your
identity. As soon as one credit bureau confirms your fraud alert, the others
are notified to place fraud alerts on your file. Should you wish to place a
fraud alert, or should you have any questions regarding your credit report,
please contact any one of the agencies listed below:
Experian: 888-397-3742; www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013
Equifax: 800-525-6285; www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
TransUnion: 800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division,
P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790
- You may wish to visit the website of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission at
www.consumer.gov/idtheft or reach the FTC at 1-877-382-4357 or 600 Pennsylvania
Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20580 for further information about how to protect
yourself from identity theft. Your state Attorney General may also have advice
on preventing identity theft, and you should report instances of known or
suspected identity theft to law enforcement, your State Attorney General,
and the FTC. For North Carolina residents, the Attorney General can be
contacted at 9001 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-9001; telephone
(877) 566-7226; or www.ncdoj.gov. For Maryland residents, the Attorney
General can be contacted at 200 St. Paul Place, 16th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202;
telephone: (888) 743-0023; or www.oag.state.md.us.
We thank you for your patience as we complete our investigation of this
incident, and we regret any inconvenience. Our teams are working around the
clock on this, and services will be restored as soon as possible. Sony takes
information protection very seriously and will continue to work to ensure that
additional measures are taken to protect personally identifiable information.
Providing quality and secure entertainment services to our customers is
our utmost priority. Please contact us at 1-800-345-7669 should you have any
additional questions.
Sincerely,
Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Network Entertainment
What does this all mean? First, it means that if you linked your Facebook account to your PSN account, log into Facebook and change your password as soon as possible. Second, if you use the same pass word for your PSN account that you use for your linked email address, change that immediately as well. Sony has freely admitted that this information is now in the hands of an unknown nefarious party.
Now, what about your credit card? While Sony specifically says it doesn’t believe this information has been compromised, there is no good reason to assume it hasn’t been. If you want to be safe, contact your credit card company that you used for your PSN account, have that account suspended and new number issued to you. If you used your bank card, contact your bank and have a new card issued with a new number. You can never be too careful.
While we are not sure what the long term effects of this outage will be or when the PSN will come back online, this serves as a good wake up call to everyone. When you hand over your personal/financial information, it can be stolen. This is far from the first time something like this has happened. Unfortunately, this is the first time it has happened to PSN. This could easily have been XBox LIVE, and it may every well happen to them next.
What lessons can we learn from this?
- If you’re willing to give over your information willingly, be prepared to have it stolen.
- Never use the same password for your gaming account and your email account.
- If you’re worried about your credit card being stolen, use pre-paid gaming cards. This is why they are available.
–Trevor
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Friday, April 22, 2011
Episode 35 – “Raining Bits”
Running Time: 2:10:19
Show Notes
- Amazon’s EC2 cloud service went down. Is ‘The Cloud’ really the future?
- PSN service goes down. Millions of gamers are pissed.
- Ed Boon defends the use of Online Pass.
- More damage control (video) for ‘Duke Nukem Forever’. This time however, we get to see some boobies.
- Current generation smart phones are a reto-gamer’s dream.
- Dale temps us by showing us the Pandora box. We now crave one.
- Google Video shutting down. Did anyone notice?
- Windows XP Death Watch countdown widget doesn’t work on Windows XP. Ironic?
- iPad 2 sells out almost immediately at Toys R Us.
- Verizon reports 2.2 million iPhone activations in Q1. AT&T reports 3.6 million iPhone activations. Take that Big Red!
- Apple sues Samsung over the Galaxy tablet and phone.
- The iPhone randomly logs your location and saves it on your phone. Should you care?
- AMD introduces new sub-$100 video cards that don’t suck. JP is excited.
- ‘Chrono Trigger’ is FINALLY coming to PSN.
- New Nintendo Wii 2 rumor — 6.2″ screen built into the controller?
- White iPhone coming out next week? Perhaps.
- ‘Mortal Kombat: Legacy’ releases episode 2. We go fanboy again.
- Want to see Playboy models play Mortal Kombat? Luckily, there’s a video of just that.
- We discuss MAME and our obsession for classic gaming.
- Growing Up Geek meetup at PAX East 2012? Possibly.
- Russian Antivirus tycoon’s son is kidnapped and ransomed.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – iVI for OS X.
Jerry – ‘Final Fantasy IV Complete’ for PSP.
Jason – Camouflage for OS X.
All links for the stories discussed can be found at the Delicious page for this episode.
We want to hear from you! 219-292-GEEK (4335)
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Sunday, April 17, 2011
Episode 34 – “Pew! Pew! Laser Beams!”
Running Time: 2:40:50
Show Notes
- WordPress.com gets hacked.
- The US Postal Service also gets hacked.
- Rumor is Nintendo is coming out with a new HD console this year. Maybe a preview at this year’s E3? Is it too little too late?
- We all have geek brains that retain useless knowledge whether we want to admit it or not.
- ‘Mortal Kombat: Legacy’ episode 1 released as a preview this past week. WOW!!
- ‘Mortal Kombat’ ‘King Of The Hill Mode’ looks pretty awesome.
- New trailer and screenshots for ‘Street Fighter X Tekken’.
- Cicso kills the flip cam along with 550 jobs. We blame the iPhone.
- iOS 4.3.2/4.2.7 is released and immediately jailbroken.
- Video Games to get their own Grammy? Maybe.
- The US Navy tests out a new ship based laser that can disable another ship. Pew! Pew!
- Man buys a 500gb Samung external HD and gets screwed in a most awesome way! (well, maybe it wasn’t awesome for him)
- Amazon released a new Kindle that is partially ad supported. However, you only get a $25 discount on the unit. Why not more?
- Jason and Trevor convince Jerry that the Kindle is indeed a legit platform. He now wants one.
- ‘Final Fantasy VI’ is being released on PSN. Once again, we buy a game we already own.
- Capcom is re-releasing ‘Street Fighter IV’, this time as ‘Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition’. Jerry will be buying this game for the 3rd time.
- Netflix adds Kinect controls to its XBox app.
- Comcast upgrades it’s internet service to ‘Extreme 105′. Bandwidth cap still firmly in place. Enjoy your new high speed for 24 minutes each month!
- Websites are offer a hack-free iPhone unlocking method. We’re calling bullshit on this one.
- New ‘Green Lantern’ footage shown at WonderCon. It’s looking a lot better.
- New ‘Aliens vs Cowboys’ trailer released. Looks great!
- Jerry and Jason discuss ‘TRON Legacy’ at length. **SPOILER ALERT**
- Details about Windows 8 start to emerge.
- Mozilla releases the first BETA of Firefox 5. It’s surprisingly stable.
- We drool over the new ‘Twisted Metal’ trailer for PS3.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Tweetbot for iOS.
Jerry – ‘A Space Shooter For 2 Bucks’ for PS3 and PSP.
Jason – trunk.ly, a social network link miner.
All links for the stories discussed can be found at the Delicious page for this episode.
We want to hear from you! 219-292-GEEK (4335)
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Saturday, April 9, 2011
Episode 33 – “It’s Just A Rumor”
Running Time: 1:22:22
Show Notes
- Epsilon hack opens the flood gates to more spam. The worst part? It happened 4 months ago.
- Best Buy rumored to be blacklisted by Apple for hoarding iPad 2.
- iPad 2 coming to a Toys R Us near you. Experiment or smart move?
- Want $50,000? Take out an ad on Craigslist and jailbreak phones all day. Why didn’t we think of this first??
- The Commodore 64 is back! But will anyone actually buy one?
- Leaked photos surface of the new iPod touch generation 5. Shortly after, faked photos of the same device surface. What should we believe?
- Firefox 5 is coming the last week of June.
- Lucky Euro-gamers will be getting to see live version of Kitana, Sonya and Mileena from MK. We’re jealous.
- ‘Mortal Kombat: Legacy’ (formally ‘Mortal Kombat: rebirth) will have a preview on April 12. Series to begin airing on April 19.
- Apple buys 12 petabytes of storage for iTunes. We try and contemplate how much storage that actually is.
- New footage surfaces from the new ‘Thundercats’ animated series. We can’t wait to set our DVRs!
- Netlflix makes a deal with CBS to begin showing every Star Trek series. Trevor starts to overload his queue.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Atari Greatest Hits – iOS and Android
Jason – abandonwear.biz (currently down) Here’s a screenshot of what it was.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Episode 32 – “The Harry Callahan”
Running Time: 2:08:37
Show Notes
- We all agree that we love to hate Michael Bay and his films.
- April Fools’s jokes are all over the internet. What were our favorites?
- New video for ‘Duke Nukem Forever’ released showing him using a jet pack. Can we say ‘damage control’?
- Women’s rights groups are protesting ‘Duke Nukem Forever’. We think it’s bullshit.
- Do you play with the Playstation Move or the XBox Kinect?
- Warner Bros. going to screw second hand gamers on online play thanks to their new token system.
- Amazon launches Cloud Drive and Cloud Player ahead of Apple and Google. Should we care?
- Record labels want you to license your purchased music that you choose to stream to yourself. Yeah, you read that right.
- The Wonder Women costume has been fixed thanks to Episode #30. You’re welcome.
- Massive SQL injection attack is spreading on the internet. Our resident IT guy explains what the hell that means for you and your sites.
- Samsung’s pre-installed keylogger has turned out to be a false positive on an ani-virus scan. JP explains why it never should have happened at all.
- New ‘Burger Time HD’ is coming out. Retro gaming seems to be King lately.
- Leonard Nimoy is returning to the Transformers universe. ‘Transformers 3′ just got a little less sucky.
- Twitter finally removes the Quickbar form their iOS app.
- Photoshop was demoed on an iPad 2. We’re getting closer to a PC replacement.
- No iPhone at WWDC this year? That’s the rumor.
- Android Market is introducing in-app billing.
- Google picks Kansas City, Kansas for their 1Gbps broadband network. We pack our bags and hire a realtor.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Teefury.com. Unique geeky t-shirts for $10.
Jerry – Castlevania DLC for ‘Castlevania: Lords of Shadow’>
Jason – ‘Tiny Wings‘ for iOS.
Saturday, March 27, 2011
Episode 31 – “The 15 Disc Edition”
Running Time: 1:23:17
Show Notes
- ‘Duke Nuken Forever’ is delayed until June 14, 2011. In other breaking news, it’s going to get dark tonight.
- iOS 4.3.1 is released and immediately Jailbroken.
- OS X Lion is coming this summer. Thoughts?
- MobileMe is changing. Is it going to be a free service or a cheaper service with music storage/streaming capabilities?
- ‘The Hobbit’ finally starts filming. We can’t wait for December 2012. End of the world be damned!
- ‘The Lord Of The Rings: Extended Editions’ are FINALLY coming to Blu-Ray.
- ‘Star Wars’ is also coming to Blu-ray this fall. Yet again, we will buy The Trilogy.
- A new trailer is released for ‘Captain America’. So far, the suck factor is pretty low.
- A MAME motherboard is in the works. It has great potential.
- AT&T is trying to buy T-Mobile for $39 billion dollars. We feel bad for T-Mobile customers.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – AirPrint Activator. Mac or Windows.
Jason – All In One Logic Game Box.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Episode 30 – “Memory Foam”
Running Time: 2:11:12
Show Notes
- iPad 2 launches and sells 500,000 units in less than a week. But is it a laptop replacement yet?
- Microsoft kills the Zune hardware. They still made those things?
- AT&T kills you unlimited data plan if you activate Personal Hotspot. Dick move?
- AT&T starts to target iPhone users who tether without a tethering plan via a Jailbroken phone. But can they stop it?
- Nintendo preloaded a role playing game on the new 3DS. Why?
- New downloadable content coming for ‘Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow’.
- DLC is great, but is it getting out of hand?
- How are we going to raise our kids with violent games? Is sex a double standard?
- Kabal is the newest character announced for ‘Mortal Kombat’. We count to to launch day on April 19th!
- New trailer for ‘Batman Arkham City’. We can’t wait to play this game!
- Image of the new Wonder Woman surfaces. We’ve got questions.
- ‘River City Ransom’ is finally getting a sequel after 21 years.
- Netflix is foraging into the Original Series foray. Hollywood should be scared.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Apple TV 2.
Jerry – RemoteDroid for Android phone.
Jason – 1Password.
I just turned off the demo for MK9 and what a bloody experience is was!
Let’s start off with the characters. Like a good demo there are only 4 available for play, although there are slots for 26 playable characters and 2 slots for DLC. I have seen some screen shots of this before. The roster doesn’t interest me as much as the DLC slots. Will we be buying characters that were in previous games? Brand new ones? Or will there be a character creator like in Armageddon? Either way, the roster should rock.
Now onto graphics. WOW is all I can say. This game actually has the feeling I had when I played MK2 for the first time. The game is dark and brutal, like a good MK should be. The last few had some bright stages. This was ok but not very MK. The characters look awesome. Ed Boon and friends over at NetherRealm know what they are doing. There’s not too much detail on the characters at the the start of the match, but it’s more about how they look after. Missing teeth, missing eyes, and bleeding. All good stuff. The two stages that are available are ‘The Pit’ and ‘The Living Forest’. ‘The Pit’ seems to be mix of the MK and MK2 pits. While having spikes at the bottom, it also has another fight going on above the same pit ala MK2 with Blaze in the background. ‘The Living Forest’ is a perfect 3D version of this classic arena. MK fans will feel at home on the stages.
Next the fighting. This new MK is significantly faster then previous games. Not fast like MVC3, but still fast. The characters respond beautifully to your commands. But where the the fight excels is the Super Bar. This is a new MK feature that adds a ‘Street Fighter’ style super move to your characters. It either grants you some more hits or overall more damage. MK fans will remember Johnny Cage’s red shadow kick that came up randomly in MK2. Yeah well thats a super move now. When you fill the Super Bar up, you are granted access to the X-ray moves. This is where it goes from crazy to insane. First like all good moves they aren’t guaranteed. I missed the first 3 times with Johnny cage before realizing that you need to get hit to activate some of them. But when they make contact you get this awesome X-ray close up of how that damage affects the body internally. Scorpion’s gives a full force punch to the head that cracks the skull and then when the enemy falls over, he steps squarely on the rib cage cracking ribs and such. Overall it’s completely awesome; a great addition to this legendary franchise. I was hoping to see some of the free fall kombat from ‘MK vs DC’ but then again, this is just a demo.
Wouldn’t be MK if I didn’t touch on the available fatalities. They are beyond your brutal dreams. I would go into great detail about them but it wouldn’t do them any justice. Here is a YouTube list of them.
As it is a demo there is not much in the way of content, story, or bosses. In fact there are only the options and fight mode. It has all of the other modes listed but none are available. That’a ok since the full game is only a month away. After you beat the 4 available characters, you get a video of the other modes, fatalities, and mini games. Plus you get another peek at Kratos.
Overall the game looks great and if this demo is a prelude of things to come, we are getting the greatest and bloodiest MK to date. I just hope they don’t kill our wallets with a shit ton of DLC. Hopefully it’s not all locked on the disc either.
The demo is available for PlayStation Plus members starting March 8th, and for everyone else on March 15th. The game itself will drop April 19, which just happens to be 4 days after my birthday!
Thanks,
Jerry
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Sunday March 6, 2011
Special 01 – “Marvel vs Capcom 3″
Running Time: 1:16:10
Show Notes
Our take on ‘Marvel vs Capcom 3: The Fate of Two Worlds’
Saturday March 5, 2011
Episode 29 – “Reboot Our Prequel”
Running Time: 1:48:34
Show Notes
- Apple announces iPad 2.
- Who still has a landline? At what age to we give kids cell phones?
- Gmail accidentally resets 150,000 counts.
- Email for personal use. Is it dead?
- The MacBook Pro has questionable assembly. A sign of things to come?
- iFixit.com posts a teardown of the new Nintendo 3DS. Will it take off?
- Nintendo will always survive due to its exclusive characters.
- Jerry thinks Nintendo should exit the home console market and focus strictly on handhelds.
- We’re still buying game we already own.
- Jason uses a Wii RetroPort SNES controller adapter for playing Virtual Console games. We want one!
- They’re working on sequels and prequels for ‘Blade Runner’. Why?
- Unreal Engine 3 was released at GDC 2011. Our jaws drop.
- Console gaming is a lot easier then PC gaming. No drivers, no tweaking, no nothing. You put the game in and go.
- An ‘Army of Darkness’ game for iOS. we raise our boomsticks in joy!
- The ESRB has rated ‘Duke Nukem Forever’ an M title. It’s synopsis of how the gameplay is about is hilarious! We want to play the game more then ever now!
- A demo for ‘Mortal Kombat’ will hit PSN on March 15, 2011. PlayStation Plus members get the demo a week earlier on March 8, 2011.
- We agree once again that there are too many good games coming out this year.
- 2011– The year of gaming fan service?
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Evernote.
Jerry – ‘Justified’ on FX.
Jason – XBMC.
Capcom:
5: Ken
A staple of the series. Ryu’s friend and nemesis. Also he is my go to Street Fighter character when I need to kick ass. I get that they didn’t include him and Cyclops to push Ryu and Wolverine to the front, but why would they forget about him?
4: Guile
Again another staple of the series. Guile was the original bad ass of ‘Street Fighter 2′ and has been kicking ass since. His ‘charge’ moves add a certain degree of challenge to your gameplay. Also he had all the awesome throws.
3: C. Jack
Don’t remember him or straight don’t know him? Not surprised. He is from the ‘Street Fighter EX’ series of games. Cracker Jack was a great character and armed with his baseball bat he brought the pain. One of the few characters that could deflect fireballs back at you. I know he is a stretch but hey its MY list so fuck off!
2: Nero
Nero is the main character of ‘Devil May Cry 4′. First an enemy of Dante and then a ally. He has the Devil Bringer, a demonic arm that grabs enemies and either pounds them into the dirt or links to ‘Stylish’ combos that the ‘Devil May Cry’ series is known for. Odd is they picked Trish over him?
1: John Talbain
One of the better Darkstalkers. I could never understand why they never used more of the characters from these games. I mean, really awesome animated movie monsters? I sorta understand that Felecia and Morrigan are eye candy at best. But I mean really John is a werewolf. A WEREWOLF! Not a cat or a bat a WEREWOLF!
Ok Time for the MARVEL side of things:
5: Professor X
I could only Imagine the vast amount of awesome moves he could have. I really think they would need to use the ‘wheelchair’ for the 90′s cartoon that floated. But he could take over their minds and throw them around. Far fetched you say? Yep. But imagine it…
4: The Punisher
Yeah! Frank Castle! All of his attacks would be brutal. They could easily add him in to the game. DeadPool and Dante already shoot the crap out of you. Why not Frank? They tend to shy away from him because of his brutal nature in this day and age of PG everything. Well you shouldn’t be playing fighting games that young then…
3 and 2: Rouge and Mystique
Ok I put these 2 together due to the similarities in the my reasons for adding them in. I didn’t pick Rouge for her super abilities. I picked them both for their ability to use some one else’s powers. Mystique could straight out Shang Tsung your ass in a fight. Rouge was already in the MVC series. But I am only after the original version from ‘X-Men vs Street Fighter’ where she actually stole moves. It was actually kinda funny to see her pull off Zangief’s 360 pile driver. Either one or both would be fine with me
1: Blade
Now thats a badass. He would compliment Dante and Deadpool. Could you imagine all of the cool anti-vampire weapons he could use not including his sword and gun? Trev and I said he shouldn’t be considered — he is required to be in this game.
Remember this is my list. You have your own, probably much different than mine. But I think there are just not enough in the game now and we need, no demand, way more then the 2 that are coming.
Thanks,
Jerry M
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Using the same engine as ‘Street Fighter IV’, MVC3 is vastly superior to its predecessor. While not a true 3D fighter, it is what we call a 2 ½D fighter. The characters look fresh and their moves are animated fluidly. Hypercombos are animated in a way that tends to make you smile each time you initiate one. The backgrounds are fully animated, have depth, and in some cases, react to the action in the foreground. However, some might say that all the flash that the graphics bring to the party takes away from the actual gameplay. Let’s discuss the gameplay.
Gameplay
The gameplay is where this game starts to loose its luster. If you’re a veteran of any of the ‘Street Fighter’ games, ‘Marvel Superheroes’, and the 2 previous ‘Marvel vs Capcom’ games, you’re in for a shock. Forget about all the moves you’ve memorized and have been using for years. For some unknown reason, Capcom has seen fit to abandon the basic control scheme it has been using for the ‘Street Fighter’ franchise since 1991. What are we forced to deal with? We have ‘Normal’ and ‘Simple’ mode. ‘Normal’ give you 4 controls – Light, Medium, Heavy, and Special. The ‘Simple’ mode is even worse, essentially turning the game into a button mashing experience. This lets my 16 month old son literally kick my ass at a game I have been playing for 20 years. Just to give you an example, it took me a good 20 minutes to relearn how to play Ryu, a character I mastered back in 1991. In my opinion, they dumbed down a game that never needed it. If you wanted to introduce a new system there should be an option for us hardcore players to have our ‘Classic’ controls back. But don’t let this dissuade you from playing the game. Once you get used to the new system, it’s hardcore ass-kicking all the way. And once you figure how to do the moves you want to do, you’ll be greeted by a silky smooth interface. The movements are fluid and responsive. This fluidity in conjunction with the aforementioned sweet animations, almost lets you forgive Capcom from messing around with a proven 20 year control scheme. With this system fully running, it’s almost fun trying to relearn your favorite characters. Since we’ve brought up the subject of characters…
Characters
This is where I really start to shake my head. Apparently the cost to develop MVC3 was 20 characters. That’s exactly how many are missing from MVC2 to MVC3. I can totally understand why they would want to cut out some characters. There were quite a few crazy characters from MVC2 that should have made way for bigger and better characters in MVC3. But that’s not they’ve done. They’ve just shed 20 characters, including some long time staples such as Ken, Cyclops, Gambit and Guile just to name a few. To add insult to injury, they filled the now valuable 36 character slots with some very questionable choices such as the dog from ‘Okami’, She-Hulk, M.O.D.O.K., Sentinel, Viewtiful Joe, and Zero. What gets me is that under their new agreement, Marvel gave Capcom complete access to it’s entire library of characters. Is this really the best we could have come up with? Now I know what you’re saying, “There’s going to be more available via DLC”. I am willing to bet my launch day Dreamcast that you’re correct. But you know what? That’s just not right. While I will be the first to download all of the new characters as they come out, I’m going to be bitter about each purchase. Other then greed, I can think of no other reason to not include at least 56 characters at launch just like MVC2 did. I can write a whole article about this travesty, but I won’t. Let’s just say that this by far is my biggest beef with with game.
Story
This story plot of the game goes a little something like this.
Doctor Doom has assembled the greatest villains of the Marvel Universe and has joined forces with Albert Wesker in order to unite their respective universes in an effort to conquer both. However, this course of action awakens a great and powerful threat that could potentially destroy both worlds. It is up to the heroes of the Marvel and Capcom universes to put a stop to this evil before it is too late.
A little bit contrived, but I’ve certainly played games with worse plot lines. What is a real disappointment for the story are the character endings. There are no FMV (Full Motion Video) endings in the game. I’m not sure why, but that’s fine. Maybe FMV endings didn’t fit in with the comic book theme of the game. But what we are given is a few pieces of artwork with some text that we have to push through like an old 8-bit NES game. Okay, so they cheesed out on doing grandiose endings. But after reading these endings for the various characters, I’m forced to conclude that these are endings from a game other than MVC3. I mean they have to be, right? The endings we are given make no sense at all. I’m not going to give away an potential ‘spoilers’, but suffice it to say I have yet to properly understand a single ending. To add insult to injury, Capcom has put some intriguing characters into the endings such as Ghost Rider, the Fantastic Four and Man-Thing — all of which are unplayable in the actual game. Why??
Online Play
I will freely admit that I am not a big online player, save for playing against Jerry. He and I did engage in quite a few matches online and our experience was far better then what we had experienced a few years ago with ‘Soul Calibur IV’. The gameplay was as fluid and fast; as if he was right in the room with me. However I am not a fan of not being able to setup a permanent lobby (place to meet up for fights) with a custom name so that if either one of us is online, we can just jump in and fight. But sometimes that’s just the brakes. I did play in a public library against a few actual humans, and the gameplay was much as it was between Jerry and I. I’m going to give the online play props for being fast and fluid, but since I am not a hardcore online guy, this is not going to factor into my overall score.
Conclusion
After almost 2 weeks with the game I have a pretty solid feel for it. If you’re a van of MVC2 you’re going to love the game. In fact, it took me quite a while to actually look at the game objectively since I was so stoked just to be playing it after all this time. While the game is amazing a long time coming, in does indeed have some serious flaws that cannot be ignored. The character count is anemic, the endings are laughable, and the control scheme is unnecessary. Sadly, all of these flaws have forced me to rob the game my original score of 10/10 that I gave it in Episode 28 of our podcast. My final opinion is that yes, you should indeed run out and but this title if you’re a fan of MVC2. However, just like ‘Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace’, don’t expect a life changing experience. Apparently you cannot perfect the perfection that was MVC. My final score is a 8/10. –Trevor
Ok as this is a joint review I will add my 2 cents on this. Before I go to deep here I will say that regardless of the flaws if you are a fan of this series go and buy this game now!
First lets talk graphics. They’re awesome! What we have come to expect from Capcom and their decades of game design. Built on the Street Fighter 4 engine which is top notch, not my favorite, but visually top notch. The character’s animation is fluid. The backgrounds, and all their moving animations, are flawless. Like I said Capcom has been doing this forever it should be awesome.
Next is gameplay. I am sure when they were making this game the concept of changing the mechanics of the game was a good idea at the time but all it did is cause a learning curve for anyone that had played any previous installment. This will sum it up better for you, played a Street Fighter game ever? Yes? Well get ready to start over. So I thought, like most, that the training mode would help anyone learn the new controls. I was sadly wrong again. Basically you need to switch between the pause menu and the game to see how to do the moves they are ‘training’ you to do. Its a waste of space on the disc. Although I have to say it doesn’t take long to learn the new style we should have been given the choice between the old and new.
Next is characters. NO WHERE NEAR ENOUGH! Coming from MVC2 to this was a sad disappointment in the amount of characters. Also not sure why they left out some the series staple characters like Ken, Cyclops, Gambit and Mega Man. Hell Zangief and Dhlasim aren’t in it either and Capcom adds them to every thing they can. Sure the new ones are nice I enjoy Dante, Deadpool, X-23 and Chris but the game needs some of those core characters to maintain its original feel. I remember the “Attract” mods for X-men vs Street Fighter had some of these missing characters and was part of the reason I play this series. Also one goofy choice I don’t understand is The Task Master. He has what Marvel calls Photogenic muscle memory. Basically he can repeat any physical move he sees. Why wouldn’t they capitalize a Shang Tsung style move set with him? Who Knows. There are 2 DLC characters coming March 15th. Shuma Gorath and Jill Valentine. Which are locked on the disc and you’ll just pay to unlock them. That shit drives me crazy. I would rather wait endlessly for a download to complete then have a quick unlock for characters that already on a disc I paid for. Corporate assholes! Well at least those 2 are old school MVC characters. I preparation for this review I created a list of characters that Capcom should be required to add to this game. Click Here to see my list…
I would spend time going into the story but like all the MVC games its as pointless as ever. They are always thin at best. Here is a summary of the story. Big Evil blah blah blah Fate of Two worlds blah blah blah FIGHT!. I do like the fact they keep the story looking like a comic book. Fans of the series maybe be pissed that the game didn’t have FMV endings. But the game doesn’t need it. Its not a deep game by any means.
I’d like to mention something that always catches my attention with games. The sound. Excellent this game gets a 10 out of 10 in sound. All of the music is awesome and it works perfectly with the levels and characters. Capcom took the time to make sure all of the fighters could say all of the other fighters names. So when they tag out they just call for them. I love that!. Also I love the interactions between some of them. Deadpool especially who really never stops talking the whole time you use him. Another favorite is matching the music to the stages. I personally think playing the Ghost and Goblins music while at the Demon Village was a nice touch…
Lets talk about the stages. Again what I have come to expect from Capcom. But like the roster the amount of stages needs to increase. There is no where near enough. Actually the games has a trophy for playing on all of them. Which you can earn in nearly 1 play through the game. They need to add plenty more of these.
Lets shift the gears into online. I not a big fan of fighting games online. I would rather trash talk my opponent while he sat next to me. But this game actually redeems some of my faith. I said some. When I played Trev we had a no issues. It was like playing next to him. Awesome to say the least. Now I have seen on the internet that the game needs a spectator mods when tournaments are going on. That would be a great addition to this game. Just like a arcade when you would watch your future opponent before you had to drop your quarter in and man up. Overall the online is good but has room for improvement.
The 1st round of DLC arrives today. Match 1st. Well its 5 costumes, which will set you back $5.00 , and a addon called Shadow Mode that lets you play as the AI of the developers which is free. I like the concept of the Shadow mode. Always wanted to take a crack at the people that make the games. But 5 costumes for 5 bucks? 3 dollars max for costumes Capcom. GOT IT?
In conclusion the game is great. Not its predecessor. But still great. It really took another reviewers opinion to open my eyes to the flaws the game has. I originally game this game a 10\10 rating and if they add in all of the stuff I mentioned I will gladly change this but in its current state a 8\10 is deserved. Thanks, Jerry
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Sunday, February 20, 2011
Episode 28 – “Zeist vs N-Gage”
Running Time: 2:11:25
Show Notes
- Big year for geek games and movies.
- Too many movies are getting remakes / sequels.
- Sony is keeping tabs on you now to make sure you don’t hack your PS3.
- Sony unveils the first PlayStation phone, the Xperia Play by Sony Ericsson.
- Noob Saibot is the latest character revieled for MK9.
- Tekken Tag 2 has been announced.
- Billy Mitchell open ‘King of Kong’ arcade at Orlando airport. WTF?
- Marvel vs Capcom 3. WOW!!
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for iOS
Jerry – Generator Rex – Season 2
The initial sot of my i486 machine back then was about $1,500. What did $1,500 get you back then? Nothing but the best my friend! An overclocked Intel 486SX chip running at 33mHz, 4MB of RAM, and a 120MB hard drive. Over the next year I would spend a few hundred dollars to upgrade this sucker to a 486DX running at 100mHz and 16MB of RAM. Yes kids, back then a simple 4MB stick of RAM ran you almost $200!
Why should anyone care about all of this? Well, id you were born in the 1990s then you probably shouldn’t. However, if you’re like us and played nothing but bide games in the 1990s then you should pay attention. The future has arrived. You can now play all this games you loved back in anytime you want. And on the cheap!
Welcome to the iPhone gaming revolution.
Your hardware now will only cost you $200, and each game will run you about $.99 if you’re patient enough. Here is a few shining examples of how I’ve been able to take the gaming from my youth with me everyday now.
DOOM
This is a Holy word in my circle of friends. Every first person shooter since this game’s release back in 1993 has been compared to this classic gem. What used to cost you $50 for a box full of floppy disks now costs you $6.99 (regularly goes on sale for $.99).
Duke Nukem 3D
Who doesn’t remember the first time they played Dukem Nukem 3D? It changed the genre. No longer are you just running around blowing hit up. Now the main character had a voice and a full attitude to go with it. This one can currently be ‘stolen’ for the low price of $.99!
DOOM Resurrection
This is a continuation/side story of the epic game DOOM 3. The graphics are excellent, as is the gameplay. Unlike DOOM and Duke, you don’t have direct control of your character. Instead, you are automatically moved a long in the story. When it comes time for battle, you’re only job is to fight and stay alive. Sounds simple? Give it shot, chief. As with DOOM, this will currently run you $6.99 but regularly goes on sale for $.99.
Rise of The Triad
This is one of those games not too many people have probably heard of. My friend Chris and I saw this when it came out in 1995 and bought it immediately. It quickly became a favorite in our circle of friends. In fact, we continue to play this game as much as possible today. If you’ve never heard of it, take my advice and pick this up. If you’re a fan of DOOM and Wolfenstein, you owe it to yourself to play this game. Even at the price of $3.99, it was an instant purchase for me!
Wolfenstein 3D
How can we not mention Wolfenstein 3D? This is literally the game that started the first person shooter genre. Unlike the other games reviewed here, there is in fact a free ‘lite’ version of this game. I would recommend downloading this version to see if this is something you would like before laying down the $1.99. I only say this because this is more of a nostalgia game for those of us in our 30s.
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
The last great Mortal Kombat game to hit the arcade scene, this game will always hold a special place in my heart. I’ve played this game on almost every platform is came out on. So how does it play on the iPhone? Surprisingly well. They have dumbed down the controls enough where agem play is fun and face paced. Plus at the current low price of $.99, it’s a steal!
Simpsons Arcade
Speaking of classic arcade games, how could we not mention the Simpsons Arcade game here. A staple in all bowling alleys around the country, this game was not only fun but challenging. While there is a free version of this game available, the full version is currently $.99. No excuse to skimp.
Capcom Arcade
Play classic Capcom arcade games like ‘Street Fighter 2′, ’1942′, ‘Ghosts ‘N Goblins’ and more! This gen is currently free so there is no excuse not to download it!
But classic gaming is by no means the only type of games you will find on the iPhone platform.
Street Fighter IV
This is just like the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of ‘Street Fighter IV’. Like ‘Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3′ the controls have been simplified, but it hasn’t detracted at all from the gameplay. The graphics are amazing, and the gameplay smooth. Currently on sale for the low price of $.99, this should be added to your gaming library immediately!
Rage
This is rather unique. This game is not being release until the fall of 2011 by id Software, but they have already released an iPhone version of the game. The game plays very similarly to ‘Doom Resurrection’. However, these are the best graphics we have seen on the iPhone to date. How good? Take a look for yourself. Currently price at $.99, it’s well worth your buck.
Transformers G1 Awakening
Looking for something other then a FPS or fighting game? How about a RTS game based in the G1 Transformers? I thought that might get your attention. There is indeed a free version of this game to try and out the full version is going to cost you $2.99.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Episode 27 – “Fornever”
Running Time: 1:56:48
Show Notes
- We’re running out of IP address.
- Netflix streaming. The future is now!
- We wan to be able to do whatever we want with the gear we buy.
- The used video game market (NOT GameStop!) is largely untapped by the average gamer.
- After 14 years, ‘Duke Nukem Forever’ FINALLY has a release date of 5/3/11. Will it happen?
- We miss true multiplayer Deathmatch games.
- We discuss some of the games we’re looking forward to the most in 2011.
- Kids today will never know the real arcade experience.
- There is a new PS and DS in our midst. Should we care?
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Netflix streaming.
Jerry – ‘Goldeneye’ for Nintendo Wii.
Then what came to mind is the Goldeneye remake for the WII. While not exactly the same game it carries the old school feel of the original and thats what counts. No Pierce Brosnan but we have the current 007 Daniel Craig. Either way I’ll take it for the awesome multiplayer!
Finally I thought about ‘Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds’. Real fans of this game begged and pleaded with Capcom to make this game and well like a old married man looking for sex from wifey it finally happened 10 stinkin years later. Awesome!
So in no particular order here they are my Top Ten games that need a sequel! But be warned only seasoned gamers need read on others may not know some or all below. The criteria here is this games that need a sequel on the current gen hardware. They may have had some sequels in the past but I feel they need a modern upgrade.
10: Powerslave\Blood\Shadow Warrior
I couldn’t choose one so I picked all of these staples of the Build engine at its best. In fact there were a lot of build engine games made over the years. Click here to see the real list. Why were these games great? Because they, at the time, were showing what the engine could do and the companies were creating the new technology as it went along. These games took what ‘Doom’ had created and gave it gore, laughs and attitude. I am aware that ‘Blood’ did have a sequel, but its been too long. FPS today are all based on real wars, realistic combat or space. But do any of them have a pitchfork, a staff that shoots explosive snakes or nuclear missile as a weapon? Nope. Thats why games like this need a next gen remake/face-lift or sequel whatever it takes.
9: Maniac Mansion
Remember this gem? I think more people played the NES port of this game then the PC. This was another great point and click game made by Lucasfilm. It had quirky dark comedy and a visual style that was memorable. With all of these big game companies reaching back into the past to resurrect legendary games, why haven’t they remade this yet? Yes I do know there was a sequel but this is a list of games that need a Next Gen sequel.
8: Adventure
Another legendary game from a legendary console. The good old Atari 2600! Now I know this is a stretch getting a sequel to this game but wouldn’t it be epic? This game was supposed to have a sequel and that eventually become the Swordquest series.
7. Ride of the Triad: Dark War
Originally this was a sequel to ‘Wolfenstien 3D’ and became so much more. The game at the time brought a new feature to FPS — jumping. Also you were only able to hold 2 weapons, which at the time was crazy if you were coming from a game like ‘Doom’ and ‘Doom 2′ were he had tons. The game had multiple characters and bizarre power-ups and weapons. With a remake of ‘Wolfenstien’ made every couple of years why not remake the game that started as a ‘Wolfenstien’ sequel?
6: Killer Instinct (series)
There is a new ‘Street Fighter’, ‘Kng of Fighters’ and ‘Mortal Kombat’ game every year it seems like. But we haven’t seen Nintendo’s fighter since ‘KI Gold’ in 1996. This game is a change from the normal with a emphasis on combos and the larger the better. It had all of the stuff the others had (super moves and fatalities) but was much faster paced.
5: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
I know what your thinking. Jerry there has been many a ‘Castlevania’ game since this. Well you’re right, there has been. But I would like to see a direct sequel to this one. While ‘Castlevania’ is one of the classic franchises, it’s not too good at linking the games when it comes to story. Usually the only common bond between all of the games is the Vampire Killer whip and/or Dracula. I am not sure if I would want to see the game in the sequel in a ‘Lords of Shadow’ style though. I would prefer a 2D successor because thats they way ‘Castlevania’ is meant to be played.
4: Double Dragon(series)
Basically this series created the beat em up style game. I consider this Final Fight’s grandpa. This type of game has been copied over and over throughout the years. But were are Billy and Jimmy Lee? A sequel to this would be awesome today.
3: Darkstalkers (series)
Before I talk about this game, remember when PS1 games came in the super sized case? Ahh, how the times have changed. This series took the ‘Street Fighter’ engine, tweaked it and added all of those classic monsters like a Zombie rocker and Frankenstein’s monster. What I remember about this game are the awesome visuals it had and the big bright animations. These animations would be used by Capcom in multiple games. A few of the characters have appeared in the ‘Marvel vs Capcom’ series. In the end though, I wouldn’t turn down a ‘Street Fighter IV’ version of ‘Darkstalkers’.
2: Star Tropics (series)
These games were great. These games had a Zelda feel with a really, really bizarre story. Now you ask why this games? Well wouldn’t this game be awesome with a Uncharted style remake? But instead of guns you smack guys with your Yo-Yo and a baseball bat? That alone warrents a sequel!
1: Chrono (series)
When I talk to some RPG players I know they always bring this game up. Yes there was a sequel to it on the PS1. But in the world of epic RPG’s coming out of the house that ‘Final Fantasy’ built, why have they not visited this series again? They re-released it on the DS a while back but where is the true sequel? They did patent Chrono Break a few years ago but never surfaced. Now come on SquareEnix or Squenix as I call them get on the ball!
Well that’s it! Ten games that need a sequel. Thanks to Trev and my brother John for their input on making this list.
Thanks, Jerry
]]>My Top Ten most anticipated game of 2011:
10: Batman: Arkham City
Sequel to the best Batman game ever made…hell, sequel to the best super hero game ever made.
9: Resistance 3
I kinda wonder how this game is going to go considering the main character of the series died at the end of the 2nd game. Top notch shooter should be epic!
8: Twisted Metal
I am little worried about this one only because its looking like more online versus 50 people instead of the good old head to head of the original games. Still it’s a new car combat game on the PS3. What could go wrong?
7: The Legend of Zelda : Skyward Sword
I mean come on, its Zelda. One of Nintendo’s licenses to print money…
6: Max Payne 3
Although I don’t see it really making it out this year, I am hopeful. Just hope this isn’t another Duke Nukem For-never…
5: Street Fighter X Tekken\Tekken X Street Fighter
What the hell can’t I say about this? It’s Tekken vs Street Fighter! Two games made in the style of both companies? Only question is which one to buy?
4: Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
This is my pick for game of the year! Another Uncharted game! If your a fan of series, this is big news.
3: Mortal Kombat (9)
Another legendary franchise! Its Mortal Kombat! This is a retelling of the 1st 3 games from Raiden’s perspective. Then to add to the brutality of it all, they add Kratos? Damn!
2: Duke Nukem Forever
It’s over a decade in the making! This game has a ton to live up to. But there is nothing like stomping a Pig Cop with your boot and zinging off one-liners left and right…
1: Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of two worlds
Over of decade of begging and pleading, Capcom has blessed us with the probably the greatest crossover fighting game you can get legally!
Remember this is my top 10 list. Yours will be different but I will do my best to buy/play all of these this year!
Thanks,
Jerry
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Here is the only problem I have with this: Isn’t this like a 10th time they are selling these games to us? I know I bought all of the original NES carts and the SNES version of this disc! I also bought all of the original games on the WII already.
I may pass on this one. BUT…if you never played any of the original games or you are looking for a classic fix, then you may have found your game.
Super Mario All Stars for the WII will be released on December 12th for a fair $29.99.
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Lets travel back to the year 200, shall we?
I can remember when I first heard about the PS2. A game system and a DVD player in one? Also, it played all of my PS1 games as well? WTF? I had to have one. I got my first crack at one thanks Trevor and Michelle because they had got their hands on a import version of the system and some launch games. Notably, Street Fighter EX 3.
The EX series was odd at best. But it was a somewhat welcome change to the normal Street Fighter game and the graphics at the time were mind blowing!
I can remember the other game we played that day….
This game is one of the few Tekken games that I played and enjoyed. It had a seamless tag system and enjoyable mini games; Tekken bowling for one. I played that for days…
One thing about these games and the Japanese system is that we didn’t have a memory card for the PS2 so we couldn’t turn off the system — unless we wanted to unlock all those characters again…
At the time of release for the PS2 in the USA, it was in short supply and people were fighting to get theirs. I scored mine at the now defunct Circuit City, thanks to a inside man who was a old friend. I remember getting the system and was in total awe of its awesomeness…
As the years went on, some classic franchises got the PS2 overhaul and one that I will always love is….
The PS2 entry of the Ghost and Goblins series, Maximo was just a awesome platformer. It had some great, although dark, humor and seemingly endless amount of levels. All in all, one of the better games for the system.
Another remake (kinda) is….
Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, a somewhat expansion to Gauntlet Legends. I did own Gauntlet Legends for the Dreamcast, but Dark Legacy kicked in for me when I got Kelly interested in it while she was pregnant with Meghan. We played it night after night until we beat it and then started over. For that reason this game will always hold something special for me.
Another series for me that started on the Dreamcast and continued on the PS2 was…
This is one of my all time favorite series of games. The game play, story, voice acting, and visuals were all top notch…at the time anyway. I had the original Soul Reaver on the Dreamcast and scooped this one up the day it hit shelves. This baby kept me up many a long night. Not so much that it was difficult, but just to see where the story would go next. Plus impaling guys on spears and swords helped.
Well I wouldn’t be a Mortal Kombat fan worth my salt if I didn’t mention…
This game had nearly all of the MK characters to date and a custom character system as well. I remember playing this game online vs. Trevor with our custom characters and finding that they were nearly the same. Also, you were able to talk to your opponent via a USB headset while you were fighting. Gave it that ‘sitting next to your opponent’ feel…almost. Also, the individual fatalities were removed and a custom fatality system was put in its place. Probably the only bad thing I can say about this game. Give me Raiden’s explosive uppercut anytime…
The system, like most, was subject to a slim down later in its years…
The slim removed the internal power supply, which meant a huge AC adapter on the floor. Also, the disc drive was changed from a PC-like DVD drive that opened and closed to a drive similar to a CD player where you click the game into place and close the door. Another add-on to this model was the Ethernet port that was built in. However, this overall design lost the ability to use the PS2 hard drive add-on. But then again, there was only like a dozen games that used it anyway. In all its years I owned both. My original PS2 met a untimely death because of my cat. Thankfully, is was near X-mas and my awesome mother-in-law bought me a slim model.
The PS2 today is the best selling system and it’s easy to see why. It had a great library of games and innovations that are still in use today. The system was not only a video game console but a DVD player as well, making a excellent addition to your entertainment center, then and now.
Yet again I have left out some of the major games and goofy controllers that they tried. Eye Toy and Dance Dance anyone? Final Fantasy, God of War, Grand Theft Auto among others. These games that I mentioned above are the ones that impacted me personally over the years and still do. I will treasure some of the memories that they created forever.
The PS2 is still for sale today. It will set you back around 100 bucks. If you’ve never had the chance then take the time to borrow, steal, or kill to get your hands on one and see a system that changed the face of gaming.
Like all of the things I review I thank you for reading the ramblings of a aging geek.
]]>Here’s a great alternate solution that will cost you under $3, and do a lot more than charge your iPhone.
First, head on over to MonoPrice.com. You’re going to do a search for item 6766. This is a USB cigarette lighter car charger. In a nut shell, it turns your car’s cigarette lighter into a USB port. Order one of these. With shipping, it will be under $3.
The second part of the car charger you already own. This is going to be the USB cable that came with your iPhone, the same one you use to charge your phone at home. Simply plug your USB cable into the USB charger, and your $3 iPhone car charger is complete! Here is my completed $3 car charger.
As an awesome bonus, this doesn’t only charge iPhones. Anything that charges via a USB cable (other cell phones, MP3 players, GPS units, etc.) can be charged with this unit. All of this for under $3!
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The question is, will longer previews lead to more purchases?
]]>“Naturally, we’re disappointed with this turn of events,” Limewire CEO George Searle said today. “We are extremely proud of our pioneering history and have, for years, worked hard to bridge the gap between technology and content rights holders. However, at this time, we have no option but to cease further distribution and support of our software.”
This would have been huge news if this was 2001. However, in a day and age where you can purchase almost any song you want for under $1.30, is this really such a loss? Sure, services like Limeware, Bearshare, Napster, and AudioGalaxy provided a great way to get bootlegs and live tracks, but at what cost? Since the RIAA started its blitzing campaign against file sharers, is the new Linkin Park single really worth going to court over?
These services had a place and a time. But in today’s world, it’s just not worth the risk.
]]>While comic book and film geeks can start debating the cryptic nature of the title, Nolan did lay down some ground rules for the new movie.
First and foremost, he has convinced Warner Bros. to let him NOT shoot his next epic in 3-D. In a day and age where every other movie seems to be released in 3-D, this is a welcome change. Nolan himself is against the use of 3-D and is instead firmly embracing the use of IMAX cameras to enhance his films. All of the cityscape scenes, as well as the beginning bank robbery scene in The Dark Knight were filmed with an IMAX camera. It is Nolan’s goal to film most of The Dark Knight Rises using these cameras, giving the audience unparalleled visuals.
The second bombshell Nolan hit us with was that the Batman’s next on screen nemesis WILL NOT be The Riddler. Internet speculation has been abound since before the release of The Dark Knight that the next film will feature this heralded villain. Speculation has already started to center around Catwoman as this film’s main villain. This idea is being fueled by a casting call for a female lead. While this would indeed point towards Catwoman being in the film, let us not forget that Bruce Wayne’s main squeeze didn’t exactly make it to the end of The Dark Knight. This casting call might merely be for Bruce’s new plaything.
While we’re elated to hear all of this great Batman news, it’s all with a heavy heart since we’ll still have to wait another 18 months before lining up to see it.
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This baby single-handedly changed the face of gaming and revitalized the market all in one trip. It also revolutionized game design and controller layout. Although some of games have changed, most controllers today are based on the original NES controller. Although unlike other controllers to spawn from this design, only the NES controller sports corners. The console had a ton to do with it, but the games that were birthed from for this legend became legends themselves. Many a hour of many kids’ lives have been drained away by this console.
The NES was created when really the only other home console that was popular at the time was the Legendary Atari 2600. Ahh, the Atari 2600. This console, in my head anyway, changed the way we use our consoles now. Changeable cartridges and multiple types of controllers made it revolutionary. I believe the Atari 2600 helped mold all of the consoles since. Remember, the Atari 2600 had the longest life span of any console ever. Epic onto itself.
Back to the NES. Some of the most well know games and iconic video game characters started on the NES. Mario and company, Link and Zelda, Samus, Kirby, Simon Belmont, Final Fantasy and more. Its hard to find a person who hasn’t heard of at least one of these.
The NES launched on October 18th, 1985, with to packages available. The Control Deck was $129.95, and the Deluxe Set was $249.99. The Control deck was the console, 2 controllers (remember when they came with 2?) and the always awesome Super Mario Bros. The Deluxe set came with the console, 2 controllers, R.O.B, The Zapper, Duck Hunt and Gyromite. Most of us got the Control Deck. Really it didn’t matter to us as long as we had Super Mario Bros. The 1st time I ever saw the NES was in the glass cage at Toy “R” Us. I was lucky at the time because my father was the store manager and I was nearly licking the glass to get to it. But then Christmas of 1986 came, and I got my 1st NES Control Deck and it blew my mind. I also a game called 1942. I remember playing them for hours upon hours.
I had previously played Super Mario Bros. at the local corner store (Yeah kids, that’s when corner stores had upright arcade machines). I dropped quite a few quarters into that baby. But to play it at home was great. No more waiting my turn and losing valuable candy money on that baby. I had it at home.
Then I dropped 1942 into the slot and played a game that seemingly never ended. That was awesome! I played it for days! I remember having to go to school and pausing the game and turning the TV off so I could continue when I got back home. This was well before most games had its own save feature. Thinking about it now, not many games for the NES had a save feature. Most had a shitty password feature. You would spend all that time writing down the password and screw up a letter/number and be screwed!
So time went by and as rental stores caught on to the NES fad, they started to offer them for rental. I knew it was a rip off then, but that’s how I played The Legend of Zelda.
Such a life changer. Open world, save feature and multiple adventures. This game was as hard as hell. But how could you forget that gold cartridge? At the time, you needed the map packaged with the game to make it anywhere in Hyrule. Another legend in its own time.
So back to the rental store it went, and I got a game that haunted me for years and still does to this day…
Ahh yes, Castlevania. I will always love and hate this game at the same time. I love the gameplay, controls, music, sounds and characters. I could have done without the punishing difficulty and those fuc*ing Medusa Heads. All in all it’s one of the, if not thee, greatest game on the NES.
This is just of tenth of the library of games that changed the world. Most of the games above have had multiple sequels covering multiple genres. Mario alone has gone from platforming to Kart racing and everything in between.
Later in its years, the NES went through a design changed with fancy top loader. This, like all consoles, happened in its twilight years.
I ended up buying one of these years later when my original NES ceased to work anymore. This was significantly smaller that the original and lost the RCA out. But she still played those awesome gray carts just the same.
Today most of the games can be downloaded via the Wii store or via ROMs and played with emulators. Nothing can match the old console, cartridges and those square controllers though. This console and her games take you back to simpler time when you didn’t play over the internet and you had to go to someone else’s house and sit next to them. This is something that we here at Growing Up Geek feel is lost on this generation of gamers. The games also had a simpler set of goals too, like going from left to right without dying or (gasp!) beat your buddy’s high score.
If you have never played any of these games or an original NES, I encourage you to find a way to do so. This system has a legacy that will live well beyond me and my family. Although there have been many impersonators, you can never top that original feeling you get when you play this baby. She has left a profound impact on my life and in some ways, changed me forever.
Finally, I know that I have left out some of the other famous games and peripherals associated with the NES, but these are my original memories of the 1st year with it. I could have went into the Zapper or the absurd Power Glove, but I hit the ones that hit me the hardest.
]]>Yes, it’s Arthur from the hard-as-hell ‘Ghosts N Goblins’ series. I noticed that they gave him all of his trademark weapons. I also noticed he loses his armor and gets the Key when the battle is over.
Nostalgia Factor = 100%
]]>Yes the genius behind this masterpiece is Frederick ‘fresch’ Schreiber. He has been given the ok by Gearbox to use all of the Duke Nukem designs and characters without fear of shutdown. Go Fred! I am sure to download this “When Its Done!”.
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First off, let’s start at the title. The number ’4′ tells me that it takes place after Sonic and Knuckles and that I am probably going to have to pay for at least one more episode to continue the story. Truthfully, it sounds like the 1st episode of the 4th season of the cartoon.
Okay let’s talk graphics. They are in HD (1080p on the PS3 and Xbox360. 480i on the Wii) and are beautiful. The whole thing has a ‘The New Super Mario Bros Wii’ feeling to it. Nice 3D models over a somewhat 3D background. They call it 2.5D. It’s the best looking Sonic game in my opinion. Very bright and colorful.
Onto gameplay. It keeps to the same old Sonic formula. You move left to right at a dizzying pace and pass the finish flag/billboard. Added is the usual Spin Dash and the homing attack. Both are staples of the series. Some puzzles and the usual Dr. Eggman boss battles are thrown in as well. Like I said, not all that much has changed and that’s a good thing.
Here are my problems with the game. The 1st is that you are getting a 13 level episode for $14.99. Yeah that’s a bit steep for 13 levels. I am not cheap by any means but these days that’s a bit much for something that will have another episode. Some of the PS3 mini games have more levels and they are an extra $2.99! Also, it seems that they have recycled some of the sounds from previous Sonic games. That’s ok at best.
Overall this incarnation of Sonic brings back that 90′s feel of gaming with a 2010 look. The jump to 2.5D has done him well. For those that haven’t played a Sonic game (come out from under the rock you are living in!) this is a good start. But for the generation that was around when the blue streak came onto the scene, you’ll want to wait until you see a price drop on this one.
I am giving the a score of 7 out of 10. It does bring back that feeling but the multiple episode deal is just unnecessary.
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 is available for PS3, Xbox360, Wii and iOS. I Recommend the demo 1st and then spend you hard earn Space Bucks if the mood strikes.
Thanks to James “Angry Video Game Nerd” Rolfe for making the video above. You can find all of his great work at Cinemassacre.com.
]]>Microsoft Corp’s Windows 7 has sold more than 240 million copies in its first year, the company said on Thursday, making it the fastest-selling operating system, and helping the software giant to record profits despite a recent dip in computer sales growth.
The new software, which costs from $80 for a simple upgrade to $320 for the top-of-the-range edition, was launched a year ago this week to supersede the unpopular Vista.
Although Apple Inc’s OS X and Linux-based operating systems have won some market share in the past few years, Microsoft still controls 90 percent of the world’s 1.4 billion or so personal computers, and is expecting more customers to upgrade or switch to Windows 7.
About 89 percent of companies — Microsoft’s most lucrative customers — are planning to use Windows 7, said Tami Reller, chief financial officer of Microsoft’s Windows unit. Companies tend to lag behind consumers in adopting new operating systems as they have to go through more testing to make sure they mesh with existing software.Microsoft reported record sales of $62.5 billion last fiscal year, up 7 percent from the year before, largely powered by Windows. The Windows unit is still Microsoft’s core, providing more than one-fourth of overall sales and just over half of its profit.
Microsoft is expected to report higher fiscal first-quarter earnings next week, but Windows sales — which closely track PC sales — may disappoint investors slightly.
PC sales rose only 11 percent in the July-to-September period, according to research firm IDC, compared to 22 percent in the three months before that, as back-to-school shoppers appeared to hold off on big purchases.
While Windows XP still holds the top spot for installation base, with numbers like this for the first 12 months, Windows 7 is poised to overtake XP’s install base within 4 years. With Vista all but dead, are we looking at the new de facto operating system for PCs?
]]>While Peter Jackson and Warner Bros are figuring out where they’ll shoot back-to-back installments of The Hobbit, Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh have begun to set his cast for the ambitious projects that will begin shooting in February for release in December 2012 and 2013. The castings were announced by New Line Cinema COO/president Toby Emmerich, Warner Bros COO/president Alan Horn, MGM co-CEO Steve Cooper, and Jackson. As Deadline told you last week, Martin Freeman is set to play Bilbo Baggins, the adventurous Hobbit whose adventures and discovery of the One Ring leads the story up to The Lord of the Rings. Freeman has appeared in films ranging from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Hot Fuzz to Love Actually.
Jackson has cast several other significant Dwarf characters. Richard Armitage (MI-5 and Captain America: The First Avenger) will play Thorin Oakenshield, leader of the Company of Dwarves which sets off to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from a thieving dragon. Aidan Turner (Being Human) and Rob Kazinsky (EastEnders) will play Kili and Fili, members of the Company of Dwarves. Graham McTavish (Secretariat) will play Dwalin, John Callen (Power Rangers Jungle Fury) will play Oin; Stephen Hunter (All Saints) will play Bombur, and Mark Hadlow (King Kong) plays Dori, while Peter Hambleton (The Strip) will play Gloin. That casting has just beginning, and there will be many more opportunities for the kind of career-changing roles that went in the original trilogy to the likes of Orlando Bloom, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Elijah Wood and Sean Astin. None of this is set, but I’ve heard that James Nesbitt and David Tennant are up for roles, and that Ian McKellan and Andy Serkis are expected to reprise Gandalf and Gollum, though I don’t believe they have made deals. Stephen Fry, Saoirse Ronan and Bill Nighy (as the voice of the dragon Smaug) are possible participants, and Aiden Turner is in contention for the Elf King.“Despite the various rumors and speculation surround this role, there has only ever been one Bilbo Baggins for us,” Peter Jackson said. There are a few times in your career when you come across an actor who you know was born to play a role, but that was the case as soon as I met Martin. He is intelligent, funny, surprising and brave — exactly like Bilbo and I feel incredibly proud to be able to announce that he is our Hobbit.”
It looks like we finally have a pretty clear picture of what this new movie is going to look like. I don’t know about anyone else, but I can’t wait until December 2012!
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Lets start with the look. Overall this game looks great for something current generation. It seems to be blend of ‘God of War’ and ‘Uncharted’. Great looking, but nothing that stands too far out.
Next is the gameplay. It plays somewhat like a game in the ‘God of War’ series. Basic 3D platforming — jump, hold ledge, and jump from ledge to ledge. Most levels have puzzles required to complete in order to advance. Some are simple and others will have you surfing the internet to find the answer. One thing that is great is that most of the larger enemies (Spiders, Orcs and Whargs) can be beaten down, mounted, and used for some purpose to move on…or to just pummel lesser enemies. When you’re done with your mount, you strangle them and move on. Quick time actions make appearances here as well. But unlike most games where you need to press a specific button at a certain time, this changes the formula a bit by requiring you to press any button when two white circles come together over your character. It works, but takes some getting use to.
Your main weapon is the Combat Cross. It is quite literally a steel cross with a chain packed inside. Some upgrades come along like adding a hook to swing with, or adding spikes to the chain. The Combat Cross also has two types of direct attacks. Then you have the sub weapons. The sub weapons are classic Castlevania staples — knife, Holy Water etc.
A feature of this game that adds a level of customization is the option to purchase more advanced moves for the Combat Cross and your sub weapons. Some are lame, and some a down right nasty for your enemies.
Early on you gain access to light and dark magic. Light heals as you attack and dark increases your attack power. This makes for interesting combinations when needed. The problem is that you have to absorb neutral magic orbs to use magic. This can be tedious sometimes, but also there are spots where you can fill your magic to the max without fighting a ass-load of enemies. Upgrades are available for your magic as well. It also adds some interesting effects to your sub weapons.
Another interesting feature is the Focus Attack. The more often you land attacks without having one land on you the more neutral orbs are given. This system can make or break your magic use. While it does teach you to block and dodge more, it also can anger you quickly.
Currency to purchase anything in this games comes from defeating enemies. There is a set amount of drop per enemy. This is ok at best because you find yourself grinding to get enough for the more powerful attacks. Thankfully there are spots within certain levels that a endless horde of enemies are available. They help. A lot.
The music in the game is beautiful. Expect to hear some of the classic tunes from the series along with some new ones.
Voice acting is top notch. Gabriel Belmont is voiced by Robert Carlyle, and your mentor Zobek is played by Sir Patrick Stewart. Among others, Stewart’s voice is heard at the start of every level reading the story as you progress. Just waiting to hear, “Engage”.
The difficulty is where it should be for a game in this series. Expect to see the death of Gabriel numerous times. Backtracking is required at some points to obtain upgrades to the Combat Cross, magic and more.
Overall, this game is great for the seasoned gamer and is must play for the Castlevania fan. The game is an interesting blend of ‘Uncharted’, ‘God of War’ and ‘Devil May Cry’. I have to say while Castlevania is in its element when the games are 2D, this latest foray into 3D is the best they have ever done.
Overall I give it an 8 out of 10. But remember, I am a Castlevania junkie and love all the games in this series.
‘Castlevania: Lords of Shadow’ is available now for PS3 and Xbox 360, with a downloadable demo available for both platforms. I recommend you get your feet wet in the demo first.
Napster taught an entire generation that those who came before them were dumb. Why spend your hard earned money on a CD in a store when you would download a digital version for the incredible price of free? With Napster it was simple. Simply launch the program, type what song or band you are looking for into the search box, and literally hundreds of search results are returned. Simply click on one of the links and the music was yours in a matter of minutes. Cost to you? Nothing. Cost to the Recording Industry? Well…the jury (literally) is still out on that one. The important thing is that life would never be the same.
Sadly, Napster would be shut down within the next two years. Sure, the name would live on, but never as it was originally imagined. But like all revolution, it didn’t end there. In those two years Napster will have inspired dozens of clones. One of them was a service called Audiogalaxy.
Audiogalaxy operated until 2002 as a Napster-like file sharing service until coming to the same fate as Napster. Again, the named lived on, but it wasn’t the same. In Audiogalaxy’s case, it was to be a promotional site for Rhapsody’s music service for the next eight years. Yep, Audiogalaxy was shilling for The Man.
But times have changed.
Audiogalaxy has relaunched itself in BETA form as a new personal music service. What does that mean? It’s actually quite simple. You sign up for an account on the Audiogalaxy website, and download a small ‘helper’ application. You install this application and it catalogs all of the music on your computer and uploads that data to your online profile. Keep in mind, no files are actually being transferred, just meta data. Once that is done, you can see your entire music library online.
Why would anyone want this? To be honest, no one does. That’s why it’s a two step process. Once this is done you download an app for either your iOS or Android device. This is where the magic happens. Once you sign into the app on your mobile device, you now have complete access to your entire music library you just catalogued. Instead of being limited to a few gigabytes of music storage on your device, you can now listen to your entire library. That is, as long as your library is under 200,000 songs. That is the current limit to the service. But let’s be honest here. Are you ever going to need to listen to more than 200,000 songs when you’re on a mobile device? I didn’t think so.
So what is the cost of the great service? For now it is all free. That’s right, I said ‘for now’. Audiogalaxy has admitted that in the future they may charge a small for additional features, but for what I understand, the streaming will always remain free.
PROS: Free service (for now), complete mobile integration, works over WiFi and 3G, very easy setup.
CONS: Only iOS and Android mobiles devices supported, 200,000 songs limit.
In the end, the price is right and the service works amazingly well. I can’t wait to take my entire music collection with me wherever I go now. Head on over to www.audiogalaxy.com and sign up.
RED is somewhat based on a DC comics mini-series of the same name. I do like comics but have never read this one. Maybe I will now.
Before you read below remember I will not hold back any info for the film so unless you plan on never seeing it STOP READING!!!!!
The movie follows the story of retired CIA agent Frank Moses, played by Bruce Willis. Frank dislikes his retirement and in general is living a boring life in the suburbs. Frank is having an over the phone relationship with a lady at the CIA pension office named Sarah. Sarah is played by the extremely cute and sexy Mary-Louise Parker. Sarah is looking for a little excitement in her life. Frank is just looking for some one to talk to. So after a few phone calls Frank tells Sarah that he is coming to Kansas City and would like to have a date. Most of the next scene is Frank quickly putting to shame a bunch of well armed and younger men who have nearly shredded his entire house. In fact, he leaves just as the porch roof collapses.
We slide to Kansas City where we see Sarah ending a bad date she was setup on. She walks into her apartment, cracks a Corona, and Frank lets out a quiet “Hello” inside her apartment. She of course freaks out a starts throwing all manner of things at him. Frank looks out the window and sees a black-ops team ready to come in and kill them. Sarah reluctantly comes along with Frank after he cuffs her duct tapes her mouth shut. Funny enough, Frank can perfectly understand what she says with the tape over mouth.
Now CIA agent Cooper, played by Karl Urban, is tasked with finding and killing Frank Moses. Cooper figures its a easy mission cause he is a retired agent.
Frank and Sarah drive to New Orleans to meet up with a old teammate Joe, played by Morgan Freeman, in his retirement home. Joe seems to be the information guy who can call just about anyone for information. He finds out that the guys hired to kill Frank were also hired to kill a journalist recently. So Frank and Sarah speak with the mother of the dead journalist and get some information that leads to a list of names.
At this point Frank and Cooper have it out for the first time. Frank easily outsmarts Cooper and turns the entire New Orleans police force on him.
Frank and Sarah then go to see paranoid ex-agent, Marvin, played by the show stealer John Malkovich. His performance in this film is awesome. Not that any of the other actors were slouches but he makes every scene a little more memorable. Anyway….Marvin figures out the names on the list are related to a secret mission and that one of the people on the list are still alive. So after Marvin nearly kills a lady he thinks was following him, they all set off.
They track down the missing man named Gabriel, played by James Remar (remember him? He played Raiden in the crappy Mortal Kombat sequel.). Gabriel is a pilot and tells them that he was there after the secret mission to fly someone out. Promptly after he says this he is shot by a sniper. The team escapes and has a run in with Cooper’s forces at the ship yard…which appears to be attached to the airport. Weird. Frank and Marvin easily defeat the agents and move on. They stop and see a old Russian contact Ivan Simanov, played by Brian Cox. (You know him. That bad guy from the first two Bourne films). Ivan and Frank negotiate a deal for Frank to get access to the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virgina.
At this point Cooper has had it and wants to learn all he can about Frank. He visits the archives and meets the record keeper, played by Ernest Borgnine. He explains to Cooper that Frank was the best Black-ops agent the CIA ever had and ended his career RED. Retired Extremely Dangerous. Most of Frank’s file was black lines anyway so he gets no real useful information and moves on.
Frank and Sarah have now successfully infiltrated the CIA and stop and to visit the record keeper themselves for information about the secret mission that is causing all of the problems. The record keeper also lets them know that Cooper is looking into them. This leads to a office battle between Frank and Cooper where Frank once again kicks his ass. During the escape Frank is shot and is in need of care.
This leads them to seek out another old agent, Victoria, played by Helen Mirren. Mirren patches Frank up and she joins the crew. They head to see Alexander Dunning, played by Richard Dreyfuss. At Dunning’s house they obtain more information. Alex’s company deals in weapons and was associated with the secret mission. He tells them that Gabriel flew Vice President Stanton, played by Julian McMahon, out and tells them the VP was behind the whole thing.
By now Cooper and the FBI have the place surrounded and Joe decides to sacrifice himself so the team can escape. In the running Sarah is caught and taken with Cooper to CIA headquarters. Thanks to Ivan, they escape and have a drink to their fallen comrade.
Frank calls Cooper and explains that he better not harm Sarah and that he is going to take a shot at Stanton. At this point Cooper figures out that Frank is making this call from inside Cooper’s house. Frank explains that if nothing happens to Sarah nothing happens to his family. Cooper agrees and then joins the security detail at the VP’s next fundraiser.
The team infiltrate that fundraiser and divert the VP to alternate locations until they finally get him into a car with Frank driving it. In the end we find out the Alexander Dunning was behind the whole thing and that the VP was just a pawn. So Frank’s team kills them all with Cooper shooting the handler responsible for sending him. In the end Cooper and Frank have mutual respect for each other and they all leave.
Ivan them reminds Frank of the nature of the deal they made to get into the CIA. Frank has to steal a nuclear device from Moldova with the entire Moldovan army in pursuit.
From beginning to end this movie is great. John Malkovich steals every scene he is in. The ensemble cast is incredible and the writing is excellent. The action is what you have come to expect from a movie with Bruce Willis starring in it. Overall this movie is definite must see if you can in the theater.
Red is in a theaters now….here is the trailer.
]]>The game fills the gap between ‘God of War’ and ‘God of War 2′, as Kratos is now the new God of War!
The demo itself takes place mostly in Atlantis. Most the demo you are fighting generic bad guys en route to a boss — The Scylla; a horrific looking six headed monster. Like most bosses in God of War, they’re defeated by some type of quick time action — usually a sequence of buttons, but sometimes you get a controller movement in their to spice it up. All of this leads up to some brutal endings for most of the bosses. If you have played any of the God of War games you know what I am talking about. Sometimes they make Mortal Kombat look tame. Just look at this…
This is only the demo mind you and it roughly lasts 15 minutes.It may be short, bbt the impact is profound for a God of War junkie such as myself. You do get a choice of 2 weapons: The Blades of Chaos (the names of his base weapons change from game to game but all act in the same way) and The Spartan Spear and Shield. This is a great addition to the armory of God of War. Not only do you get the spear which is used for up close confrontations and can be thrown for long range attacks but you get the shield by which you can defend and smash people in the head with.
The graphics on the game are top notch for the PSP. They seem to go beyond what the PS2 looked like. The animation is fluid and the voice acting is great as usual.
Overall this is a must download for the God of War fans out there. If you’re looking to step into the series and you own a PSP, give it whirl. After all, it comes at the best price…FREE!
The full version will be available November 2nd, 2010, on the Playstation store and in the retail jungle as well. For all things God of War visit the link below…
http://www.godofwar.com/Index/
Jerry
]]>Lets get started with the voice actors. Sometime the in the DC animated universe they try different voices for their core characters. A absolute requirement for these films is to have Tim Daly as Superman\Clark Kent, Kevin Conroy as Batman\Bruce Wayne. As a bonus you get Susan Eisenberg as Diana\Wonder Women. All of these are the voice actors for the Justice League and Justice League: Unlimited. Now as topping on the cake you get Summer Glau and Kara Zor-El\Supergirl and Edward Asner as Granny Goodness. Pretty much a top notch voice acting cast.
Next this Movie is a sequel to Batman\Superman: Public Enemies. Its not all essential that you see this film but helps at least in the 1st few minutes. Also it is drawn again in a darker style like Public Enemies so if you use to seeing DC animated cartoons this is not drawn anything like that. Also all of the women are drawn like they all had boob jobs. Which is AWESOME!
This story follows somewhat the story of how Supergirl arrived on Earth and has no memory of anything before she landed. She lands(crashes!) into the Gotham bay. Batman in mere seconds is on the scene to investigate. You know Batman someway somehow is thee most prepared person written in comics and animated films ever. He always has some gadget or something that will usually solve the problem or at least bring it to halt for a little bit. Moving on. So after Supergirl nearly wrecks half the city because she is unaware of the power she Superman speeds into the scene to save some people from a crashing automated blimp that the police use to monitor the city. Yeah Gotham as advanced as it is uses automated blimps to help stop crime. So it comes down to Batman with a piece of Kryptonite from her own downed ship to stop her.
Now we move along to the Batcave where Batman is scanning Kara’s body from head to toe in his usual suspicious nature. He figures out that she is from Krypton and maybe related to Superman. He also determines that her body is more dense then Superman’s. He figures its her youth and they way her body processes sunlight to power her body. Throughout this scene and the next you see negative relationship between Batman and Supergirl form due to Batman’s distrust of just about everything. After a few witty comments between Batman and Superman the movie moves on.
Now we are at the Fortress of Solitude where they have Kara under lock down until she gets her powers under control and in one of the best cameos in DC animated history Krypto the Superdog is chasing Kara because he is uneasy with Kara’s presence and Batman agrees with the dog. He says that the dog was always a good judge character. So after some more arguing about Kara place in the world and utter lack of control of her powers you get to see the great statues in the Fortress of Superman’s Mom and Dad, Jor-EL and Lara. This image of the two of them holding up a planet assumable its Krypton. As you see them Batman asks her if this helps with the memory loss and she can only remember that they are her aunt and uncle.
So Superman now as Clark takes Kara on a shopping spree to make her feel like a earth girl(its hard not insert a Earthgirls are Easy joke here, Google that if you don’t know what it is). After that they enjoy a hot dog and she actually asks if they are made from real dog. That’s funny and creepy at the same time. So they move on to a park presumably one in Metropolis where there is a statue of Superman and Kara realizes they somewhat worship him and decides that she doesn’t want to be a hero just a kid.
Now they get a attacked and someone smashes Clark hard enough to push him away from the area(He is Superman right?). While he is gone Kara’s powers go off again and the previously mentioned statue is destroyed along with some other things in the park. Superman returns after the group of people try to take Kara and it turns out they are surrounded by the Amazons as they are trying to abducted her to bring her to Paradise Island to help control her powers better. So Superman throws about ten of Amazons away with ease and they realize it’s Wonder Woman and Batman who orchestrated the whole affair as it would be better for the public for her to be away from them instead of Superman training her and reluctantly he agrees and they take her away.
Fast forward a year later and Kara is well trained and living the Amazon life. With Superman and Batman looking in on her training. Superman is frustrated with the fact that she is not around and is assuming the big brother roll. As Kara fights another generic Amazon that they give a ancient Roman name to Superman intervenes and stops her before she can hurt Kara. Then after another argument about her future they finally decide that she can choose her own path and she flies off with her psychic buddy. This is just in time for a Boomtube to open and a zillion Doomsday clones appear.
Remember Doomsday? The character that killed Superman? Here comes a slight issue with this film. Here is a clip to help…(I hate when people post videos on youtube and disable embedding! A-Hole!). After you watch the clip read on!
First off Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the Amazons are all fighting the character that took down Superman. Thee most powerful character in the universe. At least this universe. Later they show Superman bumping them off with his freeze breath with ease. Ok I can see past this I guess.
I also love this clip because its the 2nd time in the DC Animated Universe that they show Superman seriously use his power and not hold back. This is when he melts the entire army of Doomsdays. Below is the 1st time he cut loose so to speak….
So after that they Kara is gone to Apocalypse to be brainwashed by Darkseid and Granny Goodness. So the hero squad arrives at a suburban location to see Big Barda. Recently defected from Darkseid’s ranks. She suits up and helps them. So Wonder Woman and Barda take on Barda’s former squad of psychos the furies while Batman has something excellent planned. Superman is heading straight for Darksied. They all have some excellent fight scenes and move on. Superman encounters Darksied and Kara dressed in Goth(really!) and she proceeds to pound him into the dirt. Meanwhile Batman activates the Hellspores that Darksied has stockpiled up. In the end of it all Batman gets Darksied to relinquish control of Kara and lets them all go.
Then in a somewhat sappy scene Kara is recovered and is standing before the statue of her lost friend. Crying. She decides that she will go with Clark to the old Kent farm and live with his parents. So as arrive at the house Darksied smashes through the house and a epic battle ensues. Clark out for part and Kara out for the other. In the end most of the farm house, barn and land are destroyed and Darksied is ejected into space via Boomtube.
Okay Kara decides to be Supergirl and follow in her cousin’s footsteps.
That was along way around it all.
Okay here is why this is awesome:
1. Its Batman, Superman, Supergirl, Krypto and Wonder Woman in one film!
2. The story and talent are awesome
3. Well the animation is beautiful. Especially on Bluray. Oh and the boobs!
Here is why its not so awesome:
1. The story really digs deep at some points. This should only matter to die hard comic fans. Superman taking out multiple Doomsdays when he had trouble killing one.
2. Some people may be turned away by some of the more violent battle scenes that take place.
3. The fact that Michael Ironside was not Darksied. He made that character!
Well if you read this or not is your choice. Thanks for the time either way!!!
]]>
Monday, February 03, 2009
Episode 26 – “Your Bad Day Just Got Worse”
Running Time: 0:44:46
Show Notes
- Google flags every site on the Internet as malicious thanks to a rogue slash.
- Ma.gnolia looses all it’s user data in a major server crash.
- CD sales are down 54.6 % in 2008, down from their peak in 2000.
- Print is doomed.
- Launch day XBox 360s are now officially out of warranty.
- Potential Kid Icarus renders for the Wii leaked.
- Nintendo’s stock wains on Wii sales.
- A new trailer for ‘Batman Arkham Asylum’ is released.
- We salivate. Sheyla Hershey now has the world’s biggest augmented breasts.
- Richard Dean Anderson does a cameo as MacGyver on SNL’s MacGruber.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Quake Live BETA.
Jerry – Batman: The Brave and The Bold.
Monday, January 20, 2009
Episode 25 – “Pants Are Optional”
Running Time: 1:08:53
Show Notes
- Circuit City is closing all their stores.
- Ricardo Montalban dies at 88.
- Laserdisc is officially dead – Poineer stops making players.
- 15″ Macbook Air this year? Some people think so.
- Apple’s Mini DisplayPort only for the 30″ Cinema Display? Apple says so after they sell one to you.
- Google is shutting down several services. But did anyone really use them anyway?
- Twitter enacts a Terms of Service. Don’t panic just yet.
- Gamer attacks mom with a taco because she turned off his XBox. WTF? This is the kind of shit that gives gamers a bad name.
- YouTube formats a special site just for PS3 and Wii.
- Samuel L Jackson will most likely not be playing Nick Fury because of $$.
- President Obama’s official portrait is the first to be taken digitally.
- AOL discontinues it’s Hometown blogging service. Jerry mourns.
- IE is down to a 89% market share thanks to open source browsers.
- Nintendo dominated game and console sales last year.
- Belkin gets caught paying for good reviews.
- Homebrew Wii HDD workaround succeeds where Nintendo does not.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – PlayOn for PS3.
Jason – Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for PS3.
Jerry – Hancock on Blu-Ray.
Monday, January 13, 2009
Episode 24 – “Print Is Dead”
Running Time: 1:07:01
Show Notes
- At Macworld 2009, Apple unveils a new 17″ unibody Macbook Pro with a new internal battery boasting an 8hr worktime.
- Apple updates the iPhone for wireless downloading from the iTunes store.
- iTunes sets a new pricing tier, and completely drops DRM.
- PureSilicon showed up the first 1TB 2.5″ solid state hard drive. Pricing and availability were not given.
- Asus unveils their kick-ass HTPC keyboard at CES 2009.
- Microsoft’s Surface Table crashed at CES.
- Microsoft has released the Windows 7 BETA, build 7000 to the public. Just download yours before January 24th!
- Windows 7 allows you to completely disable UAC. The peasants rejoice!
- Palm rises from the dead with the Palm Pre smartphone.
- Burger King has a new Facebook application: sacrifice (delete) 10 friends and get a free Whopper.
- EGM goes the way of the dinosaur. The January 2009 issue will be its last.
- The Wii is finally running into an issue with storage space.
- President-elect Barack Obama will be bringing a Wii to the White House. This will be the first video game system in the White House.
- The official site for Final Fantasy XIII has gone live.
- Street Fighter IV comes out next month and we can’t wait!
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe for PS3.
Jerry – Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia for Nintendo DS.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Episode 23 – “Zune-tastrophe”
Running Time: 0:35:24
Show Notes
- A leap year bug caused all 30gb Zunes to stop working on December 31, 2008. Dozens of Zune owners were affected.
- Windows 7 build 7000 was leaked onto the Internet. So far the build is faster than Vista XP.
- Japanese modder makes a sad looking Tablet PC out of an Asus Eee PC
- SKIGYM is a Wii balance board for those who have too much money.
- Mod your washing machine to let you know when it’s done. It’ll even let you know through Twitter!
- $45 million dollars in biometric scanners were rendered useless in Japanese airports by simple tape.
- RAM is dirt cheap thanks to the slow adoption of Windows Vista.
- We speculate on what we might see at Macworld 2009 this week.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Daddy-O’s for retro shirts.
Jason – ‘Little Big Planet’ for PS3.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Episode 22 – “Pope Level Geek”
Running Time: 1:11:18
Show Notes
- It only took 27 hours for someone to reach the level cap in the new ‘World of Warcraft’ expansion.
- Toyota is claiming that anything Toyota related, fan-made or not, belongs to them. We call ‘bullshit’ on this one!
- The ‘Minority Report’ computer interface is now a reality.
- President-Elect Obama is doing weekly ‘fireside chats’ via YouTube. He really is our first internet President.
- The PS3 Keypad has been delayed until sometime in December. Does anyone really care?
- Nintendo’s Wii Speak will only be able to be used with one Wii — forever. There’s not going to be any pre-owned sales on this puppy.
- Believe it or not, 8 years after its launch, the Playstation 2 is not only still selling consoles but new game are still being released for it.
- Lord British has left the building! Richard Garriott is leaving NCsoft to start a new mystery company.
- ‘Street Fighter IV’ will finally be released on February 17, 2009. A new trailer featuring the fabled Gouken has been released.
- ‘Street Fighter II HD Remix’ will be released on November 27, 2008.
- ‘Castlevania Judgement’ is being released on November 18, 2008. We’re still don’t care.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – ‘Fallout 3′.
Jerry – ‘Resistance 2′.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Episode 21 – “Let’s Pilates”
Running Time: 1:09:01
Show Notes
- Microsoft releases a preview build of Windows 7. Jason gives us his first hands-on impressions.
- Microsoft officially discontinues Windows 3.1 on November 1, 2008. It is the end of an era.
- We all agree — We Miss DOS!!
- The “creators” of ‘Duke Nukem Forever’ admit that their game is a joke.
- Jack Thompson is finally disbarred. Gamers rejoice!
- For some unknown reason, the US version of ‘Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe’ will have a censored version of Joker’s Fatality. Why?
- Angelina Jolie is losing weight using her son’s DS playing a game called ‘Let’s Pilates’. WTF?
- Microsoft China has retrofitted a bus with workstations for their workers. Funny, they have Windows XP workstations, not Windows Vista!
- We have seen the most vicious virus yet!
- Jason is having a wee bit of an AirPort problem.
- Eric Schmidt of Google says he will not become the first ever Chief US Tech Officer if asked.
- Custom Guitar Hero World Tour songs uploaded by users that sound like copyrighted songs are being removed. Aren’t they shooting themselves in the foot?
- We’re still waiting for the Ghostbusters game to come out. Looks like we’ll all be waiting until 2009.
- There is a new Halo game coming out, ‘Halo 3: Recon’.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – SideBoob.org. (probably NSFW)
Jerry – Samsung Instinct.
Jason – VMware Workstation 6.5.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Episode 20 – “We Like Cheetos”
Running Time: 1:30:54
Show Notes
- ‘World of Warcraft’ is unleashing zombies into their world as a precursor to the upcoming expansion pack.
- Rumor has it there will also be zombies unleashed in ‘GTA IV’ via a download, codenamed ‘Quarantine’. Should make ‘GTA IV’ like ’28 Days Later’.
- Bill Gates in ‘Doom’? You bet!
- Microsoft’s ad campaign with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld fell flat.
- BETA testers will get Windows Vista SP2 on October 29th.
- Windows 7 is slated to launch by June 2009.
- The G1 launched this week on T-Mobile. This is Google’s open source Android mobile OS for those of you not in the know.
- Did Sprint screw itself by saying Android isn’t good enough for them them yet?
- This week’s Wii update killed the homebrew scene. If you already hacked your Wii, you’re fine. If you haven’t, you’re screwed.
- Playstation HOME BETA has been hacked. This could be the first step on the road to PS3 game backups.
- The Wii’s hardware cannot even handle the title screen for Resident Evil 5.
- A Japanese woman murders her virtual husband inside of a game.
- The live action DBZ movie is going to suck it hard.
- We discuss the new Knight Rider and Jerry assigns homework.
- Jerry is having a love/hate relationship with ‘Mega Man 9′.
- There is a new trailer for Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – ‘Super Mario 64 DS’.
Jerry – ‘Mega Man 9′ and ’1942: Joint Strike’ for the PS3.
Jason – Boxee, a social media center for OS X and Linux.
Georgia – The Barnes Noble website.
BONUS PICK – Yoda Darth Vader download for ‘Soul Calibur IV’.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Episode 19 – “Steve Jobs Is Dead”
Running Time: 0:44:11
Show Notes
- Jason has been busy. He had a birthday, baby, and got a MacBook.
- Apple is having a ‘Spotlight on Notebooks’ event on October 14, 2008. New MacBook and MacBook Pros.
- Rumors abound! Apple is finally going to offer a notebook under $1,000. Looks like it’s going to be a 13″ MacBook for $800.
- Is Apple really going to offer an LCD TV with a built in Apple TV? It doesn’t make any sense to us.
- Steve Jobs has been killed off twice in the last 2 months. Both times, they were wrong.
- Circuit City is getting ready to join CompUSA. Their stock has dropped to $.37 a share, and things are looking very bleak.
- The economy sucks. ‘Nuff said.
- This is the craziest World of Warcraft setup ever! Can you play 36 account at once?
- Russian hackers used the GPUs from Nvidia cards and decimated WPA and WPA2 via brute force attacks. Networks were breached 10,000 faster than current hacks.
- Trevor got into the LittleBigPlanet BETA. So far, two total thumbs up!
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – iTunes Genius feature in iTunes 8.0.
Jason – Grocery IQ for the iPhone.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Episode 18 – “Space Bucks”
Running Time: 1:18:06
Show Notes
- The FEMA PBX was hacked and over $10,000 in free over seas calls were made.
- Cock rings and penis pumps are now banned on U.S. flights.
- Nintendo is getting sued again. This time it’s over the Wiimote. As a bonus, they want all imports of Wiis banned.
- Is Microsoft coming out with a $200 Xbox 360 bundle with their Xmote this Christmas?
- Sony comes out with their own clip-on keyboard for the SIXAXIS and Dual Shock 3 controller. Useless??
- Trevor and Jerry didn’t have the best experience playing ‘Soul Calibur IV’ online via the PSN. They discuss what they would do to fix it.
- With arcades gone, and people playing online via their console, the social experience of playing video games has been lost.
- Rumor has it Sheng Long will be in ‘Street Fighter 4′.
- You can now preorder maraca controllers for upcoming ‘Samba de Amigo’ landing on the Nintendo Wii.
- The new Knight Rider will have a ‘K.I.T.T. Cave’.
- We talk Bond, James Bond.
- New posters have been released for the new ‘Max Payne’ movie. Will it suffer from the video game movie curse?
- Struggling Ziff Davis “indefinitely postpones” this year’s DigitalLife.
- Twitter now limits how many people you can follow to 2,000.
- Jerry wants every console to use real money, not Space Bucks.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – ‘Bionic Commando: Rearmed’ for the PS3.
Jerry – ‘Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles’ for the PSP
Monday, August 11, 2008
Episode 17 – “Fist To The LCD”
Running Time: 1:42:17
Show Notes
- Three French reporters were kick out of Black Hat for hacking the off limits press Wi-Fi network.
- Eight people actually paid $999.99 for the ‘I am Rich’ app before Apple pulled it.
- Apple also pulls NetShare app. Why won’t ATT allow iPhone tethering?
- Is this evidence of Apple’s ability to remotely disable iPhone apps? Code is from the firmware.
- We’re all a little disturbed about this story regarding ‘Real Dolls’.
- People messed when the LOLCAT iPhone app by tagging flickr images of dead cats as LOLCATS. Brilliant low-level hack!
- Kevin Smith fights the MPAA — and wins!
- Alter Ego software from Pendulum Studios looks amazing!
- Information about the Blu-ray edition of ‘Ironman’ was released. Geeks rejoice!
- Jason has returned to using Windows Home Server. Would you after his past experiences?
- Early pre Heath Ledger Joker concepts were released. Creepier?
- Super geeks buys a welder and scratch builds his own Tumbler.
- Sony is killing their PSP extended battery. Why??
- You can now buy anime contact lens.
- Kelly kicks ass and gets a great deal on her new headset.
- Goldeneye will most likely never make it to XBL.
- Got an NES laying around? Make a cool lunchbox!
- The 25 hottest virtual female fighters.
- Microsoft is saying 60% of all Wii Fits are going unused.
- Does Nintendo accessory us to death?
- To apply for the US Canadian Playstation Home BETA, you need to download the free Home theme and apply it.
- The 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremony was very tech heavy, and yet, very old school.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Cyberduck FTP for OS X.
Jerry – ‘Soul Calibur IV’ for PS3.
Jason – No pick this week.
Kelly – I’m In Like With You, gaming website.
Monday, August 04, 2008
Episode 16 – “Japan Speak”
Running Time: 1:42:00
Show Notes
- Cuil launches. A real threat to Google?
- Twitter is adjusting follower counts in an effort to weed out spammers.
- A Judge in Iowa has deemed all nude dancing as ‘art’.
- We loved the Calvin Steve Jobs comics!
- What is the Monster of Montauk?
- We discuss, in depth, ‘Soul Calibur IV’.
- ‘Rage’ for the XBox 360, will have compressed graphics and be on 2 DVDs due to Microsoft’s disc licensing. Beginning of the end for the 360?
- PAX is coming to the East Coast in 2010. Reserve your hotel room now!
- EGM can kiss our ass for their review of ‘Soul Calibur IV’!
- Microsoft’s ‘Mojave Experiment’ is not only lame, but is starting to backfire.
- There are tons of rumors about possible new MacBooks.
- We talk about the movies we’re still looking forward to in 2008.
- We all enjoyed the Comic-Con trailer for ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’.
- We finally get to rate ‘The Dark Knight’.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Swurl.com — see what you’ve been doing online.
Jerry – ‘The King of Kong: A Fist Full Of Quarters’.
Jason – Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.
Kelly – Nintendo DS 2. Will it happen this year?
Monday, July 14, 2008
Episode 15 – “The iPhone Has Ghetto Booty”
Running Time: 1:35:38
Show Notes
- Jason talks about his iPhone 3G line experience.
- Apple’s systems come to a screeching halt with the mass of iPhone activations.
- Sony releases PS3 firmware 2.41 to fix the ‘bricking’ issue with 2.4.
- XBox 360, Wii, and PS3 should come with restore DVDs to restore a bricked system.
- Jason and Trevor are finding that they are buying more software, rather than downloading it.
- Again, why do most video game movies suck?
- New footage from ‘Mortal Kombat vs. DC’ shows fatalities.
- ‘Castlevania Judgement’ looks ‘interesting’. It’s basically Soul Calibur with the Castlevania characters.
- EGM is now going to single writer reviews.
- Trevor’s going back to PC gaming for Diablo III.
- Jason, Trevor and Jerry all went from being hardcore PC gamers to strictly console gamers.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – ‘Batman: Gotham Knight’ on Blu-ray. Also available on standard DVD.
Jerry – Season 2 of ‘Burn Notice’. Season 1 is currently available on DVD.
Jason – Ping.fm. Currently in closed beta. Tweet Jason if you want a BETA invite.
Monday, July 07, 2008
Episode 14 – “Going Commando”
Running Time: 0:55:52
Show Notes
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Monday, June 23, 2008
Episode 13 – “AV Club”
Running Time: 1:10:02
Show Notes
- Jason and Trevor are in love with the quality of Blu-ray movies.
- Apple releases a 3G iPhone.
- Jason went to the Live Diggnation in New York City…and made a new friend. Jason chatted with Jim Louderback about bringing back the_broken.
- Mozilla launches Firefox 3.0.
- Yahoo! executives are jumping ship.
- The next version of OS X is code named ‘Snow Leopard’ and will be released in 2009.
- Mio is making a Knight Rider GPS unit — must buy!
- Russia unveils a $42,000 enema statue.
- Comcast installed a 10 million pixel, $22 million HD screen in their lobby.
- Nintendo releases 3.3 update which closes the Twilight hack — which was then quickly reopened.
- PS3 updates to 2.3 firmware.
- Dell is giving everyone until June 26th, at 6:59am EST to order a new PC with Windows XP on it, without the downgrade fee of $99.
- ‘Snow Leopard’ will have the ZFS file system.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – ‘Metal Gear Solid 4 – Guns of The Patriots’ for PS3.
Jason – ‘Grand Theft Auto IV’ for PS3.
Monday, June 02, 2008
Episode 12 – “The Future Is Now”
Running Time: 1:14:26
Show Notes
- Comcast was hacked by 2 High School drop-outs.
- Revision 3 was DoSed by MediaDefender.
- Ed ate some bad Taco Bell.
- Cisco creates a holographic communication system.
- Microsoft previewed Windows 7 which has something that looks like the OS X dock.
- You can now hire your favorite celebrity for you event.
- We plan Ed’s geek wedding.
- Soul Calibur IV will now have destructible body armor.
- WTF is up with this new character in Street Fighter 4?
- Does anyone really want a Turbografx 16 emulator for the iPhone?
- The Limited Edition Metal Gear Solid 4 PS3 bundle will be limited to 10,000 units.
- We discuss the new upcoming 3G iPhone.
- This is why every guy should buy his girl a Wii Fit.
- Ed provides us with a PSA.
- PS3 Firmware Update 2.4 will include in-game XMB and achievements.
- Jerry is psyched over gameplay footage of the new Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia for the Nintendo DS.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Kick Apps – social network video site.
Jerry – Rambo on Blu-Ray.
Jason – Britekite – currently in private BETA.
Ed – Bioshock for PS3.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Episode 11 – “Body Groomer”
Running Time: 1:04:50
Show Notes
- Ars Technica is bought for a rumored $25 million and CBS buys c|net.
- Microsoft releases and then pulls a PDF outlining the ‘Five Misunderstood Features In Windows Vista’.
- Georgia talks about recently switching from Windows to OS X.
- Ed really likes reading digital comics on Marvel’s website.
- We all discuss grooming habits.
- Konami announces a new Castlevania game for he Nintendo DS.
- Someone in the UK is selling bricks shaped like the original Gameboy.
- EA is not making any baseball games this year.
- The American site for Soul Calibur IV is editing their images, compared to the Japanese site.
- We talk about movie video games based on movies.
- Jerry’s got a woody for the new Indy movie.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection for PS3.
Jerry – Brain Age 2 for Nintendo DS.
Jason – Ideal VDV Multimedia Cable Tester
Ed – King Greyskull He-Man relaunch.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Episode 10 – “Ball Mullet”
Running Time: 1:10:20
Show Notes
- Microsoft launches, and then pulls, Windows XP SP3 and Vista SP1.
- We come to the realization that we don’t use our cell phones for voice calls, but to text and Twitter.
- Microsoft officially pulls its bid for Yahoo! and walks away.
- We talk about Ray Ozzie’s vision for the new ‘mesh’.
- Would you stay at a hotel on vacation without internet access?
- Western digital launches the world’s fastest hard drive — the Velociraptor.
- Jason is stoked that NBC picked up ‘Knight Rider’ for next season.
- Sony bought Gracenote for $260 million.
- Jerry is thinking about making the switch to a Mac.
- Someone modded a NES cartridge into a full NES system.
- Jerry wants to but the new, Wii Stripper Pole game.
- Nintendo announces that it will not drop the price of the Wii.
- Will Microsoft actually come out with a Bluray drive?
- Blockbuster is experimenting with selling electronics.
- Safeco Field in Seattle built a Nintendo DS network. We need more of this.
- Jerry asks “What’s the worst game you’ve ever played?”
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – R2D2 DVD projector.
Jerry – PS3 ‘Resistance: Fall of Man’.
Jason – Mario Kart Wii.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Episode 09 – “I Lost My Childhood When Optimus Died”
Running Time: 0:54:11
Show Notes
- eBay may be looking to sell Skype at the end fiscal 2008.
- We wax nostalgic about Transformers past, present and future.
- The new X-Files movie gets a working title – ‘X-Files: I Want To Believe’.
- We also briefly talk about Chris Carter’s forgotten property, ‘Millennium’.
- Ed is really looking forward to the new MMO, ‘Champions Online’.
- The MMO lure befuddles Jerry.
- Jason’s Macbook hard drive died last week.
- Jerry and Trevor are going fanboy over ‘Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe’.
- 2008 is going to be a stellar year for games.
- Jerry posed a question to us, “What game grabbed you so much that you couldn’t put it down until you beat it?”
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – ‘Deadliest Catch’ Season 4 on Discovery Channel.
Jerry – Contra 4 for Nintendo DS.
Jason – Google Calendar.
Ed – Cloverfield DVD .
Monday, April 14, 2008
Episode 08 – “All Mommy Wanted Was A Back Rub”
Running Time: 0:51:06
Show Notes
- Windows Vista SP1 may or may not drop this week via Windows Update.
- Yahoo! may screw Microsoft by merging with AOL, with a possible Google buyout chaser.
- Jerry and Trevor both want DOS back.
- Flickr adds video uploading for Flickr Pro users.
- Jerry and Trevor discuss mixed drinks.
- Associate Editor Dan “Shoe” Hsu leaves EGM.
- 49 million US gamers bought used games to the tune of $3 billion.
- ‘Games For Windows’ magazine (formerly ‘Computer Gaming World’), in publication for 27 years, will now be online only.
- Mario Kart for Wii has some newly released features. Jerry explains.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Doomsday.
Jerry – Castlevania II – Simon’s Quest for Wii Virtual Console.
Monday, April 07, 2008
Episode 07 – “Let’s All Go To The Lobby”
Running Time: 1:22:16
Show Notes
- Microsoft extends the life of Windows XP to 2010 — Home Edition only.
- A 3G iPhone is on its way.
- Today’s gamers are missing out by playing with their friends only online.
- Xbox Live is broken thanks to the Call Of Duty 4 map pack.
- Microsoft is getting aggressive in their takeover bid of Yahoo!.
- We love games that embrace user created mods.
- They really need to stop remaking classic movies.
- Someone has ported Quake 3 to the iPhone.
- Best Buy’s “Wii For Women” event was questionable at best.
- We talk about the best and worst video game movies made.
- We all agree it’s going to be a good summer movie season.
- Pizza.com just sold for $2.6 million.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Hulu – watch full length movie and TV shows for free.
Jerry – StarTropics via the Nintendo Virtual Console.
Jason – Apple’s Air Port Express.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Episode 06 – “Buying Back Our Childhood”
Running Time: 1:21:27
Show Notes
- Windows XP SP3 doesn’t show up as expected.
- Jerry and I both agree that we will never, under any circumstances, go back to dial-up.
- We need cable/satellite a la carte.
- Why do we save empty product boxes?
- We really are buying back our childhood.
- Are good graphics killing great gameplay?
- Nintendo announces release date of Mario Kart Wii, and the accessory Wii Wheel.
- Hackers attack epileptics via an Epilepsy forum.
- 18 year old shoots 15 year old in the head and kills him for not letting him play a video game.
- Best Buy is having a “Wii for Women Event”. Is this insulting to women or reverse sexism?
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – NetNewsWire for OS X.
Jerry – Twisted Metal Head-On for PS2.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Episode 05 – “Bring Back Bob”
Running Time: 0:44:14
Show Notes
- Apple updates Leopard for networked Airport Express Time Machine backups.
- Time Machine is the way all backup programs should work.
- Apple drops Safari 3.1 for OS X and Windows. Is Apple pushing Safari 3.1 via Apple Update on Windows machines a bad thing?
- Trevor talks about his experience with Firefox 3 BETA 4.
- Is Microsoft helping or hurting Vista with SP1?
- Sony catches major flack for their ‘Fresh Start’ program.
- We really miss getting backup or OEM discs with our new computers.
- How long will we have to wait for Vista’s successor?
- Jason is starting a new campaign – Bring Back Microsoft Bob.
- Jack Thompson get sanctioned by the Florida Supreme Court.
- Trevor is finally current gen after his wife bought them a Nintendo Wii.
- If the studios want to cut down on piracy, give us a free digital copy when we purchase a retail copy like ‘I Am Legend’ does.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Firefox 3 BETA 4.
Jason – Synergy
BONUS PICK – Monoprice. Cheap, reliable cables.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Episode 04 – “Your Silence Means It’s Golden”
Running Time: 1:17:30
Show Notes
- Jerry finally got his PS3.
- Jason finishes his WHS server backup and let us know how much data he lost.
- Trevor is worried we’re too connected in this digital world.
- Jerry wants to know who to blame when his old programs don’t work on newer versions of Windows.
- We all miss our DOS games.
- Why do we pay almost full price for 10+ year old games?
- Will Microsoft add a Blu-ray player?
- Did they make a mistake abandoning HD-DVD?
- A history of EGMs April Fool’s jokes.
- The Dreamcast.com phishing scam.
- Ziff Davis files for bankruptcy.
- EA tells Jack Thompson to get bent.
- Jerry and Jason talk about their experiences with the Wii Zapper.
- We make plans for a video ‘Growing Up Geek’ in the summer.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Linkin Park LIVE at the SoHo Apple Store. Go grab it on iTunes.
Jerry – Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Nintendo Wii.
Jason – Recommends backing up all your data.
Monday, March 03, 2008
Episode 03 – “Turbo Boost”
Running Time: 1:19:00
Show Notes
- Jason’s 7 TB Windows Home Server melted down from a known issue.
- Why do we stay away from bad hardware but flock to bad software?
- Windows Vista Upgrade prices fall. Will you upgrade now?
- AOL officially drops support for the Netscape web browser.
- Is Apple turning into Microsoft by using secret APIs to make Safari faster than Firefox on OS X?
- $0.62 to store 3 GB of data off site for 1 month? Trevor’s JungleDisk experience.
- AO (Adult Only) games. Why can’t we buy them like we buy porn?
- What’s up with EGM’s new game rating system?
- We discuss the new ‘Knight Rider’.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Windows Live Writer.
Jerry – Justice League: The New Frontier DVD.
Jason – Stay away from Windows Home Server!! And go check out the new Iron Man trailer.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Episode 02 – “War’s Over”
Running Time: 1:23:39
Show Notes
- HD DVD is dead. What now?
- Jason discusses his experiences with Windows Home Server.
- Why game delays piss us off.
- How downloadable content on today’s consoles is changing today’s gaming landscape.
- Why are we buying games we already own?
- Games we wish would come over from Japan.
- Firefox hits 500,000,000 downloads.
- We remember the legacy that was Netscape.
- Does anyone still actually use AOL?
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – ImageWell for OS X.
Jerry – Turok for Xbox 360.
Jason – Windows Home Server and My Movies plug-in.
Monday, February 16, 2008
Episode 01 – “Who’s Snoring?”
Running Time: 0:58:21
Show Notes
- First computers – discussion of the Commodore VIC 20.
- Audio Issues – Macs won’t recognize the mic input on a split plug headset. Trevor had to buy a USB headset – Plantronic’s GameCom Pro 1. Jason will be picking one up tomorrow.
- Multiplayer games online – from modem to modem play to today’s massive gaming online.
- We discuss the concepts that were the Nintendo Virtual Boy and Power Glove. Jerry loves the Angry Video Game Nerd’s take on the Power Glove.
- Game storylines – today vs. yesterday. NES games had better storylines and were more challenging than todays games.
- Is unlimited save points killing today’s game experience?
- Trevor and Jason just switched to Macs. We discuss why we did.
- Online identity. Why we want to be us again.
Picks Of The Week
Trevor – Jungle Disk. Amazon’s off-site storage solution.
Jerry – ‘Rambo’. Go see the movie!
Jason – Macs. Go buy one today!