Giant Bombcast 03-25-2008

[0] All right.

[1] Welcome back, everyone.

[2] It is Tuesday, March 25th.

[3] You're listening to the Giant Bombcast.

[4] I'm Ryan Davis.

[5] I'm Jeff Gerstmann.

[6] And joining us today, Jeff, is a special guest, Alex Navarro.

[7] Freelancer Alex Navarro.

[8] How are you doing, sir?

[9] I'm doing fantastic.

[10] I'm a guest, again, on your podcast.

[11] You are indeed.

[12] Our first official guest.

[13] First guest on the Giant Bombcast.

[14] You've podcasted with us many times in the past.

[15] I have.

[16] I have.

[17] Here's my worry.

[18] Yeah.

[19] Is that I'm going to turn into, like, the sort of...

[20] go -to guest when other guests cancel just because of my proximity.

[21] You'll be our own Joan Rivers.

[22] I'll basically be like the Saturday Night Live cast that shows up on Conan O 'Brien every once in a while when someone's like, hey, Amy.

[23] Someone canceled.

[24] Oh, Gina Polar's on.

[25] Yeah, so.

[26] Tracy Morgan, what's up?

[27] And every once in a while, Roma Downey just comes on.

[28] No reason.

[29] But you're here.

[30] This is your first time here in the giant bomb offices.

[31] I am in the bomb shelter.

[32] We don't call it that.

[33] We don't call it that.

[34] But you just did.

[35] No, we don't.

[36] But you just did.

[37] So you're here in the offices.

[38] I am.

[39] What's your initial take?

[40] You've seen the videos.

[41] I have.

[42] I've seen the videos.

[43] It's bigger, actually, than the videos make it look like, the room.

[44] And your orbital lounger.

[45] is like magic.

[46] Kind of a dentist chair.

[47] Kind of gets you back to that dentist level.

[48] If I wanted to work on your mouth, I could.

[49] You could.

[50] Well, you could.

[51] You could do that anyways, Jeff.

[52] You could, yeah.

[53] I don't have $9 on me. You don't have the tools.

[54] Anyway.

[55] You're not licensed, but that doesn't stop you.

[56] But yeah, that thing's magic.

[57] I love your giant TV.

[58] I love your completely ghetto couch.

[59] Yeah, it's a good couch.

[60] That couch was free.

[61] No, I get that.

[62] I get that that couch was free because if you paid money for that couch, you're an idiot.

[63] Fair enough, sir.

[64] So I guess this week, usually we start off with a big drink taste test.

[65] So Alex, you're drinking an Iron Brew.

[66] I am drinking an Iron Brew.

[67] We drank those last week.

[68] What do you think?

[69] I think they're not bad, dude.

[70] I think they're pretty good.

[71] Yeah, I like them too.

[72] All right, well, that's that.

[73] Thanks.

[74] Thus wraps the drink section of the show.

[75] I give it a seven.

[76] Moving on, I guess let's talk about some games.

[77] Games!

[78] Games you want, dude.

[79] What have you guys been playing?

[80] Alex, what are you into right now?

[81] Other than Rock Band, which we'll talk about that plenty later on.

[82] Most of what I've been playing these days has been review -related stuff.

[83] I finally got through Army of Two.

[84] I was painfully disappointed by that game.

[85] Not so into it.

[86] You're just playing for money right now.

[87] You're not playing for happiness.

[88] I'm playing a few things for happiness.

[89] I have a copy of Condemned 2 that's sitting there waiting for me to have a little free time to jump in on.

[90] You're like a video game gigolo.

[91] Yeah, I've got a copy of Bully I want to get on as well.

[92] Just in time for the patch.

[93] Yeah, just in time for the patch.

[94] Oh, that patch.

[95] That patch does nothing, I'm afraid.

[96] Oh, really?

[97] Really?

[98] It's supposed to fix everything.

[99] What's wrong with it?

[100] Actually, it makes everything worse.

[101] Oh, dear.

[102] I finished Bully pre -patch.

[103] Yeah.

[104] I've actually been kind of hanging out and waiting for the patch, hoping, okay, maybe this will address some of these issues, because it's bad frame rate, locked up like a half dozen times on me over the course of the game.

[105] Then the patch came out last Friday, and actually worse.

[106] Frame rate's worse.

[107] Sound now skips.

[108] I'm having flickery textures.

[109] Draw distance seems not as good.

[110] That's problematic.

[111] Yeah, so it seems like a patch actually made the game worse, which is just a horrible headache, and just such a shame, because that game is awesome.

[112] Because it's Bully.

[113] Bully should be awesome.

[114] It is awesome.

[115] Even despite all those problems, I still really enjoyed the experience.

[116] I'm going to get around to it.

[117] Like you, I have a copy of Condemned 2 sitting there that I'm going to bust open any day now.

[118] And then it's going to bust you open.

[119] Yes, exactly.

[120] But also Bully is sitting there too.

[121] I played it for like 20 minutes and haven't gone back to it.

[122] I figured I'll wait for the patch and everything will be great.

[123] Nope.

[124] Yeah, but I can't get to any of that stuff until I finish playing Ninja Reflex.

[125] How is that?

[126] That's like a minigame.

[127] Because I was looking at it in the store, and it does not tell you at all what that game is.

[128] The back of the box is just like, ninjas, I don't know, ah, four layers.

[129] That's because the game isn't really sure what it is.

[130] It is a minigame collection, but it is six minigames.

[131] Six?

[132] So it's a collection of six minigames.

[133] It's a collection of six minigames.

[134] Now, there are rule variants.

[135] For the six minigames that are, I guess, theoretically designed to give you more longevity with each minigame.

[136] But in the end, you're still plucking flies with chopsticks and using nunchucks.

[137] Like, over and over and over again.

[138] Nunchucks are cool.

[139] Nunchucks are very ninja.

[140] Nunchucks are cool until you realize that...

[141] Every single game involves someone throwing a crate or a piece of fruit at you.

[142] I saw a license plate frame as I was parking this morning.

[143] It was on a Pontiac, and it said, Built with tools, not with chopsticks.

[144] which I had trouble thinking what that might mean for a while, and then I decided it was horribly racist.

[145] Yeah, I think that might be the most racist thing I've heard in a while, actually.

[146] Yeah, so Ninja Reflex in stores now.

[147] Yeah.

[148] Also on Steam.

[149] They did a custom Steam edition that they're selling for like $8 .95.

[150] that using Steamworks, it's like Ninja Reflex Steamworks.

[151] So I guess you use the mouse instead of the Wii Remote or the DS stylus.

[152] Yeah, probably.

[153] Okay.

[154] Yeah, that game's not so good.

[155] I mean, it actually plays all right, but there's literally nothing to it.

[156] I had experienced everything the game had to offer in about an hour.

[157] All right, then.

[158] Yeah, okay.

[159] So, Jeff, you've been playing a lot of smaller games lately.

[160] You reviewed Rocket Men, Axis of Evil for Xbox Lab Arcade last week.

[161] I did.

[162] And then you've also been playing some Braid.

[163] Do you want to talk about that some?

[164] Yeah, I do.

[165] Braid is an indie game.

[166] Yeah.

[167] Which, you know, has a lot of weird connotations.

[168] That's the Jonathan Blow game, right?

[169] Yes, it is.

[170] It's a game from a man named Jonathan Blow.

[171] I think that's a fantastic name for anything.

[172] I guess the question that I came into first here.

[173] Caring about Braid was why should I care who Jonathan Blow is?

[174] Why do people seem to be tossing this name around like it means something?

[175] Well, Jonathan Blow has spoken at GDC off and on over the years.

[176] And he's kind of part of the kind of subset of indie games that are into games having kind of more social relevance and more kind of just societal relevance.

[177] And he's given talks along those lines.

[178] And Braid kind of follows in that.

[179] But at the same time, Braid is also an awesome game.

[180] I think if you stripped away kind of some of that meaning and plugged in kind of more generic platformer stuff, the mechanics of that game would still be very sound and it would still be very, very cool.

[181] But that it has this extra layer, this extra coating of care given to it, I think that just actually just makes it that much better.

[182] And this is going to be coming to Xbox Live Arcade.

[183] This seems like more of a heavy game than you would usually see on there.

[184] For sure, yeah.

[185] Xbox Live Arcade, and I guess this is going to be a PC version.

[186] I was hooked up with a...

[187] finished PC version.

[188] And basically, when you strip it all down to the basics, it's an homage to Super Mario Brothers.

[189] Right.

[190] Because you are looking for a princess.

[191] There are pipes that have big plants that come out of them.

[192] The enemies that you face are basically Goombas.

[193] Yeah.

[194] You showed me one level that basically just looked like the first map of Donkey Kong.

[195] Right, yeah.

[196] There's a little bit in there that is designed to look like Donkey Kong, and that's a pretty clever homage.

[197] Inside an homage.

[198] But then on top of that, the thing that makes it different, though, is that the game plays around with time.

[199] Okay.

[200] And at its most basic, you can hit a button to rewind what you've done.

[201] And this will bring enemies back to life that you've killed or whatever.

[202] And if you've died, you can hit the X button on your 360 controller and it just rewinds time.

[203] And you can let off and pick up anywhere you leave off.

[204] Which reminds me of all those tool -assisted replays, all those speedruns that you see that people are making with emulators.

[205] Right.

[206] Do impossible Super Mario stunts.

[207] Because they're running everything at like quarter speed or whatever.

[208] Right.

[209] And anytime they make them.

[210] mistake that we're winding it back and taking it again to just do this ridiculous stuff.

[211] It's like Prince of Persia and Super Mario Brothers kind of got together.

[212] Yeah, kind of.

[213] Yeah, sort of.

[214] But then...

[215] The game starts to meditate on this time thing, and every world changes the mechanics of time in different ways.

[216] The first thing you notice is that some items will be all sparkly, and those items don't rewind when you hit the button.

[217] So that means if there's a door that you open with a key...

[218] you can rewind it and that door will normally just close and you'll get the key back.

[219] But if it's a sparkly door, you open it, that door doesn't close.

[220] So you can use one key to get through two doors if one of them is sparkly and that sort of thing.

[221] And that's really just it at its most basic.

[222] As it kind of goes further, it really takes the time stuff to really crazy places that I actually don't really want to talk about because when you see them, it's...

[223] mind -melting.

[224] You don't want to give spoilers.

[225] Yeah, definitely.

[226] But saying that it is just Super Mario Bros. meets Prince of Persia seems to be selling it rather short.

[227] Totally short.

[228] That's completely missing the point.

[229] But yeah, in a very shallow way, that is exactly what it is.

[230] Right on.

[231] But it's so much more than that.

[232] Are you calling me shallow for making that statement?

[233] Is that what you're essentially insulting me?

[234] I think you're shallow, not necessarily for that reason.

[235] I mean, I am shallow.

[236] I don't think I'm shallow because of that.

[237] Right, no. Yeah, definitely.

[238] All right.

[239] Yeah.

[240] As long as we're clear on that.

[241] So, yeah, Braid is supposedly coming out in the spring, which means it's probably just about done or getting very close.

[242] So, yeah, I think that's something people should really look forward to.

[243] It's something special.

[244] Excellent.

[245] Well, let's get into the news of the world of video games around us, shall we?

[246] Yeah.

[247] We've got an intro for that.

[248] News!

[249] Giant Bombcast from the newsroom.

[250] Well, in the meantime, that'll have to do.

[251] News on the fives.

[252] Traffic on the fifteens.

[253] I've just got a bunch of stories here.

[254] Let's start at the top.

[255] So Midway CEO David Zucker.

[256] This is maybe a little more corporate than we usually talk about.

[257] But last week, Jeff, we were kind of talking about Midway and constantly how it seems like they're always on the cusp.

[258] And the story that got run in Variety basically infers that he got tossed because he lost Sumner Redstone.

[259] heavily invested in Midway.

[260] And also Viacom.

[261] He is Viacom.

[262] He is Mr. Shaft.

[263] He just lost him a bundle.

[264] It cites a couple of statistics here that Midway's net losses since 2004, about $300 million.

[265] Revenue growth from 2004 through 2007, negative 3%.

[266] Increase in net loss from 2004 to 2007, positive 399%.

[267] Change in midway stock value from the day Redstone took over through today, negative 79%.

[268] Lost in equity value from Sumner Redstone, over $500 million.

[269] Oh, wow.

[270] Well, I really don't think you can pin all of that on David Zucker.

[271] But someone's got to take the fall.

[272] Yeah, exactly.

[273] He was the man in charge when this stuff happened.

[274] So at some point, you've got to...

[275] You got to make that change, I guess.

[276] Well, perhaps the kernel of the reason why I wanted to talk about this story is that Mr. Zucker's replacement will be one Matt Booty.

[277] Matt Booty.

[278] Matt Booty is going to be running things.

[279] Booty!

[280] And that dude's been at Midway forever.

[281] I'm pretty sure his head was in an NBA Jam game.

[282] So he's legit as far as I'm concerned.

[283] Yeah.

[284] I know his name's been in the credits of...

[285] all of Midway's greatest 90s arcade games.

[286] Yeah, he's been there since, like, 91, so he obviously has a long history with the company, and Midway is saying that this is going to be their interim CEO for the time being, but God, I hope that he stays permanent, because then that just means so many more news stories about Matt Booty.

[287] Yeah, definitely.

[288] I think the more we hear about Matt Booty, the better.

[289] The only other thing I can think is, you know...

[290] Get Ed Boone in there.

[291] No, because you want Ed Boone making the games.

[292] Yeah, you want Ed Boone in a dark room making games.

[293] All the high -powered politics.

[294] Let Matt Boone make all the decisions.

[295] Okay, well, side bet here, Jeff.

[296] How long before the headlines trying to make puns out of Matt Boone's name become horribly tiresome?

[297] I'm going to say after the number of times we've said his name right here, I'm going to say it just happened.

[298] So we just hit it?

[299] I think we just hit it.

[300] But I think the official shark jumping moment for these jokes will be when he gives his first financial earnings call and someone calls it a booty call.

[301] Too late.

[302] Then it's done.

[303] Has that already happened?

[304] That already happened.

[305] Okay.

[306] The booty call headline has been done.

[307] All right.

[308] Well, then we're done with that.

[309] All right.

[310] That happened.

[311] It's over with.

[312] Actually, I know.

[313] I'm looking at a Kotaku story right here, and it says Midway boss resigns.

[314] Board makes booty call.

[315] Done.

[316] All right.

[317] Thanks.

[318] Thanks for getting out of the way early, guys.

[319] So also last week.

[320] Bootylicious.

[321] That's maybe another direction they could go.

[322] Midway's board looks oh so bootylicious.

[323] Yeah.

[324] I don't know.

[325] And we'll make that joke.

[326] Midway's CEO position too bootylicious for Matt Booty.

[327] When we see him speak at Midway's event next month, perhaps we will help to tire that out some.

[328] Midway boss takes on duty to rock that booty.

[329] Duty duty to rock that booty booty.

[330] Oh, God.

[331] So also last week, Jeff, I can't recall exactly how we got to it, but we started talking about a...

[332] Ice Cube side -scroller.

[333] Yes.

[334] And how there needs to be one.

[335] A reader, listener, called in.

[336] A reader with ears.

[337] A reader called in.

[338] Dude, what?

[339] What are you even saying, man?

[340] He sent a smoke signal after reading our teletype.

[341] Got this over the wire.

[342] Okay, got an email from a dude.

[343] Ice Cube News on the nines.

[344] Wanted to let us know that there is in fact already a game, some crazy indie game, although this is in far more of the rude prankish way than it is in the socially conscious way.

[345] There's a game called Rap Attack 2pocalypse Now that heavily features our man the Don Mega.

[346] as well as Chameleon Air in 50 Cent.

[347] Sadly, this is a PC -only game, and so since I'm a jerk, I have no way of playing this.

[348] But what I've seen of the screens look great.

[349] I actually did get to see the opening cinematic for it that tells the tale of how the Neo -dinosaurs used their magic to create the first wrappers.

[350] So...

[351] After that, I saw a screenshot that just showed a little cartoony Ice Cube.

[352] It's like a Charmander.

[353] Yeah, yeah.

[354] So that's awesome.

[355] I have a PC.

[356] I should play this.

[357] If you have the means, Rap Attack 2pocalypse Now.

[358] You can find that easily on the internet.

[359] I'll Google it.

[360] It's buried in some crazy forum somewhere.

[361] That's where I was pointed to.

[362] So go check that out if you like Ice Cube.

[363] I do.

[364] Apparently at some point, Portland Alex was working on a hip -hop themed.

[365] RPG that never came to pass also.

[366] Well, that's too damn bad because we need more of those.

[367] Yeah, exactly.

[368] That's a horribly untapped market.

[369] That is where rap games need to go because the ones that have been out so far, kind of a bummer.

[370] Am I high?

[371] Wasn't someone talking about making a hip -hop RPG at one point?

[372] Like, wasn't that actually something that someone was going to make?

[373] No, you're thinking of Rap Jam Volume 1, the NBA Jam ripoff that had Everlast in it.

[374] No, no, I'm dead serious.

[375] I seem to remember someone talking about making a hip -hop RPG recently, like in the last year or so.

[376] Let's hope.

[377] I don't know, because that would be funny.

[378] We're not going to talk about things that none of us really know about.

[379] I'm just saying.

[380] And can only vaguely speculate about.

[381] Right in.

[382] Say if you've heard about this too.

[383] Cutting that part out.

[384] Moving on.

[385] Our next story has nothing to do with video games at all, but they released the first pictures of Snake Eyes from the upcoming G .I. Joe movie.

[386] And I think it's sick.

[387] It's totally sick.

[388] Yeah, totally.

[389] I wasn't very excited about the G .I. Joe movie because you hear all this stuff that they're like making it a multinational force, a multiethnic.

[390] It's like, dude, it's G .I. Joe.

[391] That is America.

[392] That is not a multinational UN weak -ass fighting force.

[393] But at the same time, you know, they've got a kung fu guy.

[394] They've got, you know, ninjas.

[395] Yeah, they do.

[396] So does America.

[397] They're an American ninja.

[398] Yeah, all right.

[399] Case closed.

[400] Michael Dudikoff, you're right.

[401] Michael Dudikoff, case closed.

[402] It should be multi -ethnic to stick with.

[403] Yeah, definitely.

[404] But, like, making it some multinational force, which is what all the earlier reports were, I think totally goes against.

[405] I mean, the name G .I. Joe.

[406] Yeah.

[407] has its roots in frickin' World War II American soldiers.

[408] So that just struck me as something really dumb.

[409] And also Stephen Sommers, which is never really a good sign.

[410] for most things.

[411] Oh, God, I hated Van Helsing so much.

[412] Yeah, that is possibly...

[413] Oh, did he direct?

[414] Oh, yeah.

[415] Wrote and direct.

[416] Oh, okay.

[417] And is he writing and directing G .I. Joe as well?

[418] Yes.

[419] Oh, geez.

[420] I don't know about the writing part.

[421] He did both the Mummy movies, so...

[422] I like the first one.

[423] The first one's okay.

[424] The second one is awful.

[425] Yeah, not so great.

[426] But these pictures of Snake Eyes...

[427] They look fantastic.

[428] I'm not sure that I'm all the way into the whole sculpted, muscly suit thing.

[429] I'd almost prefer it if, you know, he was just all tight.

[430] spandexed up.

[431] But you know what?

[432] To me, that looks more like the Snake Eyes from the cartoon with the muscly thing than what it would be if they just put spandex on Ray Park.

[433] Just make Ray Park bulk up some, man. You know, he's kind of a tiny dude.

[434] I don't think he can really...

[435] Yeah, I think the sculpted suit looks fine.

[436] It looks a little bit more like the comic book.

[437] It looks like how you want Snake Eyes to look.

[438] Totally.

[439] So it's definitely a good omen.

[440] Yeah, so now I just want to see how Storm Shadow is going to look.

[441] I'm just...

[442] I'm really...

[443] I want cloth.

[444] A lot of clothy, like, loose cloth on Storm Shadow.

[445] No, I want more like the figure.

[446] I want, you know, tight, white...

[447] Like, yeah, a little bit of cloth, because he does have kind of a sash or something like that, but...

[448] He's got the cowl and everything.

[449] He's got the hood.

[450] Well, it's less of a hood.

[451] It's more of a mask.

[452] Well, I guess it depends on which version of...

[453] See, I'm saying like original classic full -on cartoon action figure Storm Shadow, not late model Storm Shadow.

[454] Well, just heightening our expectations to be all that much more disappointed when the movie comes out and it's crap.

[455] I want to see what Shipwreck looks like.

[456] I think they actually came out and said he's not going to be in it.

[457] Well, then that movie is...

[458] Bonk, man. Couldn't they get someone to do a bad Jack Nicholson impersonation?

[459] Yeah, come on.

[460] I got my bird here.

[461] 90 minutes.

[462] Oh, why is your face melting?

[463] Oh, no. What about Snow Job?

[464] Let's talk about that some more.

[465] How is that not the...

[466] Synthoids, man. The movie should totally just...

[467] They need to make another movie that just focuses on shipwrecked time in fake Springfield with all the synthoids.

[468] Best episode of that show ever.

[469] Oh, yeah.

[470] Was that like a five -part?

[471] That was like a full week?

[472] It was like a three or four part.

[473] Oh, man. So brutal.

[474] Such a head trip when you're seven years old and watching this, like, oh, none of it's real!

[475] And then Shipwreck starts freaking out.

[476] Yeah, Joe got pretty heady at times, you know?

[477] A heavy parable for our time.

[478] Remember the one where they got sucked into the crazy, like, there was, like, some toy master's world?

[479] Run around.

[480] No. Are you talking about the one where it was, like, the alternate dimension where...

[481] No, but that one was awesome, too!

[482] And then there's the bugs, and the baroness was, like, in love with someone from the Joe team.

[483] Yeah, yeah.

[484] Yeah.

[485] Switched alliances.

[486] And that was, like, their excuse to ditch, like, the old, inarticulate G .I. Joes.

[487] Like, they got rid of, like, Zap around that time.

[488] It was like, Zap stayed in the alternate dimension.

[489] Now Flint is on more.

[490] You know, like, stuff like that.

[491] Right.

[492] They got rid of some of those dudes.

[493] Classy.

[494] A classy way to write those characters off the show, I thought.

[495] Well, you know, generally a show that involves lots of lasers is pretty classy inherently.

[496] Totally.

[497] For sure.

[498] Well, that's our G .I. Joe Minute.

[499] That wraps up our G .I. Joe Minute.

[500] G .I. Joe on the sevens!

[501] Up next, so they patched the release service pack one for Vista.

[502] Yeah.

[503] Which supposedly was going to fix some stuff.

[504] Jeff, you're...

[505] It broke a lot of stuff for a lot of people, of course.

[506] Much like the bully patch.

[507] It kept crapping stuff up.

[508] Alex, have you patched?

[509] No, I haven't.

[510] Jeff?

[511] I have.

[512] I actually was running all the SP1 betas leading up to this.

[513] Yeah.

[514] And other than a couple of problems with the betas that made my system completely unable to boot, which I was able to fix pretty easily, I didn't really have any problems with the betas, and now this one seems to be working just fine, too.

[515] File copying is faster, which is one of the ridiculous things about Unpatched Vista, is that moving a file from one drive to another takes way longer than it did on XP.

[516] Yeah.

[517] So they seem to have fixed that, though it's probably still a little bit slower.

[518] But it's acceptable now.

[519] So, yeah, I guess the question, have they yet made it as functional as XP?

[520] I think they totally have.

[521] I really like Vista.

[522] It's a better OS.

[523] It's been more stable in my experience, except that I'm actually in the middle of having a hardware failure that makes my whole machine very unstable.

[524] But that's not Vista's fault.

[525] That's not Vista.

[526] That's me needing to yank out a drive and RMA it.

[527] But yeah, overall, I have been really happy with Vista.

[528] I think the stuff with games and stuff, I mean, DirectX 10, all that has worked out pretty well in the games that support it.

[529] I think it's maybe a bigger hardware leap than a lot of people were willing to make.

[530] Like maybe it just didn't come out at the right time because now you see all these people.

[531] It seems like any time a game comes out that doesn't support Shader Model 3 or that only supports Shader Model 3 and does not support Shader Model 2, a lot of people come out of the woodwork and start complaining because they haven't upgraded their video card in a while.

[532] And that, to me, seems like one of the larger problems with PC gaming right now is that people haven't upgraded yet.

[533] Well, it seemed like there was also a lot of rumblings about just how shoddy the whole Vista -ready...

[534] stickers that they were putting on stuff like it didn't you didn't actually have to have a machine that would really run vista to have that sticker put on there well yeah it's like the vista ready sticker meant if you turn off every single bell and whistle in vista it will run but probably not so great but it'll it'll do it it'll do it it's fine it'll play yeah it'll boot it'll boot you can edit a text document look at a web page balance your checkbook but nothing with flash yeah no plugins god no no plugins at all ah whatever I'm with Jeff.

[535] Get a Mac.

[536] I'm with Jeff.

[537] Vista is thus far.

[538] Get a Mac.

[539] Don't play games on your damn PC.

[540] I don't know.

[541] I don't think I could ever go back to XP at this point.

[542] I have not had a system crash once since I got my new machine.

[543] It's just all around a lot more stable.

[544] It's just a lot more interesting of an OS than I think XP ever was.

[545] Yeah, for sure.

[546] And I've only had one program not run on it.

[547] Yeah, like for me, doing audio stuff, like recording music, that actually was a nightmare under Vista because the driver support wasn't there for a lot of these weird USB external firewire, all these other devices.

[548] So you bought a Mac.

[549] So I bought a Mac.

[550] Yeah.

[551] Yeah.

[552] All right.

[553] Well, before this turns into the just get a Mac and we sound like stupid jerks about that.

[554] Get a Mac.

[555] Let's get some lattes.

[556] We all own Macs, dude.

[557] Let's talk about the United.

[558] Let's go to the wine bar across the street and record the rest of the podcast from there while we talk about our Macs.

[559] Let's talk instead.

[560] Get a nice Merlot.

[561] Let's center ourselves.

[562] Let's find our moral compass and discuss the United States pizza team.

[563] Okay.

[564] I don't know what you just said to me. Like, you put words into a sentence, but I don't know how they fit together.

[565] This is apropos of nothing.

[566] Last week, I got a voicemail from my girlfriend who said that she had caught a flash of what she believed to be some morning news story about the United States pizza team, and she didn't know what it was, but she knew that she wanted to be a part of it, and I agreed with that entirely.

[567] So I went ahead and went to the uspizzateam .com webpage, and it's...

[568] Ah!

[569] My first instinct was that it was going to be people who ate pizza professionally.

[570] Yeah.

[571] Which I thought.

[572] Which I value my amateur status in pizza eating too much.

[573] You don't want to go pro.

[574] No. That wasn't my initial inclination.

[575] My inclination was that it was a team of elite pizza chefs that get together and make pizzas as fast and as elaborate as possible.

[576] You'd be pretty much right on then.

[577] Okay.

[578] Your perception of the United States pizza team, whose motto is truth, justice, and the American.

[579] I want to kiss whoever wrote that.

[580] I want to punch whoever wrote that.

[581] That really bothers me. I don't know.

[582] I just like that these guys seem like the Harlem Globetrotters of making pizza.

[583] Do they spin them on their fingers while the other pizza team, the evil Russian pizza team, can't get it together?

[584] Oh, there is one picture from the New York pizza show in 2007.

[585] Okay.

[586] Dude, why are we going to the New York pizza show?

[587] A man blindfolded on his back tossing a pizza in the air.

[588] What the hell?

[589] I don't want stunt pizza making.

[590] I want...

[591] Don't you?

[592] I want pizzas.

[593] I want stunt pizzas.

[594] I don't want to know how pizzas are made.

[595] I want pizzas to be showing up at my door.

[596] You wouldn't go to a Benihana -style place where there was one pizza chef in the middle, and you had a table around him, and you were standing there making crazy pizzas.

[597] Just going, whoa, hey, look at me. I'm tossing your pizza in the air.

[598] Pizza theater.

[599] Isn't it crazy?

[600] Look at what I'm doing.

[601] You know, I don't like when people try to upscale pizza.

[602] Because they put crap on it.

[603] I don't think this...

[604] Right, but you don't eat pizza that doesn't have just meat on it.

[605] Meat's good.

[606] What's wrong with meat?

[607] There's a lot of different kinds of meat.

[608] You get linguisa, chicken pizza.

[609] Do you even know what a linguisa is?

[610] It's some kind of meat.

[611] It's a pork type of sausage.

[612] It's a pork.

[613] Yeah, there was a while I was getting pizza with chicken and barbecue sauce on it.

[614] That's good.

[615] That was pretty good.

[616] That's pretty good.

[617] That's about as far out as I get, though.

[618] You put a vegetable on a pizza, Jeff won't touch it.

[619] Yeah, I don't think making a spectacle out of the actual preparation of the pizza really classes it up too much.

[620] This is like, you know, more Chuck E. Cheese style, it seems.

[621] So if you enjoy a spectacle and pizza, I fully recommend people go and check out the U .S. Pizza Team's website.

[622] It's like, they should make a movie about that.

[623] They should just remake Cocktail, but have it be about...

[624] stunt pizza making instead of bottle flipping drink makers.

[625] And then there's the evil Italian pizza team that tries to come in and take their title back for Italy.

[626] Based on a true story.

[627] Yes.

[628] All right.

[629] Starring Emile Hirsch.

[630] No more of that.

[631] Let's get to the real business.

[632] Ed Norton and Leo DiCaprio.

[633] Boston.

[634] Pizza chefs.

[635] Come on.

[636] No, we're not talking about that anymore.

[637] No, I see it so much more like screwball comedy, like the Farrelly brothers make it.

[638] No, man. It's just two guys from Boston that came up the hard way, and they learned how to make pizza the hard way.

[639] No, wait.

[640] That's a separate story, Jeff.

[641] We're not talking about Boston anymore.

[642] Now we are talking about Boston.

[643] Damn it, I'm all screwed up.

[644] We're shifting gears, Jeff.

[645] Keep up, man. So yeah, Boston Six Pack hits rock band this week.

[646] What is that?

[647] Like 800 points for six songs, which are all master tracks, including the only one you need, More Than a Feeling, but I still fully recommend everyone buy all of them.

[648] Peace of Mind is a hell of a song.

[649] You know what?

[650] I could not name you another.

[651] I could not hum another Boston song.

[652] Boston, More Than a Feeling.

[653] Name another Boston song.

[654] I mean, I like, I mean, this is the era.

[655] I mean, this is the type of music.

[656] that you really want a lot of in rock band.

[657] Just big stadium, 70s bloated rock.

[658] Well, more than anything else, this is the kind of stuff you want to be singing, especially.

[659] Like, this is the kind of thing you want to get your friends drunk to sing.

[660] Right.

[661] It's good sing -along material, absolutely.

[662] Now, the weird thing about this is that with these six songs and 4Play a long time in the game, they have every song except for one of Boston's debut album.

[663] But they have everything else.

[664] They have everything else now.

[665] Weird.

[666] So they had an eight -track debut?

[667] It was an eight -track album.

[668] Did it come out on 8 -track?

[669] I don't know.

[670] It may have.

[671] I'm guessing it did come out on 8 -track.

[672] I think that's a pretty safe bet.

[673] But so, I mean, my only guess is that they just didn't want to make that the first, like, album in the game.

[674] Like, maybe they hadn't quite figured out how the whole album listing thing was going to go in there.

[675] So, I don't know.

[676] They're just going to release that last track for $10.

[677] If you want to complete it, suck it up.

[678] For all you completionists out there.

[679] Fine.

[680] Jerks.

[681] Oh, jeez.

[682] Just jack you up that way.

[683] So, yeah, if you like your classic rock, that Boston pack drops on the Xbox 360 today and on Thursday on the PlayStation 3.

[684] Yes, yes.

[685] So, woo!

[686] All right.

[687] Get your Boston on.

[688] The Rock Store is out there now.

[689] Oh, God, the Rock Store.

[690] Which I wrote about on the site.

[691] And, Alex, I'm sure you are just as enthused about it.

[692] Oh, it's fantastic.

[693] You wrote about it also on your personal blog.

[694] And, yeah, it's great.

[695] It's what that game needed from the day.

[696] Yep.

[697] It launched.

[698] I think they picked right about the right time to roll it out because it was really just about out of hand over the last two or three weeks where you're like, there's too much music on this interface that can't handle it.

[699] And there's no way to sort stuff on the marketplace.

[700] Yeah, it was just a mess.

[701] But it had only become a real problem, I think, over the last two or three weeks.

[702] So they rolled it out and said, hey, we know it's been a bitch.

[703] Here you go.

[704] Like, oh, yeah.

[705] They fixed some other stuff in the process.

[706] It's cool.

[707] You can now get your songs, your downloadable content.

[708] Now you can preview stuff ahead of time.

[709] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[710] That was something I didn't realize at first.

[711] I was like, oh, right.

[712] That Paramore song.

[713] Yeah.

[714] Then I realized, oh, wait.

[715] I love Rome by the B -52s.

[716] Awesome.

[717] Picked it up.

[718] I wasn't sure if I knew that song at all.

[719] While we're on the topic of - How do you not know Rome?

[720] I do know Rome.

[721] I just didn't know that was the name of the song.

[722] Oh, okay.

[723] All right.

[724] Rome, if you want to.

[725] Rome.

[726] Around the world.

[727] Yeah, it could have been around the world as far as I knew.

[728] I don't...

[729] Around the world.

[730] Around the world should be in Rock Band.

[731] Yes.

[732] That would be really fun.

[733] Well, yeah, we've talked about there needs to be a Daft Punk music game.

[734] Yeah, or just a Daft Punk game.

[735] Actually, that was what brought us into the Ice Cube thing last week.

[736] I think some sort of Daft Punk action RPG would be pretty awesome.

[737] Driving slash walking.

[738] Well, while we're on the topic of musical games, guitar manufacturer Gibson decided that it was going to get it.

[739] Dirtbags.

[740] They're going to go out, and they had a patent that dated back to 1999 that vaguely— Sort of, kind of.

[741] Kind of says that they are going to make some sort of music game type.

[742] Virtual simulator.

[743] Interface.

[744] Anyways, they're using this patent that they have to try and sue the pants off of basically everyone involved in the production of rock band.

[745] The production and distribution and sale of.

[746] Yeah.

[747] Every single stop on the chain, they want a piece of.

[748] MTV and EA, they're going after Activision.

[749] Red Octane and Activision.

[750] They're going after Walmart.

[751] Yeah.

[752] Yeah, that makes sense.

[753] What seems crazy to me is that Gibson has been in bed with these guys for a while.

[754] They've been Gibson guitars.

[755] Yeah, Guitar Hero.

[756] Forever.

[757] And now that deal has expired, and now, hey, look, lawsuit.

[758] Weird.

[759] Funny how that works out.

[760] Yeah, I guess Gibson realized, oh, wait, we're not going to get our cut of that anymore now that that's up.

[761] Let's just get a fat lump of it.

[762] Well, it's a pretty stupid lawsuit and Harmonix agrees.

[763] They released this excellent statement.

[764] It is unfortunate that Gibson unfairly desires to share in the tremendous success enjoyed by the developers of Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

[765] This lawsuit is completely without merit and we intend to defend it vigorously.

[766] Gibson's patent, filed nearly 10 years ago, requires a 3D display, a real musical instrument, and a recording of a concert.

[767] Rock Band and Guitar Hero are completely different.

[768] Among other things, they are games, require no headset, and use a controller only shaped like a real instrument.

[769] That's fairly different.

[770] That just sounds like, dude, Gibson, what?

[771] Yeah, basically.

[772] I'm actually really stoked that they came out with such a lengthy statement.

[773] Yeah, they just said.

[774] Because normally statements about lawsuits are like, well, we can't talk about it.

[775] We just think it's without merit.

[776] All right, peace.

[777] And it's like, ah, they're dusted, and here's why.

[778] Gibson, you crazy.

[779] You know what else is crazy, Jeff, is smooth transitions.

[780] Yes.

[781] Nice one.

[782] A seamless passing of the baton.

[783] Oh, chugging drinks.

[784] You know what?

[785] I'm out here.

[786] Your deed, son.

[787] I'm on E here.

[788] No more mojo energy for you.

[789] I'm going to go and grab some more while I do that.

[790] What should we discuss?

[791] You know what's crazy is the fact that GTA 4 is freaking almost out, man. Well, yeah, it's about a month away.

[792] I know.

[793] I realized this last week because they posted a bunch of new screenshots of the game and also put out a couple of radio widgets, which are basically just little previews of a couple of the radio stations.

[794] The talk station.

[795] The conservative talk station is Choice.

[796] I really, really like what they have there, and it reminds you of how great the talk radio in past GTA games has been.

[797] Yeah, and that's something that hasn't really been...

[798] I mean, you know, it's like everyone out there is trying to make their GTA -style game.

[799] Everyone has kind of taken their crack at it.

[800] And I think with the exception of Saints Row, which I think actually has some pretty funny talk radio in it.

[801] Also Keith David.

[802] Also, yeah, also Keith David.

[803] Two key elements in making that kind of game.

[804] No one has really done it right.

[805] No one has really done it better than Rockstar has.

[806] Well, I mean, it's just the writing in those games has always been pretty spot on because the people who write them clearly have a pretty good sense of how dialogue should be and how that kind of stuff and how to parody stuff.

[807] Yeah, Rockstar's sharp sense of satire has always been one of its biggest strengths.

[808] Definitely.

[809] And I think that to me has been more than anything the best part about the GTA games.

[810] Yeah.

[811] I mean, I think also that's true for Bully.

[812] Oh, yeah.

[813] Absolutely as much as it's satire, it's homage, it's ability to kind of evoke these things that you're familiar with and then...

[814] throw you in the middle of them.

[815] Yeah, but it's like, yeah, I mean, GTA's almost out.

[816] Like, looking at the official site for that game, which I hadn't done yet, it's like, I kind of was just avoiding or missing out on a lot of the information about the games because kind of some turmoil while a lot of that stuff picked up.

[817] Oh, yeah.

[818] We had some other things going on.

[819] I think I heard about that.

[820] So it's like now to kind of come out of the other side and be like, oh, snap!

[821] Like, look at all this stuff!

[822] This game looks awesome!

[823] This game's almost out!

[824] Yeah, and it's almost out.

[825] What's weird to me is in all these screenshots, I have not...

[826] yet seen any real gameplay video in action of this.

[827] Yeah, and yeah, that's, again, classic Rockstar.

[828] Pretty typical.

[829] Here's a picture of a fast food joint.

[830] You can discern one nugget of gameplay from this, but only if you stare at it and think for a really long time.

[831] But this seems like the most severe like that since GTA 3.

[832] Like it seems like they did kind of start giving you more actual gameplay stuff for both Vice City and San Andreas.

[833] But this one, they're being real tight.

[834] Yeah, they're talking about the phone and how that changes the way missions work.

[835] They're talking about the way breaking into cars is different now and the importance of stuff like taxis and drunk driving and these little bits and pieces that you know will figure into it.

[836] But they're not telling you, here's how easy it will be to mow down cops because that's the thing that Rockstar never...

[837] No. never really dwells on because they know that that just leads to a really negative place for them.

[838] So it takes, you know, once the game is out on shelves, it takes about a day or so for everyone to record videos of them blowing up cop cars and running people over.

[839] Then it all starts all over.

[840] Right, right.

[841] Time's a problem.

[842] Cycle begins adieu.

[843] Yeah.

[844] I can't wait.

[845] Yeah.

[846] I'm super excited about GTA 4, but I want to say this because I also don't want to sound like too much of a...

[847] a naysayer, but odd thing about these screenshots is it like, The level of quality from screenshot to screenshot seems to vary so wildly.

[848] Right.

[849] And also, in weird ways, different elements in each screenshot seem to be better or worse.

[850] Sometimes the texture on his jacket looks really good, and you get to feel like that's a damn tracksuit.

[851] That's real.

[852] And other times it just looks flat and bad.

[853] I think this game will evoke the old GTA in a lot of ways, including the ways where it...

[854] sometimes looks kind of messed up and the frame rate is occasionally jacked.

[855] Well, I mean, it definitely has the right flat color tone that you want, especially in Liberty City.

[856] Totally.

[857] I don't think there's a game I'm looking forward to more of right now than that.

[858] Yeah, which is weird for me because normally kind of how the Grand Theft Auto cycle would go is the game would, you know, GTA 3 came out and you're like, wow, this is the most amazing game ever made.

[859] And then it just suddenly becomes, well, there's no way they can do that again.

[860] There's no way that they can make a game better than that.

[861] And then they make Vice City.

[862] And then they make Vice City, and you're like, oh, jeez.

[863] There is a way.

[864] And then that just ups the ante even more.

[865] You're like, well, okay, now there's nothing they could possibly do.

[866] And then San Andreas came out, which was even better.

[867] Yeah, I don't know.

[868] It'll be weird to see how GTA 4 is.

[869] I always find myself super skeptical and then all of a sudden super excited the week before it comes out.

[870] Only now it's like a month before it comes out.

[871] I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[872] This is coming out awesome.

[873] The thing that keeps popping up in the back of my mind is I want another Vice City game.

[874] Like, I realize that Vice City, probably my favorite of the GTA games so far.

[875] Perhaps you should play Vice City Stories for the PSP.

[876] I tried that.

[877] Or PS2.

[878] And that wasn't so great.

[879] That's not it.

[880] That's not the Vice City sequel you want.

[881] But do you think that we're going to see this?

[882] Do you think after GTA 4, we will see GTA 4, Vice City?

[883] Why not?

[884] I mean, that's the cycle they've used since GTA 1, really.

[885] Yeah.

[886] You know, GTA 1 had all those environments in there.

[887] And, you know, they haven't really broken out of it too much.

[888] I mean, GTA 2 took place in the near future.

[889] How stupid.

[890] Ah, GTA 2, it came up with a gang concept.

[891] There were a lot of kind of dumb things about GTA 2, but I liked where its head was at.

[892] Sure.

[893] And then there was GTA London, which is the only time they've done, like, a real -world place.

[894] I would like to see them break out of the Liberty City, Vice City, San Andreas cycle and come up with something.

[895] And do Toronto.

[896] Yeah, the TDOT.

[897] Dude, yes, because it would be the GTA, the greater Toronto area.

[898] So it would be GTA 4, GTA?

[899] Yes.

[900] I've stumbled upon a gold mine.

[901] You heard it here first.

[902] Next Grand Theft Auto game is GTA 4, GTA.

[903] So that's awesome, and that's very soon.

[904] That's April 18th?

[905] That's soon, 29th?

[906] 18th, 29th?

[907] I want to say 25th.

[908] 29th.

[909] 25th.

[910] April the 1st.

[911] It's 29th in Europe, 25th here, I think.

[912] I think you're probably right.

[913] Maybe that's what it is.

[914] Well, fantastic.

[915] We're well -informed here.

[916] Games.

[917] I think it's coming out sometime soon.

[918] It's coming out in April.

[919] They're sending out those custom -painted 360s with the box art on them.

[920] Oh, brother, I want that.

[921] Yeah, so Complex Magazine got one of those, and that's where the initial shots came from.

[922] But on the Billionaire Boys Club blog run by Pharrell of the Neptunes and the N -E -R -D.

[923] Oh, that Pharrell.

[924] Yeah, he got one.

[925] Star Trek.

[926] Yeah, they got one of them.

[927] So basically anyone who the Hausers think are awesome are getting one.

[928] Anyone who would get limited edition pairs of shoes direct from the manufacturer is also getting one of these.

[929] Tastemakers.

[930] Tastemakers.

[931] Maybe there's a Neptune song in the game.

[932] Oh, yeah, probably.

[933] We don't really know what the soundtrack for that game is yet.

[934] Yeah, they haven't really said too much.

[935] Well, like, those little radio widgets, they give you kind of the tone.

[936] Like, you get the sense of what sort of stuff is going to be on there.

[937] Like, there's going to be a disco and potentially modern electronic music station.

[938] There's the Afro Soul station.

[939] I'm going to say there'll be some LCD sound system in that game.

[940] That's my guess.

[941] I'm going to say a lot of indie electro, a lot of, like, DJ.

[942] Heavy hip -hop and probably some indie.

[943] Like Green Lantern.

[944] Green Lantern has his own.

[945] Yeah, there you go.

[946] DJ Green Lantern has his own set in there.

[947] There you go.

[948] Or, yeah, he's on a station.

[949] It's not all his station, but he does a DJ set in there.

[950] So look for that.

[951] Hip -hop.

[952] Hip -hop.

[953] Also, let's see here.

[954] Last week, the special forces in SOCOM confrontation were unveiled, which is only really interesting to me because...

[955] The way that this is being laid out, and this was reported on by 1UP, is that in order to get all of the gear, the uniforms, the gear, the weapons, for these special forces, you have to join a clan.

[956] Yeah, like if you're playing kind of lone wolfing it by yourself, there's one set of progression there, and then they make it sound like there's a different set of progression once you're in a clan that you'll get access to.

[957] If you're on your own, you'll be able to play as commandos and mercenaries.

[958] Seals, the SAS, the KSK in Germany, the UOE in Spain, and these crazy French frogs are going to be in there also.

[959] So, yeah, I think that's kind of an interesting way to break things up.

[960] I'm not a huge SOCOM fan, but I think that's a neat twist.

[961] Yeah, I mean, you know, and SOCOM has had a pretty active clan scene, so it makes sense to cater to those players.

[962] And this is a download -only game.

[963] Actually, they'll probably do a retail disc similar how they did Warhawk, but it'll be a downloadable game.

[964] with multiplayer only, so it makes sense to kind of cram in as many different ways to advance in multiplayer as they can.

[965] I mean, you play SOCOM for the multiplayer anyway.

[966] It's never really been about the single -player campaigns in those games.

[967] It's like somewhere Sony Bend or Zipper or whatever is working on a full -fledged SOCOM sequel in addition to this, and I have to wonder why.

[968] I mean, it'll have its own multiplayer component, but do we really need a single -player?

[969] No. The answer is no. What I think is really clever about this is, you're right, this is totally a multiplayer -focused game, and this is a smart way to get people to really invest in the teamwork kind of aspect of it, which is huge to the game.

[970] Right, yeah.

[971] I think that'll probably inspire more players to get involved in clans.

[972] It's like, oh, if I want to get to some of this really cool stuff, I'm going to have to go and actually talk to dudes.

[973] No. and stuff like that which i know you're not a big fan of i just want yeah like it's got me wondering like maybe i can join a clan play just enough to get the stuff and then quit and still have it like will that work if you hang out with smoke dog 420 enough eventually you get all the cool stuff yeah my buddy coke machine i'm gonna play a lot of so calm yeah So, keeping up with the thread of indie game discussion we've had on this show so far.

[974] Grand Theft Auto.

[975] We're moving back to that.

[976] Well, it's through apps.

[977] We're weaving different threads.

[978] We're weaving a tail.

[979] Indie game on the nines and the sevens.

[980] So, they've started selling these indie game inspired t -shirts at, of all places, Target.

[981] Totally indie.

[982] Target.

[983] I would like to look at these for a second here.

[984] Oh!

[985] There's a Tower of Goo one.

[986] There's a few different ones.

[987] What actually makes this genuinely interesting, though, is that when you buy the shirt, you also get a hard copy of the game that it's inspired by.

[988] It's a game and shirt pack.

[989] It's a game and shirt pack.

[990] Who's distributing this stuff?

[991] Crazy people, apparently.

[992] Psychos.

[993] Yeah, you know.

[994] Target has actually had pretty good design for a while.

[995] Like, if you go and look in their weird T -shirt section, they've had cool stuff for a while.

[996] It's kind of odd.

[997] You don't think that you'd find anything that interesting at Target, but there you go.

[998] Yeah.

[999] The Target.

[1000] So, yeah, of all places for indie games to show up, head on down to your local Target Heartland.

[1001] Greatland Target.

[1002] Do we know that it's...

[1003] I think they both might mean different things.

[1004] Okay.

[1005] Do we know for a fact that it's, like, all Targets that have this stuff?

[1006] Because I...

[1007] I don't want to walk into my Target and be sorely disappointed.

[1008] Do you guys have...

[1009] Where's the indie games?

[1010] So this is being released by EGP Apparel.

[1011] Okay.

[1012] Yeah, they're doing this, I guess, just with Target at the time being, but an interesting thing and an interesting, weird place for that stuff to pop up.

[1013] A neat way to distribute those games.

[1014] That's kind of cool.

[1015] Yeah, that's crazy.

[1016] Indeed.

[1017] Let's see here.

[1018] What else is going on in the world around us?

[1019] Sonic the Hedgehog.

[1020] Yeah.

[1021] The blue blur himself.

[1022] God damn it.

[1023] Why am I still talking about?

[1024] Why are you even bringing this up?

[1025] There was this leak because I want to put this one to bed.

[1026] All right.

[1027] So this week.

[1028] this leak last week of images that were purportedly of this new Sonic game called Sonic Unleashed.

[1029] And then there was a gameplay video that showed a lot of very 2D style gameplay, but with 3D graphics.

[1030] And now Sega has owned up to it saying, yes, we're making a new Sonic game.

[1031] And it sounds like they're trying to...

[1032] Once again, revitalized the Sonic franchise.

[1033] And I looked at the video and I thought, wow, this looks kind of cool.

[1034] I could be kind of into this.

[1035] And then I was looking at these screenshots and there's this one of Sonic next to his wolf Sonic form.

[1036] Apparently he can turn into a wolf now.

[1037] Turn into a wolf.

[1038] Well, it works so well for Link.

[1039] This hedgehog can turn into a wolf.

[1040] Yeah.

[1041] Hedgehogs and wolves.

[1042] A were -hedgehog.

[1043] They're intertwined.

[1044] Oh, man. If it happens that way, if you get bitten by a werewolf and then get turned into a werehog, and then have to chase down the wolf or whatever, that's the only way that can work.

[1045] Well, this one screenshot, have you seen this stuff yet?

[1046] A little bit, yeah.

[1047] The way it's shown, it looks like he's in the darkness in an alley, so I imagine there will be some gameplay mechanic that if you see the moon, you turn into a thing.

[1048] And you lose all your rings.

[1049] If you collect eight moon crystals.

[1050] It dawned on me. And then go up to Amy and baby the cat.

[1051] I bet somehow Eggman's behind this.

[1052] Why do I keep giving Sonic the Hedgehog chances?

[1053] Why does the world keep giving Sonic the Hedgehog innumerable second chances?

[1054] It's the handsome, abusive husband of the video game industry.

[1055] He's charming.

[1056] He's got these qualities that you just love.

[1057] It was so nice at the beginning.

[1058] You just don't know him like I do.

[1059] Yeah, and then one day he just turns around and he knocks your two front teeth out.

[1060] Leaves you bleeding on the floor.

[1061] I fell down the stairs.

[1062] So you're saying that Sonic the Hedgehog should be played by Bruce Greenwood?

[1063] Yes.

[1064] Okay.

[1065] Yeah, Sonic the Hedgehog, Bruce Greenwood.

[1066] Because there was a time when Sonic meant something.

[1067] Long time ago.

[1068] But that's what I'm saying.

[1069] Sonic had a higher Q rating than Mario.

[1070] All it took was that awful...

[1071] Bomberman Act Zero for everyone to just say, done with Bomberman.

[1072] That's Bomberman.

[1073] Wash my hands of that.

[1074] Bomberman was never as big within the collective consciousness as Sonic was.

[1075] Sonic had a much greater mindshare.

[1076] But Sonic has been so much worse for so much longer.

[1077] I agree.

[1078] But look at what they did with Bomberman.

[1079] They've now realized that they cannot update that formula.

[1080] They have to stick to exactly what works, and they can never do anything with it ever again.

[1081] Yeah.

[1082] And with the Sonic Unleashed stuff, you see them maybe sort of learning that partially.

[1083] and trying to make a 2D game again, but at the same time, I don't think that 2D game, I don't think that dog will hunt anymore.

[1084] No, I don't think so either.

[1085] It's like, I'm going to hold it right, and it's going to be really fast.

[1086] That'll be cool for kids, because when I was...

[1087] Well, I think the Sonic Rush games still work, and that's still...

[1088] They work, but only in a retro sense.

[1089] If you try and make a full -fledged 3D Sonic game, then you realize, oh, it's just like a 2D...

[1090] I just don't think that works.

[1091] I think the reason they keep making them is because there are still people like whenever we talk crap about Sonic, there are always people that keep coming in in the comment section saying, why are you going to talk bad about Sonic, man?

[1092] Why are you going to keep kicking them while they're down?

[1093] They're going to make a great one someday.

[1094] Come on.

[1095] I like Big the Cat.

[1096] Because there are too many genuinely good games for me to continue giving them some chance.

[1097] I think the one exception I'll say is I think the RPG, the Sonic Chronicles.

[1098] But you only give a damn about that because it's Bioware.

[1099] Right.

[1100] I only give a damn about that because it looks like a cutesy and fun RPG that they could rip Sonic and his menagerie of idiots out of it and replace it with anything.

[1101] You know, the second they started throwing other characters in that franchise is when it all started going downhill.

[1102] Sonic Adventure?

[1103] Yeah.

[1104] Like, my God, the characters in that series are terrible.

[1105] At the time, I think a lot of people were really blinded by Sonic Adventure.

[1106] They were like, dude, this is the future 3D games.

[1107] Oh, my God.

[1108] And I think a lot of people bought into Sonic Adventure.

[1109] Like, looking back on it now, I totally feel like...

[1110] I was bamboozled.

[1111] That's the beginning of the end right there.

[1112] Yeah.

[1113] You know what?

[1114] For me, Sonic 3 was the beginning of the end.

[1115] I disagree.

[1116] I'm a big fan of Sonic 3.

[1117] Once they redrew Sonic, it was done.

[1118] Just playing Mario's and Sonic at the Olympics, seeing the collection of characters in that game just made me remember exactly how awful.

[1119] just the series character list is.

[1120] It's so bad.

[1121] Yeah, Big the Cat is always the obvious.

[1122] You see that and you go, oh, goddammit.

[1123] Oh, jeez, why did they?

[1124] Oh, man. Yeah.

[1125] Sonic!

[1126] So there you go.

[1127] The Hedgehog.

[1128] Sonic Unleashed.

[1129] Coming soon.

[1130] Look for that.

[1131] Yeah.

[1132] Be excited.

[1133] Will he make it with a human woman in this one like he did in the last game?

[1134] You know what I said?

[1135] Again, these...

[1136] These screenshots seem to continue to want to make the world of Sonic look like the world of Final Fantasy.

[1137] It still has that same weird...

[1138] You could tell that this was made in Japan.

[1139] Right.

[1140] Style, like that kind of look to it.

[1141] It's like, this should be like the old Sonic games, super colorful and cartoony and weird, not this trying to make it look somewhat realistic.

[1142] It's a little dark, and oh man, Sonic's this colorful character, but he's trapped in a dark world.

[1143] How could he set it free?

[1144] It's like whoever the moody asshole is at Sega that is designing these games, they need to get someone else to do it, because straight up the whole emo thing, not working.

[1145] I think they just need to cut loose and...

[1146] takes Sonic to where Hudson took Bomberman and say, all right, we are only going to roll this character out in completely left -field crazy ways that make sense and in games that are basic remakes of the game we were making in the 90s.

[1147] So basically, they're just going to make Sonic rush on the DS over and over again.

[1148] Yeah, exactly.

[1149] Which I would be fine with.

[1150] Yeah, just like, here you go.

[1151] It's a 2D Sonic game for DS and PSP.

[1152] Done.

[1153] Yeah.

[1154] That is where Sonic should live from now on.

[1155] And in the occasional Olympics game.

[1156] Yeah, I'm done.

[1157] Done with it.

[1158] Yep.

[1159] I don't even need to speculate on where it would go.

[1160] Yeah, sure.

[1161] Moving on.

[1162] Rock Band coming to the Wii.

[1163] Oh, right, we're talking about Rock Band again?

[1164] White drums.

[1165] White drums.

[1166] The whitest of white drums.

[1167] I did not care about this story until I saw the screenshot of the white drums.

[1168] Sweet white drums.

[1169] Oh, man, just a bone white drum kit there.

[1170] It's majestic, isn't it?

[1171] It truly is.

[1172] How filthy is that going to get and how quickly?

[1173] Extremely.

[1174] Dude, my black drums already look dirty.

[1175] I don't even want to think about what the white ones are going to look like after a while.

[1176] Yeah, no, it's not going to be good.

[1177] So you're saying that you're going to get Rock Band on the Wii?

[1178] I'm thinking about it.

[1179] Why?

[1180] For no reason.

[1181] Just because...

[1182] I don't know, because...

[1183] No downloadable...

[1184] It'll be like the PS2 version.

[1185] No, I know.

[1186] It is the PS2 version.

[1187] Yeah.

[1188] They are making the PS2 version again for the Wii.

[1189] Yeah, no waggle, no weird, like, Wii -specific features.

[1190] Yeah, you don't even hook a Wii remote into these things.

[1191] They just plug in direct.

[1192] USB hub, all that stuff.

[1193] Yeah.

[1194] So, yeah, and, you know, whatever.

[1195] The PS2 version of Rock Band worked.

[1196] It was full motion video of a band that you yourself could not create, but the gameplay all worked just fine.

[1197] That's what the Wii version will be, too.

[1198] If you've got a Wii and nothing else and you want to play Rock Band, they'll let you do that soon enough.

[1199] Yeah, this is only really interesting to me. With five bonus songs.

[1200] This is only really interesting to me because white drums.

[1201] Otherwise, I don't really care.

[1202] And all the bonus songs are just going to be bands with the word white in it.

[1203] So White Snake, Great White.

[1204] What else?

[1205] Name something else.

[1206] White Stripes.

[1207] There you go.

[1208] White Stripes.

[1209] Uh -huh.

[1210] That's three.

[1211] So there will be two more that I haven't thought of yet.

[1212] Where are the other two?

[1213] I don't know.

[1214] I haven't thought of them yet.

[1215] Exclusive unannounced.

[1216] Can't say.

[1217] New bands being formed within harmonics.

[1218] White Lines will be in it.

[1219] That's a song.

[1220] Uh -huh.

[1221] Yeah.

[1222] Not a band.

[1223] Uh -huh.

[1224] That counts.

[1225] Okay.

[1226] White line fever.

[1227] While you continue to try to think up other bands with the word white in them, Jeff and I will talk about PS3 firmware update that dropped today.

[1228] Yeah, 2 .20.

[1229] 2 .20.

[1230] So big thing, like a lot of media player stuff, some web browser fixes, big thing is Blu -ray Disc Profile 2 .0 or BD Live.

[1231] BD Live.

[1232] I originally put this on the...

[1233] The docket for today's show because the rumors leading up to the release of the patch was that it was going to allow this copy feature so that you could actually take a standard definition version of a movie that's on Blu -ray and copy it over your PSP.

[1234] Now, it sounds like they're still talking about this.

[1235] Yeah, maybe this will make 2 .3, but they squashed it out.

[1236] Yeah, I mean, they kind of said that it was coming at some point and whether it would be something that would be compatible with every disc or if it would be just there would be a PSP formatted version on the disc already.

[1237] that they would just copy over.

[1238] I don't really think they got too deep into that, but they are planning something like this in the future, just not here yet.

[1239] And I think that sounds interesting, but I'm kind of done watching video on the PSP.

[1240] I don't know.

[1241] I'm never in a situation where that makes sense.

[1242] Yeah, I think it's just more novel than anything else.

[1243] It's a really great feature, and yeah, if you're on planes a lot or something like that, if you're a jet setter.

[1244] If I'm on a plane, I've usually got a laptop.

[1245] Yeah, exactly.

[1246] In which case.

[1247] Watch a DVD.

[1248] Get yourself a laptop with a Blu -ray drive on it.

[1249] Done.

[1250] All right.

[1251] Let's get back to hip -hop.

[1252] Okay, let's.

[1253] So we're weaving back to that thread.

[1254] Yes.

[1255] All right.

[1256] So we're back to music again, but.

[1257] Hip -hop on the 43s.

[1258] Yeah.

[1259] Where hip -hop lives.

[1260] Within our music discussion, we're going to get to hip -hop again.

[1261] Jeff, get excited.

[1262] 50 Cent 2.

[1263] 50 Cent 2?

[1264] 50 Cent the sequel?

[1265] 50 Cent 2.

[1266] All I know is that there is a leaked EGM cover that just says 50 Cent 2 on it.

[1267] Great.

[1268] I guess the thing is that that's a sequel to Bulletproof.

[1269] Yeah, 50 Cent Bulletproof.

[1270] Or maybe it's not, and 50 Cent is just going to make a completely different game now.

[1271] Or maybe it won't even be a game.

[1272] Maybe there'll just be a sequel to 50 Cent making records now.

[1273] One that is actually hungry still and is able to put out songs that aren't complete garbage.

[1274] One that can do something besides mumble a lot.

[1275] And he'll be called The Dollar.

[1276] 50 on The Dollar?

[1277] 50 Cent 2, The Dollar.

[1278] Wow.

[1279] Two 50 cents is a dollar.

[1280] Maybe I'll just, like, take young Buck out back and shoot him nine times and say, all right, kid, now you've got 50 Cent.

[1281] That's how it happens.

[1282] That's how you become 50 Cent.

[1283] Magically transformed.

[1284] Yeah, so the thought of another 50 Cent game I find really scary.

[1285] Yeah.

[1286] Well, you know, Vivendi made a bundle on 50 Cent Bulletproof.

[1287] They did.

[1288] Which is absolutely the reason that they're doing another one.

[1289] Which I think at this point, a new 50 Cent game needs to actually be like a tycoon simulator where you sell...

[1290] stock in vitamin water and have nothing to do with guns or rap or anything.

[1291] It's just like a boardroom game.

[1292] It's just like a mansion simulator.

[1293] Here you go.

[1294] Stay inside.

[1295] Check it out.

[1296] Film yourself talking a mess about Fat Joe.

[1297] All right.

[1298] Inside Mike Tyson's house.

[1299] It just needs to be this cold, calculating business simulator.

[1300] They just need to take whatever game they made for The Apprentice, jack it up, and put 50 Cent in instead of Donald Trump.

[1301] Oh, God.

[1302] Don't ever bring up The Apprentice game to me again, please, for the love of God.

[1303] I mean, it does seem like a little late.

[1304] for another 50 Cent game.

[1305] Right.

[1306] Like, 50 Cent is not...

[1307] He's peaked.

[1308] He does not evoke the same thing that he did when that game first came out like that.

[1309] Right.

[1310] He's more well -known as a businessman, and he's more successful as a businessman than he is as a rapper at this point.

[1311] But if you're 50 Cent now, you're looking for any sort of quick grab at relevance you can take.

[1312] I guess.

[1313] And if you're Vivendi, you're doing pretty much the same thing.

[1314] I wonder if that'll be one of the games that ends up getting...

[1315] axed after the activation.

[1316] When they have to, like, prove why their game should exist.

[1317] Yeah, I don't know.

[1318] I have a real sore spot about the 50 Cent game because seeing that game before it came out, it actually looked like it could be kind of awesome.

[1319] And then it wasn't.

[1320] And then it was not.

[1321] What was it that made you...

[1322] The shooting seemed fine.

[1323] There was just a lot of stuff to it that seemed like, alright, well, they're just making Max Payne with more cursing.

[1324] A lot more cursive.

[1325] And it seemed like something that if they polished it up in this direction and cleaned up this and that, it could be a really serviceable, pretty good shooter that had the added humor of 50 Cent being in it.

[1326] And then instead it just became junk.

[1327] I don't know.

[1328] 50 Cent seems like a pretty thoroughly humorless dude to me. I'm saying unintentional humor.

[1329] I'm not saying like...

[1330] Because he's so self -serious.

[1331] Yeah, it was so over the top.

[1332] that it seemed like it could have been really funny.

[1333] You know, it was like Eminem was playing a cop in the game.

[1334] Like on the surface, like on paper, that game sounds like it could actually be pretty good.

[1335] I do like that casting choice.

[1336] And it actually played, you know, it was something that could have played a lot better than it did.

[1337] So it was kind of disappointing because it could have actually been a decent licensed game.

[1338] But instead it was just like, here are nine instrumentals of 50 Cent songs and you can fire up his sidekick and look at...

[1339] 50 cent videos and just like all this stuff was just so in the way of it being a game that it just, it fell apart.

[1340] And I remember I, I reviewed the PSP version of that game, which actually was like totally, totally different.

[1341] No, that was, that was, that was hip hop.

[1342] Diablo is what that game was.

[1343] It was like, it was like a corridor crawl with hip hop.

[1344] That's my new stage name.

[1345] Hip hop Diablo.

[1346] I am the hip hop Diablo.

[1347] See like, again, like that, that sentence sounds super appealing to me. When I first actually saw that game at, E3 before it came out and I sat down with it for a little while and said alright yeah yes hip hop Diablo that sounds fantastic I do like the idea there but then you know again the execution yep painfully boring not so great but it did have all the cut scenes from the main game so great yeah it just it seems like the sort of thing that they should not be given the opportunity to take another crack at it especially because the 50 cent license the 50 cent brand is just not what it used to be.

[1348] Because it is a brand now.

[1349] We're not even talking about the man. We're talking about the 50 Cent Empire.

[1350] Now is the time to capitalize on the Flo Rida brand.

[1351] Now is the time to give him his own game.

[1352] If it was like 50 Cent 2, we remove 50 Cent and put in someone more relevant.

[1353] That would make more sense.

[1354] Like Flo Rida?

[1355] I don't even know.

[1356] It's all pops and whistles over there.

[1357] I have no idea what you're even saying.

[1358] Flo Rida.

[1359] It's Florida with a space in it because he's from Florida.

[1360] He's a southern rapper.

[1361] Well, let's not talk about that anymore.

[1362] What about Lil Weezy should get his game?

[1363] Get a game.

[1364] Lil Wayne.

[1365] I'm surprised Lil Jon hasn't gotten a game yet.

[1366] He did.

[1367] He had Lil Wayne Crunk Golf.

[1368] Yeah, Lil Jon Crunk Golf.

[1369] No, yeah, Lil Jon.

[1370] Okay, that doesn't count, though, as a mobile game.

[1371] Remi Ma doing a bid for shooting a friend of hers.

[1372] The game.

[1373] All right.

[1374] I just want to remind everyone.

[1375] She just wishes that she could bring Pun back.

[1376] Is that so wrong?

[1377] Halo 3 Heroic Pack, the map pack, is free.

[1378] So if you're still playing the Halo 3 and you didn't buy that stuff originally.

[1379] You can go hit a button and get it for nothing now.

[1380] Go get it for nothing.

[1381] So if you've got Halo 3 and you want to keep playing it, do it.

[1382] I'm probably actually going to download this stuff and check it out.

[1383] This will be the thing that will kind of bring me back to Halo 3, which I haven't played in a very long time.

[1384] Yeah.

[1385] I don't even own it.

[1386] Yeah?

[1387] Yeah.

[1388] All right.

[1389] Well, you don't get to talk during this segment then.

[1390] All right.

[1391] Yeah.

[1392] Yeah, and those maps did sound like they were probably pretty good.

[1393] There's like a foundry map that is specifically made for Forge mode that seems like it offers a lot of really crazy options.

[1394] Well, I think, yeah, it seems to me, though, that if you want to keep playing or play Halo 3 online at all, you're going to have to go get this now that it's free because everyone's going to be using this now.

[1395] Definitely, yeah, for sure.

[1396] So there's that.

[1397] And then the legendary pack is coming.

[1398] They've been talking about those maps.

[1399] They already have another map pack in the works.

[1400] So it's kind of a nice way to say, like, all right, now these maps are going to be free.

[1401] And by the way, here's the next thing we're working on.

[1402] Hopefully you'll get back into it with this free map pack and then buy the next one.

[1403] Jeff, do you want to talk about the drama on Xbox 360 right now?

[1404] Yeah.

[1405] So this came out this morning.

[1406] On Xbox .com, Major Nelson posted about it.

[1407] Every Microsoft news source has posted something about this.

[1408] They are cracking down on people that have been cheating with achievement points.

[1409] Whabam.

[1410] The crackdown is happening.

[1411] And they're not being nice about it either.

[1412] They're straight up putting like they're zeroing out achievement scores.

[1413] They have a bunch of methods with which they can determine if you have been earning your achievement points.

[1414] in a nefarious fashion via the use of downloading save games.

[1415] So is that their definition of cheating?

[1416] Have they come out about what they call cheating?

[1417] They said it's tool -based stuff.

[1418] They're not going to say, oh, well, you hit the B button for two minutes and got 1 ,000 points.

[1419] That's not the way it was meant to be played, blah, blah, blah.

[1420] It's not about that.

[1421] I think it's more about you downloaded saves.

[1422] You got these achievements without actually playing the game.

[1423] and zeroing them out that way.

[1424] And it seems like it has turned the 360 leaderboard on its head.

[1425] Yeah, I think if it hasn't already, it certainly will.

[1426] Strip Club DJ is the first real account that I've seen that's been zeroed out.

[1427] He was one of the top.

[1428] He was one of the top guys.

[1429] And yeah, if you go to his page on Xbox .com right now, they actually have a little link right there that says, this guy is cheating.

[1430] Click here for more information.

[1431] I really like the straight up scarlet letter on the profile.

[1432] And apparently you'll be able to see that on the console as well.

[1433] And the players won't be able to earn those achievements ever again.

[1434] They'll be able to earn achievements moving forward in other games and other achievements they didn't get nefariously.

[1435] But those are gone forever.

[1436] So here's my question to you, Jeff.

[1437] Does this make achievements meaningful again?

[1438] I think it helps.

[1439] Yeah, I think it's something that they absolutely had to do because it was something that was way too easy, and they worked on fixing it, but apparently they didn't fix it all the way because I think people were still doing it.

[1440] It was just more people hex editing their saves and doing all this stuff.

[1441] Yeah, so I don't know.

[1442] Yeah, I think it definitely helps.

[1443] It's a system that...

[1444] when they can eliminate all that stuff is, is made more meaningful, but, uh, but they were being harsh and strict about it.

[1445] No appeals.

[1446] Right.

[1447] Cause they, they claim that if they get you for this, it's because they know a hundred percent that you are a bad person.

[1448] Uh, so I think that's, that's pretty cool.

[1449] Well, the guy's name was strip club DJ.

[1450] So it was pretty set that he was a bad person.

[1451] Yeah.

[1452] And I don't know what happened.

[1453] It's probably not related to this, but like rant six, who was the account that was the guy in Italy was trying to sell it on eBay.

[1454] I think the name of that got changed, and now there's a different Rant 6 because it only has like 10 ,000 points on it now.

[1455] I haven't been following that scene too closely, but it seems like this would be the thing that would rocket to its very foundation.

[1456] Yeah.

[1457] I just got 10 ,000 points finally.

[1458] I just cracked it.

[1459] Way to go.

[1460] Yeah.

[1461] I just got 56 ,000.

[1462] I hate you.

[1463] I'm at like 47 -something.

[1464] You guys are insane.

[1465] I don't even understand how you do that, how you spend that much time.

[1466] playing open season and getting points oh it's because i had this thing that you can use to download game save oh oh no i'm interested in watching my account because at one point i actually i actually did buy one of these things and and did some research with it yeah and uh so like there was a save like i don't think i got any achievements off it but i at one point loaded up uh someone else's save and to see if it worked and it did um So I'm wondering if, like, that's going to be enough or whatever.

[1467] But we'll see.

[1468] All right.

[1469] Well, that's pretty much the week in video games.

[1470] Yeah.

[1471] Let's get into e -mails.

[1472] E -mails.

[1473] Yeah.

[1474] This is where our e -mails intro music will play.

[1475] E -mails.

[1476] Yeah, you're doing the news thing.

[1477] I know.

[1478] E -mails.

[1479] E -mails is more of a jazzy.

[1480] It's like, reading e -mails.

[1481] I like it.

[1482] First one comes in from Dan K. Homeboy almost got, and this just makes me happy in a really weird way.

[1483] Homeboy almost got expelled from school for checking out giantbomb .com on a school computer.

[1484] Outstanding.

[1485] Gosh.

[1486] You know, yeah, so they have the internet monitoring software, and I guess this kid, during art class, which...

[1487] Probably, don't go and check giantbomb .com during art class.

[1488] Come on.

[1489] Oh, I don't know.

[1490] Do some art. Pay attention to the art class.

[1491] What we're doing is art, man. He was just looking for inspirational.

[1492] Well, apparently someone saw that he was looking at Giant Bomb and a video called How to Build a Bomb.

[1493] So, and freaked out and he had to...

[1494] Are you pleased with yourselves?

[1495] Are you happy with the life you've made and what you are doing to people?

[1496] We joked about this the first time that we did one of those videos and like, oh, this will get us on all the FBI lists.

[1497] And here's the first fallout of that naming choice.

[1498] Great work, guys.

[1499] Fantastic work.

[1500] Anything we can do to help.

[1501] Dan, thanks for writing.

[1502] That's a fantastic little story.

[1503] Here's a question from Curtis from Washington, Iowa.

[1504] I think Kurt's written into us before.

[1505] Yeah.

[1506] He wants to know Call of Duty 4.

[1507] Now, we've been talking about this some more lately because they got the new map pack coming out.

[1508] I can't talk today.

[1509] Yeah.

[1510] And he wants to know, what perk do you find yourself using the most?

[1511] What is your favorite perk in Call of Duty 4?

[1512] I use stopping power, deep impact, and grenade times three.

[1513] Those are the three I use.

[1514] I have to say, philosophically, martyrdom.

[1515] I think is probably the most interesting and thus my favorite Call of Duty 4.

[1516] I think that is my favorite.

[1517] I don't really use it that much, but I do have one of my custom classes.

[1518] I have a shotgun on, and since you're up close a little more with a shotgun, it makes sense to have martyrdom with that configuration.

[1519] So I do have it there.

[1520] Do you think it out way more than I do?

[1521] I just think it's funny to kill a dude with my dropped grenades after he kills me. Yeah, but then everyone...

[1522] is now much smarter and does not die as frequently from those.

[1523] It's harder, but when you do get it, it's still really sweet.

[1524] Yeah, and with the shotgun, you get it more because you're inspired to run up on dudes and get a lot closer.

[1525] Sure.

[1526] So I find myself getting most of my martyrdom kills that way.

[1527] Fantastic.

[1528] And I never use Last Stand.

[1529] I think it sucks.

[1530] And Alex, you don't really play...

[1531] I don't really play a lot of Call of Duty 4, so...

[1532] Not much Call of Duty 4 for you, so moving on.

[1533] A question from Blant asks simply, sausage or bacon?

[1534] Bacon.

[1535] Bacon.

[1536] Sausage.

[1537] I'm just saying, sausage is pretty good.

[1538] Sausage is fine, but I love sausage.

[1539] Sausage, sometimes it can be a bit much.

[1540] So much more variety.

[1541] Bacon's crispy.

[1542] It can be.

[1543] When it's crispy, it's good.

[1544] Yes, I like it very hard crispy.

[1545] Yes.

[1546] Indeed.

[1547] Yes.

[1548] I want to fry it.

[1549] Whereas I just like the variety of sausages that I can get.

[1550] I bet you do.

[1551] All right.

[1552] Oh, this is already taking a dark turn.

[1553] No, we're done.

[1554] I'm stopping that one.

[1555] That's as far as that one goes.

[1556] All right, good.

[1557] Oh, let's see here.

[1558] Let it be said, two votes for bacon, one for sausage.

[1559] There you go.

[1560] Bacon wins.

[1561] This is not so much a question.

[1562] I guess it is a question.

[1563] David Henry writes in and says, did you know that across the pond, Cool Ranch Doritos are called Cool American?

[1564] Oh, my God.

[1565] Fun fact.

[1566] No, I did not know that.

[1567] Fun fact from David Henry.

[1568] Thank you for writing that one.

[1569] No one in America likes Cool Ranch Doritos.

[1570] Don't be fooled.

[1571] I do.

[1572] Yeah, two against one, again.

[1573] Why don't you guys go to Russia, then, you commie bastard.

[1574] Apparently not.

[1575] Why don't you go to Venezuela?

[1576] What?

[1577] Maybe I will.

[1578] Because you're un -American.

[1579] Whatever, man. You know what flavored Doritos should be?

[1580] What should you hide out with your Nazi brethren in Argentina?

[1581] Nacho cheese.

[1582] I like nacho cheese ones, too.

[1583] I like those as well.

[1584] The red bag.

[1585] Yeah, you're a red commie.

[1586] Yeah.

[1587] I eat the red up and destroy it.

[1588] Blue.

[1589] You would.

[1590] This one comes in from Chris Grau in Tokyo, and he writes simply, Cinnamon Toast Crunch Milkshakes.

[1591] Yep.

[1592] Totally.

[1593] All right.

[1594] This one's from Tim.

[1595] He writes in, says, I have $10.

[1596] I can go see either Doomsday or Never Back Down.

[1597] Which would you choose?

[1598] Never Back Down.

[1599] 100 ,000 times I say never back down.

[1600] Well, that was the option.

[1601] We had this put to us on Sunday.

[1602] Yeah.

[1603] Easter Sunday, we were in a bar.

[1604] Yeah, we had a little English breakfast to celebrate Easter Sunday with a group of friends and drinking before noon, Ace Plus.

[1605] One drink for every station of the cross.

[1606] So thanks, Jesus.

[1607] But yeah, then there was a party that splintered off and was going to go see Doomsday.

[1608] Some of them going to go see Doomsday again.

[1609] Oh, wow.

[1610] Oh, man. Oh, that's...

[1611] Some folks there had already seen it once and were like, we're going to go again.

[1612] Well, if they had been going to see Never Back Down, I would have went with them.

[1613] Yeah.

[1614] I believe, I have not seen either movie, I believe in Never Back Down's ridiculousness far more than I believe in Doomsday's.

[1615] Yeah, I think it's a tough call, but I'm going to have to go with you guys.

[1616] Never back down.

[1617] Never back down.

[1618] Never back down.

[1619] Does something for me far more primally.

[1620] It has high school MMA fighters.

[1621] There's an evil high school MMA fighter that is beating up other kids, and so the kid has to learn MMA so he can take down the evil high school MMA fighter in Digimon Honsu.

[1622] Yes.

[1623] Yep.

[1624] Yep.

[1625] How do you say no to that?

[1626] It's only the strong for a new generation.

[1627] Dude, totally.

[1628] Which is basically...

[1629] The Karate Kid for...

[1630] It's two generations ahead of Karate Kid.

[1631] Karate Kid is the grandfather of Never Back Down.

[1632] Yeah.

[1633] God, so bad.

[1634] So, yeah, go waste your money that way.

[1635] That's our recommendation.

[1636] I still really want to see Southland Tales.

[1637] Oh, no. Oh, no. It's out on DVD now.

[1638] Is it out now?

[1639] It is.

[1640] I'm going to get a hold of that.

[1641] Yeah, I'm going to see it, too.

[1642] Get it on the Blu -ray.

[1643] It's on the Blu -ray.

[1644] Quit moaning about it.

[1645] I know it's going to be bad, but I want to see how it is bad.

[1646] Justin Timberlake in a tank that says Hustler on the side.

[1647] Yeah, that does happen.

[1648] And The Rock.

[1649] And The Rock!

[1650] And Dwayne Johnson.

[1651] Yeah.

[1652] I thought I saw the Doom movie the other day.

[1653] Yeah.

[1654] Yeah.

[1655] That's pretty bad.

[1656] Yeah.

[1657] Except for that one part where it turns into doom.

[1658] Yeah, when it turns into a first -person shooter, that is a laugh, right?

[1659] That's why I refuse to see it.

[1660] That one minute.

[1661] Once I heard that was in there, I was like, I don't want to see this movie.

[1662] It's so weird.

[1663] I can't see it.

[1664] It's so bizarre.

[1665] All right, moving on.

[1666] This question comes in from JP in Montreal.

[1667] It's actually a pretty interesting one, at least to me. He's talking about Condemned 2.

[1668] I'm already bored by it.

[1669] And, you know, if you look at the video for this stuff, and Jeff, you see me play it, it is gruesome.

[1670] Oh, yeah.

[1671] This game is brutal as hell.

[1672] Yeah.

[1673] It does not shy away from showing horrible murder and execution.

[1674] Yeah.

[1675] So kind of the question is, why did this not get the same sort of scrutiny that Manhunt 2 did, which arguably is about the same...

[1676] level of nastiness.

[1677] Why was there...

[1678] Like, you've not even heard a blip.

[1679] It's because you're beating up the crazy and the homeless.

[1680] But you're just kind of beating up...

[1681] You're saying there's a double standard.

[1682] I'm saying there's definitely a double standard.

[1683] You're murderizing, you know, random thugs in Manhunt 2.

[1684] It's not like you're going after harmless civilians or anything.

[1685] Yeah, well, there you go.

[1686] It's because Manhunt 2 was put out by Rockstar and there's your double standard.

[1687] Yeah.

[1688] Straight up.

[1689] This next one comes from Chris in Millstone, New Jersey.

[1690] He wants to know, why the hell are there no board games on Xbox Live Arcade?

[1691] I want to play classics like Monopoly, Risk, Scrabble, and Clue Online, and they're nowhere to be found.

[1692] What online board games would you shell out cash for?

[1693] I think this is a fantastic point.

[1694] Yeah, I agree.

[1695] I mean, with the success of Uno especially, why hasn't there been another game that has tried to tap into that exact thing?

[1696] It's weird that the board games they have been going for are these...

[1697] arcane German board games like Carcassonne and Catan.

[1698] I mean, though, to be fair, Catan basically is Monopoly, but with a different board.

[1699] I mean, it's the same functional idea.

[1700] No, it's not, because I understand Monopoly.

[1701] Yeah, Monopoly's a square.

[1702] It's like hexagons.

[1703] But that's the thing, though.

[1704] Land on a park place.

[1705] I landed on free parking.

[1706] I'll get the money that goes in the free parking pot.

[1707] That's the best -up thing, though, is that people are still playing Catan online.

[1708] So clearly there is a big draw for that stuff.

[1709] If people are still willing to play that game close to a year later.

[1710] Yeah.

[1711] Imagine what Monopoly would do.

[1712] Maybe the Parker Brothers are not interested.

[1713] Yeah, which would suck, but I would love to play some Monopoly online.

[1714] I would play the hell out of some Clue online.

[1715] That would be great for one time.

[1716] Yeah, Clue could be all right.

[1717] That'd be great to play once.

[1718] The Mad Magazine game where you have to lose to win.

[1719] VCR Clue on Xbox Live Arcade.

[1720] Yes.

[1721] Took the VCR Clue VCR tape and put it on DVD, so I'm already one step ahead of everyone else.

[1722] Well, then they also made a Clue DVD game.

[1723] They did.

[1724] Totally different, though.

[1725] Pop -O -Matic Trouble for Xbox Live.

[1726] Sorry.

[1727] Yeah, I don't know.

[1728] Mousetrap.

[1729] Monopoly and Risk would be good ones.

[1730] Hungry Hungry Hippos.

[1731] Some of those games like Mousetrap or even Pop -O -Matic Trouble that are just more like, I don't know, roll it, like no strategy.

[1732] I don't think those would last.

[1733] But Monopoly, totally.

[1734] Yeah, Monopoly, you put in a good number of house rules the same way Uno did.

[1735] Yeah.

[1736] Because everyone has their own weird way of playing Monopoly.

[1737] I think that would be great.

[1738] Yeah.

[1739] so that I can watch people do drugs while they play it.

[1740] That would be ideal, yes.

[1741] Like Uno.

[1742] Watching weird Canadians do lines of coke while playing Uno until they kick me out because they realize I'm not one of them.

[1743] Hopefully, yeah, we'll get to do that with some other classic kids board games that you remember from your childhood.

[1744] Shoots and ladders.

[1745] I'm smoking a crack pipe.

[1746] I think Seltrio Solitaire was the last one where I saw a lot of drug use and nudity when I was playing it.

[1747] The Solitaire crowd is crazy.

[1748] I'm going to go to Candyland, literally.

[1749] Or not Solitaire, what was it?

[1750] Oh, no, it was that board game one, like the chess one that had the four different games.

[1751] That was the one that had it.

[1752] Because, yeah, Solitaire, not so much.

[1753] Oh, man, yeah, I saw a lot of dudes wearing T -shirts with nothing else on.

[1754] Yeah, that was real bad.

[1755] Well, fantastic, that's going to do it for...

[1756] for our emails.

[1757] Oh, good note to end things on.

[1758] Absolutely.

[1759] Uh, yeah, that's, that's going to do it.

[1760] I guess, uh, anything else you guys want to bring up?

[1761] Anything else on, what's on your mind, Jeff?

[1762] Um, Rainbow Six Vegas 2.

[1763] Just waiting to see the PS3 version of that, and then we'll have a review of that up, but, uh.

[1764] Oh.

[1765] But I, but I ruined the podcast.

[1766] Your stupid cell phone.

[1767] Way to go.

[1768] I'm sorry.

[1769] So review of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 coming soon.

[1770] Review of Bully Scholarship Addiction for the 360 coming soon.

[1771] Yeah.

[1772] Review of Condemned 2 Bloodshot for PS3 and Xbox 360 coming soon.

[1773] All on GiantBomb .com.

[1774] Yeah, we'll shoot another How to Build a Bomb video this week.

[1775] I think we might focus on our newfound ability to capture screens and video.

[1776] That's right.

[1777] Maybe show some of that stuff.

[1778] We can show some of that.

[1779] We have a lot of things in pots.

[1780] I don't know what that means.

[1781] I don't know what you...

[1782] What?

[1783] We're juggling a lot of pots in the air.

[1784] God, I hope not.

[1785] That sounds harsh.

[1786] Full, hot pots.

[1787] All right.

[1788] So that's going to do it for the Giant Bombcast for this week.

[1789] If you want to write in, bombcast at giantbomb .com is the email address.

[1790] Any other...

[1791] Pertinent information, Alex?

[1792] My 360 showed up.

[1793] That's what that text message was.

[1794] My broken 360 is back.

[1795] Oh, excellent.

[1796] Is it still broken?

[1797] We're going to find out when I get home.

[1798] Now you can give me back the one that I lent you.

[1799] If it works.

[1800] If it works.

[1801] Dude, no. Just keep it.

[1802] Yeah, I'm just going to keep it.

[1803] Sell me the other one.

[1804] Okay.

[1805] It has the Adidas faceplate on it.

[1806] Oh, I want that one.

[1807] All right.

[1808] You can have it.

[1809] I had to buy a Japanese 360 for that Adidas faceplate.

[1810] $20.

[1811] Yours.

[1812] Done.

[1813] You take a check.

[1814] Only if it's a traveler's check.

[1815] We'll work something out.

[1816] All right.

[1817] So, yeah, on behalf of Jeff Gershman and Alex Navarro, thanks for listening, and we'll see you next week.