Bungie Server for Saving Films

Frankie mentioned in his weekly Bungie update that Bungie will be supporting the Saved Films feature. To prove it he posted a screenshot of the server size which is a humongous 70.9 terabytes. Thats a good amount of space, but will it be for the hundreds of thousands of players who will use it on a daily bases saving their films? Most likely we'll all get an alloted amount, like we did during the beta. Lets just hope its more than 25 megs.

For those of you who don't know what the Saved Films feature is, basically you can save your game data after each MP match you play. This game data is then rendered to play the game again and will allow the user to pause and hopefully move the camera to other areas of the game to study how they died or why they survived so well. Frankie mentions in an older post that they also want to include the ability to trim the movie.

The game data can be saved to your 360 harddrive as much as your harddrive will allow, but now you'll be able to save it online where your friends can download it and watch it.

Another interesting thing is that Frankie mentions it will be used for saving screenshots as well. So we'll be able to pull stills from the footage as well, which is pretty cool. Remember kids, Halo 3 comes out Sept 25 and Sept 19th for the French.

Always Bet on Black... and Also Red

Rainbow Six Vegas has two bonus packs for it - Player's Pack Black Edition and Player's Pack Red Edition.

The Black Edition includes 5 multiplayer maps(3 new and 2 recreated from previous games).

The Red Edition includes two new gameplay types (Assassination and Total Conquest) along with 5 multiplayer maps.

The Red Edition is on Xbox Live Marketplace right now for 800 points. The Black Edition was up briefly this week for 800 points. However, The Black Edition was supposed to be free. It was quickly taken offline and will go back online June 30th(tomorrow) at the proper price of free. Those who did pay for The Black Edition should receive a refund within 8-10 weeks.

And as a "show of appreciation for the Rainbow Six community," the Red Edition will become free on July 6th. (But no refund for any who have already paid for that.)

Haze Writer Slams Halo 3

Rob Yescombe, scriptwriter for Haze, has been making the news lately with some anti-Halo 3 remarks. According to Kotaku, Yescombe said the following about his game:

"It's about what's happening in the world today - it's ludicrous, and how can you make something that doesn't reflect that? Well, you could bury your head in the sand and make Halo 3, but the fact of the matter is there are more important things at stake."

Of course, this is probably just some publicity grab, but that statement seems ridiculous to me. Haze takes place in like 2043. And it's about a wartorn country where there is possibly a dictatorship with its Mantel Troopers maintaining order and taking Nectar which empowers them in different ways. There are also guerilla fighters called the Promise Hand who fight against the government.

Is that the world today? And more importantly, I like to play video games to get away from the world today. For me, that's what video games are about. I don't love Crackdown because it's based in reality.

And no, I'm not slamming Haze. Looks like a good game and hopefully I will play it after it comes out. But to go around making crazy statements just for the publicity is lame(and apparently effective).

GTA IV Trailer 2 is Out

GTA IV has released their second trailer: Looking for That Someone Special. This trailer has a LOT more to get excited about. There's a lot more action and dialogue. The graphics are very nice, and it looks awesome.

But one thing bothers me. Niko Bellic's facial hair.


At some angles, it looks fine, but then at others it looks like there's too much space between the facial hair and his mouth. Is he shaving around his mouth? Usually it just seemed distracting to me when he was doing a lot of movement.

Red vs Blue Finishes with a Bang

The 100th and last episode of the wildly popular machinima Red vs Blue was posted today(after only an overnight delay).

I've been a fan since episode one four years or so ago and a sponsor on their site for the last couple years. In order to prepare for the final episode, I sat down on Tuesday and watched all of the final season in one sitting.

The series is very funny, and some of the shots and tricks they are able to pull off in their video work is amazing. Rooster Teeth is definitely one of the best in the machinima business. Their new Shadowrun series 1-800-MAGIC is coming along very well.

I don't want to give any spoilers away, but the ending is definitely unexpected but clever. Some viewers might not like it, but on reflection, I thought it was the best way it could have gone.

My only complaint is that the episode is only viewable through a flash player. I had some problems getting it to work at first, and I'm not alone. Of course, at this point, the server might be getting bombarded and that's the reason, but I prefer to be able to download the video and watch it off of my own harddrive.

Coming to America

Blue Dragon was the game from Microsoft and Final Fantasy creator, Hironobu Sakaguchi, that was built to help get Japanese people interested in the 360 console. The RPG game is finally coming to America and Europe this August. Europeans can start playing Shu and his friends on August 24th, while us yanks have to wait until the 28th. I'm looking forward to it though it only gives me a little over 25 days to complete it before I start smashing it up with Halo 3.

Halo 3 Helmet for Sale on EBay

Thanks to Lead Spartan on Bungie.net. Apparently someone is selling a Halo 3 Legendary helmet on Ebay. The description reads:

Brand new in box LIMITED EDITION Halo 3 Master Chief Helmet purchased directly from a Microsoft Employee. 100% authentic made by BUNGIE!!

All HALO fans will know how collectable this item is. It comes with a serial number showing how limited this is. This item is not available to the public.

Please bid with confidence. As you can see, I'm a legit seller with 150+ positive feedbacks.

Shipping and Handling fee is $30 for orders within USA, $60 for International orders.

Any questions please contact me.

Happy bidding!!

Boo yaka. I'll place my bid now. Andy I'm getting this for you little buddy. Someone is definitely getting fired at Bungie or Microsoft for this.

Halo 3 Sets Trend - GTA IV Follows

In what may be a disturbing trend, GTA IV has announced what will be included in its Limited Edition. The Limited Edition will include GTA IV (with special boxart), The Art of Grand Theft Auto: IV book, The Music of Grand Theft Auto: IV CD, a Rockstar duffel bag, a Rockstar keychain and all of this will be contained in a Grand Theft Auto IV safety deposit box(with key).

Now, that's not the disturbing trend. In fact, I think that stuff is cool. The disturbing trend is the price. GTA IV Limited Edition will cost $90. Now, this is not the ungodly price of $130 like Halo 3's Legendary Edition (which I still refuse to buy), but it is still higher than the normal $10 more for a limited edition. Sadly, I will shell out the extra $30 for this edition. Damn you, cool merchandising!

And in a related note, GTA IV's next trailer comes out June 28th.

Assassin's Creed - The Short Movie by You

IFC(Independent Film Channel) and Ubisoft are teaming up on a short movie contest. They are accepting submissions of up to six minute long movies from June 25th(yesterday) until August 20th.

The movies should be "Assassin Creed inspired" and include at least some of the following:

• Planning, assassination, escape
  
• Social stealth - using crowd as a means of disguise or escape
  
• Assassination in public and in close proximity to the victim
  
• Assassination of historical figures
  
• Conspiracy surrounding historical assassination

The grand prize winner will be awarded $10,000, an Xbox 360, their movie will be included in the Assassin's Creed Limited Edition, a copy of Assassin's Creed and their short will air on IFC. Two runner-ups will receive the same prizes except they'll get $2,500 instead of $10,000.

More details can be found at the official site.

Manhunt 2 Isn't Take Two's First AO Rating

With all the controversy surrounding Manhunt 2's ESRB rating, I wanted to get a list of games that were rated AO by the ESRB and to my surprise I saw that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the PC, PS2, and Xbox was rated with an AO. I thought it was a M rated game, so I checked some different sites and found that Gamespot and Wal-Mart list GTA: San Andreas as rated M. It looks like San Andreas is listed twice on the ESRB site, one for M and the AO. So I e-mailed them and they replied.

"Thank you for contacting the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) with your comments regarding Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. This is a serious and complex issue, and we appreciate your concern.

Through its investigation, the ESRB determined that the code for the hidden "Hot Coffee" scenes existed on all three platform versions of the game released to the public. The patch to unlock the content on the PC version of the game was made freely available on the Internet, while certain console accessories provided access to the content on the PS2 platform version.

Once it was determined that the previously undisclosed scenes were on the shipped discs, ESRB raters reviewed the original submission of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, without the "Hot Coffee" scenes, and once again assigned the original rating of M (Mature 17+) with content descriptors for Intense Violence, Strong Sexual Content, Strong Language, Blood and Gore, and Use of Drugs. However, when reviewing the newly disclosed "Hot Coffee" scenes, raters assigned an AO (Adults Only 18+) rating, along with a Nudity content descriptor. This discrepancy indicated that the accuracy of the original M rating had been undermined, and resulted in the ESRB's revocation of that rating until new versions could be manufactured and shipped without the "Hot Coffee" content. Copies of the game that are produced without this content on the disc will retain the original M rating.

It is inevitable that some may disagree with the ESRB's actions when considering the rest of the playable content in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, or other games like it. We simply ask those who disagree to consider that consumers, especially parents, count on ESRB ratings for reliable information about what's in a computer or video game. They deserve to know what they are buying, and the ESRB is both obligated and committed to providing the most reliable ratings information possible. If content that would affect a rating is on the game disc, and it's accessible, it must be considered in the assignment of that rating.

The strength of our self-regulatory system lies in its unique ability to independently evaluate publisher compliance with a wide variety of industry-adopted rules and regulations, and enforce instances of non-compliance with a range of sanctions, including penalties, fines and corrective actions. The interests of parents, gamers, and other consumers are best served by having an effective self-regulatory body, whose actions are objective, judicious and fair. We appreciate your taking the time to write, and hope that you better understand our actions.

Regards,

Entertainment Software Rating Board"

Contra 4 on DS

This is several days old, but I missed it. So if you missed this news from Konami, then here it is. Konami is bringing the side-scroller shooter back to life. Contra III: Alien Wars was released 15 years ago and the new Contra 4 will include a grappling hook and is coming only to the DS. Charlie and I were just talking about Contra yesterday. I'll add this to my list of games I'm looking forward to.

The Darkness delayed for PS3 in Europe

For some unexplained reason, The Darkness will not be released for the PS3 in Europe until July 20th. This is weird because it is still being released on time in the United States for the PS3 on June 25th. The Xbox 360 version will still be released on time in both continents(June 25th in the US and June 29th in Europe).

But the thing that I find really weird about it is that the PS3 doesn't have regions like the Xbox 360 does. So people in Europe can just buy a copy of The Darkness from an American outlet and have it shipped to them and play it without problem.

Why the delay? So far, 2K Games isn't saying.

And for those in the States, I saw that Circuit City has a deal on The Darkness when it first comes out - $49.99. $10 off!

Halo 3 ARG Updates

http://206.16.223.65 now takes you to a new page with "Server 5" rotating around. If you click on certain parts of the server it opens up a StarImage1 file and Slide_Ref070107 file. Also Halo3.com now has one of the 5 server silhouettes filled in with an actual image. The BNet forums are going crazy with post about theories and new discoveries. What does this all mean? That I stayed up late to see a flash video that displayed the following text:

"THIS IS MY FINAL ENTRY, AND I AM LEFT WITH ONE HOPE
THAT ONE DAY, SOMEONE, ANYONE IS AROUND TO WITNESS THIS WARNING
{//}
KNOW THAT A THOUSAND OTHER PLANS WERE TRIED AND FAILED
{//}
KNOW THAT ENERGETIC AND TENACIOUS AS LIFE IS
IT HAS AN ANTITHESIS JUST AS POWERFUL
IT IS THAT THING THAT WE MUST OBLITERATE"

Edit: Also clicking around on it will bring up an Array Recorder Data text file and a Log Transcript text file(which contains the above transmission).

Making of Halo 3 Commercial

Digital Domain has the behind the scenes footage for the making of last year's E3 video "Starry Night". It's a very short clip and their servers are pretty slow. Basically it shows the "Starry Night" video, then it plays it again, but this time it shows a guy acting out the parts of the motion capture as well as the 3D art at different stages. Pretty cool to soothe that Halo 3 fix you need. Unfortunately the site is built in Flash, so there's no direct link to the video, so follow this navigation.

Features > Behind the Scenes > The Making of Halo "Starry Night"

Also tonight we will see if anything happens at http://206.16.223.65/ which is part of the Halo 3 ARG.

Quake Wars Beta Open to Public

Enemy Territority: Quake Wars is currently in beta testing. After winning a lot of awards in 2006 and 2007, the game is almost ready for release(most heavily speculated as an August release).

Fileplanet has gotten their hands on 60,000 beta keys and are giving them away, half to subscribers and half to us normal folk. They were supposed to start giving away the non-subscriber keys at 10 am PST today, but doesn't look like they've started it yet. All the screens still say "Subscribers Only" and won't let me go any further.

This is another multiplayer only games where players choose a side: Global Defense Force(GDF) or the Strogg Army(aliens). Each player then picks a class and joins the battle. Then there are multiple missions which help each side win their campaign against the other players.

Honestly, the graphics look amazing. So amazing that my computer will probably not be able to handle it.

The beta is PC only, but the game is scheduled to release on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Spore Delayed

SPORE's release has been pushed back... from 2008 until 2009. Of course, with such an ambitious premise, a delay can be expected.


SPORE is being created by Will Wright, the original creator of SimCity, SimEarth, SimAnt, The Sims and The Sims Online among other games. SPORE takes the simulation process further - starting with the origin and evolution of life on a world and taking it all the way through civilization and finally space exploration.

Some people theorize that the long delay could also bring about some console releases for SPORE, but that is just speculation at this point.

Sony loses father of Playstation... Does anyone still care?

Well as no big shock to anyone, Joystiq and everyone else on the webbernets has a blurb about Ken Kutaragi officially retiring from Sony. Does anyone really care, sure the man may have been a pivotal cog in our grand gaming history, but he was also an egotistical bat-shit kook. I think it was obvious after PS2 that he didn't really care about game programmers, and basically implied they were lazy if they couldn't figure out his machine. And PS3 only hammered that home more. Technically superior design? Maybe, but when it came down to real world manufacturing cost, budgets have to be in line, and again the machine runs in to limitations that he did not want to compromise. Oh well, it mentions he'll be working with his new company doing software now, maybe he'll be as successful as that other crazy bastard with the pricey high powered 3DO system, I wonder what he's doing now?

Ubisoft Isn't Afraid of Commitment

Unlike many developers, Ubisoft seems to have no problem setting release dates for their upcoming games. They just put out ship dates for a ton of games:

September

• Dark Messiah: Elements - 7th - Xbox 360
  
• Settlers VI - 7th - PC
  
• Brothers in Arms: Double Time - 21st - Wii

October

• Naruto: Rise of a Ninja - 19th - Xbox 360

November

• Assassin's Creed - 9th - PC, PS3, Xbox 360
  
• Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway - 16th - PC, PS3, Xbox 360
  
• Rayman Raving Rabbits 2 - 16th - DS, Wii
  
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction - 16th - PC, Xbox 360
  
• Haze - 23rd - PS3
  
• Haze - 30th - PC, Xbox 360

Those are some BIG releases in November. Just in time for Christmas or too early while people are still playing Halo 3 and GTA IV? Time will tell...

Two Worlds Dated - Again

Two Worlds has been given a July 31st release date for both the PC and Xbox 360. This one seems pretty legit. Although from the website, it looks like Two Worlds is already out for the PC in Europe which is confusing.

Looks like it should be a good game. People keep comparing it to Oblivion which in my opinion is only a good thing. This might take some of my time while I'm waiting for Mass Effect.

Doritos Unlock Xbox Contest

I was surfing around on Xbox Live today and noticed the new ad from Doritos - Unlock Xbox. I had no idea what it was, but it peaked my interest so I went to the website. You can surf around it, but there is an Xbox 360 section which takes you to a different website.

Apparently, there is a contest coming from Doritos in which you pitch a game idea and the winning idea gets made. The pitch must be no more than 500 words long and can contain up to 3 media files(pictures, audio, video, etc) that are no more than 3 MB in size each.

Doritos isn't taking submissions until June 21st. And entries are due by July 29th.

The five finalists will work with a team of developers to make beta versions of their games which will be judged through the website and a panel of judges. The finalists will also receive "a 42-inch plasma television, a limited edition Xbox 360 Elite Console, one copy of every Xbox 360 title published by Microsoft in 2007, 2,000 MSN points, a one year subscription to Xbox live, a home entertainment system including a 5.1 Dolby surround sound system, and a pro-gaming chair".

There you go. Josh, you can dust off your old Monster Grand Theft Auto idea... Or listeners can comb through our old podcasts back when we had the "Pitch a Game" section(I think it lasted one or two podcasts).

Halo 2 Vista & Shadowrun Combo

First Halo helped Crackdown get a ton of press and news by combining the beta with the game. Now Halo 2 is helping Shadowrun on Vista. According to an ars technica article a Circuit City ad lets gamers buy Halo 2 Vista for $40, then you get Shadowrun for free. This doesn't make any sense. How does a $50 game become free after being out for less than a month? I guess this is M$ way of pushing sales for Shadowrun on the PC side. Poor FASA studios.

Post Halo 3 Beta Reminder

Now that the Halo 3 Beta is all over and done with, never to return, don't forget to clean it and your Halo 3 Beta videos off your harddrive! I was able to clear about 1.5 gigs.

If you entered the beta through Crackdown, the beta will be listed under Crackdown in your Memory. But any films you saved to your harddrive will be listed under the seperate category of Halo 3 Beta.

XYBA Podcast Ep 09

Jeff and Bryan join Josh for a good episode of XYBA podcast with a British twist. The British twist only last for about 10 minutes, so if you can't stand it, then fast forward. Here's the breakdown.

00:00 - Intro Music
00:15 - Jeff gets a phone call
00:30 - English introductions with Josh, Jeff, and Bryan
01:03 - Games We're Playing: Oden Sphere, Super Paper Mario, Soltrio Solitare, Pac-Man Championship Edition, Prince of Persia on XBLA, Halo 3 Beta, and a bunch of demos
08:55 - Gaming News: Guitar Hero II Songs, Manchester Cathedral issues, Rock Band info, PSP Slim Rumors, Gears of War Achievements, Halo 3 ARG, and more. We lose our accents around here.
49:13 - Singing starts as news ends
49:27 - Games We're Looking forward to: Time Crisis 4, Simcity DS, Beautiful Katamari, Castlevania: Dracula X, Overlord
57:19 - No Rants
57:49 - Exclusive games roundtable. Katamari exclusive to 360.
1:02:10 - Bryan whips out a Second Life rant and how it's not a game. It's more like walking to that seedy part of town and meeting the freaks.
1:12:30 - Promo for next podcast
1:13:00 - Shout outs
1:14:08 - Outro Music and Satan Voices

Big thanks to Bryan and Jeff for talking games with me, while everyone was either out of town or celebrating Father's Day a day early.



Download XYBA Podcast Ep09

Gears of War Achievements

Tonight fans will be able to download a patch that fixes some bugs, but also includes the new achievements. The achievements are related to the Annex game type as well as the latest map pack.

Annex-related achievements:

• THIS! IS! ANNEX! -- Complete 100 multiplayer matches of 3+ rounds in Annex and capture 3 objectives in each match (40 points)
• Inconceivable! -- Win 20 rounds of multiplayer matches in Annex by fewer than 5 points (30)
• Nub Pwn3r -- Win 20 rounds of multiplayer matches in Annex by shutting out the opposing team (30)
  

Hidden Fronts-related achievements:

• You Down With E.P.I.C? -- Win a multiplayer match of 3+ rounds in any game type on 6 different downloadable maps (30)
• Green Thumb -- Win 20 multiplayer matches of 3+ rounds in any game type on the Garden multiplayer map (30)
• Mind the Gap -- Win 20 multiplayer matches of 3+ rounds in any game type on the Subway multiplayer map (30)
• All That Juice -- Win 20 multiplayer matches of 3+ rounds in any game type on the Process multiplayer map (30)
• Purdy Mouth -- Win 20 multiplayer matches of 3+ rounds in any game type on the Bullet Marsh multiplayer map (30)

Some of these will be pretty hard to achieve, but hey the hardcore should be rewarded for being crazy good.

Mac Daddy of Gamers

Announced at the World Wide Developers Conference yesterday was that EA and Steve Jobs are teaming up to bring games to the Mac. Games like C&C 3, Battlefield 2142, Need for Speed: Carbon, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Madden, and Tiger Woods '08 will make their way to the apple that somone has already bitten out of.

More news will come at E3 and expect some pretentious Mac commercials where the dangly dude from the TV show "ED" says some lies, like "Hi PC, I'm made for fun, like playing video games. You wouldn't understand what that means because you're too busy making spreadsheets and power point presentations." Good god I want to punch that guy in the throat so bad.

Halo 3 Beta Says Farewell

So last night the Halo 3 beta ended. I was able to get an hour or two in yesterday before I packed it up. If you did see me online yesterday "playing Halo 3 beta" it was mostly because I was recording the videos to my camera. I've got some decent video which includes some great grenade work from Charlie, an awesome sniper shot from Shayne, and some great killings from Nova. I would have included Andy and Santana, but they did split screen and I just didn't want to deal with that. Plus I think Andy already saved his. I also have my first game recorded as well as a couple of custom matches where the speed and super jump were turned on. Custom games were some of the dullest games I've ever played on Halo.

I tried logging onto the beta this morning to find the Shadowrun message. You can still log into the beta with Crackdown, but you can only get to the main screen. There's no option for the theater to watch your movies.

According to the Bungie forums, some fans played past the beta in custom matches. Some questioning if they should leave their 360 on and logged into that particular lobby.

In the end the Halo 3 beta was an awesome experience with the final release a little more than 3 months away. I'm excited to see how the final version plays with custom armor, new weapons, new vehicles, new maps, and a campaign story that I can't wait to see resolved. My videos will keep my Halo fix in check until then as well as the comic book series that starts next month. Until then I guess I'll play some Shadowrun or better yet Monster Madness was a great demo.

Smash Bros. Brawl Controllers

Still wondering which controller to use for Smash Bros. Brawl? No need to worry because the game will allow all Wii compatible controllers to play the game. Check out the recommendation from the Smash Bros. blog.

Shadowrun Demo is Out! Sort of.

The Shadowrun demo is out, but according to the forums, people are having a hard time downloading it. Apparently it gets stuck at certain points and you will have to redownload it. I'm hoping to download it tonight and get in on the action. There's no mention of the issue on Major Nelson's blog, but if you want to kill some time while you wait for the download to complete, then check out Tenchu Z or not.Update from Major Nelson:

I called the operations team on the demo issues, and they are working on it.

I need to jump on a plane now, but I am sure this will be fixed by the time I land.

More Fallout 3

I was tempted to post about the teaser video that is now available on the Fallout site. I was tempted to blog that the projected release date for Fallout 3 is Fall 2008 (so far away!). But I decided not to.


But I was forced to blog when I stumbled across this gem: Fallout 3 will be released on the PC, the Xbox 360 and the PS3. Gameinformer's July issue will have an exclusive look at the game but just their cover leaks the aforementioned multi-platform release.

Personally, I don't know. I've always played the best Fallout games on the PC. How will this change it?

LOTR Online Update Details

The first in a "long line" of free updates for Lord of the Rings Online will be released June 13th.

This update is titled "Book 9: Shores of Evendim" and will feature a number of things:

• Evendim - A new area 100 miles north of the Shire in northern Eriador. Highlights of the area are the Lake of the Twilight and the abandoned lakeshore city of Annúminas, once the ancient capital of Arnor and famed amongst the Free People.
  
• Music System Enhancements - The addition of new percussion instruments and the adaptation of the ABC music notation system
  
• New Armor - Seven sets of epic armor with stacking bonuses
  
• New Monsters - Nine new monsters
  
• New Quests - Over 100 new quests with new NPCs and monsters. Ents will also be introduced.
  
• New Raid - Team up with up to 23 other characters to fight the dragon Thorog in the Misty Mountains
  

Josh Loses Halo 3 Emblem Contest

And Noah Watkin's emblem of a pirate with crossed cutlasses wins. In my opinion, this will just fuel more of the pirate vs. ninja debate that has been so popular over the years.

I was looking at the contest rules after the winner was announced. The winner wins... nothing really. Just their emblem being used in Halo 3. Poor Noah Watkin doesn't even get a free copy of Halo 3. That seems like bullshit to me. Damn corporate greed.

Edit by Jester013 6/5/07 10:07 pm

This was Josh's entry:

Damn You Microsoft

Barely 2 weeks in and my 360 already has to go in for repairs. Awesome. Since the day I got the system I kept getting the absolutely dumbest message possible... "To play this game, put it in an XBOX360 console." Really? What the heck do you think you are you stupid machine. The best part of my 25 minute (most of it on hold) conversation with customer "service" was when the guy said "Did you know your console came from Canada? That's pretty odd." He then proceeded to ask me at least 5 times if he told me that I was getting free shipping for my repair. It's amazing how much better Nintendo's customer service is considering their systems have far fewer problems than Microsoft. Bill Gates blows, and his comments about a making a system exactly like the Wii and then saying it would be nothing like the Wii are hilarious.

XYBA Podcast 08

Episode 08 is out. We finally had schedules that permitted this almost hour long podcast about Halo 3 beta and those other games whose names escape me. The sound is getting better, but I need to stop eating my mic. My apologies. Andy did try to tell me, but I didn't realize I was that annoying. We'll get the next one right. Here's the breakdown.

00:00 - Introductions with Josh, Andy, and Chuck
01:00 - Games that we're playing
05:50 - Command and Conquer 3: Mission Impossible
07:21 - Halo 3 Beta impressions :|: Rick Ross
13:35 - Simcity 2000 :|: Onslaught Review
14:38 - Games Tori's Playing
15:11 - Gaming News :|: World Series of Video Games July 29th, Legend of Zelda II: Adventures of Link coming to VC, Wiimote has a voice translator, GoW Novel, Analyst predict GTA IV will be pushed back, Guitar Hero III Battle Mode, Prince of Persia movie, games moving to other consoles rumors squashed, and more.
28:09 - Bumpers bites Andy and Charlies thumbs hurt from holding the mic. Hold this Charlie *Josh grabs his huge junk*
33:00 - Round Table Discussion about casual gaming and how it affects console gaming then we go off on a tangent about movies translating into games and games translating into movies.
43:20 - A bug flies off of Chuck's face
43:42 - Games we are looking forward to: Simcity on DS, Spore, Fracture, Bioshock, Mass Effect, Manhunt 2 on the Wii
50:04 - No rants this week
50:47 - Shoutouts
51:06 - LAN Parties a thing of the past?
54:59 - Outro Music by Grant while we discuss more Halo 3 Beta



Download XYBA Podcast Ep08

June Game Releases

Okay. Welcome to June. Some of you are out of school and are looking for something to waste your time with. Let's see what the game studios have in mind. Check the comments to find out. Remember, most of the dates are provided by EB Games with a few changes.