Saints Row II Dated

Since we are talking release dates, THQ announced that Saints Row II will be releasing this year on both the Xbox 360 and PS3. The sandbox game will be available on August 26th.

I was a short lived fan of the game, but with all the bugs I experienced I wasn't able to finish every mission or really enjoy the online aspect of it. Let's hope THQ QAs the hell out this sequel otherwise I'll have to save my money for the other great looking sandbox games coming out this year, like APB and Prototype.

XYBA Podcast Ep 18

Andy, Jeff, and Josh come together for the 18th episode of the XYBA Podcast. We are trying a new format where we keep our podcast a little shorter. Let us know what you think. Be sure to leave us a review on iTunes and check out a machinima we are working on. Enjoy.

00:00 - Introductions
00:33 - Games We're Playing :|: Half-Life 2, Stuntman: Ignition, and Ghost Squad
13:36 - Gaming News :|: GTAIV in April, Little Big Planet in beta, Orange Box games for PC, EA announces Rockband for Wii, and some other gaming news
37:06 - Roundtable :|: The Child-Man debate
48:25 - Games We're Looking Forward to :|: Ninja Gaiden DS, GTA IV, Lego Batman, Lego Indiana Jones, Army of Two, Star Wars: Force Unleashed, Fable 2, and Culdcept Saga
53:24 - Rant :|: Games with flashlights suck

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XYBA Podcast Ep 16

The XYBA crew is back with a semi long podcast. Lots of video game talk and little news and no rants. We've been gone for more than a month playing games and now have a lot to talk about.

0:00 - Intro Music
0:58 - Games We Are Playing :|: Mass Effect (we talk about this for a while), Rockband, Guitar Hero III, Assassian Creed, Zelda Phantom Hourglass, Kane and Lynch, Stranglehold, Beautiful Katamari, and Halo 3
55:30 - Gaming News :|: Xbox Live Dashboard Update, Super Mario Galaxy not selling as well as predicted, DLC for Bioshock, R4 Chip for DS costing Nintendo millions, Nintendo Virtual Console does good for it's first year, and more
1:24:09 - Shoutouts
1:24:46 - Outro music

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XYBA Podcast Ep 15

The XYBA Video Game Podcast is back with Episode 15. Andy and Josh host with guests Sean and Nick from the 217 area code.

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Home Beta Info Leakage

A Home beta user has leaked some information about the current state of the Home network. Home is supposed to be released in October, according to Sony, but the insider says beta users haven't gotten to test all the features.

Here are some of the features and issues with Home:
• There is only one apartment available now, and it is 15ft by 40ft.
• There are four areas — all of which were shown at GDC.
• The movie theater is showing the SPIDER-MAN 3 trailer. There are ten theater rooms showing game and movie trailers.
• The game room is the "most popular room" in the lobby. There are 6 pool tables, 4 bowling lanes and 10 arcade machines.
• The friend invite feature has not been implemented yet.
• Currently, there is no support for in-home parties.
• The face creation system for the avatars is very detailed. The clothing and hair selection is not. Body shape was just added in a recent update and only has an adjustment slider.
• The ability to playback HDD content has not been included.
• Picture frames are restricted to pre-set photos.
• It's not yet possible to play back pack video or audio and TVs or stereos do not appear as available furniture.
• You can walk into your own apartment; however, you must be invited to your friends. You can then warp into your friend's pad.
• Friends must invite you while they are in their apartment.
• Moving furniture in your apartment is easy and "relatively painless." There is a "good assortment" of furniture to select form. Physics work well.
• Currently, there is no trophy room.
• Home supported Bluetooth headsets and keyboards from the beta's first day. You must hold R2 to speak. The audio volume is based on people's proximity to you. That means it's possible to have one-on-one conversation while others chit-chat in the background.

So come October we will see if Sony can fulfill their Home promise.

Guitar Hero III with Removable Necks

That's right Guitar Hero III will be like Manhunt 2, where you get to remove necks. But this neck is from the guitar controller and not an enemy on the game. Besides the only real enemy in Guitar Hero is jazz.

According to Joystiq, they got to see some Red Octane wireless guitars that had removable necks and faceplates. So instead of customizing your guitar with stickers you'll most likely be able to add cool faceplates and necks. I guess if you're really into customized controllers that would be exciting.

Devil May Cry Fan's Cry

After Capcom spread the news that Devil May Cry 4 will come to the Xbox 360, Playstation/DMC fans went crazy and created a Capcom Petition to stop Capcom from spreading the love to other consoles. Very odd petition in my opinion. Capcom replied with:

You some crazy bitches. It's just a game, so get a life. Let us make more money and you keep buying Devil May Cry. By the way, thanks for giving us your name, now we have blacklisted all your names from buying the game you Devil May Cry babies. Ugh!

No that was my quote. Here is Capcom's:

We are certainly moved that people are so passionate about our products that they would go to such extremes. At the same time we feel that allowing more people access to our content pleases far more people than it displeases (after all, we're not denying DMC 4 to anyone that was already going to get it). It really is the best decision for the company and for consumers.

I'm a little lost as to why the fans would only want it on one console. If Halo moved to the Playstation 3 I would say "Enjoy and about time that console got a real game."

Oh and one more thing, I signed the petition as well. Check out petitioner 7767. That's me.

XYBA Podcast Ep 02

Here is our 2nd episode of XYBA Podcast. This time it is the full crew with Andy, Charlie, Eric, Grant, and Josh along with guest Jeff Kazbek from Bleeding Sky Studios. Jeff helps situate the mics, so the audio is a little bit better. We definitely need more mics. We cover the news (read by Andy with rebuttals), why Jeff hates Blazing Angels on PS3, Eric's grandma destroying him at Wii Bowling, World of Warcraft and the Burning Crusades, GTA Monsters video game idea, our first Gears of War tournament, Grants claim that Unreal 3 will be a highly anticipated game, Charlie picking an opening song that isn't a song at all, and much more. Enjoy and let us know what you think and what you would like to hear about.


Download XYBA Podcast Ep02