Headlines this week, and a new addition to the cast!  Sam has joined our motley crew, and we are now a three-host podcast, at least until such time as we fire him.

Sam gets welcomed to the ‘cast.  Jonathan talks about Gen Con and Ex Illis, a game he didn’t have the opportunity to actually try out, but still has opinions on.  Alex goes on and on about GameStop again.  Then we get into headlines!

The News:

• Three Brothers Killed Over Xbox 360
• A bunch of game announcements and release dates that’ll take up too much space to link individually.
• Guard plays Plants vs. Zombies. Inmates play Run Away!
• Bow Wow Loses $100k to the Game in Madden Beatdown
• NCSoft sued for making games that are too addictive.
• PS3 Cracked via USB Dongle
• Australian iPhone Censorship, Developers Threaten Pullout

See ya next week for a headline that ballooned into its own topic!

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The Red Dead 3-Way has a clearly marked Spoiler Warning, so listen without fear!

Episode 33 is coming soon.  We’ve delayed the recording date thanks to Alex’s new job (discussed later), so you’ve got ’til Saturday to send us in responses to our questions.  Love to hear from you!

Jonathan talks about Prince of Persia and his reasons for giving Bayonetta another shot, while Alex talks a bit about Record of Agarest War, Ancient Trader, and his new job at GameStop.

We try to keep Alex’s Microsoft fanboyism at bay, but there’s some big news out of Redmond since our last show, so the headlines section is a bit slanted.

First, the Kinect has a price, has a bundle, and can apparently be finagled into recognizing seated players.

Second, 1 vs. 100 has been cancelled, and Alex is distraught about that.

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Electronic Arts has made a move to make a little more money from gamers buying the company’s sports titles for cheap from the previously owned shelves. It has announced the Online Pass. Basically, if you buy the game new, it will come with a code that allows you to play it online. It’s a one-time only thing, though it’s unclear whether it’s per machine or per user who redeems the code. If you buy an EA Sports title used and the code has already been redeemed, it’ll take $10 to get a new code.

EA says the Online Pass will enable “online services, features and bonus content.” The feature will roll out with Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 11.

Curiously, the press release also mentions that GameStop “has shown support of EA’s digital strategy by selling Sony PlayStation Network cards and Xbox Live Microsoft Points cards with the purchase of new and used EA titles.”

Isn’t that what GameStop has always done? Why mention it now?

The bottom line is, if you wait to pick up an EA Sports game used, chances are you’ll have to shell out another $10 if you want to play it online. However, EA is going to provide a seven-day trial pass for free, so you’ll be able to test it out before you make the commitment.

In other, more personal news, Tom Clancy’s Endwar is available for download from the Xbox Marketplace for $30. I’d highly suggest checking it out and looking me up if you want to play online. It is not a perfect game; it’s just real close.

- Alex “WMD Bravo”

Addendum: I got in touch with EA about exactly what the restrictions are on the Online Pass. According to them, the Online Pass is good for both the console that it was redeemed on AND the account of the player who redeemed it.

So, if you have a roommate and both of you play on the same console, both of you can go online with the same Online Pass. If you redeemed an Online Pass and you go over to a buddy’s place, you’ll be able to go online from there as well.