It’s 2 A.M.  The episode is taking forever to upload. These notes will be short.

Sam’s has issues with Red Dead, and is enjoying Braid.

Jonathan has issues with Gran Turismo 5, and is enjoying World of Warcraft.

Alex has issues with Tropico 3, and is enjoying his new Kinect.

All three have issues with Webkinz.

Matthew Crippen has issues with the government, and is enjoying his new-found freedom from prosecution.

In Name That Game, Sam and Jonathan have issues with identifying Genesis games, and Alex is enjoying tormenting his co-hosts with games they’ve never heard of.

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Explicit Warning: This episode has been marked explicit due to that nature of some of its conversation.  The language is mostly clean, though.

A bit of a long one this week, as Alex brings a topic to the table that gets Jonathan all riled up.

First up, though, games!

• Jonathan
  • Blood Bowl: Dwarves are proving to be as deadly as they were last season.
  • Uncharted 2: Jonathan’s decided 3rd-person, cover-based shooters just aren’t his thing.
  • DeathSmiles: A Japanese arcade shoot-em-up port starring disturbingly young girls.
  • Hot Pursuit: The guys over at Criterion have translated Jonathan’s memory of Hot Pursuit directly to the screen.
• Sam
  • New Vegas: Turns out the faction reputations that Sam praised earlier get tossed straight out the window.
  • Super Street Fighter 4: More than just a DLC on disc; get a fight stick and tear it up.
  • Brotherhood: Better graphics, new challenges, assassin recruitment, and a sweet story.
• Alex
  • Blur: Just two days with it, and Alex is calling Blur his racer of the year.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh: Scratches Alex’s TCG itch, but multiplayer has some disappointing aspects.
  • Also, Alex puts off renting Brotherhood in favor of Saw 2.  He hasn’t played it yet, but none of us has high expectations.

Today’s topic comes from the Supreme Court argument that we featured recently on the site.  Rather than do full-on commentary, we’ve decided to just talk about it, and the questions Alex has come up with get Jonathan more than a little bit riled up.

Then, in Name That Game, Sam busts out some games that neither Alex nor Jonathan have much luck with.  Perhaps you’ll have better luck?

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Another week, another train wreck opening.

Jonathan and Alex have both been playing the Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit demo.  They’re sold.  Jonathan invites competition, but the demo isn’t valid anymore.  Sorry about that.

Jonathan’s also finished off New Super Mario Bros. Wii.  He had to abandon his wife to the whims of Bowser to pull it off, but they beat the game!  And then new levels unlocked and they said, “Not a chance.”  Jonathan’s also discovered that Sony’s early marketing for the PS3 was utterly insane.

Alex talks about the bugocalypse that is Medal of Honor.  He’s also really enjoyed everything about Enslaved: Odyssey to the West except for the idiot-proof platforming.  Castlevania: Lords of Shadow also gets thumbs up from him.

Sam plowed through nine hours of Fallout: New Vegas in one sitting.  Turns out you can’t just wipe out groups willy-nilly without expecting repercussions.  Sam’s opinion of the game has definitely improved, but the “Save Smart, Save Often” advice still stands.  On the other hand, Sam’s lost a lot interest in Fable 3.

The conversation then wanders back and forth with a conversation about the shooter genre brought up by the (then) impending release of Call of Duty: Black Ops.  Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood gets a mention, and Jonathan quickly gives a “warning” about The Polynomial: Space of the Music, makes up an excuse for why he was destroyed in the Starcraft tournament, and pimps the new Blood Bowl season.

Finally, we move into Series 2 of Name That Game!  Someone gets utterly dominated.  Someone else rejoices.  Alex is neither of those people.

See ya next week!

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We’ve got a special episode this week, but first! Games!

Alex has confirmed once again that he hates the Madden series, and he’s found a new game to hate in Guilty Gear 2.  Halo: Reach is just another Halo game so far, but Resonance of Fate hits every one of Alex’s happy buttons.

Jonathan’s got bupkis.

Sam’s intrigued by Quantum Theory, but not entirely sold.  Fallout: New Vegas, Arkham Asylum, Dead Space, Red Dead Redemption and others occupy his “To Be Played” shelf.  (We won’t mention how many games are on Jonathan’s TBP shelf.)

Then, it’s our special feature.  We’ve talked a couple of times about Ex Illis, a miniature war game with an interesting take on rules management.  We invited Fred Forrest onto the podcast.  He’s the President and Creative Director of Bastion Studio, and we got some good info about the inspiration for the game, the reasons for the choices they’ve made, and where the game is going.

After the interview, we play round three of Name That Game!  Sam hosts this time, giving Alex and Jonathan a chance to catch up to his massive leads.  Before this episode, the score stood at Jonathan, 0; Alex, 3; and Sam 4.5.  Can Alex overtake Sam?  Or will Jonathan lay the smack down?  You’ll have to listen to find out!

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I need to get the episode up and out there.  I’ll have honest show notes soon.  Promise!

Alex: Since Jonathan’s busy, I’ll fill out the show notes for this one. Sam and I start off by discussing why I’ve decided to dump Resident Evil 5 before completion. Jonathan mentions Minecraft again, and I’m beginning to see how shows were when all I could do was gush about Solium Infernum. Jonathan also mentions Dismount for the iPad/iPod. There’s just something about a game dealing with ragdoll physics, broken bones and sadism that brings a couple together…

Then we hurtle headlong into the brouhaha over Medal of Honor. They ditched the Taliban (or at least the name “Taliban”) from multiplayer, the game still isn’t being sold in AAFES stores, and the reviews… well, they’re not exactly stellar. Jonathan and I talk about videogame hype, wasted opportunities, and how I’m not a hypocrite. Sam patiently waits for us to stop talking about it.

We also talked a bit about OnLive ditching their monthly fee and how a guy who tried to trademark the word “Edge” has been slapped down.

And our grande finale: Jonathan quizzes me and Sam in his version of Name That Game. “Welcome to ‘blank!’”

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This week, Sam tries to host, and Alex and Jonathan destroy his intro.

Jonathan went to Archon in St. Louis and may have proven he still hasn’t learned his lesson about alcohol at different altitudes.  That said, he’s got his Iron Tyrants book (#1 BABY!), he’s got actual play of the game, and he’s got some sweet stories that didn’t really get told.

Alex attempts to get into a Yu-Gi-Oh game, Duelists of the Roses, to be specific.  He’s also rediscovered the joys of Soul Reaver 2, and is inundated with correspondence games.

In the tales from the game store corner, Alex has a story about the guy who just wouldn’t take “No” for an answer.

Sam talks briefly about his reasons for trading in Ninety Nine Nights, Alpha Protocol, Transformers: War for Cybertron, and Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 1 & 2.  He also finally manages to work Limbo into the conversation.

To wrap up, we introduce a new feature to the show, “Name That Game!”  Much like the iconic game show of a similar name, Alex reads off a number of classic video game boxes, Sam figures out what most of them are, and Jonathan displays his total lack of knowledge.  We hope you like it, especially since we’re planning on introducing more stuff like it!

See ya next week!

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