Really not sure why, this week's show seemed pretty low-energy. I ended up shutting it off about 20 minutes in, just couldn't dig, it was putting me to sleep.

Sorry.

/tk

It was worth listening to this Cagcast just to hear the McDonald's conversation lol. "There's actually juice coming out of it!" Oh wow...

Wombat you talked about how the old dashboard launched your game right when you turned on your 360. You can go into system settings and have it do that still.

Great show guys, remember to do that 360 vista video Cheapy and I enjoyed the recent flood of Taispot videos.

Originally Posted by Mahoney07 Wombat you talked about how the old dashboard launched your game right when you turned on your 360. You can go into system settings and have it do that still.

On the show I was talking about the current dash, not the old one

That one was too long! I couldn't make it through all 104 minutes! Ahhhhh!

Great topics for discussion though. I enjoyed about 70 minutes of it!

Good show; however, Wombat and Cheapy both confused the hell out of me. First Cheapy was talking about how someone said that Madden 10 bundle was going to be released in a PSP Slim bundle. This makes perfect sense, but I feel as though Cheapy was mistaking the PSP Slim for a PSP Go? Why else would this be news?

Wombat's talk of the all fronts map pack even got me confused, best journalism on the web though, keep up the half ass work guys!!

Oh and as for Gwen her death was way better in the current Marvel Universe than the Ultimate Universe. Bitch did not last long at all in the Ultimate Universe....

About the Marvel movies,
Spider-man 3 sucked for a couple reasons. It felt like there was too much going on, too quickly. As much as the Gwen Stacy stuff Wombat mentioned annoyed me, emo Parker was the worst thing. It was so painful I felt embarassed as a Spider-man fan even watching it by myself.
I love the Iron Man movie and like it better than both the new Batman movies despite liking Batman as a character more than Iron Man.
I'm one of few that liked the first Hulk movie(up until weird ass stuff at the end), the new one was damn awesome. It's one of my favorite movies of the past couple of years. The hair on the back of my next stands up every time I hear him say "Hulk Smash" towards the end.

Oh yea, I agree that podcasts have taken the role of reviews for me. I don't look at reviews much at all outside of what I find here and Joystiq. I never check Metacritic. I listen to your impressions and other podcasts to get a more beneficial impression of the game. The only time I'll search out a review is for an older game.

Thanks CheapyD, I'm hooked on True Blood now.

i wouldn't be surprised if someone makes a harry potter parody porn

Originally Posted by panurge I love the show too, but it's often at its best when its not about videogames - naked pizza guy, giant bag of weed, etc. Cheapy and Wombay quite obviously had no idea what they were talking about with regard to the Gears map packs so who exactly was served by that conversation? If they couldn't be bothered to do the research then what is the point in the discussion. The audience, and more importantly the podcast itself, would have been far better served by a discussion about something else.

I can agree with that for sure...and I don't recall the exact conversation - but I don't believe they went into the conversation saying "we don't know a thing about this, but we're gonna talk about it"

On top of that, sometimes just a little bit of info can get a listener interested in something, even if it requires googling "correct" info later on. I dunno...I do get what you're saying. I suppose it's the way some people come off when they criticize.

Oh, and I'm starting to DVR True Blood - gotta see what all the fuss is about...

Regarding the marketing deal that keeps the demo at GameStop, I still don't see why it can only be offered at GameStop. It should have come out on PSN and XBL a week or two later to anyone else so that EA doesn't have to put time into making two separate demos that are completely different experiences, though MS paid for exclusivity on the shitty Madden demo so that it's only on XBL until next week. How many times has that been done before, usually by Sony or EA? Giving everyone else an awful 1 minute, 4 quarter demo does nothing to really help any decide if they want the game when you'd need a few playthroughs just to get an idea of whether it's enjoyable or not.

I'm also confused as to why Microsoft has only paid for exclusive sports game demos this summer (Bigs 2, Fight Night Round 4, and Madden 10) rather than games that would probably better values for the sales increase they'd provide. FNR4 barely sold more on the Xbox 360 than PS3, so it doesn't seem like it really offered much of a boost, if anything at all.

Good show.

Originally Posted by Lobsterjohnson Thanks for the shout out Wombat! Glad to hear you enjoyed the gift. Both Metacritic and Gamerankings need to start recognizing podcast reviews as legit reviews. I honestly never read reviews anymore. When I want a review of a game I'll either ask someone who has played it, or I'll listen to podcasts I trust the opinion of, such as the CAGcast, to see if it's worth my time. Your reviews of Red Faction actually led to me buying the game! A written review hasn't had that effect on me in years! I think Metacritic and Gamerankings' biggest deal with podcast reviews is that no score is given. Perhaps if take your reviews from the CAGcast, post them as additional mini-podcast reviews, assign a score, and provide a transcript you'll be recognized as a review. Of course it may take some time for those sites to recognize your reviews, but they've got to eventually. Game journalism isn't what it used to be. With print publications dying, game journalism is evolving into a more convenient to-the-point way of reporting. What I'm saying is: Hey Metacritic and Gamerankings, get your shit together.

I seriously doubt that they have that many people working that they'd be able to handle the additional workload to listen to dozens of hours in podcasts, catalog whenever a "review" is done, and then have some way to either cut that part out of the show to attach it to the reviews page. You're never going to see them put that much effort into what is a very minimalist style of site, so it's up the podcasters to actually write down a review, whether as a transcript or an original piece of writing.

I do have to ask what actually makes up a "review" in a podcast because I really don't hear them often, if at all. I hear more roundtable talks of a particular game if they ever get all that specific to begin with. Then there are the times where chats include guys that already did the review for the site before the podcast, so they don't need an additional review for nothing. Only IGN gets that privilege. Nothing that really fits what a real review usually entails, so there's really nothing that MetaCritic or GameRankings really is obligated to do.

Basically, it's fine that you find more sources to get opinions on games than just reviews, but why should MetaCritic need to cover all of those extra opinions out there? If anything, somebody else would probably be better offer trying to build a site around the idea to show that it's a feasible idea rather than expecting those that are already doing it for written reviews to take on the extra workload.

Originally Posted by Wombat On the show I was talking about the current dash, not the old one

You can make the current Dash do that like the old one did.

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Thanks for the show guys. Not having the show for a week was giving me CAGcast withdrawl...

So, the cost for a complete Wiimote, with Nunchuck and extra gyroscope is $80? Ouch. Well there is one benefit of having all these pieces: when people are shopping for a Wii in a store, it reduces sticker shock. It would probably hurt the Wii's image of affordability if some schmuck was forced to buy all those parts in one lump cost.

Very happy that Wombat mentioned Kitchen Nightmares, but I must recommend catching the reruns of "Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares" on the BBC. Every time I see Ramsey on Fox, it alarms me that everything seems so staged, so forced. You'll see on the BBC version of Ramsey, while still swearing like a sailor, actually shows sympathy for most of these small restaurant owners and feels much more personable.

Originally Posted by tcolberg So, the cost for a complete Wiimote, with Nunchuck and extra gyroscope is $80? Ouch. Well there is one benefit of having all these pieces: when people are shopping for a Wii in a store, it reduces sticker shock. It would probably hurt the Wii's image of affordability if some schmuck was forced to buy all those parts in one lump cost.

Yeah, it's a good thing the PS3 and 360 don't have that sort of problem.

PS3 - Good value but high initial price (I don't own one)
360 - Okay, you buy the $200 arcade. Want to play online? Buy 1 year of XBL for $50. Want a hard drive? $100. [etc.]

I used MSRP in my example, but don't claim it's not fair to use MSRP. You used MSRP with your example, but there are deals on controllers to be had.

@Wombat-- I was wondering if you use the term "meat cookie" often. You were describing the impossibly sized burgers you made when you used it. The reason I ask, my wife and I call hamburgers "meat cookies" to get my nearly 2 year-old to eat them. Anything associated with cookies is alright in her book.

Great Show guys!! Got me through the 2 hour drive home from college, Thanks again =]

Wombat, I saw your profile up on XBL last night. Congrats.

A few thoughts on the show:

- If they included motion plus out of the box for the Wii 3 years ago it would have increased the cost of the unit considerably, and created a steeper learning curve for developers.

How well would the Wii have done if it was 300 bucks and motion plus was too intimidating for soccer mom?

- Spidey 3 had so many problems, the biggest was cramming two villains into the movie at the expense of everything else. If we were supposed to feel sorry for Sandman and his being a victim of fate, it came across poorly in the movie.

XPlay had a funny bit a few years back about it. "C'mon! My kid was sick!"
http://g4tv.com/videos/16626/Sandman...ehind-The-Man/

- Finally saw Watchmen over the weekend and loved it. It does feel empty compared to the books but was a fun ride.

-ZJ