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Think positive Wombat. Maybe the Mass Effect mulitplayer will be that awesome orgy/gang rape simulator that Fox news was trying to warn us about. Maybe Cooper Lawrence was psychic.

And instead of calling it the Sony Bowel Movement, I think it should be called the Sony Stick with sub-controller.

Alan West? Wake up Cheapy, wake up!

Btw Cheapy, Stern loves Sex & the City, you should know something about it. lulz

I subscribed to the podcast on Zune... Is it official? I've never seen it mentioned anywhere.

Ship.. Alpha Protocol.. really!? You rip a AAA title and gush over a turd. Your review credibility just crashed. RDR is no ME2 but it still is a great game. Did you like GUN when it first came out? I was disappointed. Red Dead isn't perfect but it sets the bar for western games.

Great CagCast this week. One suggestion for iPhone game is a website I go to everyday since I got my iPhone last summer, http://toucharcade.com. Their forum is full of helpful members that review all the new iPhone release games that is often much more helpful than their official reviews. They also let you know of good sales on games so you can get your cheap on =)

Another good show guys. I think the question this week from the listener regarding whether you play games in front of your kids actually goes well with the discussion of the ongoing popularity of Mario platformers. I'm a dad in my mid-30s with a 5 year old and a 2 year old. I play MOST of my games after the kids go to bed for the evening.

However, the Mario games are some of the few that I feel I can not only play in front of them, but with them. My 5 year old was 2 when the original Mario Galaxy came out. If you didn't already know, in Galaxy 1 a second player could control a pointer on screen to grab the little crystals for you, and she loved it. Flash forward to now and she is 5. Galaxy 2 retains the limited 2nd player role but with the added abilities to "hold" enemies in place, to "grab" and hold coins, 1ups, and red power-up mushrooms for me until I need them, and the returning ability to grab crystals. These abilities are perfect for her and we have a great time playing together. If I want to play with my two year old son he can still play Mario Galaxy 1 style by waving the remote around to grab crystals.

Similarly, last year's New Super Mario Bros. Wii also works well with the 5 year old. She can play through the boards with me and simply choose to push A to enter the floating safety bubble and float along behind me in the difficult sections.

Regarding Shipwreck's "too much pointless Talky-Talk" complaint in the Galaxy games, I agree completely. At least in Galaxy 2 they streamlined the level select back to more of the old linear "world map type' instead of the annoying hub you had to run all over in Galaxy 1 to enter the levels. As far as level design and variety, I'm 45 stars in and so far I'm thinking that Galaxy 2's levels have been a step above Galaxy 1.

PS- I agree with the guy above that felt that clip shows were not really worth the time and effort they take to create.

Either you guys were talking all over each other or the audio wasn't synced right in places (around 32 minutes).

I liked the iCarly reference...It a funny show. How close is Gibby to a young Wombat.

Mid-way through the spoiler part of the Alan Wake discussion. Gotta say I definitely agree with Wombat more than Cheapy or Ship at this point. I agreed with Wombat that Wake is definitely better than Resi 5, but definitely not better than 4. Also agreed that the forest setting did start to get a bit tiresome close to the end. Ship is right that the locations are inherently somewhat limited, but I still felt like they could have mixed it up somewhat (fighting in shallow streams, more fighting in non-factory structures, etc). I loved Alan Wake - the gameplay was fun, the atmosphere was great, the literary in-jokes, TV episodes and radio clips were well done - but while the storytelling was done very well, I still don't think the story itself was as great as Cheapy and Ship think it is.

I was actually surprised to hear Cheapy (I think) say earlier that Red Dead Redemption's story felt too game-y one moment, and then praise Alan Wake's a second later. I think both games had great storytelling, but between the two felt Wake's was definitely more game-y in theme and plot progression. I know a lot of it is obfuscated at this point in order to add on to it with future DLC episodes, but certain mechanics and motivations behind some of the forces in the game just constantly reminded me that I was playing a game. I definitely don't consider it any more or less mature in story than RDR.

It's just kind of interesting that I feel like I loved both RDR and Wake as much as Cheapy, but for completely different reasons I guess.

Great show as always. I look forward to hearing the subsequent shows after E3 especially.

Another excellent show guys! On the topic of Hulu coming to Xbox 360/Live rumour, if it is true, I will personally be frustrated. As I live in the UK, we don't get Hulu or Netflix for that matter. In fact, Hulu was going to be launched in the UK and Ireland last September but it never actually has arrived. I'm extremely disappointed, there's not much good video on demand services over here since our Broadband is terrible and what the minimum speed for the UK is under constant discussion with the government (They just recently backed an agreement to get everyone in the UK on a 2 Mpbs connection by 2012). I can't watch my favourite shows because the speeds I get are so terrible.

I live in a new-ish city, on a 2 Mbps connection which is quite unreliable, and majority of the houses use aluminium wiring. This turned out to be a huge mistake as these houses are stuck with incredibly slow broadband speeds or nothing at all. BT (a very large Internet and phone line provider) wants to lay down fibre optics across where I live, which is great, but the trial won't happen until this summer OR late next year. Despite the fact a small fraction of people still don't have basic ADSL speeds of 1 mbps. But it's an even worse case in the country side, companies don't want to provide broadband or fibre optics to these small villages because they don't think it's a good financial investment. One village which I saw on the news installed Fibre optics themselves by setting up a mini phone exchange and now can get speeds of 40mpbs! (Unfortunately, the village had to raise £37,000 themselves just to buy the mini exchange!)

If the UK got Hulu or Netflix in the near future, I wouldn't use it. I'd be more likely buy the DVD/Blu Ray box set or just record it because I won't have to wait an hour for my internet to stream the show.

I totally agree with wombat on the Alan wake discussion. I got bored of running through forests and I found the last level very tedious.

I don't know what cheapy thought was so good about the ending. I felt kinda disappointed by it especially knowing that it would have been more complete and satisfying if DLC never existed. I'm not really interested in going to back to the game months after I have finished it, I paid my money and want the game to finish complete.

Don't get me wrong I think the game is good but after shipwrecks and cheapys praise of the game I expected the actual gameplay to be more fun.

I'll be seriously irked if they charge for Hulu on 360. I used to watch Hulu on my PS3 all the time, for free, and it was awesome. Then they took it away. Why? To shop around and figure out how to get more money for it? Boo, Hulu. Very boo.

Good show, guys! I was really happy to hear the Alan Wake spoiler discussion and it has convinced me to pick up the game. It sounds really fun!

Also, I completely agree with Wombat about DCU Online. It shouldn't have a monthly subscription fee, I think it should instead opt to have a free online play like Guild Wars does. I think that if it did then a lot more players would probably feel inclined to get the game day one and purchase the inevitable expansion packs.

Shouldn't the title be "In the City, the Bathroom, but not in the Tuchas"?

Finished the Alan Wake spoiler discussion...

Pretty good discussion. I liked some stuff you guys pointed out. Kinda surprised at how critical Wombat was with the game.

Oh yea, FACT: Wombat hates trees!

I just wanted to say that I have to agree with Cheapy when it comes to the Ratings for Red Dead Redemption. If that game wasn't made by Rockstar, It would've gotten a lower score. It's a good game, but it's not really anything special. It is pretty much a slower Grand Theft Auto like you guys were saying, but with Dead Eye and Horses. Not to mention I don't think the Multiplayer is all that great either. Free Roam is nice, but Matchmaking absolutely sucks.

Alan Wake on the other hand, I think is underrated and should be getting higher scores. I agree with what you guys had to say, that if that game came out a week or a month later and not on the same day as Red Dead, the rating for it would be higher. The story alone is great, and the atmosphere of the game as you play really gets you excited because you don't know what's going to happen next, and even at the end, you still wanted more.

This is something that I think a lot of games these days are lacking. The story could be good, but if it's something predictable, it lacks the user's excitement and the only reason they'll continue playing is just so they can finish the game to finish it, not because they want more.

For those curious, it's available for streaming

http://www.netflix.com/Movie/The_Proposition/70043423

Originally Posted by DCJ83 I just wanted to say that I have to agree with Cheapy when it comes to the Ratings for Red Dead Redemption. If that game wasn't made by Rockstar, It would've gotten a lower score. It's a good game, but it's not really anything special. It is pretty much a slower Grand Theft Auto like you guys were saying, but with Dead Eye and Horses. Not to mention I don't think the Multiplayer is all that great either. Free Roam is nice, but Matchmaking absolutely sucks.

Or, you know, maybe there are some people out there who feel it deserves its review scores. I'm a bit of a R* fanboy, but I have multiple friends who aren't that big on their games, and hated GTA IV, yet they're really into Red Dead.

Not saying you or Cheapy are wrong, but neither are the people praising the game, if that was their honest experience with it.

I'll give a shout out to the Keith and The Girl podcast. They are not Howard Stern but have the same sort of humor.

Originally Posted by Fjordson Or, you know, maybe there are some people out there who feel it deserves its review scores. I'm a bit of a R* fanboy, but I have multiple friends who aren't that big on their games, and hated GTA IV, yet they're really into Red Dead. Not saying you or Cheapy are wrong, but neither are the people praising the game, if that was their honest experience with it.

Agreed. I personally wouldn't rate RDR a 95/100 (probably more like an 87 or so), but I don't think the scores are just due to it being Rockstar. There are other publishers and developers out there who are just as respected - if not more so - that I don't see this argument being used towards. I think just as some people think people are rating Rockstar games higher just because they're Rockstar, I think there are people who may be predisposed to give Rockstar games lower scores simply because of the hype and advertising blitz. I remember it being especially cool to trash on GTA IV after it came out, after all. But had RDR come out as it currently is and gotten a 60 metacritic score I wouldn't just assume its because all the reviews had this pre-disposition.

There are a ton of games out there that get scores I don't agree with. I could come up with a bunch of theories about what that is, but I usually just chalk it up to "X person had a different reaction to it than I did" and nothing more. As someone who's not a part of the gaming journalism community maybe it's naive to have this view, but it's how I feel.

Awesome show guys as usual. I listen to your podcast while I run my iPhone repair business. Thanks to you guys, I have met a few cags who needed iPhone repairs. I usually sit down to 30 or so iPhones and iPods, turn you guys up and get work done. It seems to help for some reason, when listening to your show I get everything done with time to spare. Although when you make me laugh I tend to drop these tiny ass screws. I've had to buy 3 sets of replacement iPhone screws in the past month.

If you guys ever need repairs done for your iPhones, iPods or smart phones let me know. I will do it all at cost for you guys. And yes this is a legitimate business. (richsiphonerepair.com)