Back from his honeymoon, Carl emerges from the atrophy produced by a week-long lack of tech to join his friend Colin in discussing Virgin Atlantic’s bizarre policies concerning laptop batteries, AT&T re-patriating jobs, and Apple’s baffling alienation of its loyal customer base. On the gaming table we discuss Guitar Hero and HD-DVD for the 360, updated tech specs and lack of online support for developers on the PS3, and a slew of launch titles for a hopefully easily available Wii. On Boston in Brief we give props to our fellow blogarati at Engadget and their meetup, as well as Harpoon Brewery’s Oktoberfest.
Download this episode (24.3 MB , 53:06 )
- Virgin Atlantic Revises Battery Rules
- AT&T Bringing Home the Bacon
- Apple Lashes Out… Again
- Guitar Hero Coming to the 360
- HD-DVD Won’t Put a Hole in Your Wallet
- PS3 Adds Improvements, and Woes
- Engadget Reader Meetup in Boston on Thursday, September 28
- Harpoon Brewery Serves Beer and Bratwurst in Boston
Any comments or suggestions?
Email: colin@bostongeek.com, carl@bostongeek.com
Skype: bostongeek
Voice: 1.617.209.4200
Hey, thanks for the shout out! See you on Thursday!
I don’t care about BluRay, I don’t care about wireless, I don’t care about online play.
I just want my Metal Gear Solid 4 and White Knight from Level 5
so, you’ll spend $500 for a crippled system to play TWO games?
Can I borrow $500 from you and in exchange give you a solid kick in the balls? Because, that will have about the same effect.
[3:40] When will I be allowed to sample some of this jerky? Mmmm, jerky.
[5:30] It only took them a week to paint your whole building? Man, those guys work fast. Also, what the hell color is it now, again?
[6:20] JUMP. RIGHT. IN. Every time. I like it so much better — and BTW, the intro music for the top 3 was a little on the quiet side.
[7:13] Richard Branson. Do you guys need an official fact-checker, or what? Maybe you can get John Hodgman to do it?
[9:00] The worst part about taking a battery out of a macbook is when you have your laptop suspended! You have to shut the machine down to remove the battery. I almost never shut my laptop down. Grrrrr!
[20:43] Colin is referring to when a trademarked term falls into common usage, but I don’t know that there’s a specific term of art for that. I’m sure that Apple was trying to defend their (potential) trademark of the term podcasting. Of course, their application for a mark was rejected anyway.
[24:02] I’ve heard that the Zune will be pretty good, but of couse, you can’t take your iTMS files with you if you decide to switch…
[39:50] I am totally getting a Wii. Twilight Princess and Metriod Prime 3? Sign me the hell up! Add the whole “download classic NES games thing” and I am fucking sold, kids.
[43:58] Wow! Carl missed the last few “iterations” of Zelda? You mean the best two Zelda games ever, Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker? Seriously, Carl, you should play those games. Forget your shiny new xbox 360 for a month — crack out that ‘cube and play some Zelda. If you’re a Zelda fan, you will not regret it.
I would (I can’t cause I don’t have the cash but if I did I would) buy it for those two games right now since those are the ones I have read the most about for launch titles. I would also buy it due to my confidence that other games that will be great are going to come out as well.
According to the official XBox site there were 18 titles at launch, 4 of which I would have considered buying if I had bought an XBox, and yet people went out and bought the system didn’t they? Did you buy all 18 games? I highly doubt it. Tell me how that is different than me getting excited by one launch title (MGS4) and one soon to come title (White Kinght) as well as some of the other 30 confirmed launch games, nearly twice as many as the XBox had you’ll notice.
I reiterate, I don’t care about wireless or online play. To me those are both window dressing, especially the wireless. I’m more interested in the games. And from what I’ve read so far, Dead Rising aside (though I can see getting bored with that after a while), I’d much rather play the games the PS3 has lined up.
Buffalo jerky rules. Seriously. We went on a huge buffalo jerky/buffalo burgers kick a few years ago. Fantastic stuff. And I agree with Colin, mushrooms are just heinous. I hate them with a passion.
I don’t think I got through the first level in Ocarina of Time. There’s something about it I just didn’t like. Then again, RPGs haven’t been the same for me since FF VII. Kind of like, well, once you’re done with that, why bother with anything else?
FFVII was fantastic. I haven’t played too many RPGs that are as good as that was. Though Valkryie Profile was an absolutely great game.
Wait, ‘Dead Rising aside’? What about GRAW? Oblivion? PGR3? The upcoming Rainbow Six title? The upcoming Splinter Cell? F.E.A.R.?
360 R0013z j00
GRAW: I was never in tactical shooters, plus this is a rip off of SOCOM
Oblivion: I’ll give you this one
PGR3: Never huge into racing games, but Gran Turismo is better
Ranbow Six: see the comment for GRAW
Splinter Cell: Complete rip off of MGS, and Solid Snake could kick the guys ass. Hell, I could kick his ass with a popsicle stick
F.E.A.R.: Oh boy, its Ghostbuster but with advanced weaponry, and its also coming out for the PS3 so no win for you on that one either.
And anyone who still writes in l33t needs to go take an English class and learn to use a keyboard.
Yay! Battle of the Fanboys!
In the near corner:
“Xbox and new Apple Fanboy extraordinaire: Carl”
In the far corner:
“Wants to have Solid Snake’s lovechild: Remy”
Now, touch controllers and let’s have a clean fight.
I would have Solid Snake’s child if he asked me….SNAAAAAAAAKE!!
Friggin’ disturbing.
And if you think Metal Gear even minutely resembles any of the UbiSoft titles (Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, etc) in gameplay or graphics, you are smoking some of your own research shite.
I said Splinter Cell, not Rainbow Six or any of the others. And your right, the gameplay of Splinter Cell doesn’t resemble MGS. MGS is far, FAR better.
Take a reading class as well.
MGS is better? Bitch, I OWNED MGS. The graphics were just this side of ‘okay’, and could never compare to the lighting effects or movements in Splinter Cell.
As for the Splinter Cell v. MGS argument: These are so different that its hard to compare. I prefer the more realistic gameplay of Splinter Cell over the more arcade-like gameplay of MGS.
As for SOCOM, What?. Rainbow Six came out 4 years before SOCOM.
Dude, I think he said GRAW was a ripoff.
But besides that, Remy, what do you think of the speculation that Sony is ripe for takeover… perhaps even by your arch-nemesis Microsoft? *grins evilly*
Wht will you do, oh Yeti, when your vaunted Sony has become Microsoft’s f**kpuppet?
Then I’ll stick with Sony and begin work on class action lawsuit claiming that Microsoft is attempting to monopolize the console game industry by buying Sony. And guess what…I”D BE FUCKING RIGHT!!!
And after talking with Colin, I was wrong on the timeline of Rainbow Six and SOCOM. Doesn’t stop me from thinking SOCOM was better.
No, his comments were for both, and were wrong on both since both titles predate SOCOM.
You’ll sue microsoft and be right? Dude, please stop before your frenzy sinks into feces-flinging.
It isn’t Microsoft’s fault that Sony has lacked any vision for innovation since the Walkman. Besides, mergers and acquisitions are how big business work. And who are they monopolizing the console market from? If they bought Sony, they’d only tear it to pieces and use the choicest bits from both the 360 and the PS3 for the next console. But this doesn’t stop Nintendo, or even Sega (it is rumored they may step back into the console market).
You want to talk monopoly? How many developers did Sony (and Nintendo before them) strongarm into exclusive deals for their consoles? Microsoft is a latecomer, and currently #2 in the console market. If gobbling up Sony makes them #1… how is that bad business?
Didn’t say it was bad business. It is good business, but I think the results would be absolutely horrible and the console gaming industry would suffer. We’re both fan boys, so we’re not going to get anywhere will this discussion. I will concede to the point that there are games in some categories for the XBox that are better than the PS2/3’s. All the categories of games I like, this is not the case and at present the PS2 and from the previews the PS3 will absolutely crush the XBox in those categories.
Microsoft = King of the Monopolies. Always has been. Why do you think they had a federal suit placed against them for it.
And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name that sat on him was Microsoft, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the great part of the console market, to kill with games good and bad, and with hunger, and with death, and with the developers of the earth.
Lame
Yeah. That was pretty lame, Carl. Is that the best Yeti-taunting you’ve got in you?
Microsoft is indeed a monopoly, but here’s a thought: despite the fact that - yes - it is making them a hell of a lot of money, is a single standard OS good for the computing community? Granted, things would be better if the standard were a flavor of Unix, but think about when standardized parts for guns first came into play. Let’s put the Windows vs OSX vs Linux arguments aside - is a single dominating OS good or bad?
I’m not sure which side of this I’m on, but it seems like an interesting discussion.
Monopolies are bad because they result in stagnation. See former Soviet Union.
Monopolies are good because they create standards. See Ford Motor Company and early oil barons of the 20th century, not to mention the central banking system of the United States. Without a monopoly, you end up with 80 different currencies, widely varying engine types and fuels, and so on.
As long as monopolies are periodically broken apart, innovation and standards can be preserved. And there is a time when innovation itself winds down (like now), and we are forced into something like the upcoming format war over HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.
My belief is that a monopoly would be good right now. For say… the next 5 years or so. Just long enough to create a standard.
And if I really wanted to taunt yeti, I’d say something about the hairy baloon floating atop his neck that appears to have been designed solely to suck the balls of anything with the Sony brand on it.
Okay, even that was weak because sad as it is, I KNOW in my heart of heart I would suck the balls of Sony for a PS3 and unlimited free games.
Of course, this comes from Carl who lets Steve Jobs use his chin for a ball rest now.
Love ya buddy!!
Jumping in way too late, I know, but the one thing I _really_ miss from SOCOM in graw is voice control of your npc teammates. Really, really, _really_ miss it. And seeing as how every 360 comes with a headset, no reason not to do it…you don’t even have to bundle headsets with the game like they did on SOCOM.
Of course, SOCOM online play was destroyed by some of the most annoying assponies on planet earth exploting map bugs, something which could easily be fixed with a Live update for the game…
Anyway.
Well, voice control of NPC teammates should be (still) available in Rainbow Six Vegas. Funny, a couple months I thought that the holiday season wasn’t going to bring a shit ton of games I wanted. How things have changed:
Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, and gears of War… and I am sure I am missing a few.
F.E.A.R.
F.E.A.R. = Ghostbusters meets SOCOM
Viva Piñata could be good, too.
Unfortunately, we have to wait until 2007 for Halo 3.