Author: James

The penultimate episode for 2008 is available now.

If this week’s title had any relationship to the spirit of the holiday season, I can’t say we were aware of it.  This is our sole podcast offering for the week – Christmas-ey things having eaten up all of our available time – so we’ve let it run a bit long.  I’m not sure I can detail the topics discussed because they don’t make much sense to me in hindsight.  We’ve run clear through the fourth-quarter glut, and without a list of games to focus on our minds are invariably going to wander back and forth, as they’ve done here and before.  I can only really remember a passionate but inexpert discussion of Batman, and that when talking about Arkham Asylum, I clearly meant to compare it to a souffle and not a quiche.

Off-topic, but certainly pertinent, we say goodbye to two of our stalwart companions for these many months – Daniel, and Jeremy’s hair.  The hair had a price on its head of five thousand dollars.  That amount having been reached in the CoG Child’s Play charity drive, Jeremy followed through with his promise to chop everything off.  We have pics, so it definitely happened.  Less funny is that Daniel has been given marching orders by his boss The United States Air Force, so he’s leaving for Texas to learn how to do some other pointless thing at what I’m sure is a great expense.  He’ll be around in text format, and from time to time as our correspondent from the Lone Star state, but we’ve nevertheless got one more empty chair in the studio now.  This honestly makes things harder than you’d imagine.

Finally, stick around for the holiday-greetings community outro at the end of the program tonight. Thanks to everyone who listens and to all who contributed. We appreciate your support more than you can possibly know. Have a safe and happy holiday from everyone at IGC.

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And the winners are…

Well, there’s not much said in this episode that calls for elaboration. Our sole purpose for gathering tonight is to announce the winners of the Child’s Play charity drive raffle. There’s a predictable amount of screwing around, but for the sake of the winners we’ve kept things short and very much to the point. For those who can’t listen, or who simply can’t contain themselves, you can skip directly to the list posted in the Colony of Gamers news forums. Thanks to everyone, winner or not, who gave of time, money, or materials to make this year’s drive a success and its raffle prizes a reality.

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New episode now.

The miserable truth of Spike’s VGA show isn’t that it fails to live up to expectations, but that it very much does – the expectations being unspeakably low.  Those of us who spent any time in range of their programming this past weekend have made various claims that we had come for the video premiers, or to catalog the inevitable train-wreck or some such fig-leaf.  My own wretched excuse was to confirm media’s unwavering contempt for my beloved hobby.  In that respect I suppose it was entirely what I made of it, since you’ve got to be a fairly contemptuous guy not to have some degree of fun with silver bitches on rope-swings.

Regarding things completely UN-deserving of contempt, we are most happy to announce that the Colony of Gamers Child’s Play charity drive has reached (and exceeded) it’s goal.  The community has once again proven itself most excellent in its generosity, and has unlocked its gold sponsor achievement in the process.  Drawings for prizes of all shapes and sizes will commence soon, and live-air haircuts, as promised, will be yours for the mocking or cheering or what-have-you by next week.  Many thanks from all of us at the show for helping to deliver another incredible success.

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Our weekender is now available for download.

We drew our title from the recent blurb about a theoretically micro-payment supported KOTOR MMO, which, during the last moments of the show led us to discuss our general resistance to this idea in favor of a standard subscription model.  We can see it both ways, but naturally we see our own way much clearer.  Regardless, the real thrust of this show was the discussion of the awards system – awards shows (good, bad, and non-existant), the awards themselves, and what, if anything, they mean to the world.

There’s also a brief and somber reminder of what may develop for us in the show’s mid-term future.  There are no plans or contingencies at the moment other than to keep on keepin’ on, but we thought it prudent to keep folks in the loop.  Additionally, for those who care to listen past the hour mark, there’s some fairly useless bonus material that doesn’t even have the decency to be about video games, though it does offer some  deeper insights into the sorts of people some of us are off-air.  Not that you asked for that or anything, but there it is.

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Monday’s episode is now available for download.

Never let it be said that “the Mondays” aren’t a true and real condition suffered often at the end of a strong weekend – never mind how much we resent having it pointed out.  We’ve got a low-strung vibe as we ease into the program tonight, but good conversation always shakes out the cobwebs and lively banter often casts a light into the dimmest corners of our personalities, the only concern is in making it happen.  Of course, sometimes “what did you play?” matters a good bit less than “what do you think?”  We have our complement of both, so I suppose the Mondays weren’t so bad this time after all.

We’re clearly very positive about the new Prince of Persia, but the caveat is that it happens to suit our very particular tastes.  We can imagine any number of justifiably hateful reactions to its (perhaps) offensive difficulty, and to its general disdain for combat in favor of intricate puzzle/platforming.  But we believe it to be in the best spirit of what the Mechner himself intended, and we commend it for delivering a companion character who is, in almost every case, a joy and a benefit, where she could easily have become the achilles’ heel.

We would also like to point out that this is the final week of the Colony of Gamers Child’s Play charity drive.  Charitable giving is at an understandable premium this year, but for those who can and who choose to give through our preferred avenue this season, donations and raffle entries will end on Monday the 15th, so that the donations can be sent off to Child’s Play and drawings can be held for prize winners.

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The weekend edition of In-Game Chat is now available.

We’ve had a strong need lately for a unique northern perspective on gaming and worldly things alike and, thankfully, Canadia was kind enough to dispatch one of its chief emissaries in answer to our call.  The one-and-only Skwish joins us in-town and in-studio this weekend.  He was kind enough to bring ketchup chips and to participate in the usual cross-border discussions about the names of food and the color of money that we love so much.  In return we took him to eat at a place where they say yee-haaw! on your birthday.  Sorry bout that.

It seems we also had a strong need to let things run a bit silly toward the end of this hour.  There’s great stuff going on here about games and things – Fallout, ratings systems, Valkyria Chronicles, the usual.   We even find time at the end for the sadly neglected mailbag.  But it was strangely difficult to stay on track with a guest in the studio, though it may also have had something to do with the NyQuil.

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Monday’s episode, back from the holidays, is now available for download.

Our brief hiatus for sickness, terrorism and holiday merriment has left us with a lot of fuel to burn for the show.  We’ve covered a respectable amount of ground in each of our personal journeys through fourth-quarter software, and in some cases have found new ground altogether.  Though even if we hadn’t, the gaming news from the week past would have provided a surplus of talking points.

This episode is longer than our usual offering, thanks not only to the topics of today, but to some nostalgia for days, games and systems past. We hope the extra content is enjoyable, and that the extra time is of no great inconvenience. Barring any failure of self-control, we should be back on schedule and within our sixty-minute budget for the rest of the week.

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Monday’s episode of In-Game Chat can now be downloaded.

This episode was a bit like a run-on sentence for us.  We began with a small handful of good ideas and ended very far indeed from where we’d set out to be.  Satisfaction is high among the cast with Left 4 Dead, and we’re coasting through the final months of the year with the joy that comes of pawing through a bloated catalog.  But there’s a strong feeling that we’re entering the denouement of this year’s release schedule, or that we’re at the tail end of a passing storm – a strong one.   

We’re picking up the pieces now or pulling together the plot lines or whatever metaphor you prefer.  In any case we’re close to the end of another, unnecessarily crowded holiday schedule, with just enough time left in the holidays proper to gorge ourselves, purge, and gorge again before the new year, the resolutions and the discounts and sales.  The offerings  thus far have been more impressive than depressing, so we can only hope that sentiment will hold true when all is laid down for the final tally next month.

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IGC weekend edition is available here.

We throw around a lot of elbows in this episode, not so much due to any fundamental disagreements, but because its easy to get exceptionally irate about hardware issues when your beloved console starts rebelling against you.  The show suffered some unavoidable Mirror’s Edge lockups on the PS3 this week – a problem that was unresolved, but cleverly circumvented – as well as a constant stream of full stops on the XBox; problems almost certainly related to the new front-end.

While all of our issues have been corroborated by testimonials on the internet, it does our hearts no good to know that even a small percentage of the base shares our pain.  Our heads appreciate the statistic, though, and the thought that it may generate official support for our problems, however insignificant they may seem.  Meanwhile, we console ourselves with the ritual of trouble-shooting and problem solving that years of  PC ownership has made so familiar.  We apologize if our prickly tirade harshes anyone’s nxe-avatar-generated mellow.

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The Monday, November 17th episode, though late, is here.

Three out of four co-hosts agree that Mirror’s Edge meets, exceeds or misses expectations, depending on the scenario in question.  The fourth spent too much time on pinball this weekend to have an opinion.  Meets/exceeds was the commonest choice, as misses only applied to the occasional squirrelly combat sequence.  So it’s not much of a surprise that we like it, but it’s nonetheless reassuring to know that what was delivered is what was sold. 

How Scott has gone even a week without mention of the upcoming DeLorean “time machine” in Burnout Paradise is unknowable, as it represents an intersection of his most cherished virtual and fictional worlds.  Maybe the joy was simply too great to share.  But regardless of hover-mode and burning tire trails, I think just about anyone can appreciate the after-market support EA continue to lavish upon this game.  Maybe it’s safe to believe this long term care may one day be more rule than exception.

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The weekend edition of In-Game Chat is up.

Apart from being hip deep in our games of choice tonight (about which there is plenty to tell) we’re particularly interested in hearing about the new XBox interface that we’ll all be subject to by the middle of next week.  With only one early adopter among us, we can’t exactly claim a comprehensive understanding of all the changes in store.  But Scott, in particular, has spent a significant amount of time with what turns out to be a surprisingly deep and user friendly UI.  

This isn’t the first time we’ve had words about the 360’s front end, and it probably won’t be the last, but there are enough of the right kinds of changes in place that harsh words may become exceedingly rare.  Now we simply need to cross our fingers and toes and hope like hell the rollout doesn’t cripple the Live service altogether.  3 days and counting…we’ll know for sure soon enough.

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The Wednesday episode of In-Game Chat is available now.

It’s an hour of catch-up, plain and simple.  Monday’s episode was given over entirely to the launch of this year’s Child’s Play charity drive, which took precedence over every topic we’d have otherwise covered, and rightfully so.  But having dealt with that, it’s back to our usual jaw-wagging, and we’ve got an awful lot more in mind to cover than we can ever get to in the time allowed.

Gears of War 2 and Mirror’s Edge feature prominently in our lives this week, and the Left 4 Dead demo left a deep, life-threatening mark on everyone.  Of course, at the time of our recording, Wrath of the Lich King is mere hours away from launch, and therefore dominates my own personal landscape.  Now, at the time of this writing, the expedition to Northrend is underway, and I have serious business to attend to in Howling Fjord.  So if you’ll excuse me…

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The Monday, November 10th episode is now available here.

Our final live broadcast is in the can, and what better send off than to use it to launch the Colony of Gamers Child’s Play fundraiser.  As has been done in the past, we’ve invited Kristin Lindsay to the show to discuss the particulars of the charity and to help us inaugurate our efforts.  Charitable giving is often its own reward, but we’re always happy to cajole and to provide incentives designed to stimulate participation.  We hope that you find this year’s incentive package compelling enough to add your support.

There’s hardly enough space here to list everything up for grabs, but donations of original hand-crafted items from the community or a personalized voice-mail message from the likes of David (yes, Solid Snake) Hayter or Jonathan Coulton are among the initial prizes available, with more to follow in the near future.  The details of this year’s drive, and a detailed listing of the unique items and opportunities you could win through participation, can be found at Colony of Gamers (colonyofgamers.com).  Keep an eye to the list on CoG and an ear to the show in the coming weeks for updates and additions.  As always, we thank you immensely for listening, and thank you further now for giving in whatever way you can.

Direct link to the Child’s Play thread here.

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The weekend edition of In-Game Chat is available now.

Every so often we find that gaming news and important headlines are so blessedly scarce that we can avoid them almost entirely and can instead spend a whole show focused on subjective concerns.  But this is usually a spring or summer affair, the second half of the year being amply supplied with current and upcoming releases.  We’ve done our part for this meeting, sure.  Scott and I love the added value of the Mirror’s Edge time trial, Daniel is the first among the hosts to take a swing at the Left 4 Dead pre-order demo, and Jeremy suspects he’s finally closing in on his old man in Fallout.

We really like ordered and orderly discussion of well researched topics, but sometimes, in an effort to avoid repetition, we have no choice but to surrender to word association or stream of consciousness to develop a flow.  Today’s flow, for whatever reason, had something to do with Cliffy B and the 360’s prettiest games.  Apropos of almost nothing, I swear.

For this writing I’d like to include one last note on the shameless self-promotion of our final LIVE broadcast on Monday the 10th.  We continue to tap-dance all over this subject not because it marks the end of our singular, original format (IGC was once all-live), but because it marks the beginning of the Colony of Gamers community Child’s Play drive.  We are very fond of this event, and we hope for the sake of charity that you can indulge our goading one last time.  Charity is good for the soul, but in the event you’ve misplaced yours, we aim to make it worth your while.

intro – Ace Combat 5, game over

outro – Ghost Recon, anthem

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