I don't have much time as I'm running late for my Thursday bar drinky time. I'll have the official blurb up tomorrow, but Episode 116 should be uploading as you read this. Look for it at around 12:30AM Eastern Standard Time, or later if my internet destroys itself :( Two big things:

1) We are reading Supersonic97's topic, since he "tied" for first (he didn't ask for a physical prize, remember).

2) Pete Vellucci Jr. of Gameslaves Radio fame joins us this episode!

You know where to get it (if it exists).

Before the MKvDCU impressions -- MsCortana asked how she goes about getting the t-shirt from us, since she won dibs on the prizes. This goes for all of you prize winners, but all you need to do is send your mailing address to the mailbag (mailbag AT!!!! trigames DAWT!! net) if you haven't done so already. I land back in NYC tonight. I'm going to get together all the schwag and then, provided I have all your addresses, hit up the post office tomorrow (Thursday the 18th). I should be able to ship international (Kellymae, Digi) just fine. Onto MKvDCU.

When I first heard about Mortal Kombat versus DC Universe, it looked completely silly and outlandish. The Mortal Kombat universe in general is pretty much outlandish, but this was kind of different. Maybe it's because of comic book missteps like Marvel Nemesis from Electronic Arts, or the clunky Justice League fighting games, but I felt that there was no way this would work.

Then I thought about it a little more, and putting Marvel characters against Street Fighter characters is just as silly and outlandish. Yet, Capcom created a great fighting engine and some killer moves for both sects of fighters. Why couldn't Midway do the same?

For starters, I never thought the Mortal Kombat engine was all that great. Control simply felt stiff to me, and I imagine a lot of it had to do with the early games' digitized nature. (Strangely enough I found MKII to be the "smoothest" experience; it remains my favorite MK to date.) I also didn't really dig how every character conformed to the same template -- the same high punches, the same roundhouse kicks, with only mild variances in terms of hit priority and timing -- and how almost everything seemed to come down to each character's small set of special moves.

At the same time, sometimes the games really did pull me in with the simple, brutal juggle combos. I like the quick execution required to nab a falling enemy with a flying kick or fireball a bit more than I enjoy the floatier nature of the Soul Calibur series (though overall I like SC better). It's not as if Mortal Kombat was shallow, either; say what you will about the templatized regular moves, but there're absolutely many ways to combine your moves and techniques. True, it did feel a bit limited early on in that most combos began with a jump kick, but there were still great defensive counter-attack options for initiating a juggle (one or two high punches, a close projectile, another special move - ice sculpture anyone?). Run-button tapping also took tremendous timing, and it's something I never mastered. So the "depth" argument kinda goes out the window.

Suffice it to say, I do like my servings of Mortal Kombat. I didn't much care for the chain combo mentality in Deadly Alliance or Deception, because I felt that it took away from the sensation I enjoyed from older Kombats' quick, brutal, singular hits. Even the chain combos in multiple iterations of Mortal Kombat III bugged me a little. This is where MKvDCU comes in and really takes me back to what I liked about Mortal Kombat. Sure, you still have short chains -- punch punch punch, punch punch kick, et al. But it feels more focused on, and in tune with, the mentality of finding out how separate, compartmentalized moves -- be they short combos, pop-ups, or special moves -- link together to form the most effective combo. It's the same learning process that drew me to Soul Calibur and Virtua Fighter -- this, as opposed to 1, 2, 2, 1, 3, 4, 3, 4, juggle 3, 4, 1, 2, 2, 1, 4, super special fart kick, 1, 4 3, 2, 1. Here, you can lead-in with a quick special move that pops them up, throw an uppercut, juggle with another quick special move, and finish off with a quick combo. Like I said, compartmentalized moves strung together-- not long, unwieldy chains.

As far as the gore goes, I don't miss it quite as much as I thought I would. It'd be nice to see how Midway would top the gruesome finishers found in Deadly Alliance and Deception, sure, but those were great in their own right and I'm quite satisfied with what those moves left us with. MKvDCU still manages to feel brutal enough without the huge gobs of blood, thanks to the crunchy audio and wild reactions. Oh, let's not forget about the Test Your Might, Air Kombat and Klose Kombat modes. Aesthetically speaking, then, MKvDCU is plenty satisfying.

Now, I've only been through the Liu Kang chapter of the MK side of the story mode, and I'm just starting out Jax's section. But from what I've seen so far, I'd really, really like the option to skip the cutscenes and story pieces. There's something about the voice acting that really bugs me, and the story and setups are just... ick. They feel way too corny to me, but not to that obvious, terrible level of suck to make it actually funny. There's something really odd about the voice acting, too. It's not "Jill Sandwich" bad, but it sounds kind of... dry. I'm wondering if there's a point at all to playing story mode -- do I get to unlock things? Or, is it just to see how this "Rage" gimmick plays out? I guess I'll have to read the manual and reviews.

Overall, I'm happy with the purchase so far. I did get it for $20 off, though. I suspect I'll be hanging onto this one (I sold back Deadly Alliance and Deception, mostly because I didn't want to learn the long combos).

Before I hit the blurb for the episode, I just wanted to note that you should check back later this evening for my MKvDCU impressions -- which I had promised days ago but never got around to writing. I'll also spew a bit about DQIV. Sadly these impressions are slight since I have been spending most of my time with my nose in a GMAT book.

Blurb get! .......

Trigames.NET Podcast Episode 115:

________ (what, you think we'd give it away?) wins first dibs on our schwag giveaway, while Supersonic97 gets the "prize" he wanted -- Tony doing an episode-long rendition of... well, you'll find out! This episode, we discuss _______'s topic: the accessibility of games and game accessories to those with disabilities (as if this didn't already give it away). We also grumble a little bit in the first segment about Guitar Hero World Tour. Yeah, it "feels" the best as it usually does, but its new gimmicks? "Meh"-worthy.

Download here.
Running time: 1:19:41
File size: 38.3MB

Want to be heard? Hit the mailbag - mailbag AT trigames DOT net.
Want previous episodes? Hit the Podcast Homepage.
You can review us on iTunes, while you're at it.
Add us to your RSS reader or iTunes feed! http://trigames.net/rss.xml

MK vs. DC Universe is cool. Impressions from last weekend coming tomorrow. But today, come get your much-delayed podcast. You may think we announce the winners in 114, but we were idiots and missed Edubuccaneer's entry. But this is still a sneak peek of sorts...

EPISODE 113

Oh hey! Look! Finally Episode 113 is up. It's actually two episodes mashed up into one because Austin's computer crashed while saving, and we all thought this episode was lost -- but we've dug up its fossilized remains and made something out of it. This is both parts 1 and 2, and contains an unedited look at when the computer crashed and when Al and Tony were waiting for Austin to come back. The rest is largely unedited to show the disastrous nature of this episode. Maybe a new contender for Worst Episode Ever!

Download here.
File size: 75.8 MB
Run time: 2:37:54

EPISODE 114

We hem, haw and maniacally discuss who should win dibs for our Capcom / Digital Life schwag. Plus, we steal Bob Barker's music! The entrants? MsCortana, Supersonic97, Digi_Matrix and Kellymae. Edubuccaneer entered too, but we goofed, and uh... well you'll have to wait 'til the next episode (115) to find out who REALLY won.

Feast your ears, my dears, and download here...s. Yeah.
FIle size: 55.9 MB
Running time: 1:56:30

Want to be heard? Hit the mailbag - mailbag AT trigames DOT net.
Want previous episodes? Hit the Podcast Homepage.
You can review us on iTunes, while you're at it.
Add us to your RSS reader or iTunes feed! http://trigames.net/rss.xml

UPDATE: I can almost see the thoughts spilling out of the heads of people who don't game on their PCs, so let me include this disclaimer. This blog is more an ode to my own compulsiveness and history of personal experiences with my PC upgrading -- both foibles and successes. This blog is not indicative of how much "trouble" I've had with my PC, nor is it indicative of how much money one needs to spend in order to upgrade his/her PC. I salivate at new PC hardware monthly and sometimes act on it, and I'm sure like-minded PC gamers have the same kind of tendencies. It's kinda why it's for "PC Nerds Only" because I don't think anyone else would either understand or be interested in this entry anyway. People are probably going to comment understandably so (a few friends already have) that "this is why I stay away from PC gaming" or "man PC gaming is so much trouble" -- but that's completely not the point of this entry, and the latter statement is simply mostly false, at least these days.

Our first family computer was a Commodore 64. We got this when I was about five or six, and upgraded a handful of years later to an IBM compatible PC called the Vendex Headstart III. It ran on DOS and a rudimentary Headstart OS that sat on top of DOS, and chugged along using a trusty old 286 processor. At some point we upped the ante to some random non-brand (I think my uncle built it for us) that used a 486DX chip and ran Windows 3.1, on which I played PC ports of Golden Axe and Mortal Kombat.

The first computer I actually got some elbow grease with, however, was a Dell XPS that my sister bought the family when I was a junior in high school. Now, it's not like I actually messed around with it in high school, but when I got into college I wanted a solution with which I could play my console games and watch television through my computer monitor. This way, if anyone in our dorm room wanted to play videogames at the same time as someone who wanted to watch television, it could be done without issue. Thus began my journey into spending too much money and going through too many PC building headaches. (Note: All images are available in the gallery.)

Config Zero (Dell) - Fall 1997:

Pentium MMX 233, Matrox Millenium II, and on-board Yamaha XG

Back at the time, this computer was pretty decent... but not for serious gamers. The motherboard on which it was based didn't even have an AGP slot, so whatever was considered "new" at the time was out of the question. Tomb Raider looked like butt, and Final Fantasy VII -- which had filtered textures if you were using a RIVA TNT board or one of 3dfx's Voodoo boards -- looked blotchy and pixelated, which stunk for me because I was sans Playstation until just before I went to college. It wasn't really why I changed this setup, though -- as mentioned above, it was the desire to make my PC into a TV-playing machine. So along came...

Config One (All-in-Wonder debut) - Fall 1999:

New System: Pentium III 500, ATi All-in-Wonder 128 (using the Rage 128 GPU), Creative Sound Blaster Live! running on a Soyo Pentium III Slot 1 motherboard

...the debut of an AGP slot in my life, and my first foray into PC building. The rationale for the shift was pretty easy. I needed a motherboard with that AGP slot. The Dell case was proprietary. I decided that if I was going to make such a huge change, I might as well get a motherboard capable of running a PIII and just upgrade.

I remember being blown away at how fast everything ran on this puppy thanks to the Dell. The only ties this machine had to it were the hard drive and, well, that's about it I think. I never thought I'd be able to run Unreal Tournament or Quake III on it, but dammit, they ran fast and looked smooth. Plus, I was able to record basketball games and sessions of Street Fighter Alpha III onto my hard drive thanks to the All-in-Wonder board. This began my long affair with ATi and its All-in-Wonder cards -- they don't produce them anymore at the moment (though AMD plans on re-introducing them soon), which makes me sad. Eventually, though, huge performance leaps would make themselves available thanks to a hungry company called AMD...

Config Two (AMD debut) - Spring 2001:

New System: AMD Thunderbird 1.0GHz, ATi All-in-Wonder Radeon (using what is now the Radeon 7200 GPU), running on an ABIT VIA KT133 Motherboard

Halfway through my sophomore year, I built my first AMD machine. The TBird was like, barely above a hundred bones when I bought it, and made my computer perform with twice the zip. The Radeon was ATi's retort back at GeForce, and while it wasn't quite as good, I was happy to have my All-in-Wonder capabilities intact at the same time as having what was considered a "gaming card". The rationale here was the fact that I could upgrade for such a low price across the board. In hindsight, it was probably a hasty decision.

For the record, I gave my old Intel parts to my three cousins (all brothers) in Connecticut. When I visited them months later, they constituted one of three Counterstrike-playing machines in the basement. Awesome.

Config Three (Audigy) - Spring 2002:

Upgrades: Sound Blaster Audigy

I remember clearly when I got this card -- February 15th, 2002 -- it was the day that they announced on the news that Jayson Williams, the former NBA star and New Jersey Nets center, was being investigated for the shooting of his limo driver, Costas Christofi. Sad things, that, but I digress. The rationale here was that it was cheap and sounded considerably better than my Live! did. My previous upgrade was still a little hasty, as you'll see in a moment.

Config Four (B.E.A. - Before Athlon Era) - June 2002

Upgrades: ATi All-in-Wonder 8500

Games were advancing in visual fidelity quite quickly and my puny Radeon-based card just wasn't holding up. The 8500 was supposed to rectify that, and it did, for a while. Of course, just upgrading the video card doesn't always equate to justifiably increaesd performance without taking a quick look at other parts. I couldn't afford to do so at the time, however, because I was just leaving for a study-abroad program in London...

Config Five (Athlon Era) - August 2002

New System: AMD Athlon XP 1800+ running on an MSI VIA KT266 board

...but upon returning, I upgraded again. Barely over a year had passed before I upgraded from Config One to Config Two. Conventional wisdom said that you should hold on to your systems for two years, especially if you're a student trying to learn the merits of budgeting. Now, it was barely a year and a half before I upgraded my CPU and motherboard again. Just over a month prior, I had upgraded my video card. Hasty, hasty, hasty. Still, I again noticed a decent performance increase across the board, enough for me to be satisfied with the time and moolah spent. Interestingly enough, I think my Athlon Thunderbird 1000 is still sitting in its plastic case, on the window sill next to my Wii remote charger.

Config Six (ATi Takes the Lead) May 2003

Upgrades: ATi All-in-Wonder Radeon 9700 Pro

The Radeon 9700 was an awesome graphics card that really stuck it hard to nVidia, so much so that the video card tables had turned completely. Hell, Microsoft apparently consulted ATi when developing DirectX 9 (apparently there was some small tiff between Microsoft and nVidia coming from disputes about the Xbox contract)and so ATi's card blew the delayed GeForce out of the water with that API. That alone was reason enough to get it, but I vowed never to spend more than $295 on any video card. I also refused to give up my All-in-Wonder capabilities. Thankfully, eBay had an AIW9700 for around $250, which to me was a steal. Considering how well Unreal 2, Max Payne 2 and Halo (PC) ran, it definitely was a steal.

Config Seven (My Best CPU Bargain in History) November 2003

New system: Athlon XP 2500+ (home-OC'ed to 3000+ levels), ASUS A7NX nForce 400

My config was chugging along nicely, but there was a deal that I couldn't afford to pass up. All the computer sites were talking about the new Barton core that could be overclocked like crazy. Instead of spending the $200+ for an Athlon XP 3000+, I could have one for $89. I got the new motherboard so I could utilize DDR RAM technology, and all of a sudden my machine was almost twice as fast as it was before -- AGAIN. The OC'ed 2500+ was a great little chip, and lasted me over two years, and probably could have lasted me even longer had Dual Core not become such a promising option.

Config Eight (One of Many Mistakes) December 2004

Upgrade: ATi All-in-Wonder Radeon 9800 Pro

The Radeon 9700 chip was excellent, but even it started to get a little long in the tooth by the time the PCI-Express era rolled around. I wanted to upgrade but there were no X800 chips with All-in-Wonder. So I... uh... grabbed an All-in-Wonder 9800. Yeah, barely a step up from the previous model. After 20 months of owning the 9700, what would waiting just a bit more hurt? Well, not much, but at the time I still wasn't sure whether or not they would release an AIW version of the X800. So I upgraded for a less-than 10% performance boost, because I got greedy and impatient.

Config Nine (OMG Doom 3 Runs at 60FPS!) August 2005

Upgrade: ATi All-in-Wonder X800 XT Platinum

Well, I should have waited for the X800 after all, because like I said, the 9800 didn't provide enough of a performance boost to justify the trouble I went through trying to resell the 9700 Pro on eBay (it sold for over a hundred bucks but... I still could have saved time and money by waiting). But no matter -- I treated myself to a birthday gift in the All-in-Wonder X800 XT, and it was phenomenal. It ran Doom 3 without a single hitch, and every other game in my collection could be run at high settings with similar smoothness. Far Cry, Half Life 2 -- no hitch, no fuss, no muss, no mess. Then Christmas came...

Config Ten (The Dual Core Era) February 2006

New system: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Manchester core) and Sound Blaster X-Fi running on a Gigabyte Socket 939 nForce 3 AGP board

...and I got a nice bunch of cash, a freewheeling splurging spirit, and coupons, and thus treated myself to some holiday deals. Well, technically I got the X-fi first, but I knew I was going to upgrade at some point so I just kept it in the box until I rebuilt the machine. The dual-core was a major step up and helped greatly with things like encoding my videos for PSP. I couldn't believe how fast it burned through a two-hour movie. The X2 3800+ lasted me a whopping 33 months, and had it not been built for the obsolete Socket 939 format (which I had to stick with due to my need for an AGP slot -- no one was building Socket AM2's for AGP anymore), would have lasted me longer.

Config Eleven (Greedy HDR Grubbing) February 2007

"Upgrade" (quotes emphasized): ATi Radeon X1650 Pro (Viper by DIAMOND)

By 2007, I was fully into The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. There was only one problem: I didn't get to see High Dynamic Range lighting. At least, not with the X800. I had just gotten a Gamebridge TV adapter, so I could still watch TV on my PC. And, I had seen HDR running on Ethan's computer, and it was amazing. I didn't want to spend over $200 on upgrading, though, so I found that I could throw just over a hundred bones on an X1650 Pro and get decent performance with HDR. Mistake. The X1650 didn't pack enough horsepower to run Oblivion at a great framerate, even though it blessed me with HDR lighting. The same applied to the rest of my games. Looked better, but performed slower. This wasn't really an upgrade, but more like a sideways step. Screw this, I said...

Config Twelve (Mistake Rectified) April 2007

Upgrade: ATi Radeon X1950 Pro (Hightech by HIS)

...and I sold the X1650 on eBay for 90% of the price I paid for it. I turned those funds into the last AGP card I would ever buy: the ATi Radeon X1950 Pro. Again, a great card. It was a decent performance upgrade over the X800, it ran HDR quite well, and it didn't cost too much for the power it gave me. It served me well for a year until it came time to build the Crysis rig, and even then, Crysis ran semi-decently on this card. But as the need to keep with the times arose, and with computer parts that had the compatibility with my pieces started to become more and more scarce, the inevitable had to happen...

Config Thirteen (PCI-Express -- years late) June 2008

Upgrade: Refurb PCI-Express Socket 939 nForce 4 motherboard, nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS 512 by ECS

The hope was that I could keep my CPU and RAM while upgrading to the PCI-Express format. Another great deal came along in the form of a $220 GeForce 8800 GTS 512 (based on the G92 chip, not the older G80) before a $30 rebate. This card and its sibling, the GeForce 8800 GT, were famously two of the best bargains around -- at least, when they finally hit those price points. So I dove in while buying a recertified (read: refurbished) motherboard -- the last one Newegg had in stock that could run both a Socket 939 CPU and a PCI-Express videocard -- for $27 in which to house it. It worked... for five and a half months. Games ran great. The old X2 3800+ still ran reliably. Then the fiasco with episode 113 of the Trigames.NET Podcast happened -- even now, I'm still working on uploading part II (check your iTunes in about two hours) and editing episode 114. I've still got episode 115 to edit, too. Recertified my butt -- never again would I deal in re-whatevered...

Config Fourteen (Quad Core and SLI) December 2008

New system: AMD Phenom 9850 Black Edition on a MSI K9N2 Platinum nForce 750a SLI

...and I made the recent plunge -- which I've blogged about -- into the land of Quad Core. That old recertified board was crashing and rebooting at the slightest hint of heavy USB activity, among other things, and I just could not deal with it anymore. Sadly, my computer is still suffering occasional freezing -- but the USB problem is gone, so I have no issues transferring podcast files and whatnot. Config fifteen is in the books, and when that happens I'll try to do a reinstall of Windows. What's config fifteen? Why, a second GeForce 8800 GTS 512 for SLI action.

+ = happy!

I blogged about this already, too. It should arrive sometime this week or the next. Can't wait...

PC Geek Alert -- if you care not about PC gaming or hardware, this will bore you to tears. Apologies!

Recently, and by recently I mean in the past half-year, both the_antipiode and I made notable upgrades to our PCs. Al completely rebuilt his machine, upgrading to a dual-core proc and an 8800 GT, while I upgraded my video card to an 8800 GTS 512 (which also required a motherboard swap). As some of you may be familiar, the motherboard I got was a refurb -- no motherboard in stock could handle my older processor while offering the PCI-express slot required for today's video cards. It chugged along alright for awhile -- the random rebooting didn't really affect me much, other than proving irritating -- but finally the crashes became too much to handle and the whole Trigames.NET Podcast Episode 113 debacle happened. So I switched to a new platform (the quad-core AMD Phenom 9850 and an SLI motherboard).

Thanks to the wonders of...

1) Holiday season deals

2) An open SLI slot

3) nVidia trying to phase out its old product line to try to pimp us on its Geforce GTX 200 line

...Al and I have both spent bucks on a second video card (a second 8800 GT for him, a second 8800 GTS 512 for me) that we probably wouldn't have otherwise.

Here's the logic:

- The 8800 line was a REALLY good product line -- at least, when nVidia moved to the G92 chip. (The original 8800 boards were pretty good too but not until they changed the underlying architecture from the code-named G80 chip to the G92 chip did they really start killing the competition with price-performance values.) For the prices Al and I got them at ($190 for Al's 8800 GT and $220 for my 8800 GTS 512... before rebates!), they were absolute steals. Both run Crysis competently on "High", and that's pretty much been our benchmark.

- Our cards were available for even better prices this past week, most likely due to it being the week after Black Friday. Al's would be $130 and mine came out to $160. If there were ever a time to upgrade to SLI, it would be at these prices, especially because...

- ...I checked Newegg and my card is discontinued. The only model leftover in stock is a refurbished one. The $160 price tag I saw was at Best Buy, which NORMALLY sells the card for $399.99 (which is a complete rip-off). As for Al, there was only one model left that was selling on Newegg. Usually I find that when Newegg starts discontinuing an item, that means that other stores will soon follow suit and options will quickly run dry. Just as a quick precaution, I checked Allstarshop.com and they were out of my model too. Amazon had one model in stock, sure, but it ran for $270. I checked for Al, and Amazon was selling his for $180. Soon, the only place we'd be able to turn to in order to SLI it up would be eBay and other auction / secondhand sites. I'm through dealing with second-hand computer parts.

- Doubling our performance for significantly under $200 right now made more sense for both of us, to keep us "future proof" for the next few years (quotes emphasized since you can never be future proof in PC gaming), as opposed to waiting until the new models come out for like $300 and then throwing away our old cards. Nothing pisses me off more than upgrading and then having to toss an old but still-serviceable video card. (That's why SLI is awesome -- you can still make great use out of your old dog by pairing it up with another old dog.) Most likely in those few years we'd be playing PC games that exploit the power of these cards anyway, as opposed to playing the latest and greatest games that require us to leap up to whatever newfangled toy nVidia or ATi release at that point in time -- yeah, our backlog is like that. Our cards are both DirectX 10 compatible anyway, and I don't foresee Microsoft releasing a hardware-crippling DirectX update any time soon (in other words, I don't see the DX9 to DX10 leap happening). I could be wrong, of course... fingers crossed.

It just kind of annoys me that the video card industry is marked by 6- and 12-month refresh cycles and the card manufacturers respond to it by quickly phasing stuff out, even when the product lines are great. I understand the need for them to compete in order to better the graphics landscape, but it's frustrating when two really great products in the 8800 GT and the 8800 GTS -- cards that still run games quite fast today -- are phased out simply to usher in the new era. (Protip: Word on the street is that the newer 9800 GT cards aren't even as powerful as 8800 GT cards. Go figure, right? Correct me if I'm wrong, but just be aware of that possibility.)

It wouldn't be nearly as annoying if we weren't given the opportunity to pair two of the same card together; at that point we'd just upgrade to new stuff. But consumers ARE being given this great chance to make pair up old but solid hardware for incredible performance gains, and yet they're being given much fewer options during the time when it makes sense to do so -- that time being when the older cards have been out on the market and are cheap enough to buy on a near-whim. When SLI first came along, people were sold on the idea that, "Hey, I can buy a medium-priced card today ($250 let's say). In about 18 months, instead of upgrading to a new card for the same price, I can spend 60% to 70% of that and double my performance." Except, 18 months later, you'd have to search high and low to nab that old model. (Hell -- it's barely been 12 months in my case! The 8800 GTS 512 was released on December 10, 2007, and already it's a scarce find at the appropriate price. And anything above $250 for the card is NOT the appropriate price at this point.)

Again, I understand about the need to move forward, and yes, this is how they make their money. I just wish they'd let the old dogs hang around just a little bit more. Either that, or I wish they'd find some technology that allowed you to pair up video cards from different generations to increase performance.

I finally fought my way through Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia. I enjoyed this game quite a bit and it turned out to be the most enjoyable -- by a LONG shot -- out of the Fantastic Four (the others being Transformers DS, Tornado, and Guitar Hero On Tour Decades) that Gamespot sent me for November. They posted the review yesterday for your reading pleasure. (Funny tidbit, not funny "ha ha" but just funny -- I was talking to Frank Provo and he asked me what I'd been reviewing lately. I mentioned all of the licensed DS games being sent to me, and he remarked that I ended up becoming the "new" Frank Provo. Except I'll never be able to crash on any of the staffers' couches!)

With that out of the way, then, I can go to focusing on my studies and grad school apps 100%. But before I can do that, I have to post the podcasts I owe you. Episode 113 Part 1, in fact, is already up. I still have to update the RSS feed and add the blurb to Trigames.NET, but it's there with the appropriate tags if you want it. It's 90 minutes long, and I've left in all the stumbling blocks from when my computer crashed so you can hear Tony and Al's conversation while I was booting back up -- just for a stupid "inside look" at things :) Episode 113 Part 2 will come tonight, but I think I'm going to seriously abridge it. If it doesn't end up being too long after all the editing, I'll mash Parts 1 and 2 together to make a long episode granted that it can remain under 2.5 hours.

As for Episode 114, well, to all you winners, hold your horses. I messed up royally and did not include Edubuccaneer's entry. For some reason I did not find it in the mailbag when I emailed out the agenda for last week, and so his entry was unceremoniously skipped. There are definitely enough prizes to go around for four people (and more!) but if you were REALLY hoping for that Street Fighter t-shirt, you'd better pray that Edu's entry doesn't beat you out ;) Also, from all four entrants, I need a pecking order of FOUR prizes, since there are four eligible winners (again, you can thank Supersonic for requesting a "special" prize that doesn't involve the schwag bag -- and is also something that Tony fans will end up enjoying ;) trust me on this one). So to all of you who said "soap or the T-shirt" or "T-shirt or the dog tags", give me two more, and rank them from most to least desired.

Finally, after Episode 115, I will drop hosting duties for two weeks because -- as I said -- I need to be 100% into my studies and applications. Hope you enjoy lots of kissing sounds from Tony and Al!

We finally recorded Episode 114 today. I'm posting 113a and 113b tomorrow, and then 114 later in the week. Especially for the contestants (Digi_Matrix; MsCortana; Kellymae), make sure to listen to 114 to see who comes in first. Supersonic, too, but since you asked for a unique "prize" that doesn't dip into the schwag bag, I don't think we'll flay you for not listening. But we know you always do, which is why you rule.

Note to the other three: please let me know what your prize preferences are. The schwag is as follows:

T-shirt - Black and white - Large - silkscreen of Guile getting electrocuted

Street Fighter Soap (with the Street Fighter logo embossed on the soap surface)

Dogtag - Black and white - the same image of Guile getting electrocuted

Street Fighter IV Headband

Poster for the Street Fighter Club event we attended

Newegg Parka from DigitalLife 2007

T-shirt - Black and color print - Large - Windows Vista print from DigitalLife 2007

Windows Vista Playing Cards (Full Deck) from DigitalLife 2007

Justin and Kevin threw four games my way to review. I got the goodie-filled parcel when I got back late on the evening of  Thursday, November 13th, and started Transformers DS (reviewed) the next day. The other games in the package were Tornado for the DS (reviewed) and Pokemon Ranger (still racing through it). A week later, Kevin Van Ord then asked if I'd be interested in Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades (reviewed), and so I jumped at the chance. (And yeah, for all you score gawkers, I did in fact enjoy Transformers DS the most out of the three I reviewed. Sue me.) I've put up three games in slightly under three weeks, and it's been the toughest reviewing time I've had since Alex had me doing oodles of Virtual Console reviews.

Other freelancers and staffers review games at a much higher clip, I realize, so bear in mind all of this is factored in with me writing my grad-school application essays and trying to squeeze in some more GMAT studying, as well as staying awake during work hours (8 - 6:30 these days). Oh yeah -- and I rebuilt my PC so it doesn't RANDOMLY CRASH anymore. (I've got to tell the story of how that all went down as soon as I have more minutes. Also, it feels so good to be able to hit Crysis' "Optimal System Settings" button and see "High" in return.) In any case, as stressful as this all has been, I'm feeling this rush of excitement and satisfaction as I continue to progress through the last game in the pack.

So for anyone wondering why episode 113a and 113b STILL aren't up yet, that's why. But I'm almost there. My hope is to have Pokemon Rangers done and reviewed by tomorrow, and then leave you all with something to listen to during the Thanksgiving break. We're definitely recording some manner of episode 114 this weekend, so if you still haven't sent in your entries for the Topic contest (just send in a new topic for us to talk about, and if we pick it, you get dibs on the first choice of Capcom schwag), send them in.

It will all get done eventually. This past weekend was insanely packed:

- Playing and reviewing Tornado, GH On Tour Decades, and Pokemon Ranger all for DS

- Hosted Rock Band party

- Hammered out first few drafts of grad-school application essays

- 4-hour errand runs

- Took apart and re-built PC with new parts (runs super fast, now I have to see whether or not it crashes on me

The podcast episodes for 113 (both of them) will have to come later as I owe Gamespot three reviews, but they'll come. Supersonic, I don't have a small box to ship your energy drink -- I should have gotten it during my errand run and I apologize for forgetting. I'll get it to you ASAP.

Episode 114 was not recorded due to the business, which means all of you who haven't yet entered in something to win can still do so. See my last few blog posts for deets. Sleep needed. I'm out.