The first few minutes have been chopped off, forever lost, because Austin aka MrCHUPON is a complete idiotfool. We also delve into the philosophy of being awesome: such as February's NPD numbers and how expensive Aussie games are. In tragic news, the veteran who allegedly disappeared after playing a game of Call of Duty 4 was found dead. Also, the "Mortal Kombat" beating -- the one where the idiot kid beat his girlfriend's little sister to death using "martial arts" moves after playing Mortal Kombat -- may not have had much to do with Mortal Kombat after all, says some news article. Um, DUH? Woot, and stuff -- epic woot.

Mortal Kombat death maybe didn't have to do with Mortal Kombat much?
http://gamepolitics.com/2008/03/09/is-brutal-mortal-kombat-murder-lacking-the-mortal-kombat-part/

"Call of Duty Disappearance" soldier found dead :(
http://www.news-tribune.net/clarkcounty/local_story_072123352.html

Small percentage of Smash Brawl discs wonky.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6187431.html

WiiWare developers claim that Xbox Live Arcade is full of _what_??
http://kotaku.com/368126/wiiware-devs-xbox-live-arcade-is-full-of-**** (You'll have to replace the asterisks in with a word that rhymes with "spit" to get the link to work.)

Mass Effect 2 coming to PC... at some point
http://kotaku.com/367833/mass-effect-2-is-coming-to-pcs-surprise

Xbox 360 will get its 1000th game by summer
http://kotaku.com/367774/360-to-get-1000th-game-by-summer

Bioshock 2 revealed. Surprise!....?
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6187564.html

Play games in a browser instantly? On the heels of the browser-based Quake, could this be der future:
http://www.gamespot.com/pages/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=26285381&sid=6187682

EA really, really, REALLY wants Take Two.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6187712.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;12

NPD Numbers for February - Nintendo destroys all comers again:
http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/03/february-npd-ps.html

Should Al waste (invest) $379 on a replica sword? Discuss ;)
http://www.gamespot.com/users/the_antipode/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=m-100-25350818

Musical interludes courtesy of:

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (NDS)
Starcraft (PC)

Download here.
File size: 50.1 MB
Run time: 1:44:18

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.

RSS Feed: http://trigames.net/rss.xml

"So, two Austins walk into a bar..."

Behold: Gamespot welcomes its second Austin, as my friend Mr. Light has joined the ranks of lancers of free-itude.

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/puzzle/blissisland/review.html

The takeover begins!

I've come to the sad realization that the backlog will simply never be cleared. So, I'm going to throw myself a bone here and just cross off any game that I'm just tired of. Right now, that's quickly happening to Devil May Cry. Not because I've been smashing my head against the wall trying to beat it, like Al has, but because every time I play it I just get sick of it easily. I hate half of the camera angles, which is what's mainly bogging down the experience for me. The combat is a whole load of fun by itself, but when I think back to how God of War's camera fluidly follows the action from the best possible angle or how Ninja Gaiden Black -- despite its piss-poor camera -- lets me at least adjust the viewpoint to get a better look at the action, something just... bugs me about Devil May Cry. It may also be the fact that I'm just itching to get to Devil May Cry 3 and trying out all the new sty|es, and Devil May Cry 1 as a result might be obsolete. I don't give a rat's patootie about skipping the first "chapter" in the story or franchise - I just want to play a game I don't get tired of. Period.

After watching Al trudge through Metroid Prime 2 last fall, I'm also leery of taking that for a spin. It's been great in the early going, but all his talk of scavenger hunting for keys just makes me wretch. Hey, didn't we learn anything from god-awful Rare games and Jak & Daxter what with their pitiful collect-a-thon ways? If you make me collect a certain amount of stars to pass, with the stars being the ultimate goal of the level, ok - sure. If you make me collect 3 bafmodads, 2 pieces of fruit, 5 scarab beetles and 27,381,447 pieces of grass, screw you to friggin' hell. The way that Al made the key-hunting in Metroid Prime 2 really reminded me more of Jak / Rare games and less of Mario 64. Actually, the way he talked about finishing up Wind Waker also makes me NOT want to play that either - despite its gorgeous visuals.

On the other hand, I'm also just going to remove games that I've simply had a satisfying fill of and don't feel the need to play anymore past the little that I've experienced. This is probably cheating, but... *sigh* what can ya do?

Now before I list the candidates for bump-off-ness, I'll remind you now to make sure you don't forget, after reading the list, to check out Chupporitos for a fresh(ly intoxicated) perspective on American History. Don't worry -- I explain what it is so that you don't feel you've been rick-rolled in case it's not your cup of tea.

Going by this criteria, so far, I'm considering (in some cases disgustedly) removing these few items from my backlog mentally:

Manhunt 2: the first one is better, and while the Wii-remote executions rock, the Wii-remote combat is trash.

Animal Crossing DS: I stopped playing this a long time ago for a reason. Anybody want my copy?

Prince of Persia Warrior Within: Aside from the Prince's god-awful baditude (oh just can it, Maximum PC; it stunk - period) I'm just not feeling the progression. I don't like going back and forth in a PoP-sty|e environmental-puzzler game. Running across a wall, grabbing a curtain, and then wall-rebounding over a bed of spikes is awesome the first few times you do it. Doing all of this just to backtrack to another location, and then having to do it again to make another round trip, isn't for me. And to think... some people hate linearity.

Super Mario Sunshine: You know? I think I actually already up and sold it. *checks shelf* Yup - I did. And I don't regret it for a single moment. Mario 64 was and still is better.

Brain Age: No motivation to see this thing through and unlock anything else. It was cheap fun for a while, though.

Puzzle Quest: I'm not one of those who got completely sucked into it. I'm sure it's great, and I'm sure it gets better, but I really just want to move on to other things. That it's based on Bejeweled doesn't make the game stupid -- not at all. It just makes the game get old fast. I really liked it while I was playing it, but it really doesn't grab my attention -- once I had put it down when I became even slightly engrossed in something else, it was done for. If anyone's about to get up in arms and hissy-fitty, well, why don't you spend that energy into asking me for my copy instead so that you can proudly say you have two copies of this game you love?

Star Fox Assault: I may put one or two more flight missions into this, but the ground missions are atrocious and are the bane of the Franchise. Star Fox Adventures may have been worse overall, what with its ridiculous scavenger hunts (see above), but at least it otherwise had solid gameplay mechanics and -- failing all else -- cool-looking animal fur graphics.

Metal Gear Solid The Twin Snakes: Sitting through these codec conversations and cutscenes make me wonder why I bothered getting Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence. Oh, right -- for the MSX ports.

Pikmin: Loved what I played of it, but my save file is on day 13 and I can't remember what I'm supposed to do now, so I haven't been playing it. This is by now the second stint of this game I've gone through after restarting it for the exact same reason. I'd rather just move on to Pikmin 2 and return to this one when I'm old and gray. Fantastic from what I've played of it, though.

Beyond Good & Evil: I love this game. And yet, I just simply don't have the gumption to finish the last chapter. There's this door I have to find and open and I can't find it, so I just don't care about finding it anymore. I could open up a FAQ, I guess, but again: I just don't care anymore.

Nintendogs: Does anyone want to adopt my boxer, Homer? I'm a terrible pet owner because I simply stopped playing it a month after I got it.

Katamari Damacy: Just... done. I loved it but I just don't care to go back anymore. It's not lost its charm, nor its gleeful sense of simple fun -- but I really think I am just satisfied with it. No need to tinker around with it anymore - otherwise I would have gotten one of its numerous sequels by now.

Xenogears: Ah, an oldie-but-goodie. I'm done with this. 60 hours in and not near the end yet? Are you kidding me? And I can't stand the stupid guys sitting in their stupid chairs in the stupid second disc. Ok, maybe that's just me trying to find something to be annoyed about -- throw all that out the window. I'm just done with it.

Legend of Dragoon: Everyone says it's terrible. Now, I enjoyed the first few hours of the game, but the piss-poor dialogue started getting on my nerves and I've since seen much more refined similar combat systems since (the role-playing Mario games on GBA, DS and Cube to name a few) -- which is the main reason why I stuck with the game at all.

Project Gotham Racing 3: Like it a lot. Haven't played it in a while. Don't feel the need to focus on it and get everything, and I rarely play multiplayer. I'll put the disc in once in a blue moon, sure, but I'm done with taking it seriously.

Onimusha 2: I really, really, really just want to play Onimusha 3.

Ridge Racer V: This game sorely disappointed me when I first played it, and now that I've experienced the smooth rides of Ridge Racer PSP, Ridge Racer 6, and Ridge Racer 7, I don't think I can stand this game anymore. R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 was better than this game, even.

Brothers in Arms DS: At first, I thought this was really cool. This turned into just "OK". Now, believe it or not. Call of Duty 4 for the DS has completely blown it out of the water. I'm even tempted to sell it back, but I fear I may (just may) want to go back to it for a little bit once CoD4's short DS campaign is over. But I think it's better off being officially off the backlist and not adding any pressure to my spine.

Trauma Center DS: I'd rather play the Wii version.

Geist: How delusional I was to think this would be a truly quality title. Nevermind the fact that the FPS controls for this are insanely jacked. It's not just because I abhor dual-analog -- it's because this is poor dual analog. Concept? Great. Make it for Wii instead. I've so far clocked 90 minutes into it. I think that's enough.

Gunstar Super Heroes: This game brings a tear to my eye -- but the original brought more tears to my eye. I've played it a healthy amount, and I've enjoyed every brutal minute of it -- but again, I think I'm happy with what I've gotten out of it thus far.

Devil May Cry: See above. :P

Metroid Prime 2: See above also, but this has very little chance of actually dropping off only because Prime's gameplay is -- well -- Prime. Maybe I'll play it up until the key-collecting part, then fast-forward to Prime 3. In any case, this game so far has just proven to me how hard it is to live up to something as great as the original Metroid Prime.

Podcast is currently in the "editing room" (i.e. on my laptop processing right now) and should be up by tonight. This post will then disappear shortly, but I'll babble on a bit about jury duty. Also, if you don't hate sports, I rambled on a bit about Shaquille O'Neal on Chupporitos. Unorganized, poorly written and based on limited knowledge (I don't have the Phoenix Suns package on NBA TV, you know - hell, I don't even HAVE NBA TV), but a long ramble nonetheless.

So. I got called in for Jury Doodie on the 10th of March (yesterday). The first time I was called up, about five years ago, I really didn't want to serve and luckily had a few things about my history which prevented me from being able to be "unbiased" for the case in question.

This time around, I still had potential sources of bias that were related to this case, which is unfortunate because I actually started getting intrigued in sitting in on the trial due to its nature. Imagine that.

In any case, sitting in on a jury selection - which means hearing about everyone's background as they dictate it to the participating attorneys and the judge - is always interesting in that you get to hear about people from all walks of life. (At least, walks of life that include speaking English fluently, as far as the New York City courts are concrned.) You see a person sitting in a chair, and you immediately try to conjure up a story about that person - who s/he is and what s/he does or did for a living - and you find out whether or not your preconceived notions were spot on. It's just kind of fun, "observing" like that.

This might sound creepy but sometimes I just like to people watch randomly. Go into a bar with a friend, get two drinks, sit, and just observe people having a good time. Theorize what they do, how old they are, whether or not they're pool sharks and will actually wipe the floor with the other duo once money's on the line. What songs to people always react to on the jukebox (friggin' hell, I'm sick of "Ohh-ohh! Livin' On a Praaayer!"). Odd how I moved from the jury selection process to getting buzzed at a bar... because they're like, exactly the same thing, right? :P Anyway, you'll have your podcast soon. Just wanted to ramble.

This will remain my gaming home-away-from-Trigames.NET. I'll still try to remember to update my 1up account too. But for everything else, http://mrchupon.blogspot.com/ will be born. At some point. Likely what'll happen is it'll never get off the ground. And I'm ok with that. But I love following trends like a mindless drone, because 'tis what I am: a drone and victim of others' revolutions.

In other words: "Why? Cuz e'ryone else is doing it!" (By the way: no, this isn't what my cryptic stupid images are hinting at. Honestly, I just decided to start it on a whim after a beer. In fact, what cryptic stupid images? What hints? What am I talking about? What are YOU talking about? *pokes you in chest* Huh? *pokes you in chest again* HUH!?)

Oh, and my Orcs & Elves review is posted. Like I implied earlier, I did enjoy it quite a bit. Way too short, but good simple gory fun. Now, Draglade... and so far, not bad. Not bad at all.

For anyone who hasn't noticed yet, here's your chance to flame me for my "omg 2 harsh nitedo pay u for slaming a PSP gam" review of Bomberman Land. For those people who are really that high on themselves that they have to say that, and I know you exist, I'm sorry if I happen to be too "jaded" to call near-mediocrity anything less than awesome.

Welp, I gone done and finally beated something else I was working on. I had been playing this for fun, but then I realized that it wasn't reviewed so the always-kind Justin Calvert said to go ahead and finish it for review. Here we be's:

Yeah. If you can't see it, or if you've clicked on it, looked at it, and still can't see it, the completion time was a nostril-hair under five hours and twenty minutes. Now, I did enjoy this game. Quite a bit, actually. It's not great as a DS game as much as it is a mobile game simply because it's less impressive on the DS, but it's plenty good and I'd say you should get it for a quick romp through a dungeon-crawl. But just... be ready for it to be over really fast. There are reviews out there that claim ten hours. Nope. One claimed seven to eight, which is more palpable. But honestly, if you're light on your feet and go through it briskly - not even rush through it, just go through it briskly - it'll give you less than advertised.

Is this such a BAD thing? A little disappointing, but not all that bad. Again: just consider yourself warned.

Aaaaaaaaand... feastyoureyeson THESE!

[video=Jnw7nzLx5bwEvDDW]

[video=ISNnkDv55bwEvDDX]

No podcast episode 83? Never fear - bootleg cast is here! Just answering some mailbag questions on my own, is all.

Now, as for The Maraconi, which really is just Mac n' Cheese with extra mozzarella and sausage ground in:

1) Take one normal Mac n' Cheese recipe. You may choose to substitute elbows for shells. S'what I did.

2) Add a tomato, an onion, garlic, a hunk of mozzarella and a big fat sausage - of your choice - to your grocery list. I just got a beef one. (Cue innuendo and jokes.) When you get back home, make sure Rock Band is ALREADY SET UP.

3) Open up the sausage - remove the "skin" and pop the ground meat out. If it's the kind of sausage that doesn't pop out ground meat, i.e. more resembles a hot dog, you can just dice it with a knife - no big deal.

4) Dice up some 'dem onions and garlic. Grate the mozzarella to the best of your ability - or just dice it up with a knife.

5) Throw the onions, garlic and snorsage into a pan and sautee the crap outta it while you boil the macaroni shells and make the cheese (according to the recipe). Also: feel free to use a little less half-and-half than the recipe calls for - the cheese sauce I ended up with was a wee bit less gooey and more liquid than I would have liked it to be.

6) Dump half of the macaroni into the casserole dish. Throw in the sausage and onion and garlic mix. Stir it around a li'l, throw half of the mozzarella on top of it, stir it a li'l more, then dump half of the cheese sauce in there. Put in the rest of the macaroni and cheese sauce, then top the entire thing with the rest of the mozarella. You know, so it looks like a pizza. I didn't have enough mozzarella, so it covered like half of the shells and looked spotty.

7) Dump the whole thing into the oven and let it sit for 25 - 30 minutes like the recipe says. By now your friends should be struggling with the Rock Band drum kit, so go help them out with it.

If you do it better than I did, which really shouldn't be hard because I completely messed it up, you should end up with something incredibly gooey but delicious. You might also find this:

OMG WHAT BE THAT!!!!!111111111one