1) LISTEN! to Trigames.NET Podcast Episode 71. "For Me To Poop On" is a reference to Triumph the Insult Dog, whose relevance you'll come to understand when you listen to the episode.

2) READ! about how Neutopia II is just Neutopia, plus diagonals. Apparently Gamespot's review crew didn't think my last line was too insensitive to fathers around the world, which makes me happy ^_^

3) On my "I Hate You! *SLAMS DOOR*" list: Draqq, Slunks, and now Scott for beating the motherloving crap out of "Through The Fire And Flames" in Guitar Hero III. I weep with jello-sy.

Preface: We'd like to apologize for the horrid sound quality. One of our sound files got eateded up by the computer on which it was recorded, so we had to use our backup recording.

So I'm walking down the street and I see a large launch line for some game, hardware, or whatnot.

Then I see three big honking news cameras from national news networks paying attention to the guy at the front of the line in the Master Chef helmet - was that Chief or Chef? - asking him what it's like standing in front of a line and what it's been like standing there for four days in that helmet without taking a shower or grabbing a bite to eat or taking a swig of any beverage in the freezing cold waiting for some videogame that is probably going to be in ample supply for the next ten decades. How the **** do you think he feels? Cold, hungry, thirsty and smelly, you stupid ********!

His answer, of course, is muffled by the Master Chef - Chief? - helmet as the news cameras zoom in and the interviewers nod and smile while thinking in the back of their heads that something must be wrong with this strange person sitting at the front of the line for days on end just to get something that'll be there for eternity.

After taking in the moment, I throw my Mountain Dew at Master Chump's face and run like the dickens.

Then I download Episode 71 of the Trigames.NET Podcast and listen to how much better these four guys are than me, you, and the rest of the world, as they discuss the phenomenon of the media sensationalizing people standing in line for helmets covered in Mountain Doo. Love it or hate it, they rule Earth. So listen up, or be left behind!

Makedown

0:01:51 - What Has Ethan Been Playing - Nothing!
0:09:56 - News Poop

Numbers, numbers:
Guitar Hero III Sells 1.4 Million In October
NPD October: Wii Crushes All Comers
GameTap Adds 1,000th Game to Roster
Nintendo Churning Out 1.8 Million Wiis Per Month
Simple 2000: The Japanese Hardware Chart - PS3 Outsells Wii!

Giving Old Games a Second Chance:
Xbox Originals Won't Have Achievements on 360
How Capcom Decided Okami Wii Was A Good Idea

New toys
George Harrison Comments On New DS, Forgets How To Say "No Comment"
Rock Band DLC Prices, Details & Dates Revealed

How about that hard drive?
Nintendo Not Limiting WiiWare Sizes

Flotsam and Jetsam
Atari Exits Production as CEO Resigns
Mad awesome games came out last week

01:09:43 - Bag of **** and Al's Lusty Affair with Animal Crossing
01:15:18 - Discussion Topic: Videogame Launches, Long Lines, and the Media Sensationalizing It All
01:37:58 - Mailbag (and a special... uh... Crab... during the preceding interlude!)

Interludes provided by:
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker - Title Screen (Nintendo DS)
Okami - Title Screen (Playstation 2)
Trigames.NET Coverage of the Playstation 3 Launch Pt. 1 Snippet - Before the Storm
Trigames.NET Coverage of the Playstation 3 Launch Pt. 2 Snippet - The Aftermath

Download here.
File Size: 57.6MB
Running time: 2:00:04

Please - digg us, review us on iTunes, and don't forget - hit the mailbag with your Questions and Reader Bags of ****! You can get previous episodes at our Podcast Homepage.

1) With the less-delayed posting of Episode 70, we should now be back to our normal gestation period of posting episodes on Tuesday afternoons. This week I'm hoping that all four of our podcast crew arrives for showtime so that we can finally talk about Al's topic with regards to the media sensationalization of people standing in long, long, LONG lines for videogames (and I assume more). Not so much the standing in line part, but the media's take on it, is what I guess he wants to talk about. I'll find out for sure if everyone bothers to show up. For now, send in your questions and comments to mailbag AT trigames DOT net. There are a LOT of interesting sales numbers being thrown around (hint: PS3 outsold Wii in Japan last week; Wii sells over 510k again; yadda yadda), so we'll definitely touch on that.

2) Yeah, I did manage to finish Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker, but unfortunately not by Monday. I give it a 3.0. Ha ha ha I am just joking I teh gaves it teh 7.5z0rz omg Nitedo pay me of to mak sure a pokeman competition dont scores higher than it do. I don't know why I just did a combination of CATS and a chat room junkie there, but I did. So there. Bite me.

3) Guitar Hero 3 related - I STILL CAN'T FRIGGIN' 5* Raining Blood on Expert! What the Fark-dot-com! I can easily pass the ridiculous 5432 4321 part without Star power now, but I still can't break that fifth star in. I'm locked at 219k for that stupid song. It's the only one I have left, as I finally fived Number of the Beast. Oi. Stupid Slayer.

4) More Guitar Hero 3 - I just downloaded the boss packs, and I failed the Lou battle at 64%. (a) Thank god for Star Power, or else I'd have never gotten that far. (2) Thank god it's a boss battle song in Career mode, and not a mandatorry 100% play-through. I'd never beat Career mode then.

5) Tracy McGrady injuring his arm and letting Kobe ride the rest of the game on those pesky midrange fadeaways totally broke my Wednesday. Ugh. I was hoping T-Mobile would keep that scoring lead up

6) Metallica's One solo? On cello? Why, I think... not. I just tried it and my thumb is blistering up and it sounds like nasally crap. It's really more fit for an electrically amplified instrument. But Sunshine Of Your Love on cello? Most definitely can be done. I just gotta learn the solo. Then again, that isn't the hardest song to play anyway...

7) Edit: After trying to play Jordan with the new Guitar Hero III guitar, and then playing some Guitar Hero III songs with the Guitar Hero II X-Plorer, I've come to the conclusion that I still like the old fret buttons better. The Strum bar is better on the new model, but not by much, and not enough to make me forget about the less-than-clicky fret buttons.

1) Almost done with Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker. Completely robbing me of bedtime. Eyes are red.

2) Podcast 70 is technically available (without MP3 tags). But ya have to know where to look.

1) Neutopia is "good". But Gamespot parent CNET lists a 7.0 as "very good" which is weird - I think Neutopia is good, but not "very" good. Hmm...

2) Don't forget to check out Episode 69 of the podcast, featuring Draqq as guest.

3) Episode 70 is coming along nicely. I should have it posted tomorrow morning. But, I want to keep the focus on Ep. 69 for another day since I had to let 68 gestate, thus delaying the posting of 69's notes. So, you can certainly *get* episode 70 tomorrow - but don't expect a note page for it until Wednesday or so. I think by next week (Ep. 71) we should be back to posting notes every Tuesday.

NOTE: We record Episode 70 on Sunday. Please be sure to send in questions or comments - mailbag AT trigames DOT net.

Hey rook! It's a Game Revolutionary! Contributor and Gamerevolution.com staffer Nick Tan, a.k.a. Draqq, joins as a guest and listens in as we act traditionally ludicrous and teh stupido. Ethan also finally makes her long-hated return, and proves as useless as ever! Sorry, HIS return. Yep. We talk about Nintendo's insistance on the lack of a hard drive; robbers who used an NES Zapper; Japan and its supposed "fear" of original IP; used games; whether or not games are productive; and more! Nick offers his bag of poop, and the rest of us chime in with games that really, truly suck - like Mario Galaxy, Halo 3 and Crysis. They are all bags of poop! Dive in, eat well, and - lest we forget about our poor last episode - don't forget to listen to Episode 68 as well.

Ethan Down

0:02:09 - What We're Playing (And what Nick Doesn't Want to Play)
0:23:18 - News

Weird News
Tekken film approaching release?
It's a Duck Hunt robbery!

Game News
Men like Bejeweled, darn it!
Super Smash Bros. Brawl gets a Level Editor

Scandalouz
Hot Tea. Hack Re-Enables Violence in PSP Manhunt 2

Idiocy
Nintendo - "No Wii hard drive!"
Video game reviews all suck!!!

Industry
New Nintendo Exec Spreads Wii Gospel
Japan Fears New, Risky IPs
EA Chief: Games Industry Can't Afford to Be Arrogant
Bad publicity = $$$.

01:15:44 - Bag of Poop
01:21:04 - Main Topic - Used Games And Their Effect on the Industry (Thanks Gamestop)
01:35:22 - Mailbag

Music from:
Lunar Pool (Title Screen, Gameplay)
Duck Hunt (Thank the Store Robbers for that one)
Flash Focus (Gameplay Sound)
Guitar Hero III (Lou Battle)

Download here.
File size: 52.3 MB
Run time: 1:49:01

Please - digg us, review us on iTunes, and don't forget - hit the mailbag with your Questions and Reader Bags of ****! You can get previous episodes at our Podcast Homepage.

So first thing's first: Trigames.NET Podcast Episode 69 is uploading right now. You'll find it here by 12:30AM EST on Tuesday the 6th (9:30PM for you Wessyders). I wanted to get it up quick before I finished up the breakdown and RSS feed because CCU co-founder and former leader, Trigames.NET contributor, Gamerevolution.com staffer, and all around good buddy Draqq_Zyxorian makes a guest appearance. He tolerates our shenanigans and offers some dirt of his own: how about a news piece in which would-be robbers tried to use a NES zapper?

Here's the blurb:

"Contributor and Gamerevolution.com staffer Nick Tan, a.k.a. Draqq, joins as a guest and listens in as we act traditionally ludicrous and teh stupido. Ethan also finally makes her long-hated return, and proves as useless as ever! Sorry, HIS return. Yep. We talk about Nintendo's insistance on the lack of a hard drive; robbers who used an NES Zapper; Japan and its supposed "fear" of original IP; used games; whether or not games are productive; and more! Dive in, eat well, and - lest we forget about our poor last episode - don't forget to listen to Episode 68 as well."

Also, dammit if trying to blaze through Neutopia ain't tiring. Over the past 4 hours, I've gone through half the game and I plan to finish it tomorrow night. Again - it's a shameless Zelda clone. At first it's almost criminally identical, but it has a few tricks up its sleeve to make it stand out. Honestly, I like it - but that's because I'm playing the damn thing on mute and I'm in the mindset of a TG-16 owner who never had the luxury of playing the original Zelda. Specifically: the music is horrid and the rip-off may offend you. Still, so far it's solid action adventuring. That fire rod is pretty cool, it is. Is it as good as the original Zelda? Nah, which is upsetting because it came out later and on "superior" hardware. It just doesn't feel as tight overall. Anyway... time to shut down.

AGAIN: Please don't forget to check out episode 68 of the podcast. It never got full time to gestate because of disastrous happenings. The RSS feed for episode 69 as well as a breakdown should be up tomorrow, but for now my eyes are bleeding.

1) Listen to Episode 68 of the podcast. It went up really late so you may have missed it. It won't get a healthy gestation period, which is a shame because it was a good one.

2) Send in your questions for tomorrow's recording (where? mailbag AT trigames DOT net!!!!). If the stars align correctly, Draqq will be joining us and Ethan will be making her return. Sorry, his return. So maybe we'll finally get to Al's topic about the media sensationalizing people standing in line for game-related stuff.

3) Songs left to five star in Guitar Hero III's Expert Career Mode (not counting unlockables): Number of the Beast (4*); Raining Blood (4*)... favorite song as of now: One (just broke 415k)... least favorite song as of now: In Flames (stupid stupid STUPID)... least favorite part of the game: Lou... number of times online crashed for me: once, when I was playing with Slunks

4) Neotopia is a shameless Zelda clone. A little more playtime will tell whether or not it actually copies the high quality of the game, too, or if it's just terrible.

This podcast is really late, but it's also a really good episode, so just friggin' listen to it. We blame Audacity and computer problems that rendered half of our initial edit useless.

We talk about reviews and the internet frothy fanboys that read / use them for the wrong reasons; some trash talk from Master Will Wright about what IS and ISN'T next-gen; et cetera, yadda, oh just listen to it already. Oh, and bag of deuce. Can't get enough of that. Anyway, hurry up and get on with it before it gets old and crusty. By posting this so late we're not giving it a healthy-enough gestation period, so gobble it up before it becomes irrelevant - which is to say, never, because we are always non-irrelevant. We rule you and your little dog too. And so forth. Blah blah. Transmission obo.

Late Down
0:00:00 - Halloween is on a weekday, and that's "caca-dookie out the nose."
0:02:45 - What are we Playing?
0:11:33 - News:
GENERAL NEWS
*The Library of Congress Loves Video Games
*Okami Wii is a PS2 port with waggle (yay or nay?)
GAMING BUSINESS
*Microsoft's Games Division Doesn't Lose Money Again
*Nintendo President: No Price Cut for Wii, Have Gifts Instead
GAME REVELATIONS
*Rock Band Track list revealed
*Rock Band Achievements
*Halo 3's Saved Films feature is a big hit; Smash Bros. Brawl follows suit
SMACKTALK
*Red Octane being jerks about Guitar Compatibility: Rock Band guitar usable with Guitar Hero III? Probably not!
*Then, Guitar Compatibility somewhat cleared up
*Rock Band Dev Dishes Out PS3 Hate
*Will Wright Loves Advance Wars, Says Wii is Only Real Next Gen Console
*Nolan Bushnell explains why games today are "pure, unadulterated trash"
00:53:04 - Bag of ****
01:10:32 - Main Topic: On Game Reviews - A Collective Rant
01:34:08 - Mailbaggio and The Spam Report Returns!

Download here.
Running Time: 2:11:55
File Size: 63.3MB

Music Provided By:

Ninja Gaiden II (NES)
Advance Wars II (GBA)
Either Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street - I forget; doesn't matter, they both stink (NES)
Viva Pinata (X360)

Please - digg us, review us on iTunes, and don't forget - hit the mailbag with your Questions and Reader Bags of ****! You can get previous episodes at our Podcast Homepage.