Week of 5/6/2007
Good Day Sunshine
Wow. It sure looks nice and clean around here, doesn't it? Yes my friends, that is Team Fremont 2.0, the result of - seriously now - almost two years of brainstorming, procrastination, arguing, planning, more procrastination, and hard fucking work by Mr. Hilden.
I give the guy a lot of shit, and bust his balls on an almost daily basis, but I have to congratulate him on a job well done. The original Team Fremont design was a collaboration by the two of us with him doing all the technical stuff; you know...the work. This layout is almost entirely his doing with only a few suggestions from Moe and I. Once we saw his rough idea - again, nearly two years ago - we knew it was that much better than the original design that we rode his ass at every turn until he got it done.
So thanks to that beautiful flame-headed bastard, shit is actually organized and functional. Reviews are sorted by console (GASP!), the podcast is now featured at the top (NO WAY!), and if you scroll to the bottom of this page, you'll find a handy little form with which to send me letters.
...
So...
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What are you waiting for?
And once that letter has been sent, raise your glass to Hilden. For today - and only today, mind you - he's the fucking man.
John
5/8 Play-by-Play
Our 5/8/07 episode can be found here, and I'm going to do some "play-by-play", so to speak. I figured it'd be an easy way to link to stuff we talked about, clarify things that were said, and even correct some mistakes that were made. As with most endeavors that I take on, I'm going to try to do this every week until I get bored with it. I hope you enjoy...
1:35 - For our E3 2006 coverage, check here. I really am going to miss that place. Hilden and I have a lot of great memories of going there together. The "Galaxy" that Hilden refers to is the little cafe inside the LA Expo Center. Every morning before the show opened, we'd grab a muffin, some juice, and the Show Daily magazine, sit outside the Galaxy, and prepare for the day's madness.
2:11 - For the record, it's "Los Angelans".
2:32 - It was Wideload Games' Alex Seropian that called E3 a "strokefest".
2:45 - Seriously, the lights dimmed when Moe walked into the room. That guy has had a shitty couple of weeks, so hopefully none of our listeners took his ribbing too seriously.
4:14 - The podcast the writer is referring to is the PlayStation Nation Podcast, hosted by our dear friends Torgo and BadBadLeroyBrown.
4:52 - That Sonic review can be heard here.
5:31 - Actually, that dart game I was thinking of is an unlockable game on WarioWare: Smooth Moves.
8:24 - Be sure to check out Phil's podcast, Evil Avatar Radio.
9:07 - "God bless Phil"? What, is he my boyfriend now?
10:10 - Here's the link for Ask a Drunk Dude.
13:30 - That comment really wasn't meant towards Robert, I swear. We get a lot of letters that are pretty belligerent about their spelling, almost to the point of being obnoxious. And while I haven't quite reached the point Moe's at, it does make me wonder what they're thinking. I mean, they want us to read this shit on the air, right? How are we supposed to make sense out of a letter that contains 350 words, 2 periods, no commas, and no capitalization? At least run the thing through a spell checker before you send it.
14:33 - Here's the link to The Video Games Show.
16:20 - Links for MGC stuff: Midwest Gaming Classic, Olympia Resort and Spa, GOATstore, MGC MySpace Page.
17:15 - Here's our stupid MySpace Page. No we won't go to the dance with you.
21:45 - Here's the Official Site for Catan.
24:08 - Wood does bear repeating.
27:18 - The Official Site for Culdcept Saga. Count the days, my friends. Count the fucking days.
28:00 - Learn about Sun Tzu and download The Art of War for free.
32:00 - Here's the original article from Joystiq, Jaffe's blog with the response, and Joystiq's follow-up article.
35:20 - At my wedding, Hilden went on a profanity-laden tirade when I jokingly told him he had to dance with Moe during the wedding party dance. We had to calm his ass down and get him a glass of water before he started punching grandparents.
38:12 - Here's that Virtual Console site. Way to keep it simple, Nintendo.
41:11 - All you ever wanted to know about 80s cheese-metal drummer Bobby Rock. Having "Nelson" on your resume must get you a lot of gigs.
41:39 - Sorry Moe. "Hair of the Dog" is a song by Nazareth.
42:20 - Here's that IGN story.
44:40 - The Official Site for Odin Sphere.
46:28 - It looks as though Taito Legends 2 now has a ship date of 5/16. Yesterday it was 5/7, this morning it was 5/14, and now it's 5/16. Needless to say, we won't be reviewing it on next week's show.
48:17 - Touch the Dead. You know you want to.
52:08 - For more on Super Rub-a-Dub, including the referenced 2.9 review, scroll down to the bottom of this page.
52:36 - Speaking of Chu Chu Rocket, today I finally scored a copy of the GBA version. Word!
54:30 - I just love it when there are 2-to-3 different conversations going on at once.
57:52 - Write in and correct me on my "Taito" pronunciation.
Whew...that was a lot of work. I hope you enjoyed it.
John
Less Than Meets the Eye
I'll first admit to not being a big fan of Transformers back in their heyday. I was more of a He-Man kind of guy. But the combined excitement of the upcoming movie and the fact that I'm having a son in August inspired me to pick up the Target exclusive Transformers 4-pack. Now, I realize my son won't be able to play with them for a number of years, but now that I've opened them, that may be a good thing as it's going to take me that long to figure out how to actually transform these plastic pieces of shit.
Optimus Prime was fairly straight-forward, though it did take me a little while to get him to his form of looking kind of like a semi. Megatron was more complicated, however, and took me at least twenty minutes to figure out. I gave up on Jetfire, and Soundwave's transformation was aborted after his leg snapped off. This is the result of my Transformers experience:
I seem to remember these things being made out of metal, rather than shitty, flimsy plastic. I also seem to recall having the ability - at age seven - to transform them in less than thirty seconds. Is my memory fuzzy, or do these new toys suck ass?
John
Mother Nature's Son
I spent an entire weekend with my mother and, much to my surprise, nobody died. In fact, it was a rather pleasant weekend. Is it a sign of aging when I can sit on a porch with my mother and not only have a decent conversation, but I can have a conversation that lasts more than two hours? Could it be that now that I'm over the age of thirty, I have finally grown out of my adolescence?
I may have to think on that for a while.
I did have a chance to check out Sony's Super Rub a' Dub, a game that I had completely written off after reading IGN's scandalous review. The author of the review, Jeremy Dunham, gave the game a 2.9, which to me infers that upon installation to my PS3's hard drive, the machine would explode into millions of pieces and the shrapnel would fester in my flesh until I died, when the shards would gradually work their way out through my body's decomposition. They would then crawl to the surface, hunt down and haunt my children and my children's children for all eternity.
Here's a snippet from Mr. Dunham's review:
Spoiler alert! In George Clooney's 2005 political drama Syriana, his undercover alter ego Bob Barnes was the subject of a brutal torture scene. During the disturbing sequence, the captured CIA agent is repeatedly punched in the face before having several of his fingernails ripped out via pliers. It's a terrible moment for sure and, while drawing parallels between that kind of pain and what it's like to play Super Rub-a-Dub isn't fair to victims of such inhumanity, you shouldn't lose the metaphor -- it applies.
Sounds awful, right? Now whether it be foolhardy obstinancy or outright sadism, I chose to download the demo, despite the warnings. I loaded up the game and booted up the first level, fully especting the SIXAXIS to melt in my hands. Hiding behind my couch, peaking over the back, I began to play. Instead of what "may go down in history as one of the worst PlayStation 3 games we'll ever see", as noted by Mr. Dunham, I found a simple, yet enjoyable little puzzle game that happens to use motion controls.
The review claims that the SIXAXIS responses "absolutely suck" and that it "rarely" feels as though you have control. I'm not sure if there was something wrong with IGN's office machine, but the game controls fine for me. Perhaps where he got annoyed was during the levels that have "currents" pushing the water in one direction or another. While these can be troublesome, it's by design, in order to make the game more complicated.
What I will concede is that the game is overpriced at $7. Despite the incredible water effects, online ranking, and motion controls, it barely feels like a $5 impulse buy. However, I'm not going to argue over two freaking dollars. Does its release make up for yet another delay of Calling All Cars? No. But the game is enjoyable, there are sixty levels, and while it never achieves the heights set by my favorite puzzle game, Chu Chu Rocket, it certainly is in that vein.
John
What can I say? It's been a slow week. So let's talk about cabins and Pineapple Express, shall we?
Damn it!!! We lost the bet and this episode represents our punishment for the loss! Just a heads up. While we're usually NSFW, this one is REALLY NSFW! You've been warned. Steve Perry really makes us mad.
In addition to that cucumber sporting bastard, we're talking about Ikaruga for XBLA and Phil Haymes joins us with the British Drunken Gamers for a review of Mario Kart for the Wii!
All this and more on this week's Team Fremont Live!
I rage about activist douche bags, contemplate buying a pinball table, and pine for pomegranate juice in this week's CWJ.
Damn it! We actually DID do a live show but my drunk ass managed too screw up the recording!So here's the non live version of this week's episode..and I think it's better anyway.
We review Rez HD, tell stories of our time with the Twin Galaxies guys as we talk about The King of Kong DVD and go old school with Astrosmash!
All this and more on the latest Team Fremont Live!
Dont' forget to tune it next week, Feb. 10 at 7:00pm CST for our live call-in show!
Phil's gone and I'm sad. Let's wish him off in this week's CWJ.
Hey asshole! Get out of my way! I need to buy my kid a Mr. Potatohead! I'll take a Barbie doll and use it to gouge out your fucking eyes!Cooking with John.
It's late. I'm tired. And I'm babbling again. This time about Don Rickles. Kind of. I need sleep.
DAMN IT! I got screwed by Ubercaster again this week. You'll hear where. But despite that, we manage to talk about Guitar Hero 3 and some God of War for PSP. Moe also has some thoughts on Little Nemo for NES.
Special thanks to Mrs. Trickman and Mrs. Cade for the heart warming intro!
Sorry about the shitty audio this week. Not sure what settings I had on the old Ubercaster this week, but they made us sound like we're in an amped up bathtub! But despite the shower like tones, you can hear us talking about Halo 3 and the new Fighter Stick EX2 for the 360!
That and news about John's lisp on the latest Team Fremont Live!
If you'd stop cock-blocking me I'd give that news some super sexy lovin'! Nothing like a rowdy drunk...Anyway, I'm talking NFL, baby tours, motor oil, and public urination in Cooking with John this week. Check it out - uninterrupted - here.
Damn am I tired...It's a bit more baby talk this week as I answer a few of your letters. Enjoy while I go take a nap.
Sigh...10 people drunk out of their minds makes for one HARD editing session. So, this week's TFL will be a little late. In the meantime, we'll tide you over with the latest episode of Team Fremont Puppet Theater!
Enjoy!
The lesson of this week's Cooking with John is "Never try to understand the mind of a gamer." For example, what would inspire someone who doesn't read Japanese and hates Japanese RPGs to buy three of them?Prepare to be mystified. Find it here.
It got a little heated on this week's episode, but we all had a good time in the end, thanks to Sailor Jerry!We talk about The Darkness for the 360 and Super Stardust HD on the PS3 along with Turbo Talk from John!
Check it out on this week's Team Fremont Live!
We're back at the Team Fremont Bar this week and that means we're drunk. And the show is long. Go figure.
Check it out here.
We're back from Midwest Gaming Classic 2007 and man are we tired...But not too tired to bring you pictures and info from the show. So many pictures, in fact, that I broke through the page! Stay tuned for a very special podcast episode. And in the meantime, check out the photos here.
We're talking about Catan for XBLA this week as well as develops going crazy. Moe's also back and he's taking out his darkness on the mailbag!
Check it out on this week's Team Fremont Live!
Despite what you may have heard about Sony's Super Rub-a-Dub, the game's not that bad at all. Find out more in this week's CWJ.
We're pretending we're not over 30 this week as we talk Pokeman Diamond and Pearl for the DS. We've also got a review of The Red Star for the PS2. All this and more on the latest Team Fremont Live!
We're back and we're talking about the much anticipated Raiden III and TMNT for the GBA!Check it out on the latest episode of Team Fremont Live!