The Fishbang Taco Episode

[fishbang]

You can avoid the food prattle at the top of this show (http://ingamechat.net/audio/IGC20090929.mp3) if you like, since there's not much in it for the clean-living.

I may act like all sorts of snob from time to time – an English snob, a beer snob, a computer and video-games snob – but despite the guidance of a dedicated and patient foodie-girlfriend, I've never been able to develop myself as a food snob. I wish like hell I had a palette that could distinguish paprika from allspice or some shit, but I'm the kind of person who sometimes mistakes pork for chicken. So, given my 'druthers, I'd just as soon have a pair of hot dogs wrapped in a dollar pizza. Of course, I'd wash it all down with an artisan brew.

Somehow, Arjay had the balls to go and get his PS3 fixed in a way that makes no sense to the rest of us. Hair dryers were involved somehow, and for reasons we couldn't come to terms with, it worked. We were hoping to wring some great drama out of him during what we were sure would be a difficult time. We were also hoping he'd be motivated to buy that 360 we've been pressuring him into. But Arjay has no patience for drama, and now, a week later, it's as if nothing ever happened. I suppose we're gonna have to break his shit for real.

[Spigot]

Mmm. Food talk. I like my food!

And I'd just like to apologize for not having a tweet, PM or e-mail to contribute to this latest episode. I need to replenish my blather reserves.

[Vigil80]

At roughly 1 hour in there's a spot where the speech is heavily distorted. I have to say this. If somebody says something you don't want in the final podcats product - almost always James - puhleeze just cut it out and pretend it never happened. This bit where you distort the speech or refer back to it later with a "we cut something out, hee hee," which happened in a different episode, drives me and my curious nature crazy. :p

Now then, I know there's no shortage of high profile titles this fall, but I was wondering, or maybe hoping, that there would be some room for you to try some of the less mainstream titles. Afrika, for example, comes out this week, and is one of the only titles of its kind as far as I know. I'm looking forward to trying a game that, in two decades of gaming, has a premise that is almost totally new to me.

In case you don't know, Afrika is a PS3 title about being a wildlife photographer.

There's also Demon's Souls, which is steadily increasing in notoriety - and is said to be pretty hard, so Arjay and his revenant PS3 can take note.

One of the best parts of the show is being privy to real discussion and not just dry reviews. It's a shame the crew isn't paid for the show, so you could make it your job. :D

[Spigot]

In case you don't know, Afrika is a PS3 title about being a wildlife photographer.

There's also Demon's Souls, which is steadily increasing in notoriety - and is said to be pretty hard, so Arjay and his revenant PS3 can take note.I know that Arjay has played the import of Demon's Souls in the past, so I look forward to hearing more of his exploits in Demon's Souls Land over the coming weeks.

Afrika, on the other hand... eh. I have the import and it's good, but not at all worth the hype. It's basically Pokemon Snap meets Endless Ocean with a chance of actually getting killed while you're looking for pictures.

I also wish the crew would venture off the beaten path a bit more than they do. Every so often they'll bring up some odd game that I have forgotten about and it makes my heart go a-flutter. I just wish they had someone on the team who played lots of JPRGs or something along those lines so I could have them address for longer than 20 seconds :)

Now, does anyone on the crew harbour the same kind of fetish for Katamari games that I do? That's a question worth asking!

[nabokovfan87]

RJ, grab a usb hard drive and back up ur ps3. when you do the "fix" it typically will end up going bad again and each time you do the heat gun then the chances of fixing it are less and less. grab that data!

no news last week!!!?!?!?!?!????

well, 2 days after the psp go came out, the hackers had the last laugh:
http://www.qj.net/Hello-world-PSP-Go-hacked-proof-of-concept-video-released/pg/49/aid/134973
now this comes out:
http://www.qj.net/FreePlay-Yes-the-hack-is-universal-/pg/49/aid/135016

there was also these two:
http://www.qj.net/What-if-God-of-War-III-was-an-FPS-/pg/49/aid/134992
http://www.qj.net/Where-s-Waldo-Headed-to-the-Wii-DS-and-the-PC/pg/49/aid/135006

and today:
http://www.qj.net/Man-files-suit-against-Sony-for-PS3-FW-3-0/pg/49/aid/135026
http://www.qj.net/UK-stores-dropping-PSP-Go-prices-to-199/pg/49/aid/135017

[Gerbs]

Please tell me you saw Pandorum or Zombieland this weekend and not Surrogates.

[Suave Peanut]

One comment regarding the "Robot Chicken" animation in ODST: I think we are just collectively growing accustomed to seeing mo-capped characters in our games. One useful bit of information I gained from the otherwise waste of time that was the Halo panel at PAX is that all animations in Halo games are hand-keyed and not done with motion capture.

[Straximus]

At roughly 1 hour in there's a spot where the speech is heavily distorted. I have to say this. If somebody says something you don't want in the final podcats product - almost always James - puhleeze just cut it out and pretend it never happened. This bit where you distort the speech or refer back to it later with a "we cut something out, hee hee," which happened in a different episode, drives me and my curious nature crazy. :p

We know, that's why we do it! Actually, we've only done it that once. I have no idea what happened this ep to cause weird shit to happen. I wish I had time to take a look at that. Hopefully Scott or James will find it and fill me in. :)


It's a shame the crew isn't paid for the show, so you could make it your job. :D

Here here! :D

[Psykoboy2]

At roughly 1 hour in there's a spot where the speech is heavily distorted.

If it's reversed, then we don't mind people doing some detective work to figure it out, even if it's pointless. If it's an outright bleep, then forget it. And as Strax said, we've only done it once.

Not sure what you heard in this one, but it was nothing of our intention, I assure you. I didn't hear anything on my end, so if you can be more specific around where it is in the conversation and timeline, I can check closer.

Now then, I know there's no shortage of high profile titles this fall, but I was wondering, or maybe hoping, that there would be some room for you to try some of the less mainstream titles. Afrika, for example, comes out this week, and is one of the only titles of its kind as far as I know. I'm looking forward to trying a game that, in two decades of gaming, has a premise that is almost totally new to me.

We may not have brought it up in discussion (though I feel at some point in our past we have), but this is something we do feel guilt over. But there are reasons for this problem. For one, we can't really play games we don't want to play. By that I mean that I could never play a JRPG and talk about it. I can't get into those games. Same for me with WarCraft.

Second - money. I've allotted myself to buy one game a month this holiday season with a likely exception in November with MW2 and AC2 (though I might try a rental there on day of release). I'm not sure where the rest of the crew sit on this, but I can safely say we can't buy all the games we want to play and even if we could, it brings us to the third reason.

Time. I think these two reasons, money and time, are a big thing for everyone really. It's big for us and part of the reason we only usually hit the high profile selections. That is to say, we don't have a ton of time to play games so we'd like to hit the titles we know a lot of people will be talking about or playing at the moment.

Seriously, if we got paid to do this enough that it's all we ever had to do, then you'd likely see more than one episode per week. One to discuss news and happenings while another would focus on ALL we played and we would play a LOT, trust me.

Still, we'd like to find a way to figure this problem out. It is something a lot of times I come away from the show, personally, feeling we owe to you, the listeners.

Now, does anyone on the crew harbour the same kind of fetish for Katamari games that I do? That's a question worth asking!

I do! Although after the 360 exclusive one, I really only come to enjoy the last level where you suck up the damn universe. I like those kinds of levels where your Katamari becomes just so unbelievably huge!

no news last week!!!?!?!?!?!????

well, 2 days after the psp go came out, the hackers had the last laugh:
http://www.qj.net/Hello-world-PSP-Go-hacked-proof-of-concept-video-released/pg/49/aid/134973
now this comes out:
http://www.qj.net/FreePlay-Yes-the-hack-is-universal-/pg/49/aid/135016

there was also these two:
http://www.qj.net/What-if-God-of-War-III-was-an-FPS-/pg/49/aid/134992
http://www.qj.net/Where-s-Waldo-Headed-to-the-Wii-DS-and-the-PC/pg/49/aid/135006

and today:
http://www.qj.net/Man-files-suit-against-Sony-for-PS3-FW-3-0/pg/49/aid/135026
http://www.qj.net/UK-stores-dropping-PSP-Go-prices-to-199/pg/49/aid/135017

Are you providing us news for this weeks recording or telling us we missed those stories?

If it's the latter, none of those came out before we recorded this episode (9/29). Although we do have them in our news dump for this week's recording.

Please tell me you saw Pandorum or Zombieland this weekend and not Surrogates.

It was a bit of a clusterfuck on my part due to work related issues. We didn't get to see any of those three, sadly.

One useful bit of information I gained from the otherwise waste of time that was the Halo panel at PAX is that all animations in Halo games are hand-keyed and not done with motion capture.

Hmm, even still, the movement of these characters in their scenes seemed off even when compared to previous Halo games.

Here here! :D

I second that.

[lucklesswonder]

*points* I think you missed a spot.

[Vigil80]

Not sure what you heard in this one, but it was nothing of our intention, I assure you. I didn't hear anything on my end, so if you can be more specific around where it is in the conversation and timeline, I can check closer.
I went back to try to find it, but I can't. My mp3 player must have been haunted at the time. False alarm I suppose, sorry. :o

[Uno Ill Nino]

Scott, check your PMs please.

Also, a big thanks to Jeremy for not mentioning how badly we sucked that night he played firefight with us. Not our best effort! We just got the "Endure" achievement a couple nights ago, so we're back on our game again. If anyone is looking for a game, we should be on tonight around 10-11PM Central.

[nabokovfan87]

Are you providing us news for this weeks recording or telling us we missed those stories?

If it's the latter, none of those came out before we recorded this episode (9/29). Although we do have them in our news dump for this week's recording.


it was the latter... hmm, i coulda sworn... oh well, good thing you guys get to talk about it. maybe the whole record and release 4 days apart thing is getting to me.

[Straximus]

Also, a big thanks to Jeremy for not mentioning how badly we sucked that night he played firefight with us.

I just figured my own suckatude was bringing your group down. :D

[Psykoboy2]

It was probably your voice Strax. ;)

[Psykoboy2]

We call them Fishbang Tacos....30 Rock calls them cheesy blasters (http://www.eatmedaily.com/2009/10/cheesy-blasters-on-30-rock/).

[tacitus]

We call them Fishbang Tacos....30 Rock calls them cheesy blasters (http://www.eatmedaily.com/2009/10/cheesy-blasters-on-30-rock/).
But its missing the all important bun.