This podcast is brought to you by Sony Computer Entertainment: Where the games you play are as fun as s#!t.

Recorded a week (or two) ago, Chiahippo and Thrillhouse catch up, discuss CES, and probably spend more time bitching about Xbox Live outages than they should have. Luckily news has been slow, so it’s still slightly relevant.

• Chia and his Christmas Miracle.
• Why Dr. Phil’s show is sensationalist trash.
• How Thrill singlehandedly ended the format war.
• CES PSP BLU RAY
• Xbox Live: Being charged for services you get free everywhere else.

Right click to get the show!

 

 Number Nine: Slightly Aged, Yet Mildly Entertaining [51:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Sometimes life has a nasty habit of getting in the way, and keeping you from the things that really matter. Like updating the site, and putting out another show, of course. The good news is that we’ll have another show for you tomorrow. The bad news is that it’s one we recorded a bit ago, so some of the info might be a bit dated at this point. But don’t despare! We’ll have another one soon after, and more to come on a regular schedule.

Until then, how about you sit back, relax, and test your skills at Untangle.

This incredibly addictive, challenging puzzle game offers 17 stages that test your skills and patience. The objective is to “untangle” the picture by dragging the dots, and positioning them so that no lines overlap. Simple, yet complicated. Enjoy.

Purchased a PS3 at launch? Then you own Resistance: FOM (a.k.a. The game that carried the PS3 during the barren spring months). Lucky for owners, it was a pretty damn good game, and had a rock solid online multiplayer as well. Now, in 2008, Insomniac looks to bring us its latest installment in the Resistance franchise.

Gamestop’s favorite magazine, Gameinformer, brings exclusive details on Insomniac’s Resistance 2. Hold onto your butts:

• Nathan Hale’s campaign continues against the Chimera (hopefully with a good ending this time).
• A separate co-op campaign that can be played either 2 players offline, or 8 players online. (Basically a second campaign? Nice.)
• Online multiplayer featuring up to 60 players online (with totally kick ass, lag free even-if-you’re-in-Italy-and-playing-with-people-back-home-4000-miles-away-in-the-USA dedicated servers).
• Newly implemented class system (heavy, special ops, medic) in online play.
• Partially randomized geometry in certain level spots (We’ll see how this works out. Has the potential to be either great or horrible.)
• Stat tracking on MyResistance.net (I’m assuming what Bungie does.).

Are you excited yet? Well, if you liked the original Resistance, and still play it online from time to time, you should be. 60 players online at the same time? That is insane. The maps must be gigantic. Is that a record for a console game? I think so. And are they basically including 2 different campaigns, one single player focused and the other for up to 8 people at the same time? Potentially awesome, just hope that they don’t feel like the GRAW co-op missions (tacked on and mildly fun).

Wow, all these great features, I wonder what Sony will charge us monthly to play this game online, since they’re giving us dedicated servers? (Psst, here’s a hint: nothing.)

Insomniac might be my new favorite developer.

Short recap: Rock Band and Guitar Hero don’t play nice, don’t let you use each other’s guitars on their game. They’ve had well over a month now, and no solution. And what’s worse is that Rock Band guitars aren’t available separately. Enter third party peripherals, created by Nyko.

Announced at CES, this 3rd party guitar will support both games (via a very inelegant switch), let you rock out wirelessly for 80 hours on 3 AA batteries, and will include all the features included in the Rock Band guitar (effects, tilt for star power, hopefully not terrible buttons).

Great, so a solution is on the way, right? If Activision and Harmonix don’t ever resolve this problem, then at least we have an alternative. The problem is that this 3rd party band-aid won’t be available until March. It’s January now. Rock Band came out in November. This is ridiculous. Hope you’re willing to wait a couple more months to play this with friends.

I’m happy I got the 360 version. Activision, Harmonix…you really messed this thing up.

Recently the Xbox 360 released Metal Slug 3 on Live Arcade, charging 800 points (10 bucks). If you’ve already picked it up, love it and want more, or have held off picking it up because of its high price point, then this is something that might interest you.

For 40 dollars (roughly 3600 MS points after taxes) you can get a collection featuring 7 Metal Slug games including Metal Slug 3. This collection, available for the PS2, PSP and Wii, is the perfect alternative/addition to Microsoft’s offering.

If the Wii version interests you, keep in mind that you’ll need to have a Gamecube controller handy. The game, oddly enough, doesn’t support the classic controller, and using the included wiimote configuration is guaranteed to drive you insane.

If PSP is your choice, then keep in mind you’ll be facing a couple mind-numbingly long load times (sometimes a full minute). The PS2 version has some load times as well, but not near as long (6-8 seconds). Still, if you’re willing to sacrifice online multiplayer and achievements, want to use a functional d-pad, and want a hard copy of the game which will never disappear when/if your 360 breaks/breaks again, then this is a route you might want to take. For the price of 4 Metal Slug games, you can get all 7.

Well, you might be able to. It looks like Sony might be announcing Skype support for the PSP at CES 2008, in Las Vegas next week.

If true, I can’t help but ask…how will this work? Via bluetooth headset? Because simple texting would be quite a chore using the PSP’s predictive text.

If true, I can’t see myself using this much. In an age where everyone carries cell phones, having to find a wi-fi spot in order to access Skype seems like too much of a chore. Sony, please, where are our friend invites, where is Home, where are our trophy rooms? We’re grateful you keep adding features, but please get to the ones we’re asking for.

An interesting addition nonetheless.

Todays Gamers Video Update is a video review so here you go, PlatformNation.com’s official video review of Unreal Tournament 3 for the PS3.

MSRP 59.99

Pluses
+ Fun fast pace FPS
+ You can use EITHER keyboard and mouse OR the sixaxis controller
+ Supports vibration
+ Allows user created mode (free downloads)

Minuses
- Like most ps3 games, not everyone has voice chat
- No clan support

http://www.unrealtournament3.com

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