Wooten! I love Friday Newscasts (I miss them).

Also, allow me to repost this, in case it was stranded in the limbo of last episode's thread:


Hey guys, I have a suggestion. I therefore submit it to you for consideration.

Since I was looking forward to the Donkey Kong Country 3 discussion that never materialized, and being a fan of the past Game Club discussions and retro gaming in general, I think I may have come up with an easy way to incorporate such things into the Newscast.

As I am also a fan of the Extra Life feature on the site, perhaps you could dedicate 10-15 minutes each podcast to discussing the weekly feature? If they happen to be on the Newscast that week, whoever wrote the article could spend a couple of minutes talking about the game a little more in-depth. Other Newscast members who happen to have access to the game could play it for half an hour to refresh their memories, or they could simple share their previous experiences with the title. That way, not everyone will be required to play the game, as per Game Club, yet  people can still contribute to the discussion.

Furthermore, you could pull comments from the Extra Life feature (that conveniently already exists) and read and discuss them on the air. It in turn might even drive more people to view the "Extra Life" article. It seems as though it would require little effort -- most of the heavy lifting is already done -- and you could tack it on to the end of the podcast and make the title "Extra Life" even more apt.

What does everyone think?

So was Andy even present for the first half? Either way, it was a funny joke. :D

I hope Andy likes 999, since it's one of my favorite DS games, but from the sounds of it I don't think it will be for him; the game really is essentially a novel, one that doesn't make sense until you've gone through at least two of the endings, and the gameplay takes a back seat to the story the entire time. Still, I hope I'm wrong, and that you come to enjoy it, especially since unlike some overrated books like Crime and Punishment it's actually an interesting story that only begins with pedantic writing. :P

One thing I'd like to note though: the 500 recharges Nintendo stated to for the 3DS refers to the number of times you can recharge the battery before the batterylife begins to decline to around 70% of its original amount; it does not die after so few charges. Admittedly, I'm not sure if that number is normal or not, but it sounds about the same as what my DS managed.

a couple of episodes back you were saying the 3DS wont play music when it is closed.  Will it play music through headphones if the 3DS is closed?


Great pod BTW, You guys are making the wait for PilotWings unbearable.

Protip: Average games deserve average scores. Some people say that is 5, some people say that is 7.

I assume this is referring to one of the games mentioned in the first half of the show, but I've got words about this (and thought it might be referencing my Steel Diver review at first glance).

The way I've always looked at it is that a 7/7.5 is an "average game I would play," meaning it's enjoyable, though its got some problems that bug me. That ruling isn't absolute, but its usually the basic rule of thumb I go by.
A 5, to me, is not an average game I would play. It's merely an average game. Something that doesn't impress me at all, and is mostly meh.

Looking back at my recent reviews, I would say Steel Diver exemplifies a 7/7.5 for me, while Tron Evolution DS is a prime example of a 5.

Naturally, this doesn't go from everyone, but that's one reviewer's opinion. You start to develop these kind of thoughts on things when you've reviewed close to 150 games in 3 years.

I was talking about Rango.

Figured. My points still stand.

For some reason the pictures I've seen of Rango remind me of Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath.

NWR policy is that a 5 means a relatively even balance of good and bad aspects to the game. Many sites use the A-F school-inspired grading scale, and I think that's apt. The thing about "average" games is that you would hope that the average game that manages to get published has more good points than bad, just as in school, you hope that most classes have better than a 50% average student grade -- failing grades just don't get a distinction. Thus, the actual average game does indeed end up closer to a 7, even though it's not in the middle of the scale.

A much more concise point that I agree with wholeheartedly.

Also the average of gaming is brought down by the shelves full of shovelware that never gets reviewed (mostly because 90% of it is just a new look on a previous shovelware title).

On my own personal scale, I only rate games by how enjoyable the overall experience is, so 5 is my average score (and it means I enjoyed it as much as I would an average game). I think this is the better way to do it, since in the end the amount of enjoyment (not "fun" per se) I have with a game is the only thing that matters to me: graphics, sound, etc. only contribute or detract from that all-important metric. By contrast, a 7 is both moderately rare and somewhat high praise: a 10 means the game is damn near perfect and will never get old There's about a half-dozen games that qualify. I admit that I don't really understand the logic behind the more typical 7-10 scale, even after the explanations offered here, but I've cometo accept that that is how it's done.

This has been mentioned for a couple of episodes now, but you really guys should listen to your friends and at least check out Clone Wars.  I think anyone who likes Star Wars at all could find something to enjoy about it; the battles are pretty spectacular, and the plots are generally good.  Generally speaking, the series has a fairly broad scope; the episodes don't always follow Anakin or Obi-Wan; however, one I've enjoyed them primarily because they actually present Anakin as a relatable, sympathetic character.  I actually like this version of him.

It's kind of been interesting to watch what they've done with the series.  Some of the clones featured in the Tartatovsky cartoons e.g. Commander Cody make a return and have individual personalities.  Also, the show has borrowed a number of ideas from differnent genre's for some of the episodes...everything from The Seven Samurai, prison br to horror films.  I'll also note that for a show presumably aimed (at least in part) towards kids, there is a considerable amount of death involved. 

I enjoyed the first two seasons immensely...much of the third season has unfortunately been hit or miss because they spent so much time on the political side of things.  That doesn't always make for exciting TV.

That's the problem with the 10 point scale: everybody has a slightly different take on what kind of experience equates to what number. That's why it's always important to read the full text of the review to get a better idea of the reviewer's feelings, and not get too hung up on the number.

This scoring things needs to be clarified in the next RangoCast.