Greg is buying a 360 in 3, 2, 1....

Thank you so much for getting this out prior to Sunday kickoff, by the way. It's so much better to have RFN to listen to than football commentary that doesn't involve Gus Johnson.

LOLXD why does it seem that every week i send you guys an email for the show you decide not to have listener mail??XD
All jokes aside, keep up the good work>:P

Yay, more Xenoblade players!

what platform is xenoblade for?

PAL and Japanese Wiis.  We will likely never see this in NA, as we have already established that NoA is incompetent.

well that is unfortunate. i was hoping to get it. iv heard alot of good about it. oh well. looks like im stuck with getting Mario Kart 7. (jamesXD)

If you want Xenoblade, it sounds like it's worth the effort to import. We explain on this episode the steps needed to do so.

It's fairly easy to make a Wii play import games. The hard part is just getting the game since it isn't sold in the US and the online stores in the UK have been sold out for weeks. You could buy the game from anywhere in Europe but the weak pound is the only thing that's letting you have the game at a reasonable price. You probably don't want to pay mainland European game prices (45€, about 60 dollars)

If the homebrew route is your only way of playing Xenoblade Chronicles, absolutely go for it. This might be my favourite game of the year so far (though it's got strong competition from Portal 2) and I'm less than halfway through. Trust me, I'm an RPG neophyte who can't stand the majority of games in this genre coming out of Japan, so that means a lot.

Can someone please tell me when the Skyward Sword segment begins and ends?  I'm trying to avoid any and all details/spoilers regarding that game.  Thanks.

The Skyward Sword discussion has its own chapter in the AAC version that runs from 01:50-11:22.

Thank you

I'm pretty sure the NES only has one audio channel. But Jonny's correct that using the RCA plugs for video and audio definitely improved the experience way back when!

The feeling of flow is the best part of Xenoblade. There's always something to do, if you don't want to work on the next story objective you can just fast travel to an earlier area and do quests for the various NPCs and develop the stories in the various locations (you even have a reputation level for those areas that unlocks more sidequests as you complete others). It's also pretty rewarding to talk to all those named NPCs and fill in the connections in your affinity grid, then see them change as you complete quests for them (I screwed up a nopon's marriage by giving him poor ingredients for his alcohol brewing). Some quests even have moral choices (e.g. get an aphrodisiac, then decide who to hand it to after seeing the results of each choice in a premonition).

Well, I think I'm getting Xenoblade now.

I just have this concern that if I mod my Wii to play Xenoblade that Nintendo might just put something in Skyward Sword to counteract the mod. It being a major release. It's not like Nintenodo has any concern about the matter. SS would be the last chance to get a huge firmware update out there if only for the hell of it. Though perhaps it's my negativity. I don't put it past Nintendo screwing people this late in the game.

Another fantastic show, gang! I'm so glad you guys provide one each week.  It is like crack and we need our fixes.

Anyway, relatively few response points this week....

1. MH4!!!!!!!11!!1!!!

... moving on.

2. Nice to hear such unbridled optimism for the 3DS' future!  The sky is never falling on Nintendo as much as some would like to think.

3. I will be very sad if Kid Icarus doesn't have an option for bonus nub support.  I can see why 1st party wouldn't want to support it but... no harm in giving us the OPTION, right?

4. Bravely Default looks fantastic! (in every way other than the tiny, tiny feet style of the in-game characters.)

5. "take that, Belichick" ahh I missed Greg.  Bills are 2-0, buddy!
PS - let us not forget that being able to poke (some) fun at the Patriots for all eternity is courtesy of my NY football Giants!

6. A few weeks ago I hooked my NES up to my HD plasma TV for the first time.  I have to say I was truly amazed at how awesome it looked.

7. My Wii is PAL ready.  As soon as I have time for the OpRainfall games (prolly mid-2012?) I'm gonna get my import on!
... if they haven't hit the states by then.

All the SoftMod does is install a new channel. Historically Nintendo has simply removed the channel. However, you can download stuff to load the game without the system update.

Well, the Xenoblade discussion on RFN has sold me as well.  James' description of Xenoblades' environments, e.g. seeing portions of the other Golem/world in the distance, the sparkling waterfalls and jungle environments, got me excited for the game; it sounds fantastic.  Given the news that UK stores have restocked...I've now got the game on order.

I hesitated to order this before since I have a fairly large backlog in my pile o' shame, but the first limited release has spooked me into ordering.  Since I don't plan on getting a Wii U for a very, very long while, I guess that the potential length of this game will be a boon.  I haven't been able to play a good console RPG in a good, long while, so I'm looking forward to this...

That's two impulse purchases I've made this year because of RFN discussions (Radiant Historia was the first.) 

And historically the homebrew people have released a new version to counteract Nintendo's changes shortly after every firmware update arrives. Just wait a bit if the new update has been reported to affect the HBC (Nintendo kinda stopped caring a few updates ago) so you can get the patch that avoids the problem.

Alright I think you guys have convinced me to import Xenoblade Chronicles.

It's nice to see someone actually playing Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and enjoying it for what it is, rather than deriding it for being different.  I played the game back when it came out, and I enjoyed it immensely.  The music is great, the game has outstanding art design, and the game features the one thing that God of War has never had: a likeable protagonist.  But when it came out, the big cry that rang out wasn't that the game itself was flawed, but that it was bad because it wasn't Symphony of the Night...again.  Given that the Metroidvania formula has been done to death on the GBA and DS after Symphony, I thought it was rather refreshing to play a Castlevania that instead tried to combine God of War and Shadow of the Colossus.  It's a pity the game's DLC is pretty lackluster.

@broodwars

I really only had two problems with LoS ...

1. They decided to make it its own new timeline.  As you can see from my DA gallery (link) I am a fan of chronology... fictional and otherwise.  (my Castlevania Chronology wallpaper)

2. They abandoned the series' long-standing "fantasy" or "artistic," sleek, thin, almost effeminate approach to the protagonists' style for the modern tired cliche of a "realistic" dudebro who, I can only assume, don't take no guff from nobody.

Castlevania's best and brightest: http://listverse.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/castlevania.jpg
Gabriel Belmont: http://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-14/art/clos-gabriel-belmont2.jpg

But, as far as a 3D CV, the gameplay looked quite good (though on obvious attempt to get in on the GoW craze) and the environments were truly gorgeous.  I did really appreciate the use of COLOR Jonny mentioned.

That really wasn't a big issue for me.  The Castlevania timeline is pretty convoluted; the games constantly jump around it; and it's not like the overall plot is something the series has ever really cared about.  Each Castlevania game pretty much only cares about its own story with minor nods to previous games, and it shows.  IMO, the Castlevania timeline was rebooted, and nothing worthwhile story-wise was lost.  In fact, the story of Lords of Shadow is pretty good, and it sets the stage for a much more interesting timeline if that's what Konami ends up pursuing.

Here's the thing, though: it's not all that longstanding.  The series didn't adopt that effeminate artstyle until Symphony of the Night, and it's gotten tiresome over the years along with the Metroidvania design.  I appreciated how Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin tried to step outside that box for once with more "anime"-style character designs that just looked more appealing to me.

Check out the original box art for the first Castlevania game, and you'll see artwork not that dissimilar from what you're talking about with Lords of Shadow.  I believe the creators have stated their goal with Lords of Shadow was to create a modern Super Castlevania IV, and the game looks and feels like it.  I would hesitate to call Gabriel Belmont "dudebro" in the same sense people use that term for characters like those in Gears of War.  He looks nothing like that.

@broodwars

Just differences of opinion on the plot.  I see something spelled-out to the year, and you see something that goes from one century to the next without batting an eye.  I can respect that.

But, since I'm a fan of the previous Castlevanias, it just sucked to have them tossed out the window.

As for the art style, you focused on the effeminate aspect I mentioned. It's true, the first decade of the franchise did not use it, but the past 14 years have.  Before that, the "fantasy," and more "artistic" approach to the style was still there.  The aesthetic was that of a comic book.

Gabriel's overall style can best be summed up by his face.  Facially, he has more in common with characters from Gears of War, Mass Effect, Red Dead Redemption, and any number of other games that I would classify as "dudebro" because their protagonists are MANLY MEN who play by their own rules, are very serious all the time, hate smiling, and, we can only assume, bang lots of chicks with their large reproduction organs.  Trust me, they can't spell it out because then they'd be Duke Nukem (though I guess ME does!), but that's what the creators of those games want the audience to feel.

Again, just my opinion.  It wouldn't be the first time you and I have looked at the same thing differently, eh? =)
But I think we've learned to deal with it =)

Through Excitebots Deathmatches, Brother.

I don't quite know the definition of broeyness but what I find noticeable and annoying about the Gears of War characters is that they're constantly being sarcastic towards each other no matter how grave the situation. Their home got wrecked and most likely everyone they knew is dead? Make stupid jokes like it doesn't matter. This is in stark contrast to how e.g. Space Marines are portrayed in Relic games, they're serious about the shit that's going down because it's serious shit. GoW does similarly serious shit event-wise but your characters act like it's all a sitcom. If you're going to have everyone act like it's a sitcom then make the story similarly silly but the mixture just seems wrong.

I was perfectly happy ignoring Xenoblade until listening to this. Yet again, I curse Crimm.