This week! We talk about the following game tapes: Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Pushmo, Trine 2 and Tomb Raider: Underworld. Plus! New updates for the Xbox 360 dashboard and 3DS systems, Miyamoto “retiring,” and the Spike VGAs.

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Direct download: 12_12_11-Episode268.mp3

Running time: 1:05:00

This week! We’ve got our Beyond Good & Evil Game Club plus tales of customer service, more dead 360s and more.

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This week’s links:
Beyond Good & Evil 2 leaked gameplay video?
Beyond Good & Evil 2 teaser
Jeremy “Norm” Scott / Spookingtons

Running time: 1:30:00

Direct download: 03_21_11-Episode230.mp3

Got three games recently that’ve come in Microsoft’s new Wagon Wheel 360 keepcases – DJ Hero, LEGO Rock Band and now Modern Warfare 2. And it got me thinking about packaging. Basically how at least on Microsoft’s side it’s done nothing but deteriorate over the years. Multi-disc games on one spindle, now we get a keepcase with gaping holes making the whole thing feel less solid or protective. I can appreciate so-called “Green” packaging. But I think the Wagon Wheel keepcases just feel cheap.

And of course on the publisher side you get a game like Modern Warfare 2 which is an assured hit/million-seller/what-have-you and the manual is six pages, black & white, with just two images….one a stock photo of the 360 controller and the other a crude wireframe of the in-game HUD. Thank you for providing me the absolute minimum experience for my $60. I understand that no one reads manuals anymore and what have you but MW2 is a game in a million-selling franchise. I’ll have to check but I think Oneechanbara, one of the worst 360 games I own, got a better manual that this.

What the hell man?

Am I alone in my dislike for the Wagon Wheel? And could the impetus for the new packaging actually be to be “environmentally conscious” or is it just cheapening out?

And while I was surprised at the black and white manual for MW2, I was also shocked that Activision hadn’t sold ad space on every corner of the manual as they do in some of their games. Anyway…thoughts? Just me?

We’re also discussing this in the forum…

Maybe you’ve noticed in the past month or so that the New Xbox Experience has been hit with a case of lag. It can be pretty bad, and I’ve found that it’s most noticeable right when you power-up the system and either try to bring up your friends list (say, so you could join them for a game of Street Fighter right away) or launch one of your recently played games from your Quick Launch menu.

Tonight I decided to make a little YouTube vid of the slowness I’ve been seeing in the NXE. To preface this, I’m using the Microsoft-produced Xbox 360 wifi dongle (hooked up through the HD-DVD drive’s USB) which communicates to an Apple Time Capsule wifi router that’s hooked directly to my Comcast cable modem.

So I walked away from my Xbox 360 after spending a little time playing Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection tonight (in preparation for our Game Club in the next show!). Checked some email, checked some websites… When I came back to it, what did I see?

It was blinking along with the green power indicator. Luckily when I powered off and powered back on it came back up. Hopefully this is just a fluke. I’ve got about 2 weeks more in my Best Buy extended warranty on this particular system… Microsoft, you blew it. If this machine craps out that’s RRoD #3. At least I have a backup ready to go!

And yeah I have a Viva Pinata faceplate on. What of it, wanna fight about it?