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Tune into Part 2 for our most disappointing titles of 2008 and what we’re excited about in 2009!

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SoapBox

T400 and Why I didn’t get it for review:

• Men and women are instinctually different
• Main difference when it comes to tech is the man’s need for “Upgrades”
• Women don’t understand the need for upgraded toys since you can’t really upgrade a purse, you just buy a new one

The Underachiever’s Manifesto

• Hilarious satire on the status of our working North American society today
• “Good Enough is Good Enough”
• Very funny and applicable read, check it out here on Amazon.ca

Around The Net

Apple September 9th Announcement

• New iPod Nano’s announced with a redesign
• iPod Touch redesign and new specs
• New Apple in ear headphones complete with mic and remote MSRP $80, not compatible with iPhone according to Apple’s site
• iTunes 8.0 and the new Genius feature - big brother anyone?
• iPhone 2.1 Firmware, maybe this will prevent my 3rd restore in the last month?

Google Chrome

• Fun and “google-esq” but not going to replace my main browser anytime soon
• Large resource footprint
• Download and try here

EA/Crytek/Nvidia/Ultra PC Custom PC

• Interesting concept, a gaming PC capable of running Crysis at 30 FPS for under $700USD
• No word on what OS this ships with
• Specs are here

Spore DRM Crisis…again

• Reviews are firebombed on Amazon and other online retailers
• DRM issue is installation limits, how does EA define a “computer”
• Hardware changes are taken into account for “new” computer installs
• You can see a more detailed article here on Tom’s

Impressionistic

Force Unleashed Demo

• Fun times and really makes you feel like a powerful Jedi
• Has the potential of being a Dynasty Warrior clone if not done correctly
• Breaks download record with over 1 million downloads
• Hope that this isn’t another Too Human where the demo was better than the game

Spore

• Fun but a bit light on deep content in terms of gameplay
• Lots of other games do the parts better but Spore does the god sim the best
• Very deep creature creation

TV Series: BONES

• CSI meets Hardy Boys
• Great cast chemistry
• Takes a bit of getting used to and doesn’t really pick up until half way through season 1
• Currently going into Season 4 and I’m only half way done season 2

MAILBAG
Letter from KYJELLY:

” Hey, love the podcast and your blog is interesting. Just wondering what you specifically didn’t like about Too Human since you spoke about it a bit last week. Keep up the good work. Thanks.”

Thanks for the Email KYJELLY, I won’t judge your name! I did have enjoyable moments with Too Human but if I were to pin point a few things I didn’t like, it would have to be:

• The story was very convoluted and lofty without having any substance. It had some very interesting potential but overall, as a standalone game (I know it’s supposed to be a trilogy but so was Shemue) it just didn’t cut it.
• The gameplay was too similar to titles such as Dynasty Warriors. There was no real consequence to death, your enemies kept scaling to you, and if you had a dedicated button to “equip best” this game would have been easier than Lego Starwars.

Thanks for your emails and readership, remember to leave an itunes review if you can!

Until next time!

Show Notes:

SOAPBOX

• Career is going back to the future - I’ll be starting my old job again in a few weeks. Unemployment was fun but Money talks.
• Internet Journalism: IGN is slowly following the path of Gamespot and others that are more opinion sites than objective reviews. Check out Gametrailers for a more refreshing take on reviews.
• Mac Switch: Sold my Hackintosh and my Thinkpad and have ordered a new T400 Thinkpad. If Steve Jobs decided to grant my wish of an updated MacBook with dedicated graphics, I’m cancelling the Thinkpad and getting a mac instead. Not an Apple fanboy but I still want one if only it’s comparable in specs and price to the Thinkpad. For a review of the T400 that’s coming soon, check out notebookreview.

AROUND THE NET

• $1000 iPhone app: Here’s a douchbag pretending to have bought the app but gives you a good idea of what I’m complaining about:

• iPhone Mania: iPhone Girl as reported by USAToday. How sad is it that iPhone mania has made a forgotten erase procedure into worldwide headline news!
• BlackBerry Bold: Best multimedia blackberry ever made, but still not an iPhone. For the converted iPhone-nites (yours truly included) it’s hard to consider going back but if the bold is an indication of things to come, RIM isn’t going to go quietly. Check out a fairly indepth review from APC of the BB Bold.
• Apple Announcement: Rumored by Kevin Rose of Digg.com, before the end of September, shooting for September 9th to be the magic date, there is going to be some pretty big chages to the Apple product line. I’m personally hoping for a Macbook refresh but that may not happen. Check out Kevin’s blog to see what he thinks will be announced.
• Stargate Closed: Stargate Atlantis was canceled by Sci-Fi this past week. Boo! I love that show and don’t know what will be there to fill the void.

IMPRESSIONISTIC

• Soul Calibur 4: Worth a rental or a purchase at a discounted price (read: 50% off). Fun for the SC lovers and man-parties. But nothing too new here to warrant a full price purchase except for the diehard fans.
• Too Human: Not Human Enough. It’s fun for the first few hours and then the story drags on and loses focus. Clearly this is meant for a sequel but it still feels like a game that was either rushed (which can’t be if it’s been in development for 10 years!) or that the developers just were good enough. It’s a worthy rental since it’s about 8 hours long the first time through but there’s nothing really there to keep you coming back.
• Burn Notice: This is the perfect reimagining of 80’s detective shows. Think of it as a Macguyver, Remington Steele, Magnum P.I., and a bit of Quantum Leap all mixed into a 21st century bowl. YUM!
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: This is a brainless romp through a post 90210 neighbourhood. It’s still an entertaining show, lets just hope season 2 picks up right where they left off and gets the juices flowing again.
• iPod Shuffle: Piece of gimped iPod poo! The only thing good about it is the integrated clip and form factor. Can’t even sync properly, can only auto fill. Bah! Spend the money and get a good armband for your iPhone instead.

Remember to shoot me off a review if you get the podcast on iTunes, and send your questions and comments to ikeagamer(AT)gmail.com.

Show Notes:

The Official Ikeagamer Podcast Episode 3 should be up this afternoon on iTunes and on gcast so feel free to stream or download. It’s currently being down sampled so may take a little bit of time to show up on the site.

Here are the show notes for your reading pleasure while you wait for the show to upload.

New website URL:

www.ikeagamer.com If you guys found me through blogger, it should now redirect you to the new address. Both will continue to work since I’m still hosting it with blogger (I can’t afford my own server :P)

iPhone 3G quick impressions:

Pros: Cost is low if you sign a contract, function and form meshes very well, well thought out design and interface, official apps support through iTunes, location service integration

Cons: Battery life (oh god is it bad!), 3G spotty network reception, apps are only 1/2 ready (more like beta), mobile calendar doesn’t allow for invites or acceptance unless with exchange, no cut and paste, no good RSS reader with offline mode

Job Update:

I started my new job, which was a step up from my last one, 2.5 weeks ago and this past Monday, I find out that I was completely lied to about it and in fact it really wasn’t a step up at all. The pay was better but it certainly wasn’t worth the sacrifice of giving up my tenure and hard work I put into my career since they really wanted me to take a backseat to someone that wasn’t even formally educated or trained. Long story so feel free to listen but to sum it up, I’m unemployed and not sure if I want to go back to my old position or move on to something else.

Ethics on the Internet:

Denis Dyack did a really awesome lecture on the 1Up Yours July 3, 2008 podcast. I urge you all to give it a download and listen to some of the points this guy brings up. It’s certainly brain stimulating that’s for sure. He touches on some very real points of how the “net” has the false feeling of anonymity to it, leading its patrons into a series of consequence free actions. Give it a listen and make sure you click the links at the bottom of the page to see some of the books he mentioned. I’ve already ordered a few of them and am quite excited to start reading (I don’t get any sponsorship from Amazon so this is purely my own bias)

Listener Mail:

New segment I’m creatively calling listener mail! The blog has been up for a few months now and the podcast is into its 3 episode. I’m quite excited that there are actually people that listen to me ramble and visit this blog and on top of that, they write in! Totally geeking out here! So a popular question that I’m asked is:

Why is this called Ikeagamer?

A few reasons, and first is because I find Ikea furniture and the company to be one that’s to the point, trim the fat, right down to the meat and bones. I identify with that philosophy in my gaming life. I don’t have a ton of time to play games but I still really like to, so the time that I do have, I spend only on quality products or products that gets me into the “relaxed” mode quickest. So, in a nutshell, that’s the Ikeagamer philosophy.

Why do you do a gaming blog when you don’t even play much games?

This is sort of a loaded question. But if you have been reading my blog for a while, you will know that I don’t devote a lot of time to gaming but it doesn’t mean that I don’t keep up with the news and updates in the industry. It’s still something that highly interests me and gets me excited. I do have lots of opinions about the issue and Ikeagamer isn’t just about gaming either. This blog is basically about anything that pops into my life/head so all is fair game!

Enjoy Episode 3, look for a new cast next week or the following one.

iPhone shows some Canadian love, changing jobs, build your own hackintosh.  All this week on the Official Ikeagamer Podcast, thanks for listening.  Send your questions and suggestions to ikeagamer@gmail.com //Subscribe at: http://www.gamerwok.com/feed/podcast

Shownotes:

Show Notes:

Ok, podcast episode 1 is live. You can subscribe to it over on the right or you can play it in the embedded player. iTunes will have this podcast up in the next few days.

As promised, here is the link to that Mazda 3 crash test in which it received a 4 star rating.

MGS4 bundle with the 80GB PS3 will be unboxed this week and I’ll post up some impressions of MGS4 as well. I’m going to try and play through MGS2 before jumping to 4 and probably will be skipping 3 all together.

As for what the BWM 128i is, you can visit the official BMW site to take a look and I’ll post some pictures of the new car this week as well.

Thanks everyone for visiting and if you have any suggestions for the podcast, please send your emails to:
ikeagamer@gmail.com