The Steam Podcast

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Bob Somers apologizes for the crappy quality of his mic on this week’s episode. He was running Windows Vista RC1 on the computer that recorded his audio, so he says you should blame it on Microsoft…

Bob also apologizes that the MP3’s still don’t play nice with Windows Media Player. There’s something about the way iTunes edits ID3 tags that doesn’t gel with WMP. However, iTunes, Winamp, and a lot of other media players will digest the MP3 just fine, so again he says you should blame it on Microsoft until he can figure out the problem.

This week’s podcast features the following on-air personalities:

• Bob Somers - SteamPodcast.com
• Ramzy - Steam Powered Forums

The following news articles were discussed on the show:

Gamestop and EB Games Accepting Wii Orders Monday?
Rumor has it that Gamestop and EB Games will begin accepting preorders for the Nintendo Wii on Monday, September 18. According to the details:

• The preorder will last for one week only or until limits are reached.
• The downpayment of $50 can only be made in trade-in games and accessories. Cash, store credit, etc. can be used for the remaining balance.
• You are NOT guaranteed to get a Wii on the release date, or any time before Christmas. First to preorder will be the first to get a Wii.

I don’t believe this. Maybe they will start taking preorders on Monday, but the terms of this preorder seem ridiculous. (full story)

Games Blamed for Montreal Shooting

Last Wednesday, 25 year old Kimveer Gill went on a rampage at Dawson College in Montreal. Thursday night, 2 of the people he shot were announced dead, while 6 were left in critical condition. After the shooting occurred, Kimveer Gill shot himself to death during a standoff with authorities. Once again, the media has blamed video games for the inspiration of a shooting.

The gunman was supposedly obsessed with violent videogames such as Grand Theft Auto, Postal 2: Share the Pain, JFK: Reloaded, and Super Columbine Massacre.

While I agree that games like Super Columbine Massacre are in extremely bad taste, I find it hard to believe that games were the sole reason that this guy did what he did. It’s very clear from his blog that he was seriously messed up, regardless of what games he played. These kind of incidents certainly don’t help the gaming industry’s reputation, though.(full story)

Sony Releases List of Playable Games for TGS 2006
This is a huge improvement over last year’s zero playable games at the Tokyo Game Show 2006. Among other titles, the Grand Turismo series will be shown off at TGS. (full story)

New Sony PSP to Get Digital Video Camera and 8 GB of Flash Memory?
The latest rumors have it that Sony will be integrating a digital video camera capable of streaming video to the PS3 via Wifi and then over the net to video chat rooms. Rumors also fly of Sony including either a 4GB or 8GB flash drive in the new PSP? Our verdict? We’ll wait and see, but if these rumors hold any water it will skyrocket the price of the PSP. (full story)

Intel Goes Quad-Core with Kentsfield
While AMD spends its time in the drawing room designing their quad core CPU, Intel is rushing into the market by smashing together two Core 2 Duo cores onto a single chip to give us Kentsfield, the first quad core processor we’ve seen. Is this rush move a score for Intel or will AMD’s judicious slow-paced design process win out in the end? (full story)

XFX Announces Their Passively-Cooled GeForce 7950 GT
At only $300, this is quite a steal and will keep your rig quiet to boot. How much overclocking potential does this GPU have if it can get by without a single fan? We can’t wait to see the benchmarking stats on this card when it hits the market. (full story)

Stay tuned for the next few episodes… we’ve got some great interviews coming up with mod teams and game developers who release their games on Steam!

    

This entry was posted on Monday, September 18th, 2006 at 12:05 am and is filed under Podcasts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.