The Steam Podcast

File Mirrors

• High Quality MP3 - SteamPodcast.com
• High Quality MP3 - Archive.org
• Low Quality MP3 - Archive.org
• OGG Vorbis - Archive.org

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

• Bob Somers - SteamPodcast.com
• Ramzy Bekheet - SteamPodcast.com

1337 C4T of Episode 17

This Week’s New Releases
All scores are from MetaCritic.

• Rugby ‘08 - PS2, PC
• Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm - PS2 - 64% (27 reviews)
• Shrek The Third - PSP - 57% (8 reviews)

The following news articles were discussed on the show:

THQ Brings Huge Line-Up to Steam

THQ has brought a lot of great games to Steam, including Company of Heroes, Titan Quest, and Full Spectrum Warrior. Soon, Supreme Commander, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and Warhammer 40,000 will be available on Steam, too.

WoW Subscribers Passes 9 Million

Blizzard announced on Tuesday that their widely-popular World of Warcraft MMORPG has surpassed the 9 million subscriber mark, an unprecedented number for an MMO game.

No only that, Blizzard is set to release The Burning Crusade expansion pack for mainland china, and expects a huge influx of new and returning subscribers as a result.

Indy Game of the Year “Gish” Comes to Steam

Definitely check this game out. It’s basically a platformer, but you’re a squishy ball of tar that can roll around, squeeze through things, bounce, stick to things, and sink through water. At only $7.95, what’s not to like?

Wanna try it out first? Try the Gish non-Steam demo.

Custom-made God of War PSP up for auction

While it may not be to everyone’s taste, this one-of-a-kind God of War PSP is certainly an impressive bit of console modding, boasting not just a spiffy paint job, but a few additions that dig into the PSP itself. (See the shownotes for more details)

However only the most die hard God of War fans need apply, as last we checked the bidding was around the $1,225 mark.

Smash Brawl Control Scheme Revealed

Many of us Super Smash Bros. fanatics were wondering how the control scheme from Brawl was going to work. We’ve now got the official word from the Smash website, which explains that you can use the nunchuck and wiimote, the wiimote alone, the classic controller, or the GameCube controller to play Brawl. Whichever suits your fancy. Nice. It was also announced that the official release date is December 3rd.

Activision Roxxors EA’s Boxxorz

The latest sales data from the NPD Group shows that sales of Activision titles for the first half of the year grossed almost $400 million, a figure largely attributable to the success of its Guitar Hero franchise. In comparison, EA titles raked in $365.7 million during the same period, reports the LA Times.

When asked about his recent success, Activision’s chief executive Bobby Kotick said “For 17 years, I’ve focused on becoming the No1 video game company, and we’re getting a lot closer to achieving that objective,”

Valve Gives Bans People Talking About Linux?

Someone posted a SPUF quote to Digg, which had Patrick M. from Valve responding to someone inquiring about a Steam client for Linux. Patrick said “The next person who posts a new thread on this issue will be banned.” Nothing like taking things out of context!

Move Over Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft, Here Come’s The Super Megason IV!!11

It was only a matter of time before a fourth competitor entered the cut-throat console market. And what better console to make it’s debut but The Super Megason IV!

Boasting a power cartridge shield to prevent accidental damage, a five-thousand speed DVD-ROM reader for super fast load times, cartridges with the ability to store up to and including an astounding 10million games, and an awesome 8-BIT graphics processing unit for graphics just like real life.

The Super Megason IV is everything a gamer could ever want.

Funny Videos

• Jumbo Jet Blows People off Beach
• Painful Workout Accident

Cool Program
SpaceTime 3D Internet Browser

Wrap Up

Check out the screens of the upcoming Steam community update.

Keep your fan mail, suggestions, and comments coming. The coolest email address on the net is still fans@steampodcast.com.

File Mirrors

• High Quality MP3 - SteamPodcast.com
• High Quality MP3 - Archive.org
• Low Quality MP3 - Archive.org
• OGG Vorbis - Archive.org

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

• Bob Somers - SteamPodcast.com
• Ramzy Bekheet - SteamPodcast.com

1337 C4T of Episode 16

This Week’s New Releases
All scores are from MetaCritic.

• Overlord - PC, Xbox 360 - 79% (11 Reviews)
• Transformers: The Game - PC, Xbox 360, PS2, Wii - 70% (4 reviews)
• Transformers: Decepticon - DS - 72% (7 reviews)
• Transformers: Autobots - DS - 72% (7 reviews)
• Touchmaster DS - DS - 69% (4 reviews)
• Dragon Ball Z: Harukanaru Densetsu - DS - 55% (8 reviews)
• Sniper Assault - PS2

The following news articles were discussed on the show:

Orange Box Site Goes Live

The official Orange Box site went live recently, and while it looks cool it doesn’t really tell us anything we didn’t already know. It has screenshots and trailers for all five games included in the package (HL2, Ep1, Ep2, TF2, Portal) with a short blurb of text.

Gears of War PC Footage Leaked?

Before you all get excited and check the shownotes for the links, don’t bother. It seems that a video of GoW for the PC quietly emerged onto the internet, then disappeared without a trace. However, it’s still a good indicator that GoW will eventually come to the PC, as it’s already been confirmed by Epic Studios.

Valve Announces Major Steam Update for Summer

Starting this month (which, in Valve time, means next year) you’ll be able to create your own profile page on steam, create and join groups, schedule games with your friends, see who they’ve played with recently, review how well everyone played, chat with groups, use voice chat, and more. All of these features will be available to all games on Steam, not just Valve titles. The community will be accessible through Steam and through the web as well.

Microsoft Extending 360 Warranty To Three Years

Today, Microsoft announced that it is once again revamping its warranty scheme for the Xbox 360. After mounting evidence of the system’s failure rate due to the dreaded “red ring of death”, the publisher is changing its warranty to cover systems affected by the red ring for three years from the date of purchase. Any console that suffers the aforementioned failure in any territory the 360 is sold can be returned to Microsoft for repair absolutely for free, because the warranty also includes shipping charges.

Team Xbox Get’s Preview of Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal

HL2: Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, Portal

Team Xbox got a early peek at Valve’s October releases, and wrote some pretty good previews to boot. Episode 2 features a ton of new landscapes, 6-8 hours of gameplay, and we finally get to see the full life cycle of the antlions. Team Fortress 2 will only launch with 6 maps, but don’t fear, they’ll be adding more after launch TF2 also features hilarious taunt animations and extremely well balanced class-based gameplay. The spy class seems most interesting, since he not only has the ability to become invisibly for short periods of time, but to also take the form of any class of the opposing team. Portal has a surprisingly short story more, only 5-6 hours, but they seem to make up for that with a number of harder difficulty settings and challenges that will keep even expert players busy for hours. For the full rundown, check the links in the show notes.

Is Learning The Guitar Illegal? The RIAA Thinks So!

Is it so wrong to learn how to play the guitar? According to NPR, a record company ordered YouTube to remove videos of a man who offered to show people how to play the guitar for free. One of the songs that he taught was copyrighted, and as a result over 100 of his videos were removed from the internet.

Top 10 Best Video Game Weapons

What were the best of best? The list is surprisingly good (and the witty commentary is that bad either) so definitely check this list out.

Researchers Smash 500GB Milestone For Optical Discs

HDDVD? Bluray? Don’t make the researchers behind the Microholas project laugh. They’ve created a 500GB optical disc using a new microholographic recording technique that makes use of nanostructures inside the disc to squeeze in as much data as possible.

Sony Helps Gamers Play During Class

Sony Italy is passing around paper cards cut in the shape of books with fake hands to disguise those who want to play their PSP’s in places that they probably shouldn’t be.

Sony Has No Plans To Cut PS3 Price

If you were expecting Sony to cut the price of the PS3 by Christmas time, then you were wrong. Dead wrong. Sony’s president, Kaz Hirai, announced on Friday that they had absolutely no plans on reducing the price of the PS3 any time this year. This is despite many analysts predicting a price of over $100 by mid July.

Funny Videos

• THIS IS SPARTA: The Remix
• Drunk Guys Can’t Dunk

Cool Program
File Hippo’s Update Checker checks for updates of most programs on your PC.

Wrap Up
Keep your fan mail, suggestions, and comments coming. The coolest email address on the net is still fans@steampodcast.com.

So we were supposed to record episode 16 last weekend, but Ramzy was whisked away at the last minutes by his mates to go camping.

Just wanted to let you all know what’s up. This weekend, I promise.