Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.

Adieu, Adieu, To Yeu and....oh. Just Yeu.

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:57:00 GMT

I'm surprised no one else has posted about it, but it's official. TEGH is kaput. Though we all still have a keen interest in podcasting, none of us has the time available to put in the sort of effort needed in order to make the podcast good. It was fun while it lasted. Thanks for listening! If we ever revive the thing, you'll be the first to know.

Lots of changes...

Wed, 28 May 2008 18:19:00 GMT

Hey everyone,

We still don't have an episode up... I know, it has been 2 months since we posted one, and I am not happy about that. However, lots of things are changing with the hosts in recent times, and it has become very hard for everyone to meet for recording.

If we don't record soon, then I will post about some of those changes here. Otherwise, I would really rather wait for the next episode.

For now, just listen to the old stuff constantly!

Or not...

Release Dates...

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 02:49:00 GMT

I guess we ought to give up on them, huh? Chris will be getting married next weekend, so I don't quite expect he will contributing to our next podcast... unless we do it before he ties the proverbial "knot."

Anyway, for something to think about... I would really love to release some sort of bonus episode at some point, but I don't even know what we would do. This is especially difficult since it's almost never that we are actually able to get together for a podcast.

Maybe we can bring a voice recorder to Chris's wedding and do a bonus episode from there. Anyone have any recorders to donate? An iTalk, perhaps?

Episode 10 - A lot of Random Discussion, Parental Ratings Systems

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 04:00:00 GMT

Show Notes for Episode 10:

* Bill Gates no longer the richest person in the world
* Maybe you don't know what Berkshire Hathaway is. either
* Apparently, Mike was wrong about Warren Buffett and Jimmy Buffett
* Nick really liked 15 Minutes
* Brad Bird's filmography
* Nick has a George Costanza wallet
* Potter Pals... not Pooter Pals... "Bothering Snape"
* Heat, starring Hank Azaria
* "One does not simply walk into Mordor!" pictures (warning: profanity)
* Jack Thompson hates videogames (not Jack Johnson)
* Mass Effect sex scene controversy explained well here
* The Comics Code Authority
* As Chris mentioned, Marvel now has its own (much better) rating system
* DC Comics still uses the code somewhat, Archie Comics still adheres to it completely (see link)
* The music Parental Advisory label has no clear-cut rules

SOUND OFF! What's your opinion on edited music?

Hosts: Mike, Brian, Nick, Chris

Comin' down the wire...

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Hey everyone. Episode 10 has been recorded, but we still have lots of editing to do to it. I am actually quite pleased with this episode because we hit some serious topics.

I will forewarn people that the main topic for episode 10 is not kid-friendly. Even though we stick to our non-profanitarian guns, the topics discussed are adult in nature because we are... ya know... adults.

(Seriously... by law you have to call us adults).

Anyway, I hope that we will release it in the coming days (hopefully before my vacation begins next weekend). Until then, keep leaving comments.

I actually would like to hear listener ideas and feedback. I think episode 11 should be dedicated to our lovely, loyal audience. Please tell us about any concerns or ideas so that we can address them.

Also, rent King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. I think I will be discussing this one in episode 11. Hopefully some other guys will watch it and join in!

Episode 9 - What We've Done for 3 months, A Look at 2008

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:00:00 GMT

Show Notes for Episode 9:

* Hitman: Blood Money which Chris is entertaining himself with lately
* GoldenEye 007, a Bond game which does not quite hold up after 11 years
* Everything or Nothing, a Bond game which probably fares better
* Crash Nitro Kart, a game which contains "Ooblaga"
* Rock Band, the pinnacle of music/rhythm games... bar none
* Betrayal at Krondor, a classic game based on a (supposedly) classic book. And you can play it for free (don't forget DOSBox)!
* The new He-Man cartoon was pretty awesome (at least season 1 was)
* Psych, a great show on the USA Network (I should actually watch it)
* We (not Wii!) Love Golf! should be a good golf game for the Wii
* Sarah Polley's filmography
* Juno, a great movie that I have now seen since this recording was made
* ReykjavÃk is actually the capital of Iceland. Yay for ReykjavÃk...
* Arrested Development movie rumors?
* "Beads. Bees.": unfortunately YouTube has removed the video, so you will have to do with this
* Iron Man movie... no honeymoon for Chris?
* Hancock trailer
* Star Trek (although since this recording it has been delayed until 2009)
* The Eugenics Wars really sucked!!
* Leonard Nimoy's Ballad of Bilbo Baggins
* We forgot Indiana Jones! (even though we did mention it in an earlier episode) - but now there is a trailer out!
* Call of Duty 4 is good, according to Chris

Hosts: Mike, Brian, Chris

The hiatus... is it over?

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 22:31:00 GMT

Hello again to all our listener. I just want you to know that episode 9 has been recorded, and should hopefully be up in time for a Feb 15 release. I know we are way behind, but hopefully this will make up for the lack of episodes by its sheer awesomeness.

Probably not though...

The Hiatus Continues

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 02:59:00 GMT

So here we are, another release date without a release. All I can say is sorry, fans! We're doing some introspection and examining the direction in which we take the podcast, so hopefully by the time we get back into the swing, we'll have a better product anyway. So until then, I guess you'll just have to steep your own tea for now.

A Swing and a Miss

Mon, 3 Dec 2007 04:06:00 GMT

Some of you may have noticed that the first of the month came and went without the appearance of an episode. This is due to the fact that there wasn't one. That, of course, being caused by the failure to have a recording session, mainly due to scheduling conflicts.

Hopefully there will be a recording session in the next week, and an episode forthcoming. I can't, however, promise that it will be released before the 15th, due to the trouble that late releases tend to cause with our storage cap here.

So sit back, relax, and drink in all that is....a big cup o' nothing. Yet.

Episode 8 - Writer's Guild Strike, Vista vs. Leopard, Mike Loses, The Holiday Season

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 14:00:00 GMT

* Writer's Guild Strike
- The previous strike (in 1988, not 1984) caused the boom of cable TV
- Here is an example of Steve Urkel (and Stephan UrkÃl as well) hitting on Laura Winslow
- Kiefer Sutherland can now serve his jail time

* What have we been watching or playing... in these last two weeks?
- Vengeance is good
- Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe

* Windows Vista vs. Mac OS X Leopard
- Software Issues with Vista
- (Unacceptable) problems with Taryn's Palm LifeDrive
- iTunes doesn't like Vista either?!
- Vista 64-bit editions: Are they worth it?
- Leopard Sales vs. Windows Vista Sales... I wish I had seen this article during the podcast
- Serious data loss bug in Leopard? It's not just in Samba, either.
- Running Mac OS X is not possible on a PC, at least not without an emulator
- Thanks to Kevin for this link showing step-by-step instructions to run Mac OS X on PC architecture.

* Mike sucks at games, apparently

* The 2007 Holiday Season
- Lowe's "family trees"? At least not on their website...
- Beowulf
- I am Legend
- Alvin and the Chipmunks... God, why?!
- Guitar Hero III - $115 million in the first week
- Trauma Center: New Blood

* Facebook
- Microsoft pays $240,000,000 for 1.6% stake in Facebook
- Over 100,000 brands now have ads on Facebook
- No cadavers on eBay?! Not fair. (Thanks Google AdNonsense!)

Hosts: Michael (Mike), Brian, Taryn, Lauren

How Do We Do It?

Sun, 4 Nov 2007 03:49:00 GMT

A commenter very recently asked about our audio hardware setup. So here's the skinny, as it proved too much to go into a single comment in response.

To Kevin:

Our hardware setup is of course top secret, so I am going to post it here for your eyes only. Other people please stop reading now.

We use my mobile rig, which consists of:
1x Alesis HD-24 24-track hard disk recorder
1x Nady PRA-8 8-channel mic preamp
1x Behringer Eurorack RX1602 16-channel mixer (for monitoring)
1x Furman PM-8 power conditioner (mine's not the model II though)
These four items are mounted in a 6-U SKB Roto Rack case.

For micing, we use
4x Samson C02 small-diaphragm condenser mics, though I hope to eventually replace them with
4x Shure Beta 58A dynamic mics

For mixing and editing, I import all the audio tracks into FASoft's n-track studio.

So there you have it. Now go thou and do likewise! All you'll need is about $3000.

Episode 7 - Wii Ware, Classic Gaming

Fri, 2 Nov 2007 04:00:00 GMT

Episode 7 Show Notes:

* What we are playing / watching
- Lego Star Wars II... it's only $20! Or, you can wait until next week and get the Complete Saga.
- Puzzle Quest is a great game! Get the PC demo or download the demo on your Xbox 360. (Or just go pick up the PSP or DS version).

* Wii Ware
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Young King and the Promised Land
- Star Soldier R?
- Chris likes Tyrian, which is now freeware
- Cliff likes Life Force
- The Horde... it really did have Kirk Cameron
- Google. You guys should really check it out!

* Classic Gaming
- Contra is awesome and so is Contra Band
- Ultra and Konami are really one and the same
- Bionic Commando is back in action
- Top Gun review by the Angry Video Game Nerd (Caution: Contains Profanity)
- Marble Madness is still cool
- I can't find that device that let you save any Super NES game at any point (similar to the emulator idea of save states), but this is similar
- Game Genie commercial complete with snow shovel game (look at 0:14)

Hosts: Mike, Brian, Nick, Chris, Cliff

No new episode... so... you get this instead!

Thu, 1 Nov 2007 18:00:00 GMT

Hey everyone. Itchin' to listen to the new episode? Too bad! It'll be ready tomorrow...

However, until then, you can at least watch us making it!

Check it out on our Facebook group!

Delay Of Game, Five Yard Penalty.

Thu, 1 Nov 2007 03:07:00 GMT

*sigh* Yes folks, it's another delayed episode. This time the excuse is that my power was out last night and I couldn't do the editing I needed to do. Having had prior committments tonight, I'm too tired to stay up late with it so I'm going to push it out a day. I know you are all madly foaming at the mouth for this release, but you'll just have to foam a bit longer.

That's right, all of you.

I know you're out there...

I can hear you breathing...

Actually I can't, because this is the internet...

Episode 6B - The Orange Box, Music and Rhythm Games

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:30:00 GMT

Show Notes:

* The Orange Box
   - Main Site
   - Portal Trailer

* Music and Rhythm Games
   - DDR: Mario Mix?!
   - DDR's Workout Mode... Brian likes it
   - Donkey Konga for Wii (now called Donkey Kong Barrel Blast) is hated by IGN
   - Singstar
   - Guitar Hero series
   - Rock Band and its (newly announced) pricing scheme
   - Guitar Hero 2 (for the Xbox 360)'s terrible song download model

* Not in the episode, but... EA bought Bioware?!

Hosts: Mike, Chris, Brian

Episode 6A - Indiana Jones, Bioshock DRM, House Guest Review

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 20:00:00 GMT

* Again, episode 6 will be split into two parts. Part B will be released on October 19.

* Show notes for Episode 6A
- RiffTraxx
- BioShock technical issues and SecuROM controversy
- Shamus Young's blog
- SecuROM
- What is a RootKit?
- BioShock is the spiritual successor to System Shock 2
- The impossible-to-run Crysis
- The use of voice commands in Tom Clancy's End War
- SPECIAL GUEST REVIEW BY LAUREN: House Season 4 premiere synopsis
(Of course now we know that at least two of the original doctors are back in the hospital, but are not working with House)

Hosts: Mike, Chris, Brian
Guest Host: Lauren

Sigh... this again...

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 09:45:00 GMT

Hey everyone. Unfortunately, due to the same problems with our host that we had on Episode 5, it appears that episode 6 will also be a two-parter. We apologize for the inconvenience, but we hope that you will again bear with us.

Episode 6A should drop today as soon as we find a good point to break it up at, and then Episode 6B should hopefully drop on the 19th, when our podcasting host allows us to do so.

Facebook!

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 03:00:00 GMT

Woo hoo! We have entered into the social networking revolution!

Check out our Facebook group!

Wait... you're going where?

Tue, 9 Oct 2007 03:00:00 GMT

In response to the Halo 3 release a few weeks ago, and our (somewhat) brief mention of it on episode 5, I felt compelled to post a little entry about the pretty big news that has come about since our air date(s).

Firstly, Halo 3 racked up $300 million in sales in its first week. That is literally unprecedented. Microsoft must be really proud of their little friend Bungie. They sure have made them a lot of money.

Or are they? Announced last Friday amidst many speculative rumors to the effect, Bungie Studios has separated itself from Microsoft and has become its own entity. What does this mean for us, the gamers? Halo 3 on PS3? Not likely... Halo 3 on Mac? Possibly. Halo (fill in stupid spin-off title here) on the Wii? Likely.

C'mon Bungie... let's see what you can do with a Wiimote. Let's face it... Halo 3 didn't exactly wow with its graphics, but if it can outdo Halo 2 even just a little on the Wii, I'm sold. Also, if I get to point guns at stuff, I am happy. Metroid Prime 3 proves that.

So to our myriad of listeners (Taryn)... I pose the question to you...

What can Bungie do for you today?

Episode 5B - New Fall Television Season

Thu, 4 Oct 2007 16:00:00 GMT

* As mentioned in the earlier blog post, Episode 5 has been split up into 2 parts.

* Show Notes for Part B:

Shows Mentioned
- Torchwood
- Pushing Daisies
- Chuck
- Heroes
- House
- The Office

- Watch Heroes episodes online
- See Hugh Laurie on YouTube here and here
- Check out Creed's blog

Hosts: Mike, Brian, Chris

Episode 5A - VirtualNES, Halo 3 Launch, WASD

Mon, 1 Oct 2007 21:20:00 GMT

* As mentioned in the earlier blog post, Episode 5 has been split up into 2 parts.

* Show Notes for Part A:

- VirtualNES, play NES games inside your web browser. You will need Java if you don't already have it installed.
- Base Wars, the game that Chris was occupying his ADD time with
- Halo 3 made a lot of money and sold a lot of copies
- The XFPS 360, a device to allow your 360 to use a keyboard and a mouse. Here is a negative review of it, but here is a positive one. Also, it's not cheap.

Please stay tuned for more in Part B, when we discuss the new Fall television season.

Hosts: Mike, Brian, Chris

Technical Difficulties...

Mon, 1 Oct 2007 16:19:00 GMT

Again, you probably notice that our podcast is not up today as scheduled. Well, this time, it's not our fault. Our podcast hosting provider has a strange structure in the way they do things, and, for this, we are not allowed to upload any files until the 3rd. It's possible that this may be ironed out before the end of the day, but most likely, it won't.

If this issue is not resolved, I will probably post as usual except that we will host the mp3 file somewhere else other than our actual podcast host.

Sorry for the issue. Hopefully it will not spring up again.

EDIT: To counteract this problem, we have decided to release the episode in 2 parts. The first will come today and the second will come in just a few days. If you would like to hear the show in its entirety, you can listen to it here.

TVersity (and other stuff)

Mon, 1 Oct 2007 01:00:00 GMT

Hey Everyone,

In the last episode, I mentioned TVersity, a program that lets you share videos, pictures, music, and more from your computer across your home network to your Xbox 360. I thought I would mention more about it since it really is quite an amazing program.

Firstly of all, this only works in Windows (so far). The reason for this is that it uses some elements of Windows Media Player 11 which is only available for Windows XP or Vista (which should not exist). There is a great guide here (which requires forum activation). Why is it great? Because I wrote it! If you don't want to go through forum activation (or do well), then you can use another one here which mine actually sprung off of. Also, if you want my guide, but don't want to use the forum, I can send you a PDF version of the guide if you just e-mail the show or drop me a comment on this blog post.

Also, hopefully, we will actually be on time with the release of episode 5 tomorrow. Talk to you then...

Episode 4 - HD Format War and Next Generation Gaming Consoles

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:00:00 GMT

* Beginning with episode 4, we have decided to do all segments just as part of the roundtable discussion so that everyone can be included on everything. Please comment on what you think of this decision!

* Show notes:

- Blu-Ray and HD-DVD comparison table here or here
- Codec descriptions of H264 and VC1
- 300 Trailer: The PG Version
- Studio Support for HD DVD and Blu-Ray
(It should be noted that since the time of this recording, Paramount and all its affiliates have swung their support over to HD DVD, citing its lower costs and such. This may have a large impact on the market, but we will see.)
- Blu-Ray laser shortage? Yes, there was one, but it's over now.
- Description of the rainbow spectrum... in case you really want to know.
- Chick tracts we mentioned: Black Leaf and Rock and Roll
- Want know what your DVD player can do? Click here.
- "Filmed in Panavision by Warner Brothers"
- Scott Bakula turns off the internet in Net Force
- Brian just moved out of his parents house!
- TVersity media server for the XBox 360 (If you have any questions on how to make this work, please e-mail the show.)
- P.S. - Mike's Xbox 360 is still functioning... and it has been 2 months. Well... almost.

Hosts: Mike, Nick, Brian, Chris

Moving Is A Real @*#&!

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 04:30:00 GMT

Well. Here it is in the first hour of September 18th (it's 12:30 AM Eastern right now) and there's still no September 15th podcast released yet. Turns out moving is a lot more time-intensive than I estimated (and it's still not done yet!).. The good news is that the podcast is almost ready for release, and absolutely will be in your hot little hands (ears?) on September 19th.

The even better news that only the geekliest of you will care about (and audio-geekliest at that) is that our next two episodes will be recorded using an entirely different setup which should eliminate 80% of the tedious work I have to do to clean up the sound for release (which means I'm less likely to wait until the last minute to get started), and therefore ought to improve my turnaround time and thereby increase your Tea. Earl Grey. Hot. listening pleasure!

Another Day Late, Another Dollar Short

Sat, 15 Sep 2007 04:50:00 GMT

Well, as much as I really don't like that it's turning out this way, Episode 4 is also going to be delayed by one, possibly two days. I do have an excuse (as the Recording Engineer for the group, the podcast depends on me doing a lot of audio work to get it sounding as good as you're used to), though: Today (Friday) I moved into a new apartment. So I've been spending most of my spare time the past few days packing and cleaning and such. So, thanks for being patient. Episode 5 will come out on time!

Episode 3 - Downloadable Content and Digital Content Distribution

Tue, 4 Sep 2007 17:00:00 GMT

* No segments this time, although we hope to release a segment-only bonus episode of some sort in the near future.

* Roundtable discussion of downloadable content and the decline of physical media

- Look at all the games available on Steam
- Garry's Mod, which used to be free, is now $9.95
- GameTap, free version
- PS1 games on the PSP (apparently, now the games can be played on a PS3 as well, not just on a PSP)
- Better horse face? Well, not a face, but...
- GunZ: The Duel
- Pac-Man: Championship Edition
- Stats on the increase in the use of broadband in the home (link)
- Netflix Watch Now
- Size of their library?
- 5,000 movies by the end of 2007? (according to the infallable Wikipedia)
- Comcast current movies on cable announcement
- Google Video closing its "doors"
- Availability of Verizon's FiOS service
- "You forgot your receipt!"

Hosts: Mike, Nick, Chris, Brian

Episode 3 Delay

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 20:24:00 GMT

Well, I said that I would let you know if there will be a delay in any episode, and it seems that that is sooner than I expected. I will be out of town for the Labor Day weekend, and therefore the podcast will be late by a few days. Hopefully, it will go up on the 4th or so.

- Mike

The Specialists

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 05:52:00 GMT

Readers of Penny Arcade may have noticed that Tycho mentioned the Specialists mod in his news post the other day. I went back and played it again for a while this week because I had heard there was a major update not too long ago. I'm sticking with my original opinion from Wednesday's podcast. It's a fun mod, but very limited. At peak playing time, almost all of the deathmatch servers were running the same map; the Matrix lobby map. It's fun, but gets old very fast. All the remaining servers were running role playing variants of the mod which is the complete opposite of what TS was designed for. I'm all for RPGs, but beating a FPS engine into submission in order to facilitate that kind of gameplay doesn't appeal to me at all.

I don't mean to come down too hard on a mod that only a couple of thousand people play to begin with. I mention it mostly because it baffles me that there are a healthy number of people still playing this mod while Action Half-Life is barely hanging on by a thread. AHL didn't incorporate things like bullet time or super jump like TS did, but I think it's a much better overall execution of the multiplayer action movie feel. I also think AHL seems much easier to pick up and get the hang of... there are a lot fewer weapons and controls which, in this case, is a good thing.

If you're still reading this and you own the original Half Life, you should really just install AHL and give it a try.

The future of the podcast

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 01:43:00 GMT

Hey everyone,

Mike here to discuss a few things about the future of our podcast. No, we're not going away (yet)... we would upset our literally tens of non-thousands of adoring fans! At any rate, we (the usual podcast hosts) have been discussing what we would like to do in the future with our podcast.

First of all, a lot of people have been curious about the release schedule of our podcast since most people do not subscribe to it via podcatchers. In general, we will try to release (at least) two episodes every month. Also, in order to keep things relatively easy to remember, we plan to release these episodes on the 1st and 15th of each month. So, we have kept to that for the first month at least... let's see where we go from here. If we will miss our expected release date by more than a day or two, we will try to let you know on the blog.

Secondly, after our first two episodes, we see that most people have really found our roundtable discussions to be of much more interest than the solo segments. To that end, we actually plan to have more non-roundtable stuff (assuming that we can get some segments recorded), but we will no longer be recording any segments by ourselves. What I think we are hoping to do is to have one main person facilitate the segment and then have at least one other person there as well to sort of get some feedback and get the proverbial bouncing sphere in a state of centrifugal motion.

Anyway, please let us know if you have any ideas for how we could make the show better, and leave your comments for our thoughts on the future. E-mail us (hopefully we will have a contact page up soon) or just leave comments on the blog.

Finally, remember... no earl grey tea is truly earl grey unless it's hot!

You're darn tootin'

Listen to us! Please!

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:47:00 GMT

Howdy, folks! Thanks for visiting our little space on the big, scary World Wide Web.

So now I'm in a podcast. That's pretty cool. I'll tell you a bit about me. I'm Our Very Own Brian, the one with the glasses if we ever have a group photo. I do most of the recording engineering for the group discussions, as well as writing and recording any of the original music you hear on the podcast (at least, so far). So you must enjoy the music or I will send several goons, all named "Boris," to adjust your attitude.

I have a BS in Computer Engineering from North Carolina State University, and I'm employed by a software company in Morrisville, North Carolina. I'm 27 years old, and I like cats.

Now on to the meat of this entry: Tell your friends about us! Please? You really don't want me to send the Borises..

Episode 2 - Digital Rights Management

contact@tea-earlgrey-hot.com — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 04:00:00 GMT

First, listen to the great new intro music written by our very own Brian!

* Chris talks about some choice bargain bin games

- Action Half-Life
- The Specialists
- Civilization 3, buy it on eBay
- FreeSpace 2
- Beyond the Red Line, a Battlestar Galactica mod for FreeSpace 2

* Roundtable discussion of Digital Rights Management

- Since we did not actually explain what it was, a definition may help

Links Mentioned in the Segment

iTunes Plus press release (it's actually only $1.29 a song, not $1.99)
Apparently, Steve Jobs is opposed to DRM... at least by his word. Do actions speak louder than words?
Perhaps we should take the European stance and get rid of DRM
What do YOU use to illegally download your music? Let us know!
Check out the Microsoft Surface parody video that Chris mentioned
Nike and iPod... what a beautiful combination... ...Right?
Thank you, Microsoft, for protecting us from ourselves
Want to know who Richard Stallman is?

Around the table this episode: Mike, Brian, Nick, and Chris
* By the way, Mike is still using an Xbox 360 controller as a mic in this episode. He should really stop that.

Finally, listen to the great new exit music, also written by our very own Brian!

"Should I buy an Xbox 360?"

Sun, 5 Aug 2007 20:10:00 GMT

As was reported last month, Microsoft recently lost over $1 billion on repairs for their Xbox 360 consoles. This has led a lot of people to ask, "Should I buy an Xbox 360?" This is not an easy question to answer, but I thought I would give my opinion.

First of all, I can speak first hand on the "red ring of death" issue, as I have personally already had my 360 fail. To put things in perspective, I bought the 360 in mid-April and the thing failed in early-mid June. It was not until late July that I received my 360 returned to me. By the way, that month-long wait for my 360 to return... it took that long even though they just sent me a replacement system. They did not fix the one I actually sent them. Anyway, I am not too sore on this issue because the hard drive is detachable; with a few minor tweaks, I had my replacement system up and running pretty much like my previous one was before I sent it off.

Now, the failure rate for the 360 must be fairly large, and that is rather inexcusable, seeing as how it has been over a year and a half (since November 2005) since it came out. Anyway, although Microsoft has admitted that these problems are due to a design flaw, they also state that the problem has been fixed. I sincerely hope that this is the case, but one can't be too careful when it comes to dealing with Microsoft.

So, what positives does the Xbox 360 have going for it? The first one is quite simple: games. The 360 already has a vast game library, and by the end of 2007, it's going to be simply immense. It is finally turning corners that its daddy the (original) Xbox did not. and that is why I actually own one.

Also, the 360 is great as a media center. You've got the capability of display HD movies... from an external hard drive, from a networked computer, downloaded from Xbox Live, or from an HD-DVD (when you buy the add-on), and I would say that is pretty impressive.

To conclude... should you consider the Xbox 360? Yes. I hope that Microsoft finally has their junk in order now, and that there will be far and far fewer technical problems with them. Well, at least I hope they fixed mine, anyway...

Oops!

Thu, 2 Aug 2007 00:20:00 GMT

I forgot to mention in the podcast what our e-mail address is for contacting us about the show.

For all your comments or queries, drop us a line at contact(AT)tea-earlgrey-hot.com

Tea. Earl Grey. Hot. Episode 1

teaearlgreyhot@bakedhamgames.net — Wed, 1 Aug 2007 19:30:00 GMT

* Mike talks about E3 2007
Links Mentioned in the Segment

Super Smash Bros. Brawl website, updated every weekday with new screenshots here
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption gameplay videos here
Mass Effect trailer here
Fable 2 combat video here
The one thing that might make someone buy a PS3 here

* Roundtable discussion of media franchises moving to the big screen

- What did it right?
- What did it wrong?
- What do we want to see?
- Why is Mike using an Xbox 360 controller with a Xbox 360 headset plugged into it to do a podcast?

Links Mentioned in the Segment

Thundercats movie... no I didn't make it up
Crash Team Racing? Yes, the Crash Bandicoot series apparently does still exist
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Tifa's fight with aforementioned ringtone on YouTube

Around the table this episode: Mike, Brian, Nick, and Chris