Listen Now:

 NBS Episode 6: The One Topic Wonder [28:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Topics This Week

Video Game Movies & Movies of Video Games

Show Comments

It’s like something goes wrong every week in some form or another. This week, my connection died and then once the router was rebooted my volume recorded exceptionally loudly, which we didn’t find out until we had saved and exited HotRecorder. As a consequence we’ve checked around again and found PowerGramo which also records Skype, but in better quality 48KHz/16bit wave, versus 22.05KHz compressed crap. The disadvantage is that this is only in mono rather than stereo which makes editing that much harder.

Our second topic didn’t turn out as expected and in hindsight we weren’t too happy with it so it was saved for another day (the volume issue was actually the deciding vote).

So we’ve got a short, 1 topic, 28 minute episode you can use for listening to whilst eating breakfast, making lunch or, through speakers whilst you’re in the shower for example. We like to feel useful providing noise for those sort of short, daily gaps.

This weeks music is Megaman 2: Wily’s Castle Remix and Mary, by Jason Gervais and Samantha Dean, a Broken Notes Music Production, for the Silent Hill Fan Soundtrack. It’s got some great, mood setting piano.
Much respect to Hiren who’s literally been editing this episode in some form or another since Sunday.

- Richard

Not to use this as an execuse but this epsiode was plagued in problems, my contibution to this was loosing both power and internet access to my office when the NBS editing is located. In the end it didn’t turn out too bad, we may be late but we still don’t BS.

- Hiren

In the UK we had a national holiday today, and in the US they had Memorial Day (so I’ve been informed), however, we are still here and you will still get your weekly dose of us within the next day or two. Unfortunately real life takes over sometimes for all of us, but we’ll try to be more prompt with releases in future.

- Richard.

Listen Now:

 NBS Episode 5: The Interweb Edition [50:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Topics this week:

The Triple X Domain

Net Neutrality and a Two Tier Internet

TV over the net / IPTV.

Show Comments:

I can only apologise for the in-joke that Hiren’s name became, Mike, through some confusion. It’s still the Hiren we know and love, although he became Mike for an afternoon.

I also apoligise for my ultra shit introduction and exit, and my piss poor sound which was due to my shared connection. Next week will be much better. Oooo… Deja Vou.

We still sound quiet; despite the fact our mic’s are at maximum volume. It’s strange, because doing it we can hear each other loudly but once recorded it looses volume.

This weeks editing was done by Mike (Hiren), and as was the choice of free music: Cream and Bastards Rise, by Harvey Danger (see links to the right). Quoteth Hiren: “all I need now is a mixer and a vocal booth and I can get my Dr Dre on”. Next week, I’ll be editing again then.

At 12 minutes Hiren hits his knee against the desk. It adds nothing to the conversation but we left it in to show you how hardcore he is, carrying on after such a serious injury.

- Richard

According to the Inq and Nintendo Insider forum, the E3 showing of the Wii was supposibly just a gamecube with a Wii controller bolted on and all the “Wii” games were running on Gamecube hardware, whilst the demo boxes were just empty shells with blue lights. The bottom line is: does this really matter? They created a massive interest and they clearly stated it wasn’t about the system, it was about the controller and the interaction between user and game. The Wii is essentially a gamecube on steroids anyway, so why is this a big deal? We all know Zelda is going to arrive on both Wii and GC, and the game demos they had weren’t graphically ground breaking but that doesn’t meant they weren’t obviously fun.

- Richard

Eurogamer reports that the Sony Playstation 3 will cost £425. Also rumours of no 20gb model for the UK.

Sony can talk about blu-ray till the cows come home, fact is a standalone blu-ray player will be better and in the long run cheaper. Most gamers probably don’t give a monkeys. Well done Sony you’ve have outpriced yourselves.

- Hiren

I love their “Value” notation.  “Hey guys, this is almost the same price as our LAST attempt to steal all your money!  In fact, it’s only a little more than the most expensive thing to come out in this industry ever, which we also released!  Clearly you’re getting value, or it wouldn’t be so valuable as to command a 429 quid price tag! Value, value value!”

- Brett

Listen Now:

 NBS Episode 4: The Three Es (E3) Special [61:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Show Topics:

Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft pre-E3 shows

E3 Gaming, including Crysis, Gears of War, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Battlefield 2142, Spore, among others.

Show Comments:

This week’s music opener is the classic, Marble Zone, from the original Sonic that I hope everyone is familiar with. We’re having some discussion about the legality of using it, although I’ve found quite a few websites hosting it, and it’s not like we’re making a profit or distributing the file without ourselves talking over the top. To me, it’s akin to someone recording themselves whilst the sounds of a megadrive are in the background. I can’t find Sega selling the OST to Sonic either, so I’m calling fair use and using it as a tribute to Sega who get respect for originally making such addictive music.

Our ending is by the fantastic, Yuzo Kashiro, who made the Streets of Rage soundtracks, Under Logic. Unfortunately the record label that distributed Mr. Kashiro’s work went out of business in 2002, so the best alternative is to surf over to EMU Gaming and download the few tracks there, or follow the links through their site to other gaming music websites. Finding an original on somewhere like ebay is like looking for rocking horse shit, and if you do come across a legit one, unless you often find your wallet often spontainiously explodes from the excessive cash you stuff in it, I doubt you could afford one.

After some comments I’ve turned the music right down whilst people are talking, but the alternative of turning the voices up enhances the mic static, so it’s a compromise.

I did actually play Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, original, as a character that looked like Jesus simply because the other characters in the selection were pretty damn uninspiring. Although I wanted him to get it on with Bastila at the end, I was apparently “too dark” to convert her and had to kill her, despite the fact I can’t stop myself from playing KOTOR games and almost always choosing the “light” options when available for the main character. I resisted racking up his persuasion and charisma and basically making him a “passive being” (pussy fighter), but it was really quite humorous to see the conversation options that sprung up by my house mates and I at the time.

I don’t think you could get a more obvious phallic reference then myself suggesting a sexual attachment for the Wiimote dongle, with motion detection and vibration control. That would make the hot coffee mod a whole lot more interesting and interactive. Teenage boys would stop inviting their mates over to play GTA3:SA that’s for sure. (Yes, I’m aware GTA3 isn’t on the Nintendo).

Fanboi’s feel free to email and voice your opinions (however well scripted) about our rips into the PS3 or the 360, as ever, they will be posted as proof of listeners.

I’ve got over the name of the Wii, I don’t care anymore. Calling the remote, the Wiimote sealed that for me. We’re all Nintendo fanboi’s now since E3, I think that’s obvious.

If you’re wondering, at around 34 minutes the word I was looking for was novelty. For some reason my mind was locked into looking for a word beginning with a “c”?!

And yea, we’re now F-NBS.. FBS.. uhh.. review.

- Richard

I’m almost a bit frightened at how frequently some sort of sexual reference comes out of Rich’s mouth.  I apologize for my own breakdown in sound quality somewhere in my rant on Sony’s rather retarded idea of using Bluetooth as a wireless communication medium for the console.  I’m not even sure what that was, I guess Skype doesn’t like me sometimes.  Maybe they’re in league with Sony.

- Brett