Well, that title really sums it up, doesn’t it? The offer expires on July 21st, so jump on it. There were 394 used Xbox 360 titles/accessories to choose from when I did my shopping. As you can see from my picture above, I finally gave in to Oblivion (GOTY edition, at that), re-bought Crackdown, and got the newest Scene It? game for the next time we have guests at the house. As in, never.

I noticed a couple hefty price drops, too: Dead Space for $27 and Gears of War 2 for $35. Not bad! The coupon codes are B2G1FREE and SAVER.

Totally unrelated but somewhat funny picture after the break.

Lordy, I love me some Fallout 3. This has to be the first game I’ve ever played that has satisfied me with continuous downloadable content so constantly. My hat’s off to Bethesda, who has not only released FOUR packs for Fallout 3 (and a fifth one on the way), but they keep getting better with each new DLC.

The Point Lookout content takes place in rural Maryland (and by “rural” I mean “backwoods”) and is just plain HUGE. It is so big that there’s a 40-point achievement for finding all the location on the map. Also, there are five main quests and seven hefty side quests. That’s quite a bit of bang for 10 bucks. The story itself is quite good, and its usual moral-and-decision-based gameplay left me at a fork in the road. Honestly, I wasn’t sure which way was the right way to go. At the end of the day, I’m personally okay with my decisions and I applaud Bethesda (again) for coming up with such smart dilemmas in their games.

If you’re playing Fallout 3, this DLC should be bought, second only to the Broken Steel DLC because that one unlocks the level 30 cap.

As you heard on the podcast, I recorded a 5-song EP last month and I’m now offering it free to the internet/world/you. You can download it at last.fm, or just listen to it streaming if you’re not one for commitments. Tyler did the album art, so mad props.

We’re back after a two week hiatus, we hope you’re ready to sit down for our show of small talk. I honestly want to write more but I can hear the “DUN DUN DU-DUNDUN” of the Battlefield 1943 menu screen calling to me from the other room. So here it is — Your moment of Zen (that’s not a copyrighted phrase is it?).

PS – Did you know that the 43 Million kills needed to unlock Coral Sea have already been racked up? (I provided 20 Mill, give or take)

Musical guest: Russ Crandall
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release date: June 23, 2009

Setting: A local police interrogation room. A conversation between Russ1 (police officer) and Russ2 (suspected criminal). Russ2 is currently in a straight jacket.

Russ1: Do you know why you’re here, you slimy, formerly-skinny little jokester?
Russ2: It’s because I don’t like this album.
Russ1: No, you smarmy son of a bitch. Elaborate.
Russ2: I don’t like this album because it sounds too much like Drive-By Truckers.
Russ1: Exactly! And you like Drive-By Truckers, don’t you? DON’T YOU?
Russ2: Yeah, but…
Russ1: No “Yeah buts”. You’re nuts, kiddo, and you’re going to be locked up for a long, long time. They’re going to suit you up in a permanent, full-body straight jacket, with only three holes – one to eat with, one to see with, and one to poop with.
Russ2: But that’s not fair! How am I going to pee? How am I going to clean my ears?! Let me defend myself!
Russ1: (Shrugs) Okay, you have four sentences.
Russ2: I don’t like this album because it sounds almost exactly like Drive By-Truckers, just with Patterson Hood-only songs. His previous solo album, Killers and Stars, sounded like it was recorded in a dining room (it was) and had a brilliant, raw, and stripped-down quality to it. I was hoping for something like that, and instead I got this full-band album with a poor focus in songwriting. It’s not a bad album at all, it’s as good as any DBT album, it’s just not what I wanted to hear. Besides, DBT are prolific enough that I still haven’t made it through their entire back catalog yet, let alone trying to process this DBT-esque album.
Russ1: You have a point. But that was FIVE SENTENCES! You’re going straight to the loony bin!!

A full seasonal rotation after the “Summer of Arcade,” I finally got the chance to spend some quality time with one of last summer’s best, Castle Crashers.

My girlfriend, Tyler, and myself played it until almost two in the morn’, and had a good time doing it. I’m not sure how far we got into the game, but it was impressive how the crashing of castles never got old, even after a few straight hours of playing. They kept it fresh with new levels, moves, and powerups constantly, so it stayed exciting.

Hopefully we can start a little earlier tomorrow night and finish the job.

release date: June 23, 2009

Wow, this one is really hard to review. You see, Foreign Born writes melodic, reverby, pop-derived indie rock. In other words they sound like a whole lot of other bands out there. All of their songs are about four minutes long, and have a memorable quality to the point that I find myself recognizing each song’s melodies once they start playing, but I couldn’t start humming any of their songs on queue. That being said, I like this album. They remind me of a cross between a more rock-oriented Radiohead (The Bends-era) and a less catchy Rogue Wave (2nd album-era).

These guys sound like nice guys to me. And they made a nice album. It’s definitely a 7/10 or so. It doesn’t change the world, but I’ll enjoy these songs when they come up while my iPod is on shuffle play.

I’ve recently started reading comic books – I like the art and the fact that they’re quick and easy to read – but one thing that’s stopping me from getting more into them is their price. I could go broke in one hot minute, and that’s just by buying the collections/trade paperbacks.

Enter ComicZeal, a comic book reader app for the iPhone. It costs $3, but allows you to load any comics you have (.cbr files are the most common) as well as download a butt-ton of old, Golden Age comics. It couldn’t be simpler: you download a free program called ComicZeal Sync onto your computer, drag your .cbr files into the program (sorting and tagging them as you please), and then sync it with your iPhone through the ComicZeal app (wirelessly!). The app itself lets you sort and group your comics in any way you please, making navigation a breeze. It has all the features you’d expect from an eBook reader, like pinch zooming, swiping to the next page, saving your spot, etc.

I’ve already loaded dozens of comics onto my phone. It’s pretty awesome. You can download it here.

My girlfriend, Tyler, and myself are going to see the improv group Upright Citizens Brigade in LA tonight. You may remember them from the three season long sketch comedy show on Comedy Central in the late 90’s. I vaguely remember a few sketches from the show, but I remember it was really funny. Should be fun.

I just played through Resident Evil 5, which inspired me to find something about Resident Evil 4 to watch for our weekend entertainment. This video shows a few funny things you can do in RE4 if you get bored. The guy who made this video below actually has an entire walkthrough of the game (Wii version) with commentary uploaded on YouTube.