A sorely Justin-less episode starts on soft note. The transition to the new studio is almost complete, and there is a high definition download available at the end of the post. Nick, Tom, Kaz and Tony forge on without their China-bound cohort. Nick, Tom and Tony are completely absorbed in playing Final Fantasy Tacticsagain (or the first time for certain people). Nick and Kaz played some VF5 and Halo 3while waiting for the cable man. Tony, Nick and Kaz busted out some late night Rock Band and Tom played some PSP classics. Then Tony shares a tiny bit of his disappointment in Kane and Lynch, which boils down to a list of things more fun to do than play the game itself.
After the break we flow into a slightly new format, all the same content but much more fluid. We discuss the new Soul Calibur IV characters and try and avoid turning into sweaty fanboys. In honor of all of us playing and old Final Fantasy game of sorts we churn over 1up’s Jeremy Parish’s list of Final Fantasy games. Needless to say people have a lot of differing opinions on such a prolific series.
Edit: Near the beginning of the second half of the show we discuss our anticipation for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. We mention the old release date because we recorded 8 hours before SmashBros DOJO! announced the March delay. Our apologies for the inaccuracy.
2.1 HD Download (Right Click to Save As)
This podcast is a celebration of the social aspects of gaming. We were “smash brothers” long before we became the ‘Pack, and we continue to game with each other on a regular basis. If you look beyond all of the media sensationalism and message board wankery, you’ll discover that video games can help form bonds that will last forever. We’re living proof of that – we’re not jaded journalists (not yet, at least), we’re not tournament players and we’re certainly not fanboys. We’re just folks who love to play and discuss games with each other, and we hope to extend this friendship to our listeners with every installment. 
Now I’ve noticed this before but it never occurred to me to leave a suggestion. Perhaps I should do this in the message board? Anyway…
Volume. I know it’s difficult to maintain a consistent voice volume, especially with multiple people speaking to each other (and sometimes over each other), but the volume seems to be generally low while you listen. So one must turn up the speakers louder than usual (greater than “listening to music” volume) in order to hear your voices. But then someone might give an enthusiastic laughter or exclaim some exciting news, which, with the already high volume from the speakers, ends up to be a very loud sound.
Is there a way to edit the volume of the track so that it is overall at a normal volume (comparable to the volume levels of music, or news programs), and to have the volume of any random loud sounds lowered to that normal volume? Perhaps adjusting the recording volume higher would help, or maybe even bringing the brand spankin’ new microphones closer to your mouths.
I dunno, just a suggestion, not a criticism. And maybe I shouldn’t be listening to your podcast at work anyway. ^_~