This week, Will, Norm, and Gary discuss topics designed to fill you with rage, including games, the PS4 and Xbox One, Saints Row IV, Google Glass, the NSA, Terrorism, Chelsea Manning, drones, and a whole lot more. Enjoy!
One Day Builds
Adam embarks on one of his most ambitious builds yet: fulfil…
Show And Tell
Adam recently completed a build of the royal St. Edwards cro…
Making
Viewers often ask to see Adam working in real-time, so this …
One Day Builds
Adam and Norm assemble a beautifully machined replica prop k…
One Day Builds
One of the ways Adam has been getting through lockdown has b…
Making
Adam unboxes and performs a quick test of this novel new hel…
Making
When Adam visited Weta Workshop early last year, he stopped …
One Day Builds
Adam tackles a shop shelf build that he's been putting off f…
Show And Tell
Time for a model kit build! This steampunk-inspired mechanic…
One Day Builds
Adam reveals his surprise Christmas present for his wife--a …
Rage? Count me in…
Gary’s back, blank space on the wall no longer blank, Will sneaking in multiple camera angles… MADNESS!
wow i am only 10 in and so much rage ..
(╯°□°）╯ ︵ ┻━┻
Here’s
my take on the whole NSA thing
Both Gary and Will are right. The NSA’s operations are
clandestine. You won’t hear of successes or failures. However, when the NSA
violates the US Constitution (4
Gary is the secret sauce that makes the This Is Only a Test steak so good.
COD series and others were mentioned……What is your opinion of the Gears of War series ?
Megadrive is not the same thing as genesis, at least here in argentina, megadrive was the first bulky version of the console, then it came the genesis, its the same system, same cateches, but different looking console
kind like ps2 original vs ps2 slim
Megradrive: http://www.segasaturno.com/portal/files/images/5050/megadrive.jpg
Genesis: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Sega-Genesis-Mod2-Bare.jpg
About the tablet question, I’d go with an android for sure, because the popular ones are incredibly customizable, I don’t really have the answer to this question but if I someone has it it’s probably on the xda moding forums, google xda and ask there
The NSA could stop even more terrorists if they put cameras everywhere like in England, in addition to threatening journalist’s spouses and destroying a major newspapers hard drives.
We should be more like England guys, because they stop so many terrorists with their massive surveillance state, like Jean Charles de Menezes
You guys should also try to play Papers Please, a dystopian document thriller game. The developer released a free beta before here: http://dukope.com/ and recently the full game over here http://papersplea.se
It’s $10 bucks, available thru GoG or Steam, and it’s really good.
The BBC licence fee is £145 ($225) a year, it’s only £45 ($70) if you only have a black and white TV!
It’s easy to avoid though, the BBC iPlayer (it’s like YouTube) relies on the honour system and users will be periodically reminded that they shouldn’t be watching if they don’t have a TV license.
I’m hugely pro BBC though, I like to believe their news coverage is the gold standard globally and one of the main reasons we don’t have partizan news channels like Fox here in the UK. BBC radio is also fantastic and funded by the TV licence (you don’t need a licence to tune in) and as a radio nut it’s something if miss terribly if it ever went away.
Oh, and the biggest ratings was the 1986 Christmas EastEnders. Den & Angie, which you probably remember. They say it got 30m viewers, which is 50% of the population of the country so I find it difficult to believe.
I think this was my favorite podcast simply because there was so much bullshit talk. Haha. There should be a segment on this site called “Shoot the Shit” where Will, Norm, and a few others just talk about whatever bullshit is going on that they like.
sod the outrage over games or politics, I’m outraged you forgot (again!) what country Lego originates from! DENMARK!!! 😉 geographical faux pas aside, good show!
Piggly Wiggly still exists you guys, mostly in the midwest, though.
Also, the N64 launch lineup was Super Mario 64 and Pilot Wings. The Gamecube had Luigi’s Mansion, Super Monkey Ball, and Wave Race.
The 360 launch lineup never gets enough love. It wasn’t amazing, but it had a lot of titles and many great games including Condemned, Kameo (it was okay), Amped, and a full lineup of good sports games for the time.
Two things worth noting about the bundling of FIFA 14 with the Xbox One – 1. the PS3 is the market leading console in most European markets (apart from the UK and maybe Ireland, I think), so Microsoft might feel that they need to add an extra incentive for people to ‘swap’; and 2. Europeans get pretty regularly screwed on the pricing of consoles and games and this new generation doesn’t seem to be an exception, so it’s nice to be offered a little something extra for once. We’re still getting screwed on release date, of course (for PS4, at least).
I think the current advice from the BBC is that you need to have a licence if you’re watching live TV through iPlayer, but you don’t need one if you’re only watching archived programmes. That doesn’t seem right to me, to be honest, given that those programmes were paid for primarily using money raised through the licence fee, but I suspect that’s due to the way the law around tv licensing is written.
Wawa is what Gary is talking about. Native American for Duck is what it means I believe. Like 7-11 but cleaner.
Oh yeah, I forgot to say: I got LASIK and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life. After about a week, and the 10 or so minutes of intense surgery: it becomes worth it.
You’re meant to pay the license fee if you have a device capable of picking up television, laptops, tablets and computers included, that’s why they ask for your address when you buy a new one.
Saint’s Row feels like The Naked Gun of games to me.
I disagree about the weak launch lineup for this generation. It’s unfortunate that the announced titles are still so shooter-centric, but I think the games both MS and Sony have been touting are pretty impressive and have me excited about console gaming like I haven’t been in quite a while. Heck, after Gamescom I’m even tempted to buy a PS Vita!
The electric car/power grid talk was fascinating. 75¢ a day? Holy hell. Unfortunately unless you own a garage it isn’t really feasible. And how can we not store power? That’s bananas.
Whomever makes those Tested outros, really suggest the “You got bundle fucked?” “I got bundle fucked” exchange.
Quote of the podcast goes to Mr. Gary Whitta,
“Starbucks is full of Laptop fucks”
Bravo sir, I hate laptop fucks too.
I’ve never been asked for my address when buying a laptop or tablet (other than for delivery purposes), but then it has been a while.
You’re meant to pay the licence fee if you use such a device for watching live TV. They ask for your address if you buy a device that’s capable of watching live TV so that TV Licensing can send you a chaser letter if there doesn’t appear to be a licence attached to your address. Just because TV Licensing write to you, doesn’t mean you definitely need an licence.
Here’s the BBC advice on licensing and iPlayer:
http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/playing_tv_progs/tvlicence
Which matches the TV Licensing advice:
http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/
Oh boy. Today I learned from the podcast that Admiral Ackbar is a Star Wars character, not a Star Trek character, haha.
There are some hydroelectric setups where they literally pump water up into a reservoir to “store” electricity, but by and large storage is a big problem. If somebody came up with a practical solution to bulk electricity storage, even a fairly lossy one, it would be revolutionary.
I’ll be at Dragon. I’ll say hi if I see you.
Piggly Wiggly also still exists in the south. I used to live right behind one.
Gary is completely wrong on the NSA. Will is right but did not make his point forcefully enough. “Trust the government” – you’ve got to be kidding. “Glad we’re not getting blown up” – hm . . . have you talked to folks in Boston lately? Somehow the NSA missed that one, despite all of the many red flags and Russia’s attempts to directly warn us about them. Oops.
Gary, “Until they can get into my head and actually see what I’m thinking” – hmmmm, maybe Gary should let the NSA fill out his Netflix queue?
Will, Norm, Gary, any of you guys play Gone Home yet?
I really want to play Brothers but I don’t have an Xbox anymore. Waiting for PC version.
edit: LOL I ask just before Gary mentions Gone Home.
There is still a Piggly Wiggly in my home town of Shelbyville, TN. I was just there a few weeks ago!
Good show.
Re house fans, if you have a windowed basement give stacked cooling a try. Upstairs put a box fan in a south facing window blowing out. Downstairs open a north facing window. Keep the basement door open halfway and run the fan at low or medium speed. This will create a constant flow of cool air from the basement to the upstairs part of the house.
I still have to use a/c sometimes, but my use of it has dropped a lot. From around 50-70 days a year to 10-20.
Saints Row 4 on PS3 works just fine for me. Not seeing any crippling slowdowns or the like.
have to agree. wondered if i’ts just cos i’m from England too that Gary was the podcast gold. But on reflection he brings the best out of Norm and Will . I always feel deflated when it’s a Gary-less pod as the banter will be sub-par. Either way – love the pod – keep testing!
Guys, you’ve completely missed the point of the 6 tuner TiVo Roamio. The TiVo Mini.
https://www.tivo.com/shop/mini
Instead of having 2 or 3 boxes across the house, you have one box and then Minis everywhere else. They mooch off a full TiVo’s tuner and there you go. Cheaper way to get whole home TiVo.
agree big time
15
“You know what? I’ve had it with zombies.”
~Gary Whitta – Writer: The Walking Dead Season 2
I don’t think we get done too badly on games. You can pick up almost anything that isn’t FIFA or Call of Duty for £39.99, which comes in at $62 based on todays rates. Throw in sales tax in the US and we may even be ahead.
You might argue that Playstation is synonymous with FIFA on large parts of the continent too. They have been major and highly visible sponsors of the Champions League for fifteen years and from the quarter finals onwards the games get a minimum of 100m viewers across Europe. It’s certainly the brand you want to be associated with if you are in the business of selling consoles to football fans.
You know, we wouldn’t mind listening to you talk about games Will if you’d stop just making things up/making blatant assumptions about everything you like to whine about. It’s not that you are critical, it’s that you don’t really care about the reality of the situation. Ya just kind of assume everything is the worst. Norm and Garry aren’t always right about stuff, but they just make honest mistakes. You often just come off as an asshole about that stuff v.v I like you on just about every subject, but you just exude an air of “I don’t give a fuck” on very particular topics.
I usually hate the people who say you guys should stop talking about stuff, but that’s usually because the topic doesn’t interest me. I’m just tired of listening to you make stuff up because you’re a cynic and hate the world, or whatever.
I’m curious to hear someone go into more about why the Sony lineup has them excited. I’m a bit biased because I have a PC and most multi-plat games look pretty lame and the few that don’t will be way better on the PC. So the exclusives on the Sony side don’t look great to me. I can only think of a couple that look good in the launch window. I fully intend to purchase a PS4, but it’ll probably be early 2014 and my Xbone purchase will be at launch. If you ask me, the PS4 is the one with the lame launch lineup, even if you include launch window. The Xbone line up looks pretty cool: Dead Rising, Forza, Zoo Tycoon (yeah, I said it! if it’s a decent Zoo Tycoon game it’ll be awesome!), and Lococycle all look pretty good. Plus the launch window will expand that to some pretty interesting things. It’s not amazing, but those games will probably be pretty good and followed by some pretty good stuff in the launch window, like Remedy’s new game thingy which looks very impressive. And of course Titanfall which looks awesome.
The tea kettle/electrical grid stress can be seen here. It happens every after Coronation Street, which seem to be a soap opera type show.
People who talk like that scare the shit out of me. Like really, the only way you’re going to sleep well at night is knowing that the government is checking into all your crap “for the greater good”? That’s f***ing gross. People who want to sacrifice their freedom for security don’t deserve either…huh, I wonder where I heard that before…oh right, Thomas Jefferson.
I’ve had a nexus 7 in my car for several months now. I love it. If you want information about putting a tablet in your car, there’s a lot of good stuff at http://www.mp3car.com/android-tablet .
as far as “good vita only games,” Gravity Rush is fantastic with a kind of unfortunately rushed ending. Persona 4 golden is an “enhanced port” but it has enough extra content to justify it as its own thing imo. the Killzone mercenaries beta is very promising, game looks and plays great. Soul Sacrifice is great
The “issue” with the vita is that most of it’s games are buy once and you can play them on ps3/ps4. its an added value for people in the sony ecosystem but it’s harmful for selling the vita as its own platform. Portable Rogue legacy is maybe the absolute best way I can think of to play that game though. Hotline miami1 and 2, the new binding of isaac, n++ etc are great upcoming titles to get on a vita but not great reasons to buy a vita, unless you really want them portable.(which is a legitimate reason)
for me its res0gun, hohokum, killzone(the new one is unrelated to the rest and looks great) a console version of dont starve and more indie games in that vein (outlast, blacklight, warframe)
While on Xbox one its forza and thats it. Dead Rising is maybe the one franchise that i’m most disappointed in since its inception and after that there isn’t much.
UK isn’t the only country that has TV license. Finland had TV license until this year and now it’s Public broadcasting tax.
I wish we could get TV series even month after USA/UK premier but for example even Netflix has only the first season of The Walking Dead from 2010 and Doctor Who S5 from 2010. I don’t know if this is due to some strange IPR or just the fact that every show has subtitles translated to language that only 5 million people in the world speaks. That’s little more than half the population of New York.
The basement of the Federal Reserve, which stores about 7,000 metric tons of gold, is the classiest and most refined place in the world. It is a basement of exquisite taste.
Gary is usually on it , but that kettle boiling thing is a myth. In Britain ,TV ratings were (prob not now) based on a sample -ie, 10,000 homes were given a box that monitored viewing trends.
all the worlds gold would fit in my house – an my house aint that big! head blown.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21969100
The Fiat looks cute but as someone who’s spent some time in one the small size got old FAST. The Focus Electric (Ford) is whole lot bigger and more comfortable for not a ton more money. On purchase anyway, lease rate for the Ford is a LOT higher.
Netflix. I’m only seeing things I’ve added in “My list”. You sure you’re not thinking of “Top 10”?
the laser eye surgery was very far off. I’ve worked for a clinic that do the procedure among others. the technology has not improved in a long time, firmware has had bug fixes & tweaks but the quality of the results has not improved. the machines have gotten smaller and more cost effective but all the improvements in the tech benefit the business side not the patient side. so while one clinic might advertise the latest laser suite the actual results would be no different than places with older machines. the industry has taken on a “good enough” stance to maximize profit at the expense of patient results. there is much more accurate technology available that is being used in other eye surgeries among others but not for vision correction.
when it comes to PRK vs Lasik there is no difference in the results. Will was incorrect saying PRK causes halos, it doesn’t. it’s related to pupil size and limitations of the technology. you will get the same result with either procedure, the reason the lasik method is preferred is shorter recovery time and quicker results. Lasik actually comes with more risks, such as higher chance of permanent dry eye, eye pain and flap complications just to name a few examples.
if you can see 20/20 or better with glasses or contacts alone I would highly advise against having laser correction. the results you get are a crapshoot. we can only marginally guess your outcome based on the tech, your eyes and statistics. if you’re a perfectionist or value the quality of your current vision the surgery might not be for you. you only get one shot, if the results aren’t what you had hoped there’s nothing that can be done.
if you’re really dead set in getting rid of your glasses maybe consider intra ocular lenses as an option.
Sorry wasn’t aware you had problems, sure no reason to go with a brand until you’re comfortable with it.
Thanks for that very informative and very disheartening post. As someone who’s close to fed up with glasses and lenses I was hoping to look into lasik soonish but now I guess I’ll just shelve that idea.
When I was growing up in Mississippi, all I remember seeing is Wini-Dixie, Kroger, and Delchamps. Although here in the Penn_Ohio, everyone knows of Krogers, despite not having any. Like it’s a legend or something.
I would add an endorsement of the Brideshead Revisited series (not, I repeat NOT, the horrible movie that came out a year ago). The series, with Laurence Olivier and Jeremy Irons, is amazing and quite possibly the best adaptation of a novel ever.
On Black Friday Console Releases by a Vet of two:
There’s a reason why Black Friday will always be as bad as it is. Unless the product is released more than a month in advance, retailers will stockpile product for Black Friday sale. It’s a time when they have guaranteed demand and when they can get a lot of foot traffic by offering big name products. At big box retailers there’s usually a double shipment of consoles up to two weeks before release and more than half of that is separated specifically for Black Friday sale.
The people who work electronics counters in Big Box retailers know this, and there probably isn’t a Gamestop employee who hasn’t salivated over their store’s early shipment. Employees are also encouraged to lie about their stock until Black Friday. I had multiple encounters with managers at two different retailers (one big box, one small retailer) during two different console releases when I explained the situation to the customers and explained that there was nothing I could do about it. See, the pre-Black Friday shipments usually run out quickly, and you cannot stock shelves with the Black Friday stock because retailers “have to ensure [they] have the advertised items on the advertised date”. Regardless of the fact that there’s 30 XBoxes or 40 Wii in the back. It’s untouchable until Black Friday.
Moral of the story is, buy online and hope to god that they aren’t lying about their stock in order to put some aside for Black Friday or “cyber monday” sales.
While it’s questionable as to whether the BBC ever actually deployed vans with “TV Detectors” they are apparently not total fiction. Old school electronic tuners operated by combining the antenna signal with an artificially generated “intermediate frequency” and having a sensitive bandpass filter designed to detect the low frequency difference (beat) between the two frequencies. By generating the correct intermediate frequency you can then electronically select the frequency you are looking for (pretty ingenious). My understanding is that this intermediate frequency would also be present in the antenna and be radiated. So in fact your (old school) t.v. was actually radiating a signal back out the antenna and one could even determine what station you are watching based on the frequency. I have heard that radio stations used to use this technology to park vans by highways and count the number of cars listening to a given radio station.
Sorry for the late response, am catching up on podcasts.
Gary has complete faith in the government, and would gladly hand over all control to them. This is evident in his support of nanny-state policies, his perspective on the NSA, and his desire to abolish the 2nd amendment.