ALL OUR THOUGHTS AND GOOD VIBES GO OUT TO YOU TRAVIS!!! =) =D XD

WoW DOES NOT require you to get any of the expansions! They just raise the level cap and add new areas, items, and quests.

As I've mentioned before, I don't play MMO's as a rule, for several reasons, one of which being that many of the ones I even remotely considered trying, most of them required you to have all the expansions before the servers would even GLANCE at you(another reason being that at the time I had a web connection that could be called slow by a dead snail encased in concrete), and as my dear uncle charlie once said "when 9 people kick you in the nuts, its not unreasonable to believe number 10 will as well." ....he was a weird one, my uncle charlie.

The practical reasoning behind requiring a new user to have all the expansions is the same reason you usually can't use your home made character skins when you play shooters online: not everyone has the file required to display/use the item in question, and therefore some weird shit can happen if you try to whack another player with a hammer that does not exist as far as their computer is concerned. I don't know how Blizzard got around this, but if it works, power to them.

Anyway, the point is, my assumption was based on what I had seen in the past, though I freely admit law of averages says I had to be wrong eventually. =_=

Huh, only one more episode before the season finale. Can't wait! And, whoo! Linkara and Ed Glaser! Awesome discussion, guys.

Here's an Ask The Geek question for all three of you (if Travis returns next week. My condolences to you and your family, sir):

What would you like to see more of in your respective fields? You know, like underused certain kinds of gameplay. Underused certain story/story-telling elements. All that good stuff. I hope this question isn't too vague.

Personally, I'm of the group that when it comes to Medal of Honor, it is a WWII series, and it shouldn't have done the blast into the future so abruptly (or at least in the era in gaming where WWII is no more and it's all about modern gritty realism). I might still get the MoH reboot, but I know I may be disappointed since it is my favorite FPS series.

Also, since you wanted a giant chicken monster movie, even though it isn't a chicken per se, look at The X From Outer Space. The monster has so much resemblances to a chicken.

Great episode, interesting to hear linkara talk about movies.

Travis, my thoughts are with you in this time of grief.

I got to speak up about the Warcraft part of the podcast.

First, price is a legitimate concern. However, Blizzard will likely release another World of Warcraft battle chest including Wrath of the Lich King, just as they did with Burning Crusade, lowering the overall price to somewhere around forty, maybe fifty dollars dollars. If they keep in line with what they did with the previous battle chest, it will also include a free month of play, reducing the price of playing even further.

As for the "intimidation factor", Blizzard has implemented several changes that have made it easier to level the characters which include mount changes, which were not popular; boosting XP gains; heirloom items; dungeon finder, and so on. This has not really trivialized the content so much as it has made the task of reaching the level cap easier.

The superfluous comment is out of place. Each expansion has not been adding pointless bells and whistles but is continuing the story with each expansion focusing on a specific region and/or villain from the Warcraft universe. In addition, saying Cataclysm is superfluous is wrong. Plain and simple. Cataclysm is going to be a complete revamp of the original world. They will be redesigning the original zones, redesigning the quests, adding new rewards, and making the flow of the game better for leveling. Moreover, odds are the changes with Cataclysm will be available to those players that only have the basic Vanilla version of WoW.

In your defense, Gonzo, if you don't have the expansions for WoW, you may as well not be able to play the game at an end game level. One of WoW's problems is that 80% of the community is at level 80 and hovers there for eternity because, by comparison, you can get more done at end-game and pre-expansion areas are dull in comparison to the content of the last 10 levels. Hopefully the revamp of the old world in the new expansion will fix this, and people looking to get a full experience from the new content (which will update the old world for players regardless of their expansion status.)

If you're leveling up, you may as well be playing a single player game aside from when the odd dungeon will appear while using the Dungeon Finder application that didn't even exist until a few months ago. In summation, you may as well need the expansions to really enjoy the game. MMOs are a commitment in that respect, and any MMO that has expansions (that you need to pay for, as far as I know, Warhammer Online is actively avoiding releasing solid expansions, which is amazing and I hope sets up a model for the future) will ALWAYS have that intimidation factor.

I'm with you on Toy Story 3, Gonzo. Seldom in my life have I felt so satisfied with a movie, and never so satisfied with not just a sequel, but a third-parter. Everyone was calling this a cash-in and Pixar, as usual delivered in spades. Moreover, I know exactly which scene you were talking about. It was alarmingly powerful and dark for a story about animated toys, and my girlfriend and my buddy's girlfriend both teared up during that scene. It was hard to watch that scene, but incredibly satisfying.

EDIT: I totally rushed out my post to answer the door and I missed the most important part. We're all behind you, Travis. Sorry to hear about your loss, and our hopes and prayers go out to you.

The Super Mario Brothers movie might have been the first, but in comparison to other video game films it wasn't the worst movie.

AvP was boring compared to AvP 2, while AvP 2 might have been unoriginal, at least they did things, a kind of B movie delight compared to the slow paced cg riddened AvP.

As for Originality in films, it takes a significant amount of risk that typicaly isn't worth the producers time, sad but true.

The talk about the modern warfare Medal of Honor was pretty interesting and really made me remember all the controversy that eruped around Six Days in Fallujah and got it cancelled...which really bothered me since I was actually looking forward to playing it.

I usually end up seeing the majority of the summer blockbusters that come out and I usually end up enjoying them. I think really the only major disappointments I've had were probably Hulk in 2003 and then The Last Airbender this year.

This also isn't related to anything discussed, but I like how you frequently use "Still Alive" by Lisa Miskovsky. It's a pretty awesome song.

I'd also like to wish Travis all the best with everything that's happening. Good luck and hope to see you back soon!

Well I live in America and bought the Diskworld books here and by the sounds of it I have the British versions of them. Like the example being the Lancre Morris men being a football team, in the one I read they are still Morris men. Other American vs englishisms that stay in (american=english), Cookies=Biscuits, Fries=chips, Chips=Crisps, ect. So I get the feeling that I'm reading the "British" version.

wait wait... this sounds like kingdom hearts union? I cant tell for sure but it sounds like the people from there

I must admit I squeed out like a fangirl when you read out my name XD

@IntFam- I think my comment about large areas of WoW being superfluous stands. When the main area of content is end-game, when you raise the level cap and replace it all with new end-game content, the old stuff lays around gathering dust. All the original raid dungeons and most of the BC stuff is unused. No-one spends longer than they need to in vanilla WoW or Outland; as soon as you hit level 58 you leave Azeroth and when you hit 68 you're in Northrend. Why? Because ALL the content in the expansions is superior, making the old stuff seem old and useless in comparison.

The British->American translations were something I read about a while ago, I don't know how much truth was in it.

Thanks for reading out my questions! Btw, nodiatis.com is a price-gouging son of a bitch. One day I may write a review of it, but it's appalling.

EDIT: In Hogfather, Death was played by the late great Ian Richardson, who does sound very similar to Christopher Lee.

Really? I could have sworn I saw the role credited to him O___O;; My mistake!

Christopher Lee did Colour of Magic as Ian Parkinson passed away shortly after Hogfather was finished. So we're both right!

On your comment about David Jason playing Rincewind, I agree he seems a bit of an odd choice seeing as he played Albert so well. My guess is he's a big Discworld fan and wanted to be in each film. He does seem a bit too old to play Rincewind, who's supposed to be a failed apprentice wizard and you'd expect him to be comparable in age to a college dropout. It would be interesting if they decided to adapt Mort where Rincewind and Albert meet, along with the awesomeness of a live action Mort with Christopher Lee as Death.

Regarding the Medal of Honour set in Iraq/Afghanistan; It seems a bit close to home to have multiplayer against recent enemies. I even noticed in COD4 they were careful about using the word 'Nazi', instead referring to them as 'Axis', having 'American' versus 'Taliban' or 'Iraqi Insurgents' makes the game a political hotground. There's also the problem that the war's still going on; it hasn't had a definite resolution, and as such, what's the game going to be leading up to?