Mass Effect validate please apparently wants validate please you to please validate validate please it every 10 days validate please if you buy the PC version. Or does it? The real skinny inside. Plus, M-rated games being sold to miners and minors; M-rated games potentially causing stores a $5000 government fine if they're sold to said miners and minors; M-rated games turned into T-rated games by erasing dead fish; Alfred gets a new PC and it rawks; Slunks' siege against his friend, made possible by backstabbing him and teaming up with the Khan, fails (karma, traitor!); and MHORE!

GTA IV = big largesse happiness for Microsoft
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3167723

Sell an M-rated game to a toddler, pay $5000!
http://kotaku.com/5008212/house-introduces-video-games-ratings-enforcement-act-virtual-rape-fans-worried

Study shows not enough game stores are employing the Slunkses of the world as M-rated games fall into the hands of minors
http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/05/study-only-20-p.html

The URL speaks for itself.
http://kotaku.com/5008179/kaz-hirai-ps3-will-win-the-race-it-just-might-take-a-decade

It's the return of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! ... or not.
http://kotaku.com/388122/mike-tyson-returns-in-fight-night-round-4

Mass Effect Copy Protection is insane:
http://kotaku.com/387846/mass-effect-copy-protection-an-opportunity-to-use-the-adjective-draconian

Update on the insane Mass Effect news!
http://kotaku.com/5008452/bioware-backs-down-from-draconian-mass-effect-authentication

And Spore will do it too!
http://kotaku.com/5008454/spore-to-use-online-authentication

Activision is 2 weeks away from revealing a "significant innovation" for the Guitar Hero franchise...
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6190648.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;0

THQ says: Hey, our products suck. So, let's blame it on someone else's success!
http://kotaku.com/388798/lets-blame-nintendo

Microsoft to Sorny: Let's talk some SMACK.
http://kotaku.com/388781/aaron-greenberg-goes-berserk-bites-sony-in-the-face

Have Sushi, will M-rate
http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/05/uncharted-ditch.html

Interludes courtesy of:

Final Fantasy X - Besaid Island (PS2)
Mass Effect - Hot and Steamy Scene and Online Validations (X360)
Windows Vista Ad Music (PC)

Download here.
File Size: 45.7 MB
Running Time: 1:35:18

Want to be heard? Hit the mailbag - mailbag AT trigames DOT net.
Want previous episodes? Hit the Podcast Homepage.
You can review us on iTunes, while you're at it.
Add us to your RSS reader or iTunes feed! http://trigames.net/rss.xml

The Celestial Brush in the Wii version of Okami is unwieldy? People who haven't played Okami before will just think it's oddly difficult to use (I'm looking at you, Nick Suttner)!?

Really?

Pfft. Give me a break. It's harder to work a toaster oven.

We've moved the recording of the Trigames.NET Podcast to Saturdays instead of Sundays, hoping to alleviate (1) the rush to finish up an episode before the_antipode has to leave for work and (2) potential late starts that come about because of Saturday-night-related activities, which also had an impact on item (1) in the past. We haven't quite settled on a time yet, though -- so I guess just as a general guideline, if you have questions and/or comments send them in before you go to sleep on Friday just to be safe.

Episode 91 is in the editing room. I've gotten staffed a new project so I'm no longer in "self-training and thus I have more time and flexibility" mode, so unfortunately this doesn't mean that the episodes will necessarily come earlier but I'll try. Computer disasters pending, of course.

Finally, Richard Ball, we got your audio question last week but because we were rushing into doing the episode we didn't get a chance to listen to it. However, we've answered it this week for you -- well, as best we can, since none of us own GTA IV to know what the PS3 multiplayer is like.

Random comment for any NBA fans: New Orleans. Wow.

I can't vent about this experience as I really want to, as it involves mean and moderatable words, so I'll just make it short and then also direct you to my non-gaming blog where I detailed it in full (see the Chupporitos link up at the top of this profile page).

I went into a Gamestop at 33rd Street and Broadway in New York to spend a gift card I had gotten from Tony. I had my Edge card with me which takes 10% off Used product, I got dinged with my taxes, I'm saving up to go back to school and I'm just trying to save as much as I can in general, so making a gift card go as long as possible is important to me. As such, I decided to grab Super Mario Galaxy used. The disc had a tangential scratch in it, which I explain in my other blog; in short, it's the worst kind of scratch you can have because it goes around the spiral of the disc instead of just being a straight cut. When I explained the situation, the dude told me that it was ok and almost made me leave with it. I explained that the_antipode had a problem with a Dreamcast disc with this exact same scratch, and he told me that Dreamcast and Wii games are processed entirely differently by their respective machines.

WHAT?

Needless to say, I was amused and pissed at the same time, but I bit my tongue and just kept insisting that I be given a different disc. You can read the FULL anger and vehemence of my experience in that other blog, but be warned that the language used within is not for the faint of heart.

Oh yeah, Episode 90 of the podcast is up. It's what we call our Worst Ever since we were exhausted from a Rock Band party that went til almost 5am the night before, but Slunks seems to like it ^_^.