Bring it, big boy! Let's go!

You’ve been fighting for hours. Countless hours. You’re tired, you’re hungry, you’re battered beyond recognition and covered in. . . . what the heck are you covered in? You stop to catch your breath and look around. You see a first aid kit and a warm pizza on the table in the corner. Rushing over, you feast as if you’ve never feasted before, then you bandage your wounds. Searching the room further, you see a spotlight. Where did that come from? Or is that a chair? A spinning star? Whatever, you walk towards it quickly eager to find out what the deal is. You sit in the light/ star/ chair for a moment and take a few deep breaths. You turn. There’s the door. Behind it is the one thing you’ve been working toward. The fight you knew was coming hours ago when you walked out the door. There’s no turning back now. You check your equipment. Glad there was a random box of ammo behind that couch earlier. It’s go time now. It him or you, and you have no intention of it being you. You push the door open and walk into the battle of your life with. . .
All of us have dealt with boss battles. It’s a common and logical addition to playing video games. Bosses can be dispatched quickly and easily, or they can take repeated trial and error. Some are never defeated. They can be the catalyst to propel the story, or the part of the story that doesn’t make since. On the next episode of ITC, we’ll be talking about bosses, and we want to know your take on them. We don’t care if you talk about final bosses or low level first bosses. We’re cool knowing about bosses from PC games in this case. Whatever the issue, help us out by answering the few questions below.

1. What is your most memorable boss battle?
2. What/ what was (were) your favorite boss(es) (does not have to be the same as above) and why?
3. Is there a boss battle you though was too easy?
4. Is there a boss you thought was too hard?
5. Have you ever stopped playing a game because of a boss fight?
6. Has there been a boss that legitimately scared you?
7. Have you fought a final boss that was easier that any earlier bosses in the game?
8. Any interesting stories about bosses or boss battles? Let us know.

Drew
Read More

The Old vs. The New

Hey guys, Episode #107 is now available in the feed. Big props to Drew Wicks for appearing on the show once again. It appears that Switchpod is back on their game this time and is allowing us to upload shows again, what a relief. Though John and I were very pleased that we heard from Timothy Sundberg again, which means that at least one person downloaded the show manually and gave it a go.

Now as far as Episode #108 goes, we'll be talking about old game systems that seemingly "just worked" as opposed to today's systems which require constant downloaded updates, may or may not be compatible with certain games, and so on. Now, I know that John is excited to back me into a corner on this episode because he seems to think that "problems" like these have existed since the beginning, but I'm not so sure.

As usual, I've got a few homework questions for you guys out there, so please take a few minutes to mull over these and leave your thoughts in the comments below. And while you're at it, be sure to check out GameNerd and Better Blood Sugar.

1. What was your first game system that you remember?
2. Do you remember ever having to jump through any hoops (such as buying extra hardware) to play any of your favorite older games?
3. Do you think that if a system ships with *any* extra peripherals on Day One that it should continue to ship with those peripherals for the lifetime of the console?
4. In the last five years do you recall ever being frustrated with an incompatibility between a game you bought and the console you planned to play it on, such as not having an extra piece of hardware or not having an updated system?
5. Has the advent of the internet made things better or worse for these scenarios?

Thanks everybody!

-Phil
Read More