There are so many characters in Final Fantasy XIII that you will lose track of their names within the first twenty minutes. People are introduced, speak lines of importance, and die at a fluid pace. Soon, the game falls victim to “Star Wars Action Figure Syndrome.” I just made that up: You know those aliens in the “cantina scene” of the original “Star Wars” film? They never tell you those characters’ names, though they sure as hell sold action figures of nearly every one of them, and all those action figures had names. The action figures, in fact, were the only way to learn the names of those characters. Final Fantasy XIII does a lot of things like that, all over the place.

Via Kotaku.

This is it, people! The last episode of Oh-Nine! Me and Tony Stark will be taking the next week off, which means that this episode is closing down the first decade of the millenium. Will the next decade be just as magical? I do hope so. I figure it’s only a matter of time before we start doing these episodes in our flying cars, while robots cleanse our feet.

Oh, the possibilities.

And because we know you folks love surprises, we’ve brought resident curmudgeon Matt Demers back on the show, dropping knowledge and dashing good looks. This episode takes us all over the place, from phones to films, and you know it’s going to be a good time. So gather ’round the fire, roast some chestnuts and give us a listen while you await the most commercialized morning of the year. So concludes year one of the Not So Horrible Podcast!

Listen here, or at the Not So Much News!

Length: 40:39
Close: I Slept With The Bonhomme At The CBC – Broken Social Scene
Download: 39.0 MB
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Holy deep-fried bacon, we’re at the end of 2009! This means it’s probably time to change my furnace filter, and that box of baking soda in the fridge too. And have you smelled Anand’s loincloth lately? But more applicable to you, it’s our YEAR IN REVIEW. I even made a rhyme, just for the occasion. Respect.

It’s that time of year where we look at all the nice and nerdy things that have crossed our respective desks/hovels and tell you why we think they’re awesome. And more importantly, why you should think they’re awesome. Because our word is law around here. This means that we’ve taken a nice little cross-section of our usual talk and packaged it into a little “best of” for your listening pleasure. Our top picks for this year include:

• Games!
• Applications and software!
• Movies!
• Television!
• Film soundtracks!
• And, of course, gadgets! And technological awesomeness from the year past.

It’s definitely one of our longer ‘casts, and it’s packed with some nerdy goodness the whole family can enjoy. So take a listen, and maybe you’ll agree! Because if you disagree, we’ve got a different sort of present waiting in that dark alley beside your house. Right Vinny?

Listen here, or at the Not So Much News!

Length: 38:41
Close: Bits and Pieces – Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori (Halo 3: ODST)
Download: 37.2 MB
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Friends! Enemies! Frienemies! Unless you have been living under a rock, or a similarly sized object of great girth and weight, you may have noticed that THE HOLIDAY SEASON IS NIGH. Specifically, Christmas, the day upon which we worship presents in mangers, wrapped in swaddling clothes. I believe this is how the story is told, but correct me if I am wrong.

Today’s episode is a lot like our Back-to-school Consumer Spectacular from all those weeks ago. It means that we at the Not So Horrible podcast embrace this culture of rampant spending, and explore the holiday season’s hottest gadgets — all for you, dear listener. While we obviously can’t cover everything, we’ve picked a few of our favourite gadgets, and a few of our favourite products, and aim to clear up the FUD surrounding them all. Things in this week’s super special, not-at-all blasphemous holiday special include…

• The Amazon Kindle, baby. The undoubted king of eBook readers these days has finally made its way to our igloos, and we give you the rundown on what to expect from this slick e-reading device.
• The Sony Reader. To balance things out, we discuss the most formidable challenger to King Kindle this holiday season, and whether the device is worth a few Benjamins.
• Televisions, people. We talk LCDs, Plasmas, and everything in between, giving you the lowdown on what contrast ratio means, and whether 240 really hertz.
• Microphones. You want to record your own podcast? We’ve got you covered, with some basic tips. Also, we give you a few pointers on what we’re using at home each week.
• Speakers. I’m in the market for a new set of speakers. The ‘cast looks at Logitech’s current offerings and what I think of each.
• And finally, What We Did This Week returns once again, with Anand rubbing his grubby paws all over Rim’s new Blackberry Storm 2, while I tap my way through the Legend of Zelda, Spirit Tracks.

It’s a heck of a podcast, and we sure hope you enjoy it as much as we did. We can’t promise any advice of biblical proportions, but we do offer just enough tips to make your trip into the electronics section that much easier. Without all that north star business, too.

Listen here, or at the Not So Much News!

Length: 39:34
Close: Kalimba – Mr. Scruff
Download: 38.0 MB
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Can you believe it people? Can you believe that me and Anand have spent twenty weeks making this podcast? That’s over four months. Four glorious months of tech, toys and talk, with a little bit of a laughter, and a little bit of stupid, all mixed in for good measure. Madness.

A lot’s changed since the beginning. We’ve had good mics, bad mics, echo, buzz, fuzz, and ever possible audio disaster you can imagine. But through it all we’ve managed to produce some quality content, assuming you think Simpson’s references and Woody Allen impressions pass for “quality” these days.

But otherwise, it’s business as usual around these parts. Things you’ll hear this week include…

• A sappy retrospective, where we inflate each others’ egos while reminiscing about podcasts past
• The Playstation Network decides to do what it said it would  never — go premium
• Youtube’s pulling the plug on TV support — a generation of couch potatoes collectively cry
• What we did this week: Anand’s In Orbit again, while I try out LittleBigPlanet for the PSP

Listen here, or at the Not So Much News!

Length: 37:25
Close: Earth – Jesper Kyd / Assassin’s Creed 2 OST
Download: 35.9 MB
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