We’re a few days late, but we trust you’ll forgive us. The extra time was spent sorting a bag of M&M’s based on flavour. It’s the sort of thing required when trying to get a SUPERSTAR SCREENWRITER like DANNY VIOLA on the show.

Luckily, we won out in the end, and our good friend Danny is the second guest on our fine little series. As if we weren’t already HILARIOUS ENOUGH, Danny brings a little extra wit, and a lot more chest hair than you’re used to. In fact, some might believe a gorilla is guesting on the show. However, this is not the case — the zoo has stopped returning our calls.

What’s in this week’s latte of wisdom?

• Apple lays the smack down on HTC, serving the asian company with not one, not two, but TWENTY patent violations. Juicy details include infringement upon the iPhone’s slide-to-lock functionality and multitasking. Watch out, Android.
• Sony, in a gaffe of millennial proportions, sends Playstation phats to the year 1999. The problem first appeared on February 29th. Which is, in fact, the problem.
• Infinity Ward’s bigwigs are out job-hunting, and Activision’s floating Death Star is to blame.
• A new Halo: Reach multiplayer beta trailer has been released, and by jove, is it ever filled with GRADE A CERTIFIED AWESOME.
• Our on-air adventure with Chatroulette, Trust us, it’s as bad as it sounds. But also HILARIOUS.

And that’s that. Danny’s exemplary performance has saved him from the stake — this time. He’s still a witch, after all, and must be burned eventually.

Listen here, or at the Not So Much News!

Length: 29:28
Close: Prelude – Christophe Beck (The Lightning Thief OST)
Download: 28.3 MB
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Episode 31, and the apocalypse has yet to arrive. Quite frankly, I’m a little disappointed. Nevertheless, we must soldier on here at podcast HQ, and solider on we shall. Some strands of thinking from today’s off-the-cuff adventure include:

• Anand plays the Heavy Rain demo, and, unsurprisingly, we talk about it.
• I go to a swanky Microsoft Silverlight party and, unsurprisingly, talk about it.
• I run out of water mid-way through the podcast. This was not discussed.
• Microsoft and Yahoo are now some giant search conglomerate, which means Cylons are not far behind.
• The internet killed Gordon Lightfoot for a few hours last Thursday. Hoaxes can be dangerous, kids.
• Finally, it’s New Year’s Eve, and HTML5 is the innocent little baby preparing to beat Old Man Flash into submission — OR IS IT?

Listen here, or at the Not So Much News!

Length: 30:40
Close: Panoramic – Atticus Ross (Book of Eli OST)
Download: 29.4 MB
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I bought myself a fancy Playstation Triple just before Christmas, and I couldn’t be happier. It means I’m part of this so-called next-generation of gaming, despite being nearly three years into the system’s life cycle. More importantly, it means I can stop looking at the floor when telling people I own a Wii. Bliss.

Now, Sony is a company known for being rather…proprietary. Examples include ATRAC, UMD, and everyone’s favourite, the MemoryStick. These were all technologies that, for the most part, didn’t do so well with the North American crowd. They were restrictive, tough to reverse engineer, and near useless outside of Sony’s product ecosystem.

With the Playstation 3, as far as I can tell, there’s none of that. Blu-ray notwithstanding, I can charge the controllers via USB, play certain games with a keyboard and mouse, and even use my wired Logitech USB headset in online games. There’s no proprietary cables, and no restrictive first-party accessories. If this is the future, I like it.

Ah, my precious Playstation! My lone source of joy in the cold December of my days. Come, friends. Let’s take her for a spin to the PSN shop like old times!

You know what that means folks? Our resident oaf and Tsar of Tomfoolery has finally moved into the ranks of current-generation gaming, buying himself a fancy, schmancy Playstation Triple this week. And you dear listeners, will be the first to hear aboot it!

And if that wasn’t news enough, I’ve bought myself a cool new Nintendo DS Lite, which will undoubtedly be used for all sorts of nefarious purposes. But mainly for gaming. I swear. And it even comes in a fancy Onyx colour too, whatever that means.

So listen in folks, for a special gaming-centric episode of the Not So Horrible Podcast. It’s the episode where we talk about our feelings, and that’s something you just don’t want to miss. Because after all — we feel pretty damn good about our purchases.

Listen here, or at the Not So Much News!

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There is an image of my mind of a fat child, huddled in the corner of some darkened closet. There is a hint of frosting dancing about his lips. Freshly-iced cupcakes, some half eaten, lie on the floor, cast away with little regret. The child, however, is not quite a child, but a Playstation 3. And just outside the door, muscles flexing in the mirror, is the PS3 slim.

That, people, is probably the most horrible and depressing image of a console upgrade I’ve ever written. But hey, I hear that sort of stuff pays the bills; after all, you’re not quite paying for this show. Yet.

This week on The Not So Horrible Podcast, myself and Mr. Watson continue to ward off the assassins of London, finding a Sixaxis controller lodged in our tailpipe just this morning. Despicable. Through the course of our misadventures, however, we find that Sony has, in fact, announced a price drop for their PS3 gaming console, and introduced a new, slimmer model of the cancer-solving beast, which is said to perform faster than ever before. We hear it still plays games too! Linux, however, has been given the steel-toed boot.

Other topics for discussion include a non-proprietary format from Sony (gasp!), our first use of the word “skank” on-air, the U.K’s increasing infatuation with Twitter, Blackberry’s piezo electric Storm, and awful childhood memories of failures past. There’s also laughter, and we may have found the spare change you lost between your couch cushions too.

Listen here, or at The Not So Much News!

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Download [34.8mb]