FrakIN Media Podcast

Hey everyone.  It has been a month since our last pod-cast and I thought I would give you a quick update on what is going on.  We have all been really busy over the last few weeks.  Brooks, Christian and I have been swamped with school and Colin recently started a new job so we have had little time.  Also we are thinking about changing the format of the show doing more a person “what the frak” segment each week and thats it.  We will keep you posted.

Take care guys and thanks for listening,

Zach

TV is back folks! We discuss the new shows we’re pumped for and the ones we love that are returning. Spore has come out this week and Christian gives his impressions of the game. Also, Zach had the chance to get in on the Wrath of the Lich King beta, and he lets us in on the first few levels of the Death Knight class. All that and more!

 

 Episode 18 - Wrath of the Spores [58:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (142)

TV
Spore Gets Two Documentaries
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1801
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1802

TV is Back!!
New Shows: http://tinyurl.com/frakin1803
Returning Shows: http://tinyurl.com/frakin1804

MOVIES
Veronica Mars Closer to a Movie Deal
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1805

GAMES
Resident Evil 5 to get “Gears” Control Scheme
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1806

Spore - It’s Finally Here and What it Means for New Media
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1807

Wrath of the Lich King Beta
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1808

A painfully slow two-week period for news in TV, movies, and games, but we still manage to find a few things to talk about. Unfortunately, nearly everything we found was about people or companies throwing around terrible ideas and making decisions that don’t benefit us as consumers. Thankfully XBox Live Arcade brought us a ray of light.

 

 Episode 17 - Terrible Ideas [63:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (70)

TV
Stargate Atlantis gets end date, Stargate Universe gets Green Light
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1705
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1706

Fishburne Joins CSI
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1708

WB Launches Hulu Competitor
http://thewb.com

Movies
New Fast and Furious Movie - Original Cast is Back
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1701

Fox Sues Warner Bros. over Watchmen
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1710

Movie About Facebook Founders On the Way?
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/38100

Cher as the next Catwoman?
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1707

Games
Bionic Commando: Rearmed - XBL Gets Another Good One
http://tinyurl.com/42q9u7

Castle Crashers - So Much XBL, So Little Time
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1711

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Demo thoughts (On PS3 and 360)
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1703

Mortal Kombat v. DC Universe Game. Totally Ridiculous?
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1702

Due to a lack of a lot of news and some scheduling conflicts, there will be a one week delay on Episode 17.

We finally had the chance to record together, jumped on it, and it was a ridiculous amount of fun. News this week was kind of sparse, but there was enough to generate some great conversation. A glint of hope for a Serenity sequel, Star Wars, Tropic Thunder, and the new Lara Croft. Pandora might have to shut down, and NHL goes all MMO on us. All that and more!

As always, contact us via email or the forums…we want to hear from you!!!

 

 Episode 16 - Which Bush? It Matters. [77:55m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (95)

TV
Eureka Season 3 Recap

Shepherd Book…Gets a Book
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1601

Movies
Star Wars Clone Wars thoughts
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1602

Tropic Thunder - Too Much or Just Right?
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1603

Warner Trying to Grab Nolan For Batman 3, but He May Not Want In?
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1604

New Lora Croft
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1605

Top 5 at the box office
http://www.imdb.com/chart/

Music
Pandora on the Edge of Closing
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1606

Games
NHL 09 - Sports goes all Online RPG on Us
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1607

Despite Pricing Woes, Braid Dominates XBL Charts
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1608

Fallout 3 gets AU approval
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1609

EA Chooses BitTorrent for Warhammer Online Beta Distro
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1610

Bernie Mac has passed, and we reflect a little. Morpheus might replace Grissom, and the Battlestar movie has been confirmed. Also more news about Inglorious Bastards, Depp as the Riddler. As far as games, Christian reviews Braid and the C&C Red Alert 3 beta, and we discuss gold farming and how developers should approach pirates.

As always, check out the forums and send us emails!!

 

 Episode 15 - The 13th Cylon [83:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (101)

TV
Bernie Mac Dies
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1501

CBS looking for big name movie actor to replace Petersen. Morpheus??
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1502

BSG Gets More Movies - Cyclon-centric Even!
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1503
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1504

Movies
Inglorious Bastards Cast
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1505

Johnny Depp as the Riddler
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1506
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1511

Tarantino Rips Reporter Apart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L2ukSJFgCM

Games
Braid - A Mind-Boggling Art Piece
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1507

World of Developmentcraft
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1508
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1509

Command & Conquer - Red Alert 3 Beta: I’ve played it!
http://www.ea.com/redalert/

Developer wants to learn from pirates, asks “Why?”
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1510

I just had to post this because it’s totally epic. Here’s the picture and a link to the article on Engadget.

Home-built Batman Tumbler invades the suburbs — Engadget

This week served us up so much news to talk about. Grissom leaving CSI and the Dr. Horrible DVD and possible series expansion. Also Zach gives us his review of the new Mummy film, and we discuss how Tarantino would pull off a war film, and the possible success of a big screen version of Return to Castle Wolfenstein. And we can’t forget about games! The Star Trek MMO is announced and we discuss what we would like to see from the game, and Christian gives us the low down on Soul Caliber IV. All that in more!

As always, feel free to contact us via email [host name] @ frakinmedia [dot] com. But more exciting, we’ve added the forums! Come in and talk to us about whatever is on your mind. We want to know!

 

 Episode 14 - Beam Me Up, Yoda [90:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (93)

TV (1:35)
Grissom leaves CSI - Can it Ever Be the Same?
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1401

Good News for Horrible Fans
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1402

Movies (15:34)
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1403

Quentin Tarantino’s WWII Epic Now Cast
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1404

Return to Castle Wolfenstein On the Big Screen
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1406

The Princess and the Frog Trailer
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1409

Monsters Vs. Aliens
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1413

Games (44:06)
Star Trek Online - Should We Prepare to Beam Up?
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1410

Soul Calibur IV - The Best Next-Gen Fighter?
http://tinyurl.com/frakin1411

Site News
Forums are Now Up!
http://tinyurl.com/6zed43

Christian’s New Personal Blog Up and Running!
http://tinyurl.com/57ze77

This week saw the release of Soul Calibur IV and for hours and hours after I got my hands on my pre-ordered copy, my room was filled with nothing but the clashing of swords, moaning of my enemies, and countless cliche and overly dramatic lines of dialogue.  Crawling into bed that night, my thumbs literally ached despite a lifetime of “endurance training” meant to avoid such an occurrence.

First things first: this game is good, real good. Second things second: This isn’t a review, but more a commentary on why this series has stayed so strong through the generations while maintaining its core game play mechanics.

Soul Calibur first saw its release on the Sega Dreamcast, not such a good first move for the series, but love for the initial release was widespread through Dreamcast owners.  It was, undeniably, a hit. The gameplay was much the same as it is today, less unlockables and character creation, but the same control scheme, timing, skills required, and even some of the moves have been kept the same throughout the entire series. So what makes Soul Calibur good the fourth time around… now two generations later?

Continue Reading…

So, I finally got around to it and did it.  This is Episode 1 - Vendeety! of my new show that I’m going to try to do semi-regularly called Lose the Cape.  In it, I basically review and talk about a lot of the trends, series, and story lines that get left behind in the mass of spandex and cowls that is the stereotypical comic book scene. I try to get into the nitty-gritty of everything that makes the medium so delicious and shy away from what makes it feel, at times, so stale. This episode covers a zombie comic: The Walking Dead, a post-apocalpytic comic: Y - The Last Man, and an MMO-centric graphic novel: The Surrogates.

I love everything we cover here at FrakIN Media and I also love graphic novels and comic books; therefore, I figured that maybe some of you would too. Enjoy.

Send any thoughts on the items covered, recommendations for future episodes, or other comments my way at:

christian@frakinmedia.com