Thanks to everyone who came out last night, hope you guys had a good time. The final cut of the podcast should be available sometime later this week, so hang tight if you missed it.

2 Years. That’s right, 2 Years we’ve been doing the Shamoozal Radio Podcast. That’s longer than most podcasts make it on the cold cruel internet. I don’t want to get overly sentimental about what the podcast ‘means to me’ or any of that stuff, but the truth of the matter is I’m proud that we’re still doing this. Every time we get together we have a genuinely good time shooting the shit about all our nerdy topics and I think that comes through in the final product. We may not have the huge number of listeners like bigger podcasts (with bigger budgets), but we still have fun doing it and thats all that matters. That’s why we fight.

So, please come out to ustream and join us for the live feed of the podcast. Saturday June 14th @ 8:00 PM EST. Then, be sure to check out the edited version a few days later through RSS or right here in our podcast player on the site.

God, I love Indiana Jones. On a total manly level of coarse. The Indy trilogy is right up there with the ORIGINAL SW films. Bar fights in Napal… truck chases in the desert… this guy knows what action is all about. He’s so bad-ass that not only does he have a pistol and his fists to deal out swift justice, but he can crack you on yar ass with his trusted bullwhip as he sends you back to your goose-steppin’ mama in Berlin. Now, thanx to our friends at Skywalker Ranch, the good ‘ol docta is taking his brand of adventure to your cereal bowl. That’s right kid… Indy is gonna smack the taste buds right outta ya mouth with the one and only “ADVENTURE SPOON!”

It’s early morning, and what’s the first thing every kid wants? You guessed it… breakfast! And what better way for George Lucas to drive into the pockets of millions of parents around the world. I’m tellin’ ya, advertising works. Sex might sell… but if you slap Indy on a box of crap, something tells me, I’ll be coming from from the local grocery store with a load of crap in my car. So does this Indy merch-machine live up to the hype? I decieded to jump on-board the Indy bandwagon. I wanted to become “a true believer” and witness first hand how this spoon might create a breakfest adventure.

I snagged myself a box of fruit loops which sported an “ADVENTURE SPOON” inside. I got lucky and found a sith-red colored one. BADASS! When I first took the spoon, I noted that it felt snug within my grasp. It’s Myan symbols made it easy to hold and the button placement made for easy “turn on” while eatting.

So MGS4 is about 36 hours away for most of us and we here at Shamoozal are chomping at the bit to get our hands on it. While our faithful GFGames viewers are waiting for Episode #3 ‘The Last Copy‘ to be released, we wanted to take this opportunity to revisit GFGames #2 “Tactical Espionage Retail Simulation”. Here’s a handy little Gamevideos.com version embedded for your viewing pleasure. You can also cruise over to our Episodes page and download a 720p Divx version to playback on the Divx-enabled device of your choosing. We’re also recording the 2-year anniversary edition of Shamoozal Radio Podcast this weekend (Saturday June 14th at 8:00 PM EST) which we’ll be streaming live on ustream.

Also, if you’re in the mood for more funny, hit the jump for GFGames #1 “Rated M for Molester”. Then check out Shamoozal’s archive of cartoons featuring Grey, Jacquo, Man-bot and the Zoinks!

Jumper – A genetic anomaly allows a young man (Hayden Christensen) to teleport himself anywhere. He discovers this gift has existed for centuries and finds himself in a war that has been raging for thousands of years between “Jumpers” and those who have sworn to kill them.

John Adams – A miniseries on the life of John Adams (Paul Giamatti) and the first 50 years of the United States.

The Bucket List – Two terminally ill men (Jack Nicholson & Morgan Freeman) escape from a cancer ward and head off on a road trip with a wish list of to-dos before they die.

Hey all. Hope everyone had a great weekend. We had a real scorcher up in our neck of the woods…it was up to 95. So, after putting the ol’ AC unit in the window, I hunkered down this weekend for an animation marathon. I was able to put maybe 15-20 hours into it which is some decent time considering I only get about 2 or 3 hours a night during the week days.

The short is really starting to shape up ad come together well. I spent most of my time drawing and animating…well, a certain body part on Jacquo to put it as spoiler free as possible. I actually found myself laughing at it as I went along, so hopefully everyone else will get a kick out of it, too.

Last night around 11:30, I saw Jim “Sithlord” online. So I stopped working on the short and did an illustration for a t-shirt that Jim has been asking for some time.  I got that off to him, so hopefully we’ll see a new t-shirt in the store soon. I’m out for now…WHOOSH!

I’m sorry, but I’m calling bullshit on Adam Sessler, Stephen Totilo and pretty much anyone else running the Konami restrictions story. I just caught a rerun of X-play where Sessler and Totilo had a conversation regarding the limitations on reviewers imposed by Konami in regards to Metal Gear Solid 4. Combined with the “Sessler’s Soapbox” that ran earlier this week, this is the second time Sessler has made an issue out of this publicly. Now, don’t get me wrong I’m a big fan of Mr. Sessler, I have been since the Extended Play days on TechTV. I guess this is why I’m so disappointed to see him making a big stink out of something that may or may not be a big deal and spouting half-truths to make his point. I don’t really know much about Stpehen Toilo’s work so I’m not gonna rag on him too hard. I will say however that whenever I see the brand-name MTV attached to something I immediately lose any confidence in it’s authenticity.

I have the latest issue of EGM sitting here right next o my keyboard. The magazine is open to page 87 which is the beginning of the controversial ‘non-review’ that everyone is so up in arms about. Now, the backbone of this argument that is being made is that EGM is not doing a formal review of MGS4 because of the limitation Konami put on reviewers in regards to things like: cut-scene length, mandatory hard-drive installs, and other technical aspects of the game. I’m starting to wonder if anyone at X-play or MTV actually read the EGM article because I’ve now heard Sessler say (on-air) on two occasions that EGM is not going to do a formal review of the game because of these limitations. Really? Because here’s what it says in the opening paragraph of page 86’s article:

So why don’t we have a full review this issue? Simply put: We weren’t happy with the limitations Konami wanted to impose on our comments, and rather than publish compromised reviews in the interest of being first to rate the game, we’d rather wait until next issue, where we can be completely open and thorough with our thoughts. (Page 87 EGM 230 -July 2008)

Theres a big difference between “EGM is holding their reviews for a month” and “EGM is not reviewing MGS4 at all”. So, sometime towards the end of June when issue #231 starts arriving in people’s mailboxes they’ll be able to sit down and read all of EGM’s thoughts on any issue imaginable as it pertains to MGS4. I understand that Mr. Sessler and Mr. Totilo are worried about the future of game reviews if publishers start putting restrictions like these on magazines. I also understand the Internet game-blog’s need to jump all over a story like this and blow it out of proportion for the sake of getting ad-clicks. However, if we as a community are going to call out people like Jack Thompson for telling lies and half-truths to push an agenda, then we’d better be damn well sure that we’re working on a level that is high above him. I’m sure he gets up every day and justifies his lying to himself as a necessary evil for the greater good.

Our very own “The General” John Manfre is tying the knot today. John’s our Smorgas Board moderator and long time friend of Phil’s. Myself, I used to babysit the kid when his parents went out. Hah! Its a really nice day out around these parts, so I’m sure they’re having a blast. So congrats to the new Mr. and Mrs. Manfre!

An Israeli agent becomes a hairdresser.
A clumsy panda is recruited by a kung fu group.
The first June movies of the year. Lets see what we have.

Sandler is taking a risk with this one? Not sure if it will pay off.

You Don’t Mess With The Zohan – Adam Sandler plays an unstoppable Mossad agent who wants to get away from the violent lifestyle. He hatches a plan that gets him to New York City as a hairdresser but soon people start to get suspicious. Written by Adam Sandler, Robert Smigel (Triumph the Insult Comic Dog), and the great Judd Apatow.

SKADOOSH!