GameCritics.com Podcast Episode 20: Xbox Live Summer of Arcade

I know the main theme from the podcasts is from Silver Surfer, but what about the break and ending music (neither of which I have noticed before)?

The mid-show break music is from Super Adventure Island on the SNES. I've used it several times in the past, and whenever you hear it you know I'm either tired or lazy. (Usually I try to find music that fits the theme of the show.)

The closing music is from Ultima IX: Ascension, specifically from that game's end credits. I first used it at the end of one of the Anniversary shows. It's so goofy and un-Ultima-ish but it seems to fit the tone of our less serious episodes.

If the 360 were any other piece of hardware or technology, the company responsible for it would have been guilted by consumer advocacy groups and/or consumers themselves into doing a full blown recall. None of this repair nonsense, but a full blown recall because clearly the product is flawed at its core.

Because there isn't an alternative (until Sony gets it right with the PS3), no one is crying over the 360 RROD even as they stand at the cashier putting down another $250-400.

And we've seen this before. Remember Sony and the original PlaySation? Remember all of the nonsense you had to do to get some PlayStations to work? Some gamers were standing their PlayStation on their sides or upside down and putting up with this because there wasn't any compelling alternative.

That's why I love competition, the free market. If Sony or Nintendo were in the same league as the 360 (technology and price wise) the 360 would be in dead last. People wouldn't put up with that if there was something just as good.

I like Mike's s point about the follow-up to the 360 being backward compatible. We may just see downloadable 360 software and software emulation in the Xbox 720.

I didn't want to believe the Game Informer's survey was legitimate, but given the cries from many on this site and around the web, the failure rate has to be 50+% or more. Maybe it is closer to 80% and 90%.

Not a "whiff" of neo-conservative agenda? What about the part where you overhear two enemy soldiers talking about how they expect New York and San Fransisco to welcome them with open arms while they expect to have to take the rest of the country by force? That felt like a distinct whiff to me.