A Festivus for the rest of us!

Although our crew are traveling to various parts of the globe for the holidays, that didn't stop us from getting together earlier in the week and recording a special episode for you, dear listener, on this most busy of holidays. Special thanks to Phil Theobald and Dan Dormer, who join CJ and I once again for the final episode of the year.

In lieu of our regular "whatcha been playin'" segment, we hop right into our probably-longer-than-it-should-be year in review, where we dissect the year that was month by month, discussing the most important and happenings that shaped our beloved hobby throughout 2006.

Then we move on to the First Annual Player One Podcast Memorial Games of the Year Awards, where we name our fave titles on every console, ending with the best game of the year, and which piece of hardware we feel owned 2006.

Finally, in celebration of the holiday, we reveal our super-secret Christmas shopping lists for various industry personalities. What would we wrap in festive paper and place under Ken Kutaragi's tree? What would Reggie find in his stocking? Listen up and find out.

Thanks for listening! Drop a comment or send us an audio comment and we'll read some/play some on next week's show. Send us feedback to playeronepodcast@gmail.com or leave a comment on the blog page.

You can now Digg the Player One Podcast (that is, if you use Digg and dig our podcast). Just go here. We thank you in advance for your vote.

We're also up on the front page of the iTunes Store's Podcast page this week...well, three tabs into the "Video Games" section in the center there. Welcome to any of you who're visiting this page for the first time because you saw us there.

Unlike some podcasts, we will be posting a new episode early next week. In fact, we've already recorded it. Previous special guests Phil Theobald and Dan Dormer join Greg and myself and we go over the big news of '06, list out our favorite games of the year, and then come up with a gift we'd like to give one of the industry luminaries this year. Something they could use. It might be a long episode this week...jeez we talked forever.

Anyway, thanks again for listening and Happy Holidays all --

- CJ

At this time last year, if you were looking to buy an Xbox 360 as a holiday gift, you'd be looking at paying at least double the system's $400 price for a Premium Pack. The things were in hot demand. Yet this year, with the PS3 launch...the successor to the #1 game brand for the last 10 years, systems are...well, very easy to find. A quick look at the Craigslist listings in the Houston area and you see systems going for very little if ANY mark-up. One post reads that if no one calls to buy his 20GB at $550 (at cost, more or less) it's going back to the store. There are several 60GB systems going for as little as $650 -- again, at cost.

So, what the hell happened? For all intents and purposes the PS3 should still be in hot demand. It's only four days before Christmas, you'd figure that people would certainly pay $25-50 above cost for the machine... no?

Why I bring all this up is that a friend of mine bought a 60GB PS3 about three weeks ago at a Best Buy here in Houston, thinking he'd resell it on eBay and at least get enough profit out of it to buy a Wii. Fair enough. So tonight I asked him how it went, since I hadn't heard yet. He laughed and told me he still had the system. He put it up on eBay, the winning bid was $715 (barely above the $650 cost to him and not enough to get a Wii from the profit). The winner decided not to pay. Afterwards my friend listed it on Craigslist for $750 -- got NO e-mails. Instead he's just going to return the system to Best Buy and get his money back. I did consider buying it off of him, but then I thought...I really don't need a PS3 right now. As I've said before, Resistance is the only game I'm even halfway interested in (because it's Insomniac), and that alone is just not that compelling a reason to get one. Plus I'm still not done with Zelda, Gears of War, Rainbow Six Vegas or Phantasy Star Universe for the two new-gen consoles I already own.

I wonder what this means for PS3. Clearly, if demand for it has died this quickly it can't be a good sign--can it? Granted I still haven't seen any PS3s in stores, but I haven't been looking all that hard either. Another slightly bad sign--in the latest EGM they've put together something very similar to the Xbox vs. GameCube feature Greg and I have been talking about on the podcast. Except it's PS3 vs. Wii. And the unanimous winner is the Wii.

How are the PS3s selling near you?

- CJ

The shame in our game

This week we return to a topic brought up in the last 'cast: our greatest gaming shames. In the final segment of the podcast we share some things we're not proud of. And joining in the fun is this episode's special guest, freelance writer Dan Dormer, who shares an inexplicable shame -- playing a bad/painful game not only to the end, but over and over again to see its multiple endings, sinking at least 100 hours into it. Why?

Also this week, we continue our retrospective on the last generation of consoles by talking about the Xbox, Microsoft's first entry into the console gaming biz. From the launch to Xbox Live to the purchase of Rare and everything in between. Have our memories of the Bear Claw/Duke controller been washed away by the sands of time? Hells no. We'll miss you, Xbox, even though you live on in limited backward compatibility.

But we begin the podcast the way we always do, by discussing what we've been playing: Viva Pinata (360), Wii Sports (Wii), Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii), Phantasy Star Universe (360), Bionicle Heroes (360), Tomb Raider Legend (DS) and Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS). And because we're topical, we devote a segment to the Square Enix announcement of Dragon Quest IX for Nintendo DS.

Thanks for listening! Drop a comment or send us an audio comment and we'll read some/play some on next week's show. Send us feedback to playeronepodcast@gmail.com or leave a comment on the blog page.

It's a Cube, not Box nor Station

This week we take a look back at an old friend called GameCube as he gasps his final breath on Tuesday with the release of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Phil Theobald joins us as we talk about third party support, Nintendo's own lack of great games, farming out of the classics to second-party developers, the lack of a "real" Mario game and more. Also in this segment, CJ reveals one of his greatest gaming shames.

But we start this week (of course) by talking about what we've been playing, with chatter about such games as Kirby Squeak Squad (DS), Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS), Phantasy Star Universe (360), Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii), Sonic the Hedgehog (virtual console), Crash Bandicoot (PS1 on PSP via PS3), Lemmings (PS3), Resistance: FoM (PS3) and Roboblitz (360).

And after the GameCube portion of the program we go into another Topic Of Interest: Series reboots. With Bond's recent successful reset with Casino Royale, we pontificate about which of gaming's great series could use a 'boot. It's not that hard to think of one...we bet you're already thinking of one right now. The conversation also strays into series that've had successful reboots and which legacy hits need to be dusted off for a new generation. So if nothing else, you will want to stick around to listen to Greg bash Kid Icarus.

Our question to you this week is what series you would like to see rebooted and in what way -- what type of game? Drop a comment or send us an audio comment and we'll read some/play some on next week's show. Send us feedback to playeronepodcast@gmail.com or leave a comment on the blog page.

This week marks our return to a regular posting schedule. In this episode's first segment, we discuss Zelda (Wii), F.E.A.R (360), the Wii Virtual Console versions of Solomon's Key, Sonic, Bonk and Mario 64, Red Steel (Wii), Call of Duty 3 (Wii), and we get a brief update on Greg's adventures with the PS3.

Next up we talk about the Wii. It's only two weeks old and they've sold over a million units between the US and Japan (and releases in other areas of the world later this week). What do Nintendo and third parties have to do to be successful on Wii? (Answer: original IP, not so many ports.) Is the high cost of development for PS3 games going to benefit Wii? Also, we touch on Wii mishaps and the pictures/video that have been posted on www.wiihaveaproblem.com.

Segment three is all about Virtual Console and Xbox Live Arcade. Why haven't more third-party publishers taken advantage of these downloadable services with original content? Why do we rely on Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony for this content when there are third parties that could be doing stuff but AREN'T?

Wrapping it up is a final segment where we reminisce about the PlayStation 2. Now that the next generation has debuted, it's time to look back on the leader of the last gen.