The thought occurred to me that a few of you stopping by might never've been here before. So first, let me encourage you to hit this link and subscribe to our 'cast via iTunes. Next, allow me to tell you what the heck you've signed up for:

It was mid-October and Greg Sewart and I (Chris Johnston) were chatting over Xbox Live while playing some rounds of UNO or somesuch. We were discussing some big gaming news that'd happened that week or something when Greg said, "we should be recording this. We're interesting, right?" Though neither of us knew a damn thing about podcasting at the time outside of listening to a bunch of them, after some research, some brainstorming, and some money spent on equipment, the podcast and the page you've arrived at was born. Yes we're still working out the kinks some 22 weeks later, but the important part is it's amazing we've continued doing a show a week so far without stopping (even for holidays).

Three of the four regular hosts of the podcast are ex-game magazine editors, which probably gives us at least some sort of unique perspective on the headlines that come out of the industry these days. Greg was EGM's previews editor for a number of years and still freelances for various game magazines and web sites. I worked at EGM for around 10 years (though not consecutively) and was the magazine's news editor for...well, a long time. And Phil worked at EGM back in the day and later worked on Expert Gamer before he became GameNow's reviews editor. Along for the ride as well is Dan Dormer, freelancer for 1UP and other sites and also the keeper of the Video Game Media Watch site.

As of this writing we've done 22 shows and 1 "commentary" track. You may want to sample some of our past wares to get an idea of what we do here. You could go back and download/listen to all of them, but in case 24+ hours of podcast is too much for you to think about, here are five in particular that are nicely representative:

Lost in translation (Episode 16, 2/12/07) - Our interview with Ted Woolsey, translator for many of Square's 16-bit RPGs including Final Fantasy VI.

Home invasion (Episode 20, 3/12/07) - We did a little post GDC talking about Sony's PS3 Home service the week after it was announced at GDC '07 and chatted about Little Big Planet.

Shame in our game (Episode 08, 12/18/06) - The main topic in this episode was to reveal our greatest gaming shames. The first step to healing was admitting we have a problem...

Tackling difficulty (Episode 12, 1/15/07) - We talked about the fun of playing hard games as a game reviewer where you don't have the luxury of "taking your time."

Festivus for the rest of us (Episode 09, 12/25/06) - Our Festivus episode is a big wrap-up of the big headlines from 2006.

May I also encourage you to join our discussion forums. And if you have a comment you want to share with us or want to pose a question to the group, you can give our voicemail a call at 713-893-8069 or drop us an e-mail at playeronepodcast@gmail.com. Take care, and enjoy your stay...hope you enjoy the show. Thanks for dropping by!

- CJ

CJ's away in San Francisco, which means Phil and Greg are taking over this week and spending way too much time talking about one of their favorite systems--the Sega CD. Thrill to stories of the Sega CD launch; the greatest pack-in software bundle of all time; the synergy of Hollywood and Silicon Valley; and an in-depth review of the greatest Sega CD game you've never played. Dan even says two or three words during the segment!

Of course, we begin things this week with Whatcha-been playin'? Here we talk about everything from God of War II and sucking less than CJ to Tetris Evolution on 360 and everything in between. Oh, there's some Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Earth Defense Force 2017 in there as well. And in the following segment we tackle Jack Thompson's latest frivolous lawsuit, 2K Games' tendency to stick their heads in the sand, and Dan gets really angry about the European PS3 launch. Plus, is the third-party exclusive dead? You'll have to listen to find out.

Leave us a voicemail comment by calling 713-893-8069. Or you can e-mail us, vote for us on Digg, leave a comment on the iTunes Music Store, leave a comment on the blog page or join our forums! Thanks for listening, and we'll be back next week.

Tetris Evolution 360
God of War 2 PS2
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 360
Castlevania Symphony of the Night 360
Earth Defense Force 2017 360
World of Warcraft
Call of Duty PSP
1UP.com: Devil May Cry 4 heads to 360, PC
Gamespot: Thompson countersues Take-Two
Jeremy Parish 1UP blog: Why there won't be a System Shock Retronauts
EngadgetHD: London's crime-free PS3 launch results in free HDTVs / cab rides
Wikipedia: Sega CD
LunarNET (Lunar series fansite)
YouTube: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Sega CD
Snatcher
Good Deal Games (new or recovered Sega CD games)
YouTube: Penn & Teller: Smoke & Mirrors