Saturday, August 28, 2010

HomeCast for August 26, 2010

Sorry, ladies, but there's a lot of guy stuff in this week's HomeCast, but that's not my fault. Enjoy some liberating MUZAK as you learn about the new items for sale, the AlphabeTees and some new things that we'll be enjoying in the coming weeks.

Download HomeCast (right-click and Save As).

Saturday, August 21, 2010

HomeCast for August 19, 2010


There's a brand new microphone in use this week, a Shure SM58, to be specific, so the audio quality should be much, much better. Find out about all of this week's new releases, get tips for playing Gamescom Reel of Fortune and learn how you can win LittleBigPlanet 2, Gran Turismo 5 and tons of other cool PlayStation prizes from Subway!

Download HomeCast (right-click and Save As).

Saturday, August 14, 2010

HomeCast for August 12, 2010


More Star Wars in this week's podcast, plus a ton of new Active Items, your chance to meet a Top Gun screenwriter, and a Home at last for MAG's Valor team.

For reasons I don't know, part of my audio track got corrupted this week. The first 1:20 is right-channel only, then it settles down and behaves.

Download HomeCast (right-click and Save As).

Saturday, August 7, 2010

HomeCast for August 5, 2010


Sorry, Star Trek fans, but it's all about The Star Wars in this week's podcast, which features one of the rarer Meco Menardo disco Star Wars themes in the second half.

Learn about the new Star Wars space and content, as well as new LocoRoco Items, fun with fish tanks and Home events that you can take part in.

Download HomeCast (right-click and Save As).

Saturday, July 31, 2010

HomeCast for July 29, 2010



This week features another shopping trip, news on a Home space closing and my picks for the five best personal spaces you can buy.

Download HomeCast (right-click and Save As).

What do you think is the best personal space in Home? Leave a comment below.

Apologies if my voice is a bit off this week. Three days of broadcasting and a bumper crop of ragweed will have that effect.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

HomeCast for July 22 and a Doctor Who Review

This week's HomeCast includes an update on what you will--and won't--find at The Mall, a recap of new game announcements and tips for new users on expressing yourself through typing.

Download HomeCast and listen at your leisure. (Right-click and "Save As.")

Music Players and Doctor Who
I discovered that the very basic player I'm using lacks a volume control and doesn't work on the PS3. I'm looking for something SIMPLE that will add these features. Tdarb was kind enough to suggest a Yahoo player, but the documentation scares me. Got a suggestion? Leave it in the Comments.

And with apologies to Home Community Specialist Locust_Star, I couldn't fit my Doctor Who commentary into this week's HomeCast, so I've decided to post it here. This contains very minor spoilers for the last epsiode, so don't read it until you've watched. You've been warned.







Spoliers down here. I'm not kidding.






Look, you've waited this long to watch it. Don't spoil it now.






Final warning.





Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat's decision to have The Doctor save himself from The Pandorica is a deus ex machina that doesn't sit well with some viewers, but it caps off a bold first season in which Moffat showed just how well he understands the mechanics of television.

For several weeks now, the idea has been building that every episode of Matt Smith's first outing as The Doctor has been connected; now we see that this was all part of Moffat's brilliant design.

When The Eleventh Hour debuted back in April, it was impossible to avoid comparisons between Smith's Doctor and David Tennant's. For many fans of the new series, Tenant is and will continue to be The Doctor, leaving Smith with a very difficult act to follow.

Every aspect of the first few episodes has been dissected, from the theme to the camera angles to the new iDaleks. Such short-term criticism can get in the way of long-term appreciation, and this is where Moffat's first season reveals its genius.

By taking us back to that first night when Amelia Pond met The Doctor, and by letting us know that there are telling details spread across the entire season, Moffat has invited us to go back and look again, not with a critical eye, but with an eye toward enjoying one of the more complex story arcs of the new Who series. Now that we know Smith's Doctor, we can see his character unfold across the season, bringing a new appreciation for those episodes that may have been lost in the early, post-Tennant and Russel T. Davies days.

Just as The Doctor saves himself from the trap laid by his most fearsome enemies, Moffat saves us, the audience, from the prison of our own expectations.

There have been some bumps along the way. The early episodes lack the drama and action that Davies and Tennant brought to the series, and the intimate camera angles that Davies favored certainly fit the pace and style of the show better than the wide, sometimes vacant shots that Moffat prefers.

Despite these flawas, the transition from one Doctor to the next has never been handled so well. Episodes like Vincent and The Doctor are instant classics, and Moffat and Smith have proven that they are the rightful heirs to the deeply entertaining universe that Tennant and Davies built.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

HomeCast for the Week of July 15, 2010

This week in HomeCast, you'll find out about new interactive items and learn how item limits work so you'll know what you can add to your personal spaces. Plus tips for new users on where to find some free furniture in the Seaside of Memories and Assassins' Creed public spaces.

By request, I've added an audio player, so you can listen directly from the browser on your PS3!

Download HomeCast.

There's always room for improvement, so be sure to let me know what you think, or if there are features you would like me to add.