G4 Rewind

Upon first glance, you probably wouldn't guess that Adam Sessler graduated from from UCLA with a degree in english literature, but infact he did. Before coming to ZDTV in 1998, Sessler had several sints as an actor and worked as a credit auditor. Sessler now not only is a host of X-Play but is also a writer and senior segment producer. Sessler's favorite games include Ghosts n' Gobblins, Kingdom Hearts, Sly Cooper and Halo, among others.

Graduating from UC Berkley in 2000, Morgan Webb worked as a web administrator before being hired on to TechTV in 2001 and worked on other TechTV shows such as The Screen Savers, Call for Help and eventually moved on to co-host X-Play with Sessler in '03. On top of her work at G4, Webb wrote a monthly gaming column for FHM up until the magazine shut down in early 2007. Webb is married to Rhapsody developer Rob Reid, but elected to keep her maiden name.

In 2004, Comcast acquired TechTV and merged it with G4. Although G4 already had a video game review show (Judgement Day), X-Play survived and the crew was relocated to G4's studios in LA. X-Play remained mostly unchanged, save for an increase in skits and jaded sarcasm. X-Play also began airing more specials such as "X-Play's Best Games Ever" as well as random theme episodes including a musical episode written in part by Johnathan Mann, aka GameJew. The show also took over "G-Phoria," G4's annual gaming award show that's winners are decided upon by viewers.

2006 saw the addition of Video Viewer Mail at the end of every episode, a segment AOTS uses. In 2007, X-Play added on-screen IRC chat, which displayed selected comments from the X-Play chat room. Later, the interactivity was expanded and X-Play 2.0 debuted, which featured the chat along with trivia, game facts and random rankings from Xbox Live. The show also moved, with the rest of G4, to share space with E! Networks' studios in April of 2007 on a much smaller set and shares with Attack of the Show. While the show continues to be hosted consistently by Sessler and Webb, rumors have been circling that Webb may be looking to exit, with her contract set to expire soon, the launch of her own web show and a report that she now only works at the network one day a week.

The original G4tv.com series profiles underground, upcoming and indie hip-hop and rap artists. Freestyle 101 talks inspirations, interests and lyrics while usually the featured artists freestyles a rap for their episode. While you can question it's relevance to gaming TV, Freestyle is at least one of the better produced shows on the lineup.

Originally a segment on Attack of the Show reviewing and previewing comics and graphic novels, Fresh Ink expanded and is now an online show as well. Like it's television counterpart, Fresh Ink is hosted by X-Play contributor and AOTS regular Blair Butler and follows the same format but generally covers more indie titles that don't make it on-air.

X-Play veteran Adam Sessler's online show is a video blog of various rantings and preachings in the realm of gaming. These videos are much more candid, shot in Sessler's cubicle and don't seem to be scripted, we get the feeling these are Adam's unfiltered opinions, rather than something written up and edited for TV.

For those who can't get enough of Blair Butler, there's Geek Out, her OTHER online show that highlights all things geek. Often times on-location, past episodes have featured Comic-Con reports, geek art shows, animator profiles and interviews with various film and comic industry geeks.

AOTS funnyman Casey Schreiner rounds up the week's worth of massively multiplayer online gaming news in this sarcastic nightly news style show. Expect lots of MMO inside jokes and coverage of nearly all the current major MMO's. Casey is a one man show, a good watch even if you don't have the slightest interest in World of Warcraft.