Modern Warfare 2.

This week, following the release of what may be the fastest selling game of all time we take a deeper look into Modern Warfare 2.

You all know what it is, so we focus on the details and the sparking controversy surrounding its release, but also the mechanics of the game and its strengths as well as its flaws. This is a candid and unflinching look at a title that follows a tried and tested formula and despite the slick delivery, there are definitely some sore points worth talking about.

The last section is a clearly flagged spoiler zone filled with plot details so make sure you've completed the main campaign before you finish listening.

Nintendo Wii Special

This week we launch our first of three console-specific episodes in the run up to Christmas where we will be exploring the strengths and weaknesses of the big three and whether they will be worth buying for our listeners.

To assess the Wii we employed the expert opinions of James Batchelor, staff writer for MCV and veteran of The WiiDS podcast. We asked him why we or our listeners should consider purchasing a system so often dismissed as casual.

After that Alex reviews Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony and Tony talks about how a game aimed at tweenage girls has stolen his heart this week; Band Hero.

You can find James' podcast here at www.wiids-podcast.com and we'd like to warmly thank him for coming on and giving our show a long-needed dose of Nintendo perspective.

Shank Interview/DJ Hero Review/Heavy Rain First Look

In this week's packed show we talk to Jamie Cheng; CEO of Klei Entertainment. We get some insight into the creation of the game he's currently overseeing; named Shank. I got to play it at PAX this year and since then I've been dying to get Jamie on the show to talk about it. The project is still shrouded in secrecy but we do get to know a little more about the thought processes that went into it's design, some info about the team behind it and some of Jamie's gaming opinions. You can find out more about Shank here on the official blog.

http://shankgame.com/

As well as that, Tony reviews DJ Hero in-depth and we assess whether it's worth the hefty asking price. We also discuss our time at the Eurogamer Expo in London. The games of note are Alien vs. Predator, and God of War III. We finish off with an appraisal of the Heavy Rain presentation we attended, hosted by David Cage and how we felt when we got our hands on the updated demo.

Many thanks to Jamie Cheng for the interview and Carolyn Carnes for arranging it. We hope to hear more as Shank's development continues.

James Portnow on Games and Gamers/Brutal Legend/Scribblenauts

This week we welcome to the show; James Portnow - CCO of Divide By Zero games and accredited game designer. We're talking about the words 'Game' and 'Gamer' after an article on Gamasutra by Tynan Syslvester prompted us to ascertain if new words and descriptions could be used for them in the face of an ever-changing medium.

James lends us his considerable experience and expertise as we chew over public perception and how we cling to the idea that games are more than just frivolous entertainment.

After that there's some frivolous entertainment in the form of our Brutal Legend and Scribblenauts in-depth reviews. Two of the most hyped games of 2009. Find out if they meet expectation. Also discussed are the Beatles and Queen Rock Band DLC.

Check out James' work in conjunction with Daniel Floyd in brilliant animated lectures here.

The music at the end is Rain by Mark Tschanz from his album Blue Dog, since we talk about how important Heavy Rain is likely to be in the case of serious games.

Uncharted 2

Since we've both been playing it to death and it's one of the most important and critically acclaimed games of 2009 Tony and I decided to take a break from interviews and spend this week's show talking about Uncharted 2.

We explore every game element and argue the toss as to how this fits into the general evolution of the action-adventure game.

Even if you don't own a PS3, this makes for a great deconstruction of the genre and highlights what it takes to get a title like this so very right. Is it game of the year? Even game of the decade? Find out here.

Thanks so much to Steven Jones our Community Manager who helped us out in the background for this show.

Red vs Blue.

We welcome to the show this week; Burnie Burns and Geoff Ramsey from Rooster Teeth productions two of the guys responsible for Red vs Blue; a web-based animation series utilizing the Halo engine.

We give them a full 90-minute interview and discuss the show from it's humble inception as a five-part joke about pink armour all the way through seven series and three Halo engines to their close relationship with Bungie (they even contributed an Easter Egg moment in Halo 3).

If you've not yet experienced the show go here to roosterteeth.com and at least watch some of the PSA's first, if not the entirety of Reconstruction.

Many thanks to Burnie and Geoff for coming on, we've been long-time fans and this was something of a special occasion for us.

There are samples of their work in audio form throughout the show. The music is by Trocadero and comes from the RvB series.

Gamers With Jobs / Gaming With Kids / FIFA 10 / Need for Speed: Shift / Dead Space: Extraction.

In this weeks packed episode, first we talk for an hour with Sean Elyssium Sands and Julian "Rabbit" Murdoch of the seminal podcast Gamers with Jobs. Both of them have young children and we discuss the process of introducing games to your kids and where to go from there.

The review section features a run round FIFA 10, Need for Speed: Shift and a complete gutting of Dead Space: Extraction for the Wii.

For next week go to RoosterTeeth.com and watch the whole series of Red VS. Blue Reconstruction, because we're going to be talking to Burnie Burns and Goeff Ramsey about machinima. This is series 6 of Red VS. Blue but it's also a reboot of the story and a relatively serious movie in the process. It's filmed using the Halo 3 engine so fans of the series will be well at home.

The music for the end of the show is Happy by Mark Tschanz from his album Blue Dog.

We'd like to thank Sean and Julian again for coming on, they've been very patient and gracious and proved to be perfect podcast guests.

Preserving Games / Halo 3: ODST

Commander Tim of Gamehounds and The Widget joins us this week to discuss one of his specialties; the preservation of software and hardware, and what happens to our precious video games as the ravages of time render tapes unplayable and chips into soldered garbage. What's being done to keep these memories alive? Some surprising home truths come to light about the finite nature of our favorite form of entertainment.

After this we have a full review of Halo 3: ODST from Tony and I. Find out if it's over-hyped, under-hyped or actually worthy of being a full-price game. Along with this we have competition updates and my brand new game-related project for 2010.

Marian Call supplies the music for the end of the show with the particularly appropriate 'In the Black' from her album 'Got to Fly'.

Enjoy.

Alex


(NOTE: The original edit of this had some audio mistakes. I've rendered a second version which is up now.)

Beatles Rock Band and Big Red Potion

We're joined this week by Sinan Kubba and Joe DeLia of Big Red Potion a particularly distinguished and intelligent gaming podcast associated with The Game Reviews and The Unified Gamers Network. We discuss with them genres that we have extreme difficulty getting into and which games might help us get into them, why AAA titles with fantastic review scores often leave us feeling annoyed at their minor shortcomings and how ridiculous that is. We also launch a streamlined quickfire version of our eight questions, now down to just five.

We have some great news about expanding and maintaining our community, and it's something you can all take part in. We also announce the results of our part in the grand Platform Nation MAG beta code giveaway contest. Who will the ten lucky PSN ID's be? All that plus details of how you could win a big old bag of our PAX swag; including T-Shirts, codes, rare promotional items and full games, plus for the next week we're giving away even more shinies every day. We ask you, what other podcast treats you so well?

Finally we devote 45 minutes to a thorough review of Beatles Rock Band. Find out if we feel it's worth the wait, the money and the hype.

Story and Narrative in Games / Batman: Arkham Asylum

We welcome back Daniel Floyd to the show. YouTube legend and animated lecturer Mr Floyd makes for a fantastic conversational guest, bringing his insight and clarity to the show, which this week is about the way story, script and narrative have progressed in the thirty year history of video games. We reach some surprising conclusions about the nature of interactivity and how far we've come when held against movies and literature.

The competition segment in the middle explains how you listeners can get your mitts on a MAG beta download code (this immediately afterwards expanded into a full ten available codes so get cracking PS3 owners), with the winners to be announced next week. A Digital Cowboys MAG game night will be on the cards. This is all part of a massive 128 code giveaway brought to you by Platform Nation.

After that there's a full dedicated 40-minute review of Batman: Arkham Asylum. We leave no stone in Batman's grim and gothic world unturned exploring this surprisingly high quality comic-book license. There's a spoiler section at the very end with full warning so those playing know when to spin on.

At the close there's more music from Jonathan Coulton, a song which as it so happens was on one of the very first podcasts Alex ever took part in. (It wasn't Digital Cowboys, it was Joinee Radio episode #21 - 22/04/2007 DC completists may like to check that one out and thus pay their respects to the man who taught me how to podcast; Mr Matt Fowler.)

Daniel Floyd can be found at his blog: Talking About These. And definitely check out his series of YouTube lectures, especially the one that tonight's subject is based on: Video Games and Storytelling.

Jonathan Coulton's site also features a comprehensive MP3 store. As always, we heartily recommend you take a listen to a few of his songs.

There is a bit of poor sound quality at Tony's end for the first half, our apologies, and it does get better for the Batman section. We'll try to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Next week: The guys from Big Red Potion and we review Beatles Rock Band.