Just when you think you're clear of the curse... Spazmat comes along. As with last week, listener Matthew "Spazmat" Goss joins GamerEdie Sellers as co-host for the Humpdate. And as with last week, depsite everything be double and quadruple checked prior to recording, a mystery buzz showed up on Edie's side of the conversation. Only at 36 minutes in does it get fixed. So you have two choices this week: Listen to a full show with half static, or listen to half a show that sounds great. It's your call. If you'd rather just jump to the show notes, this week Edie and Spaz talk about:

• Enter Platform Nation's LittleBigPlanet contest! Win any game of your choosing!
• PlayStation 3 gets a firmware update that offers full-screen Flash support and automatic shut-off after downloading.
• Microsoft performs an achievement-ectomy to the tune of 121,250 points on a player it says cheated his way to gamerscore fortune. But that raises the question: How do they know, and is there a way to appeal this decision if you can prove otherwise?
• Columbia Pictures releases are now available on Netflix streaming on your Xbox 360. But nobody can agree as to why it took so long?
• Black Friday sales aren't just for department stores! Check out Xbox Live's and Playstation Network's holiday deals. And you can sleep in, too!
• Bethesda annnounces a mod tool and three different DLCs for Fallout 3. It's going to be a very busy 2009!

Enjoy.

If you'll notice, GameHounds has decided to bypass last week, pretend it doesn't exist, and carry on with head held high as if nothing happened. It's better for everyone. So, you'll be glad to know that the curse is broken. We do indeed have a GameHounds this week. Complete and on time. Edie Sellers and Cooper Hawkes have so much to catch up on, this episode's chock full of gaming news goodness. Topics include:

• Don't load Halo 3 onto your Xbox 360 hard drive, but you knew that already.
• A European leaker flapped his or her trap unabashedly about Sony's recent annual staff meeting in London, dishing on such insider dirt as a price cut for the PS3, LittleBigPlanet and Motorstorm coming to the PSP, Uncharted 2, Killzone 2, and God of War 3.
• Sony and Columbia Pictures movies not on the NXE's Netflix? No conspiracy, says Sony.
• GTA IV's DLC details are here. New character, new cars, new music. It's like a new game!c
• Random Shit: Googlemap for Fallout 3; Valve offers "complete pack" for $99; Street Fighter IV to consoles February 17 (North America) and February 20 (UK); LittleBlackFriday coming your way -- heard any good deals?

Enjoy.

There are some weeks that you just wish you could hit the reset button on your life. You'll notice that there has not been a GameHounds or Humpdate for longer than usual. Yeah, we noticed, too. Not for lack of trying. We had repeated, yet unrelated, problems with GameHounds Episode 42 over several nights. So, after a certain point you just throw your hands up and say, "F*ck it." Which is what we did -- but we did so promising that we'd deliver a massive, mindblowing, best-evar Humpdate this week to make up for it. We pre-prepped the show. We double-checked our show notes. Hell, we even freakin' spellchecked our shownotes. We got listener Spazmatt, our guest host, online good and early. We didn't even freak out when we had some audio problems. "We can do this," we thought. "We must do this. For the fans!" And then --after two hours of recording some of the most hilarious listener-generated rants we've had in a long time -- only then did we realize that we had done the podcast entirely wrong and it was entirely unlistenable. So, again we threw our hands up in the air and said, "F*ck it." Not for lack of trying, but because it became patently evident that someone up there did not want us to release a podcast this week. And no amount of determination on our part would change things. Thus we present to you the Not a Humpdate. It is not a podcast. There is no discussion of gaming within. It's not really anything except an explaination in detail of what happened and why we aren't discussing gaming. Your welcome to listen, as we've tried to make is remotely entertaining. However, if you don't want to hear Edie and Spazmatt bellyache about all the messed up things that have happened in the last week, you're also welcome to ignore it. Hopefully this curse will abate sometime before Sunday, when we really do release a new GameHounds episode, this time with guest host Commander Tim joining Edie and Cooper Hawkes. Enjoy... actually, scratch that. Don't enjoy. Because This is Not a Humpdate. Dammit.

Wow. Has it really been more than a week since we chatted? Rather than bore you with details, we'll just shoot to the crux of it all. This is GameHounds Episode 41. It was recorded 10 hours before Edie boarded a plane, and it was uploaded from Boise, Idaho. Yeah, that's why it's late. Edie and Kevin were in the air and having their bags disappear into the airline netherworld. So we apologize. But at least you have it now, right? On the show, Edie and Cooper Hawkes discuss the latest in the gaming industry news, including:

• User-created LittleBigPlanet levels get yanked without notice or explaination.
• Two more EA customers sue over Secu-ROM being installed on their computers.
• Activison/Blizzard CEO tells shareholders that the user-created Guitar Hero music may be the next big subscription-revenue stream.
• Warring fanboys manage to wreck MetaCritic user rating system for everyone who's not a big-league game critic, including sites like this. Thanks, douchebags.
• Godfather 2 releases a new trailer. Interesting stuff, which will merit an explaination, later.

Enjoy.

Wow. Has it really been more than a week since we chatted? Rather than bore you with details, we'll just shoot to the crux of it all. This is GameHounds Episode 41. It was recorded 10 hours before Edie boarded a plane, and it was uploaded from Boise, Idaho. Yeah, that's why it's late. Edie and Kevin were in the air and having their bags disappear into the airline netherworld. So we apologize. But at least you have it now, right? On the show, Edie and Cooper Hawkes discuss the latest in the gaming industry news, including:

• User-created LittleBigPlanet levels get yanked without notice or explaination.
• Two more EA customers sue over Secu-ROM being installed on their computers.
• Activison/Blizzard CEO tells shareholders that the user-created Guitar Hero music may be the next big subscription-revenue stream.
• Warring fanboys manage to wreck MetaCritic user rating system for everyone who's not a big-league game critic, including sites like this. Thanks, douchebags.
• Godfather 2 releases a new trailer. Interesting stuff, which will merit an explaination, later.

Enjoy.

It's pretty clear when all the most anticipated games start to drop. Let's just say that the consumption of adult diapers goes way up at the GameHounds Towers. This week, GamerEdie Sellers has been eye-deep in Fallout 3, and she offers her opinion to listeners and co-host Cooper Hawkes. She and Hawkes also discuss the latest in this week's gaming news. Including:

• The good news for Nintendo this week is that its latest mega-release, Wii Music, topped Japanese sales charts in its first week of release. The bad news is the number of units moved was less than awe-inspiring.
• Sony Computer Entertainment UK managing director Ray Maguire told VideoGamer.com this week that "nothing is ever exclusive" in response to questions surrounding exclusive DLC on Microsoft's Xbox 360.
• If you're thinking you just might grab a copy of Xbox's NXE floating around on Bit Torrent, think again. According to Major Nelson using the leaked update will disable your Xbox Live until November 19, the actual date of release for NXE.
• The Beatles' music, the single-most important catalog in music and which has not ever been available up to now for digital sales, will become part of a future MTV Games release in time for the 2009 holiday season.
• Random Shit Corner: Brütal Legend still has no developer and Mercenaries 2 introduces Obama and Palin playable characters -- but NOT McCain.
• Voice mail, emails, thank yous and the lot.

Enjoy.

The name says it all, folks. Edie Sellers and Cooper Hawkes have both found time to pick up and play the big game of the week and offer their insight as to whether it's really all that Peter Molyneux said it would be. Also, the discuss:

• The ESA says E3 will be bigger and better than the last two years. But will the public have a shot at going? Nobody seems to know.
• Metacritic has become the new fanboy battlefield. First, upset Sony fanbois take the piss out of Gears of War 2, then Xbox fanbois retaliate by hammering Resistance 2. Can anyone say tard fight?'
• A woman in Japan has been jailed for allegedly "murdering" her MMO virtual husband. No, not the human... The avatar.
• Random crap includes Rock Band 2's free 20-song DLC list, Fable 2's Monk Quest patch, and the zombie apocalypse.

Enjoy...

It's a new week. A week minus the Boston Red Sox. And that makes us sad. However, you can soak your painful souls in this week's episode of GameHounds. Hawkes and Edie tackle a weird week in news, one in which LittleBigPlanet is delayed for religious reasons, Yoda and Darth Vadar crossing over in Soulcaliber, Portal comes to Xbox Live and the amazing complexity and difficulty of Wii Music. Aaaaahahahaaaa... We couldn't keep a straight face. We tried. We tried. Topics and links after the jump... This week, Edie and Hawkes discuss:

• Sony delays LittleBigPlanet six days to remove a song after some Muslim gamers write this complaint letter in a NeoGAF forum. Letter writer subsequently apologizes.
• Namco Bandai confirms that, due to "overwhelming fan response," you will be able to buy Yoda and Darth Vadar for either console in Soulcaliber IV. Only $5 each! Wow. Never saw that one coming.
• Nintedo releases Wii Music's song list, and it's surprisingly GOD AWFUL!! I MEAN, IT'S WORSE THAN YOU COULD HAVE IMAGINED! However, Reggie Fils-Amie says he did a disservice to the game by making it look too easy at E3. It's actually harder than we think. Aaaahahahahahaaa.... God, that just never gets old, does it?

Enjoy.

Have you noticed that the Humpdates have taken on the tone of a game show lately? The search for a new Humpdate host continues this week with Batchelor Number Three, listener Mr. Maynard from the great state of Missouri. Maynard and GamerEdie Sellers dish the dirt on the gaming industry with a host of news stories, including rumors that Metal Gear Solid 4 may be coming to the Xbox 360, the Endwar demo now on Xbox Live -- and not on the PS3, Red Ring of Death lawsuits, Microsoft's memory solution for the NXE, the latest in cardboard perpherals, and Far Cry 2's DRM. Is Maynard your dream date? You'll have to listen to decide. Topics and links after the jump... This week, Edie and Maynard discuss:

• Japanese research firm Morningstar quotes a Konami rep who says the company is actively developing Metal Gear Solid 4 for the Xbox 360. Then Yahoo! Japan reprints of the story are edited to remove such comments. Weird.
• Tom Clancy's Endwar demo comes to the Xbox 360. So much for scoring the beta codes. However, if you want to test it out, you won't be doing it on your PS3, as it's exclusive to Microsoft's console.
• A California lawyer files a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft alleging that the company knew 50 percent of Xbox 360s were defective but sold them anyway. The case is doomed, but it may prove elucidating if it gets far enough in court.
• Microsoft reveals that the New Xbox Experience dashboard will require 128MB of memory. Great, as long as your system has a hard drive. If not, Microsoft has a solution for you: Free memory cards or cheap refurbished hard drives.
• Behold the future of DRM: FarCry 2 will ship with the dreaded SecuROM DRM that plagued Spore, only kinder and gentler. This one's a win for the "online PR cabal."
• Let's Tap is a new game for the Wii. And it comes in a cardboard box. And inside, it will have a new Wii controller peripheral: A cardboard box. Yes, it's a box... in a box. And if you give it as a Christmas gift, it will be a box in a box... in a box. Oh, this could go on forever.

Enjoy the Humpdate for October 15, 2008.

This week's episode is distinctively Ramen flavored. Yes, it's Tokyo Games Show week, and that means all the burning questions about video games have been answered. Yeah. Riiight. Instead, on many accounts, we're left with more information and, surprisingly, more questions than ever before. Edie Sellers and Cooper Hawkes discuss the biggest news from TGS and do their best to put it all in perspective, while implying that certain members of certain game developers have had inproper relationships with cows, horses, broad sides of barns, and their mothers. Topics and links after the jump... This week Hawkes and Edie discuss:

• The new Bungie title is... HALO! Yep. Halo 3: Recon is coming your way in Fall 2009.
• The New Xbox Experience is coming on November 19. However, it won't have group viewing of Netflix movies. Promises broken, again!
• Want to get more out of your Resistance: Retribution experience? Hook up your PSP to your PS3 with Resistance 2 loaded.
• Peter Molyneux says the Fable 2 multiplayer patch should be available on day one of the game's released.
• Could Diablo 3 be coming to a console near you? According to Blizzard's president, yeah, it very well could be.

Enjoy GameHounds Episode 37 now.

These days, Humpdates are really like Mother Gump's proverbial box of chocolates. How's that for a metaphor? You see, GamerEdie Sellers is the chocolate covering -- she's creamy, sweet and you're not surprised it's there. This week, the mysterious filling is Marcus "Jazz" Corrin of 360Arcadians. Between the two of them, you have a satisfying treat. Edie and Jazz dish the gaming-industry dirt on the cusp of Tokyo Games Show's first big keynotes. Topics and links after the jump... This week, Jazz and Edie discuss:

• Microsoft's TGS keynote kicks off the night of the recording. What do we think we'll hear?
• What you won't hear this year, however, is about a price drop for the PS3. Sony reps say prices are staying right where they are this holiday season. And some industry analysts say that decision is retail suicide.
• Nintendo's DSi games will be region-locked. Bummer. On the plus side, the new handheld will have more RAM than your regular DS Lite.
• Spore will have its first expansion November 18 and it will only cost $19.99. Great news. However, it's Spore Cute & Creepy Parts Pack -- not an expansion for the game, but for the Creature Creator.
• Left 4 Dead for the PS3? Not gonna happen this year.
• A Bioware/LucasArts game is indeed in the works, and we'll find out big details on October 21.
• Activision finally lets us know how much Guitar Hero: World Tour will cost. Surprise! It ain't cheap.
• Rock Band's new website allows better access to the song library. Yawn. It will also allow you to make your band's swag -- including 6" figurines of your virtual rock-star character. Awww, yeaaaaaah!!!

Enjoy!

Ahhh. The GameHounds staff loves it when things get back to normal. Cooper Hawkes is back and drinking Southern Comfort, and Edie Sellers is sober and drinking water. Two great things that go great together, especially when it comes to a podcast. This week, Edie and Hawkes delve into a host of topics, including Alan Wake, the new Gears of War Zune, Sony's Tokyo Game Show debut rumors, how Bungie pissed off the UK, and how EA pissed off retired NFL players. They also launch the latest Listener Appreication Month contest, in which you could win a GAF Viewmaster full of Fallout 3 screenshots and a bottle of real Nuka Cola -- both media swag from Bethesda's E3 appearance. Check out the show notes and links for all da cool stuff after the jump... Oh yeah, and these show notes thanks to Jong-Sun Yi, who reminded me no matter how drunk or tired we are, it's really important to write this shit up. On this week's sh0w, Edie and Hawkes discuss:

• Media Mall's Play On software lets you access content from Netflix, Hulu, CBS, YouTube and ESPN on your Xbox 360, PS3 and HP MediaSmart TV. And it's free. Fuck that "NXE" thing! Your assignment: See Bedazzled (1967) <-- We're not kidding... click that shit -- on Hulu for free this week. In-depth discussion and analysis next week!
• Alan Wake is alive and living in Finland. Who knew he had a thing for blondes?!?
• Dear Santa, Hawkes would like a new Gears of War 2 Zune for Christmas. What? He's been a bad boy, but wait, he thinks the Zune is the future of the Xbox 360!
• Rumor: Sony will debut at least 11 new as-yet-unannounced titles at next week's Tokyo Games Show -- or so says a Famitsu posting. Either that or Google translator is seriously fucked up.
• Bungie inadvertently fucks up and pisses off Britain. Seriously, doesn't anyone fucking vet their shit?
• Retired NFL players say Electronic Arts and their union, the NFL Players Association, colluded to rip them off for using their likenesses in Madden games. If they have half the documents they say they do, this is going to be very, very ugly.

Oh yeah. And because we promised: Beware the ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! Particularly if those undead bastards are carrying Legos.

It's the first Humpdate without Simon DI, so we're taking the old jalopy out for a spin with a new co-pilot. In an effort to show their love for listeners, the GameHounds staff decided to bring on a listener for a little live-action test driving of the Humpdate. This week, listener William Griffin brings his A-game to the podcast as he and Edie Sellers discuss the first half of this week's gaming news. Topics include AC/DC's upcoming track pack (and all its weirdness), the rumored new DS announcement, the Xbox Slim, Playstation 4 spec speculations, and other cool stuff. ... And hookers. Yeah. Really. Hookers. Topics and links after the jump... This week, Will and Edie discuss:

• Rumor: New DS to be announced Wednesday, Nintendo doesn't exactly deny it.
• Xbox India officially denies the existence, much less the announcement, of an "Xbox Slim." Split-Screen.com, which wrote the story, now says its writer could have made a mistake. Whups!
• Xbox launches a taste test of the New Xbox Experience with a website modeled on the new navigation methods coming in the update.
• According to Japanese website Impress, Sony has sent a very, very rough draft of Playstation 4 specs to third-party developers to get their opinions. Some of the ideas seem very encouraging.
• AC/DC is coming to Rock Band and Rock Band 2 on November 2 for PS3 and 360, November 16 for Wii. And you'll be going to Wal-Mart to pick it up? Really?!?!
• Dan "Shoe" Hsu has done it again. Part five of his "Behind the Scenes" blog series discusses, among other things, how gaming journalists regular pimp themselves to companies for perks and how developers are more than happy to oblige. We did say we'd talk about hooker, didn't we?

Enjoy.

We know, we're getting lazy. Actually we're not feeling very well tonight. And words are coming hard. Including show notes. So we'll keep it short. As you know, Hawkes is out this week, so BDazzler of Gamers Pub sits in. We talk about stuff. Lots of stuff. Like I said, words come hard. Just listen, damnit.

So much to talk about, so little time. It's Sunday night, and rather than boring you with details, let's cut to the chase. This week's episode features GamerEdie Sellers and Cooper Hawkes. Edie says something, Hawkes disagrees. Blah, blah, blah. We talk about Jasper, Life With Playstation, the Mass Effect movie, Bungie's big annoucement, Project Gotham Racing, LA Noire, and how much we hate the world "exclusive." We also reveal the winner of the copy of Spore and open a new contest for a copy of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for the Xbox 360. All that great stuff... and no show notes. Awww. But don'tcha think it's worth it? Enjoy

It's a sad day in GameHound land. This episode of the GameHounds Humpdate will be Simon DI's last time he'll appear as the regular co-host. It's a sad day, but the GamerEdie Sellers sends him off with a heartfelt, if not a tearful, adieu. And, of course, they also get into this week's gaming news. Lots to discuss, what with Sony throwing the Life with Playstation switch a hair early, rumors of Google buying Valve, Xbox 360 price drops in the UK, and Peter Molyneux's secret side. All that can be yours for a listen. Show notes and links after the jump... This week, Edie and Simon DI discuss:

• Whoops! Sony inadvertently throws the Life with Playstation switch. Of course, 24-hours later we NOW know that they threw it on for everyone.
• Big FAT rumor: Google looking to buy Valve?
• Konami says it won't sell a guitar peripheral with Rock Revolution.
• LittleBigPlanet coming to North America October 21 and Europe on October 24?
• Microsoft confirms Europe price drop for the Xbox 360.
• Peter Molyneux says Lionhead knew about the Fable 2 Pub Games cheat and hints that those who used it may have something special waiting for them when they play Fable 2. Does Peter have something up his sleeve?
• Rock Band 2's phoneme-detection system sucks balls.

Plus thank yous, and a goodbye to Simon. Enjoy

The GameHounds staff would love to go into a long explanation of this episode of GameHounds, but Rock Band 2 is loaded and they're *this* close to winning an Econoline van! So they'll just give you the quick and dirty. This week's contest prize: A copy of Spore. Last week's winner of the four-pack of t-shirts: Bodabo 420. Links? Uh yeah. Neither quick nor dirty, so they'll just have to wait for when the staff is through with the Rock Out With Your C*ck Out-fest going on in GameHounds Towers (ie: GamerEdie's living room).

This is going to be weird. There's bad news and there's good news this week on the Humpdate. The bad news is that GameHounds' intrepid midweek show will suffer a loss in two weeks. Simon DI will be leaving as co-host due. He won't be leaving right off, however. GameHounds listeners will have a good-bye episode next week. This week, however, is Simon-free. It's also Hawkes-free and everybody-else free. GamerEdie Sellers goes solo -- not with weekly gaming news, but intstead with a series of interviews from the Penny Arcade Expo -- including representatives of Starcraft 2, Pirates of the Burning Sea, and Tritton Technologies. As a bonus, those who prefer to listen to a bit racer speech will enjoy three segments after the break, recorded during a long night of drinking after PAX closing time. Chiahippo of Platform Nation describes penile surgery in gruesome detail, the most contemptable thing he's ever done, and how he got his nom de plume. GameHounds apologizes for the lack of actual news dicussion but promises the news shall return on Saturday's regular GameHounds Podcast with Cooper Hawkes.

Welcome to a new week and a new episode of GameHounds Podcast. And welcome to the first week of LISTENER APPRECIATION MONTH, where GamerEdie Sellers and Cooper Hawkes give out all the great swag they got from GDC 08, E3 08 and PAX 08! On this week's episode, Edie and Hawkes discuss their usual stuff: Gaming and the video-game industry. And after Episode 31's discuss of the va-jay-jay, they also give equal time to the man meat. It wasn't intentional, but let's face it, these two just can't stay on topic. And listeners love them more for it, don't they? When they aren't delving into the masculine nethers, they discuss Square Enix's failed attempt to merge with Tecmo, Microsoft's DLC clearance sale, rumors that Dead Space has been banned in three countries, new Halo 3 achievements, and Europe's new Xbox Live Film Club. Links and topics after the jump... This week, Edie and Hawkes discuss:

• Square Enix attemps Tecmo takeover bid, but in a wicked twist of fate, Tecmo says no and instead announced it's merging with Koei.
• Selected DLC on Xbox Live on sale through the end of October. If you haven't bought your expansion packs, you might want to check out if the've gone on clearance.
• Dead Space rumored to be banned in three countries -- China, Germany and Japan. We and GamePolitics are very suspicious of this announcement.
• Next Halo 3 update will add some acheivements and fun things. What are they? Bungie ain't talking.
• Wanna see movie premieres? Then pop into the XBox Live Film Club and review a movie and you could win! Doesn't apply to anyone BUT the UK.
• Check out the podcast for the first contest for GameHounds Listener Appreication Month. You could win a t-shirt pack!

Enjoy.

The GameHounds staff apologizes that the latest episode of Humpdate took an extra day to upload. The end of summer means new schedules, so they had to find the time between work and play. This week, GamerEdie Sellers and Simon DI of Cyberpunks Gaming Podcast bask in the afterglow of PAX and round up all the news of the week, including price drops for the Xbox 360 in North America and Japan, how to get the Nariko Sackgirl for LittleBigPlanet, possible new Halo 3 achievements, and much more. Details and links after the jump... This week, Edie and Simon discuss:

• Xbox 360 price cuts are official as of September 5, with the Arcade droping to $199, the 60GB style going to $299 and the Elite slashed to $399. Japan seems even bigger drops in price.
• Nariko Sackgirl will be an exclusive pre-order bonus for LittleBigPlanet purchased through Best Buy. No word on the Kratos Sackboy or other pre-order goodies.
• Though not yet released, Spore is already available via Bittorrent, due to some jackass Aussies who sold the game early.
• Ascendantjustice.com forum watchers find a PAX screenshot listing 30 new Halo 3 achevements totalling an additional 350 gamerscore points.
• PSP-3000 will have a brighter screen, Playstation Store directly loaded to the handheld console, and an ability to bridge PSPs for multiplayer through the PS3 without internet. It will not, however, have shortened battery life, according to John Koller of Playstation Blog.
• LittleBigPlanet to have limited public beta sometime this month, or so says a developer of on the Playstation message boards.
• Guitar Hero: World Tour will not have a no-fail mode, nor will it allow bandmates to save a player.
• Winner of the Fable 2 Pub Games poetry contest revealed: Gratz to JT Homeslice.

Enjoy

Penny Arcade Expo is one of the few gamer shows that is seems too short. Platform Nation was there at the final day of PAX 2008 to witness the final wind-down of this huge event. GamerEdie Sellers was joined by a host of other Platform Nation hosts, including Chiahippo (PSHRadio), Mrs. LeftyBrown (The Married Gamers), Z3ro9 (Squad XP), InfectedPB503 (XBLRadio), BDazzler (Gamers Pub) and Platform Nation's fearless leader, Steve519. This panel discussion of the final day's events also includes an impressive array of guests. Todd Howard, creative director of Bethesda's Fallout 3, reveals a bunch of details about the game and fearlessly answers a half-hour of constant questions from the panel and the live chat-room audience. Shawn White of Ninjatown also gets peppered with tons of questions about the upcoming DS game and what it's like to go from being a game journalist to a game developer. Finally Jeff Pobst, CEO of Hidden Path, talks about their upcoming tower-defense game, Defense Grid: The Awakening. He also gets very candid about Microsoft's certification process and offers up insight about the development industry from a CEO's viewpoint.

Penny Arcade Expo is now in full swing, and Platform Nation was there to bring you live coverage. On day two, Edie Sellers, BDazzler (of Gamers Pub), Cephiros (writer for Platform Nation), InfectedPB503, and X3ro9 made the day special with interviews and impressions of games they'd seen... and those they didn't see. Guests include Hudson Games and Trixie360 of Gamerscore Blog. Check it out! Sunday will be your last chance to check out the live feed on Platform Nation's UStream.tv channel and chat live with the hosts as they wrap up this monster game show. By the way, the recording jumps in about five minutes into the show, as the engineer forgot to start recording at the beginning of the show.

If you missed Platform Nation's live stream from Penny Arcade Expo on Friday, fret not. GamerEdie Sellers, who moderated the panel discussion, offers up to you the official replay of the show, originally broadcast on UStream. In addition, to KRockXP of the SquadXP, Lefty Brown of The Married Gamers, and Steve519 of Platform Nation join Edie and guests from Child's Play, Plantronics and Twisted Pixel Games. Now here's your opportunity to find out what's going on in the early hours of PAX and get insight as to what's going on at the West Coast's biggest gaming con.

You people have no idea how difficult it is to get a podcast together while trying to pack for Penny Arcade Expo. GamerEdie Sellers and Simon DI (of Cyberpunks Gaming Podcast) hope you appreciate the lengths they go to in order to bring you this week's Humpdate. There's no time to do official links, but here's the overview: Edie and Simon discuss Castle Crashers and, well, crashing; Halo 4's rumored break with Bungie; rumored subscription fees for Rock Band: World Tour's online play; the delay in Rush's Moving Pictures album to Rock Band; and Playstation 3 news that includes the new Warhawk update. Don't forget to check out Platform Nation's daily live coverage of PAX starting Friday, August 29 at 1:30 p.m. Pacific time.

It only took six months for it to happen, but finally Cooper Hawkes and Edie Sellers broach the subject that you all think about, but none will talk about. What does Whoopi Goldberg call it? The va-jay-jay? But more importantly, they also discuss major news in the gaming world, not limited to rumors about Grand Theft Auto IV's DLC (including release date), more rumors about the Xbox 360 price drop and how it might include a motion controller, Rush's Moving Pictures album coming to Rock Band, Duke Nukem 3D details, and Loadrunner coming to Xbox Live Arcade. There's also much Sony love as well. Links and notes after the jump... Topics discussed include:

• Could the Xbox 360 sell at $199 with a motion controller and the Fall update preloaded?
• Japanese lovin' for the Xbox 360 takes a turn for the worse, as the Playstation 3 pounds Microsoft's numbers.
• GTA 4's DLC rumored to be huge, expensive and coming in late October or early November.
• Loderunner coming to XBLA. Really.
• Rush's Moving Pictures coming to XBLA. It could be the best $11 you've ever spent.
• Xbox fixes its D-pad issues, but if you live in North America, you won't see it.
• Duke Nukem 3D coming to XBLA with saved films and rewind.

And don't forget to enter our Fable 2 Pub Games code contest. A few lines of poetry or prose could win big. Enjoy.

Liepzig is here! Leipzig is here! And that means loads of news. This week Simon DI and Edie Sellers attempt to cover all the news that's coming out of Germany. They fail, but at least they try. They do hit some key annoucements, mostly concerning Sony's plans for the future and release dates for Fallout 3, LittleBigPlanet and a host of anticipated titles. But don't think that Leipzig news is the only thing they cover. Xbox sales numbers and EA's attempt to take over Take Two also make the headlines. Check out links and topics after the jump... This week, Edie and Simon discuss:

• LittleBigPlanet comes to Europe October 29 (Japan: October 30, and a week or so later from North Americans); Silent Hill: Homecoming coming to PC as a digital download from Steam, possibly delayed from September until November; Sony reveals Savage Moon coming to system (a "classic tower strategy game"), and Warhawk expansion details (Operation: Fallen Star) that include -- you guessed it -- jetpacks and 10 new battlefields. A free update will include trophies and two new game modes; and MK vs. DC Universe screenshots showing Green Lantern versus the Joker.
• EA abandons its quest to take over Take Two, but since the Federal Trade Commission okayed the deal, the two companies are now in talks for a friendly merger. Yeah, the lunchroom should be fun.
• Fallout 3 set to hit North America on October 28, Europe on November 31.
• Playstaton Home execs say they haven't ruled out an adults-only area. Let the cybersex commence!
• Bioshock coming to PS3 October 21 for North America and October 24 for Europe. We love specifics almost as much as this game.
• Sony announces a $500 160GB PS3 bundle pack for North America with Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, a voucher for Pain, and a Dualshock 3 controller. Yummy.
• Burnout: Paradise to be released as a downloadable title on the Playstation Network.
• Xbox outsells PS3 in Japan in early August, and then sells out completely due to Tales of Vesperia.

Look. Here's the deal. It's almost 3 a.m. Pacific time, which means you East Coast GameHounds listeners are just waking up and wanting to update your MP3 players. So we're not going to delay this posting by staying up and writing show notes tonight. We'll just cut to the chase. Hawkes is out this week due to a pinched nerve, so instead, GamerEdie Sellers hosts this show with a special guest, Bobby Blackwolf of the Bobby Blackwolf Show. In addition, due to a curious set of conditions that will most likely not repeat, they were able to live cast this episode on AllGames Radio. So, mentions of chat rooms and live chat comes from that. If you had a chance to listen, great. If not, you can enjoy the antics with this episode. We'll post show notes tomorrow afternoon.

In this very special episode of GameHounds, Alex P. Keaton says goodbye to his sister Mallorie... Wait, that's not right. Sorry. Channeling 80s sitcoms again. In this very special episode of GameHounds, Edie Sellers and Cooper Hawkes welcome a guest host, Mrs. LeftyBrown of The Married Gamers podcast. They talk about dead celebrities and colored poo. No really. That part's true. Really. Stop laughing. When not explaining exactly what blue food coloring does to your body and Mrs. LeftyBrown weakly attemping to assert that her listeners are better than our listeners, they also delve deep into the last week of gaming industry news. Topics and links (and how YOU can make Mrs. LeftyBrown eat her words) after the jump... Topics include:

• Sony is looking for players to join its USA and European beta test for Playstation Home. But it's not going to be easy to get in. In the US, you'll have to be active in the PSN and Playstation Store and download the Home theme for your PS3. In Europe, it will be invite only.
• Microsoft says downloadable content has accounted for $240 million in revenue, with $180 coming in the last 12 months. Does your wallet feel lighter?
• Some PS3 owners say the recent 2.42 firmware update has caused their consoles to stop playing Blu-Ray disks, erased save data, and made it unable to connect to the internet. Sounds like yet another update is coming soon.
• Bioware says it's considering bringing Mass Effect to the Nintendo DS. Oh what a conundrum for poor Hawkesy!
• The owner of the gyrpscopic technology of Wii's new MotionPlus dongle says Nintendo doesn't own the exclusive rights and that other unnamed companies have expressed an interest. We all know who they are, but the question is whether we'll see the Xbox and PS3 dongles for this or next generation consoles.
• Have you fallen over yourself to purchase the Gears of War 2 Lancer edition pre-order from Amazon? You know, the one with the full-size lancer replica? Well, you're one of the rare, smart ones because Amazon reports they've been flying off the virtual shelves since coming on sale on Friday.
• Fable 2 achievements have been released, and if they're accurate, they offer an insight into how fun this game may be. Also, they show how you'll have to Fable yourself silly to get them all.

Don't forget to check out Playpalooza 08, Platform Nation's upcoming charity and gaming marathon on August 14! It's going to be huge and it's a great cause! The Married Gamers have thrown down the gauntlet to GameHounds, and we're just not going to stand for that. Give till it hurts.

Welcome, gentle listeners, to the Humpdate. It's a new month, and just two days away from "perfect cube day" (08-08-08), we bring you Edie Sellers and Simon DI chatting up this week's developments in gaming news. It's a weird week. The post-E3 wave of information is tapering off to a gentle stream. Nothing that stirs up the bottom too much, but valuable nonetheless. Topics and links (which you should check out if only for Kratos Sockboy images) after the jump...

• Microsoft updates Xbox Live, but you won't notice anything. It's just tidying up before the big fall update.
• Rumors and indications that Microsoft will be dropping the prices of Xbox won't go away. Two screenshots of store inventory software show Xbox Arcade SKUs for $199, sparking further speculation that the prices should drop on September 7.
• Beware: Spammers and phishers have set their sights on Xbox Live, with reports of fake XBL messages supposedly coming from people on your friends list asking you to visit a website for free Xbox points. Don't believe, and if you've received one, contact your friend and tell him/her that the his/her account has been compromised.
• New Xbox avatars will be limited to games rated E10+ and younger so kids won't be scarred by seeing their virtual selves decapitated by mean-old grownups.
• Playstation beta opens in Japan. Good for them. Now what about us stinky-poo-poo Americans and Europeans, huh?
• Uncharted: Drake's Fortune has been patched (and Warhawk will be on August 27) to include Playstation trophies. Get ready to play those games all over again, as the trophies aren't retroactive to past play.
• Grand Theft Auto 4 is coming to PC. Yay for PC purists! And Left 4 Dead is rumored to be coming to the PS3.
• SOCOM: Confrontation details announced, including price and date of release.
• Midway Chigaco chiefs step down. Cost cutting steps after losing $44 million last quarter.
• LittleBig Pre-Order will offer bonuses, including Sockboy Kratos and Sockgirl Nariko.

Enjoy.

Second trimester? Wait, who's pregnant. Nobody, but as we celebrate the six-month anniversary of the GameHounds Podcast, it occurs to us that this little baby of ours is entering it's last three months before it becomes a human being. In otherwords, this podcast spawn is almost ready to be considered "fully functioning." Oh, let's not kid ourselves, this thing will always be a little half-baked, and maybe it's been dropped on its head a few times, too. Anyway, this week Cooper Hawkes and Edie Sellers once again cover the week in gaming news, including games they've played and these hot topics. Links and topics after the jump... In this week's podcast, Hawkes and Edie discuss:

• id Software's John Carmack says that, due to royalty fees due Microsoft in order to give Rage a third disk, the company will have to squeeze it into two disks and the resulting game won't look as good as what you'll get on the Playstation 3. Of course, he also says he hearts the 360. We think this public airing of private laundry won't work.
• Ars Technica's inside source at Microsoft, the one who accurately predicted the new 60GB Xbox 360, says the prices for all the console's SKUs will drop in "early September." And we're not talking little whimpy drops, either.
• Life with Playstation, the new Playstation Network functionality that adds Google and YouTube functionality, didn't drop in July, and sources say to expect it this month instead. Bug-check twice, release once, we always say.
• Game Reviewers are "lazy" says Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences president Joseph Olin. While we agree in theory, it's clear this guy has never actually done any game reviews or worked in the media. Get educated, then mouth off, jackass.
• EA is like a "petulant child instead of a professional market leader," exclaims Sega of America predisent Simon Jeffery. He then proceeds to masturbate over the thought of Activision's Bobby Kotick. God, maybe he's angling for the rights to Brutal Legend?
• Beware! Sporn (ie: Spore + Porn) approaches! And parents afraid their kids will learn where babies come from are shielding their eyes and gnashing their teeth over the thought of their children be irrevocably scarred.
• If that wasn't enough, hell has frozen over. Wait, no. That's just a shortage of the Xbox 360 in Japan!
• Too Human goes gold. Cool!
• Activision's boot of Vivendi titles not fatal to a few high profile games, including Brutal Legend, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, and the Bourne series. No word from smaller stuff, but we don't have much hope for them.

Enjoy. And thanks for six months of fun! Looking forward to several more.

Simon is back! Okay, so he didn't get much of a tan down in Mexico, but he does return to the Humpdate ready to chat about the latest in gaming news. In addition, he offers some insight into gaming south of the border. Let's just say, if you wanna feel like a rock god, head south with your mediocre Rock Band skillz. We reguarly only think of the gaming world being Asia, North America and Europe. There are four additional continents out there (not to mention all the non-continental island nations) and gaming in those locals is VERY different than what we know. Simon and Edie also discuss the latest in gaming news. Topics and links after the jump... In addition to se habla-ing el Bando con Rock, check out these items up for discussion:

• Electronic Arts' CEO John Riccitiello admits that EA's development department should have banked on the Wii and DS instead of the PS3 and Xbox 360, promises that you'll see more such games in the future.
• Telltale Games (Sam and Max, Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People) announces its working on an episodic Wallace and Gromit game, Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures.
• Activition announces it's dropping a host of Vivendi Games, including the nearly completed Ghostbusters: The Video Game, Tim Shaffer's Brütal Legend, and the highly (cough) anticipated (cough, cough) 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand. Activision will retain the Spiro the Dragon, Ice Age, and Crash Bandicoot franchises, as well as Prototype and a new unnamed IP.
• The XBLA "Summer of Arcade" started today, with the first of five new games offered each week throughout August. Get Geometry Wars 2 today, followed by Braid, Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Galaga Legions, and Castle Crashers.
• If you've got the fever for the flavor of more Xbox 360 Pro, and you can't wait until the new SKU with it's hot, tight 60 GB hard drive glistening in the sun, you may want to drop by your local Target store. Looks like the retailer has once again broken a street date, as Joystiq readers report seeing them available in electronics-department cases in several locations.
• Playstation 3 owners have a new firmware update, version 2.42. No word on whether it will brick your system, but one thing's for sure: No Playstation Life in this baby. Sorry.
• Today Sony launched its Greatest Hits lineup for the PS3. And hits they are. Warhawk, Resistance: Fall of Man, Call of Duty 3, Fight Night Round 3, Need for Speed: Carbonb, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas, Assassin's Creed, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and Ninja Gaiden Sigma are each available for $29.99. Nice!!

Enjoy.

Sorry this got to you on Monday rather than Sunday. When we finally finished editing this ultra-long episode, Edie was exhausted and needed sleep. But there was quite a lot for Hawkes and Edie to talk about this week. And, with Hawkes now able to freely use his filthy mind and mouth with freedom, it felt like old times. ... good times. This week, Edie and Hawkes catch up on the rest of gaming news, including lawsuits, Gears of War 2 info, a new Trek-flavored MMO, and beating the dead horse that is E3 2008. Topics and links after the jump.... This week, Hawkes and Edie discuss:

• Good news and bad news for Gears of War 2, with info coming out of this week's ComiCon in San Diego. The collector's edition is a spendy $130, but some GoW2 achievements will be linked to your GoW1 achievements. Yay, player loyalty.
• Cryptic Studios issues a help-wanted ad. Unfortunately, in it they leaked (maybe unintentionally) an upcoming Star Trek MMO they're working on. Bonk, bonk on the head!
• Are you a big enough Halo fan to make a pilgrimage to a Bungie fan fest? I guess Frank O'Connor is looking for something to say after Microsoft pulled the rug out from under Bungie's big "countdown" annoucement.
• How do you kill that which has no life? Cut the attendance, close the main floor and call it E3 2008! Peter Moore says, after this year's "soulless" event that E3 should be open to the public.
• Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is rumored to be dropping on September 23. Seriously? Isn't our end-of-year gaming dance card already pretty full?
• The Itagaki v. Tecmo soap opera got a lot more interesting this week, with the release of secret audio tapes, documents, and the withdrawl of a gag-order. Kotaku's coverage is pretty extensive, and you gotta check the program if you want to know the players.
• Thank yous to iTunes our commenters! If you haven't already, don't forget to do that!

Enjoy.

Never in our wildest dreams did we think that we'd have to bleep so much of our "clean" podcast... Simon DI is out of town, sunning himself down in Mexico way, so Cooper Hawkes steps in this week to discuss the post-E3 gaming news. It was all going so well until Edie mentions Wii Music, and then all heck broke loose. Let's just say Hawkes went into a fit of obscenities that would make George Carlin swoon. Lots of news, and given that we need to post this ASAP (hey, Project Runway is on...) we won't be posting any links or show notes. Just cover your ears and enjoy the bleeps!

Originally, we were just going to post this as a straightforward interview. And then all you listeners started speculating. Who did Edie talk to? Was it CliffyB? Was it Will Wright? So rather than wreck the surprise by just telling you, you're just going to have to listen. Suffice to say, it was an honor and a privilege to spend a half-hour with this gentleman as he demoed his hotly anticipated upcoming title. It was an unusual amount of time for someone of his stature to spend at a crazed event like E3, particularly at the end of the show when nerves are frayed and exhaustion is setting in. But indeed, he did. And it was a joy. Hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as Edie did.

We hit the midway point for E3 2008 today. Being the first day without a major press conferece, Wednesday is all about hitting the games. And there are so many games here it's impossible to do one small woman (or a large one for that matter) to hit them all. Today, Edie did her best, however. Hawkes and Edie wrap up the day's hands-on experiences. The games they cover include:

• Left 4 Dead
• Facebreaker
• Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zahir expansion pack
• Velvet Assassin
• Legendary
• Raven Squad
• Monster Madness for the PS3
• Battlestations: Pacific
• Farcry 2
• Tom Clancy's Endwar

Wow. That's a lot of games. And tomorrow there will be more to come. Enjoy, and get ready for the final day of E3 tomorrow night. More games, more impressions, and more E3.

It's day two of E3, though technically it's the first day. Hawkes and Edie round up Sony and Nintendo press briefings, which were -- let's just say they spanned the scope of impressive to laughable. Also, we chat about Edie's hands-on with Bethesda's Fallout 3 and Sega's Total War for the PC. Rather than spending a bunch of time telling you all about it, why don't you just listen. Don't worry, Hawkes does get pissed off. Yay.

As promised, the first installment of the exclusive E3 coverage. Hawkes and Edie discuss Monday's events (thus the .1 of the episode number). Or should we say "event," as the annoucements of Microsoft really ruled the day. Just when we think we had the big green monster all figured out, they throw a curve ball and blow our socks off. Enjoy our take on the Microsoft press briefing, the leaks and rumors, and all the day's events. Don't forget to check back tomorrow for the .2 episode (aka: Tuesday).

Hey guys. So, it's less than 24 hours before one half of the GameHounds crew jets off to Los Angeles for E3. So time is short. Short enough, in fact, that we really don't have time to do proper show notes for this episode, which unfortunately was recorded later than usual on Saturday night. Here's the quick rundown: Edie and Hawkes discuss this week's demise of Flagship Studios (Hellgate: London), the suspected lack of a price drop for the PS3, Xbox Pro's price slashing, iPhone games, a possible new Xbox 360 motion controller, Animal Crossing and Punch Out for the Wii, the newly announced third-party professional Rock Band drumset (and how you can do it yourself for about the same price), and the people we hope will STFU at this year's E3 as presented by this CrispyGamer.com article. We also read the winner of the World of Warcraft Horror Story contest, which nabbed its author a 60-day pre-paid game card. Enjoy. And don't forget to tune in Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for our exclusive E3 coverage, with podcasts each night from Edie and Hawkes. A lot of news is about to crack, so don't miss it. Check out the podcasts and our news postings on the website.

You know, we knew it wouldn't last. Hawkes swore off the hate a mere three weeks ago, and this week he rediscovers that rancid little black part of his soul. Edie also finds a good reason to be pissed off, and not just because the one-week mark to E3 and the holiday weekend combined to dry up any hint of really hard gaming news. Welcome back, Mr. Hawkes. That hate eats your stomach, but we love you more for it. Topics and links after the jump... This week, Hawkes and Edie discuss:

• Our contest for a 60-day pre-paid World of Warcraft card contiues. Send your "WoW horror story" to gamehounds@gmail.com.
• Tecmo releases new DLC armor for Ninja Gaiden II. It'll cost ya a couple bucks each and they do NOTHING!! Two words: Horse armor.
• Sony responds to the 2.40 update ho-down. We expected to hear a lot more complaining from the masses. Maybe that means it wasn't so bad after all?
• Peter Moore spoke about EA Sports on the PC -- or more specifically how they're NOT coming to the PC. This is our own fault, boys and girls.
• Oasis' Noel Gallagher says knife violence in England is probably due to video games. Actually, sir, I think being a raging alcoholic and Liam Gallagher's brother is a contributor to violence. However, we actually have verifiable proof. You, not so much. Shut your piehole and go make some more derivative music.
• San Jose Mercury News gaming and pop-culture columnist Mike Antonuccci is a complete and total asshat. He's also an embarassment to journalists and writers everwhere. Read his list of the "top 10 video games of the first half of the year," and you'll want to puke. Don't forget to read his "caveats" as to why Ninja Gaiden and Metal Gear Solid 4 aren't on the list (and why the Wii Fit is). Don't forget to leave a comment,kids. Too bad he doesn't have a book on Amazon.

Enjoy.

Humpdate time, kiddies! Simon DI and Edie Sellers once again tear up your Wednesday listening with another episode of the Humpdate. This is an unusually long episode of Humpdate, rivaling that of a regular GameHounds show. Weirdly enough, it's full of gaming news -- a real rarity at this time of the year. The pre-E3 doldrums aren't hitting like they usually do, which is good for you and for us. Lots of news this first half of the week, including Sony's botched system update, the next piece of plastic you won't be buying, and the debut of a new segment of the Humpdate, Simon's Rock Update -- all you'd ever want to know about Rock Band/Guitar Hero/Rock Revolution news. Topic list and links (yeah, really... links!) after the jump. This week, Edie and Simon discuss:

• At midnight this morning, Sony finally released its 2.40 update for the PS3, fixing the XMB problems and introducing trophies. At midnight-plus-20-minutes, PS3s around the country froze up on reboot and bricked faster than a mason's daughter. The update's been pulled, but not before some owners reformatted their hard drives. Whoops!
• The next Tony Hawk game will have a "new fancy plastic peripheral" that's not made by Neversoft (the builder of Rock Band's "fancy plastic peripherals." Or so says one rumored spy for EGM. It's a rumor that supports the Intellisponse leak a few weeks back intimating a "motion-sensing board controller."
• This is Vegas is delayed until 2009. But it's supposed to be playable in two weeks at E3. Oh, we're so confused.
• GameTap will offer American McGee's Grimm episodes for free the first 24 hours they're available, beginning July 31. We're very okay with this.
• The Dead Space team at Electronic Arts if holding a sweepstakes for their hand-picked top 100 sci-fi and horror DVDs, which they used for reseaching the title. Yes, one lucky winner will take home all 100 DVDs of great thrillers! Find the entire list here, and enter the sweepstakes by going to this link. Hey, why are we telling you?!? WE WANT THAT!
• Another great GameHounds contest for a World of Warcraft 60-day pre-paid game card, donated by Alex the Deadite. We love you guys!
• Simon's Rock Update (the brand new segment featuring Simon DI, who else?) discusses the latest news in Rock Band and Guitar Hero, including compatability issues.

Enjoy.

Everyday is like Sunday... Actually, I take that back. Only Sundays have new GameHounds episodes. This week Edie and Hawkes discuss the surprising amount of news in the gaming industry. Surprising because, with E3 mere days away, this time of the year usually doesn't have even a thimble-full of decent stuff to talk about. This year would have been the same, but for one thing: Blizzard dropped the bomb that we've all been waiting for since oh, a deacade. Topics and link after the jump... This week, Edie and Hawkes discuss:

• Blizzard announced Diablo 3 this weekend in Paris, and includes a really amazing amount of gameplay demo footage. This is what millions of World of Warcraft subscribers paid for.
• Microsoft streamlines how you transfer your DRMed games and other paid-for downloads from one Xbox to another. However, Hawkes says it's not all butterflies and bubblegum. In fact, it's actually pretty awful.
• Leaked newspaper ads portend a signficiant price drop for the Xbox Premium to $299 after July 13. What about the other SKUs?
• Despite emphatic claims that it's still going to persue in-house game development, LucasArts cuts a significant amount of key staff who worked on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Some of them have been at the company since the Tim Shaffer days (aka: When Lucas Arts was good). Now who will make SW:TFU II?
• Screenshots of Xbox rumored avatars in a "Playstation Home-like" environment. Oh, would that be a throwdown for Sony or what?
• EGM columnist suggests that Microsoft is considering allowing third-party manufacturers to produce Xbox drives. Think about this: A combination HDR/Blu-Ray/Cable tuner/answering machine/turnip twaddler/pasta maker/kareoke machine. With Bluetooth? I hear angles singing.
• Speedround: Hawkes' E3 predictions -- in 30 seconds, no less.

Enjoy

Today we really don't have time to set up a full list of topics for the Humpdate. We have to get to work. Rather than making you sit around all day wondering where the hell the Humpdate went, we're posting it this morning and we'll add topics later. Roughly, Simon DI and Edie discuss Sony's huge financial losses at the hands of the PS3, Spore Creature Creator's overnight numbers, Veronica Belmot versus Jessica Chobot (how exactly do you pronounce that name?) and our predictions for E3. It's a rough week for news, as pretty much anything worth discussing is being held for two weeks, but somehow we manage to fill out the first-half of the week in news. Enjoy.

True, this GameHounds shows up on a Monday, but that doesn't mean it lacks anything from your regular show. Despite an El Nino-like drought of gaming news due to the impending E3 conference, GamerEdie Sellers and Cooper Hawkes still manage to dredge up the best the industry has to offer. And this week, at listener request, we're quieter. No more guarding your ears against the GameHounds assault! Topics and links after the jump... This week, Edie and Hawkes discuss:

• Piles of Call of Duty: World at War news. Too much to just link in one place. Edie and Hawkes discuss whether the world needs another World War II FPS. They disagree.
• Call of Duty 4 developer Infinity Ward is rumored to be working on a science fiction title.
• Forza Motorsports 3, with its rumored 400 cars and 100 tracks, may be coming out on two disks, but the core game is rumored to be on one disk, with extra stuff on the other.
• Final Fantasy XIII Versus not abandoned, Square Enix is just moving people back and forth.
• A Grand Theft Auto IV patch released to fix freezing and multiplayer problems in both consoles.
• Leaked screenshots of the new PS3 trophy system look surprisingly like gamercards.
• Listener Mail: If the rumored new avatars for Xbox Live are true, how pissed will users who purchased gamerpics be?

Enjoy.

Wednesday brings the unofficial start of the unofficial start of the weekend -- the official-unofficial start of the weekend being Thursday. How's that for figuring out something original to say about the Jan Brady of weekdays? It also, however, brings you a new Humpdate episode. Edie and Simon DI dig deep into the first half of the week's news. Despite being deep in the pre-E3 doldrums, there's a hell of a lot going on. Nothing official, but it's the unofficial stuff that gets our tongues wagging. Topics and links after the jump... This week, Simon and Edie discuss:

• Research by market survey firm Intellisponse leaked to the internet and suggests a number of game developers ideas for what may be unveiled at E3, including details about new Xbox Live avatars, Guitar Hero: World Tour's controllers, karaoke game Lips, Forza 3, and Spiderman games. Too many to talk about in one podcast.
• The rumors of lawsuits and walkouts continue with Tecmo, and if they're true, they allude to potential big worries about the game developer.
• Final Fantasy XIII Versus on hold to put more workforce behind Final Fantasy XIII.
• New PSP firmware update brings new controls for video playback and internet searches. Look -- it's the Sony iPhone!
• Your Wii may not get hard (disk drive), but it will be getting storage, according to Laurent Fischer. Who's your "geek or otaku" now, bitch?
• Spore Creature Creator can be run on older Intel Macs. You just need to tweak things a bit. The Unofficial Apple Weblog offers tips to get it running.
• Of course, having a PC doesn't make Spore CC any easier. EA having problems with its download manager that prevents some purchasers of the full game from being able to grab the game. Whups!
• Rumor has it that Heavenly Sword 2 is cancelled due to problems with Sony Cambridge. Nobody's talking, tho.
• PS3 update 2.4 will make you smile. In-game XMB support and trophies will reportedly be on tap.
• Call of Duty: World at War trailer will debut on Xbox Live this weekend. We'll all be watching very closely.
• Letters from Unreal Tournament clan SayUnkle.com. We love letters!
• Thanks to iTunes commentors z.thirteen and Jynx32! Yay team!

Enjoy

It's Sunday, and that means your weekly dose of GameHounds is ready for you. This episode you can enjoy listening to Edie lose her ever-lovin' mind as she makes it through her first podcast without benefit of Nicotine. Does she sound different? She certainly felt different. I think even Hawkes was a little scared. Topics after the jump: In this week's podcast, Edie and Hawkes discuss:

• Rumor: Microsoft to buy Sega? We think not.
• Rumor: Sony to debut a new two-hand Dualshock controller at E3. We really, really think not.
• Each act of Metal Gear Solid 4 takes two to three minutes to load. Someone explain how that's better than switching disks?!?
• Microft's Shane Kim and Phil Spencer play musical chairs. Is this the foundation for the next Xbox console?
• Warning: If you signed up for the Battlefield Heros beta via the game's forums, we hope you didn't use your Ebay password. Your security has been breeched.
• Wii Fit wins Bravo's A-List Awards, doesn't bother to send anyone to pick it up. Hilarity ensues.

Enjoy.

It's Wednesday, and that means your Humpdate is ready to server. Pop it in the oven, set heat to 350 degrees, and bake for approximately 58 minutes. Usually this is the place where we list out our topics. But it's late, and I'm high on Double Chocolate Malted Crunch ice cream and I haven't changed the sheets on the bed. In other words, this week, the show notes are taking a holiday. Let me just break it down for you: Blah, blah, blah, Metal Gear Solid 4, blah, blah, Portal 2, blah, blah, Haze (blech!), iPhone, Call of Duty, blah, blah, Xbox, Playstation 3, blah, blah, Edie will guest on the next episode of The Married Gamers Podcast (listen to it, bitches!). Yeah, that sums it up.

It's a day late, but it's not a dollar short. Oh, no. This is GameHounds, and we aren't afraid to talk about what we've played, what we think, and how much tail we got in college. Confused? Well, there's only one solution to that. Check out this week's episode, wherein we cover the regular topics in the gaming industry and a few seriously weird and tequila-infused tangents. Let's just say that Osama Bin Laden will be pissed. Topics and links after the jump.... In this week's episode, Edie and Hawkes discuss:

• Show the troops some love. Donate requested games to the Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital for injured Iraq War Veterans! Find the wishlist at Amazon or at this website. Do it now! Seriously. Do it!
• Qore announced for PS3. Are you ready to pay for your advertising? Before you pass judgement, Hawkes likes it, and Edie thinks E3 will contain -- must contain -- more information about how to make PSN more useful.
• Amazon crashes for two hours on Friday. Most mainstream news misses why: Bots trying to buy out the Metal Gear Solid 4 PS3 bundle pack.
• Rumor has it that Microsoft will announce the Blu-ray drive Xbox 360 console Monday morning at 9 a.m. Pacific time, one hour before the beginning of the Worldwide Developers Conference. Anyone for snipe hunting?
• Take Two says delay on Grand Theft Auto IV downloadable content is due to "profile balancing." Strauss Zelnick says look for it between November 1, 2008 and January 31, 2009.
• Microsoft's Robbie Bach says Xbox will make money this fiscal year. Which flavor of "make money" are we talking about?
• Rock Band 2 rumored to have a ship date of November 2008. November is shaping up pretty nicely, folks.
• Saints Row 2 looks really awesome. Who doesn't want to spray sewage on pedestrians!?!
• The Florida Bar asks that Jack Thompson be disbarred for 10 years. Hang your heads, folks. Gaming politics is about to get a lot more boring.
• As it turns out, Afrika will be a photography game with a wildlife encyclopedia. You know, despite our love of mature games, this doesn't look bad. Let's just hope we see it sometime before E3 2010.
• Telltale Games delays Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People until July. In the world of gaming, that hardly counts.
• Edie quickly reviews Aces of the Galaxy for XBLA. Not bad, if you like that kind of thing.

Enjoy.

It's Wednesday and that means a brand, spanking new Humpdate is ready to tickle your ears and caress your brain. This week we used a new feature in our recording software that actually allows us to time our topics. What? You mean the Humpdate will actually be shorter than an hour, like we promised?! Yes! Clocking in at a smidge over 45 minutes, it's just the right amount of time to hit the major topics of the first half of the gaming-news week. And, can we say, for a month that is known for being traditionally void of news, it was a wild week in gaming news. Itakagi hates Tecmo. Critics hate Konami. The ESA hates everyone! This is what happens when idle hands and minds are left with little to do in the month of June. Topics after the jump... What's on tap this episode? Well, let us tell you:

• Tecmo president Yoshimi Yasuda tells Team Ninja director Tomonobu Itagaki that, if he doesn't like it, quit or sue. Itagaki chooses both! Left in the wake: Questions about the future of Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive and where Itagaki will go.
• Entertainment Software Association names Texas governor Rick Perry as its keynote speaker for this year's E3. Revelations about Perry's ultra-conservative leanings and his feelings about mature-rated video games spark questions. Questions spark nasty remarks from the ESA -- because NOBODY QUESTIONS THE ESA!
• EGM decides to hold off printing its review of Ninja Gaiden II until after the game's released. Take that, Konami overloards... I mean "protectors."
• Metallica slated for its own Guitar Hero: World Tour game. Yay!
• Guitar Hero: Aerosmith won't allow you to use your Guitar Hero 3 DLC. Boo!
• Sony cuts a deal for in-game dynamic ads. Someone remind us exactly why games are $60?
• Thank you to K Rock XP, LeftyBrown, and Mike From the Site for leaving comments on iTunes.

Stay tuned, because more GameHounds is heading your way on Saturday with GameHounds Episode 19.

Another weekend, another fabulous episode of GameHounds. This time with 100 percent more Hawkes. First, let us apologize for the quality of the "Sing it Hawkes" segment. The ol' Interwebs kinda got overloaded with the marvelous singing and started to get a little weird, and while we tried our best to "fix it in post," the podcast gods would have none of that. It's still mighty amusing, if not perfectly recorded. This episode we rip through a host of topics in our effort to be tighter and give you more news and less ramble. Don't get us wrong: There's still a lot of classic moments, including how Grand Theft Auto is like your crazy ex-girlfriend. Yeah, needless to say, this episode is EXPLICIT! Yes, Hawkes and Edie finally cast off the bindings of propriety and get back to their old let-it-all-hang-out selves. Topics and links (which, if you're a Fable-series fan, you'll want to check out) after the jump. Topics covered in Episode 18 include:

• Alone in the Dark 2 for PS3 is delayed, but seems to be on track for its June 24 release date for Xbox 360 and PC. No news of the new date for Playstation fans.
• Ninety-minute cut scenes for Metal Gear Solid 4? Really?!? We'd like to find out more, but reviewers and critics have been embargoed from talking about such things by Konami. We have choice words for that.
• Voice of Cole Train suggests possible November 16 release date for Gears of War 2. Yeah, that's believable.
• In-game XMB for PS3 finally on its way. This is another step for Sony toward parity with Xbox 360.
• New Resident Evil 5 trailer now with less "racism." Is this a reasonable response or pandering to the lowest common denominator?
• Soul Caliber 4 will have destructable clothes! At last, more porn games!
• Endwar launches private beta. Oh wewantitwewantitwewantit baaaad!
• Call of Duty 4 map pack comes to PC for free on June 5! Good for you, PC players. Sometimes it's good to be last in line.
• Want to be immortalized in Fable 2? Send in a good photo and you could be made in-game art.
• Age of Conan beats out GTA IV sales in three European countries. My, don't we have a short attention spaa... Hey, puppies!
• Ninja Gaiden 2 demo goes live in Japan. Rumor that it hits US next week.
• Europe now a bigger gaming market than the US and close to surpassing Asia. Damn you, stumbling dollar. Daaaamn yooou!
• Wal-mart has awesome deal for PS3 40GB. But wait, you might want to hold out for the MGS4 Bundle Pack coming June 12.
• Thanks to iHomer and DaveinWI for leaving comments on iTunes! Every little comment is deeply appreciated.

Enjoy. It's the least you can do since Hawkes sang for you.

Yes, we know you were expecting a regular GameHounds episode, but forces beyond our control made Hawkes MIA. So rather than make a Hawkesless GameHounds episode, we bring you this week's Humpdate. Despite almost having lost the entire show into the putrid maw of the Internet's famous file-eating monster, we have Xbox Live Arcade news, Ubisoft news, and Metal Gear Solid 4 news, brought to you by Edie and Simon DI. But that's not all. This Humpdate is "Natalie Portman-flavored." Topics and links for you to peruse at your leisure after the jump... Edie and Simon talk about:

• Afrika is real! But what is it REALLY?
• Ubisoft's Ubidays in Paris unveils a host of new games, including Beyond Good and Evil 2.
• XBLA Delisting underperforming games.
• But look! They've upped download size to 350MB!
• Oh Oh! Look! They've also got a tool to fix that DRM problem! See? Not so bad right? Right??
• Bioshock comes to PS3 in October.
• Metal Gear Solid 4 garnering perfect scores from Euro blogs and mags.
• Super Deal: Target has 1600 MS point cards for $15.
• Ninja Gaiden II coming next week. Solid reviews note beauty, difficulty, lackluster dialogue and occasional technical glitches.

Enjoy! It certainly

It's midweek, and that means the GameHounds Humpdate comes to you direct from our temporal lobes to your tympanic membrane. This week, Edie and Simon D.I (of Cyberpunks Gaming Podcast) discuss the recent events of the gaming-news week. Topics and links after the jump...

• Penny Arcade: On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness is aaawwweesome!!
• More insight as to why Vivendi/Activision and LucasArts pulled out of E3. Seems last year's move of E3 from the LA Convention Center to Santa Monica and making the event invite-only cost the ESA $5 million in fees, necessitating the association to substantially increase its membership dues to offset the costs.
• Wii Fit launch delayed until May 21 (from May 19) due to apparent supply-chain issue.
• Banjo Kazooie isn't like the original Banjo Kazooie. And that's a good thing.
• Konami may have been the granddaddy of all music-simulation games, but its late entry into the field now dominated by Rock Band and Guitar Hero -- Rock Revolution -- seems really, really dumb.
• Free Radical's Haze really is as bad as we first thought, or so says IGN, which gave it a 4.5/10, calling it a "middling, generic first-person shooter with bland visuals, a weak plot and laughable characters."
• Metal Gear Solid Mobile comes to the... N-Gage?!?! Huh-whaaa???
• With Sony's host of new games heading to PS3's near you, community websites will abound: LittleBigPlanet, Killzone 2, SOCOM: Confrontation, Motorstorm: Pacific Rim, and Resistance 2 will all reportedly have community websites. Hopefully Sony will learn from the debaucle that is Rockstar Social Club.
• The judge presiding on the Florida Bar trial of Jack Thompson has recommended that he be found guilty of 27 out of 31 counts of misconduct.
• What's in a name? Cliff Bleszinski says he's retiring his nom de plume, CliffyB and now wants to be called by his first and last name. Will a Cliff by any other name smell as sweet?
• James Cameron said at Microsoft's Advance 08 advertising conference that the new Avatar game (based on the sci-fi movie) will be in 3D. Yes, as in you'll have to wear those goofy glasses.
• Killzone 2 delayed until February 09 due to an already-full release schedule, says Sony PR people on PlayStation Blog.
• What is Retro Gaming? We Americans frequently forget that the retro-gaming experiences of our youth were vastly different from those in Europe. For example, the ZX Spectrum, the Amstrad CPC, BBC Model B, MSX, and Atari ST. If you Americans like retro gaming and you want something different, check out the emululators. Thanks Kropotkin (of All Games' Superhappyfuntimeshow and Kropotkin's UK News) for the heads-up!
• More GTA IV Easter eggs, including:

1. Where to find purple dildoes with which to beat cops about the head and shoulders;
2. Mini-golf figurines that harken to older GTA titles.
3. How to stop your car immediately without launching yourself through the window using your camera;
4. Where to find references to Halo and Two Girls, One Cup.

Enjoy!

This week, our intrepid hosts, Edie Sellers and Cooper Hawkes, test the waters of propriety by going obscenity free! Okay, maybe not "free," but at least an effort was made and the failures were cleansed. Don't worry. This was a test and only a test. GameHounds has not sacrificed itself to the gods of the FCC, Miss Manners or any other stodgy old person. We just wanted to see if we could do it. Survey says: You fail! In this podcast, we cover news from the week in the gaming world. Topics and links after the jump... This week's topics include:

• We give away the Rockstar dufflebag and open a new contest for the Rockstar lockbox.
• We announce a new contest for Assault Heroes 2 swag (Thanks to the folks from Team FortySeven for the gear!)
• Our own Mr. Maynard makes it to the All Games Radio GTA Xbox 360 Elite finals!
• We pimp our very own t-shirts! Only $20 (more or less) through the website (more or less).
• A list of rumored new features included in the Xbox Spring Update makes the rounds of the Internet. How real do we think this list is?
• First reports of soon-to-be-released Haze are not glowing. Not one bit.
• An entire playable level of Gears of War 2 shown at Microsoft Gamers Day. Everyone who saw it seems pretty impressed.
• The gamertag "theGAYERgamer" is deemed offensive by Xbox. Changing our names to "HeteroHillbilly" right now.
• LucasArts leaves the Electronic Software Association. Sire, the publishers are revolting. You said it, they stink!
• Sony announces a real-money marketplace for upcoming titles The Agency and Free Realms. Bend over and open your wallets, kids.
• GameHounds officially declares Rockstar Social Club a broken, useless piece of... oh yeah... we're running clean, aren't we?
• Konami announces a super-special, limited-edition Metal Gear Solid 4 Playstation 3 bundle pack of what-the-hell?!?!
• Edie offers up a list of tried-and-true Easter eggs in Grand Theft Auto 4, including:

1. How to get a tugboat,
2. How to get a Statue of Happiness t-shirt,
3. Where to find Hillary Clinton in the game,
4. How to find the "Heart of the City,"
5. How to get a Tommy Vercetti outfit for Niko,
6. How to get an Evel Knievel motorcycle helmet,
7. How to find map locations of all guns, armor, freaks, cars to steal, places to go on dates, jumps, and pigeons using the in-game Internet -- without using a cheat code or affecting your ability to get achievements.

All this and more awaits you. Come. Surrender to the power of the hound!

The feedback from our forums is in. Almost without exception, you said you'd like to hear a mid-week GameHounds update, and we're not ones to argue with popular opinion. We're still figuring out the bugs and the format, but in our debut episode of the Humpdate (that's what we're calling it for lack of a better title), Edie and Simon DI of Cyberpunks Gaming Podcast hit the latest news since last regular GameHounds episode. It's a shorter, faster format that the regular GameHounds Podcast, with fewer tangents. And it's clean. Yes, you read that right: Humpdate is a clean podcast. Believe me, it was a challenge, but it's one we're willing to undertake. We really want to hear your feedback and comments on this one, so email us at Humpdate@gamehounds.net (Notice: Not the usual email address. We want to keep this special).

It's only Saturday, but lo, here through the muck and mire cometh the newest episode of GameHounds, Episode 16: My Testes Bring All the Boys to the Yard. Testes? Indeed! Since we recorded before the release of the Gears of War 2 trailer, we discuss these most precious gems and other precious nuggest of the week from the gaming-industry news. Want links? After the jump...

• Grand Theft Auto IV has broken just about every sales record imaginable. Not only the day-one and first-week records for video games, but also for any entertainment, including movies and books. Take that, Harry Potter, you sniveling twat!
• A trusty forum poster, while snooping about in the Rockstar Social Club website, came across what may be a clue about future GTA IV DLC : A photo of an airline ticket from Liberty City to San Andreas. Really? Now, that would be cool!
• Sony execs say GTA IV DLC "probably" coming to PS3. Also a tantilizing nugget of rumor.
• The Parent Television Council, attempting to drum up some opportunistic publicity, accuses GTA IV of "giving points" for drunk driving and soliciting prostitues. A reporter for the Arizona Daily Star who has actually played the game, takes on the spokesperson about these ill-informed and innacuracies. Very funny.
• EA loosens DRM on Spore and Mass Effect. What? Two weeks before Mass Effect's release you're removing code? Something tells us it was never in there in the first place.
• Stop the presses! There will be Call of Duty 5 and Doom 4! I'm shocked!
• Trailer out for up coming title Mirror's Edge. OOhhhhhOOOhhhhh... Pretty.
• Bioshock movie confirmed, with Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) at the helm, according to Variety. Let's hope it goes better than the Halo movie.
• Atari is delisted from the NASDAQ stock exchange. Everybody say awwww.
• Playstation Home is "definitely" coming this Fall, says SCEE president David Reeves. Not before Peter Moore laments how long it's taken and how it's hosing his schedule.
• Sorry, but no open beta for LittleBigPlanet, according to multiple sources at Sony.
• Two members of the House of Representatives introduce the Video Games Ratings Enforcement Act. Is it a reasonable piece of legislation or a step in the right direction. We argue.

Enjoy the lively banter. We certainly enjoyed fighting.

Another week, another great GameHounds Podcast to tickle your funnybone and delight your gaming senses. This week, Cooper Hawkes and Edie Sellers once again spar on all issues gaming. Well, not all, but a good amount of them. What got their knickers in a twist? Let us tell you:

• Hawkes and Edie get all soft and mushy about their listeners. Of course, that doesn't mean Hawkes actually received his copy of Grand Theft Auto IV. Thanks US Postal Service! You're the reason we love email.
• Win a Rockstar dubblebag. Yes, the very one that comes with the GTA IV Special Edition. A little creativity and it could all be yours.
• Two more entries (well, not entries, technically) in the All Games Radio GTA Xbox 360 Elite contest.
• Activision and Vivendi discontinue their membership with the Entertainment Software Association and then Activision immediately announces it will not be attending E3 this year. Wow. But wait, there's more.
• id Software says it's not so sure it will be attending E3, either. And then...
• NCSoft and Her Interactive also say they have to wash their hair the weekend of E3. Something is very strange afoot.
• Dan Houser, Rockstar's VP of creativity, doesn't mince words when it comes to casual gamers. He says casual gamers can all "fuck" off.
• Having problems with GTA IV freezing up on your PS3? Rockstar offers a 12-step program for fixing it. One of them is not "place your life in a higher power," but given what you have to do, maybe it should.
• For the billionth time, someone says a Bly-Ray Xbox 360 is shipping soon. Jesus, just let it go!

Enjoy.

The title says it all! Listen to Edie Sellers exclaim that her internet problems are all fixed. Marvel at her frustration as we experience technical difficulties not once but MULTIPLE times. Also listen as Edie and Cooper Hawkes discuss sex, relationships, marriage and Melissa Gilbert... hoootttt... More on topic, we cover the week in gaming news:

• Winners (yes, as in two!) of the Rocketmen: Axix of Evil code! Listener Stonecutter comes in first, and he has a choice to make: the aforementioned Rocketmen code or a copy of Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy for the Nintendo DS. Second place winner William Griffin wins what Stoncutter doesn't take.
• Hawkes makes a heartfelt apology. Yeah, we can hardly believe it too.
• GTA critics decry violence! We have a good idea: If you don't like it, don't buy it. Don't buy it for yourself. Don't buy it for your kids.
• Jack Thompson sends a letter to Straus Zelnick's mom. Gawd, this guy has shot past "sad" and into "tragically pathetic."
• Nintendo won't be cutting prices anytime soon. How do you slash prices on something we can't freaking find!?!?
• Hawkes and Edie launch into an impromptu and heated analysis of the console wars.
• Madden 2009 will add "real football intelligence" and will feature Brett Favre on the cover. Nice way to escape that Madden Curse.
• Portal 2 not coming out in 2008. No surprise there.
• Warner Brothers gives Eidos 60 million pounds, and then Eidos is rumored to have laid off its marketing, public relations and sales departments. Cost cutting or reprisals? Or just a rumor? You make the call.
• Because we just love rumor, Bioshock is rumored to be coming to the PS3 in September. Now everyone can experience of the goodness.
• We're rumor-rific tonight as Halo is rumored to be producing a new entry into the Halo universe: A third-person prequel. Is this the "completely different" thing?

All this and more await you with just a click of the button. Click it. Over and over again!

Back after a two-week break, we bring you GameHounds Episode 13: Contest-o-Rama. Why a "contest-o-rama," you ask? Well, that's because we have two -- count 'em -- TWO contests going on. This is your opportunity to win some pretty damned fabulous swag. If we weren't part of it, we would be all over this like a couple of pitbulls in a porkchop factory. What could you win? How about a code for Rocketmen: Axis of Evil, courtesy of Platform Nation. No? Then how about a limited-edition (as in only 500 made) GTA IV Xbox 360 Elite, and a whole host of other prizes, courtesy of All Games Radio and others. In addition to outlining how you can win these fabulous prizes, we launch into gaming news of the past week, including:

• Blizzard tells legendary purveyor of crap Uwe Boll to go schtup yerself.
• Xbox Live goes down Monday morning for "Spring cleaning." Is that what they call getting rid of all that leftover racial epithets and obscene mail?
• New York Times story laments how Wii owners aren't buying games. Let's face it, I guess the causal gamer is not the Holy Grail of Gaming after all.
• Developers Epic and Bethesda announce that neither Gears of War 2 nor Fallout 3, respectively, won't have demos. Hey, if they make good product, we're willing to wait.
• Metal Gear Online beta put on hold until April 25 due to massive global demand. Again, better to do it late and right than on-time and wrong.
• EA extends its buyout-acceptance deadline for Take Two and lowers its price for Take Two's stock by about a quarter per share. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Federal Trade Commission wants to know more about this fishy deal, but EA isn't talking. Oh, and Luke and Laura are lost on desert island and Cricket thinks she's pregnant with Brad's baby.
• Rockstar Social Club opens for pre-registration and cuts lose with a few tasty features of GTA IV's in-game cel-phone not otherwise noted up to this point. Just makes us want it more.
• In other GTA IV news, a Playstation 3 GTA IV bundle has been announced for Europe for 299 GBP. No such love for the Yanks.
• Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is koming to a konsole near you in Fall 2008. And k-k-k-Ken is k-k-k-koming to k-k-k-kill you (Thank you, John Cleese).
• Infinity Ward breaks all kinds of records with Call of Duty 4 and the new DLC maps. Nine million copies sold. One million downloads of the maps in nine days. I don't think even they had any idea.
• Girl buys Xbox 360. Xbox 360 breaks. Girl sends Xbox 360 back for repairs. Microsoft keeps Xbox 360 and when she pleads to send it back, Microsoft calls her a thief. This would be funny if it weren't true.
• Note to listeners: If your Xbox 360 gets RRODed and you keep it in a small, poorly ventilated area, please unplug it. Or else it could burn your house down.
• This week's game releases: Something for every platform, but nothing good. Smells like a week before GTA IV.
• From the forums: Is the Wii Wheel worth it? Why can't we get better Xbox Live friends-list organization and slots for more than 100 friends?

Don't forget to get those GTA IV Elite and Rocketmen entries in by the deadlines. And you can check the forums for more info or to ask us questions for next week's episode.

Hey you. Steve Vice!

Thanks for the comment on GameHounds Episode 11.

However, this is not our site anymore. It's just where our RSS feed goes.

If you actually want to comment where everyone else is, and where everyone else looks and reads comments on our podcasts, you need to go to the main GameHounds site.

 

We're back on our regular podcasting schedule, which means we bring you Episode 12: Gerstmann's Revenge on time and in classic GameHound form. On this week's episode, we rehash a few old topics, and some we've touched on before, and we clean up the last of the week's gaming news, including:

• According to Rob Taylor, deputy editor of Xbox World 360 magazine and the first gaming writer who's finished Grand Theft Auto IV, the game is not only as good as the hype, it's better. Drooool.
• We've been linked by (I kid you not) IHeartMorganWebb.com. Of course we had to welcome them to the GameHounds fold and let them know that we still think power-jawed Mrs. Webb is a cum dumpster.
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will be unleashed to retailers on September 16 in the US and September 19 in Europe, and with last-gen exclusives. Why are we so excited about this game? Because it looks so damn good. But we hate the idea of having to buy every iteration just to get all the exclusives.
• Playstation Home open beta promised to open "very soon," according to Sony. Does that mean sometime before next GDC?
• Josh Larson, the "suit" who fired Jeff Gerstmann from GameSpot, has been shown the door. Who would you rather be: The editor who stood up for his principles and left a corrupt site or the asshat who corrupted the site and then couldn't do well enough to keep his job? Three cheers for Gerstmann's Revenge!
• Sony discontinues the Sixaxis controller as it releases the new and "improved" DualShock 3 controller. Sony early adopters cry in their beers.
• Saints Row 2 coming to consoles on August 26. Ya think they cleaned up the bugs? Naaah, neither do we.
• New Call of Duty 4 maps hit Xbox Live. Xbox Live hits back with massive outtages, and a dubious silence from Redmond.
• Horror author Stephen King weighs in on the handwringing over video-game violence. Now we know why they pay him the big bucks. I loved your book, you magnificent son of a bitch.
• And a very special bloopers reel at the end. Figured you want to hear a little of what goes on behind the scenes before we start the show each week.

As always, remember to let your opinions be heard on our forums at PlatformNation.com. Next week, we're back to Saturday nights, so don't get all damp about this one-off. We wish we could do it more, but until this becomes a paying gig, we gotta get some work done.

Exciting week here at GameHounds central.

First, we have a multi-episode week. Not two days on the heels of the drunken debauchery of Episode 10, we bring you Episode 11: Menage a Trois.

Why name it that? Well, that's the other good news: It's a three-man (or woman) episode. Hawkes and Edie are joined by George Ettinger, an old friend of ours who made his name in the gaming underground with his brilliant Flowers for Jack.

This rather long-ish episode features some of the same topics from Episode 10, simply so Hawkes could weigh in, and a few new ones, including:
<ul>
    <li>We announce the winner of our dinosaur-sound contest, who nabbed for himself a copy of Turok. Congratulations to loyal listener Alex the Deadite.</li>
    <li>Hawkes and George get their chance to weigh in on Morgan Webb's appearance on the Tyra Banks show.</li>
    <li>Depsite the fact neither he nor anyone else in one in the UK media has apparently read the Byron Report on video games, Times of London columnist Giles Whittell sounded off about how video games are like "teenage pregnancy" and "heroin": They don't need to be understood to be hated. Lucky for us, so is ignorance.</li>
    <li>Hawkes has his own interesting theory about why Microsoft zeroed-out gamerscores of Xbox users, and it's pretty darned plausable.</li>
    <li>50 Cent II defies logic on many levels and is set for release by Vivendi. Why does the ludicrous story make us want to play it?</li>
    <li>George, having been away from the podcasting world for some time, weighs in on a host of topics, including IGN vs. Game Informer, Two Worlds for PS3 cancelled, Army of Two, Smackdown vs. Raw 2008.</li>
    <li>Listener's Corner: We answer questions about our predictions for E3, our opinions on multiplayer coming to Grand Theft Auto IV.</li>
</ul>
Bon appetite!

This episode of GameHounds, Episode 10, comes with a disclaimer. GamerEdie and her guest co-host, Elaine from 360Arcadians Podcast, start drinking at the beginning of the episode. By the end, they had both consumed a vast quantity of alcohol and become complete tards. Well, not so much Elaine, but Edie gets sloppy and starts making no sense whatsoever. When they do get on topics, here's what they slur their words about:

• Achievement: Relocked! Cheaters lose their gamerscores, no appeals!
• Morgan Webb has betrayed us and needs to fucking sufficate on her own tits.
• UK shrink issues report opining games should carry warnings like cigarettes so that parents can take better care in what games they give their children. And a Brit newspaper whores for interviews of people "turned to crime by video games." Lord, you people need to suck it hard, now.
• Sluring, rambling, more slurring.
• Rockstar announces "Rockstar Social Club" and GTA IV achievements leaked? If true, it just shows how much more awesomist this game will be.
• Another glass of wine poured. Badly.
• Prototype and Grand Tourisimo 5 will have no mulitplayer upon release. Why are you even releasing it then? How stupid do we look?
• Madden 09 will be Madden-free? Does that really matter to you?
• Head Coach 09 will be released only with the collector's edition of Madden 09? Is this really a good idea?
• Alcohol-induced amnesia and running off at the mouth commences.
• Another rum-and-Coke consumed.
• NASDAQ Stock Exchange warns Atari that it must prove its value or face delisting from the exchange. Bad news for Phil. Worse news for two drunk people trying to pronounce "NASDAQ Stock Exchange."
• Much more significant slurring of words and even less coherent rambles.

Feedback and comments appreciated. You know what to do.

Can you believe it? Two GameHounds Podcasts in one week?!?! What are you going to do with yourself?

I have an idea! How about curl up with a bowl of popcorn (or a six pack, your call) and have a listen to Edie and Hawkes' take on the week's gaming-industry news.

What news? How about this news:

• Raigan Burns and Mare Sheppard, the developers of N+, told Gamasutra that XBox Live Arcade is too full of "shit" games and needs to be cleansed.
• Microsoft wipes down personalized XBox 360, but apologizes with new replacement 360 signed by host of celebs, including Bill Gates.
• It seems that Sumner Redstone's acquistion of Midway isn't exactly a success. Actually, it smells more like a total failure.
• Analysts calls EA's claim that it's a "white knight" to save Rockstar Games "total bullshit." Actually, we prefer the phrase "complete, utter and total bullshit."
• Rock Band offers huge patch to fix lots of issues and debuts Rock Band Store, which... well.. rocks!
• In a double whammy of exclusive titles going south, Surfer Girl offers rumor that Sony is no longer funding L.A. Noire and Ubisoft backpeddles once again on PS3 exclusivity of Haze.
• Florida Supreme Court sanctions Jack Thompson and orders him to not contact the court directly again. If only it were that easy to get this guy to STFU.
• UPDATE: Electronics Boutique Canada retracts offer to refund Haze for a week after release. Yeah, we knew it was too good to be true.
• This is your last week to send in your entries for the Dinosaur contest, in which you could win a copy of Turok for the XBox 360. Tick, tick, tick. Time's running out!

All this and more is just a mouseclick away. And, by the way, the embedded Flash Player on this post now works properly.

Don't forget to give us your feedback in comments on this post or, ever better, at the GameHounds forums at PlatformNation.com.

Despite the best efforts of God, Murphy's Law and Comcast, GameHounds Episode 8: Hawkesless Tuesday is finally available for download.
As you may know, we had a rocky weekend, and thus we were unable to bring Hawkes along for the ride for this later-than-usual podcast.
Standing in for Hawkes at Edie's side this week is Thrillhouse17 of PSH Radio, another of the fine podcasts of Platform Nation.
Looks like we joined at the perfect time. Less than a week in the network and we were already whoring for fill-in hosts.
This week, Edie and Thrillhouse, who joined us from Italy discuss:

• The San Jose Mercury News blog entry that questions why Super Smash Brothers Brawl merits a teen rating from the ESRB when its "crude humor" and "cartoon violence" is no worse than any Saturday morning kids' show. We have to agree.
• Valve announces classic Atari games for Steam. We don't mean to sound like your bitchy ex-girlfriend, but what have you done for me lately?
• Army of Two is region-locked. And not gay enough!
• We'd believe China's claims they're trying to contain software piracy more if the Beijing Olympics website hadn't ripped off a bunch of flash games.
• EB Games in Canada will let you return Haze after a week's play for a full refund. Who wants to run the border for cheap used copies? Anyone?
• Minnesota cans mature video-game "tax" due to that pesky First Amendment. Stoopid amendment.
• Europe gets a host of EU-exclusive Rock Band titles. Gratz... dammit.
• ABBA drummer dies in weirdest way possible, but you cannot deny the power of the ABBA.
• Win a copy of Turok for the XBox 360! How? Well just listen
Download at all the usual places.

GO AWAY! YOU SCARE US! SHOO! SHOO!

Actually, if you're looking for GameHounds Podcast, you're looking in the wrong place.

We don't live here anymore.

We live at our new site: GameHounds.net.

This site is now dead and will soon be completely gone.

Later, ladies.

Yes, the sunflowers are ghey.

This is not the final site.

We are slaving behind the scenes, and we changed the template
to better facilitate our export of our old blogposts on this site
so that we can transfer them to the new site.

Trust me, there are no flowers on the new site.

You've been having problems with this website. I know.

And lord knows I have been having problems with it too.
You just have to read it.
Imagine me, completely inept when it comes to anything that has
to do with HTML, SQL, DNS, and
any other TLA (three-letter acronym) you can think of that
has to do with building a website.

But there is a reason it's been particularly wonky lately.

We are in the process of making a completely
and wholly different site. As in differently hosted
and actually a fully functioning website.
Just like the old days, but... working properly.

So please be patient. These changes won't affect you being able
to download the podcasts. Just, for the moment,
you'll have a little problem reading this blog.

We know you wanted longer than usual for this episode, but it was so worth the wait.

On Episode 7 of GameHounds, Hawkes and Edie pile on topics, one after another. Hey, it was a big week in gaming, so let's not dilly-dally with the window dressing. On with the show!!

Starting off, Hawkes fills us in (pun intended) on exactly what comes between him and his Calvin Kleins (Eighty's joke alert!)

Then we hit on the tip-top topics of the last week, including:We

• The passing of Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons. What can we say about this maverick that hasn't already been said. You might even call him the great-grandad of video games. We'll miss you, Gary.
• Apple announces the release of the Software Developer's Kit for the iPhone and iPod Touch and $100 million in venture capital funds for developers. Will the iPhone be the next major portable gaming console?
• Another patent surfaces for the PSPhone. No, no, a thousand times no.
• Phil Harrison finds a new home at Infogrames. Yes, that's French for Atari.
• Rockstar piddles itself in grief over bugs in Bully: Scholarship Edition for the 360. Makes you realize how they make GTA look easy.
• Rumor: Microsoft in talks with Sony to create a Bly-Ray drive for the 360. In other news, poop stinks! Film at 11.
• Rumor: Microsoft will discontinue the 20GB XBox 360 in favor of 60GB version. How do you kill that which already has no life?
• Turning Point: Fall of Liberty isn't a bad game, you see. It's because you don't know a good game. UR Stopidz Gamrz, lawl.
• New Brit controller replaces rumble with electoshock. What won't you loony Brits do!?!
• Huxley is back! Plan for it at the end of the year on PC and six months later on 360. Seriously. I'd stake your entire Christmas on it. Really. Stop laughing.
• Saints Row 2 developers apologize in advance about the bugs. The guy who wrote the musical is tuning his piano as we speak.
• We introduce a new feature: Pub Chatter. What will Hawkes and Edie be discussing with their inebriated friends?
  
  All this and more is just a mouse click away. Go ahead. Touch my monkey.
  
  

Are you waiting with excitement for GameHounds Episode 7?

Well, you'll have to wait a little to get it.

Because of Saturday's switch over to Daylight Savings Time, the editing and posting process for GameHounds this week will be shortened by one hour. While that doesn't sound like a lot, it's a precious hour of sleep for the GameHound who edits and posts the episode.

So, rather than creating a cranky Hound, we'll be posting Episode 7 early Sunday night rather than late Saturday night.

Don't worry. You'll still get all the regular amount of hilarity, you'll just have to wait a few more hours than usual to hear it.

Oh, and by the way, turn your clocks forward tonight before you go to sleep Saturday night. You'll thank me for it later.

What the hell am I doing? I'm just crazy with deals the last couple days.

C-c-c-craaaaazy with deals.

Another one that's just not bad no matter how you slice it.

SonyStyle Store is offering a fairly sweet deal on a 40 gig PS3 with a Six Axis controller (ie: the non-rumbling one) for $399.99 with free shipping. But you can work an angle to knock a C-note off the price.

At the check out screen, you're offered a Sony credit card, and if you accept, you get a $100 credit. Apply for the card, and if you're approved (which is immediate as long as you have good credit), the price of that PS3 immediately drops to $300.

You can also pull the same trick with the 80 gig PS3, knocking the $500 price to $400 delivered to your door.

That's a mighty nice deal, if you have the credit rating.

 

I'm not usually one to worry about great software deals. I mean, seriously, they're a dime a dozen.

But this one deserves a little shout out.

Right now at NewEgg.com, you can get God of War: Chains of Olympus for the PSP for $36.99 with free three-day shipping.

True, that's only a couple bucks off what you'd pay at any other store, so it's not really a screaming-cheap deal, but with the free shipping, it saves you the hassle of turning off your console, driving, parking, and walking.

All things a true GameHound will avoid if given the choice.

This week, Cooper Hawkes and GamerEdie Sellers once again ponder the latest in gaming news.

Including:

• Winner of last week's contest: FuNkYbOsS, whose expertise at constructing decidedly un-PC similies wins him a copy of Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga for the Wii!
• Lego Halo!? You're kidding! Please, tell me you're kidding. Or maybe not.
• Phil Harrison quits. Face it, Sony, I guess he just wasn't that into you.
• EA attempts to buy out Take Two. Yeaaaahhh.... riiiiight. You can do that right after you acquire Ubisoft.
• GDC attendance hits record, muses telling little guys to suck it next year.
• Headline: Men like games! Wait, no. Men and women like video games. Your tax dollars at work, my friends.
• Metal Gear Solid 4 hits stores June 12. Can you feel the love tonight?
• No demo for Grand Theft Auto IV. Does that make us suspicious? Naaah.
• Sony unveils a host of new hardware: The PS3 MGS4 Bundle pack, the Deep Red God of War PSP, and the Dualshock 3 controller, now with more rumble... Which means some rumble.
• On the heels of stupid game Major League Eating coming to Wiiware, even more stupid Homie Rollerz (note the uber-hip "z") brings you the best of racist stereotypes -- in Spanish! Little brown children everywhere rejoice.
• Got a spare old-gen console lying around? Trade it in for cash, or the nearest equivalent.
• Mass Effect coming to PC on May 6. Why did you buy that XBox anyway?
• Want a new HD-DVD add on for your X-Box? They're going cheap!

Enjoy, and remember, it's okay to make fun of Hispanic people if you do it en Espanol!

It's the Saturday after GDC and there's so much to discuss, we couldn't fit it all in one podcast.

It doesn't help that we go way off topic catching up with the GameHounds gang and making things up as we go along.

Off topic, we dish on what Edie saw at some of the GDC after-parties, what game Peter Molyneaux's 5-year-old plays, and we settle the age-old question: Does it matter of she swallows?

Let's just say, this is the most unsafe-sex episode we've ever done. We get the most out of our explicit tag this time.

More on topic, we discuss:

• The winner of last week's contest. Listener Major Malfunction is the new owner of a Canada Games Hockey Night t-shirt for his guess about the infamous "unfortunate grooming choice." His answer was wrong, but we gotta give props for style points.
• GDC Roundup, including lots of Fable 2 details, Ninja Gaiden and Spore Creatures for the DS, Street Fighter IV, Guitar Hero Moblie, the Zeemote, mind-controlled game controllers and impact vests, Fez, Crayon Physics, The Path, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, and many more.
• Dueling chainsaws in Gears of War 2? OMG! What a surprise!
• Indiana Jones Lego game won't have four-person multiplayer, only two-person. Lucas fanbois (like Hawkes) sigh relief as integrity of Indy ethos maintained.
• Jonathan Coulton isn't as good as singer as we thought! If he scores 95% on his own song, how do I have any hope of singing "Limelight"?
• Rock Band fans hack DLC file and discover huge list of yet-to-be-released titles. Do you feel ripped off by the $60 title price?

And too much more to list in one place. You'll just have to listen.

In addition, another opportunity to enjoy some GameHounds swag. We open entries to win a copy of Lego Star Wars for the Wii. How, you ask? We'll you'll just have to listen and find out.

Enjoy. We did.

This special impromtu episode of GameHounds features Edie and Joe Chagan of SPOnG just mere hours after Microsoft's keynote address at the Game Developers' Conference on Wednesday. We discuss the impact of the keynote over a tasty lunch of spring rolls and quesadillas at Tilt Arcade at the Sony Metreon in San Francisco.

We'd like to thank the folks at Ultizen, the ultimate game lab, for providing us the space at their press luncheon so that we could record these immediate thoughts on Microsoft's announcements and the food and alcohol that fueled it.

Discussed are:

• The extremely liberal expansion of XNA so that just about anyone with a good idea and the drive can make a game available on the XBox Live Marketplace for download. How will this affect the independent game developers? Will this mean that the Independent Game Developers Association will now include more console options? What wasn't said? Can Microsoft really let the reigns go and set developers free?
• Ninja Gaiden II: How did we like the look and feel of the gameplay demo? What do we think about the "save points" that allow players to save videos of their play and then allow the top players to have them available for others? What questions are we left with?
• Fable 2: Beyond being a Peter Molyneaux experience, which is all kinds of crazyfun, was the gameplay demo enough for us, considering we're supposed to see it this year? Do we think we actually will see it this year? What do we think of the Pub Games being available on XBox Live weeks before the game's release? What exactly does "multiplayer" mean? Were more questions raised than answered?
• Gears of War 2: Was the announcement of a November 2008 release date enough to merit the super treatment it received during the keynote?
• Unreal Engine improvements: How will this relate to complaints of poor support by other developers? Is it really what we wanted to see? How could this affect future games beyond GoW?
• CliffyB's grooming secrets.
• How many beers does it take to get a GameHound drunk by noon?

All this and more is contained within. Stay tuned for more off-the-cuff episodes from GDC.

Right now, I'm sitting in the press room of GDC.

Let me give you a mental image of what it was like leaving this morning's Microsoft keynote presentation.

Remember in the movie "Airplane!" when all the reporters run into the bank of payphones?

Yeah. Like that.

Bottom line: It's a very good time to be a 360 owner right now.

If you haven't already heard, MS has some big news for the next year. First and foremost, XNA is going to finally completely open up to the little people. Games will soon be easily accessible to homebrew developers like you and me, and they will be downloadable to not only the XBox, but also the Zune. All you will need is a peer-review process to give it a thumbs-up and it goes on Live to download it. Theoretically, there are four games up right now for you to download.

And no, Hawkes, there was no mention of how developers will get paid, how much MS will keep or any monitization info. That will apparently be filled in later.

Second, yes.... Ninja Gaiden II looks freaking amazing. Although I see a potential problem with it. And I will go into that in detail on my special GameHounds episode tonight. Yes. Tonight.

Third, the interwebs sometimes do not lie. Gears of War 2 coming November 2008 as an XBox exclusive. Cliffy B. said nothing else, and although there was a trailer, I really don't put much credence behind trailers. I can make a trailer of my mom's cellulite thighs and make it look good. Doesn't mean I want to play with them.

Fourth, looks like you'll be playing Fable2 a couple of weeks before the game comes out. The gambling mini-game, which allows you to increase your wealth in-game, is actually a separate XBox Live game and your coin is migrated into your Fable2 world. Peter "I Love You, You Crazy Bastard" Molyneux announced that the mini-game will be released to the XBox Live Marketplace a few weeks before Fable2 comes out, so be ready to start the game day one and find everyone is richer than you and completely tricked out in super-leet gear. Groan.

Keep yourself tuned today to GH, as I will be uploading a discussion between me and Joe Chagan of SPOnG talking about what happened this morning with Microsoft.

GameHounds may not cause cancer, but it doesn't do much for your immune system.

This week Hawkes defies all odds and drags his feverish ass to the mic for installment 3 of GameHounds Podcast.

Listen as he hucks up a New Jersey-sized loogie. Rattle with him as he coughs, gasps and gags his way through the top stories of last week, while Edie speaks on at length about Canadian national food looking like puke in a basket.

In addition to catching up with the gang, we delve into news and listener questions.

• HD-DVD officially loses the format war after WalMart pulls the plug and Toshiba gives up. The PS3 doesn't look too bad now, does it?
• Sony Magazine says PSP could come as early as February. Is that a GDC announcement, or is Sony Mag smoking crack again?
• Microsoft doesn't know who SquareTrade is. Hint: They issue your XBox 360 warranties, jackasses.
• Listener Questions: Sea Puma asks about how we deal with XBox Live harassment. Major Malfunction wonders what's the best way to deal with networks fanning the flames of video-game controversy with erroneous information.
• Shoutouts to our listeners who've been inspired by us to start their own gaming podcasts! You go!
• And... last but not least (and not last in the podcast, by the way, win yourself a Canadian Games T-Shirt with the most creative answer to Edie's question. What question? Well, you'll just have to listen to find out.

As always, you can submit your questions, your thoughts, your dreams and your bile-infused hate male to GameHounds AT gmail.com. And don't forget to check out the the GameHounds website to find out about the latest dirt Edie's dug up at GDC.

Good news, hound dogs!

 

GameHounds is officially up and running on iTunes. You can find our podcast at by clicking here.

 

If you haven't subscribed, you can easily do so now, as well as write stellar, awesome, fawning reviews of our great podcast.

 

Please, don't hold back your adulation and unyielding love for the Edie and the Hawkes. Don't be shy. Love us!

I wanted to drop you all a quick bit about GDC day one.

The first day at GDC is pretty much like the first day of Burning Man. Most of the cool stuff is half built (the booths aren't even up and equipment to show demos aren't even plugged in yet), everyone's not quite in the swing of things. There's a few events going on, but the major stuff is due later in the week.

And, most importantly, nobody really gets in the mood until the first night of heavy-duty partying.

Yesterday, until about 4 p.m., things were pretty useless. Then the first official GDC free-booze-and-food-a-thon began, courtesy of Zeemote.

Now I make it sound like all we did (and by "we" I mean me and my trusty sidekick, Joe from SPOnG) was get hammered, puke in someone's lap and wander off.

In truth, we were some of the few journos who actually hunted down the Zeemote girl to ask her about the product.

While you'd think Zeemote would make sure the actual star of the Zeemote party would be, well... the Zeemote. But, in true GDC fashion, in fact the party's grande dame was a 3-foot-tall ice sculpture with the word "Zeemote" frozen inside and a tube down the center through which one could pour drinks. The drink of the night was Zeemotinis -- a wicked concoction of rum, cranberry juice and fairy dust.

Or so I was told.

Conveniently enough, once we had a good heater on, we wandered right next door to the Microsoft Casual Games party, which had almost exactly the same hors d'oeuvres and...

... a big ice sculpture with a big "Microsoft Casual Games" frozen in the center with a tube down the center, etc., etc., etc.

THIS frozen ice sculpture, however, dispensed vodka, Red Bull, and cranberry juice.

How trendsetting!!

The night finally ended with Joe dragging me probably 75 or 80 blocks (or at least that's what it felt like after six or eight drinks) to The Cellar, a classic, shabby-chic underground dive bar, for the Telltale Games party. Of course, it was by far the coolest. Zombie themed. Disco balls. And guess what? No ice sculpture! Score one to Telltale for breaking refusing to follow the pack!

Joystiq was at the Telltale thing as well, and took a bunch of pictures for your enjoyment. None of me getting sloppy with Joe, Chad from Destructoid, and a few others of the DToid team over at the Cool Kidz Bar, as we liked to call it.

Yes, I have photos, and I'll upload them later for your amusement.

Okay, back off to the Moscone Center. More later.

Now that Hawkes and I are back "on the virtual air," as it were, we've reconnected with a lot of our old fans from the old days.

And it's amazing how many of you are now doing your own podcasts!

How awesome is that. I feel like Betsy Ross or something!

If you're a fan of the old Edie and Hawkes days and you now have your own podcast, let us know. I'd like to give shout-outs on our podcast to all the fans who listened to us and decided (wisely), "Hey, if these two jackasses can do it, anyone can!"

Don't get me wrong. There's a certain amount of "I'm not afraid to throw myself off the cliff" mentality needed to start a podcast, and I want to pay tribute to all of you who are egotistical and crazy enough to put your opinions and voices out on the interwebs.

Send us your website details, or at least where we can find your podcast, to GameHounds AT gmail.com.

Now, I'm off to GDC.

-Edie

This is why you don't start a podcast during cold and flu season.

Hawkes was all ready to record Episode 3 and then came down with that horrible flu that no one is prepared for this winter.

He's bundled up in the House of Hawkes with 103 degree fever, which goes nicely with the matching fevers his wife and son have.

I just got off the phone with him and he's kinda delirious and sounds like ass.

So we'll all just have to wait for Episode 3. On the plus side, it will contain the latest from GDC, which starts Monday.

Sorry for the delay. We'll be back as soon as we can both stand up straight.

If you listened to Episode 2, you'd have heard Edie ask: What defines Mile High Club membership?

Your thoughts? You can add them as comments on this thread or you can email them to GameHounds@gmail.com.

It finally is here!

Available for your listening pleasure and your gaming edification is GameHounds Podcast 2: The Mile High Club.

I apologize in advance for the weird hum. I didn't realize my iMic has a grounding disorder until after we recorded.

This episode was recorded Wednesday, February 13. So grab your loved one, cuddle up close, and spend your Valentine's Day warming your tootsies to the hotest gaming talk the net has to offer.

Topics tonight:

Mastiff decides to eat up the Major League Eating group. First: huh? Second: There's a group!?!?

Sony PSP sales are hot! So it seems, is the PSP itself!

So how many times have you managed to complete Mass Effect? Well you're gonna have to do it one more time for the DLC!

Bungie swears that their next game is totally different. Ok then.

While my handheld gently weeps 99 Tears.

PS3 has an install option, and PSP also has an install option. WTF?!?!

Apple changes its trademark to include gaming devices. This could either be very cool or super lame.

As always, you can email us at GameHounds AT gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions, requests, cash, checks, and money orders.

Enjoy!

Good news. Despite the best efforts of family, jobs and the streptococcus bacteria, GameHounds Episode 2 is recorded!

Editing and posting on Thursday, so keep your iPods tuned to this station.

If you want to get immediate notice when podcasts get posed, start following the GameHounds Twitter (name: GameHounds). The minute it's up and live, we'll post to Twitter.

You can also add Edie and Hawkes. Edie's Twitter name is GamerEdie and Hawkes' is CooperHawkes. Add all three and you'll be sure to find out when podcasts go up and what's going on with both your favorite hosts.

As you know, Edie will be at GDC next week.

And therefore, your chance to get personalized retrieval of gaming-industry information is nigh.

What information would you like to have her hunt down? Who would you like to have interviewed? What questions do you want answered?

You can post your requests in the comments section here, or you can email us directly at GameHounds@gmail.com.

Yes, you have all been asking about GameHounds Episode Two.

As we are.

Here's what's going on: First, Hawkes had some life stuff that came up. You all know that's the nature of being real people. Life stuff comes up.

Next, Edie came down with a wicked not-strep-throat-but-still-ugly tonsilitis thing. Trust me, it tastes and smells as good as it sounds.

So with one host trying to keep a boss, child and wife at bay, and the other talking like she gargled a broken Coke bottle, we put off recording until Thursday.

On the plus side, you'll have a double-dose of GameHounds in the next week. Edie will be attending GDC to find out the latest on your favorite titles, so you'll have a lot to listen to in the next few days.

If you really can't wait to hear the dulcet tones of GameHounds, you can check out the latest episode of Artificial Intelegents, wherein Edie joined the AI crew for a night of hilarity. Okay, maybe not hilarity, but it was pretty funny.

Trust me, it's a "I'm your father" moment.

Tonight is Saturday.

Thus: Tonight is recording night.

Yes, episode two is about to explode into your ears!

The problem is that we know what we want to talk about, but what do you want to hear?

Got any questions for Edie or Hawkes? We will answer just about anything you ask, although let us take care of a few obvious ones right now:

1. Briefs
2. Betty... totally Betty. Wilma was a ho.
3. 16, in the backseat of a 1980 Toyota Corolla.
4. Only once, but Hawkes said he thought it was a girl.

So there you go. Any other topics/questions you want from us? Emails us at Gamehounds@gmail.com.

Good news!

GameHounds.net is up and working properly, so you can just plug that URL into your Googlometer and you'll be right here.

Next big step: Being live on iTunes. Theoretically, that's coming, and when it does, we'll let you know so you can subscribe.

As always, anyone who has thoughts, ideas and suggestions for the new podcast, let us know by emailing us at GameHounds@gmail.com

Until our next cast...

GameHound OUT!

Hey all.

So it's 24 hours since we posted our first podcast, and it's fantastic how so many of our old listeners are sending us emails.

To keep you updated, here's where we are at the moment: We are waiting for our website URL to propagate through the internet, but when it does, we'll be found at GameHounds.net. NOTE: It's a DOT NET, not a dot com.

Also, we'll be redesigning this page very soon so it doesn't look like ass.

Third, and in response to some questions, our GameHounds theme music (sans the GameHound howls) is "Purple Girlfriend" by The Goldstars, a band I just recently found on the The Podsafe Music Network. You can download the song from the network or you can visit the Goldstars' site directly.

Finally, if you want to get ahold of either Hawkes or me, or if you have an comments, input or suggestions for topics, guests or overall general improvements, you can email us at GameHounds@gmail.com.

Expect Episode Two records Saturday night and should be up on Sunday or Monday next week, depending on how Ubercaster is treating us.

Good to be back!

Edie

In this debut episode of Gamehounds, Edie Sellers and Cooper Hawkes (formerly of GamerAndy Live!) catch you up on where they've been in the last few months. Of course, they also discuss the latest in video-gaming news, including:

- Microsoft offers $44 billion for Yahoo! If they have that much money to burn, how about showing your favorite podcasters some love?

- Jim Ward, president of LucasArts goes "poof!" Did he get fired? Did he leave? Is he the new editor at GameSpot?

- Rock Band coming to the Wii! How did we know? Because the new stand-alone microphone is Wii compatable... oh wait... no it's not!

- GamePro tests console controller battery life. Guess who wins? Clue: When was the last time you changed your battery on your 360 controller? Answer: Well, it would have been a hell of a lot sooner if you had a PS3.

- Microsoft discontinues cheaper price for Rock Band indy DLC tracks. Is someone unclear on the idea of the purpose of indy songs on Rock Band?