I’m proud to welcome our friend Chris Baker from Marvel to talk about how he helps keep all the Marvel games (including next week’s Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions of course) to be worthy of the world’s greatest superheroes — but Hugh and I almost steal the show with a heated debate about the price and value of Xbox Live. We also bring up PAX, the big COD Black Ops multiplayer event going down tonight, remind you of ways to win awesome DJ Hero 2 prizes, and we do the trivia giveaway backwards. Also, in-between swearing an unusually high amount, Hugh sings a little bit — listen for it. Maybe I should have bleeped that.

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Co-host: Hugh Sterbakov, screenwriter, comic creator, and Emmy-nominated writer/toy wrangler for Robot Chicken

Special Guest: Chris Baker, Manager of Licensed Games for Marvel Entertainment

Soundtrack: Yameen – available on iTunes, Amazon MP3, and all online music stores

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Due to technical difficulties, this show is totally different than the one planned — it’s all Hugh and Dan babbling to each other and answering reader mail. That means we cover a lot of ground: epic recording fails, “Informer” by Snow, old radio promotion scams, Dan’s PAX plans, Hugh’s plans not to attend PAX, game show addictions, Canadian pronunciations, Twinkie milkshakes vs. Butterbeer, Hugh’s Knobs (not “Hugh Snobs”) and more bad impressions. Also, we finally answer the question, “What does Stan Lee smell like?”

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More info after the jump…

Co-host: Hugh Sterbakov, screenwriter, comic creator, and Emmy-nominated writer/toy wrangler for Robot Chicken

Soundtrack: Yameen – available on iTunes, Amazon MP3, and all online music stores

Relevant show links:

Far too much a capella singing from Dan on this week’s show — blame it on the full tracklist reveal for GH: Warriors of Rock. More interesting is the interview with Dan O’Leary, founder of n-Space — the developers who bring huge franchises like Call of Duty and James Bond to tiny handheld systems like the Nintendo DS. Kat and I also talk about the fancy collector editions of both COD: Black Ops and WoW: Cataclysm, Kat getting rude messages on Live, tales from Dan’s sleep-deprived radio days, and this week’s double-shot of GamesRadar-infused Playing With Swords events. Also, prepare for the worst Star Wars pun you’ve heard in a while.

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Co-host: Katrin Auch, light gun enthusiast, graphic designer, bassist, photographer, videographer, and inventor of Headshotmas

Special Guest: Dan O’Leary, co-founder and president of n-Space

Soundtrack: Yameen – available on iTunes, Amazon MP3, and all online music stores

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Tony Hawk: Shred is official — and I am proud to say I have the first on-the-record interview with Josh Tsui, president of the game’s developer, Robomodo. Josh discusses what the team learned from Ride, why math is good, and reveals the mysterious “Robodamus” initiative. Meanwhile, Hugh and I babble about Blur, missed contest opportunities, James Bond, Hugh’s bad retail experiences, Canadian pop-punk, the new design of the 360, and…well, that’s it, actually. Let’s not over-promise.

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More info after the jump…

Co-host: Hugh Sterbakov, screenwriter, comic creator, and Emmy-nominated writer/toy wrangler for Robot Chicken

Special Guest: Josh Tsui, president of Tony Hawk: Shred developer Robomodo

Soundtrack: Yameen – available on iTunes, Amazon MP3, and all online music stores

Relevant show links:

Couchcasting

Due to an embargo on some of the information I’m discussing on this week’s show — and I have a cool guest to join me in that discussion — the podcast won’t post on Thursday as usual, but Friday instead. Do not panic. This is the yin/yang bit from me posting the shows a little early in previous weeks. However, if you want to get your mid-week podcast fix, I appeared on two other podcasts as a guest recently, and they’re both online now.

Episode 31 of the Starpower Podcast was posted late yesterday, so if you’re a music game fan, there’s…wow, there’s a lot of discussion in there, everything from GH: WoR and RB3 to Green Day, casino tournaments, and ice cream trucks. I was not able to stay for the whole show but I don’t know how they managed to edit it down to under two hours.

I also had a great discussion with Chris on episode 72 of Everyday Gamers about…just about everything. Criticism of Activision, how FPS games have evolved, used games and EA’s Online Pass, what Valve’s doing right, and how people simply have to accept the reality of a free-to-play multiplayer future for COD. Also, I think I meant Orson Welles and said H.G. Wells, but you’ll know why I mixed it up if you listen.

We cornered Beenox’s Thomas Wilson at the San Diego Comic-con and got him to explain not only what’s new with Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, but also what the hell he was doing in my E3 video. Then it’s on to Soundgarden’s bold move, Kmart’s bolder moves, DJ Hero’s outrageous price drops, Spider-Man’s mechanics, MW2′s unusual demo, Guitar Hero’s DLC, Dan’s overloaded friends list, Sierra’s classic library, and Kat’s favorite…scanner? Plus, Kat uses the term “crotchburner” and it’s actually in context!

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More info after the jump…

Co-host: Katrin Auch, light gun enthusiast, graphic designer, bassist, photographer, videographer, and inventor of Headshotmas

Special Guest: Beenox‘s Thomas Wilson, creative director of Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions

Soundtrack: Yameen – available on iTunes, Amazon MP3, and all online music stores

Relevant show links:

I insinuated myself on several podcasts this week. If for some reason you want to hear more of me talking and talking and TALKING, here are some options.

First up is Episode 14 of the Community Voice Podcast, which asked me to come on for 20 minutes so I talked almost non-stop for 90. Apologies to Del and Phil Osyfee as well as the community members who submitted questions — but hey, you wouldn’t ask Michael Jordan to stop dunking or Eric Clapton to stop soloing. When it comes to talking, particularly about myself, I am all-pro. But we did cover a lot of ground, and I offered them a legitimate Palette-Swap Ninja exclusive news nugget.

Next there’s TalkRadar 112, which was a happy accident in that I was in San Francisco for one day and that day happened to be the one on which they were recording TalkRadar. I got briefly grilled on Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, and I finally tell the truth about who did what at California Extreme two weeks back.

Last but certainly not least, I jumped on with the gang at Starpower Podcast (the official podcast of ScoreHero.com) to talk just about music games. It was a lengthy discussion that involved Green Day Rock Band, the setlist from Warriors of Rock, and some little-known facts about ice cream trucks. I had to leave before it was over but I put in about an hour and a half before I went. I believe the show will be posted next week, so keep an ear out.

Transformers: War for Cybertron has been out for about a month now, and reviews were good. Mad props  to the gang at High Moon Studios for bringing a lot of respect and fan love to the project; they made an enjoyable, quality game for both diehard and casual fans.

The design team was led by Matt Tieger, an avowed Decepticon fan who you may remember from an epic podcast interview on episode 010. I have somehow lured him back to appear on the show next week, and this time, you get to ask the questions. You’ve played the game; what would you like to ask the development team about what you experienced? Matt says he’s game to tackle your queries. Make the most of this opportunity and ask a thoughtful, answerable question that can’t be answered with “yes” or “no.” That’s my only advice — the rest is up to you. And yes, I will ask him about DLC.

Get your questions into my email box by Monday the 26th and I’ll pick the best ones to ask him on episode 027 next week.

UPDATE 7/27: Matt answered every question I threw at him, including the ones in the comments that were phrased, let’s say, in an impolite manner. I cleaned up the presentation before I asked them, and I am happy to say the show with the Q&A will be posted tomorrow morning.

If I sound weary this week, it’s because I didn’t get a lot of sleep — but I did get a lot of questions about whether or not COD was going to start charging for multiplayer. (It’s not.) More entertaining topics that Kat and I tackle on this show include Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions at Comic-Con, classic arcade games, radical pricing plans, Disturbed, the last word in MUA2 DLC, bad gaming laws, Kinect’s worth, Kat’s sexy voice, the winner of the super-rare Zune, and a secret video project is revealed “shocksclusively.”

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Or use the links below to listen in the browser or download direct.

More info after the jump…

Co-host: Katrin Auch, light gun enthusiast, graphic designer, bassist, photographer, videographer, and inventor of Headshotmas

Soundtrack: Yameen – available on iTunes, Amazon MP3, and all online music stores

Relevant show links: