We have an… interesting opening this week.  Once the shenanigans are over, Sam talks about his early disappointment with Fallout: New Vegas.  He’s also been playing Fable 3, and three hours in, he’s got some… issues, but he’s happy with it overall.

Jonathan’s trying to make use of his GameFly subscription, and is playing ModNation Racers.  When it’s not dragging you around by the nose, it’s not too bad.  When it is, Jonathan’s blood pressure skyrockets.  Also, the Aztecs continue to be broken in the iPhone version of Civ Rev.  Also, Jonathan’s in the Spooky Outhouse Starcraft 2 Tournament!  At least he was at the time of recording.  Spoilers!  At the time of release, he’s no longer in the tournament.  If you’re interested, you can watch the massacre here and here.

Alex finds something to like in Halo: Reach.  Despite that, though, he’s loving MLB 2k10.  Game of the year contender?  He’s also playing Fable 2 Episodes, but thinks he’s just playing Fable 2.  Finally, on the DS, he’s been playing Master of the Monster Lair.  A comparison to Minecraft is made, but Jonathan isn’t the one that made it.

No wait, that wasn’t his last game.  Alex also played (and reviewed) Arcania: Gothic 4.

Oh, and Pinball FX 2.

Now!  Headlines!

• Champions Online goes free to play next year
• Minecraft server slammed by DDoS initiated by whining players.
• Activision playing ‘good cop’ with Call of Duty: Black Ops pirates
• Jailbreaking your phone is officially legal. Jailbreaking your 360 can get you three years in the slammer.

And this week, we introduce a new game: Wingman!  Sam presents us with a sordid tale, and we present him with video game characters that can save him from his predicament.  Hope you enjoy it!

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We’ve got a special episode this week, but first! Games!

Alex has confirmed once again that he hates the Madden series, and he’s found a new game to hate in Guilty Gear 2.  Halo: Reach is just another Halo game so far, but Resonance of Fate hits every one of Alex’s happy buttons.

Jonathan’s got bupkis.

Sam’s intrigued by Quantum Theory, but not entirely sold.  Fallout: New Vegas, Arkham Asylum, Dead Space, Red Dead Redemption and others occupy his “To Be Played” shelf.  (We won’t mention how many games are on Jonathan’s TBP shelf.)

Then, it’s our special feature.  We’ve talked a couple of times about Ex Illis, a miniature war game with an interesting take on rules management.  We invited Fred Forrest onto the podcast.  He’s the President and Creative Director of Bastion Studio, and we got some good info about the inspiration for the game, the reasons for the choices they’ve made, and where the game is going.

After the interview, we play round three of Name That Game!  Sam hosts this time, giving Alex and Jonathan a chance to catch up to his massive leads.  Before this episode, the score stood at Jonathan, 0; Alex, 3; and Sam 4.5.  Can Alex overtake Sam?  Or will Jonathan lay the smack down?  You’ll have to listen to find out!

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Look at this!  A show posted on time!  I told you I’d get my act together.

Before we get into this episode’s headlines, we take a moment to talk about the games we’ve been playing.  Jonathan picked up Halo: Reach.  He’s neither disappointed nor thrilled with it.  It’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a Halo game.  He also played a little bit of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, and was really not impressed.

Alex talks about R.U.S.E., and no one is surprised.  :-)  Also on the list is Alan Wake, but Jonathan cruelly steps in and quashes that topic in favor of saving some suspense for the Three-Way Review that all the guys ought to be recording soonish.

Sam shares some thoughts on Alan Wake (which were quashed as well), Halo: Reach, and Plants vs. Zombies.

Then it’s into the headlines!

• DOW2 Retribution Ditches Games For Windows For Steamworks
• Tokyo Game Show!
  • Steel Battalion goes from hundreds of buttons to no buttons
  • Project Draco: We know nothing. Alex is intrigued. Jonathan predicts massive disappointment.
  • Ico and Shadow of the Colossus HD: I’ll be in my bunk.
  • A new trailer for The Last Guardian: More bunk time.
  • THE BIGGEST GAME OF TGS!
• APB bites the dust.
• Good Old Games’ shenanigans.

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You’ve heard of commentary podcasts.  You’ve read tech conference liveblogs.  We at the Way of the Game has mushed them together to create a commentary track for Microsoft’s 2010 E3 Press Conference!

You’re going to want to pull up the press conference video for this one, folks, otherwise it could be really boring in spots.  We used the official feed from Microsoft (which has been redirected to GameTrailers.com), and started the video at 31:30.  We also provide a bit of description of what we’re watching as we’re watching it, so if you get your feed from somewhere else, you’ll hopefully be able to sync up with us.

Let us know what you think of the press conference, our comments, or the commentary experiment in general in the comments below or our forums!  And be sure to join us tomorrow when we give Nintendo and Sony the same treatment, hopefully in quicker order.

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