1up.com - 1up Radio

Gamescom news leads this week's show, as Ray, Matt, and Justin jet through the expo's various announcements, including Microsoft's new PC games, Ratchet and Clank, Resistance 3, Virtua Tennis, and more, plus the heap of release dates for the next few months (Portal 2! Donkey Kong!), the weird new Atlus game Catherine, and at the end of it all, a good old-fashioned guessing game.

Sharkey is back from his vacation, but Sam is off in Germany. Matt sits in and is kind of an old grump about it all while we talk about Italians threatening to kneecap Mafia II for sterotyping them, play Icarus Proudbottom and the Curse of the Chocolate Fountain, and take questions, and chatter about what games we've had stolen from us. Also, some guy in Malawi claims to have grown lady parts but we're more blown away that Tina has apparently been reading Perez Hilton.

Mike, Travis, and Jade lay roses on Alan's chair before soldiering on to discuss Retro City Rampage and Batman Arkham City. A listener phone call breaks down into a discussion about mouth-made robot sounds and Canadian candy and The IT Crowd share time in Final Notes. Mike Nelson stops by in the after-segment to talk a little about his visit to Quakecon.

Ray's back, but the formalties are short as we jump right into the news, starting with, of course, BioShock Infinite! Then it's on to the *really* big news, you know, like Billy Mitchell reclaiming his top spots on Donkey Kong, the reveal of Double Fine's Costume Quest, the possible revival of Duke Nukem Forever, the alleged PSP phone, and the wacky toys Activision is packing in with Call of Duty. After all that, at1UP's Mike Cruz and Alan Johnson join in at the end and give us their own BioShock wish list.

It's August, which is when the first of the big holiday releases traditionally begin to arrive. Kat, Thierry, Ray and Alice parse the rest of the year's releases so you don't have to, featuring discussion of everything from World of WarCraft: Cataclysm to Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes of Light. Also discussed is Tim Schafer's new RPG, the surprise Torchlight II announcement and whether or not the world is ready for more EverQuest. Super bonus: The bass is back!

Classic Gaming Expo and Scott Pilgrim provide grist for the retrogaming love mill. Jeremy Parish and Chris Kohler rap with Alice Liang and Alan Johnson. (Disclaimer: This episode contains no rap music, and definitely not a Kohler/Parish rap battle.)

Sex! We "tee hee" a lot when it comes up. On this week's OddNews, we talk about Ratchet and Clank, Blizzard removing inappropriate maps in StarCraft II, and Activision making a move on hindering used game sales. Recession gaming involves the shooter in your pants, a.k.a. Privates. And we tangent off into a talk about cyber sex in World of Warcraft. With Scott Sharkey gone this week, we fill his place with another Scott from the office.

It's Alan's last show before he heads off to the world of community managing at Telltalle Games. We discuss what it's going to take to fill his shoes and his recent review of Madden NFL 11. The crew take some listener calls and then have a follow-up discussion about last week's StarCraft Movie Pitch. In Final Notes, Batman and Jackie Brown.

Ray's still out, so Mike is back back on hosting duties. This week, Frank, Matt, and Mike are joined by Karl Stewart, Global Brand Manager at Crystal Dynamics (Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light). Gaming news is discussed and then the guys grill Karl a little bit about Lara Croft, and why Adam West isn't in Batman: Arkham Asylum.

The whole crew is reunited after a short absence from Chris. Battlefield 3 is announced in a shitty way, the Gears of War movie adaptation is delayed, the Crayon Physics guy has another food game, and we talk about our Games to Play Before You Die feature. And we close off with our q and a segment.

Win Mike's Xbox 360S! Well, it may be Mike's, but you can win one nontheless! Head to the 1UP homepage for details. Meanwhile, on the show, the crew go Grimlock on a caller, talk about free games, pitch a StarCraft movie, and chat about the Classic Gaming Expo.

It's the Sound Test's first Jazz Show. Join host Ray Barnholt on a trip through the smoother side of game music, from arrangementss of classic games like Rolling Thunder and Phoenix Wright, to original selections from SimCity, Napple Tale, and much more. More than in a usual episode, in fact.

Ray Barnholt has gone fishin', so manager Matt Leone has decided to call Mike Cruz out of the bullpen to man the mound. Frank Cifaldi leads off with a wrap-up of his Comic-Con adventures, Justin Haywald argues with the ump about What Games to Play Before You Die, and the whole team gets together in the dugout to talk about the news of the week. And what does this episode have to do with baseball? Absolutely nothing.

Having dissected Dragon Quest IX over the course of multiple episodes, Kat, Jeremy, Justin and Jade offer their final thoughts on the franchise's latest entry. Our heroes also cover the recently announced Tactics Ogre remake, and Scooter drops in to discuss the newly-revealed Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and Darkspore. Can Maxis make a Diablo-style RPG? Can a retired baseball player make an RPG? We'll find out!

Things fall apart quickly as Travis gets pulled away by corporate fat cats before the show starts and audio difficulties hinder the first few minutes of the show. But things quickly get back up to speed with talk of Starcraft II, Comic-Con, and Inception. Travis even manages to come back into the studio for some zombie discussion.

Matt subs in for Chris this week as we rap about women apparently spending more than guys on imaginary videogame items, the awesome freebie game Alien Swarm, the Medal of Honor beta is fun, and we hate on the eleven states that support the California anti-videogame law. Also, more calls calls calls, calls from the public.

It's a healthy week of news roundups as Ray, Matt, Justin and Scooter go over EA's summer press event, including their announcements of Darkspore, Kingdoms of Amalur, and yes, even EA Sports Active NFL Training Camp. We also go over PC game sales ever so slightly becoming more digital, the probably-sure-bet of a Capcom Vs. Namco game, Guitar Hero getting excessive, and more stories, plus some of your comments.

Recent releases and old favorites on this episode of the Sound Test. Dragon Quest IX headlines, some of the nicer bits from Assassin's Creed II, stepping back in time slightly with Killer7, Sonic CD, and more.

Parish, Barnholt, Cifaldi, and Kohler look back at the halcyon days of June 2010 by recapping the classic franchises that received a renewal at E3. Tech issues and lost recordings can't keep this crew from jawing on at length about old games, nosirree.

It's a healthy mix of good and bad in this week's news roundup, with stories on cancellations, layoffs, people being called pricks, Double Fine's new projects, and obese hedgehogs. InstantAction CEO Louis Castle joins Ray, Matt, and Frank in discussing this week's topics, and his company's cloud gaming platform.