8-4 Play

With John out on a super secret mission, a super secret special guest...from cheapassgamer.com joins us to talk about the INCREDIBLE 3DS XL, Fez Patches, Vita sales, Foos Balls, New Super Mario Bros. 2, FF XIII, Nyuta No Kiseki, and more.

With Mark away soaking up the rays of freedom, we asked friends of the show Alex "cvxfreak" Aniel and Rob "star" Fox to join us to talk about EVO 2012, Spelunky, DYAD, the Resident Evil 6 demo (and cafe), Time Travelers, Penny Arcade Rain-Slick 3, Ouya, Gaikai, Blooblah, Hodfarg and more.

Come for the talk about 3DS XL, Xbox 720, Lollipop Chainsaw, Tokyo Jungle, Persona 4: The Golden and more -- stay for a deep, deep dive into the minds behind Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP on the eve of its Japanese release (being handled by...hey, whattaya know?! 8-4!)

A massive, 3-hour E3 recap lovefest, where we have nothing but great things to say about the amazing press conferences, creative and fresh AAA games, awesome Vita support, stunning WiiU launch lineup, and every other wonderful-funderful thing about gaming's greatest trade show ever! <3<3<3

Ex-Capcom producer Ben Judd joins the 8-4 crew aboard the E3 Hype Train, fueled not by Dew, but by wild thoughts and oddly-specific predictions (some already proven wrong!) on what we'll see from Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and all the major third-parties at the big show this week, plus impressions of Sonic 4: Ep II, Dragons' Dogma, and news..

The 8-4 gang goes all Project Icebreaker on Camouflaj's Ryan Payton to dig up the dirt on Kickstarter, Republique and the 8-4 bump, Diablo 3, Soul Sacrifice, Capcom's DLC woes, the appeal of DOTA2, the rise and fall of the “Comp Gatcha”, E.X. (or ex-?) Troopers, Devil's Third, and bacon-loving twitter bots.

17-Bit's Jake Kazdal joins us to talk Phantasy Star Online 2, Shinji Mikami's return to survival horror, Dragon's Dogma, Dragon's Crown, Dragon's Dragon, Tokyo Jungle, Soul Sacrifice, yay or nay on CoD: Black Ops 2, and what it’s like to start and run your own indie game studio.

Imported from the exotic orient (no region lock): Talk about Fire Emblem: Awakening, Dark Souls PC, Fez, Wii U cost and price, Valve and Apple, and a new Ocarina of Time world record.

We offer the following rewards to people who help listen to our podcast: PLEDGE 20 MINUTES OR MORE: Talk about creating characters in Phantasy Star Online 2, more Kid Icarus and Lumines, and the WiiU's (supposed) capabilities 40 MINUTES: Kickstarter game projects, good and bad 60 MINUTES: Notch's ambitious sci-fi crazy-name game, 0x10c 70 MINUTES: Sega's money problems and retro re-releases, Vita updates, and bronze-colored finger puppets of the cast.* (*Actually, no.)

With Gaming Jesus bedridden from an evil GDC pox and both JJ and Hiroko fighting off the flu, we thought about taking the week off. But then, like an angel from Heaven above, our intern showed up at the door with three pre-release copies of Kid Icarus: Uprising, and all the pain and suffering went away. Listen to a half hour's worth of spoiler-free discussion on the 3DS's first major release of 2012, along with follow-up thoughts on Journey (also spoiler-free!), quick impressions of PixelJunk 4AM and Lollipop Chainsaw, some scattershot news and GDC thoughts, and more talk from Hiroko than you've heard in the last 10 episodes combined.