Past guest host Mike (Episode 11 - E3 2016) returns to help cover for the absence of Tony. Not that Dennis couldn't monologue his way through, there's just the question of alienating all the listeners. As such, despite the madness Tony's absence entails, Episode 17 actually follows the typical structure with all three gaming categories represented.

Pinball: This segment starts with a brief mention of the clearcoat (aka "ghosting") issues that have been ongoing on several Stern Pinball machines. The bulk of the pinball talk is about Stern's announced Batman 66 game, their first pin to replace the DMD with LCD.

Video Games: Thanks to a free-to-play weekend, Mike and Dennis are able to touch on last episode's big video game talk: Overwatch. Outside of this, Mike and Dennis put time into two pre-release iterations of a couple upcoming major shooters. The first such discussion is regarding Titanfall 2 and its technical test. The second, more significant, discussion revolves around the Battlefield 1 beta.

Tabletop: Pandemic, a cooperative board game, has been mentioned several times on past episodes. Tony, however, has always prevented the full truth from being exposed. Mike and Dennis pull back the veil on one of the most devious tabletop games ever designed, and explain why it blows chunks.

Links:

EGP T-shirt Contest: https://goo.gl/forms/ikFV9qLBYzXVck7F2

Coast 2 Coast Pinball, Episode 229: http://www.podcastgarden.com/episode/episode-229_86459

Pandemic: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30549/pandemic