As the year heads towards its end, it can only mean one thing: The annual splurge of awards shows and self-congratulatory press conferences continue and are going strong.

In this last week, we’ve had the latest Geoff Keighley wank-a-thon award show. Whilst hosts John Miller and Andrew Brooker are skipping out on the awards, “who won what” and “what missed out”, it is one of the best places outside of the gaming conventions to get an announcement or two and a few new trailers. This is where the lads are spending their time today.

Talking of gaming conventions, Sony’s first party touch-fest, “The Playstation Experience” gave us an hour long list of trailers, announcements and general silliness that the boys get into as well.

In what is likely to be a semi-regular occurrence, the guys have turned their video game podcast into a news broadcast. They get everything off their chests from the last few days, covering both shows and their opinions on just about everything. Is Brooker likely to play The Last Guardian? What’s his issue with Duke Nukem? And does John really not like Japanese people?

Join us next time for our end of year special (so our hosts can get their best and worst games of the year out in the open).

No sooner have hosts John Miller and Andrew Brooker dusted themselves off from their mammoth Call of Duty special than they return for the third week in a row with a new episode.

As Christmas approaches and everyone starts to do their “Best of 2016” lists – ours will be here in a few weeks – it must mean that the first game awards show of the season is upon us. As much as Brooker protests that he hates game awards, the pair manage to fumble their way through some of the more prominent awards from last week’s Golden Joysticks.

In an unusual turn, December’s Games for Gold makes the news this week as the lads gush over the freebies we get over the festive season. John tries to convince Brooker of the virtues of Motorsport Manager this week, while Brooker confesses his undying love for left-to-die shooter, Titanfall 2 in this episodes What We’ve Been Playing.

The guys also find time to chat about Watch Dogs 2, another sequel that surpasses its original. Rounding things off is a back and forth with the boys discussing stealth games, both good and bad, as John lets his inner pyromaniac out and Brooker makes a confession that ruins all his credibility as a gamer!

Come join us in a fortnight for more shambolic nonsense as Character Unlock talks episodic gaming.

Our health is regenerated and our load outs reset – that must mean that your Character Unlock hosts are back and ready for more Call of Duty shenanigans.

John and Brooker return to finish off their retrospective of the legendary shooter series that may, or may not, be on the downward spiral for this half of the franchise’s history before digging into Infinite Warfare, the latest instalment to divide the community.

The lads talk all things story, before touching on the game’s multiplayer and, with the help of their audience, finally musing on what Call of a Duty need to do to keep its status as the granddaddy of all shooters going forward.

Recommendations for the week and community shoutouts round of this marathon two-parter that all but killed its hosts.

Join us next week for a quieter, more ninja Lila instalment as the boys talk stealth games in honour of the recently released Dishonoured 2.

As the annual season of game release insanity comes to a head this week with the release of the latest instalment in Activision’s behemoth shooter franchise, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, it seems only fitting to spend some time talking about the series that has revolutionised the gaming industry time and time again.

Hosts John Miller and Andrew Brooker dive into this almighty series, they are offered a momentary distraction as they find some time to talk about that one day a year that gets RPG fans salivating, November 7th, more affectionately called “N7 Day” in those parts of the Internet that only some dare enter.

As John picks apart the news on the latest Mass Effect, Brooker’s eyes glaze over, barely understanding a word and just nodding politely before the pair sink their teeth into the meat of this episode.

Digging into the early games in the Call of Duty franchise and ploughing through to arguably the games that changed the world, the lads call it a day somewhere around game six and find cover to let their health recover. Join them for part two of this mammoth undertaking next week.

As the nights draw in and the temperature drops, as the sweet cupboard fills up and the pumpkins are carved, it can only mean one thing… Halloween is just around the corner.

What better way to celebrate than giving knocking on people doors and stealing lollipops from small children a miss for a night and spending a bit of time comparing our favourite (and least favourite) scary games? John “The Madman” Miller and Andrew “Axe Murderer” Brooker are joined by their first guest, The X-Cast host and podcast veteran “Spooky” Tony Black (who managed to leave the podcast this week with an enormous list of must-play games). Together, the trio take on the first week of decent news since Character Unlock began and dig into what they’ve been playing since we last heard from them.

Our latest episode tackles the new Nintendo Switch announcement as the guys ponder the future of the console maker and try to decide whether or not their new console is worth spending money on. We talk about Red Dead Redemption 2, the game guaranteed to be the biggest release of whatever year it gets delayed to. And super fans Tony and Brooker forget they’re not on a film podcast and dissect the latest Assassin’s Creed movie trailer.

A plethora of newer releases get the What We’ve Been Playing treatment as Battlefield 1, No Man’s Sky and Gears of War 4 are all analysed within an inch of their lives as John falls in love with the World War 1 shooter, Tony gushes over futuristic management game and Brooker loves, but gets really angry, over the latest in the Gears franchise.

As the boys go through their good and bad horror game lists, it becomes apparent that they all needed to expand their scary game horizons a little bit and needed advice from listeners and followers to get a feel for what games they need to be playing – or hiding from.

Join us in a couple of weeks when our hosts ignore everything else and hope to still have listeners after they do a Call of Duty retrospective.

Hosts John Miller and Andrew Brooker have stolen the keys to some of the shiniest and fastest cars you can ever imagine getting your hands on and they plan to tear around the streets for an hour or so.

Celebrating the beginning of Silly Season 2016 by completely avoiding new releases for a couple of weeks, the boys delve into this year’s FIFA iteration and the disappointing sequel Homefront: The Revolution, before digging into futuristic follow-on Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and wondering what’s next for the fan-favourite franchise. They pick apart newly released PlayStation VR and the games that were (and weren’t) allowed out for review before the hardware came out, all whilst waxing lyrical about why that might be.

The pair also kick the tyres on Forza Horizon 3, the latest in the free-roam racing series. Finally, stealing more of the Failed Critics patter, Brooker and John list out a triple bill on ‘racing in games’, picking their three favourites and checking them against listeners’ suggestions.

Join us again in a couple of weeks when the lads talk all things horror games – or maybe come join the conversation on Twitterand Facebook.

Ejecting the Blu-ray from our PS4 and using it for its intended purpose for a change, welcome to the first episode of Character Unlock.

Andrew Brooker and John Miller host the pilot episode, kicking off with a run down from EGX 2016. It’s not just top-down racing games that John got to play, as Battlfield 1, Forza Horizon 3, FIFA 17 and plenty of indie games went under his microscope at the event.

Plus, this week Brooker chats with game reviewer-turned-game developer, Kevin Van Ord, about his career, what he thinks about early access for Original Sin 2, and sneaking Scottish euphemisms into Dwarven dialogue.

They round off the podcast by answering your questions that you sent to us via our Facebook and Twitter feeds. Want to get to know Brooker and John? Listen to find out how they met, what their favourite games are, which games series’ they would combine, and how many worms they think it takes to change a lightbulb. Hey, you asked. We answered.

If you enjoy the episode, if you have any feedback or things you’d like to hear on future podcasts, please let us know either on Facebook or Twitter (both @CharacterUnlock) or email [email protected]