The Explosive Alan Podcast

Put your ear to the ground. Hear that distant rumbling? That's a stampede of wild next-gen consoles charging towards us in a state of blind panic and confusion. Who can tame them? We don't know, and we're not sticking around to find out. No surprise then, that this episode clings onto the current generation as tenaciously as you would Powdered Toast Man's buttocks. It also features our very first, hopefully not last, listener challenge.

Should Sonic be humanely put down? Can you identify a game character when they're talking backwards? Can the mysteries of cloud computing be unravelled in a minute? What does Dan talk about in his sleep? Will Gareth ever play Pokemon? Get all the answers to questions you'd never have otherwise asked right here.

We're one Simon down for our frightful/fright-full 13th episode, which was unlucky for Dan because it meant he had to do the actual hard work for once. Fortunately, Dan also writes these descriptions, and he can confirm that it's actually the most well-edited podcast yet. We've got a suitably horror-themed challenge, a Great Debate dedicated to Resident Evil and a bit about (Call of Duty) Ghosts. Oh, do enjoy it!

Our four half-baked heroes return for more news, challenges and '#Bantz'. GTA and Pokemon feature (again), as does the latest on Mass Effect 4, Star Wars Battlefront 3, a Zelda film, Watch_Dogs delays and the team attempting to recreate famous gaming sound effects from memory.

This week's intro lyrics:

Explosive Alan Podcast x 3 / Games talk and challenges / In an hour / It’s four men who act like they’re fifteen (We’re really rad!) / They’re fully-grown adults it’s obscene (Hey – not that bad!) / If you want some inane chat / These grown up boys are here for that / Explosive Alan Podcast x 2 / They use language that is far from clean (You’re a fucking twat) / Dan’s a challenge cheat, Simon Chong’s a Sonic geek (I even like Unleashed) / Gareth Wild is frequently rude (Tell your mum) / Ash Denton’s got a grumpy attitude (Can I go home now?) / Explosive Alan Podcast x 3 / Games talk and challenges / In an hour

Valve made three announcements, none of which were the one anyone actually wanted. Still, Steam Box, Steam OS and its peculiar controller are all big news, so we decided to mull over their potential for success in our already crowded living rooms. Before that, however, we've got a special report from the Eurogamer Expo featuring Joe and Scott from BitSocket, more rapid-fire news and yet another fruit-based challenge.

It's the episode that wasn't supposed to be - and yet, here it is, against all odds. We manage to pull ourselves away from GTA V (and, in Si's case Kingdom Hearts HD) long enough to parody the parody song du jour 'The Fox', rake over the news, guess the name of fruit (harder than it sounds) and explore whether controversial scenes in games should be optional. "It's a good listen." - Our mums.

It's the episode that wasn't supposed to be - and yet, here it is, against all odds. We manage to pull ourselves away from GTA V (and, in Si's case Kingdom Hearts HD) long enough to parody the parody song du jour 'The Fox', rake over the news, guess the name of fruit (harder than it sounds) and explore whether controversial scenes in games should be optional. "It's a good listen." - Our mums.

Buttery spread. (PS) Vita-lite. Geddit? Yeah, it's pretty tenuous. Anyway, Gareth's away filming fancy cars in Frankfurt so he's replaced by our friend Chris Slight from chrisslightgames.tumblr.com, who's nowhere near as sweary but actually has time to play games. In this episode we cover Sony's new additions to the Vita range, GTAV and Metal Gear Solid V; Simon tests our ability to differentiate between obscure game character names and foreign swear words; and we decide whether Nintendo should pack the whole home console thing in.

Buttery spread. (PS) Vita-lite. Geddit? Yeah, it's pretty tenuous. Anyway, Gareth's away filming fancy cars in Frankfurt so he's replaced by our friend Chris Slight from chrisslightgames.tumblr.com, who's nowhere near as sweary but actually has time to play games. In this episode we cover Sony's new additions to the Vita range, GTAV and Metal Gear Solid V; Simon tests our ability to differentiate between obscure game character names and foreign swear words; and we decide whether Nintendo should pack the whole home console thing in.