The Explosive Alan Podcast

Happy birthday to us / Happy birthday to us / Happy birthday dear us / Happy birthday to us. Hooray. We celebrate our first anniversary in style - and that style is curiously similar to the format of the previous 34 episodes. The flab four discuss Yogscast controversy (not that one, the other one) and the baffling success of Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, attempt to identify popular cartoons dubbed into foreign languages and share your favourite gaming moments of the last 12 months.

Pull up a chair, dear listener, and eavesdrop on another hourish of candid chat between the Explosive Alan gang. We're a proper gang and all, with a base, secret handshake, bespoke bomber jackets and an arbitrary rivalry with another podcasting gang (Gardeners' Question Time). What have we got for you this week? Let's see... Hold on... Right. Something about Lindsay Lohan, a quiz all about Arnie and chat about gender segregation in eSports. We're sure we've managed to do something entertaining with all of that.

E3's almost enough of a distant memory to make any podcast dedicated to it seem totally redundant. Almost. The gang, this time joined by TotalXbox.com/OXM's Aoife Wilson, pick over the bones of the show and share their highs and lows. Is E3 best enjoyed from a distance, or up close and personal? Did workshy fop Dan have a better time than equipment-lugging workhorse Gareth? (Hint: yes) Do our listeners think that E3 is worth bothering with any more? Listen now for answers of sorts.

Our ongoing quest to get every member of Regular Features on the show continues with a special appearance from living human Steve Hogarty. We grill him about his trip to the annual EVE Online Fanfest in Iceland, pore over the latest news - including Mortal Kombat X, Battlefield Hardline and the Metal Gear Solid film - flagrantly rip off Just A Minute, and discuss the pros and cons of DRM.

Intro Lyrics: The power of hype is a curious sight/Helps a poor game sell, when it’s overpriced shite/Fogs the mind of pre-ordering types/Makes crap appealing, that's the power of hype/Promises broken, shattered dreams/You paid the price for day one DLC/Keeps embargoes late, mm, so the truth won’t out/Power of hype that eliminates doubt/You don't need footage of gameplay/Just need some concept art to make it rain/It's loud and expensive and it lies sometimes/And it plays trick with our minds/That's the power of hype

We were lucky enough to rope in Jon 'Log' Blyth (AKA Loggy B), recently departed Official Xbox Magazine writer and regular member of the highly irregular Regular Features podcast, before he departs for a new life as a publican. The whole gang is back together for the first time in what feels like forever too, so you really have no reason not to listen to this hot 'n' heavy five-man aural chatbang. Also: Kinectless Xbone fallout, Far Cry 4, Halo 5, People Can Fly's abandoned detective noir game, lullaby covers of pop songs and a sordid tale of Gareth exposing himself to Log's mum via social media.

In a week where Nintendo has transformed from cuddly, family-friendly company to hate-coding bigots (depending on who you talk to you, anyway), we largely ignore that - for now - and put our collective mind to the latest Call of Duty, Project Morpheus' terrifying shark demo, the Amplitude Kickstarter, Nintendo's other big problem and an interesting challenge that combines storytelling with expert punmanship. Episode 30, you guys.

With Ash and Gareth swanning around the Windy City this week, we've had to bring in the big guns to compensate for their absence. Enter Kotaku UK editor Keza MacDonald, who did such a good job that we only noticed the other pair weren't there when the entire recording went by without a single dick joke. Lots of good stuff this episode, with talk of our encounters with Watch_Dogs, Tomodachi Life, Dark Souls II, and Final Fantasy XIV; news of a new Project Zero, terrible Wii U sales and the baddest of bad CoD losers; a Google-themed Challenge and a truly Great Debate about the rise of free-to-play and microtransactions.

Watch the Tomodachi Life Nintendo Direct! Actually, listen to this podcast, featuring special guest Johnny Chiodini and talk of Super Smash Bros., Amazon Fire TV, the Assassin's Creed movie and MS & Sony's foray into TV shows, first, then watch the Tomodachi Life Nintendo Direct.

We defy you not to do THAT whistle after reading that title (doing it in your head counts too). The Struggling To Get-Along Gang are joined by award-winning indie developer Mike Bithell, creator of the wonderful Thomas Was Alone. We quiz him about Volume, his upcoming reinterpretation of the Robin Hood legend and drag him into the rest of our nonsense, including a particularly tense challenge, a debate about online trolls and news of a disastrous indie game jam, the new head of Xbox and bloody Oculus Rift.

There's been a lot of talk about the "Conscious coupling" of Facebook and Oculus VR, and who are we to avoid jumping on the "we know the inner workings of a multi-billion dollar corporation" bandwagon? So yes, FacebOculus dominates the chatter this week, but there's still room for Assassin's Creed Unity, The Last of Us PS4 rumours and Star Wars news and a challenge based on gaming locations that Dan is surprisingly awful at.