With the Beta gone but not forgotten we have to cover the biggest modern warfare shooter release of this year: Battlefield 3. Not that other one. In all the excitement we don't really think about the harsh reality of halloween. Giving sweets to children on our doorsteps just sounds creepy anyway.

Dan plays a bit more Deus Ex, Zac goes industrial in Minecraft while Rob subjects the listeners to more Assassin’s Creed II.

PS. More audio experiments this week as we play with the "auto-gain". Let us know how it sounds.

Being outside must play havoc with our feeble immune system and time keeping abilities. This late edition of the SaladCast sees us return to the hole from whence we came. But not without games!

Plenty of Battlefield 3 Beta impressions, more informed Gears of War 3 opinion and a liberal dose of Deus Ex progress round off this post's feature list.

I don't know about nature. It's alive, varied and mostly outdoors. 3 things you probably wouldn’t associate with the typical gamer. But here we are, recording a podcast OUTSIDE! Somehow we rattle through a lot of recent releases with little to no hesistancy. Maybe the slight breeze casts Haste upon our vocals?

Zac covers the indie scene once more with the Minecraft Adventure update, completing S.P.A.Z. two more times (jeez) and Blocks that Matter. Dan continues to catch up to Zac in Deus Ex: Human Revolution while Rob continues his Kinect pratfalling in front of Rise of Nightmares and Child of Eden. There’s even a little Gears of War 3, so you should have nothing left to grind... y'know... like "grinds my gears"... nevermind.

Once again we are graced by Matt Makin as a special guest to help talk MORE Assasin's Credd with Rob. Zac and Dan get quite heated covering the finer point of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. No lasting damage. They’re fine. More in two weeks.

...I didn’t know just how much blood someone has.

It's Deus Ex week! Ok, so there isn't that much Deus Ex coverage this week. We do mention it but to get the full effect we want two of the three of us to report. Enter Zac, Dan and a reasonable dose of waistline augmenting chicken pieces. Rob actually talks MORE Assassin's Creed in the mean time. He's a little bit sorry.

There is Gamescom to cover though featuring the Old Republic, Guild Wars 2 and of course Battlefield 3 "conjecturising".  Dan finally plays Black Ops, Zac goes all S.P.A.Z and Rob even comes up with a new feature!

Just for the record, all the things people say about beer and wine and mixing are totally true. All of them. Even the bits that contradict the other bits. Rob is living proof of this and is nursing a monster hangover. Don't mix. You will thank us one day.

We talk a lot of games and kinda just run out of material, and pad for a bit at the end. Fine if you're in a rush and need a slightly smaller salad morsel. There's some Bulletstorm and Kinect Sports from Rob, the usual Teraria, Minecraft and SpaceChem bit from Zeg and Dan finishes Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood at last.

3 weeks have passed since the last cast. Who's fault is that? Well it's kinda ours. No excuse. We got lazy. To celebrate our return here's a blurb that represents the spirit of laze:

Games, games, talking about games, blabla, Rob, Bulletstorm, Dan, L.A Noire, Zac, Just Cause 2, games, games, bla-di-bal-ba-bla, moo.

Dan is unavailable this week but Zac was just too enthusiastic about news. So here we are with another "soon to be trademarked" Tardcast.

Zac talks much Eve as the drama over the Incarna patch unfolds. He also reveals the extent of hackery that has befallen the Sonic Generations demo. Potential spoilers maybe? This provides Rob with an excuse to deliver ample quantities of Sonic related discussion, as always.

Whew, summer is really on us now. The heat does seem to mess with our words somewhat. Or at least that's Zac's excuse.

On the plate of the all you can eat gaming buffet this week, the Sonic Generations demo and more Valkyria Chronicles from Rob, L.A. Noire and Assasin's Creed with Dan and Spiral Knights, Eve and TF2 from Zac.

Well, you can eat our words for about 2 hours. We don’t trust the all you can eat policy THAT much.