Portal 2

Things could always do with more testing, but testing the patience of the happysalad crew might be a questionable choice. Perhaps Portal 2's co-op is supposed to be about solving puzzles but Zac and Rob know what’s really going on.

Funnels and hard bridges. Not at all euphemisms, just science.

The vault is near and the testing stops... for something that's a lot like testing and then there's some more testing... but the vault is near!

A sinister plot thickens but there are still puzzles between our bots and "her".

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.

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.

Due to an unforeseen failure in Dan's immune system the usual arrangement of casting in the Room of Doom cannot happen this week. This gives you the opportunity to play a fun game of "count how many time we talk over each other". Such fun.

In this episode Zeg covers new indie 2D Minecraft-style; release Teraria and gets a taste of dictatorship with Tropico 3. Rob begins to tackle two more games new to him with the 3D tactical anime war game Valkyria Chronicals and gets his trademark rant on  towards Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. Dan attempts to solve the puzzle of describing just what L.A. Noire is and what it may mean for Adventure gaming.

Summer is definitely upon us as certain inevitabilities come to pass. The clouds roll in, Rob's phrase book rolls out, distracting noises become the norm.

Amidst all this we still manage to continue the Batman and SpaceChem coverage and GASP! Breaking news as Dan gets a Duke Nukem Forever hands on! Look at us being all professional and journalist like.

Also we rag on Brink a bit... which we haven’t played.

Deciphering the world of Pokémon on a cup of coffee in the Abode of Unfortunate Ends is a tough task. Among Zac's thoughts of Pokémon Black/White we can’t help but be confused how about such a world could possibly work with such ignorant occupants.

Rob continues following Dan's gaming suggestions and finally starts playing Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Dan hasn't played too much but we fill the gap with more Portal 2 talk (mostly spoiler free still), the usual Minecraft and TF2 entries with a surprise return for SpaceChem.

There was no avoiding it, Portal 2 has taken over the gaming world. We tried not to talk about it we really tried... but then we kinda played it so only made it halfway through the cast before we spill the beans. Note that this is as spoiler free as we could manage.

Aside from this behemoth, Rob finishes Red Dead Redemption and Moves like a crazy man in front of the Kinect sensor. Zeg hasn't caught them all so there's more Pokémon coverage and Dan puts his hos before his bros in more Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood assessment.

The lounge of inexplicable peril is populated with all regular contenders. One year has past since Episode 1. Only one thing can occur... Season 2 of the SaladCast is so ON right now!

Rob expresses his hurt caused by Nintendo in  the wake of the 3DS launch and hates on Mexico, Zac gets deeper into Pokémon and a few other RPGs and Dan... well Dan is back. Which is nice.

Another special guest joins the fray in the form of Matt Makin with the inexplicable power of causing himself to record at a different rate to everyone else. Made the editing REEEAL easy I can tell ya.

Rob starts his Rockstar pilgrimage in yet more Red Dead coverage, Zeg thought he'd caught them all but them Pokémon just messed up his life some more and Matt rebuilds the clan of merciless killers in Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.

Not much on new games front this week as Rob tackles the latest installment in the classic JRPG series in the form of Final Fantasy XIII (not XIV, you can't expect that of us, ever). Zac helps explain Rob’s second impressions of Monday Night Combat and falls deeper into the MMO trap WURM Online. We also find it hard to add to Dan's continued reporting on Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare.

Listen as we deftly pad the episode at the end. I think we get away with it. cough.

And have I ever told you how hard it is to type when a cat thinks something is under the keyboard?

Eddie thinks my title for this podcast sounds like an extinct dinosaur. I just think I was clutching at straws... but hey, it's not about this description it’s about the talky talk!

Rob finishes his round up of Black Ops after a more thorough playtest, Zac continues his trek through games of yore with DOSBox and Startopia while Dan once again take us to GTA IV territory briefly before making some legendary progress in Reach.

We also get a little time to discuss to motion controls again and theorize about PSP Phone.