XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Zac and Rob play a bit of recent strategy release XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

It's a biggie! The milestone of 100 episodes has been reached and by total luck it’s also time to sort out the weak from the guff as we do The SaladCast GOTY Awards 2013! Get hype!

It should come as no shock that there will be spoilers and dumb decisions ahead. You have been warned.

Rob decides to take a weekend break in London on a Podcast weekend, forcing the team to phone it in. When we say "phoning it in" it's not to say that your getting a half-arsed show. You are most definitely getting all of our arse.

This week there’s Bioshock Infinite, Dark Souls, XCOM, Infamous, DmC, MTGDotP 2013, SimCity, next Gen game pricing, EVE, Puddle, Spiral Knights and our ignorance towards sports games.

Psst! Hey you! Yes you... You want some of this SaladCast? It's good quality man, really pure stuff. I do you a deal… How about this first hit for free huh?

This week we’ve been playing the likes of The Binding of Isaac, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Animal Crossing, Infamous, Fire Emblem, SS&S:EP, Gyromancer and Dyad, Dyad, Dyad.

Several weeks without a takeaway pizza leave Rob struggling to form his sentences with the correct words this week. Don't worry though, Zac and Dan are quick to correct him... every time.

This week we talk about Thief, XCOM, Flatout, SimCity, DOA5, F1 Race Stars, TimeSplitters Rewind, KotOR 2, Torchlight 2 and more!

To absolutely nobody's surprise the Playstation 4 was revealed this week. The team discuss the finer points of the "meeting" and attempt to project what this may mean for the industry.

Also mentioned are XCOM, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, DmC, Planetside 2, Braid, Outwitters, KoTOR 2, Torchlight 2 and Sonic 4.

Also, large volumes of cheese may affect your dreams.

One game dominates the discussion this week. Can you guess what it is? It might have already been mentioned somewhere in this post (hint: try the title).

This week, Durango and Orbis spec rumours, how not to make a Dead Space game, XCOM, Coffee, CoD BLOPS 2 multiplayer woes, Sonic and Guild Wars 2.

2012 is drawing to a close and that means it's GOTY time! This might be the one time in the year we carefully consider which games deserve honour and which deserve being locked in a room with a small radio playing Paul McCartney’s Christmas song on repeat forever.

Awards include "Best game that hasn’t really come out yet", “Worst audio thing”, “Biggest surprise” and “Most baffling decision” amongst others and of course the coveted SaladCast GOTY.

The weight of the backlog is firmly upon us now. Fortunately it's one of those points in the year where there’s a lull in the release schedule allowing us to begin the catchup. Although Zac seems to have gone a bit far with the idea.

Aside from starting a proper argument about DiRT 3 being potentially worse than DiRT 2 (somehow), Zac catches up with games he’s already played to death in the form of Rollercoaster Tycoon and the "relevant again" UFO: Enemy Unkown (the first X-COM, don-cha-know). Rob finishes Outland and gets a but further with Sonic Generations while Dan continues to lose himself in Skyrim.

Bringing in the new year in the best way possible, like any other week, it's time to start tackling that backlog. It's like plumbing that you never fixed properly and gurgles to you in the night, tormenting you into submission with the stench of guilt. I hope that's guilt...

For a game we're still a tiny bit 'meh' over we don't half talk about it a bit. Skyrim is indeed mysterious in its ways. Dan gets in on the discussion this time as Zac tries to figure out how you play the game sensibly. Rob finishes up on Timeshift, gushes about Sonic Generations and questions the direction of L.A. Noire. Dan wraps things up with some cardcasting in Magic: The Gathering and goes in circles with F1 2011.