This week on The Electric Hydra Internet Radio Show, we talk extensively about “FEAR 3” and, to some extent, Double Fine’s new downloadable “Trenched.” Also, because I’ve been putting some serious time into “GTA 4,” we spend some time with product.

Our latest recording is a special one — for the first time we opened up our show notes for Team Hydra to edit. That means, all of our conversation is steered by your voices and we answer a lot of your questions, concerns, and address a bunch of the talking point that all of you specifically wanted addressed. And because we’re awesome, we also dug into the message board thread for the more long-winded and advanced questions.

We might open up our notes again in the future, so stay tuned to our social feeds. If this week’s podcast is of interest to you, by the way, give it a listen just below. You can also download it on the iTunes music store for music and music. OK? Cool!

056 – Your Mom And ‘FEAR 3′

User “Joe W” on our message board is one of the most patient and passionate dudes that I know. A month or so ago, my man started work on a huge “Best RPG Ever” tournament. After I saw it and the tremendous amount of work he put into it, I told him that I would post it on the front page to get more people into the action. So, here we go!

The tournament as a whole is bracketed “game vs. game.” The first round, which is going on right now, boasts a total of 56 individual randomized skirmishes. I think it’s in all our best interests to get in there and vote. We certainly don’t want “Kingdom Hearts” or “Fallout II” to take the crown. I mean, “Dragon Age: Origins,” obviously, is the greatest game ever.

The line-ups and my votes have been recorded after the break and in the thread. Definitely check it out!

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You’ll have to excuse the tardiness with this episode post. I’ve been scrambling of late to finish up a pet project and keep up with the other freelance things I’ve got going on. But you’re not here for my excuses, right? You’re here for the show.

This week we discussed “Dungeon Siege III” and whatever else jumped into our minds. We also answered a bunch of user questions that you guys threw us. Listen just below or, hey, grab us on iTunes!

055 – The Scariest Link Ever And ‘Dungeon Siege III’

Another week, another episode of HBO’s original series, Game of Thrones, and another raucous, somewhat-focused Electric Hydra podcast. As we discuss in the second half of the episode, there’s a certain appeal to a structured life: watch; record; edit; post.

For better or worse, though, our Game of Thrones discussions must needs come to an end with the culmination of season 1. And with that realization comes a certain amount of retrospective angst: How are Brad and I, admitted noobs in the TV podcasting game, supposed to say something new and cogent about the series that a.) we haven’t been saying all season or b.) hasn’t been said by other, better critics?

Or, to put it another way, I’m disappointed that I’ll never get the chance to publicly announce how badass Septa Mordane is in episode 8, or how genuinely melancholy I get thinking about Hodor.

There is a related, though staunchly different, fear creeping into my soul as we move deeper into the Song of Ice and Fire cannon — the further into the story we get, the higher the critical stakes climb.  Brad and I have, justly or not, tasked our selves with sussing out something important about these books. That something can be different things: exploring some turn of phrase or unexplored symbol, some structural detail, some thematic element.

Our job is to be, if not insightful, then at least illuminating; and that job is getting harder and harder, not easier. In the same way that the Game of Thrones finale interrupts my weekly plan, George R. R. Martin’s insistence of expanding, not contracting, his saga is making it more difficult to find the cosmic structure of the whole enterprise.

In other words, I keep looking for the strand to untie Martin’s Meereenese Knot, but real-life time constraints and the weekly addition of even more convoluted bullshit keeps getting in the way.

In any case, all this belly-aching is really just a way of saying, “Hey, we’re trying to do a cool podcast and we hope you like and if you don’t, please just be nice about it, thanks.”

In any case, the rest of Storm of Swords and the first eight chapters of A Feast for Crows (through Cersei II) are on the docket for episode 11. If you’re unsure which chapter in Feast is the eighth one, check here.

Book Club — A Song of Ice and Fire — 10

Image via Sir-Heartsalot’s deviantart page

(There are superlatively minor spoilers for A Game of Thrones and A Storm of Swords in this post.)

“Grieve for your friend, but never blame yourself. You did not kill the butcher’s boy. That murder lie’s at the Hound’s door …”

DaniusKang posits a question I hadn’t considered before:  Eddard Stark, beleaguered Lord of Winterfell, Warden of the North, and Hand of the King, didn’t ask for a trial by combat prior to his unexpected execution.

Why doesn’t Ned demand a trial by combat? (I realize he is injured, but he could choose a champion — Ser Barristan, for example.) Is he not entitled to the King’s Justice under this circumstance? And if he is just being denied this by Joffrey and Cersei because they are corrupt douchebags, shouldn’t this cause serious problems with the noble class, who depend on this system?

Think of it like [a] social contract: couldn’t their right to trial just as easily be discarded if the Lannisters didn’t like them? If so, why should they give fealty to this new king, especially when his position is far from secure? If it is the case that Ned was given the short shrift by them, it seems like an overly risky political move (which. granted, does seem par for the course for Joffrey, but at this point Cersei seems smarter than that).

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There’s an old joke about team-based sports and drinking — “We’re a drinking team with a soccer problem.” Brad and I seem to share a similar fate. Last week, we were a casserole podcast with a book problem; this week, we are a KoЯn podcast with the same book-based ailment.

It’s a troubling condition, and we’re all quite worried about it.

Over the course of another two-hour podcast (!!) — ostensibly about episode 9 of Game of Thrones (“Baelor”) and chapters 30 through 50 of A Storm of Swords – the Electric Hydra Book Club discusses Ned’s dead head, Jon Snow as the lynchpin of the Wall, and the impotency of magic, among other things (like nu metal).

As usual, you can find our latest contribution to armchair criticism on iTunes, Zune Marketplace, or the link below.

If you’re keen on reading along with us, chapters 50 through 70 of A Storm of Swords are on the table for next week.

Book Club — A Song of Ice and Fire — 09

Image via Art of the Title

I buried a time capsule in the same place I ended up burying a gerbil much later on in life. You can imagine how surprised I was to already find a box in a hole I planned to put something dead in. I can still recall some the capsule’s contents: soiled paper, some X-Men toys, a ‘wheat’ penny, and a Warrant tape.

It was a mixed bag that I constructed from whatever I wanted to part with at the time. I don’t think that’s the point of the effort, but I was young and apparently wanted to leave something for others in another era. I feel bad that I robbed another civilization of Warrant.

In 2011, I paid 60 bucks for a new time capsule called “Duke Nukem Forever,” the long-awaited continuation of the “Duke Nukem” series. It took over a dozen years to come to market and it’s still a terrible first-person shooter despite that. But it’s also a great window into a project that was informed by tons of other games and was crippled by its scale and drawn out production.

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It’s hard to believe that we discuss “Duke Nukem Forever” this week. This was the game that could never come out — the project that George Broussard wouldn’t let hit shelves because of his desire to put everything he ever saw in any new game into it. “DNF” has been in development for over a dozen years, and now we’re trashing it on the Internet.

Wild stuff, for sure. But in addition to “DNF” talk, the cast and crew discuss “Red Faction: Armageddon,” shippable bugs, and even delve into a bit more “Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition” specifics. We also answer a ton of your user questions.

Grab the latest pod just below or subscribe to us on the iTunes or Zune music stores. You know the drill by now, right? I’d like to hope so.

054 – ‘Duke Nukem Forever’ And Shippable Bugs

I know the Book Club podcast is later than usual, but look at it this way — you’ve got just enough time to listen to Brad and I recap episode 8 of the HBO original series Game of Thrones before catching the new one tonight.

Such a recap would be of dubious quality, though — with E3 monopolizing Brad and my week, we were a little strapped for time and the ‘cast is accordingly scattershot. It doesn’t help that we took a culinary detour to determine whether or not casserole’s fit into Brad’s diet.

They don’t.

In any case, our ruminations on episode 8 of Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings (chapters 10 through 30) should now be available on iTunes and the Zune marketplace and, as usual, you can stream it below.

For those of you keeping up with your weekly reading assignment, we’ll be tackling everything through chapter 50 of Clash — Catelyn V — next week.

Book Club — A Song of Ice and Fire — o8

Image by Tomasz Jedruszek

E3 has come and gone, but just a few days short of the biggest entertainment event of the year, we met and recording a pod. In this week’s podcast, you’ll hear some light musings on what we thought would be coming down the pipe. With the show over, though, I think you’ll find that specific discussion a bit dull. Thankfully, we had some other cool stuff to discuss. I talked up the latest “Deus Ex” and “Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition,” and the rest of the cast chimed in with their thoughts, too.

We also answer a bunch of your user questions. I know I said that this week was intended to be a user question-focused episode, but we had a lot of new stuff on our plates. Forgive me, pretty please?

As usual, you can download the podcast directly just below. Or, if you are an iTunes dude or a Zune guy, you can just subscribe to us directly. I realize I was late in posting this stream version. My apologies. E3 and a sore shoulder — those are my excuses.

053 – Starship Coyote And ‘Deus Ex: Human Revolution’