So, where have we been? Funny story: myself and most of the old Podtoid crew, including Samit, have been scrambling to record a reunion episode of the podcast since April, and somehow it’s finally happened. Starting now, you can download a brand new episode of our “old” show, which is the one that inspired this podcast. To listen, just hit up Podtoid on iTunes or wait until a streamable version of the cast appears later today.

LINK: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/destructoids-video-game-podcast/id207365877

Cool, right? I think we all had a blast and I hope you enjoy.

So me and the boys — read: Aaron, Anthony, and Joseph — discussed what we wanted to do next on The Electric Hydra Internet Radio Show. To my surprise, everyone seemed keen on doing another Game Club. The question then became, what game or series? The first thing that popped into my mind was “Max Payne,” Remedy and now Rockstar Games’ gritty shooter franchise. It’s rich in narrative, has some great moments, and has the potential to make a lot of awesome discussion. Even though we’ve received a tepid response so far on the message board about this, I’d like to announce that we are indeed going to Game Club all three “Max Payne” games starting with “Max Payne” in the near future.

We’ll do this across, potentially, three podcasts, two of which should hit later this month if our schedules line up. Our first podcast will cover the entirety of “Max Payne” and the second and third will cover “Max Payne 2″ and “Max Payne 3.” I expect a slight delay between our “Max Payne 2″ and “Max Payne 3″ podcasts, but we’ll obviously keep you on the up and up as we go.

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Hi dudes! It’s been awhile since I’ve dropped a pod, so I thought I drop in and say that we’re still around. Also, I wanted to announce that we’re not recording this week due to some scheduling conflicts / illnesses.

Three weeks without TEH is a lot considering we’ve been delivering fairly consistently over the last (almost) two years. I miss recording, too — TEH is a fantastic time for us all to catch up, so it’s a special thing. If time, family, and work doesn’t get in the way, we’ll put on a show next week. I’ll let you know via The Twitters.

Have a great week, guys. Oh! And if you’d like to listen to at least one of us this week, check out Podtoid or The TouchArcade Show. Both are fun! Yay!

A couple of weeks ago, I came to you blabbering about live audio. I had a good plan. We would release live audio alongside our traditional releases. These shows would have a ton of listener interaction — products mutually forged by both our hands. Logistics will smash the best-laid or well-intentioned plans, so that’s why you haven’t seen an auxiliary pod.

One positive thing that did emerge from those plans, however, was a live recording of our actual Internet Radio Show. It was awesome. It lived up to what I wanted. Better yet, it felt natural, as if our podcast was meant to be a shared experience from the get-go.

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The best RPG ever created by the deft hands of nerds and enthusiasts is “Dragon Age: Origins.” We all feel it in our bones. It’s just a matter of time until it’s proven to all in our tournament. Speaking of which, the second round has kicked off and a new tier of games and voting is waiting for you over at our fair message board.

To get into the action, all you need to do is swing by our thread and follow Joe W and the rest of our awesome listenership’s lead. The choices are much fewer this time around, so if you skipped out on the action last time because of the time commitment, you’ll find it easier to penetrate with this newer, shorter list of last week’s winners.

So, quit reading this and head over to the boards. You’re needed to vote for “Dragon Age: Origins.” Seriously. Quit reading. Go vote. Please? Stop. You need to stop reading this. I wish you’d click that link already. C’mon, dude. GO, GO, GO.

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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(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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Dear You,

When I think about what we have accomplished in the last year the first word that comes to mind is “stunning.” The response that we’ve had, the continued excitement for the next episode, the support, the dedication, the draw, and the work we’ve done is stunning.

I don’t think we set out to have a successful podcast. When I brought up the idea for this podcast all I wanted, at first, was a venue to continue work left unfinished. I also wanted to hang out with some of the finest people I know. It was mission accomplished from the first second we hopped on a microphone, but then this started turning into something else.

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We have a lot of incredible readers and listeners. Miles is one of them. Dude kept hosting our “Minecraft” server well after our old provider buried the original site, and he kept the server alive as we set the game aside to rebuild our Web site and infrastructure.

In fact, it had been so long since I set foot in those digs, that I forgot it existed. He calmly reminded me that the server was still alive when I solicited for a new one the other day on the Twitter. So, let’s hear it for Miles, an unbelievable dude who deserves some props.

If you’re not down for e-applause and e-back patting, perhaps the best way we can honor Miles’ dedication is by enjoying some more “Minecraft.” In the interest of freshness, we have wiped our old stuff, updated the game, and are now accepting new dudes into a new, presumably soon to be quirk-ridden world.

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One of the things you fret over when you’re the social dude at the reigns of a podcast is how to leverage content. We use the Twitter and the Facebook in coordination with our stuff and our outreach, but we haven’t used YouTube. That changed this week with the pilot episode of The Electric Hydra LIVE.

In a nugget, TEH LIVE will be a bi-weekly-to-tri-weekly live version of our fair podcast where we focus on you and what we’re doing right at that moment. We’ll stream it our page on Justin.TV and then after the fact, upload the content to YouTube and an audio version to our pod feed. This is a scatter-shot approach that kills three birds with a single stone. And though I’m writing as the marketer  here, make no bones about it — this is going to be an awesome show.

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