This week on the podcast we take a look at a new Xbox 360 exclusive, Dead Rising 2: Case Zero and a new film written, directed and produced by Robert Rodriguez, Machete.

Dead Rising 2: Case Zero (01:15 – 22:24)

Capcom has done something a bit different in anticipation of the release of Dead Rising 2. They’ve released a prologue downloadable game, Case Zero, exclusively to the Xbox Live Marketplace for a mere 400 points. Taking place three years before the events of Dead Rising 2, the game introduces us to a new character Chuck Greene as he tries to come up with new and creative ways to eliminate any zombies in this path.

Machete (22:38 – 44:37)

And speaking of unique and interesting ways of killing things, we all checked out a new film released last week to theaters, Machete. Directed by Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis, Machete was originally just a fake trailer that accompanied Grindhouse during it’s theatrical run in 2007. It’s since been turned into a full feature release with an ensemble cast including Danny Trejo, Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba and Steven Seagal. Check out our reviews to hear what we thought.

One thing I forgot to mention in the last podcast, was that a number of the console companies had booths promoting upcoming games and some were even available to try out. The volume of people and my own impatience unfortunately meant that I didn’t get to try any of these out so take my opinions with a huge grain of salt.

Ubisoft were demoing several games including the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. I can’t comment on the game-play so much but somehow the graphics are even better this time around. Sony was demoing the PlayStation Move controllers and Nintendo also had a number of games available to try out. Microsoft also had booths set up for people to try out Halo Reach and Kinect and I was a bit underwhelmed with both. I’ve had fun with just about all of the Halo titles but this time it just seems like more of the same. And maybe for some that’s not a bad thing but I’m finding it harder to each year to get excited about it. I guess we’ll see when the game is released later this year. Kinect on the outset looked like it could be a lot of fun. But as I watched people try it out, I got the nagging feeling that this was just Wii Sports all over again. Really fun to try out with your friends and play through a few times, but later gets relegated to the shelf to collect dust. I am curious to see how the technology will develop and how they can integrate the technology into more advanced titles but out of the gate I’m not knocked out. But I hope they prove me wrong.

In the meantime check out some of the second set of photos below. You can find the first set here.

This week we take a look at a recent summer film release with The Expendables. We also look at a downloadable game for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. We also look at a BBC show, Sherlock. And we close things out with a look back at last weekend’s Toronto Fan Expo.

The Expendables (01:30 – 17:23)

As the summer movie season winds down we have only a few big blockbuster entries left. With The Expendables, Sylvester Stallone has assembled a who’s who of big time action stars for his tale of a team of mercenaries. Listen to our review to see if it’s living up to all the hype.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game (17:35 – 24:30)

Kevin brings us a video game release based on another recent film and comic series, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. With a similar art style to the comic books, the game is a side-scroller that lets you guide Scott as he battles the 7 evil ex-boyfriends of Romona Flowers. Developed by Ubisoft, the game is available for download on the PlayStation Network and the Xbox Live Arcade.

Sherlock (25:00 – 46:39)

We recently discovered this import from the BBC starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as Dr. John Watson. There are currently only three 90 min episodes but there are plans to release more in the fall of 2011. Check out our review to see if this a series worth your time.

Toronto Fan Expo recap (46:56 – 51:25)

Bill had a chance to check out the 3 day Toronto Fan Expo happening last weekend in, uhh, Toronto. He gives us the lowdown on some of the panels he checked out along with other sights of the expo.

I’ll have more to say on the upcoming podcast, but in the meantime here are some of the photos that I snapped over the course of the three day conference. More photos and video to come.

So our podcast is pretty late this week but we have something a little different this week. I got a chance to travel from Toronto down to Halifax,  Nova Scotia and for the first time we were able to record the show with the four of us in the same room. We even got a hold of a camera and recorded a video version of the show which we’ll have for you soon enough. In the mean time, here’s the regular audio version.

This week we discuss a movie based on a popular video game franchise, Tekken, plus the four of us took a little field trip to a Hal-Con sponsored event where they screened two Joss Whedon productions, Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and the cult classic, Serenity.

Tekken (02:09 – 10:57)

Three of us had a chance to catch the new film Tekken. Based on the popular video game franchise, this is the first live action film for the series; there was previously an animated version back in 1998. Check out our review to see how it translates to a live action film.

Calling all Browncoats! Event:

Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (11:04 – 26:19)

Serenity (26:20 – 44:15)

We had the chance to catch the Hal-Con event, Calling all Browncoats! where they screened both Dr Horrible and Serenity. For the uninitiated, Dr Horrible is a short that was initially released online through the Dr Horrible website and is currently available on DVD. Conceived during the 2008 writer’s strike by Joss Whedon, it stars Neil Patrick Harris as an evil genius striving to enter the Evil League of Evil and capture the attention of Felicia Day.

It also features Nathan Fillion who also was involved with the main feature of the evening, Serenity. Originally released in 2005, this film served as a continuation of the short-lived Fox TV show Firefly. Give a listen to catch our impressions of both features and the entire event.

On this week’s podcast we have a pair of games and a pair of TV shows. We start off with a look at the latest Xbox’s Summer of Arcade release, Castlevania: Harmony of Despair. We also take a look an older release, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. We wrap things up with two new TV shows that premiered this summer, SyFy’s Haven and ABC’s The Gates.

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair (01:50 – 22:24)

The Castlevania franchise has had some ups and downs but now there’s a new release as a part of the Xbox 360 Summer of Arcade. We take a look at where this title falls and if it’s worth the 1200 MS points.

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (22:47 – 36:39)

With Kane and Lynch 2 a few weeks away from release, we thought we would give the 2007 original game a try. The story focus on a recently escaped convict, Kane, looking to reclaim some stolen cash with a psycho sidekick, Lynch, in tow.

Haven (36:46 -52:40)

SyFy has a new original series based on the book, The Colorado Kid by Stephen King. Haven is a small town in Maine that seems to have a lot of unique individuals living there. And it’s filmed in Nova Scotia! Haven can also be seen every Monday on Showcase in Canada.

The Gates (52:41 -65:05)

ABC has also launched a new show for the summer season starring Rhona Mitra. The show focuses, again, on a small community where a number of unique characters reside. This time it’s a gated community that happens to house a number of vampires, werewolves and other assorted supernatural folks.

On the podcast this week we get a chance to play an older freeware PC game, Cave Story. We also checked out yesterday’s DVD release of Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer. And we close the show off with a look at the first few issues of the ongoing comic series, The Walking Dead.

Cave Story (01:37 -18:16)

Cave Story is a freeware indie game that was originally released back in 2004 and also released earlier this year on Nintendo’s WiiWare service. This 2-D platformer was developed by Studio Pixel, who is actually only one guy who managed to construct the game in his spare time. Head over to the game’s website to download it including a patch for the English translation.

The Ghost Writer (18:25 – 34:07)

Directed by Roman Polanski and based on the Robert Harris novel The Ghost, The Ghost Writer was originally released in theaters back in February and is now available on DVD. Check out what we thought of this political thriller starring Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan.

The Walking Dead (34:21 – 53:47)

We close out the show by looking back at the first few issues from 2003 of this comic series published by Image Comics and written by Robert Kirkman. Even though we’ve been inundated with Zombie films/games/books in the last few years, this series is still ongoing and is going to be turned into a TV series starting in October on AMC. Head over to the AMC site to check out some pics and video from the show along with a motion comic.

This week on the podcast we look at a new DVD release from DC, Batman: Under the Red Hood as well as the Xbox 360′s first game in the 2010 Summer of Arcade, Limbo. Plus Valve has released a new game for free on the Steam service, Alien Swarm.

Batman: Under the Red Hood (01:38 – 26:53)

DC has come up with another direct to DVD release with Batman: Under the Red Hood. Robin is dead and Gotham has a new villain in the Red Hood. We take a look at this new release and see if it stacks up to other Batman animated films.

Limbo (27:07 – 37:38)

The Xbox Live Arcade has launched it’s third annual Summer of Live Arcade with a series of new downloadable games. Limbo, the first release, is a black and white side-scroller with a lot of different puzzle elements involved. We gave it a whirl to see if it was worth the $15 price tag.

Alien Swarm (37:47 – 59:14)

Valve has released a remake of Alien Swarm which was originally a mod for Unreal Tournament 2004. So what’s the big deal about some remake for a six year old game? This one is completely free! We jumped on with some 4 player co-op to see if there was much to offer beyond the appealing price tag.

This week we look at DeathSpank for the Xbox 360 and the another big release in the summer film season, Inception.

DeathSpank (01:07 – 19:32)

We start off with a look at  a new downloadable game on the Xbox 360. Developed by Hothead Games and published by EA, DeathSpank is a new downloadable game for the Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network.

Inception (19:40 – 43:44)

Another highly anticipated film this summer, Inception brings together Christopher Nolan with Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph-Gordon Levitt along with many others. Check out what we thought of Christoper Nolan’s first film since the Dark Knight.

This week we look at the new film in a franchise from the 1980′s and a sequel to a game that we declared on of our all time favorites.

Predators (01:18 – 25:21)

It’s been awhile since we’ve seen a proper Predator’s film, excluding ones that also contained Aliens. But Robert Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios has resurrected the franchise and has brought us a third film starring Adrien Brody and Laurence Fishburne. We got a chance to catch the theatrical release and discussed how well it lives up to the 1987 original film.

Crackdown 2 (25:50 – 60:10)

We also look at the sequel to one of  our all time favorite Xbox 360 games, Crackdown. Developed by Ruffian Games, this one treads on a lot of the same ground as the original but also offers some new features as well. We have a pretty in depth discussion covering the single player as well as the co-op multiplayer modes and see if it earns your $70.