This week we bring in Val from the local Play 'N Trade and one of his most successful tournament players, Jared... but before that, we review the recent ramblings of that mentally retarded psychologist who Fox News put on the air last week to discuss Mass Effect. Val talks about his focus on local tournament gaming while Jarratt tells us about his experience as a professional gamer. As promised, though, we also get back to what Rich said about playing games on easy difficulty. You might say there's some disagreement as to the utility of his choice.

A show full of contraversy. We play some bits from a Fox News clip full of stupidity and irony. They're talking about Mass Effect without bothering to know anything about it. Luckily, Geoff Keighley is there to make sure it doesn't fall completely off the tracks. After that, we talk about what drives us to play games - what motivates us, and how has that motivation changed over time?

Ara finally found an XBOX Live Arcade game that he likes - Omega Five. Rich is upset that Soul Calibur IV will have Jedi, but that's only because he's secretly in love with Yoda and can't bear to see him hurt at the hands of Ivy and her whip-sword. We all talk about Dan Hsu and his ballsy editorial about publishers blackballing him because they have no balls. Also, Ara reads a bit of some wacko's review for Mass Effect.

The whole crew seems to have been playing a bunch of Flash games - have you tried a free game lately? Pen15 calls in to ask about fighting game controls and whether or not simpler is better. Our decision? It's a dumb question. Then we talk about hype and let Rich prove that he walks around with sparkles in his eyes and fuzzies in his cockles. Alon lets it fly and tries to debunk the hype.

Street Fighter IV's life in 3D has Ara scared that the developers won't be able to live up to the challenge. Ara also gives his new weekly PSA on how not to stalk someone over XBOX Live. Ken, past designer of children's games, tells us about his experience and Alon wonders why no one bothered to take into account what children actually like when making the games.