Alon just discovered Google's new Lively service (3D chatroom) and is curious if it could have any gaming applications. Ara has a lot to say about GRiD and the future of racing games. A listener decided to email us, but probably shouldn't have.

Ara's been working as a summer professor for a game design program at ASU the last few weeks - Alon tries, fruitlessly, to get him to consider having all the dumb kids work together for their game project. Your fearless hosts also ponder whether or not gaming is moving towards simulation of real life rather than the traditional use of fantasy worlds and situations. Ara also attempts to close his discussion from last week about game flow.

We interview Ashish Amresh, Lecturer at ASU, about his new game curriculum and CampGame08, which Ara just happens to also be teaching at. We also explore the true meaning of flow and how the game, flOw, compares to the psychological concept coined by our favorite smart guy with a long name, Mihaly Csikszentimihalyi.

Metal Gear Solid 4 finally hit, and, as expected, it's not as good as everyone thinks. Strangely, though, we're unable to stop talking about it. It's as if we're IMMERSED in a world with nothing but Metal Gear and that sexy Snake character. Fancy that.

Forbes writers are apparently idiots... although Alon loves his iPhone, there's no chance it could destroy the Nintendo DS' success. Ara tells us why he doesn't like Peter Molyneux, and Alon questions how expectations/hype help and hinder our impressions of the games we play. Finally, we somehow manage to reminisce about the brilliance that is Steel Battalion.