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.

We have some more photos from last weekend’s Toronto Fan Expo. In this set we have Tahmoh Penikett speaking at his panel as well as Felicia Day and Amy Okuda from The Guild.

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.

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.

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.