_{Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin is a Dtoid-created comedy series about videogames and cupcakes.}

This week's episode may initially seem the stuff of tired conversations and unimaginative theories, but stick with it -- it gets better.

And way more violent.

I've said it before, but it's worth repeating: I really, truly didn't expect to enjoy Uncharted 2 as much as I did. I wonder if it's got something to do with the fact that I had an entire game to get to know the characters beforehand: I didn't actually realize how much I liked Elena and Sully until they showed up in Among Thieves, in much the same way I didn't realize how much Dog and Alyx mattered to me until Episode One.

But I digress -- watch the Uncharted 2 episode of HAWP, and, if you like it, please feel free to tell your friends.

Tim Langdell, founder of EDGE Games and former IDGA board member, is evidently not a big believer in freedom of speech -- at least, not in respect to the word "edge." 

After managing to remove Mobigames' EDGE from the iPhone app store for a few months under the pretense of copyright infringement, Langdell is now going after PuzzleKings' Killer Edge Racing, yet another app to have committed the unforgivable sin of using a word Tim Langdell thinks he has a monopoly on. According to gamesindustry.biz, Langdell is now applying for a trademark for the name "Killer Edge Racing" in order to force PuzzleKings to drop the title altogether.

In a charmingly creative move, a slew of indie devs have decided to protest Langdell's greedy idiocy by using his own whininess against him. Critter Crunch is now Critter Credge, according to the game's official Web site; Polytron recently announced that 2.5D platformer Fez will now be called Fedge, Canabalt is now Canabedge, and so on.

You can find a relatively complete summary of all the indie game name changes here.

_{Every week, sort of, features editor (Reverend) Anthony Burch discusses games and gamer culture in his "Rev Rant" video series.}

This video includes SPOILERS for the Modern Warfare 2 "No Russian" level. Not so much for the rest of the game. And I realize that the preview frame for the video may be sort of spoilery, but you'll live.

This week's rant is, yes, about the controversial MW2 airport massacre level, but hopefully not in a way you've heard it discussed yet -- I tried to focus less on the arguments of propriety or controversy and more on how the scene does and does not work on basic interactive and narrative levels.

Watch it above, comment below. If you're interested in hearing the discussion in this video taken further, you may also enjoy this week's episode of Podtoid.

[A note: the actual video in the rant is taken from Brad Nicholson's capture of the No Russian level, which I used for convenience's sake.  I went through the level without killing any civilians -- don't read too much into the fact that Brad did not.]

First of all: spoilers for Modern Warfare 2 and, at the very, very end, some stuff about Metal Gear Solid 4.

Second of all, this week's episode of Podtoid focuses mainly on Modern Warfare 2. Stories about the midnight launches, our feelings about the game in general and, ultimately, a really long discussion about the airport massacre level.

It's got a pretty good mixture of intensely immature humor and legitimate discussion, as most good Podtoid episodes do, so we hope you enjoy it.

You can listen to the show here or subscribe to us on iTunes.

[Editor's Note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.]

Last week, I recorded a rant in which I argued that gay characters have not been particularly well-represented in videogames. The subsequent discussion, while remarkably civil, included many variations of an argument I had not considered before: that explanations of sexual orientation of any kind should have no part in videogames to begin with.

"I don't know why a characters [sic] sexuality often even needs to be mentioned at all," commenter kefkaesque argued. "Sure everyone assumes Master Chief is straight because of how manly he is and because of the games he's in, but it's not like he ever goes around telling random characters HEY GUESS WHAT, I LIKE VAGINA."

While I can respect kefkaesque's point, I also completely disagree with it. Sexual orientation, especially in regard to narrative-driven games, is an important, honest, and useful aspect of characterization that can and should be explored whenever possible.

Hit the jump if you wanna know why.

_{Podtoid is Destructoid.com's official podcast.}

This is the best YouTube video I've seen all year.

Tonight, the Podtoid crew will discuss piracy, Modern Warfare 2, BioWare story structure, and other things. And if we don't find a way to mute Adam Dork, we'll probably talk about Jurassic: The Hunted's raptor-punching QTE's.

As is typically the case, we need listener questions. As is typically the case, you will provide them. A simple arrangement, I should think. Hit the jump and start asking stuff and maybe we'll answer it.

Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin' is a surreal comedy series made by Anthony and Ashly Burch. Once Upon a Pixel is a completely different series made by some of the same people. If you hate one, you may like the other.

Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin' is Destructoid's surreal comedy series about videogames and gamer culture. It's pretty good.

At this year's Penny Arcade Expo, Ash and I had a panel, and that was fun. During the panel, we got Rey Gutierrez to help us film an episode of Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin' using the audience as extras.

You can watch that episode here.

I'll say it now, just because I'm not sure if I said it anywhere else; the panel, and PAX 2009 in general, were both incredibly fun and the people we met were really cool. To be able to commemorate that weekend through an episode of our show is about as masturbatory as anything you can imagine, but we hope you enjoy the show anyway.

As always, you can discuss the show in the forums.

Just in case you haven't tried out the Left 4 Dead 2 demo yet, know this: it's good. After I finished writing a three-page diatribe on how the 24 hour delay for the PC demo incontrovertibly proves that Valve hates its customers and is, in fact, a Nazi corporation whose evil surpasses even that of Bobby Kotick's House of Baby Eating, I found myself truly enjoying the new weapons and the final "gauntlet" sequence.

And that can mean only one thing: it's time to start calling dibs.

Last year, I pre-emptively called dibs on Bill. In the months that followed the original Left 4 Dead's release, such dibs-calling served me well: I played as Bill more often than I did not, and the world was a better place for it.

With that in mind, I state the following: I have dibs on Nick.

Hit the jump to see why.

_{Every week, sort of, features editor (Reverend) Anthony Burch discusses games and gamer culture in his "Rev Rant" video series.}

Sorry about the lack of a rant last week. Camera was in the shop.

This week, I'd like to talk about portrayals of homosexuality in games and how they tend to be either really bad, or underwhelming despite good intentions on the part of the writers.

Relatively mild spoilers ensue for Persona 4, GTA IV, Polaris, and Handle With Care. Click above to watch the video, assuming none of that bothers you.

And, er, try to ignore the mirrored credits for this fanvid playing over the end of the video.

Finally, Podtoid's officially unofficial commentary track for Resident Evil is complete. We hope you like it, because it's the last commentary track you'll be getting for quite some time.

As always, you'll need to find a copy of the movie in question to really get anything out of this episode -- and even then, you'll probably still feel used by the end of the show. Don't say we didn't warn you.

You can listen to the show here or subscribe to us on iTunes.

As the Left 4 Dead 2 demo recently illuminated, some survivors in Valve's zombie-filled world are actually "carriers," people who can transmit the supposed zombie virus but are immune to the infection itself.

After a full five minutes of research, I have come to the conclusion that Bill, Zoey, Francis and Louis may, in fact, fall under this category. As much as we all love these four survivors, is it possible that with every step toward safety, they are unknowingly spreading the infection further?

Though nothing is certain and I fully hope that I am wrong, more evidence points toward the original survivors as infection carriers than I would really like to admit. By blasting their way through an infected wasteland, have the fearsome four actually made the world worse?

Hit the jump for our analysis.

_{Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin' is a surreal comedy series made by Anthony and Ashly Burch. They do a weekly podcast about the show, and everything else that comes to mind.}

God help the stream-of-consciousness style of these podcasts. A good portion of this week's episode will mean absolutely nothing to you, as you are (A) not, as far as I can tell, either Ashly or myself and (B) probably not intimately familiar with our friends. 

Still, there's some decent stuff in there. Bits about almost getting beaten up, and some good discussion about the Star Wars trilogy.

As always, you can listen to the show here or subscribe to us on iTunes. And hit the jump for a (very short) linkdump of the things we discuss on the podcast.

_{Every month, the Destructoid Monthly Musing topic gives community members the ability to have their work posted on the Dtoid front page.}

Evil.

It's ubiquitous. It's poorly-defined. It's sexy. And, depending on who you talk to, it's a common ingredient in most video games.

From Shadow of the Colossus to the (admittedly out of context) snippet of Modern Warfare 2 we saw a couple weeks ago, modern games are showing a greater willingness to force the player into compromising situations, and either ask, allow, or encourage them to do that which two decades of heroic plumbers and one-dimensional villains have implicitly taught us never to do: to commit evil acts.

Sometimes, games ask us to do evil out of necessity (Far Cry 2); sometimes, out of love (Shadow of the Colossus); and sometimes, because it's just plain goddamn funny (Dungeon Keeper). This month's musing topic is meant to make you consider how the concept of doing the "wrong" thing has infiltrated modern gameplay, and the subsequent implications.

Hit the jump for a further explanation of the theme.