News Archive
SC-E3: LIVE FROM THE SHOW FLOOR OF OUR LONDON FLATS!

Over 90 minutes of E3 wafflery await you inside the very first Stage Clear season break special. We cover all the best and worst of E3. There's lots of great stuff we're really looking forward to, there's some stuff we're watching carefully and hoping for the best and some stuff just has us pissing ourselves. (Well Rob specifically, it's a medical condition)
Enhanced iTunes M4A version (42.1MB)
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Stage Clear 15 - Season Finale

Eeek, our last episode comes a whole 4 days late. We've been partying it up to celebrate finishing our first season. So much in fact we forgot to record, edit and upload the final episode for you. Still no use crying over spilt chips.
In our season finale we cover moral choices in video games talking about inFamous, Mass Effect and Fallout 3. In bollocks of the week we look at a particularly stupid E3 rumour. In You Shouldn't Play This I defend the new Bionic Commando game and Rob tears apart the new Darkfall MMO. And in reader's comments we get into a fuss about Assassin's Creed.
So that's it. Well sort of. We'll be back next week with an E3 special and we'll be back again for another regular season of the show in roughly 2 months time.
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Stage Clear - 0d14h0m

Are you truly getting bang for buck? Actually are you getting any bang at all and do you really have any bucks? None of these questions will be answered, but we will be talking about the length of video games instead. So hopefully you'll be interested in that. If not there's a list of much better gaming podcasts down the left hand side of our web page.
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Reader's Question: "What game have you bought through hype and excitement only to find it utter crap?"
Stage Clear: The Movie XIII
This podcast was recorded in London, edited on a plane over mainland Europe and then (eventually) uploaded from a hotel room in Athens. Sadly all these international shenanigans haven't improved the quality at all.
This week we talk about film adaptations, specifically The Bourne Conspiracy, Wanted: Weapons of Fate, Godfather II, Riddick: Assault on Dark Athens and Wolverine Origins. There's a lot more but we've got a pool on the roof of the hotel so I'm not hanging around here to satisfy you guys.
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Normal MP3 Version (24.8MB)
Reader's Question: "What is the ideal game length for you? At what point is too short or too long?"
Your Podcast is in Greece
Hello plebians. It's Rob here. I don't normally post on the site, and it's taken me about ten bloody minutes to work out how the hell to make words appear here thanks to Perrin's utterly confusing software - so you better appreciate it.
We've actually recorded a podcast this week! It's very exciting, and full of videogames and swearing and references to school shootings and me calling Perrin fat (which is a bit rich, to be honest).
However, there's a slight problem. It's in Athens. So is Perrin. He's buggered off on some kind of "holiday", presumably because he needs a break from his difficult life of sitting around on his backside charging companies thousands of pounds per minute to listen to his whining, Northern voice. So he's disappeared off to Greece, bringing with him the laptop with this week's podcast on it.
He's the kind of sad bastard who likes working on his laptop while he's on holiday, so you might get lucky and have a podcast posted in the next couple of days. Or you might not. I really don't know. Tell you what, though - if we don't have a podcast in the next day or two, perhaps I should post an embarrassing personal fact about Perrin every day until it does appear? Hmm... Perhaps indeed.
No Podcast For Old Men
Sorry guys and gals, no podcast this week. A combination of bank holiday weekend picnics and boozing, my house move, Rob's exams, and chasing leprechauns for their Lucky Charms means we're not able to get together and record your weekly dose.
All subscription fees will be refunded. Oh wait, we do this for free you ungrateful shits!
We'll be back next week for more fun and games. Well... games at least. No fun allowed.
Stage of War 12: Real Time Action
A more topical broadcast this week as we take a gander at a selection of recent RTS games including Halo Wars, Dawn of War II and DemiGod. In bollocks of the week we have another dig at Joystiq and then despair over the Six Days in Fallujah controversy. In you should(n't) play this Rob praises indie brawler ZenoClash and Perrin takes potshots at J-RPG Eternal Sonata.
It's running a little over an hour again, I kind of suspect our days of aiming for 45 minutes are long gone as we've just fallen in love with the sound of our own voices.
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This week's question: "What do you like and not like about the podcast? How do you think we could improve it?"
Fake Tales of Alpha Centauri
So if this week's podcast isn't enough Stage Clear for you then you might be pleased to see we've added a bunch more episodes to our EVE Online Diaries. There are now a total of 7 mini-episodes and the last one even features a cameo by a giant meringue! We are so good to you guys.
Next podcast will be on Wednesday as always. We're looking at RTS games this week, so Rob and I have been hard at work on our homework to play a whole batch of that latest and greatest RTS games we could afford. So hard at work in fact Rob's PC has died, but it's all for the greater good.
SC +11: Area Effect
So let's take a look at what we have on offer this week. The podcast runs over an hour, Rob waffles on for ages about raiding in WoW, in bollocks of the week we go wildly off topic, in you shouldn't play this I praise a game I haven't even played, and in reader's comment you all prove to be very dull when it comes to MMO anecdotes.
Strangely enough though 5 wrongs somehow make a right, and the whole thing is reasonably entertaining. Well as entertaining as Stage Clear ever seems to be.
I hope you've all got a very long and delayed commute in which to "enjoy" this episode.
Enhanced iTunes M4A version (31.6MB)
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Reader's question: "What is the most frustrating experience you've had while playing a video game?"
Guest Starring
After the end of the recent podcast wars between ourselves and the boys over at www.sonicsring.com they invited us to join them as guests onto their show. Rob of course is far too busy and professional to do guest work without some kind of appearance fee. I however have nothing better to do be doing on a Sunday afternoon, so accepted their kind offer to let us screw up their show.
Their show is weekly chat about topical releases covering films, TV and gaming. The episode I appeared on can be found here: http://www.sonicsring.com/audio-podcast-16-professional
If the guys can make it down to London at some point we'll be relatively happy to return the favour and let them jump in on an episode of Stage Clear, but we don't do this whole Skype malarkey.


