Look! It's a blue moon! Must be time for another Explosive Alan Podcast! Apologies for our ongoing sporadic release schedule but, y'know, work and stuff. In this episode, we answer more of your pressing personal questions, celebrate news of the return of Micro Machines and LucasArts classics, create an unholy fusion of EGX and Blankety Blank, and hear what you have to say about Nintendo’s reliance on nostalgia. And here's a link to that survey we chat about: bit.ly/1tAwTTG

We've discovered the secret to making podcasts the easy way: just get other people to do all the talking. We ventured all the way to a slightly different part of London to attend gaming expo thing EGX AKA TEFKA Eurogamer Expo, and asked a whole bunch of listeners and developers to chat away about the games they're playing and the games they're making. We still do a bit of podchat, including news of a Tetris movie (A TETRIS MOVIE), an on-off-then-on-again challenge and an extensive Great Debate about the confusing Destiny.

Despite the title, we don't actually cover Microsoft's potential buyout of Mojang in any meaningful detail. Misleading, us? We do, however, let our tongues wag over Destiny, surprising Sherlock cameos, and the uneasy relationship between the gaming media and its audience. We're kindly assisted by the seemingly omnipotent Matt Lees. Seriously, he manage to post seven Tweets, publish a 2,000 word blog post and produce three YouTube videos while we recorded AND WE DIDN'T EVEN SEE HIM MOVE.

Sorry we're so late on this one, but we were busy figuring out how to melt down Gareth and Ash into a single uber-presenter. Unfortunately we just plain melted them (apologies to their families) so we got Julia Hardy to step in until we figure out a way to reconstruct them from the gloop that remains. We've all been there. We mask our sadness pretty well while chitting the chat out of news of new/New 3DS-s, hellish Saints Row expansions, Rise of the Tomb Raider's faux-exclusivity and celebrity gaming voiceovers.

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After all that exercise in Simon's takeover episode, normal service resumes as three-quarters of Team ExAl stay firmly on their behinds. And oh! The things we talk about. Destiny's friends-only raid policy, some fool trying to sue Sony, the re-return of Resident Evil, Yogsventures controversies, Simon not knowing who Dominik Diamond is (at least we do if he hasn't edited it out) and 'TV's' Dan Maher actually appearing on TV.

Happy birthday to us / Happy birthday to us / Happy birthday dear us / Happy birthday to us. Hooray. We celebrate our first anniversary in style - and that style is curiously similar to the format of the previous 34 episodes. The flab four discuss Yogscast controversy (not that one, the other one) and the baffling success of Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, attempt to identify popular cartoons dubbed into foreign languages and share your favourite gaming moments of the last 12 months.

Pull up a chair, dear listener, and eavesdrop on another hourish of candid chat between the Explosive Alan gang. We're a proper gang and all, with a base, secret handshake, bespoke bomber jackets and an arbitrary rivalry with another podcasting gang (Gardeners' Question Time). What have we got for you this week? Let's see... Hold on... Right. Something about Lindsay Lohan, a quiz all about Arnie and chat about gender segregation in eSports. We're sure we've managed to do something entertaining with all of that.

E3's almost enough of a distant memory to make any podcast dedicated to it seem totally redundant. Almost. The gang, this time joined by TotalXbox.com/OXM's Aoife Wilson, pick over the bones of the show and share their highs and lows. Is E3 best enjoyed from a distance, or up close and personal? Did workshy fop Dan have a better time than equipment-lugging workhorse Gareth? (Hint: yes) Do our listeners think that E3 is worth bothering with any more? Listen now for answers of sorts.

Our ongoing quest to get every member of Regular Features on the show continues with a special appearance from living human Steve Hogarty. We grill him about his trip to the annual EVE Online Fanfest in Iceland, pore over the latest news - including Mortal Kombat X, Battlefield Hardline and the Metal Gear Solid film - flagrantly rip off Just A Minute, and discuss the pros and cons of DRM.

Intro Lyrics: The power of hype is a curious sight/Helps a poor game sell, when it’s overpriced shite/Fogs the mind of pre-ordering types/Makes crap appealing, that's the power of hype/Promises broken, shattered dreams/You paid the price for day one DLC/Keeps embargoes late, mm, so the truth won’t out/Power of hype that eliminates doubt/You don't need footage of gameplay/Just need some concept art to make it rain/It's loud and expensive and it lies sometimes/And it plays trick with our minds/That's the power of hype

We were lucky enough to rope in Jon 'Log' Blyth (AKA Loggy B), recently departed Official Xbox Magazine writer and regular member of the highly irregular Regular Features podcast, before he departs for a new life as a publican. The whole gang is back together for the first time in what feels like forever too, so you really have no reason not to listen to this hot 'n' heavy five-man aural chatbang. Also: Kinectless Xbone fallout, Far Cry 4, Halo 5, People Can Fly's abandoned detective noir game, lullaby covers of pop songs and a sordid tale of Gareth exposing himself to Log's mum via social media.