Not a whole lot's happening during the gap between Gamescom and PAX, and yet we somehow found a way to fill more than 100 minutes with chatter about great actors who slummed it in games, next-gen console release dates, and your most favoritest weapons of 2013.

For no other reason than that a listener suggested it, we spend a fat chunk of this week's episode dissecting five games that changed radically during development, often into (or away from) something that completely defied our expectations — and, in a few cases, changed the course of gaming history. (Thanks, Odie Esty!) Since this is also the biggest week for retail game releases in a while, there's quite a bit of talk about Saints Row IV, Splinter Cell and The Bureau: XCOM Declassified (among others), along with a look at your favorite indie/smaller-budget/download-only games.

You can never have too many musical episodes, right? This week, we give a listen to five bands that exist only in their respective games (counting down our favorites as we go). There's also some talk about Luigis and clown heists, a little bit of fawning over just-released indie game Papers, Please, and a look at the games people nagged you to play so much, you didn't want to play them anymore. (WARNING: We may nag you about these.)

With the release of Pikmin 3 this week, it's high time we paid tribute to the great unsung heroes of gaming: disposable minions. Specifically your disposable minions. We also have a lively discussion about Dragon's Crown's extreme stylization, chat a bit about Phil Fish and online abuse, and explore your ideas for kaiju games.