First up is their long-awaited Jonathan Coulton interview, released as a Steamcast Snack. The interview takes about half an hour, but it’s really informative. All of the questions asked are straight from the community – as Steamcast listeners and fans were given the chance to submit their questions prior to the interview taking place.

Then we have two podcasts in which they interview voice actors from the Black Mesa team! The first one is their Episode #67: “Perfect Voices”, featuring Kevin “Debeerguy” Sisk, who voices the Black Mesa Security Guards and the mysterious G-Man, and Mike “CornetTheory” Hillard, the voice behind the timid Black Mesa scientists. The second is a full-fledged Snack, in which the two are joined by another BM dev – Ben Truman, the team’s story lead. The three even share 7 exclusive voice clips from the mod! Great stuff if you’re interested in Black Mesa.

But that’s not all they have for us all! They are also doing a really cool give-away for a copy of Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar (donated by one of their fans, James, or “Ingsoc”, who gets extra points from me for having a nickname that references Nineteen Eighty-Four), a rare and discontinued book that chronicles the development and the design of Half-Life and Half-Life 2.

It’s an incredible book, and it’s pretty much turned into a collector’s item! So, what is this give-away about, you ask? Let’s take a look at the official page:

Write a (maximum of 1000 words) short story about the following: The adventures of Sam, Saurabh and Brad, three geeks who came together to form Steamcast through hardship, blood, sweat and tears.

Email your short story either in DOC, PDF, TXT, PAGES, ODT format or in the email body text to [email protected] with the subject “Book Giveaway 2011” before 30th September 23:59 GMT.

The prize is, of course, a copy of RTB; a letter of congratulations, signed by Sam, Saurabh and Brad; a free copy of any Steam Store game (limited to the cheapest version, excluding any publisher or multi-copy packs); and, on top of all that, you’ll be invited to participate, within a cameo appearance, in Steamcast’s 100th episode, where the full short story will be performed as an audio drama.

I won’t be participating, since I already have a copy of RTB, and having another copy would be rather counter-productive. Granted, I am nothing if not counter-productive, but I encourage you guys to take part in this great give-away! Of course, there are a number of rules, so check them out at the competition’s official page.

And last, but not least, Sam (or Flamov) has written a lengthy blog post about Steamcast’s 2nd anniversary, and just how much they appreciate all the support they’ve received over these past two years. Check it out over here, and be sure to read it all!

That’s all for this article, but they will be releasing an interview with the creators of the Portal fanfilm “Outside Aperture” later this week, and we will be covering that as well! It’s their first-ever video interview, so it should be pretty great!