Yo Videogames

Gamescom was... a little bit of a disappointment. There was ONE thing that excited us - Sable! So, we talk about that but then we move on to a question Kaiber asked on twitter.   "Do you think you can judge a game before you finish it?"   Also, I take a minute to commit film nerd blasphemy and rip a tiny bit on Kubrick. So, buckle up them buttholes and listen here!

You know what's two hours long and ranges in topics from CoD Cold War, to Netflix Video Game Docuseries High Score? This episode of the podcast. 

Love them or hate them, E3 and Evo were both touchstones for the gaming summer. And without them - gaming news has become a somewhat uncontrolled trickle instead of Gaming Christmas. Will these events be reborn post-pandemic, or are they dead and ready to be replaced?

This episode catches us up on a couple big talking points - Microsoft pushing back Halo, and basically launching with out any first party games, and Sony's recent State of Play.

Doodsauce suggested a topic on Discord that got us talking: What does a dev have to say to get you extra salty?   Me and Matt? Salty? Never!   Expect salt, tangents, and MORE SALT.

Normally we shorten the intro talk - mostly cus its us bullshi**ing and "warming up" kinda, and also they don't tend to be on topic, so I edit them down, but on this one I figured: quarantine is dragging on, maybe you'd just like to have the extra content and the conversation was good. Bout 25 minutes in we finally get to the topic which is: choosing favorite developers and throwing them into creating a game in a genre totally outside their previous catalog.

Xbox shows up with a boat load of games to announce - and while none of them are necessarily show stoppers - there are plenty to be excited about.

As we wait for next week, with a possible Nintendo Direct and Microsoft's big summer first party show - we find ourselves discussing Art with a capital A, story as a driving force for future games instead of game play, and whether remakes will take over here like they did in Hollywood.

An evergreen topic approaches! And yet, it's also topical for the time.   Today we are talking about satisfying climaxes, and what makes them so!

Nobody likes it, we all have to face it. Just gotta get over it. Does criticism have value? And if so, what? How do you address it? The last week has forced everyone in gaming to look one of the ugliest aspects of the industry right in it's eyes.

It's been an eclectic week - NGPX news, along with the announcement for a moba no one expected, and we discuss some thoughts on Last of Us 2.

We begin with a quarantine update on how we are surviving, or not. I might be losing my mind. But we jump into the real topic soon: Sony's ghosting its babygirl VR, right? No word about it, not real example of it surviving into next gen - that sh*@ is DED.

Sony for once has a pretty awesome presentation - we get to look at games, games, and more games! No hard release date, and no price point for the new console is a bit of a let down. But I am sure that once July roles around, we'll get both.

We start today's podcast with a brief statement of support for the protests currently sweeping the US and many other nations. We understand that for our listeners this podcast is an escape, however brief, from their daily lives. So, the rest of the episode is a normal episode all about choosing a director, and their filmography, to pick characters to populate a fighting game. Naturally there are tangents all about film, and culture.    Enjoy! Be safe, be kind, walk tall and shine on!

Today's episode is a lighter discussion about game ideas we want to see so bad, we'd give the whole damn thing away. Maybe you have an idea for a game, and it's a good one, so you're holding it close in case you ever get to make it... But then you have that idea you want to see so bad you'd give it to anyone who'd make it!    Here's a couple free ideas devs!

AI is being used more and more in games. More than I even knew. Games like Dark Souls use it for their bosses, so they learn the most common mistakes we make, and then they take advantage of it. It keeps the difficulty high, no matter how many times we play it. It's sort of genius. But what about for social games? What would it be like to haggle with Tom Nook if Tom figured out you're a shady dick, or a naive bumpkin? Would it be too real if that Fire Emblem Waifu turned out to be fickle, or vacuous and you've wasted your time because she got bored (that b***h, you're amazing!). That's what we talk about today!

What you see, isn't always what you get on a tech demo. Today we talk the good, the bad, and the possibly meaningless of Unreal 5 tech demo.

Okay.   So it wasn't very game play oriented, but there were a few gems that pleasantly surprised us.   And we have a wholesome new way to gauge our interest in games.

Naughty Dog got raw dogged by a disgruntled employee.   While we don't talk specifics of the leaks themselves, we do get into the circumstances, and the different types of leaks - like controlled, uncontrolled, and market test leaks. Sometimes companies do this on purpose.

How to define a perfect game? Well, to steal from James Gunn (and modify slightly): A game that sings from start to finish with no obvious mistakes or flaws to their structure or gameplay.   What games fit that description? You might be surprised, but some games we don't even like are on there.