Beat of the Month: Video Game Podcast

We interrupt your regularly scheduled Saturday to bring you an early episode of Beat of the Month! It's May 4th, so of course the special occasion is Star Wars Games! We've been playing Star Wars games all month long and The Beats crew has got quite the assortment of games to talk about.

We've got a quartet of old school games from the Atari 2600 with Star Wars Arcade and Death Star Battle, all the way up to modern day with Jedi Survivor on PS5. We also talk a bit about some Star Wars adjacent games like Mass Effect 3 (OK, loose connection but hey - space is space). We round things out with a bit of Fallout the TV show and of course some Star Wars trivia. So instead of watching the original trilogy for the 50th time, join us for some Star Wars gaming goodness!

As the earth cycles around the sun, we've made a complete cycle around the Beat of the Month crew and landed back at Muff's choice for the next deep dive. Featuring wrestling, bikinis, and an all female cast, it could only be Rumble Roses! I hope you saved your eclipse glasses since these visuals are so hot they'll burn your retinas! While there were only two games in the series (for PS2 and Xbox 360) the series seems to have gained a bit of a cult classic following. Obvious reasons aside, it also has a pretty solid wrestling game foundation. We get into the characters, the mechanics, the story - and more! And we've got some wrestling game trivia to end the round as well. So grab your popcorn, your sweat bands, (and if you must...your tissues) and join us for this deep dive into Rumble Roses!

Winter is over, the birds are chirping, and the weather is changing - but the Beat of the Month marches on! No wait, March was last month. For THIS month, we are looking at games featuring Mother Nature, since April Showers bring May Flowers! For the most part we've got games with rain such as Death Stranding and Arkham Knight, but we also sneak in some other weather related games in there as well. Not a single mention of Heavy Rain which seems like a missed opportunity, but what can you do - we all played that game already!

Think you have a better idea than games about rain? Well, you might be on to something... If you have any episode suggestions, please send us an email at [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you!

It's March Madness and Women's History Month, so what better way to celebrate than having a 64 bracket tournament of the best women in gaming! The Beats crew each took our favorite choices as well as some fan picks, randomly assigned them to the bracket, and then went through each of the match ups to pitch our cases for a final winner. Some heavy hitters got eliminated early, some obscure contenders stayed longer than expected, and some arguments got quite heated! Does Sonya Blade have more of the public eye than Princess Zelda? Is Malenia from Elden Ring more than just a meme? Find the answer to these questions and more!

This episode the Beat of the Month crew are focusing on a topic we know all to well - madness! These are games where the main character is going crazy or maybe were already insane to begin with. We've got some oldies covered such as Loaded for the original Playstation, 2000s PC game American McGee's Alice, the original Alan Wake, and more! We also cover some odds and ends that are a little less maddening such as card game craze Balatro and hear from some adventures in thrifting. So even if it isn't cold be sure to grab your straight jacket and join as for a maddening episode!

Also, please keep a look out for social media posts where we will be asking YOU to contribute ideas for our March Madness bracket of best women in gaming!

With all of the news recently with Xbox and Sony and their future plans, the Beat of the Month crew take some time to reflect on the current state of the games industry with some general discussion. Sound boring? You couldn't be more wrong! Tensions run at their all time highest causing one Beats member to leave mid-episode. But before those shenanigans we take a look at our memories with the very first original Xbox and the early days of Xbox Live. We also kick things off with some Xbox trivia. Why would we have trivia at the start of the episode anyway? Inquiring minds want to know...

With the release date of Dragon's Dogma 2 quickly approaching, the Beats crew decided to take a deep look at the original game to see what all the hubbub is about! This episode is all about Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, and we have quite a bit to unpack with this western style RPG made by Capcom. We start out with an overview of the series, a look at the game's mechanics - including the very unique Pawn system, and then a walkthrough of the main quest. It's a unique episode this time since while most of us were completely new to the game, Moose was here to guide us through some of the aspects of the game that we didn't fully understand. Affinity? Items Spoiling? Fast Travel? As I mentioned, there is a lot to unpack! And you better unpack lest you want to be overencumbered... And as usual we have some Dragon's Dogma trivia at the end to wrap things up. So bring your favorite rambling pawn and join us on this deep dive of Dragon's Dogma!

We are easing into 2024 with this episode by playing anything we want! That's right - no theme, no deep dive, no pressure - just playing whatever we had in the old backlog or wanted to wrap up from 2023. As expected it's a hodge podge of games ranging from Sonic Superstars, Mass Effect, Returnal, Spider-Man 2, PSVR2 games, and more! We've also got some 'anything goes' trivia which seemed like a good idea at the time, but well, maybe a little focus is a good thing...

If you have an episode suggestion for us for 2024, please send us a note at [email protected]!