Bored Certified Gaming Podcast

This week, Andy and Josh discuss a small and not highly-anticipated title that hopes to make some noise in the gaming world. Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War is the newest iteration in the hit FPS series, and this time, we're going back to the past! NO WAY! Who saw THAT coming?!?

The Cold War was a dumb time in American history, but apparently Activision thinks it'll make the perfect setting for their next game. They recently revealed a campaign trailer, and we dissected all 3 minutes of it! It's got action, adventure, stealth, and Ronald Reagan? The guys discuss their thoughts on the trailer, the game itself, and the state of Call of Duty as a whole. Is this a step back, or a leap forward for the franchise?

This week, Andy and Josh (begrudgingly) discuss Fortnite. The elder statesman in the battle royale genre has been no stranger to the headlines, and the court system, as people keep trying to sue them. This time, the tables have turned. It's Epic Games's turn to sue somebody, and they aimed high.

Apple and Google have been tech giants for decades, but they've become a bit stingy when it comes to their 30% developer fees on their respective app stores. Epic wasn't having it anymore, so they filed a suit and put out a smear campaign against Apple and Google. They wanted to get 100% of the money from the microtransactions instead of 70%. With the Epic Games store already established, they were already on their way to doing so. In response, Apple and Google took Fortnite off of their stores. If you take a shot at the king, you best not miss. Was this a dumb move, or will it work out in Epic Games's favor in the end?

This week, it's Andy and new cohost Josh! Josh is a former college athlete, so we thought we'd use his first episode to dive into the NCAA and the video games they stopped making a few years ago.

EA and the NCAA were the best of friends and had been pumping out sports titles like the University of Alabama puts out NFL players. They were each making tons of money, and we as gamers were reliving the college experience over and over again. Then some legal disputes got in the way, and everything stopped. What exactly happened? Will these games ever come back? What's preventing them from doing so?

We hope they can come back soon. I just want to be able to take my school to the championship, because they won't anytime soon without my help.

This week, the guys discuss Project XCloud. Microsoft is getting in the game streaming....game. Many have tried and few have succeeded, but that doesn't mean Xbox can't give it a go. Andy and Amar recap what game streaming is; run through how XCloud is different than its competitors Google Stadia, PSNow, and others; and give their personal thoughts on this technology's future in the gaming world.

Will Project XCloud be the new Stadia, or is there such a low bar that it can't help but surpass its predecessor? Is Microsoft making the right moves this time around, or is it a waste of money? CAN WE PLAY XBOX GAMES ON THE TOILET?!

Video games might be hitting their peak. Andy and Amar would know all about peaking, as they did it in high school. Just kidding. Computing power and graphics have been improving at a steady pace for decades, but that rate has substantially declined over time. The advancements we've made have paved the way for faster and better video game technology to be accessible to everyone, but everything plateaus at some point.

Have we reached that limit, or are there a lot more improvements to come in video game technology? The Xbox Series X and PS5 are going to be the next great gaming consoles, but where do we go from there? Is it going to be worth waiting even longer to get slightly faster processors and minimally sharper graphics? With the limits in the advancements of graphics and processing power seemingly being reached, will things like game streaming and VR take center stage?

This week, Andy and Amar discuss length. No, not that kind of length. The length of your favorite video games. It seems as though most video games aren't getting finished nowadays. These companies spend years and hundreds of millions of dollars making games like God of War, Red Dead Redemption 2, and The Last of Us Part II, just for people to only play a portion of them. Endings go unseen, and stories are only half heard.

Is it because games are getting to be too long and too in-depth? Is there simply too much stuff to do, or is there something else at play here? With the Xbox Series X and PS5 coming soon and budgets/costs rising, can game developers and publishers afford for this to continue? The guys go over an interview from ex-Sony CEO Shawn Layden, dive into some stats, and defend longer games a little bit. This isn't a video game, so try and finish this entire podcast episode.

This week, the guys talk about Twitch. Our big purple streaming overlords can't seem to get out of the news lately, no matter how hard they try. What was once a titan in the gaming industry now might be knocked down a peg or two based on how they respond to what's currently going on.

They're involved in a crazy lawsuit with a sex addict; they have a rising number of sexual harassment/assault accusations to address; they just banned one of their biggest stars for an unknown reason; and they might now have another substantial opponent in the streaming space with Mixer falling flat and Facebook Gaming absorbing it.

Andy and Amar get serious and discuss the ramifications of these news stories. One of them matters more than the others. Sexual abuse and harassment is not a joke; and everyone who is affected by it should be taken seriously and given a safe platform to speak about it.

Thanks for listening.

If you or someone you know is a victim of sexual abuse, call the National Sexual Abuse Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or go to https://hotline.rainn.org/online.

The day has come! We finally got to see the PS5! While assumed to be asleep at the wheel this whole time, Sony got off its butt and gave us some hard information that might actually complicate things come this holiday season. The Xbox Series X had all but released, and we still had no idea what the fifth Playstation would look like. Not anymore!

Andy and Amar discuss the entire PS5 reveal event, the games that were shown, and the look of the newest entry in the Playstation series of consoles. There are some cool titles, some interesting surprises, and some really poor choices on the part of the game developers. They're probably going to buy both an Xbox Series X and a PS5, but who comes first? That's the big question we're left with, and it's not an easy answer.

This week, the guys discuss Valorant. If you've been following video game news, you know what that is. If you don't, it's the newest first-person shooter from Riot Games. The creators of League of Legends decided to make a shooter, because everyone else has one. People are calling it a mixture of Overwatch and CS:GO, and they would be 100% correct. League of Legends is already massive, and now they're trying to have two of the biggest games out there. After what seems like a successful beta, will Valorant blow up; or will it all blow up in their face? Only time will tell.

For now, Andy and Amar can go over the beta statistics and Twitch numbers, give their overall impressions of the game, as well as discuss whether they think Valorant can do some damage in the current landscape of online shooters from a streaming and eSports angle. It's going up against the likes of Fortnite, Warzone, Apex Legends, and others, so it better come to play. Either way, the guys are excited to get a new shooter on their hands.

This week, Andy and Amar discuss something that no one really thinks about, but is absolutely essential to gamers everywhere. Controllers. That's right. Controllers. You thought we were going to say imagination or skill? Nah.

You're probably thinking to yourself how boring an episode on controllers can be, but just hear us out. We as players of video games are so used to looking at the screen, we don't care what's in our hands. We know where the buttons are, what each one does, and that's all we need. But that's the point here. We don't think about the impact that controllers have on our gaming experience or how they've changed over time, when we need them to play literally any game out there.

The guys go through the history of video game controllers and uncover an interesting narrative of sorts between the big gaming companies of the time. Competition breeds innovation, but it also might breed copycats too. There have been bad ones, awesome ones, and weird ones too. Some companies have kept their aesthetic, some change it up a little bit from time to time, and some have very interesting ideas about how hands work. Looking at you Nintendo.

We hope this episode will get you to look down at your hands once in a while and actually think about that piece of plastic you're holding. Without it, you'd really suck at video games.