Deep Fried Gaming

One of the most hated games we've covered up to this point was the original Mirror's Edge from 2008. Its combat was clunky and poorly tuned, its story was borderline nonexistent, and the parkour that was the basis for the game was unsatisfying and lacked momentum. Great news, though: there's a sequel.

Here in episode 28 we are covering it. We discuss what made the original game so weak and how Mirror's Edge Catalyst improved or regressed from that original formula. There is a lot of ground to cover here. Combat, parkour, characters, story, and maddeningly clique tropes. All of these things fit tightly together in another compact Mirror's Edge experience, though the sequel is significantly expanded over its predecessor.

How does this game stack up? Is it better than the lackluster abomination of the first game? What lessons did Dice learn from their previous outing? Is Catalyst truly as generic and by the numbers as many reviews would have you believe? We discuss these questions and many more in this episode.

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro

7:30 The Questionable decision to review Mirror's Edge Catalyst

13:15 Why is Catalyst so degraded in comparison to the original?

21:00 Did Mirror's Edge Catalyst fix the issues of its predecessor?

25:55 A Look into Catalyst's Visuals

43:15 An ear to the Soundtrack and Sound Design

53:10 Getting Jiggy with the Gameplay

1:27:26 Analyzing the Story (Spoilers)

1:55:40 Recap and Summary (Spoiler Free)

2:02:30 Outro

Email any questions, game suggestions, comments, and hate-mail to [email protected]. They might get read on the show if deemed worthy..

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Episode 27 brings us to the Gloaming Galaxy. A small, fascinating galaxy inhabited by a race known as the Hearthians. The game is set up quickly and within minutes, you find yourself in a pair of Hearthian boots, suited up, and strapped into a rickety space shuttle careening through the ominous depths of space with the wonders of the galaxy before you.

The elevator pitch does not do justice to what this game truly sets before the player. Contained here is a very dense story, a lot to learn and a world of wonder and terror to be discovered. Who are the Hearthians? Where did they come from? Who built all the ancient, crumbling architecture strewn about on the various planets that orbit the sun? 

This is a dense game and to do it justice we dive into the story and break down exactly how it all plays out in the second half of the episode. If you are curious how all the pieces of Outer Wilds fit together, be sure to stick around to that portion of the episode to hear the fruits of hours of research. Please Enjoy episode 27 of the Deep Fried Gaming Podcast.

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro

8:15 Visuals

14:15 Soundtrack

21:30 Gameplay

35:00 Spoiler-Free Summary

36:40 (Spoilers) In-Depth Story and Lore Explanation

1:16:50 Final Summary and Wrap Up (Spoiler Free)

Email any questions, game suggestions, comments, and hate-mail to [email protected]. They might get read on the show if deemed worthy..

Also, check out our partner website at Harddrivesigma.com for articles, reviews, blogs, the Deep Fried Gaming homepage, and more.

Other socials:

Twitter https://twitter.com/DFGPodcast

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/deepfriedgamingpodcast/

Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLgHhIsuBnCZtys2Zq_dCaA

Episode 26 officially kicks off season 2 of the Deep Fried Gaming podcast. In it, we take a look at a game released only last year, in 2021. Created by a small team and funded through Kickstarter, Backbone is a game that proves to be ambitious and beautiful in many ways.

However, it is also a pretty stark reminder of how crowd-funding campaigns can kneecap a game even if a team has the desire and skill to bring their imagined experience to life.

In this episode, we discuss what makes this game so unique in the modern video game space as well as dig into what happened to cause such a promising title to become so badly tarnished. Join us as we investigate the clever, creative, and fractured creation and story of 2021's Backbone.

Email any questions, game suggestions, comments, and hate-mail to [email protected]. They might get read on the show if deemed worthy..

Also, check out our partner website at Harddrivesigma.com for articles, reviews, blogs, the Deep Fried Gaming homepage, and more.

Other socials:

Twitter https://twitter.com/DFGPodcast

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/deepfriedgamingpodcast/

Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLgHhIsuBnCZtys2Zq_dCaA

Pulling up late but not forgotten, here is episode 24. In this episode, we finish off our fourth retro game in the series: Jet Set Radio. It was released in the year 2000 for the Sega Dreamcast and later received both a sequel and Steam port. 

The theme, aesthetic, and environment of this neon splashed skating game is a true product of its time. It revels in 90s skate and street culture, focusing on a group of ragtag rebels as they grind their way around the fictional city of Tokyo-To, tagging everything in sight while fleeing from an angry police force. The game places an emphasis on movement and level navigation and encourages creative play to evade the fuzz as they try to put an end to your quest of vandalism. 

The game achieved a cult-classic status and is still played by some to this day, but what made it popular in the year 2000, and does it still feel fresh and fun today?

Timestamps:

Intro- 2:07

Visuals- 4:48

Sound- 8:50 

Gameplay-  13:41

Story- 40:36

Final Thoughts- 47:37

Email any questions, game suggestions, comments, and hate-mail to [email protected]. They might get read on the show if deemed worthy.

Also, check out our partner website at Harddrivesigma.com for articles, reviews, blogs, the Deep Fried Gaming homepage, and more.

Riding in on its witchy broom in 1998, Banjo-Kazooie landed on the N64 and was an instant classic. Besides being one of the best-known and most popular games on the N64, it helped popularize the 3-D collectathon platformer. The game spawned a sequel a few short years later which was even more ambitious and expansive, but the original's more focused and carefully crafted worlds tend to be looked on with more appreciation. What made this game so popular at the time and do these same quirks and qualities still shine like so many golden jiggies today, or have they been scuffed and scarred by the passage of over 20 years? We will dive deep and explore the worlds, collectibles, characters, combat, moves, and mechanics. Every Note and Jiggy will be overturned in our pursuit of objective truth and unbiased scrutiny. Also, Josh is biased regardless and will be severely nostalgia-checked.

Timestamps:

Intro- 1:20

Visuals- 5:30

Gameplay- 10:32

Sound- 36:59

Final Thoughts- 53:00

Email any questions, game suggestions, comments, and hate-mail to

Also, check out our partner website at Harddrivesigma.com for articles, reviews, blogs, the Deep Fried Gaming homepage, and more.

Another week, another high-profile release. From Software's Elden Ring has finally pulled into the station, and it's lugging behind it a string of 10/10 reviews. This game looks to be a real heavy hitter and one that will potentially change open-world games as we know them for the better. However, there's no denying the many issues plaguing it. These issues are present on nearly every platform to varying degrees, some more severely affected than others. Reports suggest that the only way to play Elden Ring with smooth performance is to play a PS4 copy on a PS5 Console. With this being the case, the question has to be asked: should this game have received so many perfect scores and accolades? Perhaps reviews have become too lenient towards games whose performance and optimization are sub-par. We discuss this issue and the possibility that gamers are becoming fed up with the lack of polish on new games and the day one patches that still don't fix glaring performance issues. 

We also take a ride on GabeN's Steam Boat and chat about the newly released Steam Deck. Who is the target market for this product and will it be able to properly compete with the Nintendo Switch? We offer our thoughts on the device and one of the more perplexing moves made by an early adopter.

Timestamps

Housekeeping- 1:40

Elden Ring- 6:23

Steam Deck- 19:01

Email any questions, game suggestions, comments, and hate-mail to 

[email protected]. They might get read on the show if deemed worthy..

Also, check out our partner website at Harddrivesigma.com for articles, reviews, blogs, the Deep Fried Gaming homepage, and more.

Kicking off our two-month classic game event is Ape Escape. A classic platformer from the late '90s developed for the original PlayStation. This is a bold game that took its job of selling the concept of the DualShock controller seriously, even if it didn't do the same for its story or its American voice acting. Further, it's quite polarizing when booted onto the forefront of our games roster over 22 years after release. Hop into this week's episode to hear why our consensus on this game is so split.

Timestamps:

Intro- 00:00

Visuals- 14:05

Gameplay- 22:15

Sound- 43:55

Story- 54:50

Email any questions, suggestions, or crude comments to 

[email protected]. They might get read on the show if deemed worthy...

Also, check out our partner website at Harddrivesigma.com for articles, reviews, blogs, the Deep Fried Gaming homepage, and more.