Deep Listens

This might be one of the most surreal episodes of Deep Listens we've ever put together. One of the people Gino has been playing Magic: The Gathering with for years managed to make the Top 8 of Grand Prix New Jersey this year on a Cinderella run for the ages. Luckily, he was nice enough to jump on the show and recount how he found himself sitting across from MTG Hall of Famer Ben Stark. After discussing Kyle's tournament experience, he and Gino talk about Amonkhet and all of the cards and mechanics that stand out to them. Both of them articulate the decks they're looking to play and the cards they're expecting big things from. Hope you enjoy listening to this show as much as we enjoyed making it.

In this episode Billy, Gino, and Pete are joined by Oni speedrunner and all-around delightful person Alex Zandra Van Chestein to discuss Oni. You may know Oni as the game Bungie made before Halo, but it turns out that it has a bunch of alternatingly fascinating and frustrating design decisions that make for a very odd experience. Zandra walks the crew through how she speeds through the game and a bunch of the nitty-gritty details of Oni's mechanics. The gang also discuss Oni's bare-bones and improbable story. Spoilers: it's not great!

In this episode Chris "Zombiepie" -REDACTED- and Gino begin their discussion of Final Fantasy X! We discuss the voice acting, the sphere grid, and everything up to Luca. And somehow ZP manages to die in one of the first battles in the game.

In this episode Chris "Zombiepie" -REDACTED- draws Gino into a terrible, terrible free-to-play Final Fantasy game. We discuss how bad it is and how insidious it's gameplay is. We then rate it amongst all of the FF games we've played. Do we have a new number one FF game!?

In this episode Billy and Gino talk about some of their favorite experiences fro Pax East 2017. This includes getting lost outside of the convention center, shooting VR guns, and playing demo boardgames. We also talk an inordinate amount about video game wrestling.

In this episode Billy, Gino, Pete and Noelle discuss the end of chapter 4 and all of chapter 5 of Life is Strange. We cover all of the events in the game, some of the literary parallels that the game invokes, and Pete goes in on time travel mechanics. Needless to say Pete is not a fan of inconsistent time travel philosophy.

In this episode Gino, Billy, Pete and Noelle discuss episodes 3-4 of Life is Strange. We discuss a whole lot of spoilers, discover that Billy is a game-theory sociopath with a taste for blood, and that no one seems to think very highly of Frank. Can't get into much more without spoiling the game, but jump on the Life is Strange train and listen along!

In this episode Gino, Billy, and Pete are joined by Gino's sister Noelle to discuss Life is Strange. Part one only covers the events of Life is Strange's first two episodes. We dive into the mechanics, major story points, and the themes of the first two episodes of Life is Strange. Noelle also lends her psychology expertise to help add context to some of the mental health issues present in the game.

In this episode of Deep Listens, Pete and Gino sit down with Lars Korendijk and Thomas de Waard of Knuist & Perzik about their new game, Wuppo. In this interview we cover how Thomas and Lars met, got into game design, and founded their gaming company. We then discuss some of the nuts and bolts that make up Wuppo's gameplay, including some of their sources of inspiration (Grand Theft Auto comes up, believe it or not). After that we take a trip to spoiler town and go over some of the more intricate elements of Wuppo's story, including how they created the races in the game and some of the late-game story revelations. We wrap things up with a quick round of rapid fire questions about everything from theme parks to trains.

You can follow Knuist & Perzik at http://wuppogame.com and https://twitter.com/knuistperzik. 

In this episode Gino, Billy, and Pete discuss Hyper Light Drifter and all of the game's cool design choices. We cover the game's dash mechanics, it's sweet guns, and it's leveling system. We then focus in on the game's story and how it manages to communicate so much information without dialog. Pete and Billy wrap up the show by discussing the game's hidden language and how much Pete hates cyphers.