Deep Listens

In this special episode of Deep Listens, we discuss our upcoming plans for the 7th annual Giantbomb Community Endurance Run! We discuss highlights from previous events, Billy and Gino outline some of their plans for this year, and Pete provides some constructive criticism. Warning: this podcast contains a startlingly long discussion of piñatas.

In this episode Gino, Billy, and Pete discuss Wuppo, a whimsical platformer from the Netherlands. We cover the game's endearing charm, nonsense nouns, ridiculous story, and tight action. There is a surprisingly long discussion about vomit apocalypses in this podcast and I'm not going to tell you why.

In this episode we are joined by Devin to discuss the latest Magic the Gathering set, Aether Revolt. We discuss the latest Standard bannings, Aether Revolt's new mechanics, and some of our favorite cards from the new set.

In this episode Chris "ZombiePie" -REDACTED- finally has his revenge for Gino forcing him to play so much Final Fantasy by making the crew play Jade Empire. We discuss the game's many technical problems, it's broken combat system, it's potential cultural insensitivity, and it's lackluster story. We are the last of our kind and are cursed with a terrible burden.

In this episode we crown our games of 2016 with such categories as: Game of Our Year 2016, Game of the Year 2016, Best Comedy, Best Drama, Best Action/Adventure, Best Culturally Inspired Game, Best Character, Best Soundtrack, Prettiest Game, Best Performance/Voice Acting, Best Mechanic, Worst Story, Best Twist, Billy's Grindfather Award, Gino's Platypus Award for Game That Should Not Be, and the John Paul Sartre Memorial Award for Game That Best Expresses the Ultimate Futility of the Human Condition (aka Pete's award).

In this episode Gino, Billy, and Pete discuss Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, butcher skater lingo, and generally act like shoobies. We cover everything from the level design, to who the target audience was for this game, to the crazy character creator. We wrap up by discussing the game's "sick" soundtrack. If I need to hear "When World's Collide" again I'm going to explode.

In this episode Gino, Pete, Billy, and Chris "ZombiePie" -REDACTED- finally finish FFIX! They discuss the game's many sidequests and it's final sequences. The whole crew weighs in on their impressions of the game as a whole, Gino opens up about why this game means so much to him, and ZP and Gino place FFIX in their ongoing Ranking of Fantasies. 

In this episode Billy convenes a discussion of his first D&D experience with D&D. He goes over how to get into the game and how he managed his first game as a DM. Photo Credit for Billy's takeover picture goes to Katelyn James Photography.

In this episode Pete, Billy, and Gino discuss Never Alone. We cover most of Never Alone's gameplay systems early on and quickly move onto its interesting cultural significance. We also discuss what it means for a game to be as much a documentary as it is a game and why a documentarian might choose to make a game instead of a movie.

In our third episode of our continuing series of podcasts on FFIX Gino, Pete, Billy, and Chris "ZombiePie" -REDACTED- discuss disc 3 of FFIX. We start out by taking everyone's temperature and admonishing Billy's crippling case of the grinds. Afterwards, we discuss every major plot point on disc 3 including Alexandria, Lindblum, the Desert Palace, Ipsen's Castle, and the grand events in Terra. I think we're all finally on board. Or at least on board enough.