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Kole, Ben, Dennis, and David talk about West of Loathing, Hellblade, and we ask you which games you love to watch.

• For Honor exploit controversy.

• Swery65’s new game is called “The Good Life”. It’s about cat people.

• The Secret World might become a TV show.

• Magic’s new expansion will involve geocaching.

• What games do you like watching?

• Kole: West of Loathing.

• David: West of Loathing. Fortnite.

• Ben: Fidel. Factorio.

• Dennis: Hellblade.

An unloved sequel to a beloved game makes for some rough play, as the FF4 formula wears out its welcome.

While Takashi Tokita was working to update Final Fantasy IV for the Nintendo DS, he felt a longing to return to the Blue Planet and revisit the story of Cecil and the gang. What resulted was a strange plan: to release a sequel to an almost 20 year old game in episodic installments on Japanese mobile phones. By the time it arrived in America, nobody quite knew what to make of it, and neither do we.

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Links:

• More Man Than You Can Handle | Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! | Adult Swim - YouTube

• Cats In The Cradle-Harry Chapin - YouTube

• Golden Sun TV ad (full) - YouTube

After the Bill Berry left the band, R.E.M. had to make the biggest adjustment of their 18 year career. Previous reinventions happened on their own time, and at their own discretion. The shifts into clearer lyrics, into softer instrumentation, and into cocky rock were nothing compared to losing 1/4 of their band. The album that resulted from this labor, Up, nearly broke them up. But it shifted their sound into something more electronic and more produced. Does it stick the landing, or is it twisting in the wind?

Links:

• Radiohead W/ Michael Stipe - Lucky - YouTube

• R.E.M. - E-Bow the Letter (with Thom Yorke) - YouTube

• Country Feedback (with guest Neil Young) - YouTube

• Neil Young & REM - Ambulance Blues - Bridge Benefit, 1998 - YouTube

• R.E.M. - Falls To Climb (1999 Documentary) - YouTube

• REM Why Not Smile Oxford American version - YouTube

• Emphysema - YouTube

• Surfing The Ganges - YouTube

• REM Lotus (Weird Mix) - YouTube

• Leonard Cohen - Suzanne (Audio) - YouTube

• Draggin' the line by R.E.M. - YouTube

• R.E.M. - Lotus (Official Music Video) - YouTube

• R.E.M - Suspicion - YouTube

• R.E.M. - At My Most Beautiful (Official Music Video) - YouTube

• R.E.M. - Daysleeper (Official Music Video) - YouTube

Maybe FMV games are actually good and fun? That's what we've concluded after we played Sewer Shark, with Night Trap and Contradiction in mind. Though this is the most "game-like" of the FMV games we've played, the play is no great shakes. However, the low stakes, low production value approach to video like this lends to a kind of acting and presentation that is unique to games of this vintage and style. Listen for more.

Come and pitch a tentacle.

This adaptation came out of nowhere, but apparently it's been coming for a long time. Back in 2007, Konami reached out to Warren Ellis to write a movie script for them, adapting Castlevania to the screen. Ten years later, that movie became a Netflix series. And people seem to love it.

If only it was that easy. Because what we have here is a continuation of Summer Throwdown season, where our opinion is split on whether this is a good TV show, a good adaptation, or neither.

Kris and Kole talk about what happens after the end, delicate surgeries, and whiskey origins.

ALSO: The magic. Frosting Train. Let them play Cake. Inflat-a-bull. Self termination. Contacts and cataracts. Crows. Gonorrhea vaccine accident. Dr. Pepper fountain. Jack Daniels Origins.

Nick and Brayton battle some cats and heist some steamed worlds in this crackerjack episode.

We didn't know about the updated Rocko reboot movie when we recorded this, which is eerie.

Welcome to the Monstrous Manual's original sin.