Emotive Pixels - All Podcasts

Emotive Pixels - All Podcasts

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Emotive Pixels - All Podcasts episodes

  • HackNet (2015)
    This podcast is part 2 of 2 in our Hack and/or Net series. This week's title comes 13 years after the original magnificent Uplink that really forms part 0 of the hacking series, but that's not what's important because what is important is games that share flipped versions of the same name. But I don't want to rush ahead of myself and spoil anything.

    Listen along this week as we delve into a superindie hacking game with ridiculous open domain synthwave hacker soundtrack accompaniment as you hack fried chicken establishments and college records databases. It's fun, but only mildly dangerous, much to our chagrin.

    Relevant links!

    • RETICULATING SPLINES!
    • Danger! High Voltage! by Electric Six

    The theme this week is "Total Bae" by Brink, from chipmusic.org.

    1 hr 11 min
  • NetHack (1987)
    NetHack is a 1987 text adventure game that's stood the test of time, surviving countless ports and interface changes. How does it hold up, and what is its depth? Each of us will give a dramatically different answer to that. Join us today around the campfire as we share our stories.

    The theme this week is "NetHack" by Rob Balder, parodying of course the Butthole Surfers' "Pepper" - more info at his website.

    33 min
  • Evolution Studios Retrospective (Driveclub & MotorStorm)
    Active from 1999 to March of 2016, we (Craig and resident racing nut Nate) hope you haven't forgotten the contributions of famed British racing developer Evolution Studios. And to wit, we've reviewed 3 MotorStorm titles, and the infamous Driveclub. We won't spoil much here, not even the plot of Apocalypse, but we will talk at length about the physics and overall appeal of each game. And we also discuss The Crazies. And Slam. And Pendulum & Monument Valley and other great places, most of the rest of them digital but not entirely fantasy.

    We even reference Split/Second, which is the first time that game has ever been mentioned, ever, let alone by us! RIP Black Rock too.
    Plus, a new segment!: Would this game be better with mechs? (The answer is always yes.)
    We also cover the odd link between Evo boardroom conversations and Fast & The Furious.

    The theme this week is "Red Riding Hood" by Klamm, from chipmusic.org.

    Cover image (website only) is, unaltered, from Driveclub's photo mode, courtesy our host. Protip: put your PS4 into PNG screenshot saving mode.

    1 hr 46 min
  • Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (2011)
    This week, we take a look at Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, the third title in the series, and one we found somewhat forgettable - until we took a second look, some of us in the Uncharted Collection on the PS4. This time, we're heading to the Rub' al Khali, as mentioned in the Quran and the works of T.E. Lawrence. Is it really fair to call this the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull of the Uncharted series?
    1 hr 52 min
  • Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (2013)
    This week, one bold host claims this is the best JRPG ever and that all others are stupid. The entire cast disagrees with both points.

    Okay seriously though. Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is a lengthily-titled Studio Ghibli (yes, the Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle folks) role-playing game in the Japanese style, like Final Fantasy but prettier and more sensible but also more childish. You play as Oliver, a charming young boy who is taken to another dimension by his stuffed animal after he cries upon it. Yup. And in this fine another world, there are Pok-- err, familiars to be tamed, caught, and battled! Yup.

    Relevant link!

    • Yahtzee says: Zero Punctuation review
    1 hr 31 min
  • Game Of The Year 2015

    Join us this week for an unpredictably-temporally-allocated game of the year discussion spanning unpredictable bounds of time - for here, we aren't reviewing games released in 2015, but instead games we've uploaded podcasts about in 2015.

    There's 29 items to be voted upon and the vast majority of them slide by like buttered diskettes gliding down an icehill, but the in the final three discission becomes clogged and horrific, like a 6-car pileup sliding down a buttered icehill.

    We also play a game wherein we assign one game to each person in the group; what fits them most, what really matches up with someone, you know? I, the omnipresent but conspicuously absent Producer Or Editor Person, am given Cities: Skylines, with so little fanfare that I don't honestly think anyone even spent a full mental thought cycle on it. For the other group members, things take a slightly devious turn.

    All this and more in this, what would turn out not only to be a great year for us, but a great year for games as innovation, accessibility, and representation soar to new heights that we are somehow still reminded are only just the beginnings for this industry and us younguns here in Seattle & Denver.

    1. Southpark: TSOT - Brian Pachucki
    2. Hotline Miami
    3. Uncharted 2 Among Thieves
    4. Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc - Alberto Orejel Malfavon
    5. Until Dawn
    6. Spec Ops: The Line - Craig Schuemann, Tyson Lambert
    7. Her Story
    8. Uncharted: Drakes Fortune - Will Atkinson
    9. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor
    10. Shovel Knight
    11. Sunset Overdrive - Pauly Kroll
    12. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter - Tien-Ju Yu
    13. Bastion
    14. Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number - Sy Donovan-Smith
    15. Far Cry 4
    16. Everybody's Gone to the Rapture
    17. Walking Dead Season 2 - Megan Paulson
    18. Frog Fractions
    19. Device 6 - Esteban
    20. The Fall
    21. Sim City 5
    22. Cities: Skylines - Nate Stevens
    23. Endless Legend
    24. The Order: 1886
    25. Sins of a Solar Empire - Matthew Sassu
    26. Civilization: Beyond Earth - Geoff Gariando
    27. Uplink
    28. Fallout Shelter
    29. NCIS: The Video Game
    6 hr 33 min
  • Until Dawn (2015)
    There's a lot to talk about this week as we inspect Supermassive's wild horror adventure, Until Dawn. This game is fun and only mildly quick-time-event-driven, but we come away feeling a lot more positive than you'd expect if you'd listened to our (admittedly early) Heavy Rain spoilercast. We also feature some lovely excerpts of a lengthy edition of Will's Gripes(tm), this time about character animations and use of the word 'garbage', was it?

    All that about the actual content of the episode is a bit of a moot point though, because we have a new crew member as of this episode, dear Pauly! He's kind of the best.

    Relevant links!

    • Probably from Bradbury: the actual 'butterfly effect'
    • The Butterfly Effect: an actual movie
    • As "How I Met Your Mother" shows us, a reference or two
    • The Nintendo "Vita" a.k.a. the Vitality Sensor
    • How hard is it to steady that Lightbar? Let's find out by pendulums and girls in the bar. Try to keep it still!
    • Podcast recommendation & backstory: Lore podcast episode 18: Hunger Pains about the 'villians' of this game
    • Still need to read it: Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
    1 hr 27 min
  • Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009)
    There really isn't enough space to talk about Naughty Dog's Uncharted 2, the (spoiler alert) fantastic sequel to Nathan Drake's first adventures through the (spoiler alert/debatable conclusion) wendigo worlds. This game sees Naughty Dog and writer Amy Hennig at their utter strongest with plot and pacing good enough to keep even Will satisfied, right alongside so many millions of movie-style-game-hungry players that have played it since, so much so that you can now get your grubby hands on the PS4 remaster 3-pack - for all the peasants who weren't into these games back when they were cool on that weird 8-core PS3!

    We talk a lot this week about plot and the femininity and feminism of both Chloe and Elena and we duke out who is the cooler of the two. There are no winners, as usual around these parts. We also discuss mysterious absences through the plot, iconic scenes, the train scene, Transformers spoilers, and, of course, everbody's favorite segment, Will's Gripes(tm).

    Relevant links!

    • Probably the greatest music video of all time, The Chemical Brothers' "Star Guitar", fresh with train scenery
    • Well, okay, John Williams didn't quite invent the refrain; someone in 1595 did, but I still don't like him for it
    • Extra Credits on videogame music past and present: why it was better then
    1 hr 49 min
  • The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (2014) vs. Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (2015)
    What do these two games have in common? More than you'd think, and that's their abstract surrealism, the magicality of their wonderful worlds, and the gorgeousness of their graphics. Seriously, play both of these games and join us this week as we discuss their finer points, and how spiritual you really are in Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, and how alive you are in The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.

    Relevant links!

    • GamesRadar: "How to Enjoy Rapture: A real Englishman explains"
    • On The Vanishing of Ethan Carter's ending: references and more by The Astronauts
    • Ethan Mars from Alfredo's favorite Heavy Rain
    2 hr 13 min
  • Sins of a Solar Empire (2008-2011)
    This week, we all sat down to play each other (or mostly, to collectively fend off expert Will) in Ironclad Studios' Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, which is a hybrid 4X and realtime ("RT4X") strategy game all about managing a spacefaring empire in the far-flung future. And of course since it's a 4X, you battle each other. And of course since it's a 2015 game, there is no campaign-- wait, this game first came out in 2008?! Ahead of its time!

    We discuss our experiences, 4X play strategies in general, and generally rib each other about the inevitable outcomes of our two games together - with about half of us being completely fresh to the game.

    Relevant links!

    • Who needs backstory?: enter Gratuitous Space Battles - a game where you stage a space battle and watch the ensuing carnage
    1 hr 1 min

About Emotive Pixels - All Podcasts

From the publisher's feed

Each month we take some time to get some drinks and talk about games until our hearts' content.