The monster hunting science of The Witcher E3 demos are a sham Ubisoft’s mission to make open world game design as boring as possible Interesting voyeuristic vignettes in Watch Dogs The historical timeline approach to sequels Padded game lengths and pacing Suikoden is completely delightful Is mobile gaming really just different?

A very special Konami episode Profit margins versus creative change Time is a cycle, my man Are we still the target demographic for video games? What are Konami’s new business priorities, exactly? When was the last time Castlevania was good? Why Metal Gear matters Dissecting the oft-reanimated corpse of Silent Hill The murdered promise of … Continue reading Ep. 13: Up-Up-Down-Down-Down-Down-Down →

The pure logic puzzles of Hexcells Arcade, free-solution, and set puzzle types Digging through piles of puzzles versus getting things done Adam has some kind of problem with PixelJunk It’s okay to not finish games! Time lost as the key component of video game frustration Tower defense round-up How to play Civilization as an utter … Continue reading Ep. 12: Strap It to Your Head →

Adventures in cross-linguistic semiotics The containment and storage of paranormal entities Recreational construction and economic theory Privacy concerns in modern retail environments Zoning restrictions in late-20th century Detroit Access to education and social mobility The impact of meteorology upon urban horticulture International missing persons investigations Contemporary travel and cosmopolitanism The citizenship of Testudines Destination desirability … Continue reading Ep. 11: Donald Has $0.17 →

Freedom Wars gets explicit about unlocking gameplay features Dante’s Inferno: Hell doesn’t have to be this boring Adam grows as a person and faces his responsibilities Shirts and skins What’s up, Nick? Destiny takes off-putting lore encyclopedias to a whole new level Xenogears: Disc 2 Player level imbalances versus asymmetrical multiplayer design Loving the loot … Continue reading Ep. 10: He Was Bones →

PlatinumGames and The Wonderful 101 Hardcore shape drawing action Player grading systems and mastery So, how’s Evolve? Progression systems and balance in competitive FPS games Getting something from your loss DLC, pre-order bonuses, and season passes “Journalists” and their incessant hype engines Matt, change your goddamned smoke detector battery

The War in the North is ended Diablo 2 and replaying games for character development Also, Diablo 1 is better How to shoot someone with a tranq dart Missing the boat with older games Forgiving Silent Hill Namco’s loading screen mini-games Resident Evil 6 is an ambitious mess Where have all the quicktime events gone? … Continue reading Ep. 8: The King of Spreadsheets →

Sony got hacked or something Gaming in social media Middle-Earth: Genocide of Mordor Ubisoft’s radio tower formula Do quest journals ruin open world games? Playing the designer instead of playing the game Wait, no; it’s minimaps that ruin open world games War in the North deserves better than its PC port Payday 2 may or … Continue reading Ep. 7: We’re the Worst →

Papers, Please and the value of the mundane South Park and the psychologically manipulative Freemium business model Don’t Move, DLC Quest, and game satire Costume Quest 2 and overstaying your welcome Repetitive RPG battles and unskippable animations Adam trashes FF XIII and reads Vanille’s wikipedia article aloud Penumbra: Overture, The Evil Within, and the horror … Continue reading Ep. 6: Too Many Belts →

Can anyone tell us how to introduce a podcast? The difference between Rock Band and Rocksmith Adam reviews Shovel Knight Skye played Hyper Light Drifter Matt loves Ducktales, but it’s starting to feel like work Is Spacebase DF-9 done… or “done”? Early Access and the lure of the unfinished game FTL’s secret crystal crew member … Continue reading Ep. 5: Hype Deficiency →