Gaming Under The Influence

The nominees for 2020's Game Awards have been announced. Mike & Alex are here to explain why the bevy of western-style, anthropocentric games dominating the show in 2020 are inferior to last year's entries, and even to Japanese titles conspicuously absent from this list of 'Game of the Year' contenders. Including a discussion of why Half Life Alyx is awful in concept, the sentimentalism of God of War 2018 and why Nioh 2 should be GotY 2020.

Demon's Souls Remake is done. Alex and Mike are experiencing soulsborne withdrawl and are here to describe some recent entries in the genre to tide you over until Elden Ring. From the loot-based progression of Nioh 2, Gnostic worldbuilding of Mortal shell to the sci-fi horror of Hellpoint, join us for a jaunt through the best souslike games of 2020.

Alex & Mike have completed the Demon's Souls remake and are here to gush to you about how, with this incredible game, PS5 comes barreling out of the gate with the best console launch of all time. This is the same genre-inventing epic we fell in love with eleven years and one month ago, with a fresh visual interpretation courtesy of Bluepoint. Also featuring a brief discussion of the lightning fast hardware and fine user interface of our new PS5s. Cheers to next gen and the Soulsfam.

After Watch Dogs Legion, we dive into Ubisoft's next major offering. The aggressive monetization and loot-based progression appear to have been abandoned, in favor of a more conventional progression system the likes of which we encounter in Ghost of Tsushima and Horizon Zero Dawn. Cheers to the resurrection of Ubisoft.

Next gen is just a few days away. Mike & Alex are here to forecast the most exciting releases of November 2020, including PS5 games launching in the coming week. Thoughts on Demon's Souls Remake's modified healing system, Godfall's looter mechanics & settlement-building in Assassin's Creed Valhalla.

Mike & Alex discuss the endings of Ghost of Tsushima & Death Stranding before getting into the shockingly wicked Watch Dogs Legion. Includes an analysis of political content in the game, core loop, the near-future scifi cyberpunk dystopian depiction of London & the joy of flying in open-world games.

One of the boys (Alex) has finally finished Spiderman PS4. We get to talking about how central a great traversal mechanic is to open-world progression, the origins of our Final Fantasy fetish, the future of video game input mechanisms and all manner of wild subjects in this somewhat tangential episode we know you will enjoy.

Another uneventful week where new releases are concerned. But Mike has finally completed FFVIIR and we get around to discussing the history of (single-player) Final Fantasy combat mechanics since X, noting especially the similarities between XIII and VIIR. We also treat the magnetism and inner consistency a universe and story require to really PULL you through to the end of a beefy open-world experience.

We discuss the (non-)issue of Cyber-crunch 2020; another delve into the wonderful universe of Cyberpunk 2077 as presented by the "World of Cyberpunk 2077" book & some belated gushing over Death Stranding.

Gaming Under the Influence @ Green Dragon CVR; we discuss the games we would like to finish before we leave the 8th console generation behind; the nature & advantages of first vs second party publishing; vaporwave & dated video game graphics.