Gaming Under the Influence @ Green Dragon CVR with Mike + Alex; Join us for a preliminary opinion on the Stream Deck & a discussion of Elden Ring’s endgame.

Join us this week for a discussion of some lesser-known titles launching in the spring of 2022 | PS5, Switch, PC

The Ghostwire: Tokyo episode. This week Mike & Alex delve into the many fantastic aspects of Tango’s recent game, touching on themes, worldbuilding, traversing the open world & the virtue of shorter video game experiences.

Mike & Alex are back with another casual conversation on the state of games in early 2022. Topics include early impressions of Strangers of Paradise, Salt and Sacrifice Beta, microtransactions and always online requirements in Gran Turismo 7

Mike & Alex spoke a month ago concerning the possibility that 2022 would be the best year ever for video games as a medium of artistic expression. The wild success of Elden Ring has shown this to be the case; while live service games launch to critical & commercial failure, From’s latest work has set records on metacritic & continues to top sales charts. Tune in this week for a causal conversation concerning what this signifies for the “industry” as a material cause for the creation of video game art.

Mike & Alex have a casual conversation about Strangers of Paradise FF Origin & difficulty settings in soulslike games, as well as their progress through Elden Ring.

Mike & Alex talk more about Elden Ring, while also exploring the highs & lows of Gran Turismo 7. Topics include our progress through ER, the circumscriptive simulation gameplay of GT7, its microtransactions & always online play.

So what the f*ck is going on in Elden Ring? Join Mike & Alex for an explanation of the history & events of the game. We describe characters, entities & the metaphysical themes present here that have reoccurred in all of Miyazaki’s games.

Elden Ring actuates possibilities latent in the soulslike genre & the form of movement it conveys. The circumscriptive melee combat & traversal that characterize the series have been employed to symbolize new modes of engaging with the vast world from has built here (mounted combat and increasing mastery of the expansive map via fast travel and healing refills are our central concerns)And what a world it is: as with the best souls games, a world rendered derelict by the contravention of natural order is the centerpiece here. The metaphysical questions of alterity and sameness prove to be Miyazaki's eternal preoccupations. The Lands Between are were wracked by the Shattering, a revolution of parts against the whole, demigods against the order of their divine parentage. The cosmos falls apart, Elden conveys, when the finite seeks to dictate a new order & universality premised only on its finite subject-position. The subsequent absorption of difference by sameness is explosive & horrific (Godrick).

2022 is on track to be one of the best years ever for the video game medium, with single-player releases scheduled from many of the best developers across genres & budgets. Join Mike and Alex for a look at currently-available titles like Pokemon Legends Arceus & Dying Light 2, as well as a dive into what is coming next.