Infinite Cities

Is this it? Did we find a game that everyone enjoyed (minus Gary, who wasn't present for the recording)? Or is it just that building a town is fun for the first 2 hours, every time? Join us as we untangle why Against the Storm might be the perfect cozy game for three of us.

In this episode: Warcraft 3 is retro, it's (not) Rain World, Mario Kart rubberbanding, 3x speed vs 1x speed, sucking up bricks, Dwarves/beavers, city-builder boss fights, Aunt Lore-i.

~shoutout zone~

blame Feather for this

~~~

Our theme music is Glass Half Full by the incredible Cliff, you can find him on Bandcamp!

Want to shout about the episode? Join us in the Infinite Cities Discord!

You can find us on Twitter, and if you want to link to us, you can catch us at https://infinitecities.libsyn.com/!

We are featherwings, willofchris, karpskryparn, and thegaryroby, and we are Infinite Cities. 🌆

Maybe it's because Feather's PC is nearly old enough to qualify as retro, or maybe it's because Against The Storm reminds us of PCs classics like Warcraft 3, or maybe it's just because Will, Karp, and Feather are all retro hardware nerds, but whatever the case - we're talking through the history of video game consoles, starting from the very beginning!

In this episode: play pitfall I guess, more bits means more better, we get stuck in pits repeatedly for our own edification, ironically I enjoyed ET more than pitfall but that's because I am a broken human being, DRM saved video games, sonic is bad, the SNES is boring, the N64 was so goddamn ugly, we pause our nostalgia bait episode to complain about nostalgia bait, if you love games so much name every Xbox.

~shoutouts zone~

Long Island Retro Gaming Console Timeline

Play pitfall (loud)

The Game Boy that survived the gulf war has been removed from Nintendo New York (also as context, apparently they did have to replace the screen, so add a tally mark to the "possible" column)

Gain Ground unironically rules and had some really cool ideas

Tom7: Reverse emulating the NES to give it SUPER POWERS

Realmz

How the Nintendo Wii was hacked by a pair of tweezers

Elevator music is by Joren de Bruin, referencing work by Clark Powell. It is still used illegally, but with love.

~~~

Our theme music is Glass Half Full by the incredible Cliff, you can find him on Bandcamp!

Want to shout about the episode? Join us in the Infinite Cities Discord!

You can find us on Twitter, and if you want to link to us, you can catch us at https://infinitecities.libsyn.com/!

We are featherwings, willofchris, karpskryparn, and thegaryroby, and we are Infinite Cities. 🌆

HEY ITS REKKA HERE TO WRITE THE EPISODE DESCRIPTION

HI FI RUSH IS A MONSTER OF A GAME! YOU WANT MECHANICS? ITS GOT TWICE AS MUCH MECHANICS AS THE NEXT GAME! YOU WANT STORY! YEAH THERES A STORY! YOU WANT MUSIC? WELL FUCKIN' GOD DAMN THERES MUSIC. YOU WANT PLATFORMING? WE MADE THE PLATFORMING SO BAD YOU GET TWICE AS MUCH PLATFORMING PER PLATFORM!

THE ONLY PODCAST THAT CAN HANDLE THIS MUCH GAME IS THE KIND OF PODCAST THATS LOUD, CHAOTIC, AND FULL OF TOO MANY IDEAS ALL AT ONCE COMPETING FOR YOUR ATTENTION! JUST LIKE THIS ONE! QA PASS!

IN THIS EPISODE: STREET FIGHTER COMBO LISTS, FLAILING AROUND, I'M HERE TO CHURN NOT TO LEARN, UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ, ALLERGIC TO SWEDES, THESE IDIOTS SPOILED THE ENTIRE GAME INCLUDING THE ACT THREE TWIST BUT IT'S NOT A PROBLEM BECAUSE ITS ALL SO OBVIOUS AND STUPID EVEN I SAW IT COMING, CHAI IS TOO MUCH OF A WIMP TO BE A HIMBO, WHAT THE HECK IS A MICROSOFT ACCOUNT YOU WON'T CATCH REKKA WITH ANYTHING MICRO OR SOFT!

ed note: genuinely we do spoil the game's plot without warning, including details of the ending, but we genuinely promise this is not a serious story and it really is fine.

~SHOUT ZONE~

SOME OTHER GAME THAT'S PRETTY COOL BUT KIND OF WORSE IN A WAY THAT IF I THINK ABOUT TOO LONG I GET SAD

A DIFFERENT GAME THAT APPRECIATES HELLA DEATH ROBOTS HELL YEAH

SOME NERDS TALK ABOUT THE NEXT GAME

~~~

THE THEME MUSIC IS GLASS HALF FULL BY THE INCREDIBLE CLIFF, YOU CAN FIND HIM ON BANDCAMP

WANT TO SHOUT ABOUT THE EPISODE? HELL YEAH JOIN US IN THE INFINITE CITIES DISCORD

YOU CAN FIND THESE NERDS ON TWITTER! IF YOU WANT TO LINK TO 'EM YOU CAN USE HTTPS://INFINITECITIES.LIBSYN.COM/!

THEY ARE FEATHERWINGS WILLOFCHRIS KARPSKRYPARN AND THEGARYROBY AND THEY ARE INFINITE CITIES 🌆

Old-school roguelikes have a long and rich history of being some of the earliest games that are updated to this day, so there's some things to talk about. Join Karp and Feather in this mini episode!

In this episode: The Berlin Interpretation (is a meme), the potato chips of conversations, don't spend $3 on Rogue, Nethack, Dwarf Fortress, the schoolyard-rumour-game of the 80's computer science scene, being in development for 40 years, Crawl, 7-day Roguelike Challenge, degenerate strategies, Noita, Mystery Dungeon.

~Shoutouts Zone~

DoshDoshington - A Game Called ADOM and the Legacy of Roguelikes

~~~

Our theme music is Glass Half Full by the incredible Cliff, you can find him on Bandcamp!

Want to shout about the episode? Join us in the Infinite Cities Discord!

You can find us on Twitter, and cohost! and if you want to link to us, you can catch us at https://infinitecities.libsyn.com/!

We are featherwings, willofchris, karpskryparn, and thegaryroby, and we are Infinite Cities. 🌆

Fall of Porcupine is a story about being a doctor that hits all the beats you might expect. The angry jaded old mentor, the competent and hardworking nurse, the first death on your watch, the finding a place in a small town. It's not humerous (like Scrubs), or charming (like Scrubs) or even super compelling (like Scrubs), but maybe there is something in its gentleness?

It is also, notably definitely and absolute not Night in the Woods. The comparison diminishes both games. Which is why we talk about Night in the Woods about eight times per minute (lol)

content warnings: fall of porcupine takes place in a modern hospital, and includes illness and character death (as well as a surprisingly detailed injection minigame!). Our discussion covers the plot and talks about death, the medical system, end of life care in particular, and the pandemic. There is also a description of consumption of extremely non-edible items from 22:00 to 22:20. There are extended Fall Of Porcupine spoilers from 18:00, covering the entire plot through the ending.

In this episode: it's not night in the woods, that perfect hill, so many game comparisons (many unfair), we need to spoil the entire plot, the awkward space between "fantastical cozy" and "realistic commentary", the power of a good minigame, death, so much potential, what even happened in the end.

~shoutouts zone~

Trauma Center BGM: Gentle Breeze

Scrubs

Remap Radio Interview: Blasphemous 2 and Hi-Fi Rush

~~~

Our theme music is Glass Half Full by the incredible Cliff, you can find him on Bandcamp!

Want to shout about the episode? Join us in the Infinite Cities Discord!

You can find us on Twitter, and cohost! and if you want to link to us, you can catch us at https://infinitecities.libsyn.com/!

We are featherwings, willofchris, karpskryparn, and thegaryroby, and we are Infinite Cities. 🌆

We've got a long game this week, and it's for our first turn-based rpg of 2024, Sea of Stars! Feather played like, 5 minutes and proceeds to talk a lot of mad shit before Will, Karp, and Gary gush over every little thing we can. 

in this episode: two wooden boards of protagonists, feather knows none of the nouns, combat chat, shoopdawoop, timing attacks and blocks, we'll get to garl, parfaits are delicious, anyway garl, feather has more hot takes first, sea of stars is a really good one of these, more about garl, b'st is the best,  we've reassigned him brugraves, boating across the sea of stars, it's all flesh, the archivist is an alchemist, people who arent pro-teaks are wrong

~shoutouts zone~

The Making of Sea of Stars 

Autumn Hills is the Same in Sea of Stars and The Messenger 

Sea of Stars 3D transition 

Garl Punches the Fleshmancer in the Fucking Face (spoilers) 

That AMV Feather Was Talking About 

Castle Vader 

~~~

Our theme music is Glass Half Full by the incredible Cliff, you can find him on Bandcamp!

Want to shout about the episode? Join us in the Infinite Cities Discord!

You can find us on Twitter, and cohost! and if you want to link to us, you can catch us at https://infinitecities.libsyn.com/!

We are featherwings, willofchris, karpskryparn, and thegaryroby, and we are Infinite Cities. 🌆

It's been a pretty wild year, and despite everything that's happened we're glad to still be here, poddin' through it! What better way to mark another year behind us than with a joyful look back at everything we've played? It's the game of the year countdown!

In this episode: the Rest In Piss award, we can't count to five, the big countdown, an interlude about bikes, the absolute uncontestable objective best game of all time for 2023, honorable mentions, podcast resolutions (it's more games).

Editor's note: despite Gary's best efforts, all major spoilers have been redacted - listen freely!

~shoutouts zone~

Slipways

Please Touch The Artwork

People Make Games: Investigation: Who's Telling The Truth About Disco Elysium?

Justice League Minute 156: Listen to Gugino -ed note: you don't need to listen to the other 155 eps I promise in fact you shouldn't watch Justice League either :^)

Elevator music is by Joren de Bruin, referencing work by Clark Powell. It is used illegally, but with love.

~~~

Our theme music is Glass Half Full by the incredible Cliff, you can find him on Bandcamp!

Want to shout about the episode? Join us in the Infinite Cities Discord!

You can find us on Twitter, and cohost! and if you want to link to us, you can catch us at https://infinitecities.libsyn.com/!

We are featherwings, willofchris, karpskryparn, and thegaryroby, and we are Infinite Cities. 🌆

Control is behind us, and it's been a minute since we've been this conflicted about a game. Is the plot fantasic, or literally nothing? Is the combat great, or kinda tedious? Is this game making a statement, or did they just forget to put in a final boss? We're not sure! 

All we know is all games should have a rocket launcher this good.

In this episode: getting into it, you don't have enough clearance to view this level of the spoiler onion, the ezam yarthsa, flaws of the jukebox, the pure love between a girl boss and her bottomless rocket launcher, red and grey, Ahti remains the best, a "there's some shit" game, the fourth and final layer of the spoiler onion, the gaming equivalent of an orange in the shower.

~shoutouts zone~

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Unusual_place_names

That's it, that's the only shoutout.

You want more?

Uh, watch this I guess: [SFM] G-Man - Once in a Lifetime

~~~

Our theme music is Glass Half Full by the incredible Cliff, you can find him on Bandcamp!

Want to shout about the episode? Join us in the Infinite Cities Discord!

You can find us on Twitter, and cohost! and if you want to link to us, you can catch us at https://infinitecities.libsyn.com/!

We are featherwings, willofchris, karpskryparn, and thegaryroby, and we are Infinite Cities. 🌆

It's our first off-week "mini" episode (if you can call a 2 hour runtime mini), so Will and Gary sat down to talk about open world games, the history of the genre, and our experiences playing them!

in this episode:  the first open worlds, the legend of zelda, hydlide, sierra online, super mario 64, rareware games, donkey kong 64, teeth gang, assassin's creed, bethesda games, rockstar, do your homework, the witcher, new vegas,  red dead redemption 2, skyrim, starfield, no man's sky, elden ring, you literally can go to that mountain, breath of the wild, the longest bridge you've ever seen, the joy of discovery, go play a short hike

~shoutouts zone~

Hbomberguy talks about playing Donkey Kong 64 

Runbutton - Shenmue Let's Play 

NakeyJakey - Rockstar's Game Design is Outdated

NakeyJakey - Bethesda's Game Design Was Outdated a Decade Ago 

Hbomberguy - Fallout: New Vegas is Genius 

Egorapter - Sequelitis - Zelda: A Link to the Past vs Ocarina of Time (CW: Ableism) 

~~~

Our theme music is Glass Half Full by the incredible Cliff, you can find him on Bandcamp!

Want to shout about the episode? Join us in the Infinite Cities Discord!

You can find us on Twitter, and cohost! and if you want to link to us, you can catch us at https://infinitecities.libsyn.com/!

We are featherwings, willofchris, karpskryparn, and thegaryroby, and we are Infinite Cities. 🌆

Control's story is only pretty good. The combat is great, but shallow. It has a few too many extras to be a clean game. And yet, this game rules. Even more than "what is the Hiss?" or "is she talking to like, us us?", the central mystery of Control is "how is this game so awesome". The answer?

Hella vibes. Impeccable vibes. Vibes for daaaaaaays.

In this episode: I can't tell them about you, doming dudes with other dudes, 80s offices, vibes, weird chants, glitches, when big text shows up on screen, downtime and uptime, just let me listen to an in-game podcast in my game.

~shoutouts zone~

This is the joke SCP feather references at the start of the ep. She doesn't know why the best formatted version is on ifunny brazil.

33 Thomas Street (the ATT switch building)

The Fonts In Control Make Its World Feel Way Creepier

Octordle

~~~

Our theme music is Glass Half Full by the incredible Cliff, you can find him on Bandcamp!

Want to shout about the episode? Join us in the Infinite Cities Discord!

You can find us on Twitter, and cohost! and if you want to link to us, you can catch us at https://infinitecities.libsyn.com/!

We are featherwings, willofchris, karpskryparn, and thegaryroby, and we are Infinite Cities. 🌆