Maximum Hearts

This 2D sidescrolling action game from workhorse developer Inti Creates might have slipped under your radar, but John ruminates on his time with it. In a sea of great to sub-par indie Metroidvanias, can Grim Guardians be worth your time?

**NOTE: Contains spoilers for episodes 5 and prior of the 'The Last of Us'

This week it's Jeff, Justin and Sam reacting to the explosive latest episode, one that sees us to the conclusion of the 'Summer' portion of the story.  Among the topics are our impressions of the extra screen time for Henry and Sam, Kathleen's further development, and those intense final scenes.

There was a massive Nintendo Direct and we're gonna talk about it. That's the only thing that happened this week that we want to talk about, so that's the only thing we talk about.

**NOTE: Contains spoilers for episodes 4 and prior of the 'The Last of Us'

This week's cast - Jeff, John, Dio and Sam - discuss what may be the first simply 'good' episode, following in the shadow of three great ones.  Topics on deck include the new leader of the bandits, Kathleen, the relationship between Ellie and Joel, and the setup work this one is doing for what will likely be an explosive next week or two for the series.

A ton of service games are being shut down, tech companies are laying people off, and gaming publishers have been bracing for a rough year ahead. But one major publisher thinks they're on track for their biggest year ever: Capcom, masters of the turnabout. We talk about some other stuff. Someone threatens to "thigh" someone else in the face, like as a verb. Normal Thursday night.

Britt and CJ come together to talk about a little indie game that's likely to be passed over in a storm of major releases, but which struck a chord with them.

Justin and Derek have beaten the much anticipated Dead Space remake, and frankly neither of them can contain themselves. How does the game improve upon the original without feeling too much like a beat-for-beat remake? We never do numbered review scores, but it's gonna be pretty obvious how we feel about this one.

**NOTE: Contains spoilers for episodes 3 and prior of the 'The Last of Us'

Jeff, Derek, Britt and Justin reflect on the heartwarming yet gut wrenching episode 3 - "Long, Long Time", discussing how it services the story and characters in this world and why it's such a big moment for television and representation.

Derek and Finn come together to talk about Forspoken, the long-awaited and frequently-delayed project from Final Fantasy 15 developer Luminous Productions. Square Enix's latest title is a mixed bag with high highs and low lows, but it has more FF15 DNA in it than you'd think (for better and for worse).

It's our first traditional show of the year, and what other way to do it than to complain about Ubisoft's blaming employees for the company's mismanagement, and Microsoft taking part in the massive layoffs sweeping the tech sector? Good news. Good news would be a better way to do it.