Maximum Hearts

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains frank and difficult discussion of parts of the Iraq War, and specifically the Second Battle of Fallujah. One of our members, John, is a former US Marine who was present at this battle. In this episode he speaks candidly about what he saw and how it affected him, in order to counteract the oftentimes glamorized image of American activity in the middle east. At one point, John is affected enough by the discussion to need to leave for the rest of the episode. If discussion of war and violence would be a problem for you, or if you are not prepared to hear criticism of America's role in the Iraq War, you should skip this episode.

Controversial Iraq War shooter Six Days in Fallujah returned to the discourse, dropping the first actual trailer for the game since its announcement in 2009. The game intends to portray the real world events of the Second Battle of Fallujah in November of 2004, and those working on the game claim it will capture the psychological horror and reality that US Marines experienced at the time. We (including John, a former US Marine who served in Fallujah) are skeptical of whether this goal can or should be achieved. We also point out the historical whitewashing of the Iraq War, and American military intervention in general, in pop cultural media like video games. That is not to say Six Days in Fallujah could not nail its subject matter, but history has shown us that such projects will paint an overly glamorous view of the US military while exploiting their trauma for profits. That says nothing of the frequently racist and one-sided portrayal of the Iraqi people. We also repeatedly challenge the idea that these events are ready to be called "historical", since sixteen years after the battle this game portrays we've never left Iraq.

It's not all heavy discussion this week though. We attempt to cleanse our palettes with reports that failed Bioware live service game Anthem is finally approaching its "do-or-die" moment with publisher Electronic Arts. Can Anthem be successfully rebooted like Final Fantasy XIV famously was? Or would it be better for Bioware to cut their losses and move staff to new projects? We say "attempt" earlier because serious discussion eventually gives way to much-needed goofing off. It was a heavy show, don't judge us.

Justin and Derek sit down, only a little late to the party, to discuss Vanillaware's genre-mixing 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. It's part visual novel, part classic adventure game, part tower defense, but all pulp sci-fi. This flew under a lot of people's radars, ours included, when it first launched worldwide back in September of 2020. Should you jump in on the late wave of renewed interest the game is getting? The answer isn't simple, and the game isn't for everyone, especially if you are frustrated by certain stock anime tropes (or as Derek repeatedly puts it "anime bull****").

Unfortunately, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is a difficult game to discuss without spoiling. And trust us, you don't want to be spoiled. The game's 13 high school protagonists each have their own separate stories that can be experienced largely out of order, and the time travelling nature of the plot makes it hard to talk about the game even with other people who are playing it. However, there's still plenty for us to talk to when it comes to the broad strokes of the characters themselves. The game is also surprisingly explicit with its queer representation, and unusually body positive for a piece of anime-inspired media.

This week we focus on Google shutting down their internal Google Stadia game development studios without producing a single game. It was a move far too many people saw coming.  Because of this 150 all-star developers are out of a job.  Why do companies like Google and Amazon stumble so hard when moving into gaming publishing? And that's before pointing out Google's history of abandoning highly-publicized projects. On the other hand, we're rather enthusiastic about the long-term future of Microsoft's competing game streaming service, xCloud.

We also take a little time to talk about what we've been playing, as well as the official reveal of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition.  It's long overdue, but it sure is a sight for sore eyes. We argue about the very expensive turbo-nerd edition that comes with everything BUT the game, and we can't totally make up our minds about the visual overhaul, but we want it anyway. Maybe EA will finally agree to remaster some of their other long-dead games.

Welcome to Dual Daddies, a new occasional mini-series from SDGC! Hosted by our own John and Finn, with occasional guests, we'll talk about the ways that video gaming as a hobby intersects with the privilege and responsibility of parenthood. In this first episode, John talks to Finn about the upcoming birth of his daughter. We also reminisce about what video gaming was like for us as children. John ties everything back to Final Fantasy, as he is contractually obligated. But most importantly, John talks about how gaming informs his relationship with his son, and how it can do the same for Finn and his daughter.

Finn and CJ sit down with the limited demo for Square Enix's upcoming 3D platformer Balan Wonderworld and work out their thoughts. Does Sonic the Hedgehog creator Yuji Naka still have the magic touch, or will this instead be another Billy Hatcher? Come for our thoughts on the game and demo, stay for the love of mid-tier retro platformers.

We apologize for certain technical difficulties that resulted in CJ's audio quality being lower than normal.

While the demo was made freely available to the public, we were provided an early access code for the demo by Square Enix.

This week we focus on Activision Blizzard's disastrous response to a call for increased diversity among those being interviewed for new jobs at the company. The AFL-CIO, America's largest group of unions, asked Activision Blizzard to commit to interviewing at least one diverse (as in, not a straight cis white male) candidate for every job they post. As a note, that says commit to interview, not commit to hire. Activision Blizzard responded that this was basically a waste of their valuable time. Electronic Arts was actually asked the same thing by the AFL-CIO, and at least gave a "we'll look into it" non answer. While normally that would be a pretty unsatisfying response, Activision Blizzard still rose to the challenge of saying something worse.

Of course, it isn't a chill show if we don't gush a little about what we've been playing. We also talk about Microsoft raising the price of Xbox Live, only to walk it back mere hours later. At least free-to-play games like Fortnite are now actually free-to-play without an Xbox Live subscription now! Finally, we each take some time to recount our personal histories with online multiplayer games. It doesn't take long for us to drop the "online" part of that prompt.

Capcom has finally shown us our first real look at the upcoming Resident Evil Village, which means the SDGC crew is eating well tonight. Those of us who were able to play the PS5 exclusive demo weighed in on our experiences, but gaming's premiere horror series always inspires a lot of discussion. What do we hope Capcom learned from Resident Evil 7, and the recent remakes of Resident Evils 2 and 3? Do some of Village's new gameplay mechanics foreshadow the long-rumored but never confirmed remake of Resident Evil 4? How do you pronounce "foyer"? And yes, we do acknowledge the sudden massive internet popularity of Resident Evil Village's new villain, Lady Dimitrescu, formally christened as the Tall Vampire Lady.

It's not all Resident Evil on this week's show, though. We also highlight some of the games we're playing and starting, like 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim and Persona 5. More importantly, at the end of the show we take some time to speak candidly about the increased mental health impact of the last year, month, and even week. The intersection of politics, current events, and our own mental health is always a difficult area to talk about, but it's also impossible to fully avoid. Let's all work hard to be there for each other when we can, to take care of ourselves as best we can, and push forward together.

It's the start of a new year, which means all of us have now safely exited the dumpster fire that was 2020. We played a lot of games while locked inside our homes, and we're happy to talk about a few that really helped pull us through. No Game of the Year discussion is complete without a little heat, but for the most part we're all just glad to have found games that made us feel warm inside. No, John wasn't allowed to pick Final Fantasy 6, but that didn't stop him from bringing it up at least twice.

We're joined this week by journalist and former cast member Rebekah Valentine. Reb is an award-winning business writer for GamesIndustry.biz, and will soon be writing for IGN. Her wholesome energy always brings the best of vibes to any show. If you enjoyed listening to Reb, she also has her own podcast called The Cozywood Kitchenette, where she and her guests make food inspired by video games.

We're joined by CJ Salcedo from Waypoint Set to talk almost entirely about Cyberpunk 2077 and the many, MANY controversies surrounding it.

Finn talks to Joe Mirabello, director at Terrible Posture Games, about his career and his studio's new "playable sitcom" 3 out of 10.