Today on Never Was A Gamer, we're looking back at some of Michelle's formative games for once - the Mass Effect series, Bioware's space marine RPG trilogy. This is a long, rambly episode that is a bit of a change from our usual format, but we'll be back in 2 weeks with our last (more traditional) game episode, featuring the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Oh, it's a legend alright!

Enjoy and we'll talk soon.

Today on Never Was A Gamer, we're saying our last goodbyes to 2021 and the games we played.... including the last chapter of Final Fantasy Tactics! We briefly talk through the ending and what Tactics amounts to after 100 hours of playtime, then dig into some of the trends that shaped our 2021 in games, and finally conclude with some thoughts on the future of the show. 

Timecodes:

0.00 Intro

1.38  Wrapping up Final Fantasy Tactics

19.00  "Games in Michelle's Wheelhouse" didn't really work

21.15  BREAK

22.00  Wrapping up our 2021

1.07.00  BREAK

1.07.30  The future of the show

Today on Never Was A Gamer, we're diving into Final Fantasy Tactics - or at least the first 3/4 of it!  Come on, Michelle's playtime is like 90 hours. Maybe we should have looked up the zodiac metrics after all....

Timecodes:

0.00  Intro

3.00  Tactics games

18.50  Final Fantasy Tactics context

46.30  BREAK

47.00  Final Fantasy-ness

Today on Never Was A Gamer, we're continuing our now-annual tradition of wrapping up the calendar year with a light episode of awards and a gift exchange. Dimitri and Michelle each gave each other a game that they thought the other would like, and so to break up the awards we're also discussing the sensational first-person photography shooter, "Umurangi Generation," and the high concept open world detective game, "Paradise Killer". 

Stay safe and have a very cozy holiday!

Timecodes:

0.00 Intro: Cozy December games (Unpacking, etc)

7.45  Awards: Naughtiest Boy

10.50  Bad Dad Award

12.35  Gamers Are Wrong Award

18.10  Katamari Damacy Presents: Second Best Soundtrack

22.00  BREAK

22.45  Gift Exchange: Michelle gets Umurangi Generation

39.20  BREAK

39.50  Hideo Kojima Memorial "Auteurist Trap" Award

43.30  Biggest Boss

46.05  Best Villain

47.30  True Villain

49.40  BREAK

50.10  Gift Exchange:  Dimitri gets Paradise Killer

1.12.00  BREAK

1.12.40  The Black Spot

1.15.45  Best Moment

1.18.30  Tier List: All Season 2 Games

Today on Never Was A Gamer, we continue our year-end arc of games in Michelle's wheelhouse with the weird world of Undertale! There's so much to say about this game - not about Sans though. He's just a guy.

We'll be back in 2 weeks with our holiday episode!

Timecodes:

0.00  Intro

1.00  Michelle's history with Undertale

10.45  Actual history of Undertale

17.10  Starting over

31.30  BREAK

32.30  The battle system

47.40  The problem of Alphys (Mettaton rules)

59.30  Asgore, endings, and the big picture

1.14.00  Final thoughts

Today on Never Was A Gamer, we're discussing System Shock 2!... mostly the first 2 hours of it, because for the first time in the history of the show, we both bounced off the game (for very different reasons). We're digging into what we liked (lots!) and why we quit, and trying to think through the broader experience of bouncing off a game that you generally like. Please, come sit in our failures with us.

Timecodes:

1.00  Why System Shock 2?   

9.45  Immersive sims   

13.00  5 times Michelle loved System Shock 2....

40.00  ... and one time she didn't.

52.00  Dimitri's odyssey and conclusions

1.00.10  BREAK

1.00.40  Bouncing off good games

1.18.50  Final thoughts

Today on Never Was A Gamer, we're capping off our licenced games arc with a grab bag episodes where we're discussing spooky movies that are based on spooky games (allegedly)! How does Resident Evil's lonely, tense survival horror aesthetic translate to film? What does 'House of the Dead' branding add to your basic zombie flick? We'll never know because the directors didn't think about any of that! Here's what they did instead. 

Timecodes: 

1.00  Grab Bag: Spooky movies based on games

2.00  Silent Hill 2 update!

7:30  House of the Dead (2003)

52.00  BREAK

52.40  Resident Evil (2002)

1.22.30  Final thoughts

Programming Note: We're taking a short break to give Michelle time to get ahead on some of the pretty big games we'll be discussing in our final arc of the season. There won't be a new episode on November 11, but we'll be back on November 25 with System Shock 2! See you then.

Today we're rounding out our licenced games arc with a game that Dimitri provocatively and immediately calls "one of the 5 most influential games of the last 10 or 15 years," Batman: Arkham Asylum. Provocative! Meanwhile, Michelle provocatively defends Poison Ivy. Lotta takes in this one. 

Timecodes:

1.45  Our histories with Batman games

9.30  What is Batman: Arkham Asylum?

13.00  This game's innovations

35.00  BREAK

35.30  Villains and story

1.18.30  Final thoughts

Today on Never Was A Gamer, our "licenced games" arc continues with the 1997 point-and-click adventure detective game, Blade Runner! We had two very different play-throughs of this very interesting game. You'll never guess who committed several murders!

Timecodes:

3.40  Listener mail

7.35  Our history with Blade Runner

9.45  Our history with point and clicks

14.00  Blade Runner as a point and click adventure game

24.00  What is this game anyway?

36.45  BREAK

37.50  Our highly divergent playthroughs

1.23.00  Final thoughts and conclusions

Today on Never Was A Gamer, it's the next installment in our arc on licenced games, with the formative first-person shooter, GoldenEye 007. Have you rewatched that movie lately?  We did, and we sure do disagree about whether it works.

Timecodes:

1.00  Licenced games

5.00  GoldenEye 007

10.15  The film experience

15.00  Our histories with the game

23.15  But do you feel like James Bond?

34.45  BREAK

35.00 Levels in GoldenEye 007

55.10  Ok but multiplayer

1.05.00  Final anecdotes and thoughts