It’s been six months since we’ve last seen BJ. We hope he’s okay. But in other news: games! Old games! Because there aren’t any new games! We dive into our shame piles and Steamworld Dig out stuff like Dark Souls, Rage, NBA 2K14, Pinball Arcade and Pinball FX2. Also we played the Destiny Beta… it might be okay! Then someone asks for our Gamescom predictions. Our prediction? Pain.

NQcast63 – 6 Months Since Last BJ

First half!

* 1:28 Destiny (beta) (Harlo and Chuck MMO it up in the better-looking version of the alpha! Also, they jump on roofs.)

* 8:45 Dark Souls & Dark Souls 2 (Maki beat Dark Souls! Twice! But then started Dark Souls 2 and… Doesn’t like it as much. Also, we get an e-mail from Cory about how much he hates Dark Souls!)

* 25:23 Broforce (Harlo enjoys this crazy side-scroller in spite of its 16-bit style.)

* 30:22 Steamworld Dig (Harlo tunnels his way to happiness on his PS4. Kinda.)

* 34:53 Watchdogs (Maki doesn’t like Watchdogs! Maybe there’s too much to do or maybe there’s nothing to do? Depends on whether he hit the square button.)

* 44:09 Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (Harlo is still trying to figure out what happened in this game. Chuck and Maki might play through the whole series just to figure it out the mystery of shitboxes!)

* 52:14 NBA 2K14 (Dr. J.RPG returns! Just don’t play it on the PC. Or last gen systems.)

Second Half! (1:00:24)

* Pinball FX2 and Pinball Arcade 1:01:00 (We begin back down the pinball rabbithole after setting up a spreadsheet of scores. E-mail us if you want to be added!)

* 1:11:28 Pinballz in Austin, TX (Harlo visits a pinball mecca and finds a Data East machine he’d actually purchase! Spoiler: it’s Tales From The Crypt.)

* 1:22:01 RetroN 5 (Chuck tries out this console of dubious legality which emulates the ROM from your cartridges and tries out a bunch of Japanese games!)

* 1:24:43 Nvidia Shield (Chuck buys this for no particular reason! At least he likes it, though.)

* 1:27:14 The Legend of Zelda (Maki pays $4.99 for a game he already owns like 5 times but now owns on the 3DS as well. That’s about as cheap as you can find it nowadays.)

* 1:31:03 Dirt 2 (Maki loves racing games! Even old ones! This is one of those, and it still looks great on PC!)

* 1:36:57 Rage (Chuck plays this iD Software game that is nothing like Doom or Quake or games that are interesting and fun.)

* 1:42:37 Lego Marvel and Lego games in general (Harlo introduces his niece and nephew to games that are better than Lego Indiana Jones! Other Lego games!)

* 1:48:20 EA Access (Chuck signs up to get EA games for $30/year! And sells Harlo on it immediately!)

* 1:55:49 PS Plus Corner!

* 1:56:41 Strider (It’s prettied up and lets you do cool stuff quickly, so that’s good, right?)

* 1:58:03 Towerfall Ascension (Harlo says it’s Mario Bros, but worse!)

* 2:00:15 E-mail Corner!

* 2:00:20 Kyle wants to know what gameplay mechanics that come out of the blue drive us crazy.

* 2:05:06 Blair wants to know why none of us have played Kim Kardashian Hollywood.

* 2:07:25 Toni wants to know what our most hated gameplay/storytelling mechanic is in games. He also wants our Gamescon predictions!

Music

* Title, Break and Outro music by listener Musim. Check out more music from him at listentomusim.bandcamp.com!

 

Another E3 has come and gone, and we’ve got a lot to say about that! But first we have to talk about games you can actually play RIGHT NOW, including Watch_Dogs, Wolfenstein, Murdered: Soul Suspect, Dark Souls, Van Helsing II and Threes (recently announced for the Xbox One!). And we test out some upcoming games like Destiny, Battlefield: Hardline and EA’s new UFC game. Then, GET HYPED FOR PINBALL, SON! Come and bask in the warm glow of our video game opinions.

NQcast62 – E-Threes

First half!

* 1:22 Destiny (alpha) (Harlo takes Maki’s code and discovers he may have found a replacement for Borderlands!)

* 11:50 Wolfenstein (Chuck likes it quite a bit, since you get to kill lots of nazis! But Harlo doesn’t get why it reviewed so well.)

* 25:20 Watch Dogs (We all wonder where the hype went, and why everyone expects so much more from this game, aside from it being fun.)

* 38:40 Mario Kart 8 (Chuck takes his Wii U out for a spin and enjoys playing the game, but feels it’s not as good as Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed.)

* 44:02 Murdered: Soul Suspect (Chuck enjoys the weirdness of this B-tier game, though you can tell exactly where the budget pokes through.)

* 50:34 Stick It To The Man (Harlo and Chuck kind of like this weird combination of Toejam and Earl with Psychonauts. Sort of. They’re glad it came through PS Plus and they didn’t buy it. Turn on your PS4 controller speaker, by the way!)

* 56:17 Battlefield: Hardline (beta) (While some of us like Battlefield, it doesn’t sound like any of us will be buying this. Should it have been simply DLC? Or had more hard boiled detectives?)

* 1:01:29 Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II (Harlo still likes this Diablo-esque game, though he doesn’t understand why it starts out as a MOBA.)

* 1:05:57 Goat Simulator (The new paaaaaaaatch adds multiplayer and a new map! If you don’t have it yet,you should. Just make sure you’ve upgraded your PC recently…)

* 1:09:30 EA UFC demo (Harlo is shocked that he really, really loved this demo and wants to play this game as soon as he can get it cheap!)

* 1:13:26 Dark Souls Corner (Maki’s adventures continue as he comes close to finishing the game and dealing with Ceaseless Discharge in the Bed of Chaos!)

* 1:24:26 Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (Maki realizes he enjoys the top-down Zeldas way more than the 3D ones.)

* 1:27:45 Threes (Harlo and Maki compete to get higher than a 768 combo! Can either succeed?)

Second Half! E3 talk!(1:31:39)

* 1:32:46 Microsoft!

* 1:33:09 Forza Horizon 2 (It’s more Forza Horizon, so count us in!)

* 1:36:06 Sunset Overdrive (Despite Poochie making a cameo to start the intro video, this Insomniac game looks like a ton of fun!)

* 1:37:42 Super Ultra Dead Rising 3: Arcade Remix: Hyper Edition: EX plus α’(Count us in, even if you can never find it on the Xbox.com site.)

* 1:40:11 Magicka 2 (Harlo can’t wait for this one, and we all love us some wacky Magicka action!)

* 1:41:08 Crackdown 3 (We don’t care if Crackdown 2 was disappointing, count us in for more Crackdown! Especially if we can knock over buildings!)

* 1:43:55 Halo Collection (Chuck is definitely interested in replaying these games, especially in a super-nice package on the One.)

* 1:45:42 Cuphead (1930s Disney animation in a side-scrolling shooter? Count us in.)

* 1:47:15 EA!

* 1:47:40 Star Wars Battlefront (Hey, show us something aside from concept art! Guess it’ll be cool in 2017, though.)

* 1:49:13 Bioware stuff (Guess Mass Effect won’t come out for a while, either… We’ll just have to listen to the soundtrack for a couple years until then.)

* 1:50:08 Criterion’s unnamed game (Can you attac...

This month we bask in the glow of games. Games like Goat Simulator 2014, Dark Souls, Threes, Titanfall, DOTA 2, Spelunky and Hearthstone. Hardware like the NVIDIA Shield and phones you can see from the International Space Station are discussed. Also, Maki gets an Xbox One with all the games and is mostly indifferent? GOOD TIMES! Stay tuned until the very end for something frighteningly awesome.

NQcast61 – Lay Us On Them

 

First half!

* 1:36 Goat Simulator (Harlo and Maki ragdoll their way to happiness in this True Life™ simulation of being a goat.)

* 10:15 Xbox One (Maki gets one! However, he can’t find anything. ANYTHING.)

* 11:34 Titanfall (We all like it, but we just don’t know for how long we’ll like it. But hey, you’re still getting a giant robot eventually!)

* 18:19 Forza Motorsport 5 (Chuck and Maki give it another shot but its lack of personality almost literally puts them to sleep.)

* 22:05 Dead Rising 3 (It’s goofy, it’s crazy and Chuck and Maki both enjoy it!)

* 28:48 Peggle 2 (Chuck beat it! It’s still more Peggle! That’s not a bad thing!)

* 32:09 Battlefield 4 and Call of Duty Ghosts (Harlo checks in on the DLC for both games and realizes his skills don’t translate between the two somehow. And he STILL hasn’t seen Michael Myers in Call of Duty. Dammit.)

* 35:42 Free To Play: The Movie (Harlo watches this misleadingly titled documentary about a DOTA 2 tournament and it leads to our next topic…)

* 37:15 DOTA 2 (WHY IS HARLO PLAYING THIS EVEN WE DON’T UNDERSTAND)

* 43:35 Diablo 3 (Harlo returns! The loot system is better now that the auction house is gone, too. Is it expansion time?)

* 48:58 Bunch of Heroes (“It’s cute-esque?” -Harlo. There’s your box quote, right there. Only play this game co-op, though!)

* 50:58 PS Plus Corner

* 51:05 Mercenary Kings (You can play it solo, but once again, co-op seems to be where it’s at. But are we over SNES-esque graphics?)

* 56:34 Remember Me (Chuck and Harlo go back to this Capcom joint and love the brain-hacking but kind of hate everything else.)

* 1:02:59 Dead Nation PS4 (Harlo strains to see through the darkness to have a little bit of fun in this zombie shooter game.)

Second Half! (1:05:36)

* 1:06:10 Dark Souls (Maki continues down the rabbithole and finally understands why everyone loves this game as much as they do. Harlo borrows a copy and confirms it’s not designed for how he wants to play games. Ever.)

* 1:20:54 Resident Evil 5 (Maki and buddy Moonpir decide to beat this game on Professional difficulty. This game has held up well, aside from coming out at the height of terrible Quick Time Events.)

* 1:27:44 God of War HD (Chuck returns to the first God of War and realizes everything we hated in the PS2 gen is in it. Yet somehow it works!)

* 1:42:40 spelunky (Harlo keeps coming back, even though he can’t get anywhere. And Maki can only bring himself to play the daily challenge. Just not daily.)

* 1:47:54 Infamous Second Son (Harlo beat it as a good guy and then remembers he beat it as a bad guy, too!)

* 1:51:37 Brothers (Harlo goes back to experience one of the best games of last year. He enjoys the control gimmick now!)

* 1:55:32 FTL: Enhanced Edition (Surprisingly, Harlo prefers the original edition. But then again, he has 300+ hours in that version, so…)

* 2:00:56 Mobile Corner!

* 2:01:04 Nvidia Shield (Harlo actually bought one! You can stream games from your PC to it! Which kind of works! At least it’s well-built.)

* 2:08:20 Threes (Harlo has bought it on multiple devices, but he still sucks at it! Chuck got to the furthest point he felt he could reach. Maki still plays!

With fan-favorite BJ out on assignment, we use this opportunity to talk about video games. Included in the discussion are Titanfall, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Thief, Infamous: Second Son, Dark Souls and lots more. Things move at a breakneck pace this month, so strap in.

NQcast60 – Mechs-ican Staring Frog

 

First half!

* 3:03 Titanfall (Chuck and Harlo drop some mechs on their Xbox Ones and have mixed feelings on the Next Big Thing™ in online gaming.)

* 28:01 Live From Playstation (Harlo watches in horror as he fails to comprehend people hanging out on their couch and talking to their TV in Playroom on PS4s.)

* 33:34 Infamous: Second Son (Harlo tags Seattle as Deslan in this superpowered version of Marc Ecko’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure. Or isit a less funny Saints Row 4? Just pick a good or an evil playthrough. Don’t gray it, dude!)

* 42:20 South Park: The Stick of Truth (The whole crew beat a game, and everyone really enjoyed it! But we’re South Park fans, so we weren’t offended by the extreme insanity of the second half.)

* 1:00:22 Thief (Harlo likes his stealth but doesn’t like the dated gameplay and animations of this reboot. Take the time to listen to the random conversations, though!)

Second Half! (1:07:44)

* 1:07:54 Hawken (Harlo is still in a mech mood so he checked out this free-to-play mech fightin’ game. It’s free, so give it a try!)

* 1:12:02 Ryse: Son of Rome (Chuck loans it to Harlo, and he thinks it’s pretty but repetitious. However, it has a great villain death, so that’s gotta count for something, right?)

* 1:14:46 Lego Marvel (Harlo borrows another game from Chuck and realizes the Lego games need to explain their mechanics, systems and icons better for people that haven’t played a bunch of other Lego games.

* 1:20:19 Dark Souls (Maki jumps into the world of suffering on PC. He gets the appeal but still wishes you didn’t need to memorize a wiki to actually accomplish anything in it.)

* 1:34:19 The Banner Saga (Harlo “loans” this game to Maki using Steam Family Sharing. While it looks gorgeous, neither of them could get into the story or the complex strategy gameplay.)

* 1:37:41 The Swapper and Antichamber (Maki hits the brick wall of his own IQ and puzzle-solving abilities. And due to the nature of these games, he can’t even figure out how to ask for help. Moron.)

* 1:41:11 Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition (Harlo talks Chuck into playing this PS+ game, just by mentioning Hunter: The Reckoning!)

* 1:43:56 Splinter Cell: Blacklist (Harlo enjoys the co-opiness of this sequel.

This month we take out our winter aggressions on virtual dudes in both Call of Duty Ghosts and Battlefield 4. Things then get gross with Dante’s Inferno and DmC. Also, lots of indie games including Don’t Starve, Outlast, Demolition Inc, Olli Olli, The Room and yes, Flappy Bird. And we talk pinball both real and virtual with Pinball Arcade landing on the PS4 and actual tables landing at a convention not far from our studio. Happy Valentines Day!

NQcast59 – Taintball

 

First half!

* 2:47 Call of Duty: Ghosts (Harlo prestiges, Maki and Chuck join him in multiplayer while trying to learn the maps!)

* 9:03 Battlefield 4 (BJ, Harlo and Maki squad up, open some Battlepacks and attempt to navigate menus to actually play the game! Comparisons to MMos abound…)

* 27:58 Dante’s Inferno (Chuck journeys into the past and wonders where all the game journalism outcry was when this insane, gross God of War clone was released.)

* 31:50 DmC: Devil May Cry (Maki gets grossed out by the douchey presentation and 2001-era gameplay of this remake. Chuck isn’t as offended but doesn’t love it, either.)

* 41:30 Metal Gear Rising Revengeance (Maki has a much better reaction to the craziness of this game on PC!)

* 44:24 Spelunky (Maki takes the Daily Challenge and enjoys the brutality of this randomly generated platformer.)

* 48:48 Rogue Legacy (Maki has the exact opposite reaction to this game, for some reason, despite having incredibly similar mechanics to Spelunky.)

* 57:17 Super Mario 3D World (Harlo and Chuck journey to the Wii U to try out this supposed system-seller. Harlo is not convinced, Chuck thinks it’s pretty good and Maki rants more about 3D platform jumping or something.)

* 1:05:48 Wii Party U (Harlo overcomes the idiotic name and has more fun with this minigame collection.)

* 1:08:27 Lego Marvel Universe (Harlo unlocks Howard The Duck and joins the joy of an open world Lego platformer. Stan Lee hulks out? Sold!)

Second Half! (1:13:58)

* 1:14:09 Grand Theft Auto V (Chuck pulls a few heists and tries to get a loose cannon off his crew. Unsuccessfully.)

* 1:22:03 Batman Arkham Asylum and Arkham City (Maki returns to both these games on PC, to confirm they’re great. Again. City, not as much, though. Still, it’s all about the challenge rooms.)

* 1:30:55 Demolition, Inc. (Harlo and Chuck enjoy this little PC game that scratches the Burnout Crash itch.)

* 1:33:06 Pinball Arcade PS4 (Looks great, sounds terrible! We’re all waiting for patches that let us remap controls and fix the leaderboards and fix the garbage sound on the PS4.)

* 1:43:01 Jacksonville Arcade Expo (We really enjoyed the inaugural year of this Arcade/Pinball show, and we pour one out for Gamewarp, on hiatus this year. Chuck also takes the pinball as our champion on Whitewater, this year’s tournament table!)

* 2:03:01 Player 1 Bar (BJ re-visits an Orlando favorite and declares it’s still awesome! He even John Woos some dual-lightgun games.)

* 2:06:00 PS Plus Corner!

* 2:06:12 Don’t Starve (BJ, Chuck and Maki get eaten by grues and pigmen and don’t quite get sucked into this game like the rest of the internet has.)

* 2:13:17 Outlast (Harlo experiences the survival horror, but has a few suggestions to make it a better game. This leads to some talk of the upcoming Alien: Isolation. Please be good, game!)

* 2:19:55 Mobile Corner!

* 2:20:00 Tiny Death Star (Harlo escapes the clutches of the Empire but Maki sticks with it and learns they broke their economy. Again.)

* 2:24:22 Flappy Bird (Chuck and Maki contemplate what makes a game become a cultural touchstone. Nope, we can’t figure it out, either.)

2013 comes to an end and we celebrate it the only way we know how… by giving out silly awards! Join in the frivolity as we debate things like Best Moment, Best Non-2013 Game We Played in 2013 and the ultimate category Favorites Of The Year aka The FOTYs.

 

Time to welcome Generation Eight of video gaming! After an exhaustive look at Generation Seven last episode which ended with that garbage being taken out to the curb, the crew returns to review both the Xbox One and the PS4 along with lots of the new games including Call of Duty Ghosts, Ryse Son of Rome, Knack, Killzone Shadow Fall, Forza Motorsport 5, Battlefield 4, Need for Speed Rivals, NBA 2K14 and more. The future is now, you loose cannons!

 

Perhaps once or twice over the next couple of weeks you’ll find yourself standing in line for a new video game console. Allow us to entertain you while you wait with our Games of the Generation Spectacular 2013!

The first half of this epic podcast includes talk about Beyond: Two Souls, Batman: Arkham Origins, Pokemon Y (Y? Because we like Pokemon!), Bioshock: Infinite and lots more. Then the second half arrives and we turn on the hyperbole machine to close out the Xbox 360/Playstation 3 era of video gaming. I don’t want to spoil any of our picks, but I will say this… if you’re not digging out your Rock Band instruments by the end of this episode then YOU HAVE NO SOUL.

Enjoy!

 

 

This episode of No Quarters we focus on one game only and that game is GTA V. It’s the most expensive game ever made so we figured it was worth an entire episode of us rambling on. We remain mostly spoiler free but based on sales, you’ve probably played this anyway.

Between some sweet, sweet bookended Saints Row IV talk (spoiler free first, then spoilers abound in the segment after the outro music!), we find some time to discuss Divekick, Skullgirls, Gone Home, Plants vs Zombies 2, Ingress, Vita TV and tangents galore. It’s the best episode we’ve ever done in the month of September in the year 2013, so check it out!

NQcast54 – Pin A Rose On Your Nose

 

First half!

* 0:58 Saints Row IV (We talk a lot about the collector’s edition swag before actually getting to the gameplay in this crazy open-world superhero game. It may not be as good as Saints Row The Third, it’s still a lot of fun. Get the collector’s edition if you can find it!)

* 43:01 Sleeping Dogs (Harlo returns to give this open world crime game another shot. It fares better, but some odd themes crop up and weird him out.)

* 57:12 Divekick (Maki enjoys this 2-button 2D fighter that plays like a parody of 2D fighters. It’s an easy pick up and play multiplayer game.)

* 1:04:58 Skullgirls (Harlo tries out another 2D fighter, with goth girls, beautiful stylized artwork and what seems to be a pretty deep fighting system.)

Second Half! (1:10:39)

* 1:11:00 Gone Home (It’s a game! With that out of the way, Harlo loves the extreme level of detail in this exploration game.)

* 1:17:12 Pinball Arcade PC beta (Harlo declares it the definitive version of the game, so we can’t wait for it to be released officially!)

* 1:21:32 Star Citizen “Hangar Module” teaser (Harlo gets some brief impressions of walking and sleeping. He can’t wait for the rest of the game, and the much more ambitious scope.)

* 1:26:53 Borderlands 2 (BJ wraps up the Torgue and Tiny Tina DLC and decides to join Harlo in being done with this game.)

* 1:37:21 Mobile Corner!

* 1:37:40 Plants Vs Zombies 2 (Maki and Harlo give this free-to-play tower defense sequel a try. The amount of money you avoid spending in the game will be proportional to how much you’re willing to grind the same levels you’ve already beaten.)

* 1:49:05 Scurvy Scallywags (Maki gets excited by Ron Gilbert making a pirate game in the Puzzle Quest match-3 style!)

* 1:54:22 Ingress (BJ goes to a meetup! And meets real humans, with drama and other weird things!)

* 2:01:24 E-mail Corner!

* 2:01:27 Jay from California lets us know that Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is pretty good! (Harlo gets educated in the jobs systems and we discuss minigames inside the Final Fantasy games.)

* 2:06:43 Jay from Corpus Christi wants more monkey games! (Our recommendation? Play Tokyo Jungle!)

* 2:08:47 Vita TV (Side tangent alert! We want this for its streaming capabilities. If they work as advertised.)

* 2:11:46 Scott from Dallas tells us about crazy arcade games! As quickly as possible! (Also, he warns us not to buy Gamestop accessories, especially 3DS chargers.)

* 2:17:07 Grand Theft Auto 5 (Here’s why we’re looking forward to it so much!)

* 2:21:26 Xbox One (Somebody else pre-ordered an Xbox One! Who could it be, and why did they do it!? This leads to a little more next gen talk. You know you want it!)

* 2:32:29 Saints Row IV SPOILER TALK (Chuck and Harlo talk about everything they want to talk about in Saints Row IV, now that those other losers who haven’t finished it have left. Obviously, this is your spoiler warning!)

Music

* Title, Break and Outro music by listener Musim. Check out more music from him at listentomusim.bandcamp.com!