O3C Games

(..come hither, sweet child...)

As our number ones loom in the wings, allow master of ceremonies Jonathan A. Dunn a quick chance at the top of the episode to regale you with news as to how this season of our fair podcast shall conclude. Then, business as usual: QUIZ, RECENT GAMES, BIG GAME.

QUIZ

ANOTHER nail-biting round of both the ‘definite article’ quiz between Chris and Minty, and the ‘indefinite article’ quiz in the Minty-helmed Quiz Master’s challenge and / or Gauntlet.

RECENT GAMES

Jonathan finishes Astalon, but is then paralyzed by the choice of what to play next. Pokemon Snap? Quake? Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin? Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate? Into the Breach? Spelunky? Thomas Was Alone? Xeodrifter? Hexalogic? Pokemon bleeeedin’ Crystal?

(Calm down, mate!!)

A busy Chris keeps himself sane with stolen moments of Picross before bed, and the eternal thrill of watching a collated library of games increase in number.

A similarly busy Minty continues to enjoy the ‘moreish’ Quake, and enjoys the opening cutscene of Monster Hunter Stories 2.

BIG GAME

Nintendo sweep the O3C seconds as Metroid joins Animal Crossing, and Pokemon in the penultimate pool. Metroid Prime, the now legendary first person take on the Metroid formula, is officially Jonathan’s second favourite videogame of all time.

www.ourthreecents.co.uk

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Massive thanks to our Patreon subscribers Andy Smith, Gene Limbrick, CJ Anderson, Debbie Booth, Guy Lochhead, Jasper Blacketer, David Boys-Layton, Darren Hughes, Rob Wade, Nathan Bain, Chris Walker, Sam Roberts and Alex Dunn!

Connect with us via a selection of social media platforms: Our Three Cents | Linktree

Reach out to us individually:

Jonathan - www.twitter.com/jonathandunn
Chris - www.twitter.com/Chas_Hodges
Minty - www.twitter.com/clement_boo

Heartbreak in this week’s quiz as tables are TURNED. Who will be victorious at our series end?

Minty pushes numbers ever higher in the mobile title Exponential Idle, and very much enjoys Nightdive’s recent remaster of the PC classic Quake, a game he describes as like Doom 64 1.5.

Chris continues to download and compile his infinite library of games; becomes hooked, alongside Jonathan, on the sumptuous A Monster’s Expedition; and is pleasantly surprised by the demo of the upcoming WarioWare: Get it Together; and ends his week pretty cheesed off with Apple Arcade exclusive Tetris Beat’s sub-par execution.

Jonathan gets stuck in to 2017’s Everybody’s Golf (the game that Mario Golf: Super Rush could have learnt a LOT from) as well as the indie, pixel-art, metroidvania that is Astalon: Tears of the Earth.

To close out this chunker of an episode, find out why Pokemon Silver, inarguably the Gameboy Color’s swansong, is Minty’s second favourite game of all time. Hop in as Minty floats between stories of family, stories of discovery, and stories of callback and celebration, as he applauds the scale and depth of the little handheld cart that could.

www.ourthreecents.co.uk

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Massive thanks to our Patreon subscribers Andy Smith, Gene Limbrick, CJ Anderson, Debbie Booth, Guy Lochhead, Jasper Blacketer, David Boys-Layton, Darren Hughes, Rob Wade, Nathan Bain, Chris Walker, Sam Roberts and Alex Dunn!

Connect with us via a selection of social media platforms: Our Three Cents | Linktree

Reach out to us individually:

Jonathan - www.twitter.com/jonathandunn
Chris - www.twitter.com/Chas_Hodges
Minty - www.twitter.com/clement_boo

Chris reveals the penultimate game on his top 100 list, the warm hug that is the Animal Crossing series, here represented by its 3DS entry, New Leaf.

Why does Chris consider Nintendo’s life and social simulation more ‘friend’ than game?

All that, naturally, but not before:

..more head scratchers in the quiz;

..a continuing retro games odyssey via Chris’ emulation station;

..Jonathan’s thoughts on the longer-than-expected Monster Hunter Stories 2;

..and Minty’s spittle-flecked fury at his frustrating time with Skyward Sword HD.

www.ourthreecents.co.uk

— — — — — — — — — — 

Massive thanks to our Patreon subscribers Andy Smith, Gene Limbrick, CJ Anderson, Debbie Booth, Guy Lochhead, Jasper Blacketer, David Boys-Layton, Darren Hughes, Rob Wade, Nathan Bain, Chris Walker, Sam Roberts and Alex Dunn!

Watch our video content on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3dZ2gmg

Subscribe to our Twitch channel: www.twitch.tv/o3cpodcast

Help support us in exchange for some incredible perks: www.patreon.com/ourthreecents

Browse the episodes from Season 1: www.ourthreecents.co.uk

Join in the conversation with us: www.facebook.com/ourthreecents

Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/o3cpodcast

Reach out to us individually:
Jonathan - www.twitter.com/jonathandunn
Chris - www.twitter.com/Chas_Hodges
Minty - www.twitter.com/clement_boo

Join O3C as we speak to genuine industry stalwart Giles Goddard!

Travelling through milestones in his varied career, find out how working with Argonaut led to the development of the Super FX Chip which would power the technical powerhouses Star Fox and Stunt Race FX; how taking residence in Japan led to a closer relationship with Nintendo and work on Super Mario 64 and 1080 Snowboarding (not Skiing!); why Steel Diver remains one of Giles’ favourite titles in his collective oeuvre; and how ‘going indie’ eventually led to returning to the cutting edge with the VR-exclusive Carve Snowboarding.

www.ourthreecents.co.uk

— — — — — — — — — — 

Massive thanks to our Patreon subscribers Andy Smith, Gene Limbrick, CJ Anderson, Debbie Booth, Guy Lochhead, Jasper Blacketer, David Boys-Layton, Darren Hughes, Rob Wade, Nathan Bain, Chris Walker and Alex Dunn!

Watch our video content on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3dZ2gmg

Subscribe to our Twitch channel: www.twitch.tv/o3cpodcast

Help support us in exchange for some incredible perks: www.patreon.com/ourthreecents

Browse the episodes from Season 1: www.ourthreecents.co.uk

Join in the conversation with us: www.facebook.com/ourthreecents

Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/o3cpodcast

Reach out to us individually:
Jonathan - www.twitter.com/jonathandunn
Chris - www.twitter.com/Chas_Hodges
Minty - www.twitter.com/clement_boo

The Sega Saturn takes what is likely its final moment in the spotlight in our top 100s as Jonathan talks up the underrated Shining the Holy Ark. Lick your lips, and take a big ol’ bite of one of Sega’s very best JRPGs.

Music theory! Incubi and succubi! The threads of destiny!

In Quiz Town, Chris and Minty rack their brains attempting to match up negative critical reviews to games they personally have nothing but love for.

Jonathan has a great time with Monster Hunter Stories 2 and its tactical turn based battles despite the Switch’s performance issues, whilst also filling downtime with Jupiter’s latest Sega-themed Picross release. Minty continues to boss his way through the ophidian rogue-lite distillation that is SNKRX, but finds frustration in Skyward Sword HD. Chris fills his proverbial britches with every retro game under the sun, configuring Launchbox to unlock the secrets of the gaming matrix.

www.ourthreecents.co.uk

— — — — — — — — — — 

Massive thanks to our Patreon subscribers Andy Smith, Gene Limbrick, CJ Anderson, Debbie Booth, Guy Lochhead, Jasper Blacketer, David Boys-Layton, Darren Hughes, Rob Wade, Chris Walker, Sam Roberts and Alex Dunn!

Connect with us via a selection of social media platforms: Our Three Cents | Linktree

Reach out to us individually:

Jonathan - www.twitter.com/jonathandunn
Chris - www.twitter.com/Chas_Hodges
Minty - www.twitter.com/clement_boo

This week on the O3C Podcast, linguistic shenanigans ensue in this week’s Quiz round as Chris and Minty duke it out for trivial supremacy.

In our gaming activity, Minty’s Cyber Sleuthing comes to a natural caesura, and he gets his mobile retro rogue-lite action on in the brilliantly deep and minimalist Snake throwback - SNKRX! Minty also takes on the new lord of microtransactions in Pokémon Unite, the new (is it really?!) free-to-play MOBA featuring the beloved critters.

Jonathan shares his final verdict on The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD - does it soar into the sky like a triumphant Loftwing? Or does it plummet like Link when you accidentally press ZR and fall off said Loftwing? And elsewhere, has he hunted his last Monster for now? Probably not - he’s bloody addicted now!

And Chris ‘the Mighty’ Dow battles against the relentless tide of his growing games collection by playing every inch of Monster Attack, the DLC for Little Nightmares, and not one but TWO packages of minigames masquerading as pieces of shovelware, that might actually be, and I quote: ‘not bad’.

And what’s for dinner?!

Millions of pounds would have been lost to Ray Winstone if Jonathan and Chris had placed their bets on what game would be sitting in Minty’s Number One spot - because The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is ONLY his 3rd favourite video game of all-time!! But he does have some lovely words, thoughts and feelings to share about his epic relationship with this equally epic game!

Behold!

www.ourthreecents.co.uk

— — — — — — — — — — 

Massive thanks to our Patreon subscribers Andy Smith, Gene Limbrick, CJ Anderson, Debbie Booth, Guy Lochhead, Jasper Blacketer, David Boys-Layton, Darren Hughes, Rob Wade, Dominic Kemp, Chris Walker, Sam Roberts and Alex Dunn!

Connect with us via a selection of social media platforms: Our Three Cents | Linktree

Reach out to us individually:

Jonathan - www.twitter.com/jonathandunn
Chris - www.twitter.com/Chas_Hodges
Minty - www.twitter.com/clement_boo

9 games left. 9 games to go.

It seems only yesterday that we kicked off this silly project, and yet here we are, several years on entering the top 3: our very favourite games of all time.

Chris kicks off the boys tip top trilogies with Jonathan Blow’s incredible puzzle adventure The Witness. Can Chris sell you on a game that is ostensibly just about solving line puzzles for 60 hours?

In the Kingdom of Quiz, how do Chris and Minty fare in a test of their chronological gaming knowledge? What do the gang think of Valve’s portable PC, the Steam Deck? What have they been playing this last week?

Expect, nay, demand, thoughts from Chris on Grindstone! Thoughts from Jonathan on Apple Arcade’s legacy releases, Monster Hunter Rise’s ‘end game’, and the new Switch port of Skyward Sword! And thoughts from Minty on Forager, Beat Saber and, naturally, Digimon, digital monsters, Digimon are the CHAM-PIONS.

www.ourthreecents.co.uk

— — — — — — — — — — 

Massive thanks to our Patreon subscribers Andy Smith, Gene Limbrick, CJ Anderson, Debbie Booth, Guy Lochhead, Jasper Blacketer, David Boys-Layton, Darren Hughes, Rob Wade, Dominic Kemp, Chris Walker and Alex Dunn!

Connect with us via a selection of social media platforms: Our Three Cents | Linktree

Reach out to us individually:

Jonathan - www.twitter.com/jonathandunn
Chris - www.twitter.com/Chas_Hodges
Minty - www.twitter.com/clement_boo

In a very special bonus episode, Our Three Chaps chat with actor Kezia Burrows! 

Through her storied career, Kez has portrayed characters across film, television and videogames. With over a decade of experience working within the games industry, Kez regails our trio with stories of her time working on titles as varied as Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, Remember Me, Bravely Default II, Observation, 007 Legends, and, of course, the trouser soiling Alien: Isolation.

Acting as a canonical bridge between Alien and Aliens (the legendary sequel which celebrates its 35th anniversary this year), Isolation saw Kez stepping into the shoes of Amanda Ripley, providing motion capture as well as her very image. How did Kez become involved with the project? And how did our historically fearful trio get on with Alien: Isolation?

www.ourthreecents.co.uk

— — — — — — — — — —

Massive thanks to our Patreon subscribers Andy Smith, Gene Limbrick, CJ Anderson, Debbie Booth, Guy Lochhead, Jasper Blacketer, David Boys-Layton, Darren Hughes, Rob Wade, Dominic Kemp, Chris Walker and Alex Dunn!

Connect with us via a selection of social media platforms: Our Three Cents | Linktree

Reach out to us individually:

Jonathan - www.twitter.com/jonathandunn
Chris - www.twitter.com/Chas_Hodges
Minty - www.twitter.com/clement_boo

Jonathan Dunn is here to tell you all about a little game called The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, his very favourite entry in the Zelda canon.

Hop aboard the King of Red Lions to sail the great sea, presumably in search of some little shiny triangle pieces, a big ol’ sword, and… a princess, I guess?

But that’s not all, oh no no. 

Want to hear our thoughts on examples of when maligned game mechanics or tropes have actually been done well?

Want to hear some thoughts on franchises as varied as Digimon, Metroid, Little Nightmares, or Monster Hunter? Or thoughts on some standalone IPs like the surprisingly decent Poi? Or the disappointing Pictooi?

It’s all here! In the Our Three Cents weekly podcast.

www.ourthreecents.co.uk

— — — — — — — — — — 

Massive thanks to our Patreon subscribers Andy Smith, Gene Limbrick, CJ Anderson, Debbie Booth, Guy Lochhead, Jasper Blacketer, David Boys-Layton, Darren Hughes, Rob Wade, Dominic Kemp, Chris Walker and Alex Dunn!

Connect with us via a selection of social media platforms: Our Three Cents | Linktree

Reach out to us individually:

Jonathan - www.twitter.com/jonathandunn
Chris - www.twitter.com/Chas_Hodges
Minty -www.twitter.com/clement_boo

CURVEBALL
[ˈkərvbôl] NOUN

baseball
a pitch thrown with a strong downward spin, causing the ball to drop suddenly and veer to the side as it approaches home plate.
"his three-speed curveball enabled him to win 20 games in two different seasons"

informal
something which is unexpected, surprising, or disruptive.
"It was a real curveball when Minty Booth crowned seldom remembered, oft-forgotten N64 title ‘Space Station Silicon Valley‘ as his 4th favourite game of all time”

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Join in with this week’s quiz round that, through design, is impossible to lose after last week’s single point debacle.

Have your magnifying glasses at the ready as Minty continues to investigate Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth.

Roll your eyes as Chris does mental gymnastics in his attempts to justify importing and playing the execrable Renzo Racer on the Switch.

Yin and yang with Jonathan as he shrugs his shoulders at Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights, then whoops and hollers at Monster Hunter Rise.

www.ourthreecents.co.uk

— — — — — — — — — — 

Massive thanks to our Patreon subscribers Andy Smith, Gene Limbrick, CJ Anderson, Debbie Booth, Guy Lochhead, Jasper Blacketer, David Boys-Layton, Darren Hughes, Rob Wade, Dominic Kemp, Chris Walker and Alex Dunn!

Watch our video content on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3dZ2gmg

Subscribe to our Twitch channel: www.twitch.tv/o3cpodcast

Help support us in exchange for some incredible perks: www.patreon.com/ourthreecents

Browse all previous episodes at: www.ourthreecents.co.uk

Join in the conversation with us: www.facebook.com/ourthreecents

Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/o3cpodcast

Reach out to us individually:
Jonathan - www.twitter.com/jonathandunn
Chris - www.twitter.com/Chas_Hodges
Minty - www.twitter.com/clement_boo