Option Menu Crew Podcast

We all start somewhere. Video Games are kind of a language unto themselves. Whether you were playing in the heyday of instruction manuals and strategy guides or learned with in-game tutorials and online videos, it takes time to understand how to play video games. We discuss where we began and the current state of how video games teach us how to play them.

Video games are inherently replayable, even if there are no objective incentives, like alternate endings, unlockables, secrets, or otherwise, to do so. We bring a lot of personal and subjective value assessment to what we'll pay for a game, and how long we're willing to play them. But, should that factor into the pricing for games?

Video Games aren't a cheap hobby, especially in the past when all games were sold only physically. We discuss the state of the used game market in this day and age, and what place it could serve the ever more digital future.

Side Quests are a fundamental part of video games. They aren't just limited to RPGs. In modern gaming, it can seem like most of our adventures are made of objectives other than the primary one.

We discuss what makes them good, bad, what kind of objectives are even considered side quests, and what we would like to see more and less of.

On this episode, we talk about licensed games in the industry. These kinds of games and their use of properties from all of media have had an incredible history from being notoriously awful to getting the respect they deserve. Although we are still stuck in a weird middle ground, there is hope for the future. We get into it and discuss reality, hopes, and fears.

On this episode, we discuss the merits of turn-based games in comparison to real-time games. Whether that's action games, RPGs, or the other sub-genres, both styles of gameplay offer different experiences, appealing to different types of people, and have room to grow in their respective features sets. And what about those games that use a hybrid of the two? Listen and find out!

Concluding our mini-series on platform-specific discussions, we talk about the state of mobile gaming. Whether you’re on iPhone or Android, the future of gaming is changing rapidly, as well as impacting the entire industry.

We continue our series of platform-specific discussions with PC gaming. We touch on Windows, Mac, Steam, Epic Game Store, the Steam Deck, and various other points surrounding the on-going PC gaming scene.

Next week is the final platform discussion - Mobile Gaming!

Continuing the platform-specific discussions, this episode is on Xbox. Just like Nintendo and Sony, you'll get a bit of our personal history with the platform, our thoughts on where Microsoft has succeeded and failed with the brand, and where we want to see it go into the future.

Continuing the series of episodes reviewing the major platforms, we talk about Playstation. We touch on the consoles, portables, VR, and services Sony has been offering over the years, where they are succeeding, and where improvement is deserved.