Ours, Played

We’re finally back! This summer was a challenging one, and we are thrilled to be at the mic and recording again. During our months away, we had the chance to try out some competitive games (we know - not our usual). But these four competitive board games all share elements of our favorite cooperative games. Join us as we find co-op within competition in these casual competitive games. 

In this episode we cover:

• A special dedication to our late listener and biggest fan, Rob’s mom
• Bailey confusing several of the games Rob’s been playing, and doubling down thinking she’s right
• Finding the co-op qualities in competitive games 

Game Details:

• Name: Machi Koro
  • Publisher: Grounding
  • Year: 2012
• Name: Piepmatz
  • Publisher: Lookout Games
  • Year: 2018
• Name: Azul
  • Publisher: Plan B Games
  • Year: 2017
• Name: Sushi Go!
  • Publisher: Gamewright
  • Year: 2013

Connect with us!

To stay up to date with the show, talk to us about what we have been playing, or even suggest a new game, we encourage you to follow the show and connect with us on Discord, Twitter, and Instagram.

Spring may have sprung, but we head to the frozen north for this episode! Join us as we adventure through a co-op game unlike any other - the educational, inspiring, and culturally-diverse, Never Alone, by Upper One Games.

In this episode we cover:

• The irony of deliberately sitting on a game review, only to be delayed in publishing by a sinus infection
• Bailey’s getting a big head over her YouTube skills
• Introducing, World Games - culturally rich games for a global audience 
• A win for diversity in gaming

Game Details:

• Name: Never Alone
• We played it on: PC
• Also available on: PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Series X|S, Nintendo Switch
• Developer: Upper One Games - the first indigenous-owned game company in the US
• Year: 2014

Connect with us!

To stay up to date with the show, talk to us about what we have been playing, or even suggest a new game, we encourage you to follow the show and connect with us on Discord, Twitter, and Instagram.

Ours, Played Date Night

To pair with Never Alone, we recommend 

• Bailey’s recommendation
  • Explore other Inupiat/Inuit stories from cultural organizations - we’ll include some links in the show notes
    • Native Languages of the Americas: Inuit Legends, Myths, and Stories
    • Eskimo Folk-Tales
• Rob’s recommendation
  • Sticking with the educational theme - find a documentary to watch! 
  • Something about climate change or the fishing industry if you want to align it with some of the issues facing the Inupiat people.

Who says you need the controller to have fun? There’s tons of co-op to be found in single-player games! We’ve wanted to do an episode like this for over a year, and the release of the latest Souls game gave us the perfect opportunity. Join us in our inaugural Co-Op Co-Pilot episode featuring the open-world dark fantasy hit, Elden Ring, by FromSoftware.

In this episode we cover:

• 10 years together - and Souls games are at our core
• Co-Op Co-Pilot mythbusting
• Bailey’s Dark Souls voice acting debut
• All the Elden Ring we can talk about without spoilers

Game Details:

• Name: Elden Ring
• Rob’s playing it on: PC
• Also Available on: PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox Series X & One
• Developer: FromSoftware
• Year: 2022 (Brand-spankin’ new at the time of recording)

Connect with us!

To stay up to date with the show, talk to us about what we have been playing, or even suggest a new game, we encourage you to follow the show and connect with us on Discord, Twitter, and Instagram.

TW: War and Violence

Over there! Over there! Threats rain from the sky and danger looms all around our heroes. Can friendship triumph over the trials of war? Join these two Yanks as we hope to survive the perils of No Man’s Land in the moving cooperative World War One card game, The Grizzled, published by Sweet Games.

In this episode we cover:

• The Bloodborne and Parks and Recreation crossover we’ve always wanted
• Unlearning a Match 3 mechanic
• Finding fun in the futility of war
• What is simple, may not be easy. In fact, it may have a 10% win rate.

Game Details:

• Name: The Grizzled
• Medium: Board Game
• Developer: Sweet Games
• Year: 2015

Connect with us!

To stay up to date with the show, talk to us about what we have been playing, or even suggest a new game, we encourage you to follow the show and connect with us on Discord, Twitter, and Instagram.

Ours, Played Date Night

To pair with The Grizzled, we recommend:

• Bailey’s recommendation
  • Soft Cinnamon Cookies, from Foods that will Win the War and How to Cook Them (1918) C. Houston Goudiss and Alberta Goudiss
    • 1 cup molasses
    • 2 tablespoons fat
    • ½ cup boiling water
    • 1 cup flour
    • 1 teaspoon soda
    • ½ teaspoon ginger
    • 2 tablespoons cinnamon
    • ⅛ teaspoon salt
    • ½ teaspoon of cloves
  • Mix molasses, fat, and boiling water. Sift dry ingredients. Add the liquid. Add enough more flour (about four cups) to make dough stiff enough to roll out. Cut and bake about 15 minutes in moderately hot oven.
• Rob’s recommendation
  • Watch 1917 (2019), dir. Sam Mendes
  • Drink a French 75
    • 1 ounce gin
    • 1/2 ounce lemon juice, freshly squeezed
    • 1/2 ounce simple syrup
    • 3 ounces Champagne (or other sparkling wine)
    • Garnish: lemon twist
    • Add the gin, lemon juice and simple syrup to a shaker with ice and shake until well-chilled.Strain into a Champagne flute.Top with the Champagne. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Our Trine adventure continues! Join us as we jump between 2 and 3D, try to coin a new phrase for a gaming mechanic, and discover the magic of flight in Trine 3 and Trine 4, developed by Frozenbyte. 

In this episode we cover:

• Rob can’t stop playing monster-catching games
• Beating Pokemon as a life milestone
• The drama of an unfinished game - Frozenbyte’s Trine 3 AMA
• Wright Bros. moments in Trine 4
• Our 2022 Gaming New Year’s Resolutions

Game Details:

• Name: Trine 3 and Trine 4
• We played them on: PC
• Also Available on: Nintendo Switch, Xbox and Xbox One, Playstation 3 and 4
• Developer: Frozenbyte
• Year: 2015 and 2019

Post Trine 3 Frozenbyte Reddit AMA 

Connect with us!

To stay up to date with the show, talk to us about what we have been playing, or even suggest a new game, we encourage you to follow the show and connect with us on Discord, Twitter, and Instagram.

Late - but look! It’s another Ours, Played Bundle Episode! We join Amadeus, Pontius, and Zoya on a grand adventure. Much like our heroes’ plans are interrupted by the will of the Trine, we’ve put together an unplanned bundle ep as we explore Trine and Trine 2, developed by Frozenbyte.

POD UPDATE: As Rob’s grad school program kicks into high gear, we will be scaling back to one ep a month. If we feel we can do more, we will! But we want to make sure we have enough time to get to know the games we play and put out quality content while navigating his final semesters in school. We love this show and are so grateful to you for sticking with us through this busy time in our lives.

In this episode we cover:

• An utterly insane 3 weeks of home repair disasters and a close call on the road
• Rob is 1,000 years old in Halo-playing years
• The 20-minute-rule in gaming or, cutting bait and moving on
• “Anti-Hero Co-op,” or, “Abandon Your Wife”

Game Details:

• Name: Trine and Trine 2
• We played them on: PC
• Also Available on: Nintendo Switch, Xbox and Xbox One, Playstation 3 and 4
• Developer: Frozenbyte
• Year: 2009 and 2011

Connect with us!

To stay up to date with the show, talk to us about what we have been playing, or even suggest a new game, we encourage you to follow the show and connect with us on Discord, Twitter, and Instagram.

Ours, Played Date Night

To pair with Trine and Trine 2, we recommend:

• Bailey’s recommendation
  • Watch all five Mythica movies (2014 - 2017)! These fantasy-packed (and delightfully campy, at times) adventure films pair perfectly with our trio of heroes. All are available on Prime Video.
• Rob’s recommendation
  • Greenback 
    • 1.5 oz gin
    • ¾ oz creme de menthe 
    • ½ oz fresh lime juice 
    • 2-3 oz club soda (optional) 
    • Shake gin, creme de menthe, and lime juice. Strain into ice filled old fashioned glass. Top with club soda as desired. 
    • To fit Trine, garnish with one of those little sword toothpicks and a lime wedge. 

Ready to dance for your feline captors? Look for us on the island stage in this week's episode. We revisit and finally conquer one of our first co-op games, BattleBlock Theater by The Behemoth.

In this episode we cover:

• The very clear and important difference in world vs chapter of the game
• You can’t reset the past, and that is ok (preferable, even)
• Theme music as a litmus test of Behemoth humor
• The appeal of Kitty Litter Box cake

Game Details:

• Name: BattleBlock Theater
• We played it on: PC
• Also Available on: Xbox 360 and Xbox One
• Developer: The Behemoth
• Year: 2013

Connect with us!

To stay up to date with the show, talk to us about what we have been playing, or even suggest a new game, we encourage you to follow the show and connect with us on Discord, Twitter, and Instagram.

Ours, Played Date Night

To pair with BattleBlock Theater, we recommend:

• Bailey’s recommendation
  • Cupcake cats (cat-cakes?)
    • Select your favorite cupcake recipe (boxed or from scratch!). 
    • Bake as directed - the flair will come in the decorating.
    • Got any leftover halloween candy? Set aside some mini chocolate bars - the square ones will work best.
    • Cut them in half to make 2 triangles - these will become your ears.
    • Place them towards the top of each cupcake, point up.
    • Bonus - take a chocolate chip (or m&m) and place in the center as a nose.
• Rob’s recommendation
  • Foghorn
    • 2 ounces dry gin
    • 1/2 ounce lime juice
    • 4 ounces ginger beer, or ginger ale
    • Lime wedge, for garnish
    • Gin and lime juice in ice filled old fashioned glass. Top with ginger beer or ginger ale and stir. Garnish with lime wedge and enjoy! 
      • Spoilers - if you give one to your friend and they don’t respond…. Dump them overboard! 

We’re back with another Gloomcravens episode! This week, we start the main Jaws of the Lion campaign scenarios and get pulled into our first side quest. Venture with us as we split the party (what?!?) and enjoy a special guest appearance by our four-legged co-host.

Spoiler Alert - this ep will cover introductory scenarios 6 and 21 in the game, so we do include general descriptions of what occurs in the scenario book. If you are at all concerned about spoilers in this long-term campaign, please play before listening.

Game Details:

• Name: Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion
• Medium: Board game
• Developer: Cephalofair
• Year: 2020

Connect with us!

To stay up to date with the show, talk to us about what we have been playing, or even suggest a new game, we encourage you to follow the show and connect with us on Discord, Twitter, and Instagram.

Theme Song Credits: 

"Oppressive Gloom" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Quick! We’ve finally gotten a break in Rob’s busy work schedule to get to the card table and continue our Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion campaign. The wait was worth it for us to dive back into the world of mystery and monsters as we conclude the introductory scenarios and look ahead to starting Jaws of the Lion in earnest.

Spoiler Alert - this ep will cover introductory scenarios 4 and 5 in the game, so we do include general descriptions of what occurs in the scenario book. If you are at all concerned about spoilers in this long-term campaign, please play before listening.

Game Details:

• Name: Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion
• Medium: Board game
• Developer: Cephalofair
• Year: 2020

Connect with us!

To stay up to date with the show, talk to us about what we have been playing, or even suggest a new game, we encourage you to follow the show and connect with us on Discord, Twitter, and Instagram.

Theme Song Credits: 

"Oppressive Gloom" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Look at that! Cheers to one year in podcasting. Laugh with us as we look back on a year in covering co-op gaming through pointless stats, favs vs flops, and what we’ve learned about ourselves as individual gamers and as a pair.

Connect with us!

To stay up to date with the show, talk to us about what we have been playing, or even suggest a new game, we encourage you to follow the show and connect with us on Discord, Twitter, and Instagram.