Pixel Vision

Equipped with space suits, backpacks and their trusty terrain tools, Ben and Tao shuttle between stars and planets while sucking up every available resource in space industry sandbox, Astroneer. The duo ponder the contrast between procedurally generated sandboxes and narrative driven adventures, the importance of tutorials, creation versus consumption, and the rise of efficiency-maximising factory simulators. Plus, they get a little sidetracked with what makes good TV... No spoilers.

Content Warning: PEGI 3 game with a PEGI 12 analysis. Some strong language. In-game purchases. Beware labyrinthine caves.

Clarifications:

• Lewis Saunders is a compositor who has worked on a wide range of triple A Hollywood titles. His work is here: http://lewissaunders.com/


• The Astroneer Reddit guide that Ben found so helpful is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Astroneer/comments/e46cfo/guide_from_start_to_finish/


• Here’s the guy who made Pong: https://www.reddit.com/r/Astroneer/comments/i2xxeh/i_made_pong_more_info_in_comments/

Audio extracts:

• ‘Space Walk’ by Lemon Jelly feat. Ben and Tao


• Death Stranding OST


• Mario Kart ‘64 - ‘Raceways’


• Don’t Starve OST


• ‘Widows’ trailer


• Subnautica theme


• Journey to the Center of the Earth trailer


• Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith


• ‘The JCB Song’ by Nizlopi


• ‘Supermoon’ by 65daysofstatic, from No Man’s Sky


• House theme and excerpts (including ‘Teardrop’ by Massive Attack)


• Scooby-Doo! Frankencreepy (2014)


• Doom ‘64 - Level 02, The Terraformer


• Astroneer ‘Automation’ trailer


• Red Dead Redemption 2 theme


• Pewdiepie plays Minecraft

Arrr, me hearties! Step aboard as Ben and Tao turn insurance sleuth to investigate the mystifying, mysterious mystery of her not-so-good ship, The Obra Dinn. On the Orlop Deck they enlist the help of the Bosun (or is it Boatswain?) and his Mate (or Steward?) to decipher all the nautical jargon (or is it lingo?); they offer competing high brow references in their effort to find an appropriate analogy for Lucas Pope’s unique style of game design; and are tested on their knowledge of ancient geography and accents. Much lolling is had by all. Major spoilers throughout.

Content Warning: PEGI 12. Strong language. Arguably offensive accents. Homicidal Kraken and mer-people and that.

Clarifications:

• William Hogarth (1697-1764) was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic, and editorial cartoonist.


• The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidered cloth nearly 70 metres long which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England and culminating in the Battle of Hastings.


• Moby Dick is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville.


• Heart of Darkness is an 1899 novella by Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad.


• Bill Bailey riffs on the West Country accent at length in his brilliant stand-up show, Part Troll.

Audio extracts:

• The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Samuel Coleridge (1772 – 1834)


• Master and Commander - feat Russell Crowe


• Jean-Philippe Rameau's "Les Cyclopes" - Rondeau in D minor


• The Wire - Season 1 Episode 4: "Old Cases"


• The Simpsons [S06E25] - Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part 1


• Austrian Yodeling


• HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’ Theme


• Rockstar’s ‘LA Noire’ Theme


• The Lighthouse - feat Willem Dafoe


• Age of Empires 2 (Dock Sound)


• The Office (UK)


• Shaun of the Dead


• Part Troll - Bill Bailey

Ben and Tao don their tricornes, unsheath their long swords and spare no prisoners as they ravage the virgin lands of Teer Fradee in colonialist RPG epic, Greedfall. Tao takes issue with the representation of race and colonialism, while Ben takes umbrage with just about everything else. Despite the theme, diplomacy goes out the window and harsh truths are aired. Major spoilers from around half way through.

Content Warning: PEGI 16. Very strong language. Vehement criticism. The slaughter of innocents. General tyranny.

Clarifications:

• Petrus/ Heimlock is voiced by English actor Steven Hartley.


• Dragon's Dogma is an ARPG hack n slash developed and published by Capcom in 2012.


• In Mass Effect 2, the Krogan are a species of large reptilian bipeds.


• Spider’s previous game was The Technomancer (2016)

Audio extracts:

• Adele - ‘Skyfall’


• Brian Blessed


• Masterchef UK


• Martin Harley - ‘Money Don’t Matter’


• Monty Python’s ‘The Spanish Inquisition’


• Fiona Shaw as Carolyn Martens in ‘Killing Eve’.


• Dragon Age: Inquisition OST


• Dragon’s Dogma


• Fable OST


• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers


• Civilisation 4 OST - ‘Out at Sea’


• The Apprentice UK

Fresh off the Hotline, directors Ben and Tao uncover the mysteries of the Oldest House and resist the Hiss, all while clearing out a serious Mold infection in Remedy’s third person shooter, Control. (Yes, Ben does take Issue with the Lazy Naming Convention of all those Proper Nouns.) Subjects include why gaming tropes are so persistent, the power of actors to make or break a game, and if criticising female characters risks you getting labeled a chauvinist. Heavy spoilers from around half way through.

Content Warning: PEGI 12. Some strong language. Creepy kids videos. Disembodied voices.

Clarifications:

• Remedy also released Alan Wake’s American Nightmare in 2012.


• Dr Casper Darling is played by Matthew Poretta. He also voiced Alan Wake and starred in Robin Hood: Men In Tights


• The music for the Ashtray Maze is by Old Gods of Asgard - ‘Take Control’


• The last game we talked about was Outer Wilds, not Outer Worlds! God damn…


• Greedfall (our next game to be reviewed) is by developer Spiders. They’ve been around since 2009 and Greedfall is their 8th game.

Audio extracts:

• Barton Fink (1991) - Coen Brothers film


• Lost - TV series intro


• Old Gods of Asgard - ‘Take Control’


• ‘Time’ by Hans Zimmer, from Inception


• Max Payne theme by Kärtsy Hatakka & Kimmo Kajasto


• Keymaker scene from The Matrix Reloaded (2003)


• The Witcher 3


• ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams


• Popeye theme song

Ben and Tao big up and break down space exploration puzzler, Outer Wilds, while coming a bit unstuck on life, the universe and everything. They consider whether binge gaming is detrimental to enjoyment, what point open world game design becomes too open (if ever), and somehow, weirdly, the Fermi Paradox. This episode features a cameo from PhD physicist, Dr Noah Waterfield Price. Heavy spoilers from the start.

Content Warning: PEGI 7. Some strong language. Terrifying fish. The destruction of the universe.

Clarifications:

• Outer Wilds original music is composed by Andrew Prahlow


• In The Making Of Outer Wilds documentary, co-creative lead Alex Beachum admits to being a massive Zelda fan.


• The mathematical formula described by Ben is the Fibonacci sequence, and the spiral is the Golden Spiral.

Audio extracts:

• Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere by The Who


• Edge of Tomorrow feat. Emily Blunt and Tom Cruise


• Thunderbirds theme tune


• Back to the Future feat. Christopher Lloyd as ‘Doc’ Brown


• The X-Files theme song


• Myst


• The Simpsons: S08E10 - The Springfield Files


• BBC Hancock’s Half Hour theme song


• Spaced: S01E05 “Chaos”


• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - “Lost Woods”


• Shrek 2

Ben and Tao eventually navigate their way past the podcast intro to explore the tundra and blisteringly cold wilds of Victorian era, steam punk city builder, Frostpunk. They dissect the differences between real time strategy and city-builder genres, argue the merits of employing child labour, debate the importance of replayability and ponder the pitfalls of emotional storytelling. Some minor spoilers.

Content Warning: PEGI 12. Bad language. Children crushed to death. Tyrannical rule.

Audio extracts:

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  This War of Mine theme

  
  


• 
  

  The Last of Us theme and scene extract feat. Joel and Ellie

  
  


• 
  

  The Mighty Boosh S01E04 - ‘Tundra’

  
  


• 
  

  The Last Post

  
  


• 
  

  Half-Life 2: Episode 1

  
  

Ben and Tao climb out of their vent to revel in nostalgia and relive the glory of 1998 first person shooter, Half-Life, as they talk through the newly released Valve endorsed fan remake, Black Mesa. They whip out their (non-existent) PhDs, lament loading screens, rave about the longevity of really great graphics, analyse the value of remakes, and marvel at the scale and ambition of this timeless, pioneering and cinematic FPS. Minor spoilers, but come on, we’re a decade later…!

Content Warning: PEGI 12. Mild language. Extended clip of man torn apart and eaten alive.

Clarifications:

• 
  

  According to LinkedIn, the Crowbar Collective has 13 employees.

  
  


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  Alien: Isolation is a 2014 survival horror video game developed by Creative Assembly. Ben has now played it, and reviewed it on pixelvision.net!

  
  


• 
  

  Black Mesa left early access and got its official Steam release in March 2020.

  
  

Audio extracts:

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  ‘Stranger Things’ theme

  
  


• 
  

  Spaced S02E04 - ‘Help’

  
  


• 
  

  ‘Welcome to the Suck’ from Jarhead, by Thomas Newman

  
  


• 
  

  A Toast to 15 Years tribute song to World of Warcraft Classic.

  
  


• 
  

  The Longest Journey OST

  
  

Ben and Tao arrive in character (and with a new microphone!) to confront their demons and run through the cheerfully derivative action RPG/ Diablo-rip-off-hack-and-slash, Wolcen Lords of Mayhem. The duo chat about inexperienced devs, lag spikes and game breaking bugs, gender stereotyping, coop multiplayer, why feeling like a bad ass has limited appeal, if Wolcen and Candy Crush Saga have something in common, and whether the grind of loot farming is a curse when it comes to replayability. No real spoilers.

Content Warning: PEGI 7. Some mild language. Lovecraftian level gore. Seriously, more than an abattoir.

Audio extracts:

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  Shaun of the Dead/ Zombie Nation

  
  


• 
  

  Wave by Antonio Carlos Jobim

  
  


• 
  

  Candy Crush Saga

  
  

Shinobis Ben and Tao give Japanese a whirl, lament the naming conventions of video game franchising, and discuss the virtues or not of Souls-like-samurai-boss-brawler Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. The conversation swings from Dark Souls and the genre it spawned, to controller defaults and remapping, skill versus luck, gaming versus musicianship, godliness versus impotence, subtitles and dubbing, to fast travel or not, game design decisions (No cutscene pause! No quit game option!) and punitive time-wasting by devs. No spoilers.

Content Warning: PEGI 12. Some bad language (and bad Japanese). Lots of dying. Violently.

Clarifications:

• 
  

  ‘Equanimus’: adjective. having or showing equanimity; even-tempered: It was difficult to remain equanimous in the face of such impertinence. (Dictionary.com)

  
  


• 
  

  The game was released in March 2019 by developer, FromSoftware.

  
  

Audio extracts:

• The ‘Friends’ theme - I’ll Be There For You by The Rembrandts

The podcast gets a name. Ben and Tao run through the ups and downs of moderating a 90s era cyber space in the sci-fi web simulator, Hypnospace Outlaw. Topics include the early internet, nostalgia, when puzzles become too puzzling, minigames, microtransactions and pseudo-currencies, music genres, and the limits of satire. Spoilers from half way through, clearly delimited.

Content Warning: PEGI 12. Bad language. Hacking, piracy and heavy censorship.

Clarifications:

• 
  

  The original soundtrack is mostly by Jay Tholen. It’s available on Spotify.

  
  


• 
  

  The Witness is a game by Jonathan Blow (of Braid) and Thekla, Inc.

  
  


• 
  

  BWL allegedly means ‘bursting with laughter’

  
  

Audio extracts:

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  Papers, Please

  
  


• 
  

  Halt and Catch Fire

  
  


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  Satellite Anthem by Barnaby’s Chair (aka Dan Warren)