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While amazed that Warner Bros. Discovery learned no lessons from the failure of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, David Radd experienced all the Web 1.0  meme humor in World of Goo and sees what Hideo Kojima uncensored is really like in Death Stranding: Director's Cut.  Meanwhile, Tuesday played Ace Attorney: Phoenix Wright and experienced its dystopian court system and found Ghost of Tsushima to be a surprisingly cozy game.  In news,  Yuzu creator Tropic Haze settles with Nintendo and shuts down support for the Switch emulator and the 3DS emulator Citra, Warner Bros. Discovery starts removing Adult Swim Games from digital storefronts and Sony backed Deviation Games closes without shipping a single game.  The sole piece of positive news is that 600 QA workers at Activision were able to exercise their right to organize.  For the topic, David and Tuesday talk about systems and mechanics in video games, some examples of heavy (and light) use to both and how systems and mechanics impact the games people like to play.

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While wondering if ZA/UM is capable of ever making another game, David Radd played enough Foamstars to conclude it's dead-on-arrival as a live service and was constantly wincing at the gruesomely detailed fatalities in Mortal Kombat X.  Meanwhile, Tuesday thinks Dave the Diver is the new Shovel Knight with connections to Godzilla, Dredge and Guilty Gear (!?) while getting really into the Roguelite card game Balatro, which uses the tricks of video poker for good instead of evil.  In news, Circana reports that January saw a 15 percent spike in sales thanks to new titles like Tekken 8 and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth while Nintendo sues  emulator creator Yuzu.  In the sad news of ongoing layoffs in the video gaming industry, Sony and Electronic Arts both announced hundreds of layoffs, shuttering of studios and cancelling of projects.  For the topic, David and Tuesday reflect on recent releases like  Skull and Bones, Foamstars, and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and reflect on how live service games are reaching a saturation point with players tiring of the formula and the biggest players too big to dethrone.

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While shaking his head around the whole situation surrounding Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, David Radd didn't learn his lesson from Crackdown 2 and played Crackdown 3 and also played Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light to cleanse his palette after Radiant Dawn.  Meanwhile, Tuesday played something legally distinct Starship Troopers  in Helldivers along with Rune Factory 4, where they declared every day to be "bikini day".  In news, Microsoft confirms four games are coming to non-Xbox consoles, Nintendo sees profits rise even as sales slow, and Sony posts big holiday profits even as it looks to release on PC in a more timely fashion.  Epic Games also announced Disney is making a $1.5 billion investment and that Epic will build an Disney experience in Fortnite.  For the topic, David and Tuesday discuss Silent Hill: The Short Message, how it's PT but worse, whether the plot is something more akin to Fatal Frame and how they feel about Silent Hill afterwards.

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While glad that all games aren't locked to a subscription service, David Radd knew that Quake II wasn't a new Doom because he fought Strogg and not demons and constantly touched fuzzies in Super Mario Bros. Wonder.  Meanwhile, Tuesday quickly sampled the very short Mario vs. Donkey Kong demo for Switch and and kept thinking of  Alex Casey in the first Max Payne game because they have Alan Wake 2 brain poisoning.  In news, Microsoft let go roughly 1,900 employees while questions are raised about their commitment to physical media.  Palworld sells over 12 million copies, Nintendo confirms end date for 3DS and Wii U online services, while the Square Enix president confirms that their lineup of games will be reduced for a greater focus on quality.  For the topic, David and Tuesday talk about the Sony State of Play for January 2024, how they both aren't interested in Zenless Zone Zero, can see themselves playing the PSVR2 titles and fundamentally disagree about Bloober Team's Silent Hill 2.

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While wondering if Silent Hill Ascension will ever come back, David Radd tried to make sense of what a septima is in Azure Striker Gunvolt and experiences the life and times of ninja wizard pirate samurai  William Adams in Nioh.  Meanwhile, Tuesday played as a psychic erotic dancer in One Night Burlesque and is working on unlocking that double jump in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.  In news, the Supreme Court rejects the final appeal in the court case of Google vs. Apple and Apple implements payments outside of the App Store (albeit with a 27 percent commission).  Circana reported on full year sales in the U.S. with Hogwarts Legacy selling the most in the region, and also worldwide as confirmed by Warner Bros. Games.  Meanwhile, the Microsoft CEO  Satya Nadella talked openly of Microsoft's multiplatform future and GameStop shut down their NFT marketplace.  In the topic, David and Tuesday talk about Aliens: Fireteam Elite, how the game tries to be like Left 4 Dead with progression, why xenomorphs are hard to make a game about and why auto-turrets are the ultimate weapon.

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While predicting that AAA license games will become even more the rage in 2024 and beyond, David Radd works Kratos's problems out in God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla and furiously tries to do everything he can before the day ends in Pikmin 4.  Meanwhile, Tuesday is here to get hit and chew bubble gum in Secret of Mana (and they're all out of gum) and finally plays a game  where they can be canonically evil in Cult of the Lamb.  In news, the Square Enix President tries to ruin everyone's year early by promising a huge generative AI push for the company,  Omdia predicted that VR spending dropped 10 percent year-on-year in 2023, the People's Republic of China announced restrictions on monetization for online games before slightly walking them back and Versus Evil, First Contact and Jukai Studio all shut down.  For the topic, David and Tuesday talk about their individual favorite podcast topic, their least favorite games and their top five games of 2023.

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While hoping that Sega will start marketing their franchises with '90s style attitude again, David Radd found out that electric charges and invisibility were always in Miles's power set in Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales and struggled with only 63 inventory slots in Final Fantasy II.  Meanwhile, Tuesday is still trying to reconcile a Rougelite having a good story in Children of Morta and finally found the junk-food game they were looking for in Robocop: Rogue City.  In the news, there's positive development for unionized workers under Zenimax, while Activision Blizzard settles with the state of California over a discrimination suit and a dispute over hybrid work for Q&A employees, but thankfully Bobby Kotick is now confirmed to be leaving at the end of 2023 along with much of his executive team.  Meanwhile, the ESA confirms that E3 won't be coming back, Hogwarts Legacy looks to cinch the best selling game of the year according to Circana's U.S. November 2023 report and Google has a bad couple weeks at court, settling for hundreds of millions with U.S. attorneys and losing a jury decision in an anti-trust lawsuit against Epic Games.  In the topic, David and Tuesday discuss  a Soulslike adjacent game that Tuesday was able to tolerate until the end: Remnant: From the Ashes.  They talk about  Remnant's odd difficultly curve, the game's unique arsenal and wondering what could have possibly happened to make McCabe so grumpy.

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While wondering what Bayonetta will be like without Hideki Kamiya, David Radd discovered that snakes are “alive spaghetti” in Donut County and takes out the skull Murray to scare people in Tales of Monkey Island.  Meanwhile, Tuesday describes Gears 5 as playing Into the Breach levels in the first console Fire Emblem game and finally made it to the end of the Oldest House in Control.  In news, the FTC resumes its case against Activision Blizzard, the lawsuit between Epic and Google rumbles on, Experis's staff votes to unionize and Reedpop looks to sell its gaming media properties, including Eurogamer and GamesIndustry.biz.  In the topic, David and Tuesday discuss the news, the award winners and the reveals from The Game Awards 2023 (along with Grand Theft Auto VI, which was officially revealed a few days beforehand).

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While celebrating how the "graded" game resell market has collapsed, David Radd had to stop himself from jumping on enemies in Disney Illusion Island and felt let down by anything not in New Donk City in Super Mario Odyssey.  Meanwhile, Tuesday got some Risk of Rain 2 mixed up in their Risk of Rain 1 in Risk of Rain Returns and finally escaped the Mind Place in Alan Wake 2.  In news, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 leads October 2023 U.S. sales according to Circana, Baldur's Gate 3 sweeps the Golden Joystick Awards and lead nominations for The Game Awards with Alan Wake 2.  Sega of America is accused of threatening mass layoffs over the studio's attempt at unionization and Tim Sweeney confirms he was willing to sue Sony to get cross play for Fortnite in the ongoing trial of Epic against Google.  In the SNGP topic, David details the system he uses to encourage the play of both new and older games and Tuesday talks about their seasonal habits in gameplay.

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While looking forward to Yahtzee Croshaw's endeavors outside of The Escapist, David Radd has been rendering humanity extinct one six pixel high person at a time in Butcher and enjoying the DLC content for Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (other than Not A Hero).   Meanwhile, Tuesday played Fashion Dreamer, which is like a style focused version of the Miiverse, along with Alan Wake 2  where they tried to discover how many characters Sam Lake plays.  In news, Nintendo revels in their expanded revenue projections, where Pikmin 4 was the best seller in series history and Super Mario Bros. Wonder is the fastest selling Super Mario game, along with announcing they were funding a Legend of Zelda movie.  Sony, not to be out done, reveals increased revenues and nearly 50 million PS5's sold while they delay half their slate of service games and announce Marvel's Spider-Man 2 has sold over five million units.   In other news, The Epic Games anti-trust case against Google started, and Microsoft confirmed that it would start blocking unlicensed peripherals on the Xbox Series.  For the topic, David and Tuesday talk about JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven, which is an average game but an impressive work of fan service, along with rambling about the various stories and characters of the series which are... well, bizarre.

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