Staring at Screens.

On this week's episode, Vick doesn't get killed in traffic while playing(?) Zombies, Run! Joel picks up Humble Indie Bundle 8 and tries out Proteus and Thomas Was Alone which are NOT "cutesy games"; Lisa reveals that she lives in North Korea ("prison camp") and is disappoint with Street Food Tycoon; and Dave continues his PS Plus free game streak with Infamous 2 and Virtua Tennis 4. Oh, and Static Shock totally wears a bra on his head. CANNOT UNSEE.

The topic for the week is games we underestimated and were pleasantly surprised by. Find out which SAS team member has Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to the endless runner genre, which team member is still on dial-up internet, and who has been on the internet since at least 2004. If you have anything to add to our most awkward episode ever — perhaps a game or two that you found unexpectedly enjoyable — we invite you to join the conversation by writing to us at [email protected] or tweeting us @StaringScreens.

We played host to Ade Putra from Robots Gone Bad this week! He brought with him an element of sheer hardcore that none of team can hope to match. I mean who plays Metro: Last Light on Hard difficulty?? In other news, Joel puts in way more (commuting) time on Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Vick tries her hand at Puzzle Trooper, Dave builds his dream gun in Guncrafter and also gives Sid Meier's Ace Patrol the respect it truly deserves, and we find out how bad Lisa is at dancing.

So Microsoft has finally revealed their next console: the Xbox One. If you know nothing about it, here is the TL;DR version. Yes, it's a little tongue-in-cheek, but we stayed up to watch the entire reveal and can vouch for the uncanny fidelity of that highlight reel. Listen as we take you through what we do know and what we'd like to know about Microsoft's philosophy for the future of living room entertainment! At least for those of us who have living rooms… in the US.

If you have questions or comments about the Xbox One reveal, we invite you to join the conversation by writing to us at [email protected] or tweeting us @StaringScreens.

Links:

• Engadget's report on Microsoft's proprietary silicon chips in the Xbox One
• Eurogamer's interview with Microsoft's corporate-vice-president-of-something-to-do-with-games Phil Harrison
• Polygon's roundup of the known and unknown things about the Xbox One
• Also, Call of Duty Dog on Twitter

This week we host our very first guest podcaster! Everybody give a big SAS-sy welcome to Jun Chen (aka Junch) from The Big Gap. We're certain that like us, you'll find his insight a welcome addition to the conversation.

In this episode, Joel gets a new 3DS XL and immediately gets to work on Super Mario 3D Land and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, but also gives his Xbox360 some love thanks to Gears of War: Judgment; Junch goes retro on us with Persona 3 & 4 for the PS2/PSP; and Dave has nothing but praise for the awesome (and slightly creepy) Playstation Plus service which gives him free games to play like Quantum Conundrum.

For our topic this week we discuss the industry's aversion to Female Protagonists and bemoan the mystifying lack of games starring playable female leads. Memorable female leads are uncommon at best, and when female protagonists do get their own game they are starved of marketing dollars or discouraged from having any agency. We also touch on the role of the protagonist's gender on game narrative and the apparent differences between Western and Japanese market perception of female protagonists.

If you feel strongly about anything we said in this week's episode and would like to add your voice to the conversation, we encourage you to write to us at [email protected] or tweet us @StaringScreens. Oh yeah, by the way, Sid Meier's Ace Patrol is pretty sweet. And for the record, this episode was produced by Dave.

Links:

• The Creepy Cull of Female Protagonists
• EEDAR's research on games with Female Protagonists
• Ico's box art debacle
• American vs. Japanese Mega Man box art
• and the more things change…

Bonus Link: Why Japanese box art is better… except when it's not

Errata:

• Beyond Good and Evil was released in 2003 for PS2, not 2006
• The version of Nier released outside of Japan (simply titled "Nier") features a beefy middle-aged male protagonist trying to find a cure for his young daughter's illness. In Japan two versions of the game were released: Nier Gestalt on Xbox360 and Nier Replicant on the PS3. "Nier" and "Nier Gestalt" are identical, but "Nier Replicant" features a comparatively scrawnier and younger "bishounen" male lead as the sick girl's older brother rather than her father. Other than this minor detail the two versions are essentially the exact same game. Nier Replicant was never released outside of Japan.

Fresh off recording our long-awaited drunken playcast, the team forges on with a regular episode recording in a slightly sloshed (and soon-to-be hungover) state! Vick trys the much-lauded Dots and finds it sorely wanting, Lisa follows suit with Bee Leader, Dave gets his inner-luchador on in Guacamelee!, and Joel keeps up with the Joneses by playing Battleblock Theater and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.

We had originally planned for our discussion this week to be about Platform Envy and the platform-exclusive games we have no way of playing but it somehow morphed into an interesting discussion on Platform Exclusivity in general with a nod to Indie Games on consoles and (as fanservice) a meditation on iOS vs. Android development. This was of course accompanied by a healthy dose of name-dropping. Coming along for the ride against their will: Red Dead Redemption (Xbox360, PS3), Little Big Planet (PS3, PS Vita), Fez (Xbox360, PC), the Professor Layton games (DS, 3DS), and Journey (PS3).

By the way, the aforementioned playcast is gonna be slightly delayed, and for that we apologize. (Cutting video takes time! Who knew?) In the meantime here are some links for your perusal:

• Corridor Digital's Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon fan video
• Phil Fish vs. Microsoft

Errata:

• Battleblock Theater was made by "The Behemoth" and not "The Leviathan". Wrong biblical monster, Dave.
• Microsoft has never disclosed the cost of the Xbox360 patch fee, but DoubleFine's Tim Schafer pegged it at $40,000 in this interview from 2012.

We've got a real treat for you today, Dear Listener — our first ever special guest! Earlier this week we had the privilege of chatting with Faye Kingslee — you may know her as Citra from Far Cry 3 — and we had an absolute blast! In this interview with Dave and Joel she gives us a sneak peek into her preparation for playing the role of Citra, her acting process and how the game was made in Ubisoft Montreal, or as we put it, "where the magic happened". There's even a point in the interview where all three of us fanboy/fangirl out over Michael "Vaas" Mando.

We trust that this more than makes up for the brevity of Episode 27. :) Check it out!

The team's been busy of late, so this week we eschew our usual format and just have a nice catch up session to talk about the games we've been playing. First up, Joel's perception of reality is severely distorted by AntiChamber; then we revive the spectre that is Assassins Creed 3 as Vick finally gets to play it; mobile offerings also get some airtime as we try out Sonic Dash, Mighty Dungeons, and Fish Out of Water; and last but not least, Dave tells us about Hope: The Other Side of Adventure and much moaning and groaning ensues.

Aaand strangely that is it for this week. As usual we'd love to hear from you, dear Listeners. To add your voice to the conversation simply write to us at [email protected] or tweet us @StaringScreens. Apologies for the short episode; no promises, but we'll try to make it up to you some time later this week with something special. Fingers crossed!

Links:

Kotaku's Moneysaver tag

Game Deals Subreddit

Thanks to YJ for the money-saving tips!

This week Eric talks about playing Torchlight 2 (now with more alpaca!) and Far Cry 3 (which Dave has yet to frickin' finish), Joel actually completes Grim Fandango more than a decade after starting, Dave tries his darndest to sell us on Gemini Rue while we try our darndest to be enthusiastic, and we pontificate about the upcoming Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon based on nothing but this incredible and absurd trailer.

The topic of the week was inspired by this article by Kotaku's Jason Schreier that suggests that review score aggregate site Metacritic hurts developers and by extension video games in general. We think it's a thought-provoking and informative read that is well worth your time. So this week we were inspired to do a (rather meta) critique of Metacritic and its effect on our purchasing decisions. In our discussion we do allude to ideas discussed in the Kotaku article, so you may want to hit pause at the halfway mark and go read that first.

We'd love to hear how (if at all) game reviews influence your video game purchasing decisions. If you feel that you have anything that could add to the conversation write to us at [email protected] or tweet us @StaringScreens.

In this week's episode, Vick Eric plays Far Cry 3 and quickly fills up his rucksack with bloody skins, Joel completes Bioshock Infinite but we can't talk about it just yet, Lisa plays Finger Tied sober and ponders aloud what it would be like to play this drunk, and Dave, ever the hipster, talks us through some IGF winners, Dys4ia and Cart Life. They're free games and you can check them out in the links below. We'll also tell you why we haven't been playing SimCity of late. Maybe we'll get back to it when they fix it? We'll see.

As you may already have heard, Disney shuttered LucasArts last week, and in memoriam we do a LucasArts retrospective and talk about the memorable (and ignominious) experiences we've had with LucasArts games through the ages. Along the way we mention point and click adventure games from the SCUMM era like Maniac Mansion, its arguably more famous successor Day of The Tentacle, the awesome Sam and Max Hit The Road, and GrimE era games like the seminal Grim Fandango. Oh yeah, we also mention a slew of generically-named Star Wars® games of varying quality. Whee.

Also, after the credits stick around for our first ever dedicated SPOILER SECTION where Dave and Joel discuss the story of Bioshock Infinite at length. If you haven't yet played this game, we highly recommend saving this for after you've finished the game, because in our opinion Bioshock Infinite is as close to a gaming masterpiece as you can get and you don't want to have the story spoiled for you. Consider yourself warned.

As usual if you have anything you'd like to add to the conversation — maybe a good memory of a LucasArts game, or if you used to work for LucasArts before last week — tell us via email [email protected] or tweet us @StaringScreens.

Links:

Play Dys4ia

Download and play Cart Life

Music:

Michael Land — Theme from The Curse of Monkey Island

Garry Schyman & Jim Bonney — Welcome to Columbia

We’re in Lisa tries out the decidedly un-NimbleBit-like Nimble Quest, Joel completes and is satisfied with Crystal Dynamics’ take on Tomb Raider, Dave gets audibly frustrated at not being able to talk about Bioshock Infinite (which we recommend playing on "easy"), and we all speculate about what it would be like to play Space Team under the influence.

In the second half of the episode we talk about the things that make videogames such a good vehicle for telling engaging stories and recount some of the more memorable narrative arcs in our collective gaming experience. SPOILER ALERT: Along the way we also reference (and possibly spoil) plot elements of several games including the Saints Row series, GTA IV, Red Dead Redemption, Heavy Rain, the Mass Effect series, Fallout 3, Mafia II, Assassins Creed 2, L.A. Noire, and Halo 4.

Got an example of a game that really wowed you with its narrative? Tell us via email [email protected] or tweet us @StaringScreens.

In this week's episode, Dave and Joel have a protracted discussion about Tomb Raider, Vick tries unsuccessfully to get a workout from Fighters Uncaged, and Lisa bounces Hercules' boulders in Clash of The Olympians. Along the way we also mention the Uncharted series, Kinect Sports, Kinect Adventures, Kingdom Rush and Cat Shot.

In other news, PAX East was last weekend and have we got news for you!

• The DoubleFine Adventure finally has a name: Broken Age
• Ducktales Remastered has been announced. Watch this trailer. It's all you need to know. (If you have no idea what this is, you may be too young for this podcast.)
• Supergiant Games' next project is called Transistor and Logan Cunningham has been confirmed as a voice actor. The game is about WHO CARES WHAT THE GAME IS ABOUT SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY
• Diablo III for consoles is not going to be a Sony exclusive. Whoop dee doo. Moving on…
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut for the Wii U will fix the controversial Boss Battles
• and finally XCOM: Enemy Unknown is getting an iOS release!

As always if you'd like to join the conversation, feel free to write to us at write to us at [email protected] or tweet us @StaringScreens.