Though E3 proper hasn't yet begun, the pre-E3 press conferences have! This year, we are going to be capping off each day with a podcast discussing the news of the day with the talented bunch of people we've collected to cover the year's biggest gaming trade show. 

Day three covered a lot of ground between Ubisoft and Sony. The two industry titans threw out some pretty exciting announcements, like a completely overhauled Shadow of the Colossus for the PS4 and confirmation that, yes, Beyond Good & Evil 2 exists. Jack Gardner, Marcus Stewart and Naomi Lugo cover the basic, need-to-know announcements from the day.

Kick back, relax, and enjoy the show with us!

Telltale followed up their first entry into the world of The Walking Dead with a second season that did a number of risky things in the world of video games. Players took on the role of Clementine, a young girl who has been burdened with the onerous task of growing up during the apocalypse. The brutality, the cruelty of life under those desperate circumstances permeate Season 2. Tough decisions allow players to shape what kind of a person our hero may become and the haunting prompts from the previous season, "Clementine will remember that," are now left unsaid, but hang heavy in every facial expression.

As a sequel to an episodic game that some claimed was the greatest adventure game of all time, does The Walking Dead: Season Two stand up on its own merits as one of the best games period? 

Outro music: The Walking Dead: Season Two 'In the Pines - Credits Theme' by Jared Emerson-Johnson & Janel Drewis (https://telltalegames.bandcamp.com/)

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Jack and Marcus give you a rundown of what happened during Microsoft, Bethesda, and Devolver's press conferences.

Though E3 proper hasn't yet begun, the pre-E3 press conferences have! This year, we are going to be capping off each day with a podcast discussing the news of the day with the talented bunch of people we've collected to cover the year's biggest gaming trade show. 

Day one was limited to EA's reveals and teases, but between the ghost of Burnout races past, a promising indie that has "critical acclaim" written all over it, and a whole heap of Star Wars Battlefront II information, EA gave us more than enough to chew over. Jack Gardner, Marcus Stewart and Joe Knoop (pronounced new-p) break it all down for your listening pleasure.

Kick back, relax, and enjoy the show with us!

Halo 3: ODST broke from what was expected of a game in the Halo franchise and from what many expect of first-person shooters. It shifted the focus, if only for a moment, away from super powered Spartan soldiers and focused instead on the struggles of the normal people caught up in the aftermath of galaxy-altering events. Players experienced the story from multiple angles and perspectives while unraveling the game's central mystery. Daniel Jones lays out why you should certainly consider giving this Halo title a chance. 

Outro music: Halo: Combat Evolved 'Fall From Above (You Can't Stop)' by Arkimedes (http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01161)

You can follow the show on Twitter: @BestGamesPeriod
Or download the podcast from Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/thebestgamesperiod

Don't forget to sign up for Extra Life to help sick and injured kids in hospitals around the US and Canada by playing games!

Support us on Patreon! - https://www.patreon.com/bestgamesperiod

Minority Media made a huge splash in 2012 with the release of their intensely personal project titled Papo y Yo. The game took players on a journey into the imagination of a young boy from a Brazilian favela whose father is a raging alcoholic. The young protagonist escapes into an imaginary dreamworld where he can exert some control over his surroundings and embarks on a journey to cure Monster, the embodiment of his father. Back in 2012, Papo y Yo tackling such subject matter was seen as radical. It placed the game at the forefront of the emerging empathy game genre. It also faced many technical hiccups upon release.

Does Papo y Yo's gameplay and bold approach to weighty topics hold up five years later?

Outro music: Ilomilo 'Iso ilo' by Birgitta Susi and Eino Keskitalo (http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03380)

You can follow the show on Twitter: @BestGamesPeriod
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In 1992, developer Cyberdreams teamed up with legendary nightmare artist H.R. Giger to create an adventure game unlike any other. Tasked with unraveling the mysteries of a creepy house, terrifying visions, and a spitting migraine, players are slowly roped into a world of imaginative horror as envisioned by the artist who brought the world Ridley Scott's xenomorph in Alien. Over the course of three in-game days, players must make all the correct choices or the consequences could be deadly.

Outro music: Dark Seed 'Introduction' and 'Passing Time' by CrazyGroupTrio (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvycbZ0FWP0)

You can follow the show on Twitter: @BestGamesPeriod
Or download the podcast from Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/thebestgamesperiod

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Soulcalibur released for the Sega Dreamcast as part of the console's North American launch in 1999. Developed by Project Soul, the fighting title served as a successor to Soul Blade on the PlayStation. Two versions of Soulcalibur were developed - one for arcades and one for the Dreamcast. Though the arcade version launched in 1998, the Dreamcast version contained numerous improvements and additional game modes while offering graphics and animations on the same level as the arcade version - something almost unheard of in 3D gaming before the turn of the millennium.

Harold Goldberg, prolific video game writer, author of All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How 50 Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture, and founder of The New York Videogame Critics Circle, joins the show this week to defend his nomination of Soulcalibur.

Outro music: Soul Blade 'Jazzer Soul' by MkVaff (http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00194)

You can follow the show on Twitter: @BestGamesPeriod
Or download the podcast from Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/thebestgamesperiod

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Indie Game: The Movie was one of the early Kickstarter success stories. The 2012 documentary captured years of footage chronicling the journeys of several indie game developers, for better and worse. The film delves deep into the life small-time indie developers lead as they struggle to make their digital dreams come alive. 

This is the first of our Patreon episodes. Going forward, more of these will be available to those who donate $1 or more per month to help us keep the show going, along with all the other neat things, like exclusive discussions that got trimmed for time from past or future episodes. Consider backing us on Patreon to listen to all that good stuff!

Outro music: Kirby Super Star 'Fluffball Rampage' by DaMonz (http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03543)

You can follow the show on Twitter: @BestGamesPeriod
Or download the podcast from Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/thebestgamesperiod

Support us on Patreon! - https://www.patreon.com/bestgamesperiod

In 1992 Super Mario Kart released on the Super Nintendo and changed how the world thought of racing games. A new sub-genre formed: The kart racer. Utilizing a cast of characters plucked from the Super Mario Bros. franchise, players could race against a friend or the computer across Mode 7 courses. Though Super Mario Kart initially began development as a sequel to F-Zero, Nintendo decided to take it in a drastically different direction, lowering the skill it took to play the game to be more accessible. On release, it captivated gaming audiences everywhere across all age brackets. The result was a franchise that all other titles attempting to break into the sub-genre sought to surpass - often without success.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's critical acclaim has us wondering: Is Super Mario Kart, the game that started it all, one of the best games period?

Outro music: Mario Kart 64 'Day's End' by Sole Signal and Tweex (http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01706)

You can follow the show on Twitter: @BestGamesPeriod
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