The Cartridge Family

No offense to the new and shiny Resident Evil 3 Remake, but no remaster was more highly anticipated than Final Fantasy 7. The teasers. The delays. The first world agony. Fans endured, and Square Enix finally delivered this gorgeous video game that Joe intends to lose his entire weekend to, certain review scores (from websites we won’t name) be damned. Standing in his way? Only his loving wife and child.

Moving over to John, he’s still into Animal Crossing but his nighttime play sessions don’t allow him to enjoy the full experience. Everything of importance is closed, he’s catching the same fish, and many of his neighbors are asleep. Hopefully he gets a bit of time this weekend to play during a normal hour.

As for Buffa, it’s Resident Evil 3 Remake all the time! With the gym closed, he’s enjoying RE3 in bite-sized chunks every day from 8:15AM to 9:00AM, but with roughly 5 hours of playtime to see this zombie masher to its bloody end, he’s not ready to say goodbye so soon. The plan? Go through Raccoon City all over again, but with end game unlocks.

The Family concludes this episode with their thoughts on Sony’s controversial PlayStation 5 DualSense controller, and John delivers the beatdown. Up next, the celebrational 100th Cartridge Family episode!

The global pandemic continues and John chose to take drastic measures to ensure his family’s survival. He buys fruit and veggies from a local farm, he orders meat from a butcher (at least he’s not hunting…yet), and he even cut his own hair! Joe, meanwhile, finally left his house after two months of isolation.

What’s the one thing keeping these two sane? Animal Crossing: New Horizons! They’re passing the time collecting bugs, Easter eggs, and other things. John and his kids have their own copies (John also came up with a clever way for his kids to do chores… with Animal Crossing as the reward), while Joe and his wife are testing the limits of their marriage by occupying the same island! Nintendo… their future is in your hands.

Fortunately for Joe, Square Enix’s long awaited Final Fantasy 7 remake is nearly upon us, so he’ll have something to keep busy with in case his significant other refuses to relinquish the Switch.

Meanwhile, Buffa is brains deep into the Resident Evil 3: Nemesis remake. He chooses to live through both the virtual and actual pandemics simultaneously. Find out what he thinks of Capcom’s newest survival horror adventure, then stay for his tales of what it’s like outside amongst toilet-paper hoarding masses.

We close with Joe insisting that Rogue Legacy 2 deserves everyone’s attention, and a germ-riddled beatdown that will give you the shivers.

Oh, Sony! You’re on top of the world with the PlayStation 4. You’ve had years to position the PlayStation 5 as the next evolutionary step in your path to continued dominance. There’s literally no way you could mess this up.

Yikes! Find out how everything went wrong during the week’s surprise PS5 tech rundown. We hope you speak Cerny!

Then we have GameStop. For one brief moment, we applauded the company for releasing DOOM Eternal a day early to promote social distancing within its stores. But then corporate wasted its good press by refusing to close those stores as the pressure for the United States to shut down amid the COVID-19 crisis intensifies. Why? Well, because GameStop considers itself essential retail, putting its video game business in the same group that most people would drop supermarkets and pharmacies into. People need their physical copies of games just as much as they need Albuterol inhalers, right? Sorry, no.

In other news, John has more Nintendo Switch Animal Crossing systems than you do, Joe heaps praise on Ori and the Will of the Wisps, and Buffa is ready for the Resident Evil 3 demo. All that and more as we charge ahead to episode 100!

Episode 096 is by far the strangest episode of The Cartridge Family, but we are living in strange times. The world is gripped with Coronavirus fever. Toilet paper is missing. Large cases of water are difficult to find. Hand sanitizer? That was the first to go.

With this in mind, there’s a lot of Coronavirus talk. Joe quarantines himself on a regular basis so he’s doing just fine. John, meanwhile, is apparently sitting on a big stash of toilet paper and rice. Then we have Buffa, who still goes to the gym despite the mass hysteria. Nothing will stop him from achieving those gains!

Fortunately, amidst what is now a global pandemic, there’s a bright side. For starters, this will probably encourage more people to wash their hands, which can only be a good thing. Beyond that, video games provide a means to escape reality in troubling times. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is out March 20, alongside DOOM Eternal. After that, we have the Resident Evil 3 Remake, where gamers can experience a virtual pandemic while living in a real one. Whoah!

Yes, the NBA suspended its season, other sports leagues followed suit, and E3 2020 is toast, but maybe we should relax, sit down on a comfy couch, and fire up our console or PC game of choice. We’ll get through this together!

We’re little more than two months into 2020 and this year’s been quiet for video games, at least until a few days ago. Despite the anemic start, things are heating up in such a big way that Buffa is actually considering a VR-capable PC. Oh boy!

In no particular order, Valve served up a generous helping of gameplay for Half-Life: Alyx, and Capcom unveiled several minutes of in-game action for its upcoming Resident Evil 3 remake. We also have Square Enix, which released a demo for its highly anticipated re-imaging of the smash hit PSOne RPG, Final Fantasy 7. Did Joe, our resident RPG aficionado, beat the demo several times over? His response might surprise you.

Going back to Half-Life: Alyx, Buffa sort of has the PC itch despite ditching PCs more than ten years ago for Mac. Now, with Asgard’s Wrath and Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners already released, with Alyx on the way… is now the time for Buffa to become a member of the PC master race? He already has the Oculus Quest. Now all he needs is an Oculus Link cable and about $1500. What can go wrong?

Meanwhile, John successfully introduced video games to his daughters. It seems like everyone in the Benyamine family owns a Switch and copies of Stardew Valley. This is by John’s design, as he primes his kids to become professional gamers. We’re pretty sure he’s going to make competitive Animal Crossing a thing several years from now. Much like in Stardew Valley… he is… planting the seeds.

We round out the show with a rumored Star Wars game, Corona talk, and even a little politics following a dramatic Super Tuesday showdown. Only five more episodes until 100!

Buffa's out of town today so it's Joe's turn to type up some nonsense for you to read instead of simply listening to our delightful, weekly gaming podcast. I'm kidding. Buffa's a talented writer and I'm nothing. No one. An ant. A shadow of an ant. Dust.

Check out our latest episode. John and I breakdown the latest from Yacht Club Games, Xbox Series X's info dump, and how the Caronavirus is impacting the games industry. Thanks for listening as always and enjoy!

Is it OK to be cool with losing? Does every loss while playing a competitive video game, some pickup basketball at the local gym, or a pie-eating contest need to fill you with unholy rage? According to video game influencer and streaming superstar, Ninja, abso-damn-lutely!

Ninja recently took to Twitter to call out people who are OK with losing at video games. The remark peeled back the virtual curtain on his competitive nature, and it sparked a debate amongst the gaming community over good sportsmanship and how people respond to winning and losing at video games. Is it really, just a game? John, Joe, and Buffa have strong opinions!

Then, StarCraft: Ghost returns from the dead! The much hyped but ill-fated shooter from Blizzard resurfaced online a few days ago. First as found footage, and then someone uploaded what exists of the actual game for people to play. The three dads were right in the thick of all the StarCraft: Ghost hoopla back in the Xbox, PS2, and GameCube days. Find out what they think about this surprise reveal.

In other news, Nintendo unveils a new Switch Lite color, there’s an Animal Crossing Direct, and Joe has some more thoughts on Kentucky Route Zero. It’s another gem of an episode on the road to 100!

It’s Valentine’s Day 2020, and the dads spend part of this episode expressing their love for video games! John downloaded the new Dead Cells Bad Seed DLC, while Buffa is all about The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. Joe, on the other hand, needed some Rocket League to clear his brain of Kentucky Route Zero, which might be good? He’s not sure yet.

Nintendo Switch lounges in airports? Nintendo has plans to bring its Switch to a handful of U.S. airports for people to play while waiting for their flights to take off, but there’s a catch that sort of defeats the purpose. Then Sega releases yet another Yakuza game. We spent the 2000s hearing about this popular Yakuza series that was only available abroad, and now Sega has a new Yakuza every other month. It’s crazy, but of course, really cool if you’re into organized crime.

Some sad news… Game Awards creator and host Geoff Keighley says that he won’t attend E3 this year for… reasons. The family speculates why everyone's favorite gaming host won’t make an appearance at the famous video game convention. Spoiler, it rhymes with the word “honey”.

Buffa is back from a short trip to LA, where he played Outriders, the new cover-based shooter from Bulletstorm developer People Can Fly. The game is scheduled the launch holiday 2020 just in time for the next generation consoles, so what’s it all about? Buffa has all the info.

Last but not least, we cap off the episode with John beating down Joe, and a back of the box for one of Switch Online’s newest games, which unfortunately is not Donkey Kong Country.

Enjoy the long weekend!

After weeks of John and Buffa telling Joe that his video game time would plummet with a baby to take care of (and Joe to his credit pushing back on this), it finally happened. His little cherub consumed his life and he barely enjoyed two hours of video games this week. Life comes at you fast, Joe!

John and Buffa returned to their respective homes after a bit of traveling. While suffering through hours spent on different planes, John passed the time with a little gem called Wilmot’s Warehouse, while Buffa cracked open The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening after giving old school game, Magician Lord, the boot.

The three dads cover a variety of topics in episode 091, including their thoughts on that downright charming Animal Crossing themed Nintendo Switch, which is being affected by the unfortunate Coronavirus outbreak; same with the Switch version of Outer Worlds. Then, the guys talk about whether owning video game collectors editions make sense the older they get. John is the proud owner of a Red Dead Redemption 2 Collector’s Edition, but will he ever get around to putting the puzzle together? Maybe he can tackle the puzzle while wearing the included red bandana and RDR2-branded pins.

From there, we top off the podcast with a back of the box reading for the ages that doesn’t exactly paint the year 2020 in the best light. But considering the recent goings on with Coronavirus and the tragic death of Kobe Bryant, 2020 hasn’t exactly gotten off to a peaches and cream start, so someone mishandling plutonium hidden beneath the Statue of Liberty’s dress seems plausible. We’re doomed.

We’re one month into 2020 and everyone’s starving for a shred of info on the next generation consoles. Well, how about the boot-up sequence and jingle for the PlayStation 5? Yup! It appears someone shot a quick video of Sony’s new PlayStation firing up, and it’s… not bad? It also might not be real. Who knows what to believe with today’s Internet?

Let’s say it’s real. Where does the PS5 jingle rank amongst 20 plus years of console boot sequences? Is it better than Dreamcast? Perhaps, but we’ll say this much… it’s a heck of a lot cooler than the Atari Jaguar’s.

Meanwhile, the family is busy playing games! John and his kids are addicted to Stardew Valley, while Joe cannot wait to dive into Kentucky Route Zero for the Switch. Buffa, on the other hand, is still trapped in the 90s with a bunch of old retro games. Perhaps he’ll gravitate to playing something released in the 2000s next week!

The Family visited a New Jersey diner before this recording, so let us know if full bellies and a change of schedule made a difference with episode 90!