With the summer is wrapping up, it's time to talk about a great crop of games we're squeezing in prior to the fall rush.  We're still on our journey to spread the chiral network of course, but we've picked up genealogy and bike racing as well.  We've also dusted off some old classics, although it seems that we still don't know what sort of animal Klonoa is after all these years.  Maybe some fall semester zoology classes are in order.

This week on the podcast we visit the beautiful city of Lumiere, eat (and wield) a baguette, take a boat ride on a weirdly large creature, and analyze a painting. Join us on a full debrief of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - including a deep spoiler section on the divisive ending!

Show notes:

- Music from the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Soundtrack

This week we get a report from the field about Gen Con 2025.  Despite a microscopic demonic onslaught, Jorge was able to see some of the newest table top games.  What have we discovered?  Well, the Souls-like genre seems to be transcending the boundaries of video games.  Prepare to sit across the table from your old friend, Patches.

Fumito Ueda, the creator of Shadow of the Colossus, has called it folks. The age of game mechanics is over! Pack it up folks, we're all out of ideas. This week on the podcast, we chat about philosophy, the creation of art, and some video game movie news that has us both excited and miserable!

Show notes:

- "‘The age of game mechanics is over’, claims Shadow of the Colossus director Ueda from" VideoGamesChronicle

- Music from Brad Sucks

It's hard to argue that times have been tough in the video game industry as of late.  Since we last talked Microsoft has laid of thousands and shuttered entire studios.  This comes at a time when the Stop Killing Games movement is gaining greater visibility due to the increasingly ephemeral nature of so many releases.  After taking stock of some of the Microsoft aftermath, we we take a look at Video Games Europe's response to the petition and what it could mean as an alternative way to think about how games can survive games in a long term way.

Beaches, Homunculi, and strange birth stories - it's an eclectic group of games this week as we debrief Ender Magnolia, To a T, and venture briefly back into the Kojima's world of Death Stranding 2! Show Notes: - Music from the To a T reveal & announce trailers

Forget weather patterns and school schedules; the real mark of summer is a shotgun blast of game announcements.  This week we pick up the pieces of Summer Game Fest as well as some of the adjacent company-focused announcements.  A slew of Souls-likes, combative muppets, and a very cool looking Big Walk are all on the horizon.

This week on the EXP Podcast, we discuss the announcements out of Sony's State of Play - recording just a day before Summer Games Fest, so there's a bounty coming! Today it's why James Bond lacks character, what's so unsettling about Silent Hill F, and much more!

Grab your baguette, it's time to le rip and le tear your way through hell.  This week we jump into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Doom: The Dark Ages.  Two games that, while seemingly very different, share a similar commitment to their mechanical and aesthetic themes.  Who knew the mass destruction of an entire age group and jaunt through the realm of the old gods would be so much fun?

Pull your pants up, put away your smoker, and tuck the kids into bed folks it's time to play a dad game! This week on the podcast, we dive deep on what makes a quintessential "dad game," why Remedy's upcoming FBC Firebreak might fit the bill, and what we look for in game for parents with very little free time.

Show notes:

- "Remedy says it’s made a Control shooter ‘for Dads’" from VideoGamesChronicle - Music from Brad Sucks