The Experience Points Podcast

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

We turn out back for just one week and everything falls apart: Xbox prices are sky-rocketing. Marcus Fenix is doing the roadie run onto the PlayStation. One of the biggest releases of the year and maybe even the last ten years is now delayed. This week we try to pick up the pieces and figure out how they all fit together.

We are late bringing this one in but on the bright side, the ripple effects of the tariff policies and the shaky economy are still rocking the games industry anyway! This week we revisit the Switch 2 console after the announcement hype has died down. Some things change but Nintendo isn't one of them.

Show Notes: - Music by Brad Sucks

We're back from spring break and ready to talk about some of the games we've played over the past couple weeks. Our stops include new destinations like the swamps of South of Midnight, the shifting rooms of Blue Prince, and fungus fields of Avowed. There's even a return to Hollow Knight's creepy-crawly caverns as we look to wrap up the year's early months.

Nintendo unveiled all the juicy details about the Switch 2 this week and in classic Nintendo fashion the news came with a great deal of excitement, bafflement, and surprise. And all of this recorded even before the Tariff's delayed the release of the already expensive console even further! Join as we run down our surprises and disappointments.

Show notes:

- Music by Brad Sucks

Our annual springtime ritual continues! It's the time of year when our eyes are watering and we can't quite tell if it's due to the return of seasonal allergies or because of the sheer majesty of thatgamecompany's 2012 masterpiece: Journey. As always, we share our thoughts on this year's playthrough and we also review a bit of the 2012 video game landscape, review what we were playing, and put Journey in context with other big releases of the year. Hope to see you in the desert next year!

This week on the podcast we venture through the raggedy outer reaches of Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector to the monster filled dunes and valleys of Monster Hunter Wilds. Two vastly different games with enough fascinating and sometimes infuriating designs to chew through. Join us on our adventure and be sure to download the amazing Mr. Broccoli in your Wilds campaign!

Code: F99PE4N38B64

Show notes:

- Intro from Monster Hunter Wilds - Outro from the Citizel Sleeper 2 OST

A blurry tree here and little upsell there can't be so bad, can it? But what happens when these little annoyances build into something that truly irritates people into action? This week we have ugly Pokemon and triple-digit game prices are top of mind as we talk about some recent dust-ups in both the fan and financial circles.

This week on the podcast we share a lot of mixed feelings about two of last year's biggest RPGs. What compels us to finish games like these? Who knows!?

Show Notes: - Music by Brad Sucks

What with the hectic holiday season and all the game of the year madness, we were so busy talking about games that we didn't have time to talk about games-adjacent things like Secret Level. The streaming anthology series takes direct inspiration from some very well known (and not so well known) games, so we sat down to debrief on what makes a good short-form cross-media game story. Honestly, we're still having nightmares about the Pac-Man episode.