It's Elden Ring and The Shadow of the Erdtree time and with it comes the predictable discussion about difficulty in games. I guess it makes sense that a game about making looping runs through a punishing world gets people fired up, but I still think it's hilarious that people seem to be surprised at how hard these games continue to be. And thanks to a new interview with Hidetaka Miyazaki, we can be certain that this difficulty is not only intentional, but also pursued out of respect to players. This week, we dissect some of his comments and consider the long-term legacy of his design sensibilities.

The definitely NOT E3 window of events is over with one more big set of announcements. This week on the podcast, we discuss some exciting games coming to the Nintendo Switch - THIS YEAR!

Show Notes:

Now that the great collapse of the E3 ecosystem is well and truly complete, we're beginning to see saplings spring from the ashes. And it's not just a few; Summer Game Fest and the numerous other publisher-specific, indie, PC, and various thematic conferences have quickly formed a forest and are spreading the video game news over the wind like a dense cloud of pollen. This week we take our antihistamines and dive into some of the many game announcements we've seen over the past couple weeks.

This week on the EXP Podcast, in between Sony's announcements and Xbox's big news, we discuss the state of big budget first-party exclusives and what the future of publishing massively expensive games might look like.

Show notes:

• "You can't make AAA games for just one platform anymore" by Oli Welsh via Polygon
• Music by Brad Sucks

I've always lived in areas with municipal water systems, so wells are a bit of a foreign concept. But now that I've played Animal Well, I'm basically an expert. I was surprised by the number of hidden eggs and platforming puzzles, but I guess that's just the miracle of underground waterways. This week we debrief after seeing the credits, but most definitely not all the secrets, hidden in Animal Well!

This week on the EXP Podcast, we record live from our sick bed to discuss recent industry news before getting into some games we've been playing - including Balatro, Children of the Sun, and Minishoot Adventures!

Show Notes:

- Music by Brad Sucks

War never changes - the streaming television war, that is! This week we do a deep dive on the new Fallout series. Who knew the post-nuclear wasteland would have so many cameos in it? And are those the jingle of spurs I hear? Looks like The Man with No Name has become The Man with No Nose.

The Wii U, one of the worst selling consoles of all time, is finally shutting down its servers and turning off the lights. Today on the podcast we poor one out for a console ahead of its time, a messy, imperfect, but maybe a little prescient attempt by Nintendo to transform the gaming landscape.

Show Notes:

I meant to publish the show earlier, but I thought I could squeeze in a few more hands of Balatro. 48 hours later, I realize two things: that was a mistake and I'm now starving to death. This week, we dip into Balatro, make our stage debut with Princess Peach: Showtime!, and evaluate Red XIII's surreal attempt at acting like a human. Now, just a few more hands and then I swear I'll go to sleep.

Everyone's favorite lovable stoners are coming to Call of Duty, about 50 years too late to be culturally relevant. This week on the podcast, we try to draw a line between interesting and relevant in-game partnerships and the pup-culture goop that is Content with a capital "C". Don't puff, puff, pass on this one!

Show Notes:

- Music by Brad Sucks