The Save Room

Kevin is joined by special guest Jess (or "The Jess") to dissect Geoff Keighley's annualized collection of video game commercials: The Game Awards!

This year, Geoff accomplished the impossible by gathering the holy trinity -- Reggie Fils-Aime, Shawn Layden, and Philly Spencer unified at last. Colliding their atoms into one, Geoff created the perfect salesman. Pudgy, disarming, constantly gesticulating... Shawny Fils-a-Spence was magnificent. All three minutes it was alive anyway.

Also in this episode: How Hard and How Far Does Todd Howard Kick Puppies?

Quick Save #3: Celebrating 20 Years of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time by The Save Room

From its massive game-breaking bugs to its shit-storm PR nightmare--this week we're doing a deep-dive on the recent fallout from Fallout 76. It seemed like every day over the last two weeks we were only hearing continually worse news about Bethesda's latest online venture with Fallout 76. The game has seen harsh criticism for its off-kilter online ecosystem, empty world and quests, crashes, and how it wasn't what players wanted. Hell, the company is even being faced with a class-action lawsuit over false advertising. Some of that can be forgiven, but players were further burned by how a promised canvas bag in the Power Armor Edition of the game was swapped out with a cheap nylon substitute (with Bethesda promising fake money to make it up to us).

Buggy games and false advertising are nothing new to the gaming industry, but it's rather how Bethesda, a major AAA developer, has followed suit and responded to it all that is troubling. In our discussion we talk about what Todd Howard and co. could have done differently following the game's launch and what they need to do moving forward to gain back our trust and keep us with their games.

We also talk some TGA predictions, how Kingdom Hearts 3 has finally gone gold, how Resident Evil is getting a cinematic remake, how Red Dead Online is practically the Purge 1899, and go on about how damn good Call of Duty: Blacks Ops 4 is. This one is a long one, so hopefully you can stick out our antics (and bugs). We promise an update next week that will make listening more manageable.

As always, we thank you guys for listening and being the best Save Roommates we could ask for. We hope the holidays and video games are finding you well.

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0:00:00--Intro/Housekeeping

0:05:47--The Game Awards 2018

0:10:41--News

0:57:30--Shoutout Article of the Week

1:03:18--Topic: The Fallout 76 Fallout

1:32:03--What We've Been Playing

1:38:27--Red Dead Redemption 2

1:49:36--Spider-Man (The Heist/Turf Wars DLC)

1:57:20--Call of Duty: Black Ops 4

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---Cuts---

0:00:00--Intro

0:04:56--Housekeeping

0:09:52--Stan Lee has Passed Away

0:14:30--Detective Pikachu Actually Looks Rad!

0:21:02--Tetris Effect is a Banger!

0:25:27--Quick Hits

1:00:42--New Segment: Good Gamer

1:03:27--Fallout 76 and the Ballad of Todd Howard

1:18:54--Top News

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This week on The Save Room: It's the Tale of Two Fandoms! In one corner, we have The Final Smash Direct and in the other we have Blizzcon 2018. Both events were incredibly hyped up in fans' minds and built on misplaced expectations from these respective fan bases. Fan outcry broke over Nintendo and Sakurai's exclusion of characters from the final Super Smash Bros ultimate and lost their minds when a piranha plant made into it the final roster over a bear and his bird. And at Blizzcon this past weekend, Blizzard fans openly bashed the developer when they decided to close their annual event with their new mobile game, Diablo Immortal, instead of announcing Diablo 4--a game they said they had no intention of announcing just yet. Our deep-dive discussion hits hard on entitlement and how regardless of what you want from a game, it's not okay to attack anyone when you don't get what you want.

We also take you on a journey across the wastelands of West Virginia with Kevin's Fallout 76 impressions, break down the Playstation Classic, talk about how we're totally here for Brie Larson as Samus Aran in a Metroid movie, and give you our full impressions on Rockstar Games' newest endeavor, Red Dead Redemption 2. Unlike the opening hours of RDR2, this episode is anything but a slow-burn.

As always, thanks for tuning in and giving us your support. You guys are the best Save Roommates we could ask for.

----Cuts----

0:00:00: Intro

0:04:35: Kevin's Fallout 76 Impressions

0:20:10: Quick Hits

0:50:45: A Tale of Two Fandoms

0:51:27: The Final Smash Direct

1:09:27: Blizzcon 2018

1:27:24: Red Dead Redemption 2 Impressions

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It's Quick Save #2! On this edition of Quick Save we're talking David Gordon Green's Halloween 2018: what works, what doesn't, and how this sequel stands in terms of the legacy of the 40 years of Michael Myers. We go all-in, discussing dry-f**king and murderous arts and crafts in Haddonfield, as well as deconstructing The Shape himself and how its podcasting after all that motivates a man to kill.

So seal the doors, lock your windows, and hold your Jamie Lee Curtis close. Mikey is coming home.

Hey Save Roommates, gather around the campfire for another weekly episode of The Save Room. This week we get all sorts of spooky as we dish on getting lost in the new Netflix series Haunting of Hill House and fight our way back through the Baker Estate in Resident Evil 7. Kevin is also hanging dong in the Order 1886 while Daniel talks on Playstation Now and confesses his unholiest confession of never having played a Rockstar game before this week.

Also: Shuhei is letting us change our PSN names, Skybound wants to employ former Telltale employers to finish TWD, Red Dead 2 is releasing on two discs, Days Gone is delayed, and Gooigi is actually a thing!

We also decided to flip the script a little this week by making our news pieces shorter and rearing up for a bigger topic. If you didn't know, the gaming industry was set afire last week following an interview that Rockstar's founder Dan Houser had with Vulture. The interview comes on the heels of the highly anticipated release of Red Dead Redemption 2 with Houser's statement about 100-hour work weeks spawning numerous conversations about the nature of work "crunch" and how working conditions are across Rockstar's many studios. Rockstar has known to be private in the past and following this story, we've had countless behind-the-scenes accounts emerging that shed light on what's actually going on.

While the story is still ongoing and being investigated further by Kotaku's Jason Schreir, we put our spurs to the topic and heavily discuss what we know so far, how we feel regarding excessive overtime across the gaming industry and what needs to change. While we're no experts on the topic, we wanted to present the subject in its fullest details while giving Rockstar the benefit of the doubt until the whole story comes out.

So strap on your boots and get your saddles ready--this one is going to be a wild ride.

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0:00:00--Intro/What We've Been Playing

0:27:20--Quick Hits (or "Next Level News")

1:14:18--Topic: Rockstar and the Problem of Crunch in the Industry

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On this very special, and very spooky, rendition of The Save Room we're dusting the cobwebs off of our favorite VHS tapes and going all in on our favorite Halloween horror flicks!

Kevin is joined by friend of the show Jess! She brings with her a wealth of knowledge about everything ghoulish, ghastly, and outright groady.

Submitted for the approval of the Save Roommates, we present to you: THE SPOOKY ROOM. *lighting crashes* *a black cat yowls* *a goblin gets his wings*

The Save Room is back giving you that big Friday Mood. This week on The Save Room, the boys are back on their long-form bullshit. We talk more Hollow Knight, Kevin's Assassin's Creed Odyssey impressions and why Daniel always keeps five guns in his inventory slots.

We also talk the future of the console space: with Xbox moving towards a stream-only initiative and Sony's announcement that PS5 was happening, it will be interesting to see where these platforms take gaming in the next generation. How long until we can stream video games on the back of our loved ones heads, Microsoft? Meanwhile, Nintendo is unscathed, still doing their own thing releasing 100 new iterations of the Switch.

And in our latest edition of the AdaptationCast: We're also getting a Mega Man movie, a Monster Hunter movie, AND a DDR apocalypse movie. We didn't ask for it, but boy, are we getting it. All of that topped off with a new Harry Potter RPG? This week's episode will having you saying Accio Save Room!

As always, thanks for listening and giving us your continued support. You guys are the best Save Roommates .

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What's up, Save Roommates, today we're bringing you a new series under the Save Room house called Quick Save! Whereas our regular episodes are winding, haphazard hour-long rides--Quick Save will be exactly as it sounds: quick episodes about a singular topic (well, at least quick for us).

On the inaugural episode of Quick Save, we're talking Sony's newest cinematic comic book venture: Venom. It wasn't bad, buuut it wasn't great. Amidst it's 2 hour and 20 minute runtime, there are at least 20 minutes of movie here that will have your attention in a unique way. While it often misses its mark, Venom at its core is a romantic buddy-cop movie about a man and his very hungry symbiote. (Yes, you read that right.)

So strap on your symbiotes, let your tongues hang, and get ready for some carnage, kids.