Video Game Generations

We start, as always, with a "Get to Know the Hosts" off-topic segment, this time focusing on the top three "fun" things we did this summer. We read more listener email, which includes two answers to last week's question of the week, and a new question that brings back memories of old, now-vintage home computers. In the "What We Played" segment, Addie gives her final thoughts on Edna & Harvey: Harvey's New Eyes, and her opening thoughts on Double Fine's Broken Age. All of us played a little Castle Crashers this week, so we talk some about what kind of game it is, and whether or not it's actually appropriate for kids. I wrap up my thoughts on Murdered: Soul Suspect (spoiler: I liked it quite a bit, despite a negative opinion from reviewers in general). I tried an old XBOX 360 hovercar racing game called Fatal Inertia, and I talk a little more about Kid Icarus: Uprising and Broken Sword 5. I recently started playing Phantom Dust (from the original XBOX), so I give my opening thoughts on that, and to wrap up the segment, I talk about the "playable teaser" for Silent Hill -- a free PS4 download called P.T. It's incredibly scary but well worth a play (for adults only). For our 15 Minutes of Game, we played the XBOX 360 multiplayer party game Hail to the Chimp, and that audio is a separate bonus MP3. In this episode's latter segments, I talk about handheld gaming, the evolution of game design (and how easy we have it these days), and a lengthy discussion about Kickstarter (which is our topic of the week -- email us your thoughts about Kickstarter to include in our next episode).

This week we read more listener email and talk about ways to help make sure kids play (and watch) age-appropriate games. Addie hasn't had time to play much since the last episode, but she talks a little about Portal, Portal 2, and Shadow of the Colossus (which are games she played some previously). I give my final thoughts on The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii) after finishing it recently, and my opening thoughts on Murdered: Soul Suspect (PS4) -- which I've already almost finished. Then Hadleigh fills us in on Tomodachi Life (3DS) as only a 6-year-old can. We also talk a little about IGN's reading of a 1982 book titled simply "Video Games." Then, with "Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney" mere days away from release, I talk briefly about the history of both of these puzzle/adventure games (DS and 3DS) leading up to this brand new mash-up. We also pose a new question of the week: if you're starting out with just one of the new-gen consoles, which one, and what influenced your decision? We don't have a "15 Minutes of Game" segment this week, but we hope to bring it back again in episode 8, next week. Anyway, we hope you enjoy this week's episode!

This week, Addie talks more about Octodad (PS4) after recently beating it. I give a few more thoughts on Strider (PS4 version) since I beat that too. Other games discussed include Skyward Sword (yes, again -- I'm still playing it), Dance Dance Revolution Universe, Final Fantasy X HD Remake, The Secret of Monkey Island, and Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime. Our game of the week, Hohokum (PS4 version) gets the 15-minute treatment, and you can find that extra segment as a separate MP3 at our site or in the podcast feed this week. We talk about a few other off-topic things that interest us (the ads I used to find in old comic books, the Doctor Who role-playing game, and a movie Addie recently watched for the first time). More listener email, a new question of the week about game-breaking bugs, and our Riddle of the Week are returning segments to round out the episode. NOTE: Next week's episode will be a day late, due to Addie being unavailable to record at our usual time.

Some highlights of this episode include more Zelda: Skyward Sword talk, the character/leveling system in Final Fantasy X, recommendations for good RPG's of the past couple of years (Xenoblade Chronicles, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, and Persona 4 Golden), videogame music compilations from the London Philharmonic, my opinion on the pricing of Playstation games in the Playstation Now beta, games we're looking forward to this fall (for Addie, that's LittleBigPlanet 3, but for me, there are too many must-play titles just around the corner). I talk for a while about the free games available this month with "premium" subscription services (XBox Live Gold and PlayStation Plus), including Dishonored, Road Not Taken and Fez. For three other topics in particular, we invite responses from our listeners, including your thoughts on the recent documentary "Video Games: The Movie." Early in the show, we read more listener email, and Addie presents another Riddle of the Week. Our 15 Minutes of Game segment returns, but this time we have a separate MP3 which records our moment-by-moment commentary as we play the PS3 game Folklore.

In this week's episode, Addie talks about Tearaway and Octodad: Dadliest Catch, and I give my thoughts so far on Kid Icarus: Uprising and the Strider remake. Our game of the week is the new iOS adventure Revolution 60 (from developer Giant Spacekat/Brianna Wu). In our first-ever "15 Minutes of Game" segment, we give our thoughts on the first fifteen minutes of PS4's Towerfall: Ascension. I talk about a few of my favorite XBox Live Indie games (XBLIG), including the Decay series, the two Platformance games, DLC Quest, and Magicians & Looters. Addie's younger siblings (twins) talk briefly about the games they've been playing (hint: one of them is Minecraft). But before all of this, we read an abundance of great feedback and encouragement we've received from our listeners in email. This makes for a longer-than-usual episode, and we hope you enjoy it!

Today, we talk about Disney Infinity, LittleBigPlanet, Little Inferno, the Destiny beta, Papo & Yo, and Persona 4 Golden. But that's not all. As usual, we talk briefly about a variety of other games and marginally on-topic subjects like books about virtual reality (Ready Player One and Rainbow's End), and two interactive fiction competitions. We're joined later by Tracy for a short discussion on PC adventure games Kaptain Brawe and Edna & Harvey: Harvey's New Eyes. Four Destiny beta codes are given out (two for XBox 360 and two for PlayStation 4 -- if you're not in the beta yet, grab one of these before July 27th), and we talk a little about what it means to "spoil" videogames. ...... Find us on the web at www.vggpodcast.com or email us at [email protected].

In our second episode, now on our usual day, we discuss the upcoming season of Doctor Who, the ESRB, and things we got wrong last time. Then we get on-topic with talk about various Double Fine games, Portal, Quantum Conundrum, Puppeteer, and others. Music in videogames is the topic of the week. And for some lucky listener, I read off a Destiny beta code just waiting to be claimed. Enjoy! ...... Find us on the web at www.vggpodcast.com or email us at [email protected].

In our very first episode, we jump wildly in the discussion between various games we've enjoyed, after we introduce the podcast and ourselves.