Watch Out for Fireballs!

As we continue Indie Horror Month, we're excited to do something a little different. There are so many great little experimental horror games that wouldn't bear a full episode, but are worth talking about. So we gathered up a bunch of micro-horror games and created a special episode about them. They are:

• IMSCARED

• Haunted Cities, vol. 1 and vol. 2

• Lost Constellation

• My Father's Long Long Legs

And that's all. Don't stick around to the end of the episode because there's nothing more. Nosiree.

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Hi! This was supposed to be a surprise for our seventh anniversary, but things didn't go as planned. Some of you already heard about it, but for some of you it will be news: we recorded a new episode about Mega Man X. It was the very first game we covered for Watch Out for Fireballs!, and we wanted to go back and look at again all these years later. Turns out it's still an A+ masterpiece, and completely essential.

Thank you very much for all of your love and support. It's been a great seven years, we have no plans on stopping, and we might even do more of these revisits in the future. Umbasa! - Kole

You can run and you can hide... and not much else. That's something Frictional learned in making Penumbra: Overture, a strange predecessor to their more widely acclaimed Amnesia: The Dark Descent. You play as Phillip, a professor who follows in the footsteps of his presumed-dead father and ends up in a heap of trouble in an Arctic mine. Come hear what makes this strange indie horror game so foundational to modern horror games.

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Links:

• List of Notable SCP games | SCP - Containment Breach Wiki | FANDOM powered by Wikia

• H.R. Giger At Home - Superego - YouTube

Let's hear your responses to Quest for Glory II, Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, and not Gabriel Knight 3!

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We love the Gabriel Knight series, but Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned is the kind of game only a parent could love. It follows Knight's adventures in France as he tries to solve a kidnapping case that involves the Holy Grail and a set of vampires called "The Night Visitors".

What makes Gabriel Knight 3 such a dicey proposition to play is its questionable presentation. Sierra forced Jane Jensen and her team to make the game fully 3D, which they were neither equipped to accomplish, nor comfortable doing. So it's a technical nightmare that plays very awkwardly, and it gets in its own way. The highs remain quite high, since this series uniquely captures the feeling of being a detective investigating a case. It's just... very difficult to recommend.

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Links:

• How Sierra and a Disgraced Cop Made the Most Reactionary Game of the 90s - Waypoint

Callahan's Place is a very special bar, where flawed people from across space and time gather to share their pain and be healed. This makes for a very strange basis for a video game, but Legend managed to pull it off. Though the puzzles aren't always great, Callahan's skates by with a lot by being laugh-out-loud hilarious and unusually humane. Seriously, this is wayyy up there.

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This month's theme is "Auteur Adventure Games", and we decided to open it with a beloved game by Corey and Lori Ann Cole. Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire continues our hero's journey as he heads to the Arabian-inspired realm of Shapeir. The Coles had a specific vision for how to combine adventure games and role playing, and also had a very specific kind of light and humorous voice. Large parts of this game are a mess, but it's a very interesting specimen to look at closely.

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Four episodes, two hacky slashy games, lots of thoughts. It's time to hear your responses to God of War and NieR!

Also, we announce the upcoming games. September sees Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire, Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, and Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned. October is Indie horror month... There's a patron poll for the first episode, the second episode will be a special about Micro Horror games, and the final episode is about Night in the Woods.

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It's inarguable that God of War is an important game, but is it still fun to play? No, not really, but it has its moments. It came late in the PS2 lifecycle and took inspiration from character action games like Devil May Cry, but it added a sense of brutality that launched a fleet of clones.

The problem is, the God of War you remember didn't start wtih the first game. No, it became the setpiece-heavy boss-a-thon with God of War II. The original features far more hallways, and almost no bosses, but lays down a solid technical framework for what would come.

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Links:

• Spawn(1997)- Shootout Scene[HD] - YouTube

• American Airlines Admirals Club Installs Two-Way Mirror For Members To Enjoy Misery Of Passengers In Gate Waiting Area

This episode concludes our coverage of NieR, as we talk about the endgame of Route A, and cover everything from Routes B, C, and D. NieR has thoroughly worn out its welcome at this point, even if there is some good stuff to be found in the tricks it plays. So come listen, and hear the specifics of our criticisms.

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