Watch Out for Fireballs!

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross noscope with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Call of Duty has become emblematic of AAA bloat. Podcasts like ours tend to dismiss it out of hand as the poster child for a kind of game that hasn't just run out of ideas, but refuses to be reflective about the ideas it does have. It could be argued that it all began here. However, it's more complicated than that. Call of Duty 4 is a perfectly fine shooter with moments that really stand out. Moreover, it's a game that has heart, from a series that notoriously lacks it.

• [Hardline](www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0TfCQAQJAE)

• [See how no one ever hits anyone else?](www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE9CEC7hZJw)

• [Generation Kill](www.youtube.com/watch?v=bobBTYwkDhc)

• [Aerial America](www.youtube.com/watch?v=izIc-lcvmEw)

• [Gary owns one of these](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquidator_%28Chernobyl%29)

• [Heat](www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xbBLJ1WGwQ)

• [Dragon, throw me](arresteddevelopment.wikia.com/wiki/Ready…,_Marry_Me)

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to game book and Choose Your Own Adventures.

• [Choose Your Own Autobiography](www.amazon.com/Neil-Patrick-Harr…phy/dp/0385346999)

• [The Aviator Book](www.amazon.com/Howard-Hughes-The…ife/dp/0312329970)

• [The Crystal Trap](zelda.wikia.com/wiki/The_Crystal_Trap)

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross venture forth to discuss game books, choose your own adventures, and Steve Jackson's Sorcery!

What is game? It's any interactive experience that has both failure states and a success state. By that reasoning, game books are games. Also, it's in the name. This special episode is all about non-video interactive narratives, books with branching paths and mechanics.

We cover the Bantam Choose Your Own Adventure Books, Fighting Fantasy, Lone Wolf, Steve Jackson's Sorcery!, the Goosebumps Choose Your Own Scare, and more. For as nostalgic as this topic is, there's a surprising connection between these books and the current crop of narrative-driven games we play today.

• [You Chose Wrong](youchosewrong.tumblr.com/)

• [Clickventure](www.clickhole.com/clickventure/mys…ow-island-1880#2,)

• [Quest for Glory](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_for_Glory)

• [Gamebook Archives](www.gamebooks.org/)

• [The Two Jakes](www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWbiQAr8miI)

• [Black Bug Room](marvel.wikia.com/Black_Bug_Room)

• [Lonewolf Online](www.projectaon.org/en/Main/Books)

• [Mormon Afterlife](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degrees_of_glory)

• [All My Circuits](theinfosphere.org/All_My_Circuits)

• [Sexist Xanth books](www.avclub.com/article/revisitin…y-of-xanth-104382)

• [@dril](twitter.com/dril)

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

Gary Butterfield, Kole Ross, and Zack Johnson read your responses to Star Control II, then talk about disgusting stuff for a little while.

• [Ultranomicon](wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Star_Control_II)

• [Chubby Bunny](www.snopes.com/horrors/parental/chubbybunny.asp)

• [Rainbow Party](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_par…_%28sexuality%29)

• [S-Rank](www.giantbomb.com/s-rank/3015-2962/)

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

Gary Butterfield, Kole Ross, and Zack Johnson open a hailing frequency to talk about Star Control II.

The Ur-Quan and their battle thralls have dominated this quadrant of the galaxy, and it's up to a human crew with some Precursor technology to reunite the Alliance of Free Stars and act as liberators. This is a game that defies categorization. Part space combat arcade game, part resource gathering, part adventure game... the larger picture of all of these pretty little parts is an engrossing world filled with varied and interesting species and civilizations, each with their own stories to tell. This ranks really high up there on our list of favorite games we've done on the show, and we really recommend you check it out.

• [3DO controller](www.google.com/search?q=3do+cont…g&biw=999&bih=810)

• [Star Control 1. Mute the dude](www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX0M2Ftf6ho)

• [Article on Starflight](www.filfre.net/2014/10/starflight/)

• [The Velvet Fog](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Torm%C3%A9)

• [2001 Sequels](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Spa…novel%29#Sequels)

• [JW Stillwater](www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtxoRjYEhU8)

• [Kingdom of Loathing](www.kingdomofloathing.com/login.php?lo…74e3120d1fb6)

• [Video Games Hot Dog](videogameshotdog.com/)

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Jet Set Radio.

The audience was mostly in agreement with us that the game is a case of style over substance. But tune in to hear the praise anyway, because damn is that style good. Also, Brayton Cameron calls in to educate us on where the music in Jet Set Radio comes from.

• [Alcatraz Audio Tour](www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XLoMqydKN4)

• [African Grey Parrot](www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH80gzSs790)

• [Shibuya-Kei](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibuya-kei)

• [Iron and Blood](www.youtube.com/watch?v=xotDSUM4v0k)

• [Revolt of Gamers](www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N-rD0F3Psk)

• [Noah's Arcade](www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDP9jfIwe7A)

• [Umberto Eco's Getting Up](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto_Eco)

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross dig through the ditches of Jet Set Radio.

It's gang warfare in its most stylish and innocent form. It's also a gleeful tribute to free expression in the face of corporate oppression. It's got one of the best soundtracks in any game, ever. Difficulty issues aside, this is a unique game that's worth playing if only to see the kinds of strange things that happened in the Dreamcast era.

• WOFF! T-Shirt

• Encephalitis

• JSR Documentary

• The Sea Urchin

• Harvey Bullock

• John Woo's Stranglehold

• GGG

• Smokin' Aces

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Brave Fencer Musashi.

• [These guys. Don't watch this](www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt0_oPPK6eA)

• [Malabar Farm](www.youtube.com/watch?v=A42yI287qD4)

• [Treehouse Cuts](www.yelp.com/biz/the-tree-house…nd-toys-new-york-2)

• [Palace music](www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpJ8ZrQ0DyQ)

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross absorb Brave Fencer Musashi.

What happens when a young swordsman is summoned into a world built entirely around food puns? An episode that splits our hosts on whether or not Brave Fencer Musashi stood the test of time. This won our Winter Action RPG 2015 poll, and Kole sincerely hopes he doesn't offend any listeners by saying mean things about this game.

• [Musashi](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyamoto_Musashi)

• [Musashi Samurai Legend](www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6c4ltTvDOU)

• [Malediction Prophecy](twitter.com/liartownusa/status/304839693458092032)

• [Flame Mammoth](www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q0TtnNZ1Rg)

• [Steve Blum](www.steveblumvoices.com/)

• [Time Makes Fools of Us All](www.imdb.com/title/tt0584442/quotes)

• [Frieza](www.youtube.com/watch?v=njvgKUSR8Ss)

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Rock Band.

• [Gneiss Schist](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schist)

• [Guitar Hero Arcade](guitarhero.wikia.com/wiki/Guitar_Hero_Arcade)

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!