Wide Flank

This month, Aleah, Teddy and Danny discussed Dune Part 1. There's a lot to like about this film and a lot to look forward to in Part 2, but it definitely has its missteps. As readers of the book, we definitely felt that Denis did a great job visualizing Frank Herbert's novel.

Next game for Gameclub is Mega Man X. Happy gaming. 

Everywhere that you can find Wide Flank: https://linktr.ee/wideflank

The Last of Us. Yep, we decided to play it one more time (or in Alon’s case, the first time). Teddy and Danny have played this many times since its release, and to no one's surprise, still loved it.

It’s a game that gets its storytelling so right. The voice acting is 2nd to none. The plot is familiar, and even has its fair share of tropes, but its characters are so well developed that we didn’t mind. The level traversing and combat leaves something to be desired, but hey, nobody is perfect.

While this game might not have GOAT status, it was a great ride and a lot of fun to talk about. This may be one of the best pods yet, but that’s for you to decide.

Next game for Gameclub is Mega Man X. Happy gaming.

Everywhere that you can find Wide Flank: https://linktr.ee/wideflank

Timestamps:

Show Notes:

Before Wide Flank, there was a podcast called Zero One Why. It was a show where Teddy, Danny and Aleah reviewed movies and gave them a One (watch it) or a Zero (don’t watch it) and talked about why. We reunited to review and react to Bo Burnham’s Netflix special “Inside”. We had an amazing time recording together again and did our best to add some unique takes on the widely lauded and over-reviewed comedy special.

Zero One Why is making a return on the Wide Flank channel. Expect to see one of these coming out a month! If you love movies and TV, this is a great series for you. If not, we’ll see you for the next Gameclub!

Join our discord!!! https://discord.gg/ACbDjNhMpJ

Time Stamps

Intro: 00:00

Inside Overview: 01:25

Our History with Bo Burnham and Inside: 02:45

What is Comedy? 09:25

Difficulty articulating feelings about Inside: 10:07

Is it Funny?: 13:14

Eight Grade: 15:05

Make Happy: 16:25

Contemporary Comedy: 18:39

The Social Media Generation: 23:55

Approaching Inside: 28:45

Do we care that this isn’t real?: 29:17

Negative Criticism of Inside: 31:05

This is fake and it should be fake: 33:10

Exploring the title: 33:58

Why are musicals good? 35:35

Favorite Moments: 40:55

That Funny Feeling as a time capsule: 43:29

Cancelling Bo Burnham: 46:40

What happened to poetry?: 47:45

White Woman’s Instagram: 50:17

Self Harm and Mental Health: 50:55

When he’s right, he’s right: 1:00:32

Enjoying depressing media mid pandemic: 1:01:40

Ratings: 1:03:20

Wide Flank is also on:

- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wideflank

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wideflank/

- Twitter: https://twitter.com/WideFlank

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- Substack: https://wideflank.substack.com/

- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzdUM7zORz65-cDDaO7xFaA

- Anchor: https://anchor.fm/wideflank/

- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3LQtbRaD7u5cl1gaJCMzS3

- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wide-flank/id1572726441

- Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy81OWIwNzZlOC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==

- RSS Feed: https://anchor.fm/s/59b076e8/podcast/rss

For this month’s Gameclub, Alon, Danny and Teddy talk about Metal Gear Solid (1998).

This was our hardest episode yet. What can you add to the pile of think pieces and criticism of one of the most beloved games of a generation? We do our best to use terms like postmodern and the 4th wall to describe our experience but not sure if we say them correctly.

There are some misses here: Why is it in 3D? Why can’t you aim in first person? But some of its flaws are its greatest strength, like why does Snake repeat back nouns to other characters as a question — “2nd floor basement?”.

This is a game with heart. It takes risks and may stumble more often than it succeeds, but Kojima won us over for life (at least Teddy and Danny -- Alon is still a work in progress).

Join our discord!!! https://discord.gg/ACbDjNhMpJ

Timestamps:

Show Notes:

For this month’s Gameclub, Alon, Danny and Teddy talk a lot about Subnautica.

You are a lone survivor after an interstellar spaceship crashes down on an ocean planet. What do you do? Scuba dive and mine minerals until you can blast back off into space, of course. The game isn’t perfect, but the ambiance? Flawless.

We spend a lot of time talking about the early access release schedule and how that likely influenced the final product. Subnautica isn’t quite sure what it wants to be and as a result doesn’t really nail anything. That’s okay because we love that people are trying big bold things.

For the next Gameclub we are going to be playing Metal Gear Solid -- the PC version: https://www.gog.com/game/metal_gear_solid

We got a lot of requests to do The Last of Us and Metal Gear Solid 2, which we’ll do next in that order, so we’re going to do a faster turnaround with MGS and record on September 22nd.

Join our discord!!! https://discord.gg/ACbDjNhMpJ

Timestamps:

Show Notes:

Doom (2016) is fucking sick and, piggybacking off of our Gameclub episode last week, so is the music.

We got two musician friends to come on and talk about Mick Gordon’s OST and listen to some tracks. Shoutout to Damon from Infinity Shred (https://infinityshred.bandcamp.com/) and Luke from Anamanaguchi (https://anamanaguchi.com/).

In case you missed it here is the Gameclub episode about Doom (2016) where we talk about the game, first person shooters, how the game works, becoming the Doomguy, glory kills, and a whole lot more: https://www.patreon.com/posts/gameclub-doom-53954386

Join our discord!!! https://discord.gg/ACbDjNhMpJ

Alon, Danny, and Teddy play Doom (2016). They went to Mars, they went to Hell, and they ripped and they teared along the way. But first they had to put on the Doomguy mask and become the Doom Slayer.

Doom in 1993 both defined and challenged the idea of what a First Person Shooter is, was, and should be. Doom in 2016 did it again. And it fuckin’ rocked.

- 00:00 - Technical difficulties and we started a Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/wideflank

- 03:37 - Intro

- 04:17 - Doom (2016) background.

- 06:09 - id Software and the Two Johns.

- 07:17 - Is this a good game?

- 10:54 - The opening and then learning how the game works (if you stop moving you die).

- 13:39 - Growing your arsenal and how it opens up combat.

- 14:38 - Movement: “Bruce Lee on a skateboard with a shotgun.”

- 17:46 - Robert Yang.

- 19:00 - Lack of sprint and always having your gun up.

- 19:57 - Glory Kills and the Chainsaw as essential mechanics.

- 28:36 - Not a reboot, an homage, and questioning what makes a shooter engaging.

- 32:15 - Hitscan vs Projectiles, proven by paintball vs laser tag.

- 35:07 - What is a first person shooter?

- 36:14 - You ARE the Doom Guy.

- 40:10 - The Story: was it needed?

- 48:59 - The game's sense of humor (turkey punching).

- 53:47 - We need more projectile shooters.

- 56:25 - Examining the FPS genre and perspective.

- 1:01:15 - Sound Design and FX and the INCREDIBLE music.

- 1:07:35 - Deeper into level and map design.

- 1:10:15 - This game is too easy? Is that a bad thing?

- 1:13:00 - Would Doom be better with split-screen co-op?

- 1:17:40 - Single player games are lonely, but some are lonelier than others.

- 1:20:00 - Why are we discussing exclusively single player games?

Join our discord!!! https://discord.gg/ACbDjNhMpJ

Show Notes:

- GDC talk “Embracing Push Forward Combat in DOOM” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KQNpQD8Ayo

- Robert Yang games: https://debacle.us/

- Noclip doc “To Hell & Back” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS6SBnccxMA

- Greg Kasavin (from Supergiant Games) “Doom is asking important questions that other FPSes aren’t” - https://www.pcgamer.com/doom-is-asking-important-questions-that-other-fpses-arent/

We’re also on:

- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wideflank

- Substack: https://wideflank.substack.com/

- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzdUM7zORz65-cDDaO7xFaA

- Anchor: https://anchor.fm/wideflank/

- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3LQtbRaD7u5cl1gaJCMzS3

- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wide-flank/id1572726441

- Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy81OWIwNzZlOC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==

- RSS Feed: https://anchor.fm/s/59b076e8/podcast/rss

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wideflank/

- Twitter: https://twitter.com/WideFlank

Alon is joined by friends and fighting game freaks Chris and Hayden to talk about the newest hype fighter called Guilty Gear Strive. We try to focus on the appeal of the game and what the designers nailed about the game but also we drift into some more macro game design concepts.

Now Playing is a new series from Wide Flank (as opposed to Gameclub) where we’ll bring on friends/gamers/whomever to talk about what game they’re currently playing and why they’re playing it and what’s good about it and what’s bad about it and if we should play it or not and so on and so forth.

Let’s rock.

Join our discord!!! https://discord.gg/ACbDjNhMpJ

We’re also on:

Alon, Danny and Teddy play Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It was like running a marathon and then running the same course in reverse. Was it fun? Sort of. We’re glad we did it.

SotN is definitely smarter than it looks at first blush. It’s dripping with style and the soundtrack is bananas. There was a lot that didn’t age well, but that's okay. Your racist grandma still has some redeeming qualities. What we really loved was the mastery of the space and navigation of Dracula’s castle -- and it’s our castle now...father.

Some chapters to help you navigate this monster ep:

Show notes:

Join our discord!!! https://discord.gg/ACbDjNhMpJ

We’re also on:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzdUM7zORz65-cDDaO7xFaA

Anchor (where you can find all podcast links and RSS feed): https://anchor.fm/wideflank/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3LQtbRaD7u5cl1gaJCMzS3

Substack: https://wideflank.substack.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wideflank/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WideFlank

Alon, Danny and Teddy played through Half Life 2 and had a freaking BLAST. Do we say anything original here? Probably not, but it was great to play and shoot the shit, so to speak. We wanted to keep our very first ep short and sweet, but we cover:

Show notes:

Also, correction, apparently the coriolis effect does influence bullet trajectories, but in very small ways that seem nearly impossible to account for. If you are an experienced marksman and have some feedback for us, we'd love to hear it, and please tell us why we are wrong.

We’re on: