604 Team Creepy
Let’s hold hands and sneak through some eerie city ruins. Video game club is back in session to discuss “Little Nightmares II”, the creepy prequel to the beloved spooky platformer, Little Nightmares. We play as Mono, a bag-faced boy, as he and his companion navigate a world of puzzles and monsters lurking in the dark, only to be led to his own nightmare.
Previous Episodes
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October 17, 2020 — “The Last Of Us Part II”536 Sometimes the Drawer is Empty
Duck into the prone position and aim your bow, because it’s time for us to talk about “The Last of Us Part II”, the sequel to a beloved apocalyptic video game. We follow the characters on their pursuit of cross-country revenge, filled with flashbacks and the infected. But on this journey, as we trade our adrenaline for tears, we learn that we were the last of us all along.
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September 5, 2020 — “Animal Crossing: New Horizons”
530 Let’s Talk About Turnips!
Hop a flight piloted by a Dodo and leave behind the world you know! Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the perfect escape. Journey to a deserted island to do digital equivalents of chores you’re avoiding doing in the real world! One of the most subjective experiences in all of gaming turned out to be just what millions of us needed this summer. Guest host Moisés Chiullan and his six panelists are proof that “the friends you make along the way” really is the whole point after all. Well, that and draft-format podcasts.
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November 19, 2017 — “What Remains of Edith Finch” and “Tacoma”
380 Floppy Shark
Our Video Game Club is back in action as we play two short artsy-fartsy narrative games. “What Remains of Edith Finch” is a game about a young woman returning home to the Pacific Northwest and exploring the mysteries left behind by her family—which sounds an awful lot like other games we’ve played, but it’s very different! We also played “Tacoma”, by the developers of “Gone Home”, which (despite its title) is not set in the Pacific Northwest but in outer space. Both games have interesting approaches to immersive storytelling, and they’re both worth playing.
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June 17, 2017 — “Life is Strange”
358 I Kissed Them Both
Our video game club is back in session, having played “Life is Strange”, the story of two young women in a town on the Oregon coast who become enmeshed in the town’s surprisingly dark underbelly. Every choice you make and every fact you uncover could completely change the story… or more likely, change the details a little bit. Plus there’s school politics, young love (or not—you decide!), diner food, beached whales, evidence dungeons, and more than a little time travel. We had a hella good time playing, and you probably will, too!
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September 17, 2016 — “Inside”
318 Creepy Hug
We discuss Playdead’s video game “Inside”, a compelling and meticulously realized side-scrolling puzzle game with some amazing surprises along the way.
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March 5, 2016 — “Firewatch”
290 Team Bucket
The recently released video game “Firewatch,” by Campo Santo and Panic, is the subject of our discussion this week. This is a game that’s got a plot, but so much of the richness comes from characters and dialogue. Also, there are a lot of trees.
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January 10, 2015 — “Portal” and “Portal 2”
229 Divorce Mode
Hello and, again, welcome to the Aperture Science computer-aided enrichment center. We hope your brief detention in the relaxation vault has been a pleasant one. You are now in possession of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. With it, you can create your own portals. These intra-dimensional gates have proven to be completely safe. You, Subject Name Here, must be the pride of Subject Hometown Here.
You know what my days used to be like? I just tested. Nobody murdered me. Or put me in a potato. Or fed me to birds. I had a pretty good life. And then you showed up. You dangerous, mute lunatic. So you know what? You win. Just go. It’s been fun. Don’t come back.
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August 23, 2014 — “The Last of Us.”
208 The Good People Are Dead Already
Sharpen your shivs and barbecue some rats, because it’s time for us to talk about the apocalyptic video game “The Last of Us.” We talk about the story and the characters in this relentlessly bleak story of a man and a girl trying to survive both zombies and people. If you want even more, stay tuned after the music for an entire bonus episode about gameplay and technical aspects of the game.
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May 17, 2014 — Computer game draft.
195 Peak Crate
Following in the footsteps of our video-game draft, it’s time for us to select some of our favorite computer games of all time. Real-time strategy! Arcade style! Text adventures! From the earliest days of video games up to the present, we’ve got it covered. Now if we could just figure out what was in those crates…
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January 18, 2014 — Console video games. (Part 2 of 2)
178 A Smoother Yar
We continue selecting our favorite all-time console video games. John chooses the classics. Steve has a bad fur day. And Moisés continues his descent into madness. Boop beep beep boop! (Part 2 of 2)
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January 10, 2014 — Console video games. (Part 1 of 2)
177 Six-Pixel Sword
It’s time for us to select some of the very best console video games of all time. From Mario to Zelda, from sports to music, from Atari to Intellivision, we’ve got the entire history of the video-game industry covered. Are you a bad enough dude to listen? (Part 1 of 2)
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October 28, 2013 — Video games “Brothers” and “Gone Home.”
165 Grieving for My Left Thumb
In this episode we talk about two video games even non-gamers like Jason can enjoy, “Gone Home” and “Brothers.” We ponder what makes a game challenging, and if a game must be challenging to be good. John likes both games, but has a list of grievances. All disagreements will be settled with a duel of ’80s mixtapes at dawn! Plus: What other games are we playing?
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September 16, 2012 — “Journey”
108 Then We Touched, Then We Sang
A video game beloved by John Siracusa, “Journey” for the PS3, is in the spotlight. We toot the biggest Spoiler Horn of all time — don’t listen if you haven’t played it! — and then talk about what we liked and didn’t like about Thatgamecompany’s desert-and-spoiler epic.
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January 21, 2012
75 My Gazebox is Full of Menhirs
Go north, get lamp, and check your inventory, as guest host Greg Knauss takes you on a journey into the world of interactive fiction, also known as “text adventures.” Did families in the ’80s really sit around the Apple II playing “Mystery House?” Will saving a game really erase your floppy disc? Listen if you dare, but watch out for grues!
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December 5, 2010 — Video Games
14 There’s Guacamole on the Holodeck
A new topic on the podast: video games! We talk classic (okay, OLD) games as well as the latest and greatest motion-controlled games. From Pong to the Kinect, we’ve got it covered—plus why the human race is doomed if someone invents a holodeck.