“I’m gay for friendship!” “A fucking wasteland of mediocrity and disappointment.”
Please note that we don’t really start talking about video games until fifteen minutes in. These timestamps are here to help! It’s also a long podcast this week.
0:00 – Introductions
None of us were podcasting last week! Suggested talking points in this segment: music tastes, vacations, snow days, chinchilla care, and guinea pig slinkies.
14:39 – We never actually answer the question about pet deaths.
15:21 – Greg’s 45 minutes in Breath of the Wild, spoiler-free.
Options on options lead to numerous deaths, about one per minute.
19:31 – Greg recaps the Tim Burton-esque world of Hollow Knight.
A Metroid-Vania game that relies on items to dictate the difficulty you set for yourself. Cute and somber, with just a touch of whimsical sadness.
23:41 – Deanna went on vacation and let loose.
“We did trespass on government property.”
27:58 – The School Trip Experience
Not everyone has an 8th grade DC Trip. Not everyone has interesting school field trips.
34:13 – Whimsy!
Donut County and our collective PAX recap. Donut County makes Deanna feel… holesome. It’s Katamari Damacy but for the ground.
Deanna’s write-up on her favorite games at PAX can be found here!
38:55 – The Aesthetic Your Parents Told You to Stay Away From™
It’s synthwave, because of all the Satan.
Huge shoutout to Andy Last’s Beyond Synth podcast.
40:00 – Continuing the PAX recap.
Everyone had games they really enjoyed and had a good time with. Everyone on the podcast played their fair share of games over the weekend. A lot of them were very cool.
Games in Question: Thumper, Gridd, Distance, Ruiner, and Absolver.
PAX weekend was fucking cold.
55:09 – Kennedy beats FFXV.
Its good points are great but everything else is mediocre at best.
We talk about how Prompto doesn’t look typically anime pretty, despite Kennedy’s protest.
FFXV and Yakuza fall into that weird part of the uncanny valley where everything is lifelike and almost human enough except for the pores on characters’ skin. They’re huge. Also the attention to detail in Yakuza 0’s character models is impeccable, given the complexity of the tattoos on important characters.
Prompto is probably one of the most mold-breaking anime prettyboys in modern media.
1:03:34 – Marry Fuck Kill: The FFXV Squad
We come to an agreement. Almost all of us in some things, and then all of us, in astounding agreement, on one particular thing.
1:10:57 – Kennedy’s PAX recap.
There are a lot of these. Here are Kennedy’s thoughts! Kennedy’s wrap-up is here.
Games Talked On: YIIk, Perception, The American Dream, What Remains of Edith Finch, I Expect You to Die, and Splatoon 2.
1:26:12 – Dan’s PAX recap.
The final recap of our post-PAX roundtable.
Discussion Topics: Nintendo Switch peripherals and Android compatibility, Dead Cells, Sundered, Pyre, kids, and bathrooms.
1:33:51 – “All of us at this table have had our ass whooped by Greg.”
“We just meet, I just deck you in the face, I just say ‘You aren’t using your I-frames correctly! What the fuck is wrong with you?’”
1:39:23 – Pyre, a new IP from Supergiant Games.
Chris also joins us.
Pyre is a good ol’ ball game that’s very aware of itself in the best possible way. It boasts RPG elements amidst the landscape of a visual novel. Laser-aura rugby, with jumping.
1:44:00 – Shovel Knight, Spectre of Torment
The devs did, indeed, have to make Spectre Knight less sexy. We’re all praying for a cheat code that puts it back in. (A Konami code for sex, if you will.) Yes, this is a free DLC.
1:48:50 – Question Time
From Colin – If you could sit down and discuss games with any developer, artist, programmer, etc., who would it be?
From Brad – Biggest influence podcasting?
From Darian – If you could combine any two games, what would they be?
From Andy – Key to success? Dabbing? What do I play after Breath of the Wild?
Apologies to Sydney— I didn’t see your question before we stopped recording. We’ll get to it next week. We’ll also tackle our pet deaths question.