YoVideogames!

Community driven creative development is always a big win! If only because it means the industry is seeing what people actually want, but also because it increases the longevity of a game when you have a community that can, and is, building new content for it. We saw this with Counterstrike, Far Cry, Crysis, and even the birth of the Battle Royale from Arma 3 mods. Now that the Unreal Editor has b...

We all saw this coming. We had a good time last week talking about lame, but beloved villains. Of course we have to do it for our beloved heroes.  So, lets talk about why our favorite heroes are lame, and maybe why that is good.

Sorry for the delay this week - I was sick and sounded awful! This week we have decided to slaughter a sacred cow. We're going after beloved villains. A good villain should be a solid foil to your hero and they don't always have to be memorable for the game or story to be good. That being said, sometimes in the course of trying to make a villain memorable, or seem more daunting, the creator will t...

The Yoshi P commentary really stirred the hornets nest.  The early 2000's were the wild west of the digital age. Other, more poetic, writers have said that before, and sometimes it's the only way to explain it. People from all over the world were just starting to interact with each other via online gaming, forums, or even Myspace (tm). Add to that: gaming journalism, while not new, was still sorta...

I have a few friends who really love VR. The conversation usually goes in circles, beginning and ending with "how to make VR worth it". Today, former Nintendo USA CEO Reggie Fils-Amie tweeted an infographic from statista showing projections that VR will remain niche in the coming years. His commentary was " Until there is a 'must play' experience, this will be true." So what is that must play expe...

Sony released it's first State of Play for 2023 and there were a couple surprises outside of the presentation too. Let's hop in and talk about Sony's outlook for 2023!

Whole lotta GaaS games are getting the axe! Many companies who went all in on live services games are now in hot water. At one point it was considered the golden goose, with an EA CEO famously saying: "If you make a single player title and don't have micro transactions - you're a [expletive deleted} idiot." Of course they went on to get lootboxes all but banned and brought intense scrutiny to micr...

It turns out Nintendo won't be light on releases this year. Both of us were delightfully surprised by this direct. But the direct being so big is probably why they didn't want to bother going to E3. Perhaps the back half of 2023 will be light on releases...

Free to play games may be running out of GaaS and E3 won't have any of the first party publishers attending. Bubbles are bursting all over and who's to say whether it is a good or a bad thing long term. Join us as we talk about the reckoning!

For the first time in years - Microsoft seems to have a little something for everyone. Personally we were delightfully surprised by the new Tango Gameworks shadow drop - Hi Fi Rush. While this line up isn't the most exciting line up we have ever seen, it is fun. And it points to Microsoft having a very good E3 this year. Let's talk about their first six months of 2023!

Ubisoft is a sinking ship. And not just because of the latest Skull and Bones delay. It just seems like it cannot get out of their own way. From unexpected bombs like Rainbow Six Extraction, to a road map littered with GaaS titles, it can't help but feel like we are watching a once legendary publisher in its death throws.

25 years ago began possibly the greatest year in gaming. 1998 saw the likes of Metal Gear Solid, Ocarina of Time, Half Life, Resident Evil 2, Banjo Kazooie and much much more. Has there ever been a year as great for as many genres all at once? Has there ever been another year where every publisher was pushing their slate this hard? 

The first six months of 2023 has some very exciting releases. But oddly enough - the back half of 2023 is a blank calendar... Does this mean E3 2023 is going to be epic? Or will there be nothing of note?

You ever miss an old trend? Maybe a game, or genre that used to dominate. Like I miss couch co-ops. I've said it before, I'll say it again but I do. Well today's episode is all about those dead trends we think could come back or at the very least that we want to come back.

It's that time of year, again. Where we compile our top ten games from the year and make an argument for why you should play them if you haven't. This was a pretty solid year for gaming and so we actually have a top twelve. Matt did the rankings, so there are a couple surprises for me when it comes to which games made what number, but overall all of my personal favorites made the top ten and I'm h...

Can't avoid it anymore. We're talking AI art and AI driven game development today. Mostly about it sucking, but I am open to counter arguments.

It's the worst kind of surprise. We've been waiting and hoping and everything has been lining up to be a winner, but instead it's a big wet fart. Today's episode is inspired by Callisto Protocol and all the games we got hyped for, that had everything going for them, but let us down hard anyway.

This week we invite you to come back with us... to the 70s. Yes! Shag carpeting, in your pants and your home! A time of TVs with dials, wood paneling, and whacky as hell box art. A time when giants walked among us... and did coke and partied in jacuzzis during work hours. We're are talking a little about Atari. Atari was wild.

It's that time of year where we devote an entire episode to the things we are most thankful in gaming this year. If you're in the states you may be travelling or otherwise in need of some company this week - let us be that for you! As always, we are thankful for you. Thank you!

Today's episode is all about games that started strong and tapered off. Maybe it held a whole lot of promise, or had such a strong intro it just couldn't live up to it. Maybe the game is still good by all accounts. It's an evergreen episode, and subjective - so let us know which you agree/disagree with or maybe one you feel strongly about! Sorry in advance for the awkward pause. I am sick with a s...

I don't know if this ever happens to you, but have you ever loved everything about a game - the puzzles, the story, the environment - and then the combat sorta drags it down? Whole game a ten but you just don't care much for the combat? Today we are talking about games that are better without it.

Bayo 3 had a bit of a forced wrap up, or so it seemed to many fans. Just a quick bow tie outta no where. And this motivated our topic of the episode, how rare it is for game series to "end" at all. So, spoilers ahead if you haven't beaten Bayonetta 3, but join us for a talk about good endings!

Matt's got a heart ache. He's been feeling this way for a while... But he might, maybe, JUST MAYBE, be over Zelda. What does that mean? Does he hate it now? Does he hate joy? Is this like when he stopped liking Kingdom Hearts!?

Apparently it is the early 2000's again. We have Final Fantasy news, we have Silent Hill news and of course we have Resident Evil 4 (remake) news! Sure seems like Silent Hill 2 remake is made for Matt and I, because we haven't played the original (or at least I don't remember it much). As far as RE4R goes, we are both pretty excited. It looks like some of our favorite aspects of 4 have survived th...

Matt got in to the SF6 closed beta and today we are talking about his thoughts on the game. It sounds a lot like the dev team focused on what fans wanted (I know incredible concept). If the beta is anything to go by, this could be a big game changer for the series, but maybe for fighting games period.