Press START

This week Tori and Noah are joined by internet renaissance man Mike Rugnetta. He's been a YouTuber, a podcaster, a game master and now he's leading the new independently-owned internet podcast Never Post. We goad him into roasting popular games, talk about the state of media and, as usual, talk about video games we love. Find Mike on social media @mikerugnetta and find Never Post at neverp...

Sometimes a gaming podcast is a gaming podcast, and sometimes a gaming podcast is also a sports podcast, a culture podcast, an anime podcast and a Curb Your Enthusiasm podcast. That's Press START this week. Tori and Nathaniel catch up on the week's gaming (and non-gaming) news as well as what they've been up to. SPOILERS FOR PERSONA 3 (42:10 - 44:57) THINGS MENTIONED Variety on Carl We...

Hard to believe that all the bad stuff happening in 2023 didn't just stop once it became 2024. We dive into layoff updates, the demise of the 3DS and Wii U's last vestiges of official support and other news items. SPOILERS FOR METAL GEAR SOLID: 24:11 - 27:22 (MGS talk continues for a few minutes after that but the spoilers calm down) THINGS MENTIONED: The Verge on Microsoft's big layof...

Happy 2024! All of the bad stuff that was happening in 2023 is still happening now, believe it or not. This week we've got an update on the gaming industry's unceasing layoffs, Fortnite being used as a military recruitment tool and an odyssey that explores the dregs of the YouTube Content Industrial Complex. SPOILERS FOR THE IRON CLAW FROM 30:18-38:06 THINGS MENTIONED: Kotaku's ongoing...

Noah had an oopsie with his audio this week, but never fear: the lovely gals from Girl Mode are here to keep your feed well-stocked with podcasts. Here's their latest episode, with their hopes, dreams and anticipations for 2024 in gaming, dropped right into your feed. Go find Girl Mode wherever podcasts live or on social media @girlmode_pod on Twitter, girlmodepod on bluesky and girlmode-pod o...

Can you believe we've been doing this for 100 episodes? I mean, we can, but it's still pretty exciting. This week we go through our predictions for 2024, talk about the Guitar Hero games we liked as kids and go through other various detours. Thanks for listening :) THING(S) MENTIONED: This video of a pitbull pulling this lady's pitbull apart: https://youtu.be/PA8NI1ysCac Noah's on...

This week, instead of listening to the usual crew talk about video games, Tori, Nathaniel and Noah are interviewing their respective partners to figure what they played in 2023. From a capital-G Gamer who played tons of 2023 releases to a burgeoning gaming hobbyist, tune in for some different perspectives than you usually get. Tori & Jesse: (0:58:00) Nathaniel & Angie (13:38:00) Noah &...

Another year is over and we wanna talk about the games we loved. There's a few we didn't love in here, too. Plus, you get to listen to us open the gifts we got each other, complete with bespoke paper ripping sounds. Thanks for listening :) Noah's on Twitter:  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠noah_hurts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Tori's on Twitter:  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tori_as_always⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Nathaniel's on Twitter:  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠nathanbased⁠⁠⁠...

It's Noah and Nathaniel this week and here's what we've got: The future is Zelda is almost upon us, E3 is really dead this time and whoa, there's other news, too. THINGS MENTIONED: This NPR story about E3's death: https://www.npr.org/2023/12/13/1218999254/e3-once-the-superbowl-of-video-games-has-been-canceled-for-good GamesIndustry.biz: E3 is dead, now what?: https://www.gamesi...

Well, turns out only one third of our hosts watched Gaming's Biggest Night, so get ready for Tori to break down a three-and-a-half hour long program to Nathaniel and Noah who learned everything they know about it from like one article and social media. Color us surprised that Geoff Keighley didn't say "Free Palestine." There's also other stuff, too, like, updates on Twitch&#3...

This week we're joined by the incomparable (especially so considering there aren't that many people posting oboe VGM covers online) Abbytheoboist. You've probably seen her on social media, just scrolling and then, BANG, some of the nicest sounding oboe you've ever heard. We talk about her history with video games, the video game soundtracks that speak to her and the Final Fantasy w...

What's up, gamers! We've got a special treat in the feed this week: it's Video Game Podtimism! This is last week's episode of Video Game Podtimism featuring Noah and Tori from this show. Give it a listen and if you enjoy it (which, like, why wouldn't you?) subscribe to VGP on whatever platform you're on now and visit their website, podtimism.com . We'll be back next wee...

Damn, pre-Thanksgiving was supposed to be a relaxing time of year when Americans mentally and physically prepare to gorge themselves. Instead we heard they're making a Zelda movie. What a time to be alive. THINGS MENTIONED: Shigeru Miyamoto's Twitter announcement heard 'round the world: https://twitter.com/Nintendo/status/1722011980129779795?s=20 Variety on one man's journey to dir...

It's been months in the making... We finally beat Final Fantasy X and oh boy do we have a lot of thoughts about this uneven, kinda out-there game. We make it pretty clear once the big spoilers start getting thrown around, but be aware that there are some names and location names thrown out early on that could, if you're really worried about that kind of stuff, be considered a spoiler. THIN...

2023 has been an incredible year for game releases so far, but it's been a pretty miserable year for the people who make games and the people who write about them. We're talking games layoffs this week as well as news about a series we love and, uh, Aaron Sorkin. THINGS MENTIONED: The Verge on the latest gaming world layoffs at Bungie: https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/30/23938990/bungie-so...

This week we're joined by award-winning games and comics writer Nadia Shammas. Listen in for a conversation about the intersection of identity and writing, Nadia's experience navigating the writing world as a Palestinian-American, how cool Marvel vs. Capcom is and much more. Nadia's writing credits span mediums, from independent comics ( Squire , Where Black Stars Rise ), to licensed c...

What would a video game podcast be without hosts who have strong opinions about GameStop? Tori and Nathaniel share some of their GameStop horror stories and talk about what they're playing — spoiler: Mario Wonder — in this week's episode. THINGS MENTIONED: The Verge on Bandcamp's layoffs: https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/16/23919551/bandcamp-layoffs-epic-songtradr YouTuber Orbalology o...

We've been doing our silly, earnest little show for two years now, and to help us celebrate that (and also talk about gaming news from a week when Tori and Noah were busy focusing on non-gaming news) we're joined by podcaster extraordinaire AJ Fillari. You can follow AJ online: Ko-Fi Twitter Bluesky Or any other social media platform where they have you find an account with the handle &quo...

People love it when video game podcast hosts talk about stuff that's not video games, right? Of course we talk about video game news — like the latest death knell for the 3DS and Animal Crossing LEGOs — but there's lots of stuff in here about public radio, social media and more. Give a listen :) THINGS MENTIONED: Paul Tassi at Forbes on the downfall of Marvel's Avengers: https://www.fo...

We came so close to just talking about Star Wars for 90 minutes, but instead it just comes up a few times while we discuss Nintendo's successor console and other news. THINGS MENTIONED: Polygon on the Epic Games layoffs: https://www.polygon.com/23894267/epic-games-fortnite-unreal-engine-layoffs-2023 PC World on Unity walking back some of its shitty decisions: https://www.pcworld.com/article/20...

Gaming... We all love it. This week we're talking about the whacky XBOX leaks, the future of jizz in Star Wars and more. Join us for a rolling (like how a Katamari ball rolls) good time. THINGS MENTIONED: XBOX leaks! Here's IGN's breakdown: https://www.ign.com/articles/all-the-major-revelations-from-the-ftc-vs-xbox-court-document-leaks Willa Rowe's take for Inverse on lame console...

The elephant in the room this week is the latest Nintendo Direct, but there's still lots of other stuff going on: Unity blowing up, new Pokemon collabs and everybody's still talking about One Piece. Plus, outside of news, you can tune in to hear about fitness, about a particular TruTV television program and much more. THINGS MENTIONED: The excellent Twitter thread about Mario RPG and acces...

There are some HUGE games out this year. We haven't played any of them, but there's lots of other stuff to talk about, too. THINGS MENTIONED: The latest episode of the podcast Into the Aether: https://intothecast.transistor.fm/episodes/into-the-starfield A GameRant article about the latest Nintendo Direct rumors: https://gamerant.com/nintendo-direct-september-2023-rumor/ IGN: No ToTK DLC:...

You ever just look up and see him? Monkey D. Luffy? We do. But this is a video games podcast, and we're talking video game news this week. THINGS MENTIONED: EA layoffs and bad union behavior : https://venturebeat.com/games/eas-bioware-will-lay-off-50-and-cut-ties-with-unionized-keywords-playtesting-group/ From Axios: Apparently the next Immortals game was gonna be really interesting, but it go...

Tori and Noah are joined this week by the fabulous hosts of the Origin Story podcast. Listen in for a deep conversation about the creative process, interviewing people whose art you admire and nostalgic memories of sharing games with your friends. You can find more Origin Story on their website, o riginstory.show , and on Twitter @originstory_ . Phillip's on Twitter @3DSisquo and Ben's on...