8-4 Play

And now for something a little different: special guests Ryan Payton (Republique) and Chris Kohler (Wired GameLife) join the gang for an epic, sprawling -- and at times heated -- discussion focusing on retro game collecting, indie game development, and the present and future of the Wii U, with pit stops on Guacamelee, Tomodachi Collection 3DS, Dark Souls II, Yoshi's Island 3DS, Monster Hunter Onli...

With Gaming Jesus off on a secret pilgrimage, the task falls to the few, the proud, the 8-4 interns (and the rest of us), to fill his massive void. Er... Anyway, this week it's GDC, more Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Nimble Quest, Year Walk, MGS5 and David Hayter-gate, Square Enix's recent shake-up, PSO2's delay, Skullgirls' crowdfunding success, Fire Emblem feet, and more!

Luigi's Mansion 2, Ridiculous Fishing, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Dark Souls (yes, again!), BitSummit, Dragon's Crown, Wii U troubles, Vita triumphs (and troubles), Durango rumors, Drakengard 3, Phantom Pain, Transistor, and oh-so-much more!

Dokuro, Virtue’s Last Reward, Phantasy Star Online 2, more Dark Souls, a little Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, GDC speeches, PS4 announcement aftermath, Miyamoto interviews, possible Shenmue kickstarters, Skullgirls kickstarter, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate cross-region play, Umihara Kawase, and more!

INTRO BS PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 STREAMING COOL PS4 CONTROLLER PS4 SHARING YES PS4 PS4 PS4 VITA WIIU PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 FEATURES PS4 KNACK PS4 PS4 KILLZONE PS4 PS4 WITNESS PS4 JASON! PS4 DEEP DOWN ZOMG PS4 PS4 SQUEENIX WTF PS4 DESTINY HANDS PS4 PS4 LUIGI END

Touch-panels! Valve boxes! Used-game-blocking-gamma rays and Ouyas and Apple's who-knows-whats-its! E3 isn't even a glimmer on the Hype Train horizon and yet you wouldn't know it from all the new system talk floating around – of course the 8-4 gang is above that sort of wild speculation. ...*Ahem* Anyway: Fire Emblem and Dragon Quest VII for the 3DS, DmC, and a chat with 17-bit big daddy Jake Kazd...

Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata brought the winter heat during this week's Nintendo Direct with the first megatons of 2013, including Wind Waker HD, MegaTen x Fire Emblem, Xeno-whatever-they're-gonna-call-it, and Wii U Virtual Console, among others. We've got a full breakdown of the event, as well as fresh PlayStation 4 (and controller) talk, a whole bunch of news (Pandora's Tower! Project X-Zone! Kill...

Ake-ome-koto-yoro! (Japanese for "Happy New Year!") We're back to our typical fo-matto ("format") to talk about Level 5's latest, Fantashi Raifu ("Fantasy Life"). We also get into atsui ("heated") discussions over Steam Box, Nvidia's Shield, Nintendo stuff, Pokemon X and Y, the Neo-Geo X handheld, and all sorts of other shinjouhou ("news"). Jaa ne bye bye! ("bye bye!")

No news, a few game impressions (Soul Sacrifice demo among them), and no GOTY BS – mostly just one, long, leisurely, holiday trip through the history of video games – PC and console, Japanese and American -- as we talk through the career of uber-programmer Gregg Tavares, a man who has worked at just about everywhere (Sony, Sega, Microprose, Virgin Interactive, Cinemaware, Naughty Dog, etc.) and on...

The cast and crew of 8-4 Play would like to thank all the discussion topics that made this award possible, including Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, the Wii U's Miiverse, the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards (and its assorted reveals, including Dark Souls II, The Phantom Pain, the new Last of Us trailer, and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2), the final issue of Nintendo Power (rest its blessed soul), the Str...

What you are about to listen to is real. The participants are not journalists, they are ACTUAL localizers with a giant project looming over their heads. All parties have agreed to dismiss their work for an hour and 52 minutes and have their disputes (over Wii U launch, Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Destiny, the week in Kickstarter and more) settled here, in our foru...

Hi again, it's JJ from 8-4. While much of the world waits for Wii U, there are millions of gamers looking for new adventures for their video game systems. And that's what this 8-4 Direct is all about. This episode, we talk about Animal Crossing: New Leaf, a game where YOU get to be the mayor and design your town in any way you want. We also talk about Halo 4. You control Master Chief to do battle...

Let's be honest: You don't give a crap what we write here, you just want the list of what we talked about on the podcast, right? Fine then: Crashmo, Punch Quest, Paper Mario: Sticker Star (a bit), Dark Souls (a bit more), Dragon Quest X (John bought a house!), Nintendo sales projections (down!), Nintendo Wii U projections (up!), Dragon Quest VII for 3DS, Retro Studios Zelda (?), and a bunch more n...

Everyone's playing it! Everyone's talking about it! It's this fall's hottest game! It's...Bravely Default: Flying Fairy?! ...Uh, okay, sure, why not! We breakdown Squeenix's excellent new 3DS RPG, then chat about continuing adventures in Dragon Quest X, PSN store stuff, Zynga, Kevin Butler, Thriller Instinct (that's right), and more, with a brief detour into old-school Nintendo Power with former e...

Barry? Where's Barry? Who knows. But the internet's biggest Resident Evil fan, Alex "cvxfreak" Aniel? He's right here, talking highs and lows (and lows...and lows...) of RE6 for a solid hour. (That's almost 15 minutes per point it got on many review scales!) But first: Kokuga, DQX, To the Moon, Earth Defense Force 3 Portable, Wii U-pdates, Nintendo Directs, and various Monster Hunters ('natch).

TGS! Metal Gear Rising! Monster Hunter 4! Dragon Quest X Wii U! Mega Man X Over! PSO 2 Vita! Tank Tank Tank! Lost Planet 3! Soul Sacrifice! EX Troopers! Ace Attorney! Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z! Box! Open Me! New PS3 hardware! New Vita colors! Jeremy Parish! Mike McWhertor! Russ Frushtick! 4 hours! Listen! Now! Excite! Exclamation mark!

To be honest, none of us remember recording this episode -- after the deluge of Nintendo's Wii U announcements (prices! Dates! 2 SKUs! Monster Hunter Ultimate! Toki Tori 2! ...wait, I mean Bayonetta 2!), we woke up the next day, and it was just THERE. We took it as a sign to add on part two of our Super Nintendo 21st (more or less) Super-anniversary retro-sode, focusing on the system's epic game l...

Part one of our long-awaited Super Nintendo 21st (and change) Super-anniversary retro-sode is here, and you don't even need your Mom to drive you to the mall to get it! But before that, thoughts on the latest Nintendo Direct, Monster Hunter 4, rumored Wii U pricing, Lightning Returns: FF13, Super Hexagon, Steam Greenlight, Rhythm Hunter: HarmoKnight and (wait for it)...more!

You asked for it: A moment-to-moment recollection of the Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes demo that just debuted in Tokyo, discussing everything we saw and know (hint: not much!) about the story, characters, graphics and gameplay. Hear just what it is that's got us so damn excited.

Join the 8-4 gang and special guest Kevin "Big John Studd" Gifford as they talk about Sony's Gamescom showing (Tearway, Cross Buy, Rain, Puppeteer, and...what was the name of that horror game?), Nintendo Power's shuttering, Dragon Quest X and Nayuta No Kiseki playing, flea-marketing, Neo Geo X Gold buying (or not), imitating classic video game sounds, and dying alone.

First! Hear New Super Mario Bros. 2, Sound Shapes, addictive iOS fave 10000000, and (surprisingly positive!) 3DS XL/LL impressions. Then! Polish up your Mini Medals and settle in with some Medicinal Herb for LXX minutes of in-depth chit-chat on the Wii's (not-so-MMO)RPG, DQ X. Finally! Polish it off with news on Ouya, Steam, the Oculus Rift VR headset, Japanese fighting game tournament Super Battl...

With John out on a super secret mission, a super secret special guest...from cheapassgamer.com joins us to talk about the INCREDIBLE 3DS XL, Fez Patches, Vita sales, Foos Balls, New Super Mario Bros. 2, FF XIII, Nyuta No Kiseki, and more.

With Mark away soaking up the rays of freedom, we asked friends of the show Alex "cvxfreak" Aniel and Rob "star" Fox to join us to talk about EVO 2012, Spelunky, DYAD, the Resident Evil 6 demo (and cafe), Time Travelers, Penny Arcade Rain-Slick 3, Ouya, Gaikai, Blooblah, Hodfarg and more.

Come for the talk about 3DS XL, Xbox 720, Lollipop Chainsaw, Tokyo Jungle, Persona 4: The Golden and more -- stay for a deep, deep dive into the minds behind Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP on the eve of its Japanese release (being handled by...hey, whattaya know?! 8-4!)

A massive, 3-hour E3 recap lovefest, where we have nothing but great things to say about the amazing press conferences, creative and fresh AAA games, awesome Vita support, stunning WiiU launch lineup, and every other wonderful-funderful thing about gaming's greatest trade show ever!