A Podcast [ , ] For All Intents and Purposes

WEEK IN GEEK: This week, Andrew watches the trippy but artistic and engaging new Amazon Prime show, Undone starring Rosa Salazar, while D. Bethel––amidst all of his academic toil––finds time to be challenged and charmed by the actual roguelike deckbuilding phone game, Meteorfall: Journey by SlothWerks . RELEVANT LINKS: Cameron, Dell. " U.S. Military Warns Troops About Incel Violence at Joker Scree...

A WHOLE [KIND OF] NEW WORLD: After waiting well past when the rest of the world saw it, our hosts decide to watch and discuss the 2019 live-action adaptation of the animated Disney classic, Aladdin . RELEVANT LINKS: Hoffer, Christian. " How Dungeons & Dragons Got Wrapped Up in a Wrestling Storyline ." Comic Book . Pop Culture Media, 18 Sept. 2019. Bethel, D. " Sketch Fridays #48 - The Beast ." Lon...

TWO MAN'S SKY: With No Man's Sky Beyond ––the newest big 2.0 patch for the open world, sci-fi survival game, No Man's Sky ––it kind of brings to a close the long, arduous, but ultimately heartwarming story of this unique game by the small team at Hello Games. Andrew and D. Bethel talk about the years-long journey of this game. "I'M NOT LISTENING": Amid the stories about the varoius #[Insert Noun]G...

LAST OF THE TIME LORDS: At the end of August 2019, the world lost a writer who is probably the most important figure to the BBC hit, Doctor Who , in Terrance Dicks. A prominent writer for the show in the late sixties through the eighties, he also served as the script editor (what we would call now a showrunner) for six years (1969-1974), supervising the transitioning in of the Third Doctor (Jon Pe...

WEEK IN GEEK: The boys are back to video games as Andrew plays the 1.0 release of Klei Entertainment's sci-fi survival game, Oxygen Not Included , while D. Bethel can't believe he's enjoying the heck out of Final Fantasy XV , especially because it makes no sense. RELEVANT LINKS: D. Bethel's write-up about drawing this year's "CrockerTron" poster for CrockerCon, a Sacramento-based art & comics even...

ANDREW IS OLDER: We start by celebrating Andrew's birthday a little bit. So, what did he do? He watched Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan again and also went to see Weird Al Yankovic in concert during his "Strings Attached" tour where Yankovic and his band toured with a 41-piece orchestra. FARTHER FROM HOME: The news this week was kind of bad for Marvel Cinematic Universe fans as Sony and Disney app...

WEEK IN GEEK: Andrew plays Ultima (a.k.a. Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness ) in the hopes of reverse engineering it so he can build his own browser game while D. Bethel is genuinely surprised by the depth and charm of Sabotage Studio's action/platformer/exploration game, The Messenger . RELEVANT LINKS: Andrew's in-development capstone browser game . Voyager Dragon's Ultima Upgrade Website . Kle...

CRISIS OF INFINITE CASTING NEWS: Seemingly every day since SDCC has brought news of former DC actors being cast in the big DC/CW crossover event, "Crisis on Infinite Earths." Andrew and D. Bethel break down some of the headlines. EPIC LETDOWN: In another look at gaming culture is a trash fire, D. and Andrew examine the extreme and toxic blowback that game developer, Glumberland, received from game...

WEEK IN GEEK: This week, Andrew continues his trend of trying things out years after their initial release by sitting down with 2014's Sims 4 while D. Bethel tries to wrap his head around the opaque––but good?––X-franchise reboot in House of X #1 and Powers of X #1, both written by Jonathan Hickman. SPOILERS for these two titles; you've been warned. RELEVANT LINKS: Terror, Jude. " House of X , the...

CAN YOU SDCC ME NOW? : Though San Diego Comic Con is ostensibly about comic books, the biggest announcements that seem to come out of the show revolve around cinematic and televised properties. Andrew and D. Bethel focus on the announcements that not only ignited their excitement but also triggered their critical processes, from the Cats trailer to the next big DC/CW "Arrowverse" crossover event t...

STILL STRANGE: This week, Andrew and D. Bethel examine what impressed––and what impressed less––them about the recently released season 3 of the Netflix hit, Stranger Things . RELEVANT LINKS: " Hopper, P.I. " (edited by Eddie Spuhghetti ) The greatest meme to come out of Stranger Things , season 3. Andreeva, Nellie. " Feeling The Churn: Why Netflix Cancels Shows After A Couple Of Seasons & Why The...

MISTER, I'LL MAKE AN EPIC OUT OF YOU: Andrew and D. Bethel briefly touch upon the interesting and promising live-action adaptation of the animated Disney classic, Mulan , even though this seems to be making considerable changes from the animated source material (seemingly to be more in-line with the folkloric source material). Here's the Twitter thread that Andrew mentioned, starting here with thi...

WEEK IN GEEK: Andrew takes a step further into Image & Form Games' Steamworld , uh, world with their newest entry, Steamworld Quest . D. Bethel dusts off his bushido and patience as he's both impressed and slightly confused by SNK's reboot of their classic franchise, Samurai Shodown [sic]. RELEVANT EPISODES: Episode 127 - Dying Without an Error (17 March 2017): Where D. Bethel is horrified by Samu...

A RITUAL CIRCLE OF ARIAS OF THE NIGHT MOON: Mentioned last week, both Andrew and D. Bethel have put some time into the newest Igavania game––meaning a Metroidvania game specifically made by Koji Igarashi –– Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and they are enjoying the presence of both nostalgic throwback and interesting choices that move the genre forward. RELEVANT LINKS: Diaz, Ana. " EA Calls Its L...

  WEEK IN GEEK: This week, our hosts talk about new things involving their favorite things. For example, Andrew discusses his time playing the Modiphius tabletop RPG, Star Trek Adventures and how it adapts all aspects of the long-lasting franchise, and D. Bethel makes his defense for 20th Century Fox's Dark Phoenix . RELEVANT LINKS:   Kit, Borys. " 'We Were Wrong': Behind Fox's Dark Phoenix Debacl...

E3 2019: This year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) has been a strange one with big players absent and new hardware on the horizon, but it's still bringing announcements and trailers to make our jaded hosts excited. Games discussed: Cyberpunk 2077 , Final Fantasy VII Remake , Fallout 76 , Pokémon Sword/Shield , among others. RELEVANT EPISODES: Episode 54 - Noun the Adjective (19 June 2015): Wh...

APOLITICAL APOCALYPSE: A recent article at VG247.com interviewed (as part of the piece) games designer and writer, Chris Avellone ––writer/designer of games such as Fallout 2 , Fallout: New Vegas , and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II –––who argued not only that his writing was without any political inspiration nor had any political agenda (small "p"), but that he "[didn't] condone develo...

FINAL FARCRY: Spurred on by his playthrough of Farcry Primal ––a survival first-person shooter with "RPG Elements"––Andrew and D. Bethel examine what this phrase means and what it says about the ever-evolving definition of Role-Playing Games. RELEVANT LINKS:   Asplund, Andrew, and D. Bethel. " Five Years [ , ] For All Intents and Purposes. " A Website [ , ] For All Intents and Purposes . 29 May 20...

POLYGONS IN AN AQUARIUM: After years of doubt, SquareEnix released a trailer for Final Fantasy VII Remake that included some actual gameplay footage, which got Andrew and D. Bethel thinking about why a remake for Final Fantasy VII is necessary and why––it seems––the best way to keep PS1/Sega Saturn games viable in a modern market is to do full remakes rather than just porting them to modern machin...

WEEK IN GEEK: With all that's been going on in the nerd world, our hosts take some time out for themselves this week. For Andrew, he attended the theatrical premiere of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine documentary, What We Left Behind . D. Bethel stayed home to explore the digital recreation of classical Egypt while playing Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Origins . RELEVANT EPISODES : Episode 84 - Your C...

ENDGAME POSTGAME: SPOILER WARNING FOR AVENGERS: ENDGAME Andrew and D. Bethel have now both seen Avengers: Endgame and, conveniently, the Russo brothers lifted the spoiler ban on Monday; so, our hosts dive right into the soup of scenes, moments, narrative threads, and surprises that make up this landmark movie event. RELEVANT LINKS: Whitbrook, James. " It's Audacious That Avengers: Endgame Even Exi...

THE NAME OF THE GAME: The first trailer for the upcoming live-action cinematic adaptation of Sonic the Hedgehog has––as can be expected––drawn a lot of conversation and criticism...including on your favorite nerdy-geeky podcast. Andrew and D. Bethel have a lot to say about the trailer and, in a larger scope, movie adaptations of video games and what works and what doesn't. But first, the trailer ....

AVENGERS CODA: With the release Avengers: Endgame this week (this is SPOILER FREE since neither have seen the film yet), Andrew and D. Bethel decide to examine a few aspects of the MCU and, especially, what and how Avengers: Infinity War set up this big finale. They discuss an analysis of Thanos as a sympathetic villain, what they're looking forward to after this movie's release, and briefly discu...

NOTRE-DAME THE TORPEDOES: We open this week talking about the tragic fire at the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, focusing on how its rebuilding efforts may be aided by the diligent work of Ubisoft (and the work they put into making Assassin's Creed: Unity . THIS SHOULDN'T WORK: Andrew and D. Bethel talk about a tv show they've been mildly reticent to discuss because they can't believe it's actually...

CONSOLE WARS II: THE NEW CHALLENGERS: Things got shaken up in the world of video games––maybe––as Google announced its streaming-forward gaming platform––maybe––called Stadia while Apple announced its gaming-focused subscription platform––maybe––called Apple Arcade. Andrew and D. Bethel discuss the merits of these announcements and how they either apply, predict, or completely misread the gaming l...