Between The Joysticks

The PlayStation Pals return to talk about a PlayStation State of Play that has come and gone. We cover and review the entire event. We give our initial impressions of Saros, MindsEye, Tides of Annihilation and much more. We also touch on the outage PSN had over the weekend. Thanks for listening! Intro: Saros 2 Things: - PSN Outage - State of Play February 2025 Outro: The Way of the Ghost - Ghost o...

While one live service game thrives, another dies. We kick things off by talking about the end of MultiVersus, a game both unique as a live service game and has the strength of IP. The console war officially is over between PlayStation and Xbox as Xbox brings one of its biggest franchises to PlayStation. Speaking of PlayStation we are at Defcon 1 for a State of Play and give our predictions. We wr...

Xbox shows off a slate of upcoming games that ask you to practice your katana, travel through a Louisiana fairy tale, stop a painter, and kill A WHOLE LOT of demons. We discuss all of the news from the Xbox Developer Direct 25. Jon then eulogizes Earthblade, we answer listener mail regarding the apparent failure of Dragon Age: The Veilguard and end things on talking about our draft in our 5th annu...

The Nintendo Switch 2 exists officially! Not 24 hours after our last podcast Nintendo unveils its next generation of hardware. PlayStation on the other hand continues to fumble and have more casualties in its live-service initiative. Xbox is having a Developer Direct tomorrow and we try to predict who the mystery Developer is. We then move on to an email about Marvel Rivals, games you give up on a...

We are now a Marvel Rivals fancast! Listen to us discuss the new heroes, rank ALL 35 heroes and discuss strategies around the new meta. Not really but we have fun teasing Jon on this episode. We answer YOUR emails about Marvel Rivals, “Soulsborne” games and movies. We then expand our discussion about the Nintendo Switch 2 as we are at Defcon 1 for the new hardware to be announced. Finally, Jon con...

Hello 2025! We kick off what looks to be one of the biggest years in video games by talking about our massive list of most anticipated games for the year (so far). We also try our best to predict what will happen this year with a new batch of predictions. We then catch you up on the games we have been playing as Jon struggles to find the next game to grab his attention while Nick is addicted to th...

Welcome to the last episode of 2024! It has been a strange yet exciting year in video games and here we are to summarize it all up and discuss it all. We go over the year in news, our (and yours) PlayStation Wrap-ups and get into the big moment - handing out the roses to all of our 2024 Game of the Year categories. We also have a new addition to our Top 10 PS5 games list. Thanks for listening and...

The biggest night in gaming, The Game Awards, has come and gone and boy did the 10th anniversary bring some big “World Premieres”. What did we think of The Witcher 4, Elden Ring Nightreign, Onimusha, Okami 2 and Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet? Listen to hear our thoughts on all of the announcements and winners. Thanks for listening! Intro: The Game Awards 2024 1 BIG Thing: -The Game Awards 202...

We are back and hope it was worth the wait. PlayStation Pals return to talk about all things PlayStation. December 3rd marked the 30th anniversary of the PlayStation and we get into the celebration and the memories. The man who bleeds PlayStation, Shuhei Yoshida, is leaving after 31 years. Finally we have the largest cast of games to talk about including the new hero shooter Marvel Rivals. Let’s g...

We kick off Thanksgiving week by talking about the Press X for Drama which involves the Ultimate Game of the Year from the Golden Joysticks. We then move into predicting what “World Premieres” and announcements we can expect from the hotly anticipated Game Awards. Sony may purchase the parent company behind one of gaming's biggest studios, From Software. Black Friday is upcoming and the crew gives...

The Game Awards are a few weeks away and Geoff Keighley has given a rose to all of the nominees. One of the GOTY nominees is creating quite a stir. Should DLC be considered for GOTY? Nick and Jon do not agree on this one. We go through all of the interesting nominations and musings from all of the nominees. Also Xbox is advertising its new campaign that declares anything can be Xbox. Finally Jon i...

We here at the podcast are big fans of the video game publisher Electronic Arts. We loved their decision to include loot boxes in many of their titles, including Mass Effect: Andromeda, FIFA and Star Wars: Battlefront II. We believe the original ending of Mass Effect 3 was masterful storytelling. Finally it was smart for EA to close legendary studios like Westwood, Visceral, and Bullfrog. Electron...

Jon is extra spicy this week. Be warned! We get into what makes him spicy as he dives deeper in GOTY contender, FF7 Rebirth. Speaking of that - what games will be nominated for GOTY? We dig into it. There is also some drama involving the new Dragon Age and of course we touch on it and Nick gives his early impressions. We are also 4 YEARS into this console generation - what do we think of it so far...

We return from our one-week hiatus to tackle all of the news and video games during that time. Jon and Nick tackle your emails to start things off. Then we get into the news items: Insomniac says no DLC for Spider-Man 2, COD has launched day-in-date on Game Pass and finally Xbox shows off some new games from developers in its Partner Preview. We then tackle multiple games including a L3 + R3 momen...

A 2 hour podcast?!?! Who approved this? Nick and Jon kick things off by answering listener emails - What games do we want sequels to? What games did we finish because we felt we had to? Then Nick visits the town of Silent Hill as Bloober Team’s well reviewed remake has its hooks in him. He also has read the new book about the inside workings of Blizzard Entertainment by Jason Schreier and gives hi...

Microsoft doubles down on the franchise that launched it into the console space, Halo, by rebranding its internal studio 343 to a more aptly named title. Ubisoft is having a rough year - Skull & Bones, Star Wars: Outlaws, a delayed Assassin’s Creed game, so what can they do to right the ship?. We then get into the first spooky game of October… which is a dating sim? Trust us as Doki Doki Literatur...

Fall continues to drop more big releases and we have our early impressions of two of them: Nintendo’s next Zelda title and the next game from the creators of Persona 5, Metaphor: ReFantazio. We also dig into the mailbag to talk about overcoming horror video games and PlayStations lack of first party titles. We then continue our Game of the Year Flashback segment with one of the best years of video...

Good thing we got ahead of it because a September PlayStation State of Play happened! We talk about all of the big announcements from the show: Ghost of Yoten, The Midnight Walk, Pal World and so much more. We also have tons of listener emails including questions about: franchises we want made into games, our video game turns ons and offs and how we got into PlayStation in the first place. For 2 t...

We continue the discussion from last week about PlayStation’s PS5 Pro reveal and how it will ripple through the console hardware space. Speaking of PS5 Pro, a lot of people will feel better if PlayStation “showcases” some games that will take advantage of it in the much rumored upcoming State of Play. Nick and Jon have some really solid predictions for it. Jon reviews Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia: T...

The PlayStation Pals return in a very PlayStation centric episode. The worst kept secret, the PS5 Pro, is announced with an outrageous price. Astro Bot is out so Nick and Jon gush about the gameplay and homages in the highest reviewed video game of the year. We also tackle a listener email about the lack of PlayStation new IP’s. Nick has finished Star Wars Outlaws and reviews it. Finally, we get b...

Jon mentioned something drastic would need to be done last episode to save the fledgling Concord and who would've thought they would pull the plug on the 11 day old game. Nick has been busy in a galaxy far far away with the adorable Nix in Star Wars Outlaws. Nintendo runs back to back showcases of both its indie and third party offerings and we highlight the games we liked. Finally the show is onl...

We have a Gamescom hangover after our last episode but still find a way to talk about so many things. We talk about the 3 big upcoming games that showed more (or didn’t) at Gamescom. Two big releases are out and review poorly in Concord and Star Wars: Outlaws. Jon gets excited about PlayStations push in China, India and the Middle East. Finally lets get into the games we have been playing as Jon p...

Geoff Keighley invites you to the biggest video game convention in Europe, Gamescom, with his opening ceremony Opening Night Live. We talk about all of the big announcements - Borderlands 4, Dying Light: The Beast, Mafia: The Old Country and more from the showcase. But wait there is even more! We answer listener emails, discuss a few games who got added to the Fall release schedule and talk about...

Nick invites you to Metropolis as his love of the developer Rocksteady could not keep him from their latest entry, the critically panned and commercially unsuccessful, Suicide Squad: Kill The Jusice League. Moving on we have another news heavy week to talk about. Krafton swoops in to save Tango Gameworks? Yes, that really happened. A new video game adaptation hits the big screen and bombs, spectac...

Nick invites you to the ridiculously silly town of Barnsworth in the newly released indie darling Thank Goodness You’re Here and gives his impressions and review. We have a lot of news to talk about too. Max gives a taste of Season 2 of The Last of Us. Microsoft’s release schedule causes them to delay Avowed. A big shakeup at Bungie causes more layoffs at the much lauded studio. Finally we are two...