Between The Joysticks

This is your calling card. The Phantom Thieves are here to steal your heart! In this very special bonus episode we travel to Shujin Academy to discuss how a ragtag team of high school students and a talking cat lead to one of the greatest JRPG games of all time! If you have not played or completed Persona 5 there will be spoilers throughout the entire episode. Now let's form a contract and unlock...

Lightsabers and vampires lead us to our longest podcast yet! Redfall’s review score leads to a very candid and open interview with Xbox CEO Phil Spencer and Jon gets fired up. Nick joins Cal Kestis in the fight against the Empire in Star Wars: Jedi Survivor and reviews it. We continue even deeper into our top 50 games of all time and find time to discuss more Star Wars and discuss that rumored Son...

Where is that bonus podcast about Persona 5? We get to the bottom of it with a trial that will shake the very foundation of the podcast. In the ramp up to Episode 50 of the show we start talking about our favorite video games of all time. Finally we wrap up with some news items including a giant blow to Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard, some hot new trailers and May’s PlayStation Plus E...

If you suffer from pyrophobia, beware, as we have a lot of hot things to talk about. Nick has played through the entirety of Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores and reviews it, Sony acquires Firewalk Studios and Dhalsim shows up for a Street Fighter 6 showcase AND demo. Jon surprisingly brings the games by reviewing Neon White and shares his impressions on Vernal Edge. We also find time to talk...

Sony brings us yet another State of Play all about the upcoming JRPG juggernaut, Final Fantasy XVI. We talk about everything shown in the extensive 25 minute showcase. Jon has played the early moments of Resident Evil 4 and has some impressions before moving on to discussing the iconic merchant from the game. We also spend some time talking about our most anticipated games announced so far and tou...

We are back to talk about some out of left field ideas to fix the stagnant sales of PSVR2. Jon and Nick are sticking with their comfort foods and hanging out in Shujin Academy and The Lands Between but that does not stop us from talking about some juicy Sony handheld rumors and reminiscing about what made E3 so great. All this and much more in this week’s episode! Thanks for listening! Intro: Pers...

Beware there are a lot of corpses in this episode. Not only did Jon and Nick commit necromancy in the Diablo IV beta, Nick has killed a lot of Ganados in Resident Evil 4. Speaking of the dead, E3 is dead this year… again, but that won’t stop Geoff Keighley and every publisher from holding its own event. Finally MultiVersus is dying too and is being killed off just so it can be raised from the dead...

We are back and we are fighting dinosaurs, shadows and Elden Lord’s in this week’s episode. Jon and Nick have suited up in Exoprimal and have some impressions. We have a lot of news to chat about including Spider-Man’s release month, Horizon: Burning Shores details and Valves new game announcement. Finally since Nick is playing and loving the JRPG, Persona 5 Royal, we talk about some of our favori...

Long time no see! Hot off our bonus episode we are back to talking about video games. Jon has actually touched a video game! PRAISE THE SUN! Nick is just getting started with the 100 hour JRPG, Persona 5 and has some early impressions. HBO’s The Last of Us has ended but that does not stop us from theorizing about what comes next from Naughty Dog and what we think are some of the greatest video gam...

We are back with our bonus episode for March. In this episode we talk about a show we haven’t mentioned all year, HBO’s The Last of Us. You only experience it once and wow what an experience. We talk about the finale, discuss the entire first season and use our knowledge of The Last of Us Part 2 to predict the future of the show. Spoiler warnings are marked below. So much to talk about in this mon...

The Merchant (Capcom) brings its wares in a quick showcase to show off its upcoming games. Nick is buying it all as he has played Resident Evil 2, 3 and the demo for Resident Evil 4. Jon is umm… has not played a game in 10 days and we should be worried. We may have a future Jack Torrence on our hands. Hopefully talking about his favorite video game openings will cheer him up. We got all this, vide...

What!?!? A late podcast !?!? Due to Fimbulwinter causing a power outage we are slightly delayed but boy do we have a show for you because we did it! We solved how to tackle your backlog! Brilliant! We also have a lot of news and a Final Fantasy XVI preview to chat about. Finally we talk about HBO’s The Last of Us adapting the excellent DLC, Left Behind. All this and much more in this week’s episod...

Welcome to our first bonus episode! In this episode we take a relaxing scenic tour of the USG Ishimura. It would have been more enjoyable if not for the ship being full of necromorphs and that every system in the ship was failing. We talk about what we liked, what we didn’t like, and review the 2023 remake of this beloved space survival horror entry. Apologies for the poor audio! FULL SPOILER WARN...

It finally happened. Sony waited for PSVR2 to release to FINALLY have a State of Play. We talk about all of the announcements in the long awaited, incorrectly predicted showcase. Microsoft and Nintendo have become pals and we touch on that. Nick is exhausted from his time with Hogwarts and Jon heads into the bayou of Louisiana in Norco. Finally we recap another banger of an episode in the amazing...

We are a day late but boy do we have so much to talk about. Sony never did get around to that showcase but PSVR2 reviews are in. To make up for the lack of a showcase Sony piles on the games for the PlayStation Plus Extra games. Seriously… it is insane. We also cover another amazing, incredible episode of HBO’s The Last of Us. Finally if that was not enough, games are dropping left and right and w...

We are 12 days away from the launch of PSVR2 and at Defcon 2 so of course Sony has a showcase about it. No? Nintendo joins Microsoft in having a showcase? Really? Well we talk about that. By the time you listen to this another episode drops of HBO’s The Last of Us but we recap the last episode. Finally we have some fun with some Super Bowl related questions and Nick gets quizzed on video game char...

I am not crying, you’re crying! HBO’s The Last of Us takes a minor character from the game and uses his story to make the show standout from its source material. Jon and Nick talk about the latest episode and all of the video games news this week. Nick can no longer turn the lights off as he has played Resident Evil 2 and Dead Space back to back. Finally we get our controllers dirty as we talk abo...

HBO’s The Last of Us continues to ask the timeless question, do you think love can bloom, even on a battlefield? Jon and Nick dive into the latest episode of the recently renewed show. Despite being a PlayStation podcast, Microsoft has an event instead of Sony and we talk about it. We also talk about the highly reviewed Dead Space and the poorly reviewed Forspoken. All this and much more in this w...

Jon and Nick have seen the first episode of Craig Mazin’s and Neil Druckmann’s new show and gush about it. We also worry about Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad video game and well… ALL of Ubisoft. Finally we reminisce about Co-op games and get into the fantastic narrative game What Remains of Edith Finch. All this and much more in this week’s episode! Defcon level has been raised! Intro: What Remains of...

A podcast! About card games! Nick and Jon bring not one, but two card games. We talk about the new PlayStation Plus Extra / Premium games, Project Leonardo and listener emails. Finally we talk about the games we have been playing including The Last of Us Part 1, Inscryption and Marvel's Midnight Suns. All this and much more in this week's episode! Intro: The Last of Us Part 1 6 Things: - Email - P...

Happy New Year! 2023 is here and the gaming world looks to return to form. Jon and Nick navigate the year in games, adaptations and new hardware that is announced so far. We go into our most anticipated games and give our opinions on all the games announced so far. We wrap things up by making some predictions (with stakes) on what might happen this year. All this and more in this week's episode! I...

2022 is officially over! Nick and Jon wrap up the PlayStation Franchise Madness bracket and declare the one franchise to rule them all. We then move into our year in review and announce the winners of our 6 categories including Game of the Year. Finally we would like to thank all of you who joined us on this endeavor. We had such a fun time launching this podcast and we appreciate all of you who l...

Jon and Nick have been brought back from Hell to slay demons from Heaven as we gush about the game Neon White and touch on a few other games that we have been playing. We also ask Santa to put some things under the tree for us that would enhance our gaming setups. Finally, we spend time whittling down to the last two games of our Franchise Madness bracket. All this and much more in this week’s epi...

What?!?! A 2 hour long podcast?!?! We return to the format of the show for our longest podcast yet! This is mainly due to us closing the book on God of War: Ragnarok and Jon having an epic rant about Microsoft and the purchase of Activision Blizzard that the FTC is not too keen on. We also have time to tackle the games we have been playing, Forspoken and Kena: Bridge of Spirits. This and TONS of c...

We are back to give you the hottest take on Geoff Keighley’s The Game Awards. What didn’t happen in this show? Jon’s most anticipated game gets announced, star studded actors are showing up everywhere and we got tons of actually good “World Premieres” to chat about. Microsoft and Xbox are nowhere to be seen but they had a rough day. We talk about all of the awards and announcements in this week’s...