Chamberlain and Chance

Last week Chamberlain took a long, hard look at his life, his free time, and what may or may be making him miserable. Then he stopped playing Tears of the Kingdom, picked up several little games that no one else had heard of, and he felt better about everything. Gamer hipster, indeed. Chance continues to have the audacity to enjoy a very well crafted game, playing through epic quests of his own ma...

Sony had a thing. It was mediocre when compared to old E3 offerings, missing both the surprise announcements and arrogant pomp that used to be the norm. There was a lot of Spider-Man 2, which looked great, but we already knew that. Chance and Chamberlain continue to play Tears of the Kingdom, just in very different ways and at different levels of enjoyment. Chance is having grand adventures and Ch...

Tears of the Kingdom has arrived and one of our heroes is not exactly pleased with it. He is frankly fed up with what sees as a double standard, that Nintendo is allowed to make 'fugly' games while Sony and Microsoft are not. You get no points for guessing which of them feels this way. Also this week, Alex has finished Jedi Survivor, Chance is called a very strange name in Chance's hat...

No Zelda yet, what are our heroes to do? Chamberlain was (and is) in a disagreeable mood, so he took his frustrations out on Afterimage by dropping it and then Redfall by hating it before finding surprising solace in a several years old PC RPG that was just barely ported to console. Bards Tale IV is good. Who knew? Chance and Alex are as steady as ever and just as surprised as anyone else that EA...

Surprising: Chance has played two good games in a row that are not Overwatch. This time it is Star Wars Jedi Survivor, a game made better by developers listening to the complaints about the first game. Not surprising: Redfall is bad and Arkane should feel bad. Surprising: Chamberlain had minor complaints about an otherwise good Metroidvania, Afterimage, and they were patched while he was playing t...

Dead Island 2 came out and it's good? No really, Chamberlain and Chance agree that Dead Island 2 is a silly, gory, albeit shallow experience that is far better than either expected from a game that spent more time in development than most Fornite players have spend being alive. Chamberlain is also very late to the party with Roguebook, the sequel to Slay the Spire that never actually happened....

Some people play games because they are enjoying them. Octopath Traveler II is what Alex has been looking for from Square Enix for many years. He has only scratched the surface of its content and is looking forward to the long haul. Some people play games as an almost meditative experience. Chance has returned to Red Dead Redemption 2 just for the hunting and experiences profound tranquility while...

Welcome to the space between releases, during which we fill time in just about any way we can. Chamberlain did something very strange: he returned to a game that he felt he did not give a fair chance the first time around. Chained Echoes was abandoned after a scant twenty minutes several months ago. This time he has made it much further, though Alex does promise that in becomes far too pleased wit...

Why submit yourself to the horrors of fishing or being near water when Dredge is happy to give you the same feelings of existential dread in digital form? Alex has braved this angling nightmare and lived to tell the tale. Chamberlain is still not done with the Resident Evil 4 remake, but he has seen more than enough to complain about. And Chance thought about playing many different things. He thou...

Only two games to talk about this week: Resident Evil 4 Remake and the Diablo IV open beta. Alex made good on his promise to not play it, leaving that duty to Chamberlain and Chance. They liked and disliked it for the same reason: it feels more accusable but shallower, perfect for Chamberlain's drive by gaming style but not the long term relationship that Chance was looking for. Alex loved the...

Chance's Stormveil angel is still on the loose, doing strange things like 'good deeds' and 'helping people.' His only foils are the ravenous PvP players, terrible people who do nothing but terrible things and were (and are) terribly disrespectful to their parents. He doesn't like them very much. Alex bounced around trying to avoid pre-ordering Diablo IV, and was successful,...

Have you heard of Grime? Grime is hard. Grime is mean. Grime is seriously disempowering. Somehow, some way, Chamberlain finished it, and now he is going to complain about it. Alex is almost done with his Mass Effect run (and yes, there is a debate over Liara, Tali and Garrus as the perfect romance option) and Chance is still waiting for the Resident Evil 4 remake, passing the time by ruining peopl...

The Resident Evil 4 remake clock is at about two weeks. Everyone copes differently. Chamberlain bounces off of games that he knew he wouldn't like, the settles directly into Stockholm Syndrome with Grime, a Metroidvania that is far, far more difficult that it needs to be. Alex plays Mass Effect, again, and still believes that Mass Effect 2 is on the short list of all time great games. And Chance p...

We try new things this week! Chamberlain leaves the house and watches a movie. Granted, the movie was Cocaine Bear, a title almost comically focused on his need for a short run time and frenetic pacing, but it was still an enjoyable evening. A much better time than Atomic Heart was, and it didn't sell any personal information to foreign regimes. Alex read a book! A real life, physical book that ex...

Chance is in search of mellow gaming experiences, or at least a counterpoint to the constant raging dumpster fire that is Overwatch matchmaking. This week the Breath of the Wild replay continues, in which he completes tasks that Chamberlain didn't even know existed. Add to that Sable, or Breath of the Wild with 100% less combat and 100% more hover bikes. Alex finds his chill at the end of Hi-Fi Ru...

It is a tale of two open worlds this week. Alex, thanks to the once in a blue moon occurrence of a first party Nintendo title going on sale, is finally playing Breath of the Wild. He is having a fine, almost meditative time with it. In contrast, Chamberlain played about five hours of Forspoken, because someone had to, and had very little if any fun with it. At least he had a remake of a PSP JRPG t...

This week, Chamberlain tried to do a nice thing. He tried to buy Chance a game that he really liked, Hi Fi Rush, so that Chance would give it a try. Things did not go as planned. Instead of shooting robots to the beat of life he shot noobs in Overwatch and werewolves in Resident Evil VII. Alex did play Hi Fi Rush, and liked what he played, but the call of another Persona 5 playthrough was too stro...

Only good games this week! Chance and Alex have enjoyed the return of space horror, proving that the only thing that can top Dead Space is, well, better Dead Space. Aesthetic issues with the final suit aside, it is everything that a remake should be, raising the bar for even the upcoming Resident Evil 4 remake. Chamberlain choice bright and bouncy over dark and slimy, playing through Hi-Fi Rush. T...

Much to everyone's surprise and relief, it looks like EA as not screwed up the Dead Space remake. More on that next week, but Chance and Alex have already put down their hard earned money. Content with the opposite experience, Chamberlain played The Calisto Protocol, and in spite of it looking pretty good and the combat not being as bad as you have heard, the game is boring, and not scary, and he...

Chamberlain meant to have a first hand report on The Calisto Protocol this week. He got as far as installing it before opting for an over priced remake of an old PS2 game: Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance II. It's still good, especially if you can't see very well. Chance played, and walked away from, Horizon Forbidden West. Last time it was for Elden Ring, this time is because the game is just easy to...

We welcome 2023 with a special, bonus sized episode! There is much to catch up on: Chance joined Chamberlain in appreciating the mediocrity of Gotham Knights before taking no pleasure at all in Psychonauts 2. Alex will forgive him. Eventually. Chamberlain took a tour of little games with High on Life (it turns out you can have too many dick jokes), Sword of the Vagrant and Astro Aqua Kitty. And Al...

Truly, the great void of the interwebs has it out for us. We will attempt to defy the hive mind again next week.

Not to be outdone by Geoff Keighley and his insufferable fashion choices (and the show's lackluster security), Chamberlain, Chance and Alex bring your their picks for the best games of 2022. No ads, no trailers, no WORLD PREMIERS, just three guys who play a lot of video games gushing about their favorites. And then Chance talks about Overwatch. An early congratulations to Alex who is getting marri...

Apologies for a slightly distracted episode. The Game Awards are on as we speak and Chamberlain is having a very difficult time dividing his attention. He turned his nose up at Bayonetta 3 this week (for not being as good as God of War, among other glaring issues) and has wrapped himself up in Eastward, a game that could not be more A Link to the Past if it tried. Alex is slowing learning Midnight...

Caution listeners! This week is full of God of War Ragnarök spoilers! Nothing is off limits, so if you have not played it yet (and you have a way to do so) what have you been doing these last three weeks? The days after finishing a potential game of the year are always difficult to fill. Chamberlain chose violence, specifically, violence in very bad games. He played Gungrave G.O.R.E., enjoyed it,...