Crubcast

Typically, we'd urge that gameplay is king in a video game. However, things aren't always so black and white. Sometimes the gameplay is just OK, but we can't help but push through just to see where on earth the game is going. Heck, sometimes it's good, but wears out its welcome over the course of the game. We wanted to talk about said games, and even some cases of putting up with a story just to g...

In a world where we're bombarded by patch notes and minor differences when we go to play an online game, when can it become too much? What's acceptable when adjusting a single player experience and when is it too far? Should the game creator's vision be the final say on all of this? Do we have more questions to ask you? MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early...

Today we're giving our BLISTERING TAKES on 2X (or 3X) playback speed for watching media. Primarily we're focused on television series and movies in this episode, though we do touch on audiobooks, and game emulator speedup. Are we right? Are we wrong? Tell us, we have no idea. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► h...

Robert Downey Jr returning to the MCU raised a lot of eyebrows. Some were hyped, some were deflated...and then there's us. We're fancying ourselves representative of the casual audience that Marvel/Disney are hoping to court favor with, so we figured we'd throw our opinion into the ring on what this news has done for us. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show earl...

Gaming conventions like PAX, TooManyGames, and MAGFest have become bigger and bigger over the years. Toss in gaming-adjacent conventions like Momocon and Comic-Con, and sprinkle in ones run by the companies themselves like Blizzcon...there are so many. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses, but this week we wanted to talk about why we actually go to them. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ►...

Recently over on reddit, IlmeniAVG sourced more than 100 publication's top game lists and aggregated them all into an incredibly interesting list. For funsies, we decided to go over the top 50 and see what deserves to be there and what doesn't. (RIP Bloodborne). MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www.pat...

2024 has been one of the years of all time for games! A lot have come out, some quickly forgotten, some we're still playing. Today we figured we'd do a little midpoint check-in on our favorite games of the year so far. Also, a cameo by videogamedunkey...?! MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www.patreon.c...

We decided to spin a wheel, a wheel that would add modifiers to existing games. Then we hashed out how these would play out in real life. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater: The Musical, Illumination's Elden Ring, Rock Band as a found footage horror movie, and more. Please enjoy. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://w...

Sometimes a game just has too much game. When it's trying to tell a story it can completely disrupt the flow of the narrative. And even for games that aren't trying to tell an involved story, or a story at all, sometimes the amount of content can be overwhelming. Today, we're putting some of those games on blast. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and ge...

Crowdfunded games still happen, but there was a surge of them in the 2010's. For better or worse, many, many notable games were enthusiastically funded by fans. Yooka-Laylee, Shovel Knight, Shenmue 3, Star Citizen. We wanted to look back and remember that turbulent time of high hopes and occasional unmet expectations. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early a...

TCGs have been taking over Crub bit by bit over the last couple of years, especially for Pokemon TCG for Nicco and Justin. This week we wanted to tackle what makes them fun, what keeps them relevant, how to deal with the ebbs and flows of expansion, and how digital TCGs like Magic's games, Hearthstone, and Marvel Snap bring their own twist to the table. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://...

This week we wanted to have an easy going talk about difficulty in games. What makes it great, what makes it difficult to design and plan around for, and some cases where it's just a necessary part of a game's core identity. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www.patreon.com/crub Our Crubcasts are record...

Who doesn't love a good meme? Even gaming is no stranger to the meme infiltration, today we wanted to discuss games designed to be a meme (for better or worse), games that rose in popularity due to memes about them, and...the Sony hack. Not that one, the other one. And then also the one you forgot about. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusi...

Genres in gaming have become incredibly fluid over time. Is Super Mario Sunshine a collectathon? What about Metroidvanias? Are Metroidvanias even a good name for that genre? When a game is a collectathon, what makes it great? Please answer. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www.patreon.com/crub Our Crub...

Justin made us guess the eBay prices of games, medical equipment, and limited-edition Taylor Swift records this week. If you get that last one right, you get one crub cookie. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www.patreon.com/crub Our Crubcasts are recorded LIVE at https://www.twitch.tv/crub_official eve...

Week by week there seems to be worse news in the gaming industry. Layoffs, greed, and worse ends of the deal for consumers pile on as games take longer to make and cost even more to make all the while. Then, digging deeper into the core communities themselves, toxicity and harassment seem to float to the top of what's visible. Does gaming have a PR problem...? MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► h...

We're not afraid to say it. E3 had its pros, but given some space since its demise we've begun to feel that it may have been a net positive for Gamer Week to go away. Do you miss E3? Perhaps you miss the idea of E3? Let us know! MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www.patreon.com/crub Our Crubcasts are re...

What makes good or bad pacing in a video game? Is there a reliable "just right" zone or is it just chance when it happens? We gathered 4 people who have never shipped a video game to discuss this. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www.patreon.com/crub Our Crubcasts are recorded LIVE at https://www.twitc...

Every day there are at least 90 new games that friends, reviews, and content creators are telling you that you HAVE to buy and play. How on earth are you supposed to juggle the hottest new Video Games alongside making time for said friends, family, work commitments, personal goals, the gym, grocery shopping, and occasionally breathing? We don't have good answers, but we do have some answers.   MOR...

Welcome to the second video game mascot draft! Each of our 4 hosts will pick from a (terrible) list of game mascots to round out their team, in addition to one wild card pick each, to see who has the best shot at winning randomly selected categories. Could Nathan Drake really be a good interior designer? Does Donkey Kong know chess? MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get t...

What makes good side content? Bad side content? What makes the difference between welcome variety and bloat in a game? Should you have to bathe when you're a cowboy? All this and more tackled on today's episode of the Crubcast. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www.patreon.com/crub Our Crubcasts are rec...

There's something magical about the feeling of finally "getting" a game. Not just purchasing it and getting it, but playing it and really GETTING it. To see the praise everyone else has given it, or to pierce the veil and appreciate it in your own unique way. This week we wanted to talk about games that are that for us, as well as Kingdom Hearts. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/...

On this week's show we talk about what happens NEXT in stories with cataclysmic events. How do you come back from the Thanos snap? What's the point of living in a zombified world? Is...is Spyro the Dragon a war criminal? MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www.patreon.com/crub Our Crubcasts are recorded L...

We love our good friend Justin. Perhaps a little too much. So, we put on a dating game show with 3 contestants to earn his undying love (or to at least earn a call back). We didn't expect it to go well, but we didn't expect it to go this badly. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www.patreon.com/crub Our...

This week's episode is broadly about linear vs open world game design, but also touches on a lot of other topics along the way (as you'll see in the show notes). Let us know your thoughts on these topics, and on which Sonic characters we each are. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www.patreon.com/crub O...