Game Mess Decides

GamesBeat Decides hosts Jeffrey Grubb and Mike Minotti pop in for a quick catch up. The crew is busy picking the best games of the year, so that means time is running short for your normally scheduled program. But on this week's episode, Jeff and Mike talk about Hellblade, Gorogoa, and Hearthstone. They then dive into a news appetizer with some NPD numbers, PUBG on Xbox One, and more. Games discus...

It was a busy week in video games. The Game Awards unleashed its "world exclusives" on Thursday, and we dive deep into all of the announcements from that show on this week's GamesBeat Decides podcast. On this episode, GamesBeat IndieBeat editor Stephanie Chan and VentureBeat managing editor Jason Wilson join host Jeffrey Grubb. The trio spends time trying to pick up the pieces of their lives as th...

Star Wars: Battlefront II has emoted and win poses just like in Overwatch, but one thing you can't customize most of the heroes with are costumes. While different outfits -- often called skins -- seem like a great fit for this take on the Star Wars universe, it's not here because Lucasfilm and Electronic Arts couldn't agree on how to bring them into the game. On this week's GamesBeat Decides podca...

Star Wars: Battlefront II comes out this week and a lot of people are already playing it and yelling about it on the internet. A significant number of fans don't like its business model and progression system, and it is letting publisher Electronic Arts know it. On the GamesBeat Decides podcast, host Jeffrey Grubb and Mike Minotti got together with guest Bob Gardner from Intel to talk about Battle...

Mike has returned from BlizzCon, and Jeff Kaplan is his best friend now. We spend a portion of this week's GamesBeat Decides podcast going over what happened at BlizzCon and some of the games Mike got to play. In addition to Minotti's Anaheim Adventures, we dig into the news and the difference between a cup for liquids and a cup for wieners. Games we talk about this episode: Super Mario Odyssey Do...

Sony Interactive Entertainment showed off a brutal scene from The Last of Us: Part II at Paris Games Week on Monday, and the cruelty in that clip generated a loud response from fans and others who were watching the publisher's live show. On this week's GamesBeat Decides podcast, hosts Jeffrey Grubb and Mike Minotti discuss why Sony would want to use shocking violence to market a blockbuster sequel...

This is a special moment because it is time for a bonus episode of the GamesBeat Decides podcast and it is also, officially Mario time. In this show, hosts Jeffrey Grubb and Mike Minotti discuss Super Mario Odyssey. Mike has put in a lot of time with it, and he gave it a 100 out of 100 in our review.  During this episode, Mike explains why he loves Odyssey so much. Join us, won't you? Subscribe on...

It was already a busy year, but publishers are apparently trying to test if they can kill people through overexposure to huge game releases. On Friday, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Super Mario Odyssey, and Assassin's Creed: Origins launch for various platforms, so I hope you're caught up on your backlog. We've spent some time with a couple of these games, but on this episode of the GamesBeat...

This week's GamesBeat Decides podcast was already a long one, and then -- right before we were going to upload it -- we had to make it even longer. That's because hosts Jeffrey Grubb and Mike Minotti pulled an emergency bonus session to talk about the breaking news that Electronic Arts has closed Dead Space developer Visceral and canceled its Star Wars game. That revelation is shocking on its own,...

The evil White House in the upcoming Metal Gear Solid parody game Never Stop Sneakin' includes Health and Human Services secretary Dr. Acula (who is probably a vampire) and Vice President Helicopter (who is a helicopter), and that nearly kills host and PC gaming editor Jeffrey Grubb on this week's GamesBeat Decides podcast.  Never Stop Sneakin' is a new stealth action game from Dust: An Elysian Ta...

The Super Nintendo Classic Edition is out this week, and we got our hands on one. On this week's episode of the GamesBeat Decides podcast, host and PC gaming editor Jeffrey Grubb asks co-host and reviews editor Mike Minotti whether it lives up to the excitement. We also talk about the news from the last week. Bethesda wants to get close with Nintendo and its fans. Game developers admit they're afr...

Fall is upon us, and we are gasping for breath under a deluge of games. That's one of the reasons this week's episode of the GamesBeat Decides podcast is extra long. We spend a ton of time talking about games before diving into some news, but the big topic this week is all about big games like Lawbreakers, Agents of Mayhem, and Battleborn crashing and burning immediately after launching.  Lawbreak...

Last week, everyone was mad at GamesBeat for posting a video of Dean playing Cuphead poorly. This week, it's PewDiePie's turn for ... worse things. On this week's episode of the GamesBeat Decides podcast, hosts Jeffrey Grubb and Mike Minotti talk about why PewDiePie is bad, why he keeps doing this, and why other YouTubers are sick of his crap. As part of the fallout from PewDiePie discussion, the...

The collection of gamers that compose YouTube and Reddit have turned their suspicious gaze upon GamesBeat, and we swear we didn't mean to offend. On this week's episode of the GamesBeat Decides podcast, hosts Dean Takahashi, Jeffrey Grubb, and Mike Minotti humble themselves before this great and terrible force. Together, we are holding hands and begging for one last chance to "git gud." We awoke t...

Half-Life 2: Episode 3 died a long time ago, but its soul found some new life this week when writer Marc Laidlaw apparently published the story he had planned to close out the trilogy. On this week's episode of the GamesBeat Decides podcast, we talk about Laidlaw's attempts to finish his story and our feelings about a Valve that isn't interested in making Half-Life anymore. In addition to Half-Lif...

Microsoft delayed Crackdown 3 to next year, and the publisher doesn't have a lot of other releases to fill in the gaps for its upcoming holiday season. On this week's episode of the GamesBeat Decides podcast, managing editor Jason Wilson, reviews editor Mike Minotti, and I (PC gaming editor Jeffrey Grubb) try to figure out what the hell Microsoft is doing. The Xbox One X is launching November 7 fo...

Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan are in the news in the United States for holding rallies and murdering a counter-protester in Charlottesville, Virginia. This grim reality weighed on our minds when we went to record the GamesBeat Decides podcast this week, so we decided to talk about the history and the future of how games depict white supremacy. This week, VentureBeat social editor Anthony Agnello and...

We are talking road-trip games on the GamesBeat Decides podcast this week. PC gaming editor Jeffrey Grubb and reviews editor Mike Minotti talk through their memories of playing video games on America's highways, at Disney World, and that one Shoney's in Central Ohio. The hosts also talk about news stories like Middle-earth: Shadow of War's microtransactions, Take-Two's deep respect and love for th...

Regular host Jeff Grubb is on vacation and is getting ready to road trip up to Mount Rushmore, but he came in to record this week's podcast with Mike Minotti. Inspired by this presidential monument, the GamesBeat Decides crew is going to pick which characters should go on the Mount Rushmore of video games. We also talk about the news and some games on this episode, so join us, won't you? Games dis...

Nintendo released its Switch Online app on iOS and Android last week, and it is awful. On this week's episode of the GamesBeat Decides podcast, we ask if Nintendo will ever really fix it because it seems like it just doesn't care.  In addition to Nintendo's dumpster fire, hosts Jeffrey Grubb and Mike Minotti welcome Intel indie developer program boss Bob Gardner to talk about the news and some gam...

Super Mario Maker came out in 2015 and proved that designing games is a ton of fun. Now, in 2017, gamers are still waiting for a followup to that game from Nintendo or something similar from any other publisher or developer. Instead, fans have started filling in the gaps with their own games that enable you to make your own Mega Man levels and Super Mario 64 courses. So why the hell are we relying...

Take-Two Interactive is bringing games to the Nintendo Switch, so the GamesBeat Decides podcast wants to talk about third-party support for the Switch. Are more publishers going to consider the hybrid console? We decide that and more. Hosts Jeffrey Grubb and Mike Minotti also talk about the news and some of the games we've been playing. Games discussed include: - Final Fantasy XII - Shovel Knight:...

It's July 4 weekend in the United States still, and we're feeling pride in our country and sloth everywhere else. This week's episode of the GamesBeat Decides podcast is a quick one. Hosts Jeffrey Grubb and Mike Minotti talk about games and the news, and then they return to their red, white, and blue holes to eat tubed meats and blow shit up. Games on this week's show: - PlayerUnknown's Battlegrou...

Summer is upon us, and that means we have some time to catch up on games, look to the future, and -- oh, my god! Nintendo just announced the Super NES Classic Edition! I'm freakin' out! On this week's episode of the GamesBeat Decides, that sweet boy Bob Gardner joins the podcast along with hosts Mike Minotti and Jeffrey Grubb. We talk about Wolfenstein: The New Order, Nier, and more before getting...

The GamesBeat team is back home after a long week in Los Angeles for the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show in Los Angeles. E3 2017 had plenty to get fans excited, and now it's time to look back assess the show, the games, and everything else on this week's episode of the GamesBeat Decides podcast. Hosts Jeffrey Grubb and Mike Minotti look back and talk about if companies like Sony, Microsof...