Gamers Week Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Most video games have a good mixture of easy and hard levels to keep gamers properly entertained and challenged throughout the game. But some levels dial the difficulty up to 11, and apparently, Reddit has a lot to say about what it considers to be the hardest video game levels ever. We're joined by Brian from Drink A Beer & Play A Game to debate the levels on this list w...

Send us Fan Mail The long-awaited release of Platinum Games' Bayonetta 3 has been marred by a rather messy controversy. The voice of Bayonetta in the previous two entries publicly stated that she did not return for the third installment because the pay was insultingly low. She then encouraged fans to boycott the game, igniting a debate about the chronically low pay offered to video game voice...

Send us Fan Mail The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has released its initial report on Microsoft 's buyout of Activision Blizzard , and the Xbox maker is not happy. The company is calling the criticism of the deal “unsupported” and accusing the CMA of listening too much to Sony 's lawyers. Is Microsoft 's Activision Blizzard deal really a good thing for the gaming indus...

Send us Fan Mail Google Stadia 's 2019 announcement promised several features that actually could have been disruptive game-changers for the industry (such as State Share, Stream Connect, Crowd Play, and Crowd Choice). Unfortunately, however, each of those features was absent from launch, and as of late 2021, less than 10% of the total library included one or more of these features. As the de...

Send us Fan Mail Super Mario Bros. , The Legend of Zelda , Mega Man , Metroid ... the best NES games are all classics. They aren't just fantastic video games in their own right, but experiences that helped to establish Nintendo 's biggest franchises and make the manufacturer a force to be reckoned with in the industry. We debate the ten best titles of the NES library, and (spoiler alert!...

Send us Fan Mail With the much-hyped Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake changing developers, fans are hoping that the game will survive its problems and live to see its release. However, if it doesn't, it would be far from the biggest title to ultimately get canceled. We're joined by G to the Next Level to look at the ten video game cancelations that gamers found most disappoi...

Send us Fan Mail It's been a big week for gaming news! This past Tuesday brought us both a Nintendo Direct and a PlayStation State of Play , so we're covering as much as we can from both showcases. We'll also be discussing how PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan says Xbox's Call of Duty offer was "inadequate on many levels," how Gargoyles is the next classic Disney game getting...

Send us Fan Mail Having a backlog of games can be overwhelming. Knowing that you have potentially hundreds of games that you haven't played yet has been a lament of many gamers. In this episode, we're joined by Jim from Drink a Beer and Play a Game to discuss tips and tricks on how to manage your backlog of games like a pro. We'll also be talking about Xbox 's Game Pass Friends...

Send us Fan Mail When someone thinks of video games,  they might imagine playing their favorite games with their friends or competing against others for the top score in competitive-style leaderboards. Naturally, these services need internet access to function, but not everyone takes time to think about the servers that host these features — at least not until a company announces that they're...

Send us Fan Mail Gamescom 2022 is upon us, and Geoff Keighley 's Opening Night Live kicked things off with a ton of new announcements for games including Dune: Awakening , Lies of P , Sonic Frontiers , and more. We go over both the highlights and the lowlights of the evening. We'll also be discussing how Xbox boss Phil Spencer believes there will be fewer console exclusives in the future...

Send us Fan Mail The digital-only age is coming, folks. We may not like it, but it's hard to deny that streaming services are the future of entertainment, including for video games. But when customers no longer need a console to play games, what will that mean for Sony and Nintendo , which don't have the PC presence that Microsoft has? We also discuss how Nintendo of America contractors...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Nintendo treated Splatoon fans to an in-depth look at the series' upcoming entry, Splatoon 3 . We chat about the new stages, mechanics, game modes, and weapons, as well as what else we hope to see in the soon-to-be-released title. We'll also be discussing Twitch and YouTube Gaming 's plummeting viewership figures, how fewer than 1% of Netflix subscribers...

Send us Fan Mail This past week has seen a ton of Sony news, so we’re doing a roundup of PlayStation headlines. We'll be talking about how Sony will retire the  PS5 's Accolades feature later this year, Sony 's fear that Microsoft 's ownership of the Call of Duty franchise will have the power to influence users' console choices, and the official PlayStation mobile controll...

Send us Fan Mail The Nintendo Switch 's 5th birthday has come and gone, and in that time, it's made headlines over and over again in ways that other consoles haven't. We remember some of the moments that have shaped and defined the Nintendo Switch 's reign, for better or worse, as well as what has made the console special to us on a personal level. We'll also be discussing...

Send us Fan Mail Time codes at the bottom! There is plenty to enjoy in Sony 's newly revamped PlayStation Plus service, but is it really worth the cost? We explore the idea that the biggest challenge facing PS Plus and Xbox Game Pass (or any game subscription service on the market for that matter) isn’t money. It’s time. Or more accurately, lack of it. As adults with more responsibilities tha...

Send us Fan Mail Time codes at the bottom! What does it truly mean to be called one of the worst video games of all time? We're going to the very bottom of Metacritic’s rankings to find out which games rank as the worst of the worst, as well as gripe about the very worst games we've personally played. We'll also be discussing how GameStop fired one of its top execs in the midst of t...

Send us Fan Mail Web 3 company Polium claims its " Polium One " system will be “the world’s first multi-chain gaming console” that will be capable of running games built on different blockchains. Unsurprisingly, the announcement has been met with much criticism from gamers who are, at best, not yet convinced of the merits of blockchain gaming, and at worst believe it to be a scam (Spoile...

Send us Fan Mail The June 2022 Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase has come and gone, and left us with a host of fresh announcements, release date news, surprise drops, and other tidbits. We discuss the good, the bad, and the underwhelming of Nintendo 's latest. We'll also be talking about how Final Fantasy 16 will use "British English only" to avoid pissing off Americans, t...

Send us Fan Mail The video game industry is in flux. We’re 19 months into a fresh console cycle, the pandemic slowed or paused development on a generation of games, and studios of all sizes are being absorbed by the biggest names in the room.  Put simply, there aren’t a lot of huge games coming out in the second half of 2022. But is this actually a bad thing? We discuss the pros and cons of the AA...

Send us Fan Mail Although there's technically no E3 this year, you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise. Over the course of a few days, we got a ton of trailers, gameplay reveals, and announcements for some huge titles, including Starfield , Diablo IV , Silksong , and more. We're joined by Kade Call of the Gaming Memories Podcast to break down all the biggest news from not-E3 week....

Send us Fan Mail The latest PlayStation State of Play has arrived bringing with it a new look for Final Fantasy 16, the long-awaited reveal of Resident Evil 4 Remake, th e first gameplay of Street Fighter 6 , and much more.  We're joined by Hugues of the Retro Game Club Podcast to discuss the titles featured in this State of Play . We'll also be talking about how Sega chose the Mega Driv...

Send us Fan Mail Sonic Frontiers , Sega 's upcoming open-world video game starring everyone's favorite Blue Blur, got a seven-minute gameplay video, and well... it all looks strangely familiar. We're joined by our good friend, streamer, YouTuber, and all-around great guy Ducks in Disguise to help us break down this first look at gameplay and talk about what we still hope to see in t...

Send us Fan Mail In 1980, Atari held a tournament to determine the best player in the nation on its 2600 port of the arcade sensation Space Invaders . The tournament was won by a Los Angeles teenager who went on to change the landscape of video games. We're joined by Rebecca Heineman to hear her stories of the world's very first esports tournament. We'll also be discussing how the X...

Send us Fan Mail To the surprise of almost no one in the retrogaming sphere, game-grading company Wata Games is the target of a new US class-action lawsuit. The suit accuses Wata of "engaging in affirmative acts to manipulate the retro video game market" and of "engaging in unfair business practices." We discuss the allegations and what this could potentially mean for the futur...

Send us Fan Mail Any child of the '80s and '90s knows that these years were the golden age of Rare , the British video game development company. Kev Bayliss is the creator of Diddy Kong and a long-time game developer who has worked on some of the most iconic franchises in gaming history, including Battletoads , Killer Instinct , GoldenEye 007 , Diddy Kong Racing , and more. He joins us t...