Vidjagame Apocalypse

Los Angeles is the setting of roughly 500% of all motion pictures, and yet relatively few games have tried to turn its sun-baked sprawl into a game world. So this week, let's grab PNB's TL Foster for a look at five games that turned the City of Angels into an open(-ish)-world playground, after which we'll dive into The Medium, EA Sports bringing back college football, Stadia shuttering its studios...

Train levels are a pretty well-worn trope by this point; start at the caboose and fight your way up to the engine, all in a linear, narrow environment that allows for some variety as you move from car to car. As frequently as we've seen these, some are a lot more memorable than others, and a few even do something unique with the idea. So let's look at five of our favorites this week, after which w...

With the rebooted Hitman series hitting its third installment this week, we're joined by Tony Wilson of Framework for a look at three other franchises whose reboots were successful enough to spawn sequels and become new trilogies unto themselves. Then we dig into Hitman 3, talk about Mortal Kombat movie news, and look at the mostly dead gaming genres you'd love to bring back.

Ready to feel old? 2001 was a watershed year for videogames, with powerful 3D consoles and classic games that laid the groundwork for the modern era of gaming. It was also 20 years ago, meaning all those games are now two decades old. We've invited Larry Charles of Striking Distance Studios to help us through this sad realization by celebrating five unforgettable games from the now-distant past, a...

We're back on our traditional yearly bullshit this week, kicking off the new year with a look forward at at five games we're especially excited for in 2021 (assuming they arrive this year). This is one of our shortest shows in years, but don't worry/get too comfortable, as we'll be back in full force next week.

It's the end of the worst year in recent memory, but a great year for games - so let's take one last look back and anoint our 10 favorites! Clocking in at just under 4 hours, this year's show features appearances from Jorge Albor, Kat Bailey, Chris "Cbake" Baker, TL Foster, Steve Guntli, Leif Johnson, Micah Seff, Tony Wilson, and Kayla Zumbaum. It's a veritable explodaganza of long discussions abo...

We really wanted to go with a holiday theme for our last real show of 2020, but in the end, what's more appropriate to Holiday 2020 than grabbing Greg Moore for a look at how videogames have portrayed the collapse of brick-and-mortar retail? Then it's on to Super Meat Boy Forever, Nintendo's Year in Review, and your thoughts on playing games right at launch vs. waiting for bugs to get fixed.

2020 has been a terrible year for most things, but a stellar year for games - including a smattering of remakes that took a fresh look at old favorites. As we lead up to our big year-end show on the best games of 2020, we've grabbed PNB's TL Foster and given five amazing remakes that didn't fit in our top 10 their own show. Then it's on to plenty of Cyberpunk 2077 chatter, a few announcements and...

Cyberpunk 2077 came out hours before we recorded this week's show, so we don't have a lot to say about it yet. Luckily, there are tons of cyberpunk videogames not named "Cyberpunk," so we grabbed Leif Johnson for a look at five of the greatest cyberpunk series of all time. Then it's on to (what else?) initial impressions of Cyberpunk 2077, a smattering of movie news, the Persona 5 Strikers reveal,...

This week, we pay overdue tribute to the passing of the PS4 era with help from Gamespot/LaserTime alum Tony Wilson who's launching a new video channel called FrameWork, and who helps us look back on five of the best PS4 exclusives (all of which are still fully exclusive, and which came out pre-2020 so we don't repeat ourselves on this year's Game of the Year show). Then it's on to Immortals Fenyx...

With Ready Player Two out this week, we've decided to turn up the nostalgia dial to absurd levels by recruiting Greg Moore for a look at five videogames that, one way or another, were about nostalgia for videogames. Then it's on to some chat about Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, the holiday console-scalping epidemic, cloud gaming, and the open worlds you'd love to revisit.

We're coming back to the table this week with clearer impressions of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X - but first, let's take a look at five of the rare few open-world games that actually re-used their open worlds, with PNB's Kayla Zumbaum! Then we'll bite into Bugsnax, Demon's Souls, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, The Game Awards announcements, and your f...

IT'S NEW-CONSOLE WEEK! We're super-excited for the debut of the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5, but before we get to those, let's grab PNB's TL Foster for a look at five times third-party games swept in and stole the show in a new console's launch lineup! Then it's on to Assassin's Creed Valhalla, early Xbox Series X impressions, Yakuza: Like A Dragon, Prodeus, and the arcade classics you'd lik...

As November begins and we're faced with the mystery of who our next President will be, it's as good a time as any to lose ourselves in the fictional mysteries of our favorite detective games with Octobug developer Eric Bailey. Then we talk about Sega selling off its arcade business, Arcade1up introducing its first sit-down driving cabinet, and the historical settings you'd like to see horror games...

We're closing out Spooptober 2020 with the grimmest, bleakest topic we could think of: horror games set in, around, and within the (sometimes literal) fallout of the Soviet Union. With history buff Jeremy King of Tweakalicious.tv on board, we'll also dig into Watch Dogs: Legion, Ghostrunner, Cobra Kai: The Karate Kid Saga Continues, news from Nintendo's final Direct of 2020, and the politicians an...

High school is a breeding ground for all sorts of lifelong fears and anxieties, so of course it's a perfect setting for otherwordly terror. With friend of the show Micah Seff in attendance, we talk about five games that used locker-lined halls and impersonal classrooms to create scares, after which we talk about Torchlight III, Blizzard possibly moving away from RTS games, and your hometown crypti...

Our greatest Spooptober episode yet is here! The inimitable Alex Faciane of Chilluminati Podcast (among other things) joins us for a look at five real(ish) cryptids — creatures people swear they've seen but whose existence remains unconfirmed — that have made multiple videogame appearances over the years. Then it's on to a heated discussion of the Monster Hunter movie trailer, Sega's surprise 60th...

Spooptober continues with a look at the Greek pantheon's gloomiest god, as Leif Johnson rejoins us to sift through some of Hades' more memorable videogame appearances. Then we shift to talking about Star Wars Squadrons, Crash 4, Super Mario Bros. 35, and Baldur's Gate III, before moving on to Sony's PS5 teardown video and your favorite zombie games with a twist.

It's the start of October, which means we're switching to horror-focused topics and bad Dracula impressions between now and Halloween! We're kicking things off with a look at five zombie games that - despite featuring the most cliched enemies imaginable - managed to stand out with unique gameplay hooks. Then it's on to Genshin Impact, Mafia: Definitive Edition, Peter Parker's new face, and your fa...

Nintendo's 3DS is officially kaput, so this week we invite Ultra 64's Steve Guntli and Woody Ciskowski to help us celebrate nine stellar years of no-glasses 3D with a look at five of our favorite 3DS essentials. Then it's on to extensive chat about Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Hades, Microsoft acquiring Bethesda, a week of nonstop preorder clusterfucks, and your next-gen plans now that most of the ca...

With Spelunky 2 out this week, we're rejoined by Experience Points' Jorge Albor for a look at five games that started life as freeware projects before moving on to commercial success. Then it's on to PlayStation 5 news, Paradise Killer, Fight Crab, Ubisoft Forward's reveals, and whether the Xbox announcements changed your next-gen plans.

Everything we wanted to know about the new Xboxes - price, launch date, existence of the rumored Series S, and so on - has been revealed, but we're a little distracted by a certain limited-edition compilation with one glaring omission. So distracted that we're doing a whole Top 5 about games that mysteriously failed to make the cut when it came time to bundle and remaster their series, after which...

Do you like collecting comics? Do you enjoy videogames? Do you insist that those two hobbies be about each other? Fiiiine. With Marvel's Avengers out this week, let's grab PNB's TL Foster for a look at five games that used comic books as collectibles, after which we'll jump into Avengers, Vader Immortal, Madden NFL 21, Gamescom reveals, NVIDIA's new 30 series, and the toy lines you think deserve t...

Weeks like this are enough to make anyone want to retreat into childhood nostalgia - and we've delivered a brief chance to do exactly that, as Greg Moore joins us to talk about five games that let us play as toys from our childhoods. Then we'll talk Battletoads, confuse Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad, and hear your confessions about the dumbest things you've ordered during the pandemic.

With the US Postal Service currently under siege, now seemed like a good time to grab friend of the show Leif Johnson and pay tribute to some of gaming's greatest postal workers, who tirelessly deliver letters and packages that don't really exist across virtual worlds. Then we talk about seeing our houses from Microsoft Flight Simulator, get hard in Mortal Shell, touch the Apple-Epic fight with a...