Vidjagame Apocalypse

"Modern gaming" has been a thing, more or less, for close to 20 years now, and in that time we've seen a lot of hot new features, ideas, and trends become wildly popular and then fade out of fashion — some more quickly than others. With the Resident Evil 4 Remake excising one such feature from its re-imagining of the original, now seems like a good time to revisit an old topic and update it with f...

Nintendo finally shuttered the 3DS (and Wii U) eShop this week, on the 12th anniversary of the landmark handheld's North American release, so this week we're paying tribute to it with a look at five of the best digital-only exclusives to have disappeared along with the storefront. Then we'll get into Resident Evil 4 Remake, Tchia, Have A Nice Death, new developments in the Microsoft-Activision-Son...

Last week, the world lost an iconic and unique talent with the passing of Lance Reddick, an actor who - in addition to a number of film and TV roles - lent his voice and face to a handful of videogame characters. This week, we pay tribute by looking at five of them, after which TL Foster of Welcome to the Thing and Live From the Pool House joins us to talk about WWE 2K23, Resident Evil 4 Remake, m...

John Cena is the cover athlete for this week's launch of WWE 2K23, and his silly catchphrase is enough of a reason to invite Ryan Harig of Zanzeezee podcast to talk about five games that give players cool invisibility powers. Then we'll talk about Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon, Valheim and Anno 1800 launching on consoles, Nintendo's justification for Tears of the Kingdom's $70 price...

Sometimes, wrapping a trilogy leaves developers without a clear path forward - and sometimes, their follow-ups are weird outliers that are quickly forgotten once the series either fades away or finds its footing again. A certain 10-year anniversary this week sent us down a rabbit hole of these games, and once we're done talking about them we'll get deeper into Wo Long, explore Dead Cells: Return t...

Wrestling and videogames have been closely intertwined since the early days - and this week, Jarrett Green of IGN and Welcome to the Thing joins us to talk about five non-wrestling games that nevertheless let you crush your enemies with piledrivers and powerbombs. Then we'll scratch the surface of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, chat about the validity and/or offensiveness of "JRPG" as a term, and look a...

Now that Super Nintendo World is bringing videogame aesthetics to Universal Studios, we're marking the occasion by inviting Emmett Watkins Jr. for a chat about five games set entirely in theme parks  — specifically the kind that characters are usually struggling to leave. Then we'll get into Like A Dragon: Ishin and Atomic Heart, Blumhouse getting into games, more about the Microsoft-Activision me...

UFOs have been in the news a lot lately, and while they're most likely of the non-extraterrestrial variety, it seemed like a good time to grab Mike Williams of Fanbyte for a chat about five games themed around UFOs and alien abductions. Then we'll dig into Wanted: Dead, Wild Hearts, Blanc, Game Pass cannibalizing game sales, and the real and fictional places you'd like to see re-created in open wo...

Open-world games, at their best, can be detailed portals to places we've always wanted to visit, whether real or fictitious - and this week, Anthony Abatte joins us for a look at five sandbox games that offer prime opportunities for virtual tourism. Then we'll talk about THAT game, plus Pizza Tower, news from this week's Nintendo Direct, and your favorite pieces of "idle" music.

Last week, the games industry defied licensing issues and rivalries to bring back GoldenEye 007 - and its banger pause-menu music, which inspired us to grab TL Foster for a quick Top 5 about our favorite pieces of music that play when we don't. Then we'll dig into the Dead Space remake, Hi-Fi Rush, Valiant Hearts: Coming Home, Inkulinati, and the game dialogue you enjoy listening to most.

January is traditionally the dumping ground for movies that studios don't expect to do well, so before it's over, let's grab Chris Baker for a look at five movies that got game adaptations in spite of being obscure, deeply weird, and/or outright commercial flops. After that, we'll rocket straight into Forspoken and Fire Emblem Engage, The Avengers game sunsetting, a new episode of The Last of Us T...

There's a lot of overlap between the videogame and animation industries, but it's always a big deal when a big name in 2D cel animation decides to apply their talents to something interactive. This week, we'll look at five standout collaborations between game developers and old-school animators, after which we'll touch on Colossal Cave, Persona 3 and 4 coming to Game Pass, the demise of Stadia, an...

The Sega CD (or Mega-CD) turned 32(!) last month, and it remains the home not just of questionable FMV games and music-video makers, but of some of the best and weirdest versions of 16-bit games that were popular on other consoles at the time. Along with Greg Moore , we'll delve into five ancient games that got unforgettably "upgraded" with speech and FMV cutscenes, after which we'll talk about Ve...

As a new year dawns, it's time to look ahead to the next 12 months (with help from Anthony "BruceWayneBrady" Abatte ) and the five games we're most excited for. Will any surprise you? Probably not! But they'll be fun to talk about anyway. Then it's on to a few games we missed last year, including Sports Story, River City Girls 2, and Choo-Choo Charles, after which we'll talk about whether there's...

The clock's running out on 2022, so let's cap it off with part 2 of our GOTY show, with our Top 5 Games of 2022 and a roster of guests including Brendan Hesse of The Crawl , Kat Bailey of IGN and Axe of the Blood God , Tony Wilson of Framework , and Wii Universe 's Steve Guntli and Woody Ciskowski! Which games claimed our top honors this year? Jump in and find out!

As another year draws to a close, it's time to look back on the past 12 months and pick our top 10 games of the year, with help from special guests including Alex Faciane, Kat Bailey, TL Foster, Chris Baker, Anthony Abatte, and Tony Wilson. Following last year's precedent, we're splitting the top 10 into two manageable chunks. Check out our picks for 10 through 6 this week, and stay tuned for next...

2022 is almost over, but wait! There's still DLC to talk about! So let's grab  Brendan Hesse  for a look at five of our favorite pieces of DLC to launch this year, after which we'll get into the Game Awards, High on Life, Crisis Core: FFVII Reunion, Lil Gator Game, God of War going live-action, and your favorite remasters/remakes of 2022.

This year has seen some excellent revivals of old games on new hardware, so let's kick off awards season a little early and take a look at our five favorite remasters and remakes of 2022, after which we'll get into The Callisto Protocol, Marvel's Midnight Suns, Need for Speed Unbound, Microsoft's acquisition moves, and movie games that stuck out in your head as ignoring the movies' plots.

Against all odds, we've somehow made it to 500 episodes, so we're celebrating by inviting a Secret Mystery Guest and digging into the five videogame franchises we've talked about the most over the past 499 episodes. Then we'll break format and talk about 10 games that have NEVER been in our Top 5s, plus a couple of brief cameos by other Secret Mystery Guests! 

Some games based on movies try to faithfully adapt the events of the film; others invent new scenes to pad out their runtime. And a select few throw the script in the garbage and invent their own version of events, and it's that last category that Chris Baker joins us this week to discuss. Then we'll talk more about Pokémon Scarlet and Violet; get into Gungrave GORE, The Devil in Me, and Evil West...

With this week marking the 10-year anniversary of the Wii U's release, TL Foster joins us for a look at five of the coolest games that still haven't made the jump to Switch. Then we'll dig into Pentiment, Tactics Ogre: Reborn, and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, check out The Game Awards 2022 GOTY nominations, and hear you talk about old stuff you're not nostalgic for (but still love hearing about any...

This week, we take a look at five of the most sophisticated, fantastically expensive gaming devices ever released - you know, the ones the REALLY rich kid at your school had - with font of knowledge Dan Amrich, who also tells us quite a lot about his involvement with Atari 50, which is out now. Then we'll get into God of War and Sonic Frontiers, highlights from the Nintendo Indie Showcase, and you...

The arrival of Resident Evil Village's Winters' Expansion DLC - which adds a new story starring Ethan's daughter Rose - inspired us to dig into five sequels where the hero's kid steps into the spotlight as the new protagonist. Then we'll get into Bayonetta 3, PSVR2's price and release date reveal, and the most you've ever spent on a game-related purchase.

It's our last show of spooky season, so TL Foster joins us for a look at five games that gave players the chance to be slasher villains, stalking and slaying hapless campers, partygoers, and other movie-inspired machete-fodder. Then we'll get into Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, Gotham Knights, the Witcher getting a modern remake, and your favorite bits from G4.

Ghostbusters Spirits Unleashed is out this week and it's great, so we're leaning fully into it (and technically staying on-theme for Spooptober) by inviting Dan Amrich for a chat about the best and most memorable Ghostbusters games of the past 38 years. Then we'll get into Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, A Plague Tale: Requiem, the Silent HIll Transmission revelations, and your thoughts on who sho...