Wardcast

Stepping foot inside the new and improved Seattle Convention Center for the first time, Dylan is joined by Hidden Gemsters old and new to showcase the indie games PAX West 2023 has on offer! Joining him is Good Trouble’s Director of Communications Harris Foster, Innersloth’s Communications Director Victoria Tran, Strange Scaffold’s Creative Director Xalavier Nelson Jr., and Intelligame Founder Jos...

Masked, vaxxed, and ready for PAX, Hidden Gems returns for its first in-person panel since the start of the pandemic. Joining Dylan in the panel’s home in the Bumblebee Theatre are our pals Coby West from The Glory Society and Anya Combs from Backerkit! From the panel description: Making its triumphant return, Hidden Gems is back for PAX East 2023! What is Hidden Gems? Imagine this: you’ve spent y...

Here we are: at the end of 2022, with 2023 waiting right around the corner. Despite not recording many episodes this year, we still found the time to play — as well as develop! — games, and now it’s time to tell you, dear lister, which ones meant the most to us in Two Thousand and Twenty-Two. Games include Fortnite, In Sound Mind, World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, Tunic, Rogue Legacy 2, and S...

We awaken from our Wardcast cryosleep long enough to get ahold of some audio equipment and record ourselves a podcast. Much has happened while we were away — too much to cover in a single podcast, in fact, so we’ll just focus on the most recent events. Namely, John Riccitiello’s continued mismanagement of Unity with its announced merger with ironSource. We then scooch on over to talk about the gam...

It’s time for one final ‘cast before the year is done, and it’s the one we’ve all been waiting for: the Best Games Played of Twenty Twenty-One! We’ve spent the past few episodes giving big ups to our favorite games this year; now it’s time to give the biggest ups to just a final few — those games that stood out from the pack. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you may even be surprised by what games ma...

It’s our third and final stretch of the Road to BGP 2021, and we’re almost prepared for the final showdown. But before we get to the games, we revisit a classic video game boondoggle, consider the six degrees of Ryu, and argue about Pokémon designs. Then, Dylan and Alex finally settle in for some dodgeball metropolises, residential horrors, papercraft plumbers, not to mention some honorable mentio...

The second stretch of 2021’s Road to BGP has us talking time loops a-plenty, sequels and expansions, and the return of some of our favorite armor-clad space soldiers. Join us as we try, and fail, to finish talking about the rest of the games we loved this year. Games include Monster Hunter Rise, Deathloop, Metroid Dread, holedown, Inscryption, Halo Infinite, and Outer Wilds - Echoes of the Eye. Go...

As was foretold, we have reemerged from our subterranean slumber to fulfill an ancient prophecy — talking about the games we enjoyed the most in 2021, and also one we didn’t much care for. It should also be stated: content warning for discussions of domestic violence, animal death, terminal illness, and similar topics during the discussion of some of these games. Games include Twelve Minutes, KID...

Hey, ho, and whadya know — it’s a rare Wardcast sighting! We’ve come out of hiding for a special occasion: to witness the final Smash Brother get announced — live! Join us as we see who exactly they announce (it could be anyone), and stick around after as we discuss the revelatory reveal and bring up some games we’ve been playing. Games include Deathloop, Outer Wilds - Echoes of the Eye, Twelve Mi...

After a year and a half hiatus, Hidden Gems returns to the virtual PAX floor to showcase games at the second ever PAX Online! Joining Dylan on a tour through game demos galore is Hidden Gems mainstay Felix Kramer, El David y Estefi Show host David Lucio, and Innersloth and Among Us community director Victoria Tran! From the panel description: As you peruse all the fun and games PAX Online has on o...

We mosey on back to good ol’ R-V-of-A to round up a posse of news and topics to discuss. We chat about recent departures from Giant Bomb, continued reflections on the Battle of the Tims, and lessons learned from the Axiom Verge documentary. But then we get to the real meat of the matter — games. Overwatch is facing huge changes to its gameplay, Resident Evil Village finds the perfect balance from...

We’re here in the great city of Austin, Texas, where Dylan has decided to take his fully vaccinated self to visit friend and colleague Coby West — technical producer at game dev co-op The Glory Society. Dylan and Coby discuss their recent forays into tabletop gaming, try to agree on a definition for 2.5D, observe the ongoing Epic v. Apple trial, dive deep into some hands-on with the PlayStation 5...

On this episode, we chart a course through all things games: We start our journey from Recent Release Bay, where games that have recently entered the hype cycle slosh against the waves, including Returnal, Ratchet and Clank, and New Pokémon Snap. We then enter the icy and tumultuous Activisea, where blistering gales carry the news of Activision Blizzard slowly transforming into the Call of Duty Co...

Another year in quarantine means another year without gaming events. At least, it’s another year without events in meatspace, so we zap into cyberspace to speculate on what an all-digital E3 looks like, all while getting our GDC fix from the Crows Developers Conference. But even without the yearly industry event, we still hear about industry news aplenty: Jeffery Kaplan has jettisoned from Blizzar...

With germ juice coursing through our veins, we hop back onto the mics to discover a world different than where we left it — Mario is dead, Pokémon cards are skyrocketing in value, and everyone’s playing viral sensation Together BnB. Beyond that, we memorialize the looming destruction of Yahoo Answers, mourn Deathloop’s prophesied delay, and return to the mean streets of Knockout City. Games includ...

We rise to the podcast occasion to talk about the one thing that matters most: superhero movi— wait, no… video games! When we’re not criticizing the Snyder Cut and other assorted superhero fare, we’re checking out the newest brothers of Smash, fighting ancient gods in the Doom Eternal DLC, reviewing our self-assigned walking sim homework, and oh so much more. In news: Squenix’s Balan Wonderworld s...

To celebrate their one-year quarantine anniversary, Dylan and Alex take their taste buds on a space-faring adventure with some Halo-branded snacks, only to touch back down on terrestrial soil to uncover news of game devs investing in non-fungible tokens, the cancellation of the Anthem and Artifact reboots, the closure of Google Stadia’s internal studios, and DC’s Deathstroke apparently being a hug...

Alex and Dylan are back at it again with a plethora of news and games as well as recording their live reactions to the long-awaited return of the Nintendo Direct. Listen in as we in realtime get disappointed by the latest Smash character reveal, become confused by Knockout City’s ad strategy, and argue about the relevancy of Splatoon. But wait, there’s more! Instead of a Summer of Games, 2021 is p...

On this, our semiquincentennial episode, we get down to brass tacks to discuss the most important topics: what’s up with all these musicians performing inside of video games, whose idea was it to try to resurrect an ill-conceived game about the Iraq War, what are the core titles in the Mario and Zelda franchises, and exactly how tall is Lady Dimitrescu? All these questions and more will be answere...

We begin our eleventh month of quarantine talking about the things we know best. For starters: personal investing and stock market manipulation! After we dance on the graves of a couple of hedge funds, we move on to eulogize the passing of Flash, use LEGO bricks to learn about game dev, talk about stars and the wars therein, and hit some mans in the latest release from IO Interactive. Games includ...

With 2020 solidly in the rearview, we embrace 2021 and everything that comes with it: Hollywood cannibals, bean dads, Alex’s addiction to segues, and our yearly discussion about The Game Awards. But that’s not all! We also take the time to discuss the One-Winged Angel coming to Smash, the rebirth of Lucasfilm Games, and the Cyberpunk 2077 saga of labor issues, problematic representation, and unsta...

After a long and arduous year, we’ve finally made it to Best Games Played! We simplified and streamlined to make our end-of-the-year recording responsibilities a little simpler, and as such, we still got some games to discuss before we get to the final countdown: talking PlayStation 5 ownership and a new world of haptic feedback, who will be the Lord of the Sweetieflies on Snaktooth Island, one fi...

With two Smashers down and four left to go for the seemingly final DLC pack of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Dylan, Alex, and Nelson gather together to debate and discuss who will be lucky enough to ascend to such vaunted a station. Theories abound: maybe another Microsoft representative, maybe a yet-to-be-fully-acknowledged Nintendo rival, or maybe someone from the company’s retro past? Who’s to sa...

As we roll through the sleepy days of autumn, the games industry continues to keep us on our toes. First up, we have multiple video game movies to contend with, with the release of the first full Monster Hunter trailer and the first photos of Tom Holland as Nathan Drake. But autumn means one other thing: that’s right, it’s spooky season! So we contend with games both scary and macabre as we ponder...

Wedding bells are ringing out on the Wardcast, as two of our hosts prepare for holy matrimony, but before they can spend life eternal with their significant others, they have to take their vows: Do you, Alex, take this Breath of the Wild gacha game, in good rolls and in bad, to be a decent enough successor to the seminal Zelda game? To valiantly defend Super Mario 64 even though it may not be the...