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Day of the Diver

Day of the Diver

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DOCTOR NEW: Our hosts spend a little bit of time discussing the newest episode of Doctor Who, “The Church on Ruby Road.”

FISHING & STUFF: Our hosts talk about the charm, the complexities, and frustrations of the hit video game, Dave the Diver.

THE CALL OF PUBLIC DOMAIN: With the new year brings a new slate of texts into the public domain. While most people are talking about Disney’s latest loss, Andrew focuses in on a piece of cosmic horror that has officially entered public domain this year, H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu.”

TOPICS:

(00:00) Intro – Doctor Who
(03:11) Dave the Diver
(28:59) Outro – New items in the public domain
(32:48) Outtakes

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RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • “Quite Easily Done” (08 June 2018): Where our hosts discuss a documentary by the video game documentarians, NoClip, about the history of the developer, Bethesda.
  • “Academic Quality Entertainment” (04 August 2023): Where Andrew talks about his time playing Dredge.
  • “Pleasure Quotes” (22 December 2023): Where our hosts talk about the bigeneration episode that introduced the new Doctor as played by Ncuti Gatwa.

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Academic Quality Entertainment

Academic Quality Entertainment

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WEEK IN GEEK: It’s all about indie video games this week as both of our hosts have been indulging in new ludic adventures. Andrew participates in the eldritch fishing adventure of Dredge while D. Bethel has been having roguelike RPG fun with Star Renegades.

RIP PEE-WEE: Paul Reubens died after a long bout with cancer on July 30; our hosts spend a bit of time memorializing his work.

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RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • “Baguettevania” (24 August 2018): Where our hosts discuss the roguelike Metroidvania, Dead Cells.
  • “Hobbit Seasons” (24 June 2022): Where Andrew talks about the iterative awesomeness of Rogue Legacy 2.
  • “Tentacles or Bust” (12 May 2023): Where D. Bethel shares his experience with the Lovecraftian adventure game, Call of the Sea.

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Tentacles or Bust

Tentacles or Bust

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WEEK IN GEEK: This week, our hosts dive deep into the video game pool as Andrew gets his caveman farming on with Soda Den’s Roots of Pacha while D. Bethel finds a lot of adventure and fun in the deeply Lovecraftian adventure puzzle game, Call of the Sea by Out of the Blue.

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • “Your Cursor is My Prisoner” (19 February 2016): Where D. Bethel talks about another fun walking simulator, Firewatch.
  • “Love the Stank” (30 December 2016): Where Andrew begins his long love affair with Stardew Valley.
  • “Starting By Starting” (3 January 2020): Where D. Bethel plays a different––in many ways––Lovecraftian adventure game, The Sinking City.

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A Jar of Soup

A Jar of Soup

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BLOOMING WILLOW: D. Bethel takes a minute to share his excitement for the new Willow show on Disney+

WEEK IN GEEK: Andrew gets surprised by the dark remake/sequel of Kamen Rider Black Sun while D. Bethel rides the ups and owns of Netflix’s Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities.

IN REMEMBRANCE: Our hosts take a moment to honor the sad and surprising deaths of Kevin Conroy––the inimitable voice of Bruce Wayne and Batman in Batman: The Animated Series and many works afterwards––and Jason David Frank, most well known as Tommy the Green Ranger in Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • “Films in Quarries” (18 June 2021): Where Andrew dips his toe into the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers pool.
  • “Doctor Ennui” (27 August 2021): Where Andrew goes waist-deep into the Zyuranger pool.

RELEVANT LINKS:

  • Though not (legally) freely available, you can find the Batman comic written by Kevin Conroy (with art by J. Bone) in the DC Pride 2022 anthology published by DC Comics.

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Scary Gongs

Scary Gongs

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KOTICK TOCK TIME’S UP: This week, after a scathing report, employees of Activision/Blizzard walked out calling for the expulsion of the company’s CEO, Bobby Kotick. Our hosts examine the situation and how it symptomizes larger aspects of video game culture.

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RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • “Less-Impressive-Than-Expected No. 7” (01 July 2017): Where our hosts discuss the “interesting” game from a creator of Mega Man, Mighty No. 9.
  • “Sword Club” (30 July 2021): Where Andrew and D. Bethel talked about Activision Blizzard being investigated by the state of California.

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An Accident of Flavor

An Accident of Flavor

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DIAMOND ANNIVERSARY: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim turned 10 years old this week, celebrated with yet another re-release of the game across all gaming platforms. Andrew and D. Bethel talk about this milestone for a brief bit.

PLEASE STOP: NFTs continue to rear their ugly heads as major gaming publishers announce their interest in integrating blockchain weirdness into their games. After an explanation of the whole mess, D. Bethel and Andrew discuss NFTs’ possible impact on video games.

RIP DEAN STOCKWELL: After a long and storied career, actor and writer Dean Stockwell passed away this week. Nerds know him best as Al from Quantum Leap, but his strange choices and charismatic performances made him an actor everybody surely has a fond memory of in some way or another.

RELEVANT LINKS:

  • A screenshot from Reddit outlining the hit cryptocurrency may take after the institution of the recently passed legislation (via the Twitter account @CoinersTakingLs):
  • Tweets from @outstarwalker about how NFTs may not be the game changer some people think they are:

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • “Milkbloods” (09 April 2021): Where D. Bethel and Andrew first discuss the cultural pandemic called NFTs.
  • “Meat Pops” (22 Oct. 2021): Where Andrew discusses the different ways Steam and the Epic Games store are approaching NFTs.

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Lady Plot Device

Lady Plot Device

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LOVECRAFT COUNTRY: Now that the premiere season is complete, Andrew and D. Bethel discuss the multitude of facets of HBO’s adaptation of Lovecraft Country.

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • “Episode 11 – Anemic Clap” (07 August 2014): Where Andrew and D. Bethel discuss the influential H. P. Lovecraft story, “The Dunwich Horror.”
  • “Episode 31 – Post-Op Dan” (09 Jan. 2015): Where D. Bethel discusses, briefly, his dental woes.
  • “Episode 89 – High-Five Forever” (25 March 2016): Where D. Bethel discusses another revisionist Lovecraftian novella, Victor LaValle’s The Ballad of Black Tom.
  • “Starting By Starting” (03 January 2020): Where D. Bethel discusses a video game-based piece of revisionist Lovecratian literature, Frogwares’ The Sinking City.

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It Has Full Body

It Has Full Body

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WEEK IN GEEK: As is often the case with our hosts: everything old is new again. Andrew plans to take on the psychological strangeness of Atlus’ Catherine in the recently released “definitive” version of the 2011 game called Catherine: Full Body. D. Bethel actually steps outside the realm of Xavier’s School for the Gifted to try out a different Marvel hero, The Silver Surfer, in the 2019 limited series, Silver Surfer: Black, by Donny Cates, Tradd Moore, and Dave Stewart.

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RELEVANT EPISODES:

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The Badger Abides

The Badger Abides

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THE PROBLEM WITH LOVECRAFT: A lot of controversy was had (mostly on Twitter) over the last few weeks with the release of Evil Hat Productions’ Fate of Cthulhu, a new table-top RPG integrating the systems of Evil Hat’s Fate Core and the Lovecraft mythos. Evil Hat proudly declared that it was bucking tropes of other Lovecraft-inspired games––mainly how it addresses Lovecraft’s prejudices head-on and it doesn’t include sanity meters for its players––and that, for some reason, made a lot of people upset. Andrew talks about the subsequent furor while D. Bethel shows up as our resident Lovecraft scholar.

*Show image is a screenshot of Dean Stockwell as Wilbur Whateley from the 1970 film, The Dunwich Horror.

RELEVANT LINKS:

  • Evil Hat tweets about how Fate of Cthulhu bends the traditional Lovecraftian gaming experience:
  • Evil Hat Production’s content warning included with Fate of Cthulhu (click to enlarge):
  • The adorable video of a coyote and a badger off to go hunting together:

RELEVANT EPISODES:

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Starting By Starting

Starting By Starting

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WEEK IN GEEK: This week, Andrew and D. Bethel start the new year with some things they have only light knowledge of and experience with. Andrew starts watching Netflix’s The Witcher and only briefly plays Haemimont Games’ Surviving Mars. D. Bethel has fun playing detective in the disgusting Lovecraftian world of Frogwares’ The Sinking City.

RELEVANT LINKS:

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • “Episode 44 – Man Band” (10 April 2015): Where Andrew shared his experiences with another, more terrestrial-focused, city simulation game, Cities: Skylines.
  • “Episode 89 – High-Five Forever” (25 March 2017): Where D. Bethel talked about other Lovecraftian revisionist literature with Victor LaValle’s The Ballad of Black Tom.
  • “Robot Monsters From the Future ” (27 Dec. 2019): Where D. Bethel talked about intending to play The Sinking City.

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