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Privilege of Ubiquity

Privilege of Ubiquity

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STALLED ENGINE: Creators of the popular game engine, Unity, made some disquieting news this week when it announced some changes to its licensing policy for developers. Andrew and D. Bethel do their best to break down the changes and examine some of the response from developers.

RELEVANT LINKS:

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • “Fair Point, Dude” (1 June 2018): Where Andrew discusses his dabblings with game development in the Unity engine.
  • “An Optimistic Dystopia” (12 August 2022): Where D. Bethel shares his thoughts on his initial playthrough of Stray.

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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.

RELEVANT LINKS:

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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Zeldavania

Zeldavania

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A MISERABLE PILE OF SECRETS: Our hosts spend a bit of time reminiscing on the 25th anniversary of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night––the video game that put the “-vania” in “Metroidvania.”

WEEK IN GEEK: After a week off, our hosts have been busy being nerdy! Andrew finally caught up with all the Spider-Man movies while D. Bethel dipped another toe into deck-building video games with the very popular Slay the Spire, developed by MegaCrit.

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • “Nerd Business” (31 July 2014): Where Andrew and D. Bethel first discuss Castlevania: Symphony of the Night as a game that matters.
  • “Trusty Rusty” (10 August 2018): Where Andrew talks about the video deck-building game adapted from a physical one, One Deck Dungeon.
  • “We Still Don’t Know $#!&” (31 May 2019): On the show’s fifth anniversary, our hosts discuss the prevalence of “RPG elements” throughout, basically, all video games at this point.
  • “Good Gamefeel” (28 June 2019): Where our hosts discuss the first non-Castlevania Metroidvania game developed by the adopted father of the series––Koji “Iga” Igarashi––Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.
  • “Reliable Virtual Helmets” (27 September 2019): Where D. Bethel plays his first real roguelike deck-building game, Meteorfall: Journey.
  • “Smell the Duke” (04 February 2022): Where D. Bethel plays a bit of the clever deck-building game, Griftlands.
  • “Bigger Than the Batman” (11 March 2022): Where D. Bethel talks about the indie game currently on his docket, A Plague Tale: Innocence.

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Exposure Creates Tolerance

Exposure Creates Tolerance

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MINI-WEEK IN GEEK: Andrew and D. Bethel need a week to recoup after weeks of birthdays, Doctor Who, and a celebration of Star Trek, so they’re going to briefly cover the things that have been keeping their attention recently. To no one’s surprise, they’ve been playing video games. Andrew has been playing the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster collection that includes Final Fantasy 1-4 (at this point), while D. Bethel has not been helping his mental health––though he has been having a lot of fun––playing The Last of Us, Part 2.

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U3DS

U3DS

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WEEK IN GEEK: This week, Andrew enthusiastically plays the 2nd edition of Pathfinder, despite not fully enjoying the first edition, while D. Bethel gets really excited to play an adventure game based on one of his favorite comics, Blacksad, but gets horribly disappointed by Blacksad: Under the Skin.

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • “The Volumometer Incident” (10 July 2014): Where Andrew shares his experience playing the Pathfinder card game.
  • “Starting By Starting” (03 January 2020): Where D. Bethel discusses the noir adventure game inspired by H. P. Lovecraft, Frogwares’ The Sinking City.
  • “Nature’s Velcro” (03 July 2020): Where Andrew plays the computer RPG, Pathfinder: Kingmaker.

RELEVANT LINKS:

  • Here’s D. Bethel’s fan art of Blacksad.
Sketch Fridays #78 – Blacksad by D. Bethel.

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FEATURED MUSIC:

Earl British

Earl British

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BETHESDA, WA: In a surprising turn of events––in the same week that Sony gathered all the attention for announcing the prices and release dates of its upcoming console(s)––Microsoft announced its acquisition of Bethesda Softworks––developer of the The Elder Scrolls series and the Fallout series and publisher of franchises like Doom and Wolfenstein––for a price tag of approximately $7.5 billion. Andrew and D. Bethel ruminate (and, at times, speculate) at what this could mean for Bethesda, and gaming, for the future.

RELEVANT LINKS:

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • “Episode 61 – A Lot About Hmm” (21 Aug 2015): Where Andrew buys a Playstation Vita.
  • “Nothing But Feet” (13 Dec 2019): Where D. Bethel discusses the sidelining of Campo Santo’s second game, In the Valley of the Gods, after Valve purchased the studio.
  • “News Cruise” (07 Aug 2020): Where D. Bethel revealed that the Golden State Killer committed his first Sacramento crimes in his neighborhood.

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FEATURED MUSIC:

Textured in Fear

Textured in Fear

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POLYGONS IN AN AQUARIUM: After years of doubt, SquareEnix released a trailer for Final Fantasy VII Remake that included some actual gameplay footage, which got Andrew and D. Bethel thinking about why a remake for Final Fantasy VII is necessary and why––it seems––the best way to keep PS1/Sega Saturn games viable in a modern market is to do full remakes rather than just porting them to modern machines.

Speaking of which, here’s the trailer for Final Fantasy VII Remake:

RELEVANT LINKS:

  • AustinSV’s overview of the many ports of Final Fantasy VII:

RELEVANT EPISODES:

INFO:

FEATURED MUSIC:

Shortcast 60 – Turn Up This Hotness

Shortcast 60 – Turn Up This Hotness

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WEEK IN GEEK: Andrew sees the latest Star Wars Story, Solo, while D. Bethel gushes about the recent God of War reboot.

RELATED EPISODES:

RELEVANT LINKS:

  • God of War‘s Kratos voice actor, Christopher Judge, telling dad jokes:

  • Taylor playing Fallout 4 with Andrew heckling:

Watch live video from TK4TCH on www.twitch.tv

INFO:

For all intents and purposes, that was an episode recap.

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“District Four” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
-“Disco Medusae” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
*Tracks are licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Episode 147 – Whatever We Bring, We Bring It

Episode 147 – Whatever We Bring, We Bring It

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WEEK IN GEEK: Andrew attends Seattle’s BrickCon and is intrigued by not only the affordable prices of hard-to-get sets, but also the creativity of independent LEGO builders, while Dan gives his impressions on the pilot episode of Fox’s new tv show based, ostensibly, on their cinematic X-verse, The Gifted.

WHAT A THRILL: Andrew, inspired its free status for PS Plus subscribers this month, re-downloads Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and gets poisoned by Venom Snake all over again, two years on.

NOT MY AMERICA: Swedish developer, MachineGames, and their parent company, Bethesda, are ramping up the marketing for their upcoming, hotly anticipated sequel, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, and their tact has made a certain demographic very displeased.

RELATED EPISODES:

WORKS CITED:

INFO:

For all intents and purposes, that was an episode recap.

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“Stayin’ in Black” by Wax Audio

Episode 146 – Bad Games Make Precedent

Episode 146 – Bad Games Make Precedent

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WEEK IN GEEK: Andrew pauses his walk down the Star Trek Nostalgia Trail and attended a day of PAX West (starts at 2:14) while Dan dips into the history of his favorite comic book franchise by reading Marvel Epic Collection Vol. 5: X-Men – Second Genesis which collects the early issues of the great X-Men reboot from 1975 when the “All-New, All-Different” X-men were added to the team (Wolverine, Colossus, Storm, Nightcrawler) and started the 16-year run of writer Chris Claremont (18:17).

FINAL FANTASY VII AGAIN: (28:23) September 7th marked the 20th anniversary of Squaresoft’s (at the time, now Square Enix) breakthrough hit, Final Fantasy VII. Dan and Andrew talk less about the game itself and instead talk about the impact the game had on gaming and nerd culture.

NOTE: Sacramento’s Crocker Con | Art Mix is happening September 14th at the Crocker Art Museum at which D. Bethel will be exhibiting with his wares. Come by and say hi!

RELATED EPISODES:

WORKS CITED:

INFO:

For all intents and purposes, that was an episode recap.

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“Stayin’ in Black” by Wax Audio