Even after a busy spring and summer, video games refuse to take a break and just chill.  There's just so much to play and it can get distracting.  Maybe that's what happened over there at Microsoft - someone was so distracted trying to master their mech in Armored Core that they forgot to properly secure all the links in their public court filings.  This week it's a gaming grab bag and a rare look at what goes on in the Xbox team's internal pitch meetings.

This week on the EXP Podcast, we ask whether great games like Baldur's Gate 3 or Tears of the Kingdom should raise the standards for what we expect out of games or if doing so sets the bar too high.

Show Notes:
Music by Brad Sucks

After several months of traversing the gloom, scarfing down endura carrots, and harvesting dragon scales, both Jorge and I have seen credits in Tears of the Kingdom.  I won't even pretend to say we've "finished" it, as there are more korok seeds in this game than there are grains of sand of beach.  Regardless, we do a deep dive on both the late game mechanics as well as the time-bending plot.

Mer-people, a strange dog (?), and more on this week's games discussion!

Pop quiz: do you know the various subscription tiers for your game platforms?  And more importantly: do you know which ones you're automatically being charged for every month?  Well here's a hint: it's not Xbox Live Gold, that one's riding off into the sunset.  This week, we play that exact game and quiz each other about what each major console platform is pitching and which ones we've bought into.  Let's just say things get convoluted fast.  On the bright side, we rediscover some members of our Nintendo family and also give Sony some free naming ideas!

This week on the EXP Podcast, we revisit some of video games' best, and worst, endings - from the multicolored conclusion to Mass Effect 3 (and Elding Ring) to the touching conclusion to some great narrative games like Life is Strange. 

Show Notes:

Hello!  Remove that gloom effect, because we're back from the depths after a few weeks.  Well it's not really the depths, it's just that Jorge and his family acquired a new little korok and were doing some much needed bonding.  We ease back in by catching up on what's been going on in Hyrule and what's been going on over at Nintendo.  Apparently Mario is getting bigger than ever.  And I truly mean elephant-sized.

It's time to hit the street with Street Fighter 6!

This week we talk about the recent PlayStation Showcase.  But first, stick with me for second here, gang: what if I took a dual sense and chopped it in half...wait, no let me finish...and then stuck a big screen in the middle and then Tears of the Kingdom Ultra Hand-style just mashed all of it together!  We call it Project Q and it's going to revolutionize toilet-based gaming in the home.  What's that?  Fine, we'll sweeten the deal with some ear buds.  Are you happy now?

Grab your bugs, horns, and fire peppers because this week on the EXP Podcast, we're brewing a love elixir for Zelda!

Show Notes:

It's a big week around these parts!  And when I say parts, I also mean the various pieces of scrap wood and ancient tech I'm using to fashion a crude over boat.  Yes, it's time to talk about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom!  We debrief on our initial few hours in the game and talk about how it fits int he broader open-world landscape.  Spoiler: we're having a great time so far, although maybe it's good we didn't pursue engineering in school.

This week on the podcast, we explore a galaxy far, far, away in Jedi Survivor, wonder why the Jedi Council is training an army of child soldiers, and briefly discuss some classic Nintendo wildness.

Oh, and see you on the other side of Breath of the Wild 2!

Show Notes:

This week, Scott ventures out into the theater and reports back on the latest cinematic adventure.  That's right, it's the The Super Mario Bros. Movie!  Seeing is how it's based on a Japanese game franchise and created by Illumination's French studio, can I call this a foreign film?  In any case, and despite a distinct lack of John Leguizamo, there is plenty to talk about, so grab your popcorn and your fireflowers and join us.

700 hundred official episodes is no small feat! We are celebrating the accomplishment by hosting the first ever Gamey Awards Tournament of Champions! It's time to settle once and for all who the best Waifu/Husbandu is. Why is Inciniroar a genuine contender? And what is the gameyest game?

When playing a cross-play multiplayer game, what do you do when the an entire platform's worth of players gets left behind?  Well, if you're playing Rogue Company, maybe you rejoice?  This week we use the recent end of Switch support on a cross-play multiplayer game to talk about the ongoing search for your preferred video game community.  What's the slow-pitch, dad-squad, beer-league softball equivalent in video games?  Because those are some folks I could really get along with.

This week on the podcast, we bask on the sandy shores of Tchia, a darling little Breath of the Wild homage, trudge back into Resident Evil 4, and touch on a couple more games that are actually pretty damn great as well!

Show Notes:

Bad news: you have to live in a brutal post-apocalyptic zombie hellscape.  Good news: The Internet's latest crush, Pedro Pascal, is your companion and protector!  This week we talk about HBO's The Last of Us.  Roughly ten years after the first game's release, we revisit the game's bleak world and see how it fares in the world of prestige television.

It's time again for the yearly Journey replay ritual, in which we wander the sands of Thatgamecompany's magnum opus and maybe even join some strange new wanderers!

Show notes:

- Music by Brad Sucks & the Journey OST

We've got some pretty hefty games on the horizon this spring, so we're spending the last few weeks of winter doing a bit of a sampler.  We have a wide variety to talk about this week, ranging from the manic Hi-Fi Rush to the meditative Season.  And then we throw some survival horror in the middle there for good measure!

It's time to revisit some classics that were, actually, just bad?

I've long since abandoned trying to be cool, which is hopefully a good defense mechanism against being "cringe."  Marvel, Star Wars, and now Forspoken have all now received criticism for crossing the line that separates wry humor and obnoxious self awareness.  But what's really behind our negative reactions to these try hard characters?  This week we use an article by Austin Walker to explore if maybe the audience-facing winks we see so often are actually a defense mechanism in which writers try to mock their own work before anyone else can beat them to it.

This week we re-board the Ishimura to take a violent and viscera-filled visit to the Dead Space Remake. Is it one of the best horror games of all time? Absolutely!

We also make a pit stop to check in on a new holiday in Japan - Final Fantasy 7 Day!

After a very long, Gamey and GOTY-filled Fimbulwinter, we're finally looping back to one of our favorite games of 2022: God of War Ragnarök!  We discussed it in a few previous shows, but this time we go fully into spoilers and geek out over everyone's Greek lout.

The year is well under way and there is going to be an absolute glut of games dropping this year. With barely any lulls in major releases, we are looking ahead at our most anticipated games of 2023 and some of the games we might play... if they come out this year!

Show Notes:

I'm still totally fine with people saying "Happy New Year" at this point in the year, so you better believe I'm still good with game of the year discussions! This week we wrap up the season with some of the best games that didn't quite make our top 3 this year. And you know what, I won't even judge you for the Christmas tree I still see in the corner over there.

Before we put 2022 behind us, it's time to share our favorite games of the year. That's right, it's the GOTY cast! This was a truly great year for such a wide variety of games, in part due to the dearth of Triple-A games taking up all our time. Stay tuned next week for the last of 2022 leftovers!

Show Notes:

- Music by Brad Sucks