Watch Out for Fireballs!

We actually lose track of how many realms there are, exactly.

Create, evolve and live the power fantasy of being a world killing disease. Guest Ending is a piece of fan music for Gary's novel Atomic! Music by Swordquest (https://soundcloud.com/swordquest)

A good game bogged down by infuriating Ubisoft style decisions. This week's theme song brought to us by MegaMatt (https://soundcloud.com/megamattyb)

Is it better to have? Or to hold?

Well, we took a left at Donkey Kong Country... And then a right at Dream Land... And now we're here.

It's just like we're back in King's Field.

Capoeira.

Places! How do you get there? What are you thinking when you do it? We have to get to point B!

In some ways, Miles is the Ultimate Spider-Man.

There is a room, but also its kind of not a room because of how big it is. Also, the definition of "room" is thrown completely out the door.

I didn't think it get tore any downer, but here we are.

Imagine the platonic ideal of a video game.

It takes about an age of Empires to play through this entire strategy classic.

I assure you, there is nothing sinister about this island full of ponies.

So. You're a demon, now. How's that going for you?

You ask us questions and we play games. That's the rules. That's how it works.

This is one of the best games of all time. Wipe that smile off your face. This isn't a joke to me.

I don't get it. It's just the same game over and over and over and over and over and over

Time to blaspheme. Again!

Unfortunately, they found a darker dungeon.

You will solve this case, that of the golden idol. It's mysterious and nobody understands. Now it's your job to figure it out.

If you got the money, honey, I got the time.

Hypnospace Outlaw 1.5. This is a unique and ambitious work. Highly recommend if you are prone to this particular style of meta fiction. Get the full episode over at patreon.com/duckfeedtv

The reapers had a very specific plan for their trap and you fell for it you idiot.

Space Cops!

I know we put those answers somewhere around here. Just give me a moment to find it.

It's bad. But not because it's short. It's bad AND it's short.

It's Trevor Time! Not that I'm happy about it. But it's Trevor Time and we all have to live with it.

Who's ready for pistol packing, car jacking and lazy satire?

Propulsive and immediately visually arresting, Sayonara Wild Hearts is a unique action rhythm hybrid that aims to be inviting to new players. Also, Queen Latifah is there.

Why do we make bad things happen to ourselves? A question for the ages. And the topic for this week's dispatch.

Let's hang out with some sad, scary robots in space in this retro horror throwback.

How many sticks of dynamite do you think it takes to dynamite fish for Cthulhu? Three? Do you think three is enough?

Once again, we choose to forget as we willingly give ourselves Amnesia in this return-to-form for this horror series. Not bad for the fourth entry in the franchise.

It's about to get real. Real Lich.

The 2020 followup to the 2016 mega-hit reboot of DOOM was, like many things in 2020, divisive. It's a fascinating evolution of the DOOM franchise, nevertheless! Get the full episode by joining our Patreon at patreon.com/duckfeedtv

It's like your favorite physical toy! But digital, and you can take it to school! Oh, wait, no, the teacher confiscated that too.

Wait a second... Symphony... Aria... Harmony... those are all music terms! I've solved the code!

Hey folks, this is a quick announcement that's also a bummer. Earlier in the year we'd said that we planned to return to the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. We submitted a proposal for our panel, and waited, and waited, and waited... only to learn just recently that we'd been rejected. Without doing a live panel[...]

And how does one cut a scene, exactly? With scissors? How preposterous.

This one is not for the faint of heart. This sadistic JRPG attempts to portray a dark, humorous world where your resources are constantly at risk of being taken from you.

Boy, I wonder if they're gonna defeat the evil.

Aye, verily it is time for the fourth Quest of the Dragon.

A game so funny it decides to tell you where to laugh.

CRPGs. They're dense, they're chunky. How do I fit myself into one?

Come on, everybody! Zelda to the beat!

Dark Eco. Dark Ico? Dark Yekko?

Depending on how you count it, you've either killed hundreds of people in Burnout Paradise, or no one. Because there are no people anywhere.

Goombas. Zombies. Speed bumps. The enemies that you kill all the time, and a lot of them. Some of them are good! Which ones!?

Wow, a Resident Evil 4 remake. What will they think of next? Unlock the full version of this episode by becoming a member of our Patreon at patreon.com/duckfeedtv

A SUPER PAINTER NAMED ANDREAS

Yeah! Fuck yeah! Take that, you shit demon! Hahahahaha! Blood and guts! Hahahahaha! Ahem. This game did something to me.

7 out of 10. Quite a remarkable number really. Not big enough to be 8, not small enough to be 6, definitely too large to be 5, but if could be 9 if you squint in a certain light.

Nobody saw Bowser's Fury coming. What could have been just a little extra something to sweeten the pot on another port from the Wii U ended up being a fully-featured and inventive 3D Mario game. It's snack-sized and packed with new ideas, chief among them being the Fury Bowser kaiju fights. But also classic course-based[...]

There once was a Bard from Nantucket Who Whom... Look, I didn't write the limmerick. Get off my ass.

Wow, maybe Capitalism is bad, actually? In this gorgeously present point-and-click adventure game, you must solve the mystery of who murdered hope.

When? Why? How? What? All this and more on this week's Questions Only WOFF.

In this spiritual successor to Until Dawn, we see if old.... DOGS can learn new tricks. Get it? Dogs? Because it's about werewolves.

It's a sexy time travel mystery. Oh, no, apparently it's just a time travel mystery.

It's a soulslike. It's moe. It's a moe soulslike.

What makes a Good Level? You know, with capital letters?

It turns out we can only play on Medium graphics settings. Is there any meat on these memetic bones? Find out on this week's WOFF where the boys contemplate the nature of a crysis. Get the unlocked version of this episode and many more by subscribing to our Patreon. (https://www.patreon.com/duckfeedtv)

You might be surprised, but this game is mostly about sneaking around and killing people.

Fulfilling every child's dream of having an empty island filled with ticket arcade machines and robots you can shoot fireworks at.

Well, Cuphead and his pal Mug Man, they like to roll the dice. By chance, they came 'pon the Devil's game, and gosh, they paid the price. This immacutely aesthetic as fuck run-n-gun shooter iinspired by 30s pre-Disney animation is a sight to behold. But is it a good game? Mostly yes!

I just know I'm going to need those full heal elixirs for the end boss. Right?

It's time to sort of rocks and make friends with some big fish. I wonder what Bladderfish taste like. This is a preview of February's premium episode. Hear the whole thing by backing us at the $5+ tier at patreon.com/duckfeedtv, and also get access to every premium WOFF! we've done!

A different interpretation of translating a tabletop-lite system into a video game context. Story-heavy, mechanics driven by a sense of struggle, but not overwhelming despair. Build a new life yourself and those you meet and remember who your allies are.

There's an angel named Lucah, and a tortured dream world. This is an emotional and heartfelt project that relies on you wanting to finish the game multiple times to see the full story. The structure's a bit poison, but come and check out the neat things it does do. It's an interesting one!

What Remains of Edith Finch? made people things, and the boys take their action figures and make them fight to decide if they like Indie Games or AAA Games better.

Hades is one of our most-requested games of all time. It struck a chord with tons of people when it released, drawing in gamers who had never given action roguelikes a chance before. With its snappy combat and charismatic takes on the Greek gods, it's hard to blame people for loving it. But how does[...]

Thank you Abe! It's time to circle strafe the Monstrous Manual with Heretic! This Doom Clone has a lot of subtle improvements that make it more than just Doom with Wands. Listen in to find out more!

We spend a lot of time talking about the need for the video game equivalent of short story collections, and What remains of Edith Finch is about as close to that as we've gotten so far. Edith is returning to her long-abandoned home to learn about her family's curse... which has resulted in the tragic,[...]

We answer your questions! We discuss Duckstream! We read your responses! What more could you want?

Hong Kong is revealing some deeper truths to our group of Shadowrunners, as we search for the truth about what happened to Raymond Black and try to learn what's amiss with the Walled City. We pick up in the middle section of the game, as we're taking on jobs to keep the lights on and[...]

"Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good" month continues with the slightly worse but worthy follow up to the masterpiece Shadowrun Dragonfall. We've arrived in Hong Kong at the request of our adopted father but not all is what it seems. Please join us at patreon.com/duckfeedtv

This week continues the Last Castoff's journey, as they continue seeking out answers for what the Changing God was up to with his resonance chamber... The one we crashed into like a big ol' meteor. We head through the Valley of Dead Heroes and the Sanctuary at Miel Avest before ending up at The Bloom,[...]

What is the value of one game? There are big shoes to fill and then there are comically huge shoes that can be made into houses for little old ladies. That was the job of Tides of Numenera, an excellent short story compilation that fails to capture the emotional resonance of it's predecessor. Here us[...]

We had intended to make this month's topic VR, but instead we said almost everything we wanted to say during the Half-Life: Alyx episode. So, instead, we take even more of your questions before reading your thoughts about Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, SUPERHOT, and Half-Life: Alyx. This episode's highlighted project is Waystar Corncob (https://dennisalison.podbean.com), a[...]

The Watch Out For Fireballs has been silent on the topic of The Half Life for a while now but it's time to wake up and smell the ashes! (I know this is mixing vortigaunt and g-man speak, and I don't care!) Half Life Alyx is our first major foray into VR and not likely[...]

This week we sit down to talk about the most innovative shooter we've played in years. Our unnamed protagonist receives a weird program called superhot.exe, and when he launches it he connects to a very strange first person shooter where time only moves when the player moves. As we (and he) play this game, the[...]

When they say nobody asked for this, that's Gary Butterfield erasure. I asked for this. I exist! I mean, sure, Adam Jensen is a pretty tough pill to swallow. He shaves his beard in an extremely obnoxious way. Further, this is clearly the middle chapter of a prequel trilogy, which might be the most direct[...]

We've each had a Steam Deck for about a month, and we feel comfortable reporting... It's pretty great! This week's Topic has us discussing the Steam Deck in general, and how one should get into PC gaming in 2022. We also read your responses to October's games, which are Devotion, Strangeland, and the Evil Within[...]

Warning: Fluid chat! It's sort of like limbo, in that you're seeing how low you can go but instead seeing how divorced a grizzled dadtagonist can get. This is a good ass game despite a nonsense story. The biggest issue is it throws away it's biggest strength half way through, pulling you out of the[...]

An unnamed man wakes up outside of a macabre circus, and he must set about learning why he is there. This classic-style point and click adventure game tells a pretty standard psychological horror story with a lot of allusions and metaphor, which isn't going to be everyone's favorite thing. However, there is tons of great[...]

(Cryptkeeper Voice) Spooky month begins with the ultimate heebie jeebie, a real Boo-riffic blunder! So buckle up boils and ghouls and non die-scary siblings alike. *Play Devotion before listening to this macabre tale of goof'em ups. Seriously, it's one of the best games we've done for the show and it's only 3 hours long. It's[...]

We've narrowed down some of our distaste for certain popular games, especially from the past: they were made for kids. And kids' media can be sublime! But what makes a piece of kids' media, game or not, good or bad? What turns us off? How do they approach issues of ethics or morality? How much[...]

How far can an excellent premise carry a game? Looks like it's more than 2 hours but less than 5. Carrion has an unbeatable premise, a hall of fame premise, and aesthetics to back it up. Why on earth is it not more fun to play? Listen and find out! This is the preview version[...]

Venom Snake still has some fights to fight, as we pick up Skull Face's trail in Afghanistan to experience the majority of what the Phantom Pain has to offer. As a genuine heads up, this episode might not be for you if you adore this game or Hideo Kojima's whole vibe. We clown on things[...]

Thank you Jade! What do you do when there's a Kojima about? What do you do when a game has some of the best stealth action in video games, one of the most satisfying loops in video games, but punctuates it with some of the worst boss fights and clumsy exposition and plotting? It's a[...]

Bugsnax is a cute indie that caught a lot of attention with its catchy theme song, but did you know there's a whole game behind that song? We play this cute combination of Pokemon Snap and Ape Escape, navigating Snaktooth Island and catching bugs who happen to be snacks. The goal? To help the townspeople[...]

We answer your questions, read your responses to August's games, and spend some time talking about the sorts of places that show up in games, and what we'd like to see more of, before announcing our slate for the best month of the year, October.

Wario is one of Nintendo's secret best weapons. As "the opposite of Mario" he is an aesthetic triumph, indulging in every vice and drawing us in with his shamelessness. And for a while, he was the star of his own series of puzzle platformers on Nintendo portable systems. Wario Land 4 is an odd duck[...]

Basch, Balthier, Ashe, Fran, and two associates continue their quest for magic rocks! Will the princess use the rocks or smash the rocks? Find out as we continue our exploration of this world spanning adventure. Though the dungeons take a wet fart at the end, the dialogue and presentation continue to be first in class.

The land of Ivalice is a land in constant turmoil, and with Final Fantasy XII we find ourselves caught in the midst of a larger struggle that is obliterating the borderlands between two massive empires. This is how the stage is set for the twelfth entry in the Final Fantasy series, the first mainline entry[...]

Saving. When can you do it? When should you be able to do it? How does it change the rhythm of games? Also, man, what a fucking ripoff memory cards were. We also answer your questions, announce September's games, and A BRAND NEW SHOW ON THE NETWORK.

Jesse Faden has walked a rough road, one that leads up to the door of a secret government agency headquartered in a building that not everyone can see. It's the Federal Bureau of Control, they may have her brother held captive, and they are definitely overrun by a malignant interdimensional force. This feels like a[...]

It's impossible to talk about some games objectively. Castlevania 2 has a lot of problems but unbeatable atmosphere for the NES, and the best soundtrack in the series (fight me), makes that go down oh so smooth. Let's get to collectin' ribs! We'd also like to direct your attention to the Totally Trans Podcast Network[...]

In the end, it was a story about family. In the beginning, too. It was really all a story about family. Children of Morta was made as an attempt to marry a roguelike game structure to a fixed, detailed story... and it works. The Bergsons are a tight-knit family who live in the shadow of[...]

Do games stand up to editing the same way other works do? How is editing used in games? Could they stand more editing? The obvious Duckfeed answer is "yeah." Hear us explain why! And answer your questions, read your responses to June's games, and generally goof it up.

We knew right after its release that Vampyr would be a WOFF! game. An RPG that cites Bloodlines as an inspiration, made by a smaller studio, with a great premise and very high highs that are unfortunately compromised by some very low lows. This bore out on our playthrough for the show. Jonathan Reid, the[...]

If you have even a mild interest in old games, your critical acumen will always be caught up in the tension between historical import and modern playability. Few games stress that dissonance more than Another World, which combines an unbeatable atmosphere and tremendous influence with some very outmoded game design. Is it worth taking the[...]

The world is waiting to be reborn, and it's waiting for you. Terranigma is probably Quintet's grandest statement on its pet themes... an action RPG that purports to be about the duality of creation and destruction. Over the course of a playthrough you raise the continents, restore the wildlife, bring humanity to its highest peak,[...]

Sometimes you just want to pick up an entire tanker truck and surf on it into a bunch of SWAT team guys, then rip a car in half and pound a tank with it, you know? This early high point in the sketchy history of Super Hero games isn't without its flaws (most of its[...]

This week we talk about the many reasons to replay a game, including some psychological ones, and why you should give yourself permission to take a warm bath in the familiar. We also read your responses to May's games: The Beginner's Guide, Teardown, and Max Payne 3.

Poor Max. Poor sad, hyper competent timelord Max. Our man is in Brazil this time, playing the patsy and killing more people than most video game protagonists do in a lifetime. When Rockstar took over the franchise, fans feared that they would ruin this classic series. They were half right, turns out, as bolting a[...]

Teardown is an extremely good game. Don't expect a meaningful story or even a huge amount of variety, but DO expect a lot of freedom and a lot of destruction. You're a criminal who takes on jobs to steal, destroy, and commit fraud across several sandbox-style maps made of physics-modeled voxels. The majority of missions[...]

In 2022, you can play a video game about almost anything. So why is it most games are about how friends are good and honor is nice? Can robots feel? Been there, done that. The Beginner's Guide is a follow up to the wildly successful (and hilarious) The Stanley Parable dares to ask deeper and[...]

In lieu of a topic, we read as many of your Chuck E. Cheese memories as we can. We also do the Q&A, and read your responses to April's games. As a reminder, the Early Release feed will be going away at the beginning of May. Keep your eye on the Patreon page for information[...]

Kill everyone on Reddit Island Fyrefest! Using superpowers and time travel. What a pitch! It's no secret we're big fans of Arkane, which makes Deathloop exceedingly interesting in both it's triumphs and failures. The apotheosis of density in level design saddled with awkward invasion mechanics from Dark Souls. A timeloop element that works wonderfully in[...]

Gather 'round the stage birthday boys and girls! It's time for a special episode about what for some will be a fond childhood memory, and for others will be a resounding horror: Chuck E. Cheese and Showbiz Pizza. A product of the arcade boom in the late 70s, these combination pizza parlor / arcade /[...]

Thank you Randall! Check out Crashcoral.com! (pw: crashcoral). Oh, a cult simulator/management game with heavy lovecraftian elements, striking minimalist art, and a roguelike structure. Did someone leave this under a box with a stick tied to a string, trying to trap both Gary and Kole? Not so fast. The Shrouded Isle has some potential and[...]

This week we talk about a new spectrum on which we can analyze games: is it prescriptive, or is it permissive? Does it force you to conform to its demands, or does it say "yes" to the way you try to meet its challenges? This has been bubbling up for a while, and it was[...]

TEENS! TEENS! TEENS! No, it's not some sort of horrible chant, it's what we're killin. Hop in. Until Dawn showed how you can take steady principles of narrative adventure games such as The Walking Dead, or, shudder, Indigo Prophecy, and evolve them into something new and fun on its own. Very fun performances, a twisty[...]

Quest Questingson conquers all of the continents of Continentia in this foundational strategy game. The king's sceptre has gone missing, and as a result both he and the kingdom itself are falling into ruin. It's up to you to track down all of the villains who conspired to steal the sceptre, recover the artifact itself,[...]

Nintendo is a company that is sometimes too in love with it's own history. But sometimes, that love bears beautiful results. This creative lil nugget functions as a reader's digest version of some of the best games on the NES, as well as a fun meta toy, where elements are mixed and matched. Underrated gem!

You wake up in a cabin and you're playing a dangerous game. Sacrifices must be made. And the only way forward is to play your cards right. That's about all we can say about Inscryption, an ambitious and wide-ranging card game by Daniel Mullins, the creator of Pony Island. If we gave too much detail[...]

We answer your questions, discuss GOTY discourse, read your responses to February's games and announce April's docket.

The world's gone to shit, and the only way to stay alive is to work together. You start State of Decay playing a man named Marcus, but very quickly you gain access to a whole settlement full of simulated survivors, and are given the goal of building and stocking a home by breaking, entering, and[...]

Thanks Abe! Is it metal? It's metal. It's undeniably badass in a way that is extremely appealing to our skeleton loving souls. The game itself is a pretty frustrating and dated RTS but our eyes are open to the coolness of the Warhammer world.

This game reminds me of a puzzle. About 120 of them, to be exact. You could be forgiven for thinking that Professor Layton existed before his debut game on the Nintendo DS. The whole series has such a strong aesthetic and vibe that it feels like a European cartoon that you just never heard about.[...]

Are games too long? 500 hours? What does that mean, Dying Light 2? Also, we answer your questions and read your responses to January's games before announcing February's CROP.

Charles Reed enters a waking nightmare to try and end his sleeping nightmares. That's the opening of The Sinking City, an open world detective game by Frogwares, the Sherlock Holmes people. However, this has a distinctly horrific flavor, pulling in gods and elements of the Cthulhu Mythos. But while the story and mystery are good,[...]

Thank you Ryan! Appealing to young horny gamers everywhere by putting a demon in your head that offers to suck you off if you do her evil bidding: Not that far off from the actual plot of DMoMM. Isn't that wild? This jank fest from one of our all time favorite developers is certainly a[...]

We start the new year with an old classic, covering Super Mario Bros. 3. This was Nintendo's biggest effort on the NES, and it deserves its reputation. This episode concerns itself with comparing and contrasting Mario 3 with the rest of the series, talking about the things it introduces, and hitting the design principles of[...]

Questions get answers, responses get read, games get announced, and Duckstream gets discussed.

This week's premium episode takes us to the biggest DLC pack for Fallout 4, Far Harbor. A missing person's case brings us to an island torn in three pieces, split among factions who can barely tolerate each other, with a buried secret that might bring the whole place tumbling down. This DLC is the best[...]

It's all over but the crying. And the DLC. And the DLC next week. We continue our way through the side quests of the wastes before visiting the first couple of story dlcs for this massive game.

This week, we finish talking about the main quest of Fallout 4 and talk about the various faction side quests. Next week we'll get in-depth on the rest of the side quests and start talking a bit about the DLC.

Why does the sun go on shining? Why does the sea rush to shore? Don't they know it's the end of the world because you don't love me anymore? We begin our discussion of Fallout 4 with beefy generalities and discussion of the first act of the game. Fallout 4 is a big beautiful mess[...]

This month's Dispatch episode features a discussion of mapping systems in games, as part of a broader discussion about friction that used to be charming but is now kind of tedious. We also read your responses about Left 4 Dead 2, Stardew Valley, and Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty.

You givin' me orders? Wings of Liberty and Starcraft 2 in general is the last gasp of a certain kind of RTS and a certain kind of Blizzard game. The last expression of their dumb as nails plotting and finely tuned gameplay outside of mmos and cardgames. This game may be stacked to the gills[...]

This week go back to basics by starting up a brutal one-man factory farm in Stardew Valley. This indie successor to Harvest Moon is a phenomenon, with tons of people succumbing to the wide variety of tasks and its charming aesthetic. In fact, the combination of all of the elements is so much greater than[...]

Everyone has Green Flu Fever, or Green Fever Flu. Something like that. And it's a hard time in the big easy for 4 charismatic goofballs, shootin' and slashin' their way through a horde of zombies and equally charismatic "Special Infected." This incredibly generous game encapsulates the first entry in the series, and proves an excellent[...]

This week we answer your questions, read your responses to October's games, and talk about when it's time to let game series die.

Thank you Adam Bucceri! Check out their game, Enter the Survival Horror, at adam-bucceri.itch.io Ethan Winters vs Magneto and a hot topic creepy doll? And it's good? What the heck? This direct follow up to RE7 is a love letter to the series, featuring an impressive array of bosses and locations that evoke the series[...]

A god incubated by pain and hate creates a paradise of blood and rust around it, and that's what Harry Mason must run through to save his daughter. This classic survival horror game didn't just start a series, it influenced the aesthetics of most horror games that came after it. Though the series wouldn't find[...]

Thank you Jeremy! This is a weird one! En, a member of a hyper capable cult of child somethings tries to revive her dead friend(?) who is also a cube(!) The story, lore, and world-building in this game are really quite great but the play never comes together. Listen in to hear why!

This month's Dispatch episode has us talking about our thoughts on doing ten years of Watch Out for Fireballs! We also answer your questions, and read your responses to Katana Zero, Sonic 2, Singularity, and Darkest Dungeon.

Ruin has come to this podcast network, thanks to Jack! This is the preview episode about Darkest Dungeon and it's one of the meatiest previews we've ever done. If you want to hear the whole thing, head to www.patreon.com/duckfeedtv

It's time crimes right on down the line as we tackle the forgotten 2010 shooter, Singularity. Created by Raven Software right before they were exiled to the Call of Duty mines, it's a fast-paced shooter with ambitious but under-explored time manipulation mechanics. You play as an American special forces soldier investigating a disturbance at an[...]

Listen, there's a lot to talk about here. You could talk about how we've been doing this show for a decade, or about how Sonic exemplifies the tension between freeform arcade gameplay and the slower, more exploratory form of platformers that would ultimately win out in the end, but the real story here is that[...]

It's rain-soaked, neon-soaked, and blood-soaked. It's Katana Zero, an action game that takes multiple pages from the Hotline Miami book. You play an unnamed contract killer with the unlikely ability to manipulate time, and you're in the middle of a conspiracy that has a lot to do with your sordid past. The play is great,[...]

In this episode we answer your questions, talk about crafting in games, read your responses to August's games, and announce October's games.

This week, we set our wayback machines to 1995 to discuss one of the most beloved games of all time. Chrono Trigger was part of a late salvo of 16-bit RPGs that defined a generation of storytelling for people who grew up with it. We have problems with the shallowness of its systems, but its[...]

Thank you Nicholas! Welcome to the Courtesy Dome where two polite midwesterners sensibly argue whether this game is good or bad. Is it a cool mystery story with a neat aesthetic? Or is it an effectively linear, barely interactive time tax? ONLY YOU CAN DECIDE. Paradise Killer is an odd duck. Part visual novel, part[...]

It's the heartwarming tale of two psychopaths who save the world from people more dangerous than even them. Sam is a laid back dog, Max is an impulsive rabbit-thing, and they are classic adventure game protagonists. This episodic adventure game came early in Telltale's life as a studio, when they were attempting to reimagine how[...]

Our mental health meters were running low and we didn't have a topic in us, so we just did a bunch of questions. We also read your responses to July's games before announcing Septembers crop.

Which you can you trust? Prey is a rare creature: an immersive sim that's more like System Shock 2 than Bioshock. You are Morgan Yu, an amnesiac on a space station overrun with shapeshifting monsters, and you have to use everything at your disposal to fight overwhelming odds to stop the threat from reaching Earth.[...]

Thank you I See Spiders! We all know defenestrating is one of the coolest things you can do in video games. But what if you could do that... in space? With a near best in class group of gadgets and weapons, In an immersive proc gen ludic playpen with real time pause? You'd get Heat[...]

The Stanley Parable is a short game with a lot to say about games. You play as Stanley, an office worker with a pointless job who finds himself being ordered around by an omniscient narrator. By deciding whether or not to obey him, you stumble into stories that critique and explore the nature of choice[...]

It's rare to be surprised by a sci fi twist, and this AAA action adventure genuinely surprises. Throw in some engaging combat and not even an electronic T-Rex sized barrel of bloat can hold it back. Thanks Doug!

This month's special topic is a discussion about RPG progression. What kinds of character upgrades are satisfying, which ones aren't, and why has there been a broader trend of games getting more bloated with bad RPG systems? We also answer your questions, and read your responses to June's games: Hotline Miami, The Witness, and Super[...]

CAT MARIO. Thanks Joelle!

This week we play the opinionated magnum opus of an opinionated creator. The Witness, created by Jonathan Blow, attempts to use puzzles and geometry to change the way you see the world, and create an engine for repeating the "a-ha!" moment over and over again. It ties one hand behind its back by communicating its[...]

Do you like hurting people? Who is leaving messages on your answering machine? Where are you right now? Why are we having this conversation?

This month we have a little love fest for strategy guides, talking about the roles they've filled for us over the years, and what scratches that itch for us nowadays. We also answer your questions and read your responses to Hitman 3, RollerCoaster Tycoon, and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.

Thank you Ethan! We were all teens once. Some of us listen to a lot of mall metal, and some of us end up child soldiers. MGR Revengance is a goofy bit of juvenilia but despite vestigial stealth elements muddying the waters a bit, it's really fun to play. You mean to tell me this[...]

It's a management sim with a touch of whimsy and customers who are dumb as rocks. This week we talk about the classic theme park development game RollerCoaster Tycoon, breaking down its systems and talking about how we learned to meet the goals it set for us. And we talk a little about real amusement[...]

Do you belieeeeeeve in life after Providence? One of our favorite characters in games gets a proper send off in a game trilogy that would function as a proper send off for the entire stealth genre. Another collection of fun sandboxes to murder in, another collection of funny situations and the like, and a final[...]

This month, we settle in for a light topic... how food is depicted in games. We talk about how it can convey the story of a location, or augment a game's mechanics. We also answer your questions and read your responses to April's games.

You know, there's nothing wrong with an above average fastfood sandwich. Sometimes, your body just craves a pretty good game that does everything decently, while not doing anything exceptionally well, and is over in 5 or 6 hours. That game is Ratchet and Clank, which is a total snack game with some unintentionally hilarious pathos[...]

The odds are always stacked against a sophomore effort. The original Myst was a gigantic success and had a huge cultural impact, finding fans in unlikely places due to its advanced graphics and leisurely pace. Cyan knocked it out of the park when it came to Riven, though, improving on every aspect of the original[...]

What a big game! This is part two of our coverage of an expansive and masterful CRPG, Divinity: Original Sin 2. We pick up with Act 2, as we land on the Reaper's Coast and set about learning the ways of the Godwoken. We continue through to the end of the game, covering a frankly[...]

No one listens to more podcasts than the man with many cheeses. In this crunchy, and charismatic CRPG, you play as the godwoken, someone with the potential to ascend to the divine. Somewhat standard fantasy tropes are enhanced by charming characters, beautiful music, and best in genre tactical gameplay. Listen here as we cover the[...]

Kole and Gary answer your questions, discuss what makes a good tutorial, read your responses to March's games, and announce May!

Talion caught a bad break. Not only did Sauron kill his family in front of him, but he was killed too! And then an elf spirit had the nerve to possess him and send him on a rampage of vengeance across Mordor! What a revolting predicament. This open world game's big hook is the Nemesis[...]

Thank you Joe! You're trapped in an incomplete game, and given the power to rewrite your reality. It sounds amazing, and there are plenty of grace notes, but this game is a bit too messy for its own good, making broad points with broad characters in a way that left us both feeling a bit[...]

The Trauma Center series is one of the more interesting things to come out of Nintendo's love affair with strange control schemes in the DS and Wii era. These "surgery simulators" end up playing more like a cross between a light gun shooter and Rock Band, as you cut into your patients and use a[...]

This month's Dispatch topic is what we're calling "Retro Peril", or the idea that playing a newer entry in a genre would stop you from enjoying classic entries if you went back to revisit them. Would it be impossible to find joy in Torment if you got used to the quality of life improvements in[...]

The bad news is you only have 22 minutes. The good news is, you have as many 22 minutes as you need. Outer Wilds is a plucky, optimistic game about horrifying circumstances. You stand alone in the footsteps of an ancient civilization, working hard to figure out why your solar system keeps exploding. To do[...]

When it comes to cordyceps, we want some more-dyceps! Kole and Gary tackle what might be the most acclaimed video game in history. Despite having some issues with story and gameplay integration, this cinematic genre piece is fun and affecting.

This week continues out accidental theme of covering Roguelites on the show, as we chug-a-lug through Monster Train. It's a deck builder with strong elements of strategy games, as you summon monsters and cast spells to protect a train that's carrying Hell's last hope. That's right, angels are the bad guys. This game is really[...]

In this episode, we answer your questions, we talk about our podcast personas and where our lines are, and we read your responses to January's games before announcing what we have coming in March.

Tommy Vercetti was sent down south to make some money for the mob, and he chose to build an empire instead. The year is 1986 and nothing is off limits whatsoever. No game that came out after Grand Theft Auto III or Vice City would be the same, but sometimes it's hard to go back[...]

Thank you Lucian! Lock and load! We've only dabbled in Rogue-lights for the show but that changes NOW with this tough as nails twin stick shooter with charm, humor, and grace notes to spare.

Nothing good happens on boats. At least, that's the conclusion we came to after thoroughly exploring the Obra Dinn and the fates of its unfortunate occupants. This mystery game, developed by Lucas Pope as a followup to Papers, Please, is unlike most other games out there. And while we have a few quibbles here and[...]

What better way to end 2020 than to talk about fail states? We also answer your questions and read your responses to December's games, as well as announce what we're doing in February.

We return to the Forgotten Realms, and the kingdom of tappa tappa tappa to talk about this console hack-n-slash game. You play as an upstart adventurer who is mugged in Baldur's Gate, which draws you into an evil conspiracy involving extraplanar forces. But of course, you're just here to make numbers go up. This is[...]

Thanks Mitch and thank you everyone for sticking with us this long! We drag the end of Dragon Age 2 before visiting the mostly good but sometimes just alright DLCs. Act 3 of Dragon Age 2: a triumph of milky useless centrism.

This week, we continue our coverage of Dragon Age 2 by moving on to Chapter 2. Hawke and company have hit it big after three years of living in Kirkwall, but the city's problems are only getting worse. We spend this chapter navigating a difficult political and ethical conflict with the Qunari, whose presence is[...]

Our love for the outliers in big games series continues with this look at Dragon Age 2. Changing the scope from Dragon Age 1 was a gamble that paid off, among some others that did not. Kole and Gary discuss generalities and Act 1 of this underrated game. Thanks to Mitch!

On this month's Dispatch episode, we talk about Spoilers. Why don't they bother us? What benefit scan strategically spoiling things for yourself bring? What's a sensible spoiler policy for podcasts like ours? We also answer your questions, read your responses to No One Lives Forever, Uncharted Waters 2: New Horizons, and Marathon 2: Durandal.

What was Bungie up to before they bounced back with Halo? Marathon, another sci-fi shooter that was a foundational game for Macintosh gamers. Its graphics were well ahead of the times, and the story is intricate even by today's standards... but we find it a little tough to swallow, given how the antiquated level and[...]

Thanks David! This goofy episode on this ambitious, but somewhat tedious, SNES era simulation game was a balm to record on election day, and we hope it's a balm for you to hear. Follow Joao as he travels from Ibiza to Allentown in search of Atlantis.

Cate Archer is the grooviest spy that ever was, and she's on a mission to save the world from H.A.R.M. and their burping biological billionaire bombs. This cinematic first person shooter was ahead of its time, with snappy writing, intricate levels, and satisfying shooting. The only thing getting in the way is bad, punishing stealth.[...]

In this episode, we answer your questions, discuss what makes a good mobile game, read your responses to October's games and announce what we're covering in December. Please note, there are a couple of audio issues, which are disclaimed at the beginning of the episode.

Doom 3 was a controversial game, but its only real sin is not being Doom 2 or Doom 2016. Released in 2004 and coinciding with an identity crisis at id Software, this is a retelling of the original Doom story, but with very different gameplay. It more closely resembles the spectacle corridor shooters that were[...]

Thank you Ryan! Beef Golem and Sheva go on a racially insensitive adventure in the 2nd worst mainline Resident Evil game that is, none-the-less, still sort of worth playing? Hear us shed some daylight on this black sheep of the series.

October's horror game parade continues with Soma, a game that questions what makes us us. Simon is an unlucky guy. He gets a brain scan to help him with a terminal condition, and wakes up in a facility at the bottom of the ocean, eighty years in the future, after the world has ended. To[...]

This goofy action game is a dumb blast and this episode is a breezy start to the best month of the year. Join us as we discuss dino-teens from the year 3000.

This week's WOFF! Dispatch is about the special topic of deciding when to stop playing a game. What's the difference between "finishing" a game and "being done" with a game? What makes you walk away for good? Additionally, we answer your questions, read your responses to September's games, and announce what we're covering in November.

Kranky Kratos takes his vengeance quest to a brand new pantheon: the pantheon of fatherhood. Kole and Gary take an axe to the skull of this 2018 prestige game, and by take an axe to the skull, I mean we give a careful, considered look to this very good but still flawed cinematic game. This[...]

Assembled well-wishers, welcome to the land of crunch. Lords of Magic is a 1997 strategy game that is unlike anything we've covered for the show. It takes a high fantasy medieval theme and stacks a bunch of different strategy and RPG game types on top of each other, creating a complex and interlocking set of[...]

The idea of casual games is basically fake, and it's harmful because it leads to inclusive games being dismissed. Kole and Gary look at one of the titans of the "casual" gaming world and find that it packs tons of charm and more depth than it gets credit for.

This week we answer your questions and prompts, and talk about times in our lives when we "fell out of love with games". Times when we stopped playing as many games, why that happened, and what brought us back in. We also read your thoughts on Devil May Cry and Disco Elysium.

We're pleased to announce our first new podcast in quite some time! Coming this fall, Gary and Kole will premiere ORB: A Venture Bros. Podcast. We've taken our approach to video games, movies, music, comics, and books... and now we're dedicating a show to one of our favorite television shows. The Venture Bros. is a[...]

Big thanks to Moonborne! Though it has some early installment clunk, it's not that often that we get to play what is arguably (please don't argue with us) the first of a genre. Does it hold up? Does the devil cry? Does Dante get to 2nd base with someone who looks like his mom? Find[...]

This is the second and final part of our Disco Elysium coverage, picking up roughly with day two of the investigation and going full-tilt into learning not just the cause of the murder, but also what's really happening in this world politically, spiritually, and emotionally. I don't want to spend a lot of time heaping[...]

Big ups to Jack for sponsoring this episode! A monumental WRPG that rocketed its way up our personal charts to the WOFF Pantheon, Disco Elysium is inspired by all the best video games and still ends up being unique. Hear us discuss generalities and day one here.

This week, we talk about escapism, and how turning to games to distract from the real world is sometimes healthy and necessary. We also answer your questions and prompts, and read your responses to July's games: Hitman 2, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, and Mario Golf: Advance Tour.

This weirdo episode talks about a smattering of old and new golf games. The full episode then goes onto discuss Mario Golf Advance Tour. Join us on patreon to hear the whole shebang!

This is the second part, and conclusion, of our Tactics Ogre coverage, where we talk about the Law and Chaos routes of Chapters 2, 3, and 4. Denam is in a precarious place, forced to make morally compromising choices in the heart of a civil war with very high personal stakes. As those closest to[...]

This wildly ambitious port of a wildly ambitious SNES game features a lot of our favorite concepts and creators. Can it stand up to the gigantic shadow cast by Final Fantasy Tactics?

This episode takes us back into the tangled, bloody, and hilarious world of Agent 47. While HItman 2 could be called a mission pack or an expansion pack, we don't think there's anything wrong with that. The fundamental play has not changed, outside of a handful of features and adjustments. What has changed is the[...]

Kole and Gary answer your prompts and questions, read your responses to June's games, and discuss the menace of solved meta and how it keeps us away from multiplayer gaming.

Before they became all the rage in the indie space, you headed to the DS if you wanted to play a Metroidvania game. Konami eventually lost interest in making them, but before they did, they gave us one of our favorite entries in the series: Order of Ecclesia. It bucks the trends of previous games[...]

Thank you SindrElf! Gary and Kole take a stilted perspective walk down memory lane, towards the camera for some reason.

The Longest Journey was one of the earliest games we covered for this show, way back in the winter of 2011. We'd intended to hit up its sequel, Dreamfall, because we heard good things. Now, finally, we've gotten around to playing it and... we're not impressed. The game's very strong opening gives way to a[...]

Kole and Gary answer your questions, discuss when it's appropriate to take control away from the player, and read your responses to May's games. Also, we announce June's lineup at the end!

This month's premium episode is Capcom's action-heavy followup to the Resident Evil 2 Remake, their update to Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. It tells a similar story to the original, but streamlines everything to heighten the intensity of the fights. This process absolutely strips away a lot of what was special about the original, which it[...]

Special thanks to Neasa! Kole and Gary surmount one of the most critically acclaimed indies in recent memory. This masocore platformer has tons of heart, some hidden, and extremely precise gamefeel that make it two great tastes. Do they taste great together? Find out.

We're over the moon about this strange detective game set in an alternate history version of the late 90s internet. You're an Enforcer for a corrupt company, browsing the poorly made homepages of netizens looking for violations of the law, and trying to avert a cyberdisaster. This is a very clever investigation game with an[...]

We read your prompts, and your responses to April's games, and discuss what we think separates good lore from bad lore.

The New Colossus is a very strange game. By our usual metrics, this sequel isn't as good as its predecessor. The levels are bad, and the difficulty tuning is way out of whack. Instead, what makes us love this game is its audacity, and how well it tells its story... sometimes even through play! Billy[...]

Like sands through the hourglass, everything ages. But because time is an ocean in a storm, not a river, some things age better than others, even within the same game. Kole and Gary talk about this well regarded classic and figure out which parts are delicious and which are past their sell-by date.

We welcome Legend of Grimrock II to the pantheon of masterpieces we've covered for the show. It's a throwback to retro dungeon crawlers with tense combat and ingenious puzzles. It's light on story, but heavy on atmosphere, and consistently good throughout. People who like when we gush about good games will like this episode a[...]

Thanks Jack! Gary and Kole turn out the lights and get cute-spooky with the forgotten Mario Brother. This charming, bite sized adventure oozes with polish and though it was unfairly maligned in its day, it was way ahead of its time. Take a listen!

For this month's Watch Out for Fireballs! Dispatch, our discussion topic is remakes. What makes good remakes good, and bad remakes bad? Additionally, we answer your questions, read your responses to March's games, and announce the games for May.

Hey everyone, we've got some announcements. You can listen to the audio for full details, but it boils down to: the Midwest Gaming Classic in Milwaukee has been canceled, the Portland Retro Games Expo has been canceled, and we cannot in good conscience plan and execute a Duckfest with the global pandemic being what it[...]

There are really two Ocarina of Times. The one that came out in 1998 that's undeniably groundbreaking and an aesthetic triumph, and the one that you can play in 2020 that has a lot of ups and downs. We give this sacred cow an honest evaluation in this episode. Note, this is the preview version[...]

Note: You're stuck indoors due to the coronavirus pandemic, so we're unlocking some of our favorite premium content from 2019 so you have more stuff to entertain yourself with. Take care and be safe. Double Trouble has stolen another fuckin' quarry. In this episode, we look at the very good game show and the very[...]

Note: You're stuck indoors due to the coronavirus pandemic, so we're unlocking some of our favorite premium content from 2019 so you have more stuff to entertain yourself with. Take care and be safe. Let the circle be broken, because we don't like Bioshock Infinite. The full episode is four hours of us trying our[...]

Note: You're stuck indoors due to the coronavirus pandemic, so we're unlocking some of our favorite premium content from 2019 so you have more stuff to entertain yourself with. Take care and be safe. Let's get ready to horny! Stuart Gordon looked at a seven page Lovecraft story about seeing extradimensional beings, and said "I[...]

Note: You're stuck indoors due to the coronavirus pandemic, so we're unlocking some of our favorite premium content from 2019 so you have more stuff to entertain yourself with. Take care and be safe. I'll come clean with you. If you know who Scott Adams is, and you know our general outlook on things, you[...]

Metroidvanias are pretty common, but games that aim to ape the original Metroid are few and far between. Axiom Verge is a 2015 indie game with a distinct glitchy NES aesthetic and some pretty great powerups. It also has some problems with its combat and main character. You can't take away the beauty of those[...]

Kole and Gary go deep into the Abyss on Valdis Story, a kickstarter character action/metroidvania hybrid. It's got ups, it's got downs, and we discuss em all. Thank you to Terra Parker for sponsoring this episode!

This week's episode is a Dispatch, where we answer your questions and talk about your requested topic... namely, is it harmful to consider a game's value solely as a function of its length versus its cost? Additionally, we read your responses to February's games, and announce April's titles!

This month's premium Watch Out for Fireballs! is about XCOM: Enemy Unknown (and the Enemy Within expansion). This game is a masterpiece, and we take our time dining on the systems and the way they interlock. The aliens have made contact, and they do not come in peace. So it's time to mount the defensive[...]

Death of the Outsider is an expansion for Dishonored 2, and the end of the Dishonored story as we know it so far. We control Billie Lurk as she picks up where Daud left off, seeking artifacts and clues to learn where the Outsider is most vulnerable so she can strike him down. The change[...]

Thanks to friend of the show Doug, Kole and Gary finally tackle Atari. It's history, notable games, its downfall. Join us for this enlightening journey with Kole and Gary, your nutting associates.

With all of the information we have about games and their developers, "should I play this game" is a question that isn't easily answered by knowing if it's good or not. We talk about common bad practices of developers and publishers (crunch, exploitative monetization, etc.) and our strategies for coming to grips with what it[...]

This is the preview version of our full episode on the nigh masterpiece Shadowrun: Dragonfall! To hear the full version, become a patron at www.patreon.com/duckfeedtv

This game gets pretty rough, so we should start with some content warnings for suicide, mental illness, depression, and murder. The Cat Lady is an independent horror adventure game that stars Susan Ashworth, a woman suffering from trauma and depression, who is pressed into the service of an eldritch being, and tasked with eliminating "Parasites"...[...]

Folks, this is, as one might say, a good ass game. Kole and Gary discuss this FPS throwback that incorporates modern design sensibilities and a host of diverse influences. GET DUSK.

Gary and Kole give six old games a second thought, making a case for why they are either hidden gems or unfairly maligned classics. The six games are Alter Ego, Dynamite Headdy, Fallout Tactics, Ghoul School, Legend of the Mystical Ninja, and Ranger X. This is a live episode from the 2019 Portland Retro Gaming[...]

Kole and Gary answer your questions, discuss the importance of endings, and read your responses to December's games

Our final premium episode for 2019 takes us to a fantasy far East, where Bioware tries out some new stuff that ultimately doesn't work out great. While we find the world interesting and the characters and quests charming, Jade Empire falls down on its two biggest selling points: real time action combat, and a different[...]

Kole and Gary shrug off the yoke of Kyros and have a grand ol time (as long as we're not in the Oldwalls). Hear our discussion of an B+ tier Obsidian game that still manages to be an A- WRPG overall.

This episode is the beginning of our two-part coverage of Tyranny, a CRPG developed by Obsidian in the mold of classic Infinity Engine games. You play as an agent of an evil overlord, sent to the last unconquered region in order to aid the wildly disagreeable armies there to prosecute the conquest. Part 1 covers[...]

Kole and Gary answer your questions, discuss the value of games that intentionally engender feelings other than "fun" and read your responses to November's games. We also announce our lineup for January 2020!

We're big fans of Deus Ex, so there's joy in covering more of the series on the show. Human Revolution came out to a split reaction, which is to be expected. How can you please Deus Ex fans? We're a small sample size, but in our opinion, this is how you please Deus Ex fans.[...]

Is it a GTA clone? Is it a racing game? Is it any good? It is very hard to say! Kole and Gary bandy about Springfield and try to figure out this frustrating but fun title.

The Last Express is more important than it is fun. Jordan Mechner broke the bank creating this rotoscoped Swiss watch of a game about the last run of the Orient Express before World War I broke out. It features a huge cast of well-realized characters, and a plot with plenty of international intrigue. It also[...]

This month's Dispatch theme is, appropriately, horror. Or: What makes a scary game scary? We pick apart out favorite horror games and compare them to this month's crop of horror-themed titles. We also answer your questions and prompts, and read your responses to October's games. Next month, we're talking about The Last Express, The Simpsons:[...]

Alan Wake is a writer, and he reminds you of that a lot. This is Remedy's third person shooter followup to the first two Max Payne games. It dabbles in horror without being terribly scary, and gets extremely metatextual at a time when that wasn't a huge thing in games. It worked at the time,[...]

It's time for another pull on the tonal slot machine as WOFF's weirdest and least scary October continues. Gary and Kole dissect the entire gamut of RE7's downloadable content and extra modes.

Silent Hill is one of our favorite horror series, and it's always pleasant to return to it. This episode has us looking at Shattered Memories, the Wii game developed by Climax and Sam Barlow (of "Her Story" fame). It upends a good number of traditions of the series, and ends up being a very different[...]

Spooky scary month begins! Gary and Kole are joined by patron and Slack super star Jack Corrigan to talk about 2018's messy but somewhat interesting Call of Cthulhu.

This month's Dispatch has a lot going on. We answer a ton of your questions, including a long run of lightning round prompts. Then we talk about the difficulty inherent in separating art from artist, in light of the recent spate of games industry MeToo incidents. Then, we read your responses to our September games.

Kole and Gary finally tackle the FPS that set the standard, not only for the genre, but for cinematic and narrative games to this day. To hear the whole thing, join us at patreon.com/duckfeedtv

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones is the first entry in this long-running series that we've covered. It's a tactical RPG set in a medieval world, and this particular game has a lot of oddball features that would eventually become mainstays in the series. However, does it all stand up?

Special thanks to Geri Khan for producing this one! Kole and Gary take a rare trip to the Genesis to discuss one of the best games the run'n'gun genre has to offer. Loads of charm and creativity make this one of the best games on the system. Listen in!

It's time for this month's Dispatch episode, where we answer your questions and prompts, talk about our special topic (Glitches in games), and hear your responses to Way of the Samurai, Final Fantasy V, and Wolfenstein: The New Order.

Hey! It's our preview episode on 2014's Wolfenstein Reboot/Sequel/Whatever, The New Order. This is just the preview episode. To hear the entire thing, join us at patreon.com/duckfeedtv

Bartz, Lenna, and Faris have decided to tag along with Galuf to defeat Exdeath once and for all, a decision that takes them to a whole new world. There, they meet Exdeath's coterie of dipshits in his meat castle. We pick up with World 2 to talk about the remainder of Final Fantasy V, which[...]

Kole and Gary tackle the Final Fantasy with some of the most complex mechanics and most anonymous characters and places in the series. This episode covers generalities and world one.

Peter Bemis joins us to talk about Way of the Samurai, a strange and forward-looking game from the early days of the PS2 era. As a wayward ronin in the Meiji Era, you stumble across a town that's in the middle of a power struggle. Two families are working against each other, unmindful of the[...]

This is an extra spicy episode of the WOFF Dispatch, as we cover tons of our questions and prompts before settling in to talk about gaming addiction and the tricks developers and publishers use to foster it. Then we read your responses to A Hat in Time, Psychonauts, and Mirror's Edge.

Gary and Kole discuss the generalities of Mirror's Edge in this premium episode preview. Join us on Patreon for the whole shebang!

No game makes you WANT to like it as much as Psychonauts. Raz is a great character, the counselors at his psychic summer camp are top notch, and the aesthetic is excellent. The problems begin with the play, since the game only shows a passing interest in being an enjoyable 3D platformer. So Doublefine's premiere[...]

We begin our 3D Platformer Month with a modern loveletter to 90s platformers like Banjo Kazooie and Super Mario 64. Hat Kid runs afoul of the Mafia, and she must collect her hourglasses (which are spaceship fuel) from a planet full of colorful jerks. The game runs high on charm, but it also runs right[...]

This is a big dispatch episode, where we spend a good deal of time on your questions before talking about why games shouldn't try to be movies. We then turn our attention to your responses to June's games.

We round out puzzle month with the ultimate "puzzle" game, so elemental that you can't imagine it not existing. Alexy Pajitnov and a crew of colleagues in the USSR birthed the game, and it followed a long and complicated trail to becoming a worldwide phenomenon. This episode relates that story, talks about how Tetris has[...]

The early 90s were a very strange time for PC games, almost solely because of the introduction of the CD-ROM drive. This new techology revealed two paths for the industry, both of which would be pretty short-lived: The Myst path of baroque, isolated puzzle voids, and the 7th Guest path of FMV movies with puzzles[...]

Get ready for a day of Duckfeed. On August 31, 2019, we will gather at the Clinton Street Theater in Portland Oregon for live performances of many Duckfeed shows, and a few local podcast friends. Listen to the announcement for more. More details are forthcoming, including ticket details.

We begin Puzzle Month with one of the best indie releases of 2018. While it's nominally a turn based strategy game, Into the Breach provides near-perfect information, making it more of a series of chess puzzles than a traditional X-Com-alike. And the story of the game's development confirms that this was the designer's intention.

We read your responses to May's games, and we talk about how AAA games get romance wrong.

Hitman 2016 is a tremendous game. It's shockingly generous in scope, rewarding curiosity and ingenuity. Agent 47 heads to exotic locales to kill exotically, and we're here for it. This episode is a preview of the full premium episode. To hear the entire thing, join us on Patreon! (https://www.patreon.com/posts/watch-out-for-26886888)

Batman: Arkham City is an object lesson in how sequels can go very right. It's additive in every way that matterns leaving the core play of Arkham Asylum intact while adding an open world and lots and lots of villains. The Jokester is back and sicker than ever, and Hugo Strange has made deft use[...]

We traveled to the Midwest Gaming Classic once again, this time to talk about what we're broadly calling "creative games". The headliner is Mario Paint, but the idea of games that let you either make games, or make art, goes way back. So we talk about the history, talk about how this articulates, and try[...]

Life is Strange is a Telltale-style cinematic adventure game about a young woman named Max Caulfield who has a very strange week. On the same day, she discovers that she has the ability to rewind time, and she uses this ability to avert the death of Chloe, an estranged friend. Her powers get her wrapped[...]

Some games are trapped in time, and this Dispatch episode has us wondering what makes some games age worse than others. How can something made 25 years ago feel more fresh and something made 5 years ago?

Resident Evil 2 is a classic game, so it's understandable that we were slightly nervous when Capcom said they were remaking it. Our worries were unfounded, because Capcom is back, baby, and this remake isn't just a good game in its own right, it does justice to the original. It makes sensible updates and incorporates[...]

It's kind of ridiculous that we haven't done a Halo game yet. First because they were very big, and second because they're aging very poorly. However, there's plenty to like about Halo 3: ODST, the weird side story in the Halo franchise. The Rookie is separated from his squad, and he must roam the ruins[...]

Captian Martin Walker is not up to the task. Dubai is in ruins, and things just get worse from there. This is a military shooter about military shooters, and it's lauded for its story while its play is dismissed. But we're here to tell you: the play is fine!

We hear your thoughts on our Desperation Month games, and talk about what the deal is with gamers.

Desperation Month concludes with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, a Ukranian-developed open world first person shooter. The Zone is a harsh place with infinite possibilities, but you have to fight to find them. Especially in the back third of the game, where it's all fight. Until then, though, there's lots of very good survival play going[...]

We continue Desperation Month with Frostpunk, a city building sim where things start bad and only get worse. It's the late 19th century and the world is quickly freezing. Humanity's last chance is to huddle around generators in the north, making moral compromises to survive the cold and the scarcity it brings. Frostpunk is an[...]

We begin Desperation Month with a very unusual sim game. You are a checkpoint worker in a fictional communist country, forced to decide the fates of immigrants as the rules change every day. It's a bleak and stressful game that forces you to contort yourself into monstrous shapes, tugging at you with incentives and survival.[...]

Our preview series continues with another game whose Lovecraft associations are looser, but undeniable. Eternal Darkness is an inventive, but flawed, game. But you can't argue that it doesn't make an impression. We will have more details about Unfilmable soon!

Gary and Kole take your questions, and chat about Video Game Violence before reading your thoughts on SMB2, Pyre, and Bioshock Infinite.

You all have been very generous, and we recently passed a Patreon milestone goal for a new show. That show is called "Unfilmable", and in it Gary and Kole will examine adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft's work and ideas. We've recorded several episodes about Lovecraft-related or -inspired works, so we're re-presenting them to give you an[...]

We don't like Bioshock Infinite. The full episode is four hours of us trying our best to point out the many ways it falls short as a game, and as a conveyor of ideas. This is a preview of that full episode, which you can get by backing us on Patreon. (https://www.patreon.com/posts/woff-227-24690250)

SuperGiant is a studio we really love. We've covered both Bastion and Transistor on this show, so when William Rouse executive-produced an episode about Pyre it was a wonderful chance to complete the SuperGiant collection. And while there is plenty to love about Pyre's world, visual design, and music, we felt that the fantasy basketball[...]

This is our final "preview" episode of Adaptation Decay, our premium show about the ways that games are adapted to other media. We love this episode about the Buckner and Garcia album "Pac Man Fever" and we think you will, too. It demonstrates that Adaptation Decay isn't just a show about bad movies, but casts[...]

Super Mario Bros. 2 is unfairly ignored, either because of its provenance or because it's not a trailblazer like its predecessor, or as finely tuned as its successor. But it deserves credit for being ambitious, weird, and serving as the springboard for a lot of the great things we love about Mario games. So come[...]

Gary and Kole answer your questions, talk about difficulty in games, and then read your responses to River City Ransom, Owlboy and FFX.

Matthew sticks around to talk about the remainder of Final Fantasy X, which includes some fantastic boss fights, neat imagery, and questionable story beats. We also touch briefly on the absurd optional content this game has to offer to the most patient among us.

This is the first of two episodes about Final Fantasy X, a watershed game for Square that acts as a bridge between old and new for the series. Tidus is swept away into a strange world by an eldritch monstrosity. He finds new friends and ends up on a pilgrimage to rid the world of[...]

Adaptation Decay is a show that we love doing, but not a lot of people have dug into it. So we want to give you a slice for free. And it's a primo slice, a real New York Slice. That's right, we're talking the Super Mario Bros. movie. Reviled at the time, but actually fun[...]

Owlboy is a visually beautiful indie platformer with a killer soundtrack. It's a labor of love, and you can see that in every masterfully drawn piece of spritework. It's unfortunate that the aesthetics are attached to flat gameplay and story. It's a shame that it never fully explores its own mechanics, because the inventive boss[...]

Gary and Kole dig into this NES classic, and our first time covering a Kunio-Kun game. Alex's girlfriend has been kidnapped by Slick, so we have to punch, kick, and pipe our way across River City and its gangs. This is a fun game that's stymied a bit by antiquated progression mechanics, but it feels[...]

Hello, listeners and patrons alike. We come to you with some exciting news: We are changing the Patreon around! (http://patreon.com/duckfeedtv) It feels like we just did this, but the last major change was back toward the beginning of 2017. We’re trying to constantly observe what’s happening with the network and learn what to do better.[...]

This episode concludes our coverage of the main game of Baldur's Gate II. Our party emerges from the Underdark and gathers some help for its final assault, which takes them far afield of the prime material plane. Then we conclude with your listener responses about this beloved CRPG.

This third episode of our Baldur's Gate II coverage takes us away from the free-wheeling open-ended climes of Chapter 2 and puts us on the story's rails, as we get on Irenicus' trail and follow him to a Wizard Asylum and finally into the iconic Underdark. There's some fantastic content to be covered here, and[...]

Do you know how many candy bars I'd have to sell to raise 20,000 GP!?!? We left Part 1 of our Baldur's Gate II coverage with an outrageous mandate... to raise a ton of money to get information about where our soul (and sister) were taken. But Athkatla is a dirty and greedy city, so[...]

Lots of folks have waited very patiently for us to get around to covering Baldur's Gate II. It's a very well-regarded classic game, and it fits in well with our love for all things Dungeons and Dragons. So this month, we are doing a four part series. This first episode is all about systems an[...]

We hear what you think of Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, and The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine.

Our Witcher 3 saga draws to a close as we talk about Geralt's extracurricular activities in Toussaint.

The world of the Witcher 3 is almost completely dark and grim, where moral ambiguity reigns supreme. So it's strange for Geralt's tale to end in Toussaint, which is picturesque and relatively calm... except for the murders. It's also a land of chivalric values that seem nice at first but are actually pretty backwards. This[...]

We originally intended for our live episode at Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2018 to be about Super Smash Bros. Melee. However, we figured something out... we don't like playing Smash Bros. competitively. This led us down a rabbit hole that ultimately made us change our plans... What does it mean to play games wrong. Is[...]

This very special WOFF is brought to you by the Atomic! Kickstarter backers.

Watch out! Behind you! You'll hear that a lot in Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, a game from Ninja Theory that goes all in on the gimmick of using 3D sound to approximate audio hallucinations. We talk through this remarkable "AAA indie game", which has a young woman venturing into the Norse underworld to rescue the soul[...]

Let's hear your responses to Night in the Woods, and the other indie horror games we did in October!

Mumblecore playdates with a tinge of existential, cosmic dread. That's a succinct summation of Night in the Woods, the capstone for our indie horror month. This is a beautiful, charming game that goes to great lengths to endear you to its cast. It sensitively and deftly portrays issues of mental illness, poverty, and faith. We[...]

As we continue Indie Horror Month, we're excited to do something a little different. There are so many great little experimental horror games that wouldn't bear a full episode, but are worth talking about. So we gathered up a bunch of micro-horror games and created a special episode about them. They are: IMSCARED Haunted Cities,[...]

You can run and you can hide... and not much else. That's something Frictional learned in making Penumbra: Overture, a strange predecessor to their more widely acclaimed Amnesia: The Dark Descent. You play as Phillip, a professor who follows in the footsteps of his presumed-dead father and ends up in a heap of trouble in[...]

Let's hear your responses to Quest for Glory II, Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, and not Gabriel Knight 3!

We love the Gabriel Knight series, but Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned is the kind of game only a parent could love. It follows Knight's adventures in France as he tries to solve a kidnapping case that involves the Holy Grail and a set of vampires called "The Night Visitors". What makes[...]

Callahan's Place is a very special bar, where flawed people from across space and time gather to share their pain and be healed. This makes for a very strange basis for a video game, but Legend managed to pull it off. Though the puzzles aren't always great, Callahan's skates by with a lot by being[...]

This month's theme is "Auteur Adventure Games", and we decided to open it with a beloved game by Corey and Lori Ann Cole. Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire continues our hero's journey as he heads to the Arabian-inspired realm of Shapeir. The Coles had a specific vision for how to combine adventure games[...]

Four episodes, two hacky slashy games, lots of thoughts. It's time to hear your responses to God of War and NieR! Also, we announce the upcoming games. September sees Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire, Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, and Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned. October is Indie horror[...]

It's inarguable that God of War is an important game, but is it still fun to play? No, not really, but it has its moments. It came late in the PS2 lifecycle and took inspiration from character action games like Devil May Cry, but it added a sense of brutality that launched a fleet of[...]

This episode concludes our coverage of NieR, as we talk about the endgame of Route A, and cover everything from Routes B, C, and D. NieR has thoroughly worn out its welcome at this point, even if there is some good stuff to be found in the tricks it plays. So come listen, and hear[...]

The story of NieR continues as we build out our party and explore more modes of play. The doldrums of the previous episode give way to some minor delight. The Forest of Myth shows us a text adventure with a cool conceptual hook, while the Haunted Manor is a Resident Evil pastiche. Then we have[...]

Take a look, it's in a book. NieR released with a resounding thud in 2010, neither selling well nor pleasing critics. But since then, it's become a cult classic for people who like experimental narrative and varied play. Nier is a father who is desperately searching for a cure for his daughter's terminal illness. Yonah[...]

What do you think of The Sims 3, Donkey Kong '94, and Pathologic? Tune in to find out! Includes bonus responses for Earth Defense Force 4.1.

It's the best, most fascinating game you should never play. Pathologic is the definition of a cult classic game. Its adherents will swear by it, while everyone else bounces off. There's a good reason for that: it's one of the best-written games we've covered for the show, and every mechanic is designed to be as[...]

This is a special live episode about the best Donkey Kong game, Donkey Kong for the Game Boy. The game begins as a faithful recreation of the Donkey Kong arcade levels, but after that, the roof flies off and the walls fall away... revealing a puzzle platformer with over 100 levels. This game also expands[...]

Do you think life is a game? The Sims, writ large, is a massive series that nobody really talks about as a game. It feels like it exists over in a separate category with MMOs and other perpetual games. But its huge success has hidden the fact that it's incredibly important, and also very very[...]

Let's hear what you think of A Way Out, Magicka, and Earth Defense Force 4.1. There aren't very many responses this time, so we hit some belated responses and Just Funnin' as well.

This game really bugs us. Listen in to find out why... or read this short summary. Earth Defense Force as a series gets a lot of credit for its quirkiness and cheesiness. That praise is earned, but it doesn't paper over repetitive and mediocre gameplay. The Ravagers are back again, and they've brought Giant Insects,[...]

This week, Gary and Kole conjure up some mixed praise for Magicka, a student project turned indie darling. But here's the hangup: while the core idea of this game is unlike anything we've seen before, its execution falls flat at almost every turn. The writing and humor don't add much to the proceedings, and the[...]

Ain't no co-op like A Way Out co-op because A Way Out co-op is mandatory. Back in 2013, Hazelight Studios developed a charming and affecting experimental adventure game called Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Five years later, it wanted to continue exploring its pet theme of togetherness, so it created A Way Out. Following[...]

Let's hear what you think about Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, Doom 2016, Bayonetta, and Arcades!

We talked about arcades almost six years ago, and a lot has happened since then. So it's time to go back. For this episode, we each played three games and prepared to talk about them. Spanning several eras and genres, we wanted to learn why arcade games are different and talk about how their design[...]

Fly me to the moon and let me play Bayonetta, a crazy over-the-top character action game that is unabashedly all about style. This is a Patreon backer requested episode, and we were super happy to visit Platinum's breakout hit. Bayonetta is a very important character to the recent history of video games, inspiring both affection[...]

The winner of our remakes/reboots poll is all about ripping/tearing. The 2016 version of Doom, neé DOOM 4, is all about pace and rhythm. It's also all about gleefully tapping into the spirit of mayhem found in the early entries of this series, and updating it for modern play sensibilities. The result is one of[...]

The story is in the telling, and who cares if you stretch or fib a little bit? That's the conceit at the center of Call of Juarez: Gunslinger that raises it above its predecessors. It also raises it above its own gameplay, which is firmly in the "arcadey shooter" category. It's stylish as all hell,[...]

Let's see what you think of Bioshock 2, Minerva's Den, and Ultima Underworld!

We can think of 0451 reasons to love this grandaddy of the modern immersive sim. We go all the way back to 1992, before Looking Glass was called Looking Glass, and see where one of our favorite genres of games began. Ultima Underworld is a shockingly friendly game for its vintage, and it's absolutely worth[...]

It's another in our series about great expansions, and a precursor to even more games that we really love. Bioshock 2: Minerva's Den looks and plays quite a bit like the main game, but the details are there. You can see in the way the world is laid out and the story unfolds that this[...]

Daddy's home, and he's pissed. People don't regard Bioshock 2 as well as they do the original, and that's a shame. What this sequel lacks in novelty, it gains by being the most mechanically satisfying entry in this popular series. And while people don't go nuts over its story, it does some very satisfying things[...]

Let's hear what you think about Ikaruga, Jamestown, The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone, and The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild! What a month.

Our discussion of Breath of the Wild continues as we talk about the main quest of the game, and its side quests. Special thanks again to John Hurst for being a guest on this episode, and for his continued support.

It reinvented the series, breathing fresh new life into a stale formula. Listen in as we talk about the mechanics and generalities of the game, because there are plenty of them. Special thanks to special guest John Hurst for his support on Patreon, and for finally getting us to play this game.

Let's make a deal. Just meet me at the crossroads. Following through on our promise to cover all of the Witcher 3 content, this episode brings the best game expansion we've ever played. A routine Witcher contract drags Geralt into the middle of a conflict between two terrible people. On one side, you've got Olgierd[...]

We said we wouldn't do any more split episodes under the new format for the show that began last year, but we didn't anticipate Ikaruga. Shoot 'em up games are an arcade mainstay that have developed an intense and passionate cult, and Ikaruga is one of the most revered entries in the genre. But it's[...]

Mech month was a lot of fun, and you turned out in force to share your thoughts about these games. Next month we're covering Ikaruga, Jamestown, The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone, and the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Will you learn to love a weapon? No, no you won't. However, you will love the way Titanfall 2 feels to play. The way it handles shooting and movement is something to behold. Though the story leaves a lot to be desired, the game's standout levels and breezy pace made this a perfect conclusion to[...]

Before Souls, FromSoft made Armored Core. And this is our first real exposure to it... and it turns out it's very good. Despite outward appearances, there's a good deal of variety in the Armored Core series, with For Answer being the fastest and most action-oriented among them. But it retains that important element of mecha[...]

Let's take it way back to the earliest days of 3D platforming. It's everyone's favorite failed mascot: Robbit! (Pronunciation yet to be determined). The story of Jumping Flash! is kind of sad, because it nailed so much about how to make a platformer feel good... then just kind of went away. It's an evolutionary dead[...]

We read your responses about our three games from January, and discuss the new FromSoft announcements and how they effect our plans.

It's good to be bad. I'm pretty sure that's the tagline from something, but I don't want to look it up. This week we take a look at Bullfrog's evil overlord simulator Dungeon Keeper. It occupies a nebulous place somewhere between an RTS and a simulation, and kind of suffers for that. But its theming[...]

A muddled game that gets the blame, which truly is a crying shame. This week we talk about Child of Light, a recent smaller title from Ubisoft that takes RPG mechanics, slaps a very pretty coat of paint over them, and saddles them with a rhyming gimmick that sinks the story. Listen in to hear[...]

Nintendo went a little crazy, and we all benefitted. This live episode from the Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2017 is all about the stinky vice goblin Wario, his friends, and the bonkers games they made. We cover the entire series, hitting all of the ways it evolved to match Nintendo's wacky platforms. Then we talk[...]

More people wrote in to talk about the Witcher 3 than any other game on WOFF! And in this episode, we get to the business of hearing the praise and damnation.

The majority of this game is secondary quests... so it makes sense that our episode about those quests would be one of our longest yet. In this episode, we cover Contracts, Scavenger Hunts, Races, Brawling, Gwent, and all kinds of Secondary Quests. Huge thanks to Will Hughes for coming on to talk about Gwent!

From Skellige to realms even further beyond, we recover Ciri and put an end to the Wild Hunt once and for all. The next episode will cover the many side quests in the game. You should listen in!

Let us walk the path. This episode about the excellent Witcher 3 covers the first half of the main quest, up until the departure to Skellige.

Welcome to the big show. And we mean big. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the largest, densest game we've covered on Watch Out for Fireballs!. In fact, there's so much going on here that we're dividing the coverage up into four episodes, with this first installment being two hours dedicated solely to the mechanics[...]

November turned out to be a bit of a club banger, with three big, good, and otherwise important games. Let's find out what the listeners thought of Transistor, Thimbleweed Park, and ActRaiser.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that. Kole and Gary talk about Actraiser, an early SNES game that mashes up two disparate gameplay modes. On one hand, you have some Castlevania-like platforming. On the other, you've got a simulation god game where you fight demons and watch your kingdom grow. How do[...]

We're unabashed in our love of Maniac Mansion and other early LucasArts adventure games. So it shouldn't be a surprise that we jumped all over the Thimbleweed Park Kickstarter when it was announced. And we were right to do so, because Ron Gilbert, Gary Winnick, and company have made something truly great in Thimbleweed Park.[...]

Gary and Kole load up Transistor and break their way through it, having a very good time in the process. Transistor is still new enough to be a little controversial. People came to it from Bastion, the previous Supergiant game, and didn't know what to make of its semi-turn-based combat and technical aesthetic. If you[...]

We found a filthy notebook full of people's thoughts on the Resident Evil games we covered. Let us peer within.

Resident Evil month rounds out with a very new, very good game. Something has twisted the Bakers. Ethan Winters just wants to rescue his missing wife, but he's welcomed into the family instead. Resident Evil 7 is a radical departure for the series, moving gameplay to the first person perspective. However, in a lot of[...]

Undead outbreaks are a family affair in this canonical follow-up to the story of Resident Evil 2. Claire Redfield has declared war on the Umbrella Corporation, but she has also gotten in over her head. Trapped in the twisted world of Alfred Ashford, the scion of one of the founding families of Umbrella, she has[...]

Resident Evil month begins with a bang, just like Nemesis does. Capcom was in a weird spot. They were developing several Resident Evil games at the same time, trying to make hay of a popular series while also preparing for the next generation of consoles. From that shuffle came what might be the most mechanically[...]

Tune your bat radios to our bat frequency to hear your bat thoughts.

Our discussion of Batman: Arkham Asylum continues (and concludes). Next week, we'll hear your responses to the games we covered during Bat Month!

Bat month continues with the reinvigoration of the franchise. This episode covers generalities and the first major area. Batman had languished in mediocrity for almost two decades before Rocksteady brought it back from the brink. Arkham Asylum is remarkable not just for how influential it is, but for how well it works as a Batman[...]

The title seems redundant, but it's better than saying "Batman, the NES game. The one made by SunSoft. For the first movie, kinda." This might be the hardest game we've done for the show, but we might also have lost track. This is a compact little platformer that is certainly of its era, but it's[...]

This is the first of our monthly listener response episodes under the new model, gathering your thoughts on the Final Fantasy IV saga. Up next in September, we have Bat Month. Which means the Batman NES game, and Batman: Arkahm Asylum. October brings us Resident Evil month, featuring Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Resident Evil: Code[...]

To the center of the moon, to the center of the series, and into the slog. Final Fantasy IV: The After Years takes a strange turn in its back half... a turn that isn't discussed very often because nobody really talks about The After Years. So, join us for the last few chapters of this[...]

An unloved sequel to a beloved game makes for some rough play, as the FF4 formula wears out its welcome. While Takashi Tokita was working to update Final Fantasy IV for the Nintendo DS, he felt a longing to return to the Blue Planet and revisit the story of Cecil and the gang. What resulted[...]

Picking up at Troia and the Tower of Zot, Gary and Kole conclude their discussion of the main game of Final Fantasy IV. The next episode will cover the first several chapters of The After Years.

It's a classic RPG that established many of the norms for a huge series. Does it hold up to modern scrutiny? This episode covers the generalities, and the events of the game up through Cecil's trial at Mt. Ordeals. Final Fantasy IV was released in America for the SNES in 1991 as "Final Fantasy II",[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty in this final extrasode.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about the final portion of Metal Gear Solid 2. Or do they?

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross do a postmodern postmortem on the first portion of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Metal Gear Solid 2 is a game that's been talked to death, but we try our best to bring our own perspective and approach to it. It's a sequel that Kojima never wanted to[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Nox.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross chase their orbs into the world of Nox. It was marketed as EA's answer to Diablo, but it's categorically different. It introduces itself as a goofy and irreverent take on fantasy fiction, but then it plays it straight. After all of the feints, what you end up with is a[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to SSX Tricky.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross flip out about SSX Tricky. This episode is our recital: to talk about to talk about how important SSX Tricky is in the pantheon of extreme sports games. For their second outing, EA Sports BIG totally nailed the combination of racing systems and trick systems, creating a game that is[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Yakuza.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross kick and punch their way through Yakuza. Here it is, the winner of our Open World Game Poll. Except, it's a very different kind of open world game. Yakuza picks up where Shenmue left off, but does everything a lot better... especially the story, which follows ex-enforcer Kazuma Kiryu as[...]

Live from the Midwest Gaming Classic, Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about Nintendo's little-loved Pilotwings series. Afterwards, we talk about our experience at the convention.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Crimson Shroud.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross chance upon Crimson Shroud. Yasumi Matsuno is responsible for some amazing games, Final Fantasy Tactics chief among them. One of his lesser-known projects is Crimson Shroud, a JRPG released for the 3DS as a part of a collection of smaller games. While it's soaked in Matsuno's style, Crimson Shroud is[...]

Hi there, we have some news for you about the future of Watch Out for Fireballs! and Bonfireside Chat. We think it’s pretty exciting. The short version of it is that Bonfireside Chat is ending in August, and will be replaced with more frequent episodes of Watch Out for Fireballs!. The long version can be[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Super Princess Peach, along with a smattering of listener questions and prompts.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross feel their way through Super Princess Peach. After two decades of being rescued, everyone's favorite princess finally gets a star turn as the hero. Super Princess Peach is an incredibly easy game with some (ahem) problematic elements. But the saccharine trappings hide a mechanically complex game that tries and fails[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Dead Space.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross stomp through Dead Space. Resident Evil 4 changed games forever. Especially horror games. Pretty soon it wasn't acceptable for a scary game to sacrifice mechanical sophistication for atmosphere. While the world waited for Resident Evil 5, which would carry the idea further, EA came through with Dead Space. The world[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Tomb Raider.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross rise to talk about Tomb Raider (1996). For as important as Tomb Raider and Lara Croft are to the history of games, it's surprising it's taken us this long to cover her debut. So we extend our thanks to Allison Baker for getting us off of our asses to talk[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your fond memories of Nintendo Power and other video game magazines.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross thumb through the history of Nintendo Power, and visit some other game magazines along the way. Every year we choose a special topic for a special episode, and we've wanted to cover this year's topic for a while: Nintendo Power. While this magazine was specific to America, most major regions[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Shadow of Destiny / Shadow of Memories.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross will always have been talking about Shadow of Destiny (or also Shadow of Memories). If you're sensitive to us being negative about games, this might be one to skip. Eike Kusch is fated to die, but a strange interloper has given him the power to manipulate time itself so he[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross delve through Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for our 150th episode spectacular! We're creatures of habit and pattern, not creatures of the night. Whenever we hit one of these big anniversary episodes, we want to blow the doors off and really play something noteworthy. Symphony of the Night is one[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross take a vacation to the present to talk about Dishonored 2. The original Dishonored is an amazing game with a pedigree that made it perfect fodder for the show. Following in the footsteps of Deus Ex and Thief, this series was always going to be something we'd swoon over. That[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Dishonored 2.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross flash through Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 2. We're home again. Watch Out for Fireballs! began with an episode about Mega Man X, and now it's time to talk about Capcom's platforming superstar at the height of his powers. After a shaky debut in Mega Man 1, Mega Man[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Neverwinter Nights 2 and Mask of the Betrayer. LINKS OF NOTE: Waypoint article on D and D in prisons (https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/dragons-in-the-department-of-corrections?utm_source=wpfbusads) Constantine XI (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_XI_Palaiologos#Legacy)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross absorb the second portion of Mask of the Betrayer. The story continues AND the plot thickens, as we learn more about the nature of our curse and take the battle to the gods themselves. Seriously, just play this game. LINKS OF NOTE: Monster in my Podcast on Dao (http://www.monsterinmypodcast.com/82) House[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross devour the first half of Mask of the Betrayer, the first expansion pack for Neverwinter Nights 2. Guess what... it's the Fireworks Factory! We laid out our case about Neverwinter Nights 2, painting it as a mechanically troubled game that occasionally rose above standard Forgotten Realms fare for some inspired[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross crumble over the back half of Neverwinter Nights 2. This episode picks up where the last left off, covering all of Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. This period of the game includes some of the best stuff... the Trial, the Crossroad Keep mechanic, and Ammon Jerro's lair. Be sure to[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross roll on through the first portion of Neverwinter Nights 2. Let's face it, this is an awkward, awkward game. They heydey of Dungeons and Dragons CRPGs didn't involve 3D graphics or voice acting, and Neverwinter Nights 2 leans on those when it ought not to. But that doesn't mean there's[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross recount their stories of the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, and read some of your thoughts about Pokémon Yellow.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross capture the hearts of PRGE by talking about Pokémon Yellow. This is our Portland Retro Gaming Expo live show for 2016, where we talk about Pokémon Yellow, and Gen1 Pokémon in general. The game is an archaic drag mechanically, but it has the fundamental core that Nintendo would polish to[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Bastion.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk over Bastion's narration. It's a newer game, but ancient when it comes to the fast-moving indie scene. The Kid is on a mission to reassemble the old world after a Calamity, but at what price? Bastion takes the action RPG formula and leans heavy on player choice and mechanical[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Resident Evil 4.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross burst with joy over Resident Evil 4. We held off on playing this game for too long. There's so much going on here. So much great design, so many memorable moments, that our discussion of Resident Evil 4 is our longest single episode to date. Leon Kennedy is back, this[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about the experience of talking about Punch-Out!! at the Austin Classic Game Fest 2016.

This is a special announcement about a few important policy things, and a few big changes to our Patreon campaign. It's all good stuff. Please direct your attention to the public post on Patreon for the full text of the announcement (www.patreon.com/posts/duckfeed-state-7001000), and pose all of your questions as comments on that post. Thanks!

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about Punch-Out!!... again. You'll hear the sordid story about what happened in the episode, but suffice to say that we ended up having to re-record our live episode about Punch-Out!! We love this game so much that we didn't want our only episode about it to be compromised by[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Super Mario Galaxy.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross cram-jam Super Mario Galaxy. 3D Mario is a tricky thing. Though Mario 64 forged a path, it arrived at a different feeling and flow than we were used to in our 2D Mario games. Over a couple of iterations, it feels like Nintendo finally arrived at the apotheosis of SM64-style[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Starflight and Toe Jam & Earl. LINKS OF NOTE: 1979 Revolution: Black Friday (http://store.steampowered.com/app/388320/) This is indistinguishable from actual dialogue in Juno (http://www.somethingawful.com/news/diablo-cody-screenplay/)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross blast off and crash down with Starflight and Toe Jam & Earl. This is the "Genesis Games that Want to be PC Games" special, as we look at two bizarre console titles from the early 90s. Starflight is the prototypical galaxy exploration simulator, with a wide world and tons of[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Team Fortress 2. LINKS OF NOTE: Alis Landale (phantasystar.wikia.com/wiki/Alis_Landale) Errant Signal on Overwatch/TF2 (www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hj1haLcdI0) Don't Give up Skeleton (www.darkinsight.net/dgus/)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross gang up to talk about Team Fortress 2. For our fifth anniversary show, we wanted to do something special. We wanted to play a classic game with our community, and it turns out choosing Team Fortress 2 was a great move. Team Fortress goes way back, but Valve has taken[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium. LINKS OF NOTE: Phantasy Star Retronauts (archive.org/details/Retronauts1-100) The Mimic (www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEJmcOftuIg)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross launch through the latter portion of Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium. It's now time to leave Motavia and head to Dezolis, because the Algo solar system is in peril. Can we fix the systems, retrieve the data, and conquer the Darkness? LINKS OF NOTE: This Guy Fucks[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross soar through Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium. We're guilty of focusing on Final Fantasy games when we talk about JRPGs because that's mostly what we grew up with. However, concurrently, there was a whole big, important series living and thriving on Sega systems, doing amazing forward looking[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Elite Beat Agents and Rhythm Heaven.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross groove to Elite Beat Agents and Rhythm Heaven. This summer, we decided to let our listeners decide which rhythm games we should play. The resounding winners were to non-peripheral Nintendo DS rhythm games that couldn't be any more different. Elite Beat Agents is soaking in charm, but we find a[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Deus Ex: Invisible War. LINKS OF NOTE: Asshole Physics (www.somethingawful.com/news/max-payne-asshole/) Sunglasses at Night (www.it-he.org/deus.htm) Moraff's World (www.myabandonware.com/game/moraff-s-world-2ho) Servile Wars (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servile_Wars)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross link up to talk about Deus Ex: Invisible War. How do you follow up a masterpiece? Almost never with another masterpiece. Invisible War has some real problems, but taken on its own it's a perfectly competent shooter with some really great ideas and a fantastic reveal. Don't expect a game[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Day of the Tentacle.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross experiment with Day of the Tentacle. It's a time-hopping, interactive Looney Toon that's also LucasArts at the height of their powers... We revisit the world of Maniac Mansion to solve adventure game puzzles with the added twist of causality logic, visiting Colonial America and the distant, tentacle-run future. LINKS OF[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Fallout: New Vegas, and then Brayton Cameron joins us to talk about New Vegas mods. LINKS OF NOTE: Top Mods (www.pcgamer.com/25-best-fallout-new-vegas-mods/) Smart Girls (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz0SnpN_O00) Original Wrapper (duckfeed.tv/tdb/original-wrapper) iCivics (www.icivics.org/) Class Craft (www.classcraft.com/) Rawls (www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjtz-w0Xouo) One Lifebar Run (www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8XLN1N0v…FpRtaOkOFP67j4et6)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross expound upon the many expansions for Fallout: New Vegas. Here, in part three, we visit Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues, and Lonesome Road, the four expansions released for Fallout: New Vegas in the year after the main game dropped. They're varied and diverse, but they contribute to a[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross indulge in the side quests of Fallout: New Vegas. The Mojave wasteland has a wealth of things to do, and we try to cover them all. This episode covers all of the companion side quests, and then goes around to different factions and settlements to take care of errands for[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross take a gamble on Fallout: New Vegas.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross take a gamble on Fallout: New Vegas. Talking about Fallout 3 this previous winter really put a fire in us... Though we were underwhelmed by the Capital Wasteland in the moment, all roads led back to pining for the Mojave. So here we are, talking about Fallout: New Vegas, a[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross take Oregon Trail and Typing of the Dead to school (for show and tell). Edutainment is, inherently, kind of lame. We can all smell a "message" coming a mile away. But the best examples can make you forget you're learning, and stand up as great games in their own right.[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time and Dungeons and Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara. LINKS OF NOTE: One example of old Unreal Portal guns (www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYgdg1YZx3s) Guardian Heroes (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp37p7Gr_bs) Lodos War (www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YiyBat61I4) Odin Sphere (www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvU6Y8hjpVc) Enoch 18:14 (www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzDv8sYX4j0)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross rumble through Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time and Dungeons and Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara. Brawlers have a reputation for being simplistic and exploitative. They're a game design born of economic opportunity, engineered to accumulate quarters with frequency. But divorced from that, there are examples of brawlers with[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. LINKS OF NOTE: None

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross charge through Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Warcraft III is probably one of the most influential games of all time. There's a lot that came before it, but Blizzard's first 3D real time strategy game came at just the right time to lay the foundation for most of today's competitive[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Portal and Portal 2. LINKS OF NOTE: Another Cold Morning (comicvine.gamespot.com/transmetropol…g/4000-44857/) Portal 2 Mods (twinfinite.net/2015/02/portal-2-mods-you-need/) Portal Stories (store.steampowered.com/app/317400/) Freaks and Geeks (www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJAGxAeV7YU&nohtml5=False) Paris Syndrome (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_syndrome)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross open up a door to the elemental plane of praise for Portal and Portal 2. Last year, with Super Metroid at episode 100, we decided to try doing a "perfect" game once a year. Portal and Portal 2 are both obvious choices for such high praise. They still feel recent,[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Silent Hill 3. LINKS OF NOTE: Project Scissors (www.kickstarter.com/projects/playis…issors-nightcry)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross ooze affection for Silent Hill 3. A teenage girl is in trouble. The world is warping around her, and strange people are saying that she's destined to birth Paradise. That's the setup to Silent Hill 3, one of the scariest and most upsetting games in existence. The story has problems,[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Interactive Fiction. LINKS OF NOTE: MUD (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD)

gary butterfield and kole ross, interactive fiction_ Two men speak into microphones about interactive fiction, also known as text adventures. They cover the basics of the medium, a brief history and discuss four games in-depth: "Planetfall", "A Mind Forever Voyaging", "Slouching Towards Bedlam", and "The King of Shreds and Patches." LINKS OF NOTE: The Special[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to the Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. LINKS OF NOTE: Dunder Mifflin Chatroom (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Out_(The_Office)) Onimusha (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sueu7x2lAUE) Information Society (www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPuXvpkOLmM)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross excoriate Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. This episode isn't for the faint of heart... What started out as a well-intentioned desire to talk about a beloved action-adventure game turned into a hit piece against an entire era and genre of games. But we cite our sources, and go to great[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Sanitarium. LINKS OF NOTE: The Perfect Drug (www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSLqeZzTU8I) Tiny Wings (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky65XZXLcLU)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross commit to talking about Sanitarium. You wake up with no face, no memories, and no name. You're surrounded by people banging their heads against walls, talking about mechanical bugs and Aztec prophecies. Diagnosis? Crazy. This horror-themed adventure game is an odd duck because it's played from a bird's-eye perspective... but[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Mega Man Legends. LINKS OF NOTE: Broad City (imagesmtv-a.akamaihd.net/uri/mgid:fil…21182807.gif)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross respectfully disagree about Mega Man Legends. It's the first fully 3D Mega Man game, but it doesn't take a lot of cues from the series that preceded it. You spend most of your time dungeon crawling, but the interesting stuff happens when you're just kickin' it in the city. It[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Fallout 3. LINKS OF NOTE: Gabagool (www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5fmz5XdGq4) Environmental Storytelling (www.somethingawful.com/news/fallout-…ing-skeleton/) Davide's Game (davideafiandra.itch.io/linedash) Tale of Two Wastelands (taleoftwowastelands.com/)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross expand upon the DLC expansions for Fallout 3. It's a first for the show: We're covering all five pieces of DLC released for Fallout 3. From the highest highs (Point Lookout) to the lowest lows (Mothership Zeta, ironically enough), we've got something to say about them all. LINKS OF NOTE:[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross meander through the side quests of Fallout 3. LINKS OF NOTE: Whomp (www.whompcomic.com/2011/03/11/get-…etting-is-goop/) Mr Fischoeder (bobs-burgers.wikia.com/wiki/Calvin_Fischoeder) Look at those ants (www.youtube.com/watch?v=olPAsssli3E) That's a good boy (www.youtube.com/watch?v=70atgKUKaeY) Apt Pupil (www.imdb.com/title/tt0118636/) Mr Show Button (www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI0hvm10AHo)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross set Fallout 3 on fire. This is it: Our first modern Bethesda game. Morrowind was kind of on the edge, but it's hard to talk about Fallout 3 without also talking about a whole bunch of other games that are like it. You wake up one morning and your dad[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime. LINKS OF NOTE: Gurumin (www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFrUWUevtFc) FF3 (www.hardcoregaming101.net/finalfantasy…f3/ff3-2.htm) Dragon Quest (www.retronauts.com/?p=1178) Dark Messiah of Might and Magic (www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXzBwMW5pzw) Crisis Core (www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5D-8HDazuw)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross gush about Dragon Quest Adventures: Rocket Slime. This is the first Dragon Quest game we've covered, and of course it had to be a weird one. Rocket Slime trades in the turn-based combat for top-down action and surprisingly deep tank battles. A unique movement and attack mechanic, along with the[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Thief: Deadly Shadows. LINKS OF NOTE: Gamer Sorter (slimedrippings.tumblr.com/gamefaqssort) Deadly Shadows Gold (www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=143659) Papa Sangre (www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp6WXSA52Is)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross are the hands that rock Thief: Deadly Shadows's cradle. Thief: Deadly Shadows won our Fall 2015 Stealth Game poll, and we're glad it did. Not just because it gave us an excuse to talk about the Shalebridge Cradle for 30 minutes... but because it's a beloved series, and a kind[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about the 2015 Portland Retro Games Expo 2015 and read your responses to Castlevania.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross get cracking on Castlevania, live at PRGE! No show notes, except to thank Brayton Cameron, Nick Glauber, and the staff of the Portland Retro Games Expo. Also, thanks so much to everyone who came out to the show!

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to System Shock 2. LINKS OF NOTE: Mancow (www.mancow.com/) Don't Shit Your Pants (www.kongregate.com/games/rete/dont-shit-your-pants) System Shock 2 Multiplayer (www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=61.0)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross lay into System Shock 2. System Shock 2 will pretty much always show up on any "Greatest PC Games of All Time" lists. It inspired Bioshock, a game that we very much like. But, does it hold up? Listen as we talk about the many great ideas that System Shock[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Blaster Master. LINKS OF NOTE: Crusader Kings 2 (www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzkVTDfxIUI) Totally Rad (www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4zfEVP4zAc) Let's Play mentioned

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross blow through Blaster Master. We've covered several NES platformers on the show, but mostly from bigger publishers. Capcom and Konami are mainstays, and of course we've talked a lot about Nintendo itself, but SunSoft has racked up more Abject Suffering entries than WOFF! entries. Blaster Master is a varied and[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to King of Dragon Pass.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross gird their loins to battle King of Dragon Pass. File this one under "Gem that should have gotten more attention." It's a strategy-game-meets-CYOA, but it's so much more. It's a tale of barbarians, but not in the way you'd expect. It's a fusion of narrative and systems on a level[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Doom II: Hell on Earth. LINKS OF NOTE: I Love Lisa (www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8T9ZRAk7Vc) Hocus Pocus (www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UUMsInka2s) Outlaws (www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCMh-88a2DI) Rage (www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2Vj2UpA4dE)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross mow through Doom II: Hell on Earth. It's time to talk smart about a game that (seems) dumb. Where did first-person shooters get their start? Well, not here. But for most of the 90s, FPSs were called "Doom Clones". Doom II saw id advancing their 3D trickery, and expanding on[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Paper Mario. LINKS OF NOTE: Outkast (www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWgvGjAhvIw) Freakin Weekend (www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR0v0i63PQ4) Sat on some gum (www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sat+in+gum) Advice Hot Dog (advicehotdog.com/) Deaf Protagonist (www.clickhole.com/video/progress-v…m_source=twitter) Joy Mecha Fight (www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Uy7otTkfI4) Christine Love (www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAgT6lGwTiY) Darkest Dungeon (www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlRBzoKN4NY)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross wrap up their series on Paper Mario. Last week, we sprinted across the finish line with gusto. Chapter 3 was one of the strongest in the game. However this week, Paper Mario hits some doldrums before ultimately coming out just fine. LINKS OF NOTE: Jerky Boys (www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzUjSt9qIoY) FFX Arena (www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqaCV1S8XfU)[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross tear into Paper Mario. Simplicity and charm are two things you rarely find in JRPGs, but Paper Mario has both. It takes everything you know about the Mario universe, and runs it through a filter of pure joy. Join us for our "it's technically still Summer" JRPG, as we talk[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Zone of the Enders. LINKS OF NOTE: Radical Dreamers (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_Dreamers) Disability girls! (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katawa_Shoujo) Steins Gate (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steins;Gate) Ender's Game (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ender%27s_Game) What stories about spoiled kids should be (www.youtube.com/watch?v=imUzDynP6zM) Wet Hot American Summer (www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLlMTn_Jzok) Vic Viper (gradius.wikia.com/wiki/Vic_Viper) To the Moon (www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqkJuSV-23U)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross fly through Zone of the Enders. It's not bad for a game to be simple, or for a game to be slight. It's bad for a game to feel incomplete. That's what we're up against with Zone of the Enders. We went in expecting satisfying, flashy combat, but what we[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. LINKS OF NOTE: Pizza Totino's Boy (www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lPX5b9m7ro) Energy Hook (www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9xr1Z6UDEA) Enneagram of Personality (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enneagram_of_Personality) Wizardry 8 (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu6g7ivLGKc)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross branch out into Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. 999 is the winner of our Summer Reading poll. Considered by most to be one of the best entries in the Visual Novel(ish) genre, we take a look and see if it holds up to scrutiny. What we find is that[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Spider-Man 2. LINKS OF NOTE: Jay-Z is a business (genius.com/17918) Game of Thrones Board Game (www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZPbqpelVjs) The Red Balloon (www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2Y1tRBOXfA) Tomb Raider Suicide ITT (www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2W2K8oUplw) Just look at this cool fucking character (torment.wikia.com/wiki/Ignus)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross spin a yarn about Spider-Man 2. What happens when you have one great mechanic, one okay mechanic, and a bunch of other stuff that surrounds them? You get Spider-Man 2, the first superhero game that did a great job of making you feel like a superhero. The swinging is damn[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to L.A. Noire. LINKS OF NOTE: Toonstruck (www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIIXjulD3_w) How to Get Ahead in Advertising (www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJQHdhjQXgg) 3rd Man Sewer Chase (www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMgdpXvMeqo)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross get to the bottom of L.A Noire. It's 1947. The war is over, and changed men are returning to a changed nation. Cole Phelps, a Marine-turned-cop, must face down his own demons while tackling corruption in the system. This is a unique game, and while not everything holds up, the[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Demon's Crest. LINKS OF NOTE: Kemco iOS games (www.kemco-games.com/global/games.html)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross blaze through Demon's Crest. The Summer of SNES continues with Demon's Crest, a neglected entry in a neglected series. It takes non-standard platforming mechanics, and spreads them across a non-linear story rich with bosses and evocative gothic imagery. Be sure to grab this one on Virtual Console. LINKS OF NOTE:[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Harvest Moon and SimCity. LINKS OF NOTE: Robert Moses (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Moses) Butthead and his son Beavis do America (www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7WoJvEAuPU) Turboteen (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_Teen) Hancock (www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZQQgvhn4jg) Bunnies gotta jump (www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM9YWm6T_hc)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross manage to talk about Harvest Moon and SimCity (the SNES versions of both). This Split EP is dedicated to two SNES games that take it a little bit slow. Both Harvest Moon and SimCity ask the player to make decisions about how to use limited resources like time and money[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Katamari Damacy. LINKS OF NOTE: AGS (www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/) Whiskey LIbrary (www.multnomahwhiskeylibrary.com/) Crystal Clear Dew (www.mountaindew.com/dewshine/) Dew Mouth (www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/20…g-appalachias-teeth) Earth Defense Force (www.youtube.com/watch?v=BusBMaCg0GQ)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross heap praise on Katamari Damacy. It's simultaneously a singular expression, and one of the most eclectic games we've covered for the show. Katamari Damacy is an extremely simple game with one goal: to instill as much joy in you as possible. And it works. LINKS OF NOTE: Our Place in[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Super Metroid. LINKS OF NOTE: Dragon Age Inquisition (www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJqxfkgSUog) Landstalker (www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5hat4xLoVI) Alundra (www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTyDw2OthMo) Metroid Chronology (kotaku.com/the-spectacular-sto…gs-riche-1284029577) Mr. Bucket (www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqd41B-WAFo) Project Ukulele (www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/…t-ukulele.html) Metroid Music (www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrNszpBbpvY)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross gush about Super Metroid in this centennial episode of Watch Out for Fireballs! "Break Glass in Case of Emergency". There's a whole category of game that Gary and I avoid playing for the show. They're in the upper echelon. They're top tier. If we brought them out regularly, everything else[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross hide in a corner while Amnesia: The Dark Descent happens. This game won our Spring Survival Horror poll, and for good reason. Frictional mastered the "first person, pursuit-based exploration horror" genre, and created a game that's so scary that a lot of people can't even play it. Listen in, especially[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon. LINKS OF NOTE: Michael Kupperman (michaelkupperman.com/) Azure Dreams (www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o9KVgt4014) CoD Analysis (www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvN51r1o1Nc) Masters of Doom (www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Crea…ure/dp/0812972155) Anachronox (www.youtube.com/watch?v=isdE2R-j0CI)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross delve into Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon. If you're judging this game on adorableness, it passes with flying colors. If you're judging it on mechanics, it's the best introduction to Roguelikes you're likely to get. If you're judging it on story... Wait, where's Rafaello? I love him so god damn[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Commander Keen 4 and 5, along with some straggler responses to Call of Duty 4. LINKS OF NOTE: Darkest Dungeon (www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQLxdHfMPF8) Keen Dreams (www.youtube.com/watch?v=scC5hbMQYlE) Thank you for Smoking (www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBELC_vxqhI) No, I cannot find anything for Pork, The Zork Like.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross walk backward and talk about Commander Keen in "Goodbye, Galaxy!" We're always looking to shore up blind spots in the games we cover. After nearly four years of doing this show, it's important to avoid ruts. Commander Keen represents a particular stripe of PC platformers that was ultimately an evolutionary[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to... well, some weird stuff, because nobody wrote in about Call of Duty 4 on time. LINKS OF NOTE: Jan and Dean (www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_Qr6Ky1Lbg) The Fabled Lands (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabled_Lands) Wolf in White Van (www.nytimes.com/2014/09/26/books/…rnielle.html?_r=0)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross noscope with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Call of Duty has become emblematic of AAA bloat. Podcasts like ours tend to dismiss it out of hand as the poster child for a kind of game that hasn't just run out of ideas, but refuses to be reflective about the[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to game book and Choose Your Own Adventures. LINKS OF NOTE: Choose Your Own Autobiography (www.amazon.com/Neil-Patrick-Harr…phy/dp/0385346999) The Aviator Book (www.amazon.com/Howard-Hughes-The…ife/dp/0312329970) The Crystal Trap (zelda.wikia.com/wiki/The_Crystal_Trap)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross venture forth to discuss game books, choose your own adventures, and Steve Jackson's Sorcery! What is game? It's any interactive experience that has both failure states and a success state. By that reasoning, game books are games. Also, it's in the name. This special episode is all about non-video interactive[...]

Gary Butterfield, Kole Ross, and Zack Johnson read your responses to Star Control II, then talk about disgusting stuff for a little while. LINKS OF NOTE: Ultranomicon (wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Star_Control_II) Chubby Bunny (www.snopes.com/horrors/parental/chubbybunny.asp) Rainbow Party (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_par…_%28sexuality%29) S-Rank (www.giantbomb.com/s-rank/3015-2962/)

Gary Butterfield, Kole Ross, and Zack Johnson open a hailing frequency to talk about Star Control II. The Ur-Quan and their battle thralls have dominated this quadrant of the galaxy, and it's up to a human crew with some Precursor technology to reunite the Alliance of Free Stars and act as liberators. This is a[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Jet Set Radio. The audience was mostly in agreement with us that the game is a case of style over substance. But tune in to hear the praise anyway, because damn is that style good. Also, Brayton Cameron calls in to educate us on where the[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross dig through the ditches of Jet Set Radio. It's gang warfare in its most stylish and innocent form. It's also a gleeful tribute to free expression in the face of corporate oppression. It's got one of the best soundtracks in any game, ever. Difficulty issues aside, this is a unique[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Brave Fencer Musashi. LINKS OF NOTE: These guys. Don't watch this (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt0_oPPK6eA) Malabar Farm (www.youtube.com/watch?v=A42yI287qD4) Treehouse Cuts (www.yelp.com/biz/the-tree-house…nd-toys-new-york-2) Palace music (www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpJ8ZrQ0DyQ)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross absorb Brave Fencer Musashi. What happens when a young swordsman is summoned into a world built entirely around food puns? An episode that splits our hosts on whether or not Brave Fencer Musashi stood the test of time. This won our Winter Action RPG 2015 poll, and Kole sincerely hopes[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Rock Band. Links of Note: Gneiss Schist (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schist) Guitar Hero Arcade (guitarhero.wikia.com/wiki/Guitar_Hero_Arcade)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross jam on Rock Band. Music games used to be massive, but now they barely exist. Those plastic instruments helped us feel like we could play music. For me personally, these games helped me get better at appreciating music, and encouraged me to learn more instruments myself. Rock Band was the[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Links of Note: Pollos Hermanos (www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIQ2F3T1ydM) Greatest Mod of All Time (www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF-XMtNEudQ) LGNPC. Look at these fonts! (lgnpc.org/) False Dmitriy (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_Dmitriy_I) KOTOR iOS (www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYFO1ESyJzA)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross meander through the remaining quest lines in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. This is the final chapter of our Morrowind adventure. Things take a religious bent as we look at the Tribunal Temple and the Imperial Cult, then we get a little martial with the Imperial Legion. We ask which[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross profess ambivalence about the guild quests in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Sure, the world is in danger... but there's rats to be slain. Also, corrupt and inept guild leaders to oust. Part 2 of our Morrowind series dives into the Fighters, Mages and Thieves guilds, along with the Morag[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross expand upon the main quest of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. It's the biggest game we've ever done for the show. It's so big that it's immune to our usual treatment. This isn't a text you can read from front to back. Instead, it's a world you inhabit. This episode[...]

The attendees of the Portland Retro Games Expo 2014 speak their minds about Street Fighter II.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross frame-jab a double-floop in Street Fighter II, live from the Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2014. We managed to do it, guys. We managed to not only expose how bad we are at Street Fighter II to a whole convention hall of convention-goers... but we got up on stage and acted[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. Links of Note: Wolfman Jack (www.youtube.com/watch?v=99z-H_NEccU) Lockjaw: marvel.wikia.com/Lockjaw_(Earth-616)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross analyze I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. An evil AI named AM has destroyed the world, but he saved five people... in order to torture them for an eternity. Why did he pick these five people? This strange adventure game answers that question through symbolism, ironic punishment, and[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to the 2002 remake of Resident Evil. Links of Note: 3T Scroat (www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-6YU1vX3-0) Cellulitis (www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-condit…on/con-20023471) The Thing. You should watch this movie (www.youtube.com/watch?v=p35JDJLa9ec)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross experiment with the 2002 remake of Resident Evil. It's the best example of what a video game remake should be: Don't just keep what worked before, but add to it while still remembering what made the original special. The first Resident Evil is an establishing work in the survival horror[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to God Hand. Links of Note: Owen Good False Equivocating (twitter.com/owengood/status/521000335507464192) The Escapist on Gamergate (storify.com/alexlifschitz/escapist-drama) Clowns. Look at these clowns (www.kotaku.com.au/2014/08/when-if-…-on-your-resume/) Mazinger Theme (www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZZvb_vqEao)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross get spanked by God Hand. It's as simple as can be: You have special kung fu arms, and demons want them. What follows is one of the craziest games we've played for the show. Crazy FUN, that is. By all rights, we shouldn't like this as much as we do,[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Half-Life. Links of Note: All American Magic Show (magicpdx.com/) Gummo (www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtY_545-ST8) Lost Highway (www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZowK0NAvig) Black Mesa Source (www.youtube.com/watch?v=lul60ixy_40) Divinity Original Sin (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mea7Pa3rhJU) Prey (www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX6AXRFVPss)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross bang out a conversation about Half-Life. It's pretty safe to divide first person shooters into two categories: everything that came before Half-Life, and everything that came after Half-Life. Gordon Freeman's journey through Black Mesa has left an indelible mark on video game history... but does it hold up? Links of[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Half-Life. Links of Note: All American Magic Show (magicpdx.com/) Gummo (www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtY_545-ST8) Lost Highway (www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZowK0NAvig) Black Mesa Source (www.youtube.com/watch?v=lul60ixy_40) Divinity Original Sin (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mea7Pa3rhJU) Prey (www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX6AXRFVPss)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross bang out a conversation about Half-Life. It's pretty safe to divide first person shooters into two categories: everything that came before Half-Life, and everything that came after Half-Life. Gordon Freeman's journey through Black Mesa has left an indelible mark on video game history... but does it hold up? Links of[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Contra and Little Nemo: The Dream Master. LINKS OF NOTE: Desert Golfing (www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TTl5uByusk) XOXO (2014.xoxofest.com) Badass Store in Portland (paxtongate.com/) Contra AGDQ (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk81FLx_Zog)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross turn the tables on the back half of Suikoden II. The tides of war are turning, and the City State of Jowston is making its advances on the Highland Army and the evil Luca Blight. But what happens after they win? Our opinion of Suikoden II remains high, but some[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to the first half of Suikoden II. Links of Note: Iron Sheik (twitter.com/the_ironsheik) iOS Dragon Quest (www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CCAMcaJMo8) Lunar 2 Collector's Edition (cdn10.mixrmedia.com/wp-uploads/wire…at-94801-am.jpg) Boxing Ghaleon (client-cdn.crystalcommerce.com/photo/pin…407288525) PRGE (retrogamingexpo.com/)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross join up to talk about the first half of Suikoden II. It's Summer RPG time, and this year we turn our attention toward Suikoden II. It's probably known best nowadays for being incredibly rare and expensive, but there's so much more that makes this game remarkable. The tense struggle between[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Metal Gear: Ghost Babel. Links of Note: Lowtax LP (www.youtube.com/watch?v=qISSdqMJF…-OOTb0rqZr6bJlMkQ) American Science and Surplus (www.sciplus.com/) Disappointed (www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9gC1GiSDDA) Covered Bridge Video (youtu.be/WyO18one8fU) Carmageddon (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmageddon)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross wheez Metal Gear: Ghost Babel. It’s Solid Snake’s tiniest adventure yet! Returning to an old place to fight an old enemy, this unjustly forgotten entry in the series returns to Metal Gear’s roots on the MSX. 2D stealth is great. This game defies what you’d expect from the Gameboy Color.[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Cave Story.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross plumb the depths of Cave Story. It’s a story that will make you feel like you’ve wasted your life. A while back, a single man dedicated five years to singlehandedly crafting one of the most beloved modern platformers. Oh, and he also fired the starting pistol on the indie game[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within. LINKS OF NOTE: Reunification Day: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reunification_Day Vacation Movies: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rMcRJVY1-0

Gary Butterfield, Kole Ross, and Will Owens sniff around Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within. FMV games are a bizarre evolutionary dead end, but we found the very best one to give the WOFF! treatment. Gabriel Knight is back on the case, in full living color, hunting down a Bavarian werewolf and learning a little[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your thoughts on Crackdown. LINKS OF NOTE: Patton Oswalt on Brian Dennehy: www.youtube.com/watch?v=boTKLuI7nzM Infamous: www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-NBsSfxH30 Saint’s Row 4: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT03ezSnVL8

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross kick it, you know, just talkin’ ‘bout Crackdown. With the announcement and release of the Xbox One, the Xbox 360 is now just retro enough for us to not feel bad covering it. What better place to start than the pack-in that came with the Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta? Crackdown[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your thoughts on X-Men Legends II. LINKS OF NOTE: The most insane thing ever. Watch this: shakefire.com/video/spider-man-t…e-show-performance U Talkin’ U2 To Me? www.earwolf.com/show/u-talkin-u2-to-me/ Ecks Vs Sever: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8InYkHIP54w

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross tap into X-Men Legends II. Tappa tappa tappa. Tappa tappa tappa. We can’t let Apocalypse win! This marks our first foray into Diablo-likes, talking about the one and only time the X-Men and Brotherhood joined forces for the greater good. LINKS OF NOTE: Aggro Crag: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P8R9fxOOdc Mr. Sinister: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc80tFJpTuo Age[...]

Gary Butterfield, Kole Ross, and Ben Merkel interview Chris Avellone about Alpha Protocol, then read your thoughts on the same game. LINKS OF NOTE: Days of Future Past (www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsjtg7m1MMM) Transistor (www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJmtn6JP7Ug) Turn up the Radio (www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8CcTYsMHYU) Kendama (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendama) Deck of Many Things (www.wizards.com/dnd/dmt/dmt.htm) Friday the 13th The Series (www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNYoUHd82RE) Shoot'em Up (www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlx4n_ibNZE) The Culture (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture)[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross investigate Alpha Protocol. We’re talking about talking, as Mike Thorton gets double, triple, and quadruple-crossed on his mission to save the world from all-out-war. What’s the opposite of a critical darling? A critical bastard? Whatever it is, we seek to call out what works in this maligned gem. LINKS OF[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your thoughts on Killer7. LINKS OF NOTE: Goodbye Cruel World: www.youtube.com/watch?v=55Csg0XCGIk Tiger Lady: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD-I8omPcVs

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross deconstruct Killer7. I can't even pretend to summarize what happens in Killer7. It even defies genre delineation. Instead, I will go with the angle that Killer7 is an incredibly divisive game that places style over substance... and how much you'll enjoy it depends on how much you dig the style.[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your thoughts on Shadow of the Colossus. Also, at the end, we do some Hardware followup. LINKS OF NOTE: Combo Breaker: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezdptxvyAxo Cut Colossi: teamico.wikia.com/wiki/Unused_Colossi RE4 Super Bunny Hop: www.youtube.com/watch?v=urpHwgOujcw Gameboy Light: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameBoyline Rockband Blitz: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU2gkLJegf4

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross surmount a discussion about Shadow of the Colossus. We generally like to avoid talking about things that have been game-clubbed to death, but Shadow of the Colossus is an unabashed masterpiece. We don’t want to give to much away, but here’s a hint: you kill a bunch of huge monsters[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your stories about video game hardware. LINKS OF NOTE: Rocksmith: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaHsqGSetVo Deus Ex Lecture: www.youtube.com/channel/UCkpl-VMsq1m9AcWb2QMFHww Cartridge Tilting: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM6JPLUJoIk

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross drop some science in a survey course about video game hardware. Rounding out our roster of Kickstarter special episodes, this one is a whirlwind tour of the boxes and dinguses that make video games work. Side A is systems and controllers, while Side B is weird accessories. LINKS OF NOTE:[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your thoughts on Blade Runner. LINKS OF NOTE: Turtles are gross: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCjsWpM9zFU Lorenzo Music: www.youtube.com/watch?v=luKppFZvG3U Lego Movie: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTP9U0oDDKg Todd Redden: www.random.org/acknowledgements/ Ingmar Bergman: www.youtube.com/watch?v=anvRFJFUnRE Active Worlds: www.activeworlds.com/index.html Gateway: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe8aJxUqhh0

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross eye Blade Runner. It would be hard to find a movie that’s had more influence on video games than Blade Runner. So what happens when you make a video game in that world? You get something pretty neat. LINKS OF NOTE: Live Porn Feed: boston.barstoolsports.com/random-thoug…fascinating/ Radiant AI: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVAYY5LHhv4 Gemini Rue:[...]

Gary Butterfield, Kole Ross, and Bob Mackey read your response to Deadly Premonition, and then talk about noisy fish. LINKS OF NOTE: Big Mouth Billy Bass: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WC6EbRQmJ0 Let’s Play Deadly Premonition: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFpYKx9m3…L845B60D60A411471

Gary Butterfield, Kole Ross, and Bob Mackey ask Zach whether or not Deadly Premonition is worth playing (it is). Continuing the WOLF (Watch Out for Lens Flare!) Initiative, we address the quirkiest survival horror game of the past decade. Francis York Morgan is an FBI agent who specializes in investigating the murders of young women.[...]

EXTRASODE Gary Butterfield, Kole Ross, and Brad Carey read your effusive praise for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. LINKS OF NOTE: The Odd Life of Timothy Green: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG0iWQgeRao Tokyo! www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BX3RyE68Xk Michelle Gondry Box: www.theonion.com/articles/michel-…w-cardboar,2445/ Baby From Nevermind: blog.sfgate.com/sfmoms/2011/09/26…d-baby/#1172101=0 THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR: Latchkey Kingdom: latchkeykingdom.com/

Gary Butterfield, Kole Ross, and Brad Carey tell you what you already know about The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. What’s left to say about A Link to the Past? Seriously, this is the Zelda that you know and love… and the Zelda that got you to love Zelda. We want to[...]

Gary Butterfield, Kole Ross, and Brayton Cameron read your thoughts on Master of Orion II, then we goof around a little. LINKS OF NOTE: American McGee: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG_-3T1Tljw Mr. Limpet: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sItfoiWpnb8 DJ Hero: www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-Q8r4-VM_Y Tech Deck: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp1VRRZGYi0 Repo Men: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl9Nvg4yuus Moo and Oink: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz8fTbLjo9c My Cat From Hell: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNXBQWYd5w4

Gary Butterfield, Kole Ross, and Brayton Cameron explore, expand, expound, and express their love of Master of Orion II: The Battle at Antares. Continuing our Winter of Strategy, we now turn our attention to the 4X genre by tackling the king of the genre. Brayton requested MoO2 for the show, and it quickly became clear[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your thoughts on both Star Fox and Pokemon Snap. LINKS OF NOTE: Stella: www.stellacomedy.com/ Keepin’ The Beat! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi4iGjiYgD8 Song of the Year: www.rhcp2014.com/ Rockband Lawsuit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GuitarHero…the_80s#Lawsuit Gripitandripit: jondalyisjohndaly.com/ Thunderbirds: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDX5Mlz46Vg Starfox Cover: ocremix.org/files/images/games/…-front-jp-33340.jpg Lifeline: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uYQr2NK7go

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross offer some pointed praise for Star Fox and Pokémon Snap. In another one of our split EP episdes, we explore a foundational on-rails shooter, and an experimental on-rails shooter. Star Fox for the SNES will alway stick out in people’s minds as the game that introduced them to the term[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross are joined by Levi, Nick, Ben, and Courtney for a very special live play session of Dungeons & Dragons. We've been talking about it for a while, and here it finally is. Thanks to your Kickstarter donations, it was possible for us to record a live play session of Pathfinder,[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross put pen to paper (in an audio sense) to talk about Dungeons & Dragons and its legacy in this very special episode. If you’ve ever played a game where a number was assigned to a character, you have D&D to thank for that. This is a very special episode made[...]

Gary Butterfield, Kole Ross, and Brian read your thoughts on Heroes of Might and Magic III. LINKS OF NOTE: Mazes and Monsters: www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6AOd6r6Qi8 Murphy Brown: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQRKJLoTjIw Rekall: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJEllFk3Hqw That D and D book I was talking about: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30Yearsof…eons%26Dragons The Forge: www.heroesofmightandmagic.com/heroes3ab/…town.shtml Zoo: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzaD97OslAs The Original Mr. Hands: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigby_(Greyhawk)

Gary Butterfield, Kole Ross, and Brian skirmish with Heroes of Might and Magic III. PC strategy games have been something of a blind spot for us, but Heroes III is the perfect entry point. People really love this game, and we can tell why. The different Town types make up for the kind of nonsense[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your thoughts on Dishonored. LINKS OF NOTE: Sex Type Thing: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxXf7yFH7q4 Credits Song from Dishonored: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyTCtbYNzRg Biblical Leviathan: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leviathan

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross hunch over and gruffle a can of Dishonored. Games aren’t very good at depicting nuanced ethics. Is it better to kill someone for revenge, or sentence them to a lifelong fate worse than death? That’s what we go through with Corvo, the disgraced royal bodyguard who has been framed for[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Snatcher. LINKS OF NOTE: Badger: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eVez_EpeuM Chrimbus: www.youtube.com/watch?v=V399tenKALA

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about, look at, and investigate Snatcher. Can you trust your eyes? Will all of these moments be lost like tears in rain? How far can you stretch the line between homage and plagiarism before it straight up snaps? Gillian Seed and his plucky little robot buddy Metal Gear are[...]

Gary and Kole are joined by Chris Avellone to talk about the creation of Fallout 2. We also read your letters about the game.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross radiate praise for the last half of Fallout 2. Continuing our search for the GECK, we run across crime lords, run down mining towns, and a conspiracy to kill all people on earth. Worst of all? Hubologists. LINKS OF NOTE: Bobby Fischer: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archiv…endgame/302634/ Battletoads: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlRMunEPAYg Miss Kitty: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QhBI5uUoTc Blues Brothers:[...]

Kole and Gary read your responses about the first part of Fallout 2. LINKS OF NOTE: Quit! (5by5.tv/quit)

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross choose to talk about the first part of Fallout 2. Not only are you the descendant of the person who saved humanity from utter destruction, but you’re also called “The Chosen One”. Pressure much? The Garden of Eden may be a biblical allegory, but it never feels less real than[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Eternal Darkness. LINKS OF NOTE: Skype Ads: community.skype.com/t5/Windows-desk…733807#U1733807

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross lose their shit while talking about Eternal Darkness. Where is my mind? In this very spooky episode of our show, we talk about one of the best survival horror games out there. The Roivas family, along with a cast of characters plucked from everywhere in the timeline of history, must[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross roll their experiences with fun centers up a gentle slope and into a small hole, rewarding them with points and (hopefully) tickets. Two grown-ass men return to conquer the Valhalla of their youth. Mini Golf. Go Karts. Batting Cages. Ticket Games. In lieu of blood, our reward was tickets. Our[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses to Bioshock.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross drill deep into Bioshock. Somewhere under the sea, all hell has broken loose. In this first episode of our “Watch Out for Lens Flare!” series, we explore one of the most beloved games of this generation. A choice-based first-person shooter obscures a brilliant survival horror game, with some of the[...]

Gary Butterfield, Kole Ross, and Sam Anderson read your responses about Kirby Super Star. LINKS OF NOTE: Josh Groban (duckfeed.tv/pitch/19) Fear 3 Co Op (www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlJWqLOZ8tk) Gameboy Camera (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Camera)

Gary Butterfield, Kole Ross, and Sam Anderson fully absorb Kirby Super Star. We’re rectifying a pretty big blind spot in our Nintendo pantheon here by addressing Kirby Super Star. Usually this text expounds on a pithy overview of a game’s plot and premise. How do you do that when you’re playing a literal Fun Pak[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross are joined by Ron Gilbert to talk about Monkey Island 2. Also, your responses and our deleted scenes. LINKS OF NOTE: Why Adventure Games Suck (grumpygamer.com/2152210) Blazing Saddles Ending (www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMK6lzmSk2o) Monkey Island Stump (www.miwiki.net/The_Stump_Joke) Save Scumming (tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SaveScumming) Twin Peaks Black Lodge (www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UzvsEGtSqU) BlackBar (gizmodo.com/blackbar-for-ios-yo…fi-adven-1203809518) Ron's Twitter (twitter.com/grumpygamer) Grumpy Gamer (grumpygamer.com/)[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross determine how dry dem bones actually are in Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. If Guybrush is so hapless... then what does it say about LeChuck? I mean, dread pirate keeps getting all defeated and shit. No matter how big the adventure gets, LeChuck doesn't stand much of a chance. Come[...]

LINKS OF NOTE: FF7 PC Mods: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsOW6y4gCpk Manic Pixie Dream Girl: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBNss2PMj60 Problem with Memes: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaKYsLQ-98A New Order: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK4xVWVOAOc Weedlord Bonerhitler: gawker.com/5916751/gop-trolled…care-petition-stunt Farm Aid: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ123T3zD2k Ballooning: www.vistaballoon.com/

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross go supernova on the final third of Final Fantasy VII. Thus concludes our longest saga ever: Final Fantasy VII. We hope you enjoyed it, because we likely don’t have another one in us (at least for a year). Cloud is lost to the world, WEAPON is on the loose, and[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross plunge into their second episode about Final Fantasy VII. The chase continues as Sephiroth flees ever northward. As we follow him, we reveal more of his past… but mostly uncover more mysteries about What Exactly is Going On Here. Also, we spend a great deal of time talking about… you[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross take their discussion of the first part of Final Fantasy VII to the limit. This is the beginning of a long saga. Not just for one of the most popular games ever, but for our discussion of it. Final Fantasy VII is kind of controversial, which is probably why we[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross respond to your discussion prompts from our Kickstarter campaign. Thanks so much to everyone who donated! LINKS OF NOTE: San Juan: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8217/san-juan KoL Con: kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/KoL_Con First Person Scholar: duckfeed.tv/woff/www.firstpersonscholar.com Small World: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/40692/small-world Call of Cthulhu: catalog.chaosium.com/pages.php?CDpath=29 [Risk](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_(game) Spin Doctors: www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-ddBoeherY Monster Party: www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2UryJZkDmo Amiga Mousetrap: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ggm_FzXiJE Starman: www.youtube.com/watch?v=33SRo5oE_NI Uhh Yeah[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your responses about Indigo Prophecy. Then we talk about resisting arrest, saving the world, and IKEA. LINKS OF NOTE: It’s Hammer! www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufoVE-3gfLY Odin: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odin ChipCheezum: www.youtube.com/user/ChipCheezumSA

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross express a chilly attitude toward Indigo Prophecy. It’s the strongest opening in adventure game history: Lucas Kane has murdered a man in cold blood, and he has no idea why. The rest of the game is dedicated to unraveling this mystery… and the answer is disappointing. LINKS OF NOTE: Hardball:[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross read your thoughts on Castlevania III, then talk about Chuck E Cheese, Pete and Pete, and GameFAQS bounties. LINKS OF NOTE: Chuckie Cheese: www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4OFbSQQXWE Rockafire Explosion: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yNitSBXzsA Pete and Pete: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJsJeKA6wDo US/JP Differences in Castlevania 3: castlevania.wikia.com/wiki/Castlevan…aIII:Dracula Fast Karate for The Gentleman: www.daveandjoel.com/

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross get cracking and talk about Castlevania III. Oh, and this is our 50th episode. An ancient evil awakens, a hero rises from disgrace, and spooky skeletons roam Europe. We’re not sure what foul oversight caused us to wait 50 episodes to talk about a Castlevania game, but here we are.[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk a lot about poop, and a little about Soul Blazer. LINKS OF NOTE: Kickstarter PUA Retraction: www.kickstarter.com/blog/we-were-wrong?page=6 Powerhouse: www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9-7uLg-DZU I Am a Rock: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKlSVNxLB-A Shy Boys: IRL: vimeo.com/28466163 This American Life: Switcheroo: www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archiv…8/switcheroo

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross release an episode about Soul Blazer. We don’t really have good luck with action RPGs. While Soul Blazer is plenty charming, it’s definitely an early, simplistic take on the genre. Deathtoll has captured all living things, and it’s up to you to save them… but heroism is pretty repetitive. LINKS[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about cancelled cartoons, improv comedy, and a little bit about Deus Ex. LINKS OF NOTE: State of Decay (www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8yvLrjnGdU) An Underground Education (www.amazon.com/Underground-Educa…ent/dp/0385483767) Scurvy Scallywags (www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTY9pac7GtM) Tappa Tappa Tappa (www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOKt1z1TkvU) Cornfed Pig (www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdHiHpYYGyg) Mission Hill (www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGhmrt5bnlo) Sunglasses at Night (www.it-he.org/deus.htm) Marc Norton Improv Group (www.youtube.com/nortonbrown) Art Bell (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Bell) Deus[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross touch base on the second half of Deus Ex. The search for the truth continues, as J.C. Denton defects from UNATCO in order to fight Majestic 12. On the way he will side with the Illuminati, discover “aliens”, and visit as many military bases as possible. The last leg of[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about “This is Water”, why marketing is evil, liquor, and a little about Deus Ex. LINKS OF NOTE: Sponsored Content Pretty Fucking Awesome: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevia This is Water (Video): www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlhVgn7sKv0 This is Water (Speech): www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFt7EzpsZQo The Transporter Oil Scene: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot2RkUSRjmg Steez: www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=steez Stevia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevia Scariest Norton Furniture: www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2z1YroJT…t=RD024jubP3t27IQ Lazy Horse:[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross blow the lid off of the first half of Deus Ex. Everything you’ve heard is true. The fluoride in your water is intended to keep you docile. Black Helicopters are tracking your grocery habits. And smoking will kill others. Deus Ex is a delightful and terrifying game, where your hero[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about how awful the world is, taking advantage of disabled people, and the importance of staying hydrated. LINKS OF NOTE: Disabled Tour Guides: startingpoint.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/15/…r-new-book/ Matt Bors: Millennials Aren’t Lazy, They’re Fucked: www.mattbors.com/blog/2013/05/09/…y-theyre-fucked/ House that’s always on fire: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF9yFCSICE8 Ollie’s Discount Warehouse: www.olliesbargainoutlet.com/ R. Crumb: xaharts.org/va/i/crumb/crumbartbook-s.jpg Bilboquet: www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/VirtualExh…uet/pages/

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross chip into a kickflip to talk about both Mario Golf and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2. We were originally going to talk about Mario Golf 64, but it wasn’t robust enough. So, in a first for the show, we expanded our discussion to the entire series. Our conclusion is that[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross briefly talk about huge houses in Neverwinter Nights, the Dishonored DLC, and a little bit about Max Payne.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross enter an altered state to talk about Max Payne. Your wife and only child are dead, and you want blood. Also, it’s a noir video game. We ultimately express our indifference towards the shooter genre, but we love the presentation bits enough to extend a lot of good will toward[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about genitals, outakes, and a little bit about Metroid Prime. LINKS OF NOTE: Scrotum: en.wiktionary.org/wiki/scrotum Couch St. news.travel.aol.com/2010/08/27/portland-slang/

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross slather themselves with Phazon and talk about Metroid Prime. An ancient evil springs of a meteor, a verbose race of bird people leave you notes, and a classic series is taken to 3D. Neither of us beat the game this time around, but we played enough to know that it[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about Roger Ebert’s death, gym class, dying young, and a little bit about Sonic 3 and Knuckles. LINKS OF NOTE: Jeff Goldblum on SNL: www.funnyordie.com/videos/25633d24…jeopardy-5-9-98 Kurt Braunohler Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/309790…s-cloud-project Gamers.txt: forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.p…pagenumber=6 In this Friendly Friendly World: www.youtube.com/watch?v=41n3mwCcZQ4 Battlefield Earth: www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0R_FR9pD2k Snake’n’Bacon: video.adultswim.com/snake-n-bacon/ Newsies: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqPuGMgT6yw Earthball: cdn.wl.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploa…ks-gym-ball..jpg

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross sprint through Sonic 3 and Knuckles. Something about emeralds, something about robots, something about going real fast. There's some measure of debate over what the best Sonic game is, but Sonic 3 and Knuckles is probably the grandest expression of what "Sonic" is all about. We vacilitate for a while[...]

Gary Butterfield explains why there isn't a new episode of WOFF! today. Kole Ross is in an iron lung at the Mayo Clinic after getting into a car accident. We will return next week with our previously scheduled Sonic 3 and Knuckles episode.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about Orson Welles, Transformers, we spoil the shit out of the Walking Dead, and say a little bit about Resident Evil 2. LINKS OF NOTE: Resident Evil 0 Resident Evil Novels Orson Welles Frozen Peas James Adomian Orson Welles Pinky and the Brain Frozen Peas Transformers Dance Party

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross experience an outbreak of positive opionions toward Resident Evil 2. Thousands have died, but don't worry... they're back again. Raccoon City is overrun with zombies and the ultimate bioweapon is on the loose. We join a biker girl and a rookie cop as they uncover a massive conspiracy, in what[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about kidnapping, David Fincher’s low points, poorly explained memes, and a little bit about the last half of Final Fantasy Tactics. LINKS OF NOTE: HP Lovecraft Film Festival: www.hplfilmfestival.com/ Shanghai Tunnels: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghaiing The Game: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kqQNBR09Rc Alien 3 Original Concept: www.empireonline.com/features/alien…wooden-planet/

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross summon up the courage to talk about the last half of Final Fantasy Tactics. Ramza is a heretic, and the political intrigue we once knew is being replaced slowly by demon possession. FFT is still an amazing game that we would recommend, but its back nine is decidedly inferior to[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about death, backlogs, how to say an interrogative, and a little bit about the first half of Final Fantasy Tactics. LINKS OF NOTE: Meteor videos: www.youtube.com/watch?v=90Omh7_I8vI Xenosaga Episode 1: amazon.com/dp/B00005BW7Q Phil Lamarr: www.imdb.com/name/nm0482851/?ref=sr1 Welcome to the Jungle: www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1tj2zJ2Wvg Shackler’s Revenge: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIqBA3UAO3E Mike Patton: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PyST9Ps_DE

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross calculate the best way to make a podcast about the first half of Final Fantasy Tactics. A bitter war of succession, flowery prose, and grid-based combat. In what might be our most technical and considered podcast ever, we dive into the particulars of this storied title to find out exactly[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross continue their discussion of video game music and sound, get your raves and faves, then they go on for a while about Kevin Spacey, Tim Burton, comics, and R.E.M. LINKS OF NOTE: Dishonored ending song: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyTCtbYNzRg Spec Ops “Hush” scene: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWf9z14nYLY Snakeeater: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aHQnDTd1y4 Big Fish Ending: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO7Jc8N1LLM The Gathering of[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross make some noise about video game music and sound. We talk about it a lot: music and sound can make or break the game. In this unusual episode of the show, we do a deep dive into the history and particulars of why sound is important. NOTE: At no point[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about illicit deals, John Leguizamo, motion sickness, and a little bit about Yoshi’s Island. LINKS OF NOTE: Deviantart Poochy: browse.deviantart.com/?q=poochy Witches: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsA1L3M0y4g Super Mario Bros. the Movie: www.youtube.com/watch?v=15vfMqGEM The Pest: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2ZlZxtNll8 Saturn: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SaturnDevouringHis_Son Yoshi’s Story: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshi%27s_Story Quest 64: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_64 Jeremy: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS91knuzoOA

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross crack open Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island. Well, this game is delightful. It looks and sounds awesome, and is some of the best platforming to come out of the Mario series. Oh, and throwing eggs is great, too. LINKS OF NOTE: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshis_Island Dolls:[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about comics, Dino Crisis, Spec Ops: The Line, and a little bit about Parasite Eve. WARNING: WE SPOIL THE SHIT OUT OF NEW X-MEN. LINKS OF NOTE: New X-men: www.amazon.com/gp/product/078516…veASIN=0785165053 The Walking Dead: www.amazon.com/gp/product/160706…veASIN=1607060760 Dinocrisis: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp-59rTKNi4 Spec Ops: The Line: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0085N…veASIN=B0085NTITS

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross take a microscope to Parasite Eve. Organelles have run amok on New York City! It’s up to you to kill an actress who is possessed by your younger sister or an ancient woman from Africa or something! Squaresoft got really, really ambitious when they made this RPG/Survival Horror game. It[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about ice levels in games, GameStop woes, and HollywoodIsCalling.com. LINKS OF NOTE: Sonic 3 Ice Cap Zone: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYxlqTpZ-24 Little Penguin Lost Speed Run: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewy04vKiT…4y3kAF6i0oZfeaepg Jey Boy Jet Girl: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN0OYeVvyk4 Axe Cop: www.amazon.com/gp/product/159582…veASIN=1595826815 Hollywood is Calling: www.hollywoodiscalling.com/ “With Reshiram” (Eminem Parody): www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pla…ded&v=Re1_IdVjuaw

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross learn the true name of Shadowrun (SNES). You’re Jake Armitage, but you don’t know that. You wake up dead in a city crawling with people who want you to be even deader. You point and click and shoot your way to answers about who you are, and who killed you.[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about unacceptable living spaces, media fidelity, and a little bit about the last half of Fallout. LINKS OF NOTE: Goon Lairs!!! www.google.com/search?q=goon%20l…ILFKZH1iQKsroCQAQ Chris Avellone in Fallout: www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2n_9zSJiws The Things They Carried: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheThingsThey_Carried Swordfish: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUY8HysBzsE Ballistic: Ecks Vs Sever: www.youtube.com/watch?v=chWkH_iPD9k Remora: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z3pqp12UEg Cymothoa Exigua: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymothoa_exigua Trailer Park Boys: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWNSTNwClQY Toby[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross offer glowing praise for the last half of Fallout. Your vault has water. Hooray! Now you just have to deal with the big green dudes. It’s a story as old as time, with irradiated ruins, power armor, and TV monsters straight out of Videodrome. LINKS OF NOTE: Fallout: www.gog.com/gamecard/fallout Dragon[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about The Stand, Dark Souls, we spoil the shit out of the Walking Dead, and a little bit about the first half of Fallout. LINKS OF NOTE: Fallout: New Vegas: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0028I…=stunthdottran-20 Deal With It Gifs: www.funnyordie.com/lists/62bea1fdd…al-with-it-gifs Renegade: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUFgk54HetU Highlander: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YpOGCQO0Pw Holiday Spice Pepsi: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ListofPepsi_variations The Pitch: duckfeed.tv/thepitch The Stand:[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross radiate praise for the first half of Fallout. Great games. Great games never change…es. Continuing our infatuation with CRPGs, we delve into Gary’s favorite game of all time. This is a two-parter, so we cover everything up to the Water Merchants. Does it hold up? Yeop. LINKS OF NOTE: Fallout:[...]

Gary and Kole talk about progressive rock, Blade Runner, and a little bit about Metal Gear Solid. LINKS OF NOTE: Steely Dan: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steely_Dan Perchance to Dean: video.adultswim.com/the-venture-bro…ce-to-dean.html Blade Runner PC: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TNyP3zuvEM The Flaming Lips of Podcasting: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaireeka

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross engage in a protracted codec conversation expositionizing about Metal Gear Solid. You’re Solid Snake. Your twin brother is threatening the world with an unprecedented nuclear walking battle tank made of existing technology. It’s up to you, your codec radio, and hours of cut scenes to save the world as we[...]

Gary and Kole talk about game pitches, Gremlins 2, and John Daly. LINKS OF NOTE: Tomba! Episode: duckfeed.tv/woff/32 Spiritual Warfare: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpiritualW…are(video_game) Religious Video Games Dinocast Takeshi no Chosenjo: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeshino…%C5%8Dsenj%C5%8D Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn%26Teller Gremlins 2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgkDHwOYEps Milk: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufhZ2yUHj9Y Doctor Who Adventure Game: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DoctorWho:…Adventure_Games Bart Carny: www.imdb.com/title/tt0701054/quotes Chrontendo: www.youtube.com/user/chrontendo?f…ture=results_main Jungle Jim’s: www.junglejims.com/ Jon[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross give Tomba! a stone age beatdown. Evil Pigs have taken your grandpa’s watch and cast a curse over the entire world. It’s your job to… Wait, I can’t do this. To treat it seriously would be lying to you. Tomba! is a fondly remembered 2.5D platformer, but WOFF! hated it.[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross play Action Castle, talk about the most recent season of Breaking Bad, and talk a bit more about arcades. LINKS OF NOTE: Parsley Games: memento-mori.com/online-store/parsely-games/ Action Castle: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sehaj4mw38s Obesity B’s: www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8weDjGK5rA

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross grab the sticks and get to the bottom of why arcades are the best. This episode is in the same vein as Episode 30. Recorded in person, both in-studio and in the field, Gary and Kole talk about arcade experiences in their entirety… from their smoky childhoods to their current-day[...]

Gary Butterfield, Kole Ross, and the attendees of the Portland Retro Games Expo talk about Super Mario World. This episode is a bit of a different beast than our previous outings. Normally we play a game, then talk about it, and pepper in your thoughts. For this, we set up a booth at the Portland[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross investigate Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers. It’s no secret: We love adventure games. And we’ve done a lot of them recently. However, we’ve never done a Sierra adventure game, of which Gabriel Knight is probably the best. Funky accents aside, it’s got great dialogue, clever puzzles, and explores a[...]

Gary Butterfield, Kole Ross, and Ron Gilbert talk about bicycle safety, the way of the future, the horror of silence, and a little bit about Maniac Mansion. LINKS OF NOTE: Bicycle Safety Camp: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qli_U6yyZs0 The Way of the Future: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_Pbx9mvWPY

Gary Butterfield, Kole Ross, and Ron Gilbert achieve critical mass regarding Maniac Mansion. In a first for the show, WOFF! has the creator of a game in to talk about it. Maniac Mansion was foundational for both Gary and Kole, and it was a huge honor to have Ron Gilbert onto the show. If you[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about Maniac Mansion, steak, PAX Casual Encounters, and a little bit about a year of doing this show. LINKS OF NOTE: Maniac Mansion: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maniac_mansion Lorne Lanning: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorne_Lanning

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross celebrate WOFF!’s anniversary by talking about bad old NES games, retraux games, and transient game experiences. LINKS OF NOTE: Dead or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006…=stunthdottran-20 Sonic R: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s3dP8GUFSw Inception Sound: www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4a3y7xetJY Bad Street Brawler: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BadStreetBrawler Power Glove: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AacoxHFYvZw WOFF! Youtube Channel: www.youtube.com/watchoutforfireballs Time Lord: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TimeLord(video_game) Sonic 3D Dash: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_3D[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about color in games, linearity, sarsparilla and a little bit about the second half of EarthBound. LINKS OF NOTE: 5 Annoying Trends That Make Every Movie Look the Same | Cracked.com: www.cracked.com/article186645-a…ie-look-same.html Orange/Blue Contrast in Movie Posters | /Film: www.slashfilm.com/orangeblue-contr…n-movie-posters/ FedEx Arrow: www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/000273.php Seaman (video game) - Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaman(videogame)[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross put their spirits into robots in order to gush about the end of EarthBound. From a beach resort to a womb in the past, Earthbound remains one of the finest games we’ve played for this podcast. It’s not without its flaws, but we spend the majority of the episode gushing[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about lockjaw, Gary’s distaste for Homestar Runner, more Breaking Bad spoilers, and a little bit about the first half of Earthbound. LINKS OF NOTE: - Tetanus - Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetanus - The Exorcism Of Emily Rose Trailer HD - YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSy7DldFdUI - Inhumans - Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inhumans - Amazon.com: Blue Microphones[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross get weird with the first half of EarthBound. They say playing good RPGS (after a month of awful games) is healthful and dandy. We’ve found this to be true. Join us as we follow Ness and his friends on the most good-natured and surreal battle against unfathomable cosmic horrors ever[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about debauchery, random violence/tragedy, how fun it is to insult Kole, and a little bit about Sword of Mana. LINKS OF NOTE: The Rape of the Lock: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheRapeOfTheLock Live Rust: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000…veASIN=B000002KDI After the Gold Rush: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001VZ…veASIN=B001VZY4M8 Shawn Elliot: twitter.com/ShawnElliott Availability Heuristic: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_heuristic Se7en: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Se7en Zodiac Killer: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac_killer Just World[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross lambast Sword of Mana. It’s a veritable cornucopia of JRPG cliches: evil empire, plucky children, godlike powers… And a bunch of extraneous systems. It’s a remake of Final Fantasy Adventure, which was a perfectly good game, but it got spoiled. Listen and learn exactly how. LINKS OF NOTE: Mystic Quest:[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about the Earl of Lemongrab, Moonrise Kingdom, Breaking Bad, and a little bit about Sacrifice. LINKS OF NOTE: Frank Welker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Welker) The Earl of Lemongrab (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toA9Ffaj9MQ) Royal Tenenbaums "Needle in the Hay" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pyBB7y8fDU) Moonrise Kingdom (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eOI3AamSm8) For Your Consideration (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eto-FDIB2lw) Awful Movie Database - "Preciously Awkward" (http://www.somethingawful.com/d/awful-movie-database/preciously-awkward-juno.php) The Binding[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross bleed Sacrifice dry upon the altar of Good Taste in Games. You’re a wizard in a hostile land full of squabbling gods, each vying for the last scraps the shattered earth that float in the sky. You must ally with them and manipulate their struggle in order to save this[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about t-shirt cannons, consoles vs. PC, save states, and a little bit about Bionic Commando.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross latch onto the finer points of Bionic Commando. Pro-tip: There is no jump button. Instead, you must use your rad bionic arm to swing into the hidden bases of the Badds (NOT THE NAZIS) and rescue your mentor and life-mate Super Joe. In the process, you’ll blow up lightning Hitler[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross talk about a particular episode of The Simpsons, Pokemon, the Talking Heads, and a little bit about Psi-Ops. Links of Note Lisa the Vegetarian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_the_Vegetarian) You Only Move Twice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Only_Move_Twice) "Sorry It's Not in Packages" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VX4Lpf-xdg) Hank Scorpio's Coat (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmnEbbFxFb8) Gordy Howe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordy_Howe) John Byrne Adventure Time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_time) Zapdos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapdos)[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross hurl mixed praise at Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy… With their minds. You’re Nick Scryer (GET IT!?) and you can run, shoot, sneak, and bang people against walls like bloody, screaming rag dolls. Or make their heads explode. There’s a bunch of other stuff, with weird bosses and invisible monstrosities from[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross perform Boston chiptunes, sleepwalking, game novelizations, and a little bit about the MacVenture series.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross die repeatedly in their attempt to talk about the MacVenture games (Deja Vu, Uninvited, and Shadowgate). Hi! Can I ask you a question? Do you like pointing? Do you like clicking? Then you’ll sure love these three games. Before LucasArts, there was the MacVenture series… a group of games that[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross grinding, posthumous fame, and Joss Whedon.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross, despite their lack of fitness, survive long enough to discuss E.V.O.: The Search for Eden. You have 4.6 billion years to turn from a fish into a human so that you can have sex with the planet Earth. And that’s just the beginning of how weird E.V.O. is, which is[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross try out the skit material, bad organic art, and tattoos.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross will the second part of their Planescape: Torment episode into existence.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross will the second part of their Planescape: Torment episode into existence. And so it ends. We left off with a clue to find an old hag, but all we found was ourselves. Torment wraps up in a satisfying and mind-bending way, and there’s plenty to talk about as we dust[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross software updates, Emmanuelle, not missing Bart at all (BOH!).

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross get saccharine about Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. Klonoa nyaahs like a cat and is anime as hell. He’s also fated to save the world of dreams from Ghadius, who wants to unleash nightmares into the world. Is this cult classic overrated? Underrated? Listen and find out.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross gender benders, corn orbs, and survival-horror based crushes.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross leap into bottomless pits of effusive praise for Silent Hill 2. James Sunderland is a haunted man in a haunted town. Beckoned to Silent Hill by a letter from his dying wife, James is tortured by guilt as he’s drawn ever closer to revealing his own terrible secrets. Links of[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross discuss Action Castle, the blind, and GamePro.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross grind Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee to a pulp. Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee is a puzzle platformer that was revered in its time for its beautiful graphics, excellent sound, and abundant character. Unfortunately, its trial-and-error nature hasn’t aged well. This is possibly the most negative we’ve ever gotten about a game. Oddworld: Abe's[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross seedy hotels, Scrooge McDuck’s dark past, and free strategy guides.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross capitalize on the nostalgic popularity of Duck Tales. Duck Tales is regarded as one of the best NES games, and for good reason. Scrooge’s journey from the Himalayas to Transylvania to the Moon and back to Transylvania a few more times is one of the most novel and fun platformers[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross Brian Doyle Murray, exposition, and Christmas memories.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross kvetch about Metroid Fusion. What began as the most divisive game WOFF has ever covered quickly became the game we loved to bash. Metroid Fusion is the black sheep of the Metroid series, having broken many conventions and flown in the face of what people loved about Super Metroid. Turns[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross Downton Abbey, great lengths, and chronological perspective.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross survive after the end, and talk about the last half of Final Fantasy VI. Welp, we done lost. Kefka destroyed the world, and it seems like all hope is lost. The Returners have to conquer their pasts and regroup to storm Kefka’s tower, and bring rid the world of magic’s[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross game shame, literature, and college music.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross perform a delightful and emotionally affecting opera about the first half of Final Fantasy VI. The Empire is casting a black shadow across the land, and the Returners fight an increasingly futile battle to keep them at bay. Everything changes when a mysterious and magical woman breaks free from her[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross McRibs, Fatal1ty, and bus monsters.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross float to the moon to talk about Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. Mario has returned to his kingdom, only to find his throne usurped by the devious Wario. He must now venture forth and gather the six golden coins to unlock his castle and kick Wario out. Links[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross narrative, hypocrisy, and foreign lands.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross go on at length about The Longest Journey. The worlds are in peril, and it’s up to April Ryan to fulfill the prophecies and team up with a talking bird to maintain the Balance. The Longest Journey is the magnum opus (emphasis on magnum) of the adventure genre, and we[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross past experiences with Shadowrun, pen and paper RPGs, and try out weird accents.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross plug in and talk about Shadowrun for the Sega Genesis. It’s a dystopian cyberpunk future, and your brother is dead. By committing contract crimes and hacking into computers, you get to the bottom of the mystery and save the world. This game was very ahead of its time, being an[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross quaff the heady potion that is Zombies Ate My Neighbors. Dr. Tongue is wreaking havoc on suburbia, as creatures of the night spill forth from the soil and devour the innocent. It’s up to you to grab a friend and save your neighbor’s lives. This is possibly the most difficult[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross shine some daylight on Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. Being a vampire is tough. You’re doomed to an eternity of walking the Earth as a cursed living corpse, and most of those millennia will be spent running errands for your social betters. Bloodlines is a rare game in a rare[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross jump right into Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. The Mushroom Kingdom is in peril. The princess is missing, Bowser has been kicked out his home by a dimension-hopping blacksmith, and the Star Road has been destroyed. It’s up to Mario, a cloud prince who thinks he’s a[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross lose their minds re: Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. Welcome, Stranger, to a macabre world of undescribable cosmic horror. Feel how insignificant you are when face with non-euclidian angles and strange beasts. Don’t ask too many questions, though, and certainly don’t forget to lock your hotel door.[...]

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross get literary about Myst. Come with us to a magical world of sedate wandering, perplexing puzzles, and power-hungry brothers. Myst is one of the most well-known, and misunderstood titles on the PC, and we’re here to set the record straight.

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross ruminate on Mega Man X in this inaugural episode of Watch Out For Fireballs! To get you up to speed, every Maverick is a Reploid, but not all Reploids are Mavericks. X, Zero, and Sigma are characters, not math terms. And nobody knows what the hell a Kuwanger is.