Chamberlain and Chance

It happens every year: the doldrums. Yes, 'not E3' is over, but trailers of games that aren't coming out for years does little to sate the needs of the addict. Alex tried Lies of P, tried being the operative term. At least Steam allows refunds. Chamberlain is wasting his time with a mediocre console port of Titan Quest. And Chance is doing the unthinkable: watching movies. And playing Overwatch.

Welcome to the Zatoichi podcast! Chance is now at least half way through his quest of watching every single Zatoichi movie and he still loves them. Chamberlain is still on his quest to play nothing but games no one has heard of, this time uncovering an absolute gem in Crypt Custodian. And Alex has completed the impossible quest of finishing a co-op run of Baldur's Gate 3 with his wife AND remaining married at the end.Spoilers: no one bought a Switch 2, because why bother, and no one played Elden Ring Nighteign for similar reasons. Stands must be taken. Sometimes.

Chamberlain and Chance have finished Doom The Dark Age. Chance's opinion has softened. Yes, it is too easy but it was fun for the entire time. Chamberlain wants to work for his demon kills and was generally nonplussed, but hey, it was on Game Pass. Also this week, Alex revisits Red Dead Redemption 2 on his new PC and has a much better time with it that he did seven years ago.

Id has once again attempted to reinvent the wheel with Doom The Dark Age instead of just making a sequel to Doom 2016. Neither Chamberlain nor Chance are thrilled with it, but at least Chance is happy with the Star Wars Outlaws DLC and Chamberlain got a nice artsy 2D platformer in Neva. And Alex has done the impossible and kept his marriage whole through most of a co-op playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3.

Chamberlain and Alex both love and have pretty much finished Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Yes, it can be a bit on the difficult side at times, but turn based RPGs are so scarce that an excellent one coming out of nowhere is to be celebrated. Celebrated with lots and lots of spoilers! Chance did not like it, because he does not like turn based RPGs, and instead watched a whole bunch of movies while screwing up his Overwatch placement matches.

Truly, our cups runneth over. Clair Obscur Expedition 33 has come out to universal critical acclaim. Alex agrees, and contrary to his usual MO, Chamberlain also has qualified nice things to say, qualified because his heart still belongs to South of Midnight. Alex has also unlocked the 'wife plays games with me' achievement in multi-player Baldur's Gate 3. And Chance has finally taken a break from Assassin's Creed Shadows for the one cause that is possibly more noble than running around feudal Japan, stabbing dudes: killing nazis!

Chance has tried to leave feudal Japan, unsuccessfully. He is on playthrough two of Assassin's Creed Shadows after revisiting Ghost of Tsushima just long enough to see that it doesn't look as good. Chamberlain cannot believe that the same people who made We Happy Few just release South of Midnight, a game he loves in spite of its flaws. And Alex sticks by his strange statement that Blue Prince is an excellent puzzle game and not just something that put Chamberlain to sleep.

The Switch 2 has a release date and a price, sooner and more expensive than most people expected. There is probably an "Alex was right" moment in here somewhere. Also this week, Chance continues to make Chamberlain feel bad for giving up on Assassin's Creed Shadows so quickly. Alex tries and fails to just play a little bit of Elden Ring. And Chamberlain has experience the joys and tragedies of a fine British apocalypse in Atomfall.

Opinions on Assassin's Creed Shadows differ wildly this week. One of us declares it the best game in the series and the other dropped it after five hours. The third person was Alex, who dodged the entire argument by continuing on with Kingdom Come Deliverance II. Also this week: Iron Meat, helicoptering and figuring out who gets the dog after the breakup, Chamberlain or Ubisoft.

Chance continues on his Kingdom Come Deliverance II missionary venture, finally drawing Alex into its web. Now he too is brewing potions, forging weapons, failing speech checks, and he swears that he is having a good time doing it. Assassin's Creed Shadows has briefly stolen Chance's attention, but who knows for how long. And Chamberlain continues to play game that no one else has even heard of. This week: Valfaris Mecha Therion. That is not a typo.

Chance continues to live in Kingdom Come Deliverance II, molding his Henry into the sneakiest, sexiest, deadliest, most well spoken bloke that world has every seen. If he isn't king by the time he is done something is wrong. Chamberlain and Alex have slid into indies and AA titles. Chamberlain finds reasons to overlook Unknown 9's obvious flaws while Alex types his time way to success in Cryptmaster and fills the rest of his days with Brotato.

Chamberlain and Alex have both finished Avowed, so massive spoiler warning. They both had a great time but one did a better job teaching morals and values to a young immortal being than the other. Alex has also finished what there is of Hades II, declaring it a more than worthy sequel. And Chance is still living in Kingdom Come Deliverance II. Literally living there. He has forwarded his mail and spends most of his time out back in the alchemy shed.

Chamberlain has joined the 'Avowed is good' parade with Alex, calling it the arcade racing game of first person open world RPGs, which coming from him is a compliment. Alex is approaching the end of said game because because not everything needs to be over 100 hours long. And Chance has taken the exact opposite approach to playing digital pretend with Kingdom Come Deliverance II, a game whose moment to moment gameplay Chamberlain compares to the horse testicles in Red Dead Redemption II.

Alex is officially part of the problem: he has paid for early access to Avowed and after around two hours declares exactly what he always wanted. Chamberlain bounces off of everything before fighting with a new TV and Chance plays through Sekiro again and again, honing his skills, preparing for Elden Ring Nightreign.

Only Chamberlain is playing something new, suffering through the new normal of obnoxiously difficult metroidvania bosses, courtesy Ender Magnolia. It's not as mean as Grime, but it's close. Chance has rediscovered Sekiro and is somehow better at it now than when he finished it the first time. And Alex finished the final Skyrim DLC over a decade after release. It's about time.

Sexy vampires or corpse-like monsters? Goth or weeb? New mediocre games or ten plus year old masterpieces? These questions and more answered this week! Chamberlain tries to remember the name of Ender Magnolia shortly after buying it, Chance gloats over his domination of Sekiro and Alex is still finding quests in Skyrim that he swears weren't there before.

It's movie week, at least for one of us. Chance has seen Nosferatu and declared it the finest vampire movie OF ALL TIME. Make sure to address your comments appropriately. Alex continues to dominate late stage Stardew Valley with his wife. And Chamberlain make apologies for being 50 plus hours into Dragon Age The Veilguard, still not liking the combat, but not wanting to put it down.

It is still catch up time. Chamberlain has come almost full circle on Dragon Age The Veilguard. It's still a dumb name and the combat is still not great, but everything is slowly growing on, like a mold that writes middling dialogue. Alex has hooked his Steam Deck up to a TV and re-discovered couch co-op, playing Stardew Valley with his wife (the most romantic things I have ever heard of) and Chance revisited old friends before killing them in Elden Ring.

Welcome to 2025! Yes, we are still doing this. Chamberlain has doubts about his game of the year 2024 list after finishing Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, then has doubts about Alex's taste after putting time into Dragon Age The Veilguard. Chance decides that Alex is the arbiter of all things good and that Chamberlain is always wrong after roughly ten playthroughs of the Resident Evil 4 remake and quitting Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth after 10 hours. And Alex consumes more co-op games on his Steam deck than than he knew existed.

The only game of the year list that matters! And with no Spider-Man released this year (the only games to have every swept these prestigious awards) what can you expect? No spoilers, but there is wealth involved. And a tree. And haptic feedback. Also this week, Alex splurges on the Steam sale and plays Oddworld Stranger's Wrath, Chamberlain loves Ys X but does not love Indiana Jones and The Great Circle and Chance finally comes around on the Resident Evil 4 remake.

We apologize for the interruption during the early part of the episode, new Elden Ring DLC was announced and both Alex and Chance needed to change their pants. Yes, Alex is back, and spent a lot of time in Elder Scrolls Oblivion, of all things. Chance downloaded several dozen games on to his PS5 Pro and still just play more Star Wars Outlaws and Chamberlain just might have a crush on Karja from Ys X. And Adol, but who doesn't love Adol.

We took a week off for some silly American holiday, came back all rested and ready, and Alex is busy again. We miss him so. Chance, who always plays the most recent games, finally found Hogwarts Legacy cheap enough to warrant an attempt and is pleasantly surprised. It's not the deepest game in the world but Hogsmeade is cool and bashing goblins to bits never really get old. Likewise, Chamberlain has settled into Ys X, a comfort food game that looks two generations old, plays one generation old, but is so unrelentingly positive that all is forgiven, just like the last game.

STALKER 2 is finally out, which in and of itself is impressive, and the game is a lot like the first game, which is not entirely good news. Chamberlain bemoans the poor console port and swears vengeance upon the packs of radioactive dogs that are far too hard to shoot. And Chance dives into the Star Wars Outlaws DLC. Not enough sabacc but just the right amount of Lando. Rawr. No Alex, he was busy putting up Christmas decorations.

Videogames, movies, and nothing else. Nothing else of importance happens. Really. Chamberlain finished Alan Wake II. Everyone who told you that the game is good is wrong and their taste should be questioned. Chance (who hated Alan Wake II) is still throwing old games at his new TV and PS5 Pro to see what sticks, stopping only to play 6v6 in Overwatch and remembering that the game used to be fun. And Alex (who also hated Alan Wake II) is still working on the companion quests in Dragon Age Veilguard, a game he now at least slightly recommends.

How important are the writers? Chamberlain is playing Alan Wake 2, a bad game that should feel bad about itself, whose characters induce headaches every time they open their mouth. Alex is playing Dragon Age The Veilguard, a game that pales when compares to his predecessors. Chance gets around all this writing nonsense by looking at all the new pretties on his PS5 Pro.

Surprisingly little, if any, talk of horror games this week. Boo! But there is the once a year treat of Chamberlain, Chance and Alex all playing the same game at the same time. This time it is the Diablo 4 expansion. One finished it and loved it, the second was enjoying before a bad PC patch killed the framerate and the third got bored and wandered back to Overwatch. Also this week, Russian nihilism in Indika, Dragon Age Veilguard is good and Chance finally finishes Horizon Forbidden West.

Knowing that it was going to be a slow week, Chamberlain gave the podcast an assignment: come prepared with a list of the top three videogame soundtracks. A list of nine games was produced and there was almost no arguing! Also this week, Alex finishes Metaphor, Chance gives Horizon Forbidden West a second (maybe third?) chance and Chamberlain settles in to the Diablo 4 expansion.

Chance didn't play anything new this week, but he did play old things as the god of resolution and HDR intended on his brand new TV, named the new hotness. Alex has flown through Metaphor, a game he is this close to calling Atlus's best. And Chamberlain moped his way through the Silent Hill 2 remake, easily the best thing that Bloober Team has ever done. Take that how you will.

It's October and there is a new old scary game! Chamberlain was unable to resist the call of Silent Hill 2, the only game to ever give him literal nightmares, and much to his and everyone else's surprise, it's good. He tempered this experience with Astro Bot, a game that Chance ambush played just so he could say that it was not as good as Chamberlain thought it was. And Alex has spent far more time on the demo for Metaphor ReFantazio than is healthy, has consumed the kool aid, and will be up at midnight for the full game.

2024 is promptly forgotten as Assassin's Creed Shadows has been delayed and, more importantly, Ghost of Yotei has been announced. In the present, undefined time, Chamberlain is still working his way through Dungeons of Hinterland, which has moved far beyond mediocre dungeon crawling into political intrigue and the failings of a tourism based economy. No really. Alex shrinks down to Grounded because he wasn't scared enough of spiders. And Chance stopped playing Star Wars Outlaws just long enough to download Ghost of Tsushima and remember what good combat feels like.

In the rarest of occurrences, Chamberlain, Chance and Alex have all played the same game. This time it is Star Wars Outlaws. Unlike modern classics like Spider-Man, however, there is some disagreement on its quality. In other words, Chamberlain hated it and cannot be dissuaded. He brings Nobody Wants To Die and Dungeons of Hinterburg to the table, but makes no progress. Chance is still playing sabacc on Tatooine and Alex has gotten back together with an old girlfriend named X-Com 2, having forgotten how abusive that relationship really was.

Yes, two thirds of the people on the podcast are not fans of the PS5 Pro's price. Two thirds will also end up buying it, but is that the same two thirds? Also this week, Chamberlain was right to be concerned about Vision of Mana's writing. They are either bad at their job or cowards. Chance wishes Star Wars Outlaws had a new game plus and Alex continues to enjoy an incredibly deep, complicated game that few other people understand.

In a moment that no one saw coming, Chance heartily endorses a Ubisoft game for the first time since Far Cry 3. Star Wars Outlaws is his new love and he swears that history will eventually see it as right up there with Knights of the Old Republic. Chamberlain is plenty happy with a easy, breezy, beautiful JRPG that isn't trying to kill him in every encounter: Visons of Mana. And Alex tries to play Metal Gear Solid 5, finds the conspicuous absence of cards and Deadpool to much to bare, then returns to Midnight Suns. Again.

There will be no 420 jokes in this episode. Drugs are to be taken seriously, with intent, as they can lead to extended conversations on Kojima's skewed view of women and why Metal Gear Solid 5 needs a current gen remaster anyway. Drugs certainly had nothing to do with Chamberlain tapping out on the last boss on SMT V and Alex getting lost in Prince of Persia The Lost Crown. Chance didn't really play anything this week, so there may be a 420 joke there.

It's been two weeks and Chance still has not finished a play through of Baldur's Gate 3. He has started over, twice, and then gone back to punching zombies in Dead Island 2. Alex has emerged from his cruise unscathed, or at least well enough to get started on the Persona 3 remake and Prince of Persia The Lost crown. And Chamberlain, who has never played a Pokémon game, has put a ton of hours into Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance, which is literally a Pokémon game, just with heavy religious imagery.

This week, Chamberlain finishes up Tevi and then gives Shin Megami Tensei 5 a second chance, now that he can play it on a real console at more than a handful of frames per second. Alex spends far too much time trying to get Rayman 3 running on his Steam Deck. And Chance plays a just enough of Thank Goodness You're Here to realize that he is not British enough to get the humor, then returns to his power run of Baldur's Gate III, which he swears he will finish this time.

No, it was not the Crowdstrike debacle that took us down last week. Chalk that up to a simple internet outage. But we did use that time to double down on our efforts of playing new and exciting things. And by that I mean that Alex got all of the Bioware games he cares about running on the Steam deck, Chance hates Overwatch again and Chamberlain is playing a magical bunny girl metroidvania that he swears is not actually about a magical bunny girl, it's just a regular girl in a hat with ears, because that somehow makes it better.

Chance and Alex admit, with no prodding, that the final boss of the Erdtree expansion is not fun or good. This does not mean that they have stopped playing Elden Ring, only that they are not bothering with that boss again. It did drive Alex back to the original Dark Souls titles and Chance to high level comp success in Overwatch 2, so win/win? And Chamberlain finished Cookie Cutter without understanding what, if anything, the title meant, then gave up on life and reinstalled Diablo IV.

Everyone in the whole world is playing Shadow of the Erdtree. Alex is stuck on the final boss, which he admits is on the less fair side or things, and Chance is taking his sweet time, backstroking through the world, stumbling headlong into areas that he didn't know he needed to do. They love it, but the praise is not without some complaints. Chamberlain hates things that everyone else like she he his playing Cookie Cutter, a hand drawn, hyper violent metroidvania featuring a late 80's punk look and a talking vagina. You heard me.

It's not Elden Ring time YET. Instead, Alex messed around in the beginning of Kingdom Come before playing a good chunk of Dragon Age Inquisition, remember that, once upon a time, Bioware made good games. Chance messed around in the middle of Kingdom Come, all the while fighting with his old PS4 for character saves for the Erdtree expansion. And Chamberlain sampled Eiyuden Chronicle Hundred Heroes, then moved on to Still Wakes the Deep a fine sci-fi horror walking sim with a tremendous Scottish accent.

It's not E3! This year's not E3 saw a very, very tepid Summer Games Fest and a much better than expected Xbox Games Showcase. Chance would love to tell you about them, and he would if he were not distracted by the several year old Kingdom Come Deliverance, a game that Chamberlain denounced as trash upon its release. Chamberlain has had little time for frivolities, spending his precious few free minutes optimizing the fenders on his tank in SandLand. And Alex put his personal relationships at risk by returning to Civilization 6.

Being unapologetically gen-x, Chamberlain was most amused by Shady's return. Chance, having more refined tastes, was bemused. And Alex refused. In other news, Chamberlain played Deliver Us Mars, a depressing hard sci-fi walking sim and enjoyed it. Chance finished his domination of nuka world in Fallout 4. And Alex watched all of the Elden Ring expansion footage he could find, then promptly started a new character.

Politics warning! We have been avoiding this for weeks but tonight it was just to juicy. If you would like to avoid our righteous schadenfreude, skip forward about ten minutes. There you will find that Chamberlain hated Hellblade 2 so much that he quit playing it, finally settling on Tales of Kenzara. Chance is still on Fallout 4, picking his way through Nuka-World, waiting for the best time to kill everyone else there. And Alex made it out to see Furiosa, and shame on all of you nerds out there who still haven't. Get out of the house!

As has been custom on the Chamberlain Chance and Alex podcast, it is time to through shade at Hellblade. Hellblade 2 is out, and just like last time, everyone is wrong but us. The game is bad and Ninja Theory should feel bad. Also this week, Alex finished what is currently available of Hades 2 before jumping back into Diablo 4 and finding things much nicer than the last time around. And Chance continues to make new characters in Fallout 4, stopping just long enough to try out Cookie Cutter.

We have reached an end of an era. Microsoft has finally done something so heinous that even Chamberlain refuses to defend it. Pour one out for Tango Gameworks. Also this week, Chance has to buy a new PS5 to remove a Fallout 4 mod (almost). Alex begins the multi-year process of playing early access Hades 2. And Chamberlain finds emotional fulfillment in a AA game that no one else played.

It's all Fallout, all of the time, unless it is still post-revolutionary war America and Chamberlain is still busting ghosts with a surprisingly effective sword and solid Scottish accent. Chance and Alex are both thousands of years past that, just not is the same place, with one in Fallout 4 and the other in New Vegas. You know which is which. Also this week, a frank discussion on the merits of Zach Snyder and why normal shaped middle age men are not often featured in sex scenes.

Except for Brotherhood of Steel, but we won't talk about that. The Fallout love fest continues, with Chance and Alex making impassioned cases to Chamberlain that he should obtain a Prime subscription. He will not. He will instead continue on with the flawed but affable Banishers. Alex has deserted Dragons Dogma 2 for Fallout New Vegas (along with just about everybody else) and Chance is still killing every cyclops that crosses his path.

Alex has fallen victim to Chance's hype over Dragons Dogma 2, purchased it, and proclaimed it 'ok.' Chance is appalled and is taking revenge by continuing to enjoy the game he was already enjoying, only now out of spite, which makes everything better. Alex has also declared the Fallout series worth your time and done so without the spoilers that Chamberlain lives for. And Chamberlain has started Banishers, the best ghost busting anything to come out for a long damn time.

Chance has finished up Dragons Dogma 2 and immediately turned around and starting playing it again, something that not even Spider-Man 2 managed to illicit. It's that good. Alex started playing Citizen Sleeper, remember a better game, and finally finished I Was a Teenage Exocolonist instead. And Chamberlain played a bunch of little games while in recovery from FFVII Rebirth, including the best walking sim in a while, Return to Grace. Oh, and he bought Belatro, so that is how he lives now.

(yes, the title is an HTML joke based on the episode number, nerd) Alex continues to reject all things new in favor of games that run great on the Steam deck. This week it is Days Gone, that other open world zombie game. You know, the one with the bikers. Chamberlain was going to come prepared with a full game breakdown of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth but came up one hit shy on the final boss, triggering a very small tantrum followed by a nap. And Chance has space in his heart for Dragons Dogma II, proving that the destination is irrelevant as long as you have fun getting there.

Despite there being literally too many new games to play Alex has decided to dive way, way back into his backlog and sample a game he missed the first time around: Devil May Cry 2. He makes no promise of finishing it, but he did try to make Dante do things. Chance tries to enjoy Unicorn Overload, fails, and runs back to Elden Ring. And Chamberlain still has not finished Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. It's weird, he still loves it, and there are a few mild spoilers.