!FALcast

*Note: This episode contains GREAT BIG HUGE GIANT SPOILERS for Dying Light: The Following, Lost, The Dark Tower series, and Dragon Quest: Your Story. The spoiler-y stuff starts 8 minutes in and ends at about 43 minutes.* The frustrations of reaching a destination that negates the journey Chasing diamonds right off a cliff in Dying … Continue reading Ep. 33: I Hate This Episode →

“What are we gonna talk about?” Is pinball a video game? (No, it very much is not) Holes Farming, comedy clubs and flesh reanimation: the high-stress days and unholy nights of Graveyard Keeper Where does YOUR meat come from? The judgment-free zone of Stardew Valley Making townsfolk your friends/undead ranchhands Who wields the true power … Continue reading Ep. 31: My Eagle is a Horse →

Matt is hungry Musings on a graveyard; butt A rash of Neverland poisonings Will Adam ever get to talk about Persona 5? [PERSONA CONTENT REDACTED] The thought-provoking, generous, occasionally pointless brilliance of NieR: Automata Seriously though, play Binary Domain Celeste shows kindness through challenge (The mountain is a metaphor you guys) Nintendo Switch as perfect … Continue reading Ep. 30: No Good at Learning →

Destiny 2: Why is it like that? Matt has recording troubles (and a phone call) An attempted intervention for a Destiny addict The need for variation within repetition The gauntlet is thrown at Eminem, hastily withdrawn, and thrown again Binary Domain vs. Gears of War Destiny 2 vs. Borderlands/Titanfall 2/The Division No, seriously, Skye, your … Continue reading Ep. 29: Video Games Should Stop →

Does Prey spoil its own ending? Mimics and organic jump scares Another interesting crafting system for Adam to hate Inventory management and compulsive leveling Do Bethesda games have a random crap problem? Quest logs and adaptive nonlinearity Dynamic diamond-chasing Pre-order bonus cheat packs

The surprising success of Horizon Zero Dawn’s apocalypse Strong world and setting design sets it apart from other open world games Dynamic, tactically improvisational combat But the game should be harder in a few ways We discover a crafting system that Adam can tolerate The implied sense of resource economy fails to come through in … Continue reading Ep. 27: A Beige Room →

Oxygen Not Included is Spacebase DF-9 but better A required build order stifles creativity Complexity turns us on and turns us off “Who among us does not love infrastructure?” Adam’s PixelJunk bias returns Nom Nom Galaxy and the problem with soup How to identify (and avoid) strategy games Space tomato farming tips for budding soup … Continue reading Ep. 26: Take Disease to the Next Level →

Balls.

The Last Guardian: A great and terrible videogame …that we spoil a little Classification of a monster An indirect experience Has development limbo left its mark? Should a remake strive for preservation or improvement?

Matt returns to Dark Souls Killing friendly NPCs in Souls games Adam is a dirty FAQ user Is equipment in Dark Souls too complex? Is equipment in Bloodborne too simple? Quest-givers and combat allies Time progression and Insight Mechanically encouraging aggressive play Speculation about Chalice Dungeons Old news: Bloodborne is great

Kingdom Hearts is still a bunch of nonsense Final Fantasy XV blah blah blah Hunting anachronisms on a road trip with your buddies The unfinished seams are showing What makes a Final Fantasy game? A lot of XV’s story isn’t actually in the game Magic is a mixed bag Final Fantasy XV is a game … Continue reading Ep. 23: Stop at the Boat →

Death Road to Canada: Good game or mere comedy generator? The necessity and frustration of luck and obfuscation in roguelikes The newest Shiren the Wanderer is surprisingly forgiving —perhaps too forgiving? The disappointing UI of the Darkest Dungeon Vita port Supposedly, I hate roguelikes now or something This episode is too infuriating for me to … Continue reading Ep. 22: I Found this Hammer →

Destiny: it got better! …but it’s still an MMO, so, you know; grind Choice and idiosyncrasy versus balance in competitive multiplayer Immediate satisfaction versus participation awards in Overwatch How Overwatch’s varied roster leads to different forms of play Please support Titanfall 2 and its rad mobility Does DooM’s arena-based structure get boring? Are repetition and … Continue reading Ep. 21: It’s December 11th →

An entire episode about Lightning Returns for some reason

Discovering the joy of sports with Rocket League Matt is a terrible cartographer Etrian Odyssey is NOT grindy, dammit Trauma Center can be a sloppy operation sometimes Yoshi’s Woolly World: harder than you might think Obsession is the dark side of perseverance Battling fatigue in Darkest Dungeon The role of permanence in modern roguelikes

The Terraria episode Mediumcore server after action report When does the game end? Crafting games: Not for everyone What’s my motivation? Character growth versus equipment growth Adam needs to be told what to do The mundane Where does narrative come from?

Dying Light: Dead Island but better …although Adam has a weird tolerance for Dead Island Audio and control feedback for melee combat Parkour! Down with fast travel Time-sensitive tasks in open world games Left 4 Dead special infected are getting tired Why have zombie stories become dull? Seduction continues in The Witcher 2 Creepy, pervy … Continue reading Ep. 17: Soft Mode →

A critical discussion of Sam Barlow’s Her Story Why do gamers feel threatened by new, non-violent genres? Would Her Story work as well without its story’s central conceit? The novelty of letting the player decide when the game is over Tagging, note-taking, and search methodologies Unique thought processes yield unique experiences Does the ending have … Continue reading Ep. 16: Spoiler Alert (colon) Her Story →

Quilts.

Arkham Knight’s PC port: Who’s to blame? Do console peasants read the news? Steam refunds and consumer rights Matt says it’s not really that bad, so whatever Doubling down on the infamous Riddler trophies Lots of Batman in-jokes at Adam’s expense Nier’s multiple endings and save deletion The passing of the cowl What’s my motivation? … Continue reading Ep. 15: That’s How Regret Works →

The monster hunting science of The Witcher E3 demos are a sham Ubisoft’s mission to make open world game design as boring as possible Interesting voyeuristic vignettes in Watch Dogs The historical timeline approach to sequels Padded game lengths and pacing Suikoden is completely delightful Is mobile gaming really just different?

A very special Konami episode Profit margins versus creative change Time is a cycle, my man Are we still the target demographic for video games? What are Konami’s new business priorities, exactly? When was the last time Castlevania was good? Why Metal Gear matters Dissecting the oft-reanimated corpse of Silent Hill The murdered promise of … Continue reading Ep. 13: Up-Up-Down-Down-Down-Down-Down →

The pure logic puzzles of Hexcells Arcade, free-solution, and set puzzle types Digging through piles of puzzles versus getting things done Adam has some kind of problem with PixelJunk It’s okay to not finish games! Time lost as the key component of video game frustration Tower defense round-up How to play Civilization as an utter … Continue reading Ep. 12: Strap It to Your Head →

Adventures in cross-linguistic semiotics The containment and storage of paranormal entities Recreational construction and economic theory Privacy concerns in modern retail environments Zoning restrictions in late-20th century Detroit Access to education and social mobility The impact of meteorology upon urban horticulture International missing persons investigations Contemporary travel and cosmopolitanism The citizenship of Testudines Destination desirability … Continue reading Ep. 11: Donald Has $0.17 →

Freedom Wars gets explicit about unlocking gameplay features Dante’s Inferno: Hell doesn’t have to be this boring Adam grows as a person and faces his responsibilities Shirts and skins What’s up, Nick? Destiny takes off-putting lore encyclopedias to a whole new level Xenogears: Disc 2 Player level imbalances versus asymmetrical multiplayer design Loving the loot … Continue reading Ep. 10: He Was Bones →

PlatinumGames and The Wonderful 101 Hardcore shape drawing action Player grading systems and mastery So, how’s Evolve? Progression systems and balance in competitive FPS games Getting something from your loss DLC, pre-order bonuses, and season passes “Journalists” and their incessant hype engines Matt, change your goddamned smoke detector battery

The War in the North is ended Diablo 2 and replaying games for character development Also, Diablo 1 is better How to shoot someone with a tranq dart Missing the boat with older games Forgiving Silent Hill Namco’s loading screen mini-games Resident Evil 6 is an ambitious mess Where have all the quicktime events gone? … Continue reading Ep. 8: The King of Spreadsheets →

Sony got hacked or something Gaming in social media Middle-Earth: Genocide of Mordor Ubisoft’s radio tower formula Do quest journals ruin open world games? Playing the designer instead of playing the game Wait, no; it’s minimaps that ruin open world games War in the North deserves better than its PC port Payday 2 may or … Continue reading Ep. 7: We’re the Worst →

Papers, Please and the value of the mundane South Park and the psychologically manipulative Freemium business model Don’t Move, DLC Quest, and game satire Costume Quest 2 and overstaying your welcome Repetitive RPG battles and unskippable animations Adam trashes FF XIII and reads Vanille’s wikipedia article aloud Penumbra: Overture, The Evil Within, and the horror … Continue reading Ep. 6: Too Many Belts →

Does Transistor end too soon? Matt takes a dump all over Wolfenstein: The New Order Player freedom versus tight game design Ace Attorney catchup turnabout with Dual Destinies If you’re making a visual novel, hire a damned proofreader Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright invites series comparisons Alpha/Beta roundup: Evolve, The Crew, Distance, and Invisible, Inc.

Nintendo’s platform differentiation and uses of the Wii U touch screen Antagonistic design shenanigans in Mario Kart and New Super Mario Bros. Wii* Matt’s beef with Batman Making the most of open worlds Why can’t gamers just think? Time management in Child of Light’s throwback to Grandia Adam hates people who speak in rhyme Persona … Continue reading Ep. 2: Get Hype for a Sunrise →