Podcasts about Far Cry

It's been said that Muriel Spark's career was not so much a life as a plot, and she did indeed repeatedly reinvent herself, closing one chapter of her life and opening another, regardless of how many friends and business associates she abandoned along the way. This month the Slightly Foxed team were joined by Muriel Spark's biographer Martin Stannard, and Spark enthusiast Emily Rhodes of Emily's Walking Book Club, to discuss the work of this highly original and somewhat forgotten writer and learn how Muriel first invited Martin to write her biography and then did her best to prevent it seeing the light of day. Born in 1918, Muriel grew up in a working class family in Edinburgh – the setting for her most famous novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which was based on a charismatic teacher at her own school. At the age of 19 she closed that chapter of her life by marrying an older maths teacher, Sydney Oswald Spark, known (appropriately) thereafter as SOS, and going with him to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where their son Robin was born. Unfortunately it soon became obvious that Sydney had severe psychiatric problems and in 1943 Muriel left husband and son and returned to London where she began her career as a novelist. Several times shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and much admired by Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene, Muriel produced 22 novels, most of them drawing on events in her own life. Everyone at the Slightly Foxed table had their favourites, including The Girls of Slender Means, A Far Cry from Kensington, Loitering with Intent, and Memento Mori, a clear eyed and also very funny look at old age. Everyone agreed on the brilliance of her writing with its dark humour, preoccupation with the supernatural and with the presence of evil in unlikely places. Her life was equally fascinating, moving from poverty to great wealth and success, and from the shabbier parts of London to intellectual life in New York centred on The New Yorker magazine, to which she became a contributor. In 1954 she was received into the Roman Catholic church and for some time she lived in Rome, relishing the glitter of Italian high society, finally settling in Tuscany with her friend Penelope Jardine, where she died in 2005. Summer reading recommendations included Caledonian Road by Andrew O'Hagan, Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson, Homework by Geoff Dyer and Of Thorn and Briar by Paul Lamb. Martin also praised Electric Spark, the new – and very different – biography of Muriel Spark by Frances Wilson. For episode show notes, please see the Slightly Foxed website. Opening music: Preludio from Violin Partita No. 3 in E Major by Bach Hosted by Rosie Goldsmith Produced by Philippa Goodrich

Midnight Madness Radio Episode 330 with PROSPECT HILL, Scott McDonald, Victoria Eman, Sue Skinner, RATTLESNAKES, Dead End Irony, Megaton Communion, TIETAENE, and The Far Cry.

Episode 421 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the interesting idiom “a far cry.” Send your questions about English and your comments and suggestions to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. (And let me know if you'd like to record the introduction to a future episode.)

Frances Wilson has written biographies of Dorothy Wordsworth, Thomas De Quincey, D.H. Lawrence, and, most recently, Muriel Spark. I thought Electric Spark was excellent. In my review, I wrote: “Wilson has done far more than string the facts together. She has created a strange and vivid portrait of one of the most curious of twentieth century novelists.” In this interview, we covered questions like why Thomas De Quincey is more widely read, why D.H. Lawrence's best books aren't his novels, Frances's conversion to spookiness, what she thinks about a whole range of modern biographers, literature and parasocial relationships, Elizabeth Bowen, George Meredith, and plenty about Muriel Spark.Here are two brief extracts. There is a full transcript below.Henry: De Quincey and Lawrence were the people you wrote about before Muriel Spark, and even though they seem like three very different people, but in their own way, they're all a little bit mad, aren't they?Frances: Yes, that is, I think, something that they have in common. It's something that I'm drawn to. I like writing about difficult people. I don't think I could write about anyone who wasn't difficult. I like difficult people in general. I like the fact that they pose a puzzle and they're hard to crack, and that their difficulty is laid out in their work and as a code. I like tackling really, really stubborn personalities as well. Yes, they were all a bit mad. The madness was what fuelled their journeys without doubt.Henry: This must make it very hard as a biographer. Is there always a code to be cracked, or are you sometimes dealing with someone who is slippery and protean and uncrackable?And.Henry: People listening will be able to tell that Spark is a very spooky person in several different ways. She had what I suppose we would call spiritual beliefs to do with ghosts and other sorts of things. You had a sort of conversion of your own while writing this book, didn't you?Frances: Yes, I did. [laughs] Every time I write a biography, I become very, very, very immersed in who I'm writing about. I learned this from Richard Holmes, who I see as a method biographer. He Footsteps his subjects. He becomes his subjects. I think I recognized when I first read Holmes's Coleridge, when I was a student, that this was how I also wanted to live. I wanted to live inside the minds of the people that I wrote about, because it was very preferable to live inside my own mind. Why not live inside the mind of someone really, really exciting, one with genius?What I felt with Spark wasn't so much that I was immersed by-- I wasn't immersed by her. I felt actually possessed by her. I think this is the Spark effect. I think a lot of her friends felt like this. I think that her lovers possibly felt like this. There is an extraordinary force to her character, which absolutely lives on, even though she's dead, but only recently dead. The conversion I felt, I think, was that I have always been a very enlightenment thinker, very rational, very scientific, very Freudian in my approach to-- I will acknowledge the unconscious but no more.By the time I finished with Spark, I'm pure woo-woo now.TranscriptHenry: Today, I am talking to Frances Wilson. Frances is a biographer. Her latest book, Electric Spark, is a biography of the novelist Muriel Spark, but she has also written about Dorothy Wordsworth, Thomas De Quincey, DH Lawrence and others. Frances, welcome.Frances Wilson: Thank you so much for having me on.Henry: Why don't more people read Thomas De Quincey's work?Frances: [laughs] Oh, God. We're going right into the deep end.[laughter]Frances: I think because there's too much of it. When I chose to write about Thomas De Quincey, I just followed one thread in his writing because Thomas De Quincey was an addict. One of the things he was addicted to was writing. He wrote far, far, far too much. He was a professional hack. He was a transcendental hack, if you like, because all of his writing he did while on opium, which made the sentences too long and too high and very, very hard to read.When I wrote about him, I just followed his interest in murder. He was fascinated by murder as a fine art. The title of one of his best essays is On Murder as One of the Fine Arts. I was also interested in his relationship with Wordsworth. I twinned those together, which meant cutting out about 97% of the rest of his work. I think people do read his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. I think that's a cult text. It was the memoir, if you want to call it a memoir, that kick-started the whole pharmaceutical memoir business on drugs.It was also the first addict's memoir and the first recovery memoir, and I'd say also the first misery memoir. He's very much at the root of English literary culture. We're all De Quincey-an without knowing it, is my argument.Henry: Oh, no, I fully agree. That's what surprises me, that they don't read him more often.Frances: I know it's a shame, isn't it? Of all the Romantic Circle, he's the one who's the most exciting to read. Also, Lamb is wonderfully exciting to read as well, but Lamb's a tiny little bit more grounded than De Quincey, who was literally not grounded. He's floating in an opium haze above you.[laughter]Henry: What I liked about your book was the way you emphasized the book addiction, not just the opium addiction. It is shocking the way he piled up chests full of books and notebooks, and couldn't get into the room because there were too many books in there. He was [crosstalk].Frances: Yes. He had this in common with Muriel Spark. He was a hoarder, but in a much more chaotic way than Spark, because, as you say, he piled up rooms with papers and books until he couldn't get into the room, and so just rented another room. He was someone who had no money at all. The no money he had went on paying rent for rooms, storing what we would be giving to Oxfam, or putting in the recycling bin. Then he'd forget that he was paying rent on all these rooms filled with his mountains of paper. The man was chaos.Henry: What is D.H. Lawrence's best book?Frances: Oh, my argument about Lawrence is that we've gone very badly wrong in our reading of him, in seeing him primarily as a novelist and only secondarily as an essayist and critic and short story writer, and poet. This is because of F.R. Leavis writing that celebration of him called D.H. Lawrence: Novelist, because novels are not the best of Lawrence. I think the best of his novels is absolutely, without doubt, Sons and Lovers. I think we should put the novels in the margins and put in the centre, the poems, travel writing.Absolutely at the centre of the centre should be his studies in classic American literature. His criticism was- We still haven't come to terms with it. It was so good. We haven't heard all of Lawrence's various voices yet. When Lawrence was writing, contemporaries didn't think of Lawrence as a novelist at all. It was anyone's guess what he was going to come out with next. Sometimes it was a novel [laughs] and it was usually a rant about-- sometimes it was a prophecy. Posterity has not treated Lawrence well in any way, but I think where we've been most savage to him is in marginalizing his best writing.Henry: The short fiction is truly extraordinary.Frances: Isn't it?Henry: I always thought Lawrence was someone I didn't want to read, and then I read the short fiction, and I was just obsessed.Frances: It's because in the short fiction, he doesn't have time to go wrong. I think brevity was his perfect length. Give him too much space, and you know he's going to get on his soapbox and start ranting, start mansplaining. He was a terrible mansplainer. Mansplaining his versions of what had gone wrong in the world. It is like a drunk at the end of a too-long dinner party, and you really want to just bundle him out. Give him only a tiny bit of space, and he comes out with the perfection that is his writing.Henry: De Quincey and Lawrence were the people you wrote about before Muriel Spark, and even though they seem like three very different people, but in their own way, they're all a little bit mad, aren't they?Frances: Yes, that is, I think, something that they have in common. It's something that I'm drawn to. I like writing about difficult people. I don't think I could write about anyone who wasn't difficult. I like difficult people in general. I like the fact that they pose a puzzle and they're hard to crack, and that their difficulty is laid out in their work and as a code. I like tackling really, really stubborn personalities as well. Yes, they were all a bit mad. The madness was what fuelled their journeys without doubt.Henry: This must make it very hard as a biographer. Is there always a code to be cracked, or are you sometimes dealing with someone who is slippery and protean and uncrackable?Frances: I think that the way I approach biography is that there is a code to crack, but I'm not necessarily concerned with whether I crack it or not. I think it's just recognizing that there's a hell of a lot going on in the writing and that, in certain cases and not in every case at all, the best way of exploring the psyche of the writer and the complexity of the life is through the writing, which is a argument for psycho biography, which isn't something I necessarily would argue for, because it can be very, very crude.I think with the writers I choose, there is no option. Muriel Spark argued for this as well. She said in her own work as a biographer, which was really very, very strong. She was a biographer before she became a novelist. She thought hard about biography and absolutely in advance of anyone else who thought about biography, she said, "Of course, the only way we can approach the minds of writers is through their work, and the writer's life is encoded in the concerns of their work."When I was writing about Muriel Spark, I followed, as much as I could, to the letter, her own theories of biography, believing that that was part of the code that she left. She said very, very strong and very definitive things about what biography was about and how to write a biography. I tried to follow those rules.Henry: Can we play a little game where I say the names of some biographers and you tell me what you think of them?Frances: Oh my goodness. Okay.Henry: We're not trying to get you into trouble. We just want some quick opinions. A.N. Wilson.Frances: I think he's wonderful as a biographer. I think he's unzipped and he's enthusiastic and he's unpredictable and he's often off the rails. I think his Goethe biography-- Have you read the Goethe biography?Henry: Yes, I thought that was great.Frances: It's just great, isn't it? It's so exciting. I like the way that when he writes about someone, it's almost as if he's memorized the whole of their work.Henry: Yes.Frances: You don't imagine him sitting at a desk piled with books and having to score through his marginalia. It sits in his head, and he just pours it down on a page. I'm always excited by an A.N. Wilson biography. He is one of the few biographers who I would read regardless of who the subject was.Henry: Yes.Frances: I just want to read him.Henry: He does have good range.Frances: He absolutely does have good range.Henry: Selina Hastings.Frances: I was thinking about Selina Hastings this morning, funnily enough, because I had been talking to people over the weekend about her Sybil Bedford biography and why that hadn't lifted. She wrote a very excitingly good life of Nancy Mitford and then a very unexcitingly not good life of Sybil Bedford. I was interested in why the Sybil Bedford simply hadn't worked. I met people this weekend who were saying the same thing, that she was a very good biographer who had just failed [laughs] to give us anything about Sybil Bedford.I think what went wrong in that biography was that she just could not give us her opinions. It's as if she just withdrew from her subject as if she was writing a Wikipedia entry. There were no opinions at all. What the friends I was talking to said was that she just fell out with her subject during the book. That's what happened. She stopped being interested in her. She fell out with her and therefore couldn't be bothered. That's what went wrong.Henry: Interesting. I think her Evelyn Waugh biography is superb.Frances: Yes, I absolutely agree. She was on fire until this last one.Henry: That's one of the best books on Waugh, I think.Frances: Yes.Henry: Absolutely magical.Frances: I also remember, it's a very rare thing, of reading a review of it by Hilary Mantel saying that she had not read a biography that had been as good, ever, as Selina Hastings' on Evelyn Waugh. My goodness, that's high praise, isn't it?Henry: Yes, it is. It is. I'm always trying to push that book on people. Richard Holmes.Frances: He's my favourite. He's the reason that I'm a biographer at all. I think his Coleridge, especially the first volume of the two-volume Coleridge, is one of the great books. It left me breathless when I read it. It was devastating. I also think that his Johnson and Savage book is one of the great books. I love Footsteps as well, his account of the books he didn't write in Footsteps. I think he has a strange magic. When Muriel Spark talked about certain writers and critics having a sixth literary sense, which meant that they tuned into language and thought in a way that the rest of us don't, I think that Richard Holmes does have that. I think he absolutely has it in relation to Coleridge. I'm longing for his Tennyson to come out.Henry: Oh, I know. I know.Frances: Oh, I just can't wait. I'm holding off on reading Tennyson until I've got Holmes to help me read him. Yes, he is quite extraordinary.Henry: I would have given my finger to write the Johnson and Savage book.Frances: Yes, I know. I agree. How often do you return to it?Henry: Oh, all the time. All the time.Frances: Me too.Henry: Michael Holroyd.Frances: Oh, that's interesting, Michael Holroyd, because I think he's one of the great unreads. I think he's in this strange position of being known as a greatest living biographer, but nobody's read him on Augustus John. [laughs] I haven't read his biographies cover to cover because they're too long and it's not in my subject area, but I do look in them, and they're novelistic in their wit and complexity. His sentences are very, very, very entertaining, and there's a lot of freight in each paragraph. I hope that he keeps selling.I love his essays as well, and also, I think that he has been a wonderful ambassador for biography. He's very, very supportive of younger biographers, which not every biographer is, but I know he's been very supportive of younger biographers and is incredibly approachable.Henry: Let's do a few Muriel Spark questions. Why was the Book of Job so important to Muriel Spark?Frances: I think she liked it because it was rogue, because it was the only book of the Bible that wasn't based on any evidence, it wasn't based on any truth. It was a fictional book, and she liked fiction sitting in the middle of fact. That was one of her main things, as all Spark lovers know. She liked the fact that there was this work of pure imagination and extraordinarily powerful imagination sitting in the middle of the Old Testament, and also, she thought it was an absolutely magnificent poem.She saw herself primarily as a poet, and she responded to it as a poem, which, of course, it is. Also, she liked God in it. She described Him as the Incredible Hulk [laughs] and she liked His boastfulness. She enjoyed, as I do, difficult personalities, and she liked the fact that God had such an incredibly difficult personality. She liked the fact that God boasted and boasted and boasted, "I made this and I made that," to Job, but also I think she liked the fact that you hear God's voice.She was much more interested in voices than she was in faces. The fact that God's voice comes out of the burning bush, I think it was an image for her of early radio, this voice speaking, and she liked the fact that what the voice said was tricksy and touchy and impossibly arrogant. He gives Moses all these instructions to lead the Israelites, and Moses says, "But who shall I say sent me? Who are you?" He says, "I am who I am." [laughs] She thought that was completely wonderful. She quotes that all the time about herself. She says, "I know it's a bit large quoting God, but I am who I am." [laughs]Henry: That disembodied voice is very important to her fiction.Frances: Yes.Henry: It's the telephone in Memento Mori.Frances: Yes.Henry: Also, to some extent, tell me what you think of this, the narrator often acts like that.Frances: Like this disembodied voice?Henry: Yes, like you're supposed to feel like you're not quite sure who's telling you this or where you're being told it from. That's why it gets, like in The Ballad of Peckham Rye or something, very weird.Frances: Yes. I'm waiting for the PhD on Muriel Sparks' narrators. Maybe it's being done as we speak, but she's very, very interested in narrators and the difference between first-person and third-person. She was very keen on not having warm narrators, to put it mildly. She makes a strong argument throughout her work for the absence of the seductive narrative. Her narratives are, as we know, unbelievably seductive, but not because we are being flattered as readers and not because the narrator makes herself or himself pretty. The narrator says what they feel like saying, withholds most of what you would like them to say, plays with us, like in a Spark expression, describing her ideal narrator like a cat with a bird [laughs].Henry: I like that. Could she have been a novelist if she had not become a Catholic?Frances: No, she couldn't. The two things happened at the same time. I wonder, actually, whether she became a Catholic in order to become a novelist. It wasn't that becoming a novelist was an accidental effect of being a Catholic. The conversion was, I think, from being a biographer to a novelist rather than from being an Anglican to a Catholic. What happened is a tremendous interest. I think it's the most interesting moment in any life that I've ever written about is the moment of Sparks' conversion because it did break her life in two.She converted when she was in her mid-30s, and several things happened at once. She converted to Catholicism, she became a Catholic, she became a novelist, but she also had this breakdown. The breakdown was very much part of that conversion package. The breakdown was brought on, she says, by taking Dexys. There was slimming pills, amphetamines. She wanted to lose weight. She put on weight very easily, and her weight went up and down throughout her life.She wanted to take these diet pills, but I think she was also taking the pills because she needed to do all-nighters, because she never, ever, ever stopped working. She was addicted to writing, but also she was impoverished and she had to sell her work, and she worked all night. She was in a rush to get her writing done because she'd wasted so much of her life in her early 20s, in a bad marriage trapped in Africa. She needed to buy herself time. She was on these pills, which have terrible side effects, one of which is hallucinations.I think there were other reasons for her breakdown as well. She was very, very sensitive and I think psychologically fragile. Her mother lived in a state of mental fragility, too. She had a crash when she finished her book. She became depressed. Of course, a breakdown isn't the same as depression, but what happened to her in her breakdown was a paranoid attack rather than a breakdown. She didn't crack into nothing and then have to rebuild herself. She just became very paranoid. That paranoia was always there.Again, it's what's exciting about her writing. She was drawn to paranoia in other writers. She liked Cardinal Newman's paranoia. She liked Charlotte Brontë's paranoia, and she had paranoia. During her paranoid attack, she felt very, very interestingly, because nothing that happened in her life was not interesting, that T.S. Eliot was sending her coded messages. He was encoding these messages in his play, The Confidential Clerk, in the program notes to the play, but also in the blurbs he wrote for Faber and Faber, where he was an editor. These messages were very malign and they were encoded in anagrams.The word lived, for example, became devil. I wonder whether one of the things that happened during her breakdown wasn't that she discovered God, but that she met the devil. I don't think that that's unusual as a conversion experience. In fact, the only conversion experience she ever describes, you'll remember, is in The Girls of Slender Means, when she's describing Nicholas Farrington's conversion. That's the only conversion experience she ever describes. She says that his conversion is when he sees one of the girls leaving the burning building, holding a Schiaparelli dress. Suddenly, he's converted because he's seen a vision of evil.She says, "Conversion can be as a result of a recognition of evil, rather than a recognition of good." I think that what might have happened in this big cocktail of things that happened to her during her breakdown/conversion, is that a writer whom she had idolized, T.S. Eliot, who taught her everything that she needed to know about the impersonality of art. Her narrative coldness comes from Eliot, who thought that emotions had no place in art because they were messy, and art should be clean.I think a writer whom she had idolized, she suddenly felt was her enemy because she was converting from his church, because he was an Anglo-Catholic. He was a high Anglican, and she was leaving Anglo-Catholicism to go through the Rubicon, to cross the Rubicon into Catholicism. She felt very strongly that that is something he would not have approved of.Henry: She's also leaving poetry to become a prose writer.Frances: She was leaving his world of poetry. That's absolutely right.Henry: This is a very curious parallel because the same thing exactly happens to De Quincey with his worship of Wordsworth.Frances: You're right.Henry: They have the same obsessive mania. Then this, as you say, not quite a breakdown, but a kind of explosive mania in the break. De Quincey goes out and destroys that mossy hut or whatever it is in the orchard, doesn't he?Frances: Yes, that disgusting hut in the orchard. Yes, you're completely right. What fascinated me about De Quincey, and this was at the heart of the De Quincey book, was how he had been guided his whole life by Wordsworth. He discovered Wordsworth as a boy when he read We Are Seven, that very creepy poem about a little girl sitting on her sibling's grave, describing the sibling as still alive. For De Quincey, who had lost his very adored sister, he felt that Wordsworth had seen into his soul and that Wordsworth was his mentor and his lodestar.He worshipped Wordsworth as someone who understood him and stalked Wordsworth, pursued and stalked him. When he met him, what he discovered was a man without any redeeming qualities at all. He thought he was a dry monster, but it didn't stop him loving the work. In fact, he loved the work more and more. What threw De Quincey completely was that there was such a difference between Wordsworth, the man who had no genius, and Wordsworth, the poet who had nothing but.Eliot described it, the difference between the man who suffers and the mind which creates. What De Quincey was trying to deal with was the fact that he adulated the work, but was absolutely appalled by the man. Yes, you're right, this same experience happened to spark when she began to feel that T.S. Eliot, whom she had never met, was a malign person, but the work was still not only of immense importance to her, but the work had formed her.Henry: You see the Wasteland all over her own work and the shared Dante obsession.Frances: Yes.Henry: It's remarkably strong. She got to the point of thinking that T.S. Eliot was breaking into her house.Frances: Yes. As I said, she had this paranoid imagination, but also what fired her imagination and what repeated itself again and again in the imaginative scenarios that recur in her fiction and nonfiction is the idea of the intruder. It was the image of someone rifling around in cupboards, drawers, looking at manuscripts. This image, you first find it in a piece she wrote about finding herself completely coincidentally, staying the night during the war in the poet Louis MacNeice's house. She didn't know it was Louis MacNeice's house, but he was a poet who was very, very important to her.Spark's coming back from visiting her parents in Edinburgh in 1944. She gets talking to an au pair on the train. By the time they pull into Houston, there's an air raid, and the au pair says, "Come and spend the night at mine. My employers are away and they live nearby in St. John's Wood." Spark goes to this house and sees it's packed with books and papers, and she's fascinated by the quality of the material she finds there.She looks in all the books. She goes into the attic, and she looks at all the papers, and she asks the au pair whose house it is, and the au pair said, "Oh, he's a professor called Professor Louis MacNeice." Spark had just been reading Whitney. He's one of her favourite poets. She retells this story four times in four different forms, as non-fiction, as fiction, as a broadcast, as reflections, but the image that keeps coming back, what she can't get rid of, is the idea of herself as snooping around in this poet's study.She describes herself, in one of the versions, as trying to draw from his papers his power as a writer. She says she sniffs his pens, she puts her hands over his papers, telling herself, "I must become a writer. I must become a writer." Then she makes this weird anonymous phone call. She loved the phone because it was the most strange form of electrical device. She makes a weird anonymous phone call to an agent, saying, "I'm ringing from Louis MacNeice's house, would you like to see my manuscript?" She doesn't give her name, and the agent says yes.Now I don't believe this phone call took place. I think it's part of Sparks' imagination. This idea of someone snooping around in someone else's room was very, very powerful to her. Then she transposed it in her paranoid attack about T.S. Eliot. She transposed the image that Eliot was now in her house, but not going through her papers, but going through her food cupboards. [laughs] In her food cupboards, all she actually had was baked beans because she was a terrible cook. Part of her unwellness at that point was malnutrition. No, she thought that T.S. Eliot was spying on her. She was obsessed with spies. Spies, snoopers, blackmailers.Henry: T.S. Eliot is Stealing My Baked Beans would have been a very good title for a memoir.Frances: It actually would, wouldn't it?Henry: Yes, it'd be great.[laughter]Henry: People listening will be able to tell that Spark is a very spooky person in several different ways. She had what I suppose we would call spiritual beliefs to do with ghosts and other sorts of things. You had a sort of conversion of your own while writing this book, didn't you?Frances: Yes, I did. [laughs] Every time I write a biography, I become very, very, very immersed in who I'm writing about. I learned this from Richard Holmes, who I see as a method biographer. He Footsteps his subjects. He becomes his subjects. I think I recognized when I first read Holmes's Coleridge, when I was a student, that this was how I also wanted to live. I wanted to live inside the minds of the people that I wrote about, because it was very preferable to live inside my own mind. Why not live inside the mind of someone really, really exciting, one with genius?What I felt with Spark wasn't so much that I was immersed by-- I wasn't immersed by her. I felt actually possessed by her. I think this is the Spark effect. I think a lot of her friends felt like this. I think that her lovers possibly felt like this. There is an extraordinary force to her character, which absolutely lives on, even though she's dead, but only recently dead. The conversion I felt, I think, was that I have always been a very enlightenment thinker, very rational, very scientific, very Freudian in my approach to-- I will acknowledge the unconscious but no more.By the time I finished with Spark, I'm pure woo-woo now. Anything can happen. This is one of the reasons Spark was attracted to Catholicism because anything can happen, because it legitimizes the supernatural. I felt so strongly that the supernatural experiences that Spark had were real, that what Spark was describing as the spookiness of our own life were things that actually happened.One of the things I found very, very unsettling about her was that everything that happened to her, she had written about first. She didn't describe her experiences in retrospect. She described them as in foresight. For example, her first single authored published book, because she wrote for a while in collaboration with her lover, Derek Stanford, but her first single authored book was a biography of Mary Shelley.Henry: Great book.Frances: An absolutely wonderful book, which really should be better than any of the other Mary Shelley biographies. She completely got to Mary Shelley. Everything she described in Mary Shelley's life would then happen to Spark. For example, she described Mary Shelley as having her love letters sold. Her lover sold Mary Shelley's love letters, and Mary Shelley was then blackmailed by the person who bought them. This happened to Spark. She described Mary Shelley's closest friends all becoming incredibly jealous of her literary talent. This happened to Spark. She described trusting people who betrayed her. This happened to Spark.Spark was the first person to write about Frankenstein seriously, to treat Frankenstein as a masterpiece rather than as a one-off weird novel that is actually just the screenplay for a Hammer Horror film. This was 1951, remember. Everything she described in Frankenstein as its power is a hybrid text, described the powerful hybrid text that she would later write about. What fascinated her in Frankenstein was the relationship between the creator and the monster, and which one was the monster. This is exactly the story of her own life. I think where she is. She was really interested in art monsters and in the fact that the only powerful writers out there, the only writers who make a dent, are monsters.If you're not a monster, you're just not competing. I think Spark has always spoken about as having a monster-like quality. She says at the end of one of her short stories, Bang-bang You're Dead, "Am I an intellectual woman, or am I a monster?" It's the question that is frequently asked of Spark. I think she worked so hard to monsterize herself. Again, she learnt this from Elliot. She learnt her coldness from Elliot. She learnt indifference from Elliot. There's a very good letter where she's writing to a friend, Shirley Hazzard, in New York.It's after she discovers that her lover, Derek Stanford, has sold her love letters, 70 love letters, which describe two very, very painfully raw, very tender love letters. She describes to Shirley Hazzard this terrible betrayal. She says, "But, I'm over it. I'm over it now. Now I'm just going to be indifferent." She's telling herself to just be indifferent about this. You watch her tutoring herself into the indifference that she needed in order to become the artist that she knew she was.Henry: Is this why she's attracted to mediocrities, because she can possess them and monsterize them, and they're good feeding for her artistic programme?Frances: Her attraction to mediocrities is completely baffling, and it makes writing her biography, a comedy, because the men she was surrounded by were so speck-like. Saw themselves as so important, but were, in fact, so speck-like that you have to laugh, and it was one after another after another. I'd never come across, in my life, so many men I'd never heard of. This was the literary world that she was surrounded by. It's odd, I don't know whether, at the time, she knew how mediocre these mediocrities were.She certainly recognised it in her novels where they're all put together into one corporate personality called the pisseur de copie in A Far Cry from Kensington, where every single literary mediocrity is in that critic who she describes as pissing and vomiting out copy. With Derek Stanford, who was obviously no one's ever heard of now, because he wrote nothing that was memorable, he was her partner from the end of the 40s until-- They ceased their sexual relationship when she started to be interested in becoming a Catholic in 1953, but she was devoted to him up until 1958. She seemed to be completely incapable of recognising that she had the genius and he had none.Her letters to him deferred to him, all the time, as having literary powers that she hadn't got, as having insights that she hadn't got, he's better read than she was. She was such an amazingly good critic. Why could she not see when she looked at his baggy, bad prose that it wasn't good enough? She rated him so highly. When she was co-authoring books with him, which was how she started her literary career, they would occasionally write alternative sentences. Some of her sentences are always absolutely-- they're sharp, lean, sparkling, and witty, and his are way too long and really baggy and they don't say anything. Obviously, you can see that she's irritated by it.She still doesn't say, "Look, I'm going now." It was only when she became a novelist that she said, "I want my mind to myself." She puts, "I want my mind to myself." She didn't want to be in a double act with him. Doubles were important to her. She didn't want to be in a double act with him anymore. He obviously had bought into her adulation of him and hadn't recognised that she had this terrifying power as a writer. It was now his turn to have the breakdown. Spark had the mental breakdown in 1950, '45. When her first novel came out in 1957, it was Stanford who had the breakdown because he couldn't take on board who she was as a novelist.What he didn't know about her as a novelist was her comic sense, how that would fuel the fiction, but also, he didn't recognize because he reviewed her books badly. He didn't recognise that the woman who had been so tender, vulnerable, and loving with him could be this novelist who had nothing to say about tenderness or love. In his reviews, he says, "Why are her characters so cold?" because he thought that she should be writing from the core of her as a human being rather than the core of her as an intellect.Henry: What are her best novels?Frances: Every one I read, I think this has to be the best.[laughter]This is particularly the case in the early novels, where I'm dazzled by The Comforters and think there cannot have been a better first novel of the 20th century or even the 21st century so far. The Comforters. Then read Robinson, her second novel, and think, "Oh God, no, that is her best novel. Then Memento Mori, I think, "Actually, that must be the best novel of the 20th century." [laughs] Then you move on to The Ballad of Peckham Rye, I think, "No, that's even better."The novels landed. It's one of the strange things about her; it took her so long to become a novelist. When she had become one, the novels just landed. Once in one year, two novels landed. In 1959, she had, it was The Bachelors and The Ballad of Peckham Rye, both just completely extraordinary. The novels had been the storing up, and then they just fell on the page. They're different, but samey. They're samey in as much as they're very, very, very clever. They're clever about Catholicism, and they have the same narrative wit. My God, do the plots work in different ways. She was wonderful at plots. She was a great plotter. She liked plots in both senses of the world.She liked the idea of plotting against someone, also laying a plot. She was, at the same time, absolutely horrified by being caught inside someone's plot. That's what The Comforters is about, a young writer called Caroline Rose, who has a breakdown, it's a dramatisation of Sparks' own breakdown, who has a breakdown, and believes that she is caught inside someone else's story. She is a typewriter repeating all of her thoughts. Typewriter and a chorus repeating all of her thoughts.What people say about The Comforters is that Caroline Rose thought she is a heroine of a novel who finds herself trapped in a novel. Actually, if you read what Caroline Rose says in the novel, she doesn't think she's trapped in a novel; she thinks she's trapped in a biography. "There is a typewriter typing the story of our lives," she says to her boyfriend. "Of our lives." Muriel Sparks' first book was about being trapped in a biography, which is, of course, what she brought on herself when she decided to trap herself in a biography. [laughs]Henry: I think I would vote for Loitering with Intent, The Girls of Slender Means as my favourites. I can see that Memento Mori is a good book, but I don't love it, actually.Frances: Really? Interesting. Okay. I completely agree with you about-- I think Loitering with Intent is my overall favourite. Don't you find every time you read it, it's a different book? There are about 12 books I've discovered so far in that book. She loved books inside books, but every time I read it, I think, "Oh my God, it's changed shape again. It's a shape-shifting novel."Henry: We all now need the Frances Wilson essay about the 12 books inside Loitering with Intent.Frances: I know.[laughter]Henry: A few more general questions to close. Did Thomas De Quincey waste his talents?Frances: I wouldn't have said so. I think that's because every single day of his life, he was on opium.Henry: I think the argument is a combination of too much opium and also too much magazine work and not enough "real serious" philosophy, big poems, whatever.Frances: I think the best of his work went into Blackwood's, so the magazine work. When he was taken on by Blackwood's, the razor-sharp Edinburgh magazine, then the best of his work took place. I think that had he only written the murder essays, that would have been enough for me, On Murder as a Fine Art.That was enough. I don't need any more of De Quincey. I think Confessions of an English Opium-Eater is also enough in as much as it's the great memoir of addiction. We don't need any more memoirs of addiction, just read that. It's not just a memoir of being addicted to opium. It's about being addicted to what's what. It's about being a super fan and addicted to writing. He was addicted to everything. If he was in AA now, they'd say, apparently, there are 12 addictions, he had all of them. [laughs]Henry: Yes. People talk a lot about parasocial relationships online, where you read someone online or you follow them, and you have this strange idea in your head that you know them in some way, even though they're just this disembodied online person. You sometimes see people say, "Oh, we should understand this more." I think, "Well, read the history of literature, parasocial relationships everywhere."Frances: That's completely true. I hadn't heard that term before. The history of literature, a parasocial relationship. That's your next book.Henry: There we go. I think what I want from De Quincey is more about Shakespeare, because I think the Macbeth essay is superb.Frances: Absolutely brilliant. On Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth.Henry: Yes, and then you think, "Wait, where's the rest of this book? There should be an essay about every play."Frances: That's an absolutely brilliant example of microhistory, isn't it? Just taking a moment in a play, just the knocking at the gate, the morning after the murders, and blowing that moment up, so it becomes the whole play. Oh, my God, it's good. You're right.Henry: It's so good. What is, I think, "important about it", is that in the 20th century, critics started saying or scholars started saying a lot, "We can't just look at the words on the page. We've got to think about the dramaturgy. We've got to really, really think about how it plays out." De Quincey was an absolute master of that. It's really brilliant.Frances: Yes.Henry: What's your favourite modern novel or novelist?Frances: Oh, Hilary Mantel, without doubt, I think. I think we were lucky enough to live alongside a great, great, great novelist. I think the Wolf Hall trilogy is absolutely the greatest piece of narrative fiction that's come out of the 21st century. I also love her. I love her work as an essayist. I love her. She's spooky like Spark. She was inspired.Henry: Yes, she is. Yes.Frances: She learnt a lot of her cunning from Spark, I think. She's written a very spooky memoir. In fact, the only women novelists who acknowledge Spark as their influencer are Ali Smith and Hilary Mantel, although you can see Spark in William Boyd all the time. I think we're pretty lucky to live alongside William Boyd as well. Looking for real, real greatness, I think there's no one to compare with Mantel. Do you agree?Henry: I don't like the third volume of the trilogy.Frances: Okay. Right.Henry: Yes, in general, I do agree. Yes. I think some people don't like historical fiction for a variety of reasons. It may take some time for her to get it. I think she's acknowledged as being really good. I don't know that she's yet acknowledged at the level that you're saying.Frances: Yes.Henry: I think that will take a little bit longer. Maybe as and when there's a biography that will help with that, which I'm sure there will be a biography.Frances: I think they need to wait. I do think it's important to wait for a reputation to settle before starting the biography. Her biography will be very interesting because she married the same man twice. Her growth as a novelist was so extraordinary. Spark, she spent time in Africa. She had this terrible, terrible illness. She knew something. I think what I love about Mantel is, as with Spark, she knew something. She knew something, and she didn't quite know what it was that she knew. She had to write because of this knowledge. When you read her, you know that she's on a different level of understanding.Henry: You specialise in slightly neglected figures of English literature. Who else among the canonical writers deserves a bit more attention?Frances: Oh, that's interesting. I love minor characters. I think Spark was very witty about describing herself as a minor novelist or a writer of minor novels when she was evidently major. She always saw the comedy in being a minor. All the minor writers interest me. Elizabeth Bowen, Henry Green. No, they have heard Elizabeth Bowen has been treated well by Hermione Lee and Henry Green has been treated well by Jeremy Treglown.Why are they not up there yet? They're so much better than most of their contemporaries. I am mystified and fascinated by why it is that the most powerful writers tend to be kicked into the long grass. It's dazzling. When you read a Henry Green novel, you think, "But this is what it's all about. He's understood everything about what the novel can do. Why has no one heard of him?"Henry: I think Elizabeth Bowen's problem is that she's so concise, dense, and well-structured, and everything really plays its part in the pattern of the whole that it's not breezy reading.Frances: No, it's absolutely not.Henry: I think that probably holds her back in some way, even though when I have pushed it on people, most of the time they've said, "Gosh, she's a genius."Frances: Yes.Henry: It's not an easy genius. Whereas Dickens, the pages sort of fly along, something like that.Frances: Yes. One of the really interesting things about Spark is that she really, really is easy reading. At the same time, there's so much freight in those books. There's so much intellectual weight and so many games being played. There's so many books inside the books. Yet you can just read them for the pleasure. You can just read them for the plot. You can read one in an afternoon and think that you've been lost inside a book for 10 years. You don't get that from Elizabeth Bowen. That's true. The novels, you feel the weight, don't you?Henry: Yes.Frances: She's Jamesian. She's more Jamesian, I think, than Spark is.Henry: Something like A World of Love, it requires quite a lot of you.Frances: Yes, it does. Yes, it's not bedtime reading.Henry: No, exactly.Frances: Sitting up in a library.Henry: Yes. Now, you mentioned James. You're a Henry James expert.Frances: I did my PhD on Henry James.Henry: Yes. Will you ever write about him?Frances: I have, actually. Just a little plug. I've just done a selection of James's short stories, three volumes, which are coming out, I think, later this year for Riverrun with a separate introduction for each volume. I think that's all the writing I'm going to do on James. When I was an academic, I did some academic essays on him for collections and things. No, I've never felt, ever, ready to write on James because he's too complicated. I can only take tiny, tiny bits of James and home in on them.Henry: He's a great one for trying to crack the code.Frances: He really is. In fact, I was struck all the way through writing Electric Spark by James's understanding of the comedy of biography, which is described in the figure in the carpet. Remember that wonderful story where there's a writer called Verica who explains to a young critic that none of the critics have understood what his work's about. Everything that's written about him, it's fine, but it's absolutely missed his main point, his beautiful point. He said that in order to understand what the work's about, you have to look for The Figure in the Carpet. It's The Figure in the CarpetIt's the string on which my pearls are strung. A couple of critics become completely obsessed with looking for this Figure in the Carpet. Of course, Spark loved James's short stories. You feel James's short stories playing inside her own short stories. I think that one of the games she left for her biographers was the idea of The Figure in the Carpet. Go on, find it then. Find it. [laughs] The string on which my pearls are strung.Henry: Why did you leave academia? We should say that you did this before it became the thing that everyone's doing.Frances: Is everyone leaving now?Henry: A lot of people are leaving now.Frances: Oh, I didn't know. I was ahead of the curve. I left 20 years ago because I wasn't able to write the books I wanted to write. I left when I'd written two books as an academic. My first was Literary Seductions, and my second was a biography of a blackmailing courtesan called Harriet Wilson, and the book was called The Courtesan's Revenge. My department was sniffy about the books because they were published by Faber and not by OUP, and suggested that somehow I was lowering the tone of the department.This is what things were like 20 years ago. Then I got a contract to write The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth, my third book, again with Faber. I didn't want to write the book with my head of department in the back of my mind saying, "Make this into an academic tome and put footnotes in." I decided then that I would leave, and I left very suddenly. Now, I said I'm leaving sort of now, and I've got books to write, and felt completely liberated. Then for The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth, I decided not to have footnotes. It's the only book I've ever written without footnotes, simply as a celebration of no longer being in academia.Then the things I loved about being in academia, I loved teaching, and I loved being immersed in literature, but I really couldn't be around colleagues and couldn't be around the ridiculous rules of what was seen as okay. In fact, the university I left, then asked me to come back on a 0.5 basis when they realised that it was now fashionable to have someone who was a trade author. They asked me to come back, which I did not want to do. I wanted to spend days where I didn't see people rather than days where I had to talk to colleagues all the time. I think that academia is very unhappy. The department I was in was incredibly unhappy.Since then, I took up a job very briefly in another English department where I taught creative writing part-time. That was also incredibly unhappy. I don't know whether other French departments or engineering departments are happier places than English departments, but English departments are the most unhappy places I think I've ever seen.[laughter]Henry: What do you admire about the work of George Meredith?Frances: Oh, I love George Meredith. [laughs] Yes. I think Modern Love, his first novel, Modern Love, in a strange sonnet form, where it's not 14 lines, but 16 lines. By the time you get to the bottom two lines, the novel, the sonnet has become hysterical. Modern Love hasn't been properly recognised. It's an account of the breakdown of his marriage. His wife, who was the daughter of the romantic, minor novelist, Thomas Love Peacock. His wife had an affair with the artist who painted the famous Death of Chatterton. Meredith was the model for Chatterton, the dead poet in his purple silks, with his hand falling on the ground. There's a lot of mythology around Meredith.I think, as with Elizabeth Bowen and Henry Green, he's difficult. He's difficult. The other week, I tried to reread Diana of the Crossways, which was a really important novel, and I still love it. I really recognise that it's not an easy read. He doesn't try, in any way, to seduce his readers. They absolutely have to crawl inside each book to sit inside his mind and see the world as he's seeing it.Henry: Can you tell us what you will do next?Frances: At the moment, I'm testing some ideas out. I feel, at the end of every biography, you need a writer. You need to cleanse your palate. Otherwise, there's a danger of writing the same book again. I need this time, I think, to write about, to move century and move genders. I want to go back, I think, to the 19th century. I want to write about a male writer for a moment, and possibly not a novelist as well, because after being immersed in Muriel Sparks' novels, no other novel is going to seem good enough. I'm testing 19th-century men who didn't write novels, and it will probably be a minor character.Henry: Whatever it is, I look forward to reading it. Frances Wilson, thank you very much.Frances: Thank you so much, Henry. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.commonreader.co.uk/subscribe

Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVr5MNf7Nt5oCXywsUh-ttA/join   Looking to buy used and new games?  Use my affiliate link  with Noble Knight Games https://www.nobleknight.com/?awid=1459   Hungry is joined by Lana of Navigator Lana, and Level Up Board Game Podcast where they catch up on games they need to review and talk about Grendel from Off the Page Games.   0:00 - Intro RECENT PLAYS & NEXT ON THE TABLE 16:29 - Kinfire Council 24:16 - Tales of the Arthurian Knights 31:37 - Arydia 35:03 - Hobbit: There and Back Again 39:15 - Tea Garden & Conquest Princess 43:42 - Vantage and Above and Below: Haunted MINI-Reviews 46:49 - Far Cry & Worms 51:32 - CDSK 58:45 - Confusing Lands 1:03:33 - Sponsor Bump 1:04:38 - Grendel 1:19:36 - Lana's Words of Gaming Wisdom 1:23:02 - Bonus Clips   Check out the video version here:   Check out Navigator Lana here: www.instagram.com/navigatorlana and www.tiktok.com/navigatorlana www.navigatorlana.blog

On the show this week - Ellie is away sick so it's just the boys on the this episode. Chris has a quick rundown on his experience with Dark Souls so far, plus he needs some help with choosing a game for his travels. And Guy brings the easiest to grasp and follow quiz you've ever heard... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Email us if you too have gone on a smart, hot, funny, blonde, big boob journey. This week Abigail and Michelle watched another treat from King Boll so you don't have to. They take a quick dive into the film's risky director, underwhelming plot, and surprising German leading man

Is the planet also forbidden?The Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button is back in control and it has chosen the one-and-only game that will ever be developed by Typhoon Studios. Published by 505 Games, this first-person title is billed as "action-adventure" but feels a bit more like "exploration-survival" to us. If you start with inspiration from Far Cry, add comedy science fiction films, and then mix that with Metroidvania elements, you may start to form an idea of what playing this game could be like. Fortunately for you, Tom and Chris have each dedicated an hour of their busy schedules to do some real reconnaissance on this wild world and are ready to determine if this interstellar investigation warrants increased investment. Join our duo as they discuss and find out if this savage planet is worth your time!What do you think? Let us know!Hit us up on Twitter at https://twitter.com/tc1h1dOr on Threads at https://www.threads.net/@tc1h1dDrop us an email at tc.1h1d(at)outlook[dot]comFollow us on Goodpods @1h1dCheck out our fancy site: https://quitthebuild.com/1h1dWatch the video: https://bit.ly/1H1DYTThanks for taking this ride with us :-)

Carl-Edwin Michel s'entretient avec Ludger Saintélien, directeur créatif chez Gearbox et vétéran du jeu vidéo passé par EA, Ubisoft, Warner et Activision. Ludger revient sur son parcours, entre design, narration visuelle et grandes franchises comme Far Cry, Batman ou Call of Duty. Il partage sa vision du rôle du directeur créatif, au croisement de l'artistique et de la coordination d'équipe. Sur l'IA, il évoque un équilibre à préserver : l'outil est prometteur, mais il ne doit pas effacer la sensibilité humaine. Chez Gearbox, l'automatisation touche les pipelines, mais la création reste entre les mains d'artistes. Pour lui, l'intuition et la touche unique de chaque créateur demeurent irremplaçables.

Dylan and Kirklin share a bunch of the games they've been playing the last few weeks!Ad-Free version: https://www.patreon.com/GeekVerseQuests0:00:00 intro0:02:40 Rock On! Island (UFO50)0:13:00 Metal Slug Attack Reloaded0:21:40 Youtube (Rye Games/EuroThug4000)0:26:00 Stellar Blade0:35:50 Far Cry 50:39:55 Wolfentstein: The New Order0:48:30 Total War: Warhammer 30:58:25 Squeakcross: Home Squeak Home1:05:30 RematchLinksDylan on Twitter @DylanMussDylan on Backloggd backloggd.com/u/Rapatika/Taylor on Twitter @TaylorTheFieldKirklin on Twitter @kirklinpatzerTravis on Twitter @TravisBSnellhttps://www.youtube.com/c/GeekVersePodcastBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/geekverse-podcast--4201268/support.

Dylan and Kirklin share a bunch of the games they've been playing the last few weeks!Ad-Free version: https://www.patreon.com/GeekVerseQuests0:00:00 intro0:02:40 Rock On! Island (UFO50)0:13:00 Metal Slug Attack Reloaded0:21:40 Youtube (Rye Games/EuroThug4000)0:26:00 Stellar Blade0:35:50 Far Cry 50:39:55 Wolfentstein: The New Order0:48:30 Total War: Warhammer 30:58:25 Squeakcross: Home Squeak Home1:05:30 RematchLinksDylan on Twitter @DylanMussDylan on Backloggd backloggd.com/u/Rapatika/Taylor on Twitter @TaylorTheFieldKirklin on Twitter @kirklinpatzerTravis on Twitter @TravisBSnellhttps://www.youtube.com/c/GeekVersePodcast

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we start a new game in our series on independent games with 2004's Cave Story. We briefly set the game in its time, talk a little about its developer, and then talk about the game proper. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: A couple of hours Issues covered: freeware vs democratized indie dev and publishing, Japanese independent development, an indie darling, likely antecedents, 2004 in review, the end of a cycle, standing out in a stacked year, sticking it out, breaking through onto Nintendo platforms, early independent success on the Switch platform, influences and what's in the mix, weapon leveling, more story than expected, characters and dialog, more adventure, having a mess of villagers, setting up mysteries, merging lots of elements into their story and interactions, a spike at the end, adding puzzle-y elements, keys and keys that are not keys, threads of characters and relationships, something that is more than a MetroidVania, a skill-based game, "you're a really good person," forgetting a console came out, having the opportunity to play off-the-beaten path games, not needing a map, the dangers of categorization, how the platforming feels, fear of skill-based need, becoming one with the controller, an emotional response, empathetic response, catharsis, building the dam and breaking it, graceful building, manipulation in art, can a movie version work vs the interactivity, shock in literary fiction. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Nintendo Switch, Fez, Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya, Cara Ellison, Downwell, Wii, Crystal Dynamics, Super Meatboy, Metroid, Nifflas, Knytt, n/n+/n++, Pixeljunk (series), Q-Games, Dylan Cuthbert, World of Warcraft, Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines, Halo 2, Half-Life 2, The Sims 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, Doom 3, Ratchet and Clank Up Your Arsenal, Silent Hill 4: The Room, GTA: San Andreas, Far Cry, Metroid: Zero Mission, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, Knights of the Old Republic 2, Star Wars: Battlefront, Pikmin 2, Sly 2: Band of Thieves, Jak 3, Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Katamari Damacy, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Republic Commando, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, WiiWare/DSi, PS Vita, Net Yaroze, Nicalis, Castlevania, MegaMan, CapCom, Bionic Commando, Sega, Sonic (series), Square Enix, Zelda (series), Final Fantasy IX, Dark Souls (series), The Seven Samurai, Firewatch, Animal Well, Spelunky (series), Hollow Knight, Gone Home, Ashton Herrmann, Last of Us, Shadow of the Colossus, Shakespeare, Outer Wilds, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.  Next time: Finish Cave Story Twitch Discord DevGameClub@gmail.com

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on walking simulators with 2012's Dear Esther, played here in a 2017 "Landmark Edition" but based on a 2007 Source mod for Half-Life 2. We of course set the game in its time, spend a fair amount of time on randomness and meaning, and open the cellar door. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: The whole shebang Issues covered: walking simulators, 2012 in games, a little history of The Chinese Room (the company), a little digression on The Chinese Room (the thought experiment), influences, developing in the mod community, the role of randomness, discovering the randomness, justifying the randomness, mod communities replaying games, not discussing games as you play them, writers having the same space to play, 30 seconds of depressing poetry, "cellar door," a quality of lovely phonemes, the facts we know and the things we might interpret, a dreamy narrative space, Tim reveals his baseball knowledge, a metaphor for grief and an otherworldly space, rebirth, a car accident setting vs a gurney setting, things you can miss, not a thing video games would do, appreciating a new design space, directors' commentaries, crematory urns, one of the props, the impact of the ultrasound, needing to relate to the characters, the potential for missing things. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Fez, The Stanley Parable, The Chinese Room, Dishonored, Halo 4, Diablo III, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, Forza Horizon, New Super Mario Bros U, Far Cry 3, XCOM Enemy Unknown, Alan Wake's American Nightware, Hitman Absolution, Assassin's Creed 3, Max Payne 3, Mass Effect 3, Borderlands 2, Darksiders 2, Spec Ops: The Line, Dragon's Dogma, Fez, Journey, The Walking Dead, Hotline Miami, Spelunky, Papo y Yo, Bastion, Super Hexagon, Sumo Digital, Dan Pinchbeck, Jessica Curry, Rob Briscoe, Independent Games Festival, Korsakovia, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, Everyone's Gone to the Rapture, Unity, CryEngine, Little Orpheus, Still Wakes the Deep, Vampire: Bloodlines (series), Hardsuit Labs, Brian Mitsoda, John Searle, Alan Turing, William S. Burroughs, Nigel Carrington, Proteus, Halo, Drew Barrymore, Donnie Darko, Rogue Legacy 2, David Lynch, Lost Highway, Inland Empire, Laura Dern, Waiting for Godot, True West, Sam Shepard, Firewatch, LucasArts, 343 Games, Kevin Schmitt, Metal Gear, Death Stranding, Trespasser, Tacoma, Jedi Starfighter, Daron Stinnett, Outer Wilds, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: The Stanley Parable Twitch: timlongojr  Discord  DevGameClub@gmail.com 

Far Cry 6 vermeidet eine peinliche Geschichte und flache Figuren. Schnörkellos, ernsthaft und mit viel Action wird die Story erzählt. Dabei sieht es so schön aus, wie einst das Original von 2004.Wenn dir die Episode gefallen hat, teile sie doch gern mit deinen Freunden oder abonniere unseren Podcast. Natürlich freuen wir uns auch über Rezensionen oder Bewertungen bei Apple Podcasts, sowie jede Reaktion und Empfehlung von dir.© Videospielgeschichten Podcast

Welkom bij Gamekings Daily, de podcast annex video over het laatste nieuws over videogames. Elke werkdag staat er een verse aflevering voor je klaar. In ongeveer 20 minuten tijd bespreken twee Gamekings-presentatoren het laatste nieuws uit de videogames-wereld. Vandaag zit Jasper in de studio om samen met JJ de laatste ontwikkelingen door te nemen. De twee hebben het over de wens van Ubisoft om van hun drie grote franchises Assassin's Creed, Far Cry en Rainbox Six een miljarden business te maken. Is dat volgens hen haalbaar? Verder bespreken ze de uitspraken van de oud PlayStation-baas Yoshida die vindt dat sommige games van 80 euro een koopje zijn. Dit en meer zie en hoor je in de GK Daily van dinsdag 21 mei 2025.Ubisoft ziet miljarden aan inkomsten in franchises als Assassin's CreedGK Daily is er elke doordeweekse dag, op de vrijdag na. Want dan kun je kijken en/of luisteren naar EvdWL, de uitgebreide podcast over al het nieuws van de week. In GK Daily praten we je in 20 minuten bij over wat er zich allemaal afspeelt in de wereld van videogames. In deze aflevering behandelen de twee presentatoren het nieuws dat het de wens van Ubisoft is om hun drie grote franchises alle drie om te zetten in een miljarden business. De vraag is natuurlijk hoe ze dat willen doen en of dit wel haalbaar is? Zijn games als Assassin's Creed. far Cry en Rainbow Six groot genoeg om een dergelijke omzet te kunnen genereren?Keert de wall run terug in Call of Duty?De twee kijken ook naar Call of Duty waar naar verluidt de wall run weer gaat terugkeren. De tijden van jet-pack komen volgens dataminders terug. Zijn ze daar blij mee of moeten de boots vooral on the ground blijven? En zijn sommige games van 80 inderdaad een kopje. Een principiële discussie.Timestamps:00:00:00 Gamekings Daily van woensdag 21 mei00:00:19 Introductie00:02:17 Assassin's Creed, Far Cry & Rainbow Six moeten miljarden business worden00:12:08 Games van tachtig euro zijn een koopje

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/AnalyticBecome A Patron Of The Notorious Mass Effect Podcast For Additional Bonus Audio And Visual Content For All Things Nme! Join Our Patreon Here: https://ow.ly/oPsc50VBOuHJoin Analytic Dreamz in Episode 148 of The Notorious Mass Effect as we explore whether 2025 will be a landmark year for gaming. This episode delivers sharp insights into the latest gaming and music industry developments, blending cultural analysis with breaking news.Music Industry Highlights:Drake's ongoing lawsuit and its implicationsKanye West's latest controversiesKendrick Lamar's highly anticipated tourBig Sean's new book, Higher UpKen Carson's More Chaos and its impact on hip-hopGaming Industry Updates:GTA 6 delay and its industry-wide effectsU.S. tariffs disrupting gaming and music:Anbernic halts U.S. retro console shipmentsCombo Breaker FGC event faces financial crisisUbisoft spins out Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six into a Tencent-backed subsidiaryNintendo's press conference and strategic price drop2025 Gaming Spotlight:South of MidnightClair Obscur: Expedition 33The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion RemasteredSquad Busters mobile game review and sales roundupBongo Cat phenomenonOver RequiemzSchedule 1Cultural Flashpoints:Stan Lee's legal battle against his handlersXbox's controversial price hikesBig U's Rico case developmentsTune in to The Notorious Mass Effect Episode 148 for Analytic Dreamz's unfiltered take on gaming, music, and pop culture. Subscribe, rate, and share to stay in the loop!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/analytic-dreamz-notorious-mass-effect/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/AnalyticBecome A Patron Of The Notorious Mass Effect Podcast For Additional Bonus Audio And Visual Content For All Things Nme! Join Our Patreon Here: https://ow.ly/oPsc50VBOuHJoin Analytic Dreamz in Episode 148 of The Notorious Mass Effect as we explore whether 2025 will be a landmark year for gaming. This episode delivers sharp insights into the latest gaming and music industry developments, blending cultural analysis with breaking news.Music Industry Highlights:Drake's ongoing lawsuit and its implicationsKanye West's latest controversiesKendrick Lamar's highly anticipated tourBig Sean's new book, Higher UpKen Carson's More Chaos and its impact on hip-hopGaming Industry Updates:GTA 6 delay and its industry-wide effectsU.S. tariffs disrupting gaming and music:Anbernic halts U.S. retro console shipmentsCombo Breaker FGC event faces financial crisisUbisoft spins out Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six into a Tencent-backed subsidiaryNintendo's press conference and strategic price drop2025 Gaming Spotlight:South of MidnightClair Obscur: Expedition 33The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion RemasteredSquad Busters mobile game review and sales roundupBongo Cat phenomenonOver RequiemzSchedule 1Cultural Flashpoints:Stan Lee's legal battle against his handlersXbox's controversial price hikesBig U's Rico case developmentsTune in to The Notorious Mass Effect Episode 148 for Analytic Dreamz's unfiltered take on gaming, music, and pop culture. Subscribe, rate, and share to stay in the loop!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/analytic-dreamz-notorious-mass-effect/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The charts have changed! This is not a drill, the charts have changed!   The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Remaster has rocketed into 2nd place on the charts! Proving once again what we knew all along - the world craves good RPGs! And maybe not even good RPGs, but good games in general. And what's this? Coming in the top 10 is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33! Truly we live in an age of wonders! Good games coming left and right and its all thanks to Xbox.   In fact, its thanks to Xbox that PlayStation can keep the lights on, as Microsoft Gaming becomes the top publisher on the PlayStation store for the last quarter. Sony must really love getting their 30% cut from all of Microsoft's hard work. Would certainly be a shame if Xbox decided to stopped being nice and focus on their own ecosystem...   In more good news - PC Game Pass hits a 45% YoY increase! So we live to see another day of articles telling us how unsustainable or unprofitable Game Pass is. Thanks gaming media! And speaking of Game Pass, Farcry 4 gets a 60FPS patch just in time for it's Game Pass debut. Like we said - good games are coming left and right. It's becoming so hard to keep up. RIP to everyone backlog everywhere.   And we finally have Hunted the Truth when it comes to Halo 5's infamous media campaign which was nothing like the game. In a tale as old as time, the Sales & Marketing guys didn't understand what they were selling, and so sold something that didn't exist. You would have thought that with this happening 10 years ago, Microsoft and everyone else would have learnt their lesson, but it seems not.   Do you have questions about the title of this episode? Of course you do.  Lee has been playing Avowed and he's been a-wowed with it. To find out more, you'll just have to listen...   Our world famous #AprilAchievementChallenge has come to an end. But you'll have to wait until next week to hear the official stats... (Thats what we call a tease in this industry)   The next event is in June and it's all about your backlog! For more info, check out the official #Back2YourBacklog page on our website for all the info. Then join our Discord to become a member of our amazing community.   -- For previous episodes, our socials, community events, and more, visit ⭐THE XBOXCAST OFFICIAL WEBSITE ⭐

Hey Retro Fans!

Liam Wong is a Scottish photographer, art director, and game designer. Born in Edinburgh he began his career in the video game industry after graduating from Abertay University. After a stint at Crytek UK, he eventually join Ubisoft Montreal, and there became the youngest director at the company. His work on acclaimed titles like Far Cry 4 helped sharpen his visual storytelling skills, which later influenced his photographic style. While visiting in Tokyo, my guest developed a passion for nighttime photography, drawing inspiration from cyberpunk films as he documented the city's vibrant yet haunting after-dark scenes. In 2019, he released his debut photobook, TO:KY:OO, a collection of cinematic images that showcase his signature style—rich contrasts, neon lights, and rain-soaked streets. The book was met with critical acclaim. It solidified his reputation as a leading figure in contemporary urban photography, whose instantly recognisable work blurs the lines between reality and fiction. Be attitude for gains. https://plus.acast.com/s/my-perfect-console. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us a textIn this episode...--> Bethesda has finally revealed the worst-kept secret in video games... The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered.--> Pocketpair has presented a comprehensive, multi-argument defense against Nintendo's Palworld lawsuit with a response that references a variety of games, ranging from Octopath Traveler to Far Cry 5.--> Tragedy strikes as Hollywood has run out of video games to adapt and is now forced to make an OutRun movie fronted by Sydney Sweeney and Michael Bay.--> 34 years later, Paul Rudd is reprising the SNES role that got him into acting with an adorable Nintendo Switch 2 trailer.--> Also: Top 3 New Releases, Retro RewindHEY! LISTEN! --> A Gamer Looks At 40 Podcast, Ep 57 - A Live Read of the Nintendo Power Legend of Zelda Comic w/Gamers Week PodcastWe love our sponsors! Please help us support those who support us!- Check out the Retro Game Club Podcast at linktr.ee/retrogameclub- Connect with CafeBTW at linktr.ee/cafebtw- Visit A Gamer Looks At 40 at linktr.ee/agamerlooksat40- Get creative with Pixel Pond production company at pixelpondllc.comHosts: wrytersview, donniegretro, retrogamebrewsOpening theme: "Gamers Week Theme" by Akseli TakanenPatron theme: "Chiptune Boss" by donniegretroClosing theme: "Gamers Week Full-Length Theme" by Akseli TakanenSupport the show

Send us a textBen and Oats wish they were playing Blue Prince! Sara and Saturn rolled Draco!Nintendo Halts Switch 2 Pre-Orders Over Trump's TariffsThe 'Stardew Valley-like' genre desperately needs a real name and I have the perfect answerUbisoft mistakenly censors Far Cry 4, restores boobs and dongStranger Things: The First Shadow's creators explain how their Broadway show ‘complicates' season 5World-famous DJ, Salvatore Ganacci, spins into FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves!STEEL BALL RUN JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Anime AnnouncedIs 4chan Down? What We Know Amid Hack ReportsElder Scrolls Oblivion Remake Screenshots Leak OnlineSupport the showPATREON: http://www.patreon.com/thegorgeDiscord: discord.gg/K8A6SG2Big Gay Nerds: https://soundcloud.com/biggaynerdsBackground music: DJ CUTMAN: https://music.djcutman.com/Broke for Free: https://brokeforfree.comVisager: https://visager.bandcamp.comAdventuria: https://adventuria.bandcamp.com/INTRO: https://soundcloud.com/zak235Ben's BlueSky: thegorgepodcast.bsky.socialSara's BlueSky: radioinactivity.bsky.socialE-mail: thegorgepodcast@gmail.com

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a new series of series on the independent games of the last couple of decades, starting with 2012's Fez. We set the game in its time, talk a bit about its precedents and the landscape of independent games in the middle of that console generation. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Single-digit cubes Issues covered: our real plan or lack thereof, early games, the indie revolution, the influences back and forth, the pressure of the space we're in, a highly visible indie, games from that year, sequels vs the different stuff in the indies, democratization of the market, the console cycle, always online fiasco, getting on the Steam store, opening console store fronts to independents, limitations, the broadband market and bandwidth costs, the publicity on the store, low cost of goods, continuing power of retail, a two dimensional puzzle game in a three dimensional world, charm, great music and MIDI with an unsettling feel, rotating the world, rebooting the game, achieving the effect without perspective, the Trixel engine, having a hard time getting it, trusting the game, having a new lens on a game, taking the time to infuse the whole experience, team sizes, telling a different story with an existing language, having fewer people to get on board, independent publishers and producers, influences, glitch aesthetics, map language, climbing on the sides of things, stopping time while the world rotates, how the editor might work, games from the past, CONFIG.SYS (dang it, could not remember), skipping over generations. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Will Wright, Indie Game: The Movie, Polytron, Phil Fish, Dishonored, Halo 4, AW American Nightmare, X-COM, Firaxis, Mass Effect 3, Forza Horizon, Far Cry (series), Counterstrike: Go, Assassin's Creed 3, Borderlands 2, Diablo III, Dragon's Dogma, Journey, The Walking Dead, Telltale Games, FTL, Spelunky, Papo y Yo, Bastion, Super Hexagon, Terry Cavanaugh, Supergiant, Hades, Transistor, UFO 50, Derek Yu, That Game Company, Sky, Sony, PlayStation, Microsoft, Steam, XBLA, Braid, Super Meat Boy, Nintendo, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Zelda (series), Super Mario (series), Metroid (series), Outer Wilds, The Sixth Sense (obliquely), Renaud Bedard, Trapdoor, Penny Arcade, blitworks, Tetris, Axiom Verge, Tron, Out of this World, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Super Mario 3D Land, Minecraft, Sam, Interstate '76, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: More Fez! Twitch: timlongojr Discord DevGameClub@gmail.com

In this episode of the Soul of a Gamer Podcast, hosts Scott and Stephen dive into a lively discussion about their favorite video game villains, exploring the emotional impact and narrative significance of these characters. They share personal anecdotes and insights on iconic villains like Doc Ock from Marvel's Spider-Man and Dasan from Jedi Knight, while also touching on the complexities of characters like Pagan Min from Far Cry 4. The conversation is filled with humor, nostalgia, and a deep appreciation for the storytelling in video games. In this engaging conversation, the hosts delve into the world of video game villains and memorable characters, exploring the complexities of antagonists like Pagan Min from Far Cry and Eric Sparrow from Tony Hawk's Underground. They discuss the impact of horror game villains from series like Outlast and Resident Evil, and the surprising twist of Lord Malice in Army Men. The conversation also touches on the hypocrisy of parental controls in gaming and concludes with a light-hearted discussion about beloved pets in video games, particularly the Palicos from Monster Hunter. In this episode, the hosts delve into the emotional connections gamers form with their in-game companions, discussing various beloved pets from popular video games like Fable II, Far Cry, and Fallout. They explore the impact of these characters on gameplay and the emotional weight of choices players must make, particularly in Fable II. The conversation also highlights the unique and often humorous aspects of animal companions in gaming, culminating in a discussion about listener engagement and sharing favorite pets and villains.

Are Switch 2 games too expensive and what does this mean for the rest of the industry? ►Please Subscribe www.youtube.com/myxboxandme ►Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/McFixer ► BRAND NEW MXAM DISCORD - https://discord.gg/aQDSbAy8QH  ► Twitter: @MCFixer @Kreshnikplays @MattPVideo @PaulDespawn  ► Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/McFixer  ► Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/Kreshnik ► Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/PaulDespawn Timcodes 00:00:00 Intro  00:17:14 What's in your box? 00:29:43 South of Midnight Reviews are out  00:37:17 Xbox-Branded Handled Teased by ASUS 00:41:07 Bethesda Softwarks QA union authorizes strike as negotions with Microsoft Continue  00:42:47 Unbisoft and Tencent are forming a new company that will take control of its most successful franchises: Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six  00:50:19 Games coming and leaving Gamepass 00:52:30 Guess that Game  01:01:49 Fixers Sack

ENEBA.com – Le meilleur endroit pour acheter des jeux (PS4, Xbox, PC) https://ene.ba/TheSharePlayersCartes cadeau numériques https://ene.ba/TheSharePlayers-Gift-CardsAchetez vos jeux vidéo favoris Assassin's Creed au meilleur prix ! https://ene.ba/TheSharePlayers-GamesDans le cadre de la création d'une filiale d'Ubisoft détenant leurs trois franchises principales Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Rainbow 6, et détenu à 25 % pour le chinois Tencent, retour sur ce que pourrait être l'avenir d'Ubisoft.#assassinscreedshadows #assassinscreed #ubisoft

Falta pouco para o direct do Nintendo Switch 2 e, mesmo assim, tivemos um outro direct. Focado no Switch 1, a transmissão teve algumas surpresas como um novo Rhythm Heaven, um pouco mais de Metroid Prime 4 e cartuchos virtuais que permitem emprestarmos jogos digitais. A semana também teve o anúncio da Nuntius, uma publicadora brasileira, e a formação de uma nova subsidiária da Ubisoft.Participantes:Heitor De PaolaGuilherme JacobsAssuntos abordados:05:00 - O Nintendo Direct dedicado ao Switch 11:05:00 - Nuntius é uma nova publicador brasileira de jogos1:09:00 - Ubisoft cria subsidiária com as marcas Assassin's Creed, Far Cry e Rainbow Six1:15:00 - Rápidos e curtasVenha fazer parte do Discord do Overloadr! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This Week: Loads of announcements come out of the latest Nintendo Direct, including a release date for The Legend of Zelda movie, and Game Informer is back! Plus, Warner Bros. is pulling the plug on its Hogwarts Legacy DLC, and Ubisoft is making some big moves with its biggest franchises, Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. Joining us this week is Guillaume Provost, Studio Head at Compulsion Games, to talk about their upcoming action-adventure game, South of Midnight, launching on Xbox and PC on April 8th!

Join the new and improved Plug N Play Podcast as Henry dives deep into the news this week with the resurrection of Game Informer, Ubisoft finally admitting defeat with their new subsidiary announcement and a review of absolutely everything that was shown in this week's Nintendo Direct! Impressions this week include the new hotness, Split Fiction, and a long-time coming comparison of Cyberpunk 2077. Henry played the game at release and has now played the game in 2.0 as well as the expansion. Has the game gone on a redemption arc or is it still just as unplayable as ever? Tune in to find out!Feel free to send us a question at plugnplaypodcast1@gmail.com for a chance to have it read out on the show!Timestamps:0:00 - Intro18:01 - Game Informer has been resurrected28:15 - Ubisoft creates new subsidiary containing Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six39:49 - Nintendo DirectImpressions:1:34:39 - Split Fiction1:49:12 - Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

Would you play a Miles Morales-style God of War interstitial? If you said "yes," we have good news: Just such a product is apparently slated for PS5 this fall, and it's rumored to return the series to its Greek roots. But is this really the best use of Santa Monica Studio's time? Shouldn't all eyes be on what's truly next? We discuss. Then: Ubisoft has announced its long-rumored financial deal with tech conglomerate Tencent, one that will give the Chinese firm a 25% stake in a new entity encompassing Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. What does this $1+ billion infusion in capital do for the ailing publisher? Is it too little, too late? Plus: Indiana Jones' PS5 release date draws very near, Until Dawn's original PS3 version leaks in full, Rocksteady's upcoming Batman game may be the first confirmed PlayStation 6 title, Bandai Namco and Sony get together on more retro PlayStation ports, and more. Then: Listener inquiries! With Naughty Dog's Intergalactic unlikely to come to market before 2027, could it end up being PlayStation 5's swan song? Will Game Informer's unexpected comeback prove a triumphant success or a predictable failure? How can Housemarque best position Saros to succeed with Returnal fans? Has Colin ever sat on the couch behind him even a single, solitary time? EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/sacred Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement. Timestamps: 0:00:00 - Intro 0:40:19 - The unified feed is back 0:50:07 - Reddit 1:19:56 - Depression tips 1:24:39 - Bidet recommendation 1:29:55 - Should Dustin actually talk less? 1:35:47 - New "situations" 1:38:19 - Colin's couch 1:42:18 - Dustin encounter at Target 1:43:16 - Sacred recommendations 1:51:14 - God of War expansion 1:56:03 - Indiana Jones PS5 release date 2:01:15 - Until Dawn on PS3 leaked 2:03:28 - New trophies for Days Gone 2:07:16 - Next Batman game for PS6 2:09:25 - Painkiller PS5 remake 2:12:24 - What We've Been Playing 2:55:01 - Ubisoft change-up 3:08:08 - Patapon and Everybody's Golf is back! 3:26:51 - New PS+ games 3:33:12 - Will Intergalactic be the swan song for PS5? 3:36:35 - Best video game stories 3:44:34 - Cosmetics in games 3:47:47 - Assassin's Creed vs Elon 4:00:04 - Game Informer's return 4:13:00 - Saros expectations Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Thanks to Opera GX for sponsoring this episode Use https://operagx.gg/DLC to download Opera GX today! Jeff and Christian welcome Bobby Pashalidis from Console Creatures to the show to discuss the last OG Switch Nintendo Direct, Ubisoft selling part of Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six to Tencent, and the latest offerings from Dreamhaven. The Playlist: Bobby: Assassin's Creed Shadows, The First Berserker: Khazan Christian: DOOM: The Dark Ages Jeff: 33 Immortals Parting Gifts!

In this episode of the Spawn On Me Podcast, we delve into the latest developments in the gaming world:​Crimson Desert's Stunning Engine Demo: We discuss the impressive graphics and mechanics showcased in the recent Crimson Desert demo, highlighting the capabilities of Pearl Abyss' BlackSpace Engine. ​Tencent's $1.25 Billion Investment in Ubisoft: Analyzing Tencent's significant investment in Ubisoft's new subsidiary, which encompasses major franchises like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six, and what this means for the future of these beloved series. ​Steel Hunters Early Access Release: Exploring the upcoming early access release of Wargaming's new PvPvE mech shooter, Steel Hunters, set to launch on April 2, 2025.Nintendo's Virtual Game Card System: Examining Nintendo's innovative Virtual Game Card feature, which allows players to manage, swap, and lend digital games across Nintendo Switch systems, enhancing the flexibility of digital game libraries. Join us as we break down these exciting topics and their implications for gamers worldwide.

In this week's Gaming Fun Fact we take a look at the ultra-detailed world of Far Cry 2. The second mainline entry into the Far Cry series decided to try and take the franchise in a more realistic and detailed direction which included: an advanced fire system, degrading weapons & vehicles, in-game maps for navigation, and more.Nintendo Direct March 2025 just recently concluded and we had Tim give us a rundown on all the announcements that were at the show. Please note it was not a Switch 2 Direct, that will happen at a later date (April 2, 2025).In this edition of the Query Corner Question, we ask about game details and their importance, or lack thereof. STALKER 2 has recently come under fire from some fans of the series that have pointed out details that only appear in earlier entries of the franchise. Similarly, Oblivion back in 2006 had NPCs with full schedules and dynamic "lives" while the more recent Starfield ditched the feature in favor of more static shopkeepers and key NPCs. Do details that most players will never see matter to you? Or is it enough for the game to put up a shallow facade?

Today on Lets Play: Daily Gaming News -User research workers at Activision unionizeTencent invests $1.25bn in new Ubisoft subsidiary focused on Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow SixNintendo Direct 3.27.2025 – Nintendo SwitchThe Friday Re:Play -Game Informer returns after being shut down by GameStopUnited Videogame Workers union launches at GDC 2025 in partnership with CWAUVW-CWA WebsiteESA launches Accessible Games Initiative to improve visibility of accessibility featuresFollow Nate on Twitter @NateBenderama Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Nathan, Gita, and Riley briefly talk about their true passion, shirts, before elegantly segueing into a conversation about Ubisoft's extremely eventful week: The embattled publisher announced that it's spinning off its most successful series, including Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six, into a separate subsidiary thanks to a $1.25 billion investment from Chinese conglomerate Tencent. What does this mean for those remaining aboard the Ubisoft mothership? And will this lead to even more heads rolling following layoffs and studio closures in December? Then we move on to the AI abomination of the week: an image filter based on the works of Studio Ghibli, whose most famous creative, Hayao Miyazaki, once called AI “an insult to life itself.” After that, we give our final appraisal of Severance season two, which was not perfect, but which managed to hit some impressive high notes and benefited from largely focusing on characters over mystery box shenanigans. Gita doesn't love Ben Stiller's directorial style, and Riley doesn't think Severance is necessarily a Smart Show, but those things don't prevent it from being good, if that makes sense. If it doesn't, listen to the episode! Finally, we come up with a simple solution to the problem of mass media illiteracy: change all of society. Seems like something we can knock out in a day or two, so let's get cracking.Credits- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Gita Jackson, & Riley MacLeod- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude- Subscribe to Aftermath!About The ShowAftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that's too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris' frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don't know what else to tell you; it's a great time. Simply by reading this description, you're already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In today's Daily Fix:The Legend of Zelda movie finally has a release date: March 26th, 2027. For such an anticipated project, Nintendo chose the most low-key way of announcing the date: via their new Nintendo Today news app. They did just have a Nintendo Direct yesterday, which did not contain any mention of the movie, and they also have a Switch 2-focused Direct next week; both of those would have more obvious options to drop the news. Elsewhere in games, Ubisoft and Tencent have formed a new subsidiary company that will handle some of Ubi's big IPs like Far Cry, Rainbow Six, and Assassin's Creed. And finally, new Sims challenger InZOI is still in early access, and players have already found a bug that will let you run over children with a car. Yes, it's already patched.

Today's stories include Prince of Persia The Lost Crown is coming to Mobile with quite a bit of new accessibility features. And the story of Tencent now owns a 25% stake in Ubisoft, and they've made a subsidiary within the company, splitting off its three biggest franchises, Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six Siege. What does this mean for Ubisoft's united accessibility initiative? Links:- Atomfall Review - https://youtu.be/TYjtfbkTIIE- Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown - Mobile Reveal Trailer - https://youtu.be/El_GqiH5W8I?si=JmRIGbXjLExaGQc4- Ubisoft and Tencent unveil new subsidiary for Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six - https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/ubisoft-and-tencent-unveil-new-subsidiary-for-assassins-creed-far-cry-and-rainbow-six/Timecodes:00:00 - Intro + Housekeeping02:16 - Prince of Persia The Lost Crown coming to Mobile with some new accessibility12:33 - Ubisoft and Tencent subsidiary deal26:40 - ExtroWHAT I SEE WHEN PLAYING VIDEO GAMES: https://youtu.be/c-vrKFmz1pYFriend me on PSN and Xbox LIVEPSN Name: BlindGamerSteveXbox Gamertag: BlindGamerSteveFollow me online:TWITTER: http://twitter.com/stevesaylorTWITCH: http://twitch.tv/stevesaylorINSTAGRAM: http://instagram.com/stevesaylor#gamingnews #tencent #ubisoft

Start Artist Song Time Album Year The Far Cry The Following 6:30 Once There Was 2025 0:07:54 The Far Cry Unholy Waters 13:56 Once There Was 2025 0:25:04 The Far Cry Crossing Pangea 12:31 Once There Was 2025 0:39:18 Steven Wilson Unused Objects 11:22 The Overview (Limited Edition) The Alterview 2025 0:50:40 Ethmebb Aladin-Cavern (Digestible […]

This week on Digital Days Gaming, we have Respawn readying Star Wars announcements, PlayStation adding a new first-party studio to their stable, working with People Can Fly on an existing IP, and more. The opening song is Deja Vu by Popskyy - https://popskyy.bandcamp.com/If you'd like to donate to us using PayPal, you can do so with this link. https://www.paypal.me/digitaldaysgamingIf you would like to order DDG merchandise, click below: https://teespring.com/digital-days-gamingPatreonDiscordTwitter: @DigitalDaysPodDave Twitter: @GoodDaveHuntMichael Twitter: @The1stMJCTwitch: @DigitalDaysGamingFacebook PageFacebook GroupYouTubeTikTok

After a fortnight away we return with Jim and Darren getting in an Electric State, Lee watching Black Bag and Elton needing to have tummy sticks. Then after some feedback for Housebound we move on to this weeks film. A movie that is probably the most prophetic film committed to celluloid. So much so its gone from satire to practically a documentary. The 1976 Sidney Lumet movie Network Media discussed this week Far Cry 5 - All gaming platforms Pacific Drive - All gaming platforms Adolesence - Netflix Mickey 17 - Theatrical release Black Bag - Theatrical release Daredevil Born Again - Disney+ Electric State - Netflix Reacher - Amazon Prime The Killers Game - Netflix  

Hosts:KurtJamieDennisLucas Do you love video games? Of course, you do! Here’s a taste of what we discuss this week: Assassin’s Creed in Balatro, Ubisoft’s rebooted Far Cry multiplayer shooter, Yuri Lowenthal returns for Spider-Man 3, Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra release window, Killing Floor 3 delay, Gears of War Collection rumors, Respawn cancels Titanfall-related multiplayer […]

Hosts:KurtJamieDennisLucas Do you love video games? Of course, you do! Here’s a taste of what we discuss this week: Assassin’s Creed in Balatro, Ubisoft’s rebooted Far Cry multiplayer shooter, Yuri Lowenthal returns for Spider-Man 3, Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra release window, Killing Floor 3 delay, Gears of War Collection rumors, Respawn cancels Titanfall-related multiplayer […]

After years of rumors, the Gears Of War Collection has become a bit of a running gag in the Xbox community. If it happens, great. If it doesn't, we never fully believed in it anyway. This week, we have Jez Corden to thank because it made for one of our fastest evolving stories mid-show! Starting off as a discussion of whether or not the Gears Of War Collection would ever happen, we quickly learned it is happening and... it won't have multiplayer. Is this a major dealbreaker for Xbox fans? Naturally, the Dukes debate, but the real question after assessing the early Forza Horizon 5 sales data is if it will matter to those playing on other platforms. Forza Horizon 5 is already beating out hot products with full marketing campaigns that are set to hit the market. Most stunning of all is that despite amassing 40+ million players and being available on multiple platforms for years, Forza Horizon 5's early access edition is the lead seller. It says a lot about how Xbox as a platform is viewed versus their content. So, let's dive in! Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement. 0:00:00 - Intro 0:30:09 - Tony Hawk Pro Skater is back 0:50:44 - A new Gears Of War rumor 1:06:34 - Expedition 33 previews 1:14:46 - Hideki Kamiya still wants to make Scalebound 1:18:11 - CoD leaker doubles down on new Xbox consoles in 2026 1:25:03 - Monster Hunter Wilds has sold 8 million copies 1:27:35 - Sonic Unleashed has been ported to PC by fans 1:34:35 - Turok Dinosaur Hunter suddenly gets released 1:36:27 - Terminator 2D: No Fate arrives on September 5th 1:38:43 - Jason Schreier reports that a new LEGO game is on the way 1:44:48 - Suikoden announcements 1:48:42 - Rockstar Games has acquired Video Games Deluxe 1:49:26 - Steam reaches 40 Million concurrent online users 1:50:12 - La Quimera revealed 1:51:30 - Demon Slayer is getting another game 1:52:30 - Games publisher Acclaim has returned 1:55:35 - Ubisoft's Far Cry extraction shooter has been rebooted 2:05:38 - What We're Playing 2:40:40 - Jez confirms no multiplayer on Gears Collection 3:12:17 - Coming soon to Xbox Game Pass 3:17:35 - Game Pass Pick Of The Week Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Once again we fail the unofficial "can we get through an episode without a Robocop quote" Jim celebrates not having intrusive camerawork for a week by playing Far Cry, Elton gets emotional about a famous death this week, Darren suffers frustration at his own DIY being too well built to be destroyed. While Lee, goes full old man shouts at cloud about The Brits aka "Whos that? Whats that song!?" and then gets Stockholm Syndrome playing Baldurs Gate 3 After that we address the real important topics of the day in Asking for Trouble before getting on to this weeks film. The New Zealand horror comedy Housebound, which may also be referred to as HomeBound by Lee the big idiot! Media Discussed This Week Far Cry New Eden - PC / XBox / PS5 Baldurs Gate 3 - PC / XBox / PS5 Robocop Rogue City - PC / XBox / PS5 Going For Gold - UK TV / Challenge TV The Brits 2025 - iTV / iTVX Housebound - BBC iPlayer / VOD / YouTube

Check out Monster Hunter Now here! https://mhn-web.onelink.me/ZLW3/tswfcfq5 The Tony Hawk game countdown has finally ended, a Far Cry extraction game has reportedly been rebooted, and somehow, Acclaim has returned. Thank you for the support! Run of Show - - Start - Housekeeping Pack your bags, trainers, because we're headed to Johto! The next chapter of our Pokemon Nicklocke journey begins this Friday! Join us after Gamescast for the start of our SoulSilver Nicklocke with a special new main character! Exclusively on twitch.tv/kindafunnygames Today after, KFGD, you'll get: GAMESCAST - Split Fiction Review After that is Kinda Funny Podcast The STREAM is Bless plays Dark Souls If you're a Kinda Funny Member: Today's Gregway is 20 minutes about grief. Thank you to our Patreon Producers: Delaney Twining, Karl Jacobs, OmegaBuster, & Karin Lindner The Roper Report  - - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 Reaction - Ubisoft's Far Cry Extraction-Based Multiplayer Shooter Has Been Rebooted - Tom Henderson @ Insider Gaming - Dotemu Announces New IP and Tim Played It - Iconic game publisher Acclaim has been resurrected, with wrestler Jeff Jarrett as advisor - Jeff Jarrett @ VGC - Monster Hunter Wilds sales top eight million in three days - Sal Romano @ Gematsu - Activision is Once Again Under Fire Over Alleged Generative AI Use, Now for... a Fake Guitar Hero Game? - Rebekah Valentine @ IGN - Wee News! - SuperChats - You‘re Wrong Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

(TIME STAMPS BELOW) A review of the series premiere of House Of David and some thoughts from our 1 Timothy Geek Bible study about how God's law helps us live healthier and more fulfilled lives! AND MUCH MORE! 00:00:30 Intro 00:03:44 House Of David Premiere Review 00:25:06 CGC & Christian Geek News 00:28:51 How Good Doctrine Is GOOD For Us! (1 Timothy Geek Bible Study) 00:45:33 Listener/Viewer Feedback, Questions & Comments (Lack Of Fast Travel In Games: When It Sucks & When It Works!, How Does Paeter Rationalize Playing Fallout New Vegas When It Has Sinful Sexual Elements?) Paeter's Geek Week 01:09:06 MOVIES & SHOWS: Longlegs, 01:17:37 VIDEO GAMES- Pillars Of Eternity 2: Deadfire, Far Cry 5 Arcade, Far Cry 5: Hours Of Darkness, Far Cry 5: Lost On Mars, Far Cry 5: Dead Living Zombies, Neverwinter Nights: Doom Of Icewind Dale, Fighting Hype For Monster Hunter Wilds 01:58:38 On The Next Episode... 02:06:20 Essential Issues Weekly: DC Comics Reactions (You might already suspect that Batman is not very good at forgiving, but this month it seems he may not even understand what the word actually means! (That or his writer perhaps doesn't.) Reactions to Green Arrow 20, Black Canary: Best Of The Best 3, Detective Comics 1093! ) Support this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Subscribe in a reader Open In i-tunes- itms://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-christian-geek-central-podcast/id258963175?mt=2 i-tunes Page Link- https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-christian-geek-central-podcast/id258963175?mt=2 Get fun, exclusive rewards for your support! Visit: https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Or Become a Patron! All episodes are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare CGC Bible Study/Devotional content include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive Concordance Blueletterbible.org, The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen. Additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2025, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

Hey Podtimists,This week we've got a cousin to the Dayquil episode: It's the Mucinex cut. David talks about Ninja Gaiden and Chase plays some games that just feel good.Then we took a deeper look at the well regarded Farcry 2. This game was suggested to us by MangyLatestLarge. Thanks for the suggestion!---Timestamps:(0:00) - Intro(3:23) - What David has been playing(3:28) - Ninja Gaiden Black 2(7:55) - Cyberpunk 2077(10:43) - Indiana Jones and the Great Circle(12:52) - Persona 3 Reloaded(17:19) - What Chase has been playing(17:34) - Reality Break(27:27) - Warriors Abyss(40:14) - Ender Magnolia Bloom in the Mist(52:07) - The Manga Minute(55:48) - Chase's Podtimistic thing of the week(58:18) - David's Podtimistic thing of the week(1:03:30) - Good Games! Featuring Farcry 2(1:26:38) - Outro---Games mentioned:Ninja Gaiden Black 2Cyberpunk 2077Indiana Jones and the Great CirclePersona 3 ReloadedReality BreakWarriors AbyssEnder Magnolia Bloom in the MistFarcry 2

This week, we're joined by the legendary Susan O'Connor, Founder & CEO of The Narrative Department and the award-winning writer behind BioShock, Far Cry, Tomb Raider, and more. We dive into her journey, the craft of game storytelling, and how she's helping the next generation of writers and narrative designers do their best work.Learn more about SusanLearn more about usJoin the next episode of the Indie Game Lunch Hour LIVE every Wednesday at 12pm EST on our Discord channel to answer your own burning questions and be immortalized in the recordings.

#64 on the "filth" list informs us that if you meet a far cry, shoot it in the eyes.  That's where it cries the most.Support us at our podcasting network, Podcastio Podcastius at https://www.patreon.com/podcastiopodcastius.  You'll get early episodes of this and out other podcasts, along with a live chat here and there.Speaking of our other podcasts - seriously, you could only listen to various other configurations of us:Luke Loves Pokemon: https://lukelovespkmn.transistor.fm/Time Enough Podcast (Twilight Zone): https://timeenoughpodcast.transistor.fm/Game Game Show (a game show gaming games): https://gamegameshow.transistor.fm/Occult Disney: https://occultdisney.transistor.fm/Podcast: 1999 (where Mark and Matt rap about 70's tv sci-fi): https://podcast1999.transistor.fm/And Matt makes music here:https://rovingsagemedia.bandcamp.com/Coming Soon:Momento Hercules in New York All That Jazz