Podcasts about mystery may

Don't tell anyone, but I always thought they were podcasts. Welcome back to NOCLIP! Today, we're going to be talking about To the Moon, a narrative game focused around learning about characters through one's memory. I imagine this description will be quite short, because there isn't a lot I can cover without spoiling the plot. While technically a sci-fi story, the game revolves around one character's past, so those elements fall more into the background during the meat of the gameplay. The result is that despite the fantastical premise, the majority of the game feels very mundane which has the effect of making it easier for the player to relate to the characters in the story, and it's very effective because the game operates on a personal level. As you learn more about each of the primary characters, you can start to see the depth they have and that characterization and what you think about their actions and motivations will influence the way you perceive the overall story. It kind of sounds like I'm just describing how to read a story, but engaging with this game the way you would a book or a movie will probably do you better than coming into it like it was Chrono Trigger. This is an extremely well written story with very little interactivity, and it's well worth checking out if you're in the mood for something simple. We're going to be talking about what being a game brings to the table for this experience, how the game goes handles its characters, and we speak ill (and not so ill) of the dead. Thank you for joining us again this week! We're on the last of our Mystery May games after this, and it's so far been a year for actually covering the games that have been on our list for a long time. The tragedy of this game, aside from Johnny's story itself, is that we waited so long to play it that it feels to me almost obsolete as a game, though not as a narrative, which still feels very well written. Did you feel similarly to me, or were you more engaged due to the interactivity? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we ended up rolling a game that is has been on the list for less time than the other games this year, but one we're excited for anyway, Spiritfarer, so we hope you'll join us then!

Forget about Freeman, we're abandoning the podcast. Welcome back to the podcast! We may be into June, but we're in the ides of Mystery May right now, and the fates have deigned we play Half-Life, and I am not one to argue with the fates. Half-Life is one of the most influential FPS games of all time, and part of that comes down to the way the game builds a really impressive world for you to play through. Black Mesa feels as vast in some places and stifling in others as it needs to in order to create a tone that is full of anxiety as you conserve ammunition while fighting enemies with genuinely great creature design. It's part FPS, part horror title, like Doom was, but with this added environmental element that really pushes it to the next level. The other part of its influence is really just about how good the game was when it came out. Levels are mostly well paced, even from a modern perspective, movement through them feels fluid and like you're using all the parts of your toolbox, and the aforementioned ammo conservation feels well thought out. This one is an easy game to go back to despite it's age, and it's still just as moody while still having that over-the-top 90s sci-fi edge to it. We're going to be talking about Source Engine movement, the pros and cons of Xen, and whether we were or were not excited to turn on pumps. Thank you for joining us again this week! We've been consistently hitting the games that have been on our list for the longest this year, and Half-Life is one we've been dancing around for a little too long. This game still rules, particularly if you are a fan of its descendants, so if you haven't given it a shot yet, I recommend doing so. And then let us know what it was like over on our Discord, or in the comment section! Next time, we're going to be talking about To The Moon, which is not about the stock exchange, so we hope you'll join us then!

No, I'm Pod. He's Cast. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, for the second episode of Mystery May, we're going to be talking about The Wolf Among Us, a narrative adventure game from Telltale. Telltale's style of design really exploded with the Walking Dead, and has since led to a number of choice-based adventure games that would cite it as inspiration, but The Wolf Among Us sits in a unique position in their catalogue as the last indie property they would make a game out of following the studio's previous success. Because Fables, the series that the game is based on, is relatively niche, many of the players for this game were fans of Telltale's games specifically. This has led to the game having a particularly outspoken following, and a very positive reputation. And one it's earned, we think. The game centers around a murder mystery, placing you in the shoes and paws of Sheriff Bigby Wolf trying to identify the killer. And this mystery is very well written, with pacing that makes the game's five episode structure flow surprisingly well even when playing through the game all at once and characters that are deep enough to make sense of their motivations and, importantly, predict their reactions to your choices. Some of the mechanics show their age, with Telltale's usual reliance on QTEs and truncated dialogue choices introducing a little bit of friction, but if these are things you can deal with, this may be the best example of what Telltale can do out there. We're going to talk about the audience expectation that comes with writing a story using preexisting characters from two different mediums, managing tone with a mature premise but a silly pretense, and we revel in our success as podcasting magnates. Thank you for joining us again this week! As we've mentioned on the last two episodes, it's kind of crazy we hadn't talked about a Telltale game up to this point. We have different histories with the studio, but we both like the games inspired by them and have played multiple games from them in the past, so it was honestly a matter of time. Do you think The Wolf Among Us is The Wolf Among the best games Telltale has released? Do you jive with the general structure and mechanics of this now twelve year old game still? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, the fates have deigned we talk about Half-Life, so be sure to join us for that!

May 15th: Mary Agnes Moroney Disappeared (1930) Not all disappearances end in tragedy. At least, not in the way we usually discuss on this podcast. On May 15th 1930 a young girl vanished in a case that, though still officially unsolved, did finally see some answers after almost a century of questions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_of_Mary_Agnes_Moroney, https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/2/17/23594831/chicago-mary-agnes-moroney-kidnapping-jeanette-burchard, https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/2/17/23602528/mary-agnes-moroney-don-jeanette-burchard-cook-county-sheriff-solved-mystery-missing-jose-rodriguez, https://charleyproject.org/case/mary-agnes-moroney, https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,816978,00.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The guild authorizes you to hunt this podcast. Welcome back to NOCLIP! Today, we're going to be talking about Monster Hunter Wilds, the latest mainline entry in the series and the game that turned many peoples' computers into puddles of acid. Wilds is a follow up to Monster Hunter World both in that it was made by the same team and that it mechanically doesn't stray too far from the systems that World established. This is a good and a bad thing, because it means that the combat in Wilds is much more straightforward than it was in Rise, allowing you to establish a flow with each weapon and understand the basics fairly quickly. On the other hand, it also doesn't feel like it has innovated much, particularly in the ways the game seemed to advertise itself on. Focusing on the larger environments, Wilds seems to have overstepped its own capabilities a bit, making the new areas harder to traverse, and without your mount, taking a long time to do. Additionally, much of the tracking mechanics have been stripped out, meaning you generally know what you're hunting and exactly where it is when you set off, making the more-open world basically a nonfactor in gameplay. If you're a fan of the series mostly because of the combat mechanics, none of these things will be deal breakers, and the new focus mode and wound system changes the texture of fights enough to make them feel fresh again, but there is a lot of truly unnecessary artifice surrounding the game that can detract. We're going to be talking about what the story does(n't) bring to the table, the wonderful new monster designs, and the horror that is palicos talking. Thank you for joining us again this week! Monster Hunter Wilds was one of my most anticipated games this year, and despite what we talk about in the episode, I think it still holds up as a fun entry in the series, even if it isn't substantially close to some of the previous games for me. How did you feel about the game? Did you manage to muscle through the first 10 or so hours to get to where the game opens up for you, or did you bounce off of it? If you were a new player, did you find this an accessible game? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord server! Next time, we begin Mystery May, where we roll a die to determine our next episode based on our tables (which you can view on our website if curious!). We're starting with a “short” game (formerly “Pocket”), The Wolf Among Us, so we hope you'll join us for that!

Karffin' Mofang podcast. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, as the last episode of Mystery May this year, we're going to be talking about Obduction. This is a game in the style of Myst by Cyan, the developers of Myst, and boy did they ace the assignment. Obduction is more accessible than the originals, yes, but it does get into that same headspace more and more as it goes on. So the game has complicated puzzles (and some less complicated ones), but while the design mechanically hasn't evolved too significantly since the 90s, visually, they have been able to create a world that looks very good and shows the imaginative otherworldliness these games are known for while using what are completely different techniques than what were used to create the visual elements of Myst or Riven. The visuals alone would probably have been enough reason to play the game at the time it came out, but it's still a cool experience now to see some of the environments created for the game and to explore them, very slowly, as you scour for clues. We're going to be talking about the pace of the game, the challenges presented both in and out of game, and we give some unsolicited advice on filmmaking, despite not being filmmakers ourselves. Thank you for joining us this week! This game did a surprisingly good job at letting us fulfill our “be people who can make any kind of progress in Myst games” fantasy, but still asked a bit too much of us to complete within the time we had. Are you a fiend for this style of adventure game, or did you pass this one by? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! The last few episodes have tested one of our weaker traits, being at all smart, but next week we are going to try and rally and prove we're good at something difficult, because we're playing Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC (as part of a theme with other DLCs)! We hope you'll join us for that.

There is surprisingly little use for the podcast block. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, the dice have ordained we talk about Infinifactory. This is a game that has been on our list for many years at this point and the main reason we ended up putting it on the (now comical misnomer) Mystery May table was mostly out of fear. Fear of exposing our deep inability to play puzzle games with any kind of ability. Infinifactory is a game by Zachtronics, who are known for creating this sort of puzzle game in which you create machines to accomplish a task. This happens to be one of their most literal. Tasked with creating factories that create specific outputs from a never ending conveyor of inputs in the form of blocks. Using a litany of different tools including welders, rotators and pushers, you orient blocks and combine them together. This ramps up in complexity shockingly quickly and it's both impressive and intimidating, as the objects you create become less abstract and more like actual things. This plays into the game's thematic elements as you are creating these products for an alien race under duress. This plays into the visual and interstitial elements of the game, but also into a surprising narrative. Less surprising because of its content, more due to its existence at all. We're going to be talking about our struggles with the game as it progressed, the relaxed atmosphere of the game, and how difficult it sometimes is to buy burritos. Thank you for joining us again this week! We may have been slightly out of our depth in the second half of this game, but we wanted to play it because it is, at first glance, the most approachable of Zachtronics' games. And this largely bore out. Are you a long-time Zachtronics fan, or do you find these games kind of unapproachable? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we do not get to rest our brains, as we are playing Obduction, from the creators of Myst and following very much in its footsteps, so if you aren't as mentally exhausted as we are, we hope you'll join us for that.

Podcast.Mystery(1); wait(31) Welcome back to the podcast, and to, shamefully, our first episode of Mystery May! Quadrilateral Cowboy is a part heist, part desktop simulation game in which you use a portable “deck” to hack into security systems and use gadgets to get into locations in a cyberpunk dystopia. And the thing that really sets this game apart from most other games in this genre is that you actually have to do all the hacking yourself. It's not quite complicated on the level of something like Hacker Evolution, but the act of creating code yourself and then needing to execute actions in sync with it creates a really creatively expressive environment in which to solve puzzles. The game may add a few more things than were strictly necessary to be a satisfying collection of systems, but each of them is fun to play around with and get a hang of. On top of the strictly mechanical elements of the game, the game builds its world, one of skyscrapers and autoturrets, bombastically while setting up its characters in an exceedingly subtle way. The minimalist art style and lack of any dialogue betray how well the narrative elements are communicated by way of environments, character behaviors and gameplay setup. This is one of those games that, while definitely not being for everyone, shows how games can be used to communicate weirder concepts in ways few other mediums can. We're going to be talking about how the crunchy mechanics are used to design novel puzzle concepts, issues we had both technical and skill, and we set you up with a DC 17 vibe check. Thank you for joining us again this week! We know it's been a long time coming on Mystery May, so much so that it is now June (“Mystery Summer Theater” as Andy has taken to calling it), but appropriately, this game has been on our list to play for seven years so it's been a long time coming as well. Are you a fan of really finnicky mechanic sets like this, or did you look once at this game and say “maybe I'll play the next one”? Let us know in the comments section or over on our Discord! Next time, Mystery May gives us one of the most “thing that's not like the others” games on the list with Ecco the Dolphin, so we hope you'll join us then, or the suffering will almost definitely not have been worth it.

It's finally over. We Ma(y)de to the end of Mystery May....Hope you enjoyed as much as we didn't for the most part. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theevildeaths/message

MM3 is here! Thanks again to the boys from Mutant City Horror for hanging with us make sure the check them out! https://open.spotify.com/show/3TTdtN4SUb4uCLDaedzNMe?si=ea1ee95488cf441e https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mutant-city-horror/id1676367514 https://www.youtube.com/@mutantcityhorror https://www.instagram.com/mutantcityhorror/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theevildeaths/message

Pod bless you, Andreas. Welcome back to the podcast and somehow, despite it being the middle of the month, not our first game of Mystery May! Today, we're going to be talking about Pentiment, an adventure game in which you play as an artist as he is thrust into the middle of murder mysteries, however unlikely that might be. In each act you collect evidence and talk to the people of the town to gather information and do so in a way that changes the narrative of the game and the other options available to you. One of the most impressive elements is just this, the number of different paths available to you and the often very minor things that can affect a playthrough and flesh out your version of Andreas, as well as the world in which he lives. Given the historical setting of the game, this world building is a major part communicating the themes and helps ease the player in the politics and other messages the game is trying to engage with. And it is really successful at this. You may not learn anything specifically new about the era in which the game takes place, but you will come out with thoughts about the peasants' complaints against their governance, the relationship between a religious institution and the power of the state, and other pretty heady topics the game broaches surprisingly seamlessly. We're going to be talking about how the game's art style attempts to mimic the art that was created during that time period, the game's surprisingly solid writing and also the length of time we can listen to chickens before we just give up and turn the sound off. Thank you for joining us again this week! We'll be slowly rolling through our next few episodes due to things happening in our lives outside of the podcast, but we will be moving through four Mystery May games before anything else, and the first of those is coming next week on Pocket. Next main episode, however, will be on Infinifactory, so we hope you'll join us for that.

Thanks so much to Rob for joining us this week to watch one of the most insane movies we've ever seen! Make sure to check him out on The Cult Classic Horror show for more his hilarious antics! P.S. we love the rest of you boys too! https://cultclassichorror.com/ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-cult-classic-horror-show/id1062638318 https://open.spotify.com/show/4MUAwTOJVHwagz20iTz55e?si=56b1881a07d24faa https://www.facebook.com/cultclassichorror/ https://www.instagram.com/cultclassichorror/?hl=en --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theevildeaths/message

For our first pick of Mystery May we brought on a very special guest! Dustin from The Flicks and Friends Podcast. Only one way to find out what movie we talked about…..it was certainty a movie, I think? Ad: Flicks and Friends Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-flicks-and-friends-podcast/id1632782653. https://open.spotify.com/show/6Nzp9ySXdDAS6DV9Mm4313?si=YopWn1qKThuuhfQDwArTDQ. https://www.instagram.com/flicksandfriendspodcast?igsh=dnlnb2RtYTd2anJl&utm_source=qr --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theevildeaths/message

My intentions are podcast. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we're going to be talking about The Fall. Despite being almost ten years old, I'd consider this to be part of the new wave of adventure games, ones that seek to capture some of the elements of the classic games but without the more obtuse elements. The Fall mostly manages this, using a 2D sidescrolling style which limits the amount of screen searching and navigation you have to do to find all the pieces to each of the puzzles. It's not without its stumbling points, but for the most part the puzzles are well designed and placed very smoothly into the difficulty curve. Slightly more questionably, it also includes combat mechanics and some exceedingly light platforming, but the mechanic set is well rounded and it's easy to overlook some of the less polished aspects. The kicker, though, is that what you didn't know you were actually here for is the narrative. The game is shockingly well written, both for the genre and medium as well as the time period, doing a great job of communicating its themes without dumbing them down for the player to understand. It's a sci-fi narrative focused around AI that feels very focused, and honestly ahead of its time, and it's well worth playing just for the story alone. We're going to be talking about the more misguided elements of the puzzles and mechanic systems, how impressed we are that we cared about the characters at all, and ways to improve coffee…puzzles. Thank you for joining us again this week! This is a game that had made it onto the Mystery May list for how long we've known about it, but having now played it, it's surprising how little it shows its age. Certainly in some mechanical ways it feels old, but we were impressed by its maturity. Let us know what you thought in the comments section or over on our Discord! Next time, we're doing what may be our first ever Christmas special, and talking about Cthulhu Saves Christmas, so we hope you're in the spirit for it then.

Podcast go, Sora go, go! Welcome back to NOCLIP Epilogue! Today we're going back to one of our first ten episodes and talking about Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts is an action RPG with a dash of platforming on the side, as exploring the different worlds is a big part of both the goal of the game's design and the appeal. That being said, the real notable thing about Kingdom Hearts, particularly at the time of its release, is its association with Disney. The game incorporate characters, locations, music and other themes and references to many Disney films throughout its levels and its plot. For a lot of people, this is probably why they got into the games in the first place, and I really can't blame them. The source material is treated reverently, and at least here in the first game, incorporated into the plot in a way that feels real, necessary and additive. Waiting to see what movie each level is going to take you into is a real selling point for the game and because of their incorporation of characters and music, it really makes the sense of being in a movie you love even more palpable. Aside from this, it's a game released in 2002. There are some limitations due to original hardware, design trends and other problems of the time, but if you can look past that, it was an extremely unique game and of the sequentially numbered entries in the series (358/2 does not count as numbered, lol) still the one that delivers on its premise the strongest. We're going to be talking about what can make going back to the game a struggle for some and a joy for others, the game's dedication to its concepts and unique ideas, and we do everything in the end of the world. Thank you for joining us again this week! We've piled up a few epilogue episodes (thanks to an unlucky roll during Mystery May, one more than we had originally intended) so far this year, so I hope you find it a worthwhile exercise. Let us know in the comments if you've been enjoying them or not and if you have suggestions of other games we should revisit! Kingdom Hearts is obviously a huge series and the reason we decided to handle this one now is because our next main episode is going to be on its sequel, which will complete the trilogy of episodes for us, so we hope you're looking forward to it. Until next time, remember you can leave a comment or join us over on our discord to leave game suggestions or talk about the games we've been discussing. Next time, we're going to be talking about the Secret of Monkey Island, since we've been suffering point and click withdrawals recently, so be sure to check us out then!

Why is every podcast fish? Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket, and our final episode from Mystery May! Today, we're talking about Octodad: Dadliest Catch, a game about an octopus doing his best to blend in with human society. The game is straight out of the Goat Simulator era of physics-based games, and owes a lot to all the QWOP-inspired physics hell games that came before it, but what makes Octodad stand out is that it's just much more playable than most other games in the genre. In Octodad, you control your legs and arm separately, with a wobbly ragdoll character and everything in the environment weighs nothing to allow for it to maximally fly around everywhere when you bump into it. However, the game has a plot and it wants you to finish it, so it never reaches Getting Over It levels of difficulty. In a way, this does make the game weaker, as the crazy physics interactions are less pronounced, but it's a game you can finish and one that doesn't overstay its welcome, giving it more of a feeling of real player-friendly design and making it a great jumping off point for getting into the genre. We're going to be talking about the game's perceived difficulty, how Octodad cultivates its comedy and makes it work, even at the player's expense, and give you our top strategy tips for cheating at the arcade. Thank you for joining us again this week, and for seeing us through Mystery May this year! We're really happy with how it turned out, so we'll be dredging the table up again next year as well. Did you play Octodad at any point in the 9 years since it came out? Did you play the original freeware Octodad? How did you feel about Mystery May and are there any games you were really pulling for off our table? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we're going to keep it a little bit unorthodox and are going to be talking about The Bunker, an FMV game about people living in the post-apocalypse, so we hope you'll keep an eye out for that.

What is love known by? When it hurts to say “Welcome to NOCLIP.” Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we are doing as the dice instructed per the rules of Mystery May and playing Child of Light. Another game that's been on our list for a while, Child of Light is an Ubisoft developed RPG that showcases the studio's “UbiArt Framework” engine that was designed with the intention of being able to develop with artist's ease of use specifically in mind. As a result, Child of Light is a game that has an obvious focus on delivering it's storybook-styled visuals over all else, and therefore has a strong and consistent aesthetic throughout. Beyond the visual style itself, the music fits the theme well while not being overly showy, and conversely, the writing is done entirely in rhyme, calling attention to itself massively and just being a big in-your-face element of the game. Playing the game, though, is more traditional RPG fare, with its big distinguishing twist being a combat timer that allows strategies based around slowing or interrupting enemies and choosing attacks based on the length of time they take to cast. It fits together well enough but contains some design pitfalls that makes this a flawed game, but still an interesting one. We're going to be talking about the abundance of systems and the harm they can do to the player's experience, the really charming character and visual design and how they fit it together with the narrative and gameplay, and how Ubisoft really changed as a person once they got that sweet-sweet Rabbids money. Thank you for joining us again today! We're sad to see Mystery May close out, because it's been a surprisingly fun time not having to make decisions about what to play. Were you one of the people who played Child of Light when it released, and if so, what made it grab you then? Did you pick it up recently and become confused at the weird DLC elements that just kind of got thrown in? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, with full control back in our hands, we're going to be talking about Super Mario 64, sort of keeping with the theme of “how did it take them this long to cover this,” so we hope you'll join us for that!

My friend, may you be continually fascinated in your pursuit of the mystery of God, in Jesus' name. God bless you!  Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries Mailing Address: 412 S. Adams Street #148 Fredericksburg, Texas 78624 Please share this word to encourage a friend! Anyone can sign up for free at: https://messiah-ministries.org --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/morningbymorningtommyhays/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/morningbymorningtommyhays/support

Take out the reptile, first of all. Welcome back to the podcast! For our first Mystery May title for Pocket, we managed to roll a critical miss, forcing us to do an epilogue episode on Rascal, probably the worst game we've covered for the podcast. What started as a joke episode based on a history with the game became probably the podcast's most enduring reference point for things being done badly and given how old the episode is, it probably was high time we took another stab at it. This episode isn't overly long, and features far fewer hosts, but hopefully this is a good introduction to the game and why we keep talking about it, even after five years. Rascal itself is a 3D platformer for the PS1 that pretty much behaves in every way contrary to how a platformer should. You have tank-esque controls, a camera that will absolutely not do what you want it to do, and a terrible gun that you use to fight infinitely respawning enemies that appear offscreen and kill you. It's a nightmare, but at least it's a funny nightmare. The game so confidently thrusts you into its meat grinder of ill conceived challenges that you can't help but laugh at your own poor fortune. We're going to be talking about the outdated design philosophy that is expected of games of this era, the baffling design philosophy that makes up the rest of the game and we talk about all the games that were definitely inspired by Rascal's secret genius. Thank you for listening this week, or at least I hope you listened to make playing this game again worth it. We are actually happy to resurrect this particular meme, though, because we've referenced the game already this year, possibly multiple times. This is as close to a signature game as we have on this podcast, so hopefully this can be the last word, unless we roll a critical miss again at some point in the future… But did you play Rascal? Why? Was it out of a call of the void style curiosity because you saw the game lying around? Were you given this game as a gift, either by someone who didn't know better, or more likely, as a gag? Let us know over on our Discord server or in the comments below! Next time, the dice deigned we talk about Octodad: Dadliest Catch, closing out an extremely weird chapter in NOCLIP Pocket history, so we hope you'll join us for that. Also, massive credit to this frankly incredible guide, that we reference multiple times in both this and the original Rascal episode: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps/198413-rascal/faqs/37867

All those years ago, Tim had left the podcast behind. Welcome back to the podcast! For our first episode in Mystery May (but with rolling dice instead of solving mysteries), we're going to be talking about Braid! Braid, as honestly you're probably already aware, is a puzzle platformer that received a massive amount of recognition and acclaim when it launched on the Xbox Live Arcade way back in 2008. Far more puzzle than platformer, in Braid you use standard platforming controls and the ability to reverse time to collect puzzle pieces and complete levels, with each new level offering a different gimmick that changes the way the world and sometimes your abilities work. Gameplay-wise, the puzzles are extremely well-built. Never being outright unsolvable for the average person but also deep enough to provide a challenge and featuring some truly unique solutions. To some, this will be the biggest draw of the game. For others, the game's melancholic tone and vague story will be the thing that hooks them, and it is also well crafted. The writing is eloquent and evocative, calling to mind how we as people handle mistakes and questioning the fantasy of being able to turn back time to correct them. As two different elements of the game, they both really sing, but when experienced together, how well do they mix? We're going to be talking about our difficulties with the puzzles, our difficulties with piecing the game's message together from the parts it gives you, and we make listening to the episode without being embarrassed about it a difficulty by telling a yo mama joke at the halfway point. Thank you for joining us again this week! Braid coming up first on Mystery May is a great example of what we designed the whole system around because it's been on our list literally since the inception of the podcast and kept getting kicked further down the road. It feels good to have finally played it, but missing the cultural zeitgeist on this game may have done more harm than we realized? Do you think Braid still holds up and its intentions still come across in the modern day? Do you think Braid has had an impact on game development or just indie game popularity generally? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we're going to be talking about Child of Light, as deigned by the fates, so we hope you'll join us then.

Podcasts that are once lost cannot be reclaimed. Welcome to the very first (kind of) NOCLIP Epilogue! On this series, that we'll come back to every once in a while, we're going to be revising some of our earliest episodes to rehash our discussions but with more media literacy and higher quality audio. For our first formal entry in the series (not counting Undertale, which we did as a primer to the Deltarune series, which, you know, we'll get back to at some point), we're going to be covering Shadow of the Colossus, which was our second ever episode. Shadow, in case you're somehow unaware, is the second game from Team Ico, and is loosely set in the same universe and has a similar visual and mood to Ico. There is a dour atmosphere over the whole game, with a plot centering around a character attempting to revive a dead woman, a mysterious masked man and his cadre of knights and a Godlike figure named Dormin who promises to help with the resurrection if we do a task for him. There's an air of mystery around the entire process, from what you're doing to the plot itself and even who the characters are, and this lack of certainty cements the atmosphere of the game as well as keeps the player on the hunt for clues, making the whole experience more intellectually stimulating in addition to its mechanical challenges. As for what you actually do, Shadow tasks you with taking down 16 enormous boss creatures by physically climbing all over them and attacking weak points. Your player character controls in what feels like a very fragile and imprecise way, making this task feel difficult and imposing. There's a lot more to say about how the game mixes its themes and its mechanics, but that should be the gist if you aren't already a fan, so listen to us unpack the rest of it in today's episode. We're going to be talking about the way everything from the world to your horse contributes to the overall themes of the game, we talk about the pacing of the game and its ambitions versus the game we really got, and we speculate on what Mono's last will and testament probably had in it. Thank you for joining us again this week, and for indulging us this nostalgic look back at one of our favorite games we covered. Hopefully the epilogue series continues to do what we intended, as I feel like even this shorter episode gets across what makes the game good better than we were able to do seven, almost eight, years ago. What did you think about this episode format? Do you have suggestions for other games we covered in the long-long ago for us to take another look at? Let us know over in our Discord or in the comments! Next time, we're doing our first Mystery May pocket episode, which is a different style to previous years, and through a series of events that are unfortunate, we ended up being forced to do an immediate epilogue follow up on the worst game we've ever covered (debatably) in Rascal for the Playstation, so if you enjoy when we suffer, please join us then.

Not bad for a dead podcast, huh? Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we're going to be talking about Neon White, a first person platformer with a little bit of shooting in it. First person platformers aren't exactly rare, per se, but they're less common than the majority of other types of games in the genre, and so it's worth considering the intentionality of its choice when a game comes out that uses the perspective. Neon White is maybe one of the best uses of the genre that I've ever seen. Because of its focus on getting fast times on each stage, the first person perspective gives a real sense of speed that you can actually feel, making you physically lean around when you play the game because of the focus it requires. It offers precision in shooting, an element of the game that feels less like eliminating threats and more like doing tricks in a Tony Hawk game; quickly spinning around to pick off some enemies after taking a shortcut or strategically shooting something coming up in the distance to save a weapon card for use later. The whole game gives a sense of continuing improvement and trains you to see the lines each level has and then to look away from them to find a faster route. The game has a less-than-novel, but still very cool narrative which feels like Battle Royale but set in Heaven, and characters that are easy to like despite falling into certain tropes and archetypes. It's serviceable, and serves as downtime between the frantic action of the main missions. Neon White is a very rad game that does cool stuff in an awesome way. We're going to be talking about the functionality of the gun/soul card discard system and how it adds to the decision making in gameplay, motivation to do better and whether it comes from the game or from within yourself, and we do some classic shipping of characters. Thank you for listening today! Neon White was one of those games that seems like it's going to be intimidating, but then ends up being surprisingly accessible. If you got through the game, did you feel like it could have been harder and offered a more robust challenge, or was what's there more than enough to keep you entertained? Did you try to push your scores as low as they could go? Let us know over in the Discord, or in the comments below! Next time, we're entering into Mystery May, but not like the old Mystery May where we did mystery games. Now, we're taking a bunch of games that have been on our various lists of games to play for years that we never seem to get around to and putting them on a table and letting dice decide our episode. The first one selected for this month is Braid, the classic puzzle platformer, so we hope you'll join us for that.

Maybe we wouldn't welcome you if you were being chased by men with guns. Or maybe we would, because that's just the kind of podcast we've built. Welcome back to Mystery May! On June 5th. It happens. For our final mysterious game this month, we're talking about about Disco Elysium. This is an RPG in the tabletop RPG or CRPG sense where it sets out to mechanically emulate playing a TTRPG with stat checks and many dialog choices, letting you choose where to go and what to do in order to accomplish your goals. Combine this freedom with the massive catalog of stats to increase and you have a game that leans heavily on player choice. As the game checks your stats constantly in the background against a number of possible results, this means that the type of character you choose to play heavily impacts what you end up learning about. A character with many points in Empathy will know more about people while a Motorics based character will learn and interact with many objects, which all play in to your understanding of the world and the case you're trying to solve. And of course, it wouldn't be such a good Mystery May game without a case to solve. The world of Disco Elysium is very bleak, and your job as a cop solving a murder isn't much of a relief from all the darkness around you. This isn't to say the game doesn't have levity, it actually has a ton of very well-written jokes, but the overall themes are ones dealing with picking up the pieces of a broken city and a broken mind. This makes a lot of the game feel very heavy, and it can be exhausting to play at times, but it's worth it to see something unique with a fresh perspective, not just on the RPG genre, but on people and the world they live in as well. We're going to be talking about how the many stats can be motivating to how you play, how we feel about the mystery contained in this game and its resolution, and we complain about being old and tired and not having time for a game that demands this much of you. Thank you for joining us this week, and this slow past month of mystery games. As alluded to above, we've been very busy personally the last several weeks and it's impacted our ability to get out episodes at our usual speed, but we're genuinely really happy with the choices made for this theme this year. This was an, admittedly, kind of expected treat, a game we knew had a lot of hype behind it and seemed up our alley, but the actual contents were still surprising upon playing it. Did you play Disco Elysium when it came out, or when the final cut was released? Is it a game you could see yourself playing for a second time? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord server, where you can also suggest some games for us to play, perhaps for next year's Mystery May! Next time, we're going to be talking about Inscryption, a game that is more of a mystery to us than it maybe is in game, but with a trusted recommendation and the assurance you should know as little about it as possible before going in, we're excited nonetheless.

Today we read the second and final part of The Case of Oscar Brodski by R. Austin Freeman. Join me every week for free classic audiobooks! Music used in the podcast is 'An Open Book' by Soundroll  Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):  https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/an-open-book License code:  PRY1TQTELQ5FP3ZC

Today we read a "reverse detective story" written by R. Austin Freeman. Join me every week for free classic audiobooks! Music used in the podcast is 'An Open Book' by Soundroll  Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):  https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/an-open-book License code:  PRY1TQTELQ5FP3ZC

Join me for the third and final part of our Loveday Brooke story by C.L. Pirkis. Join me every week for free classic audiobooks! Music used in the podcast is 'An Open Book' by Soundroll  Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):  https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/an-open-book License code:  PRY1TQTELQ5FP3ZC

Join me as we continue on with our Loveday Brooke story by C.L. Pirkis. Join me every week for free classic audiobooks! Music used in the podcast is 'An Open Book' by Soundroll  Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):  https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/an-open-book License code:  PRY1TQTELQ5FP3ZC

Today we jump in to a story by C.L. Pirkis featuring one of the first female detective characters, Loveday Brooke. Join me every week for free classic audiobooks! Music used in the podcast is 'An Open Book' by Soundroll  Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):  https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/an-open-book License code:  PRY1TQTELQ5FP3ZC

On this week of ClapperCast, the team throws on Disney+ for Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, goes to theaters for A24's Men, and continues Murder Mystery May with retro reviews of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Detention & Happy Death Day! Subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive content: https://www.patreon.com/clappercastpod Follow us on Twitter: @ClapperPodcast Send us an email at ClapperCast@gmail.com Thanks for listening! Credits: Hosted & Edited by Carson Timar Featuring Paul Price New episodes air every Tuesday! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/clapperpodcast/message

We hope you'll listen to this podcast so we don't have to wipe your memory again. Welcome to Mystery May! This week, we're going to be talking about Gemini Rue, a detective point and click adventure game with a cyberpunk setting. This game came out during an era that you could call the Adventure game revival period, if you think the genre actually was revived at some point, but the important thing is that it is obvious the design was inspired by classic adventure games. There are several ways to interact with objects in the environment, an inventory system and progress is made by solving puzzles. There are a few wrinkles here, a gunfight mechanic as well as the ability to swap between two playable characters, but these don't act to really shake up the basic functionality of the genre and the result is something that feels very retro. While the adherence to the old adventure game style is a strength if you are a fan of the genre, the real appeal here is a very competently told story that, yes, contains its fair share of mysteries. It could have done more to work the detective angle and make the player work to figure out the solutions to those mysteries, but watching it unfold is still an entertaining experience. We're going to be talking about economic use of assets that work from both a design perspective and also fit thematically within the game world itself, voice acting taking the story telling potential of the game to another level, and we construct a food metaphor so deft it will finally get us the recognition we deserve. Thank you for joining us this week! We're having a truncated Mystery May this year with only two episodes, but I think the game selection ended up pretty strong nonetheless. Have you played this game before, or were you compelled by this episode to pick it up? Do you find point and click games boring and obtuse, a genre that only appeals to sleepy old men and pedants? Let us know down in the comments or over on Discord! And while you're over there, drop us a suggestion for a game to play, which I mention because… our next game is the inspiration for Fanbruary (which we'd recommend checking out if you haven't already), Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures! We hope you'll join us for that.

Today we read the second and final part of The Holloway Flat Tragedy, a mystery story by Ernest Bramah featuring his ingenious blind detective, Max Carrados. Join me every week for free audiobooks of classic  literature! Music used in the podcast is 'An Open Book' by Soundroll  Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):  https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/an-open-book License code:  PRY1TQTELQ5FP3ZC

Today we read The Holloway Flat Tragedy, a mystery story by Ernest Bramah featuring his ingenious blind detective, Max Carrados. Join me every week for free audiobooks of classic  literature! Music used in the podcast is 'An Open Book' by Soundroll  Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):  https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/an-open-book License code:  PRY1TQTELQ5FP3ZC

On this week of ClapperCast, the team throws on Disney+ for Sneakerella, look at Peacock for Firestarter. both review Pleasure and hear from Director Ninja Thyberg and star Sofia Kappel, and finally continue Murder Mystery May series with retro reviews of The Hole & Cry_Wolf! Subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive content: https://www.patreon.com/clappercastpod Follow us on Twitter: @ClapperPodcast Send us an email at ClapperCast@gmail.com Thanks for listening! Credits: Hosted & Edited by Carson Timar Featuring Alina Faulds & Paul Price New episodes air every Tuesday! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/clapperpodcast/message

Today we jump into Ernest Bramah's debut story for his ingenious blind detective, May Carrados. Join me every week for free audiobooks of classic  literature! Music used in the podcast is 'An Open Book' by Soundroll  Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):  https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/an-open-book License code:  PRY1TQTELQ5FP3ZC

This month we are bringing the mystery to the podcast. In honor of Free Comic Book Day and our alliterative theme, we read Birds of Prey: Murder & Mystery by Gail Simone and Ed Benes. We also came up with our own mystery plot with this fun Mad Lib type generator.

Join me for the second and final part of this Old Man in the Corner mystery story by Baroness Orczy. Join me every week for free audiobooks of classic  literature! Music used in the podcast is 'An Open Book' by Soundroll  Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):  https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/an-open-book License code:  PRY1TQTELQ5FP3ZC

On this week of ClapperCast, the team jumps back into the MCU as they review Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness before they kick off their new Murder Mystery May series with retro reviews of Clue & Death on the Nile! Subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive content: https://www.patreon.com/clappercastpod Follow us on Twitter: @ClapperPodcast Send us an email at ClapperCast@gmail.com Thanks for listening! Credits: Hosted & Edited by Carson Timar Featuring Alina Faulds New episodes air every Tuesday! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/clapperpodcast/message

Today we are reading an Old Man in the Corner mystery story by Baroness Orczy. Join me every week for free audiobooks of classic  literature! Music used in the podcast is 'An Open Book' by Soundroll  Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):  https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/an-open-book License code:  PRY1TQTELQ5FP3ZC

Repent and Follow Yashaya!!! Deny yourself and take up your cross daily and Follow Yashaya!!!! Don't Delay Repent Today!!!! We are Husband and Wife Evangelists James and Louise Eads!!! We travel the Country Preaching the Gospel of Christ Yashaya!!! We got a prayer and testimony line!!! (407)476-7163 3 minutes a call!!! 24/7 Please Keep us in your prayers!!! Our Ministry is Scriptures across the World and Watchman Street Ministry!!! Thank you for your prayers and Thank you for your support too!!! Our Cash app  is $Evangelists7 our address is Evangelists James and Louise Eads 500 Smith Street Colbert, Oklahoma 74733 Or if you prefer we've got a PayPal our Email address is watchmanstreetministry@gmail.com Thank you for your prayers and support https://www.paypal.me/JamesEads --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/james-eads2/message

Join me as we jump into a classic Father Brown mystery story by GK Chesterton. Join me every week for free audiobooks of classic  literature! Music used in the podcast is 'An Open Book' by Soundroll  Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):  https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/an-open-book License code:  PRY1TQTELQ5FP3ZC

Today we continue with The Adventure of Silver Blaze, a Sherlock Holmes story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Join me every week for free audiobooks of classic  literature! Music used in the podcast is 'An Open Book' by Soundroll  Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):  https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/an-open-book License code:  PRY1TQTELQ5FP3ZC

Welcome to Mystery May, five weeks of classic mystery and detective short stories. Today we read a Sherlock Holmes short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Join me every week for free audiobooks of classic  literature! Music used in the podcast is 'An Open Book' by Soundroll  Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):  https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/an-open-book License code:  PRY1TQTELQ5FP3ZC

Podcast juice, huh? I have no idea what it is, dude, but it tastes radical! Welcome back to the podcast and our final episode in Ape-ril! We're going to be discussing Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. This is a sequel to Donkey Kong Country Returns which is itself a spiritual follow up to the original series of games from the SNES, which puts this in a fairly odd position as a part of the franchise. A lot of the base elements of the game are tied to those original titles as the new series tries to relate back to what made those games so memorable, but then again the mechanics and designs of DKCR are being iterated on to further polish the game and the “tropical freeze” goes much further than a fresh coat of paint. This sequel-to-a-successor status and strong thematic elements make Tropical Freeze actually a very interesting standalone game, despite it's close ties to its predecessors. We're going to be talking about level design and the kind of platformer this strives to be, the way its stages tell stories on both a micro and macro level, and we discover the punchline to a joke about Cranky Kong that started over twenty years ago. Thank you for joining us again and for closing out this mon(key)th with us! What are your feelings on Retro Studio's take on the Donkey Kong franchise? Do you think these games are great? Are they overhyped? What about, and this is extremely important, what about Rambi? Do you…do you like Rambi? Let us know in the comments, or over on our Discord server where we talk about the games. Next time, we're diving into our annual tradition of Mystery May and talking about Disco Elysium, so we hope you'll join us then!

What's happening? What's wrong with you? Do you realize what you're saying? Do you know who you're talking to? Snap out of it! Pull yourself together! Can you hear me? Welcome back to the podcast! For our second pocket episode for the very cohesive and not stupid in any way themed month of Ape-ril, we're going to be talking about Ape Escape. This is a Playstation 1 title that necessitates the use of the Dual-Shock analog controller. Which in the grand scheme of things doesn't necessarily sound all that important of a detail to focus on, but playing the game it becomes very clear that its purpose was really to showcase all of things that were possible by having multiple analog sticks (as well as the L3/R3 button concept), and does so in a really unique way. The control scheme of this game is actually really clever, with the face buttons used to switch between multiple gadgets that can be mapped by the player and all use the right stick to function, as well as having jump mapped to the R1 button to keep the stick always available to be used. It was certainly novel at the time, and since we live in a world now where every modern controller has multiple analog sticks, it's clear that the Dual Shock has had an impact with Ape Escape having at least a small part in introducing this concept to players. On top of that, the game is just solidly designed, having a lot of mechanical complexity and player abilities, but with a simple concept and mostly very tightly designed levels. This overall simplicity meant that the player can focus on using platforming, stealth, climbing and all of the different gadgets without sacrificing the flow of the level. We're going to be talking about the successes and failures of the novel control scheme, the legacy of the game and why it's worth playing, and our desire to see someone in a big foam Spike mascot costume. Thank you for joining us this week! This game wasn't an unknown quantity for us coming in, but we were still surprised by just how well this game held up, particularly in the face of some of the older games we've played recently. It really is an interesting title with a lot of good ideas that really haven't been iterated on much outside of its own series. Did this game introduce you to twin stick controllers? Did you have an equally smooth time playing this one in the modern era? Let us know down in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time we're leaving Ape-ril and entering into Mystery May (and then hopefully taking a fairly long break from themes) and we're going to be talking about Gemini Rue, so we hope you'll join us for that!

The Smart 7 is a daily podcast that gives you everything you need to know in 7 minutes, at 7 am, 7 days a week...With over 9 million downloads and consistently charting, including as No. 1 News Podcast on Spotify, we're a trusted source for people every day.If you're enjoying it, please follow, share, or even post a review, it all helps...Today's episode includes the following:https://www.itv.com/news/2022-01-17/boris-johnson-will-remain-pm-and-lead-tories-into-next-election-zahawi-sayshttps://twitter.com/TimesRadio/status/1482986303872540673?s=20 https://twitter.com/BBCBreakfast/status/1482989106435178501?s=20https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-60025147?https://twitter.com/BBCNWT/status/1483108506450468865?s=20https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1483095516045094915?s=20 https://twitter.com/60Minutes/status/1482889787052855303?s=20https://twitter.com/HaytersTV/status/1483108977680474112?s=20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSsTPbhQAIg&ab_channel=TheGrahamNortonShow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcYh5Lfy1PI&ab_channel=MovieclipsTrailers In Ireland? Why not try our Ireland Edition?Contact us over at Twitter or visit www.thesmart7.comPresented by Jamie East, written by Liam Thompson, researched by Olivia Davies and produced by Daft Doris. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Is the Triunity of God -- Three Persons united in One Divine Supreme Being-- a problem for us to solve or is it The MYSTERY to be drawn into? This episode offers a reflection on The Blessed Trinity and our everyday journey with the Holy Trinity. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/fr-william-maestri-overfed-and-undernourished/support

You got anymore dead podcasts back there? Welcome back to NOCLIP, and thank you for joining us for the conclusion of Mystery May! To round this month out, we’re going to be talking about one of the most prolific adventure games ever made, Grim Fandango. Grim is one of LucasArts’ adventure games from the heyday of the genre, and the studio’s experience combines with the Tim Schaffer’s stellar writing to create one of the most celebrated adventure games of the era. There is a lot of enjoyment to be found in the characters presented here, and on top of that, the mechanics, while not perfect, make puzzle solving a decidedly more fair task than it has been in past games, with a simple inventory system and little to no pixel hunting, depending on how you define that. As for what makes Grim such a strong entry, we think it boils down to a great sense of worldbuilding and a streamlining of the features that made adventure games sort of an inaccessible genre for many years. We’re going to be talking about why Manny Calavera is a cool character while still being a good one, the puzzles and how many are very readable despite the fact that some still stumped us, and we determine that we are, in fact, big Man Boys. Thank you for joining us again this week, and this year for another Mystery May. Grim was a perfect game to revisit for this month because of its themes, but is also a perennial favorite and we don’t get to talk too much about point and click games these days as the genre has sort of fallen by the wayside. We hope you enjoyed, and you can let us know if you’re an adventure game fan in the comments or over on our Discord! We’ve continued the Mystery May theme for a few years now, probably in spite of our best interests, but do you have any suggestions of what to cover next year? Let us know, but next time we’re heading into June and talking about The Outer Wilds (which could arguably fall into this theme, but whatever)!

I can play saxophone and record a podcast at the same time. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! To continue our celebration of Mystery May, we're going to be discussing Hypnospace Outlaw. This game is a desktop simulator set in the late 90's and revolves around a parody of the early internet that users visit in their sleep... What? You expected us to pick a game that wasn't super weird? We're going to be taking about the games difficulty when compared to more traditional adventure games, the aesthetics and personality that make up this fictional internet, and the immersive qualities that led us to worry about infecting our fictional desktops with viruses. Thank you for joining us for our final pocket episode for this year’s Mystery May! Next time we're going to be dusting off our mechanical keyboards and talking about Nanotale - Typing Chronicles. We hope we'll see you next time!

If you’re looking for rain, dead bodies and podcasts, you came to the right place. Welcome to Mystery May! This time we’re starting with an arguably pretty contentious (or at the very least pretentious) title in Heavy Rain, a game developed by Quantic Dream. Heavy Rain is essentially an adventure game that is loaded to the brim with quick time events and branching narrative paths. Say what you will about the core engagement present here, but a lot of the story elements are pretty intelligently designed with paths branching and reconvening convincingly around a mystery that actually pulls off its twist elegantly. Other elements of the game don’t age quite as well, with stiff animations and a voice cast that fluctuates wildly between solid performances and laughably inconsistent ones. For these reasons mostly, this is a game we recommend enjoying (responsibly) with a few beers by your side or at least a couple of friends. We’re going to be talking about what the game gains by treating one of its characters mostly as a mechanical punching bag, how QTEs play out as the primary mechanical interaction and when it feels appropriate, and we debate the appropriate time to describe something as “in shambles.” I realize this is the second episode we released this month, but just bear with me. Or pretend that Dragon Age is more mysterious than it probably actually is. Either way, thank you for joining us for our most unlikely of continuing traditions. Did the mystery land with you in this game? Were you able to look past the gameplay itself to find something enjoyable underneath like we did, or does David Cage’s name equate itself to poison in your mind? Let us know in the comments or over on Discord! And if you thought QTEs were a dated mechanic, we invite you to brace yourself, because next time we’re going to be talk about the most classic of point and click adventure games: Grim Fandango! We hope you’ll dust out your A drives and plug in the PS/2 connector of your IBM Model M keyboards for it.

Your podcast’s name is NOCLIP? We’re going to need to come up with a better name. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! This time, for our first episode of Mystery May, we’re going to be talking about Telling Lies. This game is a follow up to Sam Barlow’s previous game Her Story, and the two share a lot of the same DNA. Both are desktop simulations that see you searching through a database to find clips of people talking and use those clips to figure out the characters’ stories. If that sounds exactly like Her Story, well, you wouldn’t be wrong. The main difference comes in a higher level of production value and a much different narrative that is less about uncovering the mystery and more about learning about the characters. Which, I know, Mystery May game doesn’t even have much of a mystery, oof, etc. The mystery that is there, though, is interesting and the characters are all extremely well-acted. It’s hard to pin down exactly what it is that makes us feel so differently about this game as compared to Her Story, but that’s what we’re going to be trying to do over the course of this episode. We’re going to be talking about how the game uses its keyword system to create narrative threads to lead you along its story, the new mechanical elements and design of the clips that makes this game feel and play differently to its predecessor, and we uncover the conspiracy that we agree isn’t a conspiracy. Thank you for joining us this week! As Her Story is one of our favorite games from the podcast or otherwise, we were excited to carve out the time to finally play this. If you’re a fan of the original, how do you feel about the direction this game went? Did the inclusion of more notable actors enhance the experience for you or take you out of it? Even after doing the episode I still feel kind of torn. And that uncertainty will be the perfect emotional state for the remainder of Mystery May, as for our next pocket episode we’re going to be talking about Hypnospace Outlaw, so we hope you’ll come back for that!

Dwarven podcasts! Fine Dwarven Podcasts! Direct from Orzammar. Welcome back to the podcast! Today we're going to be taking another dive into the world of CRPGs, which of course means that Chad won't be joining us. Instead, Andy will be joined by special guests Daniel and Janelle to discuss BioWare's 2009 classic, Dragon Age: Origins. We'll be discussing engaging world building, intricate quest design, important narrative decisions, and most importantly, which characters we want to smooch. Thank you for listening to NOCLIP this week! We hope you'll join us next time as we kick of Mystery May with a discussion of Heavy Rain.

This podcast has great tunes and water balloons. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket, where we are making our way through every twee indie game that has made its way to the Switch, apparently. Seriously though, Donut County channels the gameplay energy of Katamari Damacy, or I guess Feeding Frenzy, through a much less chaotic, more relaxed style and into a world that is characterized by clever writing and likeable characters. Well, sometimes the characters are unlikeable, but in a fun way. This writing, which made us realize we may be closer to the nursing home than we had previously assumed, is what brings the game its levity, having less vim and vigor and more of an ironic shoegazy feel with conversations had through text nearly indistinguishable from those had face to face. Along with the games simplistic yet pretty absurd plotline, everything meshes together to create an aesthetic that feels very complete. We’re going to talk about gameplay complexity and how we wished the game would ramp up or maintain its more intricate puzzle elements, how the writing style deviates from the norm in a way that may reveal the path forward rather than stand out as a novelty, and what you can say that could justifiably get you kicked out of a restaurant. Thank you for joining us again this week! Despite coming out a few years ago, this game only recently came to our attention and fit into that nook of things we are confused and intrigued by, and I can’t say we were disappointed. Did the game’s indie charm work for you, or were you curmudgeonly grumbling about it’s frequent use of “lol”? Let us know on Discord or in the comments below! Next time, we’re going to be entering Mystery May, one of the traditions we’ve managed to keep going, and talking about Telling Lies the successor to perennial favorite Her Story, so we hope you’ll join us for that, as well as the other perplexing titles we’re going to be talking about next month.

So, did you figure out why she did it? Recorded the podcast? Welcome back! Today, we’re going to be talking about Her Story, Sam Barlow’s desktop simulator mystery game, which has you searching terms in a database of interviews to find clips that each tell small parts of the story, and assembling the answers from those. Of all the games we’ve played for Mystery May (or Nancy June, this year), this game relies the most on your own ability to figure out what’s going on and only rewards your intuition with terms that provide progressively more context. The game doesn’t even have a traditional ending, instead allowing the player to determine when they are satisfied with what they know. All this adds up to one of the most unique games we’ve talked about and one that is actually pretty difficult to analyze in our usual way. We’re going to talk about design in a game where the player has complete freedom within its mechanics, how the premise is sold on aesthetic and great acting, and about a horrible CG lady. Thank you for listening to NOCLIP Pocket this week, and we hope you’ve enjoyed our choices for mystery games this year. This is one we’ve considered doing for years now, but it’s surprisingly intimidating to talk about a game that we like this much for reasons that are so unusual. Next time we’re going to be talking about Sayonara Wild Hearts, so we hope you’ll check it out then.

Podcasting is a criiiiiiime, baby! Welcome back to NOCLIP! Today, we’re dusting off our DS to play Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, an underappreciated adventure game by the team responsible for Ace Attorney. As a very narrative-driven game, Ghost Trick comes off as wordy at times, particularly since the game uses no voice acting, but with the dialogue comes a lot of wit and charm that give the game its personality. The counterpoint to these sequences of dialogue are the actual puzzles, which see you manipulating objects in the environment to change the sequences of events leading to someone’s death. Due to your limited range of motion, only being able to jump between objects that are a short distance away, it gives a sense of urgency to the game’s sort-of-timed gameplay segments and creates a mechanical experience that is genuinely unique. The combination of these factors gives you a game that is exceedingly weird coming from a developer like Capcom, but also one that is interesting for all the right reasons. We’re going to be talking about the strange narrative conceit, expressive animation, and why your oral fixation could cause you to lose several DS styluses. Thank you for joining us today for the first full episode in this year’s Mystery May replacement series Nancy June. We’ll be back at the end of the month, assuming the stars align, with Kentucky Route Zero, a game we’ve been waiting literally years to finish.

You’re always in here, writing your weird little podcasts. Welcome to NOCLIP Pocket! And welcome to “Nancy June,” our Mystery May replacement for the year where everything seems to have gone wrong. Today, we’re going to be talking about The Astronauts’ The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. This is a walking simulator type adventure game, where you play the part of a psychic detective tasked with finding Ethan Carter, a boy who wrote to you and then, well, vanished. The game itself focuses largely around environmental exploration and puzzle solving to uncover the events that led to Ethan’s present circumstance. The beauty of this game is its presentation; set in the woods and with a striking use of visuals, the game succeeds in drawing the player into its world and never putting up quite enough of a speed bump to pull them back out. We’re talking about memorable puzzle set pieces, graphical fidelity lending a sense of atmosphere to an environment, and how this game is seasoned with just a peppering of ancient sci-fi secrets. Thank you for listening this week, and hopefully you weren’t thinking like “oh man, thank god they dropped that stupid Mystery May garbage. That was the dumbest and worst thing they ever did,” because we’ll be back next time talking about Her Story to cap off this enigmatic month and we’re very excited about it.

Did you sleep well? No thanks to your podcasting, yes. Welcome back to a moderately special episode of NOCLIP! JJ has returned to discuss Halo: Combat Evolved. The first game in one of the unarguably largest game franchises in history, Halo really brought the first person shooter to consoles in a way that managed to popularize the genre much more universally than had been accomplished in the past. While this growth really hit a fever pitch with the accessibility of online multiplayer through Xbox Live, the single player campaign mode was still an expected and important part of a console game experience, and Halo delivered on that front and was probably most known for its creature design, protagonist and stunning outdoor vistas before the ubiquity of team deathmatch really took hold. And this is what we’re going to be talking about today. How does the campaign hold up under a modern lens, and what elements of design did they get so right to spawn such a monumental series? We’re going to be talking about the game’s presentation of it’s sci-fi plot through visuals and dialogue, the way the game diversifies its encounters with enemy AI and weapon availability, and discuss the existential horror of being caught in a “Womp loop.” Thank you so much for joining us today. Halo is a game that has been looming as one of the “must talk about” games since the beginning (along with a few others I’m sure you’re thinking of we haven’t covered yet), and I’m really happy with how it turned out. What do you think about Halo? Does it hold up to modern games, or even other entries in the same series? Do you feel like a badass because you have grenades that stick to stuff and have a twenty foot tall vertical leap? Join us in discussing the game on our Discord, or leave us a comment on YouTube, and make sure to subscribe, because we’re heading into Mystery May in June, "Nancy June," next time when we talk about Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective.

Pig? No, it’s not just a pig. It’s my podcast. Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! Today, we’re going to be talking about Zeno Clash, which is an episode idea that started as legitimate suggestion, to a running joke, and finally to reality. The game is a first person game that switches between shooting and melee combat, but definitely gives the brawling the lion’s share of attention when it comes to depth. And while the combat is interesting, the aesthetic design is what really brings the game together and makes it a unique, weird kind of game we think is worth playing. We’re going to talk about how the game balances between melee and ranged combat, the strength of indie games for unusual and creative designs, and the graphical differences between a sofa and a picture of a sofa. Thank you for joining us again this week. This is the kind of game I feel like is intriguing when described, so if you did end up playing it, I hope you enjoyed yourself. That intrigue is exactly why it’s stayed in my mind for as long as it has. And speaking of intrigue, we realize that Mystery May is already halfway over and we haven’t done anything explicitly mysterious, but we are correcting that next time when we talk about The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. I hope you’ll tune in for that!

Those ungodly hosts carry a curse! Throw the podcast back or doom us all! Thank you, once again, for joining us today on the NOCLIP Podcast! Today, we’re going to be wrapping up Mystery May in a (hopefully) satisfying manner by talking about Return of the Obra Dinn with help from our guest Dan, who you may remember, and at this point you probably do remember, from past episodes. Obra Dinn was developed by Lucas Pope and like his previous game, Papers Please, has a unique style that has made it the source of a lot of conversation. Maybe the truest “mystery” game we’ve played for our mystery-themed month, the game tasks you with figuring out the names and causes of death of everyone who was present aboard the Obra Dinn, using a stopwatch that lets you view the moment of death of any corpse you happen across. It doesn’t take too long for the player to become accustomed to this, all things considered, pretty radical mechanic set and this game boasts some of the most rewarding puzzle solving of any we’ve played. We’re going to talk about visual style and aesthetic substance, logical deduction and leaps of faith, and what we’ve all learned by reading the Job Dictionary. I hope you enjoyed our selections for this month of interactive head-scratchers. As is (somehow) a tradition, we are marching steadfastly from Mystery May into Wah-June where we will be talking about 2018’s God of War. We hope you’ll join us then. …and we hope you’ll join us NOW, over on our Discord server to discuss the game, offer suggestions and debate what qualities make a Dark Souls game the best first Dark Souls game. https://discord.gg/tRNNSJ6

In tonight's episode of the Geocaching Podcast: We're back live to finish off Mystery May. Tonight we discuss all aspects of Challenge Caches!

I AM SOCIETY RESHAPED. A PODCAST DESTINED FOR ASCENSION. A HYPERREAL EXISTENCE. Welcome back! I hope everyone is having a properly mystifying Mystery May so far. For our pocket episode this month we’re going to be tackling a phone game that takes its platform quite seriously. Simulacra is a mystery/horror adventure game where you take on the role of a faceless bystander trying to solve a disappearance with access only to the victim’s phone. An iteration on a similar, if not identical, concept explored in this developer’s previous work “Sara is Missing” (or SIM, as a very pointed acronym), the game’s interface is really what sells its concepts and it is well designed enough to compensate for Simulacra’s less adept areas. While less transformative than its Black Mirror facade, literally and figuratively, would have you believe, it is stylish enough to maintain a surprising amount of suspense throughout its short runtime and qualify it as a gem. A diamond-studded Motorola Razr in the rough. We talk about the highs and lows of jump scares, the surprisingly diverse play environment allowed by a smartphone home screen, and how for the first time ever, a piece of writing could have been saved by more liberal emoji use. Thanks for listening to the podcast this week. I’m kind of in love with the whole “Mystery May” concept, even though it is incontrovertibly stupid, so I hope you’re getting as much of a kick out of our more guided game selections as we are. We’re finishing up the theme on the next full episode with Return of the Obra Dinn, which you should absolutely play because having it spoiled would be kind of tragic, but Pocket returns next time with the Pokémon Trading Card League. I hope you’ll join us then, and remember to join our Discord to puzzle these games out with us and other members of the community! Discord: https://discord.gg/tRNNSJ6

In tonight's episode of the Geocaching Podcast: With all of the hosts on assignment, we travel back in time to 2013 to hear about hiding your first geocache! The audio version of today's podcast has an intro from Chad and Scott. We'll be back live next week!

Want to figure out how to create the perfect crime for your cozy mystery character to solve?  Or find out how your investigator protagonist would investigate a murder?  Perhaps you just want to find out what investigators look for at a crime scene so you can figure out what to plant at your fictitious scene?  Well, your questions will all be answered during this in-depth chat with Federal Law Enforcement Special Agent, Geoff Symon.  A forensics expert with 20 years of experience, Geoff gave us his expert guidance on crime scenes for authors, giving us the correct language (it's spatter not splatter, people) as well as explaining jargon like 'crime scene integrity' and 'crime scene cross-contamination', and even what an investigator might get wrong when you need them to make mistakes for your story.  He also debunked popular stereotypes, and gave us a behind the scenes glimpse into forensics investigations in the US, all in his charming, personable style...  Another fantastic guest for Mystery May, giving you valuable insight into crimes and the people who solve them.  

In tonight's episode of the Geocaching Podcast: We take a deep dive into the question mark icon to try and find out just what makes a good mystery cache!

Want to figure out how to create the perfect crime for your cozy mystery character to solve?  Or find out how your investigator protagonist would investigate a murder?  Perhaps you just want to find out what investigators look for at a crime scene so you can figure out what to plant at your fictitious scene?  Well, your questions will all be answered during this in-depth chat with Federal Law Enforcement Special Agent, Geoff Symon.  A forensics expert with 20 years of experience, Geoff gave us his expert guidance on crime scenes for authors, giving us the correct language (it's spatter not splatter, people) as well as explaining jargon like 'crime scene integrity' and 'crime scene cross-contamination', and even what an investigator might get wrong when you need them to make mistakes for your story.  He also debunked popular stereotypes, and gave us a behind the scenes glimpse into forensics investigations in the US, all in his charming, personable style...  Another fantastic guest for Mystery May, giving you valuable insight into crimes and the people who solve them.  

How could your podcast take place entirely in the library? Here’s a hint, it can’t! Thanks for joining us on the podcast again this week. We’re kicking off Mystery May with Detective Pikachu. With the movie releasing recently this IP has been in the public eye, but the film’s inspiration is comparatively less known. Now that we’ve played it, we’re here to…well, tell you why that is, unfortunately. The game follows a tried and true structure of setting up environments full of clues and witnesses to help you find solutions using logic, but the game is tuned to be accessible to Pokémon’s main demographic, which may be too young to make this title appeal to a wide variety of players. Still, the game is well made, and the aesthetic elements are charming to fans of the series so the novelty inherent in its off-the-wall-for-Pokémon-at-least design could very well be enough to hold your attention. We’re going to talk about helper mechanics for inexperienced players, how the game and movie interact in the landscape of popular culture, and who does and does not have a ponytail. Hopefully you enjoyed the episode, though it was maybe one of the least mysterious games tackled for May so far. Next time, we’re dipping into the cold waters of Return of the Obra Dinn so prepare for a pretty dramatic shift in tone. Join our Discord so you can discuss new episodes, strategize your approach to Sekiro and help us build out the lore of Thorpo Fantasy! https://discord.gg/tRNNSJ6

In tonight's episode of the Geocaching Podcast: You need help with puzzle caches? We give you tips, tricks, links and everything you'll need to help you finally get that smiley!

It's the start of Mystery May, and we have a doozy to start you off with! The SPA Girls spent time with Adam Richardson, an American cop who helps authors and screenwriters with their crime-fiction questions through his website and podcast called the Writer's Detective Bureau. He knows his stuff - Adam spent seventeen years of his 20+ year law enforcement career as a detective - and he was able to answer all our silly/strange/just-plain-dumb questions about being a cop in the US. We talk about everything from what writers need to know about law enforcement in the US, how the police and sheriff departments' work, how detectives approach a crime scene and deal with witnesses and suspects, and a myriad of other interesting details. Whether you write romance with a mystery subplot, or are a fully fledged suspense or mystery writer, this episode is for you.

In tonight's episode of the Geocaching Podcast: We discuss gadget caches with a couple of the best gadget cache creators around! We welcome bouncebounce and DJWHouse to the show! We grill them to learn all about the in's and out's of gadget creations!

It's the start of Mystery May, and we have a doozy to start you off with! The SPA Girls spent time with Adam Richardson, an American cop who helps authors and screenwriters with their crime-fiction questions through his website and podcast called the Writer's Detective Bureau. He knows his stuff - Adam spent seventeen years of his 20+ year law enforcement career as a detective - and he was able to answer all our silly/strange/just-plain-dumb questions about being a cop in the US. We talk about everything from what writers need to know about law enforcement in the US, how the police and sheriff departments' work, how detectives approach a crime scene and deal with witnesses and suspects, and a myriad of other interesting details. Whether you write romance with a mystery subplot, or are a fully fledged suspense or mystery writer, this episode is for you.

What are you doing in my podcast? This is my podcast! Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket, and on this episode we’re going to be talking about Accounting+. This game is a VR experiment that is full of absolutely off the wall scenarios and an abrasive sense of humor that really takes advantage of the medium to make things extra uncomfortable for the player. A kind of escape room game, it ushers you between scenes where you solve puzzles or just generally do whatever you feel like while commenting on your actions with an unending waterfall of dialog. If this sounds overwhelming, that’s probably what they were going for. We’re going to talk about exploration of game worlds, meta narratives and metatextual content, and turds. Turds everywhere. Thanks for checking out the episode, and if you don’t have a VR setup, I either hope these past episodes have helped you experience the technology vicariously or am sorry that we’ve just been entirely impossible to engage with during this theme. But from a high barrier to entry to a very low one, our next Pocket episode, following suit with Mystery May, is going to be on Simulacra! We hope you’ll join us then. As mentioned, our Discord channel can be found here:https://discord.gg/tRNNSJ6

Faeries are wondrous creatures who podcast in the place where time stands still, Welcome back from the viiiiirtual woooooorld, where today, in this humdrum realm we call reality, we’re going to be talking about Déraciné. The first VR title from FROMSOFTWARE, Déraciné is a much different experience than the games that put the developer on the map. With no combat, no bosses and no constantly clanging armor sounds, we’re in for a much more subdued game, though still full of the exploration and obtuse storytelling you’ve come to expect. Playing as a faerie in a world you can only manipulate in limited ways seems like a good fit for VR, but how the hardware jives with the rest of the game is a contentious topic. We strap in to see how this experiment pans out and how one of our favorite developers can turn “interacting with orphans” into an engaging experience. We talk about VR and how it interacts with the human body, morose tone and character writing, and the unique feeling of childlike joy and very sad sadness. Thanks for joining us today even though this episode is a little exclusionary, given its platform. If you’ve read this far, and haven’t been able to play the game, we do talk for about 20 minutes on just what we think of VR after getting our sea legs without spoiling the game if you’re interested at all in that. Next time we’re reentering the labyrinth that is… well, May. Mystery May is back, baby, and we’re kicking it off with Detective Pikachu! As promised, the link to our brand new Discord server:https://discord.gg/tRNNSJ6 We’ll be using this to hopefully stir up some discussion about games, take suggestions and feedback, and maybe even build up a little community. Join us if you’re interested in any of that or just helping us grow.

What do you mean "what the hell is the NOCLIP Podcast"? You mean...you don't know?! Welcome to the podcast, and the first episode of Mystery May, where today we're going to be talking about 999, an escape room/graphic novel adventure game that goes heavy on its convoluted plot in its attempts to engage the player. While we think the puzzles are well designed, there is a helping of disagreement over whether the game accomplishes what it sets out to do with its plot and characters. We're going to talk about adventure game puzzle design, mature content being handled in a less than mature manner, and whether this game would be peeeeerfect for the Switch. Next time we're talking about Danganronpa V3, so be sure to check back then!

I found a nice podcast, Meowster! Welcome back to NOCLIP, where this time we're looking at Capcom's item crafting, Felyne training, stat pondering, social dancing, and yes, monster fighting action RPG: Monster Hunter: World. Monster Hunter is a long standing, but largely niche, series and this entry is the first in seven years to be released outside of the handheld market. This seems like a decision that largely paid off, as Capcom is in the monster hunting business, and brother, business is a-boomin'. We look at the best selling game in Capcom's history and let its hooks sink deep to find out what is so compelling about the boss fight-centric game. We talk about the meaningful difference weapon choice makes, the ecology of Monster Hunter's world and what motivates a mountain to do what it does. Thanks for checking out this episode, and prepare your magnifying glasses and pick up a debilitating smoking habit as we kick off Mystery May next time with 999!

Fibromyalgia:  The mystery may be solved. It is all in your head, the medical profession claimed.  It only happens to hysterical, out-of-control, hypochondriacs.  The people feeling the pain knew better; and as their numbers grew, the physicians and drug companies finally were forced to take notice.   The Institute of BioAcoustic Biology recently conducted a study of fibromyalgia pain sufferers and may have discovered the root cause of muscle and joint pain.  We are going to be doing an open house – EVERYONE WELCOME – to demonstrate one of our newest softwares.  Join us on line to watch or participate.  We will be providing the Fibromyalgia software to organizations who wish to evaluate their members.   Don’t put-up with the pain, fatigue, stiffness, emotional turmoil and the brain fog of Fibromyalgia.  Help bring BioAcoustic information and software to your community.