Randy and D.J. are going to PAX East this year so Nintendo, Sony, and friends don’t have to, apparently. But why is that exactly? We also discuss Vlambeer’s indie guilt over Ridiculous Fishing, Batmanstlevania: Arkham Origins Blackgate, Final Fantasy, and, as always, baseball.
We also want your suggestions for this month’s game night! Let us know what you want to play on Twitter!
Are The Elder Scrolls Online? Do they have to be? We launch a full investigation. Also, Paul makes an impulse Diablo III purchase (not the auction house kind), Randy climbs to the tops of buildings in Infamous Second Son, and you’ll never guess what D.J.’s doing.
This episode truly has it all: Final Fantasy. Robots. Skeletons. A different Final Fantasy. Facebook. Pizza. Republicans. It’s all here.
Brace yourselves for some furious karting: we want to play Mario Kart 7 with you!
Join the Video Game Hangover crew for our next Community Game Night.
WHAT: Mario Kart 7 on the Nintendo 3DS
WHEN: Saturday, March 29 @ 9:30pm ET
HOW: Express your interest below and add us to your favorite “Communities” in the game: 20-7403-9734-6418.
No need to exchange Friend Codes! Just ensure you’re part of the in-game community using the number above and we’ll be able to play together.
Since Mario Kart 7 doesn’t have a voice chat feature, we’ll be hosting a Google Plus Hangout while we’re playing so we can communicate with each other. Be sure to add us on Google Plus so you can participate.
One last detail: believe it or not, there’s a patch for MK7 that’s required before you can play online. You’ll need to download and install it from the 3DS eShop before our Game Night.
See you on the Rainbow Road!
Titanfall is a first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts as an exclusive for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. The game was officially announced as Respawn’s debut game at Microsoft‘s E3 2013 press conference, and was released on March 11, 2014.
In Titanfall, players fight on a war-torn planet in six-on-six online multiplayer-only matches as mech-style Titans and their pilots. The game’s action is fast-paced: as pilots, players can run along walls and link jumps together parkour-style, use a variety of futuristic military weapons, and employ special abilities such as cloaking; as Titans, players are equipped with more destructive armaments and special protective shields. Several gameplay elements were designed to increase the game’s accessibility to less experienced shooter players, such as a locking pistol, the supplementing of each team with weak AI bots for easier kills, and temporary power-ups. The game uses Microsoft’s cloud computing services to offload non-player activity to servers and optimize the home computer for graphical performance.
The game won over 60 awards at its E3 2013 reveal, including a record-breaking six E3 Critics Awards, and Best of Show from several media outlets. It also won official awards at Gamescom and the Tokyo Game Show. Many reviewers predicted Titanfall to be the next step for the first-person shooter genre, and IGN‘s Ryan McCaffrey declared the game “Microsoft’s killer app”. Upon release, the game received positive reviews from critics, many of whom praised the game for its balanced game design.
Matt returns with a shocking announcement about Telltale’s The Walking Dead: Season 2: Episode 2. Randy decides the new Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy feels familiar, but that’s OK. Meanwhile, D.J. stunt casts the recently announced Last of Us movie. And we all can’t wait to rent PlayStation games over the Internet!
There’s also a little chat about puzzle games and blacksmithing.
Can you smell what the River is cooking? Join the VGH crew as they chat about Thief, Weapon Shop de Omasse, and the Final Fantasy XIV endgame. Also: stealth games, year 3 of the 3DS and more!
Get all the latest sports things and points news on this week’s episode of Video Sports Sportover. Just like every week, we talk about Call of Duty, Bravely Default, a Mario, stuff Ken Levine stores in his pants, Strider, and Matt Kernan. The Olympics!
We’re all just waiting for our titan to fall—that is, Paul and D.J. spend some time with the elusive Titanfall beta on PC, and What They Think May Surprise You! Randy and D.J. have experience highs and lows in The Last of Us: Left Behind DLC and Steel Diver: Sub Wars—some emotional, and others because they’re in a submarine. Finally, D.J. explores the sultry side of Bravely Default and doesn’t know what to make of Yasumi Matsuno’s Unsung Story Kickstarter.
Get your half-tuck ready: we want to play Uncharted 3 with you!
Join the Video Game Hangover crew for our second Community Game Night of the year.
WHAT: Uncharted 3 on PS3
WHEN: Saturday, March 1 @ 9:30pm ET
HOW: Express your interest in the comments section below and share your PSN name.
Be sure to add us and others to your Friends list to help get the game started in a timely fashion.
Randy: randy_wrecked
Matt: SweetSweetTrash
D.J.: metaly
Paul: Dasflikko
Did we mention that the multiplayer component of Uncharted 3 is free-to-play through level 15? Check the FAQ on Naughty Dog’s site for some more details.
Paul’s missing, so Matt mysteriously appears with stories about crappy looking swordfighting and giant poles. D.J. gets help from the Internet in Bravely Default. Randy makes a big decision. And have you heard about this Flappy Bird game?
We discuss the potential negative effects of game sales and consumerism on while D.J. bites his tongue completely off. Randy inspects Lara Croft’s HD-er makeover in Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition and Paul plays the latest Final Fantasy XIII. (That would be Lightning Returns. Also, D.J. insists he’s still enjoying Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, and Video Game Community Theater makes its long-awaited return.
If you listen to this episode right now, it’s half price!
This week, we finally bring the hammer down on Conan O’Brien and his fraudulent video game reviews. (Someone has to!) Randy’s so desperate for PS4 games that he digs into the free offerings Contrast and Don’t Starve, with mixed results. Paul returns to fix the timeline in Radiant Historia, and D.J.’s playing the same games from the last six months of shows, but maybe there’s an end in sight.
Crank up the Love Fist and dress in your finest Ponsonby’s swag: we’re playing Grand Theft Auto V this week!
Join the Video Game Hangover team for our first Community Game Night of the year.
WHAT: Grand Theft Auto V on PS3
WHEN: Friday, January 31 @ 9:30pm ET
HOW: Express your interest in the comment section below and share your PSN name.
Be sure to add us and others to your Friends list to help get the game started in a timely fashion.
Randy: randy_wrecked
Matt: SweetSweetTrash
D.J.: metaly
Paul: Dasflikko
See you on Friday!
We know you’re not the type of gamer who would ever skip a game’s cutscenes and just watch the ending on YouTube but, as suggested by one of our awesome listeners, we’re discussing those lamentable practices on this week’s show. We’ve also got more hype for the upcoming Bravely Default and thoughts on the new Ratchet and Clank: Into the Nexus and Catlateral Damage.
Get hype for delicious pizza in 2014! We literally salivate in anticipation of this year’s hottest upcoming pizzas, featuring the latest sauce innovations and the most surprising topping exclusives. Pre-order yours for delivery today! Also, video games!
For me, 2013 was a year full of surprises, whether that meant discovering quirky games that hadn’t been on my radar, or realizing that the way I approached and enjoyed games had changed. It was a year when I tried to escape the constant stream of flashy new releases in favor of richer, less transient experiences. It was a year where I finally decided I had lost patience (for the most part) for overhyped, triple-A blockbusters that are too often just a different coat of paint on last year’s model. It was a year about learning how to play in new ways, learning how to die, and learning how to sew pants! These are my most unforgettable games from that year.
Emerging out of the original BIT.TRIP Runner on the Wii, Runner2 is firmly on my list of best sequels of all time. The solid running/jumping/kicking gameplay is back and expanded to make each stage (and, in turn, the intertwined soundtrack) a complete delight. While the original tended to be pretty unforgiving, Runner2 provides plenty of ways to tailor the game to your level, whether it’s a straightforward easy/hard setting, taking a more difficult route, or just opting to squeeze in fewer bonus-inducing dances—but why would you want to do that?
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If there’s a common thread that runs through my favorite games of 2013, it’s that the traditional “console gaming” experience just didn’t cut it for me in 2013: a full half of my list is made up of portable games and two of the others are, at this time, available only on a PC. There’s only one console exclusive, no next-gen games, and not a single Xbox or Wii U game to be found. Based on this, I’m left to conclude that my favorite releases of 2014 will only be playable on a Texas Instruments graphing calculator or, God forbid, the OUYA.
Without further ado, here’s my list:
10. Gone Home
My heart swells every time I think back upon my time with Gone Home: with zero on-screen characters, developers The Fullbright Company somehow managed to create an exploration-based game about music, family, youth, and perhaps most surprisingly, love. It all worked, too, in a way that these themes almost never work in video games. I was moved by how real the Greenbriar family felt to me as I wandered around their home; in a lot of ways, they reminded me of my family. Gone Home is, to me, an accomplishment simply because of how rare and intimate that kind of experience still is in gaming.
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We take a last look back at 2013 and all the great games we played. Find out which ones were our choices for Game of the Year!
D.J. and Paul try out the new Just Cause 2 Multiplayer Mod and live to tell you about it! Also: Flying boats…? Intro and outro music for this show are from the Just Cause 2 soundtrack, composed by Mats Lundgren.