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Month: January 2014

VGH #130: Bork the Timeline

VGH #130: Bork the Timeline

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.

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VGH #129: Brave It or Default It

VGH #129: Brave It or Default It

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.

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D.J.’s top games of 2013

D.J.'s top games in 2013

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.

Honorable Mentions (in no particular order)

BIT.TRIP Presents… Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien

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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Randy’s Top 10 Games of 2013

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:

10GH10. 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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