With Avowed's launch casting a spotlight on Obsidian this week, we got to thinking about the studio's unique trajectory, and so Trone Dowd — who reviewed Avowed for Inverse — joins us to talk about about studios who got nudged off series they created (for whatever reason), and used their ideas to make something new (but familiar). We'll also get in…

Mikel's away this week, so Matt and Chris (with accompanying soundboard) invited the Welcome to the Thing crew to break format a bit with a top 5 that doesn't focus so much on games, but rather game distribution services, technologies, and platforms old and new -- the cable companies of games, if you will. After that, we talk about Civilization VII…

Hero-ing can be a thankless business (apart from all the improbable material rewards for rescuing hapless villagers or whatever), so it's uplifting when games try to show you've made a difference by bringing back all the friends you've made and people you've helped to support you in the final hour. TL Foster of Welcome to the Thing joins us to talk…

Sometimes it's really empowering to embody a pissed-off rage junkie, the kind of human chainsaw who can charge wildly into every confrontation and savagely batter everything in their path. This week, Jesse Cox joins us for a look at five games that let you do exactly that. Then we'll get our hands bloody with Ninja Gaiden II Black and Orcs Must Die…

Last week's release of Dynasty Warriors Origins inspired us to spend this episode looking at five of the best games to bear one of the industry's most-overused words in their titles (Origins, of course). Then we'll get into Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders, reactions to the Switch 2 reveal, Marvel Snap getting temporarily swallowed by the TikTok ban, …

Some release dates loom especially large in videogame history (mostly because they factored heavily into marketing), and this week Anthony Abatte joins us as our first guest of 2025 to talk about five of the most significant ones. Then we'll get into Dynasty Warriors Origins, Hyper Light Breaker, the DICE Awards nominees, and the gaming innovations…

The announcements at CES (and their heavy push toward AI) this week inspired us to resurrect the debate-format Top 5 to decide what the five most important technical innovations in gaming are. Did we get it right? Probably not, but you can tell us what we missed. Then we'll get into Sony's freshly announced slate of game adaptations, alleged Ninten…

We're a quarter of the way into the 21st century, and kicking off a new year of shows the way we always do: with a look ahead to the five announced games we're looking forward to the most. Then we'll get into January's PS+ games, how Riot measures Arcane's success, and your personal Games of the Year for 2024. Question of the Week: What upcoming ga…

It's time for our last show of 2024 - and the end of our Games of Year countdown! This week, we'll get into our top 5 favorites with a roster of guests including Trone Dowd, Steve Guntli, Brendan Hesse, Kevin Erhard and Phil Keeling of Pixel Lit, Emmett Watkins, Jorge Albor, and TL Foster! Did your favorite game(s) make the cut? Listen and find out…

2024 is almost over, so it's time to begin our annual Games of the Year countdown - split into two parts, because there's a lot to talk about. This week, we've invited a rotating panel of guests including TL Foster, Steve Guntli, Greg Moore, Tony Wilson, and Anthony Abatte to discuss our favorites; check out entries 10 through 6 this week, and stay…

This year has been brimming with quality retreads, from brilliant remakes of classic games to remasters of games from just a few years ago, and before we start on our year-end GOTY countdown next week, TL Foster of Welcome to the Thing joins us to talk about five of our favorite remasters and remakes of 2024. We'll also talk a whole lot about Might…

We've officially entered the final weeks of 2024, which means we get to start on our year-end best lists and tell you about all the stuff we liked the most this year! Let's kick this off with Tony Wilson of Framework and a look at our five favorite DLC expansions, after which we'll talk about Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, AntonBlast, PS5 gett…

Once a game series reaches a certain level of success, spinoffs are inevitable; some of them spawn their own franchises, like Mega Man X, while others rapidly fizzle into obscurity, like Mega Man Soccer. This week, merritt k and TL Foster join us to celebrate five of the latter category, after which we'll get into Trombone Champ: Unflattened, Loco …

Nov. 27 would be Bruce Lee's 84th birthday, and that's as good an excuse as any to get Anthony Abatte on for a howl-filled discussion of our favorite unauthorized Bruce Lee knockoffs in fighting games. Then we'll talk about STALKER 2, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Great God Grove, The Game Awards 2024 nominations, and the songs you associate wit…

As much as videogames tend to be about wreaking havoc and wrecking stuff, there are relatively few that actually let you tear through and collapse the buildings that dot their landscapes. We're not sure why it took us 601 episodes to reach the topic of games where you can wreck buildings, but here we are, and after that we'll get into Tetris Foreve…

We've somehow made it to 600 shows! To celebrate, TL Foster of Welcome to the Thing joins us for a laugh-filled Top 5 about previous Top 5s, and it's so big, it's a TOP 6! After that trip down memory lane, we'll talk more about Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Vampire Survivors: Ode to Castlevania, Nintendo confirming backwards compatibility for the Swit…

It's the day after Halloween, but we've got one last spooky show in us - this time about wandering ghosts you can find off the beaten path in games that aren't even about horror. With Tony Wilson of Framework along for the ride, we'll also talk about Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Clock Tower: Rewind, an Oregon Trail movie, a…