Vidjagame Apocalypse

When advertisers and games come together, the results are usually annoying in-game billboards, awkward insertions of commercial taglines into dialogue, or a set-up for stale jokes about Doritos and Mountain Dew. But once every 100 years (give or take), unholy pacts between ads and games create something wonderful, memorable, sometimes even playable. We count down five of our favorites in this week's show, after which we talk about Witcher 3 (again), Ultra Street Fighter IV, Splatoon, the impending early release of Hatred, and your favorite mobile games.

Direct download: VidjagameApocalypse_114_0528.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:35am EDT

Conventional wisdom holds that handheld versions of multiplatform games are, at best, stripped-down shadows of their console brethren, and best forgotten. Sometimes, conventional wisdom is for idiots. USGamer's Bob Mackey joins us this week for a Top 5 about handheld companion games that outshone their higher-profile console versions, after which we jump into a rambling conversation about Witcher 3 and Destiny: House of Wolves (and The Simpsons, and some other stuff) before looking at characters you used to think were cool.

Direct download: VidjagameApocalypse_113_0521.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:26am EDT

Sega's Saturn might have been an underpowered, overpriced mess of a system when it prematurely launched 20 years ago this week — but dammit, it still holds a special place in our hearts, partly because it boasted some truly amazing games. In this episode, we count down our five favorites, after which we dive into an anemic slate of new releases (including Attack on Titan: Humanity in Chains), get excited over Fallout/Bloodstained/Assassin's Creed Syndicate news, and the alt-history games that captured your imaginations.

Direct download: VidjagameApocalypse_112_0514.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:31am EDT

For many Americans, Cinco de Mayo is a grand opportunity to crowd into Mexican restaurants, get drunk, and wear ridiculous hats while not knowing the first thing about what the holiday's actually about. Now that it's come and gone, however, Gamespot's Chris Watters joins us to talk about a different kind of cultural appropriation: Japanese games that include sombrero-wearing characters, often for no clear thematic reason. After that, there's some argument about alternate histories in general, and Wolfenstein: The Old Blood in particular, followed by Tony Hawk news and a look at some of the fan art that you consider to be your most embarrassing/favorite work.

Direct download: VidjagameApocalypse_111_0507.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:38am EDT

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