Episode 17 - The Great Elijah Wood Debate - Broken Age

Welcome to Mog Chothra's chosen podcast,

On this episode we're going to be discussing Broken Age, a point and click adventure game that was funded by a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign. This game's notoriety comes from a combination of its Kickstarter and the fact that it was an adventure game with very traditional adventure game mechanics released so long after their heyday by one of the genre's most prolific creators. We're going to be talking about adventure game mechanics, this game's storytelling, and how much of the budget was probably spent just on Elijah Wood.

Thanks as always for listening, and come back in two weeks as we discuss Chrono Trigger!

Episode 16 - Things Like Shannon - Journey

A bad joke, I know, but we're talking about Journey today! This very simplistic game banks on its beautiful visuals and emotional presentation to keep players interested. And based on how well it did on the marketplace, I'd say it succeeded. We're going to be discussing meaningful multiplayer, minimalist mechanics, and matronly meanderings.

Thanks as always for listening, and check back with us next time when we talk about Broken Age!

Episode 15 - Dunk Souls - Dark Souls (Part 2)

Forgive me, I was absorbed in thought,

Today we finish our examination of Dark Souls, hopefully ending a months long podcast theme of comparing every game we play to it. We'll be discussing bosses, plot and storytelling in the Souls series, and ideas for reality shows with Dark Souls as the central motivating factor.

Thank you for listening, and join us again next week as we shake off the grimness present in Dark Souls and play ThatGameCompany's Journey!

Episode 15 - Skelly B. Johnson - Dark Souls (Part 1)

My pods… They’re casting. It’s dark. So dark,

Covering this game was a challenge. Not just in the sense that the game is a challenge, which rest assured, it is, but because it’s so divisive, so finely crafted and so highly revered that discussing even the smallest details of this game proved to be a lengthy experience. But in the spirit of the game, we persevered, podcasted against a brick wall for a long time and produced two full episodes worth of content and a lot of butt sweat which assuredly soaked into Andy’s couch. We talk about difficulty, area traversal, and the dark, seedy underbelly of Googling your way through the game.

Thanks for listening and join us again next week when we tackle combat mechanics, bosses and more in our second part of Dark Souls. Until then, don’t get yourself killed. Neither of us wants to see you go hollow.

Bonus Episode - The Sky Mammoth

Gather round children, and I’ll tell you a tale,

Thanks for joining us on our week off this time. I cut so much content from the Skyrim episode that I was able to stitch together this brief anthology of stories detailing our time spent in Tamriel. The intro says it all, so I hope you enjoy our bardic performance.

While you’re listening, don’t forget to reinforce your Estus flasks because next week is part one of Dark Souls!

Episode 14 - Horse Parachute - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

At long last, the Dovahcast has arrived,

Strap on your mountain climbing shoes and tell your housecarl you’re not to be bothered, because today we’re talking about Skyrim, Bethesda’s massive (single player) RPG that has consumed millions of man hours and has become a pillar of open world game design. We talk about compulsion, rewards, emergent gameplay, and level 100 blast wizards.

As this is Skyrim, we ended up recording a lot of us just telling stories about our experiences. To prevent this podcast from being far, far too long, we have separated these out, so check us out next week for our Skyrim Story Time episode!

As always, thanks for listening, and be sure to come back next time for our talk on From Software’s Dark Souls!

Episode 13 - Punk Rock and Pentagrams - Gone Home

I’m sorry I couldn’t be there to describe this podcast in person,

This week on NOCLIP we’re talking about the walking simulator that simulated walking all over a bunch of sour GamerGate dudes’ nuts. This game was very popular for what it was, not least due to the fact it succeeds so completely on its admittedly narrow goals. We’re going to discuss how this game chooses to tell a story, what decisions lead the player to become immersed in the game’s world (and which do not), and bringing the disembodied soul of an old dead punk rocker back from the grave to walk among the living once more.

Thanks for listening (as always!), and join us again in two weeks when we discuss the ever-expansive Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim!

Episode 12 - Melty Joes - Bioshock

No pods. No casts. Only men.

This week on NOCLIP we’re going to be talking about Bioshock, a first person shooter with an agenda. One of the earliest games of the seventh generation of consoles, it took its themes and aesthetics seriously and has largely become a classic because of it. We talk about the game’s setting, the combat, and the story and how the game does so much that it sometimes fails to deliver.

As always, thanks for listening and join us again in two weeks when we play Gone Home!

Episode 11 - Cool Shades, Basic Dad - Star Fox 64

Keep listening! Trust your instincts!

This week on NOCLIP, we’re going to be discussing Star Fox 64, a Sci-Fi rail shooter designed as a remake of an SNES game that became one of Nintendo’s all-time classics. We’re going to be talking about level design, the game’s legacy, and hot dog guns. (Probably the most comprehensive hot dog gun analysis ever committed to tape.) Fun fact: Star Fox 64 came bundled with the Rumble Pak and is largely responsible for the success of the device. That’s the kind of interesting trivia you get for reading the episode description!

Thanks again for listening, and check us out next week when we discuss Bioshock!

Episode 10 - Spectromoonalysis Machine 2000 XT - Portal

Welcome to [PODCAST NAME HERE]!

Today we’re going to be talking about Valve Software’s Portal, a first person puzzle game that we evidently think is pretty good. Going through Aperture Science’s test chambers again in 2016 is just as satisfying as when the game originally came out in 2007, and the impact the game has had on the industry leads us to discuss a lot more than just its mechanics. We’ll talk about Portal’s design, Dead Space, PC gaming, virtual reality, King Kong, Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves… and more. This one will be a doozy.

Thanks as always for listening, and join us again in two weeks when we talk about Star Fox 64!

Episode 09 - The Wizard High Dive - Trine

Welcome to the BroClip FriendCast.

This week we all sat down together to play Trine. This is the first time we’ve all played a game cooperatively for the show, and so to get a different perspective from a different play-through, we brought in our friend Dan to participate. We discuss our personal feelings on the game, the cooperative gaming experience and how Trine stands on that front, and wizards. We talk an unusual amount about Wizards.

Thanks for listening this week and check us out next time for our tenth episode! It’s going to be on Portal, so if you have somehow still not played it, get on that.

Bonus Episode - Energy Attacks to the Face, Constantly

We record waaaay too long.

So, as I was editing together the previous two episodes I came across two segments that I had to cut out. The first, in Kingdom Hearts, was an argument that JJ and Andy were having over some possible inconsistencies in Kingdom Hearts 2, which was removed as we had decided to isolate the first game so as not to let the whole of the series impact our opinions on the first game. I, however, thought that it was hilarious, so I present it to you now. Additionally, our Undertale episode was running close to 2 hours long, which is more than I can expect anyone to listen to, so I removed what I considered the weakest bits, among which was this little discussion on how the multiple endings of the game affect our feelings on the story at large. This too, I lay before thee, on the off chance that you just couldn’t get enough Undertale talk, or, more likely, it’s just been long enough that listening to us talk more will not bring you physical pain. Either way, thanks for listening to our bonus episode, with impeccable bumper narration by JJ and I, and check back next week when we talk about Trine!

Episode 08 - Darth Fartly - Undertale

It’s a kill or be killed world, humans!

Today we’re going to be discussing the Internet’s darling, Undertale. This Earthbound-inspired RPG was developed in Game Maker by mostly one dude, and would probably be extraordinary just for being a competent game on that front, but manages to cram a lot of great ideas into a small package. We’re going to be talking about it’s influences, it’s story and character development, and we’re going to have a pretty massive argument over the game’s central moral question. I don’t know about you, but that fills me with determination.

Join us again in two weeks for Trine, our cooperative experiment!

Episode 07 - #KeepAnsemAsAnsem - Kingdom Hearts

Gawrsh!

Today on NOCLIP we’re going to be talking about Kingdom Hearts. As an Action RPG that largely defined the genre moving forward, this highly influential game mixed the worlds of Final Fantasy and Disney with some original concepts that miraculously ended up not being a horrible mess. As one of JJ and Andy’s favorite games, they have a lot to say while I (Chad) am mostly along for the ride. We go deep on how the combat feels, why you would ever use magic and how the aesthetic and story design work together to create a massively successful game that’s largely about tone.

Join us again in two weeks when we talk about Undertale!

Episode 06 - Everyday Zeroes - Life is Strange

Ready for the mosh pit?

Today we’re going to be hella talking about Life is Strange, a choice-based adventure game with the ability to reverse time to alter your decisions. We discuss how this mechanic changes the way we think about the choices we make in game as compared to other choice driven games, how many times we can watch something terrible happen until it becomes funny and how this game reflects on how choice is treated in games as an interactive medium.

Check us out again in two weeks when we talk about Kingdom Hearts!

Episode 05 - Went Out Breachin'! - Transistor

Hey Red.

Today we’re going to be taking a look at Transistor, an isometric Action RPG set in a cyberpunk computer land… or whatever. We talk about the plot of the game, (well, JJ talks about the plot of the game.) and how the setting and aesthetic compliment the gameplay and encourage the player to experiment.

Come back in two weeks when we talk about Life is Strange!

Episode 04 - Pot of Clubs - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

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Hello Ladies, Gentlemen, and People Masquerading as Boats!

This episode of NOCLIP focuses on The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, a spooky, terrifying game full of dark storms, vengeful gods, ghosts and skulls floating around of their own accord! But more importantly, it was the primary Zelda installment on the Nintendo Gamecube, which places Link in a vast sea, with bright, cel shaded visuals which caused a controversy at the time of its release, but has since been embraced as one of the most beloved games on the console. We talk about the on point aesthetic design, boss design in the Zelda franchise as a whole, and Link’s face! Probably too much about Link’s face.

Join us again in two weeks when we talk about Supergiant Games’ Transistor!

Episode 03 - Don't Die and Leave - Resident Evil

Happy Halloween!

Join us as we enter the survival horror this episode with Resident Evil (most specifically the HD Remake of 2015), the game that brought horror gaming to the mainstream on consoles. We talk about how the game holds up both in a mechanical sense and an aesthetic sense, and discuss what it is about the game that makes it so damned scary when it wants to be. Thanks, as always, for listening and get ready for our next episode on The Wind Waker!

Episode 02 – It's Totally Okay to Just Murder Them – Shadow of the Colossus

One day, perhaps we will make atonement for this podcast,

On this episode we’re going to be talking about Shadow of the Colossus, the 2005 spiritual successor to Ico. Featuring a grim, isolated atmosphere, and hybridized action adventure/platformer gameplay, it had very few contemporaries and feels incredibly unique to this day. We discuss what makes the game work for us and take a few stabs at the design and implementation of the game’s minimalist philosophy. Thanks to everyone who listens and prepare for our next episode on Resident Evil!

Episode 01 – Blueberry Casuals and the Backhand Booyah! – Splatoon

Welcome to our Cephalopodcast,

Today we’re going to be talking about the WIi U’s own third-person shooter, Splatoon. We’ll be discussing what makes this game different than other shooters, what makes it the same, the Squid-Kid Dichotomy and why the existence of this game represents such an unexpected and important line for Nintendo to have crossed. Thanks for listening, and check us out in two weeks when we release episode two on Shadow of the Colossus!