Watch Out for Fireballs!

Episode 127: Turtles in Time / D&D: Shadow Over Mystara

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross rumble through Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time and Dungeons and Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara.

Brawlers have a reputation for being simplistic and exploitative. They're a game design born of economic opportunity, engineered to accumulate quarters with frequency. But divorced from that, there are examples of brawlers with surprising depth and ingenuity. Turtles and Mystara are both great examples of the form, chosen by our community of Patreon backers.

Episode 126: Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross charge through Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.

Warcraft III is probably one of the most influential games of all time. There's a lot that came before it, but Blizzard's first 3D real time strategy game came at just the right time to lay the foundation for most of today's competitive multiplayer scene. While we're not much for competition, the single player campaigns of Reign of Chaos do a ton of interesting stuff. Join us as we talk about our first real RTS (we're trying to forget Sacrifice).

Episode 125: Portal / Portal 2

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross open up a door to the elemental plane of praise for Portal and Portal 2.

Last year, with Super Metroid at episode 100, we decided to try doing a "perfect" game once a year. Portal and Portal 2 are both obvious choices for such high praise. They still feel recent, but almost a decade after Portal hit the scene in The Orange Box we're still feeling the effects of its sheer economy of play, and utter wit in storytelling. And no matter what anyone tells you, Portal 2 is a worthy heir.

Episode 124: Silent Hill 3

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross ooze affection for Silent Hill 3.

A teenage girl is in trouble. The world is warping around her, and strange people are saying that she's destined to birth Paradise. That's the setup to Silent Hill 3, one of the scariest and most upsetting games in existence. The story has problems, but for atmosphere and dread it has almost no rival.

If you haven't played the original Silent Hill, don't worry: We go out of our way to provide all of the context you need to understand what's going on here. Enjoy!

Episode 123: Interactive Fiction

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Two men speak into microphones about interactive fiction, also known as text adventures. They cover the basics of the medium, a brief history and discuss four games in-depth: "Planetfall", "A Mind Forever Voyaging", "Slouching Towards Bedlam", and "The King of Shreds and Patches."