Hey! Look! Listen!

On this episode we turn our back on video games to instead focus on video game adjacent media, as we discuss HBO's recent television adaptation of The Last Of Us, starring Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, and a bunch of funky fungi. 

We play it a bit loose in this episode as we each bring two questions for each other in a general conversation about videogames. This leads to us chatting about topics that include childhood memories and divisive games, and whether or not romance exists in gaming, because we're all incurable romantics. We also ripoff Desert Island Disks wholesale. 

Positive outlooks are denied in this episode with a decidedly negative analysis of Far Cry 5, as its failures are held up to the standards of its own superior predecessors, as well as just to the concept of good quality game design.

And exciting times, this marks the first episode of Hey! Look! Listen! to be posted on YouTube too, with some fancy-schmancy video accompaniment! So please find it there too: 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2450pYlWI8Bv-usOCWiHxA

For our milestone 50th episode (kinda) we return to the franchise that we began this podcast with, as we discuss the colossal fourth entry in Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid series. We discuss the game's position as an all-guns-blazing ending to a massive story, and how we both kind of love it and hate it for that.  

In this episode we reflect on the notion of putting faith in our fellow man, as we discuss some of our favourite co-op games, multiplayer games that have you team up rather than fight each other like god intended. Our cooperative experiences include: playing The Beautiful Game TM, exploring mysterious snowy ruins,  having meltdowns in the kitchen, and beating up punks on the mean streets of the 1990s. 

Before setting off proper into a brand new year, why not take time to reflect on the games of 2022? On this episode we each select games that we loved from last year, with our choices ranging from Norse epics to feline escapades, from intimate murder mysteries to gigantic fantasy adventures...  

On this episode we discuss games that we went into with preconceived expectations, which turned out to be very different experiences than we imagined. We go both positive and negative: games that we didn't think we'd like that ended up blowing our minds, as well as games we expected to love that we just couldn't mind meld with.  

On this episode four of your hosts each choose a single moment from the litany of games that they have played throughout their lives, to shine a spotlight on and wax lyrical about. There was no rigid criteria given to the moments that could be chosen; they could have ranged from moments experienced through gameplay, to big action set pieces, to memorable cinematics... Three of the four moments chosen ended up being quite maudlin (maybe that's the Irish in us), while the fourth is an uplifting story of overcoming great adversity (in a game, not in any meaningful way).   

A bit of introspection in this episode, as three of your hosts each choose a game that they once loved, but have found that their affection has diminished over time. We reckon with the changes in how games are made against the changes in our own personal tastes, as we march inexorably towards the grave.  

We once again dip our toes in the world of survival horror by taking a look at the latest two chapters in the Resident Evil series. The seventh entry managed to be both a radical upheaval and a return to the franchise's roots, and was then followed by a game that was a whole other kettle of fish again. We compare the two distinct flavours of these modern horror classics, and debate whether we prefer deranged shovel-wielding Southern gentlemen, or 9-foot tall vampire ladies.