Tag Archives: open world

Ep. 27: A Beige Room

  • The surprising success of Horizon Zero Dawn’s apocalypse
  • Strong world and setting design sets it apart from other open world games
  • Dynamic, tactically improvisational combat
  • But the game should be harder in a few ways
  • We discover a crafting system that Adam can tolerate
  • The implied sense of resource economy fails to come through in game mechanics
  • RPG merchants and their contrived progressive inventories
  • Horizon’s civilizations and their distinct identities

Ep. 17: Soft Mode

  • Dying Light: Dead Island but better
  • …although Adam has a weird tolerance for Dead Island
  • Audio and control feedback for melee combat
  • Parkour!
  • Down with fast travel
  • Time-sensitive tasks in open world games
  • Left 4 Dead special infected are getting tired
  • Why have zombie stories become dull?
  • Seduction continues in The Witcher 2
  • Creepy, pervy achievements
  • A Dragon Quest fan loves Dragon Quest Heroes
  • Zelda’s cowardice

Ep. 14: That’s How You Move a Sex Unicorn

  • The monster hunting science of The Witcher
  • E3 demos are a sham
  • Ubisoft’s mission to make open world game design as boring as possible
  • Interesting voyeuristic vignettes in Watch Dogs
  • The historical timeline approach to sequels
  • Padded game lengths and pacing
  • Suikoden is completely delightful
  • Is mobile gaming really just different?

Ep. 8: The King of Spreadsheets

  • The War in the North is ended
  • Diablo 2 and replaying games for character development
  • Also, Diablo 1 is better
  • How to shoot someone with a tranq dart
  • Missing the boat with older games
  • Forgiving Silent Hill
  • Namco’s loading screen mini-games
  • Resident Evil 6 is an ambitious mess
  • Where have all the quicktime events gone?
  • Saints Row 3 & 4
  • Infamous: Second Son
  • More open world problems
  • Dichotomous morality systems
  • All the games are open world games now
  • “If I jump on a Goomba, it certainly dies.”
  • Mario games: Are they all the same? (no)

Ep. 7: We’re the Worst

  • Sony got hacked or something
  • Gaming in social media
  • Middle-Earth: Genocide of Mordor
  • Ubisoft’s radio tower formula
  • Do quest journals ruin open world games?
  • Playing the designer instead of playing the game
  • Wait, no; it’s minimaps that ruin open world games
  • War in the North deserves better than its PC port
  • Payday 2 may or may not be okay
  • DeadCore: regarding limbs and floating eyeballs
  • Final Fantasy X HD Remaster’s Dark Aeons
  • Why do game consumers love companies and hate themselves?

Ep. 2: Get Hype for a Sunrise

  • Nintendo’s platform differentiation and uses of the Wii U touch screen
  • Antagonistic design shenanigans in Mario Kart and New Super Mario Bros. Wii*
  • Matt’s beef with Batman
  • Making the most of open worlds
  • Why can’t gamers just think?
  • Time management in Child of Light’s throwback to Grandia
  • Adam hates people who speak in rhyme
  • Persona 4 Golden is the best game ever, as you have already heard from everybody else
  • The harem trope badly needs to be subverted
  • Weapon Shop de Omasse is a lot more fun than a real job in retail
  • Poor, poor PlayStation Vita
  • Don’t let your friends die in State of Decay
  • Skye doesn’t really like sandbox survival and procedural generation
  • Is it worthwhile to pay attention to E3?

*Please note that everything Adam says about the power-ups and GamePad usage in Mario Kart 8 is the result of a single hour of play immediately before recording and, in retrospect, is almost completely incorrect.  He regrets the error.  More than you can know, he regrets the error.