Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably already heard a thing or two about our biggest story this week regarding Gamestop. But this story is different from the times we've covered the failing retailer, instead we have a story of Reddit, memes and of course, STONKS. Also this week, Blizzard absorbs the studio behind the recent Tony Hawk's Pro Skater remake and puts them on a Diablo II remake, the EU is coming after Nintendo over Joy-con drift, AMD says PS5 and Xbox Series S/X are ...
Jan 29, 2021•1 hr 38 min•Season 1Ep. 86
The World of Assassination trilogy draws to a close with the release of Hitman III from IO Interactive, but it goes out with a bang, bringing the entire trilogy under one roof and raising the bar of quality for cross-gen releases with its stellar PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S|X support. We've got a review roundup for the game but first, Ethan lays out his impressions of the newly released Resident Evil Village: Maiden demo and Travis gushes over his time with Coffee Talk and derides his time w...
Jan 22, 2021•1 hr 46 min•Season 1Ep. 85
EA's dark reign over the Star Wars franchise is finally coming to a close, restoring freedom to the stories told in a galaxy far, far away. This week, Lucasfilm Games announced itself as the new publishing brand overseeing Lucasfilm properties and that a new open-world Star Wars game was coming from Massive Entertainment and an Indiana Jones project is in the works at Machine Games. Chris Lingenfelter (@christof_lingen) guest hosts this week for the first time and adds a little flavor to our sta...
Jan 15, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Season 1Ep. 84
The end of season one of Absent Minded Watches is upon us as we tackle the final obstacle in our way, Angry Birds 2, a perfectly average way to finish out a perfectly excellent show. The birds are back, the pigs are back, and we struggle to come up with any idea of how a second one of these was made, or how they'll inevitably make a third one someday. But first, we've gotta talk about Deadpool officially being announced as joining the MCU with it's third film, Drew's favorite streaming service f...
Jan 13, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 41
Absent Minded’s Super Official Highly Respected Industry Leading Only List That Truly Matters Game of the Decade Super Slam continues this week as we decide our #1 game of 2019 before talking about Sony ending production of most models of PlayStation 4 in Japan, the new projects in development at genDesign, Arkane Studios and Respawn Entertainment, and the leaked build of the cancelled Tomb Raider Anniversary game for PSP.
Jan 08, 2021•2 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 83
In this special episode of Absent Minded Podcast the crew drafts video games for their fantasy publishers on FantasyCritic.Games. It's like fantasy football but for super nerds like us! May the best publisher win!
Jan 06, 2021•45 min
Absent Minded’s Super Official Highly Respected Industry Leading Only List That Truly Matters Game of the Decade Super Slam continues this week as we decide our #1 game of 2018 before talking about our most anticipated games coming in 2021 and with Squadron 42 missing its beta window, Travis thinks this whole Star Citizen thing might be a ponzi scheme.
Jan 01, 2021•2 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 82
We've gotten through our last truly dreadful film this week with Dead Trigger, a paint-by-numbers zombie flick with every trope in the book. But who cares about that, it's after Christmas which means we get to talk about Wonder Woman 1984 and Pixar's Soul, which are much better movies. Also this week we talk about Tom Cruise ripping into crew members on the set of Mission Impossible 7 for breaking COVID-19 protocols, Netflix's announcement of a live action Yu Yu Hakusho series, and MGM offering ...
Dec 29, 2020•1 hr 18 min•Season 1Ep. 40
Absent Minded’s Super Official Highly Respected Industry Leading Only List That Truly Matters Game of the Decade Super Slam continues this week as we decide our #1 game of 2017 before wishing a fond farewell to the creator of Microsoft's DirectX, trying to figure out how Among Us managed to become the most played video game of all time, the continuing cluster fuck that is Cyberpunk 2077 and 343 Industries sunsetting the Halo series on Xbox 360.
Dec 25, 2020•2 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 81
Absent Minded’s Super Official Highly Respected Industry Leading Only List That Truly Matters Game of the Decade Super Slam continues this week as we decide our #1 game of 2016 before diving into the absolute mess that Cyberpunk 2077's launch (and unlaunch?) has been and the evolving review situation, PlayStation 5 becoming the biggest console launch of all time according to this month's NPD, and some very excited game release date announcements.
Dec 18, 2020•2 hr 30 min•Season 1Ep. 80
This is a very different episode of our show than what you'll usually hear, but one that Andrew wanted to share with our audience and one that we all felt was important. Andrew took a big step last month in his quest for self-improvement in mind and body by checking himself into New Hope Ranch rehabilitation facility for alcohol abuse, something he has struggled with for some time. He thought it was important to discuss his treatment, both as a way to decompress after those 30 days but also to p...
Dec 13, 2020•45 min
Andrew makes his triumphant return this week, which of course means the return of Absent Minded’s Super Official Highly Respected Industry Leading Only List That Truly Matters Game of the Decade Super Slam! This week we decide our #1 game of 2015 before discussing the very interesting discourse surrounding the reviews and release of Cyberpunk 2077 along with Drew and Travis' very early impressions on PC and Xbox Series X. Does the game live up to the hype or has it buckled under the weight of it...
Dec 11, 2020•2 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 79
As we roll into December and the dust begins to settle from another Black Friday, which we guess really wasn't so bad this year thanks to everyone's favorite deadly virus, the news cycle continues to slow while we move from Thanksgiving into Christmas. Which just means we have more time to talk about what we've been playing! Travis has much to say about Bugsnax and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, two single player titles that were easy enough to knock out from the already fast building "next g...
Dec 04, 2020•1 hr 53 min•Season 1Ep. 78
As we barrel towards the finish line of season one, I guess that's what we're calling it, Travis and Ethan invite Tara back to discuss Tomb Raider, the 2018 reboot starring Alicia Vikander, and it does not go over well. It's an episode of reminiscence as we talk about the early days of Adult Swim and the G4 Holiday Reunion Special before Tara explains her... unique method of binge watching television, and Ethan admits to the world that he has an irrational hatred of Conan O'Brien.As we barrel to...
Dec 01, 2020•1 hr 40 min•Season 1Ep. 39
This week Americans celebrated Thanksgiving, a national holiday that we really can't believe hasn't been cancelled by Twitter yet, but its time will surely come. Ethan and Travis do what must be done, which is talk all about how they celebrated America's favorite day of eating before diving into what's really important in people's lives: video games. The dynamic duo review Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PlayStation 5 and Travis is forced to put Watch Dogs: Legion on hold while Ubisoft works to add...
Nov 27, 2020•1 hr 55 min•Season 1Ep. 77
Absent Minded's PlayStation 5 coverage continues as we end week one with Sony's latest system and our impressions strengthen, between the system's user interface and stability and our time with its biggest launch exclusives, including the one and only Demon's Souls. The reviews are in for Bluepoint's latest remake and it appears they've knocked it out the park yet again in a truly special way. Hitman developer IO Interactive revealed their next project this week, Capcom's upcoming releases throu...
Nov 20, 2020•1 hr 45 min•Season 1Ep. 76
The day has finally arrived in which we tackle the final chapter of the incredibly lackluster saga of Resident Evil, and such a monumentally boring undertaking has required us to call in the ultimate schlock hype girl, the one and only Tara Conneally (@tallcanary), as our very first guest host. Are we all going to die down here? Let's hope not. But before that, Travis and Tara talk about digging into Apple TV+ content, we speculate on what's happening with Fantastic Beasts now that Johnny Depp h...
Nov 17, 2020•1 hr 36 min•Season 1Ep. 38
The next generation of video game consoles has officially begun this week with the launch of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, and Travis and Ethan have the freshest of impressions on Sony and Microsoft's latest hardware. We also run down the reviews of the biggest launch titles of the week before talking about the Mass Effect remaster's official announcement, Square-Enix's big financial loss with Marvel's Avengers, and Phil Spencer's time playing Elden Ring, proving that it's a real game that ...
Nov 13, 2020•2 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 75
Absent Minded’s Super Official Highly Respected Industry Leading Only List That Truly Matters Game of the Decade Super Slam continues this week as we decide our #1 game of 2014 before discussing reviews of Xbox Series X|S, a new jailbreak for Oculus Quest 2 circumventing Facebook account requirements, major network hacks at Crytek, Ubisoft and Capcom, the crazy money Activision Blizzard is making from microtransactions, PSVR headset limitations on PS5 for Hitman 3 and No Man's Sky, and more....
Nov 06, 2020•1 hr 58 min•Season 1Ep. 74
Nothing is true and everything is permitted in Assassin's Creed, a solid action flick with a stellar cast of actors that actually tried their darnedest to make a good movie. And they pretty much did, and kept authentic to boot. We say goodbye to legendary actor Sean Connery this week before discussing the latest trailer for the final Evangelion film, Netflix taking a break from Mindhunter, the return of Jon Stewart, and NBC Universal's CEO promising Peacock won't end up like Quibi.
Nov 03, 2020•1 hr 44 min•Season 1Ep. 37
Absent Minded’s Super Official Highly Respected Industry Leading Only List That Truly Matters Game of the Decade Super Slam continues this week as we decide our #1 game of 2013 before discussing the departure of Halo Infinite's project director, yet another delay for Cyberpunk 2077, AMD's recently announced Big Navi GPU lineup, the biggest announcements from Nintendo's Partner Showcase Direct, and more.
Oct 30, 2020•2 hr 34 min•Season 1Ep. 73
Absent Minded’s Super Official Highly Respected Industry Leading Only List That Truly Matters Game of the Decade Super Slam continues this week as we decide our #1 game of 2012 before discussing Facebook's Head of VR doubling down on their ridiculous account requirements for the Oculus Quest 2, Phil Spencer's thoughts on releasing Bethesda titles on PlayStation, the media apps launching day one on PlayStation 5, unskippable advertisements in NBA 2K21 and more.
Oct 23, 2020•2 hr 31 min•Season 1Ep. 72
Absent Minded’s Super Official Highly Respected Industry Leading Only List That Truly Matters Game of the Decade Super Slam officially begins this week as we decide our #1 game of 2011 before discussing the PlayStation 5 user interface reveal, how backwards compatibility will work with your PlayStation 4 games, the incoming PlayStation Store changes and how Facebook's account requirement for Oculus Quest 2 is leaving users with expensive paperweights.
Oct 16, 2020•2 hr 42 min•Season 1Ep. 71
This week Sony finally gave us a peak inside the PlayStation 5, revealing all of its secrets and giving an idea of why this thing is so darn huge! We go over all the things you need to know about this next gen behemoth before getting into the latest changes to the PlayStation trophy system, our thoughts on how Nintendo really could achieve 4K gaming with a Switch Pro, more Final Fantasy XVI news, a potential Dreamcast Mini in the future, and much more!
Oct 09, 2020•1 hr 58 min•Season 1Ep. 70
It's the return of the pretty decent video game movie this week as we watch The Angry Birds Movie! Now, I know what you're thinking, and I will say we say DECENT, okay. So relax. It's got a solid cast, some pretty good jokes and if you had to be forced to sit through this film in theaters for a small child you wouldn't have the worst time. Would it stand up to the 100s of additional viewings they'd force upon you? Probably not! COVID delay season continues as every movie gets scared after Tenet'...
Oct 07, 2020•2 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 36
Long stretches of game development involving mandatory overtime, known as crunch, are unfortunately very common in the video games industry. It's a difficult topic to discuss as in some ways it almost seems like a necessary evil while the argument for its avoidance can be made just as strongly. Is it always a result of poor planning by project leads and managers or is it just a result of the unpredictable nature of creating such massive projects? After committing to a crunch-free development cyc...
Oct 02, 2020•1 hr 50 min•Season 1Ep. 69
Microsoft dropped a megaton bomb on the games industry this week when it announced it was finalizing plans to acquire ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, complete with all of the development studios and intellectual property under them. Xbox is now your future home for Doom, The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, Dishonored, and so much more, all for the tune of just $7.5 billion USD. Wowza. The rest of the news is fairly light as you might have guessed, who wants to get o...
Sep 25, 2020•1 hr 36 min•Season 1Ep. 68
Your friendly galactic Lombax gets his big screen debut in Ratchet & Clank and we promise you he's far more interesting in his games. In its effort to distill the franchise into lowest-common-denominator children's animation the film loses most of its personality, though there are a few glimmers of what makes these characters so great among the duds. We got some awesome new trailers this week for Dune and WandaVision, confirmation of where that crazy Nick Cage Tiger King series is ending up,...
Sep 22, 2020•2 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 35
It's finally officially, the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Digital Edition is releasing this November at the competitive pricing we all hoped for, and that's just the beginning of all of the PlayStation 5 news we have this episode! Final Fantasy XVI opened up the PS5 Showcase this week and it's going to back its medieval fantasy roots, Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Demon's Souls are confirmed PS5 launch titles, we got our first glimpse at the long leaked Harry Potter RPG and we can't wait to g...
Sep 18, 2020•2 hr 26 min•Season 1Ep. 67
After having their hand forced by a leak of the system and its pricing, Microsoft finally unveiled the Xbox Series S, code-named Lockhart, that we've been talking about for nearly a year now. And it's exactly the box we thought. All of the new features and CPU grunt of the Xbox Series X, but with a GPU more targeted for 1080p and 1440p gaming. Microsoft even revealed the price for the X and S, at $499 and $299 respectively, putting Sony in an interesting position with PlayStation 5. But is it al...
Sep 12, 2020•1 hr 51 min•Season 1Ep. 66
