In true Uwe Boll fashion, the gang spends most of this episode ignoring its source material. We do eventually get around to talking about Alone in the Dark, the second worst film we've seen so far. Watch the film! - https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/alone-in-the-dark
It's awards season folks, The Game Awards hosted by Geoff Keighley are officially upon us! For the past five years the games industry has gathered together to recognize the achievements of those creating the games we all love so dearly, with the show itself becoming a bigger and bigger event. This week we go through all of the nominees and discuss our personal picks as well as who we think will take the statue in each of the biggest categories, including Game of the Year. But there's a bit of ne...
The cloud gaming market got a bit more interesting this week with the launch of Stadia's Founders Edition, Google's "console in the cloud" for the masses. Now that it's in the hands of the people and critics can give their say, it appears that much of what the company has touted is more fluff than substance. Does it work as advertised, or are there some kinks in the chain? Microsoft kicked off it's X019 fan event in London this week as well, and took the chance to slow in between a ton of game r...
That nasty virus from the first film got out into Raccoon City and all hell breaks loose! I think this Umbrella Corporation might be up to no good. Watch the film! - https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/resident-evil-2-apocalypse
One of the most highly anticipated games of this generation, from one of the greatest minds in the industry, has finally been released to the masses. Death Stranding is a title that has been shrouded in mystery throughout its development, but we can finally say that the avant-garde, genre-defining, big budget spectacle that Hideo Kojima has worked on since the exodus of much of the Metal Gear Solid development team from the bindings of Konami is, in fact, a game. The whole gang has spent many ho...
With the release of Death Stranding this week, the twilight of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One generation has officially begun. While there are big titles like The Last of Us Part II and Ghosts of Tsushima still to come, the birds are starting to sing about what comes next for PlayStation 5 and Project Scarlet. Developers are hiring new talent and big wigs are starting to let investors know what they should expect in the next couple of years. But what makes this transition any different from the ...
A bunch of college students just wanted to go to a rave and all they got was an island full of zombies. Watch the film! - https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0028QCCIW
The first two heavy hitter games of the holiday season have arrived, and neither are looking too shabby. We've got an in-depth review of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's campaign and some multiplayer impressions, as well as early thoughts on The Outer Worlds, Obsidian Entertainment's final independent release. But while these two highly anticipated titles have made it to their release date finish lines, other upcoming titles will need just a bit longer to cook. It's delay season after all, and we'...
After lots of failures, and maybe one true success, video game streaming is coming in hot in 2019. Google Stadia's launch is only a month away, and after coming to terms with how much our data caps are going to be hurting, we've got some news about the fancy wireless controller not being all it was promised to be at launch. At Microsoft, Project xCloud is officially in preview and impressions are clear: it's fine, but not a replacement for your console. With Sony's PlayStation Now already having...
Angelina Jolie punches a CGI shark in the face. Watch the film! - https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HZHOL6
While some of us feel like this last console generation only started yesterday, others can't wait for the new systems that are just around the corner. Here at Absent Minded, one thing is clear; We are ready for next gen. This week Sony was ready to give us just a little taste of what's to come with another information dump at Wired.com and confirmation that their next home console is indeed going to be known as "PlayStation 5". But before that, we've got to break some hard truths, like Google St...
People sure love their zombies, and Resident Evil is a prime example of just how much. Currently, the series is the highest-grossing video game film franchise at a healthy $1.2 billion USD worldwide, and it all started here. A deadly virus has been released in a secret underground facility and it's up to Mila Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez to keep it from spreading to the outside world. Can they do it?? I sure hope so, but then what are the other five movies going to be about... Watch the film!...
Oh, the time's, they are a-changin'. If you don't believe it, we've got some news that might change your mind. PlayStation is officially playing nice with others with it's recent cross-play platform leaving beta while simultaneously letting go of a first party studio champion. Rockstar Games has a juggernaut title making it's way to PC in record time. Bungie's biggest money maker since Halo 3 has gone free-to-play, and it's somehow better than ever. And Warner Bros. has released a DC, villain-ce...
Everyone loves a good mystery. Intrigue, suspense, twists and turns, cinnamon, frosting, graham cra... Where was I? Oh right, this week the gang puts their taste buds to the ultimate test in order to determine the flavor of this year's mystery Oreo! We also play a game of "What's the score?!" where Ethan and Andrew attempt to guess the Open Critic rating of last week's biggest game releases. And it wouldn't be an Absent Minded Podcast without the latest industry news, such as the lack of a multi...
Angelina Jolie epitomizes the 90s video game sex icon in the second film we've watched that left each of us looking forward to its sequel, instead of just leaving us with a splitting headache. This stellar cast manages to create a fun, charming, sometimes campy, but never boring, original story surrounding gaming's favorite tomb raider. Watch the film! - https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HZGBLA (or buy the 4K Blu-ray, it looks fantastic)
We've got one double stuffed episode for you all this week. The news is thick, since we recorded two days later than usual so that we could talk all about PlayStation's third State of Play showcase that streamed on Tuesday, September 24th. The big dog of this one? A new The Last of Us Part II trailer and a release date, but that was just the icing on an otherwise very satisfying cake. But it's not all news, oh no! Travis decided to dust off the ol' Nintendo Switch and brings us a review of The L...
Another week goes by, and with it, another tale involving GameStop and the company's ongoing battle for relevancy and survival. Though this weeks news leans towards the bad side, it's not without a silver lining. Before that however, we open the episode with an ongoing segment where Andrew, Ethan and Travis plot out a dream lineup of launch titles for the next generation of PlayStation and Xbox, with help from you! And of course, we've gotta talk about Ikumi Nakamura's surprise departure from Ta...
9/9/99, a day that will forever be remembered for not only being such a cool date, but also for being the release date of Sega's final home console, the Dreamcast, in the United States. This revolutionary console paved the way for all the hardware that followed, packing in many features and ideas that would be iterated on for many generations to come. But before we celebrate its success and deride its failures, Andrew and Travis give their full review of Control, talk about Cyberpunk 2077's newl...
"I can't stand Wing Commander. I can't watch one scene of that movie... I read the script and loved it. So did my buddy Matthew Lillard. We both got the parts. We went on location and they said, 'Here's the new script.' It was a piece of shit." ~ Freddie Prinze, Jr. Watch the film! - https://smile.amazon.com/Wing-Commander-Freddie-Prinze-Jr/dp/6305475822
This is a week full of impressions. It is the beginning of Fall after all! And that means games are going to start pouring out of the faucet at an unfathomable rate until we're all drowned in the greatness of all we do and don't play. This week, Drew and Travis share their early impressions of Remedy's paranormal sci-fi third person joint, Control, and Ethan gives us the lay of the land for World of Warcraft: Classic. But other than new games, we've got a ton of news! Such as CD Projekt Red anno...
D23 Expo, Disney's fan event they hold every two years, was just last week, during which we got a ton of news about what's around the corner for their Marvel and Star Wars properties. Of course, it was all just a bit awkward, with Sony announcing days before that Tom Holland's Spider-Man would no longer be appearing in MCU films. Bummer! We crawl through the webbing of this crazy story as well as give our impressions on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's recent alpha test, the next round of layoffs ...
Travis had one birthday request: for the gang to watch Batman v Superman together, with a belly full of Japanese BBQ and plenty of beer to loosen up Andrew for the three hour long torture session he was about to endure. While pretty unconventional, and quite unlike the comic book movie formula that Marvel has conditioned us all to love, BvS uses every second of it's 182 minute runtime to unabashedly tell the story Zack Snyder set out to create. The score is impactful, the imagery stunning at tim...
What do The Legend of Zelda, PUBG, Google Stadia, and Batman all have in common? Why, they're all mentioned in this week's episode! We go over everything from the new Rocko's Modern Life and Invader Zim specials on Netflix to the new game releases and updates coming to your hard drive by the time you hear this show. What's going on over at BioWare? What does Hello Games have in store for No Man's Sky? What major studio acquisition did Sony just make?! Join us for the answers to all of these ques...
What do you get when you combine basic filmmaking competence with a respect for source material and an enormous budget? A pretty good video game movie! We skip ahead to 2019 to talk about the newest release in our list of films and the first ever live-action Pokémon film, Detective Pikachu. If you love the games, you're in for a good time full of surprises and fun cameos, and if you're not, well... Ryan Reynolds is funny? Watch the film! - https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VCVGG5W...
Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Prime Video, HBO MAX, CBS All Access, oh my god there's so many streaming services these days. Isn't it all getting to be a little much? Travis seems to think so, even if it's still better than paying $200 a month for cable. But how much longer can it last? Are we headed towards a dark streaming future that costs as much as before we cut the cord? Who knows, but we've got thoughts on it! What we do know is all about this weeks industry news, like Rockstar bumping game tes...
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is a lesson in how to completely ruin the good will of an unexpected cash cow. Here we have a total misunderstanding of what made the previous film so fun, cutting the little bit of connective tissue and most of the campy fun and filling it with more PUNCHES! More BAD GUYS! More SPECIAL EFFECTS! And to top it off, remarkably poor writing, cinematography and direction. While we weren't quite as bored watching it as the cast was with performing in it, it was a close one...
Ah, the PlayStation 4. That sweet beacon of happiness in nearly every gamer's entertainment center that sparks joy, inspiration, and wonder. Why, these days PlayStation is almost ubiquitous with gaming itself. And it's easy to see why, with the recent announcement that PS4 has crossed a staggering 100 million units shipped, reaching that milestone faster than any other gaming console that has come before it. But it's not all sunshine and rainbows this episode, as news broke this past week of a m...
Our film this week needs no introduction, just reading the name is enough to stick the game's classic theme song into your head. Critically mixed at the time of its release but a box office smash regardless, Mortal Kombat has become the quintessential video game film of the era and a cult classic in its own right. We dig it. Watch the film! - https://smile.amazon.com/Mortal-Kombat-Christopher-Lambert/dp/B0093Q99HW/
Yet again we are down one host this week, so Ethan and Travis decide to take stock of what's important in life: video games! Do we regret not becoming professional Fortnite players? Maybe. Are we worried about our impending Doom? Possibly. One thing we don't regret however, is owning PlayStation hardware, because the numbers don't lie: Sony is killing it. What does all of this mean? There's only one way to find out, and that's by listening to this week's episode!
This week the gang had an absolutely terrible time watching the first financially successful video game film, Street Fighter, starring a cocaine-fueled Jean-Claude Van Damme and a sadly dying Raúl Juliá, attempting to make sense of a script with literal pages torn out of it to keep shooting on schedule and under budget. Watch the film on Amazon Prime with Starz! - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001SV5X0C
