Hitman: Agent 47 had lots of pew pew guns and explosions that kept our attention but will surely be completely gone from our memories by the time we're done writing this episode description. It's fine, okay, there's just not much to say. I expected better from you Zachary Quinto! The news is light this week, so get ready to listen to the gang talk all about the premieres of HBO Max's Raised by Wolves and Amazon's The Boys season 2, more Lovecraft Country and Bill & Ted Face the Music.
Sep 08, 2020•1 hr 42 min•Season 1Ep. 34
Video games. When you read those two words, if Mario doesn't pop into your mind first, he's probably not too far behind. The Italian plumber in a red shirt and blue overalls is nearly synonymous with the entertainment medium we all love so dearly, and our boy is celebrating 35 years of running, jumping, and ground pounding in a big way. In a Super Mario Bros Anniversary Direct today, Nintendo announced a host of new and old games coming to Switch, some we had a pretty good idea about already, an...
Sep 04, 2020•1 hr 53 min•Season 1Ep. 65
Sony began sending emails this week to PlayStation players deemed to have been worthy of the chance to pre-order a PlayStation 5 direct from the source, presumably in an effort to curb scalping and get more units into the hands of people that actually want them. But it's also a sign of just how limited production of the system may be, and how hard it may be to get one during its holiday season launch. DC Fandome went down last week and while much of the event focused on various movie and televis...
Aug 28, 2020•1 hr 56 min•Season 1Ep. 64
Fast and Furious Presents: Need for Speed... it's not actually called that but it probably would have made more money if it had been! This movie has a hell of a cast made up of Aaron Paul, Dominic Cooper, Imogeen Poots, Rami Malek, Michael Keaton, I mean, do we have to say more? You're sold on this already, aren't you?! We were and damn, this was actually a really fun watch full of amazing practical effects with some campy dialogue and a silly story but hey, it's video games baby! There's a lot ...
Aug 25, 2020•2 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 33
Apple and Epic's war of attrition over the money spent on Fortnite v-bucks continues this week and Apple isn't afraid to burn down all the bridges as it announces that all of Epic's development accounts will be shut out from iOS and Mac on August 28th, including those operated by third party developers. Does your game run on Unreal Engine? Apple says you're just as at fault as Epic. Shady tactics and lawsuits between mega corporations aside... oh no, we're not done there just yet! Facebook annou...
Aug 21, 2020•1 hr 33 min•Season 1Ep. 63
With Microsoft's announcement this week that Xbox Series X would launch in November without Halo Infinite, which is delayed into 2021, yet another cloud of uncertainty appears as the company moves to launch its next generation console without a flagship first party game. What looked like a sleeping dragon at the beginning of the year now seems like something lesser, and it remains to be seen if Team Green repeats the mistakes of the launch of the Xbox One. Epic Games decided to go toe-to-toe wit...
Aug 14, 2020•1 hr 38 min•Season 1Ep. 62
It's time for Silent Hill: Revelation! Don't worry if you can't remember all of the details of the previous Silent Hill film, the writers didn't either! Nearly every major plot point is ignored this go around so feel free to sit back, relax, and not remember anything because nothing matters. Also! We talk about Disney's Mulan going to digital rental instead of the silver screen in the US, not one but two John Wick films coming down the pipe, the return of your favorite 90s cartoons to Hulu, and ...
Aug 11, 2020•1 hr 32 min•Season 1Ep. 32
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is the feel good hit of the summer on PS4 and PC, with millions of players (including us!) getting in on the game show action. We talk all about the goofy times we've had so far with this one, as well as some final thoughts on Ghost of Tsushima with Drew back in the game this week. There's a ton of news to go over too, with Halo: Infinite announcing it's multiplayer mode would be free-to-play, the announcement of Pikmin 3 Deluxe for Switch, Konami releasing some awfu...
Aug 07, 2020•2 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 61
Ghost of Tsushima released two weeks ago to critical and audience acclaim and Sucker Punch has been rewarded in kind as the title became the fastest selling original IP for PlayStation selling over 2.4 million units in just three days. Surprisingly though, the release is making some of the biggest waves in the country its story is based in, Japan, where it's doing unusually well among gamers that tend to spend more time on mobile devices than home consoles. Even esteemed Yakuza series director T...
Jul 31, 2020•1 hr 46 min•Season 1Ep. 60
Alice is back... again... again. And this time it's terrible. Really, truly awful. It doesn't make any sense anymore, and that's with the understanding that it never really made any sense before. But it's so bad now. And we have one more to go. Just end it already. Paul W.S. Anderson you should be ashamed of yourself. Travis watched way too much since last episode and talks all about it, Ethan tries his best to describe the weird anime he's watching, and we've got more and more production delays...
Jul 28, 2020•1 hr 44 min•Season 1Ep. 31
Has anyone actually gotten into contact with Microsoft to let them know that they're launching a next generation console this year? The Xbox Games Showcase has come and gone, leaving pangs of what could have been, reopening wounds only recently shut after their last event in May. Outside of a "this is fine" reveal of Halo Infinite (that we found out after recording wasn't even running on Series X, but a PC!), a deeper peak at The Medium, an exciting looking DLC for The Outer Worlds, and a super ...
Jul 24, 2020•2 hr 20 min•Season 1Ep. 59
The Last of Us Part II was easily one of the most highly anticipated games of this generation for many, and will likely go down as the highest selling PlayStation 4 exclusive as this console cycle draws to a close. It's a fitting game for our very first spoilercast. A true high water mark for the medium, the game is top-tier in terms of level and sound design, production quality, animation, and gameplay, married with a story that asks more of you than your standard AAA fare. However, the game is...
Jul 21, 2020•1 hr 53 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Change is afoot at Ubisoft as three high level executives resign from the company amid a host of sexual harassment allegations, including Chief Creative Officer Serge Hascoet, the man behind the formulaic open-world games the company has produced for nearly a decade. The same week Ubisoft streamed its Ubisoft Forward event, the first of many, detailing Watch Dogs: Legion and Assassin's Creed Valhalla, as well as announcing Far Cry 6 with a gorgeous cinematic trailer. Microsoft confirmed that the...
Jul 17, 2020•2 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 58
Alice is back with a clone army and superpowers, finally ready to take down the evil Umbrella Corporation. Until she's not, because ya boi Wesker doesn't play around! Resident Evil: Afterlife finally sets up the shark and jumps right the hell over it, and it's a lot of fun. Clone High is getting a revival at MTV Studios, say whaaaaaaat? Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts of the upcoming live-action Metal Gear Solid wants to bring back Solid Snake voice actor David Hayter for an animated series, Tron 3...
Jul 14, 2020•1 hr 33 min•Season 1Ep. 30
Evo Online has been cancelled this week following the removal of Evo's CEO after numerous allegations of sexual misconduct, allegations that are only the latest in a massive number of victims coming forward within the fighting game community. Microsoft is apparently in talks to acquire Warner Bros. gaming division, including studios like Rocksteady and NetherRealm. Ubisoft and Assassin's Creed leaks, name a more iconic duo! And of course, we talk about The Last of Us Part 2 again this week as Et...
Jul 10, 2020•1 hr 38 min•Season 1Ep. 57
After years of speculation on when the shoe would drop, inflation may well have finally caught up with our industry as Take Two announces NBA 2K21 as the first next generation title to cost $70 for entry instead of the $60 we've all been paying for new games since 2005. Is the rising bill of sale justified or are publishers just making clear how much we've been paying for games already? Iron Man VR releases this week and reviews say it's... about what we all could have expected from a super hero...
Jul 03, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 56
Jake Gyllenhaal signs up to make some of that sweet, sweet Disney money as Dastan, a street kid turned prince on a quest to protect a legendary dagger with time altering powers with the help of a vengeful princess. It's basically Pirates of the Carribean in the desert. You'll like it! AMC details its totally cool, totally safe plans for reopening its theaters next month, HBO Max gives us just a taste of the Justice League Snyder cut in a brand new clip, Tenet gets pushed back again, and unexpect...
Jun 30, 2020•1 hr 37 min•Season 1Ep. 29
This episode includes a 100% SPOILER FREE discussion of The Last of Us Part 2! Do not be scared to listen to this episode if you have not finished the game, at the time of recording Travis and Andrew had not either. We discuss the gameplay mechanics, design, and other high level thoughts on the game without delving into story details or structure in any way. Consider this our unfinished review! But! Aside from the biggest game of the generation finally being in our hands, there's big news to dis...
Jun 26, 2020•1 hr 40 min•Season 1Ep. 55
As Sony and Microsoft go toe to toe with each other in the form of next gen hype with console and game reveals, it looks like Xbox is setting up for a much bigger event than their 3rd party showcase that left us all wanting more. The rumors were kicked up a notch this week when a trusted industry leaker described the event as a "night of mic drops" and even hinted that the fabled Lockhart unit, already named by the gaming community as Xbox Series S, would finally be revealed. While this little c...
Jun 19, 2020•1 hr 25 min•Season 1Ep. 54
Now, I know what you're thinking. No, that unfortunately is not Steven Seagal in the cover art for this episode. But don't worry, the movie we watched week is just as mediocre if it had been. Tekken follows Jin, a rebellious teenager fighting to survive in the slums of a world controlled by massive corporations that pit fighters against each other in the King of Iron Fist Tournament for a chance at a life of fame, wealth and leisure. Ethan and Travis discuss the powerful Netflix documentary "13t...
Jun 16, 2020•1 hr 34 min•Season 1Ep. 28
This week, the time has finally come for Sony to unveil its own vision of the next generation of gaming in stunning fashion with a 75-minute presentation of software coming to PlayStation 5. Not only is every game in the showcase coming to next gen, but every single one of them was shown running on PlayStation 5 hardware in realtime. We catalog and run down each of the 26 titles shown, and we of course discuss the interesting look of the hardware itself. Before that, Travis has some truth to sha...
Jun 12, 2020•2 hr 50 min•Season 1Ep. 53
This week marks our first franchise reboot with Hollywood's second attempt at a Street Fighter film, and it's not as bad as we thought it was going to be. Familiar faces don't make up for bad casting, but the action is fun and the plot is just dull enough to not sting us while we're watching. There's lots to talk about besides the film this week though as Disney+ finally fixes The Simpsons when Fox wouldn't, The CW's Arrowverse faces its first major recast with the departure of Ruby Rose from Ba...
Jun 02, 2020•2 hr•Season 1Ep. 27
This week Absent Minded hit a milestone of one whole ass year of podcasts. Thank you everyone who's listening, we hope you've enjoyed the show as much as we've enjoyed making it. This week marks another slow one for news, so the crew takes some extra time to talk about what's going on in our lives, and what we've been playing, before deep diving into the latest Last of Us Part II State of Play from PlayStation (spoiler free!), a host of cancelled games from Arkane Studios revealed in Noclip's re...
May 29, 2020•2 hr 32 min•Season 1Ep. 52
We've reached another calm before the storm in the industry this week, which means there's barely any news worth talking about! So instead of our usual discussions the gang talked all about what we think, and what we hope, we'll see in Sony's upcoming PlayStation 5 game showcase currently rumored for June. While studios like Naughty Dog and Sucker Punch plan to release their final PS4 games in the coming weeks, other studios like Guerilla Games and Insomniac may just be ready to show off what th...
May 22, 2020•1 hr 41 min•Season 1Ep. 51
Mark Wahlberg dons the black trench-coat and acts kinda sad in order to take on the role of Max Payne, and while the writing is pretty drab we can't deny there's some awesome action and VFX that made its way into this one. Travis picked up a new guilty pleasure this week as he tells the gang all about the Japanese reality TV series Terrace House, Ethan and Drew dive into Rick and Morty 2.0, er... I mean, Solar Opposites on Hulu, and Andrew finally starts up Chernobyl on HBO.
May 19, 2020•1 hr 28 min•Season 1Ep. 26
Sony's latest State of Play showcase was devoted entirely Ghost of Tsushima this week, with a 19-minute video detailing the upcoming open-world samurai adventure from Sucker Punch, and it's shaping up to be one incredible swan song to the PlayStation 4 generation. Epic Games unveiled the latest iteration of its well-known Unreal Engine and in the process gave us a real taste of what we can expect from next generation games and man, does it taste sweet. We also had a host of new game announcement...
May 15, 2020•1 hr 39 min•Season 1Ep. 50
Microsoft finally kicks off their first showcase of what next generation gaming is going to be with a whimper instead of a bang with an underwhelming line-up of third party games topped off with a gameplay premiere for Assassin's Creed Valhalla that... didn't have any gameplay? Some people at Nintendo are mighty furious right now as the company faces another major leak of confidential documents and intellectual property of an unprecedented scale, DOOM Eternal's executive producer wants to clear ...
May 08, 2020•1 hr 48 min•Season 1Ep. 49
At this point you're either in or you're out with Uwe Boll. I think we're all out. Thank god all that is left is Rampage. I truly feel my soul leaving my body piece by piece each time we watch one of these movies. I'm being forced to do this against my will at this point. This is me blinking twice. Please send help. Don't let them make me watch another Uwe Boll film. In other news, Trolls: World Tour's straight-to-digital release was so successful that Universal's CEO wants to do this for every ...
May 05, 2020•1 hr 44 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Ubisoft finally unveils the next Assassin's Creed entry, Valhalla, and Ethan and Travis are super ready to get their viking on. The Last of Us Part II suffered massive leaks and that sucks in a big way. Horizon: Zero Dawn's follow-up might feature co-op, 2K says no WWE 2K this year but replaces it with something... goofier, Nintendo explains how 160,000 of their online accounts were compromised, Bloodborne is finally running at 60fps, kinda, and Drew gets a little weird while experiencing The St...
May 01, 2020•2 hr 26 min•Season 1Ep. 48
Video games might be the safest industry you can be in during our current global situation. Many jobs have transitioned to a work-from-home environment quite seamlessly, and while other product and service providers have had to find new ways to get into the hands of their customers, digital distribution of software has become easier than ever. So it seems kind of obvious that video game hardware and software would be seeing record sales in a time where people just want a way to take their mind o...
Apr 24, 2020•1 hr 20 min•Season 1Ep. 47
