Kirk and Jason briefly gush about the new Wonder Woman emulator Assassin's Creed Odyssey before bringing on Stephen Totilo for a lengthy chat about microtransactions (21:43). The three talk about how Assassin's Creed Odyssey's microtransactions work, whether they affect the game, whether their sheer existence plants a seed of skepticism inside the player's head, the "poisoning the well" argument, how video games have always been after your money, whether games should still cost $60, and much, mu...
Oct 11, 2018•1 hr 38 min
Jason's back from his honeymoon and there's lots to discuss, starting with the Splitscreen boys' first impressions of the new open-world game Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Then, Kirk and Jason dive into this week's news (34:36) on a leaked Harry Potter game, Google's Project Stream, and much more. Finally, it's time for a Spider-Man spoilercast (56:27), getting into the strengths and weaknesses of the story, MJ and Peter's relationship, and what Kirk and Jason want to see from Spider-Man 2. LINKS: "...
Oct 04, 2018•1 hr 30 min
Kirk and Maddy start off by talking about the biggest news of the last week: the sudden closure of Telltale Games, a move that left more than 200 game developers out of work with no severance. (Well REALLY, they start out by talking about comically huge mouse pads, if we're being totally accurate.) After talking about the Telltale debacle, they discuss Sony finally opening up the PS4 to cross-play with other consoles, how a Shadow of the Tomb Raider fan found an unintended post-credits cutscene ...
Sep 27, 2018•1 hr 20 min
Kotaku's Stephen Totilo finally had a chance to play Rockstar's upcoming wild west open-worlder Red Dead Redemption 2. For this bonus episode, he sat down with Kirk and Maddy to share his impressions of the game and answer questions about rusted guns, horse balls, and causin' a ruckus on the open prairie. LINKS: Stephen's full written preview of Red Dead Redemption 2 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Sep 21, 2018•23 min
Jason's out of town, so Kotaku editor Maddy Myers joins Kirk to fill in as co-host. First up they talk about Nintendo's new Switch online service, the just-announced PlayStation Classic, how the maniacs who beat Destiny 2's new raid unlocked new stuff for everyone, and how streamers are reacting after someone shot a BB gun through the window of a popular PUBG personality. Then Kotaku EIC Stephen Totilo joins (33:33) to talk about Shadow of the Tomb Raider, a good game that's been unfortunately o...
Sep 20, 2018•1 hr 20 min
First, Kirk and Jason talk some more about Destiny 2's Forsaken expansion, addressing the question "how much should creators listen to fan feedback?" and talking about the brilliant new Dreaming City location. Then Kirk sits down with video producer Lindsay Ellis to talk about Disney, Star Wars, fascism, and YouTube. Jason rejoins the show to cap things off with more Spider-Man love, which Kirk finally acknowledges is as good as Jason said it was.Lindsay Ellis's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/...
Sep 13, 2018•1 hr 46 min
Kirk and Jason talk about web slinging and swinging in Spider-Man, the excellent new PS4 game, then dive into Destiny 2's new Forsaken expansion, talking about the new systems, the story, and the Destiny treadmill that never ends. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Sep 06, 2018•1 hr 12 min
Kirk's back from vacation and raring to talk about games. What kinds of games? VIDEO games, baby! He and Jason start off discussing what they've been playing, covering God of War's New Game+, Prey: Mooncrash, Destiny 2, The Messenger, and Dragon Quest XI. Then they talk a bit about the glut of indie games en route to the Switch and share some thoughts on that super-slick Cyberpunk 2077 E3 gameplay demo, which CD Projekt Red finally released to the public this week. After that, Kirk has a chat wi...
Aug 30, 2018•1 hr 41 min
Jason brings on Square Enix's Koji Fox, who's been at the company since 2003 and currently heads up translation on Final Fantasy XIV. They talk about what it was like to join Square on the day it became Square Enix, how Final Fantasy XIV's overhaul affected the staff, and what it's been like to write for a story that never ends. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Aug 23, 2018•45 min
Jason and Kirk talk CPU cooling and Diablo 3 on Switch before diving into Dead Cells and the appeal (or lack of appeal) of video game grind in games like Destiny. Then, Jason talks to Arkane co-founder and Prey director Raphael Colantonio (41:03) about why he left the company he helped start, what he dislikes about big-budget gaming, and why Prey's final act was so different than the rest of the game. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19....
Aug 16, 2018•1 hr 33 min
Kotaku editor Maddy Myers joins Kirk and Jason to talk about IGN plagiarism, deleting old tweets, and what makes the perfect Metroidvania. Also: EVO, Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, and Better Call Saul! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Aug 09, 2018•1 hr 15 min
Kirk and Jason crack open the mailbag to answer some of YOUR questions about RPGs as a service, how companies can afford to delay games, Microsoft potentially making an Xbox PC, and much more. As always, you can send questions to [email protected]. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Aug 02, 2018•1 hr 8 min
Journalist and producer Alanah Pearce, formerly of IGN, joins Kirk and Jason to talk about No Man's Sky's game-changing new update, a recent Twitter shitstorm involving the director of Guardians of the Galaxy, and what makes for a perfect Switch game. Plus: D&D and Destiny 2! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jul 26, 2018•1 hr 17 min
Kirk returns from vacation and there's a whole lot to discuss, including Jason's first time DMing in Dungeons & Dragons, more on Octopath Traveler, and the ArenaNet debacle that left two people out of jobs. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jul 19, 2018•1 hr 7 min
Actor Nathan Fillion joins Jason to talk about his new Uncharted fan film, why he's not playing Cayde-6 in Destiny 2 this year, and why he had to stop playing Uncharted 2. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jul 16, 2018•14 min
Kirk's off this week, so Jason brings on Kotaku's Tim Rogers to talk about the structure and story of Octopath Traveler. Short version: The combat system is fantastic, and it looks and sounds gorgeous, but everything else... eh. Then Jason and Tim geek out about The Sopranos for a while. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jul 12, 2018•59 min
Happy Independence Day! Kirk and Jason talk about shoveling hot dogs into your mouth, and also other things (like GDQ, the Cyberpunk E3 audio leak, Google Yeti, Hollow Knight, and the appeal of difficult games). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jul 05, 2018•1 hr 5 min
Jason and Kirk talk about weddings, PS4 cross-play failures, and big lawsuits, then spend a very long time raving about Hollow Knight, an astounding video game that you should play right now. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jun 28, 2018•1 hr
Jason returns from E3 with hands-on impressions about a ton of games, including Anthem, Spider-Man, Kingdom Hearts III, and many more. Then he and Kirk talk about a ton MORE games, including Hollow Knight, Yoku's Island express, and a whole lot of Dark Souls. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jun 21, 2018•1 hr 9 min
While at E3, Jason speaks with Yakuza localization producer Scott Strichart about the art and history of video game localization, how they approach the process with Yakuza games, and how it's been watching the long-running series finally start catching on in the mainstream. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jun 16, 2018•20 min
At E3 in Los Angeles, Jason sits down with CD Projekt Red co-founder/co-CEO Marcin Iwiński to talk about the studio-wide effort to finish their much-buzzed-about RPG Cyberpunk 2077. They also talk about workplace crunch and game development labor issues, video game piracy, and a bunch of other things. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jun 15, 2018•36 min
At E3 2018, Jason sat down for an entertaining conversation with game design legend Warren Spector (Deus Ex, Ultima Underworld, System Shock) about his storied career in video games, his wildest game design idea, and his return to immersive sims with Underworld Ascendant and System Shock 3. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jun 15, 2018•32 min
Jason sits down with with Kotaku senior reporter (and resident Smash Bros. expert) Cecilia D'Anastasio to discuss their thoughts after playing the E3 demo of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jun 14, 2018•17 min
Still at E3 in Los Angeles, Jason sat down with CD Projekt Red quest designer Patrick Mills to talk about his work on the studio's impressive-looking RPG Cyberpunk 2077. Kirk, meanwhile, sat at home in Portland mixing and editing podcasts while wishing, ever so faintly, that he'd gotten to see the the game's press demo . See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Jun 14, 2018•23 min
At E3 in Los Angeles, Jason linked up with Sea of Thieves executive producer Joe Neate to talk about the challenges of working on a service game, the expansions that are in the works, and Neate's take on the now-infamous player who became the game's first "Pirate Legend." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jun 13, 2018•24 min
At E3 in Los Angeles, Jason sits down with former id general manager Garrett Young to talk about making 2016's Doom, what it was like working at id, and game development crunch. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jun 13, 2018•38 min
Jason and Kirk link up one more time to talk about Sony and Nintendo's E3 2018 showings. They also talk a bit about the E3 press conferences overall, and what to make of the fact that there were fewer major surprises this year than in recent times. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jun 12, 2018•30 min
Kirk and Jason are back to talk about more E3 press conferences. They start with Bethesda's Fallout-centric show, then move to Square Enix's disappointing nothingburger, before ending on Ubisoft's dancing panda-bear parade. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jun 12, 2018•29 min
Jason and Kirk kick off E3 2018 by discussing the opening press conferences from EA and Microsoft. Cyberpunk! Dying Light 2! Gears of War 5! A new ninja game from the people who make Dark Souls! There's so much to talk about. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jun 11, 2018•34 min
It's time again for E3, that wonderful time of year full of excitement and trailers for games that will never come out. What will we see this year? Kirk and Jason go through each conference one by one: EA, Microsoft, Bethesda, Square Enix, Ubisoft, Sony, and Nintendo, to talk about their hopes, their expectations, and their wildest predictions. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jun 07, 2018•1 hr 28 min
