250 is a big number. It’s a lot of episodes. It represents somewhere in the vicinity of 750 hours of podcast recording, better known as one full month’s worth of time. And for the occasion, we are revisiting one of our oldest topics: Our Top 10 Favorite Games of All Time. We originally did this topic for episodes 55, 56, and 57 of the podcast, back in 2013, before the launch of the PS4 and one of the most rewarding periods in video game history. Five years later, Sean and Jonathan have completel...
Aug 13, 2018•2 hr 16 min•Ep. 262
2018 marks the 5-year anniversary of Naughty Dog’s masterpiece The Last of Us, and with Part II on the horizon and having made a big splash at E3 this summer, we thought now was the perfect time to look back on the game that closed out the previous console generation, but in many ways presaged the major creative trends of this one. Alongside guest Thomas Lack, Sean and Jonathan go in depth reevaluating the game after a recent re-play, considering how it has aged, where it transcends its time and...
Aug 06, 2018•2 hr•Ep. 261
We dive deep into one of Hollywood’s best and most interesting modern franchises this week with the Mission: Impossible series. The latest in the Tom Cruise action series, Christopher McQuarrie’s Fallout, is out this week, and we gush enthusiastically over its greatness at length. But as Sean recently went through the first five films for the first time, we also talk about those as well, setting the context for a series that has been around for over two decades and still has enough gas in the ta...
Jul 30, 2018•2 hr 57 min•Ep. 264
What looked like it might have been a quiet week for the podcast turned out to be a very busy one, as a surprisingly eventful Comic-Con brought big news and reveals for Doctor Who, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and the wildly schizophrenic state of DC’s film and TV slate, ranging from the awesomeness of getting Batman The Animated Series on Blu-ray to the unintentional hilarity of the awful Titans trailer. We cover all of that in more, and also dive into the very complicated news about Disney’s firin...
Jul 23, 2018•3 hr 9 min•Ep. 260
This week, one of our biggest projects of 2018 comes to a close as we complete our journey through the original six Star Wars films with Episode VI – Return of the Jedi. Easily among the most iconic pieces of mainstream Hollywood blockbuster history, Return of the Jedi is a fascinating experience to watch and discuss in this context, as it represents some of the best and some of the worst Star Wars has to offer, in perhaps the most complicated package we’ve yet broken down in this series. We giv...
Jul 16, 2018•3 hr 49 min•Ep. 259
Marvel’s third film of the year arrived this week with Ant-Man & The Wasp, an imperfect and slight film that is nevertheless an absurd amount of fun. We give it our traditional in-depth treatment, but before that, Sean pays homage to two recently deceased creative giants who have had a big influence on him – Spider-Man creator and renowned comics artist Steve Ditko, and science-fiction giant Harlan Ellison – and Jonathan’s brother Thomas joins us for another discussion about Persona 3 Dancin...
Jul 10, 2018•1 hr 58 min•Ep. 258
It’s a good-old fashioned grab-bag this week, as we cover a week’s worth of news – including Doctor Who getting a new composer, Halo coming to TV, and Sony’s continued refusal to play nice with others – and discuss the strange grab-bag of old and new games we’ve been diving into to escape the dumpster fire that is America in 2018. We’ve both been replaying The Last of Us, and find ourselves more impressed by it than ever, while Jonathan has been playing Mario Tennis Aces and the Donkey Kong Adve...
Jul 02, 2018•2 hr 46 min•Ep. 257
This week, we return to the world of Star Wars in our ongoing series of in-depth retrospectives on the original six films, this time arriving at the best and most iconic Episode of them all: The Empire Strikes Back, a sequel that not only defined much of what we now think of as Star Wars, but created a sequel template that countless Hollywood franchises have since followed. For as widely appreciated and discussed as the film is, there is still a lot to learn from and discover about this great mo...
Jun 25, 2018•2 hr 55 min•Ep. 256
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey turns 50 this year, and in celebration, Warner Bros has been touring a brand new 70mm print of the classic film around the United States, which arrived here in Denver last week. It’s a marvelous presentation of a masterful film, and we thought we’d take the opportunity to dive deep with one of the greatest films ever made, in one of the most enjoyable and engaging movie discussions we’ve ever had on the podcast. Jonathan also reviews Incredibles 2 and the ...
Jun 20, 2018•3 hr 15 min•Ep. 255
The third day of E3 2018 shows brought us Nintendo’s showcase, which was almost entirely focused on the reveal of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for Nintendo Switch. The game looks like it will deliver the goods and then some – but did the show need to spend over 25 minutes diving into such extreme minutiae? We answer this question and any more as we consider Nintendo’s offerings, before diving into some final thoughts on everything we’ve seen over the past few days. We rank everybody’s shows, list ...
Jun 13, 2018•2 hr 34 min•Ep. 254
Day 2 of E3 2018 brought us big showcases from Sony and Ubisoft, and a completely baffling non-event from Square Enix, and we recap and analyze all of it on today’s show. We dive deep with the big looks at Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Beyond Good and Evil 2, Kingdom Hearts 3, The Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding, Spider-Man, and much more, celebrate Ubisoft’s awesome dancing panda, reflect on the unconventional structure of Sony’s show, and try to figure out what the hell happ...
Jun 12, 2018•2 hr 35 min•Ep. 253
It’s that time of the year again: E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, has kicked off in Los Angeles, and we’re doing daily podcasts this week to catch up on all the news, announcements, gaffes, demos, and reveals from each of the major press conferences. This weekend saw EA, Microsoft, and Bethesda each take their turn at bat, and they’re the focus of our Day 1 podcast. EA saw our first in-depth look at Bioware’s Anthem, Microsoft demonstrated future investment in the Xbox brand and showed of...
Jun 11, 2018•3 hr 30 min•Ep. 252
With E3 2018 just around the corner, we check in on what we’re expecting from all the major players – Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, EA, Ubisoft, and Bethesda – before next week’s big show. This has been one of the leakiest E3’s ever, but there’s a lot left to speculate about in what seems like it’s going to be an eventful convention. We also review the new Persona Dancing games from Japan – Persona 3 Dancing Moon Night and Persona 5 Dancing Star Night – in greater depth, gushing over all the best s...
Jun 04, 2018•3 hr 25 min•Ep. 251
After just 5 months, Star Wars is back in theaters with Ron Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, and we have complicated feelings about it! We both like the film to varying degrees, but what both its content and tepid box-office performance say about the current state and confusing future of the franchise gives us an awful lot to talk about. We also discuss the Japanese releases of Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night and Persona 5: Dancing Star Night, the latest spin-off rhythm games from our favorite fr...
May 29, 2018•3 hr 24 min•Ep. 250
This month, we reach the end of our journey through Doctor Who history – for now, at least – by diving into the audio adventures of the series’ least well-known but paradoxically most prolific Doctor: Paul McGann, the 8th Doctor, who debuted in a poorly-received TV film in 1996, but went on to star in a broad swath on ancillary material up to and beyond the show’s return to BBC in 2005. For this episode, we discuss one of the 8th Doctor’s earliest adventures, the 2002 Big Finish audio drama “The...
May 24, 2018•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 249
This week, we got another major superhero film in Deadpool 2, a surprisingly excellent sequel that is funnier, zanier, and weirdly more heartfelt than the first film, fueled by great performances and excellent direction from David Leitch. We talk about the film in depth, and before that, cover a few recent pieces of news, including a spate of E3 leaks and rumors like Nintendo’s strange potential Pokemon project, while Jonathan gives first impressions on Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux ...
May 22, 2018•1 hr 56 min•Ep. 248
This week, we return to a galaxy far, far away for our next in-depth Star Wars discussion, and after going through all three prequels in previous episodes, we finally arrive at the film that started it all: Star Wars, also known as Episode IV: A New Hope. Unlike the prequels, this film neither demands nor requires a critical reevaluation – it’s great, it’s always been great, and most people who have ever seen a movie agree with that – but there are still plenty of avenues to follow in discussing...
May 14, 2018•2 hr 54 min•Ep. 247
After giving general spoiler-free impressions last week, we dive deep with the new God of War, discussing the story, characters, themes, and gameplay in a wide-ranging discussion that reveals just how much this game has to offer, intellectually, emotionally, and as a major technical achievement. Jonathan also talks about his recent experiences playing through all of the Donkey Kong Country games, from the Super NES games by Rare to Retro Studio’s 2010 reboot, in anticipation of this week’s relea...
May 07, 2018•2 hr 47 min•Ep. 246
Marvel’s biggest movie yet has landed in theaters, and we have a lot to say about the surprisingly great Avengers: Infinity War, a movie that has no right working, and yet somehow works amazingly well on so many levels. The biggest film event of the year would be enough to fill one podcast, of course – and we give the film the same spoiler-filled, in-depth discussion we always do with these movies – but that’s not all going on this week, as Sony launched one of the generation’s very best games i...
Apr 30, 2018•3 hr 18 min•Ep. 245
We have quite the grab bag for you on the show this week, as we discuss topics as wide-ranging as the passing of beloved Japanese director Isao Takahata, a true pioneer of the medium, to something as silly as Sean ranking all the Spider-Man games he has ever played to celebrate the release date announcement of Insomniac’s Spider-Man PS4 game. Jonathan also talks about his adventures re-watching Yu-Gi-Oh! in Japanese, Sean gives final thoughts on Far Cry 5, and we talk about the first two episode...
Apr 16, 2018•2 hr 21 min•Ep. 244
After revisiting the first two Star Wars Prequels earlier this year, we finally reach the third and final film in the controversial trilogy, and once again give it a thorough critical reevaluation. Revenge of the Sith is a great Star Wars movie, a bleak but rousing trilogy capper with a surprising amount of political resonance today, and it gives us a ton to dive into as we complete our project of revisiting the prequels. We also review some new movies – namely Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player On...
Apr 02, 2018•3 hr 47 min•Ep. 243
This month, our journey through classic Doctor Who reaches a culmination point, as we drop in on the original series’ excellent final creative push, with the run of Sylvester McCoy’s wonderful Seventh Doctor and his delightfully loony antepenultimate story “Ghost Light.” One of the strangest, densest, and most compelling Doctor Who stories ever told, “Ghost Light” sees every member of the creative staff going down swinging in the last season of the original run, particularly showcasing McCoy’s v...
Mar 28, 2018•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 242
It’s a loose, fun, freewheelin’ grab-bag style episode on the show this week, as we talk about a whole host of recent movies, games, and TV shows. Jonathan reviews Ava DuVernay’s very good (and very undervalued) A Wrinkle in Time and the mostly disappointing Tomb Raider adaptation, which leads to a great discussion about the 25-year-history of video game adaptations failing spectacularly in Hollywood. Sean reviews the new season of The X-Files after its recent finale and talks about the outstand...
Mar 26, 2018•2 hr 11 min•Ep. 241
A month after its US release and on the heels of its international debut on Netflix, we finally get around to talking about Alex Garland's Annihilation, a sci-fi journey that is gorgeously strange, evocative, frustrating, and undeniably fascinating to talk about. This is a prerecorded episode we saved for a rainy day, so we hope you'll excuse the belated nature of this discussion (we'll be back next week with a more up-to-date episode!). For now, Annihilation is, warts and all, more than worthy ...
Mar 19, 2018•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 240
It's a grab-bag style episode this week, as offer topics ranging from serious and topical to silly and only tangentially topical. Sean and Jonathan both talk about great recent indie games, including Into the Breach and Celeste, recap the Oscars and this week's Nintendo Direct news, and cover some various odds and ends. We then have a serious talk about the absurdity of 'violence in video games' still being blamed for school shootings some 20 years after Columbine, in reaction to the nonsensical...
Mar 12, 2018•2 hr 41 min•Ep. 239
The turbulent 1980s for Doctor Who reached its lowest and most fraught period during the reign of Sixth Doctor Colin Baker, when the BBC's antagonism towards the show was at its most intense and the then 22-year-old series was even temporarily cancelled between Baker's first and second seasons. In the midst of much behind-the-scenes chaos, the show's on-screen quality wavered more than ever, despite consistently strong work from Baker himself. At least one true diamond-in-the-rough can be found ...
Feb 28, 2018•1 hr 44 min•Ep. 238
With Black Panther continuing its stunning box-office run and dominating pop culture conversations, we thought this might be a good week to look back at the 10-year history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that brought us to this point, the journey that began way back in May of 2008 with the original Iron Man. We talk about what it's been like to follow (and, for this podcast, cover) 10 years of this Hollywood-changing phenomenon, and in classic Weekly Stuff fashion, we also rank all 18 movies r...
Feb 26, 2018•1 hr 42 min•Ep. 237
It's the movie sensation that's gripping the nation: Ryan Coogler's Black Panther is finally here, and it's one of the best, most artistically accomplished, and most culturally significant superhero films ever made. We give it our usual in-depth treatment, diving into everything that makes this film such a thoroughly special, rewarding entry in Marvel's ever-expanding cinematic canon. We also catch up on two weeks' worth of news, movie trailers (like Solo and Venom), and stuff, including Jonatha...
Feb 19, 2018•3 hr 24 min•Ep. 236
This week, we return to a galaxy far, far away for our second critical conversation about the infamous Star Wars prequels, this time diving deep with Episode II - Attack of the Clones. Perhaps the most maligned and dismissed of the Star Wars films, Attack of the Clones is, like The Phantom Menace before it, a much better film than its reputation would assert, a 'grown-up' Star Wars movie full of complicated ideas and nuanced character work. It also represents a major inflection point in the hist...
Feb 05, 2018•3 hr 34 min•Ep. 235
On today's show, we review of two of January's plethora of video game releases, diving into the fighting game that's quickly taken the gaming world by storm, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and chatting about the sequel to 2016's Game of the Year, Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory. These are two very different games that are sort of difficult to play on top of each other, but they've made for a rich start to the year in gaming. FighterZ is an amazing achievement in its genre that makes astoundin...
Jan 29, 2018•2 hr 28 min•Ep. 234
