Ever wonder why so few games include features like, say, Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis system, or minigames you can play during loading events? It's because they are or were locked behind patents - and this week, Jesse "Street Cleaner" Bishop joins us to talk about five such features - as well as the launch of Street Cleaner 3. Then we'll get into Monster Hunter Wilds, Two Point Museum, Everhood 2, the reveal of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4, and your personal feelings about game demos. Question of ...
Mar 07, 2025•3 hr 37 min•Ep 617•Transcript available on Metacast Landing a celebrity to star in your game is usually a huge deal - but like a lot of things, celebrities can go bad over time, turning their games into weird cultural artifacts with unpleasant associations. This week, Anthony Abatte joins us to talk about five games with stars who probablly seemed like a great idea at the time, after which we'll get into Street Cleaner 3, Steam Next Fest, Monolith's closure, and the games you'd like to see do a pirate-themed sequel. Question of the Week: With Ste...
Mar 01, 2025•2 hr 25 min•Ep 616•Transcript available on Metacast With Avowed's launch casting a spotlight on Obsidian this week, we got to thinking about the studio's unique trajectory, and so Trone Dowd — who reviewed Avowed for Inverse — joins us to talk about about studios who got nudged off series they created (for whatever reason), and used their ideas to make something new (but familiar). We'll also get into Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza Pirate in Hawaii, the Street Fighter movie's new director, Nintendo discontinuing the Gold Points program, and the obs...
Feb 21, 2025•3 hr 56 min•Ep 615•Transcript available on Metacast Mikel's away this week, so Matt and Chris (with accompanying soundboard) invited the Welcome to the Thing crew to break format a bit with a top 5 that doesn't focus so much on games, but rather game distribution services, technologies, and platforms old and new -- the cable companies of games, if you will. After that, we talk about Civilization VII, more Rift of the Necrodancer, and break down all the big news from this week's State of Play. It's a fun one, we promise! (Did we mention Chris is m...
Feb 15, 2025•3 hr 25 min•Ep 614•Transcript available on Metacast Hero-ing can be a thankless business (apart from all the improbable material rewards for rescuing hapless villagers or whatever), so it's uplifting when games try to show you've made a difference by bringing back all the friends you've made and people you've helped to support you in the final hour. TL Foster of Welcome to the Thing joins us to talk about five of our favorite such moments, after which we'll get into Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, Rift of the NecroDancer, Sniper Elite: Resistance, ...
Feb 07, 2025•3 hr 52 min•Ep 613•Transcript available on Metacast Sometimes it's really empowering to embody a pissed-off rage junkie, the kind of human chainsaw who can charge wildly into every confrontation and savagely batter everything in their path. This week, Jesse Cox joins us for a look at five games that let you do exactly that. Then we'll get our hands bloody with Ninja Gaiden II Black and Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap, discover Shady Part of Me, Virtua Fighter 5 REVO, and Eternal Strands, and talk about GTA 6 news, the Microsoft Developer Direct, and you...
Jan 31, 2025•2 hr 10 min•Ep 612•Transcript available on Metacast Last week's release of Dynasty Warriors Origins inspired us to spend this episode looking at five of the best games to bear one of the industry's most-overused words in their titles (Origins, of course). Then we'll get into Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders, reactions to the Switch 2 reveal, Marvel Snap getting temporarily swallowed by the TikTok ban, and the earliest games you remember adding to your backlog. Question of the Week: What's your favorite prequel and/or origin-story game? Break song is...
Jan 25, 2025•3 hr 31 min•Ep 611•Transcript available on Metacast Some release dates loom especially large in videogame history (mostly because they factored heavily into marketing), and this week Anthony Abatte joins us as our first guest of 2025 to talk about five of the most significant ones. Then we'll get into Dynasty Warriors Origins, Hyper Light Breaker, the DICE Awards nominees, and the gaming innovations you think are the most important, Question of the Week: What's the first game you remember adding to your backlog? Break song is Supersonics by The P...
Jan 17, 2025•3 hr 36 min•Ep 610•Transcript available on Metacast The announcements at CES (and their heavy push toward AI) this week inspired us to resurrect the debate-format Top 5 to decide what the five most important technical innovations in gaming are. Did we get it right? Probably not, but you can tell us what we missed. Then we'll get into Sony's freshly announced slate of game adaptations, alleged Nintendo leaks, and the games you're most looking forward to in 2025. Question of the Week: What do you think is the most important innovation in gaming? Br...
Jan 10, 2025•3 hr 33 min•Ep 609•Transcript available on Metacast We're a quarter of the way into the 21st century, and kicking off a new year of shows the way we always do: with a look ahead to the five announced games we're looking forward to the most. Then we'll get into January's PS+ games, how Riot measures Arcane's success, and your personal Games of the Year for 2024. Question of the Week: What upcoming game are you most looking forward to in 2025? Break song is Love is a Long Road by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers . Vidjagame Apocalypse theme by Matth...
Jan 03, 2025•2 hr 13 min•Ep 608•Transcript available on Metacast It's time for our last show of 2024 - and the end of our Games of Year countdown! This week, we'll get into our top 5 favorites with a roster of guests including Trone Dowd , Steve Guntli , Brendan Hesse , Kevin Erhard and Phil Keeling of Pixel Lit , Emmett Watkins , Jorge Albor , and TL Foster ! Did your favorite game(s) make the cut? Listen and find out! Question of the Week: What's your personal Game of the Year for 2024? Vidjagame Apocalypse theme by Matthew Joseph Payne . There's a lot of c...
Dec 27, 2024•2 hr 26 min•Ep 607•Transcript available on Metacast 2024 is almost over, so it's time to begin our annual Games of the Year countdown - split into two parts, because there's a lot to talk about. This week, we've invited a rotating panel of guests including TL Foster, Steve Guntli , Greg Moore , Tony Wilson , and Anthony Abatte to discuss our favorites; check out entries 10 through 6 this week, and stay tuned for next week, when we'll resume the countdown at #5 and drill down to our Game of the Year. Question of the Week: What's your personal Game...
Dec 20, 2024•2 hr 12 min•Ep 606•Transcript available on Metacast This year has been brimming with quality retreads, from brilliant remakes of classic games to remasters of games from just a few years ago, and before we start on our year-end GOTY countdown next week, TL Foster of Welcome to the Thing joins us to talk about five of our favorite remasters and remakes of 2024. We'll also talk a whole lot about Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind with Dan Amrich (who wrote its dialogue and voices the Blue Ranger), Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and yo...
Dec 13, 2024•3 hr 52 min•Ep 605•Transcript available on Metacast We've officially entered the final weeks of 2024, which means we get to start on our year-end best lists and tell you about all the stuff we liked the most this year! Let's kick this off with Tony Wilson of Framework and a look at our five favorite DLC expansions, after which we'll talk about Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, AntonBlast, PS5 getting 30th-anniversary themes, and your favorite spinoffs of established series. Question of the Week: What's your favorite DLC of 2024? Break song is N...
Dec 07, 2024•3 hr 43 min•Ep 604•Transcript available on Metacast Once a game series reaches a certain level of success, spinoffs are inevitable; some of them spawn their own franchises, like Mega Man X, while others rapidly fizzle into obscurity, like Mega Man Soccer. This week, merritt k and TL Foster join us to celebrate five of the latter category, after which we'll get into Trombone Champ: Unflattened, Loco Motive, the Xbox Avatar app disappearing, and the games you felt the least fulfilled after beating. Please help support this week's guest by wishlisti...
Nov 30, 2024•3 hr 34 min•Ep 603•Transcript available on Metacast Nov. 27 would be Bruce Lee's 84th birthday, and that's as good an excuse as any to get Anthony Abatte on for a howl-filled discussion of our favorite unauthorized Bruce Lee knockoffs in fighting games. Then we'll talk about STALKER 2, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Great God Grove, The Game Awards 2024 nominations, and the songs you associate with specific videogames (that didn't include them). Question of the Week: What’s the least fulfilled you've ever felt after finishing a game? Break song...
Nov 22, 2024•3 hr 32 min•Ep 602•Transcript available on Metacast As much as videogames tend to be about wreaking havoc and wrecking stuff, there are relatively few that actually let you tear through and collapse the buildings that dot their landscapes. We're not sure why it took us 601 episodes to reach the topic of games where you can wreck buildings, but here we are, and after that we'll get into Tetris Forever, Rise of the Golden Idol, Slitterhead, Super Nintendo World news, and the game characters you wouldn't want to have over for Thanksgiving. Question ...
Nov 15, 2024•2 hr 25 min•Ep 601•Transcript available on Metacast We've somehow made it to 600 shows! To celebrate, TL Foster of Welcome to the Thing joins us for a laugh-filled Top 5 about previous Top 5s, and it's so big, it's a TOP 6! After that trip down memory lane, we'll talk more about Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Vampire Survivors: Ode to Castlevania, Nintendo confirming backwards compatibility for the Switch successor, and your favorite moments from our 599 previous shows. Question of the Week: Who's a videogame character you’d hate to have Thanksgiving...
Nov 08, 2024•4 hr 31 min•Ep 600•Transcript available on Metacast It's the day after Halloween, but we've got one last spooky show in us - this time about wandering ghosts you can find off the beaten path in games that aren't even about horror. With Tony Wilson of Framework along for the ride, we'll also talk about Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Clock Tower: Rewind, an Oregon Trail movie, and the games you wish other games would rip off more. Question of the Week: In honor of our 600th episode next week, what's a favorite moment of yours...
Nov 01, 2024•3 hr 39 min•Ep 599•Transcript available on Metacast The early Resident Evil games were once popular enough to spawn a whole horde of zombie-killing imitators with fixed camera angles and tank controls, and erstwhile host Dave Rudden rejoins us this week to laugh at five of the more obscure ones. Then we'll get into Sonic X Shadow Generations, Mechwarrior 5: Clans, news from the Xbox Partner Preview, and your most favoritest zombie games. Question of the Week: What's a game franchise you wish more competitors would rip off? Break song is David Duc...
Oct 25, 2024•2 hr 28 min•Ep 598•Transcript available on Metacast We're deep into spooky season, so let's take a look back at the strange wave of profane, silly, borderline sleazy zombie games the industry pumped out in the late-'00s/early-'10s, with help from TL Foster of Welcome to the Thing ! Then we'll talk more about Metaphor: ReFantazio, Europa, the Game Freak data breach, and your most irrational habits when playing games. Question of the Week: What's your favorite zombie game? Break song is The Middle - Jimmy Eat World by Skatune Network . V idjagame A...
Oct 18, 2024•3 hr 40 min•Ep 597•Transcript available on Metacast Expecting a movie to be an entertaining adaptation of a videogame and be scary seems like asking too much, but gosh darn it if the horror-game movies we talk about in this week's Top 5 with Steve Guntli (of CinemArcade and Puppet Masters/Castle Freaks ) didn't try. Then we'll talk about the Silent HIll 2 remake, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO, Nintendo's timely new announcement, and your favorite mind-blowing twists in videogames. Question of the Week: What's your most irration...
Oct 12, 2024•3 hr 41 min•Ep 596•Transcript available on Metacast With spooky season upon us at last, TL Foster of Welcome to the Thing joins us for a Top 5 on games that gradually reveal themselves to be haunted traps set by malevolent entities lurking deep within the code (ample spoiler warnings and timestamps here, so keep those fast-forward fingers ready). Then we'll get into The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Mortal Komba 1: Khaos Reigns, Katsuhiro Harada trying to get Colonel Sanders into Tekken, and the unexpected settings you'd like to see your fav...
Oct 04, 2024•3 hr 5 min•Ep 595•Transcript available on Metacast We're all busy, traveling, or directly in the path of a category 4 hurricane this week - but the show must go on, so please bear with our lack of a Top 5 as we jump straight into UFO 50, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, the State of Play and Sonic Central announcements, and the words you learned from vidjagames. Question of the Week: What unexpected genre or setting do you want to see your favorite game characters in? (Example: Zelda IN SPAAAAACE!) Break song is Konya Wa Hurricane (There's A Hurrica...
Sep 27, 2024•2 hr 43 min•Ep 594•Transcript available on Metacast Astro Bot's trajectory from minor character in a tech demo to the face of the best-reviewed platformer on PS5 inspired this week's Top 5, about platformer mascots who went from secondary characters to headlining their own games. After that, we'll get into Funko Fusion, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown's Mask of Darkness DLC, The Plucky Squire,announcements from the EA investor event, and your favorite memories of the Dreamcast. Question of the Week: What's a word you learned from a videogame? (C...
Sep 20, 2024•2 hr 17 min•Ep 593•Transcript available on Metacast We just passed the 25th anniversary of the Dreamcast's 9/9/99 US launch, and are marking the occasion with a look at five of the strangest and best controllers and accessories for Sega's ill-fated console. Then we'll dive straight into Astro Bot, PS5 Pro, Warhammer 40k Space Marine II, Yars Rising, the Minecraft movie trailer, and your favorite games that got so-so reviews. Question of the Week: What's your favorite Dreamcast game, or favorite memory of the Dreamcast? Break song is My Sweet Pass...
Sep 13, 2024•3 hr 52 min•Ep 592•Transcript available on Metacast All three hosts of Welcome to the Thing - TL Foster , Emmett Watkins , and Jarrett Green - join us this week for a special crossover episode and take charge of our Top 5 to focus on "value versions" of popular big-deal games. We'll also get into Tactical Breach Wizards, Bakeru, Squirrel with a Gun, Concord's rapid demise, the best Zeldas being declared non-canon, and your favorite Star Wars NPCs. Question of the Week: What’s a game that got so-so reviews but is a 10/10 in your heart? Break song ...
Sep 08, 2024•3 hr 50 min•Ep 591•Transcript available on Metacast Star Wars Outlaws is out (and fun as hell) this week, inviting players to meet Canto Bight street thief-turned-interstellar scoundrel Kay Vess - so we're inviting Chris Baker back to talk about Kay and five other Star Wars heroes who were created especially for videogames. We'll also get into Castlevania Domunus Collection, Nintendo Direct news, and your thoughts on politicians and their likely favorite games. Question of the Week: Who's your favorite Star Wars NPC? Break song is Nar Shaddaa Par...
Aug 30, 2024•3 hr 47 min•Ep 590•Transcript available on Metacast Black Myth: Wukong is out, and Tony Wilson of Framework has been playing it - but also, Sun Wukong's defiance of Heaven inspired this week's Top 5, about games driven by rebellion against the gods. We'll also get into Dustborn, Arco, reveals from Gamescom's Opening Night LIve, and the "terrible" works of pop culture you'll die on a hill to defend. Question of the Week: Name the favorite game of any politician (not a quiz, just make up something funny). Break song is Sorrow by Bad Religion . Vidj...
Aug 23, 2024•2 hr 25 min•Ep 589•Transcript available on Metacast The Borderlands movie opened last weekend, and we've got things to say about it. It also underwhelmed at the box office, putting it on track to be a major flop - but will it flop as hard as the videogame-based movies in this week's Top 5, all of which lost millions in theaters? While we wait to see, we'll get into The Crush House, SteamWorld Heist II, Beetlejuice in MultiVersus, and the first game magazines you remember reading. Question of the Week: What’s a piece of pop culture or media that's...
Aug 16, 2024•2 hr 29 min•Ep 588•Transcript available on Metacast 
