Making a game is often a huge undertaking. Making a successful game all by yourself is a staggering feat, and it's one that the five creators behind the games in this week's Top 5 managed to pull off spectacularly. The it's on to a look at the Oculus Rift and its key launch titles, Let's Play controversies, butt controversies and a look at your favorite Game Boy Advance memories.
It’s a jock-out lockout this week, as Retronauts host Bob Mackey joins us to take a look at the gawkiest, dorkiest, most pedantic nerd archetypes the games industry has thrown at us over the years. Then its on to a rip-roaring discussion of Day of the Tentacle Remastered, the week’s flurry of Nintendo rumors and/or hoaxes, and a look at the VR headsets you think have the most potential.
This week, we delve into those strange and short-lived days when it was considered bold and avant-garde to market cheesy games around the promise of nudity and stick them on consoles. We then return to modernity with a look at Salt and Sanctuary, EA Sports UFC 2 and Senran Kagura: Estival Versus, then delve into some of the new announcements from the week of GDC before looking at the oldest save files you someday plan to return to.
We get an early jump on St. Patrick's Day this week, with a hiss-heavy segment celebrating five videogame snakes that Ireland's patron saint would doubtlessly have run out of the country on a rail. We then snap right back to the present with a look at The Division, Rise of the Kasai on PS4 and Hitman; wallow in the sad sagas of Lionhead and the Coleco Chameleon; and dig into the best games you never played the DLC for.
The regular cast settles in this week for a look at five bosses that showed up to challenge fist-themed heroes while packing decidedly non-punchy firearms, often with predictable results. With that out of the way, we shift our focus to Superhot and this week's torrent of re-releases, the announcement of Pokemon Sun and Moon, and the survival skills you'd want if you were literally bombed back to the Stone Age.
This week, former Game Informer editor Tim Turi joins us to talk about our favorite prehistoric adventures where sweaty men in loincloths fight dinosaurs. (Appropriately, none of them were made after 1997.) Then we shift slightly to talk about Far Cry Primal, Mega Man Legacy Collection, Vive pricing news and your favorite fighting-game characters.
Ryan J. Hodge, author of Laser Time's own Play/Write series, joins us for the first time this week to chat about frumpy Soviets, suspiciously unnamed guerrillas and other commies who've taken starring roles in games over the years. Then it's on to talk about Street Fighter V and Fire Emblem Fates, free Sega games on Steam and your earliest crushes on game characters.
Our sesquicentennial episode takes a fond look back at some of the absolute worst voice acting ever to appear in video games, as Heidi Kemps joins us to talk about her upcoming MAGFest panel. Then it's on to a packed week of new releases that includes Firewatch, Unravel and a new Naruto; a goodbye to GameTrailers; and the games you'd play if you were trapped in a reality-resetting Groundhog Day situation.
Video games have been around since at least the '70s, but introspective games - ones with a statement to make about how we approach and play games, and what we expect from them - are still relatively rare. With The Witness out this week, however, we decided to take a look at how Jonathan Blow's earlier effort helped push metacommentary in games - and then we use it as a jumping-off point to talk about a few others. With that out of the way, we can talk about The Witness, Final Fantasy Explorers,...
For decades, character designers have kept a hidden ace up their sleeve, one so powerful that they probably feel like hacks for using it, and so rarely do: if you put a cute face on a vaguely rounded shape, the resulting character will be irresistible and people will line up to buy its merchandise. Today's Top 5 looks at some especially effective blob protagonists (blobtagonists?) whose quivering, jelly-like forms have kept us entertained over the years. It's then on to talk about this week's ch...
Following this week's first round of sad news, Dan Amrich joins us this week to help pay tribute to David Bowie the only way we know how: by basing a Top 5 around his more notable ventures into gaming. The sadness bleeds into our second segment with a look at That Dragon, Cancer, but lets up with Pocket Mortys, Amazon's 20% new-game discounts and a look at the games you're looking forward to the most.
Welcome back for another year of VGA! As has become tradition 'round these parts, we begin the year by looking ahead to five games we're really excited about. (There isn't a whole lot that's been revealed about some of these, though, so it's a short segment. Then it's on to a quick look at Amplitude, some quick laughs about the Star Wars "RPG" Kicstarter and other news that's erupted while we've been away, and a rundown of your favorite games of last year.
It's time for our last show of the year, and we've put together a big one. A rotating cast of regular VGA hosts is joined by friends of the show (including Bob Mackey, Heidi Kemps and Chris Watters) to discuss our favorite games of 2015. There's even a mysteeeeerious "holiday special" sandwiched in between! All that awesomeness left no room for current-events talk, so we'll resume our regular format when we return in 2016. In the meantime, merry Christmas and happy holidays!
Sick of hearing about Star Wars yet? Too bad, because (after a surprise announcement from Anne Lewis) we're making a shameless grab for its coattails with our (admittedly shaky) rundown of our favorite Star Wars games. With that safely out of the way, it's on to a brief look at SteamWorld Heist and the Jack the Ripper DLC for Assassin's Creed Syndicate, some talk about developments in the worlds of Hideo Kojima and Super Smash Bros., and the offbeat franchises you'd love to bring back.
Mikel's back, and he's bringing special guest hosts Bob Mackey and Heidi Kemps with him! This week, we get into five games that let you not just turn evil, but actually unseat the villain and conquer in their place. (Evil path/bad ending spoilers abound, so listen for the time cues if you want to skip ahead.) With that out of the way, we move on to Yakuza 5, Earth Defense Force 4.1 and news from The Game Awards and PlayStation Experience, before taking a look at the games you most closely associ...
With the Xbox 360 turning 10 next week, we're joined by GameSpot host/writer/producer Chris Watters (here to tell us about his brand new book, The Gamer's Bucket List) and Brett Elston (in his first VGA appearance as a full-time LaserTime editor) as we discuss the five greatest true exclusives the Xbox 360 had under its belt. We then switch gears to talk about Star Wars Battlefront and last week's Nintendo Direct, before looking at the hard choices you had to make between two out-at-the-same-tim...
This week, we go unabashedly old-school in honor of LaserTime's newest full-time member, Brett Elston - who couldn't make it, leaving us to stumble through a frank discussion of grappling hooks and swing physics. Then we dig into Fallout 4, Rise of the Tomb Raider and a few other big releases, talk about some Overwatch and (pre-Direct) Nintendo news, and take a look at your favorite places to call home in games.
Whether you think of it as your house, headquarters, or simply a comforting save room, having a customizable home base has become a big part of a lot of our favorite games in recent years. As our string of horror-related shows comes to an end, we spend this week reminiscing about five of our favorite homes, after which we dive into new releases like Need for Speed and Cibele, scratch our heads over the King/Activision news, and talk about your worst experiences at places that were supposed to be...
Happy Halloween, everybody! For our final horror-themed episode of October, we're going for the jugular with a genre feared even by some horror fans: scary games in which your only defense is to run, hide and hope the monsters don't find you. Then it's on to a lighter discussion of Halo 5: Guardians and WWE 2K16, an enthused look at Sony's Paris press conference, and your favorite encounters with Cronenbergs.
Rick and Morty is a fantastic show, if for no other reason than that it gave us a new use for the word "Cronenberg," referring to incomprehensible masses of writhing flesh and body horror that look like they just flopped out of a David Cronenberg movie. As we continue our scary-for-October theme, taking a look at gaming's most prominent Cronenbergs seems like a logical next step. And after we wipe off their residue, we dive into Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Tales from the Borderlands, baffling Hi...
Our month of Halloween shows continues with five games about eldritch horrors from beyond the stars, as inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Then it's on to talk about the decidedly less scary Minecraft: Story Mode and Dragon Quest Heroes, Star Wars season passes, and the times you injured yourselves playing games.
We're big fans of Halloween around these parts, so this week's show kicks off a full month of horror-themed shows, starting safe and slow with five survival-horror games (seemingly) intended for children. Then it's time to talk about Transformers: Devastation, Super Meat Boy and Uncharted before providing half-informed analysis of the Star Citizen debacle and talking about your ideal video-game dance partners.
Bay Area games journo and kusoge* expert Heidi Kemps is our guide this week as we explore a slate of wonderfully bizarre and baffling music and rhythm games, a couple of which never made it to the States. Then we tear into Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 and Persona 4: Dancing All Night, discuss news about Kickstarter campaigns and Pokemon butts, and look at your favorite Konami games of all time.
This week's strange will-they-won't-they narrative about Konami possibly exiting the console-game business perked our ears, and while it looks fairly certain that the publisher doesn't plan to exit the industry anytime soon, a fond look back at our five favorite Konami series still seems timely. With that out of the way, we stumble through Soma and other new releases, talk offhandedly about a possible voice-actor strike, and take a look at your favorite celebrity performances in games.
Lego Dimensions' voice-acting cast turned out to be an extremely hefty deal this week, with the likes of Michael J. Fox, Alison Brie and Peter Capaldi confirmed as voicing plastic versions of their iconic characters. This naturally turned our minds to other games that boasted big-name casts, and we put together a quick list of five favorites. Then it's on to hearing Chris gush about Forza 6 and Destiny: The Taken King before getting into Tokyo Game Show Sony news and your favorite Mario moments....
Join us for a celebratory crossover episode with our old friend Brett Elston, who joins us fresh off the 100th episode of VGMpire for a Top 5 about games that pushed the hardware of dying systems to remind us that our old consoles still had legs. Then it's on to talk about Mario Maker, some confused outrage over Nintendo's apparent nervousness about 3D, and your most-cherished PlayStation games.
This week, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain took everyone's attention by storm. It is, by all accounts, a fantastic finale for the series - or at least the part of the series written by creator Hideo Kojima - and with the two-decade anniversary of the PlayStation's U.S. release coming up on September 9, we decided to celebrate early as a way to revisit the console that first revived Snake's career. Kicking off with our five favorite PlayStation games, we then swing into MGS V, Mad Max, facep...
A new Metal Gear is just a few days away, and the critics can't shut up about how great it is - but somehow, we manage to restrain ourselves long enough to get out a Top 5 about games with storytelling that outshone their so-so gameplay. THEN we lose our shit over Metal Gear coverage, but not before talking excitedly about Until Dawn, Mega Man Legacy Collection, the Madden "trailer" and your favorite games that never got a sequel.
As much as the games industry catches flak for being a giant disgusting sequel factory, it has its fair share of great games that - whether by design or by circumstance - never got sequels, and maybe never will. Michael Grimm joins us this week to shuffle through five of our favorites*, after which we talk Tales From the Borderlands, new retro game consoles, Grin's death by Kickstarter, and the first games that ever bored you. *[Informed by a strong belief that The Last of Us is about to get a s...
They may not be canon and they may not always be happy, but few hidden extras are quite as satisfying to find as secret endings - and this week, we count down five of our favorites. Then it's on to our reactions to Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, some feigned shock at Halo 5's Teen rating, and our first-ever sing-along community segment, with lyrics YOU assigned to game music.
