EIC of Polygon and co-host of The Besties Chris Plante fills in for Frank on topics like the Cyberpunk anime, Anthem, and a Republican poet’s paradise.


Questions this week:

How can game companies draw attention back to their titles after a botched release? (07:07)
How do you make collecting treasure in a game feel significant? (14:14)
What would you put in The Orange Box 2? (20:12)
How would you quantify an experience point? (26:07)
Design a game based on a White House press conference. (32:59)
From PAX 2022: An interview with Starbucks Workers United organizer (37:59)
MoxBagel re-asks: What’s the ideal video game to play over dinner? (41:11)
Has a plot hole in a game’s story ever ruined the game for you? (48:37)
What is the Avengers: Endgame of video games? (58:14)

LIGHTNING ROUND: Name Design – Panic! At The Disco songs (01:05:38)


Recommendations and Outro (01:18:57)


If you look behind this episode’s waterfall you’ll find people discussing it in the forums!


A SMALL SELECTION OF THINGS REFERENCED:

Disney’s Darkwing Duck

The Besties

General Chaos

Mortal Kombat

GoldenEye 007

Super Smash Brothers series

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

Starfield

Anthem

Assassin’s Creed series

Silent Hill 2

Yakuza / Ryū ga Gotoku series

Tomb Raider series

Deus Ex series

Marvel Avengers

Gex series

Portal series

Half-Life: Alyx

Quantum Conundrum

Counter-Strike series

Team Fortress series

Back 4 Blood

Crusader Kings series

Perfect Tides

Hollow Knight

Baldur’s Gate series

Legend of Zelda series

Super Hydlide

Demonschool (now wishlistable on Steam)

Paper Mario series

Samba De Amigo

Elite Beat Agents

Xanadu (1980)

Space Channel 5

Papers, Please

Gears 5

Dark Souls series

The Last of Us series

Genshin Impact

Deadly Premonition

NieR: Automata

Kentucky Route Zero

Persona series

Call of Duty series

Spec Ops: The Line

BioShock series

Dead & Buried (1981)

One Piece

Halo series

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Fortnite series

Katamari Damacy

Hook

John Wick (2014)

John Wick Hex

EarthBound

Recommendations:


Jaffe: Watch One Piece


Brandon: hold the up and down buttons to control those barrels in the Carnival Zone in Sonic 3, don’t watch Austin Powers, don’t watch any of the Bill & Ted movies, Mom and Dad Save the World (1992)


Tim: Check out Star Trek: Discovery if you want to see David Cronenberg be weird and Michelle Yeoh be weird


Chris: Subscribe to Shudder or The Criterion Channel


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Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Tim Rogers, Brandon Sheffield, and Chris Plante. Edited by Esper Quinn. Original Music by Kurt Feldman.

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