Staring at Screens.
84 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 9 years ago - ★★★★★ - 3 ratingsHere on Staring at Screens we look at the bright, pretty lights that make up our video games. Also, we like to talk about them from a critical, mature and often giggly perspective.
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Episodes
31. Underrated Games
June 05, 2013 18:06 - 42 minutes - 38.8 MBOn this week's episode, Vick doesn't get killed in traffic while playing(?) Zombies, Run! Joel picks up Humble Indie Bundle 8 and tries out Proteus and Thomas Was Alone which are NOT "cutesy games"; Lisa reveals that she lives in North Korea ("prison camp") and is disappoint with Street Food Tycoon; and Dave continues his PS Plus free game streak with Infamous 2 and Virtua Tennis 4. Oh, and Static Shock totally wears a bra on his head. CANNOT UNSEE. SO COMFY!! I CAN BARELY FEEL THE UNDERWIR...
30. Xbox One-ting
May 28, 2013 05:40 - 45 minutes - 41.6 MBWe played host to Ade Putra from Robots Gone Bad this week! He brought with him an element of sheer hardcore that none of team can hope to match. I mean who plays Metro: Last Light on Hard difficulty?? In other news, Joel puts in way more (commuting) time on Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Vick tries her hand at Puzzle Trooper, Dave builds his dream gun in Guncrafter and also gives Sid Meier's Ace Patrol the respect it truly deserves, and we find out how bad Lisa is at dancing. So Microsoft has ...
29. The Female Protagonist Conundrum
May 15, 2013 17:42 - 50 minutes - 46.5 MBThis week we host our very first guest podcaster! Everybody give a big SAS-sy welcome to Jun Chen (aka Junch) from The Big Gap. We're certain that like us, you'll find his insight a welcome addition to the conversation. In this episode, Joel gets a new 3DS XL and immediately gets to work on Super Mario 3D Land and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, but also gives his Xbox360 some love thanks to Gears of War: Judgment; Junch goes retro on us with Persona 3 & 4 for the PS2/PSP; and Dave has nothing b...
28. Platform Envy
May 09, 2013 14:44 - 45 minutes - 41.2 MBFresh off recording our long-awaited drunken playcast, the team forges on with a regular episode recording in a slightly sloshed (and soon-to-be hungover) state! Vick trys the much-lauded Dots and finds it sorely wanting, Lisa follows suit with Bee Leader, Dave gets his inner-luchador on in Guacamelee!, and Joel keeps up with the Joneses by playing Battleblock Theater and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. We had originally planned for our discussion this week to be about Platform Envy and the platfo...
27.5. Interview with Faye Kingslee (Citra from Far Cry 3)
April 25, 2013 16:17 - 25 minutes - 23.3 MBWe've got a real treat for you today, Dear Listener — our first ever special guest! Earlier this week we had the privilege of chatting with Faye Kingslee — you may know her as Citra from Far Cry 3 — and we had an absolute blast! In this interview with Dave and Joel she gives us a sneak peek into her preparation for playing the role of Citra, her acting process and how the game was made in Ubisoft Montreal, or as we put it, "where the magic happened". There's even a point in the interview whe...
27. Insider Jokes
April 23, 2013 04:59 - 36 minutes - 33 MBThe team's been busy of late, so this week we eschew our usual format and just have a nice catch up session to talk about the games we've been playing. First up, Joel's perception of reality is severely distorted by AntiChamber; then we revive the spectre that is Assassins Creed 3 as Vick finally gets to play it; mobile offerings also get some airtime as we try out Sonic Dash, Mighty Dungeons, and Fish Out of Water; and last but not least, Dave tells us about Hope: The Other Side of Adventur...
26. Everyone's a (Meta)Critic
April 16, 2013 15:52 - 49 minutes - 45.6 MBThis week Eric talks about playing Torchlight 2 (now with more alpaca!) and Far Cry 3 (which Dave has yet to frickin' finish), Joel actually completes Grim Fandango more than a decade after starting, Dave tries his darndest to sell us on Gemini Rue while we try our darndest to be enthusiastic, and we pontificate about the upcoming Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon based on nothing but this incredible and absurd trailer. The topic of the week was inspired by this article by Kotaku's Jason Schreier tha...
25. RIP LucasArts
April 10, 2013 14:36 - 1 hour - 60.8 MBIn this week's episode, Vick Eric plays Far Cry 3 and quickly fills up his rucksack with bloody skins, Joel completes Bioshock Infinite but we can't talk about it just yet, Lisa plays Finger Tied sober and ponders aloud what it would be like to play this drunk, and Dave, ever the hipster, talks us through some IGF winners, Dys4ia and Cart Life. They're free games and you can check them out in the links below. We'll also tell you why we haven't been playing SimCity of late. Maybe we'll get ba...
24. The Plot Thickens
April 01, 2013 08:10 - 48 minutes - 44.8 MBWe’re in Lisa tries out the decidedly un-NimbleBit-like Nimble Quest, Joel completes and is satisfied with Crystal Dynamics’ take on Tomb Raider, Dave gets audibly frustrated at not being able to talk about Bioshock Infinite (which we recommend playing on "easy"), and we all speculate about what it would be like to play Space Team under the influence. In the second half of the episode we talk about the things that make videogames such a good vehicle for telling engaging stories and recount ...
23. Geek Gods
March 27, 2013 06:33 - 43 minutes - 39.8 MBIn this week's episode, Dave and Joel have a protracted discussion about Tomb Raider, Vick tries unsuccessfully to get a workout from Fighters Uncaged, and Lisa bounces Hercules' boulders in Clash of The Olympians. Along the way we also mention the Uncharted series, Kinect Sports, Kinect Adventures, Kingdom Rush and Cat Shot. In other news, PAX East was last weekend and have we got news for you! The DoubleFine Adventure finally has a name: Broken Age Ducktales Remastered has been announce...
22. Dee ARRRR Em
March 19, 2013 19:29 - 47 minutes - 43.6 MBShiver me timbers! Avast, ye landlubbers — nope, I can't do it. I can't in good conscience do this hackneyed piratical voice. Let's try this again. In this week's episode, Lisa talks about the first episode of Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, the result of Feminist Frequency's highly successful Kickstarter and that super-feel-good story about the father who hacked Donkey Kong so his daughter could play as Pauline; Vick is introduced to the excellent (and very "jin zhang") Uncharted 2; Dave ...
21. A Tale of Two SimCities
March 12, 2013 08:30 - 51 minutes - 46.8 MBThis week Dave hunts animals in Tomb Raider and then gets distracted by SimCity, Joel hunts people in Crysis 3 and only stops for SimCity, Vick develops a conscience about letting bad things happen to Sims in SimCity, and Lisa rounds out the discussion about SimCity with still more SimCity. Yes, Dear Listener, if you haven't already figure it out we have SimCity on the brain this week! If you'd like to weigh in on anything SimCity-related write to us at [email protected] or Tweet u...
20. This Episode is Non-Refundable
March 06, 2013 03:42 - 44 minutes - 40.7 MBOn this week's episode, Dave gets his JRPGame on in the form of more Ni No Kuni and Persona 4 Golden, Vick discovers her latent ability for racing games in Real Racing 3, Joel finds a use for horse armor in DLC Quest, and we all get creeped out by Swedish folklore in Simogo's masterpiece Year Walk. We also discuss the bygone age of Expansion Packs, the maturing of the DLC era, and hint at the advent of the In-App-Purchase dynasty. Along the way we point fingers at The Sims, Warcraft 2, Worl...
19. Ni No Weekly Topic
February 26, 2013 08:00 - 36 minutes - 33.8 MBWe're back from a one-week break! Did you miss us? We certainly missed you! Now we've got lots of catching up to do, so let's skip the topical discussion this week and jump straight into the games we've played. First up, we finally get our grubby paws on Ni No Kuni: Wrath of The White Witch for PS3 and everybody's got an opinion on that. Then Joel discovers Minecraft anew on an OMGeek Tekkit Lite server, Dave gets creative with DrawQuest, and Lisa gets destructive with Little Inferno. Let's...
18. Be My Valenthumb?
February 12, 2013 15:33 - 45 minutes - 41.9 MBGong Xi Fa Cai! We ring in the lunar new year with the critically acclaimed indie hit from Playdead — Limbo, the tongue-in-cheek adventure-platformer from DoubleFine — The Cave, and that highly addictive iOS tap-athon from LambdaMu — Pixel People. Special Mention also goes to the upcoming DLC for Assassins Creed 3: The Tyranny of King Washington and the inexplicable Hitman movie reboot. And because it's also Valentines Day this week, our topic of the week is Video Game Characters that We Wo...
17. Global Game Jam Games
February 04, 2013 16:25 - 45 minutes - 41.8 MBOn this week's episode we have news for you! Namely Nintendo ruling out any Wii U price cut in the near future, Sony's highly anticipated 20 Feb announcement (read: PS4), rumored PS4 specs (no backwards compatibility!) and the release dates for SimCity and GTA V. In other news, Joel also waxes lyrical about 17-Bit's Skulls of The Shogun, Lisa educates us about Pixel People by LambdaMu Games, and Dave introduces us to Ryan Evans' fishy masterpiece Cod of Duty. The topic of the week is the Gl...
16. Keeping It (Tutor) Real
January 29, 2013 07:56 - 48 minutes - 44 MBIn our most puerile episode to date, Joel reveals that he doesn't know anything about DMC: Devil May Cry, Vick tries to convince us to start playing Candy Crush before it's too late, and Dave apologizes for maligning The Blockheads which as it turns out, is a pretty good game! Oh and Lisa has a blue hat. This week we examine the topic of in-game Tutorials. Along the way we make reference to Temple Run 2, Zookeeper and Half Life to name a few. We also highly recommend watching Egoraptor's se...
15. The End of An Age
January 22, 2013 04:37 - 42 minutes - 38.8 MBThis week, Vick gives us her first impressions of Temple Run 2, Dave feels dirty about the half-hour he spent on The Blockheads, Joel finally takes the plunge and starts a game of Civilization V, and Lisa… slurps her drink loudly. Aaand that's it for the new games we've played this week. Sorry guys, it's been a busy week. You know how it is. (Read: Awesomenauts. Ahem.) The topic of the week is Games and/or Game Mechanics that have not stood the test of time. I mean, what were we thinking wh...
14. No Ac-CES
January 15, 2013 02:01 - 42 minutes - 39.1 MBThis week the Staring At Screens gang didn't attend CES 2013 in Las Vegas, but we did read the same stuff you did on teh interwebz, so in the podcast we talk about the things that intrigued us most. Prepare your ears for inCESsant namedropping in the form of upcoming Android gaming devices like the Nvidia Shield and the Ouya; Valve's Steambox prototypes like Xi3-developed Piston; and about the Razer Edge, which oddly enough, might just be the first true Steambox device that consumers can get...
13. Unfinished Business
January 08, 2013 03:37 - 46 minutes - 42.5 MBOn this episode of Staring at Screens, Dave and Lisa tell us more about the online competitive play in Awesomenauts and Joel explains the fiddly manual map building in Legend of Grimrock. Along the way we make reference to DOTA, Gunbound, Soldat, Clash of The Clans, and Ultima Underwear Underworld. It's still the beginning of 2013 and we're making new year's resolutions! Specifically, resolutions to finish some unfinished games that have been gathering dust on our shelves/Steam libraries. ...
12. Video Game Violence: The Line
January 01, 2013 02:20 - 48 minutes - 44.2 MBFirst episode post of 2013, and it's a heavy one about video game violence. But first, Vick runs up buildings in Prototype 2, Joel gets some fresh perspective while playing Fez, Dave's sensibilities are offended at all the sex and violence in Hitman: Absolution, and Eric (surprise surprise) doesn't kill anybody in Dishonored. In today's episode we discuss the tenuous correlation between violence in video games and violence in real life, especially in the light of the recent Sandy Hook Eleme...
11. Live Christmas Special!
December 24, 2012 09:49 - 1 hour - 61.6 MBIn our first ever in-person recording of Staring At Screens, Dave and Lisa argue about who was first to play You Don't Know Jack before the other played it before it was cool, (Ubernostrum!) Vick accidentally downloads and gets addicted to Clash of The Clans, Joel completes not one but two games — Fable 3 and To The Moon, Dave wax-agons lyrical about Super Hexagon, and Eric gives us the low down on Street Fighter x Mega Man. We also weigh in on that The WarZ Steam store fiasco. Let the buyer...
10. Fable 3: How Not To Make An Open World Game
December 12, 2012 15:07 - 50 minutes - 68.8 MBOn this week's episode, we start salivating over the upcoming free Street Fighter x Mega Man that is free for PC. Did we mention, it's free? In other non-free game news, Joel finally completes Assassins Creed 3 which allows him to get started on Halo 4, and Eric compares Darksiders 2 to Devil May Cry 4 and Torchlight 2 among other things. In the second segment, Vick rips Fable 3 a new one and we embark on a discussion on what makes or breaks an open world game. Along the way we touch on Sky...
9.5. Gender & Games pt. 1: #1reasonwhy
December 08, 2012 10:30 - 22 minutes - 20.7 MBLast week, the #1reasonwhy hash tags prompted the team to discuss some very important issues and problems with the gaming industry. Thus begins the first in our ongoing series of special episodes on gender and games. Here are some of what we talked about: - the #1reasonwhy hashtag - being a girl gamer, and gaming aggression (Vick) - 'intersectionality' - on being a girl tech writer (Vick) - on dismissing sexism because you don't see it. (Lisa) - Katie Williams, Aussie Journo at E3 (Jo...
9. Oprah Gunnar Style
December 04, 2012 12:06 - 1 hour - 56.1 MBApologies in advance for the worst Gangnam Style pun you'll hear this week. Possibly ever. Fun, laughter, peace and joy on this week's episode of Staring at Screens! Joel spends way too much time on Assassins Creed 3 (yes, still), Vick finishes Assassins Creed 2 (but she hasn't found all the feathers… yet), we find out just how not a Star Wars fan Lisa is when she talks about Angry Birds: Star Wars, and Dave finds a hidden gem in Fah Kai Far Cry 3 (It's got hyper realistic hands, people!) b...
8. Fall N' Prices
November 26, 2012 18:16 - 1 hour - 58.9 MBOn this week's episode, Lisa eviscerates EA's Theme Park iOS and tells us how far the game has fallen since its Bullfrog heyday. (Spoiler alert: Pretty far.) Dave plays Clash of The Clans on iOS, though no one seems to be impressed. Joel finally gets to play Assassins Creed III on PC, and Eric picks up Darksiders 2 at 50% off in the Steam Autumn Sale. Speaking of which, we highlight some of the deals from the recent Steam Autumn Sale and help you, dear listener, to get your credit cards pr...
7. MONEY! MONEY!
November 19, 2012 15:43 - 1 hour - 55.1 MBThis week the team's been going back to old not-super-new games. Vick flexes her Kinect muscles with UFC Fighter Trainer before raving about Assassin's Creed 2 (yes, finally). Dave picks up (and Eric revisits) Sleeping Dogs, and Joel finally musters enough gumption to get started on The Walking Dead. We also potentially offend Italian and Cantonese people everywhere. Ayy! We are a-sorry! In the second half of the show we talk about rival game franchises and draw comparisons between pairs of...
6. Aural Examination 101
November 12, 2012 22:28 - 1 hour - 73.5 MBWe have a full lineup this week as Lisa joins the gang to talk about Zookeeper. Joel plays with Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble. (no, really.) Dave complains a bit more about AC3, Vick dabbles in some kinect-icking, and Eric beats Karateka. Because it's a short game. Also our first top ten list: Top 10 most unlikely Karateka sequels which will probably never be made! (Some familiarity with the Hokkien dialect recommended.) After the break, our first video game music special! Guess w...
5. The Four Stages of Zangrief
November 06, 2012 15:18 - 53 minutes - 49.3 MBThis week, Eric, Joel and Dave spend the first half of the episode completely geeking out on Assassin's Creed 3 and Dishonored, since it's all that we've been playing! After the break, Vick joins us for a somewhat-halloween special as we talk about the games we are too scared to play - not because they are scary, but have frightened us off for one reason or another. Also, more on Vick's hatred for first person shooters. Joel's thoughts on the Hitman: Absolution trailer. Dave doesn't like ...
4. Ethical Perspectives
October 30, 2012 10:25 - 1 hour - 60.7 MBAfter being separated for two and a half episodes Eric and Vick are finally reunited! Don't read too much into that. In this episode the alleged-nerds talk about Mark of The Ninja, Torchlight 2 and briefly (too briefly) about Dishonored, while the one self-professed-non-nerd talks about a book on game design that she bought. ("Because it was on sale," she protests.) We also discuss the use of morality systems in games and how that affects our enjoyment of said games. Incidentally we also ...
3.5. Welcome to VHS
October 23, 2012 05:16 - 6 minutes - 5.96 MBTechnical problems won't stop the team from giving you an SAS Episode, even though it's not really truly an SAS Episode! Welcome to our first ever Super Special Bloopers Bonus! (SSBB) (See what we did there?) As Dave struggles to host an episode while working in a dingy French hotel, the team finds itsself a first ever emergency bloopers bonus special. It's 6 mins 30 seconds of pure concentrated awkwardness as you hear the team screw up and laugh at each other mercilessly! We'll be back...
3. All Singled Out
October 15, 2012 15:47 - 58 minutes - 53.9 MBThis week, Eric, Joel and Dave indulge in more nerdy self-loathing as both Victoria and Lisa are away. Also, they talk about XCOM:Enemy Unknown, God of War Saga, and (about time) Borderlands 2. After the break, the guys discuss the resurgence of single player games in the industry, fueled by kickstarter and the independent scene. They also respond somewhat to Blizzard's Chief Creative Officer Rob Pardo's statement that single player games are an endangered species. Also cue memories of old ...
2. Xboxes in Trolleys
October 09, 2012 19:48 - 1 hour - 57 MBHello World! In this episode, Staring at Screens talks about portable games, and how casual games have spawned from mobile devices of the past few years. Also meet new podcast member Lisa who fills in for Eric while he's away. Lisa's our resident social media guru and handles all our twitter and facebook accounts so do say hi! And she's also our resident Kingdom Rush expert. Joel confesses his love for Cookie Dozer, Vick waxes lyrical about the Simpsons Tapped Out, Dave splurges in Pocke...
1. Back To The Future
September 29, 2012 10:13 - 1 hour - 62.6 MBHello World! In our first episode, Staring at Screens answers the million dollar question: Just who the hell are we and why should you care? Apart from introductions, we delve into the future of Sony and the Playstation; combat mechanics of Assasin's Creed 3; narrative gaming, and how Guild Wars 2 is measuring up in its first few months. Also! Find out who dumped a kindergarten crush because of 'controller tugging', and who is very proud of his C3PO Xbox controller. Send questions and co...