Latest Videogame arguments Podcast Episodes
E119: Gran Turismo 4
Retro Spectives - May 06, 2024 10:02 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsOver the years, we’ve played games from pretty much every genre under the sun, but there is one that is notably missing - the racing sim. We’ve dabbled with arcade racers like Burnout 3, and have played several kart racers - Diddy Kong and F-Zero GX to name a couple. But this is the first time...
Episode 118: Hitman Bloodmoney
Retro Spectives - April 08, 2024 08:16 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsHitman: Blood Money, first released in 2006 by Eidos, is considered by many to be the best Hitman game ever made. After the first few games played around with novel ideas and concepts to mixed success, Blood Money honed in on the formulae of specific, small and dense environments filled with ‘a...
Episode 117: Final Fantasy VII
Retro Spectives - March 11, 2024 12:47 - 2 hours ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsFinal Fantasy VII is a landmark title not only for the JRPG genre, but for all video games. First released in 1997 and developed by Square, it took the format of the previous games and brought them to life with 3D models and environments. Featuring an ambitious and creative setting, a complica...
Episode 116: Rain World
Retro Spectives - January 22, 2024 10:36 - 2 hours ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsRain World is a game that was released to very mixed reviews. With a whopping 59 on Metacritic, it was panned for its controls, difficulty, tedium and general obtuseness. But take a gander at the community reviews and you get a very different picture. The thing is, Rain World can at times be ...
Episode 115: Mailbag 5
Retro Spectives - January 01, 2024 05:09 - 2 hours ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsIt's that time of year again! For most of our episodes, our format is identical - we play a game, then discuss and review it. Once a year, however, we take a break from the format at christmas time for our Mailbag episodes. These are some of our favourite episodes to do - we take a break from...
Episode 114: Age of Mythology
Retro Spectives - December 11, 2023 06:34 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsEnsemble Studios blew the world away with Age of Empires way back in 1997. It took a different approach to the RTS formulae than Westwood or Blizzard, and was rewarded heavily for it. Being able to advance your entire civilization's technology level was a heady drug, and balancing the varied n...
Episode 113: Blood
Retro Spectives - November 13, 2023 07:46 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsBlood, first released in 1997 by Monolith Studios, was the middle child of the big three Build Engine games, sandwiched in between Duke 3D and Shadow Warrior. Its combination of gory horror-inspired visuals combined with action filled FPS gameplay was a huge hit at the time of release, but has ...
Episode 112: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Retro Spectives - October 23, 2023 10:51 - 2 hours ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsMetal Gear Solid 2 was easily the most hotly anticipated game for the Playstation 2. The first game had blown everyone away, and the jaw-dropping graphics of previews combined with the quality of the animation in cutscenes seemed almost too good to be true. Luckily for fans everywhere, MGS 2...
Episode 111: Rollercoaster Tycoon 2
Retro Spectives - October 02, 2023 08:27 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsRollercoaster Tycoon 2 was a staple of many people’s PC desktop screens back in the early 2000s. Nestled in between the big hitters like Warcraft 3 and Diablo 2 you would find this odd game that straddled the line between simulation and video game. Developed by Infogrames Interactive, it saw C...
Episode 110: Metal Gear Solid
Retro Spectives - August 28, 2023 07:40 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsIt feels like Metal Gear Solid barely needs an introduction. First released in 1998 for the playstation, it launched Hideo Kojima into the western spotlight and has been credited as a foundational game in the stealth genre. It combined a cinematic presentation with a larger than life cast of v...
Episode 109: Advance Wars
Retro Spectives - August 07, 2023 09:26 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsIn the 90’s turn based strategy and tactics games were everywhere, but by the turn of the millennium the RTS genre was stealing its thunder. So it was a surprise to most when in 2001 Advance Wars seemingly came out of nowhere and presented a tight and refined dose of tactics to the Western worl...
Episode 108: Bad Mojo
Retro Spectives - July 17, 2023 11:10 - 58 minutes ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsPower fantasies are the norm for video games. We play them to blow off steam, to escape into another world where we can let our worries drop away. But Pulse Entertainment wanted to do things a little differently when they developed Bad Mojo in 1996. They wanted to put the player in the little...
Episode 107: Luigi's Mansion
Retro Spectives - June 26, 2023 07:43 - 53 minutes ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsLuigi’s Mansion was the cornerstone of the Nintendo Gamecube’s launch in 2001. It sold more copies than any other launch title, received positive critical acclaim, and occupied prime place in every promo gaming machine in gaming and electronic shops everywhere. The game promised a charming tak...
Episode 106: Unreal
Retro Spectives - June 05, 2023 07:54 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsUnreal was the Crysis of its time. It pushed PCs to their absolute limits, with its advanced shader effects and enormous levels. It featured AI that was far beyond the stilted and simplistic enemies that people were used to. It built an alien world that managed to straddle the line between th...
Episode 105: Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Retro Spectives - May 18, 2023 07:49 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsWhen Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers first released in 1993, it was not a crack commercial hit. It did however instantly earn itself widespread critical acclaim, with reviewers praising its dark and disturbing story, foreboding atmosphere, and incredible voice acting. The game brought the ...
Episode 104: Arx Fatalis
Retro Spectives - April 26, 2023 07:51 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsArkane Studios was founded with a dream: to create a sequel to the highly revered grandfather of immersive sims Ultima Underworld. Unfortunately for them, they couldn’t quite secure the rights to the IP, and instead decided to make a game that was evocative of the original in every way. Enter ...
Episode 103: Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Retro Spectives - April 03, 2023 10:05 - 59 minutes ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsPuzzles are like crack cocaine for their very special audience. Whether it be a crossword, a logic problem, or even a riddle, unravelling them shoots a heavy dose of endorphins directly to the brain. It is therefore no surprise that Professor Layton and the Curious Village was such a resoundin...
Episode 102: Homeworld
Retro Spectives - March 16, 2023 07:21 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsRelic Entertainment has a long history of innovating in the RTS space. Both Company of Heroes and Dawn of War are much beloved and respected titles that could hold their heads high even when compared to other goliaths like Warcraft, Red Alert or Age of Empires. But in many ways it was their ve...
Episode 101: Fable
Retro Spectives - February 20, 2023 09:40 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsBefore Todd Howard’s promises about the climbability of mountains was Peter Molyneux and Fable, a game which promised a level of interactivity never seen before in an RPG. Have children (that could continue your legacy when you died), plant a tree and see it grow, and dynamic rivalries with oth...
Episode 100: Pathologic 2
Retro Spectives - January 30, 2023 07:18 - 2 hours ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsThe original Pathologic has long been regarded as a cult classic. Obtuse, frustrating, boring and unfriendly, it nonetheless captured people’s imaginations with its densely woven storytelling and mystical dialogue. It was a game that came at the art form from a completely different direction f...
Episode 99.5 M4ilB4g
Retro Spectives - January 09, 2023 07:31 - 2 hours ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsWhen we started this podcast nearly 4 years ago, we did so with a clear goal in mind. We wanted to play, review and critique games of the past from a perspective free of nostalgia. As the gaming industry grew, games changed, for both better and worse - and it is worthwhile to examine all those...
Episode 99: Metroid Prime
Retro Spectives - December 26, 2022 11:26 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsThe Metroid games are certified classics for a reason. Super Metroid, in particular, is responsible for inventing an entire genre, with a shockingly tight design that puts all other games of its era to shame. The 90s came and went without seeing a 3D metroid game, but in 2002 we finally saw th...
Episode 98: Resident Evil 4
Retro Spectives - November 28, 2022 10:54 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsWhen Resident Evil first came out in 1996, it wrote the book on what 3D survival horror was meant to be. Fixed camera angles, a creepy atmosphere, tank controls and bizarrely themed puzzles - these were now synonymous with the genre, whether you liked it or not. And for the most part, people l...
Episode 97: The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
Retro Spectives - November 07, 2022 09:09 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsThe Chronicles of Riddick, when it first released in 2004, was the definition of mediocre sci-fi schlock. Riddick, played by Vin Diesel, came across as a generic edgelord, and it seemed to lean into special effects and spectacle over anything more substantial. It's a direction that didn’t play...
Episode 96: Drill Dozer
Retro Spectives - October 24, 2022 07:17 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsGamefreak, on the rarest of occasions, takes a break from toiling away in the Pokemon mines. And when they do, sometimes they strike gold. Such was the case with Drill Dozer, first released in 2005 to mostly favourable reviews. As time ticked on, however, many began to look back on it with in...
E95: Mega Man X
Retro Spectives - October 03, 2022 07:47 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsMega Man X, first released in 1993 and developed by Capcom, is a certified Super Nintendo classic. Widely considered to be one of the strongest entries in the entire expanded Mega Man franchise, it took the classic formulae of running and gunning and turned it up to 11. The graphics were more ...
E94: Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie
Retro Spectives - September 19, 2022 08:20 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsPeter Jackson made history with the release of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but as far as he was concerned he was just getting warmed up. A mere two years later saw him remaking King Kong, with the marketing department splashing his name all over the place so there could be no doubt that this...
E93: Blade Runner
Retro Spectives - September 05, 2022 08:43 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsBlade Runner is one of the most exceptional and influential works of science fiction to ever grace the silver screen. It brought the works of Phillip K Dick to life from its opening shots of geysers of flame erupting in the shadow of the Tyrell Corporation’s Egyptian skyscrapers. The technolog...
Episode 92: Fire Emblem Path of Radiance
Retro Spectives - August 23, 2022 08:27 - 2 hours ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsFire Emblem: Path of Radiance, as the ninth game in the series, did not radically alter the formula that made the series what it is. Take one pinch of tactics, mix liberally with some RPG mechanics and bake together into a cohesive fantasy world, and at the end of it you’ll have a Fire Emblem g...
Episode 91: Rez
Retro Spectives - August 01, 2022 07:16 - 50 minutes ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsRez, first released in 2001 for the Dreamcast and PS2, is many things. It's a rail shooter, heralded as one of the greats of a now mostly dead genre. It's a visual assault on the senses, with its pulsating neon wireframes and insanely animated boss fights. It's an audio hallucinatory trip, wi...
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