Hot Button

This week we have returned to give a proper summary on what in the world we all just watched as well as a thorough analysis of how this wonderfully schlocky cult film made its way into theaters everywhere! For you it is the most important day of your life. But for us, it is Tuesday.

No, we’re not dead! Come hear where we’ve been! The hiatus may have been longer than expected, but that didn’t certainly stop the world from turning. And the news from happening. In this return special we got all the latest updates on our backlog of fun stories over the past near half decade. Announcements, deaths, and everything in between. Plus some laying out of killers plans for the podcast’s future too!

It’s time we tally up the results and see who came out on top following the airing of this year’s The Game Awards! NFTs thankfully weren’t welcome at the event, however it did come jam-packed with trailers, announcements, and of course those sweet trophies given to the victorious. So join in listening to us run through it all! Play by play! From Sting to the Matrix.

It’s awards season y’all! In this episode, we run through every category and nomination featured in Geoff Keighley’s big annual game of the year event. We then choose our picks on who we think will take home the gold and why as we play against each other in betting which title is going to come out on top in the end. Will it be Resident Evil: Village? Will it be Psychonauts 2? Is one of us upset that Returnal wasn’t included? Tune in to find out just how we align!

Timestamps:
Best Narrative - 00:03:45, Best Art Direction - 00:11:27, Best Score and Music - 00:17:09, Best Audio Design - 00:27:22, Best Performance - 00:35:18, Games for Impact - 00:44:54, Best Ongoing Game - 00:49:19, Best Community Support - 00:52:39, Best Indie Game - 00:55:48, Best Mobile Game - 01:03:27, Best AR/VR Game - 01:10:55, Innovation in Accessibility - 01:13:40, Best Action Game - 01:23:09, Best Action Adventure - 01:27:43, Best Roleplaying Game - 01:36:00, Best Fighting Game - 01:41:29, Best Family Game - 01:44:15, Best Sim/Strategy Game - 01:52:41, Best Sports/Racing Game - 01:56:14, Best Multiplayer Game - 02:02:52, Best Debut Indie Game - 02:10:15, Content Creator of the Year - 02:15:45, eSports Awards - 02:23:08, Best Game Direction - 02:31:46, Game of the Year - 02:35:42, Most Anticipated Game - 02:52:50

It’s a full house this week as we celebrate our third birthday together. So join us in going back through every topic we’ve ever covered from the very beginning all the way to today! A near two and half hours of updating, correcting, and reflecting on the good times. This along with poking fun at the constant strangeness this industry seems to endlessly relish in.

Our mini-stories series is back! This week we super vary it up and get into the licensing around car manufacturers in racing games, the theft of some classic internet memes, and finally which deep secrets lay hidden behind the legendary Demon’s Souls door.

In what might be one of the most mysterious projects we have ever covered, this week we explore the confusing history of a social experiment who’s intentions to this day are still being investigated. A supposed horror FMV title played through web cameras that also may have even shared close connections with some of the top names in the indie gaming space. Whether or not it ever was destined to see release is truly the ultimate question here in the finale of our 2021 Halloween series!

Are video games teaching your children to eat each other? This week we discuss the time that the industry became under fire in the absolute dumbest way imaginable, along with the origins of an inept advocacy group who hand-waved their way into headlines by picking a fight the Entertainment Software Ratings Board.

And we’re back with the second and final part on the captivating development behind Cyberdream’s playable 1995 translation of Harlan Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream”. This week, we get deep into it’s actual production, release, and legacy! Along with our personal experiences of analyzing it’s intensely terrifying narrative themes.

It’s finally that time of year again, everybody! And what better way to kick off the spooky scary Halloween season than by digging into the story of how one of cult gaming’s most fascinating point-and-click PC adventure titles came to fruition, a direct adaptation AND expansion of Harlan Ellison’s sci-fi horror masterpiece “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream”. On Part I, we break down this twisted work of fiction as well as the early days of the author and developer team who made it all possible.

Don’t y’all just hate those pesky controllers? Wouldn’t your body or voice make a better one? Back in 2010, Microsoft sure thought that! This week we get into life of the motion-sensing camera peripheral for the Xbox 360 known as the Kinect. Everything from its inception to its reception as well as all the tech talk and personal experiences in between.

We’ve watched the film, now it’s time for the full breakdown. This week we get deep into the production and release of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within! A costly cinematic disaster of a computer animated sci-fi epic that for some reason shares a name with the hugely successful gaming series that inspired it. If you’ve also ever wanted to know how Square and Enix became Square Enix, than this is the story for you!