Staring At Screens.

Shiver 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 does a bunch of collecting in the form of trinkets in Tomb Raider and ridiculous fish in Ridiculous Fishing; and Joel tries out the innovative platformer (of course it's a platformer) Snapshot and reports a growing annoyance with SimCity.   Given the recent furore over the always-online nature of SimCity and the growing public perception that this design choice is DRM-motivated we thought it would be fitting to discuss the motivations behind Videogame Piracy and Anti-Piracy countermeasures over the years. For the record, St

This 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 hello@staringatscreens.org or Tweet us @StaringScreens. Also, Will Wright, if you're reading this and you remember meeting an 8-year-old SimEarth-obsessed Dave in Taiwan 22 years ago, please feel free to contact us to corroborate his fantastical claims. Did I forget to mention we played a bunch of SimCity?

On 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, World of Warcraft, Dragon Age, The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, the Mass Effect games, Red Dead Redemption, Borderlands 2, the Professor Layton games, and Batman: Arkham City. Name drops abound in this segment. Then in the mailbag section we get carried away and end up only having time enough to answer one question about predictions for the next generation of consoles. Even more name dropping ensues: Steambox, Ouya, PS4, Xbox Durango, Wii U, and even the Barbie games get a mention. Whut. If you have anything to add to our discussio

We'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 also talk Gaming News. How about that PS4 announcement, huh? Huh? What do you think about that feature-packed controller? Do you want your console experience to be more social? And what about those exciting upcoming games: Deep Down, The Witness, Watch Dogs and Diablo III? Okay, maybe not Diablo III. Tell us what you think by writing to us at hello@staringatscreens.org! In other news the perennial Plants Vs. Zombies is free for a limited time on iOS! Finally we want to give a big shout out to all our new listeners and thos

Gong 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 Would Consider Dating. Find out who in the SAS crew would date royalty for the perks, who could stand to make better life choices, and who has a thing for busty ladies. (Spoiler-alert depending on your KOTOR in-game choices: "Bastila-dies". ) Now if you follow us on Twitter @StaringScreens (How are you not yet following us on Twitter??) you may have seen some photos of our hot-off-the-presses swag in action. That's right Dear Listener, if you haven't already figured it out, the sticky things we teased in last week's episode a

On 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 Global Game Jam 2013 and a few of the games that caught our eye. There's that viral (geddit?) hit Surgeon Simulator 2013, the promising FTL-like platformer Noel, the surprisingly polished bubble-eater Arrhythmia,  and that creepy and slightly mystifying game The Watcher. That's all we had time on the show for, but there's a whole gamut of interesting games birthed from this event that you can (and should) check out on the GGJ2013 website.  Just want to take a moment to give a shout out to our friends at OMGeek.net (pronounced

In 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 seminal (hurhur) work, Sequelitis - Mega Man Classic vs. Mega Man X. What do you guys think? Are in-game tutorials really necessary? Can we live without them? Tell us what you think via email or tweet us @StaringScreens. Don't forget, if you get your friends to listen to the podcast and follow us on Twitter, we'll send you something awesome. /InvisibleCarrotDangle Links: The #Objectify event planned by Leigh Alexander and Ben Abraham… … and why they (rightly) decided to call it off.

This 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 when we voluntarily subjected ourselves to these things back in the day? It's not all bad news though; we also give a shout out to Games and/or Game Mechanics that have aged well, and would still be eminently playable today. Here's a non-exhaustive list of name drops we make along the way: Tamagotch(i), Duke Nukem Forever, Retro City Rampage, Who Shot Johnny Rock, the Leisure Suit Larry series, the Mario Kart games and Virtua Tennis of all things. Damn, we're old. If you know of some well-aged/putrid old Games/Mechanics that

This 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 their hands on. In other news, Vick tells us more about Guardian Heroes on iOS and Fable: The Journey for Xbox360 (Kinect required) and Joel spends way too much time on Far Cry 3. We also talk about some videogame-related movies that we recently watched, namely Wreck-it Ralph and Minecraft: The Story of Mojang. Keep those tissues handy, folks, because it's an emotional episode of Staring At Screens. Links: Minecraft: The Story of Mojang The Verge's interview with Gabe Newell Time talks about Xi3's Piston prototype Androi

On 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. We also examine the reasons behind the phenomenon of not finishing games that we start, or in Vick's case, her reasons for finishing every single game. If you have any games that you resolve to finish in 2013, or have reasons to add about why people finish/don't finish games, write to us at hello@staringatscreens.org or tweet us @StaringScreens! We love to hear from our listeners, so tell us what you think! To round up, here be links! To that cool site that does an analysis of your Steam Library, and the app that was mentio

First 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 Elementary School shooting and the subsequent scapegoating of video games by the NRA. Along the way we talk about violence in games like Spec Ops: The Line, Far Cry 3, and Medal of Honor: Warfighter; and how the treatment of video game violence differs from the treatment of violence in other media.  Now we don't purport to be expert commentators, and as mentioned in the recording, we're sure you, dear listener, have Opinions (with an uppercase O) on this topic. We would love to read these Opinions, so write us (hello@staringatsc

In 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 beware, kids. To round up the year, we talk about our individual Game of The Year picks along with Honorable Mentions. Long-time listeners may get a sense of deja vu. We also received (one piece of) gushy fanmail! Eeyur! (Don't stop sending those in.) This will be the final episode of Staring At Screens for the year. We'd like to extend a big THANK YOU to all our wonderful listeners for your support in 2012. We'll still be checking our email (hello@staringatscreens.org) and Twitter (@StaringScreens), so do write us, and w

On 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 Skyrim, the GTA games, Red Dead Redemption, Fah Kai Far Cry 2, Just Cause 2, Saints Row 3, Sleeping Dogs, and Fallout 3. So many name-drops! Listeners, you definitely get your money's worth this week. Y'know, I mean you would if this podcast weren't free. In next week's episode we'll be talking about Art Film Music. Thrilling stuff. Stay tuned!

Last 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 (Joel and Lisa) - Ashly Burch's tweet (Joel) - Singapore - MIT GAMBIT game lab video (Joel) - fatuglyorslutty.com (Dave) - Xbox Live trolls (Dave and Joel) Further reading: http://borderhouseblog.com/?p=9702 http://borderhouseblog.com/?p=9712 http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/11/29/1reasonwhy-we-are-all-responsible/ http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/06/513794/ http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/113776 http://gambit.mit.edu/projects/hatespeech.php [NSFW] We want to hear from you if you have any feedback or comments, especially if y

Apologies 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!) but isn't too enamoured with the Halo 4 single player campaign. In the second half of the show we share some of our Christmas gift recommendations for gamers as well as things we want for Christmas (you know, in case any of our listeners really really love us.) If you'd like to find out how to send us presents or try to impress Lisa with your Star Wars lore ("laser swords"), drop us an email: hello@staringatscreens.org. Or join our growing Twitter following and get updates on interesting video game news! @StaringScreens

On 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 primed and ready for the main event: the Steam Winter Sale. WAH, STEAM AH! All this and more on Episode 8 of Staring at Screens! PS. As of writing this post, the final day of the Autumn sale is underway. Our thoughts, very briefly: 25 Nov Dishonored; 50%; $29.99 — Excellent game. Great price for a new release. Civilization V GOTY Edition; 75% $12.49 — Pretty cheap, but die-hard fans of the series will prefer IV in favor of V. (Die-hard fans of the series will probably already own this anyway.) Orcs Must Die 2; 75%; $3.74 — A

This 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 games that demand it: GTA vs Saints Row, Dance Central vs Just Dance, Maxis' Sim franchise vs Bullfrog's Theme franchise, Rock Band vs Guitar Hero amongst many others. Eric also educates us about the intense competition between Capcom and SNK back in the day. Also here's a link to that now legendary EVO 2004 SF3 match between Justin Wong and Daigo. 8 years after the fact and this video still gives us the chills. Plus a gif of Wonder Woman parrying, discovered by Vick. Just because. (Thanks Julia Segal!) If you have already

We 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 who likes what, and listen to the full songs below. Also, Joel urges you to check out this link for a good read and more information. The rest of us concur!  Mass Effect 2 - Suicide Mission. Composed by Jack Wall.  Guile Theme (SF2)  by Yoko Shimomura, Isao Abe, and Yoshihiro Sakaguchi (Composers of SF2) Civilisation IV 'Baba Yetu'  By Christopher Tin and performed by the Soweto Gospel Choir Katamari Damacy Theme: "Katamary On the Rocks"  by Yu Miyake and Keita Takahashi Skyrim: Far Horizon  by Jeremy Soule Whale Tra

This 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 volleyball games, or just one in particular. Eric tries to talk about DOTA, but couldn't. Why? You'll see. Send questions and comments to hello@staringatscreens.org! We've been getting lots of great comments but we need more questions else we sound like we're just flattering ourselves! Cough.

After 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 learn who has sadistic Sim-torturing tendencies. Prepare to be truly disturbed…Finally we've got mail! But we'd love to get more, so write to us at hello@staringatscreens.org so we know you still love us.