Arcadian Rhythms: stay a while and listen

AR podcast featured

AR Podcast #14: ‘Best of the Best’ 2013 with Eric Roberts

AR podcast featured

Last December the AR gang got together to discuss the finest videogames of 2013. In retrospect we realise this was a terrible mistake because – at the time – none of us had played Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel.

Nonetheless a fairly comprehensive list of games was discussed, ranging across most non-Nintendo platforms. PC games were even discussed; PC games! [Ed: hey, I talk about PC games all the time!]

So come join us – Shaun, Dylan, a surprisingly inebriated Potter and a shockingly sober AJ – in celebrating a year that wasn’t the best but was still better than most.

Plus there’s loads of childish laughter about the word ‘Rymd’.

(Eric Roberts is sadly not present on or mentioned in the actual podcast. However you can go here to get your fill.)

Timeline:

  • 00:42 – AJ and Shaun joke about delays to podcast episodes… and of course this podcast got delayed too
  • 04:34 – AJ praises PC controls
  • 05:00 – Potter frowns at the pronunciation of ‘Golems’
  • 05:54 – Scandinavian/Nordic debate starts and then Shaun mentions Rymdkapsel
  • 07:56 – The gang fail to get over ‘Rymdkapsel’
  • 09:01 – ‘Yes, you know I am.’
  • 10:45 – ‘Touched a nerve in my heart’
  • 13:18 – ‘…or you may feel cold and confused’
  • 15:26 – Bioshock Infinite gets compared to an interactive novel; a Twine perhaps?
  • 16:42 – AJ has a PC rant and shits on Steam, balancing out his earlier praise
  • 19:07 – ‘Made it look like a Halo cutscene’
  • 19:48 – Minor spoilers for Gone Home
  • 20.36 – Spoilers end
  • 21:34 – Potter ignores AJ’s talking
  • 24:30 – Dylan rouses himself from his boredom during the Gone Home conversation to talk about his favourite game
  • 27:15 – ‘Wii-U? Of all things!’
  • 29:00 – Dylan talks about the Internet failing him
  • 30:00 – At the time, AJ thought we were coming up to the halfway mark
  • 31:41 – S-ranking an indie game
  • 31:55 – ‘I haven’t played anything’
  • 32:00 – Technically there are spoilers for Papers, Please here but you should listen to them anyway
  • 35:18 – ‘I might get dinged’
  • 35:45 – A quick break
  • 37:55 – Spoiler for Saints Row: The Third that last about 10 seconds
  • 39:50 – The death of Zemo
  • 44:05 – Cars are irrelevant and Crackdown 2 is rubbish
  • 44:57 – The arsehole of the ironic excuse
  • 45:33 – Binary Domain, once again, did not get nominated for games of the year
  • 47:40 – S-Ranking Metro 2033
  • 50:58 – ‘I like the sound of this being easier’
  • 54:04 – Raphael and Demo talk
  • 55:50 – The word ‘meta’ is mentioned
  • 58:15 – Potter defines Rhythm Action games
  • 1:00:50 – Short form games
  • 1:01:34 – ‘We can edit that’
  • 1:02:30 – ‘How is this different to Minecraft?’
  • 1:04:38 – ‘It doesn’t sound like any of these games!’
  • 1:05:24 – ‘Because I am an idiot’
  • 1:05:00 – ‘Pixelated Pixel-Art’
  • 1:06:45 – Sexism rears its ugly head
  • 1:08:30 – ‘I didn’t intend that to be mean, it just happened’
  • 1:09:58 – Twins are, apparently, awesome
  • 1:13:11 – Ubisoft bucks trends by giving out free DLC, on a mobile device no less
  • 1:16:00 – ‘Do not confuse our listeners!’
  • 1:17:00 – GTA V!
  • 1:18:39 – ‘Is this The Stanley Podcast?’
  • 1:19:01 – Honorable mentions
  • 1:21:34 – A break that results in memory limitations
  • 1:22:05 – ‘There’s nothing ringing!’
  • 1:23:30 – As the story dissipates, the gameplay becomes more stark
  • 1:25:04 – AJ says ‘world-building’ in an attempt to get a rise out of Potter. Potter returns the favour by ignoring everything he just said
  • 1:25:47 – ‘Sorry, can we cut that out?’
  • 1:26:00 – AJ gets bleeped
  • 1:29:45 – ‘I’d rather get shot to shit’
  • 1:30:24 – ‘World-building’ (like falling out of the world)
  • 1:30:41 – Shaun confesses that he played The Last of Us the way AJ watches The Fast and the Furious and The Transfomers: ill and delirious
  • 1:32:15 – Shaun tries to avoid spoilers for The Last of Us – and fails. WARNING: spoilers for The Last of Us (not explicit but damning enough)
  • 1:34:24 – Potter insists he knows what poignant means (he actually does)
  • 1:39:06 – Major spoilers for The Last of Us – seriously, even if you were okay with the last lot you may not be with these. There is however a great comedy turn by Potter
  • 1:42:16 – Spoilers end and a break is taken
  • 1:43:06 – ‘Well I loved it… there you go’
  • 1:46:17 – What other game gives you an option to search suburban houses or search them harder?
  • 1:49:30 – Shaun was going to write about State of Decay except AJ did it first
  • 1:52:00 – Emergent narrative description
  • 1:58:30 – Sometimes cool ideas suck
  • 2:01:28 – ‘They’re all games of the year’
  • 2:02:30 – ‘Are you playing the Fighter Within?’
  • 2:03:00 – Joss Whedon and Pacific Rim discussion

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