VDGMS PODCAST: Recent Episodes
VDGMS
Weekly Video Game Talk including everything from Reviews, News, Stocks and whatever else interests us this week
Here is everything you need to know about Rogue Legacy 2 including out review, the top 5 changes from the original, the top 5 best classes, top 5 worst classes, top 5 relics and top 5 worst relics.
In the first half of the show we are going to be reviewing Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side Scrolling Beat-’Em Ups published by Bitmap Books and written by Dave Cook. In the second half of the show, with the long awaited follow up to Cuphead on the horizon, we take a look at just how much went into making the first game in a little mini series we are calling Overnight Success. This week on The VDGMS Podcast
Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side Scrolling Beat-’em ups Book Review (00:23)
Overnight Success: Cuphead (07:27)
On this weeks episode of The VDGMS Podcast we are talking about if a Halo BR makes sense and what the chances of the PlayStation exclusive, MotorStorm, making a return are.
This week on The VDGMS Podcast we are giving our full thoughts after finishing one of our most anticapted games on the year. Can this indie live up to the hype or is it all just cute looks?
What Nintendo system is the best? Well, thats easy, it’s the Nintendo DS because it’s the best selling Nintendo system ever with over 154 million units sold. Or maybe it’s the Nintendo Switch because it’s the best selling non dedicated handheld with almost 104 million in under five years. Maybe it’s the NES, which brought gaming back from the brink of death and was likely many gamers first console. Although the NES sold 61.91, this was a system that was released in the mid 80’s and the potential gaming audience is much wider now. Using an inflation calculator that would be roughly 159.21 million which would place the NES as the best selling Nintendo console of all time.
The point is that to figuring out what Nintendo System is the best is like trying to figure out what is the best Legend of Zelda Game or what is the best Mario Game. There is no correct answer, because everyone has an opinion about which of these games is the best just like what Nintendo console was the best because that could be based on games, features, nostalgia or a combination of those ingredients and the great thing is there is no wrong answer.
Better late than never, as the saying goes and with that said here is our review for Death's Door from the Nintendo Switch, but it is also available on Xbox Game Pass
Everyone that has Game Pass understands just how amazing the service is, but most people don’t stop and smell the roses so for this list we are going to give you our choices for the top ten games that came to Xbox Game Pass in 2021 and how much money you saved by being on the service. This is just a simple how much did the games cost compared to how much you paid subscribing to the service.
To simplify the Top Ten Best Games on Xbox Game Pass it seems easiest to break it down into three categories: First Party, Third Party and Indie Games. Now that you know the business, lets get down to it. This week on The VDGMS Podcast
Power On: The Story of Xbox is a six part series, with each part being around 40 minutes for a total run time of 240 minutes and 53 second which means it is over 4 hours long.
The big question is should you spend your time watching it?
Wick and Skull Candles (01:38)
Minimilist Art (04:45)
Gaming Coffee Table Books (05:39)
Backbone One (09:21)
Switch OLED (11:32)
Sony X90J (12:58)
Waterfield Switch Case (16:23)
Links to most items can be found here:
https://www.vdgms.com/opinion/2021/12/1/what-gamers-actually-want-gift-guide
Games aren't cheap, but luckily sales happen and on this weeks episode, we try to figure out how long you can expect to wait before a game goes on sale.
Who is the best indie game developer in the world? It’s actually a loaded question because the term indie casts such a wide net across the gaming industry today. You have some indie studios that are only a few people like Mega Crit who made Slay the Spire and on the other hand you have a studio like IO Interactive who have recently reclaimed their independence and are closer to 300 employees. This is a very big difference and there are many studios like both.
For this list we are looking at the more classical term for indie studio that will help keep the list tight and focused with only studios that are smaller in nature.
Nearly thirty of the best and brightest indie game studios were taken into consideration, here are the best indie game studios.
There are gaming genres that are as old as time itself, such as adventure games like The Legend of Zelda or Platformers like Mario or RPG’s such as Final Fantasy but every now and then a new game comes around that creates a new genre that takes the world by storm. In the early 90’s you had the first person shooter craze, which still is dominant today. In the Mid 90’s, real time strategy games or RTS took over with games like Command and Conquer, Warcraft, and StarCraft. We have continued to see it happen many times since then.
There are new games and experiences being released constantly, so why did these games rise above the rest and become mainstream while others didn't. Is it an evolutionary or a revolutionary change that causes a spark?
Let’s take a look at some of the more recent genres that seemingly came out of nowhere, try to find patterns and see if we can deduce what might be the next big genre to take over the gaming world.
Having been sitting on the sidelines for nearly 20 years while many other games get credit for being the best 2D Metroidvania around including Ori, Hollow Knight, Shadow Complex and many others, the queen has returned to take her rightful place on throne she created, but is the seat still available or has Samus lost touch?
This week on The VDGMS Podcast, we are giving our review for Metroid Dread.
There is a lot more to successful consoles than just exclusives and thats where third party studios come in the picture. Here are the Top 5 big budget Third Party Studios.
Diablo 2 Resurrected was developed by Vicarious Visions, who over the past few years have made a name for themselves as being a studio that excels at faithful and excellent remasters. Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy and Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 + 2, kept the heart and soul of what made these original games iconic in the first place. What needed to be changed was minimal quality of life updates and bringing the visuals into the modern era. Diablo 2 Resurrected is no exception to the amazing work that Vicarious Visions have become known for.
What made Diablo 2 special twenty one years ago is the reason that Diablo 2 Resurrected is as good as it is today and the what made Diablo 2 the game that it was twenty one years ago is also the reason that Diablo 2 Resurrected is hampered by the limitations of the original. Everything that you remember being here in 2000 is still here today for better or worse.
This week on The VDGMS Podcast, we have a review of the current PlayStation 5 exclusive FIST: Forged in Shadow Torch. (also available on PS4) Full transparency, review code was provided, so a big thank you for that but more importantly as with all other reviews with codes provided, the end result will still be honesty but take it with a grain of salt if you prefer.
With that out of the way, let’s talk about the game.
Have you ever wondered, who is the best when it comes to PlayStation Studios? Wonder no more as we have thrown some math at the problem to figure out how Sony's internal teams stack up against each other.
The 90’s are more popular than ever and reboots are less risky. We take a look at the potential of a full Quake reboot is, coming after Quake was remastered in celebration of QuakeCon 2021. We take a look at some of the great reboots from the past decade are, including two very comparable examples and some reboots that didn’t go so well. We finally take a look at reasons why the Quake franchise is primed for a reboot.
This week on The VDGMS Podcast, we are taking a look and giving our review for the highly anticipated 12 Minutes. It is currently console exclusive on Xbox while being a day one Game Pass release and is also available on Steam. 12 Minutes is a Point & Click Adventure, Time Loop Thriller and Murder Mystery all blended into one game. Let’s see if 12 Minutes is able to live up to the hype that many are placing on it.
Being such a huge fanatic of the first two entires in the Dead Space series, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the third entry. More of a good thing is always good. Although when leading up to the release of Dead Space 3, there was a little cause for concern, not only on how quickly it was developed after the second game was released but also that it was being developed with co-op in mind.
There could be many reasons for not liking the third entry in the series including internal and external forces. Who knows what was happening in my life at that time or maybe with the first two games being as excellent as they were, the expectations were too high and could have led to a disappointment that wasn’t deserved. I wanted to revisit this game and see if maybe I was too hard on it in 2013.
Lets find out.
Hello everyone welcome, on this weeks episode we are giving our first 48 review for Curse of the Dead Gods. This is not a super new game as it came out a few months back, but it is new to Game Pass and Game Pass makes it very easy to try games out. Curse of the Dead Gods is a rogue-lite, which are very in style at the moment and has been drawing comparisons to Hades among other titles. We will talk about how accurate the Hades comparison is and what we think of the game, This Week on The VDGMS Podcast.
With both Sony and Microsoft recently releasing some great news about their hard to find, new, next generation consoles, the spotlight has now shifted to Nintendo to see how the company is faring with minimal releases, basically since the start of 2020.
Sony recently mentioned on the PlayStation Blog that the PS5 is the fastest selling console in the company’s history dating back to the early 90’s when the entered the gaming business. In just under 8 months, the PS5 has managed to sell over 10 million. In a different aspect of success, the Xbox Series consoles have also managed to sell quite well with estimated being around 7 million with most of their focus being on services such as Game Pass where they continued to see growth.
Would Nintendo have more magic up their sleeve with next to nothing new happening on the console in a major way to move hardware and software. Here is our review of Nintendo FY22 Q1 earnings report.
Time Stamps
PS5 (00:28)
Xbox (06:15)
When to Buy Next Gen Console?
https://www.vdgms.com/opinion/2020/5/18/is-it-better-to-buy-console-early-or-late
E3 2021 and all the conferences that werent part of E3 but were basically part of E3 have all concluded. The results were mixed with some conferences being drastically better than others. In traditional E3 format there was a lot of overlap and a lot of filler content, all of Monday comes to mind as a day that could have been completely removed, making for a tighter more cohesive event.
In our first recap, we covered the early parts of E3, and in our next E3 episode the plan was to go over the the Microsoft & Bethesda Conference alongside the Nintendo E3 2021 Direct, however after revisiting the Microsoft conference there was too much to try and also squeeze in the Nintendo Direct. Microsoft delivered a strong conference that should instil confidence in Xbox owners and should entice new people to the ecosystem. This week on The VDGMS Podcast.
Time Stamps
BF 2042 - (00:45)
Elden Ring (04:42)
Ubisoft Forward (07:42)
Metal Slug Tactics (10:42)
Nintendo Predictions (01:07)
EA Predictions (07:18)
Live Service Predictions (11:11)
Xbox Indie Predictions (15:12)
In between the second and third entry, we take a look at the state of The Dark Pictures Anthology.
Iwata was a very open book compared to the relatively secret and mysterious Nintendo that we have come to know. Iwata Asks was a series of interviews that featured openness between the President of Nintendo and key creators and developers behind some of Nintendo’s biggest franchises. These are all still available online if you search Iwata Asks.
Hundreds of interviews are translated in English ranging from topics on the Game and Watch, Wii, WiiU, DS and 3DS. If are a fan of Nintendo and their history then these are a nice deep dive into the other side of Nintendo that fans don’t rarely see. A big question you may ask before buying this book is if the milk is free then why buy the cow?
Another fiscal year, another quarter, and a whole lot of in game purchases. Thats the quick summary of the most recent earnings report from EA that entailed the fourth quarter of FY21 as well as some generalized data from the whole fiscal year. However, if you want to go a little deeper down the hole then let’s take a look at the data from the fourth quarter and the whole fiscal year to get an idea what we can maybe expect from Electronic Arts moving forward.
At the tail end of March 2020, as we were just heading into the pandemic and which feels like years ago at this point, Nintendo released Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which in just a few days sold around 12 million copies and gave a good indication of how things were going to look during the pandemic, financially.
Sure enough, 12 months later and we now have the results from the past 12 months of Nintendo’s financials, which range from April 2020 until the end of March 2021 and encompass their FY2021. Even after the massive surge that Nintendo saw during the last few months of FY20, their projections for FY2021 were still fairly reasonable and most projections initially were less than FY20 actual. Let's take a closer look!
With many publicly traded gaming companies recently releasing quarterly earnings reports for the first three months of 2021 and with many outlets doing features that focus on looking ahead for the rest of the year, I thought I would follow Nintendo’s lead and go to the blue ocean. This means that it is time to basically do an earnings report for video gaming as a whole or grade the first quarter.
When trying to figure out the Report Card of Gaming for 2021 there will be many factors that contribute. We have had some fun announcements, there have been some high profile delays, both short and some indefinite and we have seen some great releases giving us great games to play. These are the factors that rose to prominence when trying to decide how to lay out the 2021 first quarter earnings report for video games.
These last 12-15 months have certainly been quite the journey for GameStop. A few weeks ago on March 23, GameStop reported their fourth quarter earnings for the three month period that ended on January 31st, 2021, however it’s clear that the roller coaster for the once wildly successful video game retailer is far from over. We dig a little deeper to see what changes GameStop has done in hopes to turn their fall from grace around.
Monster Train - First 48 Review (01:03)
Fights in Tight Spaces - First 48 Review (06:27)
LG OLED REVIEW (01:42)
PS5 PS PLUS 2021 RANKINGS (07:30)
https://www.vdgms.com/reviews/2021/3/13/are-lg-tvs-good
Maquette Review - First 48 Review (01:23)
Monster Sanctuary - First 48 Review (05:00)
Switch Pro News (10:09)
We react and give our impressions to Nintendo and their first Direct in 532 days. Some Zelda talk, some Metroid talk and some Mario Golf talk.
Taking a closer look at EA’s Q3 Earnings Report for FY2021 and what it looks like moving forward. With only It Takes Two from Hazelight Studios left to release this fiscal year, will it be enough?
We take a quick look at the last few years of IOI and Hitman. Finally we give you our full review of Hitman 3.
We take a look at what could come from the announcement that Bethesda and LucasFilm Games will be working together to produce a wholly original Indiana Jones game that will be developed by MachineGames.
Will we ever see a third entry in the popular series from Valve, Left 4 Dead. The answer is probably not but heading into 2021, one of the higher profile games expected to release this year is Back 4 Blood from Turtle Rock Studios. If you don't know anything about the game, it’s the spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead, the fantastic co-op survival shooter published by Valve and created by Turtle Rock just before they were acquired way back in 2008.
Founded in 2002 with just six people, the team at Turtle Rock gained mainstream attention with their zombie shooter Left 4 Dead and as of today has blossomed to 126 employees based on their LinkedIn page. Despite a somewhat inconsistent portfolio since their inception in 2002, if there is one game that Turtle Rock could hang their hat on, it would be the co-op zombie shooting of Left 4 Dead. Although, with over a decade since the last mainline entry in the series, the big question is do enough people still want that.
Animal Crossing (01:46)
The Last of Us Part 2 (04:28)
Ori (08:42)
Hades (12:35)
Astro (16:07)
Next Generation Consoles (01:04)
Nintendo Switch (04:01)
Half life Alyx (07:20)
Free to Play (09:45)
Returnal (01:35)
12 minutes (06:01)
Hollow Knight: Silk Song (09:10)
Honorable Mentions (13:51)
Horizon Zero Dawn is arguably one of the best games of the PlayStation 4 generation. Guerilla Games ability to create a brand new IP and having it become a massive critical and commercial success is quite the accomplishment. This doesn’t even mention how Guerilla created an iconic new PlayStation protagonist that displayed a strong female lead at a time when the industry was sorely lacking this presence.
However, long before Aloy became a household name on the tongues of gamers, long before we battled giant robot dinosaurs, long before the Decima engine was created and long before Horizon Zero Dawn would go on to sell over ten million copies according to the PlayStation blog, Amsterdam based Guerilla Games were known for a much different franchise. We could talk all day about the acclaim and the awards that the studio received for Horizon Zero Dawn, especially considering that moving away from first person shooters, the only thing the studio had been known for at the time, seemed extremely risky but as they say fortune favours the bold.
Development for Killzone Shadow Fall happened in parallel with the development of Horizon Zero Dawn, which began after Killzone 3, which was able to happen due to the large size of the studio that employs close to 400 people based on their Linkedin. This is noteworthy because the only game that we know in active development at Guerilla is Horizon Forbidden West. This means that there is a good chunk of the studio working on a unannounced game. The multi million dollar budget question being is Guerilla Games working on a new entry in the Killzone series or are they trying to put that series in their rear view mirror and create another new IP.
Back in 2006, Sony was launching a console by the name of the PlayStation 3 and isn’t it funny how history has a way of repeating itself. Almost exactly fourteen years ago, on November 17, 2006, Sony released a very oversized gaming system, at two different, premium price points with an exclusive Insomniac launch title. When you look at the launch of the PS3 like that, it’s easy to draw parallels to the launch of the PS5 in 2020.
The good news for Sony is that the PS3, despite its early missteps and chunky size would go on to outsell the Xbox 360 with approximately 87 million units and a great library of games include beloved series and brand new IP. The PS3 was the birthplace of Nathan Drake, Sackboy and Ellie as well as many famous third party titles including Metal Gear, BioShock, and Red Dead Redemption.
Circling back to Insomniac, Spider-Man: Miles Morales is the game that will be on most people’s must play list this fall when the lucky few will be able to get their hands on a PS5. After the excellent first entry in the series in 2018 with Spider-Man, Insomniac has set the bar high for themselves and fans have a good idea of what they can expect. Back in 2006, this was a very different story. If you were looking for a launch game that you was from existing IP, your best options would be Ridge Racer 7 or Call of Duty 3. If you were looking for the best launch title then you would look no further than Resistance: Fall of Man from Insomniac.
This got me thinking with all of the success either commercial, critical or both that Insomniac have seen with their most recent releases such as Spider-Man, Sunset Overdrive, and Ratchet and Clank 2016, the question is will they ever return to fight the Chimera again?
If you like Nintendo, then you might like these three articles.
Where are Mario Sports on Switch?
https://www.vdgms.com/2020/10/13/where-are-the-mario-sports-games
What will Nintendo do for 35th Zelda Anniversary
https://www.vdgms.com/2020/9/30/what-will-nintendo-do-for-zeldas-35th-anniversary
What console is most like the Wii?
https://www.vdgms.com/2020/5/29/what-console-is-most-like-the-wii
On the precipice of the next generation of consoles from Sony and Microsoft and on the brink of handing over plenty of hard earned cash, should I actually be able to locate either a PS5 or an Xbox Series X, I found myself wondering; is console gaming actually expensive?
This week on the VDGMS podcast we wonder if there is any possibility of Dead Space making a triumphant return this generation?
Nintendo has experimented with a lot of different games over the past four decades but one genre that seems to be an afterthought are the Mario Sports titles. None of the Mario sports titles including Golf, Tennis, Soccer, and Baseball games have been developed first party from Nintendo. Instead they have been developed by third party studios including Bandai Namco who developed the baseball series, Camelot who developed the golf and tennis, and Next Level Games who did the soccer series.
The need to develop the Mario Sports titles in house is not a necessity, as we have recently seen some great additions to the Switch Library that prove third parties are very capable of handling Nintendo’s sacred IP including Next Level Games, with Luigi’s Mansion 3 in 2019 and Camelot who released Mario Tennis Aces in 2018. Both of these games sold quite well with Luigis Mansion 3 selling 6.33 in the fiscal year that it was released and Mario Tennis Aces selling 2.64 million copies in around the first 9 months that it was released. Coincidentally both of these studios are the teams behind some of the long dormant franchises in question, which begs the question, what are these studios working on?
This week on the VDGMS podcast, we have a shorter episode than usual featuring our review for SuperGiant's rogue lite Hades on the Nintendo Switch. I haven't been able to complete see credits on the game as of yet but after around 15 hours, I can feel myself knocking at the door on any run now. I will likely update the review featuring endgame content but in terms of keeping things relevant and timely, I feel more than knowledgeable about Hades to give my full impressions. If you are interested in picking up Hades then hang on for our twenty one question review right after this.
On September 3rd, 2020, Nintendo finally unveiled their plans for the 35th anniversary of Mario. Celebrating his first adventure on the home console back in 1985, although he did technically make his first appearance a few years earlier in the arcade scene. Since 1985, Mario has been unstoppable and has grown into one of the most valuable IP’s in the world rivalling giants like Mickey Mouse and Star Wars. We now understand what is planned for the celebration of Mario despite being hamstrung by the pandemic. What we have yet to understand is what does Nintendo have planned for 2021 and the 35th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda. This week on the podcast we try to deduce what could potentially happen next year for Nintendo.
Just a day before the preorders for the next generation of Xbox was to go on sale, Microsoft dropped a bombshell on the gaming industry. On the Xbox Wire, Microsoft has announced that they have entered into an agreement to acquire ZeniMax Media, which includes all of their game studios and the talents of the over 2300 employees who are currently employed. This is huge news for Xbox as the landscape for this generation might look extremely different depending on how Microsoft proceeds.
As expected, whether it be Sony or Microsoft revealing their next gen details first, they would be shortly followed by the competition. This past week Xbox, due to a calculated leak or not, revealed all the details of the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S including specs, price, release date, Game Pass and pre order details among other things. Less than a week after Xbox revealing their next generation plans, Sony has unveiled their plans for the upcoming console launch. On September 16, The PlayStation 5 showcase happened and gave us one last glimpse into the near future of what PlayStation has to offer before we can actually get our hands on it.
As we eagerly await with patience (some people) the price and date of the next generation of consoles including the Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5, gamers and fans find themselves in a game of chicken between these two monolithic tech companies. The big question is does Microsoft and Sony have good reason, outside of a global pandemic, to withhold revealing a release date and price. How important is price and date in the history of mainstream consoles?
This week, Bloomberg ran another story regarding the often rumoured, beefed up Switch that we have been hearing about for some time now. Whether it’s called the Switch Pro, the Switch XL, the New Switch or something else, it certainly seems like it is coming sooner or later. Nintendo is a company that has a formula and when that formula works well, likes to repeat it. Which is why before jumping right into the latest speculation of the Switch iteration, it seems like a good idea to look at the companies recent history to give us a better understanding of what is to come.
It feels like just yesterday that the world was dissecting the Halo Infinite trailer that was on display at the XGS, I took it at face value and assumed that some of the visuals would be cleaned up before release assuming that the build on display was far from finished. The art style along with the combat looked interesting and it looked like Halo Infinite was going back to basics with this one, while adding some modern elements such as open world and traversal. Unfortunately, this week, Microsoft had a day of bittersweet messaging with a post on Halo Waypoint informing gamers of the delay of the highly anticipated return of Master Chief. It wasn’t all bad news as they also provided a post on the Xbox Wire to give gamers some sugar to help make the medicine go down easier with a tighter release window for the Xbox Series X. What does this mean for Xbox, PlayStation and the rest of the launch season. This is the VDGMS podcast.
Although it likely feels like it has been an eternity since quarantine started roughly back in March, we haven’t actually seen concrete sales data from many of the top, publicly traded gaming companies. We have seen snippets of sales figures regarding specific titles but for the most part many we haven’t seen just how much of an increase gaming has seen since quarantine. It doesn’t matter if we are talking about Q1 or Q2 as some companies structure their fiscal year starting January 1 and others start their fiscal year on April 1. The important thing is that we are going to be able to see a solid quarter of sales data that encapsulates gaming during quarantine for the period of April until the end of June.
Before looking into any of the specifics, it’s safe to assume that gaming has seen a massive surge based on a few key indicators we’ve seen at this point. As a matter of fact, you could extrapolate something from each of the big three as an indicator of the times. When looking at Nintendo, although they have been fairly quiet in announcing their second half of 2020 plans, we have seen sales figures on Animal Crossing go through the roof. On top of that Ring Fit Adventure was extremely hard to find, to the point that it was selling for double on the used market and trying to find a new Switch or Switch Lite during quarantine at retail has been quite challenging, although a trip recently to my local department store shows stock, which makes me think Nintendo has managed supply.
When looking at PlayStation, they have released first party entries to record success with The Last of Us Part 2 selling more than 4 million copies in its first week according to the Playstation Blog and Ghost of Tsushima selling 2.4 million copies in its first three days, setting a record for new Sony PS4 IP. Not to mention that Sony has recently announced at their quarterly earnings that they have now sold 112 million PS4 consoles.
Microsoft is fairly tighter lipped when it comes to sales figures this generation but recently on the Same Brain podcast, Phil Spencer said that since March 270 million new friend connections have been made on Xbox Live. This is all pretty staggering data, especially when you consider that sales are usually down during a console launch year as many people are saving up for their new, next generation experience.
This week many of the large, publicly traded video game companies announced their earnings, which is great to get hard evidence on how quarantine has affected gaming but also this is sometimes the place where companies need to keep investors happy with projections and announcements. Sometimes these announcements are specific and other times you can deduce information from the words that are said. This week on the VDGMS podcast we thought a closer look at Activision Blizzard (02:54), TTWO (07:50) and Nintendo (12:44) made sense to see how much gaming has increased and see if we can figure out anything about their futures.
TLOU2 21 Question Review
https://www.vdgms.com/reviews/2020/7/16/21-q-review-the-last-of-us-part-2
On this weeks episode of the VDGMS podcast we are taking our final look with our ongoing adventure with the Last of Us 2 that we are calling the Journey Series. On the fifth and final leg of our journey, we are finalizing our time with Ellie and Abby. I hope you are enjoying the game and hearing our impressions on it. If you are please consider subscribing to the podcast. A word of caution spoilers are ahead as we are finishing the story, so please proceed with risk. Sit back, relax and enjoy.
Journey Series
Part 1.
https://www.vdgms.com/opinion/2020/6/20/the-last-of-us-part-2-impressions
Part 2
https://www.vdgms.com/opinion/2020/6/22/the-last-of-us-part-2-journey-series-part-2
Part 3
https://www.vdgms.com/opinion/2020/6/26/the-last-of-us-part-2-journey-series-part-3-up-until-
This week on the VDGMS podcast, we are still deep into The Last of Us 2. Hopefully you enjoyed last weeks episode of the podcast where we played through the game in what we are calling “The Journey Series”. Last week we covered up until Day 2 in Seattle with Ellie. This week on the journey we are playing until the tracking lesson. This is an impression series as we go along through the game, so proceed with caution as there will be spoilers. I do try to keep some of the big story beats as vague as I can but hopefully if you are playing through the game as well then you can come along for the journey.
Minecraft Dungeons Review
https://www.vdgms.com/reviews/2020/6/1/21-q-review-minecraft-dungeons
The Last of Us 2 Journey
https://www.vdgms.com/opinion/2020/6/20/the-last-of-us-part-2-impressions
Minecraft Dungeons Review
https://www.vdgms.com/reviews/2020/6/1/21-q-review-minecraft-dungeons
With all the extra time that you have been spending indoors lately you might be wondering if you should get back into gaming again. Maybe the last time you were involved in gaming was back when the Nintendo Wii went viral and basically dominated the conversation back in the mid 2000’s. There is also a very strong chance that if that wasn’t your last console, you did own one as the Nintendo Wii went on to sell over 101 million units according to the official Nintendo investor page. Whether or not you are looking to find a system like the Wii for yourself or looking to buy a gift for a significant other or even just something for your parents or grandparents to give them a little fun and keep them active then lets find out what system is most like the Wii.
When to Buy PS5 or Xbox Series X
https://www.vdgms.com/opinion/2020/5/18/is-it-better-to-buy-console-early-or-late
This week on the VDGMS podcast we are taking an in depth look at Nintendo’s annual report and how it looks going forward in FY21 (08:26) and give you our impressions on Microsoft’s first 20/20 initiative event went with this weeks episode of Inside Xbox (2:00)
Xbox Series X games coming next week (05:49), PS4 exclusives coming this summer (02:22), Assassins Creed Valhalla coming this holiday (10:31) and Nintendo June Direct coming later than anticipated.
Ori and The Will of The Wisps 21 Q Review
https://www.vdgms.com/reviews/2020/3/11/21-q-review-ori-and-the-will-of-the-wisps
Ori and The Will of The Wisps 21 Q Review
https://www.vdgms.com/reviews/2020/3/11/21-q-review-ori-and-the-will-of-the-wisps
Call of Duty Warzone 21 Q Review
https://www.vdgms.com/reviews/2020/3/11/21-q-review-call-of-duty-warzone
We are currently busy working on our reviews for Ori and the Will of the Wisps and Call of Duty Warzone, which we will talk about in the show (00:53). Along with news that PlayStation exclusive, Horizon Zero Dawn is coming to PC this summer (03:28) and Reggie Fils Aime is back in the world of gaming (07:45). We are also going to talk about the biggest story of the week and that is E3 2020 has been cancelled (10:53).
Hope For Little Hope Article (The Dark Pictures Anthology)
https://www.vdgms.com/opinion/2020/3/2/hopes-for-little-hope
Dead Cells: Bad Seed 21Q Review
https://www.vdgms.com/reviews/2020/2/18/21-q-review-dead-cells-the-bad-seed-dlc
Dead Cells: Bad Seed 21Q Review
https://www.vdgms.com/reviews/2020/2/18/21-q-review-dead-cells-the-bad-seed-dlc
Animal Crossing: New Horizons Direct Recap
https://www.vdgms.com/opinion/2020/2/22/animal-crossing-new-horizon-direct-recap
Lonely Mountains Downhill 21Q Review
https://www.vdgms.com/reviews/2020/2/9/lonely-mountains-downhill-21-q-review
Apex Season 4 Cinematic Trailers Breakdown
https://youtu.be/X83-6cFUeUw
Why Ori is one of our most anticipated games of 2020
https://www.vdgms.com/opinion/2020/1/4/most-anticipated-games-of-2020
Apex Legends anniversary (01:00)
Dying Light 2 Delayed (05:18)
Doom Eternal Previews (08:35)