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The Backrooms PodcastMay 22, 2024
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02:01:26
S3: Room 11 - The Museum of Local MultiplayerIn 2015, 343 decided it was in the players' best interest to remove local co-op capabilities from Halo 5: Guardians. This was the beginning of the end of gaming with your friends together in the same room. Nowadays, AAA games tend not to support local multiplayer, so the boys decided to take a trip down memory lane in the oh-so distant past of before 2007.May 09, 202401:19:45S3: Room 10 - Cannon and ContinuityWe are retconning our first episode; it is no longer cannon. But unfortunately, we have to deal with poorly executed plotlines; some so bad, that even one of the greatest experiences can be ruined by its own writers.Mar 19, 202401:54:46S3 Room 5 - The Right Way to Have FunDid you know there is a proper way to have fun? Yep, the boys figured it out. Come join us in our completely objective analysis of how people enjoy engaging in video games, and how some people incorrectly find joy in gaming.Aug 11, 202301:21:33S2 Room 6 - Unapologetically Retro... Sort of Everything becomes "retro" at some point. Regardless, the boys are taking a step back in time once again to talk about their golden age of gaming, the early 2000s. Now, is this really retro? Probably not to most people, but that doesn't matter because we're talking about it anyways. Let's take a moment to enjoy this trip down memory lane to discuss games and consoles of our childhood and their influences, and maybe some actual "retro" games.Aug 26, 202201:33:16S2: Room 1 - Shared Suffering in Sub-Level 2Welcome to sub-level 2 of the Backrooms Podcast! After a brief hiatus, the boys are finally back for a much-needed group therapy session after experiencing the trials and tribulations of Elden Ring. Laughs, tears, and an abundance of methane gas are shared in this room. Join in on our suffering as we recount our struggles as well as successes throughout the Lands Between. And most importantly, welcome back!Apr 24, 202201:32:04Room 11 - Video Games are Bad for your HealthDoes anyone else feel that AAA studios are releasing games in an incomplete or unfinished state? Well...Mar 13, 202201:08:49Room 10 - Elden Ring is Here! And so is Another Discussion on Difficulty.As is tradition with any game release by FROM Software, the overarching gaming community and media outlets gather round the bonfire to have a debate about difficultly and accessibility in gaming. While the boys are not experienced enough with accessibility tools in games, they sure have had their share of difficult encounters in some of their favorite games. In this room, we take a dive into what makes a game difficult, how difficulty and accessibility can differ, and how developers finesse their way around the delicate task of tuning a game's difficulty curve. Should games have an easy mode? Does difficulty affect the developer's vision? Are players "owed" the completion of a game?Feb 25, 202201:36:16Room 9 - Nostalgia Makes for the Best of Times, and the Worst of TimesWe tend to remember the more positive moments in our past, rather than the mundane and "normal" moments. In gaming and other media, this leads people to form bonds not necessarily with the game or media itself, but with those moments in time that were attached to that media. What does that mean for modern games, or games of the future? Is the quality of media worse in the present than in the past, or do people just need to "take off the rose-colored glasses?" The boys take a trip back in time and talk about what we're nostalgic about, and why we think nostalgia is good, and bad, for the industry.Feb 12, 202201:43:26Room 8 - A Discourse on Compelling CharactersIn any form of media, be it a game, movie, or show, to capture an audience, there needs to be compelling characters. When watching or experiencing a connection with a protagonist, antagonist, or even a minor character, have you ever thought why you feel a connection with them? Why are they so compelling or convincing to you? What makes a character well designed and compelling? In this room, the boys get into discourse discussing their favorite heroes, villains, and antiheros.Jan 29, 202201:11:25Room 6 - Change is Good, Change is Bad, Change is ChangeIn this room, the gentlemen discuss change in gaming, both on a micro and macro scale. Some game developers make incremental changes between installments of their games, while others make more drastic choices that can affect core mechanics and gameplay. And sometimes, there are games or releases that have monumental impacts on the industry as a whole. What features or mechanics are good? Which are gimmicks? And what changes in games had a more positive or negative effect on that franchise or the industry?Jan 05, 202201:10:43Room 4 - Halo Infinite Has Bad Progression, & it May be a ProblemThe Halo Franchise turned 20 this last November! This anniversary brought with it the surprising early release of the Halo Infinite multiplayer experience. While Jack, Justin, & Bryan are thrilled with the game's early release, and more importantly the astounding quality and refinement of the core gameplay, a much larger controversy has sprung forward; The Battlepass. The guys, and the larger Halo Community as a whole, are having grievances with the game's poor progression system, and the game's lack of a solid reward structure. So how can the developers resolve this conflict? Do they even need to? And how come the best halo in years feels, in a sense, unsatisfying?Nov 22, 202101:19:35Room 3 - How to Get Lost in a Game's AtmosphereVideo Games have the unique ability to provide an experience that other forms of media cannot. In Room 3, the boys discuss the different and unique avenues that game developers take to share their story and help a player not only follow that story, but truly experience it. Every game and every developer has a story to tell, and how that story is portrayed can either build on, or detract from the experience. But with so many different types of games, between open world adventure games, to linear First-person Shooters, what is the best way to tell that story to the player?Oct 27, 202101:30:41
