Ep. 257 - Building the Sandwich While You're Eating It, with Chris Plante

EIC of Polygon and co-host of The Besties Chris Plante fills in for Frank on topics like the Cyberpunk anime, Anthem, and a Republican poet’s paradise. Questions this week: How can game companies draw attention back to their titles after a botched release? (07:07) How do you make collecting treasure in a game feel significant? (14:14) What would you put in The Orange Box 2? (20:12) How would you quantify an experience point? (26:07) Design a game based on a White House press conference. (32:59) From PAX 2022: An interview with Starbucks Workers United organizer (37:59) MoxBagel re-asks: What’s the ideal video game to play over dinner? (41:11) Has a plot hole in a game’s story ever ruined the game for you? (48:37) What is the Avengers: Endgame of video games? (58:14) LIGHTNING ROUND: Name Design – Panic! At The Disco songs (01:05:38) Recommendations and Outro (01:18:57) If you look behind this episode’s waterfall you’ll find people discussing it in the forums! A SMALL SELECTION OF THINGS REFERENCED: Disney’s Darkwing Duck The Besties General Chaos Mortal Kombat GoldenEye 007 Super Smash Brothers series Cyberpunk 2077 Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Starfield Anthem Assassin’s Creed series Silent Hill 2 Yakuza / Ryū ga Gotoku series Tomb Raider series Deus Ex series Marvel Avengers Gex series Portal series Half-Life: Alyx Quantum Conundrum Counter-Strike series Team Fortress series Back 4 Blood Crusader Kings series Perfect Tides Hollow Knight Baldur’s Gate series Legend of Zelda series Super Hydlide Demonschool (now wishlistable on Steam) Paper Mario series Samba De Amigo Elite Beat Agents Xanadu (1980) Space Channel 5 Papers, Please Gears 5 Dark Souls series The Last of Us series Genshin Impact Deadly Premonition NieR: Automata Kentucky Route Zero Persona series Call of Duty series Spec Ops: The Line BioShock series Dead & Buried (1981) One Piece Halo series Avengers: Endgame (2019) Fortnite series Katamari Damacy Hook John Wick (2014) John Wick Hex EarthBound Recommendations: Jaffe: Watch One Piece Brandon: hold the up and down buttons to control those barrels in the Carnival Zone in Sonic 3, don’t watch Austin Powers, don’t watch any of the Bill & Ted movies, Mom and Dad Save the World (1992) Tim: Check out Star Trek: Discovery if you want to see David Cronenberg be weird and Michelle Yeoh be weird Chris: Subscribe to Shudder or The Criterion Channel Support on Patreon Subscribe: RSS, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and more! Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Tim Rogers, Brandon Sheffield, and Chris Plante. Edited by Esper Quinn. Original Music by Kurt Feldman.