Episode 16: Never Ever Ever Bump Into the Walls

It's a big, big episode today, with Bill (from Episode 12) sitting in with us again to talk games and stuff. More listeners answer prior weeks' questions in our listener feedback segment, and Bill has a few answers of his own. For what I've been playing since the last episode, I once again use pre-recorded segments to keep the main recording at a reasonable length since, as always, it's a school night for Addie -- and for Bill's daughter Natalie, who joins us briefly to talk about scary movies and video games. My monologue includes my final thoughts on Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PS4) and 8 Eyes (NES on Retron5), as well as my opening thoughts on The Evil Within (PS4), PlayStation TV (a "Vita" for your TV), and KillZone: Liberation (a PSP game I started playing on PSTV). A third pre-recorded segment features Heath, Addie's younger brother. He talks with me about Portal 2 (XBox 360), Gauntlet and Gauntlet II (NES on Retron5), Pix the Cat (PS4), and of course, Minecraft (PS4). He does a great job of confusing me about which topic we're actually discussing, although maybe he's just messing with me on purpose. Also, Natalie sits in with us to talk about movies (Frankenstein, Hotel Transylvania, and Ghostbusters) and games (Disney Universe, mostly). She decides to skip out on the next topic (educational kids' games), but Bill, Addie and I have suggestions on quality educational games for any listeners out there with younger children. A discussion between Bill and me on Borderlands 2 morphs into a comparison between the Borderlands series, Dead Island, and RAGE. In fact, we spend quite a bit of time talking about RAGE, even though neither of us played it recently. We have two listener questions of the week, so if you have an opinion on either or both of these things, please please write in and let us know your thoughts (we're [email protected]). This week, we want to know what game blew your mind when you first played it, because it seemed so revolutionary and new; one that opened your mind to a kind of gaming experience you didn't even know was possible. We also want to hear about your favorite mini-games from a full-sized game: card games, board games, or other unique mini-games, such as the card games found in Ni no Kuni or RAGE. This episode ends with sections of three MIDI arrangements from NES games featured this week: 8 Eyes, Friday the 13th and Gauntlet. This episode's title has a double meaning (Heath's advice for Pix the Cat, but also a tie-in for the latest episode of Doctor Who).