ChatterBox Video Game Radio

You might not realize it, but love can be found in the unlikeliest of places. It seems competition, ego, and an unhealthy obsession with sports icons can have a very real impact on your life.

Wanna the show to go on? Let's do it.

Peter Molyneux is the captain who won't go down with his ship, but people keep giving him more ships. Sledgehammer Games made the very strange decision of banning people for doing things in Call of Duty that it was built to do. Alon played a game through Twitch. Oh, and we're calling it. Last show. We love you. Thanks for all the fish.

Sunset Overdrive surprises us with, of all things, dialog. "The Game Awards" was almost as awful as you'd imagine even though Geoff Keighley thinks they were great. Ara tried LeapTrade, got Grid Autosport, and we're more intrigued by the LeapTrade business model than the game. Minecraft is supposed to be a movie one day. What?

It's been a long time, but we're back, at least for a while. Ara's been off working in the Philippines and speaking at GDC Next, and Alon's been working on a new art project. Luckily, they can still find time to rag on Assassin's Creed.

Why GamerGate is stupid. Dumb kids do dumb things. Ara's a professor now. The E.T. landfill auction still hasn't happened, we think. We found a list of the most influential NES games.

After hours and hours of playing, Alon is finally able to enjoy pure Titanfall. Ara explains why he got good at crappy games. Alon wants to tell a story.

People are paying way too much attention to Zoe Quinn. Phil Fish had another emotional breakdown. Sony's letting yet another big idea die. One Puppy finally tells it like it is.

Alon has a baby. Ara's baby, Gran Turismo 6, was sick, but it's better now. It only took Alon a year to figure out how to use his Kinect. Nintendo is having a hard time adjusting to the new world. Bounden is a dancing game worth knowing about. Pausing multiplayer is a thing.

Alon and Ara both have some tech trouble, Killer Instinct Pins continue to stab Alon in the heart, GameStop is still trying to stay relevant, there are sweet games to play on the streets of Denver, and Alon wants to play with electricity.

We're changing the show to bi-monthly... AND bi-weekly! Alon's scaring the kids. Watch Dogs teaches us about ourselves. Psych experiments do too.

Destiny isn't anything special, we might have to change the show, Riot Games is giving away money, Le Game Jam is a tough jam, and modern video is changing the game.

All E3 stuff. Microsoft and its relatively boring conference, Capcom and Nintendo making fun of themselves, game trailers we can't trust, some cool stuff Nintendo's bringing out, and the greatest way to travel since that guy rampaged through San Diego in a stolen tank.

How interesting is augmented reality in print? The XBOX One interface is still really broken and annoying. Ara played Mario Kart 8.

In this episode, we learn what game makers can do to piss us off. Basically, by changing stuff. Also, Alon sucks at Titanfall.

The newer the game, the more broken it is. Alon finally made it into the credits. Amplitude is coming back, but we don't know why. Things just got real between Zenimax and Oculus.

Alon got the sickness, Nintendo had a rare change of opinion, Microsoft had another not-so-rare change of opinion, and men all over the world change a lot more than opinions.

Sportsfriends is finally out, but Alon can't play it. Zenimax is acting like a jealous ex. Someone's about to sell a 500 dollar aluminum NES/Famicom. There's a new Shaq Fu game coming. We're confused about gaming addiction.

Alon's feeling the anxiety of not having all his video game systems in Colorado. Nintendo's giving away free games. Microsoft's making the move to China. Kirby's always angry. E.T.'s come home.

Mario Golf should be made for the Wii U, China needs to lighten up, soon you'll get to learn a lot more about Atari, and Ara has lots of design stuff to put in your head.

Apparently it's normal and okay to sell unfinished products. Ara really doesn't like Google Glass. Alon's excited to almost have his hands on Sprortsfriends. Oculus has officially made it into the bigtime, and we're not upset about it.

Alon's finally in Denver. The UFC is all uppity about Ultimate Gay Fighter. Riot Games is genius, but it can't satisfy its players. Microsoft proves why its own planned DRM model never could have worked. Titanfall cheaters get cheated.

Alon failed on his personal quest to catch them all while Google allowed Pokemon to invade Maps, Gran Turismo 6 continues to fail Ara in his quest for a worthwhile virtual driving experience, and reality TV has failed us all (again).

Alon's been playing a lot of Titanfall. The folks who developed Monaco really did care what people thought about the game even if they didn't show it. Backing a game project on Kickstarter is likely to result in disappointment.

Alon's been playing a lot of Titanfall. The folks who developed Monaco really did care what people thought about the game even if they didn't show it. Backing a game project on Kickstarter is likely to result in disappointment.

This is a special presentation Ara put together that deeply analyzes the dynamics of some of the most popular 'free to play' games, especially with regard to learning, engagement, and psychological effects. Ara presents several hypotheses and predictions for the long term sustainability as well as unintended side effects of these dynamics.

The Project Spark Beta is pretty beta right now. Gaming media is stilled filled with vile, deceptive people. Games with Gold is pretty lame, even if it is giving away Civilization Revolution at the moment. We might know the real reason Flappy Bird was killed off.

Checkpoints, what Ben Kuchera thinks and what we think. The Gran Turismo devs made promises they're not keeping, and it's got us thinking a bit more about what expectations are reasonable for the consumer.

We dissect the Strider reboot's good and bad design. Ara can't stop hating the PSN interface. The state of the Wii U is worse than we thought. Retro Studios learned something about player psychology and the inherent reward of mastery.

Alon's been playing the Titanfall beta. Ara has not been playing the Ace Combat Infinity beta, but he did try out a new puzzle game mashup you never knew existed. Also, Alon fought with his wife.

The amazing/disgusting story of Flappy Bird and the clones that followed it. Also, Red Bouncing Ball Spikes. Warner Brothers is now officially evil. EA continues being evil.

What has the Killer Instinct reboot taught us about the free-to-play model? What's wrong with the current indie sales model? Is Conan O'Brien messing with you?

Is your PlayStation 4 eating your save data? Do you go into a game store looking for a new game, or do you only shop when you know what you want? How could EA lose so much money?

Alon is in having more trouble with the Killer Instinct Pin Ultimate challenge thing. Those Candy Crush Saga lawyers don't mess around. Nintendo screwed the pooch, and people want Iwata's head.

We might not plan to use them ourselves, but we can understand why game controllers for cell phones would be useful. Grid 2 is another example of quality sacrificed to accessibility. Lords of Shadow 2 is apparently a rape simulator, but we never would have realized it.

Killer Instinct on XBOX One demonstrates how bad communication can kill adoption. Vintage gaming is about to die as digital distribution destroys the possibility of gametiquing. Ara explains why he hates Penny Arcade but why he now has some respect for them. Also, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate HD is not a good game.

Is a virtual gaming cease fire worthwhile? Does Ara care about Gran Turismo 5's servers going offline? Is it right for Rockstar to crack down on people stealing money in Grand Theft Auto V Online when the game is all about stealing money?

Ara argues that the third player in a game derails fairness. Battlefield 4 is so bad that people are suing EA, and it makes us wonder if quality standards have generally been reduced across the board.

It doesn't seem that the developers of Gran Turismo 6 were paying attention to the GT community. Bill Moyers and Richard Slotkin weren't paying attention to common sense. And Ara wonders if game designers should pay attention to other designers' games.

Will the current social sharing trend backfire? Is the absence of shelf space destroying the possibility of success for digital games? How can kung fu kill a music rhythm game?

More talk about why Nintendo is better than everyone else. Is cheating to get free stuff in a free-to-play game the same as piracy? How does a fighting game change when lag is added?

Alon's bummed that he's been disincentivized from buying the abundantly available Killer Instinct Ultra Edition. He also doesn't think the XBOX One has very good error handling which might be the result of rushing to market. He does love the Wii U, though, since Super Mario 3D World is so amazing.

Alon got a PlayStation 4, and Ara read about everyone else's PlayStation 4. He also has reason to believe XBOX could be completely eliminated soon.

Good guy developer gets screwed, new ways the PSN store is annoying, and why Skylanders is the product of an evil genius.

Alon's still looking for something to look forward to with next gen, and this leads to concerns about game review journalism. He's also questioning if the coming consoles are evenly matched. Then we talk about Angry Birds.

Doctor Darren tells us about sticking cameras into people from both ends and how video games made him better at it, Alon enjoyed his trip to VideoGamesNewYork.com, and Ara remains in search of the perfect Ys soundtrack.

What's that game? How have Microsoft and Sony upset Ara this week? When is sexy not sexy? PS - I know Ara sounds super echo-y sometimes. We'll get that fixed next time.

Live (not really), from FIG! Straight talk about Chris Crawford, how GTA V is being intentionally broken after it was accidentally broken, how not to manage people in game development, and what Ara thinks about the Steam controller.

Tristan is back to tell us about the FIG conference - FutureIsGames.com. He also acts as our GTA V subject matter expert since he's actually played it.

Spin the Bottle is a rowdy good time, Pikmin 3 is getting downloadable content, the Red Cross wants us to play nice, and Grand Theft Auto Online might be OK.