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Are you ready, Helldivers?! Ben, Steve Ahlman, and Matt James discuss how online co-op shooter Helldivers 2 became a surprise sensation and feel-good gaming story by building a new model for live-service storytelling and community (to go with great gameplay). Then they offer five rapid-fire recommendations for recently released, lower-profile games to play between blockbusters (58:00). Host: Ben LindberghGuests: Steve Ahlman and Matt JamesProducer: Devon RenaldoAdditional Production Supervision:…
16 days ago
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In the finale of True Detective: Night Country, Beatrice, a former cleaning woman at the Tsalal Arctic Research Station, makes a quasi-confession to detectives Liz Danvers and Evangeline Navarro. “It’s always the same story with the same ending,” she says. “Nothin’ ever happens. So we told ourselves a different story, with a different ending.” Night Country told a different story, with a different ending, than the three True Detective seasons that preceded it. This story lasted six episodes inst…
about 1 month ago
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In the summer of 1998, John Slagel received an assignment: Give gamers unprecedented power to blow stuff up. Slagel was a programmer at Volition, a Champaign, Illinois-based video game developer known for the Descent series of fully 3D, flight-based, first-person shooters, which had started at Volition’s precursor studio, Parallax Software. When Descent 4 was canceled, some of the work Volition had put into the sequel was repurposed toward an original shooter, Red Faction. The new game, which wa…
about 2 months ago
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After four years away, True Detective returns for a new season with a sinistrous subtitle. We’re in Night Country now, and we’ll be following along each week to try to piece together, with the help of police chief Liz Danvers and detective Evangeline Navarro, who perpetrated those gruesome crimes in Ennis, Alaska. Read along for a breakdown of Episode 3. Episode 3 of True Detective: Night Country opens and closes with a woman’s screams, echoing from Ennis’s past into its present. The screams at…
2 months ago
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Join Ben, Matt James, and Justin Charity as they delve into the biggest gaming phenomenon of the year: Palworld. They ask and answer 10 questions raised by the game’s success, including how Palworld became so popular (06:05), whether it’s more than just “Pokémon with guns,” the controversies it has caused, whether Palworld will be a mainstay or a flash in the pan (62:33), and more. Host: Ben LindberghGuests: Matt James and Justin CharityProducer: Eduardo OcampoAdditional Production: Arjuna Ramgo…
2 months ago
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There are two instant tells that Masters of the Air, the new World War II limited series executive-produced by Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Gary Goetzman, is the product of a different decade than the trio’s previous prestige tributes to the Greatest Generation, Band of Brothers and The Pacific. The first is that their latest series—though originally optioned by the network that commissioned its predecessors, HBO—is appearing on Apple TV+. The second is the absence of the actual aviators who…
2 months ago
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I can pinpoint precisely when I realized I no longer knew what an innings eater was: July 31, 2023, the day before the MLB trade deadline, when ESPN’s Jeff Passan bestowed the venerable label on Aaron Civale. Civale hasn’t totaled 125 innings in any of his five major league seasons—one of which, to be fair, was 2020, when he was among the league leaders in workload. All in all, he’s averaged roughly 5.5 frames per start. Innings nibbler, snacker, or sampler, I’d accept. But by historical startin…
2 months ago
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First came “$10,000 Kelly” and the “$11,000 beauty.” Then there was the “$100,000 infield” and the “million-dollar outfield.” Now, after a century or so of inflation, labor action, and revenue growth, there’s a new entry in the annals of milestone spending in baseball: the “billion-dollar offseason.” The Los Angeles Dodgers have committed more than $1 billion in future payments this winter, and they might not be done adding players and payroll. As is always the case when a big-market team flexes…
3 months ago
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Get ready for a thrilling journey into the gaming future with the 2024 hype pod! Join Ben, Matt James, and Justin Charity as they dive into the most anticipated games of the year. Reflecting on the gaming greatness of 2023, they question whether 2024 will generate the same excitement (7:00). Then the trio delves into discussions about highly awaited sequels, originals, adaptations, and more, featuring titles such as Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Star Wars Outlaws, Hades II, and beyond (14:00). Late…
3 months ago
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Ben Lindbergh is joined by Jessica Clemons, Steve Ahlman, and Matt James to commemorate a great gaming year. First, they name “naughty” and “nice” industry trends, from massive hacks to surprise releases (0:00). Then they celebrate the highlights of the year in gaming by drafting the most unforgettable titles of 2023 across several categories, including epic RPGs, sprawling action adventures, and indie gems (33:00). Host: Ben LindberghGuests: Steve Ahlman, Jessica Clemons, and Matt JamesProducer…
3 months ago
theringer.com
When did you realize 2023 was shaping up to be a bonkers year for video games? Was it when some of 2022’s most anticipated prospective titles were delayed, leading to a pileup in the first few months of this year? Was it when the normal midyear trough in game releases never really arrived, as The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s debut in mid-May gave way to the releases of Street Fighter 6, Diablo IV, and Final Fantasy XVI in June and Pikmin 4 and Remnant 2 in July? Was it when publishers…
3 months ago