Game Under Podcast Episode 111

Tom Towers and Phil Fogg talk about their Best Game of All Time (spoiler alert it’s neither Yakuza or Killzone). Tom also gives his final thoughts on Minerva’s Den and The Protector Files, which at least one of which was ground-breaking DLC at the time of release, and the work of many creators who went on to form Fullbright, makers of Gone Home and Tacoma. Tom then reviews Metal Gear Solid !

We also go over Dr. Mario World, Shakedown Hawaii, the Nintendo Switch Lite, the C-64 Mini and Red Dead Redemption 2 before getting to what has become our ghost ship, a full review of Ueda’s The Last Guardian.

Please enjoy Episode 111 of the Game Under Podcast.

Fogg used to have a lot of time on his hands. This is a mock cover containing an anagram he made year’s ago. Today he not only forgets how to do such things but also, according to this episode, forgets what a website is called (Editorial Note: It’s called a “website”)

Rocksmith 2014 - Back to Basics

In an attempt to strengthen my guitar playing I’ve picked up Rocksmith 2014, and have decided to document my journey to show gamers and aspiring guitar players if it actually works or not.

You can read the first article here.

- Aaron Mullan

21st Century Free Speech, Part Two: Uncharted Waters

I wrote some more things about free speech. They’re probably not as interesting as the other things I wrote, but one of them is a foolproof solution to the anxieties of digital discourse that simultaneously allows for violent rhetoric while minimising its influence. Unfortunately, it also makes creating marketing funnels very difficult, if not impossible, so you’ll just have to put up with social media corporations exercising editorial control instead.

Read it, or don’t, here.

Incidentally, the recent YouTube reforms seem relatively successful. Both revolutionary and completely inoffensive left wing and right wing videos (if you think only right wing stuff is being excised, you’re living in a filter bubble), and apolitical content continues to be arbitrarily demonitised or removed, so nothing has changed there—but I have noticed fewer mask-off, power-level revealing videos being recommended.

Still plenty of trojan horses and useful idiots, which are far more likely to be able to alter public discourse and influence real world politics anyway, so everybody wins! :)

Personally, I’m all for the automisation both of women and shitposting at work. Other than driving the final nail into Protestantism’s coffin (or cross?), it will allow corporate propaganda to not only be soulless but faceless, as well!

Game Under Podcast Episode 110

In Episode 110 of the Game Under podcast, Tom Towers finally finishes up Yakuza 4 and gives it the full Game Under in-depth Treatment, Phil Fogg flies around in his first impressions of the Spyro Trilogy (remake), and describes Red Dead Redemption II as the funniest Rock Star game since San Andreas.

Please enjoy our first show without technically difficulties since who knows when!

And, as you can tell by the gallery below, Tom’s graphics card remastered Tacoma to great effect (in the first image you can see normal lighting on the left, psychedelic lighting on the right; click through the images for a nipple-tickling rubber monkey, a top hat on a pumpkin, and a shower scene):

TurboGrafx 16 Mini Revealed

To me the biggest news to come out of E3 this year was Konami’s announcement that it is releasing a mini version of NEC’s TurboGrafx 16 (as well as the two regional variants for Japan and Europe, the PC-Engine and PC-Engine CoreGrafx respectively). Like most of the planet this announcement came as a shock to me as Konami’s purchase of Hudson was long forgotten.

It’s far from a given that this will be officially released in Australia, but usually the grey market provides a way, usually for not too much of a price premium.

Six games have been announced, with a different line-up for each region, all pretty common fare: R-Type, New Adventure Island, Ninja Spirit, Ys Book I & II, Dungeon Explorer and Alien Crush. I am hoping that there will be 30 games released, but it possible a slim 20 games will be included.

Update: Australian pricing and availability isn't known at this stage.

I still have my original system hooked up (see my review for Victory Run here) but it will still be nice to play some of the games I don’t have in my collection as well as enjoying the convenience of save states. No dates or pricing has been released as of yet.

The original TurboGrafx 16 with CD attachment.

Game Under Podcast Episode 109

In Episode 109 of the Game Under Podcast, Tom and Phil do not talk about their eager anticipation of the death of triple a development or The Last Guardian (maybe they still will?) due to technical difficulties, but do talk about Tetris 99, Jurassic Bosch, Spielberg, and people who started playing games when Bioshock Infinite was released.

You can listen to such outscourings here.

Rare shot of Phil editing the podcast.

Game Under Podcast Episode 108

In Episode 108 of the Game Under Podcast, Tom Towers and Phil Fogg return to discuss eugenics, Jim Carrey’s teeth, the first ever walkout in the American games industry, Microsoft’s new community guidelines, The Warriors, and a YakuzaKillzONE minute devoted almost entirely to xenophobia.

And much, much more. Probably.

Listen here.

Freakwave, the comic whose name I could not recall on the show…

Tom Towers Returns to His Return to Reading in 2018, in 2019

I wrote some nonsense about Romanticism, the supreme narcissism of Buddhism, surrealism and its relationship to post-modernism (but not Marxism; late modernism and post-modernism were largely CIA-funded operations: even The Fugs were probably on a CIA record label, which makes one of their members later turning out to be narc who prosecuted a prominent European graffiti artist beautifying his real estate not so surprising), Dr. Seuss’ terrifying war and peacetime propaganda, and the queen of Europe, Björk.

You can read it here.

This thing is so spectacular there’s another picture of it inside.

Here’s the full list of books featured in this edition:

Flowers of Evil (both the Charles Baudelaire book and the Shuzo Oshimi manga)

Louis Bourgeois: The Spider and the Tapestry edited by Hauser and Wirth and also Louis Bourgeois: An unfolding Portrait by Deborah Wye.

Meret Oppenheim: Retrospective by Elisabeth Bronfen, Heike Eipeldauer and Christiane Meyer-Thoss

Surrealism by Mary Ann Caws

Poet in Spain by Garcia Lorca, edited and translated by Sarah Arvo

Wessex and Other Verses by Thomas Hardy

Rumi, Day By Day by Rumi, edited and translated by Mafi Maryam

The Romantic Poets by—you guessed it—the romantic poets, published by Canterbury Classics (I couldn’t find who edited it)

Paradise Lost by John Milton, edited by Dennis Danielson whose parallel prose translation I did not read

Japanese Death Poems: Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets on the Verge of Death by Yoel Hoffman

The Upanishads edited and translated by Juan Mascaro

Dr. Seuss Goes to War 1 and 2 by Andre Schiffrin and Richard H. Minear respectively

The Lorax and The Cat in the Hat 2 by Dr. Seuss

The World of Edena by Moebius

Nikopol trilogy and Century’s End by Enki Bilal (the latter with Pierre Christin)

Land of Love and Ruins by Oddný Eir

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

If you’ve ever come across the woman-as-platter cliche, it’s thanks to her. She is also the godmother of the internet facepalm.

Devil May Cry 5 Review

Devil May Cry 5 has been released now for just over a month, but how exactly does Dante’s newest adventure shape up? Find out by reading the review here.

- Aaron Mullan

21st Century Free Speech, Part One: Inter;lectuals

On Anzac Day, I thought I would perform my patriotic duty by posting the first part of my ruminations on free speech, written in consideration of two expats’ recent exploits in New Zealand who, between them (a racist xenophobe and a courageous refugee), epitomised both the very best and the very worst of the Australian character.

You can read it here.

Or, on a day when we are supposed to remember people who have been killed by other people—but at best we cry crocodile tears for the unburied dead with names etched in stone, whose surviving mates returned to sleep in the shade of such stone; if they were lucky—you can read a little bit more than names about people killed in the relevant recent events here instead.

Lest we forget we’ve always been a nation of toadies.