You might have noticed, dear listener, that the first cast of 2015 was also the last cast of 2015. We’re sorry about that. I won’t pretend that I can make amends, but we wanted to talk about games, because it has been a long time. So we talked about games. Well, Steve and I talked about games. Would you like to listen? We would love to have you listen.

What did we talk about? A bunch of stuff. It’s Steve’s turn to be bummed out about gaming this episode, so I tried to drag him back from the brink. He’s been playing too much Far Cry, is the problem. You might remember, if you have a long memory, that in the last episode we asked about the various Far Cry themes that were on the table; they didn’t take our old Far Cry On The Moon idea, which is a shame, but we did almost get Far Cry With Dinosaurs out of it, so there’s that. Some series have too many games in them, and you don’t need to play them all, is the moral of this story.

We summarize 2015 a bit, and briefly discuss its most memorable game. (What was it? Find out inside!) We look forward to the year ahead, and speculate about VR and remote play and whether the next Resident Evil game will be any good. (No.) There’s lots of other random tidbits in there too, because we are a wordy duo. We hope you’ll enjoy it.

A brief note – at time of recording, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 did not include microtransactions. Now it does. Thanks for making me a dirty liar, EA. Still a good game, though.

OH! And you should get SUPERHOT. (Super. Hot. Super. Hot.) Everybody should do that.

Who knows what the future holds, but here we are, friends. Please, get cozy for the first? last? Immortal Machines 2016 Edition.

Hosted and Summarized by Eric [Ravenlock]
Participants are Steve [Dukefrukem] and the ghosts of James, Robert and Clayton. Listen, you can hear them in the background. (I kid! They’re fine! Probably.)
Produced by Eric [Ravenlock] (sorry in advance)

(Don’t forget to follow our Twitter feed, and if you want to join the discussion, come visit the forum thread over at Colony of Gamers.)

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The first cast of 2015 brings to the table a new host with a new format. We are calling this “King of Immortal Machines – Episode 1” – We don’t know how many of these we will do, but certainly if we get good feedback from our listeners, it may spur us to continue this format throughout the year. The format is simple; think of it as a take of ESPN’s ‘Around the Horn’ with gaming news and topics. We go through 9 topics coming from the news and questions from our audience (if you want to submit a question see our contact links below). Each caster will discuss the topics and the host gets to choose which person makes the best argument based on passion, creativity, and ‘correctness’. We’ll tally up the points at the end of the show and whoever has the most points will hold the title ‘King of Immortal Machines’ (until next time).

The 9 topics for this show are:

1. What game should we be most excited for in 2015?

2. Is it a good decision for Valve to enter broadcasting market?

3. Far Cry 5: Dinosaurs & Vampires… are these themes a good idea?

4. What franchise/gaming trend are we tired of?

5. Are we excited to see an Assassin’s Creed movie starring Michael Fassbender?

6. Playing off this bit of news, what is the best video game movie adaptation to date?

7. What game do we want to see adapted into a movie?

8. Best boss battle ever?

9. Most disappointing boss battle?

So please PLEASE, give us feedback on the show – what you liked, what you didn’t like, whether you’d be interested in more shows like this. Whatever the feedback may be, we’ll take it, analyze it and continue to try to make the show more interesting and fun. Thanks for listening!

Hosted and Summarized by Steve [Dukefrukem]
Participants are James [Vigil80], Eric [Ravenlock] and Clayton [Voodoo]
Produced by Clayton [Voodoo]

(Don’t forget to follow our Twitter feed, and if you want to join the discussion, come visit the forum thread over at Colony of Gamers.)

King of the Immortal Machines - Episode 1 [ 1:47:21 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

2014 was a weird year. There were definitely parts that were not super great. Or even kinda great. There were parts that were downright shitty. But as we draw December to a close and look forward to 2015, it certainly hasn’t been all bad. Before it’s over, let’s spend some time talking about the year that was.

Almost everybody’s here for this one – Steve had to sit out, but I’m thrilled to be able to welcome James back to close out 2014. Per usual, the IMmies has no set format, and despite the name we’re not giving out awards. But there were some trends this year that deserved attention, and we dive into those within. We’ll talk about the never-ending onslaught of open-world games with progression mechanics, and the never-ending onslaught of Kickstarter releases (and, to a lesser extent, Early Access ones), and the never-ending onslaught of broken shit from Ubisoft. Lots of never-ending onslaughts, basically. Oh, and one never-ending onslaught that did end (where’d you go, digboxers?).

Some links of interest from the discussion: Space Engineers; DCS World Downloadable Modules (also on Steam, and you might enjoy this video showing off the MIG-21); the new King’s Quest trailer from the Game Awards.

We still didn’t talk about Steam Broadcasting. And I realized as soon as we disconnected that we didn’t even mention Transistor, which is crazy because Bastion was one of my favorite games ever. Maybe we’ll delve into why next time.

For now, sit back and get cozy with a glass of something nice, and let’s bid a fond(?) farewell to the year with The 2014 IMmies!

Hosted and Summarized by Eric [Ravenlock]
Participants are James [Vigil80], Robert [Trebor] and Clayton [Voodoo]
Produced by Clayton [Voodoo]

(Don’t forget to follow our Twitter feed, and if you want to join the discussion, come visit the forum thread over at Colony of Gamers.)

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