Tag Archives: bioshock infinite

Storytelling, Ghosts, & Pop Culture Wormholes

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On this episode, Earl and Shawn hang out with Keith McNally before he ships out for the Maritimes! They fall down the pop culture rabbit hole of ’80s TV shows, cancelled series, movie novelizations, and Keith was up to in ye olden days of the internet. They also get into storytelling, how it works in video games, branching storylines, and rag on Bioshock Infinite a lot. And along the way, Keith reveals his wrestling magazine knowledge, Shawn wants to start a Josie and the Pussycats tumblr, and Earl invokes the vengeful spirit of Roger Ebert.

Guest:
Keith McNally (@keithmcnally) – Host of The Vinyl Countdown

What we’ve been checking out:
Keith: High Maintenance (Webseries)
Shawn: Summer Games Done Quick (Speedrun videos)
Earl: Rectify (TV)

Audio notes: (1hr. 16min. runtime)
0:00:50 – Introducing Keith, olden days of the internet, Roger Ebert, and movie novelizations
0:09:50 – Firefly, cancelled shows, Quantum Leap, Sliders, The A-Team, and TV finales
0:18:35 – Books on games, Worlds of Power, working at a comic book shop, travelling, and stories in games
0:29:00 – Mass Effect, GTA, multiple endings, branching stories, and voices in Stanley Parable & Gone Home
0:41:05 – Bioshock series, travelling through space and time, comparing to The Last of Us, and Ghost of the Year
0:54:25 – Kentucky Route Zero, David Cage & Heavy Rain, playing hard games, and indie games
1:09:55 – What’s everyone checking out?

Theme: Coconut Robot2 (James Pants) / CC BY 3.0
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Star Wars, Canon, Remakes, & Retcons

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This week, Shawn Lotte and Spencer Sterritt return to tackle the recent news on the Star Wars Expanded Universe being non-canon and discuss continuity, remakes, and retcons! We also delve into Star Trek’s reboot films, the Evil Dead, X-Men, Shadow of the Colossus, and Better Call Saul. And somehow, they establish Mortal Kombat as the benchmark of storytelling.

Guests:
Shawn Lotte – “And then I move on”
Spencer Sterritt – Editor-in-chief for We Eat Films

Supplementary notes:
Shadow of the Colossus: Connections to Ico
Dark Souls II Lore and Speculation
Zelda Timeline

Audio notes: (1hr. 1min. runtime)
01:35 – Star Wars, the Expanded Universe, and defining what is canon
08:35 – Star Trek, time travel, Enterprise, and returning to Star Wars
13:50 – Superman, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Predator, Living Dead, and Evil Dead series
28:00 – X-Men, shoehorning all the films, Sentinels, and Wolverine
34:10 – Mortal Kombat, branching storylines, Bioshock series, and canonizing Bioshock 2
46:30 – Shadow of the Colossus & Ico, Dark Souls series, and sorting out Legend of Zelda
54:40 – Remaking films to shows: Bates Motel, Hannibal, Fargo, From Dusk til Dawn, and Better Call Saul

Theme: Coconut Robot2 (James Pants) / CC BY 3.0
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Gone Home

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This episode, we go through Gone Home! We invite over Brent Peckham again and newcomer Susan King to talk about the critically-acclaimed indie game, unravel its narrative and themes, compare it to Bioshock and The Stanley Parable, and the possibilities of storytelling in video games. And of course we inevitably get off track by pitching terrible ideas for sequels. So grab your cassette player (or whatever you folks have in 2013) and press play! (Full spoilers for this episode.)

Guests:
Brent Peckham
Susan King

Supplementary notes:
Gone Home Trailer

Audio notes: (58min. runtime)
02:50 – Recommending the game, and its price tag
07:30 – Sam’s story, and exploring the secondary storylines
13:55 – Uncle’s story, the dad’s story, and being a writer
19:00 – Family, trauma, and sexuality
24:05 – The mom’s storyline
29:05 – Building tension, subverting expectations, and game length
35:55 – Comparing to Bioshock and The Stanley Parable, and the potential of games
41:05 – The Fullbright Company, exploration, and narrative
46:10 – Structure, game elements, and pitching ideas for future games
50:35 – Comparing to Resident Evil, music and sound design, and player agency
54:45 – Experience watching other people play games

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The Last of Us

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This episode of All Kinds of Philler is all about The Last of Us: a tense, bloody, emotional, and morally complex video game. In other words, it’s the feel-good hit of the summer! Earl bands together with Brent and newcomer Stephen to discuss the critically-acclaimed survival horror game, the theme of partnerships, violence, enemy AI, and executing post-apocalyptic tropes. They also end up talking about Tomb Raider, and why Ellie looks a lot like Ellen Page. (Spoilers on the entire game.)

Guests:
Brent Peckham
Stephen

Supplementary Notes:
Story Trailer

Audio notes: (1hr. 8min. runtime)
00:30 – Intro to The Last of Us
01:40 – The prologue, Sarah, Joel’s morality, and evoking post-apocalyptic fiction
07:45 – Partnerships, Ishmael, Bill, Tess, Sam & Henry, and Joel & Ellie
17:25 – Realism, AI and level design, Uncharted, and game mechanics
29:20 – Emotional weight to each kill, Joel’s brutality, and the killcams
34:06 – The four seasons as chapters, and the Utah scene
38:10 – “It’s not a fun game!”, emotional drain, The Walking Dead, and cannibalism
42:55 – Threat of sexual violence, lack of female enemies or child clickers, and David
48:35 – The Firefly battle, dissonance between player & Joel, and the final scene
58:35 – Graphics, glitches, voice acting, and Ellen Page
61:20 – Comparisons to Tomb Raider
66:00 – Stephen and Brent’s playlists

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Bioshock Infinite / Maron

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Pilot episode for All Kinds of Philler! Earl talks to Tony about one of the biggest games of the year, Bioshock Infinite, as well as the preview episode of Maron, Marc Maron’s semi-autobiographical TV series. They also talk about what’s on their viewing playlist these days. This was recorded a couple weeks ago, so it’s a bit behind on its references, but nothing too earth-shattering. Of course, spoilers ahead, but primarily on Bioshock Infinite.

Guests:
“Booker, Catch” Tony

Audio notes: (1hr. 21min. runtime)
06:00 – Bioshock Infinite
50:00 – Maron
65:10 – Playlist

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes!
Follow us (@AKOPPodcast or @phillerworks) or email us at akop@phillerworks.com!