Ep. 257 - Building the Sandwich While You're Eating It, with Chris Plante

EIC of Polygon and co-host of The Besties Chris Plante fills in for Frank on topics like the Cyberpunk anime, Anthem, and a Republican poet’s paradise.

Questions this week:

1. How can game companies draw attention back to their titles after a botched release? (07:07)
2. How do you make collecting treasure in a game feel significant? (14:14)
3. What would you put in The Orange Box 2? (20:12)
4. How would you quantify an experience point? (26:07)
5. Design a game based on a White House press conference. (32:59)
6. From PAX 2022: An interview with Starbucks Workers United organizer (37:59)
7. MoxBagel re-asks: What’s the ideal video game to play over dinner? (41:11)
8. Has a plot hole in a game’s story ever ruined the game for you? (48:37)
9. What is the Avengers: Endgame of video games? (58:14)

LIGHTNING ROUND: Name Design – Panic! At The Disco songs (01:05:38)

Recommendations and Outro (01:18:57)

If you look behind this episode’s waterfall you’ll find people discussing it in the forums!

A SMALL SELECTION OF THINGS REFERENCED:

• Disney’s Darkwing Duck
• The Besties
• General Chaos
• Mortal Kombat
• GoldenEye 007
• Super Smash Brothers series
• Cyberpunk 2077
• Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
• Starfield
• Anthem
• Assassin’s Creed series
• Silent Hill 2
• Yakuza / Ryū ga Gotoku series
• Tomb Raider series
• Deus Ex series
• Marvel Avengers
• Gex series
• Portal series
• Half-Life: Alyx
• Quantum Conundrum
• Counter-Strike series
• Team Fortress series
• Back 4 Blood
• Crusader Kings series
• Perfect Tides
• Hollow Knight
• Baldur’s Gate series
• Legend of Zelda series
• Super Hydlide
• Demonschool (now wishlistable on Steam)
• Paper Mario series
• Samba De Amigo
• Elite Beat Agents
• Xanadu (1980)
• Space Channel 5
• Papers, Please
• Gears 5
• Dark Souls series
• The Last of Us series
• Genshin Impact
• Deadly Premonition
• NieR: Automata
• Kentucky Route Zero
• Persona series
• Call of Duty series
• Spec Ops: The Line
• BioShock series
• Dead & Buried (1981)
• One Piece
• Halo series
• Avengers: Endgame (2019)
• Fortnite series
• Katamari Damacy
• Hook
• John Wick (2014)
• John Wick Hex
• EarthBound

Recommendations:

Jaffe: Watch One Piece

Brandon: hold the up and down buttons to control those barrels in the Carnival Zone in Sonic 3, don’t watch Austin Powers, don’t watch any of the Bill & Ted movies, Mom and Dad Save the World (1992)

Tim: Check out Star Trek: Discovery if you want to see David Cronenberg be weird and Michelle Yeoh be weird

Chris: Subscribe to Shudder or The Criterion Channel

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Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Tim Rogers, Brandon Sheffield, and Chris Plante. Edited by Esper Quinn. Original Music by Kurt Feldman.