This week we welcome our special guest Ryan Hamann, writer/podcast host from Cane and Rinse, a videogames podcast/blog with a team of experienced enthusiasts who take a different game (or occasionally a series of games) each show and passionately discusses the experiences that title offers.
What have you been playing? After Susan reads old man Dean a lovely birthday limerick, we talk about our latest games. Ryan continues the trend of guests talking about Hitman (we clearly need to get on this) and notes the similarities to Majora’s Mask, Dark Souls and Mario Maker! Ryan has also been playing Emily Shorts’ fascinating language game Counterfeit Monkey. Check out her fantastic blog on interactive fiction and play her stories.
To kind of continue the interactive fiction angle Susan’s been playing the visual novel Higurashi: When They Cry, which reminds Dean of the Japanese graphic novel Uzumaki (of course it does). We then quickly change tack to let Ryan talk about his endeavour to play through the Lego games.
Dean has just finished playing Republique, and found it a fascinating experiment in exploring player agency and immersion, as well as a pretty smart stealth game set in a dystopian world that combines elements of classic Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil. Finally, Dean and Ryan try to articulate the emotional heart of Dark Souls and Susan is amazed there is one.
Guest Spotlight Dean and Susan move the guest spotlight to Ryan and speak to him in-depth about the Cane and Rinse podcast and their newer podcast on videogame music Sound of Play. Interesting talk about the state of videogame preservation and Cane and Rinse’s mission to thoughtfully preserve the history and culture of classic videogames ensues.
Theme of the Week In honour of the Sound of Play podcast we are each choosing our favourite videogame soundtracks. Fantasia: Music Evolved, Vagrant Story, Hotel Dusk, Rez, Project Diva and Animal Crossing all make an appearance.
Two Truths, One Lie Ryan tries to hoodwink us with his superior knowledge of human psychology!
You can follow Ryan on Twitter (@insrtcoins). Find out more about Cane and Rinse, or you can follow them too (@caneandrinse). Also, Susan appeared on Cane and Rinse’s Phoenix Wright episode, so check that out as well if you have no objections.
Subscribe using iTunes, Stitcher or our Podcast RSS Feed.
Ready Up Podcast theme music courtesy of Tommy Tallarico.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.