Watch Out for Fireballs!

How far are you willing to go to make sure humanity survives on an off-Earth colony? Embracing player empowerment to design their own experience, Rimworld wants to meet you exactly where you're at. Watch the hours melt away as Rimworld invites you into its warm embrace.

And here's Juno's work! https://junoryleejournalism.com/

The Last Spell is an intricate tactical RPG with a roguelite structure that could possibly become your forever game. By day you build a base, and by night to fight to protect it from vast hordes of mutant zombies. We reflect on why something that feels like it was made for us in a lot of ways might fall short of becoming a new obsession.

We empty the backlog! That's it! We're out of questions! That probably means you have to send more.

You're a fan of stuff, but are you a Fan? We hope not. Those people are insufferable.

Upcoming WOFF Games

May:

• The Last Spell

• Rimworld

• Rage

June:

• Arcade Trip Report

• Loop Hero

• Baby Steps

Our (collective) favorite video game series is back! Nine entries deep and we're still having a blast playing as Leon Kennedy and series newcomer Grace Ashcroft. This time we're investigating a mysterious sickness that seems to be haunting the survivors of the Raccoon City incident.

So many master chiefs! Halo returns in this RTS spin-off, where the war against the flood takes a slightly different perspective. Can you stop the primordial forces trying to destroy the universe? Probably not seeing as there's more Halo games after this.

It's true, we loved Katamari! And now it's back, bigger and more sticky than ever. Gary is joined by Liv Butterfield (no relation) this week to discuss the direct sequel to the beloved Katamari Damacy.

Everyone's favorite sci-fi idiot is back and this time there are MORE zombies or whatever. Dead Space 2 iterates on the rough edges of Dead Space 1, but it does it ultimately move the needle? The game remains as dedicated as ever to it's third-person in-world HUD, but we must question whether that actually makes things any scarier.

You got questions and we jump on them in a variety of ways.

Upcoming Games

April:
Dead Space 2
We Love Katamari
Halo Wars
Resident Evil 9 (Premium)

May:
The Last Spell
Rimworld
Rage

It's Diddy Kong's turn to take over the spot light, and he has one advantage that his brother Donkey Kong never had... true love. He is joined by his girlfriend, Dixie, and she can fly! Donkey Kong Country 2 looks a bit ugly nowadays, but it's still a fundamental entry in the 2D platformer genre.

Fight your life in this under the radar train management/zombie survival game, The Final Station. You are the conductor of a train, the world is a dystopia after an alien invasion and you are forced to deal with some real moral dilemmas. Dare you fight on?

We're releasing episodes a little out of order this month in order to accommodate Kaye's move, so please enjoy this Dispatch episode where we answer your questions, read your responses, and talk about the idea of a game being "not for you."

• Mega Man X4

• Mortal Kombat 2

• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

• The Final Station + DLC

• Donkey Kong Country 2

• Castlevania Bloodlines

• Dead Space 2

• We <3 Katamari

• Halo Wars

• Resident Evil: Requiem

Mega Man X makes his debut on the PS1! Considered the second best game in the Mega Man X series after the initial entry, what does X4 have to offer that's unique? Well, you get to play as Zero, for one.

Get over here! It's time to discuss one of the culturally important games of our lifetimes: Mortal Kombat! While this episode does use MKII as a focus point, this is largely about the series as a whole and it's impact. Get your fatalities ready!

We answer your questions and read your responses to our January Games!

Responses for:

• Legend of Zelda

• Binding of Isaac

• Thief II: The Metal Age

• RoboCop: Rogue City

  
  Upcoming Games:
  February:

• Mortal Kombat II

• Mega Man X4

• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (Premium)
  
  March:

• The Final Station (Including The Only Traitor)

• Donkey Kong Country 2

• Castlevania Bloodlines

This information is presented as both a written post, and as a short podcast episode where we talk about our reasoning.

Hello Patrons and well-wishers: we’re here to report that the Duckfeed state of the union is strong, and we have some announcements about changes. Normally we do these in December, but Circumstances conspired to delay things a bit.

Something we really love about this job is that we have the freedom to periodically reevaluate how we do things, and make changes to keep our work interesting and hopefully improve the quality of our output. And we’re fortunate enough that you all are patient and understanding as we do this. So let’s dip into the changes we’re implementing.

These will take effect starting February 1, 2026.

Asking for money is hard, and asking for more money is harder. We’ve kept our tiers priced roughly the same since 2014, no matter how much we packed into them. After 12 years, we’re making our first change to this. But to be clear: if you’re backing us right now, nothing will change for you.

With that said, this is the new pricing scheme going forward, for new members:

• The Sparrow tier is moving from $3 to $4.

• The Duck tier is moving from $5 to $7.

• The Eagle tier is moving from $10 to $13.

• The Condor tier is remaining the same, at $25.

These changes track roughly with inflation since April of 2014, and we have no intentions of touching this again for a long time. Nothing is being taken out of the existing tiers, and nothing that is currently public is moving to premium.

To clarify again: Patrons who are current as of when the pricing takes effect (starting February 1, 2026) will be grandparented in at their old price for as long as they maintain their membership. We want to do this to honor anyone who’s supported us so far. Unfortunately we can’t give you the old pricing if you leave and come back, since that’s not a capability Patreon has.

To offset the above and sweeten the pot, we are adding one extra episode of Unfilmable per month, because Unfilmable is popular and we like doing it. One episode each month will remain a Gary pick or a Kaye pick, and we are opening Unfilmable up to Executive Producers. Because slots are limited, we are piloting the Executive Producer price at $200. 

The procedure for this will be similar to picking a game for WOFF! Because watching movies is different than playing and covering whole games, we will most likely go with your first choice. The only limitations are that the request must be a movie (not a TV show, and especially not a full season of a show), and that it not be hateful (we call this the Custer’s Revenge Clause). This kind of thing is in the eye of the beholder, but if we veto your choices you will get a full refund.

Now that Kaye will be in the same time zone and locality as Gary, we are going to pilot doing more streaming, either on Twitch or here on Patreon Live. More details to come. Something that may happen is the VODs for certain streams may be hosted here for Patrons only.

Starting in February we will be shifting our community chat from Slack to Discord. We’ve deliberated over this for a while, and it feels like it’s time to bring our community chat in line with 99% of other communities and use a service that’s not specifically built for workspaces. Community access will remain gated to patrons.

The transition to Discord will take place over the course of February, with the Slack closing down at the end of the month.

We maintain some reservations about Discord’s direction as a company and will do everything we can to limit annoying features in our server, and will keep an eye out for them deciding that everyone’s childhood memories belong to their AI or something.

(If you notice that you were kicked from the old Duckfeed Discord we used for multiplayer game chat, it's because it's under construction and you can re-join later on).

In addition to changing the prices of our tiers, we are going to make some modest changes to how WOFF! and Abject Suffering executive production slots and demands work.

The price to Executive Produce a Watch Out for Fireballs! episode will be rising from $300 to $350.

We are moving Abject Suffering picks to the store where anyone can buy a demand for $50, though $25 backers will continue to get a demand thrown in for their pledge (you will get a coupon). Because of the way that the store works, it will continue to be one demand per year.

We are going to begin offering individual episodes and collections for sale on the Patreon store, in addition to being available to monthly backers. This is something people have requested. For example, some people just want specific seasons of Bonfireside Chat. Others want to retain access to episodes after they drop their support.

To clarify, monthly memberships are still the primary way to get our content. No back catalog material will be gated behind an additional purchase. The only thing I could think would end up being listed that way was if we decided to do another charity bundle.

• Individual episodes will be $3 (the minimum price that Patreon will allow us to set). 

• Collections will be priced at roughly $1 per hour of premium episode that’s in the bundle, as not every episode in the bundle will be premium in some cases.

These listings will be going up shortly.

Patreon offers the capability to offer annual memberships, and we’re opening those up. If you want to sign up for a year of Duckfeed all at once, you can get a 10% discount. Here are instructions on how to get one of those.

Patreon recently added the capability for fans to gift memberships to other fans. We just want to let you know about this, since it’s hard to discover on the site.

We would like to start a community subreddit, but we don’t want to add moderating it to our workload. We also don’t really know how to do this. If you have expertise in this area, please contact us.

That’s the extent of what we have planned, and we hope you’re as excited about the additional Unfilmable episode, and the addition of streams to our schedule. Kaye being in Portland is going to open up some fun opportunities and we’re really excited for the future.

If you have questions about these changes, please ask them in the comments and we will answer them as best we can.

Thank you so much for your ongoing support!

Returning to the world of Thief, we finally cover the much demanded and beloved Thief II: The Metal Age. Often pointed to as one of the greatest embodiments of stealth in video games, what makes Thief II so special? A lot of has to do with The Fantasy. This game makes you feel like a badass fantasy Thief, with a world of treasures and artifacts to claim for yourself.

How can smart people enjoy a game about a naked boy crying at poop? Binding of Isaac is one of the most chaotic, labyrinthine, and complex games we've ever put multiple hundreds of hours into. Inspired by Legend of Zelda and Rogue, Binding of Isaac sees you grabbing dozens of game-changing items, building a unique Isaac, and descending deeper into the basement than you ever imagined. Gary is joined by his Everything to Guppy co-host, Will Hughes, to break down what makes Binding of Isaac an easy entry in the video game hall of fame.

The Legend of Zelda on the Nintendo Entertainment System is one of the most iconic games ever made. While not every trick it used holds up today's standards, the number of innovative techniques they used to make an adventure feel huge informs game design to this very day. Join us in revisiting this stone-cold classic.

This episode originally aired as off-season episode of Bonfireside Chat.

For more Hidden WOFFs, check out our collection here: https://www.patreon.com/collection/1908383

We hear your thoughts about such as games as Wasteland 3, Wasteland 3 and Wasteland 3.

Upcoming Games:

January

• Legend of Zelda (Bonfireside Chat Rerun)

• Binding of Isaac (Gary and Will Hughes)

• Thief II: The Metal Age

• Robocop: Rogue City (Premium)

February

• Mortal Kombat II

• Mega Man X4

• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (Premium)

To wrap up the year, December's premium episode of WOFF! is the live panel we did at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo back in October. Bob Mackey and Jeremy Parish of the Retronauts joined us to talk about the best and worst 7/10 games. One score means a lot of different things, and we try to get to the bottom of what's 7/10 (derogatory) and 7/10 (laudatory).

Games we discuss: Shadowrun (SNES). Ghostbusters (2009). Yakuza: Dead Souls. Dragon Quest VII. Clash at Demonhead. The Misadventures of Tron Bonne. Ninja Five-O. State of Decay. Haunting Ground.

To celebrate episode 500, we wrap up the plot of our yearly CRPG, Wasteland 3. We're heading up the mountains toward the north in order to deal with Victory, the Psychopath who is holed themselves up in Aspen.

Continuing our journey into the Wasteland, we need to follow up on a lead about the involvement of a Casino magnate.

Before there was Fallout, there was Wasteland. And after there was Fallout, there was Wasteland. In this combat heavy tactical RPG, we see many of the seeds that blossomed into the flowers of Fallout, while still having a distinct flavor all their own. This game is goofy, cynical, and generally wants you to have a bad time while you laugh.

Upcoming WOFF Games

December:

• Wasteland 3

January:

• The Legend of Zelda (Bonefireside Chat Rerun)

• The Binding of Isaac (Guest-hosted episode with Gary and Will Hughes)

• Theif II: The Metal Age

• RoboCop: Rogue City (Premium)

We love Hitman so much, we had to see where our little, bald, perfect clone with a barcode came from. The levels are smaller, but a lot of the core concepts of what makes Hitman good are still here in the DNA of the series in a more rudimentary form.

[Audio Disclaimer: Gwen here. All of the OST audio I could find for Unpacking had some skips in the audio files themselves. I tried to minimize this, but I can still hear them in the finished audio. If you hear it as well, just know that I worked with the best versions I could find.]

What stories do our objects tell us about ourselves? Unpacking attempts to get the player to connect to an unseen person who's objects we become intimately familiar with. It's also a game about chores. Does it make you cry?

Our beloved Hell Train is back, but this time... it's a Heaven Train. Monster Train 2 throws out the whole deck and asks you to start again with five new clans before allowing you to unlock the clans from the original. It's a confident, sleek, and well-considered sequel.

Release the emergency question valve! We're drowning in here!

We read your responses to:

• Silent Hill 2 (2024)

• Cryptmaster

• F.E.A.R.
  
  Upcoming Games:
  November:

• November:

• Monster Train 2

• Unpacking

• Hitman: Blood Money (Premium)

December:

• Wasteland 3

• PRGE Live Episode (Premium)

Paxton Fettel isn't going to catch himself, operative. That's why you're on a squad with the unlikely name of F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon), to hunt down the psychic commander of an army of clones. That's Paxton, the commander. F.E.A.R. does not hold up as a horror game because it's way too modal, but it's a very solid first person shooter with enemy AI that is still spookily good.

For our highlight this week, we have a time sensitive call to action: Save the date for Saturday, November 9 at 9:00am Eastern. That's when our fans at catgirls.cam will be holding a 24 hour live stream to raise money for the Mockingbird Meadows & Chicago Food Depository. The event is called BD4PP and it's addressing an urgent need for people dealing with food scarcity in Chicago.

Behold! Four monosyllabic zombies must type their way through legions of enemies, all while showing off their incredible typing/riddle prowess. In this unique typing/horror/blobber hybrid, a blend of thrills and chills await you. Dare you enter the realm of the Cryptmaster?

How far would you go to run away from your own guilt? Team Bloober takes a swing at reimaging the uncontested horror game classic that is Silent Hill 2. The game looks great, but does it overstay its welcome attempting to scare you senseless? This game is massive, which can lead to the horror it's attempting to peddle becoming a little stale by the end.

This isn't so bad. We can fix this. We are definitely not in a catastrophe.

Mouthwashing is a bit-sized walking sim horror game that asks how do we handle the worst possible news. The answer is not well.

Upcoming Games

October:

• Mouthwashing

• Silent Hill 2make

• Cryptmaster

• F.E.A.R. (Premium)
  

  November:

• Monster Train 2

• Unpacking

• Hitman: Blood Money (Premium)

There's a storm acomin', and all the animal-folk need to band together if we want to survive this one. Against the Storm is a unique city builder where saving up for big events it's what's going to keep you afloat. Dare you attempt to survive the storm?

Outer Wilds is a cozy adventure game about the thrill of exploration and the triumph of curiosity. You walk in the footsteps of a long-gone civilization to find your way out of a deadly time loop, ultimately triumphing and being reborn. The game's expansion, Echoes of the Eye, takes a bit of a darker tone. You explore an artificial world haunted by precursors who aren't quite as gone as you've been led to believe.

There are some real design missteps here, and we talk about them, but also talk about what makes Outer Wilds in general work for us in spite of them.

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

Bob Mackey of the Retronauts joins Kaye this week to talk about Majora's Mask, whose pitch is that you only have three days to save the world, but you have as many three days as you want. This is the bleaker and more ambitious sibling to the beloved Ocarina of Time, and it's a standout title in its own right even if it's (wrongly, in our opinion) divisive. The inhabitants of Termina walk daily under a reminder of their pending doom, and Link and his many transformation masks are their only hope against Skull Kid and his mysterious cursed mask.

Note: The first version of this episode cut off early. Redownload it to hear the last five minutes or so!

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

Howdy do! We've got heaps of questions today, so let's not waste any time dilly-dallying!

Upcoming Games
September:

• Majora’s Mask (w/ Bob Mackey of Retronauts)

• Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye

• Against the Storm

October:

• Mouthwashing

• Silent Hill 2 Remake

• Cryptmaster

• F.E.A.R.

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

What if a video game really, fully embodied that you can just blow shit up? Welcome to Mercenaries. Earn tons of money, explode some bad people, and generally play however the hell you want. Join as we explore this expression-first mission-based sandbox.

For the first time since 2019, Watch Out for Fireballs! is going to have a panel at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo this October, the weekend of October 17-19!

We will be giving an updated version of our 7/10 Games talk, with new games and new guests (we'll have at least one Retronaut with us). We don't currently know when our slot is, but we will announce it when we have more details.

We will not have a table set up at the show this year, but Gary and I will be present and carrying around swag to give out (swag will be available at our panel, and at our meetup).

To sweeten the pot if you're thinking of attending, we will also be holding a meetup at a nearby establishment, time and place to be determined.

So I guess this post is more just serving as a "save the date", or a call to buy your tickets now if you're thinking of going. We'd love to see you there, and the show itself is always a good time.

This week Gary welcomes acquaintance of the network Will Hughes (Everything to Guppy) to the co-host chair to discuss Hazelight Studios' Split Fiction.

This podcast is half science fiction, half fantasy. In the fantasy half, we pretend that stories aren't based on a writer's experiences in life. In the sci-fi half, we send you this podcast through the power of space lasers. Split Fiction has a lot of really cool ideas, but still fails as a story in some fundamental ways. We want to praise the game, but also give it some slaps on the wrist for it's less-than-par writing.

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

What happens when you give the original Metroid a glow-up with the Super Metroid engine? A lot of cool stuff, and some weird stuff. It's not a perfect fit, but the result is still the second best Metroid game ever made.

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

Okay! We'll talk, we'll talk! Just please stop with the questions!

You are a body. In a video game, you are a body sometimes. Other times, you are a menu, representing a body. What does a game really need to get you to embody the story it wants to tell?

Upcoming Games:
August:
-Metroid Zero
-Split Fiction (Gary and Will)
-Mercenaries: Playground

September:
-Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (Kaye and Bob Mackey)
-Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye
-Against the Storm

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

Can a robot's heart beat like a man's? What makes us human? Probably puzzle solving. Robots can't solve puzzles. Prove me wrong, kids.

We return to Night City to embark on a new mission in the slums of Dogtown. V gets mixed up in the whacky adventures of a sitting president. Does Phantom Liberty return to the heights once-achieved by the Witcher 3 DLC? Join us and find out!

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

Does this have the least good soundtrack of the original run of Tony Hawk games? Probably! Does it still kick a good amount of ass? Yes. THPS3 continues broadening the scope of the beloved skateboarding franchise, with one key idea: More. More secret areas, more goofy levels, more ways to extend your combo! Check out this sweet kickflip!

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

You've seen immersive sims before, but have you ever played one where you sneeze? Skin Deep is a cute, weird, immersive sim with indie sensibilities. Your character doesn't wear shoes, you carry the heads of your enemies around in your inventory, and it all takes place on a spaceship.

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!

We spilled the bowl, and only questions came out.

Upcoming Games:

July:
-Skin Deep
-Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
-Cyperpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
-The Talos Principle

August:
-Metroid: Zero Mission
-Split Fiction (with Will Hughes)
-Mercenaries: World of Destruction

Support Watch Out for Fireballs!