Watch Out for Fireballs!

Well, well, well. If it isn't Hell, Hell, Hell.

This week we talk about DOOM Eternal, the follow up to the pitch perfect modernization that was 2016's DOOM. Bethesda obviously couldn't just give us the same game again, so how did they complicate it for the sequel? Does it still make our hearts pump just as fast? The only way to find out is to listen in.

It's like your favorite physical toy! But digital, and you can take it to school! Oh, wait, no, the teacher confiscated that too.

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Wait a second... Symphony... Aria... Harmony... those are all music terms! I've solved the code!

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And how does one cut a scene, exactly? With scissors? How preposterous.

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We had some house to clean.

This week we cover Lisa: The Painful. It is both hilarious and also very, very wrong about the nature of what it means to be a broken person. An interesting, albeit sadistic game. How does the game try to break you? Does breaking you translate into a better game? Or is it just interesting? Tune in to find out!

Boy, I wonder if they're gonna defeat the evil.

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Aye, verily it is time for the fourth Quest of the Dragon.

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A game so funny it decides to tell you where to laugh.

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CRPGs. They're dense, they're chunky. How do I fit myself into one?

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It's like Zelda, but you're also at a rave.

This week we're covering the cross-over smash hit that combines Crypt of the Necrodancer with the Legend of Zelda. The resulting game is less demanding than Crypt, and a loving tribute to our favorite triangle-elves. How did the devs manage to pull it off? Where did they find the middle ground between the two titles? Tune in to find out!

Dark _E_co.

Dark _I_co?

Dark Yekko?

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Depending on how you count it, you've either killed hundreds of people in Burnout Paradise, or no one. Because there are no people anywhere.

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Goombas. Zombies. Speed bumps. The enemies that you kill all the time, and a lot of them. Some of them are good! Which ones!?

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An absolute unit of an episode here.

This week we talk about the modern remake of an absolute classic, Resident Evil 4. Did it even need to be remade? Probably not, but that doesn't mean it's not just as good the second time around. What did Capcom decide was worth updating? What hasn't moved an inch? Tune in to find out!

A SUPER PAINTER NAMED ANDREAS

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Yeah! Fuck yeah! Take that, you shit demon! Hahahahaha! Blood and guts! Hahahahaha!

Ahem.

This game did something to me.

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7 out of 10. Quite a remarkable number really. Not big enough to be 8, not small enough to be 6, definitely too large to be 5, but if could be 9 if you squint in a certain light.

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I reckon this town ain't big enough for the both of us.

Time to roundup all these... darn tootin... lonesome questions. Something like that.

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Nobody saw Bowser's Fury coming. What could have been just a little extra something to sweeten the pot on another port from the Wii U ended up being a fully-featured and inventive 3D Mario game. It's snack-sized and packed with new ideas, chief among them being the Fury Bowser kaiju fights. But also classic course-based Mario challenges set in an open world. We dig it, and we think you'll dig it too.

There once was a Bard from Nantucket

Who

Whom...

Look, I didn't write the limmerick. Get off my ass.

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Wow, maybe Capitalism is bad, actually?

In this gorgeously present point-and-click adventure game, you must solve the mystery of who murdered hope.

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When? Why? How? What? All this and more on this week's Questions Only WOFF.

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I actually cut a version of this episode that used the licensed songs instead, but it felt weird so I re-edited it. Here ya go, you ingrates!

This week we talk about The Quarry, Supermassive's spiritual follow-up to Until Dawn. They've grown a lot as storytellers between the two games, how did they up the horror this time around? Are the narrative consequences for making choices just as consequential? Yes. Even more so, actually. Tune in to hear more!

It's a sexy time travel mystery.

Oh, no, apparently it's just a time travel mystery.

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It's a soulslike. It's moe. It's a moe soulslike.

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Pick up that podcast! It's time for a quarterly Q&A! You got questions, we got answers.

What makes a Good Level? You know, with capital letters?

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There's no Crysis in baseball! Or something!

For better or worse, Crysis is in the canon. For many years it stood as the go-to game to test your PC's graphics capabilities. So how is the game? Is it better, or worse? Tune in to find out!

You might be surprised, but this game is mostly about sneaking around and killing people.

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Fulfilling every child's dream of having an empty island filled with ticket arcade machines and robots you can shoot fireworks at.

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Well, Cuphead and his pal Mug Man, they like to roll the dice. By chance, they came 'pon the Devil's game, and gosh, they paid the price.

This immacutely aesthetic as fuck run-n-gun shooter iinspired by 30s pre-Disney animation is a sight to behold. But is it a good game? Mostly yes!

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I just know I'm going to need those full heal elixirs for the end boss.

Right?

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We need to go deeper. It's time to sort rocks and drink... fish. Drink? Do you... eat a bladderfish or...? 

Survival, crafting, survival-crafting. Subnautica. Dare you travel to the bottom of the ocean? Or be ye a landlubber?

A different interpretation of translating a tabletop-lite system into a video game context. Story-heavy, mechanics driven by a sense of struggle, but not overwhelming despair. Build a new life yourself and those you meet and remember who your allies are.

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There's an angel named Lucah, and a tortured dream world. This is an emotional and heartfelt project that relies on you wanting to finish the game multiple times to see the full story. The structure's a bit poison, but come and check out the neat things it does do. It's an interesting one!

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What Remains of Edith Finch? made people things, and the boys take their action figures and make them fight to decide if they like Indie Games or AAA Games better.

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Hades is one of our most-requested games of all time. It struck a chord with tons of people when it released, drawing in gamers who had never given action roguelikes a chance before. With its snappy combat and charismatic takes on the Greek gods, it's hard to blame people for loving it. But how does it stand up to other roguelites, a diverse field with tons of heavy hitters?

This week's highlighted project is "Clarion", an upcoming novel by author Nina Dunnic. Check out her work at ninadunic.com!

Thank you Abe!

It's time to circle strafe the Monstrous Manual with Heretic! This Doom Clone has a lot of subtle improvements that make it more than just Doom with Wands. Listen in to find out more!

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We spend a lot of time talking about the need for the video game equivalent of short story collections, and What remains of Edith Finch is about as close to that as we've gotten so far. Edith is returning to her long-abandoned home to learn about her family's curse... which has resulted in the tragic, unfortunate, and sometimes hilarious deaths of everyone related to her. Each of the stories is its own interactive vignette, casting us into a magically realistic tale to see what exactly happened, and what may be in store for Edith herself.

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Because this December was a weird month, content-wise, we're bringing you an extra special, patron-only presentation: our third arcade special. We talk about four arcade classics, mostly from the 80s, and do some fond reminiscing in turn.

We discuss Mappy, Paperboy, Strider, and Smash TV.

Thanks so much for your support, and Happy New Year!

We answer your questions! We discuss Duckstream! We read your responses! What more could you want?

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Hong Kong is revealing some deeper truths to our group of Shadowrunners, as we search for the truth about what happened to Raymond Black and try to learn what's amiss with the Walled City. We pick up in the middle section of the game, as we're taking on jobs to keep the lights on and give Auntie Cheng time to work. Shadowrun: Hong Kong continues to be a delightful short story collection of fun, tactical missions that uses its setting to great effect.

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"Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good" month continues with the slightly worse but worthy follow up to the masterpiece Shadowrun Dragonfall. We've arrived in Hong Kong at the request of our adopted father but not all is what it seems.

Please join us at patreon.com/duckfeedtv

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This week continues the Last Castoff's journey, as they continue seeking out answers for what the Changing God was up to with his resonance chamber... The one we crashed into like a big ol' meteor. We head through the Valley of Dead Heroes and the Sanctuary at Miel Avest before ending up at The Bloom, a city within a dimension-spanning organism.

We talk about the rest of the game, highlighting as many side quests as we found, and end up discussing how this game measures up to its predecessor. Is it fair to hold anything to the standard set by Planescape: Torment? Does treating that game as unassailable mean that CRPG storytelling peaked in 1999? Listen to find out!

This week's highlighted project is Coming Out With Lauren and Nicole, a podcast that hosts various LGBT+ folks to hear their coming out stories, using them as a launch pad for discussions on various related issues. Check them out!

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What is the value of one game?

There are big shoes to fill and then there are comically huge shoes that can be made into houses for little old ladies. That was the job of Tides of Numenera, an excellent short story compilation that fails to capture the emotional resonance of it's predecessor. Here us talk about the generalities and Sagus Cliffs in this episode before hitting the end game next week!

This episode is brought to you by Duckstream! duckfeed.tv/duckstream

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In this quarterly special episode, we gather up some leftover questions and topic prompts and answer them so they'll stay answered. Topics include overwhelming games, the ethics and effects of emulation, lonely games, and many, many more.

We had intended to make this month's topic VR, but instead we said almost everything we wanted to say during the Half-Life: Alyx episode. So, instead, we take even more of your questions before reading your thoughts about Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, SUPERHOT, and Half-Life: Alyx.

This episode's highlighted project is Waystar Corncob, a podcast that's about both I Think You Should Leave and Succession. And Gary was on a recent episode!

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The Watch Out For Fireballs has been silent on the topic of The Half Life for a while now but it's time to wake up and smell the ashes! (I know this is mixing vortigaunt and g-man speak, and I don't care!)

Half Life Alyx is our first major foray into VR and not likely to be our last. Alyx is a great game for this because it's dedicated to being a full franchise entry, a return to form, with few compromises. Though it's a little long and your experience will likely vary (that's the nature of VR), this game is a breath of fresh air. 

Thank you Elliot!