Pretty Pixels Podcast

Video Game Food

Tab’s back to talk with Joey about food in games! We talk about the delicious sushi in Persona 5, the exquisite sushi in Yakuza 0, the mouth watering sushi in Joey’s stomach because as soon as he was done recording this episode he put in an order for carry-out sushi from his favorite local place. Mmm. Sushi. We talk about the impact on atmosphere and world-building that food in games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Final Fantasy XV makes, and more broadly how games like these make us want coffee, curry, or whatever damn delicious thing is on our screen. Tab also talks about their seemingly never-ending quest to get an Xbox Series X, and we touch on news stories like Dr. Lupo’s leap to YouTube, the new Saints Row game, Steam’s dumb refund policy hurting game developers, and a few bits and bobs from Gamescom 2021. Thanks so much for listening, and we’ll catch you next week!

Contact us: prettypixelspodcast@gmail.com

We’re on Twitter: @Losperman (Joey) and @randommox (Tab)

00:06:44: Xbox releases beautiful new controller (Aqua Shift)

00:08:42: Emika Games, developer of Summer of ’58, gets screwed by Steam’s 2-hour refund rule

00:11:03: Gamescom bits: April O’Neil in Shredder’s Revenge, Morgana in Monkey Ball, Halo and Horizon get release dates, new Saints Row game

00:14:40: Dr. Lupo makes a Dr. Leapo exclusively over to YouTube Gaming

00:26:13: Joey finally finishes Persona 5 Royal (again), still rockin’ with Microsoft Flight Simulator

00:32:54: Slap on a bib and grab a fork, we’re talking about food in games!

Theme song by lovers.tiff: loverstiff.bandcamp.com

Popular Music in Video Games

Joey and Ron have a robust discussion about popular music in video games. You may have known that Aerosmith has been in two video games, but did you know that you could shoot hoops and throw hands as Chuck D or Queen Latifah in Rap Jam: Volume One for the SNES? You’ll find little gems like that alongside games like Rock n’ Roll Racing, Max Payne 3, Rock Band, GTA V, Emily is Away <3 and many, many more. It was a really fun chat! We also touch on the upcoming Twitch protest taking place on September 1^st, the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 patch, and (as always) what we’ve been playing. Thanks for listening, and hit us up with some of your favorite examples of popular music in video games!

Contact us: prettypixelspodcast@gmail.com

We’re on Twitter: @Losperman (Joey) and @bigbadron (Ron)

00:00:33: Joey gushes over the gamers in his new fall composition course

00:03:45: Twitch streamers plan walkout to protest the platforms lack of adequate response to recent (and ongoing) hate raids

00:11:36: New Cyberpunk 2077 patch includes hundreds of fixes and a few bits of free DLC

00:14:20: Ron has not, apparently, been playing “Everybody’s Balls” but he HAS been playing Everybody’s Golf

00:20:37: Joey’s Persona 5 Royal adventures continue, as have his aerial escapades in Microsoft Flight Simulator; he’s also just started the new Quake remaster and is still playing Overcooked! with the homies

00:31:37: Popular music in video games! From Rock n’ Roll Racing and Revolution X to Red Dead Redemption 2 and Death Stranding, we talk about some notable instances of popular music (and artists) in video games

00:43:57: A brief rant about OnlyFans banning sexually explicit content

Theme song by lovers.tiff: loverstiff.bandcamp.com

Multiplayer Memories

Joey is joined by two of his dearest and oldest friends this week, as both Ron and our friend Gari Hart sit down to reminisce about our multiplayer days of old. We’re mostly just shooting the proverbial shit, but we revisit some of the games that were pivotal to our earliest years of friendship – games that made us laugh, pound our legs in anger, or eat dog food. Don’t ask, just listen! We cover some N64 classics like GoldenEye and Mario Kart 64, marvel over the character creators in early WWE games, fondly recall the weird animal sounds old Madden players made, and much, much more. We also briefly discuss Sony’s acquisition of Crunchyroll, the GTA trilogy re-re-remasters, and what we’ve been playing. Special thanks to Gari for joining us!

Contact us: prettypixelspodcast@gmail.com

We’re on Twitter: @Losperman (Joey) and Ron (@bigbadron) and Gari (@garihart)

00:07:05: Sony purchases Crunchyroll for $1.2 billion

00:10:25: Rockstar is re-re-releasing the 3D GTA series

00:14:00: Ron’s not falling for Joey’s FFVII traps, but he’s still playing the game; he’s also been popping some zombie heads in Back 4 Blood with Joey

00:17:45: Joey’s still chipping away at Persona 5 Royal, and has discovered the thrills of Microsoft Flight Simulator

00:24:36: Gari’s been eating bananas and replaying The Last of Us and poking around in GTA Online

00:26:33: Multiplayer Memories!

00:31:30: It turns out you could have up to 16 bots in Perfect Dark!

Theme song by lovers.tiff: loverstiff.bandcamp.com

Mass Effect Legendary Edition

This week, Joey’s joined by Paul Grosskopf: friend of the show, friend of Joey and Tab, and massive fan of all things Mass Effect! Well, I didn’t verify that for sure. There may be a plushie or body pillow that he’s not a fan of, I can't say. But I do know that he loves the original Mass Effect trilogy, which we both played from front to back with the recently released Mass Effect Legendary Edition! We dive deep into each game in the series, talk about favorite scenes, characters we love, who we romanced, and much, much more. It’s four and a half hours of in-depth gushing and semi-serious analysis. Feel free to take some breaks, because I wish we had! Seriously, I was a sweaty bag of meat by the end. Anyway! We also touch on recent updates in the Activision Blizzard case, Steve Gaynor’s fall from grace at Fullbright, new Ghost of Tsushima: Legends content, and what we’ve been playing.

Special shout-out to Ron for cleaning up my seriously messed-up audio track. I’m still learning the ropes and things sounded very rough on my end this time, but he was able to salvage it and it sounds much, much better thanks to him. So, thanks again, Ron!

Contact us: prettypixelspodcast@gmail.com

We’re on Twitter: @Losperman (Joey) and Ron (@bigbadron)

00:11:10: Ghost of Tsushima: Legends will also be standalone, have extra content

00:14:17: Steve Gaynor asked to step back from role on Fullbright’s upcoming Open Roads due to numerous allegations of toxic management

00:19:15: Activision Blizzard investors are concerned about financial impact from recent lawsuit; big sponsors are putting partnerships “on hold”

00:26:50: Paul’s been hacking away in Hollow Knight and slingin’ burgs in Overcooked: All You Can Eat with Joey

00:32:00: Joey’s loving his way through Persona 5 Royal, somewhat liking his way through the Ariana Grande Fortnite concert, and really digging the Back 4 Blood beta

00:45:40: Mass Effect Legendary Edition! We set the proverbial table here, then make our way through each game

00:58:52: Mass Effect

01:42:52: Mass Effect 2

02:39:45: Mass Effect 3

04:00:10 Final thoughts, Mass Effect Andromeda, and what we want from a new ME game after the teaser that BioWare dropped in December

Theme song by lovers.tiff: loverstiff.bandcamp.com

”Game on” with Kimberly Shotick

We have our first Very Special Guest™ this week! Ron doesn’t count. He’s just regular special, not Very Special. Don’t tell him I said that. Kimberly Shotick, librarian and assistant professor at Northern Illinois University’s Founders Memorial Library, joins us to talk about the upcoming exhibit “Game On: The History of Video Games and Gaming Consoles,” which she’s curated and will run from August 15 through September 15. She tells us what we can expect to see at the exhibit, how it came to be, her favorite piece on display, and much more! If you can’t check out “Game On” in person, take a look at the (still in-progress) website, which has lots of great info and resources: https://libguides.niu.edu/retrogaming. We also go through some gaming news and what we’ve been playing. Can you believe Stardew Valley came up again? I swear we’re not being paid to bring it up every other episode (though we will accept a bottle of your finest Melon Wine, Chucklefish *winking emoji*). Thank you again to Kimberly for joining us, and if you’d like to reach her you can hit her up on Twitter (@KShotick) or via email (kshotick@niu.edu), and we hope to have her back on soon!

Contact us: prettypixelspodcast@gmail.com

We’re on Twitter: @Losperman (Joey), and @bigbadron (Ron), and @KShotick (Kimberly)

00:04:03: Joey’s oddly hyped about Ariana Grande’s Fortnite concert this Friday (Aug 6)

00:07:44: Horizon Forbidden West all but confirmed to be delayed to early 2022 L

00:11:44: Blizzard president J. Allen Brack steps down in wake of toxic workplace lawsuit

00:13:00: The Stray gameplay trailer is cuuuuuute

00:19:25: Ron’s been wrecking demon’s shit in the PS5 upgrade of DOOM Eternal

00:27:52: Kimberly’s playing Octopath Traveler and still loving Stardew Valley

00:34:20: Joey’s still on his Persona 5 Royal bullshit, playing Everybody’s Golf, and discovered a potentially cool and useful podcast about game studies (Game Studies Study Buddies)

00:36:29: Interview with Kimberly!

00:48:23: Joey was thinking of Rebecca Heinemann, who was a developer, not a composer. Apologies!

Theme song by lovers.tiff: loverstiff.bandcamp.com

Desert Island Scenarios

We have zero money for licensing music, but just pretend that Weezer’s “Island in the Sun” plays over the beginning of this episode, because this week we’re talking about our desert island games! We’re not stopping at the normal “which three games…” though. We go over several scenarios, including which single series we would choose, which single console and library we would take, which couch co-op game we’d take if we were stuck together, and more. We also talk about the lawsuit initiated against Activision Blizzard by the State of California (and the general response and discourse surrounding it) and the show of love for gaming at the Tokyo Olympics. Plus Tab talks about indie games Mind Scanners, Our Life: Beginnings and Always, and Call of the Sea, and Joey’s been playing lots of stuff, including Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!, Persona 5 Royal, and Halo 3 multiplayer.

Contact us: prettypixelspodcast@gmail.com

We’re on Twitter: @Losperman (Joey) and @RandomMox (Tab)

00:01:36: The Tokyo Olympics opens with tons of video game music, plus the Russian gold medalist sharpshooter is a huge gaming nerd

00:06:43: EA announces Dead Space remake

00:07:55: California sues Activision Blizzard over toxic culture that has significantly affected women in particular – we think that we need to do more than “better”

00:25:21: Tab’s playing Mind Scanners, Our Life: Beginnings and Always, and Call of the Sea

00:30:42: Joey platinum-ed DDLC Plus! and played a bunch of multplayer games with friends Gari and Ron over the weekend, with a big focus on Halo 3 multiplayer. He also went and started yet another run of Persona 5 Royal

00:42:42: We’re stranded (on our own, independently) on a desert island for life. We have food, water, shelter, and (strangely enough) electricity. What three games do we want to have with us?

00:55:15: What is one entire series (including spin-offs) that we’d take?

01:02:16: If we could have just one system with its entire available library, which would we choose?

01:10:13: Which three online games would we pick (if we magically had internet access and servers were magically up and always populated)?

01:20:31: If we were stuck on an island together, which three couch co-op games would we collectively decide to take with us?

01:22:31: Joey confirmed after recording that Tetris & Dr. Mario does, indeed, have a combo mode, so it does count and is not cheating and Tab is a doodyhead

Theme song by lovers.tiff: loverstiff.bandcamp.com

Video Game Dads

Hey, daddios! Tab’s back to discuss fatherhood in games. We chat about the roles fathers play in many games, how they’re portrayed, the ways in which loss and absence motivate and define them, and (most importantly) which Dream Daddy did we date first? We also touch on Valve’s Steam Deck, the uproar over a recent Kotaku headline, Skull and Bones going into alpha, and what we’ve been playing.

Contact us: prettypixelspodcast@gmail.com

We’re on Twitter: @Losperman (Joey) and @RandomMox (Ron)

00:03:09: Valve reveals the Steam Deck, which Tab swiftly pre-ordered

00:18:40: Discourse erupts over a snarky, harsh Kotaku headline

00:30:13: Ubisoft finally moves Skull and Bones to alpha

00:33:11: Joey’s been playing Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! and coding many, many screenshots of Persona 5 Royal, while Tab has been dabbling with House Flipper and the Power Washer expansion

00:43:10: Video game dads. What role do they serve in narratives? How are they portrayed? What are some interesting examples of dads in games?

00:45:15: Woof woof!

Theme song by lovers.tiff: loverstiff.bandcamp.com

Nostalgia, Final Fantasy VII, and the Dick Chariot

Guess who’s back? Back again? Ron is back. Tell a friend. Seriously, tell a friend about us if you think they’d dig yet another video game podcast where people just sit around and talk about games. Wait, I’m not selling this very well. Anyway, this week Ron joins Joey for a discussion about nostalgia and gaming. We touch on some fun news first, like this fall’s Smash-like, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl and Atlus’s plans for Persona’s 25^th anniversary, then Joey talks about finishing Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade: Episode INTERmission and playing Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! Our discussion of nostalgia centers on our shared history with Final Fantasy VII, but we also hit up Grand Theft Auto III, Chrono Trigger, and nostalgia in general. Have questions or suggestion? Send us an email or hit us up on Twitter! We are very lonely. Please. Please, someone. Email. Now. L

Contact us: prettypixelspodcast@gmail.com

We’re on Twitter: @Losperman (Joey) and @bigbadron (Ron)

00:01:38: Skyward Sword HD releases this week

00:02:39: Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, coming fall 2021

00:11:05: Atlus has a “year of Persona events and more” for the series’ 25^th anniversary

00:20:37: Joey’s finished Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade: Episode INTERmission

00:25:12: Joey gets into some slight, vague spoilers for Doki Doki Literature Club [Skip if you have any interest in playing the game at all!]

00:31:13: Nostalgia: we walk through our memories of the original Final Fantasy VII, how Final Fantasy VII Remake tickled our nostalgia, and explore how other games (like Chrono Trigger and GTA III have or haven’t had similar effects)

Theme song by lovers.tiff: loverstiff.bandcamp.com

The ol‘ Switch(aroo)

With the news of the Nintendo Switch OLED Model dropping, we decided to use the opportunity to talk all things Nintendo Switch. After discussing the future of the Assassin’s Creed series and what we’ve been playing/watching, we talk about the new Switch model, our early Switch memories, fun times we’ve had with the system, favorite games, and more.

Contact us: prettypixelspodcast@gmail.com

We’re on Twitter: @Losperman (Joey) and @RandomMox (Tab)

00:06:15: New RoboCop game announced for 2023

00:08:34: Ubisoft planning “live, online games service” for Assassin’s Creed series (via Bloomberg)

00:14:00: Ghost of Tsushima is getting a director’s cut this August

00:21:14: Tab’s been scooping up roaches in House Flipper and fuckin’ shit up in Farming Simulator

00:25:53: Joey wrapped up Final Fantasy VII Remake and is on to Intergrade, and is also watching the Persona 4 Golden anime

00:29:44: Nintendo announces a new OLED model of the Nintendo Switch

00:35:12: Switch madness! We talk about launch, some favorite memories, our favorite games, and more

Theme song by lovers.tiff: loverstiff.bandcamp.com

Simulation Games!

Tab’s back! They talk about where they’ve been, some recent big life news, and what’s next for them. We talk about a few news blurbs, then get into what we’ve been playing (including Phasmophobia and Mario Golf Super Rush) before moving on to a discussion of simulation games. How do we define simulation games? Why are both Stardew Valley and Farming Simulation 21 considered “farming sims” when they’re so drastically different? We touch on questions like these along with some recent sim games we’ve been playing (Civilation VI and PowerWash Simulator) and some of our favorites in the genre.

Contact us: prettypixelspodcast@gmail.com

We’re on Twitter: @Losperman (Joey) and @RandomMox (Tab)

00:04:09: Xbox Cloud Gaming now available on Apple devices

00:05:04: RIP River, the model for Fallout 4’s Dogmeat

00:07:00: Housemarque joins PlayStation Studios

00:08:02: Another disappointing Steam Summer Sale

00:13:15: Joey’s been playing Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade and Mario Golf Super Rush, and Civilization VI; Tab’s been playing The Hunter: Call of the Wild and Minecraft, and we’ve both dipped back into Phasmophobia

00:24:30: Movie time! We both recently watched Hatchet, Joey is still working through Persona 5 The Animation and was also smitten with Hermione Corfield in Rust Creek, and Tab’s recently checked out Camp Cold Brook, Cabin Fever 3: Patient Zero, and The Ruins

00:42:23: Simulation games! What are they? What are some of our faves?

01:00:48: The irony of talking about Lawnmower Simulator whilst a lawnmower buzzes away in the background

01:11:27: And the irony of a loud truck chugging along behind Tab as they bring up Truck Driving Simulator

Theme song by lovers.tiff: loverstiff.bandcamp.com