A show about the most important comic of the 21st century, and the greatest series you’ve never heard of. Each week Journalist Gita Jackson and DC Historian Alex Jaffe read and explore an issue of 52, a 2006 exploration of the DC universe by a legendary team of talent that shaped everything that came after it.
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The flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ fra ...
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Explored the cultural context of video games with Kotaku reporter Patrick Klepek, freelance writer Gita Jackson, and middle school teacher Sam Phillips.
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A new show about fandom, internet culture, and the unusual things people do in video games - hosted by Gita Jackson and Patricia Hernandez
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[To The Tune Of “Vindicated” By Dashboard Confessional] Defenestrated
1:11:27
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This week, Nathan, Gita, and Luke discuss the first big game of the “fall” video game season: Star Wars Outlaws. Despite an enormous budget and a four-year development cycle, reviewers were given just a week to play the gargantuan game before embargo. Not ideal! We discuss how that impacts the way reviewers play and perceive games. Then we move on …
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Ah, Shuddup! Gita Jackson and Alex Jaffe kick the twenty-first issue of 52 down a flight of stairs, and in the process discuss Jaffe’s incredible American Idol experience, Power Boy’s deficit of chest exposure, and the death of Manchester Alabama’s second fastest speed-based superhero. Chapters: Let’s Talk Talent (04:44) Let’s Talk About 52 #21 (10…
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Did You Myth Me (With Makena Kelly)
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This week, Nathan and Chris are joined by Wired’s Makena Kelly to discuss content creators at the Democratic National Convention. Was it a savvy move on Democrats’ part to give them press access? Did they do a better job of shining light on protesters and their causes than traditional press? And what was the deal with all the rumblings of conflict …
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This week, Nathan, Chris, and Riley examine the aftermath (lol) of the drama surrounding Deadlock, Valve’s new hero shooter that hasn’t been officially announced yet, and one brave (read: normal) reporter’s decision to, well, report on it. Why, in an industry where regularly unreliable leakers amass hundreds of thousands of followers, did so many p…
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I Died And Was Reincarnated As The World’s Greatest Monster! All-Star Comics Journalist Gita Jackson and World’s Finest Comics Expert Alex Jaffe breeze through the Morrison-heavy and story-light issue twenty of 52, making space for Tim King’s public apology for being a CIA asset, Steel’s exposed penis, Superboy Prime as isekai, and Jaffe’s biggest …
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This week, Nathan, Gita, and Riley gather to reflect on the legacy of Game Informer, a magazine whose 33-year run unexpectedly came to an end late last week when GameStop unceremoniously laid off its entire staff and took down its website’s archive. Then we discuss the parasocial pivots of both the Trump and Harris campaigns, with the former appear…
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This week, Luke, Riley, and Chris talk news, sports, sports games, non-sports games, and geography. We start by discussing Wednesday’s layoffs at Destiny developer Bungie, which saw 220 people lose their jobs and other people and teams shuffled into parent company Sony. But throughout all this upheaval, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons has managed to hang o…
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He knows! All-Star Comics Journalist Gita Jackson and World’s Finest Comics Expert Alex Jaffe fly into issue nineteen, taking on Space Pope Lobo, which members of the DC universe are Charli girls vs. Taylor girls, and the most shocking twist of the series so far. Chapters: Let’s Talk Talent (09:12) Let’s Talk About 52 #19 (12:17) The Backup (38:40)…
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Hot Labor Summer: Video Games Edition
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This week, Nathan, Riley, and Chris tackle a very eventful week, beginning with news that broke mere minutes before we started recording: video game voice actors and mocap performers are going on strike. Major companies – including EA, Epic, and Activision – aren’t guaranteeing them necessary AI-related protections, so they’re taking to the picket …
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Subscriber Feed Preview Clip: The Flash (2023) Review
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Here’s a preview for the subscriber only bonus feed episode featuring a review of The Flash (2023), the capstone film in the grand Snyderverse experiment. Hear all about the many writers and directors who passed through this film’s history, Ezra Miller’s strange crime rampage, and what the future holds for DC movies in the full episode. Check it ou…
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You’ll Kick Yourself If You Miss This One
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Nathan, Luke, and Chris gather to discuss a week that feels like it’s lasted ten years, largely due to an assassination attempt against Donald Trump, the aftershocks of which have rattled every corner of the internet, including the world of video games. Almost immediately after it all went down, players of games like Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft…
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Week 18 - Dismantled, with Questionposting
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Emancipate the JLA! All-Star Comics Journalist Gita Jackson and World’s Finest Comics Expert Alex Jaffe cross over with Questionposting to tackle issue 18, featuring BREAKING NEWS REGARDING DC CANON and the existence of Tracy Thirteen, Dr. Doom arguing with a drunk person, microdosing Fear Toxin, and the secret unpublished origins of Honest Abe, th…
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This week, Nathan, Luke, and Riley reconvene after a holiday weekend to discuss everybody’s favorite, inescapably pervasive topic: enshittification, defined by writer Cory Doctorow as the process by which "the services that matter to us, that we rely on, are turning into giant piles of shit.” This week alone, it happened to both Xbox’s Game Pass se…
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Ain’t No Party Like A LAN Party Because LAN Parties Don’t Happen Anymore (With Merritt K)
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This week, everybody’s on break because of the Fourth of July, but we don’t intend on leaving you high and dry. A couple months ago, we hosted our first live event at Wonderville in Brooklyn alongside Merritt K, author of “LAN Party: Inside the Multiplayer Revolution.” We spent our time on stage discussing the golden age of LAN parties and why they…
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Only thirty-five more ta go! All-Star Comics Journalist Gita Jackson and World’s Finest Comics Expert Alex Jaffe blast off into issue seventeen of 52, where they witness The Time Hands, weird editorial grudges that end up on the page, and Starfire as Leia Thee Stallion. Chapters: Let’s Talk Talent (02:25) Let’s Talk About the Cover, and Lobo (03:06…
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And He’s Not Even A Real Doctor (With Ash Parrish)
1:33:36
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On this week’s episode, Nathan and Riley are joined by Ash Parrish of The Verge to discuss the reason behind Dr Disrespect’s Twitch ban and how it finally came to light after all these years. We answer one of the major questions the recent torrent of information has produced: Why did it take journalists – some of whom had known the reason for years…
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Subscriber Feed Preview Clip: An Interview with Mark Waid
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Here’s a preview for the subscriber only bonus feed episode featuring an interview with legendary co-writer of 52 and countless other formative comic book classics, Mark Waid. While this preview focuses on a few controversial Superman questions, the full episode goes in-depth on writing for huge company-wide events, what the Speed Force actually is…
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Link’s Awokening (With John Warren)
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On this week’s episode, Nathan and Riley are joined by John Warren, formerly of Fanbyte and now of the just-launched VGBees. First we discuss John’s new reader and listener-supported website, which aims to provide a home to good writing about video games. The more the merrier, we say. Then we hop on the endless merry-go-round that is the question o…
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Week 16 - Uhebbuki, with Charles Pulliam Moore
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O zephyr winds which blow on high, lift me now so I can fly! All-Star Comics Journalist Gita Jackson and World’s Finest Comics Expert Alex Jaffe team up with the Uncanny Charles Pulliam-Moore for the Two-Hour Wedding Album that is issue sixteen of DC’s 52. Hear whether Captain Marvel is an adult man or three kids in a trench coat, the wedding tradi…
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On this week’s episode, Nathan and Luke are joined by some guy they know named Ethan Gach to discuss the aftermath (lol) of Summer Game Fest. Ethan was on the ground at the show in LA, so he fields questions about the Geoff Keighley-powered husk that E3 left behind. We ultimately arrive at the same question people do after every single one of these…
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On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, and Riley gather on the eve of Summer Game Fest – aka Keigh-3 – to discuss pre-show announcements and an investigation into the show itself. Turns out, it costs $250,000 to buy one minute of trailer time during Geoff Keighley’s summer advertisement extravaganza. And that’s just the beginning, with pricing tier…
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Week 15 - Outshined, with Alex Sinclair
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Your Donations Keep Lexapedia Running! All-Star Comics Journalist Gita Jackson and World’s Finest Comics Expert Alex Jaffe are joined by the legendary lead colorist of 52 Alex Sinclair. The towering trio takes on #15 (the Frank Grimes issue), Jason Todd’s death poll, and an unused yet fully illustrated and colored cover for 52. Chapters: Let’s Talk…
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On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, and Riley huddle together after another week surviving the slow-mo media apocalypse, this time with (even) more AI. First we discuss Vox Media and The Atlantic’s mystifying decisions to feed their journalists’ work into OpenAI’s woodchipper, shredding years of credibility and goodwill in exchange for a quick b…
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Pokémon Marx To The Polls (With Janus Rose)
2:06:32
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On this week’s episode, Nathan and Gita are joined by Janus Rose, author of Aftermath’s first-ever freelance piece (made possible by subscribers like you!). She tells us about what inspired her to write her piece, which focuses on parallels between Final Fantasy VII and real-world resistance movements in the face of imperialism. Then we discuss IGN…
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Week 14 - Sand and Rust, with Reid Vanier
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Did you know mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature?! All-Star Comics Journalist Gita Jackson and World’s Finest Comics Expert Alex Jaffe team up with Doctor DC himself Reid Vanier to wear jeans while building robots, ponder articulated cheeks, and determine which triple-A studio should be making a Vic and Renee video game. Ch…
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On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, and Riley discuss the new Assassin’s Creed, Shadows, which is set in feudal Japan and stars two main characters: a ninja and a samurai. It looks more interesting than the past few games in the series, if nothing else! Of course, since the ninja is a woman and the samurai is black, a certain subset of gamers ar…
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On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, and Gita take stock of Microsoft’s no-good, very-bad week, in which the increasingly embattled giant shut down four studios, two of them – Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks – beloved by fans. More small games or big franchise hits? Microsoft doesn’t seem to know what it wants. Then we check in on Sony, which i…
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Week 13 - Haystack, with Tim Marchman
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This is what happens when they let me into a church! All-Star Comics Journalist Gita Jackson and World’s Finest Comics Expert Alex Jaffe are joined by Substitute Legionnaire Tim Marchman to sift through Ralph Dibny’s descent into sadness, the X-Men for virgins, Gen-X leftists, and Saltburn Funko Pops. Chapters: Let’s Talk Talent (06:30) Let’s Talk …
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On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, and Gita ponder orbs. There used to be so many of them in video games. What happened? Where did they all go? And whose idea was it to replace the smooth, satisfying act of vacuuming up orbs with slow, tedious loot grinds? After that, we discuss Another Crab’s Treasure, a Spongebob-inspired Soulslike that’s sur…
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Speaking Of Things That Are Banned (With Matt Kim)
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On this week’s episode, Nathan and Chris are joined by IGN’s Matt Kim to talk about Stellar Blade, a culture war battleground that, as it turns out, is a perfectly alright video game and nothing more. Seems to happen a lot! Maybe we could all learn something from this. But we probably won’t. Oh well. Then we discuss the impending TikTok ban, which …
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ttttttttt! All-Star Comics Journalist Gita Jackson and World’s Finest Comics Expert Alex Jaffe consider issue number twelve of 52, and in the process share the best way to start reading comics, the best ideas for reintroducing Isis (the character! the character!) to comics, and the exact moment The Rock decided to change the hierarchy of power in t…
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You Don’t Have To Cheer For Big Tech (With Ian Boudreau)
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On this week’s episode, Riley and Chris are joined by games journalist Ian Boudreau. We start by talking about Riley’s stressful quest to get internet in a new apartment, before pivoting to the stressful quests of the Fallout TV show and what it does and doesn’t borrow from the games. Then, we discuss the drama around Marques Brownlee’s review of t…
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Lucy In The Sky With Deathclaws (With Dave Oshry)
1:45:22
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On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, and Gita are joined by New Blood Interactive founder and Fallout expert Dave Oshry to talk about Amazon’s new Fallout TV series, which just premiered. The general consensus: It’s good! But it’s also very Bethesda-era Fallout, heavily reliant on iconography and references (Stimpacks! Nuka Cola! The Junk Jet fro…
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Week 11 - Batwoman Begins, with Jadzia Axelrod
1:28:38
1:28:38
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Man down in Wife City! All-Star Comics Journalist Gita Jackson and World’s Finest Comics Expert Alex Jaffe are joined by The Prettiest Star Jadzia Axelrod as they dive into the romantic history of Kate Kane and Renee Montoya, make unintentional Andrew Hussie references, and figure out what to do with Donna Troy. Chapters: Let’s Talk Talent (11:24) …
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On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, and Luke find themselves wandering a news desert, so they decide to discuss games they’ve been playing recently, almost entirely for the purpose of getting Luke to pronounce the title “Doronko Wanko.” It’s a great moment, worth the price of admission on its own. Then Nathan and Chris discuss Content Warning, a…
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On this week’s episode, Nathan and Chris are joined by writer, podcaster, PR guy, and former games journalist Ed Zitron to talk about, well, a lot of stuff. We begin by talking about “media being destroyed by idiots,” as Ed puts it, before discussing Nvidia’s pivot to AI and how it could crash and burn, taking countless jobs with it. Then we discus…
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Live, laugh, love! All-Star Comics Journalist Gita Jackson and World’s Finest Comics Expert Alex Jaffe jump out of a window into 52’s tenth issue, where they find out what the Middle East is even like in the DC universe, spend Tuesdays with Morrow, and take a quick quiz on super-vegetarians. Chapters: Let’s Talk Talent (02:29) Let’s Talk About the …
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On this week’s episode, Luke, Chris, and Riley talk about Kotaku's editor-in-chief resigning over guides mandates, our favorite indestructible tech and gadgets, why AI writing in games sucks, and how to get the most out of your local bikeshare program." Credits - Hosts: Luke Plunkett, Chris Person, and Riley MacLeod - Podcast Production & Ads: Mult…
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Ruin And Recovery In Games Journalism (With Jason Schreier)
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On this week’s episode, Nathan and Luke are joined by their former Kotaku colleague, author and Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, for a special Inside Baseball Week episode of the show. True to the theme, they spend most of the episode discussing the state of games journalism: Are layoffs and site closures a sign that traditional games journalism …
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All-Star Comics Journalist Gita Jackson and World’s Finest Comics Expert Alex Jaffe head off in pursuit of 52 issue #9, dealing with psychosexual eugenics factories, the LGBTQ+ nightlife scene in Gotham, and Big Mad Meltzer. Chapters: Let’s Talk Talent (03:32) Let’s Talk About the Cover (07:14) Let’s Talk About 52 #9 (11:24) The Backup (41:22) What…
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Much Ink Spilled Over Sweet Baby Inc (And Sanrio)
1:38:40
1:38:40
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On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, and Riley discuss the wild (and wholly inaccurate) conspiracy theory surrounding a small video game narrative studio called Sweet Baby Inc, which has recently taken the internet by storm. It begins with “wokeness” in video games and ends with multi-trillion-dollar investment company Blackrock, so buckle up – a…
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On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, and Riley discuss the auspicious occasion of three different game development studios – Gearbox, Saber, and Toys For Bob – all escaping from beneath the thumbs of layoff-prone owners in one day. Then we soberly reflect on mass layoffs at both Sony and EA – the other side of the coin in a week that seemed deter…
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Week 8 - Thief, with Dalton Deschain and Dylan Roth
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All-Star Comics Journalist Gita Jackson and World’s Finest Comics Expert Alex Jaffe are joined by Dalton Deschain and Dylan Roth of Are You Afraid of the Dark Universe, covering issue eight of 52. Infectious serums are distributed, welding is performed in anger, Haunted Tankie is conceptualized, and Dumb Bitch Juice is drank in copious amounts. Cha…
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Journalism Is Dead, Long Live Journalism (With Lin Codega)
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On this week’s episode, Nathan, Gita, and Luke are joined by Lin Codega of the brand new independent, worker-owned tabletop roleplaying outlet Rascal to discuss the grim state of journalism – Vice announced that it plans to shut down its website and lay off hundreds of people seconds before recording began – and the potential of publications like 4…
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Xbox’s Excess Of Excuses About Exclusives (With Ash Parrish)
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1:16:12
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On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, and Luke are joined by The Verge’s Ash Parrish to discuss Microsoft’s weird podcast about its plans for a non-exclusive but still mostly exclusive future, which will involve dedicated hardware but will also circumvent the need for it? Look, it’s more weird decision-making from a company that seems to have a bl…
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Betrayal! Public shaming! Pop-punk and toxic lesbians! All-Star Comics Journalist Gita Jackson and World’s Finest Comics Expert Alex Jaffe infiltrate issue seven of 52, the most important comic book of the century and the best series you’ve never heard of. Use offer code SCOOTS for 20% off! Chapters: Let’s Talk Talent (03:51) Let’s Talk About the C…
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Disney And Fortnite Sitting In A Tree, S-Y-N-E-R-G-I-Z-I-N-G
1:19:39
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On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, Luke, and Riley discuss Disney’s $1.5 billion investment into Epic Games for an even bigger slice of the Fortnite pie, as well as all the ways Disney has stumbled into gaming success (and failure) in the past. This gives way to a conversation about the sanitized Disney of the modern day and where, with corpora…
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Death Discoursing And Suicide Squawking
1:53:58
1:53:58
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On this week’s episode, Nathan, Chris, and Riley share their thoughts on the new and characteristically over the top Death Stranding 2 trailer, which gets everybody talking about the industry’s favorite auteur: Ken Levine. OK, first they discuss Hideo Kojima and his place in video games as one of the only people who gets to do His Whole Thing at su…
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Week 6 - China Syndrome, with Brian Cronin
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All-Star Comics Journalist Gita Jackson and World’s Finest Comics Expert Alex Jaffe are joined by Star-Spangled CBR Senior Writer Brian Cronin in discussing issue 6 of DC’s 52, covering the rich legacy of Manthrax, villainous improv groups, the secret sauce that made 52, and how God works in the DC universe. Chapters: Let’s Talk Talent (07:31) Let’…
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An (Activision) Blizzard Of Bad News
1:50:24
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On this week’s episode, Nathan, Gita, Chris, and Luke were planning to talk mostly about Palworld, the new Pokemon-with-guns sensation that’s sweeping several nations, but then gut-wrenchingly massive layoffs happened across Microsoft and the gaming giant it recently acquired, Activision Blizzard. We discussed which parts of the company are most im…
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