We decided to spin a wheel, a wheel that would add modifiers to existing games. Then we hashed out how these would play out in real life. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater: The Musical, Illumination's Elden Ring, Rock Band as a found footage horror movie, and more. Please enjoy. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early an…

Sometimes a game just has too much game. When it's trying to tell a story it can completely disrupt the flow of the narrative. And even for games that aren't trying to tell an involved story, or a story at all, sometimes the amount of content can be overwhelming. Today, we're putting some of those games on blast. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ►…

Crowdfunded games still happen, but there was a surge of them in the 2010's. For better or worse, many, many notable games were enthusiastically funded by fans. Yooka-Laylee, Shovel Knight, Shenmue 3, Star Citizen. We wanted to look back and remember that turbulent time of high hopes and occasional unmet expectations. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscr…

TCGs have been taking over Crub bit by bit over the last couple of years, especially for Pokemon TCG for Nicco and Justin. This week we wanted to tackle what makes them fun, what keeps them relevant, how to deal with the ebbs and flows of expansion, and how digital TCGs like Magic's games, Hearthstone, and Marvel Snap bring their own twist to the t…

This week we wanted to have an easy going talk about difficulty in games. What makes it great, what makes it difficult to design and plan around for, and some cases where it's just a necessary part of a game's core identity. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► htt…

Who doesn't love a good meme? Even gaming is no stranger to the meme infiltration, today we wanted to discuss games designed to be a meme (for better or worse), games that rose in popularity due to memes about them, and...the Sony hack. Not that one, the other one. And then also the one you forgot about. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://…

Genres in gaming have become incredibly fluid over time. Is Super Mario Sunshine a collectathon? What about Metroidvanias? Are Metroidvanias even a good name for that genre? When a game is a collectathon, what makes it great? Please answer. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at o…

Justin made us guess the eBay prices of games, medical equipment, and limited-edition Taylor Swift records this week. If you get that last one right, you get one crub cookie. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www.patreon.com/crub Our Crubcasts are record…

Week by week there seems to be worse news in the gaming industry. Layoffs, greed, and worse ends of the deal for consumers pile on as games take longer to make and cost even more to make all the while. Then, digging deeper into the core communities themselves, toxicity and harassment seem to float to the top of what's visible. Does gaming have a PR…

We're not afraid to say it. E3 had its pros, but given some space since its demise we've begun to feel that it may have been a net positive for Gamer Week to go away. Do you miss E3? Perhaps you miss the idea of E3? Let us know! MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ►…

What makes good or bad pacing in a video game? Is there a reliable "just right" zone or is it just chance when it happens? We gathered 4 people who have never shipped a video game to discuss this. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www.patreon.com/crub Ou…

Every day there are at least 90 new games that friends, reviews, and content creators are telling you that you HAVE to buy and play. How on earth are you supposed to juggle the hottest new Video Games alongside making time for said friends, family, work commitments, personal goals, the gym, grocery shopping, and occasionally breathing? We don't hav…

Welcome to the second video game mascot draft! Each of our 4 hosts will pick from a (terrible) list of game mascots to round out their team, in addition to one wild card pick each, to see who has the best shot at winning randomly selected categories. Could Nathan Drake really be a good interior designer? Does Donkey Kong know chess? MORE PLACES TO …

What makes good side content? Bad side content? What makes the difference between welcome variety and bloat in a game? Should you have to bathe when you're a cowboy? All this and more tackled on today's episode of the Crubcast. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► …

There's something magical about the feeling of finally "getting" a game. Not just purchasing it and getting it, but playing it and really GETTING it. To see the praise everyone else has given it, or to pierce the veil and appreciate it in your own unique way. This week we wanted to talk about games that are that for us, as well as Kingdom Hearts. M…

On this week's show we talk about what happens NEXT in stories with cataclysmic events. How do you come back from the Thanos snap? What's the point of living in a zombified world? Is...is Spyro the Dragon a war criminal? MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https:/…

We love our good friend Justin. Perhaps a little too much. So, we put on a dating game show with 3 contestants to earn his undying love (or to at least earn a call back). We didn't expect it to go well, but we didn't expect it to go this badly. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content …

This week's episode is broadly about linear vs open world game design, but also touches on a lot of other topics along the way (as you'll see in the show notes). Let us know your thoughts on these topics, and on which Sonic characters we each are. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive conte…

Gaming really loves its sequels. As soon as a game comes out we're often inclined to start imagining what it's successor will be like. In some cases, however, sometimes they should have left well enough alone. This week we discuss some of those instances, and what they did to earn this designation. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly…

Nicco takes the game show host seat this week with Steam reviews in tow. The objective is simple, read the review and the others have to guess the Steam game with no other context. Please play along, you just might win. We promise. (We don't.) MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content a…

We're watching EVERY non-filter episode of the main Pokémon anime and talking about it on our new Patreon exclusive podcast, Podcastémon! This first episode is free to give you a taste of the show, and if you want to listen to us immediately lose our sanity doing this you can join our $10 tier at https://www.patreon.com/crub to listen to more episo…

Is it possible to build actual bonds, long-lasting and meaningful friendships and relationships through video games? We think so, and this week we wanted to talk about the opportunities and enriching friendships games have granted us. Also. Is karaoke a video game? Let us know in the comments. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crub…

For as long as there have been games, there have been terrible and heartbreaking rumors made by their players. Today we wanted to talk about some of our favorites, from unlocking Sonic in Melee, to finding Mew under the truck, and even to Star Fox Zero fans existing. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and…

Today on the Crubcast, Kevin hosts a 32-restaurant fast food tournament, debated and voted on by Trav and special guests SomecallmeJohnny and AntDude - with a twist: Every head-to-head in this tourney changes the criteria that our Crubbers are debating, from a randomly-selected list of options created by the rest of Crub. Would McDonald's or Nando'…

It's something we've heard a lot in reviews and critical assessments over the years, that "bad" is better than "boring", but do we agree with that? Or did it just sound good and we took to saying it over time? MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www.patreo…

With Rocket Racing and Fortnite Festival, Fortnite revived two dead gaming genres at once in an interesting way. Naturally, this made us sit down and wonder what other dead genres would be a good (terrible) fit to put in next. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► h…

When it comes to #gamers, a lot of us collect things. It just goes hand in hand, you collect things in games, so naturally you may be compelled to in real life. Whether these be the games themselves, art pieces, stamps, hats, sneakers, Pokemon/Magic cards, or anything. Today we wanted to talk about why we collect things, when does it just become ju…

Effectively a subgenre of the "Are video games art?' question, "Is video game music real music?" has often been a question asked. We'll cut to the chase here like we do in the episode, yes, of course it is. However, there's a lot of interesting discussion around the question that we decided to delve into today. Do you think video game music is real…

We challenged ourselves to do a bracket of the worst *hypothetical* game sequels, ones made to be bad on purpose, to figure out which would be the absolute WORST. Prepare for the ups and downs of Jaiden in Assassin's Creed: Chicago, Roller Coaster Tycoon VR, and more. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early an…

2023 is in the books, and we celebrate its demise the only way we know how. With a quiz about the year! With our host Nicco, we'll see how Justin, Moriarty, and Chris fare in remembering the biggest events of 2023. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www.p…

2024. A year that will be filled with ups and downs. Fortunately, we are crubvoyant and can see the future. A presidential Fortnite skin, game delays, deaths, rebirths, we're here to tell you what to expect from 2024 so you won't be surprised when everything we say inevitably happens. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get …

It's easy to look at a game and make a snap judgment on it, and it's even easier to do so when everybody is talking about the game constantly. In this episode, we wanted to take a look at some games we finally gave a chance to and were wrong about. In the back half, we get into a good discussion about the ups and downs of developing your critical l…

Family Guy. Super Mario Sunshine. Shovel Knight. Fall Out Boy. What do all of these things have in common? Not much. However, they are all comforting things to our crub boys. This week, let them tell you why, while also bringing up crippling debt, sword swings in bars, and insulting Sean for owning a Keyblade. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► ht…

This week on the Crubcast we created our ideal 'Crub Direct'...with a catch. Each member brought their dream game, but also a way to ruin the others' game. Then we voted to result in the worst game showcase possible. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www…

With The Game Awards 2023 approaching in just a couple of weeks, we got together to give our picks for the categories in addition to predicting what will win the Keighleys. Let us know what you think will take the win! MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://w…

This week on the Crubcast we thought we'd talk about game series that lost us along the way, and how they can get us back. Assassin's Creed, Overwatch, Silent Hill, and...Pokemon successfully doing this? Which game or game series do you wish you were still into? MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get …

It's been 3 weeks since the release of Marvel's Spider-Man 2, so we figured enough time had passed to give our spoiler-filled thoughts on the game! Get our thoughts on the mechanical changes, plot beats, and sad pigeons! MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https:/…

Happy Halloween! To celebrate this chilling holiday, we enlisted Creepyelliot to read some spine-tingling stories with us...and also some about Banjo's depression and a scary Peter Griffin. Because, well, of course. Find more of Elliot at https://twitter.com/CreepyElliot, and on https://www.youtube.com/user/SGBLikesToPlay MORE PLACES TO FIND US Cru…

Welcome to the first ever inaugural video game mascot draft! Each of our 4 hosts will pick from a (very incredibly good) list of game mascots to round out their team, in addition to one wild card pick each, to see who has the best shot at winning randomly selected categories. No one should pick Byakuya. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://b…

Today on the Crubcast our extremely qualified panel of PS2 experts joined together to scientifically determine the BEST PlayStation 2 game. We conducted a vigorously scientific method backed by hours and hours of definitely playing each game, and can definitively answer what the absolute crown gem of the console was. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscri…

On today's episode of the Crubcast e decided to discuss how we peaked in high school. Bullying, not helping out those in trouble, a deer on school grounds, and the snack economy. We covered it all. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www.patreon.com/crub O…

Throughout time there have been many, many....many inventions. Some are useful and have improved our everyday lives. However, some are seemingly useless. These inventions have done nothing for us. And somewhere in the middle are ones that we don't think have improved our lives, but perhaps have. Today we tackle at least some of them. We're sorry in…

One of the many things that helps to set video games apart as an entertainment medium is choice. Sometimes it is merely an illusion, and sometimes a crucial decision can sincerely impact a playthrough. In this episode we wanted to delve into choice-driven games, and how we play them. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get t…

This week on the Crubcast, Chris just wanted to blow the whistle on his first job. He also wanted to talk about boring things in adulthood that no one warns you will suck, or at the least explains in adequate detail *how* it will suck. Just to warn you, this is a very "old man yells at cloud" episode. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit…

Today on the Crubcast we bring you a tale of a creature from Delaware. One so feared for its outrageous fondness for feet that its made waves through all of the...very mountainous regions of Delaware. Please, kick back, make sure you're safe, and join us on this tale of...The Billyhorse. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast G…

Sean brought reviews for a whole bunch of games on Steam to the bois this week, and we had to guess which game they are solely based on a potential hint and the text of the reviews themselves. Who wins? We forgot, please tell us. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon …

This week on the podcast we wanted to talk about the most satisfying, crunchiest, brutal, or otherwise just plain fun weapons in video games. Nicco talks about a spatula, Trav talks DOOM, Brody mentions Borderlands, and Justin mentions Mario. All is right with the world. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show early…

Certain inventions (and even media) come along that change everything. Breath of the Wild, YouTube, the iPhone? Maybe not the iPhone. But when they do they leave a colossal impact that's felt for years. Today we wanted to discuss these things and where we'd be without them. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast Get the show ea…

This week on the Crubcast we wanted to share our stories of times when we were in the most unfortunate of circumstances, experiences that featured everything but the laugh track. We promise that this episode is a journey, one that makes those bad 2000's comedies seem much less exaggerated. MORE PLACES TO FIND US Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast…

The practically infinite amount of media today is a good thing. There's always something to do, enjoy, or be baffled by. However, it has also led to an immense diversification of what we spend our time on, making it harder and harder to talk to people in our lives about what we've been enjoying lately. Today we wanted to bemoan that a bit and just …