Argue the Toss - the geek and gaming podcast for www.gameindustry.com. Drew and Chella discuss the latest releases, trailers and news for games and other aspects of geek culture, with a particular focus on writing.
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After a couple of virus-related delays (that's the biological kind, not the computer kind), this fortnight's episode of Argue the Toss has finally arrived. This week Chella and Drew recount their favourite experiences from this year's , the UK's only convention dedicated to narrative-driven gaming.By Chella & Drew
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S5 E18 - El Camino - A Breaking Bad Movie review
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Six years after we watched Jesse Pinkman crash through the chain-link gates of his prison in Todd Alquist's car, we finally find out what happened to him next in the Breaking Bad epilogue movie, El Camino. Drew and Chella are here to discuss whether it's a worthwhile addition to the Breaking Bad legacy, or just a case of gilding the lily.…
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From the Archives: S4|E14: Hereditary Vs. The VVitch
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Due to some technical difficulties, we are unable to bring you a new episode of Argue The Toss this week. Instead, please enjoy one of our favourites from the archives - a horror movie showdown, just in time for Hallowe'en (even if it was originally recorded in July 2018). We'll be back on schedule soon, and there'll be a brand-new episode for you …
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Untitled Goose Game is the indie title that everyone honking on social media and sharing their best moments as a malicious goose. Drew & Chella discuss the new game from House House, which takes Hitman style gameplay to a quiet, English village.By Drew & Chella
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Sam Barlow's Her Story brought FMV games out of the shadows and demonstrated that they could work, with careful casting and good writing. Telling Lies is a bigger budget version of Her Story, using the same mechanics, but adding more characters and some new features. Drew and Chella discuss the game, how it differs from Her Story and how it exposes…
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Back after the summer, mid-season break, Drew and Chella discuss the big releases coming for autumn and winter 2019. The ATTeam looks at films and games, covering geese, all the Hollywood cheekbones and more than a smattering of horror.By Argue the Toss
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S5|E14: Marvel Phase 4: First Impressions, Also Star Trek
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Spider-Man: Far From Home has brought the wildly successful third phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to a close. Where can the franchise even go from here? Oh, Phase 4? Yeah, OK, that makes a lot of sense actually. Don't know why we didn't think of that. San Diego Comic-Con was last week and Marvel dropped the whole phase on us in a flurry of a…
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Drew and Chella catch up to find out what each other have been watching this summer. Not the big summer blockbusters at the cinema, but indie films, a gameshow and a bit of Netflix. Drew discusses a comedy gameshow that demonstrates some interesting approaches to game design. And Chella looks at the new generation of teen comedy dramas, which manag…
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S5|E12: Unreliable Narrators with Jordan Erica Webber
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Jordan Erica Webber joins the Argue the Cast Team to discuss the use of unreliable narrators in videogames. From the twist ending in games like Bioshock, to the deliberate use of a character with something to hide in Her Story, games like to employ this narrative technique with varying degrees of success.…
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The ATTeam has analysed all the E3 2019 games from the press conferences and picked their favourites. Most people expected to be the year publishers held back their big announcements and waited for the new consoles we know are imminent. But that’s not how it went down. The list of E3 2019 games is pretty solid. Nintendo announced a new and Animal C…
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Dark skin in games with Xalavier Nelson | S5: E10
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In a special episode, recorded at art and games festival, Feral Vector, nestled in a wooded valley in Yorkshire, England, the ATTeam chat to surreal LARP organiser and unstoppable indie game developer, Xalavier Nelson. The main topic is the representation of dark skin in videogames. It's not always successful, but Xalavier praised Mortal Kombat XI …
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The new John Wick film is out this week and Mike Bithell recently announced that he's working on John Wick Hex, a game based on the films. This got the ATTeam thinking about films they'd like to see as games and how they would work. There's a tradition of movie/game tie-ins, but they're often lacklustre marketing opportunities, with the occasional …
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10 years of storytelling and 22 films come together in Avengers: Endgame, Marvel's grand cinematic project, the like of which has never been done before. Drew and Chella get into it on this episode. It's a tremendous fete, which largely pays off, but it's not without some flaws.By Drew and Chella
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Falcon Age released yesterday, kicking off the 2019 releases in superb style. Drew and Chella discuss the games they're looking forward to in 2019. A mix of AAA blockbusters and smaller indie projects - find out what's piqued the interest of the Argue the Toss team and tell them your most anticipated.…
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Get Out made a splash on the horror scene, in 2017, and that's saying something, as 2018 was also a pretty stellar year for the genre, with the VVitch, A Quiet Place and Hereditary all coming out. Regardless, Jordan Peele's follow up, Us, stars Lupita Nyongo and expectations are high. Fortunately, Peele doesn't disappoint and delivers another stunn…
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Captain Marvel is the first female led film from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), so people are genuinely excited in both positive and negative ways. Drew and Chella discuss the film and establish how much space cat is too much space cat. Where does Captain Marvel sit among the rest of the MCU? And is it a patch on DC's Wonder Woman? All these …
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Nightflyers is a SyFy produced show based on the 1980s novella by George R. R. Martin, he of Game of Thrones fame. It was recently picked up by Netflix and the blurb tells us, “with humankind's future at stake, a group of scientists and a powerful telepath venture into the void aboard a spaceship full of secrets.” It's a sci-fi show that borrows to…
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Drew & Chella discuss video game remakes and remasters, inspired by Drew's latest dalliances with Resident Evil 2, Spyro and others. It turns out that remakes aren't as new as we might first think, but began with ports from arcades to the very first home gaming machines. What makes a good remake and how many of them are in the Resident Evil series?…
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Drew and Chella discuss Bandersnatch, the latest episode of Black Mirror to hit Netflix and the streaming service's latest brush with interactive TV. Bandersnatch is an interesting experience that's divided opinion. For those familiar with interactive fiction, it's going over old ground, but presenting it to a new audience as if it's just invented …
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S5|E1: Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse review
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Kicking off season 5 with a review of Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse, the Sony picture made in association with Marvel. Complicated cinematic rights aside, Spider-Verse delivers a first class superhero film and arguably the best Spider-Man offering to date. The Argue the Toss team have lots to discuss, from the visual style to the great cast, sto…
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You know a Coen brothers film when you see one, but what are the magic ingredients? Don't move, Drew & Chella are unpacking the secret right now, right here (or wherever you are). This is not a review of the new Coen brothers film, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, for reasons that will be revealed in this episode. However, Buster Scruggs is discussed …
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S4|E22: Life is Strange 2 Episode 1review
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Drew & Chella discuss Life is Strange 2 and the first episode of this brand new story. It's a dramatic opening, but a return to familiar Life is Strange territory, making it the perfect mix for episode one. Spoiler warning is announced halfway through, before we delve into plot details and player choices.…
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S4|E21: Gothic in Games - Halloween Special
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This week, Drew and Chella are joined by special guests, Emily Marlow and Lauren Nixon, two academics from Sheffield Gothic, at Sheffield University, England. The topic? Gothic in games. It's Halloween, so draw close to the fire and settle down for a special edition of Argue the Toss. Let us take you on a journey through graveyards, castles and the…
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S4|E20: Good Times with Bad Times at the El Royale
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Drew and Chella discuss neo-noir Bad Times at the El Royale. The stylish situational thriller pits a stunning ensemble cast against each other on one rainy night at the El Royale hotel.By Drew and Chella
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This week Drew & Chella are hanging around to talk web-slinging and catching bad guys in New York. Spider-man is back, after a few duff games. This time, things are looking better, but will it be enough to woo the ATTeam? They're a tough crowd, but if anyone can, Spider-man can. Yeah, so, we promise no superhero themed poetry.…
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Jumping on that internet meme, Drew & Chella are chatting about the five games they'd give to someone to represent their taste or something about themselves. Narrowing it down to five is hard. Do you pick your favourites or the ones you've played most? Wait, what about that one that you played all summer because that person you wanted to impress li…
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Due to scheduling clashes, there is no new episode of Argue the Toss this week. Instead, we revisit an episode from Season 3, where Drew and Chella discuss robots in film and TV. Back in Season 3, there were a lot of robot-based things being released. From examinations of robots and what it means to be human in Humans and Her, to our paranoia of be…
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Drew and Chella share a bit of background on how they met, which leads to a long discussion of tabletop roleplaying games. There's more to tabletop than just DnD, so this episode looks at the breadth of games, discusses how to set up a group and what there is to love about rolling dice with other geeks.…
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Mission: Impossible - Fallout is the sixth in the Mission: Impossible series and it goes all out on Tom Cruise stunts. It even goes a bit Uncharted in the end. Drew and Chella enjoyed Fallout, but where does it rank in the grand scheme of Mission: Impossible films? Only one way to find out.By Drew and Chella
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Dishonored, Metal Gear Solid, The Last of Us and Batman all have something in common; they're all stealth games of one kind or another. Drew and Chella discuss the new breed of stealth games, compared to the pure stealth titles of yore, such as Splinter Cell. What makes a good stealth game and which ones do it best? These are just some of the quest…
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Hereditary is the horror film that's getting all the buzz at the cinema this summer. And from the same production company, A24, The Witch hit Netflix UK in the last few weeks. Drew and Chella discuss both films, which share more than just the A24 brand. One film successfully creates a tense atmosphere of psychological horror and paranoia, but the o…
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The games industry descended on LA for E3 2018, where publishers showed all the games. Drew and Chella discuss the big publisher conferences and pick their highlights.By Argue the Toss
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Another day and another Star Wars film, it seems. This week the Argue the Toss team is discussing Solo, the latest in the expanded Star Wars universe. The film didn't do well at the box office, but was it unfairly judged or is it really not worth a watch? Drew & Chella give their verdict.By Drew & Chella
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Leading on from the Royal Wedding, in the UK, last weekend, Drew & Chella get to wondering about video game weddings. And when they couldn't think of many that weren't really negative experiences for the bride, they try to find games with a happily ever after. Today's AAA games rarely do happy endings, if ever. The Argue the Toss team discuss the o…
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War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing. How much of it is there? Infinity. After an already pretty endless hype train, Marvel have finally released Infinity War, which - spoilers - actually does not continue on for infinity. Though at 149 minutes, it does get closer to delivering on its title than The NeverEnding Story. The ATTeam have been t…
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Drew and Chella went to , in London and discuss the roundup of games they played. It’s a Very Special Episode of , but don’t worry, that doesn’t mean we’re going to spend the whole thing delivering a heavy-handed moral message about drugs or bullying or anything. No, it’s Very Special because this week, Argue The Toss has been on the road. And by t…
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Wes Anderson doesn't have a clean record when it comes to representing people of colour well, but Isle of Dogs is his worst yet. If you can overlook the cultural appropriation, colour coding and white saviour, it's a charming film with beautiful animation. Drew & Chella get into it with their latest film review.…
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A Wrinkle in Time, Tomb Raider and Annihilation reviews
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It's been a month of female-led media, so Drew and Chella are diving in with reviews of A Wrinkle in Time, Annihilation and the latest Tomb Raider film, which reboots the films by being an adaptation of the rebooted games. These films have more in common than it seems, as they are all adaptations, all feature female protagonists and all focus on lo…
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S4|E6: Jessica Jones Season 2 first look review
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Drew and Chella discuss the new season of Jessica Jones - new characters, return of old ones and some dodgy dialogue. Released on International Women's Day and directed entirely by women, season 2 of Jessica Jones has high expectations upon it. Does it hold up, so far? Tune in to find out.By Drew and Chella
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This week on Argue the Toss, comics aficionado, writer, and all-round wonderful human being Corey Brotherson makes a record-breaking third guest appearance, beating the previous two-appearance record holder, Corey Brotherson. He joins Chella and Drew to discuss Marvel's newest Cinematic Universe entry Black Panther, the first black-led Marvel film …
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S4|E4: Shadow of the Colossus and Celeste
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This started as a podcast episode about Shadow of the Colossus, but turned into Drew and Chella discussing control systems. The remake of Team Ico's Shadow of the Colossus hit PS4 last week and Chella finally got to play it. So Drew and Chella compare notes on the game. Then Drew talks about a new pixel art platformer called Celeste.…
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Drew and Chella pick the must play games of 2018. Shadow of the Colossus kicks things off, followed by big hitters like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Bayonetta 3, as well as the Vampyr, the latest from Life is Strange developer, Dontnod. The team also investigate the potential indie hits of the year, with Mosaic and Where the Water Tastes Like Wine mak…
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Bright is the new Will Smith vehicle from Netflix. This buddy cop movie combines magic, elves and orcs in modern day L.A. Critics hate it, audiences kinda love it, but now it's time to find out what the ATTeam, Drew and Chella think.
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Spoiler-free review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Drew and Chella get into it on the latest in the Skywalker saga. Very clear spoiler wall dropped at the end of the main review - listen on for the full discussion with spoilers, for those who have already watched the film. The Last Jedi has been dividing critics and fans, but will it divide the Argue…
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S3|E25: Games of the year 2017 - the Tosser Awards Announced
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Dust off your tux or evening gown; it's time for the Tossers 2017. The Argue the Toss games of the year 2017 have been discussed and decided. Drew and Chella announce the winners of everything from Best Art, Biggest Surprise and Best Writing to, of course, Best Game of 2017. All decisions are final, but you can give us yours in the comments.…
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S3|E24: Justice League Review plus Star Trek Discovery
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Drew and Chella get into the latest from DC, with a full review of Justice League. Here be spoilers, so go and see it first and then the Argue the Toss team will meet you back here. The ATTeam also discuss Star Trek Discovery, including the mid-season finale. This is a spoiler-free look at the new Trek. Let us know what you think of Justice League …
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S3|E23: Having fun with Mario Odyssey and Assassin's Creed Origins
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Drew and Chella talk about Mario Odyssey, Assassin's Creed Origins and discuss the latest violent trailers for The Last of Us II and Detroit: Become Human.By Argue the Toss
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Into every generation, there is a chosen one. One podcast in all the world. They alone will wield the strength and skill to cast judgement; to declare which of all the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes is the best. They are Argue the Toss. And they are here to deliver the ultimate list - the 10 best Buffy episodes ever.…
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Drew and Chella Argue the Toss about Blade Runner 2049 - the sequel to the iconic cyberpunk original. The film that didn't need a sequel now has one and it's largely a success. The ATTeam get into the bits that work and the missed opportunities. It's not perfect, but it gets a lot right. This is a full review, so the spoiler wall drops around 10 mi…
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