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Side Quest, Episode 68: Some More Thoughts on DualSense

Via Matty.

Sacred Symbols, Episode 94: Cloud Nine

Final Fantasy VII Remake has finally arrived, and with it a bevy of high expectations. Have they been met? Well, for one of us, anyway, expectations have been far exceeded. We're excited to gush about Square Enix's fresh tour-de-force, and dedicate tons of time to Cloud's new-old adventure. Of course, we won't forget about th...

Should We (or Shouldn't We) Move Sacred Symbols' Record and Release Dates?

Hey!

As promised on Episode 94 of Sacred Symbols, Chris and I want to let you -- our beloved audience -- vote on if we should move the podcast's record date from Monday to Thursday, and our publish date from Tuesday to Friday each week.

The reason? Well, our current recording schedule has us missing some news ea...

Sacred Symbols+, Episode XXXVI: Meet DualSense

If you expected PlayStation 5's controller to be called DualShock 5, you would have been making the logical guess, but you'd also be wrong. PS5's controller will instead be called DualSense, and Sony randomly revealed it this past week to mixed reaction. Some people hate it; others love it. We here on Sacred Symbols? Well, we...

KnockBack, Episode 113: True Detective (Season One)

We live in a golden age of television, but even some of the best series stick around too long. Unlike many of its contemporaries, though, HBO has a good habit of identifying ideas that don't need to linger, and while True Detective has three seasons, they're all detached from one another. The first season -- running eight epi...

Side Quest, Episode 67: The Best Games PSP Had to Offer

Hopefully your battery didn't explode.

Sacred Symbols, Episode 93: Indefinitely Quarantined

When it comes to gaming, anyway, Coronavirus has officially claimed its greatest victim yet: The Last of Us Part II. As predicted on this show more than a month ago, COVID-19 has forced Sony's and Naughty Dog's hand, and the most anticipated PS4 exclusive of them all hasn't only been delayed, but delayed indefinitely. We don'...

Sacred Symbols+, Episode XXXV: The Halo Effect

With a new Halo finally coming out this fall, it begs the question: Would we get such high-profile, high-caliber releases from first party publishers if they didn't have hardware to push? It's a relevant inquiry in the realm of PlayStation, too, what with The Last of Us and Ghost of Tsushima on the (indefinitely delayed) hori...

KnockBack, Episode 112: The Little Mermaid

The ocean is a mysterious and even scary place, but in Disney's 1989 classic animated film The Little Mermaid, it's pretty damn awesome. That's what makes protagonist Ariel's insistence on leaving her home waters for the world above so confounding... that is until she falls in love and finds the perfect excuse to live her dre...

Sacred Symbols, Episode 92: Staying Indoors

Are you losing your mind yet? Hopefully not, for while Coronavirus is running roughshod over societies around Earth, imagine how bored you'd be if you were isolating yourself and surviving a pandemic in, say, 1900. With the Internet, video games, streaming TV, and much more, we can stay entertained and connected even through ...

Sacred Symbols+, Episode XXXIV: Making Twin Breaker

Somehow, I (Colin) helped making a video game that came to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita mere days ago. Indeed, it's been quite the journey, and for as hard as I might have worked, developer Barry Johnson of Lillymo Games worked substantially harder. He's the one that approached me to make this game; I was lucky enough t...

Chris Ray Gun Goes Wild in Doom Eternal

In hell.

KnockBack, Episode 111: Inglourious Basterds

Few modern filmmakers are more popular, beloved, controversial, and even reviled than Quentin Tarantino. When he got his start in the early '90s with the cult classic Reservoir Dogs, no one could have predicted his meteoric rise in the American and global movie industries, but it's his 2009 flick Inglourious Basterds that's p...

Twin Breaker: A Sacred Symbols Adventure IS OUT NOW!!!

Hey All,

I hope you're doing well (all things considered).

I just wanted to let you all know that Twin Breaker -- our PS4 and Vita game -- is now out on PSN. It's $9.99 (or your local equivalent), cross-buy between platforms, has two Platinum Trophy lists, a story, tons of modes, and more. It'll keep you busy fo...

Sacred Symbols, Episode 91: Go to Hell

Here on Sacred Symbols, we like to make fun of Chris Ray Gun for all sorts of reasons, but it's his undying love of Doom that's perhaps easiest to target. After all, he brings it up nonstop. But this week is Chris' week, friends, because Doom Eternal has finally arrived, and our young Puerto Rican friend is hyped up and ready...

KnockBack, Episode 110 | Batman: Arkham Asylum

Today, Rocksteady is one of the most famous game developers on the planet, but back in 2009, they were basically unknown. With only one obscure PS2 game under their belt, the British team was met with an enticing challenge: Make a good Batman title. Turns out, such a task is easier said than done, but Rocksteady rose to the o...

Sacred Symbols+, Episode XXXIII: Mark Cerny's Power Hour

We --those who have been anticipating PlayStation 5 -- have been extraordinarily patient. While Microsoft has spoken quite a bit about Xbox Series X, we've been left wondering about PS5, waiting for more than just an interview or two while next-gen hurtles towards us. Well, the day we've been waiting for has finally arrived.....

Colin's Last Stand Turns Three

Hey,

Three years ago -- on March 20th, 2017 -- I launched Colin's Last Stand.

1,095 days later or so, CLS is the second-biggest gaming Patreon in the world (and in the Top 30 overall), with one of the most hardcore audiences in the space. There are some 50,000 people or so who listen to CLS c...

The Finer Points of Nioh 2

Matty goes to Japan.

Sacred Symbols, Episode 90: Crisis

This episode of Sacred Symbols -- like every one before it -- will become a time capsule. It's just that, in these seemingly historic days, this time capsule might be a little more real than the rest. The world is going through a tumultuous period, and in our little corner called The Gaming Industry, we certainly aren't immun...

Sacred Symbols+, Episode XXXII: Community

Video game players around the world are indeed broken into many different communities, groups large and small that span individual titles, whole franchises, and even entire genres. But which community reigns supreme? Fighting fans, perhaps? Or maybe it's JRPG nerds? In today's mailbag-centric episode of +, we discuss (pardon ...

KnockBack, Episode 109: Divorce

It's true: We would have never chosen to do this topic on our own. But when our beloved audience voted on Patreon to hear this discussion, we simply had to oblige. In 1992, the Moriarty Brothers' parents split. In the wake of that event, our lives were reshaped forever. This isn't an uplifting episode of KnockBack by any stre...

Side Quest, Episode 66: Are Video Game Critics Bought-Off?

No... but the optics sure aren't good.

Sacred Symbols, Episode 89: Cordyceps and Katanas

While we await news of PlayStation 5 from Sony (seriously... what the hell are they doing?), news has emerged from two important -- and very different -- projects. First, Ghost of Tsushima, arguably the last of the big PlayStation 4 first party exclusives, finally has a release date, and it's a lot sooner than any of us expec...

Sacred Symbols+, Episode XXXI: Economics

With news of PlayStation 5 hopefully on the horizon, it goes without saying that a major focus is going to be cost: Cost of the hardware, cost of the software, and the overall cost of doing business, particularly when compared to its competition. Thing is, there's a lot that goes into pricing a console and its games, and this...

KnockBack, Episode 108: Cuphead

The so-called run-and-gunner Cuphead is hands down one of the most beautiful video games ever created. Crafted in the spirit of the rubber hose cartoon stylings of the 1920s and 1930s, Cuphead is a rarity in the modern industry: It's drawn and animated by hand, and it's brutally (and we mean brutally) difficult. It's also cha...

Twin Breaker Physical Copies NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER!!!

Hey,

I don't want to be too annoying on here with Twin Breaker, but I wrote a video game so you're just going to have to deal with it.

I know a lot of you are interested in pre-ordering physical copies of Twin Breaker on PS4, Vita, or both, and I wanted to let you know that those pre-orders are now open.

...

Side Quest, Episode 65: Buying PS Vita in 2020 (An Investment in History!)

It's not dead until we say it's dead.

The Return of Side Quest, Let's Plays, etc.

Hey All,

I hope you're doing well!

It's been a busy time in Colin's Last Stand world the last couple of months, what with Sacred Symbols, Sacred Symbols+, and KnockBack cruising along, Twin Breaker launching on PS4 and Vita very soon, and me laying in bed all day like Grandpa Joe... but with a laptop and a DualS...

Sacred Symbols, Episode 88: Maintaining Its Luster

Back in 2007, Platinum Games was founded by some of (at the time) Capcom's heaviest hitters, including Shinji Mikami and Hideki Kamiya. Some 13 years later, the team is one of the most respected independent development studios in the world, and it's finally ready to shed its shackles from publishers like SEGA, Activision, and...