For those of us that grew up with the NES, Metal Gear was a fun -- albeit strange -- game that kinda just came and went. It wasn't until 1998's Metal Gear Solid, about a decade later, that we understood the full ramifications of what creator Hideo Kojima was really trying to say and do. A tale of politics, espionage, and warf...
2018-12-27 17:00:59 +0000 UTC View Post
I don't know if you've noticed, but I really like talking religion here on Fireside Chats, and today's guest is incredibly well equipped to do just that. Michael Steinmetz is pursuing his PhD in theology, and has a ton of insight into Christianity, and all that entails. Our conversation delves deep into the life and times of ...
2018-12-26 17:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Before we get into our Game of the Year awards in a couple of weeks, we wanted to clear our plates (so to speak) by touching on some of the greatest (and worst!) PlayStation-related moments of the last calendar year. For instance, God of War, Detroit: Become Human, and Spider-Man gave us a trio of amazing PS4 exclusives that ...
2018-12-25 17:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey All,
I hope you and yours are well.
I just wanted to take a moment to tip my cap, and to wish you, your families, your friends, and other loved ones a Merry Christmas (or a belated Hanukkah, or whatever you celebrate, if anything at all).
Oh, and a very Happy New Year, too.
Colin's Last Stand i...
For a podcast about all about nostalgia, we'd be crazy to skip the so-called Holiday Season, the section of the annual calendar perhaps most rife with memories. Today's episode of KnockBack is dedicated to Christmastime (or whatever you might celebrate), and all of the amazing remembrances of festive times past. Presents. Fam...
2018-12-20 17:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Today, Dr. Greg Jackson -- professor of history at Utah Valley University and host of the wonderful podcast History That Doesn't Suck -- makes his valiant return to the show. I'm excited to have him here, because I wanted to pick his brain about one thing in particular: National division. The political rhetoric and behavior o...
2018-12-19 17:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Colin is just about near death with some sort of winterborne illness, but he and Chris gather for their weekly ritual -- bestowing upon you some PlayStation goodness -- nonetheless. Kingdom Hearts III doesn't come out until late January; yet, the game has leaked, and spoilers are abound. We discuss the fiasco in spoiler-free fas...
2018-12-18 17:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
The ultimate pack-in.
2018-12-17 19:14:57 +0000 UTC View Post
In the early '80s, the home console vanished as quickly as it arrived. But only a few years later, a new champion emerged -- Nintendo -- and gaming on your television has only grown since. Nintendo was a force to be reckoned with during the NES era, with no real competition, but as the decade turned and the Super Nintendo app...
2018-12-13 17:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
It's been a good, long while since we've talked about video games here on Fireside Chats, hasn't it? Well, let's stop the streak. Today's guest is Will Goldstone, a Product Manager at Unity. What is Unity? It's an incredibly important, versatile, and popular game engine that many a video game is created on. So let's pick Mr. ...
2018-12-12 17:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
2018 is just about behind us, and 2019 lies just around the corner. To celebrate the coming year, we sat down and sifted through our most anticipated games of the next 12 months. Chris came packing 10 games; so did Colin. Through some very complicated mathematics (not really), we made a solid list of 16 games, cobbled together t...
2018-12-11 17:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
In the early-to-mid '80s, Michael J. Fox was a household name because of his work on Family Ties, the beloved American sitcom. But by 1985, Fox was catapulted even further into the stratosphere by Back to the Future, a film about time travel, and the unexpected -- and often fun and zany -- results of utilizing such advanced t...
2018-12-06 17:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
I don't know if you've heard, but Russia Hacked the Election. Well, kinda. The entire fiasco has become more of a nebulous talking point designed to score political points than anything we can focus on and sink our teeth into. But here's the thing: Russia really did launch a coordinated operation to disrupt our system, and th...
2018-12-05 17:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Should video games be censored, or should anything go? The PlayStation ecosystem has recently found itself having to answer this important question, one framed around a peculiar (and often distasteful) grouping of fan service-heavy games. Some niche devs are claiming that they're being stymied, the consumers of those games aren'...
2018-12-04 17:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey All!
You guys liked last month's Patreon-exclusive episode of Sacred Symbols so much, that I decided to immediately do a sequel. =)
Presenting Long Lost Letters II, a set of asked-and-answered questions from CLS Patrons that were solicited for Episodes 19, 20, 21, and 22 of Sacred Symbols, but weren't (initiall...
It's not terribly uncommon for Nintendo fans to feel that The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is the best Zelda game ever released. The third title launched in the series -- coming to stores in 1991 in Japan and 1992 elsewhere -- A Link to the Past marks the fledgling franchise's first jump to new hardware, and represents...
2018-11-29 17:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey All!
I hope that this posting finds you and yours very well.
It's that time! I'm pleased to reveal the next 9 topics that will be covered on CLS: KnockBack. Dagan and I will be recording this wave between December 6th and December 10th in Philadelphia, and we're stoked to reconvene.
Here...
Christianity is full of different sects and divisions. One such sect is Mormonism -- also known as the Church of Latter Day Saints -- founded in the United States in the 19th century. Unlike many Christian offshoots, however, Mormonism is misunderstood at best, and ridiculed and joked about at worst. To give some perspective ...
2018-11-28 21:47:29 +0000 UTC View Post
The holiday gaming season arrived with a massive dud with the launch of Fallout 76, the online-centric Fallout game that's being poorly received both critically and commercially. What does it all mean for Bethesda as a publisher, its world-famous Bethesda Games Studios dev team, and fans alike? We delve in with our thoughts, and...
2018-11-27 17:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
The 10 Best RPGs of the Last Decade!
2018-11-27 07:00:59 +0000 UTC View Post
Time sinks.
2018-11-26 19:17:11 +0000 UTC View Post
In 1937, Walt Disney and his fledgling animation company executed a quantum leap when they released Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, the first animated feature film of its kind. The rest, as they say, is history. Today's episode of KnockBack is dedicated to those early days of Disney features, from Pinocchio and Dumbo to Ali...
2018-11-22 17:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
From CLS to you and yours, I hope you have a wonderful holiday. (And if you're not American, I hope you celebrate with us vicariously.)
2018-11-22 09:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Being grateful.
2018-11-21 18:47:26 +0000 UTC View Post
Socialism -- particularly of the Democratic Socialist variety -- comes up fairly often on Fireside Chats, and not typically in the most glowing of terms. More than a few listeners have taken issue with that since the the show began, but only one -- Sean Clinton -- offered to come on the show and make a spirited defense of the...
2018-11-21 17:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
E3 began way back in 1995, and each and every year since, Sony has shown up with its PlayStation brand, often in a major way. But in 2019, that all changes. Sony has announced that it won't be at E3. At all. No press conference. No show floor offerings. Nada. This is a huge deal, and it gives us an enormous amount to chat about....
2018-11-20 17:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Red Dead Redemption 2 is -- beyond a shadow of a doubt -- one of 2018's very best video games. Indeed, you could rather easily make the case that it's 2018's Game of the Year, period. To celebrate Rockstar's brilliant new Wild West experience, we decided to do an episode dedicated entirely to RDR2, in Spoilercast form. You know ...
2018-11-16 17:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
There are a lot of classic sports films, from the somber and serious to the wacky and insane. Caddyshack squarely falls in the latter camp. Released in 1980, Caddyshack tells the story of a midwestern American country club via the antics of its most colorful patrons and employees. With an all-star cast including Rodney Danger...
2018-11-15 17:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
