In the late '80s and early '90s, few (if any) electronics companies were more respected than Sony. Eager to get into gaming, Sony partnered with Nintendo on a project called Play Station (with the space!), but Nintendo pulled out of the deal, leaving Sony embarrassed and bruised. But Sony sought retribution, and in 1994, it l...
2018-05-10 16:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Patreon co-founder and CEO Jack Conte changed my life. Twice, in fact. When I first met him in 2014, his new company was a largely-unknown upstart, but today, Patreon is a world-renowned name with $100 million in venture capital and a singular mission: Fund the Creative Class. I sat down with Jack for an hour-long interview t...
2018-05-08 16:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Xbox One's Dire Exclusive Games Problem!
2018-05-08 06:00:59 +0000 UTC View Post
It ain't lookin' good.
2018-05-07 16:46:19 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey All!
I hope you’re all doing fantastic, and that your week went swimmingly.
You likely already noticed that this update is a little different, in that there’s a podcast attached to it. Earlier today, I sat down and recorded a solo show in order to go over the results from last week’s Patreon-exclusive sur...
We all have movies that stick with us as we move through life. Some films inspire us and make us happy; others provoke thought or make us sad. And some are movies we had no business watching as children, and stuck with us simply because of how terrified they made us. Today's episode of KnockBack is dedicated to just that: The...
2018-05-03 16:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
You gotta know what a crumpet is to understand cricket.
2018-05-02 16:01:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Marc Boggio is a good man who found himself in a profoundly unfortunate situation. While serving as a medic in the Canadian military, Corporal Boggio fell ill, and the unimaginable happened: He lost his leg. But this podcast doesn't tell a melancholy story. Quite the opposite. It's instead about how Marc snapped back, grabbed...
2018-05-01 17:10:18 +0000 UTC View Post
The PlayStation Six: The First Party Studios Sony Shut Down!
2018-05-01 06:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Goodnight, sweet prince.
2018-04-30 17:38:47 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings and Salutations!
I hope you're all doing well, and that you're revving up for what I hope will be a fantastic weekend.
First off, you may notice the art above. Those at the $50+/month level get custom art prints, signed on great quality paper each month, mailed to their door, and we decided to go with TMN...
Hey All,
If you're seeing this, it's because you support CLS on Patreon at any level. First, allow me to thank you for that.
The link above (replicated here) will bring you to a short survey that I concocted to get your guys' and...
Late last year, I went to San Francisco to record some episodes of CLS: Fireside Chats. You've heard all but two of them. This month's exclusive podcast is one of the two yet-unheard shows. It stars Mark Medina, an IGN editor who, when I Tweeted that I was looking for guests for the show, suggested himself. I loved that, so I ac...
2018-04-27 16:00:59 +0000 UTC View Post
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has had exceptional staying power. It's enjoyed ebbs and flows in its relevance and success, of course, but it's been in the nerd consciousness for more than 30 years, and there's a reason for that: TMNT is awesome. Today's KnockBack is dedicated to the Turtles, with much of the conversation focus...
2018-04-26 16:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Let's call today's guest Drew. Drew is an EMT, but more importantly for the purposes of this podcast, he's an expert in surviving horrific disasters. He takes a particular interest in surviving Southern California-centric disasters, most notably earthquakes. Our conversation revolves around just that: A hypothetical earthquak...
2018-04-25 16:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Upcoming PS4-exclusive Quantic Dream adventure Detroit: Become Human is only a month or so away. So why don't we take the time to play through the game's very first mission -- Hostage -- two different ways. Accompanying me is my girlfriend Erin, back by popular demand. As always, we hope you enjoy!
(Tuesdays are typically...
The 10 Most Underrated Video Games of the Last Decade!
2018-04-24 06:00:59 +0000 UTC View Post
As voted on by CLS' Patrons!
2018-04-23 17:11:28 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey All,
I hope this week’s update post finds you all well!
First things first: It’s time to reveal this month’s custom art print. As you know, Dagan and I are having a blast with CLS: KnockBack, and to celebrate the show each month, I’m having Dagan draw a custom piece of art, available only that month for...
In the pre-Internet days, few things distracted children as much as Nickelodeon, one of the earliest and most successful cable television channels ever created. With humble origins in the late '70s (when it was known as Pinwheel), Nickelodeon hit its stride during the Reagan Administration and never looked back. Today's episo...
2018-04-19 16:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Erin (my girlfriend) and I are always looking for new ways to bond, and she came up with a novel idea some weeks ago: Why don't we do some Let's Plays together? I think it's a great idea, and I figured you guys might get a kick out of it, too. So we're gonna do these every once in a while, and this is the first one.
For o...
Kelly Carlin is, like her father -- the famous comedian George Carlin -- a sort of modern-day philosopher, a rarity in today's climate that calls things exactly as it is. I invited her to Santa Monica to come talk to me about, well, everything, from politics to comedy, and everything in between. This a thought-provoking -- an...
2018-04-17 16:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
God of War PS4 Review!
2018-04-17 06:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostHey Family,
I hope you all had a fantastic week, and are looking forward to the weekend. I don’t have a whole lot to report to you this week; I’ve been spending much of my time getting back into the swing of things, taking care of business-related issues, and playing God of War. (I’ll be heading to San Francisco for a fe...
2018-04-13 23:04:35 +0000 UTC View Post
In 1991, a game came out that changed the Moriarty Brothers' lives. It was in that year that Street Fighter II took the world by storm, and changed the way we looked at, played, and experienced games forever. Indeed, when it comes to sheer hours played, there are few games we dumped more time into, whether then and now. This ...
2018-04-12 16:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi!
When Dagan and I convened this past week to record a bunch of new episodes of KnockBack (10 of them, in fact, which will begin rolling out for $5+/month Patrons tomorrow!), I said we'd also endeavor to do some Let's Plays.
Well, record some Let's Plays we did.
This is the very first one, a full ...
Matt Canoy went to Full Sail, where he thought he would make video games for a living. But that's not what he wanted to do. Instead, he wanted to engineer, and is currently working on two apps so secretive that we can't even talk about them. What we can talk about, though, is what one of those apps will cater to: The Social M...
2018-04-10 16:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
“Hi Guys!” -Dagan mimicking the YouTubers his daughter watches.
I hope you’re all doing great! I’m writing this from cold-and-windy Philadelphia, where snow is apparently incoming. Dagan and I are currently halfway through recording the next run of KnockBack (the picture above is my view of his office from the pos...
War is hell. But on the big screen, it's sure as hell fun to watch. On this week's episode of KnockBack, Dagan and I take a long, hard look at our favorite war movies -- from the obvious to the obscure -- and discuss why movies that show such heinous acts of violence can also uplift us all with equally amazing acts of heroism...
2018-04-05 16:13:58 +0000 UTC View Post
