In which sausages are honked. Chris evangelises animal husbandry in Divinity: Original Sin, Tom F twiddles Brothers’ sticks and Marsh gets a dog to work his organ in Valiant Hearts. Plus! Special guest Eskil Steenberg tells us of his new game, EXO.

Also on the pod: games to make you empathise with the unempathic, how to make a superior Superman and the unwitting absorbency of Dota 2 tournament attendees. And not only that! You’ll be able to download EXO yourself via our forum in a matter of days. Let Eskil know what you think, whydontcha?

Show notes

  • Alternative titles for this podcast: Fast Idiots, Five Year Panic, Dickhead Trifecta.
  • Eskil Steenberg’s Twitter and website wherein you’ll find his previous game, Love.
  • His new game, EXO, downloadable from our very own sub-forum. Leave some feedback, if you will.
  • If only we could talk to the Labradors. Oh but you can – in Divinity: Original Sin.
  • Charming adventure Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons delivers meaning with dual sticks.
  • Valiant Hearts: The Great War – a weirdly jaunty game about one of the greatest human tragedies in history, and, uh, ladles.
  • Delicatessen is a great film about meat and music.
  • The game Tom called Collateral Damage is, I think, actually Terrorist Killer.
  • Joint Task Force. “No game has been so gritty or immediate,” say its makers, clearly forgetting the existence of seminal gravel simulator, Aggregate Now.
  • The Cat & The Coup – a really beautiful docu-game about the 1953 coup in Iran, orchestrated by the UK and US. It all worked out okay in the end, though, right? Phew!
  • Real Lives are kinda shitty for a lot of people, it turns out. Also, the game’s website appears not to work any more. So why not read this great piece that Chris Livingston wrote about his experience with it? What’s that? No, no, I’ve just got something in my eye.
  • Tom thinks the Hitman games are using subtle tricks to make you feel as cold and alienated as your character is – he wrote about it in the first section of this.
  • Under The Skin: a film about sorting empathy and intimacy from lust and squalor. Don’t read another thing about it before you see it – seriously, every synopsis spoils something significant for reasons unfathomable.
  • The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is not quite the game you really want it to be.
  • Chris’s coverage of Pro-Wizardry at ESL One: Tag Eins und Tag Zwei.

Here’s the forum thread to discuss or respond to anything in this episode.

Our intro music is by The Mandibles from their track Clambake. Many of the band members now tour as Count Bobo And The Bullion.