The Game Informer Show

The annual Game Developers Conference was last week, and with it came a flood of news about the potential future of the gaming industry. From Microsoft and Sony both reportedly eyeing a shift in the traditional console cycle to rumors swirling about Nintendo's bold, new direction for their mysterious NX console, there's a lot to break down. On this week's show we are joined by three editors that took the pulse of the industry at GDC: editor-in-chief Andy McNamara, Matt Bertz, and Javy Gwaltney. In addition to a lot of industry talk and speculation, we also cover some of the more promising indie games from the show and the early verdict on PlayStation VR. After all of that adult stuff is out of the way, we're joined by Justin Woodward from Interabang Entertainment and actor Jason Mewes to talk about the pitch for their crowd-funded brawler Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch. You can watch the video below, subscribe and listen to the audio on iTunes, or listen to episode 292 on SoundCloud. Also, be sure to send your emails to podcast@gameinformer.com for a chance to have them answered on the show and win a prize by becoming Email of the Week! (Please visit the site to view this media) To jump to a particular point in the discussion, check out the timestamps below...  :30 - The history of GDC 7:55 - Developing in VR/PlayStation VR Impressions 19:50 - Rumors of PlayStation 4.5 and improving the Xbox One 26:55 - The most promising indies at GDC/"The Indie-pocalypse" 47:40 - Nintendo on iOS 50:20 - Nintendo NX rumors 1:00:30 - Emails 1:28:15 - Justin Woodward and Jason Mewes on Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch

Sadly, the holiday break and all the lazy gaming that comes with it is now behind us. On the bright side, we have recon intel from Reiner's recent trip to id Software for the latest cover of Game Informer: Doom. In addition to impressions from Reiner's extensive time with the gory single-player and mutliplayer modes of Doom, the rest of us are here to report on all the great games we played over winter break. Kim discusses her unexpectedly  fun experience with the JRPG The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel. Ben Hanson returns as your co-host this week to chat all about the joy he's had diving deeper into Amplitude and Tim is all about EarthBound right now. Stick around after the first segment as we unpack all the emails that were waiting for us during our week off. We close out the show with a special themed-round of the wildly entertaining Back-of-the-Box Trivia. Place your bets now. Will it be Tim, Reiner, or Kim? And that's not all... Officially announcing the Game Informer Show Game Club! The game club will begin with the classic RPG Final Fantasy VII, which is on everyone's mind as we learn more about the highly anticipated FF VII Remake. Dust off your old PlayStation discs or download it on PC or PS4 so you can play along with us and come back to discuss it on the podcast in coming weeks. Our goal for the first episode is to complete the entire Midgar section of FF VII for reconvening and discussing our thoughts. Our suggested focus on this first "chapter" of the GI Show Book Club is to examine how Midgar is pieced together by Square. Pay close attention to the pre-rendered backgrounds, 3D character models, and how they play off each other. Additionally, we encourage you to listen closely in the burrows for Midgar lore and see what you can piece together. Please your game club related observations/questions to podcast@gameinformer.com so we can possibly discuss them when the time comes. You can listen to episode 281 below, listen on SoundCloud, or subscribe and listen to the audio on iTunes. Also, be sure to send your emails to podcast@gameinformer.com for a chance to have them answered on the show and win a prize by becoming Email of the Week! (Please visit the site to view this media) To jump to a particular point in the discussion, check out the timestamps below... 1:55 - The Doom cover story trip 17:00 - The Legends of Heroes: Trails in the Sky 30:50 - Disney Infinity: The Force Awakens playset 39:25 - Amplitude  43:40 - Minecraft on PS4 47:05 - Lionel Battle Trains 50:00 - Reiner's old-school adventure game deep-dive 57:13 - Emails 1:29:50 - Announcing the Final Fantasy VII Game Club 1:33:25 - Back-of-the-Box Game Trivia

The year comes to a close at midnight tonight, so there's no better opportunity to look forward to what 2016 has in store for game releases. Hosts Ben Hanson and Tim Turi are joined by Andrew Reiner and Kyle Hilliard as we take turns divulging our Top 5 Most-Anticipated Games of 2016. Do your hopes and dreams for Uncharted 4 or The Legend of Zelda line up with ours? Organize your own Top 5 list of upcoming 2016 releases and listen along as we close out 2015. Most importantly, we owe you, the awesome Game Informer community, a very sincere "THANK YOU" for sticking with the GI Show podcast in 2015. We said goodbye to longtime Game Informer mainstay, Matt Helgeson, as Ben Hanson and Tim Turi rebooted the podcast. Your support, kind words, and thought-provoking email questions have motivated us to keep doing our best to deliver the best show possible. So from all of us at Game Informer, Happy Holidays and have a radical New Year filled with awesome games. You can listen to episode 280 below, listen on SoundCloud, or subscribe and listen to the audio on iTunes. Also, be sure to send your emails to podcast@gameinformer.com for a chance to have them answered on the show and win a prize by becoming Email of the Week! (Please visit the site to view this media)

The holidays are upon us, and we're eagerly awaiting all the fun video games and video game-related goodies that our loved ones will surely be giving us. By no means does that mean we're waiting to play the games we want to play now, though. Ben Hanson and Tim Turi are joined by Ben Reeves and Joe Juba to talk about everything we've been playing – the good and bad. The Good: SteamWorld Heist, the fun 2D strategy game on 3DS by the folks who made SteamWorld Dig, King's Quest Chapter 2, and Harmonix's Amplitude. We also touch on The Bad: Wii U exclusive Devil's Third by Valhalla Game Studios. We round out the rest of the show by answering emails and talk about the best games of the year with interns Marcus Stewart, Joseph Knoop, and Parker Lemke as they say their goodbyes. You can listen to episode 279 below, listen on SoundCloud, or subscribe and listen to the audio on iTunes. Also, be sure to send your emails to podcast@gameinformer.com for a chance to have them answered on the show and win a prize by becoming Email of the Week! (Please visit the site to view this media) To jump to a particular discussion, check out the timestamps below... 2:15 - SteamWorld Heist 12:50 - Amplitude 18:45 - Devil's Third  24:25 - King's Quest's second chapter 32:50 - Republique's fourth episode  38:40 - Rocket League's new hockey mode 40:45 - Final Fantasy VII's PS4 port 48:30 - Listener emails 1:12:30 - Saying goodbye to GI's interns 

The latest issue of Game Informer is all about virtual reality. We cover the immersive games and experiences you can look forward to, and how Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, and the HTC Vive will define the new medium next year. The Game Informer staff has spent hours playing in virtual-reality worlds in preparation for this issue, and we're excited to share our experiences (both the ups and the downs) with you on this episode. Join Andy McNamara, Jeff Cork, Mike Futter, Ben Hanson, Ben Reeves, and Tim Turi as we enthusiastically debate the most exciting elements of VR and the biggest lingering concerns. Stick around for our chat with BioShock creator and Irrational Games founder Ken Levine as we discuss everything from his new bold, upcoming sci-fi RPG to his thoughts onPaper Mario. You can listen to episode 278 below, listen on SoundCloud, or subscribe and listen to the audio on iTunes. Also, be sure to send your emails to podcast@gameinformer.com for a chance to have them answered on the show and win a prize by becoming Email of the Week! (Please visit the site to view this media) To jump to a particular discussion, check out the timestamps below... 1:00 - Our thoughts on the future of VR 1:04:00 - Listener emails 1:44:58 - Ken Levine on the challenges of building his upcoming RPG with a systemic narrative 2:18:46 - Levine's approach to Twitter 2:23:40 - Levine's thoughts on Paper Mario for the N64 2:27:50 - Levine's thoughts on System Shock 3's announcement and comparisons to his upcoming game 2:34:25 - Bioshock Infinite in retrospect

Video game fans live in a veritable vacuum of new releases right now. Last week's release of Just Cause 3 marked the final big triple-A release for the holiday season, and now it's all about catching up until the games of 2016 hit. Ben Hanson and Tim Turi are joined by Brian Shea and GI newcomer Javy Gwaltney to discuss Rainbow Six: Siege and the exciting announcements of the PlayStation Experience. Ben Reeves swaps in for Brian for a rousing round of answering emails and recapping the second-annual The Game Awards show. Follow along as we see how close our predictions were for which games would win awards. Tune in to get to know Javy, but stay for the heated Final Fantasy VII Remake discussion. You can listen to episode 277 below, listen on SoundCloud, or subscribe and listen to the audio on iTunes. Also, be sure to send your emails to podcast@gameinformer.com for a chance to have them answered on the show and win a prize by becoming Email of the Week! (Please visit the site to view this media) To jump to a particular discussion, check out the timestamps below... 3:42 - Rainbow Six Siege 7:45 - Javy's favorite games of all time 16:40 - Touring PSX 2015 19:40 - Rez Infinite 24:50 - Psychonauts 27:50 - Brut@l 30:50 - Uncharted 4: A Thief's End 33:20 - Rise of the Tomb Raider 35:50 - Chasm 37:50 - Death's Gambit 39:10 - Stories: Path of Destiny 42:40 - Epic's Paragon 44:05 - Final Fantasy VII Remake 54:35 - Listener emails 1:23:30 - Breaking down The Game Awards

On Tuesday we unveiled Game Informer's cover story for January, a look ahead to the VR experiences in 2016. Throughout the month, we're going to be rolling out new content in our hub that covers the highlights of Oculus, PlayStation VR, and the Vive's efforts in this reinvigorated field of game development. To kick things off, we wanted to take a deep dive into the challenges of developing for virtual reality with the president of worldwide studios for Oculus Jason Rubin. Rubin has had an incredible career in the game industry, co-founding Naughty Dog with his business partner Andy Gavin and being the key creative input behind franchises like Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter before becoming the president of THQ. In this special edition podcast, I spoke to Rubin about the intense development of Naughty Dog's early years and how the wild west of VR development mirrors those experimental days in the game industry. Watch the interview below or subscribe and listen to the audio on iTunes. Also, stay tuned for a full new episode of The GI Show tomorrow! (Please visit the site to view this media) Click on the banner below to enter our hub of exclusive content covering all things VR that throughout the month.

We're nearing the end of the year, and it's the last big week for game releases. This week on The Game Informer Show, regular co-hosts Ben Hanson and Tim Turi are joined by Jeff Cork and Matt Miller to mop up this week's three big games. First up is Just Cause 3 from Avalanche, Cork has been blowing up everything in sight and is ready to talk about how Rico's latest adventure stacks up. Ben Hanson and Matt Miller have played a chunk of Rainbow Six Siege and share their impressions of Ubisoft's intense but slim entry in the series. And to cap off the games front, Matt Miller has poured a significant part of his life into the new JRPG Xenoblade Chronicles X on the Wii U and is ready to weigh in on the lengthy experience. Stay tuned for our community emails section and then for the grand return of our "Back of the Box" trivia game where editors buzz in to guess the descriptions of game cases. Play along at home! You can listen to episode 276 below, listen on SoundCloud, or subscribe and listen to the audio on iTunes. Also, be sure to send your emails to podcast@gameinformer.com for a chance to have them answered on the show and win a prize by becoming Email of the Week!  (Please visit the site to view this media) To jump to a particular point in the discussion, check out the timestamps below... 2:55 - Just Cause 3 17:20 - Rainbow Six Siege 29:40 - Xenoblade Chronicles X 52:00 - The Old Republic: Knights of the Fallen Empire 59:10 - Listener emails 1:40:55 - Back of the Box Trivia

This year was a knockdown-drag out kind of year for video games. Juggernauts like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Fallout 4 are not only tons of fun, they're also packed with so much content it's easier for some other games to become lost in their shadows. This episode of the Game Informer Show is dedicated to reflecting on some of those overlooked games like Transformers: Devastation, Soma, Resident Evil: Revelations 2, and more. Co-hosts Ben Hanson and Tim Turi are joined by Joe Juba and Kyle Hilliard for the discussion of the best games we missed in 2015, and they also stick around to answer listener emails, as well as try something new where listeners call in via Skype! We close out the show by swapping in Andrew Reiner and GI intern Joseph Knoop to talk about our hopes and predictions for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  Watch episode 275 below or subscribe and listen to the audio on iTunes. Also, be sure to send your emails to podcast@gameinformer.com for a chance to have them answered on the show and win a prize by becoming Email of the Week!  (Please visit the site to view this media) To jump to a particular point in the discussion, check out the timestamps below... 4:00 - Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash 12:40 - SOMA 14:45 - Transformers: Devastation 21:20 - Resident Evil: Revelations 2 26:45 - Disgaea 5/Valkyria Chronicles 31:05 - Evolve 33:45 - Too much NBA 2K16 43:45 - The Order: 1886 48:18 - Rise of the Tomb Raider vs. Fallout 4 58:16 - Destiny and StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void 1:00:30 - Community emails 1:39:50 - Taking community Skype calls 1:54:00 - Predicting Star Wars: The Force Awakens

We're nearing the end of our month of exclusive coverage for Remedy Entertainment's Quantum Break, and we gave the community a chance to ask the developers anything that was on their mind. On this special edition of The Game Informer Show, Ben Reeves and I Skyped with Quantum Break's creative director Sam Lake and PR director Thomas Puha to answer the community's burning questions about Quantum Break. We talk about the finer points of Remedy's upcoming Xbox One game, the odds of an Alan Wake remaster, what the team thought of Rockstar's Max Payne 3, and more! Enjoy the show! You can watch the Quantum Break interview below or subscribe and listen to the audio on iTunes. (Please visit the site to view this media) To learn more about Quantum Break, click on the banner below to enter our hub of exclusive content.

Our steady ramp of excitement for Star Wars: The Force Awakens has hit a bit of snag with this week's release of Star Wars: Battlefront. We discuss the game's shortcomings before digging into what makes the third and final StarCraft II game, Legacy of the Void, different from the two previous installments. Be sure to stick around for our chat with Firewatch developer Sean Vanaman, who discusses his time working at Disney and creating the memorable characters of Telltale's The Walking Dead: Season 1. One of our guests this week is GI's resident Star Wars super fan, Andrew Reiner. Dan Tack brings his PC gaming knowledge to the table to square off against the RTS passion of your host, Ben Hanson. Tim Turi also returns after finally finding his voice following the Ghost Pepper Incident of Extra Life 2015 to breathlessly get out his feelings about Fallout 4. Watch episode 274 below or subscribe and listen to the audio on iTunes. Also, be sure to send your emails to podcast@gameinformer.com for a chance to have them answered on the show and win a prize by becoming Email of the Week! (Please visit the site to view this media) To jump to a particular discussion, check out the timestamps below... 3:55 - Star Wars: Battlefront 24:40 - Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void 45:30 - Telltale's Game of Thrones finale 50:55 - Rebel Galaxy 55:55 - Nintendo Badge Arcade 59:30 - Cloud in Super Smash Bros. 1:03:14 - Listener emails 1:34:46 - Campo Santo's Sean Vanaman talks Epic Mickey's origins, writing Walking Dead's first season, and Firewatch's development.

Gaming's gigantic week of releases has arrived! Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and a little game with a heart of gold called Fallout 4 are now for sale and The Game Informer Show is here to cover it all. We'll dive deeper into the new Starcraft expansion next week when we've had more time to play, but we're ready to share all of our thoughts on Fallout 4 and Rise of the Tomb Raider.  On this week's show, Tim Turi bows out after the first couple of minutes so that he can rest his voice after our intense Extra Life marathon but Ben Hanson is joined by Jeff Cork, Andrew Reiner, and Kimberley Wallace. We also touch on the rise of biographical games like the online dating-fueled Cibele and The Beginner's Guide. After a spirited round of listener emails, we're joined by the CEO of Obsidian Entertainment Feargus Urquhart to talk about his amazing career in the industry. We cover the origins of the Fallout series and the reasons behind Fallout 4's bugs, the secrets behind some of their unreleased games, and what went right and wrong during the production of South Park: The Stick of Truth. Watch episode 273 below or subscribe and listen to the audio on iTunes. Also, be sure to send your emails to podcast@gameinformer.com for a chance to have them answered on the show and win a prize by becoming Email of the Week! (Please visit the site to view this media) To jump to a particular point in the discussion, check out the timestamps below... 7:40 - Fallout 4 28:35 - Rise of the Tomb Raider 41:45 - Cibele's relationship drama 51:30 - Tales from the Borderlands 54:30 - Listener emails sent to podcast@gameinformer.com 1:21:13 - Obsidian Entertainment's CEO Feargus Urquhart Interview

Another fall week brings another annual gaming juggernaut release. Call of Duty: Black Ops III releases Friday, and it's one of the most jam-packed offerings Treyarch has put together. We dissect the game's insane campaign, fun multiplayer, and addicting Zombies mode (complete with Jeff Goldblum). Japan's big Pokémon competitor, Yo-Kai Watch, also arrives stateside with all its ghost-grabbin' goodness. We round out the show by looking deep into the current state of Bethesda Softworks. Dan Tack joins us to talk about his time reviewing Black Ops III, and even drops some hints about what excitement players unlock by completing the game's campaign. Kyle Hilliard also shares his experience playing Yo-Kai, and reveals all the striking similarities and enticing differences the game has from Pokémon (including a butt ghost we think is named Squeakcheeks). Bethesda releases the much-anticipated Falllout 4 next week, and it feels like the entire gaming population is holding its breath in anticipation. GI's Andrew Reiner visited the studio as they were just preparing to ship the game and spoke with game director Todd Howard along with other key Bethesda developers about the creation of the game. Matt Bertz also joins us for this final segment, coming to the table with years of experience covering Bethesda games, such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Watch episode 272 below or subscribe and listen to the audio on iTunes. Also, be sure to send your emails to podcast@gameinformer.com for a chance to have them answered on the show and win a prize by becoming Email of the Week! (Please visit the site to view this media) To jump to a particular point in the discussion, check out the timestamps below... 3:00 - Visiting Remedy Entertainment for our Quantum Break cover story 13:55 - Call of Duty: Black Ops III 31:00 - Kyle's red-hot Pixels review 35:15 - Yo-Kai Watch 49:40 - Listener e-mails 1:29:20 - Breaking down Bethesda/the making of Fallout 4 

This week's biggest release is the latest in Microsoft's Halo series: Halo 5: Guardians. Much of the gaming conversation revolves around 343 Industries' Xbox One-exclusive juggernaut, but we also dive into our impressions of Blizzard's Overwatch beta and the conclusion of Telltale's Tales from the Borderlands. Video game personality and creator of the Video Game Awards, Geoff Keighley, also joins us for the final segment to to talk about his career and friendship with Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima. In addition to talking all about Halo 5 on its own merits, we also discuss the bizarre feeling of switching between that game and Destiny, created by the original Halo developers at Bungie. We also have a great email segment after the specific game chat, covering everything from memorable video game sound effects to some of the most influential Final Fantasy games. Watch episode 271 below or subscribe and listen to the audio on iTunes. Also, be sure to send your emails to podcast@gameinformer.com for a chance to have them answered on the show and win a prize by becoming Email of the Week! (Please visit the site to view this media) To jump to a particular point in the discussion, check out the timestamps below... 2:30 - Halo 5: Guardians' campaign 19:25 - Halo 5's multiplayer 36:30 - Overwatch's closed beta 56:25 - Tales from the Borderlands' conclusion 1:01:05 - Answering listener emails 1:30:15 - Geoff Keighley interview

We ask Mafia III's creative director Haden Blackman dozens of questions from the community's most die-hard Mafia fans....(read more)