Thumbstick Athletes

Dan, Val, Will and Corey sit down to talk about the first episode of Life is Strange 2.....a series much loved by the members of the show.  Obviously, and it should go without saying, but.....CONTAINS SPOILERS!!  Outside of that, some good news coming out of the Telltale closing, and Will played some more Forza Horizon 4. 

Ever have a crappy day?  Dan and Will cover some games they like to get absorbed in when things aren't going right.  During "What We Played" Dan ever so briefly talks about Life is Strange 2: Episode 1 (full episode next week), and Will played some Forza Horizon 4.

Dan talks about Shadow of the Tomb Raider for this week's main segment.  During nibblebits, the Athletes talk about the very sad loss of jobs for the majority of developers working at Telltale games and Will talks about NHL 19 during "What We Played"

For this week Dan and Will reminisce about all the great games on the original XBOX....Halo, Fable, KOTOR...the list goes on.  In nibblebits we talk about the PlayStation Classic, and what a pleasant surprise that was.  We also cover Nintendo Switch Online and Dan very briefly talks about his first impressions of Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Lots of Nintendo this week as we cover Breath of the Wild again with a special guest, as well as the most recent Nintendo Direct.  Kingdoms of Amalur fans also had something to cheer about with THQ Nordic buying up the IP.

At some point in our past, we did our top 5 five favorite characters in gaming list.  This episode is more a celebration of some of the great characters in games.  Every so often we'll do one of these episodes and try to include different characters. 

The annual late August Fall Games preview...where it seems like there are fewer heavy hitters than usual, but still some solid games.  Stuff like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and the obligatory Call of Duty and Battlefield releases.  During "What We Played" Val comes on to give her thoughts about the games we've covered for Rookie Camp so far.

We cover Monster Hunter: World for this week's episode, and because we didn't play as much as we would have liked, we welcomed longtime friend of the show Tito to come on and cover our butts.  Some other things covered this episode include BBQ food, Will's leggings make an appearance, road trips to Florida, and Amazon taking away the 20% off preordering for games.

In this week's episode we tackle new topic, on two things often at odds with one another.  Joined by Val, the Athletes talk about gaming in education...how it's changed over the past few years, and the more current trends of both acceptance and using games positively in the classroom.

Nintendo just yesterday had an over 25 minute Direct on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, so we covered it for this week's episode.  Will is the resident expert on Smash, so offers some good insight and Dan...just kind of enjoys the series.  During nibblebits we dicuss some Fallout 76 news and plagiarism with an IGN review for Dead Cells.

Hello Games just launched a major update for No Man's Sky in conjunction with it's release on XBox One.  Dan, who liked the game at launch, revisits NMS to try out some of the updates.  During Nibblebits, New York State kicks out ISP Spectrum for sucking, and "What We Played" was dominated by Octopath Traveler.

The gang is all here this week for a modern take on classic JRPG's in Octopath Traveler.  It's got stunning visuals, interesting mechanics, and is yet another title selling like hotcakes on the Nintendo Switch.  Also covered this week is Nintendo's lawsuit on ROM sites and Will making a fashion statement.

Taking a break this week and doing our annual mid year recap, where I play a blurb from episodes for some games we've covered so far this year.  Expect to hear a little about Fortnite, Ni No Kuni 2 and God of War among others.  Back to the normal routine next week!

Four hosts for this week's episode as Dan, Val, Will and Corey all hold down the show.  The main segment is on The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, a prequel to Life is Strange 2 coming out this September.  An emotional roller coaster as you would expect from a LiS game.  It does contain spoilers.....ye be warned!  During "What We Played" Will played a lot of Hollow Knight, Corey beat Ni No Kuni 2, and Dan bounced around with a few different games.

In honor of American Independence Day, Dan and Will discuss some of the most patriotic characters in gaming.  Dan covers the Twitch Prime rewards for July and Dan and Will both gush some more on Hollow Knight.

Dan and Will have listener Eric back on to talk some Mario Tennis Aces for the Nintendo Switch.  During Nibblebits we talk about EA blaming Breath of the Wild for Mass Effect Andromeda's failures...and then we talk more Hollow Knight during "What We Played."

This week Dan and Will do a first annual E3 awards recognizing the best and worst of this year's E3.  During "What We Played" Dan and Will talk about Hollow Knight on the Switch.

Dan and Will welcome listener Eric (Rephyr) to the show to talk about all of the E3 things.  Recapping the conferences, positive and negatives of each, favorite reveals, etc.  During "What We Played" Dan finally got to play some Far Cry 5, Dan and Will played Hollow Knight on the Switch and Eric talks about Vampyr.

For this week Dan and Will go over some of the games they won't be getting this year, which include some annual sports franchises, annual shooter franchises....ehem....Red Dead Redemtion 2....ehem.  It's a good way to let you, the listener, know which games we aren't going to be covering in the future. 

We bring back Retro reviews this week and talk about Spyro the Dragon.  It's timely...as this September marks the 20th anniversary of the original and the Spyro Reignited Trilogy releases this September.  During Nibblebits Dan and Will cover and address Fallout 76, and the new Pokemon games Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee and Pokemon Quest.  Last, Dan talks about Pokemon Quest during "What We Played."