The idea and practical applications of marriage barely come up in video games. Sure, there’s not much of a place for it in Angry Birds, and it theoretically might be the ultimate goal of dating sims. But what about games where you’re playing as a character or interact with NPCs who just ARE married? Sean and Vinnk (gamers who are, apparently miraculously, each respectively married with children) explore the reasons why games might actually shy away from the trapping of matrimony, and how the few games that do use it (Fable, The Sims, Alan Wake) want to milk it for emotional impact. But how "emotionally impacted" might an 8 year-old gamer feel about such subject matter — and is that right there the reason it’s a subject few developers dare to tread? And when is Mario just going to marry Princess Peach already! How many more times does she need to get kidnapped by Bowser for him to get the hint??

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Spoilers ahoy! Do not listen beyond the 55 minute mark if you have not seen Avengers!

I’m joined again by Adam and Jim, with Sean and Captain Genius returning after several weeks away. We dig deep into the Avengers film series and hold a couple of inappropriate off topic discussions along the way. I also kept my promise to Jim to not make the podcast 2 hours long. 1:52:44 ain’t bad!

Listen live on this page, or subscribe via RSS or iTunes.
Direct Link:Powetcast 119: Helicarrier Connection – ‘Marvel’s Avengers’ Discussion
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It’s a podcast for your eyes! We don’t often get a chance to do our shows in person, so when we do it’s nice to put together a little video. So here is the super elite behind the scenes recording of the Powetcast 118 “Put Your Doors On”, our live show from Botcon 2012. I’ve throw in some photos and clips I had handy when relevant.

Injuries in video games tend to be minor annoyances rather than the game-stopping events they should be. But wouldn’t having to heal from actual injuries be a sure way to kill gaming fun? Vinnk and Sean discuss how injury has been taken out of games with the advent of armor and shielding, and on the other side of the spectrum games that are all about healing. And somewhere in between, there’s the worst offender of the blurry line between life, death, and severe crippling injury: RPGs. Also, we give out copious amounts of Phoenix Downs.

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Adam takes control with Crazy, Justin, and Caren for our special episode from Botcon 2012. Recorded live in front of a studio audience!

This episode was also shot on video, and that will be posted to the site within the next few days.

Listen live on this page, or subscribe via RSS or iTunes.
Direct Link:Powetcast 118: Put Your Doors On – Live From Botcon 2012

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Adam and Zac are joined by Jim from Not Safe For Watercoolers, proving that the only qualification for being on the show is the ability to talk and laugh loudly.
Topics of discussion include Fez, bare knuckle boxing, Sour Patch Kids, The Avengers, The Simpsons’ home town of Springfield, and the forthcoming video game The Witcher 2. Or at least we tried to talk about these things.

Listen live on this page, or subscribe via RSS or iTunes.
Direct Link:Powetcast 117: Not Safe For Witchers
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Hype is great… until your game comes out. Quite different from development hell, these are games that come out, but when they do they don’t quite live up to the promises made by the marketing department — and sometimes the developers themselves. Sean and Vinnk discuss the raft of hate against the Mass Effect 3 ending, the lack of ending for the Shenmue series, Peter Molyneux’s retirement from Lionhead Studios, and more. Suffice to say, it’s been an interesting year for the hype machine and its consequences.

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Could the console and PC wars have been snuffed out in the early ’80s if NES hadn’t been released? Or was Nintendo’s intervention in the market overblown? Vinnk and Sean ponder the rift between PC and console gamers, those who do both, and what kinds of games seem to be better suited to one over the other. Are the two devices on a collision course? Or is the idea of a Steam Box or other PC-based “console” nothing more than a fever dream?

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