#patrick mifflin

Because I’m terrible at posting consistently.

It’s a celebration of a pair of anniversaries as we mark 20 years of PlayStation in North America and the Dreamcast growing old enough to drive! Legacies will be discussed and memories shared as we look back on a pair of industry giants whose stories and fortunes couldn’t be more different.

Street Fighter V has its second newcomer in Rashid of the Turbulent Wind. The team goes over the reveal trailer of a character who just might be the game’s fastest yet, address the misguided controversy surrounding his timing of his unveiling, and take a look at how we might now know the full roster of 16 for the game’s launch.

Kickstarter’s growing pains are playing out in the courts, as the Washington State Attorney General is aligning with backers of a card game who had not seen rewards for more than two years after they were scheduled to ship. Some are calling this the beginning of the end for crowdfunding, but is it rather just a part of the process?

Square Enix has followed up their epic TGS lineup reveal not just with the implication that there might be one more game yet to be discussed, but the announcement of Final Fantasy V coming to Steam in a couple of weeks. Looking at their recent releases, this could well be status quo, and if so, it means that a true JRPG legend could be waiting in the wings.

Patrick and Filippo had the Hatred/Steam situation pegged as one of the top industry stories to watch in 2015, and now Hatred has a June 1 release date pushing the issue. Will Valve stay the course and allow the game to go up on the service as planned in a month, and will there be any unintended consequences if they do?

Valve started World War III with its mod marketplace on Steam, but now it looks like the experiment is over, and with it, the war. Is this the end for the overall concept of paid mods, or will there be other attempts at seeing content creators inside games’ fanbases get paid for their work? The team will speculate.

The small blaze at Konami has erupted into a five-alarm inferno. With Hideo Kojima on the way out and the big Silent Hill revival project discarded, the company has now removed itself from the New York Stock Exchange. In itself, that wouldn’t be cause for much concern, but the panel explains why this absolutely must be taken in context.

Clearly, Square Enix feel they are living and dying by the success of Final Fantasy XV, so it shouldn’t come as much surprise that director Hajime Tabata is taking the criticisms of Episode Duscae to heart. The extent to which he is doing this, however, is truly admirable, and worth looking at in detail on the podcast.

The ongoing discussion between Microsoft and the Natural Resources Defense Council continues, and is sparking a broader dialogue among the gaming public about features vs energy efficiency in game consoles. However, did the NRDC undermine its own cause in its immediate dissatisfaction with Microsoft’s course of action? Patrick believes so.

The release of Project CARS is sneaking up on us after being hit with a litany of delays last year. Now, we’re starting to see some hard numbers that make a really good case for it as a potential legitimate competitor to Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport, but with 110 courses in 30 locations around the globe, where do you even begin?

Mortal Kombat X is upon us, and two members of the team are digging in. Thus far, the game seems to be a natural follow-up to the franchise-validating MK9, elevating the series to unprecedented levels of quality and competitive prominence, but Filippo isn’t without his misgivings...

With the release of an online questionnaire, GungHo Online Entertainment looks to be preparing a revival of the GameArts brand, which brought us respected franchises like Lunar, Grandia, and Silpheed. It’s entirely possible that this will only manifest in the form of rereleases, but what if there’s more going on?

Like Rock Band 4, the imminent return of Guitar Hero was one of the worst-kept secrets in the game industry. Nobody predicted the changes to the game’s presentation or interface, though, to say nothing of the philosophy surrounding the game’s design and the series’ place both within and outside of gaming culture. All of which will be discussed on the show.