Gaming Trend Podcast

This week on the GT Reboot podcast, Editor in Chief Ron Burke is here to offer his first impressions of the Nintendo Switch and its marquee title, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

2016 was a seminal year for the world of video games. Virtual reality made its commercial debut, Nintendo broke into the mobile space, and the entire world briefly embraced its inner gamer during the summer of Pokemon GO. It was also a significant year for the modern shooter (with at least nine major releases for the genre) and for games nearly ten years in the making, like The Last Guardian, Final Fantasy XV, and Owl Boy. In accordance with annual tradition, Gaming Trend’s editors and contributors recently sat down and discussed at length this year’s most spectacular experiences, and we finally decided on a list of titles that we feel best reflects the year’s excellence in gaming.

2016 was a seminal year for the world of video games. Virtual reality made its commercial debut, Nintendo broke into the mobile space, and the entire world briefly embraced its inner gamer during the summer of Pokemon GO. It was also a significant year for the modern shooter (with at least nine major releases for the genre) and for games nearly ten years in the making, like The Last Guardian, Final Fantasy XV, and Owl Boy. In accordance with annual tradition, Gaming Trend’s editors and contributors recently sat down and discussed at length this year’s most spectacular experiences, and we finally decided on a list of titles that we feel best reflects the year’s excellence in gaming.

For episode 79 of the GT Reboot, Joe gushes over Super Mario Run's surprisingly deep level design, Mike discusses his Space Hulk review in progress, and the pair talk about the recent reports concerning Crytek's financial status. We're coming close to the end of 2016, so it's also time for a little preliminary Game of the Year talk!

What a week! For episode 78 of the GT Reboot, former co-host Kenneth Shepard joins Mike and Joe to Talk about the big reveals from last weekend’s PlayStation Experience event as well as his reviews for the two ten-year games: Final Fantasy XV and The Last Guardian.

For episode 77 of the GT Reboot, Mike and Joe contemplate some unprecedented sales figures for this fall's sequels, their first impressions of Watch Dogs 2, and the imminent ruling on Gaming Trend's GOTY awards.

For episode 76 of the GT Reboot, Amy Kay Purcell join Mike and Joe to talk about her impressions of Pokemon Sun and Moon. In addition, Mike goes over his review of Mekazoo, Hunter Wolfe and Joe discuss their Dishonored 2 review (recorded separately), and we all go over some reports concerning the Nintendo Switch launch lineup.

Mike and Joe are running the Reboot alone this week. For episode 75​​ of the GT Reboot, the boys ruminate on Microsoft's plans for VR, Titanfall 2's placement in the line of the shooter releases this fall, the teaser images released by the creators of Journey, and how Battlefield 1 is absolute dynamite!

The boys are back in town! Former showrunners Kenneth Shephard and Eric Van Allen join Mike and Joe for episode 74 to share their thoughts on Bethesda's new policy on game review copies and the voice actors' strike. In addition, Kenneth talks about his World of Final Fantasy review, and Eric discusses his admiration for Dragon Quest Builders.

Mike and Joe are joined by Gaming Trend editor Josh Devlin to talk about their reactions to the Nintendo Switch reveal, the first Red Dead Redemption 2 trailer, and Mike's Battlefield 1 review.

Joey talks about his shiny new PSVR, Mike divulges his Battlefield 1 impressions, and Hunter drops in to talk about his hands-on time with Dishonored 2.

Silicon Knights- Once a well-loved and accomplished development team; There was once a time where the mere mention of their name evoked anticipation and confidence that whatever they were working on wasn’t just going to be good- it would likely be GREAT. That is, until 2006, when Too Human finally demoed at E3 that year and was almost unanimously panned by critics, prompting studio head Denis Dyak to speak out against the game outlets who judged it harshly and against the concept of previewing unfinished work altogether, saying it “does not work” anymore. Fast forward through 5 years, the critical and commercial flop that was Too Human, and dozens more scathingly critical statements from Dyak about the games press, we have their next game: X-Men Destiny, the latest release from a once proud developer that at best can be called mediocre and at worst unfinished- the very thing Dyak himself was railing against. So what happened? This week we’ll discuss what led up to these events and pose that very same questio

Handheld gaming has come a long way since the old Game & Watch days. From Gameboy to the DS, Lynx to PSP, the ability to enjoy our favorite pastime in the palm of our hand has gone through many evolutions. Lately, however, those changes have gone in a different direction, one that appears to be moving away from handheld pioneers Nintendo and challenger Sony: smart phones. The growth of gaming on iOS and Android has been nothing short of remarkable. As smartphones increase their adoption rate across all types of users, so too does the amount of gaming on these devices increase. Furthermore, the newest Sony and Nintendo handhelds have entered this new world with somewhat disappointing results. Today we’re going to talk about the transformation of handheld gaming and what it means to us as gamers.

Though it’s been around since 2008, the runaway success of Double Fine Adventure pushed crowd-funding site Kickstarter.com into the line of sight of game enthusiasts everywhere. Not only did the project exceed it’s funding goals exponentially, but the video games section of the site saw a ton of new activity from first-time backers of the point and click adventure game, with Wasteland 2, Shadowrun Returns, and even a new Leisure Suit Larry. Finally, here was a way to speak with our wallets regarding the games we want to purchase and play before a big publisher had the opportunity to deny or distort the vision of the game creators! It’s been a while since our last ‘cast, but we’re back and here to stay! Expect slightly shorter installments, with more focus on a single topic. Also, we’ll be airing some bonus episodes during E3 2012!

It wouldn’t be Halloween if we didn’t put a little scare in ya, right? Rest assured, the image above is not a sign that the ironically named legend in vaporware known as the Phantom Console is making a comeback, it’s just a nod to our big topic for this week: Digital Downloads. As it turns out, conceptually the Phantom was onto something, regardless of how nonexistent their hardware really was, and services like Steam, OnLive, Xbox Live Arcade and more have finally delivered on that promise of never having to leave your home to purchase a new game. More impressively, services like Beamdog, Good Old Games and Steam offer hundreds of titles that many of us cut our teeth on and let us relive our past glories in games like MDK2 HD and the Ultima series. In this week’s podcast, we examine how digital distribution has become entrenched in gaming, pushing the market into new and exciting places, and to help us out we asked Trent Oster (one of the co-founders of Bioware currently one of the heads of the digital distr

This week’s podcast has a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other- Mike talks about his time with the game Saints Row The Third and interviews Steve Jaros, the Lead writer for the Saint’s Row series, continuing our coverage from earlier in the week. Ron, fresh from his weekend jaunt to Anahaim, Ca fills us in on Blizzcon and the exclusive announcements and hands-on time with the new World of Warcraft expansion, the next StarCraft II installment, DOTA, and of course, Diablo III. This is an extra-special jam-packed hour-and-a-half long episode this week as we make up for our break last week. Enjoy!

Few franchises permeate the gamer culture as the beloved Legend of Zelda series by Nintendo. From the truly classic 8-bit gilded cartridge of the original, to the megahit Ocarina of Time, to the upcoming Skyward Sword, Zelda games have defined more quintessential gaming experiences than any other series, and was even voted the best game series ever by GameFAQs readers back in 2006. This week we’re joined by Zelda enthusiast and fan artist Benjamin Walton as we talk about the various entries to the series- Our favorite moments in the series, the convoluted timeline, and what we know of Skyward Sword. As a bonus we lead off with an excellent metal remix of ‘Song of Storms’ (from Ocarina of Time- original composer: Koji Kondo) by Scott Houghton titled ‘Raining Blood’. This podcast is rated ‘T’ for ‘Tingle’.

For those of you dreaming of a white Christmas this year, you’ve probably already heard that Blizzard’s upcoming release Diablo III won’t be waiting under your tree until sometime in 2012 (and you might want to put it on the curb before then- dried up trees can be a fire hazard). Sure, extending and expanding the beta will be the spoonful of sugar to help with the bitter pill of no loot-whoring over the holiday break, but with the flurry of impressions and videos that have been flooding the web all week, capping it off with the downer announcement of a largely indeterminate delay is enough to send any diehard gamer into a spiral of depression. That is, until Bioware announced the very next day that their juggernaut MMO release Star Wars: The Old Republic should squeak right in before Santa fires up his sleigh. This week Ron goes into detail about the time he’s spent with the beta, and he and Mike discuss how this impacts the landscape of the holiday release season.

Tuesday’s release of Gears of War 3 marks the true beginning of this fall’s holiday gaming rush, and oh, what a rush it is! Uncharted 3, Batman: Arkham City, Diablo III, just to name a few…- wallets are sure to take a beating. This week Ron & Mike talk about several of the major releases in the coming months, including some feedback from our readers on what they are anticipating most.

This week on the Gaming Trend Podcast, Mike & Ron chat about the next generation of consoles- what are the big three planning and how are they going to top the current generation? Also, Ron talks about what he’s playing right now, we go over the week’s major releases, and go on a total tangent about MMOs.