A late-blooming gamer plays everyone else's formative games for the very first time.
Episodes
Thursday Nov 26, 2020
Thursday Nov 26, 2020
Today on Never Was A Gamer, we've finally played The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time!
Timecodes:
1.00 A formal apology.
5.00 Transition to 3D.
25.00 An inhabited world.
BREAK
30.20 Dungeons!
38.25 As whole spaces.
46.00 Shadow Temple.
51.00 Gerudo fortress.
54.20 Water Temple.
BREAK
59.30 What is "Zeldaness"?
1.22.35 Predictions
1.24.30 Score.
Thursday Nov 12, 2020
Thursday Nov 12, 2020
Today on Never Was A Gamer: it's the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time! This will be our second Zelda game and our last stop before the season concludes with Michelle tackling Dark Souls.
Timecodes:
0.55 The night before FromSoft.
2.40 Why a second Zelda?
6:45 What Michelle knows about OOT.
9.45 What about 3d?
BREAK
16.30 History of OOT
36.30 Promotional materials for OOT
BREAK
47.00 Playing the original Legend of Zelda (NES)
51.00 "Best games" and what is just too early?
1.04.55 Predictions
Thursday Oct 29, 2020
Thursday Oct 29, 2020
Today on Never Was A Gamer, we've finally played Silent Hill! Be sure to check our twitter, @neverwasagamer, and tell me that's not a damn pterodactyl.
We didn't fully explain this in the episode, but at one point the game tells you someone has been practicing gyromancy, which Michelle maybe misread as gynomancy. But like, if you think about it, who's really wrong here?
Spoilers for the first Silent Hill game.
Timecodes:
1.28 Dimitri is vindicated (sort of).
2.37 What is Silent Hill though.
5.30 First impressions.
11.00 Horror mechanics.
15.40 Promo material.
21.12 Tropes Michelle promised to like.
BREAK
25.45 Assessing like the game pros of yore.
BREAK
44.56 Controls and fun factor.
51.40 Puzzles in hell.
57.00 The actual story.
1.04.00 Fun Factor!
1.09.30 Checking in on predictions.
1.10.50 Score.
Thursday Oct 15, 2020
Thursday Oct 15, 2020
Today on Never Was A Gamer: it's the first Silent Hill game!
Timecodes:
1.30 Why Silent Hill 1?
5.00 Dimitri's horror history ("an even bigger baby")
7.00 Do we like horror?
10.45 What do we like or dislike?
16.45 Scary stuff in non-horror games.
BREAK
25.20 History of survival horror.
44.50 Silent Hill arrives.
BREAK
48.57 Promoting Silent Hill.
1.00.27 Predictions.
Thursday Oct 01, 2020
Thursday Oct 01, 2020
Today on Never Was A Gamer, we've played Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and we really aren't sure how to feel about it. This is a weird episode - it's the first time Michelle has come away from one of these games lukewarm and conflicted. Picking that apart lead us down an interesting road of examining what we need from emergent gameplay, how legible a satire or pastiche this is, and the importance of vibes (both the game's and our own). It's a good one!
Timecodes:
1.00 So what did we like?
15.00 What is this game, actually?
BREAK
22.10 Does the open world work?
28.00 Did the emergent gameplay work?
47.50 Does it work as satire? Is it funny?
50.35 Does it work as a crime movie pastiche?
1.02.00 Is it an 80s pastiche?
BREAK
1.05.58 The vibes you bring.
1.19.00 Predictions.
Thursday Sep 17, 2020
Thursday Sep 17, 2020
Today on Never Was A Gamer, we're getting ready to play Grand Theft Auto: Vice City!
Timecodes:
1.10 Will we vibe?
4.00 Checking in on Dave's Play magazine.
8.30 What Michelle knows about GTA.
16.00 And Rockstar specifically.
BREAK
28.15 Open worlds.
40.45 History of GTA.
BREAK
51.05 Looking at promo for GTA Vice City.
57.20 Nightline investigation.
1.15.30 Predictions.
Promo materials:
Classy opera TV ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIOR2A6-Gio
Please treat yourself to this Nightline segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeWMXFkJAU0&t=72s and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac26rd8RqFI.
Thursday Sep 03, 2020
Thursday Sep 03, 2020
Today on Never Was A Gamer: we choose a victor between Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat 2!
Timecodes:
1.30 First impressions.
16.00 Why is Street Fighter better.
BREAK
25.50 Choosing Street Fighter characters.
32.30 Choosing Mortal Kombat characters.
39.25 Revisiting Michelle's criteria.
BREAK
1.03.20 Criteria (continued).
1.29.00 Adding it all up.
1.42.20 Predictions.
Thursday Aug 20, 2020
Thursday Aug 20, 2020
Today on Never Was A Gamer, two great fighting games fight! We're talking about Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat 2.
Timecodes:
0.00 Intro.
2.15 Is this From Soft prep?
4.30 What does Michelle know?
6.30 Smash! Character choice.
BREAK
21.10 History of Street Fighter 2.
43.25 History of Mortal Kombat 2.
BREAK
1.02.15 Selecting Michelle's starting characters.
1.12.20 Criteria for judging these games.
1.17.40 Predictions.
To see the ads and media we talked about in the history section, check out our Twitter @NeverWasAGamer.
Thursday Aug 06, 2020
Thursday Aug 06, 2020
Today on Never Was A Gamer: what did Final Fantasy 7 Remake teach us about JRPGs?
NOTE: This is a really fun episode, but Michelle has some thoughts on the Corneo Mansion scene that require a content warning (CW) for discussions of sexual violence involving drugging, transmisogyny, and homophobia. It's at the very end of the episode, after the score, and it's clearly marked and introduced in the pod, so we hope you will dip out after the score (around 1.22.00) if you need to avoid those topics today. xo
Timecodes:
1.00 Risking it all for a remake.
6.10 The 2015 announcement.
15.15 First thoughts.
BREAK
31.45 The battle system.
BREAK
42.00 Midgar has people in it.
49.05 How's it gonna end?
BREAK
1.04.00 What did FF7R teach us about JRPGs?
1.16.30 Worries for the future
1.21.05 Score
1.22.00 Final thoughts on Corneo's Mansion (CW: sexual violence, transmisogyny).
Thursday Jul 23, 2020
Thursday Jul 23, 2020
Today on Never Was A Gamer: finally, a topic we both actually know something about - JRPGs!
Timecodes:
1.25 Why is this an episode?
3.15 Dimitri's history.
21.20 Are JRPGs extra dorky or just the regular amount?
BREAK
27.50 What is still special about JRPGs?
BREAK
1.05.25 Scale and story.
1.12.26 Growth and the numbers game.
1.23.10 Our blind spots and the plan for Part 2.