We talk about Summer Game Fest, the changing Games media landscape, and talk about some recent games we’ve been playing.

Show Notes:

Nobody Should Play Splitgate 2:

• Nice Hat, Loser - Aftermath

Fuck the British:

• How Relooted, A Game About Reclaiming African Artifacts From Western Museums, Ended Up Being Shown By A White Guy At Summer Game Fest - Aftermath

Big Games Media is probably dead, unless it’s IGN:

• Giant Bomb goes independent | The Verge
• Polygon sold to GameRant owner Valnet | The Verge
• rip polygon
• Can You Build a Community Around Video Game Guides? - Remap
  • Big Friendly Guide

Games We Played

• DOOM: The Dark Ages
• Assassin’s Creed: Shadows
• Final Fantasy 14 (did you know it has an award winning free trial up until level 70?)
  • XIV on Mac

Chapters:

• (02:05) - Summer Game Fest 2025
• (14:21) - Giant Bomb / Polygon
• (36:52) - Games We're Playing

• Sadiq Saif - Host
• Cristian Colocho - Host

We talk about a bad book, then take a trip to Puerto Rico to talk about the new Bad Bunny album but really just use it as a vehicle to talk about modern colonization.

Show Notes:

Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao

• Storygraph
• Sadiq’s Review of Heavenly Tyrant

Bad Bunny - DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS

• BAD BUNNY - DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS (Short Film)
• BAD BUNNY - BAILE INoLVIDABLE (Video Oficial) | DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS
• BAD BUNNY - PIToRRO DE COCO (Video Oficial) | DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS
• Unpacking Bad Bunny's personal and political 'DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS'
• Fabiola Méndez: Tiny Desk Concert
• El Laberinto del Coco: Tiny Desk x globalFEST
• Genius
• Official Website
• Data Vampires: Going Hyperscale (Episode 1) - Tech Won’t Save Us
• Coquí - Wikipedia
• Radio Menea

Chapters:

• (00:02) - Cristian takes an L
• (05:08) - Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao
• (19:02) - Bad Bunny - DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS

• Sadiq Saif - Host
• Cristian Colocho - Host

We do our year end wrap up, and talk about the best Music and Games of 2024.

Show Notes:

Albums of the Year 2024

Sadiq’s Albums of the Year

• Charli xcx - BRAT
• Billie Eilish - HIT ME HARD AND SOFT
• Khruangbin - A LA SALA
• Baby Rose & BADBADNOTGOOD - Slow Burn
• Shaboozey - Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going
• Elkka - Prism of Pleasure
• GloRilla - GLORIOUS
• BigXthaPlug - TAKE CARE
• Kendrick Lamar - GNX
• Michael Kiwanuka - Small Changes

Cristian’s Albums of the Year 2024

• JPEGMAFIA - I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU
• Tyler the Creator - CHROMAKOPIA
• Denzel Curry - KING OF THE MISCHIEVOUS SOUTH
• Logic - Ultra 85 (I know do not judge me)
• Beyonce - Cowboy Carter
• NxWorries - Why Lawd?

Performance of the Year

• Doechii: Tiny Desk Concert

IDK if we have albums we’re looking forward too but

• Ichiko Aoba - Luminescent Creatures

Games of the Year 2024

Sadiq’s Games of the Year

• Alan Wake 2
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth

Cristian’s Games of the Year

• Starfield: Shattered Space
• Destiny 2: The Final Shape
• Cyberpunk 2.0
• Black Ops 6
• Tears of the Kingdom

Postscript: Neither Dave Chapelles or SexyReds politicial views are endorsed by either of us, to make it super clear.

• (01:36) - Albums of The Year
• (38:50) - Video Games of The Year

We talk briefly about the Game Awards, then we discuss Kendrick Lamar’s GNX.

Show Notes:

Twitter Fingers Turn To Trigger Fingers

• Drake alleges UMG falsely inflated Kendrick Lamar's 'Not Like Us' | AP News

Other Links

• It's Getting Harder to Deny that Payola 2.0 Is Alive and Well in The Music Streaming Era | Headphonesty
• SpotifyPanel

Info Links

• Genius
• Wikipedia
• YouTube Playlist
• Apple Music
• Spotify

Track Listing

1. Wacced Out Murals
2. Squabble Up
3. Luther (with ​SZA)
4. Man at the Garden
5. Hey Now (featuring ​Dody6)
6. Reincarnated
7. TV Off (featuring ​Lefty Gunplay)
8. Dodger Blue (featuring ​Wallie the Sensei, ​Siete7x, ​Roddy Ricch)
9. Peekaboo (featuring ​AzHike)
10. Heart Pt. 6
11. GNX (featuring ​Hitta J3, ​YoungThreat, ​Peysoh)
12. Gloria (with SZA)

Talking Points

• MUSTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARD
• How Kendrick was in the Studio Making this New Album (GNX)
• WTF is a GNX?

Chapters:

• (00:01) - A Brief Game Awards Sidebar
• (04:13) - Drake Suing UMG
• (14:38) - GNX

We talk about Star Wars Outlaws, King of The Mischievous South Vol. 2, and Journalists leaving their jobs to go full time Youtuber.

Show Notes:

Tumblr & WordPress:

• Tumblr migrates more than 500 million blogs to WordPress | Ars Technica
• WordPress Discover

Star Wars Outlaws:

• Buy Star Wars Outlaws Gold Edition on PC & More | Ubisoft Store
• Star Wars Outlaws review: a perfectly ok bit of star war | Rock Paper Shotgun
• Game Launchers (Epic Games and Ubisoft)
• Sadiq’s Andor review
• Episode 00 – Welcome to Ctrl, Alt, Access

Denzel Curry - King of The Mischievous South Vol. 2

• King Of The Mischievous South Vol. 2
• Slurpgods
• That Mexican OT - Johnny Dang (feat. Paul Wall & Drodi) (Official Music Video)
• That Mexican OT - Wikipedia

Doechii

• Alligator Bites Never Heal - Album by Doechii | Spotify
• NISSAN ALTIMA | Swamp Session

Becca Farsace

• Why I left The Verge

Better Offline:

• Better Offline | iHeart
• Tech Won’t Save Us

Chapters:

• 0:00:04 - Tumblr Switching to WordPress
• 00:06:30 - Star Wars Outlaws
• 00:26:55 - The Music Hour
• 00:39:32 - Becca Farsace Leaving The Verge

• (00:04) - Tumblr Switching to WordPress
• (06:30) - Star Wars Outlaws
• (26:55) - The Music Hour
• (39:32) - Becca Farsace Leaving The Verge

We talk about Destiny 2: The final Shape, and we 4 weeks after the fact talk about Summer Game Fest 2024.

Show Notes:

Destiny 2 The Final Shape:

• Bungie got their W - My Impressions/Review of Final Shape
• The Final Shape’s campaign makes good on Bungie’s ‘raid-lite’ promise - Polygon

Sony State of Play May 2024

• Every big announcement from PlayStation's new State of Play

Summer Game Fest:

• Microsoft reveals first disc-less Xbox Series X | Ars Technica
• Xbox Games Showcase 2024: Every Announcement and Reveal
• Every big announcement and trailer from Ubisoft Forward 2024
• Everything announced at Nintendo Direct June 2024
• Day of the Devs 2024: Everything Announced - IGN

Chapters:

• (03:00) - Destiny 2: The Final Shape
• (28:33) - Summer Game Fest 2024

• (03:00) - Destiny 2: The Final Shape
• (28:33) - Summer Game Fest 2024

We talk about Drake versus Kendrick…and that’s really it we ran out of time for anything else.

Content Warning: Sexual Assault Mentions, talk of predatory behavior.

Show Notes:

Drake vs. Kendrick:

• First Person Shooter (Drake and J.Cole)
• Like That (Kendrick)
• 7 Minute Drill (J.Cole, deleted and apologized)
• Pushups (Drake)
• Taylor Made Freestyle (Drake and AI 2Pac)
• euphoria (Kendrick)
• 6:16 in LA (Kendrick)
• Family Matters (Drake)
• meet the grahams (Kendrick)
• Not Like Us (Kendrick)
• BBL Drizzy (Metro Boomin, instrumental)
• The Heart Part 6 (Drake)
• This battle wasn't even close... -> FD Signifier on the Beef

Microsoft Fuckups:

• Microsoft are shutting down the studios that made Prey, Redfall and Hi-Fi Rush | Rock Paper Shotgun
• Microsoft exec calls for "smaller", "prestige" games the day after closing Hi-Fi Rush studio Tango | Rock Paper Shotgun
• Big Video Game Publishers Like Microsoft Are Paving Their Own Path To Irrelevance - Aftermath
• Microsoft And Sony Have Lost The Plot - Aftermath
• The Answer Doesn't Have To Be Less - Aftermath
• "There's no one size fits all to it for us." Xbox President Sarah Bond quizzed on why Hi-Fi Rush developer was closed | Windows Central
• (00:01) - Drake versus Kendrick
• (01:03:40) - Microsoft Shutting Down Studios

• (00:01) - Drake versus Kendrick
• (01:03:40) - Microsoft Shutting Down Studios