Grumble Pak

Jasmine and Eli talk about the general state of finished and unfinished games. We begin by talking about the merits and drawbacks of hunting around in the indie sphere, but end off talking briefly about AAA titles and crunch culture. Games are weird. 

Today, we talk the remake of one of the more popular Final Fantasy titles. Jasmine, our resident FF expert has a lot to say on the matter, and we have a nice chat about the nature of remakes and reboots. 

Jasmine and Eli talk ThunderLotus' Spiritfarer, a game about letting go and the afterlife. This is a much more mixed episode than we expected, due to some less than stellar experiences we had with the game. There are also some minor spoilers involving game mechanics and Alice's story, be warned. 

Pull up a blanket and your favorite hot drink. Jasmine and Eli go over some more cozy games to help us get through that gloomy winter feeling.

Jasmine and Eli discuss our top 5 games of all time. We chat a little about why we chose each one, some of the games that didn't make the cut, and some things we're looking forward to that have yet to be released. 

Today we talk about a fun, sexy Victorian business sim. We discuss the game mechanics of being the world's best ditzy capitalist, and agree that consent in horny video games is important and fun. 

Jasmine and Eli chat about a couple great examples of non-linear storytelling in games, and sort out what we do and do not think counts. We also take another jaunt back into talking about Bloodborne AND Max Gentleman. 

Today we chat about Remakes, Remasters, and Spiritual Successors, with a lil tangent about DLC at the end. Also we shit on the MCU for a bit.

Today Jasmine is very generous and lets Eli talk a lot about the Psychonauts franchise. Comparing a bit of both games, and discussing the changes between them. Major spoilers for both games, starting around the 8 minute mark. 

Today Eli takes a step back to let Jasmine and special guest Stacie discuss The World Ends With You and its sequel, Neo. Major spoilers warning for both games ahead!

"Perched at the very brink of oblivion..."

Jasmine and Eli go over Darkest Dungeon from Red Hook Studios. Spooky 2d adventure dungeon crawling, and shitting on Lovecraft all in one. 

Today Jasmine and Eli talk that little purple dragon from the 90s. We start in on a discussion of the Reignited trilogy, pros, cons, etc, and go over some of the other games we know him from. And also dunk on Eli for being bad at Crash Team Racing. 

Jasmine and Eli discuss farming sims, and take a couple of tangents onto farm life and fishing. What's your favorite farming sim?

We finally give Jasmine space to talk about the Sims series for 30+ minutes. We talk about the series from start to present, go over a little bit about video games lost to time, and get VERY excited about the New Pokemon Snap (since we recorded this over a year ago now)

Jasmine and Eli talk about cool spooky Victorian werewolves, punishing game mechanics, stunning level design, and hope sparked by little acts of human kindness in a terrifying wasteland. A lot happens in 40 minutes

Jasmine and Eli have a chat about what makes a minigame, and then what makes a minigame good. Do you have a favorite minigame?

Jasmine and Eli discuss the original N64 version of Pokemon Snap, and our memories associated with it. We also get into how excited and worried we are about the new game (even though it turns out most of our fears were pretty off base, whew!). Lets hop in and help Todd take some pictures of wild pokemon! 

Today Jasmine and Eli go way back and talk about Humongous Entertainment's library of games, with a focus on Putt Putt and Freddi Fish. We also get pretty heated about Pixar's portrayal of cars.

Jasmine and Eli discuss the non-main game Dragon Age content, including mobile games, comics, books, and games produced by studios outside of Bioware. 

In our third installment of Dragon Rage, Jasmine and Eli talk about Inquisition. A lot about the characters, and uh... something about a guy name Corypheus? Wild.

Today Jasmine and Eli talk about Dragon Age 2. The gameplay, the characters, the politics.... the characters. 

The start of our month long Dragon Age series! Jasmine and Eli talk about Dragon Age Origins, the first in the fantasy roleplaying game franchise. A lot of thoughts on characters, background, and a discussion on the writing's intersection with the gameplay. Finally living up to our grumble title. 

Jasmine and Eli pit Dissidia NT against Fallout 4 in the fun party game for grumps of Jasmine's own design. Which is the worst game, mathematically? Lets find out.

Today Jasmine and Eli discuss an old virtual pet game that is still online - Neopets! At the time of recording, Flash hadn't completely been phased out from major browsers, so some of our info might be a little off by the time this episode comes out.

It's just like... acoustic gaming, right? From tabletop RPGs to the classics like Monopoly and Risk, today Jasmine and Eli dive into board games. We talk about recent innovations that blur the line between video and board game, and discuss some of our favorite recent games that we've played. What's your favorite board game?

Serene ocean views, anthropomorphic animals, funky teas - Eastshade has it all. Jasmine and Eli discuss the first game by Eastshade Studios, an exploration rpg where you play as a painter on their way to memorialize your mother on the island of Eastshade. 

Just in time for all those after-holiday feasts, Jasmine and Eli talk about food in video games. We cover some of our favorites, as well as some of the best mechanics we've come across that include food in some way.

Today we talk about a topic close to both of our hosts' hearts - transgender characters in video games. We talk about the good, the bad, from missteps, to coding, to different interpretations of the same character. Who is your favorite trans character in video games?

Today we talk about the new(ish) game Hades! A hacky slashy game with a truly astounding amount of content, and a genuinely charming protagonist. 

Today Jasmine and Eli go over Klei Entertainment's Don't Starve game. A soft horror survival game with crafting mechanics and a cool actor who only eats meat. 

Today Jasmine and Eli take a moment to breathe and discuss some of our favorite cozy games that we're playing. Everything is awful, but at least Stardew Valley is here. 

Today we spotlight a game we both enjoy playing. Vertigo Gaming's Cook, Serve, Delicious! And the sequel, CSD!2

Today Jasmine and Eli talk about games that we like... but that we can also say we know have some pretty major flaws. 

Do you have a game you like playing, but feel kind of embarrassed if you get caught playing it? Let us know! We'd love to hear from you.

Today Eli and Jasmine talk about their favorite game genre to dunk on, horror games! We're covering weird indie titles, bemoaning our least favorite horror tropes, getting Resident Evil and Silent Hill confused (whoops!), and repeatedly gravitating back toward just talking about Bloodborne over and over again.

Content warnings on this on for discussions of gore, ableism, pregnancy, pandemics, spiders, Orientalism, and barnacles.

Today we reminisce about Eli's favorite GBA game, and Jasmine shows remarkable restraint when talking about Final Fantasy.

In our introductory episode we talk about the weirdest video game peripherals we can remember from the 90's onward.