Late to the Party: Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

ou know—some trends just don’t live past their 15 minutes of fame; Zombies? Played out, Vampires? Done to death, & Superheroes? We’re approaching terminal velocity on that can of worms soon, just give it some time. There are, however, some exceptions in Pop Culture that’ll just never NOT be rad as all hell, and one of those things is giant mech-suit robots.

Where mainstays of the genre like Gundam, Macross, and to some loose extent, Transformers have populated the public headspace in the genre, one particular property has commanded an underground yet dedicated peak of fandom in Video Games like no other IP specifically has—Armored Core.

Riding on the wave of new fandom that Dark Souls and Elden Ring have afforded them, FromSoftware unveiled the next entry in their long-dormant series that hasn’t seen a release in well over a decade with Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon and they’re giving it the red-carpet treatment to boot. This new release does ask an interesting question though; where its demanding twitchy-trigger gunplay carved out a modest niche of dedicated fans much like that of the “Soulsborne” series of games, those titles were able to steadily evolve and refine their gameplay hallmarks with the sort of resources that Armored Core has never had the privilege of receiving.

How exactly does Fires of Rubicon close such a long gap between releases without compromising the ardent quirks of its combat and difficulty? Well, it turns out that the answer is a lot easier than you’d think—Fires of Rubicon takes everything Armored Core V did and doubles down on it with all the technical performance the ninth generation of gaming hardware could afford the long-awaited sequel.

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PPR Presents Play Play: Dark Souls III

he Ringed City expansion just dropped for Dark Souls III, and it reminded us that we’re still hunting through the kingdom of Lothric for those tasty souls. Dark Souls III is considered to be the best of the best from Hidetaka Miyazaki, as it reinvents some of the familiar combat dynamics around the Blooborne engine in the framework of the Souls franchise into a sequel that still has players hooked on it to this day.

Andrew has made it no secret that he hates these types of games, but he said what the hell, and decided to pull up seat alongside Georgie, swinging around ancient blades against nightmare demons until they died—a lot.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

QCF: Dark Souls III

idetaka Miyazaki’s saga of “Souls” titles has left quite an impact upon the benchmark of action games, and the expectations held of its caliber—it’s almost inspired its own sort of sub-genre of gaming. With inspired contemporaries even garnering a modicum of success, it’s no wonder that Dark Souls III was announced so quickly, coming hot off the heels of From Software’s collaboration with Sony on the PS4 exclusive, Bloodborne.

Being as this is technically the fifth go-around, one has to think upon whether or not so many entries might potentially dilute the charm that make these games so exciting, and risk the danger of recycling familiar the same dynamics under a simple fresh coat of paint.

You’d be half right, but mostly wrong (don’t make me explain the math on that one, just read what I have to say) because while the familiarity of the venture is slightly fatiguing, the rush that the gameplay is famous for delivering is ever potent. Not to worry though; Dark Souls III has plenty of new features to really give this sequel the kick in you the ass that you wanted from it from the get go, and the adrenaline keeps freshness rolling from start to finish to boot.

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PPR Presents The Golden Zonkies: Class of 2015

f 2015 was anything for us, it was the year we all had difficulty with being punctual with our shit—definitely our busiest.

Still, we enjoyed it more than we’ve lead on, and a lot of that had to do with the batch of games that were released last year; we got everything from anticipated blockbusters, to surprise smash hits that we’re STILL talking about.

Which leads us to our annual special from, Press Pause Radio—The Golden Zonkies. We’ve recorded a special mega cast where we give our prestigious mark of excellence, a Golden Zonkey, to the game deserving of recognition towards that respective recognition.

Everything from games to events that saw the light of day in 2015, across fourteen different categories, and we have that very list for you here now. We’ll be plowing through a incredible catalog of choices, debating with one another from beginning to end in this epic podcast, each voicing our vote for the winner of its corresponding category.

The only stipulation in the Golden Zonkies, is that any point, a wild card can be suggested by one of the hosts if majority vote dictates that another nomination is more deserving of the award instead of the choices presently casted.

So without further ado, kick up your feet, and saddle in (because this is a long one) and enjoy the show!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

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QCF: Bloodborne

ow that the skill and challenge of video games has caught a second wind, the waves of difficult games have been coming out of the woodwork from both the western, and eastern hemispheres of the world. The thrill of ever stacking odds working against your favor is slowly growing into insatiable sensation that’s winning over the free time and attention of those who fall victim to it’s addictive, yet punishing taste.

A relatively new property to have come out of the last generation of video games by FROM Software is credited with pioneering the resurgence of mercilessly challenging gameplay design we’ve seen on the modern scene with their “Souls” franchise.

While still relatively niche on the whole, Sony’s involvement with the developer may have changed the game with the latest title from the mold, Bloodborne; a celebration of everything that makes the cult-style of action game so intimidating, and so appealing all at once.

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PPR 94

f there ever was a constant that we’ve seen within the world of video games is that it’s forever caught in a rat race of progression; constantly trying to outdo whatever was done before it.

And in some cases; redoing something we’ve seen all over again with a new coat of polish—actually, it’s safe to say that we’ve seen this, in a LOT of cases…

Join us here at PPR as we discuss the torrent of titles that have gotten a high definition facelift in the recent years, sometime re-releasing multiple times. Is it too much? Is this yet another sign of games facing a creative bankruptcy? Maybe, or maybe not, you won’t really know what we think until you listen to the episode, dummy.

In addition, we converse about a crap-load of games, Destiny, FFXIV: A Realm Reborn, Axiom Verge, Hotline Miami 2, Bloodborne, and more; and then there’s a bunch of childhood reminiscing over how terrible we all were as kids—what are you waiting for? Start listening!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

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