QCF: Dragon's Dogma II

he ever-growing presence of video games in pop culture meant that it was only inevitable for it to be a hacky trope in television melodramas and sitcoms. And dammit all if the interpretation of gaming on the silver screen isn’t just some of the cringiest shit any time they’re presented, or in some bizarre instances, how people play them (Tony Soprano playing Mario Kart 64 with one-hand lives rent-free in my head.) Why the random contrast though you ask? Well, one of the more frequent genres used for the trope is the fantasy RPG, often for an MMO sort of deal that’s supposed to espouse some sort of moral about teamwork or the dangers of game addiction. It’s common to see the settings for these fictional games that’s used for the TV show plots have some of the most superficial presentations or gameplay mechanics ever seen in games, and I won’t make any bones about it—Dragon’s Dogma II from Capcom looks and plays like one of the most egregious parodies of this concept…

I mean, the notion isn’t entirely a negative thing—there are instances of moment-to-moment gameplay in which Dragon’s Dogma II delivers this sort of absurdity that you’d either hear from another kid spouting off tall tales on the playground from your youth or see in a TGIF sitcom with the most slapdash workshop of combat mechanics. The naked truth of Dragon’s Dogma II being an unabashed remake trying to disguise itself as a full-fledged sequel aside, the potential chaos that you can derive from the surprisingly deep combat and vocation system is where the game really shines, even if it is a glorified “do-over.”

It’s just too bad the game has no real-world or personality to compliment the kind of excitement the action offers. Aside from a few novel twists on the tired medieval setup, Dragon’s Dogma II delivers fewer peaks than valleys, made all the more worse by the world-building in between. Just because Skyrim isn’t crowding it’s release window, doesn’t mean there haven’t been several other titles in recent memory like Final Fantasy XVI or Elden Ring that have done the premise significantly better.

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PPR Presents The Golden Zonkies: Class Of 2022

ow that we’ve torn all of the pages off of our 2022 Bluey licensed Calendars, we’ve jumped ahead into a whole new January filled with work, fatigue, and the occasional video game or two set the vibe to 2023 with. While we’ve definitely had some negative things to say about the last couple of years—we took a few steps to help steady ourselves against the increase chaos in our civilian lives, and in the process, those small sabbaticals we did take as a team have really did a lot to refresh both our minds, and our souls.

We finally took a big step forward with some of the equipment we were able to obtain, and we’re hoping to bring y’all that promised regular video content that we’ve been teasing the last couple of years. In the meantime, a new year means a new class of Golden Zonkies to pass out, including the Press Pause Radio Golden Zonkey for Game of the Year! So without further ado, let’s get into the unofficial rules of our official awards:

In case y’all don’t remember the updated flow from the last couple of years, we have changed up our format and have done away with categories!  Now, bear in mind, we’re still giving our prestigious mark of excellence, a Golden Zonkey, to the games that are deserving of recognition, only, we’re not doing by a respective genre, or category. Instead, we will be giving them out in a personal list format by each of us in the podcast, and we’ll be spending time discussing why we picked the titles we did within a countdown of three.

 Normally we would have done a roundtable of games that were worth a quick mention from the year, but we decided to mention them in passing instead, along with some not-so-honorable-mentions (we also chose a few more not mentioned on the show to include in the post!) We will then award the “Golden Zonkey of The Year” in a unanimous vote that was similar to the previous format, and conclude the show from there.

Thanks again for listening to us gab on about our favorite time-wasters from last year. May we do what we can to capture both your ears AND eyes this on Press Pause Radio with all the neat shit we have in store—love ya! 

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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PPR 140

t’s pretty wild to see how many Video Game properties have been adapted for viewing over playing the last year or so. As James Marsden and Company ride the Box Office Success of “Rachel Adventure” (or Sonic The Hedgehog 2 for you Layman’s out there) we here at Press Pause Radio have been getting utterly swamped with our collective pile of games to play, and when we mean collective pile of games, we mainly mean whatever we can squeeze in between sessions of Elden Ring and Tunic.

While Elden Ring and Tunic DID command a lot of the conversation in this episode—George, Sean, and Andrew still had plenty of other games and news to talk about. In this episode of Press Pause Radio, we discussed the 2022 cancellation of E3, Animal Crossing New Horizons, Fish Plays Twitch, that thing that happened at the Oscars (sigh), Exile “Un-Worked Designs” Hack, Super Mario Sunburn, Miner 2049er, NORCO, Montezuma’s Revenge, Pac-Man, Kirby & The Forgotten Land, Ghostwire Tokyo, and so much more!

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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PPR 133

ell, against many odds, E3 came and managed to show off what’s in store for the next-generation of video games while contending with the ongoing challenges of a pandemic that’s still wreaking havoc on our everyday lives.

While it’s easy to dismiss what may have arguably been one of the more humble presentations we’ve had in years, especially with it being the first year of new Next-Generation hardware, the fact  that we got as much as we did with Covid-19 being a present danger is a blessing in and of itself.  Anyway, if there was one thing, this E3 did have a ton of; it was chock loaded with C H A O S.

Anyway, we here at Press Pause Radio got together to record our impressions of the show and see which of our predictions came true as we broke down most of the presentations by order of appearance of the week to discuss a number of the games that were shown. The games we showed off were Strangers of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, Rainbow Six Extraction, Forza Horizons 5, Breath of the Wild 2, Metal Slug Tactics, Lake, Spirit Swap, Mushihimesama for Switch, Metroid Dread, Warioware Get it Together, Elden Ring, Starfield, Halo Infinite, and so much more.

Sit back, download the show, and get ready to blame Chaos for everything bad that has ever happened, like ever.

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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PPR 132

t’s nice to feel like 2021 is on the road to normal, but the trip there is still a long haul—which means we’ll be looking at another digital-only E3 presentation as we continue to shelter-in-place. With one more week to go before everything officially gets underway, we here at Press Pause Radio decided to get into the speculation game with some good ol’ fashioned E3 2021 predictions!

Join George, Ed, Andrew, and Sean as they cover their obligatory thoughts towards the rumored Nintendo Switch Pro, Starfield, Elden Ring, Metroid Prime 4 Breath of the Wild 2, and what kind of game Final Fantasy XVI may end up being, if it’s even shown, and a ton off more gesticulation over the games that they KNOW will be there.

So be sure to check the batteries in your CO2 Detectors and Smoke Alarms then go download the new episode and roll around in the scuttlebutt with us!

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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