PPR 154

ew year, same tardy nonsense—we recorded a few weeks ago, but life and technical issues got in the way of the production process, and for that, we sincerely apologize to y’all.

Before we get into the Golden Zonkies’ class of 2024, however, we wanted to have an old-school “PPR-ass PPR” round robin on a featured topic, and what better subject than the art and science behind video game box art?

Join George, Ed, and Andrew as they discuss the history, culture, and legacy of box art, such as the ever-changing motifs of design and the artists who famously brought them to life on shelves like George Opperman, Greg Martin, Bob Wakelin, Yoshitaka Amano, Tom DuBois, Ken Sugimori, Yoji Shinkawa, and more. Hell, have you ever thought about what the box of your favorite video game may have looked like in a different country? Raccoon Mario soaring against a yellow backdrop may be a Mount Rushmore type of pastiche here, but in Japan, the giant ensemble piece of characters against a teal palate is what tickles the nostalgia bone in that corner of the world, and that’s so weirdly fascinating don’t you think?

Every year that passes is another year closer to a fully digital media landscape, and while that can have huge ramifications on the preservation of software, something as innocuous as box art can sometimes be the little dumb thing that makes physical media truly that much more special. We hope you enjoy the latest episode of Press Pause Radio—and don’t forget to check out the next one, because we’ll be doing the Golden Zonkies for 2024 next!

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 146

here are some events that we’ve come expect with the certainty of a season change. Whether it’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, The Super Bowl, or The Oscars—these annual institutions have operated for most of our natural-born lives, and won’t go anywhere anytime soon. The Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3 for short, used to be one of those long-standing institutions, but has recently seen come rough days the couple of years, and has decidedly skipped out on 2023 altogether.

While writing has been on the wall, the language that E3’s parent company, ESA, has used over the future of the showcase is a little too ambiguous for comfort, and it’s likely that we may not see the event come back in the near future, or ever. Despite it going out with more of a whimper than a bang, there have been a ton of memorable years in Video Gaming where the event hosted some truly historical announcements, cementing moments that still occupy our headspaces to this very day, and we’re going to spend this episode talking about that, and so much more.

Join Andrew and George as they take you on a Post-Mortem of what George called the “Met Gala” of the Video Games Industry as they discuss the up’s and down’s of the yearly trade-show, and all of the notable footnotes it’s had in its run, bizarre pageantry and all.

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 Games Club: The Last of Us Part II

ere at Press Pause Radio, we make it a point to ask the hard-hitting questions that no one else will, like if there were only 3 food trucks in the world, and they were operated by the Seraphites, Washington Liberation Front, or the Fireflies, which one would risk life-and-limb to eat burritos from?

It’s been over four years since we’ve done a Games Club episode on the cast, which has honestly been four years too long; Naughty Dog has finally released the epic sequel to their 2013 masterpiece, The Last of Us Part II, and it was an experience that was begging for a Games Club to be done.

The conversation at hand is no easy one to be had though, so we invited our friends Liana and Matt Ruppert of Don’t Feed the Gamers and Prima Games to join the episode as we talk about what we bare it all on this emotional roller coaster of a game.

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 116

019 sure is weird—we all knew that E3’s role in the industry has been dwindling by the year, but I don’t think any of us would have imagined how different the content was going to be now that both Sony, and Nintendo have bowed out of the expo this year.

Still, there’s plenty of scuttlebutt to get excited for, & we’ve got some predictions/news here in this episode for you guys to get excited over. While some of those rumors have already been confirmed during the production of this episode, there are plenty of other bits to discuss, like a new DarkStalkers, some Stadia exclusives, a Switch hardware revision, some proper Nintendo VR, additional details on the new Playdate console unveiled in late May, and so much more.

Join us as we take the chance to talk about E3 predictions, Canada’s exclusive television and cuisine, and many other details here in the latest episode of Press Pause Radio!

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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PAX Prime 2013: The PlayStation Jubilation

ovember 15^th is fast approaching folks. Soon, the final cornerstones to the new market of hardware will arrive and with the PS4 having a head start and the flock new titles hitting the Vita—I figure I’d give a rundown of the games I played available at the Sony booth on the PAX Prime 2013 show floor that’ll be out for the buying come launch.

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PPR 71

an, a game with a floating disembodied old man head has our early vote for the next Game of The Year folks! You heard it here first! Oh and Sony did show off their latest console to help usher in the next generation for video games, the PlayStation 4. Among the talk we’ve got some emails with some late confessions, thoughts towards Aliens: Colonial Marines, and we share our condolences for our favorite game enthusiast/journalism and media website on the internet-1UP.com. Jeremy Parish and company continued the legacy after so many have left and we indulge on why 1UP was so important to all of us. Rate and subscribe to us iTunes today and be sure to stop by at our Forums and register as well!

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Press Pause Radio presents: Playstation Event 2013 Live Blog

QCF: Playstation All Stars Battle Royale

ince it’s unveiling earlier this year, Playstation All Stars Battle Royale has constantly received comparisons to another system exclusive fighting game. All throughout this year, I was one of those people commenting on the similarities and how Sony and Superbot Entertainment were simply capitalizing on a formula that has been proven to work. I am very happy to report that after many hours of playing across the single player and multiplayer modes, the final product does not just compare to the other mascot brawler on the market, it does even better and in doing so exceeds my lofty expectations.

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