Monthly Archives

December 2017

020: Virginia

By | PODCAST | One Comment

We “press to X to take a trip” in Virginia.

Developer: Variable State | Publisher: 505 Games | Release Date: September 22, 2016

Jacob, Mike and special guest Jarrett McCourt talk about the grandest little town in Virginia, skip the stairs with jump cuts and look into mirrors at ourselves very deeply. “You need to have some life experiences, Jacob.” Our first episode of 2018 launches on January 10th and we are playing Guacamelee!

You can now e-mail us your questions! Send questions about past episodes or questions about us to questions@leftbehindgame.club!

Players: Jacob McCourt (@JacobMcCourt) and Michael Ruffolo (@ruffolom)

Special Guest: Jarrett McCourt (Instagram @jarrettmccourt & @jmccourtphotography)

Website: LeftBehindGame.Club | Twitter: @LeftBehindClub

Show Notes (spoilers):

  • 1:29 Special Guest Jarrett McCourt introduces himself
  • 4:23 We introduce Virginia
  • 6:00 A little bit about Variable State
  • 6:35 Mike, Jacob and our music expert, Jarrett start on the soundtrack
  • 11:57 “I see this game as more of a piece of art”
  • 12:48 This game as a movie
  • 13:55 Past experience with the game
  • 15:30 The story begins
  • 16:43 “Did you find that the jump cuts were jarring?”
  • 17:56 The look of the game
  • 20:25 Cord McCarren and the X-Files
  • 22:38 Meeting Maria Halperin
  • 24:30 Spoilers start here
  • 24:46 Flipping on your partners
  • 26:10 Jacob comments about the back third of the game
  • 27:38 Jacob gets an education about stamps and “stamps”
  • 29:01 Getting to Kingdom, VA
  • 30:58 The cardinal and the game’s symbolism
  • 34:00 Bull vs. Bison vs. Buffalo
  • 36:50 Is this whole game a trip?
  • 38:23 Jarrett brings up Warhol and the tuba
  • 40:07 What is Virginia’s intention?
  • 43:21 The gas station scene
  • 46:16 The cult thing
  • 48:14 Sojourner’s Truth
  • 49:00 Jacob compares the music to the Super Mario 64 Water Theme (with proof)
  • 50:22 Waking up in Maria’s house
  • 52:03 The game unfurls
  • 53:39 Jacob’s best video game sequence of the 2010s…
  • 56:27 …then you take the drugs
  • 57:40 A hospital bedside, a shoe box and a key
  • 1:01:22 Aliens.
  • 1:02:10 The pastor
  • 1:05:08 Closing thoughts about the game

019: To The Moon

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We explore our darkest dreams in To The Moon.

Developer: Freebird Games | Publisher: Freebird Games, X.D. Network Inc. | Release Date: November 1, 2011

Jacob, Moe and Mike travel in time, play for River and sit together in a movie theatre. Oh yeah… and Jacob cries. “I am a soft boy and I cried my eyes out.” Our last episode of 2017 launches on December 27th and we are playing Virginia.

You can now e-mail us your questions! Send questions about past episodes or questions about us to questions@leftbehindgame.club!

Players: Jacob McCourt (@JacobMcCourt), Michael Ruffolo (@ruffolom) and Moe Murtadi (@mmurtadi)

Website: LeftBehindGame.Club | Twitter: @LeftBehindClub

Show Notes (spoilers):

  • 1:59 Moe tries to explain To The Moon
  • 3:50 “Moe’s gonna hate this”
  • 4:47 Mike tries to explain To The Moon
  • 5:52 How did we play the game?
  • 6:40 What was you first impression?
  • 9:32 The “Dragon Ball Z” moment
  • 11:30 The game’s written dialogue
  • 13:22 The “puzzle”
  • 14:45 Entering the first memory
  • 15:20 The first mention of the music
  • 17:00 Character movement (aka the controls)
  • 19:25 The next few memories (up to “take care of Anya”)
  • 23:05 Did Moe think that River was a serial killer?
  • 24:43 The “movie theatre scene”
  • 25:45 The “NASA pitch”
  • 27:42 Comparing To The Moon to Dragon Ball Z again
  • 29:25 The “lighthouse dance”
  • 31:07 The issue with Johnny’s memory
  • 33:58 A mother’s mistake
  • 36:00 We go to the carnival and compare whack-a-mole scores
  • 36:43 Star-gazing
  • 37:50 “Can you see the constellation?”
  • 39:24 Emotional. Devastation.
  • 42:42 How are we going alter his memory?
  • 44:18 Rosalene vs. Watts
  • 47:20 Moe gets to shoot things
  • 48:42 Comparing To The Moon to romantic comedies
  • 51:35 The final sequence
  • 53:23 Jacob loses it… and then comes back
  • 54:25 The after-credits scene
  • 55:55 To The Moon 2: Finding Paradise + closing thoughts