Episodes

  • The Utility of Contrarianism, with Barney Oram

    The Utility of Contrarianism, with Barney Oram
    Jan 28 2025
    ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 183. Barney Oram gets into different patterns of sound design, in all sorts of different roles and at all sorts of different scales—plus his love of film in general and Billy Wilder in particular, the durable ethos that “if it sounds good, it is good,” and his extensive experience recording loud sounds … Continue reading "The Utility of Contrarianism, with Barney Oram"
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  • If We Can’t Do This, Then What Are We Doing? with Rasheed Abueideh and Rami Ismail

    If We Can’t Do This, Then What Are We Doing? with Rasheed Abueideh and Rami Ismail
    Jan 6 2025
    ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 182. Rasheed Abueideh and Rami Ismail talk about Dreams on a Pillow. We talk about how the game combines layered, poetic audiovisuals and gameplay with history and folklore in order to create an account of the Nakba “that is so true to what happened that it is borderline-illegal to say it.” You … Continue reading "If We Can’t Do This, Then What Are We Doing? with Rasheed Abueideh and Rami Ismail"
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  • This Nightmare Will Never End! Hell Yeag! with Lilith Walther

    This Nightmare Will Never End! Hell Yeag! with Lilith Walther
    Apr 16 2024
    ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 181. Lilith Walther aetherboosts her way on over to talk about Nightmare Kart, its previously life as Bloodborne KART, its demake predecessor Bloodborne PSX, and the relationship between retro aesthetics, open development practices, and a general attitude of… YOLO? Nightmare Kart will be out for free on May 31.You can see more … Continue reading "This Nightmare Will Never End! Hell Yeag! with Lilith Walther"
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  • Dragon’s Dogma II, Chaos, and Dogs

    Dragon’s Dogma II, Chaos, and Dogs
    Apr 2 2024
    ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 180. Dragon’s Dogma II is full of inventive, quirky flourishes, meaningful frictions, and… shameless micro-transactions that capitalize on those exact quirks and frictions. We can, of course, get meaning and joy out of art that comes to us compromised. Which is good news, since most art, if not all art, comes to … Continue reading "Dragon’s Dogma II, Chaos, and Dogs"
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  • Helldivers II and Making Art about Fascism without Making Fascist Art

    Helldivers II and Making Art about Fascism without Making Fascist Art
    Mar 19 2024
    ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 179. Helldivers II is a wildly popular co-op shooter. It’s also extremely funny. It’s also very much about fascism, both in the sense that its satirical lens is aimed at fascist tendencies in moribund democracies, and in the sense that its core pleasures are… sort of fascist? The music makes you feel … Continue reading "Helldivers II and Making Art about Fascism without Making Fascist Art"
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  • Palworld: A Ludic Reading and a Luddite Reading

    Palworld: A Ludic Reading and a Luddite Reading
    Mar 5 2024
    ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 178. While the show was taking a break, Drew started putting together some essays on the growing list of recent recent surprise hits—games that, for whatever reason, have been doing vastly better than their developers or publishers had expected. 2024 does, so far, seem to have a sort of serial monogamy to … Continue reading "Palworld: A Ludic Reading and a Luddite Reading"
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  • Some of What We Played in 2023

    Some of What We Played in 2023
    Dec 26 2023
    ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 177. Lucio and Drew talk about some of the games they’ve enjoyed gaming at this year, from KarmaZoo, Pizza Tower, Wobbly Life, and The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, to Remnant II, Spider-Man 2, Street Fighter 6, Jedi: Survivor, Wo Long, and Tears of the Kingdom. Speaking of, spoilers for Remnant II … Continue reading "Some of What We Played in 2023"
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  • You Should Be Free, with Glen Henry and Chase Bethea

    You Should Be Free, with Glen Henry and Chase Bethea
    Dec 12 2023
    ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 176. Glen Henry and Chase Bethea drop achor awhile and talk about Sunken Stones, why pirates mean freedom, and why the Golden Age of Piracy was a lot more Caribbean than Pirates of the Caribbean would have you believe. Also, inevitably, One Piece. You can play the Sunken Stones demo on Itch.io, … Continue reading "You Should Be Free, with Glen Henry and Chase Bethea"
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    Less than 1 minute