We appreciate all the support! Just wanted to drop a quick update here to keep you aware of what's going on - you may have noticed that our schedule has fluctuated a little bit, soo we're taking a few weeks to get ahead of schedule. Check back soon, and thanks for bearing with us! Support Bastard Sword by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/bastard-sword

What if we killed some giant hulking beasts, but felt really bad about it? Shadow of the Colossus is an absolute all-timer, one of those lightning-in-a-bottle moments that can never be replaced or replicated. Even as we approach its 20th birthday, it stands as a high watermark for spectacle, atmosphere, and just overall game design. We were feeling a little too negative with our last episode, so we wanted to spend some time heaping praise on an absolute masterpiece. But wait, there's more!...

Liking videogames is a concept that's quickly aging out of relevance. Games, some would argue, are objects of gratification - things to relax with, to wring joy from, forces of pure good put here by smart and dedicated humans hoping to instill a little bit of happiness into the endless slog of human existence. This theory has long since proven antiquated beyond any usefulness, so this week, we posit an alternative: What if games are bad, actually? And what if you should feel bad for liking...

There was something disturbingly familiar about the episode before me. The description was all pretty fonts. "You are in a Podcast, Bastard Sword." The truth was a burning green crack through my brain. Listener analytics hanging in the air, glimpsed out of the corner of my eye. Endless repetition of the act of recording, time slowing down as I fumbled for the right words. The paranoid feel of someone editing my every sentence. I was in a podcast. Funny as hell, it was the most horrible...

We're in the anime mech battle zone, hell yeah. We both had some reservations coming into 13 Sentinels, which were promptly proven wrong because this is a total banger of a game. Part JRPG, part visual novel, part tactical mech strategy game, part brain-bending convoluted sci-fi time travel, all bizarrely compelling. It's good stuff! Support Bastard Sword by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/bastard-sword

If we honour our part of the vow, promise me you'll be my consort. We've finally finished our first playthroughs of Shadow of the Erdtree, and we have thoughts. A lot of thoughts, in fact! In this episode, we give a little bit of our general impressions and a lot of our impressions of the storylines and the (surprisingly huge) lore implications of what happens with Miquella, Leda, and, of course, our main man Igon. Thanks for listening and please be sure to let us know what you...

Sometimes games just don't make the impact they should have, either getting overlooked entirely or obtaining "cult classic" status. Those are what we talked about this week, a small selection of some of our favorite under-the-radar games. They're not underrated, mind you - everyone who has played these generally loves them - but they just don't get the attention we feel like they deserved. Drew talks about Hypnospace Outlaw, an awesome early internet simulator/detective game, and Spec Ops:...

Those stripped of the Grace of Gold shall all meet death, In the embrace of Messmer's flame. It finally happened! The new Elden Ring DLC has us so hyped we had to jump on a quick call to discuss it for a bit. We're both taking out time with the (full-game-sized) DLC but we already have some opinions we wanted to share, and started to scratch at a little bit of the lore and the theming. There will definitely be more coverage of this as we continue to push through and poke at the edges, so stay...

It's a festival... of games! In the summer! This week, we skim through some of the more exciting games shown off during the barrage of forwards, directs, and not-E3s over the past couple weeks (side note: this was recorded prior to the Nintendo direct so we didn't get to talk about that sweet, sweet Metroid Prime 4 action). Some of the highlights were the expected-but-still-pretty-neat Doom: The Dark Ages, the unexpected-and-very-neat Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and the Star Wars: Outlaws...

Ooooooooohhh Elden Ring. In the leadup to Shadow of the Erdtree, we decided to look back at every game in the Soulsborne series (and rank them from "worst" to best. It gets pretty contentious at times - this is like picking a least-favorite child to both of us, but unfortunately the content gods demand content so someone has to be sacrificed. We went with every FromSoft game from Demon Souls up through Elden Ring, with an obligatory Kings Field mention because we are handsome and smart and...

Katana Zero!? This week, we talk about the rumors about a totally speculative new Doom game that definitely hasn't been revealed since we recorded, we talk about Project Zomboid and the concept of "forever games," and we talk about Katana Zero, one of our favorite games of recent years, indie or otherwise. We also do some deep lore speculation and figure out how it could possibly share a universe with Animal Well, which seems exceedingly likely. Support Bastard Sword by contributing to their...

There was a podcast here. It's gone now. This week, we cover Sony's underwhelming 2024 State of Play presentation, Konami's perfectly whelming Silent Hill Transmission and extended gameplay look at the Silent Hill 2 Remake, and the upcoming indie survival horror game Holstin, which has a lot of heart and an equal amount of promise, even though it hasn't quite fulfilled it yet. Support Bastard Sword by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/bastard-sword

This week, Josh and Drew catch up on their ongoing podcast beef, discuss whether Assassin's Creed has GONE WOKE!? (no it hasn't what is wrong with you people), the necessity and justification of remakes, remasters & re-releases, and finally - Control, Remedy's big entry back into the third-person shooter spotlight (and one of the best games of the last decade). Support Bastard Sword by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/bastard-sword

Bonus episode! A purge without Grace or honour. The tyranny of Messmer's flame. We had to call an emergency meeting to throw out some speculation and theories on the new Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree story trailer! SPOILERS: It's really, really sick. Support Bastard Sword by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/bastard-sword

It's a well, and it's full of animals. What a concept! This week, Josh and Drew do a quick wrap up and chat about what they've been playing lately and what they're looking forward to, talk about the Switch 2 rumors (it's really happening this time! Maybe! I think!), and look at Black Myth Wukong, a very promising upcoming action adventure soulslike from a Chinese developer with some unfortunate work culture lineage. Finally, they talk about their experiences so far with Animal Well, an...

Episode Notes You're sure to be in a fine haze by now, but don't think too hard about this. This week, we have a brief digression to chat about Animal Well before diving into the bleak news of the gaming industry, including the PSN Helldivers 2 debacle and Microsoft's undignified shuttering of Arkane Lyon and Tango Gameworks. We do have a second-act reveal and lighten the mood a little by going deep on the unfathomable psychological horrors of the old ones in Bloodborne, one of the greatest...

Episode Notes This is a special bonus episode of Bastard Sword, whereing Josh gathers some... questionable reviews of the Metal Gear Solid (And Friends!) franchise and quizzes Drew on which game they're talking about. Somehow, a lot of these make even less sense than the games they're about. TRULY, A MASTERFUL GAMBIT, MR. INTERNET VIDEOGAME REVIEWER. Support Bastard Sword by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/bastard-sword

Episode Notes Metroidvania Madness!? Drew & Josh discuss the recently-announced Kingdom Come: Deliverance II which leads into a more broad discussion about the place of realism in gaming. Then, they chat about the shiny new Delta emulator on iOS, Josh gives some feedback on the full release of Stellar Blade, and they do a bit of a dive into the upcoming Elden Ring DLC: Shadow of the Erdtree. What do they want to see? What do they expect to see? How many poison swamps can be stuffed into a...

Episode Notes METAL GEAR!? This week on Bastard Sword, Josh and Drew dive into the dense world of Metal Gear and rank each game in the mainline series to determine, once and for all, which is the best (and worst!) game in Hideo Kojima's long-running (but now dead [question mark?]) tactical espionage saga. But first, they take a quick detour to talk a little about Dark Souls challenge runs, Marvel's Midnight Suns, and the ever-growing graphics arms race. Support Bastard Sword by contributing...

Episode Notes Death is only the beginning (of podcasting). So I guess we're doing this thing, huh? On this inaugural episode of Bastard Sword, Josh and Drew talk about some recent industry trends, including a post-mortem on the Palworld controversy from earlier in the year, how Stellar Blade is looking (and how the internet is reacting to it), and Ubisoft's... uh, "questionable" position on game ownership, as demonstrated by their recent statements and even-more-recent scuttling of The...

Welcome to Bastard Sword Welcome to the Bastard Sword Podcast, hosted by Josh Adams & Drew Edgar. This is a preview of our first episode coming soon, wherein we talk about Cultic, one of the best games from the recent wave of retro-FPS games (or boomer shooters, if you're feeling fancy).