Tales from the Backlog

Sometimes I try to write clever little descriptions about the games on the show, but this week's game doesn't feel like it needs it.** Baldur's Gate 3*, by **Larian Studios, excels in just about everything it sets out to do. It has impressive writing, almost unparalleled choice-based storytelling, memorable characters, a deep and engaging combat system, and tons of immersive sim elements that make each playthrough really feel like your own. It's one of the best games I've ever played, and I was joined by returning guests **Jim Rodeman* and Chris Rettig to discuss it! TIMESTAMPS Intros/Personal Histories/Opening Thoughts 2:47 Story Setup/Characters 19:57 Choice-Based Storytelling/Quest Design 44:22 Visuals/Presentation/Music 59:05 Gameplay/Combat 1:12:41 Closing Thoughts/Recommendations 1:57:40 SPOILER SECTION IS IN ITS OWN EPISODE THIS TIME Charity Streaming Event: We are doing a charity streaming event from April 20th-28th 2024 to benefit Suicide Awareness Voices of Education in honor of a friend we lost. Please check out the stream schedule HERE and consider donating HERE. Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! Social Media: Instagram Twitter Facebook Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)! Support Tales from the Backlog

During the first few months after Baldur's Gate 3 released, I heard a similar refrain coming from my friends and people on social media- people would say something like "I normally don't play RPGs like this, but I love Baldur's Gate 3! Flash forward 6 months and now Baldur's Gate 3 has swept the major award shows and broken into the top 10 most-played list on Steam. How did a game from such a niche genre break into the mainstream? In order to answer this, I invited CRPG historian and writer/editor for The CRPG Book, Felipe Pepe, on to the show to talk about all of this. Topics discussed include: How he got into RPGs and why we love the genre The state and role of CRPGs through history, including discussions about Fallout, Ultima, Wizardry, Baldur's Gate, Pillars of Eternity, Morrowind, Arx Fatalis, Skyrim, Disco Elysium, Wasteland, The Gold Box Series, Shadowrun, Dragon Age, and many more games. Why Baldur's Gate 3 broke out in such a big way Recommendations for other CRPGs through history for new fans of the genre The CRPG Book project You can follow Felipe on Twitter, check out the free PDF version of The CRPG Book, or purchase a wonderful hardcover edition from Bitmap Books (all author's proceeds to go charity)! Check out Dave's guest appearance on the "Fun" and Games podcast, where we did an Xbox 360 retrospective! Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! Social Media: Instagram Twitter Facebook Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)! Support Tales from the Backlog

From the first time I saw a screenshot of The Case of the Golden Idol, by Color Gray Games, I was struck by these caricaturish portraits and knew I'd have to follow up on it someday. Then the comparisons to a favorite of mine, Return of the Obra Dinn, started rolling in and I knew I would have to play it sooner rather than later. And a big shoutout to community member Soccr for buying this for me in our Discord server Secret Santa! Yay! Joining me to discuss The Case of the Golden Idol is NinaStruggles, a streamer and YouTuber who plays all manner of games but has a particular love of puzzle and detective games! You can check her out by following this link! TIMESTAMPS Intros/Personal Histories/Opening Thoughts 1:51 Story Setup 9:51 Music/Visuals 18:15 Gameplay/Puzzles 28:25 Final Thoughts/Recommendations/Housekeeping 51:26 SPOILER WALL 57:50 Check out Dave's guest appearances on Left Behind Game Club and The Gaming Duo! Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! Social Media: Instagram Twitter Facebook Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)! Support Tales from the Backlog

Sunset Overdrive feels like a game that's been lost to time, doomed to a life of only being mentioned when a new game comes out that reminds people of it, despite being made by one of the industry's heavyweights (Insomniac Games) in the not so distant past. It's got a goofy tone, a bangin punk rock soundtrack, and an exquisite movement system that never gets old, but its mission design starts to wear thin long before the credits roll. Joining me to discuss Sunset Overdrive is streamer and YouTuber Goohi, and you can check out everything she is making by following this link! TIMESTAMPS Intro/Personal Histories/Opening Thoughts 1:37 Story Setup/Humor/Soundtrack 13:53 Gameplay/Movement 30:58 Gameplay/Combat 44:01 Closing Thoughts/Recommendations/Plugs 1:12:12 NO SPOILER SECTION Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! Social Media: Instagram Twitter Facebook Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)! Support Tales from the Backlog

SURPRISE! Balatro comes for us all. Developed by solo developer LocalThunk and published by Playstack, the poker-themed roguelike deckbuilder has singlehandedly caused productivity to drop by 7% worldwide since its 2024 release. Thank you to Playstack and LocalThunk for providing me with a review code so that I could become a statistic! Joining me to talk about the game, its strengths and weaknesses, our favorite strategies and beginner tips are Matt aka Stormageddon ("Fun" and Games, Reignite, Screen Snark podcasts) and Aaron Klaassen (SuperPod Saga). Check their shows out, they are worth your time! TIMESTAMPS Intros/Personal Histories/Opening Thoughts 1:43 SICKO SHOP TALK WALL 56:01 Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! Social Media: Instagram Twitter Facebook Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)! Support Tales from the Backlog

This is the PAX East 2024 retrospective and run-through of all of the games I played! Woooo! Games featured: Animal Well: The Art of Flight Duck Paradox Enter the Chronosphere Fallen Aces Fretless Lucid So to Speak Sorry, We're Closed Tape to Tape Throne of Bone YouTube VoD of the Nintendo DS panel I participated in! Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! Social Media: Instagram Twitter Facebook Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages Music composed by Bert Cole- find more music at [bitbybitsound.com](www.bitbybitsound.com) Patreon: patreon.com/bitbybitsound Twitter: @BitByBitSound Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)! Support Tales from the Backlog

Titanfall 2, developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by EA, is one of those unfortunate games that seems to be universally beloved, but apparently didn't sell well enough for them to continue the series. Instead, Respawn is stuck in the Apex Legends and Star Wars mines for the foreseeable future, and we're left to replay this wonderful campaign (and multiplayer for some) and wonder what might have been. Titanfall 2 lives up to the hype, folks! My guests for this episode are Adam Bucceri and Cory Revis, hosts of the Half Tone Takes podcast, which is a deep dive into one of the hosts' interests each episode. The conversations are fun and enriching, and the show is worth your time. Adam also designs video and tabletop games on his Itch.io page, and Cory makes a webcomic called Dawn of Time. Check out their work! TIMESTAMPS Intros/Personal Histories/Opening Thoughts 2:13 Story Setup 19:40 Gameplay/On-Foot Combat 28:41 Gameplay/Titan Combat 54:00 Visual/Audio Design 1:13:02 SPOILER WALL 1:32:04 INFO ABOUT MY PAX EAST PANEL HERE Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! Social Media: Instagram Twitter Facebook Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)! Support Tales from the Backlog

- Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! Social Media: Instagram Twitter Facebook Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)! Support Tales from the Backlog

How do you follow up a story that ends the way that Final Fantasy X did? Well, Square decided that Final Fantasy X-2 needed to shake things up. Most sequels escalate, but that wasn't really an option here, and so the girlpower J-Pop Final Fantasy game was born. This game gets a lot of hate out there, but not for the reasons that I think deserve it. Joining me to discuss Final Fantasy X-2 is Adam from The Good, The Bad & The Backlog. You can and should check out his show by following this link! TIMESTAMPS Intro/Personal Histories/Opening Thoughts 2:11 Story Setup 16:34 Gameplay/Combat 48:45 Gameplay, continued 1:20:36 Music 1:33:25 SPOILER WALL 1:47:26 Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! Social Media: Instagram Twitter Facebook Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)! Support Tales from the Backlog

In this discussion, Dave is joined by Chris Coplien (Retro Hangover podcast), Rick Firestone (Pixel Project Radio podcast) and Andre (Fine Time podcast) to discuss the challenges and our personal approaches to evaluating retro games. In this episode, we discuss our perspectives and some specific games like Rocket Knight Adventures, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Monkey Ball, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior and many more! Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! Social Media: Instagram Twitter Facebook Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)! Support Tales from the Backlog