My Favourite Game - My Favourite Game: A special look back at the Metal Gear series

My Favourite Game: A special look back at the Metal Gear series

Explicit content warning

09/01/15 • 60 min

My Favourite Game

There’s only room for one Boss and one Snake.

Previous Episode

My Favourite Game: The Best of Season 2

My Favourite Game Season 2 was fun. After the show’s first season in where it was all fellow writers and personalities, saw the introduction of game developers from the season onwards. The season ended back in May, but there’s still one last episode to get through before we can start to look ahead to Season 3 later this year.

The Best of Season 2 takes a look back at some of the best bits of Season 2 as well as bits that unfortunately made the cutting room floor but now reappear here in this special, lasting over an hour-and-a-half.

Before that, I want to take the time to point out, as I did during the Best of Season One special, the three episodes that eptimised what My Favourite Game is about – sharing stories of playing games, the personal meaning and attachment to them and just talking of our love for them. All ten episodes are all great, but these three are my personal picks if someone held a gun to my head and asked me to name the three episodes that showed what My Favourite Game was about.

The first one is without question the most personal episode of My Favourite Game done in the short time its been going on. Julie Horup on The Binding of Issac on how games were part of her upbringing and various parallels between it and the game, how any particular game can help you through the most challenging of times in life and how they can be an outlet for someone making a game, like Ed McMillen with Issac.

The second being Ria Jenkins on Bayonetta. Putting aside the fact that there was a fun chat had with Ria on all things Bayonetta, there was a related chat in the episode on sex in games I felt was excellent and one not talked about a lot too much, at least on a games podcast. There’s a part of it I had to cut due to time restrictions from the episode, but it’s been added back in for this. There’s more details below.

Finally, Splash Damage’s Ed Stern on Half-Life and just the sheer amount of detail he went into in regards to that game, not to mention the inspiration its had on him in making games at the London-based studio.

[Special mention too to Molly Carroll’s episode on The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask just for how fun it was]

Next Episode

Season 3 Premiere – The Sims 2, by Jordan Erica Webber

Hello. Do not adjust your sets. My Favourite Game is back at last. Hooray! And it’s our first birthday! Double hooray!

It’ll be a year tomorrow (technically, 52 Wednesdays ago, but whatevs) when My Favourite Game first began with The Curse of Monkey Island. A year later, My Favourite Game has gone from a pet project to become a big part of my work. As already written about, we’re also up for the Best Independent Podcast at the Games Media Awards next week. Fingers crossed, eh. But we’re not here to talk about that. We’re back and back in a big way with Season 3. But before that, I just want to say thanks to everyone who’s listened to the show, who’s come on to the show and said all the kind things about the show in the past year. Thanks for your awesome support, it really means a lot.

Anyway, we return with a game – or rather, a series – that I felt I’d be out of my depth trying to talk about. Certainly when I’ve not had a great deal of experience in said series since The Sims 3 on Xbox 360, and even then, that was an hour or two (though I did play a ton of The Sims on PS2 in my youth). Thankfully, when you have an expert on The Sims like freelance writer Jordan Erica Webber, who is easily the most qualified person in the world to talk about The Sims than you or I (like so and like so), you’ll be fine. Because gosh golly, she sure knows a lot about The Sims.

I had to force her to pick a particular game in the series, so she picked The Sims 2. But it’s worth bearing in mind that most of what we talk about regarding The Sims 2 can be applied to the rest of the series as well.

In the Season Premiere of Season 3, Jordan also talks of her start playing games, how Spore reminds her of Gran Turismo (seriously) and how she ended up missing an entire console generation before one game (hint: it’s a game we’re actually gonna have as an episode on later in the series – here’s an additional clue) brought her back in. Oh, and how she more or less invented The Sims before Will Wright did. I still maintain she should have sued for all the money in the world for it.

You can listen to the first episode of My Favourite Game’s third season below.