Spider-Man (PS4)

Explicit content warning

11/30/18 • 163 min

[School of Everything Else 2018]

This turned out to be one of my favourite games of all time, and as you'll hear it pushed so many of my positive buttons that exceptionally good games released immediately after I finished just don't measure up, for a variety of reasons.

This was a commissioned show by Chris Finik. I wasn't going to do an episode about it because I was very aware it might become work and suck all the joy out of the experience, but I was able to hit the right balance and crucially I decided while I was halfway through rather than being set the daunting task of completing and assessing forty hours of gameplay without having played a moment.

There are strong arguments afoot that this is one of the finest depictions of the wall-crawler in any media. We talk about why, and save the spoilers for the last act (around two hours in and you'll get a fair warning so nothing will be made worse for you if you haven't played, only better).

Guest:

Jesse Ferguson of Recorded Tomorrow

[School of Everything Else 2018]

Guest:

Jesse Ferguson of Recorded Tomorrow

Previous Episode

Colossal

[School of Movies 2018]

Seoul, Korea is under attack by a blundering kaiju that causes chaos whenever it turns up. Meanwhile in the fictional dirthole town of Mainhead, New England a recently single, unemployed writer named Gloria returns home from New York to the place of her childhood, bringing along her alcoholism and destructive antisocial behaviour.

This is a quirky, blackly humorous little drama about human weakness and how difficult it can be to break terrible habits, especially when you hang out with the wrong people.

Next Week: Spider-Man PS4

Guest:

Hollywoo actress Maya Santandrea

Next Episode

Mary Poppins

[School of Movies 2018]

An accompaniment to our Disney shows, and perhaps Walt's greatest film. Not his greatest achievement, that was surely the pioneering of a feature-length animated film in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Not his greatest achievement, that arguably is the founding of an entertainment business that today has significant influence the world over. But his greatest single film experience... maybe.

Journey back with us to 1910, a bright and naive era, sandwiched between two ages of intense hardship. And meet a woman who claims to never be cross and proceeds to spend most of the movie thoroughly peeved, claims to be practically perfect in every way, yet gaslights children and manipulates them into ethical opposition to the prevailing patriarchy, and by all rights should be an insidious destructive force, but is in fact a wellspring of healing for a family that is considered by its father to be actually perfect in every way.

It's a triumph and a masterpiece and for the longest time, the author of its source book hated it for the same reasons a lot of people hate Disney.

Guests:

Kaoru Negisa @Moonpanther22 and

Debbie Morse @bastet8300 of Sequentially Yours

Mackenzie Easton @KenziePhoenix of Rainbow Connection @MuppetsPod