I think, to compensate, we may open Season 8 (which starts next week) with a couple of Co-op Mode episodes to give us more of a chance to get back on schedule, and then try to make up for that with some big belter specials to close the year on. I have a couple of really good specials already planned in my head, and I think they’ll be worth the delays we’re going through at the moment.

I’ve changed the ETA for this week’s show to Wednesday 18th, but honestly I’m not going to make any promises about that. Once it does go up, I think we’ll be putting up a couple of blog posts after it, and then hopefully we can get back on schedule by the end of the month. Thanks to you for your patience, and hope you’re having a better November than we are.

UPDATE: Glad I didn’t make any promises. Given our currently ridiculously busy schedules, we’ve decided the best thing to do is post Episode 30 on Monday 23rd, and then post a Co-op Mode on Monday 30th. We’ll announce the Season 8 schedule the following Monday. Again, apologies for the delays and another week without the show - we’re hoping that pushing things back a week will give us a chance to get back on schedule and concentrate on all the other things in our lives for a short while.

Axel & Pixel has the right ingredients. It’s an indie game released on the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace, a platform which helped Braid achieve commercial and critical success. Like the mind-bending Braid, it has an unusual take on a gaming staple, in its case the point-and-click genre. Like And Yet it Moves - another great indie game we’ve talked about - it features a quirky, endearing art style that draws you in immediately. So why hasn’t this unique, interesting downloadable title caught on with the masses?

The point-and-click adventure has enjoyed a revival in the capable hands of Telltale Games. Sam & Max, Tales of Monkey Island and Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People received critical acclaim and were rated by both old and news fans alike. These games are loved for their humor, but their broad appeal stems from their simplified yet enjoyable puzzles.

Gone are the illogical, convoluted and cruel puzzles of yore that made you work for your treasure in the old Monkey Island games. Telltale’s puzzles are much simpler, with solutions that aren’t quite obvious, but certainly not difficult to find. There’s also concession through well-designed hint mechanics. Telltale’s range of point-and-click adventures is the best example of gaming changing to accommodate its ever-broadening audience.   

But when is simplification oversimplification? Maybe Axel & Pixel answers that question. Rather than asking you to solve its puzzles by working out which object to use on what (the point-and-click staple), it distils the genre to its core: to solve its puzzles, you simply point and click on things.

Clickable objects glow yellow and rumble your controller. Clicking on them triggers an animation, like Axel climbing up a ladder or Pixel running through a pipe. The gameplay stems from clicking things in the right order. For example, to progress over a bridge you have to clear all obstacles. Clearing these obstacles is either done by clicking on them or clicking on something or a set of things that eventually lead to their removal. It’s that simple.

Does it work? That depends on how attached you are to the world and its characters. I’ve talked about my disdain for Prince of Persia’s unchallenging gameplay on my own blog, but for many players its colorful world and impressionable characters were more than enough to keep them interested beyond its quick time event-like platforming. Many games have forgone challenge for a cohesive, hassle-free experience, so clearly oversimplification can work.

It’s not surprising, then, that there’s a wide range of critical standpoints out there on Axel & Pixel. So why doesn’t it have the broad appeal of a Prince of Persia?

Maybe its characters could have done with more grace; the human and dog partnership of Axel and Pixel never quite charms like the dog and rabbit partnership of Sam and Max, with the developer’s choice to limit dialogue to incoherent mumbles and barks arguably inadvisable. Nor is there much in the disconnected story; Axel and Pixel are wandering through Axel’s dream world, and this too is simplified to solely allowing for the weird and wonderful.

But it’s the weird and the wonderful that the game does best. The worlds and puzzles that you encounter and play through are enchanting. Giant ice caves, bizarre monsters, a variety of unusual critters and so much vibrancy and color help keep you engaged despite the lack of challenge. Most of this is achieved through the hand drawn animations that are superimposed over the cutout backgrounds. Charm can cover up a lot of the cracks.

Sadly, it’s all a bit superficial and unessential, a bit like a fast food meal; a quick burst of tasty fluff that fills you up, but not truly satisfying. And this is the problem XBLA games like Axel & Pixel are going to keep facing: there’s so much choice on that platform that if something isn’t truly satisfying it might get lost amongst the masses, and that would be a shame.

Every now and then, a game will catch you so off guard that you won’t know what to make of it. To that effect, Darkest of Days is one of the most bewildering first-person shooter experiences that I’ve ever had. The plot setup is ace, with a soldier from Custer’s last stand being zapped into the future because he’s the only one that can stop a group of time-dicks from killing key historical figures. While the lack of Rufus is unsettling, the rampant paradoxes that I aimed to cause filled my mind with happy. All that I could think about was assaulting Civil War Confederates with rocket launcher-equipped dinosaurs and driving my flying supercar through the barracks of a Nazi training camp. Of course, Darkest of Days doesn’t let you do any of that, nor does it offer anything remotely entertaining, leaving you with game that packs the fervor and intensity normally reserved for a Sunday afternoon war reenactment.

Check out the audio review below, or hit the jump for the full text review.

Darkest of Days kicks things off with a bang, as the title screen (shown above) gives you a great indication of the barebones mediocrity that you’re about to encounter. Blasting through the first few levels yielded more surprises, as DoD takes itself way too damn seriously. For some reason, the future-dwellers forbid you from taking any of their cool weapons back in time, forcing you to deal with single-bullet rifles and ancient pistols for most of the campaign. These firearms are neither fun nor interesting, and can be wildly inaccurate at times when they really shouldn’t be. Sure, you get a few cool beam guns later on, but I doubt that many of you will actually make it that far.

This is because nearly every level in the surprisingly lengthy campaign is basically identical. The objectives run the gamut from “kill these guys” to “protect these guys,” with the eventual goal being to “get back to the time portal!” In short, every level looks like a different side of the same hill. You’ll find that the historical details implemented for war buffs (the game lets you travel to World Wars I & 2 and the Civil War, among others) will be largely ignored when all that you ever see is grass, trees, soldiers, and more grass. To be fair, there are several different types of grass.

It has been claimed that the Darkest of Days engine can handle 300 enemies onscreen at the same time, but all that these massive conflicts seem to guarantee is a flip-book framerate. Enemy soldiers tend to stand around stupidly, as I caught them intermingling with my ally troops several times without a shot being exchanged. No, they weren’t being stealthy. I also got to watch my fellow soldiers stand at the bottom of a lake once, staring at me as if I was the weird one.

What’s most astounding about Darkest of Days is that it does absolutely nothing with its solid premise: no scripted events, no big moments, no memorable scenes, no real story aside from some hilariously spoken dialogue, and shooting that would put you to sleep if not for the vibration of your Xbox 360 controller. Everything is just so mediocre, and each level—regardless of the time period—just feels like more of the same. Protip: I eventually resorted to sprinting full speed to the end of each level, as I realized that you can complete them without killing anything. The more you know.

To be fair, things pick up a bit near the end, as they finally throw some energy weapons your way, the scale of each battle goes through the (admittedly low) ceiling, and some different environments (including a Nazi concentration camp and a weird time temple thing) begin to pop up. Unfortunately, your will to game is long gone by that point, and the lack of any type of multiplayer ensures that there isn’t much lasting value to it. Unless you really dug History Channel Civil War or are desperate to spend your next eight hours in a state of depressed misery, timewarp as far away from Darkest of Days as you can.

Sorry guys, but I’m afraid there isn’t going to be a Big Red Potion episode this week - you’ll have to find your aimless, video game-related rambling somewhere else until next Monday.

Last week’s BRP went up on Friday rather than the usual Monday, and this was because Joe had to step in to do the editing in the midst of a very busy week for him (the main show edit is usually my job). Also, we didn’t do the planned Co-op Mode show this week, either. Why? Well, both were caused by my being diagnosed with shingles on Monday, something which had been giving me searing pain across my abdomen for the whole of that day. 

Without going into gory details, shingles is the adult version of chicken pox. It can be serious, but thankfully in my case it’s just a latent version of the childhood virus that had been hanging around in one of my nerve roots, and has now been reactivated. While not as serious, it’s still been bloody painful, and is only starting to heal up a week later, but sadly the symptoms could take some time to go away.  

In any case, the bastard virus meant I obviously couldn’t make the show, and from there we decided, given the overall circumstances, that we wouldn’t be able to go ahead with the main show on Sunday. The topic, which was the relationship between a player’s sexuality and the player character’s sexuality, was a really interesting one and we had great guests lined up too so it will definitely be rescheduled for the upcoming season. Nonetheless, we do apologize for there being no show this week.

Having said that, I do think Joe and I are entitled to a week off. Since Big Red Potion started we haven’t had one week without a show, and that’s not a bad run for over half a year. That doesn’t mean I’m not upset about or sorry for not being able to get a show out his week, but hopefully I’ll be in a good enough state for next week’s show, and if not the show will still go ahead, so there will definitely be some BRP for you to enjoy this time next week. Either way, look out for blog posts from both Joe and myself this week, and keep off the streets at night. And don’t, whatever you do, get shingles - trust me.

With the release of the latest GTA episode, Sinan & Joe have lassoed the Digital Cowboys, Alex Shaw and Tony Atkins, onto the show to discuss The Ballad of Gay Tony, the maturity of the Grand Theft Auto series, and how the media continues to point at Rockstar’s epic as the cause of all of humanity’s problems.

The Regulars

Big Red Potion: http://bigredpotion.com
TheGameReviews: http://thegamereviews.com
Unified Gamers Network: http://unifiedgamersnetwork.com
Sinan’s blog, You Have Lost!: http://shoinan.com
Joe’s blog, Pixelated-Glee: http://pixelatedglee.wordpress.com

Guest Links

The Digital Cowboys: http://thedigitalcowboys.com/

As Halloween approaches, there’s a real horror show of a Big Red Potion waiting for your listening enjoyment. Joe and Sinan welcome back regular podcast monster Eddie Inzauto, and Eddie’s brought along his GamerNode pal Jason Fanelli to talk horror games. Specifically, this week’s show takes a look at a quote from Joystiq’s Ludwig Kietzmann on the visceral appeal of survival horror games, which he argues makes them stand out from the crowd. Yes, Joe finally gets to talk some Silent Hill up and up, but look out for Animal Crossing making an appearance as well. No, really.

The Regulars

Big Red Potion: http://bigredpotion.com
TheGameReviews: http://thegamereviews.com
Unified Gamers Network: http://unifiedgamersnetwork.com
Sinan’s blog, You Have Lost!: http://shoinan.com
Joe’s blog, Pixelated-Glee: http://pixelatedglee.wordpress.com

Guest Links

GamerNode: http://gamernode.com
Eddie on Twitter: http://twitter.com/EddieInzauto

Since I was unable to join Joe, Jeff and Xan on last week’s fine episode of Big Red Potion which was all about Uncharted 2, I thought I would share a few, can’t-sleep-and-it’s-now-early-morning-already thoughts. Hope you enjoy.

Is there such a thing as too much action in an action game? In Uncharted 2: Among Thieves there’s a lot of it going around. It seems like every other jump will likely feature footing being lost or a desperate ledge-haul. Nothing is stable, nothing is secure, everything can and will happen. But is it overkill? We know roguish protagonist Nathan Drake is going to be in Uncharted 3, so does that demean the endless tirade of miniature cut scenes of him clinging on for supposedly dear life?

Uncharted 2 just about keeps its action-heavy narrative from feeling like overkill. At times, the impact of a shaky ledge or a difficult jump gets lost amongst many other similar moments. But, at its best, these moments are engrossing and spectacular. Tellingly, the best moments feature in the larger set pieces, and it’s in these that the game shines brightest.

Uncharted 2’s opening sequence, in which Drake scales a train carriage dangling off a snowy cliff, is nothing short of brilliant. It plays into action movie staples by throwing the player straight into the shit with little to no explanation. Why? Who cares, we’ll get to that later - just get out of this disaster, you big hero you. And, like with the original, these action movie staples help to define Uncharted 2. It’s not incredibly intelligent, it is very predictable, but it is also expertly delivered.

Its excellent delivery is largely thanks to those mini cut scenes, because they suddenly remove player control without warning. I can understand why some feel, whether it’s Drake getting slammed across said cabin, or a railing coming off its hinges and threatening to release him to his doom, that these brief detached action sequences are cheap, on-rails fare (no pun intended). I think they serve to stress the importance of getting a move on when the player is in control. Of course, players don’t actually have to get a move on because the game generally accommodates for those who like to take things slower. But it makes me feel like that’s the case, which is key. In the larger set pieces, these mini cut scenes are paced nicely, generally feeling more appropriate than in more subdued platforming moments.

Clearly Naughty Dog wants the player to feel like something is going on at all times. Even a brief stroll in a quiet village is filled with things to see, people to interact with. Often Drake is joined by a companion, and there are few moments when banter isn’t being exchanged. Again, the quantity of said banter is toeing the line between brilliant and overkill. I would’ve preferred some of the exchanges to be deeper, as most are funny but definitely shallow. Criminally, most miss the potential for background exposition. But the delivery is strong, and convincing, particularly between Drake and lead female Chloe. While Chloe is actually a cliche character in many respects, her voice actress Claudia Black does a great job of making her feel grounded and endearing despite her flaws. The best example of this is in one of the most golden of moments: Drake jumps into a rooftop swimming pool, and then initiates a cheesy but amusing game of Marco Polo, playing on the pair’s main quest to delve into the famous explorer’s history. Her restrained amusement at Drake’s horsing around briefly and subtly breaks her facade as a gritty, dark sexpot, and hints much more effectively at the pair’s rapport than the wealth of innuendo they exchange.

It’s unfortunate that the script plays too much on her sex appeal, probably there because Naughty Dog want to emphasize Uncharted’s status as a mature video game. In reality, most of the maturity is merely foreplay, literally or otherwise. There’s more to explain than is explained in the game’s plot, more to delve into, and far more to not shy away from, and it’s obvious that Uncharted 2 wants to go a bit further down some of these avenues than it ends up going. I’m not quite sure that its steering clear of these avenues is regrettable. I think it could have gone deeper, without having to rise too far above its station as a lowbrow action game, but I’m not sure it needed to either.

What’s curious is that some people seem to have forgotten how cheesy, indeed how derivative of action movies the first game was, with particular reference to the Indiana Jones series. The second game is no different, except that maybe any facade of subtlety has been removed. Maybe Uncharted 2 is best thought of as the great Indy game that seemingly isn’t going to feature again under the Indy name. It’s far from perfect, and I certainly have niggling issues with particular moments that I chose not to go into in this post. But, it’s pretty damn good for what it is. Just don’t expect too much from it, it’s no Shakespeare after all.

This week’s adventurous episode is all about Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, as Joe welcomes everyday superstars Xantiriad and Jeffrey Matulef to talk about the ins and outs of Nathan Drake’s biggest journey. Unfortunately, Joe’s abandoning of Sinan in an ancient temple has left him unable to make this week’s show. Regardless, the boys were able to discuss the gameplay, characters, settings, and themes present within Naughty Dog’s latest, and also answer the eternal question: what makes Nathan Drake better than Marcus Phoenix?

The Regulars

Big Red Potion: http://bigredpotion.com
TheGameReviews: http://thegamereviews.com
Unified Gamers Network: http://unifiedgamersnetwork.com
Sinan’s blog, You Have Lost!: http://shoinan.com
Joe’s blog, Pixelated-Glee: http://pixelatedglee.wordpress.com

Guest Links

Ninja Fat Pigeons: http://ninjafatpigeons.co.uk
Jumping Moustache: http://jumpingmoustache.blogspot.com/

This post marks the return of Surplus, the official outtake reel of Big Red Potion. With it comes an explanation for the very confusing title above, as well as boob talk and a bout of marble-mouthed sputtering.

Sinan and Joe welcome back returning guests Adam Standing, Senior Editor at Game People, and everyone’s favourite Paul Rooney - who has some exciting news for us during the show. But this week there’s five peeps in the pod because Sho & Joe were also lucky enough to be joined by Kellee Santiago, President and Co-founder of thatgamecompany, the developer behind PlayStation Network hits Flower and fl0w. But what’s the topic? This week harks back all the way to Episode 6 when the pod panel each nominated a game to represent gaming - but this time, Kelle, Adam and Paul each share their most emotional moment in gaming. And all three are picks you might not expect, but are all equally fascinating. So, sit back, relax and get ready to get your emotions on in this week’s Big Red Potion.

The Regulars

Big Red Potion: http://bigredpotion.com
TheGameReviews: http://thegamereviews.com
Unified Gamers Network: http://unifiedgamersnetwork.com
Sinan’s blog, You Have Lost!: http://shoinan.com
Joe’s blog, Pixelated-Glee: http://pixelatedglee.wordpress.com

Guest Links

thatgamecompany: http://thatgamecompany.com
Game People: http://www.gamepeople.co.uk