Deep Fried Gaming Deep Fried Gaming

Today's episode focuses on 2023's game by Black Salt Games entitled "Dredge", a narrative fishing experience with unsettling undertones.

Dredge adopts a charming, cartoonish artstyle, simplistic fishing gameplay and throws in a healthy dosing of mystery and horror to make the high seas a little more interesting.

Today we discuss Dredge's various merits and pitfalls: its gameplay, story, music, and more.

Timestamps:
0:00 Preamble Introduction
00:45 Episode Preamble
14:45 Dredge Introduced
16:30 What is Dredge: An overview
26:25 The Gameplay of Dredge
39:35 Story and Lore of Dredge (Spoilers)
45:45 Non-Spoiler Story Discussion
48:10 Final Thoughts and Wrap Up

In 2018, a ragtag squad of degenerates set out into the wilds of Bolivia for the first time without a clue of what was waiting for them. Blood-brother pacts were formed, friendships cemented, and podcasts were etched into the stones of future fate.

This episode is a look back on Ghost Recon Wildlands and how it influenced us. We examine all the things that made it special at the time and to this day. We reminisce on the triumphs of flawless team work, chaos of incompetence, and all the finer details of what made both such a joy.

Time stamps
0:00 Intro
6:25 Guest Introduction
8:40 WHY spend so much time in this game?
17:35 What do we dislike about the game?
32:20 Summary of Wildlands Positives and Negatives
36:00 How does Ghost Recon Breakpoint Compare?
45:00 Conclusions

Bashing into our 34th episode slot is a 2015 game from Moon Studios. Centering on a baby Night Fury and taking place in a woodland of incredible beauty, Ori and the Blind Forest is an easy sell at face value.
The game was an Xbox and PC exclusive for years until a Nintendo Switch port was released in September 2019.
In this episode, we take the ride through the Definitive Edition and examine the game's draws and drawbacks to uncover what makes this game such a gem.
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Intro
3:19 - RJ has not seen How to Train Your Dragon 3
4:05 - Game Intro and Description
7:00 - General Overview and Discussion
30:35 Story Discussion (Spoilers)
40:50 Final Thoughts and Wrap Up (Spoiler Free)
Email any questions, game suggestions, comments, and hate mail to deepfriedgamingpodcast@gmail.com. 
They might get read on the show if deemed worthy.

**This episode contains light spoilers throughout its entirety. Most pertain to general themes of Detroit: Become Human and the characters within, however, a few reveal specific story beats. The larger spoilers are marked below in the timestamps. Anyone seeking to enter Detroit: Become Human completely blind should avoid listening to this episode**

Episode 33 brings us to a companion episode on our review of Detroit: Become Human. We largely praised the game for its fantastic storytelling and compelling characters, but it seems not all were so like-minded. 

Introducing: Allegra Frank, an ex-writer for Polygon and current editor at thedailybeast. She is none too pleased with the writing of the game or its prominent use of buttons. In an article entitled "Detroit: Become Human tackles civil rights without a grasp of history", she airs her grievances over the game and what she feels to be a poor depiction and implementation of political messaging.

In today's episode, we delve into the article in its entirety and explore why Allegra's reasoning and complaints are so severely flawed that they make Beetlejuice answering arithmetic questions on the Howard Stern Show look like one of the world's top thinkers.

Original article:
Polygon.com//Author: Allegra Frank - Original Article
*Bullying or harassing the author of the original article or any other figures discussed in this episode is strongly discouraged and entirely unacceptable. Be an adult.*

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 - Intro

4:20 - Article discussion (light theme/story spoilers)

22:00 - 23:30 Markus story spoilers

25:40 - individual character theme discussion (theme spoilers)

28:45 - All about Markus (light Markus story spoilers)

35:30 - BUTTON PRESSES (theme spoilers)

41:00 Conclusion: How would Da Journo fix this game?

Email any questions, game suggestions, comments, and hate mail to deepfriedgamingpodcast@gmail.com.
They might get read on the show if deemed worthy.

Quantic Dream is a studio known for its immersive, story-heavy games that challenge the player with the weight of their choices and the consequences that result from them. In 2018, they released their fifth game Detroit: Become Human to the PS4 console. It was a powerhouse in both the graphical and storytelling departments.
Similar to previous Quantic Dream games, Director David Cage weaved a complex and twisting tale for players to experience. Reviews were very positive at the time and the game was later ported to the PC platform in 2020.
Today we discuss the game from frame to finish and examine its visuals, soundtrack, story, and more in order to see if it's truly as good as the kids say it is or simply some overblown console fanboy cope.
TIMESTAMPS
Intro- 2:12
Housekeeping- 5:04
Game Intro- 9:38
Visuals- 13:14
Soundtrack- 28:27
Connor's Theme Analysis (Spoilers) 34:15 -37:30
Gameplay- 40:29
Story (Spoilers) - 57:35
Final Thoughts: 1:20:03

Between the dishonored series and their wildly underrated immersive sim, Prey, Arkane has proven themselves a reliable and inventive studio. They're responsible for creating interesting worlds with layered characters, morality systems, and stellar gameplay that has high replayability  years after release. So when the word was out they were making a similarly crafted game with a 60's style aesthetic, a jazzy soundtrack, and an emphasis on time manipulation, there was near instant excitement. As reviews rolled in, it seemed like this would be Arkane's strongest game yet, but the public wasn't as easily impressed. So where does that leave Deathloop in the rankings of Arkane titles? In this battle between polish and enjoyment, we discuss the newest and most intriguing title in the Arkane catalog.