Episode 1410: Video Game Talk Show Host HenricK The WrecK, Rage Quit and Vocalist/Guitarist Dan Mitre, Distortions

JUST TALKING

Game contributor HenricK The WrecK and Ubisoft Community Development Director, Dan Mitre log into JUST TALKING to smash their video game controllers on the floor frustrated with gaming politics! They're just one life-heart away from the final stage and with 10% energy left can they beat the final boss? In gaming news the U.S. government wants to ban social media giant TikTok because they have concerns over China spying on Americans. Meanwhile Apple Siri, Microsoft Cortana, Google Home and Amazon Echo say— “don’t panic, we hear your concerns." The 2023 BAFTA (British Academy Games Awards) are coming up and why should we care? We don’t BUT let’s press start anyway. Which games do our esteemed panel of gamers nominate? God of War is the Beyonce of awards—multiple nominations but hasn’t sealed the deal. Will Elden Ring take home the gold? Totally Turtles dude! It’s a sleeper hit on the Nintendo Switch. It’s heavy on the cheese but can it deliver the “za” in 30 minutes or less? Voice Acting is getting the recognition it deserves but the competition is tight. Which VO performer takes the trophy in a video game leading role? The best games in 2023 are from 15 years ago! How does the video game industry justify serving stale bread to the fans? Is the nostalgic factor worth the price of entertainment — is there an appetite for these old moldy games? Don’t touch it, there are masterpieces in our world that need to be left alone. The Olympic Esports competition will take place in Singapore with games like Just Dance and Tennis Clash while snubbing established tournament franchises like Call of Duty and League of Legends. Gamers say the Olympics are playing it too safe and need to include headshots. Can we uncheck the parental controls—BUT the E in Esports stands for everyone! Even hockey players clean up their act for the Olympic Games! https://www.chriscollinsshow.com/henrick-the-wreck

STRIKE A CHORD

Vocalist/guitarist Dan Mitre joins STRIKE A CHORD to discuss his Punk Rock trio band Distortions. Rocking out of Raleigh, North Carolina the band has deep roots in the punk rock scene, the trio quickly established a fan base and position in the music community. Distortions is well known for crazy guitar riffs and an unwavering desire to perform live on stage. Rumor has it, this is how the band survives without food or water—feeding off the communal energy of the crowd. But how did former Bear vs Shark bassist Nick Jones and former Blitzkid drummer Andrew Winter link up with Dan Mitre to form Distortions? Music is medicine for the soul. The trio brings passion and emotion to every track but Mitre admits "you don’t really know until you see us live on stage." Their latest EP “Flies” addresses some heavy themes. “We’re all battling some form of depression, the demons ripping at our chest but there’s hope at the end of the day, we can persevere and we can endure and there is a reason to continue forward.” Community is vital to Distortions. We need to be human. You can’t spend every day pretending to be Superman. REACH OUT to people that love you, don’t be afraid. That commitment to community also created a record label, Bored to Death Records. Dan’s DIY punk rock campaign to offer a platform for independent artists without the pressure and politics of a large music label. Singles or Albums has been an on-going argument on the show BUT which side does Distortions go sideways with? The trio is a force of nature and their latest single “Castaways” is as punk as it gets. We’re all just “whimsy hypnosis charming castaways” on punk rock island. Follow, listen and Support: https://distortionsband.com

Episode 1407: HenricK The WrecK

HenricK The WrecK joins Just Talking to discuss Rage Quit a new video game podcast talk show hosted by Chris Collins and our video game contributor, HenricK The Wreck. A good game gives you chills of excitement when you play but a kick ass game can terrorize you to the core, what game terrorizes you? What’s the cruelest thing you can do to a kid gamer? Take their game system away for poor grades, time out punishment for not doing chores, how about your parents yanking the cord during a boss fight! Game rage meltdown; what game has driven you to the point smashing your controller? Hooked on gaming; a gamers first system is their true love. Henrick started his love affair with the Nintendo 64 and it’s been a match made in heaven since. When Kid Icarus shot a game pad arrow into your hands, what was your first game system love? Top 3 favorite games of all time; was it the storyline, combat and action or the challenge — kiss my ass Galaga, you cheating bastard! Can millennials all admit their first driving lesson was either Grand Theft Auto or Mario Kart. This absolutely explains Marissa’s driving style! Calling out all the future professional gamers, the Olympics will have Esports competitions in the future; so we’re just playing Wii Sports on a big ass screen in the middle of a stadium now? Can The Last Of Us tv show be enough to save the tarnished reputation of bad video game adaptations? We’re looking at you Halo tv series but TLOU is starting to go down that familiar Walking Dead rabbit hole and it’s only episode 7; for now, let’s reserve the rage spores until the last episode. Do all video games work in the cinematic universe? Bloom House and Atomic Monster are working on film adaption of the video game Dead By Daylight, a multiplayer action survival horror game where you get to play as famous iconic movie, tv, novel and video game killers like Halloween’s Michael Myers, Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddy Kruger and Resident Evil’s Nemesis. We’re excited to see where this goes but didn’t Dark Castle Entertainment try this before, remember 13 Ghosts? Well, virtual reality doesn’t matter anyway, I’m back in the Matrix. Chat GPT Artificial Intelligence is being shoved into video games to make them emotive and impactful. Did you hear that voice over artists, an AI says you can’t voice act. Follow the rage at: HenricK The Wreck

Episode 1302: HenricK The WrecK, Video Game Contributor and Charleston SC Indie Rock band, Whitehall

Just Talking

HenricK The WrecK joins JUST TALKING to talk all things GAMING. Cyberpunk developers CD Red have announced a sequel to Johnny Silverhand's storyline played by Keanu Reeves in Cyber Punk 2077 for the upcoming expansion update, Phantom Liberty. Netflix is working on a new season for The Witcher 3—I don’t remember watching season 2? Nintendo revealed the first trailer for Super Mario Bros. Movie, a CGI animated film starring Chris Pratt and a mushroom load of additional celebrity voices. The film is scheduled for release in April 2023.  The big question is what game did Mario first appear in? A pause button of silence as Overwatch has been taken offline—BUT press the start button of relief because Overwatch 2 is here to keep gamers happy. Rockstar’s GTA 6 (Grand Theft Auto) game-in-progress version was leaked all over the internet. The binary oil spill caused massive virtual car traffic jams and catastrophic damage to the virtual META environment—the penguins from Happy Feet are protesting in choreographed dance patterns.  BREAKING NEWS!  The glory hole leaked new features such as weapons, upgrades and customizations—BUT gamers are excited about this feature the most, returning to Vice City not Reality City! Getting back to sweaty nerd reality. Twitch-Con is happening right now October 2022—AND there's also the early release of Scorn, a game inspired by H.R. Giger’s (Alien). The game is centered around bone and flesh, which coincidentally is what Twitch-Con is all about. https://www.twitchcon.com

Strike A Chord

Indie Rock band Whitehall joins STRIKE A CHORD.  The 4 dudes with long hair in a white room with 3 pictures behind them from Charleston, South Carolina U.S.A says it all. Whitehall has their new album Maizy dropping next year 2023. Their lead single, “Rose” is a chill in the heart vibe with a peppery edge—perfect for the Cali dream, driving down a highway with the sun on your back. Making the album Maizy these guys pulled an old Rolling Stones move. They drove up into the mountains and cut an album — kick ass! The Maizy drew inspiration from their manager’s dog.  The dog’s calming Gandhi-like presence helped ease anxiety, allowing connection through the cosmos and barking out the lyrics! WHAT does the lyric “drunken telephoner” mean? It’s a reference to Slaughter House 5 by Kurt Vonnegut — is this a dark metal band hiding in the shadows? Special congrats!  “It changed our lives.” Whitehall is opening for the Goo Goo Dolls with their “Chaos In Bloom” Tour 2022. “It’s a childhood dream come true.” Oooh my-lanta this band knows how to bring bangers!  Look out for the chaos in white: http://www.whitehalltheband.com

Episode 1207: HenricK The WrecK, Video Game Contributor, Top 2022 Games (so far)

PODCAST VERSION

JUST TALKING

Our Video Game Contributor HenricK The WrecK takes off his Metaverse VR headset to join Just Talking. Press button A to begin with a multiple choice video-game quiz — remember the Konami code? It’s Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START — it works on Chris but doesn’t on Marissa. That code is 13, 36, 45, 57, 67, 14, some lucky Mega Millions ticket-holder in Illinois will be celebrating 1.3 billion in winnings or hiding in a Minecraft. Elden Ring and Horizon Forbidden West continue to glue gamers to their gamepads but in the background the cat simulator Stray has been knocking all of your valuables off the shelves. Play as an alley cat, do the stray cat strut, hit robots in the head — the gaming world is loving it however not without controversy, many house cats have banned together claiming the game promotes “street paw” appropriation by felines world wide! Nostalgia drives deep, GTA (Grand Theft Auto) a franchise stealing cars since 1997 released remastered GTA 6 in Summer 2022 only to receive backlash from fans for a new female protagonist — are they going woke or broke? It’s been 15+ years, we all love games like Bully and Manhunt but do they need a sequel or a remastered version or is it just a studio cash grab? The hype train arrived at the station with sports celebrities investing heavily in e-sports but can they play the game? Microsoft Minecraft cancels NFT’s and bans private servers causing a shift in industry positions on where to put their building blocks. Follow, support and enjoy at :https://www.chriscollinsshow.com/henrick-the-wreck

Episode 1116: Video Game Contributor, Henrick The WrecK

Episode 1116: Video Game Contributor, Henrick The WrecK

JUST TALKING

Video Game Contributor, Henrik The WrecK join’s JUST TALKING to discuss in-game advert banners, video game subscriptions, Former Facebook now “Meta” pushing Meta-Verse real estate Stores --- do you know how much housing costs in California? Are we fed up with video games turned into movies or movies turned into video games — which one are you going to watch or play? Who’s your “Video Game Crush Character”, survey says it’s Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft with a her big ol’ triangle tities. Let’s all be honest, we’ve all pretended to play sick just to get out of going to school, so we could stay at home to play more games — what was that game? Work, taxes, covid, subscriptions…. Reality sucks. If you could live in a video game world — what and where would that be? There are so many cool worlds out there but the reality is you’re probably going to die or be a peasant. Video Games are just as emotional as movies and television and maybe even more so due to the immersive interactive context;  the question is, what video game has made you cry lately — would you sacrifice your game file to help others? Video game popularity surged during the pandemic, American’s spent 64 billion in video game entertainment. Then industry keeps growing, making games for every type of person; older, younger, casual gaming, role-playing, shooters, etc., “if you look for it, you’ll find something.” It’s estimated that mobile, console and PC games players will spend upwards of 58k on video game entertainment over a lifetime — which begs the question “How much money is left for OnlyFriends.com

Episode 1109: HenricK The WrecK, Video Game Contributor, Top 2022 Games (so far)

Podcast Version

Episode 1109: HenricK The WrecK, Video Game Contributor, Top 2022 Games (so far)

CCS Video Game Contributor HenriK The WrecK joins JUST TALKING to answer the most important video game questions.  What’s more important, playing Video Games or playing with Pussy? — you just need to push the buttons, right?  What type of fluids do Gamers drink to get their game on? — alcohol?  Is that a sports drink or water with a dash of alcohol?  Gaming life is tough, you’re streaming live and you’ve got to blow your nose!  Jack Traven asks—what do you do? WHAT DO YOU DO? Speed (1994).  This one is pretty easy.  You’re watching a cut scene and your girlfriend calls, do you pick up or ignore the call? — you pick up and ignore the call until the cut scene is over, right?  Top games of 2022: ELDEN RING and Horizon Forbidden West are going toe to toe for game of the year.  Valve Steam Deck takes a stand against NFT's blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.  While Amazon says Bye Felicia! to the gaming console (PlayStation, Switch, Xbox). It’s all about cloud gaming now.  All you need is a Luna controller and a Smart TV to play the latest titles.  OR will it end up like Google Stadia cloud gaming platform—dead flat as Mario smashed mushrooms!!!???

Episode 1107: Henrick, Video Game Contributor

Podcast Version

Episode 1107: Henrick, Video Game Contributor

The Chris Collins Show welcomes our newest CCS Contributor HenriK The WrecK.  Henrik will be dropping the latest Video Game related news, reviews and boos! This week we’re talking about video game TV and film adaptations.  In 2022 alone there are about 40 shows hitting streaming services and theaters between Netflix, Paramount +, Amazon, Sony and HBO Max.  Critics and fans should be dripping in nerd drool—BUT with so many releases suffering from bad casting, bad writing, and poor visuals — are they worth watching?  You know what the millennials say. YOU go WOKE you go BROKE?  Horror and campy action is a marriage made in heaven when you’re playing a video game—BUT even Sony’s Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021) live action movie made flesh eating zombies go vegan???  Playing video games is a lot like smoking the devil’s lettuce—it’s an escape from reality — like weed! There’s an estimated 3.2 billion Gamers across the globe.  What about the next generation consoles and PC’s to meet the demand?  It used to be, insert the cartridge or cd, wait for the loading screen and press A on your controller.  The economics of gaming is more complicated.  There’s MTX (microtransactions), game subscriptions, game passes, seasonal passes and now game NFT’s (Non-Fungible Token).  Game companies love it and Gamers hate it — is this just another cash grab?  With a global chip shortage and not enough next generation PS5’s and Xbox’s to go around, is this the end of the console wars — do the PC’s win?