Half-Glass Gaming [Episode 34] : Dear Diary, Today I Got Bit in the Face by a Wolf (Low-Fi)

We apologize once again for the low sound quality; we spent this episode hiding out in our survival bunker where our technology was limited. And, speaking of survival, we’ve got a great episode for you about the survival game genre.

Before that, though, we talk through some of our recent television-watching habits and try to figure out why people like The Big Bang Theory so damn much. Even Stephen Hawking is apparently pro-Big Bang Theory, and he’s a genius, so we’re willing to admit that we might be the ones who are wrong on that (no we’re not). We also talk about real-life camping as opposed to camping in Tomb Raider, as well as solving wolf and deer murders in The Witcher 3.

We also catch you up on This War of Mine, which both Josh and the Rev recommend.

After the break, we trace the roots of the survival genre all the way back to the original version of Oregon Trail in 1971, which originated in our home state of Minnesota. We also explore some of MECC’s other titles, like Yukon Trail, Odell Lake, and DinoPark Tycoon. (For more on Odell Lake, we’ve got a great article about that here.)

We look at some of the other early survival games as well, then dip into “Survival Horror,” which really isn’t that much like strict survival games at all. We discuss the ways in which Minecraft opened a sort of Pandora’s Box of survival fanaticism, Julian coins the term “Saturday Morning Survival,” and we take a deep look back at the grand ol’ War Z controversy.

You want the goods and we’ve got ’em. Half-Glass Gaming’s 34th episode is here!

Here’s a full list of games mentioned in this episode:

• Steins;Gate
• Tomb Raider (2013)
• The Last of Us
• Batman: Arkham (series)
• The Witcher (series)
• Conker’s Bad Fur Day
• Don’t Starve
• Ark: Survival Evolved
• ArcheAge
• Rust
• How to Survive
• How to Survive 2
• This War of Mine
• The Sims (series)
• The Oregon Trail
• The Oregon Trail Deluxe
• The Yukon Trail
• The Amazon Trail
• Odell Lake
• Spellevator
• Dino Park Tycoon
• Wilderness: A Survival Adventure
• Unreal World
• Survival Kids (series)
• Lost in Blue (series)
• S.O.S.
• Raw Danger!
• Disaster Report (series)
• Resident Evil (series)
• Metal Solid 3: Snake Eater
• Minecraft
• The Long Dark
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
• DayZ
• H1Z1
• The War Z
• Infestation: Survivor Stories
• Pathelogic
• We Happy Few
• State of Decay
• Mass Effect (series)