Popzara Podcast

Article: Granblue Fantasy: Relink

One point worth considering: there's a whole lot of content from Cygames' Granblue Fantasy franchise out there. Another: the mobile game that started the craze was never officially released in the West.

Article: Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

Ah, paradise! Sun, sand, palm trees and the glorious blue of the ocean - it's all you could want in an escape from the drab workaday life you've been saddled with. Vacations are expensive, though, and who has the time? No, you're better served escaping to paradise through a video game, and we've got a great choice: Animal Cross--wait, no, not Animal Crossing? Oh, right, today we're talking about Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, a Hawaiian RPG adventure with plenty of things to do, people to meet and stuff to see.

Article: The Last of Us Part II Remastered

Sometimes video games can be a little controversial. Well, they're usually controversial only among a very specific, very vocal contingent of people who should probably touch grass, and it's probably fairly safe to ignore that contingent.

Movie Time! Like They Used To: Nobody’s Fool (1994) and The Holdovers (2023)

It’s Popzara’s Movie Time! Podcast, where our in-house movie nerds Ethan Brehm and Nate Evans take you on an unscripted journey yakking and chatting about some of their favorite movie moments and cinematic scenes, from past and present, presented without snark and snobbery for your listening pleasure.

On this episode are two films harkening back to a simpler time, both cinematically and narratively, about imperfect men becoming unlikely role models. These are the type of films favoring essence over spectacle, characters over caricatures. And did we mention the snow?

First up is 1994’s Nobody’s Fool, directed by Robert Benton and starring Paul Newman in an Oscar-nominated performance as Donald “Sully” Sullivan, a man still learning to grow up at the age of 60. Based on Richard Russo’s novel (of which was recently expanded into a trilogy), it’s the ultimate character study of both actor and role. Next is 2023’s The Holdovers, director Alexander Payne’s expressed throwback to 1970s style film-making starring Paul Giamatti in his own Oscar-nominated performance as an unlikable professor realizing just how much he still has to learn about life.

Our hosts dive into both films like book nerds into great literature, and with surprising results. Listen and learn the shocking similarities between Paul Newman and Tom Cruise, and how Paul Giamatti’s attempt to break into action films didn’t go as planned. If they really “don’t make films like they used to”, then what did we just watch?

Article: Ryzen 7 8700G Desktop Processor

We're well into the next generation of PC hardware, and builders have more than enough options for creating a respectable desktop rig. This includes Integrated Graphic Processors or APUs (Accelerated Processing Units as AMD lovingly refers them) which typically house enough visual prowess for basic multimedia functionality and not much else.

Article: Ryzen 5 8600G Desktop Processor

We're well into the next generation of PC hardware, and builders have more than enough options for creating a respectable desktop rig. This includes Integrated Graphic Processors or APUs (Accelerated Processing Units as AMD lovingly refers to them) which typically house enough visual prowess for basic multimedia functionality and not much else.

Article: Tekken 8

Kick! Punch! It's all in the mind! Yes, the immortal words of Chop Chop Master Onion from the martial arts epic Parappa the Rapper still resonate today: it really is all in the mind. If you want to test me, I'm sure you'll find that I try and review as many fighting games as possible because, well, it's an awesome genre.

Article: Wish (2023)

Latching onto millennial parlance while paying homage to the most dominant force in any genre in cinema history, Disney’s Wish was the film chosen to represent the company in its centennial jubilee. It isn’t a bad pick, per se, and one that, at the very least, isn’t some sterile socio-political statement that belongs nowhere near family entertainment.

Article: The Adventures of the Flash Gang: Episode One: Exploding Experiment (2023)

I’ve been long overdue to get back into reading some fun and interesting stories, so I was more than happy to check out The Adventures of the Flash Gang: Episode One: Exploding Experiment when offered the chance. It’s a fun book that anyone can enjoy while also leaving you excited for the next entry.

Article: Creative Zen Air Pro Wireless Earphones

It feels like yesterday when I was sent the Creative Sensemore Air earphones for review, but that was nearly a year ago. After tweaking some of the settings through their app, they managed to be a nice pair for those on a budget.

Article: American Fiction (2023)

If the plot of American Fiction seems like a great idea for a film that’s because it was a great idea for Percival Everett’s Erasure, a 2001 novel satirizing the publishing industry’s pusillanimous method of leveraging literary fame and fortune through the gravest of compromises, and more importantly, the effects this has on one man’s mental state. Cord Jefferson’s adaptation, led by a never-better Jeffrey Wright, and possibly the best of intentions, can’t quite live up to that promise.

Article: The Final Curtain (2023)

Billed it as the concluding chapter of the Detective Kaga series, only a fraction of which have been translated into English, Keigo Higashino’s The Final Curtain ("Inori no Maku ga Oriru Toki'' in Japan) is one of those titles with dual meanings alluding to both the book’s content and its central protagonist suggesting finality. It arrives just a year after his last literary adventure, A Death in Tokyo, an otherwise rote entry in Higashino’s oeuvre that suggested the author was beginning to tire of his Newcomer.

Article: Sly Circadian Beverage

There's a lot of considerations when it comes to gaming. What are you going to play? What will you play it on? How about peripherals, which do you plan on using? Perhaps most importantly, what brightly-colored drink are you going to wet your whistle with while you're fragging noobatrons or however they put it these days? Soon you just might be sipping Sly, a new set of "circadian beverages" aiming to change the gaming beverage paradigm by offering a scientific approach to energy instead of just slamming fatigue away with caffeine.

Article: Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

Life is a Metroidvania, if you think about it. When you're born, you haven't even unlocked the ability to walk yet, much less double-jump.

The State of Gaming: The Best, Worst (and Everything Else) Games of 2023

It’s The State of Gaming Podcast…for the year 2023! And what a year it was. On this happily supersized episode our regular hosts Cory Galliher and Nate Evans are again joined by extra special guest Antal Bokor (from 3rd Coast Review and Culture Combine) sort through the embarrassment of interactive riches one of the very best years in gaming history had to offer.

It’s a smorgasbord of gaming goodness - did your favorites make the cut? Besides the expected “Game of the Year” candidates like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur’s Gate 3, Alan Wake 2, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and other digital delights, other games discussed include: Dead Space (Remake) (Antal’s GOTY), Amnesia: The Bunker, Jusant, System Shock Remake, Metroid Prime Remastered, The Talos Principle 2, Viewfinder, Firmament, and Tchia.

But there’s more! Other games include Master Detective Archives: Rain Code, Hi-Fi Rush, Wild Hearts, Dave the Diver, Lies of P, Exoprimal, Honkai: Star Rail, The Void Rains Upon Her Heart, and Sanabi (Cory’s GOTY), Final Fantasy XVI, Air Twister, Resident Evil 4 (Remake), Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, Street Fighter VI, Quake 2: Remastered (Nate’s most played GOTY), DOOM (1993) Sigil 2, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, The Making of Karateka, Humanity, RoboCop: Rogue City...and many others. We said it was a year for the record books, and we weren't kidding!