Popzara Podcast

Article: Wrath: Aeon of Ruin

Ah, to live in the world of a 1990s FPS! You might have problems, but they're all solved with your hyperspace arsenal of weapons and an endless array of health pickups. Thinking? Who needs it? The only ideas anything requires come in very, very large calibers.

Article: Tomb Raider I–III Remastered

Tomb raiding sounds like a pretty exciting profession, but the reality is pretty far from how things seem. There's bugs, for instance.

Article: Mario vs. Donkey Kong (2024)

It's a me, Mario! Well, no, it's not, and given Nintendo's litigious streak I probably shouldn't claim to be Mario. It's particularly fraught from a legal standpoint because of how similar I am - we both wear overalls, we both jump really high, we both have problems with turtles, the works.

Article: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

You can't help but wonder: in ten years, what will we be remaking and remastering? Will everyone be waiting on the edge of their seats for a remaster of Forspoken? Are we going to be aching to play the new and fantastic remake of Redfall? Maybe the reason we keep coming back to familiar wells is that we know the water's good, as opposed to the new stream that may or may not be full of parasites. Something like that.

Article: EZ Quest DuraGuard Coiled USB-C Charge and Sync Cable

We’ve all been there, trying to find a charge cable for your mobile devices or one for transferring data from one device to another, only for it to not work due to bending or twisting it so many times that it shorts out. Then there’s the nightmare of having a desk or area of cord clutter where all your cables are tangled together.

Article: Gunnar Call of Duty UAV and Alpha Edition Glasses

If you caught my reviews for Gunnar’s AC: Mirage and Marvel’s Loki glasses, you’ll see I was already more than impressed with how cool and functional they are. Now I’m more than happy to say that our friends at the company were more than kind to send me not one, but two of their latest releases with the Gunnar Call of Duty UAV and Alpha Edition Glasses.

Article: Dune: Part Two (2024)

While fear may be the mind-killer on Arrakis, Dune: Part Two offers audiences stuck on Earth a distinctly different experience. Poised to become one of the best films of 2024, Denis Villeneuve's second-part sequel builds upon the foundation laid by its 2021 predecessor, emerging as both a cinematic masterpiece and a landmark achievement in the science fiction genre.

Article: Saramonic Blink500 B2+ Wireless Microphone System

While I do love a solid microphone setup, I have to admit I don’t have a lot of experience using wireless systems. Thankfully Saramonic has made it easy not only for myself, but for anyone looking for a great wireless setup with the Saramonic Blink500 B2+ Wireless Microphone System that can handle just about any recording job you can throw at it.

The State of Gaming February 2024: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Helldivers 2, Mario Vs. Donkey Kong, Suicide Squad, Skull and Bones, Pacific Drive, Borderlands Movie, Microsoft 3rd Party, and Circana

It’s The State of Gaming Podcast, Popzara’s in-depth look at what’s shaking up the gaming landscape delivered on a monthly basis. Our hosts Cory Galliher and Nate Evans guide you through the best, worst, and everything else making headlines and headway in the world of interactive entertainment.

The Biggest Games of February 2024

The biggest games of the month include: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Helldivers 2, Mario Vs. Donkey Kong, Persona 3 Reload, Skull and Bones, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, and Pacific Drive.

Other notables include: Tomb Raider Remastered, Foamstars, Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster, Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery of Serpentcoil Island, Slave Zero X, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake, Nightingale, Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, and Pentiment (PS5, Switch).

Circana: January 2024

Circana remains the gaming industry’s best snapshot of what’s moving and shaking up both physical and digital retail shelves across the country. All estimates are for entertainment purposes only. Total sales of new gaming hardware and software topped $5.06 billion, a huge 15 percent uptick over last year.

Highlights on the Top Twenty software charts Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 snags the top spot yet again, Namco Bandai’s Tekken 8 debuts high in second, Warner Bros’ Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League in third, Sega’s Persona 3 Reload in fourth, Sega’s Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth in seventh, Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown in thirteenth, and Bandai Namco’s Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash in nineteenth.

Everything Else

But there’s more! The live-action Borderlands movie gets a trailer! Microsoft makes it official as several (formerly) Xbox console exclusives come to PlayStation 5 and Switch! Did you know there was a Palword phenomenon? Did you know it may not last? Also: listen for Cory’s monthly recommendations on next-level gaming controllers to up your game, this month’s selection include the GuliKit KK3 MAX, BEITONG Zeus 2, and the BIGBIG WON Rainbow 2.

Article: Pacific Drive

For all the emphasis placed on vehicles in games, it's kind of a shame we've never gotten a series about piloting the most impressive contraption of all: the Segway. Sure, there's games like Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth that feature Segways, but I'm talking about a game where Segging is what it's all about.

Article: Ultros

There's something about certain games that causes people to ask "what drugs were the developers on?" Well, good news! I'm here to tell you precisely what drugs they were on: a carefully concocted mixture of chocolate syrup, lemon juice, Diet Pepsi and Pink Sauce. I can't reveal the proportions used in any of this, of course, because that would be spreading the exact recipe for the most powerful narcotic ever created, but trust me when I say that if you keep on mixin' and drinkin', you'll find it eventually.

Article: ASRock Radeon RX 7600 XT Steel Legend 16GB OC Graphics Card

Reviewing the Radeon RX 7600 XT is like returning to the original Radeon RX 7600 I covered last year, to the point that most of what I said back then still applies here too. The RX 7600 was a great entry-level 1080p GPU that ticked the essential boxes for most 1080p / 1440p needs but struggled when it came to maxing out graphically intense games.

Article: MSI Radeon RX 7600 MECH 2X CLASSIC 8G OC Graphics Card

The reception this generation of graphic cards has received among PC consumers has been mixed, to put it kindly. I’ve already reviewed a couple of NVIDA GPUs and found them to be impressive, if you ignore the price-to-performance ratio, an understandable argument compared to previous-gen models.

Article: DALI Spektor 2 Compact Speakers

Ever since I was a kid in the 80s, I’ve been a fan of stereo setups featuring solid wood speakers paired to a classic system with a record and cassette player, and a radio. Those old feelings came back to me when I first took the DALI Spektor 2 Compact Speakers out of the box for review, as they have that wooden, old school look and feel, but is powered by today’s technology to give big sound from a small package.

Article: Bluesound Powernode Edge Streaming Amplifier

I’ve been slowly diving into the world of home theater systems while reading up on how to properly set one up, which components you need, and so on. Thankfully an opportunity came my way to review the first major device of any setup, the amplifier.