The Crate and Crowbar

Latest Episodes:

Episode 412: Miserable Abomination Poet Improves Any Bar Jan 13, 2023

Show notes

Jamie, Tom S and Marsh press the electric brain’s hot-take button to generate plausible opinions on proc-gen classic Dwarf Fortress, Marvel deck-builder-tactics mash-up Midnight Suns, animated medieval manuscript mystery Pentiment, and genealogical rogue-lite Rogue Legacy 2.

Press A to advance through perplexingly titled visual novel Umineko When They Cry.
The triumphant Steam release of modern classic Dwarf Fortress has graphics now, and, maybe surprisingly, that really matters.
Confusing turnbased-tactics / card-game chimaera Midnight Suns might actually be a low-key dog-smashing classic.
Gotham Knights is not a low-key classic but a slightly botched DC goon-pummeler.
Pentiment is a terrific encapsulation of medieval life, art and belief, elegantly enclosed in a murder mystery, itself enclosed by a slightly unknowable interactive space.
Rogue Legacy 2 is an excellent evolution of the rogue-lite platformer where each run is enacted by successive heroic generations.

You can hang out with us and our community on our Discord channel. If you have a question for a future episode, send it to us at questions@crateandcrowbar.com or tweet us @crateandcrowbar. You can also listen to it on YouTube, and subscribe to our YouTube channel, if you like.

The Crate and Crowbar is kindly funded by our Patreon backers. If you’d like to know more about supporting our podcast and its spinoffs, click here.

Our intro music is by The Mandibles from their track Clambake. Many of the band members now tour as Count Bobo And The Bullion.

Episode 411: Geo-Specific Chicken Experience Nov 25, 2022

Show notes

Chris and Marsh wash away their Mayonnaise Sins only to commit the far worse crime of liking parts of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Also: the pokable pencils of A Little to the Left and suspicious horses in Roadwarden.

The Golden Chicken and Meat Market in Dearborn, just outside of Detroit, is a very fine place to obtain a chicken wrap.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: just a bunch of Men, supporting each other in a wholesome way, as they commit literal war crimes.
A Little to the Left is a low-key puzzler about organising things.
Windosill is a poke-them-nicely puzzle game from 2009 available on PC and, now, Switch.
Do we really need to link Wordle and the NYT crossword? I shall NOT!!
Roadwarden: a super-promising text-based RPG about negotiating the border between the wilderness and the settled parts of a fantasy peninsula. And palfreys.

The Crate and Crowbar is kindly funded by our Patreon backers. If you’d like to know more about supporting our podcast and its spinoffs, click here.

Our intro music is by The Mandibles from their track Clambake. Many of the band members now tour as Count Bobo And The Bullion.

Episode 410: Wagner’s Jankwonk Cycle Nov 18, 2022

Show notes

Jamie and Marsh drive a jeep through the questionable exoticism of Uncharted: Lost Legacy and peevishly waddle about in the ambiguous middle distance of Somerville.

Tom F’s great post on chess.
Matinee adventure expandalone, Uncharted: Lost Legacy, is part of the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection (can you have a “collection” which comprises just two items?) on Steam.
Cinematic sidescroller Somerville is a tour-de-force of vibes and a brutal lesson in the importance of UX.
Inside, by contrast, is an exemplar – as well as being beautiful, horrible and mad.
The Far games are lovely tactile sidescrollers in which you maintain the working of boats.

The Crate and Crowbar is kindly funded by our Patreon backers. If you’d like to know more about supporting our podcast and its spinoffs, click here.

Our intro music is by The Mandibles from their track Clambake. Many of the band members now tour as Count Bobo And The Bullion.

Ep 409: Licking Praxis From The Walls Of Frome Nov 12, 2022

Show notes

Jamie and Tom Senior convene to talk Marvel Snap, God Of War, and assorted other nonsense. Listen as two increasingly old men get misty eyed about Ataris and Amigas for the very first time on the internet – doze off to the sweets sounds of a 40 year old game.

Marvel Snap is very good and you should play it.
Qix is pretty ancient. Qix Neo is 20 years younger and is also pretty ancient at this point.
As is Lode Runner, beautifully maintained in a fan version here: https://mmr.quarkrobot.com/
Oni is a quietly revolutionary 2001 game by current space wizard botherers Bungie.
God Of War: Ragnarok is very pretty.

You can hang out with us and our community on our Discord channel. If you have a question for a future episode, send it to us at questions@crateandcrowbar.com or tweet us @crateandcrowbar.

The Crate and Crowbar is kindly funded by our Patreon backers. If you’d like to know more about supporting our podcast and its spinoffs, click here.

Our intro music is by The Mandibles from their track Clambake. Many of the band members now tour as Count Bobo And The Bullion.

The State of Marvel 2022: A Lock-in at the Crate and Crowbar Nov 04, 2022

Show notes

Would-be body-doubles for Rocket Raccoon, Chris and Marsh talk through the MCU thus far, where it’s going, pop music that is also a building, multiversal eels and erotically-charged neck injuries.

Phase 1:
Iron Man
The Incredible Hulk
Iron Man 2
Thor
Captain America: The First Avenger
The Avengers / Avengers Assemble
Phase 2:
Iron Man 3
Thor: The Dark World
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Guardians of the Galaxy
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Ant-Man
Phase 3:
Captain America: Civil War
Doctor Strange
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Thor: Ragnarok
Black Panther
Avengers: Infinity War
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Captain Marvel
Avengers: Endgame
Spider-Man: Far From Home
Phase 4:
WandaVision (TV)
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (TV)
Loki (TV)
Black Widow
What If…? (TV)
Shang-Chi: Legend of the Ten Rings
Eternals
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Hawkeye (TV)
Moon Knight (TV)
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Ms Marvel (TV)
Thor: Love and Thunder
I am Groot (one shots) (TV)
She Hulk: Attorney at Law (TV)
Werewolf by Night (one shot) (TV)

The Crate and Crowbar is kindly funded by our Patreon backers. If you’d like to know more about supporting our podcast and its spinoffs, click here.

Our intro music is by The Mandibles from their track Clambake. Many of the band members now tour as Count Bobo And The Bullion.

Episode 408: Detective Bird-Thing and the Murder in Hell Oct 28, 2022

Show notes

Tom F and Marsh rescue a marriage with magnets in It Takes Two, accurately identify horrible verbs in The Case of the Golden Idol, fail to impress girls with our animal handling in I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, and get nostalgic about gibs in Cultic.

Wonky v Janky. Fight!
Jorbs – an offensively chill Slay the Spire streamer.
Tactical Breach Wizards is Tom’s very good upcoming tactics game. All the wizards are lovely! Don’t make me pick a favourite.
Lavish co-op experience about making your only child cry in order to rescue your terrible marriage: It Takes Two.
Excellent Obradinnalike which tosses you straight into the task of labelling exploding men, no-fuss, no-muss: The Case of the Golden Idol.
Narrative-led deck/child-building game, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist.
Scant thoughts on gruesome retro-shooter Cultic.

The Crate and Crowbar is kindly funded by our Patreon backers. If you’d like to know more about supporting our podcast and its spinoffs, click here.

Our intro music is by The Mandibles from their track Clambake. Many of the band members now tour as Count Bobo And The Bullion.

Episode 407: Yes! I Am The Dog-Popper! Oct 21, 2022

Show notes

Chris and Marsh galavant gleefully through the ponds of low-key collect-em-up Paradise Marsh, plunge their wounded hands into the sticky holes of firstperson horror-puzzler Scorn, and pop poxwalkers in co-op shooter Darktide.

Have a delightful time collecting cool beetles and talking to psychopathic French star-spiders in Paradise Marsh.
Have a horrible time, in a good way, mostly, in the gribbly Giger penis palaces of Scorn.
Make heads explode in Fatshark’s Left 40K Dead, Darktide.

The Crate and Crowbar is kindly funded by our Patreon backers. If you’d like to know more about supporting our podcast and its spinoffs, click here.

Our intro music is by The Mandibles from their track Clambake. Many of the band members now tour as Count Bobo And The Bullion.

Episode 406: Nutsy Bolt’s Armageddon Machine Sep 30, 2022

Show notes

Jamie and Marsh summon nightmarish first person arena shmup Hyper Demon, wreck noobs in hellish children’s maths game Numbots, rip and tear demons in throwback shooter Prodeus and discover exactly as much of The Evil Within 2 as their souls can bear.

Hyper Demon is a sequel of sorts to Devil Daggers, both brilliant shmups and an assault on the retina.
Numbots is a cynically gamified learning tool. Cheeky/evil!
Prodeus is a retro shooter that uses all kinds of perversely fancy tricks to ape more primitive tech.
The Evil Within 2 is a survival horror game from Shinji Mikami and at least some of it is worth playing.

The Crate and Crowbar is kindly funded by our Patreon backers. If you’d like to know more about supporting our podcast and its spinoffs, click here.

Our intro music is by The Mandibles from their track Clambake. Many of the band members now tour as Count Bobo And The Bullion.

Episode 405: A Morning Constitutional on Fart Planet Sep 16, 2022

Show notes

Jamie and Marsh strike from the shadows in retro stealth game Gloomwood, mount horrible dogs in No Man’s Sky, flip pixel puzzles in Taiji, enjoy courtly nudity in Crusader Kings 3 and question creepy nudity in Immortality.

Superb Early Access first-person stealth-em-up in the vein of Thief: Gloomwood
Enjoy the carefully tuned atonal honks of No Man’s Sky
Clever pixel-art puzzle-island in the style of The Witness: Taiji
Sibling-sabotaging, dynastic storytelling game: Crusader Kings 3
Boobsearch is OP, and questionable in other ways, in FMV mystery Immortality.
Alice Bell’s review for RPS discusses this disquiet well.

The Crate and Crowbar is kindly funded by our Patreon backers. If you’d like to know more about supporting our podcast and its spinoffs, click here.

Our intro music is by The Mandibles from their track Clambake. Many of the band members now tour as Count Bobo And The Bullion.

Episode 404: Sticky Goop, the Safest Fireball Sep 10, 2022

Show notes

In which Tom Senior and Jamie Brittain convene to report back on their recent exploits in Multiversus, chat in an entirely spoiler free way about Immortality, jabber about, and then speculate on what divine revelations might be about to occur to Tom Senior, Cyborg Boy after his recent appointment with one of them high Bath pavements.

Sorry for the slight audio issues on this ep, Jamie was broadcasting from a very rainy conservatory, and to be honest it’s a flippin’ miracle he sounds as good as he does.

Multiversus, the free to play sensation sweeping the nation, an unexpected gem.
Immortality, the latest Sam Barlow video em up.
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, now on Steam, full of big hearted web slinging delights and surprises.
Tom breaking his shoulder on one of them high Bath pavements isn’t a game, but it is very funny, though of course we are mostly just relieved he is okay and back to men paintin’. Content warning though, Tom breaking his shoulder, and tripping balls in hospital.

You can hang out with us and our community on our Discord channel. If you have a question for a future episode, send it to us at questions@crateandcrowbar.com or tweet us @crateandcrowbar.

The Crate and Crowbar is kindly funded by our Patreon backers. If you’d like to know more about supporting our podcast and its spinoffs, click here.

Our intro music is by The Mandibles from their track Clambake. Many of the band members now tour as Count Bobo And The Bullion.

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