“Where’s everyone going? Bingo?”We realised there haven't been enough Cane and Rinse podcasts dedicated to Resident Evil 4, so here we are. Leon, Brian, Leah and Sean once again invade the mysterious Spanish (?) village of the so-called Ganados, to once again rescue 'Baby Eagle' THE PRESIDENT'S DAUGHTER. Along with a broad spread of opinions from t…

“Proceed north to big gun area.”Behold the Bitterman, in id Software's archetypal 'boomer shooter' sequel, Quake II. Strogg-blasting vets Leon, Chris O'Regan, Darren and Karl - along with contributions from the Cane and Rinse community - recount their bloody campaigns through Quake II's 1997 PC original, the somewhat miraculous console ports to N64…

"Cut off their limbs."Perhaps not the most pressing candidate for the remake treatment, nevertheless, EA Motive found itself remaking 2008's sci-fi horror shooter Dead Space for 'current gen' in 2023. Leon and Jon - along with contributors for the Cane and Rinse community - consider the changes and differences from the original to the all-singing, …

“This could be interesting.”Star Wars + DOOM = awesome success. A simple enough equation for mid-90s LucasArts, but is there more to Dark Forces than that? Leon, Chris Worthington, Darren and Tony blast and puzzle their way through this first-person shooter adventure, with missives from Cane and Rinse's community alliance along the way. From the MS…

“Good luck! You’ll need it!”The twin-stick shooter never fully caught on in the arcade's golden age, and yet, some years after the beloved Robotron 2084, Eugene Jarvis and his team returned to that particular mechanical interface wellspring for another go round, with 1990's spiritual successor Smash TV. Leon, Jesse, Michiel and community contributo…

"Wake up little one. The corruption has emerged… The Unchosen is back!"In this issue of Cane and Rinse, Chris, Jon, Leah and Sean discuss 2024's Minishoot' Adventures. A notable PC/Mac exclusive (at the time of recording), made by SoulGame Studio. This top-down action adventure borrows heavily from The Legend of Zelda and mixes it with bullet-dodgi…

"We just gotta get to the vault, get the weapon, kick the Combine off Earth — super easy — and they're — and there's sandwiches, there's gonna be sandwiches…"The oft-cited standard-bearer of VR gaming, Half-Life: Alyx offered gamers near total immersion in the Half-Life universe when many were experiencing the first Covid-19 lockdown. The game also…

“Hi. Why are you here?”Our Tony's nomination for the 14th year of podcasts is 2007's first-person survival horror, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chornobyl. Leon, Jon and James join him in immersing themselves in this notoriously demanding and spiky - if ultimately rewarding - FPS. We also hear tales from The Zone via our trusty community contributors.h…

“Dear Player. You've come a long way, haven't you?”Lead developer Andrew Shouldice stuffed every single corner of Tunic's world with secrets and mysteries, and created a wonderfully faithful, detailed and devious retro-style game manual to help and/or baffle players. Tom, Brian and Chris delve deep into this intriguing adventure, assessing its cont…

“It's big.”Presented explicitly as the world's first "stupid game" or "baka game", Segare Ijiri is a pretty well known cultural touchstone in Japan, but virtually unknown outside of it, even among fans of Japanese gaming obscura. Michiel, Brian, Leah and Sean attempt to cross language and cultural barriers to delve into this strange piece of softwa…

“Now you have a friend in the paper business.”A vintage game about an anachronistic job delivering a dying medium. Atari's arcade hit Paperboy is 40! Leon, Brian, Chris Worthington, Dan and community contributors grip tasselled BMX handlebars and brave the gamut of suburban challenges faced daily by our intrepid news disseminator. As is the custom …

"It is the year 1999, and our game development House, Koch Games, has been hired by The Oikospielen Opera to adapt the novel Tristram Shandy, into a computer 'eco opera' for a fee of infinity."This week, Cane and Rinse is on strike! It is your choice whether you will salt or scab. Follow Ryan, Chris, James and Jon into the perplexing but provocativ…

Back for a fourteenth year of deep-dive videogame review podcasts, and the first subject for 2025 is SEGA's Panzer Dragoon. Leon, Chris O'Regan, Chris Worthington and Michiel - along with contributions from the Cane and Rinse community - look back at the Saturn CD that spawned a four-game series of dragonborn blasters (and one RPG). Here we focus o…

“Shouldn't have wished to live in more interesting times.”We conclude our thirteenth year of podcasts by covering the all-conquering, 2023 game of the year awards-sweeping, Baldur's Gate III. Leon, Jay, Leah and Rich - along with contributions from the mighty Cane and Rinse community, attempt to do justice to - and even pick a few holes in - this c…

“Automatons do not have bugs, Kate Walker. They simply display functional idiosyncracies.”In the aftermath of the golden age of graphic adventure games, the early 2000s offered plenty of ammunition for those who declared the genre to be dead. Microids was intent on changing the narrative when it released spiritual successor to cult-hit Amerzone, Sy…

“The powers of the Gold Armlet are now yours to wield.”Team Ancient turned its attention from the urban grime of Streets of Rage 2 to the lush meadows, dry deserts and atmospheric caverns of Oasis for its Mega Drive follow-up, The Story of Thor. Leon, Chris Worthington, Michiel and community contributors' quest for the four spirits is on! As usual …

"That old coot had me locked up tight in his lab... But guess what? I GOT OUT!"This week's destination is the Last Resort hotel. Luxury, decadence, and packed to the rafters with happy haunts. Ryan, Leah and James brave the halls of the haunted hotel in Luigi's Mansion 3.http://media.blubrry.com/caneandrinse/caneandrinse.com/podcast/cane_and_rinse_…

“We might make a name for ourselves after all…”In a pre-prequel, pre-Disney's Star Wars world, almost any game featuring George Lucas' galaxy-spanning space opera was greeted with fervour. So it was with Star Wars: Rogue Squadron for the N64 and PC in 1998. Leon, Chris Worthington and Jon - along with contributions from you, the listeners - suit up…

“EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG”Mark Cerny's first full project as a prodigious teen game creator (after coding a 'mushroom growing algorithm' for Millipede) was Atari's surreal and challenging Marble Madness. Leon, Brian and Chris Worthington run all six courses, albeit over considerably longer than the two odd minutes in which it's possible to beat…

“The evil hand of BASHTAR has seized the lovely MIHO.”Representing the tiny overlap in the Venn diagram of at least two niche subgenres (prehistoric jungle platformers/games with simian protagonists), Juju Densetsu (or Toki) is also a fairly pedestrian, memory-based platform/shooter. Leon, Chris Worthington, Dan and Toki-lover Michiel muse upon why…

"..."Installation artist, juggler, balloon artist and first-time game developer William Chyr told himself it would take three months to design a Portal-sized puzzle game. Seven years later, he released a 'counterfactual physics game' that captures the spirit of both M.C. Escher's mind-bending work and the Paris scene in Christopher Nolan's Inceptio…

“If you make like you’re a DeathMatch hotshot you should be able to bluff your way into the party.”After a tumultuous few years of company takeovers and platform swaps, Rare's Perfect Dark Zero landed as an Xbox 360 console exclusive launch title. Leon, Darren (former Rare), Ryan (Xbox employee) and community contributors pick the prequel apart, 19…

“If you love a character, you give them pain, ruin their lives, make them suffer.”Just ahead of the release of the fourth instalment in BioWare's fantasy RPG series, we finally get around to scrutinising the third game in the series - Dragon Age: Inquisition. Leon, Brian, Leah and Tony have quested long, scouring the plains of Thedas to explore the…

"Throw me back."What better way to spend time in the ocean than to fish while trying not to succumb to ancient malices from the deep? For this is apparently what is on offer with 2023's indie darling, Dredge. Chris O'Regan with James and Brian - along with contributions from the Cane and Rinse listenership – tell tall tales of fishes larger than a …

“Good speech. Blast him.”Marvel's relatively obscure comic book sci-fi misfits received a huge boost in recognition with their first MCU movie in 2014. Following a sequel and a Telltale series, Square Enix tasked their Eidos Montreal studio with making an action game starring the underdog antiheroes. Leon, Brian, Karl and Leah team up to celebrate …