S4: Room 7 - 00 Agency

In a world.......where games are getting longer and more story focused......3 men rapidly approaching middle age sit in a room and whine to strangers on the internet for the 42nd time....Are games becoming too cinematic for their own good? Is the need for characters to thematically fit into more complex narratives stripping away player agency?Join us as we dissect games such as God of War, the Modern Warfare reboots, and 007 First Light to try and find out!

World-building. The art of crafting and expanding a universe to wrap around a narrative.Join Jack, Justin and Bryan, a trio comprised of exactly zero game developers as they explain to you why world-building is important, and how it should be done.We're not talking Legos here.....although Legacy of the Dark Knight did just release......

War is Hell.....but so is AAA gaming.The recent release of Battlefield 6 has violently yanked the boys out of "retirement" to dust off the mics and figure out why this series just feels so damn good.From battles fought here across the globe, to wars waged halfway across the civilized galaxy. Join Jack, Justin and Bryan as they once again speak on behalf of an entire gaming community. We have their best interests at heart, they just don't know it yet...

Side quests and collectibles are things that often get overlooked when analyzing games. The boys aim to change that by shining a spotlight on some of the things games do right and wrong when it comes to optional content in gaming.*(This episode is optional viewership and is not required to remain up-to-date on the current goings-on of the Backrooms Cinematic Universe)*

After 6 months of absence, the boys are *finally back* (heard that before) and ready for another round of group therapy.Life has gotten more complicated for all of us since our last episode, so we figured now would be the best time to check in with each other as good friends should. As it happens, we found out that mental health can actually DECLINE if we don't continue taking proper care of ourselves! But what does that look like?Sit back, and relax, cause you're about to find out...

Tutorials can be awesome, but they can also be suck-tacular. They can be brief, or overly drawn-out. They can sometimes hold your hand, and they can sometimes be Dark Souls. The one thing that most games have in common is that they each have one, even if you might not realize that it's there. In today's episode, the boys use what *some* might call "QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS" to determine how different games approach teaching new players their mechanics, as well as engage in a broader discussion about how we as individuals go about learning. I hope we teach you a thing or two...

The boys are back for Sub-Level 4 of the Backrooms Podcast!! In a industry hyper-saturated with dime-a-dozen button mashers and mindless time killers, there are a growing number of games that tower above the masses as narrative "blockbusters" nearly fit for showtimes at your local AMC! But do games need to have Oscar-worthy levels of storytelling to be enjoyable, or is it fine to just switch our brains off and get lost in the flow of a great gameplay loop? Join us in the first episode of this new season of somewhat intelligent and barely engaging game analysis, and you may hopefully find an answer! (no guarantees)

Last year, the boys dived into their personal mental health journeys. We received a ton of positive support on that episode, and if we had helped even just one person listening, we consider it worth doing again. In today's episode, the boys talk about how our interaction with media can shape the way we perceive the world and our place within it. Not only this, but also the phenomenon of which viewing the end of a series, can feel like the loss of a close friend. The United States has transitioned away from the 10-digit National Suicide Prevention Lifeline to 988 - an easy-to-remember three-digit number for 24/7 crisis care. In the UK, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is open from 6:00pm to midnight every day on 0800 689 5652.

In 2015, 343 decided it was in the players' best interest to remove local co-op capabilities from Halo 5: Guardians. This was the beginning of the end of gaming with your friends together in the same room. Nowadays, AAA games tend not to support local multiplayer, so the boys decided to take a trip down memory lane in the oh-so distant past of before 2007.

We are retconning our first episode; it is no longer cannon. But unfortunately, we have to deal with poorly executed plotlines; some so bad, that even one of the greatest experiences can be ruined by its own writers.