In his absence, Nate and I talk about some proper good villains, and even discuss some sensible things like evil cartoon monsters vs. villains you can sort of sympathise with. Handsome Jack? GLaDOS? LeChuck? Andrew Ryan? That’s one hell of an awkward dinner party. Plus stick around for a Cavern Of Lies that proves Warhammer 40k is essentially the same as Tumblr. You can listen above, or on on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, or Pocket Casts. You can find the RSS feed here, and you can discuss the episode on our Discord channel, which has a dedicated room for podcast chat. Music is by Jack de Quidt. Links The spectre of Tim Curry corpsing through the word ‘space!’ in Red Alert, but still somehow nailing it, is a guest at this feast once again. Nate talks about games where the baddies zoom call you to shout at you. He also brings up the Halo Infinite Emotions Gorilla, about whom he wrote a whole article. I love LeChuck from the Monkey Island series, and I specifically love the evolution he has gone through in Return To Monkey Island. Handsome Jack from the Borderlands series is what prompted our discussion of nuanced villains. Handsome Jack is cartoony, sure, but he thinks he’s the hero. That’s interesting! You know who else? Dad Of War’s real sad son bad guy (spoilers) Baldr. There’s also Vaas from Far Cry 3, who isn’t technically that games main villain but is the only one anyone remembers, and the series has been chasing that high ever since. Obligatory obeisance payed to GLaDOS from Portal and Portal 2 (with a side of Wheatley). Controversial take: Hitler in Wolfenstein is a bad guy. Recommendations this week are Age Of Empires streamer T90Official, and series 4 of the BBC sitcom Ghosts.
