Give Me Games

Transistor is the little indie that could, screeching past AAA games like Shadows of Mordor and Wolfenstien to be our number one pick of the year. Hosts Michael Andronico and Sherri Smith are joined by Marshall Honoroff and Sam Rutherford to talk about dissect our top 5.

Hosts Michael Andronico and Sherri Smith are joined by Jill Scharr and Alex Cranz to talk five of the ten best games of 2014. There are fights over some of them and enthusiastic agreement over others.

Host Michael Andronico is joined by guests Sam Rutherford and Marshall Honorof to talk about Smash Brothers on the 3DS, the geeky lore of Shadows of Mordor, and more Smash Brothers.

For this Destiny-themed episode, I'm joined by senior writer Sherri Smith and assistant reviews editor Alex Cranz, as we go in-depth about Destiny's mechanics, lore, longevity and explain why we can't stop playing its competitive Crucible mode. Enjoy, Guardians!

We touch on a topic all too ubiquitous in gaming these days: abusive internet comments. Anita Sarkeesian's latest episode of Tropes vs. Women in Video Games received scathing, hateful backlash on YouTube, to the point where Sarkeesian didn't feel safe in her own home. Why do internet commenters act the way we do, and how can we create a peaceful environment for those who love games?

Give Me Games! is back, and this week, it's all about the E word: Exclusives. After Gamescom 2014 wrapped up in Cologne, Germany last week, the gaming community was shocked to find out that Square Enix's Rise of the Tomb Raider will be exclusive to Microsoft's Xbox One, at least at the time of release. Is the third-party arms race already underway between Sony and Microsoft?

We dish out our thoughts on PlayStation Now and EA Access, two digital-subscription services that aim to bring Netflix-style binging to your PS4 and Xbox One, respectively. Both of these services have some nice perks for players, but we don't know if we can justify spending even more recurring fees to play games, especially when neither program seems worth the price yet. Once the emotional dust settles, we talk about what we've been playing lately. Sherri gushes on Dragon's Crown, Marshall's been glued to Defense Grid, and I've personally been stuck on Strider and The Walking Dead.

After spending a few weeks blasting away in the beta for Bungie's futuristic first-person shooter, Tom's Guide staffers Sherri Smith, Jill Scharr and me, Mike Andronico, got together to talk about what we loved and hated about it. Spoiler: we pretty much loved it.