It's a new year so what would be more appropriate than summing up the best games of two years ago? It's time for the annual Eight and a Half Bit Top 5 of the year before last! If we still remember them, they must have been good.

Next week: Top 5 classic games you can get on digital distribution

2013 is near its end so now is the time to reflect, take stock and memorize lottery numbers in case we’re ever suddenly sent back in time. Listen for 9 of the best awards of the year plus our industry, gaming and crowd funding highlights. Sorry about Paul and Ben arguing.

Crowfunding picks of the year

Paul: 3. Sunless Sea  2. Darkwood 1. Night In the Woods

James: 3. RetroWorld 2. Red Baron 1. Dex

Ben: 3. Torment Tides of Numenera 2. Soccer Legends 1. Obduction

It’s Christmas today so have a podcast on us! It’s about all the good games on the Wii. Now I must eat an entire ham.

Next Week: Top 5 games of 2012

Paul got his PS4 this week so get ready to hear all about that. South Park: The Stick of Truth has been censored in Australia, Ben hates Disney and James gets all Starbound on this exciting Christmas episode!

We all have trouble resisting that urge to murder our fellow man but not all of life pursuits must be spent serving our dark desires. That in mind here's some game where you're not a murderer!

Next Week: Top 5 Wii Games

Flying on a piece of cheese

Holding it between your knees

Sailing through the Milky Way

For extra content you will pay

James finds out if EA screwed up Dungeon Keeper, Ben finds life very difficult and Paul tries to find his own heart in Doki Doki universe.  The VG ex-A’s held a few surprises this week and the let’s players are dealing with bullshit again.  All this and more in your weekly podcast audio listening to talking style thing.

Crowd funding picks

Ben: The Golem of Prague, Paul and James: Below Kryll

I like it when the thing blew up

Next Week: Top 5 Games where you're not a murdering bastard

Paul plays all the games (Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, The Wolf Among Us, Luigi’s Mansion 2, Broken Sword 5, Shadow Warrior, SteamWorld Dig), James plays some of those games plus Galactic Starfighter and Ben finally plays an XBone game on his Xbone!

Crowd Funding Pick: The Slaughter

This last generation has been pretty darn spiffy. Here's the non exclusive games we thought were the spiffiest!

Next Week:  Top 5 games with awesome destruction

Super Mario 3D World makes quite the impression on Paul and James, Ben plays with his Xbone, there’s WOW talk, the state of streaming on next gen and a bear that carries a god damn treasure chest! Also all the games are now Persona! I really should try a Persona game. I bet you’ve played the series haven’t you? Damn listeners always better than me.

Crowd Funding Picks

Ben: Starwhal: Just the Tip

James: Grow

Paul: Treasure Bear

Rawr *stomp* *extinction* Dinosaurs rule!

Next week: Top 5 Games of the 6th generation.

To celebrate the release of the Xbox One we let Ben host the show so he can talk about his new purchase. Paul plays Tearaway and stick it to the Man while James spends his time with the new Zelda on the 3DS.

Crowd Funding Picks

Paul: Retroworld

James: Retroworld

Ben: Her Majesty’s SPIFFING

Today we release our new show upon the world. We invite you all to come and behold the glory of Quality Assurance, the monthly show where we talk about the positive aspects of some of gaming’s most derided titles with a special guest star! For our pilot episode we tackle the iconic Daikatana with the very classy Liam Hill (designer for Defiant Development and previously Lionhead).  Please enjoy.

Next month we will be playing Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust.

We've played a lot of games and sometimes we've done it in unusual ways. What ways? I'd tell you but then listening wouldn’t be so vitally important.

Next week: Top 5 games with dinosaurs

The Playstation 4 is released but not in our country so… we’ve got that going. James flies a plane, Ben goes on a holiday and Paul rants about pixel art. Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea, Child of Light, the new Uncharted, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, how the indie revolution is over and our weekly kickstarters are all accounted for this week. Paul even gets to drop Jodorowsky into a videogame discussion!

Crowd Funding Picks

Ben: 1979 Revolution

James: Dex

Paul: LISA

We talk Chris Bischoff, the man behind the exciting and gorgeous sci-fi, horror, adventure game Stasis.  Unfortunately there is no video to go along with this pitch today as google hates everyone but we make up for it with Chris' charm plus James and Paul shutting up most of the time.

Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/bischoff/stasis-2d-isometric-scifi-horror-adventure-game

Homepage: www.stasisgame.com

Are these games any good?  We literally don't know. We've never played them.

Next week: Top 5 interesting ways we've played

Ben plays his favourite game, anticipation after pre-ordering an XBone, Paul gets really into Forced and James plays some kinda real life game. Urgh how dreadful. Harmonix has an awesome looking new game in Thumper, we learn our morals from a robot in Doki Doki Universe and Nintendo shows us why we can’t have nice things. A big bunch of awesome looking kickstarters including one Paul almost forgets to discuss because he’s an idiot.  All that and more!

Crowd Funding Picks

Ben: Bullet Bros

James: Dungeon Dyslexia

Paul: Interstellaria

Special “How the fuck did I forget to talk about it?!” award: Stasis

We're all so easy and we like easy games. Simple and easy that's us. Especially Ben. Super easy!

Next Week: Top 5 Games We Never Played

What spooky tales we have in store for our dear listeners today. The Dark Souls sequel terrifyingly titled “Dark Souls 2” a puzzle game by the name of “Pressurizer” for ghoulish mobile devices and also Mario Party!  So spooky.

Crowd Funding Picks

Ben: Next Car Game

James: Paradise Lost: First Contact

Paul: Between Me and the Night

Like Miley Cyrus straddling a large destructive ball we are knocking down some walls and redefining your previously held expectations.

Next week: Top 5 Easy Games

Four scandals in just one week! What is the gaming community coming to!? Youtube takedowns, unfinished games, unintended nudity, setting children on fire are all part of this week’s discussion. Don’t just focus on the troubles though we have some excellent games to discuss and the best game of all time is being kickstarted!

Crowd funding picks

Paul and Ben: Night in the Woods

James: Red Baron

Sometimes when you play a game everything feels perfect except for the entire base design. Chuck it out, we know what's what.

Next Week: Top 5 games that break the 4th wall

Paul loves The Stanley Parable, James loves Pokemon X & Y and Ben loves the feeling he gets when everything is safe and friendly. Rabbids vs Angry Birds, Projected AR and of course the return of BOOGERMAN!

Crowd Funding Picks

Ben and James: Obduction

Paul: Boogerman (Bonus: Eden Star and Scale)

Just because the final product wasn't perfect doesn't mean the ideas weren't good. I mean having a son was a fine idea by my parents but... well we all know how that turned out.

Next Week: Top 5 Games which would have been better as another genre

We get down with Teleglitch, play some Wind Waker HD, question David Cage’s choice regarding Ellen Page’s private areas and get down with the most unbelievable Kickstarter Pitch we’ve ever seen.

Crowd Funding Picks

James and Ben:Air Dash Online

Paul: Beyond Eyes

Paul and James have a chat with Mitch Gitelman about his coming and goings. We talk Shadowrun, Golem Arcana, and secret projects that most certainly aren't Crimson Skies... maybe...

Join us on our poorly planned, but mostly informative, adventure!

Hey there games industry. We all know ideas are the hardest part of developing a game and are extremely valuable on their own. Count yourselves lucky because here are 15 of the damn things for the price of FREE!  We’ve done the hard work now just spend the next 4-10 years turning our ideas into reality, YOU’RE WELCOME!

Next Week: Top 5 Good Ideas in Bad Games

Paul got himself a Vita and won’t shut up about it while the other two continue on their GTA 5 adventures.  There is some very relaxing news and one of the best crowd funding projects we’ve seen in a while.

Crowd Funding Picks

Ben and Paul: RimWorld

James: Pulsar

You can learn a lot from video games. For instance did you know that real life has permadeath?

Next Week: Top 5 games we wish existed

We’ve got heaps of steam with Steam OS, Steam Machines and the Steam Controller!  We also become obsessed with the most subtle of games Bear Town.  Beyond: Two Souls demo impressions, Worms 3, GTA V, the future of game streaming and SO MUCH MORE!

Crowd Funding Picks

Ben and James: The Ballads of Reemus 2

Paul: Spark Rising

When we're not busy watching Yahoo Serious films or rocking out to Russell Crowe singing in '30 Odd Foot of Grunts' we Aussies occasionally develop videogames. 

Next Week: Top 5 Games that taught you a lesson

So what is likely the year’s biggest title Grand Theft Aut…. WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING IN THIS HOHOKUM TRAILER?! Oh dear god that’s disgusting. Sorry. Grand Theft Auto V has been released and has made all of the money. Wow. Still shaken by what I saw in that Hohokum trailer.  That game… my soul belongs to you.  Also a bunch of other games and some excellent crowd funding projects this week!

SUPER HOT SUPER HOT SUPER HOT

Crowd Funding Picks

Ben and James: Soccer Legends

Paul:  Slip

We speak with the legendary Chris Jones about the upcoming return of Tex Murphy with Tesla Effect among SEVERAL other topics!

Scoring, passing, tackling, jumping, one-foot-in-front-of-the-other'ing, etc no matter what your sports-wording is sports are a thing that happen. Sometimes they happen in videogames.

Next week: Top 5 - Games from Australia

What happened this week!? The VitaTV comes out of nowhere, Ubisoft reveals a bunch of amazing looking games, there are quality crowd sourced games everywhere, minecraft clones excel beyond simple comparisons, heaps of kickstarted projects were released. James played Godus and Paul went camping all while Ben is still on the first boss of Diablo 3.  How do we fit it all in? We just talk for longer.

Crowd Funding Picks

Ben: River City Ransom
James: The Fall
Paul:  Hyper Light Drifter

It's like the top 5 movies of the 90's except about PC games! RADICAL!

Next week: Top 5 Sport Games

Australia has spoken and they have chosen Diablo 3 on PS3 over the PC version.  Divekic has been elected to the senate along with MGS5 and Whore of the Orient.  The new policies regarding the PS4’s virtual reality solution has yet to be details but it won’t stop the pendant speculate. Speaking of speculating we do some of that!

Crowd Funding Pick: Sunless Sea (three way tie)

We chat to the notorious film maker and politically incorrect person, Uwe Boll about his kickstarter for Postal 2, film career, funding, his life and reputation plus anything else that came to mind. 

Check out his kickstarter here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1544635303/postal-2

Virtual Man/Woman/Alien/Catterpiller/Block/Etc's best friend/s!

Next week: Top 5 PC games of the 90's

What a sexy episode we have for you all today. James has been getting it on with Contraption Maker and Divekick while Paul has his way with Mount Your Friends. Ben gets sick of sex jokes.  There are some fantastic crowd funding projects we chat about the 2DS and games that none of us will ever get to play.

Crowd Funding Picks

Ben: .Decimal

James: Octopus City Blues

Paul: Death Road to Canada

Famous people! In our Videogames!

Next week: Top 5 Pets

There is so much to talk about this week we must be as efficient as possible!  GamesCon went down with Sony and Microsoft going all out in the lead up to their new console reveals. We've got games, we've got games plus we've even got some games.  A Chivalry expansion, indie games galore and even ToonTown gets thrown in for good measure. In my haste I even missed out on Rime, my favourite reveal of the week. Oh well. Next week I'll talk about it so much you'll hate me.

Crowd funding picks of the week

Ben: Super Goal Run

Paul and James: U55 - End of the Line

The Gamecube. It had a built in handle. Also amazing games.

Next Week: Top 5 Celebrities in videogames

The boys celebrate Ben’s birthday by all being sick and Ben says upwards of 7 words. Paul and James have been playing Payday 2 and have feelings on the subject while Ben has been involved in some kind of golf orientated activity. There a bunch of XBone news and GTA Online looks amazing. Throw in the Zombie parkour game Dying Light and the mysterious yet beautiful Dungeon of the endless and you sir/madam/hedgehog have got yourself a stew.

Let's work together and listen to this great episode!

Next week: Top 5 Gamecube Games

Is the Wonderful 101 as wonderful as its name indicates? How steamy is SteamWorld? Are the brothers in Brothers: A tale of Two Sons full of brotherly love? How refreshing is the extreme taste of Coke Zero? We answer almost one of these questions.

Crowd Funding Picks
Paul: Paranautical Activity
James: Project Bliss
Ben: Dwarven Delve

Like books and shit!

Next week: Top 5 Team Multiplayer Games

EverQuest Next looks incredible, Australian censorship continues to infuriate and Phil Fish leaves the industry in a spectacular fashion. Not to mention Bioshock Infinite DLC, crazy Oculus Rift experiments, kickstarter and a little game where you Mount Your Friends. Most incredible of all though is that it was Liam O'Sullivan's birthday this week!

At PAXAUS 2013, we had the pleasure of using the noisy media room to catch up with Ron Gilbert in person. You don't get to meet him in the flesh, you just get to hear him again, but pretty awesome for us, right? We follow up on our Monkey Island/Bioshock Infinite/Lost cross over theory, discuss the role of Kickstarter, potential issues with Oculus Rift and raiding in World of Warcraft. Oh, and rum.

The best games for the Xbox 1, I mean Xbox. The original one. But not the One. Here’s some games for that thing.

Next week: Top 5 Literary Games

We’ve got Pikmin 3! Shadowrun Returns! Rudd Vs Abbot!  TWO NEW SIMS 3 EXPANSIONS!!! These topics are getting less interesting as I go along. The first two though? Worth all of your time! Also Downton Abbey, Firefly and how Nintendo hates japan!

PAX Australia by all accounts was a massive success that will surely continue to grow and become part of the Australian gaming landscape. James and Paul were there and rant about it ALL EPISODE and Ben has to stop running his mouth off all the time and listen!

Will he put a deliberate spelling mistake of the post as some obvious irony? Nope. But there might be one anyway. I'm pretty terrible at spelling.

Next week: Top 5 games for the original xbox

James recorded this without pants

New Grand Theft Auto, new Ratchet and Clank, new Tex Murphy, new Steam sales. Stick that up your fun and smoke it.

Crowdfunding Picks

Paul: Organic Panic

James: Lioness

Ben: Organic Panic

I know we seem like gaming super geniuses but the truth is we can make mitacks.

So much scandal this week as we rant about Doublefine’s budget concerns, EA's unethical sales and Nintendo’s unending stubbornness. Also The Last of Us, Kickstarters and more No Break Valet!

Red, Yellow, Blue, Red again. That's all of em.

Next week: Top 5 Games we played wrong

Ben takes the lead!  Seriously!  Saints Row and State of Decay censorship, Sad clowns, Sex lines, Walking around doingthings games!  Can you dig all there is to be dug?

Vroooom! You can ride em, you can drive em, you can fly em you can sink em. Just get in there and VROOOOM!

Nect Week: Top 5 uses of colour in videogames.

Microsoft did some things. Namely going nuclear on the Xbone’s controversial DRM policies. Some people are happy, some people are confused and Ben people are sad about it. But screw that because Paul got an OUYA!

There were lots of games and we judged em! We didn't even play them! In some cases (Ben) we don't even know what they're like! But we ranked em and it felt good!

Next Week: Top 5 Vehicles

Mel Croucher founded one of the UK's first video game studios in 1977, Automata. Now he is kickstarting a sequel to his classic 1984 Game Deus Ex Machina. We had a chat with Mel with turned out to be one of our most interesting ever. From Radio game distribution, treasures in horse’s anuses and phallic walking sticks we cover everything you didn't even know you needed to know.  If you only listen to one Eight and a Half bit interview this year, listen to this one!

Deus Ex Machina 2 on Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1552445321/deus-ex-machina-2

Automata: http://www.automatasource.com/

PS4! Wii-U! XBone! OUYA! Sifteo Cubes! All the big players were in attendance in what was perhaps the most controversial E3 of all time.  Emotions are high and there’s a bit of bullshit to cut through but we try not to get too bogged down in that and instead focus on what really matters... the length of Bayonetta’s new hair. IT’S SO SPUNKY!

They come runnin' just as fast as they can
coz every girl crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man videogame character.

Next Week: Top 5 games of E3 2013

There’s a new Solid Snake or maybe there isn’t. Frankly we don’t know what to believe anymore. We know that the Xbone continues to be the most controversial console announcement in memory, Rogue Legacy is awesome, Deus Ex: The Fall is upsetting and zombie hip hop cyborg ninjas are a good thing. There are only a few days until E3 kids so get your adult diapers ready.

Cheating is wrong blah blah blah. BAM! Now you look stupid with a big head.

Next week: Top 5 best dressed characters

James gets his Fire Emblem on, Paul plays The Swapper and Ben needs to talk more.  There is the amazing Crypt of the NecroDancer to chat about, PS4 remote play, American McGee’s new projects and more crowd funding than you can point a stick at!  That is of course assuming you can’t point at more than 10 things with a stick.  This included a new project from Double Fine, a successor to The Neverhood and a gorgeous trip back to the 1930’s.

Listen to us talk.

When a game is so generous it gives you another game for free Eight and a Half Bit will be there to judge those extra, sometimes elusive games within games.

Next Week: Top 5 Cheat Codes

It’s finally here with all the game talk you’ve been waiting for! Xbox One A game made by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, a chemical spill simulator, Paul catches up with a game from 2 years ago, the winners of the Lundum Dare and maybe something else! It’s obviously the Xbox One. Who knows what it will be?

If we must be probed at least make sure they do it right.

Next Week: Top 5 Games Inside Games

Oh Nintendo will you ever learn? Probably not but we still love you. We've got Soul Sacrifice, Doritos Crash Course 2, Magicka, Wizard Wars, EA Douchebaggery, Steam trading cards and delicious freshly baked crowd funding projects for you to digest.

Is it the same? Yes? Then you win!

Next Week: Top 5 games you would show aliens to represent the human race

It's been one year since our little show started and everyone is celebrating with us! Darkwood launched its indiegogo campaign to honour us, Shadow Warrior is getting a reboot, Sony supporting experimental games and even EA is changing some of its business practices all for us!

Pull the trigger until it goes click!

You said it man!

Next Week: Top 5 Matching Games

All the Call of Duty: Ghosts news you can handle! Yep that's all we talk about. We don't just briefly mention it and spend most of our time discussing weird Kickstarter projects, Rayman Legends, Starcraft 2 and hilariously ironic game piracy.  We wouldn't pull a classic switcheroo on our listeners like that.

Fight em, Punch em, Hit them till they drop. Game-Boss-es. Then do it all again for their second form. Or maybe even a  third if you're lucky

Monaco has taught us much about the criminal lifestyle and now we are ready to take our skills one step further.  Stealing Nintendo and 2K games from this year’s E3, cloning Lutrausers and downright sacrificing Homeworld to Gearbox. These are but a few of our crimes and we've only been at it for a day.

Are you a cool enough dude to chillax?

Next Week: Top 5 Boss Fights

50 Episodes? Cake time!  Also The Evil Within, Monster Hunter Online, Nintendo Direct and Among the Sleep time. We've also got religious controversy and moral questions coming out of our big round numbered butts.

Brum-brum-brum-brum VROOOM! Screech! Crash! 4th place! A personal best!

Next week: Top 5 Chill Out Games

Rowen Parker and John Davis of Q-Games (Developers of the venerable PixelJunk series) join us for a casual Tusday afternoon chat about the deliciously soupy PixelJunk Inc, the never ending and always exciting possibilities of modding and the chunder exposing awesomeness of the Oculus Rift. Will PixelJunk Inc support the Oculus rift? I guess you'll just have to listen to find out.

Yes it will (No just kidding/lying for hits).

In this episode we talk about Dark Souls II.

Oh more?  Also Guacamelee, the Flashback reboot, ukulele playing dinosaurs, Russian hackers and the Batman fall victim to our "Eight and a Half Banter"™.

Have you played Bioshock Infinite yet?  If you haven't GO AWAY AND DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS! YOU WILL REGRET IT. Now that I've used all the capslock I am allowed would the rest of you kindly join me for a discussion about the most interesting title of recent times.

I think we can all agree gameplay is the one thing not needed in videogames. They would be better as passive experiences that play themselves! If only there was a media format that provided that experience...

Next Week: Top 5 racing games

Metal Gear Solid 5, EA swears they will become "not the worst" and Paul falls in love with a chicken while ben goes for the mouse alternative.
R.I.P Lucasarts!

From Assassin's Creed Kart Racing to Bioshock Kart Racing we will run the gamut of spin-off possibilities.

Next Week: Top 5 Games that would be better as TV/Movies

Gliding dogs! A little game called Bioshock: Infinite comes out. Air whales and Gliding Dogs! Battlefield 4 is revealed! Airships fighting gliding dogs! Metal Gear Solid 5 is announced but after we recorded the episode so we don’t mention it. Paul does discus gliding dogs however.

The controversial controversy that never was.

Next Week: Top 5 Spin Offs

No one knows what's going on in today's episode. We accidentally talk about heaps of stuff though from the many game announcements of PAX East to the resignation of EA's John Riccitello. Defiance has finally lifted its NDA so we're free to talk about all our mutant shooting fun. Plus there's a new crowd funding site making the rounds!

There's nothing like teen love. Certainly teen love involving videogame characters is just as unique. Probably even more so. Although I'm not one to judge.

Next week: Top 5 Controversial games that caused no controversy

Put on your pants as we've got company! Developer Liam Hill joins us for a chat about the week's goings on. From the future of AAA development to the future of Saints Row's T&A, hoes and Foes, Kickstarters that have a really excited and the scariest game we've seen all month. Ben also talks about cookies.

Got a couple of bucks? THen you can play these games!

Next Week: Top 5 Videogame Characters to have a Teen Romance with

So much to talk about! Every subject must be attacked with the ferocity of a starving wolf in a chicken hatchery!  SimCity? ATTACKED! Sexism in videogames? ATTACKED!  Heaps of new games? WE'RE ALL OVER IT! SimCity? ATTACKED A SECOND TIME!  ...AND PERHAPS A THIRD!

Can you handle all the aggression?  Will Ben break into an torrent of rage fuelled foul language? You can't be sure until you listen.

The emotional power of film combined with the awesome might of pixels. Some of them don't even suck.

 Next Week: Top 5 games that cost less than $8.50

Assassin's Creed is dead long live Assassin's Creed!  Are pirates just what the series needed? It can't hurt. Also we've got even more motion tech vying for our attention with the MYO, EA says the darndest things, a game called SABBAT, the OUYA is very close and even more words that should be acronyms but on the whole aren't.

*sigh* Actually it's surprisingly good. Don't just take my word for it, download it and find out for yourself! Whether you like it or not the download still counts towards our overall numbers.

Next Week: Top 5 games based on Feature Films

The PS4 is fuelled by dreams and magical rainbows. While we may never again be able to play in our grundies again under the watchful eye of Big Console everything is new again and that makes us feel good.  Also if we find time we'll discuss some other games and our regular rubbish!

We were all children once. Stupid, ugly children. That goes double for us.  How did we spend the hours while we tried to hide from the judgemental eyes of the world? Some of the games mentioned in this episode would be included in the answer to that question!

Next week: Top 5 characters that deserve their own Reality Television show and what the show would be.  Yep it's a Ben week.