We live in an age of super powerful consoles and PCs which can display some of the most realistic and technically complex graphics ever seen. Despite this, there has been a proliferation of independent games over the last few years. While big stupid AAA titles still rule the market, independent developers and their games are quickly becoming the most influential and innovative in the industry.

On this week's episode we delve into why independent games are becoming more prominent and why they're being accepted so readily by the gaming press and community. We talk about why the rise of independent is a good thing for the gaming industry and how their influence will make this the strongest console cycle yet.

As usual, we talk about some of our featured posts including Ryan's review of Ragnarok Odyssey Ace and Jorge's Best Games You're Not Playing editorial. We round things up with a look at what games were released this past week, some of the big news that happened in the industry and what game's we've been playing recently.

This week I was joined by my fellow Staff Writers Ryan Meitzler and Jorge Jimenez. Thanks as always to El Blanco Niño for our custom intro and outro tracks.

Subscribe to the ShockCast on iTunes by following this link.

https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/148561865&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true