Emotive Pixels: The Year of AAA Videogames – Details, episodes & analysis

We break the hearts of fandom as we are baffled by the rampaging success of Baldur's Gate 3, an interesting game made of many spectacular details that don't cohere for us into something that we like playing - a game whose reception and accolades led us to be very confused: "It's all informed by the next sentence you don't get to pick."

Part 2 in our evolving series of wrestling with understanding the inherent appeal of all-consuming and frictional media objects.

We continue our investigation of what big-budget gaming means with one of the titans of AAA graphical fidelity, marred by a rocky launch. Yet, after 4 years, the game captivates us all. Was it all the dollars spent on Polish demoscene graphics programmers, fantastic voice acting, and Studio Trigger tie-ins?

We question the voice in our head during a surrealist existentialist Siberian adventure about faith and relationships, full of a lot of interesting and satisfying mechanics. This game has it all!

We slay a major white whale.

• Pauly: Future Racer 2000/Silkbulb Test, Chess for Idiots, Asphalt Legends 9, Mullet Mad Jack, Star Trucker, racing sim updates
• Nate: Night Runners Prologue, 20 Small Mazes, Sheepy: A Short Adventure, Exophobia, NASCAR Heat 4 (bad), Exit 8, The Thaumaturge
• Craig: Cuccchi, Super Mario Maker 2, Super Mario Brothers Wonder, God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla, Red Dead Redemption 2

We are gripped by poker-solitaire fever.

• Playing Balatro is Like Being Elon Musk on Ketamine

The gang's all here! We cover racing sims, VR DJing, visual novels, aspirational Unity jank, and splatterfests.

Automobilista 2, Assetto Corsa, Hotshot Racing, Vampire Survivors, Windy Meadow - a Roadwarden Tale, Slay the Princess, Jett: The Far Shore + Given Time, Foam Stars, Persona 5, virtual reality DJing feat. Vinyl Reality and Tribe XR, Killer Frequency

• Pauly Mallwear's Necrowave Nightmare DJ set
• The Playdate Podcast
• MKBHD's podcast interview with Teenage Engineering

We regale in deep philosophy and fantastic Yugoslav architecture.

A celebration of the Playdate, as well as some retrospectives on 2023.

We take a new approach to reviewing the year, with 6 categories of highlights and a look to the year ahead. Some of what we mentioned: Saturday Edition, Crankin's Time Travel Adventure, Forza Motorsport, Talos Principle 2, Chants of Sennaar, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Tinykin, Super Mario Brothers Wonder, Jusant, Red Dead Redemption 2, Cities Skylines 2, and Baldur's Gate 3.

We attempt to fit Alan Wake 2 in the Alan-Wake-2-shaped-hole in Nate's heart labeled "POSTMODERN MEDIA THEORY".