Explore every episode of the podcast GameEngineStart Podcast

I'm not going to take the easy joke and do a "the name's podcast, video game podcast" here. I'm not doing it.

Euan continues running for loot in hell with Diablo 4 enters the Dark Pictures archives with Directive 8020 and begins Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. More to come from that.

Calum caved and bought into the early access of Heroes of Might and Magic: The Olden Era. We all knew he would.

We both discuss 007: First Light and if IO Interactive can really pull off a more directed single player game. Spoilers, they absolutely can.

00:10:12 - Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred

00:19:21 - Directive 8020

00:29:06 - Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight

00:32:55 - HOMAM

00:50:52 - 007: First Light

01:09:48 - Bungie is releasing the last content update for Destiny 2 on June 9th, so we talk about the long history of the series, and what could happen next with the studio.

01:31:54 - Localization team Hilltop works are releasing a patch for incredibly niche PS1 title Kowloon's Gate, and it sounds like it was a nightmare to work on.

01:33:28 - Steam Deck prices are rising substantially, because AI is screwing us all over.

01:36:33 - Upcoming and Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Welcome back to the sad teen zone. We arrive here frequently, so enjoy your stay!

• Euan has a bumper stock of video game discussions. New demons to kill in Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred. Old school sad teens in the finale of Life is Strange: Reunion. New school sad teens (featuring music) in Mixtape, and a classic Zachtronics-like to round off the selection in UVS Nirmana
• Calum roots and/or toots his way through paranormal deserts with Far Far West and looks to the past with Final Fantasy 16

• 00:03:35 - Final Fantasy XVI
• 00:04:32 - Far Far West
• 00:12:56 - Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred
• 00:30:38 - Life is Strange: Reunion
• 00:36:17 - Mixtape
• 00:49:45 - UVS Nirmana
• 00:54:05 - Shapez 2 1.0
• 00:56:41 - News - Sony is not only seeing a drop in PS5 sales after the price hike, they haven't seen a return on investment with Bungie yet
• 01:02:28 - News - The CEO of Monument Valley developer UsTwo hates that their employees want things like "job security" and "pensions"
• 01:06:24 - Calum shares some genuinely exciting news from the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest, in his continual effort to get Euan to play the game
• 01:30:01 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

One of us stayed up till 3am before recording this. See if you can figure out which!

• Euan talks programming but Starcraft in Desynced, a gumshoe animated hero for new ages with Mouse: PI for Hire and the much anticipated cyberpunk sidescroller Replaced
• Calum talks Pokémon Champions, and explains the basics of professional Pokémon.

• 00:07:37 - Life is Strange: Reunion
• 00:09:00 - Desynced Demo
• 00:13:12 - Replaced
• 00:16:18 - Mouse: PI For Hire
• 00:18:34 - Arknights: Endfield
• 00:22:47 - Contact Protocol Demo
• 00:26:15 - Diablo 4's Next Expansion
• 00:27:44 - Pokémon Champions
• 00:44:36 - Marathon
• 00:48:14 - News - Developer of Web3/NFT/Crypto nightmare Off the Grid is being accused of not paying it's developers, and the CEO had a wild response
• 00:54:50 - News - Capcom have "patched" the Alex storyline in Street Fighter 6, which has "fixed" nothing.
• 00:57:25 - News- Capcom has sent a request for a YouTube channel to pull down their videos showing NSFW Mods for various Capcom games.
• 01:00:00 - News - Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Director still hates "woke" games, but is pleased they are nominated for a LGBTQ+ character award because they did it "right".
• 01:03:06 - Upcoming & Housekeeping
• 01:07:25 - The Next FFXIV Expansion

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

I swear to go I'll get Euan to stop talking about his base building game for perverts one day. I promise.

Euan played yet more Arknights: Endfield, and moving quickly on talks about the return to teen based drama in a university setting with Life is Strange: Reunion

Calum talks about late game Marathon. It's all terrifying and stress inducing and awesome.

• 00:03:45 - The Last Caretaker
• 00:06:20 - Endfield
• 00:10:54 - Life is Strange
• 00:28:45 - Marathon
  • The review we quoted - https://www.gamerguides.com/marathon/reviews/punching-below-its-weight
• 01:00:00 - News - DLSS 5 is awful, but the memes are good.
• 01:09:07 - News - Epic Games laid off 1000 people, because of a "Fortnite downturn"
• 01:12:18 - News - Street Fighter 6's Alex has an... interesting... conclusion to his story mode.
• 01:23:04 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Just like the undying Shells of Tau Ceti IV, this podcast will keep coming back.

• Calum talks "Pokémon Crossing" in Pokopia, and discusses the arrival of a legend to Team Rainbow with Solid Snake in Rainbow 6: Siege
• Euan talks best in class of the genre in Resident Evil: Requiem and solves murder most foul in The Séance of Blake Manor
• The ins and outs of the new extraction shooter Marathon are discussed, and it's larger impact on the genre.

• 00:06:29 - Pokopia
• 00:20:47 - Solid Snake in Rainbow 6: Siege
• 00:32:49 - Marathon
• 01:01:25 - Resident Evil: Requiem
• 01:05:29 - The Séance at Blake Manor
• 01:12:58 - News - We talk Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond leaving XBox, what it means for the platform, and the rough shape of the next Xbox hardware.
• 01:20:40 - News - Calum shares what happened during the Pokemon announcement stream.
• 01:22:48 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

It's the first post of 2026 and so as is customary, we recount everything we were doing while not on the air.

• Euan talks surviving an apocalypse in The Last Caretaker and yet more conveyer belts (now featuring anime women) in Arknights: Endfield
• Calum takes to the streets of Seattle's cursed underground with Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 and enjoys the Yokai infested mountains of Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess

• 00:05:28 - The Last Caretaker
• 00:11:20 - Arknights: Endfield
• 00:39:31 - FFXIV Raids
• 00:41:30 - Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2
• 00:49:17 - Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
• 00:57:05 - News - Wolfenstein 3 is happening, something we kinda knew but it's worth confirming
• 00:57:41 - News - Blizzard announced a bunch of things throughout their IPs
• 01:01:38 - News - Ever noticed that people playing violent games in Nintendo trailers are really bad at it? There might be a reason.
• 01:03:15 - News - Sony had their first State of Play of 2026
• 01:22:22 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

It's the end of another year, so it's time to give the world our top 5 best of 2025.

• 00:04:31 - Calum Almost #5
• 00:07:00 - Calum #5
• 00:14:22 - Euan #5
• 00:21:21 - Calum #4
• 00:32:12 - Euan #4
• 00:41:28 - Calum #2
• 00:54:55 - Euan #3
• 00:59:55 - Euan #2
• 01:07:29 - Calum #1
• 01:27:05 - Euan #1
• 01:45:38 - Honourable Mentions
• 01:58:12 - Starting 2026

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

The last pod of the year before game of the year discussions, so largely just trying to close the year out. Let's wrap up before 2026 and GTA6 definitely comes out and dominates.

• Euan returns to stompy robots in Phantom Brigade 2.0 and delves into long awaited horrors in Routine
• Calum navigates a lawless frontier in Destiny 2: Renegades and can't stop smoking in RV There Yet?

• 00:03:28 - Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
• 00:06:27 - Phantom Brigade
• 00:12:25 - Routine
• 00:21:01 - Dispatch
• 00:28:23 - Citizen Sleeper 2
• 00:35:31 - Destiny 2: Renegades
• 00:59:57 - Hitman + Diablo 4
• 01:01:46 - News - Valve are bringing back the Steam Machine, a small SteamOS box that is 5x times more powerful than the Steam Deck.
• 01:09:06 - News - A community team are trying to make Concord playable again, and have ran a game on their own servers.
• 01:10:04 - News - As part of the current lawsuit between Krafton and ex heads of Unknown Worlds, it was shown that the Krafton CEO allegedly asked ChatGPT how to avoid paying them.
• 01:13:27 - News - This article from Aftermath about Ubisoft doing more stupid shit with AI is my favourite headline of the year
• 01:14:40 - News - If you follow games press you will have heard about art game Horses, we go over what's happening with it's removal from now 3 online stores.
• 01:20:24 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

We return after a personal break and it looks like the year is slowing down.

• Euan talks more Diablo IV
• Calum gives his overview from Lumiose City (and Pokemon in general) while discussing Pokemon Legends ZA
• We both join the millions of other people gushing over Ad-Hoc's Dispatch

• 00:04:05 - Diablo 4
• 00:10:51 - Silent Hill f
• 00:15:31 - Pokemon Legends ZA
• 00:35:41 - Hades 2
• 00:37:52 - Dispatch
• 01:00:33 - Other End of Year Games
• 01:02:46 - Rockstar have delayed GTA6 again, and also fired a number of employees that were in the process of discussing unionisation.
• 01:07:23 - EA has gone private and been sold to a consortium that includes Saudi Arabia and Jared Kushners venture capital firm.
• 01:11:27 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

The shadow of many looms over us and Euan is continuing to play Diablo 4.

As said, Euan can't stop with the Diablo 4 and plays the actual new release of Silent Hill F

Calum talks about the anticipated sequel to one of the best games ever made, Hades II

We're both in our 30s and played Fortnite for Daft Punk. I'm as upset about this fact as you

00:01:37 - Diablo 4

00:23:04 - Hades 2

00:53:50 - Silent Hill f

01:21:16 - Fortnite

01:27:07 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

00:08:40 - Diablo 4

00:28:54 - Chronos

00:53:08 - 2XKO

01:24:35 - News - Firaxis is the latest company to let people go.

01:28:38 - News - Vampire The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 will no longer lock some vampire families behind launch DLC, and instead will launch separate DLC later.

01:29:38 - News - Randy Pitchford is tweeting through it again. Joy.

01:39:12 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

We took a long break, but now we're back with all you'd expect from us.

• Euan gives his final thoughts on Death Stranding 2 after seeing the credits roll.
• Calum have a bumper crop of Grounded 2, Dawn of War: Definitive Edition and hot game of the moment Peak, which is, as the kids say, peak.
• We both discuss interesting psychological thriller Dead Take, and it's incredible performances.

• 00:04:29 - Death Stranding 2
• 00:12:19 - Dead Take
• 00:19:09 - Is This Seat Taken?
• 00:22:23 - Peak
• 00:27:25 - Dawn of War Remaster
• 00:30:00 - Grounded 2 Early Access
• 00:33:13 - News - Gamescom ONL
• 00:46:53 - News - Tencent Horizon
• 00:49:38 - News - VTM 2
• 00:56:08 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

It's time for a new Destiny 2 expansion. God help us all for the discussion that was had.

We talk pretty explictly about the story of the new Destiny 2 expansion, Edge of Fate, between 0:44:08 and 0:49:09. We say so before hand, but if you are worried the timestamps below should help you skip it.

• Euan tries 'new Zach' in Kaizen: A Factory Story, a new Zachntronics game by not Zachtronics, Astra Logical (featuring Zach). He also continues discussion of Death Stranding 2
• You know it. You love it. It's Calum's time to talk about the new Destiny Expansion Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate

• 00:04:13 - Kaizen: A Factory Story
• 00:07:51 - Death Stranding 2
• 00:39:27 - Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate
• 00:44:08 - Destiny 2 Spoilers
• 00:49:14 - Destiny 2 Spoilers End
• 01:16:54 - Death Stranding 2 Audio Issues
• 01:19:28 - News - FBC: Firebreak has not launched to great reception, but Remedy are hoping that a major rework coming in September will improve things
• 01:21:34 - News - Off The Grid is a meh Battle Royal game with horrible vibes and actual NFTs, and a bunch of outlets ran sponsored posts about it
• 01:25:36 - News - Three execs from Subnautica 2 developers Unknown Worlds are suing their publisher Krafton after they believe the EA launch of the game was delayed to avoid paying a $250 million bonus.
• 01:30:18 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

A new Kojima has been released, and so new Kojima must be discussed.

• Euan plays follow-up story DLC Still Wakes the Deep: Siren's Rest and the new madness from Hideo Kojima Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Calum deals with the grim dark 41st millenium in Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader

• 00:03:19 - Still Wakes the Deep: Siren's Rest
• 00:07:29 - Death Stranding 2
• 00:25:39 - Rainbow 6: Siege
• 00:28:07 - Rogue Trader
• 00:49:29 - News - Med students are using 8BitDo controllers to aid with exam revision, and it seems to have just naturally grown.
• 00:51:40 - News - Nintendo have locked down the USB-C port on the Switch 2, seemingly to try and stop 3rd party peripherals
• 00:53:53 - News - Microsoft have laid off another 9000 employees, mostly in the XBox division and across their studios.
• 00:59:12 - News - Redditors found undeclared use of generative AI in The Alters, and people are not happy
• 01:08:20 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Summer Games Fest has come and gone and this podcast is only an hour. That should say something about the show this year.

• We talk about a few of the things that stood out at Summer Games Fest, which is a pretty small list
• Calum gets into why Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is such an interesting announcement, and has early thoughts on the Switch 2
• Euan has been playing with plant machinery in Roadcraft, and having an existential crisis as to why he likes it so much.

• 00:00:49 - Summer Games Fest
• 00:12:59 - Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls
• 00:25:48 - Roadcraft
• 00:36:37 - The Alters
• 00:37:21 - Switch 2
• 00:52:17 - News - Marathon has been delayed indefinitely, seemingly due to a mixed reception from the Alpha and the stolen art direction controversy.
• 00:58:09 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

As the dawn of the Switch 2 approaches, our heroes find themselves playing non-Nintendo products both old and new!

• Euan discusses further VR adventures with Defector & Wanderer, and reflects back on some old Blendo Games hits with Quadrilateral Cowboy
• Calum briefly talks Warhammer 40k CRPG Rogue Trader and the new release of the season Doom: The Dark Ages

• 00:01:24 - The Switch 2 Is Almost Here
• 00:12:26 - Defector & Wanderer
• 00:20:00 - Quadrilateral Cowboy
• 00:24:19 - Rogue Trader
• 00:26:33 - Helldivers 2
• 00:28:46 - Doom: The Dark Ages
• 00:41:13 - News - Fortnite added a Darth Vader AI that can talk to you, which went as well as you would expect
• 00:56:26 - News - Theoretically we talk about the GTA 6 trailer, but actually we just talk about expectations for the game.
• 01:08:15 - News - Randy Pitchford keeps saying dumb shit.
• 01:12:23 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Its just turned May and we are already on our third GOTY candidate. Also, it's one we might actually agree on!

• It's been a rough week for games media, so we start the podcast with some reminiscing on the good old days of Giant Bomb and mourn the passing of the institution that was Polygon.
• We found Room 46 in Blue Prince, and Euan spend some in the deep south in South of Midnight
• We spend a long time talking about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a game there is as much to talk about as there is attempts at trying to spell it.

• 00:00:57 - Giant Bomb & Polygon
• 00:27:40 - Blue Prince
• 00:33:41 - South of Midnight
• 00:37:33 -Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• 01:28:04 - News - We have a final GTA 6 release date, and it's next year
• 01:31:03 - News - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is making such a splash that even Emmanuel Macron was posting about it
• 01:33:52 - News - Insiders are claiming that Valve has a version of Half Life 3 is playable from end to end.
• 01:36:52 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Blue Prince has caused some differing opinions on the show this week. It's an interesting discussion but I worry about the outcomes...

• Euan talks about the new game from Paradise Killer developers Promise Mascot Agency and wonders if the series can be saved in Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Tape 2
• We both talk all things Blue Prince and it gets in depth and interesting.
• Calum gives a brief glimpse once again into Final Fantasy 14 Savage Raiding

• 00:05:47 - Promise Mascot Agency
• 00:08:48 - Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Tape 2
• 00:24:40 - Blue Prince
• 00:54:19 - FFXVI Savage Raiding
• 01:04:15 - News - Bungie finally revealed Marathon, an extraction shooter with stunning art direction and some pretty big unanswered questions.
• 01:06:53 - News - Nintendo finally showed us the Switch 2, in an unfortunate maelstrom of world news.
• 01:13:07 - News - Respawn and ex-XCOM devs are making a Star Wars turn based strategy game.
• 01:19:22 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

If you're listening to this podcast, I hope you're maximising your sleep and you're on your eighth bottle of sparkling water by now...

• Calum does a check in with Monster Hunter Wilds and is in full preparation mode for the next raid tier in Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail
• Euan also wraps up Citizen Sleeper 2 and Split Fiction, and talking ins and outs of Contractors: Exfil

• 00:12:30 - Monster Hunter: Wilds
• 00:14:19 - FF14
• 00:20:25 - Citizen Sleeper 2
• 00:21:56 - Contractors: Exfil
• 00:30:00 - Split Fiction
• 00:37:06 - News: AI ARK trailer
• 00:41:07 - PSA: Great Humble Bundle
• 00:42:04 - News: Nintendo Stream
• 00:50:30 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

After a two week break for two big games the two host return to (read as two) talk about them. Two.

• Calum has played both rather large games of the past month in Obsidian's latest Avowed and continuing culling of ancient enemies in Monster Hunter Wilds
• Euan returns to teen type in Lost Records and gives a brief overview of Split Fiction. More to follow.

• 00:01:28 - Avowed
• 00:17:23 - Minor Pillars of Eternity Spoilers
• 00:27:16 - Minor Avowed Side Quest Spoilers
• 00:37:03 - Lost Records
• 01:00:00 - Monster Hunter: Wilds
• 01:17:30 - Split Fiction
• 01:26:38 - News - Unity announced a number of layoffs, and are focusing on "Live Services and AI" as one of their tenants moving forward
• 01:27:46 - News - Phil Spencer said some really dumb shit about AI
• 01:32:51 - News - Asynchronous multiplayer Resident Evil spin off Re:Verse is shutting down as it has "served its original, celebratory purpose"
• 01:36:01 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

It's 2025 and we emerge from our winter hibernations. Turns out all we did was play video games. Funny how that works.

• Euan has been stuck in the virtual world with Contractors: Exfil. He also tries to go to the stars in the highly anticipated Citizen Sleeper 2
• Calum played newest Atlus offering Metaphor: ReFantazio, the same game 90% of people were playing over winter Marvel Rivals, and is very ill in the head and this returned to Warframe

• 00:09:32 - IXION
• 00:11:02 - Contractors: Exfil
• 00:38:11 - Metaphor: ReFantazio
• 00:44:30 - Dishonoured 2
• 00:54:34 - Marvel: Rivals
• 01:05:58 - Warframe
• 01:22:14 - Citizen Sleeper 2
• 01:30:23 - We have a half announcement for the Switch 2, and it sure looks like a Switch.
• 01:33:43 - The next Destiny 2 episode is shipping with so much missing voice acting due to the SAG AFTRA actors strike that it has subtitles on by default to cover it.

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

It is the time of year to put another log on the fire, grab your drink of choice, and listen to us talk about our favourite games of the year.

Or in one case spend 20 minutes just quoting it.

• 00:06:13 - Euan - #5
• 00:10:44 - Calum - #5
• 00:17:42 - Euan - #4
• 00:24:13 - Calum - #4
• 00:34:06 - Euan - #3
• 00:43:54 - Calum - #3 & #2
• 00:56:21 - Euan - #2
• 01:10:09 - Calum - #1
• 01:24:48 - Euan - #1
• 01:46:20 - Runners Up
• 01:56:52 - Looking to 2025

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

The world has conspired so that we both got a game from a series we love in one week, so it's a long one.

• After months of discourse, Calum digs into Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and seems to like it a lot.
• Life is Strange: Double Exposure takes Euan into his Pacific North West feelings, even though this installment takes place in Vermont. Remember, "sad teen" is a genre not a time period.

• 00:05:55 - Euan Game Catchup
• 00:09:31 - Dragon Age: The Veilguard
• 01:00:31 - Life is Strange: Double Exposure
• 01:36:15 - News - Sony decided that the "best path forward" for Concord is to close the studio completely
• 01:37:47 - News - 343 Industries is now Halo Studios, and are pivoting to Unreal Engine for the future games.
• 01:38:35 - News - The mobile Animal Crossing game is getting one more year of updates, and if you want access to it then it's going to cost you $20.
• 01:44:52 - News - Another month, another Destiny 2 controversy, this time with the community sleuthing out a bug with their drop rates.
• 01:59:39 - Housekeeping & Upcoming Games

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Nostalgia is a double edged sword, make sure your not falling for it. Also some quirky hardware with a crank. Real hard swings this episode.

• Silent HIll 2 is a foundational game for Euan, so his time with the Bloober Team remake is complicated.
• Awful delivery companies aside, Calum finally got a Playdate. It seems cool!
• We realised we had never talked about the joy of Astro Bot, so we remedy that.
   

• 00:03:31 - Euans Random Games
• 00:06:07 - Silent Hill 2
• 00:54:49 - Playdate
• 01:09:20 - Astro Bot
• 01:24:07 - News - What is happening over at Ubisoft?
• 01:33:53 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

We took some time away. We've come back. There are video games. It never changes

• Calum talks now real video game Deadlock. We all thought it was a secret, but it was just a MOBA
• Euan talks about the seemingly perfectly average Star Wars Outlaws

• 00:02:00 - Sony announced a £700 PlayStation Pro
• 00:11:48 - Concord has been taken offline after less than a month
• 00:20:39 - Former head of Sony Europe says industry layoffs aren't caused by greed, and people should "figure out how to get through it"
• 00:23:51 - Deadlock
• 00:45:17 - Star Wars Outlaws
• 00:59:51 - Space Marine 2
• 01:01:40 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

We saw some video games happen, some people are denying video games are happening, and some people appear to be doing whatever they can to ensure they don't make another video game happen again.

• Euan investigates some sci-fi murders with mixed results in No One Wants To Die
• Calum conquers his demons, namely the new Final Fantasy XIV Savage Raids, and experiences some retro Morrowind vibes in Dread Delusion
• We both finally got to experience Thank Goodness You're Here, and it's every bit as good as we were hoping for

• 00:01:10 - Deathlock is being played by 20,000 people, but has never been officially announced or even acknowledged. Also we talk about that Verge article, and how people who don't understand what journalism is lost their minds.
• 00:15:05 - No One Wants To Die
• 00:26:25 - Thank Goodness You're Here
• 00:35:46 - FFXIV Savage Raid
• 00:44:38 - Dread Delusion
• 00:54:03 - News - PSVR2 looks like it's in trouble, with not a lot of new games and now $200 off in a fire sale
• 00:56:56 - News - Silent Hill: Ascension, the awful "interactive" TV show, won an Emmy!?
• 00:59:16 - News - Tango Gameworks, one of the many studios killed by Microsoft, appears to have been saved by South Korean publisher Krafton
• 01:06:35 - News - Bungie had another round of layoffs, bringing the future of Destiny into real question. Also the CEO bought a  lot of cars. Unrelated I'm sure.
• 01:18:29 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

The games are sparse so we revert to type with RPGs and VR galore

• Calum plays hot new release Elden Ring. This is a lie but he hasn't heard anyone talk about this game, so it's worth a go. This was also a lie.
• Euan forgets reality for one of a virtual kind with Contractors Showdown and Ghosts of Tabor
• We both tried The First Decendant. It's alright. That's it, that's all we have to say

• 00:02:08 - Elden Ring
• 00:22:47 - Contractors Showdown
• 00:39:30 - Ghosts of Tabor
• 00:46:18 - The First Decendents
• 00:49:35 - FFXIV Raid
• 00:50:43 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

We haven't heard from Calum in a while. He said he was exploring Tural? Don't know what that means but hopefully he's ok.

• Calum explores the latest Final Fantasy 14 expansion, Dawntrail
• Euan does what every Scottish person has to consider at one point in their life, and decides to work on an oil rig in Still Wakes the Deep

• 00:02:02 - FFIVX: Dawntrail
• 00:21:43 - Dragon Age: Inquisition
• 00:22:51 - Still Wakes the Deep
• 00:34:33 - Still Wakes the Deep - Spoiler Start
• 00:41:41 - Still Wakes the Deep - Spoiler End
• 00:41:50 - News - Cities Skylines 2 had to patch out landlords
• 00:46:31 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

A long one for everyone this week. Between the Summer Keighley Fest and a new Destiny expansion, it's a new season for games.

• We talk about the things we care about from Summer Games Fest, including the new Dragon Age, slow female vocal covers in trailers, and many other smaller items.
• Calum takes up his mantle of Destiny editor and goes in depth to Destiny 2: The Final Shape.
• Euan talks about Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, a much anticipated sequel for him.

• 00:02:22 - SGF: The Dragon Age: The Veilguard: The Trailer
• 00:12:24 - SGF: Trailers and their Slow Music Covers
• 00:23:06 - SGF: South of Midnight and Souls-likes
• 00:27:23 - SGF: More From the Xbox Showcase
• 00:30:00 - SGF: Euan's Sad Teen Hour
• 00:35:42 - SGF: The Dragon Age Cinematic Universe
• 00:42:15 - SGF: The Actual SGF Show
• 00:58:51 - Euan bought a Quest 3
• 01:08:02 - Destiny 2: The Final Shape
• 01:42:08 - Hellblade 2
• 01:56:39 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Break Music -The Complex - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

As summer approaches, one of us prepares for months of MMO gameplay and the other does what he always does. Plays weird indie games. 

NOTE - We talk about minor spoilers from Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, we are explicit when we are about to start, and there is a timestamp in the podcast description.

• We both played XDefiant, and had a surprisingly long conversation about the current state of the FPS genre.
• Euan plays a pile of puzzlers with The Excavation of Hobs Barrow and Lorelei and the Laser Eyes.
• Calum plays the latest Playstation PC port Ghosts of Tsushima.
   

• 00:02:44 - XDefiant
• 00:25:45 - Onward Mercenaries
• 00:28:01 - Hellblade
• 00:30:41 - The Excavation of Hobs Barrow
• 00:38:29 - Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
• 00:46:24 - Lorelei Spoilers Start
• 00:50:27 - Lorelei Spoilers End
• 00:51:33 - Ghosts of Tsushima PC
• 01:01:18 - News - Ubisoft have cancelled the F2P spin off of The Division. I hope the third instalment actually makes it out.
• 01:02:17 - News - Jake Solomon, the game designer behind the XCOM reboot has a new studio, and is trying his hand at a new genre. Ready for The Sims with half cover?
• 01:08:39 - Calum was at a Stardew Valley Concert
• 01:10:29 - News - Leaks have started around Valves next game, taking bits of Overwatch, DOTA and TF2
• 01:12:06 - News - Neil Druckman, perpetual man with opinions, thinks AI is actually great. He's wrong.
• 01:17:30 - Upcoming & Wrap Up

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

We return with video games to talk about. Some of them are even current and relevant! 

• Euan plays the unexplainable Indika and the very explainable cat sim Little Kitty, Big City
• Calum substitutes his lack of raiding with raiding roguelike Rabbit and Steel and "anime Monster Hunter" Granblue Fantasy Relink

• 00:02:00 - Little Kitty, Big City
• 00:04:19 - Saints Row
• 00:06:52 - Indika
• 00:15:16 - Rabbit and Steel
• 00:19:38 - Granblue Fantasy: Relink
• 00:36:19 - News - In order to capitalize on the success of the Fallout series, Bethesda decided to catastrophically break Fallout 4.
• 00:40:47 - News - Nintendo just tweeted it out, and have confirmed that the follow up to the Switch is coming this fiscal year.
• 00:42:46 - News - Sony managed to destroy massive amount of goodwill behind Helldivers 2 by trying to enforce a PSN link on PC. They have now backed down from this idea.
• 00:50:20 - News - The industry takes another massive hit, as Microsoft shutters more studios, including Tango Gameworks and Prey developers Arkane Austin. You should play Prey.
• 01:11:50 - News - Someone has put together a bot that plays Tekken 8 by just pressing kick as Eddie Gordo, and it appears to be winning.
• 01:17:22 - News - Destiny 2 continues to make more changes in advance of Final Shape.
• 01:22:20 - News - Did you know that Hellblade 2 is out next week? Microsoft wants you to know that it hasn't forgot either.
• 01:25:45 - Upcoming & Wrap Up

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

This is the last week of games coming out for a while, so we're going to spend it letting Calum talk about Dragon's Dogma 2.

• Euan plays tarot based story telling game The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood and slasher inspired puzzle narrative game Killer Frequency
• Calum talks all things Dragons Dogma 2. That's all.

• 00:06:20 - The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood
• 00:11:31 - Killer Frequency
• 00:16:32 - Dragon’s Dogma 2
• 00:41:58 - Minor Dragon’s Dogma 2 Quest Spoilers
• 00:53:29 - News - Apex Hack
• 00:59:46 - News - Kotaku Pivot
• 01:03:42 - News - GW3?
• 01:09:04 - Upcoming & Wrap Up
• 01:09:36 - Secret News - Destiny 2

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

After a brief hospital visit, we're back again with some actual video games.

Editors Note: We realised later that the Helldivers 2 GM is actually named Joel. Too late to change the title now.

The Woods - Wilbert Roget, II - Pacific Drive: Official Game Soundtrack

Steam | Epic Games Store

• Euan rumbles around a messed up Pacific North-West in Pacific Drive, an early GOTY candidate.
• Calum is in the early stages of Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, and has a bunch of things he can't talk about.
• We both have put a bunch of time into Helldivers, and we talk about how it might be the first game in a long time to do live service right.

• 00:02:05 - Hospital Chat
• 00:19:40 - Helldivers 2 & Live Service
• 00:40:00 - Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth
• 00:47:20 - Destiny 2 Hoverboards
• 00:52:26 - Music Break
• 00:54:20 - Pacific Drive and its save system.
• 01:20:45 - News - Akira Toyama passed away at 68, and leaves behind a legacy that touched a lot of people
• 01:22:25 - News - The remaster of the first three Tomb Raider games had some strange inconsistencies between the Steam and EGS versions
• 01:24:45 - News - Rooster Teeth shuts down after more than 20 years, because their new corporate overlords said "Nah"
• 01:26:36 - News - After a less than impressive showing by Suicide Squad, a live service game, Warner Bros are doubling down on live service games.
• 01:28:52 - News - EA CEO Andrew Wilson just went off to fantasy land about his perceived impressions of what AI can do.
• 01:32:46 - News - The wingnut gamers are at it again, constructing a conspiracy theory against narrative consulting shop Sweet Baby Inc.
• 01:33:51 - Upcoming Games & Wrap Up

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

No new games to talk about this week, so instead we talk about the Xbox Business Update and its ramifications on the gaming space

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

We're back! After a holiday/sickness break, we return to talking about video games.

We spoil some of the Tekken 8 story mode in this episode (1:00:00 -> 1:07:17). Timestamps are below if you want to avoid it.

• Euan talks life after Yakuza in Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and is saddened once again by Konami's decisions in Silent Hill: A Short Message
• Calum low parries his own anxiety to try and learn what the fuck Tekken 8 is all about.

• 00:14:08 - Lethal Company
• 00:18:58 - Max Payne 3
• 00:23:14 - Yakuza
• 00:44:29 - Tekken 8
• 01:00:00 - Tekken 8: Spoilers
• 01:07:17 - Tekken 8: Spoilers End
• 01:15:43 - Silent Hill: TSM
• 01:36:53 - Upcoming Games & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

We may have finally hit the end of the year for video games, but jesus there is still so much to play.

• Euan talks about the co-op perspective of Baldur's Gate 3, and the atrocity that is Silent Hill: Ascension.
• Calum briefly discusses the Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising Playtest, more to follow in December when the game releases in full.
• We both dicuss our continuing amazement at Alan Wake 2

• 00:01:17 - Black Friday & Buying a Laptop in 2023
• 00:10:57 - Alan Wake 2
• 00:18:25 - Baldur's Gate 3
• 00:42:56 - Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising Playtest
• 00:51:17 - Silent Hill: Ascension
• 01:15:29 - News - Hades is coming to mobile via Netflix
• 01:16:47 - News - The internet has bullied Rockstar enough where they are showing the first trailer for GTA6 in December
• 01:18:06 - News - The Glory Society, the studio from the developers of Night in the Woods, is closing due to members serious health issues.
• 01:19:48 - News - We talk at length about the direction that different parts of the industry are taking with live service games, and their relation to the Bungie Layoffs
• 01:41:13 - Upcoming Games & Wrap Up

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Music Break - Background Music (Loop) - Migfus20 (freesound.org)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

BOO! It's so spooky. It's a spooky show for the spooky day. 

The Crystal Bot - Arnaud Roy - Endless Dungeon (Original Game Soundtrack)

Bandcamp

• We both discuss the conversion of old nanomachines to the nanomachines running on current gen platforms in Metal Gear Solid Collection Vol 1, continuing adventures in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty and multi-genre cross-over a-thon, Endless Dungeon
• Euan dicusses his brief beginnings with Alan Wake 2, expect more to come

• 00:09:59 - Metal Gear Solid Collection Vol 1
• 00:42:51 - Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
• 00:46:31 - Endless Dungeon
• 00:55:08 - Music Break
• 00:56:31 - Steam Demo Fest
• 00:59:20 - Alan Wake 2
• 01:19:57 - The International
• 01:24:46 - News - EA FC, previously FIFA, has had a patch that stopped players from running with the ball in their hands. Kind of a key feature of the sport.
• 01:26:20 - News - Disney Dreamlight Valley will no longer be free to play when it leaves Early Access in December.
• 01:30:59 - Upcoming & Wrap Up

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

A couple of weeks has given the chance to catch up on some current video games, so now we can talk about it!

Last Light - Borislav Slavov - Baldur’s Gate 3: Original Soundtrack

Steam

• Euan talks eat theivery simulator Pizza Possum and noir hell-em-up El Paso, Elsewhere
• Calum talks about his journey into custom fight game controllers and, appropriately, Mortal Kombat 1
• We both discuss recent changes to Cyberpunk 2077 and its new DLC Phantom Liberty

• 00:06:01 - Pizza Possum
• 00:09:40 - El Paso, Elsewhere
• 00:11:01 - Mortal Kombat 1
• 00:22:31 - Calum's Artisan Leverless Controller
• 00:37:57 - Purchasing from Small Companies
• 00:49:10 - Music Break
• 00:52:16 - Phantom Liberty
• 01:13:13 - News - Unity have walked back some of their insane "installation fee", but not completely
• 01:15:42 - News - Sega cancelled their upcoming PvPvE game Hyenas, with some reporting showing the troubles the game had during development
• 01:18:10 - News - Epic are cutting 870 jobs, because they have been "spending way more money than we earn" for a long time. That seems like a management problem.
• 01:24:35 - Upcoming & Housekeeping

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

It's a space heavy episode. Exploration in space Disneyland, the end of the world from a space rock, and changes to pricing structures that should be launched into space.

Reunion - Reunion (Ft. Brigitte Naggar) - Goodbye Volcano High (Original Game Soundtrack)

Bandcamp

• Euan plays music while facing the end of the world in Goodbye Volcano High, updates on limited Armoured Core 6 progress and finds Sonic in the strangest places in the Hyenas Closed Beta.
• We both have put some time into Starfield, and talk about how it treats the scale of space, and the issues it causes itself issues because it's trying so hard to be a Bethesda game.

• 00:02:31 - Armoured Core 6
• 00:08:54 - Hyenas Closed Beta
• 00:13:24 - Goodbye Volcano High
• 00:18:51 - Starfield
• 00:47:30 - Music Break
• 00:48:53 - News - Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 is back under a new studio, and with a different direction
• 00:51:30 - News - Everyone knows that Baldur's Gate 3 is a horny game, but it might have been too horny because of a bug.
• 00:52:48 - News - Unity want to charge developers a fee per install of a game. No one thinks this is a good idea.
• 01:12:43 - News - Calum talks about a long running Destiny 2 bug which has surfaced, which lets people make really wild gun configurations.
• 01:19:51 - Upcoming Games & Wrap Up

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

These games. They never end. There's more on the way too. I'm so tired.

DA PEOPLE - Hideki Naganuma - Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Soundtrack

• Euan plays puzzle slasher Homebody, narrative explorer The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales and hot mech game of the moment Armored Core 6
• We both talk about the absolute coolest game on the planet Bombrush Cyberfunk

• 00:00:57 - Baldur's Gate 3
• 00:13:41 - Techtonica
• 00:14:41 - The Bookwalker
• 00:17:36 - Homebody
• 00:19:19 - Homebody Spoilers
• 00:20:55 - Armoured Core 6
• 00:46:57 - Music Break
• 00:49:11 - Bomb Rush Cyberfunk
• 01:01:18 - News - Baldur's Gate 3 seems to be coming to XBox before the end of the year after reaching an "agreement" with Microsoft
• 01:03:49 - News - ABK have turned their sights back on UK regulators by giving cloud streaming rights to their games to... Ubisoft?
• 01:09:30 - News - Keith David is picking up the role of Zavala in Destiny 2 after the loss of Lance Reddick, and Calum fills in what happened on the Final Shape stream.
• 01:20:30 - News - Kotaku ex-EIC Patricia Hernandez was fired by parent company G/O media, and gave a unbelievable picture on The Games Press podcast as to what that experience was like.
• 01:24:51 - News - Sony announced the PlayStation Portal, a handheld that lets you stream games from your own PS5, and that's it.
• 01:33:35 - Upcoming & Outro

Intro Music -There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music -Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting -News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

What? Huh? Oh right you're here. Yes, there's a podcast, Calum talks about Baldur's Gate 3. Listen to it, or don't. I'm going back to playing Baldur's Gate 3.

• Baldur's Gate 3. Yep that's it. It's an hour of Baldur chat.

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Going to be honest, Calum writes these and he's just killing time till Baldur's Gate 3. So, yea, video games, check them out.

No Exit - scntfc - Oxenfree II: Lost Signals OST

Bandcamp

• Euan experiences Sludge Life 2 and is sadly disapointed by the return of confused teens in Oxenfree II
• Calum explores the deep blue for tasty fish in Dave the Diver

• 0:04:13 - Sludge Life 2
• 0:09:36 - Oxenfree II
• 0:26:14 - Dave The Diver
• 0:38:41 - Music Break
• 0:39:43 - Exoprimal
• 0:51:10 - News - Major Nelson himself Larry Hryb is leaving Microsoft after 22 years
• 0:52:59 - News - Sony agreed to keep Call of Duty on the platform for 10 years by sacrificing all other Activision IP
• 0:57:31 - News - Overwatch 2 is coming to Steam on August 10th with the new single player missions
• 0:59:13 - News - Game documentarians Noclip are ripping and reencoding a number of lost industry footage
• 1:06:09 - News - The people that are working on the Silent Hill live Twitch streaming... thing... are also doing it with Borderlands
• 1:08:30 - News - A collection of industry veterans have started a new studio making games exclusively in Fortnite using UEFN
• 1:11:52 - Baldurs Gate 3 Discourse is Wild
• 1:19:30 - Upcoming & Wrap Up

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

We're at an ebb in the ebb and flow of video game releases. Nice relaxed podcast today.

• Euan gives all the updates this week with Mars First Logistics and System Shock

• 00:08:02 - Final Fantasy XVI
• 00:09:07 - System Shock
• 00:13:18 - Mars First Logistics
• 00:21:38 - News - Baldur's Gate 3 doesn't have a release date on Xbox yet, as Larian is having issues getting split-screen working on the Series S
• 00:24:23 - News - Annapurna rounded off Not-E3 with a bunch of new games, and their first in-house project, a new game in the Blade Runner universe
• 00:28:18 - News - Sega have finally listened and are ditching their NFT plans.
• 00:30:25 - News - Sonic and Balan Wonderworld creator Yuji Naka has now been sentenced on charges of insider trading.
• 00:32:59 - News - The official Pokémon Forums have launched, and for a brief moment were a nightmare
• 00:37:26 - News - The Microsoft Activision merger court case brought more interesting info, this time from a Sony document that was very poorly redacted.
• 00:43:49 - News - The new shepherds of future Skullgirls development decided to clean-up some questionable content from the game, and naturally the internet was very calm about it and didn't behave like giant embarrassing children.
• 00:49:26 - Upcoming Games + Wrap Up

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

The weather is hot and so are the video games. Actually, not really we've hit the end of the big new releases. There's more to talk about!

• Euan talks about several Steam Next Fest demos, and continues to wander around in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
• Calum talks newest release Final Fantasy XVI. It's the sixteenth Final Fantasy game and I will hear no other arguments at this time.

• 00:08:13 - Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
• 00:16:57 - Final Fantasy XVI
• 00:46:08 - Twitch continues to make baffling business decisions for the people who create the content.
• 00:55:09 - Don't worry, there was supposed to be a solitary woman at Summer Games Fest, there was just scheduling conflicts.
• 00:58:54 - Seemingly out of nowhere, Bungie dropped a massive lore dump on Destiny players they weren't expecting.
• 01:07:22 - Looks like E3 2024 and 2025 might already be cancelled?
• 01:11:28 - Jim Ryan may have blown their main argument in the case against the Microsoft/ABK merger
• 01:13:43 - It was an unexciting Nintendo Direct, until they gave Mario acid right at the end.
• 01:16:52 - Wrap Up & Coming Soon

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

It's the start of video game releases. The heavy hitters start now!

• Calum talks the two big releases in Diablo 4 and Street Fighter 6. Busy time for fans of ARPGs and fighting games across the land.
• Euan gives his opinion on Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Will it be different from the majority? Listen to find out!

• 00:02:13 - Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
• 00:11:59 - Diablo 4
• 00:34:40 - Street Fighter 6
• 00:58:49 - Quick Destiny check in for the new season
• 01:02:04 - News - Jason Shrier published a great internal look into Arkane and why Redfall may have turned out the way it did
• 01:04:47 - Sony got out ahead of Not-E3 with their PlayStation Showcase
• 01:06:10 - AI Generated Content was all over the place in the last few weeks, and none of it was good news
• 01:16:52 - Two separate people picked up warehouse jobs purely to steal copies of Zelda ahead of release
• 01:18:46 - Twitch announced some changes to their policies on branded content, which was pretty tone deaf and unanimously rejected by streamers.
• 01:26:48 - We discuss the (surprisingly limited) things to be excited for from Summer Games Fest and other streams so far.

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

The conversations went long this week. More to enjoy!

Jack Da Funk - Hideki Naganuma - Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Side 1

Bandcamp

• Euan talks about his Jedi Survivor experience, and playing Dead by Daylight on a Steam Deck
• Calum talks Idol Showdown, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous and hot game of the moment Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

• 00:04:35 - The New Website is Done!
• 00:06:11 - Jedi Survivor
• 00:40:27 - Dead by Daylight on Steam Deck
• 00:45:29 - Idol Showdown
• 00:46:21 - Zelda
• 01:14:58 - Musical Interlude
• 01:17:27 - Pathfinder
• 01:40:47 - News - Not E3 starts with the Sony Showcase on Wednesday
• 01:41:51 - News - Mortal Kombat 1 is a silly name, but seems pretty descriptive
• 01:43:49 - News - Hawken, the indie mech darling from way back has returned, and unfortunately it's not good!
• 01:45:10 - News - The person in charge of Ganon's design for the new Zelda finally got to make him hot, according to an interview
• 01:46:12 - News - Wow it seems like Overwatch 2 is having a bad time
• 01:54:32 - News - Shocking no-one, Ubisoft is doubling down on Assassins Creed
• 01:57:14 - News - The Apex Legends Board Game is closer to Warhammer than a traditional board game, but man the miniatures are cool.
• 02:00:45 - Wrap Up & Upcoming Games

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Returning from a holiday and games start coming out. What a time to have a podcast

• Euan plays Shadows of Doubt, a game with more genres than time I have to type them out here. You’ll just have to listen.
• We both “played” Redfall and have some thoughts. They are not good thoughts, but they are thoughts.
• Calum talks at length about Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. As a Star Wars fan, you can imagine this is a long discussion.

• 02:01 – Holidays & our bodies are getting old.
• 07:36 – Shadows of Doubt.
• 16:30 – Redfall.
• 36:31 – Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
• 1:11:57 – Citizen Sleeper and the Lost In Cult collaboration.

Intro Music – There It Is – Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music – Honey Bee – Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting – News Intro – Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Shorter catch up this week as we lie in wait for the release hellscape of May/June. Also Euan has holidays to go on so we didn’t want to leave you good people hanging.

• Euan played a variety of smaller games, including Drop: System Breach, Dredge, A Little To The Left
• Calum has a Destiny 2 Catchup as the seasonal story ends and talks massive changes to DOTA 2 (yes he’s playing DOTA 2 again)

• 0:02:14 – Euan’s Catch-up
• 0:05:44 – Pistol Whip, and Borderlands OST
• 0:07:57 – Dredge
• 0:12:43 – Resident Evil 4 + More Remakes
• 0:21:00 – Destiny 2 Check-in
• 0:27:26 – DOTA2 & the new patch
• 0:33:28 – News – Someone has ported Jedi Outcast to VR, and it looks great.
• 0:37:03 – News – Jedi Survivor is a big game, and you might need a download even with the disc version
• 0:38:42 – News – Niantic are taking their Pokemon GO formula and trying again with Monster Hunter
• 0:40:37 – News – The Division 2 is still going strong, and we got details of two new titles in the series.
• 0:44:26 – News – Troubled developers of Dark and Darker are asking people to torrent their Alpha since they arn’t allowed on Steam.
• 0:48:08 – News – Scared of deep water? Horizon: Forbidden West has you covered
• 0:50:09 – News – Microsoft are removing their “share to Twitter” functionality, since they are saying no to the huge new cost of the API
• 0:54:15 – News – Indie horror hit Iron Lung is being made into a movie, directed by and starring Markiplier.
• 0:55:59 – News – Footage came out of Unrecord, an incredibly realistic looking game from the perspective of a police body cam
• 1:03:12 – Housekeeping & Upcoming

Intro Music – There It Is – Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music – Honey Bee – Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting – News Intro – Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

It’s been a while since we did this. Luckily, there are games to talk about.

Photosynthetic Skin – Amos Roddy – Citizen Sleeper (Original Soundtrack)

Bandcamp

• Calum played in the weekend limited Diablo 4 Beta.
• Euan played maze building PvP game Meet Your Maker by the creators of Dead by Daylight
• We both played Resident Evil 4 Remake. As much as we enjoyed the original, it has been a very long time.

• 00:09:01 – Diablo 4 Beta
• 00:30:13 – Meet Your Maker
• 00:50:15 – Music Interlude
• 00:51:46 – Resident Evil 4
• 01:16:23 – Deliver Us Mars, Dredge, Hitman is good
• 01:20:09 – News – There is a Persona 5 mobile game coming, but it’s coming from a predominantly gatcha studio so…
• 01:21:01 – News – Sega put out a Sonic murder mystery visual novel, and it’s apparently the best Sonic game in years.
• 01:21:37 – News – Epic have launched a very powerful editor and a new Creative mode for Fortnite, but the profit sharing model is kinda wild.
• 01:25:49 – News – Multiversus is leaving open beta by going to sleep for a year, with no purchase refunds
• 01:28:36 – News – E3 has officially been cancelled for this year, now the real question is if this is the death knell of the show
• 01:38:20 – Upcoming Games
• 01:42:40 – Our Technical Issues

Intro Music – There It Is – Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music – Honey Bee – Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting – News Intro – Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

It’s that time of year again. It’s time to talk about Destiny for an inordiante amount of time.

Spoiler Warning – We talk about the story of Destiny 2: Lightfall between 16:24 and 22:33.

Calling Upon Bravery – Eddie Marianukroh – Chained Echoes (Original Game Soundtrack)

Bandcamp

• Calum talks Destiny 2: Lightfall, the latest expansion. That’s it, that’s all he talks about
• Euan talks mech based XCOM-like Phantom Brigade

• 4:22 – Destiny 2: Lightfall
• 16:24 – Destiny 2: Lightfall Story Spoilers
• 22:33 – Destiny 2: Lightfall Story Spoilers End
• 1:12:30 – Music Break
• 1:15:23 – Phantom Brigade
• 1:38:55 – News – Paradox announced a bunch of things, including a Sims competitor
• 1:41:06 – News – The Suicide Squad gameplay might have been recieved so badly they have delayed it again
• 1:42:09 – News – Capcom showed off their lineup, and gave more details on the Resident Evil 4 remake
• 1:43:40 – News – A whole bunch of games have shut down so far this year, and it’s only March
• 1:46:22 – News – Sony continue to raise issues with the Microsoft Activision merger

Intro Music – There It Is – Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music – Honey Bee – Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting – News Intro – Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com)

All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0