We're back in 2022 and there's still games to talk about. It is never ending.

We Played...

• Euan played space co-op shooter The Anacrusis and chucks heavy objects in first person in Hitman 3 VR.
• Calum talks in depth about the dynamics of high level raiding in Final Fantasy 14 - Endwalker
• We both played fake (but should be real) e-sport Windjammers 2 and shoot off about Guardians of the Galaxy

Timestamps...

• 2:19 - Post Trauma
• 2:59 - BPM: Bullets Per Minute
• 3:25 - Hitman 3 VR
• 7:27 - The Anacrusis
• 10:54 - Game Pass and Game Reviews
• 15:22 - Final Fantasy XIV Savage Raids
• 35:08 - Windjammers 2
• 35:39 - Guardians of the Galaxy
• 55:27 - News - Microsoft Buys Activision Blizzard for $68.9m
• 1:23:30 - News - Playstation provide details on their next VR Headset.
• 1:26:26 - News - Cricket 22 embroiled in a dick-pic scandal.

Intro Music - There It Is - 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

This will probably be the last podcast for a while, so we better talk about some video games.

We Played...

• Euam finished SPG (that's shread playing game) Artful Escape and checks out Enigma Machine. He also attempts to play Oxenfree, but it does not go well.
• Calum talks new Apex Legends season content.

Timestamps...

• 3:14 - We are very tired
• 5:26 - Local COVID Updates
• 13:45 - The Artful Escape
• 18:19 - Oxenfree might be busted on PC?
• 20:59 - Phasmophobia in VR hurts.
• 22:57 - The Enigma Machine
• 26:42 - Apex Legends
• 34:12 - Music Intermission
• 36:40 - News - FFXIV Endwalker is delayed
• 48:04 - News - Steam Deck and Playdate are also delayed into next year
• 51:01 - News - Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 are also also delayed into * checks notes * 2023?!
• 55:29 - News - Microsoft are making much needed improvements to the Xbox App for PC
• 57:33 - News - The Nintendo Switch Online Pass Expansion is making people very very unhappy.
• 1:01:43 - News - MercurySteam left a bunch of developers out of the credits for Metroid Dread, saying that's just how the system works. Youch.
• 1:05:27 - News - Eurogamer ran possibly the best interview in games journalism as they grilled a head of EA FIFA about lootboxes. Everyone should read this.
• 1:11:51 - News - The long rumoured GTA Trilogy "Definitive Edition" appears to be pretty definitively terrible.
• 1:19:50 - End of year plans.

Intro Music - There It Is - 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 a title suggests, spooky season approches. That means there are video games to talk about and the slow march of time to worry about for one of us.

We Played...

• Euan played a Bunch of Demos and focuses on Pony Island developers new deckbuilder GameDec. Yes that was a weird sentence to write
• Calum reverts to type in playing CCG Legends of Runeterra and has to see what the deal with Genshin Impact is and leads to a wider discussion of the "Gatcha" genre

Timestamps...

• 2:55 - Game of the Year Starts Early
• 10:29 - Euan played a load of demos
• 15:59 - No-one Lives Under The Lighthouse
• 18:05 - Gamedec
• 30:39 - Music Interlude
• 34:34 - Legends of Runeterra
• 49:50 - Genshin Impact

Intro Music - There It Is - 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

We've hit video game season, so it seems right we talk about video games

We Played...

• Euan plays former Skyrime mod turned strange mystery game The Forgotten City and gets in touch with his inner sad teen yet again in Life is Strange: True Colors
• Calum bought a PS5 and played Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart to completion
• We both played Deathloop, then played Deathloop, then played Deathloop, then played Deathloop, then played Deathloop, then played Deathloop (it's a very clever joke i`m sure you've never seen anywhere else)

Timestamps...

• 3:44 - The Forgotten City
• 8:19 - Life is Strange: True Colors
• 23:57 - Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart & Purchasing a PS5
• 33:28 - Deathloop
• 1:04:47 - Music Intermission
• 1:06:45 - News - The Skyrim "treasure fox" is real. Kind of.
• 1:10:03 - News - Ever popped off so hard you've literally popped a joint?
• 1:12:28 - News - The PlayStation showcased some big new announcements.
• 1:32:09 - News - We remembered that we hadn't talked about Gamecom, specifically DokeV. So we did that.

Intro Music - There It Is - 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

Calum's new PS5 is the surprise guest this week! Live and on the podcast!

NOTE - This podcast discusses the story and ending of Twelve Minutes between 41:05 - 46:48. If that's something you care about, skip that section.

We Played...

• Euan talks about a pair of disappointing games in Recompile and Twelve Minutes
• Calum discusses latest advancements in both looting and shooting in Destiny 2: Season of the Lost

Timestamps...

• 0:39 - Live Playstation 5 "Unboxing"
• 14:17 - Recompile
• 29:29 - Twelve Minutes (Spoiler Free)
• 41:05 - Twelve Minutes (Spoilers)
• 46:48 - Destiny 2: Season of the Lost
• 1:04:09 - Musical Intermission
• 1:05:47 - Exactly two minutes of Evangelion Discussion
• 1:07:41 - News - Sony announced the next big Playstation showcase, September 9th
• 1:08:38 - News - Bungie announce and detail the next big Destiny 2 expansion
• 1:13:55 - News - Sony announce, and then back off on the idea, that Horizon: Forbidden West will have no PS4 to PS5 upgrade path outside the $100+ editions of the game.
• 1:22:53 - News - Steam's blanket 2 hour return policy has forced a single person developer to stop making games, after losing so much money on people returning the game, which they enjoyed.
• 1:29:26 - News - Activision announced the next Call of Duty game while keeping their logo away from the entire announcement, like they might be trying to distance their cash cow from recent lawsuits and reporting.
• 1:32:47 - News - Two heads of Naughty Dog, a studio with reports of bad culture and bad crunch, justify their crunch facilitating business practices, and wave away unionisation as a potential solution.
• 1:38:07 - News - Employees of Unity express unease with the companies opaque military and government contract division, CEO says "leave if you don't like it".

Intro Music - There It Is - 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

Honestly we talk about sports for far too long. No joke. Like actual sports.

We Played...

• Euan plays bizarre styled horror/narrative game Mundaun, gives us his occasional VR Update, and talks about how PC game pass is totally broken
• Calum give an Apex Legends Season 10 review and talks about a true indie gem in Death's Door

Timestamps...

• 1:24 - The Olympics
• 21:05 - Mundaun
• 28:21 - VR Update (Contractors, The Secret of Retropolis, Maskmaker)
• 32:43 - The Game Pass Ecosystem is Broken, Cross Play is strange.
• 43:30 - New Apex Legends Season
• 56:20 - Music Break
• 57:53 - Deaths Door
• 1:08:03 - News - Playstation 5 Beta Firmware supports M2 drives, they are extortionate.
• 1:11:13 - News - Nintendo's profits are down, but it's only cause Animal Crossing did gangbusters.
• 1:12:28 - News - Xsolla fired 150 based on big data from their work interactions, and that's not even the worst bit.
• 1:20:51 - News - Activison Blizzard had their investor call in the wake of the abysmal workplace culture reporting and a lawsuit. It went kind of how you expected it to. Horrifyingly.

Intro Music - There It Is - 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

We battle blazing temperatures to bring you the video game chat you need!

We Played...

• Euan played Gears of War 5, for reasons, and is floored by The Last Stop. He can't really explain why. Just trust him
• Calum goes back to the MOBA genre with Pokemon Unite
• We both played Boomerang X. The shooter both impressed and confused at the same time.

Timestamps...

• 13:45 - Gears 5
• 21:45 - Last Stop
• 44:24 - Pokemon Unite
• 1:13:00 - MUSIC BREAK
• 1:15:30 - Boomerang X
• 1:32:42 - News - Someone leaked British military secrets to complain a developer wasn't doing their job right
• 1:40:45 - News - EA Play live happened, and the biggest thing was a Dead Space remake
• 1:46:02 - News - DigitalFoundry confirmed reports that removing DRM from RE:Village fixes the PC performance issues.
• 1:49:33 - News - The state of California sued Activision Blizzard for widespread harassment of women and says that they are in "violation of state civil rights"
• 1:54:16 - News - Valve announces the Steam Deck, a handheld Linux based console that plays the whole Steam library, and Steam explodes when pre-orders start
• 2:20:16 - News - A mass migration of disgruntled WoW players to Final Fantasy XIV has caused some tension in the community.

Intro Music - There It Is - 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

E3 happened, and since we couldn't be in the same room this year we thought we should dump our opinions out in public even though no-one asked. That's what you do on a podcast right?

Timestamps...

• 4:41 - Summer Games Fest Kickoff
• 15:49 - Ubisoft
• 26:07 - Xbox & Bethesda
• 40:13 - Square Enix
• 47:43 - Sam Barlow's New Game + Euan has played every Silent Hill Game
• 51:46 - Capcom
• 53:43 - Nintendo
• 1:07:56 - The Twitch Co-Streaming Disaster (a.k.a. The DMCA Process has Totally Broken Twitch).

Intro Music - There It Is - 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

We got the E3 sweats! Honestly it's not because it's roasting outside...

We Played...

• Euan deals with trains in Metro Exodus and Necromunda: Hired Gun, and tries to get away with stylish murder in Overboard!
• Calum finished Mass Effect 2 for the billionth time, and has a dodge-brawl in Knockout City

Timestamps...

• 6:58 - Metro Exodus
• 9:28 - Necromunda: Hired Gun
• 22:47 - Overboard!
• 30:35 - Mass Effect 2
• 41:02 - Knockout City
• 58:29 - Musical Interlude
• 1:00:58 - News - E3 Is Happening
• 1:06:21 - News - Want a PS3 version of Gears 3?
• 1:08:03 - News - The PS5 will be profitable in June.
• 1:10:59 - News - FFVII Integrade has a ridiculous save transfer system, like apparently every PS4 to PS5 game.
• 1:14:38 - News - It looks like Sony may have forced Gearbox to exclude Playstation for its Borderlands 3 Cross Play plans.
• 1:17:47 - News - Far Cry 6 is just "asking questions", it's not political. Apparently.

Intro Music - There It Is - 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