Yep, it’s the end of our first full year of podcasting and so in true gaming pundit form, the Eye of Spark Towers shines out and focuses on the games of 2016 in our 2nd Game of the Year Extravaganza.

It’s gonna be captivating, even enrapture-vating!

But firstly, in the spirit of the New Year descending upon us, here’s a brief retrospective and some offerings of thanks;

Since starting off in May 2015 the Sparks have grown considerably and we are really proud of what we have created, realising our ambition of creating a positive, energetic and objective look into the world of video games and associated technology through our eyes – gamer eyes.

We are absolutely delighted with the brand that we have created – just the two of us – and seeing the show reaching a wider audience over the last year and a half or so has been a real source of joy and excitement for us. It’s a real hard struggle to make a dream a reality especially when starting with nothing. Everything we have done has been voluntary and out of our spare time and with no commercial aid. We are formed on the basis of our iron gaming wills alone!

Special thanks must also, of course, go out to the fantastic James Thomas (@BIGsheep) for agreeing to guest on our show many moons ago now and for enjoying it so much that he has become a regular on the show. For all the appearances and all the input – Thanks James!

Of course, most importantly, we would like to thank You. Our listeners. For turning up, for listening in, for getting involved and helping us grow. Any venture of this type is nothing without an audience and so the biggest appreciation and thanks go to you. We will strive to continue to develop content for you to enjoy and trust us when we say it really is our pleasure to be out there for your listening pleasure. Thanks Guys!

This is our 75th Podcast and interestingly if you were insane enough to play them back in one ginormous playlist, it would run for… 181 hours!

That’s almost 7 and a half days worth of pure gaming chat, speculation and laughter encapsulating the last year and a half. It’s an achievement we are incredibly proud to look back on.

This week, Antony, James and Darren take the time to give the results of their top 3 games of the year after the difficult job of whittling down the many quality titles in what has been a solid year of gaming across the main platforms.

Tune in, not only hear the guys top 3 games of 2016 but also the results of these other challenging categories posed to the guys. Not an easy task and one which certainly caused a head scratch or two in the process of winner picking:

Honourable Mention

2016 Missed Opportunity

Biggest Disappointment

Biggest High Point

2017 Prediction

So, welcome one and all, join in the fun and take a listen and if you like what you hear, stick with us through 2017 – it’s gonna be one heck of a year!

Don’t forget If you would like to give us a rating or a review on iTunes then we have this handy link for you, click here to jump to iTunes review for the Lost Spark Podcast!

‘Now Your Playing With Power’ proclaimed the 1986 NES marketing campaign that is just so wonderfully a product of those 80’s days. Fast forward 30 years and there’s a different cry that seems to resonate from Nintendo’s camp.  It’s all about the games now, and that previously lauded power is secondary…

The question is, will the games be enough to draw in that gamer dollar and will these games be able to lure back gamers who have drifted off from Nintendo in recent years along the path of the mobile platform or even to competing consoles?

It’s an interesting question and one that Nintendo does really seem determined on having answered by it’s audience. As specs of the Switch are slowly leaked and drip fed upon an excited community it seems that even with the most optimistic view it’s hard not to be a shade disappointed by the recent confirmed speeds of Nintendo’s up and coming console.

Instead of embracing new tech and going all 4K and HDR, Nintendo seems to be moving forward (true to form) in it’s own direction, where an emphasis on the quality of the games on their console, not the amount of terraflop-a-ma-jigs it can throw around a football pitch will be the catalyst that shifts units into firstly, gamers desire list and ultimately into that coveted position in gamers gaming boudoirs.

It looks as though the days of being blown away by Nintendo’s sheer console power are well behind us having peaked in the 90’s with that oh so wonderful N64. Many gamers still look back with awe as they reminisce the days when Mario 64 was first unveiled, with graphics so stunning they made mainstream news in a time when games were rarely, if at all, mentioned on mainstream media.

So there we have it, it’s a case of wait and see, as Nintendo fans everywhere cross their collective fingers and hope that the 1st party support will be enough to make the Switch a hit. Being a hybrid of portable and home console there is a probability of many of the beloved franchises from Nintendo’s mobile platforms hitting the switch and that could make a huge difference to the desirability factor of the console. Time will tell if the lack of raw power in the Switch has any effect on 3rd party support. Whether it be that they cool off, look into exclusives or just add on the new console as another platform to develop for – if the compromises that may need to be made are not too much.

No one wants a console to fail and sometimes it’s difficult to understand decisions made with hardware by the companies involved,  but we’ll all be rooting for it, that’s for sure.

It’s always been about the games though and Nintendo still has that magic, we all know that. As for whether that magic will be enough to set the Switch on that glorious road to success that we all hope for, as always, only time will tell.

Listen in as the Sparks discuss this burning issue and all the rest of the weeks gaming news in this Christmas edition of the Gamers of the Lost Spark Podcast.

This week, apart from a large helping of Overcooked the Sparks have been diving into some great games.  Darren has been dipping into some great VR titles such as Bullet Train from Epic Games, Unseen Diplomacy and a VR Overcooked clone, VR Diner Duo.

James has been playing the sleeper hit of the year, Hitman.  This time setting evil challenges for other players and taking out Santa in an attempt to trap the two bad guys from Home Alone!  In this holiday update, released by Hitman developer IO Interactive introduces a new mission called Holiday Hoarders. It tasks Agent 47 with putting an end to the criminal activity of a couple of notorious thieves running around Paris.  The thieves in question are none other than Harry and Marv.

Antony has been playing the beautifully hand drawn point-and-cli...

This week, the guys discuss the news from wccftech.com where, in discussions with ARK: Survival Evolved’s Lead Designer (and co-founder of Studio Wildcard) Jeremy Stieglitz, he revealed that he equates the power of the PS4 Pro at around the same level as a $900 PC saying:

‘We estimate it would cost at least $900 to build a similarly powerful PC, and that’s if you were custom-building it with extreme cost control. We estimate its raw GPU performance is similar to an NVIDIA 970, and along with CPU improvements and overall more memory, it’s a really high benchmark for console performance.’ See the full article here

This has to be applauded as an amazing feat from Sony to get so much oomph out of a small form factor box and at a low power consumption too. While probably not hitting full native 4K across the board of upcoming (and pre-existing) games, Sony’s mid-generation upgrade has generally been well critically regarded in terms of the visuals that it can push out – even when using checkerboarding techniques etc – making a real difference to graphical quality and visual fidelity.

Now, of course, we know that the console platform is a standard closed system and this enables more available resources to be harnessed compared to when devs are having to mitigate the myriad variations of build specs that are the norm in the PC sector. But having said this, when looking at the price of graphics cards for PC gaming and comparing this cost (where it is in no way uncommon to be able to buy the likes of a PS4 Pro for the price of this one key component of a gaming PC) to what the PS4 Pro can do, is it fair to say that the gap between the advantage and increase in gaming performance usually associated with a gaming rig and the investment therein is getting smaller?  That the justification of the big payout for these monster graphics cards is going to get harder for the consumer?

With the advent of the upcoming Scorpio console from Microsoft offering even more power to console gamers and, if promises are to be believed, output a 4k / 60fps gaming experience most, if not all of the time, are we starting down a road where the gap between PC and home console will narrow, blur and maybe even close completely? After all a PC offering that kind of resolution and framerate is going to be getting on towards at least a $650 spend just on the video card.

Obviously, PC’s are more upgradable beasts and are used for many people for much more that simply gaming. They are a versatile platform that offers a much more open gaming ecosystem where mods stride freely among the masses like one of Horizon Zero Dawn’s Mecha Dinosaurs. So the case is obviously more complex when it comes to PC and Console squaring off and there is also the new graphical architectures that are incoming (and always will be incoming) from the Nvidia and the like. Not to mention that there will always be the guys that will pay what ever it takes to get the best experience available – and fair play to them.

However, one thing that does resonate is that maybe, just maybe, these powerful video cards that we have bought and lovingly installed into our PC’s could be coaxed to give the PC gamer more. Could optimisations and time, draw out that full potential of a gaming graphics card and are many sitting resentfully in their PCI-E slots wishing their full potential was tapped?

Unfortunately, it may simply be the issue that trying to cater to such a diverse array of video card types is just an impossible job and not being a devs, this is something unknown here at Spark Towers, though we have seen examples of console multi-platform games being held back for parity etc etc…

But, if the gap continues to narrow and consoles become more and more focussed on delivering maximum gaming power to consum...

This week on the podcast Antony and Darren are joined once again by the illustrious James Thomas (@BIGsheep).

It’s been a busy old week in the world of games, with Big Geoff’s Game Awards and Sony’s Playstation Experience 2016. If you missed either of these and want a catch up, or even of you tuned in to these gaming feasts, you’ll hear overviews, opinions and speculations from the guys as they dissect the latest glitz and glamour fests from our beloved industry.

With so much to discuss, a surprising curve ball is thrown into the mix when the elephant in the (virtual playspace) room is addressed by the Sparks – Just when will VR experiences evolve from feeling like mere tasters of something that should be bigger and finally metamorphose into games that feel like they have the depth and the pull of their equivalent 2D counterparts?

There is no denying that the experiences to be had in VR are truly amazing and a fantastic step forward in technology to allow players to be so immersed in a gaming environment, the Sparks would never forego their VR set ups and don’t regret the investments made at all.

…However, there is this question, this feeling in the back of the guys minds that, could it be perhaps, that the best VR can offer is simply that ‘Experience’? The bite size, almost tech demo-esque VR gameplay fix that amazes and astounds but when all is said and done just misses that elusive something to pull the player back in.

Obviously, there’s the argument that this is a new and emerging technology that is being explored, refined and honed with every new release and we are playing the games that are the products of the trial and error of this evolution, of this technology that is new and robust and looking to find it’s niche. Flailing around for that hook, that genre or game mechanic that will just click into place and make us all feel foolish for not realising that this was the perfect fit for the medium all along.

Could VR be destined to remain a medium within which to enjoy more bitesize slices of gaming goodness and would this in fact be something that people are content with? Or, if VR gaming does not start to increase it’s offering of ‘full fat’ gaming experiences on the platform that can be likened in their depth to the kinds of fulfillment gleaned from (and expected from) today’s standard games, will the consumer massive become disillusioned with the idea of VR and lose interest causing the medium to fall into decline?

Sony obviously feels that the VR space is worth investing in though and one would assume that they did a fair amount of due diligence before embarking on a risky project such as PSVR and it’s fair to say Facebook and HTC will have weighed up the risks at their ends too. There are some great games out there already, Elite Dangerous on Vive and Oculus gives the player seemingly endless amounts of things to do in its universal playground and let’s not forget that Sony has Resident Evil 7 lined up for PSVR owners – this will be a big test to see if the expectation for this game can be met, not only in standard gameplay terms but in offering PSVR owners that full game experience in the HMD. We also have Ace Combat 7 incoming, another meaty ‘full’ game that looks like great fun but also has the advantage of being especially suited to VR being that it’s a cockpit based game and they really are such a great fit.

As if all that wasn’t enough, the guys also bring you a full(ish) breakdown of the amazing show that was PSX 2016 – now that was a really fulfilling experience. With announcements galore and a delivery that exuded confidence, Sony’s Playstation team sure did deliver with this one. It really did what it was supposed to and set the Sparks&...

As the festive season draws near and the nights are closing in, why not relax, pour yourself something that’ll warm those cockles and allow the Sparks’ to welcome the start of December with all the gaming news from the last week and this!

This week, in light of the No Man’s Sky Foundation update being released, Antony and Darren turn their attentions to what lesson can be learned from the disappointing release of No Man’s Sky and ruminate on whether any of that excitement and enthusiasm that the game basked in prior to release can be salvaged by this comprehensive update.

Looking very much like a list of fixes taken straight from the cries of the community, this update fixes many gameplay issues such as improving inventory management, adding Base Building (yippee!) and also giving players the option to select different game modes – Normal, Creative and Survival. See more detail here.

The news brings with it a touch of sadness as the guys can’t help but wish that the game had just been held back until this time. Thinking that perhaps the inclusion of these features in the final release could have mitigated the reception the game has received and perhaps garnered a different legacy in the minds of gamers.

While on the subject of the legacy of No Man’s Sky, the Sparks go on to discuss the effect that this release may have had on the Studio’s name and drilling down, on the reputations of the staff themselves. Could the clamour surrounding one of the most hyped up games ever mean that Hello Games would need to rebrand itself or change it’s name for other projects, or can hard work and a dedication to making the game great via more updates of the type just released allow bygones to be forgiven and pave the way to a product that makes the initial disappointments fade slowly away?

Additionally in this weeks action packed podcast, there’s a feeling of youthful vigour in the air as  a pair of games the guys have been waiting for since the dawn of gaming itself (well a good stretch of years anyway) have finally (one is a week away) arrived!

Yes, what else could it be but that long yearned for duo of distraction Final Fantasy VX and of course The Last Guardian.

FFXV was first revealed on May 8th 2006 when the PS3 wasn’t even out!!! And the Last Guardian folows closely in th ewaiting stakes having been in development since 2007!!!

The arrival of these too long awaited and hopefully masterful pieces of game design are both with us and only days away, with this relisation taking years off the Sparks, who feel like they are back in the the glory days with fresh faced and naive anticipation taking centre stage in a more innocent age of expectation!

This year’s Game Awards 2016 are just hours away or by the time you’ve read this they will have already happened. Awards will be given away and oh so many “WORLD EXCLUSIVE”‘s  will have been unleashed into the wild.

This year the Sparks are predicting the winners, competing for nothing but their honour and pride, the Sparks have committed their choices and only time will tell before we see which Spark comes out on top.  Join us next week for the results.

The Blizzard Mountain Expansion for Forza Horizon 3 is coming on Dec 13th and bringing with it a Forza first – snow, ice, extreme elevations and blizzards in glorious HDR to challenge players in their quest to become the King of the Mountain. Set amidst extreme alpine settings, players will explore a snowy mountain playground in eight new vehicles and plenty of new ‘cheevos for Forza ...

Thrown into the midst of this weeks jam packed podcast is the sad tale of Titanfall 2. It’s a disheartening story of lack of sales, which is so sad when the Sparks’ both agree that Respawn’s second iteration of their Pilot/Mech shooter not only feels amazing to play, with the tightest control and gameplay out of the big three FPS releases of the moment (Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare), but also boasts the most refined and enjoyable campaign mode too.

With flashes of inspiration from the likes of Mirror’s Edge to Super Mario Galaxy, this is one FPS that really has the player relishing each and every moment of minute-to-minute action in a campaign that really does feel like the start of a great future for the franchise.

Unfortunately, a bad release strategy – releasing in between the likes of Battlefield and Call of Duty – seems to have hampered the pick up of this great title and really, it’s fair to say that we understand why.

It is rather a baffling release strategy that leaves the Spark’s wondering if EA will back the franchise further, or was this plan perhaps designed as a way of giving the Titanfall universe one last hurrah before relinquishing any future commitment to sequels based upon sales figures?

We also discuss how Respawn got Titanfall 2 to just feel, you know, so good. With some light shed on the matter from Respawn’s own CEO Vince Zampella in an interview he recently did with glixl.com. Hear about Respawn’s development mantra and just how those controls were honed on the pod.

In the ‘News Section‘ we talk about the new game mode for Uncharted 4 on PS4, Uncharted 4: Survival, the new cooperative and solo wave-based mode coming mid-December.  In the Survival mode you and up to two additional friends can take on swarms of increasingly powerful enemies and unique objectives. If you played Co-Op Arena from Uncharted 2 and Uncharted 3, you’re going to feel right at home in Survival!!

Across 50 waves and 10 maps, you’ll face off against Shoreline mercenaries, heavily armored Brutes, Snipers, Hunters, and more that will only get more precise, more aggressive, and better equipped as time goes on. Every 10 waves culminates in an intense boss battle, including our all-new Pirate Warlords. Inspired by the story of Uncharted 4, some of the Founders of Libertalia have arrived to hunt you down with powerful Mystical attacks

And keeping with the Piratey theme Rare has announced a player feedback programme for their upcoming open-seas multiplayer pirate game Sea of Thieves. The Insider Programme is designed to give the ever-growing community of pirates a closer look at the development of Sea of Thieves, with exclusive insights, updates on how the game is progressing and dare we say it early access to the hotly anticipated title of 2017.

If you would like to take part in this most piratey of programmes then click here to sail over to the Sea of Thieves page and sign-up.

And finally in the ‘News Section‘ Christmas comes early for Xbox Live members as December’s Games with Gold are announced and what a line up it is this month, Darren thinks this could be the best Games with Gold month ever!

For Xbox One owners, Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition joins December’s Games with Gold with explosive action fuelled by a mix of deadly martial arts, as well as the first-person survival horror game, Outlast. On Xbox 360, and Xbox One through Backward Compatibility, we have the highly-rated adventure game, Outland, and then the ultimate racing game,

In this week’s podtastic episode it’s no surprise that the Sparks’ eyes are firmly on the new PS4 Pro. Antony gives his hands on verdict of the hardware and games he has tested so far. Much of the discussion revolves around 4K and what Sony’s box delivers in this area. Is there a noticeably bump in visuals and performance or both and who exactly is the target consumer for the new system?

As the discussion deepens the question emerges regarding how this new format is going to spread to more than just the early adopter market and the guys can’t help wondering whether it’s 4K screen owners flocking to buy these new consoles. Or is it perhaps the other way around with gamers buying a 4K ready console and then finding that desire to upgrade their screen to get the most out of their gaming hardware? Darren certainly went through that very same process with the Xbox 360, where the HD aspect of the console drove the purchase of an HD screen in order to fully appreciate what that system could do.

With 4K sales looking strong, Microsoft and Sony displaying a huge vote of confidence in the standard by developing hardware specifically designed to harness this technology and also the sales figures for the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One S also showing a high consumer take up the guys ask, are those 4K screens pushing the sales of the consoles or are the new 4K consoles pushing the sales of 4K screens?

Going forward, is the gaming industries choices on supported resolutions and standards going to have more and more influence on sales and standards of screen sales and the technologies used therein.

With 4K and HDR being the buzzwords of recent times, especially since the advent of this mid-generation console refresh, the Sparks’ take it upon themselves to try and diffuse some of the confusion around what this new resolution offers the consumer, where it came from, how the name 4K came about, what it offers in terms of visual improvement and how much of a ‘true’ 4K experience the PS4 Pro offers us. Tune in to hear the Lost Sparks’ (hopefully) definitive 4K breakdown. A couple of taster stats are included below to get you started!

* 720p and 1080p were named from the count of pixels on screen from top to bottom, or, the number of horizontal lines of pixels that formed the screen.

* The term 4K actually came from the movie industry format resolution of 4096 x 2160 that was first introduced in digital cinemas (called cinema 4k) and was named 4K.

In the news section this week Darren and Antony celebrate that 15 years ago today (15th November), the name Xbox became part of popular culture.

As the first gaming console produced by Microsoft, the original Xbox console gave rise to beloved game franchises like Halo and Forza Motorsport and helped usher in the online console gaming era with the release of Xbox Live.

Listen as the Spark get all misty eyed with tales of Xbox days of old.

This week, thanks to Boomerang Game Rentals (Dazza is trying out this game rental service in the UK that offers 1000’s of games for rent across all popular console platforms), the Sparks have been playing Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and the fantastic 80s inspired Zombies in Spaceland. Darren and Antony jumped into co-op and took on waves and waves of Zombies and horrific killer clowns!

In the ‘VR News Section’ this week we talk about the most prestigious event in the videogame calendar, The Game Awards 2016. Celebrating everything to do with the industry, the event is set to become the most widely distributed with organiser Geoff Keighley entering into several partnerships, one being with company NextVR and the plans to stream the entire event in VR!  No platforms have been announced as yet but the S...

Bethesda’s surprising review stance announcement that they have made the decision to delay supplying review code of their games to media outlets until one day before release (see official statement here), has certainly caused a stir in the gaming world and rightly so. A change in gaming tradition that has been a standard practice within gaming culture since practically the start of the past-time we all know and love is sure to spark discussion across the community.

This week, the Sparks get involved in the debate and (among other topics) discuss the pro’s and cons of the game review landscape, the need for reviews within gaming circles and ponder over not only whether Bethesda would have made a decision like this 5 – 10 years ago but also if they, by making their announcement of only giving reviewers copies of their games one day before release, shines a light on the increasing perception of the main stream games media becoming less and less relevant and certainly less powerful in the brave new world of Internet enabled Let’s Plays, Streamers and the new breed of Influencers in general.

Historically, apart from a minority of exceptions, review copies being sent out late or a review embargo that does not allow reviews to drop until game release has set alarm bells ringing that a publisher could be trying to withhold a true picture of the game in question and somehow glean sales that may have been affected by reviews highlighting perceived shortcomings. Rockstar are an obvious exception, it has become their style to hold back on review code for years now and this is accepted as normal from them – but you know – it’s Rockstar. With such a high pedigree comes a degree of faith in their fans and freedom in how they market their wares.

The same could absolutely be argued in Bethesda’s favour – a publisher with a reputation of quality products for many years. They have the faith and the fans already in abundance. Could this new stance shake the faith of their fans or, having proved themselves over time, does this make little difference? They cite Doom in their official statement regarding this issue as an example of their new policy and it was a great game by all accounts. No delay to disguise quality there and all signs point to Dishonored 2 gallantly carrying that torch of quality forward.

So what about the big gaming media sites around the web? Has Bethesda’s hammer struck the biggest nail into the casket of mainstream media reviews we have yet seen? Or is the service provided by these outlets sought by enough people that demand would stay the hand of other publishers following suit?

The exposure that the big gaming sites can give smaller teams is surely invaluable and it would be a great shame if withdrawal en masse by the big business publishers caused a cessation on all game reviews, though hopefully that would be incredibly unlikely.

If it did kick off a chain reaction though, would it make a big difference? Are the gamers that depend on reviews of a game to give them the faith to make the purchase actually that large a group to make a noticeable difference to sales?

Listen in to hear the guys chat it out.

Also in the news this week we have details on November’s PS Plus titles.  This month we have the fantastic Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. Brighton based developer The Chinese Room bring us the spiritual successor to Dear Esther. Set in a small, deserted English town, it’s your job to find out what happened to its missing inhabitants – this is ...

The big news this week on the Lost Spark Podcast is the reveal of the Nintendo Switch and so of course, your friendly neighbourhood Sparks’ dive into the announcement with gusto discussing thoughts on Nintendo’s reveal trailer, speculation of those questions that the reveal didn’t answer and everything we know so far about Nintendo’s latest tech.

Is portability the killer move for Nintendo with this new platform in an era where smartphones and tablets do have a chunk of the market? Or does the fully fleshed out, more rounded and complete gaming experience that the Switch will offer give it the edge in that area, or is this a niche of its own, becoming what the Vita or even indeed the Wii U portable screen should have been?

With an announcement that seems to directly position Nintendo’s latest offering firmly in the ‘non casual’ gaming camp the guys are relieved that hopefully, hopefully, this iteration of Nintendo’s gaming vision is a little less about gimmicky takes on gaming and more about offering a practical yet diverse system to its many fans.

Power over portability? Gameplay over hardware grunt? A happy middle road perhaps?

Enough for you to make the Switch?

So, we have had some but not all the details we desire about the upcoming Switch but of course we crave more info! From battery life to Joy-Con controllers incorporating motion sensors. Well, it looks like we have all the official information we are going to get this year but wait, don’t lose heart Nintendo fans! As once Christmas is out of the way we are due an update from Nintendo with more juicy details on the 12th January when we can look forward to the Nintendo Switch Presentation @ 2am GMT / 10am JST and 6pm PS.

The Sparks discuss the Switch at length so listen in and enjoy the fun!

This week in What we’ve been playing Dazza is loving Serious Sam VR : The Last Hope on the HTC Vive. A wave shooter that brings bright, beautiful and of course, visceral fun to the Vive owning Space Marine wannabe.

An all round blast featuring the highest production values the Spark’s have yet seen to HTC’s VR HMD, along with an adrenaline fueling roller coaster of alien slaughter in Croteam’s latest release.

Also on the list of what we’ve been playing are Antony’s PSVR games of the moment, the stunning Battlefield 1 and of course, Forza Horizon 3 is still a firm fave with the guys.

In the News section this week with have details of this month’s Games with Gold titles, November brings a brand-new ID@Xbox title to Games with Gold with high anticipated Super Dungeon Bros and murder mystery in Murdered: Soul Suspect. On the Xbox 360 (and Xbox One through Backward Compatibility), Xbox Live Gold members start the month with the highly-rated classic adventure Monkey Island: SE, and then finish on a high with award-winning Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.

Also in the news section, Darren is overjoyed as The Last Guardian has finally gone gold. After being in active development since 2007 and exciting gamers worldwide after the (ridiculously previous) first ‘eyes on’ at E3 2009 it’s here. With nigh on a decade to balance hype and temper expectation, tune in to hear what the Spark’s expect with the December 9th release.

If you want more information on some of the items in this weeks Podcast here are some handy links:

If you would like to give us a rating or a review on iTunes then we have this handy link for you, click here to jump to iTunes review for the Lost Spark Podcast!

Star Wars Drones

VOID’s Ghostbusters Experience

It’s finally here!  PlayStation VR launched worldwide this week to critical acclaim and fan excitement.  Our very own Mr Early-adopter, Antony was there on launch day and now has a PlayStation VR at home and he is loving it!  We are happy to report in our PlayStation VR verdict episode of the Lost Spark Podcast that PSVR is a hit in the Chesson household and is blowing Antony away everytime he uses it!

On the podcast this week Darren (@DazWhitham) and Antony (@ChessmanUK) walk you through the setup, the features and the must-play games for PlayStation VR.

In Antony’s extensive play-through of PlayStation VR the standout games and experiences were Batman Arkham VR (of course), London Heist and Ocean Decent, which are part of the PlayStation VR World disc, plus Superhypercube and the amazing 100ft Robot Golf.

Were you day one with PlayStation VR?  What’s been the stand out game for you? Please let us know either via twitter or email us at [email protected]

This week saw Rockstar Games tease the two images leading up to the announcement of Red Dead Redemption 2.  Due to launch in Autumn 2017 Red Dead Redemption 2 will be an “epic tale of life in America’s unforgiving heartland. The game’s vast and atmospheric world will also provide the foundation for a brand new online multiplayer experience.”

Culinary couch co-op, marriage tester and Lost Spark favourite, Overcooked is now available to buy in a box with an extra helping of content included.  Overcooked: Gourmet Edition arrived hot out the oven for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and marks the game’s first physical launch.

This super-sized serving also includes a side-plate of DLC named The Lost Morsel which adds six extra levels and six new chefs to unlock over a fresh jungle-set map.

As if that wasn’t all! The guys also discuss a recent survey on gamer buying habits and are very surprised at the results. Find out in the pod if you’re standpoint on Digital vs Physical purchases sides with the Spark, the Survey or maybe something else!

If you want more information on some of the items in this weeks Podcast here are some handy links:

If you would like to give us a rating or a review on iTunes then we have this handy link for you, click here to jump to iTunes review for the Lost Spark Podcast!

Game Buying Habits Survey

Allumette VR Story (Steam Store)

Allumette VR Story (PSN Store)