It's the Season 1 finale, and we're coming full circle. 10 episodes ago, we kicked things off with a bold claim: Gaming Is Shit Now. But after 20 weeks of arguing about everything from Half-Life 2's superiority over GTA to the death of couch co-op and the predatory practices of EA (f##k EA) and Ubisoft (f##k Ubisoft even more), we've reached a surprising conclusion.

In this episode, we confront our own hypocrisy. We hate live service games... but we're both paying for EA Play to play Battlefield 6. We despise subscription models... but we're using them like they're demo discs. We complained about broken launches and day-one patches... but maybe early access and the ability to fix games post-launch isn't the worst thing?

What We Discuss:

• Are we just hypocrites for complaining about things we actively support?
• Live service games, season passes, and monetization (and why we tolerate them)
• How cross-platform play has revolutionized gaming accessibility
• The Stop Killing Games initiative and consumer protections
• Why broken launches still suck but patches are actually beneficial
• The positives of modern gaming we've been ignoring
• Our final verdict: Is gaming ACTUALLY shit?

BONUS: Post-credits rant about Call of Duty Black Ops 7's disastrous launch, Battlefield 6's victory, and Steam's new console dominating the future.

After 10 episodes of being grumpy bastards, we've finally admitted it: gaming in 2025 might actually be... good? The benefits far outweigh the negatives. Cross-play, consumer choice, accessibility, and yes, even those bloody subscription services have their place.

Thanks for sticking with us through Season 1. We'll be back in 6 weeks for Season 2, bigger, grumpier, and ready to contradict ourselves all over again.

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The Grumpy Old Gamer team takes a quick look at the best and worst of videogames in 2025. The greatest releases - or at least the ones that we bothered to play - the controversy of Assassin's Creed Shadows and the sale of EA to Saudi Arabia, and the games that should have hit but somehow fell short.

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In this episode of the Grumpy Old Gamer Podcast, our hosts dive into the controversial topic of Steam's Early Access program. Join us as we explore the pros and cons of early access games, discuss why only 25% of these games ever reach full release, and debate whether AAA developers are exploiting gamers through this system. We also touch on standout early access titles like 'Manor Lords' and the long-standing development of 'Star Citizen.' Tune in to hear our unfiltered thoughts and why we believe some developers might be taking the piss.

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In this episode of the Grumpy Old Gamer Podcast, hosts Al, Tim and Ian explore the age-old question of whether video games were more difficult in the past or if it's just nostalgia clouding our memories. The discussion covers the evolution of game design from arcade to console, the impact of technical limitations, the role of memory cards and auto-save features, and how modern games like Dark Souls and Souls-like titles compare to classic hard games. They also delve into the psychology of difficulty settings and the benefits of allowing players to tailor their gaming experience. With anecdotes about classic games like Mortal Kombat, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Resident Evil, the episode provides a comprehensive look at how gaming difficulty has transformed over the years.

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Ian, Tim, and Al have finally had it with the “console wars.” We talk about how exclusives don’t mean a thing anymore, how every console is just a glorified PC in a plastic box, and how Microsoft and Sony have stopped pretending otherwise. We get into why developers don’t care what you play on, why Game Pass broke the old business model, and why the Steam Deck is quietly killing the whole idea of a console. There’s moaning about overpriced hardware, fake “next-gen” claims, and how the same three companies keep selling us the same promises. Basically: the console isn’t dying, that's just sensationalist, click-bait, bullshit.

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Ian, Al, and Tim trace first-person shooters from 1970s NASA research projects to today's microtransaction machines. The genre peaked with single-player campaigns that had character and personality, then corporate greed killed everything good about shooting things on a computer screen. This covers how FPS games went from academic experiments to id Software's revolutionary trilogy to the console wars that split PC and living room gaming into separate universes. The hosts examine why modern shooters are generic military simulators with pink weapon skins instead of the memorable protagonists who used to crack jokes while saving the world. Three middle-aged gamers conclude that better graphics came at the cost of everything that made FPS games worth playing, then spend twenty minutes arguing about GoldenEye control schemes and whether Duke Nukem's one-liners were brilliant or just juvenile toilet humour that somehow worked.

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Remember cramming four sweaty mates on a sofa, squinting at a quarter of the TV, and screaming over who was screen-peeking? We do. This episode we grumble through the golden days of Halo LAN parties, lugging CRTs across town, and the brutal honesty of split-screen gaming. Then we drag ourselves into the present - headsets, online lobbies, and the joy of being insulted by 12-year-olds on Xbox Live. It’s a sarcastic stroll from local co-op to toxic chat rooms, with plenty of side-eye at what’s been lost along the way.

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Tim, Al, and Ian argue whether Half-Life 2's influence trumps GTA 5's sales numbers, discovering that Steam's $10.8 billion annual revenue makes Half-Life 3 commercially pointless. This episode covers the Source engine's lasting impact on every modern shooter, how Half-Life 2 created digital distribution monopolies, and why the gravity gun remains more satisfying than any GTA chaos simulator. The discussion spirals through Gary's Mod spawning Skibidi Toilet, the Orange Box converting console peasants, and Tim's shameful admission of owning 600+ Steam games he'll never play. Three grumpy gamers conclude that artistic influence beats cultural impact while completely ignoring that both games are available on Steam, proving Valve won regardless.

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Al, Ian, and Tim dive into the $184 billion gaming industry versus Hollywood's measly $42 billion box office, discovering that respect for source material apparently took 30 years to figure out. This episode covers why early 90s game adaptations were universally terrible, whether TV shows work better than movies for adaptations, and Tim's inexplicable excitement for Battlefield 6 despite it being a obvious reskin. The discussion meanders through GoldenEye's perfection, Spider-Man 2's web-swinging physics, and Al's controversial Uncharted movie defence before concluding that movies might become extinct because gamers have longer attention spans than expected. Audio quality remains questionable as three middle-aged men argue about Karl Urban's casting choices while completely forgetting this was supposed to be about video games and movies.

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Al, Ian, and Tim launch their complaints about modern gaming with predictable results. This first episode covers the industry's monetization problems, DLC obsession, and live service addiction while questioning whether games were better when they shipped complete. The discussion covers subscription models, DRM failures, studio consolidation, and developer crunch before inevitably asking if nostalgia makes everything from the past seem superior. Technical quality matches the amateur hour you'd expect from three people figuring out podcast recording. Runtime exceeds reasonable limits because nobody had learned to edit yet.

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