Is Crimson Desert good? It's complicated, but not quite, according to Matthew Castle. Plus: Samuel apologises profusely for buying a PS5 Pro.

Samuel's games: PS5 Pro (Spider-Man 2, Alan Wake 2, Rebirth), Returnal, Raccoin

Matthew's games: Crimson Desert, Tomodachi Life, The Ratline

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What Matthew thinks of Crimson Desert, new DLC for old games, how 360-era classics would score now in reviews, dream Helldivers 2 warbonds and more nonsense in the latest mailbag episode.

This week's music is from the Deadly Premonition soundtrack by Riyou Kinugasa, Takuya Kobayashi and Hiromi Mizutani.

This is the From Russia With Love PS2 clip mentioned in the episode. 

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Former Eurogamer reporter Emma Kent is our guest this week! What's it like doing actual journalism, rather than just dropping hot takes about Uncharted and Mario? That's what we ask Emma about in this one.

You can sign up for the (free) Eteo Archetypes newsletter discussed in the second half of this week's episode here.

This week's music is from the Valheim soundtrack by Patrik Jarlestam. 

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Two top 10 lists from an amazing year for video games.

This week's music is from the Tetris Effect soundtrack by Hydelic. 

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VGC's Andy Robinson is this week's guest. Andy discusses his days on PC Zone and CVG, and why he's made the effort to built relationships with Japanese game developers in the last few years.

This week's music is from the Yooka-Laylee soundtrack by Grant Kirkhope, David Wise and Steve Burke.

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What we've been playing lately that doesn't feature Leon S Kennedy. Games discussed: Reanimal, Dark Auction, Marathon, Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties, Pokémon LeafGreen, Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse, Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined, Romeo is a Dead Man, Wild Blue Skies, Denshattack!, Dusk Index Gion.

The two Pokémon-themed media projects mentioned in this episode – Matt Reynolds' One More Catch and James Batchelor's history of the series.

Music in this week's episode is from the Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen soundtrack by Go Ichinose, Junichi Masuda and Morikazu Aoki, and the Dark Auction soundtrack by Yuko Komiyama, Tsukasa Masuko and others.

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A deep dive into the year's first big game (sorry, Mario Tennis). Section one is spoiler-free, and the much shorter section two has clearly marked spoilers. But, you still might want to listen to this after you've played the game if you want to experience everything fresh.

Pretty much everything discussed in the first hour is in Capcom's marketing materials for the game. 

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Our first draft episode of the year is here! Who can pick the best levels out of Samuel, Matthew, Dave and Ash? You decide. Vote for the winner in the announcements channel of the Discord.

This week's music is from the Sonic 2 soundtrack by Masato Nakamura, the Grand Theft Auto V soundtrack by Tangerine Dream and Woody Jackson, the Super Mario 64 soundtrack by Koji Kondo and the Mario Kart World soundtrack by Atsuko Asahi, Maasa Miyoshi, Takuhiro Honda and Yutaro Takakuwa.

These are the categories if you need a refresh:

1. First-person shooter level (singleplayer)
2. First-person shooter level (multiplayer)
3. Lightgun stage
4. Multiplayer level (can't be an fps)
5. Platforming level
6. Mission in an open world or larger game
7. Bonus level
8. Boss battle
9. Worst level and location I'd doom my worst enemy to live in 
10. Free pick

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Five years later, The Guardian's Keza MacDonald returns to the podcast to talk about her new book, Super Nintendo (UK link here, US link here). We then close out with Keza's quickfire list of the 10 most underrated Nintendo games.

This week's music is from the Diddy Kong Racing soundtrack by David Wise. 

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