The Eurogamer Podcast

Today we're joined by Dicebreaker to learn a bit about board games.

Can it really be 20 years since the PlayStation 2 was released? We revisit a video game titan.

The Sonic the Hedgehog movie has had quite the journey - from its disturbing first reveal, which even Sonic's original creator wasn't happy with - to recently becoming a box office smash.

But did we enjoy it? Join guides editor Matthew Reynolds (twitter.com/Crazyreyn), guides writer Lottie Lynn (twitter.com/StormScribe), and our tech team's Thomas Marchant(twitter.com/hippopothomas) to discuss editor Oli Welsh (twitter.com/OliWelsh), who called it a a charmless cut-and-paste job in our Sonic movie review. Though others came away with more positive impressions, we did all agree it's probably a better Dr Robotnik origin story than a Sonic one.

If you haven't seen the movie yet, we keep what there is to spoil to a minimum - but do announce when we discuss those moments ahead of time.

You can read Eurogamer's Sonic the Hedgehog movie review here: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-02-13-sonic-the-hedgehog-movie-review-a-charmless-cut-and-paste-job

We've been having a lovely time with Dreams, the Media Molecule game that's been in early access for almost a year, and in development before the PS4 was even revealed.

Despite this, there are still questions about what Dreams is, and what you get and can do in the final game, so guides editor Matthew Reynolds (twitter.com/Crazyreyn), features editor Martin Robinson (twitter.com/vics_viper), senior staff writer (twitter.com/Clert) and Digital Foundry's Tom Morgan (twitter.com/cataferal) try and put them to bed - from its short story mode and how much that matters, to whether opening creations up to self publishing or other forms of funding would be a good idea.

Also - we recorded this episode on Monday, a whole day before Martin's dream mentioned in the episode intro turned out to be true. I'm hoping he dreams about Shenmue 4 next.

Of course, audio might not do the game justice, so here's some further reading from Eurogamer's coverage of Dreams to help:

The Dreams campaign is stylish but... is that it?:

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-02-12-the-dreams-campaign-is-stylish-but-is-that-it

Why did Dreams take Media Molecule seven years to make?:

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-02-14-why-did-dreams-take-seven-years-to-make

The best Dreams games we've seen so far:

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-02-19-best-dreams-games

The Power of Dreams: Game Creation - How Does It Actually work? https://www.digitalfoundry.net/2020-02-15-the-power-of-dreams-game-creation-how-does-it-actually-work

Have you played Outer Wilds yet? You must! A glorious little solar system filled with dynamic forces! A time loop that encourages exploration! A puzzle to solve and a culture - several cultures - to uncover. And a game so good it was crowned Eurogamer's game of 2019.

And yet some people have bounced off this game. The ship controls, the art style, the daunting task that lies ahead.

In this week's podcast, guides editor Matthew Reynolds (twitter.com/Crazyreyn) is joined by features editor Christian Donlan and USGamer's Jake Green (twitter.com/jake_k_green) to make the case for one of the most interesting games of, well, ever really - as well as a full spoiler discussion of our favourite moments and mysteries for those who have played it to the end.

We have plenty of further reading for you this week, including two pieces from Donlan and Jake about the game:

https://www.usgamer.net/articles/outer-wilds-review

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-12-31-outer-wilds-goty-2019

The Noclip documentary on how Outer Wilds was made, which we mention briefly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbY0mBXKKT0

And several books we discuss during the outro:

'Isaac Newton', 'Time Travel' and 'Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood' by James Gleick

'Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You: A Guide to the Universe' by Marcus Chown

'Driving Mr Albert' by Michael Paterniti

A quiet January for new releases has been helped with the arrival of Temtem, a Pokémon-inspired MMO available now in Early Access - which has caused enough of a buzz that servers have struggled to keep up with demand.

Join a full compliment of guides staff - guides editor Matthew Reynolds (twitter.com/Crazyreyn), guides writer Lottie Lynn (twitter.com/Stormscribe) and USGamer's Joel Franey (twitter.com/joelfraney) - who explain how close it is to Pokémon, how much the MMO parts matter, and between the queues to log in and other rough edges that come with any Early Access release, whether it's worth your time yet.

If you want to read more, Lottie wrote a piece explaining why Temtem proves Pokemon is a genre of its own now, and if you are jumping in for the first time, our Temtem starters page can help with the all-important opening choice:

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-01-24-temtem-proves-that-pokemon-is-a-genre-now

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-01-23-temtem-starters-crystle-smazee-houchic-7011

What makes a good Double-A game? You know, the games that might not have had the biggest budgets or the best marketing, but which still made your life a bit brighter with their gimmicks and sense of simple fun.

We've been looking at Double-A games over the last few months with our new-ish feature series, and we wanted to delve into more about what makes a Double-A tick, the things that exclude a game from becoming Double-A, and also the next logical question - is there such a thing as Single-A?

Join features editor Christian Donlan, guides editor Matthew Reynolds (twitter.com/Crazyreyn) and Metabomb's Ed Thorn (twitter.com/FromEdward) on the podcast as we discuss what makes Double-A so special.

And, once you're done, you can read our on-going archive of Double-A Team features here: https://www.eurogamer.net/archive/double-a-team

As you might have seen from the massive number of Steam player concurrents, a lot of people have had The Witcher on their mind since the release of the Netflix show, us included - so much so that we wanted to discuss it on the podcast.

Join guides editor Matthew Reynolds (twitter.com/Crazyreyn), reporter Emma Kent (twitter.com/GoneEFK), deputy editor Wesley Yin-Poole (twitter.com/wyp100) and USGamer's Hirun Cryer (twitter.com/HirunCryer) for their thoughts on the adaptation.

Though we don't delve too deep into the story of the show, be warned there are a few spoilers along the way if you are planning on watching - so consider doing so before listening.

Here's some articles we mentioned during the podcast for further reading:

So you finished The Witcher on Netflix - what next? (Cian Maher): https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-01-07-so-you-finished-the-witcher-on-netflix-what-next

The internet's best covers of that Netflix Witcher song (Tom Phillips): https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-01-06-the-internets-best-covers-of-that-netflix-witcher-song

The Witcher 3 just had its biggest day ever on Steam, four years after release (Tom Phillips): https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-01-02-the-witcher-3-just-had-its-biggest-day-ever-on-steam-four-years-after-release

Geralt is the perfect hero for the soul crushing instability of our hellworld’s gig economy (Nic Reuben, VG247): https://www.vg247.com/2020/01/10/witcher-geralt-freelance-gig-economy/

Join guides editor Matthew Reynolds (twitter.com/Crazyreyn), deputy editor Wesley Yin-Poole (twitter.com/wyp100), news editor Tom Phillips (twitter.com/tomphillipseg) and guides writer Lottie Lynn (twitter.com/stormscribe) for a preview of what's coming in 2020, as well as a few predictions of our own.

As mentioned, we recorded this before we broke up for Christmas, so expect a few unanticipated delays to slip through (such as Ori and the Will of Wisps to March 11th) from the dates we mentioned.

And here's The Last of Us Part 2 interview we discussed towards the end of the episode: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-09-26-on-fridging-joels-return-and-revenge-a-short-chat-with-the-last-of-us-part-2s-writer

Thanks for listening as always, and we'll be back on a regular schedule from mid-January. Happy New Year from us at Eurogamer!

As you might have seen on the site, we recently published our Games of the Decade, where we discussed 30 games that defined the last 10 years.

As well as that list of 30, the original plan was to also choose one single game that best defined the decade. We discussed it a lot in the office, and we even got as far as recording a podcast, with the intention for our editor Oli Welsh to decide it live during that episode.

And, as you might have seen, in the end we didn't do that. Still, we wanted to give you the episode anyway, because it's a good discussion about how we approach lists like this, and as you'll hear, why it's actually really hard to pin it down to just one definitive game.

That said, at one point Oli got very close. Be sure to give yourself a pat on the back if you can correctly guess what it was ahead of listening...

Here's features editor Christian Donlan, reporter Emma Kent (twitter.com/GoneEFK), deputy editor Wesley Yin-Poole (twitter.com/wyp100) and editor Oli Welsh (twitter.com/oliwelsh) to discuss Eurogamer's Games of the Decade choices.

Our Games of the Decade archive: https://www.eurogamer.net/archive/games-of-the-decade