Unnecessary Gaming

Video Games: This week, Chris and Euan return to Farpoint, the PSVR sci-fi shooter, getting a bit more into the story side of things and the new stuff they're encountering. Pawel interjects with a segment on the Battletech Closed Beta, an upcoming turn-based strategy game in which squads of giant mechs blow each other to bits, and based on the tabletop game of the same name. Finally, Chris and Euan get back to PSVR with a look at the latest big release, Star Trek Bridge Crew, the immensely fun, nerdy, co-op starship simulator set in the rebooted Star Trek universe.

This episode also features some chat about the future of PSVR and what they think the platform needs, and also Euan getting angry about films.

Enjoy!

Farpoint: 1:51

Battletech: 18:06

Star Trek Bridge Crew: 32:49

Chris, Euan, Pawel and Dave are here to talk about two very different tabletop games in this episode! Yokohama is first up, a Euro-style game in which the players are presidents of merchant companies during the Meiji era of Japan's history, trying to win the favour of foreign investors. We also take on Bloodborne, a barely-cooperative card game set in the video game world of Yharnam, in which there can be only one winner, but you'll have to work together to defeat your monstrous enemies.

Enjoy!

Yokohama: 4:00

Bloodborne: 34:30

A veritable feast of video games is on offer in this week's episode, as we first go back a few years to talk about Borderlands 2 (as part of The Handsome Collection) and all its craziness. Next up is the latest PSVR release Farpoint, a sci-fi shooter using Sony's new Aim controller, and Euan launches into a SPOILER FILLED audio essay on his ongoing playthrough of Final Fantasy XV. Also on this week's show, Pawel talks about sci-fi city builder Anno 2205, while Chris gives a quick overview of his cowardly bathroom-hiding tactics in Battle Royale-esque PC shooter PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.

Enjoy!

Borderlands 2 - 4:00

Farpoint - 19:30

Final Fantasy XV - 26:46 (Spoilers)

Anno 2205 - 39:38

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds - 50:27

Chris, Euan, Pawel, and even Dave are talking board games this week, with Vlaada Chvatil's 2008 real-time panic-inducing game Space Alert taking up a decent chunk of the episode, as Pawel describes his love for pushing buttons that do nothing while Euan gives him a telling off for not listening to the Captain. Also in this episode, Chris and Euan go through their first game of The Colonists, a fairly new worker management Euro-style game which has a focus on efficiency and burning your brain.

Enjoy!

In this week's Video Games episode, Pawel's bias finally breaks down as he admits that the bugs and weird things going on in Mass Effect: Andromeda are actually ruining his immersion, and instead retreats to the world of Expeditions: Viking, a tactical RPG which is the successor to Conquistador. Meanwhile, Chris travels through a war-torn country with a baseball bat in randomly generated side-scrolling survival game Home Behind.

Enjoy!

Mass Effect: Andromeda: 1:46

Home Behind: 19:06

Expeditions: Viking: 40:00

Chris and Euan are joined by guest host Dave for some chat about some of the board games we played on International Tabletop Day, beginning with some team-based submarine fun in Captain Sonar, a game of hidden movements, outwitting your opponents and panicking about your vessel's systems! We also finally got around to playing Waggle Dance, a worker placement game which uses dice to represent bees in the players' hives as they compete for nectar, hatch eggs, and make honey. Last up we revisit The Pursuit of Happiness, a strange Game of Life-esque game where you live through the entire life of a person, and the ultimate goal is to be happier than anyone else when the stress of old age finally kills you.

Enjoy!

Captain Sonar: 2:30

Waggle Dance: 25:37

The Pursuit of Happiness: 43:46

After a short hiatus, Chris, Euan and Pawel are back with another video games episode! Pawel sweats through an attempt at a TOTALLY UNBIASED review of Mass Effect Andromeda, which quickly turns into a long discussion about the Mass Effect series in general, while Chris and Euan talk about Disc Jam, the weirdly fun volleyball/frisbee hybrid sports game. Chris also manages to squeeze in The Wild Eight, a story-driven survival game with a twist which he is finding strangely addictive.

Enjoy!

Chris, Euan and Pawel are joined in this episode by their gaming chum Dave to talk about tabletop games! Dead of Winter, the truly semi-cooperative zombie survival game, is first up this week, as the fingers of blame are pointed in all directions. Pawel then gets his names confused as he talks about Mage: The Ascension, which is set in the World of Darkness (not Warcraft), and is definitely not the entirely fictional board game Mage Quest. Lastly this week, the lads give another spoiler-free update on their Gloomhaven adventures, with Dave giving some input into what he describes as a bonkers game.

Enjoy!

This week, Pawel gets defensive over comments made by Chris in the last video games episode about Horizon Zero Dawn and gives a lengthy retort (while stopping Euan from giving an opinion), Euan gets his revenge by resorting to talking about a mobile port of the original Dragon Quest (or is it Dragon Warrior?) from 1986, and Chris accidentally ruins the early-access naval battle game Blackwake for a bunch of roleplayers.

Enjoy!

Board games chat with a full compliment of Unnecessaries! This week we talk about A Game of Thrones, the tense game of area control and political treachery set in Westeros which the lads and their pals played recently, during which Chris confused Pawel with an alliance and an unlikely winner came from nowhere. Also in this episode is the app-driven XCOM board game, which simulates the management and bureaucracy side of the XCOM video games (it's more fun than it sounds), and also Discworld: Ankh-Morpork, the lovingly-created light board game set in the world created by Terry Pratchett.

Enjoy!