Hope is out on assignment so Pat and James dive in on Nier Replicant and New Pokemon Snap, plus news on IGN's editorial clash with management over an aid for Palestine post, and Disco Elysium's RC classification being replaced by a R18 on appeal.

It's video game small talk!

Loads of new games talk on this one with James and Pat playing New Pokemon Snap and Pat sharing his impressions of Nier Replicant. James also played through (and loved) The Medium, while Hope has been building magical towers in Valheim. All that, plus news! It's Video Game Small Talk.

On this episode we chat about more Outriders, MLB The Show 21, Hades, Ratchet and Clank, Streets of Rage 2, Scott Pilgrim vs The Word: The Game, Fight'N Rage, Yakuza Like A Dragon, Valheim, Phoenix Wright's 20th Anniversary Concert and more!

This week Pat has been playing a bunch of new Apple Arcade titles like Taiko no Tatsujin: Pop Tap, World of Demons & Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time, while James has been sci-fi shooting in Outriders and Hope has been mining tin in Valheim.

Plus E3 news, and more!

This week, James breaks stuff in Teardown and gets back in the driver's seat in iRacing, Pat's been playing Adios, Them's Fighting Herds and Shing!, and Hope still can't get enough of Genshin Impact and Hades. We also chat Sony's confirmation of their old store closure, CD Projekt Red news, new Hitman 3 DLC announced, and more.

This week James closes out his time with Valheim, gets a bad first taste of Dungeon Defenders Awakened and runs a truck through the front door of a house in Teardown. Patrick is back on his game dev binge, playing through more beat'em ups like Super Punch Patrol and Streets of Rage 4, and Hope has gone back to streaming again, mostly still spending time with Hades and Genshin Impact.

Patrick's been playing Sleeping Dogs again while James cannot stop playing Valheim. Hope's also been playing Valheim in between spending ridiculous amounts of money in Genshin Impact, with a little Hades sprinkled in there too. All that plus a bunch of news from Activision, Riot Games, Microsoft's Bethesda deal and more.

James shares his opening thoughts on his first hour with the unique Loop Hero and his continued progress in Valheim, while Patrick has fallen down a Factorio hole, and Hope is still on her Hades run, sharing her thoughts on some of the late, post-credits events. With that said, WARNING: Story spoilers for Hades ahead.

This week, Pat can share his preview thoughts on the new Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town and also some of his early, first impressions of Factorio, Hope has been obsessing over Hades, and James has been cutting down trees and fighting mossy demons in Valheim. We also chat about the recent Hardsuit Labs layoffs, the messy situation surrounding The Sinking City, and Sony's closure of the beloved Japan Studio.

So much happened in video games last week that we decided to only talk about that, and get back to the games next week. Patrick, Hope and James chat the latest Pokemon announcements, the recent PlayStation State of Play and Nintendo Direct news, the recent No Mans Sky updates that brings pets to the ever-growing universe simulator, why Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 won't release in 2021, TheGamer's report on Techland's internal woes, Anthem NEXT's surprise cancellation, Tony Hawk 1+2 coming to Switch, and Dungeon Defenders Awakened finally has an Xbox release date.

Phew, that's a lot of news!