Vidjagame Apocalypse

Michael Grimm returns to the show this week to help us talk about five games that flashed back to their heroes' childhoods, letting us experience their most important formative memories firsthand. Then it's on to thoughts on Inside, Furi, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII; Red Dead Redemption and The Warriors arriving on modern consoles; and your personal picks for Game of the Year (so far).

We're at the midpoint of 2016, so it's time to look back at the last six months and assemble a non-definitive, highly subjective list of our favorite games of the year so far. If you haven't rage-quit by the end of it, be sure to stick around to hear us talk about Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Nintendo's NX mutterings, and your dream mashups of two completely different series.

A show number with "69" in it only comes around every 100 episodes, so we take full advantage this week, as Michael Grimm joins us for a somewhat NSFW show about games that used the (sometimes-dubious) talents of former and current adult-film actresses to great effect. Once the moaning is out of the way, it's time to dig in to Mighty No. 9, Umbrella Corps, No Man's Sky's legal troubles and your favorite E3 items that weren't showcased at a press conference.

E3 is coming fast, so let's distract ourselves just a little before the show starts with a Top 5 about (surprisingly competent) games based on "unscripted" television shows about "real" "people" who are "not entertainment lizards in hu-man guise." The second segment gets a bit parkour-flavored, what with the one-two punch of Mirror's Edge Catalyst and Watch Dogs 2's reveal, and then it's on to your most frustrating memories of losing a game to a glitch or hardware failure.

In belated tribute to the PS2 "classic" Jaws Unleashed's 10th anniversary last week, this episode focuses not on the triumph of being a shark, but the terror of being its victim, with a Top 5 about the most stressful games to swim in. Then it's on to a heated discussion of One Piece: Burning Blood, Primal, Mighty No. 9's latest trailer and the most memorable dreams you've had about games.