Chris and Marsh discuss disappointing children’s entertainment, disappointing sales figures, anti-mnemonic naming choices, the rulebreaking delight of card game Balatro, the dishonourable cheeses of Honor Mode in Baldur’s Gate 3, and return once more to Night Country. AI wrote cheques that Willy Wonker simply could not cash. Immortals of Aveum may not have sold well, but it really opens up your pores. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is fine, probably, but it isn’t Balatro. Balatro is Balatro, and Balatro is all. Apart from the large part of all which is made up of repeated, ever stranger playth ..read more

Jamie and Marsh discuss the latest seasons of Fargo and True Detective, two anthology shows about troubling crimes and the yet more troubled cops who investigate them. Fargo was originally a film by the Coen Brothers, and was adapted to TV by Noah Hawley, who is also known for the show Legion. Also mentioned: Happy Valley, a superb crime show of a similar form, set in Yorkshire. The first season of True Detective was written by Nic Pizzolatto and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga. The latest is written and directed by Issa López. Fargo Season 5 cast: Juno Temple – Dot Richa Moorjani – Indira Olm ..read more

Join Jamie and Chris as they join Past Jamie for a solo pod about train-sets and low-key terror in the demo deluge of Steam Next Fest. Then they return to the present, which is also now the past, to discuss smushing bugs in the name of Super Earth in Helldivers 2. All aboard the Jamie solo-pod! Choo choo! Brio Train Sets Rolling Line Tracks – The Train Set Game Steam Next Fest is a periodic event that brings a deluge of time-limited demos. Mouthwashing is a weird horror game. The Steam synopsis asserts that “God is not watching.” Promising stuff! How Fish Is Made is another disturbing game fr ..read more

Tom F joins Marsh to make the biggest sticks in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, become the stick in Pacific island adventure Tchia, stick to walls in Jusant and stick it to space pirates in timeloop deckbuilder Cobalt Core. Just forbidden enough: Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is Tom’s game of 2023. Tactical Breach Wizards is Tom’s forthcoming game about wizards who breach tactically. It’s very good! Tchia is a joyous open world adventure in which you can possess any object. Jusant is a very beautiful game about climbing a massive abandoned tower. Cobalt Core is a very funny roguelike deckbuilder a ..read more

Marsh and Chris celebrate the new year by poking the wound in our psychic gestalt. Also: are AI tools ethical? Yeah, we solve that one. 100%. Bosh. Done. Also also: space whale visual novel South Scrimshaw, team shooter The Finals, Robocop: Rogue City, mystery game This Bed We Made, Pentiment and Cocoon. Alex’s COVID-recovery blogpost. He wouldn’t need to oxygenate his blood if he was a real man. South Scrimshaw Part One: a sci-fi visual novel written in the style of a nature documentary about alien whales. It’s excellent! The Finals is a very sweaty place for dinguses and a thrillingly dynam ..read more

Chris, Jamie and Marsh reminisce on the year that was, the teeth they lost, oceans they regret leaving, algorithms that have failed them and, very eventually, the games they played. Bold takes on Baldur’s Gate, Dave the Diver, Cult of the Lamb [sexy], Witchfire and Chants of Sennaar. Games of the year we give barely more than a namecheck to: Cocoon, Destiny 2, Jedi Survivor, Vampire Survivors, Hunt: Showdown Baldur’s Gate 3: game of the year or… game of the decade?! Cult of the Lamb, a cartoon action roguelike soon to feature sex, by popular demand. Dave the Diver, a multi-genre sushi experie ..read more

Jamie and Marsh voyage into their deepest nightmare – a metatextual commentary on the subjective nature of storytelling – and shine a light on Alan Wake 2, then decide to incarcerate their dying, plaque-filled brains in the philosophical puzzle islands of The Talos Principle 2. Alan Wake 2 Twin Peaks: The Return The Simpson’s Steamed Hams sketch. The Talos Principle 2 It’s “Roboterhaus”. Thanks, Germans. Free on the Epic Game Store if you’re an Amazon Prime customer: Invincible Presents: Atom Eve. Lovely Mike Cook’s lovely talk at the Roguelike Celebration, encouraging people to experiment wi ..read more

Tom S and Jamie don spandex and fling themselves into the uncynical optimism of Spider-Man 2, recall Tom Hardy’s come-hither Mr Tumble, return to both an up-res’d and a remade Resident Evil 4, and finish with a snifter of Super Mario Bros. Wonder. You don’t want to find yourself in that kind of posse. It took every fibre of maturity and decency I possess not to title this episode “The Pussy Posse”. BE EXCITED about the forthcoming Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island, a “back to basics” instalment of the classic roguelike that nonetheless moves the series into 3D. Sp ..read more

Tom S and Marsh switch their feet for tank tracks, and every other part of their body for bazookas, in Armored Core VI, suffer orb separation anxiety in Cocoon, enjoy to the janky return to Night City in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, and stab through Baghdad in Assassin’s Creed: Mirage. It’s the rockets you don’t shoot that matter in robot xenoplanet hell, Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon. Put an orb in your orb (inside your orb) in brilliantly chitinous puzzle game, Cocoon. Referenced: exploratory puzzle-platformer, Fez, weird insect open-world racing game, Vangers, and recursive Sokoban ..read more

Tom F, Jamie and Marsh pause time to queue up their synchronised takes on peerless piratical stealth game, Shadow Gambit, enjoy the sights of Baldur’s Gate biggest Big Town, curtly dismiss Starfield, and triumphantly reinvade Stroggos in a revamped Quake 2. So, Unity absolutely shit the bed. Godot and GameMaker are also available. Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is a superb real-time-with-pause stealth game by the sadly and abruptly shuttered studio Mimimi. Baldur’s Gate’s final act is worth waiting for, if your machine can run it now. Starfield. Oh boy. Quake 2’s remaster by Nightdive gives a ..read more