Ever liked a game that the whole rest of the world just seemed to turn its back on? Well, not to worry – we’ve got your back. Well, unless the game was Loadstar: The Legend of Tully Bodine. That game just plain sucks. But in all seriousness, this episode is about celebrating the games that we loved despite not having managed to uphold the greatest reputation in the wider world. Hewso is in charge of this one, possibly entirely because of a desire to defend the (PC release of) the Saint’s Row reboot. He’s not alone, though – Jess and Renee are along for the road, as is Tim. And, heaven knows, that guy’s taste may be completely in line with what everyone else thinks is good in some alternate timeline somewhere out there…

Games: I Am Future, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell Dma-Sc Break Music: Shadow Hunter by Error 47

Cast Matthew Hewson Tim Henderson Renee O’flynn Jess Zammit

With PAX Australia now firmly in the rearview mirror for 2024, we thought that we might take a moment to consider what it is that actually keeps on drawing us to conventions, year in, year out. Both our panel members and the conventions themselves have changed somewhat notably over the years, and we are painfully aware that it’s not the ’90s any longer. As perhaps the only Player 2 regular to have never actually attended PAX, it makes perfect (or no) sense that Tim has been put in charge of this one. Thankfully, Steve and Rob were both there earlier this year and are on board to keep the whole thing on track.

Games: Mechwarrior 5: Clans, Sonic x Shadow Generations, 1000xResist Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell Dma-Sc Break Music: The Sound of Speed by OceansAndrew, Scaredsim

Cast Rob Caporetto Tim Henderson Stephen del Prado

For some reason, Hewso thought it might be a good idea to invite a bunch of freaks and weirdos into his hotel room while PAX was going on in Melbourne. Fine choice of city; questionable choice of behaviour. In any case, this is an unusual episode in the sense that it doesn’t follow the exact format of 90% of our shows, but it’s also usual in the sense that Matt basically always does something like this around this time of the year. The only real difference is that there wasn’t anywhere on the show floor itself to do it this year. Is that meaningful? You tell me. You’re not the one paying for any holes in Matt’s wall…

Games: ** Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell Dma-Sc Break Music: **Walk on Water by Housethegrate

Cast Matt Hewson Jess Zammit Stephen del Prado

With the way things are going in the world, getting stuck on a deserted tropical island or some unmapped alpine mountain my almost seem desirable. It’d probably hurt your gaming a bit, though. That said, imagination can be a fun thing to flex, and so we set some rules to discuss our desert island top 5 titles. This proved to be a pretty fun experiment, as the crossover between our absolutely most treasured games and those we would keep access to turned out to be pretty thin. We put Shaun in charge of this one with Tim sitting in reserve. Oh, and Hewso’s back! Dude was just off travelling around Greece and Istanbul while the rest of us sat at home and slaved dai in, day out over our keyboards. Bastard.

Games: GoW: Ragnarök (PC), Neo: The World Ends with You, DBZ: Sparking! ZERO Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell Dma-Sc Break Music: Full Mast by Preenus

Cast Tim Henderson Shaun Nicholls Matt Hewson

Who knows, by the time this is published and you're listening to it everything that there could possibly be to know about what we'll simply call the 'Switch 2' may have been leaked and everyone has already moved on to Microsoft officially announcing some kind of XBox handheld or branded partnership with other handheld gaming PCs. It's hard to keep pace with the speed of console news right now. Which is why, perhaps, Tim, Rob and Shaun foolishly decided to try and look into the next decade instead. What will the PS6 (which has already been in the news before the dust even settled over the PS5 Pro sticker-shock) be like? Will XBox continue as we know it? What gaming trends will survive, die, and emerge? Honestly, we don't know, but it is kind of fun to guess sometimes.

Games: Star Wars: Outlaws, Dead Rising: DR, UFO 50 Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell Dma-Sc Break Music: Distorted Forest by Rockos

Cast Tim Henderson Shaun Nicholls Rob Caporetto

Big fish, little fish, cardboard box! Big fish, little fish, cardboard box! Ahem. Sorry. To strain this into a truly tortured metaphor, some games are big, some are little, and for a sizable part of the 90s they mostly came in cardboard boxes. Nintendo didn't give that shit up until the Gamecube. Anyway, with the world going (rightly) nuts over Astro Bot, an apparently smaller game that has become a GotY frontrunner, we thought it might be a good time to look at the industry's weird obsession with the epic, overstuffed adventure and compare the pros and cons of huge games and more contained ones. Rob's in charge, so you can blame all the times the topic wanders down a side street on him. You shouldn't blame Renee. And you certainly shouldn't blame Tim. No, absolutely not. Not at all.

Games: Farewell North, Astro Bot, Wild Bastards Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell Dma-Sc Break Music: Celestial Winds from the East by MkVaff

Cast Rob Caporetto Tim Henderson Renee O'flynn

Nein, Geoffory! Nein, nein, nein! We don’t need any more of these stage shows! Yes, your dress sneakers are lovely (and, I hope, comfortable), but it’s just been a couple of months since we last did this and we don’t always need multiple drinks after dessert. Nonetheless, the Keighly opening light extravaganza of trailers and flashing lights has successfully invaded Cologne, Germany, and with it a whole new swag-sack of announcements to unpack. Or, rather, something like a modest lunchbox, but it still got stretched out a lot. This may all sound overtly negative, but Tim, Matt and Rob did all find some things of interest to talk about and look forward too. Well, Matt and Rob did, at least. Tim was in full cranky-boy mode. Probably because he had put down FF7: Rebirth for a couple of hours to play some superhero thing instead.

Games: Age of Mythology: Retold, Castaway, Spiderman 2 Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell Dma-Sc Break Music: Baba Yetu (piano) by Modest One Cast Matt Hewson Tim Henderson Rob Caporetto

At the beginning of this century, Shenmue was listed in the (honestly pretty corrupt) Guinness Book of World Records as the most expensive videogame ever developed, with its protracted development cost sitting at around $80 million. Fast forward to the current generation, and Spiderman 2 is sitting at an eye-watering $300 million, over three times what its predecessor cost to develop. Is it any wonder, then, that some development talent is looking back towards the early-mid '00s and the trend of what we now refer to as 'Double A' games? Hewso certainly thinks that this is happening, and he's managed to drag Jess, Renee and (eventually) Tim along to discuss the apparent re-birth (or at least, re-nourishment) of this particular budget-category. Also, they talk about some other games and stuff while Tim was figuring out a flatpack bed frame, because this is a gaming podcast and all that.

Games: We Are Not Alone, Capes, Star Wars: Outlaws Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell Dma-Sc Break Music: Rain in Winter by The Vodou Queen, ZackParrish, Emunator Cast Matt Hewson Tim Henderson Renee O'Flynn Jess Zammit