Avsnitt
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Total Playtime is a weekly podcast about PC games, formerly funded by Patreon and now part of Jank. This is a free episode, but premium episodes are published every two weeks and are only available to paying subscribers. You can join them over here.
The prodigal dad returns! Yes, Brendy finally got enough sleep to return to podcasting with his newly minted As A Father Of A Daughter viewpoint, meaning that we are now tied in a dead heat between parents and what I’ll generously call “free spirits”.
There was too much news this week, to the point where we even snuck in some commentary about Kier Starmer. It’s only brief, though, as we move on to considering the social media ban and the associated elevated risk of teens becoming cool hackers, the head of AI who thinks generative AI is bullshit, and what was at the time the latest bad news for Xbox although characteristically they’ve pulled some more out since.
Plus: the Steam Machine, Nate’s narc child, and please don’t touch my grass. Please ask your doctor if having a baby is right for you. Thanks to all the Patreon and Jank backers who made this happen, the podcast would not exist without you. Thanks also to Alix Attenborough for the editing, Marsh Davies for the art and God Ribbon for the music. Submit parenting advice of any quality to [email protected] or in the comments below.
Links!
The UK is banning social media for under 16s and the gaming impact is somewhat unclear. Poncle are 'reviewing' their collab with Epic. The former head of Take Two's AI division says it's 'poisoning the well', and a bunch of game devs hate it. Ed Zitron has many thousands of words about why OpenAI is full of shit. Tommy Thonson covers the good AI in games. A superficial level look suggests an AI disclosure on your game means 60% fewer reviews. What happened at State of Unreal. Here’s GI.biz on rising genAI costs and what uses it actually has in game dev. The Steam Machine is pretty pricey but it’s okay, you can’t buy one anyway. Here’s James’ review. Valve probably wanted it to be $750 which it turns out is like £570. Claude Guillemot and Bobby Prince recently died. The Microsoft gaming closure rumours will continue until morale improves. Big John Valorant Pub Pop Up
Games!
Iron Nest and Beware of the Cartographer!
Recommendations!
Gelatelli Mini Sticks Double, The Pitt, The Bells of Westminster, For Whom The Spell Tolls, and Mr Beast’s Beef Lumps.
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This week's episode is late, for which we apologise and blame Geoff Keighley because let's face it, he's the one pulling all the strings these days. Jonty was still sat in meeting rooms in LA when this episode was recorded and Brendy is still doing dad things, so it fell to Alice and Nate to judge the output of a week's worth of game showcases despite really wanting to just talk about their dogs instead.
Thankfully they were both able to struggle through in the face of, once again, entirely too many games. Thrill to Alice's judgement of Geoff Keighley's fashion choices, Nate's denunciation of the crippling lack of ambition in aquarium simulation, and collective theorising on gender division in circus skills. Plus: finally getting a plausible dinosaur survival game, Commander Riker Isolation, and collectibles for a WWI Lego game. Shout out the Pope, you da real Warhammer 40,000 (words).
This episode is free to all, but it only exists thanks to the generous backing of our Patreons and our partners on Jank.cool, to whom we are eternally grateful. Thanks also to God Ribbon for the music, Marsh Davies for the artwork and Alix Attenborough for the editing. If you are Games Methusula, present your receipts at [email protected].
Links!
You can find all the trailers on gamesrecap.io. Nate was referring to PC Gamer's guide to Total Warhammer 40k although if you're clicking that link post-release it'll be the review because of SEO. You can find the playable... experience of 1666: Amsterdam on Steam. Here's the pitch for Magicians: The Devil's Deal. Sega is using AI to make the new Crazy Taxi and they are not particularly bothered about it. She Was Such A Good Horse is a very good studio name, not that fussed about the game though.Games!
Apple Crumble. 1666: Amsterdam. Star Trek: Shadow Frontier. Total War Warhammer 40,000. Alien Isolation 2. The Lost Wild. Metro 2039. Wife of War. Magicians: The Devil's Deal. Halo: Campaign Evolved. Crazy Taxi: World Tour. Bancho the Chef. Dave The Diver: In The Jungle. Vivarium. Hack '95. Pipes.exe. No Ghosts At The Grand. Dreadmoor. Prove You're Human. Shot One Fighters. The Wolf Among Us 2. Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight.Recommendations!
King Arthur: History and Legend. Your Least Favourite Person's Favourite Book. -
Saknas det avsnitt?
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This week Alice and I gathered in hot rooms to have hot takes on the main news stories of the week, chiefly the end of Destiny (and perhaps the employment of many of its developers) and the start of the Disco Elysium sequels. We also attempted to understand the Warhammer Skulls Showcase without Nate to guide us, which didn't get very far but we are quite taken with playing as Skaven.
We've also been playing some games, reading some books, and watching daft videos on the internet, all of which we have curated for our discerning audience. You can get still more of this rare insight by backing the show on Patreon (or subscribing to Jank) which gets you two extra episodes a month, and means you join the hallowed ranks of those who make this podcast happen. If you're one of them, thanks: we got this hot for you.
Additional thanks to God Ribbon for the music, Marsh Davies for the artwork and Alix Attenborough for the editing. Please send things that aren't Disco Elysium takes to [email protected].
Links!
Penny Arcade was problematic because of the dickwolves. Bungie had this comic hanging in their lobby when Jonty visited in, god, 2013. Fond Destiny 2 memories by Nathan Brown and Dom Peppiatt. Rob Fahey on service games ending and The Final Shape. People are not okay about Zero Parades. Nic's review on Jank. Nate explained Warhammer for our Patrons last year. The hench chicken is in Project Windless. Brendy's review of My Summer Car. Jonty's Jank post about Mon Bazou.
Games!
Destiny 2, Disco Elysium, Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, Esoteric Ebb, Times and Galaxy. Mon Bazou. My Summer Car.
Recommendations!
The Princess Bride, Yesteryear, Auto Parts City.
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I regret to say that we were unable to record a regular news episode this week. Everybody was away or ill or both, with the exception of Brendy who is a new parent and thus is going to be preoccupied, exhausted and/or covered in body excretions for the forseeable future.
To tide our regular listeners over, we are resurrecting a former Patreon-exclusive episode: Episode Q, which previously aired in October 2025. In it, Alice and I are once again bedeviled by Games Satan, and compelled to save a series of well-known videogame franchises from oblivion thanks to financial support driven by product placement. The twist is that Nate Games Satan chose the products, which lead to some previously unforseen partnerships between triple-A videogame brands and small-to-mid-size service companies in the West Midlands.
There is no way this sort of analysis would exist without the backing of our Patreon supporters, to whom we extend our gracious thanks. You can join them over on Patreon to unlock another year's worth of this sort of thing. Further thanks to Marsh Davies for the artwork, God Ribbon for the music and Alix Attenborough for the editing. Comments, questions, branding decks and spicy mashed potato recipes are all welcomed at [email protected]; Alix recommends adding blended curry leaf, garlic, chilli flakes and coriander.
Patreon backers will be blessed with a new episode next week. For everybody else, we'll be back regarding the news on the 28th, shortly before Saint Geoff blesses us all with a bunch of new trailers at not-E3 in June.
Games!
Minecraft, Baldur's Gate 3, Elden Ring, The Witcher 3, Dark Souls, Mass Effect, Yakuza 0, Fallout New Vegas, Team Fortress 2.
Links!
Nate is the Honda City with optional Motocampo and Alice is the Honda Beat.
Recommendations!
The Mitchells Vs The Machines, The Tour De France: A Tale In Hotels, and The Puzzle Wood.
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It’s an emergency episode this week: both Alice and Brendy were away, so I had to dial in from Vegas to assist Nate in judgement of the main news events. This lead to some sub-optimal audio and a diminished runtime, for which I can only beg your forgiveness. Other errors include misrepresenting how mobile game advertising works and incorrectly saying that Frank Oz puppeteered ET, when in fact ET was played by three different actors. Just a shining example of what happens without Alice there to organise things, really, although we do nail the segues so we’ve got that going for us.
You can listen to the episode right here, or find it on your podcasting platform of choice.
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKW
Acast: https://shows.acast.com/total-playtime
Thanks to all our current Patreons for making the podcast happen, to Marsh Davies for our art, God Ribbon for our music and Alix Attenborough for our editing. Send us your preferred endings and ET at [email protected]. Enjoy the benefits of our partnership with jank.cool.
If you like the podcast, please leave us a positive review on your podcast platform of choice: it helps other people discover it,and think how much fun they’ll have.
Links!
Barry Manilow can be seen at the Westgate every month this year. Hades 2 changed the ending and that’s fine actually because mythology. Microsoft Gaming is Xbox again. Game Pass Ultimate is a bit cheaper and won’t have new Calls of Duty in it. Jonty wrote about Samson for Jank. Boiling Point’s patch notes are rightly famous. The NYT on Dwarf Fortress. Ea-nāṣir achieved immortality.
Games!
Horizon: Zero Dawn. Mass Effect 3. Turns out somebody made a game based on bad mobile game ads but not in the way I thought. Dwarf Fortress on Steam.
Recommendations!
Make some blood bread and watch One Battle After Another.
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In a rare treat this week’s episode is not talking about layoffs, but I contrived to introduce them as additional context for Pete Hines being savagely critical of what happened to Bethesda, so the narrative thread is maintained. Otherwise this is quite a good-natured look at the latest PC gaming happenings, including what turned out to be some extremely inaccurate guesses at what hackers had stolen from Rockstar, and what will doubtless prove to be extremely inaccurate guesses at what’s in Epic’s Disney-character extraction shooter.
Other highlights this week include Brendy driving up some hills and becoming troubled by them, Nate establishing himself as our resident Jeff Kaplan correspondent, and the ease with which you can Mandela Event yourself into believing just about any idiotic Gamergate-y conspiracy theory is a real thing because they’re all so ridiculous as to be plausible.
Plus: troublesome dogs, IRL Pope beef, some very ill-advised rake-stepping on the topic of classic Square Enix games and our judgement of three recently-released videogames, which is a lot rarer than it should be given that’s what the podcast is supposed to be about. We make no promises as to if this will continue.
Thanks to all our current Patreons for making the podcast happen. You can join them to unlock more episodes at https://www.patreon.com/c/TotalPlaytimePodcast. Thanks also to Marsh Davies for our art, God Ribbon for our music and Alix Attenborough for our editing. Tell us why rental cars don’t have automatic gearboxes and why Jonty and Nate are wrong about Kingdom Hearts at [email protected]. Enjoy the benefits of our partnership with jank.cool.
If you like the podcast, please leave us a positive review on your podcast platform of choice: it helps other people discover it, and think how much fun they’ll have.
Links!
Jeff Kaplan revealed that Blizzard did not amend the size of Tracer’s butt. Rockstar was hacked again but didn’t even care, and since we recorded the episode it was revealed that the data was just proof of how much money it makes from GTA Online, the leaking of which actually caused Take Two’s share price to increase so yeah that all checks out. GTA 6 is coming out on 19th November FYI. There was some IRL Avignon pope beef. Pete Hines has some opinions about what happened to Bethesda, which is not entirely surprising. Bloomberg reported that Epic is making an extraction shooter with Disney characters. Jeremy Peel talked to the Samson devs.
Games!
Jeff Kaplan’s new game is The Legend of California. Kingdom Hearts 4 is coming. Tlatoani: Aztec Cities. Samson. Moves Of The Diamond Hand. Exit 8.
Recommendations!
Exit 8, War Machine, Takdaneh Natural Sour Cherry Juice, Primal and Rosie Cheeks Slime Shop.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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This week we have fun (for a given value of fun) discussing Epic's mass layoffs, Sony's dynamic price testing, and the difficulty in reviewing Crimson Desert, maybe. One of these results on an extended discussion of the world's favourite glassy-eyed YouTuber. Please note, Jimmy, that the title is a lighthearted joke; I beg, do not turn your eye of Sauron upon us.
Plus! Brendy gets unaccountably upset at us for saying things about mining but in a way that sort of implies we find mining sexually arousing. He genuinely seemed upset during recording as well. I don't think it was a bit.
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKW
RSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6786cf573ceecdbe85eac067
Acast: https://shows.acast.com/total-playtime
Thanks to all our current Patreons for making the podcast happen, and to Marsh Davies for our art and God Ribbon for our music. Send in what your regional time for woodlice is to [email protected]. Make the most of our partnership by viewing Jank.cool.
Links!
Epic shitcanned a thousand people, and the Fortnite team are a bit like 'WELP'. Chet Falizsek went on a tear about it. Rumours abound that PlayStation are testing dynamic pricing. Now maybe spotted in the wild? Crimson Desert for some reason became the latest saviour of single player games (I think off the strength of one cool trailer maybe??) and then was distinctly mid. Paul Tassi wrote about how the review build was significantly different to the retail version.
Games!
Reanimal, Slay The Spire 2, and Hardspace Shipbreaker (and Edwin did write an article about the unionisation aspects!)
Recommendations!
The UK series of Last One Laughing, the sci-fi movie Project Hail Mary, and to look up and attend any of your local amateur dramatics societies.
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This week we bring you an accidentally AI-themed extravaganza, as Krafton lost their Unknown Worlds/Subnautica 2 lawsuit for the funniest reason possible: they asked ChatGPT what to do. But just before that, Nvidia unveiled their new Super Sampling and its more like Super SLOP, am I right? Many came out to mock the TikTok-beauty-filterfication of Grace from Resi Requiem. And just before that, Jeff Kaplan, formerly Jeff from the Overwatch team (he's always the Queen from the Overwatch team of our hearts) dealt with some residual C-suit trauma by going on a podcast. Not this one, though. Maybe one day.
You can listen to the episode right here, or find it in your podcasting app of choice:
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKW
RSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6786cf573ceecdbe85eac067
Acast: https://shows.acast.com/total-playtime
Thanks to all our current Patreons for making the podcast happen, and to Marsh Davies for our art, Alix Attenborough for our editing, and God Ribbon for our music. Do not email me about Disco Elysium at [email protected]. Make the most of our partnership by viewing Jank.cool.
Links!
ARC Raiders is replacing some of the genAI, and Digital Foundry saw Nvidia's DLSS5 and thought it was great, but everyone else made fun of it. Nvidia's CEO says we're all wrong; Kotaku asked a bunch of devs and they all hate it too. The Subnautica 2 lawsuit got weird (apparently it's coming out in May now, a decision Brendy describes as 'SUSPICIOUSLY fast'), Jeff Kaplan had a bad time.
Games!
Nate clamped his own mouth shut rather than talk about AoEII again, but Brendy has been playing Slay The Spire 2, and Alice has been playing Esoteric Ebb! They wrote about them on a website. Alice also got to play the demo for the upcoming Darkside Detective game, Backside of the Moon. She was very excited.
Recommendations!
1997 Australian comedy The Castle, Death Rider by Rhuairidh James, and commissioning an independent artist (specifically, this one)
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It’s a quiet one this week, as Alice is away doing mysterious things and Nate is away on a secret mission which you’ll have to hear about in two weeks’ time. It thus falls to Jonty and Brendy to ruminate on Xbox without Phil Spencer, games journalism without humans, and deciding which Pokémon starter would be the best restaurant starter.
You can listen to the episode right here, or find it in your podcasting app of choice:
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKW
RSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6786cf573ceecdbe85eac067
Thanks to all our current Patreons for making the podcast happen, and to Marsh Davies for our art and God Ribbon for our music. Submit your Pokémon recipes at [email protected]. Make the most of our partnership by viewing Jank.cool.
Links!
Phil Spencer left Xbox, along with Sarah Bond. Everybody except Brendy regards him as a lovely bloke who knew a lot about games. The new boss is a creation of pure business and maybe that’s for the best. Metacritic pulled the Videogamer’s Resi Requiem review for being written by AI after nearly all the staff were laid off. Clint Hocking has left Ubisoft again. We would only eat one of the new Pokémon starters.
Games!
The tooth-cleaning game Jonty couldn't remember was Shark Dentist. Brendy loves Airframe Ultra; you may also consider Star Wars: Galactic Racer and Deathgrip. The other games we played were The Ratline, Beyond Words, Word Play and Resident Evil Requiem. Marathon is out today so you can find out yourself if Jonty’s just really bad at it.
Recommendations!
Werner Herzog’s Instagram and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin.
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This week it's a conspiracy theory special, as Alice develops increasingly outlandish theories about the forces and decisions that shape the games industry, the pharmaceutical industy and the world, and Jonty and Brendy try and talk her down. Plus, layoffs again, pondering the ideological opposite of Rivers Cuomo, why the AI era is dumb and stupid, and a truly inspired Alien: Isolation mod idea.
You can download the podcast right here, or find it in your podcasting apps:
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKW
RSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6786cf573ceecdbe85eac067
Thanks to all our current Patreons for making the podcast happen (join them here!) and to Marsh Davies for our art and God Ribbon for our music. Submit to the Sausage Mailbag at [email protected]. Make the most of our partnership by viewing Jank.cool.
Links!
AI is eating all the RAM. Component shortages are coming for routers. If you want to read 10,000 words about OpenAI being a scam then Ed Z has you covered. Rob Fahey on how consoles left families behind. Lots of Highguard devs got laid off. Do not post on X. Some industry lessons from the Highguard launch, one of which is that the world can change a lot over the course of a game's development. There are some wildly disparate voice actors in Mewgenics and Edmund McMillen swears that's intentional. He also went on Post Games.
Games!
Mewgenics. Super Meat Boy. Relooted. South of Midnight.
Recommendations!
Glen Baxter. This game engine is from the 90s. Columbo is on Channel 5 in the UK and a number of episodes are up on YouTube.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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It was claimed that Sydney Sweeney was excited about the Split Fiction movie, and that’s an excuse for Alice to be absolutely livid about the Split Fiction game, so please strap in for ten uninterrupted minutes of her choking on her own bile. After that, we manage to find time to discuss the nature of Morrowind, people choosing not to go to GDC, Highguard’s doomed pact with Geoff Keighley, the most Alan Partridge thing Alice has ever said, and more.
You can download the podcast right here, or find it in your podcasting apps:
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKW
RSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6786cf573ceecdbe85eac067
Acast: https://shows.acast.com/total-playtime
Thanks to all our current Patreons for making the podcast happen, and to Marsh Davies for our art and God Ribbon for our music. Share your recommendations of games and shrimp at [email protected]. Make the most of our partnership by viewing Jank.cool and perhaps joining the Discord.
Links!
Syd is not actually hype about the Split Fiction script. Bruce Nesmith reckons Morrowind doesn’t hold up. Nate never visited the Crab Palace. Lots of people said they’re skipping GDC this year but the organisers say it’s fine. Highguard’s debut went badly which the dev considers “risky in hindsight”, although they’re trying hard and the 5v5 mode is now permanent. Please enjoy MerritK’s post in the Jank newsletter, and the rest of Jank.cool come to that. Iron Lung is in cinemas now. Brendy reviewed TR49.
Games!
Split Fiction. The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind. Highguard is free. Everything Is Crab. TR49.
Recommendations!
Moldovan Rara Neagra, Shitstorm by Fernando Sdrigotti, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, Andycruns on BlueSky.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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This episode was previously exclusive to our Patreon backers, but we're making it available to everybody to show what you're missing behind the paywall. You can get access to more Text Adventure plus a year of other subscriber episodes, at patreon.com/TotalPlaytimePodcast.
Text Adventure is our videogame book club, in which we and a guest read a videogame novelisation and try very hard to like it. In this episode we are joined by Johnny Chiodini to read Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, which turns out to be story about a neocon Alan Partridge who's totally devoid of emotional intelligence and incredibly bad at stealth. Which is quite close to how we played Splinter Cell but not, we suspect, the outcome they were aiming for for.
Music by God Ribbon, art by Marsh Davies and our entire existence care of our Patreon backers. Please consider joining them and enabling us to continue our quest to find a games book that isn't absolutely terrible.
Games!
You can still buy the first Splinter Cell game, but the remake is out soon(ish)
Links
This is the book most of us read and this is the one Nate read.
Recommendations!
Going to the charity shops in the most fancy area available to you, London Centric's snail farmer mafioso article, thermal instant cameras, and the Realms Unknown podcast which has featured our own Nate!
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It's a heady intersection of belief systems this week, as we combine Alice's insomniac enthusiasm for weird Instagram crystal sales with Nate's rigorous interrogation of Tim Cain's Types Of Quests. Plus: a horny dog, a nightmarish Pikachu, the Roman god of webinars and Games Anubis joins our increasingly incoherent pantheon.
You can listen to the episode right here, or find it in your podcasting apps:
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKW
RSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6786cf573ceecdbe85eac067
Nate's Quiz will be coming to Patreon next month, but in the meantime we have many other fine episodes to which you get full access by subscribing at patreon.com/totalplaytimepodcast. Thanks to all our current Patreons for making the podcast happen, and to Marsh Davies for our art and God Ribbon for our music. You can suggest quest types and your means of death at [email protected].
Links!
Tim Cain's 9 types of Quest. The moderately nightmarish Lego Pikachu is yours for £179.99. Various people will sell you bootleg plans for Lego Metal Gear Rex and probably also the Horizon Zero Dawn Tallneck because Lego long since sold out. Facepunch offered to buy New World after it was given 12 months to live.
Games!
Assassin's Creed Origins and New World, but only if you bought it already.
Recommendations!
The Holdovers, Tokyo These Days and The Long Walk.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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It's 2026, and Alice's dog is still being a dick so she had to leave Jonty, Nate and Brendan to share their gaming New Year's Resolutions, only for the wheels to come off immediately because Nate won't commit to playing new games and Brendan won't commit to resolutions as a concept. We were nevertheless able to muster some recommendations along important discussion of the Eurovision of games, becoming The Balls Guy and the unsettling experience of joining an ARC Raiders suicide cult.
You can listen to the episode directly right here, or find it in your pod catching apps.
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKW
RSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6786cf573ceecdbe85eac067
Acast: https://shows.acast.com/total-playtime
Music by God Ribbon, art by Marsh Davies and our entire existence care of our Patreon supporters, without whom this show would not exist. Consider joining them at https://www.patreon.com/c/TotalPlaytimePodcast. Share your comments and additional New Year's Resolutions for Alice to [email protected].
Links!
People are convincing themselves that Half-Life 3 is coming. The plan for Subnautica 2 is mostly litigation.
Games!
ARC Raiders. Mon Bazou. Totally Legit Wheeler Seller. Let's Build A Zoo. Ark Nova. Crusader Kings 3: Roads to Power. Nivalis. Streets of Fortuna.
Recommendations!
but the games were good. Get yourself a snake plant, and schedule an input day but don't give Nate any credit for it.
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Merry Christmas, sausages one and all, and please enjoy our seasonal gift of grumbling about a Geoff Keighley event. All four of us, plus Anthony Hopkins, took time out from Christmas shopping/wrapping/disorganisation to judge the best of the year-end awards season, and also debate movie series that Alice should binge-watch in her act of seasonal self-harm.
Plus: the least-qualified discussion of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on any gaming podcast this year, Lenny Kravitz as recession indicator, Rolf the Dog smoking a joint with Joe Rogan and finally building The Interat. Correction: Alice mistakenly credited Rage 2 to Ubisoft when it was of course Bethesda and Jonty was too polite to point this out UNTIL NOW.
You can listen to the episode directly right here, or find it in your pod catching apps.
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKW
RSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6786cf573ceecdbe85eac067
Acast: https://shows.acast.com/total-playtime
Music by God Ribbon, art by Marsh Davies and our entire existence care of our Patreon supporters, who remain the most special sausages even in the face of stiff seasonal competition. Thanks again for making all of this happen. You can send us comments, feedback and suggestions for terrible movie franchises to [email protected].
Games!
Star Wars Fate of the Old Republic, Ace Combat 8, Bradley the Badger, Control: Resonant, Tomb Raider: Catalyst, Sunset Overdrive, Order of the Sinking Star, Ontos, Total Warhammer 40k, Stupid Never Dies, Gang of Dragon.
Links!
The interminable appearance of the Street Fighter Cast. Here is a music journalist getting mad at "gaming 'journalists' and other slack-jawed, brainless zombies" for disrespecting Andrew WK's E3 performance. Damion Schubert pointed out that Game Awards pricing is actually pretty good by contemporary marketing standards. Casey Hudson and Jason Schreier disagreed on when Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic will come out. The Divinity trailer was gross AF. The internet was entirely normal about the Divinity statue. The first trailer for Baldur's Gate 3 was also a bit much. Alan Hazelden on being part of a Jonathan Blow game. Some people got hype, and then disappointed, by Half-Life 3 again. Anthony Jeselnik's Top 10 books of 2025.
Recommendations!
The Sycamore Gap Mystery and The Salt Path Scandal (here's the Observer exposé), A Passion for Passion, the Inside of You podcast, The Three Body Problem.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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In this episode we discuss the (frankly, needlessly) controversial HORSES, an Italian surrealist horror game that has been banned from Steam and, latterly, the Epic Game Store, and boy everyone and their mother has been yapping about it. What do we think of Steam's ban? Is nudity ever okay? And what's up with this Ian dude? (Answers: Steam can do what they want but this is still bad; no, live in shame you freaks; it is beyond the remit of this podcast to discover that).
A big thank you to God Ribbon for our music, Marsh Davies for our art, and our Patron supporters, who are all too hot for TV. You can share comments, suggestions, and NO FEEDBACK WHATSOEVER to [email protected].
You can listen to the episode directly right here, or find it in your pod catching apps.
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKW
RSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6786cf573ceecdbe85eac067
Acast: https://shows.acast.com/total-playtime
Links!
*deep breath* Horses got banned from Steam, in events described by the devs here and supplement by a statement from Valve; Eurogamer also further interviewed Pietro Righi Riva, studio director, here. The game was also yoinked from Epic and briefly delisted by Humble (a summary from the Verge here). This kerfuffle despite the fact that most people who play the game kind of shrug at the content (Edwin, at our old stomping ground, seemed to like it, and his review provides a lot of context). Also, Ian Bogost rose from the dead to remind us that games shouldn't have stories anyway, and if they do they're bad. Horses is available on Itch, Humble and GOG.
Games!
Brendy has been shredding in Skate Story. Jonty has been playing The Séance of Blake Manor and is incorrect about it. Santa Ragione's website with links to their other games is here.
Recommendations!
Brant recommends The Ooh Directory (via PCGamer), Jonty recommends internet newsletter Read Max, and I recommend cooking channel Kaz Cooks.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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We celebrate the birth of the Xbox 360, and God's own sausage-in-a-suit-jacket Phil Spencer. But mostly the Xbox 360. We reminisce about what the 'box mean to us, and Jonty reveals some of the behind-the-scenes dead-eyed virtual child Milo goss you've been waiting for. Plus! Games Satan returns with possibly his weirdest question yet.
A big thank you to God Ribbon for our music, Marsh Davies for our art, and the best sausages in the world, our Patreon supporters, for financing our silliness. You can share comments, suggestions, feedback, and Xbox memories to [email protected].
You can listen to the episode directly right here, or find it in your pod catching apps.
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKW
RSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6786cf573ceecdbe85eac067
Acast: https://shows.acast.com/total-playtime
Links!
Eurogamer's piece on the end of the 360, and their hub of 360 articles. Here's the Milo demo, and the whole 2010 conference that Jonty was at if you're arsed. Enjoy the 360 reveal feat. Elijah Wood on PCGamer.
Recommendations!
Conceited by Lola Young, Wharf Aquatics, Wirecutter's mystery Amazon pallet unboxing, and The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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This week is another two-hander, as Jonty and Nate are both away, so Brendy earns his keep by joining me as we have mild opinions about Rockstar delaying Grand Theft Auto VI, but stronger opinions about Rockstar firing a bunch of developers out of nowhere. We also discuss an interesting interview from Tomas Sala, developer of Bulwark and The Falconeer, AND, as a special treat, we've been playing some topical and current video games this week.
A big thank you to God Ribbon for our music, Marsh Davies for our art, and ethical and sensible Patreon supporters for financing our silliness. You can share comments, suggestions, feedback, and union support to [email protected].
You can listen to the episode directly right here, or find it in your pod catching apps.
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKW
RSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6786cf573ceecdbe85eac067
Acast: https://shows.acast.com/total-playtime
Links!
GTAVI is delayed, but Strauss Zelnick is like 'no worries m8'. Rockstar has been accused of union busting and can suck it if this is indeed the case (since we recorded Rockstar are facing legal action). Tomas Sala on finding a sustainable dev life away from virality, via Eurogamer.
Matthew "Iggy" Kowalski needs a kidney.
Games!
Arc Raiders! Dispatch! The Séance of Blake Manor!
Recommendations!
Bronder recommends Gutshot by Amelia Gray, and I recommend A Very Vexing Murder by Lucy Andrew
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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This week we're down a Jonty (not permanently, don't worry) but up a new chair, thanks to our Patreon pals! And it's been a week of upheaval elsewhere, as Microsoft and Xbox has been the focus of a lot of news. Halo is re-back, but also on PlayStation!? What do we think this means for hexboks? Nothing particularly encouraging, but Brendy is annoyed by some Halo rocks. PLUS Nate makes fun of AI, and Alice has been playing Bloodlines 2, as is her curse.
A big thank you to God Ribbon for our music, Marsh Davies for our art, and our very cool and majestic Patreon supporters for being the wind beneath our wings - a wind that allows for a new host, no less. You can share comments, suggestions, feedback, and strong opinions about Halo rocks at [email protected].
Links!
Xbox allegedly pushes for 30% margins, is unconcerned by other platforms, and is putting arguably its flagship product on the Sony box. Remember when the internet stopped working? That was because of one software bug, but best not to worry unless your bed bricked. EA signed a deal with Stability AI, and it's fun to laugh at bad AI, unless you're on dating apps, I guess.
Games!
Keep Driving! Bloodlines 2! PowerWash Simulator 2! Dawn Of War! Carimara!
Recommendations!
Make a kind of mincemeat toast instead of a mince pie, observe Stewthius, the perpetual stew, watch ish's terrifying Minecraft social experiments.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Alice is unavailable so we are joined by another voice of podcasts past: James Archer, the RPS master of waring hard. He assists us in considering the latest collection of furious developer commentary and shares his judgement on the handheld Xbox thing, for which he is rewarded by being anointed Archbishop of Games Canterbury. You may think these freeform attempts at rolling our own belief system are unsustainable but we're British (derogatory), this stuff is in our blood.
Thanks to God Ribbon for our music, Marsh Davies for our art, and our beloved Patreon backers for funding the podcast and make it happen. You can share comments, suggestions and prospective papal edicts at [email protected].
Links!
Game File revealed that Ubisoft cancelled a Reconstruction-era Assassin's Creed game. Glen Israel left 343 Industries in an extremely portentous way. Halo already did an anime. The IWGB union published an open letter savaging the management at Build A Rocket Boy. The ROG Xbox Ally X.
Games!
Assassin's Creed Freedom Cry. Halos Infinite and 4. Prototype lets you punch people into spaghetti by design rather than graphical error. Everybody loved Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, eventually. Rimworld Odyssey. Dawn of War: Definitive Edition. There's an updated version of Red Alert in Command and Conquer Remastered. Battlefield 6. Cloverpit.
Recommendations!
Tenggar Cavalry, Kartuli and Peacemaker.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Visa fler
