The Inner Gamer Podcast

This week on The Inner Gamer , Brett and Jason share their first impressions of Ghost of Yōtei — the long-awaited follow-up to Ghost of Tsushima . You now play as Atsu , a warrior on a brutal quest for revenge against the Yōtei Six who murdered her family. The tone is darker, the world more open, and the storytelling more grounded. It’s a different kind of Ghost game, but so far, we’re loving the...

Borderlands 4 has finally arrived and with it we have the giant open world of Kairos to explore. Armed with 4 new vault hunters and a slew of missions, side quests and LOTS of guns we share what makes this game a huge step in the right direction. The open world is vast with plenty to do, the game has brought a ton of new traversal mechanics and the story is better and more grounded than BL3. Despi...

007 First Light had it's first gameplay reveal. This is the new Bond game from IO Interactive, the creators of Hitman. It's looking good in some areas and not so much in others. How will it turn out when it releases next year? Brett revisits some older games. He dives back into No Man's Sky Voyagers update with the new build-your-own Corvette's. It's an awesome update and No Man's Sky is a technic...

This week Austin is out for his birthday (happy birthday Austin) but Jason and Brett are here to dig into the games. We start with our first look of Mafia: The Old Country. This game takes us back to 1900's Sicily where the Italian mob got its start. You play Enzo working your way up in the family led by the Don  through the hills of beautiful Sicily. The story is great...but does the gameplay fol...

In this episode, we review the new game from Dreamhaven (former Blizzard devs) called Wildgate. It's a PvPvE shooter we're having a blast playing. You and 3 other players pilot a shop through The Reach with other ships in the battle with you. Find the artifact and take it through the Wildgate or destroy all the enemy ships. The moment to moment combat is fantastic and there's a lot of variety to g...

Nintendo is back in the conversation with a banger of a game with Donkey Kong Bananza. Exclusive to the Switch 2, Donkey Kong Bananza is one of the best platformers probably ever featuring fully destructible environments and dopamine hits with every smash of a rock you do. With Pauline by your side, venture down into Earth the planet's core through a variety of sublayers that represent different t...

We have a great episode this week featuring our first look at Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding 2. We dive into this beautiful world and explore the early hours of the strand game.  Brett dives into Sloclap's Rematch. These are the developers of Sifu entering into the competitive scene with a soccer game. It's a paid title with some solid mechanics, but is it enough to keep us engaged? We also review...

We have a returning guest on the podcast! Welcome back Joe Lambert from the Nerd Sloth Creative . He's here to talk about all the games we've been playing. Make sure and check out his podcast Indie Game Arcade , releasing weekly!  We have an incredibly focused podcast today featuring 4 games. We start with Elden Ring Nightreign, the side project from From Software that takes us into a co-op experi...

The Switch 2 is finally here! We've had it a little over week and talk about our first impressions of the hardware, the game library and what's coming. We also review Mario Kart World which is the premiere launch title for the Nintendo Switch 2. Jason reviews Mindseye, the new game from the larger experience Everywhere, but unfortunately the game doesn't quite deliver the big promise we had hoped....

We have a surprise review this week for a game called Revenge of the Savage Planet. This game was not on our radar, but we're glad we got it and played it. It's a third-person collect-a-thon where you fight bugs and other creatures, capture them and collect eggs, spool and more to level up your character. It's on Xbox Game Pass and can be easily played with a friend! We also dove back into the 8 y...

Doom the Dark Ages is here from iD Software. It's a prequel to Doom 2016 and is much more grounded than the previous entries but just as intense. The visceral action in this game and the technical gameplay is unlike anything else out there. The chain shield, the shotgun, the skullcrusher and more make for an epic game with a gorgeous world. Elder Scrolls Oblivion got a full remaster. Travel back i...

This week we try a new AA game from former Ubisoft developers called Clair Obscur Expedition 33. It's inspired by Belle Époque France and JRPG's. This is the best game we've played this year. From the art style, to the music to the complex turn-based combat, this game has it all to make for a great game. The storytelling is incredible and the world they built is stunning. You have to see it to bel...

This episode gets a little off the rails. We talk about drug dealing in the game Schedule 1. It couldn't be more perfect that it falls on Episode 420. Schedule 1 comes from Tyler's Video Game Studio and it's a simulator game where you start as a low-level drug dealer and work your way up in the criminal empire to operate your own distribution system in Hyland Point. It has a silly art style that m...

Assassin's Creed Shadows is here! We really enjoyed Valhalla but it was an incredibly long game that had way too much content. The team behind Shadows recognized this and toned it down and brought us a feudal Japan story that is much more focused with an open world that's vast, but managable. The comparisons to Ghost of Tsushima can't be ignored, but this game does manage to find it's own identity...

You've played Lethal Company. You've played Content Warning. But you haven't yet played a game like R.E.P.O. This game is from a Swedish developer called Semiwork. It's an online, co-op horror game that supports up to 6 players. Find and retrieve objects to satisfy your creator. Use your physics hand to pick up things in the world and deliver them to the extraction zone. This game is a blast to pl...

In this episode, we record from Austin, TX because we're here for SXSW 2025! We talk about all the fun experiences from the brand activations, to the great panels to the fun parties. The biggest reveal being Death Stranding 2 revealing the release date alongside a world tour concert. We also got to see a great talk from Geoff Keighley and much more. We also review Monster Hunter Wilds. This is an...

We have a few reviews this week, a reaction to some recent news and a look at the upcoming PlayStation games straight out of the State of Play. We review Avowed, the new game from Obsidian, the makers of Pillars of Eternity and The Outer Worlds. Some of us don't like it and some of us do so find out which one you agree with based on our discussion. We also review Citizen Sleeper 2. It's the indie...

Brett reviews Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. This game has been a struggle as one part of it feels amazing and another part feels like it missed the mark. The game is beautiful, has some great cutscenes, interesting puzzles and worlds to explore but the combat leaves something to be desired. Is it worth buying into it or holding off for something else? We also review Dicefolk, a dice-building...

Path of Exile 2 is a Diablo-like ARPG out now in early access. It has a price tag and we talk about whether or not this game is fun to play and if it's worth paying the price tag for early access or if you should wait until it's in full release where it switches to free to play. Brett reviews the "slapformer" Thank Goodness You're Here. It's a little British comedy game that is a short jaunt throu...

Our Game of the Year Awards are here! The Inner Gamer's official 2024 GOTY awards have arrived. We all share our 10 top list and at the end you get to hear our official list aggregated from all our picks. There are some fun surprises in here you won't want to miss!  We also take a look at the future and talk about our most anticipated games of 2025. However, we do it differently this time. We try...

The Game Awards 2024 have concluded and they were quite the showcase this year. For the 10th anniversary, Geoff Keighley pulled out all the stops with some amazing reveals such as Naughty Dog's next game, the return of Okami, The Witcher 4 announcement and much more.  We review NetEase's new game Marvel Rivals. This is pretty much an Overwatch clone but brings a lot of new features that Overwatch...

NOTE: We had some audio issues in this recording where everything sounded like an AM radio. We decided to try some new AI tech and this is the output. It cleaned up the AM radio sound quite a bit but you may notice us sounding a little...foreign or merging words together, that's the AI making assumptions :-D Fun experiment for sure, enjoy the show! In this episode, we have a lot of reviews such as...

Call of Duty Black Ops 6 is here! We never thought we'd have a Call of Duty game on this podcast again, but Treyarch and the other teams behind this game outdid themselves. Call of Duty Black Ops 6 is the full package. The campaign is solid, the multiplayer is super addicting and the zombies mode is a blast. Best of all? This is all available on Xbox Game Pass. We also dig into Alan Wake 2's new D...

Brett reviews The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. It's from the folks that brought us the remake of Link's Awakening. This game puts you in the shoes of Zelda creating "echoes" of enemies and objects in the world to rescue everyone from the rifts. We also talk about Jason's review of the PlayStation Portal. Does he agree with Austin? We take a look at Delta Force: Hawk Ops in the Steam Next Fes...

In this episode, Brett gives an early review of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. This game dropped back in January but we're just now getting to it. He's only 8 hours in so there is still 50 some more hours to enjoy but we share a lot of the early gameplay, talk about the story, experience the minigames and more.  Austin gets his hands on the early access of the Witchfire game which is a soulslike...