GameHounds

Do we have hints that Nick may win the ROG Ally X bet? Mayyyybeeee....

Edie has a date tonight! So we gotta keep the show fun-sized. Join our Discord:  

We're back from Seattle, and while we were away, the gaming news kept going. Call of Duty getting the movie treatment (and Spielberg is NOT directing it, either), Fireaxis cans employees after releasing the most-successful Civ game to date, former Bethesda boss doesn't have nice things to say about Game Pass, and Activision backs off of Carry Forward feature after mass backlash. 

Now we switch to hardware! Nick talks with Tom Morgan, Senior Developer for G’AIM’E, about their new lightgun for use with shooters, in this case demoed on Timecrisis, that allows you to very accurately target and hit using concoles and modern TVs. It's complicated and technical, but Nick says it's works really surprisingly well.  

On this final day of PAX 2025, Nick chats with Tylor Whitney, narrative lead on Aether and Iron, a narrative-based RPG with turn-based tactics set in a gritty noir style. 

Edie chats Kamila Zielinska, head of publishing for Ancient Forge studios, about their upcoming hand-drawn hotel-management game, Hotel Galactic, a gorgeous cozy title that evokes Miasaki and Studio Ghibli in its style and story. 

Nick and Edie speak with Daniel Stankiewicz, co-founder and 3D artist of Memoria Wake from Team Crescendo, an isometric/2.5D Soulslike/Metroidvania game that delves deep into the memories of childhood dreams and fears. 

Edie chats with Jakob Lisinski, designer and programmer of Hank Drowning on Dry Land, a mind-bending time-traveling platformer where a misanthropic, alcoholic superhero can time jump, creating multiples of himself to foil the plots of his villain nemesis. This is a uniquely brain-twisting game using time and mulitple simultaneous playthroughs to solve puzzles on a tight countdown clock.

Nick and Edie chat with Patrick Owens, creative director of Buffalo Buffalo , about two new titles coming from the studio: Fresh Tracks, a Nordic-themed rhythm game that melds note matching with cross-country skiing, and Birdseed, a very early development VR birdwatching game that's a heck of a lot of fun.

Nick speaks with Krzysztof Niedzwiedz, lead designer for The Looter from Tactical Dogs, a Metroidvania/Soulslike where the nameless protagonist loots for important items, taking him to very scary places.

From the Seattle Indie Expo, Edie talks with Jesse Colford, composer for Desert Angels from Folding Stars Studios. Desert Angels third-person exploration game set in a desert scrapyard where you uncover memories of a cataclysmic event. 

No, it's not PAX... It's SIX... as in Seattle Indie Expo, a completely separate event running concurrently with PAX. Nick and Edie spent the day seeing what Seattle's Indie scene has to offer, and we found Desolus, a gorgeous walking sim/puzzle game where you solve architectural puzzles in a world where reality has split, moving between the two in order to repair broken paths and get where you wan...

APOLOGIES FOR THE QUALITY: THIS IS AN AUDIO FEED OF A STREAMED VIDEO EPISODE. INTERNET IS NOT GREAT AT PAX. Edie and Nick sit down in a quiet spot at PAX West and give their opinions of what games they tried out on Day 2, including Fractured Blooms, God Save Birmingham, Be My Horde, Truckful, and Lost Eidelons: Veil of the Witch.

Edie and Nick chat with Zhenghua “Z” Yang, founder creative director of Serenity Forge, about Fractured Blooms, a cozy gardening-sim/horror game that sounds insane but does a great job of really scaring the pants off you.

Nick and Edie talk with Michal Kaminski, Marketing Manager from Mythic Owl, about Truckful, a cozy little delivery-sim-meets-horror game. Yeah, we said that. And it's glorious!

Edie chats with Lukasz Kostka, head of marketing for Polished Games, about Be My Horde, an insanely fun survival game with a twist: you don't actually fight. Available now on Steam... and it works great on the Steamdeck!

Nick and Edie chat with John Gelardi, Creative Director of WDR Studios, about Terrible Lizards, a parcour survival game set in a dinosaur-themed roadside attraction. Let's just say, it's not what it first seems.

Nick and Edie talk with Guinn Kim, Content Manager of Ocean Drive Studios, about God Save Birmingham, their upcoming zombie survival game set in the midieval city of Birmingham, England, currently in pre-alpha.

Nick talks to Jin Sang Kim, Creative Director, for Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch, the sequel of Lost Eidelons with a very different structure of the original title, with more focus on combat.

Edie and Nick speak with Stephen Manalastas, CEO of CMD Studios, about their title, Fallen Tear, a Metroidvania-like, J-RPG platformer. 

Edie and Nick chat with Jaime Stormbreaker, game director and lead designer of One More Game's upcoming title, Swap Meat, a third-person, co-op, roguelike shooter that Nick had a blast playing. 

Edie and Nick take a break from the show floor for some food and some talk, specifically about the games they put their hands on that morning. Titles include Borderlands 4, Pragmata, and Swap Meat.

We keep it short today, hitting news from last week's Gamescom and pre-game the PAX show next week.

Gamescom is next week and, as usual, the news slows in anticipation, which makes having a gaming-news podcast oh so much fun!

... Which is Edie's way of saying the elusive and mythical Steamdeck is found. Has she played it? Well... don't get too ambitious there, chuckles.