Gaming In The Wild - Video Game Reviews

It's finally here! "The cat game" we've been waiting for since 2020 — and my most anticipated game of, um, 2021 — dropped on PS+ and Steam this week, and it's something special indeed. Exploring a mesmerisingly detailed, neon-lit cyberpunk city as a cat is something truly unique, and it was a lot of fun to talk it through in this spoiler-free review. If you enjoy the show, you...

I’m back from Covid, with lots of games to talk about, including It Takes Two, Xenoblade Chronicles, and this week’s featured game – an indie-game love letter to some Nintendo classics called The Wild At Heart. If you enjoy the show, you can come say hi on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Twitch - find the links at http://gaminginthewild.com . If you'd like to support the show on Patreon , you...

I've got the 'rona this week, so this episode is a compilation of some reviews plucked from old episodes. These picks are all on the new PS+ service: The Last Guardian, Rez Infinite, Bound, The Artful Escape, Miles Morales, and Concrete Genie. Hopefully normal service will be resumed next week!  If you enjoy the show, you can come say hi on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Twitch - find the...

This week's episode comes direct from sunny Margate, as I'm on my holidays in the UK! The featured game is Chorus (also sometimes typed CHORVS because they used a weird font for the logo) - a simple vehicular space shooter with fun dogfighting and exploration. It's an episode of two halves, in which I sing the praises of the combat, graphics, and the sense of open-galaxy freedom, then...

It’s a crazy time of year for game reveals, with over 100 announcements and updates being shown over the last week. So, it seemed like a fun time for a rare midweek episode. Here’s a rundown of ten indie games that particularly caught my eye, and a bit of chat about the biggies like Silksong and Starfield. Watch the Wholesome Direct: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IRgvwWLpbA Watch Day of the Dev...

I’m joined this week by Yuts of Geography of Robots - the developer behind one of 2022’s best indie games, NORCO. We talked about how much of this mesmerising near-future world is based on current day events, local myths, and intertwined histories of Louisiana; about psychogeography, psychedelia, reality and unreality, and much more besides.  Thanks to Yuts for the great conversation. Note: the ep...

This week’s episode is a roundup that includes some chat about Sony’s State of Play, and especially Stray and Season, as well as a first impression of newly released Card Shark, mini-reviews of The Almost Gone and Behind The Frame, and a look at Super Mario 3D World and the future of Mario. If you enjoy the show, you can come say hi on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Twitch - find the links at htt...

Citizen Sleeper is the featured game this week. It's the second game by Jump Over The Age aka Gareth Damian Martin, and it's a deep, fascinating sci-fi saga set on Erlin's Eye: a crumbling space station on the edge of the galaxy. It's a rare game that fuses a compelling scifi story with clever mechanics, poetic text, and far reaching themes from selfhood and sublimity, to AI ethics...

NORCO is an intriguing new pixel-art point 'n' click adventure (wait, don't leave, trust me) published by Raw Fury. It tells the story of a strange family mystery occuring in a dystopian near-future Louisiana that's perhaps a little too close to comfort. It's an excellent indie game that wears influences such as Kentucky Route Zero and Disco Elysium on its sleeve, but manages t...

NieR: Automata is a 2017 sci-fi masterwork by Yoko Taro and Platinum Games that smashes together widescreen anime-style melodrama, elegant killing machines in Harijuku couture, a tangled post-apocalyptic plot, and some lofty existential pondering. It's... a lot. It's a long episode. The Super Bunnyhop analysis of the game mentioned in the show: https://youtu.be/ehM1m5-TG5g. Also mentioned:...

This week’s episode is about Trek To Yomi. It’s a cinematic game that’s a tribute to great black and white samurai movies – and might just be a classic in its own right. Also mentioned: Cyberpunk 2077, the Tales Of… series, Norco, In Other Waters, Citizen Sleeper, Stray, Starfield, and more. My guest this episode is Carlos Rodela, co-host of the So Videogames podcast. Find the show wherever you ge...

This week's episode takes a look at a moving single-sitting narrative indie game, 'Before I Forget'. Also mentioned: Norco, Absolute Drift, Cosmic Star Heroine, and the current massive Nintendo Switch eShop sale. If you enjoy the show, you can come say hi on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Twitch - find the links at http://gaminginthewild.com . If you'd like to support the show on...

This week I'm recording on the road during a trip to the UK, which was the perfect time to dip into the first of Josef Fares' trilogy of co-op games - Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons. And it's a great little game that has really stood the test of time as it approaches the tenth anniverssary of its orginal release. (P.S. Sorry if the audio is weird, I tried my best!) If you enjoy the show,...

Life Is Strange: True Colours has come to Game Pass, so this seemed like an opportune time to dip into the dreamy small-town world of Haven Springs. Light on gameplay but high on coming-of-age vibes, halcyon Americana and rich, interesting environments, it’s a worthy addition to the LiS series. Also mentioned this episode: Brothers & Jotun. If you enjoy the show, you can come say hi on Twitter...

This week I tore myself away from Elden Ring long enough to finish the journey mode of Tetris Effect Connected, a dazzling reinvention of everyone's favourite hypnotic falling blocks game. But I do talk about Elden Ring for 15 minutes first, because, of course. In the roundup: Tempest 4000, Welcome To Elk, Dorfromantik. And a big thank you to the show's latest patron – thanks Brad! If you...

This week's episode is a review of quirky haunted-Shibuya action game Ghostwire: Tokyo, which is more than the sum of its parts.  Also reviewed: lacklustre indie offering A Memoir Blue. Other mentions: Kirby & The Forgotten Land, Weird West, Dorfromantik, and the People Make Games documentary about gamedev working conditions. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDPzZkx0cPs . Com...

After a huge, hyped, and somewhat disastrous 2020 launch, Cyberpunk 2077 reappeared recently with the next-gen v1.5 for PS5 , PC and Xbox. It’s been rebalanced, reworked, and patched to the gods – but is this ambitious sci-fi epic ready for primetime? Also mentioned this episode: Tunic, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Kirby & The Forgotten Land, Weird West, and West of Dead. And big thanks to the show’s lat...

It's episode 100! We made it! I celebrate by talking about Breath of the Wild, games as art, my gaming history from Acorn Electron to PS5, vikings, eating puffin, Iceland's nature, EldenRing, podcasting, and more. Thanks for all the questions, and to everyone who listens to and interacts with the podcast and surrounding community :) Love you all! If you enjoy the show, come say hi on Twitt...

This week's episode starts off with a bit of chat about Elden Ring and Horizon: Forbidden West, before moving on to discuss the itch.io Bundle For Ukraine. This charity bundle features almost 1000 games, all playable on Windows and many also on Mac OS, with all profits going to charities supporting victims of the Russian invasion. At the time of writing, it's about to hit $5m dollars raise...

Well, it looks like the Elden Ring hype has even managed to invade this gentle indie-game corner of the internet. To comb through the ins and outs of From Software's highly-rated, brutally difficult dark fantasy open-world game, I called in guest host Ciaran Daly for some podcasting co-op. He'd been to a crab museum, was hung over, and did very well. Thanks Ciaran. Note: this is the first...

Finally! Horizon Forbidden West has arrived! 67 hours into my play through, it was fun to spend an hour on this extensive, spoiler-free deep-dive into the exciting new gameplay mechanics, all-time-high visuals, storytelling and characterisation changes, more rich and fully explored tribal cultures, traversal improvements... and, of course, the robotic elephant in the room, the climbing system. Als...

A couple of years ago, to the day, episode one of this podcast was published, about the quite amazing sci-fi epic Horizon Zero Dawn. It was a short episode, just ten minutes long. You can find it in the podcast history if you'd like to hear it it – a short, heartfelt review of what it felt like to play one of the best games ever made.  It seems fitting that, two years later, the podcast's...

Guacamelee is a fresh, bright, Mexico-inspired Metroidvania-brawler by Drinkbox. Originally released in 2014, it preempted the comeback of the Metroidvania genre by a few years, but a 2018 Switch port brought it to a new audience – including me. Also discussed: Halo: Infinite and Nobody Saves The World. See a talk by lead artist Augusto Quijano here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=bZDe7cbfmc0 . If you...

This week marks the podcast’s second birthday, so it begins with some fun listener questions, before moving on to the featured game of the episode: Wytchwood . In this gothic fairytale crafting game, you play as a mysterious bog witch. You'll pick up everything that isn't tied down through several beautifully illustrated biomes, crafting these ingredients into potions, spells and objects t...

This week features special guest Ciaran Daly, for a wide ranging chat about some huge games including Half Life Alyx, Halo: Infinite, Back 4 Blood, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Metroid Dread, and a little indie called Golf Club Wasteland. If you enjoy the show, you can come say hi on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Twitch - find the links at http://gaminginthewild.com. If you'd like to support t...