Player 2's Podcasts

With Alan Wake 2 not only proving to be a much more out-there, creatively risqué outing than the 2010 game it follows on from, we decided that it was perhaps time to take a moment to express some appreciation for those moments when games get weird. Also, we spoke about horror stuff last episode, so that’s off of the table. This discussion ends up spanning a good number of games and bounces quite l...

It’s getting darker, the air is cooling down and… wait. This is Australia? Well, in that case the air is getting warmer and time has fragmented into a half a billion different zones. In general, though, it’s not seasonally spooky at all, but since the Northern Hemisphere apparently gets to decide when festive things happen for the rest of us, it is nonetheless time to delve into horror games and l...

It is that time of the year again folks, time to join the Player 2 crew on the PAX floor to talk about all of the goodies they ran across while fighting off the infamous PAX Pox. There are Bears in Space, Combat Wombats and Italian Plumbers with Elephantits, it is a veritable zoo of fun. Matt hosts this massive cast of P2 favourites including Jenn, Renee, Stephen, Matto and Jess and all of them go...

This episode represents a scheme that has been a long time coming.  Hewso nicks off to Italy for an overdue vacation, making sure that Tim absolutely be present for each and every episode. Then, upon his return, Ken declares to good holiday games might make a fabulous topic for the next episode! Also, Hewso can only record on a night when Tim can’t make it – effectively removing his ability to mak...

What a year this is turning out to be; certainly a unique one for the annals of gaming. Here we have a year that may be setting a new kind of benchmark for cross-generation viability, where things that feel truly new and shiny are still not as regular as we've been conditioned to expect, but at the same time we have seen an absolutely massive swathe of meaty, single-player experience arrive with e...

Let's get this out of the way right now: Geoff Keighly needs up his security game (but otherwise he handled the incident as well as can be expected) and Sony's streaming-only handheld thing is a bit cheaper than feared, but still seems a bit silly. There. Done. We can get to focusing on some actual games now. Afterall, it is called Gamescom, and it also just happens to be what the crew is discussi...

We got the episode number correct this time around, which we'll put down as a pretty strong opening. This is appropriate, as Tim, Ken and Rob spent the latter half of this particular episode picking out some games that really do put their best foot forwards and talking about what it is that makes their opening moments stand out in a sea of tens of thousands of videogames. Among other things, we le...

Four people! Count, 'em! Four! We've filled all of the chairs for this one and space got so tight that fighting almost broke out! We say almost, of course, because Adam actually took charge of this one and, frankly, he is kind of jacked in a way that the other three simply aren't. The other three in question would be Tim, Ken, and newcomer Renee. But Adam was put in charge, and so the fighting the...

Welcome, one and all, to the Tim & Ken show! A strange and wonderful even that only ever really happens... well, okay, it happens fairly regularly: a couple of times a year or so. All the same, you should consider yourself blessed, dear listener! And not just because Ken has gone back on his 'only engage with newer stuff' motto, but also because he and Tim are out here ranking all of Nintendo'...

Remember when Nvidia revealed the 4000 series of RTX graphics cards and we all thought that the current consoles had been squashed into the ground before they have even been given a proper chance to flex their muscles? Yeah, that was a thing. And to be fair, the 4090 is an absolute monster… but that word also factors into the price and even its physical size. Maybe crypto bullshit started it, but...

Prepare yourselves for a podcast experience so long, so epic, so majestic that it… runs for as long as movies did back in the 1990s. You guys remember when it was normal for movies to run  under  two hours? No? Well,  get off of my goddamn lawn ! Um… what we mean to say is that this one is a little long. Not_ too_ long, but still well clear of an hour. The reason for this? Well, Tim, Rob and Hewso...

Can you feel the summer heat yet? No? Well, I guess you're in Australia or some other part of the southern hemisphere, then. That makes sense, we suppose, seeing as our site is based in this world of topsy-turvy seasons. Tim's off drinking IPAs in America or something, though, so he's left this one to the editorial guys. Presumably we can trust them more than him, surely? Certainly, the recording...

Wow, what an incredible PlayStation showcase from Sony! Can’t believe all those amazing titles were kept secret so well! Or, possibly – how did that get so badly screwed up? Are we stuck in PS4 cross-gen purgatory for at least another year? Or, possibly… it was totally fine? Please pick your reaction and pretend that’s what this particular episode of the Player 2 PixelCast is about. As you’ve prob...

The year keeps chugging along, the current generation keeps chugging along, and it's starting to feel like nothing is really changing? Or does it? That's the question that Tim, Ken and Nick set out to answer during the later half of this episode and the answer may surprise you. Or, actually, it's quite possible that it really, truly won't. One way or the other, with a lack of Star Wars nuts on thi...

The classic crew is back! Somehow, it's been a while since Hewso, Ken and Tim have filled all of the chairs on the show. Is this one the first time so far for 2023? Quite possibly (please don't fact-check this)! We've gone and put Hewso in charge of this one. After all, he's a big weight loss celebrity now and we need all of the star-power we can get. Speaking of star power, it seems that that the...

It's felt like an age, but we're finally starting to look at a good flow of big, (hopefully) high quality game releases in 2023. We've had some pretty stellar remakes to kick off the first quarter, and it's looking like we're only a month or two off from a series of truly original releases, or at least big sequels, we suppose. Can you believe that it's been almost seven years since the last mainli...

For the first time in we're honestly not sure how long, neither Tim nor Matt are on this one. Come one, come all - witness the PixelCast crew run wild, free in the meadows like brilliant stallions... or feral rabbits. You listen and decide! We left Steve in charge, so you can all be blameful towards him, if you so desire. Or perhaps to Ken and / or Rob, who were also kind enough to show up. Natura...

Good news! Nothing went wrong in post this time! Lessons have been learned about auto-recovery versus manual saving, and this episode should be clean and good to go for your ears! Tim’s back in charge, and he’s managed to drag Ken and Rob along for the ride. They’ve got a pretty decent slate of games to discuss this episode, too. Even the bad one! It feels like one disappointment per fortnight has...

We must say, after predicting that it would happen just after recording, it was very nice of Sony to offer up a State of Play just beforehand instead. This was always going to be the PlayStation episode, following on from out XBox and Switch ones, so having something direct and on hand to talk about was somewhat appreciated. We say somewhat because, well... it becomes apparent in this episode that...

Ah, to be free of milestones. I mean, they’re fun and all, but sometimes it’s nice to just sit down on a show that has an ordinary number, and 102 fits that particular bill. Tim’s back in charge, trouble-free and firing off magic spells that don’t have much to do with anything all over the place. Or maybe he’s just recently finished playing through Forspoken and still isn’t entirely sure what he m...

We did it! We lived through everything! Our little show is now over a century old! The charity stream is done, dusted and bathing in a pleasant glow of success! Oh, and somehow Hewso managed to un-shatter himself after all of this in order to sit down and bring a show together while Tim was off gallivanting around Osaka looking at pretty lights or something. Fortunately, he wasn't alone. In fact,...

New year, new milestone. We were sitting pretty at ninety-nine episodes over that there year-end break, but none of us get to rest forever, and so we're back in 2023 with episode one hundred coming in hot, straight off the bat. Just think, if we survive for ten times as long as we have already, we're going to have a formatting issue because we've always used three digits in our labeling. Tim is, a...

It's nearly time for Christmas.  A time for laughs and joy  _ _Where families gather 'round the tree and kids play with brand-new toys _ _But hiding there out of sight, just hanging in the shadows _ _Is a creature made of pure fright, a hateful demon that always knows _ _To ruin this joyful season, all he needs to do _ _Is confuse a simple postman, a delivery man or two _ _He then swaps out all th...

Can you smell the gingerbread in the air? No? It's just me? Never mind, then. It is that time of year, though; Christmas decorations have been up in store windows for about a month now, which means that it's finally sensible that they actually are there. This marks our final episode of the year before the PixelCast goes all in on evil, no-punches-held Christmas obsession. So it would make sense th...

In one of the more ironic reasons to come up in recent history, Tim wasn't able to be on this one because he was in... Australia. He would like you to know that Sydney is way too expensive, thank-you-very-much. Fish and chip places can now start at twenty bucks? Get the hell right out of here! So, in his absence, Ken, Matt and Rob decided to spend some time discussing just how much money is too mu...