The Crate and Crowbar

Chris, Pip, Tom F and – for one night only – Marsh (!) discuss Atomic Heart, more Far Cryin’, more Spire Slayin’, SpyParty, Murderous Pursuits, and City of Brass. Also: feeling nothing about sunsets, playing with orbs, holding for a moment in the hope position, the struggle of games to be effectively didactic, the history [...]

Chris and Tom S discuss Red Dead Redemption 2, new Tomb Raider, the state of triple-A development in general, dogs again, and videogame Millibands. The Red Dead Redemption 2 trailer – a splash? Of musky cowboy… water? Destiny 2: Warmind – Chris will play it, because he’s already bought it. Tom was left cold by [...]

Tom, Chris and Tom discuss Campo Santo’s move to Valve, the latest Ludum Dare, things what dogs do, Battletech, and Frostpunk. Plus: who you actually play as in The Sims, playing games rightly wrong, and legally mandating the ‘woo’ button. Here’s more on the Campo Santo news. Tom F’s big list o’ Ludum Dare recommendations [...]

Live from Rezzed! Chris, Tom F, Graham and Alex discuss their games of the show, and also Crusader Kings II. Plus: real live questions! Note: we’re still waiting to get the footage of this episode back from the Rezzed guys, so the YouTube version will be a little later than usual. Sorry! Here’s a PC [...]

Chris talks to Hannah Flynn from Failbetter about Sunless Skies, life in game development, reaching broader audiences, the myriad flaws of Zoolander 2, and more. This is the last in our series of chats from Rezzed – hope you’ve enjoyed them! Find out more about Sunless Skies here, and find this episode on YouTube here. [...]

At Rezzed we sat down with Disco Elysium design and writing lead Robert Kurvitz to discuss entering the games industry as an artist, the complexities of RPG design, politics, and disco. Find out more about Disco Elysium here, and you can listen to this episode on YouTube if you prefer. The Crate & Crowbar is [...]

Surprise! While we were at Rezzed we recorded a series of short, informal chats with interesting gamespeople. In this first episode, Chris and Alex sit down with X-COM creator Julian Gollop and Snapshot Games co-founder David Kaye to talk Phoenix Point. You can find out more about Phoenix Point on the game’s official site and, [...]

Chris, Alex and Tom S consider the end of SteamSpy, Radical Heights, Jalopy, All Walls Must Fall, and Tom’s daily Slay The Spire tendency. Plus: too much rum, wonky grammar lessons, and the low hop of the robots. SteamSpy announces its inability to continue operating via tweet. Boss Key’s Radical Heights. Here’s Alice O’Connor being [...]

Tom F, Chris and Alex discuss Far Cry 5 (again), Superhot VR, and Minit. Then, a chat about Into The Breach is followed by questions from questions calamity. Plus: the mystery of the third Tom, the lamentable sacking of the sex helicopter, and – what comes, dangling upon a string? Toot toot, it’s the low-hanging [...]

Chris, Pip reunite with Tom Francis to discuss GDC highlights, Sunless Skies, Far Cry 5, and first impressions of All Walls Must Fall. You can find the full IGF results here. Everybody love a bit of Wobble Garden. Rezzed! We’re doing it. Pip’s been playing Sunless Skies. Tom has been playing Far Cry 5 and [...]

Chris and Pip gather in GDC week to discuss basically no news from GDC, many short games you should play, and space mistakes you shouldn’t make in Scavenger SV-4. Plus: a showcase of Pip’s ability to remember a grudge from four years ago, but not a song from last week. Jalopy is out next week. [...]

Pip, Chris and Alex discuss Artifact, Deep Rock Galactic, Vermintide II, and the inevitable end of everything. Plus: π bake it, Garfield’s first name, co-op FOMO, the dings of Catchphrase, Dota Plus, and my libido (an Amiibo.) Anyone for questions? I’ll pour! This is Artifact, the Dota 2 card game, from Vlav. And this is [...]

Tom S, Chris and Alex check in on VR, consider the gorgeous eggs of Final Fantasy XV, and ponder the literary aspirations of Beckett. Oculus’ critical Rift whoopsie has now been resolved. Here’s The Day Today’s remarkable foreshadowing of the experience of using Google Earth VR. Here’s Final Fantasy XV. And here’s the most important [...]

Tom, Tom and Chris discuss a range of ways in which one might fail upwards, from Into The Breach to Phoenix Point to the spooky bayou of Hunt: Showdown. Plus: my dog ate Hunt The Freeman, accent quandries, questionable etymology, and a sad dearth of whale colour options. Into The Breach is out now and, [...]

Pip, Alex and Tom F are back to once again tackle the tough topic of turtle taxonomy. Also games about Garys (Legendary Gary), games by Garys (Abandon Ship), and it would round this out nicely if the other two games related to Garys but they don’t. Cypher and Fe. Also, we’re doing a live show [...]

Pip, Tom F and Alex discuss knowing your enemy in Slay the Spire, dabbling In Other Waters, Dear Esther Live, and turning your tentacles into chickens and bees in Octogeddon. Also: Slay the Spire is in Early Access but already worth it. In Other Waters is about halfway to its goal on Kickstarter. Last Man Kicking [...]

Tom S and Chris are joined by Alex Wiltshire to discuss Into The Breach’s imminent release, why it’s okay to hunt monsters if they’re bastards, RPG combat design and more. Plus: a brief return to Subnautica and further musings on the ocean willies therein; the secret missing element to Subnautica’s survival formula; toxicity, Dota 2, [...]

Tom F, Chris and John R discuss… ‘computer games’. Including but not limited to Iconoclasts, Celeste, Subnautica and Slay The Spire. Plus: wrench size considerations, creating modes for Bennett Foddy (to hurt him), and that thing where Chris says ‘I’m not going to go deep on this’ and then does that. Paragon is no more. [...]

Join Pip under the sea as she heroically embarks on a one-Pip Subnautica special. Featuring the sounds (and underwater bellows) of the game itself. Apologies for the shaky schedule of late: we’ve had extensive holiday-and-illness-related scheduling problems over the last couple of weeks. Expect regular service to resume next week, and Patreon backers should note [...]

Dark Souls. Is it news? Chris and Pip ponder this and other subjects, including Subnautica’s imminent release, Paladins’ imminent Battlegrounds mode, and Bennett Foddy’s imminent Getting Over It. Here’s info about Dark Souls Remastered. Also, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, which is a thing. As is Total War: Three Kingdoms. And Subnautica. Pip reports [...]

Both Toms join Chris to discuss Recursed, Bridge Constructor Portal, Gorogoa, GTA Online, PUBG, and the games we’re looking forward to in 2018. Plus: a games-from-books jam idea that actually works, things horses don’t do, a bit of Mad Max, a whole lot of boats, and more. Boats. Here’s the IGF shortlist! Congrats, Tom! Baba [...]

All things must end. Or must they? Yes. But sometimes: no. That’s right: it’s the final part of THE MIRACLE AT GREY HOME! You can listen this episode on YouTube here. If you’ve taken the time to listen to the entirety of this nonsense, thank you: we hope you enjoyed it. We’ll be back in [...]

Confrontation leads to new adventure as Chris attempts to write… a spoiler-free description of part three of C&C D&D! You can listen this episode on YouTube here. Tune in tomorrow for the FINALE of THE MIRACLE AT GREY HOME. I mean, it’s only Christmas. You don’t have anything else to do, right? Many thanks to [...]

Our Dungeons & Dragons roleplay adventure continues as our heroes take their quest to the streets of Grey Home. If you prefer, you can listen this episode on YouTube here. Come back tomorrow for part three of THE MIRACLE AT GREY HOME. Many thanks to Mike Debenham for his fabulous contribution to this series. Our [...]

It’s time for something a little different. In the run-up to Christmas, we’ll be posting our first-ever Dungeons & Dragons live play podcast: a magical mystery murder adventure called THE MIRACLE AT GREY HOME. This is part one. Expect part two tomorrow, part three after that, and so on. You can listen on YouTube if [...]