The Crate and Crowbar

Chris and Marsh wash away their Mayonnaise Sins only to commit the far worse crime of liking parts of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Also: the pokable pencils of A Little to the Left and suspicious horses in Roadwarden. The Golden Chicken and Meat Market in Dearborn, just outside of Detroit, is a very [...]

Jamie and Marsh drive a jeep through the questionable exoticism of Uncharted: Lost Legacy and peevishly waddle about in the ambiguous middle distance of Somerville. Tom F’s great post on chess. Matinee adventure expandalone, Uncharted: Lost Legacy, is part of the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection (can you have a “collection” which comprises just two [...]

Jamie and Tom Senior convene to talk Marvel Snap, God Of War, and assorted other nonsense. Listen as two increasingly old men get misty eyed about Ataris and Amigas for the very first time on the internet – doze off to the sweets sounds of a 40 year old game. Marvel Snap is very good [...]

Would-be body-doubles for Rocket Raccoon, Chris and Marsh talk through the MCU thus far, where it’s going, pop music that is also a building, multiversal eels and erotically-charged neck injuries. Phase 1: Iron Man The Incredible Hulk Iron Man 2 Thor Captain America: The First Avenger The Avengers / Avengers Assemble Phase 2: Iron Man [...]

Tom F and Marsh rescue a marriage with magnets in It Takes Two, accurately identify horrible verbs in The Case of the Golden Idol, fail to impress girls with our animal handling in I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, and get nostalgic about gibs in Cultic. Wonky v Janky. Fight! Jorbs – an offensively chill Slay [...]

Chris and Marsh galavant gleefully through the ponds of low-key collect-em-up Paradise Marsh, plunge their wounded hands into the sticky holes of firstperson horror-puzzler Scorn, and pop poxwalkers in co-op shooter Darktide. Have a delightful time collecting cool beetles and talking to psychopathic French star-spiders in Paradise Marsh. Have a horrible time, in a good [...]

Jamie and Marsh summon nightmarish first person arena shmup Hyper Demon, wreck noobs in hellish children’s maths game Numbots, rip and tear demons in throwback shooter Prodeus and discover exactly as much of The Evil Within 2 as their souls can bear. Hyper Demon is a sequel of sorts to Devil Daggers, both brilliant shmups [...]

Jamie and Marsh strike from the shadows in retro stealth game Gloomwood, mount horrible dogs in No Man’s Sky, flip pixel puzzles in Taiji, enjoy courtly nudity in Crusader Kings 3 and question creepy nudity in Immortality. Superb Early Access first-person stealth-em-up in the vein of Thief: Gloomwood Enjoy the carefully tuned atonal honks of [...]

In which Tom Senior and Jamie Brittain convene to report back on their recent exploits in Multiversus, chat in an entirely spoiler free way about Immortality, jabber about, and then speculate on what divine revelations might be about to occur to Tom Senior, Cyborg Boy after his recent appointment with one of them high Bath [...]

Marsh and Chris bestow their tepid devotions upon Last Call BBS, Cult of the Lamb, and Hard West 2. Plus: the momentary return of questions, emanating – as they ever have – from questions. Quiverin’ Marsh has been tinkering with Zachtronics’ Last Call BBS. …which leads us to speculate coquettishly about Alex and his MiSTer. [...]

Marsh, Tom F and Graham study the evidence for and against true crime dramas and documentaries. Join us in the accusing parlour as we interrogate The Staircase (both documentary and drama), Sophie: A Murder In West Cork, The Unsolved Murder Of Beverly Lynn Smith, The Investigation and The Murders At Starved Rock. We consider the [...]

In this Accidental Annapurna Special, Alex and Chris discuss the joy of driving big boats in FAR: Changing Tides, and the wanton nature of animal games, as reflected by the latest big animal game, Stray. You know, the cat game! Also! News on Pip’s new game she’s doing called Flock, and Alex tells the unhappy [...]

Join Jamie Brittain and Alex Wiltshire on the muggy spectrum, where we discuss the shrinking spaces of Elden Ring, the very Xbox 360 thrills of Geometry Wars and Halo 3, and briefly touch on the ludicrous joys of Dmc. Also! We find out what the guy over Jamie’s back gate is up to, discover how [...]

Storied dungeon master Jim Rossignol joins Marsh to talk about the joy of pretending to be scoundrels, goblins and doomed spacemen, and why you should venture beyond the vast borders of Dungeons & Dragons to do so. Discussed: Blades in the Dark, Agon, Mothership, Symbaroum, Numenera, DIE & more! Mohican Dwarf: an early role-model. Dungeons [...]

Pip, Tom F, Chris and Marsh gather to discuss the oldest recipe, what windows are and whether objects are real. Also! Videogames: The Wild at Heart, Citizen Sleeper, Norco and Hellsinger. Also also: the return of Questions from Questions and, thrice-also, a quiz. Zachtronics is shutting down with one more game: Last Call BBS The [...]

Jamie and Marsh climb into their effluent splattered diving-bell and plunge into the bowels, literal and metaphorical, of Mad God, the wildly deranged, deeply harrowing stop-motion masterpiece from animation legend Phil Tippett. Bon appetit! Mad God has been released on Shudder, a horror streaming service. Fellow Hell-depicters of yore: Hieronymous Bosch and Pieter Breughel This [...]

Jamie and Marsh discuss the highlights, or rather the extensive mid-range tones, of the E3 week that wasn’t, delight in Next Fest’s demos for Old Skies and Agent 64: Spies Never Die, and usher in the doom of humankind in Shadows of Forbidden Gods. Geoff Keighley’s twitching automaton presents Summer GameFest aka Keigh-3. Enjoy it [...]

Jamie, Chris and Marsh dive into the kaleidoscopic weirdness of Everything Everywhere All at Once. Join us as we discuss it in the context of such cultural touchstones as Christopher Nolan’s Fart Clock, musical instruments designed to make children faint, and Crysis 2. Lots of spoilers, almost from the outset, and even in the cast [...]

Chris and Marsh mull over videogame fictions on TV, reject the inhumanity of space capitalism in Citizen Sleeper, embrace the inhumanity of space capitalism in Dune: Spice Wars, bounce off Dracula’s digs in V Rising, and get their Sokob-on in Jelly Is Sticky. Sony says its creating TV series based on Horizon, God of War [...]

Graham, Jamie and Alex delight in being terrible at traditional roguelikes. Recklessly quaff an unidentified potion, dodge the snapping maw of an ASCII eel, and join us as we plunge into the unknown, die horribly, and rise again. This is a pod about the more closely related descendents of Rogue! E.g… Brogue! The Community Edition [...]

Tom S is joined by Jamie and, I believe, a blackbird to chat formative gaming experiences, co-op caving in Deep Rock Galactic, oddly named leggings in Injustice 2 and the many delights of the Steam Deck. Jamie cut his teeth on games like SpaceQuest and Monkey Island. Defunct game mag of yesteryear: PC Zone. It [...]

Graham, Tom S and Marsh have somehow found the time to watch, then rewatch and even discuss The Batman, the recent bladder-bursting film directed by Matt Reeves and starring Robert Pattinson. Obviously, we spoil the film. Don’t listen or read below if you have yet to see the film and wish any of its surprises [...]

Tom S, Chris and Marsh gather to discuss wedding whoopsies, monkey winkies, Weird West’s wonkiness, Nobody Saves the World’s classy class combos and Bloodhunt’s world of darkness warzoné. Congrats to Tom S and Emma! May your union be unmarked by further calamity. Embracer Group acquire Eidos, associated studios and their IP from Square Enix for [...]

In which Jamie Brittain, Tom Francis and Alex Wiltshire convene to discuss the excellent Apple Plus existential workplace comedy drama Severance. All spoilers are off from the start with this one! But it’s great, so you should def watch it! Severance is on Apple Plus Meta employees are called ‘Metamates’, ewwww. Escape at Dannemora is [...]

Jamie and Marsh enthuse about Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, Licorice Pizza – an energetic and uplifting tale of an eccentric romance set against the backdrop of 70s LA. Watch it, it’s fab. The 94th Academy Awards! Licorice Pizza woz robbed! Maybe? Billy Crystal getting covered in gob Who’s in this film then, eh? Alana [...]