This week, Pawel gets defensive over comments made by Chris in the last video games episode about Horizon Zero Dawn and gives a lengthy retort (while stopping Euan from giving an opinion), Euan gets his revenge by resorting to talking about a mobile port of the original Dragon Quest (or is it Dragon Warrior?) from 1986, and Chris accidentally ruins the early-access naval battle game Blackwake for a bunch of roleplayers. Enjoy!
044 - A GAME OF BACKSTABBING
Board games chat with a full compliment of Unnecessaries! This week we talk about A Game of Thrones, the tense game of area control and political treachery set in Westeros which the lads and their pals played recently, during which Chris confused Pawel with an alliance and an unlikely winner came from nowhere. Also in this episode is the app-driven XCOM board game, which simulates the management and bureaucracy side of the XCOM video games (it's more fun than it sounds), and also Discworld: Ankh-Morpork, the lovingly-created light board game set in the world created by Terry Pratchett. Enjoy!
Chris (Martell), Euan (Greyjoy), Pawel (Tyrell), Dave (Lannister), John (Stark), and Neil (Baratheon) play the game of extended backstabbing set in Westeros.
043 - SHENMUE GAMBLING ADDICTS
In this video games episode, Chris and Euan follow up on the last one by talking some more about Horizon Zero Dawn and whether it's all it's cracked up to be, then have another look at the often ridiculous Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands. Next is an update on their journey through Shenmue II, which currently consists mainly of drunken gambling, and Chris finishes up by returning to Dwarf Fortress-esque survival/colony management game Rimworld, during which he gets totes emosh. Enjoy!
042 - ENDURE THE GLOOM!
In this board games episode, Euan and Chris have an argument about their party's dynamics in Gloomhaven as they give a glowing update on their campaign through this legacy dungeon-crawler. Meanwhile, Pawel talks about Endure the Stars, a co-operative survival game set on a planet-colonising starship, which he has, of course, been playing solo. Also on the schedule is Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar (plus the Tribes & Prophecies expansion), a dynamic worker placement game from 2012 which features big, moving cogs as part of the game board. Enjoy!
041 - TRIBALPUNK
In this video games episode, Chris and Pawel talk for a good bit about Horizon Zero Dawn, the action RPG set in the future in which humans have reverted to living in primitive tribes... and Pawel reveals it's also one of a handful of games he has taken time off work to play this year. Nerd that he is. Chris then gives a tongue-in-cheek review of new Tom Clancy game Ghost Recon Wildlands, an open world multiplayer squad shooter, which has everything you'd expect from a Tom Clancy game, such as guns, freedom, and offending an entire country. Last on the agenda is a brief chat about RIGS: Mechanized Combat League, the PSVR game of big mechs killing each other and occasionally playing American Football. Enjoy!
040 - GLOOMHAVEN INTERNATIONAL
New fantasy dungeon-crawling legacy game Gloomhaven is the (very) big thing everyone's talking about, and Chris, Euan and Pawel give a quick pre-review review of the game and its many millions of bits. The lads then go on a world tour, starting with Korean game Patchistory, the game of patching together tiles to create a civilization, and Chris talks about Hanamikoji, a Japanese two-player card-based game which has a small footprint but a surprising amount of depth. Finally, Pawel is given some time to talk about Coriolis, a sci-fi tabletop RPG with a Middle-Eastern twist. Think Arabian Nights in space, and you're pretty much there. This episode can be divided by ten. Enjoy!
037 - THE EMOTIONAL ROLLERCOASTER
Chris, Euan and Pawel are here in their new, more focussed, more frequent format, kicking things off with a video games episode! In this episode, Chris gets emotional over his playthrough of puzzle platformer The Last Guardian, Pawel talks about Torment: Tides of Numenera, a spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment, and Chris rounds things off with Resident Evil 7: Biohazard in terrifying VR. Enjoy!
035 - MAKE DRINKS, RIDE ROLLERCOASTERS
The first episode of 2017 brings reviews of another of Chris's Kickstarters, the fantasy drink-serving dice-placement game Cavern Tavern, and Rio Grande's Power Grid: The Card Game, which manages to give you that Power Grid feeling without the need for a map. Pawel kicks off with Tyranny in the video games section, an RPG in which you're forced to play an evil character. The lads also talk about Eve Valkyrie, the online space dogfighting VR game set in the Eve Online universe, and Chris's current favourite game Planet Coaster, the theme park simulator the world has been waiting for. Oh, and Chris has a cold. Enjoy!
034 - PARTY!
In the last episode of the year Pawel will tell you ALL ABOUT the real-time strategy PC game Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, Euan chats about an old classic RPG from Sierra called Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, and Chris talks about My Summer Car, the bizarre mixture of car-building and survival game. Chris and Euan then give a summary of their night of tabletop party games, specifically Ultimate Werewolf and Two Rooms and a Boom, two similar and yet also very different hidden role/social deduction games. The episode rounds off with an interview with the designer of the party game Rebels Unite, Leandro Tokarevski, who tells us about the game and his thoughts when designing it. Enjoy!
033 - WARCRAFT AND DINOSAURS
Chris, Euan and Pawel are back once again (for the renegade master) with more gaming chat! This week's tabletop section involves a long chat about their day playing Fantasy Flight's epic World of Warcraft: The Board Game, the game of grinding, experience, loot, dungeons, and lots of lovely different coloured dice. In the video games section, Chris talks about DinoSystem, the bloody difficult survival game set in a world of dinosaurs which is currently in early access, Euan talks about PSVR platform game Windlands, and the lads finish up with VR horror/shooter game The Brookhaven Experiment. Enjoy!
032 - FALLING OVER TABLES
In this week's episode, fantasy dungeon-crawling game Exanima with its "realistic" combat takes centre stage in the video games section, followed by a return to video/board game Armello and an update on Chris and Euan's journey through the Shenmue series. In the tabletop section, Chris and Pawel have an in-depth chat about the new Arkham Horror Card Game by Fantasy Flight, Chris quickly talks about another play of Star Wars: Rebellion, and Pawel tells us about Swedish tabletop RPG Symbaroum! Enjoy!
BONUS EPISODE - PLAYSTATION VR
Chris, Euan and Pawel are here in this bonus episode to talk about Playstation VR! Includes a good chat about VR itself as an experience, and also specific games, such as VR Worlds, Job Simulator, Sports Bar VR, Windlands, Until Dawn: Rush of Blood and Harmonix Music VR. Enjoy!
030- WE ARE BORG
Headquarters has officially moved, but the Unnecessary lads have still managed to squeeze in some epic-level gaming! A shorter video game segment has Pawel talking about cyberpunk/RPG game Dex which was released on consoles earlier this year, and Chris talks about the brutal online survival game Hurtworld in which the human players are the real monsters. Then a much, much longer tabletop section has the real meat of the episode: Twilight Imperium Third Edition, the epic sci-fi board game. Borg-like people save trading space cats from annihilation, barbarian lava-people take their vengeance on arrogant, intelligent aliens, politics close down the wormholes, full-on space battles take place over ancient worlds, and the meta-game rules all. Listen in to hear about Chris, Euan and Pawel's experience with this heavy-but-amazingly-fun game!
029- THE PURSUIT OF ENDLESS SPACE
The lads are back! In this episode we begin with a tabletop segment in which Chris and Euan chat about their experience with Fantasy Flight's Battlelore and some comparisons to the other Commands & Colors systems, in particular Ancients. Chris then gives Pawel some existential dread by talking about the life-sim board game The Pursuit of Happiness by Artipia Games, in which the aim is to die happy. The video games section contains Pawel talking about the recent release of Rise of the Tomb Raider on PS4, which also involves him steering wildly into chatting about a dozen other game franchises while Chris tries to keep him on course. Chris then talks about Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander and its weird-but-brilliant mixture of 4x space strategy and JRPG combat, and the show wraps up with a lengthy chat about the early access release of Endless Space 2 and how it compares to the other Endless strategy games. Enjoy!
028- THE UPSIDE DOWN
Chris, Euan and Pawel are back after a small (and unexpected) hiatus to bring you more chat about the world of gaming! This episode contains Chris talking about drunkenly playing the board/party games Codenames and Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, Euan kicks off a good chat about the Avalon Hill game Betrayal at House on the Hill, and there's an update on the Time Stories campaign that you probably thought we'd forgotten about. The video games section brings us Pawel's thoughts (and a healthy debate) about Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Chris talks about the weird and wonderful driving simulator Jalopy, Pawel tells us about the For Honor alpha and Euan adds to Chris's thoughts from last episode about the Tetris-with-physics multiplayer game Tricky Towers. Enjoy!
027- YEAR TWO
Chris and Euan are back to officially kick off Year Two of the podcast! The video games section begins with the lads filling your ears with chat about Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, adventure mystery game Gone Home, and Tetris-like multiplayer puzzle game Tricky Towers. The tabletop section is mostly given over to civilisation-building strategy board game Mare Nostrum: Empires, and finishes with a fun one: Robo Rally, the chaotic board game of programming racing robots. Enjoy!
BONUS BIRTHDAY EPISODE- HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Also known as the Big Bumper Birthday Box-Social Bonanza, or the Unnecessaboutaversibash, this bonus episode celebrates one year of chatting nonsense about gaming! In this episode, Chris, Euan and Pawel have a long and relaxed chat about how the podcast started, how we got into board, video and roleplaying gaming, and how you can do the same. Enjoy!
026- SPACE JAZZ
A healthy chat about No Man's Sky takes up a good chunk of the video games section this week, with the Unnecessary crew debating what it is and isn't. Meanwhile, Pawel talks about Inside, the successor to Limbo, Euan tells us about sinister roguelike The Binding of Isaac, and Chris talks about programming in the excitingly-titled Human Resource Machine. Beer-making Euro board game Brew Crafters takes centre stage in the tabletop section, which also includes a rant about Kickstarter backers' faces, and Chris and Euan talk about the finale of their Imperial Assault campaign. Also includes Tim Curry and public domain jazz, for some reason. Enjoy!
025- HELP!
Scythe is the game on everyone's lips at the moment, and Chris and Euan give you a lipful (or something) about it to kick off this episode! Also in the tabletop section is Fantasy Flight's Lovecraftian co-op game Elder Sign, and a quick update on the ongoing Star Wars: Imperial Assault campaign. In video games, Euan talks about Help: The Game, a collection of games made by various good-hearted developers for the charity War Child, and then the guys chat about the hilarious-but-chaotic couch co-op game Overcooked! No Pawel in this episode, he's had his teeth removed, presumably by a medical professional.
024- PHASESHIFTED
Back to full strength as Pawel returns from wandering around in the countryside with his laptop! We begin with some video games chat, starting with Mirror's Edge Catalyst before moving on to new rogue-like game Lost Sea and the real-time strategy game Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak (with excellent pronunciation). We also have a brief chat about Rocket League, in particular playing it while drunk and the ranking system. The tabletop section sees us return to playing Fantasy Flight's board game Star Wars Imperial Assault, and then Pawel enlightens us about his perceived flaws in the 5th edition of the Shadowrun role-playing game. Enjoy!