073 - (VG) CHAOTIC STUPID

January 29, 2018

The first video games episode of the year brings a rambling chat about Assassin's Creed: Origins, Bounty Train, Fallout Shelter and the very first of our Retro Games Book Club section, in which we talk at great length about NetHack! We also find ourselves swerving dangerously into the contentious topic of loot boxes, giving a bit of a kicking to several modern games as we do so. Oh well.

Assassin's Creed Origins (03:17)

Fallout Shelter/loot box chat (21:20)

Bounty Train (40:30)

Retro Games Book Club: NetHack (45:28)

Hosted by Chris Hanratty, Euan Glasgow, Pawel Daruk and Dave McCreary Music by Euan Glasgow & Chris Hanratty Recorded and edited by Chris Hanratty

072 - (BG) SCI-FI ZOO

January 21, 2018

Chris, Euan, Pawel and Dave are back after their winter break to bring you some New Year board games chat! We also have a bit of an announcement about changes to the podcast for the future, so listen up at the back! On top of that, Dave has fun with his first ever podcast recording duties by twiddling all the knobs while Chris is speaking. Enjoy! Games talked about in this episode:

Zooloretto (06:55)

Hegemonic (19:30)

Century Spice Road (51:50)

Hosted by Chris Hanratty, Euan Glasgow, Pawel Daruk and Dave McCreary Music by Euan Glasgow Recorded and edited by Dave McCreary

071 - GAMES ARE FOR EVERYONE

December 18, 2017

In the last episode of 2017 Chris, Euan, Pawel and Dave are talking video games, with Pawel playing through Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Euan taking on Streets of Rogue, and Dave playing the weirdly difficult Metroidvania game Hollow Knight! Also in this episode, we talk about our recent attendance of Games Are For Everyone in Edinburgh, a gaming event run by We Throw Switches, where Chris, Euan and Dave played some excellent, some weird, and some just plain arty games including Reigns: Her Majesty, Phogs, Virtua Walker 87, Line Wobbler, Muddledash, and more! Enjoy!

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice: 1:33

Streets of Rogue: 17:20

Hollow Knight: 28:27

Games Are For Everyone: 40:47

070 - THE ACCIDENTAL RIO GRANDE EPISODE

December 12, 2017

Pawel has returned from his Japan trip, and Chris, Euan and Dave spend a good ten minutes grilling him about it while Pawel gives them capsule toy souvenirs (live unboxing, folks!). It's then straight on to the board games, as the lads have accidentally had a very Rio Grande Sunday at the weekend, with plays of some classic Euros which they'll tell you all about: Princes of Florence, Attika, and Stone Age! Enjoy!

Princes of Florence: 12:22

Attika: 36:27

Stone Age: 49:22

Note: The next board games/tabletop episode will be in January, as we will be taking our usual Christmas/New Year break after the next video games episode, which should be out next week. Cheers!

069 - PUNCHING NORDS

December 4, 2017

Chris, Euan and Dave talk video games this week! Skyrim VR is the big new release for PSVR and Chris has a great time punching people and filling them with 10 arrows every second; Dave has a very specific reason for playing time-stopping sci-fi game Heat Signature; Chris attempts to make a successful software company in Software Inc; and Euan and Chris have a quick chat about the new Playlink feature on PS4, having had a bit of a larf with That's You!. Enjoy!

Skyrim VR: 01:20

Heat Signature: 22:16

Software, Inc: 37:35

That's You!: 51:33

068 - A NUMBER OF VIKINGS

November 27, 2017

We are finally back with a tabletop episode, this time playing something a bit unusual for us with the area control/wargame 878 Vikings: Invasions of England, and then having a bit of silly (but thematic) fun with the disc-flicking dungeon crawling game Catacombs! Enjoy!

878 Vikings: 04:05

Catacombs: 37:24

067 - HORNED RATS & ANNOYING ORCS

October 30, 2017

Euan takes over hosting duties for this video games episode as Chris is feeling a bit under the weather (not drunk), which starts with him verbally wandering on his continued journey through 90s gaming with Fallout, and a little bit about Command & Conquer. Pawel then talks us through Warhammer: Total War 2, the latest instalment in the planned trilogy. Also, Chris gives his dying throat a workout by taking us through the cosmetic changes to Fortnite's Battle Royale, before talking about the good and bad bits of Middle-earth: Shadow of War, and finishes up with a quick chat about ridiculously difficult platformer Cuphead. Enjoy!

Fallout: 02:01

Total War: Warhammer 2: 09:45

Fortnite Battle Royale: 29:28

Shadow of War: 38:26

Cuphead: 49:03

066 - PATHFINDER: THE CHRONICLES OF BOBBY TREETOPS

October 23, 2017

This week, in a departure from our usual format, we hand the episode over entirely to our Pathfinder roleplaying campaign, in which we talk about what Pathfinder is, the characters and stories in our campaign, and have a good old chat about the wonderful world of roleplaying in general, from the perspective of both new (Chris and Euan) and experienced players (Pawel, RPG maestro extraordinaire). This episode begins with a dramatic reading from the journal of Euan's character, Bobby Treetops, the elf sailor. He's some lad. Enjoy!

065 - MEAT'S BACK ON THE MENU

October 19, 2017

We have a belter of an episode this week as Pawel admits defeat and gets stuck right in to Divinity: Original Sin 2, Chris tries not to spoil the interactive video-based game Her Story, Euan goes back to the 90s and plays the original Fallout, and Chris gives a quick overview of his first couple of hours in Middle-earth: Shadow of War. Enjoy!

Divinity: Original Sin 2: 01:40

Her Story: 22:30

Fallout: 34:30

Middle-earth: Shadow of War: 50:50

064 - RAGING SPIRITS FORGING DICE

October 16, 2017

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We're back with another tabletop games episode, this time talking about two board games with gorgeous artwork: Dice Forge, in which the players are constantly changing the physical faces of their dice to suit their needs and strategy, and Spirit Island, a fully co-operative game of angry gods and spirits (the players) who are repelling foreign invaders from colonising their lands. Enjoy!

Dice Forge: 02:30

Spirit Island: 25:45

063 - BUCKET HELMET ARMY

October 2, 2017

This week's video games episode finds Chris in his happy place as he shows Divinity: Original Sin 2 a whole lot of love while arguing with Pawel about what a Fantasy RPG is. Meanwhile, Pawel has been playing Echo (not Ecco), a stealth game in which the AI learns how to beat you from observing your choices and behaviour. Also this week Chris and Dave have a bit to say about Starbound and its excellent balance of relaxing base building and exploration of alien planets. Enjoy!

Divinity: Original Sin 2: 03:34

Echo: 29:40

Starbound: 45:20

062 - CHAOS: IT HAPPENS!

September 25, 2017

A full squad of Unnecessaries have a spot of early tomfoolery over which one of them is called Pawel, before they move on to a couple of good chats about some of the more fun and chaotic tabletop games they've played recently: Goblins, Inc, a tile-laying game in which four players split into two teams and build robots of death to batter each other with; and Escape: The Curse of the Temple (Big Box Edition), a co-operative, real-time, frantic, dice-rolling game, which involves the players attempting to, well, escape from an ancient temple before time runs out and they're locked in forever. Enjoy!

Goblins, Inc: 02:18

Escape: The Curse of the Temple: 23:50

061 - ONE GAME, EVERY GAME

September 18, 2017

Chris, Euan, Pawel, and Dave kick off by opening the mailbag for the first time, as an annoyed listener manages to sneak in a review of Uncharted 4. The proper gaming chat starts with Destiny 2, as Pawel skives work to play a video game again, and Chris attempts to tackle Fortnite, a game which is trying to be a lot of things at once (and basically succeeding). Also, Euan manages to squeeze in a quick talk about PS2 game Shadow of Memories (aka Shadow of Destiny), a weird time-travelling game of yesteryear. Enjoy!

Destiny 2: 07:14

Fortnite: 25:58

Shadow of Memories/Destiny: 52:05

060 - THIS WAR OF OURS

September 11, 2017

Chris, Euan, Pawel and Dave are back for a healthy chat about two completely different board games! Strap yourselves in (and board your windows up) for a long chat about This War of Mine, a narrative-heavy game which sees the players controlling a small group of people trying desperately to survive in a war-torn city. We then lighten things up a bit with the hospital building/patient curing game Quarantine, a short and easy to learn board game which has a decent amount of screwing over your fellow players by filling their hospitals with disease. Enjoy!

This War of Mine: 1:43

Quarantine: 42:22

059 - YEAR THREE / SEASON TWO

September 4, 2017

Chris, Euan, Pawel, and even Dave are back from an unintentionally extended holiday to talk video games! During the break, Euan finally finished Final Fantasy XV, and has a good rant about it, while Chris talks about The Sexy Brutale, a quirky time-travelling point-and-click murder mystery game for the modern gaming world. Dave has a bit to say about Alaskan survival/exploration game The Wild Eight, and specifically its multiplayer mode, and Pawel attempts to pour out some love for Uncharted 4, but the conversation is... ehh.. derailed. Enjoy!

Final Fantasy XV: 3:16

The Sexy Brutale: 10:24

The Wild Eight: 21:35

Uncharted 4/everything else: 38:16

058 - HEALTH TRUMPS MANA

July 10, 2017

Chris and Euan are on their lonesome for this week's board games episode, which covers a couple of games that they've enjoyed for a few years now, starting with Mage Wars, a deckbuilding mage-battling game with a huge difference in that all your cards and abilities are available to you from the off. They then go back to Xia: Legends of a Drift System, the sci-fi sandbox game of customisable ships battering around a dangerous galaxy, and have a look at the new expansion for it, Embers of a Forsaken Star, and all the delights that it adds. Enjoy!

Mage Wars: 2:33

Xia: Embers of a Forsaken Star: 29:47

057 - ONE-EYED HONEY MONSTER

July 3, 2017

This week's video games episode begins with looking up Pawel's name on Urban Dictionary for kicks, before the lads actually start talking about some video games, starting with a very brief return to Neon Chrome and then a much, much longer chat about another roguelike, Unexplored, which Chris has been enjoying immensely. Euan then goes back a good few years to talk about Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, in anticipation of a new Call of Cthulhu game being released later this year. Pawel brings us forward into the 2010s (or is it back to the 1940s?) as he chats about the RTS game Company of Heroes 2, set on the Eastern Front during World War 2, before Chris has some silly fun with one-vs-many horror survival game Friday the 13th: The Game. Enjoy!

Unexplored/Neon Chrome: 5:04

Call of Cthulhu: 23:40

Company of Heroes 2: 35:00

Friday the 13th: 47:03

056 - JAPANESE MORNING

June 26, 2017

Chris, Euan and Pawel have a 66% Japanese episode with two games from designers from the land of the rising sun, starting with Tragedy Looper, a "1 versus many" time-travel board game in which the good guys are trying to prevent tragedies from happening by, uhhh, letting them happen a couple of times. Next up is Fairy Tale, a light, fantasy-themed card game of set collection and with multiple ways of scoring points. Pawel then ruins the Japanese theme of the episode by talking some more about Arkham Horror: The Card Game, and specifically about its standalone adventures and expansions such as Dunwich Legacy. Dave also gives a message from beyond the grave. (Note: Dave isn't actually dead) Enjoy!

Tragedy Looper: 3:18

Fairy Tale: 26:32

Arkham Horror Card Game: 40:30

055 - EGYPTPUNK, CYBERPUNK, CLICKPUNK

June 22, 2017

Chris, Euan and Pawel bring you another video games episode! Chris kicks off with an update on two VR games, first asking Pawel about his experience with Star Trek Bridge Crew and then a short bit about his own playthrough of Farpoint. Euan then talks about the strange Egyptian sci-fi old-school style indie RPG Void Pyramid and how he's been stalking its mysterious designer known only as "A Hagen". Chris jacks himself into Neon Chrome, an addictive and well designed top-down cyberpunk shooter with roguelike elements, while Pawel returns to the Gabriel Knight series with the 20th Anniversary remake of Sins of the Father. Also, more vague politics. Enjoy!

Star Trek Bridge Crew/Farpoint: 3:20

Void Pyramid: 13:04

Neon Chrome: 26:10

Gabriel Knight Sins of the Father: 41:04

054 - THE RED RAVEN

June 19, 2017

Chris, Euan, Pawel and Dave bring you the missing board games episode from last week! This week we give most of the episode over to Ryan Laukat and Red Raven Games, as we give our first impressions of the newly-arrived story-telling/adventuring game Near and Far. We also chat about one of Euan's favourite games, The Ancient World, where the players are attempting to unite groups of people under their banners to fight off the threat of attacking Titans. Although Pawel thinks the humans are the real monsters. Finally, we return to Captain Sonar, after Chris and Euan managed to get a full eight-player real-time game of this incredibly fun team-based submarine-commanding torpedo-firing stealth-running mine-dropping game of wits. New video games episode will be out later this week! Enjoy!

Near and Far: 2:30

The Ancient World: 25:30

Captain Sonar: 46:10