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The death of Chicago sports (and pop culture) legend Mike Ditka. A Green Bay Packers team on the ropes. A Bears team favored to play in Wisconsin for the first time in decades. A moment to send an entire state into an existential crisis. So, naturally, the Bears played their worst football of the year and got their butts whooped. Rob and Patrick are here to podcast and cope. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Note: This interview was conducted in collaboration with LudoNarraCon, which explains the podcast’s intro and outro. Six years ago, Umurangi Generation came out of nowhere and took our breath away. Six years later, designer Tali Faulkner is back with something wholly different, equally bold, and, once again, prepared with a message. Patrick recently had a chance to catch up with Faulkner to learn why penguins and Lovecraft were required to tell this new story. Note: This interview was conducted in collaboration with LudoNarraCon, which explains the podcast’s intro and outro. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It’s a packed news week on Remap Radio, between Epic Games deciding to go all-in on AI, Double Fine’s unionization efforts falling apart, and a completely botched effort to re-release Total War: Shogun 2. It’s equally packed on the games front, with Patrick having spent time with the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake and rolling credits on Control Resonant. Janet, fresh back from Japan, can finally talk about Slay the Spire, while both Patrick and Chia are digging into Penguin Colony, the latest game from the developers of Umurangi Generation. Links: Inside the Failed Fight to Unionize Double Fine, Epic Launcher Announcement, Shogun 2 AI Upscaling Discussed: 9:01 - The Work to Unionize Double Fine 45:54 - Epic Games Drops "Vibe Coded" Launcher 1:24:01 - 999 Developer newest game cancelled 1:32:00 - nVidia stops 5090 Production 1:34:35 - Slay the Spire 1:46:08 - Control Resonant 2:05:51 - Penguin Colony 2:29:42 - Star Wars: Galactic Racer 2:41:45 - Silver Pines 2:42:29 - Hellraiser Revival 2:44:01 - Switch Sports Resort 2:44:24 - Ocarina of Time Remake 3:08:13 - The Question Bucket    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rob and Patrick spend 20 minutes in stunned silence, as the Chicago Bears continue their streak of what people seem to call “competence.” And why does it feel so weird to be calm in the face of Packer week, a time of year that usually instills dread? Now, it’s all house money. But it won’t stop Rob and Patrick from cackling like demons if they take down the Packers yet again. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Can you hear it in the wind? That’s the sound of a new Dragon’s Dogma game, which heralds the arrival of Austin Walker on the podcast. Austin and his many hours with Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen join Rob, Patrick, and Chia to mull dragons, dogmas, the state of independent game funding, Mike Tomlin’s Minecraft world, Star Wars Galactic Racer, Forever Ago, and more. Discussed: 00:01:45 - Mike Tomlin's Minecraft City   00:17:58 - Strand Store     00:29:56 - Gardens Secures Further Funding    00:34:44 - Investments in small games   00:59:38 - Gravity Well layoffs    01:07:03 - 50% of Bit Reactor Staff back from Furlough    01:10:52 - The Incident at Galley House    01:13:24 - Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen     01:59:39 - Forever Ago      02:32:26 - Star Wars: Galactic Racer     03:04:21 - Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve 03:15:34 - Thousand Hells See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It’s rare video game stories tell angry stories of grief. Of jealousy. Of feeling robbed of a promised future, of a past that’s rarely exactly how your nostalgia suggests. Forever Ago, the new adventure game from developer Third Shift, sits with these complicated feelings. Patrick recently had an opportunity to chat with two of the developers behind the emotional game. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A week ago, Rob and Patrick were on the brink of throwing up their hands at yet another disastrous season for the Chicago Bears. Now…Super Bowl? Super BEARS? 38-year-old Case Keenum, a guy hired to hold a clipboard and mentor players, had the game of his life, and simultaneously sent the Philadelphia Eagles into an existential crisis about their own season. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Aftermath's Chris Person joins the show to free-associate about retro gaming, the Steam Frame, David Graeber, vibe coding, and Control Resonant. Rob and Patrick are loving it, and Patrick starts getting into the ups-and-downs of the Mac Mini market, while Rob has an important realization: he actually has an important (very relatively speaking) use case for the Steam Frame. Spoiler: it involves his god damn racing wheel. CW: The episode opens with a brief news bulletin on the Jacob Geller sexual assault news. 00:05:35 - Retro Gaming Sicko’s Corner  00:58:15 - Steam Frame & VR in the Modern Day     02:01:29 - Control Resonant     See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On Sunday, Rob and Patrick almost saw the entire Chicago Bears season sink underneath an injury to quarterback Caleb Williams. Rob’s Sunday was ruined. Patrick’s flight back from Los Angeles became a tomb. And the prospect of doing weekly check-ins on the Bears for the Remap audience suddenly became more daunting. Maybe they could chat about a book they were reading, instead? But thankfully, Williams is not out for the season. So we’re back? Sort of. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We begin this podcast the way we ended the last podcast: talking about Control Resonant. This time, Rob’s spent 17 hours with Remedy’s latest, albeit all of it before the game was updated to validate the emotional and critical feelings of Patrick and Janet. But we also have much else to discuss, including Xbox’s ongoing “reset,” the alleged future of Bungie, Discord pushing forward on age verification, and many thoughts on both Silent Hill Townfall and Normal Golf Game. Links: Control Resonant Post by Chris Person, Xbox Announces Continuing Layoffs and Restructure, The Next Chapter of Bungie, Post about Turning off Gambling Ads In Discord, Image of Confusing UI in Discord Settings Discussed: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:44 - Control Resonant 00:55:07 - Xbox Studios Goes through Further Layoffs 01:18:49 - Bungie's Next Chapter 01:42:48 - Discord Age Verification Rolls Out 02:00:47 - Silent Hill: Townfall 02:20:04 - Normal Golf Game See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A conversation with the designer behind one of 2026's most pleasant surprises, and arguably the most unconventional take on hitting a golf ball since Wii Sports. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You don’t get a new Remedy video game all that often, but Rob, Patrick, and Janet have all played Control Resonant and…well, you should just listen to the podcast. Elsewhere on Remap Radio this week, we’ve got [checks notes] a ton of bummer news, including several studios shutting down, IGN laying off even more people, a truly perplexing story about a studio head’s comments on crunch, and more. At least Chia’s back from Japan and playing Perfect Tides! Links: Moss Dev Shuts Down, Heart Machine goes through Layoffs, Rockstar Union had a Mole in their Discord, Wardogs Dev won't hire people who have been vocally anti-crunch, Nighthawks Categorized as Adult Content by Steam, The Future of Marathon Discussed: 00:02:33 - Unfortunately we must discuss the horrors     00:04:49 - IGN/Indie Studios Layoffs and Closures     00:44:24 - Wardogs CEO talks crunch     01:16:36 - Rockstar deployed union mole    01:25:00 - Nighthawks marked as adult content by Steam moderation    01:32:03 - The Future of Marathon     01:41:49 - Control Resonant  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The 13th of September will no longer be known as a Chicago holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice, we will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish without a fight. We're going to live on. We're going to survive. Today, friends, The Bears Are Back! Join Rob and Patrick for a Sports! mini-pod—seriously, it’s only 20 minutes—about the Bears pulverizing the Panthers. Our hope is to deliver one of these every week (unless we’re already doing a normal Sports!). Library-tier subscribers will get access to them ASAP, while everyone else can hear our thoughts on Saturdays…right before the NFL kicks off again! Beardown! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bruno Dias joins the crew to talk about his review of The Sinking City 2 and Lovecraft as author versus Lovecraft as brand. Then the gang gets into our glorious era of privacy annihilating personal technology and engages in a philosophical exploration of Siri Recap and when an audio file ceases to be an audio file. We discuss Kojima's announcement with Microsoft, and what it implies about Sony's relationship to big AAA prestige pieces and creators. You know, things like Wolverine from Insomniac, which Patrick has been playing a lot this last week. It's not great, bub! Then Bruno has been digging into 1000 Hells and Blood of Dawnwallker. If you ever wanted to hear about different ways voice lines and barks are handled at studios, this is the episode for you, because Bruno has spent time in those mines. 00:01:18 -  Sinking City 2           00:59:44 - TCL’s TV Review Press List     01:28:13 - Hockey Commentator reveals that EA is testing AI voice acting for EA Sports      01:40:54 - 1900 Blizzard Employees Unionize    01:52:22 - Microsoft acquires Kojima Production’s PHYSINT after Sony drops it  02:16:01 - Insomniac’s Wolverine Woes   02:45:57 - 1000 Hells      02:51:49 - Blood of Dawnwalker     03:04:00 - Star Wars Zero Company      See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone look at this guy. He doesn't know who Miyamoto Musashi is. He doesn't even know about Ganryu! If you mention the Five Rings, he thinks you're talking about Tom Brady. And yet HE was worthy of the Onimusha: Way of the Sword review code? That's fine. We're not bitter. We have other games to play, like Super Mega Baseball, First Light, or Orbitals. 01:06 - The Sinking City 2 might be an Evil Within 2-like   06:02 - 80% of Bit Reactor Furloughed     18:22 - The DLSS5 Yassification Machine      38:21 - De-listed games included in Xbox’s disc to digital initiative      49:43 - Onimusha: Way of the Sword      1:22:24 - Super Mega Baseball      1:39:21 - 007: First Light      1:54:27 - Orbitals      2:09:26 - Question Bucket     See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.