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We're here to talk about Star Wars before one of us goes on holiday to be IN Star Wars. We Played...Euan does cop simulations in Ready or Not and throws way way back to the best in the series with Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the PatriotsWe both continue to faun over Big Walk and discuss the many positives of tactics in a far off galaxy in Star Wars: Zero CompanyTimestamps00:04:45 - Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots00:10:52 - Ready or Not00:16:35 - Big Walk00:21:08 - Star Wars: Zero Company00:40:14 - Escape Simulator 2 VR00:40:57 - News - Just as we talk about how great Zero Company is, we find that 80% of the team were furloughed a few weeks before launch00:44:02 - News - Did you buy a PlayStation during the period where tariffs were active? Sorry your not getting that back00:49:01 - News - Sony are continuing to get blowback from their "no disc" policy that they will be rolling out eventually.00:55:34 - News - Turns out people are using slurs in Counter-Strike 2. Like a LOT01:03:05 - News - Watching non UK games writers discover that we actually do have pre-pay electricity units is very funny01:08:55 - Grand Theft Auto VI pre-release hype01:30:45 - Upcoming and Housekeeping Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com) All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Life gets in the way, but we return to talk about what we've been up to with video games and the like! We Played... Euan deals with the result of microplastics with Tides of Tomorrow, and remembers the good days of the internet (incorrectly) with Broken Reality 2000 Calum goes on a journey in Big Walk and has an unstoppable grindfest with Grandblue Fantasy Relink: Endless Ragnarok Timestamps 00:09:26 - New Diablo 4 Season 00:12:25 - Tides of Tomorrow 00:23:06 - Broken Reality 2000 00:35:14 - Esoteric Ebb 00:36:21 - Big Walk 00:43:25 - Minor Big Walk Puzzle Spoilers 00:50:09 - Grandblue Fantasy Relink: Endless Ragnarok 01:03:58 - News - Marvel Tōkon seems to have had an extremely rocky launch on PC 01:12:47 - Sovereign Tower 01:14:35 - Upcoming & Housekeeping Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com) All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

It's been a while. I hope you are all ready for extensive chat of boys. We Played... Euan discusses several Steam Next Fest offerings with About Fishing and Iron Nest and has a chill time stacking shelves in inKombini Calum has very little to say on Esoteric Ebb. More to follow at a later date Timestamps 00:04:48 - About Fishing Demo 00:07:21 - Iron Nest Demo 00:12:07 - Vultures: Scavengers of Death 00:14:31 - inKombini 00:16:27 - Diablo 4 00:18:23 - Final Fantasy XVI 00:19:12 - Esoteric Ebb 00:21:15 - News - Summer Games Fest happened. 00:31:07 - News - Yakuza devs RGG new game Stranger than Fiction is bringing back Tupac for the cast, and people have feelings about that 00:32:40 - News - The community around hot boy gatcha Love and Deepspace have been fighting a holy war over the new hot werewolf boy 00:48:43 - News - Tim Sweeny is an idiot 00:50:20 - News - Sony have announced that from January 2028 they will no longer be putting out games on Bluray. 01:01:16 - News - Valve announced Steam Machine prices, and they are not great. 01:03:58 - Upcoming & Housekeeping Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com) All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

I'm not going to take the easy joke and do a "the name's podcast, video game podcast" here. I'm not doing it. We Played... Euan continues running for loot in hell with Diablo 4 enters the Dark Pictures archives with Directive 8020 and begins Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. More to come from that. Calum caved and bought into the early access of Heroes of Might and Magic: The Olden Era. We all knew he would. We both discuss 007: First Light and if IO Interactive can really pull off a more directed single player game. Spoilers, they absolutely can. Timestamps 00:10:12 - Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred 00:19:21 - Directive 8020 00:29:06 - Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight 00:32:55 - HOMAM 00:50:52 - 007: First Light 01:09:48 - Bungie is releasing the last content update for Destiny 2 on June 9th, so we talk about the long history of the series, and what could happen next with the studio. 01:31:54 - Localization team Hilltop works are releasing a patch for incredibly niche PS1 title Kowloon's Gate, and it sounds like it was a nightmare to work on. 01:33:28 - Steam Deck prices are rising substantially, because AI is screwing us all over. 01:36:33 - Upcoming and Housekeeping Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com) All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Welcome back to the sad teen zone. We arrive here frequently, so enjoy your stay! We Played... Euan has a bumper stock of video game discussions. New demons to kill in Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred. Old school sad teens in the finale of Life is Strange: Reunion. New school sad teens (featuring music) in Mixtape, and a classic Zachtronics-like to round off the selection in UVS Nirmana Calum roots and/or toots his way through paranormal deserts with Far Far West and looks to the past with Final Fantasy 16 Timestamps 00:03:35 - Final Fantasy XVI 00:04:32 - Far Far West 00:12:56 - Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred 00:30:38 - Life is Strange: Reunion 00:36:17 - Mixtape 00:49:45 - UVS Nirmana 00:54:05 - Shapez 2 1.0 00:56:41 - News - Sony is not only seeing a drop in PS5 sales after the price hike, they haven't seen a return on investment with Bungie yet 01:02:28 - News - The CEO of Monument Valley developer UsTwo hates that their employees want things like "job security" and "pensions" 01:06:24 - Calum shares some genuinely exciting news from the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest, in his continual effort to get Euan to play the game 01:30:01 - Upcoming & Housekeeping Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com) All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

One of us stayed up till 3am before recording this. See if you can figure out which! We Played... Euan talks programming but Starcraft in Desynced, a gumshoe animated hero for new ages with Mouse: PI for Hire and the much anticipated cyberpunk sidescroller Replaced Calum talks Pokémon Champions, and explains the basics of professional Pokémon. Timestamps 00:07:37 - Life is Strange: Reunion 00:09:00 - Desynced Demo 00:13:12 - Replaced 00:16:18 - Mouse: PI For Hire 00:18:34 - Arknights: Endfield 00:22:47 - Contact Protocol Demo 00:26:15 - Diablo 4's Next Expansion 00:27:44 - Pokémon Champions 00:44:36 - Marathon 00:48:14 - News - Developer of Web3/NFT/Crypto nightmare Off the Grid is being accused of not paying it's developers, and the CEO had a wild response 00:54:50 - News - Capcom have "patched" the Alex storyline in Street Fighter 6, which has "fixed" nothing. 00:57:25 - News- Capcom has sent a request for a YouTube channel to pull down their videos showing NSFW Mods for various Capcom games. 01:00:00 - News - Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Director still hates "woke" games, but is pleased they are nominated for a LGBTQ+ character award because they did it "right". 01:03:06 - Upcoming & Housekeeping 01:07:25 - The Next FFXIV Expansion Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com) All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

I swear to go I'll get Euan to stop talking about his base building game for perverts one day. I promise. We Played... Euan played yet more Arknights: Endfield, and moving quickly on talks about the return to teen based drama in a university setting with Life is Strange: Reunion Calum talks about late game Marathon. It's all terrifying and stress inducing and awesome. Timestamps 00:03:45 - The Last Caretaker 00:06:20 - Endfield 00:10:54 - Life is Strange 00:28:45 - Marathon The review we quoted - https://www.gamerguides.com/marathon/reviews/punching-below-its-weight 01:00:00 - News - DLSS 5 is awful, but the memes are good. 01:09:07 - News - Epic Games laid off 1000 people, because of a "Fortnite downturn" 01:12:18 - News - Street Fighter 6's Alex has an... interesting... conclusion to his story mode. 01:23:04 - Upcoming & Housekeeping Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com) All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Just like the undying Shells of Tau Ceti IV, this podcast will keep coming back. We Played... Calum talks "Pokémon Crossing" in Pokopia, and discusses the arrival of a legend to Team Rainbow with Solid Snake in Rainbow 6: Siege Euan talks best in class of the genre in Resident Evil: Requiem and solves murder most foul in The Séance of Blake Manor The ins and outs of the new extraction shooter Marathon are discussed, and it's larger impact on the genre. Timestamps 00:06:29 - Pokopia 00:20:47 - Solid Snake in Rainbow 6: Siege 00:32:49 - Marathon 01:01:25 - Resident Evil: Requiem 01:05:29 - The Séance at Blake Manor 01:12:58 - News - We talk Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond leaving XBox, what it means for the platform, and the rough shape of the next Xbox hardware. 01:20:40 - News - Calum shares what happened during the Pokemon announcement stream. 01:22:48 - Upcoming & Housekeeping Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com) All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

It's the first post of 2026 and so as is customary, we recount everything we were doing while not on the air. We Played...Euan talks surviving an apocalypse in The Last Caretaker and yet more conveyer belts (now featuring anime women) in Arknights: EndfieldCalum takes to the streets of Seattle's cursed underground with Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 and enjoys the Yokai infested mountains of Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the GoddessTimestamps00:05:28 - The Last Caretaker00:11:20 - Arknights: Endfield00:39:31 - FFXIV Raids00:41:30 - Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines 200:49:17 - Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess00:57:05 - News - Wolfenstein 3 is happening, something we kinda knew but it's worth confirming00:57:41 - News - Blizzard announced a bunch of things throughout their IPs01:01:38 - News - Ever noticed that people playing violent games in Nintendo trailers are really bad at it? There might be a reason.01:03:15 - News - Sony had their first State of Play of 202601:22:22 - Upcoming & Housekeeping Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com) All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

It's the end of another year, so it's time to give the world our top 5 best of 2025. Timestamps00:04:31 - Calum Almost #500:07:00 - Calum #500:14:22 - Euan #500:21:21 - Calum #400:32:12 - Euan #400:41:28 - Calum #200:54:55 - Euan #300:59:55 - Euan #201:07:29 - Calum #101:27:05 - Euan #101:45:38 - Honourable Mentions01:58:12 - Starting 2026Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com) All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com) All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

The last pod of the year before game of the year discussions, so largely just trying to close the year out. Let's wrap up before 2026 and GTA6 definitely comes out and dominates. We Played...Euan returns to stompy robots in Phantom Brigade 2.0 and delves into long awaited horrors in RoutineCalum navigates a lawless frontier in Destiny 2: Renegades and can't stop smoking in RV There Yet?Timestamps00:03:28 - Indiana Jones and the Great Circle00:06:27 - Phantom Brigade00:12:25 - Routine00:21:01 - Dispatch00:28:23 - Citizen Sleeper 200:35:31 - Destiny 2: Renegades00:59:57 - Hitman + Diablo 401:01:46 - News - Valve are bringing back the Steam Machine, a small SteamOS box that is 5x times more powerful than the Steam Deck.01:09:06 - News - A community team are trying to make Concord playable again, and have ran a game on their own servers.01:10:04 - News - As part of the current lawsuit between Krafton and ex heads of Unknown Worlds, it was shown that the Krafton CEO allegedly asked ChatGPT how to avoid paying them.01:13:27 - News - This article from Aftermath about Ubisoft doing more stupid shit with AI is my favourite headline of the year01:14:40 - News - If you follow games press you will have heard about art game Horses, we go over what's happening with it's removal from now 3 online stores.01:20:24 - Upcoming & HousekeepingIntro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com) All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com) All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

We return after a personal break and it looks like the year is slowing down. We Played...Euan talks more Diablo IVCalum gives his overview from Lumiose City (and Pokemon in general) while discussing Pokemon Legends ZAWe both join the millions of other people gushing over Ad-Hoc's DispatchTimestamps00:04:05 - Diablo 400:10:51 - Silent Hill f00:15:31 - Pokemon Legends ZA00:35:41 - Hades 200:37:52 - Dispatch01:00:33 - Other End of Year Games01:02:46 - Rockstar have delayed GTA6 again, and also fired a number of employees that were in the process of discussing unionisation.01:07:23 - EA has gone private and been sold to a consortium that includes Saudi Arabia and Jared Kushners venture capital firm.01:11:27 - Upcoming & HousekeepingIntro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com) All Licensed under Creative Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com) All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

The shadow of many looms over us and Euan is continuing to play Diablo 4. We Played...As said, Euan can't stop with the Diablo 4 and plays the actual new release of Silent Hill F Calum talks about the anticipated sequel to one of the best games ever made, Hades II We're both in our 30s and played Fortnite for Daft Punk. I'm as upset about this fact as you Timestamps00:01:37 - Diablo 4 00:23:04 - Hades 2 00:53:50 - Silent Hill f 01:21:16 - Fortnite 01:27:07 - Upcoming & Housekeeping Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com) All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

00:08:40 - Diablo 4 00:28:54 - Chronos 00:53:08 - 2XKO 01:24:35 - News - Firaxis is the latest company to let people go. 01:28:38 - News - Vampire The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 will no longer lock some vampire families behind launch DLC, and instead will launch separate DLC later. 01:29:38 - News - Randy Pitchford is tweeting through it again. Joy. 01:39:12 - Upcoming & Housekeeping Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com) All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

We took a long break, but now we're back with all you'd expect from us. We Played...Euan gives his final thoughts on Death Stranding 2 after seeing the credits roll.Calum have a bumper crop of Grounded 2, Dawn of War: Definitive Edition and hot game of the moment Peak, which is, as the kids say, peak.We both discuss interesting psychological thriller Dead Take, and it's incredible performances.Timestamps00:04:29 - Death Stranding 200:12:19 - Dead Take00:19:09 - Is This Seat Taken?00:22:23 - Peak00:27:25 - Dawn of War Remaster00:30:00 - Grounded 2 Early Access00:33:13 - News - Gamescom ONL00:46:53 - News - Tencent Horizon00:49:38 - News - VTM 200:56:08 - Upcoming & Housekeeping Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com) All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0