15: Control & Annihilation

19: Starfield

Structured differently to our regular episodes, this one is just about the newly released title from Bethesda Softworks - Starfield! We also have a special guest joining us in this episode - a massive science fiction nerd and a background mostly in tech and IT, it's CJ's mum Dani Welsh! In this episode we dive deep into what Starfield is, what it's about, how it works behind the scenes, and what the size and scale of it means both for what it is as a piece of science-fiction media, and for the larger games industry and market. Hope you enjoy!

18: Baldur’s Gate 3 & Dungeons & Dragon: Honour Among Thieves

This one is all about Dungeons and Dragons with Baldur's Gate 3 & Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves! Baldur's Gate 3 is the latest role-playing video game developed by Larian Studios and released in 2023.  It is a story-rich, party-based RPG set in the universe of Dungeons & Dragons, where your choices shape a tale of fellowship and betrayal, survival and sacrifice, and the lure of absolute power. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, stars Chris Pine and also released in 2023. Also set in the universe of Dungeons & Dragons, a charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers embark on an epic quest to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people.

17: Resident Evil & Zombi

Joining us as a guest on this episode to talk about Resident Evil and Zombi is Louie Roots! An Interactive Designer and Producer, Louie tutors at Swinburne University, and is also a Director for Freeplay Independent Games Festival.   Resident Evil is a 1996 survival horror game developed and published by Capcom for the PlayStation. It is the first game in Capcom's Resident Evil franchise. In Resident Evil, the STARS force (special tactics and rescue service) are investigating strange cannibalized corpses on the outskirts of the city. The Alpha squad, Jill and Chris, are sent to locate missing team members. While there, mutated dogs cause them to flee into a supposedly abandoned mansion.   Zombi, directed by Lucio Fulci and released in 1979, is about a group of strangers that are searching for a young woman’s missing father arrive on a tropical island, where a doctor is desperately seeking the cause and cure of a recent epidemic of the undead.

16: Spider-Man: Miles Morales & Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

This pairing is all about Spiderman with Spiderman: Miles Morales and Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse!   In Spiderman: Miles Morales - teenager Miles Morales is adjusting to his new home while following in the footsteps of his mentor, Peter Parker, as a new Spider-Man. But when a fierce power struggle threatens to destroy his new home, the aspiring hero realizes that with great power, there must also come great responsibility. To save all of Marvel’s New York, Miles must take up the mantle of Spider-Man and own it.    In Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse - after reuniting with Gwen Stacy, Brooklyn's full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence. However, when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders. He must soon redefine what it means to be a hero so he can save the people he loves most.

15: Control & Annihilation

We have so much to talk about with this pairing as we dive into the genre of New Weird with Control & Annihilation! In Control - released in 2019 and developed by Remedy Entertainment - you are Jesse Faden, a young woman with a troubled past. You become the new Director of the Bureau of Control - Our frontline in researching and fighting against supernatural enemies like the Hiss threatening our very existence. Annihilation - released in 2018, written for screen and directed by Alex Garland and adapted from the novel by Jeff Vandermeer - Lena (Natalie Portman), a biologist and former soldier, joins a mission to uncover what happened to her husband (Oscar Isaac) inside Area X -- a sinister and mysterious phenomenon that is expanding across the American coastline. Once inside, the expedition discovers a world of mutated landscapes and creatures, as dangerous as it is beautiful, that threatens both their lives and their sanity.