Total Playtime

Alice has been Nic Cage Wickerman'd by her own dog, a sorry state of affairs, but one that does at least tie in with talking about Hollow Knight: Silksong, a somewhat popular game, as we understand it. You know who else is popular? That Mario fella. He turned 40 this past weekend (sort of, if you start counting from Super Mario Bros. rather than Donkey Kong, which is technically Mario's first appearance even though he was called Jumpman at the time) [deep breath]. Also Nate torments us with a medieval bestiary and we conceive of a gritty Wind In The Willows reboot. What's not to love?Thanks to our Patreon backers for making this podcast possible! Please consider joining them so that we can force Jonty to go to Gamescom as Business Arbiter. Our music is by God Ribbon, our art is by Marsh Davies and our inbox is totalplaytimepod@gmail.com.Links!Happy Underwhelming 40th Birthday Nintendo Direct to Mario! Including a tiny tease of the next Mario movie. Reviews are dripping out now for Silksong (including IGN, which hadn't drapt at time of recording), but hilariously the first patch made it easier. People are saying it's too hard, in fact. Three (mini) Kobolds In A Trenchcoat.Games!Silksong has been out a couple of weeks, the bugs are too sexy. Hades II has been out for longer, but the pretend kind of out where you get two releases, like the Queen. Strange Antiquities is a very lovely Purveyor Of Cursed Items simulator for fans of Strange Horticulture.Recommendations!Jonty makes the bold statement that The Usual Suspects is a good movie, Alice responds that so is The Ballad Of Wallis Island, and Nate double recommends Alien Earth and Blue Eye Samurai. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alice went to Gamescom and she's here to tell us all about it: games, German KFC, stealing from the Capcom booth and posing with the Farming Simulator tractor. A pretty standard Gamescom experience, all told, although she didn't go to the shitty bar that all the other Brits attend or get completely screwed by the German rail system so there's still room for improvement. Plus: the in-game currency for life, big worm, and forcing Jonty to cosplay as a militarised squid-dog.Thanks to our Patreon backers for making this podcast possible! Please consider joining them so that we can force Jonty to go to Gamescom as Business Arbiter. Our music is by God Ribbon, our art is by Marsh Davies and our inbox is totalplaytimepod@gmail.com.Links!The Trap Door is available on YouTube. Legendäre Burger bei KFC. GameDiscoverCo. Why Silksong took so long to make. The Snyder Cut. We are blessed to know The Blorko Guy (who also has a podcast).Games!Silksong is indeed out now although you can't download it. Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 does not exist in Alice's world. Hirogami is also out now. Resident Evil Requiem. Onimusha: Way of the Sword. Pragmata. NUTMEG! A Storied Life: Tabitha. The Séance of Blake Manor. Monsters are Coming! Rock & Road.Recommendations!The Van Gogh Museum, Deva Roman Experience and Star Trek: Picard - re:View. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nate's on deadline so it's just Alice and Jonty this week, considering the newly independent Digital Foundry, the not-at-all-newly-scandal-engulfed Roblox, the latest on the Subnautica 2 and Itch.io drama, and all the games we've been playing. Anybody would think this is a podcast about videogames or something.You can listen to the episode directly right here, or find it in your pod catching apps.iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKWArt by Marsh Davies. Music by God Ribbon. Funding for this entire endeavour is by our Patreon backers and to them we are truly thankful.Links!Krafton vs Subnautica devs continues. Digital Foundry on going independent. Roblox banned vigilantes and Lousiana sued Roblox. Alice's new book. The Observer investigation into The Salt Path.Games!Rosewater, and Roger, Strange Jigsaws, Occlude, Word Play, Wordatro, Battlefield 6.Recommendations!Vivian Dies Again and What a Glut of New Oasis Books is Leaving Unwritten. Palm Springs is on Amazon, not Neflix, we regret the error. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alice was out of action this week, so Jonty and Nate met up to ponder Battlefield 6, cringe over Jonty's new collection of sex games, and reposition the Bioshock jar in the fridge. Plus: the thicc man of Europe, the best artillery in videogames, and another attempt at deal-making. You can listen to the episode directly right here, or find it in your pod catching apps.iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKWRSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6786cf573ceecdbe85eac067Art by Marsh Davies. Music by God Ribbon. Links!Itch.io is re-indexing free adult content. Countess Lita played No Mercy. Tom Clancy's Tom Clancy was just a huge submarine nerd. GOG gave away a bunch of sex games for freedom. Ars Technica's deep dive on Battlefield and the misery of AAA development. Everybody was playing Battlefront 2 and EA couldn't have cared less. Splinter Cell Conviction at high framerate. God departed RPS and left some parting wisdom on games coverage. Games!Battlefront 6. Star Wars Battlefront (2004), Dawn of War, with Winter Assault DLC. Total Annihilation. GTA Online. Splinter Cell Conviction.Recommendations!Hit Points and Cells at Work!. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a first for us, this week we end up discussing a developing news story, which then further developed after we recorded on Monday night. Had we recorded after Itch also took down adult content we would probably have been less complacent and more angry. As it is, we're still pretty angry about payment processors leveraging their Victorian prudishness to censor the internet. We're also angry at the UK government, the wizard lady author, and Alice's older brother - but that's sort of not his fault.In happier news, we're not angry at the game discovery app Ludocene, which is actually good, or you, the listeners, who have sent in some nice messages. We welcome further messages, which you can send to us at totalplaytimepod@gmail.com.You can listen to the episode directly right here, or find it in your pod catching apps.iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKWRSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6786cf573ceecdbe85eac067Artwork by Marsh Davies. Music by God Ribbon.Games!Bollocks Pit.Links!Steam took down a bunch of sexy games, which a tedious pressure group claimed responsibility for. Waypoint took down a couple of articles about that, which Streisand-effected Waypoint into near oblivion. After we recorded, Itch delisted anything tagged to indicate it had adult content while it audits everything. Consider all this also in the context of, for example, the UK's tedious and ill-conceived Online Safety Act, which is why you have to give BlueSky your picture and niche cycling forums have closed.In better news, Ludocene, the game discovery app in testing right now, is good! Alice endorses it.RecommendationsJonty recommends the YouTube channel 'British Movie Commentary Collection', which is exactly what it sounds like. Alice recommends the sitcom Such Brave Girls (also please send her pictures of your miniature painting). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It would be nice to do an episode in which we don't talk about layoffs, wouldn't it, but it's once again the main news event so we have to. Jonty and Nate conferred to despair over Microsoft's cutbacks, consider potential comedy games, and commend some actually good news about games media. Alice is both unwell and furious, for unrelated reasons, but will return for future episodes. You can listen to the episode directly right here, or find it in your pod catching apps.iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKWRSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6786cf573ceecdbe85eac067Artwork by Marsh Davies. Music by God Ribbon.Links!Microsoft laid off another 9,000 people despite their roadmap "never looking stronger". Hat Trick are looking for comedy games. News Knight is regrettably still available. MindsEye does not need external saboteurs. Krafton was remarkably snotty about replacing the leadership of Subnautica 2. Kotaku was sold and Paste launched Endless Mode.Games!Perfect Dark. Forza Motorsport. Subnautica 2 (and Subnautica). Ark Nova.Recommendations!Nate recommends Jurassic World Dominion and Jonty recommends Overclocked: An Archive of Graphics Card Box Art. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We catch up on the undrama around Mindseye, a game that was both unexpected and unexpectedly terrible. Plus, all of us have actually been playing games this week, and Jonty has his first game of Sweeten The Deal (with poor attempts at speaking French).You can listen to the episode directly right here, or find it in your pod catching apps.iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKWRSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6786cf573ceecdbe85eac067Acast: https://shows.acast.com/total-playtimeArtwork by Marsh Davies. Music by God Ribbon.Links!Mindseye sucks, but you only think that because you've been paid off, unlike the streamers who had their streams cancelled last minute. NexusMods has new, possibly sus owners.Games we've been playingPromise Mascot Agency! Void War! The Baby Steps demo! Date Everything!RecommendationsDouble Fine's post on when Full Throttle released, back issues of The Fortean Times (also my new book is coming out).  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're all thoroughly exhausted from Keigh 3, a weekend containing an interminable number of videogame presentations. Join us as we navigate what actually happened at Summer Game Fest, State Of Play, the Xbox Showcase, et al. There are several games we liked!You can listen to the episode directly right here, or find it in your pod catching apps.iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKWRSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6786cf573ceecdbe85eac067Acast: https://shows.acast.com/total-playtimeArtwork by Marsh Davies. Music by God Ribbon.Links!Jonters has summarised the big three here.From State Of Play: Pragmata, Baby Steps, Jams Bend Fist Light, the PSVR Thief game, Hirogami.From Jeff Fest: Resident Evil Requiem, Felt That, Atomic Heart 2From the Xbox Showcase: There Are No Ghosts At The Grand, Clockwork Revolution, The Outer Worlds 2.Elsewhere this weekend: Mandrake, Big Walk, The Alters.Games we've been playingDuck Detective: The Ghost Of Glamping, Logic Town, Squeakross, Boltgun - Words Of Vengeance, Vampire Survivors.RecommendationsJonty has recommended a fishy pasta recipe, and for details you will have to listen to the episode. Alice recommends the artist Abi Stevens. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we, despite all being busted, discuss Palworld's woes, Marathons woes, and also the philosophical question of what it means to be a 'beasted butler'. Plus! Jonty has been playing Helldivers II and getting grit in his shower (the two events are unrelated).You can listen to the episode directly right here, or find it in your pod catching apps.iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKWRSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6786cf573ceecdbe85eac067Acast: https://shows.acast.com/total-playtimeArtwork by Marsh Davies. Music by God Ribbon.Links!They're making an Elden Ring movie! Unfortunately online games are doomed. Palworld has responded to Ninty's impending copyright claim (also at GamesFray, the author apparently being a Trump fan with a Libertarian streak). What's going on with Marathon? Bungie admit to taking at least one artist's work and the rumour is that Marathon needs to be a top-5-of-the-year game to be considered a success.Games we talked aboutHelldivers 2. Hearthstone. Out Of Hands.RecommendationsGBOL having adventures in All The Gear, Everyone Is Wrong About The Lamentus, and MV Freedom. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week there was even more news about what remains of games media, and a new GTA 6 trailer following the delay of GTA 6, which itself is probably bad news for games media. It's rough out there, folks. We discuss all of these things plus Sean Bean, the joke that will kill Nate, and the GTA feature requests of the Gaming Anti-Pope. Artwork by Marsh Davies. Music by God Ribbon.Links!Will Alice ever outrun the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Pope Crave accidentally became a real media outlet. Giant Bomb bought Giant Bomb in an all-Jeff transaction. Jeff Prime saluted Kinda Funny. Polygon was bought by Valnet, which is probably bad. The GTA 6 trailer came out and it wasn't on the date predicted.The GTA 6 website contains enough material for like five different magazine cover features, we used to be a country. Do not become addicted to Latinas. Jonty reviewed Revenge of the Savage Planet. Qanon Anonymous.Games!Crusader Kings 3, Revenge of the Savage Planet and Skin Deep.Recommendations:Alice recommends The failure of Pop Quiz Hotshot, Jonty recommends Carpoolers by Alejandro Cartagena, Nate recommends The Floozies, Marvel Years and Moon Tricks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The internet briefly tore itself apart over how good games are allowed to be, most specifically Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a French JRPG (??) that everyone loves - or possibly loves too much. We discuss this, Todd Howard cucking us (and indie games) by shadow-dropping the Oblivion remaster, plus our reviews of Blue Prince and Old Skies.You can listen to the episode directly right here, or find it in your pod catching apps.iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKWRSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6786cf573ceecdbe85eac067Acast: https://shows.acast.com/total-playtimeArtwork by Marsh Davies. Music by God Ribbon.Links!EA revealed their XCOM but Star Wars game (on the 19th). Sure, whatever. The Oblivion remaster came out, but the Skyblivion folk say they will continue their work. Raw Fury will too, no matter how many times they have to release a game! Clair Obscur is out and did really well and everyone loves it. (FYI the BDS movement is calling for boycotts of Xbox)Games!Blue Prince and Old Skies.RecommendationsGrow your own tomatoes, support trans rights and charities, go to protests and buy from cool trans businesses, creators, authors and artists. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Jonty is away in Europe not doing counter espionage, so Alice and Nate talk about Bungie's new game Marathon, which looks fine, I guess. We discuss whether it's worth going to see the A Minecraft Movie (no). Also, Nate explains Civ 7 and Age Of Empires patches, and forces Alice to design an absurd breakfast.You can listen to the episode directly right here, or find it in your pod catching apps.iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKWRSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6786cf573ceecdbe85eac067Acast: https://shows.acast.com/total-playtimeArtwork by Marsh Davies. Music by God Ribbon.Links!Why hello there, Marathon. Civ 7 and AoEII are both getting updated. Critical support for Phoebe Waller Bridge. No support for Jared Hess.Games!Promise Mascot Agency. It's really good!RecommendationsNate recommends Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerlands and Alice recommends Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ubisoft's latest stab-fest did really well, hurrah! But they still did that weird subsidiary plan with Tencent, hurroo. At least the official Ass Creed social media account got in a few shots. Plus: Bloodlines 2 delayed again, Game Informer is back, and we prepare to fight Gul'dan. You can listen to the episode directly right here, or find it in your pod catching apps.iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKWRSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6786cf573ceecdbe85eac067Acast: https://shows.acast.com/total-playtimeArtwork by Marsh Davies. Music by God Ribbon.Links!The CWA formed a games union! Cool! Game Informer is back, but at what cost? AC: Shadows did good numbers, and so did this burn on Elon Musk, but Ubi still sold 25% of their best franchises to Tencent, in a move that just kind of instinctively feels bad. FightinCowboy going off on his Shadows stream, however, felt good. Bloodlines 2 is delayed again. I first previewed it like 6 years ago, lol.Games!Schedule I. The Beekeeper's Picnic. AC: Shadows.RecommendationsJonty recommends Father John Misty, Nate recommends the Shamrock Shake, although it is now no longer available in the UK so here is its Wikipedia page, and I recommend Out There Screaming: An Anthology of Black Horror. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week everyone is trying to make fetch happen, from the leaked demo of an infinitely genAI small-talking NPC, to Ubisoft finally launching the rumoured Animus Hub alongside Assassin's Creed Shadows. Sometimes you just have to do something to get your manager off your back. Plus: we've been playing Wanderstop and looking at Split Fiction.You can listen to the episode directly right here, or find it in your pod catching apps.iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKWRSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6786cf573ceecdbe85eac067Acast: https://shows.acast.com/total-playtimeArtwork by Marsh Davies. Music by God Ribbon.Links!Everyone hates fake Aloy, although Ashly Burch has a more measured take. Games writers got mad at one guy in particular. I will fucking piledrive you if you mention AI again by Nikhil Suresh. Assassin's Creed Shadows is the first to feature the Animus Hub, may God have mercy on our souls, but also we're hoping Shadows does well for all our sakes. The writing in Split Fiction might not be that great and Josef Fares isn't that concerned about genAI.Games!Split Fiction. No Case Should Remain Unsolved. Wanderstop.RecommendationsJonty recommends you grow some rosemary and put it on steak, and I recommend the book Character Limit and the podcast QAA (for the Nth time). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The I've had three hours of sleep and can't think of a better title edition! This time we discuss Warner Bros. doing more redundancies and how digital ownership is an illusion. Plus! Steam Next Fest demos, and the new discoverability app everyone's talking about. And more! We've been playing Avowed, and a cool free text-based puzzle game feat. mysterious deaths.You can listen to the episode directly right here, or find it in your pod catching apps.iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKWRSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6786cf573ceecdbe85eac067Acast: https://shows.acast.com/total-playtimeArtwork by Marsh Davies. Music by God Ribbon. LinksWB shut down good studios and have good systems in their Indiana Jones warehouse of patents. You don't own your Amazon ebooks. The Video Game History Foundation is preserving games. Dominic Tarason has a great free games spreadsheet. Ludocene is having a crack at a different, better kind of game discovery.GamesCantaloupe Chronicle, Do No Harm, Type Help, Avowed, ResogunRecommendationsThe Sky Thief article on Rolling Stone; Todd In The Shadows. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our episode this week was recorded... this week! Regular episodes are back on current events schedule. We talk about techxecutives, trying to make Meta happen, and argue about review scores, as games media are cursed to do until the sun explodes. Plus! We've been playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, My Summer Car, and Spirit Swap.You can listen to the episode directly right here, or find it in your pod catching apps.iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/total-playtime/id1790845149Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jPv8y9BRzqATFT7zXRxKWRSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6786cf573ceecdbe85eac067Acast: https://shows.acast.com/total-playtimeArtwork by Marsh Davies. Music by God Ribbon.Links!Lawsuits are fake, Avowed and Civ 7 reactions, lol at Meta's terrible ad, VR devs don't feel great about Meta, being all gamergatey bites Kingdom Come II on the bum, sorry, you're legally not allowed to review my game poorly.Games!Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, Spirit Swap, My Summer Car.Recommendations:25 commandments for journalists, by the late Tim Radford (his obit. can be found here), the musical And Juliet, the film Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, and the documentary Boyzone: No Matter What. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's another catchup episode we recorded far too long ago! The next one will be more timely, but here we're discussing the games that we're most looking forward to in 2025. Mushrooms! Dinosaurs! Kings! Some of these games have already come out and we take no responsibility for their quality. You can listen to the episode directly right here, or find it in your pod catching apps.Artwork by Marsh Davies. Music by God Ribbon.Links!Jonty's picks: GTAVI! Fable! Doom: The Dark Ages! Commandos Origins! That Half-Life thing! Mouse: PI For Hire!Alice's picks: Mushroom Musume! Dead Letter Dept! Eldritch House! Avowed! (The Mermaid Mask! Promise Mascot Agency!)Nate's picks: Civ VII! Kingmakers! Subnautica 2! Atomfall! Jurassic Park: Survival!Recommendations this week are SBC Hyrdra-Collagen gel, St. Elwick's Newsletter Association, Video Nasty, and Blank Check. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this bumper episode of Total Playtime we discuss everything* that we would have discussed if we were on air at the time, except we all** got fired*** six months ago. Where things are out of date or have changed since we recorded we have endeavoured to provide more up-to-date context in the links below. Thanks for listening!*Not everything**Two of us***were made redundant.Links!Neil is a big seal. "Soft layoffs" impacted Ziff Davis More recent GDC survey than the one we mention indicates even more people are impacted by layoffs. Digital Foundry: John vs. Palword. Nintendo sued Palworld. Swen from Larian did a good speech. Catly initially looked like it might be AI but the devs have since denied it and released another trailer. Read Max's thesis that people like AI because people like bad art. Stage Fright looks cool, as did Outer Worlds 2 and One Move Away. The Witcher IV is happening. Naughty Dog's new IP looks like shit Star Wars. Borderlands 4 is ready to drop the hottest memes of 2011. Recommendations: Bookmarked by Chris, Matt's Off Road Recovery, Lidl Spicy Salami Sticks, and Skulls: An Exploration Of Alan Dudley's Curious Collection. Find game links on Patreon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's a big commitment, deciding whether to listen to a new podcast, so for our first episode we're giving you a little taster. An amuse bouche but for the ears, as it were. Alice, Nate and Jon(ty) introduce themselves anew to you, our lovely little sausages, and talk a bit about what the podcast will be. Or at least what they hope it'll be. Tell us what you hope it'll be at totalplaytimepod@gmail.com.Artwork by Marsh Davies. Music by God Ribbon.Links!Recommendations this week are Ed Zitron's long rant about why the internet sucks and whose fault it is, and Matt Levine's Bloomberg newsletter Money Stuff to make heavy duty finance stuff more understandable. Plus a trio of nature recs from Nate: the Netflix documentary Our Oceans for good whale footage, the YouTube channel Extinct Zoo, and the PBS Eons podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.