The Inner Gamer Podcast

Modern Warfare 4 tells one war from three perspectives: Captain Price going rogue, the North Korean side of the invasion, and a private fighting alongside South Korean forces. Halfway through the campaign, the intensity hasn’t let up. On PC, though, getting into multiplayer and DMZ can mean a motherboard firmware update first, and we get into what that means for players on older hardware.Next, we say goodbye to BioWare. We look back at the studio that made Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect and Dragon Age, why EA chose Star Wars over the next Mass Effect, and where BioWare’s biggest names have landed. Casey Hudson’s Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic gives us a reason for hope.Then we compare nine-figure bets like Gears of War: E-Day with veteran-led studios like Sandfall, Embark, Kojima Productions and Rebel Wolves, which are making standout games on leaner budgets. We wrap up with our final thoughts on Marvel’s Wolverine: what worked, what dragged, and whether its Apocalypse setup will ever get a payoff.Show Notes:1:03 - Housekeeping2:33 - Modern Warfare 4 First Look: Great Campaign, One Big PC Catch31:07 - BioWare Is Gone. What Happens to Mass Effect Now?1:02:20 - Is Bigger Better in Gaming? $400 Million Games vs. 30-Person Studios1:31:53 - Marvel’s Wolverine Sets Up Something Huge1:55:43 - Upcoming Video Game Releases  Become a part of the conversation! If you donate $1 or more on Patreon you can get exclusive access to the Patreon-only chat and channels on the server. Visit our website to find our social channels, check past podcasts and donate to the show.Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see all of our latest videos as they drop. Credits:"Blue Groove Deluxe" by BlueFoxMusic on audiojungle.netWoman Announcer - Ariana Guerra; Actress"Wisdom" by Super Nostalgia 64

Episode 458 is all about fresh starts. Star Wars: Galactic Racer takes the most tired part of racing games, the campaign, and rebuilds it as a roguelite with real stakes, a revenge story that actually lands, and a boost system that makes every straightaway a decision. From there, we jump into Gears of War: E-Day through the eyes of a PlayStation player who never grew up with the series, starting the franchise on PC with no nostalgia attached. We dig into the Emergence Day setting, the new movement and gear, and whether a prequel is the right front door for a 20-year-old franchise.Then it’s World of Warcraft: Forever, seen from a near-first-timer in the beta. We cover how well it onboards brand-new players, what’s actually changed, and the pricing debate around beta access and the Skyborne race. We also make the case that a beta that wipes your character might be the best practice run a new MMO player could ask for, ahead of the November 4 launch.Special guest Ashley closes out the episode with two very different recommendations. First up is KeyWe, a charming couch co-op game about two kiwi birds running a post office. It’s one of the easiest picks for couples who want to play together without it turning into a fight. Then it’s Dressmaker, the $15 sewing sim that’s become one of Steam’s most beloved games this fall. Ashley walks through every stage of making a dress, from choosing fabric and cutting patterns to sewing and decorating, plus the delightfully petty option to sabotage your customers.Show Notes:00:55 - Housekeeping02:08 - Star Wars Galactic Racer: A Truly Compelling Racing Campaign39:22 - A Sony Fan Tries Gears of War: E-Day59:14 - A Beginner’s First Look at WoW: Forever1:35:46 - KeyWe: The Couch Co-op Game Couples Should Play1:50:35 - Dressmaker Is the Coziest Obsession of the Year2:08:36 - Upcoming Video Game Releases Become a part of the conversation! If you donate $1 or more on Patreon you can get exclusive access to the Patreon-only chat and channels on the server. Visit our website to find our social channels, check past podcasts and donate to the show.Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see all of our latest videos as they drop. Credits:"Blue Groove Deluxe" by BlueFoxMusic on audiojungle.netWoman Announcer - Ariana Guerra; Actress"Wisdom" by Super Nostalgia 64

Control Resonant dropped the Service Weapon, swapped the Oldest House for a warped Manhattan, and became a character-action game. We dig into whether Remedy's shapeshifting melee combat and Dylan Faden's story make it one of the boldest sequels of the year, and who it's for now. Then we go back to WARDOGS one season in: why squads are building fortresses instead of fighting for the hot zone, how hard it is to join late, and what the October 15 wipe means for players who can't grind every night.In the second half, we cover Xbox's biggest reorganization yet. Halo moves to Activision, Obsidian goes to Bethesda for the next Fallout, Forza's studios merge, and Ninja Theory's future is in doubt. With Gears of War: E-Day out today, we ask what's left that makes Xbox Xbox.We close on Marathon. Bungie admitted it "didn't reach as many people as it had hoped" and is reshaping the game with PvE, deathmatch and better onboarding. Alongside WarDogs, it's part of a bigger shift toward developers being more open with players, and we ask whether that candor should earn a game more of your time.Show Notes:0:51 - Housekeeping2:05 - Control Resonant Is the Boldest Sequel of 202643:08 - WARDOGS After Season 1: Is It Built to Last?1:06:27 - Xbox Just Rebuilt Itself Around Activision: Can They Save Halo?1:30:06 - Can Marathon Evolve the Game and Win Players Back?1:43:26 - Upcoming Video Game Releases Become a part of the conversation! If you donate $1 or more on Patreon you can get exclusive access to the Patreon-only chat and channels on the server. Visit our website to find our social channels, check past podcasts and donate to the show.Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see all of our latest videos as they drop. Credits:"Blue Groove Deluxe" by BlueFoxMusic on audiojungle.netWoman Announcer - Ariana Guerra; Actress"Wisdom" by Super Nostalgia 64

This week we dig into The Blood of Dawnwalker, the debut RPG from Rebel Wolves, where Coen is human by day and vampire by night and the whole game is built around that split. Different powers, different routes, separate skill trees, and a time system where every quest you take closes the door on another. We get into how the clock actually works, why it makes choices land harder.Then it's our full review of Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy. Asobo traded the rats and stealth for swords, parries, and a smuggler exploring the Minotaur's Island, with a dual timeline that lets Sophia see through the eyes of Theseus. We talk about what the new direction gains and where the tension of the old games survives.We close with early impressions of Marvel's Wolverine, including a rage system that turns Logan's healing factor into a resource you spend and a post-launch debate over whether linear design is the same thing as hand-holding. Then we wrap up with Enshrouded ahead of its 1.0 launch: what makes the Shroud, the building, and the traversal click, what's coming October 15, and what the pre-launch price increase says about where Early Access is headed.Show Notes:0:51 - Housekeeping1:34 - The Blood of Dawnwalker: Human By Day, Monster By Night38:58 - Resonance Traded Rats for Swords — Did It Work?1:05:57 - Insomniac Made Wolverine Feel Dangerous — Is It Enough?1:41:37 - Building, Gliding, Dying Towards 1.0: Why Enshrouded Clicks2:03:00 - Upcoming Video Game Releases Become a part of the conversation! If you donate $1 or more on Patreon you can get exclusive access to the Patreon-only chat and channels on the server. Visit our website to find our social channels, check past podcasts and donate to the show.Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see all of our latest videos as they drop. Credits:"Blue Groove Deluxe" by BlueFoxMusic on audiojungle.netWoman Announcer - Ariana Guerra; Actress"Wisdom" by Super Nostalgia 64

Star Wars Zero Company reviewed well, hit number one on Steam, and shipped with roughly 80% of its studio furloughed and unpaid. We came out of it in different places — one of us thinks the story is fine and the mechanics are genuinely great, one of us couldn't get past the characters and the story premise — and the argument leads somewhere neither of us expected. The gap between a seven and a nine here is mostly patch work, which raises an uncomfortable question: who's left to do it?Then we go smaller. Grain Rot is ten dollars, it's a full 1.0 release in a genre that treats Early Access as a permanent address, and it's close enough to REPO that the gap is worth arguing about instead of dismissing. We break down the Living Spark system, the persistent Outpost progression that actually separates it from Lethal Company, and whether shipping finished was the honest choice or the strategically worse one. WarDogs hits Early Access the day after this episode, and after four hours of getting absolutely dismantled by it, something clicked. The interesting part isn't the guns — it's that total strangers were reviving each other and communicating, which is the thing Battlefield has promised for a decade and never delivered. The reason is mechanical, and it's a lesson the biggest shooters in the world still haven't learned.And we close on the crater. Every publisher on earth spent the last year rearranging their schedule around a single Thursday in November — Take-Two moved NBA 2K27 to avoid its own game — leaving September and October as a six-week pileup where good games are going to disappear. We talk about what that costs players with limited hours, why the Netflix trailer premiere matters more than anything in the trailer itself, and how to plan a fall when the calendar has been bent around a game that isn't out yet.Show Notes:0:57 - Housekeeping2:22 - Everyone Likes Star Wars Zero Company. Should You?50:57 - Can Grain Rot Beat Lethal Company And REPO?1:10:35 - Can WarDogs Do What Battlefield Can't?1:42:20 - What Is GTA 6 Doing To The Rest Of Gaming?2:25:50 - Upcoming Video Game Releases Become a part of the conversation! If you donate $1 or more on Patreon you can get exclusive access to the Patreon-only chat and channels on the server. Visit our website to find our social channels, check past podcasts and donate to the show.Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see all of our latest videos as they drop. Credits:"Blue Groove Deluxe" by BlueFoxMusic on audiojungle.netWoman Announcer - Ariana Guerra; Actress"Wisdom" by Super Nostalgia 64