Gaming The System - The Feminist Gaming Podcast

Xmas special : Playing in the Dark: Light, Shadow, and Seasonal Gaming (Episode 257)

• Gaming The System - The Feminist Gaming Podcast

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As the year moves toward the winter solstice, this episode of Gaming the System explores how light and darkness function as both technical tools and emotional languages in games. Jem, Alex and Matt reflect on how lighting shapes atmosphere, tension and meaning, and how the darker months influence how we play.

Games including Alan Wake 2, Little Nightmares 3, Abzu, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, GRIS, Concrete Genie, and, of course, Tomb Raider are discussed as examples of games where light and darkness are central to storytelling.

The episode also unpacks metaphor and subversion: darkness as rest rather than evil, light as exposure rather than safety, and how stealth, shadows and day/night cycles impact game play. From survival games where night radically alters play, to titles that use colour, seasons and weather to evoke emotional responses, the conversation highlights how games mirror our need for contrast, pause and recalibration.

A reflective, quietly festive episode that sits in the space between endings and beginnings.

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squadcaster-7bh1_1_11-29-2025_165323:

The lighting in games now is so awesome we're in a real golden age of lighting and I noticed recently playing hitman with Ray tracing on, stopped for a second and went, lighting looks amazing

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

you turn the flashlight on and you're exposed to a whole different set of horrors. Sometimes it is not better to see what's on the mantle piece or in the fireplace. Sometimes shining a light isn't always the right thing to be doing.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

I associate those games. With that time of year, because that's when I played them, with fresh eyes. They become associated with the season, they mean to or not, through my experience of, of experiencing for the first time.

Speaker:

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Gaming the System, the podcast where three intersectional feminists examine gaming and games through a feminist lens. I'm your host for today. I'm Gem, and I'm here with my friends Alex and Matt. So before we get started, if you want to support us, you can subscribe to our patron at patron.com/gaming the system for some exclusive content. Or you can send us a one-off donation via PayPal to our email address. We are gaming the system@gmail.com.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

as we move toward the longest night, the darkest day, the, winter solstice, and the. Associated festive craziness it would be an interesting time for us to talk about the use of light and dark, in games to set the atmosphere, emotions and stories, but also how the. Darker days and colder days impact the choices we make about the games that we play. Do we find ourselves craving games that are lighter and more airy and cozy, or do we lean towards darker and more meaningful, games in the winter months what does light and dark mean about endings and beginnings as we get into the new year and the little sparks of brightness that keep us playing. So, I thought we could. Have a little chat about these games and the games that we're choosing to guide us through the, longest nights of the year. Let's see where this takes us in our sort of semi festive, we can't go too festive because Matt would, leave. So this is as festive as it gets do you find that at this time of the year, that your gaming habits change or adjust however slight to the seasons in any way?

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

For me, I think it's more to do with the fact that traditionally, winter has been a time for games I've most been looking forward to, or new games for me because my birthday's in late November and of course Christmas a time when I would also be getting, games or a new console or something like that, something gaming related as a present. it is always felt like a time of year when there's something to really get my teeth stuck into and kind of get really settled down into and, and just spend time with. I think in terms of the types of games I play, I don't notice a change necessarily in genres with so many games coming out all the time, I just tend to go with what I think is interesting at the time or I've got some money for, or I have time for. Obviously it depends on how, what kind of game I'm in, whether I want to finish the one I'm on at the moment, if the new one trumps that, and I'll just abandon the other game for a new one. But I know that this, winter time in particularly November into December is typically a time where I'll have probably a new game to play or more than one game which will be a new experience for me. So it's always around this time of year, definitely.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

It's a quieter time of the year for me, workwise. I definitely find that I game more in the winter because I'm indoors more and don't feel like I'm missing out as much as in the summer when I sort of wanna be outside and, enjoying the weather. I would agree with you. I don't think that the genre that I choose changes very much. I think there's so many games out there that there's a big list. I'm working my way through. Matt I have a vague memory that Christmas time was a time when. Big games, you were often released for the Christmas gifts but I feel like that's something that we're not seeing as much these days. You tend to follow the AAA games a bit more closely than me. Would you agree with that

squadcaster-7bh1_1_11-29-2025_165323:

this is actually a really good way into something that I out about recently. There's a, study that shows that gamers are very, very, very rarely buying brand new games anymore. And then I thought, oh, surely that can't be. And then I looked back on my gaming from this year and. I've played 2, 4, 6, 8, 9 brand new games. But the only one that I actually, I bought full price when it came out assess creed, shadows, and I barely played any of that, any of that'cause it was a bit disappointing. And then all the other ones I've either bought on Amazon. them and then returned them. So I haven't really bought them or I played them on Xbox Game Pass. The time of massive releases, like timing themselves to come out in holiday periods is long since dead, especially since the focus on microtransactions the biggest priority for companies now is coming out with seasonal content for their games. There just aren't any big, massive releases anymore. It's a shame.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

Do you find yourself gravitating towards a particular genre in the winter

squadcaster-7bh1_1_11-29-2025_165323:

I don't think so. My general instinct with gaming is for longer form.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Hmm.

squadcaster-7bh1_1_11-29-2025_165323:

long games and I'm trying to practice playing shorter games as well. And over that week period of just before Christmas, the week before Christmas and the week into the new year, the, the period where everything is up in the air.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Yeah.

squadcaster-7bh1_1_11-29-2025_165323:

And having a line for that to have you say you've got a, you've got a long game on the go. you know, could carry you through that entire period. And you know that you're gonna get a bit of money so you can buy, like I've bought a ton of games, but they're all older games and on, on sale. So, and then Christmas will be a massive sale anyway, so you can go directly onto Steam and buy a load of small ones. And there's definitely that, that gamer trope of like you, unwrap your new game and then you go and play in your room all day and don't speak to anyone. And that's what I encourage. That's what I encourage gamers to do over Christmas because there is so much social pressure, especially around families, that can be very, negative and unpleasant and unhealthy. And it being okay to go right? You can. You can go off and you can be On. your own and play a game for a few hours.'Cause you need to, even with family, especially with family, you need to on your own sometimes, especially. In heightened familial environments and situations like Christmas, you need that. That thing that just takes you completely out of the loop that is all yours, and then you can do that and relax. Even if you get on the best possible way with your family, you need rest.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

It's one of the things that I bang on a lot about at the moment is this idea of, regulating. Your moods by. Taking time out and taking breaks as you need to, rather than pushing through until you melt down. It is really important to take those breaks. We've talked in the past about how good gaming is. For giving you that time away from family. We've also talked about how much fun you can have gaming with family. Do check out our previous Christmas episodes because they're still as relevant today as they were when we recorded them. And there's some really interesting tips and advice in there for surviving Christmas, one way or another. So what I'm getting from you both is that the seasonal thing doesn't impact so much on your gaming, choices.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

it definitely feels like a cozier activity in the winter.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

Hmm.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

If you are a console gamer, you can get a nice blanket a cup of tea or a hot chocolate get your controller sit snuggled up and just spend some time. Whereas when it's the summer, you wanna spend more time outside, so I definitely think it feels cozier, but the actual games that and I and perhaps yourself play don't, don't change quite so much in terms of what we are playing and how long we are playing for necessarily. Although, in the winter there is a tendency to, use the darker evenings to snuggle up and, spend time. Gaming instead. There's definitely a difference between both seasons, but it's not necessarily reflected in the games that we play so much.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

The other thing that I wanted to talk about was the use of light

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Mm-hmm.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

And dark in games, how cleverly that can be used to, convey emotion and stories intensity and all of those things. I wanted to leave this quite open for us today because it's a very broad topic in a lot of ways, but it is so important how light and dark affect us so intensely as human beings. It's interesting to look at how it's used in games I'm currently playing. Clair obscure, expedition 33 and Claire Obscure actually means the way that colors can be used to create light and dark within, painting within

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Hmm.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

And there's definitely. A lot of that within the game in this idea of sort of the hidden and out in the open the good and the bad. And, you know, there's lots of juxtapositions happening within it. I'm only. Halfway through the story. Matt's finished the game and is desperate for me to hurry up and finish it. I'm working on it, but it was partly that, that made me think, yeah. This is a really interesting topic. So do you have any favorite examples of where. Light, darkness been used cleverly in a game. Is there anything that springs to mind for you?

squadcaster-7bh1_1_11-29-2025_165323:

Alan Wake two

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Hmm.

squadcaster-7bh1_1_11-29-2025_165323:

Basically the enemies that you fight are shadows and other worldly monsters. It's so cool in that like the first enemy that you fight, it's in a morgue. the body gets up and attacks you, all the lights go out apart from one, and you stay in that light. The shadows can't see you. If you shine your torch on them, it attacks them. You've got this thing called the clicker, which light from really like bright sources. And then once you've it, the environment changes around it. So if there's like a collapsed passageway, and you, you have to get a light from somewhere else and bring it over to this place, and then it opens the way. The lighting in games now is so awesome that we're in a, we're in a real golden age of lighting and I noticed recently playing hitman with Ray tracing on, stopped for a second and went, lighting looks amazing Alan Wake's probably the most creative

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Hmm.

squadcaster-7bh1_1_11-29-2025_165323:

of light.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

Love.

squadcaster-7bh1_1_11-29-2025_165323:

I love neon lighting as well, the lighting in stray,

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Mm-hmm.

squadcaster-7bh1_1_11-29-2025_165323:

When the developers are aware of the amount of creativity you can bring into play just with lighting and it's

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

Hmm.

squadcaster-7bh1_1_11-29-2025_165323:

It's another richness of game design that isn't always it, it is done incredibly well in Claire obscure. And it is that clear, obscure is literally clear and you can see the clear or obscure.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

Hmm.

squadcaster-7bh1_1_11-29-2025_165323:

They're not binary things. They're the space between them.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Yeah, it's an interesting one to think about. I've definitely played games which have a certain atmosphere to them, particularly remember playing. I think it was either rise of the Tomb Raider or shadow of the Tomb Raider like the second of the two. Second and third of the most recent Tomb Raider trilogy. and the atmosphere in those is pretty dark and sort of grim and, grungy in the menu it's raining outside, the window you see on the screen is quite dark and there's a computer screen shining out into the office. It just gave me very dark, sort of sad vibes. It also happened to be playing on a bright summer's day it felt kind of weird. I was like, oh, I dunno if I should be playing this right now.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

Hmm.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Once I got into the game I was in a different environment, but even just the menu, the way it was lit and kind of dark, damp atmosphere that it was giving off, I was like, oh, I dunno if this really is matching the mood of the environment around me at the moment, outside around me. It's definitely interesting how you can kind of, you could choose to match the environment that's outside your window environment on your screen. And see how, what impact that has. But it definitely can be jarring. I think if it is the complete opposite, from what you've got on your screen, it feels a bit strange sometimes. So I definitely think it has an impact. When we think about the differences between seasons, a game that kind of covers all of them pretty well. Is more of a like environmental feeling rather than a lighting type thing. But Astro Bot has different themes of levels and there's like beach levels, which are really summery and fun and like all the beachy music and summery feelings. And then you've got like winter snow levels, which are really Christmasy wintery and like loads of snow everywhere. and then jungle as well, and then like cave type environments. So there's one, there's a, there's an environment to suit every sort of feeling I think So I guess it's definitely going for, you can play this game all year round and feel the vibes of the season if you really want to. Like, they're spooky bits as well for Halloween. They're definitely tapping into, holidays that are celebrated widely across the world. I think that's really interesting to think about as well.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

Yeah.

squadcaster-7bh1_1_11-29-2025_165323:

I love holograms.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Mm. Yeah,

squadcaster-7bh1_1_11-29-2025_165323:

The

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

they're very cool.

squadcaster-7bh1_1_11-29-2025_165323:

cool and they can be used, so, so just impactfully.'cause they don't have to be real. so like the Holograms in Horizon. In the Horizon games. Awesome. holograms Batman, AUM Knight, quite apart from the, the lighting in that game be incredible as well. You have, rather than just an in ear phone call, you have like a, a video call like hologram as well. It's so cool. it's cyberpunk 2077. And one thing, I remember thinking was really cool. In Call of Duty, advanced warfare, you had, the ammo and your resources in a hologram on your gun rather than just being in a widget on the corner. It's just so cool and elegant and so seemingly. Simple it's not just a texture. It's a light thing. And I still love that. Every time I see it, I have a real soft spot for holograms.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

it is not a technology that they've really cracked in the real world yet, but they do have so much, um. For people. I think for me, I, was reminded of a game that my daughter played called Concrete Genie where, the aim is to whiz around a decrepit.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Mm.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

Town and recolor it and that's got neon lights and it's all very bright, there's a lot about bringing back light into the world and it links to the little boy feelings about. His world and his life and confidence

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Hmm.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

self-expression. And it's a very nice story it won lots of awards. He creates these little, monsters that he draws with his neon paints on the walls, you can make them look how you want. And they have different skills as a result of their shapes and attributes so there is this thing about bringing color back to the world I'm playing, I dunno if it's pronounced Greece, Greece or Greece, GRIS. It's about a girl. Who's experiencing grief, and it's effectively a platform about bringing color back into the world. So there's definitely this light and dark and color

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Hmm.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

We recognize the need for darkness. I mean, that's what, cla obscure is about, recognizing the need for darkness to. Contrast the light, but we also generally see darkness as something to be pushed aside. I think at this time of the year, that's really interesting because we. Have lights everywhere. We have all the Christmas lights in our streets, and we're putting up fairy lights everywhere. And there's this big focus on bringing in the light into the homes and I think all these games do that and pick up on that theme. have you got any examples of games that use. Light or darkness as a metaphor for things like hope safety and revelation, I mean, Matt and I have just recently been playing little nightmares too, and we got given, flashlights, you can walk through and see the world in one way and then you turn the flashlight on and you're exposed to a whole different set of horrors. Sometimes it is not better to see what's on the mantle piece or in the fireplace. Sometimes shining a light isn't always the right thing to be doing.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Two for me that stand out are quite similar. They're made by the same sort of developers and stuff. So there's Absu and

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

Hmm.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

of the C, which is the most recent one by Giants squid, and the kind of, goal of those games is to get to different environmental areas and unlock the sea creatures, there's still sea creatures in the sea, but it's like a mixture of the environments of journey and ab sea. So there's loads of sand around in the sea, but there's also patches of water and trails of fish that you can follow and various sea creatures. it's about bringing life back to empty or harsh or dead environment. so I think that's definitely some metaphors that play there. And getting back, it's very much a nature, environmental messaging going on it's about The nature around us and making sure that it can flourish I definitely think that's the general vibe of those sorts of games.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

I've played Absu a little bit, but I'm just wondering, because obviously you're in the ocean.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Hmm.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

How is it lit? Are you there with your torch or,

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

I mean it depends on different, you do have little head

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

Hmm.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Different environments you've got definite. Color. It's very, very color heavy. So you start off in bright blue and then you get through to pinky, like coral, like the coral you see in Australia, the reefs and stuff.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

Mm.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

And then you get into a slightly more rusty environment with the manatees, which is my favorite bit'cause I love manatees. Everything's rusted and coppery brown. The water changes to a greeny color, and then there's lots more green, eventually you get through to darker blues and greens, and then very dark blue where the fish. Have neon lights and you can barely see anything. It's like a big, thick fog toward the end of the game.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

Oh wow.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

dark ocean.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

Hmm.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

documentaries where you go down far enough, you can't see anything.'cause the light from the sun doesn't make it down that far. It's a bit like that on the ocean. So yeah, that's a really interesting one. I hadn't thought about it, but yeah, it's definitely one that plays with light in a similar way.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

So do you feel vulnerable in that situation when it's dark and you are in the,

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

definitely

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

I would,'cause I'm a bit scared about dark water, but I don't.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

There were lots of factors that led to the scary feelings. There were these weird triangle shaped mines that would start bleeping the closer you got to them, and then they would kind of explain. So you had to avoid them and kind of

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

Oh yeah.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

So those added a bit of tension. The music had changed tone. Music also had a lot to do with the, vibe of the environment as well, again, composed by the wonderful Austin wintry. So top marks from me there. But yeah. And then there was this shark that you were following all the way through. He turns out to be quite misunderstood. You initially think he's evil but it turns out he is just, misunderstood and have to help him out a little bit. And then he gets a bit sad, when he dies in it. And you have to, you have, you're like, oh, actually he wasn't so bad and now I feel sad. That's quite an interesting arc trying to tell you not to judge the darker creatures of the ocean, as harshly as you might the tension definitely ratchets up in the darker, more, dense environments. Definitely.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

Mm.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Hmm.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

That's interesting. I'm just wondering, Matt, whether you can think of any examples where the, dark equals bad, dark equals evil trope is actually flipped in any games.

squadcaster-7bh1_1_11-29-2025_165323:

We were talking in our last death episode about problem with the therapy generation of game developers poorly representing them. A villain is just someone who's been hurt and that only hurt people, hurt people, in movies, every character who's meant to be an anti-hero is just a hero now, very boring and it's very un uncompelling. When you go, oh, the bad guys a good person who's just been hurt and we just need to solve the source of his trauma and then everything will be okay. No, give me a bad guy, someone who scares me. If you want to show me something in their past that you can identify with, that's good. That's fine. making them so they're not bad by the end is just dull masquerading as depth and intensity. that does it really well is God of war 2018 with Boulder, Boulder as this terrifying force of nature all throughout, and then they end up in hell.'cause of Atreus being a dickhead and you find Boulder and you are sneaking past him Boulder is watching a, a shadow memory of him and his mother just after his mother had cast the spell on him. That means that he can't feel anything it's just a scene, really awful, and you understand everything that he does and what he's going through. That doesn't make him a good guy. It doesn't absolve him of what he's done. The damage forged him into this. But he's still the villain. He still has the same drives that he has. It's okay to be twisted into something by negative experiences. But in order for it to be scary, they own this experience of where they are now rather than being a slave to it. When it's done well, you can have that'cause everyone has a light and a dark side. When you do it, ham fistedly, then it ceases to be as powerful.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

What about games like, in hitman? Do you rely on darkness to hide you? I've played games in the past where, you want to stay in the shadows and sneak about, and you are looking for those places where there isn't light. In little nightmares there's a couple of, moments where when the light shines on you, you die. So it's about sticking to the shadows and not getting caught in the light.

squadcaster-7bh1_1_11-29-2025_165323:

I love a good stealth game

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

Mm-hmm.

squadcaster-7bh1_1_11-29-2025_165323:

an enemy area and then you, take them out one by one without anyone noticing anything. And then you move on. I love that kind of gameplay.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

One of my favorite games that I ever played was Thief it was excellent. The whole point of the game was that you couldn't run into any situation guns blazing. You had to sneak about and it required real thinking and planning and all those decisions and just, yeah, really, really fun game to play. The the first one, certainly. Alex, you were talking earlier about contradictory feelings when you were playing a game that was rainy and dark and it's the middle of the summer. And that kind of should I be playing this game now? I want to talk a bit about games in seasons and seasonal games. But before I move on to that, I just wanted to talk a little bit about games that have daily cycles. So I've mentioned that, Daniel and I were recently playing Valheim, which is a survival game, and at night you get a massive increase in wandering monsters certain monsters only come out at night and it's a lot harder to see it's also colder at night, so it it reduces your stamina regen and your health regen there's quite a lot of things that happen at night to make it harder to play so, it would be a time when you would go back to base, light a fire and hide out somewhere. And it also became a time when we would do all our practical stuff like planting. Seeds or repairing our weapons or making food and all of the sort of practical things that you need to do in the game for, day-to-day adventuring. Have you guys played any games that have a heavy reliance on the day, night cycle

squadcaster-7bh1_1_11-29-2025_165323:

dying light when you are running through the streets in the day, you're fine. But then at night if one of them sees you, then that's it. There's something to be said about games set in, post apocalyptic

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

Now.

squadcaster-7bh1_1_11-29-2025_165323:

People don't realize how dark things get when

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Mm.

squadcaster-7bh1_1_11-29-2025_165323:

a city. And when there are literally no artificial lights

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Mm-hmm.

squadcaster-7bh1_1_11-29-2025_165323:

Games can really up tension by doing that as well.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Yeah, I've not played a game, where things change at night to the extent that you've both described. I've played a lot of games where there's a day, night cycle. The sky looked really pretty with all the stars and some northern lights effects and stuff. And sometimes the MPCs have, their own sort of day night cycles where in the day they'd be working at their shop and then at night they'd go and sleep in their home. You could follow one of them day and night and watch some guy do their daily

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

Oh yeah.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

It's immersive, but not impacting the gameplay and the strategy quite as much as you talk about. And I think definitely be interested in trying out a game like that just to see how you would manage your time and resources and, protect your character.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

One of the games that I found the most atmospheric was Neverwinter nights. And because it was all sort of wintery I don't like to watch like movies that are set in winter or have Christmas themes in the summer. It feels completely alien and weird to me. So I don't like to do that. Have you played any games that stand out to you for the sort of seasonal, experience?

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

The games I would get as presents at Christmas over time, if they're particularly good games and they stick with me, I associate those games. With that time of year, because that's when I played them, with fresh eyes. They become associated with the season, they mean to or not, through my experience of, of experiencing for the first time. And the environment around me during that time.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

Yeah.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

It's definitely the impact of the season around me more than the season of the game,

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

I think we're coming to the end of our time, so I just wanted to ask you one last question, as we're coming up to a new year, if you had to choose a game that, captures the feeling of renewal and a fresh start and all of the things that come with that, which game would you recommend

squadcaster-7bh1_1_11-29-2025_165323:

Spider-Man two.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

One I just thought of is a little indie game, called Tom. I dunno if you've seen it. I think it came out on PlayStation plus a little while ago. It's all in black and white and you play some kind of creature, the goal of the game is to go around, take photographs of everything and make a record of it. You're moving away from home for the first time going out into the big city and exploring around. So I guess in that sense, it's like a clean slate and all the photos you take are mapping your journey on that. Experience of of leaving home. So I guess that gives off those sorts of, vibes of starting something new and starting freshly like. Kind of similar to going off to university and fresh as week, except with a lot less drinking and, a lot more photos and whimsy. but yeah, it's a fun little indie game. Definitely.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

I do love, the seasonal stuff that you have in games like Animal Crossing and, Stardew Valley, and I'm playing, coral island as well, and that that's basically a Stardew valley ripoff. They have, seasons in that as well. And they've got some amazing Christmas decorations in the Coral Island one. And it does make me feel all festive, no matter what the time of year is. So, yeah, I think it's quite nice when games have that sort of seasonal.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Yeah.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

of the seasons and that I think is fun.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

In GTA, I remember when I was dabbling in GTA online, it was Christmas. During the Christmas week. It was snowing in the,

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

Oh yeah.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Which was Interesting.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

Yeah.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

think about the seasons,

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

world of Warcraft used to always do, seasonal events, and Christmas was always the best. They had different sets of outfits and, games you could play, all in theme it was a fun way to enjoy seasonal events with online friends

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

yeah.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

I think that was always really fun. And as I said, they did all the things. So they'd have Easter stuff and, festival of Light and, lots of different world. Celebrations, which was always a lot of fun. Thank you guys so much. I really appreciate having a little chat about

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Yeah.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

light in and dark as we approach the longest night, shortest day. Take a little bit of time to find the light and find the positive wherever you are. I know we've got more interesting things to talk about, so Yeah.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

We have lots in the pipeline. Yes, so very exciting.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

Do check us out and we release every Thursday, possibly not next Thursday because it's Christmas day, so anyway, we'll see you in, 2026.

alex--she-her-_1_11-29-2025_165324:

Hmm.

jem--she-her-_3_11-29-2025_165325:

Exciting.