261 - Christmas Game-cation and 2026 Predictions

In our first session recording of the year, we dive into an exciting discussion about our gaming activities over the Christmas holidays and look ahead to the games we're anticipating in the coming year. Join us as Jim shares his experiences with Expedition 33, ENS Shrouded, and Cozy Grove, while Matt recounts his time with The Outer Worlds 2 and the Dishonored series. Alex brings us her joy of playing Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments, the charming Plucky Squire, and the board game Tokaido. We also explore our gaming adventures with family, including Until Dawn and Fortnite, and reveal our most anticipated games for 2026, such as Tomb Raider Legacy of Atlantis and the highly-awaited Kojima horror game. Tune in for an engaging chat about our favorite games and the upcoming titles that have caught our interest!

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Transcript

Speaker 0:46

Hello today, this is our first session recording back in January, and we're gonna take this opportunity to talk about some of the good things that we've got going on that we've had going on over Christmas and that are going to be going well going forward, which is our gaming lives. The Christmas periods can often be a wonderful time to get stuck into gaming, um, whether it's gaming solo or gaming with family and. We just wanna have a chat about what we've been doing, and then we'll move on to what games we're looking forward to in the coming year. So I think we'll do a, we can do a we'll split, we'll, we'll, we'll fly by the seat of our pans. See how we go. Jim, what have you been gaming over Christmas?

Speaker 2 1:39

Oh, so I have been, I played some Expedition 33, um, and I was determined to reach the end of the end of it. Well over Christmas, however, I got really, I got, there was a bug in one of the areas that went into, and it just really annoyed me because I would be. In the middle of a fight and halfway through the fight it, everything just stopped. It didn't freeze. It wasn't a crash, it just, the fight stopped. So the animation was still going, but I couldn't do any actions. And this happened a couple of times and I managed to work out things that were triggering it. So I say, oh, if I kill all of these things before we get to that point. Then I can get through the fight. And then in another situation, I managed to like, run around the fight to get where I needed to go and just kind of dodge the, the whole fight completely. Um, and then I got to a section where, where I think I needed to go, and I did the fight three times and had the same bug happen three times, and it was in the frozen heart. Um. Area zone. And, and I looked online and yeah, there was basically people saying, this is a bug, we know about this. And, um, nothing's been done about it. So, um. It, it just really put me off because I was kind of in the zone and then suddenly I just had this kind of hit in this brick wall, a hit in this brick wall. And so I messaged you, Matt, and said, had you experienced this when you've been playing? And you said, no, you hadn't. I dunno, I, I suspect you just didn't go to this particular zone. Um, or maybe you just got lucky. Um,

Speaker 3:37

or maybe it was'cause it was six months ago, or it feels like it was eight, eight months ago since you first told me that you were playing it. And I went, oh, I'll see. I'll see if I can catch up. And then, and then I found out very luckily that you hadn't got to the midway point bit, so I didn't go, oh my God. Do you remember this bit when this person died?

Speaker 2 4:01

Yeah. So. I'm a bit annoyed about it because it just kind of put me off. But, but I, I will go back to it because it is an awesome game and now that I know that it's probably just that area, I'll just, I'll just avoid that area and, and move on to something else. So that's good. So the other game that I've been playing is ENS Shrouded, which I've dropped into with Daniel. Um, and we are playing it together and it's a survival game. And this is really exciting because Daniel and I never played these co-op survival games before and we started with Heim. We really enjoyed Heim until we got to a bit where it just got insanely difficult and then we were like, no. Um, and it shrouded is so much fun. It is also in beta, um, as is heim. Uh, like just seems like all these games just go into never ending beta and, um. But we are really enjoying it and it, it's very pretty. It is so pretty and it's just nice to run around in it. And it's basically, the world is this sort of very empty world with just monsters and people like bad people, like monster people that come at you with weapons. Um, and you kind of wake up in a sort of. Almost like boulder's gate style way. You wake up in a, in a. Weird sarcophagus thing and hop out into the world and you, you have nothing. So you are making everything and building everything from scratch. And there are these areas where they are enshrouded with this weird, misty, um, spooky stuff. And you'd love it, Matt, because it's all about like mushrooms. Yeah. There's a lot of like. Seum. Mycelium. Mycelium. Anyway, that growing there and there's these kind of very, um, uh, last of us style zombie type creatures. So, but it's fun. It's pretty. And last night we were playing and we just basically we're running around and my daughter was actually just watching at the time, and we were. Sort of actually running away from, um, a village while we were getting trad. And, um, suddenly came across this massive hole in the ground and we were like, whoa, what's that? And even my daughter was like, what is that? Are you gonna go in it? And I was like, oh yeah, we have to go in there. We had to go to bed, so we're gonna go in there later tonight. But it was just, it's just fun when you find things like that. And then I've got one more one that I'm playing just because I am playing it obsessively at the moment. And that is Cozy Grove, which I've got on the switch, and it's just like dailies. So I replaced my merge games. Oh yes. With this. Yeah. And it's just so nice. And I just run around and I talk to funny little ghost bears and I do silly quests where I'm picking up, you know, shells and fish and things. And it's just very, it's, it, it is very harmless, very sweet. But it's, it's quite witty and it has a lot of sort of capitalist, anti-capitalist messages going on. So there's like a, um, a wolf type bear. A bear wolf who, who is, um. A banker, an ex-banker, and he's created this wolf queen and he's a dodgy gee. And then I've just come across a, um, another guy who's like a conspiracy theorist, and he lives in this like guarded area where he's like, got all this, um, uh, all this barbed wire and one of the, um. Things you can do in the game is you can say to the best, would you like a hug? And they almost always say, yes, please. And they, and then you have a nice little hug. It's very sweet. Um, and I said that to, to the conspiracy theorist who's like. No. And so, so it's quite witty for, for a cozy, cute game. So that's what I've been doing basically those three games over Christmas and I didn't complete anything, so I'm sorry Matt, but I will get there eventually.

Speaker 8:19

Yeah, that's, that, that's, it's good'cause you've got three different kinds of games on the go, which I'm, I've, I think is a really, it's something that's worth, especially for me. Prioritizing because my, my habit is, uh, to find a really, really long game and then just do that until for like, a stupid amount of hours, and then I'll panic when I'm near the end of that and find another one. But having now I've, I've, I've spent a lot of time gaming with mom and Meghan. Over Christmas. Mm. So I've got gaming with other people on the go. I've got my, my massive long pair of games that I've had over Christmas has been the Outer Worlds two, which is a masterpiece, absolute masterpiece. I played it, I think it was two or three times for. Probably 120 hours over overall, and I, the writing in it is just flawless satire, absolute flawless. I took at least 500 screenshots of the writing. Throughout it. And then it took me, it's taken me another month to catalog all of those, all of those things.'cause the, the writing is so good and it just, it completely ticks my anti-capitalist box in. Just, all of it. Every single step of the way is just, that's a, that's just, you know, when something puts something. Into words in the perfect way. The perfect thing in the perfect way, and it just does that over and over and over again. So I can't recommend that enough. Um, and then after that, I've been playing the Dishonored games. Um, if any of you played the dishonored games.

Speaker 3 10:27

No, I have not, but I, I know them relatively well having listened to the soundtrack at least. Mm-hmm. And I've seen lots of clips and watched documentaries on them, so. Yeah.

Speaker 10:38

Yeah, it made me think of, um, you Gem,'cause you said you liked Playing Thief.

Speaker 2 10:43

Oh yeah.

Speaker 10:44

And it seems like that,

Speaker 3 10:46

yeah, they're quite similar in that way.

Speaker 10:47

Yeah. It seems like it's, it's, it's one of the original. Like stealthy, sneaking through place things. And it's actually a billion times better than I thought it was going to be. I thought it was gonna be a bit just unsophisticated.'cause it's a bit of an older one when it is actually, it's a, it's less sophisticated'cause it's the prototype for so much of stealth gameplay like nowadays. And so I, I played through. It's, it's really interesting'cause you can play through and, and not kill anyone or you can play and get, uh, you can play through and kill everyone and you get a completely different like story based on which of them. So that's just a perfect, like, reason to play things through twice. And so played the first one twice, played the Dlcss for it twice, and that was really good. And then it was one of those games that. S was split. The, the, yeah. The development was split between two console generations.'cause the first one was in PS three and PS three, um, was very hit or miss when it came to, um, graphical quality because the, the, the, uh, the console was quite, uh, non. User friendly to be developing things for so you can make a good game. It just didn't look as good as it could. But then, so this is, that was like with the Batman AUM games as well. They're incredible games, but they looked, they didn't look amazing. But then you swap two for PS three to PS four, and then all these studios went, oh, now we can finally make the game look the way that we wanted to. And so the, the Dishonor two looks. Like as, as, as high an upgrade. I don't think it's as, it's possible to be as high an upgrade as the Batman Arkham games going from the, the first two to ham night. But it's, it's just, again, those that felt like a period of time where that, uh, studio would make a great game and then you'd be excited for the next one they were gonna do.'cause you knew it was gonna be. Even better to that. Mm-hmm. And it is, it is both nice, nice and sad. Going back to, to seeing that'cause that these were the first two games of Arcane Studios and now Arcane Studios did a rock steady thing and they have just, just annihilated themselves because of they did Red Fall, which was a, a vampire game that was just. Just completely went the way a suicide squad and these two awesome companies, you go, oh, I wonder what they'd be doing. Wonder what they'll be doing in 15 years. Oh yeah. They'll, they'll be completely dead and gone and screwed. Um, I've got more games to go through, but, uh, Alex, what, uh, have you been playing?

Speaker 3 13:59

So, a mixture, really. Um, so. I was a bit poorly before Christmas. Um, one of the games I played to help me. Feel a bit better and just have a bit of a relaxing time. Was, um, on the Nintendo Switch, which, um, I dunno if I mentioned, we got a switch, it was little earlier last year, um, from a, a lovely friend who was happening to buy it themselves. A Nintendo Switch too. Oh yes. Actually we, uh, you benefited from the upgrade. I love that. We did indeed. So I was having a look on the. Store and spotted a bargain. It was the Sherlock Holmes Crimes and punishments for like three pounds or something ridiculous like that. I was like, I really enjoy Sherlock Holmes. Let's go for it. Um, and you get various different cases. You get to kind of play a Sherlock and sometimes, um, other characters, but mainly Sherlock. Um, and it's your classic find the clues. Examine all the people, do like studies of them and stuff, and ask them questions, interrogate them. Yeah, and then you end up picking a suspect and deciding the outcome of the case and solving the case and you can go wrong. So you can choose an answer and it will end up being incorrect, or you could, um, accuse the wrong person of the crime if you don't find all the clues. Very much the same vein as Elaine Noir, but with a little violence, um, in it, and it's been very enjoyable. Um, very much enjoying it, but it's definitely, um, it's definitely shown its age in that the controls could be a little less, uh, clunky. Uh, they're a little bit difficult to navigate and things, and some of the puzzles are just like. Yeah, really confounding. Luckily you can skip, you can choose to skip pretty much anything if you, if you don't fancy it. Um, which is good. But my favorite part, which I think they've melded in with, um, the TV series with Benedict Kava. I dunno if you've ever watched that, but when he would scan people and little words would pop up next to them, you get to do that in the game. You kind of. Follow a track from one side of the person down to the other. You can do it multiple times, and you have to kind of pause over a certain bit of their face and it will say, oh, they've got wrinkles. And then you could deduce something from that or whatever. And then there's like a mind map, mind palace section where you get to do your deductions, which is really fun as well. But it's all set in, in, in the right period of time. IE uh, the time that Sherlock was alive in Victorian. London as a fictional character, obviously, and Dr. Watson there as well. Um, you also get the Toby, the Bloodhound, uh, who gets to do a little bit of investigating as well, uh, which is really fun. But no, it's just a very sort of chilled out, um, relatively low stakes unless you wanna get everything correct. Um, and lots of interesting puzzles. You know, a little bit of a brain scratcher to amuse myself while I was recovering. So yes, I've got one more case left to do on that one, I think. And then the other things that I was playing, um, I got Ghost of yte for my birthday, so we are hoping to jump back into that. Um, very. We kind of put a pause on it over Christmas'cause uh, we just had a lot of different things going on, but very much enjoying that one so far. And, uh, very, very much enjoyed Ghost of Su Shima. So, um, definitely, um, enjoying that one and looking forward to actually progressing with it.'cause we haven't really moved out with the first area just yet. Um, sticking with the Japanese theme, we got gifted a board game called todo. Um, I don't know if you've heard of it, gem, but basically the goal is to just spend your time traveling the famed todo. Road, which is along the East Sea of Japan and just having the best time you possibly can, and if you have the best time you get to win. Um, so you get to do things like visit hot springs, try new food and paint landscapes and whoever does the most of that essentially wins. Um, so it's quite a nice wholesome. Idea for, uh, a competition between yourself and the other players? I love that. It's really nice. I love that. Yeah, it's really lovely and the art style is really lovely. Um, and all the different, there's like a good handful of different characters you can choose to kind of be your character and they have different skill sets and strengths. So mine, I think, um, had an extra chance of getting a certain type of card when you landed on a certain space. Um, to give you more, um, of a certain thing.'cause you can collect, you can buy items from shops as well to learn about the culture. And, uh, yeah, there's, there's loads of really nice things, but it's very much tied into a lot of things that we discovered and playing Ghost to Oshima and Ghost to Sima. And so it is basically a very, very Japanese cultural experience, which is very fun. Um, and then the other board game. That we played, if I remember correctly, has escaped my mind, but it will come back. Oh, it was another gift actually. Um, a card game, uh, deck of Wonders, which is a type of game I've not played before. Really. It's kind of where you are playing the cards. Um, and it's really difficult to win. It's one of those situations where you are battling against the enemy, quote unquote. So you are moving all the cards around, but the enemy has their own set of decks and, uh, you have to defeat them by using the deck that you've got in play. Um, and it's very challenging, but we did manage to beat it for the first time. Over Christmas and, uh, you get to unlock sort of legacy packs as you achieve certain things through, through the rounds. Um, so we've got plenty of those left to unlock and lots of different enemies to fight as well. So we are quite looking forward to that one. Um, but yeah, that's pretty much, um. I've forgotten to mention Plucky Square, that's another thing. That's the one I played over Christmas as well, which is absolutely lovely. A very charming game. It came out, I think on ps, I wanna say PS four, possibly P. It was LAPS five, but it's like a storybook, um, essentially a narrative adventure. Well, that's what you think when you start out, but you play the PPL choir and um, you're sort of. In this sort of illustrated style, you're going along 2D and then eventually you realize you can come outta the book and turn 3D and explore the desk and the the world where, where Sam, who is the author and illustrator of the book, has created you. And you get to explore his desk and fight the evil wizard hung grump from inside the book. And it's just really, really charming and really fun. And it, it does some unexpected things. Um, but I definitely recommend it. It's probably about 10 hours-ish. It's 10 chapter. Essentially. Um, and it was so fun. It was really good. There's lots of really interesting, um, combat scenarios as well. I say combat, I, I mean it in the lightest of terms. You can kind of play on a really easy paired down mode or you can play it at more difficult, but some of the boss battles are really interesting as well. So I definitely recommend it. It's very fun. Yeah.

Speaker 21:52

Well, reminds me of, um, a fabulous, I think it's a side quest from Split Fiction. Mm.

Speaker 3 21:58

Where,

Speaker 21:59

uh, it's a side to side. When you are in, you are in, in a, in a storybook. That was really cool.

Speaker 2 22:07

So good. So, so good. Yeah. It was brilliant.

Speaker 3 22:11

Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 22:12

Oh, I want to play that myself. Now. I've only watched, I definitely, I've only watched people play, um, I, my, so I, I want to talk about my gaming with people that I'm. Well underway with now, and I'm finding to be, uh, the, the, the, the reasons to do it that there are people worth playing with. Um, and realizing that, and I've been playing Boulders Gate three with my mom. And that has been tremendous fun. We've been, um, recording ourselves doing it as well. And, uh, it was my mum's birthday last week, so I made a compilation video of the two of us. Um, a couple. That's lovely. Yeah, it was, it was wonderful. Uh, yeah, just, just tremendous fun. And I've been playing, we've just been playing until dawn with, um, me, mom, and Megan. And it's hysterical. Absolutely hysterical. Twice my mom has screamed, screamed at the top of her lungs, uh, uh, uh, jump scares. And I had twice. And because I, I, one of them, the, the latest one, I knew it was gonna, I knew it was coming, and so I was sat there, I was ready for it The first time I've, uh, I, they've, they've both like. They're both singers, so they've got very powerful voices, very and very true voices as well. They're very, you know, like a, a, a sh, like a, a shard of glass rather than a, rather than like a, a, like a slap, like, like most naughty. So. I, so the first time I wasn't ready and it felt like I've gotten stabbed in both my ears from it. Oh

Speaker 3 24:06

gosh.

Speaker 24:07

Um, but fortunately for the, the second time I was ready and somehow it didn't hurt my ears, which is a pleasant surprise. It's a win. Uh, but, uh, and then also it's just wonderful. My mom has been playing games on her own for the first time and been enjoying that. She's been playing Alan Wake too. Oh

Speaker 3 24:29

wow.

Speaker 24:29

For a while.

Speaker 3 24:30

That's super.

Speaker 24:31

Yeah, it's awesome. And it's, I'm, I'm so, I'm so, so, so it brings me joy that my mom and my sister game game now. Yeah. I think

Speaker 3 24:40

that's wonderful.

Speaker 24:40

Yeah. And I, yeah, if you can, if you can talk your families into people who wouldn't otherwise game, like video game game, do it. Try it and it's, it. It's a wonderful gift to impart to people. Mm-hmm. Um, yeah, so playing until dawn, and then the most surprising thing is that my sister, Megan, for probably six months now, her, her game has been Fortnite. She's been a Fortnight junkie. That's been the game that she's spent by far the most time. Playing and she plays it like most days a week. And, uh, we have been teaming up and gaming together and, uh, doing Fortnite. I'm, I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but we, our first ever game, we won both of them. We won two games in a row. Yeah. First.

Speaker 2 25:45

Yeah,

Speaker 25:45

ever once, and we have been continuing, uh, playing together. Um, and we've set it up. So, uh, Megan, we don't have to both be on the PS five. I can be in my room and she could be in the, in the conservatory and we could be playing, playing together, um, and talking over discord and, um, I, I've been, um, so we, we stream most of the time when we game together, we stream it. Because we, it's, it's just fun and I love having, I love having records of it. Um,

Speaker 2 26:21

mm.

Speaker 26:23

And that's just a, that's just a, a lovely thing to do with the family. Um, and that you don't have to, you, you don't have to, which is what I'm worried about having to restrict yourself to, to. Simpler games. So board games and card games. Uh, they can be, they can be very fun, but they are, they are simple compared to just the, the'cause, the skill, because it's a, it's a, a dexterity, a physical skill to be able to do it. It's like driving. You need to just do it and do it, and do it and do it before you can start, like properly having fun with it, but it can be done. Can be done. Um, alright, we've got a couple of minutes left. Um, let's run through some games that we are looking, looking forward to coming out this year. Gem.

Speaker 2 27:20

Okay. So I, I went into this like hard because I don't normally know what's coming up. So today I've spent quite a lot of time looking. So, um. So I haven't got time to go through most of what I was looking at. However, what I did want to say is that I looked at the big games that are coming out and that, and lots of top tens, lots of like, you know, what's everyone really excited about And it, none of it really, um, appealed to me at all, which was kind of depressing. Um, I'm, I'm, there were a couple and I, I think at least one of them Alex might have on her list, but, um. But re uh, resident Evil Requiem was the one that kind of like came up most for me, but it's so violent. Mm. I mean, really. I know obviously Resident evil is violent, but it's really gory and I just don't know if I want that in my life right now. You know? I just feel a bit, kind of like, dunno. I dunno. I mean, it looked really good. It looks amazing. It, um. Looks really interesting. The gameplay style looks fascinating. You're playing, um, two characters. Um, Leon and I can't remember what the. Female characters called, so that looked really interesting. And they were saying there's quite a big difference between the, the play style for those two characters. So with Leon it's very, um, combat orientated and like lots of fighting and kicking people in the head and yeah, doing all sorts of really cool stuff. So you can pick up weapons that they've dropped and shoot them with those weapons. You can, um, shoot them in the legs and, you know, then they'll fall down. You know, it is really amazing the stuff that they've done. Um, and with the female character she is, she is, uh, more sneaky and it looked more like the old school resident evil that I remember playing and enjoying. So that looked really cool. Um, the, it, it very spooky looking. Everything looked really scary. They've got all these kind of things that you can do, uh, putting filters over and. They've got city scenes, they've got just a lot going on in, in the game. Um, and, but like I said, it was really violent, like very violent. And also they've apparently teamed up, partnered up with Porsche to create a car, like a cool car for use in the game. And obviously they've then built that game and they've also teamed up with Hamilton watches to make the watches that the characters wear in the game, and they're gonna be selling those on the launch day. Now I know that this is like the 30 year celebration for Resident Evil, but it just felt really money grabbing to me. It just felt a little bit too, it doesn't seem to

Speaker 3 30:24

me.

Speaker 2 30:24

Yeah. It just felt like, do they need this extra, do they need these, these sort of part party up in order to actually make enough money? Or are they just getting greedy?

Speaker 3 30:36

It reminds me of the trailer for, um, intergalactic the heretic profit. Do you remember that? Where there was like a Lego every 10 seconds

Speaker 2 30:45

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 30:45

Of like, like Pepsi and then a couple of other things as well. It's like the modern James Bond is as well. They're just chocked full of like land Rovers and

Speaker 2 30:56

product placement and

Speaker 3 30:57

it's everywhere. Yeah.

Speaker 2 30:59

I don't know. It doesn't seem, yeah.

Speaker 3 31:01

Yeah, I don't like it.

Speaker 2 31:02

No,

Speaker 3 31:03

but

Speaker 2 31:03

it, I, I don't like the idea of them bringing that stuff in, but I, I don't know. Maybe that's the future. Maybe it's just the way we're going, but I don't like it. It's too, it's just too hardcore capitalism. Um, so I was looking at, so I was looking through the, uh, fable. 2026 came up. That looks amazing. I am excited about that, but I'm not very excited'cause I think it might not come out until. 2027 because they're basically gonna do an announcement two days, um, ahead of where we are now. So in two days time, we'll know more about when fables coming out and what's going on with it. So, um, but that looked exciting. But where I really got my interest from was all the, um, indie games. I just watched a video of like the top. 50 indie games that are coming out in 2026, and almost all of them, I, I would've given, you know, at least a double take to, but just look really interesting. So the ones that I, I've kind of like flagged up was Witch Brook, um, uh, which is like a little cozy life sim where you are at school. Um, it's basically by the same. Well, it's not made by the same people who make Star G Valley, but it's made by the same publishers, I think.'cause uh, it was, it's something to do with them anyway. And so that looked like fun. And then there's also para lives. Have you heard about this? It's like basically a, they're talking about it being a genuine alternative to the sims. Ooh. And it basically focuses on open-ended creativity. So it's all building and, and families and relationships and all of that, but it just looks really like fun and sweet, and it's, it's not as, the characters look more drawn than the Sims characters, but it. I think he would get into it after a while, but, so the graphics is quite different, but then you've got this sort of really cool sandbox set up and everything, so that felt like that was, that might be fun. There's just loads, um, of indie games that just look like they would. B, a happy way to while away, a few hours. I just know that I'm not gonna have any, any hours in a few months. That's gonna be it. That's my gaming over. So most of these games I'll probably have to be playing next Christmas, but yeah.

Speaker 33:37

Yeah, that's a wonderful thing. A a, a good thing about the system as it is at the moment, is that we are in a renaissance of, uh, indie games. And that scene is only going to get, it's going to, well, it's gonna continue to grow, uh, but it does mean that. Well, we can think of it like books now. There are, there are more books than there have ever been in history. And those, those numbers are increasing more and more and more. Um, it makes it harder to succeed as, uh, as a, an indeed developer just because of the sheer, the sheer number of games, uh, that are being released. But there are, they're, they're not all 80 pounds. So you can, you can buy five indie games for, for the cost of one AAA game and get more value out of, out of them than you would a, a new AAA game. Uh, yeah. Alex, uh, what are you looking forward to?

Speaker 3 34:47

I think you can both guess which of the biggest game. But I'm looking forward to is, and that is, uh, team Raider legacy of Atlantis, which hopefully should be coming out this year for the 30th anniversary of Team Raider, the original team rider. Um, very excited. Very excited. We did get a double trailer there, so we have. That game coming out in 2026. And in 2027 we will have to raid a catalyst, which will be a continuation of the survivor trilogy meshed in with what they're doing now, which is remaking, well hopefully remaking the original trilogy'cause no one's ever remade Tomb Raided two, and that's all I want. Um, they never have, we obviously have anniversary, which was, uh, the. As, as the name implies, the anniversary of two murder, I think 25, maybe 10. Wait, no, 25. I wanna say 25 years. Maybe 20. Actually, that would make more sense. But anyway, um, so those two are coming up and I think they're like concurrent trilogies. I would like to hope so. And I'm very excited because Tune made a catalyst features probably the oldest Lara we've seen. Portrayed. She had a little bit of gray in her hair. She looked a little older. She sounded a little older. And the voice actress that is going to be portraying Laura is Alex Wilton Reagan. Do we know her?'cause I can name some games that she's been in and he probably played,

Speaker 36:24

ah, I remember, uh, our, our Sask Street Origins.

Speaker 3 36:28

Yes. Oh yeah.

Speaker 36:30

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 36:30

Yes. She plays, um, by ex-wife. Which you wouldn't think, but she does. Um, she's also the voice of Samantha Trainer in Mass Effect three, which you might know, uh, the female inquisitor in Dragon Age, inquisition, uh, and Callista in the last story as well. So there's a few notable performances for you, so I'm just very excited. Um, having watched the trailers, I've watched some deep drives as well, and there's some very deep analysis of maybe the move sets that you see in the trailers, kind of being not too dissimilar from the way that Lara moves, um, and navigates the world in the survivor trilogy. So there's some debate as to whether they've actually changed the control scheme that much. Um, and a lot of the, there was a lot of nods to. Some of the controls of anniversary. Like there's a scene where obviously Laura is shooting one of the raptors and she's jumping back and kind of shooting, leaning backwards. And that was a very, um, well known move, uh, in Tim Red anniversary where it was like a slow motion target and shoot, which a lot of people did not like, and I did not like it either. Um, but so we'll see what happens. I'm, I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful. I'm just very excited that there's gonna be more to major in my life, um, as you can tell. Um, but yeah, I just think it should be, I hope they do a good job because it's, 30 years is a long time, obviously. I've grown up with it. I am now effectively the age of Laura. Um, as older Laura, most probably, I, I'd say she's probably in her, I want to say forties in. In, in Catalyst that I don't know or have yet to find out. Um, so that would be really interesting to think about as well.'cause obviously I started when I was about six or seven years old. Um. But yeah, just very excited. And then the other game technically, which came out last year, is a crowdfunded board game that we are looking forward to playing, which arrived with us in 2026. So I'm counting it as a game that is yet to be played this year'cause we haven't played yet. And it's called Manatee s. Um, manatees are my favorite sea creature in the ocean, and the goal of the game is to save all the manatees by making sure you build a sanctuary for them and make sure they stay fed. Otherwise they'll swim away, which is the concept of the game. So very excited for that. And you get little wooden, um, manatees that you collect, and they're all different colors, so I'm very excited for that. As well.

Speaker 39:23

I want to do a, I have a lot to say about the LaCro stuff as well, so, um, I'll gladly do a deep dive with that

Speaker 3 39:31

for sure.

Speaker 39:32

About that. Just'cause it seeing Lara, those, those two trades you go, that feels like the LaCro that should have happened directly.'cause we had the LaCro and then the survival LaCro. Mm-hmm. And then this one. And you go for thinking, why didn't you do this directly after that? It feels like they just, they've shot themselves in the foot'cause good things and bad things to say about it. Um, my stuff is, um, it is just a couple of, I don't, I don't pay much attention to. Upcoming indie games.'cause I, you just never know what they're, what they're gonna be like. So like, I, I never, there could be what the equivalent of, uh, expedition 33 is gonna be this year. I have no idea what that's gonna be until it comes out.'cause no one knew anything about that before. Um, but we've got the new James Bond game made by the, uh, developers of Hitman. I think that's gonna be awesome then. Uh, Neo three, which might be might be pretty good. And Phantom Blade Zero, which is sort of like a, another Samurai assassin Sam, uh, game that's been like in development for ages then. Then, I don't know if it's coming out this year, it would be really awesome if it did, but the new Heoc Jima horror Game, knock. Which, I don't know if you've seen the trailer before, but it's just ho horrifying. It's like, so they're the ones that made, he's the, he's the one that made pt and this just, oh, yes, that's right. Yeah. This just feels like he's gone. Okay. I've taken all the horrifying ideas that I had then, and I've turned them up to 11 in, and they're making some, making just someone banging on a door. Terrifying. So that'd be really cool. But what I'm, I'm hoping for and looking forward to the most is actually a game from last year, which is Death Stranding two coming out on pc. And I, there isn't a, an estimated release date for that yet, but I am, I am looking forward to that when it hopefully comes out. Um, we will bring that to a close then. Thank you.

Speaker 2 42:05

Before we stop, can I just ask, um, do have either of you heard about the Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake?

Speaker 3 42:12

Yes. They're remaking

Speaker 2 42:13

it.'cause they, they were talking about that that might be coming out this

Speaker 3 42:17

mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 42:17

Yeah.

Speaker 3 42:17

Quite soon I think. Yes. They've got rid of the future element though. They're completely cut it. That was one of the better ones. Interesting. That's what I thought. There was a game development studio. Yeah, I really liked it. I liked that it was first person. I liked the puzzles in it and the, that, like the mystery that you were kind of solving in that area as well. I, I'm kind of sad about that, but I guess not everyone liked it. I don't know. Yeah, and I think they've added in some, um, RPG elements into black flags a little bit more maybe. But I have to look into it'cause I haven't heard any much more about it. But yeah, I think it's, I want to say March time, but it could be later now.

Speaker 2 43:09

Okay. I can't

Speaker 3 43:10

remember off the top of my head, but yeah.

Speaker 2 43:13

Fingers crossed on that one.

Speaker 3 43:15

Yeah, that's another, but they are also developing another game. Assassin's Creed. Hex spelled HEXE. That's set in the Holy Roman Empire in. Germany with a, with a female protagonist, a standalone female protagonist, which is like, is it the first time they've done a female on her own? I can't remember apart from that one. DLC.

Speaker 43:39

Yeah.

Speaker 3 43:39

Just A DLC. Yeah. Yeah. So that should be interesting.

Speaker 43:45

I've heard worrying things about that assessor's creed hex thing because it,

Speaker 3 43:49

it

Speaker 43:50

sounds like that's their Assassin's Creed forever plan. Where rather than making a new game each year, they'll go, this is a Saturn's creed forever. And we'll just put out DLC for it.

44:03

Oh,

Speaker 44:04

forever.

Speaker 3 44:05

Yeah.

Speaker 44:05

But maybe, maybe that's wrong. Maybe if I've heard, maybe I've heard wrong. Um, any, any last thoughts?

Speaker 3 44:14

Yeah.

Speaker 44:15

Okey dokey. Right? We'll bring it to a close. Um, you know where to find us. We are going strong into our sixth year, and, uh, we hope you enjoy the ride along with us. And so until next time, bye-bye

Speaker 3 44:30

bye.