Gaming In The Wild - Video Game Reviews

This week I tore myself away from Elden Ring long enough to finish the journey mode of Tetris Effect Connected, a dazzling reinvention of everyone's favourite hypnotic falling blocks game. But I do talk about Elden Ring for 15 minutes first, because, of course. In the roundup: Tempest 4000, Welcome To Elk, Dorfromantik. And a big thank you to the show's latest patron – thanks Brad! If you enjoy the show, you can come say hi on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Twitch - find the links at http://gaminginthewild.com. If you'd like to support the show on Patreon, you can do so from $1 per month and get exclusive episodes, sale recommendations, and an invite to the show’s Discord community – go to http://patreon.com/gaminginthewild for that. You can also support the show via Ko-Fi if that’s your preferred creator platform: http://ko-fi.com/gaminginthewild. And as always, thanks for listening!

This week's episode is a review of quirky haunted-Shibuya action game Ghostwire: Tokyo, which is more than the sum of its parts.  Also reviewed: lacklustre indie offering A Memoir Blue. Other mentions: Kirby & The Forgotten Land, Weird West, Dorfromantik, and the People Make Games documentary about gamedev working conditions. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDPzZkx0cPs. Come say hi on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Twitch - find links at http://gaminginthewild.com.  If you'd like to support the show on Patreon, you can do so from $1 per month and get exclusive episodes, sale recommendations, and an invite to the show’s Discord community – go to http://patreon.com/gaminginthewild for that. You can also support the show via Ko-Fi if that’s your preferred creator platform: http://ko-fi.com/gaminginthewild. And as always, thanks for listening!

After a huge, hyped, and somewhat disastrous 2020 launch, Cyberpunk 2077 reappeared recently with the next-gen v1.5 for PS5 , PC and Xbox. It’s been rebalanced, reworked, and patched to the gods – but is this ambitious sci-fi epic ready for primetime? Also mentioned this episode: Tunic, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Kirby & The Forgotten Land, Weird West, and West of Dead. And big thanks to the show’s latest patrons Nicholas and soccrchik! If you enjoy the show, you can come say hi on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Twitch - find the links at http://gaminginthewild.com. If you'd like to support the show on Patreon, you can do so from $1 per month and get exclusive episodes, sale recommendations, and an invite to the show’s Discord community – go to http://patreon.com/gaminginthewild for that. You can also support the show via Ko-Fi if that’s your preferred creator platform: http://ko-fi.com/gaminginthewild. And as always, thanks for listening!

It's episode 100! We made it! I celebrate by talking about Breath of the Wild, games as art, my gaming history from Acorn Electron to PS5, vikings, eating puffin, Iceland's nature, EldenRing, podcasting, and more. Thanks for all the questions, and to everyone who listens to and interacts with the podcast and surrounding community :) Love you all! If you enjoy the show, come say hi on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Twitch - find the links at http://gaminginthewild.com. If you'd like to support the show on Patreon, you can do so from $1 per month and get exclusive episodes, sale recommendations, and an invite to the show’s Discord community – go to http://patreon.com/gaminginthewild for that. You can also support the show via Ko-Fi if that’s your preferred creator platform: http://ko-fi.com/gaminginthewild. Thanks for listening!

This week's episode starts off with a bit of chat about Elden Ring and Horizon: Forbidden West, before moving on to discuss the itch.io Bundle For Ukraine. This charity bundle features almost 1000 games, all playable on Windows and many also on Mac OS, with all profits going to charities supporting victims of the Russian invasion. At the time of writing, it's about to hit $5m dollars raised! You can support the effort and buy it here for $10 (or more): https://itch.io/b/1316/bundle-for-ukraine. I picked out some personal highlights of the bundle in the episode, including: Ynglet, Wandersong, A Short Hike, Cloud Gardens, Speed Dating For Ghosts, Old Man’s Journey, Celeste, Art Sqool & More. There are some good guides about where to get started with the bundle, too: Kotaku: https://kotaku.com/itch-bundle-for-ukraine-pc-gaming-russia-superhot-baba-1848640480 Rice: https://ricedigital.co.uk/10-best-games-bundle-for-ukraine Pocket Gamer: https://www.pocketgamer.com/itch-io-bundle/bundle-for-ukraine-that-you-can-play-portably/ If you enjoy the show, you can come say hi on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Twitch - find the links at http://gaminginthewild.com. If you'd like to support the show on Patreon, you can do so from $1 per month and get exclusive episodes, sale recommendations, and an invite to the show’s Discord community – go to http://patreon.com/gaminginthewild for that. You can also support the show via Ko-Fi if that’s your preferred creator platform: http://ko-fi.com/gaminginthewild. And as always, thanks for listening!

Well, it looks like the Elden Ring hype has even managed to invade this gentle indie-game corner of the internet. To comb through the ins and outs of From Software's highly-rated, brutally difficult dark fantasy open-world game, I called in guest host Ciaran Daly for some podcasting co-op. He'd been to a crab museum, was hung over, and did very well. Thanks Ciaran. Note: this is the first From Software game either of us have played, so it's as much about the initial experience of navigating the reputation, systems, and foibles of the From universe as it is Elden Ring itself. If you like, you can to skip the intro and go straight to: 00:15:15 Our histories playing tough games 00:24:35 Elden Ring review Other links: My guest appearance on Sifter's Mainstream podcast: https://pod.link/mainstream/episode/3283c92291b28562be9d8b573890e1ca Miyazaki on difficulty: https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2022/02/28/elden-ring-difficulty-fromsoftware-identity-miyazaki/ Follow Ciaran: http://twitter.com/radartreview and http://twitter.com/facecuddle If you enjoy the show, you can come say hi on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Twitch - find the links at http://gaminginthewild.com. If you'd like to support the show on Patreon, you can do so from $1 per month and get exclusive episodes, sale recommendations, and an invite to the show’s Discord community – go to http://patreon.com/gaminginthewild for that. You can also support the show via Ko-Fi if that’s your preferred creator platform: http://ko-fi.com/gaminginthewild. And as always, thanks for listening!

Finally! Horizon Forbidden West has arrived! 67 hours into my play through, it was fun to spend an hour on this extensive, spoiler-free deep-dive into the exciting new gameplay mechanics, all-time-high visuals, storytelling and characterisation changes, more rich and fully explored tribal cultures, traversal improvements... and, of course, the robotic elephant in the room, the climbing system. Also discussed: Elden Ring, Cloudpunk, Bravely Default, Tunic. If you enjoy the show, you can come say hi on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Twitch - find the links at http://gaminginthewild.com. If you'd like to support the show on Patreon, you can do so from $1 per month and get exclusive episodes, sale recommendations, and an invite to the show’s Discord community – go to http://patreon.com/gaminginthewild for that. You can also support the show via Ko-Fi if that’s your preferred creator platform: http://ko-fi.com/gaminginthewild. And as always, thanks for listening!

A couple of years ago, to the day, episode one of this podcast was published, about the quite amazing sci-fi epic Horizon Zero Dawn. It was a short episode, just ten minutes long. You can find it in the podcast history if you'd like to hear it it – a short, heartfelt review of what it felt like to play one of the best games ever made.  It seems fitting that, two years later, the podcast's birthday present is the sequel, Horizon Forbidden West (thanks, Guerilla!) As the release date drew closer, I found that I'd forgotten some elements of the complicated three-pronged plot of HZD. To reacquiant myself, I played the game on New Game+ mode over the last week. It was a very different playthrough to my first one, which was an 87-hour wonderstruck meander through this game world. This time, I beelined the plot, reading all the text files, listening to all the audio clips, and – for fun – making a timeline of The Great Die-Off, The Clawback, FARO Industries, and the Zero Dawn project. It occurred to me that if I needed this recap, maybe others do to. I hope you enjoy the episode. It's packed with spoilers for Zero Dawn! Just so you know. But I have no idea about Fobidden West, so you're safe there. Links: Gaming In The Wild 01 - Horizon Zero Dawn review: https://anchor.fm/gaminginthewild/episodes/01-Horizon-Zero-Dawn-eb47a6 Incredibly useful Horizon Fandom Wiki: http://horizon.fandom.com Noclip HZD Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9tLcD1r-6w Machine ecosystem concept art: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/AKbEo  If you enjoy the show, you can come say hi on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Twitch - find the links at http://gaminginthewild.com. If you'd like to support the show on Patreon, you can do so from $1 per month and get exclusive episodes, sale recommendations, and an invite to the show’s Discord community – go to http://patreon.com/gaminginthewild for that. You can also support the show via Ko-Fi if that’s your preferred creator platform: http://ko-fi.com/gaminginthewild. And as always, thanks for listening!

Guacamelee is a fresh, bright, Mexico-inspired Metroidvania-brawler by Drinkbox. Originally released in 2014, it preempted the comeback of the Metroidvania genre by a few years, but a 2018 Switch port brought it to a new audience – including me. Also discussed: Halo: Infinite and Nobody Saves The World. See a talk by lead artist Augusto Quijano here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=bZDe7cbfmc0. If you enjoy the show, you can come say hi on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Twitch - find the links at http://gaminginthewild.com. If you'd like to support the show on Patreon, you can do so from $1 per month and get exclusive episodes, sale recommendations, and an invite to the show’s Discord community – go to http://patreon.com/gaminginthewild for that. You can also support the show via Ko-Fi if that’s your preferred creator platform: http://ko-fi.com/gaminginthewild. And as always, thanks for listening!

This week marks the podcast’s second birthday, so it begins with some fun listener questions, before moving on to the featured game of the episode: Wytchwood. In this gothic fairytale crafting game, you play as a mysterious bog witch. You'll pick up everything that isn't tied down through several beautifully illustrated biomes, crafting these ingredients into potions, spells and objects to capture a series of wayward souls. It's a relaxing game, if you can get into the collectathon spirit, with an episodic story that mixes fairytale weirdness with wry social commentary.  Also discussed: Halo: Infinite, Dreamscaper, Fire & Ice, Super Lucky’s Tale, Breath of the WIld, Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds, Red Dead Redemption 2, and more. Some links from the show: Follow Just Werk: https://www.twitch.tv/justwerk. Info on retro game Fire & Ice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_and_Ice_(video_game).  If you enjoy the show, you can come say hi on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Twitch - find the links at http://gaminginthewild.com. If you'd like to support the show on Patreon, you can do so from $1 per month and get exclusive episodes, sale recommendations, and an invite to the show’s Discord community – go to http://patreon.com/gaminginthewild for that. You can also support the show via Ko-Fi if that’s your preferred creator platform: http://ko-fi.com/gaminginthewild. And as always, thanks for listening!