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Two man pod this episode again with Andy and Justin. We chat about photography inspiration, children’s birthday parties, film festivals, Matt Johnson having a recent moment as Justin is watching Nirvanna, The Show, The Band, The Movie, and obtaining passes for the upcoming Pokemon World Championships. Andy chats about finishing Pragmata while Justin gives his first impressions of Housemarque’s Saros. The guys also analyze some Steam sales data from Sony and Microsoft while speculating about how GTA 6 will do. Finally, there’s a spirited discussion on game discovery as well as shortcuts we use while leveraging critics and influencers to form opinions.

The guys have another two-man pod and chat about experiences going to a concert from bands we liked 20+ years ago (The Format and RX Bandits) as well as experiences with family sleepovers at museums is like. We chat about our time with Pragmata, Marathon, and Pokopia gaming recently as well as the recently announced Microsoft Game Pass price changes and how compelling Call of Duty and subscription packages are worth. Andy gives a rundown as to WrestleMania and how WWE has over-monetized its product recently. The guys then continue the conversation on talking through a gaming “diet” by putting together a framework trying to understand why we play certain kinds of games and what kinds of cravings they fulfill, similar to how you would fill up your plate at a buffet. Andy’s newsletter: https://appropriatelycultured.net/

Classic two man pod today as Andy catches up with Absolute Batman, Justin loses a week to roguelite coin-pusher Raccoin, and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie asks us to find the line between what makes a movie “good” versus “enjoyable.” Hint: they don’t have to be mutually exclusive! We also take a nice little detour into the world of male fashion courtesy of a very sweet raffle win for a pair of Jordans by Justin, chat a bit about the new A24 movie “The Drama” and also start noodling on the concept of mapping out our personal gaming diets to start putting together a “Gaming Food Pyramid”.

This week, we welcome Chandler Wood, video game marketer formerly of Avalanche Studios and PlayStation Lifestyle! Andy and Justin chat with him on how he helped build and manage the community for Hogwarts Legacy at Avalanche Studios, and what it takes to be an effective liaison between players and creators. Plus, we talk Marathon, Lucha Libre Wrestling, Project Hail Mary, moving to New York City, and more.

It’s GDC Festival 2026 week! Andy and Justin chat about what it’s like to socialize with Bay Area dads including golfing and playing poker with noobs. There’s a new live stage play production of Paranormal Activity which Andy dives deep into in the midst of a Resident Evil spooky season in March with Requiem releasing as well. We then dive into our experience at The MIX showcase, an in-person indie games mini-festival and chat about all the games we played along with our picks to wishlist!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P0ml-vWd-Ehttps://store.steampowered.com/curator/30894338/sale/TheMIXSpringShowcase

We chat with Simon Boas, an immersive experience producer, and Cam Perkins, a photographer. Both of whom happen to be in our Fantasy Critic league and love games! It’s a more games-heavy chat this week as we go over Citizen Sleeper, Nioh 3, No Sleep For Kaname Date, Monster Hunter Wilds as well as explore what it’s like to play Fantasy Critic over the years.

Welcome to 2026! We chat about some experiences we've had since the holiday break - Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland for Justin, while Andy gives the lowdown about the Sundance Film Festival in 2026 and we chat about the beauty of discovering new things we love. Gaming wise, we talk Expedition 33, Pokemon and Animal Crossing, touch upon Highguard and the newly announced Horizon Hunters Gathering. Finally, we do a deep dive on our Fantasy Critic Games league draft and teams for 2026.

Our first guest! Nic McConnell of Instruction Derby fame joins us to chat about what we've been up to lately, old school instruction manuals, what goes into Age Rating games as well as throw in some indie game recommendations and predict who will take home the Game Award for Indies!https://bsky.app/profile/mcconnell.bsky.social

Fun episode this week as we talk: KAWS exhibit at the SF MOMA, King of the Hill, Easy Come, Easy Golf, The Plucky Squire. The Game Award nominees just came out and we go category by category picking our favorites!

This week we chat Daft Punk, Halloween, Dispatch, Pokemon Legends Z-A, and BALL X PIT. We also talk about a Circana study on the number of games different players buy per year and then delve into how we discover games recently and live react to our Steam Calendar Browsing lists.

We talk their recent gaming experiences with Deltarune and Hades 2, delve into the importance of game preservation, and Andy share insights on the wonders of attending a film festival.

First episode! We introduce ourselves and talk music festival experiences alongside what we've been playing (Hades 2 / Consume Me and more!). Justin also runs down some of the big highlights from State of Play September 2025