Well, the year is underway and honestly, with January now behind us, it feels like a rollocking start. Best guess is it's because everyone wants to get the eff-train out of the way of the splash that Grand Theft Auto is going to make when it lands towards the end of the year, so now things are kind of a little bit in reverse. That did lead us to think, though: how might the gaming landscape look or be different if certain key titles throughout its short history were either plucked from existence, or simply failed to catch fire the way that they did?

Tim is back in charge here, and he's managed to drag Hewso along for the ride. Hendo & Hewso it is then, like some crappy Murdoch FM radio show from the '90s, only with fewer airhorn sound effects and way less transphobia. And also more video games. Way more video games.

Games: Disciples: Domination, Romeo is a Dead Man

Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell Dma-Sc

Break Music: Freestyle Dojo by MkVaff

Cast

Matt Hewson

Tim Henderson

Sometimes, sh*t happens. You go to turn on your PC, only to find that Microsoft borked a Windows 11 update so bad that it won't even boot up. You go to turn on your trusty RoG Ally, only to find that Microsoft borked a Windows 11 security update so bad that now it seems to view loading up games as the enemy. You go to record a podcast, only to... well, this one may not be entirely Microsoft's fault, but it would have been nice had the levels been more even and the uploading process less of a pain.

Still, we're releasing what we have. And why wouldn't we? Hewso is in charge or shepherding the crew through what will surely, in time, turn out to be some truly stupid predictions about the future. Jump in!

Games: Tainted Grail, Code Vein II, Star Wars Outlaws

Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell Dma-Sc

Cast

Matthew Hewson

Shaun Nicholls

Stephen del Prado

Well, that didn't take long. We thought we could at least get into the first recording of January of a new year before the world leveled up being an absolute disaster, but here we are. Happy new year, we guess? At least the one that let us, while also a disaster in its own right, had some pretty good games released? Naturally, this being the first episode of the year, those present use this as a chance to look back at the games they most enjoyed in the previous year, 2025 in this case.

The people in question would be Tim and Rob. Everybody else just hates videogames now. Which three games do our two hosts shout out? Are they entirely predictable? To answer those questions, one may have to go and read out GotY posts. listen to a whole bunch of old episodes... or maybe just tune in to this one? Yeah, that works, too.

Games: Earthion, Metroid Prime 4, Saints Row 4

Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell Dma-Sc

Break Music: Zanarkand String Quartet by GrayFox1217

Cast

Rob Caporetto

Tim Henderson

While the world runs round with Christmas Cheer

Player2’s writers cower in fear.

For these brave souls, there’s no joy in the festive season

And those feelings they have, well, they have good reason

They have been beaten, broken, scarred before

And still they are asked to dig in once more

You see, to them Christmas means just one thing

A gift to review that only one man could bring

This creature goes by many, many names

And he takes pleasure in shitty shitty games

So sit back, relax and enjoy this new cast

As our crew of writers would rather be glassed

Because they are stuck with the worst of the worst to play

Sadistic Santa is here to make sure he has ruined their day.

That’s right, folks, it is time once again to join the crew for their annual descent into the shittiest games on offer. Join us for the Christmas fun as Matt plays the role of Santa and brings Jess, Jenn, Shaun, Jason and Stephen along for some of the cheapest and most excruciating titles in Steam’s catalogue.

While we have you, have a very merry Christmas and some well-deserved time to take care of yourself. We will catch you in the new year for more episodes of The Player 2 PixelCast.

Cast

Matt Hewson

Jess Zammit

Stephen del Prado

Jenn Christodoulou

Shaun Nicholls

Jason Hawkins

Bells are ringing, snow is… definitely not falling, and something is in the air. It may be magic; it may also be cannabis. Honestly, who can say? In any case, there is no need to get high just yet, though, as Santa’s evil twin is still a couple of weeks away from terrorizing the Player 2 offices* and today instead is about recalling video game gifts that we got and actually appreciated. Mostly this means games that were actually at least pretty good, but we were very young for some of them so who can say for absolute certain?

This one is headed by Tim, in what he sincerely hopes will be his last cast of the year seeing as he knows what is coming. He’s also joined by the likes of Rob, Shaun and special guest Nathan Cocks (who Tim accidently calls Hewso at least once, but we can blame that on his Tropoco-evoking social media handle) for this chat about games old and new. Or new and old. The order gets shaken up a bit.

Games: Sektori, Strange Jigsaws, UNSIGHTED

Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell Dma-Sc

Break Music: Destined for Greatness by Geoffrey Taucer, prophetik music

Cast

Rob Caporetto

Tim Henderson

Shaun Nicholls

Nathan Cocks

A nagging voice on my shoulder says that we may have said a thing or two on this episode that been proven to be extremely dumb since recording. What, exactly? Well, we could tell you but either, a.) we want to create suspense to make you listen to the show, or b.) with travel commitments complicating our usual schedule, this one was recorded over a fortnight ago now and we honestly can’t remember exactly.

In any case, you can expect Hewso to wrangle the likes of Rob, Shaun and Tim through the waters and behind the convenient pieces of cover that make up this look at all of the action games that we got a decade or more ago. What the heck happened to all of those?

Games: Death by Scrolling, Deep Rock Galactis: Survivors, Posessor(s)

Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell Dma-Sc

Break Music: probably something that I should look up again…

Cast

Rob Caporetto

Tim Henderson

Shaun Nicholls

Matt Hewson

Back to the regular format! PAX is done, but the events certainly aren’t over for the year, and so for this particular episode we’ve decided to whip out our crystal balls and peer just a little bit into the future by trying to guess at now exactly the ultimate game of the year, so much as the short list that will inevitably be coming out of The Game Awards soon. It proved to be a pretty fun exercise, one where we occasionally had to put our own preferences aside and instead try and get into the headspace of the kind of voting that is going to go on here. We ended up with at least three titles we felt good about, but filling out the final list did get a little wobblier.

The people in question talking about this nonsense? That’d be Tim back in charge, with Rob and Shaun providing support. Oh, and they have of course been playing games, too. Recent games, even. Well, except for Tim, who is using new hardware to turn the clock back to 2023. What a doofus.

Games: Wreckreation, Battlefield 6, Alan Wake 2 Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell Dma-Sc Break Music: Pachebel’s Ganon by djpretzel

Cast Rob Caporetto Tim Henderson Shaun Nicholls

It has been and gone, the epic weekend of games, pop culture, tabletops and... well, beer. That's right, PAX AUS has once again passed us for another year. Fret not, dear listener, because the Editorial team of Matt, Jess, and Paul (minus Stephen because apparently trekking around Japan is more important than games) get together in a small apartment near the scene to talk about all the things they saw, heard and, sadly, smelled during PAX AUS 2025. Also, as a side note, folks, recording with minimal equipment on this one, so please excuse the audio quality.

Cast Matt Hewson Jess Zammit Paul James