Staying In

00:00 - The worst place to stage a stag do. 02:49 - Everything but the act of reading. 05:25 - Gran Turismo 7 is the sequel to… Gran Turismo 2? It’s an expectedly gorgeous simulation racer that goes back to one of its earliest entries for its inspirations. Is this the perfect audiobook game? 21:20 - “Do you think anybody will notice?” 26:00 - Everything Everywhere All at Once is the greatest multiverse movie, one where you just should not even try to comprehend what’s going on that, no matter how wild it gets, always manages to return to a very human story. 36:33 - A return to Pandemic Legacy: Season 2, as we check in with Russell Hobbs. 40:25 - Marvel: Remix turns card drafting into an extremely compelling superhero-based spin on Fantasy Realms from WizKids, with a simplicity to it that is immediately, and overwhelmingly, appealing. It’s a joy. 46:24 - Messing about in the water. 47:43 - Long Shot: The Dice Game is a roll and write and gambling game from Perplext that we’ve been after for quite a while now.

00:00 - We talk skin care regime and why it’s important for us fellas. 07:45 - Ready Brek: it’s good. 09:41 - The latest Dr Strange movie is out, we’ve seen it and, generally, we like it - it’s a solid entry in Marvel’s cinematic universe and expands on some of the concepts that have been developed over the last few films. Plus horror. 33:01 - Merchants & Marauders is Z-Man Games’ highly thematic title all about pirates and privateers (and a little bit of “cronch”). It’s a big sandbox of roleplaying, deal-making, and battling, and we like it. 42:51 - The Accord. 44:55 - PlayStation Plus is… fine? But is it good enough when compared to similar services? 50:14 - Joe Richardson’s follow up to Four Last Things is The Procession to Calvary, another point and click journey through a hilarious renaissance world, formed of real paintings from the era. All that, and thir-hy-si, with Dan (@ThisDanFrost), Kris (@DigitalStrider), Peter (@XeroXeroXero), and Sam (@MrSamTurner). Our Spotify Playlist brings together lot

00:00 - The foundations of a hot tub. 03:03 - Coiledspring Games’ Photosynthesis sets a new standard for gateway games and feels like it might genuinely be a good option for getting people into the hobby. Plus we get talking about how challenging that actually is. 21:57 - A sauna. The Red Zone. Fika. 34:11 - Hot Lap League reminds us, very deliberately, of TrackMania Turbo which we covered back on Ep4. This slick racer brings time trial-based high precision competitiveness to Android and iOS, and we’re here for it. 45:33 - A very VERY funny joke. Oh and our thoughts on new book-turned-TV-series Reacher. 56:31 - Free Radicals from WizKids Games sure isn’t a gateway game, but its bold use of colours is admirable, and even if it does get utterly silly at times that’s all part of the fun. All that, and a silent scream, with Dan (@ThisDanFrost), Kris (@DigitalStrider), Peter (@XeroXeroXero), and Sam (@MrSamTurner). Our Spotify Playlist brings together lots of great thematic music inspired by the stuff we talk abo

00:00 - Hot dogs: awkward sandwiches? 03:08 - Is it Cake? Well? Is it? 08:09 - Cryptid: Urban Legends from Osprey Games shakes things up and presents a very different two player experience to the original. It’s tense, mechanically tight, and encourages repeat play. 21:52 - The worldwide shortage of Lorne Sausage. 24:14 - Darby DNA. 27:51 - Our review of Sobek: 2 Players from Hachette and Catch Up Games. It’s a set collection game that breezes by in about 20 minutes, with bright and colourful art, and hints of other classics like 7 Wonders Duel, Jamaica, and Juicy Fruits. 40:33 - Nostalgia reigns with The Matrix Resurrections and Ghostbusters: Afterlife. 54:02 - House of Food All that, and stacking lasagne, with Dan (@ThisDanFrost), Kris (@DigitalStrider), Sam (@MrSamTurner), and Richard (@WereNotWizards). Our Spotify Playlist brings together lots of great thematic music inspired by the stuff we talk about. Go check it out, if you like. Links to where you can find us - StayingInPodcast.com Note: sometimes we'

00:00 - The great debate, aka “do you eat or drink soup?” 02:49 - The Batman, a spoiler-free review. 25:50 - AireCon: origins. 37:04 - AireCon: the bring and buy sale. 42:09 - AireCon: meeting up with Hachette, and playing Sobek 2 Players (Catch Up Games) and Ganymede (Sorry we are French). 44:25 - AireCon: our thoughts on Switch & Signal (Kosmos). 58:00 - The Batman, more thoughts, but with loads and loads of spoilers. All that, and semantic enigmas, with Dan (@ThisDanFrost), Kris (@DigitalStrider), Peter (@XeroXeroXero), and Sam (@MrSamTurner). Our Spotify Playlist brings together lots of great thematic music inspired by the stuff we talk about. Go check it out, if you like. Links to where you can find us - StayingInPodcast.com Note: sometimes we'll have been sent a review copy of the thing we're talking about on the podcast. It doesn't skew how we think about that thing, and we don't receive compensation for anything we discuss, but we thought you might like to know this is the case.

00:00 - Happy. Birthday. To. You. 07:49 - Kris and Sam’s adventure in a broken car. 15:37 - Forget the discourse: FromSoftware’s Elden Ring is filled with Lovecraftian-ish creatures, rune gathering, wonderful exploration, and becoming increasingly okay with the idea of losing a lot of progress. Also it reminds us of the OSR. ALSO also: there’s a guy called Angry Pumpkin Head, apparently? 37:17 - What are our thoughts about black holes? What about rainbows? More importantly, after that tangent, what about Black Hole Rainbows from June Dune Games Production? It’s a 2-6 player, quick-playing and fairly light game that has absurdly high production values, and took us a bit by surprise by just how good it is. 48:18 - After a little faffing around time on Reddit, we’ve been checking out Eyes : Nonogram from Gamefox. If you’ve played Picross or Murder by Numbers, you’ll be in familiar territory, and it combines excellent presentation with easy interactions and loads of puzzles. 56:34 - The story of the old ma

00:00 - “I’ll allow a Magnum”. 08:34 - It’s been in development Hell, but Uncharted’s tale of stealing a lost treasure is fun. It stumbles here and there, but the thrill of seeing the series on the screen, and some fleeting moments of excellence, means we’re excited for the inevitable sequel. 19:00 - The Blustery Day. 27:09 - Being back in the world of Aloy is lovely, as long as you’ve played the first game… and we have, so we’re really enjoying Horizon Forbidden West. And gosh it looks glorious with some incredible acting and character animations. 35:06 - High Score lets you gamble in a safe space (it’s a push your luck dice game), with that typical level of polish and quality you’d expect from Reiner Knizia and Kosmos. 39:43 - Almadi is from Funnyfox, via Hachette, and while it’s a teensy bit like Carcassonne, a smidgen like Wingspan, but it’s definitely its own experience. 44:42 - Roll Camera!... oh my word. This is quite possibly the most well-implemented themes-to-mechanics board game we’ve playe

00:00 - The Mallen Streak. 03:56 - Hype for Horizon Forbidden West from Guerrilla Games, and the slight weirdness of it being from the same team behind Killzone. 10:05 - As always, we answer the important question of the day, chiefly: is Lady Dimitrescu from Resident Evil Village everything she’s cracked up to be? 25:57 - Archive 81 is watching people watching people, and we can’t stop watching. Spooky, mysterious, and a lovely addition to your TV watching watchlist. 33:21 - The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is the perfect entry point to Capcom’s visual novel courtroom series. 46:17 - Iki is an ancient philosophy about how to live, and also a gentle gem of a worker movement boardgame from Sorry we are French, via Hachette. All that, and papa’s eaten us all, with Kris (@DigitalStrider), Peter (@XeroXeroXero), and Sam (@MrSamTurner). Our Spotify Playlist is over on Spotify, and gathers together lots of great thematic music inspired by the stuff we talk about. Links to where you can find us - StayingIn

00:00 - The Secret Life of Peter Willington. 06:46 - Sam’s Swanky New Tablet. 11:24 - Paper Girls is a superb, and occasionally very surprising story from the team of Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, and Matt Wilson, and published by Image Comics. 19:23 - Something Secret, Private, and Lovely. 23:31 - Reading M. R. James short stories for the first time, specifically Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad, plus Casting the Runes from The Design Mechanism, which takes its name from an M. R. James short story. We’ve been really enjoying its investigation-based play. 37:41 - Everyone’s talking about Encanto, and with good reason: it has some of the best songs and animation of any movie produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. High praise indeed, but well-deserved. 51:10 - Osprey Games and Peer Sylvester are always a good combo, and they’re behind Brian Boru: High King of Ireland, an always-interesting game of diplomacy, manipulation, and trick taking. All that, and one of us sounds a bit like a god,

00:00 - Nap strats and sleep hacks. 06:48 - With Unpacking from Witch Beam Games there’s, well, a lot to unpack. What’s truly brilliant here is the way the storytelling fully integrates with the gameplay, without feeling clunky, and explores a life experience in a delicate way, without being cloying. 21:06 - Above? Below? Why not have both? Ryan Laukat and Red Raven Games have made a truly lovely and pleasantly light Euro game with Above and Below, merging worker placement with a choose-your-own-adventure-like narrative element. 34:28 - We’re big fans of the work of Big Potato Games and Snakesss is no exception. Phil Walker-Harding’s latest is a blend of social deduction and trivia and it works brilliantly - just ask the Mongoose of Truth. 43:54 - We also got a chance to play Big Potato TV, which is currently in beta. It’s great value, even in its work-in-progress state, and an easy way to get more games on the go during family gatherings, even for those people that might typically shy away from them.

00:00 - A coward’s New Year’s Resolutions. 05:22 - Spoiler-free Spider-Man: No Way Home chat. We talk about how relatable a hero Spider-Man is, and how much Parker’s world has changed, plus why this is Peter’s film, not Spidey’s. 24:22 - Kris’ New Year’s Resolutions. 27:57 - Super-Skill Pinball: Ramp It Up! brings in four new tables to this glorious roll-and-write, and we think they might just be the best tables yet. We also talk about just how lovely it is to play solo. 41:01 - Dan’s New Year’s Resolutions. 46:43 - Taverns of Tiefenthal: Open Doors! brings more, more, and yet more flexibility and depth to Wolfgang Warsch’s hospitality-em-up, with four new modules sitting neatly on top of the four already included in the base game. 57:33 - Sam’s New Year’s Resolutions. 1:05:17 - More spider-chat, this time ABSOLUTELY FILLED WITH SPOILERS. All that, and the roulette wheel of life, with Dan (@ThisDanFrost), Kris (@DigitalStrider), and Sam (@MrSamTurner). A lovely Spotify Playlist is waiting for you o

00:00 - A festive crop top and a weekend at Willington’s. 13:40 - Secret Santa, Part 1. 19:06 - Exit: The Mystery of the Ice Cave is an absolute treat: it has great puzzles and an excellent, slow burn narrative. It’s sold out this year, but fingers crossed for another one from Kosmos in 2022. 30:18 - Secret Santa, Part 2. 35:09 - Hawkeye often plays a supporting role in the MCU but in his new series - which is Planes, Trains and Automobiles by way of The Avengers - he’s put centre stage. It’s a lot of fun, with a good mix of humour and action. 47:24 - Secret Santa, Part 3. 56:26 - Twenty Twenty Twix. All that, and a can of Ollie’s, with Dan (@ThisDanFrost), Kris (@DigitalStrider), Peter (@XeroXeroXero), and Sam (@MrSamTurner). Interested in picking up Peter's Call of Cthulhu one-on-one scenario The Catcott Collection? You can find it via TitanMoth.com or get it direct from DriveThruRPG. We have a lovely Spotify Playlist we’re constantly updating with music inspired by all the things we waffle on ab

00:00 - Leaving the pub with invincibility. 08:20 - Dire Wolf Digital’s Dune: Imperium is a highly thematic worker placement game that successfully captures the political intrigue the franchise is known for. Better yet, it avoids a lot of the pitfalls of similar games, by always offering you something truly beneficial to do, so you never feel like a turn is “wasted”. 15:23 - Magic darts. 17:20 - A reimplementation of Biblios, For the King (and Me) is from Coiledspring Games and Iello and features art that screams personality as the backdrop to a deeply satisfying auction game of continual push and pull. 27:44 - Marvel’s latest superhero movie is Eternals and we have not one, not three, but two claims to fame about its cast. The film itself is divisive, but what we can all agree on is that its core question is this: “is humanity actually worth saving?” 50:04 - Want to learn how to create and publish RPG content to the Miskatonic Repository, in just one month? Then you should definitely check out the Wri

00:00 - Buying an apartment is boring. And very very expensive. 08:28 - The Call of Cthulhu Starter Set is one of the neatest pieces of introductory design; a great way to get into Chaosium’s legendary roleplaying game, which gets across the writings of Lovecraft really well, in an all-round excellent package. 29:32 - Dungeons & Dragons: Dungeon Scrawlers: Heroes of Undermountain is another great introduction to RPGs, but in this instance, to the world of Dungeons & Dragons itself, rather than the rules of D&D. A light, lovely experience. 42:20 - You can trust in Disco Elysium. ZA/UM’s hard-edged CRPG is challenging and dangerous in all the right ways, with fascinating choices, brilliant writing, and a wonderfully grim playground to explore. 55:36 - Hospitals and bananas. All that, and a £3 meal deal, with Dan (@ThisDanFrost), Peter (@XeroXeroXero), and Sam (@MrSamTurner). Like nice music curated into lovely curated lists? Give our Spotify Playlist set a listen. Links to where you can fin

00:00 - What to do with an extra hour. 07:27 - We went to watch Dune at the IMAX and realised that, for a film with the budget of a Hollywood blockbuster, it’s a surprisingly cerebral and mature adaptation of the novels, where the little things are what stand out most. This generation’s Lord of the Rings? Quite possibly... 29:17 - No Time to Die is the 25th Bond movie, and an appropriate send off for Daniel Craig’s take on James. A good movie, then, but who is the best Bond, and why is it Pierce Brosnan? 50:31 - Little Factory from Iello is a lighter touch resource management game perfect for families. Why? It’s easy to explain to a new player and, importantly, easy to understand the logic of the mechanics. It’s also very nice to look at... in some ways, it’s the board game equivalent of Everdale. All that, and a Krisalis, with Dan (@ThisDanFrost), Kris (@DigitalStrider), and Sam (@MrSamTurner). Still not sure what to do with your spare hour? Give our Spotify Playlist set a listen. Links to where you

00:00 - Willington Day, our favourite seasons, and the number five. 03:46 - "You couldn't read it". 07:04 - Super Arcade Football is from OutOfTheBit - of Super Arcade Racing (as heard on Ep77) fame - and it’s a delightful “jumpers for goal posts” game that feels like a spin on Sensible Soccer, but given a modern fit and finish. 28:57 - WizKids’s latest is Greece Lightning, which is somewhat of a racing board game simulation of Wacky Races in that it requires deviousness, cunning, and a little bit of luck. 40:43 - We’ve been chomping through Midnight Mass, which has a Jamesian “pleasing terror” to it, and is, in many ways, more unsettling than Midsommar. Perfect for a bit of Hallowe’en spookin’. All that, and some unacknowledged hiccups, with Kris (@DigitalStrider), Peter (@XeroXeroXero), and Sam (@MrSamTurner). Oh and hey! Give our Spotify Playlist set a go if you’re after something else to listen to after this episode. Lots of good stuff in there. Links to where you can find us - StayingInPodcast.c

00:00 - Butter spreading dangers. 02:07 - We hop on the Deathloop bandwagon and talk about why this cyclical murder sim from the folks at Arkane Studios is inspired by old school roleplaying games. 23:55 - Sam’s wild claims of popularising Pogs at his school, plus talk of Squid Game, which is a deadly version of Taskmaster directed by Lady Gaga. 36:51 - After aggressively competitive games with names like Boom Beach and Clash of Clans, Supercell’s latest is called Everdale, which is the nicest ever logistics simulator. 44:49 - Absolutely obscene tea drinking. 48:13 - How the Where’s Wally? trend is propelling the board game industry forward, as evidenced by whiteboard-based detective ‘em up Last Message from Coiledspring and Iello. All that, and the other zeitgeists, with Dan (@ThisDanFrost), Kris (@DigitalStrider), Peter (@XeroXeroXero), and Sam (@MrSamTurner). Links to where you can find us - StayingInPodcast.com Note: sometimes we'll have been sent a review copy of the thing we're talking about o

00:00 - Lightbulb moments. 03:20 - Dining out at the cinema and why Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a fantastic kung fu movie, with a more-grounded physicality in a universe where everyone has laser beams shooting out their eyes. 21:49 - What’s bigger than Kris's lunchbox? Being a VIP. 25:42 - We’ve been spending lunch breaks playing Mazescape Labyrinthos from Devir. The premise is very simple - just find your way through a maze - but that’s only the beginning, and the game builds and builds upon this idea to result in a satisfying solo experience. 33:44 - Imagine a crossword puzzle crossed with Scrabble; that’s Wordscapes from Peoplefun Games. It’s simple, light fun, testing and improving your vocabulary skills in a free-to-play mobile game where the hand of the monetiser is rarely felt (if you turn off the ads). 44:36 - A huge thank you to Mark (@lithiumproject) for sending us a question for this episode, which is: what are the best two player board/card games? All that, and taking a cu

00:00 - Play it slow or play it fast, SUPERHOT VR might just be the best way to experience the stylish first person shooter where times only moves when you do. 05:44 - A spice challenge at Seitan’s Corner. 09:13 - Anno 1800 is from Martin Wallace, via Kosmos Games and Ubisoft. It’s got a heck of a large footprint on the table and at first glance appears off-puttingly dense, but this board game adaptation of a classic video game series is actually highly thematic, and really quite approachable. 29:24 - We’ve talked about his recent mobile games before here on the podcast, but the Bart Bonte Collection is a compilation of 28 games, originally made in Flash, available now on Steam. This tapas-like selection of excellent little experiences is a great example of both video game preservation and, in a way, a kind of gaming archaeology. 41:00 - Look, we all know that Suicide Squad was awful. But The Suicide Squad? That’s a whole different kettle of sharks. 53:04 - Reviewing incinerators. All that, and hoofin

00:00 - Using Lara Croft-esque flares for romantic photography. 03:30 - No matadors whatsoever. 05:04 - We had a fantastic time at the UK Games Expo this year, and the organisers did a brilliant job of making it feel as welcoming and safe as possible. Last year’s digital version - which we did a… unique?… video for was all well and dandy, but it’s wonderful to meet up in person and get hyped again for board games. Plus, we spill the tea on the attendees of The Festival of Quilts. 09:34 - Kris’s booty. 16:56 - We popped over to a booth run by Kingdom Gaming of Northampton at UKGE, as they were running Flesh and Blood, a TCG from Legend Story Studios that’s really starting to pick up a lot of plaudits, for one key reason: it’s real good. There’s a satisfying tension between playing cards and keeping them, a great back-and-forth between attack and defence, and a huge reduction in the amount of frustrating luck seen in similar games. 26:51 - Another great find at UKGE was Stop the Train! from Escape Plan B