Professed publicly and asserted openly. A new challenger appears! It's been a little while since we had a guest on this program and we are excited to have Dave from Tales from the Backlog join our usual duo to investigate the new action role-playing game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Xbox Game Studios. Mixing magic and melee sits at the heart of this title about an empire's envoy tasked with investigating a mind-altering plague. What sorts of cool combos will our hosts dis...
Mar 06, 2025•38 min•Ep. 216
Resist... your urge to run and gun! In 1992, two brothers started a company called Rebellion. Three decades later, their studio has come a long way from those humble beginnings. The most successful of their products is certainly the shooter franchise where players sneak around and one-shot their enemies from incredible distances. It seems fitting that the Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button has stealthily selected the freshest entry in that famed franchise as the subject of this episode. With lo...
Feb 27, 2025•27 min•Ep. 215
What's this? Another planet in peril? It's starting to feel like the "Surprise Me" button may have an agenda as it puts our players on another alien planet in peril. In this action-adventure title by Inverge Studios, the world is suffering from an unstoppable infection, and the player is tasked with saving as many animals as possible before the end arrives. It sounds a bit like a futuristic Noah's Ark, where the gameplay elements focus on taming the local fauna to access new areas, expanding the...
Feb 20, 2025•23 min•Ep. 214
It sounds gross 'cause it is gross. The Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button has put Tom and Chris on sanitation duty! For this episode, our hosts get to work cleaning up an alien world in the action-adventure title brought to you by Thunderful Development. The titular gunk looks like a certain alien symbiote, but this relationship is certainly more toxic for the host. Will liberating the environment from vile sludge prove to be a fun and rewarding endeavor? Will it warrant more playtime? Join ou...
Feb 13, 2025•22 min•Ep. 213
Save the universe, at least metaphorically. The Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button has certainly surprised us with this indie puzzle adventure game developed by Feral Cat Den and published by Fellow Traveller Games. Taking inspiration from both noir-style detective stories and established scientific theories, this dialogue-free title challenges players to solve puzzles in order to prevent the murder of the protagonist's love interest. It's certainly a unique experience and we are interested to ...
Feb 06, 2025•20 min•Ep. 212
These beasts are wild, how about their hearts? From the minds of Omega Force, the developers that brought you hordes of Dynasty Warriors, comes this decidedly different animal. In this action RPG, players must hunt one very nasty beast at a time instead of battling the typical tons of minions. To differentiate itself from others in the genre, this title includes a Katakuri mechanic, where players build mechanisms to help them traverse the environment and take down their powerful prey. Will a str...
Jan 30, 2025•27 min•Ep. 211
Which way will these tides turn? At the behest of the Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button, our hosts engage with an isometric turn-based RPG developed by inXile Entertainment and published by Techland Publishing. Set in the universe of the tabletop RPG Numenera, this title may not be a licensed sequel to the beloved Planescape: Torment, but it shares a lot of that DNA, right down to the people involved in its manufacture. That clout saw it fully funded on Kickstarter very quickly and likely play...
Jan 23, 2025•25 min•Ep. 210
No magic mushrooms, but yes to arm cannons. The Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button has run the bases and brought home a selection! Chosen for this episode is the third entry in the double-adjective sports series developed and published by Metalhead Software. With multiple modes, including a new franchise mode, this title was poised to hit a home run, at least with its existing fans. Where will Tom and Chris find themselves in the crowd? Have they been converted to fanatics or did this game stri...
Jan 16, 2025•22 min•Ep. 209
It goes to infinity, but not beyond. For this episode, the Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button has chosen the open-world farming game developed by the small Swedish studio called FRAME BREAK. What's unique about this resource harvesting title is that the player is doing the typical exploring and crafting from inside a mech. There's also a narrative component centered on a mystery that needs solving and players have the option of experiencing the whole thing online with up to three friends. Did w...
Jan 09, 2025•26 min•Ep. 208
Vacation's all she ever wanted! If you work a desk job, perhaps fighting monsters could be considered a vacation from your day-to-day life. The folks over at Microbird Studios take this premise quite literally with their 3rd-Person Action RPG centered around a young clerk looking to escape the monotony of her daily life by venturing to an Alpine town where magic and monsters are real. Tom and Chris have been tasked with joining this intrepid adventure-seeker on her vacation and reporting back on...
Jan 02, 2025•26 min•Ep. 207
All we want for Christmas is a whip... and a fedora. Proving they aren't a couple of scrooges, Tom and Chris have given the Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button some time off for the holiday! In keeping with that same holiday spirit, they have elected to give each other the gift of playing the latest first-person action-adventure title from MachineGames. Featuring everyone's favorite archeologist and set between the second and third films, it certainly sounds like something they will both enjoy. ...
Dec 26, 2024•30 min•Ep. 206
Wake up! Do androids need to wear make-up? Is it accurate to call a visual novel a game? What if it incorporates dice rolls and character advancement? The Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button asks our hosts to ponder these questions with its selection for this episode. Crafted by the London-based one-person development studio Jump Over the Age and published by Fellow Traveller, this title is listed as a role-playing game. As usual, Tom and Chris have an hour to decide if that's an accurate assess...
Dec 19, 2024•23 min•Ep. 205
More lucrative than flipping burgers! The Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button has decided to wind things down with this renovation simulation developed by Empyrean and published by Frozen District and PlayWay. What this means in practice is that our hosts have been tasked with cleaning and fixing homes. Don't worry, they won't be breaking a sweat or pulling any muscles in this exercise, because all the mandated hard labor is purely virtual. We've seen a number of jobs masquerading as games in ou...
Dec 12, 2024•23 min
You can call this one a remake! Back in 1999, Capcom released their third Biohazard title. This episode is about the remake of that survival horror game, which was likewise developed by Capcom. With over twenty years and countless franchise entries separating the two, it is clear the actual development teams were comprised of different individuals. This leaves long-time fans to wonder: which team did it best? Updating Resident Evil for the modern action-favoring audience is sure to disappoint so...
Dec 05, 2024•29 min•Ep. 203
Putting the car in carnage! On this episode, Tom and Chris are off to the races. But it seems dishonest to call this a racing game, as racing is only one facet of the gameplay of this title developed by Bugbear Entertainment. As the name suggests, wrecking the opposition plays a major role in every game mode, and that is sure to set this game apart from your average racer. The developers call this the spiritual successor to their FlatOut series and inquiring minds surely want to know if it lives...
Nov 28, 2024•26 min•Ep. 202
Are you ready for some football... management? With two hundred episodes behind us, the Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button has now selected the sports management simulator developed by Sports Interactive. Believe it or not, it is actually the twenty-first installment in this franchise! Since they are arriving quite late to this game series, how will our hosts receive it? Will they lament missing out on twenty prior chances to manage a football team? Will there be Ted Lasso style hijinks as they...
Nov 21, 2024•20 min•Ep. 201
Doing a big number two for episode two hundred! Our show has arrived at episode 200, can you believe it? It seems fitting that the Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button has chosen the dangerously humorous turn-based RPG from the minds of another dynamic duo for this episode. Made manifest by Ubisoft San Francisco after the fall of THQ, this game navigated a series of development hurdles before arriving on consoles nearly a year after its intended release date. Considering that Tom completed The St...
Nov 15, 2024•28 min•Ep. 200
How long do piñatas live? The Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button has decided on another classic and our hosts are honor-bound to see it through... or at least play it for an hour. For this episode, they are tasked with maintaining a garden full of colorful creatures in the life sim developed by Rare and published by Microsoft Game Studios. This game launched alongside an animated series and resulted in a few sequels, so it must have some merit. That said, keep in mind that it was released nearl...
Nov 07, 2024•23 min•Ep. 199
It was crafted by a team of ninja. There are a number of classic titles included in the Xbox Game Pass library and the "Surprise Me" button has seen fit to call upon one of those classics for this episode. Developed by Team Ninja and published by Tecmo Koei way back in 2009, this action-adventure game was originally a PS3 port of Xbox 360's Ninja Gaiden 2. While Tom is quite familiar with the game from his ancient GameStop days, it's pretty impressive that he never got around to playing it. We s...
Oct 31, 2024•22 min•Ep. 198
Recruiting all extreme event enthusiasts! Developed by Ubisoft Annecy, the same folks that brought us Steep, comes this Massively Multiplayer Online Extreme Sports title. Weaving together seven national parks into one seamless world that can be traversed and explored using all manner of extreme sports gear, these developers have crafted quite the sandbox. The Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button has now put it on our radar and it's time for our hosts to gear up and take it for a spin. Will the st...
Oct 24, 2024•22 min•Ep. 197
Would you believe the title is even longer in Japanese? Developed by MONKEYCRAFT Co Ltd and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc, the remaster of the second title in the quirky puzzle franchise is the Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button's selection for this episode. Tom played some of the original game way back when the Playstations were only two in number, but now he will finally try (an admittedly modernized version of) the sequel. Has a lot changed in the domain of rolling a st...
Oct 17, 2024•21 min•Ep. 196
This drink makes you see ghosts, no big deal. Once again at the mercy of the Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button, our hosts have been tasked with playing the life-sim management game by solo developer Cheesemaster Games. Conceived by Dan Beckerton and brought to life through the help of a successful Kickstarter campaign, this pixel-art title sees the protagonist move to the country and get roped into running a bath house for forgotten spirits. The premise definitely feels like it would fit nicel...
Oct 10, 2024•20 min•Ep. 195
It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. The Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button has selected the sand-packed action RPG from the Germans over at Deck13 Interactive GmbH. The subtitle makes you think it's a sequel, but it's actually a major free update inspired by player feedback from the initial launch. Neither Tom nor Chris played the game in its original incarnation, so they are blissfully free of bias and able to give this iteration a fair shake. Will this revamped packag...
Oct 03, 2024•24 min•Ep. 194
Domo arigato, sushi roboto. Here's another weird one courtesy of the Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button! From the minds of the two-brother team that is Catch & Release LLC comes a sushi restaurant (and encompassing town) simulator. You play as a sushi-making robot with aspirations of becoming a famous chef, but when you are saddled with a restaurant in a sleepy town, it becomes clear that you have your work cut out for you. As the title implies, you will need to make a lot of sushi and you will...
Sep 26, 2024•25 min•Ep. 193
Put your sleuthing skills to the test! The advantage of using the Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button to select the games for this podcast is that our hosts are exposed to many titles they might have otherwise overlooked. Case in point, this point-and-click mystery where the player must investigate scenes for clues and words to correctly fill in the blanks on a key phrase that summarizes an important moment in the plot. Developed by a pair of Latvian brothers as the debut title for their studio ...
Sep 19, 2024•22 min•Ep. 192
Medieval manuscript meets mindful melee. The Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button has spoken and its selection for this episode is an unusual one. From a small Polish studio dubbed Yaza Games comes a turn-based strategy game ripped from the literal pages of medieval manuscripts. Proving that our ancestors enjoyed memes as much as we do, this game has all manner of armed animals and lowbrow humor. With an animation direction that is decidedly Monty Pythonesque, this title seems well poised to capt...
Sep 12, 2024•21 min•Ep. 191
N.Sane in the Neo Cortex! For this episode, our duo tackles a collection of remasters of the first three entries in the famous platformer series originally developed by Naughty Dog. Revitalized by Vicarious Visions and now available on Xbox Game Pass, it is finally time for our hosts to take them for a spin. Tom is a fan of both developers and Chris even interned at Vicarious Visions, so it seems both of them will be challenged to fight back some personal bias with this one. On the other hand, T...
Sep 05, 2024•24 min•Ep. 190
Swing, swing from the tangles of your yarn body. Our hosts travel back in time to 2016 to experience the puzzle platformer crafted by the Swedish developer Coldwood Interactive and published by Electronic Arts. Both Tom and Chris have played their fair share of puzzle games, and both have extensive experience with platformers, but this title managed to slip past them. The Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button has been alerted to this oversight and has taken the necessary steps to correct it postha...
Aug 29, 2024•19 min•Ep. 189
It's vivid and you float like a noble gas. The Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button has foisted another curious title upon our hosts. For this episode, they have been tasked with investigating the first-person shooter-platformer developed by Angel Matrix and published by Annapurna Interactive. In this game focused on spreedrunning, the player takes on the role of the titular protagonist and must utilize powers granted by cards to quickly traverse each level, destroying demons on their way to the ...
Aug 22, 2024•24 min•Ep. 188
Where they're going, they don't need roads. Developed and published in Denmark by Flashbulb Games, this game tasks the player with building vehicles out of blocks that sure do look like the famous ones from another Danish company. We are confident that's just a coincidence! In any case, it was the Xbox Game Pass "Surprise Me" button that chose this physics-based vehicle construction sandbox for the episode, so Tom and Chris can't be blamed either way. With multiple game...
Aug 15, 2024•23 min•Ep. 187
