Do you know how Vikings used to work out who'd die of their wounds and who wouldn't? And I mean internal wounds here, not obvious external ones. Onion soup. The Viking healers would feed the warriors really stinky onion soup and then, if the healers could smell it, it probably meant the stomach had been perforated and old Bjorn was on their way to Valhalla. Zoe Delahunty-Light told me that - Zoe who you'll know from the Eurogamer YouTube team. Not that she talks about morbid things there - but o...
Mar 30, 2023•53 min
This week on the Eurogamer Newscast , we discuss the bleeding-edge technologies on show this week at GDC 2023 - from Epic Games' eye-popping Unreal Engine to Ubisoft's intriguing new Ghostwriter dialogue tool. Last night's startling State of Unreal presentation by Epic revealed a swathe of new features coming to the company's suite of game development tools - such as photo-realistic procedural generation on a massive scale, and the ability to translate iPhone video footage into pretty slick perf...
Mar 23, 2023•38 min
That's it. Potentially the most prestigious TV adaptation of a game series has ended, and what an impact it made. But did HBO and Naughty Dog manage to get the balance right? Did it work when the series veered away from the games? Here, we assemble a mixed panel of people from Eurogamer who've all seen the show, some of which have played The Last of Us games as many as five times, and some who haven't finished it once, to see what their impressions of the TV series were. This episode is hosted b...
Mar 20, 2023•1 hr 20 min
When we introduced our supporter programme about a year-and-a-half ago, we knew it might take some time to get right. That's why we've made some big changes to it, and the biggest of all: we've significantly lowered the price. Now, for the new price of £2.99/$2.99 a month, or £29.99/$29.99 a year, you get everything on offer. That includes Eurogamer without any adverts, exclusive articles - including a brand series by Eurogamer favourite Emma Kent - discounts on merch and tickets, and even free ...
Mar 15, 2023•11 min
When Hitman 3 recently changed its name to Hitman World of Assassination, it fulfilled a plan that had been 10 years in the making at Danish studio IO. A plan that had survived management buyouts and near bankruptcy, and which ended up making Hitman better and more popular than ever before. To call it a turnaround feels like an understatement: IO is in a completely different place now to five or 10 years ago. Here, IO Interactive co-owners Christian Elverdam and Hakan Abrak reflect on their rema...
Mar 13, 2023•1 hr 6 min
This interview podcast was recorded a few years ago now, at the end of 2018. It features author and game-lover Stuart Turton who, at the time, had just won an award for his debut murder mystery novel The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. He's since gone on to write a second novel, called The Devil and the Dark Water, and is not far off releasing a third. In this interview, Stuart Turton talks about his lifelong love of games, and how, unknowingly, that passion bubbled over and influenced his wo...
Mar 03, 2023•1 hr 38 min
Dana Nightingale is the campaign director at Arkane Lyon, the celebrated studio behind the Dishonored series and Deathloop. She's known for her work designing the Clockwork Mansion in Dishonored 2, and for fixing down the critical path in Deathloop - as in, who you have to kill and when - and how to track across a time-looping game and how to present it to you. Without her, we would have been lost. In other words, Dana Nightingale knows her stuff. Here, she talks about Arkane's secrets of level ...
Feb 24, 2023•1 hr 15 min
This week on the Eurogamer Newscast , we discuss Microsoft's next steps to get its $68.7bn Activision Blizzard buyout past regulators and over the finish line. Earlier this week, Microsoft went to Brussels to argue its case with the European Commission, one of three major regulators still needing to be convinced - and Eurogamer was in attendance . It had agreements with Nintendo and Nvidia in its pocket, but only an unsigned contract with PlayStation . Was it enough? And if not, what else must M...
Feb 23, 2023•37 min
Hello and welcome to the Eurogamer Newscast , which this week looks ahead to everything on the horizon for Nintendo Switch - and Nintendo itself. Of course, we recap last night's Nintendo Direct and discuss what we thought about Pikmin getting a dog and whether Zelda really will be playable in Tears of the Kingdom. But with the knowledge that Nintendo itself admits Switch is now firmly on the decline, the company skipping E3 this year and rumours of new hardware in 2024, we also discuss where Sw...
Feb 09, 2023•50 min
Hello and welcome to the Eurogamer Newscast , which this week is all about the best (and worst) video game adaptations. We've all been watching The Last of Us which has become a properly massive TV event - but it's not the first great video game adaptation by any means. Is it the best? It's certainly up there - though there's strong competition already from things like Netflix's Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and The Witcher series, and the wonderful League of Legends animation Arcane. Beyond those? We ...
Feb 02, 2023•36 min
UK charity SpecialEffect helps physically disabled people play games. Through bespoke equipment and software, it's changed lives. It's why Microsoft and Sony asked SpecialEffect for help while making their Xbox and PlayStation accessibility controllers, and it's why the charity has become a leading speaker in the movement for better accessibility in games. But really, fundamentally, it's about play. " A lot of the people we work with have had a lifetime of not being able to do things that they'r...
Jan 17, 2023•1 hr 6 min
Hello and welcome back to the Eurogamer Newscast ! We're already almost halfway through January 2023 and the video games industry is stirring. There are huge games on the horizon and plenty to look forward to - and look forward we will. 2023 promises to be a stellar year for video games, full of proper current-gen console exclusives, awesome indies and more than a few titles held up from last year (and the year before). The next 12 months should see all of these and more splurge out onto the sce...
Jan 12, 2023•47 min
Game director Kevin Choteau recounts the entire development story behind acclaimed action adventure series A Plague Tale. He recalls how the original game was a mess and nearly ended in disaster, and how the original idea was formed. He also talks about the decisions surrounding the powerful ending to the sequel, and whether or not there will ever be a third game. You can read a written version of this story over on Eurogamer: https://www.eurogamer.net/how-a-plague-tale-came-back-from-the-brink ...
Jan 07, 2023•1 hr 12 min
Ho ho ho and welcome to the Eurogamer Newscast News Quiz of the Year 2022! As the video games industry begins to hibernate over the holidays, we're still here for one last look back at the biggest headlines of 2022 - and of course, as we're all about games, we turn this into a game as well. From Microsoft's attempted Activision Blizzard takeover to Sony's PlayStation 5 price rise, Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 6 hack to the return of Silent Hill - we cover it all, with some Elden Ring underwear to...
Dec 16, 2022•1 hr
This week on the Eurogamer Newscast , it's the morning after the night before - and what a night. While The Game Awards 2022 dominated the news , Microsoft's $68.7bn Activision Blizzard takeover faced a major setback with the FTC and Diablo 4's big release date announcement was superseded by serious claims of mismanagement and crunch . The awards ceremony was an eventful affair, even without its climactic and rather concerning stage invasion . The typical array of trailers for games like Final F...
Dec 09, 2022•1 hr 7 min
This week on the Eurogamer Newscast , we're discussing the PlayStation 6 - specifically, Sony's concerns about Call of Duty not being available on the upcoming platform, which we now know will debut sometime from 2027 onwards . It's been another week dominated by news of Microsoft's $68bn Activision Blizzard takeover attempt, which is currently being scrutinised by the UK's anti-competition regulator. Partially-redacted documentation from this process has now been made public , revealing some ey...
Nov 24, 2022•37 min
One thing I've always loved about the work I do is hearing about people's lives. I like hearing their stories, I like hearing about the things that shaped them, because they not only relate to me as a fellow human being but inevitably, they are the things that end up shaping what they make. The games they make. The games we love. It's a privilege to be able to focus on this in my podcast One-to-One, and I've had some wonderful guests. But few struck me the way Obsidian design director Josh Sawye...
Nov 24, 2022•1 hr 25 min
I can't believe it was six years ago that I met Doug Cockle, voice of The Witcher (Geralt) in the video games. He was a teacher back then, leading the acting course at Arts University Bournemouth - such an ordinary place to find a bonafide video game star. But a lot has changed since then. Doug Cockle no longer teaches there; he was debating a return to full-time acting when we talked, and shortly after, did exactly that. Meanwhile, The Witcher became a household name, propelled into the mainstr...
Nov 16, 2022•1 hr 23 min
This week on the Eurogamer Newscast , we're discussing the now-widespread leaks of new Pokémon designs from the upcoming Scarlet and Violet games. Pokémon details always leak - often months before launch, but especially in the last few weeks as retail copies begin appearing in the wild. Should you look at spoilers? For some, uncovering the many unannounced creatures as they play is a core part of the games. For others, knowing what your new Starter Pokémon will eventually evolve into is a big de...
Nov 10, 2022•34 min
This week on the Eurogamer Newscast , we react to Sony's eye-watering announcement of its PlayStation VR2 pricing , alongside Eurogamer's resident VR superfan and advocate Ian Higton as a special guest. The PSVR2 is a high-end device and it was never going to be cheap, but its £530 cost (£570 if you actually also want something to play) have placed it out of reach for many console players. Of the many headset options available, Sony's was expected to be the most likely to attract a wider audienc...
Nov 03, 2022•35 min
I must admit, there was an element of selfishness involved in this podcast. I'm currently doing a creative writing course in my spare time (rather than in my news stories, ho ho) and one of the things I'm struggling with, weird as it is to admit, is the idea that I can write anything. I don't have to be bound by the rules of this world, or any world, or any rules. I can conceive of something totally and utterly new. And that's... I still can't quite wrap my head around it. But my guest on the po...
Oct 31, 2022•51 min
This week on the Eurogamer Newscast , we're chewing over last night's Silent Hill: Transmission broadcast , and Konami's big plans to relaunch its survival horror brand. Silent Hill has lain dormant ever since Konami cancelled Silent Hills and unreleased Hideo Kojima's PT demo. The question is, will anything announced last night live up to that? There was plenty on offer - a remake, a new game, several spin-offs and a movie - from an array of developers. Still, it often felt like we were seeing ...
Oct 20, 2022•36 min
This week on the Eurogamer Newscast , we're back discussing Microsoft's big Activision Blizzard deal and the latest developments in the ongoing saga of the $68bn buyout being finalised. Yesterday, Microsoft leapt upon the latest concerned update from the UK's deal regulator and repeatedly tried to minimise its own importance in the video games market. Microsoft stated it was far from the leader in terms of console share and PC games sold, and lacked any real presence on mobile devices. In a part...
Oct 13, 2022•39 min
Find out more about supporting Eurogamer here: https://www.eurogamer.net/subscribe How much do you know about horses? I don't know very much. As far as I'm concerned, they really can do press-ups like Roach in The Witcher 3, or double-jump like Torrent in Elden Ring. Alice Ruppert knows a lot more about horses than I do. She's been obsessed with them ever since she was a child. She would draw them, play games about them, and many years later she would eventually make games about them. How she go...
Oct 10, 2022•57 min
Find out more about supporting Eurogamer here: https://www.eurogamer.net/subscribe It's Overwatch 2 week but not quite the week Blizzard will have imagined. The servers haven't worked, there are huge queues to play in the evening, and even when people can log in, there are overly complicated character unlock systems and bolshy Battle Passes to contend with. It's not entirely clear what's new in this second game when you can play it, either. Overwatch 2 is overwhelmingly Overwatch. It's the same ...
Oct 10, 2022•51 min•Season 2Ep. 17
This week on the Eurogamer Newscast we're discussing the avalance of announcements to come from CD Projekt Red , maker of The Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077. Taking a leaf out of Ubisoft's recent playbook - when it lay the entirety of its Assassin's Creed plans on the table - CD Projekt Red has done similar, discussing projects which we'll see release across the whole of the next decade. There's going to be a new trilogy of new Witcher games, a Cyberpunk sequel, a new IP and various other spi...
Oct 06, 2022•33 min
This week on the Eurogamer Newscast we're discussing the failure of Stadia, and why Google's cloud gaming gamble struggled from the start. The announcement of Stadia's demise came as a shock to some - including many developers with titles only weeks from launch - yet still feels like it was on the cards for some time. After a rocky launch and the closure of Google's internal game development studios, what future did Stadia have left? Eurogamer editor-in-chief Martin Robinson weighed in earlier t...
Sep 30, 2022•31 min
Were you fortunate enough to make it down to EGX London this year? It was this past weekend, and, if you ask me, there was a nice vibe around the place. It was nice to be back playing games together relatively unimpeded by the pandemic, and the show is feeling much more like its old self again. But what caught our eye there? That's what I'm talking to my two Weekly guests Martin Robinson and Liv Ngan about today. What did Liv think of Wo Long, did Martin like Street Fighter 6, and why was everyo...
Sep 30, 2022•36 min•Season 2Ep. 16
This week on the Eurogamer Newscast we're discussing video game leaks, following last weekend's devastating hack of Rockstar Games which saw almost an hour of in-development Grand Theft Auto 6 footage spilled onto the internet and promptly dissected by the masses. The sheer fact Rockstar had been hacked in this manner was itself shocking - but the damage felt worse due to the negative comments this work-in-progress content then received. The hack has robbed Rockstar of its oppurtunity to show th...
Sep 22, 2022•35 min
Find out more about supporting Eurogamer here: https://www.eurogamer.net/subscribe It's been nearly 10 years since my guest today started working at Eurogamer. And when they began, their mission was simple: make YouTube happen. We had barely an audience there at the time. Oh, we'd tried video - you might remember Johnny Minkley and Eurogamer TV - but we missed the YouTube wave. So along came Ian Higton, my guest today, to make it right. He didn't solve YouTube alone or overnight of course - to d...
Sep 19, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 23
