The Matrix is also getting an вЂњexperienceвЂќ which is going to change all of gaming.

RadioheadвЂ™s Kid A Mnesia virtual museum/experience is neat, but also covered in QR codes that link to the bandвЂ™s merch store.

Also discussed: Returnal, DemonвЂ™s Souls, Radiohead and The Matrix. Welcome to the Alex And Tom Experience, in which Tom slides across the visually gorgeous but mechanically sparse Solar Ash and Alex descends into the visually sparse but mechanically delightful Dungeon Encounters. Many of the band members now tour as Count Bobo And The Bullion. Our intro music is by The Mandibles from their track Clambake. If youвЂ™d like to know more about supporting our podcast and its spinoffs, click here. The Crate and Crowbar is kindly funded by our Patreon backers. If you have a question for a future episode, send it to us at or tweet us You can also listen to it on YouTube, and subscribe to our YouTube channel, if you like.

You can hang out with us and our community on our Discord channel. Honourable mentions: DemonвЂ™s Souls, Guardians of the Galaxy, Psychonauts 2, Rift Wizard, Olija, Ynglet, Slipways, Far Cry 6, Subnautica: Below Zero, The Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye DLC, Griftlands, Inscryption, Resident Evil: Village, Splitgate, Forza Horizon 5, Super Auto Pets. Chris like to be yelling-man-fall-in-hole. The simple pleasures of medieval ultraviolence are captured well in the exuberantly silly Chivalry 2. Everyone likes it.Д«eautiful mood-piece, Life is Strange: True Colors is a game about sensing peopleвЂ™s pain and healing them.

Plomking past the ick, Halo Infinite inherits the robust combat mechanics of past Halo games and adds a grappling hook, bananas for marines and ice-cream for dinner. Normal game coming out the normal way: Alex says Metroid Dread feels great in motion but a little incoherent in its geography and brutalising boss-battles. Tom F not so much, but was still obsessed with it for a time! Hitman III, the boringly good, hugely generous assassination sandbox beloved of Masters of Stealth: Tom F and Chris.Д¬hris enjoyed the action spectacle of Deathloop as much as the acrobatic stabby delights of any Arcane game.

Open-world survival building game, Valheim came out this year, somehow, and was briefly and intensely enjoyed by Chris and Alex.

Greg Lobanov is ChicoryвЂ™s designer and Alexis is the artist and animator.

Tom F, the Present Tom, liked Chicory (from the makers of Wandersong) вЂ“ a wholesome game about a dog who paints the world, and which touches on darker subjects of self-worth and depression. The Ascent вЂ“ a play-above-you game where you are a little-man-run-and-jump. Now moving logically on to the games of the year of someone not even on the podcast. YouвЂ™d think getting a dog would have helped.Д¬hris played Cyberpunk 2077 and is thankful for the absence of Huge Beams. TomвЂ™s been anaesthetising himself with Slay the Spire, and socialising Graham with Supreme CommanderДЄlexвЂ™s has continued to fiddle with his MiSTer. This is a pod about the games that came out in 2021 вЂ“ so letвЂ™s start with the games that didnвЂ™t come out in 2021 that we played anyway! Among the games at least partially endorsed are: The Ascent, Chicory, Valheim, Hitman III, Deathloop, Metroid Dread, Halo Infinite, Life is Strange: True Colors and Chivalry 2. Alex, Tom F and Chris present Our Caveats About The Games of the Year.

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