Episodes
On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Robin Valentine about games that seems stuck in "development hell." Which games have we been anticipating the longest without any concrete update? Which ones may come out the other side and which have fallen flat when the finally show up?
Published 05/16/24
For our third and final roundtable from GDC 2024, we gathered together a special group of developers who each have more than 30 years of experience making PC games. Our guests: Jordan Mechner - Karateka, Prince of Persia, The Last ExpressWarren Spector - Ultima Underworld, System Shock, Deus ExCharles Cecil - Broken Sword, Beneath a Steel SkyKhris Brown - Voice director & editor for LucasArts, Double Fine, UbisoftOur veteran panel discuss how they got into games (and how unlikely their...
Published 05/09/24
Published 05/09/24
PC Gamer's RPG roundtable returns with a powerful panel of RPG experts to talk lovable and hateable companions, romance (and thirst), how you make a great intro to a massive game, and much more. Joining our panel this year: Swen Vincke, founder and director at Larian (Baldur's Gate 3)Carrie Patel, game director and senior narrative designer at Obsidian (Avowed)Sarah Gruemmer, acting lead quest designer at CD Projekt Red (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)Adrienne Bazir, founder and sole...
Published 05/02/24
Global-editor-in-chief Evan Lahti leads the developers behind some of PC gaming's biggest hits in a discussion on the state of our hobby and the biggest trends, risks and opportunities in PC gaming today. Joining us:  Michael Douse - Director of Publishing, Larian (Baldur's Gate 3)Rebecca Ford - Creative Director, WarframeEyrún Jónsdóttir - VP of Publishing at CCP (EVE Online)Casey Yano - Co-founder, Mega Crit (Slay the Spire) In this 80 minute conversation, our guests talk about making...
Published 04/25/24
On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with Fallout-enjoyer Chris Livingston about the first season of Amazon's Fallout TV show. Was it rad? Did it succeed at adapting the vaults of the wasteland and selling us on new characters?
Published 04/18/24
On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Tyler Colp about the games they should really get kicked out of their favorite genres for not playing yet. Which classic RPGs are the biggest holes in our back catalog and which lengthy story campaigns are just never getting completed? Shame aside though, maybe there are some games that aren't actually the must-plays people say.
Published 04/11/24
On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk about the PC games they remember from their childhood. Mollie hailed from the Learning Land while Lauren was an enjoyer of Humongus Entertainment, but did any of those favorite genres stick with us as adults? And did anyone ever discover The Sims any way other than a friend showing it to them?
Published 04/04/24
On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with Fraser Brown about Dragon's Dogma 2 and all of our time with it so far. Fraser's already clocked over 100 hours adventuring with his pawn, Gorbo while Mollie and Lauren are just getting started. It's been a comedy of errors in weird quest designs, goofy pawns, and wacky combat, but we're all enjoying ourselves despite the critiques so far.
Published 03/27/24
On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with Robin Valentine who recently undertook the arduous task of ranking lots of common game launchers. The result? Steam is still unbeatable, but why is that? Other broad launchers like the Epic Store and GOG have made improvements over the years and publisher launchers like the EA app have gotten overhauls too. Where are they still falling short in the year 2024?
Published 03/25/24
On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with Robin Valentine who recently undertook the arduous task of ranking lots of common game launchers. The result? Steam is still unbeatable, but why is that? Other broad launchers like the Epic Store and GOG have made improvements over the years and publisher launchers like the EA app have gotten overhauls too. Where are they still falling short in the year 2024?
Published 03/21/24
On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Tyler Wilde about the traditional topic of debate for this decade: yellow paint on climbable ledges in games. Players say they're sick of it; developers say it's necessary for showing players the way. What do we say? Well, we're not above having our own little debate about it, that's for sure.
Published 03/14/24
On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Morgan Park about how it feels to actually get good at competitive games. Between Mollie's Tekken tournaments and Morgan's time as a ranked Rainbow Six Siege player, they have stories about how super sweaty matches can really change their relationship with a game. Is getting that good actually worth it?
Published 03/07/24
On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Jacob Ridley about getting into the daunting custom keyboard scene. We've all seen the beautiful keyboards with pleasant ASMR clicking on our social feeds, but Jacob is going to tell us how to actually get started—hopefully without totally scaring us off.
Published 02/29/24
On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with Harvey Randall about one of the most divisive topics: categorizing games. Sure, things are easy when we're just talking RPGs—unless it's ARPGs versus action RPGs. Don't even get us started on cRPGs. What about the Metroidvanias and the Roguelikes—and are Soulslikes a real genre too?
Published 02/22/24
On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie quiz each other on games from the current PC Gamer Top 100 list with some Steam user reviews. Can we guess which top 100 game each review is referring to? Did either of us actually manage to memorize the list?
Published 02/15/24
On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Chris Livingston about the ongoing Steam Next Fest. What demos are we playing this time and which ones are launching soon that you should have your eye on?
Published 02/08/24
On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with two time Steam Deck owner and reviewer Tyler Colp about how the portable PC is fitting into all of our gaming lives. Are we actually taking it out of the house or just sitting on the couch? Does streaming from our PC or putting it in docked mode actually feel worth it?
Published 02/01/24
On this week's Chat Log podcast, Lauren and Mollie talk with Ted Litchfield about speedrunning. What makes it so fun to watch gamers go fast and how on earth do they actually figure this stuff out? And what are some of the coolest speedrunning tricks we've seen in action?
Published 01/25/24
On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Harvey Randall about game tutorials. Who among us are the guilty tutorial skippers and who's suffering through those dozens of popups? And what kinds of tutorials do we actually like, anyway?
Published 01/18/24
On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie take a look at the year ahead in PC gaming. What are our way too early GOTY predictions and how about some personal gaming resolutions? This year's release calendar looks way different than 2023's did at the same point in the year so what are we really in for in 2024?
Published 01/11/24
On this week's Chat Log, we're saying goodbye to 2023. Did we predict anything correctly about how this year of PC gaming would go? We may have gotten the game of the year wrong, but did we stick to any of our own goals?
Published 12/21/23
On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Jody Macgregor about developers we're keeping a close eye on in 2024. Who's working on secret new projects we're anticipating announcements of and who's got some great trailers that are making us hungry for gameplay? Who's promising to shake up their genre in the new year?
Published 12/14/23
In this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Robin Valentine about gaming trends and industry trends from the year that we think will end (or continue) into 2024. What on earth is 2024's release calendar going to look like after this year of big surprises? Aesthetic peripherals are finally in for real but we really need to stop using the words "early access" wrong.
Published 12/07/23
On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren quiz each other on their own biggest gaming victories and failures. What's your biggest L? When did you clinch the win?
Published 11/30/23