I Need a Halo [S03E02]

What is the greatest superhero video game of all time? In Season 3, Episode 8 of the Grumpy Old Gamer Podcast, Ian, Al, Lucas, and Tim dive into the history of superhero gaming, from classics like The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, Spider-Man 2, and Batman: Arkham to Marvel Ultimate Alliance, X-Men Legends, and modern hits like Marvel Rivals and Midnight Suns. Along the way, we debate what actually qualifies someone as a superhero, whether Sonic the Hedgehog deserves the title, why Superman games have struggled, and which upcoming Marvel and DC games we're most excited about. Then we tackle the big controversy surrounding Marvel's Wolverine, discussing its reception, sales, cinematic gameplay, lack of challenge, and whether Insomniac has failed to live up to the expectations set by Spider-Man. Are modern superhero games getting better, or are developers sacrificing gameplay for cinematic experiences? Join us for plenty of arguments, questionable opinions, and good old-fashioned gaming nostalgia!https://gog.fmhttps://gog.fm/bloghttps://gog.fm/spotifyhttps://gog.fm/applehttps://gog.fm/amazonhttps://gog.fm/discordhttps://gog.fm/twitchhttps://gog.fm/steamhttps://gog.fm/curatorhttps://gog.fm/facebookhttps://gog.fm/twitterhttps://gog.fm/bskyhttps://gog.fm/instagramhttps://gog.fm/threads

This week Ian, Tim, and guest Lucas dig into open world survival games, kicked off by Valheim's PlayStation release. They cover Subnautica, Project Zomboid, Minecraft, Ark, Skyrim survival mods, and more before landing on a Mount Rushmore of the genre. Plenty of honourable mentions along the way, from Stalker Gamma to Grounded to Frostpunk, plus a detour into the Palworld/Nintendo lawsuit and the Nemesis system patent.

Al and Tim are joined by Will, creative director at Lost Souls Interactive, to talk about his debut horror game Hotel Espir. It is a stealth horror set in a 1942 hotel in the American South, built around a blind antagonist who hunts by sound, where every footstep gives you away. Will explains the studio's "horror with a heart" approach, why they set the game in the deep south and how they handle its difficult themes, the slip from an October 2026 release to October 2027, and the realities of scope creep across a nine person remote team. From there the three of us get into horror games more widely: why indie studios keep returning to the genre, the split between AAA action horror and indie psychological dread, save rooms, ratings, and why the scariest thing is often knowing exactly what is coming and doing it anyway. Hotel Espir hits Steam in October 2027. You can wishlist it and request the play test now. For socials, Discord and everything else, head to our website. We are grumpy, we are miserable, and we would like to speak to some gamers. https://store.steampowered.com/app/4216950/Hotel_Espir/

The lads sit down to work through the Star Wars games that mattered, the ones that didn't, and a good few that only survive because the modding community refused to let them die. Al makes the case for TIE Fighter and Star Wars Supremacy, Ian flies the flag for KOTOR, Lucas reports back from two hours with the Outlaws demo, and Tim can't get through a single mention of the Force Unleashed without invoking the Rule of Two. Along the way: the LucasArts golden age, the death of Star Wars Galaxies, Battlefront 2's record-breaking loot box disaster, and whether Zero Company signals a brighter future now EA's monopoly is over. Recorded on the third attempt, sickness and third-world power cuts permitting.

Season 3, Episode 3. This time we flipped an old episode on its head. Instead of games that would make good films, we picked films and TV shows that should be games — with one rule: it can't already exist. No Lord of the Rings, no John Wick, no Peaky Blinders. Between the four of us we came up with eight, though we'd argue seven of them actually hold up. Lucas wants a brutal melee brawler out of The Raid. Tim makes a case for Deathwatch and Event Horizon as first-person horror. Ian pitches The Martian as a survival game and takes some stick for it. And Al goes off-piste with an Iain M. Banks Culture RPG where you never quite know what your handler is up to. Along the way we work out how many of these quietly already exist under a different name. Back in two weeks for a big one: Star Wars games.

Season 3 continues with Al, Tim, Ian and Lucas taking on one of gaming's most iconic franchises: Halo. From the original Combat Evolved through Halo 3's record-breaking success and into the modern Halo Studios era, the crew discusses what made Halo a phenomenon, whether Halo: Campaign Evolved is worth the asking price, the rise and fall of Xbox's flagship series, Bungie's legacy, LAN parties, split-screen memories, the cancelled Peter Jackson movie, the Halo TV show, and whether Master Chief can once again become gaming's biggest hero.

Season 3 kicks off with Al, Tim, Ian and Lucas tackling the golden age of real-time strategy, roughly 1995 to 2007, running from the original Command & Conquer through to Supreme Commander and Company of Heroes. Tim and Al go deep on Westwood, Total Annihilation and Command & Conquer Generals, while Ian and Lucas offer the outsider's perspective on why RTS never quite grabbed them the way it grabbed the rest of the group. Topics include the console explosion that killed the genre's momentum, whether Dungeon Keeper counts as an RTS, the Frank Klepacki soundtrack debate, and a Warhammer 40k Blizzard licensing rumour that gets fact-checked live on air.

The Grumpy Old Gamer crew returns to see whether our game recommendations actually worked. Ian, Tim, and Al challenged each other to play games outside their usual comfort zones, including Remnant 2, Far Cry 5, Stellaris, Tekken 7, Warhammer 40K: Boltgun, and Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2. Some games landed. Some games definitely did not. Along the way, we talk Ubisoft fatigue, 4X confusion, DLC overload, old-school fighting games, Warhammer 40K lore, boomer shooters, and whether some games basically require a YouTube tutorial before you can enjoy them. More episodes: https://gog.fm

The lads are back and there are four of them this time. Ian, Al, Tim, and Lucas dig into the big question: who actually won the console war? Spoiler: it's not complicated. Then things get interesting as the crew unpacks Phil Spencer's exit from Xbox, the arrival of Asha Sharma with her AI background and no games industry experience, Sony's quiet 180 on exclusivity, and what Project Helix plus Steam on Xbox might actually mean for the next round of the console wars. The Steam Machine gets a look-in too. Nobody holds back.

Al, Tim, and Lucas confess their digital hoarding addictions by analyzing their Steam libraries. Turns out we've all got hundreds of games we'll never play, bought during sales we can't resist, gifted by friends who promise "we'll play together" and then ghost us. We used SteamDB to crunch the numbers. Al has £550 worth of unplayed games sitting in his library gathering digital dust. Lucas bought Elder Scrolls Online three times - bought it, refunded it, bought it again on sale, refunded it again, then bought it a third time because it was even cheaper. Tim can't remember buying Farming Simulator 2013 and has no idea why it's installed. The conversation spirals into the psychology of Steam sales. Why do we buy games at 90% off when we know we'll never play them? Why does "it's only £2" feel like a compelling reason to add another title to the pile? Why do we convince ourselves we'll definitely play Dying Light this time when we've been saying that for 11 years? We debate physical versus digital ownership. Tim and Al have shelves of boxed PC games they'll never install because who runs optical drives anymore. Lucas sees his Steam library as a collection of military badges - achievements for simply owning the games. We're all hypocrites who miss game manuals while exclusively buying digital. Regional pricing gets exposed. Lucas admits Argentina used to have ridiculous Steam discounts - £50 games for £5. Free-to-play games get dissected. Tim's spent hundreds on Magic: The Gathering Arena and it shows as £0 library value. The friendship tax is real - buying games together, playing for an hour, never touching them again. Nobody's changing their behaviour. The Spring Sale just started. We're all doomed.