Happy Hour Gaming

As we move towards the mid point of the current generation of consoles, a prototype PS5 slim is seemingly out in the wild. Unfortunately, so are spoilers for Starfield. In other news Activision have announced new details for this years Call of DUty title - Modern Warfare 3 and we give updates on all the games we've been playing.

2023 continues to be an epic year in gaming with huge releases coming at a rapid rate. The latest of these is Baldurs Gate 3 which is receiving unanimous praise across the board.We wrap up the reviews as well as cover your weekly dose of news.

This week on Happy Hour Gaming we look at the ever expanding sales of the PS5 and the future of both Playstation and Xbox as the parity gap between Series S and X begins to show. We also look at the review roundup of the surprisingly impressive Remnant 2 and talk through all the games we've been playing this week.

This week there has been significant progress in the Microsoft / ABK merger. With the courts ruling that the FTC have not provided significant evidence that the merger would lessen consumer access to titles like Call of Duty. With this deal now incredibly likely to go through by the revised deadline of October we look at what we think this means for the games industry. We also talk about all we've been playing this week including a spoiler filled chat about The Light in the Darkness amongst others.

Welcome to Happy Hour Gaming, this week there's barely any news, no showcases to review and few announcements. Which means we've got some more interesting stories from the days of yore, and a load of games we've been playing to talk about including The Light in the Darkness, Synapse and Aliens Dark Descent.

This week on HHG we recap the Nintendo showcase and give our thoughts on what we saw. We also look into the situation with Perfect Dark and Xbox in general.

This week we recap the Xbox showcase all the games show and announced. How did Xbox fare in the wake of a seemingly underwhelming Playstation showcase? Did they come out guns blazing or fizzle out like a wet fart?

Irrespective of the title of today's show, we're talking all about Summer Games Fest. With the PS Showcase done, SGF done and Xbox due to go next week we are truly well into the summer of gaming, and are able to form opinions about the landscape moving forward. How was it having SGF in front of a live audience? Did the announcements get us all excited? Some of them certainly did.

Is this the end for The Last of Us multiplayer projects? Jason Schrier has released a detailed report detailing setbacks that seriously question the longevity of the game. Also this week we look at DIablo IV reviews and we have some more insight to what went wrong with Redfall.

After almost 18 months we have finally watched the latest Playstation Showcase. Did it live up to the hype? Probably not, but with a bit of distance between the show and recording the episode we can reflect a little more clearly on what was shown and what is next for Playstation.

PC is officially the worst place to play games. After 2 years of misery Tom takes the plunge and buys a PS5. Check out his impressions on various games this week on the show, as well as the plethora of stuff Ken has been playing and your weekly dose of news.

It seems like its all gone to sh1t for Microsofts aquisition of Acivision Blizzard. What does this mean now going forward for both entities? A shorter episode this week still full of news and announcements.

E3 is cancelled again, and this time it looks to be terminal. What does this mean for the summer of gaming going forward? In addition to this, Final Fantasy XVI has gone gold, God of War cleans up at the Baftas and we have new gameplay for Tears of the Kingdom.

Are 10/10 scores being given out more often than ever? This is the question we tackle when looking at the reviews of the seemingly excellent Dead Cells DLC - Return to Castlevania. Also Starfield has a firm release date and it is a little later than expected. The final big news of the week, Ken admits to only having a few inches. All this and more on your weekly fix.

This week we round up the reviews and our initial impressions of Wo Long Fallen Dynasty. We discuss the new Elden Ring expansion, and Tom is still playing Hogwarts Legacy

A new State of Play dropped this week, and whilst it had some promising shows, especially for VR2, we were really taken aback by how Rocksteady's latest game - Suicide Squad kill the Justice League looks. Talking of VR2, Ken got his unit early and has some impressions to share, and Tom bangs on about a game no one else on the planet cares about.

Tom gives his impressions of Hogwarts Legacy this week, and we wrap up reviews of PSVR2 and Horizon Call of the Mountain. We also ask, is this the best month ever for Playstation Plus?

A huge Nintendo Direct dropped this week with a tonne of surprises, presented in an unsurprising way. We break the whole thing down and run though the Hogwarts Legacy reviews as well as what we've been dabbling in. Enjoy

The 8BSS is back and our first game of 2023 is Streets of Rage. We dive into the history, development and our memories playing one of Mega Drive's best releases, and one of the gems of the 16 bit era.

With the partial dismantling of 343 we ask what the future of Halo is, and if the series is even relevant. The same question applies to E3 with the seeming confirmation that none of the big 3 publishers will attend this years show. On top of that Ken has achieved 100% completion of God of War Ragnarok and Tom is in love with Dead Space again.

This week we're recapping the Xbox / Bethesda Developer_Direct. We've got our impressions on Hi-Fi Rush - the new stealth dropped game from Tango and we wrap up the reviews for Forspoken and Dead Space.

Ken and Tom get together to run through a huge list of upcoming games set to come out in an incredible year for gaming. Join us to find out how busy you're going to be in 2023.

With multiple studios at Microsoft and across the wider industry suffering mass layoffs we wonder what the future is for the Halo franchise? Also on this weeks show we give our thoughts on The Last of Us HBO show and all the upcoming PSVR2 games.

HHG returns after a 3 month break. We discuss the upcoming Xbox conference, a new UK based AAA Studio and Tom has been playing a JRPG!

This week on HHG we reveal that GTA 6 will feature women! How woke! We also talk about the Annapurna showcase and everything that was announced / shown off.

This week on HHG we look at the turmoil surrounding Knights of the Old Republic and have review round ups for Stray and Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

Its locked in, the release date for God of War: Ragnarok. We talk about this, the Last of Us Remake not being a cash grab and the influence of Haven. We also have our in depth impressions of Neon White. Come hangout on discord via www.happyhourgaming.net

This week, Tom has finally finished the so called 'masterpiece' God of War. What are his final thoughts now we can finally put this topic to bed? PS Plus has relaunched and Ken has been b@lls deep all week so we get all the juicy gossip on Sony's latest offering. We run through all the Nintendo announcements from the direct and talk about all the games we've been playing .Thanks for hanging out!

A huge thank you to everyone who has joined us on our journey to 100 episodes. For this extra special episode Tom lays down the gauntlet and Ken and Ad answer 100 videogame questions, mostly incorrectly. Play along and let us know how many you get right in our discord, which you can join at happyhourgaming.net

Its episode 99 and ALL the games have been revealed this week. So no messing around with announcements at the top of the show, its straight into the fleshy goodness. We have summer games fest, Xbox / Bethesda and Devolver Digital to get through so tune in and hear our thoughts on all the announcements. We also reveal what wer'e doing for next weeks episode 100 extravaganza.

Its a huge week for Playstation having just shown their hand ahead of Xbox with the June 2022 State of Play. We give our reactions to everything shown as well as other major news this week including first looks at Sonic Frontiers and Star Wars: Jedi Survivor. Head over to happyhourgaming.net to get access to our discord and join the conversation.

This week we get our first details on the new playstation plus. Starfield and Redfall are delayed and are EA looking to sell?

Square Enix are selling most of their western development arm following a raft of lofty expectations and critical and commercial failures in the market. Trek to Yomi is here and we have some early impressions as well as a review round up and Crysis 4 has a new lead.

This week on the top ten we have a SPECIAL GUEST. I'm not ruining it in the description but tune in to see what the top ten games of all time are!

Xbox / Bethesda have announced a huge 2022 showcase, but what can you expect to be there? Are Ubisoft being acquired? Will God of War Ragnarok arrive this year? Are Ken's parent's shagging? All this and more on HHG

The Playdate is here, is it the next big thing? Or just a pile of crank? Amy Hennig is back making Star Wars and Xbox are lining up some shifty advertising deals. In the main face off on the week the feud between Ken and Buddy continues, as Ken claims Unpacking is FOOKING SHOITE!

This week HHG is joined by long time collaborator and friend, Buddy Watson to run through his top ten games of all time. Sub to Buddy's youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY14CWQVaHMy11hrImXrHpg

Project Spartacus is finally real and is here it all its confusing, multi-tiered glory. We talk about this, the delay of BOTW2 and the cancellation of E3 as well as a whole bunch of Wrestlemania 38 nonsense in this weeks show.

After Hours is back and we're talking to people about their top ten games of all time. First up its HHG main man, Kenneth Fox. Find out what Ken considers to be the greatest games ever and why.

Of course the biggest news this week isn't really Will Smith's tantrum, however we do analyse this in depth for your entertainment. We also talk about Sony's upcoming project Spartacus, what Haven are up to and we have your review round up of Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. On top of all this Ken has his thoughts on WWE2K22 and Tom has entered the world of e-sports for the first time ever.

This week on HHG we give our thoughts on the current state of WWE in general as well as our initial impressions on WWE 2K22. We look at the huge Hogwarts Legacy reveal and talk loads about racing games from the controversy surrounding GT7, to the insane amount of content in FH5 and Tom's first impressions of WRC10.

This week on HHG we talk about Gran Turismo 7 and how it fits in a post FH5 world. We also give our updated views on Horizon Forbidden West and Elden Ring. Also Tom finally got Covid after almost dodging it for 2 years!

We're re-uploading this episode due to awful audio mixing! Elden Ring is here and it's dominating the charts, both critically and commercially. We give our impressions and run through the general consensus of 2022's biggest release yet!

HHG is back after a 2 week break to talk about Horizon Forbidden West, the possibility of a Cyberpunk Redemption and lots and lots of VR games.

The biggest news story ever to hit the HHG front desk is here. Microsoft are buying Activision Blizzard and all hell has broken loose around the gamingshere. Now the dust has settled we take a deep dive into how we feel about this acquisition and what we think it means for gaming.

God of War is out on PC and by all accounts it is fantastic. However what does this move say for Sony's strategy about PC releases going forward? We also look at how a Days Gone sequel would have panned out according to Jeff Ross and discuss more NFTs!

Its 2022 and HHG is back discussing all the biggest stories in games. Per the norm for new year its been a quiet week so on top of discussing Elden Ring delays and IGN's top 100 games list we take some time to reflect on the games we've been playing over Christmas and New Year.

Happy New Year to all of you guys tuning in to this special After Hours. In this episode we get together and score our top 5 games of 2021 to crown the ultimate HHG Game of the Year. We also talk about all the other great games we played and what we thought of the year overall. Thank you for listening and supporting us into 2022 and beyond!

The final show of the year is here and we're talking about Splinter Cell, Ubisoft's mass Exodus and loads of indies coming to Switch. Tom also has a new favourite game to gush over and NFTs continue to suck. Come hang out with Happy Hour Gaming and don't forget to join us on the 30th for our Game of the Year show! Thanks to everyone who came to hang out and listen in 2021!

This week the full compliment of Happy Hour Gamers are present for this Game Awards special hosted by smallman himself - Adam Edwards. We go through all the awards and announcements from last week's bumper show and have a good old moan about how boring Geoff is.

This week on HHG we have details of the new Bioshock and talk all about how Playstation can, or can't compete with gamepass. Ad joins us again to talk about It Takes Two and Ken is finally playing The Division 2. We also give some updates about our GOTY list and predictions for the game awards.