You Died

E3 has come and gone. So who were the big winners? Watch Dogs: Legion was a huge surprise for me. I haven't been a fan of previous games in the series -- they just felt too generic, somehow, despite having a really unique premise -- but this one's core mechanic of recruiting anyone to be your playable character frankly looks incredible. And Nintendo's surprise trailer for the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was a show-stopper... moreso for us, because two years later,…

It's the biggest week in gaming: E3 is almost here. GET HYPE. But it's also going to be a slightly weird show, because for the first time, Sony won't be there. Beyond the fact that Sony are one of gaming's three giants, PlayStation's fortunes always seem to have gone hand-in-hand with the show. The very first E3 was notable for Sony's Steve Race introducing PlayStation with the shortest of speeches: "$299", a full US$100 cheaper than the Sega Saturn. Still, that's not to say there won't be…

Is the curse of the bad video game movie over? The Detective Pikachu film is... quite decent! Yeah, it's a kid's film, so don't expect a super-deep plot here. But it somehow manages to take Pokémon -- fantastical cartoon creatures -- and put them naturally into the real world. Whatever you think of the plot or the characters, that in itself is one hell of an achievement. But maybe the bigger achievement is making a video game film that isn't abjectly terrible. We ran down some of our …

Is a game better when it's cheap? Shea and I have both been playing Crackdown 3. And while we have different opinions of the game, it's hard to deny that it's partially influenced by the fact that we didn't have to pay for it directly: We both downloaded it on GamePass, Microsoft's subscription service that offers access to over a hundred games for one flat rate. Meanwhile, Victoria tells us why she loves Dynasty Warriors so much, while I explain why I've gotten back into Burnout Paradise…

Paying people to play games with you, the Sega Genesis Mini, Iron Man VR and Nintendo Direct speculation: We've got it all on this edition of You Died! Victoria and Shea join me for a round-up of what we're playing, their take on the news of the week, and engaged in the big debate of our time... Yoshi or Kirby? And we're also joined by Josh from Abacus to tell us about his experiences with a "game companion" service in China. He paid women US$4.50 an hour to play games with him, acting as a…

If you hadn't figured it out by now, I'm a huge gamer. And I'm fascinated by the vision of the future presented by Google Stadia, a game streaming service that effectively puts your console in the cloud -- allowing you to play any game on any device. It strikes me that it's perfect for China: A country of 459 million mobile gamers, already playing complex PC-style games on mobile like PUBG. And China is also investing heavily in 5G, technology that would make a huge difference to game streaming…

Marie Kondo would not like me. Admittedly, my knowledge of the Japanese clean-up guru comes solely from cultural knowledge; I have not watched her Netflix series or read her books. Still, when Victoria suggested we use the KonMari Method on our gaming collection, I knew what that meant -- stripping down our list of games to the bare essentials, keeping only the ones that "spark joy". I even got aggressive with it. Marie Kondo supposedly keeps only 30 books. Thirty is too many, I said,…

Yeah, I know, this took a while. But it's worth it. I finally finished Red Dead Redemption 2's quite magnificent story, allowing us to tackle this game on our podcast one last time. (I promise!) As such, a warning: There are some serious spoilers in this podcast. But hey, it's been almost four months since the game was released. Surely you're not as slow as me? Join Victoria and I for a deep dive into the story, going over everything from big questions like whether the epilogue undercuts…

Happy Lunar New Year! With the Year of the Pig upon us, it only seemed right to mark the biggest holiday of the year here in Hong Kong with a special edition of the podcast focusing on the animals of the zodiac. In case you don't know, the Chinese zodiac system has twelve animals in it. In order from first to last, they are: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. Victoria and I ran down the list to find our favorite gaming "animals" to match each…

I love playing games. But I also have a job that keeps me in the office for 12 hours a day. Where's the time to play? I can't reduce the time spent at work. But I also can't -- or rather, won't -- reduce the time I spend playing games. How do you balance being a responsible adult, with a job, with errands, with a life... but also remain a hardcore gamer? That's the subject of this week's podcast, one very close to the hearts of Victoria and I, because it's one we just don't have an answer…

The most common bit of Chinese tech that people outside the country experience are games. But what was it like growing up as a gamer inside the country, where consoles were banned for years? Josh joined Victoria and I on this week's show to talk about the changing face of Chinese games.

Keeping with the end-of-2018 theme, the second episode of our podcast is all about the games of the year. We're not just talking about the best, but also a few, shall we say, "alternative" awards... like the best game to play on the toilet.

It may have missed out on top spot at The Game Awards, but the one game on everyone's lips right now is Red Dead Redemption 2. (Unless you have a Switch, in which case you can't play it and you're all about Super Smash Bros Ultimate. To which I can only say, well, respect, because Smash is great too.) The long, long, long awaited sequel to Rockstar's Western epic has consumed our lives in the last few weeks, making it the perfect topic for our new podcast: YOU DIED, a discussion by gamers…