Eurogamer Podcasts

But what is life really like in that role, in the public eye? To see her and the video team surrounded by fans at shows like EGX makes it seem like a dream job. But is it? What about the responsibility that comes with people looking up to you? What about the pressure of being in the public eye? There are some misconceptions about the role, about the glamour of it, and about the amount of work done behind the scenes.

In Episode 9 of The Eurogamer Podcast, now available to everyone - either here on on all major podcast platforms - Aoife lets us in on the reality, as she shares her story of how she got here and what she's learned along the way.

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🙋🏽‍♂️ You can find me, Bertie, on Twitter: @Clert

🤗 Or you can find me in the Eurogamer Discord: http://discord.gg/eurogamer

🎥 You can find Aoife on the Eurogamer YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Eurogamer

🎬 Watch the video version of this podcast: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2022-02-18-podcast-eurogamers-aoife-wilson-on-life-in-video

🌎 Our lovely website: https://www.eurogamer.net

💬 Our Eurogamer Twitter account: https://twitter.com/eurogamer

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Welcome to another Weekly, the show where we recap Eurogamer for you.

Remember, premium supporters of Eurogamer get these episodes every Friday, when they're freshest. Everyone else listens from Monday.

Today on Weekly, I'm joined by reviews editor Chris Tapsell and managing editor Matt Reynolds - no relation to Ryan Reynolds - and our major talking point is our brand new State of the Game series. Maybe you've seen Chris' League of Legends piece, or the Final Fantasy 14 piece we published yesterday.

The idea is to revisit games that have seen a bit of life, been out in the wilds of the world for a few years - or many years as the case may be. How have they changed? Are they better? What state are they in? They are the kinds of questions the series hopes to answer.

It's a great opportunity for us to dive into games that sometimes pass us by - games like League of Legends, which Chris has been itching to write about for years, or games like Final Fantasy 14, which is somehow, eight years into its life, having its most prosperous era ever. And there are plenty more.

Elsewhere, we take a closer look at Pokémon Go (an ideal candidate for that State of the Game series), which turned six years old this summer. Can you believe it? I still remember the excitement of spotting people playing it in the park. People, outside, playing video. It was, and still is, remarkable.

Matt Reyolds knows the game very well. He can still remember the shambolic first Go Fest event he went to in Chicago. But Go Fest returned after an extended three-year COVID break this year in Berlin, and our Tom Phillips went to see what it was like.

I also talk a bit more about being a judge for the Green Game Jam this year, which I really enjoyed and I was encouraged by, but I'd love to see more big gaming companies taking part next year.

All that plus a whistle-stop tour of the news - God of War: Ragnarok is actually coming out this year! - and other features, reviews and videos, that caught our eye on the site this week.

I'm Bertie, this was Weekly, we'll see you next week.

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This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss yesterday's Mario-packed Nintendo Direct and Microsoft's suprise price rises.

For Nintendo, yesterday's online extravaganza acted like a shot of adrenaline to the Switch's aging heart. There had been questions around how much Nintendo might still have for Switch, post Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Now we have answers - and a release schedule busier than either Microsoft or Sony's for the remainder of 2023. Switch 2 certainly now feels even longer away.

Microsoft, meanwhile, took advantage of the Elephant Mario in the room to announce it's long-suspected price rises for Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Series X. It was an oppurtune moment for Microsoft to deliver the bad news, with the value of Game Pass demonstrated last week at its well-receieved Xbox Game Showcase. Still, was it really necessary? Or could it just get away with it because PlayStation blinked first? Joining me this week are Ed Nightingale and Liv Ngan.

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Everything starts somewhere, and when the games industry began to form in the UK, back in the '80s, Gary Penn - my guest on the One-to-one podcast today - was there. A young adult passionate about games, he was propelled to micro-stardom, as he puts it, when he won a competition to find Britain's best gamer and ended up writing for Zzap!64 magazine. It was a magazine that changed the face of games journalism, injecting passion and charisma and a sense of fun.

After Zzap!64, Penn would go on to win awards for The One magazine, before leaving editorial and side-stepping into consulting and ultimately, producing games. And it's then that he would cross paths with the most famous game series of all: Grand Theft Auto. Except, it wasn't called GTA at the time and it wasn't very good. In fact, Race n' Chase as it was known then, was "awful", according to Penn. But fate - and Penn - ensured the game wouldn't be cancelled and GTA would be released, paving the way for the series to become the cultural phenomenon it is today.

But by the time GTA3 was in development, Penn had had enough. He had severely burnt out and didn't want to work around the clock any more. So, along with some other DMA Design people, he would make a new studio called Denki to create very different kinds of games. Hundreds of these would be interactive TV games, but as time moved on, the studio ditched those in favour of games like Quarrel, which we loved on Eurogamer - a mash up of Risk and Scrabble.

Then, in 2019, the studio found success with Autonauts, a chill game about creating and managing a settlement by automating everything in it. It's that game Denki is building on now with the release of Autonauts vs Piratebots this week - Thursday, 28th July. That game adds, among many other things, an eye-patched, peg-legged, parrot-toting threat to the game, pirates, which you will have to defend your settlement against.

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When we introduced our supporter programme about a year-and-a-half ago, we knew it might take some time to get right. That's why we've made some big changes to it, and the biggest of all: we've significantly lowered the price. Now, for the new price of £2.99/$2.99 a month, or £29.99/$29.99 a year, you get everything on offer. That includes Eurogamer without any adverts, exclusive articles - including a brand series by Eurogamer favourite Emma Kent - discounts on merch and tickets, and even free games. Yes, we've got a brand new Hitman key giveaway coming.

Here's everything you need to know about it.

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