My Favourite Game

Next Summer, My Favourite Game will return for a second season. Who knows, it may come earlier, it may even come later. But that is currently the plan. And in the next week or two, I’m going to go about and email the ten folks who I want to have on the show for the upcoming season.

But for now, the plan is My Favourite Game’s second season will start sometime in the Summer.

I just want to say thank you so much to those who’ve listened and subscribed to the podcast’s various feeds in its first season and I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did putting them together. And thank you to all ten folk from the UK games industry I asked to come on for this first season. It was fantastic to record each of them in their own unique way, but I hope the rest of the folks I asked on won’t mind if I specifically point out Holly Nielsen, Alan Williamson and Tom Bramwell.

I highlight these three not just for particular episode-specific reasons, but personal reasons behind them.

Holly’s story on how she got into gaming through her brother was endearing, and our fantastic 20 minute conversation we had on female representation in gaming, that I unfortunately partly cut from the show (hang on, there’s a reason for this post yet...), was wonderful to have. It really was such a mind-opener that if it weren’t in part for that conversation, I don’t think I would have ended up writing this about the female character treatment as of late in the Metal Gear Solid series back in September.

Which brings me to Tom Bramwell. I’ve gone on at length at how much the man has meant to me professionally enough times on my blog (and during his episode). He in part also inspired me to write that Metal Gear piece linked up top thanks to his ‘I’m sexist’ piece on Eurogamer. But more than that, recording his episode a little under a month ago and soon after one of the worst periods of my life culminated in the worst possible way was a stress reliever, as was our off the record chat afterwards. But his episode was a wonderful look back on his gaming life to date and one I personally enjoyed putting together at a time where I needed the escape.

Finally, Alan Williamson. His love for Sonic 3 & Knuckles went to stupid technical detail that was enlightening, engaging and fun to talk about. But it’s one of his honorable mentions later in the episode, Shenmue II, that sticks out for the reasons he gives. In fact, I’ll quote it for you.

“Shenmue II is quite a personal game to me because I played it around the time of my parents’ septation. There was a lot of feelings going on when I finished that game, but also because it really was the last great Sega game before they stopped manufacturing consoles. To me, Shenmue represents the death of childhood. I was sixteen and it kind of felt like everything I knew was falling apart at the time...”

Although this was recorded just before what happened with my mum, that quote resonates with me quite greatly now, albeit in the loosest terms as I wasn’t a child when this was happening (I turn 24 on Friday and I was 23 when it happened) nor were my parents divorcing. though, this did involve one of my parents. To me, to tell a long story short, I felt something similar with Metal Gear Solid 3 when my mum was in hospital at a time when my life felt massively in limbo. I’ll perhaps go into detail one day in one such episode.

But my main point is I enjoyed, even loved, the massively personal tales that people gave on My Favourite Game this first season and particularly those given by Holly, Alan and to a lesser extent, Jon Brady and his tale in getting into games. And I hope to hear more of these stories next season.

But not before one final hurrah. In a special two-hour episode, we take a look back on Season 1 with some of its best bits, bits that never made it in to the show or extended cuts of conversations from the series (such as me and Holly’s talk on female characters in games in full).

In space, no one can hear you sneak.

There’s only room for one Boss and one Snake.

As of this year, My Favourite Game will have been running for eight years. And in that time, a particular series was always a regular bridesmaid - that is to say an honourable mention in half a dozen episodes - but never the bride, getting their own episode.

And for years, I'd been lamenting the fact the show never had this series even once as its own episode. And now, over the course of nearly a year, there's three of them.

Last May, we finally had an episode on Mass Effect 2 featuring Annapurna Interactive's Kelsey Hansen as part of Season 5. And now less than a year later, a two-parter on the finale of the Shepard trilogy.

Season 6 of My Favourite Game, the first themed season ever, kicks off with Mass Effect 3, celebrating its tenth anniversary in March. Which also means we're approaching the tenth anniversary of the brouhaha that kicked off in regards to the game's ending and how it was received. But that's for part two next week.

Until then, part one of the Season 6 premiere sees Aoife O'Friel, writer and narrative designer on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora at Ubisoft Massive, talk of Mass Effect 3 as her favourite game as well as how the Tomb Raider series was her first love in games and more.

You can listen to it here. Part two drops next week.

Links: Play Diaries|Twitter|Facebook|Patreon
Twitter: @aoifeofriel | @JohnnyCullen

When you think of Pikmin 3, you think of being, for the most part anyway, a relaxing adventure game where you try to save the planet from a famine? Maybe it’s the cutesy nature of it that makes seem appealing and relaxing, right?

“Oh I don’t play these games to relax,” says Toadhouse Games CEO Alanna Linayre, as she talks of the 2013 Wii U game (re-released in 2020 for Nintendo Switch as Pikmin 3 Deluxe) as her favourite game.

Tonight, we delve into Pikmin 3, the series, why despite its cutesy and somewhat relaxing charm on paper is actually stressful and potentially equally as stressful as Dark Souls and a lot, lot more.

Oh, and if you’re wondering what the context is for the end bit with the ice in the tea, our fireside chat from last May will give you all the context for it.

You can find it below and on all good podcast services.

Links: Play Diaries|Twitter|Facebook|Patreon
Twitter: @JohnnyCullen|@Tybawai