Andy and Justin are a couple of pals who used to work at PlayStation and love games. This is a show about sharing experiences and broadening horizons both in and out of the gaming world.
Two man pod this week as Justin and Andy catch up on some of the biggest happenings over the last few weeks. They discuss Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil as Andy heartily recommends both that and Dreamworks’ Forgotten Island in theaters. The guys have an in depth chat about Marvel’s Wolverine on PS5 while Justin gives his first impressions of Valve’s new VR hardware, the Steam Frame. Also: Destiny 2 lives? And is it time to start thinking about games as art separately from business?
10 Sept 2026
Episode 17 - Andy & Justin - State of Play 9/26 & Pokemon Worlds 2026
Andy go in depth on sharing their 3 day Pokemon XP and Pokemon World Championships attendance experience. The guys also recap the September PlayStation State of Play show and share their picks for best of show!
16 Aug 2026
Episode 16 - Andy & Justin
Another beautiful day with a two man pod. Andy shares what it’s like to go to the Outside Lands music festival in SF as well as what it was like going to a pre release for the new Magic the Gathering The Hobbit crossover set. Justin talks the new Spider-Man movie and further adventures in parenting. The main topic for the week is cooperative gaming as the guys explore the different kinds of co-op game experiences and partners to play with. They go over recommendations as well as explore the ways you can broaden your diet of co-op game types.
30 Jul 2026
Episode 15 - Andy & Justin
We’re back! Two man pod as we catch up on some summer activities. Andy shares trip highlights from Wisconsin including eating cheese curds and the fun mascot shenanigans that happen while going to a Brewers game. Justin talks about being a dad for the second time while sharing his latest gaming experiences with Pokemon Go, Splatoon Raiders, and more. The guys have a spirited discussion on the recent big news from Sony announcing the end of physical media for PlayStation in 2028 - they talk about why this is happening and also discuss some ideas on how we all can move forward. Physical media options forever!
27 Jul 2026
Episode 14 - Andy & Justin
The guys catch up about summer sports and gaming, including the Destiny 2 final update, Forza Horizon 6, Marathon, and Mina the Hollower. They go over some of the Xbox Studios shutdowns and do a big overview of gaming's Not-E3 summer event reveals and keynotes from State of Play, Summer Gamesfest, Xbox, and more. Andy and Justin also give their picks for most anticipated games to play from these shows for the next year.
2 Jun 2026
Episode 13 - Gavin Howell
We catch up with our former PlayStation colleague Gavin Howell, currently of Probably Monsters and reminisce about old times working together. Gavin gives some great insight on working in business development on both the platform and developer side along with some great career insight on what makes a successful BizDev person. We also have a fun experience share of some of the deep lored worlds of Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive and Kane Parsons’s Backrooms while also discussing the age old debate of “are audiobooks reading?” Finally, the guys have an extended reflection/postmortem discussion on the upcoming end of Destiny 2 as all of us have over 2000 hours played in the game over 12+ years.
6 May 2026
Episode 12 - Andy & Justin
Two man pod this episode again with Andy and Justin. We chat about photography inspiration, children’s birthday parties, film festivals, Matt Johnson having a recent moment as Justin is watching Nirvanna, The Show, The Band, The Movie, and obtaining passes for the upcoming Pokemon World Championships. Andy chats about finishing Pragmata while Justin gives his first impressions of Housemarque’s Saros. The guys also analyze some Steam sales data from Sony and Microsoft while speculating about how GTA 6 will do. Finally, there’s a spirited discussion on game discovery as well as shortcuts we use while leveraging critics and influencers to form opinions.
21 Apr 2026
Episode 11 - Andy & Justin
The guys have another two-man pod and chat about experiences going to a concert from bands we liked 20+ years ago (The Format and RX Bandits) as well as experiences with family sleepovers at museums is like. We chat about our time with Pragmata, Marathon, and Pokopia gaming recently as well as the recently announced Microsoft Game Pass price changes and how compelling Call of Duty and subscription packages are worth. Andy gives a rundown as to WrestleMania and how WWE has over-monetized its product recently. The guys then continue the conversation on talking through a gaming “diet” by putting together a framework trying to understand why we play certain kinds of games and what kinds of cravings they fulfill, similar to how you would fill up your plate at a buffet.
Andy’s newsletter: https://appropriatelycultured.net/ (https://appropriatelycultured.net/)
7 Apr 2026
Episode 10 - Andy & Justin
Classic two man pod today as Andy catches up with Absolute Batman, Justin loses a week to roguelite coin-pusher Raccoin, and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie asks us to find the line between what makes a movie “good” versus “enjoyable.” Hint: they don’t have to be mutually exclusive! We also take a nice little detour into the world of male fashion courtesy of a very sweet raffle win for a pair of Jordans by Justin, chat a bit about the new A24 movie “The Drama” and also start noodling on the concept of mapping out our personal gaming diets to start putting together a “Gaming Food Pyramid”.
26 Mar 2026
Episode 9 - Chandler Wood
This week, we welcome Chandler Wood, video game marketer formerly of Avalanche Studios and PlayStation Lifestyle! Andy and Justin chat with him on how he helped build and manage the community for Hogwarts Legacy at Avalanche Studios, and what it takes to be an effective liaison between players and creators. Plus, we talk Marathon, Lucha Libre Wrestling, Project Hail Mary, moving to New York City, and more.
11 Mar 2026
Episode 8 - Andy & Justin
It’s GDC Festival 2026 week! Andy and Justin chat about what it’s like to socialize with Bay Area dads including golfing and playing poker with noobs. There’s a new live stage play production of Paranormal Activity which Andy dives deep into in the midst of a Resident Evil spooky season in March with Requiem releasing as well. We then dive into our experience at The MIX showcase, an in-person indie games mini-festival and chat about all the games we played along with our picks to wishlist!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P0ml-vWd-E (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P0ml-vWd-E)
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/30894338/sale/TheMIXSpringShowcase (https://store.steampowered.com/curator/30894338/sale/TheMIXSpringShowcase)
26 Feb 2026
Episode 7 - Simon Boas & Cam Perkins
We chat with Simon Boas, an immersive experience producer, and Cam Perkins, a photographer. Both of whom happen to be in our Fantasy Critic league and love games! It’s a more games-heavy chat this week as we go over Citizen Sleeper, Nioh 3, No Sleep For Kaname Date, Monster Hunter Wilds as well as explore what it’s like to play Fantasy Critic over the years.
6 Feb 2026
Episode 6 - Andy & Justin
Welcome to 2026! We chat about some experiences we've had since the holiday break - Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland for Justin, while Andy gives the lowdown about the Sundance Film Festival in 2026 and we chat about the beauty of discovering new things we love. Gaming wise, we talk Expedition 33, Pokemon and Animal Crossing, touch upon Highguard and the newly announced Horizon Hunters Gathering. Finally, we do a deep dive on our Fantasy Critic Games league draft and teams for 2026.
13 Dec 2025
Episode 5 - Nic McConnell
Our first guest! Nic McConnell of Instruction Derby fame joins us to chat about what we've been up to lately, old school instruction manuals, what goes into Age Rating games as well as throw in some indie game recommendations and predict who will take home the Game Award for Indies!
https://bsky.app/profile/mcconnell.bsky.social
21 Nov 2025
Episode 4 - Andy & Justin
Fun episode this week as we talk: KAWS exhibit at the SF MOMA, King of the Hill, Easy Come, Easy Golf, The Plucky Squire. The Game Award nominees just came out and we go category by category picking our favorites!
3 Nov 2025
Episode 3 - Andy & Justin
This week we chat Daft Punk, Halloween, Dispatch, Pokemon Legends Z-A, and BALL X PIT. We also talk about a Circana study on the number of games different players buy per year and then delve into how we discover games recently and live react to our Steam Calendar Browsing lists.
22 Oct 2025
Episode 2 - Andy & Justin
We talk their recent gaming experiences with Deltarune and Hades 2, delve into the importance of game preservation, and Andy share insights on the wonders of attending a film festival.
2 Oct 2025
Episode 1 - Andy & Justin
First episode! We introduce ourselves and talk music festival experiences alongside what we've been playing (Hades 2 / Consume Me and more!). Justin also runs down some of the big highlights from State of Play September 2025
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