Player 2's Podcasts

Hosted by Player2.net.au

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Episodes

146

Latest episode

Oct 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

The Player2.net.au crew get together to talk all things news, games and hot topics in the Australian gaming landscape

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60 recent

October 8, 20261 hr 4 min

The Player 2 PixelCast 195

It feels like the last fortnight or so has been spent largely recalling how Halo used to be a near culture-defining event. Sure enough, the games produced under the stewardship of 343/Halo Studios were all perfectly fine games, it's hard to argue that the franchise has failed to hit as it did under Bungie. So, passing it on to some Call of Duty stuff (and leaving a bunch of other people without work in the process), well, we're not sure about that. Is there a better match out there, shy of Sony not gutting Bungie and selling the studio back to Xbox? That's at least a part of what Matt, Rob, and Tim are here to discuss. A part. Things have been pretty bleak these past years (most of the decade, really), and so in an attempt to make it a little bit more fun we have gone and simply thought of some waysided or mistreated franchises that we have some remaining affection for and pondered which studios we might like to see given the duty of breathing in some new life. Games: Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve , Star Wars: Galactic Racer , Resident Evil Requiem Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell Dma-Sc Break Music: Neonature by Alexander Brandon, Bryan Rudge, Dan Gardopée, Michiel van den Bos, Reeves Gabrels Cast Rob Caporetto Tim Henderson Matthew Hewson

September 24, 202656 min

The Player 2 PixelCast 194

We're waist-deep into September now, and as such the games just won't stop coming. It's almost a relief that we've missed out on a couple of the bigger ones for now. That doesn't really mean we have excessive time to just breathe, though, as this episode will help to testify: once again, we've dropped the usual topic from the back end of the show in service of simply being able to get discussion about a couple more actual video games in. Tim's back in charge, recording from a cardboard box while hiding from... nobody in particular, actually. He's backed up my Rob and Hewso, bringing with them a mix of the extremely retro and the bleeding new, respectively. There's Master System in this one! Surely that makes this unmistakably an Australian show. Or Brazilian, we suppose, although none of us really smell good enough to pull that one off. Games: Marvel's Wolverine , Razing Core, MGS4, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave , Rayman Legends Retold Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell DMA-SC Break Music: Disconnected by Ben Briggs Cast Rob Caporetto Tim Henderson Matthew Hewson

September 10, 202649 min

The Player 2 PixelCast 193

Welcome to the gaming lion’s den that is September. We’re not two weeks in, and already games are spilling from what isn’t so much a leak as a gaping hole. We now all know what the remake of Ocarina of Time looks like, and we’re all… just… so… tired . At least there’s plenty to play. As such, that’s what this episode is about, really. We eschewed the typical topic format and have instead just allowed Matt and Tim to wax on about the stuff they’ve been playing. There’s no shortage of it. Honestly, next episode could realistically follow a similar cadence. Games: Onimusha , Hot Wheels: Infinite Rush , The Blood of Dawnwalker , MGS Delta Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell Dma-Sc Break Music: Cassie’s Fortune by Daniel Caton Cast Matt Hewson Tim Henderson

August 27, 20261 hr 34 min

The Player 2 PixelCast 192

We've made an active choice to look at things a bit more warmly this episode. Make no mistake - the games industry continues to be an absolute mess, but there's no need for each and every topic that we do to concern itself with whatever news or event is happening at any given time. Thusly, this fortnight sees us look back to our heady days in the school yard. Or, more specifically, that period of our lives when we were very much not in the school yard. For real, it's just occurring to me that nobody mentioned a single portable game. The reason for this is fairly simple: we've dedicated this episode to the games that were most influential on us during the formative years of K-12. Tim and Rob are here as usual, but Jenn has also come along to tease them with how she was still just a tyke when the freaking PlayStation 2 came out! Whatever. It created a good spread, likely including some games you've never heard of before. Games: Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, Mortal Shell 2, FF7: Rebirth Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell Dma-Sc Break Music: Deliverance of the Heart by Jillian Aversa, zircon Cast Rob Caporetto Tim Henderson Jenn don't-try-and-find-me-I-(smartly)-hide-from-social-media

August 13, 202655 min

The Player 2 PixelCast 191

One of these days, we're going to stop fretting about the future of videogames. One of these days. But probably not this day. What good we can do, perhaps, is to thumb our noses at the slow progress of English evolution and treat videogame as the compound noun that we all know it should be. Feel better? No? Well... we'll do our best to find a silver lining or two in the actual cast itself. Who is we, you may ask? This one's a Matt and Tim show (as opposed to a Tim and Matt show, we suppose). What does this mean? Well, apparently it means a mix of British politics and Shenmue, as well as an amount of excited talking about a turn-based tactics game. That Star Wars is involved is really just incidental. Games: Replaced, Star Wars: Zero Company Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell Dma-Sc Break Music: Under a Leaden Sky by prophetik music, Geoffrey Taucer Cast Matt Hewson Tim Henderson

July 30, 202659 min

The Player 2 PixelCast 190

Avast! Grog! Other pirate-y sounding terms! While we watch July slide slowly towards August and then the eventual avalanche of new game releases, some of us have decided to take cover on a small island, guarding a giant chest full of shiny trinkets and being perpetually buzzed on watered-down rum. Or, in other words, the remake of Black Flag is still fresh in our memories, so we decided to theme this episode around pirates. Who is the greatest video game pirate (not pirate-er of video games)? Which pirate-y game is most worthy of (delicious, non-invasive) cookies? You won't be surprised that there's no definite answer to either question. We've gone overboard (heh) here and invited on a guest who is perhaps way too qualified to contribute to a topic that is, at its heart, quite silly. Because what could be more appropriate for video games right now than taking something that should be fun and then shattering it with harsh realisations of reality? Games: Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynched , Civilization VI , Yakuza 6 Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell Dma-Sc Break Music: Late in the Caribbean by Rozovian Cast Matt Hewson Tim Henderson Tamsin Paige

July 16, 20261 hr 2 min

The Player 2 PixelCast 189

Occasionally, over the life of the PixelCast, we have been known to revisit topics. There are perennial ones, such as reactions to reward shows and personal GOTY discussions, but occasionally we may dip into a wider pool of discussion for a second time. Usually, there would be at least a couple of years’ space between these. We did a show about horror games back in 2023, and revisited that topic again earlier this year. Maybe horror will become the overarching theme, because for the second time this year we’re recording a show where the basic theme is everything-is-turning-to-shit. If you’ve been following game news, then you’re probably aware that Sony just threw the concept of physical media into the fire, only to be outdone by Xbox working the bellows so that it could keep it burning with a few thousand employees. Tim and Rob, you may not be surprised to learn, aren’t super happy. Games: X-Out: Resurfaced, Denshattack! Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell Dma-Sc Break Music: Black Wing Metamorphosis by bLiNd, Fishy, Jillian Aversa, Juan Medrano, Steffan Andrews, Suzumebachi, tefnek Cast Rob Caporetto Tim Henderson

July 2, 202651 min

The Player 2 PixelCast 188

Remember the smell of stale cigarettes and what is probably vomit mostly made up of slushy? The horrible carpet that said vomit had soaked into? The loud clink of machines converting ten and twenty-dollar notes into gold coins? No? Well then, treasure your youth while it lasts. For everyone else, arcade games come with a mix of memories, both of place and of game design itself. Granted, most of Tim’s memories of arcades are really the local fish and chips place and the other entertainment at a bowling ally. Rob, though? We haven’t seen the birth certificate, but there’s a small chance he was actually born in a Timezone. Seeing as most of these places are significantly, shall we say, diminished today, their talk this episode mostly focuses on the sensibilities of arcade game design itself. What made them work, what drew us to them, and how such ideals can survive in the current era. Games: Hyper Detonator, Dark Scrolls Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell Dma-Sc Break Music: Autos, Arps & Minimoogs by Txai Cast Rob Caporetto Tim Henderson

June 18, 20261 hr 27 min

The Player 2 PixelCast 187

Another (just about) couple of weeks of games hype has come and gone, and we're left to pick up the pieces. That is to say, to look back at our last predictions episode, where we thought a lot of stuff would get pushed into March or April next year and eat crow as we witnessed September get stuffed to bursting. Tim is back in charge, with Rob and Matt on board to help out as they go through the hype, the bummers and the merely curious. Overall, while it wasn't the best Keigh3 season, it was better than any of us had been expecting. Of course, our reaction to something like Senua (a game that, we can't stress enough, appeared during the Xbox showcase ) might have been a little different had we not recorded a day before it became apparent that Microsoft is looking to shut down Ninja Theory , the studio actively developing the game. Well, it was a fun week or two of hype while it lasted. Everything can go back to being terrible again now. Games: Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 , Promise Mascot Agency , Project X Light Years Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell Dma-Sc Break Music: Gerudo Desert Party by Reuben Spiers Cast Rob Caporetto Tim Henderson Matthew Hewson

June 4, 20261 hr 2 min

The Player 2 PixelCast 186

By the time you're listening to this, the internet has probably tied itself into an unspecified, likely very messy and painful knot after having a very normal one about a God of War game where you play as Kratos's ( gasp ) wife. We didn't know that when we recorded this, though (the specific announcement, that is; people losing their shit we could have safely bet our homes on). But that's half the fun! This is a Summer Game Fest prediction episode where people can happily listen along, red markers in hand. Hewso has the misfortune of being in charge of all the flubbing guesswork, but Tim trips over his tongue a few times to help out. Not Steve, though. That man was born with silver in his mouth. Oh, and despite 2026's best efforts to be a relentless shitshow, everyone has been playing things that they mostly like, too! Games: 007: First Light, Mina the Hollower , Saros Theme Music: Visitors from Dreams by Mathieu Stempell Dma-Sc Break Music: Wickedest Child by Chickusho Sound Team Cast Matthew Hewson Tim Henderson Stephen del Prado

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