The Gamers' Inn

We're back for 2021 with this milestone, yet totally normal, episode of TGI! We kick things off with the most missed TGI Game of 2020, Hades. Ryan picked it up on Nintendo Switch, after the planets aligned with cloud sync, an eShop sale, and some eShop credit from Christmas. Jocelyn couched it up with some Assassin's Creed Valhalla over the holidays. Finally, Ryan played Super Meat Boy Forever on Nintendo Switch, which sees a change up to the classic Super Meat Boy formula in Ryan's favour (except for the bosses). We then close out the show with our most anticipated games scheduled for 2021.

Ryan and Jocelyn close out the year THAT WAS 2020 and chat about all their favourite video game experiences. We kick things off with our personal Top 5 (in no particular order), with a few Nintendo overlaps. After a good jolly chat about some great games, we continue talking about great games with our Honourable Mentions. What were your favourite games of 2020? Be sure to join the conversation in Discord. Thank you to all that supported The Gamers' Inn over the last year, and in previous years. We really appreciate it! Have yourselves a great holiday and see you in the New Year!

We've got plenty to say about Cyberpunk 2077, but before that we get an update on Ryan's adventures in Bugsnax and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. When it comes to Cyberpunk 2077, Ryan is playing on Xbox One X and Joce is playing on Xbox Series X (check out this great performance comparison by Digital Foundry). We chat about what we like about the game, the bugs we've encountered, the terrible performance issues on base PS4 and Xbox One, and of course all the refund madness (including the fact that most retailers are refusing refunds).

Joce and Ryan delay their recording this week to chat all about The Game Awards 2020! There were plenty of game announcements to get excited about, including creepy Vin Diesel AND a new Mass Effect. Also Perfect Dark is back! Some fun surprises, some cool indie games, and a few awards given out as well. Tune in for our GOTY episode in just a few weeks, until then happy gaming!

Jocelyn's Xbox Series X was not a mirage (or a box filled with rocks), so she was able to jump into Assassin's Creed Valhalla on the next gen system. We talk a whole bunch about the new viking adventure, so get your raiding axes ready. Afterwards, we wrap up our chats on Bugsnax, and dip our toes into Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and Jackbox Games Trivia Murder Party 2.

Jocelyn was able to get her Xbox Series X order in, but the quest was not an easy one, and some have her convinced it's an empty box? We shall see next week! While Joce waits for her Xbox, she has started her adventures in the Shadowlands for the new World of Warcraft expansion. Ryan promises to join her soon, but has been busy with Miles Morales and Bugsnax. That's right, we're talking about MORE Bugsnax! (Joce's Note: BUNGER, BUNGER, BUNGER, BUNGER)

We continue the conversation of not having next generation consoles, and our moments of weakness in trying to break from the PLAN. As promised, Ryan has been playing Spider-Man Miles Morales and takes some time to discuss his thoughts on why the game is a REALLY good cross generation game (be sure to check out IGN's Performance Review for Miles Morales). Jocelyn is talking about Bugsnax, because she has played Bugsnax. Light news week, what with the launch of TWO new consoles, but we take some time to discuss the latest Capcom leaks.

With our official Extra Life Game Day behind us, we go over the successes from the day where we managed to raise $4500 to date as a team! We relive our experiences in Phasmophobia thanks the lovely community helping us hit our $1500 raised for each of us. Then we calm things down with a discussion of our time in Raft. In the news, we get hopeful about the Legendary Edition of the Mass Effect Trilogy, but still wary about the promise of Bioware taking another stab at the franchise with a new game. Finally, we chat about our FOMO and the next generation of consoles launching this week.

Both Ryan and Jocelyn played and finished Little Hope through co-op. We actually streamed the whole thing and you can check it out if you'd like (Ryan's Perspective / Joce's Perspective). We spend the first chunk of the show sharing our thoughts on the first 3/4 of the game and how Supermassive Games constructed an excellent and tense experience featuring a good chunk of Witch Trials lore. We take a break with the news where the Tomb Raider movie sequel has been delayed indefinitely, Nintendo dropped some news with their final Partner Direct, and WoW Shadowlands has a new release date. Finally, we close the show with SPOILERS for the end of Little Hope. We highly recommend you skip the end of the show if you plan to play or experience the game for yourself. If you played the whole game, or watched our streams, feel free to join us through the end of the episode.

Ryan played a bunch of Amnesia Rebirth, the brand new horror game from Frictional Games. He also streamed the first three hours, so be sure to check that out! Ryan has also officially played more Minecraft in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate than he has played Minecraft in Minecraft. That's right, Steve and company are here as DLC for Smash! We have a bunch of news this week which includes our first look at Tom Holland as Nathan Drake, Google wants you to know they don't agree with that Alex guy, Facebook is launching a casual cloud gaming service, Netflix is making a live-action Assassin's Creed series, and Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed to December 10th.

After some deep thoughts about how old TGI is, we get down to business with more Genshin Impact. Jocelyn has been playing Phasmophobia by proxy and is getting ready to jump in herself (and possibly bringing Ryan along for Extra Life). We muse a bit about what it would take for us both to play and stream the game for Extra Life, so if you're interested, be sure to donate and mention it in your comment. Moving into the news, PlayStation is collecting feedback on their new voice chat reporting feature on the PlayStation 5, and Oculus + Facebook = broken Quest 2's?

After the Thanksgiving long weekend, Jocelyn and Ryan return to discuss their long weekend and their daily return to Animal Crossing during the Halloween event. Jocelyn backed that Frostpunk board game Kickstarter. Ryan followed the Discord's passion for Genshin Impact and dove into the free-to-play BOTW-like. Moving into the news, Microsoft has a plan to bring xCloud to iOS, Sony details backwards compatibility on PS5, Amazon pulls the plug on Crucible, and TMNT is coming to SMITE in November.

Jocelyn and Ryan return to their Animal Crossing island, and after consoling their distraught villagers, they start decorating for HALLOWEEN! Continuing the Nintendo trend, both inn keepers have been running through Super Mario Bros. 35, and offer some pointers to new players. Finally, in what we're playing, Ryan picked up the Super Mario LEGO Starter Pack and has been enjoying it with Kayden! In the news, Insomniac does a face swap on Peter Parker on the PS5, Blizzard delays World of Warcraft: Shadowlands and dates the expansion pre-patch, and Minecraft is coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate next week.

Ryan spends some more time with Super Mario 3D All-Stars. He also finds some Netflix time to check out High Score, a documentary series chronicling the 80's and 90's of the video game industry. Once again we have a good helping of news from the last week. Mike Morhaime is back with Dreamhaven. Microsoft announced pricing for the Series S/X storage expansion. Among Us developer scraps sequel to focus on original game. Turns out CD Projekt RED will need to do mandatory crunch on Cyberpunk 2077 after all. And finally, Amazon announces Luna, a new game streaming service that will directly compete with Google Stadia and Microsoft xCloud.

Ryan has closing thoughts on Marvel's Avengers (at least until there is a good patch or more hero content). Ryan also got a chance to boot up Super Mario 3D All-Stars, which is a collection of three great games that haven't aged particularly well. We'll have more thoughts on the collection next episode! Jocelyn shares her tales from sorting out the Imposters in Among Us. In the news, Sony makes it official and raises the prices on some next generation games, the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition may be tough to come by at launch, and Microsoft is buying ZeniMax (Bethesda, Arkane, ID, and MORE) for 7.5 BILLION DOLLARS.