Total Playtime

It’s another bijou two-hander this week, as Alice and I meet to pick over the remains of another week in PC gaming and get the latest updates on her dog and her neighbours, both of whom are making annoying noises. 
Annoying noises in gaming, meanwhile, come from the resurfacing of the GTA leaks guy (let’s face it, it’s almost certainly a guy) and the newfound union of Warner Bros and Paramount into a new games/movies behemoth. The latter now includes Bobby Kotick, about whom we have nothing bad to say. There’s also a bit of AI chat and some game recommendations, which tops up our quota just enough to merit another run of highly self-indulgent subscriber episodes plucked from the cauldron of Nate’s brain. 
If you’d like to experience those subscriber episodes (along with Discord access to both the hosts and your fellow listeners) you can do so right now by subscribing to Jank. Doing so will turn this from a fortnightly podcast to a weekly one, and instantly unlock over a year of previous episodes. The podcast only exists thanks to our subscribers and we thank every one of them. Our music is by God Ribbon, our art is by Marsh Davies (who also writes a great review) and our editing is by Alix Attenborough; you can send us feedback at totalplaytimepod@gmail.com or leave a comment below. 
Links!
The GTAVI leaker RETVRNED and seems to think there is more juice to squeeze. Bobby Kotick is also back, and we won’t hear a word said against him. Skydance unites Warner Bros and Paramount Games Studio, and the latter were at least quite keen on games.  Capcom announced plans to change their RE Engine into an "AI generation engine" but nobody who speaks English is entirely sure what they mean. The happiest man in gaming hates generative AI. Pony Island 2 is the latest Mullinslike and you can sign up to the playtest. The horse game lady is Alice Ruppert. Evil Trout accidentally specialised in bringing Itch games on Steam. 
Games!
Pony Island 2, The Archives of Trevosa
Recommendations!
Jack Tucker: Comedy Standup Hour and Vertical Slice.

Total Playtime is the official Jank podcast, funded entirely by our paying subscribers (and formerly our backers on Patreon). This week’s episode is free, but subscribers get additional episodes every other week. You may join them by subscribing here, and you can find all previous episodes here.   
Alice and Nate are away this week, possibly because we're talking about layoffs again, chiefly those at Microsoft again. Still, this does spare us from having to tell Nate live on air that an unrevealed Age of Empires game has been cancelled. 
Otherwise it's a bit of a bad-news rundown through the extended Xbox universe and into Bungie's recent decision that it's going to spend time on Destiny 2 after all, before Brendy brightens things up with some chat about the cheerily implausible fighter-plane-based fiction of Ace Combat 8. There are also some important tips about carrying car batteries, thus cementing our position as providers of service journalism. 
You can listen to the episode right here, or find it in your podcasting app of choice. 

Our art is by God Ribbon, our art is by Marsh Davies, our editing is by Alix Attenborough and the entire podcast is thanks to the paying supporters of Jank. Share your insights on impairment-based financial charges at totalplaytimepod@gmail.com, in the comments below, or in the rarified environment of the Jank Discord.
Links!
Turns out that estate agents are held in higher regard than journalists although we've still got the edge on "politicians generally" and "social media influencers". Xbox did layoffs again. Don't call it a reset. Ninja Theory is marked for closure.  Microsoft bought Activision for $69 billion. The reshuffle suggests a reverse acquisition. Bungie is de-vaulting Destiny and re-vamping Marathon. 
Games!
Forza Horizon 6. Clockwork Revolution. Gears of War E-Day. Fable (2027). Destiny 2. Marathon. Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve. Permaban.

Recommendations!
The Hundred Brothers and Resident Evil (2026).

Alice is away this week, so three grown men get to sit around and puzzle over a particularly baffling week of news items and become steadily less certain that we were describing reality. There were some positives: Nate got to let a year’s worth of Hearthstone annoyance off his chest, Brendy got to drop an unexpected Halo deep cut, and I got to talk about a nice cat that I met. All solid therapeutic behaviours. 

Plus: subscribing to Accomplished Shootsman Magazine, earning money for being meat in the room, and surviving the horrors of modern capitalism. You can listen right here on this page, or find us in many of the places you get your podcasts. 

Our music is by God Ribbon, our art is by Marsh Davies and our editing is by Alix Attenborough. The podcast only exists thanks to those who subscribe to Jank (and previously funded us on Patreon) who are additionally rewarded with an extra episode every other week dedicated to things like our videogame book club and the developing trials of Games Satan. Subscribe today and get us closer to being able to afford Brendy full-time.

Links! 
Blizzard announced a bunch of stuff at Blizzon including a Starcraft FPS that is not a service game, World of Warcraft Forever and new levels of Hearthstone depravity. PhysInt is coming to Xbox because Sony dropped it for being too expensive. Here’s how to unlock the Skyrim companion which is an IKEA bookcase voiced by Matt Berry, which was made by Kinggath Creations. IKEA already made some Xbox furniture. The Breaking Benjamin guitarist will complain about his Fallout 4 mod on stage until the user rating improves. Here’s the battle they soundtracked in Halo 2.  Post Malone played his $2m Magic: The Gathering card. We played Wardogs without spending any money. Brendy has previously written about Foxhole. 

Games!
Wardogs does not contain any actual dogs, sorry. Starcraft Ghost never came out. World of Warcraft. Hearthstone. Operation Flashpoint. Battlefield. Foxhole. 

Recommendations! 
The Nice Guys, 1670 on Netflix, and The Employees.

Total Playtime is the official Jank podcast, funded entirely by our paying subscribers (and formerly our backers on Patreon). This week’s episode is free, but subscribers get additional episodes every other week. You may join them by subscribing here, and you can find all previous episodes here.  
For the first time in a while all four of us could make this recording, and it's a free-to-all news episode to boot. This meant we had to address the twin issues of Gamescom and an abundance of GTA 6 footage, both from vegetable-themed hackers and latterly Rockstar themselves via an extended preview on Netflix. The former is a much more interesting discussion point, although not particularly impressive unless it later transpires it was the previous GTA hacker doing it with even less technology this time. 
I am also able to share some limited insights from Gamescom, although not all that much because I only saw three games and one of them I can't write about. Please support Jank so that we have enough money to send Brendy next year and have him report on all the very weirdest games on the different international stages. 
Plus: Nate's utterly inevitable Bane-reciting-Shakespeare impersonation, the tedium of hat management, giving an octopus in a mech suit a New Jersey accent and fleeting discussion of some games we played, like we're a videogame podcast or something.
Our art is by Marsh Davies, our music is by God Ribbon, our editing is by Alix Attenborough and our existence is thanks to paying subscribers of Jank: thanks for making the podcast happen.
Links!
The new GTA looks like GTA. The Cyberleek manifesto is pretty cringe. Google's Project Genie made share prices go down because the market doesn't know anything. The hacker cashed out $200,000 which barely seems worth the effort of being indefinitely detained. Here's everything from Gamescom Opening Night Live. Brendy reviewed Vholume. 

Games!
Exodus, Vholume, Star Wars: Zero Company, Desktop Explorer, Fable (2027).

Recommendations!
Robot Dreams by Sara Varon, Murderbot on Apple TV, Czarface meets Frankie Pulitzer (specifically track 6) and using bleach-soaked paper towel to remove black mould spots.