In this episode, it's an Indie Game Roundup! We chat about Blue Prince, Wanderstop, Despelote, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Split Fiction. We also talk about our games of the year so far!

Find timestamps for this episode below:

• 0:00 - Intro
• 1:00 - Icebreaker: "How is 2025 comparing to 2024 in gaming?"
• 8:50 - Blue Prince
• 20:20 - Wanderstop
• 26:00 - Despelote
• 29:30 - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• 47:45 - Split Fiction
• 54:05 - Our Games of the Year So Far

Thank you to Popagenda for sending codes for Wanderstop and a code for Despelote and thank you to Raw Fury for a sending code for Blue Prince.

Resources:

• Jacob's Spoilercast on Wanderstop
• Giant Bomb's Video about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Find us on BlueSky for show updates and more:

• Podcast: @crossplayconvos.bsky.social
• Jacob: @jacob.bsky.social
• Luke: @lukewarmlewis.bsky.social
• Joseph: @th3hoopman.bsky.social

Check out our other shows:

• Player Player Podcast
• Left Behind Game Club
• The LukeWarmGames Podcast
• Cutscenes: A Video Game Movie Podcast
• Video Game Trivia

This week, the lads are joined by special guest Adam Gumbert (Respawn Aim Fire) to talk about the past, present, and future of open world games. From our favorites of the genre to wild GTA VI speculation, settle in for the vast adventure ahead y’all!

Follow Adam Gumbert on BlueSky:

• Adam on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/adamgumby.bsky.social
• Respawn Aim Fire: https://bsky.app/profile/respawnaimfire.bsky.social

Find Timestamps for this Episode Below: 0:00 - Intro/Shoe Talk? 2:38 - Ice Breaker Question: What is the best example of an open world game and why? 8:58 - What are the core tenets of a good open world game? And what are some of our favorites from over the years? 30:16 - Recent Open World Game Impressions 47:24 - Predicting the future of open world games 1:01:29 - Our Most Anticipated Open World Game of 2025 1:07:46 - Outro

Resources for Today’s Episode:

• Respawn Aim Fire on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@respawnaimfire
• Player Player Podcast: https://plnk.to/playerplayer
• LukeWarmGames Last of Us Season 2 Reactions Pod: https://lukewarmgamespodcast.buzzsprout.com/1187351/episodes/16980560-the-last-of-us-season-2-episode-1-review-spoilercast

Find us on BlueSky for show updates and more:

• Podcast: @crossplayconvos.bsky.social
• Jacob: @jacob.bsky.social
• Luke: @lukewarmlewis.bsky.social
• Joseph: @th3hoopman.bsky.social

Check out our other shows:

• Player Player Podcast
• Left Behind Game Club
• The LukeWarmGames Podcast
• Cutscenes: A Video Game Movie Podcast
• Video Game Trivia

This week, the lads are joined by special guest Emmett Watkins Jr (VGU.tv, Player’s Club Podcast and Welcome To The Thing) to talk about gaming backlogs and all of their tips, tricks, tools, and tales that accompany their piles of shame!

Follow Emmett Watkins Jr:

• Website and Socials: @ejsponge61.com

Resources From this Episode:

• Spoonful Podcast Backlog Episode with Jacob and Emmett: https://youtu.be/W6ODHr-p08M?si=TZh8ud1NA6Xw8Hk5
• Backloggd: https://backloggd.com/
• Infinite Backlog: https://infinitebacklog.net/
• Playnite: https://playnite.link/
• Ludoscene: https://www.ludocene.com/
• GG: https://ggapp.io/
• Exophase: https://www.exophase.com/

Find Timestamps for this Episode Below: 0:00 - Intro 3:51 - Ice Breaker: What’s the latest game that you pulled out of your backlog? 9:57 - Our Personal Philosophy of Backlogs 23:27 - Managing our Backlogs 49:50 - What are the most shameful games in your backlog? 1:01:56 - One last game we pulled out of the backlog 1:08:49 - Outro

Find us on BlueSky for show updates and more:

• Podcast: @crossplayconvos.bsky.social
• Jacob: @jacob.bsky.social
• Luke: @lukewarmlewis.bsky.social
• Joseph: @th3hoopman.bsky.social

Check out our other shows:

• Player Player Podcast
• Left Behind Game Club
• The LukeWarmGames Podcast
• Cutscenes: A Video Game Movie Podcast
• Video Game Trivia