AND WE'RE BACK! | Friends Per Second Ep #61

Kept ya waitin', huh?

Hey Users! 

Is it too late to hit you with a ‘Happy New Year’? The answer is probably yes, but it’s our first episode of 2025, so I’m going to say it anyway. We’re coming into the new year feeling refreshed and ready to play and chat about as many video games as humanly possible.

So basically, new year, same us.

In this episode, we were going to chat about the Switch 2 reveal but… that trailer didn’t really give us anything meaty so we decided to wait until after April’s Direct. Instead, we chatted about what we’ve been playing (or not playing) over break and dug into a bunch of fantastic User questions.

As mentioned, if you have any feedback for us at all (especially with regard to the newsletter), please let us know in the comments, or drop us an email (contact@friendspersecond.com). We’d love to continue to grow and evolve it this year. We’d also love to get some .mp3s of User questions to play on the show! Thank you to those who have already sent theirs in.

Okay, on with the episode!

Games mentioned: Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Diablo 4, Path of Exile 2, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, here’s the Switch 2 trailer

Misc. mentions: How To Convert Fahrenheit To Celsius (a guide Lucy desperately needs because 27 C is actually around 80 F), home projects, The Lord of the Rings Appendices, The Internet Archive, The Hobbit movies, Logan, Denis Villeneuve, Quentin Tarantino, Game File by Stephen Totilo, Nosferatu, crochet, Nightmare Before Christmas

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What We've Been Playing / Doing Over Break

Obra Dinn enjoyers: play this

We took a few weeks off after The Game Awards to recharge our batteries and touch a bit of grass. But worry not, we’ve still got some games to talk about, and our 2025 wishlists are looking intimidating already.

Games mentioned: The Roottrees Are Dead, Return of the Obra Dinn, Her Story, Outer Wilds, Disco Elysium, Rise of the Golden Idol, Mouthwashing, Chants of Senaarr, Duck Detective: The Secret Salami, The Operator, Papers, Please, Locator, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, Marvel Snap, Path of Exile 2, Diablo 4, Dark Souls, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Baldur’s Gate, Assassin’s Creed, Morrowind, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, Dragon Age Origins, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Doom: The Dark Ages, inZOI, The Sims, League of Legends, Donkey Kong

Misc mentions: itch.io, the fart TikTok, Nine Inch Nails (This Is Nine Inch Nails playlist link), The Social Network, Watchmen, Kavinsky, LCD Sound System, CES, Peter Molyneux, Streamlabs Assistant, NVIDIA Broadcast, Razer’s heat/cooling chairs, VLC, Genki, Tom Holland’s alcohol-free beer, Josh wine, Trader Joe’s Dog Wine (it’s called Casaponte)

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User Question Bonanza!

We get so many User questions each week (please keep them coming, we love hearing from you!) that it’s tough to keep up, so we decided to dive through as many as possible to kick off the year.

• Do you have any gaming goals for 2025? - Annina

• Do you ever suffer from imposter syndrome? - DanLaw1991

• Why does Jake end the podcast with "tie your shoes and go to bed"? - Brian

• We have recently been seeing a rise of "rebuild" type stories or meta retelling of popular or famous stories in pop culture usually written by people who grew up with the original. I was wondering what games or even other media would you like to see get this meta retelling? - Tre

• Do you guys have any games that used Stockholm syndrome to convince you they were good? - David

• Have you ever thought of a song that unintentionally lines up with a game or its trailer perfectly? - Kev

• What could be the perfect video game fit for the FPS cast? - Thomas

Games mentioned: Little Problems, Balatro, Return of the Obra Dinn, The Roottrees Are Dead, The Sims, Destiny 2, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Max Payne, Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill 2, Jeff Gordon XS Racing, Pokémon Red, The Mummy Returns Game, Condemned: Criminal Origins, Call of Duty 2, Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo Elements of Power, Batman (Mega Drive/Genesis game), Gradius, Leisure Suit Larry, Tak and the Power of Juju, Croc, Kao the Kangaroo, Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy IX, Airblade, Blinx the Time Sweeper, Animal Crossing

Misc. mentions: Goop, itch.io, Warhammer, Bart Simpson, Evangelion, Scott Pilgrim, Castlevania (Netflix series), Star Wars Skeleton Crew, The Goonies, Stone Sour, Linkin Park

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Show and tell

• Ralph’s been listening to Blood Cultures

• Jake’s been catching up on a bunch of movies

• Lucy really enjoyed Nosferatu

Games mentioned: Skate Story, Bloodborne, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Civilization VII

Movies mentioned: Heat, A Real Pain, The Substance, The Page Master, The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, Juror Number 2, Nosferatu, Wicked, Joker 2, Saturday Night, Conclave, The Apprentice, Carry-On (Carry On movies are incredibly different things in the UK - L), Die Hard, Phone Booth, Gattaca, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Northman, The VVitch

Misc. mentions: Letterboxd, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Whitby (big ups), The Idol, Euphoria, JeffJeff’s Bizarre Adventure, Berserk, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure

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Thanks for reading! We’ve got a lot planned for 2025 and we can’t wait to just jump right into it. Catch you in a couple of weeks! xoxo