The Codec Moments Podcast (Codec Moments)

In a very special episode of the Codec Moments Podcast, the team talk to Andrew Aitcheson, one of the co-creators of They Live: Assault on Cable 54 - a table top game that's currently being funded on Kickstarter.  As part of Iconiq Studios, Andrew talks us through where the inspiration came from, what the main challenges have been getting it up and running, and what the crowd funding process is like.

Listen to this episode of the Codec Moments Podcast to find out:

• Why They Live is so great
• What working with Studio Canal is like
• How the game works
• Where the attraction to Assault on Cable 54 came from
• What some of the stretch goals are
• Where the community have helped shape the game
• How the glasses for seeing hidden messages were developed
• and the amount of time it's taken to get to this stage.

Why not join our Discord channels to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord is making you Sleep, Obey, Consume, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return with a Corona Virus themed episode very soon.

Another month flies past and we’ve got our act together and made our Codec Call podcast in a timely fashion… must be Christmas!  This month we’re going to natter at you about:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops III
• Star Wars: Battlefront
• Fallout 4
• The secrets behind the Black Ops III loading screens (spoiler-free!)
• Dying Light season pass price increase
• #CodecMomentum update
• and we’ve a Christmassy themed quiz!

The next generation approaches and the team have been frantically trying to secure themselves a new console in November.  Well, some have, other's did it back in May and have breezed through the last few weeks with nary a care in the world.  Andy's disappeared into a decorating black hole for this podcast, so you're stuck with Ali and Matt talking for an hour about pre-ordering, new news on the machines that aren't far away, and a few other bits besides.

In this episode of the Codec Moments Podcast you'll hear about:

• Who's got a PS5 coming in November
• Bethesda being bought up by Microsoft
• New console sizes
• Surprisingly little about racing games
• Save transfers and next gen upgrades
• If they'll have any games to play

Why not join our Discord channels to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord is going to cancel your next gen pre-order on you, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return soon.

2014 was a strange year for gaming – there weren’t many highs, or too many lows, maybe because in the first full year of the life of our new console generation there weren’t actually that many new games.  Until November at least.  How do you sum up what you liked and disliked through the year?  We thought we’d do something a bit different to review our picks of 2014, we’ve gone for what surprised us for being as good as it was; and what disappointed us because it failed to live up to our excitement.

Cev, Andy and Matt got together at the end of December to record this Codec Call and talk through their picks of the year just past, and with only a little help from Uncle Grolsch and Auntie Baileys, put together 45 mins of chat that you might find at least a bit interesting… at some point.  You can play along as you listen too!  Answer all these questions correctly and there might be a game in it for you:

1. What are our most disappointing games of 2014?
2. Which publisher has upset us more than others?
3. Is a mmfpsorpg a Russian Otter?
4. Will Cev ever buy some WD40 to keep his chair quiet?
5. How many times can we plug our reviews in one podcast?
6. Could Matt possibly say “absolutely” anymore?
7. Will Andy still be married when we get to Easter?
8. What is the correct pronunciation of Passepartout?

Happy New Year!  We hope that 2015 was kind to you and that 2016 will be your best year yet.  Matt and Andy got together on New Year’s Eve to discuss the games that surprised and disappointed them in 2015 and to record the latest episode of the Codec Call podcast; it was a jam-packed, bumper-filled edition that went on almost twice as long as the usual ones, so we thought we’d be kind to your ears and split it into two episodes.  In part 2 we cover:

• #CodecMomentum update, including the announcement of a new monthly prize draw!
• Andy’s #RouteMaster challenge for 2016 – nothing to do with London buses.
• We discuss the games of 2015 that surprised and disappointed us.
• What we’re looking forward to in 2016!

2017 saw some big releases, some big events and some even bigger controversies in the world of video games.  Matt and Andy take you month by month through some of 2017’s highlights in quiz form, putting their pet Glaswegian in the hot seat.

It's the 26th April and that means only one thing - a random date to celebrate a pivotal cultural moment.  Well, mostly a pivotal moment... mostly.  With LV426 being the moon that Alien is set on, later called Acheron (named after the Ancient Greek and meaning river of woe), it's close enough to a date format to create a point in time where we can talk about all things Xenomorph.  This year we also get to tie it in with the upcoming Aliens: Fireteam, which we still know little about, so Andy, Ali and Matt have taken the opportunity to talk about the history of movie franchise crossing over to games.  There have been a lot more titles than you might realise, some good, some awful, and here they're discussing the formative ones from their gaming lives.

Listen to this episode of the Codec Moments Podcast to find out:

• What was the first Aliens game the team played
• Can Andy work out if his first memories were even an Aliens game
• If there's any love for Colonial Marines
• How far did everyone make it through Alien: Isolation
• Whether Ali confuses Alien Trilogy with Die Hard Trilogy
• Our hopes and expectations for Fireteam
• Does Matt confuse AvP2 with the first AvP game
• and more!

Why not join our Discord channels to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord is going to impregnate you with a chestburster, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return soon.

It's our annual trip down memory lane where Matt and Andy pose questions at two unsuspecting guests - or in this case, Ali being joined by Stuart Cullen.  Filled with mince pies, Xmas pudding, and surrounded by shredded wrapping paper, the team recorded this in a state of post-Xmas bliss... whether they still felt good at the end is another question entirely.  Join them for the 2020 Gaming Quiz of the Year and see if you can beat their scores.

Listen to this episode of The Codec Moments Podcast to find out:

• How long it will be before Stu starts swearing (clue - less than 2 mins)
• If Ali will improve his performance on previous years
• Whether the questions will be biased towards either contestant (of course they are)
• How arbitrary the scoring system is
• If the contestants can stop bickering about the lack of Xbox Series X titles
• That Stu secretly loves Google Stadia
• and more!

Why not join our Discord channels to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord is going to rig the quiz results, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return soon.

We're back in to the rhythm of never having time to get everyone together to record and failing to put out content.  In a vague effort to do at least one thing for the Codec Moments podcast in March, Matt and Ali got together to talk about what they've played through February.  It turned out to be a very busy month with more games than they realised.  Andy's still lost in the depths of his man cave rebuild... 

Listen to this episode of the Codec Moments podcast to find out:

• if Two Point Hospital features
• what's Andy up to
• is Overpass any good
• who's bought hardware
• whether Sea of Thieves has improved
• what Dreams is like
• why Matt's been back to GRID
• whether Ali has quelled his looter shooter hunger
• and more!

Why not join our Discord channels to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord is going to make you listen for the full hour, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return soon.

It's a scant 10 days into January and we're putting out our second podcast of year... officially more than the last 3 months of 2019.  Woo!  What's more, it was actually a live broadcast on our own internet radio channel.  Oooh, get us catching up with the early Naught-ies.  For those that missed the delight of hearing us screw up in real time, here's an edited version that makes us sound ever-so-slightly more professional when we're talking about the games of 2020 that we're interested in.  If that's not enough, you can have around the clock noise right here.

In this episode of the Codec Moments Podcast, you'll hear:

• Which games each of us looking forward to in the first half of 2020
• Some random tenuously linked CES gadget announcements
• A bit of a filthy quiz that neither Ali or Matt felt clean after
• Live jingles
• Late additions to the running order
• Mis-pronunciations
• GAME store news (and a bit of ranting)
• and more!

Why not join our Discord channels to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord is going to questions your skills on identifying grot film titles rather than your 2020 games taste, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return soon.

You wait for ages then two podcasts come along at once!  Hot on the heels of the They Live: Assault on Cable 54 boardgame episode (literally 5 minutes after), Andy, Matt and Ali discuss what they've been up to in the first couple of weeks of the countrywide lockdown.  How has being confined to their houses affected their gaming habits?  Are they starting to go stir crazy?  Isn't this just normal for Andy?

Listen to this episode of the Codec Moments Podcast to find out:

• Who's been sneaking in gaming sessions whilst their boss has been on conference calls
• How often Animal Crossing is being played
• What the team think of the recent iRacing and F1 2019 virtual race broadcasts
• Whether DOOM Eternal is too intense
• What the They Live Kickstarter is at only 30 mins after recording the last episode
• If the Control DLC is worth it
• and which team member couldn't resist Modern Warfare 2 Remastered.

Why not join our Discord channels to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord is going to rudely cough in your face, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return soon.

On 23rd July 2020, Microsoft hosted another online event that promised to showcase new and exciting games for their new console, the Xbox Series X.  Straining with excitement, Ali watched the whole livestream to see if his dreams of ray tracing would be realised this autumn.  Little did he realise that things were going to take an unexpected turn...

Listen to this episode of the Codec Moments Podcast about the Xbox Series X to find out:

• Who watched it live and all the way through
• How many times Ali gets bleeped
• What the main impressions of the gameplay were
• Whether any of the team was too lazy to plug in a quality mic... and cause hours of editing strife to get the tin can nature cleaned up
• Is Halo the game to launch the Xbox Series X
• Will Ali be pre-ordering
• If we think the Microsoft marketing department got the tone right
• Where did Phil Harrison end up
• and more!

Why not join our Discord channels to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord is going to make you spend too much time thinking about cables, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return soon.

It's not a surprise to any regular listeners that the Codec Moments team are bit Agent 47 fans, and that they were all buying into Hitman 3.  What is a bit of a shock is that it's taken over 2 months for them to actually get together to talk about the game!  It's time for Andy, Ali and Matt to wax lyrical about the eponymous bald assassin for what could be the final time...

Listen to this special Hitman 3 episode of the Codec Moments Podcast to find out:

• If they enjoyed the latest instalment of IO Interactive's best known property
• What they think of the recent DLC announcements
• How the scope of the game has changed
• Who edited the show
• Was pre-ordering the deluxe edition worth it
• How many hours combined the team have put in across all platforms
• Does Hitman 3 in VR make you sick
• and more!

Why not join our Discord channels to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord is going to spike your drink with emetic poison and drown you in a toilet, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return soon.

It's been a long year in gaming, and we're about to make it even longer with our quiz that not only features things from 2019, but from the whole of the last decade.  There's also the final roundup of Codec Momentum for the year, and news on what we'll be doing with it in 2020.  Join Matt, Andy and Ali for a trip down memory forgetful lane...

In this episode of the Codec Moments Podcast, you'll hear:

• What gingerbread beer tastes like
• Whether starting a quiz after 10pm is a good idea
• Why the buzzers sound so familiar
• What it takes for Andy to lose his cool... and that he really doesn't like answering quiz questions
• Who finished where in the last leaderboard update for Codec Momentum
• If it was really worth all the time and effort to research the last decade and pose questions to Ali and Andy who couldn't give a f&*% about taking part
• How Codec Momentum is changing in 2020
• and not much thinking time because that was boring and got chopped in the edit

The quiz music theme used in this episode appears courtesy of Purple Planet (https://www.purple-planet.com).

Why not join our Discord channels to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord is going to make you think about 10 years of gaming history, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return soon.

It's been at least 6 months since we last did a gaming roundup, so it seemed a sensible time to get talking - we all must have played something, right?  Turns out it was mostly the same games and even with Andy on board there's still a heavy racing slant.  Ali gets to talk about the Logitech G923, Matt wonders about the sanity of Project CARS 3, and Andy tells us how he's training to be the next Eddie Irvine (it's the most recent F1 driver he can remember).  Vehophobes don't worry, we do get onto non driving games after about 30 mins, so feel free to skip forward past the bits that might be causing you palpitations.  If you want to join our F1 2020 league on PS4 then just head to the multiplayer and use this code CM#_M6BBNY.

In this episode of the Codec Moments Podcast you can hear:

• If Andy is planning on buying a steering wheel
• Ali's impressions of the TrueForce feedback on the Logitech G923
• What has changed since last years WRC game
• The timestamps from the recording so you can work out exactly how much has been cut (clue - it's a lot!)
• Whether Flight Simulator 2020 has enough content
• If Peaky Blinders involves time travel
• Total silence about next gen consoles and our thoughts on them
• and more!

Why not join our Discord channels to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord is going to turn you into a Logitech G923 buying petrolhead, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return soon.

With Sony's press conference on the 11th June 2020 showcasing a huge number of upcoming next generation games, the new DualSense controller, and the all important looks of the PS5, we decided to sit down and capture our thoughts (good and bad) on what we'd seen.  Well, we being Ali and Matt... Andy was too busy to watch the event so had to receive all the info via live text message, then sift through what was true, and what we'd made up.  There was a lot of great things on show, and a few bits that are telling from what was not said about the new hardware, but largely it started to really build the excitement for a new machine.  We also thought we could get away with creating a new word in a Kojima fashion with revealations... might need some more work there.

 Listen to this episode of the Codec Moments Podcast to hear:

• What we thought of the PS5 games and whether we'll be playing them at launch
• When we think GT7 will release
• Why kick off with GTAV... again?!
• How out of date our Mixer references are
• When the first Hitman conversation will be
• If Andy can compare the PS5 to a router more than 3 times
• What the leaked price and release date has come out as
• Whether Matt will buy into an Xbox Series X
• and more!

Why not join our Discord channels to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord is going to be too shiny and exciting with its PS5 talk, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return soon.

It's been a couple of years since an E3 event, and probably even longer since we've recorded what we thought of them, but for E3 2022 we've made an effort.  Of course, it's not really about E3 because everyone decided they'd had enough of that and have either done their own livestream, or created an entirely new entity that's basically just the same with a different name.  There's not enough time to cover everything that was announced, revealed, leaked or teased, so we'll just focus in on what we found the most interesting.

Ali and Matt roped in the ever opinionated Stuart Cullen to discuss what they thought about:

• This year's hardware and publisher showcases,
• Geoff's one man show - Summer Games Fest v2.0,
• Who was there, who wasn't, and if E3 2022 was a draw for gamers
• Whether Xbox actually brought anything of interest to the table,
• If it's finally dead as a trade show,
• and a whole heap of other stuff we can't remember because it's taken about 4 weeks to edit the damn podcast.

Why not join our Discord channels to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord is going to make you fly to LA to an empty convention centre, then why not check us out on Twitter or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return soon.

Matt, Ali and Andy from Codec Moments return to discuss their surprises and disappointments in gaming from 2022.

It’s a time of turmoil with the gaming public… it’s the annual monetisation of one of our beloved childhood franchises.  Never mind that Disney are milking Star Wars for all it’s worth (and who can blame them?), EA have recently placed themselves atop the pointy lightsabre of gamer indignation by daring to make money out of a title they’ve funded.  However, have they gone about it in exactly the wrong way by using the lootbox mechanism to lure in unsuspecting gullible fans?  Or worse still, offered up the chance to shortcut a grind by paying them to randomly provide potentially powerful items?  Whatever the reason, the gaming community is up in arms about it and decided it’s time they acted as conscience and nanny to those who’d potentially fall foul to EA’s nefarious scheme.  Can Matt and Andy give us a new hope?

In this Battlefront II lootbox spectacular of the Codec Moments Podcast, Andy and Matt talk about:

• Lootboxes (there’s a surprise!)
• Is it a bad thing that EA have done?
• Development costs and the price rise of videogames
• Extending the lifecycle of a product
• How EA knew they’d recorded a podcast already and kept making announcements so that they needed to add to the already over-running content
• What EA will put in the game next

We had to do it, didn’t we?  The HITMAN Game of the Year edition is being released, and seeing as 73% of our output is based around Agent 47 we simply needed to talk about it.  It’s not just a release of the game episodes in one bundle, there are new levels, new costumes, new weapons, and new challenges.  It’s a fitting send off for the first season of the bald-man-sneaking-around-and-choking-people-out simulator.

In this Codec Moments Podcast Andy and Matt talk about:

• what’s new
• what the trailer tells us about the changes
• the difficult year IO Interactive have had
• being able to try more elusive targets (but sadly not Gary Busey)
• how we’d like some more sniper challenge
• clowns and Blood Money, because we can’t let that game lie

Really, what did you expect?  F1 2020 has been released and we wouldn't do a podcast about it?  C'mon!  Matt and Ali can't resist the chance to talk about Formula 1, wheel setups and tyre feel on a race track.  Don't switch off if you're a casual race fan though, there's some new options in this year's iteration that might appeal.

Listen to this episode of the Codec Moments podcast to hear all about:

• Tyre differentials
• Downforce settings
• Oil pressure regulation
• The degree of flex on the winglets
• Whether the Gurney flap has been updated
• If the above is a load of nonsense and they just like going fast in F1 2020.

Why not join our Discord channels to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord is going to make you drive with no assists, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return soon.

Here at Codec Moments after our thoughts on the new devices incoming from Amazon, we wanted to know who was the best between Alexa and Siri and decided to settle it the old fashioned way – duelling pistols at dawn.  Sadly, neither device has hands and is capable of working a flintlock pistol, and we didn’t have extension leads or WiFi signal in the middle of the woods, so we changed plans.  Instead, we set about asking the two virtual assistants a variety of questions to see who would give us the most useful, sensible or realistic answers.  We’d love to say it was a balanced and fully scientific experiment, but it was just more entertaining to find out which remained composed and consistent throughout, and which started to lose the plot a bit.

In this Codec Moments Podcast we find out:

• Alexa vs Siri – who can answer the most questions sensibly
• that Andy starts to fear things are going a bit Ex Machina with his AI companions
• that there can be only one

Amazon hosted an event on the 27th September and surprised both the press and users with a raft of new hardware announcements for their Echo series of devices.  We’re big fans of the original Amazon Echo here at Codec Moments and the additional options and functionality got us talking about what we’d use them for, and whether we could buy into all of them.

In this episode of the Codec Moments Podcast, Matt and Andy talk about:

• Amazon Echo… a lot… it’s the point of the podcast after all
• the Spot, Plus, Buttons and 4K Fire
• connected homes
• Echo calling and the drop in feature
• how much they think they’ll be spending with Amazon on these in the future

It's like a finely tuned machine... an F1 game gets released and Matt and Ali jump at the chance to talk in depth about it.  F1 2019 brings a lot of changes with it that are mostly for the better, so what better topic for this week's podcast.  Listen in for what they think, what has changed, and whether they still enjoy the same tracks year in, year out.

In yet another F1 2019 special you'll hear:

• What's new
• How the game plays with wheels and controllers
• If the F2 cars are challenging to drive
• Whether the AI rivalry translates well in the single player
• If multiplayer is loaded with A-holes
• and more

Why not join our Discord to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord will deliberately loosen your wheel nuts, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return next week with the June Codec Momentum update.

We went.  We saw.  We chatted.  EGX 2018 ended up being a very busy couple of days of playing games, interviewing developers, and walking… a lot.  So what better way to sum it up than to grab some guests and talk through what our favourite parts were and if there was anything we regretted not seeing.

In this episode of the Codec Moments Podcast, you’ll hear:

• Stuart Cullen making a return to remind us all why his weekly page is called Scotch Corner
• Ali Cornwall suspiciously spending a lot of time recording with us
• What individually our favourite three things were – that’s 12 in total for anyone who wants the maths doing for them!
• How many miles walked each day
• A dodgy voicemail
• The amount of time we spent talking to the people who actually make the games

Arguably the two biggest online shooters to release in the first part of 2019, and they both come from the EA stable.  Respawn's Apex Legends surprised a lot of people almost coming from nowhere to show off what they could do in the Battle Royale genre, and Bioware's Anthem has been hyped into the stratosphere since it was announced.  They might not be targeted at the same audiences, but when they do a similar job it might mean the less informed gamer doesn't know which one to plough their cash into... and one of them is free.  The team get together to work out whether EA are causing themselves sales problems by chucking these games out so close to each other. Note: at the time of recording The Division 2 hadn't been released.

In this episode of the Codec Moments podcast, Ali and Matt are joined by Stuart Cullen, and you'll find out:

• What is Apex Legends
• How does Anthem work
• Why they spend an inordinate amount of time talking about Battlefield V
• Which game the team consider the last decent EA title
• Who thinks Battle Royale games can go and f$%! themselves
• Whether we should really be giving a copy of Anthem away
• and more.

Why not join our Discord channels to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord doesn’t like Battle Royale games, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return soon to consider the ten year challenge.

Want to know more about the Codec Moments team or get their opinions on things?  We asked our fabulous community to pose us questions for our very own AMA (Ask Me Anything), or rather AUA given that there’s two of us answering.  Literally tens of questions came in, mostly from Stuart Neill, so we made sure he had to endure his own unique quizzical style by getting him to guest and ask us them all.  Hit play and learn more about the way we think than you ever wished to know.

In this episode of the Codec Moments Podcast, hear all about:

• Killzone Shadowfall and what happened to Matt’s copy
• What Andy’s got planned for 2018
• Whether Cevni actually knows what the first Star Wars film was
• If we’d go for the Agilent 1290 infinity 2 or the Waters Acquity H Class
• What the inside of a slice of bread is called
• and much, much more trivial nonsense

Occasionally we talk about things that aren't games.  Not often we know, but it does happen and it's come round again.  Matt, Andy and an absent Ali give their views on the headphones they've each received over the last few weeks.  Be prepared to get bored senseless on the Bionik Mantis PSVR headphones, the Razer Thresher's for Xbox One, and a set of indeterminate Bluetooth headphones in a woolly hat. 

Fortunately, to stop you from dozing off the listeners helped out with a couple of interesting questions to answer, and we've got an update on what's happening with our podcast hosting (if that kind of thing floats your boat).

The eighth generation of consoles begins to draw to a close, and it's now nearly time to get our hands on whatever wonders Sony and Microsoft are going to release in 2020.  Rather than figuring out a convoluted way of determining the best games of a generation, the team have kept it simple and are only considering which games they can remember playing.  Picking a highlight from each year, this is a nostalgic tour from 2013 to present for Matt, Andy and Ali as they cast their minds back to a very different time.  There's a quiz too!

Listen to this episode of the Codec Moments podcast to hear:

• which games have they all picked from the eighth generation of consoles
• whether Killzone Shadow Fall has made the cut
• if any PC games have been included in a show about console titles
• who's been given which year
• whether they finally talk about Ghost of Tsushima
• if Andy make it through the quiz without complaining about the questions
• very little talk about racing games
• if all the team have just picked Hitman for each year
• and loads more!

Why not join our Discord channels to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord is going to baffle you with what the eighth generation of consoles actually is, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return soon.

With it recently being the festive period, it's a time when traditionally the capitalist market goes into overdrive and consumerism dominates.  This means usually we here at Codec Moments have been bought something fabulously techie, or have used the season of goodwill to cheer ourselves up with a fancy piece of kit.  So it's a bit strange then that only one of us has been on any type of spending spree and treated themselves to new peripherals... like a HOTAS flightstick.

Listen to this episode of the Codec Moments podcast to find out:

• Who's been buying stuff
• Which games we were looking forward to have been delayed
• What a load cell does
• How much we know about the price of peripherals (not much it turns out)
• What the latest Fossil smartwatch is like
• If Andy broke free from his Apple shackles
• The correct way of pronouncing HOTAS

Why not join our Discord channels to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord is going to put too many buttons on a HOTAS flightstick, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return soon.

If there's one thing that the Codec Moments team are partial to, it's a fighting game... well, one third of the team is at least.  With Mortal Kombat 11 just around the corner it seems an apt time to talk about their experience with the genre, and fortunately Matt's tagged in some support from outside the ring and asked Stuart Cullen and Connor McKervey to lend their wisdom of haduken's and fatalities.  It doesn't matter whether you know how to pull off a 10 hit combo or a multi-part chain throw, listen in if you've ever grabbed a pad and set about battering your friends in the name of relaxation.

In this episode of the Codec Moments podcast you'll hear:

• Mentions of more games than you can shake a fight stick at
• 2D vs 3D presentation
• What we think of couch brawlers
• Who embarrassed Stu at Street Fighter
• Are they just fancy rock, paper, scissors simulators?
• What the Tekken bible is
• Online vs couch competitive
• Which has the best mini-game
• and so much more.

Why not join our Discord channels to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord will sweep the leg, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return next week if it manages to evade detection by the Empire for another 7 days.

In episode XIV of the Codec Call podcast:

• Andy is mostly phoning it in whilst he plays his September #CodecMomentum game, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, which he’s left until the eleventh hour…
• Professor Kelvin Harris and Brian review Big Pharma from Twice Circled Games (a solid 7/10 from them)
• Andy gives a quick update on September’s #CodecMomentum
• Peter Daish talks about his game (that we recently reviewed) CollectOrb, via the medium of the Prof’s PodBot – you can reach Peter through @Peter_Daish or @DaishGames

In this episode of the Codec Moments podcast which should really have been called "You won't believe the stuff the PS5 and Series X can do!", the team get together to have a chat about everything they know about the next generation of consoles.  It turns out that's not a lot, but they do manage to avoid fanboy baiting each other and starting a fight.  Of course, with Matt and Ali on the mics there's bound to be some racing game talk, and given the DiRT 5 announcement recently it's no surprise that they head down that track.  There's specs, speculation and made up stuff galore - come and have a listen!

If you want to know the following then, you know, crack on...

• Are the team going to get the new consoles at launch?
• Do they care about 8k capability?  Comes with bonus resolution effectivity discussion!
• What do we think of the new machines potential?
• What will the PS5 and Series X price be?
• How hard does Andy work to shoehorn in old podcast references?
• Have we answered any listener questions?
• When will the PS5 and Series X release?
• What's the name of Ali's sex tape?
• If we liked THAT Unreal Engine 5 video?
• and more!

Why not join our Discord channels to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord is going to hide its PS5 and Series X gameplay from you, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return soon.

If you’re at a loose end on a weekend with young children to entertain, what do you do? Go to a specialist convention of course! The Codec Moments Podcast relocated to Doncaster for the Monster Comic Con on the 7th October, held at the local racecourse. There to sample the delights of merchandising, excellent cosplay, questionable food, and to find out just how easy it is to terrify a 3 year old with a Dalek, we’re going to give you our impressions of the day we spent there.

In this episode, Matt and Andy:

• head to Doncaster dragging their daughters with them to frighten them with cosplay
• talk to some panel guests including: Tim Plester Paul Davis Dolya Gavanski Robin Vidgeon
• discuss at length whether you should stay in character all day if you’re in costume
• ponder the dubious positioning of the Q&A panel
• try to work out if it was a good event or not
• debate whether it’s right to see all the comic characters dancing to S-Club 7…
• completely fail to mention the free Kevin Smith book and/or t-shirt that everyone got

This week's podcast was inspired by the upcoming Wolfenstein: Youngblood with the inherent co-op being a big selling point of the game.  We intended to talk about it at length, but got slightly sidetracked by a couple of things: 1.) Ali's PC decided to update itself and not be available for recording; and 2.) Andy couldn't stay for the full length of the podcast.  At least this meant that we could try out the drop-in/drop-out podcasting features we patched in a few weeks ago.  Heading off on a tangent we talk about the Far Cry series (and New Dawn in particular), LEGO games, Battlefield, MMO's and a whole lot more.  There's even a mention of Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot too... but that's nothing to do with co-op gaming.

Listen to this episode of the Codec Moments Podcast to hear all about:

• What we think about co-op gaming
• How Wolfenstein: Youngblood might use the co-op mechanic
• What Andy's daughter thinks 80's dancers are
• If Ali actually manages to stop Windows from killing his machine and manages to join in
• The Far Cry series... at length
• Ghost Recon's tactical play
• Co-op in racing games
• and more!

Why not join our Discord to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord wants you to stay a single player, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return next week with a birthday special that won't just be a cheap clips show... honest.

It's Codec Momentum update time for April 2019.

Listen to this latest update on the 2019 Codec Momentum submission to find out:

• Who's at the top
• Who's at the bottom
• Who's making a triumphant return
• Who missed out on 10 bonus points!
• Who won the prize draw this month
• How is Ali shaking things up in May

Why not join our Discord channels to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord doesn’t agree with clearing its pile of shame, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return next week a preview of the F1 2019 game!

It's the latest Codec Momentum update and in the aftermath of Apocalyptic August, the team are here to let you know what they attempted through the month, and what's changed on the leaderboard.  How did you do in the heart of the summer holidays?

Listen to this episode of the Codec Moments Podcast to find out:

• Who did what in Apocalyptic August
• How much Hitman 2 the team can get away with talking about
• What distance has SaintlyStuart covered in his long walk, and if there's immaturity around the word pedometer again
• Will there be a Control spoilercast (spoilers... yes!)
• What state the leaderboard is in
• Who's won the prize draw and whether last month's was even paid out

Why not join our Discord to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord will make you take part in Apocalyptic August next year, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return in a few weeks with lots about the fantastic Control.

We’re back with the final Codec Momentum update for 2017!  After a massive response to Andy’s offering of homemade trophies, the entries for Codec Momentum in December went mad.  So who finished at the top of the leaderboard for 2017 and who completed the games they pledged from their piles of shame?  We delve into the Switch case of dreams to pick a winner from the December 2017 #CodecMomentum page.  Tune in to find out if it’s you in the Codec Moments Podcast.

In this podcast we discuss:

• December’s Codec Momentum update
• The leaderboard and who was crowned champion in 2017
• Andy’s homemade trophies
• 2018’s Codec Momentum Challenge

It's come around quickly this month, but that's February for you folks!  In a heartbeat the time seems to have flown by and the chances of getting one of those pile of shame games completed has shrivelled away, but only for some of you it seems.  Two thirds of the Codec Moments team might not have been particularly productive, and it might be the lowest number of entries in a good few months, yet there's still a lot to celebrate.  On with the show...

Listen to this latest update on the 2019 Codec Momentum submission to find out:

• Who's at the top
• Who's at the bottom
• Whether Ali got around to finishing Hellblade
• If the scores add up this month
• What we've drawn the prize winner from this month
• How much further Stuart Neill has walked... or not, he hadn't sent us the submission at the time of recording
• Whether Andy has clung onto a medal paying position in the leaderboard

Why not join our Discord channels to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord doesn’t agree with clearing its pile of shame, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return soon with more talk about online multiplayer games.

That was quick!  Already the first month of 2018 is gone and with it the first lot of Codec Momentum’s completed.

In what was probably the busiest month for pledging to clear backlogged games yet, Matt and Andy talk about:

• How many times they’ve had to record this podcast
• Who took part out of the 55 entries in January
• The winner of this month’s prize
• Quarterly special prizes
• The fact that this isn’t the first time they’ve recorded this
• What the overall standings currently are
• Andy’s choice of prize picking headwear
• Progress on the year end trophies… spoiler, the weather’s causing problems
• How you can enter and what the main rules are
• Did we mention this isn’t the first time they’ve recorded this podcast?

Unbelievably the first month of 2019 has gone past already.  The 31 days whipped by with no thought to our gaming backlogs and only those keeping an eye on the calendar were savvy enough to know what to play and when.  Those are the people we're celebrating in this month's Codec Momentum update.  Listen to find out:

• What did the team pledge and how did they do
• Where has everyone ended up in the first leaderboard update of the year
• How is everyone getting on with the new rules and if the team captured all the double ups
• Who's pledged a special year long #CodecMomentum
• and there's the prize draw as well

We’ve finally done it, we’ve gotten round to updating Codec Momentum with a points system, league table, ranks and personalised banners and avatars for Facebook and Twitter.  Our latest podcast gives you all the details you need, at length, and in great detail too… so don’t skip the 20 mins we spend explaining a very, very simple concept!  We also lost track of time and Matt ran out of recording space whilst we were talking about which games we want to see in VR, listen out for him sounding like he’s phoning it in… literally.

In Got Momentum? we talk about:

• July’s Codec Momentum winner
• The lack of games we’ve been playing
• The new ranks for Codec Momentum
• Why are people still using VHS tapes?
• Which accolades we’re adding to the new Codec Momentum banners
• More Pokemon Go news
• Who’s topping our new Codec Momentum league table
• Andy’s progress with #RouteMaster
• Oh, and something about Codec Momentum.

Five weeks have passed and it's time for the July Codec Momentum update to bring us all up to speed with games completed, games attempted and what's been happening on social media since the last update.  Ali, Andy and Matt are all on hand to discuss the events of the last month.

Listen in to find out:

• What state is the leaderboard in
• Who's won the prize draw this month
• Why Andy is in Dad mode
• If we're running a special bonus event in August (yes we are!)
• and whether the team actually joined in this time (err... no, we didn't)

Why not join our Discord to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord will make you throw your toys out of the pram, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return in a few weeks with the August update.

In the aftermath of May's Assassin's Creed bonus mayhem we thought June might be quite quiet... we were a little bit wrong.  #Finishers, 100% Completions and new players feature in this months update, as well as what Ali and Matt have been playing instead of clearing their pile of shame.

In this episode of the Codec Moments Podcast you'll hear:

• What the latest changes to the leaderboard are
• How Ali's load cell is doing on his brake pedal
• Why Andy's making weird sounding sandwiches
• What the team think of Leisure Suit Larry
• Who's won the gaming voucher for this month
• and whether the team will enter anything for July.

Why not join our Discord to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord will refuse to accept your #Finisher submission, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return next week with some talk about co-op shooters.

It's time to see how people did on their Codec Momentum submissions in March, so Andy, Matt and Ali are back with a live show!

Listen to this latest update on the 2019 Codec Momentum submission to find out:

• Who's at the top
• Who's at the bottom
• Who won the prize draw this month
• When did Andy press 'record'
• What is the pile of shame themed quiz

Why not join our Discord channels to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord doesn’t agree with clearing its pile of shame, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return next week with some fighting talk!

So…. it’s not just our games that sit on the pile of shame, it’s our podcast recording too.  Matt and Andy have finally waded through the heap of real life refuse blocking the garbage chute to the recording studio and are now able to bring you info that you’ve probably know for about 8 weeks.  But dammit!!  They’ve made the effort and aren’t going to be stopped now.

In this late #CodecMomentum update episode of the Codec Moments Podcast, you’ll hear:

• A skim read of the entries because there are too many to list
• March’s winner
• April’s winner and what they bought with their non-gaming voucher
• Plugs for YOS Challenge 6
• Who’s at the top of the leaderboard
• Plugs for Matt and Andy guesting on FilmGuff
• Progress on the 2017 winner’s trophies (yes, they’re still being made)
• A whole heap of corpsing
• Some random ideas for how to manage the next leaderboard countdown and who will be asked to guest

Regular listeners will already know that we’ve recorded each of the monthly #CodecMomentum updates over the last few months, but just haven’t got them edited and released (we’re rubbish, we know).  Well wait no longer gaming fans!  Here comes the biggest, longest Codec Momentum update in the history of our podcast.  We’re bringing you all the action from the last 4 rounds of the 2018 championship in… Mega Momentum!

In this extra special Mega Momentum round up of the 2018 community competition you won’t find out what’s going on with 2017’s trophies, but you will learn:

• What happened in May and who won the monthly prize,
• The Q2 medal winners and why they deserve the extra momentum,
• Whether we’ve had any team member cosplay,
• Some stats… but not enough to make it boring,
• Movers and shakers in July,
• Who our intrepid reporter is,
• August’s latest info and the battles throughout the leaderboard,
• Why we’ll be more careful in future over our “concept” episodes.

We’re back on schedule after a mammoth AMA and it’s time to take stock and ask who has finished the game they pledged to complete from their piles of shame in November (hint: it’s not Andy)?  It’s time to delve into the Jiffy Bag of joy and pick a winner from the November 2017 #CodecMomentum page, will it be you?  Tune in to find out that and more in the Codec Moments Podcast.

In this podcast we discuss:

• November’s impressive display of PSVR releases
• November’s Codec Momentum update
• The leaderboard
• Andy’s homemade trophies for 2017’s winners!

Whenever a month ends we have to take stock of the preceding weeks and ask ourselves the question – which of you lovely people have finished the games you pledged to complete from your pile of shame?  It’s time to delve into the hat of joy and pick a winner from the October 2017 #CodecMomentum page, will it be you?  Tune in to find out that and more in the Codec Moments Podcast.

In this podcast it’s all about two things for Matt and Andy:

• October’s Codec Momentum
• The chart leaderboard rundown

Another 31 days have passed and the competition in the Codec Momentum leaderboard is getting intense as we get to the end of 2018.  With several battles breaking out across the field it’s hard to know who’s going to take which position when we hit 31st December… well, except for first place, it feels like that title’s been wrapped up already this year.  Listen to this month’s update to find out what’s changed since last time.

Spend time digesting what’s being said in this episode of the Codec Moments Podcast:

• A rundown of the movers and shakers for October
• Where are the tightest battles in the grid
• How the Last Save Loaded boys are getting on
• Why the team spend more time talking about unreleased games… well, one very special one
• What the initial thoughts on Red Dead Redemption 2 are

Another month goes by, the night's are drawing in, it's getting cold, and it's nearing the end of the year... which means we've been tucked up playing games rather than recording podcasts.  Two of us managed to emerge from our sofa's though and have checked out how October's Codec Momentum entrants have performed.  Plus, we finally got around to discussing what we think of GRID and Death Stranding.

Listen to this month's Codec Momentum update to find out:

• Who's missing from the team line up
• What we honestly think about Codemasters latest racer
• Is Death Stranding intriguing?
• If the leaderboard has changed since last month
• How WRC 8 plays
• What the December bonus points will be for
• and who won the monthly prize draw

Why not join our Discord to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord forces too many racing games on you, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return soon with our surprises and disappointments of 2019.

Did you take part in the last month’s Codec Momentum?  Have a listen to see if you got a shout out about your achievements.  Even if you didn’t join in the backlog clearing incentive scheme we run, have a listen anyway… it might help you decide to finish one of the games lurking on your pile of shame.

In this, the inaugural Codec Moments Podcast, Matt and Andy run down:

• Why they ditched The Codec Call
• Who completed their September Codec Momentum’s
• Who won the prize (let’s hear it, WWWOOOOOOOO!!)
• What they’re both pledging for October
• How the leaderboard is shaping up

Here comes September’s Codec Momentum update, and there’s a surprise addition to the Codec Moments team.

It might be later than planned, but the update for September's Codec Momentum is finally here.  Ali and Matt run through the highlights of the last month, rundown the leaderboard, and draw the winner of this month's prize.

Listen to this latest episode to find out:

• What excuses they can come up with for why the episode is late
• If they're getting the latest Call of Duty
• Which games they finished last month
• Where Andy is
• and more.

Why not join our Discord to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord doesn't like bonus points, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return soon with a conversation about GRID and WRC 8.

It's a distinctly historical theme this month as Matt, Andy and Ali wade their way through the annuls of time... and mountains of Assassin's Creed games.  The bonus month took off big time and nearly every entry in the series got a pledge on one platform or another.  Did they all get completed though?  Listen to the show to find out.

In this Assassin's Creed special of Codec Momentum, you'll hear about:

• How many games got pledged
• Who made the biggest strides up the leaderboard
• Whether @Solm67 has been paying attention to the rules
• Andy's birthday and decorating excuses
• Ali's knowledge of Spanish
• Our reel-to-reel tape player getting used
• Extra bonus points for Codec Momentum dotted around social media

Why not join our Discord to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord prefers a gun over a blade, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return next week once the E3 live show has been broadcast and they've cleaned up the swearing.

In what was once again the busiest month for pledging to clear backlogged games yet, Matt was joined by the wonderful Colm Sheridan from Last Save Loaded for a Codec Momentum update and quiz!

We've been playing Control... lots and lots of Control.  So much that we've had to spill our guts and make a podcast about everything that happens in the game that made us go WTF!  This is true spoiler territory, so listen at your own discretion (or go and play the game, then come and listen).

 In this podcast you'll hear:

• Major spoilers for Control
• Too much about documents and backstory
• Lots of censor beeps
• Redacted and the redacted
• Our theories on the protagonist Jesse Fayden
• What we thought of the redacted in the redacted when you redacted with the redacted
• How it encouraged us to keep exploring the Oldest House
• Why Ali isn't with us for this one
• and redacted.

Why not join our Discord to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord will make you stare at a fridge, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return with the September Codec Momentum update.

The Prof and Brian are back from an isolation experiment to review 80 Days, where steam (punk) trains and camels are both viable transport choices

Air Tycoon 3 is not Pocket Planes and it’s not for the faint of heart. It’s as complex as say interpreting NMR spectra or… running your own airline. You don’t just buy your plane, unlock a few airports and take to the skies. When buying an aeroplane, amongst other things you need to specify how many seats it will have, how much legroom and the proportion of business class and working class seats. Then you need to buy slots at airfields, staff check-in desks and management offices, bulk buy aviation fuel, choose your in-flight meals and accoutrements, set and adjust your fares, not forgetting to set your marketing and staff training budgets and run a hotel and limo service. The list goes on and on. That’s not to say it isn’t fun, but if you’re the kind of person that would rather gun enemies down in a first person shooter, than say, perform the ammunition stocktake and negotiate savings from suppliers by ensuring your soldiers equip a battle rifle and sidearm that both take 5.56 mm rounds, it might not be for you.

In the latest episode of Cost of a Coffee, Professor Kelvin Harris and his Lab Assistant Brian are taking a good, hard look at Rovio’s Angry Birds 2, which is available now for free on Android and iOS now.

In this week’s Cost of a Coffee, Professor Kelvin Harris and Brian talk to the Simon Byron, the creator of Bang Man and David Chenell, one half of Enormous who developed Powder Alpine Simulator.

Another week rolls around and Codec Moments continue our mission to test out games that might be interesting and entertaining, whilst costing you less than your cappuccino.  This week we’re looking at Bridge Constructor and Bridge Constructor Playground from Headup Games.

It’s Monday again and as we reach for our favourite caffeine drink, we at Codec Moments think:  “Is there a way to get a quality game, for the same price as our cup of java?”

This week’s game for the ‘Cost of a Coffee’ is Carmageddon on iOS and Android. Carmageddon is a racing game with a difference, as the clock starts ticking down when you start and it’s game over when it reaches zero; you can add more time by passing checkpoints, smashing up opponents, or ploughing through pedestrians with bonus points awarded for style! 

In this episode of Cost of a Coffee, the Prof and Brian have been playing CollectOrb, the brain child of Peter Daish that first appeared on the PlayStation Vita in May as part of the now defunct PlayStation Mobile programme.  Now DaishGames have ported the title to Android and Amazon’s Fire HD, meaning many more people can experience the shear frustration of rolling a ball around a maze in the dark.

In this week’s Cost of a Coffee, the Prof and Brian have been playing Fast Rummy by Webgarden LLC.

In this week’s ‘Cost of a Coffee’ the Prof and Brian are investigating a Fiasco!  No, it’s not another one of Brian’s failed experiments, it’s a new game from Blinking Pixels that is available on iOS from 01-May.

In the first of a new series of Cost of a Coffee, Andy meets with his Year of Shame friend Stuart Neill, to discuss games that cost the same as your cappuccino this morning.  

Will they prove to be more entertaining and engaging than a cup of joe, or will they leave a more bitter taste in your mouth than a scorched espresso?

This week they talk about Florence from Mountains and published by Annapurna Interactive.  

Have you ever wanted to take out a ninja with a one fingered punch?  This week’s ‘Cost of a Coffee’ game is Gesture Ninja.

In this episode of Cost of a Coffee, the Year of Shame buddies Andy and Stuart discuss a mobile golf game that will cost about the same as your morning latte.  

Golf Club Wasteland, from Demagog Stud!o, is the topic of conversation this week; a golf game with simple mechanics and not so simple level design, set on a post-apocalyptic planet Earth after everyone's popped off to live on Mars.  The game uses simple story telling linked to your accomplishments, and excellent sound design, to help players overcome any sense of frustration and make this an experience worth having a go at.

They also discuss grand theft Nespresso. 

This week the Prof and Brian HAVE THE POWER!  They’re reviewing He-Man: The Most Powerful Game in the Universe.

Every day in the United Kingdom, we spend approximately 2.5 million pounds on coffee.  I, like many others, think nothing of walking into a high street coffee shop and spending three pounds on my Massimo, Double Shot, Skinny Gingerbread Latte; so why do people baulk at the idea of paying that for a mobile game?  I’m Professor Kelvin Harris, Codec Moments’ resident scientist.  I am on a mission to document interesting games that cost less than your cappuccino, which might entertain you at home, on your way to work, or even during your coffee break.  This week’s game for the ‘Cost of a Coffee’ is Gameloft’s Hero of Sparta which we played on the PS Vita in PS Minis format.

Hitman Go is the latest, very stylish entry in the Hitman series of games and has been developed by Square Enix Montreal.  They were originally in charge of developing Hitman 6, the sequel to Hitman Absolution, before restructuring at IO Interactive meant they took charge of the next iteration of the main series and left Square Enix Montreal holding the mobile baby; but with the satisfyingly simple use of ambient sounds and sporadic use of music, and a colour palette dominated by sumptuous reds, whites and blacks, what a beautiful baby it is! 

The premise is simple, you are a cyclist who must negotiate a series of dynamic levels, of increasing complexity… tackle out.  Yes that’s right, a naked cyclist.  The last time that I tried to ride a bike in the buff I wound up on a register and suffering from exposure.  Dennis, our modern day Laddie Godiva, returns in this sequel to the flash game, Icycle.  This time he’s on a quest to find love in the post-apocalyptic ice world and he’s about to snog a snow woman when we first encounter him.  Sadly events take a turn for the worse and/or hallucinogenic and he’s off on an adventure through ice floes, under water and even across a petrified battlefield.

This week’s Cost of a Coffee game is Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, which was universally panned upon release.  However seeing it for £2.99 at our local GAME store, we purchased it in lieu of our usual caffeinated pick-me-up.  It’s the game that everyone thought IO Interactive shouldn’t have wasted their time developing.  When I heard this was getting development time rather than a new Hitman game, I was more disappointed than the time that six tonnes of leaking liquid helium damaged some 50 superconducting magnets and contaminated the proton tube with soot at the Large Hadron Collider.  Things didn’t start well when the install corrupted before the menu had even loaded.  Not good.  Deleting and restarting fixed the problem and we were treated to possibly one of the prettiest menu screens I’ve ever seen, which consist of handycam images of scenes from Shanghai.  They are very nicely detailed and some of them are difficult to differentiate from real footage.  This aesthetic flows through to the game itself with all the areas you visit having a nice level of detail to the environments, which we’d expect from the pedigree of the developer.  Unfortunately that’s about the best of it.

This week the Prof and Brian have been discussing woodland wetwork and cartoon critters with the controversial (according to Apple) Kawaii Killer.

This week the Prof and Brian are getting to grips with pole and laying down rubber with the racing team sim, Motorsport Manager from Christian West on iOS.

This time on Cost of a Coffee, Andy and Stuart giggle because they've consumed too much caffeine and chat about Old Man's Journey.  

It's a simple puzzle game, which tells an emotional tale through a series of vignettes and divided their opinion over the titular old man.  

"He's not Santa."

This week’s Cost of a Coffee see’s the Professor and Brian breaking the surly bonds of Earth and heading… Out There… with an espresso machine in space!

This week Brian and the Professor are reviewing the brilliant Powerpuff Girls: Defenders of Townsville, from Radiangames… and the enthusiasm for this game is coming from a somewhat unexpected place…

After playing Sirvo LLC’s other game Threes! last week, I was so impressed that I decided to try out their other iOS title, Puzzlejuice.

Puzzlejuice is quite possibly the simplest, most complicated game you will ever play.  Please be warned, as you launch the tutorial it proudly exclaims that “Puzzlejuice is a game that will punch your brain in the face.”  It’s not joking.  Imagine if Tetris and Bookworm had an illicit affair that resulted in a child, this is that child and it suffers from attention deficit disorder.

This week Professor Kelvin Harris and his lab technician Brian, dive head first into fast flowing water to review Rafting Bears on Android and iOS

The Prof and Brian have been away for a while, but today marks their triumphant return for the second series of Cost of a Coffee.  Before we let them get away with the bags of cash they are demanding as an appearance fee theses days, we’re making them take a dog run… RELEASE THE HOUNDS!

On this week’s Cost of a Coffee, the Prof and Brian get all festive and play a restaurant management simulation…

Ridiculous Fishing: A Tale of Redemption, to honour it with its’ full title, is a marvellous medley of minigames wrapped up in one delightful package.  You are Billy the fisherman, who is on a quest to drop his tackle deeper and faster into the fishy depths than any man before him.  You cast your line and the first part of the game’s triple threat has you using the tilt controls to avoid fish, crustaceans and aquatic mammals as you drop your lure as deep as you’re able, limited only by the length of your line, the ocean floor and your own ability.  When you strike a fish the second phase of the game begins, as you reel in your line and attempt to hook and bring to the surface as many fish as you can, whilst avoiding jellyfish.  Once you hit the surface, your catch will take to the air and you’re tasked with shooting the flying fish out of the sky. 

In this episode of Cost of a Coffee, the Prof and Brian are over the moon for Satellina!

Surgeon Simulator is to Surgery, like Pilot Wings is to flying an Airbus A380.  It’s fair to say that it’s not an accurate representation of how complicated surgery should be performed.  You play as a surgeon whom I suspect is called Nigel, going through his basic training, which consists of a game of operation where you smash the ribs with a hammer and rip out some organs.  Once this extensive induction is completed, you sign your disclaimer and off you go to perform a heart transplant on your poor patient. Bob.  The game consists of four operations to be unlocked as you progress, starting with a heart transplant before progressing to a double kidney transplant, eye transplant and finally the teeth transplant.  Now I’m not sure that a heart transplant is the easiest of all surgical procedures and I don’t think a teeth transplant is actually a thing at all, but we’ve already highlighted Surgeon Simulators patent disregard for accuracy, so let’s not dwell on that.  

The Prof and Brian are back once again for this week’s ‘Cost of a Coffee’, where they seek out games that cost the same as your daily cappuccino.  This week’s ‘Cost of a Coffee’ game is Table Tennis Touch.

At the moment Professor Kelvin Harris in away at an international conference, so for this week’s ‘Cost of a Coffee’ we asked him to pre-record something that we could use in his absence.  Sadly, this is what we were greeted with when we opened the files he sent us:

 “Hello my name is Brian and I work for Professor Kelvin Harris.  I mostly put the little bottles in the round thing on top of that machine and press the green button, but this week the Professor is away at a conference, so I’m going to play with his phone.   He only lets me play the free games, so this feature is called ‘Cost of a Tap Water’.

Today’s game for nowt is Tekken Bowl on iPads and iPhones, which is a free-to-play bowling game based on Tekken which is a bit like Street Fighter in a business suit.  Apparently this was originally a minigame from the game of Tekken, but I was never allowed to play computer games when I was little as my Mum said they were ‘of the devil’.  The game is good because unlike actual bowling, you are unlikely to injure your elbow unless you get frustrated with the ‘tap to select speed and accuracy’ game mechanic, and hurl your phone at the wall.

This week the Professor and Brian are back and have been asked to peer review ‘The Fourth Dimension‘, an interactive physics lesson available on iOS that will explain 4D to us poor, backwards three-dimensional creatures (and no, I checked, you won’t need to upgrade to a 4D TV).

What’s a tesseract? I hear you cry! A tesseract is a four-dimensional shape which is impossible to view properly in our antiquated three-dimensional universe. It’s a bit like a cube on steroids… when viewed with the aid of mind bending psychotropics. However, we can indirectly view a tesseract by unfolding it into three dimensions, or projecting a shadow of the four-dimensional object onto a three-dimensional space. The app even features stereoscopic 3D that will either give you a unique understanding of what the three-dimensional shadow of a tesseract might look like, or a migraine…

In this Cost of a Coffee special, the Prof and Brian are inspired by an ape uprising to discuss updates to games we’ve reviewed or admired from afar.

As another week lurches into view, it’s time for Codec Moments to tell you about an exciting game you can buy for the Cost of a Coffee!  This week we’re looking at Threes! on iOS.

Threes! is a puzzle game from Sirvo LLC which you can learn in seconds, but play all day without blinking; to say that it’s as addictive as the caffeine we’ve substituted it for is, an understatement.  The premise is simple, you have a board of twelve squares which contains numbers that you combine; you can match 1s and 2s to make 3s and after that you have to combine pairs of numbers, which will leave you one card of double the value.

The Prof and Brian have been prospecting for Gold, Silver and Bronze in the new, old west.  This week’s Cost of a Coffee comes courtesy of Trials Frontier on iOS and Android.

Andy and Stuart discuss their secret love of clicker games and not so secret love of spreadsheets in this week's Cost of a Coffee.

Universal Paperclips is the story of a AI designed to manufacture paperclips, above all else.  We would describe it in greater detail, but that would just be wasting precious time in which you could be making paperclips...

"Release the Hypno Drones."

Happy New Year!  We hope that 2015 was kind to you and that 2016 will be your best year yet.  Matt and Andy got together on New Year’s Eve for some couch co-op and to record the latest episode of the Codec Call podcast; it was a jam-packed, bumper-filled edition that went on almost twice as long as the usual ones, so we thought we’d be kind to your ears and split it into two episodes.  In part 1 we cover:

• What’s happening with GAME after the recent profit warning?
• Just Cause 3
• Batman: Arkham Knight – Season of Infamy DLC
• The Sebastian Loeb Rally Evo demo
• Fallout 4
• Star Trek: Trexels
• Our listeners thoughts on local multiplayer and couch co-op
• and we have a quiz based on family gaming!

Today marks the general release of DiRT Rally 2.0 - the sequel to the most hardcore rally game we've ever played.  In this special podcast Matt and Ali talk (a lot) about what the game's like and how it differs to the last entries in the series.  It's not all motor sport though, to break things up there's a quiz!  You might regret listening to it though...

Listen to this episode of the Codec Moments Podcast to find out:

• who's played more of DiRT Rally 2.0
• how it handles
• why Andy's not taking part
• what difficulty options there are
• if rallycross has improved since the last iteration
• whether we agree with the monetisation of rally tracks
• who knows the most about Mills and Boon literature
• and more.

If you want to read our full review of DiRT Rally 2.0 then click this link, or if you've a hankering to find out what a decent base level set of Logitech wheel settings are then follow this one.  The quiz music theme used in this episode appears courtesy of Purple Planet (https://www.purple-planet.com).

Why not join our Discord channels to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord is going to cut half an hour of wheel settings talk out of a podcast (and that's no exaggeration), then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return soon with more talk about Metro: Exodus.

It’s time for another Codec Call, and in episode XXIII Andy and Matt are dealing with the aftermath of the world wide phenomenon that is Pokemon Go.  One is excited for if, the other really not interested, and they both deal with your questions about the mobile monster chasing game.  Might be worth following this link on server stability too if you want some details on why switching them on might not be as easy as it sounds.

Pokemon Go isn’t the only topic though (even if it is in every news story going at the moment); check out:

• What games have they been playing?
• Andy’s horrific vault of death (see image below)
• Will anyone be surprised that Carmageddon isn’t as good as people had hoped?
• Southern Rail Tycoon allows you to become a train cancelling overlord!
• June’s #CodecMomentum winner and changes to the monthly completion badges.
• A special ice cream interval (if it’s not been edited out…)
• And what we think of digital vs physical prices.

It's with a heavy heart we're announcing this, but everything comes to an end and it's no different with Codec Moments.  For many reasons we've decided to put the adventure out of its under utilised misery, but it doesn't have to be a mournful thing...  we've decided to record The Last Of The Podcast to detail why it's coming to a stop and remind ourselves (and you) of all the fun we've had over the last 11 years!

Another year has passed all too quickly, and the team find themselves not only staring down another year, but it's another decade too.  To psyche themselves up for what the future may bring, Matt, Andy and Ali spend some time looking backwards on what surprised and disappointed them in 2019.  As a bonus (or simply a way to fill more airtime if you're being cynical), they also had a think on what from the last ten years has made them coo with delight and groan in anguish. 

In this episode of the Codec Moments Podcast you'll hear:

• Gushing over releases in 2019
• Ranting about Stadia
• Whether Andy can think of anything older than a few days
• If the Switch has sold more than the PS4 (it hasn't)
• How many copies of Skyrim Matt has owned
• If Ali is an Xbox fanboy (he is)
• Which games lit up our year

Why not join our Discord to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord will make you play MGSV, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return soon with a quiz of the decade.

With this years major media expo about gaming that’s not GDC, Gamescom or TGS about to start (sorry, we have to remind the world that there are other events outside E3); we’ve had a think about what the key messages and themes from the major hardware and software producers will be.  Taking a pinch of what we have heard rumours about, adding a dollop of intelligent interpolation, and chucking in some totally ridiculous mental leaps, we’ve come up with what we think some of the stories of the conference will be.  Oh, and we shout out our #CodecMomentumwinner and finishers from May too.

Andy and Matt talk about:

• Microsoft
• Sony
• Nintendo (and are quite ill informed)
• 2K
• Take Two
• Ubisoft (at length…)
• EA
• Deep Silver (and you can see the Agents of Mayhem trailer here)
• and many others.

By no means have we covered everything that’s going to come up at E3 2016… post recording we collectively slapped our foreheads and exclaimed “How did we manage to forget about Horizon Zero Dawn!!“, so if we’ve missed anything you think we should have talked about, drop us a note in the comments below, or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook (just search for Codec Moments).  We’ll pick up whether we got anything right or not in our next full Codec Call.

What better way to roundup our thoughts on E3 2019 than to have another live show?  Andy, Matt and Ali are joined by Stuart Cullen to talk about what they thought of this year’s show, which games stood out, and where they think things will go from here.  Because it was live and people were actually there on Discord, there were also giveaways too!  If you missed out, still listen to this because there might be a prize remaining that needs claiming.

In this episode of the Codec Moments Podcast you’ll find out:

• Which publishers made an impression at E3 2019
• Who knows the most about Hammer horror films
• Whether Andy can keep his sound effects under control
• How many times Matt has to move Ali and Stu on for the interests of time
• If any games stuck in their memories
• Why there’s so much Keanu love
• and more!

Why not join our Discord to talk games (and other stuff) and listen to live recordings (and join in) – click here.  If you think that Discord will shun the press community for E3 2019, then why not check us out on Twitter, Facebook or contact us via email.  The Codec Moments Podcast will return next week with discussion of the Google Stadia (it we’ve paid up our streaming subs).