On Sunday, Rob and Patrick almost saw the entire Chicago Bears season sink underneath an injury to quarterback Caleb Williams. Rob’s Sunday was ruined. Patrick’s flight back from Los Angeles became a tomb. And the prospect of doing weekly check-ins on the Bears for the Remap audience suddenly became more daunting. Maybe they could chat about a book they were reading, instead? But thankfully, Williams is not out for the season. So we’re back? Sort of.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We begin this podcast the way we ended the last podcast: talking about Control Resonant. This time, Rob’s spent 17 hours with Remedy’s latest, albeit all of it before the game was updated to validate the emotional and critical feelings of Patrick and Janet. But we also have much else to discuss, including Xbox’s ongoing “reset,” the alleged future of Bungie, Discord pushing forward on age verification, and many thoughts on both Silent Hill Townfall and Normal Golf Game.

Links: Control Resonant Post by Chris Person, Xbox Announces Continuing Layoffs and Restructure, The Next Chapter of Bungie, Post about Turning off Gambling Ads In Discord, Image of Confusing UI in Discord Settings

Discussed:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:44 - Control Resonant

00:55:07 - Xbox Studios Goes through Further Layoffs

01:18:49 - Bungie's Next Chapter

01:42:48 - Discord Age Verification Rolls Out

02:00:47 - Silent Hill: Townfall

02:20:04 - Normal Golf Game

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A conversation with the designer behind one of 2026's most pleasant surprises, and arguably the most unconventional take on hitting a golf ball since Wii Sports.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You don’t get a new Remedy video game all that often, but Rob, Patrick, and Janet have all played Control Resonant and…well, you should just listen to the podcast. Elsewhere on Remap Radio this week, we’ve got [checks notes] a ton of bummer news, including several studios shutting down, IGN laying off even more people, a truly perplexing story about a studio head’s comments on crunch, and more. At least Chia’s back from Japan and playing Perfect Tides!

Links: Moss Dev Shuts Down, Heart Machine goes through Layoffs, Rockstar Union had a Mole in their Discord, Wardogs Dev won't hire people who have been vocally anti-crunch, Nighthawks Categorized as Adult Content by Steam, The Future of Marathon

Discussed:

00:02:33 - Unfortunately we must discuss the horrors    

00:04:49 - IGN/Indie Studios Layoffs and Closures    

00:44:24 - Wardogs CEO talks crunch    

01:16:36 - Rockstar deployed union mole   

01:25:00 - Nighthawks marked as adult content by Steam moderation   

01:32:03 - The Future of Marathon    

01:41:49 - Control Resonant 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The 13th of September will no longer be known as a Chicago holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice, we will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish without a fight. We're going to live on. We're going to survive. Today, friends, The Bears Are Back! Join Rob and Patrick for a Sports! mini-pod—seriously, it’s only 20 minutes—about the Bears pulverizing the Panthers. Our hope is to deliver one of these every week (unless we’re already doing a normal Sports!). Library-tier subscribers will get access to them ASAP, while everyone else can hear our thoughts on Saturdays…right before the NFL kicks off again! Beardown!

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bruno Dias joins the crew to talk about his review of The Sinking City 2 and Lovecraft as author versus Lovecraft as brand. Then the gang gets into our glorious era of privacy annihilating personal technology and engages in a philosophical exploration of Siri Recap and when an audio file ceases to be an audio file. We discuss Kojima's announcement with Microsoft, and what it implies about Sony's relationship to big AAA prestige pieces and creators. You know, things like Wolverine from Insomniac, which Patrick has been playing a lot this last week. It's not great, bub! Then Bruno has been digging into 1000 Hells and Blood of Dawnwallker. If you ever wanted to hear about different ways voice lines and barks are handled at studios, this is the episode for you, because Bruno has spent time in those mines.

• 00:01:18 -  Sinking City 2           
• 00:59:44 - TCL’s TV Review Press List     
• 01:28:13 - Hockey Commentator reveals that EA is testing AI voice acting for EA Sports      
• 01:40:54 - 1900 Blizzard Employees Unionize    
• 01:52:22 - Microsoft acquires Kojima Production’s PHYSINT after Sony drops it  
• 02:16:01 - Insomniac’s Wolverine Woes   
• 02:45:57 - 1000 Hells      
• 02:51:49 - Blood of Dawnwalker     
• 03:04:00 - Star Wars Zero Company     

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone look at this guy. He doesn't know who Miyamoto Musashi is. He doesn't even know about Ganryu! If you mention the Five Rings, he thinks you're talking about Tom Brady. And yet HE was worthy of the Onimusha: Way of the Sword review code? That's fine. We're not bitter. We have other games to play, like Super Mega Baseball, First Light, or Orbitals.

01:06 - The Sinking City 2 might be an Evil Within 2-like  

06:02 - 80% of Bit Reactor Furloughed    

18:22 - The DLSS5 Yassification Machine     

38:21 - De-listed games included in Xbox’s disc to digital initiative     

49:43 - Onimusha: Way of the Sword     

1:22:24 - Super Mega Baseball     

1:39:21 - 007: First Light     

1:54:27 - Orbitals     

2:09:26 - Question Bucket    

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a preview of a Premium Library Tier podcast. To access the full episode, you can sign up at remapradio.com/signup

2026 has been full of horrors, but it’s also been full of video games, too. With Grand Theft Auto VI coming later this year, though, there’s an avalanche of games coming throughout September and October. It felt like a good time to check in with Patrick, Chia, and Janet about their individual piles of shame, the games they plan to spend more time with before 2026 is over, and what games they’re looking forward to playing as the year rolls around. It’s, uh, a lot of games.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rob and Patrick have been digging into Zero Company and discuss the things they are getting from their vastly divergent contexts for it. The gang discuss Tim Curry's passing, Playdate's tariff generosity, and the Paradox founders' taxation takes. Then Janet has been digging Perfect Tides, Baldur's Gate 3, and Blood Dungeon, while Patrick is enjoying the a return to the grimness of A Plague Tale with Resonance. 

    01:17 - Star Wars Zero Company (Redux)   

      01:03:20 - Tim Curry's passing     

      01:05:49 - Doublefine's independent plans   

      01:09:29 - Xbox Discless Pivot      

      01:21:44 - Playdate refunds tariff money    

      01:26:46 - Paradox CEO complains about wealth taxes     

      01:48:25 - Perfect Tides: Station to Station     

      02:06:32 - Baldur’s Gate 3    

      02:15:01 - Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy   

      02:35:53 - Manual Transmission Games & Rally Car School   

      02:56:38 - Blood Dungeon  

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

So far as we know, nobody is leaking clips from this podcast, but the same can’t be said for Grand Theft Auto VI. Join Patrick, Chia, and Janet as they reminisce about how their parents treated GTA growing up, Netflix’s latest signal they don’t know what to do with video games, and plenty of games talk, including impressions of Netflix’s (impressive!) Unhinged experiment, MiO: Memories in Orbit, Rogue Voltage, Mortal Shell II, and more. Plus, in The Question Bucket, we ponder why developers disable achievements when using options to tweak a game’s difficulty.

Links: GTA 6 Suffers Third Day of Leaks, Latest Video Suggests Leakers Have Access to a Build of the Game, Nightschool Shuttered by Netflix, Industry legend Warren Spector is retiring: 'I'm feeling like I've done what I set out to do', Matthew Karch Apologizes to Stella Sacco, School for Poetic Computing, Compulsion Games pulls off management buyout and separates from Xbox | exclusive

Discussed:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:12:19 - The GTA VI Leaks, the Worker's Union, and GTA Histories

00:16:32 - gameworkers.square.site 

00:34:31 - Night School Shuttered by Netflix 

00:38:37 - Unhinged

00:55:57 - Saber Interactive CEO Apologizes to Former Employee 

01:05:38 - Warren Spector Retires

01:09:58 - Harvey Smith starts a new company

01:11:10 - Arco recoups it's development costs

01:14:21 - MIO: Memories in Orbit

01:24:51 - Mortal Shell 2

01:42:28 - Rogue Voltage

01:52:21 - School for Poetic Computing

01:57:28 - Compulsion Games is now Independent

01:58:37 - Angel Essence

02:07:02 - Pin-Crawl

02:12:14 - Question Bucket 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Patrick sits down with Nicole Carpenter to discuss her article on the prisoners at Rikers prison and their access to video games. Which games are provided to them, and who gets to make that decision? They also break down the biases people carry about who should have access to games, and how that access changes the prisoners' day to day life.

A Virtual Escape for Riker's Inmates by Nicole Carpenter

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.