Out Of Nowhere

In the first episode of 2019 Ben and Aadil discuss their most anticipated games of the coming year. Some of these games have firm release dates, others don’t so hopefully their not repeated this time next year. Games touched upon include Control, Metro Exodus, Anthem, Doom Eternal, In the Valley of the Gods, Man of Medan and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3. Ben has also found 30 minutes to play something and chats Hitman 2 (without Lucy!). Aadil has two beers this week whilst Ben is on the rum. Aadil starts with the ‘Kill Pils’ from Weird Beard and follows it with Arbor’s ‘All the Mo’s’. Ben was gifted a lot of rum over the Christmas break so cracks them open, […]

‘Tis the season and we’re gonna get pretty bloody jolly at the This Next Act Christmas party! It’s not gonna be your regular night so expect set-swaps, roast battles, an amazing l Christmas gameshow and special Christmas characters and songs from some of our favourite ‘This Next Act’ performers! You name it/them – we’ve got it/them and you’re all invited!! Ho! Ho! Ho!* It’s also the Kettle’s first birthday! So you’ve got no excuse to not come to this one. Even you Scrooge!! Featuring, in no particular order James O’Donoghue (James O’Donoghue) Louise Leigh James Trickey Laura Ollerton Jessie Nixon David Hoare Jessie Johnson Ted Milligan Daryl Hembrough Greg Winfield Dan Hershbein Heather Bryson Banks Laura Fell Jules Laurens Burt […]

It’s that time of the year when everyone thrusts their favourite games down your throat. We’re no different except it’s accompanied by several beers to ease it down. Lucy, Ben and Aadil start off with a few honourable mentions then launch into their top ten games. We’ve no rules here as you know, so these are games we’ve enjoyed this year even if they didn’t release in 2018. For those all important beverages Ben and Lucy are drinking The Trilogy MMXVIII from Northern Monk and friends. These beers are brewed to showcase Malts, Yeast and Hops and are Malt – A Brut IPA with Whiplash, Yeast – A Sour IPA with Verdant and Hops – A Triple IPA with Garage. […]

This Next Act returns with another excellent lineup! MC: Alex Kitson Maclaine Aidan Rutter Special guest appearance from Professor Lectures! Burt Williamson Alice O’Brien Will Turner

Aadil, Ben and Lucy discuss a fair few games on this weeks episode plus talk about the Epic Games Store as a rival to Steam. Aadil actually found time for a game and played a little more Magic The Gathering Arena, he also had some time to listen to the ‘Hello from the magic tavern’ podcast. Lucy’s been playing Iconoclasts, Desert Child and GRIS whilst Ben has spent about 30 minutes each with Energy Cycle Edge, Project Warlock and Thronebreaker. Lucy kicks off the beers with a Mikkeller ‘Stick a finger in the ground’ and follows it with ‘Wood will fall down’ also from Mikkeller. Aadil begins with ‘Indie Lager’ from Fourpure and sticks with Australian owned breweries and the […]

This Next Act at the Kingsdown Vaults is back again with another superb line-up!  MC: Alex Kitson Mark Irvine Capriella Hooper Richard James The Washer-Woman (Mikey Bligh-Smith)Alice O’Brien David Wroe Sarah Slater  

Who knows this week as we’re all over the place. We start with Hitman Sniper and move to Deconstructeam’s Eternal Home Floristry which both Lucy and Ben have played. Ben gives his first thoughts on Mutant Year Zero and this somehow leads to discussions on Max Payne, Massive Chalice, Mario Vs Rabbids and Into the Breach. Lucy and Aadil tried to play the Ape Out playable trailer but it’s just gone so Ben chats about it. We finish by discussing Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Qube and Qube 2, Portal and finally more Hitman. Lucy doesn’t have a beer this week so sips tea then later some water. Ben drinks the ‘Cinder Toffee Stout’ from New Bristol Brewery and, from […]

‘This Next Act: Far From Home’. It’s the sequel to the reboot of a reboot (DM me if this is too niche of a reference). Regardless, we’re back with another excellent line-up and you’d be a fool to miss it. Line-up: MC: Alex Kitson Esylit Sears Jacks Hardakers Eva Bindeman Laura Fell Andrew Corsini Richard James

OK, only Lucy has been a frog detective this week but Ben and Aadil are waiting, ready to take up the mantle. We kick off discussing The Haunted Island, A Frog Detective Game. This moves into Hollow Knight which Ben has started playing and Lucy could talk about for hours. We all have visitors of various types this episode which derail us slightly so start talking about the Steam Link. Talk turns to store fronts, The Switch & Shovelware, Hitman (2) and achievements before finishing with a little more Red Dead Redemption 2. For our beery beverages this week Aadil begins with a ‘Side Control’ IPL from Marble Brewery. Lucy drinks Birmingham Brewing Company’s ‘Merry Brummie’ and Ben has a […]

This Next Act is back with a vengeance after the enforced September hiatus! We’ve got a new venue, an absolute banging line-up and it’s also Isaac’s last ever gig before he moves to China (genuinely) so why wouldn’t you come?! Bring friends, enemies, countrymen. Gonna be a good one. Free entry as always – see you all there! MC: Alex Kitson Line-up: Dylan Jones Matt Wilson Jack Lloyd Heather Bryson-Banks Livvie Newman Isaac Kean Freya Mallard David Hoare

Lucy kicks off this week by bringing the idea of Strip Fortnite to the table. Apparently it’s the newest, stupid craze kids are doing. Who knows really. We quickly move into the Red Dead 2 corner as Ben updates everyone on climbing a mountain and Aadil gets excited about the prospect of modding the game if it eventually releases on PC. Talk turns to the idea of multiplatform accounts and Warframe, followed by Steam achievements and trading cards. Ben picks back up the game chat by opening up the GOTY chat having returned to play Florence. Lucy keeps us solid with impressions on Akane and Planet Alpha, this somehow gets derailed into chatting Avatar, Fern Gully and Roger Rabbit. It’s […]

Aadil and Ben get together to discuss their favourite Marvel games in memory of the illustrious Stan Lee. These include Marvel licensed games through the years like The Incredible Hulk, Ultimate Alliance and Marvel Vs Capcom. Before this they discuss Alphabear 2 which Ben’s had a couple of days with in between his Red Dead Redemption 2 sessions. Whilst returning to RDR2 they also chat GTA Online, Saints Row 2, Red Dead Online, GTA San Andreas and Dark Age of Camelot. This week Aadil drinks two beers from Manual Brewing. He begins with ‘My Favourite Hero’ gose and follows it with ‘Tickets Please’ DIPA. Ben’s beers loosely revolve around a piece of furniture. He starts with ‘Freak Scene’ NEIPA from […]

Everyone’s here for this episode retreading recent games. We all further discuss Red Dead Redemption 2 and somehow slide in Ori, Origins and Overwatch. We have a little discussion around two of Rockstar’s other games, Red Dead Redemption and The Warriors. Talk briefly lands on socks before we revisit Return of the Obra Dinn. We all smash back two beers each. Lucy starts with the Beavertown and Firestone Walker collaboration ‘Clinging to Summer’ IPA followed by the ‘Hey Bay Bae’ Saison from Black Iris. Aadil begins with a DIPA from Great Divide called ‘Hercules’ and finishes with a collaboration from North and Boundary, the Baltic Porter. Ben has the ‘SHSF #1’ from Unbarred first which is followed by ‘Shadow Future’ […]

This week Ben and Lucy get stuck into a discussion on Red Dead Redemption 2 but before that they’ve found some time to play a few other games appropriate for this time of year. Kicking off this week Ben gives his initial impressions of party murder simulator ‘Party Hard 2’. Lucy gets through both ‘Undertale’ and ‘The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the island of memories’. This leads into a nice big chat on RDR2. They also touch on Hitman 2 and the PlayStation Classic. To drink this week Lucy starts with a Northern Monk and Finback Patrons 3.05 DIPA ‘Once, twice, three times a whale’ followed by Dark Revolution’s ‘Delirious’ DIPA. Ben has two collaborations this week starting with Magic […]

This week Lucy is the only one who has played a video game so we delve into the realms of board games once again. Aadil kicks off the episode chatting about ‘Coup’ and ‘Codewords’. Lucy then gets into ‘Return of the Obra Dinn’ basically telling Ben and Aadil that they would love it. Talk turns to Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and the revelation that none of us have played it which leads into Lucy’s initial impressions and general chat around Red Dead Redemption 2. Lucy has another week off the beers as she went to an Amundsen tap take over the night before recording so recounts some of the beers she enjoyed. Ben and Aadil do drink whilst recording. Ben starts […]

Ben’s beautiful garage recording space gets invaded. Aadil joins him in the garage for a few beers whilst Lucy comes through via the internet. They discuss the mobile puzzler ELOH and chat the beautiful Far: Lone Sails. In full flow a second invasion occurs and Kim appears for the last 20 minutes and they all finish on the narrative point and click 2064: Read Only Memories. The first beer everyone drinks is the Arbor Mosaic single hop pale ale. Lucy has this from a bottle whilst Ben and Aadil have it from a can. Aadil and Ben sneak in a second beer and have the Nu-Tropic IPA from Stillwater. After Kim appears Lucy finishes on a Northern Monk Patrons 10.04 […]

Aadil has returned to join Ben and Lucy on his Birthday! We kick off with a further discussion on supermarket beers, how they’ve expanded and what that means for quality. Aadil’s been investigating the Magic: The Gathering Arena open beta and talk turns to digital collections, libraries and digital rights. Lucy get’s a little more into her thoughts on G30 after her initial impression during EGX (when will it be on Android?) and Ben has been chilling out and working a lot with Megaquarium on in the background. Ben and Lucy start with the same beer, the ‘Quench Quake’ from Brewdog whilst Aadil tries the newly canned Jaipur from Thornbridge. Aadil then moves to the Siren’s ‘Cold Brew’, Ben has […]

Ben and Lucy get together to discuss their recent outings to Taps Beer Festival, Bristol Craft Beer festival and to EGX. They chat the idea of the attendance of brewers / game developers, big queues, big beers, local beers and what they enjoyed from these events. Lucy played some games whist at EGX including G30, Overcooked 2 and Phogs, she also played The Gardens Between which she goes into a little more detail on. After the events they discuss some news including the sad closure of Telltale Games and Sony caving on crossplay. Lucy has a week off the beer so it’s just down to Ben. He drinks the ‘Dhana International’ from Bundobust and Northern Monk then jumps to a […]

That’s right! The team kept an eye on the podcast, this time, so it didn’t escape into the void; that means we can deliver it direct to you! Francis, Lucy & Andy talk all things Nintendo. Who’s been playing Overcooked 2? Who finds the latest Mario game name confusing? Find out, by listening here: Oh, there may have also been a Nintendo Direct conference… enjoy!

With the release of Spider-Man on the PS4 it’s all the OutOfLives crew seem to be talking about. This week Ben and Alex chat through their thoughts on the game and each put forward their ideas for future super hero games. This includes the heroes, settings, developers and genres that they think would work well, and a few that wouldn’t.