The Gaming Guru Podcast

This week we look at the ever-shifting world of gaming with regard to digital rights and ownership. Especially since everything is moving online, we no longer even own discs and all our data, save games and skin collections are in the cloud, who actually owns it? What happens when the game goes offline or the storefront closes? How do I get my stuff? Tim and Gareth dive headfirst into understand what are your rights when it comes to digital content ownership.

If you have any questions or comments DM us on twitter @guru_podcast or email Gareth on info@thegarethwoods.com

This week we put our expertise to the test by predicting the Metacritic scores of 5 of the biggest games launching in May as part of our first Gaming Fantasy League. If you think you are better at predicting than both Gaming Gurus Tim and Gareth then you could win R500 in vouchers to your favourite gaming storefront.

Check out @guru_podcast on Twitter to enter

#competition #podcast #gaming #gamingguru

Scammers and scalpers are having a field day with the latest gen consoles and apparently made 28 million dollars on eBay alone, but what caused the problem in the first place? What has been the impact to not only us, the consumers, but other retailers and Sony itself? And of course, how are the good people of the internet fighting back against the scourge of scammers and scalpers? (Sometimes with hilarious results)

This week, Gareth and Tim get the answers to these questions and more

Be sure to follow us on Twitter @Guru_podcast 

Much has been said about the console wars between Sony and Microsoft but is the real war in gaming actually happening on the side of digital distribution. For the longest time Steam has been the unopposed monopoly of digital gaming distribution, but since players like Epic, Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Sony and Microsoft joining the fray, who is the real winner? Is it us, the consumers, the game developers or no one at all?

This week, Gareth and Tim take a look at these questions to find out.

In a world where EVERYONE has an opinion do game reviews even matter anymore? When we hear about reviews being influenced and even bought by game publishers how do we know we can trust reviews to be honest? With the spate of games being “review bombed” by angry fans (sometimes who haven’t even played the game) have we finally reached a point where game reviews have lost any credibility?

This week, Gareth and Tim take a look at these questions to find out what place game reviews still have (if any).

As always feel free to share your opinion on our twitter @Guru_Podcast 

#gamereviews #GGpodcast

As the gaming industry has exploded over the years to now be bigger than the movie and music industry combined, so to have the potential career opportunities in the gaming industry. There are hundreds of different career opportunities for gaming enthusiasts some of which you might not even know to exist. Where do you start? What should you study? How can you get paid to play games?

This week, Gareth and Tim take a look at these questions as well as some of the exciting career opportunities in gaming.

In probably the biggest disappointment to gamers in 2020, which we realise is saying a LOT, Cyberpunk 2077 released amid a backdrop of critical outrage, deceptive review policies and rumours of employees being overworked. The result has been a broken, mess of a game that is not even a shadow of the game that was promised from CD Projekt Red, the development studio that has given us one of the most acclaimed video games of all time – The Witcher 3.

This week, Gareth and Tim take a look at what happened, why it happened and what the implications are not only for the studio, but for game development in general.

December saw the annual Game Awards come and go, except this time totally online due to COVID-19 restrictions. Last of Us – Part 2 completely swept the awards despite many gamers absolutely bombing it in the reviews. Are gaming awards just a self-congratulatory pat on the back by gaming media? Do awards still have a place in the current gaming ecosystem? Do they play any role in what gamers choose to play or have they lost touch with the voice of gamers?

This week, Tim and Gareth take a look at The Game Awards and gaming awards in general to answer these questions in the opening episode of season 3 of the Gaming Guru Podcast.

So by now you've probably heard that Microsoft has acquired Bethesda Softworks and with it some of the biggest gaming franchises in the world. Now that the dust has settled and the ink has dried on the contract, we look at what exactly this means for Microsoft, for Sony and for gamers everywhere as we enter the next phase of the console wars...

If you would like to reach us please message us on twitter @guru_podcast, @timandafish or @thegarethwoods

Who would've thought that the biggest and most popular games of 2020 would not be a AAA studio release with millions of production and marketing budget? Although as far as 2020 is concerned having 2 small indie games coming out of nowhere to blow everyone away is TOTALLY "on brand" for probably the most unexpected year in modern memory.

Well in case you've been hiding under a rock, down a mineshaft, at the bottom of the ocean, then you've probably heard of Fall Guys and Among Us - 2 of the biggest games of 2020. This week Tim and Gareth look at WHY? What made these games so popular and is there potentially a formula for success in 2020 that other game developers could use to their advantage.

As always if you have any comments, thoughts or violent outbursts please do share them with us on twitter @guru_podcast or @timandafish or @thegarethwoods

With the next round of the console wars already in full swing after the announcements from Sony and Microsoft this past week, we decided to look at some of the financial models games are using to take our hard-earned cash.

Loot boxes, DLC, microtransactions, subscription models, free-to-play... it's all in here so get out those wallets and SHOW ME THE MONEY!

As always if you have any comments, feel free to contact us on Twitter @guru_podcast, @timandafish or @thegarethwoods

Maybe we've just made it to the point where every game is cramming the term "OPEN WORLD" like some sort of marketing buzzword. (New and Improved Recipe. Packed with Vitamins etc)

But does a game being "open world" make it any better? Have developers lost the plot when it comes to open world games? Or do open world games just plain suck?

As always Tim and Gareth hack and slash their way through the jungle of mystery to bring you the answers you crave.

Feel free to message us on Twitter @gaming_podcast or @timandafish or @thegarethwoods

Last week we dived headfirst into the swamp that it morality in gaming (and we HIGHLY recommend checking out that episode)

This week after having simmered in the swamp for a week we take a look at YOU (yes You) the player and how one's personal morality impacts how one plays games and makes decisions.

Does our moral compass have any bearing in the decisions we make in games? Do our decisions change when someone is watching us? Would we change our decisions if they had real-world consequences?

All this and more in one our favourite episodes of the Gaming Guru Podcast

As always if you want to message us on twitter PLEASE do @guru_podcast or Tim @timandafish or Gareth @thegarethwoods

Wow do we have  a meaty topic for you today! Morality in video games.

Where do you even begin? No it's not going to be all about how violence in games is bad (sorry Karen)

We wanted to look at what role does morality play in games? How does it represent itself?

Can a game be free of any morality? Are all games able to be free of morality?

So many questions! Well Tim and Gareth are here to get dirty with this topic and find the answers.

If you have any comments or thoughts feel free to message us on twitter @guru_podcast or @timandafish or @thegarethwoods

Last week we heard that many industry insiders believe that having girls in your games makes them harder to sell and unfortunately on the surface, the stats seem to agree.

But is there more to this? Tim and Gareth take a deeper look to see if this is really the case

Feel free to message us on Twitter @guru_podcast or @timandafish or @thegarethwoods

Enjoy and have fun

With the news coming from various development studios that employees are harrassed, overworked and generally just treated poorly are we as consumers doing anything about it?

Can we? Should we? Does it even matter? Should we be concerned about HOW our games are produced?

All these tasty questions and more in the latest Gaming Guru Podcast

Feel free to contact us with your thoughts on twitter @guru_podcast or @thegarethwoods or @timandafish

Good day Guru fans

This week Tim brings us a load of tasty Fishdicks to chew on (ew) as we discuss the latest reveals from Ubiopen-worldsoft. 

We also take a stab at some of the burning questions in the world of gaming.

Are open world games terrible? 

Have gamers become too entitled? 

Do you HAVE to climb a tall building to unlock areas in all Ubisoft games?

FInd out our takes and share your own with us via twitter - we would LOVE to hear from you.

Let us know on twitter @guru_podcast or @timandafish or @thegarethwoods

We are back - after a few days (more than 100 to be honest) the Gaming Guru Podcast is back on the internets for season 2!

Dedicated to chatting about all the news and rumours from the world of gaming and geekery, Tim and Gareth kick things off with a quick review of the Playstation 5 reveal event and chat about what they are most excited for for the remainder of 2020.

As always you can drop us a line on twitter @thegarethwoods or @timandafish or @guru_podcast.

Hey there guru fans

Well it's the end of the world - and no it's not zombies, terrorism or alien invasions as video games would've prepared us for...it's the super sniffles.

Don't you fear - as we all cower in our respective underground doomsday bunkers the Gaming Guru Podcast is here to let you know all that is happening in the surface world. We have lots of news this week, some great candidates for Hero and Villain of the week and we chat about the crazy stuff coming from China - no not corona virus, but a BAN on gaming?!?!

As always feel free to drop us a line on twitter @guru_podcast or @thegarethwoods or @timandafish

Stay safe and WASH YOU HANDS FFS!

Hello Guru fans

This week we discuss the rumours that Sony might be seriously about to fumble the next generation of consoles given news that is surfacing regarding the next generation of consoles - what do you think? Are we seeing the end of consoles in general? Did the PC master race finally win or do we bow before our new cloud/mobile overlords? All this and the tastiest Fish Dicks from across the internet.

Feel free to message us on Twitter @guru_podcast or @timandafish or @thegarethwoods

Hello Gaming Guru fans

This week we investigate whether the age of gaming retail is officially over. We also take a look at some big leaks from Blizzard, some pretty interesting stuff coming from the Star Wars camp and award our Hero and Villain of the week - repeat winner this week.

As always you can give us your thoughts on Twitter @guru_podcast or @thegarethwoods or @timandafish

a) Blizzard faces major leak,
- Full playable build of cancelled StarCraft game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_InpLHXWXk

b) Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater gets its own documentary
- Trailer: https://youtu.be/vpD1ZrT9T4Y

Hello guru fans

This week we get balls deep into the recent TEABAG saga which also reveals our Hero and Villain for the week. We also chat about mobile games - we reveal our favourites, some trends in the mobile gaming market and weigh in on whether mobile gamers are really gamers.

There's also some tasty news from Newsman Tim about Matrix 4, Anthem 2.0 and more.

As always you can drop us a line on Twitter @guru_podcast or @timandafish or @thegarethwoods

Hey Gaming Guru fans

Well, it's Valentines Day Week (yes some folks make a whole week out of it) and so with that in mind we decided to look at some of the best fun you can have on a couch (NOT what you're thinking).... with some of the best Co-op games. We chat about our favourite Co-op experiences, the best current gen co-op games and why the Co-op experience has seemingly died off over the past few years.

We also share our hero and villain of the week so stay awhile and listen

As always drop us a line on twitter @guru_podcast or @thegarethwoods or @timandafish

Good day Guru fans

This week we dive into a rather fun topic of games that were banned - sometimes for more than obvious reasons and sometimes for the most ridiculous reasons. How many of these banned games have you played? We also have some tasty news from across the world wide web as well as our Hero and Villain of the week

As always feel free to contact us on twitter at guru_podcast or @timandafish or @thegarethwoods

Greeting Guru fans

Another week and hard to believe we're more than halfway through January. This week we decided to chat about our "perfect" games of the past decade. What is a perfect game? Does such a thing even exist? Well if it does or doesn't we'll argue about it anyway!

We also introduce a new hopefully recurring feature this week - our Hero and Villain of the Week. So take a listen to see who we think wins (or loses) this week.

All this and the tastiest gaming and geek news from across the web

As always you can chat to us on twitter @guru_podcast or @thegarethwoods or @timandafish

Welcome back guru fans - after a short holiday break we are back with episode 21 and the first for 2020. Can you believe it's 2020. By now we expected space travel, teleportation or at the very least hoverboards. Where the heck is my hoverboard, dammit!

AS much as things change one thing we can always rely on is Gareth and Tim nerding out on games, series and general geekery and bringing you all the tastiest news from the interwebs.

Be sure to drop us a line on twitter on @guru_podcast or @thegarethwoods or @timandafish.

Have a kickass 2020 everybody!

Hello Gaming fans - Can you believe the gaming guru podcast is 20 episodes old (about the time for that quarter-life crisis)? We've reached that fantastic time of the year where we look back at all the amazing titles that launched in 2019 and decide our favourites. The Game Awards takes place on 12 Dec 2019 and the nominees have already been announced. So being the opinionated and judgemental jerks that we are, we decided to take a look at the nominees and decide who deserves the win. What are your thoughts on this year's nominees?

As always we also chat about some of the hottest news happening in and around gaming and geek culture so strap in, get comfortable, stay awhile and listen.

You can chat with us on twitter via our shiny new twitter handle @guru_podcast or directly with Tim @timandafish and Gareth @thegarethwoods.

Hey Gaming Guru fans - this week we have a whole lot of news to chat about. Activision being naughty (again), Anthem lead jumps from the sinking ship (finally), Exile Con News (take notes Blizzard), quick takes on The Mandalorian (its good), Sonic returns (a little less WTF than last time) and we preview some of the Black Friday special coming soon - is now the best time to buy a new shiny console?

We also have a brand new Twitter handle for the show @guru_podcast so be sure to message or tag us there

Otherwise feel free to DM us on @thegarethwoods or @timandafish

This week we chat about our early thoughts on our time with Death Stranding, the new game from mad genius, Hideo Kojima. We also dissect some of the juicy announcements that came out of BlizCon 2019. Is it too early to buy your tickets for the Diablo 4 hype train?

As always you can drop us a line on twitter @thegarethwoods or @timandafish

Gareth has now officially moved to JHB and so we have finally had a chance to record our first cross country episode from Cape Town and JHB.

It's also THAT time of year when there are more games to play than we know what to do with so we chat about some of the biggest titles out at the moment like Luigi's Mansion 3, Outer Worlds, WWE2k20, that baby in a bottle game and as always catch up on the big news happening in the world of gaming... can you believe in Fallout 76 is BACK in the news... truly the gift that keeps on giving

Feel free to message us on twitter @thegarethwoods or @timandafish

Hey there GG listeners

We are back after a short break with Gareth traveling to Comic Con Africa and Rage and Tim brings us some crazy news about FIFA20, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Fallout 76 WILL KILL YOU (literally now) as well as some TV and movie news.

Gareth also shares his experiences from Rage and Comic Con - South Africa's two biggest gaming conventions.

Be sure to message us on twitter @thegarethwoods or @timandafish if you have any comments or questions

This week Tim and Gareth chat about some of the titles they have sunk their teeth into recently including what looks like 2019's sleeper hit, CONTROL as well as Dark Anthologies: Man of Medan. They also chat about what games are still left to launch in 2019 and what they are most excited for.

What game are you most hyped for still to launch in 2019? Let us know on twitter @thegarethwoods or @timandafish

This week on the Gaming Guru Podcast we jump into some of the juiciest news stories from around the net and look specifically at the recent Dota2 international which continues each year to grab headlines as the richest esports event in the world. Despite its success is the way Dota2 tournaments are run creating a very unhealthy and unsustainable environment for players and talent? We discuss.

If you have anything to say or ask let us know on twitter @thegarethwoods and @timandafish

Last week we reached out to ask you all about BINGE gaming. How much is too much? What's your longest binge session? What game(s) did you play? How did you know when it was time to stop, if you even could at all.

Thanks for all the awesome responses - this week we chat about all your BINGE gaming experiences.

As always you can message me or tim on twitter @thegarethwoods or @timandafish

This week Tim and Gareth look at all the tasty gaming and geek news from across the internet and tackle the age-old topic...do violent games really make you violent? Next week we will be talking about gaming BINGE sessions - what's your longest gaming binge? How did you manage to keep going that long? And if you're an older/adult/parent gamer how do you find the time? Let us know

You can also message us on @thegarethwoods or @timandafish on twitter

This week Tim finally reveals why the name "Timandafish" and we discuss all the best and worst game controllers we've used. Including some pretty face palmy, WTF-were-they-thinking, hope-somebody-got-fired controllers.

As always you can send us any comments, questions or thoughts on twitter to @thegarethwoods or @timandafish

This week in a weird sense of irony Tim and Gareth spin-off from their normal gaming chat to talk about all the news from Comic-Con (including the announcement of a cubic crap ton of spin-offs). Which begs the question have we reached the new dark age of TV spin-offs? What happens when we take a superhero and put him in the fast-paced world of .... uh...accounting?

it's sure to have some HILARIOUS CONSEQUENCES

This week Tim and Gareth delve into some tasty news including Elon Musk's latest mad science experiment, Henry Cavil's cosplay adventures, Apex Legends sending cheaters to "Australia" and the Nintendo Switch in desperate need of a new name. Finally, we take on a topic suggested by one of our listeners, namely "Are games bad for you?"

Should be easy for some game obsessed guys to say "Hell no, noob, games are life" - but we take a look at why non-gamers might think that gaming could actually be bad for you.

As always thanks for all the support and questions much appreciated

@thegarethwoods and @timandafish

This week on the Gaming Guru Podcast we have loads of tasty tidbits for your enjoyment including details on the Last of Us 2's launch date, angry people being angry (this time about robotic penises), EA security hack (wait to hear our tinfoil hat theories on that one) and we chat about RUSH, RAGE and Comic Con to try figure out WTF is up with gaming events at the moment.

After a short break (because Gareth decided to abandon all responsibilities in Bali for 2 weeks) we are back to talk about all the winners and losers of this years E3.

It certainly had some highlights and lowlights and so Tim and Gareth chat about their personal heroes and villains of the world's biggest annual gaming expo.

This week Gareth and Tim discuss one of gaming's favourite tropes - Boss fights. The best, worst and most WTF bosses in gaming (in our opinion of course).

Why do we need them? What makes a good one? When good games are ruined by bad boss fights. All this and some of the latest gaming news from around the interwebs, only on the Gaming Guru Podcast

Now with 34% fewer microtransactions! This week Tim and Gareth discuss whether developers have lost touch with what gamers actually want? Do gamers even actually know what they want? Half the time I don't even know what I want for breakfast so should we listen to what consumers have to say? Do we say one thing and then let our wallets decide differently? All of this and more on the Gaming Guru Podcast episode 5

Armed with a sexily robotic new intro, hosts Tim and Gareth discuss what's hot and happening in the world of gaming. Our beloved Clap Trap from Borderlands is no more (at least how we knew him). We see the potential end of loot boxes (yeah right) and we discuss why open-world games...well kind suck

Join hosts Tim and Gareth as they take a look at some of the things making news in the world of gaming and geekery.
MK says "Sorry about that loot box system, here's some gold, now shut up!" Leaks of new MK DLC characters, Fallout devs give you a sack of poop and Sonic the Abomination all on this week's episode of the Gaming Guru Podcast

The latest instalment of Mortal Kombat is out and we take a look at probably the goriest, most violent and strangely enough the most "woke" MK game we've ever seen. Team Guru discuss this and the scourge of microtransactions in this week's podcast.