PC Gamer Chat Log Episode 49: What's in a (genre) name?

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Heya PC gamers, welcome back to the PC Gamer Chat Log podcast! Hope you've all had a great week so far. Please tell me I'm not the only one deep in a Balatro hole this week. That game is taking up every dang lunch break I have! Whenever I tell myself I will play something else, my mouse hovers over the play button for Balatro instead. I'm officially poker-deckbuilding-roguelike-pilled. Phew, try saying that ten times fast.

The triple-threat genre isn't even all that out there anymore. Genres in games have become A Whole Thing. Metroidvania. Soulslike. Survivors. 4X (which I finally found out stands for explore, expand, exploit and exterminate, thanks Google). Sometimes a game can even end up being four or five different things: Roguelite FPS co-op survival crafting anyone?

Myself and Lauren will be talking all things genres this week, bringing along Harvey Randall as our sacrifice to the genre gods. "But wait," I hear you attentive listeners/viewers ask. "Didn't Lauren specifically promise to not fight about genres as part of her New Year's resolution?" Yes, yes she did. Listen, when do any of us stick to those things anyway? It's almost March, we're long past trivial matters like a New Year's resolution. 

You can still definitely bully (affectionate) her about it on the PC Gamer forums though. We'll have a thread going up about this week's episode where you can pop in and share your thoughts with us. We'll be in there too having a chat with you! Feel free to tell us what you think about genres. Do you think they're dumb, cool? Are you a "Wish product page" kinda genre enjoyer, or do you yearn for the purity of a single-genre experience? Make sure to let us know!

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Don't forget to check us out over on the PC Gamer forums, too! We'll be checking in every week to see what you lovely lot have to say about each week's episode, and joining in the discussion ourselves.

Mollie Taylor
Features Producer

Mollie spent her early childhood deeply invested in games like Killer Instinct, Toontown and Audition Online, which continue to form the pillars of her personality today. She joined PC Gamer in 2020 as a news writer and now lends her expertise to write a wealth of features, guides and reviews with a dash of chaos. She can often be found causing mischief in Final Fantasy 14, using those experiences to write neat things about her favourite MMO. When she's not staring at her bunny girl she can be found sweating out rhythm games, pretending to be good at fighting games or spending far too much money at her local arcade.