SecondWindGroup

[COLUMN] Reminder: E3 Conferences Used To Be So Much Worse | by Marty Sliva

Like a lot of you, I miss E3. I miss downtown Los Angeles transforming into a video game wonderland for an entire week every June. I miss the emphasis that developers and publishers put into trying to one-up each other and come away with the most talked about game of the show. I miss what felt like a concentrated wave of hype that went into each and every major press conference. It felt like folks wo...

[AD-FREE] What Makes a Great Video Game Weapon? | Windbreaker Podcast

On this week’s episode of Windbreaker, Yahtzee, JM8, and Marty chat about their favorite weapons in games, and what makes them memorable from a mechanical, visual, and audio perspective.

Doom: The Dark Ages' Designers Think You're Dumb | Design Delve

This week's episode of Design Delve is now available!

[COLUMN] Andor is the Purest Star Wars | by Darren Mooney

Note: This piece contains spoilers for Andor in its entirety, with the show having wrapped its second and final season last week on Disney+. If you haven’t seen it, you should. I promise I’ll shut up about Andor now.

Every once in a while, the complaint surfaces that Andor, which wrapped up its run this week, is not sufficiently Star Wars...

Chaos Pontificates | Adventure Is Nigh! - The Cat's Paw | Ep. 7

This week's episode of Adventure is Nigh is now available!

[AD-FREE] What Does a 10/10 Actually Mean? | Firelink Podcast

This week on Firelink, KC, Marty, and Jess chat about what it means for a game to be a 10/10, another big game delay into 2026, and the impending release of the Persona 5 gacha game.

Expedition 33 Wasn’t a Fluke, It’s the Future | Unpacked

On this week's episode of Unpacked, Nick digs into the success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and how its developer Sandfall Interactive and publisher Kepler could be a model for future success across the industry.

[COLUMN] Final Destination Was a Horror Franchise for the End of History | by Darren Mooney

Note: The final few paragraphs of this article include some discussion of Final Destination: Bloodlines, the latest entry in the Final Destination film franchise. It’s not great, unfortunately, but if you want to remain unspoiled, it might be worth bookmarking this article and coming back to it later.

Final Destination is the last great horror franc...

Turn-Based Combat Didn’t Need Saving From Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an incredible game. But contrary to what some folks might be saying, it isn’t here to save turn-based combat, if only because turn-based combat didn’t need saving.

[WRITE-IN] Firelink Episode #67

Hey all! This week, Nick is in Poland on a work trip, so Jess Hoops will be joining me, KC, and Eric. We'll be gabbing about what it means for a game to score a 10/10, our personal 10s, news of the Persona 5 gacha game coming to the west next month/my impending financial ruin, and stuff we've been playing.

Hit us with your thoughts/questions/comments about any of those, or anything else in general, and we'll pick some of them to read during tonight's show.

Thanks, and see y'all to...

Remakes, Remasters, and Re-Whatevers | Semi-Ramblomatic

This week on Semi-Ramblomatic, Yahtzee ponders the separation between re-releases, remasters and remakes.

[AD-FREE] Thunderbolts* Thoughts and Our Summer Movie Preview | The Rewind Podcast

This week on The Rewind, Darren, Jack, and Marty discuss Thunderbolts*, Kung Fury II's strange "leak," and a look at the slate of movies releasing this summer.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered | Fully Ramblomatic

This week on Fully Ramblomatic, Yahtzee reviewed The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered.

Labyrinth of the Demon King Has Great Vibes and Not-So-Great Combat | Discovery Queue

On this episode of Discovery Queue, Marty and Jesse G take a dip inside the Labyrinth of the Demon King, a first-person RPG that feels like a spooky take on King's Field, with A+ vibes and C+ combat mechanics.

[COLUMN] I Can’t Stop Thinking About This Dragon in Super Mario Odyssey | by Marty Sliva

The Switch 2 is only three weeks away, but I’m over here still thinking about that one weird dragon from 2017’s Super Mario Odyssey. 

I have a deep level of respect and admiration for Mario’s last mainline outing, even though it ranks relatively low in my own personal rankings of his 3D adventures. For me, it doesn’t have the seismic influence of 64, impeccable vi...

[AD-FREE] Where Have All the GTA Clones Gone? | Windbreaker Podcast

On this week’s episode of Windbreaker, Yahtzee, JM8, and Marty chat about the new GTA 6 trailer, and use that to discuss the broader topic of GTA clones.

[PREMIERE] Marvel's Spider-Man's "Puddlegate" Was Deeper Than You Think | Game Arcadia

Introducing Game Arcadia, a new animated show hosted by Jenna Stoeber taking a look at the weirdest, most interesting and out there stories from the gaming community.

[COLUMN] On Andor, There Is No Way Out | by Darren Mooney

Note: This piece will include a full and frank discussion of the latest block of Andor episodes, which count among the best things Star Wars have ever produced. So, check them out, if you haven’t.

The two seasons of Andor are neatly mirrored. Both run twelve episodes and can be neatly delineated into four arcs each. Those arcs mirror one another acr...

Haunted House Renovator, Skin Deep, Captain Blood, & Shotgun Cop Man | Yahtzee Tries

This week's episode of Yahtzee Tries is now available!

Just A Quick Thank You!

Hey folks,

We just had our best week of Patreon sign-ups in over a year.

The number may not reflect it publicly as a lot of you signed up for annual subscriptions, but this week definitely made a difference for us and got our Patreon going back up in the right direction again.

Our goal is still to hit $45K / month again, but we've made a really good dent in that this past week.

Wanted to take a moment to say thank you to all of you that signed up, upgraded your member...

Let's Make a Dungeon Using Dice

Jack wanted to show you things in his house. So here's a video about that.

You can download the map below.

[AD-FREE] From AAA to Indie Metroidvanias (ft. Alex Hutchinson) | Dev Heads

This week on Dev Heads, JM8, Tina, and Mikee are joined by Alex Hutchinson to chat about his journey from working on Assassin's Creed and Far Cry, to Revenge of the Savage Planet, and everything in between.

[AD-FREE] Grand Theft Auto VI Is Going to Sell Several Bajillion Copies in 2026 | Firelink Podcast

This week on Firelink, Nick, KC, and Marty chat about Clair Obscur's success, Mafia: The Old Country's modest ambitions, and the Grand Theft Auto VI delay + new trailer.

How Dumb Corporations Killed Traditional Games Media | Unpacked

This week's episode of Unpacked is now available!

[COLUMN] In Poker Face, All the World's a Stage | by Darren Mooney

Note: The second season of Poker Face launched this week on Peacock with three episodes. It’s good fun. The nature of the show involves revealing the identity of the killer early on, so it’s not really “spoilable” in the conventional sense. But if you want to watch those three episodes completely blind and come back, we’ll be waiting.

The concept of ...

[WRITE-IN] Firelink Episode #66

This week we're talking all about that big new Grand Theft Auto VI trailer, the big sales numbers of Expedition 33, and Mafia: The Old Country just got a release date, price and gameplay reveal.

Send in your thoughts, questions, or topics you'd be interested in us discussing! We won't have time to read and discuss everything, and please keep posts topical, safe for work and not huge walls of text.

Submissions close at 6 PM CT on Thursday, May 8th.

[PREMIERE] Hades and Writing Characters from a Performer’s Perspective (feat. Cyrus Nemati) | Storycraft

The pilot episode of a new series from Jess Hoops, Storycraft, is now available!

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 | Fully Ramblomatic

On this week's Fully Ramblomatic, Yahtzee puts on his beret and dives into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Andor and What It Means To Be "Mature" Star Wars | The Backdrop

On this episode of The Backdrop, Darren Mooney examines Andor and what it means for Star Wars to be "mature."

Second Wind and the Year Ahead

We've got a lot of exciting things cooking at Second Wind for 2025.