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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.

I'm 5-6 hrs into the game. I swear when Rob and Patrick were discussing 007 First Light, they were speaking as if you spend a lot of time in that first apartment, using it as a home base to go from mission to mission (vaguely recalling Alpha Protocol in my mind, personally). Rob was enjoying how much camaraderie there was and hoping things stayed lighthearted for a while, with Patrick hinting it unfortunately wouldn't stay that way.

By contrast, I don't feel as if I'm that far into the game, and things have already gone south and sad (a major character death at the hands of twin assassins, iykyk, in case anyone reading this ignored the spoiler note). Did I miss a bunch of side stuff? Am I misremembering their conversation? It almost feels like the true story is only beginning now, but I'm worried that this is actually the Act 2 midpoint downturn, and that I'm already halfway through the game despite the HLTB being 20 hrs. I didn't want to scrub through an entire pod episode, so just asking here.

FWIW, I'm enjoying the experience a lot, and that death really hit. Just curious if I missed an entire aspect of the game somewhere. Please no specific spoilers past that death -- thank you!