{"store":{"baseInfo":{"podcastTitle":"Players Circle Media’s Podcast","slug":"playerscirclemediapodcast","podcastDescription":"

A video game news/review/podcast channel by the guys at Players Circle Media. Hosts Tom, Stephen, and Sean talk new and old games alike as well as news, reviews, and much more.

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Schedule

3/10/26: Slay the Spire 2 (Early Access)

3/10/26: Pokémon?

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Co-op Campaign Review

“Well… That was weird, huh?”

By: Thomas Bisom | November 19th, 2025

The Review

There was a time when Call of Duty campaigns would wrap compelling stories with unforgettable gameplay sequences, akin to being the starring actor in a big budget action movie. Famous missions like ‘All Ghillied Up’ and ‘Shock and Awe’ in CoD 4: Modern Warfare, ‘No Russian’ in Modern Warfare 2, ‘Vorkuta’ from Black Ops 1, and countless others consistently delivered unforgettable moments that helped elevate the series to where it is today. Unfortunately, Black Ops 7 roughly 5 hour online-only co-op campaign doesn’t live up to those high standards. Long time fans may start to wonder if Microsoft and Activision have lost control of the magic Call of Duty was known for.

An online only, un-pauseable campaign that is clearly designed to play with 3 other players feels bad when compared to previous games and what made them a ‘must-play’ every year. Thankfully, there is a ‘no squad-fill’ option allowing you to play each mission entirely solo, though in most games I could still hear other players talking or see death icons when someone would die to various AI enemies. One of the worst parts about an online-only campaign came when I was nearing the end of the first mission, when I had to take a brief phone call and got kicked for inactivity. This led to me the painful realization that I would have to start the same mission from the very beginning, as there are no save points along the way. Adding to the pain, cut scenes are rarely skippable, making me suffer through the same incomprehensible story beats, just to rush through generic levels thoughtlessly populated with unthreatening enemies. At one point while trying to press every button imaginable to skip ahead, I muted someone I didn’t know was in my supposedly solo party, or sent an invite to a friend, all without any kind of menu showing up on screen.

Exciting gunplay, quick movement, minor and major abilities, and killstreaks do a lot of heavy lifting here. The campaign doesn’t allow you to customize your weapons and attachments like multiplayer, but there were plenty of different gun combinations to choose from, and you could find upgrade stations that helped make any of your current guns feel more powerful. Minor and Major abilities added to the fun by creating new ways to tackle each encounter. Stim packs and grapple hooks spent the most time in my minor slot while major abilities like a bubble shield, an incredibly powerful hand cannon, or simply calling in a heavy grenade launcher felt strong in the right situations. Halo 3 and Destiny 2 certainly did bubble shields and golden guns better, but it was still fun none the less.

It’s not all bad, as there are some redeeming elements such as the same movement and gunplay that make up the core gameplay loop of any Call of Duty game. I could tell there was potential for a powerful story about connecting each of the main characters as they relive past failed missions together, thanks to Karma and her mind-altering red gas. However, most missions didn’t feel like they added anything new, but retold them worse by mixing in Zombies, giant falling machetes, teleporting villains, or a super-sized vomit spewing Michael Rooker as a boss fight.

Final Verdict

While Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 offers some exciting gunplay and unique abilities, the online-only, un-pauseable campaign fails to deliver the compelling storytelling and immersive experience fans have come to expect. The lack of save points and skippable cutscenes detracts from the enjoyment, and the potential for a powerful narrative is overshadowed by repetitive missions and confusing elements. Overall, I can’t say I hated my time with Black Ops 7, but it certainly didn’t live up to my expectations. There’s also the ethical misuse of generative AI art for calling cards and possibly other portions of the game. Hopefully Microsoft and Activision take player feedback to heart and reevaluates their direction for the next one.

Rating: 3/10 Bad

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Keeper

“The feeling of playing a living painting matched with a captivating sense of suspenseful exploration comes together perfectly.”

By Thomas Bisom | October 21st, 2025

The Review

Without any dialogue, voice acting, or notes left behind, the story of Keeper is told solely through the actions of a sentient lighthouse and its avian companion, Twig, as they adventure together in a time long after the age of humans. This strange world feels empty and dangerous in the beginning, yet full of new life spurred on by your own beacon of light as it brushes across peculiar creatures and odd structures. Cryptic descriptions for easy to find achievements shed some contextual light on the backstory of how this island came to be, while remaining mysterious enough to avoid spoiling your own sense of wonder. Each chapter was more entrancing than the last, leading up to a satisfying conclusion worthy of your time.

Story

The lighthouse isn’t concerned with why it exists, but how it can use that existence to enrich the environment around it as it travels to the top of a mountain in search of an ominous eye, seemingly watching over the island. Moments after your first steps you’ll notice that shining your light on budding plants causes them to bloom, brightening the area around them. Sometimes this changes the environment so you can pass through. Other times it makes the world around you less dark and foreboding; invoking a sense that simply existing is enough. Not including voice acting or in-game dialogue enhances the experience by showing how one compassionate being can break through the darkness with actions alone and bring harmony to those around them.

Throughout my roughly five hour journey I was reminded of Playdead's Limbo and Inside mixed with BlueTwelve Studio’s Stray, and how each game blends together wonder, suspense, anxiety, and finality in a unique way that leaves a lasting impression. In a blog post on Xbox Wire by Doublefine Productions Creative Lead Lee Petty, Lee mentioned feelings of isolation and a desire for connection brought on by the pandemic, as well as thoughts about the future after humans are gone. Will plants and wildlife continue to thrive and evolve on our planet in the future? What would happen over time on an isolated island and would there still be a desire from those that remain to connect with each other? Keeper feels like it delivers satisfying answers to those questions, though its dreamlike visuals may be a tad too psychedelic for some.

Gameplay

In the opening cinematic Twig is chased by bat-like creatures until it lands upon the lighthouse. It then scares away the enemies with a flash of light, then crumbles to pieces only to regrow with a set of legs and the ability to walk. This initially felt like an introduction to combat to come, but none did as there isn’t exactly any type of combat throughout the game. Instead, the player is met with a series of simple, though engaging and compounding puzzles that use Twig and the lighthouse’s beam of light in distinctive and compelling ways. One puzzle involved using the light to manipulate time, while another focused on blossoming plants to elevate a bridge through to the next area. Each chapter builds slightly on the puzzle mechanics in surprising ways worth discovering on your own. I never felt like I was stuck trying to figure out what to do next and enjoyed the mild complexity mixed with a consistent feeling of progression.

Moving the lighthouse around feels a tad wobbly, though it’s never an issue and fits the concept of how a living building might feel when walking. At times I would get hung up on a small ledge or wall, though it only took a few seconds to adjust my placement and move on. Occasionally in some of the more open sections of the game, the camera would lag behind my movements and made it slightly difficult to see where I was going when turning quickly. It runs at a smooth 4k, 30 fps on Series X, with minimal frame drops and rare asset pop-in that likely won’t be noticeable for a majority of players. All of these issues are minor and neither of them detracted from my experience for long.

Final Verdict

Without question, Keepers shining light is its art style inspired by famous surrealist artists like Salvador Dali and Max Ernst. The feeling of playing a living painting matched with a captivating sense of suspenseful exploration comes together perfectly. Simplistic puzzles blended with an emotional story showcase the difference a source of hope can make on those around it. Players looking for a short and powerful story will be pleasantly surprised by the impact a living, breathing lighthouse can have, just like the timeless icons of the sea before it.

Rating: 9/10 Incredible

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Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

“Sam, the DHV Magellan can’t move right now.\"

By: Thomas Bisom | October 9th, 2025

The Review

Whatever Bridges is paying Norman Reedus’ Sam to trek across multiple continents, fight ghosts, fight other kinds of ghosts, rescue wildlife, and become a wilderness firefighter to deliver some packages and hook up some wifi; it’s not enough. Death Stranding 2 is a wild, yet entertaining experience packed with weird moments fans of Hideo Kojima have come to expect as well as a slightly safe and compelling story that is absolutely worth the price of admission.

Story

Picking up just 11 months after the ending of Death Stranding, aptly named Sam Porter Bridges and his child Lou lead a peaceful life near the Mexican border after leaving the UCA and Bridges behind. That is, until fellow porter and returning series favorite Fragile shows up with a request from your old friend Deadman to come see him at his lab near an anomaly in central Mexico. Reluctantly leaving Lou in Fragile’s care, Sam sets off on a new adventure that will lead him to connect half of Mexico and all of Australia to the chiral network; a complex system of servers connecting both living and dead people together through this world's version of the afterlife, the Beach.

Starting the game in Mexico allowed me to reacquaint myself with how the series works. I quickly relearned how difficult it can be walking around with a ton of cargo, how the bandits are vicious and eager to fight once you’re spotted, and how scary an unexpected encounter with a ghostly BT (Beached Thing) can be. As I progressed through this welcomed introduction and made my way into Australia, I felt ready for the challenges ahead. You could get lost combing every square inch of the massive open world, or simply focus on the main story tasks with some side questing, which I think is the best way for most people to experience this game.

Gameplay: Cargo and Road/Monorail Building

Just like the last game, the core gameplay revolves around taking on orders and delivering packages. Most of my 108 hours were spent doing just that while blissfully expanding the chiral network as I progressed through the main story at my own pace. Other nights I spent hours building and upgrading a road or repairing the new monorail system, like some kind of Tylenol infused Civil Engineer for Australia's version of Amtrak. As infectious as it was to keep building out these systems, neither one really serviced areas I needed them to and only slightly decreased my delivery times. I also felt like by the time I finished building a road or monorail extension, I had done everything I wanted to in that area and didn’t really need the convenience of a road any more.

Though eventually mildly annoying, leveling up my relationship with a few of the intriguing survivors scattered about in order to get a new weapon or unlock new gear was a worthwhile investment. Survivors like The Adventurer gave me a set of gloves that would help me grab cargo off the ground without stopping my delivery truck, Viktor Frank at the F5 Distribution Center offered up a pair of boots that are more durable and stable on a steep snowy cliffside, and real life V-Tuber Usada Pekora No Usagi as the Data Scientist gave me a special robot dog mine to send off into battle. Her infectious “Peko Peko” hat that took over Sam’s brain and made him sound insane at times was a fun surprise. If Kojima and Usada Pekora came together and made a real version of that, I’d be first in line.

Combat: BT vs Ghost Mech vs Bandits

While collecting and delivering packages is the main gameplay mechanic, there are plenty of great combat situations Sam can engage in throughout his journey. Returning enemies include human bandits and the infamous BTs, with the addition of new robot “Ghost Mechs’ that materialize out of the tar. Their fighting style is similar to the human bandits, but thankfully you don’t have to worry about killing them and leading to a void out. In the Death Stranding world, killing people leads to void outs, or massive explosions that leaves a crater of destruction in its wake. This was an interesting mechanic last time, but would get a bit overwhelming when most of your weapons are lethal to humans. This time, almost every weapon comes standard with special bullets that knock out human enemies, but can also damage BTs and Ghost Mechs. Gone are the days needing to create Sam’s bodily fluid grenades that were present in the first game.

Overall I enjoyed the times I needed to engage in combat with the bandits and mechs, but my favorite will always be taking out BTs. There's plenty of returning and new weapons to take out these enemies and each encounter required me to think on how to best approach them without getting captured myself. A semi-spoiler for a new mechanic; this time Sam can “capture” weakened large BTs in order to call on them later to fight on your side similar to capturing and battling in Pokémon. Even better, when you call in these captured BTs, the music changes to invoke visions of Kaiju battles in old movies from the 40’s and 50’s, and I for one loved every second of it.

Final Verdict

Death Stranding 2 was an incredible experience from start to finish. The game’s graphics are breathtaking and performance was flawless on my PS5 Slim as well as my PlayStation Portal. The world felt appropriately empty and vast, allowing me to feel like I was actually out there on my own, fighting to connect Mexico and Australia. Combat is spaced out enough to focus on building roads or delivering packages without much worry, and nothing quite compares to coming across a BT when you weren’t expecting one. The story was much more clear this time around and including a compendium of terms and summaries helps iron out any confusion I had along the way. The ending wrapped up the story beautifully and while I don’t expect a Death Stranding 3 anytime soon if ever, I’d be happy if it ended here or found a way to connect other parts of the world to the chiral network.

Rating: 9/10 Incredible

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Stray Review

\"Stray is the best representation of being a cat\"

By Thomas Bisom | October 8th, 2025

The Review

In an increasingly realistic future, humans have ruined the planet around them and are incapable of surviving on the surface. In an effort to survive, the remaining humans retreat into a vault or silo that is locked off from the outside world and the ability to grow a plant without the need of sunlight. In an effort to make their lives easier, the survivors create a host of robots to help keep up with tasks like repairs and growing food. At some point a plague wipes out the remaining humans in the lower level while the managers at the top refuse to allow them to leave, sealing their fate and protecting themselves temporarily. Eventually the last of the human race dies off and the robots are left to carry on on their own. They start picking up some of the human traits like gardening, art, music, etc. and are unaware that an outside world exists until our Orange Cat protagonist slips and falls into their locked down world.

Throughout this game you uncover some of the secrets that lead to this world's creation, but more importantly you’ll come in contact with many of the robots left living in the slums. Some feel compelled to help, some want to be left alone or are indifferent, and others shoo you away with a broom. Any seated robots openly offer their laps for a nap and homes with rugs or couches unwillingly offer themselves as scratching posts, the world of Stray is the best representation of being a cat. Without spoiling the ending, your journey leads you to find a way out of the city and reunite with your feline family on the surface.

I think this is a game you can only play once mainly because it has a linear story without any additional endings. The story is certainly captivating and the characters you meet along the way feel special, but the surprises and gameplay wouldn’t be any different on a second playthrough. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this game and highly recommend it.

Rating: 9/10 Incredible

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Pikmin 3 for Wii U Review

“a superficially peaceful world ready to test your abilities ”

By Thomas Bisom | September 18th, 2025

The Review

Exploring Earth-like planet PNF-404 from the perspective of three small alien explorers searching for food is an enthralling experience from start to finish. Thanks to the expert level design, entrancing environments, easy to understand mechanics, and most of all the instantly loveable Pikmin themselves, Pikmin 3 was a joy to play. Each of the five unique biomes gave me a sense of fleeting tranquility as I roamed through breathtaking forest scapes, chilling yet comforting snow covered hills, and gentle meandering creeks, fully entranced in a world that gave me a sense of adventure reminiscent of exploring the woods near my home as a kid. The main story sticks around just long enough to feel complete, with challenge mode and multiplayer rounding out an endearing experience that has me looking towards future games in the series.

If you’ve never played a Pikmin game before, the first thing you’ll notice is how responsible you feel for the lovable little creatures as they’ll gladly sacrifice themselves to help you on your journey. Obtaining each type throughout the story gave me a lite Metroidvania feel as each new addition allowed me to go back to a section of a previous level and get some more fruit or other treasures. My personal favorite is the new grey rock type which are essentially walking pieces of coal that can break glass and are immune to being squashed. The other new type are the pink mosquito-like winged Pikmin that are weaker in normal combat, but are superior in the air and can carry items up and over ground obstacles. Sometimes the little pink flyers would bypass unfinished bridges or get caught in a spider web causing most of them to perish very quickly as I stressfully searched the map for where they got stuck. Many of the bosses and minibosses along the way called for recognizing the need for certain types such as using a few grey rock types to break a glass exoskeleton or charging in with a horde or red fire types to take on a flaming slug.

Much like the previous games, you are limited to scavenging in the daylight and must return to your ship by nightfall. Any Pikmin that are with a captain or near the Onion will be safe, but any stragglers will be eaten by nocturnal predators as you watch on in horror. Your ever-hungry Koppai compatriots will turn the days collected fruit into juice which is used as a semi-survival game mechanic posing the threat that if you run out of juice the game is over. This seemed like it was going to be a much larger worry pushing me along each day, but I was able to quickly stockpile 10-15 days worth of juice and never came close to running out. Previous Pikmin games were limited to 30 days so using juices as a limiting factor made me feel like I could spend more time exploring without as much worry about days remaining.

Similar to Pikmin 2, the player is given control of another additional captain bringing the total up to 3 and allowing you to mutli-task fruit collections and quickly build satisfying bridges. There are a few puzzles requiring you to have all three captains together such as tossing each other leapfrog style across a stream or progressively moving up a staircase of scales to an additional item. While useful at times, this turned out to be less of a major mechanic than I had expected. Often I found that splitting up and sending three units across the map would end up in near total elimination of one of the teams when an unexpected enemy would pop up and consume the poor Pikmin before I could react. More than half the time I had all three captains together and would only separate them to either mark a location to come back to later, or send one to monitor a group of Pikmin carrying a fruit or building a bridge in hopes to stop an extinction event.

While commanding the captains and Pikmin around with the stylus on the GamePad felt easy to use, occasionally I would run into a few issues. Sometimes when I was trying to recall my Pikmin after they completed a task or were actively in danger the circle around the stylus wouldn’t always collect everyone if the camera didn’t have a completely unobstructed view. Other times the group of Pikmin following behind me would get stuck if I moved too quickly around a corner and didn’t give them enough width to get around. This was frustrating at first as I didn’t know why my group was getting smaller or trying to find out where they got stuck as the day started to wind down. I eventually noticed what was happening and took a wider line around obstacles which helped, but didn’t entirely solve the problem.

Though the main story of the game feels like it’s just about as long as I would have wanted, challenge mode and multiplayer present enough depth to work thorough once you’ve completed the main game. Each of the challenges I’ve played so far certainly tested my understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each Pikmin type and required efficient clock management to get a high enough score for a gold medal. I felt like utilizing the three captains individually worked a lot better in these modes as each level was less about maintaining a realistic environment that fits the story and more about how well you can manage all the core gameplay mechanics. These modes also add in white poison and purple strength types which welcome in more stress and anxiety with more variables to manage.

I’d be remiss not to mention how enchanting the music was and how well it tied the whole game together. Musical director Hajime Wakai’s beautiful direction really sets the mood of each area and knows when to ramp it up for small and large battles alike. At times I’d feel like I was on a peaceful walk through the woods only for the music to intensify quickly when an enemy approached or my poor Pikmin were under attack off screen. It’s no surprise the score was so impactful as Wakai also worked on well known soundtracks for games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, Star Fox 64, and Pokémon Stadium. The soundtrack for Pikmin 4 is up on Nintendo Music now and certainly worth a listen.

Final Verdict

Pikmin 3 delivers a superficially peaceful world ready to test your ability to manage multiple units as they scavenge for fruit for survival with the help of their new plant based friends. Exciting environments, spellbinding music, engaging gameplay, fun to mildly irritating controls, and a captivating story come together in a truly delightful way. Challenge mode picks up the baton for those looking more after its shorter and easier story mode, multiplayer covers those looking to test their abilities against their friends, and the main story mode has plenty of hidden paths and puzzles leading to extra fruit for those looking to collect everything. Again, Nintendo brings us a fun and charming adventure worth digging out your old Wii U and heading out into the wilderness with your new flowery friends.

Rating: 8.5/10 Amazing

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Recent Reviews

Mario Tennis Ultra Smash for Wii U Review

“Ultra Smash is an uninspired step backward for Mario Tennis”

By Thomas Bisom | August 18th 2025

The Review

Mario Tennis Ultra Smash is a visually stunning game, but its immediately noticeable lack of content left me wondering “Is this it?” If you’ve played any of the previous versions like Mario Tennis on Nintendo 64, the RPG lite Mario Tennis on GameBoy Color, or even the quirky Mario Power Tennis for the Gamecube, you’ll come in expecting something new and interesting that builds on top of the already compelling franchise. Unfortunately, other than the brilliant colors and cool effects we come to expect from Nintendo, Ultra Smash lacks enough playable characters, modes, or a rewarding progression to justify playing over older versions.

Mega Battle is the only new mode where Toad randomly throws Mega Mushrooms onto the court. These oversized mushrooms cause your character to get bigger and minimally increase their stats for longer than you’d expect. It’s an interesting idea on the surface that fits the Mario theme, but ultimately it was more annoying than I expected it to be. The larger character blocks the view of the court and the short animation sequence caused me to lose track of the ball more times than I’d like to admit. You’ll earn some coins at the end of each activity much like Mario Kart 8, but these coins can only be used to bypass unlock conditions for any of the 25 generic rewards. If Mega Battle isn’t your thing, there's still Singles or Doubles in Classic Tennis which is just basic tennis without the mushrooms.

Knockout Challenge lets you train an AI amiibo partner by increasing their stats every 5 matches, though I couldn’t tell any difference in their performance. The AI character still regularly missed volleys or hit me in the back with the ball. If you don’t have an amiibo of each character, the only point here is to win 15 consecutive matches to unlock a Star version of a character. Or, you can just buy the unlock for 5,000 coins. Star characters felt identical to non-star and I couldn’t find any in-game information that explained what made Star Mario different from base Mario.

Mega Ball Rally is the only other new minigame and is centered solely around how long you can volley a beach ball back and forth until someone makes a mistake. The ball gets smaller every 30 volleys and exponentially increases your coin reward the longer the game goes on — and that’s it. Online servers were shut down for the Wii U in April of 2024 so I couldn’t give matchmaking a shot, but it appears that the only options were causal or ranked. You couldn’t even set up an online match with a friend which is pretty disappointing.

One of the few positives here, the Wii U GamePad continues to prove its worth as the best part of this console. I chose the GamePad as the main play screen while the TV showed camera angles akin to watching a real tennis match on ESPN. This worked great for streaming and I would think it would be fun to play a few matches with multiple GamePads while onlookers enjoyed the dynamic camera shots on the main screen.

Final Verdict

Omitting a story mode and a lackluster rewards system gave me little reason to come back and play more. The Mega Battle and Mega Ball Rally lost their shine quickly and I’ve played enough Classic Tennis in the past. Online mode may have been fun for a bit, and without servers to host games, I don’t feel like I’m missing much either way. Knockout mode is probably the most captivating to me as it briefly reminded me of grinding levels for Nina and Alex in the GBC Mario Tennis. Needing every amiibo to get the most of it or just buying the rewards hobbles the replayability quickly. Sadly, Ultra Smash is an uninspired step backward for Mario Tennis and worth skipping over or simply returning to previous versions.

Rating: 5/10 Mediocore

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