Gaming news after the week falls apart.
THiRD SHiFT follows Eric and Matt through weekly life check-ins, game news, free-game talk, and whatever strange tangent has enough momentum to survive. It is gaming coverage with basement flooding, movie trips, fake ads, Borderlands talk, and very committed review-begging folded into the same conversation.
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THiRD SHiFT is a weekly gaming conversation with the shape of a standing hangout. Eric and Matt bring the show in through personal check-ins before the news takes over. That means a flooded basement can sit next to Amazon Luna, Game Pass, Sonic, or Meta Quest 3 without feeling like the wrong room. The appeal is the drift. One topic leads to another, and a small annoyance can become a full survival report before the show wanders back toward release dates and trailers. Recent episodes cover Borderlands 4, PlayStation pricing, Xbox news, State of Play, Indie World, Switch 2 talk, Ghost of Yotei, Marathon, Fortnite, Sega, Atlus, Quantic Dream, and a steady pile of smaller indies. The hosts are especially good at describing the physical feel of games. They talk about running through doors, reading clues, counting ammo, sneaking past enemies, getting chased, finding upgrades, and realizing a demo may not be built for them after all. Short verdicts are rare. The fun is in hearing the path to the verdict. Matt and Eric also keep a running domestic texture around the gaming coverage, from kids on spring break to movie-seat strategy to long stretches of doing absolutely nothing. It makes the show feel lived-in. The fake commercials add a more absurd edge, with mock products, mock television, self-help parody, and deliberately overdone sponsor reads. The endings often turn into comic pleas for five-star reviews. Sometimes the joke gets louder than the news. Usually that is the point. THiRD SHiFT is not trying to sound like a tight industry briefing. It sounds like two friends with hundreds of episodes behind them, still finding reasons to laugh at games, themselves, and the weird machinery around both. For listeners who want cleanly separated segments and quick headlines, it may feel too shaggy. For players who enjoy personality-heavy gaming talk with real digressions, it has the comfort of an old save file that still loads.
Made for: For gaming fans who like release talk, platform news, demos, and deep-cut discoveries delivered through casual banter rather than tidy analysis. It especially suits players who enjoy long-running chemistry and digressive weekly rituals.
What sets it apart: THiRD SHiFT stands out by letting ordinary life and gaming minutiae carry equal weight. Its fake ads, running review jokes, and extremely specific gameplay retellings make the news feel less like coverage and more like a standing late-week conversation.
THiRD SHiFT is a weekly podcast hosted by Eric and Matt. Topics include everything Gearbox & Borderlands, along with weekly releases and the latest gaming news!
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
THiRD SHiFT gives Leisure's gaming corner candid, funny guidance through new releases, subscription catalogs, and overlooked games.
THiRD SHiFT moves through game releases, industry showcases, subscription catalogs, and overlooked curiosities with the energy of two friends comparing notes after a crowded week.
Matt puts money down on a City Hunter collector's edition sight unseen; your backlog may recognize the impulse.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A flooded-week games roundup that stays useful even when the conversation wanders.
THiRD SHiFT turns a rough week for Eric into a grounded, conversational games update, with nonstop rain, flooding, and a basement that will not stay dry setting the tone.
A loose but grounded game chat with a movie detour, a bird device, and enough puzzle detail to hold together.
Third Shift episode 497 opens with a Sunday movie trip and the familiar theater-seat ritual, and that immediate, fussy detail gives the conversation a lived-in ease.
A warm, excitable City Hunter review built around retro design, current hardware, and one very easy collector's edition decision.
Third Shift 492 finds its cleanest rhythm in City Hunter, a PC Engine run-and-gun maze that Matt describes as newly available in English. His enthusiasm gives the segment its charge as he frames the game beside Rolling Thunder and Codename Viper: move side to side, duck through…
Its best joke is the hard swerve from Grace's scarce-ammo dread to Leon Kennedy's action-game chaos.
Episode 491 of THiRD SHiFT settles into an easy rhythm, moving from ordinary week-reporting into a Resident Evil conversation built around one very lopsided contrast.
A two-week catch-up turns crowded game-service listings into an easygoing browse.
Third Shift uses a two-week gap as a casual tour through the games waiting on Game Pass and Amazon Free Games. Matt and Eric move through a busy Game Pass queue that includes Avatar Frontiers of Pandora, Aerial Knights Dropshot, Kingdom Come Deliverance, High on Life 2, and The…
A loose, personable game chat finds its best spark in a short octopus stealth adventure and a pair of free strategy picks.
Third Shift 496 wanders from a strange Salovex ad and Eric's spring-break household into a set of game picks that feel unusually specific. Matt and Eric settle longest on Darwin's Paradox, a compact stealth-platformer about a little octopus up against aliens, and the talk has…
Hosts Matt and Eric open episode 496 of Third Shift with personal updates on family life and gaming.
This episode of Third Ship features hosts Eric and Matt discussing gaming topics like Counterplay, Like A Dragon, Ubisoft, and Switch 2, with Matt planning to go on a rant.
The hosts of Third Shift discuss their week, reflect on how their podcast intros have evolved, and tease upcoming topics about video games and news.
Host Matt complains about co-host Eric rushing him to start the podcast before he could finish his dinner, setting up a casual, humorous gaming discussion.
The hosts discuss a family visit with the sister from Ohio, including activities and a trip to see their grandpa and uncle.
Eric opens the show in the middle of a week of nonstop rain.
Third Shift opens with a promo for Baz Rudin and The Men's Room with Baz and Jeremy on Weasel.
This episode of Third Shift features hosts Matt and Eric discussing video game industry topics including Eidos Montreal, Cinemersive Labs, PlayStation pricing, and next-generation speculation.
The hosts of Third Shift introduce episode 495, discussing their week including watching Ready or Not 2 and preparing to cover gaming news topics like PlayStation price hikes and AAA game costs.
The hosts of Third Shift introduce episode 494, discussing the show's upcoming 10-year anniversary and teasing gaming news topics like Wheel of Time and Borderlands 4.
The hosts discuss their week, with one sharing that he's been watching YouTube video essays from new creators while in a gaming funk.
Matt opens episode 492 by bringing Eric into the mix.
["Third Shift episode 491 opens with Matt and Eric joking about the show\u2019s march toward episode 500 and asking what the audience wants from the next milestone.", "Matt reviews Sally at the Wharton Center, a solo play about one of Thomas Jefferson\u2019s enslaved wives, and Choir of Man, a pub-set musical that handed out free beer and used spoken-word sections between songs.", "Eric describes a Saturday ER visit after a knee twist, then explains how a 90-day probation job made the injury feel urgent while he kept playing Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined.", "The episode closes with a long release rundown that includes Ys X Proud Nordics, Resident Evil 9 Requiem, Slime Rancher 2, Tavern Talk, and free-game drops across Game Pass, PlayStation Plus, Epic, and Amazon."]
THiRD SHiFT episode 490 covers Send Help, Pragmata, Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, Re-Animal, High on Life 2, and a long release-news rundown.