Good evening, Strategy Buds. You're listening to Three Moves Ahead, and I'm your host, Fraser Brown.

I'm filling in for Rob Zakene, who wants to make it very clear that he doesn't condone the contents of this episode.

So anything could happen. Joining me on this grand adventure is a trio of chatty game experts. With us today, we've got freelance critic, Dia Lusina. Welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me.

I'm so excited to be here.

It's going to be very exciting.

Back for the first time it ages, we've got narrative designer Philip O'Warr.

Welcome back, Pip.

Hello.

And finally, we've got our old pal freelancer John Bolding.

Say hello, John. Howdy, howdy.

Okay, so when Rob asked me to host an episode, he said I could pick absolutely anything I wanted. So naturally, we're chatting about hardcore tactical war game, Animal Crossing, New Horizons.

The latest entry in this long-running life sim is

it's pretty much taken over the internet, or at least my Twitter feed, and for the first time

I've kind of been swept up in it too. It's proved to be a kind of very comforting island of calm

amid a crisis, at least some of the time. But before we tackle that, I'd like to

get into what the series is all about, because it's admittedly not a conventional game for this

podcast. Pip, you're an Animal Crossing veteran, it would be fair to say. Yes. We've got an

animal crossing problem.

And you've even been juggling pocket camp while playing New Horizons?

I still play pocket camp. It's been about two and a half years and my little profile on that game tells me I haven't missed a day yet.

So in case, in case listeners aren't familiar, that's the mobile spinoff.

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