Can Christians Play Games Like GTA? Plus, Every Major Game from State of Play

📅 TWIG Recap – June 5, 2025

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Welcome to TWIG—This Week in Geek—your cozy corner of nerdy news and spiritual curiosity, hosted by Nerd Pastor Nate from Checkpoint Church! This week’s episode was jam-packed with gaming news, hot takes, and one of our most thoughtful main segments ever. We tackled the Sony State of Play, grieved (kind of?) over MultiVersus, and dove into a Christian podcast’s take on video games with… let’s call it a “gentle nerd rebuke.” Buckle up!

🎬 What We’re Watching, Playing & Reading

Our guest this week, DGC, brought the heat with their watchlist:

• Apothecary Diaries (Anime Club pick)

• Rewatching Re:Zero and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

• Playing: Metaphor, Mario Kart Deluxe

Nate’s been too busy living in narrative-heavy games to keep up with anime, but he’s:

• Watching Let’s Plays of The Hundred Line and Ace Attorney Investigations

• Playing: Mario Kart World (obsessed), Wanderstop (soft and spiritual), and looking ahead to Deltarune

• Reading: The Tears of Things, Supercommunicators, Man Made of Smoke, and Hum—our Book Club read!

🕹️ State of Play Highlights: What’s Worth the Hype?

We broke down every major Sony State of Play announcement, and here are the standout moments:

• Pragmata (Capcom) – A forgotten gem reborn. BioShock vibes meet mysterious father-daughter energy.

• Silent Hill f – Set in 1960s Japan, written by the creator of When They Cry. Yes, please.

• Romeo is a Dead Man – Suda51’s bizarre space noir adventure. Slash a sword, shoot a gun—what more do you need?

• Final Fantasy Tactics Remastered – September 30! Not orchestrated, but fully voiced? We’ll take it.

• 007: First Light – A James Bond origin story by IO Interactive. Yes. Just yes.

• Marvel Tokon – A new 4v4 fighter developed by Arc System Works. Marvel meets Guilty Gear.

• Bloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement – Metroidvania meets Dead Cells meets Dracula-core.

• Cairn: A Climbing Story – Think Celeste but slower, more contemplative. Could be pilgrimage material.

Plus: Astro Bot, Tides of Tomorrow, Sea of Remnants, and Funky Origami Platformers. September is going to be stacked.

😢 RIP MultiVersus

It’s officially over. Again.

The Warner Bros. brawler shut down on May 30 after a bizarre release-pull-release cycle and a whopping $100M write-down. Despite a strong start and solid mechanics, it never found its footing in the wider gaming world—or on TikTok. Shaggy deserved better.

Takeaway: Good mechanics aren’t enough. If your meme game isn’t strong, your player base won’t be either.

👻 Phasmophobia Is Becoming a Movie...?

Blumhouse is adapting Kinetic Games’ co-op ghost-hunting hit into a film. Will it be spooky? Probably. Will it be good? 🤷‍♂️ Let’s hope it’s more Get Out than Five Nights at Freddy’s.

🧠 Main Segment: Can Christians Make Violent Games?

The Holy Post Podcast asked: “Can a Christian work in the video game industry without compromising their faith?”

Their take: avoid portraying evil as good. Also, maybe don’t make Grand Theft Auto.

Our take: Jesus told parables full of messy, violent, morally gray people. Games are today’s parables. Christians shouldn’t flee from the medium—we should redeem it.

💬 Nate’s Callout:

“I would love to come on the Holy Post and talk about the power of gaming. We’ve built a church around this stuff. Let’s not throw out the pixelated baby with the bathwater.”

Key reflections:

• Games like The Last of Us and Papers, Please help us explore justice, grief, and mercy.

• Christians can—and should—work in the industry. Just be discerning.

• Not every game needs to be BibleMan. Let art be art.

• We need more churches willing to ask, “Is this good for your soul?”—not just “Is this sanitized?”

🧠 RNGesus Delivers: Embrace Your Inner Dork

This week’s blessing from the algorithm was a TikTok from Papi the Weatherman:

“I’m dorky, I like D&D, I play video games, and I like it. I wouldn’t change me, and you shouldn’t change you either.”

We say: Amen. Be your nerdy, weird, heartfelt self. The world needs it.

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🧠 Meme of the Week

🔜 What We’re Hyped For

🎮 Nate:

• Mario Kart World – His forever favorite

• Nintendo GameCube NSO – Finally!

• Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour – Worth the $10

🎮 DGC:

• Deltarune Chapters 3 & 4

• Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut

• Summer Game Fest

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🧡 Final Thoughts

We say it every week, but we mean it:

1. God loves you.

2. We love you.

3. You matter.

Whether you’re slashing monsters, solving courtroom mysteries, or just watching a Let’s Play in your PJs—you are beloved.

Thanks for joining us for TWIG. See you next week for a Summer Game Fest mega-recap!