#414 | This Is the Revelation of the Year

38:38People are upset because Jean Grey isn't fuckable, by the way. The situation is dire and help is limited. Mutants live in the shadows, fearful of those hunting them, while the rest of society lives unaware of their existence. The only ones potentially capable of protecting their own is Team X, a last stand mutant task force facing its darkest hour, which Logan rejoins after leaving three years prior. For the mutants, the fight for survival is theirs alone. Dustin, what did you think of what we saw. We saw the pretty extensive gameplay, extremely violent. Looks great. I think Wolverine looks awesome, personally.

39:10Colin Moriarty:Yeah, it looks pretty fun, as you mentioned, very violent and gory. Of course, we saw that in the last trailer, but it's cool to see it in action in the gameplay. The fact that it is linear is very appealing to me. Not that I don't like the occasional open world game, but I think a lot of times that in open world games, you do tend to get a lot of fluff depending on the game. And some people might be into that. Just being able to play the combat more, playing the game more is good. But if they're really like locked in on this linear experience, I think that could be beneficial for it. And for me, this isn't a game that I'm terribly excited for.

39:55Colin Moriarty:In fact, I think we're kind of all in the same boat where it's like gameplay looks fun i've seen a few of the wolverine movies they're they're fun but i don't care deeply about wolverine as an ip or as a character whatever to me it just looks like a fun action game cool action sequences it's honestly kind of the same way i feel about bond as an ip and playing a game about it bond is a little different because i really love the developer and io interactive and I like insomnia but they're not like necessarily like my exact cup of tea so what they showed was really promising um I don't I saw know what you're talking about Colin with the Jean Grey controversy I don't know quite frankly don't really care she looks fine to me yeah I don't I don't I'm not trying to fuck Jean Grey yeah I would imagine there are many people in our audience that absolutely love x-men love Wolverine and I'm really happy for them because this looks like you're getting the amazing Wolverine game that you probably always wanted.

41:00Colin Moriarty:So I'll be I'll be checking it out. But again, like this is going to be another fun game for me, more than likely. The price of the game is seventy dollars, not a huge surprise. It's going to show how disconnected yen is coming from USD. It's eight thousand nine hundred and eighty yen. It's just it's getting crazy. Almost nine thousand yen now for a brand new triple A game in Japan from from PlayStation. Chris, you're a Marvel guy or a Marvel adjacent guy. I mean, you love Spider-Man. Yeah, I agree with what Dustin was saying that linear is good. I got that vibe when I was watching it and they already have the open world Marvel games and Spider-Man, Venom, Miles.

41:40So to go in this linear direction, which I assume maybe they'll end up going, because remember, there's supposed to be an X-Men trilogy after this. So I wonder if that will even more blatantly set it up. But yeah, what are your thoughts here on Wolverine, which comes out in September?

41:52Colin Moriarty:I think it looks good. I think I'm kind of with both of you, I think, generally, where like this is, look, I'm not, I like Spider-Man a lot, but that's really the only avenue into Marvel for me. Like I thought the MCU was cool when it was going on. I thought it was interesting and novel, and I appreciated some stuff there. I did like that Guardians of the Galaxy game that I think, was it Square Enix did a while back? Yeah, that was, was it Montreal that did that? I think so. That was a surprisingly solid game as well. So it's not like I don't have any tethers, but X-Men in particular, I've never gelled with that much.

42:28Colin Moriarty:I know about it. I know the X-Men animated series was kind of big. I remember that theme song when I was a kid. So I have some ties, but it's not nearly as intense as the Spider-Man connection. I think linear is good. I quite frankly don't know how you make a good open-world Wolverine game, to be honest. I don't think Wolverine is that interesting of a character to traverse an open world with agreed in the same way that spider-man is he can't he would have to like what would he run or something he's running he'd be running or hopping all over the place it's just like i mean a maniac yeah just wouldn't i i get it and that's good i think it's uh i'm especially coming off a bond i just kind of i'm i i like these linear action games and i miss them and so it's nice to see another one from a triple a team uh I'll definitely play it.

43:20Colin Moriarty:It looks a little bit mindless. It looks a little hack and slashy, which is like, in my opinion, fine. But I do know that that's something that people were saying. I don't mind a hack and slash, quite frankly. But as far as the Jean Grey thing, I don't know. I don't care. I could see there are certain characters where I would understand. Yeah. Like if it was like a Psylocke or something, I'd be like, what are you doing? Yeah. what are you like an obese yeah like you can't make psylocke normal looking like that's so lame or like even like rogue or something right like another and storm too you know they're all sexy yeah but like gene gray was that ever like like i don't know i don't i don't know yeah i'm not i'm not clued into that universe enough to know for sure but i do i know for sure those other ones are um and i do think there is an interesting i do think unfortunately there's no way to have an interesting conversation around that without like psychotic people gleaming onto it so I just won't but I think the game looks good and I'm looking forward to it it'll be a game that I'll get more excited for as the week of launch approaches where I'm like okay cool but I'm not like eager about it I'm sure it'll be a solid experience what do we think about I mean what stood out to me the most and I was saying this and I believe this is that it's it is the most violent PlayStation game I think but I think yeah you're dealing with cybernet like we were saying so what is it cyborgs right no and cyborgs right uh as opposed to androids they're they're they're semi-fake so i it could be like the lubricant inside i don't know like there's gotta be i really feel like there's gotta be some excuse and they do say that they're like cybernetic or whatever but it's like i don't know i if i'm i just think about parents for some reason with this game because obviously it's going to be rated whatever m it is rated m but which is fine but that doesn't matter you have to understand no one gives a shit yeah like most parents don't care and and they don't know the difference and they're not paying attention and i just imagine you know kids playing spider-man 2 on their ps5 in the living room and that's you know it's violent but it's not really not really violent spider-man doesn't kill anyone and then and then you know you get little jimmy wolverine and he's fucking going off on these dudes and with the most viscera you've ever seen i mean the most realistically violent PlayStation game ever is probably The Last of Us or maybe The Ghost Games but yeah I would say The Last of Us Part 2 probably right but like as far as like just viscera like just blood and gore and guts this is very unusual for a PlayStation game in my opinion so I actually think that's kind of cool and I'm so they had to do it remember we were saying that before we ever saw Wolverine like we like it has to be violent like what are you going to do the only other successful Wolverine game that exists is also quite violent the raven one yeah yeah the x-men origins wolverine right great game unreasonably good for what for what it is especially around the time that it came out yeah because it was a good license it was like a good license game yeah it's a good license we used to get pretty decent movie-based games like in the early 2000s and late 90s actually but like that kind of petered off around like 06 07 and things started it started going into uh endless runners on like mobile games and shit like there would be like mobile game tie-ins like in the early 2010s so like 2009 was pretty late for like a good movie tie-in game like that like never happened at that point like it was over you had like b movie or something you know what i mean like right or like over the hedge or like you know these random things that don't really matter and then x-men origins wolverine comes out and it's like better than the movie like the un-fucking-heard-of but they had to do it um i do want to come back to this uh violence conversation later.

47:08Colin Moriarty:I don't mean we don't have to stop it right now. I'm just saying like we're I'm going to circle back to it for a reason that I think. OK, yeah, I'm going to be a little for sure. I like this. Yeah. So I am looking forward to this. I agree with you. It's not first of all, I don't need to see any more of it because they are going to show more. I spoke a little bit to the director over text Marcus Smith and just congratulating him, who's a personal, you know, people know he's a personal friend of mine. He's the guy behind, you know, the director behind resistance, which we love and we'd like back at some point.

47:35and um i know he's excited i'm positive pretty much positive we'll have him on the show um you know closer to release and um yeah it's not a game i'm going to spend too much time thinking about between now and then but i i know it's one of those games it's insomniac it's like it's gonna be great and it'll be like a very solid very fun game they they don't really miss and that team especially the people working on it don't don't miss so i i what i want to know more about from the 2020 the late 2023 leak hack of insomniac that showed us all the plans going through the late 2030s for x-men the assumption again we brought this up in the past but the assumption is that venom and i'm just saying i don't have any information on this i'm just saying like my assumption is venom is a ps6 launch game that will be on ps5 my a la miles morales that will lead into spider-man 3 which will probably come out in the middle of the generation Wolverine I assume leads into X-Men 1 I guess I wonder what Insomniac is completely subsumed by Marvel at this point with the exception of like a ratchet game every 8 years or whatever so I wonder what their plan is and I wonder if they're going to stick to that because they really are going to be just on this shit it is very secure I mean if you're an Insomniac pretty secure work in my opinion

48:53Colin Moriarty:especially now and I'm interested to see this play out with Star Wars actually quite a bit because the new Grogu Boba Fett movie like bombed by Star Wars standards. And I think they're actually going to lose money on it, which is crazy globally.

49:11Is I'm curious how that affects like that Star Wars strategy game that's going to come out in a few months, the Star Wars Eclipse game from Quantic Dream, Jedi Survivor, some things are Jedi three or whatever. Some things are unaffected and some things are deeply affected. what I find interesting about this is that Marvel is also on the decline at least for now and these games are bigger than ever so they are kind of keeping it a lot I don't say they're keeping it

49:35Colin Moriarty:alive they're they're carrying the torch Marvel is interesting because it like it's not quite like Star Wars like there's something about Marvel that's like it remains even in its downtime it's kind of immune to a lot of things because like if a movie will lose money right but then a Spider-Man movie is going to come out you know what i mean and then it's going to make a billion dollars it's just kind of how it got like those because i think i mentioned before but like that spider-man trailer for the new movie the fourth tom holland movie which like there's never been a fourth anything for spider-man right like as far as like like literally i think so that i think eclipsed by a large margin like the gta six reveal trailer views by like orders of magnitude and like to date for the GTA over like a day.

50:26Colin Moriarty:So like Spider-Man keeps that entire engine floating, I think. As long as they have him, like they'll be, they'll kind of be golden. Do you guys know the lore about that Marvel was originally talking to Microsoft about Spider-Man? Yeah, yeah. That's such a crazy. What's funny is, is that because of the nature of Insomniac, then it could have been all the same except for Microsoft published it. then Sony would have never bought insomniac. It's this whole dominant little domino, big domino thing. Yeah. What does, I mean, you can't make fun of them too much because everyone misses, like there's probably a bunch of shit people have missed on and, and then things you've confirmed that are bad and so on and so forth.

51:05So you don't want to shit on them too much, but it's like, man, that's a tough one. That's a tough one.

51:09Colin Moriarty:I mean, even, what is it? Dark souls for a PlayStation. Yeah. For PlayStation. Yeah, of course.

51:17Yeah. I, I, I wonder like what they think of that. Cause that's, that's, that's i understand i understand their instinct they didn't want to let they didn't want to do licensed stuff i don't really blame them i mean that's the thing you have to kind of keep in mind with this is that sony is making a lot of money on these games but not as much as you might think

51:35Colin Moriarty:yeah i think also around that time if i'm not mistaken i could be like that because that was early right that was way earlier than the uh the ps4 spider-man came out like it was that was in the pitching phases really really right right yeah that like an early aughts i think or i'm sorry not the early teens the early teens so like is it was it after overdrive or before it was probably during and that was probably during and it was also probably unclear who would make the game and they just didn't make that connection at that time i think around that time spider-man games had a ceiling like they weren't doing amazing like they were okay like i think i think it would shatter shadow dimension dimensions and i was like i yeah i thought those games were cool but i was like the noir the noir spider-man i think was in that one which was yeah spider-man I think they had two of those games.

52:18Colin Moriarty:I think they did reasonably well, but not massive successes. I think the movies were floundering around that time. Spider-Man was always successful, but around that time, I think that was a more dubious IP technically. I could see people passing on Spider-Man that early. And so, after the MCU deal kind of happened, I think that was a little bit more safe now. It's kind of more interesting. Some distance between. And also, the amazing Spider-Man games are terrible. It's actually crazy how shit those games are, but yeah. Yeah. The Activision days were interesting. I, I, um, yeah, there's obviously some, some symbiosis or whatever between Sony's movie licensing too.

53:03And, and it all makes, and they kind of control it all now. Like what's interesting is that they just kind of control Spider-Man outside of the comic books. Like he's basically just theirs in the most two visible ways that he would be there. and I'm pretty I got to look it up it's either 99 years or in perpetuity the the the renting of the character so Sony just has to keep making movies and they'll keep it forever um yeah I find that so fascinating and isn't that where that that Jared Leto movie came from because they had

53:33Colin Moriarty:to do it yeah it's it's it's yeah it's it's Morbius and uh what is it Craven the Hunter Craven the Hunter right like they had to do it right like they had to do it yeah it's kind of crazy they can get away with that though like they're just like oh we'll make a movie about a bullshit movie about some character that nobody gives a shit shit about and that counts like i get it but like i mean that's kind of oh we're gonna oh it's craven the hunter what's it what's he do oh he he goes around and craven the hunts people like like i don't even understand i don't know man that movie's crazy apparently oh and madam webb also madam webb right yeah good yeah it's funny that's i think sony did those knowing yeah right like we're not we're gonna lose money on these we have to do it you know like we and it's because that disney would love nothing more for that than that for that to lapse now and what a huge error that would be sony would be so stupid to let that go all right so you can pre-order now digitally you can also pre-order probably physically if you get your physical games on playstation direct or whatever again the digital deluxe edition is not 70 but 80 and it comes with five suits and claws you get three technique points so that's the in-game upgrades and a couple of avatars for PlayStation Network and so on and so forth if you just pre-order the game though straight up you get a extra technique point and some avatars so and reflective claws oh also the classic brown suit which looks dope like 80s 90s Wolverine looks pretty cool so there's no like I'll just pre-order it a few days before it comes out and get those wherever I'm not I'm not going to pre-order the special edition no early access for these games Can I say something about it real quick?

55:10Colin Moriarty:Please, please. Insomniac? You kind of pussy it out. I'm not making him like four foot six or whatever the fuck his real height is. Yeah, I saw some people saying he was too tall. He's always been too tall. Like he's he's like been reinvented by Hugh Jackman, though, like nobody cares. But he's supposed to be like, you know, like a little wrestler man. I always imagine it was like a really strong version of that guy who that New York trumpet man. Do you know? Do you know the guy I'm talking about? I don't know. In New York City. He's like this little guy who goes like, I walked Bob Dylan up on stage.

55:44Colin Moriarty:He's like harassing this dude for playing trumpet really loudly. in New York City. He's like a really small. Yeah, small, angry man yells at Trump the player in New York City. I know exactly what you're talking about. It's like that, but if he was like genuinely strong and intimidating. Know your meme. Here you go. In case you guys want to see. There it is. That's classic. That's a classic. Yeah, I think about that video like once a week. It's because, isn't it hard? Yeah, his pants are like insane. Like he's got like his pants are tucked in. His pants are like up to his nipples and it's... Who are you?

56:15Colin Moriarty:Who are you? Who are you? oh my god I'm looking at a picture of you it looks insane like the shirt tucked into the pants but it's just one like one just movement there's no shape to it make no mistake this is an iconic character yeah this Sony should license this guy and do a game about him this guy's crazy he did an interview with somebody where he talks about how he learned to fly he's nuts it's awesome anyway sorry to derail this it's fine he should go out he should fight bagel boss long island's own bagel boss it can be a territorial kind of dispute oh yeah yeah who are you who are you all right uh wolverine september 15th uh exclusive to playstation 5 i can't let me see here i wrote there are quite a few i was surprised more of these than you think are console exclusive by the way the games that were shown i don't give a shit but a lot of people do so we'll throw that out there as the time comes this one is a console exclusive we've known all about it for a while but it's a second up is marvel tokan fighting souls from arc system works this game was revealed um back in state of play a year ago to the date actually i was looking this up it was june 4th 2025 the game was revealed as a second party game we already know a bunch of the fighters in it and of course arc system is known for blaze blue and guilty gear and my beloved Kunio Kun, Double Dragon series.

57:40And they also do the Granblue Fantasy versus stuff, which is fairly popular, I think, too. But they revealed three new characters, which are, what is it? Green Goblin, Magneto, and Carnage. And game looks great. I mean, again, it's not a game for me. I'm not going to play it. I'm not even going to pretend I'm going to play it. I'm just not a fighting game fan, but I'm very curious to see how this does, especially because it's going to be on PC. There's not a huge fighting game scene on PC, but it will certainly inject more players into this thing and keep it alive on PlayStation. And Arc system is just so good and so well respected.

58:18I really wonder if people are going to come out for this. Chris, are you interested in playing this at all? Because none of us are really fighting people, but there is a little bit of an interest in this game, I guess, more broadly.

58:27Colin Moriarty:I am more interested now. Like, there's something about, like, these characters have never well, Magneto and Doom obviously have, but, like, Carnage and the Green Goblin to my knowledge and it's fairly extensive but like there's definitely gaps in that knowledge i don't think either of these play these characters have been playable in anything like i don't think carnage has ever been in a fighting game even in maximum carnage i don't think he's playable or anything like that i know green goblin is technically playable in in the in the xbox um movie tie-in game but like this is like it's just an interesting thing to see like like him on the glider that's like a in like a fighting game it's like that's actually kind of sick like that's very different so i'm kind of curious about this i've always been tangentially into fighting games like that was like my earliest really real obsession like i played a lot of crash bandicoot and crash team racing and i loved those games but like the earliest real obsession i had was with like tekken 2 and marvel versus capcom 2 and bloody roar 2 a lot of 2s bloody roar 2 and and um all the Dragon Ball Z, Budokai games.

59:34Colin Moriarty:Like, I think from like 99 to like 2006, damn near all I played was, like extensively, was like fighting games. I think I 100 %ed like the Budokai games like multiple times. Like I was obsessed. And so like I always kind of have tangential ventures back into that space. Like I played a little bit of Street Fighter, the new Street Fighter, Street Fighter VI. I played, I think the most recent Tekken that came out and I quite liked it. So like, I think I might actually. Normally, I just wait for my friends to get this and play it at their houses and lose spectacularly because I'm so out of practice.

1:00:10Colin Moriarty:But I think I might. I don't know. This is becoming more appealing to me, to be honest. I think it just looks beautiful. I think the character designs are really fucking cool. Like this Green Goblin design is so cool to me. Like, I absolutely love it. I love that it's like there's like a mix of. The the rain, all the Raimi gliders in the Green Goblin and like some a little bit of ultimate in there. i love the japanese flavor to it all too like this that interesting recontextualization it's cool man yeah i like the gear for him uh i love the i have said it on the stream too i love the pump like was hobgoblin had them too is like the pumpkin bombs i just love those i think they're so that's such a cool idea um yeah it's it's yeah and i loved i had the hobgoblin and the green goblin figures when i was younger and i i loved them on the little gliders like they were yeah the orange the orange cloak right right it was super super cool stuff and like i think one of of them had like a throwing motion or something for the it didn't really work the bombs yeah for the bombs dude it's yeah they're just cool they're just cool characters like just straight up so i'm i'm pretty stoked about i'm getting more excited i didn't think i would be as excited as i am for it but looking at this image is like yeah dude that's fucking sick yeah and seeing carnage is cool as well um it's interesting that i mean i'm not a marvel guy but it's just an interesting thing to have like a mixture of kind of there are a few characters in here i've never even heard of magic.

1:01:29I don't even know who that is. Danger. I don't even know who that is. But then you have Penny Parker, which is that that's the Japanese Spider-Man, right? Or Spider-Girl.

1:01:38Colin Moriarty:Yeah, she's in Spider-Verse and I think she's also in Marvel Rivals. Gotcha. She's kind of more in the mainstream now than she used to be. And you have Iron Man, Black Panther, Captain America, the bigger character. So it must be fun. It must be fun to sit around the table and try to figure out what you're going to do because you have a bunch of, you want to save things for DLC, maybe even a sequel you don't want to like i always think about that when you have access to things i've thought about it i guess selfishly like if i ever got the gi joe license which is probably never going to happen but for also lilymo whatever it's like you got to make decisions because you can't like do the cool you want you can't do all the coolest shit because then you leave yourself at a disadvantage or whatever should you go forward dustin are you interested at all in marvel token fighting souls which will appear by the way for those interested at evo uh june 26th and then the game comes out shortly thereafter no not interested at all looks cool i just don't like fighting games so and if i was going to get into a fighting game i wouldn't spend 70 on one uh so and yeah marvel is not really my thing but yeah the the new characters look really cool uh love the key art for carnage looks pretty sick but yeah he's so he's so 90s dude yeah i love carnage is so unapologetically like a child of the 90s like design wise it's so cool yeah i always um was he mcfarland as well i think he must be like i could be wrong because venom was like late 80s right and he was mcfarland and and it it's it's funny like at least like you brought up maximum carnage that's always what i think of when i think of carnage is that the art of him like it like yeah it's and i think the cartridge he had the red cartridge right yeah yeah yeah yeah i don't know man all right so that's two games number three rayman legends retold this game leaked oh and by the way i don't know if i said it token comes out august 6th ps5 pc rayman legends retold is coming october 1st this is a remake ground up remake of rayman legends which i think is the most recent rayman game came to ps3 and vita and elsewhere in 2013 excellent game ubisoft montpelier did it and i think they're doing this one as well which would not be a huge surprise montpelier did some interesting stuff like do you remember the game from dust yeah um they did that game they did valiant hearts which we know about but i think they're best known these days for well they did prince of persia the new prince of persia the lost crown metroidvania and they're the beyond good and evil studio so slowly somewhere in the bowels of that fucking team in france is uh is that being made as well but they're working on this so rayman legends retold i think is the fifth rate like core rayman game because there's rayman one two and three and then rayman origins and then rayman legends i think those are the five and uh yeah this looks uh awesome i mean i now we do have a reasonable question i think from the audience and a lot of people are asking this b cops wrote in and said hello sacred gents hope all is well amongst the plethora of pointless remakes and remasters out there would you say that the updated rayman legends is up there for the most redundant sure it looks nice but the original especially the ps4 port is already one of the most gorgeously designed games out there glad to see origins get an enhanced port alongside it but do you see this truly being a better version hoping this is just leading to another sequel after but will you be trying this one thanks and take care it is a little weird because i agree like so rayman one was a ps1 launch game that's you know september 95 it was also on a bunch of other shit was on fucking jaguar um and then rayman 2 the great escape came to ps1 in 1999 and then i think came to ps2 in 2000 like late in 2000 and that was also on n64 and a bunch of other shit and then rayman 3 hoodlum havoc came to ps2 gamecube xbox and was even on engage in uh 2003 so and then origins 2011 so origins and legends are like the more modern ones and it is a little weird that they just didn't go back and redo the earlier ones i don't know so it is a little strange but i'll still take it i think the games are awesome i'm totally gonna be all over this dustin since you didn't say much about token do you have anything to say about rayman i have not played rayman legends i did play origins and if i remember me rayman legends was the game that was originally I think it was originally a Wii U exclusive and then after at least this is what Wikipedia is confirming from my memory is that it says due to financial failures of Zombie U the release was delayed six months and then the game was made multi-platform so it's this is a bones of a Wii U game which is kind of funny but what I brought up on the stream is what the write in mentions is that I think it does look good but i really like the classic 2d style of the original of and origins of course so i'm not immediately like ah yes this is such a big improvement this is just like a different version but again i haven't played rayman legends to really speak on it but with that being said i still think it looks really fun uh rayman the original rayman was one of the first games i ever played on PlayStation.

1:06:56Colin Moriarty:So I do have a nostalgic connection to it. I picked up that Rayman collection that Digital Eclipse did that they completely bungled because they didn't get the original music. Yeah, I bought it too, but I barely played it. Yeah. Get the image. Jason put me in the credits for this. I'm giving you a tip. Yeah, you license the original music. He's getting upset that he's not. I bet you've never heard that before from anyone that said like, oh, you need the original music. Harry is doing so much, dude. We're going to talk about them later. oh yeah i'm really excited about that so but yeah it it looks fine but i think a little i understand the sentiment of like a cool a new 3d rayman or you know 2d 3d rayman i think would have been a little more exciting yeah um yeah i mean i i have no real opinion on it one way or the other i think chris the bigger thing i'm excited about or not excited interested about I should say with Rayman is I guess Rayman's bigger than I thought.

1:07:52Like Rayman just never read to me as this really super relevant thing, but it's very myopic, I think, to think of it that way. People seem to really be excited about it. So what do you think? Yeah, I mean, I think the more I see of it,

1:08:05Colin Moriarty:the more I'm kind of like, yeah, I don't know. Like, I mean, I think it's cool to know that there's still juice behind the IP, I guess, and that they still care about it enough to invest in projects, even if it is uh just a a remake of something that we did have before and something very recent as well um i do think rayman kind of got away from itself with like the rabbits thing and granted that that whole thing is like very successful somehow like that is one of the that by the way is one of those things where like i would have been the idiot you know what i mean in the in the executive room they could be like we're gonna make a fucking game about the rabbits kids who cares right yeah yeah and then and then you just walk out with egg on your face you're just like all right so maybe we don't know everything but um yeah i don't know the more i look at it the more i'm kind of like it looks a little bit unreal engine-y to me like compared to the original game which i think has like a just a little bit more distinct style to it i'm sure this is gonna be good and i'm sure it was relatively lean to put this thing together so I don't think it'll do poorly or anything but I am kind of less interested in it as I see and learn more about it especially because again I've already played this so the priority is already kind of low but a new Rayman would have been more exciting or a remake of the old games yeah like that's that would have been more interesting to me that's a little surprising to the point of the letter we got in and it's like yeah this game is available natively in its original version on ps4 so you can play it on ps5 it was ported later so yeah going backwards would be maybe more difficult but it would but i think it would be be the way to go i i always wonder that like should there should be a better strategy like what right what capcom seems so deliberate with resident evil for instance they're jumping around a little bit but it's like is the intention of doing all of these is this just a way for ubisoft to make some reliable money and income that they need so badly right now i don't know if you guys saw did they did they i think the uh i saw a picture i don't know if it's true or not that they make the redhead like chick flatter in this did you see that yeah i couldn't tell that was ai it looked like ai to me i was like are you serious like what are we doing here because there's a shot in the trailer i was like isn't that a kid i always read that as a kid i guess it's an adult i don't know i i assumed because there's cleavage that it's not a kid but yeah i guess you're right let me see if i can find oh yeah yeah you're right so here's here's what's fucking with me though because like at the in the playstation blog at the at the very last the last thing that they have on it is like a gif or like a repeating soundless video oh yeah yeah you see and i mean it i mean it's not it doesn't seem it seems normal to me like yeah i don't i don't i'm not really playing rayman for the tits yeah that's kind of crazy like i don't know man you everybody i fucking beg you to go outside yeah like the please for the love it this is crazy at this point it's funny because the um people always say like a lot of especially young men are like porn brain broken you know and yeah it's not something i've ever really i'm trying to like brag i mean everyone's watched porn but it's like i'm i don't have that problem you know uh i don't care like it's you know things can be hot you can be you know whatever you want i'm not judging you but i've never internalized it you know and yeah then you see the constant feedback and i'm like damn i think a lot of people really are fucked in the head you know like totally fucked in the head like they look for sex and sexualization everywhere and i'm like that is insanity like i am if anything i am and i've said it a million times i'm prude and i'm i'm tired of the sexualization of everything i think everything's over sexualized and gross weird so it's like i can't imagine going through life the other direction and you're just looking for tits everywhere it's like get a grip you know and they say i am getting a grip of my penis in my bedroom oh yeah yeah not too much of a grip yeah don't squeeze the life out of yourself not too firm all right number four banjo the chef this uh has no date yet but this is a new reveal it's from mint rocket the studio behind dave the diver which launched back in 2023 though it came to ps4 and ps5 in 2024 i never played it my i did buy it i i bought it with playstation stars points back in the day and I just never I just never spun it off I bought that game dredge with uh source points as well and I never I never played that either so maybe I'll get to those one day but Micah really loved David the Diver a lot um are we interested in Bansho the Chef Chris I mean I like the style of it but like I tried I got the I liked the vibe of what they were doing with the trailer like I thought it was like actually kind of I think it was more interesting the day of the diver to be honest but i've played a little bit of day of the diver and i know what that gameplay loop is like and it's just it's not it's not that it's not great or that i don't like it i think it was one of those things where i was just like i'm not in the mood for this right now like i'm not feeling this at all at the moment but i could see a time and place where like i might kind of settle into a groove with this but i can't really i can't really make a judgment call I'm not really interested in it on that note.

1:13:22Colin Moriarty:I think I would have to finish Dave the Diver to even really know. Right, because the games are connected, right? Bancho's a character in Dave the Diver. And there's... I think so, yeah. And I think it says here in the press release, as players expand their culinary expertise, they'll unlock new recipes to attract more customers and earn the approval of local masters to advance to new regions, all while uncovering Bancho's personal journey and connections to the world of Dave the Diver. So I guess it's like a day of the diver universe sort of thing. And Dave, the diver itself is getting an expansion as well, which they, they write briefly about, um, didn't they have a Godzilla expansion or something?

1:13:56Colin Moriarty:Yeah, that sounds right. That sounds familiar. Yeah, that sounds right. Yeah. But I, I, it looks great. I just, again, it's just one of those games on a pile and a pile of games. I just, I don't know, man, I don't know what I'm going to get to it, but I, I do, I do like it. I'm sure Mike is going to be all over this on switch to Dustin. Will you be playing this? i'm mildly intrigued because i'm with chris where i i played a little bit dave the diver and it didn't really intrigue me but the line from the playstation blog where it says unlike dave the diver where the player only served dishes in the sushi bar the core gameplay loop in this uh this time has you cook meals and serve them directly yeah it's a cooking ball or some shit it's well you know what made me think of for the real ball knowers out there there was a playstation underground disc that had a demo for a japanese only cooking game and i found it's called ore no uh ryori come on you can do better than that and she uses your native language ah still using it still still using that joke good um but that demo this what i'm seeing from this looks just like that demo and i played that demo all the time when i was a kid so it's kind of cool kind of cool but we'll see it all depends on when it comes out and kind of interesting they went from the pixel art to a full 3d style yeah i like to see that kind of you know i think it's cool that games can kind of change around that's the most intriguing part of it to me i do like character design too i like there's something um very like toonami coded about this banjo character like I don't know like I'm kind of like already endeared like I like him he seems cool but I didn't play enough Dave the Diver to know it's one of those games where like man I do kind of want to no pun like dive into it no pun intended because it is it does seem like there's quality there but I'm just not I don't know there's just a lot there's a lot of things competing for one time there's so much there's so much stuff so there's no shame in that I mean there's a million things I want to play that I think look awesome so I hear you 100 % and yeah I like I like I like the cut of this game's jib a little bit like more than Dave the Diver I think and I think my I just think of Micah because I didn't know her love of food games and all this is like right up rally um no date on that yet but presumably 27 they're moving pretty quick it's crazy when you think it's like yeah it's so quick it's so quick four years all right yeah fifth up is an interesting one Kemuri this game is coming in 2027 and I promise you I'd tell you one thing this is a console exclusive for PlayStation which is pretty interesting so you can go to KemuriWorld.com which is their website K-E-M-U-R-I World.com but this is the new game from Ikumi Nakamura and the first game from her studio Unseen you'll remember akumi nakamura she was the original director of ghostwire tokyo at tango and left during the development of that game which gave people kind of pause on what the future of that game would be i think makami himself finished it right and then um i think that's right and then uh ghostwire tokyo ended up being actually pretty awesome so this game has a pretty similar spirit to it, at least from Japanese supernaturalism and afterlife sort of things, which is cool.

1:17:31But I was reading a little bit about Nakamura and I knew this stuff, but I hadn't thought about it because I remember researching this when everything went down with her. But she was originally at Capcom and worked on Street Fighter games. And I think one of her first games was Okami. She did Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as an illustrator. And when those guys all left Clover to go and found Platinum, she went with them. I didn't know that. Um, so she was like a concept designer on Bayonetta and then she went with Mikami to Tango because obviously people broke off of platinum from there. And then she was obviously the lead artist on the evil within.

1:18:08So she has a lot of experience, but it's been a while since she's gotten a game out. And, uh, I think this game looks pretty cool. I remember what we were saying about this during the stream was, I feel like they're showing it weird. They weren't really showing the game contextually. And so it was just a lot of anime style, third person open world action, which is cool. But I'm like, what is the context? What are we doing? What is happening?

1:18:31Colin Moriarty:This this felt like the second trailer. You know what I mean? Like this is like the like the OK, this is the gameplay deep dive now that you kind of get a vibe for it. And I can already see the comments of being like you was like you thought the God of War trailer was too long and too much context. so now it's like there's not enough context it's like listen we know what god of war is we have some contextual understanding of what god of war is this is completely new so like it helps to know a little bit about what we're trying to do here this it's got but it looks like i don't know that this is is this a primarily co-op game because that's kind of the thing right yeah it's single player or co-op but i think it's made for co-op yeah yeah so i think it's three player co-op yeah so that that doesn't interest me as much but i like i mean the gameplay looks kind of cool like it reminds me of a little bit of sunset overdrive a little bit of um a little bit of this is going to sound like a negative but i promise it's like the the good parts of a suicide squad where like i was like this should just be something else right right this should simply be another thing i like the style of it quite a bit like i think it's cool i just i i would prefer to know a little bit more about like is there a like is there a story there must yeah there must be i mean i think they're probably just being coy about it right now it says quote kamuri is a yokai possession action game set in the chaotic world of kemuri city kamuri whatever where life and death coexist players will confront the paranormal as they explore a sprawling vertical city traversing rooftops back alleys and hidden ruins alone or an online co-op with other two other players.

1:20:11And basically you're a yokai hunter. I assume it's gameplay based, but there's got to be some sort of through line to it, I imagine. And I do like the style of it. I dig the kind of cartoonishness meets Japanese lore, like the fox masks and all that kind of stuff. It doesn't look bad to me. I just, again, I think I would have liked to see more context, but maybe we did see all the context, which would be a little more worrying. Dustin, what do you think about this?

1:20:35Colin Moriarty:Yeah, I really like, there's a part in the trailer that's about a minute in that shows some of the different traversal of the characters whether it's one of them is like sprouting wings one has like ribbons that it kind of glides along so i'm curious about how that aspect chris mentioned suicide squad but this idea of you and three other people in a semi-open level uh then you know traversing around the map together and fighting things it's like oh okay that really is yeah reminiscent of suicide squad so uh i'm curious about i think it looks fun i'm not it's not like the most unique style i've ever seen it kind of reminds me of um k-pop demon hunters in a way but i guess it would be j-pop j-pop demon hunters in this case because j-pop j-pop yokai well i guess you're not hunting yokai right you're working with them so i i would like to see more of this game for sure on alive the justice league oh yeah forever forever sleep or whatever the hell we called it uh yeah self forever sleep squad on alive the justice league i think look i think um yeah i just i want to know more because i i do i think it looks cool like i think it looks like the gameplay looks really solid.

1:22:01Colin Moriarty:Again, Suicide Squad's big problem was the fact that it was a live service game that had no business, and it was also ugly, and it just had no reason being a Suicide Squad game. Like, nothing about that game made sense, but, like, I remember playing it pretty extensively and being like, the bones kind of work here. It's just like, this is completely the wrong... It would be like if... I don't even know. It would be like if you put Quentin Tarantino in charge of, like, a fucking Charlie Brown movie. You know what I mean? It's just like, this doesn't... This simply doesn't fit at all. Please stop.

1:22:36Colin Moriarty:Yes. Yes. Make this something else. But this is cool. I just want to know more story, to be honest with you. Now that Sony owns Peanuts, we're going to get some fucking Charlie Brown shit. Probably. Oh, my God. Imagine they did like a sad dad simulator, like style. Right. My daughter's dead. Charlie Brown. It's so crazy. some bald-headed fucking freak on an unreal engine an unreal engine yeah they show like Lucy taking the football away like in slow-mo and like unreal engine 6 yeah looks like a rocket league and it's a tragic story all right number six tomb raider legacy of Atlantis was shown off we have a release date for this title of February 12th 2027 so pushed out a little bit which is fine um this looks I think excellent as people probably know Legacy of Atlantis is a remake of the 1996 original Tomb Raider game though it is the second remake I forget that Tomb Raider anniversary which came out in 2007 is also a remake of the original Tomb Raider game which I think I platinumed when it came to PS3 I don't really remember yeah so this is like this is a so there as people know there's another Tomb Raider game in development Chris that's like the next Tomb Raider game and Crystal Dynamics itself is doing that.

1:23:56Crystal Dynamics is acting in a production capacity on this game, and Flying Wild Hog is making this game, and Amazon is acting as publisher.

1:24:08So Flying Wild Hog, I like Flying Wild Hog a lot because I really like Evil West, which I thought was an awesome game, and I hope that that game gets a sequel, but they're probably best known for the Shadow Warrior trilogy, which I've never played. I think one of them was in PS Plus, so I think I have one of them. And then they did those games. You remember the game Hard Reset? Is that they did that game? And then they did more recently Trek to Yomi, which did pretty well, I think. Actually, I remember that. So, of course, Tomb Raider begins in the mid 90s with core design doing the original games.

1:24:36And depending on how you count, this is the 14th core Tomb Raider game. Well, I should use a different word. It's not core designed. Yeah, it's the 14th mainline Tomb Raider game. And it was first shown off at the Game Awards just last year, as we saw. The new game is Catalyst, by the way, and that will come later. i'm all over this i'll definitely play this i think this looks awesome i also just want to say in an era where everyone's complaining about females and female representation rightfully so maybe in some ways about why everyone looks weird laura croft looks hot they didn't i don't think they she's not as buxom as the original tomb raider but i think that in modernity that would look very weird and like with with ue5 style graphics or whatever the fuck they're building this game in it's like you don't need to she doesn't need to have double d's um yeah but they didn't like they didn't make her masculine or put clothes on or anything like that she looks great so like i think there's a really nothing for anyone to complain about i guess the only thing we'll know is whether the uh the game will be good or not when it comes out chris are you interested

1:25:34Colin Moriarty:i'm so pumped dude i'm so excited i like uh tomb raider is such a weird game like especially the first tomb raider because like there's been so many ports and so many revisitations of it in comparison to a lot of other things that like and they've never like because they did the uh oh my god what's the uh aspire i think did the the remake trilogy right but those were like very faithful like i think in ways like i appreciate them because like i i can kind of contextualize what i'm playing based on when they came out like i don't really i don't mind janky gameplay if i understand the games like old but it is kind of a rough thing to experience start to finish for like if you're just trying to experience like a a game and you're just trying to turn your brain off and not really actively think about like okay i have to adjust um and tomb raider anniversary i think is sort of a remaster also or like a remake of like i think yeah tomb raider anniversary is a remake for sure of the original it's a reimagining of the original game too and that's kind of old now too so like just to have a more proper modern recontextualization of the first tomb raider game which i think is very special but has like a lot of barriers to entry i remember i played the shit of as a kid don't know how i managed it to be honest with you i don't even i don't know how i managed it but this looks great i think laura laura croft looks fantastic i just love this outfit dude like the it's so iconic yeah it's great like that that exact blue you know on the tank top and and the um the shorts and the two pistols like it's it's such a cool fucking character yeah i like the socks like sneaking up above the boot line a little bit the grit yeah honor the little backpack it's it's definitely i mean it's one of the most iconic designs in gaming history no doubt um yeah so yeah they embraced it they figured it out and i think that that's really cool although i think crystal dynamic dynamics in their reimagined trilogy she was also great in that i don't know yeah they they never really truly botched it i think they just it was just like underwhelming really i really loved i can't remember what it like it was when we were when we were doing the show it came out shadow the team raider shadow i really loved it until a certain point and then like that that point really kind of soured it because it felt like they were making a progression like a natural progression to the end of the trilogy and then they just completely undid it i just remember being like this is you almost had like a really great trilogy i think and it was just kind of fun yeah they they uh it's funny like do you remember that that game leaked on a train i'll never forget that like someone no i don't remember that that someone was like looking at shit on a train in montreal like on a laptop of like assets and like like a like a um like a deck for it and people someone took pictures of it and that guy got fired that's kind of great like i don't know man that's kind of insane like that dude's working he's working off the clock you fired him for that that's nuts i remember that really well for some reason yeah that's rough that is rough all right um there is an interesting part of this though dustin um let's get you in on in here first and then i'll read what i want to read here from uh one of our listeners legacy of atlantis are you going to be gooning to it oh i don't know about gooning but i will be playing it because i have never well yeah i've never played the original tomb raider and i think wasn't the like remaster on playstation plus maybe a few months ago yeah so i have access to it i need to i want to at least experience a little bit of that before i go and play this full remake just to know what i'm getting into but i really started like tomb raider from the original rebooting from i don't know if it's the original reboot but the most recent reboot the tomb raider uh 2013 2013 game i think yeah that's right 2013 yeah it was uh crushed in too i think at that time yes and then remember the controversy about the sequel was that it was a timed xbox exclusive people got really remember people got really upset about that oh right yeah because they were weird about communicating yeah like they wouldn't say like they wouldn't say it it's like just say it jesus christ what's the point what is even the point if you won't say it to rate a reboot is like one of the first games i played on one of the first new games i played on my pc when i first built it now uh chris i don't know if you still have the trailer at 131 i said this during the stream and i'm i want to confirm this guy's giving me a george lucas vibe he's like oh laura we need to there's gonna be a tomb a jedi tomb uh the whole 131 you said yeah it's at 131 he's got like he's got like a John Goodman vibe to me like a like a okay a very specific era John Goodman yeah yeah he's like a skinny John Goodman yeah he's John Finman Misa Misa getting a little horny with you Misa Misa Misa so horny oh it's absolutely chaotic fucking disgusting I hate that I hate that you said that.

1:30:53Colin Moriarty:God, this looks so cool. I'm really excited about this, man. There is a controversy around this game, though. Great. Regarding AI. I put the link in here for you guys if you want to see it. Eurogamer was reporting on this. Tomb Raider Legacy of Atlantis comes with an AI disclaimer. So people had basically noticed that if you go to the Steam page for the game, there's a disclaimer that reads, quote, AI-assisted tools were used during development to support some early exploration and temporary development content. Any AI-assisted assets were either replaced or refined by humans in order to maintain the creative and artistic vision of the development team, end quote.

1:31:27And they say this isn't totally uncommon, and it's not. It's something you have to do. You can get a lot of trouble on Steam. People have been kind of freaked out about this, and Crystal Dynamics provided Eurogamer with a statement, which I actually think makes it kind of worse. It says, quote, at Crystal Dynamics, we leverage AI tools to help our teams iterate on ideas faster and more efficiently while ensuring that all finished content in the final product is human crafted. Our goal is to empower the creativity and flexibility of our developers to deliver the highest quality experiences for players everywhere, end quote.

1:31:52what they're basically i mean i the way i read this is saying like so you let the ai come up the idea then you just redraw it or redo it it's it's just it's kind of bankrupt also the game already exists you guys can't even you guys can't even reconceptualize assets in a story that has existed for 30 years you need ai to do that are you fucking stupid yeah that is like make a new tomb raider and then it's like all right and you're like juggling fucking you know plates and shit like that it's like dude the game exists it's already been remade yeah that's kind of crazy it's a little again like i think people's tolerance of this um it's gonna be up to you i guess kyle martin wrote in about this and said hey cdc just saw the news around tomb raider using ai generated assets that were later refined or replaced by artists curious if that changes your thoughts on picking it up i'm a software engineer and at this point i'm honestly so burned out by the constant ai discourse that i've started tuning out a lot of it.

1:32:50I'm not thrilled about it, but I'll probably still buy the game. Feel similar to how people wrestle with things like Saudi or Chinese involvement in entertainment and tech. Eventually, the moral calculus becomes this impossible spinning loading icon in your brain. Anyway, love the show and appreciate all the work you guys put out. I agree. It's like I am I want to show a level of consistency. This is the kind of communication we want, so at least you know. Right, yeah. And you have to make a decision for yourself. I'll still pick it up. I guess I'm not that offended by it. I don't know what the line would be for me.

1:33:23I just feel like it's kind of shitty to say like, yeah, we use AI to iterate on ideas and then we replace them. So I'm like, all right, so you got your guys are basically just like in the in the art coal mines, I guess, redrawing the computer's ideas instead of coming up with concept art themselves. I just for this, I guess what I'm saying is for this particular game, it just doesn't even really

1:33:48Colin Moriarty:make any sense it's a weird it's a weird yeah there's already there's already a thing to base off the the game first of all the original game is based on real places already so you can just look up you know like no one's saying you have to ship a team out there to take pictures of like oh what is you know what does this ancient civilization look like you know what i mean like go out there and take pictures like the like the fucking uh gran turismo guys taking photos of mufflers like nobody so every gran turismo game leaks it's like oh the gran turismo guys are at the fucking track again yeah i just uh it just seems like a weird implementation to me i know where my line is and my line is ultimately although i do think it's lame that you use it in any capacity really like ultimately to be honest um especially for like developing concept art and like trying to figure things out ultimately my real issue is if this stuff ends up supplanting the concept artists and and the the 3d artists and the people who are making the things like if if you have a game that like has literally like it ships with ai generated assets and that's literally in the game and it's like that's it that's completely uninteresting to me at the very least what's in the game is is man-made you know what i mean that's fine to me yeah it's lame it's lame that you even had to do it but it doesn't cross a line for me necessarily unless you're literally like putting putting a computer's work in the game you know what i mean if that makes sense yeah no it does make sense i i i don't know i i agree with what kyle's saying where it's becoming exhausting i know it's becoming exhausting for our audience it's becoming exhausting for us to talk about.

1:35:35I also feel like in the grander scheme of things, AI might, you don't want to say it's petering out. We've said before, there's going to be a dominant force in AI, but it seems like there's a sufficient amount of resistance to it and that it's not quite fitting right in a lot of places where people are starting to become more skeptical of it. I was talking to someone recently actually at a family function and I was saying like the thing that's saving us from AI taking over is that we're still so far behind in robotics. And once you can fuse these things together, then it's, and I'm not saying like you're gonna make a Terminator.

1:36:11What I'm saying is like, you can make like sentient things to do stuff for you and then it's over. But until then, I feel like it's about intellectual adoption of these tools by a discipline on a discipline level. So like art, engineering, music, whatever. I just struggle. I struggle to come up with any excuse for using it other than that you want to save money and I don't really give a shit like I don't care I don't care about your money so now I I so to me I'm like you got to come up with better excuses like it's it's it's I think I guess what I'm saying in a roundabout in bad way is they're having a hard time marketing this shit because they realize that it's completely devoid of meaning and purpose it's a great tool that can tell you and show you anything you want but at what cost both literal and figurative and then they'll be like well we get to save money it's like well the game's not cheaper is it you're gonna charge 70 bucks for it right by the way it's flying wild hogs in poland so cheap it's

1:37:14Colin Moriarty:it's that it seems so forced in comparison like everything that like takes off usually is not like the phone like smartphones natural you know you didn't have to force you to they didn't have to like get rid of google search and replace it with ai you know what i mean that that would have been an opt-in thing that everybody would have done if it was cool or interesting or so it is just um also half of it's wrong all the time i think there's a general danger of just uh replacing

1:37:44Colin Moriarty:cognition with uh machines like i think that's just like about it's already a bad thing in my opinion that uh what is it word processors underline when you when you make a mistake you know what i mean like i because i can already i already feel or that that you could look up the definition of anything or look up any facts because i can already feel myself deprioritizing that information because i know i can just find it at any moment like i'm aware that that's happening right so like it's just going to this is way worse in my opinion it's like it's it's that at an exponential level and if you're just if you're relying on this shit to make art like i don't i don't know i think it's mega lame yeah i just don't get it i don't i don't get it i don't give a fuck about your games being cheaper to make you have to figure that out your own way and i guess this is your way to do that but the rubber will hit the road at some point as long as everyone's totally honest and exposing what is using ai or whatever um You know, I told you guys like when we were making Sane Slayer, I was like, just to be sure, because we work with some contractors, like we're not using AI anywhere.

1:38:45Right. And we're not. But it's like that's like a like we'll never do that. And I just like as the person who writes this stuff, it's like, well, I'm going to tell Chachapita to write it for me. Like, what are you crazy? Like, I just and then, oh, but I reworded it. Yeah. Like, OK.

1:39:05Colin Moriarty:There's interesting conversations to have about it. But but I agree. it is getting long in the tooth. Like we're in a stasis moment right now where like you got, we got to just see how this plays out. Yeah. I don't think it's playing out exactly the way I thought it would though. Like I think, I think what we're seeing is a level of urgency with some of these companies where people are not adopting these tools requisite to the money they're spending. And now it's becoming an urgent issue because they have these billions of dollars wrapped up in these data centers. People are subscribing on a corporate like enterprise level to like Claude or OpenAI or whatever.

1:39:36And they're spending sometimes hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars a month. It's fucking, you know, on those tools. Did you see the one thing that was going around that someone had like clawed open? Like someone didn't realize you can throttle a clawed. So he bought like a license for his company but didn't throttle its usage. And then he had like an$800 ,000 bill or something from it because it was just, it was like, yeah, yeah, exactly. It's like, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. So I think, as I've said before, I think what will end up happening is that there will be an AI monopolist because that's the way it happened with everything else.

1:40:09And it's probably going to be Claude, it looks like, right at this point. Or whoever. What is that company called? I don't remember anymore. Anthropic. Anthropic, right.

1:40:19Colin Moriarty:Depends on whether or not China already has something that's fucking crazy by comparison that we just don't have access to because it's everything sealed off. And then the Gemini stuff going on right now, it's just...

1:40:35it's everything's dystopic, I guess, right? It's like it's your phone's listening to you and serving you ads. We've talked about this in the past. Like, it's doing that.

1:40:46Colin Moriarty:Yeah. It is doing that. And everyone's like, yeah, right. What's for dinner? So, like, it's hard to make anyone care about something more trivial, like AI art. Your only hope is that, like, just hoping that there's so much information that it's ostensibly, like, it might as well not be out there, you know? like what's that i can't remember there's like a term for it i think where there's like um like if everybody's if everybody's information gets stolen then it's it's effectively as if no one's has right exactly like your anonymity is kept because the volume of of uh of stuff yeah well we'll see anyway tomb raider legacy of atlantis playstation 5 february 12th 2027 the seventh game is a new one i don't have so much information about this this is the first game it's the lost wild it comes from a great ape games i was reading a little bit about them this is their first studio their first game but they are self-described double a studio which i think is kind of cool um this game looks pretty neat i don't know that i have very much to say about it i think some people thought it was like dino crisis or something it does have that vibe i wonder if it's uh they talk about alien isolation actually a lot when you if you read about it about like a kind of a touchstone for them um that's what i thought when i was watching the trailer yeah it looks beautiful and i like games where you're kind of like sneaking and i don't mean stealth games i mean like you're trying to survive you're not trying to infiltrate you know you're trying to just get by and and get places so yeah chris what do you think about you have anything you want to say about the lost wild um i mean i don't i like the idea i like the idea of uh alien isolation but with dinosaurs i think that's kind of cool um that's an interesting fantasy that I don't think has been done yet.

1:42:30Colin Moriarty:Like there's no dinosaur stealth games, you know, not really. As far as I know, like I'm sure there's like arc survival has dinosaurs or the other, like maybe like sneak, sneak by or, and I guess technically horizon, like crouching in the tall grass, I guess. Sony grass. Yeah. The Sony grass. So I like, I'm going to have to see gameplay to determine whether or not I truly care, but I like the idea and I'm rooting for it. what was the uh chris what was we we identified four games right it was like it was uncharted horizon death stranding and yote go the ghost games all use the same grass mechanic oh yeah the last of us um a lot of games use that grass thing it's so funny james bond does as well yeah yeah the grass mechanic it's funny to me that everybody did it's funny to me that without question everybody was just like yes crouching the tall grass as if that works at all yeah like the grass is just fluttering and like moving yeah it's like it's ridiculous you're so clearly visible and it's like it's one thing if it's like truly tall grass because i've been in places with like tall grass and it is actually fucking insane but it's never truly tall grass that you're in you're in really you're in just arguably like kind of it's like maybe like three feet like three four feet up which is like below most tall tall grass is like tall right like eight feet like reeds along the water or something like that exactly like that's that i can understand but it's always so funny to watch them like look right at you and you're like i get it's a gameplay movie kind of like it would it would be really annoying if stealth uh ai were truly realistic because you would just never like you can't really sneak up on people by the way when i say cornrows i don't mean the hairstyle i mean rows of actual corn crops oh yes yes yes dustin it's described here in the press release quote the lost in the lost wild players embark on an immersive evasion-based survival horror experience i like that term where they are pitted against nature's ultimate hunters, dinosaurs.

1:44:45They assume the role of Saskia, who wakes up on a mysterious island overrun by prehistoric creatures. Interesting. Jurassic Park. To survive, Saskia must explore derelict research facilities nestled in a lush wilderness and be resourceful while evading and overcoming this unstoppable threat. End quote. Annapurna is acting as publisher, so it's got a little bit of money behind it. End belief. What do you think?

1:45:05Colin Moriarty:so i'm more interested in slower paced first person games particularly because of resident evil uh and i can understand the connection it's like oh they're doing like what they did with resident evil but with dino crisis that connection of thinking it could be that but um so i'm intrigued by it i'm a little unsure of the like no combat just because i find that the games i've played where it's like only hiding uh from enemies i can get pretty annoyed with usually but i think for a you know self-proclaimed double a game like visually it looks really impressive so i'm guessing it'll probably just be like a shorter runtime of a game maybe something like that but uh pretty good for their first outing jurassic park visually it's it's really crazy like the um 58 seconds in like the there's something about like the lighting and the on the fog on the tree line it's like this is a really good looking game yeah i think i'll check this out when the time comes it's a uh ps5 console exclusive interestingly enough oh and it comes out in uh 2027 number eight is phantom blade zero they didn't really they we were noting it during the stream it's like they kind of were like well uh we got we're moving the date and we don't really we can't it's like all right like you didn't really need to show this at all i don't think but they delayed it again from september 9th to october 29th putting it in the danger zone at this point i think um i was a little put i i put it so pb0 underscore official is their official twitter account and um i thought their letter was a little weird they wrote this letter first of all it's one of those letters where i'm like uh where is that response where it's like i'm not reading that congratulations or whatever kind of thing but i did read it because i have to it's my job and what they basically say is in part and i i don't know maybe you guys find this weird but i find it don't find it weird but i do quote over the past few months we have been streamlining content and focusing our efforts on polishing the area that matters most during this process i saw one final opportunity for phantom blade zero to make another meaningful leap forward we have upgraded a number of character models and reworked many environments across the game pushing them towards the highest standard we can currently achieve.

1:47:24We have also spent additional effort preserving as much of the visual impact as possible, even without relaying on ray tracing. Of course, ray tracing will further enhance the visuals, but our priority is to make sure the core look, atmosphere, and intensity of Phantom Blade Zero comes through at full force for as many players as possible. That sounds great. This is where I think it gets weird. Quote, a 50-day delay cannot solve everything, but it does give us enough time to complete a number of clearly defined and genuinely important improvements. These refinements will directly affect how the game feels when players first step into the world of Phantom Blade Zero.

1:47:53We could have delivered some of them through post-launch updates, but for the players who choose to join us on day one, we believe they deserve the best version of Phantom Blade Zero we can deliver from the very beginning, end quote. I just think it's weird to say it won't matter. We can't fix everything in the time allotted. If that's true, then delay it. In fact, I think pushing it into February or March might be your best bet. Yeah. But it might be a shit or get off the pot kind of situation. I feel like this game is taken a long, longer than was intended. So the history behind this game, S game is making this as a Chinese studio.

1:48:28And the game was envisioned and really pre-production began in 2017. Development didn't really begin in earnest until 2022 though. And then as they said during the showcase, Sony became involved in it in 2023. And it was shown at a PlayStation showcase in May, 2023. So that just says to me that the game was not, it was not supposed to take three and a half years. And I think if you've from that point, and I think if you just put another six months into it or whatever, at this point, it's like, who cares? Make the game better. I just I don't know. Maybe I'm reading into it too much, but I just feel like saying like we can't solve everything.

1:49:00It's like, well, you're launching the game incomplete. Then don't admit that you don't have to admit that everyone does that. You don't have to admit it. You know, so anyway, I think the game looks cool. I don't know if I'll play it. It comes out at a bad time. So if I do, it's going to be later. I think Dustin, are you interested in Phantom Blade Zero?

1:49:16Colin Moriarty:yeah i'm curious about it uh i've always thought the trailers look really promising for it i have said before i'm not super into non from software souls like i'm an annoying purist but i'm curious about it and you know i'm seeing people like i'm looking at the response to the twitter uh tweet where it's like coming out in six days after cod and two weeks before gta sounds like financial suicide. Mike, I don't think that maybe GTA players like there's crossover because everyone plays GTA, but I don't know. I don't necessarily think it's a bad idea. So we said it on the show, right? Someone's got to leave Roy Jenkins this thing.

1:50:01Yeah. And maybe it's gonna be Phantom Blade Zero, although it's not close enough for it to be a Leory Jenkins. When I say that, I mean, weak of. Who's got the balls? Who's going to do it? Who's got the someone's gonna have the balls someone's gonna do it yeah yeah and i don't think that i don't it seems suicidal and it probably is a stupid idea but it's like maybe maybe you'd be you'd be fucking crucified at a company if you convince them to do something like that and you're game bombed so it's a

1:50:29Colin Moriarty:dangerous thing it's a dangerous gamble maybe uh maybe a big mind's eye update oh yeah there you go. Mine's I 2.0. Yeah. Chris, are you going to play Phantom Blade Zero? I don't know. This is going to be a wait and see for me. I got to hear stuff about this because it's been in the background for a long time, but I think that vibe of, like that type of game in general, I feel like I'm a little bit burned down on and I feel like I would rather play Onimusha because I'm just more curious about that than I am about Phantom Blade. Phantom Blade gives me the vibe of, um, Oh my God, help me out. What's that?

1:51:08Colin Moriarty:It's like another Japanese kind of open. It was like an open world game that didn't do too great. People were kind of iffy on it. Wuchang? It was a couple years back. Oh, years back. No. Oh my God. What the hell was it? It was almost like Assassin's Creed. You had like a glider or something. Oh, Rise of the Ronin. Rise of the Ronin. Oh, right, right, right. Okay, yeah, yeah. That was Koei Tecmo. It's given me a bit of that vibe. Not in the sense that it looks bad. it just kind of looks like I just want to know what people think about this before I jump into it because that's a busy time you know there's a lot coming out just September I would imagine by that time in October I'll still be working my way through that list you know so I don't know I bought Rise of the Ronin when it came out as you guys remember I played it and I was like I can't do this that was the end of that it was cool it's not for me that kind of came in white I wonder if there will be a sequel to it we'll see all right Phantom Blade what's interesting I was researching this a little bit just for some context is Phantom Blade is an existing series which I didn't really know I don't think and there's a so there are two games there are three games in the Phantom Blade series they're all Chinese so Rainblood is there there's two games in a series called Rainblood that I guess are connected to it and then a few years ago there was a game called Phantom Blade Executioners so it's it's some sort of universe that already exists but that we have no access to right now.

1:52:40Interesting. Alright, we can move through a few of these pretty quickly, I think. Number 9 is Dune... Oh, by the way, so Phantom Blade Zero October 29th, PS5 console exclusive. Dune Awakening, September 22nd. It's already on PC, came out last year. This is a game by Funcom, which is a Norwegian studio that does a bunch of MMO and survival stuff. Age of Conan is probably their biggest game. but they do a bunch of Dune stuff as well. Do you any? I don't know. I have no opinion on this game one way or the other. I like Dune. I just, I'm not immersed in the world. I got it. It's just, I'm not going to play this.

1:53:20Yeah,

1:53:21Colin Moriarty:me too. I like the Dune movies a lot, but the fact this is like a crafting base building type game. Yeah. There's like, I guess this adds a single player component that doesn't even exist right now. Oh, I don't, so I don't, I don't know. I don't care, but whatever. Yeah. Do an awakening. And then number 10 is a dynasty warriors, three complete edition remastered. This was actually announced earlier in the year or last year. But they put a release date on it of October 1st and you can preorder it. Now it'll be on PlayStation five, no PS4 version, which I was pleased to see. This is a remake of the third dynasty warriors game.

1:54:03Since it's called dynasty warriors three that came out on PS2, Back in 2001, that was Omega Force and Koei before Koei and Tecmo merge, which is interesting. It's being remade in UE5. And of course, the series goes all the way back to 1997 on the original PlayStation. There are 10 core Dynasty Warriors games, apparently. Nine numbered editions plus Origins. The last numbered edition was 2018. That was nine. And Origins came out just last year. Well-regarded so-called Musseaux. I have no interest in this, but I think this is a pretty big deal because I think this is the game that kind of made Dynasty Warriors into a thing.

1:54:38So for those that are curious out there and interested, that comes out October 1st. And then number 11 is No Rest for the Wicked. No Rest for the Wicked comes from Moon Studios and it entered early access on PC two years ago. So it's been out there for a while, but they're readying their 1.0 launch and they're going to be doing so though they don't have a specific date, they're going to be doing so in the month of October. This is a PS5 console exclusive as well, though it is a PS5 console exclusive because, what's his name? Mailer, right? Thomas Mailer?

1:55:14Colin Moriarty:Thomas. He was saying that they can't get it working on Xbox Series S. And you're not allowed. I think Baldur's Gate was the only game, right? That was allowed to break away and only be for X and not S. That's just not a thing they want. Most of the Xbox Series consoles are Xbox Series S consoles. So he said it'll come over. It's not like it's so didn't sign with Sony or anything like that. It's just like they don't have the means to get it going on on the machine right now. And so so it'll come to Xbox and come to Switch, too. But it's just going to take some more technical work on their end.

1:55:45This game looks cool. I want to play it now that it's like done. We were talking a little bit about this on the stream as well. I just don't like early access games generally, not because they're bad. It's just like, why would I want to play it like this? I'll just wait. Like, what's the purpose of beta testing your game, especially when I'm paying for it? often so 1.0 is ready for release this fall are you guys interested in this game Dustin are you interested in no rest for the wicked I am

1:56:14Colin Moriarty:interested but for your the comments Baldur's Gate 3 did release on series s it's just the split-screen mode oh the split-screen okay it's the first time they let a feature drop got so I felt you I felt you right in that comment listening on YouTube delete it now but as far as what is it called No Rest for the Wicked I have wanted to play this game since it was released but I just didn't want to do the early access thing like it just I'll play it when it's done and it looks really cool in that it's like kind of a mix of Diablo and some Souls like stuff and it just looks beautiful so yeah this is one I think I particularly want to play the co-op either with brad or maybe lock want to play because i know they're both into diablo as well so probably won't play it on playstation 5 in october but i will be playing it uh with uh some fellow lsm people cool chris anything for you to say about this on for no rest for the wicked no i mean it looks looks beautiful i love i think the art direction is like really kind of immaculate.

1:57:27Colin Moriarty:So that alone is reason enough for me to be interested. But like, again, this October is just busy. I might pick it up and get to it at some point, but I don't know. I don't know if I'll get to it anytime soon. Okay. All right. Let's get into the 12th game. One we're all excited about. I think Animusha Way of the Sword. This is technically Animusha 5. Date of September 25th. There's a demo right now. Did you guys play? I did. You did? Okay, cool. So we'll talk to you in a minute about this. Of course, Animusha began early in PS2's life cycle with Animusha Warlords in 2001, a game very near and dear to my heart, followed by a sequel the next year in Samurai's Destiny, and then Demon Siege in 2004, which is kind of the red-headed stepchild of the group.

1:58:14We'll talk about that in a little while. And then Dawn of Dreams, which was Animusha 4 in 2006, which I also think is an incredibly underrated game. And we'll talk about that literally in a in a little while. So all of those games between 2001 and 2006, 20 year gap. Animusha, Way of the Sword finally arrives. Very, very, very, very excited about this. Don't need to see or hear or learn. I didn't even read the press releases because I just don't want to know anything. Very, very excited. All right. So Dustin, you played the demo, which is it's obviously Capcom doing the game in an RE engine, which is yes.

1:58:47So yeah, talk to me a little bit about this. Hit the mic.

1:58:49Colin Moriarty:I did not play all of the demo. i played a little bit of it just because i was curious uh and it feels pretty good it feels like man capcom everyone knows this but like capcom they're capcom now and immediately when you boot it up you're like oh yeah this is capcom quality it moves uh a little i don't want to say slower than I expected I guess in my mind this kind of sword play game I always think of Sekiro so it it's a much slower paced game and that's very different it's not like Sekiro really at all other than in fact it has like parry mechanics and stuff like that early in the demo too they don't give you a lot of like the neat abilities it wasn't until like the latter half where I started playing where I could do like a cool double blade ability but it I mean I'm excited for it I've only played the first Onimusha game I really liked it I really want to play the other ones hopefully sometime what am I saying I'm about to be off for a long time yeah you're not you have nothing to do I'm gonna have nothing to do and this and the releases are about to ease up a little bit for the summer so might be a good time for me to do that but but yeah I I couldn't resist checking it out a little bit and i have i have no doubt that this is also going to be excellent yeah i mean i'm uh i'm excited about this as well i i'm tempted to play the demo though i don't usually play demos just because i really want to see what it feels like if it feels like animusha but it.

2:00:24I'm just going to be patient and I'll wait. Chris, what's your excitement level for Ani Musha Way of the Sword?

2:00:29Colin Moriarty:I'm really looking forward to it. I'm kind of like Dustin. I only really played. I only played the first one, but I really liked it. I liked it way more than I thought I would. I kind of went in being like, I went in playing that game as almost like an obligation. Not necessarily to the show, but I'm just like, this is something I should know about. Because I do kind of, I dig the vibe of it, but like, I might not like this. I might bounce off of this. I don't know if this is exactly my style. especially I think I actually did bounce off of it the first time I loaded it up years and years ago when it was really new when it was new and like the camera thing I was just like I don't know if I'm feeling this right now and then I went back to it way later when I had a better idea of what to expect and I ended up really really liking it I thought it was like a really solid experience I appreciated the the brevity of it it's not like a really long game it's yeah you can beat it in like four or five hours I think I beat it in like no time and but but it was like a really, it felt worth my time.

2:01:23Colin Moriarty:Like I liked it. Like there was like no fat on it. And it was just like, oh, it's just good meat, you know? But I don't have a lot of experience with Anemusha outside of that. I know Derek loves the third, that's the, that's the. John. John. What's his name? I don't remember. Jean Benet Ramsey. Yeah. That's the one with Jean Benet Ramsey in it. Anemusha three actor. It's not Jean-Claude Van Damme. Jean Reno. Jean Reno. yeah yeah and that's we now know i mean well i don't want to spoil it we're going to talk about animusia 4 later is like it's kind of confirmed now that that is the problem everyone always assumed that that was the issue why we never even got a remastered trilogy because he's his they didn't know to like i guarantee you they were like it's for this version of the game and that's it and because they didn't know there were going to be these digital ecosystems or they didn't gauge re-releases and stuff so he probably wants money you know yeah Yeah, that makes sense.

2:02:20Colin Moriarty:But I'm looking forward to this. I'm really I'm really excited. I like I liked Animusha enough to be like, yeah, I want to see how this plays in a modern context. And it looks dope also. Yeah, I mean, it looks excellent. I have a real soft spot for the series. I've said this a million times, obviously, as I said, many things on this show. But like for those that were there for PS2 at launch and remember it, it's like Animusha was one of the first games that came that spring of 2001. where it's like, yeah. Like now we're, it really began, for me, a lot of people don't like it, but I always say it really began with the bouncer, but then it moves into Animusha, and then by the time you move a few months through, you're like, you're at Metal Gear Solid 2, Silent Hill 2, and Grand Theft Auto 3.

2:03:03So Animusha has this, it has a, I have a soft spot for it because I'm like, yeah, this was a key game at a key time, and one of the first PlayStation 2, really true PlayStation 2 games any of us ever played. Because a lot of the launch games were fine, but there was a lot of trash in there as people remember there's like a lot of many of us many of us tried to convince ourselves that we loved summoner you know like it was a common thing but it ended up we ended up not liking summoner very much so i'm excited to get these back i want to i played animusha actually that's when i was still doing video reviews i when it was re-released on ps4 in 2018 or 2019 um Um, this summer, I'll probably go back and play all of them.

2:03:48Uh, one, two and four. And again, we'll talk about four in a little while and we'll probably never get three. And that's too bad. Um, demon. It's funny because demon siege, which is the third one was always my least favorite anyway, but it's just kind of a bummer. It's like, damn, this game is just missing. What, what does he want? I wonder. And it's so funny to think about Chris, you and I have talked about this about like shows that were smart enough to, to film in widescreen. Even when the Seinfeld is one of those shows. um and did they film in widescreen yeah the everything's in isn't it all in hd well i thought

2:04:21Colin Moriarty:that it was cut i thought that it was um i could be wrong i don't know i think it is like because i feel like i remember there was a video i know it's a common thing with the simpsons where like a lot of apps stream the simpsons in widescreen even though it's animated in full screen so a lot of it gets cut out because the top and bottom gets i think there's like a famous joke in the simpsons that gets completely fucked by the aspect ratio and i feel like i remember seeing something similar on seinfeld where i was just like oh this looks a little zoomed in i think it's on film right is that what it is dustin uh i i'm looking at google and i'm getting two different answers right this awesome this one says it was actually filmed in 16 by 9 this one says it was shot in four by three i don't well i can't quickly come up with an answer well anyway that's what we're getting lost in the in the sauce with my sorry my well it's my spurious example so it's my fault but um i just like the foresight of people in other words there were people that were making good contracts back then you can tell by what games are getting re-released and even with like i always make fun of uh the wonder years which is like one of my favorite shows i love that show and how you know the the song the in the beginning is a cover of a beatle song and then when they released it in syndication on dvd it was a cover of the cover of a beatles song because they couldn't even license the joe cocker version of it or whatever wow um and so i i just think like so there are shows that and uh when i re-watched 90210 which i did in the late 20 teens when i still live in california it was on amazon i think their entire episodes have been missing because there's just so much fucking music in it that you can't because they just didn't we don't we're never going to deal with that stuff with new things perpetual licenses and like and all that are different now but r.i.p on him we should probably never see you i have physically so it's not a big deal i wonder if that will be the most valuable on him she game now because it literally is unplayable unless you you know emulate it obviously all right number 13 is silent hill townfall which looks pretty cool september 24th this is also a ps5 console exclusive so konami uh giving this the silent hill to remake treatment i guess as opposed to silent hill f treatment um silent hill townfall is being made by a british team actually they're scottish called uh no code and they've made two other console games have you guys played these games stories untold they're both kind of adventurous game and observation i've heard about obviously why does that why does observation sound familiar to me so stories untold is 2017 and it came to ps4 in 2020 and then observations 2019 so they have more of an adventure non-violent approach i think and i think this game will oh yeah be like that um so let's see here yeah this stories untold game i played a little bit of it because like what was cool about it is that you're sitting in i don't know whether it's a house or something and you're playing a tech space adventure game and i'll be like there was a knock at the door and it says on screen and then you hear it in the meta like real life that you're playing in the game so it's a neat idea i oh that was a devolver digital published game oh by the way the studio used to be called no code by the way they renamed themselves they're now called screen burn just to be clear for the record for the record for the record it says here quote developed by screen burn and co-published by annapurna interactive and konami silent hill town falls a full-length self-contained psychological horror set against the cold isolated backdrop of scotland simon ordel is called back to the island of saint amelia to put things right encountering a town lying quiet beneath a heavy fog seemingly abandoned but not at rest.

2:08:19Venturing deeper and driven to understand his connection to the place and its inhabitants, Simon begins to discover fragments of a past rising to the surface. Experienced entirely in first person, Simon must explore, evade, and survive using a limited set of weapons and tools, including the CRTV, a pocket television used to tune into unstable signals. Evasion is tense, combat is frenetic, while narrative-driven puzzles reveal a truth that refuses to stay submerged. So it sounds a little bit like your typical Silent Hill game. If you pre-order the game you'll get 48 hours early access thus turning the release dates from September 24th into September 22nd I assume we're all gonna play this Chris you're gonna

2:08:56Colin Moriarty:play Silent Hill Townfall yeah I mean I'm curious enough about it I gotta be like I don't know Silent Hill doesn't vibe with me as much as I wish it did like I I'm I I didn't play F I just wasn't grabbed by it um Silent Hill 2 remake I thought was quite good but even in even in how good that was. I just think the style of game is just kind of... I don't know. I like video games for the joy of like how good it feels to move through them. And they're very plodding and very slow, which is like it works. But I don't love them as much as I want to. But I'll definitely play Townfall out of just sheer curiosity.

2:09:34Colin Moriarty:I want to know. I'm more interested in Townfall than I was in F for whatever reason. I don't know why. Yeah, I know Dustin liked F more than I did. I wasn't I went to play through it a second time to try to go after the platinum and halfway through. I'm like, I just don't want to play this. I just really don't give a shit about this game. But it's funny. The it's not it's not bad. I think it was good. And I loved the setting. And I thought it was very novel. The characters are cool. The story is quite dark. Silent Hill 2 remake, I thought was exceptional. Actually, they're just so different. The Silent Hill games have that Twin Peaks esque.

2:10:08Meta mystery thing going on that Resident Evil doesn't, for instance, have because it's not trying to be that.

2:10:13Colin Moriarty:that's true I just think like when I was playing through Silent Hill 2 remake I was like this is really good but it's so fucking dire that like it really just kind of felt miserable to play it and like I was like I don't know if I really want this out of a video game to be honest like I think it's I think it's cool and I think it's Silent Hill 2 remake is exceptionally well done especially you know given all the uh the naysaying around around Bloober at the time which even I was like, I was actually more bullish about them going into that game. But it's still like ultimately like every time I would load into Silent Hill 2, I was like, I'm just going to be miserable for the next several hours on purpose.

2:10:53Colin Moriarty:And it was just hard for me to do it. It was just genuinely difficult. I understand. Which is, you know, it's good for art, but like, I don't know. Yeah, I get it. I mean, it's also about what strikes you at a certain time. I think things just kind of hit or they don't. sure yeah i go back to things that i've skipped sometimes where i'm like why did i not like this you know like oh was that like death loop for you yeah yeah death loop was one of those games where i'm like this is awesome it just wasn't that's a great example yeah um yeah silent hill so blue you brought up bloober and they didn't make this game obviously but i agree with you also totally like i was so skeptical of that team forever and silent hill 2 was like all right you can do it but this is someone else's game and then the chronos where i was like damn maybe you do get it maybe you really do get it because that game is fucking dope that's such an un criminally underplayed game in my opinion i have it and i i remember i i booted it up and it was i kind of got the same feeling where i was like oh it's very dark it's very this is really cool but fuck i'm not i don't want to feel this way right now really yeah it's it's it's way darker than silent hill even yeah so don't don't do that i do want to get to it eventually dusty boy silent hill townfall play state what do you think about it being a playstation 5 console exclusive konami i guess was happy with silent hill 2 i mean they're they're defraying costs so they probably are happy with it or they get a better split or whatever yeah well eventually silent hill 2 did come to xbox right i i assume but when i say console exclusive these some of these are going to be timed to console time yeah of course so yeah they They must have, it's one of those things where it's going to sell best on PlayStation in terms of the consoles anyway.

2:12:34Colin Moriarty:And if Sony's offering up a little bit of scratch, why not? Why not do it? Oh, good. I was going to say, just on 007, Alinea said 55 % of the sales were on PS5, which is incredible, actually. Well, yeah, it's great on PS5, the PS5 Pro support. Not that that's the main factor behind those sales there, but I'm sure it helped. so in terms of townfall i am so intrigued as i was saying earlier about that dinosaur game is that the slower more atmospheric first person games i'm more intrigued by them because of how resident evil has handled that so seeing silent hill in first person of course reminds me of pt as well which this game doesn't really look like they're trying to do pt and that's probably a good thing just because it's like you don't you don't want to constantly be compared to uh kojima and that demo the legendary status of it so i'll be checking this out i'm i am balls deep in silent hill i haven't like i haven't played all of them i've played all the ones that matter in terms of one two three remake silent hill f the only one that i probably should still play is Silent Hill 4, The Room, because that one has mixed appreciation as opposed to being completely terrible, the ones after that.

2:13:56Colin Moriarty:So I want to check it out. And Annapurna usually makes really good stuff. They're a good steward in terms of the games they choose to publish. And so I think it's in good hands. And I'm just curious also, this will be the second game. Well, I don't know if it's the second game. Because Silent Hill 3, there's parts of it that don't take place in Silent Hill. And then Silent Hill F, of course, is not in Silent Hill at all. And then this one, from what we can tell, does not. I mean, they say it takes place on some island, right? Yeah, it's an island off of Scotland. It's an island. So how it connects to the series to me is very intriguing.

2:14:35Colin Moriarty:They did something pretty interesting with that in Silent Hill F. I won't spoil, of course, but it is connected. So I'm curious how this one will connect. All right. Silent Hill Townfall, September 24. Early access with a pre-order September 22. Or in Pittsburgh, we say Townfall. Townfall. Silent Hill Townfall. Ian's picking up that Silent Hill Townfall in September. Christ. No wonder there's so many fucking shootings in fucking Butler, Pennsylvania. Well, just the one. Just the one. Just the one. all right uh we can move through these next ones because we're not going to play these next two but uh they're going to be incredibly relevant and we'll we got inquiries about them ace combat eight wings of veve releases october 1st you can also play this early beginning september 29th i want to say if you pre-order it so that's that um we got ace combat looks excellent it's just not my kind of game i i i didn't someone describe it as like metal gear like it's like metal gear-esque in planes and it yeah right like it's i don't mean the gameplay i mean the story like it's and so cole smith wrote in this one is for you chris he says uh hi sacred crew while watching the state of play the director of ace combat said he couldn't wait for people to visit the land of strange real does some stuff sound better in japanese but translate terrible to english or do developers in japan think doing incredibly dumb sounding names is funny what are some goofy character names and locations of game titles to send out to you.

2:16:10We won't even get into that. I just love that you really clued in on that. That really bothered you.

2:16:17Colin Moriarty:It was just weird. It was just like, because it doesn't roll off the tongue at all. You know what I mean? Like there's certain compound words that are like, or like, you know, proper nouns that video games make up that I think generally work pretty well. But like strange real is like, I'm burning calories like trying to say it. You're right. Like it's like it really is like probably the most difficult thing to say phonetically that you could have possibly named something so i just thought it was fascinating that they did that um so ace combat 8 is the first new ace combat game since ace combat 7 which launched on ps4 in 2019 and that was skies unknown and of course it began the series began as a ps1 launch game back in 1995 as air combat which it's cool that they they renamed it to ace combat i don't know they did that with the second one but i don't know why if it was like some sort of serendipitous ip situation or whatever i don't know um like resident evil is such a good example of that biohazard's a cool name but resident evil is a way cooler name it's way cooler yeah and then ace combat zero which is a 2006 ps2 release it's the belkin war remastered this comes out october 1st as well but you have to pre-order Ace Combat 8 to get it.

2:17:37And Sweet Grey Mane Jones wrote in with a very important PSA. And I'm glad he wrote about this because I didn't know this. It says, boys just got an Ace Combat 8 PSA. Back for Ace Combat 7 on PS4, if you pre-ordered, you got a PS4 trophy ported to Ace Combat 5 from PS2. It wasn't clear then that there would be no other way to buy it a la carte, assuming because of licensing. Many didn't pre-order with hopes of catching a sale or whatever and missed out. they are doing it again for ac8 with ac0 and on the playstation store this time it clarifies zero will not be available after launch if you are a hardcore trophy hunter or an ac enthusiast be sure to pre-order good psa that's wild why would you do that it's actually really fascinating because couldn't you just pre-order and then like couldn't you just theoretically refund your pre-order you could yeah i wonder yeah you probably could i wonder how that would work because they're going to be two different packages probably you don't i think the way you get refunded on playstation typically is like you have to never open the game and then they basically

2:18:40Colin Moriarty:it's much easier that way yeah oh wait but does h combat does the second one or the old are they both launched on the same day okay i was about to say yeah right but they're gonna be what i'm saying is there are two different packages so theoretically you could get them and then refund it yeah but maybe there's hopefully the system's smart enough to not let well i mean do what you want i guess but it's just kind of crazy yeah good psa i mean i appreciate that in a way well there was a game that did that but it finally did come out fuck what is it there is a game that did that oh god i can't remember but it's a hardcore move i understand doing it even for years but making it in like perpetuity it's like that's just you it's like you did all the work of porting it you don't want to sell it it's a little strange yeah all right number 16 is stuntman hollywood with a date to be determined this is a revival of the old uh one time infograms funny enough and then later thq license so it had a tortured sort of existence um there have been only two stuntman games there was stuntman on ps2 in 2002 that was by reflections i'll have more to say about them in a minute because they're an interesting studio and published by Infograms.

2:19:53And then Stuntman Ignition came out on PS2 and PS3 in 2007. And that was made by Paradigm, which is the studio that actually made Pilotwink 64. And then I think that was our last game and that was the end of the Stuntman series. Saber Interactive is reviving it. I assume Saber has access to it through old THQ fire sale stuff. I was trying to find out who ended up buying Stuntman afterwards because you can find out who bought everything from the THQ fire sale. back in 2012 when they were going out of business and that's how a lot of shit was split amongst a bunch of people um so i'm not entirely sure how that all went but some in hollywood is coming i have no i have no excitement about this but i'm sure some people will care about it um are you

2:20:38Colin Moriarty:guys interested i was just fascinated to see it back because that's it that's a game that i know so little about i remember seeing it at some point i think a friend of mine had it and i was curious about it and I saw him playing it and I thought it was kind of neat but I wasn't that into car games really I still am not outside of Burnout I think Burnout was really the only game like that that I got really really into but I don't know this is a nice surprise to see something like this I was just like oh cool alright nice PS some PS2 generation love in the modern day yeah it was surprising because I thought it was I thought the game was actually that game clutch yeah that was just announced but it wasn't it wasn't that game yeah i used to play the ps2 stuntman with a friend of mine that lived up the street he was obsessed with stuntman the original ps2 stuntman you gotta get in touch with him had a really great uh like course creator where it was like ignored you sorry i don't know what he's doing i'm sorry i didn't mean to interrupt i fell out of yeah that's good a long time ago but it had a really great course creator where you could like set up all these different ramps and fly through like flaming hoops and stuff and we were obsessed with that mode specifically so that is stuntman hollywood better have the the create a course feature in it and then maybe i'll check it out we'll see all right so stuntman hollywood date to be determined one of the few games that was shown that had no date no no year or anything all right 17 was a good looking game ill from Team Clout.

2:22:10This is their first game. It comes out in 2027.

2:22:16I guess Munfish is publishing it, which are the guys that did, I think, Atomic Heart. So there's some, I don't know exactly what's going on with that. But Chris, you seem to be into this. What do you make of this game? Yeah, man, I've been following this for a while,

2:22:28Colin Moriarty:which is why I'm a little frustrated, because early, I remember when this game was announced really, really, really early on, and when we saw more of it, a lot of people were convinced it wasn't real because it kind of looked too good and like the the animation quality in this game is actually kind of obscene like the i can't even necessarily explain it i don't even know if i have the the vocabulary to articulate why but like there's something about it that looks like this is like the most realistic look at like there's something about this like this is the most impressive animation i think i've ever seen on some of these monsters that are moving and just the way that they're moving and like the exact frame rate that they're moving to feels like i can't i don't even know but i'm really excited about this i think it looks gorgeous i think the the premise of playing with like scale with some of these people i remember one of the first trailers had uh or not one of the first shows but more one of the more recent trailers in the last couple years had like a like one of their one of the enemies had like their giant head coming through a hallway and like pushing shit And it's like, this is cool.

2:23:31Colin Moriarty:It reminds me a lot of, and some people might remember these, but there was a book series that I used to read or that was really, really popular in our schools around that time called Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. And there's a vibe of that, that art style here in some of the creatures and some of the things you're fighting. It looks dope. I'm really excited about it, but I'm frustrated because it's been, I think, six years. I'm fairly certain. Like, I feel like I saw this game forever ago. And so to still not have a date at this point, but to have seen it so often is just a little odd. I don't know what to make of it.

2:24:12Colin Moriarty:There's still a big fear. Like, I've talked to some people who are still convinced it's not real. It's like a big scam. It's like, wasn't it announced one year ago? No. Like, I swear to God, I've seen this game. Let me, I'll do some research, but as you guys talk more about it. But yeah, I think it looks cool. I mean, it's described in the press release of Via Gamatsu as, quote, a realistic first person action survival horror game focused on visceral body horror, cinematic immersion, environmental storytelling and intense physical gameplay interactions, end quote. And Chris, the way you described it, we did talk about it years ago, I think, because you said the same thing then, I think, about that book series.

2:24:51Colin Moriarty:Yeah. So I know exactly what you're talking about with that. But yeah, I don't I don't know. I don't I haven't been following this game at all. What do you think about it, Dustin? It looks absolutely disgusting in the best way possible. I know what Chris is saying about the animation. I keep repeating this clip from, let's see, 40 seconds in the trailer where there's a headshot. But instead of like normal video game, his head just explodes. It actually like creates a chunk that flows out of his head. And it's horrible in the best way. Dude, it's amazing animation work, like genuinely. like it's yeah and then there's this guy that's like you know smearing his blood all over the wall it just looks vile and i like it i think it looks really cool so uh but yeah my memory of this first was from summer game fest last year when i think we saw the trailer oh dude and there's this part uh at 32 seconds in where there's just like one of these zombie guys just smiling as he's walking towards them you as like with that with a hatchet so looks pretty looks pretty cool there's a i'm sorry i was just gonna say this is the type of game that i'm gonna want to play in the living room and holly is gonna be totally out she's not into this level of disgusting debauchery so we'll figure it out there are a shit ton of comments on this there are 64 comments on the story on playstation blog and they've closed the comments which is interesting it's a lot of them are asking for psvr2 ports so it must be like some organized thing so here's i'm going to share with you guys just because it took me a while to find it which is weird but like uh five years ago in 2021 there was like a a little gameplay trailer for it um oh yeah this is really early but this is when i first saw it and i just remember being like even back then i was like the animation here is kind of nuts like and i just like it looks it just looks too there's parts of that just looked too good for me to believe uh and i still kind of feel that way but i'm really like if it's real if it really if it really delivers on this this vibe and this animation is really that good then i'm i'm i'm really this is one of my most anticipated games probably in the last several several years it just looks so weird and yeah it does it does look weird yeah it's cool yeah this video is cool i knew we talked about it too because i remember you saying that yeah I was going crazy because I was like am I wrong am I crazy well you are but for different reasons yeah very different reasons number 18 so that's 2027 by the way number 18 is control resonant launches September 24th what'd you say Chris I'm sorry no it's like relatively imminent compared to 2027 I'm just pumped about it uh I have nothing to say about it I mean I'm mega excited about it as people that watch the stream along with us know I took my headphones off and just didn't even look at the trailer because I'm like I just don't need to see any more about it I don't I'm good I have to beat Alan Wake 2 I was actually thinking about replaying Alan Wake 1 and then playing through all of Alan Wake 2 for the first time I only played about halfway through it and then replaying Control and getting into that's a lot of Remedy I don't know if that's a good idea but I'm definitely going to at least replay Control on PS5 this summer so I'm excited about it it's obviously sequel to 2019's Control and connected to Alan Wake and Quantum Break in their own way.

2:28:14Of course, Remedy is also working on Max Payne 1 and 2 with Rockstar, so they have that going too. Lanky Plank wrote in and said, hey, Colin and crew, with Control Resident locked in for late September, I was quite shocked to see it listed at just 50 pounds for the base edition and 55 pounds for the digital deluxe. Dustin, can you look up how much it is here, please?

2:28:30Colin Moriarty:Sure. I know Remedy have done this for previous titles, but in an era where publishers are pushing towards 70 pounds standard pricing, why are they still trying to undercut the market? Resident looks wildly original and structurally risky compared to a lot of the incredibly safe sequels that are saturating the market this generation by pricing it like a budget title do you think remedy risks downplaying the sheer quality of their talent to the casual consumer or is this still the best move to maximize day one adoption is it fifty dollars or sixty dollars here so i'm seeing that the physical standard physical edition is 59.99 so i would assume that's the same for digital uh and then scrolling this ign article has so much shit in it uh the digital deluxe edition is 70 so yeah it is yeah i was i was gonna say like i think 60 like 50 i think it was would be a dope price point but i would have i found it hard to imagine that they would have done that um i don't actually disagree with you in a way i think 50 would be very aggressive i think that worked for some games i think expedition 33 is a great example i think control is going to sell what it sells uh based on its fan base and it will obviously have wider adoption when it gets cheaper later but i don't know that cutting ten dollars off is really going to cut people off from the game i also don't know that it would it would obviously ten dollars over a few million units is a lot of money but um will it would have materially affected them i don't know so i yeah i felt because you're using pounds i was like i don't know if it's going to quite translate the same and it translates to sixty dollars here which is what i would have expected the game to cost um i think they might have even tried to go 70 but i that would have been maybe a little aggressive but i would have bought it at 70 bucks so do you guys have anything you want to say about control resident uh i have nothing left to say about this game yeah i i'm uh i'm most excited about this of anything in september so it's day one for me i love remedy i think uh they're exceptionally strange and they just make interesting stuff and i and i love the fact that this is like a like like lanky says just like a really unsafe sequel relative to a lot of the stuff that we get.

2:30:33Colin Moriarty:Like, I fully expected Control 2 to just be more Jesse with more telekinesis. And in fact, I would have been totally excited about that. But the fact that they've done something different and made it almost completely flipped the type of game that Control is on its head quite a bit. Like, there's already so many different flavorings of how Control plays now with the Alan Wake tie-in DLC that plays differently than Control. Yeah, there's just a lot here. so I'm really excited for Control. I didn't really watch. I had my headphones on. I was kind of like tuning it out as I was listening to it. I don't really remember what the new trailer was but I don't need to see more.

2:31:11Colin Moriarty:I'm sold. I love the trippy psychedelic Manhattan that they've created. I'm just pumped about it. It's very cool of everything busting out of that building and fucking everything up. Yeah. Yeah, I'm looking forward to this as well. By the way, Dustin, two-day early access period exclusive to PlayStation 5. Yeah. This is key, I think, because Animusha comes out the 25th. So if I can start playing this 22nd, 23rd, 24th, and then maybe I can get the Animusha quicker. So I'm definitely going to be doing that, no doubt. Yeah, they're going to get me with that. Let's see. Yeah, the early access is$10 more, but that's fun.

2:32:00All right.

2:32:00Colin Moriarty:we're all gonna play it I assume when the time comes yes yes yes I don't know that I would if they were really much closer I don't know that I would choose it over on Emusha to be honest that's tough I'll get to them both eventually well that's a year that's like many many many many years in anticipation for you though right that's true you know what I mean like Emusha is kind of we all thought that was dead for a long time number 19 is marathon nightfall that's the new season of yeah marathon we don't have I don't think anything to say about that really um actually i'm gonna just skip this inquiry because we're just it's fine we don't talk about marathon um and again it's no disrespect to marathon we like marathon well you guys like marathon i've never played it but uh i know the audience is kind of getting tired of hearing about it i understand yeah number 20 runescape dragon wilds this is a console exclusive for ps5 this is uh runescape's um emergence onto console after all these years runescape of course is by the british mmo team jagex i've always hated that name that's a bad name i it just i don't know why i can't see it in any other way but like you're saying jacking in some way uh runescape launched in january of 2001 so it's been around for a really long time as an mmo and this particular game dragon wilds entered early access on steam a year ago so it's been out for a while on pc for people to mess around with so it's coming over i don't give a shit comes out at some point this year actually there is no interestingly there was no playstation blog post for this there's a playstation blog post for almost everything but not this so anything to say about this runescape did either of you play runescape that seems like right up your alley because you guys are younger yeah i had i had a lot of friends who did play but i it just never appealed to me like it just felt like a fake video game to me when i would because i would compare it a lot to the console games that i was playing at that time which just visually and presentation wise i was just like this is not even like what do we what are we doing and also the type of game too like the whole farming thing like it just it didn't really that genre didn't quite appeal to me at that time i actually think it might have later on but i just never i never gave it a shot yeah i said on the stream i think my my um cousin junior um john was like obsessed with it he loved it and i'd go like he was like he was like what was he like seven years younger than me or whatever and i'd go hang out with him in his room when i'd like come over you know if i was in high school or college and see what he was doing and he was he was a big gamer he was a nice kid and i remember cousin junior's on rootscape again yeah cousin junior yeah we're very italian people absolutely fucking crazy that's pretty good that's pretty good you're working on that i'm trying i'm thinking like it's hard he changes so often my first episode is hilarious because he sounds it's the first episode and then the rest of the season he sounds insane like the first season the first episode he sounds like a normal person then it just becomes fucking like ah the fucking on emotion like it's fucking ridiculous aj's playing on emotion again i i love when they uh there are video games that feature like dreamcast i think features in some mario kart and on n64 yeah there is to be no mario kart that line is crazy to me that she says that aj fucking sucks i hate that fucking kid i always hated him i love that video that of him going around it's like you were bombing iran like oh man how little things change i know it's awesome what i loved about him the most the character is that he was into a lot of the music that i was into at that time so when i was watching it like there's i think there's an episode where they go to a mudvane concert or something like that and he gets all fucked up in a hotel and i'm like yeah i loved mudvane cool me and aj might have been boys all right the next three games are all classics yeah um guitar man is first that's going to come out sometime in june that was a ps2 game from koei pre-tecmo koei launched in 2001 in japan 2002 and ps on uh in the west um made by a studio called innis at the time which is now known as leona interactive i i couldn't find much information about them other than that they still exist.

2:36:11So they're still bouncing around. But obviously, Coe is, Tecmo Coe is deep in bed with Sony. And so this is not a big deal for them to get. A well-liked rhythm game from the time. Did either of you guys play it? I didn't recognize it right away when I saw it. I was like, oh yeah, I never owned it. So. I've never even seen this before in my life. And then, PsyOps, the Mindgate Conspiracy is for July. That came out on PS2 originally in 2004. And that was from defunct publisher Midway. hmm it's funny i was looking at like i was like what was midway's most notable most like latest most notable game and the answer i came up with because they went out again it went out of business in 2010 as a licensor and a developer was a john woo stranglehold that was the last and that was 2007 that was what i came up with that's so funny i played that demo so much yeah the box art i remember the box art really well it was pretty good actually pretty good box art it's like the red and like dark white and i think he was like diving and then there's like a dove or something that's good and then uh 23 we i promised we'd bring this up earlier uh animusha 4 dawn of dreams is the august playstation plus game presumably i presume these will all also be available a la carte the interesting thing about animusha 4 is that i don't know if they're releasing it like they did animusha 1 and 2 which well animusha 2 came out as a classic right animusha 1 was an actual port and so i assume this will be what'd you say doesn't

2:37:35Colin Moriarty:I feel like one and two are both ports, but let me check. So I wonder what's going on with this. But obviously, this August game Dawn of Dreams in preparation for September, late September release of Animusha 5. First came out in 2006. I have very fond memories of this game. It came out when I was in college. I really liked it. So please look forward to those. So people have been complaining about about the lack of quality. Classic style games. I agree they can do a lot better, but this is a pretty decent lineup. Not so bad. Yeah. Yeah. 24 is, and this is the second to last game, the penultimate game until dawn to PlayStation five exclusive from fire sprite.

2:38:18Of course, fire sprite is the studio Sony bought in 2021 founded in 2012. They did that PSVR game, the persistence call of the mountain PSVR to launch game. And this is the fourth, I think by my count, the fourth until dawn game, because you have Rush of Blood and The Impatient as well. And I think I'm probably, arguably, this is like one of the games I'm most excited about that we saw. I think it sounds really cool and it looks really great. I think it's just too bad that Ballistic Moon botched until Dawn 1 because it's just such a shame. Obviously, they were building up to this and they just really fucked and shat the bed on that.

2:38:57To the point where it's like, oh, maybe you should just... Like, wouldn't it if this hit so much harder if they never even released that port? Oh, yeah. And they were just like, we just had the PS4 version and here's Until Dawn 2 all these years later. I think that would have been very exciting. Very different.

2:39:13Colin Moriarty:Yeah. As I said on the stream, though, Chris, these kinds of games, these super massive style or Quantic Dream style games always look good. And we had brought up the quarry as a game where I'm like, this just didn't work. So I'm always excited to see these. even that game directive 80 20 looks really good the new um like all the man of madon dark pictures games look great so i i it's it's easy to be skeptical and also i don't think fire sprite has ever made something truly great so we'll see um super massive never made anything great until until dawn one so well and it's funny sony has shown so much patience with this ip for some reason until dawn one was in development forever it was originally a playstation 3 game and it was originally a move game as people might remember i played that version of the game at comic-con as i've described and they just gave them all this time and all this money and it came out and then told on to it's like yeah you guys are really interested in this but i think that something screams to me that they're upset i think behind the scenes they're obsessed with the potential fusion of this into film and cross media space so what do you guys think anything to say yeah i so i was thinking about this game because i i was like man i don't really feel really that excited for until dawn 2 i was trying to figure out why and i think it is that when i played until dawn the first one it was such a cool experience i played it in like two or three sittings with holly is super memorable um and then calling you brought up all of the other we'll say until dawn likes in terms of the quarry and i played the quarry i fucking i i think it's my memory of the fact i spent 70 on that game and i was so disappointed with it i was like that was a waste of money normally there's plenty of games i've bought that i didn't really like and i'm like ah whatever it's me it's a me problem this is not the case i i didn't like the quarry at all i played uh man of madon or as it was once called on the show man of medan medan man of medan yeah man of midden and i didn't really like that very much either and i know there's a bunch of dark pictures games like um uh there's that one that's like in iraq or something uh i can't remember what it's called i haven't really liked any of these post until dawn until dawn games style games we'll say so when i saw this i was like ah it is that skepticism you were saying colin i'm like Like, is this actually going to be, was it just kind of like a moment in time when we got Until Dawn?

2:41:50Colin Moriarty:And it was, we had had, you know, the choice and consequence games like it before, of course. Aquatics. With like heavy rain and stuff like that. But there's something about Until Dawn that was special because maybe because it was a horror game that was so compelling about it. So I am, I feel maybe unjustly highly skeptical of Until Dawn 2. And so we shall see. I'll probably still play it. And will I be mad that I spent$70? Different team. We'll find out. But I will check it out and play it. Something that surprised me. I'm curious what you guys think. I put on this trailer for Holly because we played the first Until Dawn together.

2:42:32Colin Moriarty:Her first reaction was like, ugh. Their faces look gross. Like they hit like an uncanny level for her. and I was like yeah I look all those games kind of did like all those games do have a little bit of a weird yeah feeling in the faces so I don't know we'll see yeah it's a bummer that they mismanaged that that port and that ended up being more disastrous than it seemed and it makes sense why they just didn't bring any attention to it like the whole the whole marketing and PR thing is like, yeah, just don't even. But then you wonder, it's like, why not just cancel it? Yeah. Yeah. Especially because remember I played the remake and then I went back and platinum the first one because I was like, the first one is just so much better.

2:43:19It's so much better. Maybe they've maybe they've done work to it. I mean, Ballistic Moon is out of business, but they did patch it a bunch. It's still on my cross media bar. Like I never deleted it. So maybe I'll maybe I'll play it right before and hold on to next year. PlayStation 5 exclusive. Speaking of PlayStation 5 exclusive the final game we have to talk about is God of War Lao Fae which is just some name and I'll tell you. Delete this inquiry. We don't need this. 20 minutes of gameplay in quotes. I understand what they meant by that. I think that was a weird way of positioning it because it wasn't it was literally gameplay.

2:43:58It's in engine. You don't want to use that kind of terminology I guess. But you could have just said, here's 20 uninterrupted minutes of the new God of War. That's all you have to say. Yeah. Because a lot of it wasn't gameplay. People have been pretty harsh on this game. I went and looked last night. I haven't looked today. But where the kind of thumbs up, thumbs down on the main trailer sit, it's like three to two. So it's not losing in quotes that battle. But it's very controversial. for people that might not have seen and i imagine you have seen this is the newest god of war game being directed um by not cory borlaug so cory has kind of risen and ascended to a creative directorial role which is interesting and um yeah there's a lot to say about this game i mean we have a lot of letters so we'll let those kind of dictate things but uh chris what are your high level thoughts on god of war lao fey which has no date yet but is assumed to be maybe coming out

2:44:59Colin Moriarty:next year yeah i mean for so out the gate again gameplay like you said just not the way that i would have phrased that uh when people want gameplay they want traversal they want combat that kind of thing they don't want the uh literal um oh the uninterrupted like okay here's a cut scene that has like a prompt for r2 or whatever that takes four minutes to play out it was really like more like five minutes of gameplay i would like maybe six and like 14 of you know cut scene that's the vibe that i feel like i didn't do any math or whatever but that's how it felt watching it it was like very slow but i don't know i think it's i think it's gonna be a good game i'm like i'm looking forward to it like i'm more interested in it now than i was when i heard about the pitch of a god of war game about fey you know like i think uh it does make sense i mean she's she's alluded to a lot in that duology of games in the norse duology of god of war games as like um as like a really competent fighter she gives thor a run for his money so like it makes sense that she would be capable in combat and it makes sense that she might be fun to play as so like and seeing that in action did help me be like okay yeah i i would i'm into this and i do think the premise of the game where you're in the afterlife of the gods is interesting because it allows them to do this multiple mythology kind of um mix up and mash up in a way that's a little bit more subversive than what we had initially originally thought where oh it's kratos gonna kratos is gonna go after the other pantheons or whatever and it's like no this is a way to do that without doing the obvious thing i think that's cool we saw i think a tibetan god of war and i think the egyptian god of war if i'm not mistaken in that trailer so so again i do want to say this knowing all of that now after having researched into it i'm way more interested in what's going on here the issue is like i don't think it i don't think it reads as obviously as what's interesting about norse or uh uh greek in the way that god of war the original both the trilogy and the duology kind of read as like oh we all know greek mythology because we know hercules and we all that we we grew up around it we know norse mythology there's like a lot of like even just marvel kind of helps with that um so there's less that needs to be explained in why it's cool to see those games in action this needed a lot more explanations to understand what's interesting about it so that's kind of a problem but uh i mean i'm looking forward to it i promise you guys that I would come back to a point about violence.

2:47:48Colin Moriarty:I do think it's a little weird that, and to be fair, the Norse games are kind of like this as well. It's weird that God of War is not the most violent game in a PlayStation showcase of some kind. Like it's very toned down than it used to be. And I don't know if that would have stuck out to me at all if Wolverine hadn't started the show and been so violent like it is interesting because god of war was like i would say like there's few game franchises or ips that are identified with violence necessarily i think maybe grand theft auto to some degree even though it's a little bit more cartoony doom and and god of war and it's just interesting that it's not really that it's not really that violent anymore yeah it looks it looks kind of like standard violence like it's interesting it i don't i don't know i don't know if i like that really but it's just kind of it is what it is that cube i gotta say is uh i don't know i love and hate the cube i love yeah i like the cube i i people were really distracted by it which i understand i thought it was funny but it was maybe adding an element that people don't want it's a little too i don't even know how to explain it but it feels like visually quippy it feels like the the character itself is the he's right behind me isn't he not that he's saying that but it's like just the fact that it's there and like sliding like sliding around in the background all weird in the middle of this like really contextually serious you're fighting a tibetan god of war and it should be like really like oh it like just jumps in yeah it's like slid it's almost like a mouse is dragging him into frame and like not like I don't know how I feel about the cube.

2:49:38Colin Moriarty:My suspicion is that the writers are, the writing challenge of this game is getting you to care about the cube and then the cube will die. And then you'll be like, I can't believe I'm crying about a cube. Like in my head, I imagine that that's the goal that they're kind of going for. Make you care about this faceless thing. We'll make you fucking care. Yeah. And they probably will. Look, I'm excited about it. I think it'll be good. I think the name is bad, not necessarily because, not because it's not descriptive or not because it doesn't make sense but because I think from a naming perspective I think you just want to have something that's a little bit more legible a little bit more readable and a little bit more communicative the only way you know what Laufei means is if you've played the duology of games extensively and this kind of feels like a good jumping on point for people who don't know God of War that well and it's kind of I don't know i think the name is a lot but i think a lot of the controversy around this game is much ado about nothing to be honest i think uh it really all comes down to whether or not this style of game still resonates with you and i can kind of understand why it wouldn't for a lot of people when god of war 2018 kind of came out of the scene this type of game was very um eccentric in comparison like the one shot kind of camera and the the more grandiose kind of serious toned grounded story like we saw it in the last of us obviously and then other things kind of like it but for god of war that was new and interesting it was like a bold risky decision to do that and ragnarok was less so which is why it's kind of uh looked at a little bit less favorably kind of in a similar vein to spider-man 2 where it's like not as it's not really a bad game it's just kind of less impressive because we know this works now and it's not as new and so to see that again in a game that, in my opinion, could have been different a little bit more.

2:51:33Colin Moriarty:Like when I saw the one-shot camera again, I'm like, I understand that this is, I get that this is what you do now, but it's not really that striking anymore. It kind of comes across as like resting on your laurels a bit.

2:51:48Colin Moriarty:But that really is like a taste thing. It's whether or not people prefer these cinematic games, which I, to be honest, don't. Like I don't see myself playing God of War, god of war ragnarok or god of war laofay more than maybe twice honestly but i don't mind that if it's just a really good experience and i think they've got some convincing to do with me with this fucking cube i'll tell you that but i think it's going to be a good game and i'm looking forward to it i just i want to know more about it now that i know that it's where it takes place and what the greater context is i just don't think this is a great way to show it for the first time I think this would have been a good second trailer for this game.

2:52:28Yeah, I agree with that. I they just overexposed it. They didn't need to do that. And I respect the balls of doing that.

2:52:36Colin Moriarty:Right. It is also my suspicion that the game doesn't start like this, that, you know, obviously like I think people like, oh, it's like they were like from the menu. I'm like, yeah, it's obviously it's presented that way. Right. I don't think it is, though. You know, it's like what was the thing that they did with the last part two where they like were totally changing entire characters around in the trailers and stuff like people that you know yeah jesse was swapped for someone and all this other stuff so i just think that they're kind of playing playing it up obviously they've been shining that part of the game to a sheen and then capturing it so um it is interesting to think about it that way the thing with the cube frank that that pleases me is that when you guys might recall the first time i saw it right away it's on the stream i'm like that reminds me of dungeons and dragons and right and i've been seeing that a lot and i'm like okay cool i'm not crazy like that's like exactly what i thought of when I saw it.

2:53:24I'm like, okay, I am not a crazy person. And so it's not a reference to that, but I'm just saying people also saw that. Dustin, what are your thoughts on God of War Laufei?

2:53:35Colin Moriarty:Yeah, I I'm not really sure how I feel about this because I think there's some good stuff and some stuff I'm just not as interested in. Like Chris was saying, I liked both God of War 2018 and the God of War Ragnarok. I thought they were both really, really great games but they're not like oh this is my shit this is what like my ip that i love so this new one i i totally get i think that in all the controversy quote-unquote controversy around this game uh i i understand if you are a hardcore god of war fan and you're like what the fuck like i i play god of war to play as kratos he is the god of war so why i don't want to play as anyone else not necessarily that it's a woman i just i think there would be a similar type of reaction from some people if it was um atreus atreus yeah people would be like what the fuck i don't yeah i'd be so i'd be so much more hard on it if it was atreus oh my god it's insane so i get that i i'm indifferent to it my biggest complaint of this trailer is the millennial chungus writing in some of the parts i've been seeing it called the millennial chungus millennial chungus millennial chungus writing where she's like you're a cube talking i was like oh no i'm talking to a fucking cuff yeah vibe to it and i was like i don't know about that um and the cube i was saying to you chris that like i i have mixed feelings on the cube because I don't like how he's present like necessarily like not presented visually but like the millennial writing like oh he's a talking cube whoa you know I don't like that but I do like that it's Jack Quaid I feel like I was telling Holly this though I'm like he feels like a friend of a friend because I didn't watch the boys I don't I've not really seen anything he's in but he's in a lot of red letter media stuff which to be clear I'm not friends with them either so i guess parasocial friend of a friend right i was like oh yeah jack clay social friend of a friend that fucking rules i love that that is crazy i know what you mean though he's like he's like it's it's nice to see he's i was i was telling the guys on the snark tigers like he's like the best he's like one of the best nepo babies you know but like i really don't i don't i i'm happy to see him in things yeah sure and i think the combat looks cool too I like that it has a more aerial element to it.

2:56:11Colin Moriarty:While it may not be like Devil May Cry or like the old God of War games, I do think that having the dedicated jump button is going to change up a lot of things in the gameplay. And the character designs of these two new gods look sick, particularly this Tibetan guy. Yeah. I like him. Very, very cool. And I'm curious what that's going to mean for the story where it's like, okay, this is the afterlife for the gods, which i love all these comments are like quote she's resting in peace now the peace right she's just getting completely fucked up this whole time i would be i gotta say dude if if i died and i woke up to just more of this i would be like i that would ruin my entire that would ruin everything for me it's a it's a sort of form of like reincarnation that's like i didn't opt in for this you know yeah i don't want that what the fuck i thought i could sleep forever like what the hell is this forever sleep yeah you have to assume in this afterlife of the gods eventually you will be encountering the gods that kratos killed yeah you certainly i it would they're setting themselves up for a major disappointment if they don't do that yeah you know like i understand why it's not necessarily i can i can think of a million reasons why you why it wouldn't necessarily make sense but you gotta do that dude like i'd rather have an interesting thing that doesn't make sense than something that's like it's kind of like how when things like end realistically and it's like people are like that's predictable it's like it's predictable because it's well written and because it's just how that would happen yeah so like i think like you've got to have maybe even like a lot of the egyptian like dude i gotta say gotta to see uh what is it what is it helios in god of war that gets uh his eyes don't i don't know i can't even it's been so long since i played the any any of the original god of war games but it'd be cool to see some of those guys and odin i would imagine would will show up um i don't know man that's why i'm is it gonna be the revenge plot eventually because one thing that they pointed out i think it was cory in one of the interviews or something i saw where he's like this is the next chapter of god of war so this is not god of war spinoff game this is the the next game so eventually i think kratos will be i mean he's in the trailer obviously but i think it will eventually connect to where ragnarok leaves off i yeah i would imagine one thing though that this does kind of open up it's like i mean kratos could just could just die and just be with his wife again and it seems it seems fairly the same as if he just stayed alive i don't really i don't know but i don't know how i feel about that just knowing that like oh i really miss my wife i wish my wife wasn't dead it's just like kill yourself just what do you mean yeah you'll see her immediately there is a bit of touch of the like i'm thinking about when they bring eventually show all the greek gods and stuff it's like no one's ever really gone yeah it's ever really gone so yeah the prediction the end of this game is going to be uh fey and kratos reunited you know but she can't actually she can't actually fully come back you know kratos needs to fully accept like she they saved the day or whatever but he has to say one final goodbye but they've been they've been setting up him and freya though kind of low-key in uh in some of the i think uh i don't i don't know man i think um i'm excited for i'm excited for it i think i think it's gonna be a good game i just have a lot of questions and i think that's a good that's a good place to be to be honest um i'm excited to see like where it's gonna go i do wish it played a little bit differently though i gotta be real like i wish the camera was a little bit further away and I do it seems I could be misremembering this I don't have the trailer in front of me but I feel like it's still got that thing where like you can only like the camera is locked to your where you're facing so like you can't like you can't look in one direction and run in another yeah right I know it looks like it's it looks like it's still that kind of like god of war like you're you have to face where you're gonna run which yeah they could have done a little bit more with that, I think.

3:00:31But I think it'll be good. Yeah, I'm not really. First of all, I think the game's going to be great. I just, I'm not the guy to really ask about God of War because I've just always been so soft on it. I just don't have. The passion. Yeah, I don't have a realistic view of it. I know that. You know, I just, I don't. I don't have a realistic, well, not realistic. I just, I'm just, I've just never really been that smitten with it. I think 2018 was very surprising for me. where I was like, this is really fucking good. And Ragnarok was technically great. It's just, it was kind of more of the same, and that's fine.

3:01:09I appreciate, we were saying on the stream a little bit more of a verticality, a more intensive, maybe melee style. It's really a bad way of putting it, because Kratos obviously fights in melee. But like a more fast-paced, frenetic combat style. like the way she was fighting reminded me a little bit of greek kratos and yes kind of cool i don't know if that's the intention but that's kind of the way i read it and i just i just think that the way they showed it was kind of strange and i think a major thing that unfortunately happened was i think it leaked and that's i was saying also and i don't mean to be be redundant for those that listen to it but it's a shit i can see why cory was so upset about that it is upsetting when something you've been hiding for a while and you want to have like your you want to have like the initiative on it and but like they they went all that time and they almost made it and i think since we knew it was gonna be there or like we knew this game existed because it came from reliable sources it's like ah that's too bad i i don't often feel bad for studios for losing the initiative like that that's just part of the game and i've leaked things so i'm not above it but from that particular instance it's like yeah yeah i can see why that would be a little frustrating you really didn't have a tight ship for a long time you i mean you made all this shit this game might be a year away so um anyway so from that perspective i think it's a little disappointing, but that's really not that important.

3:02:48I just, uh,

3:02:52I feel like I would have just liked to see a different title. I think we might have a letter about this, actually. Yeah, Romescape Imagery says, Hey, CDC, God of War Laofay looks great and fun, and I love the ingenuity of doing something no one has ever done before, giving players a dedicated jump button. It looks like a good time, although it seems a bit heavy on the QTEs. That said, using the God of War name feels a bit like riding the coattails of God of War while not actually being about the God of War. Called something else, cowards. Also, fun fact, if I'm not mistaken, this game brings back PlayStation's AAA male and female protagonists over the last 10 years to an even eight each.

3:03:26Not a good thing or a bad thing, just interesting. Do you think they should have come up with a different name for the game or does the God of War branding make sense? And what do you make of the apparent 50-50 split between male and female leads over the... We'll get into that later. Because I want to talk about the character design, but we have a letter about that, I think, later on.

3:03:44Colin Moriarty:Yeah, go ahead. Well, I do want to say that I don't think God of War being in the name is the problem. No, I agree. I think it's fine. Like, I don't actually don't like this idea that like, like I get that Kratos is the God of War, but God of War is a franchise. Like Kratos isn't even really the God of War the first game. Like it's a game about him becoming the God of War, you know? Like, so you play most of the first game as not a God of War. So like, I don't think it's necessarily a problem that like, there's a God of War game where you don't play as Kratos. I think that's cool. I think that's like a wise thing to do.

3:04:15Colin Moriarty:Generally, they should have done this earlier, to be honest. Yeah. Because it speaks to the versatility of the franchise and not being locked to one character. It's kind of like when Halo did ODST and Reach and just like, you don't need the Master Chief to make a good Halo game. Like you don't need that. And that's good because it allows for flexibility and it allows for exploration of the world. It would be really dumb if somebody was like, it should be called ODST, a Halo story. You know what I mean? Like it's dumb stuff. Like it's fine that it's God of War. I just think literally the name Lao Fai because it is so specific.

3:04:54Colin Moriarty:I just, I don't know. It just feels kind of like it. I literally think it's all phonetics and aesthetics. I don't think it looks good on a poster. I don't think it looks good on a box. I don't think it sounds good to say. Like, I just think there's like more. It is all marketing speak, to be honest. but like i just think there's better ways to to do this or to name it it should be god of war something or something god of war or like you know what i mean but like not laufe not because it's not she's not the main character but because like there's a lot of games that aren't named after their main characters yeah it's it's not for that reason it's not it's not gta nico bellick you know it's a bad name yeah it is a bad name like the question is whether it will matter and i don't know i just it's like i don't even know how like i had i had to watch the interview to even know exactly how to say it i think i had an idea i was like all right i need to like figure this out i just uh i agree with you well there are two things i love the idea of of doing spinoffs or new games of god of something and obviously that can't be this game because it's a literal continuation of that story but i was kind of hoping for like a god of whatever i don't know whatever it could be people were saying like trick like trick or you know trick stuff like tricksters and like uh like more of that that part of um mythology as opposed to the violence you know but that's fine so you can't have that i understand that and then the god of war colon that's fine if it's a different name i think i would have gone with something like a name colon a God of War story or something like that.

3:06:34But maybe that's just too much. Well, I would love to know what they bandied around because they obviously had probably a lot of ideas of what to call it. And to land on that name, I find both literal because it's about her, but also peculiar because it's just it's just not good. But again, I don't know if it matters. I really don't. Yeah. Don't want to be too hard on the game, though. Dan Excel wrote in. is it hello gentlemen I want to offer he says hello gentlemen singular by the way I wonder who he's talking to he says I want to offer an important perspective from a huge God of War fan a lot of the resentment towards this game is coming from people that wanted to see Santa Monica do something truly different I hope one day that does happen but selfishly I wouldn't want that if it meant leaving the God of War universe behind there are still so many unanswered questions in the Norse saga and now that we know that there is an afterlife for the gods there is potential for many more interesting stories including reunions with Kratos' past enemies and exposure to various other mythologies.

3:07:33I know some of you are eye-rolling at these ideas already, but Sony Santa Monica has a proven track record of delivering thoughtful and coherent experiences. Lao Fei is not a reaction to some kind of Kratos fatigue. In fact, Corey confirmed in yesterday's interview that it was already in mind while 2018 was being developed. Finally, Colin, you often talk about how we are in a golden age of video games, and I couldn't agree more. There is no shortage of unique and interesting games out there already. To the people that want something other than God of War, I simply say go play any game in existence outside of God of War releases.

3:08:00Seriously, only one studio in the entire games industry is delivering on this beloved franchise every few years. Is more God of War really that offensive? It's an interesting comment. And I think you speak for a lot of people. And I think you're right in the main. I simply don't want Sony Studios to fold in as these, like the 343 Coalition style thing. It's like with what Xbox does. It's like, no, like, don't you want to do something else? Like, that's the thing that I'm, I guess I'm confused about. And maybe I just underestimate how much people at these studios love these products. And maybe that's easy to overlook sometimes.

3:08:39And it's easy for us to say, like, move on already and do something new. But like, as a creative, especially a creative at a AAA studio with means and money and time, it's like, dude, you're going to give me five years and I have to come up with something brand new and awesome. Okay. I would love to do that. so I just don't get it outside of the commercial reality of making video games which is an important component of the situation so I think you're absolutely right is more god of war offensive no like it's what I say about uncharted like you could probably do god of war every five or six years forever um I just think you have to be careful and I do think people are being really harsh on this game but I don't think they've done it any favors from multiple perspectives and they just need to be better about presenting things at Sony from the first and second party and anticipating issues.

3:09:34Because how can you not anticipate that you have to be careful with this?

3:09:41So yeah, again, I don't think you're wrong. And I'll just reiterate what I say over and over and over again is that games come with opportunity costs now. And so a studio sinking itself into this shit it means they're gone they're basically dead to the rest of the world outside of this series which is great for them it's what marvel is doing new insomniac but i don't know that i want that i've i've been desperate to see what santa monica could do for years and they and and they almost got one game off the ground in the ps4 era in the late ps3 early ps4 era that was canceled as we all know and it's like damn is it always just going to be god of war I just think that's a shame not because God of War is bad not because you don't deserve more God of War not because more God of War won't sell because it means that like we won't ever see what these guys can do otherwise and I bet you they're to the brim with ideas so that's my stance on that yeah and then finally DevTay10 says hey CDC with Corey Barlog becoming the head of creative for Santa Monica and no longer directing games.

3:10:47Do you think we're in for another decade of the new God of War style? Will we finally get the sci-fi idea made? Where do you guys think the studio will go? This is an important part of it is that this isn't his game. And I think we all thought and assumed, I did, that he was directing this game. He's not directing it. And a woman named Ariel Lawrence is directing the game, freeing him up to be the creative director of the studio at large. Now, I said this and I've said this before is that it's not uncommon for triple a games to have multiple directors you can have a creative director is usually at the top but you have a game director you have technical director and art director and so on so forth not uncommon at all he is I think that Ariel Lawrence and they say she is the game director so she is in some way subservient to the creative um but it seems like he has a more overarching thing now people don't know exactly how to read into it is it a is it a true like head of studio i'm going to passively produce or is it a neil druckman style i'm the head of the studio but actually this is my game and there's a second game that i'm producing more what cory might be doing we don't really know so it's entirely possible that he has his own game but i don't know if we have i should look this up

3:12:10a head count in 2024 of 250 like i don't think so you know especially in other words i don't think they're making more than one game they're they're branded as the team behind the god of war remakes too but i would be woefully unsurprised if they're not making it and it's going to be like some flying wild hog crystal dynamic situation or what what i i don't know if you guys remember when when uh the order was shown it was heavily branded as a santa monica game so confusing the shit out of people oh yeah and to the point where they removed that stuff later because and i remember even saying that i'm like so why is your name on this it's like well we're producing it it's like what are you talking about it's not your game so i think that kind of with only 250 people let's even say they scaled up to three or 350 that might be enough to do the collection very slowly and one triple a game at a time so i don't know that cory's making anything on his own just reading the tea leaves and if he is they're either operating incredibly lean or that's that game is just getting going now so we'll see what happens anything left to say about this title before we move on we're done so all right so i promised something a little bit out of order and a little bit unorthodox today is we're going to now go directly to the listener inquiries that we usually end the show with because there are six questions comments concerns often ideas all about the state of play so kind of more overarching things i thought we would kind of kill two birds with one stone otherwise we'd be here for about 10 hours um so let's begin with stewart who wrote into us remember you can write into us on patreon patreon.com slash last day media for early at free access the ability to submit your inquiries on the threads in the news feed each week threads for sacred symbols go live on wednesdays and are deleted thursdays

3:14:23Stuart says, animations. Am I being overly cynical or is there something to this? It's possible Sony just wants to focus on the flashiness for the big reveals and there might be more under the surface, but I, for one, left the state of play less interested in both of those games than I was before it started. I will pull my junk out of Faye's gelatinous box and listen now. Did you really have to say that?

3:14:43Colin Moriarty:Lord have mercy. All right, so let's start here. Our overall thoughts on the state of play, Dustin. yeah overall state of play thoughts was you were asking us to give it a letter grade uh and i was you know from on a personal standpoint of what i'm interested in it was a c and the literal definition of a c of being average completely average i mentioned it with wolverine not really an ip i care about but it looks like a fun game i'll play it i like fun games even if i don't care about the ip right god of war uh lafay lafay uh same kind of the same thing where i i've liked the new god of war games uh but this one looks like it'll probably just be more fun terms of like the real shit that i really like this state of play didn't really have any of that uh and there was a lot of like updates you know like uh the the onimusha release date reveal i'm happy about that that's probably the game that was like most my shit but it's it wasn't super exciting because like i knew this game was coming out this year it's just a matter of when in fact i'm kind of tired of seeing it uh at this point at these uh different events so for me it was a c but if i had to be objective about it it would probably be you know more of a b there was nothing crazy and something else that we pointed out on the stream is that imagine the amount of surprise if we had not known the concept of this new god of war game right right it would have been totally different i think it maybe would have had the same response now to it but in terms of the wow factor it would have been completely different so we have to keep that in mind as well and i think too in terms of like thinking about playstation first party some of the lead-ups of these like wolverine we've heard about forever so it's just inherently less exciting for a lot of us where it's like okay i i get it you know seeing the gameplay was cool but it's like i'm kind of just in the point where I'm waiting for this to come out.

3:17:01Colin Moriarty:It's another Marvel game from Insomniac. It is very different, but it's not super exciting. So and what we were talking about before, where a lot of these studios have are just kind of becoming OK, where this is what we make now. Insomniac is the Marvel team with with a few exceptions in there. And Santa Monica is now the God of War team. and that's like when we were talking about uh insomniac it's like man i really hope their next game isn't a ghost of game i don't want their them to be tied up in this one oh sucker kind of yes or sucker punch sorry sucker punch to be just like locked up in that and so with games taking as long as they do to make it does feel like first party is inherently a little more boring that doesn't necessarily mean not good but just a little more boring that's why like intergalactic that is probably the most exciting first party uh project right now because it's like there's so much unknown about it we know that it's from naughty dog so it's going to be like top tier production quality certainly some of the rumors of what we've heard of what the game will be like sound really cool and appealing to my interests and it's just like i don't i i think i may be unfairly given edge to new things often just because at this point in my life playing games for nearly 32 years it's like kind of getting the same stuff a lot and now that's just only increased with the amount of time it takes to make games.

3:18:43Colin Moriarty:So, so yeah, like I said, personally see maybe on an objective scale talking about each individual game, maybe it'd be. What do you think? What do you think, Chris, overall thoughts on the state of play? Yeah, I mean, I would give it probably like a C plus really. Like I think, again, I'm kind of with Dustin where like I just I think I just favor new things and i'm excited to see new things and really the new things we got in this state of play where i you could rayman legends retold which is a remake of something that exists already so that's kind of already kind of weird banjo the chef kamuri lost wild um i guess a stuntman and then stuntman was certainly the most surprising reveal stuntman's the most surprising yeah which is funny a problem you know what i mean like it's not no hate to stuntman but like i mean like that was that literally was the most surprising thing here i guess uh until dawn is uh two is then is the other thing that we didn't know and god of war which is like these that's i mean that's cool again i think it's tricky grading these showcases because like when i think when i think about i'm grading a showcase i think about it like i'm grading this like how the like the entire show like i'm grading how it felt to watch it from beginning to end and i think it started off strong it lost theme and then when it got back going again it was just a little confusing and i think you know i'm excited for god of war i'm looking forward to a lot of these things i think banjo the chef looks cool i think control i'm excited about but we've seen a lot of it ill has been i've been looking forward to ill for a long time so that's not new to me um it was just kind of like yeah okay it was solid i've definitely experienced state of plays that were way better than this like by orders of magnitude so like i'm i kind of have to leave it with like a yeah it's like a strong c c plus b minus kind of territory where like everything seems good but nothing's that surprising and what is there was showcased kind of clumsily like the god of war again god of war i think is going to be good i think the parts that need to to hit i think hit but i think it's uh it was a clumsy way to show it i think it should have been again this should have been maybe like trailer two and even kamuri i think that should have been the second trailer too like there's not a lot of uh and i guess it's a taste thing but like to me there's not a lot of consideration on how these things feel like to see for the first time and that's so that's really where i'll leave it okay fair enough i uh by the way you can't hear the dogs barking can you heard a little bit but it's not bad okay i'm sorry um i think during the show i said i would give it a b plus and i think that's probably about right i mean i i think maybe maybe moderating it to a B.

3:21:43I understand your guys biases towards newer things. It's exciting. I think that we're getting in a position though with games where you got to clear the plate first. So many things are announced and it takes fucking years. Like look at Elder Scrolls 6. What a joke. Why do they even say anything? It's been almost a decade. And that game's nowhere near being done. So I that's an extreme version of it, of course.

3:22:15Colin Moriarty:But I just think it's I mean, the Xbox is littered with that shit, to be honest with you. I mean, like Fable and. Yeah, I don't know. And I understand why they did that, because I felt like they felt they needed to at some point. Sure. They were getting, you know, throttled. It's not so much the case anymore that they're getting throttled first party. It's just that they're now a third party publisher, basically. So it's just too late so they can take a different stance. And I understand that, but I don't want more games on top of games that haven't even come out on top of games that haven't come out.

3:22:45Like at some point it just becomes overwhelming and it's actually, it feels like steam being let out of the pot in a way, which to me makes me feel more in control in a weird way. It's like, all right, like things we know about, but have release dates or are really getting imminent now. And I just look at the games and I'm like, if you just look at the games, I can't speak for other people, but there's a lot of shit I want to play in here. like in order Wolverine Rayman legends retold banjo the chef Kamari Tomb Raider Legacy of Atlantis the Lost Wild I probably won't play Phantom Blade no rest for the wicked Animusha Silent Hill ill control resonant probably two of the classics that are coming out until dawn and God of War that's a lot of games I mean it's hard for me to be like well that's that's all it's all right.

3:23:33Colin Moriarty:You know, like, I think, yeah, I think what's here is a B and that's kind of thing. It's like, are we grading what's there? Are we grading the show? Right. What's there? What's there? I think is like a, a BB minus. I think it's like fair to say that. I think the showcase though, I think it was like a little awkward. Yeah. Yeah. 20, 20, 20 minutes of uninterrupted gameplay that you brand as gameplay. That is ultimately six minutes of gameplay with a lot of like cut scene and, and world building and you know what I mean? Like that's, that's really clumsy work. Like, and it's an unforced error because like you said, they could have just said, here's 20 uninterrupted minutes of the next, of, of, of an upcoming project.

3:24:11Colin Moriarty:They didn't have to say gameplay. I don't know why they chose this. I feel like any, anybody could have told them that it's like, I don't know if you want to brand it this way. Yeah. Fair enough. Even if it's accurate because that just read, that's a different word online than it is in, you know, practice. But yeah. And from a presentational standpoint, I'll say, I think they, they do a pretty good job. like it's brisk cool graphics packages and chyrons likable personalities showing up like they get the little things right i think it really will always be a matter of taste on the products available or products being shown and how they line up with your own tastes and then what you're looking for comparable to brand new things versus like confirmations and release dates and stuff because sometimes like like a lot of people like oh won't you be excited maybe megaman will be at summer game or summer game fest i don't know but it's like wouldn't you want to see more so like i'm not even that excited to see it again to begin with when i see it again i want to i want to know like when you're going to release it and uh so it almost things almost come in three steps it's like announcement release date launch and then the little things in the tranches that kind of fit between those steps and you have to explore all those things so sometimes you get a thing like marathon nightfall it's out yeah that's step three right or you get uh until Dawn 2, step one.

3:25:31Yeah, no, I get that. Yeah, so that's the way I look at it. So I think I can settle on a B. A B plus might be a little aggressive, but I can settle on a B. Okay. Joe Doe Mac wrote in and said, with all the recent discussions about PlayStation Studios stepping away from established IP to create something new, perhaps we need to examine our expectations more honestly. Yes, it's disappointing to see yet another God of War or Ghost of Tsushima style game, but that disappointment and reveal something deeper. How much are we as players willing to accept the brutal economics and creative difficulty of true originality in modern AAA gaming?

3:26:05Creating successful new IP from nothing is extraordinarily hard. It demands not just fresh ideas in an era where thousands of games flood the market every year, but also massive financial risk, years of development, and the very real chance of failure. It's understandable why studios retreat to proven franchises, but this raises uncomfortable questions. Are we witnessing the natural maturation of a medium where safe bets increasingly dominate because the stakes are too high? or have we as consumers helped create a system that punishes experimentation and rewards familiarity when every major release must justify a 200 plus million dollar budget how much room is actually left for genuine creative courage it's very well said and i think that this is a a tough balance to strike because part of me feels like this isn't my problem you know but then it becomes it literally becomes your problem because it's it's what's available to you and it's what yours the studios you care about are sent to do.

3:26:54I will say this, Dustin, and we've said this before and I will reiterate. There is no reason with rare exception that any studio in the AAA space should be going into a situation assuming there will make one game. That to me is wasteful. It doesn't take into account the complexities and money necessary to create something today. It's not the same as it used to be. It's just not. I know we hammer that point over and over again, but it's just radically different. I bring up Final Fantasy VII sometimes. People were astonished by how expensive and how long that game took. We're talking about a game that was like$25 million or something that took like three or four years.

3:27:39and to me i'm like yeah but

3:27:44i'm the the consumer and there are certain needs that i have that are not being fulfilled and it's it's true what was said earlier about like you have your games what are you worried about like what the god of war team is doing i'm like well i like the god of war team and i think there's just a tension with everyone about like what we expect and what we want out of these people and that ultimately does become our own problem there's no doubt about that but so i don't want anyone to think that i'm like being like yeah just make one-offs what i'm saying is like no one to stop that those are two wildly different things and remember that if you don't make investments into the future they won't exist and then you very much will find yourself in an xbox-like situation where they are still dependent on the same three fucking franchises that they were dependent on in the Xbox generation, the original Xbox generation, all of them, except for Gears came early in the Xbox 360 generation.

3:28:40But Halo, obviously two on Xbox, Forza first one came out on Xbox. It's not a good thing to be dependent on them like that. It's good to revisit them and call back to them and rely on them. But like to be like, it's still the Halo box. It's like, it would be like calling the PlayStation five, the uncharted box or the fucking crash bandicoot box. We are going to get trapped at some point. I'm telling you. Like, there's not enough investment happening internally, it seems like, on new things. And Intergalactic is great. And, you know, that's a great investment to make. Maybe it's a concern only I have.

3:29:21What do you think, Dustin?

3:29:23Colin Moriarty:This one's tough because I know that like Sony, Sony first party has like set this standard for themselves that it's like okay when you think about playstation first party you think of big expensive triple a games right and as technology is getting uh more and more crazy it's taking more money to make the games at this quality standard and so yeah uh the right end is totally right that it's like you're making at this point you are making insane risks in terms of like not only just money spent but time um and something that backs that up too like look at sorrows right now new ip not doing so well not really necessarily creating a big splash so it doesn't always work out now whether it's because it's a new ip people are associating it with a game maybe they didn't like in returnal i don't know i don't know why saros isn't doing so well but at the same time i think about i'm like man but like look at last year's uh game of the year whether or not it was your game of the year it certainly was the game that was talked about the most last year in expedition 33 it's like okay well people weren't drawn to that game because of the insane production value which don't get me wrong it's a beautiful game what the art direction of the game is what really carried it it's like okay well maybe this idea that everything needs to be like we need to have the most realistic rope physics like the last of us two part two in every game we need to set this insane standard it's like maybe certainly i want those games and i think teams like naughty dog are always going to do that that's their thing it's like maybe it's not necessary to make the games at this level maybe it is for playstation i don't know but they did it to themselves that's what i say all over and over and they did it to themselves they did it to themselves and i just wonder like i know it's not easy to be like we'll just make a game like expedition 33 it's like certainly it's not it's not that easy but i think at the same time if it's like you let creatives be creative and obviously not without a chain of to some degree but it's like you can make amazing things and not have it cost as much as it does so i don't know if playstation is going to be able to do that because like you said colin they they have kind of set this standard that you uh that people come to expect and so it does make them lean on on what is what the guarantees are so it's going to be very interesting to see bringing up again intergalactic where it's like there's a new ip from naughty dog somewhat of a i guess from an optic standpoint a damaged naughty dog at this point and whether they deserve that or not it's going to be up to each individual person yeah certainly i don't know why they would deserve it but yeah but yeah yeah of course certainly they're swimming upstream.

3:32:41Yeah, it's true. I will say it's interesting before we throw it over to Chris. It's not to say that having a... There are publishing arms in first parties that are known for things. Right? Like Nintendo is known for fun. Right? Novelty. EA sports. Deep, realistic simulation of sports for decades. Right? Like really well respected. And so on and so forth. They're all challenges. In fact, I would argue that Nintendo's challenge is harder than Sony's because like with money and time, Sony can easily overcome the visual fidelity challenge. The finding the fun challenge and doing something unique and like, so it's like they're not as trapped as they seem.

3:33:26It's just like they, they wanted, that was the, that was the first time they tried to differentiate themselves. And it began with Uncharted and, and specifically with Uncharted 2, that's where it all starts. and uh and and they've been the thing about that's going to be tough with naughty dogs they'll always be able to meet the bar and exceed it it's just going to take longer and it's going to require more money and um because those things go in in tandem with each other so i just wanted to be clear that i think a lot of these guys a lot of these companies have challenges and unique things they're known for sony just again put themselves in this box and yeah it's too bad because they weren't always in that box if you look at the things that they used to launch but uh chris What do you think about this issue here of kind of accepting the commercial realities of Sony's stance with games?

3:34:14Colin Moriarty:I mean, I get it. I mean, I understand the reliance on established IP. Like, it makes sense to me, especially in an era where just the audience doesn't seem to know what they want, really. Or if they do and they're loud about it, they're lying. you know like it's kind of i don't know man it's it seems like people people are always asking for like i want like visually distinct things that don't look like unreal engine or fortnite and i'm tired of like overly monetized um uh you know micro transactions in my video games and i'm tired to paying$70 for full price for a full price releases. And I said, all right, well, here's a$40 visually distinct PVP game in Marathon that has no micro...

3:35:07Colin Moriarty:Like a common complaint about that game during season one was that the store didn't have anything interesting in it. It was like, well, isn't that... You know what? Like, so it's like, so if you can't win doing what people want or going with what people say they want, then what the fuck are you left to do other than bet on what obviously commercially works? I mean, I don't know what to tell you, man. You're going to keep getting your Unreal Engine shit. And it's what you're going to keep getting because it's what you keep buying. So I get it. I understand the commercial reality. I totally get it.

3:35:47Colin Moriarty:I'm just disappointed that that's the case. Yeah, me too. because i think there's so much more to be explored and and for at varied price points and uh i think to some level uh there's too much corrupting power in um not even in just games leadership or whatever but like also in just the community spaces too that just kind of like make it miserable uh to kind of follow and just like no one knows another thing too is like dude like Like, what do you, how do you even, as somebody who researches like what consumers want, right? If you want to rely on something other than spending habits, if you want to like go to the consumer directly, how do you navigate that in a, in a world where like this, the front page of the internet is on Twitter and Twitter is specifically like, um, rewards bait.

3:36:39Colin Moriarty:You know what I mean? Like fake opinions for the sake of like outrage. You know what I mean? Like, I don't really know how you navigate that space other than simply looking at the books and being like, this sells do more of this. We've kind of put ourselves in this in this position as a community. And I don't think us like individually, because I think, you know, we all have strong feelings about that kind of thing one way or the other. But like. There's no real reliable other place to go. Yeah. Other than the financials. And you're right. Oh, well, yeah, those are. That's almost the most scientific thing.

3:37:12yeah um when you when you filter out the noise i think you're absolutely right what's disappointing to me is that like i am a i'm a heavy user i'm i buy a lot of games so like if and you can't expect everyone to behave like you but if everyone did buy like me not even the games i buy but bought the number of games i bought then we would have such a wider variety of triple a games but then again we don't really need more games so it kind of falls into that that trap too I don't know. It is what it is, truly. I think they just need to be mindful of the time imbalance and how it's going to be hard to turn the ship, and you might find yourself ultimately heavily reliant on the same shit over and over again with no choice, and that's going to be a bad place for PlayStation to be, especially as IP becomes more and more important.

3:37:57All right. David Jaffe, the muffin man, wrote in and said, Hello, Sacred Superiors. Does PlayStation's first party feel stagnant at this point? This is going somewhere else, I promise. In the past, they used to be held in high regard as top producers of cinematic narrative third person action games as we have seen the industry progress to make more of these types of games it feels as though sony has remained the same and their formula has gotten old do you yearn for different types of games in the sony first party ecosystem or just new ip with the same formula this is a great question because i have to be clear i have to be one i want to be clear i want to be honest is that generally speaking i actually just want new ip with the same formula i think i think there are a lot of people that want them to be like we'll make cheap games and we'll make a games and we'll make double a games like no I don't think that's what you should be doing.

3:38:38I think it's a horrible idea. I think what you should be doing is making more different AAA games. I explained this to you guys earlier is that I would even support a system wherein they stripped down some of their first party to fewer like to 10 teams, like the 10 core teams, staff them all and everyone goes. So you have a situation where like two of them go every five years. Now that would be very hard to manage in an artistic realm. Like people have to restart things don't get greenlit I mean it would be right you know you wouldn't be able to do it mathematically but I don't want Sony to be messing around with different sorts of things because I don't think there's anything to be gained from those places even if they had a hit like imagine Sony made vampire survivors or vampire crawlers whatever right it's like so what it sold millions and millions of copies it's it doesn't matter it's it doesn't move the needle you need the things that like this this idea that we should go back now there should be allowances made you have a journey for instance yeah um that game company's games generally were all awesome i loved flower and flow is even a cool game it's very quaint i never played cloud that was their first game but that wasn't on playstation um you will make allowances for those or you do your vr initiative or whatever but like i don't mind little investments but i don't want them from first party that game company was not a first party studio and invent it's the same thing i say about multiplayer stuff like sony's first party should be like we make expensive cinematic third or first person action adventure games we our second party is dedicated to everything else so that's what i would want to see where are you on this doesn't

3:40:22Colin Moriarty:yeah i i think there's a mix between like what i would want and the actual realities because uh we we bring up like japan studios that everyone's like oh why they shuttered japan studios like no one bought japan yeah what did you buy rain no but i bought last guardian yeah you did you did and i bought everybody's golf uh so i did buy some of them and i really liked them so i do i did like the kind of quirky japanese games that sony would do but i understand that there's the the movement to uh you know these big triple a games and specifically like the the cinematic he writes cinematic narrative third person action games and i do feel like there is a little bit of like a lack of creativity in that they all kind of have like the same camera angle and the same kind of feel to them this the the triple a squeeze right when you need to go through something um but i i think at the same time that's what they're known for at this point it's kind of the the bed they've made at this point what do you think chris i think things used to feel more distinct for a number of other reasons as well on top of this i understand that there's a bigger reliance on the same ips than there used to be and also that the the development times between these games have been extended to the point where like a duology feels like a trilogy and then some in time spent waiting and both playing in some cases but i do feel like the variety that we're missing from years past really comes down to the science of engines i think i think there are just fewer engines being used now i think originally like games would just be programmed like i'm pretty sure and i could be wrong about this but i'm fairly certain i remember uh reading something about how like the n64 didn't really like back then there weren't really engines you just programmed the game like everything was like from programming baseline there was like no like established kind of thing um and i think that's what we felt back in the day was that everybody had a different way of like placing the camera and make and everybody had a different way of making it feel to walk like what it feels like to walk around or what it feels what an input feels like or what like this you know what i mean like there's these different things that were completely bespoke for every damn near every studio and now that's a lot more truncated we have you know this engine for this we have this engine for that um and not to say that studios haven't always stuck with the same engine or whatever but like there used to be a broader distinctiveness and i think that's gone away and i do i do lament that i do i am kind of sad that so many third person games feel like uh like um like souls games now like that's kind of like the default and to the point where like when a game comes out that doesn't feel that way it's like it's really refreshing and cool um but i do feel like it's kind of it is what they're good at so like it's hard for me to say like oh just do something that you're just fucking that you have no idea how to do you know that works sometimes sometimes you have a gorilla that figures it out that goes from like a first person first person shooter to a third person action game and it's like actually successful i think that's awesome whenever that happens but it's not every team can do that um i don't really know how i feel about it to be honest i i think um i feel so many different ways about it i do want more variety i do want more distinctiveness and i definitely don't want the same formula with different ips i actually do want different formulas but like i understand that that's risky and who's to say that your new formula won't get clip chimped online and fucking you know completely irreparably fucked like it's almost better to be cringe in a way that's uh established as successful you know what i mean like because all sorts of people can come out and be like this god of war looks fucking cringe or whatever it's like all right well you bought it last time so could give a fuck yeah what you're saying on twitter so you'll just buy it again right exactly i mean it's it's the it's hard to differentiate and signal from noise yeah we kind of got into this a little bit but i want to reiterate this i changed my name so you'd read it wrote in and said hey boys i know we clown on Xbox for naming studios after their IP 343 Coalition, etc.

3:45:04But isn't Sony starting to do a similar thing now? Obviously without the explicit naming conventions, but now we have the car studio, the Horizon Machine, Marvel Studios, and hell, they should just call it Sony of War Studio to round it out. As much as I think the state of play was nice, are we seriously looking at just Marvel plus sequels anymore? Even with Intergalactic at Naughty Dog's pace, we'll get, what, three Intergalactic games now between now and 2042? As we keep saying, the games are blending together, and I fear that these teams won't know how to make anything new at some point. Getting some to make and FPS will be tough because you spent 15 years of your career making a couple of third-person action games.

3:45:35Maybe I'm off base on that. All the best. We did touch on most of this, so I won't linger on this too much other than to say, I fear this too. I don't want this for Sony. I just think it's such a creative dead end. It's... Look at 343. I mean, or like Halo Studios now or whatever. It's like they couldn't do anything. and they were just stuck with this fucking ip instead of being able to be like hey do you want to try to make your own thing instead of like us building off of this other company's thing from years ago maybe you can make your own thing and they're like no you're the halo studio and it's like damn dude like that's too bad maybe you could have come up with something cool especially because halo is not that relevant anymore you might have come up with the new halo that's the thing i just feel like you you play out all these dice rolls and some of them are going to blow up in your face and be awful but i just feel like you're missing the secret of why this works well halo

3:46:37Colin Moriarty:worked because of the bungee team right which is why they they ended up making destiny and destiny was like you know beleaguered as it was it's a very successful game that a lot of people tried to emulate and failed anthem and like the list is fucking actually kind of endless so like that was really the next halo it was like culturally and significant wise like it's destiny's huge but it's just also mega expensive to maintain the i i don't know i'm kind of conflicted on this because i do think it's cool to have like if you're going to make these games forever um and there's obviously a goal to do that i do think it actually is smart to have a place where fans and people who are excited to work on that ip can go because it allows you to retain talent to a degree like imagine all the people who like uh i think about gorilla right like let's say like you were a big fan you were like oh you knew how to make fps's you were excited to make an fps and then you got hired at gorilla just before they greenlit horizon right and now you're working on it's like ah what the well this isn't what i came here to do at all you know i i i wanted to work on uh you know uh kill zone or whatever uh i do think there's value in having like a beacon of light like almost like a like a fire that draws the moths where like oh i have i'm really passionate about this ip i have an i have great idea i think we can make this work and then they all funnel to it the issue is the studios you have a studio that's built on this one ip that is presumably only built around that ip so you can attract talent who wants to work on that ip but then you'd like all right now everybody's gonna be a contract well then who gives a shit who cares at that point you know like it kind of doesn't really make sense at all because they're just firing these people that like every like what like 12 to 12 to 14 i can't remember what the time period was for like the the contract deadlines for how long you could work but i knew a lot of people who worked on halo as in contractor capacity and they're like yeah they just cut me off i was like all right cool great um so i think it's it could be cool and i think it might be a decent idea if you have a franchise that you know is going to live in perpetuity but ultimately like halo is what held 343 back i think i like halo a lot i think halo infinite was great i think parts of the other games were great too but halo 5 is a great science fiction first person shooter i don't know if it's a great halo game halo 4 is kind of in a similar boat where i'm just like this these like they these people didn't really want to make halo and i actually think it's like a famous quote that they actually hired people for the original 343 i don't know if you ever heard this but i've looked around uh i've researched this enough to know that it's it is actually true like we hired people who didn't even like halo we hired people who hated it they said this and it was like because like they wanted to figure out what didn't work for other people it's like you you care about the people you don't have yet in this like wildly successful ip that like is the reason that your flagship console that like your home base even exists in the first place you can't you want to get the people who don't care awesome smart real real real smart but they're really competent like as far as like like making a really fun and playable game like they can do it but like they can't really make things in that ip so like it kind of negates the entire purpose and I don't really know what to make of that there is an argument to be made that Sony is kind of in that position too just without the names though like if we if we are if we are going into this like oh Marvel it really does it really is a bummer that Insomniac is just Marvel now yeah I mean it is what and it's it's tough you know like it's tough to it's just tough to know what's what man and it's hard to it's hard to argue with the realities of the of and the consequences of the money spent and the risk taken i get it i get it yeah it's easy to be an armchair yeah exactly because i was gonna say it's easy on the outside to be like this is what you should do but i feel like i have decent a decent feel for some of this stuff and it's like i think i can make better decisions i do i believe that 100 broadly broadly i think like there's definitely some things that we like we wouldn't i'll tell you one thing i wouldn't have put fucking blue point in charge of a god of world life service i would have never done that i would to shut another team before I shut them.

3:51:01Just be honest. So anyway, anything you want to add, Dustin, before we move on?

3:51:06Colin Moriarty:I think you guys covered it. Let's get into the fucking meat and potatoes, huh? Oh, boy. Zib's Law wrote in and said, hello, Sacred Fellows. I don't know if it's just me, but do PlayStation Studios intentionally make female characters less attractive than the actors they're based on? Because honestly, a lot of the women in recent first party games have a strange, inflated, uncanny valley look that I find distracting. Faye in God of War, Deborah Ann Wall is a beautiful woman, so why does Faye look noticeably less appealing than the actors she's based on? We've had games doing near-perfect actor scans for years, so I don't really buy the technical limitation argument.

3:51:39Silence looked almost identical to Lance Reddick, RIP. And Kojima's productions using Decima have both males and females almost perfect in Death Stranding, yet Aloy somehow ends up looking like a mix between Hannah Hoekstra, I don't know who that is, and a Chucky doll. Is it even possible to discuss this topic when on one side You have corporations trying to manufacture culture and on the other content creators whose entire business model is everything is woke. Let's be angry about it. What's actually going on with PlayStation's female character models? Why does Sony hate Gooners so much? I believe that there is something to this that's weird.

3:52:11I do. I my my wife thinks so. Like she says it. It's like, why are you doing this now? I want to be clear. i don't mind unattractive or whatever women being in games doesn't bother me personally what's weird is that you may you have this model and you go through all this trouble and you have the balls on their face and all the rest and you have sony invests more than anyone in this shit you do it better than anyone and then and then so it's like yeah you have uh whoever and then it doesn't look like the person and it doesn't make sense like why are you doing that and and And we talked about MJ, right?

3:52:54In Spider-Man 2. It's like, why'd you do that? Yeah. And then you talk about this. It's like, yes, the actress Debra Ann Wall is a beautiful woman. And you look at her in this now phase in a state. She's not going to be all made up and yassified. She just died. Now she's awake. I understand all of that. Yeah. But I think he makes an interesting point, too, in that there really is no pleasing anyone. Because like when I look at a game like we were talking earlier about Tomb Raider, it's like they nailed this, but no one's giving them props for that. It's only about the things that are wrong. And, and, and if the only way to kind of circumvent that therefore, and like neutralize things.

3:53:31And so no one says anything as opposed to even complimenting you is to just make everyone beautiful. I feel like that's a cop out too. You know, I just, I just don't understand why, like just get a fucking homely actress and put her in the fucking set. I don't understand why that's to me, that's weird. And I think it's worth noticing that. And they do do it to a lot of characters and i don't think they only do it to women by the way so that's that's what that's

3:53:57Colin Moriarty:kind of what i wanted to lean into here which is just like in all of the games that you mentioned that people mentioned like uh the female characters kind of looking not great i happen to be of the opinion this is i guess subjectively i feel like everybody in those games look scuffed to me like i don't i'm always i'm i've been pretty sensitive to mocap for a long time i kind of hate it because I feel like I can always see it I feel like I feel like in every game I can see the people in the studio wearing the mocap I can see it through their character models I can see them moving their hands more than they normally would because they want to get more expressive animations out it's just something about it right um so I I genuinely feel like like spider-man's a great example actually I feel like nobody in spider-man looks good at all and by the way I think it sense to wolverine too i think wolverine looks a little weird under that mask i think he looks a little like what do you like this he looks strange i think gene gray looks strange and i think the people that he fights look strange they look they look uncanny and like they like clay people almost um but i yeah i don't know i think uh deborah ann wall where i think she looks actually pretty good i think they did a pretty good job recreating her i just think she's in a state she's i get Like you said, she's dead and in like a dirty, dingy fucking foreign land.

3:55:17Colin Moriarty:And it's always a side, but it's always a side shot of like a character in a weird state screaming and the headshot. You know what I mean? Right. Like, I don't know. I don't think it's necessarily untrue that people just don't put a lot of effort into these things or more or don't put as much effort as they should, because Kojima nails it, I think. I really think like everybody in Death Stranding and Death Stranding to look exact like it's kind of like it's amazing. that they captured people like directly and that's why he was saying that i think it's a good point it's like well he can do it so what's the excuse for horizon right yeah well i think it's i think it's meticulous attention to detail versus people who are a little bit more like we got to get this shit you know we got it we got to figure this out we got to make that we got to make this work like i feel like horizon to be fair horizon doesn't i really don't agree with the aloe thing to be honest with you like i think aloe is one of the better looking characters like she looks better in zero dawn but i agree with you that she doesn't look as bad as they say in the second one yeah i think he looks they look she looks just as good as lance reddick does and in lance reddick looks a little uncanny to me too here so like i don't know why can they always nail deborah ann wilson or whatever the hell that chick's name is so you know it's exactly deborah wilson deborah wilson yeah and it's like somebody was somebody was telling me that you could You can do like an evolution of technology slate just by comparing various Deborah Wilson scans throughout the years.

3:56:46Colin Moriarty:She loves the games industry, man. She must be making a nice amount of money. Yeah. I want to bring this into a – look, I agree. I think there's – what really is the bummer about this is that you can't have a normal conversation about this without people being weird about it. Yeah, that's true. That's the most annoying part about it. but I do I and I tweeted about this a little bit where like I I kind of am bummed out that we're even doing this in the first place like that we're that we've defaulted to scanning real people into video games because I actually find it more immersion breaking and more distracting than if they had built a character from the ground up and just had it voiced by somebody that I might recognize like Mass Effect when like David voices Captain Anderson like but it's not literally Keith David like I like that and you would think like from a from an acting perspective you would like that also because all the time i think about like if you're a voice actor right or like if you're like a performance capture person you know how they have those pictures sometimes where it's like it's them surrounded by all their characters what does that look like now if it's just a bunch of you yeah that's a good point you know what i mean like when i was growing up it was like it was like you see this one guy and it was just like this array of characters that look completely different and it's just like deborah wilson surrounded by like eye patch deborah wilson or you're like you know sad double it's yeah i don't know i i think i get why because it's ultimately way easier to just scan a person in and capture that face than it is to build somebody from scratch i get that but i do kind of miss that i do miss when we had distinctively completely fictional characters in our video games that were just that happen to be connected to people who might have some status and you might recognize like oh that's keith david or oh that's that's yuri lowenthal and i don't know i do kind of miss that but yeah i don't know that's anything it is what it is you want to add anything to this yeah well you're right that it is a fucking land mine to discuss this at all and it's very annoying i think in the case of fey that because a lot of people are bringing like this is the picture of deborah ann wolf that's like her on the fucking red carpet somewhere yeah versus how she looks at in the game uh and colin you pointed out what i was thinking as well it's like she was dead uh just just right before that but even then i think that there's probably there's a different creative direction that i'm sure that you brought up kojima where it's like kojima wants these actors to look like they're acting in a video game like he wants it to look like norman reedus exactly yeah where santa santa monica's approach is like no we're going to use this person as a baseline but we want them to look how we would imagine this character in this world and this person is the baseline um so maybe that's not as as beautiful as they are dolled up on the red carpet maybe but i i just i don't care that much i think that the the one that is weird of course is Mary Jane where it's like what happened she's the most egregious example but like but then you you play that game and you're like Miles looks fucking so weird too I hate Peter Parker I hate the way Peter Parker looks in in that game too like I really I don't like what they did to his face the new face Miles in the face Miles in the first game looks way worse Kaysen says something about him that I cannot repeat here because it's insane but like but like he looks better in this second game but like insomniac in general just kind of in my opinion struggles with with that more than any first party studio i don't know what it is maybe it's not that important to them and to be fair like it maybe it should who gives a shit i guess like that game sold ridiculous so like maybe it doesn't really matter but it i noticed yeah i noticed i i just think it is we've all said it now it's like it is a minefield i'm kind of tired of talking about it but there is there is something to it that's weird.

4:00:44I don't know. I try not to read into, I don't want to be too conspiratorial about it. The MJ stuff really brought up a lot of conspiracies because I remember she ended up looking like one of the writers of the game, which I thought was fucking hysterical.

4:01:01When Mike and I talk, when that comes up, she's like, that wasn't an ax. I'm like, that's a coincidence. I'm like, no, she's not. She's like, no, it's not. All right. Finally, more from Tom's Law is dead, wrote in and said, what's up, my silly succulent sacred boys? Can the gaming industry give the month of September a rest? I understand developers want to get out of the way of GTA 6, but why not spread the field a little and plant their flags in August or October? I'm afraid there are going to be too many losers, whereas with a little more breathing space, some of these games could find more success.

4:01:27These are the games launching in September as of now. Blood of the Dawnwalker, September 3rd. Wolverine, September 15th. Trails in the Sky, second chapter, September 17th. Control Resonance, September 24th. Silent Hill Townfall, September 24th. and Animusha Way of the Sword, September 25th. These aren't even all the games I could find, but I'm wary of example fatigue. Many of these games I'm interested in and would otherwise play, but I'm going to miss out on them. In particular, I'm worried about Control Resonance. I'm always rooting for Remedy to do well, but is this just another self-inflicted wound?

4:01:54Why not push it back a few weeks into earlier mid-October where there isn't any stiff competition at the moment besides Phantom Blade Zero and Call of Duty at the tail end of the month? This exact same crowding happened last year too when games like Kronos and Hell is Us were the big losers. When will these developers learn? there is a major reason what happened no no you go did i say something bad no no now i'm always worried now i'm always worried that i said something that i shouldn't have said you're on it no no no sorry well you would be too jesus these people are always fucking getting something to get by the goalie over here you know oh yeah i know um there's a major reason why i think they're crowding in this area what do you think that is dustin other than grand theft auto TensorFlow

4:02:35Colin Moriarty:I was going to say Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty. It's a fiscal year or fiscal quarter. Oh, yeah. So I think that that has something to do with it. Like they don't need. They don't necessarily need those sales in the fourth calendar quarter where the holiday season is, because they'll get it from holiday sales and other things. Some people want to be in that space, but it's become I mean, for two generations more than that, it's been very hard to be in that space because. you have the massive triple A's releasing there, the Assassin's Creed games, the Call of Duty games, Battlefield, whatever.

4:03:10So people stay out of there and I think they try to, so I think that has something to do with it.

4:03:17However, I agree with you. Like I'm a little surprised, August might be a little difficult because they might not be ready, but I'm surprised that like, I think you're even safe going into the first week of November, depending on what game you are, if you remove that fiscal pressure. So again, the Leroy Jenkins conversation aside, I don't think any of these games should be the ones that do it. I don't know if you're giving it too much room. The problem is, is that you just don't know what everyone else is doing. And part of part of me also is like, why don't these guys kind of you don't want to like it's like a cartel, like they're colluding or whatever.

4:03:54But it's like, why not just kind of say in some way or through like intermediaries, like at the first parties, like this is where we're looking to release this game, this game in this game. Like it's not really, it's more advantageous for you to know and lock things in. But I also think once the data is settled on, it's very difficult to move it. You have to refund, depending on what platform you're on, you would have to refund pre-sales. You have to deal with all your marketing materials that are probably already done. And a bunch of other things. So I think these dates kind of just stick and then you're like, all right, this is what we're going to do.

4:04:24The funny thing is, is that I suspect that even trails, it will be, the sales will be way lower because it's a more niche game. but all those games are going to do fine. Um, and I would imagine games like Wolverine are going to kill. Like, well, I think Wolverine will sell millions of copies easy in, in the first couple of months. So yeah, I wonder which of those games is the most afraid. And I would probably imagine it's either silent Hill or control. Um, Capcom's got a lot of heft right now. Silent Hill is locked to PS, PS5 and PC. So it can't get those extra Xbox sales. I don't think Wolverine has anything to fear.

4:05:02And I think Blood of Dawn Walker comes out early enough where it has nothing to fear either. And out of the list of games, that's the one I'm most excited about. So what are you guys thinking about September? Should they move around? And do you have you guys, like I'm going to play every one of the games you listed. Except for, I'll play Trails of the Sky second chapter probably in the future sometime. But the five other ones. So there are choices for some people to make though just based on money or time.

4:05:27Colin Moriarty:Yeah. Well, my thing about this write-in is he's like, when will they ever learn and i i'm like they're just not like a a video game publisher grand council where they all meet and decide where when they're going like some of these release dates are decided in a bubble maybe some of them talk to each other but i just think that they're kind of like well here's all the information we know about current release dates and hopefully this is a good time to do it and if they are truly scared then they can you know push it out or in some cases even move it up a little bit now of course you meant like first party stuff like they know their own internal release dates for different things but i so yeah playstation might be at the most advantageous position where maybe they know what some of their partners when they're releasing but i think they're kind of just i don't say they're operating blind but i'm sure like do you think that konami knew that control resonant was they also were going to release on that day when they decide the date probably not yeah i doubt it yeah so what are you what are they supposed to do it's it's other than change that you know lay their cards out and then try to change things around later so and yeah like you mentioned the the fiscal year plus call of duty in GTA it makes sense that there's a crowding around this time but I think certainly it could affect day one sales of some of these things but you're releasing in like right at the beginning of fall leading into the holiday season and so these games are still going to sell you know maybe there is one loser in there but they also a lot of these games appeal to different people like the Trails fans are going to buy that game no matter what Yeah.

4:07:20Colin Moriarty:When it comes out at that time. It's also a sequel to from the first game. So trails. Yeah. Trails. I said that with a little resent. Yeah. You had a little bit of a little. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know, man. I don't actually don't think it's that big of a deal to be honest with you. Like I think including blood of Dawn Walker there at September 3rd, like that's basically August. Like, I don't know. That's, that's enough of distance where I think that's fine. I do think September 24th and 25th, like being that stacked, that's the more interesting thing. Although to me, really, I don't know, Control is the thing that I'm most excited for really here.

4:07:57Colin Moriarty:There's no hope of any game getting to me before that, after that, or like Silent Hill or Ani Musha. Like I'll get to Ani Musha eventually. But I'm not really that worried about Control. Like Remedies games typically have like long tails and also Control is really the only sci-fi game here. Like it's like a very distinct, like I guess Wolverines technically, you could argue, I suppose. but I think these are different vibes you know a lot of these like I don't see trails subsuming controls audience or controls audience subsuming Silent Hill even on Emusha I feel like these are really distinct player bases really it's a lot of games at once but I think for the enthusiasts that like us it is a lot of games but yeah I assume a normal person will see one or two of these it is a good time the crowdedness especially for a person with a normal schedule and and doesn't play professionally like we do and play a shit ton of games it's like it's a great time for you to save money since you'll probably be able to get most of this stuff discounted fairly quickly um oh yeah which will be nice for you all right that's all we have for that so now we're going to jump back into the news from here all right we're cutting in we're here it's just dustin and i today we're recording now Friday evening after the game Summer Games Fest Jeff's birthday Bash Is that what we usually call it?

4:09:20Birthday Bash? I don't know I'm so tired Chris Chris is ill He Fell ill and he his voice is all Fucked up I guess right now and Hopefully we'll have him back for the Xbox showcase On Sunday although Maybe you've already heard that or not depending on Where you are right now Okay so We just watched the showcase like I said the summer games fest i count 53 games we'll mention all of them but i think we can blaze through half of them at least pretty much with saying nothing especially because a lot of them not a lot of them there are many games that are not even coming to playstation so things we can skip and some of these things are commercials but i just felt like we would be thorough but before we do that um for the state of play stuff people would already know we already went into all of that and then we use all the questions the inquiries to go into what we thought about that or whatever so we won't spend too much time on that towards the end instead especially because were so fatigued um we will at the top now just kind of give you a little bit of information about what we thought about the uh dream and dustin let's uh begin with you before i get into my thoughts what did you think of the summer games festival would you give it what is your letter

4:10:27Colin Moriarty:grade here i would give it b plus maybe even an a all things considered b plus to a not b plus to a minus oh yeah a minus i guess yeah i was thinking like i really don't have anything to really complain about if we're thinking in the context of what this show should be if you're comparing it to an e3 of old like a playstation e3 press conference or something like that then yeah you're gonna not like it as much but i think we need to judge it for what it is and it certainly was probably one of Jeff Keighley's best shows in terms of like starting off really strong with Resident Evil Veronica following up with some Cuphead and of course like the middle of the show there's gonna be some less exciting stuff but there was some still exciting stuff in the middle of the show as well I never felt weighed down by like anime gotcha games or anything like that are weighed down by advertisements that's a good point actually there was none of that like slop really yeah and like the one anime slop announcement was evangelion or was it was evangelion and withering waves no no no that was in cyberpunk that evangelion was in sonic i thought in sonic right which is even weirder and you know i think that that's actually like you know probably pretty cool for people to like that game so i and yeah of course the ending was amazing so i thought it was overall a great showcase i didn't normally when we do this and including uh the game awards too is that usually about that midpoint three-fourths point i'm like let's go let's go let's go like what are we doing here and i i honestly didn't feel that when we were watching it it felt like it kept a nice brisk pace so i i really don't have any reason to give it a full blown a now that I'm, you know, full-blown A's.

4:12:36Colin Moriarty:Full-blown A's. Full-blown A's.

4:12:41Colin Moriarty:So, yeah, it's not that I loved every single announcement, but like I said, thinking about what the show is meant to be, I think there was probably something for everybody in there. Yeah, I agree. I think it was a really strong showing as well. Something for pretty much everyone. Plenty of stuff for me. I actually was a little softer on it when we left. I'm like, okay, maybe B, B minus for me. But then when I was going through collecting press materials, like I found press releases for almost everything. I put the in the chat, by the way, the document. I just I just use the state of play document and redid it all.

4:13:11So you can click on anything you want. But I found press releases for pretty much everything. And as I was going through everything, I was like, yeah, oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. This. Oh, yeah. That. And so there was like a lot more there than met the eye. And I think I think a B plus a minus level for it, I think, is appropriate. Maybe more B plus for me than a minus. so kind of maybe a little better than the state of play but i will say i thought jeff did a good job i thought it was a very reactive stream in the sense that it was like you said not weighed down by so many ads it's not the pomp and circumstance and the money and everything of the game awards it's the second biggest show they do the third biggest will be like the smallest of the three would be the gamescom one yeah so that's to be expected i was saying on the stream and i I think it's a fairly good point that though, I think you could have theoretically cut this down to like 90 minutes or maybe a hundred minutes max.

4:14:06If you keep in mind, like the television three to one ratio of, of like programming to commercials, you need to have, if you have 90 minutes of something, you're going to need to have 30 minutes of commercials. And I thought, and I even put in our document what I assume were the ads. And I, I feel like it was fairly obvious that way too. I understand it's like a band making a set list, right? Like, right. you want to open with a banger and then you want to like capture people and keep them captured often just going right into the second song then you talk to the audience a little bit right then things slow down a little bit you get into some deep cuts maybe an acoustic set you know an acoustic piece or whatever and then you start revving back up and it's just and that happens all in two hours but the games are shown so quickly that you end up with like 50 games and And then you realize like, wow, like the mixture of these games wasn't quite as deliberately done as possible.

4:15:00Like when I look at, it's like Resident Evil Code Veronica in the Cuphead sequel into the Mighty Cuphead adventure in Alien Isolation 2 in the Gen Atlas in the Blood Message in the Stranger Than Heaven. It's like you didn't really need to open like that because in the middle you have like kind of a bunch of nonsense. And it would be better to spread things out and have a bang every 10 or 15 minutes, I think. So what do I know? he's the producer of these popular and famous shows but that would be my only insight like my only criticism of it is i just think you could have spread some of this stuff out better um and then it wouldn't have felt maybe as long for some people but two hours it was good it was a brisk two hours i thought it was well done i thought he did a great job it was cool to see some different personalities show up and it doesn't it's not weighed down by the games game awards kind of no one really knows what they wanted to be kind of situation do you want it to be like the baftas Do you want it to be like the Emmys?

4:15:53Do you want it to be like E3? No one really knows. So that's my overall thought. All right, Dustin, let's go through each game and we can linger on whatever we want and we can skip over a bunch of these. We begin with Resident Evil Veronica. So this is the long rumored remake of 2000's Resident Evil Code Veronica and it will be coming to PlayStation 5 in 2027. So it'll be ready next year. So it's fairly deep into development. they don't have very much to say. In fact, when I was looking at Capcom's press materials for their games, they use the same press release for all their games. So they literally just have like a paragraph for each game.

4:16:29So they'll obviously have much more to say. And of course, there's going to be the Resident Evil expansion for Requiem probably that comes out in between. So they probably want to lean on that a little more first. All they say here is, quote, Resident Evil Veronica will draw players into a desperate escape filled with horror and madness through the isolated zombie filled Rockford Island. Developed on Capcom's proprietary RE engine, the game will introduce modernized gameplay play with the chilling level of realism designed to push survival hard to the heights to new i'm sorry to the heights to the new heights they'll have more to say soon obviously about this they say not much more to go on than that i haven't played code for code veronica in a very long time so i don't remember it very well but what i was saying during the intro or during the yeah the like the section they show in the beginning during the game game shows intro was i don't really remember this and i wonder if they're going to lean more into like reimagining pieces of it's not quite as sacrosanct as resident evil 2 or resident evil 4 and even with resident evil 4 they did change things um so i wonder i wonder what they're gonna do i'm very very excited about it capcom's got all my faith so i'm never gonna go until proven otherwise i'm not going into a capcom game assuming anything but the best what did you think of resident evil veronica yeah i've

4:17:41Colin Moriarty:never played code veronica but as you were saying this is capcom and the rate in which they're able to release Resident Evil games and then be so good is crazy honestly and I think we're talking a little bit on the stream like the only one that is is questionable is Resident Evil 3 um that cut a lot of content and maybe felt like it was a little uh a little rushed yeah I agree so I I would assume that they've learned from that and know that they they don't want to do something like that again so i yeah i don't know a lot about code veronica but it doesn't matter like i am pumped for this i will play anything resident evil i'm getting to the point where i'll play anything from capcom uh like even i know i'm not into fighting games but every time i see street frider i'm like man this looks cool so i am super pumped and so this was announced at summer game fest resident evil requiem was announced at summer game fest last year so i would assume this is going to come out one year after requiem approximately like a springtime kind of late winter that'd be awesome that would be nice really cool they're they have a good cadence going i just hope they can manage all these high-end triple a games at the same time i mean they're they're being i mean obviously different teams are working on these games but they're you know they have to produce them and manage them and it's a lot and right and i think i think they're doing a really good job so far so very very excited huge opener and i thought it was requiem expansion to open i was surprised to see this i don't know why i was surprised to see it i guess it is time like you said yeah all right numbers two and three are both cuphead games we saw a really cute video from studio md hr introducing two things like i said one is a new cuphead game hand drawn this will be like the main line cuphead two i guess and they say here on their website quote first up we're delighted to officially confirm that the work has begun on a brand new hand animated Cuphead video game.

4:19:41Our talented team is hard at work on this ambitious project, which will take Cuphead and pals on a fresh, exciting journey. There are so many things about this project that have energized and in true studio MDHR fashion, we are pushing ourselves to continue improving on our craft in all areas. Development is still in the early stages, but rest assured that we'll have a lot more to share when the time is right. End quote. A little disappointing to hear that it's early just because they I don't I don't presume to know what they're doing and it's really none of my business I mean they're incredibly wealthy studio now they can kind of take their time and and do what they want but I they have like the show that they I don't know what's going on with that and then they did the expansion for Cuphead but it's easy to forget like Cuphead came out in 2017 it's almost nine years old and so it is a little surprising that you're early on but I I don't know, whatever.

4:20:28And what they're doing is very difficult. So I imagine it's going to take a while and I wonder who they're going to work with or if they'll publish it themselves. I imagine they'll publish it themselves. The more exciting thing, and you can talk about both of these things at the same time, Dustin, is they announced something more tangible and this could be what they're working on, although I would be surprised if they themselves were doing this. A game called Mighty Cuphead Adventure. They say, quote, a smaller, so here it is, a smaller team here at the studio has been working in secret on something completely different.

4:20:54A project that is a true love letter to the era that inspired us to make video games in the first place. A game called Mighty Cuphead Adventure. This is a true 8-bit action platformer with arcade quality graphics, amazing sound, and 32 dazzling colors. This is pretty dope. I was excited to read this. So they say, with Mighty Cuphead Adventure, we aren't just taking inspiration from the classics of the 1980s. We're building the game with the technology of that era. That's right. The project is programmed in classic assembly language and designed with the exacting specifications of the Sega Master System home gaming console in mind.

4:21:22This means that while the game will absolutely be compatible with modern consoles and personal computers, players who want a true blast from the past will be able to experience it on a physical cartridge for the Sega Master System home gaming console. This is not just a retro game. It's a game built from the ground up with all the unique limitations of a 1980s video game studio. This is, end quote, that is incredibly hard to do. They're not the only people doing it, but that is very difficult. And that's fucking awesome. It's surprising that they picked Master System over NES, but I don't know what their personal history with games was and how they came to this place.

4:21:52So I think it looks beautiful i am super amped about that game and uh it'll obviously be much more imminent they don't date anything there's not much more to say what do you think yeah so in terms of first of

4:22:04Colin Moriarty:all the cuphead sequel i agree i am a little disappointed that it's like we're in early work because i believe the dlc for cuphead came out in 2022 i think i just had it up on the screen a minute ago but i turned it off so i it's disappointing but i'm okay with it just because clearly they are like masters of the craft now at this point in terms of doing everything in hand-drawn animation that's not easy so them taking their time uh figuring out what they want to do as you said they're very wealthy at this point so i'm willing to wait for it in terms of mighty cuphead adventure i love it in this write-up they say uh it was programmed in classic assembly language i am not a programmer i don't know almost anything about programming but that tickled something in my brain because there's a lot of people when you watch retrospectives about roller coaster tycoon they always talk about how chris sawyer developed it in assembly and it was one guy and then hearing about assembly this is like insanely difficult that people were able to he was able to make rollercoaster tycoon in assembly and so maybe some programmers out there can let us know about the difficulty of uh doing it in assembly but it felt like a flex them saying that so i think it's so cool that you can play it on a sega master system yeah i like i wish i had one but i wonder if i mean maybe sega master systems will go up uh people want to play this game the authentic way but from that little tiny snippet they showed it looks really cute really charming totally unexpected as well for something for them to do so very excited and they i got a text during the stream uh you can buy your mighty cuphead adventure merch right now wow so i don't know if that means it's more eminent uh because yeah and i am i am apet they already got shirts hats and all kinds of stuff so they're capitalizing on the moment good for them Yeah, I mean, do it.

4:24:11Do it. So looks pretty cool. Neat idea. Yeah, I'm excited about that. We'll keep a close eye on that Mighty Cuphead adventure and of course Cuphead 2 or whatever it is called. Number four is Alien Isolation 2. This was confirmed to be in development some time ago, but it has been now officially confirmed. They write in the press release, quote,

4:24:58ground for the alien, forcing players to improvise and develop new tools, techniques, and tactics to survive the deadly game of cat and mouse. It's being developed by Creative Assembly, which developed, of course, the first one there, a Sega-owned studio. They've been in the Sega family for 20-something years, I think, below 20s at this point. And they're best known for their Total War series. So this is obviously something totally different. In fact, I was looking at their games, and between Alien Isolation, which came out fall 2014, and Alien Isolation 2, they've only made, They had gone back and made strategy games.

4:25:28And all of them except for one is Total War with the exception of Hail Wars 2. So very much outside their wheelhouse. And yet that game is beloved and very exciting to see. So I still have not played Alien Isolation. I have to do that at some point. Did you experience it? Are you excited about this? Do you like Alien? I don't even know.

4:25:47Colin Moriarty:I have only seen the first Alien. And then I saw Prometheus and the follow up after that. So I'm not like a mega Alien fan. sad news though colin if you do want to play alien isolation of course you can play it on your ps5 via backwards compatibility right locked 30 frames per second stinky might not do that so it would have been nice to get a little ps5 port snuck in there but maybe time there's time time yeah yeah so i i seriously know so little about this game i mean i've heard people talk about it so highly and that i think a lot of it is like more about stealth and sneaking than any kind of combat if I remember correctly but on our stream which we had surprise pork poncho this was a game that he was super excited for and I know people love it so I should check it out at some point but not on PlayStation sorry can't do it can't do it man can't do it man yes fifth up is gen atlas which is you wait his new game it didn't have a name until now of course his new studio he used to be team eco via studio Japan now it's gen design they had first announced the organization of the studio and that they signed with and I was I looked this up to remember this is like right at the beginning of COVID they announced that they were going to work with Epic so this game has been in development for a long time and then you'll remember that it was first revealed at Game Awards 2024 as Project Something I don't remember what it was Project Robot or something weird like that and now it has a final game of a name of Gen Atlas looks kind of cool I mean I was saying this on the stream and it's not I understand I'm in the minority on his games and I understand that they're beloved it's not any disrespect I just know that they're not for me and no matter like I like Shadow of the Colossus but I really liked the remake of Shadow of the Colossus I didn't like the original one I bought Eco when it came out because there was very few games on Playstation 2 at the time and I hated it you know I hated that game so and the last Guardian I never I never played because I knew it wasn't for me but I know you're a much bigger fan so this is much more up your alley though I'll say it looks much more gamey yeah like much more like it too though unfortunately for this game it won't be on steam so it's gonna gonna kind of hurt it i think but ueda's got his fans and the fan base is largely on playstation 5 so i think that they'll be just fine what do you think i think this looks great i notoriously of course don't really like eco but i do like shout out the colossus though to be fair you mentioned i've only played the remake i just never played the original i tried the original it did not i just couldn't do it man like i just couldn't i couldn't handle it uh and then last guardian i think is an amazing game with problems but a game that really stuck with me and so the trailer for this just looks sick giant robots fighting and like you said a little more gamey like there's some third person shooter elements to it that you can see in the trailer so that's a little interesting to see it be a little more gamey in that way but i am uh pretty excited for this and there's no release window right no i know so nothing yet so this could be another next year it's been a long time so yeah but think about last guardian that's true I just I would hope that Epic is kind of keeping him in line a little bit, but maybe maybe not.

4:29:13Yeah, who knows? You give you give a creative like that enough rope and they might hang themselves with it. It happens. So but it looks really cool. I'm open minded to playing it, by the way. I just need to know much more. Yeah. All right. Next up is a NetEase published game out of a Chinese studio called Blood Message. And it is let's what's the studio? 24 Entertainment Studio. Lin An, I guess, in horrible Chinese is what it's actually called. But it's 24 Entertainment. The game is Blood Message being published by NetEase. It's their first AAA game out of that particular studio. The press release says, quote, Blood Message introduces a forgotten odyssey of loyalty and survival where players join Dunhuang's uprising.

4:29:57I assume that's something from history. Taking control of a nameless messenger and his young son in the immersive third-person action adventure caught in the crossfire of a righteous uprising and driven by loyalty to both family and country. Players will embark on a perilous eastward journey to deliver a message that holds the fate of the war-torn homeland. Amidst the shifting sands of history, they will etch a final tale of loyalty. And yeah, it says, set during the final years of the Tang Dynasty, players will traverse a treacherous 1 ,000-mile odyssey, 3 ,000 li, I guess that is. It says, back to Chang 'an, the heart of the Tang Empire.

4:30:29So, I don't know. It actually looks really good. And I like the name quite a bit as well, if I'm being honest but it also we always make fun of like the uh like the china slop or whatever and I just if you're into this shit if you're into like romance of the three kingdoms if you're into dynasty warriors if you're into shit like that and you know or these like the amazing historical novels of chinese history and all the stories and the lore and stuff I mean it's like right up your alley it's just not for me it's too much you know I can't keep up with it I don't know what's going on and i don't care but looks good what do you think yeah i i think i'm in the same

4:31:05Colin Moriarty:boat where like visually the graphics on this look really really strong um but i just there's feels like there's a lot of these kinds of games and they kind of all blend in my head so when this comes out if it's like this game's amazing you got to check it out then certainly but nothing really spoke to me where I was like oh man I'm really excited for blood message alright next up is Stranger Than Heaven which we've seen before this is the new Ryogo Gudiku studio game published by Sega that I guess is ostensibly in the Yakuza universe I don't know if that's ever been confirmed it might be somewhere in the press release I haven't really read it by the way I'm kind of flying by the seat of my pants with a lot of the shit because we just didn't have time to prepare like I usually do so So the press release for the game doesn't really get too much into the game itself, although we saw studio head Masayoshi Yokoyama come to the stage to talk about the game's release date, which is January 15th, 2027.

4:32:08So very early next year. Very appropriate. I think it's a great time for it. But the bigger thing is the inclusion of two rappers, famous rappers, one very much alive, one dead for three decades and a little bit controversial. So Snoop Dogg's in the game. He's in everything. So that's not a huge surprise. and it's funny he's in so many things that i don't find him distracting for some reason maybe he is but it's just like you're just kind of ever present and always around ethereal and then uh the stranger one tupac which has caused quite the furor obviously i said on the show and they confirmed snoop said it it's like this is all through his estate it's not like they're just doing it rogue it's not the way it would work but but i do find that distracting he's like such a they're both cultural icons but the whole thing about tupac is like is he alive is he dead what happened to him like who you know i don't know man it's just it's weird it's a weird one for me

4:33:01Colin Moriarty:so uh i was looking when i was uh in between this i went and i got food and i was eating taco bell in a parking lot by myself nice sounds really sad but i actually really enjoy listening to music and just eating food and i was like okay nice little break in between but i was looking at twitter and gene posted that apparently tupac's sister is in a legal battle with the executor of tupac's uh estate technically so i don't know what the story is there though but apparently his estate and his family might be two different things so there's controversy okay interesting okay like gene let me i'll just send you this tweet real quick um because he posted a picture of the guy that's in charge of his state it's just like this like this white like old white guy

4:33:58Colin Moriarty:where let's see tupac shakura's sister's executor of rappers this is kind of like he's related to tupac yeah so even if it was his like a good situation with his family in the estate i think that this is still i don't know if distasteful is the right word but i guess it is to me where i kind of have a i don't like it feels like you're parading a corpse of somebody yeah i agree you know he his family isn't him like if tupac wrote like i want i want to be in video games after i'm gone or something i don't know it just feels weird it feels like a marketing thing that's like oh we're gonna put tupac in the game i don't like it i find it kind of gross yeah it's weird so i think it's just weird because i mean i mean yeah i was gonna say didn't Tupac die in 1996?

4:34:55It's been forever. Like, it's just, it's just weird. I don't know. Whatever. It's, it's not a game I'm going to play. I don't care about it. And I don't, you know, whatever it's for other people to be upset about or not, but that's my observation. All right. Next up is hacks or hakes. I think it's hacks. H A E X. It's a game from a new studio in Sweden called dead astronauts. It's described as quote, a co-op survival shooter set in an alien scarred North, wilderness. They write in their press release briefly, quote, during summer game fest, dead astronauts officially revealed their debut title, Hax, an atmospheric multiplayer first-person shooter set in an alien-scarred wilderness engulfed by a mysterious paranormal mist.

4:35:37Hax follows players tracking down missing members of their science expedition after waking from a helicopter crash. Played solo or with up to three friends, an anomaly has appeared in the sub-Arctic North, and as part of the expedition set to investigate, players will need to discover not only the cause of the anomaly, but what part of the expedition is missing. Set in a hostile wilderness alien creatures and machines are leaving the mist and the elements kill as easily as they do cold management hunger thirst resource gathering and loadout preparation determine how far players can go the deeper they push into the mist the more dangerous the world and enemies become new threats require different combat tactics and skillful use of firearms heavy melee and specialized survival gadgets alien seeds found or crafted by players can reshape parts of the open world planting them grants access to new pathways and resources and changes the structure of the environment for better or worse.

4:36:21Progress carries across sessions, allowing players to bring their fully geared character into any world, including a friend's active game. Characters and worlds are saved separately, so each world maintains its own independent state and storyline. It actually sounds pretty cool. I don't know how it's going to go. It'll probably be so co-op centric as to be made for co-op ostensibly. Like, you can play Helldivers by yourself, but not really. I wonder if that will be the same thing here. But I love the, that's kind of a little Colin slop in a little bit. some of some of the thematics. What do you think?

4:36:52Colin Moriarty:Yeah, I am rewatching the trailer now and I love like the specific feel of that alien tech. I think you mentioned Arrival, you know, the seamless, like very so technologically advanced that it looks too simple. Yeah, so I think this looks kind of cool. I got to say, I hate the name Dead Astronauts for studio name. It just makes me think dead ass, you know, dead ass. ass dead ass but uh i thought this looked pretty cool so i maybe this is one for the boys with uh some co-op action yeah we'll keep a close eye on this one as well i think this looks pretty cool the name i don't know i don't really understand the name but maybe we'll understand it more when the time comes i don't think they yeah the studio was only founded in 2024 i don't think this will be anytime soon probably but we'll see all right we can skip the next four as i i see so nine was dead by daylight's 10th anniversary we don't care about that 10 is mortal shell 2's open beta which is steam only 11 is a steam only game called sand raiders of sophie so we don't have to worry about that 12 is assassin's creed 4 resynced black flag resynced that comes out july 9th we've seen it already i actually think it looks pretty good i'm not gonna play it but um i think it looks pretty good so that brings us to 13 which is uh platinum games is doing a teenage mutant ninja turtles game game called the last ronin did they do another tmt game that was published by activision with what remember that game was that them i am trying to remember uh did they do mutants in manhattan maybe like one of the games on google yeah maybe one like something that people weren't crazy about or whatever but this will probably be a little different so i couldn't find a press release for this this comes from paramount game studios though which was just announced today actually and apparently is being led by amy hennig did you see that i haven't read into any of this yet but um so i believe it was pork said it on the show but um push square can only put it in there their piece as well is that there was a last ronin game already announced and this this game was being published by thq nordic at one of their studios black forest but you'll remember that black forest got that was in 2023 when the going was still okay for embracer you remember that embracer kind of fell apart after that and they lost a lot of funding so that studio i think still exists, but I think they got completely gutted.

4:39:11So the game was canceled, apparently, quietly in 2024, and this is a new version that is totally disconnected, and frankly a more capable studio. No offense. So not that Platinum. And that's why I was bringing up Platinum. Platinum doesn't always hit home runs. They don't even get the wood on the ball sometimes, but they are much more reliable, and this is much more in their wheelhouse, I think, so something pretty cool. I'm not a huge... I love old Turtles. I don't know anything about the comics and all the other stuff but i'm sure i'll check this out when the time comes are you in on the

4:39:40Colin Moriarty:last ronin i know next to nothing about the last ronin other than some of the things people have told me about it but i'm not really big on tmt to begin with i'm more interested in the fact that platinum is involved uh just because like looking at platinum the last few years uh 2025 ninja Gaiden 4 which was very good and I like that. 2023 was Bayonetta Origins and then before that in 2022 was Babylon's Fall and Bayonetta 3. So I think that and right now looking on the Wikipedia it's listed that their upcoming projects are this one, something called Project GG and then some kind of partnership with Psy Games called Lost Order.

4:40:27Colin Moriarty:It's an iPhone game. So do you see this note? Closed beta tests occurred in August, 20, 2017 trade rock or a nude in 2026. That's interesting. Huh? Interesting. They're small. I mean, it says their headcount is two 50, so they can't be doing too much. Yeah. That's a pretty tiny team. Yeah. Oh yeah. And they worked on snake eater, the metal gear solid Delta. They did the mini game. Oh, right, right, right. I forgot about that. Yeah. So they're doing some contract work, which I think is going to be necessary to stay alive. I mean, they they're a great studio, but they're they're ad hoc. I mean, yeah, you have to find the work.

4:41:05It's going to be difficult. And when you're not as consistent as you probably should be, it's not going to be as easy to keep that work. I think I read it from the outside. First of all, Platinum had like a lot of over time of lost a lot of people. The other thing is and going all the way back to almost the beginning, like when those guys left Clover from Capcom and came over, like they've been losing people since the beginning. So it's always been a little bit inconsistent. but it's funny that partners like you would think Nintendo would have felt burned by the Star Fox shit back on Wii U, but they like come back.

4:41:34Yeah. I think that's a pretty good sign and they've worked with almost everybody really. So it'll be very interesting to see. And I'm rooting for them. I like that team. And yeah, the TMNT game mutants in Manhattan came to PS three and PS four, which is interesting in 2016. It has like a 50 on Metacritic. So yeah, not good. They missed on that one. Yeah. Activision was like doing weird license shit with them for a while.

4:41:56Colin Moriarty:I don't know what that was all about yeah I uh I hope it's so weird with platinum when they hit dude they're top tier like best in class in terms of gameplay combat but because like dude ninja garden 4 was awesome they co-developed that with team ninja but um so yeah I'm I'm curious about what their future looks like now with this game I would love to see them working on a new near game but who knows it's a different time that was back in 2017 it was almost 10 years ago indeed so who knows all right uh 14 is just fortnight shit who gives a shit uh 15 is gundam rogue orbit i thought this was really cool looking i was a little disappointed to see there was a gundam game because i just feel like a poser but i do love my battle robe i just love big mechs i think they're fun or even not even that big mechs like i love from mission for instance i love someone small getting into these big machines.

4:42:52I think it's fun. And obviously, it's a trope at this point.

4:42:55Colin Moriarty:There's a series for you I can recommend. What is it? A-Thing Gillian. Oh, oh. I don't know if you'd like it. Yeah, I don't know. I'm open-minded to it. Although I think, as we were saying, and we'll talk about it a little bit, my anime mind right now is more on just getting back to Attack on Titan. Yeah. They're right here in a press release. It's published by Bandai Namco. Obviously, Bandai Namco has always published the Gundam games. Well, Bandai used to publish the games and before Bandai Namco merger. They write, let's see. Oh, this is a little bit of an interesting verb. Quote, Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc.

4:43:29Thrilled sci-fi game fans today during the Summer Games Fest live stream, revealing the fast-paced, high-mobility action game Gundam Rogue Orbit. Why is everyone refusing to use colons anymore? Have you noticed this? It's annoying me. Like the Resident Evil, Resident Evil Veronica, just one thing. Gundam Rogue Orbit, control resonance. it's like what are we doing developed by bandai namco studios inc the cinematic title introduces a brand new timeline in the gundam saga where humanity must fight for survival against an unknown threat the story is a bold new chapter in the gundam franchise as a thrilling evolution for a long time fans and a perfect entry point for newcomers into this epic sci-fi series well you would say that it looks pretty neat maybe i'll check it out when the time comes they say they'll have more to share in the coming months but i don't think this game's coming out this year obviously so oh it says a slated for 2027 on ps5 so any thoughts well i think that gundam fans

4:44:19Colin Moriarty:from what i could tell are pretty thrilled with this just because all the gundam games that i've seen look uh pretty budget and this one both from in terms of their cinematics and even the little bit of gameplay they showed looks pretty dang cool i really liked the last armored core game and I've always wanted to get into Gundam. I've never really known where to start. There's like a million anime series. So Gundam is a huge dark spot for me in my anime weebdom. So this game though, they say if it's a good jumping off point, maybe this is it. All right, let's see. 16 is extremely hard game, which looks great, but it's Steam only.

4:45:05And I also couldn't find very much about it. number 17 is crossfire and this comes from that's no moon which was founded years ago now and we were talking i'm reminded you that michael mumbauer of sony visual arts fame was one of the co-founders of the studio and i think you can see kind of some of his dna in this game because those guys were obsessed with the visual fidelity and that's what he brings to it um so it's pretty I think it looks pretty cool though we don't really know exactly what it's all about so they say I went to the Steam page that's where I can find the most information they write quote Layla a gun for hire is on a reconnaissance contract in the Atlas Mountains that quickly devolves into a harrowing struggle she cannot overcome alone Cross is an opposing operator trained lethal and the last person Layla would choose to trust but trust isn't the point making it out alive is fighting for survival in their own humanity the pair's fraught alliance is the only chance at overcoming the existential threat ahead so they describe it as a gripping cinematic narrative so i mean there is like sony dna in this game from that perspective cover-based shooting with really cool i was saying it during the the uh stream really cool animations people kind of go you know getting around and being quiet and being stealthy they describe it as high tension combat the cinematic landscape and so on and so forth no other information about it right now publisher is marked as team k1 i don't know what that is they only come up with one steam that could be just a holding company for that that's no moon i don't know but it only has this as the game so i don't know what that is um yeah i mean i don't know anything else to say about this yeah i can see definitely some of that

4:46:45Colin Moriarty:sony dna in it i'm i'm a little unsure about this there there was some small part of me specifically in seeing the cut scenes that i was it reminded me of a mind's eye a little bit not in the gameplay yeah i think the gameplay looked vastly superior to a mind's eye but i'm i'm curious about it it was kind of funny that on stage they're like check out our cover system i mean it it fit for the audience but it uh i'm i'm curious about this one's been in the making for a while because you were saying that's no moon was back with michael mumbauer Yeah, he left fairly early, but like, and then he went to whatever that Web3 company was, but like, it's been years, yeah.

4:47:31And I knew a couple people that worked there that have since left, but I kind of forgot about them. And it's funny because I was saying on the stream pre-show when people are like, oh, their game is going to share. I'm like, I don't really care until you show it to me, but I think it's much more impressive now that we see it and we can kind of hold it to account a little bit. We'll see what it's all about if and when we get to play it. I'm sure we will. Number 18 was Control Resonant. I'm tired of seeing this game. it looks awesome I don't want to know anymore September 24th it comes to PlayStation 5 I think we're all in agreement there plus we already covered it in the state of play section and by the way I do want to reiterate though I said this on the stream but for people that didn't listen to that you can see the hallmarks of this new leadership and being much more at Remedy an ex EA executive is now their CEO and you can see that much more aggression in marketing the games which I think is key because their games undersell and I don't really understand it either number 19 is an interesting one guild wars 3 it's interesting because it's coming to playstation 5 which is unusual they write quote in the press release from arena net critically acclaimed game developing development studio arena net tonight announced guild wars 3 the third entry in the legendary and beloved guild wars mmo rpg franchise and their first new game since 2012 the game will release globally on pc steam and playstation 5 marking the first time a guild wars game will appear on home consoles the first beta test is scheduled for fall of 2027 so not a game for me but a couple interesting things here that i was doing a little bit of research when i could before we started recording is guild wars 2 only came to steam three years ago and i think you had to play it i think nc soft was the publisher and you had to play it through purple which is where people again are going to have to play the horizon steel horizon whatever the fuck it's called steel frontier game horizon steel horizon will be a dope fucking awesome horizon steel horizons so one of the things that i don't know if they say it in here but one of the hallmarks of guild wars was that you buy it once and that there are no more there's no price to pay for the expansions i feel like that is both their hallmark and also insanely risky and i don't know I think you have it slightly wrong

4:49:44Colin Moriarty:if I remember correctly. It's that you buy it and you do pay for expansion. No subscription cost. Yeah, no monthly subscription. Pardon, pardon, pardon. You're right. So I don't know if they're going to do that again. I feel like... Oh, it says here, the franchise has always been playable with no subscription fee required, welcoming over 29 million players across its history, which is a lot of people. I feel like... It's kind of nice, right? I mean, when Guild Wars 2 came out or even the original one, But when Guild Wars 2 came out in 2012, subscriptions were still kind of a quaint thing. You might have had a very early Spotify subscription.

4:50:18You might have had Netflix for a few years and a few other things. But now fast forward all these years later and it's like enough. And it might really be able to take advantage of that,

4:50:27Colin Moriarty:which would be kind of cool. Yeah. I'm really intrigued by this just in that I played, I think I played some of Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2. Guild Wars 2 came out, if I remember, like right when I started college. 2012 2013 maybe uh so i remember liking them uh when but not being like super into it and the no monthly subscription is of course appealing because that's one of the things that sucks about playing world of warcraft or final fantasy the other thing i'm just intrigued by is that he made an emphasis that like this is a a the next step in mmo the next generation mmo and i'm intrigued by that because world of warcraft and final fantasy 14 are are games that are very much like the old ways that have just been consistent there's never i think other companies have tried to do new types of mmos like black desert was one that had like really interesting combat system so i'm curious to see how they can evolve that very firmly rooted genre so I'm I'm interested in the fact that it's coming to PlayStation I know you mentioned that already but being PlayStation focused and Steam pretty pretty interesting I said this and it sounds like a mean-spirited thing to say it's not what I mean but just to put it out there is like people are like well why isn't it coming to Xbox and I'm like well I think it could be that Sony paid for it but it could be that it's kind of becoming more common knowledge or maybe the assumption in any way is that if your game is coming like their beta test doesn't begin till late 2027 right like so and they say it was closed even so like the game is probably 28 29 or something and you're looking at a game where it's like you probably just will play pc games on your new xbox and there there really won't i don't know if if this goes a certain way if there will be xbox iterations of games ultimately because like why you'll want to support series for a while but if the new xbox is truly like going to be a PC.

4:52:29It's like, well, then you'll just play the PC version.

4:52:31Colin Moriarty:Yeah. So I think things are going to change from that perspective. And that might just be really the first sign of that. We'll have to keep an eye on that as we move forward. All right. Number 20 is Star Wars Galactic Racer. It's actually looks great. And it was new trailer. I don't really have anything to say about it, though. October 6th. Are you going to check this game out? I may check it out. I love that it looks so burnout. And I loved Star Wars Episode One Racer when I was a kid. Oh, yeah. So I might check this out. Trailer was good. And then number 21 was End of Abyss, which is another of these games that's coming to Epic and PlayStation 5, but not Steam.

4:53:10It's launching on, I guess, in October. It says, In the depths of a mysterious underground compound, a mission to investigate disturbances of unknown origin spirals into a harrowing descent through a broken and abandoned world. Play as the young combat technician's cell as she uncovers the truth behind the facility's derelict areas and confronts the monstrous creatures that roam uh any interest in

4:53:31Colin Moriarty:this kind of looks yeah i know that for some reason on the stream i was slightly distracted when this came up but it is from uh people that worked on little nightmares and little nightmares to not that team but veterans of that team and you can tell from from looking at it that's that type of game but it looks creepy i love the like really strong colors at least from these screenshots here like the the red flare the deeply blue background so i haven't played little nightmares one or two so uh i know people love those games though so i'm sure they're excited all right number 22 is a game called last harbor is only on steam so we won't be covering that here 23 is virtual fighter crossroads we're not fighting game people really but this is a pretty big deal.

4:54:20They write here in the press release, first of all we've already known that the Virtua Fighter game was coming we've already seen it I think but they confirmed that it's coming out in 2027 via Sega Ryogo Godoku is working on it which is interesting. It's the first Virtua Fighter game I think in I should have looked this up, I'm sorry I didn't really have time to prepare. Virtual Fighter See, when people wonder what do you do when you prepare and take notes, it's this kind of shit. So I know The most recent Virtua Fighter was yeah right five which and like and there was an ultimate version so five was released in the arcades in 2010 and then was re-released over and over again there's ultimate showdown and so on and there's this other online version but i think this is a big deal because this is the new first new true virtual fighter game in a long time so i'm not a fan i feel like cog i recall being because he was such a sega dude right maybe he would be a good person to cover this.

4:55:17Vincent Genito would be a good person to talk to about this as well. Yeah. Anything to say about this? Probably not.

4:55:23Colin Moriarty:I just also don't know anything about Vertro Fighter, but it seems like the big thing is that the story mode looks pretty extensive. So that's kind of cool aspect. 24 was RuneScape Dragonwilds. We saw that at State of Play, so they're obviously being quite aggressive about that as well. And we don't have anything to say about that. Number 25 is Soulframe. I mean, it's enough already. 26 is Grounded. Two, this was interesting because Grounded 2, of course, is an Xbox first party game from Obsidian, the sequel to Grounded, very well-respected online game. Early Access will be expanding to PlayStation 5 beginning August 11th alongside the so-called Into the Abyss update.

4:56:01So they're going to continue to expand the ground, you know, pardon the pun, but make groundwork to get this game going because Grounded did really well on PlayStation. Other than, like Sea of Thieves did better in the multiplayer space, but Grounded did surprisingly well. if you believe the Alinea analytics numbers, which I do. Anything to say about this?

4:56:20Colin Moriarty:Hear you. Hear you. Hear you. Here it comes, PS5. Yeah, this is one of those things you maybe get out of your showcase should you want to rely more on your own, you know, your own releases, but it's not a little good. I don't know anything really about these games. It's Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, which is kind of cool, but I'm very selective about, like, crafting-type games that I play, so. next up this is number 27 is mafia the old country's expansion announced for august 14th called man of honor they write on their steam page on the news page which is all i could find quote step into the role of enzo favre and work alongside ennio salieri and the man of honor expansion for mafia the old country featuring two new story chapters and new content for free ride mode uh let's see first revealed at summer game for sicily winter 1905 in the months since his initiation, Enzo Favreau has proven himself a reliable soldier of the Teresi crime family.

4:57:16Now that Don entrusts him and Cesar with a delicate assignment, assist Ennio Salieri, a man of honor recently released from prison and intent on reclaiming what is his. At Salieri's side, Enzo is drawn deeper into the volatile underworld of the Vale d 'Orada where loyalty is tested, debts are settled and every move carries weight. I'm sure I'm doing the Italian great justice. I think this is a prequel, right? I can't... This feels like prequel content. but maybe I'm totally wrong on that. I don't know. It's been a while since I played the last one, but I loved Mafia the Old Country. I thought it was great.

4:57:47Will you check this out when the time comes? August 14th. I want two chapters is a little, little thin. Maybe the free roam star, the free ride stuff will be kind of cool because I know they added that mode later and I never messed around with it.

4:57:57Colin Moriarty:Yeah, I didn't play this game at all, so I will not be checking it out. Oh, it's so good, dude. You should really play it. I really do recommend it. There's many other things to play, but it's a great game. All right. Next up is 28. Number 28 is 1666 Amsterdam. The press release for this. I think this looks fucking awesome. Quote, Panache Digital Games, the studio behind Ancestors the Humankind Odyssey. I don't remember that game. Today unveiled 1666 Amsterdam, a dark third person story led action adventure game from creative director Patrice Desolet with a world premiere trailer showcased during Summer Games Fest.

4:58:34a free playable prologue is available now on steam and epic game stores not playstation the standalone narrative teaser lasting approximately 30 minutes introduces the world characters and core mystery of 1666 amsterdam the full game is set to launch in early access on pc in 2026 with console versions planned for a later date and you can wishlist it now on steam if you want this game looks this is one of probably the top certainly top five but maybe even higher than that for me in the show this game looks fucking sick

4:59:00Colin Moriarty:um what did you think i was a little distracted because i think this is when we were switching between youtube and twitch yeah it was out of sync uh but what is what is the gameplay of this game do we know at all yeah it does it's not i don't think it's incredibly clear from the trailer i think it's more clear from the text that it's a story-led action adventure game so story led i wonder if it's some sort of what would be a good hellblade yeah right yeah okay yeah that like something like that because i was gonna say like something like firewatch or something but that's not even that gameplay oriented something more gameplay oriented than that so yeah that might be a a good example I think it looks really neat the let's see here is there anything any other real information before the color of the prize yeah nothing really else new there is you can play the prologue and learn a lot more about it if you'd like here's I'm looking so I'm on their specific YouTube channel and it comment says yes finally I'm 27 and first started getting hype for this when I was like 13 or 14 oh yeah I don't even know anything about it apparently this game has some legs behind it, but I'll check out the prologue if it's on Steam.

5:00:06Colin Moriarty:Certainly. Why not? Yeah, I don't know anything. I'm trying to see a team of nearly... They have 70 people. They're in Montreal. All right, we'll see what happens. All right, next up is number 29, Saw Genesis. This is coming from Bloober Team, so that has my attention. Also, I was saying there was a Saw game published by Konami back on PS3, which was not that bad. And I know Saw has kind of lost the plot, maybe literally, and I've not seen any of them except for the first few, but I really liked the first Saw. I was saying that on the stream, so I'm open-minded to this. There's a problem, though, is that it's a multiplayer game.

5:00:42So that kind of kills my excitement. Here's what they say. Quote, in collaboration with Bloober Team and its co-development label Broken Mirror Games, together with Anchar Studios, officially everyone unveiled Saw Genesis, a twisted new asymmetrical multiplayer horror game featuring a storyline that precedes the events of the iconic Saw films that influences Jigsaw and his elaborate psychological games. Building on the success of the Blair Witch video game, the critically acclaimed horror developers have once again teamed up with Lionsgate, leveraging Bloober Team's expertise in crafting immersive horror experiences while expanding the lore of the Saw universe and preserving the psychological intensity that defines the franchise.

5:01:15Saw Genesis is a 3v1 multiplayer horror game in which three accused are pressure-driven to work together to escape a potentially fatal maze of traps, while a single judge orchestrates their trials, imposing diabolical tests and forcing impossible moral choices when survival comes with a cost. set in the grim aftermath of World War I, saw Genesis lets players take part in either side of this unnerving confrontation in intense matches played on procedurally generated maps. So yeah, this gets more into the spirit of old bloomer, which is fine. And I don't mind that either. There's a place for that.

5:01:45People like those games. Plus the multiplayer element, I'm sure will be very good. There seems to be a lot of horror themed fans that like multiplayer experiences. And that makes a lot of sense because they're tense. Are you going to check this out?

5:01:57Colin Moriarty:Maybe. Maybe this is something. i'm sure jimmy is gonna be all over this but 3v1 i always feel like a symmetrical multiplayer is like cooler on paper than when i actually play it i never could get into dead by daylight i tried but not really my thing so i'm not too keen on this one but saw man as an ip it never seems to go away they keep they keep doing stuff with it but uh yeah bloober team just consistently they've got it feels like they have so many projects because they're working on the silent hill one remake assumingly the silent hill one remake sounds like they're working on something for chronos they're working on this might be working on other stuff too that i can't think of but pretty busy number 30 is lords of the fallen too i think we've seen that plenty of times at this point so we can skip that number 31 has been long rumored um and i think the name has been confirmed right no one just no one's seen it they revealed star wars zero company attack a turn-based tactics game set in the clone wars the press release says quote at star wars celebration oh no this is yeah oh i'm sorry this is the wrong press release this is the 2025 press yeah i was gonna say this was confirmed a while ago so pardon me on that let me let me see i can find Star Wars Zero Company.

5:03:21I feel like I'm back on Colin and Greg Live when I used to read the wrong news all the time. Oh, here we go. Let me replace that.

5:03:28Colin Moriarty:Yeah, it was announced one year ago. Right. I feel like this is the wrong press release, and it is. So the new press release says, quote, Electronic Arts today announced that Star Wars Zero Company with a typo. Surprising. A single-player turn-based tactics game developed by Bit Reactor in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games will be available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S starting August 27, 2026. There's a gameplay trailer that we saw during the press release, or I'm sorry, during the showcase, and people can read the press release for more information. Interestingly, it'll only be$50.

5:03:59It looks like an XCOM game, which is fine. I was saying on the stream that I just don't like these kinds of tactics games. I prefer more, this is turn-based, but more turn-based, isometric, grid-based, like, you know, Tactics Ogre, Front Mission, Final Fantasy Tactics, that kind of thing uh fell seal a game i really liked this is not my thing because this was i was saying like if there was something that was going to kind of break me and get it would be like a star wars game made like in the fashion of that i'd be like well that's kind of tantalizing um but that's not this will you play zero company this late this summer probably not i the only game like

5:04:34Colin Moriarty:this i really liked was the uh x-com the revival of x-com enemy unknown and i did like that game a lot i tried to get into xcom 2 i didn't like that the you were timed i believe on the matches which i understand why they would want to do that and maybe some people like it i didn't like that aspect so i've kind of shied away from games like this and i gotta be honest i in terms of my star wars interest which is very very low clone wars is at the absolute rock bottom of my star wars interests so same same i'm i'm yeah no thanks all right we can skip over a bunch of the next ones 32 is blood of dawn walker they did show some new stuff here i think it's fairly controversial what they showed we talked a little bit about it on the stream and that they i don't even want to say because it's like it's surprising that they even showed it i guess they spoiled it themselves but like basically what they're teasing is like modern day stuff i don't know what they're doing and they're like setting up a universe which is i think bold and presumptuous presumptuous before your game comes out.

5:05:36I mean, I understand you're planning and you probably have something really good on your hands. I must admit I'm a little disappointed in the turn, and I think Brad put it best. It's very Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2-like, and that's bad mojo. Bad, bad mojo for me. But I'm still excited about the game. Still open-minded. Early September, we'll play it. 33, some Among Us stuff, I don't care. Number 34 was a 007 expansion, but they really didn't say anything about it. Just that they're planning on doing something. So I did see that the game sold 2.7 million units in its first week so that's good

5:06:07Colin Moriarty:when I was having my Taco Bell solo time earlier I saw that they laid out their year one plans for 007 it's very IO interactive that they're single player games that they almost treat them I don't want to say they're like live service but they have consistent like new updates new ways to play this level adding a new I think they're adding a new spy gadget and stuff So very cool. And a really nice thing that they're, they're going to add all this stuff in the next year and it's totally free. So super nice consumer move and double seven is fucking awesome. So you're going to play tonight. Yeah, I am.

5:06:47I'm going to play after dinner and it's so late now I'm running late, but I'll definitely play it before I go to bed. All right. Next up is, so among us, double seven, 35 is a Gothic remake, which is already out. That was a commercial. 36 is a on to a commercial for that, which is not even on PlayStation, I don't think. Wuthering Waves cross Cyberpunk event was 37. That's a commercial as well. Number 38 was Monster Hunter Wild Ascendance, which is a new expansion, a massive expansion, as they call it in the press release, actually, for the controversial Monster Hunter Wilds that will come out in 2027.

5:07:21It says, quote, Monster Hunter Wild Ascendance advances the story of the Forbidden Lands as the expedition team's adventurous soars to a new locale set amongst the clouds. In the expansion, hunters will explore islands in the sky and wield explosive new abilities that evolve the gameplay and take the hunting action in new heights the challenge will also rise to a whole new level with the return of elder dragons and master rank content so not much more to say about it than that you are on again off again monster hunter guy

5:07:44Colin Moriarty:weren't you yeah well i i got into it kind of late with the uh monster hunter rise but i like that game a lot that was where brad and i's romance really began was playing that game together and And then Monster Hunter Wilds, we played it a ton when it came out. But I think, not speaking for myself, but from others, that it felt like the endgame was a little disappointing for longtime Monster Hunter fans. And also, this is a PC gamer problem, but also it didn't run great on PlayStation. It didn't run great anywhere. So it kind of had us falling off of it. So I'm very intrigued by this. Hopefully it's improved in the ways that can keep its longevity.

5:08:32Colin Moriarty:And if I remember Monster Hunter Worlds, when Iceborne came out, it was like, I think a lot of people thought it was better than the base game. So I'm very interested in this and we'll be keeping a watch for why. Next up is, and we're at 39 now, is Swords of Legends. this game was actually revealed as push square reminds us in their story last year at gamescom opening night at gamescom or gamescom opening night gamescom jesus christ i'm shot um yeah i don't know it's just more of these like kind of chinese style traditional historical hack and slash games it looks cool but again you were saying it's just these souls like games and these it's just all it's all blurring together for me so do you have anything you want to say about this the only thing to say about this is shout out to Kong Kong Z master of cantrip who is the boss fight which actually was pretty cool because he's like a cloth or a carpet yeah it was really cool it looked like a Persian rug or something yeah he was cool but I'm good on the souls likes next up is number 40 it's a pretty big one although not for me and not for you probably but it's for a lot of people Hot Wheels Infinite Rush this comes from Mattel as acting as publisher with Milestone, which is the Italian, long-running Italian racing developer.

5:09:50They write here, quote, set in a dynamic, freely explorable environment designed in a signature scale and style of Hot Wheels, players can launch into gravity-defying stunts and high-speed adventures beyond the iconic orange tracks. Features include explore a Hot Wheels-sized world, high-speed arcade racing, competitive multiplayer, create and customize all sorts of things for your cars and your tracks and all the rest. Yeah, I mean, this is a follow-up to, I think, Like a surprisingly popular 2021 game, Hot Wheels Unleashed, and the Turbocharged sequel, which came out in 2023. So they're just continuing to go.

5:10:21And these games, I got to look. Like Hot Wheel Unleashed. Yeah, it's by a year after it came out, it was already at 2 million units with 8 million players. I mean, it's pretty good. Hot Wheels isn't exactly the most relevant brand anymore, as far as I can tell.

5:10:38Colin Moriarty:Yeah. My kids play with fucking toys, so I don't know. i'm interested in this not necessarily i'm gonna like pick it up and play it day one but it kind of makes it sound like it's a little more open world like on this press release says race across four themed islands where players can sky jump between environments smash their obstacles blah blah blah so i wonder if they're kind of taking a page out of like forza horizon which i'm always intrigued by those games but i am such an arcade racer guy that it doesn't quite work for me. So and Mario Kart World was very disappointing in terms of its world aspect.

5:11:17Colin Moriarty:So a kart racer feeling arcade racer game that has an open world aspect kind of could be interesting. The next two are both Sonic related. Unfortunately, number 41 is new characters and DLC stuff coming to Sonic Racing's Sonic Racing Cross Worlds. tmnt coming july 2026 leo don rafael and michelangelo and then i guess avatar stuff avatar the cartoon stuff is coming later in the summer and then later in the year godzilla and evangelion are coming so are you interested in checking the evangelion stuff out i kind of am though i don't know if it's enough to for me to want to buy the game maybe if i could get on like a super sale at some point just because it some of the evangelion stuff and looked really silly and out of pocket so i try to not be one of those fans that just consumes that's like oh well it's evangelion so now i must submit to sonic i must bend the knee to sonic don't ever not sure about that but number 42 is sonic pico park which is a version of the game pico park i guess imbued with sonic for its 35th anniversary pico park is a game by techo park which came to PC in 2016 and Switch in 2019.

5:12:36I don't really know anything about it. I think it's a co-op like puzzler or something, right? And then there was a sequel Pico Park 2 and I was looking this up because it actually came to everything but PlayStation, which is weird. Huh. So I don't know if this is, I assume this will come to PlayStation but something to keep an eye on. Do you have anything to say about this before we move on?

5:12:52Colin Moriarty:I know nothing about it. Number 43 is Attack on Titan 3. This is coming from Omega Force. So it is a Musou and being published by Koei Tecmo. They write here, quote today, Koei Tecmo America and developer Omega Force announced Attack on Titan 3, challenging fans to dedicate their hearts and fight for the survival in a dark fantasy world terrorized by giant humanoids. The new action game is based on the popular anime and manga series created by Hajime Asayama and enables AOT enthusiasts to play through the entire epic storyline for the first time. To commemorate the announcement, a reveal trailer has been released, offering an exclusive first look at the upcoming game and blah, blah, blah, blah.

5:13:29Attack on Titan 3 is a riveting culmination of Omega Force's action game series depicting the story of Attack on Titan from its survey core beginning to its dramatic conclusion. Fans can ready their blades for combat against the nine titans while learning more about the characters and lore through the brand new story content. With upgrades and improvements to the omnidirectional mobility gear battle system helping create more acrobatic and intense fights, fans can experience the terror and drama of Attack on Titan's legendary story like never before. What is it about these mousseaus that are so attractive?

5:13:56Colin Moriarty:Yeah, I'm trying to remember if, I'm sure that this has a lot of Musou trappings, but like in watching the trailer, there's straight up boss fights with Titans. And so maybe it's not quite as Musou as we're initially. You might be right, actually, because I'm looking at Omega Force's Wikipedia page. They make a bunch of games, obviously, and they have them split up so that it's like Dynasty Warriors and then spinoffs of Dynasty Warriors and then Samurai Warriors and then Warriors Orochi and Warriors All-Stars and then the licensed stuff. So it's like from Fist of the North Star to Zelda to whatever, Dragon Quest and everything, Fire Emblem.

5:14:33And then they have other. And in there, they have a few random things, like remember the game Bladestorm and then Tukidon, which was kind of a soul sacrifice copy. And then the Attack on Titan games are in there as well. And there's Attack on Titan in 2016, Attack on Titan 2 in 2018. They're described as hack and slash. So I imagine they probably are Musou, but probably not volumetric action games. in other words like not the endless barrage of enemies might be something more deliberate it probably has to be because it's that there's not like an infinite number of these titans right

5:15:07Colin Moriarty:so yeah well we'll see yeah i love attack on titan i'm i'm curious anime games have very very mixed quality but i'm i'm curious if if you like attack on titan one and two of the games let me know if they are of quality. I think I own one of them, but I've never played it. We can move through these quick as well. 44 was Clutch. That game has already been revealed, but it's the new game from some of the Forza Horizon people. It looks pretty good. 45 is Chronicles Medieval, which is only on PC. 46 was something about Sea of Remnants. I don't even know. 47 was Hitman's Elusive Target, which was Pittsburgh's own Wiz Khalifa, as we saw.

5:15:45Colin Moriarty:Wait, the 47th announcement was Hitman? Yeah. He is Agent 47. Yeah, that's right. that's very interesting yeah it was i mean by my count yeah very cool because i had a few things that i like use like halves because there was like um i death row games was 7.5 switches for scissor reel was 24.5 switches second reel was 34.5 and then the capcom sale was 46.5 so yeah those are all games so i think it does it is 47 games yeah oh and hitman it's the uh Wiz Khalifa elusive target is the is what they're doing. So like I said, Pittsburgh's very own Wiz Khalifa. 48 is Pal World. I guess they're finally coming out of early access or something because I think they were calling it 1.0.

5:16:35Tired. I'm infinitely tired of talking about that game. And then number 49 is a big one and 50 was a big one, too. They're related. 49 was the Wolf Among Us 2, which was first revealed a long time ago back in 2022. I want to say from Telltale. I don't know if it's like the same version as that game. I assume it probably is. It's being slated for 2027. And it's of course based on the Fables comic series. Mike is really excited about this. It comes out alongside number 50 here, which is the Wolf Among Us Remastered. This is obviously a big thing to do and a smart thing to do as well to kind of get people reinvigorated about the series.

5:17:10And that will come out later this year, the holiday season of this year. So that's something else for you to look forward to. Any interest in these games?

5:17:15Colin Moriarty:I have never played the Wolf Among Us so I know a lot of people love it and they're so excited for Wolf Among Us 2 so I'm glad they're finally getting that like Telltale obviously had all their problems is this their first like in their reborn state coming back let's find out Telltale Games 2018 the present is they have like their own Batman Shadows Edition was 2019 the expanse was their first thing right and then this is the wolf among us is the the technically the second thing because the batman stuff was done before they became this company i think they were just uh combining the work that they had already did at the that because the batman stuff was like late original telltale and i think they carried it over good question though all right just a few more to get through 51 was stellar blade blood rain sequel to stellar Blade starring an all new character, which I think is awesome.

5:18:15And I wonder like how the gooners feel about it because she's got the tight outfit on, but she kind of like, is she like, she kind of looks like a child almost. It's kind of like uncomfortable, you know?

5:18:23Colin Moriarty:I don't know. Like, I don't know what they're like. It feels like I haven't read it. I haven't had time to read anything, but I'm like, are they, are they upset? I guess they're all fake anyway. They're not real or maybe she's real. Maybe she's a real girl. I don't know. But it says here, quote, stellar Stellarblade Blood Rain marks the next chapter in the acclaimed action-adventure franchise being developed by the original team. Set in the same universe as Stellarblade, the next installment continues the story behind the events of the first game, introducing a new protagonist, Eevee, and expanding the world in a bold new direction.

5:18:53While the project is still early in development, Shift Up has made incredible progress and is looking forward to sharing more details when ready. The team is hard-focused on building upon the stylish action world building and core elements that fans have adored from Stellarblade while evolving the universe in ambitious new ways. there's really no other information other than the trailer, which is fairly extensive along, along with some art and screenshots. I'm looking forward to this. I think it looks awesome. I thought the original celebrate was fantastic. I think a lot of people are fascinated.

5:19:21I know I'm fascinated by like, will the will they won't they with Sony and like PlayStation exclusivity. We know that they're publishing it themselves. And they said in their most recent fiscal report that they are going to try to launch it everywhere. I just wonder what that means. But again, by the time this game comes out, you can imagine for instance maybe them trying to sneak it on switch 2 or something did stellar blade 1 come to xbox i should look that up i'm not sure while you look that up i'll say

5:19:45Colin Moriarty:this trailer was great i really like that it looks very different in terms of its environments like stellar blade 1 is very wasteland uh very sparse environment whereas this one you're in this very grungy looking super futuristic cyberpunk-esque city and the other thing too is this combat being hand-to-hand combat is looks pretty dang cool so stellar blade one was great uh i'm the real gooner here because i have the stellar blade platinum that's how much i like the game which is rare for me it is to get platinum so i'm very excited about this and then we have and I am I am too we'll be eager about that probably what 29 maybe something for that 28 maybe yeah 52 is Street Fighter 6 not usually very interesting to us except for the fact that they've added Tifa from Final Fantasy 7 to the game or they're going to that will come in early 2027 they announced three other characters as well Yasmin coming summer Arjun coming autumn and Bosh coming later after Tifa so it'll go Yasmin Arjun Tifa Bosh and the release order for year 4 of Street Fighter 6 which has already been out for a long time and it's done very well um people are really excited to see tifa there it's the square enix is becoming a little more flexible and it's interesting to see her incorporated into the street fighter universe which is a little weird um what do you think yeah i what was brad saying that they really have wanted her in tekken for a while yeah she almost makes more sense in tekken to be honest like the way she the way she dresses and and uh yeah well Well, and I'm trying to remember.

5:21:28Colin Moriarty:There was another wasn't Noctis from Final Fantasy 15 in Tekken at some point. So Square Enix is kind of willing to float around. But I mean, it appears to me as someone totally on the outside. He's in Tekken 7. OK, I knew. OK, so they did get one at some point, but they didn't they didn't get their girl Tifa. So I can understand being upset. So but yeah, Square being friendly, bringing over that character. It was a nice little warm-up for what we got next. The final game is, as you said, 53 Final Fantasy VII Revelation. This is the long-awaited third and final iteration in the Final Fantasy VII Remake saga.

5:22:10And they've announced that it's going to come to everything at the same time. So no more PlayStation exclusivity for this, as was the case with Final Fantasy Remake and Rebirth, which is fine. I don't really give a shit. They're set to release it in Spring 2027, which is exciting. No specific release date yet. I was excited. They did a little cop-out at the show. I thought it was a nice little stagecraft because they had them on. And I was saying, like, he's there. Like, for the Capcom, I'm like, there he is. And then he comes back on stage, which I thought was really cool. So they write here in the press release, quote, Cloud Strife and his loyal companions face a world that teeters on the brink of annihilation, grieving a beloved ally and with their nemesis Sephiroth nearing godhood.

5:22:46The party takes to the skies aboard the airship Highwind in a race against time to stop Meteor, the ultimate destructive magic and total obliteration of the planet. Final Fantasy VII Revelation delivers the unforgettable, breathtaking finale to one of the most ambitious projects in video game history and the culmination of 30 years of Final Fantasy VII storytelling. In the revealed trailer, the party sets off across a world without boundaries. The entire planet is freely explorable via the iconic Highwind airship. Players can drop in via parachute anywhere. It's like Far Cry. Seamlessly transitioning from air to land.

5:23:15With meteor descending and enormous weapons unleashing terror, the planet's conflicts are many and the party will need to divide and conquer. Choose where to go, who to help, and in what order as the planet itself fights for survival. Make one last stand alongside a beloved cast of legendary heroes making decisions along the journey that can impact aspects of their stories. Customize combat by switching between real-time action and tactical mode in the series acclaimed hybrid battle system now expanded and perfected with new playable characters and powerful new abilities. Looks really great. It sounds like maybe they're introducing a little bit of choice, but I don't know how that's going to work.

5:23:43I wonder if they're really kind of overselling that. Otherwise, I'm super excited. I don't really even want to see anything else. They showed a lot of the weapons, which is cool. I mean, that's a huge part of the end of the game. The Highwind, obviously, the party fighting a lot of Vincent, a lot of Sid. The job system. And the job system, that's right. Yep, which is cool. So I was saying on the stream, I really feel like they've done a great job of differentiating the three games. We haven't played the third game. We don't know exactly how it's going to turn out, but they do seem separate and distinct from each other.

5:24:15They're not like one big thing that was squished together. They have such different DNA, and I really like that, that they're doing that.

5:24:22Colin Moriarty:Yeah. I the thing that immediately intrigued me and it's in the press release here is just that the fact that you can fly around in the high wind and then fortnight jump out and drop in thinking about the trilogy now as a whole the first final fantasy 7 remake is very it's overall very linear experience there's a couple points where you can kind of branch off and do different things but it's certainly not an open world game by any means then you get to rebirth and it is much much more open but it still is like segmented open world levels like very very large open world levels that are segmented so this it sounds like they're evolving to like a full-blown open world approach which is really exciting because i was there was a little bit of concern for me that after rebirth i don't know i got this feeling they were kind of like yeah we need to we're going to get going on this really fast we're not going to we're going to use rebirth as the base to kind of evolve and so i was i guess i was lightly concerned that we were just going to get like the rebirth but the next story like the next part of the story but the mechanics and the way the game played and the feature set would be the same but that clearly isn't the case showing that adding this job system adding this open world aspect it looks like a pretty significant evolution of it and yeah the vincent gameplay looked sick so i this is probably going to be the new most anticipated game for the time being uh outside of judas but give us a date little let us i can't be i can't be excited for judas constantly at this point it's too bad i'm just my balls can't handle it.

5:26:11It's too much. It's too much for your much. Well, that's all we had. I thought it was a great showcase. I really enjoyed it. A lot of things to look forward to. If you like video games, if you don't like video games, probably not many things for you to look forward to.

5:26:24Colin Moriarty:Yeah. All right. So we'll we'll segue back into the show. We've recorded a bunch of other stuff. I mean, there's still so much a show left to go. And for the Xbox showcase, which will have a bunch of PlayStation stuff at it, we'll just do that next week. So this episode will go live just a couple hours probably after we stop here. Hope you enjoyed it. Dustin, thank you for being here. I appreciate you. Let's go back to the rest of it. We're coming back in from the summer game fest thing. Should we do one? I assume we will. Show is supposed to be two hours long, man. I'll tell you. Intergalactics looks pretty good.

5:26:53Really good. I think it's going to really surprise everyone. I wonder how many of those we nail and we don't we don't get when I when I probably half and half.

5:27:01Colin Moriarty:I don't know if we've ever nailed. I feel like it's always been a miss.

5:27:07very well all right we got an interesting letter here that i thought i would use to go off of for this next story which is a bit of a niche story we can talk about it briefly but something i'm quite excited about cory vaught wrote in and said hey gents do you think sony purposely keeps the store horribly unorganized and bloated trying to browse the state of play sale is extremely cumbersome as well as listed as well as well as games are listed multiple times for various editions and then there are dlc listings mixed in as well gta 5 itself has four pages in a row on the app because of the game and shark cards same goes for the sports games combine this with the avalanche of games released every day and it becomes a slog to find something without specifically searching for it how does this benefit them what's stopping them from having a single card for every game on sale instead of listing every single page associated with one thanks guys i'll go hang hang myself and listen please don't david caran dean caran dean right That's the guy I think.

5:27:57So that is weird and it is annoying. It's been a thing since the PS3. I don't know why they do that. I assume it's because everything's on sale. Some people are going to be interested in that. I mean, if you're a Grand Theft Auto fan, seeing the shark cards or whatever on sale is probably going to be a huge thing. So I understand that you think they would give you away. And they do. You can use the search tools to narrow out platforms and things you want, pricing and all the rest. But there are two things, because we got a couple of letters about this and I want to reiterate this because I thought I said it, but I guess I didn't.

5:28:24And I think it might be fixed. On PSN, you can't find Mina the Hollower if you search for Mina. You have to search for Mina the Hollower or you have to search for Hollower. I think this was fixed, but it's true. 100%. At least it was for like a week. So I wanted to throw that out there in case you're having difficulty finding it. And someone wrote in about that. We were going to use this, but we've been going long, so I don't want to get too deep into the weeds. But I thought it would be interesting to show this. So we've cited this website, delistedgames.com. which is a pretty cool website it just it just chronicles games that were on various platforms that no longer are on those digital storefronts anymore just a little bit of a compendium and they report that it seems like sony is kind of going through and killing these these shovelware developers now we had noted um that back in it was back in march and april and they write here Nostra Games and CGI Lab and Go Game and VRC Forge and Welding Byte.

5:29:24So five studios all had their games removed from PlayStation Network, which was thousands of games. And I think they've gone after a lot of the larger targets of shovelware and the trophy kind of games. And now they're going after the smaller ones. So they write here, Webnetic is the next publisher catalog to be wiped off the PlayStation Store. And they write, quote, publisher Webnetic has either been informed by Sony ahead of being banned from the PlayStation Store, or they're electing to bow out voluntarily before the band hammer comes down on them. The studio announced on Twitter on Monday that they are on our final days on PlayStation, in quotes, suggesting that their remaining roster of 172 titles will soon be delisted.

5:30:01And their tweet read, quote, as our journey on PlayStation comes to an end, we want to thank everyone who played our game, supported our releases, and joined us along the way. These are our final days on PlayStation, so if you ever wanted to check out our games, now is the perfect time to do so before they're gone. But this isn't the end for us. we're continuing our journey on xbox nintendo and steam and we have exciting projects ahead we'll have fun with that over there so 100 so their games are going to get delisted soon and then another company akintha they write is the next playstation publisher to announce their upcoming removal from the playstation store and they write on the website quote following yesterday's announcement about webnetic it appears that sony may now be informing multiple playstation publishers publishers about their upcoming catalog delistings this month early this morning, developer Akintha announced on Twitter and in a reported email that their 47 published titles will be removed from the PlayStation Store at the end of this month.

5:30:54Bye! Yeah. Like, 40, like, come on, man. Now they're going after the smaller targets, so it doesn't feel quite as good, but I think it's because there's probably fewer large obvious targets to go after. But they're doing it, guys. Can you believe it? I actually can't. i can't believe it to such an extent that i feel like it's something else and it's not that the games are shovelware trophy games like that's how like uncertain i am about like it's like when they allowed you to change your name finally on psn it's like really yeah you almost couldn't believe it and we've been bitching about this for so long and they really are doing something about it and they're getting they should have never been on the store to begin with these people but it's good that they're getting removed and i just wanted to shout that out i don't know if you have anything to say but to answer the question from cory no it's not intentional and it looks like they're trying to make things a little easier which i appreciate and according to these guys nintendo and xbox and steam steam's not going to care but nintendo and xbox don't care and as i understand switch is getting bad yeah um which is like i don't i just don't know what nintendo gains from that i just i i'm confused by it i know how the system works like i know how much money everyone's making i know like how many copies these games typically sell it's like what are you really getting from fucking your shit up like this it's sad so wanted to throw that out there very exciting news dub the web we don't cite this website very often but wccf tech old website writes ncsoft pushes horizon steel frontiers to 1h 2027 after hinting at a 2026 launch so they went through their financials over at ncsoft of course a south korean mostly mmo studio they're making uh the upcoming mmo rpg horizon steel frontiers which is apparently only coming to pc and mobile it was originally supposed to come out potentially in 2026 1h 2027 of course means first half so pushed out to no later than probably this time next year this game looks cool dustin could they be um could this give them time to bring it

5:33:02Colin Moriarty:entire time maybe but probably not i still i mean obviously this game is going to be available here but it really feels like it is a game for another market being so mobile focused but yeah i'm i'm curious about this one is especially with the contrast of how people are feeling about horizon hunters gathering so we'll have to wait a little longer let's see here what else by the way if steel frontiers comes to console i'll play it i'm just not playing it on on purple gotta be dreaming yeah all right what do you guys think about this push square reported this they write widespread confusion forces amazon to make statement about future james bond games so as you guys know well you why would you know this amazon acquired mgm during the development of 007 First Light.

5:34:03This means that they own James Bond now, but they obviously let the game go on and whatever. It's not unlike what happened with Bethesda when Microsoft bought them, and yet we still got Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo as PlayStation exclusives because those deals were made or whatever. So in a weird statement, and this was in an interview with Polygon, Jeff Gaddis, who's the head of Amazon Gaming, the general manager of gaming, he says the following. He says that while Amazon, quote, didn't have the full rights to First Light James Bond game, any sequels will be, quote, done by MGM and theoretically by Amazon Game Studios, end quote.

5:34:40It's not suggested that IO Interactive will be replaced as developer, just that publishing duties will move over to Amazon, IO self-published 007 First Light. Quote, we did not make First Light. We do have some stake in it because we now own the IP, but that IP acquisition happened after the First Light IO deal was already done, end quote. quote. Push Square writes, the hope is that Amazon won't interfere with what IO Interactive wants to do next with its vision of James Bond. So this confused some people because it's like, what are you saying? And I agree with their, you know, Stephen Talby over there wrote this, and I agree with his interpretation that what they're saying is that they're going to publish the games.

5:35:13I don't think that they'd be fucking stupid enough, especially because Amazon is so inept with video games that they would get in the way. This thing has been hand delivered to them. Basically, they didn't have to do anything. So I don't think they're stupid enough to do that. but I can understand people's misinterpretation. They gave a comment then to VGC that might make things worse, but I don't know. They say, quote, Amazon MGM holds the rights to any future James Bond video games, but it's still too early to discuss future projects. We have a great relationship with IO Interactive and are proud of what we've accomplished together on 007 First Light.

5:35:47I don't know what you accomplished with them. Our partners at IO will reveal more about 007 First Light in the near future, and we're looking forward to sharing what's next, end quote. how do you read that chris why wouldn't the game just sold 2.2 million copies in 24 hours i think why wouldn't you just be brave enough to say like we hope that we can do more with io in the future

5:36:06Colin Moriarty:yeah it is crazy well i'm gonna i think it's 2.2 million in the first week oh first week i'm part because i think the first 25 uh four hours i think was 1.5 which is great okay pardon me but um so don't you know yeah i got you i got you before you commented you saved me you the uh the rare chris save the uh i don't it's weird it is weird to word it that way for sure like i don't know why you would uh not be clear about it first of all what the fuck is your intention really like to not have them do this i guess maybe it is well so here's the thing that could make this make sense Maybe IO doesn't want to.

5:36:45Colin Moriarty:That's what I was thinking. I don't because they made a look. We're going to talk about it in what we're playing. I think it's exceptional. But maybe they're like, yeah, we built this thing. It was a fun thing to do. Back to Hitman. Right. Like, I don't know. Like, maybe, maybe or something else. Like, I don't know. like uh what were you do you have something to say to my angle was like they licensed it but published it themselves so i would assume that means they took a greater financial risk in order to hopefully reap greater financial rewards and so now they're going to have to negotiate with amazon uh in terms of like a publishing deal and they might just be like well we don't really want to make it for you in that way like we want to be able to like does that make sense colin in terms of like a money perspective yeah i was thinking too to that point that it might it could be a relationship thing too like they made the deal with just different people they might not like amazon i mean they might not want to work with them or Like there could be, yeah.

5:37:59So it could, the money situation. And like you were saying, the, the idea that they're licensing it and then acting as self-publisher, it does seem to say when you read the verbiage, which is probably pretty deliberate by Amazon, especially in the statement, it's like, we're going to publish these games moving forward. Like that's not even a choice. And so you could be right in saying like, well, this isn't really worth it or worth it for us to continue on. And although Dustin, it conflicts with what we were saying earlier about like wanting to invest in a place and a time and then reap more rewards out of it.

5:38:29It should be easier for them to make a bond game now. And it would be a shame for them to not do it. I just my biggest concern here is just that. And I actually saw our friend Rick Hogue, lawyer and friend of the show, our legal analyst. He had said this on Twitter and he's absolutely right. it's like amazon he said it much more cleverly but the the point was basically like amazon has some fucking audacity considering like how badly their gaming situation has gone like remember lumberyard and all that kind of stuff like they wasted probably billions of dollars at this point um and it's crazy like it goes to show you that no money doesn't solve all your problems actually like it's a money won't get a game out the door they just sold that game to Ubisoft by the way because like one of the big memory was like March of Giants whatever I think

5:39:17Colin Moriarty:it was called oh yeah you're right offloaded it that was like the only game that they one of the only games they made that anyone gave a fuck about so they've been delivered this embryonic thing of a new 007 standard for a very important IP for them for MGM and God help them if they don't see the wisdom in trying to keep this relationship going so you guys could be right it could be more on ios part but i feel like that would be such a waste too yeah like yeah it's just you did it you did it like make a sequel at least make one more yeah i want to be clear i want to be clear i definitely wanted other ones i think this because this can really only get better i think um and so yeah i mean it's ultimately it would be wise of them to do that but yeah you know maybe they if they're not feeling it here's what I think if they really don't think that if it's up to Amazon they're like you're not doing it anymore that's insane if they want to just leave the IP though like I mean there's not really much you can do about that and so you know they should do whatever they want but like another 007 would slap I I'm such a new fan of this IP or whatever and it's because of this game really cool that makes me excited to get into it I'm gonna do that I'm gonna I'm gonna start playing it next because I'm not gonna be on the review discussion for it almost certainly so i can just i can just play it you know yeah just take your time so i'm gonna i'll platinum saros tonight probably then i'll move on to 007 yeah io has to make up the money for mine's eye oh yeah i wonder what they lost i wonder i wonder what that financial deal was because they were they were like really distributing publisher right like they came in late yeah it cost them something and they want it out of the deal which they wouldn't have wanted out of if they got remember they they even canceled like there was supposed to be a hitman crossover and stuff i think right and like they canceled all it so thank god yeah get him as far away from that ip as possible yeah age 47 age 47 doesn't need that that heat all right let's see here this uh was exciting to maddie this next piece of news digital eclipse and atari atari of course bought digital eclipse and owns them now and Digital Eclipse, of course, is a very well-known, very well-respected retro developer of compilations.

5:41:36They announced Toy Story titles, Toy Story Retro Roundup and Toy Story 3 Complete Edition. So two different games here. Both will be on PlayStation 5. I don't think there will. Oh, there will be PS4 versions as well. So they write here, quote, Digital Eclipse and Atari today announced two new releases celebrating the 30th anniversary of Pixar's Toy Story franchise. Toy Story Retro Roundup, a definitive collection of classic Toy Story era games and Toy Story 3 Complete Edition, a modern remaster of 2010's Toy Story 3. Digital and physical editions will be released simultaneously for PC and console on October 15th, the day after my birthday.

5:42:13The Toy Story 3 Complete Edition seems to be the more exciting one for most people. And this was an exciting one for Matty. This was the, wasn't this the game?

5:42:20Colin Moriarty:This was his best game of all time, I think, right? Or something like that at one of our live shows? Very funny. So very exciting for him, made just for him. And that, of course, originally came to PS3 in 2010. And then the one that's more interesting to me, I never played these games, but this seems much more enticing to me as a retro gamer is Toy Story Retro Roundup. This is a compilation of the original Toy Story game on SNES, I want to say. And then Toy Story 2 Buzz Lightyear to the rescue, which is a PS1 game. Toy Story 2, which is a PS1 game. Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, which is a PS1 game, I think.

5:42:50And Toy Story Eraser, which is also probably a PS1 game. Along with a bonus game of Bugs Life. Also a PS1 game. I think some of these might be Game Boy iterations as well. rewind and retry instantly save and load anywhere etc etc etc now I have no memory of I didn't play

5:43:05Colin Moriarty:these games did you did you guys play these games as youth oh yeah yep yeah I played Toy Story on Sega Genesis growing up a lot the game certain parts of it are hard as shit and it's really unique because the first few levels are 2d like like platformer but then there's like a top-down mode where you're controlling the rc car there's like a first person mode or a first person level where you're in like the inner workings of the arcade machine carrying those little alien guys around it's a pretty weird ass game but it's cool and then toy story 2 on ps1 also really awesome game i don't know about buzz light you're a star command and toy story racer but uh i am pumped and dude i love that they're tacking on bugs life they're like well that's a game that i also played on ps1 that is uh i don't know if it's good but i played it when i was a kid so the fact they're like this game is never gonna have a chance to exist outside of this just tack it on there love it so i'm pretty pumped about bugs life too yeah i'm i'm weirdly i'm weirdly stoked about this entire thing i gotta be real with you like uh just because again these are really old games i never played toy story 3 that was like a little bit because that came out i think that came out around like the time i was in high school i'm pretty sure like i didn't i i was out of that phase really for me but toy story 2 awesome fucking game i never played the original toy story game that uh that game boy or is it or what is it not game boy the uh what's it on snes yeah the original one is sns and genesis i think you and you yeah dustin you said you played on genesis yeah i didn't play that one you say in the press release that it's the sns versions which i thought was interesting yeah that is interesting i i i only played toy story 2 that sounded sarcastic that is a toy story 2 i played the shit out of buzz lightyear i feel like i remember that game i feel like i had it i don't i that was definitely the one i spent the least time playing toy story racer i played the shit out of oh and i i wouldn't it's look it's not it ain't crash team racing or mario kart or anything but it is a fun weird i what i remember about it is is it controls very distinctly like it's a very weird kind of bouncy it's like a bouncy floaty racer and it's kind of it's kind of fun and the tracks are really cool i remember the soundtrack being fun and a bug's life i played the shit out of too just because like again uh ps1 i was like around that age like a lot of really weird platformers i have a nostalgic connection to that bugs life game i don't know if it's any good but i feel like it's one of those games where like the second i started up i'll be like i'm just kind of happy because it's so weird i like first of all these games have no reason to come back you know what i mean like there's no real justifiable reason for this to be ported forward so the fact that they are is like really exciting to me because it means like there's a lot of things on the table that otherwise in my mind were completely off the table um i i love this shit i think i've identified why these games are happening like i think i know the source of them and i'm being serious is that i believe there's a guy that used to work at sony actually named John Drake.

5:46:32Do you know? Does that name sound familiar to you guys? And he's like the marketing or he's like the licensing guy at Sony. And he's like a real gamer, gamers, gamer. He's married to Andrea Renee, if you know her. Oh, and I really think he's the one facilitating all this stuff because there's a lot of shit coming out, not only for Disney, but for Marvel. Like when you look at a lot of the stuff, it's like, wow, like there's that Marvel X-Men, like the NES games and Silver Surfer and all this weird stuff. It's like, whoa, like, and it's definitely a dude who knows shit, like knows that this is probably not a big money maker but valuable and in its own way to do you know as an external thing it's i feel like i would be shocked if it wasn't him yeah yeah there's also probably part of it that toy story 5 comes out oh for sure no for sure for sure with toy story i mean it makes sense but what i'm saying is that like they have been very aggressive at disney and marvel of just doing licensing of going back to old games of reviving things things they never did ever and so yeah no it makes sense for that i mean there's certainly a point to it i imagine and shout out to what you know atari's been we have a little bit of a bias because we love jason polanski but they're being insanely aggressive in this new form they're buying a lot of stuff i think digital eclipse was an incredible purchase it like aligned it's like when they bought night dive and another incredible purchase it leans into the whole like we're retro like we do old things and yeah dude digital eclipse i mean listen to all the things since 2015 that they've done megaman legacy collection the disney afternoon collection the street fighter 30th anniversary collection the snk 40th anniversary collection the samurai showdown collection the space jam uh then he actually did a new space jam game in 2021 that's interesting tmnt the cowabunga collection the atari 50 anniversary celebration which is probably where they made their relationship with them.

5:48:19The Wizardry remake, the making of Karateka, the Llamasoft game. You played that, right? Dustin? Oh, no, you played the Tetris one. Yeah, Tetris one. They did Worms Armageddon Anniversary, Tetris Forever, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers re-release, Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection, Golden T Arcade Collection, Mortal Kombat Legacy Collection, the Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition. It's like, damn.

5:48:42Colin Moriarty:Yeah, it's good stuff. Damn. Yeah, it's good stuff. Damn, Sean. What a weird list of games, man. That's so exciting. I love shit like this. I love when they like, because you expect things like, like Resident Evil on PS1. That's an old game, right? But like, I'm never really worried about having access to that. Like that will be on modern storefronts. Like it was on PS3. You know, I'm not worried about it, but like a bug's life. What? Yeah, I don't know. That's just cool to me because there's a lot of weird games like that. I remember Emperor's New Groove was kind of a weird weirdly good game lost in time Hercules the 2D yeah Hercules the 2D game like there's a lot of good stuff from that era so like seeing this perhaps it's misplaced hope because like who the fuck knows how relevant those games will be to even anybody but I don't know this is like a glimmer of hope that I didn't have before where it's like oh these weird eclectic PS1 games might come back in some way shape or form so this is great news I'm gonna be all over this weirdly enough in terms of toy story 3 colin who developed toy story 3 i don't know avalanche avalanche the utah company yes yeah cool now went on to make hog leg that makes sense i guess they were disney interactive at that time and the toy box mode is what spawned the disney infinity stuff interesting and then eventually in hogwarts legacy there's a whole room of requirement you wouldn't know what that is colin maybe chris you do but there's like a toy box type mode but in the world of harry potter for hogwarts legacy so interesting lineage he says that to me like i was a loser like you wouldn't know what that was you wouldn't know what the fucking room of requirement is colin come on i'm some sort of fucking piece of garbage you're not a good millennial sorry no i'm an elder millennial um But yeah, I'm not a good millennial because that's right.

5:50:38Harry Potter, it's totally my age group too. But yeah. Through Azkaban, but not after that. And I really don't remember any of it, to be honest. It's a huge surprise. All right, gamesindustry.biz wrote in, didn't write in. I went to their website and I looked at it. They wrote the California State Assembly passes AB1921. Stop killing games, protect our games act. So they report that the California legislature voted 43 to 16 on a floor vote for this bill. And I went and read the bill. So here's here's what it says. Quote, the following shall apply only to digital game first available for purchase or re-release for purchase on or after January 1st, 2027.

5:51:2160 days before a digital game operator ceases to provide services necessary for their ordinary use of a digital game, the operator shall communicate all the following information to purchasers and prospective purchasers of the digital game. The date on which services necessary for the ordinary use of the digital game will cease, any services that will no longer be provided by the operator, any game features that will no longer be available to the purchaser, any known security risks that may result from the cessation of services, how the purchaser can continue to use the digital game or obtain a refund pursuant to paragraph two, which we'll get to.

5:51:51B, a digital game operator shall communicate the information required by subparagraph A by doing both of the following. notifying purchasers directly through the operator's digital game. So putting something in a hot fix probably to post when you turn it on. And I've been posting the information publicly on the operator's internet website. Two, beginning on the date a digital game operator ceases to provide services necessary for the ordinary use of the digital game, the operator shall provide the purchaser with one or more of the following. A, a version of the digital game that can be used by the purchaser independent of services controlled by the operator.

5:52:24B, a patch or update to the purchaser's version of the digital game that enables its continued use independent of services controlled by the operator. C, a refund in the amount equal to the full purchase price paid for the digital game by the purchaser. Three, beginning on the date a digital game operator ceases to provide services necessary for the ordinary use of the game, the operator shall not sell, lease, or otherwise distribute a version of the game that cannot be used by a purchaser independent of the services controlled by the operator. So this, and there are exceptions by the way, like subscriptions don't count, free-to-play games don't count, and so on and so forth.

5:53:04So this sounds impossible to me. And I think there are, so first of all, and I think Hogue again was talking about this, is it was being badly reported because they were being like, the United States voted. It's like, no, California voted. Now, California is a substantial part of the United States, a very important part of the United States and the hub of American game development. So it's very important that their legislatures did vote for something like this. but this seems like an impossibility. I don't, I don't know what people don't get about that. That like that you can't, I don't think you can do this, right?

5:53:41Like you're going to make like some other patched version of the game that works offline. Like what if it was like, what if it was mag or something like that? Like what would you do with it? Run around the map by yourself? like i i guess i'm just confused about what people's expectations are about the ephemeral nature of these games or the potential let's say the potential ephemeral and by the way i wouldn't mind if there was some sort of even like some sort of uh ratio or some sort of formula where it's like after a year the discount like you get you refund this much after two years you refund this much so it gets to like three or four years and it's like all right it's over in other words

5:54:19Colin Moriarty:it stops you from pulling a game too soon perhaps right but this seems onerous to me what do you think chris i don't know there are many games that i've so destiny is a really good example right we're like i you log in destiny and then you can't connect to the server and then you just you can't play the game at all um i think that's kind of crazy because like the game itself doesn't feel like something that necessary like you play in and it doesn't feel like the game can't function without it i don't know i i can't explain it exactly but like it feels like i should be able to run around destiny even if nobody can join me you know what i mean like it just kind of feels like that should be possible i don't really understand why it's not um there are certain games obviously like mag or whatever where it's just like oh the whole point is that you play with people and then you connect with people on online or whatever but but yeah i should be able to run around that map kind of doing nothing like i don't know like i do think that there's some level there's like a nuance here i don't know if every game can do this obviously and i think that there's like uh uh definitely a bit of an overstepping happening but i i do find the excuse that like oh you need to be connected to play this like what about i don't know like what about suicide squad you know what i mean like what about that necessitates a connection to a server like i don't really get it this is a single player game that just happens to require me to be on line yeah that's what's confusing to me yeah i agree with you i think they're i think it's gone too far with a lot of this stuff a lot of it is for like because they're obsessed with telemetry or they're offloading shit you know and like things that they don't really necessarily want to talk about or admit but i also think it's first of all mag reference very timely extremely timely mag reference um game's only 16 years old and it's been shut off for like 14 years but we're definitely going to bring that up um well what do you think Dustin I in some ways I feel like in terms of the what needs to be done to a game I'm not nearly smart enough or knowledgeable enough to know for like I'm thinking about marathon sure like how does marathon work without connection to Bungie servers it's like okay well maybe there's a mode where you don't it's like it's like the current solo or pve mode where it's like you and your two other players two other players like one of those people host the server and you can fight on the map and pick up loot and extract but there's you know no other teams or something like that but i i'm careful to say something like that because it's like well how much of the game operates on their server where it's like it's i i don't know could it be trivial to implement where it's like uh you know a person hosting the server or is it like no like is extremely difficult where it's like oh we don't we didn't design the game for it to be hosted by the players themselves it's designed to be host on bungee servers and so for us to implement something like that is you know i guess it wouldn't be impossible but it's not really what they're out to do so i think the ephemeral nature the ephemeral nature of these games should should apply specific in my opinion anyway and this is how it's always it always worked up until the most recent kind of like server-led you know like server-side um implementation of a lot of these things where it's just like the glory days of halo 2 being able to log into matchmaking are over but like that shouldn't preclude you from loading into a map and running around and just fucking around with it because like that's that you paid for the game you know what i mean i understand that there's a license you you have the license like i get it um but you used to there were we had a lot of multiplayer experiences on 360 and on xbox and on ps2 like we had plenty of multiplayer experiences that required connection to other people to play like parts of the game but that didn't lock us out of just being able to interact with the game at all yeah and that's kind of a that's what's crazy i don't understand why that's such a big deal i don't anticipate being able to play destiny in the con in the in the like years and years and years and years from now in the in the context of like being able to match up with other players to do a striker or like a raid or whatever right but you're telling me i can't even load into the fucking menu and like land on a planet with nobody on it why Yeah, I understand.

5:58:59Yeah, I totally understand what you mean.

5:59:01Colin Moriarty:So I think there's like a there's there should be it's subjective, obviously, but there should be like a reasonable capacity of like operational functionality with these games when they when they die. And just for preservation sake, because it is a bummer that like a lot of things go away because like there's a lot of information that can be gleaned off of those off of those projects that die. like there's a lot to be learned from them and that so many of them go away is just like i don't know it just seems kind of insane art if this is truly art then it really shouldn't be this ephemeral there should be parts of it that are obviously but like movies don't vanish like this or at least they didn't until we started being okay with this kind of thing it was like oh we're gonna write that movie off and it's like ah it's off forever and you can't get it it's like well that's kind of that's also insane but no i i agree i agree with what you're saying completely and i i because they're i think the biggest thing that i think this bill needs so for so for people it passed the the state assembly it's got to go to the state senate now and i don't know i don't know what the chance of the bill passing is i really don't but it passed pretty overwhelmingly in the legislature um or in the assembly i just think that if you're going to even do something like this you have to have you have to put time on it because that's the one thing i noticed in the bill is as far as i can tell is that there is no time allowance anywhere it means that like if you take a game like uh even active activision uh takes call of duty ghosts offline or something like that yeah and it's like you're gonna they're gonna now the game didn't come out after 2027 i understand that but let's like put that in and it's like oh we're shutting it off after uh 13 years and they're like all right everyone gets a refund it's like what yeah like i i i just so i think at the very least you have to this needs to be amended and I'm not trying to like come in, come in and try to defend the games developers.

6:00:47Although in a way, I think they do need defense from the perspective of. Maybe this is what we need is like fewer multiplayer games, but like you have to have a contingency for every game now that you release if you're releasing a multiplayer game and that's just tough. Maybe it'll stop people from.

6:01:02Colin Moriarty:Well, yeah, I'm doing it. It's a good deterrent, I think, quite frankly, to be honest with you. but i also just think like it can't be that big of a deal if games used to do this in a trivial way you can load into call of duty ghosts right even if call of duty ghosts was offline you could load into it you could you could play that game yeah right right right you could at least run around the map or like plug in like another controller and run like it's accessible in some way the core of it doesn't have to be like you don't have to again yeah that's a bad example actually right features but i i know what you mean though i like i know what you're what you're saying like it is it is insane that something like that could uh it's it's if anything it should be from here on out so that way at least developers can be like okay well that's something that we have to take into account so that way we can build that kind of thing all right we have an end of life patch that goes live that kind of takes game takes the game off server um and just kind of lets you load in and you know it is what it is you can't connect to anybody unless you like do a weird roundabout thing but like um i think there should be more care and consideration placed into how these experiences are preserved well i i'll be very interested to see what happens and if this will bend the arc in any way from it's a state but it's a big state yeah uh it's a pot like so would you stop selling games in california or would you do what you're like what like europe makes you do something so we just make the change for everyone and maybe that's the entire idea I'll be watching that with great interest Alternatively couldn't they just update the TOS to negate it or is that like not something that you can do Maybe I don't know that might call it a legal problem between this you agree to that this will you know fuck you who cares yeah like that's how it's written exactly yeah I feel like this is the kind of thing that I think if it would pass both houses and then it was signed by the governor I think it would it would just get wrapped up in the courts because yeah probably because I just think you have to yeah it does interfere with the terms of service as well and like the rights of the companies, which I think are we've went over in a few weeks ago is like they have way too many rights, but they do whatever they want.

6:03:07And I don't like that either. But there has to be like we can't keep games online for 200 players. It's like, come on, man. Like you got it. Not for nothing. I don't expect the California legislature to think about finance in any way. All right. Few game announcements. Two game announcements and a delay, I guess. Fallout 76 coming to PlayStation 5. 60 frames on PS5 and PS5 Pro. It says here on the Fallout website that we're excited to announce that during the month of June we'll be kicking off public testing of the Xbox Series X and S and PlayStation 5 Pro version. So I guess they've been doing this behind the scenes, but I never heard anything about it.

6:03:47And I was looking at the Wikipedia page and there's like no, I was like, oh, when do they like start doing it privately in the beta test? And there's nothing on there about it. So PlayStation 5 version of Fallout 76. It's worth noting Fallout 76 biggest year ever was 2024 six years after release so there is a bit of a future in this game because of the the success of the amazon show i think yeah so there's that i've never played one single second of that fucking game and then there is this that fable which is coming from playground games and the xbox game studios have revealed via a post on the xbox twitter account that fable will be delayed and will now come out in February 2027 to give it time and to give it space, which makes a lot of sense.

6:04:34So we'll have to wait for that as well. That's also probably for them to get ahead of the its appearance or lack thereof, perhaps at the showcase that they're going to do in the coming days. And then a little one for me, Gravity Circuit 2 has been announced. Gravity Circuit 1 is a game I really, really, really loved. And it came out back in 23. I want to say it's a side scrolling 2D action game from a studio called Domesticated Ants Games. That was their ant games that was their first game this will be their second game psa i don't think this is true on playstation because i don't think sony would do this but you can download gravity circuit totally for free right now on steam and if you if you acquire it on steam and just add it to your account between now and june 14th you'll keep it forever um and i highly highly recommend it it is an awesome game so they're doing a sequel to this game and very very amped about it unknown 2027 release date, but I wanted to shout that out because I really, really liked the first one.

6:05:27And then finally, before we get into what we're playing and then get the hell out of here, finally, PlayStation Store top downloads for May 2026. The most downloaded games on the PlayStation Network. We like to go through these just for fun. 007 First Light, number one for the month of May. Lego Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight, number two. Not so bad. Followed by perennial games like NBA 2K, MLB The Show, and Grand Theft Auto 5. Other interesting games on this list include include Saros at nine and Crimson Desert at 10. Forza Horizon 5 popping back up at 11, probably because Forza Horizon 6 is coming and there's no way for us to play it on our platform right now.

6:06:04Sea of Thieves at 20. Directive 8020. The new Dark Pictures Anthology game at 19. Pragmata at 18. Content warning at 17. Mixtape at 14. So interesting little array of games. And that's based on American behavior, by the way, downloading behavior. and psvr2 games i am cat was number one i don't even know what that is is that the one where you fuck with a person's like surroundings probably i'm looking for it now

6:06:36Colin Moriarty:uh no i know what you're thinking of that's a different game i am cat the fuck is this i'm looking at it on steam oh maybe it is this the same game this is from years ago I am cat PSN no it is the same game yeah I guess so this is where's the date on this it's a VR game where you just fuck around with shit so there it is that's the number one game the cat in the key art on PlayStation has a smart watch on yeah what else here anything interesting not really free to play PS5 and PS4 Fortnite number one roblox number two and chris's new favorite game neverness to everness slotting in at number three nothing else too interesting on here though marvel rivals at five etc all right that's all we have for the news guys let's get into what we're playing i'll go quickly at the top here uh pragmata i beat i'm now just putting it i have to i got all the trophies in and everything i just have to beat it on hard i'm just waiting to replay through because we have to do the spoiler cast review discussion so i'll take notes and do that probably so i've kind of set that aside saros we did the spoiler discussion i did the interviews whatever i'll get the platinum tonight or tomorrow and just get that out of the way as well and please look forward to our coverage of that coming this weekend you might have already heard it depending on when you're listening to this and then that brings us to mina the hollower alex porto wrote in and said hey cdc we have to talk about mina the hollower i really enjoyed shovel night back in 2014 but i have to say mina is extremely impressive i'm about seven hours in and it's incredible fun challenging combat great exploration with tons of secrets to find gorgeous visuals and animations interesting world building and puzzles awesome soundtrack i can go on and on yacht club delivered so much more than i expected it's quite difficult to put it down even though it can be frustratingly hard at times colin it's time talk about the game what do you think um i covered it a little bit on summon sign but and i don't really have much more to say than i said on that i know people get upset when i don't talk about games here or there whatever i just don't want to be you know i literally haven't even played it since i talked about it but i'll just reiterate some of the things that i had said on there is that I think it is a very beautiful, very true to form Game Boy Color game, Game Boy Color style game in the spirit of the flagship Zelda games.

6:08:50So the, I mean flagship, the Capcom developer. So Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Season. Maybe even a little bit like Link's Awakening DX or whatever. But obviously a little bit more complicated and widescreen and so on and so forth and a much more robust game. They've made a very true to form Game Boy Color game that is extremely well put together and robust it's huge you can tell that there's like so much in it and I also like that a lot of the trophy challenges require you to play the game over and over again and not unlike the Zelda games there are challenges like beat it quickly beat it with as few items that you can find as possible like the three heart piece runs that people would do in Zelda back in the day so I think that's pretty cool as well I will admit fully that I am not grabbed by it in any way compared to the way I was by Shovel Knight and it might be because it's just less my kind of game than Shovel Knight was I can't deny that it's great and I feel like I'm not really in the right mode to play it right now I've played it for probably 4 or 5 hours and I think I might even just restart it at some point and just do it again and just kind of get back into the mode of it but I'm I would be lying to you straight up if I said that I'd been like very compelled to play it because I'm not it's really nothing with the game.

6:10:03The game's great. I'm also pleased to hear that it's selling very well. I think they said 300 ,000 copies as of a few days ago, so that should be sufficient for them to survive. And that's all I really care about so they can finish their next Shovel Knight game and so on and so forth. So yeah, people are really loving it. I'm impressed by its aesthetic, its depth, its humor. The writing is wonderful. It's beautiful. The game, like the chunky pixels and the low resolution and the very limited like character portraits and the cute animations. And I think Mina herself is a really, really great character.

6:10:37I love her. So yeah, there's more to see and more to do, but I'm just not, I'm not in it right now. So it's not a good time to ask me. And I couldn't put Shovel Knight down. Like the first time I got it. Well, I got it early back in the day and I remember playing it. I played it on, I don't play it on Wii U.

6:10:57And I was obsessed with it. And I can't say that I'm that with this. It's just, but I think, dare I say, it seems like people even like, I don't think it'll sell as well as Shovel Knight, but it seems like critically people like this more. Like I was, I said it to Brad, I was surprised by how much people really loved it. With the 10s and the 9s and something like, wow, that's, that's high praise. And I'm not saying it's unearned. I haven't played nearly enough of it to say, but that's where I am on it right now. okay it says here you're playing double oh seven first light chris why don't you take it away and i know you're playing it too dustin say what you say your piece yeah so i finished it um i beat it

6:11:40Colin Moriarty:uh at some some time ago now at this at this point i'm going back and trying to do all the collectibles because i think i do want to platinum it i'm so close like the only my only trophies left are collectible trophies and it's like that's comparably to other things like that's so trivial I might as well. And I also just authentically really loved it. I think, I think they did a great job of building this out. It's a little awkward, but not in a way that feels bad. I don't even know how to describe it. It's weird. Like it's two different types of games. It is a little bit of Uncharted, a little bit of Hitman, not so much of either to out to overshadow those other games.

6:12:20Colin Moriarty:Like the Hitman parts in this game aren't more Hitman than Hitman is. And you're going to get more hitman if you go to hitman obviously and the uncharted parts are not they don't overshadow uncharted so like they're not better but the combination of these things and how they weave in and out um i think it just makes a really unique experience that's unlike games that i've played in either of those genres really like i think these types of stealth action these types of stealth games don't normally have these action set pieces that feel this good to play through uh and they don't they definitely don't have the type of hand-to-hand combat that feels this good and this visceral to engage with and uh the action set pieces are just like they're really novel and fun and exciting and i think the characters are great like i'm really taken by the writing in this game i think it's like quite good there's like some bits of it like there's like there's like the occasional like maybe three times throughout the entire playthrough i had like an occasional flash of like like a maybe like a marvel kind of twinge like i remember there's one part where i had to climb a crane and james bond looks at it he's like i've got to climb that thing don't i you know and i'm like all right all right relax a little bit thank you for the yellow paint audio yellow paint yeah the audio yellow paint but like i i do like it's it's not really that bad and i think a lot of the characters are just really really well written i'm i'm more surprised with how taken I am with the story because it's not about at all what I thought this game would be about I don't know what I thought a James Bond game would be about necessarily but the subject matter of the campaign and how it affects the characters and where it goes is genuinely interesting and it also is genuinely I don't even know how to say it necessarily incredibly timely I'll say that I don't even want to spoil it because I feel like I feel like it's revealed pretty early but like I do think it's like an interesting kind of premise that I did not see coming in partially because I just went somewhat dark on this game a long time ago maybe this is obvious information about what the game's about but it's really fucking good and it's really lean I don't I never felt like there was any fat you know I never felt like oh this is a slog I never felt like a uh like a god of war ragnarok like walking through the roses you know what i mean like or the flowers for the pain like i never felt that kind of slow down i think it's uh the performances are great it's lean they've got some challenge uh they've got some challenges that you can like complete and different ways to finish it so there's like replay value there there's a tactical simulations mode that i've been kind of diving into it's where you can just jump into the sandbox and not deal with any of the story and go through the different levels and like stealth your way through them and there's different challenges where it's like throw x x amount of people off the platform and you know or don't get don't get found once or take zero damage or only fire your pistol or like all these different ways to go through it and it's not again it's not as dynamic as hitman is like not by a long shot but it's fun it's like a fun sandbox again the hand-to-hand combat is so fun like i love throwing an empty gun at somebody like i i wish that that was I'm kind of surprised that's not in more things because it seems so obvious but uh yeah I'm just I'm really taken with it I think it's I think IO really did a great job here um I think I still ultimately from a gameplay game experience perspective prefer Hitman but that's not to take away from anything that they've done here which is I think a massive level up in presentation in direction in uh storytelling i think is exceptional here um yeah i i really think for right now this could just be recent recency bias but it is kind of at this moment definitely a game of the year contender for me like kind of easily and i say that specifically because I'm not a James Bond guy.

6:16:31I have never cared at all.

6:16:34Colin Moriarty:And it's how I feel about Red Dead, right? Where like I just didn't care about spaghetti westerns and I still arguably don't. Like I don't really, I'm not really that big on, I'm not watching, you know, Yellowstone. Right. You know, that doesn't appeal to me at all, but I loved Red Dead Redemption. And so like the fact that that could appeal to me, even though I have a natural, I don't even know the word, anti-proclivity.

6:17:01Colin Moriarty:to that kind of storytelling or that kind of setting speaks volumes of like how good it is. And I think that's what 007 is for me. I'm excited to play it. I really am looking forward to the way you're talking about it. Dustin, why don't you follow up with some of your thoughts here? Yeah, I think I pretty much agree with everything Chris said. So I will only emphasize that the story in this game is so much better than I expected. Not that I was expecting something bad, just expecting something a little standard, a little safe for a James Bond game. but uh i am super into the story and i think that one of the main things about is that the character of james bond in this game is so incredibly likable so incredibly charming that and and not just that but like he his relationship with the other characters and what drives the storyline i'm just shocked by all of that completely uh and i think i mentioned this last week about it io interactive like the story in hitman is maybe i would have cared more about the story in hitman if i played the older games but like i didn't care at all those games had stories but i don't did not it's all about the sandbox and hitman yeah it's about the sandbox and so i guess i just didn't i didn't expect that at all so again a huge huge level up for io in a lot of ways.

6:18:33Colin Moriarty:And I cannot recommend this game enough to pretty much anybody. Bond fan, not a Bond fan. Doesn't matter. Play it. It's awesome. Well, maybe we'll dispatch you both of you next week to record with Jason and get this in the can. What about you want Prague Mod or do you want 007 from me? Well, I would rather you have 007 from you than Prague Mod probably. Oh, I mean, it's more relevant. I might be. I mean, I might be able to do both. I'm training lock all next week, too. So it's. I could do both. You're going to cry. I might. If you start acting like a bitch, she is Louise. All right, let's get that out here.

6:19:11This is going to be a real meaty episode for everyone, especially as we haven't even finished it yet. Yeah, we're done for now. Well, we're done now today and it's the end of the episode. There's nothing after this except for the credits and all the rest. But, but we'll stitch something earlier in to bump this even more. And hopefully you guys will enjoy it when it goes live. Guys, it was good to be here with you today. Thank you for your time, your efforts and your attentions Chris be well anything to share with the audience before you go

6:19:35Colin Moriarty:no I think I'm I can't remember if it was on the last sacred that I talked about feeling like was it a or might have been a stream that I'm feeling like kind of like this this twinge in the back of my throat yeah yeah you said that on the stream still there don't know what's going on it's getting it is getting worse but it's so slow it's weird I've never experienced this this big of a wind up this better be the shortest sickness I've ever had with like a really long windup or otherwise. Otherwise I'm going to be fucked. I'm going to be fucked. I'll still record obviously. I might have to talk through a vocoder.

6:20:10Colin Moriarty:Like a Stephen King. He's not a Stephen King. Stephen Hawking you know computer voice box thing. Well. Hopefully not. We'll welcome you however you come through. You're going to sound like RFK. Yeah. I love 007.

6:20:32dustin goodbye to you my friend be well anything to say before we go anything to say yeah it's

6:20:36Colin Moriarty:certainly going to be a long one hopefully you enjoyed listening to it at this point uh someone's wife is about to kill themselves oh yeah they already are gone yeah probably but yeah i was thinking about between this episode and all the streaming like it's a lot it's a lot of enough of us a lot of me it's a lot it's quite a lot so thanks for listening uh i'm thinking hot dogs for dinner oh that sounds good thinking hot dogs can't go wrong there very well well i appreciate all you guys out there thank you for being here we'll see you next time for more patreon.com slash last day media for early ad free access and last day media dot store for merch till next time goodbye see ya take care guys sacred symbols a playstation podcast is a product and trademark of last stand media and colin's last stand llc and is proudly recorded in the usa the show is conceived by is written by and is directed by me colin moriarty my co-hosts are chris raygun maldonado and dustin firman the show is produced by executive producer dustin firman all of last stands the music is by my best friend Ramon Narvaez.

6:21:46As you know, all of Last Stand's shows, including Sacred Symbols, are fan-funded on Patreon at patreon.com slash laststandmedia. The following names are at the producer level on Patreon, our highest tier, and we're grateful for your thoughtful and kind contributions to our independent endeavor. Thank you. Aaron Betke, Aaron Temple, Adam Refriended, Albion, Alex Cabrera, Alex Gates, Alex Lapierre, Alex Monez, Alan Tiniak, Alan Tremblay, Alan Einer, Anthony Akire, Anthony Vasquez, Anton K., Antonio C., Asak Paredes, Austin Riley, Betty Ann Moriarty, Bjorn Campbell, Blackjack, Boots, Brad Cooley, Brad Lohman, Brandon Runniger, Brian Williamson, Cannonball Jones, Captain Verde, Carlos Algaret, Chad Lewis, Chris Galvin, Chris Morton, Chris Ritchie, Christopher Devayo, Christopher Moore, Christopher Morgan, Cody Benin, Conrad Pennyfarthing, Corey Beacom, Dan Nolan, Dan Root, Daniel D 'Amour, Daryl E.

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