Hello, and welcome to episode number one hundred and thirty two of the Chief
Steaks and Controllers podcast presented by Fox PHL The Gambler one or two point five
FM, fourteen eighty AM, iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Where you're here in this right now. My name is Jason Finelli. It
has been a while. I understand that I said we were coming out of
hiatus, just to go right back into hiatus again. We tried a live
episode of Cheese, Steaks and Controllers over Twitch, which worked to an extent.
I still have to work out the kinks and the bugs in all of
that, but so far, I'm feeling pretty good about the year. And
that's what we are going to talk about. Is why I wanted to come
back and record this episode because the year twenty twenty three is about half over.
July the first is Saturday. This is going live on June thirtieth,
which is Friday, and that is the halfway point of the year, if
you would believe it. We are already halfway through the twenty twenty three and
there has been a lot to talk about in video games, and not so
much esports because esports is becoming increasingly irrelevant if you ask me. But that's
a whole other episode. But there's plenty of talk about. So we'll start
things off by going through the first half of the year. We'll devote the
entire second segment to June because June has been nuts, and then we will
end with a look forward for the rest of the year because all of the
sudden, the second hand of the year is loaded with games to play.
Yeah, we thought the first half was loaded, and it is to an
extent, but the second half of the year, oh boy, they really
want us to play every single video game we can get our hands on and
our wallets Ken's support. So let's get right into it by talking about the
first half of the year. And honestly, there are a lot of games
here that I forgot even launched in this particular year. There were some indie
gyms like Pizza Tower. If you haven't played Pizza Tower yet, that came
out back in h I want to say January is when Pizza Tower hit.
Maybe it was the beginning it was the end of last year, but it
started to pick up steam in the first in the beginning of this year.
But that it's a very very fun. Like some people are calling it warrior
Land for essentially the warrior Land we never got, which is really really cool.
Also as a banging soundtrack. If you haven't heard that, you're hearing
it right now underneath me. A very very cool game. Had a great
run at Summer Games Done Quick earlier this month, if you want to check
out how to play it really fast, but a very interesting sort of retro
platformer slash Metroid Vanya. It's a lot going on there, and one that
took a lot of people, including myself, by a surprise. As far
as the other side of the coin, there's four Spoken, which came out
to huge fanfare and kind of did not deliver as it was supposed to.
That I would say this is one of the more contentious games of the year
even now, even going into July. Four Spoken has its supporters, has
its detractors. It did not review terribly well if I remember correctly, It's
sitting at about a sixty three or sixty four on Metacritic, which is not
ideal but also not terrible. It's it sounds like it's very much in the
eye of the beholder, which you know happens from time to time. But
that was really cool. Also, let's not forget the year started with an
absolute bomb of a shadow drop at High Fire Rush game. And I use
bomb in the terms of not it bombed bomb in a you know, magic
the gathering because I play that now sense of like it came out of nowhere
and completely changed things and everybody loved it, or came out of nowhere with
no expectations and everybody now loves it. High Fire Rush definitely one of the
best surprises of the year. That game is so much fun, rhythm based
hacking slash, great storyline behind it, great character is great everything. A
great surprise to start the year and definitely a game that I would recommend if
you haven't checked that out yet. Dead Space Remake another big year for remakes.
Dead Space started the year off with some spooky fun we'll get into one
that happened a little later on in the year, which continues to be one
of the the best games of the year. And then in February we had
another big remake in Metroid Prime Remastered. Shadow dropped out of nowhere at the
end of a Nintendo Direct and I want to say February the twentieth, maybe
the eighteenth. Somewhere in there in that second year, a second week of
the month is when that dropped out of nowhere, like it was a shadow
dropped on digital. The physical version came out a couple of weeks later,
but Metroid Prime remastered, something that people have wanted forever, is now available
to play on your switch, which is super cool. Not the only remake
we'll be talking about from Nintendo on this episode, but that will have to
wait until later on. Also in February, we had a bit of a
slower of February the eighth is when that Nintendo direct was. It was not
the twentieth Sorry about that. Hogwarts Legacy February the tenth, and all of
the controversy do controversy of course, um that came with it. I have
not played it. I just don't. I just have no interest in it.
Part half because of the controversy surrounding it and the creator of Harry Potter
and all of the uh DO criticism and deserved criticism that she gets, and
that's putting it very very lightly. And half because Harry Potter was just never
my thing to begin with. I've watched some movies. I understand that it's
a big cultural thing. Just wasn't for me. But I would actually,
I wouldn't say fifty fifty. I'd say it's probably more seventy five twenty five.
In them, the creator sucks, the creator sucks favor. That's a
that's a word. That's a word, that's a sense. Can you tell.
I've been on hiatus for a while and I forgot how to talk.
Um, It's yeah, it's been a minute, but I hope you missed
me. I missed you, guys. Underrated gem in February would be Theorhythm
Final bar line. I say underrated even though it I think it scored like
an eighty seven or an eighty eight on Metacritic at Open Critic. But if
you love rhythm based games, Hi Fi Rush if you like something like that
but not quite the hack and slashy part, more like a DDR or a
guitar Hero where you have to match the notes. You're not playing an instrument,
you're not dancing, you're using the controller. But it takes you through
the entire history essentially of Final Fantasy through its music, which is you know,
nothing to shake a stick at. Final Fantasy music is incredible and always
has been so Final bar Line seeming to be like the big celebration of that
franchise until it can, you know, rebuild the stocks a little bit more,
because I don't know that there's a Square Enix RPG that that game doesn't
touch. Now with all the dlc out it's added Zeno Gears, it's at
a kroto trigger. I believe there's some Octopath in there as well, so
I don't know how much more of the rhythm can really do. But it's
a very very cool game. I highly recommend that you check that out.
Another big release in February that I keep tending to forget about just because you
know, it hasn't really made that much of an impact, PSVR two PlayStation
VR two exists and I just keep forgetting about it. I don't want to
forget about it. I love the PSVR one, but PSVR two, I
guess it came out too expensive, the games that came out for it were
not as groundbreaking as people as so many would have hoped, and it's just
kind of there. I don't know if they expect late adopters like with PSVR
one. I didn't adopt it, I think until two years after it had
launched, and it was at a heavily discounted rate and came with like three
games or something like that. If PSVR two is in my future, it's
not until something like that happens. But Horizon Call the Mountain, the flagship
launch title, apparently, is pretty good. Nothing to write home about,
but pretty good not to mention. You know, Horizon Forbidden West was still
pretty fresh, and then Burning Shores has come out since then, so there's
been plenty of Horizon content to go around. So I'm not sure what to
think about PSVR two where I sit right now. I hope it can pick
up. I hope I can get more users into it, but until it
does that, I don't see the prognosis improving for it anytime soon. A
couple other interesting titles that launched in February, which was a surprisingly loaded month,
Atomic Heart, the weird first person shooter. For that, I also
had a bit of controversy surrounding it with a Russian developer, Wild Hearts,
which was EA's take on EA and I think Ninja theories take not Ninja theory
EA, and who was the other developer on Wild Hearts why? And Omega
Force. That's it? Sorry, I get those two mixed up all the
time. Omega Force's take on Monster Hunter, which apparently is very good,
like a dragon Eshan Blood Bowl three, Kirby's Returned to Dreamland Deluxe, I
feel like returned to Dreamland that was got a switchport this year. Octopath Traveler
too, Destiny two. Fans were happy with Lightfall as far as I understand
it. February it was a big month, lot going on in that month
as far as new games to play. We're concerned kind of set the tone
for the rest of year, but the biggest month was still to come and
is still to come, and that'll make sense as we go on. Moving
on into March, Woe Long Fallen Dynasty came out to some a Plome did
not review, I don't think as well as they wanted it to, but
still considered to be a decent enough sort of action RPG hacket slash short of
thing going on there. I think it's more going for like a Nio than
a Dark Souls, but still apparently a pretty cool game after that, kind
of had a bit of a dark not a dark a light spell until w
W two K twenty three in March seventeenth, which came out and improved on
the already improved two K twenty two. So that's trending upward. You love
to see it. Let's hope that keeps happening somewhere in here up there.
It is March twenty fourth, we had ourselves Resident Evil four remake, probably
one of the most popular games of all time, completely remade for the new
consoles, and apparently I haven't finished it yet, but from what I've played
so far, I can't attest to this the most what's the word I'm looking
for, the most faithful to its original out of the Resident EVO remakes so
far, And what I mean by that is Resident Evil two had a lot
of tweaks to it. Resideval three had some tweaks to it, not many,
but some. Residental four basically sticks by the book of how the original
game went. One of those if it doesn't if it's not broken, don't
fix it sort of things. It is updated, of course, combat is
updated. All those things are updated. But as far as storyline is concerned,
it is very faithful. It doesn't deviate too far. It doesn't add
too much to the original tale, which I thought was an interesting approach,
especially when Village had just come out, and Village and Resideval four seemed to
have this connected tissue, right. They're very similar and esthetic and setting and
stuff like that. So I was wondering if there would be some sort of
overlap between four and eight, But you did not see that Them Will Be
the Show twenty three. Baseball always always a big, big mover here.
I love this version. I love Them Will Be the Show this year.
I thought it was a very very good version of the only authentic simulation baseball
game that there is. Not the only baseball game that came out this year.
There is one out now that is good for the arcade types, but
as far as simulation goes can't beat it. Another underrated gym that might have
gone underneath your radar but should not have, and that's Dredge. So you're
on this like little boat and you're fishing, but there's also some psychological horror
going on. I don't want to get into it too much, but it
is a very interesting game to have on your radar. Also, Packs East
happened around this time. Got to go back to Boston for the first time
in a decade. For Packs East went with John Jansen. We talked about
that earlier in the year. I had a lot of fun. I gotta
get John back on to talk about what he's playing and where we are and
what he's looking forward to in the second half of the year. Maybe next
week before all the cool interviews start. What a tease for the rest of
the month. But yeah, Dredge, go back, go check out Dredge.
That's definitely my underrated gem. From March April started to slow a little
bit. We still had ever Space two finally launch on PC's if you like
vast Space exploration with a little bit of you know, customization on your ships
and stuff like that. It's a very very cool game, dog Fighting in
Space, full three hundred and sixty movement, super super awesome game. EA
Sports PGA Tours, so we have a golf game for the first time in
a couple of years from EA Sports. Finally coming out this year, Tron
Identity and very underrated, I would say, or perhaps passed over visual novel
by the team behind Volume Bithel Games. Bithel really seems to understand Tron.
I really like the way that they went with this, and I hope that
we see more of that soon. I know that it does sound like it's
chapter based. There's going to be more to it. They're gonna build more
to it. I'm looking forward to that. So whatever they decided to do
after this, I like where this story ended up. I think it could
have been a little longer. I didn't last as long as I wouldn't have
wanted it too, but I did enjoy playing it. I think I gave
it a seven out of ten on game Spot. I'll go back and check
my score, but that's a very cool game that I highly recommend. If
you have like an afternoon and you're like Tron or he's just like a good
visual novel, that is a good one. MegaMan fans got MegaMan Battle Work
Battle Network Legacy Collection. I know my friend Ron was very happy with that.
Two one here and one later on in the year two big time League
of Legends stories, those side stories that Riot Forge has been creating. The
Major Seeker was the first one in a role developed by the team at Digital
Sun, which was awesome. I love that game very much. The second
half it takes a while to get moving, but once it's moving, man
game is great. Mage Seeker is super cool, and then Convergence in May
also very good, but that's less a action RPG and more for the Metroidvania
players who like games like that. But both are very good, and I
continue to say this. I love what Riot is doing with their world building.
I absolutely love it. You build a franchise for ten years, you
give yourself hundreds of characters literally to check out. Now it's time to build
on that lore with Arcane and other games. And this is so far.
I think they're three. I would say they're three for three in games with
Ruined King, Mage Seeker, and Convergence. Minecraft Legends also came out.
That one has been off my radar, just haven't had a chance to play
it or a desire to play it, but it sounds like it was pretty
good. Advance Wars one and two reboot Camp finally launching after a year most
of its original release date held for that long due to the conflict in Ukraine
and Russia. Nintendo wanted to be respectful of that, which I completely understand.
Also, very very good game that came out to much. Definitely represents
the Advanced Wars games very well. The second of three remakes we'll talk about
from Nintendo coming up. Can you tell them excited? About the one we're
going to talk about the second segment, Can you tell Anyway? Dead Island
two also launched Love the demo at Paxy's. Haven't been able to sit down
with the full version yet, but apparently that impressed people more than it it's
predecessors did, which is always a good sign. After so long of being
in development hell, for it to come out and do pretty good is makes
me happy, So I hope that keeps up. End of April's not really
much happening, but I do have a Star Wars Jedi Survivor was a big
one. Sorry I did miss that. One that's April twenty eighth snuck into
April. I thought it was May, but it was April twenty eighth.
We have two under the radar games you might not have heard of before that
have been huge. One I personally played and one i've heard nothing but good
things about that I have to sit down with. The one I haven't played
is Cassette Beasts role playing game. People are saying it's fantastic stuff from Bitten
Studio and ral Fury. I gotta get on that. And Omega Strikers,
which is like a League of Legends meets Wind the heck is it wind Jammers?
Excuse me? Three on three with everyone having different powers and stuff like
that. Interesting start of Amalgamation played a little bit of about Steam. Want
to check it out on iOS see how that works on my iPad, But
like what I played so far. Also Hanki star Rail, the follow up
to Sorry Again should impact from the team at llio verse that came out in
April as well. Don't want to forget that. And then we're into May.
May started out unfortunately with a big disappointment in Redfall, probably going to
go down as one of the most disappointing games of the year, just considering
the pedigree of the studio that made it versus the product that came out.
There have been things that have come out since that have talked about, you
know, some tumultuous times behind the scenes and stuff like that, so there's
definitely a reason for it. Doesn't make it any less disappointing. And then
made the twelfth May the twelfth everything stopped, the world stopped, every nothing
happened anymore because the legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom came out. And
if you thought elden Ring was popular last year, Tears of the Kingdom has
exploded across social media thanks to its ability to build things. If you're not
a builder, if you don't like Minecraft or things like that, there are
ways to get around that. There is a hidden power somewhere in the game
where you can make templates where instead of actually having to build everything, you
build it once you save it, and then you just you know, have
it auto build whenever you want it to. But aside you know, opinions
on building or not. The game is phenomenal. The story is really well
told. Gannendorff is a badass. I still have to beat the fourth dungeon
and the game I'm not even at the end yet, but my goodness,
am I having a good time. And I'm told that the ending ending set
piece is completely exhilarating. So I still have a lot to go and I'm
having a good time. So if you're if you're haven't played that yet,
I suggest you get on that as soon as possible. If you don't own
a switch it's a good reason to pick up a switch light and pick up
Tears of the Kingdom, pick up a Breath of the Wild while you're at
it. But I don't want to make it. It seem like that's where
the game releases ended in May, because there's not Humanity, a very interesting
puzzle game from Thha and Enhanced. Enhanced made Tetris effect and Tetris effect connected,
so that's a really cool game. Lego two K Drive a good racing
game for children because it's you know, build your own cars and raise some
stuff like that convergence League of Legends story, which I talked about earlier.
Was May the twenty third, a Warhammer forty K retro shooter like an old
style doom first person shooter came out called bolt Gun. That completely shocked me.
I really want to play that a little more. But what I've played
so far is awesome Star Trek Resurgence, which is notable because it's from Dramatic
Labs, which is a team made up of old Telltale devs, and it
plays that sort of narrative storytelling but in a Star Trek theme. That's one
that's on my radar to play as well. And then another disappointing game,
perhaps the second most disappointing game of the year, in Lord of the Rings
Gallum. Now technically this game scored worse, so you may say that this
one is more disappointing than Red Fall, but I would argue that I don't
think many people expected Gallum to be good. It was still worse than expectation,
but I don't think anybody expected it to be actually good. No offense
to the developers. Red Fall at least had some pedigree behind it, which
is what makes it more disappointing in my opinion. But so we had Gollum
coming out at the end of the month. System Shocks remake is now out
on PC, another very good stuff, and then we're into June. I'm
not going to get into June until the next segment. I will talk about
some of the releases right now that have already come out. Just in the
first week of June. You had Street Fighter six, which was fantastic.
You had Supermaga Baseball four, which is great arcade style baseball, Diablo four
which people are putting hundreds and hundreds of hours into, and then from there
we have more that we'll get into in the next segment. June by itself,
between the games that launched and the announcements that were made, was bonkers,
and that is where we're going to go in the next segment. So
that was the first couple months of the year. We'll talk about June next,
as I said, and then we'll get into the final half of the
year, or the second half of the year, which is just absolutely oh
man. There's a lot of video games to play between now and we dropped
the ball on twenty twenty four. We'll talk about that later on in the
show. Stick around. All right, welcome back to Chief six and Controller's
episode number one thirty two. We are trying to get into now the month
of June twenty twenty three, which this go go out on June thirtieth.
June, will be ending as of tomorrow when you're listening to this. But
as far as the game industry is concerned for the rest of the year,
lots of things to like. In June. It was a pretty pretty crazy
month for the industry. It's certainly, but set out announcements all over the
place. It started with, well, we'll get into the announcements first.
First, let's talk about the games that launched this month. Already talked about
Street Fighter that first week. We'll review that one more time for those that
are somehow just tuning. In the second segment, we had Street Fighter six
and Superman Baseball four. We had Diablo four and that was just the first
week, and then getting into the rest of June, we had Crash,
Team Rumble, we had Final Fantasy sixteen, Sonic Origins, plus aw Fight
Forever, Story of Seasons of Wonderful Life. Just Everybody Want to Switch is
out today for those who like them, Ghost Trick, Phantom, Detective Master,
Detective Archives, Raincode. It's just an absolute loaded month. Dave the
Diver came out of nowhere with a bunch of nines that it's a phishing adventure
for like a slash cooking Sabata. That's one I got to really sink my
teeth into. But the month was loaded with releases. We had plenty to
play to begin our summer. But then the gaming gods decided to bestow upon
us a bunch of announcements too, most of which shaped the rest of the
year. And again in the final segment we'll get into why. The second
half the year was already loaded and all this did was just bloaded even more.
But um, let's start with Summer Games Fest twenty twenty three Jeff Kiely
Keiley festum went two play days this year and was in the in the arena
for the Summer Games Fest Live. Had a blast if I could speak on
that real quick. Summer Games Fest play Days was basically a two day block
party for video games. It was in this place where they had a whole
They had a whole block basically of different buildings. They rented out all different
buildings, but they're in one uh like social area. Almost kind of reminds
me of like the Filmore in Philadelphia, which is, you know, only
only Philadelphia people will know that. But the theater is like outside there's all
these little restaurants and walking areas that you can go to. It kind of
reminded me of that, but imagine all of them were filled with video games
to play. It was a bit of heaven not gonna lie. It was
very very cool. Um yeah, the main room with all the demos in
it. You had some side rooms with other you know, presentations and demos
and stuff like that. Just a really really cool thing he's got going there.
Pretty pretty happy with how that turned out. But as far as the
theater presentation was concerned, the big announcements were Prince of Persia of the Lost
Crown, which started off the thing brand new Metroid Vanni, a Prince of
Persia game, which sounds pretty cool. First gameplay of Mortal Kombat one,
which I got to play at play Days and then again during the stress test
over the weekend, and that game is shaping up quite nicely. I love
the cameos system, love how they're going to be able to juxtapose putting classic
characters with classic moves into the modern, new, sort of rebooted era.
I love how the cameos can flow in and out of combos very quickly.
The fatalities, of course, they're always good. So Mortal Kombat one definitely
one to circle on my calendar. Sonic Superstars a brand new side scrolling Sonic
where that brings the old format to a new age, which looks really really
cool. Lies of Pa is finally coming out later this year. That's the
Pinocchio Bloodborn, Blood Born Pinocchio, which is two things I never thought would
go together. Saw a full blowout on Alan Wake two, which again coming
out this year. Are you seeing a theme here? Marvel spider Man two.
Got a little more gameplay of that earlier at the PlayStation Showcase, which
I completely forgot to mention. We'll backtrack, and then Spider Man two is
coming out later this year as well. Then we got Like a Dragon Guid
and the Man who Erased his name. Final Fantasy seven Rebirth was the big
announcement there, and a bunch of other things too. I'm glossing over some
of the things that happened. I don't want to forget them, but there's
so much that was announced between the end of the year, between the end
of May and the first couple of weeks of June. I want to make
sure I get as much as I can in in the small time that I've
allotted myself. So now we'll move, we'll backtrack a little bit, and
we'll go back to the PlayStation showcase that I did end up forgetting, which
is pretty bad of me, because there was an announcement there that is probably
going to end up being one of my favorite announcements of the year, and
one that I don't know if or when it's ever coming out. I'm not
sure that it's It definitely seemed like it was one of those announcements where we
just need people to come work on this game. It's a bit of a
recruiting tool, but you know, if they need players consider me recruited,
and that, of course is the Metal Gear Solid remake. How could I
not be absolutely out of my gourd for that one great trailer, Love the
trailer, love the announcement, everything about it is very cool. I just
need I just need more. I just need it to come out. I
would appreciate it if it would come out for me. But also at the
PlayStation showcase we saw Spider Man two again. The release date was at Summer
Game Fest, but then we saw Craven the Hunter for the first time.
We saw some gameplay with Peter Parker using the symbiote, which was awesome,
and then switching between Miles Morales and Peter Parker wasn't clear on whether that's at
will, but definitely said, you know, switched to Miles and to go
do stuff there, which was cool. Assassin's Creed Mirage is finally getting a
bit of a blowout. Between this and UBI Saw Forward, which we'll talk
about that comes out later this year saw the first footage of a game from
Haven Studios, which is being run by Jade Raymond, who was a long
time industry veterman. Made an impact that UBI Soft with a splinter Seal on,
Assassin's Creed and stuff like that. Hell Divers two was shown, ghost
Runners too, and then a couple of other smaller games Alan Wake two that's
not a smaller one, but that was also there. Marathon is coming back
as a team based a team based multiplayer shooter does not have a single player
campaign, but still pretty cool. PlayStation showed off It's handheld where it's like
a cloud gaming device where you can stream from your PlayStation anywhere. Kind of
looks like a switch with a dual sense attached to it, which is not
a bad call if you ask me, but there it is. And that
was the PlayStation showcase kind of underwhelmed. Some people weren't entirely into it,
but I thought there were some good things there, especially when you look at
it with other expansions like now that we know the Spider Man release date,
the PlayStation showcase stuff was cool, right, so, and the Assassin's Creed
Mirage stuff at you be Soft PlayStation enhances the PlayStation Showcase a little bit in
my opinion too, So definitely cool stuff there, but I would say probably
one of the most underwhelming of the time of this year. From May to
June, the summer announcement season. Let's call it probably one of the most
disappointing overall looking back at all of them, comparing them all to each other.
Microsoft then showed up on Sunday after Summer games Fest and immediately started with
a new fable, which is you know, the irreverent sort of humor that
we expect. Not sure how much of that was gameplay versus actual you know
see or actual gameplay versus CGI footage, but it still looked awesome. South
of Midnight the next game from Compulsion who made we happy few. I just
hope this game is better than that one. No Offense. Star Wars Outlaws,
which is Ubisoft's open world Star Wars game by the team that made the
Division following. You know, as the name suggests, a group of outlaws.
You can be wanted, you can you trans you wanted by the Imperial
Imperial Forces and then have to run away from them. You transitioned from on
the ground to on air U basically you know, flawlessly, it looked like,
but we'll see. We saw more at Ubisoft Forward as well. Pay
Day three got a little bit of a trailer at this thing. Persona three
is being remade as Persona three reload. In early twenty twenty four, a
Valed was shown after several years in development to see Obsidians do RPG, which
looks like their take on sky Rim, which I am completely fine with.
See if Thieves got a legend of Monkey Island expansion, which makes a lot
of sense. Hell Blade two continues to be one of my most anticipated games
of the year. That trailer was awesome and all it was was her talking
to herself and hearing all the different voices in my headphones. That was super
cool. Like a Dragon eight was shown and it was our poor guy Itchy
bon you know, naked on the beach. Sorry buddy, hope you hope,
hope that works out for you. Starfield, though Starfield was the big
anchor of their show. They gave it like forty five minutes of what you're
gonna do, how you can customize yourself, thousand planets to go through,
base building, skill trees, stuff like that. Just a huge amount of
information on Starfield, which made it one of the most anticipated games of the
year for me because that I like Elder Scrolls, I like Fallout, but
space I'm learning is my jam. So if I can go out in space
and do stuff like that that that looks that sounds really good to me.
Will it challenge Zelda for Game of the Year or the favorite for Game of
the Year. It could, It could. I wouldn't be surprised if we
got to December and there was a heated argument between the two. But we'll
see right now. It looks really really cool. But Beth as the game
studio Todd Howard, games do tend to come out with some glitches and some
issues right out of the box, so if they can avoid those, then
they're golden. The next up, we had Ubi Soft Forward. We had
Avatar Frontiers of Pandora gameplay shown for the first time. That's coming out in
December. X Defiant, which is the squad based shooter with characters based on
different Ubi Soft franchises, which is a pretty cool idea. Prince of Persia
Lost Crown. We saw more of Division Resurgence, which is their mobile game,
a new closed beta for Skull of Bones, which was supposed to come
out earlier this year or even last year if you recall Assassin's Creed Nexus,
which is a VR Assassin's Creed, and then we saw a mirage. We
saw Jade, which is a mobile game, and then it ended with the
gameplay for Star Wars Outlaw. So a decent showing from Ubisoft, building on
things that they had shown at other conferences Barrage at PlayStation, Star Wars at
Xbox, essentially what they did at E three time, very similar in fact
to what they used to do at E three time, but you know,
also having their own sort of showcase to show everything off as they wanted to.
Definitely liked what I saw from them. Outlaws sticks out to me.
I was getting far criprimal vibes from Avatar, which is a good comparison,
and I'm very much looking forward to what's going on there. And then we
have the Nintendo Direct, came out of nowhere, surprised this on the twenty
first of June. We knew we could expect some cool stuff Nintendo usually delivers
in that regard, but we didn't know exactly what to expect, and it
started out with things we already knew, like Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Hidden
Treasure of Area Zero, which is the DLC, did not have a release
date attached to it, which I found odd saw some more Sonic Superstars did
get a new game in Palaea, which is a free to play life farming
simulator build your own village. Persona five Tactica was announced at or It was
announced at the Xbox Conference, so we had already seen that a week a
week prior. Detective Pikachu Returns was cool. The new game with Detective Pikachu,
a new, brand new adventure building on the original what DS and three
DS release. That's a good idea. I think that's its certainly fits well
on the switch itself, but it was sort of underwhelming in the first like
ten fifteen minutes or so, things we had already seen before. And then
it got to the checkpoint right right after Detective Cheek Detective Pikachu. It gets
to the checkpoint with Koizumisan and the other I want to say Takiyama, but
I always get his name wrong. And they're there talking about you know what's
coming, and they do for now, please look at this, and they
snap their fingers. Now, I am watching this trying to write up the
Detective Pikachu news because I'm covering it for Game Spot. We're all working on
it together, so I'm you know, typing furiously away Detective Pikachu. I'm
like half listening, half and half out. They say, take a look
at this, and they snap their fingers and I'm like, all right,
here comes something else, and then this music plays and I lost my mind.
I absolutely lost my mind. I cannot believe that we are going to
be playing a remade version of Super Mario RPG in the year twenty twenty three,
twenty seven years after the original game came out almost thirty years ago.
It's still just boggles my mind that we're finally getting this after what many perceived
to be, you know, issues between Square and Nintendo. It's why Geno
was never in Smash Brothers or even referenced in Smash Brothers. Same with Mallow
and all the other RPG characters. And they're coming back. They're finally coming
back in a brand new remake that looks beautiful. I cried, I'm not
gonna lie. I shed a tier or two about how excited I was about
this game. My managing editor called me and justifiably called me a nerd in
the slack chat. But I can't. I play this game every year.
I can't say enough about It's my favorite games of all time, maybe my
favorite game. Of all time, considering I play it so much, and
now I'm gonna this year. I'm just gonna wait. I mean, I've
already played a little bit this year before an upcoming podcast wink. But I
may just wait now and wait for this remake to come out and just get
lost in this game all over again. I'm so excited to see Blom and
Booster and you know, Gino and Malow, like we said, Frog,
Feushish, Todofki, all of these characters, Raz and Rainey and Mary Moore.
Oh, man, I can't wait. Jonathan Joe. Oh, It's
just it's gonna be great. I can't wait. Anyway, let's move on
from Super Mario RPG. That's not what you're listening to. This is the
Super Mario RPG podcast. It' cheeseas and controllers. I got to move on.
So I talked about the Techni Pikachu, Princess Peaches getting your own game
in twenty twenty four. I can tell you one seven year old it was
very happy about that. Um Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon also coming to Nintendo Switch,
which is a good idea. The Batman Arkham trilogy. Love that never
did play night. Now this will be my chance to do that. Pickman
four on its way next or this month or next month. Twenty first saw
some of the Mario and Rabbit Sparks of Hope DLC, and then it ended
with a brand new two D platforming Mario game called Super Mario Brothers Wonder,
with a version of Mario where he turns into an elephant and the Internet lost
its mind. Besides Elephant Mario, the game looks very cool. Looks to
add a little weirdness to the formula where it's like going between dark and light
worlds and the dark world the pipes are moving around like inchworms. It was
an interesting presentation, but it definitely looks cool. Super Mario Brothers Wonder definitely
looks cool, and I'm excited to see what they have going on there.
October the twentieth, I want to say again, we'll get into that in
the second half of this show. The third segment of this show. Excuse
me, So there you go. I packed June between games that came out
and announcements that were made. Tell me your favorites. I'm at big Man
Finellio on Twitter. Clearly you now know mine. There was a lot of
good stuff to be very excited about both new ips, new takes on old
ips or sequels or what have you. We're eating good in twenty twenty three
so far, and we're going to eat even better in the second half of
the year because following this segment, we'll get into the last segment shortly.
Yeah, the rest of the year is absolutely loaded, and I am excited
to walk you through what that means. Stick around, all right, Welcome
back to Chief Stakes A Controllers episode number one thirty two, rapping things up
at our twenty twenty three year in Review and preview, which is a year
in review and preview. That's a that's a podcast title, right there,
folks. We're going to talk about the end of the year and specifically everything
that's coming out. I had the opportunity to write a feature just after Summer
Games Fest and everything that happened called the second half of twenty twenty three is
jam packed with games all of a sudden. That was the name of the
feature, and that was before the Nintendo Direct happened, which that I had
to update said feature with Nintendo Directs stuff. So I want to take from
that. In this final segment, you can read the entire thing at GameSpot
dot com if you want to go find it there. But let's talk about
the rest of the year, shall we. It's a big one. There's
a lot happening and a lot going on, and a lot of that if
you'd believe it was shaped or took place from Summer Games Fest on. A
lot of the things that have filled out the rest of this year got dates
in the month of June or in the PlayStation showcase right before it. So
if we if we take a second and we go through, let's talk about
first autumn. Let's talk about September and October. And I'm gonna I said,
I'm gonna go. I want to use my article as a basis for
this argument, so you might I might take some lines right from it.
You'll know when I'm eating obviously. But let's start with autumn, which I
call it autumn abundance in this article and specifically, as things rolled in and
we began to take stock of everything being announced to us, there's a ten
day period in October that now contains five of the most anticipated launches of the
year. Fours of motor Sports kick things off on October tenth, Assassin's Creed
Mirage is two days later on the twelfth, Alan Wake two is five days
later on the seventeenth, and then two days three days after that we have
Marvel Spider Man two and Super Mario Brothers Wonder. All five of those games
in a five sorry, in a ten day window. And that's not including
Lords of the Fall In which has a bit of a following an endless Dungeon,
which are October thirteenth and October nineteenth specifically, which also fall in that
ten days. And then if you expand, if you go through October,
like either way, if you make the lists the arrange the entire month of
October, you have the sky A seven on October third, you have City
Skyline Cities Skylines two on October twenty fourth, and the Alone in the Dark
reboot on October twenty fifth. That's a lot right already starting. That's a
ton, and like we're just getting started here, and October is already looking
like a wallet killer before you know, any before we even have a chance
to look at the next month, July, we're looking at October and we're
like, oh no, what's happening? Why? Why is this month doing
this to me? How am i supposed to save enough money to be able
to play these games. But definitely cool that all these games are coming out.
It's just that there are too many to speak of. But then if
we go into September, things are not getting much better because Starfield is September
the sixth, and then eight days later we have another small gauntlet of games
where within a week we get The Crew Motorfest, we get Lies of P,
we get Mortal Kombat one, and we get E Turnits, which is
like a hack and slash slash dating Sam. It's a weird game. I
previewed it for MMRPG. It's an interesting one, and they all are within
the fourteenth motor Fest and then Lies of P Mortal Kombat are both the nineteenth,
and then it turns the twenty first, and then there's two games in
there that have a vague September window, and Monster Hunter now from Niantic and
RoboCop Rogue City that could launch it any time in the month. Now.
RoboCop does have a closed beta coming up, and I think Monster Hunter has
a test coming up too, so maybe they get pushed back after testing happens.
But right now a lot of stuff happening November and December not as busy,
so the year may eventually slow down as we get into the holiday.
But like a Dryden Guiden, the man who erased his name, is still
there. PERCENTA five Tactica is there on November seventeenth, like a Dragon Guidan
is November ninth. Excuse me, Avatar Frontiers of Pandora is the seventh,
and then Super Mario RPG is also November seventeenth, the same day as Tactica.
So still some heavy hitters going into, like right into Black Friday.
I believe if memory serves, November seventeenth is the Friday before Black Friday?
Is it not? Yes, it is. That is exactly right this year.
I fairly certain Thanksgiving is the twenty third. I will check that right
now while we are on this little podcast, and it is so the week
before Black Friday percent of five Tactica and Super Mario RPG drop. That's brutal.
Fall is brutal, friends. If you're a video gamer, save your
money. So now we have to talk about the months before that. Like
there, we have July and August to go before we get to September,
and they are not slowing down either. So I wrote this article originally on
June fifteenth, right after the dust settled from all of the Summer Games Fest
Sanandians. I had said that between the end of the month and when I
was publishing the article, there were multiple games that had come out f one
twenty three, Park Beyond Crash, Team Rumble, Final Fantasy sixteen, aw
Fight Forever, Ghost Trick, and Master Detective, things I had talked about
in the last segment. But then July while starts off a little slow,
there's nothing in the first week or so of July, but then that picks
up with Oxen Free two, Lost Signals Exo Primal July fourteen, Last Signals
Action Free two is two days before that, July twelfth, and then there's
another eight day another multiple release in one small bit of time situation with Immortals
of Avum on July twentieth, although that might have just gotten delayed a bit.
I'll check that Pickman four July twenty first, remnant to July twenty fifth,
and Disney Illusion Island on July twenty eighth. That's crazy, that's crazy.
There's so many things coming out in July, and then that doesn't even
talk about August. I have ten different names for games in August. In
this article that I wrote Stray Gods the role playing Musical on August third,
Wrestle Quest on August eighth, thirty x Acts on August ninth, Atlas Fallen
on August tenth, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk on August eighteenth, Blasphemous two August twenty
fourth, Goodbye Volcane OHI August twenty ninth, See if Stars August twenty ninth.
That is a heape been helping of indies in the month of August,
but also Armor Coords six on August twenty fifth, and Balder's Gate three on
August third. For PC in September sixth four ps five. It's too many
games. There are too many games coming and I just can't keep track of
them all. But then the Nintendo direct I mentioned Super Mario Brothers Wonder on
the twentieth. I mentioned RPG on November seventeenth, but Detective Pikachu was October
sixth. Warrior Ware Move it is November third, a new warrior Ware game,
Star Ocean the second Story Are, which is a remake of a PlayStation
ra RPG that's November two, and then Metal Gear Solid Master collection, which
is Metal Gear Solids one, two, three, Metal Gear, Metal Gear
two, Solid Snake, and perhaps something else that's October twenty fourth. I
don't hate the fact that we have too many choices to play, but my
wallet does, like I don't even know how to map this out, like
if I don't know what I'm reviewing either. Obviously I don't know until the
codes are available, but if I had to guess what I am going to
play between now and the end of the year, I want to make room
for Final Fantasy sixteen, but that's going to be a big chunk of time.
I want to play Oxen Free two. I want to play Disney Illusion
Island with the family. I want to play Wrestle Quest. I want to
play Straight Gods. I want to play See If Stars. I want to
play Armored Core six. I want to play Baders Gay, but that's going
to be a huge chunk of time. I want to play I want to
play Starfield, but that's going to take my whole life. I'm Mortal Kombat
one is one I'm probably going to play at launch, Alan Wake two,
Assassin's Creed, Spider Man, and Super Mario. I'm not really a racing
guy. So four of those five in that big October ten day period don't
really apply to me. But that just means I have four in an eight
day period. It doesn't end. There's so many games to play, and
the only way I'm going to be able to play to all these is to
clone myself, and technology doesn't exist. So what do I suggest that you
do. You set priorities, and you set a budget for yourself. You're
not going to be able to play all these games. There's just not enough
time in the world. We're talking about a Starfield, which will require probably
one hundred hours at minimum, and then Balder's Gate, which will probably ask
that much of you as well. Not to mention the other adventure games or
RPG games that are here. It's gonna be It's gonna be a big year.
It's gonna be a big year for software. All the consoles are firing
on all cylinders. Part of me feels like this is also the industry catching
up with itself after a couple of years of pandemic related delays and things like
that. We might start getting on more footing again and see regular releases like
this. But man, oh man, if you say you're bored with the
industry anytime between now and the end of the year. You're just not looking
hard enough, my friends, You're just not looking hard enough. This is
we eaten. Good as the gamers as as as the kids say gamers are
eaten, we are. We are having a good time. The only challenge
is finding the games that you want to play more than others and budgeting your
time in a way that makes sense to you. But that is a problem
for another day. Right now, we are at the end of episode number
one and thirty two of the Chief Stakes Controllers podcast presented by Fox PHL The
Gambler one or two point five FFM fourteen eighty AM. iHeartRadio. Wherever you
get your podcasts is where you can hear this. As I say at the
end of every episode, if you are listening to this these words right now,
it means you're at the end, and I appreciate you forgetting here.
There's always an honor to me that everyone who listens to this does so,
especially when I know, take a month off and don't tell anybody. I
do promise to be regular. In July, I have couple of interviews cooking
in the Pipeline, including one just before San Diego Comic Con that I am
very very excited about talking about this for months with the people that I'll be
interviewing. It is a return interview, so there's a hint it is people
who have been here before, but it's going to be a much bigger,
more expanded version of that, and I'm so very much looking forward to it.
I can't wait to share it with you, and I can't wait to
have the conversation with them. So I'll leave you with that little tease,
but for now, thank you so much for listening. I hope you have
a fantastic weekend, a great week right behind it, including a happy Fourth
of July, and we will be back next week with the latest and greatest
in video games here on cheaf Steaks and Controllers. Bye bye,