You'll be got me bad. It's the internet. You're busy. Let's do
this for November one, twenty twenty three. For the next hour or so,
let me help you sort through the world of gaming on Games Morning's Live
with Me Jeff Grubb. Today, reviews for RoboCop and Warrior are in and
they're basically the same person and Sega Shocks with another new three D Sonic game
coming out before the end of this year. But first, please join me
and welcoming today's co host, the Game Mess Mornings. It's Lucy James.
Everybody, Lucy, how are you doing doing well? Thank you? How
you? I'm good, I'm good. I got a question for you,
Lucy. Uh oh, you're from the UK, right, Yes, you
say that the United Kingdom is close, not in, but close to the
Arctic Ocean. I'd say it was next to the Atlantic Ocean. What's next
to but close? Like? Okay, you know, listen, that's your
answer. That's your answer. A really exposing my lack of geography. Okay,
well listen, that's your answer too. That's fine. I don't I
don't think it's that Neil so I yeah, Mike not. He was saying
it last night. He was looking at some mapp and and I looked at
him. I saw a tweet about like the Octic Ocean, and I was
like, what's happening here, That's what happened. Uh. Then I asked
chat GPT and it's like it's not particularly close. And then that was like,
okay, can I google my am I cheating if I google? No,
absolutely not, absolutely not. Listen. I think it's it's not so
far away that it's absurd, but it's it's not. It's actually not that.
It's like it's like, okay, it's like a Norway away. It's
like if you just go one Norway nor of the UK, yeah, you're
gonna be in the Arctic Ocean basically, so hang on Arctic Ocean. Uh,
what's like a border. See, that's the thing. So here's how
I did it. I looked at where the like where Alaska is on the
other side of the other coast of the United States, and like right above
that is the Arctic Ocean. And it kind of it's bad because maps are
bad. If you take a line straight over, it's it's like just north
of Norway and the Nordic country is basically it's you know, but I mean
even the Nordic's on that close. So I mean, how long is how
long is a flight UK to Norway? I mean yeah, but it's like
if you like, you know, if you go straight north though, you'll
get to the Arctic Ocean an hour and a half. Actually, yeah,
I mean okay, as the crow flies relatively speaking, relatively speaking, as
the crow RelA speaking, it's not that far away, but it's still pretty
far. Yeah, like I'm not going to go. I want a joint
to the Arctic Ocean, right, No, no, no, no,
yes, no. I don't think Mike was even suggesting that. But Mike,
yeah, you're right. He's all over the place. He's all over
the place of these things. You can't trust anything. He says, you
were you were up early this morning? You go, you were up and
at him getting some other work done. How are you feeling well? I
had two cups of coffee. I'm actually feeling okay. I feel like I'm
going to crash this afternoon, but I pay for it later. Usually,
like I can get up and get going fine whenever I need to, especially
now like these days, always having to get the kids ready for school.
It's like I almost never a morning person. But I gotta do what I
gotta do. But what happens is I pay for it later. So yeah,
that crash, I know what you mean. No, I know.
We were doing a recording for FPS at seven am today and due to two
time zones, that was weirdly the best option for seven am for me.
It was like one am for Ralph, so I cannot complain. Oh wow.
I was like, oh, it must be Ralph's fall. You guys
must be accommodating him. Nope, No, we were accommodating in Finland,
yes, but no. So that was a very exciting interview that we've got
gone up this weekend. But today is like weirdly busy just in general for
some reason, like a Wednesday. Yeah, Jet, we're recording Jeff jeffs
after this, so spoiler it. That's why we didn't have episode on Mondays,
because Tam and I were at indieland playing some awesome games over the weekend.
Very very very cool thing you all were doing over there, So well
done Gerard and the team over at that one Video Gamer. Like they raised
seventy eight thousand four Dimension research kings over there, kings, and like it
was really cool hearing the indie devs because they had so many games and like
they had a QR code on screen to wish list and like pinned comment to
go wish list, and they were all saying that, like yeah, wish
listing and like pre orders and whatever just like jumped up. So that was
really really cool. Yeah, it was, you know, coming out of
SGF when he and he did that stream there. I've talked to a few
any developers and the like, Yeah, this is a great way to get
out there and get in front of people because you know, his channel's big
and his Twitch stream was doing great and so yeah, I'm glad. I'm
glad it worked out for everybody involved. A really cool thing. All right,
let's explain what we do do here most weekdays, I Jeff Grebill,
help piece your gaming life back together. That includes breaking news and maybe even
some of our own original reporting. For all these topics, I'll get the
input of a bona fide expert who will make me look smart. If you
are watching live on Twitch welcome. You can always listen to the show later
on podcast feeds by searching for Game mess Mornings, or find therss on giant
bomb dot com You can also catch the show later with the chapters and timestamps
on YouTube. Hello YouTube. Okay, we have a lot to get into,
so let's start the morning mess with a series of review roundups. Let's
say this first one here is going to be Star Ocean the Second Story R,
which has in eighty six on PS five on Metacritic. Very very good
for that game, and a lot of people seem to be very into it.
Shack News gave it a nine out of ten, saying I knew Star
Ocean the Second Story are would be able to rope me back in with little
effort, but I was nonetheless amazed by just how much it improves on the
original game. Every angle I looked at seemed reformed with care and consideration to
make the visuals and sound more beautiful, the combat more practically refined, and
the side jobs more rewarding. It's a shame that the level grind is still
here, but at least there are also options to alleviate that. I also
wish you could test your battle strategies in some sort of training battle mode.
However, outside of these small complaints, I stand by my belief that Star
Ocean the Second Story remains the best setting of the franchise in story and combat.
I'm also happy to say that the Second Story r is nearly a perfect
way to experience or revisit everything it has to offer. Push Square gave it
an eight out of ten. GameSpot gave it an eight out of ten,
saying that it strikes an ideal balance between staying faithful to the original game and
updating it for modern times. Were you ever a Star Ocean player. I've
never touched these games. It was always like, oh, several tiers down
on the RPG. I was ever going to try. But people swear by
Second Story, specifically the sequel the second game. They're like, hey,
this is the Star Ocean to play. There's been some recent Star Ocean games
that kind of fizzled that people weren't too happy about. So I guess it's
nice that fans of the series can go back and relive this one and actually
feel like it got some love and care. Yeah. I mean yeah,
you said, like Bonified expert, I've got nothing for the I've got nothing
for Star Ocean. I'm sorry. Oh nothing helped me out with RoboCop Brogue
City, which has a seventy on Metacritic for the PS five version. It's
like in the low eighties on the PC version, but the more reviews were
on PS five, where it does have a seventy. Shack News gave it
a nine out of ten said RoboCop Rogue City is an argument that not only
can licensing IP work well in a smaller scale game, but given the right
combination of creativity and focus, a more dormant IP can be especially effective.
A property like RoboCop does not have a clear position in pop culture in pop
culture right now, beyond the obvious late eighties movie nostalgia, but the team
at Tayon, with a combination of awareness and sincerity, definitely found one.
I had so much fun blasting through the waves of Jabbroni's and laughing at robo
cops, ernest policing actics, and a crowded year like twenty twenty three.
Rogue City is an unexpected Jim Push Square, however, gave it a six
out of ten, and games Radar give it a two give it two point
five stars. Games Radar said RoboCop Rogue City does an admirable job of bringing
the great universe of the films to life and of capturing the feeling of playing
as the armored enforcer himself. However, there are only so many cyberpunk low
lifes one can blast a bits before the repetition sets in. I think a
seventy you know, on Metacritic for a game like RoboCop Rogue City is actually
pretty good. Expectations should have been low for a game like this. So
coming in and people saying, oh, yeah, you're gonna have fun with
this, and it does a lot of cool stuff with the RoboCop character and
it's you know, gory in a fun way, I'm like, oh,
that sounds like a cool thing. I'll probably check this game out. And
it's one of those games that people can pick up later on discount and get
in that way you've never seen Robocops, I would assume, like even hearing
like reviews like this, it's probably I'm not gonna ever try this, right,
you know, maybe over the maybe over the like Christmas break, but
it's not like, yeah, you know right, I mean, because the
whole I mean, the whole point of this is to play on that nostalgia
and to to you know, some games do come out and they have an
ip tie end and they're so good and so you just can't ignore them,
and people get into those franchises through those games. That does happen that was
probably never gonna happen here. It doesn't sound like it should happen here.
But I think for someone like me who does have a fondness for RoboCop,
is probably gonna get a lot out of this game, a lot more than
even like the seventy out of one hundred on Meta Cricket Metacritic would suggest.
That's the thing. Like I I've never seen RoboCop, which I know is
terrible. Ralph and Jake Bauldian don't give me ship for this all the time
it's on my list, and I just I will want to. I would
want to watch the films first before playing the game, because I think that
way I will get more enjoyment out of it, Like I will be able
to understand the references more regardless of how fun it is just you know,
going in and cleaning up shop, but I want to be able to understand.
I think the best way to experience a RoboCop is to before you play
the game, before you watch the movie. You watch the Blight Club of
Mike playing through the Xbox game from two thousand and three. Watch that first.
That'll get yeah, exactly, You'll get to see the wizards that never
show up in the movies because they sew those movies, don't know what they're
doing. It's it's really important game. Well, that's the thing. This
is like you know those articles where it's this is the correct order to watch
the mc This is the correct order. It's the machette order for RoboCop.
Yes, absolutely exactly. And then finally here for the review round up Warrior
Where Move It as a seventy three on medicare Ign gave it a seven out
of ten and said Warrior Where Movement It is another amusing entry in one of
the goofiest series Nintendo has with wonderfully original multiplayer modes, saving the day after
the micro game playlist quickly starts to feel tedious, even with motion controls occasionally
not being able to keep up with your actions. The uber creative ways move
It finds to make you perform unspeakably silly acts is truly something to behold.
It may very well become a staple for me and my friends. And if
those of you, uh and and if those you hang out with have no
problem performing humiliating acts like using your rump to build a snowman, then you'll
probably enjoy it too, use your rump to build a snowman. Rump them.
Such a word to use is rump? When you guys ever used it?
You guys use bottom right bottom bottom? No? Are well? Sol
I'll yeah, I don't know, Okay, yeah, well, I mean
listen, I'll tell you where the rump rost comes from comes from the butt?
What I'm kidding? What eat that? But yes, I h I
mean if I tookd about eating us, that's what I mean. Twenty twenty
three, we're out here eating rump. Yeah, I'm excited for this.
I kind of was expecting not much from the single player experience. And by
that, I mean, hey, if it's if it's just what they're saying,
a bunch of these mini games, micro games, and you know,
you play them and you get the idea really quick. For me, that's
fine, Hey, I forget a lot of stuff really quickly, so I'll
be able to play these games over and over again. But I kind of
knew, based on looking at this that it was going to be the most
fun with that multiplayer mode. Something you know, we played that at the
Bombathon the Wei one, and this seems like it's the exact same sort of
setup. And if that's the case, that's great. I'll definitely get some
fun out of this. You know, whenever we do stuff in person,
we'll have this game ready to go. And I'm totally on board. Are
you a Warrior Where person? You ever spent much time with this franchise?
No, I was the only child, but I didn't like that. You
know, the Warriorwear has turned into a bit of a party game, but
like the early game Boy Advance one was like, no, there was no
party mode in there. It was just like I never had a game Boy
Advance. Yeah. Yes, by the way, did know I had a
game? But you know I did not have a game Boy Advance my friends.
Yeah, but yeah. I'm a huge Warriorwear fan. Really liked the
Game Boy Advance version. I liked almost every single game since Warriorwere Gold on
the three DS is a really good collection of all these games. I'm surprised
that they did another Warriorwere after they already had one on Switch, but I'm
glad they did. I will be showing up for this and we'll probably be
playing it on upf everybody. We'll see exactly what we're gonna do. We'll
probably probably play some of this though. All right, let's get to some
of the actual news, starting with Bungeee blames one hundred layoffs on players,
leaving Destiny to Bungee employees knew that Dusty two Studio was struggling, but might
not have expected a recent mass layoff of roughly one hundred staff. And I'll
say this is exactly what I heard. That they knew the game and doing
well, but they thought Sony money would save them. That's according to a
new report by Bloomberg, which details a meeting earlier this month in which studio
leadership blamed poor player retention following twenty twenty three's disappointing Lightfall expansion for revenue going
off a cliff. The money Bungee was bringing in was reportedly running forty five
percent below projections for the year. Despite an initial spike in concurrent players on
Steam, Destiny two has struggled in the weeks and months following the release of
its cyberpunk and fused Lightfall expansion. Bloomberg reports that the final shape, which
Bungie has been hyping up as the climactic conclusion for Destiny two's current storyline was
getting good but not great feedback internally. As a result, the decision was
made to delay it from February twenty twenty four to June in order to try
to win back players, and then that obviously marathon got pushed at twenty twenty
five, something we heard in the reporting as well. In the meantime,
Bungee ultimately decided to lay off roughly one hundred employees. We had heard about
the layoffs. The number was kind of not defined yet. Now it seems
like it's one hundred of about twelve hundred told employees that were at the company
and said, you know about eight percent Bloomberg and that's from Bloomberg as well
as first shared by Forbes writer or Paul Tassei earlier. Today, employees are
receiving three months of severance and health insurance, while other benefits run out on
November first, which is now, and while bonuses will be pro rated for
the year, those with shares from the twenty twenty two Sony acquisition that haven't
yet vested will lose them. That is kind of a nightmare scenario of in
my opinion, and I don't think many of those shares would have vested.
Maybe some small percentage you might have, but very very small. And they
like, you have to stay at the company, get that, And that
means even if you get laid off, you don't get to keep those shares.
And then that money's just gone. So it goes back to Bungee,
right whose shares returned to Bungie, Yes, which means they returned to Sony.
So yeah, this is kind of kind of cleaning up some details here.
To me, it's this is a real blemish on Bungie. It's it's
a real detrimental sort of uh, it's a check mark on the on the
wrong side of the pros and cons for caring about what Bunchie's doing and getting
back into destiny or anything like that where it's like, man, now,
it just kind of feels bad. I think they will probably be able to
win players back, but in the meantime, I think Bungie looks like kind
of the bad guy here in a real bad way. Oh. I absolutely
look like the bad guy. Yes, Like there's no two ways about it.
The like reading reports of the way people have found out the way that
they did it, on, you know, with one day to go,
and yeah, they've got Cobra Healthcare for three months, but no, like,
nothing about this was good And Pete Parson's that tweet like and I don't
know, I'm not it's not an original take for me to say this,
but like, maybe if you hadn't laid off a bunch of the comms and
PR team, someone would have advised him against tweeting that because it makes him
look like a real piece of shit. Yep. He also wrote an internal
memo mentioning that we have the right people to make still at the company.
To Matt is we have the right people to turn it around. That is
a rough a bunch of shitheads, like chopped liver, like this is.
That's a messed up thing to say. It just is like it again,
you're right, it speaks to a lack of a communications team, which yeah,
they all they all were basically cut. When it comes to the future
of of of Bungeee and Destiny and Marathon whatever, it seems like it's going
to be tough to like get to get things back on track because people do
seem to be drifting away from live service. Uh. I think there was
a period there, especially last generation, where you could easily convince your friends
to hop in with you on one of these games, and especially if it
was one of the biggest ones. And now there are are so many and
and time is and there are so many big games that are big product games
that also take away your time. Uh, it's gonna be tough to make
Destiny make sense long term. I think at least Destiny too. Do you
think that they are going to try to fast track a Destiny three because that
seems like a difficult thing to do as well. I mean, I think
Destiny had broader problems without just being you know, like a second job of
a game. You know, people were not a fan of its very intense
monetization strategy. People didn't seem sort of really like the last expansion that much,
or at least it wasn't what they really wanted it to be. Marathon
as well, people were very excited for but now that slipped final shape.
If people weren't as many people weren't pre ordering as they would have liked.
Forty five percent below projections is kind of insane, though, which makes you
question how they were figuring out those projections in the first place. I mean,
because of course, it's never the people. It's never. It's never
the projection's fault. It's your fault. If the company's underperforming, it's not
you know. And then there's the other question of like, hey, what
about that one point something billion that Sony threw in for staff retention, and
like, so yeah, Bungee can work towards YEA Destiny three. They're working
towards marathon, they're working towards the final shape. But it's like, I
feel like this is a moment where this is a real corporations aren't your friend's
moment. And I think this has wreck of the probably rated rocably eroded trust
trust. There we go, yes, man, that and I've developed right
among among players and the people who were left because they now have to pick
up the pieces yep, and and keep working with fear of like more layoffs
and stuff, and like they're going to have survivors get in a low morale
situation, which is tough lo morale. But also you've got ship heads on
Twitter like replying and being like, well, if you fixed the you do
that, Like God, this whole situation is so shit. Yep, yep,
it's right. I would imagine that. You know, it does seem
because of those shitheads. Morale was probably always a tough thing to keep in
a positive way over a Bungeee. They were a studio that was a very
communicative for a very long time, and you would have Luke Smith out there
doing interviews and all that stuff, and that stuff mostly is just over when
it comes to Bunch and they don't do a lot of that anymore. They
speak in very specific, narrow circumstances and that's it. And they have their
blog and but they try to keep people out of the like public light now
and that had to be in part a response to the toxic community that they
have been sort of battling, like in court. They've been battling some of
these toxic players in their community. So they already were dealing with that side
of things. To then be like, Okay, you know, we're just
gonna keep working on the game. We're gonna get the game in a good
situation, and then have the rug pulled out from underneath them when they were
most people at the company were expecting Sony to kind of back them up.
You're like, hey, it's only been a year and a half since they
acquired us. Sure, the last expansion wasn't great and player and people aren't
playing as much Destiny. Well, you know, it's twenty twenty three.
There's a lot of great games that people are playing. Instead. Once we
get past that stuff and we have a new expansion next year, they should
bounce back, and so we should keep everyone here to keep moving towards that
goal and then to wake up and be like, nope, we're cutting we're
cutting jobs. I know the reporting is saying that that this is a Pete
Parsons call, a executive's a Bungee call, But you know, Bungee is
Sony. Sony owns Bungie. Now they are the same thing. So it
all comes from these two companies making decisions and you know, and and setting
out goals together. Well, I mean, Sony financials are in eight days.
Yeah, and I think that we're gonna continue to see that Sony as
a wider company continues to not make a lot of money from every other division
that isn't gaming, and gaming is going to keep being like, we're making
a ton of profits and yet we need to be making even more to float
this this otherwise sinking ship. And well, hang out well, I mean
twenty four slate for Sony is what. Yeah, I mean exactly outside outside
of outside of Final Fantasy Rebirth, I mean third party, like their first
party slate do they have. I mean, that's definitely, that's definitely a
big I mean, the Wolverine might come out next year. We'll see,
I mean to be to go from one year where it's like it's just one
Insomniac game to another year where it might be one Insomniac game that we have
no idea how next year is going to turn out in terms of their release
schedule. But you're right, right now, it's looking pretty slim. And
this is a company that has in the past talked about their games several years
out and had no real issue with that. They seem to be pulling back
on that a little bit. But yeah, like PlayStation is making a lot
of money, and and but now that money making operation is all built into
the expectations, and so figuring out where the growth was gonna come from.
Bungee was where the growth was gonna come from, whether it was directly through
Bungee making new live service games or them sort of guiding the live service efforts
of all these other studios and now that doesn't that doesn't just seem like,
oh well, it's not gonna be as big as we thought it was.
It almost seems like they're completely reversing on it, or or being very afraid
at the possibility of spending a lot of money on a bunch of projects and
none of them going anywhere. And I think a lot that's driven from Naughty
Dog not being able to figure out the last of us factions, and it's
like, if Naughty Doug can't do it, who can. And I don't
blame them for having for having those those thoughts. They're probably right. They're
probably right that live service isn't the solution there, But I think that still
puts a lot of pressure on Bungie to make things make sense, and that's
probably why they are cutting jobs. So they could be like, Hey,
we're getting leaner and we're gonna you know, we're gonna not be this huge
burden on you, and we promise we're in the next thing is gonna make
a ton of money. It's just, man, they just got acquired and
it feels like they're already in panic mode. That's a rough situation to see.
Yeah, all right, Let's move this next story. Three D action
platformer Sonic dream Team has been announced for Apple Arcade. This is from sal
Ramano at Kamatsu. Sega has announced Sonic dream Team, a three D action
platformer coming to Apple Arcade on December fifth. Sega describes it as Sonic the
Hedgehog is back in Sonic dream Team, a game packed with NonStop action and
thrilling adventures. In this all new Sonic adventure, that evil doctor Eggman has
discovered the Reverie and ancient device with the power to manifest dreams in the real
world. Oh so it's like Bell in Wonderworld. Navigate twisted dreamscapes, rescue
your friends, and put a stop Doctor Agnan's nightmarest dreams of world domination.
You have Sonic and his friends, and I have a trailer here that I'll
bring up for everybody here in a second. Let me see, let me
do this first. It looks I think this looks pretty good. Actually,
it looks surprisingly good. It looks like a real three D Sonic platforming game.
And you're gonna be able to play obviously on your iPhone, but you
can get this on Max and iPad and Apple TV and all that stuff and
six months later it might come elsewhere, and I hope it does because it
looks better than I think Sonic Superstars. I think it looks in some ways
better than Sonic Frontiers, which is a game I thought was okay. So
this is it's surprising you get another Sonic game coming out, and it's going
to be here in less than a month or about a month from now.
Any excitement for this? Yeah? Not a Sonic person. Sorry, I'm
not a Sonic person at all. I never grew up with them. I
remember when I was a kid and I'd be trying to play Sonic. It
would just be he went, he said, got to go fast, and
he meant it. He would be he meant it, Yes, he meant
it. So I've never been a Sonic person, although given what the Sonic
fan base has to go through, I'm excited for you. Yeah, I
want you to. I want you to have good things to be excited about.
Do you think it makes sense for them to be making deals to be
exclusive to Apple devices. Yeah, if they're gonna get that money, listen,
does I'm making the bunts like you know, rubbing the rubbing that money
together. Yeah, I mean Apple's definitely paying for these exclusive exclusives. It's
very similar to how it works when any sort of platform gets a timed exclusive.
And I, you know, I guess we looked at the numbers of
how Sonics Superstars did in Japan at launch, and Sonic's never been as popular
in Japan as it is elsewhere, but it did four thousand copies on the
Switch at launch, compared to that same week supermar Brothers Wonder coming out and
doing six hundred and fifty thousand copies. So it's like, you know what,
get your money where you can, and this this game will come out
elsewhere, and if it's good, it should still do just fine, like
once it does launch on the Switch and the PC and everything else. And
in the meantime, Apple Arcade getting another pretty good game. Apple Arcade actually
keeping up more support than I expected it too. Years later now it's had
several reups where it's like, oh, that's an interesting thing, I should
get Apple Arcade. And the last one was that Hello Kitty Animal crossing game
that I had some interest in. Oh yeah, I mean I have friends
who still play that. I still have Apple Arcade. I think in terms
of games like assemble with cat like things that feel very bespoke and actually made
for the platform are really special. But I have noticed a bunch of creep
of like match threes and everything. I'm like, okay, yeah, totally
speaking of things that are kind of hm. Silent Hill Ascension is a messy
start for wait, actually you know what, Yeah, those is the right
next story. Silent Hill Ascension is a messy start for a new era of
Silent Hill. This is from Robert Zach at Dual Shockers. I've got a
kind of paraphrase here, but Roberts you know, summarizes his feelings by saying
Silent Hill Ascension fails to capture the essence of what makes Silent Hill scary.
Opting for a more generic approach to horror, the voting system and monetization feels
out of place and puts the series cannon at the mercery of impulsive viewers with
money to spend, and the lackluster, lackluster QTE sequence and poorly executed horror
leaves a disappointing impression for Silent Hill Ascension. This is that new Silent Hill
project that is basically an interactive TV show and players can vote on what's going
to happen, and those those votes will have long term effects. Although people
are playing this, and by playing this, they're all watching it together and
voting, they're like not exactly sure how much influence they're having on the events
of the show. I know, I think you're just going to say it.
I'm just going to say it. Another game whose kiya is reminiscent of
Goatsy. Oh so let's take a look here. I go to the website,
website, yeah, Ascension dot com. First, well, they've got
to say, yeah, it's pretty good. All right, it's loading.
Oh oh okay, yeah, A face goutsy, the rare face goutsy.
I'm a reminder to all video game developers PR marketing teams if you are if
you are afraid that you won't have something that only a highly Internet literate person
will to make fun of you for, and my services are available to double
check that you are not going to accidentally put Goatsy in your game. I
could have saved I could have saved Judgment. Oh yeah, I could have
saved Tears of the Kingdom. I could have saved you Silent Hill Ascension from
this the goats adjacent Lucy James a meter is it's it's trademarket. You don't
put my name in it, don't put James goats adjacent. Uh yeah,
this thing seems real stupid. I'm gonna say, the idea of people with
more money being able to vote, and it's I think they're really called like
influence tokens or something, so you could pay more money to have more influence
on the vote. And that means a bunch of weird whales, which I'm
sure are existent in the Silent Hill community, are going to have the say
on actually what happens. That that's stupid, that's really stupid. So you
got to like that's the That's the scary thing is you're just stuck there watching
a bunch of idiots spend a ton of money to decide what's going to happen.
You don't really have a say unless you want to go in there and
spend more money than them, and you don't do that. I'm morbidly curious
about this, Lucy, I want to check out the next episode. This
is airing daily at nine pm Eastern six pm Pacific time. I think I'll
try to check out the next episode tonight and then I'll try to catch up
on like a live stream from someone yesterday or something like that. But hey,
I this is not It doesn't seem like a great start for the new
era of Silent Hill. What do you think? No? Wait, this
is made by bad Robot. Well this is the this is the bad Robot
produce, like made by bad Robot. What does that mean? The logo
is on it. Yes, this is made by Jenvid, which this is
their technology and stuff. And uh uh behavior whose behavior? Is that?
Behavior interactive? But they do? Yah? Well this just says behavior.
I'm not sure if it is behavior interactive. Uh, I'm not. I
don't want to log into this fucking website. No, I'll get in that
Okay. So yeah, that behavior games, I think yea, yeah,
interactive. Okay, this is a mu medic in chattistaane behavior mixed dead by
daylight. Ye okay, thirteen one hundred employees according to Wikipedia. Well is
it If it's behavior interactive, they may have multiple studio. Yes, they
make like arma and stuff. They got like a whole thing going on over
there. Yeah. I know sound holes are passionate, and I know that
they want they want good things for their franchise. So to have this sort
of what feels like a half assed, not really in the spirit of Silent
Hill thing come in there and try to be experimental and dumb, and then
to have it be have all these weird monetization stuff in there, it's got
to be disappointing and discouraging for that for that group. But uh, well,
we'll see. This is just the one of the small things that they're
doing. And they are still they still have Silent Hill to remake coming in
the new Silent Hill game, and those looked promising. Although you see,
I know people are worried about Blueber I did see some fans in the Silent
Hill community saying their conspiracy theory now is they put this out first to so
people when when Bluebird Team's Silent Hill two remake comes out and that's terrible,
will people will be like, well, at least it's not as bad as
Ascension. And I'm like, oh no, that's where that's where you all
are at right now? Okay, all right, I hope for the best.
I hope you I hope you get I hope you get the help you
need. All right, let's move along. There's a rumor that Resident Evil
nine will have the biggest budget for the series yet. This is from Jonas
Maki at Game Reactor. Capcom has been on a streak for a couple of
years where the most things they touch turn into gold. Let me get off
this goatzy screen real quick, and after releasing a couple of big hits,
it seems like they are now preparing for something really special with Resident Evil nine.
The proven Capcom insider Dusk Gullum has delivered correct information about upcoming games and
the franchise for many years, and now he has been at it again.
This time he reveals that that we can look forward to a game with a
bigger budget than ever before that also will finish the old story while at the
same time starting something new. The two things I've said about it publicly is
Ari nine is the biggest budget and longest development time for any Resident Evil game
to date. It's been in development since twenty eighteen and probably won't release until
twenty twenty five at the earliest. Sands development going super well, Resident i'
llah Resident Evil four. How does that sound to you, Lucy that they
probably should be like investing even more in Resident Evil because it has worked out
so well for them so far, right it has Yeah, I'm just this
is a this is a story where not a lot it's said, is it.
It's like all passively successful franchise getting a new game, ballooning costive game
development me and we're going to be spending more on it. Yeah. I
mean at this point, I think it's also just like, hey, let's
get some se O in on Resident Evil nine. Oh yeah, yeah sure,
I mean the dust is pretty reliable. But yeah, yeah, it's
just it just feels like such a weird well duh kind of Yeah. Well,
I mean I don't know if it's I think for the biggest investment ever
for a Resident Evil game, having the biggest budget, that feels like,
well, yeah, games are getting more expercise. I think. I think
the interesting thing is like, blah blah blah, a long stone time whatever
whatever whatever, Capcom considered ARI nine to be closing chapter for a few things
move on to like that for me is the more interesting part of this.
It's because right, yeah, where does Capcom go from here with Resident Evil?
Like, you know, the enormous success of mainline entries ever since they
changed things around with seven, and then now the fact that the the remakes
are doing so so well, continuously pushing the bar for what we can expect
for remakes of games, like that's the interesting shit, that's and that's what
And I think that stuff is going to be thin on the ground, so
we're going to get stories about like, oh, we're still working on it.
Yeah, right, And I think that the story. You know,
some of the details out of this are that Resivil nine won't have as much
direct connection to Resident Evil eight as eight did to seven, at least that's
according to Dusk Gollum. But they are still planning to wrap up this this
arc. And you know, I'm glad that Capcom is in a place where
it feels confident enough. It feels like it has a grasp on Resident Evil
that is strong enough to be like, yeah, we can wrap up this
arc and then we do know that we could do something new after that and
get Resident Evil back up and running immediately afterwards, and we like, we
have the skill and we have the technology to pull that off. That sounds
like a confident publisher. I think also like the longest development time for Reside
Evil as well, that to me, that also sounds like a confident publisher
where it's like, yeah, we could take our time on this. Resident
Evil's doing just fine, and if we take our time, it's probably going
to pay off because it'll show up in the game because we're that good at
making games. Right now, Well, I thing as well, look at
you know, all the news stories about Full Remake and how they kind of
went back to the drawing board and like took that time welling out. I
think they're in the point in this place now where they have all these teams
that are coming out, they are hitting. They have this unannounced huge release
for twenty twenty four that hopefully is going to be like a Monster Hunter,
and Monster Hunter does absolute gangbusters for them. Like if that's giving the Resident
Evil time team the time to make nine the best it can be, I'm
all for it, yep. And this is lining up with them basically saying,
hey, we're upgrading the reach for the Moon engine, the ra engine
that they've been using for all of their games for the last several years,
and people are a god got for that engine because every game that comes out
runs real They could even on the switch and then the games look beautiful and
Catcom doesn't seem to struggle with getting these games out in a timely fashion,
so clearly they're happy we're working with it. So then to be like,
okay, and now they're going to have this massive upgrade that's worthy of kind
of talking about publicly, and they're working on it with Resuble nine and so
oh wow, man, I can't wait to see what that's gonna end up
looking like. And yeah, take your time, but spend as much time
on this as possible, because Resident Evil is in a really strong place,
and when you have taken your time, it has proven to be worth it
for fans. And so like, no one's been like, oh god,
I'm really anxious, where's Residuevil nine. No one is behaving that way right
now. Everyone understands that Capcom is very good at doing this right now and
deserves to take the time, and that's good. There's not a lot of
publishers that are in that position. Nintendo is, and now Capcom they are
there, and it seems like they're realizing that they if they take their time,
they will benefit from it. And that's pretty interesting, all right.
Unemployed former colleagues Kamiya and Makami are set to host they talk about their future
plans. This is from Chris Scullion at VGC, Hideki Kamia, Camilla Excuse
Me, and Shinji Mikami are set to host a conversation about their careers to
date and their future plans. The two respected game creators will be taking part
in Archapel Caravan, a festival of Japanese pop culture set to be held in
Tokyo on December fifteenth through the seventeenth. The pairs session, simply titled Shinji
Mkami and Hideki Kamiya, will see them discussing their past in future as well
as their philosophies philosophies on the creative process. Do you think, Lucy,
that they are going to announce a new joint project together after kind of leaving
their previous studios pretty close to one another. I suppose mcmona left about a
year ago, but started talking about it publicly about the same time that Camilla
said the Kamiya said he was leaving. It makes it seems like a match
to me. What do you think? I feel like it seems like a
match. When is their non compete up? Yes, so mccamie's non compete
his should be he's. In fact, he even talked about it, saying
his non compete was going to be up soon. I think Camilla is probably
going to be a little bit longer, but maybe not too long. I
don't know if it's gonna be like a full year. It seems when he
mentioned this before, he's like, yeah, I'll be able to talk about
this, and you know why I can't talk about it yet. Maybe a
couple of months. We'll see. But if they start, if they say,
hey, we are working on something together and we'll be able to talk
about it soon, I think that could happen at this and that would be
neat. I think so too. I think it's just cool to see them
talk in general, Like the two of them have been instrumental in so many
iconic, huge franchises over the years. And if they are getting the band
back together, I'm interested to see without you know, someone like Capcom supporting
them, Like, are they gonna go well, Indy, are they do
they have funding? Like, I'm just intrigued to see what they would come
up with. Like we've seen Ekumi go and out on her own. She
has her own new studio as well. I wonder if they would maybe join
her but like or or do something else there. It's coot, I mean
bring bring back Clover. Oh Kami too. Actually, don't do it.
Don't do no, no, no no. Kami is on my favorite games
all time. Don't do it. It seems like a game where it's difficult
to draw lines for some people. Uh. I think that there's enough funding
out there, there's enough money going around still that these guys are probably going
to get a bunch of cash to start their own thing. And we know
that a lot of that money can come from places like China, but even
some you know, major publishers in Japan are still starting up studios. Uh.
There was the guy from uh Rio Gaga Token I can ever say that
studio, but the yakuz RGG, the Yakuza team, uh the director left
and started a new studio under under a Chinese publisher. And so these guys,
I could see them doing exactly that same thing, or maybe take it
some money, maybe even like starting up a new thing with the hopes of
getting acquired by something else and so doing it independently making maybe take it some
venture capital money or something like that. I think these guys are going to
have the option of picking and choosing where their money comes from and how they're
going to set up their studio, but I do think that this is a
sign that they're going to end up working together, which is very exciting working
together again. Yeah, all right, Yeah, it's time to do It's
time to get back to scale bound. Finally, m Bark Studio says that
The Finals uses recorded voice and AI work. This is from Jeffrey Rissau at
Games Industry top is. The Finals maker in Bark Studio says it uses both
recorded and audio generated via AI text to speech. As reported by IgM,
this was in response to criticism the studio received from voice actors and game makers
alike for using AI technology for its upcoming shooter. A spokesperson for Embark Studios
said, we use a combination of recorded voice audio and audio generated via text
to speech tools in our games, depending on the context. Sometimes recording real
scenes where actors get together, allowing characters, chemistry and conflict to shape the
outcome is something that adds depth to our game worlds that technology can't emulate.
Embark explained that creating games without actors is not an end goal. Meanwhile,
protection against the unregulated use of AI in video games is one of the discussion
topics for sag Aftra, which is currently on strike from Hollywood. They approved
the strike for video games, but they never actually enacted that, right do
you remember thing? No, then I don't think stuff is on strike.
I think most struck from Hollywood, but not from video and not from video
game publishers. Yes, I think they approved it, but they never actually
started it. I don't think authorized it. Yes, I'm on Vulture,
Okay, yeah, yeah, I mean AI is the big thing. Is
one of the big things that they are kinda yes, clearly, I mean,
and this is this is exactly what people are worried about. Did you
see the trailer for this game where people are like, that's AI voices in
it stinks? I watched. I watched a clip of it, and I'm
like, oh yeah, so, uh, here's the thing. AI is
only ever good if a human being is directly responsible for the work that it's
pulling from you. You can ask chat GPT to write you a story.
It's going to suck unless you're like, here, I wrote a story.
Uh, go ahead and add a little bit more to this. It can
do that. But if it's basing on something like something a human has done
first, Like I when I'm putting together the bomb cast rundown. I write
my notes and then my notes are scattered shot, and I use the Google
docs AI thing to be like, hey, make write this into a paragraph
that just makes sense real quick for me. That does work. If I
were to be like hey, Google or being AI, collect the video game
news from the last week for me and put it into a bullet list,
it cannot do that. It's not good at that. It might. I
think it probably will get good enough to do that eventually, But for right
now, anyone that's trying to make AI, it's your game's just gonna suck.
And that's before you even get to the ethical elements and the creative spark
arguments that people are worried about this video. It was so obvious that it
was AI voices that it's like, why wouldn't you be embarrassed by that?
Like you're putting out a product that seems inferior because of that. Well,
I guess we'll see the finals is coming out still later this year, it
seems like, so we'll be able to see what it actually looks like in
that final product. But I think any studio that's going to rely this heavily
on AI is going to keep getting criticized and rightfully so, speaking of yeah,
the fine man, I don't know. Naming things seems very difficult these
days. I get how you end up with something called the Finals, but
that's going to be difficult to find. Ubisoft, meanwhile, is also using
AI generated art and getting criticized for it. This is from Ethan gotchik Kotaku,
Ubisoft Netherlands and actually, you know what, let me see if I
have the right there. People first began to notice some of Ubisoft's social media
channels posting what appeared to be AI generated versions of Assassin's Creed art. Last
night, a smooth a smooth over off brand et CEO emerged on the French
publisher's Twitter account for Latin America, and basically it had a weird looking at
c O and the background had a bunch of obviously AI generated pumpkins where it's
like much yes, smooth et c O and weird pumpkin faces. And this
comes after the Ubisoft laid off a bunch of people that would have done this
art for them in the last year or so. Again, it's just went
AI joke. I've got it. I'll bet it with it. Did the
AI et c O have ten fingers instead of nine? Yeah? Well boy,
all right, well, I mean hey, and everything's permitted, nothing
is whatever. Fuck Hey, I think this is also bad you. It's
not that it just looks bad. It does, but Loo, we want
to engage with humans. We already feel like you are a faceless corporation.
If you were going to go out on social media and be like, give
me engagement, I want like, we're just like you. We're just hanging
out on social media and we want to talk about things we like with like
Assassin's Creed. And then you post some farted out image that you wrote into
to an image generator thing that completely invalidates the fake little dance you're putting on
of we're just like you and we're on social media. It's so you're ruining
your whole The whole purpose of you being on social media and trying to get
an engender goodwill towards your products is being defeated by you shitting this stuff out.
So I don't get how companies don't see that, Lucy, no me
though, I mean, well, I do want to sound her companies see
it does the higher ups don't care. Yeah, and they what they see
is this saves us a little bit of money, right, yep? Yeah,
yeah, all right. The Twitch app is being discontinued from the Windows
Switch in January twenty twenty four. How devastated are you, Lucy? No,
that's the one way I consumed all my streams. I would love to
see how many people ever actually use that thing or like the concurrent Twitch of
viewers on the switch. We can see, we can see in the back
end where people watch on Twitch. So can someone go in the Giant Bomb
account and see if anyone actually has ever watched us on switch? Okay,
I'm gonna look into that. That's fantastic. Yeah, and let's see here.
Last couple of stories. Xbox game Pass has a ton of games coming
out soon, including many Day one launches. This is from Eddie mcoo at
GameSpot. Microsoft has announced the next wave of game Pass titles coming to the
service, and it includes two Day one new game new launches out today and
that was actually yesterday, October thirty first, and a handful more coming in
November. The pair of Day one game Pass launches include the Battle Reyale music
game Headbangers, Rhythm Royale game I'm going to check out. Looks like a
lot of fun, and that's going to be on console, cloud and PC.
The other is the climbing game you saw from Life is Strange and remember
me, Studio don't nod another game that's really good. I played the demo
at Steam Nextfesta earlier this year and really really liked it. If the whole
game like has that sort of progression of you climbing up with the mountain for
people, it's a climbing game, and if there's a lot of like climbing
platforming puzzle stuff and it's a atmospheric is kind of how they set it up.
If those climbing puzzles and the physics there keep progressing and getting more challenging
or more interesting, I think it could be a really really solid game.
And it sounds like that's what people are saying, So I'm going to check
that out, and I think that's a pretty good get for game Pass.
The game Pass catalog grows in November with the launch of Thirsty Suitors as a
Day one launch on November second, and this is a role playing game following
the character Jaala, who is back in town to become the person she was
meant to be in a turn based combat and cooking game one that people are
pretty excited about. That. Then on November sixth, the game Pass catalog
adds the latest popular entry or the latest entry in the popular Football Manager series,
Football Manager twenty four, with a dedicated Day one launches for PC and
console, and then on November November ninth, the catalog grows further still with
the day one release of strategy simulation game Dungeons four, and then there's another
day one launch like a dragon guide in The Man Who Erased His Name on
November ninth, and that story it obviously follows Kiriu getting driven out of hiding
and pulled back into the world of crime to save his family, and then
the on November ninth, as well, EA's monster fighting game Wildhearts will come
to the PC game Pass as well as game Pass Ultimate Man. There's even
more, the latest The Life sim inspired by Stardew Value and Spirited Away Spirit
comes to game Pass as a Day one launch a November thirteenth, and then
lastly, the chill and cozy sim Coral Island Coral Island Lands on game Pass
on November fourteenth, so a lot happening with game Pass. That's like,
hey, a good time of year to start up the game pass machine again,
right to be like, hey, there's a ton of stuff happening.
If you get an Xbox for Black Friday, if you go get one for
the holidays and and you subscribe, you're gonna have all these games ready to
go that day. That's pretty cool. I'm at the very least gonna check
out Headbangers. That seems like a lot of fun, and you sign so
very cool. And then finally, the final wave of Mario Kart eight Deluxe
Booster Pack courses is out. They're adding Rainbow Road from the Wei version,
Madrid Drive from Tour DK, Mountain from Double Dash, Daisy Circuit from the
WI version, Puranaplant Cove, which I think is a new course, Bowser
Castle three from Super Nintendo, Roam from a Mario Kart Tour, Rosalina's Ice
World from three DS Marto Kart seven, and all that should be in there.
Let's see November ninth is when this is dropping. So hey, not
meant to be calming down, it's I thought so too. And then I
looked at the release list for this, like first like the last week of
October in this first week of November, and it's very busy. Still,
it's very busy, So here we are. I think it will calm down
as we get later into this month and then December, I think we'll be
really chill, other than obviously the world beating game of Avatar that everyone's talking
about. But other than that, I don't know. I'm looking forward to
catching up on some games at some point. Balder's Gate three, I'm playing
it here or there, but I would like some real time with that game,
and we might finally get it at the end of this month. Okay,
I have a pull from yesterday, and by yesterday I mean Monday.
Let's go ahead and bring that up. Thank you Jan for getting that posted.
Would you want to do some kind of dual screen solution for the switch
too? Would you want Nintendo to do some kind of dual screen solution for
the switch to? Forty percent said yes, sixty percent said no. Actually,
let me refresh that, because that was before we got most of those
votes in here. Yeah, thirty two percent said yes, and sixty eight
percent said no. How about you, Lucy, would you want Nintendo to
mess around with the switch format and maybe bring in a second screen again.
Yes, yeah, I'm at the point now where I feel like whatever Nintendo
was going to do, I'm gonna I'm going to be there to see how
well they do it, and I have faith that they will do something exciting.
I think the way they've revolutionized stuff with the whole market with the Wei,
I think the we you didn't maybe nail it, but I think a
lot of the ideas that they implemented and then took into the Switch is very
exciting. And I think as well, you know, their commanding presence and
the handheld market, like if they're doing and they know they know what they're
doing with jewel screen stuff, so I think it could be really exciting.
I would like a clamshell device. I always like clamshell devices where I could
just close it, pay Polly pocket, big Polly pocket exactly. So if
that means I get to a screens as well, that's great. And I'm
with you. I think that Nintendo's at a point where they wouldn't put out
a new device unless the technology was super solid. So if they do some
sort of weird thing like this is based on the rumor or not, but
the patent that Nintendo had a dual screen device that could separate and then still
the both devices could still communicate maybe wirelessly and actually like send video wirelessly.
If that stuff is at all dodgy, that would be bad. I don't
think Nintendo would do anything based on that technology unless it was super solid at
this point, because they're in such a position of power, they wouldn't mess
around with that unless they knew it was going to work in every circumstance.
And if that's the case, I'm with you. I think I would like
to see how they would play on these ideas in some fun ways. But
I voted yes, so, but only thirty two percent of our friends did
it as well. I have a new poll question that we're gonna put up
in a second. But before we do that, Lucy, what do you
have going on this week? What do you have happening? Is? When's
that Jef Jeff's episode go out? And things like that. So this week
recording Jeff Jeff's in an hour, I have to watch the second episode and
that should be going up as soon as possible. Obviously, it's still pretty
busy, so johnc will be editing that when he when they have the time.
What else I'm on BombCast Revengeance on Friday. Yeah, yes, we're
gonna talk about Star Ocean. The second story are on on BombCast Revengeance.
I don't have time to play it, but Jam played a little bit of
it, so I think that's where we're gonna He's gonna have some stuff to
say. I might play some robocops, so there we go. Oh.
Janis has been reporting from the front lines that two percent of our twitch views
come from consoles, but he can't see specifically. Every single one of them
is switch, every single one. They're devastrated, every single one is switch.
I just wroar up a thing about like Dragon guided everything to no video
that should be going up. I'm actually going back to the UK next week,
surprise. We'll talk about that in the production meeting later, but that's
what I'm basically prepping for. So I'm not gonna be around for like the
next three weeks because love being an immigrant. Mm hmmm, yep, that's
not frustrating. Oh, it's fine, everything's fine. I just have I
was going on holiday anyway, and then I forgot that my visa swapped over
and I have to go get interviewed. So I'm giving myself a buffer time
so I can get back for Game Awards and everything good. It as long
as we're hanging out for the Game Awards, I will be fine. As
long as that's the case, So then great, excellent. Well then well
everybody, we'll see We'll see Lucy for BombCast Revengeans. Don't miss that.
Remember that's our new a new project that we're doing where it's a new episode
of BombCast each week. So there will be two episodes. This will be
slightly shorter, about an hour, maybe ninety minutes, catch you over bonk
games we missed, and then maybe talking about it, maybe definitely talking about
a bigger topic, sort of a magazine format, So look out for that.
It'll show up in your BombCast feed. You'll know it. It'll be
called Bombcasts Revengeance BCR. I can't believe how easy it was for us to
settle on that name. Were im so excited that we said it as a
joke and everyone just went yes, so much, so much of our stuff
is it started as a joke, and then we all couldn't stop saying,
yes, that's what we want to do. All right, let's see anything
else yes, Blight Club later today two thirty pm Eastern, tune in for
that. I might start just like definitely around two thirty b here. I
might start like a couple of minutes late, just because I got a thing
at two. But two thirty pm we'll have the stream going, Come hang
out, and then we'll start as soon as we can. Other than that,
let's get to that new poll, which is going to be what's your
relationship to Destiny Too? I never played it, I played it, but
won't return until Destiny three. I played it but won't return until the next
expansion, or I'm still playing it. And we will answer that on Game
Mess Mornings on Giant Bomb tomorrow, speaking a Giant Bomb, don't forget one
more time BombCast Revengeance on Friday. Oh yeah, bc R All right,
Lucy, thank you so much for spending today talking with me video games.
I really appreciate it. Thank you, No, no, no, no
problem at all. Thank you all for watching. You're the best audience in
gaming. Until next time, have a good one, take care of yourself
and goodbye. Fade the bla