Hello, and welcome to side Quest. This is our weekly video game show
here at Geek. First, I'm your host, the Adam fall hartcaster Dylan
Muss, and I have with me the clown Prints of beans Stell. How
are you doing. I'm doing good. I'm excited to talk about this one.
This should be a spicy, fun episode, so which has not always
been the case when we've had the Xbox Ones in the past. So this
is I think there's let's talk about today, so I can't wait. And
then we have the x of boxes. Mister Xbox himself, Taylor Field,
how's it going in It's going pretty good. There's a yeah, a lot
of surprises to talk about with this. I'm excited. Yeah. Yeah,
we're here for part two of three of our kind of Summer Game Fest weekend
coverage. We just covered the Summer Game Fest Showcase and now we're here to
talk about the Xbox Showcase. And yeah, we have a lot to do,
so we're just gonna get right into it once again. I'm gonna throw
a mister Xbox, Taylor, what did you think of this year's Xbox Showcase?
I enjoyed that. I had a good time, just again because I'm
biased because there's a lot of things that I was excited to see, and
I mean, heck, that's that's what you want when you're a supporter of
a company like Microsoft at Xbox. You want to see games that you're able
to be diving into. And again, there are some surprises, and I
mean it's funny because things were updating because I was I was playing Call of
Duty at the time when obviously Black Ops was unveiled or whatever, and it
was just like, holy fuck, my game was like freezing twitching out because
they were like, oh, pre order, now we got the crosshat,
all these additions. They just blasted the call to just like holy fuck,
Like damn, my game's overloading right now, three undred gigs already. But
now I'm really really I'm really excited to talk more about this because, as
I said, there's a lot of games in here I'm really eager to get
into. So very nice number. Give me a number one to five.
Oh you know, I'm gonna gonna be extremely biased and go four to five.
That's lower than I fell. Actually that's not extremely biased. I'd say
that's like moderately biased. He didn't even come in withought. He said like,
oh, I had a good time with it, so I thought,
for sure, I want to just because this might set me up because I'm
gonna assume you're gonna probably throw it to me next. Maybe I'm wrong,
but I could throw kirk kirkle what do you think? No, no rating
there? Hey, what what were your surprises? Hey? I just wanted
to know, uh, I'd say, stated a, kay, I really,
I mean I wanted it, but I was not expecting it. I'll
give you that one. Gears of War I wanted. I would say I
was surprised that it was. It was a prequel. I thought we were
begetting Were you sorry? I was there though, because I feel like that
everybody felt Gears. Something's happening, you know, the scuttle but scuttle but
but I mean I'd still be a little bit surprised, marginally marginally, but
yeah. No, I guess it was time wore the warcraft. That was
a surprise, although again it was just it's it's Xbox Microsoft now. So
there's there's that. What else do we have? I guess dragon Age,
dragon Age, that's not too much of a surprise. Okay, that's not
a bad thing. So that's where I am, where I know what's gonna
happen. I'm the Sony Pony, you know, mister mister PlayStation. Uh
so, I hope you're go oh you're you know, you're bias, the
opposite of tailor. I still think this was a great showcase. I think
this is easily the best showcase Xbox has had since we've been doing this since
twenty sixteen of the E threes, and I think they put on a great
summer games fest. When Jeff Keeley decided to drop the ball, because I
just feel I think this was good. I needed a couple more bigger surprises.
I needed a couple more from the bigger things like from Fable. I
saw people very excited, and I get it, But at the same time,
I was still like, I feel like we still need a more on
this, And that's where I felt like on a few other times, we
we're still which like we just talked about last episode. It's self of for
release dates because you don't want to put them. But when we are getting
like twenty twenty four for a few games but no window, it's kind of
like, well, when's this happening? Like Indian it's like when is this
happening, So I guess that's where I am where I think the pacing was
really good. I also this is where I'll fully say as well biased like
there's still things in here from just Xbox the past couple of months, which
is like I just haven't been digging the vision. If you don't know,
I have an Xbox, I'll be playing many of these games. I'll play
many of them on it games Pass because that is the it is the best
deal for you know, gaming wise and everything like that. But I think
overall it was a great show. I think it's just that I'm looking at
Xbox differently where it's just I feel like it is it. They are just
like the one of like the biggest devs now now, not particularly but just
like this to me still felt like more a summer games fest than Xbox,
and maybe I need a little bit more of that. And I guess it's
just in a place they are where I'm still We've talked about so many cap
fro I'm trying to change my perspective where they're gonna be all over and maybe
it's still really not about the consoles, but I don't know, because they're
always talking about like this is gonna push us in the next thing. It's
just like, I guess I'm just at a crossroads with Xbox overall. So
I think as a show by itself, I would give this like a four
point five because I didn't have that one stand up thing, because I will
give Taylor stay of decay because I saw people be like, oh, I
hope that was happening. But I still think there was one surprise that was
like that stand up, Holy crap they did this, Like even gears,
we knew that was happening some other things. So I always say a five.
I need like that really good, that wow moment. So I can't
give it fully that, but I think the pacing what was really good.
I think that it was great for Phil just to be there at the beginning
and kind of bugger off, and then same thing with the other lady because
I don't know, like I said, some of his comments this weekend two,
I still go, ah, you're just so full of shit, man.
I just I just can't get on board with some of the stuff.
But the show, we're all really good and I'm excited to talk about some
things uh in here, So I think that's the best thing Xbox has had
since we've been doing it. But they've also like I don't know, look
at all the stuff they've bonn since we've done this in twenty sixteen. So
it's like they get to have a good because here's my thing. I didn't
watch much of the Call Do Anything, but when Phil goes on for about
ten minutes of like for the first time in eleven years, call Dudies back
on the Xbox Showcase, it's the most exciting time. It's like, yeah,
because you bought them. You bought It's not like they've had it like
they came to a partnership. It's not because like call dudes, like you're
the best in gaming. It's like you kind of like cheated to get this
achievement of like, yeah, call Duties back on the stage here to show.
It's like, well yeah, because they have to be It's like this,
you're their boss. Now they have to be there. They never like
So it's just like a weird dichotomy of like it's a it's like a victory
lap, but it's like a paid for victory. That's fine, do whatever
you want, billionaires, but it's just that's where it is where it's like
it's still not genuine thing. So that's where I'm mixed on some things with
Xbox overall. But it was a fun show to watch, and I just
wanted a you more gameplay from some things and one or two more bigger surprises.
I'd say, yeah. No, I had a very similar thought to
you, which is that man with the Activision Blizzard thing officially going through now
and they have full access to that stuff with Bethesda a few years ago,
other acquisitions they've made along the way, and the fact that they're of course
still going to do with third party deals, there's really no excuse for Xbox
nowadays to not have an absolutely fucking killer showcase every single year. And you
know when they do their January show, which is like the Developer to rack
where they focus on like three to five games, of course that's gonna be
difference, like are you individually into the three to five games that they picked.
If the answers no, then it's like, ah, it's gonna be
a medium show. But at least they tell you exactly what to expect and
you know what you're gonna get there. But when it comes to this Summer
showcase, if they're ever less than a four for the next ever, unless
they you know, unless something drastic changes, Yeah, then that would be
like a huge disappointment for me, just because you have so much to show,
you so much in that back catalog. You have so many surprises you
could do, you know, mixed that in with like the classic stuff like
a new Halo or like a new console revealer, all this other kind of
things. Like they just have so much to play with at this point that,
yeah, there's no excuse not to have a great show. But of
course it's still great when they can stick the landing here. And I think
this was a good showcase in terms of pacing. They of course had their
three big execs up on stage, plus the Call of Duty people, And
I'm sick of those people too, because they are fucking liars, and I
hate everything that they've done recently, and they've shut down Arcanauiston. I'm still
mad about that, like tremendously mad about it, and so anything they say,
I honestly just like I was skipping those sequences when they're talking bec I
don't even want to hear this bs mumbo jump that you guys have to day
because it's just meaningless speak at this point when I feel like they were so
consistent on like wording and messaging for the last few years, but everything's changed
recently, obviously, with these with these layoffs. You know they talk,
oh, we care so much about our teams. We're like, well,
clearly you don't. The PlayStation shift and putting games everywhere, like everything has
changed recently. I don't even think they know what the fuck they're gonna do
the next month, So why am I gonna believe what they're telling me on
the stage. That's kind of where I'm at with them. But you know,
I can remove that for the sake of watching the showcase here, and
so because of that, I'm with you, Travis. I'm at at four
point five. I thought could be a bit lower, like maybe a four
point twenty five. I mean, who cares, It's just a random number
anyway, But that's kind of where I'm at. I think for me,
the points that a quote unquote lost were I was one hundred fund expecting and
wanting Activision Blizzer got acquired. Since then, one game has been added to
game Pass, and that's Diablo four. Where is all the back catalog stuff?
Where are the older Call of Duties. Where are these potentially hundreds or
tens of games that are on the Xbox Store right now? I don't see
why you can't, like, unless there's something I don't understand about contracts and
lawyers. All this is mumba noble, Like, why can't you just dump
that stuff on game Pass right now and give me like you just laid off
a bunch of studios, And what was it for is because Activision Blizzers is
so expensive. Where am I as like the game Pass subscriber? Where am
I getting the benefit of that? So far? It's Diablo four, which
is the game that I already bought, so I haven't got anything out of
that yet, and of course Call of Duty's coming. But it's like I
was really expecting something here like that acquisition happened so long ago. Now,
I don't know why they couldn't have done something. I think that would have
been huge of just like, hey, out today, here are twenty game
Here are twenty like older back catalog games, but still here's twenty. That's
yeah, we're gonna bring a bunch more. Makes no sense to me that
I couldn't have done that. If they did, I think I would promote
it to a five out of five. Of course, there can always be
like something bigger or more exciting. You know, put all their scroll six
on my screen and you're gonna get a free five out of five. But
I think they kind of crushed in every other category of Like, here are
some new surprising games that are coming to game Pass, here are updates on
games we've had before. Here's a lot of gameplay. For the most part,
there's not a lot of fluff except for the Call of Duty stuff.
But you know, that's kind of like they I like that they framed it
as you know, after the showcase is the Call of Duty showcus, since
you can expect, you know, a bigger deep dive on that stuff.
And I can kind of skim through that without feeling guilty because I know what
to expect. So, yeah, they did a great job. Here.
Four point five is my number on it. Let's get into it. So
they closed and ended the show with Call of Duty, and so I think
we might as well just talk about it now. Call it du Black Ops.
Six Taylor is about to be called I Gotta Assassinate. Like some of
the characters in this new Call of Duty game, it's coming to October twenty
fifth, and it is officially on game Pass Day one. Now, I
saw some clarification about this that you know, there are three tiers of game
Pass right now. There's game Pass Core, which is like the really low
level basic one that just gives you like twenty or something games, and they
kind of rotate that out. It's not on that catalog, and it's on
the standard one like standard console game Pass, but only the campaign. And
then if you get game Pass Ultimate, that is when you have access to
multiplayer, and I think Zombies is included in that. Now, Taylor,
you probably know this best, like you still need Ultimate if you want Xbox
Live right like to play games on line as far as I know, Yes,
I think they've heard it in right, Yeah, So to me,
that's where it makes sense of like, yeah, I guess you wouldn't put
Call of Duty game Pass or Call of Duty multiplayer on like that standard game,
but you didn't need Ultimate for that. So yeah, just to be
clear, like they kind of one of the two tiers has half of it,
you know, Ultimate of course has everything, and then Core doesn't have
anything. So just an Ultimate cross is over to PC as well right,
so it kind of connects connect about that's the two and one plus EA play
and all that stuff in there. So so yeah, I for myself,
Taylor, I I scammed the Call of Duty section. I picked out a
couple of interesting tibets, but you know, it's a bit too much Call
of Duty for me. So I'm curious what you thought of this show,
uh breakdown here and what's like kind of the most exciting things for you with
this new game coming out this year at this point, like I have drifted
away from the campaign, Like I'm seeing this reveal you got, like the
president you got, you don't want to go work for Bill Clinton and everything
like that. I do not want to work for Bill Clinton. I'll tell
you that right now. Not too political, but I don't want to take
the down out. I'm just I'm just seeing, uh, all all this
campaign stuff and I've just I fell off the campaign a long time ago.
In Call of Duty, so that is what it is. I play Call
of Duty for the multiplayer aspect and so getting to see a little bit more
of just what's to come from the multiplayer and omnidirectional stuff. I'm not ready
for that, Like, is that the sprinting in any direction, that's the
sprinting, and like you're your dolphin diving straight but you turn to the side
and you're shooting my mat my brain. I'm going thirty this year. Man,
we can't keeping backwards like what. I don't like this at all.
I'm not turning thirty. I'm going thirty. I'm going three. I'm going
thirty. I can't. I can't keep up with that ship. Man.
I see how people hold their controllers, like people are holding their controllers like
like this when they play. It's like, yeah, I fuck can't do
that. I'm a claw user. Sometimes I gotta say, oh, but
my hands are fucked now. So so that being said, though, yeah,
I I am excited for this. I'm excited because it's the first Call
Duty game I will not be buying Day one in I can't even remember,
because I have bought in every Call of Duty game since a lot of money.
God probably, I think Ghosts might have been the last one. I
didn't buy Day one because I was moving and that game was shit, so
I didn't bought it was That was the last called Dude I ever bought,
and that's why I can't buy another Call Duty mainly atrocious, So I'm happy.
I'm happy I don't have to buy this because even then, the Black
Ops ones are never they've never been kind of the forefront. They've been.
They were great back in high school, but later editions were not really my
favorites. I kind of was always more the modern warfare and Finny Ward kind
of Call of Duty games, not over the tray arch. While the track
definitely was fun, I'm excited because this has the zombie round based stuff coming
back. That being said, I think round based zombies what they were doing
in some of those later Black Ops iterations were interesting, but it got way
too chaotic, way too insane. It wasn't for me. I went through
those og maps, did the Easter eggs and got those achievements and that stuff
with some of the most peak zombies, round based gameplay like stuff you'll ever
you'll ever hit, and I don't think they'll ever tap into that again.
So I think the evolution to what we got in one or for three,
the open world zombies that they have, man, I got hooked to that.
That was some of the greatest evolution gameplay like of zombies that they've done.
I wish we all were able to play that together, because that's that
squad shit in there is fucking fantastic. It is. It is so diver
on game Pass. I'm there with you, Yeah, let's do it.
But I am concerned though, and I'm hoping that they don't blow it too
far out of the water because it can just get so overwhelming and not simplified
the newer round based zombie stuff. My hope is that, hey, let's
sneak in a like a map pack here of just those OG four maps.
They've trickled them in remastered ones into later other Black Ops Callduty games. So
if we were to get those brought in here and then it's game Pass and
we can get all four of us thrown in there, and like Shino Numa
actor in Totin, like, oh man, that'd be so sick with like
all the perks newer guns too. I would be like, yeah, I
won't be there. I'm sorry, I'll be there. The only thing I
have to add on this is, man, the this is now, not
me being thirty, not me having multiple children. I think called Duties make
me feel old because when they're starting to tackle nine to eleven and Bill Cleinnan
and George Bush Senior and Sadamus saying I'm like, man, this is how
it must have felt like when these games were coming out fifteen years ago and
they're tackling World War two and like the Vietnam War and all this stuff,
where he's just like, I'm like, you can't, you can't do a
video game about this, and like I'm sure people that generationally thought the same
thing, like you can't do like a game that's like has nine to eleven
plot points. I'm like, I guess you can. Like I guess they're
like it. Like so I just felt old when we had heard about the
rumors and these trailers too, like showing events that we have lived through in
a time where I was I feel like after nine eleven is when I got
more politically like into things because like that just happened in the world. So
it's just it's this just makes me feel super super old that now they're tackling
stuff in our lifespan. So it's, uh, it's very odd to be
in but uh I'm happy for the call duty people and whatever happens. And
are these is that jumping shit going to be in War Zone two? Are
people jumping on the side at me. Don't you gotta worry about that?
Maybe I think maybe if they drop Warzone three point zero, you'll might see
it, But no, I think when you look at what they've did with
uh cality, World War two or sorry Calderdy Vanguard and then the one of
the other cultuti's as well, a Cold War. Those were released after Modern
War for one, and we had already war Zone one. They had different
movements, but those movements were not incorporated. It's just the guns and whatnot.
So I don't think you have to worry about like Dolphin dives side shooting,
because that'd be that'd be a game changer. But you make a good
point though, with them incorporating different things that we've lived through in like nine
to eleven. I don't know. I'm curious to see in what way that
I don't want to say like, oh, that's I'm gonna play the campaign
because like, I don't. I'm not saying that, but I'm curious,
and it's a terrible thing, and it's just it's very bold to throw that
into a video. All the games tackled terrible things, right, Like none
of the things that tackled are good things, right, I was in like
the made up wars, like they are all based off real life events.
They just get turned into a video game. But all those things are awful,
so it's fair game. They have no advanced warfare, so I don't
know. Now they're just going to the semi recent present, which is yeah,
yeah, ten years Yeah, Travis R. Mike you like there sounds
like he didn't see real quick. Yeah, I'm I'm very excited for well,
I shouldn't say very excited for this. What I'm excited for is that
I can not have to buy this game and still check it out. I
love the campaigns back in the day, so I'm sure I would jump in
and check it out. The story not necessarily something I want to play,
but I would. I would just do it just because expensive, like highly
produced game with like insanely good animations and production value. So it's like,
you know, when I play war Zone and then I go play any other
first person shooter, I'm like, yeah, Call of Duty just has the
best feel because like there's thousands of people working on these games and they're just
so iterative and stuff. So yeah, it's gonna be a good time.
The most exciting thing for me though, is definitely Zombies. For years and
years and years, I've wanted to get back into Zombies. I love it
so much. But it's like, I'm not buying the full game just to
access these things. And I've always wanted like the Zombies game, which is
just a combination of all the all of the maps, and I guess I
can kind of in theory sort of get that now by at some point all
these games should be on game Pass, the older ones. So yeah,
I'm really excited. I'll be there with your Day one Taylor to jump into
Zombies, and I'll probably check out multiplayer to like join you on the review.
But I don't I don't in the the way that Travis like doesn't want
to put that time in a Marble snap and get hooked and only do that.
I don't want to go back into a period of my life where all
I do is play call of duty because I did that in high school and
I'm like, I'm good. I play Warzone with you guys, you know,
every few weeks here, and it's like that's the perfect amount of call
of duty in my life. So yeah, but yeah, I'm glad that
I can kind of jump in without needing to spend all that money anymore.
So that's cool for me. If the rumor is true that this is actually
three hundred gigabytes and you need all of that in order to get installed,
I probably won't play the game at all because that's an insane thing to ask
of anyone. That's absolutely fucking stupid. The series S has like five hundred
gigabytes by default, Like, what the hell you're asking for people to dedicate,
you know, seventy percent of their default hard drive to this freaking game.
Like, if you're gonna do that, at least send me an external
hot drive I can stick in to my content for free. And absolutely ridiculous.
I hope that's not the case. That's just supid. So any other
thoughts on this one? Boys like the showcase of course, but n call
duty though, No, that's it. Okay, well that's what you sell
for. Okay. Let's jump in the next thing, then, which is
Doom Dark Ages. Yeah, the prequel Doom game coming out twenty twenty five,
and yeah, it's just a medieval setting Doom. You have shields and
medieval flails mixed with that regular you know, crazy first person shooter gameplay that
you're used to. I think this looks fucking unreal. I absolutely love this.
Such a fun idea. You know, it's like these are first person
shooter games, of course, but like Doom twenty sixteen and Eternal, like
the melee element of the game is so important because that's how you regenerate,
and it is like this really great push and pull, and so I think
having a game that is going to focus even more on the melee weapons through
like medieval weaponry and crazy enemy types, but mixed with that regular gameplay that
you're used to, I think it's such a cool thing to do. And
I just love the setting, and so I cannot wait for this. I
still have not played Eternal, but I loved twenty sixteen, even though I
played it many years. I think I played it in twenty twenty. I
played it way later down the road. But I this is really really cool
and I can't wait for this. I think it's gonna be such a good
time. I'm this exact same boat for you. I think Eternal just came
out of a bad time. Because I played twenty sixteen. I maybe can
contribute Doom to the reassurgence of me becoming a first person player, like playing
more of that genre. And I don't know why. I can't remember.
It goes back to Briggs because Briggs was playing it and Briggs recommended it,
and then from there, I don't know why. It was something about how
Briggs was describing the game, like I want to get in this. I
think it was just like it's all. It was like an e either I
don't know if I had Xbox at that point, so it was an easy
download or it was like a twenty dollars purchase. I think it was one
of those things. I was like, Okay, this is easy. Absolutely
loved that game when I really didn't think and I wasn't like a big Doom
fan growing up, so I know Eternals came out at a different time,
but this is like this has motivated me to Okay, I'm gonna go do
Eternal and then I'm gonna be their day one for this because the aesthetic everything
about this this is just awesome. That gun where you put skulls in and
you shoot pieces of skull bones. People my like they're always so creative,
but this was like, this is the most creative they've been yet, even
just the look with the helmet and you got like a feathered cape, Like
I'm there day one for this one, So I can't wait, and I'm
excited to play Eternal because I didn't know. I guess it's more comedic.
So people have been using I've seen this done by a lot of people that
use the Doom Eternal chart and then the Evil Dead movies as a chart where
it's like one's the dark one, two's the comedic one, and then three
is like army darkness where it goes back and me, So, okay,
I like that a lot. Yeah, so I did not know that Eternal
was considered by many it's like a more comedic one and more like slapsticky.
So now I have that going in. But yeah, I will catch up
because I want to. This is twenty twenty five, so I have time.
I could even see this being falled next year. Say they have lots
of time, But this is like, uh, this is I think probably
my game in the show, maybe barring one other one. But I absolutely
love this. I loved everything about it. Can't say enough good things about
it. And to come out with your first show case of a new game
and have a ton of game play in it, Chef. Yes, it's
perfect, perfect way to show off this thing too. So Taylor, I
don't know, have you played any of these newer Doom games or are you
interested in this at all? I've never played Doom actually, but this is
a pretty time to jumpasast day one games past. Yeah. This this really
caught me off guard because I always thought they were like you had the Hell
everything like that. My my Doom familiarity is the Lane Johnson movie. Well
that's a bad yeah, don't. You've got to rewrite that history right now.
So, uh, It's definitely a game that always just kind of terrified
me. I eber seeing like Doom three. I think it was with like
the beast monster on the cover. I walk into Evy games back in the
day for PC like some very freaky and this just seems wild. You have
the this medieval take and yeah, just the the weaponry is cool, very
different from the the blastom one from before. So like, I'm totally down
to try this. It just seems absolutely chaotic and gross and I'm I'm there.
I mean, games passed. How can you say no at this point?
How can you say no? Well, you have to say no?
To game pass if you're playing this on PlayStation, but you can in fact
play this game on your PS five. It appears to be day one along
with this, So yeah, that's the next like big first party Xbox game
that we're gonna be seen coming to PlayStation, which is a really interesting thing
of where they didn't show it in the showcase, but they talked about it
afterwards. I don't even know the context of how it came up, but
it did come up. It was an ign interview and then he's like,
well, the crey of the game. I asked him such a bullshit answer.
He's like, I asked him, like, how do you see doom
in the creators like develop the developer or whatever, Just like, well,
I see this on all platforms And he's like, well, then that's what
we decided to do. It's like bull shit, Like if you want this
to be just like developers love in the head, yeah, it's the same
thing. Like it was the same interview when they asked like, oh,
why haven't you spoke about the layoffs. He's like, well, I just
wanted to give I don't want to put the focus on me and let the
developers and focus me on the people and stuff. It's like, no,
you should have been out there day one, apologize and they're like having some
sort of statement and the statement was BS. But that's why I supposed was
that the creator wants it to be on all consoles still, and that's why
look at that empowering your developers. Yeah yeah, so, and this brings
up an interesting conversation which you're mentioning Travis of like how this feels more like
a summer game fest type showcase than just next box showcase for you. So
to my account, eighteen of the thirty games showing the showcase, here are
games that are also available on PlayStation. Now a couple of those fourteen that
was my aunt. That was my So that's majority. I thought it was
lower than that. So the majority of the games you get still because I
know what people say and I've always seen the debates, and then because people
go, oh, well, why wouldn't you by game pass again, people
don't understand there are many people in the world that will just choose to have
one console. So when people go, oh, well, why you're an
idiot you buy a PlayStation, they might buy a PlayStation because they want to
play Spider Man. God of War and now it's good for them. I
think bad as a competition to let PlayStation nowt Like, if you're a Doom
fan, it would be like the oh shit, I got an Xbox.
Now it's like I have it. So again, I've rang this bell for
years. Games Pass was a bad idea for a business. This is a
bad idea for a business. But they just want to get as much many
as possible, so whatever they're doing their thing. Yeah, I mean,
I hope it works out for them because I don't want them to have to
shut down more studios. And of course I have a huge fan of game
Pass and I take advantage of the service so much. Planes like the majority
of the games that come out on it new, so it's fantastic. Yeah.
I hope it succeeds for them, and I hope they don't have to
lay off any more people. So yeah, but yeah, it is interesting,
like just you know, and a lot of those things are like,
Okay, Elder Scrolls Online. It's been on PlayStation forever and then they acquired
the studio of the game is still on PlayStation, so that number might seem
a bit weird, but when you look at and like in terms of new
games, it probably the number would be a bit lower, but even then
it's like, yeah, like KFC I Thieves gets an update, and that's
of course just got put over on PlayStation this game as well. So that's
a really interesting angle to it. And Taylor, I'm curious what your thoughts
are on that side of things, just because we had that conversation a few
weeks ago, when we're a couple of months ago now when those four games
were first coming to PlayStation. But now we're getting Doom, among probably many
others. But that's at least the one, I believe the only first party
thing that was announced here that is confirmed coming to PlayStation. There's a lot
of core speculation on other ones, but I think Doom is the only official
one. But yeah, how are you feeling about that? I mean,
you weren't a fan of it when we talked about a few weeks ago,
but how are you feeling on it now that it's been a thing for a
few months. It makes sense to do it, to be honest, like
it really does. It's it's kind of like this is gonna sound dark.
You're a weapons manufacturer and you're selling weapons to both sides, and like if
Xbox was just had their teams making games for them and just making games only
for them, to be selling these games and making money only for them,
I mean, yeah, you're gonna be making money, but you're not making
nearly as much money. If you own the developer and that developer is making
games for all consoles and other companies too, then that means Okay, you're
tapping into the whole market here, and you're gonna be writing yourself a bigger
paycheck at the end of the week. So I think it's the right thing
to do. And ultimately with with cross play and all this kind of stuff,
that's just it feels like, well, yes, you have your go
to consoles, like you said, Travis Loft, people have that one console.
Me I just have my Xbox. Yeah, right. It's it's nice
that it's coming to a point where you can have your preference of console,
your preference of controller, and your preference of subscriptions. But it's coming to
a point where it's all uh intermingled, right. I don't think it is,
though, I think it's getting not all the way around. Where are
these Where's last of Us got of War? Spider Mount Xbox. Where's Mario
Party, Mario Honsy on Xbox? It's just Xbox because, like you said,
they're cost very early though I mean I'm not saying we're there, I
mean you can play like I think it's a big thing for Sony to put
those titles like God of War, Last of Us, des Straying all on
PC. And now again it's not available on Xbox, but Xbox is branched
into PC heavily with with what they got going on there, so people that
want to PC you can tap into both those things now all of a sudden.
So we're getting to that point soon where I think you'll see a lot
of progression. Maybe eventually in the next I'm not going to drop a date
or anything like that, but in the next century you're gonna see You're going
to see things. I don't I don't think soon. I really don't think
Nintendo and PlayStation are going to go that route because they literally have a decade's
worth of information to show look what happens when you do that, and then
look what happens when you keep games to yourself. Suggest that PlayStation's venturing into
that market more not not on a massive level. To me, no,
that's just like a throwaway kids family game. When if we get one of
those big ips all on Xbox, then I will recount what I'm saying.
But that is also launching too. To me, it's like it's not the
same and they that's their bread and butter PlayStation more on Nintendo is that is
that not Nintendo's Nintendo is tricky, but I because it's not kind of the
same angle as like, okay, Xbox is going to PlayStation put their games
out there, because the install base that people have this consoles like well like
three to one at this point in terms of the ratio, if not higher,
And that's like the same thing for at least PlayStation currently to Switch is
like what a two to one ratio or three to one ratio as well,
So it's like very much the same thing. So I'm curious why you feel
so differently about like PlayStation doing that. And yes, it's only been one
game so far, but I think that's because the Switch can't run any other
PlayStation like notable games yet in that just because I think Microsoft has more financial
room to play where I don't think Sony wants to cut their legs out of
their console sales. Like Sony Gaming Sony Movie Division is like fine, it
does well, it has ups and and everything like that. It's not like
Microsoft that can buy like things ten times over if they want to write this
multi almost trillion trillion dollar corporation. So that's why I think for me,
they don't want to cut that well of money off right now. And I
think if they do start to do that, like Tata says, then it's
just well, you just pick the console you like. You lose it's supply
and demand. You lose the need to have a PlayStation. That's why other
than games Pass the second, that's why they're tied to Games Pass. Now
second games Pass goes away. If they were to go away, Xbox is
done. The consoles. They're completely done because there's no reason to buy an
Xbox anymore in my opinion, because now all these games are going over so
PlayStation. They've not done a great job with their Plus or whatever the hell
they keep calling. They keep renaming their things, and they don't put their
big games on there. So to me, I don't think I'll say,
at least the next fifteen years, you're not gonna get specific on Xbox Nintendo.
I need more time to think about that, because you could argue there's
still a bit of a different player base there with some more family oriented people.
I agree, like you said, so many people have to switch at
such a wide ven diagram. But to me, I think with Xbox,
they're gonna they're gonna lude the M Plus, if you look at all those
court finds that came out that that was a very there's a reason PlayStation isn't
putting stuff on an Xbox because they had a really like heated back and forth
of them during that whole activision buying thing. You know, it was not
a good goal around when they did all those interviews and everything. So I
think there's some salt there. Even today, Phil called them slimy. He
called PlayStation slimy today in an interview. So that's where it's like, yeah,
I just don't see that happening right now. We're Nintendo. They're smart
enough not to do that publicly. They're not gonna say anything about PlayStation being
slimy. They because he said, oh yeah, I don't wanna withheld it
was about why I think it was why do it was Doom or one other
game coming to PlayStation. He's like, I don't want to do let me
try and find the exact thing. I'll just put it in. Well,
I was gonna say Phil and slimy, but it was saying that he doesn't
want to hold games back because it's a slimy thing to do. That's a
thing in that PlayStation, not putting games on Xboxey, here you go,
PlayStation calls PlayStation or for slimy, Phil Spencer clts PlayStation simming, for paying
publishers for exclusive content. Oh so it's about the call duty stuff. I
want to give you the choice of how you can play, where you can
play, and who you play with, and not trying to do slat sliming
platform things and try and force you to do what you want and what you
want to do. So it's like, and we know who's talking about close
down, they're not. He's not talking about Nintendo, is what I said.
Yeah, when they brought those first four games over and yeah, just
the holder than thou mentality that they had of like oh we're just yeah,
such a beacon of like oh yeah, anyone should play anywhere they want.
It's like, yeah, okay, you've been like four games now, you're
doing like five of these games and the other ones you have. But because
you like bought the studios that order these games on those platforms, like,
yeah, they're their mentality there. They think they're just such like Saints is
so billy to me, and that's why I think he's trying to do the
underdog thing. But the problem is you can't do the underdog thing when you
just laid off twelve thousand employees. That's the problem. When your parent company
is the most has more money than they turned a profit last year, there's
no reason they had to do this. My point is my or my endpoint
is that I'm never gonna say never, but it was soon. That's why
I can't agree with Tana. I don't think it's soon for PlayStation, Xbox,
Nintendo in PlayStations, Yeah, you did change the century, but I
think that's that's so of why, because who knows what happens recessions, other
pandemics, like who knows other consoles, Maybe the PlayStation six comes out and
it fucking bombs, and then it is like a situation where like same thing
if you flip the tur corners, if Xbox was in the position PlayStations do
you think they're doing this? I don't think so. I think PlayStation is
spreading the love where Xbox could be the bully in the room and say no,
like you gotta we're go in. All the games are over here.
So it's just like you never know what can happen. But I don't think
soon that some something like fifteen years. I don't think you're gonna get those
big games on PlayStation. They they got to keep those, Brent Butter,
I haven't obviously read that full quote that you had there from Phil, but
it's just such once again, just such bullshit, like the sliminess angle of
like fuck you you just like weeks after laying off these studios when you have
no reason too, and like, yeah, I will agree that I think
PlayStation is slimy in some ways some other exbsolutely stuff with like exclusive characters and
games or like exclusive missions or yeah, just some of the ways they dealt
with that call of duty thing was like it seems slimmy to me, Like,
yeah, PlayStation also laid off people earlier this year, including people a
Naughty Dog. What the oh yeah, lotty Dog, So both of them
are equally slimist. So Phil, fuck off with that stuff. Yeah,
enough of him, He needs to shut up for a while. I guess
people want to hear from him though, So it makes sense, but just
a just a cheese ball. But what I was gonna say last, Yeah,
I think with Xbox, like another big thing that's been leaking but hasn't
been officially confirmed, is that they are potentially working on a handheld system and
from what we've heard, it would be different than what you know. So
many obviously had the Vita and PSP back in the day, but they have
that poor role nowadays, which is like connected via the Internet and you can
play games that way, and so it's kind of like the switch handheld version,
but you have to be connected to the Internet. It seems like Xbox's
version is gonna be not that you can download games and play them on the
go without an interconnect internet connection, and I think that could be a huge
thing for them with a game pass angle of it, of like here are
you know whatever two hundred three hundred games that they have in their catalog,
three hundred probably when they get Activision Blizzard in there, download whatever games you
want, go on your trip. You have all these games at your disposal.
I think that could be a huge thing from them, and that could
be a potential big seller of wanting to bring people back to Xbox because of
just game Pass with that handheld console could be insanely good. I mean,
I know there's the Steam Deck and you can like download all sorts of random
shit and get game Pass on there, but I think for a lot of
people that don't want to mess around with that stuff, they just want it
out of the box to build to do that. So really curious to see
what that is because that could be a big deal for Xbox. If that
could is good, If that handheld console is a good, you know,
piece of hardware, I could see myself getting one of those. I don't
see myself getting the next Xbox right now. I'm just gonna go for PC
next time around, and you know, my series X will last me for
a few years at this point. And then at that point, whatever I'm
really itching a play Doom, I'll just get O the next PlayStation. Whenever
I picked that up, you know, yeah, and it's and he practically
confirmed the handheld during that interview. He didn't want to say it, but
like, yeah, yeah, it's and then yeah, I'm with you.
That's an exciting thing. And but also that's the thing too if like you
never know, that could come on blow up, they could come out on
each shit, and it's like that puts you your company in a whole different
perspective, right, So it's it's there, they're make it so moves just
yeah with the portal be o now steam deck having a couple iterations, yeah,
and the switch being out for so long, hopefully there's like enough market
research out there, and there's other companies who are making other handheld machines that
are you know, not proprietary to like a certain platform, and yeah,
there's a lot of them out there, so hopefully they can get it right
because they can see what other companies are doing, get the right price point.
They already have the catalog of games and the service to go along with
it, so hopefully that works out for them. That was a nice little
tangent conversation about the next game, which is a State of Decay three author
to Taylor, first, you said you were excited for this. It finally
is back after three years. What's worrisome is no gameplay though, That's that's
my concern. Is it worrisome though, because I feel like it's just gonna
be more of the same, right, Like, if you like stay play
gameplay, it's gonna be that with a few new bells and whistles. Right.
I'm sorry, I'm gonna cut in right here, because to me,
this is like the other huge fumble of this showcase. Was Okay, three
years since we've seen this game, that was the announced trailer before, come
back after all this time, for no gameplay, for no release window,
no anything. I don't I don't see the point. There's been a lot
of reports of this studio having a lot of issues with like turnover and toxicity,
and like maybe the game is not doing so well, and so that's
was it really revealed three years ago? Yeah, reveals three years ago.
Okay, I did not know the fact, so I walk it back to
me. Keep it in the tank. Don't spend the money to make this
random ass CGI trailer when you're I need to show it when you think it's
gonna be you know, out in the next year. Yeah, maybe that
is the case. Maybe they're gonna have gameplays soon and the game is actually
coming out next year. That could be the case, but I feel like
they should have had a more substantial showing here. I think this one should
have stayed in the stayed on the bench for now and let it cook some
more. I was just kind of salty when it was all said, and
I'm like, hey, cool intro cinematic. Can't we see the gameplay here?
And then we just got nothing. So I don't know, Like Taylor,
is there a lot of driving in the first two games? Other games
driving is an element? Yeah, a bit of gas. That's something cool
to me, But like it sounds like that's not even something new, So
like, I don't I don't know what I'm supposed to latch on here as
someone who doesn't know these games. Everything that I saw in this cinematic was,
honestly, yeah, nothing new. What peaked my interest was that first
cinematic three years ago when the person's hunting through the woods and there's a zombie
deer. Zombie animals is an entirely new mechanic. It's also in the snow
like seasons. That's all whole new mechanic. That's not really I mean,
it was a seedgy trailer, but it looked really good at the time.
Yeah, so it's weird to come out three years later and have less to
show and for and for it to be a lot less interesting. Absolutely,
so I'm like, I'm curious to see what things are going to be improving
on in addition to what we already know that this game has, and I'll
never forget, like some of my favorite memories playing Stage ok Too with my
friends where you basically you pick your map and your friends can come into your
map and they can help build and gather resources with you, and basically you
infestations of peer up you got to clear them. There's sibusis you can do.
You get your vehicle, you can upgrade your vehicle, vehicles take damage,
and you can recruit people, and you can cycle between characters on your
base. And each character has unique different attributes, different backstories and cosmetics you
can give them, and you can give them different weapons, and you can
deck them out. It's a very very fun, addicting game, and it
can be amazingly overwhelming too when you get caught in situations where like your characters
are fucked and you don't want to lose a character, but when you lose
a character, they reanimate and they'll chase your friends because they turn into a
zombie but it's one of those few zombie games that when you're out at nighttime,
it's scary and you got to be extremely careful what you're getting up to
because there's there's a lot of risks. So the fact that you can have
animals incorporated there would be wonderful. But yeah, this, this cinematic did
not. It gave me hope that Okay, this is the first time it's
been mentioned in a long time. They're still working at it, still on
the board, somewhere, still on the board. I mean they this is
this, This is skate all over again. Really, I mean except without
the pre pre alpha gameplay, so it's actually behind skates. So yeah,
yeah, they're not even at a point where they can show pre pre alpha
footage. Yeah. I liked the as like a short film. I liked
the idea of this guy doing a little sacrifice and they keep this little airloom
and they reveal that there's just like this whole like setup for all these heirlooms
that people dedicated to remember. So it's like, I like that, and
I'm not sure if it would be that Like, are they very story driven
games too? Are they kind of minimal? It's more about the gameplay.
I mean, I don't remember there's been Instead of being a main story,
there's a general narrative going forward. It's very basic, but for the most
part not Your goal is to just build your base up, get fuel,
get all these different things like food and stuff, and just start expanding.
And that's where to me, unless there's a big change, word is a
bit more story focused, because I did like that. I think that was
like a fun, like a really kind of touching sentiment to have in a
world where you're keeping all these sacrifices. If that's not a big addition,
then I am with Dylan that yeah, you should just left this on the
back burner for a little bit more and then come come out a bit hotter.
But at least, like you said to it is good something where it
is. At least they're reminding you that it is out there and coming where
like we joke about beyond good and Evil, but like we haven't heard about
that in like seven years, you know, So it's like at least it
is like their intentions are to make this and you know, some of that
multiplayer stuff sound intriguing. So now that I have games Pass, maybe if
it pops up. I'd be down to do some stuff with you guys,
but I think it's still kind of a twenty twenty five like Q four the
earliest if i'm you know, to be optimistic. But yeah, let's take
a quick break and we'll be right back for more of the Xbox Showcase.
Okay, we are back. Dragon Age Vailguard was up next. This is
coming out fall of this year. I a huge blind spot for me in
gaming is BioWare. I've not played any of their games, and I played
Dragon Age and I played Mass Effect. Oh this was a CG trailer,
you know, sho some cool characters. I like fantasy stuff, so I
could be convinced. This isn't a game pass one though, so it's not
like a guaranteed pickup for me. I know people are hyped for this,
especially in our chat. A couple of people were really hype on it,
but it's just not not where my cone of knowledge is. So I don't
think I've much to add on this. This do anything for you guys.
I'm a mass Effect guy, so nope, by that's not my realm of
BioWare. I got nothing. You like mass Effect and you like fantasy could
be up your alley. Yeah, maybe one day. I think it's just
that there's been other fantasy games that have polled me. I think at times
Drag and Age maybe looked a bit on like the anime side, which like
I'm more open to now, but I think, yeah, I think it's
young and Travis like, yeah, not really for me. So maybe,
but I think there's still other probably fancy, like I'd still probably do a
vowed over this, so I'm not saying they're the same thing, but just
like I think there's already other fancy games that are coming soon or even talked
about. We're like, eh, I maybe would rather go with something new
than jumping on a ninety dollars by risk. Yes, yeah, but I
hear great things. So one day i'll I'll, like we talked about a
couple of weeks ago with Monster Hunter, one day I'll scratch that itch.
But today is not that day, and this year is not that year either,
So okay. Next up then is a Starfield. Shattered Space is of
course the announced expansion, so it's coming out this year, is what they
said. I'm gonna guess it's gonna come out around that one year mark,
which was. It came out September six, I think a few days early
with the early access, so I'm gonna guess that's kind of roughly when it's
going to be coming out. But we'll see the big hook here. For
like, what this delC is about is very focused on Varun, which is
kind of one of the factions in the game. And I think this we
probably even talked about this on our spoiler episode or something Travis talking about what
Chattered Space could be, which is like Varun is a big faction in the
game, but like their home world is inaccessible in the game. Like you,
they are mysteriously hidden off the grid. So it makes a lot of
sense that for the big deal C expansion you'd go visit them, which is
great because they're you know, a big part of the world, and like
Andresa one of the main companions, that's like where her backstory is, so
it makes a lot of sense. I'm excited that we're going there and it
could be cool. It's weird and culty and you know, religious cult type
things, so I'm all into that. And then of course there's like other
things come along with it, like new I don't know, characters and weapons,
and Creations is coming too, So now I can that mod's going around
today where you can play as the Mandalorin or Boba Fette, then I will
definitely be partaking in that when I go back. Yeah, so there was
two parts of this. There was a Shattered Space stuff which come past the
DLC come out later this year, and then there was like the an update
that came out today which has Creation Club stuff where you can download mods for
the game console and PC. Finally, some stuff is a free add on,
so like this Tracker's Alliance that added this new faction quest. But here's
where it gets a bit dicey. From what I understand, and I haven't
jumped back in yet. Is that a couple of quests for tractors lines cool
readown your redownload your game, or get your update going go check it out.
But then once you get past the first couple of missions, and then
you gotta pay for the next line in the mission, you know, and
there's like some of the stuff they showed you in here you gotta pay for.
You want those plushies that you thought were cute, three bucks, five
bucks, seven bucks, You want this other gun? Maybe that's actually free
so it's a bit dicey what is paid for, what's free, and when
it comes to content and mods, like some of that stuff is free,
someone's paid for. It's confusing, it's nedless. I haven't really I don't
have a first time experience with you because I haven't jumped in there yet,
so I don't know. It seems a bit dicey, but I mean Bethesda's
been doing that for a long time. They are very nicklin dyeing me when
it comes to their DLC stuff, and usually I do not nicklin dying for
those things. I'll get the DLC packs, I'll get the big expansion,
but I'm not interested in spending three dollars on like a new rug to put
in front of my house. You know, yes, of course I'm not
going down to that level. I mean, I think back in the day,
I about horse armor for Oblivion, but I was, you know,
I was like in middle Land. Blame me for that in a way.
So so yeah, I for me star for all these updates. There's been
other updates in the last few months that look great. I'm waiting for Shattered
Space. That's when I'm gonna jump back in. I kind of want it
all in one package, so to speak. But I all this stuff really
excites me. I have a bunch of new content. I already really enjoyed
the game obviously, so yeah, I'm very excited for Shotted Space and I'll
definitely be jumping in to check it out. But yeah, Travis, what
do you what did you think of this just wealth of things coming into the
game. Yeah, no, I'm really excited about that. I will do
the same thing as you us weight because I've had it on the menu and
I've been like late, like right now because now I'm going to try and
play some elm Ring before the DLC comes up. Before then, I was
thinking about going back to Starfield, and I've been like looking at an itching
too, so I think I will wait for that. But uh, yeah,
everything here looked great. I think they delivered on some fun story stuff
and this looks like some good more lower to the world. So yeah,
I'm like you, I had a positive experience with Starfield, and I would
still like to go back. There's just tons of stuff to do in that
game that I don't have time for. But yeah, I'm I think this
was a good showing and I'm I'm excited to get back to that world later
on this year. So yeah, and considering how many times like Starfield called
delayed and push back, I think it's great for them that like within a
year is like they released the expansion. It's not like, oh, I
mean it could you know, it's never too late. They could could kick
it out to twenty twenty five. But it's hopefully they can keep the updates
coming, and they have been coming pretty frequently since the game's release. Taylor,
you of course jumped down and play a few hours to talk with me
and Travis, but you ever went back to it. But does this DLC
or any of these updates sell you on wanting to redownload the game and jump
back in. Oh I still have downloaded. Okay, I had because,
like I definitely I played and fell off a little bit after the review.
Fell off, A little bit fell off, a little bit fell greatly.
I would ye, plummeted would be the word. I think I would like
to get back into it, but it's just added to that list of other
games that I need to complete, like Cyberlanacy, Cyberpunk. Let's say you
made a list of, like, you know, the twenty games that you
want to play in order? Where would Starfield be on that list? Like?
Is it top ten? Even? Let's be top ten for sure.
Absolutely, it would probably be top five because off the top of my head
right now, it would be this is not in ranked order. It would
be like Cyberpunk Red did too? Uh Jesus credit Mirage. No, that's
actually number one on my list. My goal is actually to complete that before
Shadows Sneaking. Yeah, I let you sneaking, like months ago, you
still have it? Did I remember Madison Irun for your birthday? Do you
have a physical copy of that? I'm gonna have to stang that for you
because you're not using it so and I have one want to get back.
I'm gonna put it up. Actually, no, you're not. You're gonna
poot up to look at a character like, oh, that's cool. But
I've been wanting to that. That's another again that doesn't drop that much.
So I've been just because God loves me. Sixty nine was asking for some
potential coverage of Phantom Liberty in our Yeah. Well, I'm not gonna guarantee
that. This is more just like a fuck replaces. Oh yeah, and
I need something to scratch like the Blade Runner ish, so I just scratch
it. Yea cool? Okay. Next up was Paull out seventy six new
update for that Skyline valley. They said, so cool. First expansion to
the map, which really confused me because I know they've had like Pittsburgh and
other locations, but I'm guessing those are like, you know, loading zones
to separate areas. So maybe they mean this is the first time, like
taking that Appalachia map and making it bigger, So you know, that's cool.
It's coming out June twelfth. The most interesting thing to me here was
not even something that's coming out in this first update, but they said later
on there I didn't the ability to play as a goul, yeah, which
is always something I've wantted and for, like for games that are such RPGs
and that you have such control over who your character is and their backstory and
their move set and like radiations of mechanic. I've always thought it's really crazy
that you never actually have the chance to play as a goul. So hopefully
it's more than just like a skin you can put on and then actually changes
your mechanics in some way, and that would actually be something that's pretty cool,
especially you know, seventy six more than the other follout games is very
much about like role playing who you want to play as, So I think
that's really cool. The other stuff, honestly, like I want to jump
in back to seventy six. But for me, that's if I were to
make a list of my priority games, that's fairly well on mind because like,
you know, I did play it, I gave it a few hours,
but like I'd honestly rather go do a replay through Fall at four,
even though there's all this crazy stuff like I want to go check out Pittsburgh.
That sounds cool to me. Yeah, you know that update. I
don't know if this one does, but maybe when the Google thing comes in,
I'll I'll jump back in and try being a Ghoul for a bit.
You can think the show for that one. That's all say is that show
is completely made that the Ghoul has been like everybody wanting and stuff. So
it's sure that's a big part of it. Like maybe that's why that's smart
data is so far out, is they've yes didn't even have that in the
pipeline until the show came out. Potentially, Yeah, I think it's smart.
I will probably never ever get into seventy six and I'll just wait for
a new Vegas or a Fault five or I probably will. I want to
go back. That's on my list as a new vague. Maybe we should
do that in early like twenty twenty four for a sidequest we have nothing,
just like I really like twenty four twenty five. Well we're gonna travel back
in time? Oh yeah, but no, we should all do like a
top twenty fifteen of our backlog list and a ranking of what the reasons why
we're going to do this and pull ourselves to a little bit, you know,
but oh ranking of the backlogs. Think. Yeah, I'm saying,
like in a week where we have no news, nothing to talk about,
like get us four together and like Taylor Kirkland did like a side quest episode
where we did like a very loose discussion on our back lab, we didn't
make a list that could be a fun y'all four of us get together make
make our top ten. Hey wech man be like, no, I actually
think you should put this game above this Frex Y and Z, you know,
stuff like that Doom. It should be higher on your list. You
would love Doom you know, so mm hmmmm hmm. And I know,
Taylor, you just fucking hate Fallout, So it's happen to be an update
for you, your elder scrolls guy. So, uh, okay, all
are me? Well, I assume you don't have I'm assuming you're not going
to play Fall with seventy six yet. But if you know, I am
not going to play. Is it like a free game? Now? Is
Fall seventy six? It's not games right, is it? Okay? There
you go. I don't know. I mean there's a subscription service for it,
separate from game passes. You guys have had to pay like eighty dollars
for hate Oh I paid, Like, hey, we've all been there.
Your dad was born because you paid that eighty dollars. Yeah, yeah,
that's the only reason that Yeah, that upates you got to go back.
The next up was I think the I thing this is a world premiere for
this game. It's hard to keep track these days. For Clear Obscure Expedition
thirty three, quite the mouthful of title. It's coming out twenty twenty five.
I thought this had just a really really stellar art style. Just visually
speaking, it was very impressive. In the scale of things, the character
designs, but then even just down to the little things like the UI elements
for the turn based combat looked really cool with like how things are kind of
integrated into the world, and I don't know, it feels like that UI
is really integrated in a good way. So yeah, I think this game
looks really really cool. I don't this one was. Yeah, it was
a game Pass title as well, so I'll definitely be checking out jumping in
there it is. Yeah, so it's going to PlayStation when it's on games
Pass, you got it? Yeah, PlayStation and okay past so there you
go. Yeah, I'll hundred pcent be jumping into this. I don't think
this is necessarily my cup of tea, but I'll definitely give it a shot
because of the because of the game Pass angle of it. So yeah,
I thought this is a really cool, nice surprise. Any thoughts from this
one, you guys, I think Jesus, I think of sort of big
bug came in the house. I think that it is in the same camp
as you that I like. I can like turn based, it just has
to be dependent on it. It looks like a beautiful game, but also
didn't look like an art style world that I was wanting to go into again.
Maybe it's almost that kind of anime is very final fantasy type of which
fantasy I used to play a lot of back in the day, but not
so much the new era stuff. So if it's game passed, I could
see myself giving a try. I will mention that like an artists court,
and it just felt like my timeline. Overall. This was like, if
not the game, the show. Like in the top three, I felt
like this had a really good showing. People were really excited for this one,
So that's really good momentum because I feel like that can happen a lot
where we see so many games world premiere in their DA right and it is
first impression. So I think for the audience that had a great impression.
And I was more like, Okay, this this looks good. Maybe not
for me, but I think it looks like a beautiful game. And yeah,
we'll see very very different type of style some of these enemies, and
I know turn bases like it's in games, but I don't know if it's
anything this big scale as of recently. So yeah, I uh think they
did had a good showing. Mm hmmm, Taylor, any thoughts on that
one. Okay, Soath the Midnight was next up, and I was surprised
to see you here because I think the I can't remember it was Game Warts
or if it was the Xbox showcase last year where which was the reveal of
this game, but yeah, I didn't expect to see it this soon,
but we actually got like a big gameplay chunk here where it wasn't just like
quick clips but instead just showed like, here's what a you know, five
minute segment of the game is going to look like it's coming out next year.
The trailer last year had like a very interesting art style with the kind
of intentionally lower frame rate of the movements and kind of cell shaded look,
but it pops very well. And so to see that frame rate in action
I thought looked really really cool, like the character's run animation. I was
just mesmerized by the entire time. I think it looks so interesting. The
game seems like pretty linear, but it seems like there you know, exploration
colmbat, maybe some puzzle solving, some parkour, a little bit of everything
in that sort of sense. I like the music that was in Yours kind
of something different. I like the setting and everything, the creatures that you're
riding on like this. This was like a home run for me. I
think this game looks so interesting and so unique. And yeah, another game
pass one, so I'll definitely be jumping into this, And yeah, I
think it's pretty high on my anticipated list. I just think it looks so
cool and different. Day there are You're going to the South. No,
No, I'm with Dylan where this was. I don't know where it would
be on the backlog in most plays, I don't think it. I'm not
as anticipated as Dylan was, but I am definitely going to be trying this
game out and playing it. I really like I don't remember it from last
year because obviously there's always a lot of these showcase it was just okay,
But No, I really liked everything I was seeing here. I really liked
the vibe. I liked that art style. I don't think it's going to
reinvent the Wheel, but I think it's going to be a really cool game
that because that art style will stand out, and some fun enemy types.
I like some of the southern type of vibes going on. Honestly, something
midnight, But yeah, this was when it started, I was like,
okay, because it almost has like a similar art stut to like when of
those Life is Strange games. I'm like, okay, it's probably one of
these things, but the transitions and no, I will definitely check this out.
Maybe as more time goes on it will climb up there. So I
don't even know if it's in like a I'll say it's like maybe in a
top twenty, but like, uh yeah, so but because there's a lot
of games like Kotar that are probably never happening, so I've just removed them
out of the top twenty. So yeah, I thought this was a really
good showing and I will be. I will be downloading this whenever drops because
I think this was just a just date it for next year, so no
official date, but yeah, great showing. I liked it. Yeah,
there were a few updates for things. World of Warcraft has a new Thing
update coming out see Thieves. Of course. I was season thirteen for that.
That's crazy to me when they said that, it's like, man,
I feel old again. I cannot describe you angry. I was to see
a Pat Benatar song played alongside Elder Scrolls online. Oh yeah, that was
just a mix of tones. Yeah, you know, I just I don't
even need to get into it, but it bothered me greatly. Next up
MGS Snake MS three Snake Eater. Yes, so showing off the kind of
remake here. Of course, this is not an Xbox exclusive and it's not
even on game path it thinks it is. That's that I saw so many
and like the Xbox is winning this and it was like all these Xbox and
this metal gear. It's like, no, this is not like you said,
it's I'm games pass, you know, yeah, yeah it's not.
But I think it's cool that it was shown here. From Xbox's perspective.
I think it's a good thing, even just like I've always assumed those games
are like, you know, PlayStation exclusives. But then I think we were
talking recently and like, ohya, MGS five is like on Xbox and everyone
I didn't even didn't even realize that kind of thing. So I think this
is like important for them to do, and it's a cool showing. And
it was like a really great trailer and I even watching like a trailer or
like some gameplay footage of the original game, and like seeing certain that are
yeah, one to one remakes with him pulling up the knife was really cool.
So I got the Volume one collection for MGS and I've been talking about
that on side quest, and so next up for me is Snake here,
And now I'm wondering like, oh, maybe I should wait for the remake,
or maybe I will play that and then play the remake and kind of
compare and contrast. They seem pretty close. But I'm very excited to jump
into that because yeah, MS two didn't really do it for me, but
this seems like a more of a traditional third person game, whereas MGS two
still is the fixed camera, which I just hate fixed camera in games,
like when I've been going back to old Resident Evils or yeah, playing it
just one and two, Like, I really hate that kind of camera perspective.
So this one being yeah, full third person is really exciting for me.
So obviously this is like a you know, twenty year old game,
but I think this this remake looks very solid. It's not like Resident Evil
remake in terms of visual quality, but I still think it looks really solid.
So yeah, I don't know if I think I'm going to play that,
you know, Volume one, like the OG version that I have there
before I check this out. But this is cool, great showing. It's
fun to see it here was a surprise. I thought anywhere is going to
be at Summer Game Fest or at the State of Play or something. So
it's cool to see. Yeah, it's great to see. I'm obviously a
big fan of mail Gear. I'm not like a diehard in the sense that
I've when I played those games. I've not replayed them. I played them
when I was young, and I'm not the diehard that is comparing the trailer
to the original game and being like this is awful. Look at the lighting
and the color against not which I get it. I get because it is
that idea of like the fidelity is really high. But some people are mad
that it's not capturing the same type of tone and feel as that original game,
which I get. But I guess just because I'm so young, it
doesn't have that impact on me this one. And same thing with the date.
Even there's like game spot today post seventeenth that's up in there, we
don't know there was not even a year for this. So this one,
all this legitimately depends on because if it's a great game, I'm there as
a day one, a Melgear guy, so that's happening. It depends on
the reviews though for me, because it's without Kajima and the last game that
they did, Mailgear, it was a very different of a game, but
it was still very poor that multiplayer whatever one they did, So I need
to wait and see, but I love that it is. I think this
is the right move to go back to the strip down because Middle Gear five
it gets so big and so crazy, and even the things you have to
do in the game, not just a combat, but just building little armies
and kidnapping people and you have your little bases and you're trying to upgrade their
level grade and everything. I think it's great to have this back to kind
of almost bare bones of its you know, naked snake on a mission,
you know, espionage. So in theory, this should be great, and
this is easily like a top twenty game for me, But this is definitely
a I need to wait because I could see a lot of six to sevens
out of ten, and I think I will buy this game at some point,
but if it's on the lower scale scale as far as reviews, I
will wait on that. But if it's a hey, they really hit a
home run on this. This is a day one Travis. I've already seen
those volume the Volume one collection go like really deep sales. Oh yeah,
so I yeah, I think that you're pretty safe that the same thing will
happen here. It seems like a yeah phone on anything to do there?
So yeah, yep, Taylor, any thoughts on that one? This is
another one that I you know, I I share and appreciate Rubin's love and
support for I remember going over to his place and he was just pumping out
the mail, your solid phantom pain, showing that off and but you could
support yourself, you could be I feel like this is there's some I don't
know, it's a little slow, so maybe not, but I feel like
you'd like like the stories and stuff. And I have the physical cart for
the Volume one collection, so if you want to check out those old games,
I I can lend that here. You gotta give me Cyberpunk first,
though. I gotta get through Cyberpunk. Got through star Field. Oh you
don't get through Cyberpunk? Like did Mason never play those Mario games? I
borrowed the Mario trilogy, did she? I'm gonna ask her when you're not
around. Tim made this big deal, like, ye know, yeah,
you gotta get back Tim. Mass wants to play. Mass wants to play.
I still need a back when they play it. But you can definitely
borrow it again. But you never even did you play it even I don't
think you ever played them. I want to, but you put them on
such a time constrainer. I don't think. I don't have it for a
year. That's the biggest baloney year I have for a year. No,
let's move on continue. Next up, there's two games, Flint Locked the
Siege of Dollal, which we've seen a few times. Just kind of a
reminder, but that one. It's another another game past title looks cool.
Age of Mythology retold. This is a new announcement. I don't I can't
tell this is a remake or if it is a kind of just like a
new version of whatever is going on here. I'm not knowledgeable in age parts
of Age of Mythology, But yeah, Taylor, you're gonna be playing this
one. I used to play Age of Mythology, the original back in the
day. I remember in elementary school getting into the computer lab and playing those
games online, like are not online, but playing them on the computer.
They were peaked back then, those strategy games, and I haven't played one
since, but this is kind of enticing, and i'd be kind of it,
like scratched that edge a little bit, you know, a little nostalgia.
So it looks really fun. I might download it on my computer and
check it out. Next up was Perfect Dark, which I was kind of
surprised to see. There's been a lot of un scenes chatter on this one
of oh it's in development, Hell, it's not going well. They need
support studios DA, DA DA, and then other people like you know,
disproving that and saying, oh, I know it's actually doing pretty well.
And so I didn't. I didn't really expect to see here. I thought
another year rotation, maybe then there'll be time. So I'm surprised to see
it. Didn't have a date with it, So who knows how far along
it is, But you know, it's there was game playing here of course,
like it's it's you know, doctored gameplay. It's maybe not like one
to one ratio, but I think it at least shows you what it's going
to be. Like. Perfect Dark is the one that I've played a couple
of these games back in the day, but it's like I only ever played
the multiplayer and just screwed around in some like you know, arena type combat
from what I remember, So I don't really know much about the story or
the characters here, but I thought this looked amazing visually. I really like
the density of the city that you're going around. At first it was giving
me like Dune vibes, so I'm like totally into that, and then the
parkour looked fun. I think the calm looked okay, so so, but
I liked the tech angle of it. So I don't know I had.
I guess I didn't really know what to expect coming into this, but I
was pretty impressed. I think this looks pretty cool, and it probably is
still a couple of years away, so not getting my hopes up necessarily yet,
but cool. Nice job to come out of here. Like I think
to this point, we've only got like the title dropped for it. I
don't think we've ever seen anything for it, so I think they did a
good job of putting there for the best foot forward on showing this one off.
I was saying, boat, as you've never played Perfect Dark. I
really had zero interest when they announced a couple of years ago, like cool,
it just felt like Xbox didn't have IP so it's like, oh we
got this, like look at it, take a look at this, and
we've heard all those reports and I don't think it was a gameplay where it's
like, man, this looks like this big game year, but way better
than I was expecting. Even just the story beats, just the vibe of
the game. I just love, like I don't know what she is,
some assassin. It just felt like a very like space cop type of way.
It kind of again Tomba Blader. It felt like if you were a
rep, can't like try you were bladed around trying to get like a replicant.
Like like you said, some of the gameplay looked all right, but
it was like a slice. We'll see, but no, this is one
that now it's on the radar and not on the top twenty of course,
but and same thing. It was not in games Pass. I would not
have it on the radar, but because it will be, I'm assuming on
games Pass. Yeah, I it left a good impressure on me. So
now I'll have to wait and see the follow ups and see if we can
keep that momentum. But I was liking the vibe the gameplay I did see,
even though it was like revolutionary, but I liked the vibe of the
story and the kind of the motives that's going on. So yeah, I
just, uh, this one took me by surprise because I thought the whole
way through I wasn't going to give a shit about Perfect Dark and I do
know, so Taylor, do you give a shit about Perfect or I give
a little shit. I mean, I've never played them before, but this
this was definitely interesting. I liked what I was seeing and I'm curious to
kind of again, it's on games Pass, it's like doing so it's a
it's the list sounds good. DLC four Diablo four is coming out later this
year. From what I could tell these The Diable four, of course is
on game Pass, but I don't think the DLC is going to be included
that service. You have to pay extra for that from what I can tell.
So just an FYI on that. After that was Fables is coming out
next year apparently, which another thing that surprised me because Fable is another one
that we've heard. Yeah, maybe mixed rumblings of how it's doing behind the
scenes, but I was finally glad to see some more here in terms of
actually seeing some gameplay once again, look like very doctored gameplay hard and tell
it yeah, But I don't know, I'm I'm a little mixed on it.
I feel like, you know, that that original fable, Like I've
played a little bit of two and three, but it's like I'm nostalgic for
that first game and that is and I love it, It's one of my
favorite games of all time, but it's like I never even finish the game.
It's like it very much exists in like this very narrow pocketive time for
me, and I do want to do a retro of it before this new
one comes out, just just the first game, not going through the whole
series again. But it's weird like this, this has a very different tone
and vibe to me, like you know it is. It is jokey,
it doesn't take itself too seriously, but there's still a distinctly different tone of
what we saw here from what I expect. And even like that very first
showing, we got a fable with the teas of like the frog eating the
Fairy like that to me felt very fitting. But something about the tone the
characters, the way they're talking here, it's like it's different than the Fable
that I'm used to. And also like the art style the original game is,
like it's very like boxy and clunky, and like armor is really big,
and like buildings are very exaggerated. It's very cartoony, and I think
the games, like as Fable progressed, it kind of got away from that,
And so this also has that kind of vibe to it where it's not
really it doesn't really feel like that original game that I, you know,
no one loves so much I'm nostalgic for, so I guess I'm a little
on the fence. Don't get I'm still gonna play the hell out of this
game. Yeah, I love fantasy and I love the idea of it,
and I like the look of the town that we're seeing here. But yeah,
I guess I'm just I would be surprised if this was as special to
me as that original game is. But that's just dealing with twenty years of
nostalgia, So it's hard to beat that, right, Could this be?
It's like twenty eighteen got a war moment though, you know where it is
evolving and it is it has enough of the oldest there, but it's like
you feel that, Okay, it's not that old game, original game I
played, but it's it's evolved to something a bit more, you know,
not grown up or say, but just you know, even that comparison of
just taking some stuff that you love but then also recoding it to you.
Okay, here's a new generation of field. Because you're also got to get
people like myself never touched a Fable game in my life. It's a blind
spot for me. So and I feel like that was like we've got a
war. A lot of people like hadn't played some of those and jumped on
that. So hope maybe it could be that, you know, yeah,
I think there's definitely an opportunity for that. I mean, you know,
one unknown variable here is at its playground games making this. You know,
people have made FOURSA for one hundred years, so it's like, I don't
know, this is definitely another wheelhouse. It's been done before, so I'm
okay, could this be their horizon you know that's made those kills on games?
And then the pair that comes up, Yeah, I mean, I
think the reboot angle of it does make a lot of sense, because that's
probably what I need from the series, because like, yeah, not as
intrigued by what they did with the sequel games, and so I think it's
probably good to yeah, do kind of a soft reboot whatever you want to
call this here. So yeah, I don't I'm super receptive of this.
I'm gonna be checking out day one. I'm excited for it. I don't
know what I needed to see, but I guess there's there's still a lot
of opportunity for me to get like blown away with some other trade. Like
I guarantee that next January for the developer direct, Fable's probably gonna be one
of those games. So to get like a fifteen to twenty minute deep dive
on it, see gameplay, see what the RPG elements are looking like,
see more of the combat. Like I think that will be really the selling
point for me of like, Okay, where is this on like that Tier
one hype level or is it just like yeah, it's game pass. I'll
check it out as I do with like a lot of these other games,
but yeah, really really excited to see more of it when we do get
more. Could this be there sneaking No, I'm joking. I so this
one I just need to see more. The games pass is always because ye
I'll scratch it. Never played a Fable. I've always heard the legend of
it, but I've never played it. So yeah, games past easy,
I can download play for five hours. But like, okay, this isn't
for me, but for me, I think there was a lot of nostalgia
goggles on with this one because I heard, oh, great showing for Fabily
yet da da da, and I just felt like you like, to me,
the Perfect Dark showed way more gameplay as far as like a vibe of
what this is, this was just a lot of a character holding and swort
of walking up to things and maybe one slash. There's one jump. To
me, it's just like this is nowhere near enough for me to think this
is a looking gray and a should be excited for with like you said,
a different company fucking thumbs up for doing this seven games. So it's like,
I still I need to see, like you said at January one,
twenty five thirty minutes of something a real showcase on this. So I like
the cinematic and I liked actually something. It felt like, you know,
like a not as comedic Shrek at times, like, which is a weird
thing to say, but I do like Shrek. So this felt less fairy
tale than the last two showings, which yeah, the first like or the
second one was a very Jack and the bean Stock type nick and the first
one or a yeah teaser, but the frog scene, right, So I'm
intrigued. But yeah, I think lots of people about that. Maybe it's
just that he talked up for me. So when I finally saw because I
didnt get to watch the that, I'm like, this is it for it?
It's still to me a big question mark this game, So I I
still that's I'm gonna wait and see on this one of you, Taylor.
I mean, my experience would be just fable too. That's the only one
that I've played, and even then I didn't play a lot of it.
Uh so I don't have I don't have a huge nostalgic connection to this franchise.
But it's on games Pass and I am I'm curious because I like the
humor. I like what I've seen just with so far. It's it's it's
funny. I remember all the hype with Fable three at the time. But
yeah, I'm not rushing day one to play, this is what I'm saying,
but I I'm interested to try it out. Okay, gotcha. Next
up was frag Punk because it's coming twenty twenty five. This is a free
to play five to five hero shooter type game, with the gimmick being that
you have these cards and you crush these cards in your hands and that changes
the stats of the map or the characters, like one of them is you
could turn the opponents into having big head modes. You can get easier head
shots, or you can like get the growth going on. So like all
this this plant life grows to the map and adds new places you can hide,
or you can flip the gravity upon its head like that scene from Inception.
So I love the concept. I think it seems really fun and cool.
It's free to play, so I'll jump in there and check it out.
Will I stick with it? Probably not. It seems kind of gimmicky,
but hopefully I have a great weekend, you know, jumping into this
thing, or maybe even a few weeks. Who knows. I doubt either.
You guys are gonna be checking this one out so I won't be there
on that week and stressful. I worry about omni direction. It's changing the
dynamics of this sprint backwards. You don't have kind to miss with, mess
with flip upside down, big heads, Oh my god. Next up is
a game called Winter Burrow, which is interesting because I feel like, you
know, for a few years there, maybe a two or three year stretch,
Xbox was like really kneeling into showing off a lot of like indie games
at their conferences, and nowadays they just gulfed up so much Triple A studios
and stuff that like it seems like they're like too big for that kind of
thing. They're not showing that sort of stuff anymore. This was like the
one very indie looking thing that they had here where it's like cute but like
maybe sort of darker game where you're playing as this little mouse in like this
cold winter environment. You're going back to your little like family home, trying
to find your aunt, trying to rebuild this world. It looks cute and
wholesome, but also potentially a little dark. I'm into this. I'm gonna
be playing this with MUDs. I think this is a cool, interesting game.
I like the art style, like what they have going on here,
So I'll be checking that one out. What's coming out next year? Another
game Pass title after that was Mixtape, which has a very Life Is Strange
esque feel to it, which is a very much a coming of age story,
which has not a common genre in video games. But even like this
trailer had a very movie like announcer to it talking about you know, like
this summer play, this you know, coming of age tale about finding your
way like that, it had that vibe to it. I really that has
a very similar like kind of frame rate thing that South of Midnight has,
which is interesting. It's all about the soundtrack too, and just like I
don't know, a very kind of trippy game of you know, flying in
cars or just like floating through the air with your friends. I think it
looks really cool, unique, something different. I'll definitely be jumping into this
one as well. I think it looks really interesting. Yeah. I like
for some reason, that and Life is Strange back to back. It was
like good showings for me, so I was like, oh, maybe I
need to Yeah, normally I don't care much for Life is Strange. It
doesn't do it for me. But yeah, double exposure to the new one
here. I thought it looked cool too. It did, yeah, so
I was like, do I need to now put that on like a you
know, back log list, so we'll see. But even mixtape, I
I was really digging the trailer, so they're they're away and see I think
those past so you can always jump. Yeah, so I might. I
might take a gander on those because those aren't probably long games either. So
I liked everything about that vibe in the way of music connecting you and through
time, and yeah, I I I yeap digging what I usually just kind
of pass over in the conferences. So yeap. Flight Simulator twenty twenty four
is coming out. There you go, Indiana Jones in the Great Circle still
coming out this year. No thoughtsome tailor flight Simulator. Don't you want to
here to actually try it? I I love seeing the different Taylor cut me
off if I'm not, if I'm not growing to you, it's just so
asleep again, I get the I get that that's stress because yeah, like
if I'm flying these big passer planes and I pass out, like that's not
going to be good for anybody. But I think it looks cool the things
that they got in here because you're doing and like agricultural work, you're da
Yeah, you're savings. There's lots of cool different things in here that I'm
I'm eager to try out. Uh I. I just when I played the
last one I played, it just gets so overwhelming because you go into that
cockpit. It's like, I have no fucking idea what I'm doing. I'm
flipping the switches and all of a sudden, I'm flipped over in the fucking
run. So but I want to learn. And they've done some cool things.
They did at Dune at DLC where you fly what's the name of the
ship Orthoicopters or something like that. Yeah, they did that, which is
pretty cool. And then they of course they did the one of the Halo
ships too, I think it was the Pelican. Uh So they've done some
cool crossovers. But I'm excited to try this. I think there's some cool
things in there, and uh I'm excited to see if this is like the
actual like our Google Maps that you can connect with, or if it's more
like their own world that they've built, because the last one with Google Maps,
I think because people are meaning on there, like this game has the
whole fucking world and there's one hundred gigabytes. We'll call duty is going to
be three hunder gigabytes, So there you go. Yeah, yeah, Indiana
Jones. A Great Circle, as I was saying, it's still coming out
this year apparently, but we don't have a date on it. This showing
of it did have some more like this is it real type stuff, but
it was more about showing kind of one extended scene in the Himalayas. Taylor,
what did you think of the Great Circle here? Uh? I liked
that, and I thought being in the snow environment too and all that was
really cool. I don't think we've been in to the snow in the movies,
have we. It's just been like desert and Paul Himalayas, I guess
so he was. It wasn't necessarily it was more or less in the in
the bar, right, we didn't really get a lot of snow snow,
But you're totally right though there was. There wasn't a Paul if we're one
of Himalayas man just sneaky yetty in there. I mean, this is Ina
Jones, why not let's make it happen after everything else that we've seen.
But it got me pumped, It got me excited, and I'm I'm I'm
still on the that prehensive fence about being in first person. I feel like
I've I've subscribed to the third person concept. It would have been better,
but I'm gonna wait. I'm hold my breath. It's Indiana Jones, So
I'm excited to get in there and experience with what they've got. M Yeah,
I uh, I was. I was pretty unimpressed with what they showed
here. I thought the Himalaite Himalayas scene, the humor, the character stuff
wasn't really work for me. I didn't hate it, but I was just
I think, ultimately like a bit apathetic towards the whole thing. I just
didn't feel much, which I don't think is what they wanted me to be
feeling here. I also, I guess I'm curious, like what a longer
chunk of gameplay is going to look like in this so to have like what
is essentially an extended cut scene with like very minimal gameplay on once, it
just makes me worried for like how much how gameplay is this game going to
be or is it gonna be more a story focused with a lot of cutscenes
for like what could be like a fun moment to play through, so we'll
see what's going on there. I also to just think, like, visually,
I don't know, it's it's not looking as great as I want it
to. Perhaps I think maybe the saving grace for me here is I talked
with Kirkland recently on side Quest that I went and played through one of the
Wolfenstein games, so I got a little bit machine games knowledge in my background
here and I really had a great time with that. In terms of the
gameplay, first person sumer caaxs, I thought it was fun when I come
to this, though, I see, like, man, every encounter looks
like it's like a one enemy thing, Like you're not doing these big shootouts,
which you know that's Wolfenstein. I'm not saying that's what Indiana Jones should
be necessarily, but I guess I'm just getting potentially a bit concerned that the
gameplay is not going to be fun in this game, and I don't know
if the story is gonna be good enough to make up for the fact that
the gameplay is not good. So that's kind of where my worries are at
So yeah, I guess I'm a little under the weather on it. You
could say, so, Travis, where are you lying on this one?
And I like the other thing. There's a couple of comedic moments and didn't
work for me, like the guy with the cartoon bid and everything, But
I think for the most part, it's still feeling like India. I think
the gameplay yet, I was surprisedly, you know, as I said when
we got the reveal, I wasn't opposed to the first person, but I
also said that it could be a mistake by time we get there, and
I think it's generally gonna be a wait and see sort of thing. I'll
definitely be there. I think there's tons of fun things they could do with
Indiana Jones, and I think as of right now, there's still this scene
for the most part, had like the spirit of Indian Jones. So at
least they're nailing to me that part of some of the type of isms that
they do. So yeah, I'm I'm still excited for the game and hoping
to get a date soon, but I'm not excited to the point where I'm
like, oh, I can't. I'm Jones in the PLAYSS game. I
think we have really fun but it just looks like, oh, I'm going
to have a good hopefully a good time with a game that has an India
Jones's skin on it, and I can scratch in each of that that we
haven't had like a big triple a Indiana Jones game, I think. But
at the same time, I think it could be a game that maybe like
over delivers because I'm just gonna have it at like a you know, a
very not low bar, but just like the bar on my expectations are in
line. So but yeah, so first to like it. Yeah, we'll
talk about release date in a second. For that, I want to loop
back on that one. Next up was Mecha Break It's coming twenty twenty five.
After that was again called Wu Chong Fallen Feathers, which is like a
Soul's like thing that's coming to game Pass twenty twenty five as well. Moving
along it Avowed was up next where we got to see a little bit more
here, but then they did like a deep dive or like another half an
hour of the main developer there talking through the things, showing off more extended
gameplay sequences of it. And so I think from the initial like the trailer
they showed here, I wasn't like super impressed, but that Deep Dive did
some good stuff where they finally showed off a lot more of the like skill
tree and the RPG side of things, and I'm into it. I like
what they showed there. I think the magic just looks super fun in this
game, Like the at one point in the trailer, the character is like
this purple magic book and they slam it shut in is like this big AoE
around them that looks cool. The ice we've seen before looks cool. The
fire looks really good. So I think the magic part of it is is
what's looking really nice. And the one thing that I found really interesting in
the Deep Dive was they were talking about how like the character the character had
like a sword and like they were swinging at this enemy and like the animation
looked really bad. I was like, Oh, this is worrying. The
characters like smacking, look like they're hitting with like the hilt of their sword,
and like what's going on? Like this is I'm slightly concerned for the
melee calm at here. But then they go and upgrade their skills and their
sword or whatever, and then they go fight and that same sword, their
animations are like popping off looking really good. And then they were talking about
that and the deep dive that like upgrading your character means your characters like more
proficient with their weapon and you'll get better animations with like the sound effects will
be better and more juicy. And it's like that is a really interesting idea,
and it makes me wonder, like how much of the kind of mid
or bad looking gameplay that we've seen in some of the trailers is that kind
of thing or we're seeing like a lower level character who hasn't leveled up yet
and isn't like expert at their stuff yet. So I'm really curious about that,
and it kind of gives me a glimmer of hope. I have pretty
low expectations for this game, just because it started out as like, okay,
you know Obsidian they made Fallow at New Vegas, and this is finally
them doing their take on Skygrim. But then like over the time, they've
been like, you know what, the scale it's not there. It's a
smaller scale game. It's like outer worlds or around that kind of size.
And so I think because that my expectations are just in check. They're lower,
but there was some stuff here that I thought looked really nice, looked
pretty interesting. They talk about how there's third person in this game. You
can do third person or first person. They didn't show much of it,
so I'm curious how the combat will feel for that. But that's a nice
option, which of course was a thing in New Vegas and any Bethesda game.
Right. So yeah, I'm very excited for this game. Once again,
no release date on it, but they're still saying this year. So
we'll talk about that in a second, because once again I want to do
that release date stuff at the end. But yeah, i'd say i'd say
this increase my hype level for Avowed, but once again I'm still trying to
keep it, keep it in check there. But yeah, any thoughts from
you guys on this one. I'm I'm looking forward to it. I think
some of the things you highlighted is it's exciting and it's cool that they have
the team working on those little quality of life kind of improvements, I guess
you could say, and yeah, I mean it's it's definitely something that I
look forward to, mister muted Travis snell over here, and yeah, I'm
trying to figure out for some reason my fucking Mac is just beeping every once
in a while, so I'm not sure if you hear that, So I'm
not sure if it's like overheated so great times. Yeah, this game that
I've been continued constantly and continually on the fence about, I'll kind of wait
until I think will be game that I don't think i'll play day one unless
I hear very great things. But the third person does help because I just
have this thing where I don't like magic games at our first person. I
don't like casting spells. I don't like doing that, even swords to degree,
I just whenever I see that that's not a Travis venture. I can
do that for guns and other things, but with magic, it's not not
my realms. The second I and that's why I love because I've always loved
that with the Bethesta games. I love the option for both because sometimes there
are some situations that are much better in first person and there's something I would
much prefer in third person, whether it be story or just the setting in
the environment. So that did get me more important. That made me a
kind of go a bit more in the pause of direction, so I'm still
gonna wait until closer too. But I've always been back and forth. I
see things I like about the game, and I see things that I go,
h, not really for me, but so i'll i'll it's still wait
and see on avout. Next up, Adam Fall is coming out twenty twenty
five. This is from Rebellion, who are the developers of Sniper Elite,
who I kind of slept on for many years. But when I played Sniper
Elite five when I was in game pass, I absolutely love that game,
and so because of that, I'm like really excited for this. I think
this looks really cool them going to a first person from a third person perspective.
This is like historical, but it's like an alternate reality. So there's
like mech going on. This is they've called this more of a survival action
than like a stealth action game, which is what Sniper Elite is, So
I think this is like a cool pivot for them, something kind of different,
but it's still like noticeably within that same DNA of the stuff they're really
good at. Uh. So yeah, I'm pretty excited for this. This
is a cool announcement. For me, one of one of my favorite things
here in the showcase. Even if it just liked like somewhat of a run
of the mill shooter, I just like have a lot of faith in this
studio and like their level design is so good, like visual I think it
looks really great. So yeah, looking forward to this one. Yeah cool,
Yeah, moving along A thousand screen shadows was shown here once again.
We're gonna kick that to Ubisoft forward. We'll talk about that more in the
next cast. Stalker two got another trailer here, so it's coming out with
September fifth. I thought this was a really great showing for another great trailer.
Looks very gritty, gritty and cinema. The combat looks fun, visuals
look really great. I uh yeah, didn't play soccer one, but I'm
very much looking forward to this. It's gonna be picking this up day one.
How about you guys game pass picking it up? Yes? No,
no, not done anything for me, So I recommend go watch the documentary.
But the first movie, how People Got It really sick filming it.
But yeah, there's this. Every time I've seen this, from the beginning
when they've showed this to now just hasn't hasn't scratched a niche, or hasn't
been like oh that there are anything interesting there? So yeah, no nothing
for me on this one. Okay, nothing, okay. Next up was
the revealing of some new consoles. We got a digital only Series X along
with some additional storage options. So a Series S with one terror byte and
a Series X with two terrorbytes. What you're gonna need if you're gonna be
playing Called Duty on your Xbox console. Some new colors, like the Series
X is it has a white version now the black one has like this kind
of speckle old star thing to it. It looked pretty cool. Glee.
Yeah, they said it's coming out this holiday, I believe, right,
but they didn't actually put a date on it. I don't know what are
the chances you guys are buying this. I feel like there's no way you'd
need to upgrade to one of these six right, Well, that's one breaks,
that's that same thing in the PlayStation if there is a pro The only
reason I'll buy upgrades for current consoles I have is if something breaks and I
need a new one. So yep, that's it. Taylor, You any
chance you'd pick up I'm happy I got my Series X the only the only
thing I need is more storage. So yeah, it's the storage angle is
a big part of it, for sure, and I'd like more storage.
I'm k not going to upgrade a console for it, you know, new
options for players who don't have it yet, don't yet have an Xbox,
but maybe wait and see what the hand held thing is before you bite down
on one of these. So I wanted, I gain. I wanted to
ask, like, like, this has got to come out. What November
October? Do they do it? Like with Call of Duty? Is that
the play with the new Call Duty they do like a bundle or something.
M with it being on Games Pass, it makes me like less inclined to
say yes, So I'll just say November. I guess have it out for
call dude, because I'll call these out October late October. Yeah, I'll
say it's around the mid October and not even necessarily bundled with CALD just like
before it. This is interesting because I was just kind of curious in the
history, so I remember, like June is it's obviously way too soon.
But the Xbox three sixty s one came out end of June and then the
Xbox One S and that's one that I actually upgrade my Xbox One to the
One S that came out in August. So it seems like these revised like
next Jet, not next gen, but upgraded consoles of that same generation.
And maybe maybe like a late summer, midsummer kind of thing. Possibly I
could see this maybe like a oh really okay, maybe maybe I don't know,
it makes sense to go with the fact the summer. Wouldn't they have
like that release date ready to go if they're here in June, they should
And that's why I think I prescribed to the idea maybe it would be a
fall yes, okay, yeah. And then lastly here was well, lastly
it was called did you already talked about that Gears of War E Day?
There's a cinematic for a new Gears game. I don't know much about this
series, So Taylor, why, why is this interesting or why or why
do you find this interesting? Assuming you do? For me, I think
E Day is just one of those things that's talked about. There's books based
on that, the events the day for the emergence Day. It's when the
locust towards basically rose to the surface attacked the humans on Sarah. For me,
I think that this this is great. I I grew up with Gears
one to three, so I I'll never forget skipping school with my friends squad.
We went to Best Buy together and we picked up Gears three. We're
in line. We've got our shirts, preorder shirts, we got our twoks,
everything like that. The guy in front of us, who was first
in line, he went in and he asked. He asked the guy the
clerk, like, so you guys got the shirts and then the tuks right
because he really wanted them, like, sorry, we don't have them,
don't have them, and so he ended up leaving. And then right after
he left, the guys, oh I found the shirts and he gave us
the shirts because we were second. It was amazing. I hope he's watching
right now, like his son of a bitch. But yeah, those characters
that you get introduced to in Gears one and you go through this journey with,
like Dom and Marcus, just incredible, so incredible, Holy shit.
And just to see those two back in this prequel game, it was just
fantastic. And I think for me personally, I was looking at this and
thinking Man, this is the equivalent of putting out like a Halo reach like
bungeee putting that game out. I think you're gonna get a lot of people
just diving into this. You're gonna get the like new new fans that have
jumped in maybe a Gears four, maybe a Gears five. They're like,
oh, this is cool, Like I'm going I'll play this. This is
great. And then you're gonna get those og fans that we're playing that Gears
three that were right there to the end with with Dom and Marcus and just
are gonna be thriving, like Hey, they're gonna call up their buddies like
hey, we can go back in and we can play this new game with
those characters, like let's do it. Let's hop into it. So I
think that this is great, this is super exciting. I'm there for this
day one. This the moment I saw this, the trailer as well,
was fantastic with mad World kicking in there briefly with those characters, and I
was down. I was downloading on Spotify Gears War playlists and just I was
getting hyped. I was thinking, Man, I got to get back in
this world. I'm not gonna verse Briggs because Briggs will just kick my ass.
But I'm gonna go back in for the story for sure. Nice.
I've never been a Gears guy, so I mean it's a game past.
I might jump in and join you for the their Taylor. I mean not
going to commit to plenty of the old campaign or anything. I'll throw a
few hours into it, but not necessarily my cup of tea. And I
don't think this trailer that's a cool concept, I guess. Actually, I
do like what you described there. It's like the new quiet place for me
coming out, and that's pretty much this game is showing how everything went down
and stuff. So yeah, I will be there with you, Taylor,
because I think your pitch. Your pitch is correct in the sense of I
think we'll bring a lot of people back. I've only talked about a few
times, but I was a big Gears one to three fan. I even
bought Judgment Day played a little bit. I was like, I'm done with
this. Yeah, so I've not played four and five, and I do
feel sorry for the people that really want six as like I guess the conclusion
of the new trilogy. So I feel bad for you guys. Because I
don't think it's like a situation where all you're getting E Day next year and
then the year after you're getting six, Like I think you're waiting a bit.
But it's probably smart to go this road because I'm somebody that I gave
up after three and that's like maybe I could go play four and five and
I just haven't filled up that pole. But there is a poll that kind
of if you can capture a similar tone asthetic to that very first Gears of
War, that does help. So no, I think this is I loved
Gears and I was happy to retire it, but I think I'm I think
I'm happy to pull that jersey down from the rafter and get back into that
world because I that was a middle school friends game that was a go to
a sleepover and we play through the entire Gears campaign in a night altogether,
like it was. It was a touchstone of my youth. So I will
be there for E Day. So very nice. Okay, So I wanted
to just quickly kind of recap these release dates here to talk about Indie a
little bit. So yeah, June, the Starfield update, like the first
part already came out, followed seventy six coming out of the twelfth, and
then ELI shows online in eighteenth July is that Flintlock game on eighteenth, and
then twenty fifth is See of Thieves. In August you have the WOW updates
on the twenty sixth. On the September you have on the fourth Age of
Mythology on the fifth Stoker two October we got the Diablo DLC, and then
Life is Strange, and then Call of Duty. I'm not saying the dates
anymore, but you get the picture here, and then November is Assassine Screen
Shadows. I'm not just saying exclusive games. I'm just the things that were
in the showcase. And then Flight Simulator and then here's the Avowed and MGS
didn't have release dates, but both of them kind of got leaked slash like
rumored today that Avowed is looking to come out November twelve, okay, and
MGS is coming out the nineteenth, I believe of November nineteen or seventeenth.
I thought I saw seventy probably whatever. This Thursday, I guess yeaday,
is I missed the Avowed one? So okay, the twelfth there? Okay,
yeah, so it seems and that would I think fit. I think
that would be I mean, not that Xbox has any control over what metal
gear is coming out, but I think for a valid that makes sense.
They don't have any other I guess they have flight simulator, but I think
that's separate enough so that makes sense. So I guess Yeah. The question
to you guys is like, where does Indie fit into that? Because I
feel like August makes the most sense. But like, if that's what you
were saying last time, you guys were saying August and I was, I'm
stick with my guns. I'm still saying December. That's what I'm saying for
the holiday, especially they showed off that Christmas level. You know, some
snow going on, there'd be some more marketing. I disagree with the extent
of it. It was August, now it would have been the time for
a date now it would be no, That's where I'm at. It's like,
if it was, there's no way they wouldn't have had that date ready
to go, So it has to be later. But then yeah, like
I don't really know where the other good pocket is for it, So I
think, yeah, December does make sense that or like I guess there's a
pretty big gap between like Stalker two into Call of Duty. If you're looking
at the big exclusives, that's like pretty much a month and a half.
So maybe like the end of September early October could be another good pocket for
it. I hope it's there because I don't want that game coming out during
holiday season. There's that stuff going on. But just even in general,
that'll be tough for me. So it's just like, I like, that's
always a risk of release against Christmas time. Again, we don't actually know
how long it's going to be, but yeah, I think they I don't
really know, Wellandi's going to do. That's always a tough thing, right
with it being games Pass, and they'll say it's a success, but then
they'll you know, we don't know that. But yeah, just I just
feel like you're right. Maybe there's a little bit of time till the end
September October block, so maybe, but they gotta they gotta get on that
now with that date, and again, I just feel like that you would
have slapped that one on there, So that's when I'm going December and then
watched the Yeah, Xbox especially Red Fall star Field lately, they're just so
scared of having a release date and having to delay things. I don't think
they want to delay things ever again, so they're just gonna wait very late
into the cycle to put the release date on things, which I think is
risky to some extent. I think so it's a bar information out there than
it is for people to not know about a game's release, which who knows.
Maybe that happened with hell Blake because they waited so long and I just
kind of like randomly put that date up there. So I don't know,
We'll see how that goes for them. Taylor, what do you think,
Indie, what's your prediction there? Sorry Madison was saying good night. I
know, I know. I feel like at this point in being entering into
the summer months, I feel like if it was August, we would have
got that release date drop by now. So it is kind of worrisome and
I feel like maybe my prediction is incorrect, and maybe maybe Travis has some
uh has some steam going for him with his his late December Q four pick
there bold, but maybe maybe it could be unfortune fairs the Bold. It's
true, I think that's it. Any other thoughts on the x Box Showcase
here are my friends. No think okay, sounds good. Thank you everyone
for listening. We'll see you for the Ubisoft Forward coverage and then boom,
we've done it. Well, there's like a million other showcases that happened,
but those are the big one, so to speak. So we'll see you
next time. Thank you for listening. Bye bye.