Yo, dummy bo it's the Internet. You're busy. Let's do this for
the next hour or so. Let me help you sort through the world of
gaming on gamess Mornings Live with me Jeff Grub Today, I am ready for
the switch pro to hurt me once again. But first please join me and
welcoming today's co host to games Mornings. It's Lucy James from Giant Bomb.
Everybody. Hooray. How's it going, Lucy? I am doing well.
How are you doing? Doing pretty good? I've sent you this on Twitter.
But I discovered a game store here in Cleveland called James Games and Stuff,
and I plan to check it out. Apparently it's very well liked in
the area. But considered opening I mean, listen with your name, Lucy
James and Lucy James Games. You already on a video James like all that
stuff. It's all right there. Have you considered opening a novelty store related
to video games? A barcade of some sort? Does that ever occurred to
you? Not? No, But I've also I've always kind of had the
thought of, like, if I could do a spin off, what would
I do? So, you know, there could be I could do a
framing service, Lucy James Frames, personal trainer, Lucy James Gaines. Yes,
there's a lot of more things that rhyme with James, but they're not
coming to me right now. But Lucy games, Lucy James Games and more.
Yes, maybe that's my side hustle. Who knows. Actually there are
loads of those like fake There is a place in London called game Spot and
they did use our logo. I think I remember go pasted on the bus
and I was like, well, hey that you think that's bad. There's
a whole entire food delivery service that just you call it called grub hub.
It's still my name. How dare they with my name? All my stuff
would have to be food related of course, So yeah, yeah, considerate.
Yeah, I mean I suppose we could be. I could I could
sell bait, Jeff's, Jeffs grubs, let people go fishing with me.
Yeah, there you go, There you go. I'm trying to say,
what else are you or like lunchboxes? Yeah, it's still food related.
I don't know. Yes, but a lot of things rhyme with your name,
So that's true. And then but now all that comes to mind now
is Tam saying greb one out. So that's that's all got now. Yeah,
he'll do that, He'll do that. We'll do that. Okay,
before we get into the mess, let's explain ourselves. Each weekday, I,
Jeff Greb, will help you piece your gaming life back together. That
includes breaking news, the ketchup where we talk about the biggest topics consuming the
lives of gamers everywhere, and maybe even bring some of our own original reporting.
For all these topics, I'll get the input of a bona fide expert
who will make me look smart. If you are watching live on twitch welcome,
you can always listen to the show later on podcast feeds by searching for
Game Mess Mornings or find the RSS on giant bomb dot com that name stuff
All Got Sorted out? You could find that if you do. If you
actually search for Game Mess Mornings now you will really find the show wherever you're
looking for it, so definitely do that. You can also catch the show
later with chapters and time stamps on YouTube. If you are watching on there,
please be sure to hit that like button. It really helps people find
the show. Okay, we got a lot to get into, so let's
start the morning mess here with our top story God of War Ragnarok launches November
ninth, and a new CG trailer was revealed. This is according to the
PlayStation blog. God of War Ragnarok is officially coming to PlayStation five and PlayStation
four on November ninth, twenty twenty two. We're thrilled to be able to
share our release date and the brand new God of War Ragnarok Father and Son
CG trailer with all of the God of War fans who have been eagerly awaiting
the news. We hope you've enjoyed a glimpse of some of our some of
the dangerous Crados and a Traius could find themselves in up against as Ragnarok approaches.
Uh Lucy, we got a date. We got a date. Finally.
How are you feeling about this? Is this something that were you in
that boat where you're like I just I'm like I just need to hear a
date, or where you're like, the game's gonna come when it comes,
so kind of mix. So i'd heard you out kind of rumblings for every
everyone hears rumblings all the time, and everyone was like, oh yeah,
God of War was gonna hit this year. I was gonna hit this year.
There were tweets from is it Bruno the character artist, who was like,
yeah, it's definitely coming this year, and then I guess, I
guess, you know, especially since Starfield moved, we were waiting for something
to fill that slot, and I think out of everything, God of War
is probably the biggest game that could fill that slot. I am also very
glad just because the it was reaching fever pitch on Twitter and I saw a
tweet about this. I carmember who did it, but they were like,
why is God of War like that game? Now? With the you know,
there were there were people at Sony Santa Monica getting Dick pics and you
know, just like every time any of them would tweet, it would be
like where's the game? Was the game? And its like I kind of
just wanted the release date just so that would stop, because it just feels
I don't know why God of War has become that game. Yes, God
of Wart and teen was fantastic, Like it's one of my favorite games all
the time. But yeah, there's something about ragnar Rock that's just kind of
sent people over the edge a little bit. But I'm I'm very stoked,
very stalk for the team it's yeah, I'm super excited. I think it
comes down we saw that. Sorry, I messed up the feed for a
second there, and everyone caught me. I think it comes down to people
spend a lot of money on hardware and they want to justify that job that
that arches to themselves, right, and all the anxieties sort of come back
to that. And you know, it's not just money, it's also time.
People spend a lot of time invested in the hobby and a lot of
that time ends up sort of getting mutated weirdly into this thing where instead of
being excited about playing games, you're spending a lot of your times, a
lot of your time talking about the things you imagine you're going to be excited
about in the future. And in order to make all that what has essentially
wasted time online, maybe arguing with other people who you don't even like.
To make that stuff make sense, you need these games to hit and come
out and be big. And I think with the extended cross generation period that
Sony has found themselves saying even with Godivar Ragnrok coming out for PlayStation four as
well as PlayStation five, this is still a game that people who have struggled
to get at PS five, put all this money into and then have spent
a lot of time being like, Okay, yeah, I'm really liking a
lot of the games I'm playing on there. You know, Demon Souls was
great, Miles Morales was great. There's been a lot of other stuff Ratchet
and Clink, but it's been a few months since we had something to get
really excited about. I need Ragnarok to make this whole hobby makes sense.
So I just think that's where a lot of people are at, and now
it's coming. I think November is a great time for a game like this
to come out. Sony has usually not usually but in the past couple of
years has maybe not had like big games during the holiday season. I don't
think that's for any specific strategic purpose. I think that's the way it's worked
out. Now they're going to have this, and it feels like this is
going to be a big holiday for the play station five, for god a
War for Sony, So pretty excited stuff. Have you watched this trailer?
I was playing at kind in the background. I only sold briefly. I
know there's a lot of work that goes into CGI trailers. But in terms
of like things that get me excited for a game, as CGI trailer is
not it. Yeah, I you know, I'd go out of just see
like stuff from the game, but also but also be in like a weird
place. And you know this is maybe inside baseball. When you work in
games media, it's like when there was a game you are really excited about,
you don't have the luxury of not looking at tray lists for it.
Definitely, And you know that can that can range to I mean kind of
worse on the entertainment side, like I cannot enjoy an episode of Westworld or
Game of Thrones anymore because I'm so used to like picking it apart f everything.
I'm luckily not that close to God of War on the on the coverage
side that I can, I have to comb through frame frame by frame.
But yeah, I see JR. A trailer. Fine, it's a tone
piece. It's the thing that gets everyone into it who maybe isn't aware of
God of War or kind of the prestige of it. You know, it's
it's the thing that you put on the TV and people are like, oh
damn, I want to play that story. I want to play whatever that
is. I want to see gameplay. I want to see you know more
about the systems. I don't necessarily want to know more about the story.
I just want to know what's what's going to be the different between this and
twenty eighteen. Yeah. Absolutely, CCG trailers don't do much for me either.
I mean, maybe this one is like, we know this game is
going to be kind of what it is, so setting the tone, giving
us some characters, giving us the promise of like a big, cool new
enemy that works. In addition to the CG trailer, though, they also
announced some details about the Collector's editions. Let's see. They had the Digital
Deluxe Edition, which has full God War Ragnarock game Krados Darkdale armor, Atreus
is Darkdale attire. Basically, you know, a bunch of items you're gonna
get from the game. Then the Collector's Edition, which is like officially like
the Collector's Edition, you get a steel book display case, two inch Juveneer
twins carvings in the same style as Atreus's wooden toy carvings of the Hull Drug
Brothers from the God of War twenty eighteen. Collector's Edition, you get a
dwarf in dice sets and a sixteen inch m Olner replica, a highly detailed
replica of Thor's signature weapon from God of War Ragnarok. Then there's the Yolkner
addition, which I think gets you many of the similar things, but you
also get the Jiggs drail I never know how to say that, a cloth
map. You get the legendary drop near a ring comes in a red cloth
bag. And you can see there's like a bunch of other stuff they're shwing
up in this video right here, but you see the two inch of ane
Yer twin carvings there and the dice set for example, And this is the
actor who plays Store is showing all this stuff up. So very fun.
Huge year for replica meal news by the way, Yes, right, so
that AMC bucket and now that this the xbox is the handle part of it
because if the handles part of it, I wanted that's the tham like it's
that just like photo shopped on and it's just like is looked the hammer part
of the hammer or it's the hammer and then the handle sticks off because that's
fantastic. Yeah, yeah, people are excited about this game. So obviously
a collector's editions are a big deal. Never for me, I never buy
the Collector's editions period. It is never going to be excited about that stuff.
But whatever. I think the last Collector's Edition I got was Posona five.
But other than that Collector's Issues, I really wanted the art books so
and it gets you see, I got caught up in the hype and I
bought the Fallout four pit Boy, Yeah, burned in numerous ways on that
one. I definitely got the mass Effect three one. But other than that,
like, since since I kind of have stopped buying Collector's editions, they
have got better, and I think Sony's very good at them, like statues
and stuff like. That's the kind of thing that I like, right,
But I don't know, could I just wait a couple of years until like
McFarland or someone puts out a really good Oh I did see. I don't
know if it was I saw Warrior tweeted. I think I don't think it's
still alive. But there was those McFarland Batman like the rock Idol ones so
Batman looking like he was in kiss or something fourteen dollars on Amazon. I
really had to hold myself back from buying because that's the kind of that's the
kind of tat. I don't hold yourself back, embrace it, go full
McFarland, all right. Nintendo Switch pro speculation picks up again following previous console
trailers going private. This is by Michael Kale at Dot E Sports. The
ever hopeful cycle has started once again with Nintendo fans online speculating about the potential
reveal of an enhanced switch model, following several previous product trailers being delisted from
various official channels. As pointed out by multiple fans and Game explained, Nintendo
put the trailers for both the Nintendo Switch Light and o LED models private on
the company's North American and Japanese YouTube accounts. Several users across social media pointed
out to a very recent example, being that Nintendo previously privated some switch Light
promotional content before the reveal of the o LED on July six, twenty twenty
one. The timing also lines up with the original reveal of the switch Light
too, having originally been shown off on July twenty nineteen. Now does that
like pattern recognition is a big thing in the in the Nintendo sort of weak
community, Lucy where people look for patterns of what's happened before, and they
say, you know, the past is it repeats itself, and so if
this happened before, there's a good chance that will happen again. And I
think that's fair to a certain extent. But also patterns get broken all the
time, and humans aren't. We don't obey those patterns or anything like that.
It's just something that we fall into and can easily fall out of.
Does that part of the story so far, the idea that they've previously privated
videos in the past prior, like just prior to the reveal of a new
system, does that ring true for you with what's happening this time with them
privating videos again? Oh, we're going down the evolutionary Humans look for patterns
when they're on anything. Yep. Absolutely, yeah. I mean, regardless
of if they're doing something or if they're not, Like, they have a
pattern, and people are going to be they're primed, they're ready, they're
going to kind of jump to conclusions that might not necessarily be the It's kind
of weird though, to private trailers. I'm not sure why they do that.
So there's a possible explanation. So there's two possible explanations. The one
is they want to make sure that they shore up SEO so much that when
people search for new Nintendo switch trailer, the only thing that's going to come
up is the new Nintendo switch trailer and not the one for the last one,
so people don't get confused. Now, I think it's fair for that.
I think it's a fair idea that companies assume consumers are very stupid and
they want to account for that in every way, But it also seems a
bit aggressive. It seems like an impressible way of dealing with that. The
other explanation is one that when we were talking about this on Less than a
Tendogs my Nintendo podcast last night, Mike Manati mentioned this because we realized our
episode was our fifty second episode, and we started our podcast with with the
switch O led model getting announced. That was our first episode, and so
he's like, oh, it's been a year. Maybe there's something where a
year later, something has expired in terms of licensing or something like that,
and so they're just delisting it because the lawyer was like, notice something and
delisted it. And this is something that kid ellis former Nintendo of American employee
said that this is very likely. He said on Twitter. These major videos
typically have music or actors which are licensed for use for a year, then
need to be renewed or taken down. Switch Old was announced a year ago
tomorrow. This is most likely nothing. Why yeah? But it also it
is wild to me that Nintendo doesn't like a company as big as Nintendo who's
making something as major as a trailer for a piece of hardware that they're hoping
that will last years, won't license stuff for a trailer beyond a year.
That's to me, that doesn't sound like I could see a possibility where that
happens. But also it's seems like the kind of thing that Nintendo's lawyers would
be very certain about and make sure that there's yeah, no, we are
just going to buy the stuff in perpetuity, and we're yeah, Like that
makes sense to me. But I suppose there's a possible they overlook something or
they you know, they weren't like they threw something to get their last minute
and something fell through the cracks, and now a year later, like,
oh, hey, we noticed this. Should we just pay the you know,
five thousand dollars to renew this like, oh, well, we'll think
about it for now, just delisted. I suppose that could happen, but
I don't know. I'll say that, you know, while we are,
you know, having this conversations today, Nintendo did announce announce a new switch
system. Now it's not a switch pro or anything again. Yes, uh,
the Nintendo Switch oh led models. Splatoon three edition got announced. Let's
see here, let's take a look at this thing. The game is definitely
coming out of this year. Huh. So yes, this is launching August
twenty six alongside the game, uh Splatoon three. And it's yeah, it's
like just it's got the whole Splatoon aesthetic. It's got the purple on one
side of green on the other right, and then uh yes, and and
it's you know, it's got a bunch of little squid kids on there.
So hey, they did announce new hardware today. It is not the hardware
you want him to do. Yes, this is this what's actually happened here?
Is this simple that they were just announce seen this? I mean the
timing feels very suspect, like, okay, is this all we're getting?
I Uh, I really have to question the esthetic choice of the splat though.
I mean, I'm glad it's not white. Well, y'all are glad
it's not white. Well, I'm guess I'm not gonna yuck anyone's most of
us are glad it's not white. Yes, yea. For people listen to
the audio version, it's just it is the like just a cartoon splat and
it's neon greenish yellow. Yeah. Yeah, it looks like you need to
go get some get some Yeah. I gotta go get some braun on there
and just wipe that up absolutely, or an old T shirt or something.
Uh. Now here's the problem. Here's here's the rub, all right.
Uh. The Splatoon three edition of the switch oh lad was in a previous
league from a Chinese league er on a on a forum where he mentioned this
was gonna happen, and right alongside this they said that a Switch pro model
is also coming this year. So let let me read kind of what I
have here. A league on a Chinese first revealed the Splatoon three O led
model, and that league said a Switch pro model is coming this year as
well and could get announced as early as like later the summer. This updated
model has the same Switch logo on the back as previous systems. So the
suggestion there is that this is some This isn't some kind of Switch successor it
is still in the same lineage as the Switch system, so it would be
just another new model of switch. It can reportedly play Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak
at sixty frames per second, It plays the same existing game cards as normal
Switch systems, and leaguers speculates because it will get announced in September. Here
we are again. We found ourselves back at the Switch pro yet again.
Not not just like for like you know, the fiftieth time in our lives,
but like the third time today we are already back here. What do
you think, you know what? Just every switch fun at home and myself
included. Again. It's kind of like the god of War thing. I
just want them to announce it. Yeah, I do wonder where they are
though with regard to chip shortages. I know that you know that's ready.
Yeah, put a kind of made. Getting next gen well current gen,
I guess PS five and Series X is difficult. And even what do you
call it the it's very early in the morning, shipping roots that kind of
stuff like that, logistics and stuff, Yes, supply chain, I thank
you yeah, it's kind of been in my bed with new tech. I
hope Nintendo, if they are going to reveal a new model, they are
prepared for it. Yes, so they're maybe that's why it's been so long,
right, And this is something I'm speculated about in the past where one
of the reasons they might want to do a switch proch still is that they
could potentially go to a smaller process. So I think I can't remember the
exact numbers. I think the switch model right now uses like a ten nanometer.
Maybe it's like a smaller than that, but basically it's they revise the
process that the original switches on so they could make more chips in the same
size wafers so they could get better yields. Well. One way of dealing
with the supply chain yeah, yeah, one way of doing with the supply
chain shortage is you move to a new process so you can get even more
chips on the same number on the same number of wafers, and at the
same time that would lower cost. There's a lot of benefits that Nintendo would
be very into moving to a new process. Like the problem is not even
on the supply chain, it's all on like how do they present this?
We are pretty far into this generation, a little bit further than you would
expect for a pro model from any sort of other varia. I mean except
for maybe that if you look at the game Boy and the game Boy Color
coming like what ten years later, and that was still basically the game Boy,
but you know, exercising that, this is like you would expect a
pro model to have come a little bit before this, because now the big
question is if you put the pro out, now, does this extend this
generation way further than we were expecting? And now Nintendo needs to keep supporting
the original switch model all the way until what twenty twenty five? Like,
where are we at with that? It's it's a it's a confusing proposition.
I don't know how they're going to pull that off. Do you think Nintendo
cares about being part of this generation? Right? See that they like?
That's I think they are trying to I think you're exactly right. I think
they're trying to blaze their own path and not like not be presented as a
console that has a very clean and clear uh, like, Okay, the
new generation has begun. Now leave everything else behind and some of your games
will come for your account will come forward. I think they are trying to
find a model that works for them that is somewhere between a console and somewhere
between an iPad right where it's like regular updates things get, you know.
I think that's what they're trying to figure out. But that's also going to
be a pretty difficult thing to present to gamers, like they've not done that
before. And so how you make people feel good about buying a Switch Pro
if they get the hint that a Switch Pro upgrade is going to come in
two to three years. Yeah, And I suppose the other thing is that
if you think about the the Nintendo lineup on the WIU and then even the
Switch, it's it's kind of among gamers, you know, it is the
worst place to play a lot of third party titles, Like you know,
I wouldn't God Overwatch on the Switch what a concept, But you know it's
the worst place to play third party And so maybe Nintendo are just like,
well, we can't compete with the power of the Xbox Series X or the
power of the PS five in this particular handheld, but what we can do
is cater our catalog, specifically reach out to third party partners to get exclusives
on our system, bolster our catalog with first party and it's it's not And
this is the thing. Nintendo are not struggling. They have an amazing lineup.
They have just in sales out of the wazoo. I believe that is
the technical term. So maybe it is just time that Nintendo are not gonna
follow everyone else. And like they've done this before. They have been industry
leaders and still remain industry leaders. But like maybe it's time that they just
finally decide, you know, we're not going to try and do everything the
Nintendo and Sonia doing but the Microsoft and Sonia doing. But I will say
they are kind of very They're more shrewd about uh, strategic partnerships. Like
if you think about how working with alongside Xbox on things like Minecraft and you
know, I don't know, I think it's just Nintendo going in a different
direction, which is actually potentially very exciting. Yes, they usually are kind
of well, some some things are little backwards in well yeah, I mean,
and this is like the kind of thing where I'm like, okay,
maybe this is the distraction they need to not you know, pull the weeu
where you know, Nintendo gets bored and we want our next hardware to have
all these bells and gizmos that define the system and everyone I think it is
looking around Nintendo. Please don't do that. Please just give us another switch,
and maybe the distraction here can be Nintendo needs to figure out a new
way of presenting this system and the upgrade paths and figuring out what that marketing
language looks like, it looks and sounds like. And so that is their
innovation here is changing the way a console updates cycle works for them, and
that way they aren't going to like go in and throw in like you know,
I are goggle lead things that you put on your butt the switch and
that's how you play games. So at least that's my hope they can do
that with the next one. Just give us a couple more years of just
a hybrid console and uh yeah, anyone else is innovative though what else never
put in that games on sale? Yes, yes, Chad just said,
Dread has been off for nine months, hasn't dipped in price once, and
it fucking won't. Well like it won't. And this is the thing we
talked about. God, you know, we don't always have to make it
about one versus the other, but bind up whether the hell not, Like
Luigi's Matt To three is the one. I always go to a game that
has sold like twelve thirteen million copies now barely ever goes on sale. When
it does go on sale, it's like forty dollars for a week, goes
right back up and it's getting the thirteen million copies. And then we talk
about what was the last of US Part two got to ten million copies,
I think they said, and that's like regularly down to what twenty dollars and
things like. It's not it's just not the same. Even if it's like
looks the raw numbers of sales numbers are pretty close, it's just not the
same. And I think Nintendo has completely realized that if they just going after
the family, their audience is inherently bigger than anyone else's audience and unless someone
else can figure like Microsoft is trying to figure that with the cloud stuff,
But Nintendo has a family that are you know, that family audience that does
spend a lot of money on entertainment, and it is paying off for them.
Okay, but speaking back of Sony, and selling a lot of games.
Horizon Forbidden West the game that has managed to like stay pretty high on
the sales chart, so a few months after its release, it is getting
a big update on PS five. This is from Guerrilla on Twitter. Highly
requested features incoming introducing variable refresh rate, high refresh rate, and our new
balanced graphics mode supporting forty hurts. That's a very cool. Variable refresh rate
and high refresh rate support is that includes. So basically variable refresh rate is
like g sinc. You know AMD's free sinc, that sort of thing where
you can the screen updates the same refresh rate as the GPU so things don't
stutter and look bad. It's a you know, it was a killer feature
ten years ago, it's still a killer freature now. And then high refresh
rate basically now you can support a hundred, twenty hundred and twenty frames per
second in this game. And then having forty hurts support is actually something I
really like having a coming from the steam deck where the steam deck I have
set the refresh rate of the screen to forty hurts. It still looks very
smooth and it saves a ton of battery and stuff, and it's like,
it's like, I'm glad that we aren't getting to a point where now that
we have variable refresh rate as an option, people are looking at like,
hey, maybe we could go somewhere between thirty and sixty and find the right
balance there and still get a lot of great graphical features and you know,
the full four K, but we don't have to go all the way to
sixty. Sixty while has long been a magic number, there actually is no
inherent magic about it. It's just once you get there, you know for
sure it's going to look smooth. But if you could get a solid like
fifty, it's going to look pretty close to sixty as well. So any
chance you're gonna like touch on Forbidden West again now it's it's getting this update.
I still haven't finished it, so this could be a good excuse to
go back. But jeff on me with my ten dollar earbuds, none of
this stuff really. Yeah, I am just like, okay, cool game
bruns a little smoother, I you know, but I do need to finish
Earth Forbidden Worst. It's been on my pile of shame. I feel bad
that I kind of pushed it to one side because of Elden Ring just as
I pushed you. Actually, no, I didn't push. I didn't push
zero Dawn, I complete and zero down. But yeah, it's kind of
been hanging over me Alloy with her full pack. She's sending stuff to hers
stash the whole time, you know. But they patched that. So I'm
actually kind of excited to go back. Yeah, I'm I bound stuff for
been West pretty hard. So I'm like, I was kind of I had
this idea in my head, like, oh, they're gonna improve it specifically
for someone like me, And I'm like, I don't know. Elder Ring
just hits so hard at the time not to like, you know, go
back to that same thing that everyone says, like, oh I just bounced
off it for elden Ring, but I did for Spoken. The One of
the big PlayStation five games coming out this year is not coming out this year.
It has been delayed to January twenty January twenty four of next year as
a result of ongoing discussions with key partners. This comes from the studio.
Now we have made the state strategic decisions to move the launch date Verspoken to
January twenty four, twenty twenty three. All game elements are now complete and
development is in its final polishing phase. We would like to thank you for
your continued support and patience on this journey. Uh Okay, I'm not super
surprised by this, but it does. It's just like, you know what,
this has happened every game, right, so of course first spoke it's
also getting yet another delay, right yeah. It's also the wording of it,
which is very clear. Move bitch, Ragnarok's coming. Yeah yeah,
I mean, you know, Mimoto heads here here. We should get something
in obs By just like a memo, like a rainbow, and it just
leaves the words behind delay games pitches. Yeah, there you go. So,
I don't know, I kind of feel bad for the team because I
mean, I don't know, the hype full spoken for me hasn't really been
It's more people are gonna have to play to know if we even care about
it, because based on the trailers, it's like, I think it looks
fun when they start, when she starts jumping around and stuff like that.
I'm into it, but I don't know if that's a full game and combat.
It's just it's hard to grasp the like how fun this is all going
to be and we're gonna have to play it, but we're not gonna get
a chance to do that until next year. I think that they also,
you know, say it's in the final polishy stage, is I bet they
are still kind of looking to go from a game that is probably okay,
it's a game that feels really good and that's gonna probably take just a few
more tweaks, and having come along those final months, could you know,
not make or break, but could really add something. I really, could
you know, add a few points to your Metacritic or whatever. But but
it's the kind of thing where, yeah, if Ragnarrock gives you this luyway
to say, hey, if you want to move, you can move to
next year. We have a big game, like, no one's gonna mind
so much if We're Spoken doesn't come out. You know, that's maybe inherently
a problem that people don't mind as much that Were Spoken is getting delayed.
But this gives them time to make people care, so hopefully they can figure
it out. But also as well, it's like with remember the Last of
Us Part two and Ghosts of Sishement, it wasn't It's not exactly like they
cannibalize each other. Both of those games incredibly well. And for Spoken and
God of War, I don't know, are they targeting the same audience.
Well, I mean, I think even if even the audience that would play
both, I think would be very excited to go back to back. So
they go to the story to pick up God of War, rag Rock for
spokens right there on the shelf. I bet they pick up for Spoken as
well. I think that there's you know, there's definitely zero sum things happening
in games all the time. People only have so much of a budget.
But the people that get excited to go buy a new video game are also
the people that are most likely to buy the other new video game at the
same time in many cases. So I think having big games side by side
that are you know, just different enough or even have some similarities, I
think they in many cases they can benefit each other. But but I think
this is this comes down to you can move because Ragnock's here, do you
want to move? And then Squaring's going, yes, we want a little
bit more time, god please. I think it's just that simple. And
then and then January is typically pretty quiet, so if they've got the whole
month to themselves, well, like the last half of the month, people
are kind of coming off that Christmas right spending rush, and they still a
lot of gift cards, so they will be still spending happening for sure.
So like they're like, if you're a game that comes out in January,
you can get some bump, and all the other games they're gonna get delayed
will probably go into February in March, so you're probably not going to get
in too much of a you know, a log jam there. Yeah,
it's it seems like a strategic move on a lot of fronts and it should
benefit for spoken uh. An Xbox live stream may have accidentally confirmed she Haul
for Marvels Avengers is by Chris Scotty and as VGC. Did you see this
video? God? Did I see this video? Oh my god? Alright,
let me read this real quick. During during the stream of the official
Xbox Twitch channel, a guest host, Technic, was playing the game with
Avengers new lead designer Brian Wagoner, who took over the role in January.
To show off the addition of Jane Foster the Mighty Thor in the game's latest
update. Technic began to say, you want a funny fact about She Hawk.
I don't know if I can say this. I'll just say this.
He then laughed, saying I don't like that face Brian is making. Maybe
I shouldn't say it. Then he went on to say it my acting coach
is actually the voice of she Hawk, and I won't say her name because
I don't know if that was public knowledgeyet. And then he paused, I
think it is. It was announced, and then Wagoner, with a petrified
face, I would say, it goes Nope, Nope, we've never announced
She Hawk. We've we don't announce things. You know, we don't announce
things. Is another thing we need. We're gonna get Brian Waggoner's face swiping
across our screen with the rainbow, and we don't announce things. The video
like, So, I talked to Greg Miller about this. I sent him
the clip and he was like, you know, he actually sent me a
link to a Forbes article from Paul Tassi December the Earth the voice actress already
leaked it. Yes, it was the same guy. Miller who I trusted.
Bassline said that she Hulk will be voiced by Kutzia Bakos. Bajos,
a veteran voice actress whose voice characters and Halo Infinite Psychnos to Cyberpug and Gotham
Knights, and then they just retweeted Miller's claim that she was voicing the character
with a green heart. So this has like been known. Okay, so
it's there. But still Greg was like, Greg was like, there has
been you know, rumors and Scott, but about this this video, Oh
my god, I watched it yesterday. I'm still I'm still clenched thinking about
it. It is. It's very good. It's very good. So I'm
like, if you're the dev in that situation, like a bud yep,
I mean, like you have trained not to say stuff yourself in that situation.
I think he's just hoping, like maybe he'll talk himself out of saying
it. Maybe he'll see my face talking about how to stand. But I
got to stay quiet because I want complete deniability that I had anything to like
like giving him the green light or anything. But I mean maybe also just
say please shut up. I don't know. Someone in pr just going,
can we pull the plug? Can we pull the plug? Exactly, trying
the brain forgetting light in his eyeballs like men in black exactly all right,
you be Soft it's holding a multi game showcase in September. This one comes
from Tom tom Ivan at VGC. You'd be Soft will hold it's next you
be sawt Foward Games Showcase on September tenth. This is It's kicking off at
twelve pm Pacific three pm Eastern on a Saturday. The event will reveal updates
and news on multiple game projects from Ubisoft teams around the world, and it
will be on you know YouTube, Twitch. Yeah, it's a Saturday.
So it's like kind of like a weird little three. Yeah, now September
when is when is games come? The end of August? Okay, so
it's like even after that, So okay, it's it's kind of off on
its own, doing its own sort of Ubisoft the late September E three thing.
I the games I've heard that you I'll say, they have a number
of things probably to talk about and that they could show show off, and
that's just not stuff that we already know about. In the Beyond Good and
Evil two is not one Beyond Evil two shows up, They're gonna have to
completely reboot that thing and and completely reintroduce it because there's no way it's still
that game that they show it off forever ago, right, that wasn't even
a game. Yeah, it wasn't even a game exactly. So it's like
maybe maybe they could, but it's, you know, it's their typical stuff,
like a bunch of stuff going on with Assassin's Creed things like that.
I think that they also will probably finally show splinter Cell, which I'm pretty
excited about. I hope, so like the thing, it's pretty early,
but I think they'll probably just like show something from that. And do you
have any hopes for a UBI stoft forward in September on a Saturday, on
a bloody Saturday. I mean, when now we're getting that Skull and Bones
thing on Thursday. So I'm I'm intrigued by it. I'm very interested to
see what's happening with that game if it's going to launch this year. Yeah's
Assassin's I think it's a little Assassin's Creed. I don't know. I'm in
a weird place with my Assassin's Creed fandom at the moment, if that's the
right word. Like I was a big Assassin's Creed fan, but as the
games have become bigger and bigger, my interest has waned and while I loved,
like I put thirty odd hours into Valhallatt, you know, talking to
Jordan on our team who viewed it and he was like, oh yeah,
I'm like eighty plus hours and I'm not finished. I was like, okay,
thank you, just because yeah, it didn't it didn't feel like it
earned that runtime for me. I'm intrigued with Splint, so I really hope
they have something to show us. From myself, I keep forgetting that they
have Avatar and they have a Star Wars project, so I do. I
do wonder if they'll show any of that, because I thought this year,
yes, the movies coming out, Yes, still show something from Avatar.
Whether or not that game comes out this year or not, they'll show something
for it, and then yeah, that's Star Wars game. It's probably still
a touch too early to show that, but I would love this just see
what they're doing. It's kind of like if you make the Star Wars game,
I feel like I feel like it's pretty hard to nail down what you
should be doing. I think when this got announced, everyone's like, well,
obviously it's got to be related to the Mandalorian and I don't know now
like today, you would make that same choice. I think it can have
Mandalorian stuff in it, but I don't know if it's like, oh,
you theme it all around the Mandalorian. Obviously there's baby yodas everywhere. You
probably if you're making a Star Wars game and it's this big thing that you
be stuff next and it takes years and years, you need to be kind
of doing what Knights of Little Republic doing it was doing. Not necessarily,
oh go find a different part of the timeline, but definitely forge your own
path. Makes something that could stand on its own and not rely on anything
else that's happening in the Star Wars universe. I hope they can reveal that's
what they're working on and that's the ideas they have. As a person wearing
a Star Wars shirt. Right now, everyone, my doorbell just went,
oh, yeah, doude, deal with the thing. That's fine, Yeah,
go go get your packages. All right, Well she's doing that.
Let me, uh you know what, I'll let me see if I can
get Oh oh that was fast, all right, fair enough. I just
get to oh oh my god, no, no, go deal with it.
We're good. Let's see. Let's see if I can take a look
at it for me. When when Chip and Charges goes had twenty dollars,
headphones have arrived someone someone's twenty dollars moving up in the world. All right,
okay, you yourself will probably have a plenty of talk about in September.
Uh okay, this one we just we got right beforehand. Square Enix
is cracking down on Final Fantasy for fourteen event organizer after billboards go viral.
This is by ELLENI Thomas at de Certo. Let me see what the hell
do you say that? I'm gonna tweet. Can want to ask the world
how you say de Certo. So while you're doing that, I'm gonna transition
over here. Let's take a look at this billboard. So, multiple billboards
across the US are currently advertising and up and coming in game beach Party for
Final Fantasy fourteen players also known as Nerds. However, the promotion is backfired
as some players have been banned in the face of legal threats from Square Enix.
So this is it's basically just a big billboard saying Saturday July ninth at
eight pm Central Time, and then it has Final Fantasy fourteen online logo.
It's got characters from the game, which I suppose you know, these are
your custom created characters. But I bet like square Enix, like, we're
still in the copyright to that. I think there's even a copyright, right,
there's a copyright there. Squaring Nix Company Limited like like they put Squerenixes
copyright on it. Squirenix didn't, like, this is not a Square Nix
thing. This is just a group promoting an endgame beach party, which I
gotta say, this sounds pretty fun. I'm being completely honest. Sounds fun,
but like right, screens like, hey, you can't go like trade
on our brand to advertise stuff and do business with you know, these billboard
companies or whatever. So hey, this is fun, But I'm not too
surprised at Squerenix is cracking down on it, right yeah, I mean,
if anything, I'll get a games company moving quickly with the legal ease.
It's the it's an infringement upon the copyright. It's I just I feel bad
because like, obviously that costs a lot of money, and it's a fan
thing and they're trying to promote something in game, and so in their minds
they probably think, oh, we haven't done anything wrong, and then the
old copyright law comes in and this is and the people in chappoint this is
probably against terms of service things like that. I mean, obviously everything is
against You can't do anything if you actually read the team in terms of service.
That's just there so that if you do anything they don't like for any
reason, they can, you know, deal with it. But then someone
points, let's see propaganda pansis it is also an erotic role playing party,
which I don't see to me? Isn't that just in the entirety of Final
Fantasy fourteen? Basically? Is it catboys and bunny girls? What is what
is that game? If it's not an erotic role playing party? Huh?
What is it like role playing play? Yeah? And uh and Mike Manadi
and Chap does a good job. Point is they've they've totally Uh what is
that term? When like, you try to squash something only makes it more
popular. I never would have knew this thing and effect yes, yes,
trysanding, I never would have knew this thing was it was a thing if
Square ANX wasn't trying to squash the billboards with the cat with the bunny girls
on it. So yeah, uh so yeah, Now everyone's like, all
right, where do we sign up? I might go play this game and
go the to the to the Erotic role playing party now, so good job
Square, And it's DJ is the DJ. Pott was hired as a DJ
for the upcoming event, but doesn't work for the group regularly. Yeah is
I mean yeah, the PC game Uncle as a little as a bunny girl
and a little a scantily clad bunny girl next to a bed. Oh yeah,
okay, yeah, what's that? What's a fun FUNC fourteen equivalent of
keys in a bowl? Right? I don't know. It'd say it's a
staff of some sort of magical staff in a in a bigger bowl. I
don't know. Uh, a faraga spell in a butt. I got nothing.
Let's do the catchup, everybody, all right, so we're gonna get
into what everyone is talking about, which probably is actually still the Nintendo Switch
Pro and Gotta War Ragnarok. But we got some other stuff happening. Games
with Gold is shifting away from the Xbox three sixty titles starting in October.
I got this one from Jordan DeVore at Destructoid. Uh. Microsoft gave a
heads up about an upcoming change starting in October. Twenty twenty two, the
monthly three games line up and that's free in quote. So obviously I will
no longer feature Xbox three sixty titles, the team explains explained the change in
an email to Xbox Live Gold and Xbox game Pass Ultimate subscribers. We have
reached the limit of our ability to bring Xbox three sixty games to the catalog.
However, games with Gold will continue to include exciting Xbox One titles and
exclusive savings each month. This was probably inevitable. I get the sense that
Microsoft has very much about games with Gold, right Yeah, and also in
terms of bringing three sixty games, it's been almost ten years since the news
since Xbox One launched, So yeah, it was bad. Time was bad
to happened. You're still getting You're still getting games, whilst the games of
Gold is a weird thing that like I have Game Pass Ultimate, I don't
think about games with Gold anymore. I think about access to game Pass.
So I wouldn't be surprised if games with Gold would get, like, I
don't know, some kind of overhaul to maybe be on the same par as
what you're getting with PlayStation Plus. Yeah, I get yelled at for every
time I bring this episode. It's like you lied, but I'm sorry.
Microsoft has had it on its roadmap to get rid of Xbox Live Gold at
some point in the future. They're not there yet, but that is the
plan eventually is to take away Xbox Live Gold. I think that you if
you kind of like just kind of take a vibe check on them, like
where their heart is. Obviously it's all about game Pass and and that's that's
how I feel when I use the service, Like you, I don't think
about games with Gold, and I think they don't think very much about it
either. I get that some people like the idea of like, okay,
at least with games with Gold. If I get a game on there,
I have it as long as I maintain my subscription with game Pass. Even
if I have a subscription, some games come and go, like for example,
there was as we'll talk about it, like yeah, Kuza was gone
for a while. Many of the games are back, but it went away
for a while, and then it's like even if I kept my subscription that
whole time, and some people like just oh, I'm just building up my
own library with Games with Gold. I get that Microsoft just doesn't isn't that
into it anymore, and so eventually it'll go away. When that happens,
I have no idea, but I think they still plan to make Xbox Live
Gold go away. Let's see us. Someone found a dragon Ball Hoi Poi
capsule in Fortnite's update files, so dragon Ball stuff could be coming to Fortnite.
I'll tell you this, Lucy, if you would have told me there's
a ton of dragon Ball stuff in there already, I would have believed you.
I genuinely thought there already was. But then again, that maybe shows
how let know about dragon Ball or even Fortnite stuff. Yeah, so a
Hoi Poi capsule here, let me bring let me just get an image here
for everybody so we can I'll be on the same page. Oh hey,
there we go the capsules. Like you know, it's just something from like
like the dragon Ball cartoon and Mango are things that like when you would throw
it on the ground, like a big machine would come out or whatever.
But people found this in the code and suggest, Okay, maybe a bunch
of other dragon Ball stuff would come. I would love to see Goku in
there, vegeta. I would I would play probably some more Fortnite, Yes,
the lads. Finally, Piccolo, I would totally go. I would
maim Krillin. That would be my go too. So I love me some
krolling. You've named all of the dragon Ball characters I know, so I
couldn't even contribute, But like, what do you know that we all know
that you love Yamcha. We know you're a number one Yamcha fan all the
way my tattoo. Like, what are they gonna do with that? Hoi?
I was gonna say, Hoi POLLOI that's something different, Hoi poi?
Is that gonna be like a thing that a chug jug? Whatever? I
mean? I feel old saying is. I'm like like one time I was
in a target with Tam and we walked past all these funkos and I became
a mum, like I regressed into my final mum form where I was like,
do you want to buy that go ku like a goku? And he
and Tim was like, oh my god, no. So I don't know
is this gonna be a chug jug? I mean I would love for it
to be a choke jo. I think it's probably gonna because they brought vehicles
in the fortnight. I bet this is you throw it on the ground and
it can like store vehicles or something like that, and then you can put
the vehicle back in your pocket in this in this little ji play caps.
So I haven't played for Fortnite and forever, so maybe something that's already possible,
but that that would be my guests and be cool to throw this thing
on the ground and get Balma's little scooter thing. That would be very fun.
Let's see we've mentioned this. Xbox game Pass adds Yakuza games to its
packed July schedule. Rachel Kaiser at Games to be helping out here. Xbox
announced the first batch of games coming to game Pass in July, and it
is a doozy compared with June's rather anemic second offering. The first two weeks
of July, we'll see several titles joining the platform, including three more Yakuza
games. To start. A few games get Day one launches on game Pass,
including match Point Tennis Championships, Power Wash Simulator for consoles, and Escape
Academy power Washed power Yes, I want to play Escape Academy. Have you
played that at all? Because that was I think it got a demo over
the summer, right, It was a It was at the Jeff Fest Jeff,
but I missed it and everyone was talking about how good it was,
so I definitely want to get back in. Yeah, Jess was pretty excited
about it, so I think we'll make something happen with that that'd be fun.
Powerwashed Them has been available to play via early access for over a year,
but it's finally seen its full release. We also get puzzle game Last
Call BBS, which is available on the platform now. Last Call BBS is
I think a Zaxtronic game. I think it's the last Zatronics game because they
announced they're closing that studio. So cool that they got a bag from Microsoft.
I think they think it was a we might have talked about on the
show. I think they're closing the studio in like a good way, like
hey, we've done all this stuff, we're gonna do And I think the
Zack and Zachtronics got a job as like a professor or something and he's like,
I'm on. So it was like they had like a going away game,
and it's cool that they had this ready to go. The other games
now Availabarriakusa Zero, Kawami and Kawami two, which rejoined the rest of the
Accusa series on the platform after being kicked off less than a year ago.
The next wave of additions joined on July seventh, WHI should include DJ Max,
Respect five, Road ninety six, and the aforementioned match Point. The
final wave of on July fourteen, includes a new kid a few new kid
friendly editions like My Friend Pepper Pig and Paul Patrol, the movie Adventure City
Calls, as well as action horror title Overwhelm, Lucy. Can I tell
you when I'm most excited about out all these? It better be My Friend
Pepper Pig. It's it's very close. It actually is Positive City because it's
the games I would never ever buy for my kids. But now that they're
there, I'm at because they love the Paul Patrol movie. So I'm like,
yeah, I'll put this on for you. You want to play video
games, go ahead and play this one and they'll they'll be very excited about
it. They are. They've only seen Pepa Pig a few times on YouTube.
They've been fine with it, but Paul Patrol is a different patrols who
different itself. Absolutely, Yeah, my nieces love both, so I but
I think Pepper Pig would probably edge out Paul Patrol. Yeah, I'm gonna
see if I can. I'll put it. I'll put both in front of
them and see what they choose. I bet there'll be some interest in the
Pepper Pig game, because when things turn into video games, they get some
more interest anyhow, so we'll check out pep a Pig. I do love
the way that action horror title Overwhelm has been thrown in with the kids selections.
Yes exactly, Yeah, basically just a the pigs all Patrol or Overwhelm.
What do you want to play today? I mean, listen, the
choice is yours. That's the magical thing about games. You could go either
way. All right, we have the question from forever ago. Now what
is it's today's Wednesday. I think I asked this on Friday. Which would
you rather play as in a video game? Cats? Dogs or Hamsters?
And with the big win here, Cats edged out dogs and Hamsters with forty
four percent of the vote, nearly half half of the votes all to Cat's
house. I think this is actually just the correct answer for a video game
because they they're like cats can go live their own lives in a way where
it's like, okay, a cat on the street is not tragic. It's
like it's a stray cat. It's it's it's it's sad, but it's not
tragic. A dog on the street is tragic, like that is like,
that's not fun in any way, Like there's there's no like you're not imagining
that dog off like living this life of adventure and figuring out problems on itself.
It's like, no, it needs love. It's not getting it.
That's tragic. A cat's like, I'll figure this out, you know,
get love whatever. So it's like happy. Yeah, a cat sort of
in that situation, Like in the game Stray it's like, Okay, this
is whimsical and particularly fun. And then they are great at jumping and running
around and climbing on stuff. So I think a cat just makes a better
hero in a video game. Hamsters, they'll get in the shaft absolutely with
only twenty five percent of the road. I was playing some over Watch two
last night and I forgot how much I hate the Hamster in that game,
Hammond. So right, yes, I've never I've never. I have not
played since Hammond got added. So what is the problem with Hammond? He's
got too much mobility He's just like a really annoying character. He has so
much mobility. He can be really fasted. If you don't focus via him,
or if your Sombra doesn't do her job and hack him, it can
be a real issue, especially when you play heels. So you know,
not not that I have, not that I have any lingering resent. No,
that can't. I don't notice any of that. I don't sense anything
like that. Dog's got thirty one percent of the boat. By the way,
everybody, are you excited about Stray? Because I am, I'm getting
more excited about Stray. Yeah, I am. I'm also just like this
kind of like this lull period where you know that I'm waiting for the next
big thing to play, and Stray is definitely right on my alley. Obviously,
I have a cat. I'm gonna sit there with her and go,
look it's you, and I'm sure she will ignore me the whole time.
Question, Yes, the question for tomorrow. I'm writing it down. You
want to kind of read through it as I'm going here, Which would you
rather have? Yeah, what would you all have? Switch pro this year
or switch to in twenty twenty four. M It's like you have to it's
like an either or so like if if we get a switch pro this year,
I suppose that's not enough for him. But basically the inherent thing here
is if you get a switch pro this year, you're gonna have to wait
a little bit longer for the switch too, so that would be switched two
in twenty twenty five. May both do that in follow pool exactly. So
there we go. Let's let's just send that oh you know what, and
then we'll do the game Mess mornings so I can fight it easily and there
we go. All right, there we go. So we'll discuss this tomorrow
on the show. We should be having jan on tomorrow and he'll give us
all the inns. He knows all about the the switch pro. He's just
been hiding it, Jans with the real feat all this. He's a man
on the inside exactly. Okay, So with that, we'll talk about the
results tomorrow. We'll have another Morning Mess to talk about him, John Bob
tomorrow. We got a bunch of stuff happening still on the site this week,
including today. I believe that we are doing the Arcade Pit on giant
bomb dot com soon after this, so I'm looking forward to checking out.
We're gonna have a good crew on there. Earlier this week we did the
power Bomb Cast, which has returned. I was on there. I got
Mike Manotti on there to talk about wrestling, and we had super ipatch Wolf
was on. It was a good crew. We had a lot of fun
talking about that. Look for that. It's on the Giant Bomb Presents feed.
It's also on YouTube. Lucy, you've got anything happened in this week?
So a thousand pardons because there isn't a new episode of Jeff Jess was
our adventure this week because the short week did kind of screw us over a
little bit when it came to scheduling it. Obviously, you know Tam and
I West Coast, Jeff, East Coast, John over An Island. So
we know episode this week, but we'll be back next week and we'll be
back with the weekly cadence. Almost at the end of one Punchman BombCast,
I was on yesterday and then we are filming a new episode of Very online
show on Friday, so that should hopefully go out next week. And Jan
said, yeah, Pitts starts in and now it's Team in Max Vos's Team
Double finds I is gonna be eight. Yeah, it's gonna be a good
one. Let's see albumers going up today, d NF dual quick look.
I believe Tam and Jason are gonna be looking at that. I'm gonna be
watching that one. Then tomorrow got Voicemail, Dumb Truck and the Neon White
Open, which I think it's just an invitational, but we really wanted those
INWO. We wanted the nWo thing. That's some special guests coming in and
I don't know if it's been confirmed who yet, so I'm not gonna say,
but oh, they're keeping the special guests, keep the special guests special,
very exciting. It's gonna be a good time, though. You should
definitely tune in. I'm gonna beat everybody, so it's like the the end
is already determined, but it's about the journey along the way. There's gonna
be drama along the way. In the end. I'm gonna win though,
and then humbling having you on my friend's list, and then Unprofessional Fridays on
Friday. Please tune in for that. Uh Lucy, let's get out of
here. Let's think about it. The people, thank You're already for tuning
in and really appreciate it. You're the best audience of gaming. It makes
us, It makes it very easy to make the best news show in gaming.
Thank you all so much. Until next one. Next time, have
a good one. Take care of yourself.