You'll be don't mean it's the internet. You're busy. Let's do this for
September twenty one, twenty twenty three. For the next hour or so,
let me help you sort through the world of gaming on Game mess Mornings Live
with me Jeff Grub Today, a new studio has already lost its founder and
more details squeak out of Xbox. But first, please join me and welcoming
today's co host to Gamess Mornings. It's Emma Fife. Everybody, Emma,
how are you doing well? I'm great. There's already somebody on Twitter.
This is at basically Lexi says, have a good show. This is when
I tweeted about being on the show, because apparently I'm using Twitter again,
and I'm supposed to ask Grub why you and seven other people between the ages
of one hundred and one and two hundred invested in Embracer. Yeah, well
listen, us vampires need money too. I mean, that's just how it
goes. Yeah, Lexi le come for me for being old. I guess
I'm forty, that's fair and they're twenty. So that's a comparison. Yeah,
all right, that's what I'm much closer in age to you than I
am. I will, but I will say that yesterday I actually did a
sponsored stream with a bunch of Twitch partners for Charles Schwab Investments. Hell yeah.
And it was a D and D campaign, so I DMed it.
And basically what we were doing was we were doing time skips wherein the players
could invest in different businesses in the town. We had like a guy from
Charles Schwab was like an actual financial advisor who literally would like make dice rolls
and do math to figure out how these things bested over time. It was
absolutely wild. It was last I could tell that I'm an old man because
what you just described there sounds like the best thing in the world. That
sounds like so much. Truly, I have to tell you that literally everybody
I have spoken to about this who is over the age of thirty is like,
I am, that's awesome. Yeah, So that's you can check.
Got that vaud on Poe belters Twitch channel and it was this. I just
want to shout out Poe Belter for a second. He's a League of Legends
pro and he when we started said, you know, are we gonna have
to do a lot of role playing because like I don't think I'm going to
be very good at that. And like my other two like one of the
guys on the stream was Cleo Thomas, who's literally an actor, and so
I was like, no, you're gonna be fine, Like just follow Cleo's
lead, like he's an actor. It's gonna be fine. It was like
having a child in theater class who discovers in theater class that they love theater.
Like it was. It was such a magical moment. Yeah, he
was great. So anyway, tabletop rugs they're fun. If if more tabletop
rfugs were about investing, I would be playing every day. That would be
amazing. Yeah yeah you uh my understanding though, Emma, you been busy.
I have been busy. Yeah. So last week was a lot of
uh games previews happening in LA I am allowed to publicly say that I played
Alan Wake two, though I cannot divulge any details until next week. Cute,
I know, I know, But yeah, it was a cool event.
I think I'm allowed to say, like the event was cool. It
was at the same space that we had Summer Games Fest, and I walked
in because the other preview that I had gone to that day, which I'll
get into in a second. I had just like gone to their office,
you know, gone to a room upstairs with some gaming stations and played and
you know, they had your sort of basic here's some coffee and water bottles
and granola bars. Oh no, no, the Alan Wake event was a
party. Like I walked in and somebody immediately like handed me a themed cocktail
and they were passing apps around and the gaming stations were so cool, like
everything was themed and they had like a fake caseboard set up. It was
awesome the event. I can't say what I thought of the game yet,
but what I am allowed to talk about now is Final Fantasy seven Rebirth,
which I played out the Square Knicks offices last week. If you haven't had
a chance to, I believe that Gamespots impressions that Tam and Lucy did should
be up. All three of us got a chance to play. But yeah,
so as as as y'all know, for those of you who've seen me
around Giant Bomb and those of you who watched us watch the Summer Games Festive
opening presentation when I was name dropping some deeper cut characters in Final Fantasy seven,
that is my jam and I am delighted to report that Final Fantasy seven
rebirth is just sheer joy. What I really loved about it was how goofy
it is. And I think that a lot of the time when you get
these more like modern gaming adaptations, there's a fear that it's not going to
preserve the integrity of the like goofier sides of the previous titles. And obviously,
like we saw in Final Fantasy seven remake that they were not afraid of
the goofy. They like kicked it up to eleven and made it so fun
in the whole Wallmarket sequence, the cross dressing and getting into Don Corneo's mansion.
But yeah, I mean, like we basically got to play part of
the Niebelheim flashback, which anybody who's you know, play Final Fantasy seven,
you know, basically as soon as you get out of Midguar, you go
to this town called Calm and Clouds, like, let me tell you what
happened in my town five years ago, and then you play through that flashback.
So I did actually get a chance to play part of that. It
was really fun to control Sefroth, so sick to have him as part of
the team, and then it was it's so it's so awesome because I remember,
like in the flashback sequences, you didn't actually control Seferroth. Even in
the OG game, he was AI controlled. But now like you got full
control baby, And yeah, I mean it's like fully fleshed out that Final
Fantasy seven combat system. But yeah, and and they also added so from
the DLC with Ufie, wherein she only there were only two people on the
team and the other guy was basically like an AI control. You were mostly
just controlling Ufie. Uh. But they had synergy attacks where you know,
basically it's like a gauge would fill up in and then they could do attacks
together. They've also added that into Final Fantasy seven Rebirth, but now you
can do like three person synergy attacks. So it's yeah, I mean the
changes to the battle system are great. Uh. The other thing that we
got to do was explore the area around June on just to get a sense
of what the world map is like. Uh, it's big, you know
what. I like. It feels like there's a lot to explore, there's
a lot to do, There's a lot you can do with chocobos. They
were very kind and gave us chocobos right off the bat. My only uh,
sort of gripe about chocobos. So this is this is those are my
two things. They're not quite as fun to ride as they are in Final
Fantasy sixteen because they can't jump. And one of the things it's really fun
about riding Ambrosia in Final Fantasy sixteen, Like what I would always do is
like sprint through the fields and then I'd find like a little cliff that I
could actually get off, and I would jump, and then you could kind
of like sour a little bit, because chocobos are like chickens and they can,
you know, they and fly about as much as chickens can. But
there's no jump in Final Fantasy seven Rebirth, at least that I was aware
of. So that was a bummer that I couldn't do any soaring. But
to their credit read thirteen, Who's a Dog Lying Creature? Ye rides rides
a choke about whoa Okay, I gotta see that natural yep, God,
it's truly hilarious. I got some good footage of it, so I'll try
to share some of that through. But yeah, again, like I have
nothing, but I have nothing but high hopes for this game. I loved
Final Fantasy seven remake, and it seems like Rebirth has really like added some
fun elements. And so again, like when I got that email from Square,
like literally the PR team was making fun of me in a good way
for how excited I was. Like, like Kyle from forty seven literally made
like a meme where it's like all of the characters looking off to the horizon
and he labeled them me. And then September fourteen, it was the day
that we've played, so we like put it up in the sky where they
were looking. So it's a it's that meme of Nick Cage and a pagor
Pascal. Yes, I'm Pedro, but we got it. We need to
know. I will say right now, this is the most asked question chat
What about that? What about that segue? Oh god, the segue we
didn't get to play. Okay, that's what I wanted. That's what I
figured. I figured you would have liked with that. I would have led
with that. Are you kidding me? But the one other detail that I
did want to point out is the way that you fast travel in this game
is when you're wandering around the world randomly, a baby Chokeabo will it here
somewhere in your vision, and then you follow that baby chokeabo to a chocobo
station and you stand the sign up, and then that becomes a fast travel
points amazing. You can also very importantly, and they literally lead with this
in the intro video that we watched before we played, you can pet the
baby choke most Yay, that's gonnake. Mike's over that you could pet things
in the end games, but everyone else still likes it. As we've gotta
cheer for it and rub it in his face. He's gonna get over it.
I'm gonna understand why you would get be over petting things in games.
I don't. It's a very strange thing. I agree, correct take.
Yes, it's just kind of a weirdo kind of thing. I would say,
Uh, Emma, you also have a new show I do, Yes,
oh my gosh over on game Spot. My new show launched this week.
It is called reality Check. It's actually technically reviving an old Game Spot
show that hasn't been around for a long time, but now it's it's very
deeply Emma, it's deeply weird, which is really who I am. And
yeah, so basically I'm exploring things that come up in games. Uh,
you know, tropes, themes, common occurrences, and kind of taking a
lot look at where those things come from in real life, why those things
might be present in games. Just kind of tying different phenomena that we experience
in games to the real world. Be it it's I was gonna say,
be it psychologically. It's turning out to be mostly psychologically. Yeah. Yeah.
So the first episode is up right now, so you can go check
that out over on game spots YouTube channel. It is all about why we
love non human romance options. And then the next episode is coming out on
Tuesday of next week, and I can tell you that the topic of this
one is chickens. I all right, I can't wait. I can't wait
to see what's happening over there. That sounds like a lot of fun.
Say again, we're when and where can people find this? Tuesday's on game
spot on gamespots YouTube channel. Very exciting? All right, Yeah, we're
gonna get into this show now. But that was looking for that. You
know, you guys been working hard on it. So great to see the
frits of that labor. Yeah yeah, all right, So let's get into
this mess before we do let's explain what we do here most weekdays, I,
Jeff Greb, will help peace your gaming life back together. That includes
breaking news and maybe even some of our own original reporting. For all these
topics, I'll get the input of a bona fide expert who will make me
look smart. If you were 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. You can also catch the
show later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right,
we have a lot to get into, so let's start the Morning Mess with
Glenn Scofield is leaving Striking Distance after the Callisto protocol misfired. This is from
Tom Ivan at VGC Striking Distance CEO. Glenn Scofield is leaving the Crafton owned
studio after its debut game, the Callisto protocol failed to meet expectations. A
Crafton representative told Bloomberg Scofield has decided to pursue new opportunities and that Striking Distances
chief operating Officer and chief financial officer are also leaving the company. Volume tarily
former Sledgehummer Games and Visceral Games general manager Scofield, who is best known as
the co creator of Dead Space, founded Striking Distance in twenty nineteen with the
goal of crafting an original narrative experience in the pub Gene universe. The project
evolved over time into a sci fi survival horror game that dropped the pub g
franchise ties. The Clister protocol received mixed reviews when it launched in December,
a month before EA released a critically acclaimed Dead Space remake in January, and
analysts claimed Crafton had targeted five million sales tray the Clysto protocol but the following
but that following a slow start, it could struggle to reach two million by
the end of this year. Bloomberg reports that Striking Distance has laid off over
thirty members of its staff in recent months, and that it now has a
headcount of around ninety employees. According to its website, Striking Distances Chief Development
Officer Steve Papustas will replace Schofield as CEO. So the studio is not closing
down at least not yet, Emma, but this is also not too surprising.
This thing had expectations way up here. It's it. Reality's way down
there. This is kind of what happens sometimes, right, you know,
what's really I'm trying to remember exactly which of the State of Play Game Awards,
anything that shows off a bunch of game trailers. I remember there was
one presentation. I don't think it was the Game Awards. I think it
was maybe like the State of Play before that or something where every other title
was a space horror game. Like I remember Bailey and it was Game Awards
because I remember watching. I was co streaming, you know, Bailey and
I were co streaming, and I remember sitting next to her on the couch
in the Phantom office and we were just like another another space horror game.
Like all I'm getting out of this is never go to space. So,
I mean, I think it's it's interesting because I think a lot of what's
happening in the gaming world is something that we are. It's interesting with games
because games it's more about expectation and in film and TV where we're also seeing
just and I think, you know, Tam and Lucy did a spot on
over on game Spot recently where they're basically talking about how like there's too many
video games and It's the same thing with film and television, except for with
television, you with all these streamers, they'll drop a show and if in
the first season it doesn't get super duper popular, it gets canceled. And
with games, it's more like if they don't, you know, sell copies
right off the bat and only get mixed reviews, then that's gonna automatically put
studios in trouble. And it feels like we're in an era wherein it's kind
of difficult to break through all the noise and very similar to what's going on
in TV. You know, you have a lot of TV shows and things
that do have a small, really dedicated audience, and I think that you
get that with games as well, but unfortunately it's like because there's so much
to compete with, and especially when you are creating a game on a really
large scale like this, not just a smaller indie title. You know,
it is not surprising to me that this is how things are going with striking
Distance. It is unintuitive the way this is all working, right, where
the more specific you make a game, the broader it's appeal somehow, And
it's like if you were a company, it's like, hey, we need
to make a big hit. What do we do. What's like, well,
let's make sure it's easy for enough people, and it's welcoming, and
it's it's always thinks and yeah, space War there's a lot of horror fans
out there, but let's spend a lot of money on the visuals. That's
spend a lot of money making sure that looks slick. And then people are
like, yeah, Okay, I'm gonna go play Boulder's Gate three that has
all all these very minute details that they paid attention to, and I'm gonna
like just obsess over that. And it's like, you you kind of can't
manufacture the kind of thing that like a game like Boulder's Gate three. Did
you know? Not that that's a great comparison for the Closter Protocol, but
still it's like the Closter Protocol is in the situation where it you can't make
a game like that without spending a ton of money. We I can't remember
what the number was, but it was something like over one hundred million dollars
maybe even getting up the coast to one hundred and fifty million dollars for this
game. It was like a lot of money to make this game, and
it's like, yeah, I mean, what's the alternatives. It's just your
game has to look worse, it has to look cheaper. And for games
these days, if you are trying to break out, that's not really an
option unless you have some other magic sauce inside there, and that again,
you just can't pull that out of a hat. You can't just manufacture that.
So I get how these things keep happening, but it does continue to
show the unsustainability of these big games and the business model a lot of these
publishers have, where games are just getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger
and bigger, and the amount of people required to make them as bigger and
bigger, and now there's only a few companies that can justifiably do that handful
of times without getting a hit after hit after hit, and even like the
biggest companies like you know, we saw and I don't have the story here,
so it's like this, it's kind of still breaking a little bit.
There are some details about how much profitability at the Xbox, Nintendo, and
Sony have and I think it was estimated by Microsoft, but so it might
not be fully accurate, but basically it was like, hey, Sony spends
the most money and then their profitability is actually lower than Xbox and Nintendo.
And it's like, you know, when you look at it, if you
look at those games that they're putting, now, that makes sense because their
games are bigger and more expensive than the other ones. And it's like,
what if one of those goes bad? What if like two in a row
flop? That's real bad. Absolutely, And I mean Sony's model is releasing
games, you know, it's like game, I know, the biggest games
exactly, and Nintendo is two. But Nintendo's always going to Nintendo. They
will always have their core properties that are only ever going to be on They
are not afraid to save a buck on things. Here in one thousand percent
one thousand percent, Sony spends all the money to put out all these flashy
looking titles. Meanwhile, you have Xbox, who's focus. Yes, they
are definitely you know, tip dipping their toes in. Obviously not the same
with its Sonny. It's obviously you know, they own the ths done and
they put out Starfield and you can only play out on Xbox or PC.
Uh And but I mean I still stand by xboxes model is game passed.
They just want you to have a game Pass subscription. Yep, it's yes,
for sure. And it's like and that means a variety and there's a
lot of incentives that are very good there. But but it's if you were
just like looking at this from how these decisions get made and how these companies
feel good about that. Clearly it's working for Sony, so they're gonna keep
They're gonna keep doing it. But you also see why they are eyeballing games
as a service and not just eyeballing it there. That's their big investment push
right now, Yeah, is hey, we need we need games that like
cost way less than what we're spending or even if they do cost the same,
they have the potentially the way to make way more down the line and
and not games that are going to be kind of like twenty to thirty dollars
two years after they come out after they cost two hundred million dollars for us
to make. And it's like, yeah, I can see how that would
be. Pretty like you look at that, it's like they're lost leaders.
Even though they're probably not losing money, they're not making the profit level that
a company like Nintendo's scene from its games. So it's like, okay,
well then we have to make it somewhere else, and that's going to be
the games as a service. And obviously Sony makes a ton of money from
like a Fortnite and Call of Duty and all that stuff. But for companies
that aren't Sony, that aren't Nintendo or Xbox, it's you know, they
don't have the ecosystems. You know, the craft it doesn't have an ecosystem.
They have the pub G ecosystem. If you're playing pub G a lot
in the mobile game, sure, but if you were like, hey,
me and my friend group are now going to go play a different game.
If you're PlayStation and they're still playing on PlayStation and they start spending micro transactions
on there, you're going to get a cut of that if you're if they're
if you're crafting, you like, you have pub G, but you know
that's not going to be around for forever forever, So you are looking for
the next thing that could start generating revenue, and if it's not this,
it's like, okay, well that's that's not just a kind of a disappointment.
This is a threat to our existence because we now we that was an
opportunity cost that we waste it. We burned that, and now we have
to do that all over again, and now we're going to be even more
risk adverse, We're gonna be even We're having even less money to spend on
this stuff, and it's it's unsustainable, is what it feels like. So
not a surprise that this is how things are going. I do wonder what
happens with Glen Scofield next. He's bounced around a couple of places. Now
probably I hope this is like a lesson learned kind of thing where it's like,
hey, just do something that that really gets you your creative juice flowing.
Glen Scofield a very creative guy. Yeah, focus on that side of
things, right. Well, that's what I was going to say, is
because I feel like, you know, the titles that tend to pop off
outside of you know, your big Sony's xboxes and Nintendo's, they're often indie
games, and they are indie games that have some sort of element of creativity
that people just really just or like a good gameplay element, just something that
there was clearly like a lot of thought and passion put into them. Whereas
to me like Callisto Protocol, as you say, like initially started off as
it was going to be like a pub G narrative, and then it spun
off from that and then it ended up in this ocean of horror space games.
So but then I look at something like, you know, one of
the games that we've really been seeing popping off lately and we got a lot
of comments about wanting an honest trailer for and ended up doing one was like
Sea of Stars, which is a you know, classic JRPG, and if
you do the genre thing extremely well, people have love for that kind of
thing and they will come. You know who did pull this off is Hideo
Kojima with Death Stranging. You know, as much as like look, going
into Death Stranding, I was like, man, this asshole is going to
spend all the money in the world. It's going to take years and years.
I'm like, oh, what's already here? How this game's kind of
interesting? And then it's like the more you play it, the more you're
like, fucking get it again. So I know, you're like, this
is a walking simulator, Like what's happening here? But it's like Key saved
money in that making that game where it made sense, and then he still
had all this Cogima bullshit in there, and then he still had like a
really good core idea of like this connected world, and that was all part
of the leading into the themes. And it's like that, that is judicious
using the resources you have available to you in a way that is obviously it's
very clever, and it's obviously coming for someone who has done this for a
very long time and knows what they're doing and has a certain confidence. And
I think that's the lesson to be learned there. Hey kiddy, yeah,
kitty cat. Sorry, he's screaming at me so we can barely hear.
So we're doing it over here, all right, Let's keep moving here.
A bunch of more Xbox Game Passes game Pass games confirmed, including another Day
one title. This is from Darren Bonthus at GameSpot. Xbox game Pass subscribers
can look forward to something big, some big new games in the near future,
as Like a Dragon Guidan, the Man who erased his name and Like
a Dragon Hian will be added to the library of subscription services, alongside several
other titles. For Like a Dragon Guidan, the Intercool as they're calling it,
will be available as a day one release on game Pass and when it
launches on November ninth. Xbox announced this at the Tokyo Game Show last night,
and during like a forty minute long thing that they had said after yak
Who's a six the Song of Life, and during yak who'sa like a Dragon?
Like a dragon guide and focuses on Kazuma, cure you said, I
say it yep, yeah, ks mccarya Kure. Yes, the legendary Yakuza
who faked his own death so that he could protect his family, now operating
under the code name of jo You you Cure You, becomes caught up in
a new plot that threatens to expose him and his loved ones in danger.
Blah blah blah. This is this is pretty pretty cool. Obviously, it
seems like Sega has bought all in on game Pass because the game Pass right,
they put a few games in there, and then now now like they
are putting some of these ones that aren't their biggest, biggest, biggest games
like Yeah, Yahkuza or like like a Dragon Infinite Wealth probably not going to
be day one in game Pass, but the next tier down of Yakuza game
being in game pass that feels right to me. I don't know, what
do you think? I totally agree, And it's super interesting to me because
I feel like the Yakuza games in general, I wouldn't call necessarily I mean,
it's definitely like it's one of the biggest series. I would say that,
like Sega basically owns the licensing two at this point. But I do
think that in terms of like the US market, the Yakuza games are they
have a very very very dedicated cult growing and it's they're not yet exactly and
growing and they're not They are not obscure by any stretch of the imagination.
I would I would hazard to say that most people who are into gaming have
heard of the YEP when they were disappointing Sega back in the day on the
PS two and stuff, PS three or whatever it was, even then,
they weren't obscure like people still talk about. They were just setting out the
body totally. And I think that now you know this strategy and they've been
putting a bunch of the Kausa games on game tasks, it's a it's a
it's not a smart strategy. I think so too, And it's and the
companies that have mostly embraced game Pass in terms of putting day one games out,
not the day one games that are single player multiplayer games have been in
there a bunch of times, and those make a lot of sense because that
gets to the kind of juice whole flowing of a building a community, and
that's just natural fit. But for the single player games from like companies like
Sega and Capcom, because Capcom is putting out that and I'm never gonna be
able to remember the name, but the one that kind of looked like Annie
Musha that they announced the Summer Game festo something like Princess blah blah blah.
Yeah, I know the one you're talking about. It looks fun, right,
and it's like, okay, So, like Sega's had success in game
Pass, they're coming back, and they're not just coming back, they are
increasing sort of their participation in game Pass with day one single player releases,
and Capcom is now doing the same thing. It's okay, So they are
clearly liking what they're seeing. Probably the thing that they're liking is the big
check from Microsoft. But they're also not seeing like any real true detrimental effects
from being in game Pass, and I think we can kind of put to
get piece together that that's also likely true based on the way that Fortza has
performed in terms of sales, and then also still being in game Pass and
getting a lot of plays that way. And now Starfield, a game that's
in game Pass and people could play it that way and yet has been one
of the biggest like just straight up sellers of the year so far. Oh
yeah, So I think these companies are now kind of being won over by
this, and now it's like, okay, does that continue to build to
the point where game Pass can be sustainable Between the games Microsoft is putting now
and then the partnerships with these third party games, seems like they could get
there. It's at least it's not moving backwards. At the very least,
it's definitely not moving backwards. And I know that I've talked about this before,
but I think that one of the smartest strategies that Microsoft has had because
obviously, you know, they express interest in these things, and then basically
these companies are in a position to say, yes, we you know,
yes, buy our game for game Pass. Uh you know, we we
agree to the steal basically, but one of the things that Microsoft has been
really smart about is targeting these import games, targeting things like Yakuza and Persona
and as somebody who is a big you know, single player girly mostly plays
Japanese import games, like I already thought game Pass was a great deal,
this just makes it even more valuable to me, right, And I mean
even if it's that like, I bet you buy a lot of these games
because they're the kinds of things you're into, I bet you still buy a
lot of it is I think some of the value is, Hey, a
friend that I would have previously hesitated to, say, spend sixty to seventy
dollars on this game. If you already have an Xbox, go get game
passed for a month, try a couple of these, and then the barrier
entry is way lower, and I feel better about recommending something to someone.
And then there's then there's yet another person I could talk to about this,
which is one of the real values of these games and be able to share
the experiences with one another. So that's the power of game Pass, And
it does seem like it's it is not like completely stormed the industry. I
think the way that the predictions once once were, but it's totally. It
has found its place, it's found its footing, and it seems like it
has a strong path forward, even if it's a slow and steady race.
Yep, let's see Kenitsu Ghani. Path of the Goddess is the game that
we were trying to think. Okay, Path of the Gods Lady of Notes
in the Letters ess or whatever. Yes, there we go. We are
close enough. Okay, let's hear Xbox Series X versus Xbox Series S which
sells better. This is from Eddie McCoo at game Spot. The Massive Xbox
Document League has revealed lots of juicy information about Microsoft's gaming plans and other information,
including a breakdown of Series X and Series S sales. As it turns
out, Microsoft's prediction that the less expensive and less powerful Series S would be
better selling device turned out to be true, and at least, at at
least at one time, well kind of. There's some updates here. Igne
reports that one of the league documents shows that the Series S accounted for seventy
four point eight percent of sales, with Series X making up twenty five point
one percent. At least in the relatively early days of the platform's life cycle.
This information is accurate as of early twenty twenty two, but the mix
has has shifted significantly since then, it seems, and this is the update.
Zircana analyst Map Piscatilla said on Twitter that Series S makes up a bit
more than half of the total sales of new Xbox consoles in the US.
Chris Dring, who monitors the sales in the UK through GfK, he mentioned,
it's almost exactly the same in the UK now. A little bit more
than half is xbo Series S S. Yeah seriess three hundred dollars, less
powerful, uh, same kind of CPU but less powerful, less storage but
much more available in the early days now and then the Xbox Series X five
hundred dollars. This is just basic economics working in their favor, right,
give us, give a lower price option, more people are going to buy
it. Again, coming back to the game pass of it all this,
I remember when both of these consoles launched and how brilliant I thought it was
that they were offering the Series S. Because the whole idea is you get
the console in the home, you know what I mean, in the house,
yeah, correct, and then you build the ecosystem. So this is
not surprising to me. I remember the Xbox Series S. When I heard
it was only three hundred dollars, I was like, that's ridiculous, that
is that's a steal. And uh and again, you know, I recommend
the Series S to everybody I don't have. I don't have a Series X,
I have a Series S. It's a game pass machine. Yep.
Absolutely, I mean especially if you are in anyone who is I mean from
I'm building that ecosystem, on building their own library, on something else last
generation, like the P fourty PS five, like you're going to keep that
and that there's so much, so much momentum there. But if you want
access to game pass, if you want to play some of these other games,
Series S has proven to be mostly a very fine option, and it's
definitely the one like for people who are like just kind of curious about games
or like maybe they're like wanting something gaming related for Christmas. It's like that's
the gift one right there. I think that YEA for PlayStation it's like it
shouldn't be that hard to fight against it with like, oh, it's only
a hundred dollars more to get a Real PS five. Sure, it's a
digital edition, but but so is the series S. It's only a hundred
dollars more and you get the full fledged, full fat experience. I know.
But the digital edition is has been so rare to find. I mean,
I got one, but it took me weeks of actively searching for it.
I wanted a digital one. I was like, I don't need one
that has discs, but of course I have a disc one yep. And
then and you compare it to the Switch, which is three hundred dollars,
but three hundred fifty dollars for that, oh lad, And you look pretty
good compared to that too, because you're significantly more powerful than that, much
more powerful. And if you need an example, just look at the side
by sides of Mortal Kombat one looking pretty rough over there. We'll see.
We talked about that yesterday where it's like, yeah, they're gonna update it,
but we'll see how far they're able to get. We'll see, all
right, Moving along here, Criterion joins EA Entertainment to focus on battlefield development
from tom Ivan f VGC. Criterion Games has moved divisions within Electronic Electronic Arts
to work on the battlefield franchise. EA restructured its studios into two organizations this
past summer, and Criterion has switched from EA Sports to EA Entertainment. It
will also continue to work on the Need for Speed series, according to respond
co founder Vince Sampella, who now leads the EA studios responsible for Apex Legends,
It's Star Wars games and Battlefield games. As we said before, we're
all in on Battlefield, he said in a blog post today, Criterion is
added to our world class Battlefield studios, dedicated to ushering in a new era
for the franchise. The majority of the team will be working alongside Dice,
Ripple Effect, and Ridgeline that are led by Byronbead GM of Battlefield. Criteria's
experience with Battlefield, our technology and building and building engaging experiences will have an
immediate positive impact as we continue to work on Battlefield twenty forty two and as
we continue pre production on a connected Battlefield universe. YEA announced in February twenty
twenty that had handed Need for Speed development duties back to Criterion as it planned
to restructured Ghost Games, which made the last four entries in the racing series.
Criterion is one that's always kind of up and down where I'm like a
lot of the key talent that worked on the games that I remember Criterion for
the Burnout series, even Black, a lot of them have moved on,
but they have maintained a culture. It seems like that it has shown up
when they do pop up as Hey, we developed the cockpit fighting stuff for
the Battlefront series for Star Wars battle Fight, and then we did the VR
stuff and it's like, Yeah, this feels like a Criterion thing, and
then they have been definitely supporting on Need for Speed for some time. Yeah,
Ghosts took over Ghosts. Actually a lot of former Criterion people work there
as well, so it's like that cultures existing. I think. For me,
I'm like, continue to be curious about the future of Battlefield, and
this seems like they want they know that they need to continue to invest on
that and like bring it back and re establish it as a premier franchise.
But I wonder if that's good money after bad At a certain point, is
Battlefield's time over or am I just like missing something there? I don't know,
because I was thinking about that too. I was like, I was
like, I remember Battlefield, but it's never at like the forefront of my
mind. In fact, I was like, yeah, so it's it's interesting
because obviously there are a lot of games in the FPS sort of genre,
which I will fully admit not my cup of tea. But that being said,
it's like, it's interesting when you were like, I think that there's
two sort of ways to go about it. It's either that you you create
something that's really unique in pops or is a game studio that has a lot
of respect, like something like Riot did with Valerie, where you know they
kind of chuged into really push that to the forefront, and that's right there
in that right launchers all the advantages in the world. Yeah. Absolutely,
But I do think that there is space for a legacy title like Battlefield to
be revived and pushed to the Let me ask, so when you say legsy,
what I think is it's again, it's gonna cost seventy dollars, and
do you think like, do you think that do you think that, yeah,
do you think this should still be seventy like trying to compete with Call
of Duty and that space, or should they shift all the way to free
to play? I mean talking about yes, they should I know they're talking
about a connected Battlefield universe. I think that the I'm with you that the
way you get this back into the cultural zygeist, you get this back on
people's radars is you do a free to play version. You just have to
you like just completely misread the situation. Yeah, the Battlefield before that was
coming out in a time that was basically before Fortnite, and then we went
to twenty forty two and twenty fo who felt like it was still existing in
that world and everyone was like I could play war Zone or Fortnite, or
Apex Legends or Valeriant or or even Counterstrike. Yeah it's fifteen dollars, but
everyone's bought counter Strike, So I play any of these games that everybody has
access to without having to convince someone to spend another sixty to seventy dollars.
And it's like, well, Battlefield twenty forty two kind of ran into that
wall, I think, And yeah, now it's been on subscription services,
but it missed its moment and now they're and now they're trying to like clean
up the mess a little bit, and it's like, I don't know,
people want to like Battlefield. People want Battlefield to be up there as one
of these premier franchises, So I think they have that going for them,
but it's gonna it's gonna be it's gonna be tough to really figure out that
the space. The good news for them maybe is that they see that and
it's not actually good news for them. But the good news for Battlefield is
the Apex Legends is on the decline. So it's like EA is going to
be very interested in finding the next replacement in terms of being their big excuse
me, free to play shooter that can make a lot of money. So
it's like that if you could do to a one like a ticktalk thing where
it's like, here's the tick was Apex Legends, and now the talk can
be all right. Now Battlefield's going to come in for a few years as
a free to play game and replace that, and then as that starts to
wayne, we'll have the next big thing that is the follow up to Apex
Legends from Respawn and so on and so forth. But we'll see, we'll
see, all right. Phoenix Right Ace Attorney Trilogy is coming to Game Pass
next week. This is from Tom Ivan. Phoenix Right Ace Attorney Trilogy is
coming to Game Pass next week. It includes remasters of the first three games
and CAPCOMs series, which were Phoenix Right Ace Attorney, Phoenix Right Ace Attorney,
Justice for All, and Phoenix Right Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations. Phoenix
Right Ace Attorney Trilogy will be available for Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass
on September twenty six, so we're talking about five days from now it'll be
available. Additionally, Apollo Justice Ace Attorney Trilogy will be released on Xbox Series
X and S in early twenty twenty four. Another chance to like introduce this
series to a new a new audience, right, because oh yeah, I
think this is gonna I think there's just not a lot of overlap there in
the Venn diagram, right, No, there's not. I mean this is
the thing, you know, with the Ace Attorney series, as I recall,
uh In, I think I want to say, like twenty twenty one,
they started bringing a lot of those titles to Switch, which obviously they
are a fantastic fit for the Switch because they're effectively vels, so you know,
I mean they're they're lawyer visual novels, and there's trials and things like
that. It's not like a romance v end kind of situation. But yeah,
I mean it's like obviously it's a lot of making dialogue selections and you
know, putting piecing together clues in a case and things like that. But
what I will say is that this is this is such a great fit for
game Pass because once again it's a oh, I already have game Pass.
Here are these fun, little interesting games that I might not have checked out
otherwise, but again I have it available to me, so you might as
well. And as you say, it's just it's a great way to introduce
this to a new audience. And we're also seeing again this is a Capcom
title. This is Capcom making its way into game Pass, which is clearly
something that they have an interest in doing. Yep, yep, just another
And it's like for something like this, it's like you're gonna go, yeah,
you can put it on Xbox, but if you put on game Pass,
it doesn't get lost. It gets it gets that that momentum. And
I think the old story of hey, some games sell better when they're in
game Pass, this is the one where it feels like that might be true,
or it's like, hey, I'm gonna try this. I'm gonna play
it, yes, and then and I get that discounted because I have the
game Pass subscription and I want to make sure I have it when it leaves
game Pass. So I'm just gonna go ahead and pick it up because now
I'm super into this, and before I didn't know if I couldn't try it,
so I didn't even know if it would be my thing. Well,
and look, I'm not I'm not saying that this is universally true, but
I will say that game Pass because again, these things do when they're added
to game Pass, they get that boost of being like newly added to game
Pass. And so you open up your Xbox, you have your game Path
subscription, and you see what's on there, and you're like, oh,
that seems cool. I will say for me, I saw going back to
See If Stars, which I mentioned before. I saw that it was on
game Pass, and I was like, oh, I want to play that,
but that feels like a game that I want to play when I'm horizontal.
So I bought it for the sway. Yes exactly, that's exactly how
I feel as well. And it's like it can influence the ecosystem, like
across platforms. Even I would say that's perfect. All right, let me
get ready for this next one, which is gonna have well visual element.
Let's see if that's on the just okay, there we go, all right.
Suit To fifty one and Swerry sixty five have revealed the first Hotel Barcelona
gameplay is from tom Ivan at VGC, Goichi Suda and excuse excuse me.
Goichi Suda and hit A Taka suit Hero have revealed the first Hotel Barcelona gameplay.
No More Heroes creator Suda who often goes by the name Suita fifty one
and Deadly Premonition creator Suero Heroes, often known as Squeary sixty five, first
announced in twenty nineteen that they wanted to make a whore game called Hotel Hotel
Barcelona. Hotel Barcelona is a two point five D action game that parodies slasher
films, written directed by by Sweary from an original idea by Suda fifty one.
It will be released in twenty twenty four for Xbox Series X and s
PS five MPC VS Steam. The trailer, which you guys are watching right
now, reveals the first gameplay footage of the title since its announcement premiered during
Xbox's Tokyo Game Show broadcast on Thursday. Hotel Barcelona, the place where all
the action takes place, is an integrated leisure complex featuring facilities such as a
casino and camping ground around the hotel to create a single living world with seven
smaller worlds inside. Sweary told Xbox Wire, I like Suda, I like
Squary. The idea of them working together felt like something that would happen eventually
and if things all went right, and hey, we actually happened to live
in that timeline. And this looks pretty cool to me. This is for
me, may and I love horror games. I love horror as a genre
in general, and the fact that this is taking you through the different subgenres
of horror within this world. And you do also have the element of the
sort of Metroid Vanya you you of the it looks like looks like Metro Dread.
Yeah, yeah, this is for me. Can't wait. And it's
like they're they're doing the h They're not like letting the perspective limited limit them.
There's a lot of huge bosses in the background that are coming and affecting
you, and it's like, so they're and you know, it doesn't look
super scary, but it looks spooky and fun and thematically horrified, and so
yeah, I'm into it. Yeah. I mean again, it's like the
you know, playing around with like they were saying, the different sub genres,
the slashers and zombie horror in summer camps and babysitters like that's I I
just love I just love that. It's it's horror movie season, it's spooky
season. I wish we had this right now. Exactly me too. It's
coming in twenty twenty four. We'll see more. Obviously, they seem to
be working closely with Xbox on this, but it's coming to p at PlayStation
as well as well as PC. Yeah, like a dragon producer is hesitant
to bring Yakuza games to Nintendo Switch. This is from Darren Bonthus at game
Spot. Yakuza games used to be PlayStation exclusive, but over the years,
over the last couple of years, the series has landed on other platforms.
Just about every game in the mainline series can be found on Xbox One,
Xbox Series X and S, and PC, but don't expect to see Cure
You Kazuma busting heads on the Nintendo Switch, though Nintendo's hybrid video game console
could technically run the Yokuza games on its hardware or even stream them in a
manner similar to the recent Resident Evil Games. Executive producer and Ryoga Gotuku Gotuku
studio head Masayoshi Yokoha Yokoyama, i'ma I'll get there eventually. It's hesitant for
now to port the adult series to that system. Do we want to put
a little put a title like this where where we're going around and picking a
fight with the world and doing all this Yakuza stuff on a switch? He
says, yeah, we still kind of want to, but basically they're not
sure that audience is right fit. I think he's wrong, Emma, I
think would do great. I think that these games would be awesome on the
switch. I think that they are uh misjudging how many grown ups see uh
huh oh yeah, Like you know, you look at a game like Animal
Cross is selling really well, and it's like, oh, well, obviously
that's kids. It's like, no, that's all like adults who want to
like have a fantasy world where doing your tasks is somehow satisfying, Like yeah,
and and so it's like that audience would also be very Yeah, Kuza
is basically animal crossing, basically like funamasically animal crosses. So just make the
natural leap there and get get those two kids together and let's make magic happen.
I mean I think yeah, Whusa ends up on an attended device within
the next couple of years. Well, people in chat have pointed out that
there was a Yakuza one and two on the weekend. It's sold like trash.
It's sold ye, so poorly to the point where I think those games
are are very rare and worth a lot. I could be wrong about that,
but I know it's sold like ship. So that's what that's what happened.
That's the real story here, is it sold ben on the EU and
now they're like, ah, that audience doesn't want these games. The Switch
audience has nothing to do with the WEIU audience, Like the WU audience moved
on, but the like then that's like five percent of the people who own
the Switch, and then the switches everyone else in the world. At this
point, everyone in the world has a Switch. I mean, look,
this is the thing is you're getting this game out to a ton of people
by putting it on the Xbox more people have switches. Yep, yes exactly,
and it's U and I yeah, and so because of that, I
think this series, like a Dragon, ends up on a switch to probably
here in the next couple of years, like the next two years. I'm
like too, I mean, I think that once again. It's like,
as we see these games really grow in popularity in the Western market thanks to
their inclusion in Xbox Game Pass, they're going to change their mind. I
think. So Dynamics is the latest Embracer studio to suffer layoffs. This is
from James Bachelor. Crystal Dynamics has laid off ten people, making it the
latest Embracer owned studio to downsize since its parent company began restructuring. The tomb
Raider developer posted a statement on Twitter revealing nine brand and marketing personnel and one
I employee had to be let has been let have been let go. The
company attributed this to an internal restructuring to align the studio with our current business
needs, which just continue horse shit out of Embracer. Crystal Dynamics is working
with the affected staff to support them in search for new employment. Uh like
always, Uh boy, I could not have I mean, I was never
high on Embracer, and yet somehow every day I hit new lows in terms
of my opinion of this company. They had zero vision other than just borrowing
money to buy things. And and now now the the inevitable that everyone was
saying would happened back then if things went bad, and surprise, they went
bad. And now here we are, and it's just one bad story out
after another coming out of Embracer Studios, laying people off when they should be
like ramping up to like release all these great games from all these studios that
they acquired, and it's like they're going to try to do that, and
it just seems hopeless at this point. I don't know what. Yeah,
I'm with you. It's so it's just so frustrating to see anytime you see
these studios get bought up and then suffer as a result. I mean,
this is the thing is anytime there's any sort of like murders and acquisitions,
there's always a certain number of layoffs as there's some restructuring and things done.
But I mean this, this just keeps happening in droves, you know.
Yeah, And it's like these studios have had like the Crystal Dynamics, and
in a handful of other studios that have experienced layoffs, many of them had
had big successes in the past and the successes and they probably will have more
in the future. And Crystal Dynamics has been ongoing working relationship with Microsoft,
working on perfect It's like, so they have money coming in and then they're
also working on tumb Rator games and Tumbrators getting licensed off to Amazon to make
like TV shows or movies or whatever the hell it is. So it's like
the everything around this studio is seemingly on the up, but because everything else
an Embracer is shit, it's dragging these studios down. It's like, this
is everyone's like the problem with consolidation. It's like, yeah, when when
when a company has zero vision and it's not like things are We're rosy over
at fucking Square Knicks. For Crystallanemics, they were on a pathway to getting
having layoffs happening regardless, and really that was already consolidation. So it's like
moving from one company to another, not actually consolidation other than the fact that
Embracer is one company that owns all these studios, but it was one owner
one owner as opposed to another for this one specific studio. Still though,
this is the problem when like a bigger company has problems and they are looking
just to cut and it doesn't matter the results from that one studio, They're
still going to have to pay the price for everyone else. That's shame.
Yeah, it is a shame. And Crystal Dynamics many they had their moment,
you know what I mean, Like I I just I so associate them
with the OG PlayStation as being one of the studios that had the games that
really really popped, obviously Tumbrator, but I mean I was, I was
a guest player those they were amazing, you know. So bring back Gus,
Bring back Gus, you know what I mean? Like we need Yeah,
well that's what we need. That's what we need. To get up
a guxt T shirt, Phil Spencer put that on on your boy, the
gust T shirt, and uh you know, get Geico Auto Insurance there as
a sponsor. Let's just have a crossover of Gus and the guy. That's
what we really need. That's what gaming re needs. It needs Super Smash
Brothers. But for the forgotten U of mascots, Sure put the get go
guests in there as well, but Gilnoid and Pepsi Man and and cool Spot.
Yes you would also get in uh uh Sparkster remember those remember there was
like that was another like failed pseudo mascot And yeah, exactly, that's that's
what I need. That's what we're gonna make, exactly, valvets is possible.
Counterstrike two launched for September twenty seventh. Again, that's a week from
now from Jason Finelli, a game spot. After initially promised a promised as
a free update this summer, the official launch of Counterstrike two, a sequel
to the iconic first First and Shooter, has yet to come to pass unless
they're like, you're someone who just got the update automatically, and that's a
lot of people. If recent social media activity is any indication, though,
that might change as soon as September twenty seventh. Recently, the game's official
Twitter account posted a simple question what are you doing next Wednesday? No other
posts were made, and nothing has been announced by Valve since the post went
up. Counter Strike two was first announced back in March is a free update
to Counterstrike Global Offensive, with all earned items in CSCO carrying over to the
new game. Yeah, this will probably happen. And I've been like really
wanting to check this out, and I party me was like, oh that
that already happened. It's like no, Like there's a lot of people got
in early and now there hasn't been much noise one way or the other since
then. This feels like, yeah, we'll get this September twenty seventh,
and then I will pop in there and check this out. I'm looking forward
to it. Counter Strikes still one of the biggest games in the world,
still has some of the most players in the world, just gigantic. Oh
yeah, yep, yeah, this makes sense, as you say, gonna
happen most likely. Chat is like, wait, didn't we already know what
the release date was? I don't know, did we have? They said
this somewhere. If they have, then fair enough. But it's like I
knew it was supposed to become in this world or this this year, so
but beyond that, I'm not sure if we knew exactly when all right.
Lego's next Mario set for adult collectors is a giant Piranha plant from Chris Scollian
at VGC. Lego has revealed it's next Super Mario set for adult collectors.
I don't know why phrases like that a large ferranha plant. The set was
teased on the official Lego Twitter account with the message wakings soon discover the new
newest Lego Super Mario set emerging from our pipeline. The model shown in the
video is clearly a piranha plant, and the video also features the music that
plays in Super Mario sixty four when you walk past a sleeping piranha plant.
Uh this, this is a weird choice, and yet I like it.
I really have always liked the design of the piranha plant, and this looks
pretty cool. This is amazing. Uh it's so chat is popping off about
eighteen plus content Lego flesh colors see Yakuza developers. Grown ups love Nintendo's right,
Uh yeah, I mean the piranha plant. Now, I will just
always associate with the piranha plantativity that you do in Super Nintendo World. I
know that when y'all went, it was super busy and you probably didn't do
any of the stuff you do with your power up banda who was a junior
fight? So I got to go on then night? Uh yeah, I
went to the opening Night party, which was great because they're you know,
we're not people there, so we could do those games as much as we
wanted. And I played all of them on hard mode, which was amazing
already, it was so fun. Oh my god. But the Piranha plant
one is claw larious. I know that somewhere floating around on fandom. There
is a video of when Bailey and I went to Opening Night and you can
see us running around like absolute maniacs trying to turn off all of the alarm
clocks so the Piranha plant doesn't wake up. And that's just forever what I
will associate. I'm here to build a Piranha plant for my home though.
Percent I love Lego, A love Piranha plants. Let's go, I think,
yeah, I think this actually looks really cool. They did a really
good job on it. Oh my god. And the Sonic the Hedgehog sets,
which I did get a chance to see at Comic Con this year,
Dude, I want them. I definitely want to buy those. They're just
so cute, Like Lego and pixelated video game go hand in hand. Yep.
Absolutely yeah, and it's a good fit and I enjoy I drew the
idea of making them. I still have my Seinfeldt set on the counter over
there that I haven't worked on forever and I need to finish. But yeah,
it might still end up buying some of these, that's the problem.
Yeah, all right, finally here Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven Phantom Liberty review round
up over at Destructoid. Eric Van Allen gave it an eight point five out
of ten, says Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven Phantom Liberty is a great expansion with
a conclusion that easily secures it a spot on CD Project Red's track record for
great expansions. Digital trends. Jesse Lennox gave it a four out of five.
With a strong spy story and performances to match. Phantom Liberty. Get
Phantom Liberty, why can't I say? Liberty gives Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven the
extra chapter it needed, and rock paper Shotguns. Graham Smith didn't give it
a score, but says brilliantly written and performed spy thriller set in the middle
of night city, and of Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven's overarching story. I will
say that most of the praise for this game that has I think right now,
an eighty nine out of ninety or eighty nine or ninety on Metacritic in
that range. Most of the praise is for the story and the acting and
the performances and the visuals. And I've played a little bit of this and
I have to echo all of that. It is. It seems really well
written. I'm into the performances. I'm very into the characters. I'm into
the genre that they're going for, which is political spy thriller. That is
such such my jam. Again, I'm forty years old, so yeah,
give me fucking Tom Clancy bullshit. I guess that's the age I've entered into.
But yeah, all that stuff gets my juices flow in, so I'm
like, yeah, let's get let's check this stuff out. But this still
is not the game that they promised, like, and I don't think at
this point anyone cares about that anymore. And I think it's like, we
understand what Cuerpunk is, so it has a much better shot of satisfying what
people want from at this point. It's not it is not those things that
we saw in the trailers, the reveal trailers from E three and it's not
some superreactive world. It is not going to account for all your decisions.
And the and the two point no update and the and the expansion aren't changing
that. What they're it is making combat way better, making building out your
character way better, making the role playing feel a little bit better, and
then having an awesome story. And it's like that is actually more than good
enough for Cyberpunk at this point. So correct, because I mean, this
is the thing is again, it's the Cyberunk seventy seven is in the long
existing world of Cyberpunk, the tabletop role playing game. And so what I
think Phantom Liberty has done correct lee, which I don't know if that's a
word, but I'm making it one right now. What it's doing right here
is that it is telling a good genre story within the world of Cyberpunk.
Yep. Absolutely, And that's a good thing. That's what they should be
doing, correct. Yeah. I mean that's why Cyberpunk Edge Runners, the
Netflix series, got so much praise, including from the creator of Cyberpunk,
because they were just telling a good story within Cyberpunk's nicety. Yes exactly.
Uh, people are people a CD project. Red is recommending people start a
new a new file to go into this all right, yeah, and no,
no, I'm not gonna you're like, I can't, No way,
absolutely not. No, I'm not gonna like go through the the intro scene
stuff before I get to the DLC, like I've there's so many games to
play. So I loaded up my save right before the end of the game,
and I just drove over the edge of town and went over there,
and I've got all my skill points and I have to like, I have
to respect because the skill system is completely different than what it was. But
whatever, I'll learn how to play the game. Here's my big question.
Is there a flashlight in Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven? Because I have path tracing
turned on and so I only have like the light only comes from the light
sources, and so I'll like walk into like a hallway and there's no light
sources and it's dark as fuck. I can't see anything in this game,
so I can't looking for a flashlight button. I can't find it. So
I don't know. Maybe maybe I'll just keep playing until I get outside.
I don't know if there's a flashlight. I must admit I think I think
there isn't actually that's the thing. I'm with the people in chat congratulating a
CD project read on Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven, finally getting out of early access.
Boy, it does feel like, hey, what if they released that
game this year instead, and this is what they released now it's playable to
me. So yep, exactly, yeah, I'm gonna go install a flashlight
mode, That's what That'll be really cool with Ray Tracy and I would love
that. All right, let's take a look here. I got a pull
question from yesterday. This time that you have it, here we go.
Do you like when celebrities do voices for characters and video games? Twenty nine
percent say yes, thirty four percent say no, and thirty seven percent say
no. But it's fine for things like special skins. And I'm kind of
I waver between those two, but I'm kind of in a bad, bad
taste from Ronda Rowsy and Megan Fox in the recent Mortal Kombat games. They
are those are both poor choices. I think they feel like stunt casting in
a way that is detrimental to video games. I don't know, how do
you feel? I don't know, But then you look at like Norman Retis
in death Stranding. That's sure. You look at knows how to do it,
and you look at Idris Elba in Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven, you look
at John Carlos Posito and far you know, like there's a lot of times
where it's really good. Yeah, and it sounds terrible because everybody I just
named as a man and we're specifically saying and then I'm complaining about Rod as
well herself, but Megan Fox. But respect for Megan Fox. I just
think it was a good respect for Megan Fox. I just don't think she's
a voice actor exactly, you know, like it's a different skill. Yeah,
yeah, it's tough. I think in general, I would prefer they
lean against from celebrities and lean way from celebrities and lean towards voice actors.
That doesn't that's there's no that's just the rule of thumb. You know.
I agree with you from the perspective of voice acting being a different it's all
acting, but there is it's a different skill set to effectively pull off voice
acting where your only tool is your voice and you can't really use your face
to emote. I mean, obviously now they'll like they facial scan for motion
capture and things like that. But yeah, I am also more on the
side of no. Yep. All right, so I got a new poll
question. I'll ask here to second. But in the meantime, am a
one more time? You tell people where they could find you tell people about
the new show again. Hello, I am am A Fife. I am
found all over the internet at my name M A Fife, Twitter, Instagram,
My Twitch channel is m A Fife. I actually have been streaming a
little bit on Twitch lately. I've been playing a little ballers Gate three,
so that's been a great time if you want to show up and you know,
try to seduce some thirsty party members. That's mostly what the game's about,
right, And then also be sure to check out my show over on
the game spot YouTube channel. New episodes drop on Tuesday's. It is called
Reality Check. Go on over, leave me a comment, let me know
what you think. Thank you to everybody that's already been over there. I
know there's definitely been a bunch of giant bomb people leave in loving the comments
and I see you and I really really appreciate it. And remember the show's
motto, go fuck that bear, Yeah, go fuck that bear. All
right, newpol question, let's hear do you want yeah Kuza on switch,
Yes, that would be great, or no, I'd rather play it somewhere
else. We'll get that posted up on YouTube dot com. Slash at Giant
Bomb under the community tab and click the community tab there. It'll take you
to that post, and sometimes we post the schedule up there and all that
stuff. Probably a good idea to follow us on YouTube. All right,
Emma, thank you so much for taking your time to talk with us today,
talk with me today about video games. I really appreciate you. Yes,
thank you, thanks for having me. Always a pleasure, Giant Bomb.
We'll be back with more, everybody. We got voicemail dump truck.
I'm probably gonna play Mortal Combat today, trying to get through more Combat X
as we get trying to continue to the story modes and so I can get
into Mortal Kombat one that will happen. I should finish that today, actually,
now that I think about it, I was pretty close to the ending
last time. Get that and thenbe we'll just hop right into eleven and go
there and play that DEALC and all that stuff. Also, let's see what
else. Oh, the jan busted his but he got the Nintendo Nintendo World
thing, and that the Zendo World thing, the Nintendo Packs thing, the
video of us touring that floor, he got that up on the site and
it's up on YouTube. We could watch our trip there. The best part
is when we see Kirby waddling sideways through one of the aisles so we can
go have a water break and we're just like all flabbergasted at all our jaws
on the floor. It's a really special moment. But everything in that video
is really really great. I'm really happy that Jan we'll be able to capture
most of that magic. So go watch that right now. We'll love more
videos of our trip to Packs here pretty soon as well, and then tomorrow
we'll have upf we're gonna play party animals. Looking forward to it. Kind
of can't wait until then, though. Everybody, have a good one.
You're the best audience in gaming. Take care of yourself and goodbye.