Speaker 1: Welcome back everyone to the Game and Former Show, a
Speaker 1: weekly podcast covering the video game industry. Join us every
Speaker 1: Friday for discussion of the latest gaming news, reviews, and
Speaker 1: exclusive reveals, alongside Game the Former staff and special guests
Speaker 1: from around the industry. I'm one of your hosts today,
Speaker 1: Alex van Aiken, and today I'm joined by Marcus Stewart Heyding.
Speaker 2: Marcus feeling good. I feel like I've finally shaken off
Speaker 2: the jet lag being in in La. The La ness
Speaker 2: has washed off and has been replaced with my normal
Speaker 2: Florida aura. So we're back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's good to have you back in your Florida aura.
Speaker 1: It does have a slightly different smell that that aura,
Speaker 1: but you know.
Speaker 2: It's like faint smell of key line pie. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's a good thing, that's how Yes. We
Speaker 1: are also joined by Brian Shay. Hey.
Speaker 3: Brian, Hey, I am very freshly back from LA. I
Speaker 3: was out there for eleven days, which is like a
Speaker 3: full while after SGF wrapped up. So I am very
Speaker 3: excited to be sleeping in my own bed, very excited
Speaker 3: to be able to catch up on all these games
Speaker 3: that have come out recently because I only litally switched
Speaker 3: to out there with me, so I didn't have a
Speaker 3: whole lot of time for like personal gaming because I
Speaker 3: was too busy playing like games that aren't out yet.
Speaker 3: But yeah, very much excited to talk about our new
Speaker 3: cover story that I wrote.
Speaker 1: Yes you did, and speaking of before we get into
Speaker 1: the show proper, I do just want to show off
Speaker 1: I'm pulling the that noise you're hearing, I'm pulling the
Speaker 1: wrapper off.
Speaker 4: This thing's fresh for me.
Speaker 1: But we are going to be getting into our Halo
Speaker 1: Campaign Evolved cover story a little later on. We are
Speaker 1: We are also going to be covering first the really
Speaker 1: unfortunate news coming out of Xbox this week, but stay
Speaker 1: tuned for later on. We are going to be chatting
Speaker 1: through everything that Brian wrote in this cover story, a
Speaker 1: retrospective that he also did. But yeah, I do want
Speaker 1: to say if you want to support us, the best
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Speaker 3: Posted on socials like share, Yes you found us, because
Speaker 3: we actually to corroborate that this is a worldwide thing.
Speaker 3: Like the only way to get print magazines of Game
Speaker 3: Informer that are not within the United States are these
Speaker 3: news stands. So Eric Van Allen and I were out
Speaker 3: in Warsaw for the Blood of Dawn Walker cover story,
Speaker 3: which is the one that came before Halo campaign evolved,
Speaker 3: and we made it a point to look in all
Speaker 3: these different bookstores to see if we could figure out
Speaker 3: where Game Informer was being sold. We found it in
Speaker 3: multiple bookstores within the Stockholm airport or no, it's the
Speaker 3: Amsterdam airport. I'm sorry, So Amsterdam you can find it
Speaker 3: in the airport at several of their bookstores on the
Speaker 3: magazine wreck So keep your eyes out.
Speaker 1: That's cool.
Speaker 3: You never know where it'll pop up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally. Well, yeah, and I just want to say
Speaker 1: thank you. We were always talking about please go pick
Speaker 1: up the magazine. I mean, it is important to us
Speaker 1: and is truly helpful. I do just want to say
Speaker 1: thank you. If you are a longtime supporter of Game Informer,
Speaker 1: you've been reading and subscribing for years or even months. Ay,
Speaker 1: if this is your first issue you're about to get.
Speaker 1: Thank you for being here, being part of our community
Speaker 1: and helping us keep the lights on. And thank you
Speaker 1: especially to the folks listening to this podcast. You are
Speaker 1: like our core core audience, and you know the fact
Speaker 1: that you show up every week, listen to our stuff,
Speaker 1: read our magazine work, it really means a lot.
Speaker 4: So thank you.
Speaker 1: Like I said at the top, we are going to
Speaker 1: be getting into some unfortunate Xbox news to start our
Speaker 1: show off with. So a lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: news broke earlier this week that Xbox is reportedly eyeing
Speaker 1: several studios to close. Ninja Theory is among those Compulsion
Speaker 1: Games double findals on the list. You know, several of
Speaker 1: those studios also reportedly are trying to figure out if
Speaker 1: they can, you know, negotiate to spin off or find
Speaker 1: a new parent company. You know, I think it kind
Speaker 1: of depends on each of those studios. They're all kind
Speaker 1: of having their own conversations with Xbox still to be
Speaker 1: determined if if Xbox will play ball with that, But
Speaker 1: they've talked about Asha. I think, you know, I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if it's been publicly said. I'm going to actually
Speaker 1: toss it to Marcus here in just a second, who's
Speaker 1: more familiar on like the details of everything. But it
Speaker 1: seems like there's like some sort of like Xbox reset
Speaker 1: happening behind the scenes. I'm not sure if that was
Speaker 1: a public statement or if that was a quote from
Speaker 1: an anonymous source from Bloomberg or game File. Both of
Speaker 1: those are are sources in our news stories. They've been
Speaker 1: breaking a lot of the news. But Marcus, I do
Speaker 1: want to send it over you to kind of give
Speaker 1: us a rundown. I know you have sort of a timeline,
Speaker 1: a rough timeline of like when everything started happening, what's
Speaker 1: been kind of coming out?
Speaker 4: Can you can you fill us in?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I get this really all started last week. It
Speaker 2: was on June eleventh that the message that you alluded
Speaker 2: to from Asha Sharma, and and also Matt Booty, who's
Speaker 2: kind of the what is he to see the.
Speaker 3: Chief Creative Officer c C C.
Speaker 2: So I don't like that acronym, the Chief Creative officer
Speaker 2: of Xbox. They both kind of wrote a joint email
Speaker 2: to the Xbox division that was then publicly published as
Speaker 2: an Xbox blog post, where they laid out plans for
Speaker 2: an Xbox reset that was meant to address sort of
Speaker 2: the what they kind of considered like the years of
Speaker 2: just like I guess, mismanagement or just like mistakes that
Speaker 2: the previous regime led by Phil Spencer sort of set
Speaker 2: them on. And they just detailed like a few steps saying, hey,
Speaker 2: just you know, we've been losing you know, our revenue
Speaker 2: has been declining the last few years. That needs to stop.
Speaker 2: The thing that kind of stuck out the most in
Speaker 2: regards to what is currently happening at the time of
Speaker 2: recording was them mentioning, Hey, you know that acquisition spree
Speaker 2: that we went on the last few years, that's actually
Speaker 2: over extended us, and and yeah, that's kind of one
Speaker 2: of the reasons we're in the position that we're in.
Speaker 2: They did not say straight up like and that's why
Speaker 2: we have to close a bunch of studios, but it
Speaker 2: did make people go uh oh, like the fact that
Speaker 2: they kind of yeah, dedicated that to its own bullet
Speaker 2: point probably doesn't bode well, and there's also been I
Speaker 2: don't believe they also state of this in the email,
Speaker 2: but this is something that did come out from reporting,
Speaker 2: was that there's like heavy implication of that they're planning
Speaker 2: another giant wave of layoffs kind of across the board
Speaker 2: for the Xbox division. That is not it's worth noting
Speaker 2: at the time we're recording, a lot of this stuff
Speaker 2: beyond the public letter has not been officially confirmed by
Speaker 2: Xbox or any of the affected studios, Like right now
Speaker 2: as we're recording, a lot of it is like they've
Speaker 2: kind of kept quiet about it, which makes sense because
Speaker 2: if it's if everything is to be believed, they are
Speaker 2: actively negotiating what they're going to do, so they probably
Speaker 2: wouldn't go out and say like, yeah, yeah, we are
Speaker 2: in trouble. Help. But anyway, So that went out last
Speaker 2: week on Monday, which was what June fifteenth, fifteenth, Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was so. Initially it started with Kataku writing a
Speaker 2: report that Compulsion Game specifically who is the developer of
Speaker 2: South of Midnight as well as A We Happy Few
Speaker 2: and Contrasts, that they were specifically in danger of being
Speaker 2: shut down and that they were allegedly negotiating some sort
Speaker 2: of like, you know, can you just spin us off
Speaker 2: or can we find another buyer? And that also that
Speaker 2: the employees had been given permission to start looking for
Speaker 2: new jobs. Like there were a couple of social posts
Speaker 2: from to writers on South of Midnight that they just said, hey,
Speaker 2: I'm looking for Newark. One of them was the senior
Speaker 2: writer who had won like a BATHHDA and a Peabody
Speaker 2: Award for writing on South of Midnight. Yep, so you know,
Speaker 2: again Compulsion is still yet to say anything, but it
Speaker 2: was it was very much like, well, something's up because
Speaker 2: why you know, I don't know that it was.
Speaker 1: That was good reporting by Rebecca Valentine and Ethan gatch
Speaker 1: Over at at the Taku.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yes, getting that scoop.
Speaker 1: And then like you saw, I don't mean to disrupt
Speaker 1: your timeline. But on top of the you know, we'll
Speaker 1: get to double fine shortly. But like they also made
Speaker 1: like a cryptic, you know, message with an emoji that
Speaker 1: was like the sweating like cry laughing sweating emoji like
Speaker 1: uh oh.
Speaker 3: It's almost like nervous nervous laughter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, nervous emoji. But yeah, back to your timeline, Marcus.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So that after the Kentucky report came out. It
Speaker 2: was Bloomberg that then published a story saying, hey, uh,
Speaker 2: it's not just Compulsion, it's actually several Xbox studios and
Speaker 2: a specifically named Double Fine and Ninja Theory as being
Speaker 2: on the chopping block. And then that's when maybe a
Speaker 2: few hours after that at a Double find since that
Speaker 2: cryptic tweak, they're probably the only studio that has acknowledged
Speaker 2: this in any way. And even then, you know, it's
Speaker 2: it's a very cryptic acknowledgment. But like Ninja Theory and
Speaker 2: Compulsion at the time that were recording, I've not seen
Speaker 2: any like public acknowledgment of what's happening. I've reached out
Speaker 2: to Compulsion back when the Kataka report was the only
Speaker 2: thing going around, just to kind of check in and
Speaker 2: say asking for common They have not gotten back to
Speaker 2: me yet. And also I wonder because Bloomberg's report was
Speaker 2: written by Jason Schreyer, I think one thing that's gotten
Speaker 2: loss is that because those three studios have been named,
Speaker 2: it does say other studios, It's just those are the
Speaker 2: three that we know about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I saw somebody ask Jason Schreier, are
Speaker 3: there do you know of what the other studios are.
Speaker 3: And I think it was Shreier who responded, like, I've
Speaker 3: heard names, but I haven't been able to corroborate them,
Speaker 3: so it would be irresponsible to like share them and
Speaker 3: like potentially create panic, given like the subject matter of it,
Speaker 3: but also that you know that's responsible journalism.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, But I mean, if you look at the
Speaker 2: if you've kept up with xboxes kind of insane roster
Speaker 2: of studios, like there's you know, I don't know if
Speaker 2: I want to even speculate on who it could be,
Speaker 2: but there's a few other studios in there where I
Speaker 2: would be like, wuld shock me if they were on
Speaker 2: that list, just.
Speaker 3: Well, look at the thing that feels even grosser than
Speaker 3: the stuff that we've already covered is that their other report.
Speaker 3: I forget who it was. It was either Steven Tatilo
Speaker 3: with Game File or Jason Tryer with Bloomberg. Maybe it
Speaker 3: was Rebecca at Kotaku. I don't know, but somebody had
Speaker 3: pointed out that with Ninja Theory specifically because you may
Speaker 3: recall if you watch the Xbox showcase, they revealed a
Speaker 3: new Senua game and people were very stoked on that,
Speaker 3: and the report came out that it was basically forced
Speaker 3: to reveal that because they wanted to get that out
Speaker 3: there for potential act quisition, Like they wanted to strum up,
Speaker 3: like drum up some some buzz within the industry in
Speaker 3: hopes that's that would increase the interest from potential buyers,
Speaker 3: which you know, this was at, by the way, the
Speaker 3: Xbox fan Fest that I was in attendance for. So
Speaker 3: it feels gross to leverage the Xbox fan Fest to
Speaker 3: to you know, try and be like, oh, well, somebody
Speaker 3: buy this studio that we just announced a new game
Speaker 3: for so we don't have to shut it down. I
Speaker 3: don't know, just just all of this doesn't sit right
Speaker 3: with me, especially since I also had a conversation with
Speaker 3: Matt Booty that Sunday, So like about a week and
Speaker 3: a half ago, I had a conversation with him and
Speaker 3: I pressed him on things like the closure of the initiative,
Speaker 3: which you know, they were working on a perfect Dark reboot,
Speaker 3: and pressed him on like, you know, what are kind
Speaker 3: of the pros and cons that you've seen from this
Speaker 3: acquisition spree, and he just pivoted to kind of like, oh, well,
Speaker 3: you know, I look at all the ip that we
Speaker 3: own and like that is just amazing, how many you know,
Speaker 3: how many I have sold X million number of units?
Speaker 3: But he never got around to what the cons of
Speaker 3: that were, and even when I mentioned like layoffs, like
Speaker 3: it was just kind of like this evasive response. And
Speaker 3: then literally less than a week later, I think it
Speaker 3: was like three days later is when all this news
Speaker 3: started breaking and you know that letter that he and
Speaker 3: Asha had co sent out to everyone, it was it
Speaker 3: was just like, man like, it was just it just
Speaker 3: felt kind of you know, I know, he couldn't go
Speaker 3: into it that much, but like when I asked specifically
Speaker 3: about that type of stuff and like the over extension,
Speaker 3: it just it felt kind of like, you know, disingenuous
Speaker 3: executive speak in a lot of ways. And it turns
Speaker 3: out it was.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and and to credit the report that you mentioned,
Speaker 2: that was actually a Steven Ttello Okay writing for a
Speaker 2: game file is a new letter about the the Sonua
Speaker 2: story specifically, which again we have not you know, that
Speaker 2: was per an anonymous source that to Tello had, so
Speaker 2: we again we don't know for sure, but thats been
Speaker 2: making the rounds. Yeah, I mean it it's it's it's
Speaker 2: wild right, And it's kind of what I think a
Speaker 2: lot of us kind of had, or we're afraid of,
Speaker 2: kind of in the back of our mind when they
Speaker 2: first started buying up these studios left and right. Like
Speaker 2: I feel like Vinnie Caravello over at Next Lander, I
Speaker 2: feel like he always had a He articulated the worry
Speaker 2: the most whenever this came up in conversation, where you
Speaker 2: always talked about how he was just so afraid of,
Speaker 2: like when we have so much under one umbrella, like
Speaker 2: so many studios under one umbrella, Like if something happens
Speaker 2: with the ship, all of those passengers go down with it,
Speaker 2: and it's just like it gets scarier with the more
Speaker 2: studios that they buy, because that's like another like again,
Speaker 2: if they hit an iceberg and they have to bail out,
Speaker 2: it's gonna be those studios. So it's it's like always
Speaker 2: made him like uncomfortable every time he bought another studio,
Speaker 2: And I've always kind of had that fear too, So
Speaker 2: to kind of see it being realized, on one hand,
Speaker 2: it's not entirely surprising, but it's still just like, oh geez,
Speaker 2: And it's like the studios that would probably be the
Speaker 2: most in danger are the ones that are more the
Speaker 2: prestige studios and not like like like Double Finds probably
Speaker 2: like the prime example of like you buy Double find
Speaker 2: for the prestige of their games. You do not buy
Speaker 2: them because you expect them to ship a game that's
Speaker 2: gonna sell one hundred million copies. Because that's just never
Speaker 2: been That's just not the kind of stuff that they make, right,
Speaker 2: And to suddenly expect that out of them is insane,
Speaker 2: Like why would you be surprised if their games are like, oh,
Speaker 2: they're great for reviews, but they're terrible for your your
Speaker 2: balance sheet generally. So it's it's.
Speaker 3: It's I think the hope that they had was like, Okay,
Speaker 3: well we have you know, Treyarch that can make Call
Speaker 3: of Duty, and we have Halo studios that presumably will
Speaker 3: sell very well when they put out the next Halo game.
Speaker 2: And we have Bethesda.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Bethesda, that's you know, whatever the Elder Scroll six
Speaker 3: comes out, it's gonna sell a bajillion copies presumably. And
Speaker 3: the hope I think that they probably had was like,
Speaker 3: that'll balance out these kind of like more prolific but
Speaker 3: not as profitable, like kind of art house studios that
Speaker 3: put out these smaller games. They don't take like, you know,
Speaker 3: fifteen years to make their next title. They're able to
Speaker 3: put out these games like in some cases multiple games
Speaker 3: a year, like Obsidian right where it's like you just
Speaker 3: get several games a year from some of these studios.
Speaker 3: They're not like selling like gangbusters in most cases. But
Speaker 3: like the hope is that when these giant tent pole
Speaker 3: franchises like the Halos, like the Gears, like the Elder
Speaker 3: Scrolls and the Fallouts and the Call of Duties, when
Speaker 3: those come out, they kind of you know, the the
Speaker 3: Rising Tide lifts all ships, right, that's the hope. But
Speaker 3: they just haven't gotten a lot of those those kind
Speaker 3: of major tent pole releases like Elder Scroll six has
Speaker 3: been in development forever, and the same thing for like,
Speaker 3: you know, the Halo franchise. We got Infinite It didn't
Speaker 3: do as well as I think Xbox hoped, but like
Speaker 3: we're getting a new Halo game, but it's just like
Speaker 3: a you know, it's a remake. It's it's not necessarily
Speaker 3: the next like like major innovation in the franchise. As
Speaker 3: positive as we are on it, we are going to
Speaker 3: talk about that later on in the show. But like
Speaker 3: they a lot of their major franchises have been absent,
Speaker 3: aside from something like Call of Duty, which continues to
Speaker 3: turn out the annualized entries. And I would say that,
Speaker 3: you know, Call of Duty, as popular as it still is,
Speaker 3: doesn't have kind of the excitement and the fervor surrounding
Speaker 3: it that it once did back when, like you know,
Speaker 3: the original modern warfare games were coming out, where it
Speaker 3: was like, okay, Call of Duty. Modern Warfare is like
Speaker 3: the pinnacle of gaming back then. Now it's just like,
Speaker 3: oh yeah, there's another Call of Duty. Obviously, there's like
Speaker 3: a very dedicated player base to that franchise, and they
Speaker 3: love jumping on for war Zone or comp multiplayer and
Speaker 3: all that stuff. But all of these these confluence of
Speaker 3: events where you know, some games, some franchises just have
Speaker 3: been absent for over a decade at this point. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's been how long since we've got I mean, Skyrim
Speaker 3: came out in twenty eleven and we've just kind of
Speaker 3: been living off of ports of that game for an
Speaker 3: Elder Scrolls Online for you know, twenty or fifteen years now,
Speaker 3: and then you know, Fallout. We've just had seventy six
Speaker 3: and then remasters of Fallout four, but like, I mean,
Speaker 3: they haven't had those tent pole franchises to fully booy
Speaker 3: those more kind of like art house slash, independent facing
Speaker 3: studios that just don't make the money that they the
Speaker 3: other ones do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like Ninja theory, Like Ninja Theory is
Speaker 2: probably the one I'm the most sort of like, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I guess it makes sense because to your point about
Speaker 2: them taking forever to put out even the games that
Speaker 2: are guaranteed to make money, they took forever to put
Speaker 2: out that help late sequel like that was in development
Speaker 2: for years and years and years, like that was an
Speaker 2: wasn't it announced before the Xbox series X or it
Speaker 2: was like at the announcement.
Speaker 3: For it was alongside it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then it only came out what like two
Speaker 2: years ago, and that just felt like, looking back, that
Speaker 2: was probably a lot of time and money for something
Speaker 2: that I don't know how well that game sold, but
Speaker 2: I I would wager to guess it didn't like make
Speaker 2: Call of Duty money or anything like that. So it's like, oh,
Speaker 2: we gave them this long leash to make their artsy
Speaker 2: game that you know, Wow, Like was it worth how
Speaker 2: much time? That we kind of allowed them to have,
Speaker 2: and do we want to do that again? I mean,
Speaker 2: Sunwa's coming out next year. I mean, you know, on paper,
Speaker 2: we'll see what happens. But yeah, I just it just
Speaker 2: seems like ever since they bought Act Division specifically, that's
Speaker 2: when because how much money was that It was like
Speaker 2: the largest acquisition, like not even in video games. Wasn't
Speaker 2: it like ever it.
Speaker 1: Was dollar right?
Speaker 4: Yeah it was Yeah.
Speaker 1: Was it like was it like eighty billion or something?
Speaker 3: Seventy five point four billion dollars?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, Like they spent all all that money buying Activision,
Speaker 2: And I think that like that felt like the moment
Speaker 2: where like the eye of like broader Microsoft turned its
Speaker 2: gaze towards the Xbox and was like, whoa, what do
Speaker 2: we what are we spending? How much are we spending
Speaker 2: on this? And maybe began to scrutinize them more than
Speaker 2: they had before because that is a lot of money
Speaker 2: and like, well, how are we going to make that?
Speaker 2: How are we going to justify that investment? And then
Speaker 2: it what have they gotten out of it so far?
Speaker 2: I mean you know it's like did they and we
Speaker 2: were saying that at the time, like do they need
Speaker 2: Activision Like that seems like a bit much to me.
Speaker 2: That felt like the moment where they felt like they
Speaker 2: had actually overextended themselves.
Speaker 3: Right, oh, like definitely, and then put out that whole
Speaker 3: like trailer where it was like announcing it and it
Speaker 3: had like the war of Warcraft orcs coming out and
Speaker 3: being like home and then family, and then like immediately
Speaker 3: proceeded to lay off a bunch of them, Like I
Speaker 3: think it was like less than a year later, they
Speaker 3: had sweeping layoffs of like several people at Activision and Blizzard.
Speaker 3: It was like this was a year ago. They're you know,
Speaker 3: saying welcome home to Xbox and your family now, and
Speaker 3: it's like.
Speaker 2: And then he also said like everything's gonna be more
Speaker 2: or less the same, which is always like that literally
Speaker 2: can't be true because it's not the same.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, it also makes me specific with Activision,
Speaker 1: makes me curious, like what's up with the the like
Speaker 1: new Triple A game that Elsewhere Entertainment's working on that
Speaker 1: was their new Poland studio. I I kind of want
Speaker 1: to look into that more. They're they're also like I've
Speaker 1: I've heard through the grape vine of some other projects
Speaker 1: under activision that are like exciting and new and some
Speaker 1: you know bringing back some older franchises, And I'm very
Speaker 1: curious like if that stuff is a lot of that
Speaker 1: stuff is like pre pro so it's like is that
Speaker 1: getting acts, Like where does that stuff stand? I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's it's really unfortunate, I think. I think, especially like
Speaker 1: the the Ninja theory stuff just really rubs me the
Speaker 1: wrong way, Like having having Senua in the showcase. Just
Speaker 1: two weeks ago, Jess cogs will over a game spot
Speaker 1: had a threat on Blue Sky kind of just like uh,
Speaker 1: speaking to the like conflicting nature of like these layoffs
Speaker 1: happen while you know, Xbox is throwing these like big
Speaker 1: lavish industry parties to like kind of impress the press
Speaker 1: and creators and stuff, and then behind the scenes it's like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: everybody's losing their jobs. It's just like it just doesn't
Speaker 1: doesn't look good, doesn't feel good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like I'm terrified for those three studios well because
Speaker 2: like I don't want to see people lose their jobs.
Speaker 2: But also like just personally speaking, I love all three
Speaker 2: of those studios, like yes, generally, and.
Speaker 1: I also like one of my favorite studios of all time,
Speaker 1: like they are, Yeah, I think everybody. I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people feel that way about Double Fine and
Speaker 1: I think I hope they're you know, Ninja Ninja. I
Speaker 1: was gonna say Double Finds Peedic. Ninja Theory also has
Speaker 1: a pedigree like like these are known studios that have
Speaker 1: a reputation and have you know, dedicated followings. You know,
Speaker 1: people buy new Ninja Theory games. They buy new Double
Speaker 1: find games, even if you know the game itself isn't
Speaker 1: necessarily fully up their alley. Like I checked out every
Speaker 1: Double Fine game.
Speaker 2: You know, Ninja Theory made arguably the best Double may
Speaker 2: Cry and I will stand on that hill as a
Speaker 2: Double May Cry fan DMC.
Speaker 1: And I mean I'm not giving Compulsion Games the flowers
Speaker 1: it deserves. I mean I remember playing like we Happy
Speaker 1: few back back when that came out, and yeah, I
Speaker 1: thought it was a really interesting concept. And then of
Speaker 1: course we've talked about it from the top. South of
Speaker 1: Midnight came out, when people want pea bodies for it,
Speaker 1: I mean, it was just a really it was very reviewed,
Speaker 1: very well here at Game Informer, really creative new ip
Speaker 1: that like unfortunately was like the brunt of dumb like
Speaker 1: a and sless you know, online culture war because it
Speaker 1: started a black woman as a protagonist, like silly stuff
Speaker 1: like that kind of you know, it brushed up against
Speaker 1: that stuff, but I think the work stood on its
Speaker 1: own and like it's a really great game with like
Speaker 1: a very interesting and new concept, and it's a shame
Speaker 1: that like, you know, they're the ones, you know, the
Speaker 1: ones putting out new interesting things, are.
Speaker 4: The ones that are kind of.
Speaker 1: You know, being eyed as far as we know, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm sure others are as well.
Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, I don't know what happens because either
Speaker 2: they get shut down out right, which also, like one
Speaker 2: thing I forgot to mention in our timeline is that
Speaker 2: the verge On like reported based on their own source,
Speaker 2: that Nija theory has already been shut down and that
Speaker 2: they're actively looking for a buyer. So it's like it's
Speaker 2: like a weird thing of like shut down in the
Speaker 2: sense of like Microsoft as more or less said, we're done,
Speaker 2: but also leaderships looking around for someone to like them up. Again,
Speaker 2: none of this has been verified, but that's per their
Speaker 2: own source, so it's kind of like they're probably more
Speaker 2: than anyone else. Their status has kind of been more
Speaker 2: influx of like, so way are they even like do
Speaker 2: they even exist as we're speaking, like in a in
Speaker 2: a real sense or are they in like a weird
Speaker 2: limbo right now of like in between homes because it's
Speaker 2: I don't know how many of them could afford to
Speaker 2: just be wholly independent again, because the idea of trying
Speaker 2: to find a buyer in this market sounds insane when
Speaker 2: so much video game funding has dried up. And again,
Speaker 2: these aren't studios that are known for like bringing in
Speaker 2: like hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars with their releases.
Speaker 2: So who would with the limited amount of funding out
Speaker 2: there anyway, who would buy a double fine or a
Speaker 2: compulsion right now?
Speaker 1: Maybe like an Annapurna or a although that might be
Speaker 1: that might be a little pricey for them.
Speaker 2: Even because embracers, they're done embracing people.
Speaker 3: Same thing, but I would say for Crafton, same thing
Speaker 3: for net Ease, Like all these studios or all these
Speaker 3: these publishers have dialed back their spending dramatically. I mean,
Speaker 3: that's what happened with the developers behind Hi Fi, Rush,
Speaker 3: shoot Craft and Scoop them Tango Game Works. Yeah, they
Speaker 3: they were scooped up by Krafton after Xbox closed them
Speaker 3: down immediately following a critically acclaimed game called Hi Fi Rush,
Speaker 3: And now they're about to do the same thing with Compulsion.
Speaker 3: It sounds like and it's just like, it's insane that
Speaker 3: we can't like this is the main problem with the
Speaker 3: corporatization of an arc style art or an art style
Speaker 3: and art form, right, like it it can't just be
Speaker 3: something artistic, like you can create an award winning game,
Speaker 3: but if it doesn't make the profits go up, then
Speaker 3: you get shut down.
Speaker 2: And yeah, or if it does well like it was like, oh,
Speaker 2: by most people's measures, it does well, but it's not
Speaker 2: some insane number that you were like, well it needs
Speaker 2: to hit this even though it's like it's still fine, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, and.
Speaker 3: You could still turn a profit. But if the forecasters
Speaker 3: thought it should do better and it doesn't, then.
Speaker 2: Why isn't a fortnite.
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's that's a whole other conversation with all the
Speaker 3: live service shutdowns that we've seen in recent years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, or this year or this year alone, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: so yeah, a lot of uncertainty right now. Like I
Speaker 2: said at the time of recording, none of this has
Speaker 2: been like verified, there's no been enough official announcements of
Speaker 2: so and so being shut down. Our xbox is not
Speaker 2: put out into anything saying here, hey, here's what's happening.
Speaker 2: I think the word on the street and again I
Speaker 2: saw it somewhere at you know, so maybe don't quote
Speaker 2: me on this, but the word on the street is
Speaker 2: that by the end of the month something will be announced,
Speaker 2: like there will be.
Speaker 4: A because July is when they're you know, their new quarter.
Speaker 1: That's like, I think that's the theory or that's like
Speaker 1: the the reasoning behind that. That is, like a new
Speaker 1: quarter will turn over and they want to have all
Speaker 1: that locked in before the new one begins.
Speaker 2: So we might have to wait till like June thirtieth,
Speaker 2: which is seems a long time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, especially for the people at these studios waiting to
Speaker 1: find out the fate of their jobs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and a lot of them have been again reportedly
Speaker 2: given permission to start looking for new work now across
Speaker 2: the board.
Speaker 3: To be fair, though, you never need permission to look
Speaker 3: for a new job.
Speaker 2: Let's know, let's be yeah, that's just what's going around
Speaker 2: is that apparently like everyone has been made aware of
Speaker 2: like you're not closed, but you might be. But you know,
Speaker 2: if you don't want to wait to see where what happens,
Speaker 2: you can go look. But yeah, to your point, Brian,
Speaker 2: I don't know what how they could enforce that if
Speaker 2: they weren't doing that on the on their round.
Speaker 3: Like I mean, there were times in the previous era
Speaker 3: of Game Informer where we were hit with a giant
Speaker 3: layoff and I put out on social media that like, hey,
Speaker 3: I might need something new soon hit holla at your
Speaker 3: boy and.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I appreciate my own private company is.
Speaker 1: Marcus.
Speaker 4: A huge lawsuit breaks out because.
Speaker 2: Of I started getting a bunch of applications for a
Speaker 2: vague job that I've not described at all. That is
Speaker 2: not real.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you get hit with a non compete like, uh break.
Speaker 2: Marcus Industries killed before it began.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, let's wrap our conversation on the Xbox Studio
Speaker 1: News here. We'll take a quick break, we'll come back,
Speaker 1: we'll talk to our Halo cover story, and then I
Speaker 1: want to talk about a little indie hide and seek
Speaker 1: game with a paintbrush called Mecha Chameleon. It's really cool.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back right after this. Look, we've all
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Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Game and Former show. Everyone, it
Speaker 1: is time to dive into our Halo cover story. Halo
Speaker 1: Campaign Evolved, written by one Brian Shay. Here, Brian, do
Speaker 1: you want to kind of run us through the top?
Speaker 1: What we kind of got to look at? Obviously? You
Speaker 1: and I played the three new campaign missions, which I
Speaker 1: thought were really good. Actually I was when I think
Speaker 1: I had written them off in my head as like,
Speaker 1: you know, just going to be some bonus content to
Speaker 1: like be the back of a box, you know, marketing point.
Speaker 4: And then we played the missions.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, no, these are actually very good
Speaker 1: Halo missions, and I was actually impressed. But do you
Speaker 1: kind of want to run us through?
Speaker 4: Obviously?
Speaker 1: You and I we flew out to Redmond or Bellevue,
Speaker 1: you know the Seattle area. It was Redmond, Redmond, they
Speaker 1: all they're all the same town to me. And we
Speaker 1: went to Halo Studios and yeah, I'll let you take
Speaker 1: it over.
Speaker 4: Take it over from there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Brian, can I can I lead you in with
Speaker 2: my rendition of the Halo theme real quick?
Speaker 3: I was hoping you would.
Speaker 5: Okay, it's a little because a little something like this,
Speaker 5: Oh that's Haylor, right, that's what Halo sounds.
Speaker 3: So that or the Hymn of the Faith from Final
Speaker 3: Fantasy X, they're basically the same game.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was a very good Garrett chance.
Speaker 2: They did come out the same year, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 3: Yeah they did.
Speaker 2: You're onto something.
Speaker 3: Hey maybe they were both into Gregorian chants for some reason.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean, I do want to acknowledge the
Speaker 3: fact that we are going from a very jarring transition
Speaker 3: of you know, talking very negatively about Xbox as a
Speaker 3: platform and Microsoft and the moves that they are making
Speaker 3: to you know, this celebration of the cover. I think
Speaker 3: that the way I look at it is it is
Speaker 3: very hard to be excited about Xbox in this this
Speaker 3: exact moment. However, there are a lot of people under
Speaker 3: that umbrella that are doing very cool work, Like I
Speaker 3: don't think I would be like upset about, like you know,
Speaker 3: covering a double fine game, because people there are working
Speaker 3: very hard to put out very cool stuff. And I
Speaker 3: think that everybody on this call has, you know, looked
Speaker 3: at the news in horror at something that a previous
Speaker 3: parent company was doing and been like, oh God, I
Speaker 3: hope that doesn't reflect on me, And so I can
Speaker 3: sympathize with that, but also acknowledging that, yes, like Xbox
Speaker 3: as a company right now, it's a very complicated time
Speaker 3: for that company, and obviously Halo is the flagship franchise
Speaker 3: of Xbox, so it was a very complicated time to
Speaker 3: reveal this cover. But this has been months in the making.
Speaker 1: We were out we went out there what May.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like mid May. We were out in Halo studios.
Speaker 3: So while there are complications surrounding it, we are very
Speaker 3: excited about Halo campaign evolved. All the folks we talked
Speaker 3: at it, talked talked to at Halo Studios were very
Speaker 3: passionate about their work they're doing, and from everything we
Speaker 3: played and everything we saw, it it really seems like
Speaker 3: they're doing a great job. So just wanted to get
Speaker 3: that out there that we acknowledge that there are complexities
Speaker 3: about the timing of this cover story, but the project
Speaker 3: itself and the team that is working directly on this
Speaker 3: game seems very passionate. So with that prologue and that
Speaker 3: that preamble out of the way, yeah, we flew out
Speaker 3: to Halo Studios. We spent a full day in the studios,
Speaker 3: my second time visiting Halo Studios. Actually, I actually went
Speaker 3: out to Halo Studios in a Tober of last year
Speaker 3: for the pre reveal hands on event that they had
Speaker 3: with a bunch of like influencers and media people. We
Speaker 3: got to play Silent Cartographer back then, which Alex, you
Speaker 3: had a chance to play this time. So in addition
Speaker 3: to that, we've now played the three bonus missions, which
Speaker 3: is front to end of this three mission arc, and
Speaker 3: I think we came away very impressed, Like the new
Speaker 3: visuals are stunning, Like for people who are unaware, this
Speaker 3: is a full from the ground remake of Halo Combat
Speaker 3: Evolve to celebrate the twenty fifth anniversary of the Halo franchise.
Speaker 3: And you know, Halo was this franchise that really revolutionized
Speaker 3: what a shooting game could be on consoles. You know,
Speaker 3: I think that in the nineties it was the proliferation
Speaker 3: of the first person shooter franchise was largely isolated to
Speaker 3: the PC platform. We got GoldenEye, we got Perfect Dark,
Speaker 3: and I believe that was two thousand, but it was
Speaker 3: like I Quite Quakes, Unreal Doom, Wolfenstein, they were all
Speaker 3: quarantined on the PC, and I think a lot of
Speaker 3: PC players looked at Golden Eye they said, oh, okay,
Speaker 3: that looks cool, but like that's cute, Like we'll be
Speaker 3: over here playing the real shooters, right. Halo was the
Speaker 3: first one that really made everybody like take notice of like,
Speaker 3: oh okay, yeah, consoles shooters can be as good as
Speaker 3: a PC shooter and like they can actually, you know,
Speaker 3: do incredible stuff on the console. And you know, this
Speaker 3: is the game that that trailblaze that And now, to
Speaker 3: celebrate the twenty fifth anniversary, Halo Studios is rebuilding this
Speaker 3: game from the ground up. Now from what we've seen,
Speaker 3: it's a quite faithful remake, but all new visuals running
Speaker 3: an Unreal engine five. You know, the they told us
Speaker 3: that the the engine the original Halo Engine is running
Speaker 3: very deep in like underneath all these layers to try
Speaker 3: to maintain the feel of Halo Combat Evolved in Halo
Speaker 3: Campaign Evolve. But it's not to the level that it
Speaker 3: was with Combat Evolved Anniversary, where it's like you could
Speaker 3: push a button and it would switch between the two
Speaker 3: art styles. That is not the option here because they've
Speaker 3: actually reworked various parts of it. Like they've done things
Speaker 3: like quality of life, like adding aiming down the sites
Speaker 3: like ADS is in this, which you couldn't really do
Speaker 3: in Combat Evolved. There were certain weapons that you could
Speaker 3: zoom in a little bit, but like it was very
Speaker 3: much like you know, ADS was not really a big
Speaker 3: component of Halo Combat Evolved. Same thing for sprint. You
Speaker 3: can now sprint in Halo Campaign Evolve. There's also you know,
Speaker 3: they've made some of the arenas just a little bit
Speaker 3: wider to give you a little bit more space. They've
Speaker 3: made it so there's a lot more detail in some
Speaker 3: of the all the environments. But like in some things
Speaker 3: in particular like Silent Cartographer, they wanted to make that
Speaker 3: storming of the beach feel as epic as it did
Speaker 3: back in the day. But because like when you look
Speaker 3: at it now, it's like, oh, there's just a few
Speaker 3: enemies on the beach and that's it. Now they've made
Speaker 3: it so like it feels a lot more. Yeah, it's
Speaker 3: a lot more in line with what you would expect
Speaker 3: from a game in twenty twenty six. So there are
Speaker 3: modifications here and there, but generally, in talking to the teams,
Speaker 3: they were trying to capture the feel and the vibe
Speaker 3: of the original game and the intent. We hear about
Speaker 3: this with like the Star Wars, like the remasters of
Speaker 3: the original trilogy, where it's like, oh, this is what
Speaker 3: George Lucas intended, he just didn't have the technology to
Speaker 3: do it now. Obviously, the remasters of the Star Wars
Speaker 3: original trilogy are very contentious in that way. I think
Speaker 3: this is going to be a lot less contentious because
Speaker 3: the changes and the upgrades made seem universally net positive, right, Like,
Speaker 3: I did not see anything where I'm like, oh, I
Speaker 3: don't know about that.
Speaker 2: There's no sequence Mar's screening, no, yeah, And there's.
Speaker 3: There's not a real weird looking creature at Java's Palace
Speaker 3: singing with Terrible CGI in the Final Entry Return of
Speaker 3: the Jedi. So you don't have that level of like
Speaker 3: this is jarring, this is weird. There are new cut scenes,
Speaker 3: there are you know, re recorded voice lines. They had
Speaker 3: the principal cast of Steve Downs as Master Chief, Jen
Speaker 3: Taylor as Qurtana come back in and re record all
Speaker 3: of their lines, and I actually talked with them. I
Speaker 3: have a very long conversation that I think we plan
Speaker 3: on publishing the video version of in the coming weeks,
Speaker 3: so look forward to that. But like you know, they
Speaker 3: were kind of like, yeah, this is intimidating, Like we
Speaker 3: have like twenty five years of knowledge with these characters,
Speaker 3: and like Steve Downs was like I expected to never
Speaker 3: hear about this game ever again. Once I like recorded
Speaker 3: combat evolved, and he's like, one day I was at
Speaker 3: a friend's brother's house, like we were just visiting, I
Speaker 3: think it was in Florida, and I saw this. They
Speaker 3: were playing Xbox. All the neighborhood kids were gathered around
Speaker 3: playing Xbox and he looked at and he's like something
Speaker 3: jogged my memory. And I'm like, I think I voiced
Speaker 3: a character in this game. And they're like, ohh And
Speaker 3: he's like I think it was the main guy, and
Speaker 3: they're like Master Chief he's like, yeah, that's the guy,
Speaker 3: and he's like yeah. Within twenty minutes, like all the
Speaker 3: neighborhood kids had run home to their houses and grabbed
Speaker 3: their copies of Halo to have him sign it. And
Speaker 3: that was when he was like, oh, this might actually
Speaker 3: be something that sticks with me for a little while.
Speaker 2: I remember that was there for that I was in Florida.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, a moment for me. Yeah, you'll have it.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it was a you know, it looks like
Speaker 3: they're doing all the right things, like all the gameplay
Speaker 3: feels phenomenal, Like this is like when you hear of
Speaker 3: like Okay, they're remaking this iconic game, you always worry like,
Speaker 3: oh man, how are they going to change it? Like
Speaker 3: even like I love the Final Fantasy seven remake trilogy,
Speaker 3: like I think that it is. I like it more
Speaker 3: than the original Final Fantasy seven at this point. Like,
Speaker 3: even as as iconic and beloved as that original game is,
Speaker 3: I think it's my preferred way of playing at this point.
Speaker 3: But every time I'm publishing articles about like oh, here's
Speaker 3: what you know, what we got out of our interview
Speaker 3: about Final Fantasy seven Revelation, there are comments that are
Speaker 3: like Oh, he's going to ruin it again, just like
Speaker 3: he ruined the last two. And I'm like, I don't
Speaker 3: get that sense at all. And I understand people are
Speaker 3: afraid of change in a lot of ways, but like that,
Speaker 3: I don't get that sense with remake trilogy whatsoever. Like
Speaker 3: I love everything they've done with that. This feels like
Speaker 3: it is the like as uncontroversial of a remake as
Speaker 3: could be. Like this is like, yeah, everything just looks
Speaker 3: absolutely gorgeous. They're not changing the whole bunch of stuff,
Speaker 3: They're not changing the story. All they're doing is just
Speaker 3: like basically modernizing every single component of this, retelling the
Speaker 3: same story that you know, and then also adding those
Speaker 3: bonus missions, which I guess could be the sole controversial
Speaker 3: element of the I guess the remake packages as in
Speaker 3: terms of like adding new content.
Speaker 1: Or I'm like, the new missions are the only reason
Speaker 1: I'm interested in a campaign evolved because you know, new
Speaker 1: graphics are shiny and all that, and that's cool, But like,
Speaker 1: I played this campaign so many times, but I found
Speaker 1: like the missions that we played, you know, centered around
Speaker 1: Chief and Johnson, and there's some new characters, well characters
Speaker 1: as well introduced you can actually see them. I saw
Speaker 1: people online asking about the magazine cover art.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately that spot some new characters. Yeah, that's the one
Speaker 3: thing we're not allowed to talk about. That and the
Speaker 3: end of the bonus missions, everything else they gave us
Speaker 3: free rein to talk about. But I was still very
Speaker 3: sensitive to spoilers and that stuff because I don't want
Speaker 3: to go out there and just give the beat by
Speaker 3: beat here's how the story plays out. I did that
Speaker 3: a little bit for the first mission, and then after
Speaker 3: that when you read the cover story or I posted
Speaker 3: the impressions actually on game Informer dot com, Like the
Speaker 3: full impressions that I included in the cover story, I
Speaker 3: posted as a standalone article on Game Informer dot com
Speaker 3: if you want to go check that out. But you
Speaker 3: will notice that I got very vague and like high
Speaker 3: level when I got to the mission, like the second
Speaker 3: and third mission, because.
Speaker 1: And it's a shame, because the second mission was my favorite.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's so cool, but I just don't want to
Speaker 3: spoil it because I think that it's so cool that
Speaker 3: I want people to be able to experience the story
Speaker 3: for themselves, not just me telling you, oh, here's all
Speaker 3: the story beats and you know, now you have no
Speaker 3: reason to really play it's.
Speaker 2: Not the ending. Can you play those new missions like
Speaker 2: without playing the like you don't have to play the campaign,
Speaker 2: the original campaign to unlock those are those new missions
Speaker 2: available from it.
Speaker 3: I think they're available from the start. They even told
Speaker 3: us though that they recommend people play them even though
Speaker 3: they take place I almost at one hundred, one year
Speaker 3: before the events of Combat Evolved. Even though they take
Speaker 3: place before the Events of Combat Evolved, they recommend you
Speaker 3: play Combat Evolved first because the newer missions are actually
Speaker 3: they consider them more difficult than the majority of the
Speaker 3: main campaign, which you know, there were some definite spots
Speaker 3: where I was like, oh, this is pretty tricky, Like
Speaker 3: there's they send lots of waves of enemies at you
Speaker 3: in these missions, and some of them are not in
Speaker 3: Combat Evolved, like we can talk about like the brutes
Speaker 3: are in these missions. And you know, there's different elite
Speaker 3: classes that you don't see in Combat Evolve that pop
Speaker 3: up in these bonus missions. And then of course there's
Speaker 3: the inclusion of the profit that you don't really see
Speaker 3: until Halo two that is in this So it really
Speaker 3: makes the world feel a little bit more alive. It's
Speaker 3: not just like, oh, we got to Halo two and
Speaker 3: now suddenly there's all these new characters that which is
Speaker 3: you know, kind of how it happened in terms of development.
Speaker 3: But like now that we can look back in the
Speaker 3: timeline and see that, oh, the brutes have always been here,
Speaker 3: it's just that they weren't involved specifically in the events
Speaker 3: of Combat Evolved, it makes it feel a lot more
Speaker 3: of like a this is a fleshed out universe. It's
Speaker 3: not just one that is building as the developers come
Speaker 3: up with new elements of how they can spice up
Speaker 3: gameplay in the next entry. So I do like that
Speaker 3: about it. The story is very fun. It focuses on
Speaker 3: Chief and Johnson, which you know if this is the
Speaker 3: point that the Halo Studios guys made as well. They
Speaker 3: were like, you know, if you actually go back and
Speaker 3: pay attention to the story of Combat Evolved, yeah, you
Speaker 3: get some Johnson, but it's not the full character that
Speaker 3: we later see in two and three. Like, so they
Speaker 3: wanted to have an excuse to flesh out more the
Speaker 3: relationship between Chief and Johnson, and they definitely do that,
Speaker 3: like they're kind of cracking jokes at each other. The
Speaker 3: dynamic is amazing. They also, you know, drop little easter eggs,
Speaker 3: like because it takes place a year before the events
Speaker 3: of combat evolved before Chief met Courtana, but they make
Speaker 3: little references like, you know, Chief is or Johnson is
Speaker 3: the one who has to open the doors, but he
Speaker 3: has to do him manually because he doesn't there's no
Speaker 3: Ai in there. So Chief even makes like a remarkable
Speaker 3: like can't this go any faster? And Chief Johnson goes, well,
Speaker 3: until we find out a way to cram an Ai
Speaker 3: into your suit, this is the best we got, and
Speaker 3: it's like, ah, okay, yeah, that's a nod towards Kurtana
Speaker 3: coming in a year. But little things like that also
Speaker 3: things that reference like the novels, And that makes sense
Speaker 3: because these bonus missions were written with the consultation of
Speaker 3: one of the novelists of the franchise or of the
Speaker 3: I'm trying to find the name of it here, but yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean it was a very fun story to follow, okay.
Speaker 3: Jeff Easterling is the main senior franchise story lead. He
Speaker 3: also headed up the story of this. But then Troy Denning,
Speaker 3: who has written multiple Halo novels, was a contributing writer
Speaker 3: and also consulted on kind of the lore of it
Speaker 3: and everything, so that it feels very true to the franchise.
Speaker 3: It feels very you know, steeped in the greater lore,
Speaker 3: not just with Combat Evolved, but just like the franchise
Speaker 3: as a whole, even going into kind of like a
Speaker 3: little bit of the extended universe stuff. So that was
Speaker 3: that was a cool nod. And then it ends this
Speaker 3: is a spoiler, but they've included it in their their
Speaker 3: media stuff ends in space combat, which is something that
Speaker 3: we haven't seen in Halo in a little bit. So
Speaker 3: that was cool to get to hop into a spaceship
Speaker 3: and fly out and and take on like a couple
Speaker 3: of space dog fights.
Speaker 2: Ye can't you do a barrel roll? I don't think so.
Speaker 4: You can.
Speaker 1: You can kind of go up and backwards.
Speaker 4: Not quite a barrel roll though.
Speaker 2: It was kind of like controlling the Banshees and what
Speaker 2: was a Halo.
Speaker 1: Two or Halo Yeah, you do the kind of swoop
Speaker 1: up and back around.
Speaker 3: There is speaking of controlling vehicles, they also have modernized
Speaker 3: the controls of the war Hog. Speaking of like controversial changes,
Speaker 3: but there is an option to change it back to
Speaker 3: the normal like the original like control style where you
Speaker 3: just kind of point the arrow in the direction you
Speaker 3: want to go. I think that they've mapped it to
Speaker 3: like where like the right trigger is accelerate, kind of
Speaker 3: like a modern vehicle would in a game that comes
Speaker 3: out today. But they understand sounds better probably.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm on the opposite. I I love the way
Speaker 1: that I've gotten used to. Maybe I don't love how
Speaker 1: the Warhog controlled, but it's what I'm used to, and
Speaker 1: so when that gets changed, it's like, oh, WHOA hold on.
Speaker 1: And I was also playing on mouse and keyboard, and
Speaker 1: so I was even more thrown because I grew up
Speaker 1: playing Halo on a controller. And yeah, it was it
Speaker 1: was a little jarring at first, but I got used
Speaker 1: to it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this remaker sounds a lot like the way you're
Speaker 2: describing it. It reminds me a whole lot of the Dead
Speaker 2: Space remake, which that remake was extremely faithful. But the
Speaker 2: things that they did change were like they like they
Speaker 2: added side missions to it, the kind of flesh out
Speaker 2: the world kind of like similar to these other emissions
Speaker 2: that you're describing, but also the story things they did
Speaker 2: tweak were more just like well, we want to fold
Speaker 2: in things that were introduced like in Dead Space two
Speaker 2: and three and the novel, or like the movies, like
Speaker 2: now do we have like the benefit of hindsight for like, well,
Speaker 2: how can we make this feel more beautified? Yeah, Like
Speaker 2: they even went as far as the change like a
Speaker 2: twist towards the end, and it's actually better in the remake.
Speaker 2: It makes more sense than in the original version. So
Speaker 2: I mean that sounds exciting. Just like I guess that
Speaker 2: level of like faith over remake. We notice game is good.
Speaker 2: The things we are tweaking are probably things that you,
Speaker 2: if you're being honest with yourself, you would probably want.
Speaker 2: I guess the only like the thing that people are
Speaker 2: the most sort of like upset about is that it
Speaker 2: is just a campaign. It's not Yeah, there's no multiplayer
Speaker 2: and the campaign from what I remember, it's been a
Speaker 2: long time so I've ran through it, but like it's
Speaker 2: not like crazy long, And I think it's more like,
Speaker 2: do I want to pay however much money for just
Speaker 2: this campaign that I could finish and like a sitting,
Speaker 2: Probably that is fair.
Speaker 3: I mean I asked them directly about that, and they're like,
Speaker 3: you know, we really just wanted to focus on the campaign. Obviously,
Speaker 3: they're not going to like be like, yeah, a multiplayer
Speaker 3: was hard, We're not going to do that like that.
Speaker 3: I think that they're still hoping that Halo Infinite, which
Speaker 3: from all indications is in a very good place from
Speaker 3: a multiplayer perspective, will continue to be kind of like
Speaker 3: their flagship Halo multiplayer experience while they work on whatever's next.
Speaker 3: While this they did add you know, there's the two
Speaker 3: player split screen co op, but there's also four player
Speaker 3: online co op for the first time ever in Combat Evolved,
Speaker 3: which is not nothing. I mean, that's exciting. And they
Speaker 3: also had to adjust some of the encounters to make
Speaker 3: up for that, like making the arenas a little bit
Speaker 3: bigger and stuff like that. But there's also a remix mode,
Speaker 3: which they were just like over the moon excited to
Speaker 3: talk about that. Like we finished an interview and one
Speaker 3: of the guys was like, hey, can I can I
Speaker 3: tell you about this remix mode? Like it's super exciting,
Speaker 3: Like we're stoked for this. And basically what it is
Speaker 3: is you go into remix mode and like you know,
Speaker 3: how you find skulls around the Halo maps, Like as
Speaker 3: soon as you find two of them, you unlock remix mode,
Speaker 3: and then you can go in and play any level
Speaker 3: with these modifiers randomized, and it gives you, like, you know,
Speaker 3: all kinds of different like this will make it so
Speaker 3: that like you have these newer weapons that did not
Speaker 3: appear in combat evolved in this, so like you can
Speaker 3: have like the needle rifle or the battle rifle in
Speaker 3: combat evolved, or maybe all the covenant is replaced with flood,
Speaker 3: so like on you know, you storm the beach in
Speaker 3: a silent cartographer, instead of covenant waiting for you, it's flood,
Speaker 3: and like there could even be like a cosmetic overlay
Speaker 3: which makes it like all kind of like that fog
Speaker 3: that you get with the flood, like kind of like
Speaker 3: the scores everywhere. So that is something that's really exciting.
Speaker 3: And they're like they said something like there's like trillions
Speaker 3: of different combinations because this is also the Halo game
Speaker 3: that is going to have the most skulls, so there's
Speaker 3: all kinds of different things that also can allow you
Speaker 3: to introduce like newer weapons that were not in that,
Speaker 3: like newer enemies, like you could have brutes in Halo
Speaker 3: Combat evolve just like in in the levels like if
Speaker 3: you turn on certain skulls or like the randomizer aspect
Speaker 3: of remix mode seems super cool though, Like I'm I'm
Speaker 3: stoked on that, Like I think that seems like that's
Speaker 3: where the replayability will come. Where it's just like and
Speaker 3: I think that's also a very streamer friendly mode where
Speaker 3: it's like people just go in with like three co
Speaker 3: op partners and are like, let's just randomize Halo and
Speaker 3: see what it gives us, and like, you know, maybe
Speaker 3: you find you fight brutes, maybe you end up where
Speaker 3: it's like, yeah, you don't recover your shield or your
Speaker 3: health doesn't recover unless like you kill a certain number
Speaker 3: of enemies. Like there are different modifiers and I don't
Speaker 3: know if h how many of those are included in there,
Speaker 3: but there are different modifiers that you have to take
Speaker 3: into account of that like could be thrown at your
Speaker 3: way based on what yeah, what what the system gives you?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was.
Speaker 4: Gonna want to fall.
Speaker 2: Oh go ahead, Marcus, Like can you fight those like
Speaker 2: Crystal Rock Candy enemies from Halo four and five? Did
Speaker 2: they make the cut?
Speaker 3: They did not ever mention anything about Halo four or
Speaker 3: five and the original trilogy.
Speaker 1: Never I don't want to get too far into the
Speaker 1: skull discussion because we need to wrap up shortly. But
Speaker 1: one of the new skulls they had teased was like
Speaker 1: the Floor's lava Oh yeah, which seems like a really
Speaker 1: fun modifier where you have to like jump from like
Speaker 1: rocks and other objects to get to the level without
Speaker 1: touching the ground or you take damage, and it just
Speaker 1: seems like like a fun I actually, finnily enough. That's
Speaker 1: like the thing I want to play the most is like,
Speaker 1: can I make it through some of these like iconic
Speaker 1: levels without playing at how it's meant to be played.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're doing some really cool stuff with that mode,
Speaker 3: And I mean outside of just having like you know,
Speaker 3: we're coming up on the release of Star Fox. We
Speaker 3: just got the announcement of an Operainga of Time remake,
Speaker 3: and it's like we're also getting this Halo Campaign Evolved remake,
Speaker 3: and it's like all these games from my childhood, some
Speaker 3: of my favorite games, like Halo is one of the
Speaker 3: most influential games on my life and my love of
Speaker 3: this hobby and you know, pushing me towards doing this
Speaker 3: as a career. Starfox and Ocarina of Time are two
Speaker 3: of my favorite games ever, so like having kind of
Speaker 3: like like I'm always fine to go back and play
Speaker 3: them as they were when they came out in the
Speaker 3: late nineties early two thousands, but having like kind of
Speaker 3: like a definitive, modernized like kind of like best way
Speaker 3: to experience this in twenty twenty six that doesn't feel
Speaker 3: like I'm playing a relic from a bygone era. That's
Speaker 3: really exciting to me. You know. I know that people
Speaker 3: have problems with the Star Fox like reveal, with like
Speaker 3: the character models and the fact that we're just going
Speaker 3: back to Star Fox sixty four. I like, I don't
Speaker 3: have those problems. Like I think that they're great as
Speaker 3: homages to the original box art on the super famic
Speaker 3: Com where it's using the puppets, Like look at those
Speaker 3: box look at the super famic.
Speaker 1: Com Boxer Japanese box cover.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Japanese box art that uses the puppets that
Speaker 3: Miamoto created to model the characters after it is super
Speaker 3: faithful to those original puppets. So like, I have no
Speaker 3: problem with that whatsoever, you know, And I'm excited to
Speaker 3: see what the Operating of Time remake has in store
Speaker 3: for us. Like that is. That was my favorite game
Speaker 3: of all time for a solid twenty years until Breath
Speaker 3: of the Wild came out. So Halo Campaign Evolved is
Speaker 3: something I am super stoked on. I like playing it
Speaker 3: like made me really like fall back in love with
Speaker 3: this franchise, even though we only played the bonus missions
Speaker 3: and Silent Cartographer, Like it made me want to go
Speaker 3: back and see if I could squeeze in a Reach
Speaker 3: replay before Campaign Evolved comes out, so I can just
Speaker 3: kind of go chronologically through this franchise again and maybe
Speaker 3: just go all the way up to you know, three
Speaker 3: or four or whatever. I mean, I would not hate
Speaker 3: a full like franchise replay, and that's you know, that's
Speaker 3: a mark of a good game. It's like it you
Speaker 3: see this what they're doing, this remake, and it's rekindling
Speaker 3: all of these old memories that I had and making
Speaker 3: me want to get reinvested in this franchise that I've
Speaker 3: kind of fallen off of in recent years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's official. Boys, our childhood is cool again.
Speaker 3: That just means really old.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, one hundred percent. Well that was our Halo
Speaker 1: cover story conversation. Of course, if we've had over to
Speaker 1: Gaminformer dot com slash subscribe, pick up your copy of
Speaker 1: the of the issue if you aren't already signed up,
Speaker 1: or find it in newsstands in a few weeks time.
Speaker 1: Before we head out, I do just want to highlight
Speaker 1: a game I've really been enjoying. It's called Mecha Chameleon,
Speaker 1: and you've probably seen it if you're on like gaming TikTok.
Speaker 4: It's like I've seen a lot of streamers.
Speaker 1: Pick it up and stuff, but you it's a hide
Speaker 1: and seek game where uh, the game mode I've been
Speaker 1: playing actually, funnily enough, speaking of Halo, it's very similar
Speaker 1: to Infection in Halo multiplayer, where there is multiple people
Speaker 1: hide and then there is one infected person that slowly
Speaker 1: eliminates people and they become infected. And it's kind of
Speaker 1: like whoever can be hidden and not found at the
Speaker 1: very end wins. But it's like that, But what if
Speaker 1: you are just like these featureless white cartoon stick figure
Speaker 1: creatures essentially like think of like a pedestrian sign and
Speaker 1: like a person like walking across the street in a
Speaker 1: pedestrian sign that's the shape of like the.
Speaker 4: Character you play.
Speaker 1: They're pure, like no color just white, textureless, and you
Speaker 1: can like climb and contort your body in weird ways.
Speaker 1: There's like poses that you can hit, and then your
Speaker 1: whole job is to once you find a spot to
Speaker 1: hide from the seekers who have shotguns, you then kind
Speaker 1: of freeze yourself in place and then you paint. You
Speaker 1: can use a color picker, like if you're familiar with
Speaker 1: like a photoshop or something like that, where you would
Speaker 1: like pick colors from the environment to match, and then
Speaker 1: you'd paint yourself to like blend into the environment.
Speaker 4: And it's super fun.
Speaker 1: It's also just like as somebody who I love like
Speaker 1: kind of art, and I've always been like, you know,
Speaker 1: a doodler, and you know I love, you know, making
Speaker 1: textures and stuff for h for various art projects. And
Speaker 1: it's like right up my alley because it really rewards
Speaker 1: you for like, Okay, I'm like my character is leaned
Speaker 1: up against like a black and white tile floor. I'm
Speaker 1: going to like meticulously paint in the checkerboard from the
Speaker 1: floor onto my body and I'm even going to add
Speaker 1: in like the like the dust flakes and stuff like
Speaker 1: if I if.
Speaker 4: I have time.
Speaker 1: And it's like really it's a really fun game. The
Speaker 1: other day, I was, I had a great I was like,
Speaker 1: I think I was like the last person to be
Speaker 1: found in the game, and I had like rolled my
Speaker 1: character up into a ball and placed myself on the
Speaker 1: top of like a horse statue in this level, and
Speaker 1: then painted myself to look like the marbled horse statue.
Speaker 1: And actually Eric van Allen was running and around me
Speaker 1: as a seeker trying to find me for like a
Speaker 1: solid five minutes, and the whole time I'm like right
Speaker 1: in front of him, and it's it's just like a
Speaker 1: really fun I think the game's like four bucks, four
Speaker 1: or five bucks, but I think, yeah, right now, it's
Speaker 1: it's definitely rough around the edges, but all the all
Speaker 1: the basics are there. It's like, I think you can
Speaker 1: play with like twenty people in your lobby. You can.
Speaker 3: The number one popular search on Steam right now.
Speaker 1: It's really good. It's really fun.
Speaker 2: And I was, I think you should clarify it. Despite
Speaker 2: the name, there are no mecha in this No, no, don't.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a very actually it's a very strange
Speaker 1: name because it has nothing to do with mechs or
Speaker 1: Gundam or Mecca in any form.
Speaker 4: I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know why it's called Mecha Chameleon. I think
Speaker 1: they could have just like called it like Chameleon or
Speaker 1: Hide and Seek Chameleon.
Speaker 2: Mecca, like the Holy Site, which would be weirder they
Speaker 2: are not.
Speaker 4: No, it's not spelled that way.
Speaker 1: No, No, I don't. I don't know why it's named that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's a fun game. I definitely like wish
Speaker 1: that I have like a list of of you know,
Speaker 1: fixes I would like to see or additions to the game.
Speaker 1: I think some of the levels, you know, the objects
Speaker 1: you are very like organically shaped player like you're very round,
Speaker 1: and like the pose you get in you know, you're
Speaker 1: still like it's very clear that you're like, you know,
Speaker 1: there's a person there. And I think in some of
Speaker 1: the levels that are like filled with like very sharp
Speaker 1: edges and sharp non organic objects, it's much harder to
Speaker 1: blend in. And I wish that there was some different
Speaker 1: like if you could load in with like different body
Speaker 1: types or like different sizes could be fun, or even
Speaker 1: just like a wider array of objects in the levels.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's for five bucks. I'm having a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. Literally, I'll go and play Dead Block for
Speaker 1: an hour before bed and then the like, I'll take
Speaker 1: thirty minutes and I'll play a couple of rounds of
Speaker 1: Mecha Chameleon and just to kind of wind down and
Speaker 1: then I go to sleep.
Speaker 4: That's been my my routine for the last week.
Speaker 2: And your.
Speaker 1: Exactly, Yes, yes, exactly, but yeah, that's a fun one.
Speaker 1: But I think that's going to do it for the
Speaker 1: episode this week. Thank you both for joining me. If
Speaker 1: you're listening to this, you want to follow us on
Speaker 1: social media. You can follow Marcus at Marcus Stewart seven.
Speaker 1: You can follow Brian at Brian Pcha, and you can
Speaker 1: follow me at It's Van Aiken on Instagram.
Speaker 6: Uh yeah, that'll that'll do it for the week.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening. Thank you for supporting Game Informer
Speaker 1: and showing up to UH to hang out with us
Speaker 1: and and listen to us chat about some games. We'll
Speaker 1: see you next week.
Speaker 6: Have a good one, goodbye.