Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, Welcome to Games Mornings with Me Jeff Grub,
Speaker 1: your host from GiantBomb dot com. Thank you for tuning in.
Speaker 1: In this episode, we're going to be talking about what
Speaker 1: feels like the fiftieth game this year to launch the
Speaker 1: glowing reviews.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be a.
Speaker 1: Good one because we have John Sick Mechanico Clark on
Speaker 1: the show.
Speaker 2: John, how are you doing.
Speaker 3: I'm doing very well, mister Grub, And thank you for
Speaker 3: pronouncing the ridiculous game attack correctly. I get a rare talent.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that one I've heard set out loud so I
Speaker 1: can remember that one. Uh, John, Yeah, how are you doing?
Speaker 3: I'm doing good, mate, I'm doing good, you know, embracing
Speaker 3: my midlife crisis, dyeing my hair ridiculous colors.
Speaker 2: I mean, you have to at some point.
Speaker 3: Desperately to my ever fading youth. But as you rightly say,
Speaker 3: playing just twenty twenty six, well, I thought twenty twenty
Speaker 3: five was like rivaling two thousand and seven is one
Speaker 3: of the best years of video game life for video games.
Speaker 3: And don't get me wrong, like, let's put opinion all
Speaker 3: the terrible things that are happening in this industry, but
Speaker 3: in terms of like the games.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the people that are sticking around making the games
Speaker 1: are really talented.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, good lord, we are drowning in excellent video games.
Speaker 2: It's great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is going from one great game to the next.
Speaker 1: It's kind of how it's been for me, and not
Speaker 1: complaining on that side of things.
Speaker 2: I just wish that more developers got to do that.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean, and.
Speaker 1: It's working like it seems like all these games, a
Speaker 1: lot of these games are finding their audience and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been pretty good.
Speaker 2: Well, we'll talk.
Speaker 1: About some good games here in a second. In fact,
Speaker 1: let's get into the show and let's explain what we
Speaker 1: do here. I'm Jeff Grubb. This is Giant Bomb. You
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Speaker 1: of it. We really appreciate that as well. As far
Speaker 1: as this show goes, most weekdays, I Jeff Greb will
Speaker 1: help piece your gaming life back together. That includes breaking
Speaker 1: news and maybe even some of our own original reporting.
Speaker 1: For all these topics, I'll get the input of a
Speaker 1: bona fide expert who will make me look smart. If
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Speaker 2: Bomb dot com.
Speaker 1: You can also catch the show later with chapters and
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Speaker 2: Hello YouTube.
Speaker 1: All right, we have a lot to get into, so
Speaker 1: let's start the Morning Mess with Mina the hollower reviews.
Speaker 1: They're in after a long wait for this game, and
Speaker 1: it's yeah, just critical ravings mostly across the board, with
Speaker 1: some notable exceptions, but at a ninety two one open critic.
Speaker 1: Last time I checked, I expected to hover around there.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's going to like have some massive dip.
Speaker 1: But we've seen a lot of games recently John like
Speaker 1: launched to like ninety two and then kind of drop
Speaker 1: around ninety eighty nine, So yeah, it could.
Speaker 2: Happen here as well. But lots of like perfect scores
Speaker 2: or whatever.
Speaker 1: However you want to phrase that ten out of ten
Speaker 1: from Samuel Claiborne at IgM, who said many, yes, right, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: they are pretty stingy with those. And here's another one
Speaker 1: from Samuel Claiborne who says, Mina the Hollower will burrow
Speaker 1: into your brain and set up a cozy little house there.
Speaker 1: I couldn't let it go. Clues to unsolved puzzles popped
Speaker 1: into my brain before bed. A corner high out of
Speaker 1: reach that I never set foot on beckons me every
Speaker 1: time I pass it on my way to the shops
Speaker 1: in Ossex. The math tells me maxing out my attack
Speaker 1: power would just take one really good grinding spot and
Speaker 1: then I could beat that secret boss that destroyed me.
Speaker 1: Mina achieves the same heights both both action and style as.
Speaker 2: The game, the studio's predecessor.
Speaker 1: In terms of Shovel Night got five stars from Joshua
Speaker 1: Robertson at The Gamer. The Hollower is an almost faultless
Speaker 1: game that combines the elements of nostalgic classics we know
Speaker 1: in love with a healthy dose of Yacht Club's flare
Speaker 1: and expertise to make it something that truly stands out
Speaker 1: as a retro inspired masterpiece. I could honestly play it forever,
Speaker 1: with Yacht Club proving that it's not just a one
Speaker 1: game studio with yet another bona fide classic. I Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Mike Manadi here at Giant Bomb gave it three and
Speaker 1: a half stars. He said, somehow the Dark Soul's influences
Speaker 1: keep Mina from being the best Zelda style game it
Speaker 1: could be, while the Zelda mechanics prevented from reaching.
Speaker 2: The heights of the best Souls likes. I've been playing it, John,
Speaker 2: and I'm definitely somewhere.
Speaker 1: In between all this. Actually, I'm like, yeah, this is
Speaker 1: a pretty good game. It's something about it. Early on,
Speaker 1: at least I've not played a ton has not been
Speaker 1: sticking with me. I've definitely been happy to like go
Speaker 1: over to Bond, which we'll talk about here in a second.
Speaker 1: But I could see why so many people are very
Speaker 1: into it, and I was a little surprised to be like,
Speaker 1: oh man, there sounds like there's so much more in
Speaker 1: terms of the depth of what's going on in the gameplay,
Speaker 1: in the world, just a ton of screens to explore.
Speaker 2: It seems substantial. What do you make of all this?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like it's an interesting one because I'm surprised to
Speaker 3: see it score so highly because Jesse, our reviews lead,
Speaker 3: has been playing it and is like, this game is
Speaker 3: punishingly difficult, and that can often create a kind of
Speaker 3: you know, a skill gap, if we want to use
Speaker 3: that phrase, where some people will just bounce off it.
Speaker 3: Like I'm probably going to be one of those people, right,
Speaker 3: this probably is not a me game to dive into.
Speaker 3: But he absolutely loved it, you know, he didn't give it.
Speaker 2: The full top marks or something.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, he said it was, you know, channels the
Speaker 3: vibes of all the best old school games, but brings
Speaker 3: some modern sensibilities along for the ride, with smartly paced
Speaker 3: exploration and tight gameplay. A difficult but rewarding experience. At
Speaker 3: just twenty dollars, it's well worth well.
Speaker 1: Worth, right, Yeah, yeah, do you remember that I'm a
Speaker 1: I'm a huge Links Awakening fan, and so when I
Speaker 1: saw this and it was like, Oh, that looks a
Speaker 1: lot like that's what they're going for. And yeah, and
Speaker 1: it's you know, in terms of some of the elements
Speaker 1: of the game, it is definitely a Zelda, but they
Speaker 1: are there's so many other elements in here you can't
Speaker 1: just put it in any one jar. And I do
Speaker 1: think that like that. I was like, oh, yeah, what
Speaker 1: Mike got there is kind of the sense I got
Speaker 1: early on, which is, you know, the jack of all trades,
Speaker 1: master of none or whatever. But uh does sound like
Speaker 1: it for some people they got over that hump and
Speaker 1: it was like, oh, it becomes this cohesive experience kind
Speaker 1: of doing its own thing.
Speaker 2: Uh. But I do.
Speaker 1: I do think there like there will be a hump
Speaker 1: there and that will be both difficulty as you pointed out,
Speaker 1: and then just kind of grasping all like the way
Speaker 1: all the very specific mechanics work. For example, the Estes
Speaker 1: flasks in this game, the recovery mechanic is not just
Speaker 1: you know, you drink your Estus flask and you get
Speaker 1: your life back like in Dark Souls or Bloodborne or
Speaker 1: something like that. You have to an attack an enemy
Speaker 1: to like get potential health back, and then when you
Speaker 1: take a drink that fills up. And it's like, so
Speaker 1: if you get attacked by something else in between taking
Speaker 1: that drink, which you know you're vulnerable during, you're gonna
Speaker 1: lose more health as well as that potential health. It's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's that's pretty complicated. That's a little bit more more
Speaker 1: sort of again in depth than I would have what
Speaker 1: was expecting, and I think a lot of players will
Speaker 1: be expecting, so I think it'll take time for newcomers
Speaker 1: to sort of grasp that sort of thing. But it
Speaker 1: does sound like people will find something they'll find some
Speaker 1: like purchase here.
Speaker 3: I think as well, like just seeing like and this
Speaker 3: is the great thing about video games nowadays, right is
Speaker 3: you get you know, you get big triple A extravagances
Speaker 3: like Bond, which we'll talk about in a bit, but
Speaker 3: you still get these love letters to the past that
Speaker 3: bring along the modern kind of more modern game design
Speaker 3: do things that frankly like systems back in the old
Speaker 3: days could never do and yet are still just as
Speaker 3: fantastic in just completely different ways. And I love that
Speaker 3: there are so many different like avenues for people to
Speaker 3: just enjoy this hobby across a myriad of different genres
Speaker 3: without stressing too much, and like to see studios continue
Speaker 3: to find success in so much variety is just like
Speaker 3: you know, and yeah, like we said at the beginning,
Speaker 3: this whole industry is going through like a rough time
Speaker 3: for like the last feels like half a decade now,
Speaker 3: but I still see stuff like this and I'm just like,
Speaker 3: I'm so glad it exists, even if it's not for me.
Speaker 3: I'm just so glad that it's out and it's getting
Speaker 3: the kind of reaction that it's getting from players. It's
Speaker 3: good to see.
Speaker 1: I was playing on steam Deck. If anyone's wondering while
Speaker 1: it's on there, of course it would be this. You know,
Speaker 1: they're not trying to go for realistic graphics or anything.
Speaker 1: It's a throwback style. But yeah, it was very comfortable
Speaker 1: to play on the steam Deck, which you know, to
Speaker 1: me at this point means any of the other handhelds
Speaker 1: anyone's using are all more powerful than that at this point.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of your green light there that, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're going to be able to play that handheld no issue.
Speaker 1: Mike did play on switch to he waited for a
Speaker 1: switch code. I don't think there were a ton of
Speaker 1: switch reviews. Maybe there were more after I looked this morning,
Speaker 1: and I think he had no issues as well.
Speaker 2: So there you go.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about the game. You and I
Speaker 1: have been playing. Double O seven First Light reviews also
Speaker 1: came in. I know we talked about on the BombCast
Speaker 1: yesterday yesterday everybody, but we've not talked about it on
Speaker 1: this show yet. Got an eighty eight on Open Critic.
Speaker 1: This is another one that did actually open in the
Speaker 1: low nineties. It's kind of dipped down a little bit.
Speaker 1: I think it's probably going to settle in right around here,
Speaker 1: which is shocking to me. John just couldn't believe how
Speaker 1: good this game was. Five stars from Jordan Midler over
Speaker 1: at VGC. Double O seven First Light might just be
Speaker 1: the best James Bond game ever. The way IOI has
Speaker 1: translated the Bond fantasy into a fourteen hour, globe trotting
Speaker 1: epic is masterful. It's a game full of spectacle, humor, action,
Speaker 1: and romance. Everything James Bond should be. New Bond owners,
Speaker 1: Amazon must in sure this franchise continues. Eight out of
Speaker 1: ten from Mark Delaney at GameSpot, who says Double O
Speaker 1: seven first light wisely repurposes what works in both universes.
Speaker 1: I believe that is James Bond and hit Man, but
Speaker 1: isn't afraid to reimagine or ditch those parts that don't.
Speaker 1: I definitely agree with that. I think it's kind of
Speaker 1: one of the amazing things that did happen here. Then
Speaker 1: a nine out of ten from Jean Clark at Day one.
Speaker 1: With a great cast of characters, tons of imagination, and
Speaker 1: just the right amount of player agency and replayability, there
Speaker 1: is a delightful playground full of gadget gadgetry and spycraft
Speaker 1: the players will want to return to again and again.
Speaker 1: A confident return for the Double O program. And sorry,
Speaker 1: Golden Eye, this is, without a doubt, the best James
Speaker 1: James Bond game ever made.
Speaker 2: I agree with that. This is a yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1: It's this is this is it they figured. It really
Speaker 1: feels like they cracked the nut here. They got this
Speaker 1: one sort of onlock in a way that my expectation
Speaker 1: for this game, John was we'd go into it and
Speaker 1: be like, oh, I can see I could see what
Speaker 1: they're going for. They're getting really close with this. You know,
Speaker 1: it's hard to make games. They had to like figure
Speaker 1: out the first stuff, and they came out with a
Speaker 1: really awesome seven out of ten that I'm.
Speaker 2: Gonna be telling people go play it. You should be
Speaker 2: playing it.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, no, no, no, they skipped that part,
Speaker 1: and they're like they made what felt what feels like
Speaker 1: would have been the sequel. It's like, oh, everything really
Speaker 1: came together, because everything really comes together here, and I
Speaker 1: do think it all traces back to they used everything
Speaker 1: they learned from Hitman, but not as like an anchor,
Speaker 1: a thing that was weighing them down, like this is
Speaker 1: the way we did in hit Man, So we just
Speaker 1: got to find a way to make that make sense
Speaker 1: for James Bond. It's like, no, if it didn't make
Speaker 1: sense or it needed to change or it needed to
Speaker 1: be improved, like the combat, they did the hard work
Speaker 1: to make the combat fun in a James Bond way
Speaker 1: like that. When they deviated from Hitman, their answer was
Speaker 1: always what makes it more James Bond. And the result
Speaker 1: here just is so obvious, like from the first minute
Speaker 1: you pick up the controller, but then it just continues
Speaker 1: and gets better and better.
Speaker 2: How'd you find it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's a funny one. And it's like, there's
Speaker 3: so much to unpack about this because, like from a
Speaker 3: pure game perspective, when I first started playing, you know,
Speaker 3: initially I was a bit worried. I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm squeezing through small gaps, I'm learning how
Speaker 3: to hide in long grass, hanging from lunches.
Speaker 1: If you glance at this game, like for a second,
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, oh, this combat looks like the block
Speaker 1: block punch, block block punch, And it's like, yeah, it
Speaker 1: doesn't feel that way when you're playing, but from a glance,
Speaker 1: it looks like triple A slap.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it looks like I've played this before, you know.
Speaker 3: And so that first like forty five minutes. But then
Speaker 3: because it's an origin story, you're you're not you're not
Speaker 3: a trained agent, you're a Navy m and you're twenty
Speaker 3: six years young, and uh, it just escalates and iowa,
Speaker 3: I did this fantastic job. Where yes, it will interrupt
Speaker 3: you all the time with cut scenes and it'll throw
Speaker 3: the odd QT in Triple A style at you to
Speaker 3: keep the pace up. But like you said, they do
Speaker 3: the smart things. They pull all these learnings from Hitman
Speaker 3: and World of Assassination is such an incredible experience, Like,
Speaker 3: and they just kept adding to it and adding to it,
Speaker 3: adding to it. And here, you know, I've seen people criticize, oh,
Speaker 3: you can't hide the bodies, but the point his Bond
Speaker 3: probably wouldn't. This is about ace, This is about getting
Speaker 3: the job done. And as you play through, like I
Speaker 3: fell in love with Patrick Gibson's performances Bond. He doesn't
Speaker 3: emulate anybody else. He doesn't do like a pass off
Speaker 3: of like your favorite Bond or whatever. He is his
Speaker 3: own man, and just all of the characters are great.
Speaker 3: The plot is suitably a bit silly in all the
Speaker 3: way Bond should be, but also very modern and grounded
Speaker 3: and kind of throws away all the Cold War trappings
Speaker 3: of the original character. It just is such a surprise
Speaker 3: And the only reason it didn't get like the top
Speaker 3: top marks from me was the overall I feel it
Speaker 3: was almost too streamlined, Like I feel like they you know,
Speaker 3: they removed they did mostly the right things, but there
Speaker 3: are moments where I was like, the stealth is too easy.
Speaker 1: The garden, like, the garden need to be there, absolutely
Speaker 1: need to be there because like, yeah, they cannot have
Speaker 1: you kind of getting off the beaten path and getting
Speaker 1: wacky in a way that doesn't feel like James Bond.
Speaker 2: So they put the.
Speaker 4: Yard the what's the root Skoldberg machine where you're just
Speaker 4: like in a cause it's not like that, and the
Speaker 4: combat like you're absolutely right, like what an elevation comparative
Speaker 4: to hit Man.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but there were moments where I was like, I'm
Speaker 3: forty two. I'm not I haven't got the pace and
Speaker 3: the skills of my young twenty year old version, right
Speaker 3: and I'm doing things in double O seven and I
Speaker 3: was like, I am a badass.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is this.
Speaker 3: Like expertly tuned to make me feel like a bad ass.
Speaker 1: And it's just the animation, I really do. I think
Speaker 1: it's like it's so context aware of like where the
Speaker 1: character is that you're pressing the button to, like you know,
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to like survive this encounter and do
Speaker 1: this attack, and the attack kind of immediately naturally and
Speaker 1: fluidly goes into slamming a guy's head into a wall,
Speaker 1: and then everything doesn't like break or get jinky and
Speaker 1: be like oh, he's kind of like inter I think
Speaker 1: with the wall weird and then falling down and the
Speaker 1: characters backing up and not really animated, no, with all
Speaker 1: animates perfectly. So it just looks so slick and smooth.
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm into what it's doing.
Speaker 3: It's funny as well, because like I know that there
Speaker 3: was a lot of discussion, you know, and I'm sure
Speaker 3: I don't know if you guys experienced this, but like
Speaker 3: I didn't get code for this until the friday evening
Speaker 3: before in the UK, a bank holiday weekend for the US,
Speaker 3: a Memorial Day weekend, right, so I.
Speaker 2: Think we got it.
Speaker 1: I think we got it a Friday morning or Thursday
Speaker 1: night or something like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like it was it was like, oh okay, right,
Speaker 3: and they were you know, they were like, hey, you know,
Speaker 3: it could be eighteen to twenty hours. And I'm like,
Speaker 3: anytime a PR company tells me that, I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 3: all right, half that, you know, like I can play
Speaker 3: video games, but this is not a short game. They
Speaker 3: really have thrown everything at this to throw plot twists
Speaker 3: at you, surprising, downtime, plot development, you know, exposition. It
Speaker 3: is just ioh, I did it. They pulled it off.
Speaker 3: Forget forget all the silly. Oh, it's woke. There's a
Speaker 3: woman in charge, like clean.
Speaker 1: There's some impressive brains happening over on twitterli who was joking,
Speaker 1: But there's a lot of people who are not. I
Speaker 1: can't believe a disaster because he's listening to Moneypenny at
Speaker 1: the beginning of the.
Speaker 2: Game or whatever. Oh honey, it seems fine. Have you
Speaker 2: seen it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's funny. But the crazy thing was and like
Speaker 3: this is just pure anecdotal, like because of the pace
Speaker 3: of the review and having to get it all done,
Speaker 3: was like okay, and I recorded something glorious, like eleven
Speaker 3: hours of footage and I did so much badass stuff.
Speaker 3: I was like amazing. I felt like a god. I
Speaker 3: kind of stopped putting the video review together and my
Speaker 3: obs had messed up and captured like instead of the
Speaker 3: full screen and captured like a quarter and I was
Speaker 3: like no. Then I went to go play replacing bits
Speaker 3: and capture some new footage, and a new update had
Speaker 3: come out on Steam and the game was busted, like
Speaker 3: it was broken. It was hitching every five seconds. It
Speaker 3: was unplayable. Anytime I headshot everything, all the frames dropped.
Speaker 3: I was like, what is going on? I was disabling
Speaker 3: overlays and things, so I ended up finding a direct
Speaker 3: email because the PR company was obviously offline. It was
Speaker 3: a long weekend for IOI, and they were paying attention.
Speaker 3: I was like, no, your game's broken, and they were like,
Speaker 3: thank you because you said just some clips. So I
Speaker 3: quickly sent them some clips. Six hours later they pushed
Speaker 3: a patch fixed everything, so they were they were, you know,
Speaker 3: with this came in hot, and that's often a sign
Speaker 3: of like, oh, it's going to be a rough.
Speaker 2: Ride it all the days, but I think you are.
Speaker 2: You're more often than that you're rating.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it was. It was a close cool but
Speaker 3: so stunned with how good it is. And I really
Speaker 3: I think they've done an amazing job. But I they
Speaker 3: you know, spoiler alert, it's not really a spoiler. This
Speaker 3: isn't a plot related spoiler, but they are openly saying
Speaker 3: James Bond will return at the end of the game.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I would want to see please.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I like, I feel this very similar
Speaker 1: to how I felt out for Indiana Jones. I hope
Speaker 1: we at least get one more of these, just yes, please,
Speaker 1: I mean one more?
Speaker 2: Do it? Take it?
Speaker 1: You know, go in a different direction in terms of setting,
Speaker 1: but you don't have to do much more than that.
Speaker 1: I'm sure they have a million things they want to
Speaker 1: refine that. This is one thing I would love to
Speaker 1: see what's on the cutting room floor for this game,
Speaker 1: because it is so streamlined, not just in terms of
Speaker 1: those guardrails of like keeping you from doing silly stuff
Speaker 1: in the open world parts, the open zone parts, but
Speaker 1: just in terms of the pacing where it's like you'll
Speaker 1: go into a scene and they'll be like, there's one
Speaker 1: line of dialogue maybe, and then they cut straight to
Speaker 1: the beginning of the next next action sequence, and I
Speaker 1: bet there was so much more back and forth between
Speaker 1: the characters and that last scene, and they're like, why
Speaker 1: do we need this, Like it's James Bond.
Speaker 2: Cut to the chase, literally, that's what it's about.
Speaker 1: Cutting to the j sequence and they do that over
Speaker 1: and over and I'm like, I bet there was a
Speaker 1: time when this game was a lot more bloated, and
Speaker 1: for them to have the discipline to edit all that
Speaker 1: stuff out to make the best version of this game,
Speaker 1: it's admirable.
Speaker 2: For sure.
Speaker 1: Did you miss around with the tactical simulation stuff at all?
Speaker 1: The sort of missions. Look at our missions, yeah.
Speaker 3: And they're bringing more to that, you know. And I
Speaker 3: look at the support that we've had for Hitman World
Speaker 3: of Assassination, like okay, but yeah, the taxing stuff. You've
Speaker 3: got challenges in there that have you replace different levels
Speaker 3: and do different things like I did the laundry room
Speaker 3: from the Grand kop Heathian Hotel level but no guns,
Speaker 3: so it was just fisticuffs and that was a challenge
Speaker 3: because they had guns. But like, the combat system is
Speaker 3: surprisingly deep, and I think people that, like you said,
Speaker 3: they might glance it and think it's very arkham and simple,
Speaker 3: but you have a lot of player freedom and expression
Speaker 3: to dotly crazy things with the environment. And one of
Speaker 3: my favorite touches is just seeing stuff and being able
Speaker 3: to sweep it off of the worktop into someone's face.
Speaker 3: There's an iron, you know, and then after days and
Speaker 3: you can like do something. It's just it feels really
Speaker 3: really good to play. And I would wholeheighly recommend this
Speaker 3: to anybody that has a passing interest in especially you
Speaker 3: mentioned Indiana Jones. If you enjoyed that kind of in
Speaker 3: this open world and I can fool around, it is
Speaker 3: very much refined.
Speaker 2: I beincues this.
Speaker 1: It's ant even a refined version of that idea. And
Speaker 1: I really liked Indiana Jones. Yeah, the text and stuff
Speaker 1: gets me ex because it's a yeah. If anything, this
Speaker 1: game made me realize, Oh, they really understand their own
Speaker 1: tools and their own ability to like craft content. And
Speaker 1: they were already like being like, oh, here's some like
Speaker 1: teases of like what's coming up in the tactical simulation
Speaker 1: the VR missions. Oh yeah, they could just like take
Speaker 1: this James Bond character and get silly over here, and
Speaker 1: like they could do a moon Raker sort of thing
Speaker 1: and be like, hey, why not put James Bond on
Speaker 1: this James Bond on the moon for one of these
Speaker 1: missions that is all like we're telling you in fiction
Speaker 1: is just a simulation, so it doesn't matter. So oh yeah,
Speaker 1: they could do all that stuff. And I hope, I
Speaker 1: hope that like can can thrive a little bit.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't want it to be like thrive so much
Speaker 1: of the like it's a distraction from them doing that
Speaker 1: stuff with the next Hitman years down the line, but
Speaker 1: some of that stuff to have fun with this James
Speaker 1: Bond character, I would welcome it. Because I did have
Speaker 1: such a good time playing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1: It's double seven, First Light and Men of the Hollower reviews.
Speaker 1: Let's get to some of the headlines here now. The
Speaker 1: Witcher three Wild Hunt Songs of the Past announced. This
Speaker 1: is from CD Project's blog. CD Project Red announced today
Speaker 1: that a third expansion to the Witcher three Wild Hunt,
Speaker 1: one of the most critically acclaimed and best selling role
Speaker 1: playing games of all time, is coming next year. Songs
Speaker 1: of the Past is the third expansion coming to the
Speaker 1: Witcher three. It will launch in twenty twenty seven on
Speaker 1: PlayStation five, Xbox Series, x N S, and PC. There
Speaker 1: is a switch version of this game not announced for
Speaker 1: that as of yet. CD Project Red is co developing
Speaker 1: Songs of the Past with Fool's Theory, which I think
Speaker 1: is a studio that had some X people from that
Speaker 1: studio and they're going to be helping out with one
Speaker 1: of the other Witcher games.
Speaker 2: It all feels like getting up the speed on the
Speaker 2: lore of the.
Speaker 1: Characters, the tools, the processes at the studio while also
Speaker 1: making new, something new for the Witcher three. John It's
Speaker 1: coming out next year though to me that says, oh,
Speaker 1: Witcher four is even further off than I was thinking,
Speaker 1: how are you reading this?
Speaker 3: I think that's probably right. I feel like Witcher four
Speaker 3: is like twenty twenty eight the earliest if we're lucky,
Speaker 3: But you know, it's cool that and I think we're
Speaker 3: seeing this more and more across the industry. And if
Speaker 3: you look at some of the biggest games, like the
Speaker 3: biggest games that are played every week every month on
Speaker 3: the old Sekana reports are all ten years old, free
Speaker 3: to play, and the Witch are three in particular, has
Speaker 3: such a special place in so many people, Like I've
Speaker 3: seen the outpouring of like, you know, joy at this
Speaker 3: announcement from people that are actually obsessed with the Witcher
Speaker 3: that they're they're making more of it, and I think
Speaker 3: that that's a great thing. I feel like maybe this
Speaker 3: was going to leak, maybe that you know, they didn't
Speaker 3: because they were there was scuttle but floating around weeks
Speaker 3: and they rather than like it because a year long
Speaker 3: wait like an announcement and then hey wait a year,
Speaker 3: you know, that's it for today. It feels like it
Speaker 3: maybe not have been on the cards, but rather than have,
Speaker 3: you know, have people leak all the information and they've
Speaker 3: just come out and side it themselves. That makes more sense.
Speaker 1: But yeah, part of it also feels like, you know,
Speaker 1: this is a company that I think is publicly traded
Speaker 1: in Poland. I know they always share all their information,
Speaker 1: so I think there's something with that. And I think
Speaker 1: they're telling this to investors and kind of setting the
Speaker 1: expectations because after this happened, the stock price did go
Speaker 1: down four percent because investors are like, wait, where's Witcher
Speaker 1: for That's the one that's going to make all the money, right,
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think this is them being like, let's
Speaker 1: just kind of give you a little bit insight on
Speaker 1: what's happening here so you can properly set your expectations.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean I think this is just also
Speaker 1: them being like, hey, we are Witcher's very active, get
Speaker 1: ready for it, and here are some details you'll see
Speaker 1: more soon that switch version. I would not expect this
Speaker 1: to come to switch one, No, but why wouldn't they
Speaker 1: announce a switch to definitive edition that has this included?
Speaker 1: Right to me, that seems like something that does get
Speaker 1: announced here, maybe even very.
Speaker 3: S the Yeah, yeah, it could be could be down
Speaker 3: the line, like it could be closer to the really
Speaker 3: of the whole thing, or it could be something that
Speaker 3: we're you know, showcase seasons coming up. Maybe they'll surprise
Speaker 3: everyone and maybe we'll see more of it than just
Speaker 3: this right now, you know, like just the announce Maybe
Speaker 3: we'll actually see some of what this is. But yeah,
Speaker 3: like it makes sense to bring this to switch to
Speaker 3: and we're seeing all of the big platform holders and
Speaker 3: companies kind of realized that, you know, this is the
Speaker 3: age of remasters and re releases, and you know, because
Speaker 3: games love older titles but always appreciate a new coat
Speaker 3: of paint. And you know, I'm sure there'll be things
Speaker 3: done to the Witch Are three in and of itself
Speaker 3: that will come along with this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1: It is like a little funny because like, Witch Are
Speaker 1: three is definitely that one of those games that is
Speaker 1: in that very specific era of like oh something clicked
Speaker 1: over from twenty twelve to like twenty seventeen, where oh,
Speaker 1: now a game that when it comes out it no longer.
Speaker 2: Feels old after a couple of years.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, that game could just come out today
Speaker 1: and still do just as well, and everyone be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: this looks like a modern game. Obviously that's not one
Speaker 1: hundred percent true, things can always look better. Modern games
Speaker 1: do look a little bit better than games that came
Speaker 1: out in twenty sixteen, but just not that much better.
Speaker 3: So it's like good enough, man, Like, right, chase for
Speaker 3: graphics is kind of over. It's now it's all about innovation.
Speaker 2: And system Now.
Speaker 1: You saw that in that behavior of like what you're
Speaker 1: talking about of like the most played games of people
Speaker 1: like and you know that's true for a lot of
Speaker 1: like free to play multiplayer games, but there are a
Speaker 1: handful of single player games like Skyrim and this that
Speaker 1: are just always on those lists because yeah, people just like, hey,
Speaker 1: this is good enough and it doesn't need to look
Speaker 1: any better.
Speaker 2: So it's a little odd that like Witcher three.
Speaker 1: Continues to be like kind of get this update over
Speaker 1: and over. But I think this is a very interesting
Speaker 1: way of doing it, right, of this can last forever,
Speaker 1: So why wouldn't we just do more content when it
Speaker 1: comes time to like solve a couple of our problems.
Speaker 1: One we got to remind people Whitcher is a thing
Speaker 1: that is happening. This is a new deal, like separate
Speaker 1: from the deal we made to like get all the
Speaker 1: previous Witcher game's made. And so we have to set
Speaker 1: up the whole future, and one good way of doing
Speaker 1: that is to like sort of just fertilize the ground
Speaker 1: around Witcher three a little bit. And at the same time,
Speaker 1: we're working with new people who we've hired and with
Speaker 1: these external contracted studios, and we all want to get
Speaker 1: everyone on the same page. So let's make that new
Speaker 1: content for Witcher three that's a little bit lower stakes,
Speaker 1: a little bit more. It's probably a lot cheaper, and
Speaker 1: we get something cool out of it. It can be
Speaker 1: like a marketing expense, and if if we sell a
Speaker 1: bunch of more copies of which are three because of it,
Speaker 1: that's like a bonus on top almost. So it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just kind of seems very smart.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we're I think we're going to say
Speaker 3: more and more of this sort of thing from many
Speaker 3: of the kind of big classic games that hit in
Speaker 3: that kind of period that you mentioned. Why not, like,
Speaker 3: like I said, the outpouring of joy and we're seeing
Speaker 3: it even in the chat now, like, oh my god,
Speaker 3: which three was one of my favorite games all the time.
Speaker 3: Hell's yeah, Like I'm down for a replay. Funnily enough,
Speaker 3: bounced try off of it. You know, bounced triy off,
Speaker 3: which are one, two, and three. It's big go for
Speaker 3: well guides people. They're just not for me most of
Speaker 3: the time.
Speaker 2: Some of them are very much for me.
Speaker 1: I've also bounced off with Witcher three a couple times,
Speaker 1: mostly just because of the way it feels to play.
Speaker 2: It's just not my style so much. Yeah, exactly. I mean.
Speaker 1: I like the idea of like getting set up for
Speaker 1: a hunt and like doing all the magic spells on
Speaker 1: your gear and getting the potions all set up because
Speaker 1: it's very specific for this one kind of monster, and
Speaker 1: then going out there and actually doing that. That sounds
Speaker 1: like a very interesting loop. I just couldn't get over
Speaker 1: the hump with it. I will one day, I want.
Speaker 1: I still want to see that game through.
Speaker 2: I know you say that about all of them, right,
Speaker 2: all right, continue, you.
Speaker 1: Just throw it in that pile. I'll get to it
Speaker 1: one day, all right. We're gonna take a break when
Speaker 1: we come back. Sonya is shutting down a game. We'll
Speaker 1: talk about that after these messages. If you want to
Speaker 1: skip these, gimebump dot com sus join after versions of
Speaker 1: the shows are available over there.
Speaker 2: We will be right back, all right. Joe. It is
Speaker 2: time to turn up the fun because Jeff Grubb Plants
Speaker 2: Versus Zombies is celebrating seventeen years of lawn defending zombies
Speaker 2: apping action.
Speaker 1: We're teaming up with Plants Versus Zombies Replanted to dish
Speaker 1: out codes across every platform, PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch.
Speaker 2: No matter how you play, you're in. I'm ready to
Speaker 2: kick some grass. Grub stay tuned at home to win. Ah.
Speaker 1: It's Game Mess Mornings. I'm Jeff Grub. That's John Clark.
Speaker 1: Let's get back into the news here. Sony is shutting
Speaker 1: down Destruction All Stars. This is from Andy Robinson at VGC.
Speaker 1: Sony Interactive Entertainment has confirmed it will soon shut down
Speaker 1: its early PS five exclusive Destruction All Stars. The car
Speaker 1: combat title was developed by British studio Lucid Games and
Speaker 1: released in twenty twenty one and received mixed reviews from
Speaker 1: the media. On Tuesday, PlayStation announced that the game has
Speaker 1: been removed from sale, alongside its virtual currency, and multiplayer
Speaker 1: servers have been closed. Single player modes will remain accessible
Speaker 1: to existing users until November twenty fifth, It's set in
Speaker 1: a message to players, after which only Arcade mode single
Speaker 1: player challenges shall remain playable. This is the first like
Speaker 1: sort of news item and game like moment that has
Speaker 1: actually made this generation feel a little bit old to me, John,
Speaker 1: I know it is, I know it is six ish
Speaker 1: years old, but it just always felt like this is
Speaker 1: going to get started in any day now. And then
Speaker 1: I remember Destruction All Stars came out. It was going
Speaker 1: to be seventy dollars and all that happened, and they
Speaker 1: put it out and it's got kind of buried right away,
Speaker 1: and everyone's like, we don't want this even at I
Speaker 1: think it was forty or free to play.
Speaker 2: I can't remember what happened either way. It's like it
Speaker 2: just it.
Speaker 1: Came and went very fast, and that feels like a
Speaker 1: lifetime ago. I was like almost like yeah, I was
Speaker 1: almost surprised to say, oh, this was still going. And
Speaker 1: then you look a little bit closer and a lot
Speaker 1: of the communities like, oh no, no, this game hasn't
Speaker 1: really worked for two years. You could try to go
Speaker 1: play it, it wasn't working. It's like, oh, okay, so
Speaker 1: this feels like long overdue at this point. So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm probably not much to like read into this other
Speaker 1: than like, yeah, this is a game that didn't work right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it didn't really land particularly well with a lot
Speaker 3: of players, and they've even said that it had ongoing
Speaker 3: technical issues and that's why they are turning off. So
Speaker 3: I think the reality is here, is that the team
Speaker 3: that made it, the support that needs to be there
Speaker 3: for it, does it justify us going in and fixing it.
Speaker 3: The answer reality is no. So rather than do any
Speaker 3: of that is, let's just turn it off and shut
Speaker 3: it down and stop people from buying it because it's
Speaker 3: broken and we don't want to pay to fix it.
Speaker 3: I mean, it happens, but.
Speaker 1: Haroki Totoki got like a bill and say, what what
Speaker 1: the fuck is the.
Speaker 2: All Stars servers?
Speaker 3: Am?
Speaker 2: What am I paying for? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I never heard of this in my life. Yeah, Destruction
Speaker 1: All Stars was always one that's like, okay, I this
Speaker 1: is a Destruction Derby inspired game. And then it's just
Speaker 1: like it was never never had a ton of sense.
Speaker 1: But then you hear Lucid, It's like, okay, well they
Speaker 1: learned from that and then they were going to apply
Speaker 1: that to a new Twisted Metal game. It's like that
Speaker 1: sounded pretty exciting. That seems like a good fit. Bring
Speaker 1: bring back Twisted Metal and kind of I don't do
Speaker 1: something there, and then that game got canceled and I
Speaker 1: really have no idea what Lucid is doing now. I'm like,
Speaker 1: in fact, I kind of want to google it if
Speaker 1: there's still.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I'm curious even still around, right.
Speaker 2: I think I think they are. I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think that they have been closed, but I
Speaker 1: also don't think that they have announced anything or released
Speaker 1: anything since this.
Speaker 3: So they work on they work with EI and Respowl.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I get this, Okay, code development on Jedi
Speaker 1: Survivor and Fallen Order and stuff like that. Oh, they
Speaker 1: work on See Thieves and Apex Legends and another game.
Speaker 2: That I don't think has been released.
Speaker 1: Okay, So yeah, they're kind of a work for hire studio,
Speaker 1: you know, indicative a little bit. I think of that
Speaker 1: early a sort of effort by PlayStation to like figure out,
Speaker 1: like what can we support our big single player, narrative,
Speaker 1: campaign based games with, Like what else can we put
Speaker 1: beside there? Like we're not gonna I remember that was
Speaker 1: that time when they were like, hey, we are investing
Speaker 1: big into live service games, and they showed everyone the
Speaker 1: pie chart. It's like, look the number that we were
Speaker 1: putting into those big single player games.
Speaker 2: That's not changing.
Speaker 1: We're putting in the same amount of money, but we
Speaker 1: have all this other money and we want to figure
Speaker 1: out something else to go alongside those games, because it's
Speaker 1: not like we go like, we'll just spend more money
Speaker 1: on those games. It's really hard to start a Naughty Dog.
Speaker 1: And I was like, I'm convinced all of that makes sense.
Speaker 1: The one part that I might be stuck on is
Speaker 1: the live service games. And it's like, you saw how
Speaker 1: they got there, because everyone was going into that party
Speaker 1: in that moment, and it's like before the live service games,
Speaker 1: it was stuff kind of like this. It's like, ah,
Speaker 1: something in between multiplayer, maybe some PSVR stuff. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: none of that really felt like it was going to match, don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know what else Sony does first party other
Speaker 1: than maybe the thing that has been working for Capcom
Speaker 1: and I've been harping on this show for like the
Speaker 1: last couple of weeks. It's time for Sony. But like, hey,
Speaker 1: we have a lot of very recognizable properties in brands,
Speaker 1: and we should be bringing those back in whatever way
Speaker 1: we can. Remakes, remasters, uh, just ports and then sequels
Speaker 1: new games based on jumping.
Speaker 2: Flash or whatever the fuck.
Speaker 1: That would be much more welcome to me than whatever
Speaker 1: Destruction All Starts was supposed to be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like, and I think we're going to see a
Speaker 3: bunch of that. We've got, We've got the state of
Speaker 3: play next week. You know, there's there's rumors out there
Speaker 3: of new things, and there's remasters of old things that
Speaker 3: we've kind of already been announced. I think like the
Speaker 3: God of War trilogy has already been announced. We're going
Speaker 3: to see that. I even heard, like, and I don't
Speaker 3: know if this is like this is just scuttle, but
Speaker 3: this is not me reporting anything before anyone, rightes, Yeah,
Speaker 3: what's like a God of War twenty eighteen remaster? And
Speaker 3: I know people will roll their eyes or another remaster
Speaker 3: from Sony to a degree, but like you look at
Speaker 3: it from Sony's perspective, the reality is, yeah, some some
Speaker 3: Internet people might write, ah, another remaster grown, but then
Speaker 3: they sell because people to play the games they love
Speaker 3: looking even better than they did before. So and that's
Speaker 3: an easy win for any platform holder right now in
Speaker 3: an economy that is kind of screwed for everybody. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I agree with you, like, everyone's sort of like, what
Speaker 3: are we going to see from Sony that state of play?
Speaker 3: And they have such a they've got such an incredible
Speaker 3: fan base of people that love so many of their
Speaker 3: ips and properties, and it's like, like, what are you doing?
Speaker 3: So you know, maybe they're they're inviting press to come
Speaker 3: in and sit down in a room and watch this thing.
Speaker 3: And that sounds like they feel like they've got a
Speaker 3: pretty good show.
Speaker 1: I means Partnership says the same thing to me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I don't think they've done that for stat
Speaker 1: of plays before. Maybe they've had movie theater stuff for
Speaker 1: state of place. They've definitely had that for showcases. So yeah,
Speaker 1: and like I.
Speaker 2: Always just say that, like everyone gets it.
Speaker 1: The distinction was state of play was and more regular
Speaker 1: there sort of Nintendo director are a diet Nintendo director
Speaker 1: in a lot of cases, and then the showcases would
Speaker 1: be like the Big E three shows. They're calling this
Speaker 1: a state of play. It is being presented as like
Speaker 1: a Big E three show. In my opinion, it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: so I'm really getting.
Speaker 2: My hopes up for that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it feels like Sony's got a couple of
Speaker 1: levers that they know work, and yes, one of them
Speaker 1: is the obviously the big expensive games that you can
Speaker 1: make one every seven years or something like that. That's
Speaker 1: it works, but it has a lot of baggage attached
Speaker 1: to it. And then there's the other one, be like
Speaker 1: remastering those games, especially when a TV show is about
Speaker 1: to come out or a movie's about to come out,
Speaker 1: that has worked for them, especially with like The Last
Speaker 1: of Us. I think they're hoping to replicate that with
Speaker 1: this rumored God of War, which I just will not
Speaker 1: be surprised if that exactly goes down the exact same way,
Speaker 1: and then that could be like, Okay, now you have
Speaker 1: that in the TV show and here's the new Faye
Speaker 1: game or whatever, and that's you know, that's another one
Speaker 1: of these big games. It's like, yeah, the question of
Speaker 1: what else really just sort of lingers over Sony because
Speaker 1: they haven't been able to put out those games at
Speaker 1: the pace they once did, and it's noticeable everyone's feeling it,
Speaker 1: especially as the price of these consoles goes up, and
Speaker 1: everyone feels like they need to get more to justify that.
Speaker 1: And that's a psychological thing, but it's a real thing.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people feel and I know
Speaker 1: that these companies are like worried about that value, like
Speaker 1: the optics of the value of.
Speaker 2: The products they're putting out.
Speaker 1: And they were like, hey, if we can get more
Speaker 1: out there and just feel like a more vibrant place
Speaker 1: to play games, that'll go a long way. And Sony,
Speaker 1: I think it's like, Okay, we got to really shift
Speaker 1: in that direction. And I do think that leads them
Speaker 1: to going back to PlayStation one and PlayStation two and
Speaker 1: bringing back a lot of that.
Speaker 2: Stuff, bring back mark of Cree, That's what I want.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like there's tons of little and I think the
Speaker 3: reality is is that, like I know, Sony is known
Speaker 3: for giant you know, oh the animation and all of
Speaker 3: the bells and whistles that make into the narrative single
Speaker 3: player games, but like there's a group of people that
Speaker 3: really want to play, you know, like a Jack and
Speaker 3: Daxter or whatever, but like a small budget, like you've
Speaker 3: got teams, like have a small team within your big team,
Speaker 3: split off and spend two years making something smaller that
Speaker 3: isn't and support your ecosystem in that way. And you
Speaker 3: know we're seeing Sega tease like crazy Taxi and like do.
Speaker 3: I think Crazy Taxi whatever it ends up being, is
Speaker 3: going to be some giant triple A extravaganza. No, it's
Speaker 3: going to be a sensibly scoped product that will tug
Speaker 3: on the heartstrings of everyone wanting to hear Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: yeah yeah again right, So like Sony can do that.
Speaker 3: All of the platform holders need to do that because
Speaker 3: you know, gamers, if anything, are the biggest suckers for
Speaker 3: nostalgia that I have ever met in my life. I
Speaker 3: am one of them. Give me things that I from
Speaker 3: when I was young.
Speaker 2: Please, yep, exactly real quick.
Speaker 1: There's some I guess breaking news. This is yeah, Hideo
Speaker 1: Kojuma collaborates with Nicholas Windin Refin. I don't know how
Speaker 1: to say that guy's name, or either either of those
Speaker 1: guys's names, but they're working together on making generative AI
Speaker 1: short film for Prada.
Speaker 2: For a promotional event. It's you don't need to do that?
Speaker 2: Why why?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 2: Right? Yeah? Just at the height of the popularity of AI.
Speaker 1: I know, like we talked about AI lot on the
Speaker 1: show John, and it's at appointment. Now everyone's like it's happening,
Speaker 1: accept it or everyone's still mad about it.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, I kind of want to be.
Speaker 1: On the side of all the kids who are booing
Speaker 1: it at their at their graduation things. When all these
Speaker 1: old fucks bring it up, I'm like, I'm defitely on
Speaker 1: the side of the kids. I'm not gonna be standing
Speaker 1: up there with the former CEO of Google being like,
Speaker 1: oh hey, it's inevitable accepted.
Speaker 2: It's like, I don't know, let's get loud and say
Speaker 2: this sucks.
Speaker 1: But it surprises me how many people who do seem
Speaker 1: like they are in positions of power are just like
Speaker 1: I'm I'm embracing it. So this sounds this sounds great
Speaker 1: to me. I'm today Okachman. Of course Kojuma would be
Speaker 1: for AI. Of course he would be. Of course he
Speaker 1: would be.
Speaker 2: It's Kacha. So but a little disappointing.
Speaker 3: So it's it's just a bit sucky, isn't it?
Speaker 2: Like it's sucky. Yeah, don't your time doing that? Make
Speaker 2: something cool instead? Everyone likes you when you make cool stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not hard. Like the AI debate. We could
Speaker 3: spend an hour talking about the ups and downs to
Speaker 3: that thing. Like, but I I I generally agree, like
Speaker 3: I lean on the I totally get it for making
Speaker 3: life easier in the back end, but not from a
Speaker 3: creative way, not from designing the stuff way. Like this
Speaker 3: doesn't have taste.
Speaker 2: It doesn't have a good or bad taste. It does not
Speaker 2: have taste exactly.
Speaker 1: I mean, at forty three, john in my life at
Speaker 1: this point, it's like, you know, I don't have a
Speaker 1: ton of like core values. The one couple of them
Speaker 1: I do have is like I want to fuck with
Speaker 1: people who have good taste or you know, even bad
Speaker 1: taste in an interesting way, but no taste whatsoever, which
Speaker 1: is what the machine can produce.
Speaker 2: Uh, why am I?
Speaker 1: Why would I ever waste my time with the ten football? Yeah,
Speaker 1: not for anything creative ever. Like, yeah, it's it's kind
Speaker 1: of goofy.
Speaker 3: It's clouds.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's embarrassing. You should be a little embarrassed. All right,
Speaker 2: let's keep going here.
Speaker 1: Square Enix shows off Dragon Quest twelve, now known as
Speaker 1: Beyond Dreams, following what was a developmental restart. This is
Speaker 1: from Ben Lyons at Game Reactor. It's the fortieth anniversary
Speaker 1: of Dragon Quest and we have been celebrating this the
Speaker 1: feat by delving into our history with the long running
Speaker 1: JRPG saga. But to add to this Square Enix has
Speaker 1: plenty to share about the future of the franchise, namely
Speaker 1: the long awaited dragon Quest twelve. As series creator Ugi
Speaker 1: Horri teased recently, we finally have an answer as to
Speaker 1: why the game has been so silent for such a
Speaker 1: long period of time. The answers is basically that it
Speaker 1: was reset and rebooted. In the update video shared by
Speaker 1: dragon Quest by the dragon Quest team, executive producer Yoske
Speaker 1: Sito explained that the project hit a lot of hurdles
Speaker 1: along the way, and that due to a reshuffle of
Speaker 1: the team and a restart of development, it's going to
Speaker 1: be a bit longer before it's in your hands. But
Speaker 1: they did reintroduce the game, showed a new logo, which
Speaker 1: we thought we were just going to get a logo
Speaker 1: when we talked over it this morning. Got a new subtitle,
Speaker 1: Beyond Dreams. I can't remember what it was called before,
Speaker 1: but they dropped the previous one. Now it's Beyond Dreams Fights.
Speaker 3: Flames of Fight was I.
Speaker 2: Think Flames of Fate? Thank you now.
Speaker 1: They have also though shown off a little bit of
Speaker 1: the world some of the characters. Does it look like
Speaker 1: a game that is coming out anytime soon does look like, hey,
Speaker 1: here's some environments, here's some character art. That's what we
Speaker 1: can confidently show you in this moment. But yeah, it
Speaker 1: kind of explains like the recent way that the Dragon
Speaker 1: Quest series has been going, which is here's a lot
Speaker 1: of remakes and ports and stuff like that to fill
Speaker 1: in the gaps because.
Speaker 2: They knew this was happening.
Speaker 1: Hey, get it right for sure, but uh yeah, I
Speaker 1: guess when should we expect?
Speaker 2: This feels like a couple of years off.
Speaker 3: Still, it does feel like a while away, and like
Speaker 3: I geld Cult just to the team, like it's it's
Speaker 3: always hard to be like this isn't working, stop, reset, rethink,
Speaker 3: and then to be able to you know, to have
Speaker 3: to come out and be like sorry everyone. It's always
Speaker 3: a sucky thing to have to do. But they did
Speaker 3: do it. They've owned it. They've given the little tease,
Speaker 3: a little glimpse to kind of satiate, you know, people
Speaker 3: that were hungry for such things. I think they announced
Speaker 3: that the Withered World Dragon Quest Monsters is coming to
Speaker 3: switch one and two, so that that's nice, that's good.
Speaker 3: But yeah, like this feels, this feels like a little
Speaker 3: while away. It's a bummer if you're really really looking
Speaker 3: forward to it, but it's better than it, you know.
Speaker 3: The message today being it's canceled, here's nothing, you know, like, so.
Speaker 2: It sounds like they want to like just get it right. This.
Speaker 1: They did say that this game still has original art
Speaker 1: from a curatorama.
Speaker 2: You know, it's dragon Us. I think, yes, yep, yep,
Speaker 2: and it's okay, awesome. That's uh. They don't want to
Speaker 2: like smirch any of that, and they want to get
Speaker 2: it right.
Speaker 1: And I don't know how I felt about the original
Speaker 1: pitch for Flames of Fate as as you told me
Speaker 1: that's what it's called, because it was the idea was
Speaker 1: maybe the combat is going to be different, maybe will
Speaker 1: go oh maybe real time and right, and then it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: the games.
Speaker 2: Are always bubbly and cheerful and colorful. What if it wasn't.
Speaker 3: Little Dragon Quest fans like, right, okay, yeah, but what
Speaker 3: if it fucking was actually what if.
Speaker 2: We just got another dragon Quest game?
Speaker 1: And it does feel like that is the one of
Speaker 1: the corrections that happened here. I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: the core correction, like this is the the reason that
Speaker 1: they did it, because they're like started going down that path,
Speaker 1: and they looked around at each other like, actually, this sucks,
Speaker 1: we hate it. There could have been so many other
Speaker 1: problems making games as difficult, but obviously they took it.
Speaker 1: Does seem like they took this moment to rethink everything
Speaker 1: and they were like, ah, let's reach and to me like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the darker grammar maybe real time or more
Speaker 1: real time combat.
Speaker 2: Again, who knows what it would have been for a
Speaker 2: dragon Quest game.
Speaker 1: Is an idea that probably sounded somewhat reasonable five years ago,
Speaker 1: and now it's like, no, people want their their RPG bullshit.
Speaker 1: They want to like be steeped in that stuff. It works.
Speaker 1: It obviously still works after claar obscure. Just make that stuff,
Speaker 1: make the stuff that you do even better and even
Speaker 1: more interesting. And that's sort of the path. Don't be
Speaker 1: like we got to like like sand those edges off
Speaker 1: to be more like all the other games.
Speaker 2: So well, that sounds good.
Speaker 3: Final Fantasy was it that went like, hey, do you
Speaker 3: have a Game of Thrones? Which one was it? Six
Speaker 3: six sixteen sixteen? Like yeah, you know, so, like don't you.
Speaker 2: I think that that is? I would a guess here, John,
Speaker 2: that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 3: It feels like a good guess.
Speaker 1: Yes, they learned a lesson from Final Fantasy sixteen and
Speaker 1: not not a game that was like garbage by any means,
Speaker 1: but one that just feels like it missed the mark
Speaker 1: of what they were going for of like, hey, if
Speaker 1: we do make it like Game of Thrones, we can
Speaker 1: get some of that shine. It's like, it doesn't work
Speaker 1: that way. You kind of have to make your own.
Speaker 1: Your Final Fantasy, you should be making your own. And
Speaker 1: I think they're like, I think they know that now,
Speaker 1: and I think that that you're going to see that
Speaker 1: from them going forward and starting with games like this.
Speaker 2: So cool to all right.
Speaker 1: Sonic Frontiers Definitive Edition is coming next month, it's claimed.
Speaker 1: This is from Jordan Miller at VGCS. Sonic Frontiers Definitive
Speaker 1: Edition will be released next month. It's claimed that's according
Speaker 1: to Bill bil Kuhn, who has a history of posting
Speaker 1: retail listing information ahead of official announcements, writing on deal Labs,
Speaker 1: it's confirmed that the game will be released on June
Speaker 1: twenty third. Sonic Frontiers Definitive Edition will reportedly include all
Speaker 1: previous released updates in DLC. It's also claimed that the
Speaker 1: Nintendo Switch to version of the game will receive a
Speaker 1: technical overhaul when compared to the Nintendo Switch one version
Speaker 1: of the original game, which is I think that's all
Speaker 1: that's available right now. The game will retail for fifty dollars.
Speaker 1: To me, this sounds like this is the Sonic Frontiers
Speaker 1: sort of update that they put out now, because maybe
Speaker 1: they announced a new one over Summer Game Fest.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Again, like, look at the kind of theme of
Speaker 3: the show is, Hey, you remember this game that he
Speaker 3: was quite well receiveable. We're going to update it for
Speaker 3: the people with new machine, a new hardware, and we're
Speaker 3: gonna give it a kirra of paint. But I remember it,
Speaker 3: and oh look there's a new one.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Makes sense to me, Like, I hope.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I hope so too.
Speaker 1: I like Sonic Frontiers quite a bit, and I think
Speaker 1: they could figure out a lot of ways to make
Speaker 1: to improve it with a SEQL, But that would mean
Speaker 1: that would would require them sticking with what they did,
Speaker 1: which seems like they might. I think Sonic Frontiers did
Speaker 1: pretty well. And yeah, but I think you're like, you're
Speaker 1: right to point out the theme of the episode is
Speaker 1: marketing for video games has kind of shifted from commercials
Speaker 1: during NBA games. That still happens for Call of Duty
Speaker 1: or whatever, but if you're anything else, it's kind of
Speaker 1: shifted into put the marketing in the game that people
Speaker 1: are playing or or that they frequently go back to,
Speaker 1: or give them a reason to go back to it.
Speaker 1: Make the games themselves the marketing and say, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: that does seem to be pretty smart and does seem
Speaker 1: to be working. My kids like like this a lot
Speaker 1: in a switch to version update would be welcome. I
Speaker 1: think they would probably go back to this game and
Speaker 1: quite enjoy it.
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, that's the twenty twenty two games.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's you know, twenty twenty seven release five
Speaker 1: ish years between those two.
Speaker 2: That sounds pretty reasonable to me.
Speaker 1: Although I guess it's possible they announce a Sonic Frontiers
Speaker 1: too and it comes out this holiday, but I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe I'm not expecting that quite.
Speaker 3: Can we stomach any more games? Like would they want
Speaker 3: to go up against you know, like no one's going
Speaker 3: to be releasing anything like I've been seeing it trying
Speaker 3: to figure out, like just just from an Xbox point
Speaker 3: of view, you know, they've got Minecraft Dungeons to Fable,
Speaker 3: Halo Campaign Evolved, Gears of War e Eday and whatever
Speaker 3: new call to you all to come out between now
Speaker 3: and December, and I'm like.
Speaker 2: Where does really where does where do these fit? Really?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 1: Now in November nineteenth, right, because really now? And Grand
Speaker 1: Theft Auto six. It's like because after that, I mean
Speaker 1: there will be a game. There will be games to
Speaker 1: come out in December, but it's gonna be like it's
Speaker 1: not gonna be the biggest ones or maybe like late
Speaker 1: December for a couple of them. They try to get
Speaker 1: on the other side of it because they just absolutely
Speaker 1: need that extra time. But most games are gonna try
Speaker 1: to get out of the way. And that means yeah,
Speaker 1: before Grand Theft Auto six.
Speaker 3: So like, yeah, I think you're right. Then if there
Speaker 3: is a Sonic Frontiers too, maybe early twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I could see like February March, that'd be excellent. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I hope. So I'm looking forward to it. That's one
Speaker 1: of those Sonic games that look like, oh, they just
Speaker 1: kind of like made a fun thing to run around in, which.
Speaker 2: Is what I want from Sonic. Yeah, all right, last.
Speaker 1: Story here, Ea says there are more stories coming with
Speaker 1: the Star Wars Jedi protagonist Calcestis.
Speaker 2: This is from Jonas Mackie at Game Reactor.
Speaker 1: Gotta say the new James Bond reminds me a lot
Speaker 1: of how I felt about Calcestis, where I was like.
Speaker 2: Kind of a generic looking dude.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe it's like me getting older at it looks
Speaker 1: too young for this character.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to care about.
Speaker 1: To make it something more interesting, and Star Wars like
Speaker 1: make them an alien heroes, like I don't know, give
Speaker 1: them some ruggedness or something. It's like, now both won
Speaker 1: me over kind of immediately. A Calcastis actually took a
Speaker 1: little bit longer here. I was like James Bond, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: this totally works. Yeah, and I do want more from
Speaker 1: both of those characters. I want more from We're getting more.
Speaker 1: Star Wars. Jedi three is in the works for sure.
Speaker 1: It went into production right away after the second one,
Speaker 1: kind of before that happened. Everyone involved and knew they
Speaker 1: were going to make a third game. They wanted to
Speaker 1: do a trilogy, and so it's like, okay, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: is that the more stories here? And it's it sounds
Speaker 1: like maybe more is happening. So game rant I think
Speaker 1: talked to a Lucasfilm representative who said never say never
Speaker 1: when asked about like getting more Calcastus. We've got his
Speaker 1: lightsaber in the park, We've got more cal stories coming
Speaker 1: and plural. Obviously this is maybe an off the cuff remark,
Speaker 1: so we don't have to read into it a ton,
Speaker 1: but I'll say I think the energy surrounding Calcastus and
Speaker 1: the Jedi games is that they do want to take
Speaker 1: that character, that actor, and kind of began inserting him
Speaker 1: into other places. And so does he think this means?
Speaker 1: This probably means like he shows up in movies and shows, right,
Speaker 1: not necessarily more games.
Speaker 3: It's the either is the face of Calcastus is also
Speaker 3: the voice act.
Speaker 2: He's an actor the.
Speaker 3: Entire performance, so he can he can quite easily be
Speaker 3: slotted into additional fiction, right, TV shows or movies. And like,
Speaker 3: I know that the sequel launched a little bit won
Speaker 3: ky in terms of its technical chops. Yeah, they sorted
Speaker 3: it out and as always, you know all developers would
Speaker 3: wish for an extra year, but then you've got to
Speaker 3: say ship at some point. But they've come out, Like
Speaker 3: I remember playing the first one and kind of bouncing
Speaker 3: off and then going back at that kind of like, ah,
Speaker 3: all the reviews have stopped. I can play some actual
Speaker 3: games I missed now like December at some point, like
Speaker 3: a six months after it released, and I was like,
Speaker 3: helly crap, this is really fun and I don't really
Speaker 3: like all the dark Souls type stuff. I turned all
Speaker 3: the Souls he bits off and just had fun with
Speaker 3: extra a Star Wars game, And you know, same for
Speaker 3: the sequel. So would I want a third Hell's Yeah,
Speaker 3: and he's a great character. I think the both story
Speaker 3: arcs i've heard are really good. At the first one
Speaker 3: I really enjoyed. Let's let's have more kyl casts. Give
Speaker 3: it to a CI and Disney go for it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it feels like kind of the best, like for
Speaker 1: a franchise like Star Wars. The idea of if you
Speaker 1: are going to make something Star Wars, like Tony Gilroy
Speaker 1: who made and Orsay, Hey, one of the things I
Speaker 1: want to do is, I'm sure I'll take some toys
Speaker 1: out of the box, but when I put them back,
Speaker 1: I want I'm gonna put more toys back than I
Speaker 1: took out, meaning I'm going to create more stuff for
Speaker 1: other people to work with in the future. And calcasts
Speaker 1: feels like he's in that rank of Oh you put
Speaker 1: him back in the Star Wars toy box, and now
Speaker 1: that is another cool thing to be explored by future creators.
Speaker 2: Uh. And really the whole cast.
Speaker 1: Of people in those Star Wars Jedi games who were
Speaker 1: all excellent, especially that Witch of Datamir or whatever.
Speaker 2: I loved her.
Speaker 3: Yes, let's see that.
Speaker 1: All right, that does it for the headlines, John, we
Speaker 1: got through. You have a poll question from Monday, let's
Speaker 1: get to that. Or do we have a poll question
Speaker 1: for Monday? Jan I can't remember.
Speaker 2: Nope. We were on holiday, thank you. That's very memorial.
Speaker 1: There was a Memorial Day, thank you, and then Friday
Speaker 1: was the Bomb twelve. So let's just remind you all
Speaker 1: of that. The Bomb twelve is updated on giant bomb
Speaker 1: dot com. So if you want to see the most
Speaker 1: recent Bomb twelve, which are the twelve games that matter
Speaker 1: to people who are really playing video games, you could
Speaker 1: see that there.
Speaker 2: You just scroll down a little bit.
Speaker 1: Then off to the left you'll see a vote here
Speaker 1: button you click that takes you to the Google form
Speaker 1: you can vote for the game that you want to
Speaker 1: see on the Bomb twelve. This week we will do
Speaker 1: that to wrap things up on Friday. I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to it. With that out of the way, though, let's
Speaker 1: see here, John, what do you have going on? Where
Speaker 1: can people find you all that good stuff?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I'll take the opportunity. I actually have
Speaker 3: a very like it's SSGF coming up next next week.
Speaker 3: But this week is crazy busy because tomorrow I head off.
Speaker 3: If you're in the UK, I'm going to be at
Speaker 3: UK Games Expo, which is for all of you calm
Speaker 3: and board game nerds out there with our game that
Speaker 3: we may yeah, to show it off right Like, you
Speaker 3: can buy this on Amazon right now, but will be there.
Speaker 3: It's cheaper buying it from us in person.
Speaker 2: So if you're watching listeners, the name of the game
Speaker 2: again yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, console walls the card game. So everything you love
Speaker 3: about this industry, all of the arguments you've had online
Speaker 3: in forums about exclusivity and media bias and fanboys, it's
Speaker 3: all in this card game where you fight, you fight
Speaker 3: as a video game publisher for exclusives. It's very silly,
Speaker 3: it's very tongue in cheek. We had a lot of
Speaker 3: fun making it. We are currently and you know, we
Speaker 3: announced this on our show a little while ago, but
Speaker 3: we are currently out there. We're pitching it. We've partnered
Speaker 3: with an award winning UK development team to make this
Speaker 3: into an actual video game. Had some really interesting conversations.
Speaker 3: Has given me an entirely new appreciation about how hard
Speaker 3: indie developers have it in terms of actually getting funding
Speaker 3: to make this stuff. Now, it's crazy difficult and this
Speaker 3: is a cheap game in the grand scheme of things
Speaker 3: to make. But yeah, like so we're there. We're selling
Speaker 3: the you get cool stuff if you come down. We've
Speaker 3: got a little hollow, hollow cold to give away. But
Speaker 3: we'll be in a whole eye of UK Games Expo.
Speaker 3: If people want to come on and say hello and
Speaker 3: say you source on Giant Bomb, feel free to do so.
Speaker 3: I'm a communicative and social fellow most of the time.
Speaker 1: Hell yeah, I hope you have a good time. And yeah,
Speaker 1: definitely if you're there, track down John and say hi.
Speaker 2: Everybody.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, over here at Giant Bomb, we have
Speaker 1: a busy day poke Monday Night combat is happening right
Speaker 1: after this and Jane will need some time to get
Speaker 1: set up everybody, but just stick around. You're gonna catch
Speaker 1: that with him and Sean. I'm gonna be watching I'll
Speaker 1: be doing a grub Snacks premium that you'll be able
Speaker 1: to catch later this week if you're a premium member.
Speaker 1: Blake Club is going to be happening at two pm Eastern,
Speaker 1: that's eleven am Pacific time. Dan's got like forty minutes
Speaker 1: left of space Ace I think, and he gave Metro
Speaker 1: Prime five stars. I'm just going for all the jokes.
Speaker 1: He loves everyone and then let's see and then this
Speaker 1: evening it's a launch. Look, it's back James Bond, him elf,
Speaker 1: Mike Manati will be streaming Double O seven for the
Speaker 1: launch like he's gonna start that at seven pm Eastern,
Speaker 1: gonna go to at least eleven pm, but he could
Speaker 1: go later, and I expect that he probably will because
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna like that game. I think it's
Speaker 1: gonna have fun at that game, absolutely, and it's so
Speaker 1: like I don't present, so what's so cinematic? It looks
Speaker 1: great on streaming. People are gonna have a great time
Speaker 1: with that and then get regular stuff for the rest
Speaker 1: of this week, with a few other fun things here
Speaker 1: or there. Definitely tune into Giant Bomb for all of
Speaker 1: that and more. Thank you all though, for watching, John,
Speaker 1: Thank you for hanging out with me today and talking
Speaker 1: about video games. Man, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3: It was a pleasure, always a pleasure.
Speaker 1: Thank you all for watching, Thank you for listening. You're
Speaker 1: the best audience in gaming. Until next time, have a
Speaker 1: good one, take care of yourself, and goodbye.