Indie Game Showcase Highlights

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Thank you. because whether you're a renter or homeowner, you deserve peace of mind Shop new blink two K video doorbells at ammazon. com slash blink Welcome into the Ringer verse, your Nexus feed for all things fandom. I am Ben Lenberg, a senior editor for the Ringer and the Jeff Keey equivalent of Buttonmash without the shiny red jacket. When Buttonmash moves to video, I've got to upgrade my wardrobe. We're doing a rare Sunday recording to bring you the Button Mash Smmer Gaming Showcase Shcase where we will react to all the news, well, most of the news, all the news might take us all day. from Sony's state of clay, Summer Game Fest, the Xbox games showhcase and beyond. Joining me for this endeavor, doing double duty as guest and producer and giving himself the Survivor style hero edit. It's Steve Summer Steve Fest, Alman Howdy Steve. Very good. You don't know this by now, but in post, I've given myself like heavenly God Ray Angelic sounds every time I speak I don't doubt it. I don't listen back to the completed button meshes usually. So I have no idea what you get. It's okay you think you've had been there for years and you not know I know Hopefully and Devan are doing a great job. I'm sure you are. Steve, you attended some of this week's festivities and you bring us in person impressions. Yes, I do. I'm now a senior summer Games fest correspondent this week. well Yes, some shoe leather reporting, service journalism from Steve, so we will get to what you saw and what you thought of it. Also with us is Ringer Dputy art director Matt James, who brings us in person impressions of Sweden because that's where he was during Sony's state of play. Matt, did you go cold turkey for a few days gaming wise or did you lug a lot of gaming hardware to Europe? I had the switch to on the flight, but otherwise I was a very good employee and you know, just participated in all the team building and u Yeah I'm all caught up. I've played some demos. Uh, andm I'm ready to go I'm impressed. I thought for sure you would have had a steam deeck or one of your advanced exotic gaming handhelds, but I mean actually I did I did bring my my Thor as well, but I did't Okay. seeee. I didn say that. I it was Oh, you didn't get to it. Yeahah. well two devices minimum on travel. You know me. Yeah. Nix games to pay attention to. And I still do. Yeah Go New York, New York. I hope you've brought your power adapters at least well, my friends No E three, no problem Enough news for you this week. I mean, we knew we were in for quite a slew of announcements and trailers and release dates, but We may have gotten more than we bargained for. This was a real just fire hose of gaming news Indeed, And there's allegedly a Nintendo direct on the horizon as well. Yes, right. Yeah, you know Nintendo's going to get it on everything, but on their own time. You know, Nintendo doesn't play by anyone else's rules, but could be as soon as this week. so more to come. But we will cover everything that we have heard and seen and we wanted to convene on the weekend so that we could get you a more timely reaction here. So I have a few high level takeaways from what we saw this week, just themes, some connections that stood out to me, so I will throw those out to you, get your thoughts. You can add any that you might have And then we can just talk about the big name games, and Steve can tell us about what he got his hands on I think the big takeaway here and it's pretty obvious, but nonetheless striking is that if you had plans for September cancel them, right? Be you got games to play, notot even just September. I guess late August to mid to late October That's it. this year, the holiday season ends around october twenty third. It's like In the sequel to two thousand one is based out of twenty ten Pal sends a message to humanity and he says, All these worlds are yours, except Europa attempt no landing there which we are attempting a Europo landing soon. So we should be careful. but it's as if Rockstar Games said All these months are yours except November, attempt no releases there. And every other publisher said, okay, we won't And now what we have is a massive pile up Before GTA six And you have to wonder whether this will backfire. But let me just do a dramatic reading of the dates that we know just I'm looking at this is Games radar, which seems to be pretty updated here. And I guess I'll just start End of August, Star Wars Zero Comany We got a release date, august twenty seventh Tle leegacy resesonance, also august twenty seventh. So that's really when it begins thenen you've got Elden Ring coming to Sitch two finally. You have the already announced blood of Don Walker. coming to us from the whichit are three folks, the zombie game, which looks pretty exciting. That's september third Marvel's Wolverine, we knew, september fifteenth, we got to see more of it here. There's a wararhammer forty K Dawn of War four game coming out september seventeenth. Do and Awakening now is coming to PS five on september twenty second Silent Hill townfall We found out is coming out september twenty fourth. You know what else is coming out september twenty fourth? contontrol resesident. everyvery other game ever. Every other game. The Sony State of Play was just a series of announcements for the last week of September. It was like, did you guys this, do you realize that there is only so much time in the day I guess they arranged it so that Syon Hill and contontrol come out september twenty fourth. So we have a whole day Th those done. Matt can do that. Matt will finish them both somehow. I don't know how he will. And he'll be ready for Onimusha way of the swword On september twenty fifth, so we have a whole day to prepare for that. You also played that game, Steve them Coming in early October, we have Rayman Legends retold on october first. There's a Dynasty WarriorsI remaster also coming that day One of my hotly anticipated games, Ace comombat wings of Thieve We have learned whatever thieve is. I'm in october second Gears of War e dayay, october sixth Star Wars Galactic Racer october sixth, another game that Steve played. Matt's most anticipated game of all time, Castlevania Belmont's Curse. october fifteenth Of course, C of Duty Mern Warfare for comes out on october twenty third Phantom Blade Zero is the laggard, I guess. It got delayed to october twenty ninth And that's it. beyond that point there shall be no games released this year because if I go to the november twenty twenty six calendar We've got GGA six out of november twentyh, no november nineteenth Sorry, I'm not announcing a GTA delay. november nineteenth. And the only other game on the calendar is Crime Light. on november fourth, veryy brave, very bold. I know that there are a couple maybe remasters coming, but but no originals everyone steering clear So what do you guys think? Is this smart? Is this Are we giving too much deference to GTA six and now everyone's going to get themselves into an even bigger problem because suddenly they'll be competing with each other instead of GTA six and maybe that'll be just as bad U I personally think that it's smart too be determined, I think it's kind of the only thing that you can do actually, because GTA six while the known quantity It's pretty much an unknown quantity as far as the massive crater of like economic gap that will be left in the gaming industry after November and its's released because any game that comes close to coming out after that is basically being sent out to die And anything that gets just ever so farther away from it before it comes out has a chance to make an impact on you. So anything that we think that we can get out in September or very, very, very early October, then it has a chance. but I think that this is probably the right move. Is it smart? No. Are we going to have to do like six podcasts in two weeks? Sure. But hey, that's what we got. Yeah, it's like some sort of tragedy of the common situation though, because it makes sense for each publisher individually to move But then when everyone has exactly the same idea and we have this onslaught, then there are going to be some games that are left high and dry in late September too because Only Matt James can play every single game that comes out somehow. So people are gonna have to make some tough choices. And even you, Matt, you sounded like you think this is maybe an over correction. Yeah, I can't handle all that, Ben. I just can't do it. I'm pretty sure you can. If vooks anybody else on this podcast. I'm pretty sure you're the one that actually can. Have no doubt, I will try I just I think that this is a little bit stupid. I think just the idea that that like when Grand Theft auto comes out No one is playing any other games or ever again X amount of time. Like like do we really think that like Rayman is a complete direct overlap in audience as the new Grand Theft Auto game. likeike I I'm not so sure about that. Do you want to take that chance, Matt? Do you really want to? Because again, it's been like fifteen years since the last biggest game ever came out. Okay, but how about I put my game out a week before GTA? It better be before, we can't be after. There's there's no there's just such a huge buffer before and after. I feel like someone is going to move around their game release A after this weekend, you're going to see some people be like, oh, you know what We're just going to move it a little bit later maybe. Yeah. Yeah, I think there will be some last minute jockeyking for position and some slippage justust because now that everyone has these dates out, you know, I guess some people are maybe able to coordinate if they have the same publisher, but otherwise, they're all just watching and waiting the way we are. And if they're suddenly like, oh crap, there are three other games coming out on the day we picked then yeah, you'd think that maybe and games get delayed anyway, so you could always use a few extra weeks of polish. So I would I would guess, yeah. And we might see some longer delays, that's always possible, right? We've seen some of that,? likeike Tomb Raider, leegacy of Atlantis is now coming out next year, Fable is now coming out next year It's possible that some other games might make that choice too, but It's risky I do think, though that it is a bit of an overreaction. I was reading something in the game business newsletter this past week where there was a study that was done on which games lost out when the last big GTA online expansion was published last year And basically it cannibalized the audiences of other online games that you might consider kind of adjacent battlefield, callall of duty, some sports games, just like the most kind of AAA mainstream. And so you know, and that's a GTA online expansion. this is a little bit different. obbviously, there's a big offline component here too, but I do think that there are some games that They're not really competitors for GTA and GTA not really a competitor for them, or at least it's still worthwhile just because there's such an opportunity cost of stacking all of these releases at one time. But As of now cancel your plans for that August to October window because we will be doing nothing but gaming All right, another thing that stood out to me here is that there was a real lack of live service J very little, hey, here's our new high guard, basically. And in fact, Jeff Kuy alluded to that. He, I think he posted on Twitter even before Summer Game Fest. He said, todayod's final announcement at Summer Game Fest will be a single player narrative game. Thank you for the feedback which was kind of funny, credit to Killie. But I think there was kind of a backlash or a fatigue or just we don't want this That's not to say that there aren't going to be any more live service free to play type games coming out because these things have been green lit years ago and have been in development forever. So it might just be an announcement strategy difference that they know that there could be a backlash given what we've seen before. And so Jeff and also the publishers are saying, let's keep a low profile. Let's go about this a bit differently than Hgard did. Maybe it's also that these games aren't getting green lit as much. Like we see the Sony state of play And it's kind of we're getting back to basics. We're getting back to single player narrative games more so than what we have been tilting at windmills about for years now. You know, there is a bit of marathon, but That was about it. Can you guys really even remember any high profile liive service stuff. I mean, you know, live service is kind of a squishy. obviously, there's MMO's and online games and Guild Wars three and whatever else, which people have been mistakenly calling ChD wars because of the fonts and choice.. Yeah. But I guess it's more the moba sort of hero shooter, arena shooter shooters basically, we just did not see much of that this year. No, I think that's a very clear sign that that's going to be a backpedaling of the industry of the unfortunate timing that we're getting a call of duty extraction shooter at the ripe ripe time that Marathons' doing just great But no, that's a very big sentiment that not only we saw from a lot of these presentations, but like it was definitely clear in the things that I saw at FGS on the campus here in L.A because this is really full of a lot of people that are passionate about getting like a single player experience off of the ground that are shown in really unique ways and if anything is multiplayer, it is either like cououch co op or direct co op in a story driven thing. and that's very refreshing for me personally to see. Oh yeah, this is music's my ears. I just I wonder whether it's more the rollout strategy that has changed Or the actual games. I think in terms of games getting green lit, we've already seen that start to change. But usually when games are getting announced at these things, they've already been in the works for a while, not in all cases. Sometimes it's hey, we're making this thing and we have nothing to show you other than a logo. But for Sona six, we promise it's totally coming and we will tell you more about it next year when it arrives. Yeah just because of the backlash, because of some of the high profile failures this was, I think, a big change in that respect. And also I didn't really sense a whole lot of hurting when it came to Everyone is copying the popular genre, and so we're seeing ten trailers that all look the same I don't know whether you guys had this impression, but I got the sense that there was a little less just Cutter, you know, because some of these showcases, it's like Everything's a souls likeake. Everything's a rogue. Okay. We see what was popular a couple years ago and everyone decided we're going to make one of these. And then every single trailer kind of is ind distinguishable from every other trailer there was a bit more variety and diversity of genre this time around. Yeah and less free to play stuff everywhere. I think, you know, the updates that you did see for things along that line. I feel like we're updates to existing live service games that were on the horizon, existing successful ones thebserver anythingy like that. refreshing to kind of get all of that garbage. not all of that is garbage But you know, get that out of the limelight so much that there isn't a bunch of garbage being made just trying to cash in And you know, I'm a big single player narrative experience guy. And I also feel like When I do have a craving for a sort of multiplayer fix, I think we're in a really nice era right now where there are plenty of indie devs making you know, really low budget, excellent multiplayer experiences, whether or not you call them friend slop or not. Um there is no shortage of great things to play with friends, even if there isn't a several billion dollar budget behind those experiences. And that's not to say there was no similarity. The similarity was that we saw lots of sequels and remakes and remasters, but It's always thus, right? It's not new that things are not new, that franchises and in some cases, new IP, but from famous franchise creators, which is the next closest thing. Fom the creator of insert franchise title here, that's one way you can get a new franchise off the ground. You have to have had a previous franchise. But We've seen that in every medium for years now. so nothing new there Also wanted to shout out another game that's braving the November window Godzilla destroy All Monsters melee. He yeah the rebaster of the two thousand two Gpe Cube that's coming out like like let's actually go. L that's so great. That's so incredibly niche. I'm so happy for that Yeah, november third. so you will have a This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, campaigns slow down, insights get buried, and opportunities get missed. That's why Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result, less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. To learn more, check out acccenture. com slash Spotify. This summer, Fandool is the best place to bet on goals. Including equalizers, Uhuh Vollies? Yeah, headters. Every goal is worth more on fandool. So let there be goals. New customers get three hundred fiftyteen bonus bets guaranteed when you bet five dollars five for seven days. twenty one plus in present and select states. First online real money wager only minimum five dollars wager required for seven consecutive days. five dollars first deposit required. bonus issued as non withdrawable bonus bets, which expires seven days after receipt. restrictions applies see full terms at fanand dool dot com slash sportsbook Gambling problem call one eight hundred gambler or one eight hundred My resSet one hundred free events sixix thousand kids One mission. Kids is using sports and evidence based wellness coaching to help kids build confidence, resilience, and the tools they need for life's challenges and opportunities. Up through august twenty twenty six, they're running one hundred free sessions for school and community based organizations near you Learn more at clinickids d. com slash one hundred K That's Clinic with a K. Clinic Kids is registered by one C three nonprofit cou weeks to get your Godzilla on before the big kaiju of video games shows up to take over everything. So yeah, okay. Also, what stood out to me is that we saw some sliding in exclusivity So this is an ongoing story, obviously, but We certainly saw a change here Sony state of play, we had a few big games that were advertised as PlayStation exclusives, which is News are surprising because it had previously been reported and announced that Sony is pivoting from its plan to publish a lot of its big first person or first party heavy hitters. on PC as timed exclusives, they come to PlayStation, then they come to PC T turns out that strategy evidently didn't pay off and those games by and large didn't sell so well And so they are not doing that anymore or at least not consistently doing that anymore. And so games like the new God of War spinoff, God of War Lao Fi and a few others are just going to be PlayStation only. So that does reflect a change for PlayStation, I think And then obviously, in the Xbox presentation We saw that too with Most notably gears of War e D which evidently reportedly was ported to PlayStation. It's just a complete PlayStation port that is done and they are just not releasing it. was not announced formally as a PlayStation game, but there was a Walmart listing that went up that said that it would be for PlayStation. They quickly took that down And so this appears to be, hey, we're throwing a bone to the Xbox die hards here, and we will not be releasing this game on PlayStation. This is an Xbox exclusive as is an upcoming RPG clockwork revolution. And they're trying to spread the needle here So we're still seeing some multi platform Xbox releases and some big ones, Fable Halo, Combat Eolve, State of Day three, Senoa, the new Hellblade game. These are all multip platform With the exception of Senua, I guess, these were all previously announced and confirmed to be multi platform So it sort of seems like if you were announced, As a multi platform game, okay, we'll stick to that. If not though Maybe we are Dialing back the exclusives. And we saw some language to this effect from Asha Sharma, who gave an interview earlier this week and said, I think it's a tough topic. We're the number two publisher in the world. and in order to be a great publisher, you must have your games reach large audiences to play. At the same time, we're increasingly becoming a platform. In order to be a platform, you must have exclusive content and services And so we're looking at that very closely. I think that we have to be very thoughtful about each title and how we want to think about it and learn from similar cases in the industry. And then she tweeted after the showcase We want people to choose Xbox, all caps That fucks because of great games and experiences. that also means giving you something that was made for Xbox Gears of War, Eday and Clockwork Revolution will be Xbox console exclusives. And the Xbox wire blog post specified that these are not timed exclusives And so games already announced as multip platform releases, we willll stick to that plan Beyond that, who knows? We're all figuring this out along with Ashash Sharma. So what do you guys think of, hey, everything is multiplatform. We just want to get games in front of the most eyeballs and potential players as possible to mayaybe we took that a bit too far. Maybe there is still some value in exclusivity. It's tough to tell whether or not the overall sentiment seemingly over at Xbox is, hey, maybe the console wars are over or wow, we really underplayed our hand in PlayStation just one But regardless of, that doesn't that doesn't really feel tantamount to the fact that the attitude around Xbox now still feels like the right one I think now after seeing this presentation, it really is starting to feel like too little too late because every time that I would see Wld preremiere, Xbox exclusive, bl, blah blah, blah blah. at the end, whenever you see that title card, you just see a little tiny steam logo and a little tiny PlayStation logo at the bottom of it. They make it smaller and smaller each time It wouldn't really matter to me because I look at everything that I see in the Xbox showcase. And I'm like, well, this is the PC showcase. becausecause I personally don't own an Xbox. I personally don't see the need to own one the moment for the generation that is seemingly missing out, quote unquote on these new Xbox exclusives, they're kind of tied to brands that we haven't really given that much time to in the long run. Like I don't think Gears of Wars mo in mountains anymore like it has. Like I could be wrong, but the motion for me personally is like Okay, gears of war feels like gears of war And that'll be then. And that'll be fun You know until I know what fable actually is, which is kind of really starting to piss me off that I don't know what that game really does or what a real swing at Halo looks like nowadays is instead of just, okay, this is just another revamp of the same F campaign, I am really kind of disappointed and feel nothing Xbox at the moment. And consoable exclusivity really has like lost most of its meaning. I'm not quite sure, Matt, am I crazy? No, you're not crazy. but at the same time, like I think that there is some strategic validity to making games exclusive on your console. and you know, Sony obviously agrees with that quite a bit having backpedaled on all their PC releases And I think this makes sense. Until done two, by the way, until Don two and Wolverine are the other big PlayStation exclusives. There you go But I do think that that for Xbox in particular, the timing of this pedaling doesn't particularly make a lot of sense. They have new hardware announced that is, you know, allegedly on the way either next year or or early the year after U they're consoles or are largely hard to find out in you know, retail stores now, the prices are out of control. for their console that has a limited shelf life now. So having the exclusivity sort of kick in again at the very back end of this generation feels like it's going to be a fairly unsuccessful pursuit. S where the thing. Is it the back end of this generation now? this generation could go on for a few more years because it doesn't like new hardware. there Yeah proroject Helix is It's coming. Yeah, I'm sure that's happening real soon. Yeah. ye. we'll see. That's what we're told. So it is it is funny the whiplash though and it's it's not Asha Sharma's fault. She takes over if she thinks that's decisions were made that are not serving the company, then it makes sense to change, you know, it doesn't make sense to just say, well, I'm bound by what my predecessor did. Obviously, predecessors were replaced and things have not been going so great. So it makes sense to change course But it does lead to a lot of whiplash because you get something like Gears of W where Gears of War reloaded came to other consoles last year and at At the time, the perception was okay, now we're kind of wetting PlayStation players' appetites for this franchise. They're getting a taste of gears of warar and then they'll be ready to hop ono e day. and now nope, they're not going to get e day. So there's a real inconsistency there, but I don't think exclusivity is everything and there are certainly plenty of Xbox players who If you put those games on game passass they couldn't care less if people can play them on PlayStation. So it kind of comes down to are the games good? And am I pleased with the value proposition here and not necessarily feeling like,, I got something you can't get. but It is tough because as consoles continue to get more and more expensive then you really do have to make a proactive case for your piece of hardware as opposed to the other piece of hardware peopleople are going to have to choose more and more, you know? It's always been something where not everyone could just snap up every console. but if things keep trending in this direction You really are going have to pick a lane. And so why would we pick your lane? And you do have to make that case? And when Microsoft surveyed players and they had a forum and everything and people are up voting, here's what I want The number one request was exclusivity. It wasn't overwhelming. There were plenty of other things that people were requesting or complaining about. but That was number one. So whether that's a skewed sample of the people who are responding to that prompt I don't know Historically speaking, I think there is some sense in just saying You can get this here and nowhere else. Yeah. and it's a little weird. like what's your number one want as a consumer? It's for other consumers to be unhappy Is that the idea I mean, ye, if everyone else is unhappy, at least I'm in good company. Sony making me so unhappy that I want Sony fanboys to be unhappy too. And that that's That's what the console Wars are all about. just making the other people more unhappy than you are. That's how you win I do think that like backackpedaling into exclusivity now, like As Asha Sharma like who has just taken over the company, like the results of exclusivity on gears of warar e Day and what's that clockwork cllockwork revolution The sales of that are going to be heavily scrutinized as like the first two titles into this, you know, exclusivity thing that we're heading back into. and and I have reason to believe that The results of that won't be that great. I think that you know, gears of words is good. I don't know anyone who's like tremendously height for this. I don't know how much We have to innovate with with Eay. We'll see. I mean, I expect it to be a very good game. I don't think it's a console seller. and We still don't know what's going on with the clockwork revolution. But again, like If you don't have an Xbox right now, like and you know there's a new one coming out like I don't think those are getting you to drop six hundred and fifty or eight hundred dollars on an Xbox just to buy those games. But atomic Green. It does look very cool. The new Lanou's translucent. Nothing beats atomicx. Nothing beats atomic purple All right, well, there are many big games to talk about whether they're exclusive or not So let's talk about the heavy hitters here. And of course, the biggest news from this whole week is that there's already a zo zero seven first lightight DLC on the way. starring our boy Bavma Lenny Kravz is coming back, baby. Wild start. Producer Devin's going be so excited Who knew that I would lead with the Bavma DLC? But man, that game is just a huge, huge hit And it's not hard to see why, but we talked about it last time. if you're just catching up We talked about Mina the Hollower, which has been a success by low budget Indie standards zer zero seven firstlight has been an absolute blockbuster. They announced two point seven million copies sold. It's probably three million by the time you're hearing this. It's the best selling IO game. I mean, it's an absolute juggernaut, which I guess goes to show that there was some pent up demand for James Bond out there, both in the video game realm. I wonder whether Amazon put out a statement to say like, well, we're gonna handle the publishing for the next one, which isn't to say that I isn't gonna develop it. But I wonder whether they're miffed at all. I mean, it's good for the brand in a sense, but also if the movie franchise is in this little lull here and suddenly First lightight comes out and just sort of steals your lunch is like, I am the capaptain now. I am James Bond, basically. Do we need a movie anymore? We have Babma So I wonder if there are mixed feelings there, especially because like you got to figure that whatever's in the works for the next Bond movie It has to be about some evil AI, right? What else could it bl about Yeah Um, I don't think that that's a I actually don't think that's a bit of a misread or Amazon's kicking themselves for not like wholeheartedly investing in IO's steak in this because like if they do have a stake, they license this out to IO and I'm sure that they get a cut of something, but they certainly don't have as much fingers in the pot as they would want to. But I'm guessing it's mainly because of the fact that like Amazon Studios hasn't really gotten anything off the ground in years when it comes to this gaming studio. And to know that an IP that they own with a studio that they don't made a massive hit with their IP is nothing but good things because whether or not they either buy IO potentially or look to either commission them again to make another one, they will reneg on making it as profitable as they can for them because now It's nowhere to go but up. Nobody can probably imagine a zer zero seven game formula unlike IO's ever again.ike this is what we want And to know that this is a hit Amazon's going to capitalize regardless. Yeah. This does confirm one of my most strongly held takes, which I wrote for theringer. com what a great website several years ago, which is that they should just let people be bond once. Just let whoever wants to play Bond and whoever would be good to play Bond, just do it once, just do a one off. It's ridiculous that we're what five years past the last Bond movie and they haven't even picked a boond yet. And I know that there's been all sorts of upheaval and the sale of the franchise and Jeff Bezo wants to put his wife in the movie or whatever, right But like We don't need to they put these constraints on themselves where look like we have to whoever we get to play Bond is going to be Bond for the next five movies and fifteen years or something Just do it George Lasenbee style, everyone, just give me, you know, do the Idrress alba for one movie, just a one off. He doesn't have to commit to be Bond. That way you get your pick of the litter because people don't have to sign away the rest of their career to be Bond. They just get to do it once And we get the variety. I get that like you get attached to a Bond, maybe, especially in this more serialized era of storytelling for Bond. But the success of this game just reinforces to me that people just like the Bond formula. We just want to see gadgets and adventures and Bond girls and fancy cars and all the rest of it and evil villains And I think it would actually help the franchise to say, let's go get the biggest star And you could just be Bond one time. Everyone will come out to see your take on Bond, and then it'll be someone else's turn And if it works out so great that you want to re up and come back and be boond more, well then you can do that. I just They're overthinking it. That's all I'm saying. and zer zo seven first light. Proved beyond all doubt that we just want more bond, just to give us more bond. But we have much more coming.'s go in kind of chronological order here. I mean, we can start with the state of play. So the big announcement here, it wasn't exactly a surprise because there had been rumors and leaks that something Santa Monica was coming and you had to figure it would be God of war related. We learned what it was It is a spin off Starring. Kratos's late wife, but not late. She's still around. She's still kicking in the every w, in the whatever it is, the realm of all of the mythologies joined together. And also Frank, the Gelatinous Cube played by Jack Quid, who is the internet's favorite Gelatinous Cube now So I feel like the Lao Fe branding. I mean, that's her name, but also no one knows how to pronounce that. I feel like they just could have gone with Godddess of War, but that's really my only note. I think other than that I in, you know, and this it takes place seemingly concurrently with the reboot games and Kritose and atatrios are of like morning their wife slash mother and evidently she's just somewhere in the afterlife kicking ass anyway. So that kind of retroactively makes all the morning funny. But what do you guys think of God of War Lao Fe? I think it looks like more God of warar to me. You have you know, a protagonist who has a, you know, more mobility, I would say. Yes. I like that faster pace and somewhat aerial at times combat Um I still think that u I don't know if we needed a twenty minute reveal here where I know where most of the time nothing's happening or you're holding R two to do something slipping through narrow passageways here and there. Of course. It doesn't seem like there's any formula that's going to be straight away from here Granted, I'm still looking forward to it quite a bit, but I could understand if anybody feels they have a bit of God of war fatigue this doesn't aim to be going in any different direction, really. Yeah. and Corey Barlug, who I always want to call Cy Balg, is now just in charge of the whole studio and the whole series as opposed to hands on directing this game, but I'm into it. It's been a few years. I'm always down for more God of War. Obviously, we're always going to get more Katos too. There's going to be more Kratos. Don't worry, people. We know that they're already remaking, remastering the old school pre woke Kratos. So, you know we're going to get our Kratos supply. D't worry, but I'm looking forward to yes, a slightly different approach to gameplay and killing lots of stuff. That's a ways out We have control resident and Silon Hill Townfall to look forward to as we covered on the same day So Steve, you played a little bit of control, right? What can you tell us I can. The section of the game that we played is basically the very beginning of it It's basically following up exactly where the first control left off I am still want to find any other game studio that has better game direction and better direction than remedy because Everything that they do is seemingly a wonderfully stylistic. homeome run in my book. Inurred contontrol resident is no different. It's basically all the bad stuff that got into the Department of Control was let out And all of the bad stuff is wreaking havoc on Manhattan and turning it into a basically strange hellscape And so frustrating how that happens. Yeah like supped to play game. Remembered. prettyict sure that happens when the Knicks will win. like it's basically down is up and zombies roam the streets. Yeah. Great side talkal content. When I got my hands on it, it's really, really different than controls first iteration because it's all DMC style melee combat and The weapons and like alterations that you get to pick for your weapon are quite unique. Move styles are very different. It's very heavy on platforming. It's very heavy on timing and use of your game intuition reflexes. No real shooting to be spoken of here But The level design in the boss battles or the one boss battle that we encountered Um that they allowed us to capture and hopefully we're going to be putting that out sooner rather than later so I can get to talk about it more is really unique and really, really exciting. Like I cannot wait to see it. And it's also like they they generenously we're like Hey, so You're going to have a great time playing this. This is going to be really cool justust notes for everybody. This is going to be running on a PlayStation five Pro. Please don't change any of the settings that we put on it. and there's like seventy percent of the sound isn't missing from this demo. A lot of work to still be done and enjoy. And Being on the campus of Summer Games Fest, it really makes me understand just how important the final three months of development are and how hard everyverybody is working to make something that as good as we know control is goo from something that's literally a lump of digital clay to that. And I loved it. It was great. I'm super psyched for control. Now you two are bigger silent Hill heads than I am, although I've gotten into it of late, but the silent Hill sants continues because I didn't expect this so soon But we have from Konami and an Anapperna, which is interesting. This is not your typical Anapperna published game. I hope there are enough fail states to satisfy the mix tape haters in this thing. Anappertna is publishing this and also a dinosaur horror game The Lost Wild, whichich I could have sworn when they were announcing, I'm like this has got to be a Jurassic park. alien isolation thing, right? That's what it is. And it's like, no, okay, no branding Alien isolation. Oh boy, we got more news there. But what do you guys think of this Silent Hill spinoff? Is it too much Syent Hill, is the Son Hill supply outstripping the demand or is your demand insatiable? It wouldn't be insatiable. It's not insatiable. But the reason I love it so much lately is because they've been willing to go in new directions with the franchise. and this seems like another new direction. And I could not be more excited. We just talked about how The new God of war seems to be kind of like another God of warar, right? And I don't think that that's what this series the Silent Hill series is doing now. they they they keep You know, there's a new bond every u every game band right. They They're doing new things with it. You don't have to be in Silent Hill with the same protagonist every time it's really exciting to me. I'm sure you feel the same way, Steve Yeah, no, Konami's got the right attitude when it comes to divvying out who they let get this franchise and take a swing at it because not only is it coming out so fast, but like every single studio that they seem to be Having take this on has a great idea for it And that excites them and that allows them to do that. And I'm like, keep doing it until it doesn't work because it's been great every single time. Well, everything is working for Capcom as well. And we had a lot of Capcom newews, some resesident evil news, which we will get to, but at the state of play We saw Oamusha Way of the Swords, which comes out one whole day after control in Silent Hill Steve, you may or may not be NDAed to some degree, but you spent a little time with the reboot of Oomusha after a couple decades. What did you think? Yeah, well they released a worldwide demo that's now available now yesay which I played Is that what you played initially? That is not what I played. I played a different section of the game U and I can't exactly describe what I touched on but I can share my general feelings about it and that isast do If you liked that demo, you are really going to love the rest of that game because it is from the demo and from what I played, definitely a really interesting mix of Modern day souls Gameplay. likeike if Ben Matt have you played the devo I finished it And so you agree. You liked it. I loved it. Yeahah, the combat feels really fantastic and I think there's enough systems around it to make every encounter feel interesting Yeah, I, you know, a lot of times with things that are souls esque or souls like, Um, you know you can feel like there's there's too much going on or not enough going on and it really felt like the perfect amount to me. So yeah, I'm I was a little unsure about the story in the game. the demo kind of drops you into a section of the game. so you know, I cant I don't think I can really Judge. uh, that quite yet, but I do think that the combat is good enough to carry me through. regardless of whether that setting and story delivers Yeah. And I would say from what I've played, you can be alleviated of your concerns with the story at least from what I've been seeing more. I don't I don't have many more details to share, but it's definitely something that I've been curious about and I definitely want to see more of because this is a really, really interesting take that they're going with for Onamusha. They're like basically taking a a famed and late deceased Japanese actor from the fifties and basasically putting him in the role as Musashi and wanting to kind of like make a bit more of a cinematic dramaticized adventure and this is really, really trying to execute that. And I was very impressed. You know what would be the funniest outcome. And I'm not hoping for this to be clear, but you have Simon Hill control Onib Busha Ace comombat eights coming out within a week or so of each other and other things. But if we get to mid September and Rckstar is like, you know what I think we need a little more time than the o. we think we're pushing back. Rockstar has the opportunity to do something so funny right now. It would be, right? I'm not rooting for this. I want GTA six to come out. Imagine if they did that after everyone stacked their releases. Now it does it should give you some confidence, I guess, because if you're still out there thinking the delay is coming, when are they going to drop the hammer Clearly, no one else thinks the delay is coming at this point. and no one knows, right? I mean, even Straff Zelnich may not know until he gets that email from Rockstar Oops, we're delaying. but Clearly, the industry has a lot of confidence that this november nineteenth date is solid and for real and is not gonna slip. I'd imagine that these people talk to each other a little bit and be like, listen, can you at least give us the runway? And like let us know that we got a shot against you, Rockstark. like, come on. Yeah, I think people would be pissed. but they're saving the industry. Yes, there would be a lot of bad bloods if Rcksar screwed everyone over, but it would be In a certain sense, it would be the funniest possible thing that could happen, but also tragic Speaking of bad blood, should we talk about Marvel's Wolverine? because we saw some extended gameplay and the blood Many people's takeaway knew we've seen some looks at this and obviously we knew that it was going to be gory and bloody. But boy It really is. So I know that there are settings in the game, so you can turn all that stuff off and you can just, I guess pale people through the skull bloodlessly, maybe. I don't know how that will work exactly, but if you're squeamish about this stuff, you can turn that off clearly really leaning into this. and you know not to say it's not consistent with the character or comics accurate or something. This is Wolverine, after all But It's quite gratuitous I'm not someone who has any sort of problem with blood in guts in media or anything. but The way that they have implemented it here I don't know. Ultimately it's just superficial and what will matter is the game fun to play. but it's just Geysers. it's just like constant being bathed in blood and then Weirdly, like whatever his healing factor is evidently applies to his suit being cleaned too because like he's just covered in red. and then three seconds later the red just mysteriously evaporates or something. So it keeps sl going away It is, right? It's like kind of jarring that it's just he's completely covered And it's not realistic looking bloods. I guess that's not what they're going for here. This is a superhero comic book game. It's over the top bloody violence. but It doesn't even look like blood. It kind of looks like Bad squibs special effects, just bursting everywhere and just slaughtering hench men and hench women equal opportunity, hench person slaying going on in this extended look here. but What did you think of this? bothoth the bloodiness of it and whatever sense we got from the gameplay, did this your interests, Steve? Yeah, this looked really, really cool. I like the idea that this is a a linear single player uncharted S game because I was worri not so much worried, but I was curious as to whether or not they would make this open world al la Spider Man. or if they would make this a bit more of like a Gobe trotting adventure and I'm glad that they went with the former because I think that's cause for a better story. And I think that's actually what I'm interested in because inssomniac has this pretty good affinity for making superhero stories in this kind of shared universe. They've said that Spider Man isn't going to make an appearance in this game and right understand why, but It kind of feels like a bit of a familiarity that we have with these characters already because we've been with the MCU. We've had we've known all these characters before when we want to see them in a new story again I Gripes about blood physics and regenerating costumes aside. I think that this is a really u fun and kind of needed step in for like superhero games in general because outside of Spider Man, I think this is kind of the one that you have to do in the Marvel space because it's like either Batman or bust over at DC. I do like how hairy he is. They definitely very hairy. Reood It's all blood hair. Yeah. Yeah. blood in the hair, you'd think like if the hair got dried gibbets in there, then that would be even better. But no, it just goes away. But I think the original story aspect of it. So that is something that we kind of learned here. So yeah, there's no crossover with Spitey. There might be references and Easter eggs and everything, but they're not doing a full on crossover. among their Marvel franchises, and obviously They've gott to be working on the next Spider Man game. So no fears about that. But there's also just no X men in this game Now there are X people. There are people that we recognize as X men. and we saw Jene Greay obviously, and there will be others, but they are telling an original story here which will differ a little bit from anything we've seen before, which is good, I guess, right? And instead of the X men, we have TamX, which is completely different. It's a big, big rebrand. but so you got Gene Greay, you got Mystique, you know, some familiar faces will show up. Saber toooth is sort of a frenemy W'll be here, but yes, they are sort of establishing their own continuity here for better or worse. Matt, what did you think? I liked what I saw. I was a little distracted by I guess the consistency and physics of the blood as well. Yeah and the of the blood sllowly fading off of the Do you know intimately what how blood works, Matt? that is that a thing that you're into? Not particularly Steve, but you know, I've played a video game or two and I've seen some some blood fly around in some video games and it's usually not all that distracting for me, but this time, little bit distracting. I mean, I don't know if the solution is like Like once once it gets covered in blood, you can't just like set everything in the suburbs and have him run through lawn sprinklers every two seconds or anything. So I get it has to kind of just rain a lot. Fade away eventually. but crossover between Marvel's Wolverine and Power Wash simimulator where you just clean off Wolverine after absolutely down for that. But I think that u The action The controls look look like they're going to be pretty good for me. This is going to hinge a lot on this story and the portrayal of this character if This Wolverine feels like Logan should feel or a new take on that that resonates. And if The storyline is good. I think that this is going to be An absolute banger. If it is not all that great, I I think that there's a chance that this game is just good, But we will see soon enough, thankfully I could imagine it being just good. I mean, just seeing the extended gameplay there. There didn't seem to be a lot of, I know there was some sneaking around, but it seemed sort of extraneous when you could just stab people through the head quite easily, seemingly. I don't know. Maybe the person playing was just really good at the game. They made it after all, but it seemed like, why am I bothering to sneak up when I can just impale people in this way? Anyway, in Insomniac, I trust rarely do they go wrong? You got to just bank on the track record there. This is a little bit different from what they have done recently, but obviously they have a lot of success with more linear action oriented games. And this is a bit more adult oriented or bloody than we are used to seeing from Insomniac. You got toa imagine, it'll be polished, it'll be beautiful It'll be bloody, it'll look and feel good. ends Other games I guess we could just briefly touch on from the state of playay. we got until done to coming next year Which gosh, that's the sequel to a game from twenty fifteen, is it? It's been a while. so that's a dozen years that we've been waiting for until Dawn sequel I am excited about Stuntman coming back. Yeah, Stuntman. not Stuntman. Yeah, I mean, Stuntman Hollywood, which is It's kind of interesting. they're fortnightifying stuntman and it' it's a natural brand to do that where they're just getting licensed crossovers where you can be a stuntman in the Fast and the Furious or whatever it is, some sort of driving oriented game. I mean, that kind of makes sense, I think for this series, obviously. And It's been a long time since we saw a Stuntman. I'm trying to remember any sick jumps in back to the future. Yeah. I don't know, but I'm sure there's plenty of opportunity for licensing and crossovers and brand extensions here. And you guys know I'm a fan of driving games, more so than racing games. so Stuntman is up my alley Anything else from the state of play or something that didn't show up at the state of play catch your eye or fail to? I had a few Yeah I announced a Boncho the Chef been off of Dave the diverave the diver Um Suchi, fishing Cookking L lookooks great love Dave the Diver veryer happy to be doing anything in that universe. Can't wait for that. Two excellent PC games coming to PlayStation September and October, Dune and awakening, september twenty second No rest for the wicked in October which I'm looking forward to. And then of course the biggest announcement, guitaru manan to PS plus Classics. Wild choice. Yeah Anything else you want to mention, Steve, any shout out? No For the state of play, No, there's a couple of things that I had scene there that I'm still excited for, but like the main ones we're going to come to later. Oh, the toomb Raider legacy of Atlantis er was That was fun. Pretty encouraging. and that hast releasedate of february twelfth. Yes So hopefully GTA doesn't get delayed to that. you know, I think I've mentioned that you know I am notot like super excited by Tomb Raiders usually. like I like it just fine. but this trailer did kind of point me into a more positive area with it. I'm actually kind of getting excited for that now. Yeah And we also saw a game from Ikumi Nakamura which is Kind of like u deemon hunters, Jiu Jitssu Kaisen sort of action game, which u Good Muray. prettyretty darn interesting Yeah. So That was cool. Iill. which is a survival horror game that looks extremely scary and probably not at all for me, but it will be for some people when it comes out. next year. Yeahah, that's for you guys. Have fun. Enjoy it And all in all, you know, it wasn't anything super shocking or breathtaking at the state of play, but it was fine, right? It it played the hits, it played the games that will probably be hits and the games that everyone expected to see and wanted to see and would have been disappointed not to see. So Deent slate.. And that was the prelude T summer Game Fests. Now I gott to say, I mean, obviously as a huge Star Wars guy I'm pretty excited that The rest of this year in Star Wars is video games. I mean, that's it. Star Wars belongs to video games for the rest of this year which says something about Star Wars and the pace of releases and the falloff in the box office of Mando and Grogu. But putting all that aside Put aside all the negativity and is Star Wars ruined and will they ever make a good movie Slidehow again? Games look good So let's let's let's savor that at least And Zero Company comes out august twenty seventh. And then Racer, which I'm very envious that you got to play, Steve comes out in October and october sixth to be specific. and we got trailers, we got story trailers for both of these things and They appear to have substantial stories. particularly the Xcom like zero company which is set in the Clone Wars era. We got a little hero shot of Anakin P Darth at the end of this trailer And it looks like they're really trying to develop this into a meaningful story, which is because the Xcom like gameplay is great, but when you get that sort of outside of the tactical turn basase, just like you get to wander around the levels, You get to get a feel for who these people are That's not my favorite genre, but I think when you package it in this way pretty excited. And then, you know, the story for racer is a little less ambitious, obviously. we just played Fortza Horizon. The story in games like this is You want to race well, basically, right? But with Subulba this time. So Gact to Gacer also just looked really cool. And Steve, I am very eager to hear how it played. This game might be a banger guys. This is yeah, really, really, really cool. I got to see quite a bit from the floor and we got to do like a couple of like co op races along with some walking around in your like garage area basically. And that's tied a lot into the story of this campaign. L you're a racer that is kind of building up their reputation and building up their garage full of uh racing with like your mechanic and you're basically your manager And there's a really cool intricate garage system and there are also management elements that you can like Co alongside with the development of your racing vehicle, like you can customize them quuite a bit. and if you want to make it a pod rac or, if you wanted to make it a speeder or, if it's a dual engine C like racer. Hovercraft, all of those things are available to customize and to race with. And the racing, which is the most important part, feels great And I'm very, very excited for people to get their hands on this because this is a This could be really, really, really good. Do really feel the do you feel the burnout? That's what yeah, do you and how fast does it feel? Is it like F zero, you're barely in control No not F zero. it is closer to burnout where You don't feel sluggishly slow but fast, but it's like fast, but you are definitely in control of most of those things. You can't do like hairpin turns or like Tokyo drrift it, but there's a lot of maneuverability in between that. This is extremely exciting to me Gaming is coming up big. Gaming will save Star Wars. That is what is happening over the next few months. hopefully Now, I know you guys have some thoughts on the code Veronica remake, which is now just called It is Resident evvil Veronica. So we've talked a lot about Capcoms success and how they managed to G us something old, give us something new. In Onamusha's case, something old that is also new, they have managed to just, hey, we're starting new IP. hereere's Pravata. you like that? Great, Weve formed a new franchise. Oh, we're digging deep into our back catalog and giving you a new Onamusha game. We're going to keep making new resident evils, but we're also going to keep revisiting the back catalog And we're going back to the Dreamcast days. We're going back to Y two Kave and Code Veronica. and it looks like this is first person And it's coming in twenty twenty seven Mat, didid you gasp? Did your jaw drop? Is this the resesident evil that you wanted to be remade next. This is the one I loved this game when it came out on the Dreamcast I probably remember about twenty percent of it by now. But I do remember having a really great time with it. I am curious to see if it actually will be first person if it'll be more of what they did for Requiem where you can switch between first or third person. I would think that that they would do that again u, because people did like that flexibility in requiem and think you want to away once you've sort of given it out. But yeah, we didn't see any gameplay to speak of Claire, in a cinematic that looked great Any notes from you, Steve? I know that RE Engine is going to be working overtime for Capcom and it's been doing great. I I don't really have that much of an affinity for code Veronica, but it's if it continues to be as good as all the other RE entries have been, I'm in. now We mentioned alien isolation. Alien isolation too had been previously teased But now we got a good look at it And I am already terrified in anticipation, but in a good way game looks great, as far as I can tell from two minutes of footage. And it's exciting that it's in a colony setting on a planet So it's not a space station, it's not in space. People can hear you scream. And it looks kind of like alien Earth style setting And so I like that there might be a bit more variety in the kind of biomes where you are being hunted down by the xenomorph. But I am worried that I just will not be able to handle next gen alien isolation too, because I could barely handle playing it like on switched or wherever. I finally forced myself to play it for an anniversary for the podcast. but These kind of graphics brought to the sheer terror and suspense of alien isolation too Not sure that I will be able to handle it, but I will do my best. seems very stressful. ye yeah, it does. Also, I think they should not brand it as AI too as they were in the trailer because people say AI and immediately down vote. Yeah, it's like they know that it's bad or something. Just stick with alien isolation. But I'm excited. We still don't have a release date, but take your time fellas, and I will use that time to get my nerves ready for this game We have to talk about final fantasy So This instead of high guard, this was what Keey was alluding to. This was the closer, this was the big Game, Final Fantasy seven, Revelation will be the final game in the remake trilogy. and it will be a simultaneous release on all systems. So no one will have to wait to get this Coming out in spring of twenty twenty seven. And we got a great look at the high wind to be confused with Highguard which it seems that you can just Fly this thing everywhere and parachute off it anywhere I don't know if it'll be that permissive in reality, but that's the way that This made it look, at least. And you know, we've seen a lot of games lately doing the sort of Tears of the Kingdom. We can just dive to the ground from on high And if there really is that sort of freedom where this is the biggest open world in this trilogy yet and you can kind of explore it in a nonlinear way and just G to the ground wherever you want to, I wonder whether it would be that permissive. but That got me pretty hyped Yeah, this seems like the promise of what the rememake trilogy is going to deliver on. Like this is the thing that everybody imagined it. when it would be this one Big Sin. Uh To know that you basically are fortnighting into the map from Highwind is kind of insane And the amounts of reworks that they're I think the reworking of this combat from what they're they've been showing to us, they've been very conscious about how to streamline this every single other game and now that it seems like it's kind of been perfected in this third one. I think that's probably my biggest thing because like as much stumbles as their second remake was as it had as far as like side questions, I won't say bloat, but like it's more of like, okay, you can really do everything here. This seems a bit more focused as far as like an open world We're here to discover and we're here to bring this like final chapter home. I'm really, I'm really liking what they what they're doing with this one I uh love the combat system throughout this Femake trily and it seems like, you know, they're adding sort of job system on top of what we got in Raybirth. which looks very intriguing. I'm glad that they're, you know, not starting the combat from the ground up because they really got a good thing going here. That's exciting. and just This third one was always going to be a chance to spend more time with Vincent Valentine and Sid and those are Two of the fun characters for me in the series. I'm really looking forward to that Probably gonna be a banger and you know releasing on all platforms at once U that should be a pretty good idea, I think for for Square Enix U And now that everything else is available, even on like swwitch two, you know They're giving people plenty of time now to kind of catch up before revelations comes out. Yes. I am pretty impressed. I am pretty excited We got a few other announcements, a couple of cuphead games coming. We didn't see them, but they're in the pipeline somewhere as the resident trucker, I am pretty excited for Star Trek Shadow Frontier Speaking of sci fi, psychological horror. mayaybe not quite as horrifying as alien isolation, but it's made by Bloober Team. the studio that made the Silion Hill to remake and it stars Roeron of TNG. So this is an interesting crossover of brand and developer. I'm very into it What else did we see at Summer Game Fest? We should maybe acknowledge teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the last Ronin coming to us from Platinum Games. which will hopefully redeem itself, right? Because Platinum Games made a Ninja Turtles game and it did not quite live up to the high standards of the developers of Bayonetta and Vanquish and Nar Autamata and Everything else, Ninja guaiden four. There was Tam Mutant of Turtles Mutants in Manhattan, right back in twenty sixteen. notot Platinum Games' finest work, but I like the idea of adapting this property, the last Ronent and just having sort of a revenge quest Turtles with the ion experts. I'm in. Platinum, my old friend, I missed you so much. It's really something that I think that I personally need, not so much that I'm The biggest fan of the I love the turtles. I don't what I'm saying Wh I'ming I think the fact that I just needed a damn good Platinum game It feels like I haven't personally touched one in so long and it's really just refreshing. I'm like, man, it's in good hands. I don't I have no problems with this whatsoever You could go get ninja Gaiden came out last year Yeah, we played it. That exceeded my expectations by a lot. So I'm really excited for this. I wasn't familiar with Nine Turtles' last Ronin. So maybe I want to read that comic mini series before this game comes out or maybe I don't. I'm not sure. but I know it's a beloved series Go cold, surprise yourself, no spoilers. Yeah. you alluded to this earlier, Matt, I think, but The new Fito Witer game which is no longer called Project Robot It's called Jen Atlas. which is again, cllose to Jen A G A I don't stay away from the AI and the gen A, but I am pretty excited. off course, the Autur, the maker of Eco and Shadow of the Classus and last Guardian. and he appears to be on his bullshit for this game and I cannot wait because It looks like we're playing as a little robot who is friends with a big robot, and sometimes the little robot interfaces with the big robot and you control one or you control both of them. There always has to be some giant thing and some smaller thing. So that's kind of the hallmark of a good way to game, but this looks a little different. act oriented, maybe there's like a little shooting going on here. They're shooting. Everyone's going melee and and're they're zagging. They're going they're putting shooting in the series and these these games haven't had them in them before. So it feels so strange to see that a gun in one of in one of his games now and I'm for it But it feels like of any of these Developers, I feel like I need to know the least about what's going on with this game before I play it because I feel like it not only would it make me more skeptical, but it would probably just like warp my expectations in such a way that I wouldn't actually know how to calibrate. Yes. And we don't know when we will be back exactly, and probably not for a while, but I'm excited I can't wait to find out the specific way in which this game is impossible to control because you know that it will be impossible to control in some fashion, but it will be a different fashion and I can't wait to find out. Weve got another few announcements or confirmations or release dates or proof of Les. We got the Wolf Among U too next year after a long wait, we got a new stellar blade blood rain on the way. We saw a little bit of Clutch, the open world racer from some Fortts of Vveterans and Also, we got a little to look at sixteen sixty six Amsterdam which appears to be Hey, remember Old School Assassin's Creed? D you like that? Would you like to play some more of that? Well, can I interest you in sixteen sixty six Amsterdam, a game made by one of the makers of Old schoolchool Assassin's Creed, PatriceeZay Pretty good. Yeah, I played that demo too Um, and u does feel a bit like a double A game rather than like a triple A game. But I will say the vibes are there and I am pretty excited based on that demo to keep playing that game reallyally really like the art style u very sort of creepy storytelling going on here. lots of Mystery to unravel. Yeahah, pretty hyped on on what I played sixteen sixty six Amsterdam Yes, I am excited for that as well. All right, anything else that we need to mention from suummer Game Fest before we finish up with the Xbox showcase? Yeah just a polite fuck you, Jeff Keey, for messing with me on the commit your heart. to this thinking that there was going to be a Kingdom Hearts announcement and just like general wordpl fuckery that he was clearly doing just to mess with me personally. That was real fun. I appreciate it, Jeff Thank Jeff. Yeah. There's a game called Crossfire which is a different crossfire from the crossfire that we've seen before. This is, I think, a single player crossfire, but it's got a really cool cover system which is tough to tell if you just watch footage, but based on some of the hands on previews that I read This appears to be Next genen cover. For too long, we've just been following the footsteps of gears and you have a bunch of waist high barriers and you go to a new area and suddenly there arere a bunch of barriers set up and you think, Oh, well, there's going to be a firefight here. and then you crouch and you stick to the barrier. and well, we all know the drill And the conceit of crossfire seems to be Everything is covever And it's meant to be a bit more realistic or a bit more like how actual combat works, which is the hell out of the line of fire any which way you can. And so you're kind of crawling around and adapting to the environment in what appears to be a pretty interesting way. So The game it looks kind of just like a generic sort of sci fi a shooter But the cover system That's the hook. So to win back covert operations. You know, when there's a new innovation in cover, that's always exciting and it does feel like we're overdue for one. It does, yeah. We saw Guild Wars three, which is a big deal Hopefully Yeah, it's been Almost fifteen years since G War start a long time. I think Guild Wars carries quite a lot of goodwill amongst its community to want to continue on because it's really been a bit of an untouched a gem of an MMO for its small little family of a community because it it's reallyally held strong and to know that we're getting a third one after this long really is a testament to how well loved it is. And I'll admit it was a blind spot, but I'm like, Damn, we really are fucking with guild wars like that. All right, great I was an original Guild Wars guy. and I got pretty into it, but yeah, it's been a while for me. so maybe this is where I get back into Gillsworst. But I don't know, doing that also is something that could maybe entice me to. otherwars won't be tntill next year, so We're staggering the MMO's a little bit here. And I guess we can just wrap up with a few more thoughts on Xbox. We touched on some of this already, but we got a release date for Halo Combat evolved. And good news, it's not coming out in late September. It's coming out in late July, getting ahead of the rush. This was actually sort of an open spot on the calendar July twentyi eighteth, combat evolved. Single player only, but there is some new content, three new missions operation Meteorite. And this, of course will be a multi platform release. My excitement is somewhat You did, I guess, given that there's no multiplayer and there's not that much new stuff, but I'm glad that there's something new and it is still sort of disorienting to see original Halo get Re enngine Fiv like this, but for anyone who wasn't around way back when to play with our giant controllers and our system link cables, well Now this is your chance to experience the first Halo adventure. And three new missions, you know Th those could be pretty significant, you know, it's not necessarily the shortest missions in Halo. so We'll see what we can get. I'm pretty excited about it Okay We talked about a day. I wanted to You know, one last thing from Summer Games Fest. I wanted to mention how much I hated to see two pac popping up in Okay stranger than heaven. Okay, you know what So glad you mentioned that, Ben. So, so glad you mentioned that. tellell me tellell me why you don't like that Oh, well, he's dead and he couldn't say that he wanted to do that. Right. And also on top of that, distraction casting This is there's you couldn't cast anything more distracting then Tp right. You just couldn't s There's no one more distracted in a game. It's really not snoop doog. Not Snoop Dog. No. He's still alive. He consented to this. So noope Okay. Well, yes, New here's the beautiful thing, Matt You're correct about all of these things. No Tupac did not consent to this because he has passed away. and his estate has signed off on this, which is more or less his family. they have given their blessing and I'm sure they were compensated for that generously. And all things aside, it seems like this is a level of, you know, video game stunt casting that the game directors wanted to put in the game and they were allowed to do so. And I feel like if this were to outrage you, we need to keep the same energy to all of Bruce Lee's kids becausecause I certainly don't think that anything worse that came from Bruce Lee's, you know, beserched legacy of selling vodka from a CGI enhanced version of himself. is going to be anything worse than this. I don't like it as sure Matt. Matt will concede that that's bad too. No, that's also bad Whatabout ism? they're all bads. Yeah. And I hate to resort to whatabout ism, but like yes, it sucks. It really does suck. but I'm like all right They did it. You're resigned to it, Yeahes, you're used to it It is it is stunt casting I think for sure And it is weird. The the people online have also just and hating. You know, they don't like it. But also there's there's this odd conflation that people are doing where they're like, okay, so there's this thing that I don't like where they've basically brought somebody back from the dead in a game that and in a move that I feel like tasteless and a money grab Fine But then equating that to be like, oh man, they better not have used AI to do this. And it's like a very bad faith interpretation of on the part of the game devs to just assume that just because they did one thing that you don't like would mean that they now did a second thing that you don't like Yeah, thank God the Tupac hologram was in a pre AI timeline, you know R L like holy shit. like they're kind of like the fvonse for that now Right. Yeah, I guess does it even matter? I guess it's doubly bad if you get AI to make to resurrect the person who didn't consent. No no seeing use of that. That recreated tupac is for real. Yes, some actual artists labored to bring back to life without his consents, but yeah, anyway Didn't expect the Tupac reveals, but sorry for the diversion. We can go back to the Xbox showcase. No, that's why it cannibalized a lot of the discourse when that was announced Yeah. So so we got a longer look here at Fable. not every question has been answered. but H at well. We'll be playing Isabelle in this game. A lot of I'm sure that some subset of the internet is mad about how many female protagonists were announced in these games, but nice to see, as far as I'm concerned, And I guess Isabel is maybe a batdie, but and a villain. Batty A batdie and a villain. It's Hiley outell. Anyway This game is actually coming in next February. I think we can kind of count on that now. It is funny that when Xbox announced that this game is being delayed till February and said it was because of the log jam of releases, everyone was like, sure, Microsoft, we know why it really is. It's because of GTA Well, maybe they had a point about the log jam of Releasis actually. take a few extra months to work on Fateable. It's okay. We will get to it when we get to it. But yeah, it's interesting because this trailer was kind of You know than you are used to with Fable, but then also interspersed with kind of classic very British Fable humor. So I don't know exactly what the tone of this game will be and maybe it will be a mixture of tones. But yeah, we didn't get a long look at gameplay here, but we've gotten some sense of what it will be, but Steve, you sounded dissatisfied with how much we still don't know about this game? Yes frankly because I know that Moinew isn't anywhere near this project, but the mere fact that I think that the juice that this game has For its hype has no need for the justification based on how little we know about it because all we know now is that Richard Awadee and Haileley Atwell are in it now And there's a ragtag group of seemingly very attractive twenty somethings that are now our heroes. Does this not look a little bit likeike Dragon Age Vail guuard to you. This this not feel for the wrong reasons where It's just going to be like we're bringing it back and it looks like this and it doesn't look like it used to, but it's still going to be good That's all I feel when I see anything having to do with this new fable, that I don't know how it plays yet. Yeah, I'm reserving judgment. It's been in the works for so long. The track record is so spotty, who knows? I have high ish hopes, but a low degree of confidence about them being fulfilled We also saw state of decay three. It lives. it's still in the works eventually. and Everyone's dreamcast nostalgia, millennial nostalgia was triggered by crazy taxi Wor Tour which we knew was coming But when that offspring hit, it took me back, I will say, took me back to the code Veronica original crazy taxi days Evidently, there was some Gin AI used in making assets for this game too, or at least that's a disclaimer. So That stinks if so because I don't want any reason not to get hyped for Crazy Taxi. It kind of looks more or less like Crazy Taxi, you know, It's been a quarter century. I don't know that they've changed the gameplay loop a whole lot here, but You just pump some offspring through my speakers and give me a taxi and I will drive around. Reading the tea leaves in this trailer, I feel like The villain of this game might be Uber. Yeah, the gig economy. Yeah. L Rind sharing. And I think that's probably genius. Yeah. It could be. Yeah. You're like old school, you know, you're trying to earn your medallion or something and then or you are the driver who's being exploited. Yeah, I'm not playing crazy taxi for the story typically, but if that's the innovation, all right, sure And as I mentioned, the new Hellpllade game, it seems like they're leaning into the action aspects of that series as opposed to the extremely cinematic gameplay that we saw in the last one. Also Syro backyro Syro A realm beyond coming next year Always good to see the purple dinosaur being back again in the Xbox case. not the PlayStation one That's right. Yes. it's changing colors, the mascots. who knows who represents whom anymore? And Castlevania Belmont's Curse coming october fifteenth. Matt, I assume, that you are circulating that on your calendar Okay. All right, well, I think we covered the main news. There's just one more item that we should probably address and that is the fact that there's about to be free DLC for Cairirn. No, that's not Is that true though? Extremely excited. It is true. Oh nice. I didn't hear that. That's great. Yeah. Yeah, you get to climive over water now. I'm pretty pumped about it. And you know, of course, there's a new Wichher expansion coming? and a new witcher eventually, but next year, new Witcher three expansion after however many years. So that's exciting. but We did get confirmation From Valve that the steam machine is coming this summer And I don't know if you guys have looked at a calendar lately, but summer starts in two weeks. So it could be late summer, but even if it's late summer pretty soon And we still have no idea what this thing will cost or how many units will be available. But for anyone who was worried as I was that This thing was gonna slip. past this summer, past this year. It appears not. It appears that Valve has stockpiled Enough inventory and enough RAM that they can get the thing out the door. you know, how many people will be able to buy it? Maybe that won't be a problem because it'll cost one thousand five hundred bucks or something. I don't know. But yeah. I mean, that's going to be the moment of truth, but it was it was news to even confirm that it's actually still coming soon. Yeah, good luck on that. man, I just don't know how that can be successful at the price point it needs to come out at which is a massive bummer. because I know if this came out two years ago, you know, before all of this AI buying up all of the computer components man, what a product this seems to be Yeah, at the moment, it feels like you know that meme of like the tornado and it's that guy being like here it comes and like it's and it coming is the foregone conclusion that you will have to probably spend like fif five hundred dollars on this now. like an exorbitant amount of money if you really want it It will never be made again. that's the and that's the massive bummer that we're going to have to hold all deal with We will see well, we got to get that reveal of the price soon. just sucks that we're dreading this. It sucks that like we're not looking forward to what this thing is now. Yeah. I mean, Ben, you would want one of these if the price were right, right? Oh, yeah, I'll be first in line if it's anywhere near affordable. or if they send me one. But that's not something that they will do for most people and perhaps not even us. So yes, but in theory, I want one. I am the target market and that market will be restricted if it costs as much as it probably will. So they must be waiting until the last second because they must still be figuring out how much can we sell this thing for and get people to buy it? be underwater and not have to have gabave sell his mega yacht or something. So Yeah, fingers cressed. we will see. Steve, is there anything You want to say about Phantom Blade Zero, which is coming in late October? becauseuse you got some chance to play that, right? but there's only so much you can divulge. Yes, I did. and there is only so much that I can divulge, but I can talk about again, my excitement about this because from what we got to play and see of this game that's going to be coming out pretty soon is It's quite exciting. The amount of combat that you've gotten to see over the course of several trailers and U demos that have been out there for you to consume It really does play as good as it looks. I can tell you that this is definitely not the souls like that you're thinking of. It is very much a character action game that is focused on like weapon and combat variety that is Really, really punchy and very responsive and very easy to pick up and quite difficult to master. And yeah, that's really all I can say. All right. Before we wrap up, Matt, we don't want to focus exclusively on the AAA stuff on the big platforms. So tell us a little bit about Day of the Devs because you checked out some interesting indie games Yeah, there's a few through Day of the Devs and the other showcases this past week that really caught my eye There's a game called Tenebrithomnia, which is like an old school pixel adventure game that interspllices like incredibly high production value like film segments I it, it looks really interesting. There's a music game that looks has a very cute art style called Mr. Records that looks excellent. If you're a fan of old school sixteen bit era JRPGs, there's There's one called Threads of Time that was announced, it looks really promising Um They dropped a trailer for a new trailer for a game called Screenbound, which we've seen before, which is the game where you're walking through a three D environment while holding like a game boy and looking at where you are in two D on the game Boy while right. So a demo dropped for this as well, which I played through And let me say at first, it is really hard to wrap your brain around. the three D and two D at the same time by the end of the demo I was starting to get the hang of it and I could see how they could add in new gameplay systems. So I'm definitely still keeping my eye on screenbound. That was pretty promising when I played. U there is a fighting game rogue like called O shot fighters Um And the idea is as you progress through your run, you add new moves to your two D fighter. U So that seems pretty exciting. If you're a rogue like fan and a fighting game fan, I haven't really ve seen this done before. in the Xbox showcase, they showed off a game called Vivarium. U which looks like an eighties, nineties anime art style while being like a life sim, it looks absolutely gorgeous. a similar art style to u orbitals, the other that's the switch to, I believe, exclusive anime style shooter that's coming out. That's nice to see that. early state Yeah, nice to see that art style making its way into some games. And finally Bad magpie was unveiled in the Xbox showcase That looks Really great. This is like a bird that only has one wing functioning, sort of making its way through the world, really awesome art style Definitely looking forward to that as well. So there's then there are a bunch more, of course, there's no shortage of great indie games on the horizon I alwaysways want to highlight a few Very exciting stuff Yes, excellent. And this has been an absolute avalanche So everyone girger loins for September and October and that pre GTA period And there's going to be more to come, you know, because there are games that have been announced for this year that we still don't have release dates for. Those are going to be added. When we get that Nintendo direct, there's more Nintendo news to come. We have some insight into what Nintendo's doing, but we definitely don't know what they have planned for the holiday season and whether they will be afraid of the big bad GTA. So Boy. The games have been good already. We thought we were busy in May. We had not seen anything yet. September is going to be nuts. We got a bunch of good games coming before then too. Later this month, we have the Adventures of Elliot We have the Starfox remake here at Buttmesash. We're going to be playing that and discussing it. We're also going to be doing a thirtieth anniversary Nintendo sixty four draft Pak millennial content for everyone And then of course, Assassin's Creed's Black fllag Rnct comes out next month. There's a new backyard baseball, Splatoon Raiders, Halo So We will have our hands full even until we get to August and the deluge begins Marvel Token fighting Souls coming early in August. So lots to be excited about careare to share what caught your eye at Showcase Week Please write to us, Ringverse gaming at gmail. com if we left anything out that you think is worth mentioning We want to hear about that too Thank you guys for hopping on on a weekend so that we could bring button Mash to the masses a little sooner. Of course. happappy to be here. And Steve, thanks to you for producing as well, what you are about to do. And thanks to our Junor Rem G Pal for his senior podcast management. and thanks to everyone for tuning in Also, thanks to all the people who make games for giving us so much to play and so much to discuss. But Nash will be back a little later this month