TGI 650 – Ghost of E3 2025

you Welcome to the Gamers Inn. Come on in, pull up a chair next to the fire. It looks like you've had a long journey. I'm your host, Jocelyn, and joining me as always is my co-host, Ryan. Hello, Ryan. Hello, Jocelyn. How's it going? Happy 650! We have no nostalgia planned. Don't worry, you guys. Wow. I mean, it's a fitting episode number for the celebration that is the Ghost of E3 2025. That's true. That's true.

A couple trailers dropped in the last week. A couple. Yeah. Oh, God. So many. And I don't know. Maybe it's because it's like less. I don't want to say less organized. I guess it is technically less organized because there used to be like E3 was the event, right? So... And then everybody started doing the directs and now everyone's off doing their own directs. But I don't know. It just feels like this year there were so many because we had.

playstation xbox and then the summer games fest right so yeah i felt like there was just so so many like trailers and announcements that like more so than previous years i don't know why And some of them I was just like, OK, why? Yeah. Next trailer. Come on. Like, yeah. Like, are we filling time or? Well, I think it's I think gaming has just grown so much that, you know, when we think of what E3 was, you know, five, ten years ago, it was a scheduled.

three-day event where you had a guaranteed presentation from Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo.

Ubisoft EA like it was very predictable like every company brought their best structured I guess yeah yeah exclusive and structured I feel like which was also you know in the end I think their downfall i just wonder if maybe this year we've we've swung too far in the other direction yeah this is the uh the cable television to streaming back to cable television setup that we're experiencing right now where

I think you have a mix of, I think Xbox is still the one that is like clinging to the E3 of old format where it is a traditional sort of. direct style presentation nintendo like it's not even i mean outside of the switch launching the week of they really haven't been present in terms of announcements. They actually have the new and shiny thing in folks' hands. Yeah. But Summer Games Fest is this, like, E3 was never this...

here's a showcase of all the random video games that paid to be in our, in our trailer fest. So it has changed and yeah, I don't know. Like, do I miss the more structured approach? I think I do. In the sense that I really do appreciate like the big threes sort of seeing them put their best foot forward. I mean, it's nice to potentially see some indie titles that I wouldn't have otherwise.

be exposed to sure but i i don't know if the like best of the best indies are going to have the marketing budget to buy spots in summer games fest right so there's like this weird crossover of titles that somehow have money and backing and are also indies, I guess, but not necessarily. Yeah, I don't know. I just, I was a little, some of the points in these presentations, I was like, okay, guys. Because there was like, well, you've highlighted as games that you think are either.

interesting or that you are actually interested in playing, you've highlighted 22 titles. I just went down and counted 22 titles and you didn't even, that's not everything that we saw. Like that's, we've talked about it before. Like the, just the. fire hose of games that's coming at us now because of all the different platforms and all the different developments and how much the industry has grown. And, you know, you don't get two games a year anymore.

Like, yeah, I just I guess I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by the fire hose. Yeah. And it seems crazy that there's 22 games that you think are worth highlighting and talking about. Like, I don't even know how many we left out. Oh, we left out quite a bit. Yeah, we probably like only chose every like third or fourth game. So you chose every three or four games. Five altogether, guys, that I was like, this looks like made for me. I'm excited.

Yeah, I am looking at these again. I'm like, do I remember all of these? We didn't. Obviously, we didn't cover every showcase. I think there was at least four or five other showcases.

Yeah, we're just talking PlayStation, Xbox, and Summer Games Fest. We're not talking about all the... Because there's usually like an Ubisoft and a... Ubisoft skipped. Does EA normally do one? They used to. I think EA is in a weird... position with with everything going on but there's like the future games fest there's the pc gaming show uh pc gaming one that's the one that i was thinking of that's always like super boring

There's a lot of overlap too. Like once you get outside of like the big three or the big four, depending on if Nintendo is showing up to the party. But I like, there was a lot of overlap when I was looking at some of the other ones and. And, you know, we're I feel like on this show, we're really good at like showcasing showcasing the showcase. Yeah, true. I guess that as well. But I think that.

When these games actually come out, that's when we really do see them and play them. And it's really hard to judge based on a trailer, especially when they are being thrown at you, you know, constantly during this week. well should we should we just start with this and then we can chat about what we're okay let's just let's just jump right into all these showcases then because i feel like we're it's the best of the segues

So we'll start with PlayStation. And I'm going to let you go first because there was only one thing that kind of like jumped out at me. And I think it's on your list as well with a really funny like note. I honestly don't know. It's an accurate note. So let's talk about everything else and then we'll talk about our crossover. So what did you see in the PlayStation State of Play that made you excited?

Right. So two smaller titles, the first being very weird and wacky called Baby Steps. This was another look that we got at this like. This game, it's like a walking, it's literally a walking scene. I remember this one. There's just something so unsettling about it, unsettling. In the humor and the way the character moves. I don't know. It's weird. I remember when we first saw this one, which I think was somewhere in and around, like, maybe it was at the Game Awards.

I feel like it was about like six months ago. And I was like... That looks like the most like frustrating game. Like, why would anyone want to play that? You're right. It's weird. It's unsettling. You don't move properly and not moving properly is a big pet peeve of mine. Yeah, there's just and there's also something about the way the characters talk. And it's just this really weird, quirky humor. And I'm trying to.

It's by the QWOP folks, right? The QWOP. Is it the same developer? I don't know. Yeah, I'm trying to figure that out. It's hard to tell based on just... this game but anyways it like there's just something about the humor that stood out to me and um it felt very like adult swim awkward cartoony humor and i don't know i'm curious about this one i think there's a demo available but like whenever i see it i'm like

yeah i get the same vibe as as you just said is like this looks like it'll be frustrating to play but also the humor style is like right up my alley it's just like super weird and and quirky and just like what is going on here and I can't wait to see more of it. So, uh, might be a good, definitely like one of those games that aims at like, let's get a famous Twitch streamer to play this and just WTF the whole time, you know? So it might be a fun watch along.

Yeah, I'm definitely not going to be. Oh, God. It just being floppy. Oh, I hate it. It's the only thing that I really don't like about party animals. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's just the floppy controls, the feeling like you're pushing all the way one way and your character's just going like... like i just i can't that's like i make that sound and you know exactly what my character is doing right like yeah just like kind of just you know like loosey goosey

But the way your character walks is very deliberate, almost like I think it's why the title is so perfect. It's it describes how you would walk if you overthought walking, you know? so that does not sound appealing at all is it not sounding fun yet i don't know no maybe don't have me do the marketing and we'll be fine so what else is on your list from playstation um another smaller title

Sword of the Sea. This is by the folks behind the Pathless. I thought it might have been since this was the PlayStation showcase, it might have been like a sequel to Journey. But but no, it feels very Journey-esque. We were kind of like. It's like a snowboarding game where you ride on your cool snowboard sword. And it just looks really, really neat. Like the trailer sort of gives off, like I said, journey vibes sort of like.

adventure almost thought maybe like an altos odyssey as well which is this like a mobile game that was that was out years ago where you kind of like traverse the sand on like a snowboard and you just like try to see how far you can get so um yeah i really like i really like these these games like it was abzu was another one they did which was like this atmospheric like um diving game i think it was

But their most recent one was The Pathless. So this is sort of a continuation of that art style and the vibes. So it's going to be good. I will say the 007. Titles always do kind of go hmm. Because I'm like, Goldeneye? Is this going to bring me back? But I mean, I'm just not really a fan of shooters and the Goldeneye was a special time. So, but you have 007 First Light on your list.

So why do you think this title specifically is interesting as a shooter? Yeah, I think it's by the folks behind Hitman. It'll be really interesting. I'm not a huge fan of... the hitman games like i find it's like it's one of those games where you play and like you kind of have the sandbox is your opportunity to to complete your objectives and you can kind of do a bunch of different stuff and it it's like a

burden of choice when I get in there and I'm like, I don't know what to do. I'm going to push this guy over. Oh, no. Now everyone sees me and I'm running away and still doesn't work out. But this 007 game feels like a like it kind of combines. What I love about action games is like a high focus on story and characters and and and character interactions and development and that sort of thing. It's also looking at like.

early 007 so like an era that really hasn't been explored in the movies uh so it's going to be sort of a prequel style like it's it's his first bond james bond adventure so we'll see how that goes Um, but the gameplay looked a lot more action focused and it's like a third person action game. And, uh, like unlike hit man, which is more, it is a third person action game and it's more about like stealth and tactics. Whereas this one is going to be.

a little more action focused and you know i really do like the big budget sort of action adventure games and i think like this one could have the potential to to really fit that bill Yeah, I didn't actually I didn't watch the PlayStation presentation, so I hadn't actually seen the trailer. So I just assumed it would be a first person shooter. But like, yeah, third person action game.

I can get behind that a whole lot more than a first person shooter. I feel like I just have to be in a very specific headspace for that. So yeah, I think I would probably enjoy a third person versus first person much more. yeah so it is a third person adventure game i was trying to figure out like we're trying to determine who the actor is like he looks super familiar the guy who's playing it i i had heard rumors that it might be um

The actor that's playing young Dexter in the Dexter prequel that just released earlier this year. I don't think it's been confirmed. Yeah. I don't know. But. It looks good. It's going to be a huge, big budget title. And I'm not like super into the 007 movies, but I have always appreciated the video games. And I think ever since GoldenEye, there just really hasn't been like a stellar.

007 video game and it is a huge franchise that likely deserves like a really good adaptation so this looks like it could be a good time and then marvel is this actual marvel marvel yes it is yep yep okay so another marvel title another title using the marvel ip As we talked about, I guess, last week or the week before that, you know, not all Marvel games are made by the same people. They're all over the place and licensed. So, yep.

What's this one about and who's making it? So Marvel token fighting souls. I'm not a huge fighting game player, but I did want to mention this one because it's a pretty big deal. It's a PlayStation exclusive 4v4 tag team fighting game. And it has all Marvel characters. And the style is unique to sort of the Japanese influence because it's being developed by Arc, I think Arc Systems.

which are famous for their fighting games. I think, I think blaze blue is them. Like, you know, they're, they're highly regarded as like up there in terms of like, you know, you've got the makers of Tekken. the makers of street fighter and then, and then the arc systems folks. So. Okay. I was like, honestly, like racing games, sport games, fighting games, know nothing about them. Yeah. And I'm like, you know, for fighting games, like I.

I understand Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. I haven't played a lot of the sort of more... uh frantic tag team fighting games but you know the fact that marvel versus capcom was such a huge deal like this is this is kind of like got a lot of people excited and i think the art style is really cool and unique and uh sort of takes the

it's not just saying like okay let's take captain america iron man and spider-man carbon copy from the marvel bible and put them in a video game this is their own unique take on those characters like you're still going to be able to tell like that's clearly captain america that's clearly spider-man but like they've they've given their own style

to the characters without like completely changing it for the sake of changing it. I think they've done a really good job at balancing sort of the look and feel of the characters to make it unique to their own sort of take. It's out in 2026. A lot of these games that we actually have talked about, I think, are arriving next year. Baby Steps, though, is out in September. Oh, yay.

So you got your, your pick a good chunk. Yeah. Really, really excited to play that one in a couple of months. Someone's going to be like, all right. Here it is. You got to play it for extra life. Let's see. No, no. Oh my God. No, God. No, just no. Ah, well. I, I, and again, like I think for this Marvel game, like I do really like Marvel. I appreciate that. Marvel games is finding.

more of these big interesting partnerships to work with the fact that um arc system works is like this very well beloved studio that works on fighting games and saying like hey here's the marvel ip do your own twist on it. And here's some PlayStation marketing money to make it exclusive. So it was, it was what I think was the penultimate.

sort of announcement for the stream. I think it ended with 007 First Light. That was their big sort of finale. But the what the hell is this note that I put in there? Because I was like, what the hell is this? is Sea of Remnants, which looks like part Sea of Thieves, part turn-based action RPG. It's hard to nail down. really like weird character design like they're all like wooden carved puppets yeah like they're marionettes yeah marionettes thank you yeah um

This is the only one that I got really excited about watching this trailer. And I think so they've described it as an ocean. adventure rpg simulation survival building turn-based strategy game and i find that in the last couple of years some of the like my best experiences have been these like genre mashups that don't necessarily follow any formula or script so that's why i was excited about this as i was like i don't really know what's going on here but the art style looks really really cool

There seems to be a lot of different pieces here. There's a lot of different styles of combat. There's a lot going on. There's different perspectives. There's different environments. It just it looked like a really cool idea. I mean, it could be too many things mashed together in one place and nothing makes sense and it's terrible. But some of the experiences, like I say, that I've had over the past few years have been these like genre mashup games that.

you know, I don't know too much about. And I think that's what this is going to be. And so I'm excited. Yeah, I was curious, though, like, is it a single player game? Is it a multiplayer game? I think it's a single player game.

yeah because I'm less interested if it's like look I love Sea of Thieves but if it is just playing solo is not everyone's cup of tea in sea of thieves yeah no this this gave me big single player vibes good because that's kind of like what i'd be looking for i'm not opposed to there being like co-op or online co-op but

But I do look at this and I'm like, I really I really do hope. And the fact that it does have turn based combat does make me think that, as you said, it is very likely a single player title. OK, so it says on the Steam page, it says single player MMO online co-op. it's tagged with all of those things so i have no fucking idea it's oh yeah i see it now it's almost like steam doesn't fact check this stuff

I suppose it can be all those things as well as a toaster. But look, the art style alone is like, I will check this out, you know, so. yeah i think it looks really really cool and i'm i'm really looking forward to it it's uh yeah like every screenshot almost looks like it could maybe even be from a different game which again i find very intriguing

Oh, yeah. I think this is going to be really cool. Yeah. Oh, wow. I just I went to their official site. Oh, now it's playing music. You can pre-register. I don't know what that means. Probably just give us your email and we'll email you when you can pre-order it. Yeah, it looks great. So we'll check that out. Yeah, it says as a puppet folk sailor seeking lost memories, you'll brave dynamic seas, battle strange monsters, build your fleet, bond with 300 plus companions.

That's a lot. And shape the evolving pirate city of Orbitopia through every choice you make. So yeah, I think it sounds cool. Looks cool. I am going to give this a try for sure. And that's everything from PlayStation. At least everything that, again, we've chosen to talk about. We could not talk about everything from all these things. We'd be here for 18 hours. So yeah, Summer Games Fest is next.

Again, Ryan has way more titles than me, so we'll start with Resident Evil because I know that's what you're going to be the most stoked about, I'm assuming. Yeah, well, it's interesting because I've lately been more on the path of the Resident Evil remakes. Yeah, this is really like the old you like the old school stuff. But this is the one that's following up from the eight was the last one.

yeah so we had resident evil i didn't play that one but village okay that's it i'm like i watched it i didn't play it was village Okay. I was like, I'm trying to remember. I'm like, was that seven or eight? That was eight. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Now I'm confused. With Lady D. Yes. Tall lady. Yeah, everyone was spoiler alert here. Maybe skip ahead 30 seconds.

But the Internet was really pissed off because she was in all the marketing and then she like died and never came back. And that was like the very first boss area was her castle or whatever. And then you kill her. She never comes back. And everyone was like, fuck. Yeah. I'm only here for her. Yeah, that was the last entry. So this is the follow up. Yes. Yeah. I haven't played a lot of like the the the two sort of first person entries.

um look i'll fully admit they are very resident evil uh but they're too too scary i couldn't i couldn't do it something about that shift from third person to first person like i just i didn't find it enjoyable uh Yeah, I watched it. I actually watched one of my favorite Twitch streamers stream it. So I didn't play it, but I watched it start to finish. And I thought it was really good again. not being the one actually behind the controls because i have the same problem where like

We've talked about this a billion times. I can watch horror movies all day long, but actually give me a controller and I will choose to stand in the empty hallway all day, every day, forever. It's those baby steps, man. I just can't do it. Yeah, I watched Scott and John play Village and I really enjoyed that experience.

I do prefer the third person, you know, Resident Evil experience. And they did actually release with the gold edition of Resident Evil Village, sort of a paid patch, I guess, where you could play the whole thing. in third person. And then there was, I think a sort of expansion that you could play that was available and designed to be played in both first and third person.

Resident Evil Requiem is a follow-up to Resident Evil 8. It's a whole new character, although the trailer does tease that we will return to Raccoon City and the Raccoon Police Department, which is featured in the trailer.

um you play as a i believe an fbi agent who's investigating some mysterious deaths that is like the start of every resident evil some sort of government agency didn't they say they were like gonna go back to a specific character was like returning after not being in it for six games or something.

There was rumors that this would tie into Leon's story. Leon, that's it. I'm like, it's not Chris. It's somebody else. It's Leon. Yeah. Yeah. Chris was featured heavily in Village and teased at the end of Seven. I think there is talk that this could tie in with Leon. I don't think he was present in the trailer. It's still just rumors, but I could see it, you know, going back to the raccoon city, you know, Leon played a big part.

uh in in those events and um he is high up in the government food chain so like him showing up to assist with a case like this would make sense Literally, the only stuff I know about this is because of Dead by Daylight. I'm like, Leon is a Dead by Daylight character. RPD is a map. Nemesis is a bad guy. Plus, you've watched all those great movies, right?

Oh, yeah, that's true. I did watch all of those amazing movies. Favorite franchise. Yeah, for sure. Hey, billion dollar franchise. They only had to make nine of them. I guess that's what happens. Look. To my credit, I haven't made a franchise that's made a billion dollar franchise. Yeah, where's your billion dollars, Rome? Here I am to just throw on Resident Evil under the bus. You know, those movies are the first...

You know, one and three are okay. Or no, wait. Actually, one, yeah, they're all over the place. Yeah. The reboot they did, I think, last year was actually...

Ryan, we don't have time to talk about Resident Evil movies. Oh, my God. We have so many games to get through. You made me feel bad for making them feel bad. But anyways, Resident Evil Requiem, there's... talk on the steam page like it's similar to sea of remnants it's like first person third person you know so i it sounds like you'd be able to play them both uh for this one we did not get any gameplay just cinematic trailers so

It's out in February of next year. We'll know more probably. I would imagine at Gamescom we'll likely get more. So not a long wait. Okay. Oh, my God. You've got so many things. Lego party. Is it as expensive as the blocks themselves? That's the big question. now we can we can fast track these so lego party i put in here because it it's basically mario party but with lego and i thought like why hasn't this been done sooner it's it's literally mario party but with lego and

I thought it looked like a lot of fun. So Lego games can be hit and miss, but this one looks like it could be a blast. Deadpool VR which which was a bit of surprise and you have not Nolan North or Ryan Reynolds but you have Neil Patrick Harris voicing Deadpool in this one. Really? Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting, eh? Not who I necessarily would have chosen, but... It works. Also didn't realize it was him, so... He was Spider-Man for a series, which, you know, I mean, like...

This is just like a more crass Spider-Man in the take, I would say, from the trailer. But, you know, another Marvel game that is licensed out. It's actually being made by... Twisted Pixels, which are the folks who made Splosion Man, if folks remember those games from back in the XBLA days. I'm actually like really curious about Deadpool VR. Now, obviously, I'll never play it. But like, what do you put in that game? Because the big success of the Deadpool movies was making them R-rated.

Like, are you going to get a VR version of the baby hand? Moments? I don't think I want to play that. I need an adult. I don't think you're going to get that specific scene, but, but the trailers is, is very rated R it's got violence. It's got swearing. So yeah. I don't know if you get that specific scene, but, you know, maybe they'll. But VR, who knows? Who knows? It's a whole new dimension.

Out of words, this is a sort of another EA partner title, sort of along the lines of, you know, it takes two. And there was another one that it kind of reminded me of. What's that? What's that yarn game? Was it just called Yarny? That sounds like I'm making it out. Unraveled? Yes. You did make it up, right? That's why it sounded made up. So out of words, is this, it looks to be like a co-op adventure where you and a friend lose the ability to speak.

and you were trying to escape it just looked like a really interesting you know stylized sort of trailer and it's it's one of those ones where i'm like kind of forgetting a little bit about it but i think it was like a platforming Like I said, there's just so many. There were so many. Including felt that boxing? I didn't even see this one. It just glazed over so much. So I only put this one in here because it sort of...

The thing that jumped out to me is that it looked like a bit where they just had sort of puppets. I thought this is like, this is one of those interstitial comedy moments of the show where they try to do something. funny and and like break up the trailers a little the commercials i guess a little bit but like this is a commercial

I mean, they're all commercials, right? Yeah. But this is a sort of punch-out style boxing game where they've taken the look and feel of these felt puppets and... re recaptured them in game and it looks so real like it looks like a real felt puppet and it's just it's just weird

I don't know if you, if you watch the trailer, you'll see what I'm talking about. It's like, this looks real, but then, you know, it does kind of break the immersion a little bit when you watch it, but like, it's just, so it's like punch out. But it's with puppets and the combination of it looking so photorealistic. Oh, they're Muppets. They're like Muppets. Yeah. Yeah. I just thought it looked really fascinating.

It kind of hurt my brain that it was a video game and not actual puppets. So I mean, you're right. It is it is from an art. standpoint it's very cool it's very very cool yeah that was the main reason i wanted to showcase it and like no word on when it's out but it it's you know it's something something to look forward to if you're A fan of Punch Out and, I don't know, puppets, I guess. I mean, who isn't a fan of both of those things? Exactly.

oh man okay so uh i'm gonna mention escape academy 2 really really quickly because it's basically it's just another like escape room game but so escape academy 2 made me be like there was a one

And then I went and looked it up and it came out in 2022 and it actually looks really cool. So the first one is basically a bunch of escape rooms. This one's going to be open world. I don't really know the big difference because, again, I haven't played the first one, but this is the one out of everything that I saw.

made me go oh there's a sequel i should check out the original so that's why i thought it was worth mentioning is um the the puzzles and stuff actually looked really cool and they showed a couple times where like you do a puzzle and it opened up a thing to more puzzles and i'm like I haven't had nearly enough puzzles in my life lately. Sure. I'm only at like 550 blueprints pages. So clearly I need more puzzling in my life.

Google needs to store more screenshots of your games. Yes, I'm going to have to delete that because it's going to take up all my storage if I just leave it sitting in my Google Drive and I pay for the extra, Ryan. I pay for extra.

And then one that's on both of our lists is Blighted. And this one I'm really excited about because this comes from the makers of Nobody Saves the World, which like... oh crap i should have looked up when that came out but um i feel like it was like 2022 when nobody saves the world comes out yeah and it was i can't remember if it was my game of the year but it was definitely up there because i played so much of it

I loved the themes. I loved the art style. The combat was super satisfying. I played it beginning to end and it was my first ever game. I did a new game plus on really, really enjoyed it. And so this is from that same developer and honestly looks quite similar. So, yeah, I'm really excited about Blighted and I was happy to see it on your list, too. Yeah. Drinkbox Studios, they're out of Toronto, so they're, you know, close. Sort of local to where we are. We call them local? Yeah.

I feel comfortable with that. And they have an awesome pedigree. You know, Guacamelee 1 and 2. As you mentioned, Nobody Saves the World. This is their next big title, Blighted. And I think this is the first time they're sort of... taking their art style and applying it to 3D polygonal characters. I think Nobody Saves the World had a bit of this.

But this is like fully fledged, like 3D animated enemies and your player character as well. And the story seemed really interesting to the setup in the trailer and stuff like I thought it was a really interesting sort of unique. sort of take so nobody saves the world was like two and a half yeah yeah it had that feel for sure like some yeah Some of the animation definitely was 3D, and the world certainly had that pop-out look with the environment and stuff.

Uh, but, uh, drink box studios does, does great work. And I really love their guacamelee games. Um, and nobody saves the world. So lighted. It's going to be great. It's out in 2026. And I think it's coming to like. everything you might have noticed like if you watched a lot of the trailers like a distinct lack of nintendo switch to confirm support but i think that for a lot of these like smaller titles like blighted and

you know, sort of the sea stuff like that. Um, I think the switch to support is, yeah, it's inevitable. Like I think we're just so close to the launch and these marketing trailers are locked in. you know, weeks if not months ahead. And it'll, they'll, they'll be switched to titles. I don't think folks should.

should worry about that but but a majority of these are probably likely and everyone this is what copium sounds like for someone who's just spent hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars on a console

That he played only minutes of Mario Kart on. Well, you know. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. We'll talk about your Switch 2 after we get through all of this. She's not completely wrong, but. There will be Switch 2. titles guys i promise they're coming i swear so many nintendo games i i mostly play my smaller titles on i had someone ask me like oh you're gonna play all your

you know your your indies on the switch too and it's like even though indies came a lot to the switch i i mostly play them on on my steam deck you know i just i not only is it cheaper to buy the games on the steam deck um Well, yeah, it's easier, it's cheaper, and I saved the Switch for the Nintendo stuff, of which there will be plenty. And I don't have to buy Welcome Tour to make that true, okay? I did not buy Welcome Tour.

If only we had a showcase to talk about right now. A Nintendo showcase. No, we don't. we do have xbox so this one is the one that you have the most titles from but this is also the one that you actually like watched live at the time right yeah so i think that probably plays into it a little bit too

I do want to go through some of these quick because I feel like some of these are just a mention. I thought Planet of Lana 2 looked good. I had not played the first one, but I was always interested in checking it out. It's like a side-scrolling sort of adventure game, similar to... It reminded me a lot of a more slower-paced sort of side-scrolling Metroidvania.

or in the blind forest, but a little, a little slower. So, uh, that one's out soon. Um, what was another one? Oh, aphelion, which is this like. space game from don't nod and they're partnering with the european space agency to make it uh Okay, so this one, I almost did the, like, someone will be interested in this, but I don't want to touch this with a 10-foot pole because I was like, don't nod, that's so familiar. And then I looked and I was like, oh, right, that's why.

So yeah, I will not be playing with this, but I'm sure somebody will enjoy it. But Jocelyn, didn't you know that you can't hear teenage angst in space? Oh, thank God. That's how it works. And also, there's two characters, one primarily featured in the game trailer, which is not a teenage.

a teenager so i think you have to go through rigorous training and not be a teenager to go to space so well you never know because you know like if it's if it's a future sci-fi thing then maybe not maybe everyone goes just Maybe we have school in space. Who knows? I... I was fairly certain high school in space. I just threw up in my mouth. Why do I put these things out into the universe and give them ideas? I'll let it. Life is strange, but in space. Oh, fuck off, Joss. Shut up.

It is not Life is Strange in Space, but I do recognize that Don't Nod as a studio has not been kind to you. They have a very specific type of game and writing style that does not resonate with me at all. Well, this is why I feel this one like really stood out to me because it is not like when it ends with the, you know, don't nod title card or I began with it, whatever. Like it just doesn't.

seem like a don't nod game and um it will be coming to game pass a lot of these titles that we're going to talk about in the xbox showcase are our game pass games uh day one um But yeah, Phelian feels like this really interesting sort of space survival game. I got a lot of Lost in Space vibes where you are this, you know. You crash land on a planet and the trailer primarily focuses on the main character escaping certain death on this planet through space wreckage. And then teases...

Teases another character that might have been present on the voyage and some sort of weird alien thing at the end. So, you know, science fiction. Yeah. It's up my alley for sure. Yeah. So I'm looking forward to that. But I'll let you know if there's any teenage eggs. Good. You got another space game, too. Outer Wilds, too. I know a lot of people really like the first one. Yeah. So Obsidian is they are releasing not.

one not two but three titles this year they had avowed in uh winter they have grounded two coming next month and then they have the outer wilds two launching in october and this is a follow-up to uh the previous title that i think came out in like maybe 2019 i can't remember uh but this is a sort of a sequel focusing

on another you know sort of area of the i think they said they wanted to focus on a different like sort of colony of space each time so we're going to get a whole new cast of characters still familiar vibe but it is a first person

or third person, uh, shooter similar to like fallout and, um, yeah, fallout I think is the best sort of comparison, but, uh, it's the humor. I think that's what really, you know, stuck the landing for me with the first one is like it had really interesting visuals and mechanics but like the fact that it doesn't take itself seriously and has this really quirky sense of humor it's like okay you're speaking my language

and you're in space so that also helps quite a bit uh plus all the characters you get to meet a long way like that's my favorite part about these adventure uh action adventure rpgs is like all these characters you get to meet the companions that you can bring, you know, into your party and hang out with them and have dialogue and conversations. And Obsidian doesn't make bad games. So I'm looking forward to playing more Obsidian adventures.

later this uh this year what they showed of it i watched the whole deep dive afterwards as well which um was really interesting to kind of get a deep dive on on that game and they also brought in uh Ben Schwartz as part of the presentation, the executive of sequels. And again, that's just leaning into that humor, not taking itself seriously at all and just having a good time with it. So I really dig that that style. Very cool.

so I know I never played the first one and I always get Outer Wilds and Outer Worlds confused which one's the one I couldn't get off the planet where I got off the planet and I was like I'm flying a spaceship and I hate it and I quit. Which one was that? That's Outer Worlds. That's Outer Worlds. Outer Worlds. Okay, that's not Outer Wilds. So I need to go and play and try Outer Wilds. I'm Googling it just to make sure because I make this mistake all the time. Yes. Oh, shit.

Okay, I put this in here wrong. I can't believe I did that. So it's The Outer Worlds 2. The Outer Wilds is the game you did not like. Okay. Shit, you think I prepared this stuff ahead of time? Outer Worlds 2. Sorry, folks. Okay, so it's the one I do still have to try, not the one that I tried and bounced off of immediately when it put me in space. Okay. Yeah, the outer...

I knew that was wrong. I just looked at it funny. So the outer worlds. Oh, God. We're going to get so many messages before people actually make. Because we talked about that for like.

five minutes well the people are going to be excited like oh my god the outer wilds too that's amazing how did i miss that announcement i know it's like you didn't we're dumb no well this is it's my fault i i made the mistake i know but i didn't want gonna throw you right under the bus don't worry i see the bus coming um yeah so you should try the outer worlds um i think they

did a re-release of the first one on consoles. I think it's available for on game pass. Um, and it's really fun. It's, it's. Again, it's that specific style of humor, and it reminds me of, like, Skyrim in space, but with a sense of humor, you know? Like, I think that's the best way to describe it. And again, like having wrote all these down, I don't remember what at fate's end is. Oh, wait, now I remember. That's the follow up from the studio behind the death game.

Spiritfare. Oh, very stylized loop. No, no. It's a totally different title. Very different. So At Fate's End is this very interesting sort of narrative choice game that has like... card it's a card battler turn-based action it's so hard to describe but like in the trailer there's so much going on and it really feels like there is this like card battling system but also real-time combat

And you get to like choose like the fates of these characters you interact with, but they describe it as an action adventure game. And again, the style of it just looks. superb if you played uh if you played spirit fair you kind of know they excel at their like 2d 2d animated artwork and it's very like stylized and animated very beautifully so um Definitely check that one out. It looks really cool. Keeper was the next game from Double Fine where you play a sentient lighthouse.

Right, I did see that one, and I was like, what is going on? Double Fine is the Psychonauts people, right? And then they did a Kickstarter for their next thing that I can't remember. yeah they were big with the indie go-go they did a one for their adventure game which was uh i can't remember what it was called brain age was it brain age maybe i can't remember

That's not right. That's not right. I'm doing great with names. Yeah, you're really nailing it tonight. That's okay. I'm the one asking the question. Brain Age is a DS game. I thought it was a brain training game, but I didn't want to correct you. It used to be called, so Double Fine, they did this, like, obviously Psychonauts 2 was their big broken age.

So, OK, I was like, I remember them. I remember them doing like a Kickstarter Indiegogo fundraising, whatever thing. I feel like that was before Psychonauts 2. It was. Yeah, it was. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Because they like went out of business. They were struggling. Yeah. Like went indie or something like had a bunch of big backers and then.

they all went away and they were like, ah, we need help. Yeah. Yeah. It's the Kickstarter. Yeah. Okay. It's all coming back to me now. They've had a really weird history where they were dropped. I think Psychonauts 1 was dropped by Microsoft. They were the publishers and they said, yeah, we're going to pass. And then I think they were working with Majesco or something like a defunct company now.

And they struggled with, you know, psychonauts and then brutal, brutal age, brutal. Everything's an age. But then. Yeah, they had a broken age was an Indiegogo and then Psychonauts 2 was in development and they did a I think it was like a different crowdsourcing. Then they got bought by Microsoft and now they are making this. you know keeper game which feel it's very double fine but uh you control a sentient lighthouse that gets special powers it kind of looks like a

A little bit like a Metroid game where you're slowly building up these powers as a lighthouse. And it's a game only double fine can make. It sounds so ridiculous. I know. And that's, it's just so unique. And I think that's why. Video games are great. There's always something unique around the corner, including a Super Meat Boy 3D game. So if you're into 3D platformers, they're literally taking...

Super Meat Boy and turning it into a 3D platformer. It looks very difficult. I was going to say, I was so obsessed with that game and not making it very far because it was so hard for me. And my shitty reflexes. Oh, I struggle with it as well. And as soon as I saw this, I'm like, this will be fun to try and I'll likely bounce off of it. It'll be on Game Pass as well. So like we can check it out. But.

I thought it looked really, really interesting. And then just the announcement of this Xbox ROG Ally handheld, the big rumored device that Microsoft was working on with a partner. It's essentially, I mean, it's essentially the, the, the rock ally, but it's branded Xbox, but it's yeah. Has the Xbox button. Yeah. And I think it does have like specific. xbox like not xbox software but like it's windows 11 so windows 11 pc handheld and i assume that version of windows

will be available on other handhelds. It's just Windows. But it's launching with this specific ROG Ally handheld that it's going to be Xbox branded, and they talk about... Their big push in the presentation was Xbox Play Anywhere, where every title showcased from here on out was going to be Xbox Play Anywhere, which is you buy it once, you get it on Xbox and PC, which then allows you to play it.

on this uh this handheld so as well yeah yeah i'm still very much like still in the camp of the steam deck when it comes to pc handhelds i think this is what i'm going to spend my switch to money on Yeah. No, yeah, that's fair. I mean, I think that we don't have a price for it, but the ROG allies do. They go for... They're much, much more expensive than a Switch, yes. I think they were $900, I think, but that was the first one. I think they came out with a second one.

I think it was more expensive. Not by much, like $100 or something. Oof. I just Googled it. Best Buy. These are $1,100, Jocelyn. There you go. Yay. I think a Switch 2 would be better. The Xbox version is? Okay, yeah, you're saying that, but I never bought the original handheld. I don't have a Switch deck, so...

You should buy a Steam Deck. Well, this would be my handheld. But as we talked about with the other handhelds is that they support Steam because they're Windows, right? So they support the Steam platform. Why wouldn't I get where I'm so into the Xbox ecosystem and Game Pass exists? Why wouldn't I want that on my handheld alongside my Steam library? Yeah, and that's that is the one thing about the Steam Deck is that.

there just isn't a way to easily play your Xbox, your non-Steam games. Yeah. Which, you know, versus having a PC in my hand. So, I mean, like, it's... I get it. I know it's definitely much more expensive than the Steam Deck, but I think the functionality is there. And considering I don't have any other handhelds, this one makes sense for me because I'm not buying the Switch 2 and the Steam Deck.

you know the ally so yeah no that's fair i think it's an or not an and so i feel like i can justify it a lot more yeah uh yeah for sure i i think that if you're more into like look options are great and i think the fact that the rog ally xbox handheld allows you to and they specifically mention it play your steam games your epic games your xbox game your xbox pc games uh your battle.net like that is those are the big stores you know like yeah you you literally have access to everything i think

For me, I do appreciate the Steam interface, and I think that's the biggest thing holding back these handhelds is the interface. And I think Xbox, what they've showed at the showcase... was addressing that issue is that like this may be windows 11, but the presentation is a console like experience. So if they can, they can balance that. and still have access to desktop mode for those folks that want to tinker, I think that's the sweet spot. And while the device isn't subsidized by...

The fact that Steam gets 30% of every game sold, you are right, Jocelyn. You're paying for more functionality, better hardware, and all that. So I totally get it, for sure. But yeah, I mean, it's still a steep price. There's there's no getting around that one. Yeah, I don't. But, you know, handheld is expensive. Yeah, yeah. Makes sense. Do you want to talk about Plague Tale again?

More? I don't know if I understood this trailer as much. It's a Plague Tale legacy, but I don't remember. Supposedly, it's a prequel. I don't remember the character. But it looked more like Assassin's Creed, you know, what was it? Assassin's Creed Odyssey. It really reminded me of that in terms of like the feel, like this sort of the mythos that they're showcasing.

So but it looked it looked really good. I'm surprised we're getting another one so soon because I felt like the last one was just a couple of years ago. But honestly, I don't remember because I played the first one and then never again. The second one felt a lot like, you know, it was a direct sequel. You had a Plague Tale innocence and then you had a Plague Tale. What was the second one called? I feel like it was like Requiem, but I might be wrong.

Yeah. Requiems. It was something along those lines. No, you're right. A Plague Tale Requiem. Uh-oh, Capcom. Should have checked the trademarks. And it was 2022. Yeah, it's been a few years now. 2022 feels like it happened last year, but it was literally three years ago, if not more, if not three and a half years ago. Yeah. Well, by the time this one comes out in 2026, it would have been four years. Yeah, it would be four years. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

But the weirdest one that I thought, like, I have to play this just because it is. Again, I love unique video game experiences. And the fact that there are no ghosts at the Grand, I've described it. As a musical hotel renovation mystery action adventure game. See, there you go. So when I first started watching it, I was like, oh, my God, this is like a cozy hotel remodeling game. I love this.

And then it just kept growing and growing and growing in scope. And I was like, everything that they're adding on top of this is getting me to want to play it more and more and more and more. It's like they are just ticking every single one of my boxes with this. I love it. I'm so excited. This trailer, I think probably out of everything.

uh was like my top like oh my god this thing looks so cool out of everything from this from this week yeah i think it's just uh actually the two games that you have listed like those are like kind of my Those are definitely like top two. They're up there in terms of like what I walked away from as the most excited to play when they launch. And I do really like playing games.

that are outside the norm i think claire obscure expedition 33 does a really good job of like taking genres we know and love and making them their own and unique and and presenting something that we feel like we haven't played in a while but like there are no ghosts at the grand feels like a very unique title like the fact that it i thought like oh this is like a musical experience like what a character

characters started singing and then it turns into like as you said a renovation game i'm like okay interesting where it sold me was when it went into the mystery side of it i'm like oh okay here we go like there's something in there for everyone yeah but then all of a sudden it goes into like the this like supernatural like dimension bending things breaking apart and stuff like it just it just kept going and every layer that they added i was like yes more again

please so i i'm really excited about that one and i'm really excited about clockwork revolution so that's the other one and we've seen this one before this is not the first time we've seen it um but it is i think it's It got the 2026 or no, it didn't. It said coming. What did it say? It was right at the very end in due time. That's what it was. And then which, you know, clockwork.

Way to go. And then I love the little puppet at the end. Or not the little puppet, the little robot guy at the end who's basically like, now fuck off. It's coming when it's ready. Yeah. And this is interesting because it's so it's a it's a Microsoft own studio in exile. This is the one that when we first saw it, we thought it was another Bioshock. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. We thought it was a follow up to Infinite.

Because it gives so many Bioshock Infinite vibes. Yeah. And I think, you know, you can definitely get the feel for that sort of... inspiration but i think this trailer did a really good job of making it its own and and while the original trailer yeah you know did have those bioshock vibes like i think this trailer like set it set it in its own sort of sort of universe um and you know it's a it is a it's still like a first person um shooter

sort of experience but and it has the unique weapons and and all but again it's got that humor the weapon building interface looked so cool and i think that was the biggest my biggest takeaway from this was like They showed a lot of like actual in-game gameplay footage that was so subtle at some points in time that it was like, wait, are we in the game now?

So there was like a couple of conversation pieces in there that they highlighted. So I think it might be a little further along, which is very exciting because I'm really hoping that this is, you know, the next like 18 months or so.

um because it looks so good and the fact that they showed us like what the guns look like in game when you're building them and you know like what happens when you go in and talk to characters and what that looks like and you know so there was some in-game moments there and i thought they were they worked pretty seamlessly with some of the like

cinematic elements and i think the whole thing looked really good and i love the premise too where they're like you can change the past and you can mess with the future and you're kind of like you have time powers So you can manipulate the world around you, like immediately around you to give you like platforming options and stuff like that. So again.

Yeah, very interesting. Very visually, I thought, stunning. I thought the game looked great. And I love that like steampunky type, like future steampunk aesthetic, if that makes sense.

yeah no for sure it's definitely the steampunk vibe and and yeah like it's i think what they showcased in the game like a lot of um like dialogue choices i love the way they framed like the character creation whereas this like you know uh rich dude who got robbed like describing the person who robbed him and i thought that was such a creative way of like

visualizing the character creator yeah and it looked like they put so much like effort into that that i didn't even realize that was the character creator I was like, what is happening right now? Because I'm like, there's no way someone put that much effort into.

just like making your character like that whole interface that how everything like moved all of those 3d models for stuff i was just like oh my god this is crazy for that to be a thing that you interact with once you make a character and you never see it again the level of detail in this game is going to be crazy I think Yeah. And I think like this whole Xbox segment is a really interesting look at what happens when you spend the last decade buying.

all these huge studios. Uh, the fact that a good portion of the presentation maybe didn't feel like, you know, the Xbox first party titles that we've, you know, come to love and expect from from previous generations like halo and gears and all the stuff that they talked about after yeah like in this like little like quick synopsis like hey and next year is the 25th anniversary of the xbox brand and we'll have

lots of big titles returning like fable and gears and one that's been with us since the beginning halo uh yeah and and i and again like i don't know look i'm not going to celebrate like you know consolidation of the industry but i think when you look at a lot of these studios and what xbox is allowing them to do currently because they haven't had a great track record of like rewarding even success with you know

being able to make new games i'm looking at you know the folks behind uh uh that got tango works i think they picked up and then they let go they they made a title that was pretty popular and then and then got Although they did announce that they're hiring for the second one through another publisher. But I don't want to reward Xbox for spending billions of dollars.

And but on the other hand, like I look at some of these titles and like this does look like these studios are being able to make their biggest and more. And some really interesting thinking outside the box type things, right? Yeah.

a sentient lighthouse what the fuck yeah i mean yeah that excel money it's got to go somewhere right and why not sentient lighthouse i think that's the biggest thing for me is like you you look at these and it's like they While Microsoft is this huge, giant company that buys all these other studios, there is something to be said about them allowing and greenlighting these projects that don't really get... greenlit elsewhere you know like I think I think Clockwork Revolution is

if you look at their previous titles like wasteland i think it's like wastelands or wasteland yeah wastelands one two and three like they made previously which were these isometric tactical games and then to go and make this big giant Action RPG, you know, it's it's a really interesting swing. And as you said, also sentient lighthouses. So it's again, it's interesting.

it sounds like next year will be a return to the classic form of Xbox with, you know, the franchise that you mentioned, but, um, 2025 is going to be a big year for Xbox. Yeah, I think the next the next couple of years seem like they're going to shape up to be pretty good for people who enjoy Xbox gaming. So and I mean, we're probably also going to get a console announcement next year, right? Like if they're bringing back the fables, the halos and the gears.

of the world then they're doing that with the console too in my humble opinion yeah they could launch early I think we'll know. I think we'll get the announcement next year and then the launch probably early 2027 and all of these things, the Halo, the Fable, they'll be both cross gen. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, I think Xbox is due up to because they didn't do a pro version. They might they might release a series. They might go a little early. Yeah.

Oh, God. Now he's putting bad ideas out there. Yeah, really. Well, you know what's a good idea is finally reaching agreements with unions. We have good labor news this week. It's amazing. So SAG-AFTRA has finally, they have a tentative agreement, but this SAG-AFTRA... strike has been going on since 2023 no 2022 20 a long time Hang on. Okay. So they've been on strike, sorry, since 2024. It was in 2023 that they had the strike vote. So that's, yeah, but still long time, man.

We're coming up on a year of a strike. So the fact that they now have a tentative agreement. So basically is that when. Like we talked about, I think, last week or the week before with the formation of a union, just because you have a union doesn't mean you have an agreement. So you basically have to, the leaders of your union...

speak to the employer and you come to an agreement, but then the union leaders have to take it back to all the members and the members have to vote. So they still have to accept or I think it's called ratifying. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Ratifying the agreement. Yeah. So that's still to come. But we have a tentative agreement, which is always a good sign. Yeah, no, for sure. And I think we've seen a lot of the fallout of these strikes with.

More live service games like I think Zenless Zone Zero has had this issue where they have had English. voice actor voice acted characters go silent for some patches recast with non-unionized uh voice actors um as well has been the case so this is good news uh and Hopefully, I don't think it was impacting larger scale projects that were able to either get their voice recording done early or work in a...

I think some voice actors were able to work if the company agreed to like some specific contract details. Yeah. Yeah, is that there were either there was like contract details. And if I remember, there were like exemptions to the strike where it's like if you had already.

like started doing i can't remember exactly but i remember there being exemptions and i remember there being like you say stipulations where they would allow their members to work but only if they basically followed the like the new contract followed what the union wanted So I think some of those companies made exceptions on a game-by-game basis sort of thing. Anyways, we are coming to the end of these issues. Hopefully, fingers crossed. Agreements are good. Yes, I agree.

all right well uh i was gonna say that does it for us tonight but i totally forgot that we haven't even talked about what we played this week because we did the episode backwards so uh reminder to everybody if you like what we're doing here head on over to patreon.com slash the gamers in like our patron benjamin thank you so much for supporting the show it allows us to do some super cool stuff for our patrons like our game night so that is coming up soon

10 days from now on June 20th. So we're going to get a poll up in the Patreon. So if you are a patron, you'll be able to vote and tell us what you want us to play again we're not streaming this we're going to make it an event in discord so if you're a patron then you'll get access to a voice chat and you can come hang out we'll swap people in and out and We'll have a really fun time. So again, that is June 20th.

And we're going to put the poll up very soon over at patreon.com slash the gamers in. We're also doing patron only podcast content. So Ryan is up this month. He is doing June. So you guys have that to look forward to. And then I have something cool. coming in July that I'm actually really, really stoked about. So if you haven't checked out the Patreon in a while, we did just revamp it within the last month or so. Head on over to patreon.com slash thegamersin.

So, Ryan, what have you been playing this week? Just kidding. We all know it's the Switch 2. Yay. Yes, I did receive my Nintendo Switch 2 on launch day. Which is very exciting because you thought it could be up to a week. later right so yeah you got it day one that must have been very exciting yeah well the it was interesting because like i had uh sort of

You know, I think we last spoke, I was like, yeah, if it arrives a week late, that's totally fine. And then as we got closer to launch, I'm like, you know what, it would be really cool if I had a day one and or before the weekend. And when I got the shipping notice, it was like, okay, it's shipping out of BC, but then it was Pure Later Express. And I Googled it. It's like, how long does Pure Later Express take? And they're like, they guarantee a day delivery.

uh, in, in, in Canada. So sure enough, uh, you know, one day it's across the country, the next day it's in my backyard. And, uh,

And I had it, I got it in my hands and, and I was really, I was really happy about that. I did not pay for the fast shipping. So anybody who did do that, um, sorry, exactly. Although like I am, I will admit like, you know, just being outside of Toronto, I feel like is we're in that sort of window of like, if we can get it to Toronto in a day, then we can shoot it down the highway, you know?

within the same timeframe. So I, I do, I do appreciate that they were able to get it, um, to me day one. And I wasn't, so I wasn't also prepared for, for to arrive day one. I was like, how, how do I want to like.

set this up because like a new console is usually this experience of like you know fresh start but like now with the way generations work with consoles like you can kind of like bring stuff forward and and everything about the nintendo switch 2 is in the name this is the sequel to the switch this is it's like mass effect you can bring your saves forward uh and there's there's a transfer option i was like okay

I'm going to try the transfer option. Similar to when you buy a new phone, you can basically clone your phone onto the new one. I was just thinking that. I was like, yeah, you used to always get a totally new experience every time you got a new phone. And now you can just copy one to the other and it's like...

On the one hand, yay, I have exactly my same phone and I'm not missing anything. But on the other hand, it's like, but I also have 80% of my phone is full of junk that I don't need and never use and yet will never delete because I'm lazy. This is where I'll say that if there's a specific scenario where you're going to want to use the transfer experience.

So for transferring from your Switch 1 to your Switch 2, there are specific saves that do not support the cloud saving with your Nintendo Switch Online. And for me, that specific one was Animal Crossing. it is tied to the hardware. It is tied to the switch. There is a way to transfer those, but I was like, you know what? I'll just do the transfer and then I'll figure it out later.

So I did the transfer and there was actually more games on there that were sort of locked to the Switch 1 that I was able to move forward. Granted, a majority of those were demo games that I am never going to play again because they are like... You know, who wants to play the arms global test? I was like, no, I think we're done with arms. Thank you. But it moved all of that over.

And basically what it does is it leaves the Switch intact. The Switch is still fine. It's got all the games. It had my account still there. It did transfer the... profiles that weren't attached to a Nintendo account so I set up profiles for when we play multiplayer with the family so there was like

You know, the kids profiles and Ashley's profile when we played like Mario Kart and Mario Party. So those got moved over to the Switch 2 and have been removed from the original Switch. And I can easily set them up again. Figured it wasn't a big deal. But as you said. it started to download everything because the switch to can basically run everything that the switch can. So it's like, Hey, we got you. Here's your switch on your switch too. Uh, and.

I don't have the same amount of space. So I quickly realized like, okay, I'm going to have to like stop some of these downloads and figure out what I actually want to keep. So I did enough of that. to be able to get Mario Kart World installed and patch a few titles that I'm looking to play down the road and share some thoughts on. So I did not get a chance to like test out.

you know the the patches for specific switch one games or uh if you have nintendo switch online expansion pack you get free upgrades to breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom and I'm really curious to see what Breath of the Wild looks like and plays like when it's on hardware that can support sort of the vision. Because you remember as you exit that cave in Breath of the Wild,

There's this like very epic moment where you see the horizon of Hyrule, then you start to walk and it just chugs to like 20 frames per second. Yeah. And it's weird that that was like, that was okay. In 2017, I guess. Oh man, that's how long ago it was? Goddamn. But I do hear the experience on the Switch 2. It is like a completely different game in how it runs. So I'm curious.

about that um i played a little bit of the gamecube stuff and and played some of that um i will i will you know chat more about that probably another time because like their gamecube titles they They play really well. There's only three of them on there. Wind Waker, F-Zero, and Soul Calibur II, which I remember playing quite a bit of Soul Calibur II on the GameCube because it had Link.

in it as the guest character so it was very interesting to me but uh but i did play a lot of mario kart so okay i was gonna say i i feel like um i would be interested potentially in revisiting wind waker i haven't played it like since it came out um i never i never played any of the like re-release or wait did they no they did a re-release yeah Wind Waker HD was a Wii U. Yeah, HD, yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, there you go, that's why. That's where you should, like, it is very unfortunate that...

Nintendo has locked some of the best re-releases for Zelda games on the Wii U and refuses to release them on the Switch and or Switch 2 now, I suppose. And the fact that we do have Wind Waker... on the GameCube sort of virtual console, it doesn't bode well for a port of Wind Waker HD because Nintendo really does like to give you one or the other.

We'll see, though. I think the nostalgia of playing these GameCube titles again in their original format... on a big screen tv like some of these i haven't like soul caliber 2 f0 gx like i haven't played those since their launch like since the gamecube era and to revisit them is is always a neat sort of uh experience and and i will admit like not only did i get the switch to mario kart bundle i did get the gamecube wireless controller because i was like

I got it. Of course. I got to have my controller and playing those games on a GameCube controller is just it's. It's like when the N64, they had the wireless N64 controller. It's like, yes, it's expensive, but like, it's the perfect way. Did I also need it? yes yeah yeah i think that there's like i really wanted it and i'm like you know what this is

I'm already in for... I'm spending $800, $900 anyways. What's another $150? Yeah, well, it was expensive. Not that expensive for the GameCube controller. They are pricey, but it's wireless.

it has all the switch to functionality within it with all the extra game chat buttons and stuff and and uh i i do really appreciate that nintendo goes through the effort to build these these controllers out and sell them to to folks like you are paying like a pretty penny for these things but uh they work really really well so i was having a lot of fun with that

Uh, but yeah, Mario Kart world's the big one. Um, and, and obviously the switch to hardware as well. Like, I think that, like I said, everything about the switch to is an improvement on the switch. It's bigger. The screen is much more, even though it is still LCD, it's not OLED. It feels like a much better screen than was offered on the Switch One.

It's 1080p. It's HDR support. And yeah, it feels bigger. And because it's bigger, even the Joy-Cons, when you pop them off and put them in the sort of grip, that controller now feels... bigger and when you kind of compare the two the switch to the switch too you know it really does make the switch look like a bit of a toy and the switch light for sure was like this more of like a toy like experience

But like this, it feels like a like a like a handheld console. Yeah, for sure. And I got to say, like taking the Joy-Cons off, you just hold this little button. It deactivates or like. pushes away oh right the magnets yeah yeah yeah and then it's magnetized and you just it's like you you it's super easy you pull it pops off pull it pops off and then like the joy-con grip that comes with the switch too

You just take the Joy-Cons. You got to be careful you don't put your finger between, you know, the Joy-Con and the grip because those things snap. They come in there and they're... They're magnetized. They are actually like super powerful. Like that was the thing I was thinking about is I was like, what happens if they're not like, then you're just going to be knocking them off all the time. I was worried, too, that if you'd use them and they were kind of like.

you know, pop off, but they're very secure. You don't have to worry about that. Um, and, uh, yeah, like, and then having it docked, the dock is, uh, It allows for 4K, 60 frames per second gameplay, at least on my TV. I don't have like a fancy 120 frame, you know, system. or a television but uh mario kart looks fantastic it is more mario kart you know it's what we all expected

How is the were the like open world portions? Are they worth it? Should they just have stuck to like the select your track interface type thing or?

Because that's the big change, right? Is the open-worldness of Mario Kart. Yeah, and that's interesting because I think... I don't want to be negative on the open world because I think... I think what they built was they had this idea of like, okay, how do we make... the tracks more dynamic and more interesting and I think they sort of extrapolated on well what if the tracks sort of like blended into each other like if you could drive from one to the other and allow for more like dynamic

sort of customization and options for these tracks. And you see that in the Grand Prix. And then also I was doing some races with... abby and izzy where they were playing with me and you can kind of choose a starting track and then you can either play just that track or blend it with an adjacent one which kind of gives you like you know, two locales in one race, which is really interesting. But then I think what they did is the open world stuff is kind of like an add on.

It really feels like they kind of built out this world to support the Grand Prix and the way they can dynamically mix up the races and then decide, well, wait, this is all connected. Let's allow the player to free roam. And while it's nice they give you that option, it's not the most compelling mode. It didn't look very interesting when they were showing it off and they were talking about it. I was like, the races look cool.

I don't get the appeal of like the open road. It seems like there's not much appeal there. There's not. I think the open world, I think you can kind of tell just based on the way they've. it's very it's kind of hidden like if you go to the launch screen there's like the typical like single player multiplayer online then at the bottom there are these three icons ones for stickers that you can sort of customize your

your icon. And then the one is just the map. And that's how you access the open world is you go to the map. Wow. Okay. And then you can pick specific characters on the map and then that zooms into that portion and you just start driving. It kind of feels more like less of a Forza open world experience and more of like a... explore the world sort of at your own pace that seems so secondary like they made it seem like it was much more integrated in the game

um i i'm a little surprised that it wasn't even like a single player multiplayer you know online open world like an option with the with in the main main menu like i know it's on the same page but to be like down there with, like, customize your avatar with stickers. Explore our open map. Like, it's much more sidelined and secondary than I thought it was going to be.

For better or worse, like, honestly, I kind of thought it was a weird idea anyways. I'm like, why, if I'm going to play a game, a racing game, would I... spend time just driving around aimlessly to get to the next not aimlessly because it made it look like you had to do all the driving to the next track and stuff all the time

Anyways, I'm kind of pleasantly surprised that they didn't focus on that and only that because, I mean, everyone knows that I think that's... one of the big props of breath of the wild yeah no it's very secondary and like they do give you so you can lock outfits by collecting special items and

A quick way to do that is to go in the open world and just kind of drive through, literally drive through the drive through and get the, it's like a food item and just spam it until you get all the outfits. I mean, not as fun as just organically picking them up. in the Grand Prix as you're sort of like doing the cups and stuff, but it's an option. Uh, the open world they do again, it, it, it does kind of feel like, um, they designed it for the interact.

stability of like the tracks in the other modes because you do when you're doing a grand prix or a knockout tour like you do it's not seamless in grand prix and grand prix there is like a load between each race uh but but the next race is always like a portion of that track is racing from one track to the next um Whereas Knockout Tour is like one continuous sort of race from point to point to point.

um and it's a knockout because like you have to be that's the one where you have to get a certain okay yeah i was gonna say that's the one where you have to hit a certain milestone or a certain place Yeah. And, but so the open world thing I think is just like, well, we've built this world and it would almost be Nintendo like to say like, no, you don't get to access it in free row mode, you know? But the fact that they give it to you is like, is.

is a neat touch, but it's not the selling point. I think the selling point A is it's Mario Kart and B, like they've sort of mixed up the tracks and how they're presented. And I think it's a really unique sort of take.

on the traditional which is just like here are the tracks here the characters have fun uh so how many characters are there because that was a big speculation oh given all all of the different like and the fact that there's like you could be the penguin or you could be a cow like how many characters can you actually choose from yeah you can be quite a bit like i think there's definitely like 30 to 40

I think there's like at least 30 unique characters, but then each outfit is its own variation of the characters. They're like technically eight Mario's, I guess. Oh, wow. Yeah. So there's like, it's all cosmetic. And like Wario is like his own character, not like a Mario outfit. No, Wario is his own character. So the Marios are like completely.

their own thing yeah and just him okay standard mario you have racer mario you have cowboy mario you have uh vacation mario like so it's like princess peach showtime but yeah

Mario Kart. Exactly. And Princess Peach has her own variations of the character. And some characters like Donkey Kong only has two variations, while others have the big ones like... peach and mario and luigi have like eight and like that stuff is really interesting and there's a varied degree like i i almost you know kind of question like why they why they did kind of like go

Who cares? I think there's a quote like in previous Mario Kart games, we limited the characters to people who had arms because that seemed. relevant to be able to drive and now they're like i don't know screw it let's just do a snowman you know a dolphin doesn't matter they they control the car with their mind uh

I am looking forward to unlocking the dolphin. I do like that character. I kind of love that. I just I love that idea. Like, fuck it. It's Mario Kart. Like, we are already a cartoony version of a racing game. Like, why not take full advantage of that? Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So I and you do unlock characters by completing the cups. There's a lot of unlockables. You're unlocking characters, outfits.

I believe you unlock a whole sort of world as well. I haven't gotten that far yet, but it runs great. It looks great. Like it's weird because for the last 10 years we have had. a very specific version of Mario Kart with Mario Kart 8. And this does feel like... Is that how long we were on 8 for? Oh, yeah. Wow. Yeah, it was a Wii... It was a...

I mean, a launch title Wii U game, I think, or not launch, but like first couple years, maybe two years into the Wii U. I feel like it was it was it was around there. But but yeah, like this is. the first new mario kart but we were talking pre-show about like why folks were wondering like kind of questioning like mario kart i love it but like it doesn't feel like a launch title and i and having played mario kart world mario kart really feels like an and game

You want your major titles, but then you always want Mario Kart as an additional experience. It's a fun jump in, do a few races, jump out, go back to your big Zelda adventure. We're missing the big Zelda adventure. Not that it has to be Zelda, but we're missing the flagship. Mario Kart doesn't feel like it carries flagship status for a console launch. Exactly.

I feel like it's kind of weird. Like Donkey Kong is in a month. I almost wonder if they should have like tried to get Donkey Kong out at launch and then Mario Kart a month later just to kind of have that.

you know, major title and Mario Kart type experience. So does this mean, because I know you've kind of been on the fence about Donkey Kong, so does that mean you're going to pick it up now? Because not that Mario Kart is disappointing. I don't want people to get the wrong... impression necessarily, but like.

I feel like you have to be really into Mario Kart and really like want all those unlockables so you can play more Mario Kart. Like the driver of Mario Kart is like any racing game is like the faster times and the unlockables, right? not so much like a story yeah are because i know like you were saying i think when it was originally when everything was originally announced that you were like donkey kong

Are you having second thoughts about that? Are you going to pick it up? I'm still interested in reviews. I kind of want to see what... Like we do have a I imagine we'll have a Donkey Kong Bonanza sort of direct at some point in the next couple of weeks. And I just feel like what they showed of it initially like has the potential to be, you know.

just scratching the surface or could be sort of a telling of like, okay, this is the whole game. I'm just, I'm probably, my worry is unfounded. I'm sure it's going to be great. But I am still waiting to see more of it. But it's interesting. We've been recording long enough that Nintendo's had an opportunity to announce how many they've sold. And breaking news, they've sold 3.5 million units in their first four days, making it the fastest selling video game hardware.

so they're saying launch really well fastest selling nintendo game system ever that's according to nintendo uh which i mean they would have the numbers but then just saying like that's 3.5 million units in Four days is a pretty big deal. I was in a store and I saw them on the shelves. Well, and this is why I'm surprised. And it must just be like they've figured out their supply chain from last time. They had a better idea of what demand might look like.

Because I feel like consoles on store shelves day one. means that they're not selling very well because like they've been just so hard to get your hands on right like all all of them like not just the switch but you know the switch was hard to get the the playstations the xbox like it's all been hard to get for so long that i'm like when you know people were saying like oh yeah they're they're on the shelf i'm like

they're fucking what clearly no one's buying them then imagine being in stock imagine not having to refresh a website for you know like 25 to 50 attempts on different days just to get a spot in line like all of this is wild to me i assumed no one was buying them well and that's so i'm sorry nintendo i owe you an apology i think that's the biggest thing is like when you

when you look at what happened with the switch one and we've talked about this a lot with nintendo hardware in general is just like it's so hard to get and at the time you're thinking like oh this they need to figure out their manufacturing this is artificial scarcity

And I have seen talk online of like, oh, you can buy one in store. Like, it must not be selling. And I think to a certain degree, you can point at the price point and say like, there's a reason it... that i think stock is making it to shelves so that people who may have missed the pre-orders but still want one can go get one but i don't think it's like priced in a way that when someone sees it they're like oh i have to have that

right now like it's it's cost prohibitive where you're going to have to have a conversation like you say the fastest selling nintendo console ever so there just are more of them yes right they've sold more than the switch but they're still on the shelves so they just they made more there are more available than there were on the launch of the switch and

You know, it might really be because of, you know, the console that came before the Switch was the Wii U that did not sell well. So maybe they were just like... Nobody likes us anymore. Like, let's make a hundred. And then people were like, we want a billion. And they were like, oh, dear. We were unprepared. But this time they were like, hey, people really like the switch.

I bet all those switch people are just going to buy twos. We should make enough twos for all the switch people. I mean, not all, but you know what I mean? Like they were much better prepared and much better positioned. I think this time to have a smoother launch. Yeah. So we'll see like what comes down the road, like how sales do leading into the holidays. I'm just stoked that there's no scalpers, right? Like anyone who bought a console to try to sell it for double its value on day one.

You got what you deserve, bud. Yeah, I think that's a really good point. The fact that they are keeping up with at least initial demand. yeah we'll see what comes later on like if if more when more games come if more people want to jump on board uh will will there be enough there to to to keep it in stock but i was surprised to see that uh they had it usually they would have like you know nothing in in in the uh

in the display cases which goes here and just empty shelves yeah so we'll see and i mean i've only just scratched the surface of the switch 2 i still got a lot more that i kind of want to sort of experience and i'm still working my way through mario kart world so uh it's not Not the last you'll hear of the Switch 2 from me, but yeah, really want to try out some of those older Switch titles that didn't run so well on the Switch and check them out on the Switch 2. So that's likely up next.

I wanted to give a quick update on Tainted Grail because I think last week I had basically made it to the end of the first area, which was the end of their early access content and into this. And but I hadn't actually gone into the secondary yet. And I've done that now. And I'll say I haven't noticed a drop off in quality at all. So I don't really know what.

the like because that was a reoccurring theme in some of the user reviews was like oh the first area is great but then the second area is blah and i was like oh i have not noticed that i've been you know interacting with all the lore reading all the books talking to the npcs i'm like there's some fun like tongue-in-cheek kind of humor stories over this way there's like The main story seems to be progressing in an interesting manner.

You're getting closer to Camelot, so you're starting to see more of that influence because you start on the furthest away area from the big main central government cities. you're starting to see a little bit more of that like tension and stuff so i don't know like i think it's actually it's been great like my my one-shot spell isn't one-shotting things anymore so that's pretty sweet too like

I'm becoming more powerful as a character. I haven't really noticed any issues. Like I was worried about like not leveling up enough and not getting enough points to be able to use pieces of gear. haven't really ended up having that problem i'm leveling pretty quickly so i i think the the fears that i had and some of the stuff in the reviews like i really haven't been experiencing i'm loving this game

I think it's really well done. It has a lot of the like ridiculous like ragdoll physics death sometimes too. So. that's always good for a laugh so yeah i'm i'm really enjoying it i think it's a great like double a kind of uh title i think it's really good so if you're having a skyrim type itch or you like arthurian legend like

go check it out it's really good and that that'll be my last like unless something goes like really really poorly before i hit the the end of the game that's probably going to be my last update but um yeah i i'm still playing it it's really good i'm like I think like 15 hours in or so. So yeah, it took me about like 12-ish hours, I think, to kind of like...

go through and clear out the first area. So again, it's kind of a good size. It's not necessarily overwhelming. And although the mechanics of the side quests are... kind of like repetitive that's really the same for a lot of rpgs right it's like you have to go collect things or talk to people or escort people or like there are types of quests right but even the things where it's like

go gather these four things it's like they've given some time to think about what those four things would be and make them interesting so it's not just like Get the four keys. They're key one, key two, key three, and key four. It's like... They're, you know, the head of this enemy. And then also you need the torso of this enemy because we're making a weird Frankenstein monster or something. You don't think there's an element of interest there.

So, yeah, I've really been enjoying it and I don't really see my fears and some of these criticisms coming to be like and they've had a couple of patches. So maybe they fix some stuff. But I mean, you're not going to rewrite your whole story in a patch. Yeah, I'm pleasantly surprised. I think it's great. Go check it out if you're getting that kind of Elder Scrolls-y itch. It's really good. Yeah, so you're going to roll from this one right into Oblivion Remaster? What's your plan?

Honestly, probably ESO because ESO, I think, had their 10th anniversary is this month. so but like we're in june this is the eso like rollover of the year time so um i'll be checking out their uh their new content too so Oh, they have a new expansion. Like June's usually their expansion month, right? Like, as you said, so what's their expansion?

this time oh i don't know i re-upped my sub and i said yes give me all the things and download all the things and i haven't opened it ryan you're putting me on the spot you don't know I don't know what I bought. I don't know what I bought. Okay. Okay. Well, now I know why you didn't give me a hard time for buying an expensive GameCube controller. Seasons of the Worm Cult? Yeah. Yep.

Okay. I think they had a trailer for it. Oh, now apparently I've got a 50 gig update, so I'm going to pause that. Whoopsie doodles. Yeah, Seasons of the Worm Calls. Yeah. So there you go. Yeah, so that was just, it's been within the last week, but I've been playing Tainted Grail, so I haven't jumped into ESO yet. But that is the next thing on my list, because yeah, like you say, they always do the...

flip over their year and the expansion launch and everything else is always in June. So yeah, I'm looking forward to that, actually. I always love new Elder Scrolls content. And I mean, we say this every year, but ESO is just so good. And it's so good as just like, there's obviously all the trappings of the MMOs and there's raids and dungeons and all of the like PVP and everything else, like all the multiplayer stuff is in there, but it is just a spectacular single player experience.

You don't even need... It's like you get a new Elder Scrolls game every year. You don't even need all the other stuff. And I feel like because it has the O, people don't... give it a lot of time or attention because they're like, yeah, it's an MMO, whatever. But it is just a really solid Elder Scrolls experience every June. So I really enjoy it.

Yeah, their expansions are usually like pretty beefy too, right? Oh yeah, yeah, they're huge. There's quite a lot of game time in there. I think I usually spend between 50 and 100 hours.

um just playing through like the new single player content that they put out every year so like there's like i say i think we've spent 150 ish hours and our first playthrough of skyrim is ringing a bell so like you basically get a new skyrim every june wow that's a lot of that's a lot of elder scrolls it's a lot it is yeah it's a lot of stuff it is a lot of stuff and that's if you don't like

Like I say, my playtime, I go in and do the Delvey things and the dungeons and stuff, but I don't do the raids and the PvP and all of the grander MMO stuff. I don't really get into the crafting too much.

a whole big huge MMO game that I never touch but if all you're looking for is like new cool stories in the elder scrolls universe then like yeah subbing to eso for a couple months through the summer especially through the summer where there's traditionally a lot less releases going on in the grander gaming world like it's kind of just a nice good summer game

So anyways, it should be in Summer Games Fest. Yeah, it was it was in the Xbox. They had a trailer in the Xbox thing. It was a, you know, some there was like a pet.

thing and like creating your own story and i think it was more of a celebration trailer for 10 years than it was like a new feature trailer so uh yeah no look ESO is... I remember when it was announced, folks were like, oh gosh, we're just... another another mmo although to be fair there were a lot of mmos like coming at like everybody and their brother was making an mmo at that time so yeah they're all chasing wow right yeah exactly

But now like, yeah, ESO is just it's doing its own thing. It's chugging along. It's yeah. And like I say, it's a really enjoyable experience for me for a couple months a year through the summer. If you haven't checked it out, go and check it out. Because a few years ago, well, it might be actually like four or five years ago now, they did that one Tamriel update. And then that's where you can start wherever you want, play whatever you want.

you know, follow stories or don't do side quests. Like it very much opened everything up. So yeah, you don't even have to worry about the fact that you haven't played for 10 years. You can jump in anywhere and just like experience a part of the world. It's really good. So anyways, I'm not going to talk about ESO much more because I'm going to talk about it in the coming weeks as I play through some of the new expansion content. But yeah.

That's next step on my docket, I think, once I finish Tainted Grail, which, I mean, still probably is going to be another, like, 30 hours or so, I would guess. um because there's definitely i don't know how many like zones there are i just finished like act one but i would say it's probably four or five just based on like the edges of the map that i've seen and the gates and stuff like two other areas

I think there's probably about five, but yeah. Anyways, it's very good. You guys should check it out and check out ESO. That's it. I'm done. Lots to do. Yeah. My super quick update that took like 15 minutes. That's all good. We had a lot to talk about this week. Yeah, yeah. Busy show, busy week. If you would like to talk about all the things that we failed to talk about or give us your thoughts on the things we did talk about, head on over to our Discord.

That is tiny.cc slash TGI Discord. You can also visit us on the web at gamersinpodcast.com. Or follow us over on Blue Sky. You can find me, Jocelyn, at jocplays.com and Ryan is at ryanmurphy.ca. Also be sure to check out our TGI Community Starter Pack, which is at tiny.cc slash TGI Starter Pack. Thanks for staying at the Gamers Inn. And remember, tune in next week. Bye, everybody. Bye, everyone.