2025 Release Calendar Six-Shooter Duel (With Kyle Bosman!)

you Hello, everybody, and welcome to a new episode of the Minpack Shell. It's about games, friends, getting better. I'm Ben Hanson, joined by Jacob Geller. Pow, pow. Ooh, guns drawn already. We have Jana Garcia. Pew, pew, bang. Oh, of course. And then we're joined by Hayley McClain. I'm in Canada, so stab, stab. That's right. That's right. So she has six big knives.

But we're also honored to be joined by the new guest cohort for the month of July, Kyle Bossman. Wow. Wow. Thank you for being here, sir. Happy to be here. Yeah. So you joined us this week. You filled into the past for my paternity leave. I think you filled in hosting not that long ago, but we're like, we need like a full month of us actually.

overlapping here and you joining us on new show plus you joining us for the mid-max show some other odds and ends thank god you came in firing in your first monday meeting with some delightfully weird ideas for kind of bonus stuff that we can do throughout the month so thank you for

being bottled up and ready to go with ideas here, man. Yeah, it's going to be a month of, I think, like... weird bad energy but like you need a little bit of that i think you know i think i love a little weird bad energy yeah i love it it builds the immune system i think content wise yeah content immune precisely that yeah you need it um

Kyle, you know, if you're listening to this, you probably know who he is, but he was at Easy Allies for so many years, game trailers, delay to input his YouTube channel now, which, Kyle, this feels too butt kissy. Ben brings up delayed input every episode. Whenever I open YouTube and a new delayed input is at the top of my feed, it is like little...

YouTube Christmas morning. You know how every YouTube channel, there's those special moments of like, God, I can't wait to like sit on my couch and bundle up with my little ear pods and just absorb this. So thank you for keeping that series rolling over there, man. Happy to provide. That's really good. Are you still enjoying it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because the thing is, like...

It changes in tone, I think. Like, you know, like an episode from now is like pretty kind of different in weird, subtle ways from an episode a year ago. And so like, you know, it's like if you get tired of like one direction, you kind of just kind of flow in a different way.

And is that sparked by like you changing up the wardrobe and the background every season? Does that inspire you, you think, to like change your writing style as well? I bet subtly. Yeah, just like wearing flamingo shirts. You're kind of like speaking in a different tone.

You can hear it. I get it. Hey, we're going to be speaking at so many tones. Ben is wearing a plain gray tee, so this is going to be an awful episode. Is there really nothing on your shirt? Is it plain gray? No, because Sarah Buzorski told me that... Batman t-shirt is lamest of the lane these days. You got to have like a plain t-shirt to be a cool guy. She said on you. That is true. So genuinely, when I go in my closet every morning now, Sarah's voice is just screaming in my ear where it's like.

if you want to be cool, wear a shirt that looks boring. It's like, this seems counterintuitive, but Sarah's cool. So I guess this is what I do with my life. All right. So I don't, like, I really don't want to insult you. Ben, the host of this podcast in my opening minutes. Please. But here's the thing. I feel like Jacob gives off like this hyper intelligent vibe where a Batman shirt is cooler on him than it would be you.

And not that you're dumb, but I don't feel like your intelligence is part of your vibe. Because if you ask... You have a Bruce Wayne vibe, if you will. Yeah, if you ask me about Batman. Sort of billionaire playboy. Right, right. You can speak intelligently about Batman if someone asks you about your shirt. Whereas for me, it feels more likely I just was like, Michael Keaton was cool. I bought it at Target.

If you wore a Batman shirt, I would assume someone left it at a party and you just kept it in your wardrobe. But if Jacob wore a Batman tee, he would have bought it. No, Haley, what's funny is I think the shirt was literally left at a party. Aha! He's me, you guys. He's me. What kind of parties are y'all at? People are just taking their shirts off. And it was like 12 years ago. But it's a good shirt. God, that's cool. He gets invited to parties. I don't have to think about it.

But on this year episode of the podcast, of course, we are taking a look at the 2025 release calendar. The only way we know how to do it, which is by having a duel, a six shooter duel. Running down. We all get six shots. We get to claim the games we want to play. And this is your only chance to play it. If you don't fire on your game, if you don't win the rights to play your game, say goodbye to it forever.

But no one else can play the games that you manage to shoot with your love. Does that make sense, Cal Bussman? Yeah, absolutely. Okay, great. I didn't realize the stakes were that high. Yeah, it's intense. It's intense. There's no doubt about it. So what if there's a tie? What do you do if there's a tie? Passion off. Made it out.

Yeah. Yeah. And then everybody can vote to see who's feeling it more. Who feels like they deserve the right to play this game with another person, you know? Has there ever been a full five-person passion off? I don't think so. No. The games aren't good enough. Yeah. They've never cut across all lines. There are definitely, looking at my preliminary list that I've made, there are some that are like...

I'm not even going to shoot for that because I know that I would lose a passion off. Right. You know, which I don't know, maybe makes worse content. Well, it's important to know, just like real duels, if you fire your shot. but it doesn't hit the target, you can go pick up that bullet and put it back in your gun. You know, you get, you get five or sorry, six claims to the games. You don't only have six shots.

Does that make sense? If it hits something, it doesn't come back for some reason. Yeah, these are these are they're all boomerang bullets is what I'm trying to say. Yeah. It comes back and shoots you back. Ben, do you get how bullets work? I have to put it into a new casing and like... This isn't...

This isn't like a history channel documentary. It's a podcast about claiming games. We're going to need a little suspension of disbelief for this. Yeah, this is just yelling the word. Honestly, you know, you know, when every video game, when you reload your gun and the bullets from the last clip are magically put. into the new clip it's like you're like made of your blood yeah exactly it's like a nerf gun i guess but that's less exciting to shoot no damn gun hayley has access to

That's right. These are real guns, everybody, to be clear. They are dangerous and we should be careful as we're using them on this podcast. Picked one at my Walmart the other day. There we go. Here's the thing, everybody. If you enjoy...

us having guest cohorts pop in every now and then like we had with a lot up here so the start of the year if you enjoy the content that we're rolling here at min max if you enjoy the way that we're evolving over our five and a half year span you want to keep it rolling into the future you can support us at patreon.com slash min max with two

ends directly over there. And if you jump in before July 7th, we will DM you on Patreon with a Steam code for Despolote. If you remember us talking about this game just like a couple months ago, it wasn't that long ago at all, where it is from Pan... Nick, the publisher, same publisher as Firewatch, right? So think walking sim, but more documentary lens on a childhood in Ecuador and the importance of soccer through that.

And I know if you're not a sports person, you might say that doesn't sound up my alley, but I... truly love this game like i would be stunned if this game is not in my top five at the end of the year i really think it's a special little short game and so you can get a steam code for that if you support us on patreon at any tier or if you upgrade your tier if you want to jump from the two dollar tier

The $5 tier will also DM you a Steam code. We have 200 Steam codes to give away. It ends July 7th, and we will message on all social media if we run out of game codes. But if you want to keep this whole thing rolling, get a great game, unlock a great benefit. on patreon now's the time to do it everybody despolote thank you the developers and panic for making that possible um kyle bossman you were smirking slightly throughout that entire plug

I'm so scared you are of Kyle. You're terrified of Kyle. He's like a masterful podcast host. Not that everybody else here isn't, of course, with something rotten. Everything you do, you're like, Kyle, was that good? Now you know what's inside my head. It was a great read. It was a great read. But I need to be honest to the entire audience. I was already like scheming how to use my bullets.

Now knowing I can pick them up changes the game dramatically to me. So I was legitimately running through scenarios in my mind of how to use my six bullets. Okay, good, good, good, good, good. Yeah, you got to start strategizing. And...

Kyle is obviously a master podcaster. He's done this for many, many years. And so he had some tips and stuff for us. You can check out New Show Plus if you're curious. But here's the thing, everybody. Before I started this podcast, I received an encrypted message.

which I was confused about. I don't really get this type of thing normally. And so I had to like, I had to download like WinRAR to de-encrypt this message just to try and see what it was. But it was a message from somebody calling themselves the Rumormeister. The hell? Oh my god, I've heard of the Rubbermeister. Really?

They messaged you? They messaged me. Yeah. Of all people? You? Yeah. And so they have a message that they say our audience needs to hear and it's going to be played at the end of this podcast. So stay tuned if you want to hear the message from the Rumor Meister. No, no, no, no.

We need to save it for the end of the podcast, Kyle, please. It's too hot. It's like you need the kind of publishers and the PR people to stop listening. Yeah. Because if you play it this high in the episode, lawsuits all over the place. Yeah, no doubt about it.

Okay, everybody, let's get to the 2025 release calendar. Now what I'm thinking about is Rumor Meister. I'm distracted. They'll be coming around the corner when they come. When they come. It's like the song. All right. I have a question. Yes, ma'am. You had mentioned before we started recording that anything with a 2025 window is available. Is the window going to be at the end, though? Yes. I assume you're going down, you know.

Yep. Chronologically. Chronologically, and then the grab bag. I was realizing this as well, of like a lot of the ones that are pretty high on my list might be in that ending window. There's always more than you think in that miscellaneous dumping ground that is the ambiguous 2025. I only got five things written.

All right, there's going to be more in the event. I'm really banking on there being some things that come up in here. I think it'll be there. But shout out, of course, to Gameformer.com. Last time we did this, they were around, and then they died, and then they were revived. So shout out to them for having...

That's exactly like Jesus. So GameInformer.com slash 2025 for a great release calendar. Thanks everybody over there for keeping it up to date. I think it's cool they recognize that was an important thing about GameInformer. Yes. They, like, added it, like, as its own, like, tab on the website. I love that. Like, with the revival. I mean, and it's... up and updated now because marcus stewart said that he was even after being laid off from game informer 1.0 was just updating it on his own time

was just like, I'm going to keep this running. Just in case there's a miraculous revival of Game Informal come in handy as well. Okay, I'm loading the six-shooter. I'm getting ready for this thing. I was looking at like last year's and my list for last year and I felt bad about myself and I felt myself aging rapidly because it's like it's just a bunch of old guy stuff. It was like a lot of.

tickling, hey, do you remember your childhood? Hey, this might be coming back. Here's a remaster of this. Why don't you check this out? So I'm trying to be more youthful with my game selections this year. That's going to be my philosophy going into this. Survival Kids, got it. Did you play all the games that you...

a shot last year. Did you have what we shot on hand? Yeah, it was for me. Just to put you on the spot? Yeah, yeah. It was Age of Mythology Retold, UFO 50, MVC, Marvelous Capcom Fighting Collection, Metal Gear Solid Delta Snake Eater.

Which, you know, pushed a nice near this type of option. Plucky Squire and Wanderstop. Wanderstop also pushed, but I did play it when it came out in 2025, you know? You hit all of those that are released. Yeah, yeah, I think I'm doing all right. What were mine? I remember... Some of them. I don't have them all up. I'm sorry. The one that I remember from last year was Kingmakers.

The game where you drive a Ford F-150 through a bunch of knights in armor. Yes. And that did not come out last year. So who knows? It's on the list again. Who knows when that's coming up again? Okay. You ready for this?

Yeah. First game on the horizon. You might laugh, you might scoff, but it's worth noting EA Sports College Football 2026 coming out July 10th. You fire when ready by yelling bang if you want to lock this game down for yourself. Now, this isn't some wacky Metacritic game. This isn't... Don't get up in your head about it. But it's worth noting, I mean, this was...

Last year's game was the best-selling sports game of all time, which is still weird to think about. Those don't count in my head. It was the second best-selling game of the year last year, but all right, just throw it out there. It's floating. Okay, I don't think this one will...

sell more than last year, right? Yeah. I feel like that is representative of the drought because it had been a really long time since they did a college football game. Yeah. So I'm curious to see it. I can see it cracking top 10 this year. Most likely. For sure, yeah. Okay. Then July 10th also, we have System Shock 2, 25th anniversary remaster. All right. Right there. Right there. We love it. We just aren't like...

You're going to use one of your six bullets on something like that. That's the problem. If you do, you're cool, but we're not that cool. July 11th. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 plus 4. Wow, crew. Okay. All right. Noted. I like Tony Hawk. Can I be honest with you? Yeah, please. Yeah, and I want to hear Janet too. I feel like we're all a little apprehensive. It doesn't seem as cool as 1 plus 2. I feel like it's missing a certain excitement factor.

about it it's even if it was years of us being like do three and four yeah okay we'll do it and it's like oh okay cool like there's no like unless three or four is your jam is your boom boom huck jam which they weren't so There we go. My weird thing with Tony Hawk is that I, for a long time, so when I was a kid, like I think most normal children, I didn't know that like when you have a game on a different platform.

Sometimes it's like literally a different game, which is like if you're young listening to this, sometimes it wasn't the same game. It was like just a specific thing made for a handheld. So I played Tony Hawk on my GBA and loved it. And then 1 and 2 came out, and I said, oh, I remember loving Tony Hawk. And then I was like, this is hard as hell. I don't want to play this. You were like, this isn't isometric? Yeah. This isn't 8-bit? Yeah, like, it was...

And I guess even my head, obviously, I knew that it like looked different, but I just assumed that like. it controlled similarly like it kind of transfers over and it doesn't yeah so i'm like i'm not good at this game and i guess i never liked it actually i liked a different game it's weird that said tony hawk on it it's just so many people have like tony hawk muscle memory

in their hands and brains for all time. But it's just weird to have a different version of Tony Hawk muscle memory. And it's a GBA muscle memory baked in at this point. But hey, that's why it takes all kinds. July 17th. Mm-hmm. I'm seeing here there's a platform called the Switch 2. And I'm seeing that there's a game releasing called Donkey Kong Bonanza. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

was that the five bang did it happen it happened Kyle I think you were banging two uh mightily and discord was cutting you out and so that's possible yeah legally we can't accept your bang at that point if discord doesn't accredit it we can't accredit it either okay there it is there's the whisper bang donkey kong bonanza

Kyle, genuinely, when we're lining up, like, what month would be the best for you to be a guest cohort? I was like, you know, it would be kind of fun to have him to talk about Donkey Kong Bonanza if we lined it up in the month of July. Like, you just...

replayed all of Donkey Kong 64? I'm sorry, are you arguing for him? Let a man argue for another man! What's wrong with that? Here's the thing. I've been like... trying to tell people this is donkey kong's year i feel like all all year maybe even last year you know what i mean like i i believed in this game i was i was here's the thing there's like there's like some podcasters who like

Even after they showed that reveal trailer back in April, they were like, I think this might be the Captain Toad team. Because they still didn't believe, even after seeing that trailer, how excellent this game was obviously going to be. I played it, and I... is still in the camp of, this is an expanded toad team.

And there's still no way that they could have cleared up that confusion. You know, there's no way you could have avoided having that debate. So all they said is, yeah, it is the Tokyo team. It is the Mario Odyssey team. There's still... God, we only had to wring it out of them. Jesus Christ.

They didn't actually say. Oh, my God. Yeah. I need to know, like, is the director of Odyssey the director of this? I don't think so. I don't think so. I do. Okay. All right. If you can have faith. Real quick. Officially, what did. get set on record? Because I know there was, like, what was the quote, I guess, or the information? They said it's Tokyo EAD. Like, it is the Mario Odyssey development team that's making this.

But they didn't name names is the only thing. That's right. That's right. They said same studio, but no names. Right. And so you were horrified by me going on international airwaves and, you know, being like, hey, this game looks cool. I'm excited for it. I don't think this is going to be the next Odyssey, everybody. Right. Because it so clearly is. You think so? Yeah. I agree. Yeah. I think it's...

The more I see of it, the more I'm like, oh, this is going to give me that 2017 brain juice I had with Odyssey and I can't wait for it. I regularly say that's the last time I was happy playing a video game was Mario Odyssey. Genuinely believe that. That's a really long time ago.

i know that can't be true i'm calling cap i'm calling astrobot actually astrobot astrobot refresh the cache so our fortnite stream that didn't mean anything to you all right i was happy because of you janet not because of fortnite you fake Did you fake the stream? Yes, I bought the Sabrina Carpenter skin for nothing. No, of course I had fun. I just am excited for us to have like...

a national celebration, an international conversation about this game. Like, did you guys feel like there was a large conversation happening about Mario Kart World? It kind of felt like everyone got the Switch 2 and they're like, I'm Mario Kart World. I like this part. I kind of like this part. respectfully, what do you talk about? Right.

You know, it's like, it's Mario Kart. It's good. I like it. Right, right, right. You talk about the wheel meta. How to change characters in between. The wheel meta, which is now the same as the kart meta. Whether or not you like that you go from track to track and they kind of bleed into each other. I don't really like that. the most conversation that we've had that nintendo took away the way to just play tracks it's still in there technically but so

The idea, though, is I think this is going to be the Switch 2 moment where it'll feel like collectively as a people, we are now all digesting and thinking about the same game in an interesting way. But, okay, that's a lot about the game, not a lot about people's... individual passion for the game you're right like i'm interested in playing this i will admit i'm not as ready for this to blow my mind as you are kyle but i'm still like very passionate about

this game in this franchise. I was there for Tropical Freeze. I had a Wii U. I think Donkey Kong is one of the... strongest platformers that also manages to have its own identity. I think a lot of times when we go to good platformers, we're often seeing them kind of try to replicate.

mario um i think that's even true sometimes within like nintendo itself but donkey kong really has its own style its own feel its own weight we've seen him try 3d before and it didn't go well he's out there again back in 3d

And it definitely seems better. It seems solid, but there's a lot of curiosities left. I know the preview cycle has talked a little bit about like the 2D levels or the side like optional things. Like to me, when I see this, I don't see Mario Odyssey in it, even if it is the same team. What I see is like a Kirby.

kind of level design with a little bit more openness, which Kirby also a really big fan of. So I'm excited to see what this is and all it might have to offer. And I would go, I don't think it's wild to say that I'm like among. the biggest platformer fan like at the company yeah yeah and we do like to call ourselves a company the not to keep uh kissing butt but the fact that you just make me pull up the website where would you call it a company like donkey kong 64

Like everyone says, Oh, I'd be nice to go back to that thing. You did it. I mean, that was, it's a beast of a game, right? Here's what resonated about Janet. What Janet was saying is that I would say like Donkey Kong 64, I think holds up in some interesting ways, but. It doesn't play to the strengths of Donkey Kong as a character. It is like a Banjo-Kazooie game. And what almost made me cry when this debut trailer showed up...

is that the games cater to being Donkey Kong, a gorilla who just wants to smash things. And so I love how much of the game is just about breaking stuff.

as like a you know a reckless gorilla out there just having a good time and so like yeah i really like it's so fun that we're gonna be playing that basically a brand new game obviously like an ages old ip but like in like format and like in the way it's showcasing this character in particular like it is a new game in a way that Mario Kart world definitely wasn't

And maybe Metroid Prime won't be, you know? Yeah, yeah. And so I love the idea, like, this is a modern day. And the Metroid Stray coming early is wild. No, I get it, though. Like, you want to feel that Nintendo brilliance on your new console. And I think Metroid Prime 4 is going to be a super solid game. I'm not expecting to say...

Wow. They've still got it. More gun wounds for me. All right. I mean, you know, just saying. I'm going to come from a different angle of the Pauline angle. I've been I've been. on pauline's side this whole time everyone's like get pauline out of here she's in too much stuff i knew that she was accumulating to become a major character since odyssey she showed up in there and she was the hottest thing i've ever seen in any nintendo property okay we can't talk about that now

Well, no, I'm not talking about it here. Now she's a child, so I can't say anything. But I love that she's here. And I can't wait to see her grow up into the woman that I respectfully like when she's older. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's get a little too... Let's get too close. Just get on the gym. Yeah, I think that's a DQ. I play her every time I play Mario Party. I play her now. Every time I play Mario Kart, she's become like my favorite...

nintendo character i don't know when they snucky sneaky stuck her in there and made me love her so much yeah but i think she's the perfect pairing with him because if we had like daisy or Peach, or something. It wouldn't hit. Something about it being Pauline with him is, like, very fun. I like that. It gives Ragtag Team, I think, of Nintendo IP, where it's like, you know it, it is below us, but, like...

It's not Mario. But that's kind of what's exciting. I know Pauline is Mario. It is just Wreck-It Ralph, right? Yes, of course, it's just Wreck-It Ralph, but, you know. Oh, dare you. Big guy who smashes stuff in little Spunky Girl. But Spunky Girl didn't sing in Wreck-It Ralph, from what I recall. You know? She did sing in the sequel. She sang in the sequel. Okay, well, everybody sings in the sequel. fan like donkey kong like he doesn't have that like

annoying self-consciousness that Wreck-It Ralph has. You know what I mean? You don't have to worry about, like, Donkey Kong spending a half hour pouting and wondering if he's good enough, you know? And I feel like that really makes the character strong. Yeah, I agree. But don't you believe in your heart of hearts that they're going to give that to Pauline? Now, I see in the chat that you're on Media Blackout. Did you watch the direct? Oh, hell no.

Oh, interesting. Okay, I think there's going to be some Pauline drama in this game that might get annoying. Some lore drops. Some lore drops slash drama. So he's not going to pout, but I think he might be like... There, there, it's okay. Like comforting her, you know? That's what you want? I hope he doesn't speak. He's just going to grunt. It'll be a translator, though. Look. God bless all of you. There's no doubt about it, but...

The fact that Kyle just streamed Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. Like the amount of prep this man has done. I have it pre-ordered. Does anyone pre-ordered their copy? I already have my copy pre-ordered. Playing through Jungle Beat versus pre-ordering the game, that's the scale of justice. What's the purpose of pre-ordering it?

This isn't how much... do you love i mean it's plays into each other but it's about an isolated game i feel like are we back loading all of like i don't know it's about the hype for it it does it does show it i'll say to me watching the trailer I emotionally pre-ordered this back in January. You know what I mean? In January, I was like, I know a 3D Donkey Kong game is coming out this year, and I emotionally pre-ordered it. Yeah. I feel like this seems like his thing.

Let's throw this. I will spend all six of my bullets on this one game. I will. Noted. In that case, I'll trade you. I'll use two of my bullets on this one if I can have it. That's crazy. Now that's interesting. So does Janet get another bullet? Yeah, I'll give you one of my bullets. What does Janet get? I'm also passionate for this. Can I get half a bullet?

Kyle said he'd use all of them. Give me one bullet. How about he gives me the two bullets first and then I'll decide what happens with them. What are the rules here? I'm not going to necessarily step to the side. I'm going to let the ref make your call. I'm saying legitimately.

If I could play one game for the rest of my year slash lifetime, it's this one. Lifetime. That's insane. I got to explain. This is like, this is my, it's the game I've been dreaming of. Other people can step in and say your name. Why would it be me when I'm facing you? Tell me you were dreaming of this game. Tell me you were dreaming of it. Yeah.

I got it. I got to bang this one. I got to bang this one. Bang it like a bongo, dude. It's yours. It's banged. Donkey Kong Bonanza. I just don't see why more people didn't step up to give it to Kyle. Like, why would I bet? Like, you know what I mean? I'm in there. I have to also say it's Kyle's. I guess we do have to just decide since it was all five people, I suppose. We got it. It was a five finger bang. Come on now. A fist. Okay, Haley.

Hey, July 22nd. I do think you were the most passionate about it. July 22nd, we got a game that is called Undermine 2, releasing in early access. No, thank you. I'm really tempted by this one. I am too. I'm like standing in the street with my hand hovering over the gun. I really like the first Undermine. Should be noted, Kyle Hilliard did work on the...

On the team here for quite a bit for Undermine 2. But he's not anymore. But he's not anymore. He has no investment in how this game does now. That's right. But to steal, I don't know anything about it. Roguelike about mining. It's just like a really fun... roguelike like it's it's kind of not not the most mechanically complicated or whatever but one where it's like if theoretically this is one of the six games i'm playing for the rest of the year i would probably put like

casually 40 hours in just like sitting on the Steam Deck watching TV playing Undermine. Yeah. Yep. So respectfully, we note you Undermine too, but no one's going to pull the trigger. Okay. That's fine. That's fine and good. We also have... Coming out July 22nd, we have a game that is called Wildgate. Bang!

Claiming it. Claiming One Wild Gate. This is from Moonshot Games. We talked about it before. Leo talked about it. I talked about it. We both played it here. This is the game that is a bit like a Sea of Thieves in space, but round-based. where you have multiple ships.

you're with the team it's co-op you're going up against other co-op teams you are navigating your spaceship trying to get the basically capture the flag type scenario around all these asteroids and stuff but it's that very satisfying thing if you can jump out of the ship fly around you can

like sneak into other players ships steal their weapons steal their best laser and then if you sneak out the back door you can fly all the way back to your ship strap it to it it is just a cool unique feel from a bunch of former blizzard devs and it's first person feels a little overwatchy and how it uh plays there um the animations are awesome and so i'm i'm quite bullish on on wild gate july 22nd

I'm intrigued on it, but not to the point I think I'd shoot it. Okay, okay. Do you think you're just going to be playing with randos? Or do you have friends that you're going to convince to play? Oh, do I have friends? Where do I start? Leo! Haley might get a code. Haley, don't play with Leo. It's not important. No, I am planning on convincing my friends to play this with me. By hook or by crook, by God. Wheel World, coming out July 23rd.

Oh, we got a chirp. That's intriguing. No, no, no. Okay. Almost, almost. I'll stream it. You know what I mean? I'm going to stream that game. No, no, no. No, you won't. If you don't bang it, you can't play it. These are the rules. Not even professionally. Kyle Bossman, winky, winky, these are the rules for the canon of this podcast, you know? So you can't mention that you'll stream it regardless? Not an option for you. This is from the Nidhogg developers. Oh, really? Open world.

bike game but really kind of abstract style seems very cool big on exploration it looks awesome um it was called ghost bike years ago but they rebranded at a certain point um here's an interesting one july 24th there is a game That's called Super Mario Party Jamboree. Plus Jamboree TV.

This is the upgrade for the Switch 2. Maybe the patch that they're applying to it? Yes. Barely anything new. You get a 512 megabyte update. It's going to be the greatest thing of your life. So it's 20 bucks to upgrade to this version, and then it's a bunch of like, hey, with the Jamboree TV.

You can use the camera on the Switch, too, and you can put your face and it'll be hovering above your character in Mario Party. And then there's a bunch of other different modes like Bowser Live and all that fun stuff. It seems all right. Use the mouse as well. Yeah, use the mouse. It seems okay. You can sort through mail with the mouse. Janet and I did it, and we had a very fine time doing it. Sorry, I'm laughing at something else. Can we get a second gun to murder games?

No one's ever asked. I want this game to not exist. So it's like a mercy rule gun. Like if no one else bangs on it, you just have a gun just for putting games down. The old yeller gun? Yes, literally. You want to shoot that the mercy rule one? Yeah, because I honestly... How many mercy bullets do we get? Everybody knows we get two mercy bullets each. Okay, I agree using it on this. Okay, all right. Super Mario Party Jamboree.

Plus Jamboree TV. You're gone. I'm sorry. We'll do shoot one for the Jamboree and one for the Jamboree TV. Look at the flowers, Mario Jamboree. HDTV, whatever the hell. They're singing. I think it's worth mentioning it's like another $80 game from Nintendo. They believe it's justified making that game $80. That's wild. It's going to make a lot of kids happy. I'm sorry, I won't. I guess it's dead. It's dead.

This is weird. July 25th, Grounded 2. Launching in Early Access. I never played the first one. It was alright. I wanted to like it more than I did, but you know. It's just not my genre. Yeah. July 29th. It's finally happening. Tales of the Shire.

The Lord of the Rings game. I feel like I've been seeing trailers for this game for like three years now. This game has a marketing budget of $10 million. You keep seeing the Lord of the Rings logo and you're like, oh, what's this going to be? And then you're like, oh, it's the Shire game again. I thought this came out two years ago. Okay. Still out there. Hang on. I do want to play this, but Sarah is so verminably anti Tales of the Shire that I feel...

lame for wanting to play. Specifically the feet. She doesn't want to see the feet. Just to not have to hear that feet conversation, taking out my other snuff gun and boom! It has been killed. Tales of the Shire. Wait, that wasn't, that wasn't a bang. That was a snuff kill. How do you, what's the differentiation? I don't know how to do it. It's like a snipe. It's like a silent shot. Snuff?

You don't hear it? That's what I thought. You put a silencer on it. Yeah, the silencer. So it's just like, it's more of like the sound of like a PP7 made in Goldmine. It's like Agent 47 walks up behind it. Yeah, it's either like a bang or like a bleep. You know, that type of little shot. Yeah. So, okay. Tell the shot you're dead. I'm sorry. So we already used our second pew shot. Oh, we each have two. Our second mercy kill? No. Oh.

I can't keep up with this. This changes every year and I'm confused. Here's the thing. I feel like there's some really sweet people out there who are really going to enjoy this game. You know what I mean? They're just sweet, well-meaning people. They're going to buy this because they love...

The fantasy of being a hobbit. There's a lot of humans out there who, like, wish they were hobbits. Yeah, but those are the same people who also, like, bought the game called The Hobbit on GameCube and tried to convince themselves, like, this is good. This is good, actually. I like that game. Exactly my point.

July 31st. They're everywhere, I guess. Ninja Gaiden Ragebound is coming out July 31st. This is the 2D Ninja Gaiden from Game Kitchen, the developers of Blasphemous 1 and 2, games that Jacob Gellar adored. It looks really neat. It does look very good. Okay. I get this in Shinobi mixed up a lot, obviously. I think this is the one that's pixel art. Yes. Yes, it is. Yep. Both look great. Yeah. August 8th.

Mafia The Old Country is releasing. I am intrigued by this game. I must say. Do you play any of the other Mafia games? No, I never have. Well, I think I started three. I think I started two even because I went on like the cover story trip for Mafia 3. So I do feel some connection there. It's still Hangar 13 that's developing this, the same team that made three after they made...

Virtua, not Virtua Tennis, Topspin. They went from Topspin back to Mafia by making the Mafia the old country. It had a good trailer. Yeah. And the pitch of like open world series, but this one's linear. and it's a cheaper price i don't know why that's compelling and it's set in italy yeah i mean it's like i always i i wished mafia 3 was a linear game right i thought the story stuff in there looked so cool but i didn't want to

play through an open world game to get to it. So like, this is the most I've been tempted by a mafia game. Yeah. Bang. I'm doing it. I'm not doing it. I want it. I just want to see it, you know, and if I ask this, yeah. Do you think you'll ever be surprised by a betrayal in your entire playthrough of that game?

No. No, like the maid will come in the room and be like, okay, count down until maid tries to kill me in my sleep. I feel like every time you get betrayed, you're going to be like, yeah, I saw that coming. Right, right, right, right. Yeah. I regret shooting my shot. There's going to be at least three betrayals, I think, in that shorter, linear story. And you're going to see them all coming from a mile away. Yeah, you're probably right. Maybe it's going to start in media res with a betrayal.

Guaranteed. And then you'll go back. Guaranteed. And be like, oh, I'm friends with this guy? I already know, you know, dramatic irony. I actually do kind of like that stuff. Yeah. This is interesting. August 14th, there's a game releasing that somebody insisted we'd never hear of this game again.

This is on the Switch 2, a game called Drag and Drive. It was a bold prediction, but you convinced me when you said, like, trust me, we'll never hear of this game again. Nintendo will act like it never existed.

But no, they're committing to actually releasing Dragon Drive and asking for money for it on August 14th. Digital only. Digital only. Yeah. How much is it in the States? It's just like – I don't know why it's the wrong price here for – 20 bucks 20 bucks this is the wheelchair basketball game that they want to be really clear are not wheelchairs they're yes sci-fi vehicles they're weird about it they like don't

Call them wheelchairs? No. They don't call them wheelchairs, and they don't think they officially acknowledge that they are. Let us be clear. Not an accessibility win. Yes. We do not care about you people. That's what I was thinking. At least there's an accessibility win here, and they're like... adamantly saying no. Vehicle is the word they choose. Vehicle, yeah. Vehicle!

It's a wheelchair. What are we doing? And at the same time, Tua T is like swerving so hard out of its way to be like, this is about accessibility. And then Dragon Drive seems so on the nose. Nintendo's like, not us. That's a little hot politically. We don't want to get near that. People existing in a wheelchair is political. It's what Nintendo says. It's a political act. We're just stating what the vibes are coming. Hey, wait, machines.

Machines and other machines. Cancel me. People in wheelchairs aren't machines. I don't care, Nintendo. Jen and I played this game, and I think we both had the consensus after playing it for, like, ten minutes, which is... Let's never speak of this again. Yeah, I find it ergonomically really unpleasant to play. Personally, it's also like so great. Like the stadium is just a blank gray place. Why didn't they?

It looks like a placeholder. And then in the full game, we're going to have awesome arenas. But they've only shown that one gray box. And is it welcome to our viewers? Lucio Ball. thing has better yes you know like a side update thing for like an event in a in a shooter game has better looking i'm sorry lucille ball

Lucille Ball could make a better game than this. Oh, Ricky, wait for this boot to drop. Yeah, I feel like as a welcome to our defender, there's a gravitational pull towards people thinking I'm going to defend this game. I shall not. Maybe I'll like it. It's because you liked Welcome Tour, so now nothing you say about Nintendo makes sense to me. Or I just like games that are interesting. Call it a crime on this podcast. All right. I want everyone to know...

I think we're all being nice by not putting this game out of its misery right now. I don't want the optics of that look bad. Even though they've claimed it's not about accessibility. They paved the path towards anybody. Taking out their PP7 right now on Dragon Drive, but okay. All right. August 14th, we got Madden NFL 26. It's in the game. August 26th, Gears of War reloaded.

It's gotta be a Jacob bang. What are we doing? I think I might put it out of its misery. You can't remaster a game this many times. I'm taking out my silencer and shooting its false claim that it's the first time it's been in 4K in the back. With a silenced chainsaw gun. Jacob was not happy when I read my preview notes to him. He's like, that's not even true. I'm like, I don't know.

I just showed up and they said, you're playing Gears now. And I was like, okay. The people playing it on PlayStation, that's kind of cool, right? Like they'll have a little moment of like, look at me. look at me playing in playstation they did emphasize in the trailers like more people are going to be able to play this than possible which was such a funny phrase right right right winky winky it's on the popular thing it's like they just the one they couldn't even remember in like

the ps3 generation when you would release a pack of like three games and you'd be like oh these are last gen but you know you pay the same amount for three games this is two generations old and you're just buying the one right It's kind of like how Nintendo is presumably reportedly sitting on remasters of Metroid Prime 2 and 3 as well. It would have been cool if that was all in the same package, but I guess we're kind of running out of time before 4 comes out in theory this summer. Who knows?

To be fair, to be fair, I feel like the upgrade of Metroid Prime Remastered is like a bigger upgrade than this one is. I couldn't tell when I was playing Metroid Prime Remastered that it wasn't Metroid Prime, and I played Gears of War Reloaded or whatever it is. Right. Sorry. Agent 47. It's gone.

Next game. I'm so sorry. I do want to know like one behind the scenes thing though. Yeah. You said they made you play it. So is the idea like you book an appointment with Xbox and then it's like you have to play this list of games. That is exactly what happened. We didn't get to. like say which game i mean i was i begged and pleaded for ninja gaiden and they said okay but like they were like your appointment is gears of war and i didn't know that until i showed up

Yeah, it was unfortunately one of the random assignment ones, which is like not super uncommon in the industry for inside baseball stuff. Like sometimes you do get like you only know the publisher or you only know the developer, you know, almost nothing.

but maybe you know the genre like there are some times where there's like a lot of mystery to certain appointments and then you just have to make a judgment call i was like you know what xbox has some things let's pull up and you know unsurprisingly i do not have Anything interesting to say about Cures of War re-loaded, remastered, you know, I'd be amazed if anyone did.

So nuts, but you still have to sit there and play the demo next to the people who are trying to PR it up? That's crazy. I think I was visibly angry. You need to play The Rock. Xbox ally. Yeah. I was like, okay, well, this is something I can at least do something with. Right, right, right. That's new hardware. Yeah. August 28th. Metal Gear Solid. Delta. Snake Eater. Bang! No one else banging Delta? Isn't this your thing? Whoa! What is going on, Jacob? What's wrong with you? I...

I think it's an interesting project, but there are, like, way more new games that I'm interested in on this list. And you did just play 3 within the last two years at this point? Yeah, I did. Yeah. I mean, and it's like that... I did that because I'm interested in this remake, but, like, I don't... I'm trepidatious. I think that it's going to be...

If I had to bet on it being revolutionary or disappointing, I think I would probably edge a little on the disappointing side. I think I'm excited for it. I mean, I really haven't played through Snake Eater since probably... 2006, 2007 was maybe the last time. So it's like, it is a distant, delightful memory for me. And so I'm super pumped for it. I do worry, is it going to be just kind of like, is it so faithful that people might think it's boring?

You know, it might be kind of like a ho-hum. I guess it's kind of cool that it's back. My concern about it, and this is what I'm like curious about because I feel like there's been the messaging, but I might be wrong, is that they're keeping...

the level design yeah exactly the same right but you have the controls of metal gear solid 5 which to me sounds like a broken game because like snake eater only worked because the kind of clumsiness of your controls and the level design worked in tandem and so being able to control

the best feeling character in a game, which is snake in metal gear, solid five in those like small rooms of snake eater. Yeah. Just seems like a really weird mismatch to me. So I'm curious about it because I don't like, I don't think that it's a completely thoughtless decision, but like.

That seems like a hard tightrope to walk to me. Yeah, it's going back to the problem that they had with Twin Snakes on GameCube. Where it's like, now you can look down your gun first person. Everyone's like, okay, well this Ocelite fight is...

literally the easiest boss fight in any game ever you just look at him and fire a couple times fire your six shots right into his back and you're done so there might be a little bit of that but i think that's kind of fun i mean i guess if it's your first time beef up the you know they'll make it so it takes 18 shots to kill him now instead of three i think they swore not to that's pretty interesting and and i wish like it's a weird thing to say but i wish they were changing the

like dialogue more but i'm pretty sure they're using exactly the recordings from mgs3 and so it's just kind of like i if it's a if it's this big of a remake i almost want them to take a bigger swing right right i do think it's odd for a great looking way to play one of the greatest games of all time. And we're being negative on this podcast.

We're Debbie Downers. We should be rejoicing the return of kind of sort of Metal Gear Solid from Konami. I mean, the graphics look great. There you go. And that's kind of the thing you say about this game. And I'm curious about that fox hunt mode. Yeah.

When you have something that does like a little bit different, but not completely different, there is the question of like, is this going to be the definitive way to play it or is this going to be a worse experience? And I think I'm sort of with Jacob. Well, also I'm.

I'm with Jacob in the sense that I'm waiting, though we're both not allowed to play it now because we didn't shoot it. Correct. But I also never played like Metal Gear Solid, like the first one. So I kind of wanted to do like a redo of everything. And if...

If people are hot on Snake Eater, like the new one, then I'll slot that in instead. I mean, chronologically, this is the first one. Yeah, you're you're sad here. You're set jumping in right here. You're not going to have. Yeah, but I don't want to because that's not how they came out. Okay, okay. Look, I respect it. Chronologically is a really weird way to play that series. Yeah, I get it. I think that you're going to have a hard time with MGS1. Down with Donkey Kong.

I get that. Was it just because it doesn't feel good to play in the modern era? Not to start a whole tangent on that. I think that's fine. I'm not...

I don't need it to feel good, which sounds dumb for a game, but, like, I've never checked it out, and I'd like to just see what's up with it. I can always just... Turns out, if you don't like a game, you can always also turn it off. So it's like, maybe I just, you know, don't end up finishing it, but... Yeah, but then what if you don't make it to 3?

I think if 1 is such an L, I'll just skip to 2. I know I love 2. Even if I hate 2 now, I still love 2, because 2 is one of my favorite games ever. 3 I played a good amount of. I don't know if I ever beat it, so whatever. And then I never did 4 and 5, so I'd love to... Clean that up. It'd be interesting. It'd be an interesting journey.

Hey, you know what else is an interesting journey? It's building your own PC. And sometimes it's overwhelming. Sometimes it's confusing. You know what I'm talking about, Kyle Boston, where it's like, where do I start? Am I just Googling? It's really intimidating, yeah. That's the goal of these folks at MSI is to...

take that complication out of there. MSI, folks, they're trying to make building your own PC Easy. They got easy tutorials ready to go. They got great motherboards. And they want everybody to know that if you're thinking also about upgrading your PC, right now is the perfect time. You can buy a select MSI motherboard. You'll score a free copy of Rematch.

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so act very fast if you want that free copy of rematch when you upgrade to msi motherboards here's the kicker starting in july msi is launching a fresh round of offers where you can earn up to 120 in steam codes with eligible purchases so that's a new motherboard a free game and your next few titles paid for if you're new for an upgrade grab a board claim rematch and don't miss out on those steam rewards they have full details at msi.gm slash of course sd95248

see but more realistically just check out the link in the description here and shout out to MSI thanks they sent a whole new gaming PC over to us for the studio which I then moved up here so technically This entire podcast is brought to you by MSI at all times. It's the guts of the whole operation, man. So thanks, MSI. Links in the description. There's a game coming out September 4th. I'm sorry. Hey, Ben. Yes, sir?

Can we hear that message from the Rumormeister now? Do you guys want to hear what the Rumormeister... It's pretty hot stuff. Like, it's... Yeah. I'm sick of you making me wait to the end of the podcast to listen to the rumor. I'm sorry. No, we got to wait. We got to wait, you guys. It's got to be. It's it's it's a it's a barn burner. You know, you don't want if it's a Mission Impossible movie, you want to save your last.

big stunt for the end of the movie. You don't want to put the best stunt at the 40% mark of the film. It just doesn't make sense. I'm gassing up Rumor Meister a bit too much. people will be let down. Have you heard? Be careful that we... What the Rumormeister is laying out there, Hayley? Just get ready. I'm the one who's heard. I don't know if... Here's the thing. From, like, whisperings I've heard of the Rumormeister, they're, like, top of the top of the rumors. Like, most rumors...

Yeah. And you lose track of who started it, but all roads lead back to Rumor Meister at all times. But you can't track them, so don't try and follow those roads. Um, Hell Is Us is releasing on September 4th, everybody. Whoa! Hang on. Is the zap the PP7, or is that your bang, Jacob? No, it's a sci-fi game, so I assume the gun is kind of a zap. That's smart. All right, so we got Jacob and Kyle jumping on Hell is Us. This is the game.

Everyone thought like, oh, is this Death Stranding? What am I looking at? It is now a trilogy for 2025 of like The Altars, Death Stranding 2, and Hell is Us for kind of sci-fi third person wandering around with cool sci-fi tech.

guess pragmata isn't coming out this right right that was the other game we were like is that death strand right right but what is it about hell is us that's grabbing you guys i i love a a cool weird enigmatic world i i like that it's you know it's sci-fi but it's kind of not super distant sci-fi you know it's like sci-fi in a ruined world i think is cool and it like

There's a demo out now, which is very much even in the demo. They're like, here's the thing about this game. We're not going to tell you what to do. It's going to be a kind of find your own path sort of game. And I just think like if. this is my biggest like maybe on my list where i think there's a potential that this game could really drop the ball but like if it's good i think it's going to be good in a really specific way that like caters to my interests yeah

yeah so to me like the the appeal is like it's a little more like breath of the wildy where like there's like little temples there's like little like structural puzzles you know what i mean and like that's what like i like that idea it's like something i wish there was more of in dust running too is like

Things you can interact with in these environments. Yeah. To be honest with you, Mario Kart World. It's what I expected. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, can I just like drive into somebody's garage and then like go into their secret basement? You know, that would be so cool. Right. So like the idea of that kind of thing in this kind of game.

uh is appealing to me but i might let jacob have it because i'm scared of the scary parts oh yeah yeah and i'm very in for the scary part this game looks cool curious about it for sure the only thing And this is the same problem I ran into with Expedition 33, so huge grain of salt with my words here. But I look at it, I'm like, developer is a new team called Rogue Factor, and the publisher is Nacon.

It's like, this could be a great game out of the blue. There's no doubt about it, but it's like, it's a little... It's kind of nice that Expedition 33 has us... looking forward to the potentiality that it could be really good yeah it's kind of nice to have that feeling again yeah for sure that game but that is hell is us jacob keller this feels like yours man congratulations you got it

Just for a reminder, let me know if I'm forgetting anything. I am loaded. I have Wildgate, Mafia the Old Country, Metal Gear Solid Delta, Snake Eater. Kyle Bossman has Donkey Kong Bonanza. Jacob Geller has Hell is Us. Hayley has goose eggs and Janet has goose eggs. Oh, catch up. What's going on? Yeah, start firing. Just load up a little minigun. Good game's coming up.

We're going to have our pick of the litter. You guys are going to use up all your shots. What listeners are missing out on is Janet looks so unconcerned. Love it. I mean, she's got no panicking. I think she does have like a legit list of good stuff coming up. I think so. That's right here on my comments monitor next to the camera.

If we could only just turn that camera around. We get all our secrets. We don't have the technology. It's on a swivel. I don't want to swivel it back. September 5th, there's a game coming out called Daemon Cross Machina Colon. titanic scion is anyone gonna ride on this this is us

The hell is this? Hell is us. This is us. It was a Switch 2 game. It was in, I feel like in that April direct, right, is when they debuted this thing. It's also coming out on other systems too, but it is a Switch 2 game as well. yeah i think we also we skipped over mecha break which is another mech game that's coming out uh earlier this year so good good year if you're like a mech person um

But I'm just an armored core person and not mechs in general. I thought you were a mech person. Okay, great. I tried. I played the one on Switch. I played Daemon X Machina and I was... a little whelmed um and so like i would love for this to surprise me but i'm not ready to spend a bullet on it your aura gives mech person and i don't really know how you can change that or if it's a bad thing i don't think it's a bad thing

okay cool that is what's emanating off of you if jacob was a mech person it's cool but if ben was a mech person it'd be really definitely definitely yeah is jacob so cool and smart and handsome and just well-rounded individual he could wear like a mech t-shirt and everyone would be like thumbs up oh definitely god damn it yeah it'd probably like show like some really like interesting

taste or something it would probably be drawn by like a japanese artist who's underground and yeah exactly it's just armored corset god damn it okay september 5th everybody's golf colon hot shots The Resident Evil biohazard of the Everybody's Golf slash Hot Sots brand where there's combining the two names together now to make it very clear that this is that series. Not a golf. I'm even more confused. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

This is my big leap of faith. September 5th. There's a game coming out called Terminator 2D colon no fate. There's no faithful way to make it. Are you doing this one? Well, I love the idea. I thought you said you didn't want to have old persons. This is the struggle. I feel like this is kind of getting you farther away from your goal. I'm cool with it, but I want you to be honest with yourself. This is the Terminator 3.

I am a machine where Arnold has to really wrestle within himself. Cause I don't want to be the old fogey on the podcast, but this is also, I think it's awesome to have like this arcadey pixel art. version of just the Terminator 2 story. Where they then expand on the story and do more in the future and stuff. The pixel art in the trailer looks so good. It does look good. Especially the kind of like the attract screen where they have the T-1000 in pixel art. Yes! Going like...

See? I saw this trailer and was like, whoa, this looks much better than I thought. What do you do? What do you do when they're making a cool pixel art version of one of your favorite movies of all time? You just ignore that as a gentleman? Not naked. Put your bullet in it.

I do want to remark on one thing that was like a first for me. And I'm going to guess a first for like a lot of people in this audience. Obviously like Terminator gets referenced all the time. You know what I mean? I feel like that was probably the first time I've ever heard a Terminator three reference.

He said, you know, like in Terminator 3, and I don't think any of us knew that. Okay, it was in the trailer. Come on, guys. It was kind of an iconic moment where we had to fight being a machine. Bang! I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I can't. I can't say no. No FAPO what we make. You only have like... Two bullets left. I don't care. I'm going to be laughing. He's got a good roster. I'm having a great time in my little decaying old man cave. It's going to be awesome, Hayley. Come on by.

Thanks. Don't go in there, Haley. It's not safe. I'll go in there. It's cool. It's cool. September 8th. It's damp is what it is. It's damp down there. I don't like it. Yeah, from Passion Sweat for these games. All right, we're done now. September 8th. There's a game coming out called Baby Steps. Oh, this game looks interesting. It does look excellent. Bennett Foddy, right? Bennett Foddy. This is the ape out team. This is the one in the last PlayStation State of Play.

where Sid Schumann was like, I laughed so hard I nearly puked. I hacked up a furball. I was laughing so hard at this. I don't think he said nearly. I think he said legitimately puked. Right. And do you think he's just looking in our eyes and lying to us then? No, I legitimately think that man puked.

I don't think so. I don't think... They haven't done a good job of selling the... pukeability of the humor of this game it looks funny i mean like you know quops funny any physics focused look at my silly legs game will make me laugh like i i promise this will be funniest game of the year Funniest single-player game of the year? No, I think that's the problem with the tone. I think Claire Spure's the funniest game of the year. Okay, that's not a bad choice, huh?

uh the dialogue is funny though and i think that's what makes us different is like these games are inherently funny they don't need like an exchange of dialogue that makes you giggle you know what i mean and i feel like a lot of the humor is just like um uh, this is funny because they're being casual about this. You know what I mean? It's just like, Hey, you fell over there. It was like, Oh, Oh, I did fall over. Did I? Yeah. Don't fall over again.

I'll try not to. I feel like that's like every cut scene I've seen in every trailer so far. Yeah. Also, isn't it more of a like exploration situation, right? It's not like necessarily like that. So I'm I'm kind of newer to like the funky platformer. platformer but like the funky physics genre when it comes to like this kind of stuff obviously i played co-op as a kid but um i i think that's where the appeal slips for me a bit i think i'd be more drawn to

something more structured like a game of sisyphus i'd like to go back to and try to roll that bowler up because it's like one linear like goal and path or like you know oh i think i don't know if i'd be compelled to explore yeah i don't think this is like open world i think it is like you are moving along I think there are optional zones, but I think the interesting thing about this game as compared to Game of Sisyphus or QWOP or...

even um getting over it is like i think it's probably designed to be finished by most players right yeah i think you know like at the you know level that they're working at it I think that it's going to be like maybe a less frustrating frustration game, which is like a niche that I'm interested in because like I don't have time in my life to get good enough at getting over it to like actually beat it.

But I, so it's like, I'm intrigued by it, but I've found, I've unfortunately found the marketing to be pretty like off-putting for a game that I want to care about. I would trade anything in the world. To get Mafia the old country off this list and baby steps on. But with one shot left, I can't take this shot. I can't take this shot. You said trade anything in the world, too. Yeah. Could I trade anything with anybody? Could I have an extra bullet from anybody? No.

Don't you have your snuff bullet? Can you kill Mafia and then, you know? pull the bullet out of that corpse? Nah, I can't. That's so crazy. You go to an animal shelter and adopt one of those pets and then like, I'm sorry, there's only so much room in my house. Yeah, I can't do that. That's crazy. Is that not standard procedure? September 10th. This feels like some Kyle Bosman crap. There's a game coming out called Garfield Cart 2 colon All You Can Drift. I'm a Garfield head, Kyle?

No, I'm just like, I'm just like a, like a very bad licensed game kind of person where like, this will obviously be something I stream. And like swear at and get really invested in and like start hating Garfield characters I've never seen before. Like, you're right. This is some Kyle Bossman stuff, but I'm not going to use a bullet on it. Wow. Okay. And it's living. Garfield never got better.

since they named one of their movies a tale of two kitties that was just the best thing of the franchise it's been down hill ever since you know that like in the in the like 80s or whatever at the peak of garfield Garfield collections were like high on the New York Times bestseller list.

like of all books it was like number five garfield sits around the house the collected comics of jim david loved those books when i was a kid i would get the fat cat three pack all the time it'd have three books in one and i the day i got it I would finish it that same day. And I know it's like not that impressive because they're like comic strips, but like I was ferocious. I was like, I'm done. And I want more. I was tearing through those copies. So I got a chat.

It's like Garfield cart though, right? So like, that means you have a roster of characters. Right, right, right. And I mean, I feel like with Janet being a normal. Okay. Okay. Who's the one he has the crush on? The one with the long hair? The hot lady? No idea. The hot lady cat. Couldn't tell you. Oh, the cat. I think you meant like the lady that John is interested in. Oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh.

I forget. Garfield's girlfriend. There's Garfield's. Garfield's. Arlene. Is that it? Yes. Long neck Arlene. John's weird friend who has like the strange shaped face.

Gosh, I remember the looks. I, you know, I can remember like six Garfield characters. Garfield, there's Binky the Clown. Oh yeah, that's kind of coming back to me a little bit. Oh, okay. Do you think they could throw Heathcliff in there? Just as like a, you know, way to break bread. Could be a really good guest character. No, of course not. They could do...

Garfield's dad from the latest film, Samuel L. Jackson, our favorite character from Garfield. Oh, yeah, there was that movie. There was. Okay, let's move on. Let's dig out of this trash heap. September 12th, Borderlands 4. A game that's going to make a lot of people very happy, and it's going to sell millions of copies. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. To listeners, no judgments if you love Borderlands. Right. That sounded judgy.

Hey-o. September 17th. September 17th. You know what I learned, though? What I learned is people like... really care about the lore i always thought borderlands fans are into the hooks basically because i get that it's like it's like diablo gambling you know what i mean you just you're just looking searching through the loot after like an enemy falls over and you're like give me this thing oh yeah this actually works really well with this

build that i'm trying to build you know what i mean like i could like get those hooks but like people actually truly care about the lore even about borderlands yeah yep i like the the borderlands 2 story i was very into when i first played that i liked handsome jack

And I remember the part that always sticks out to me. Borderlands 2, everyone's like, eh. The writing of Borderlands 2, it was all just, like, internet memes. I remember at some point, like, the writers at Gearbox were like, point to one internet meme.

Everyone says it. It's become like such a routine to say that, but like, point to one actual meme in Borderlands 2, I dare you. And it always stands out to me for like, yeah, you know, we say that, but what does that really mean? It just means it feels meme-ish, but it's not literally like the...

Weekend has cheeseburger quest or some crap like that. No, everything has the energy of Weekend has cheeseburger, but they didn't literally say Weekend has cheeseburger. Yeah, it's like not meme enough to become a meme, but still feels meme-y, which is the worst kind of meme thing. It's a failed meme vibe. Yeah, it's like failed meme content. This is tricky. September 17th, Deep Rock Galactic Survivor.

A game that Jacob and I have played a lot of. Jacob maybe just booted it up about an hour ago and I didn't want to comment on it. I've played 44 hours of that game. It's so good. It's so good in a Vampire Survivors-like way, but we've already played it in early access. The only reason I'm not...

banging this thing uh september 25th okay oh hayley no i was laughing at you how it sounded like you were gonna bang the game and i laughed and then now you're calling attention to it and it's not funny please they're not There's no room for sexual innuendo. We're talking about Silent Hill. He's been doing this for five years now. You know what I mean? At this point, I feel like you have to be past that pun. Right, right, right, right, right. Silent Hill F.

Who wants to F this game? Oh, Jacob. Hey, look at that. I'm swinging a rusty pipe at it. Wow. I'm also wanting to bang this, but I know I'm going to lose it to Passion Fight for Jacob. But for the sake of good content, bang. Wow. We got another bang, folks.

silent i just i really want to play this with my friend and just that's the only reason i i don't have a love though i know i don't have a love for silent ill or i'm like i need to play it or whatever i just would like i would like it but i'm sure jacob has a secret silent hill tattoo or something i i'm i'm not like i mean it's like i i would be really excited for you to play this one as well you know like i would love the hayley content that would

out of you playing Silent Hill Laugh. But yeah, I just think it's cool that it's like it's a big new original Silent Hill game that doesn't really feel like they're just kind of attempting to recapture what people remember liking about the older games you know that it is like it's it's been i mean i guess even even like downpour and the other um The other kind of more recent one after the numbered sequels ended, we're kind of doing retreads of...

like earlier silent hill games like downpour and shattered memories were both kind of like hey this is like silent hill one and two and so i like that this one is like new setting new monsters um It could totally fall on its face, but I'm excited for it. Yeah. Remember Silent Hill's short message when that came out? Yes. Remember when you played that, Hayley?

Yeah, I know. See, I like sneakily have been playing them a little bit. I guess so, yeah. I don't have a sense of like the Silent Hill fan base I feel like has been screaming for so long. And then the remake finally happened of two.

And it felt like people were like, hey, pretty good. Way to go, Bloober. Thumbs up, Bloober. And I have not felt the like, F, yes, Silent Hill, F. enthusiasm from that community yet and i don't know if it's that they're too satiated or they're skeptical probably not in those circles to hear it it was communities where they hate it though That's very possible that the Silent Hill community will...

swiftly and aggressively turn against this game for some perceived slight like that feels very possible but when this was announced there was a lot of hype around it of like oh this is a new full game and like the logo looks cool and it's in japan there was people were really excited so i think i think that it'll i think it's got a good amount of enthusiasm okay it's from uh it's filled up by neo bards entertainment so you remember shakespeare the bard

This is like a new version of that, Jacob, with Neo Bards. They worked on Resident Evil Reverse, Resident Evil Resistance, like the multiplayer stuff. They did like a lot of remasters for Capcom, like the Onimusha remaster. They apparently worked on Rebirth in some way. So I'm curious to see exactly. I feel like the direction team though is like a classic Silent Hill people though. Right?

Yeah. Yes. Like the creative leads, I should say, I think are old Silent Hill people. Yes. Yeah. So I feel like it's like rude to say like, yeah, these are the people made Reavers. Right. I mean, come on, man. Yeah, they got some people above them, no doubt about it. All right, Silent Hill F, it's all yours, Jacob. Congratulations. Let us know what it is. Woo-hoo! Final Fantasy Tactics, The Evil East Chronicles on September 30th. Oh, you're skipping some.

Hey, please let me know what I miss. One, I'm not going to shoot it, but Consume Me, the indie game. Oh, yeah. I'm excited for that. Yeah, it does look good. And two... The game that got the biggest pop out of any SGF announcement, Ben. What was it? Sonic Racing Crossroads. Oh, yeah. That is true. Wait, were you there in attendance?

I was there, yeah. Because one of the producers afterward asked me, what do you think was the two largest audience reactions? And so I said, Resident Evil 9 for sure. And then I was like, and also people were going nuts for Sonic. And Hatsune Miku, and honestly, I was in the audience, I was referring to Sarah Podzorski on the MinMax reaction stream, standing up and screaming something that I've not seen her do about any game.

I'm going to go back to Consume and do Bang. Yeah. Hey, love it. Take it. Yeah. I think I got the space for it. Yeah. This this game as you know, Haley, I feel like you and I vaguely talk about this game all the time. Yeah.

really cleaning up for the GDC awards yeah but it's also been like on indie radars for like years and years and it has um just like a really cool art style and sort of um mini game kind of layer to it of looking at what it's like to be you know a young girl and deal with like things that young girls deal with like you know growing up um struggling with like food and eating and dieting and those kinds of pressures um so it just seems like a really creative take on this kind of

coming of age youth element i also think it'll be it just seemed like it's funny i mentioned that anytime games go into childhood they always invoke some level of fantastical um realism which is gotta it's kind of true in this too but i do think it's a little bit of a different take like the idea of like mini gamifying being a kid and how like sometimes that's cool but sometimes it sucks or it's awkward or whatever um yeah i think This is, like, definitely up there on...

My indie game watch list and my game watch list in general. So yeah, I'm going to take this one. Yeah, I think that's a great call. And their last presentation was at Day of the Devs. That lead developer was so damn funny for just presenting this thing as a rare, perfect tone in one of those messages.

All right, consume me. It's all yours, Janet. Congratulations. Thank you. Now, back to the land of Ivalice with Final Fantasy Tactics, The Ivalice Chronicles, September 30th. Awesome to see it come back. The weird level of... very light remaster, smoothing out some, some sprites, but God bless them. That's what you, what do you, what else you say, Kyle? Same, same. Like, I think it's rude that they're like,

You say like, glad to see it come back, but it is like, it does seem like minimal effort. It does. I think they did some voiceover that's new. Right. I'm curious. It's kind of crazy. It was in that NVIDIA leak from like 2019. Right.

And this is the result of all that time. You got to wonder if it's just been rebooted so many times because like the other outliers there, it's like Final Fantasy nine remake was in that, that we're also just quietly waiting on. So maybe both these projects were just. on the docket but probably rebooted for like the scale of the remake and all that stuff throughout the years i could buy that sure yeah who knows it's a weird deal um october 2nd welcome to spooky october directive 80 20

Bang. There we go, Hayley. Just for a second, I'm going to hit bang as well on that. Wow, really? The supermassive nuts come out to play today. Everyone laughs at us, Hayley, but let's speak our piece. Supermassive's cool. What is it about this one? Is this a Dark Pictures-y thing? This is a Dark Pictures anthology. Is it?

it is but here's why i'm interested is because they're really not here i know so dark pictures is very fine in my opinion there's like cup one of them i thought hit pretty good and then the rest of them have been kind of sleepers for me but which one was a good one to you the um salem one the which one oh i liked that one i forgot the name of it house of ashes was my favorite Oh, that one was good, too. That one was okay. Man of Medan pissed me off. Anyway, it was bad.

Anyway, we gotta do a whole thing. That's a whole thing we could do. This is our Donkey Kong bongos. You guys gotta have to understand that we've been in the weeds here the whole time. I feel like they're really leaning away from the Dark Pictures anthology-ness of this one, which is a...

potential green flag that they're like almost standalone-y level kind of thing which has me more excited and also this one i think would lend really well to playing with my friends because it's about like a shape-shifting

monster so it's kind of fun that like if the character your friend's playing walks up to you you're like obviously you're never just gonna go shoot my friend who's the character but they might be the monster and you don't know like that's kind of a fun element to add to like a movie mode play with your friends sort of thing. Cause there's been so many fun moments where like we kill each other by mistake. And then we're like, I hate you.

like i think that just leads really naturally into that concept here's a question i have for you and i don't i do not know where i land on this so i'm curious what your opinion would be um i played a preview build of this during sgf and one of the things that i learned during that time is like you know it has

Again, that's the gimmick, space, shape, everything. You nailed it. Is the first, presumably, an encounter you have with someone where it's like, oh, like, do we shoot them or do we kind of wait for the, like, science-y thing to happen to tell us if they're human or not?

And I was told that that is different every time. It's kind of just like random. Cool. Do you like that more? Or are you like, like, how do you, is that a pro for you? I don't know how often that's going to be in the game though, just to be clear. Yeah, maybe. It seems like it's there a little bit.

That does help for replayability, but maybe it'll make it seem less logical while we're playing, which might piss me off. Like, if it's not... Because I always hate these kind of choice-based games where, like... I, I run to the left where my friends are. And then like the.

floor gives out from underneath you and you die i'm like that's a raven was i going to choose that like how would i ever predict that that's just annoying right like five points to the player to your left okay never mind yeah so no they're also introducing

I think they're introducing this because I know you've played all the games and I'm still missing like two of them. I'm missing Finishing the Quarry. I've been playing it since it came out. That's like their best one probably. It seems really good. And then the bootleg saw one is the other one. The casting of Frank Stone. The devil in me?

Oh, and that one too. Oh my gosh, I'm like missing three then. I'm missing the devil in me. Fake fan, fake fan. It's leaning Haley's direction. No doubt about it. Oh yeah, it's going to be Haley. It was always going to be Haley. Okay, all right. It's my only chance. I love it. I love it.

they also will have rewind for some of the like quick time stuff i think it's a pro to me because if you ever put your controller down and you're like you can just not use it if you don't want to but yeah i thought fidelity wise it looked really strong the only thing i had in the demo was it was like really short

I was like, I felt like I started it and they're like, you're done. And I'm like, when is this coming out? This is just because you're holding back, right? It's not because you don't have. What's more about the choice based games is that they could be like a whole extra hour and a half depending on.

especially like Until Dawn, if everyone's dead early, that game's like one fifth as long. It's so short. But then if everyone's alive, you get like 20 extra scenes. Not that that excuses the demo being short because they could just choose. something that had longer content with like one choice at the end or something but i have a good feeling about it even though it's a curse statement with supermassive games but i do think it will be

i i'm excited to play it but i will i'll have to watch you play it because i can't i'm i'm cautiously optimistic because i i literally thought the casting of frank stone was going to be my game of the year like because it's dead by daylight super massive i'm like that's literally for me and it was one of my least favorite games last year it just was you being like

This was not good. I'm like, I'm still going to play it because that's how toxic I am with this studio. I will be there regardless. The first 30 minutes are great and the last 10 minutes are interesting. Oh, the life is strange of it all. Yeah. All right. Anyway, have fun with Directive Age 20. Directive Age 20. It's all yours, Haley.

I hate the name. I keep typing. I wrote directive 8030 because I just forgot what the numbers were and nothing. Google doesn't even guess that I was trying to look up their game. It's just like computer parts. It took me like 20 seconds to remember what game we're talking about, for sure. It feels like a miracle compared to the casting of Frank Stone.

I don't know. That one kind of hits. I know. It's a cast of stone, I guess, is kind of the thing. Yeah. No. I don't know. Incorrect. Also, Little Hope was the witch one, by the way. There we go. Oh, Little Hope. I like Little Hope. Shouts at chat for Crowboy pointing that out. October 2nd. From Sucker Punch. We have Ghost of Yotei. Bang. Bang, also. I'll throw in a bang. Okay. Why not?

Yeah. Apparently I can pick up my bullets. So sure, I'll throw one out there. Okay. You got to at least launch it with a passionate decree. To me, this is an unromantic bang. Really? A one night bang. Yeah. Who's feeling the romance for Ghost of Yotei? I'm feeling the romance. I'm feeling maybe slightly less or the same amount. Interesting. We all played the first one. Yes.

That was my game of the year that year, and I plotted it. That's good ammo. That's good ammo. Well, then I'm actually curious why you're not more into it. I can't wait to play this. I also like the... The blue eyed samurai angle of like the indigenous people of that region being like a new element to it. Is Jin the wolf? I don't know. Like kind of weird mystical stuff happening on top of it too. Yeah. Is that a theory? I haven't heard this.

I saw some people saying that. I mean, it's just people who just want Jin to come back, probably, and they're just trying to do whatever they can to make that seem like that's happening. There's also this whole realm of wolf people who probably also want it to happen. Yeah, they probably heard the wolf people saying that. It's also Leo Vader screaming from the high heavens. I think when this game was first revealed, he bet everything in his life on the fact that...

The wolf was going to be reincarnated, Jen, which, you know. Oh, was that him that said that? Yeah. But definitely it's one of those things that people are saying. So Leo's a wolf person. Okay, cool. Good to know. Also, like the wind mechanic for the direction you're going, I've never encountered something better.

in any game for like go this way than that it's so flawless and just integrated perfectly into the vibe and the areas are so colorful i play a lot of open world games so they all get samey and that that's always been one that sticks out so well it's like jesus christ those flowers are bright as hell i don't know what they did to the saturation levels or something but it's striking all right ghost of yote hayley i feel like it's yours october 2nd enjoy yeah thank you um stacked for me october 3rd

It just keeps getting more stacked. Digimon Storytime Stranger. Romantic. Sensual. anniversary bang flowers on the bed as you're firing your gun congratulations Anybody want to challenge him for Digimon Storytime Stranger? Not with that description. Good lord. What is the best Digimon game? Is it still Digimon World 2 or something? Like, technically, it's going to be the one that precedes this Digimon story.

Right, Story Sleuth or whatever. Cyber Sleuth. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And genuinely, would you call it a good game or just as far as Digimon goes? And look, I like Digimon as well. Like just as far as Digimon goes, that's impressive. It's the second one. It's not a good video game. Okay.

How much hope is in your soul that this is it? That Storytime Stranger is going to be a great Digimon game and a great game period and everybody who was doubting Digimon for the last 20 years will eat their words and deeds. okay so i feel like here's the thing i feel like i feel like uh digimon fans are gonna like obviously they already know this is good locked in right but i feel like you know like people who like think persona is really good

are also going to think this is a good game. That's a big market, ma'am. Yeah. I think they're going to be like, oh, there are other games besides Persona that do this thing and potentially better? And I'm like, yes, there's always been those things. And so I feel like those people will finally come on board. I like the strategy.

You're saying the people who think Persona is good. To be clear, what are those things? Like going to classes and eating food in little Japanese cafes? Those things are so bad. Those things are so, so bad. You know, like... like caring about like your creatures you know what i mean given given a hoot about your characters i feel like is a big part of like digimon but here's the thing i like inherently believe this that like Uh, in our...

core of like humanity we love to watch a cool creature evolve into a cooler creature yeah that has like some of the same attributes but like exaggerated and then to see that creature evolve into an even cooler creature That's like the core of your lizard brain is like, oh, yeah, I love seeing this. I love this. I love this. I love this. And that's the thrill of Digimon. And then eventually they become a weird angel thing. And it's like, yeah, this is still cool, I guess.

It's an innately like human appeal. Yeah, because some people like the angel, but then like sometimes it'll like become like a weird dinosaur and like, ah, yeah, this is mine one. I love this one. This is the one that... I'm attached to, you know, if the Christian church could have played Digimon or Pokemon, they would have been on board with Darwinism. I think so. Kyle saying. Yeah. I remember like there were, there were days where like Pokemon was like banned as like unholy. It's like.

I do remember those days. If something gets too popular, it'll just get banned. Just so they can stay relevant. Yeah, I feel like that's over, though, don't you? Don't you feel like that kind of like, you know, like that kind of movement of like, we got to ban like this particular cool cartoon. I don't feel like people ban cartoons anymore. Yeah, they moved on to vaccines.

Yeah, exactly. I saw a video earlier today of some Christian people or religious people, whoever it was, burning the boo-boos because they thought they were the devil's plaything or something. No way, they're burning the boo-boos. How are they getting them? Are they burning with fufus? He's definitely burning with fufus. Alright, congratulations Kyle. Digimon Storytime Stranger. No stranger here. You two are going to be together forever. And if it's bad, you own that.

Sure. Yeah, okay. I will have to apologize to a lot of people. Okay. October 8th. Kingmakers. Coming out on Steam. Jacob, you gave it a bang last year. It got a bullet from me last year. Wow. You're not going to re-bullet? This is the game that looks delightful. Medieval times, modern weapons. It's Dynasty Warriors level thrill, but... When I told Annie that I had this thought experiment in my head...

for my entire life, she was like, what are you talking about? And I was like, this is my Roman Empire. Could one guy with a machine gun fight off a medieval army? Right, right. And you're not going to be able to find out unless you give it a bang. but I won't be able to find out. Wow. Okay. Kingmakers. October 10th, Little Nightmares 3. We're the supermassive fans. Oh, yeah. I am interested in the game, but not enough to shoot it.

I'm more interested in re-animal. Here's the thing. It feels like you have to pick a side with these. You do. Re-animal or Little Nightmares 3. And I trust Tazier? Tazier? How do you pronounce it? Tarsier? I don't know. Yeah.

I think I trust them more for the little diorama-styled side-scroller thing. Yeah. I love the first two games so much. Everybody giving Obsidian props this year for releasing 1,000 games with Avow, Not a Worlds 2. grounded to um but like it's what supermassive releasing directive 8020 on october 2nd and then october 10th is little nightmares 3 also from supermassive

That's a big turnaround there. I don't know. I feel like I'd be greedy if I want both and I prefer Re-Animal. Okay. All right. That's fair. I also think Re-Animal is like such a good name. Oh, my God. I just am excited for it because that name rocks. It should be made by the Silent Hill team just so they can make another re-game. Yeah, that's a good point. I was watching the Bandai Namco Summer Showcase before we recorded this podcast, right?

They want to turn Little Nightmares into like a super franchise. I know. Which I don't feel like it can... hold that weight but like yeah if you like look at the like deluxe editions of little nightmares 3 they're treating it like it's a massive scale triple a game it's like got all like these figurines it's like it is like an assassin's creed Deluxe edition. It's like. The youth love. To latch on to.

kind of scary media properties right you know like i i think they five nights and and whatever of being like this is and i like i think it has some of that cachet but i don't know like how much

I mean, you age out of it. You know, it's like if they haven't had enough content coming in, maybe the kids who were interested in Little Nightmares 1 have moved on. No, there's something about this genre, I think, that sticks around for certain people. Like my sister's... says when can we play the little raincoat game like she remembers little nightmares but like no other games i play with her i feel like there's something it's it's low stakes scary

which is appealing to a specific demographic, like kids, but also adults who are babies about everything also. All right. This one, am I right in that this one has co-op or does it not? Just an AI companion? I think it does have co-op. I think it has two places in co-op, which is new. October 16th. Coming to the Switch and Switch 2. Pokemon Legends Z-A. Bang! Whoa, Kyle bows out and Janet and Haley jumping in.

God. Before you shoot my game with the snuff gun, please. Yeah, it's Pokemon. I'm excited. It's part of the Legends sort of franchise that they kind of spun up. Arceus was really strong. And I think... The big thing that I did not like about Scarlet and Violet, like the number one thing was that I think it ran at a literal, unacceptable, unplayable, unenjoyable level. And I get that some people power through it and still found a lot to enjoy about that game. But I made it not literal.

I mean, it's literal for me. It's not for maybe everybody. I could not play that game. I got rid of it and I sold it off. I could not play it. You didn't even want it in your home. No, why would I keep it? Someone else can... Someone else can enjoy it, I suppose. But not me, yeah. And I think with the switch to being a little bit more powerful, I am cautiously optimistic about... Legend ZA. So yeah, I'm pretty locked in on playing that.

I mean, I'm going to play it. It's Pokemon. I historically have said that after a 20 minute rant, how much they pissed me off that I'll still play every single Pokemon game. This tone is not helping me. Just scoop up the slop. I know better than a pig.

on a farm with pokemon i'll scoop it up and eat it every time and i'll say thank you so much game freak you don't need to change a thing i guess keep making the same mistakes anyways it's pokemon i'm gonna play it it's literally and arceus has been the best pokemon game are you gonna play it this is the thing i beat scarlet violet and both dlcs and i have a full shiny team i did not quit even though you're right that game runs like hot dookie

It's embarrassing. So I almost play these games just to say I've played them all at this point because I love Pokemon so much that I play it in spite of... I have less hatred in my heart. Does that count for me or against me? I know. It helps you. It helps you. Haley's hurting the more she talks. Yeah. I'm hurting. Good. Great. Do we value hatred passion?

We do not evaluate people. It's like an intervention. I know. You don't need to do this to yourself anymore. Congratulations, Janet. You are playing Pokemon Legends. Yeah, hell yeah. You just said it. Never mind. I love Pokemon! Can you tell by what I'm saying? Honestly, I can though. I get you. I'm saving you from yourself by playing this is your first time to be free. I'll just keep playing the ROM hacks.

I mean, no, I'm not playing those, Nintendo. Never mind. You know what's wild, though? They haven't shown a single new Pokemon for this game. Yeah. Which I think was a real appeal of Arceus. You get these... hisuian versions of them you know what i mean right right the regional variants yeah yeah so like i mean i think there's i think they're in there i think they just haven't shown them yet i think they know like that's that's their good stuff yeah i just feel so

burned I have burned and it'll last for several turns because it's like I love Arceus so much and we've talked about before I'm like craving a Pokemon game and still everything I've seen from Legends EA I'm like I just don't think it looks fun like it does you guys saying like it's pokemon it's like it's it's gonna be it's not quite the full satiating big rpg mainline series thing even though i loved it's all we have it's all you have this or nothing correct

So if you want Pokemon, it's this. The Pokemon are my friends. I think you might be, who knows, right? Maybe this thing's going to be solid, right? But like going back and playing Scarlet and Violet on Switch 2 when it feels like a whole new game with how well it runs all of a sudden, like it's not this or nothing. It's... This or a version of Scarlet and Violet, which is a good game now that it runs well, you know?

still an option the thing about scarlet and violet is like it does run well touche janet bringing out the adorable squish belt i don't have anything pokemon related nearby to me um is that like it runs it'll run better sure it's more about just like the vibe The atmosphere of these latest 3D Pokemon games are vile. Everything's empty and weird.

and it's like you walk into a school and there's like one student standing facing a wall and there's like no life anywhere silent hill f and it's just like you walk up to talk to anybody and they're like they don't move their mouths they're just like and you're just like what is this as far as like construction which you know we get descended

here because it will say when the game actually is actually out, even though I'll be the only one playing it because I'm the only one that shot it, but or got the bullet through. I'm not really sure how this works. That was also another beef I had with Scarlet and Violet. I felt like the lack of like side questing in the little areas.

felt like i know those side quests were never that exciting it was just like show me a picture of like you know steve or something like that was something good stuff Yeah. Taking the Mr. Mime at night. Those were cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But Scarlet and Violet didn't really even have like any of those things. Also, I didn't like making the sandwiches and I thought the sandwiches looked ugly. But ZA is going to fix it all. You're right about that. Pokemonza.

There we go. Congratulations, Janet. Just for the record, Janet has four shots left. Haley has four shots left. Jacob has four shots left. Kyle has four shots left. I have two shots left. I'm surprised you have two. I thought you were going through them. I know. This is a bubbler. October 17th, we have Keeper from Double Fine.

So happy to see Double Fine releasing exactly what I want them to be releasing of just a weird, quirky game where you play as a lighthouse, wild art direction, directed by Lee Petty, who has made, I'd say, Double Fine's best playing games. Other than Second Hots 2. I'll do bang. I'm doing bang. Hey! There he goes! Take it! I'm just confused about you saying this one's a bubbler, which I feel like is just like...

The British word for a drinking fountain? I don't know what that means. Also, Wisconsin, it's min-max terminology. It's a long story, but it's... Oh, okay, got you. I think this is yours, man. You're excited to play Keeper? yeah i think this game looks great and i think like you know it seems focused yes that's what i think is really cool about it i'm really stoked that uh double finds like we'll maybe get to it but

Even under the Microsoft umbrella is allowed to like do their own little things that aren't super moneymakers. Clearly, you know what I mean? This looks like a creative vision. So I'm pretty stoked about this. There we go. Keeper, all yours. October 17th. October 20th. Ninja Gaiden 4... Shurikens! Whoa! Right out of the gun! Ninja Gaiden 4, we talked about it recently on the podcast. I mean, is this your most anticipated game of 2025 at this point, Jacob?

that has a date okay certainly wow um yeah i uh i i Could I was already excited for this and then I played it for two hours. No, I didn't play for two hours. I played it for like 30 minutes and it made me so much more excited. I just like I I love. I love a good one of these, you know, a good stylish like action slasher. And like. Other than Ninja Gaiden Black 2, which we got earlier this year, which is kind of a remake like.

It's been a while, and it's certainly been a while since, like, Platinum did. Well, they worked on Final Fantasy XVI, so that kind of counts. Platinum did? Yeah, they were like consultants on the combat. Oh, weird. I didn't forget about that. You know, it's like Hi-Fi Rush was great and I loved it, but it's not...

It's not the viscerality of like exploding guys' heads with your sword, which is what Ninja Gaiden is about. So yeah, I'm just so psyched for this thing. Sweet. There we go. It's all yours, man. This is another one. But again, I'm resisting the urge to be an old man. October 21st, Jurassic World Evolution 3 is coming out. And even though... I'm stoked as hell to see Jurassic World Rebirth in theaters and do a big spoiler cast about it here at MinMax. I'm not banging this one. I'm sorry.

I can't really see that much difference in the gameplay. I can't either. It's the park builder, right? Yeah. I love the first. Oh, no, the raptors are out. It was fun back in 2018 when that first one came out and then two I didn't play enough of, so I think I gotta let this series go. Double Dragon Revive, October 23rd.

It looked a little better than last time I saw it, the Arc System Works thing, but that one's dog rough, bro. It does look a little bit rough where you see it and it's like, oh, Double Dragon 4 was so cool. Okay, how's this going to be going? And it's like, what... Makes it look rough, but also appealing in a sick, twisted kind of way. It kind of looks like Fighting Force on PS1. And so if there's any sickos that also really enjoyed Fighting Force on PS1, like...

You know. Yeah. It's funny. Of course, you can go in any direction you want. This is still a 2D brawler. Is it? I think there's a plain old. existed i think you can even then bro like you could spin the camera into fighting okay we don't say bro on this podcast kyle just to be really i did i did you do bros excuse me man am i imagining that

I swear you did spin the camera in Fighting Force. Maybe I'm wild for that. Can you rotate the camera? I don't know. It's a good question. No one will ever know. October 29th, The Outer Worlds 2. I love Devowed, but I didn't play a lot of Outer Worlds 1. Okay. We did the deepest dive in Outer Worlds. I liked it, but I'm not exactly champing at the bit here. Painful silence there. I know. That was rough. October 30th, Ark Raiders.

From Embark Studios. Team behind the finals. This is the time when we all get into extraction shooters. Previews are great. I would love for all my friends to get into that one. That's kind of an extraction shooter that I'm more interested in than some others, though I couldn't really name why. I think it looks cool, but it's not enough to...

Use one of my precious bullets. Speaking of looking cool, October 30th, Dragon Quest 1 and 2 HD 2D remake. They'll look great. No doubt about it. Can I be honest with you? Yeah. I don't think they look great. Oh, really? I think something is really lost when you do these 3D environments with 2D sprites walking around them, you know? Yeah? It's like saying, I'm a video game! As opposed to having these things implemented into the environment.

I like it when things are all made of the same matter. You know what I mean? And so, like, when it's, like, 2D things in, like, the, like, kind of 3D thing where, like, these are pixel art and these are 3D sprites or 3D textures, like, it's weird. It's like the Lego games where like some things are Lego and other things just are normal environment background. Like trees. Yeah. Have the Lego games been through enough? Yeah, that's true. Okay, that's right. October 31st, Mina the Hollower. Bang!

Whoa! All right. I think we genuinely are the same. We have the same game taste as what I learned in this gunfight. All right. This game looks rad as hell, and it's been shown for quite some time. It's popped up in a couple different packs. This is Yacht Club Games' new project. And it's like a talk about made from the same matter. This is 2D, baby. I think mostly all exclusively. Yes. 2D action platformer action adventure kind of situation. Yeah, it looks beautiful. I think it's definitely.

It is giving new Stalgic, which is kind of hit or miss sometimes. But I think I feel like Yacht Club knows that realm. I personally never got like super into Shovel Knight, but I feel like they know how to make.

a nostalgic video game and me and the hollower they've been working on for a real long time i think sometimes that can be like a red flag for how the game will turn out but i think in this case because they have a really strong franchise under their belt like i think they know what they're doing and i think they're just working on executing the vision they have and i trust in that vision so yeah i'm excited for me to the hollower

everything janet just said it's like so i would say i would say it's like a lynx awakening dx is like the aesthetic they're going yeah totally which is like that's truly like one of my favorite zelda games maybe like top two um and so like to like have them to like acknowledge that they're like hey let's make it like let's make like a good lynx awakening it's like such a cool thing to see somebody try to strive for um and then like

like like shovel knight like holiday you know i mean just like the idea of like uh slotting in your like particular power-ups like pp strello this year right yeah for some reason i'm way into that like getting a badge that gives you a new ability like that stuff is like candy to me so like i i truly feel like this is like coming out on halloween even like this is gonna be an event yeah you know it is gonna be like some of that castlevania energy too with the whip

element it's like you ever just want to stand there and like whip a sprite yeah remember when you did that before you had the gas in your name yeah i remember i mean you had that throwaway reference to pipastrello which i think we both played at GDC. God, I think...

A couple of us played it. I think it was Sarah and I. But Pipistrella and the Cursed Yo-Yo is another kind of Zelda-like that I also started. It's like surprisingly great. It's sitting at like, yeah, overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam. Have you played a lot of it, Kyle? Yeah, and I'm sorry, is it not PP Strello? Is it just Pippet? Well, it's spelled with eyes. PP Strello and the cursed yo-yo, of course.

I've been saying Pipistrello. Take it, man. Take it out of it. Yeah, one of my favorite games of the year so far. Really? Absolutely. Pipistrello I will swear by. It's definitely worth checking out. It's one of the best Zelda likes I've ever played. Wow. That's awesome. Also, shout out Brazilian.

developers that's right we now have a connection heck yeah yeah it's like we're from brazil with how proud we are now brazil we hear you out there people it is so fun to just feel like anything from brazil i'm like i know i know that it's hard to make a game hit if it comes from there. But yes, Mina the Hollower seems cool. God, it's been developing a long time. Who's feeling it more between you two? Who do you feel like should deserve this one?

You both want to play it, but if one person had to play it. I legitimately think like if you poured our desire into two glasses of water and put them next to each other, you wouldn't be able to measure the difference. What are you saying? I feel that way too. I feel like we're both equally excited about this game. I feel like you got me with the Pipistrello a little bit, even though they were totally different games. Yeah, I feel like we're kind of even. I guess...

What do we do now? Jacob, make the call. Choose it. Who's feeling it more? I want to give it to Kyle because I feel like Janet maybe has more. coming up that she would also be excited for okay yeah i'm kind of running low on things i will bullet even yeah okay janet you can live with this yeah i'm gonna have to sorry for instance i got a feeling about what's gonna happen with metroid prime

Okay, we'll see. Okay. I'm just like, I'm just like, I think I'm anticipating Metroid Prime. So yeah, like, let me have, let me have this one. It might be coming up. The last game on the calendar. I'm calling out my Wacker games now. I'm like, you made it up here. Here we go. Last from the calendar, November 5th, Cairn. Bang! Wow! We got a Cairn man! It's a little climb-y one, right? Yeah, this is... I'm trying to think if there would be...

This is one of the best game demos I've ever played. Like there was just it was there was a demo during Steam Next Fest at like the beginning of the year. Yeah. And and it's just like the first climb. of the game where it's just kind of like here's a little it was literally just a climbing gym and then this first little mountain and it was it's so

It is so technical as compared to Jusant, which is a game that I really liked, but was kind of like a... You pointed towards what handhold that you wanted to go to and press the A button. It's very automatic. It's like every... Every arm and every leg, the positioning is important. And I shared this anecdote, but like I've never been a climber, but my partner Annie has climbed. And like she was just watching me play the game and was like helping me.

quote-unquote solve the problems which is what climbers call like navigating around a really difficult climb and it was like she was able to do it because she was just like you should be bracing your legs like this like it's that level of technical knowledge so i

I think like Death Stranding heads might be really into this because it is just a game about like movement through an environment. Yeah. I'm super psyched for it. Sawyer's man Cairn from the Game Bakers. Yeah, who made like Fury and stuff in the past.

super cool how close do we think baby steps this gameplay is going to be to karen's i feel like there's weirdly going to be some overlap it'll just be going up instead of forward you'll be thinking about limbs a lot i guess if that's kind of yeah yeah that man's weird dumpy ass All right. Now we're in the freak pit. Hey, you forgot a December one. Oh, please. What is it? Oh, paralyzed. Oh, December. Yeah. There's no way it's going to come out. I don't know. I know if it came out.

I know. That's why I'm kind of a hesitant bang. All right. But I've wanted a Sims competition game to actually make it for decades. I would love for them to... to say maybe we shouldn't charge $30 for a stuff pack because we have competition over here. I would love that. I don't know if it's going to be good, but I'm so curious and I really want to play it. Yeah, I always get this confused. This is the one that was not canceled. There's the other Sims. That was not canceled.

Cancelled. Okay. So Paralives is still coming out. It's coming out. It's coming out in December. All right. And I think the trailers appeal is it's like more dramatic, right? Like the Sims like. Yeah. Hate each other more. There's more drama, I think, than normal sense. I think that's what you're looking for, too. Exactly. Take it. Paralives. All yours. So heading into the mosh pit, the freak pit, we have two shots for me, two shots left for Kyle, two shots for Jacob.

Three shots for Haley. And Janet's sitting with four shots. She can just let them fly here. All right. The dateless weirdos who still say 2025 at last update. There was some stuff on Game Informer's list where they're like, Judas.

2025. There's no way. What are we doing here? The Wolf Among Us 2. That's not coming out in 2025. We can't kid ourselves. No, that's on my list. Take it. Hey, you want to take that shot? I literally... think i banged it last time too and i will keep banging it until i play that stupid freaking game i need to play the second game i hate you i want to play you uh 2x ko i got a question yes sir i got a question is it like is it

cool to be a dateless weirdo? Hmm. Is there something wrong with being at the prom? Is dateless a form? Is that weird? No, no, no. I guess it's kind of, it makes you kind of more mysterious kind of. Okay, cool, cool, cool. Yeah, you can be charming. What if we knew that it was going to come out at or before the time that the Xbox ROG handheld game system came out? Does that make you a dateless weirdo? Hollow Knight Silksong, ladies and gentlemen. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

Bang, I really gotta try. Whoa, I mean, you kinda tried and lost with that frickin' attitude, man, I guess I gotta say. Are you a big Hollow Knight guy, Kyle? Heck yeah. Oh. I had no idea. I'm sorry. I should address you as such. This is a big deal. Will you be able to, both of you, be able to enjoy this as rational human beings? Or has the hype almost like hurt it in some ways now? Just years of people screaming about this freaking thing.

I think they're fakers. You know what I mean? I feel like... No, no, no. Here's the thing. I think there's genuine enthusiasm and I think there's people who are playing into the bit. Yes. I should have said that. Not fakers necessarily, but no, that's not going to affect... how I enjoy this game at all. It hasn't changed my expectation. If it's exactly as good as Hollow Knight, I'll be like, this is one of the best games of the year. Right, right. Yeah, that's all it has to do.

I mean, based on the enthusiasm of the bang, I feel like this is a Jacob thing. Here's the thing. I did that stupid thing where there's the buzz saws and then I was good. You know what I'm talking about? That ultra challenge level. I've done it many times.

Yeah. And I'm like, I'm good. I don't need to do anything past this because I think there's like a whole circus after that and like more and more hardcore stuff after that. So like I got a limit to how much deep into Hollow Knight I'm willing to go. Yeah, well, if we're ranking it on that, then I have certainly done the Blades and the Circus and the other DLC that they released. I have...

70 hours on steam pretty good night pretty damn good i think it's yours man machine press it's not higher because that means that you were able to do that in 70 hours that would take me my whole life i mean that's that's like multiple i'm trying to remember if i played it on a different console when it came out but i think it was no because because it came out first on steam and

And a couple other people were screaming about it, and then it came out on the Switch the next year, and people were like, can you believe this amazing new game, Hollow Knight? Right, right. And everyone was like, it's been out! Yeah, it's a great game. It's actually like one of two games I played on my laptop. It was on the Apple Steam. It was like Apple compatible. Maybe that's what's taking so long. They're making Apple playable on Mac.

Playing games on a Mac computer is so nostalgia for me. Yeah, it's The Sims. That's the game that everyone plays on a Mac. True. And your Mac sounds like it's going into orbit. They say it's coming out 2025. Riot with 2XKO, their fighting game. Okay, interesting. They also say 2025, no specific date. Ball cross pit. Bang. Who's that? Taking this thing. This is the thing that Devolver Digital showed off during the SGF season where it is almost pinball-esque. Breakout.

Breakout, yeah, it's got all those vibes. Roguelite, also like you're building a base at the same time. Vampire survivors break out with base building. Yes, and specifically it is from the developer who made Mr. Sun's hat. which Leo and I were raving about a while back. It was a super cool, quirky, systems-based rapid-fire platformer. And so this is extremely on my radar for...

I want to say ball cross pit, ball X pit. If this one, if it's Japanese, I feel like it's clear. But this type of thing, I'm like, I don't know. Like a thousand times resist. Yeah. Yeah. Probably. Yeah. But I am super hot on.

Ball Pit. I want to dive into that thing for sure. So that's add to my list. I got one bullet left, but I'm feeling great about it. I'm feeling great about that pick, and no one can judge me for it. Sorry, I just want to point out with Hunter Hunter, you don't pronounce the X. I wonder if it's just called Ball Pit. It could be. It could be, yeah. It might be Ball Pit.

And then they just want to emphasize that there is a pit and there are balls. So they don't want you to think like, oh, it's a game about ball pits. So they just put the X there just so you say both things separately. I think you're probably right, yeah. When you brought up Wolf Among Us 2 and I said, oh, I want that, but you brought up as a joke, like it's so not going to happen. Didn't that count as a bang? I need to...

Like, are you counting my bangs? I wasn't counting it. I wasn't counting your bangs. You can if you're feeling that confident. I want that game. They say 2025. All right, take it. You shot a bang. Take it, please. It's on the list. The Wolf Among Us 2. We're only halfway through. the year. A lot could happen in these next six months. No doubt about it. Otherwise, in the freak pit, of course, we have Call of Duty Black Ops 7. We have Demon School.

Shout out to Jenna Steve. We're working on that thing. Looks cool. That tactics game in the high school. Hurdling. Can I just say? Yes, please. You know, kind of like a fun podcast where like nobody gives a dip about. Call of Duty Black Ops 6. 7, excuse me. It's odd. It's odd, right? Hayway does. She's played an ungodly amount of 6. She's just being cheeky. Oh, it's not bullets-wise, I guess.

It's just not bullets wise. I don't need to play it. It's just going to be the same thing with like three new maps. I already know that. You're like that SpongeBob meme. Like two days after that game comes out, you'll be like, I need it. I need it. So you're more multiplayer than even like the campaign. Yeah, I used to play the campaigns with my brother when I was younger, but I tried to play the latest campaign for six and I got like...

two hours in. You didn't like going to the Bill Clinton election event? I didn't even get to the Bill Clinton election event. I was kind of looking forward to that mission, to be honest. I didn't even get there. The other Black Ops game, though, with the folding in city, that was a cool campaign, I felt like.

And this one, it seems like they're doing the folding in cities again. Right. The visuals were cool in that trailer. There's no doubt. We all were intrigued until we saw Black Ops 7. So that's on us. The developers are doing their damn jobs. We've got... hurdling where you're moving you're interested in that i yeah i played it at gc i think it's cool it's from the developers of far loan sales remember those games um it's when we're kind of

herding big woolly mammoth-looking things, and then eagles can come down and grab them and haul them away. But you're extra attached to them, Kyle, because you can also, like, name the little woolly mammoth creatures as your... trying to make it across the country and stuff. So you're really going to feel it when an eagle is just carrying your best friend away. Trust me. Hotel Barcelona from Suda and Swery, if you remember that joint, those two finally getting together here.

seems all right you know rough around the edges rough around the edges it's a white owls game so how dare you um this this is a shocking lack of hype as well from what i can tell Hyrule Warriors Age of Imprisonment. Prequel to Tears of the Kingdom, kind of, sort of, right? And still, I feel like even the Switch 2 fans, I'm not hearing the love, the enthusiasm for this. I've never played.

any Hyrule Warriors even though I love Zelda lore to the point that I have like books in my house about it something about Hyrule Warriors I'm just not it's better than you think

If you played it, I think you'd have a moment of like, especially like I wonder if that first one or like the last one, I guess, for Breath of the Wild runs even better on Switch 2 now. Like you'd have a good time with that. I think Midna was in one of them and Midna's like my favorite character of all time. I still didn't even play it. All right. That's on you.

Okay, so actually, here's what I don't think is fair. If you're like, if you played it to be really fun, because the way they advertise it is story first. They're like, this takes place during that one part of Tears of the Kingdom. You know what I mean? They're not even like, hey, this game is really fun. Here's all the fun characters.

have fun abilities it's like can you imagine playing that one cutscene character from that one it's like bro none of these characters are fun they don't they don't have any like that's fun about him. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. There's no Midna. There's zero Midnas on this roster. There's gotta be, you know, people like Sharkboy.

Lava Girl. Do they like him or do they think he's hot? He's not there. Oh, okay. Then maybe not. Sharkboy's not there. I guess that was the last game. Kirby Air Riders. Nintendo says it's coming in 2025, if you recall. I don't have nostalgia for this. Do you, Janet? No. I gotta do it for Sakurai. You gotta. You gotta do it. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. He's giving me too much. I gotta give back. I'll buy it. Do you have nostalgia for this? No, I actually hate airwriters.

I hate it. Everyone I talk to who likes this game says it wasn't good. That's genuine. You can let me know if you like it and thought it was good. I've never met anyone who's liked it and be like, no, it's good. They're like, oh, no, it's not good, but I liked it. It's kind of cool. Fair enough. Well, it's a single button racing game where everybody is a Kirby. It's like, okay, bro. I can't believe that. I can't believe.

This is a thing that's coming back, but I'll be there for Sakurai. No, he won't make a bad game. It's impossible. It's absolutely impossible. Lego Party. I've been wishing this was out. I've had some social gatherings where I've been like, yeah, I would play Lego party. No, you're such a Lego partier. Look at this. Well, they gave me a trophy, so now I have to. Yeah, at SGF, I understand. Yet no bang.

What trophies did you get? What happened? We played a round of Lego party and then the winner got a little Lego gold cup. Oh, that's cute. That's excellent. Reminder. I'm down to one bullet. Kyle's down to one bullet. Jacob's down to one bullet. And two for Haley. Four for Janet. Janet, you could be having a Lego party of the damn century here if you really wanted to. I'm okay. Okay.

lego voyagers bang yeah janet there we go take it please um yeah a good lego game does exist and it's this one no okay but genuinely it's these games are so cool the what was the name of the first one Lego. Lego Builder's Journey. Thank you. Yes. Lego Builder's Journey. I feel like we've talked about this game on the show before. It's genuinely like a wildly beautiful game. Yeah. And seeing.

this comeback still looking amazing still having kind of like a I don't know like a quaint simplicity to puzzle solving that I haven't gotten from an experience other than like Captain Toad's treasure tracker like it's really rare I think to hit

a level of ease and intrigue because so often when something's too easy it's like kind of boring and i think there's enough like going on visually and then shockingly like the story of lego builders journey was also like really sweet totally worked and yep and understated like i think games often don't take advantage of how much you can do with a little

And I think it was just kind of like a different way to tell a story as well. I think a lot of times when we think story game or game that has a good story, it's like big plot moments or big dialogue. And this does have like plot, but it's just, it's like, it's just a nice.

a nice package um i think it just it's one of those games that it knows what it's doing and it does everything well um and i imagine lego voyagers will also be over the great time just kind of following in line with that franchise of course there's no guarantees but I'm willing to shoot it in the leg so I can play it. Like the best of them. Lego Voyagers, all yours, Janet. Congratulations. Next up, 2025. No specific date yet. Lumen as Arise. Bang!

I hear this is really good. The people that previewed this at SJF were like, this was the best day of my life. I was a hesitant bang. I'm back and back, but I think I lose this duel is the thing. I know you're a Tetris nut, and that's mainly where this love is coming from for you.

Tetris Effect as well. Yes. Okay, that's the thing. It's like, yeah, this is obviously from the developers of Tetris Effect. It is luminous, but with the Tetris Effect... vibe same composer all that good stuff over it music visual integration yeah now i'm not a luminous nut myself i want to be

I desperately want to be, but I love Tetris effect so much that it's like, I cannot ignore the next game. That is so clearly in that lineage, like Tetris effect. I think since it's released, what in 2018, I think I've gone back to it. Like every. two months at least just to check back in and play some like it is just so easy to boot up especially like with starting with this person but like in the meta quest like every time i put that stupid helmet on which

is not very often. But especially on that, I'm like, well, I gotta play some of this. Having that in VR and just going through a little bit of the quote-unquote campaign, replaying those levels in Tetris Effect, like... Having that team give it their all with the Luminous thing, this is my chance to fully dive in and get those vibes again and to learn to love Luminous in a new way. Yeah.

I'm same, but like, you know, I play that game once every five years. So yeah, by all means. Okay. That's it. That's all she wrote for me. My bench. My roster is full with Lumina's Rise, but I was worried that was going to be everybody banging on that one. You got some real stinkers on your bench, but I feel like you ended strong. Hey, thanks, man. I'll take it. Hey, Marvel Cosmic Invasion.

There we go. All right. The brawler from Tribute Games. You're hot on this thing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love the Turtles Splintered Fate. No. Yeah? Splintered Fate? Whatever. I love the Turtles one they did. Shredder's Revenge. Splintered Fate is the Hades-like, Shredder's Revenge is the 2D brawler that the same team made. And obviously, I'm a drooling Marvel fan, so this was an ideal crossover. I love that they're focusing more on... comic book characters and their comic book renditions.

Because obviously, you know, like there was a time where it felt like every Marvel property in a video game is going to be more MCU oriented. Right. So it's cool to see them like, yeah, the comic books are cool. And the comic books are the kind of thing that they used to base.

brawlers off of, you know? Yep. So, heck yeah. I love that they're making more obscure character picks. Like Quasar? I don't know who Quasar is. Yeah. That seems cool. All right. Marvel Cosmic Invasion, man. All yours when it releases. Yeah, I think my rosters fold again, too, then. Congratulations. Doesn't it feel good? Sit back and sit again? Yeah, I'm sitting pretty now. All right. Unfortunately, we got... I didn't need Metroid Prime. Really? I don't need it. Metroid Prime 4.

Coming out on Switch and Switch 2. Is that only Janet? Whoa!

What is wrong with everybody else? What is happening in this house? And there you have it, folks. Proof that people do not care about Metroid. I'm not saying it's me. No, that's just a joke. But yeah, Metroid Prime 4. Admittedly, I have not... dabbled as deeply into 3d metroid in part because when the first one came out i was thrown off by like the first person it was one of the first games i saw that was first person oh and i was like whoa this is

I don't know if I like being so zoomed in, because I was a kid when the game came out. Yeah, weird. But yeah, I mean, oddly enough, Ben, we played this at the Nintendo Switch 2 LA event, which felt... surreal and like there wasn't a lot to say from that demo admittedly so that's why I don't think a lot of people talked about it but just playing it was like oh my god it's real like that's really cool this has just been

in a development hell for such a long time and i'm a big metroid fan um as people you know who we did the deepest dive on dread and like i love that um i think The Metroid franchise has some of my favorite games of all time. Like Metroid Fusion is like one of my favorite games of all time. And again, this is not that, but a new Metroid game. Oh my gosh. Like that sounds really cool. And admittedly.

I wish the trailer looked a little more exciting. I think there's some really cool powers being introduced in this. And I think they showed them off in a way that was... a little dry with like and look she opened a door and it's like well that's not exactly the most exciting use of like telekinetic abilities right but i'm also like a really big fan of telekinetic abilities um

in games it's one of the reasons i love control yeah like i love stuff like that i love that i love guns that can change into things there's also why i like control that's not metro related but shots had more guns um existing but yeah like i i'm excited for this this is like One of the big things on Switch 2 this year. It's going to be nice. It's utilizing the mouse. I don't think I'm going to do that. I'm just going to use the auto lock on, but like there's going to be a lot.

here and and i want to be a part of that uh no matter what the outcome is uh but i'm optimistic i think the fact that they were making this and they were like we're starting over because we didn't think it was good yeah it doesn't mean this will be good but it i feel good about it yep

All right. And maybe it won't be, and you'll clip this out and throw it in my face later. I don't care. I'm excited about your favorite. I think it'll be solid. I think, like, worst-case scenario, it's like an 8 out of 10. that Metroid Prime fans are happy with and give them something good to play on Switch 2. I feel like they're hiding the thing that's going to be the extra two points to make it a 10. I got to believe they're still concealing some cool thing about this game. Yeah, yeah.

I hope so. Because that demo did look boring. It's like, that has to be intentionally boring. Yeah. Could be. Which is definitely the only franchise we could say about that, but I honestly feel the same way. Like, these games are so good. Yeah, anyway. Hey, there's a game also coming out on the Quest 3, a game that one of us is deeply tied to on a personal level. Marvel's Deadpool VR, ladies and gentlemen, from Twisted Pixel.

A game that Kyle introduced. Summer Game Fest showcase. I didn't introduce it. Your body triggered it. You brought the little note out to Jeff Keighley. We saw you on stage. If you hadn't brought that note out, that wouldn't have been part of the show. Yeah. is this wouldn't that be funny like what if i really did just run off what would keely do what if i just took that red envelope and say you know what

I'm going home. What if an Al-Silk song? These are our questions. You're the man in the arena. You can actually make this happen. Yeah. Look, I know it's the most boring thing to ask you. But like I get so nervous for you just for saying and introducing these shows and stuff like, you know, I'm from the host of the Game Awards, Jeff Keighley and stuff. Having to do something physical like kind of.

squat scoot out on stage in front of 80 million people do you think about that too much or are you at this point like comfortable enough where it's like i can do it there's not gonna be a problem here whatever super comfortable yeah i feel like i feel like the things that i care the most about are like the things that i've written and want to succeed a lot you know what i mean but like the deadpool bit if this dies i'm not offended

Well, then I got bad news because I am shooting Marvel Deadpool. Oh, with your snuff gun. The snuff gun. That's Neil Patrick Harris doing the voice. That's exactly why I'm doing it. performance destroyed me. It felt so phoned in. And so it's gone. It's gone forever. Recession indicator performance. That's right. Mixtape coming out 2025. Bang. Bang also. Wow.

Wow, three-way bang for mixtape. Way to go. That's nuts. I was really excited about this game, and then y'all were like, it was literally the best game we played there. I was like, oh. Now I'm just super excited, but I feel like I won't win this passion battle because y'all have actually played it and I've only seen videos. I think this game...

Looks really incredible. I mean, we talked about it a lot already on the SGF, the post SGF episode, but I think they are doing a really creative like implementation of the music use. Yeah. Where it's not just like. hyping up moments like the music is the moment and they're just so in tandem with each other um and some just really creative like mechanical implementations which i feel like is in in a not talked about enough aspect of the genre of games where it is kind of looked at it like

they're the games that are barely games because they're like more story and they're not like, you know, reaction based. But there's still like a lot of mechanics that go into them and there's things that can elevate it and make them interesting and succeed. And I felt... like they really seem to be nailing it just based on that demo.

Yeah, I agree. I bang this one out of enthusiasm for it. There's actually something else that I'm happy to get, so I would be happy for this to go to Janet. All right, Janet, it is yours. You have one. Bullet left. Haley has two bullets left. Jacob, you have one bullet left as well.

I feel like if Haley got to go to LA and play those games, she would have gotten that game. I think you're right. I think you're right. But you know what? It's messed up. I think I would have kept it for the Life is Strange. Like I'm owed one from Life is Strange and I'm owed one from Lost Records of Blue and Rage. Totally different teams.

But I've been chasing the style of game. Yeah, this is a different game. I get it. I get it. It's the same vibe. Well, we kind of... Hayley, you play all those games too, though, to be fair. Tumblr 2013. Yeah. Got the flint tied around your waist. Hayley, I'm afraid to think about what does it say about us that we pick these games? Everyone's like, this one? Is she funny or something? They're so comfy. There's something about them. They're really good. I get it.

I love them. You're right, but I'm hurting for games, so I'm going to steal this from you. Take it. All yours. You would have won it if you were there. Morsels. A game called Morsels. It is confusingly. We talked about the development team from Nidhogg. This is the artist from Nidhogg is releasing this one, which has a really distinct look. It looks awesome.

I think I might bang this one. Wow! Congratulations! Hey, hold your head up. This is one of those games that is so visually striking that I think about it. a lot all the time you know what i mean like i'm excited to play it i think i lost mixtape and i need to fill another spot and this is a worthy successor for that so this is why i'm begging morsels all right this game looks super cool it does look awesome for sure uh

Curious about it. All right. We also have Mortal Kombat Legacy Collection from Digital Eclipse. Not the full Gold Master series, you know, documentary stuff. That's right. I had to ease off the gas on this because I love their Golden... What is it called? Gold Master Series. You're in the right place, man. The Gold Master Series are so fun. It's like a living documentary where you travel through the timeline and all that. I love those so much.

And this is not that. It's not quite that. It'll be cool, but it won't be quite that. Powerwatch Simulator 2. Replaced. The game is finally coming out. Remember this game from a thousand years ago? It haunts me, actually. Xbox showed it off so long ago, but it has amazing pixel art, if you remember this. And it's kind of...

a little Blade Runner-y vibe. I'm trying to remember a kind of sci-fi look, but it's got a really sweet look to it. There have been fans screaming about Replace for a very long time because of the art style. Speaking of art style... Skate Story, also coming out 2025. Jacob, we've talked about it in the past. We both are excited about it. I wish I had more bullets because I'm very excited for Skate Story, but not.

I'm not really a skating games guy. It would just be an art style thing for me. Okay. You give mech guy and skater game guy. What is that? I never played any Tony Hawk. I've still never played any Tony Hawk.

It was too athletic. I didn't like that. Yeah, I get it, man. So, Ben, you're going in alphabetical order, right? I am, yeah. Did we miss something? So, just like... analyzing the game i'm trying to think i like jacob's got something that's like an s or a t or anything on that back half of the alphabet look at his eyes like he's got one he's really holding out for absolutely you can yeah we'll know what it is in one second all right and okay

Haley and Janet, I mean, we're getting down there. I don't want to tell you to shoot your shot. I have one down there. Okay. All right. Skate from EA, everybody. The new... Big EA release. It's happening. A game that's definitely coming out. They say it's coming out in early access. Summer of 2025 was their last message. Summer. We're in it right now. It's skate season, y'all. It's hot. Celebrate.

There's some game releasing on PC called Slay the Spire 2. Bang! Alright, alright. What are we doing here? Take that, Jeff. Yeah! Eat it, buddy! All right, you've filled your roster. I mean, is it just... That's it? That's it. It's just going to be the best thing ever. Slay the Fire is, like, maybe the most mechanically perfect game ever made. Like, it's just... It is a single-player game that I have with the most hours in. Yeah, I...

There's nothing they could do to make me not excited for this game. Nothing? It's telling whenever I'm meeting... Oh, it could be an NFT game. Oh, God. Whenever I'm meeting a client, I always ask, like, what... what their game is and what inspired it and i will say at least 25 of the time they say slay the spire really it is such it just influences so many devs in the making of their own game it's like there are two

roguelikes that you can be inspired by. I guess three if you count rogue. But it's either Binding of Isaac or Slay the Spire. Those are just like the two options for making a roguelike. And now there's like a Hades generation getting in there a little bit, I feel like. But absolutely. Hades is so new. Yeah, you're right. Streets of Rogue 2. Speaking of Rogue. Leo Vader, he banged it last year. Didn't come out. Still coming out this year. Most anticipated game of...

2025. Shout out to him, I guess. Okay. Seems great. A game from Chinese Room, a studio some of you like. Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2 is apparently coming out in 2025, everybody. No way, no way. That's a real sure, Jan. All right. From Chucklefish, Winter of 2025. Witchbrook.

Bang! That's the one I wanted. There we go, Haley. Take it. It's all yours. I've played so much Stardew Valley. I know it's not Concern Day. Everyone chill out before I say that, but he says that Haunted Chocolatier is not coming out. I think he said last month. sometime in the next five years he said was his window i was like oh i thought it was gonna be like he's so real for that though i know fair enough

So this is kind of like the supplement in between, and it looks really promising. I'm excited to play it. The pixel art's super cute. It does look really good. Yeah. Pixel art take on Harry Potter. type stuff, but unlicensed. Just, hey, you're a magic kid in a school and the pixel art looks amazing. That's the word. I'm not a Harry Potter guy. I don't know what you people are talking about. All right, Janet, do you have another one on the list?

I do. What is it? Are you done reading? I'm done with my list. Tiny Lance 2. Oh, how did I forget Tiny Lands 2? What is Tiny Lands 2? Yeah, and it's on the Game Informer list also. I know, I didn't read every single one, but give some love to Tiny Lands 2. You were skipping over stinky ones? I am trying to be a hater, but you read a lot worse.

games in tiny lands too okay i'll tell have you know um it's a spot the difference game with like really beautiful art um and what's really cool about this one like i really enjoyed the first one and what's cool about this one is it has like a co-op mode now which is fun because actually one of this i streamed this with remap at one point and one of the fun things was working together to like find the stuff so the idea of that being like fully integrated i think is

really cool as well so uh yeah that's that's mine right on i do feel like i'm not gonna lie i stand by that this is a good game i'm excited for it But it feels like super whack that you had to do this to me, Ben, where it's like, my game wasn't even listed? No, no, no, not whack. It makes you hipper. It makes you cooler. You'd be like, you haven't even heard of my game.

You're like, what kind of double weirdo title do you have in here? Dang it. You also didn't read Mio Memories in Orbit, which I'm also looking forward to, but I did not shoot. Noted. Here we go, everybody. The final roster. Sound off in the comments for who got the best pile. The best pile of game bodies in front of them. Also sound off on who got the worst one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, please. Shame them. Who's the dwerp? Scold them. Ben Hansen got Wildgate, Mafia the Old Country,

Metal Gear Solid Delta Snake Eater. Terminator 2D No Fate. Ball Pit. Luminez Arise. Yours is the worst part. Okay. Okay. Dusty and Bad. Damn it. You think an old man would be in a ball pit? Mafia, get out of here. Have you seen the art of this game, Jacob? It definitely gives old man. How dare you? Kyle Bossman got Donkey Kong Bonanza, Digimon Storytime Stranger, Dumbest name on the list. Keeper, Mina the Hollower, Kirby Air Riders, Marvel Cosmic Invasion. Varied list. That's some missteps.

But yeah, there's some good stuff. That's a good list. Damn it. Jacob got Hell Is Us, Silent Hill F, Ninja Gaiden 4, Cairn, Cairn, Hollow Knight Silksong, and Slay the Spire 2. Those last two are stupid good. Yeah, damn it. No offense to the other ones, but yeah. All right, Jacob, I'll trade you Mafia the Old Country for Slay the Spire 2. Okay. Okay. Haley, directive 8020, goes to Vyote. We don't need to laugh at a lady because she chose directive 8020.

Also, I was laughing at your thing from before. Oh, I see. Good, good, good, good. Love it. Actually, we shot a lot of the same games. Ghost of Yote, Paralives, The Wolf Among Us 2, Hayley says. That one I am laughing at a little bit. Morsels and Witchbrook. Varied. Varied. It's cool. I really don't think she's got a lot of 2025s in there, realistically. I don't think so, either. I think she's going to be playing ball and stick at that point. It's not going to have much else. And then Janet...

Here we go. Janet has Consume Me, Pokemon Legend ZA, Lego Voyagers, Metroid Prime 4 Beyond, Mixtape, Tiny Lands 2. Janet's a good list. Solid. Solid, everybody. We really did it. All right, let's know in the comments. Who blew it? I want to hear it. Chad is all saying Ben Lewis. It's varied. It's varied. We should thank some of our dearest supporters. People, of course, like iM8Bit. iM8Bit wants you to know that they have something funky in their wonderful online store.

If you're feeling nasty, Jacob, they have mystery bundles. You can get a physical game mystery bundle from IM8Bit. where it contains four unique IM8-bit exclusive edition physical games for PS4, for PS5, for Switch. No titles are going to be repeated in the individual bundles, but you can jump in there and get four Very games that have I am 8-bit physical exclusive editions there. They also have a vinyl mystery bundle if you want

five unique soundtracks. You don't know what you're going to get. That's an option for you. There's five in that pack. Yeah, heck yeah. Each bundle contains a minimum of eight vinyl discs as well, is what they say. So this is a real, real wild deal. But you can go to iMapitsWonderful online store. Use the promo code for the month of July. Of course, it's... World UFO Day.

World UFO Day for 10% off of everything in their wonderful online store. And you should help support iMapet because they support the MinMax community in a huge way by shipping a prize each and every week to whoever submits the best question over there on Patreon.

If you support us at any tier, you can submit a question. We choose a number one favorite, and then that person wins a wonderful prize. And this week, of course, that person wins Kentucky Route Zero, the vinyl soundtrack. Thanks to iMateBet, one of Jacob's favorites. Incredible soundtrack. There we go. Y'all ready for community questions? Ryan Bird writes in on Patreon. They say... I'm so sorry to interrupt this one question. Do you think that maybe we could hear from the Rumormeister now?

Kyle. What? I know you're excited to hear what the Rumor Meister has to say. It's the end of the episode, bro. Okay, I'll wait. I'll wait. I'm just really excited to hear from the Rumormeister. I get it. It's a good name, but you don't know anything about this person. You don't know if these are valid. They're pretty sexy.

I heard they're sexy. So Ryan Burns says, well, 99.99% of me is devastated, angry, and horrified. This is a transition. Thanks, folks. Horrified over the rumored and actual Microsoft Studio layoffs and closures. Is... Is there anyone on the panel that also agrees with the sick 0.01% of me that would be excited for a two-player productions documentary to come out of a double fine closure?

You're a sick puppy. That's an odd way to put it. I don't think we're getting that documentary. It's like the on-site documentary team. I think I think those are probably the first people to be cut as much as I love them. And as far as I know, there are no double fine layoffs yet. But we are in the midst of Xbox crumbling today, by the way.

I'm sorry, did that start because of the rumors? So that question was just written before today? It was written today, but I think it was rumored about confusion over which teams are being laid off. Jason Schreier was kind of like Big Storm coming two days ago. Yeah. So just to catch everybody up here, Microsoft has just had a brutal day where, I mean, overall, outside of Xbox, I think they've laid off 9,000 employees, around 4% of the company, and we're still trying to piece together.

what's happening in the overall gaming division like the biggies are uh ever wild rare's new project they're followed by sea of thieves that's canceled i mean greg males who has been at Rare Forever, the director of Banjo-Kazooie and Sea of Thieves, he's gone. The biggest is probably The Initiative.

Their studio. Their big AAA quad-A studio they started in 2018 that they've been trying to build up forever to develop Perfect Dark. That studio is shut down and the new Perfect Dark is canceled. Which is... Rough, rough to hear. Yeah, turn 10, Forza devs losing 50% of their staff. Zenimax Online Studios, layoffs there. They had a project, the follow-up to Elder Scrolls Online that they've been working on apparently since 2018, according to Jason Schreier.

That's canceled. Matt Fuhrer, who's been with the studio since the start, he's gone. It is just so many of these Microsoft studios are just bleeding here. It is a rough, rough, rough day. Open the floor to questions, thoughts, words of wisdom. What do you all think about it? How are they so bad at this? It's a great question. How are they so bad at this? It really does, you know, for a long time, I thought.

god even like the dumbest guy who could be president you know like i could never be president because like it you have to just have some level of functioning and i'm like oh well Nope, we know that's not true. I kind of feel the same about running Microsoft now, where I'm like, I assumed there was a plan.

You know, that they were they were doing something, that they had some idea of how this was all going to work. And it turns out like they they didn't. And they just like spent hundreds of millions of dollars on projects that will never come out for no reason. Is there something to the idea that at this point the scope and the complexity of game development, starting a new studio to build up into releasing a AAA game is just not...

It'd be a Hail Mary for that to work because you look at like, you know, studios like, I mean, cliffhanger games from EA, you know, them getting shuttered with the Black Panther game. I feel like so many publishers have tried over the last... Let's say eight years. We're making a new AAA studio. It has never worked that I can think of. I guess they have too much of a corner of the market to warrant any excuses, I feel like, at this point. They're so monopolistic.

control a platform they control game pass which is like where a lot of games sell the rights to exclusively sell there for a period which is also like it can be fine but then you can't like

It's just, I hate that it's acquisition, acquisition, acquisition, layoff, layoff, layoff. Yes. It's like their business model right now. And it's clearly works in some weird way behind the scenes that shows like shareholder growth or something. I don't know what it is, but it's so immoral and just like lacks any integrity.

and it's getting so like what are we doing like antitrust laws can't stop them yeah they don't care about optics of it anymore clearly with like that i read phil spencer's letter and it's like we're doing the best we've ever did actually yeah it's like what are you saying like do you not even hear how that sounds to the 9 000 people you just fired like it just has clearly reached a point where it's like there there is there is that layer

And don't take this as me defending Xbox. Like this is, it is embarrassing. They have been a show for years and it's just continuing in a, in a huge way with today and not even to mention, you know, closing down arcane and tango last year. But there is that weird layer of like the Microsoft management and then the Xbox team, right? And so it's like if the Xbox team can have the best intentions and then if Microsoft still comes through overall and says we're laying out 4% of every division.

let them go and xbox has to kill some darlings like i don't think this is phil spencer saying this is this is the best idea ever let's can't land on phil spencer at like wholeheartedly i think that letter was stupid but other than that yeah it's like definitely parent re-strategizing and like it sucks to be the deliverer of bad news for those like uppers of

Microsoft, but I also don't really feel that bad for them because they're making millions of dollars. The layers of CEOs in their company who all make too much money for not making a product. It was a different layer of CEO who decided this.

I think sometimes like, well, it's important to contextualize like parent companies and how like that has an impact on like the companies underneath them. I think to, again, Ben, you were kind of bringing that up to bring it up as like a perspective, but like.

I think too often we use that to like skirt responsibility. It's like, oh, well, the real the real evil person is the person above that you don't see that you don't know. So like, oh, well, and we just kind of charge to the game. But like, that's part of what you sort of like.

signed up for like the good and the bad so like i think obviously like the onus isn't completely like on xbox solely for like xbox layoffs necessarily because it is tied to microsoft but like someone needs to take responsibility and like that's your job like your job is that you take this l

and that you figure out how to navigate it and you figure out how to frame it like that is your job like you're responsible like the same way a parent's responsible for a child parent company like you're the parent like it's almost still you know like do something here um

Yeah. And I think definitely at Microsoft holistically, like as a company and thus like through Xbox, it's been a really extreme case of the because I think, you know, you naturally see with any acquisition, there are often layoffs like.

for what people call redundancies, but I think it's very, very clear this goes far beyond that scope, like far beyond the scope of what would be normal for a regular acquisition. And in the meantime, I think, you know, Xbox strategically... is floundering oh yeah um but trying to sell it as a oh an intentional pivot that we we can't with an even better idea than the one that didn't work before um and i think this all paints a picture that's negative it's negative

to players it's negative to the people affected like it's negative to like the industry as a whole because we lose a lot of talent and ideas and all these things kind of fall the wayside so um yeah it's a a really dark time but sadly it feels like every darkest time is met with an even darker time, like around the corner in the industry. Like they try to up the number every time this happens. It's like, it couldn't just be, this year there's one less layoff.

please than last year it's always exponentially growing right and like backstage passes bring it up like it is the Conundrum as well as Microsoft as a company itself is exceeding expectations. The company grew its net income by 18% year over year, amounting to a total of $25.8 billion. profit using AI to make missiles is actually super profitable the problem is everything that like brings joy to people right and I do think so many of these games it's just like if teams were spared here it's just

luck of the draw for where they're at in development. Like, thank God, from the outside at least, south of Midnight's development was relatively smooth. You know, otherwise a compulsion would have been... nuked from orbit you know like a double fine it's like keep the project small to keep the team small if there's ever a project like

If Psychonauts 2 was in the middle of development when Microsoft was in this phase, that would have been nuked from orbit and that studio probably would have been gone. You know, it's just like anything that is not 100% reliable at this point, which in their mind is Gears of War E-Day.

fable is making the cut presumably next year a halo remaster presumably that's going to be released on playstation like how rock solid of a bet can we make and everything else f you i really i really don't think i think it's too scaled back to their other parent companies that i think the games branch of microsoft is so like a whatever to them that they just like trip and trim it however they want to deal with like all the other tech they're doing over here that they sell

10 times more of everywhere I think the games branches like they're low-key like whatever happens happens branch arm branch of their company but it's weird how much and and you know this is the part where i don't know anything but like it it is one of the most visible parts of their company i do feel like i mean it's like yes people use you know everyone uses microsoft teams every day and in their offices and that is kind of more like a normal thing but like i do feel like if i was

the company of microsoft there would be some investment in like people thinking that i made good products and like xbox is kind of one of their most visible like here is a thing we make here are like games that we helped do but i i think i think they are probably leaning into the like We're just going to be a Skynet, like an AI that is in everything inextricably rather than a company that funds discrete products that you can buy.

Yeah, I think there's a trend that's like investors, you know, shareholders think it's... Cool to shed as much as possible yes to like become as lean as possible chainsaw and so like

Like, I think that's that's what this Microsoft is doing this week. And like, you know what I mean? I'm I'm sure there are some people who feel really bad, but I think there are some people who think they just did the coolest thing on Earth. You know what I mean? And like they love what's going to do for their stock.

Because it wasn't like they were hurting. It wasn't like, oh, gosh, you know, we can't. It was not that kind of situation. It's like, look how hot we are. We don't need these jobs. Look how efficient we are. And, you know. Is there something... It's not a Microsoft-only problem. Yeah, for sure. It's a big public corporation problem everywhere. The initiative, I mean...

I would love to learn what is going on there. I mean, there are so many stories of talent going to that studio, leaving that studio, lead designers, directors from Insomniac going there and then leaving and going back to Insomniac. It's like that is a saga that I hope.

is fully revealed someday. As a perfect Dark fan, I would hope to just learn what exactly was going on in there. And there is some weird part of it, to go back to Ryan Bird's question of like, it's not a great sign for transparency in the industry that I feel like... these studios exploding were probably going to get a better idea of what was going on with these games than if they released. You know, I think about that idea of...

All these people scattered to the wind now. They're like, yeah, I'll talk to the press. What do I care? Keep it anonymous. Let's cobble together the story of what happened to this studio compared to— Xbox has ironclad NDAs, I bet. I don't— It's still, they're still scary. For anonymous, of course they're scary, but there's a way to get these stories out there, you know, hopefully to a person like a Jason Schreier or, please. Hold on though.

Even if we're talking about like a fraction of a percentage, you're saying there's part of me who would rather see the documentary than this game come out. You're asking the wrong person, I think, man. I love documentaries. I am saying in terms of transparency. Ben using all six bullets on documentaries. I'm thinking about, you know, like Jacob, you know, talking about just the. lack of real in-depth reporting on Death Stranding 1 and 2's development.

You know, if the first game so much cooler to have a documentary about those games, I'm saying we can maybe learn more from these studios exploding and dissecting the pieces and people telling stories about it. Then.

one of these games releasing and they do a couple of quick interviews that are very tight and then they move on to the next thing you know i mean it's reaching a number so high that there is comfortability in speaking out because you're one of thousands now so they can't pin you as the right i mean

The rumor meister. I'm not saying it's good to be clear. I don't want this to happen. No, but it's not even it's like I want to believe that's going to happen, but I don't like I don't think we hear about studios that have exploded. You know, it's like all of the all of the like.

studios that are being shuttered, I don't think the developers have come out and been like, let me tell you about the cool game we were making. I think they did. I mean, Bioware, it's not exactly shuttered, but it's limping. It's hurting bad, you know, and Jason Schreier that... big report about like here's what's going on with dragon age and not just keep

Pointing to Jason Schreier, but I think he's probably the best in the biz at this point, this entire field. But you look at like a rational exploding. It's kind of like the video game industry. If you fire everyone else who works, then like the two remaining people are de facto the best in the biz. I guess that's true. Yeah, there's other reporters out there doing a good job.

as well but you look like you know uh jason treyer's second book as well where it's all about you know it was kind of circling from the explosion of irrational and a lot of people telling stories but kind of like east coast game development but like that is an example of kind of a supernova of that's true reflection and insight on like what exactly happened there so you know as someone who gets told a lot of secrets that can't be told it's like people don't want to

ever stick their neck out and tell those because the more details you provide for the more interesting story the more obvious it was you who said it because you were the only one who knew those details right right so it's like you could say i worked on blank and already it's like 9 000 just shrunk down to the five

people who got laid off but from that company you know what i mean and then they'll just say all five of you come in for a meeting we want to sue the one who blabbed and then they're scared yeah i i am curious though as a challenge to everybody i'm sure i'm forgetting about stuff some craft on thing or something, but like 2018 on new studio formed for a triple a game. When has that gone? Well, maybe like a goatee contender this year for this year.

Yeah. Maybe in 2025 had like a really good AAA game that came out of nowhere from a first time studio. I'm trying, I'm thinking hard. I'm trying to think of one. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Sam Fall Interactive. That is the example. Yeah, you're totally right.

That was an indie studio. They don't call it AAA, but it does feel like, come on, guys. Just to the point of your question. You're right. They're funded by Kepler Interactive, which does... indie funding and they have like indie partnerships true and i think they would call it double a even they're still great like you know i'm not trying to shade the that is a great example it's the it's the line thing but it's like if you yeah if you put that game

next to someone who didn't know its development history they would say this is a triple a game first they'd say what is this a that you speak of yeah yes um Yeah, rough day. We'll still be mopping this up, but I feel like for a couple weeks just trying to get a sense of the damage done here to all these teams. It's brutal. Luis writes in. They say, Kyle, Bossman, you have worn many hats in the game industry.

From your creative work at Easy Allies to producing for major live events like the Game Awards and Summer Game Fest. What is your actual title with those shows, by the way? It changes depending on which one. So, like, I'm floor producer at Summer Game Fest, but, like... associate producer in other shows. It's weird. They say, what's a, and how do they pay? Well?

To listeners, I gave like a subtle shrug without my shoulders. Okay, thank you. They say, what's a behind-the-scenes moment from one of these live shows that fundamentally changed how you view the game industry?

So obviously, like, I feel like these shows, though, like, you know, doing Game Awards, Summer Game Fest and opening live at Gamescom, it's not like the industry as much as like... this panel here like actually going and playing the games at summer game fest play days you know what i mean uh what i do is like the showbiz stuff you know what i mean it doesn't feel like so industry stuff um

But I'll say there's like I can think of like two instances where like something I wrote was not well received. And like I was surprised that it like had any impact on a person or a company. You know? You mean like you hitched it and they said we're not going to use this script or like the reception once we got out there? I'll fess up. I'll fess up. So it was Chris Judge saying...

Fun fact, my acceptance speech last year was longer than this year's Call of Duty campaign. Right. And like people were like upset about that. You know what I mean? People were like, that was so uncalled for. why why is the game awards making fun of call of duty you know what i mean it's like another here's the thing it's like i'll still stand by it it's like he didn't make fun he didn't say it's a bad video game he says it's a short campaign right but it was like it was still like not here

This is a night to celebrate the video games. Why did he do that? Um...

And that was one where I was keeping... Here's the thing. Typically, with jokes that I write for the Game Awards, I don't say which ones I do because they're either good or bad. You're protected. But that was... that was me i did i was responsible for that one and so like you kind of like in years since like think about it from that way it's like is there anybody who's going to be in their little tuxedo or whatever like actually upset about this right right right

And so it's made you scared to speak the truth comedically? Sensitive. Sensitive. Sensitive. That wasn't your takeaway, Janet? It was just the wording of it was very good. Yeah, you're right. That was very good. Do you still like doing those shows? Does it feel like just to have like three points in your year where it's just like... Ben wants to do those shows so bad. Sometimes when you ask this, Ben, it sounds like a parent who's like, and did you have fun at school?

uh yeah because here's the thing it's like the three points in my year where like uh i have a boss but also like i'm responsible for other people too like it's it's like A few weeks of like being a functional adult. Right, right. Slices of structure. Yeah, that's interesting. Francie Graham, they say, is there a numbered sequel that you can think of that deserved a subtitle?

For example, after Halo Combat Evolved, should Halo 2 instead be called something like Halo Combat Enhanced? Oh, that's such a good, that's a really good example. I like that. Yeah, yeah. I think Alan Wake 2 should have been called something else because thematically it makes more sense for it to be like Alan Wake something because it's more of like a book title. You know what I mean? Like so it would fit in nicer with Alan Wake. Like what book is called?

The Pride and Prejudice 2. You know what I mean? It's like, no, they just name it a different title. People will be riding in the streets if they heard Pride and Prejudice 2 is about to drop that lately. For real. But isn't the question, though, it still has the two and it just has a subtitle? Or is it...

I guess. I would have taken a little subtitle on Alan Wake 2. I think that would be a good compromise. Yeah. So we know that it's the second one, but we still get a little flavor of authorship. I always like a subtitle. do you on it too i i really do i think that like you know even something maybe not like resident evil because that has its kind of you know it

It's names. Though now they are calling them things. This is the conundrum, yes. It used to be Resident Evil 6 and now it's Resident Evil Village. They always do a cool little shape. But it is both. They have... Have they nailed naming games? Janet, this is what I want to talk about. I know we like celebrated and mentioned like, oh, village. That's kind of cool. I have been thinking about it, especially since that Capcom Direct and thinking more about Resident Evil 9, Resident Evil Requiem.

I know we all say good job, Capcom. We say thank you, Capcom, if you're Kyle Bassman on delayed input. I don't think we're giving them enough credit for like, they have truly cracked it in a way that I don't think anybody else has for having their cake and eating it too. Welcoming for newcomers, but you know this has mainline importance. That is...

wild balancing act that they have nailed and I don't I can't think of other examples in the game industry of game titles that have that importance of the cheeky nod of this is the big thing but also don't be scared of it it's just called Resident Evil Requiem come on in I think

i think you're totally right because every other series i always feel need to start from the start and i've been jumping around resident evil and i don't give a crap right like i just go like like four eight nine i'll play nine seven like have we done new show plus naming the next

next like 50 years of resident evil because we definitely just open up canva and just start trying to mess with like where can i find a nine it's on the list yep i know we all think it'll be x but like i don't know there's got to be other options we can kind of find the rat the through line there but genuinely the reveal of where is the number yes maybe it's like standing i'm clapping i'm throwing up i'm like punching jacob in the arm i'm like look at the number

yeah here's here's my real answer um max pain one just called max pain yeah max pain two max pain two colon the fall of max pain pretty good awesome Max Payne 3 just called Max Payne 3 again. Like it needed a subtitle. You're right. You're right. But I also steer the other direction of like I love the confidence. Like I was hooting and hollering back when they announced like.

It's just called Destiny 2. It is a confident move to be like Hades. But then Overwatch did it and it sucked ass. Okay, well, don't take the worst sequel example. But you look like Hades 2. It has like a punctuation to it. That feels so confident compared to, in this one, technically, Max Payne falls down. Whatever stupid crap happens in your second game. That is what it means to me. He trips. He trips once, yeah.

it's slow motion the whole thing's a metaphor i think the two the two is as strong as the ip i don't think that adding a two makes it stronger i think if your ip strong as hell you can do the two Yeah, I think that's the order. Right, right. Portal 2, strong as hell. Yeah, Portal 2 doesn't need a subtitle. What would the subhead be, though, for it, Jacob, if you had to put one on there? Oh, it would be some, I don't know. Wheatley's Revenge.

I was also thinking, what's the wackest thing I could think of? The Portal 2 colon huge success. Potato time. How many years later is it? It's still ambiguous, right? But if it was just called Portal 2 colon like... 2,000 years later. Because it technically is, right? No. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In the beginning, yeah. It's like, oh, the entire facility is falling apart.

Oh, I think it's like 10,000 years later. So that would be a compelling thing of like, what has happened? Are you not the same person? You are, but Cho was like frozen in time. You were in sleep. Yeah. She was in sleep. Okay. Like Portal 2 Wikipedia frantically raiding the plot. But what happened in this game? I don't know. Portal Letrope, which is Portal backwards.

Ooh, makes you think, doesn't it? That'd be cool. Now you're thinking about the portals. On the Resident Evil thing, I'm still not over it. Because I'm thinking about, like, movies do this where they bake in the number for, like, of course, Jacob, look who's talking to. a step up to the streets. Like, right? It's like, I got a fun parallel. Yeah.

I got a fun parallel. It's when games on DS had Dragon Sword, they would hide the console itself in the title. Dream Drop Distance is cool as hell because that's 3Ds. There's no doubt it's cool as hell. I feel like that's a fun parallel, too. That is true, but it's not for the sake of sales, which I feel like this cheeky naming convention helps them sales-wise, where it's like, if I'm buying a game on DS, yeah, I'm buying a game on DS.

But it is cheeky and fun. There's no doubt to have that Resident Evil Deadly Silence and all that fun stuff. Kyle's about the art. You're about the sales. Give me that money. Filthy capitalist. Do you think? I'm not done. Do you think another example of this is Final Fantasy VII Remake with the idea of it's Final Fantasy VII Remake, but it's also Final Fantasy VII Remake? You know, if you think about the overall context of that story. Can you say that again?

Oh, this isn't, this isn't a new weird. No, no, no, no, no. Say it again. Go ahead. He's right. It does remaking the world. He's right about this. Yes. That is literally what they're doing. You know, light spoilers, I guess, for remake. But I don't even know if they knew that. They absolutely. They absolutely knew that. I mean, they knew the structure, but I don't. Someone should ask them that. I hope not. Absolutely. The best version of this would have been...

Can you look up something for me? Is Trico the name in Japan? Is The Last Guardian called The Last Guardian or is it called Trico? That's a good name. Because Trico is like... it's it's like eco three like it's a pun right yeah good example um and so that's a that's a good one Yeah, Hituki no Owashi Toriko. So it's in there, but I think it was like Project Toriko was their name for it. Right, yeah.

And Shadow of the Colossus was Nico, which was like Eco 2. Yeah, that is an example. That's really cool. Yep, like you're getting the Eco crowd. Yep, totally. That's the same idea. um scott h jacob wins best thing to bring up during a discussion on names because that was cool if it's about the last guardian i got it don't worry and he looks so giant robot that's that was a trailer from last year isn't that cool giant robot so excited for that

Or just Project Robot, right? Just Robot. Got it, got it, got it. Because that's the Wii U tech demo is Project Giant Robot. That's why that was confusing. Oh my god, you're right. That's what he's been working on. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Which I think you brought up recently in that video when you were talking about Dragon Drive being canceled, right? That's the one you compared it to. And I was wrong about that. They actually implemented that into Labo, apparently. Oh, yeah, of course. You're right. Scott H. writes in. They say, hello, Maxers.

Not really a question. I just wanted to write in so Kyle can roast Ben for picking Pac-Man World Repack back in 2022 for the game release calendar shootout and trying to convince everyone that it'll be an interesting game. Dang. I mean, like we roasted you enough today. Yeah. Kyle, no one's ever said that in Midmax history. So thank you for that sentence. It feels very final. Thank you. I played like 10 seconds of that game, Ben.

In my defense, I think I picked it for like this. And I thought of you the whole time. I was like, this is what it was all about. Look, it was a brainless, fine little time for the two hours that I streamed it or whatever, you know? I played through the whole thing, actually. Did you like it? He didn't make a noise. But I didn't love it. Sam Nelson, what's your favorite game in a genre you otherwise have no love for? This is relevant. Yeah?

Oh, I want to hear the Splatoon answer, though. Oh, I mean, I love Splatoon. It's a competitive shooter. Of course, it's like a family-friendly shooter, so it's not like you kill people, right? You play multiplayer? Yeah, I love Multiplayer Splatoon. Yeah, I had it on Wii U. It was like one of the I am one of the Wii U believers. I was like, if we just get a bunch of friends to buy this, we can save Nintendo. It's fine. But yeah, I loved it. Fresh IP.

I think that game is so rad. I love the funky little event tie-in stuff they have. Are you socks or sandals? I don't know what kind of stuff people get. Pepsi or Coke, but something less branded. And it's a dumb thing for people to rally behind. um it's cool that it has a campaign which i think is like something that a lot of people that aren't as into multiplayer like always ask for and like i'm definitely uh a credit stan as well so i appreciate that and i don't know something about

It I think it's one of the I think the fact that it leans on gyroscopic control so much, which is normally not something I'd be advocating for. But I think it's one of the rare games where it feels good and works good and is like.

I don't know how competitive Splatoon players actually play it, but for regular people playing it, I think it's the best way to play that game. And I don't know if I feel that way about any other video game ever made, that the gyroscopic controls... are beneficial to like the play on a higher level um

I think Breath of the Wild, like, being able to fine-tune the arrows a little bit, like, I don't mind it there, you know? But there's no, like, competitive place, I think, what Janet means. Like, you can't, like, to use this weird funky feature makes you the best in the lobby. Yep, totally. Totally. Turn it on for Fortnite. Turn it on for Fortnite. I think you'll like it. Yeah, I've never tried it on Fortnite. So yeah, it would be worth checking out.

I was thinking about this while we were talking about Luminous, right? Because I also like I've played Luminous and I'm not good at it. Tetris is like the only falling block game that I actually like. In fact, I like hate most of the other ones. Are you a Meteos man? You ever tried that? hate meteos wow sakurai i'm sorry okay yep puzzle fighter you know what i mean i felt like any

game that's got falling blocks that is not Tetris, I kind of just hate it. Yoshi Cookie? He brings it up like every other episode. What about regular Yoshi? Which is totally different than Yoshi Cookie, I guess? Wait, what? What do you mean? He's asking if he likes the Yoshi platformer? No, the Yoshi puzzle game. It's not Yoshi Cookie. It's a different one. Yeah, I'd know with another one. It's just called Yoshi. Yeah. It's just called Yoshi? Yeah.

And I loved it. I played it on my Game Boy all the time. I'm going to tell you I probably hate it. It was Yoshi's Cookie. Well, but we're not that different, so maybe you secretly love it. Yeah. Yeah, sure. Good point. I have follow-up questions. Okay, thank you. Your Honor. Have you given a shot? To Puzzle Fighter? Yeah. And have you ever played against somebody else in the same room as you, though? Yeah.

damn it it makes me only more mad god damn it it's so good here's the thing here's the thing it's like uh 1v1 right like when you think of like just sending blocks to your opponent is how like a puzzle or blocking you know

Falling block puzzle game would work against another person. In this game in particular, your character choice matters. So like if you're Ken, you drop a different pattern of blocks on your opponent than you do if you're Akuma. And so like there's just legitimately like better characters who will come. better combos and ones who will give you no combo opportunities if you send those over. That's why everyone just plays Ken. Just everyone just plays Ken and it's an even playing field.

You know, you just got to do it. And it's the best. What's the point of having variety if you just should pick one person? Because it's a Capcom game and people just min-maxed it and figured out the peak strat and all this dumb stuff. But it's fun. You get different levels, different music, different shouts and stuff. Like I'm a Sakura main.

Oh, it's the best. But your example is just Tetris. That's the only one that's popping for you. Wow. Yeah, I can take it. I think for turn-based stuff, I can't do it. My brain does not work for it. But XCOM Enemy Unknown specifically. Might be Pokemon? Turn-based strategy. I should be really clear. Turn-based strategy. Oh, okay. But XCOM Enemy Unknown. But even XCOM 2, I couldn't get into.

Like Mario and Rabbids Sparks of Hope I liked. I think it's the other example recently from that genre that really clicked for me in a weird way. But everything else, I just am not seeing through the Matrix like everybody else is. I think it's increasingly become apparent that mine is the witness. Because I don't think I like smart puzzle games where you walk around and do stuff. Like, you know, wasn't a Lorelei guy. I don't think I'm going to be a Blueprints guy this year. And it's like...

I'm sure they're good, but I just don't... Have you tried Blueprints yet? I never want to play those games. Like, I played Blueprints for like two hours, and I have had no desire to go back.

this feels illegal to have happened just as the witness is like so often like the core that everyone goes back to which i guess makes sense that you only like the core you don't like that not that it's the you know like that nothing else existed like without thinking or referencing it but it's just like it's weird to have that and that's like one of the like harder

more you know i think yeah and honestly it's like if i was handed the witness now maybe i would not enjoy it that much and it was just kind of perfect time and place that i i got into it yeah Of course, Bon John Bovee writes in. They say, Kyle, Bossman that is, can you convince at least one person on the panel to co-sign your take on Link to the Past? P.S. says Bon, I agree with you. Heck yeah. All right. So I believe Link to the Past looks ugly as heck.

And I actually, I can't stand the visual representation of the blocks inside of dungeons. Oh, the weird angle. The perspective thing is weird. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Interesting. I get it. There's some parts where they like really overdo it, where there's like little skinny things. And so it's like, if this is that skinny dude, it would be a pyramid.

uh and there's like times where like you know what i mean there's just like a little like inch high barrier that you can't go over you know yeah i feel like a lot of that game really falls apart if you think about it three dimensionally i'm looking at a

picture right now and it's like the optical illusion if i i don't know if link is high up or if he's down low yeah and he's the same size either way if he goes up a ladder obviously his sprite just stays the same size right right i thought you just didn't like this game

overall i didn't know it was just the perspective that's freaking yeah yeah i also think it's extremely stupid that you have to like rescue eight maidens who like don't even matter you know what i mean they don't live anywhere there's no homes for those maidens they just appear in these dungeons right But once you find the eight maidens, you like have the power to finally defeat Ganon. I can't remember. The maidens have no home life. They just. Yeah.

They don't come from anywhere. But everybody acts like that's the story. You know what I mean? Link to the Past is the good one. It's pure. It's like this is the good story. And there's like nothing good about it. There actually is nothing. textually there that's good it's just like what you filled in in between yeah like makes it the good story that you're imagining whereas link's awakening that's a freaking cool weird story for zelda game yes yeah exactly that's textually cool right

What was that bullshit maneuver you pulled with Easy Allies one time where you lost a bet and you had to... There was something with Link to the Past, right?

Yeah, you know what's nuts for listeners? My cat heard me getting riled up and he's like, are you good, dude? He showed up. He woke up. He's like, all right, are you good? I had to stream... link to the past and so i just put on like a speed run of somebody else playing a playthrough you know what i had to stream a full playthrough of link to the past and i feel like putting the full playthrough in the sentence

Gave me more wiggle room, honestly. Yeah, still a dirty deed. No doubt about it. A dirty deed. Okay. No doubt. Yeah. And what was that name? Like Bub John Bovee? What was that? Bub John... Bon John Bovee, of course. Okay, got it. Yeah. Unsupreme writes in. They say, hello, computer lovers. That's us. Something to ponder. Is Bop It a roguelike? No. Is that it?

That's it. That's all we got. Simon Says would also be a roguelike then. Isn't there something to that? Hide and Seek would be too because all the spots are different every time you play. Oh.

What are we doing? I think even, like, I know, like, there's a difference between roguelikes and lights. Yeah. But I feel like having, like, some inner... progression you know what i mean some experience points you're gaining some inventory you're building up is important for your runs when in a bop it run you're you're not gaining anything it just gets harder and harder it's the truest successor to rogue

like it is you know it's it's like we haven't it's not it's not one of these iterative things you're starting over every time all you got is your skills and your knowledge base about how to bop it and flick it pull it and flick it Flick it's one of the things. That's bop it extreme, isn't it? Yeah, because there's a bop it extreme where it's like, it gets weird. No, you don't do that with one finger. You don't. That's not how you flick it.

It's not a flick if you're not flicking. I guess like I think you like give it like a little underhand slap is basically the way to flick. It's a little springy. Yeah. Yeah. Back tap. All right. I mean all of these. do look like different kinds of vibrators now that I'm looking at a bop it like they all just look like a different model are there only two versions is it only bop it and bop it extreme

There's got to be like 15 versions. In fact, I think there's probably a Bop It 2. Oh my god. Don't tease me. There is a Bop It Extreme 2. Wow. Then Bratz Bop It, Bop It Blast. Bop It Download is the worst name. What is Brad's Bop It? Is it their heads? The Brad's theme Bop It uses a layout like that. Hang on. I want to look at pictures of Brad. It's pink.

But it is just a normal Bop-It. Oh, lazy. I was hoping like a Bop-It with like a bunch of doll heads connected. Like a kid would make in Toy Story. Yes, exactly. Look at this Bop It download, you guys. I love the name of it. Bop It was just three things? The first one, Twisted, Pull It, and Bop It? Yeah. Easy load. It was beautifully simple back then, yeah.

Oh my God. So did it have like an online component for Bop It download? What? Remember the Bop It line is three game mode, solo pass it, one-on-one. Oh, the maximum score. Let's deploy or download a program on a Windows computer to download new content to your bop it. Whoa. Oh my god, it's a living game. That's amazing. All right. What do y'all like for our question of the week?

OK, I got to say, I felt like the subtitle one had no legs, but it actually we had a long conversation about that one. Yeah, I did love that one. I like it, too. I was I was pent up. I want to talk about Resident Evil. Yeah. Are you guys leaning that one, too? all right that was good yeah i like the one that they ask about kyle's behind the scene thing because i also enjoyed hearing that yeah but as a as a good question i think

Yeah. Fancy Graham, take it. Congratulations. You just won the Kentucky Red Zero Vinyl. Thanks to IMAPIT. But Kyle Bossman, if you do have any others that you want to throw in for behind-the-scenes stories, if it was just two hours of you telling stories of... producing those shows i would be on the edge of my seat i would physically scoot talk about ndas i do sign those for every show so i'm always like really you know tiptoe when i'm talking about that stuff right right

In fact, you know, when I... Never mind. Never mind. Actually, never mind. Never mind. Interesting. We'll talk about it later. Now it's time for something that we call... Get a load of this!

So now it's time for the Rumormeister, yeah? No! Rumormeister comes after Get a Load of This, Kyle! Come on, the end of the show is the Rumormeister! Almost! And if you ask one more time, I'm deleting this encrypted file he sent me. Okay. All right. I'll be cool. I'll be cool. Yeah. You got to get a load of this, man? Yeah. Nature Valley, crispy, creamy wafers. Honey vanilla in particular.

These are like wafery granola bars that are so dang good. I don't know why they're not the talk of the town. You know what I mean? I don't know why it's not a thing that like everybody's talking about. Like, you know, you got those nature Valley wafers. Like, yeah, of course I do. You know, I don't understand why.

It's not insanely popular. And if I looked at the nutrition, nutritional facts, would I be like, not bad? I don't know. What do you like in a nutrition thing? We're talking one snack. Are we talking under 200 cals? 200 precisely. Whoa. Whoa. I'll take it. Does it fall apart as badly as like the traditional nature rally? Yes. No, it does not fall apart like that.

You got to eat that thing outside. It'll give you some crumbs, but it's not going to fall apart like those. Okay. I love it. All right. Good to know. I don't know if anyone's ever just recommended a snack before. Forget a little of this. I'm just going to put a link to like the Amazon.

place where you can buy those. Not Amazon. No, you shouldn't get them from Amazon. Just Google it. Don't get them from Amazon. At this point. There's no company that's safe. Go to your local corner store. The mom and pop Nature Valley. No doubt about it.

Hey, get a load of this. The DGA podcast, which is very good, where they have two directors typically talking to each other about one of the directors' new movie that just dropped. Sorry, the Directors Guild of America? When you say DGA, that's what you're talking about? Correct, yeah. The very same. Okay. But they had one recently talking about F1, that Brad Pitt movie. And Joe Kaczynski. You saw it, Jacob? Yeah. It's good stuff.

That's good. That's sweet. So the director of Tron Legacy and Top Gun Maverick, of course, and F1 here. That was the quickest. But in this episode of that podcast, he was talking about like how he got to start in the industry. And he had worked with David Fincher and David Fincher was going to direct this commercial. But then because...

Zodiac was greenlit. He's like, I can't do it. I got to pass it off to my boy, Joe. But I vowed for Joe. He can direct this commercial and knock it out of the park. And that commercial was the Gears of War Mad World commercial. That's where this director got his start, was directing that commercial. And he said that he was brought onto it and they had to choose between two songs. And it was going to be either Mad World or This Is The End by The Doors. That would have worked.

I think it would have worked. I think it would have, yeah. And they went with Mad World and he's like, oh, I guess that commercial is quite popular too. So I had no idea that that director started with that. Bananas. And David Fincher was supposed to direct that. That's also crazy. I know. Great deal. Links below for all this stuff if you want to check it out.

Get a load of this. I have been going all in on Death Stranding 2 Easter Eggs. One of my favorite things about Kojima games is they just have so much... so many weird kind of like high effort things hidden behind just like most players will never see this um one of them this is not a plot spoiler at all um but uh if you play uh The song by the artist Daichi Miura, who's a Japanese pop star, I think, played the song Horizon Dreamer on your little iPod in your room quarters.

and then you talk to Dollman, Dollman will jump up and do a full choreographed dance. where there are five doll men dancing on a little stage in front of you, and then one of them turns into Daichi Miura, and they keep... dancing i'm sorry if i'm pronouncing that name wrong but the thing the thing that i was just like beside myself was about is like you have four doll men and they're all doing the same choreography but you can tell that they are visibly motion captured by...

they're like they're different sessions it's not just the same doll cloned four times it's like four different dancers doing the same choreography i'm just like how much effort went into this tiny little easter egg that most players could play a hundred hours of this game and never see it's it's incredible i love that he does this this is beautiful hello this i thought this would be fun given uh our earlier discussion on garfield uh there's this like

Fan made Garfield con. I don't know if it's officially called Garfield con or Garfield gathering, but it's like just some people that like get. a hotel block and i guess rent like an office-y room and they throw their own con and they like go to each other's rooms and like buy from their like collections and i'm just like that's some hardcore stuff you know

Shout out to that. Shout out. That's my share. Janet, have you seen the I think you should leave Garfield sketch? No. I'm scared. Stick to this immediately. Because you know what? When I heard Haley say aw, I was like, oh, maybe they are sweet. Maybe they're not like...

the I think you should leave sketch you know maybe they are sweet I'll see if there's a version of this online that I can send you you'll love it add that in so I get a load of this just so that everyone can kind of have the same experience in the audience thank you

so get a load of this i i also brought a death stranding to easter egg and i was so roll back the tape because i thought jacob was about to say the exact one i did oh that's so fun about to be like shocked and then you said something else but mine was um

there's i guess spoilers for an easter egg but there's a bespoke like happy birthday scene if you play on your birthday and it's very sweet it's like they all come out with a cake i know medicare solid five had something similar they all come out they have a cake there's like a pizza they're like yay and then they talk to you

you directly like as the player you think you're norman reed is for a sec but then he comes out and he's like happy birthday and like talks to you i don't know i love that imagine like somebody playing and they had a bad birthday and like no one's happy birthday and having a lonely day

open the game. I think that's really nice. I don't know. Thank you, Kajima. Love it. But it's not as cool as Jacob's one, so now I... No, it's still good. Get a load of this from the community in the Discord. They have a channel where it's just...

All the best headlines, everything you need to know from the internet without the trash, just scrolling all day, every day there. And so Leafeon, the pizza dog, they shared a games radar story with the headline, I might never finish this game, so I'm releasing the demo.

colon after nine years a short hike developer soft cancels their paper mario inspired rpg but lets players try a build i i love this trend of just like hey you know what this game isn't working but here you go everybody like we saw it earlier this year i think even with like the follow-up to celeste from that team uh earthblade when that was canceled then lena rain was just like here's the entire soundtrack if you want to hear it by the way like what am i going to just sit on this like

Enjoy if you want. It's never going to happen. The end. So link below if you want to check out that Paper Mario inspired game from the Short Hike developers. Cool stuff. Kyle, you're about to explode. I'm looking at your mouth opening like a little fish. Is it time for the rumor, Meister? Is it time? Has the file finished extracting, decoding? Hang on, 99%?

100%. Yeah, we've unlocked the file. We've unlocked the file. Okay. All right. I'm ready. I'm super ready for this. Okay. This is the Rumormeister with their first report they sent into MinMax here. Let's see how this goes. Okay. Rumormeister here, once again, digging through the secret back alley waste of Video Game City. And that's exactly where I've dredged up this massive scoop.

The upcoming remaster of Halo 1 will feature an entirely new original soundtrack composed by the one and only opera singers from the 877 Cash Now commercials. No way! All true. And get this. The Rummermeister managed to take up a massive megaton. Sony is moving forward with a new feature for the PlayStation 6. If you fail a game too many times in a row.

The console has the power to tickle your parents. No. Indeed, stranger than fiction. No way. Lastly, it's dangerous for me to say this at this time, but the rumor master thinks you need to hear it. The Rumormeister understands that in the upcoming Tomb Raider game, Lara Croft is going to have a bold new physical feature. Okay. An extra little mouth on the back of her neck.

That's all the room master has to share this week. Though, next week, I'll be meeting up with a long-lost friend who says they have a bombshell too crazy to share online. I won't tell you where I'm headed yet, but let's just say... The Rumormeister spent four hundredths of a Bitcoin on my flight. Until next time, trust the shadows, deny the light. The Rumormeister takes flight. That cannot be true.

None of that. That was so wild. That's wild stuff. The grifters aren't going to know what to do with that Tomb Raider thing. They're like, am I mad? Am I more excited? I don't know. That was really brave of them to risk. you know, giving us that info. Unbelievable. Rumormeister, ladies and gentlemen, what will they dig up next? Subscribe to the Midmac Show on your favorite podcast app. You tell us what the Rumormeister will dig up next.

That is it. Don't tell us that. Okay, sorry. That is it for the new episode of the Midnex Show podcast. Thank you so much, everybody, for watching, listening, sharing. Kyle Bossman, thank you for being here, sir. It's a pleasure. Yeah.

It's going to be a fun month. Is there anything that you're looking forward to the most out of this month? Donkey Kong Bonanza. Oh, you mean like here with Mimax? I guess so. I don't know. Donkey Kong Bonanza 2. Just chilling. Just chilling with people who are having a good time. It's fine. It's fine. All right. All right. Sweet. Let's see. On the channel this week, New Show Plus on the YouTube channel. It is a...

series called kyle fixes the min max show with a bunch of ideas i can't imagine that's relevant anyway but you can check that out new show plus if you'd like to check that out you can vote for another episode next week i took a clip from that channel of kyle bossman saying pew pew bang needs no fixes

That's not what we're talking about here today or something to that effect. And the girlies loved that. Thank you, Cowboy. Let's see. On Monday, we had an interview, Midmax interview with Chris Plant. We went up on our YouTube channel and also in that bonus podcast feed. The former editor-in-chief of Polygon, obviously co-host of The Besties, the unbelievably popular podcast. It is him talking about his journey with his... End of the run at Polygon. Obviously the...

brutal layoffs that happened with Polygon earlier this year and how that launched him into creating Post Games, which is an excellent podcast there that Kelsey Lewin was on. So you can check it out there. But shout out to Chris Blant for talking about his entire saga. We also mentioned earlier... We fought Giant Bomb Valonia valiantly in rematch that archives up on the YouTube channel. Pew Pew Bang! Last episode of the season.

If you haven't caught it yet, jump in there and check it out. It's a huge, fun D&D session. The new season is going to be starting in due time, about a month or so. So stay tuned for that. But that is it. For Midmax, thank you so much, everybody. Greatly appreciate it. Anybody got something they're dying to say? Okay, I do have this thing to say. Yeah, yeah. I feel like Rumormeister was hands down the best part of this podcast.

I do think people will stick around for that. I think so, too. I think so, too. I'm watching that retention, everybody. All right. Thank you so much, everybody. We'll see you next week. Be good. Have fun. Let's go.