Sony PlayStation State of Play

Uh , off air I probably haven't , because I'm such a nonchalant . Uh , since OG Tom left the show I've become the , in wrestling terms , heel stroke bad guy . Uh , so I'm leaning into it a little bit , if I may say so .

But I just want to take a moment to say thank you to you and Scott , ian said , for the carry , while I've been otherwise engaged , I've been around , hopefully , no problem . Slightly more gracious would have been nice , but okay , moving on keeping pace in the show , I'm gonna say thank you to Scott separately , just to make sure he hears this .

Hopefully he does . He probably don't listen anymore , he's only listens to the episodes he's on . Um , it's good to be back . Obviously , I'm feeling very vicious today , but I'll try not to lash out too hard in your general direction and thank you to all the listeners , uh , for your support , continuing and ongoing and ever rising .

We couldn't do the show without you . Don't worry . We'll thank you in your own moment separately . So the only thing I want to know is oh , and , by the way , last week's episode was an absolute gangbanger , thank you .

I very much like it and it was very well received across the , the audience , the community and the wider gaming uh spectrum as well , I might add .

Stick close to us , keep your eyes peeled on the socials and hopefully , over the next six months , we should be able to regale you with some nice news . In lieu of that , let's not mess around , because I know that you know that , I know that they know that , you , that I want to know . What have you been playing ?

Um , but enjoying the game , I've hit a bit of a stumble and block . At the moment I'm only about five or six hours in leveling and there's leveling and also places where I have to go and the map has no place names on .

So I'm really a bit randomly stuck as to which direction I suppose I've just got to go and explore , um , but up till then , enjoying it . It's very deep lore . It's , uh , quite a deep rpg , as in stats and gear and um , but it hasn't put me off at all . You know , I want to learn . I'm sort of enjoying the world , um , I think it's well acted .

Uh , I'm quite enjoying the characters , um , so I think it's something that I'll definitely be sticking some hours into and once I can work out work out which way I've got to go in the map , um , where are you meant to be going , because I might try and remember um , I've got three places I've got to check out .

Um , I can't remember the name of the villages . I'll have to send them to you , but I've got no idea where those villages are because there's no place markers or there's no names on the map . So I think you just have to go out and explore and find bits as you level up and go , sort of thing to find a story , I think .

You start with a low ranked team , you first start it , but once you get into it , it's not you start with a low-ranked team , you start in Division 10 . You play other people's teams but the computer's playing on their behalf . You're not actually playing them online .

You can upgrade players with old players you have by sort of getting rid of them and tacking their stats and upgrading your players , and they're like . The players are just like um , you know a sticker book , album cards as you .

As you bring them out , you get one player on loan each year , like this year I've got ronaldo , which is brilliant , um , and I've been starting with team up . So you start in division 10 . I'm now division four , nearly into division three , and I've got it in my head .

I want to go to division one and see if I can be one of the best players on sociable soccer , but absolutely enjoying it . You have little extra things as you go along , like win streaks . If you get , that's quite good to win streaks I had a good one today . So you start off . They'll say , right , we're going to start a win streak .

Even though you're just playing your league games . We'll start a win streak first game , right ? If you win that , let's say right , he's a player , he's 39 rated . Or do you want to continue and go for the next player who's 49 rated ? And you go up , and today I had all the teams are over me . I think my team's rated 940 .

I think every team is over 1,000 rated . I beat every team and got a 72 rated player .

Yes , it's got more modern graphics , but the way you shoot , the way you score , the way you play is so sensible soccer , the way they all quickly run out and quickly get ready for the kickoff . It's got that essence of sensei and that's what I love about it . Um , nice , yeah , sociable soccer is is , yeah , been absolutely brilliant .

Let's put it this way eafc has not had a look in . I played eafc , uh , last week for about two matches and was so bored stiff . I'll just put social soccer back on you go . You got to go where you're happy sometimes exactly , yeah , it's just that arcade feel it's brilliant , brings , takes me back to the amiga , but that's all I've been playing .

So , uh , what about you ? You georgie boy ?

. For the most of January , while I've been off the show but around I've been playing a lot of well , let's start this properly . Me and my good lady Rachel have been watching an awful lot of Vikings , so much like OG Tom . Play the game . See the game . Watch the game . Play the game . I've been playing Assassin's Creed Valhalla Now .

I saw 60 hours into this bad boy on the launch of the PS5 and found it to be pretty unrewarding . I've gone back to it now with the idea that I'm creating my own storyline and I've gone at it and I'm finding it a little bit more enjoyable .

Um , there's a lot of leveling in the game and if you go into an area that you're not leveled for , I know everyone's going to be screaming get good . Well , yeah , okay , fair enough , but if you're low level , you're just not going to have an opportunity to take the higher guys .

So you just need to be careful where you're straying on your wonders , because suddenly you go from feeling like superman to feeling like super calmed , and it's . It's pretty demoralizing if I'm honest with you and you think what am I doing wrong ? And then you look on the mapping like I'll tell you what I'm doing wrong . I'm going where I shouldn't be going .

I struggled with Ghost of Tsushima when I first started playing that . I did a similar thing . I walked off peace , just naturally enjoying myself , and wandered into areas that I just shouldn't have been in and I was like this game's too , things made more sense .

I find some of the civilisation building to be a bit pointless , to be honest , but it's been in and around it since Assassin's Creed 2 , I think , and it was a pointless exercise then . I think they could have cut some of the bloat out for me . But anyway , that's one thing .

The other thing I've been playing an awful lot of is , have to admit , um , a bit more farming simulator . I mean you spoke off air , but just to regale everybody . Finally , some british maps appearing on the mod hub . Still no , uh , international tractors . If you're listening mods , pull your finger out .

Um , but the level of detail and things that have gone into it , now that I can appreciate . I think you and I talked about how I've noticed the sounds have improved . Like I was carrying an empty trailer and it makes that massive kind of loud , echoing noise as the metals flexing and bended .

Yet you put a load in there and put the vehicle in the distress and that noise goes away . You can hear the chain shinking on three-point linkage . You can literally hear everything and it's perfect and it's from the right place every time as well .

Deformation as well is having an impact on the vehicle's movement across the terrain as well . So , yeah , I really can't complain , but I don't think they came here , based on the title of the show , to hear about me waffle on about Farming Simulator .

Now , we're not going to make you hang on too much longer as we break down this month's Sony State of Play , but it would be remiss of me and no doubt after this he's going to say I ain't got one draw . Stop it . Don't do it to me . Don't make me feel like this . Don't make me feel inadequate . All right to me . Don't make me feel like this .

Don't make me feel inadequate . All right , mate , but you got one job . It's to do it with hidden gems . So let's see if you've done your homework while I've been off . Rgt is like the lone ranger , like it riding on down . Bring hidden gems to me , bring hidden gems to me Someone's been practising Four weeks off the show . 20 grand sunk into singing lessons .

One could see at least a 1% increase . So for me to get from the 2% I'm at To 100 , we're looking at about a million quid . Yeah .

I don't really tell you the country , but they've been invaded by another country next to them called the Republic , and you sort of take the role of four different or four or five different characters who help a lot of resistance army to stop these invaders , and you have different vehicles and different missions .

It's almost like a semi-open world , not very big , but you can . You can drive around to start the missions , but also you can collect these , these tokens for upgrades to your weapons as well as you go . Please , mommy , it handles very well graphically , looks brilliant on the psp . Looks , looks really good . Yeah , yeah , really good .

I quite enjoy the story because it's not too deep , but it gives you something to play for .

But you also have mission markers start the mission and off you go . One of them was , um , you had to fight off these certain amount of tanks and weapons . Another one was there was these turrets . You drive up , then you get in the turret and then you can shoot with these long-range turrets . Shoot all their enemies coming through before they get you .

So you had to stop them from getting to one of the resistance guys , um , so they're all quite interchangeable , quite uh , uh good um combat ones . I think they mix it up a bit , um , but the main thing for this is it's a really , really enjoyable game .

That's got some I mean you won't find it on metacritic , but some of the reviews back in the day , some were giving this 80% , 85% , 90% . Now , the best thing about this game if you want to buy this game . This is why I think this is my greatest hidden gem . Can we play the guessing ?

Fired Up is called Great little game . I mean , you know , it's not a massive fantasy or anything , but it's just really great little game .

Wipeout Pure playable demo .

I passed over it back in the day and actually , do you know what ? I want to recommend you to try it out for a hidden gem , because it's right in the wheelhouse of a hidden gem . For some reason , new York is the hardest of the two games to find Damn near impossible .

like to cheat back in the day , but um , but yeah , I just think it came out towards the end of the ps2's life cycle . I think people had already played la and gone .

It was yeah , yeah , it was good effort to drive around and if you lived in la you'd probably recognize some of the streets and bits , but obviously gta has gone , gone , way above that nowadays . But yeah , that was quite a big effort for the day . But I remember I've gotten both and I remember playing one of them back in the day .

Is this the retro equivalent of that rock a city ?

And then you think , oh , is this the game ?

That's light years ahead of New York and actually light years ahead of most games on the platform in that era . Very impressive .

Uh , cue me next week saying yeah , I tried it for two minutes , hated it . It's now Frisbee , it's in the front garden If anyone wants to get it for free using it as a coaster . Yeah , it's too good for that . Uh , no , it's . My tea is too good . My cup of chai latte is way too good for that sniveling wretch of a game .

I hope to come back and do my own little hidden gem where you sing the uh rgt theme tune at me oh , that would be a challenge and we would lose listeners . It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make at this point .

Let you know everything that we saw that should appease the listeners and the new listeners . They've got what they wanted . They've had a learning experience , and then we shall pick ones that intrigue us and we'll deep dive on them as required . How's that sound to you ?

yeah , sounds good , let's give them the full wad boosh and then you can clean up after , okay , so , hmm , the saros is the next ps5 exclusive game from maternal house Housemarque , coming in 2026 . Days Gone Remastered is real . It's out for the PS5 this April . Nine PS Plus Extra Premium games announced for February 2025 .

Ps Plus Premium adding a trio of classic software titles in 2025 . Metal Gear Solid , delta , sink Eater that's not the sort of a name you want if you want to get shouted in for your tea , is it ? Uh ? Confirms ps5 release date in new trailer . Borderlands 4 out on ps5 in september . Dedicated state of play confirmed .

Good news lost soul aside finally launches for ps5 this may . London is in ruins . There's a new ps5 game . T Tides of Annihilation , mysterious Puzzle Adventure Blueprints is coming to PS5 , day one on PS Plus . Hit Survival crafting game . Abiotic Factor , announced for PS5 , will be a day one on PS Plus .

Shinobi Art of Vengeance is the first of Sega's old franchise revivals and looks pretty good in our opinion . Digimon Story Time Stranger confirmed for 2025 on PS5 . Old franchise revivals and looks pretty good in our opinion . Digimon story time stranger confirmed for 2025 on ps5 .

Octopus platformer darwin's paradox isn't the next game we expected from konami , but it is what it is . Ex gta producer reveals futuristic third person action shooter mind's eye for ps5 . Um , we've got no idea what pixel junk is either , so we'll try and unpack that as we go . Brutal explorative ps5 game hell is us confirmed .

First september launch lies of p dlc overture announced , which will make our co-host bobby very happy . Uh , coming to ps5 and ps4 this summer . Warriors Abyss is a budget . Dynasty Warriors , samurai Warriors , roguelite out now on PS5 and PS4 . Ps5 favourite Stella Valet , dress up with Nikki DLC . Coming to PC in June .

Ps5's Aminusha Wear the Sword looks outstanding in new gameplay trailer . Sadly , no genre now . The Midnight Walk is one of the most striking PS5 , psvr2 indies of the year . Good news PSVR2 game Directive 8020 looks like a PS5 return to form for the Until Dawn creator .

Wwe 2K25 is still flogging a dead horse in my opinion , but they're adding a social sandbox on ps5 similar to the nba 2k games that we already enjoy . Sonic racing cross worlds has you racing across dimensions on ps5 and ps4 . Co-op adventure split faction continues to look superb in latest ps5 trailer . Capcom confirms on minutiae 2 .

Ps4 remaster will launch in May . Still , no genre . No , like a Dragon's Ichiban off on fighting Dave the DLC Diver crossover . Dave the Diver DLC crossover . That should make you happy . Might be the first Yakuza game you ever played Cowboy .

Now all that information looks like an absolute all-you-can-eat smugglers board buffet , but the general feeling of the state of play was one of meh . How did it feel for you , rgt , having watched that , and do you feel reborn as a playstation gamer , or do you feel a little bit jaded that they told us to get ready for a big one and then deployed that ?

I mean I watched this , quite enjoyed it , got to the end and I wouldn't say I was excited by anything . I don't think there was that big , you know , snippet of Wolverine or Last of Us 3 or anything like that . That's going to pull me in , but I just thought it was okay . There's some interesting games there I was quite excited about .

I just thought it was okay . I thought it was okay . There's some interesting games there I was quite excited about . I just thought it was okay . I thought it was good . It was nice to see a big smorgasbord of games . I mean they could have come in with just showing two games and

jumped out . They didn't . There's a lot there . There is a lot there . So on that it was quite good . Some of them I'm not interested in . Some of them I'm thinking why , um , but there's two or three here .

, um . What I do want to talk about , though , is days gone , remastered now . I appreciate the trailer , I appreciate all of it , but when this game got a PS5 update , when the PS5 launched and they told us that this was great and we should be very grateful for it , I thought , yeah , that's fair enough , it's free

. They seem to now be passing off the same junk to me Now .

Yeah , I know I mentioned this on the Discord earlier when a few people came back and said , oh , they've added this , and they've added that , and they're adding this , and , I think , came back and said , oh , I've added this and I've added that , and they're adding this , and I think , well , a lot of that content was added post-launch . But fair enough .

Um , but 10 pounds to upgrade it again . I think this is probably the furthest sony has stretched the remaster string that I've ever seen I think at the moment .

That's all I can think is why they're doing it . We've got a new audience coming in who are jumping over from . That's all I can think is why they're doing it .

I think if you've never played it and you're rocked up today , even with a PS5 or a Pro , whatever , you're new to the system . You put that in . Yes , it's running on Unreal Engine 4 , but , my God , at times she's a looker and she's an open world .

And the amount of enemies on screen , npcs on screen and zombie hordes is terrifying at times , you know , and they aren't lazy , slothly zombies these are . I can run quicker than you and I like the taste of human flesh like zombies . And these are I can run quicker than you and I like the taste of human flesh like zombies .

And they will besiege you at any moment . You've got to be all over it after you are done and that's the small hordes . When you start stumbling across real hordes , you've got a problem . And the game is challenging . It's enjoyable . The story narrative is great . There are some things within it like cut into black between the cut scenes .

I would love to imagine that they've done a job to erase those and use in-game engine and go seamlessly from one and then back to the gameplay . It's not going to happen . But if I was looking for a Days Gone remaster , if that got confirmed as being done , I would get this .

I would get this because it was a little jar and it took you out of the game , especially when all of its stable mates were just in engine rendering straight into the movie , then out again . It was a seamless experience . The cut to black I remember feeling quite jarring at the time .

I've noticed on some other games since , but the general waiting consensus of games that were released around the time of days gone . They'd already worked around that problem and it wasn't in any other game , so it can be a bit frustrating . Have you ever played days gone ?

And then all of a sudden I moved to a different camp , everything clicked and I couldn't stop playing it .

You know , like you say , they were fast zombies , you know , and you're in . You know , it's the motorbike gang side of it and it was all just slightly different off piste from your normal zombie and that open world and that . Yeah , I thought it was quite , you know .

And then having to find fuel for your bike and having to be careful you didn't run , it's all little touches like that . I thought they've tried something really different here .

There's a lot of friction to get over before you start rolling with the game , and I do believe that kind of that did restrict it in a way .

It probably restricted well , no , you just had more games than sense , I suppose , but without a doubt , that's so true not a bad situation to be in my beloved Arnie no , very luscious is there any more you want to say on Days Gone ? I feel like I've got on the soapbox and gopped off quite loudly in there . No , I think you're right .

It's a stretch , that one . I think you're right .

So grateful to Sony for allowing me the chance to be involved in the launch of this game and really proud of what we've achieved . And you know , it did make me feel , for 0.2 microseconds , a little bit guilty for hating on it . 0.2 microseconds a little bit guilty for hating on it . But that guilt resided and the hate's still there .

I love the game , don't get me wrong , but this I quite happily leapt from the bowl of Last of Us Remastered . I quite happily leapt from the bowl of Last of Us Part 2 Remastered . But I'm erring on the side of like I don't know . Now , guys , this feels a bit much .

Remasters should only be or not remasters , but rejuvenating old franchises that have been left rotting on the sega shelf for far too long . And and then this .

I mean , they smashed out of the park with street rage 4 . Yes , if you're , if you're really into the old school street rage , it was that bit different with the art style but it played well . It had that feel , it had that music , it had that sound effects .

squared exactly edges and it gives it that it literally feels like it's an extension . Yeah , we'd had a game that looked like it was on Mega Drive . People would have moaned .

It'll be tough , but I liked what I saw . You know , they've kept it 2D , they've kept it side-scrolling , you know , yeah , and the platforming , I'm liking that . I think , yeah , I'll enjoy playing this and I mean , this is the first of theirs . So you know , apparently they're doing Crazy Taxi and they're doing Golden Axe .

Uh , the last two sonic racing games are well , funnily enough , are hidden gems . People don't talk about them enough . There was all star race and transformed and the other one on ps4 . Um , they're absolutely brilliant kart racing games . I mean all-star racing transformed was fantastic , how you changed into boats and bits and pieces .

You race around such tight kart racing games and don't get enough love . Um , so I'll . Yeah , I was interested in this and they're great party games . You've got a few people around you want to play . Play some kart racing . So I was really interested in that .

Um , the other one I thought was uh , I've got to find the name of it now it's from the guys Supermassive .

Playing the same room with a few of your , you know , almost like a survival horror , play the movie sort of game , a few quick actions , um , and I just thought that looked really good in space . That reminded me the storyline issue . It reminded me of that Ryan Reynolds film . What was that called ? Deadpool ?

No , he was in space and he was the first one to get infected . They had that infection in the spaceship . What was that called ? I can't remember . Anyway , it reminded me of that on that story .

The brave astronauts of the Cassiopeia embark on a deadly mission to save humanity , but their ship is infected by an alien life form .

It seems that had gone down that sort of story route and I thought , yeah , I quite like space games and something a bit creepy , so that'd be quite good . Surprised to see a Digimon . Never played Digimon games . I don't think we've had one on them for a long while . Have we have Digimon games ? I don't think we've had one on him for a long while .

Uh , like I say , anything that casts any light in a positive way , or no , actually , at this point , I'll take anything that casts any light on vr2 positive or negative right ? uh , although not that long ago , it was rachel's birthday and we had her family around and we got the vr2 out and put them all in kayak An amazing experience .

We put one or two of them in the sub side , which is the latest diving game on VR2 . It's not as strong as kayak , not by a long chalk , but great visuals , great chilled out way of just swimming around underwater . It's the only game I found where I I hold my breath . I found I was playing it and I thought hang on , george , what are you doing ?

You're holding your breath like , yeah , you are , aren't you ? Why are you ?

When the Pro got its update they ramped up the visuals in there to 8K textures and you can tell it looks At times and I know I'm going to get people writing in but at times when you're absorbed in it it's indistinguishable from real life . Kayak and some side has that similar vibe .

The texture of the sand , the texture of things underwater , the actual meniscus of the water , that layer on top that you come up through is is done in a way I've never seen in a game before . And then when you come up to the surface , the surrounded area around you is kayak level of detail , very impressive .

But we're not here to talk about subside , uh , we're here to talk about the sony state of play . Is there anything else within there that you want to do a deep dive on ?

Oh wow , look at you . Yeah , I don't say that very often nowadays , but I thought that looked really interesting . And you know how a way out and it takes two played . They were really good . They nailed that couch co-op together , really nailed how that can be done .

Now it's not a thing of the past to sit together and play , yeah , and then adding that sort of sci-fi in and that Tron look and that almost sort of synth wave , I thought , hmm , I really like the look of that . I see me and Mrs RGT playing that . So that's one I'm going to definitely keep an eye on .

In my personal opinion is it's not often that an ex-GTA producer rocks when he says I'm making a game , a third-person action shooter , mind you called Mind's Eye for PS5 . Now , before I wade in because I'm obviously jaded , george , these days , before I wade in , what did you make of that ?

Some of these did not show us enough . You got a glimpse of a few seconds of so-called gameplay . Some were on PS5 Pro , some were just rendered and you just think , hmm , you're not really showing us what the game's about and how we're going to play it .

So , set in the not-too-distant future , in a fictional desert city of Red Rock , where artificial intelligence's , a detroit , human reference and human greed collide to bring earth to the precipice of collapse , developer is build a rocket , rocket boy , and they've gone to explain . We don't have a lot to go on outside of the two trailers embedded in .

No , no , that's what they explained . That that's what the game is . My bad , I read it wrong .

I to complain ?

You play as humanity's last remaining survivor in a single player title heavily focused on narrative . Tides of annihilation is designed to evoke classic action games . A fast-paced combat system that allows for experimentation through the use of ten spectral knights . They appear to lend you extra powers to help shape your fighting style and unlock new combos .

Battles are fought against huge mobile knights , which are first described as vertical challenges , against huge mobile knights , which are described as vertical challenges , potentially in a way similar to Shadow of the Colossus , that you must cement before you fully take them down .

As we've said , this is all set against a backdrop of a broken modern London , where you shall get to visit some of its famous landmarks . In the trailer we saw Tower Bridge , amongst other places . So we've got a comment from the lead game producer , kung fu . That's , that's . That's legitimate . Actually , just back off everybody , his name is kung fu , k-u-n-f-u .

He said it's an incredible and humble accomplishment to be able to announce the game as part of . Sony's Least Day of Play livestream .

He goes on to say we've created a world that reimagines our theory and legend , where themes of courage , loyalty and heroism intertwine with an epic story set in a strange yet familiar setting that will test the mettle of true gamers and push the genre forward . Quite brave talk for your debut project . I'll tell you what else .

It screamed to me , if I may be some old galahad to me the order 1886 yeah , yeah , that's true .

developers and people like that are actually bringing it to the table .

And underneath this fancy graphics , this is the game you get in . Actually , you just get in that PS2 game , so don't get too revved up . Borderlands I played the first two and I'll be honest with you , it's all she wrote for me . Tides of Annihilation did pique my interest , but it's not a game for me .

It's like that Devil May Cry , stella Blade Juggling Baddies kind of scenario again . And yeah , I don't know what to make of that . I was kind of intrigued by the abiotic because it's basically a survival crafting game which you know I do have a little bit of a penchant for when the moment's right , but I don't know if that's for me per se .

I'm much like you , shinobi . That's always going to be interesting . You're right in what you say . That was one hard-ass game back in the day . It's one of those games where you kind of make a deal with yourself as a kid like get off the first level and you can go get a Kit Kat .

And then you're like three attempts in and you're literally biting the controller making a deal with you . Let me finish this level this time console's .

I'm gonna smash you up , and then it like and you're like oh , I want to smash you , but I can't uh , I don't know if anyone else made deals with themselves or the console as a kid , but you know , oh yeah , all the time you beg you I'll unplug you and my , my snes controller back in the day .

Uh , just along the top edge had two very deep canine teeth indentations where I'd lose it and I'd just like I mean older me now is like literally turning in my grave . I'm not dead yet , but you know , I'm like , oh god boy , were you . You were intense , but that's how games got . Yeah , they were .

I didn't want to cheat because it kind of broke the game and then you end up seeing the last levels and you lost all interest in playing it . So I wanted to play through it . But sometimes the lives and the way you got caught and as a kid you don't necessarily learn that quickly , do you say ? It's like I've died in the same place .

I've got all the way through to this same place and died in the same place in the same way every single time . Yeah , like I say , you're making deals in your head with like anything that you think will listen the control pad , the console , the telly . You're looking at the box and screaming , begging the coders to just give you one chance .

So desperate you are . We'll see what shinobi turns up like in the model . We've got a few quality of life touches . I would imagine you gotta pray , haven't you ? That's how desperate you are . So we'll see what Shinobi turns up like in the modern era it's probably got a few quality of life touches . I would imagine you've got to pray , haven't you ?

Only the hardcore are going to enjoy that .

Matt Dickey had a little bit of backward and forward and about the glitchiness of the game . I'm doing that in inverted quotes for the audio listener , but the glitchiness is all part of the freedom of it . And this year we got WWE 2K24 as part of a free download from PSN as part of the monthly games .

I thought , yeah , all right , it's been long enough , I'll give it another go . Literally within an hour of downloading it , it was deleted . It's almost stark . Okay , yeah , you can go through and be Roman Reigns , but you can't live the life of Roman Reigns . They have these showcase moments where you live remoments from the past , but they're literal snapshots .

What I want is a career mode where I can play through and be involved in the shenanigans of WWE , and I don't want to control it through a menu , I just want it to evolve . Basically , give me . Here comes the pain and we'll be happy , we'll leave you alone and I will flop to this and play it for hours , without any question .

But they seem so incensed about doing that and all they want to feed us is these Wrestlemania moments and I'm literally sick to the back teeth of it . And even now , when you play the career mode , as they label it , you have to take through almost one of their preset characters and you can't do what you want in the match .

You get halfway through the match and it's like oh , you must perform this special slam on matey and I've literally broken him on the ground .

He is broken , completely done , but I can't pin him because to evolve the story in their fake-ass storyline , I need to do this certain slam on this guy , which means I'm not controlling the story , I'm basically viewing it . That's not what video games are .

past , but let me go in and change history , though let that be the killer app of the WWE 2K25 . Change history . Don't make me do it that way . Reward me if I play out the match exactly as it went down in real life . You know , give me a rating for how close I got . That's interesting to me , but don't make me dance that dance . It's pointless .

Rant over Jaded George , I see a t-shirt idea . Come , guys , don't let me down . Let's see the artwork for a jaded george t-shirt uh ominous , you're too remastered . I'm always going to be slightly intrigued by that , but again it's not exactly my , uh , normal cup of tea and and to be fair , ominous , you wear the sword as well .

That looked great , but again it had me wondering is this me ? It's the same with stella blake . Yeah , it looked quite good . I don't had that sort of almost comedy vibe to it as well . That looked great , but again it had me wondering is this me ? It's the same with Stella .

So so you know there's an open goal and they kicked it clean over the top . Am I against it ? No , I'm not . I want to see Yakuza spread around the world , although , as with all games that I like , they get popular .

The more they get accepted in the mainstream , the more the gameplay gets changed , the less interest I have in it , but the more successful it becomes . So why cater to me ? I'm just . I got you to this point and now I'm literally a shoulder to stand on to get to your next set of audience figures . Better play to you or me .

The UCP will never do that to you . They never will . I want to wrap up there , really , and I want to dive into what can only be described as our fresh list , because I said we'd never do that to you , but we want to say thank you because we've got our tiers on uh buzzsprout .

If you click at the bottom of the episode , you can click the button there and you can support us . Let me tell you now don't pay us 10 pound . It's there . You're welcome to it , you if you want to , but I would recommend you get in at three or five dollars . Keep it low , right . Pay us what you buy a coffee for , or something like that .

We appreciate it when you go crazy , but there isn't necessarily a need . The show will always be free . The tears , though , do have a level of support in them . Uh , rgt , have you got your teeth in ? Are you prepared to let me know what the tears are ? I , rgt , have you got your teeth in ? Are you prepared to let me know ?

But it's just as a little bonus for for those tears , you can hop in there and have a chat with us . Ten dollars you get read out in every show , yearly art merch plus access to the unglorious chat . Plus you get a quarterly zoom chat with the host , which is rapidly coming up very soon . So I'm thinking of a Saturday again .

I'm thinking end of this month , maybe middle of next month . You guys in Young Glorious , let me know , go on there , say what day is best for you and we'll try and get one that's best for everyone . Saturday night we'll all jump on , have a bit of a chat about games , a couple of beers .

We do jest and we muck about , and to everybody around the world that support us and listen . We're humbled and very grateful , um , although finish , the tears rgt and I'm going to do a poignant and I've finished , it is called okay , my new year's resolution of pay attention to rgt fallen , yes , hurdle , fine , we'll move on from that .

Let me say , before we get into the list of our dear subscribers , let me say , without their supporters , let me say , if you're listening , this is the first time listening god damn , I love you genuinely . Thank you so much .

This show is something that we do as uh started , started as a passion project really , and it's built into something that sometimes I feel a little bit sort of intimidated by . It's grown to a size We've got a community to care about , we've got each other to care about , we've got more hosts and I've got appendages on my body , and it continues to grow .

All I ask is that you share . I don't even want your money . The show will be free , it'll always be free , but your support means a lot to us . But what I do want is you to spread the word listen everywhere . You can download the show as well , because it changes the metrics , because sometimes the stream isn't quite good enough .

Um , we know we have more activity going on , but our beloved podcast hosts only includes downloads , which is frustrating when those people stream podcasts yes , exactly yeah uh , that's totally cool , but a download would be really appreciated . Watch us on every platform comment , where you can tell your friends .

And if you're still thinking what more can I do for these guys , well , click at the bottom of the link of the show's description and give us three books . Guys , you know , everything you give us is game-changing , from the bottom of my heart to the very top . We're at episode 257 right now and we have no right getting beyond episode 12 .

But we want to try and push this year to get really bright up in the noses of all the big power makers . And you want to help an underdog grow and smash the big boys and then fall out of luck with us because we're not the underdog anymore . Come join us , because what a hell of a journey we'll be on to get there .

It'll take us decades , so , don't worry , it'll be your favourite podcast for a good couple of decades when we're gaming on our legs or our knee pads or I don't know what . Oh God , yeah , with that all said and done , rgt , you were going to say something .

On the Buzzsprout support mechanism Again , it's at the bottom of the link , don't want to bore you with it , but these fine people let me kick it off with Seanox , coming all the way from Sweden . Let me personally say I see you and I love you .

Old school , everybody stand , everybody sit down for the Italian anthem to game , control their margin . Big star , and we've got Tingle Juno . Quite honestly , he's joined us on one of our meetups and I'll tell you what . I've said it before , I'll say it again Not only is he intelligent , not only is he funny , but he's extremely handsome as well .

What I wouldn't give to be Mrs Turner .

And DigitalMunkery's efforts on the photo competition and page and the Challenge Accepted page running the league and encouraging you in , probably not sometimes the way you expect , but let's face it , he's encouraged you and you've got in and you've gone again and again and again , and again , and again and again . And what more can we say ?

Those challenges accepted , probably more addictive than heroin , yep .

Because I happened to find myself in marsden the other day now , that's a nice little town over near manchester fast walking around and I stumbled into a shop and someone asked me for directions to macclesfield and I turned around to him and said I don't know where that is , but something tells me it's nowhere near berlin um next .

But I'll be honest with you , my meat's beaten . I can't do it anymore . So it needs a break . Okay , I can't be listening to that week in , week out that way . It needs to simmer down a bit . So it needed daddy to come out and say no , simmer down I don't even know how to reply to that .

I really don't , that is unbelievable good are we having fun yet ?

No , I feel that we've got a clear run at it for a few weeks now , so I'm looking forward to it and , in all seriousness , thanks for having me back on my own show . You've carried it while I've been off , you and Scott and I do appreciate that and obviously Seb as well and Bobby and all the guys behind the scenes that make it happen .

Very , very appreciative and our commitment to getting a show out to people every week , regardless . We're there and we're doing it , and the reason that is is because we made a promise to you and we want to be that show that's there for you every time You're feeling low , you're bored at work , you're on a drive somewhere .

I know I'll give the UCP boys a shot and we do appreciate it . We're going to rock up every week and deliver a slice of mediocrity at best . Why am I keep doing this humble thing ? It's not working for us , is it ?

Oh God , next week I'm going to come out shoddy to hotty oh god , that's a blast from the past there you go , look back on the old YouTube vids . If there's YouTube vids , get lost in the podcast . You know you want to hear some of these characters shoddy to hotty . I can't even remember how we .

I'll have to go back and watch a video to work out how we used to talk . To be honest with you , I've completely forgot . I was looking to you for a clue , rgt . I don't think you've got one .

Now , if you're a new listener , you're about to have a lesson here , because what comes after all , that is when I ask RGT what he's hoping to play .

You know , like I said last week or week before , how quick you can just put the switch on being a few games and that again you know . So , yeah , being few games , and that again you know . So , yeah , while they're busy , that's a brilliant game to play . Um , we'll try and not get

lost in the witcher 3 at the moment , as I have no idea where I'm going , but I'll probably put a few more hours into that you need to stick with that , mate .

Almost change the way you look at the game and suddenly the game will start to make a lot more sense to you . Yeah , I've done with witcher .

I went in and was giving it all this respect and I was , oh , it's got all this lore and oh , my goodness , and ultimately you just chase from a to b , pick up b , bring it back to a story , chat , drive , walk here right here , kill thing , come back . You know , don't add too many layers on .

It's a wonderful game and it's collected together in a really great way , but there's nothing in the nets beyond you . Stick to your tropes of knowing your level areas , trying to level up .

Do your side quests , kill an area before you move forward , ie make sure you can do everything you can in that area to level yourself up as much as you can and then keep the momentum going . That's the best advice I can give you .

Don't get overwhelmed by yeah , all of that , you know how this works and you can smash it out the park and you'll enjoy doing it yeah , yeah , definitely .

Better level up , sort of thing . I'm not here to poo-poo on it because it has been reasonably successful , but I would prefer they'd worked on another brothers in arms game , if I'm honest with you yeah , that's just me , yeah , so , um , yeah , so I think that's pretty much me .

If they got past the what you hope , what you've been playing , they're certainly done now . um , and then obviously , if I get chance , I think I might throw uh true crime streets of new york in PS2 , see if it impresses me and then immediately throw it out the front window as well . So yeah , I'm quite intrigued by that .

As other stuff , I just feel like I'm bouncing from one thing to the next , but Assassin's Creed Valhalla has held my attention for most of the time I've been off air , so I can't really begrudge it too much because it's literally occupied multiple hours of my life .

I've arrived at this one , you know , because , as has been mentioned on numerous shows and you're welcome to go check them out I did do a rather ridiculous took it upon myself to play through all of the Assassin's Creed in order . Yes , and there's many things to learn about that , but it did leave me a little bit screen burnt from .

And I also then was still completely burnt out from Assassin's Creed , and Valhalla switches things up a little bit , so my muscle memory was gone , but coming at it now fresh wiped my palate well clean . There's definitely elements in there I'm enjoying .

I do still believe it's a super bloated game and some of the oh , as if luck would have it , your next fetch quest is literally a million miles away . Crack on , georgie , boy Off . You waddle . Fast travel no fast travel allowed , damn you , damn you . But yeah , and possibly some F1 Manager 24 or whatever it is . I downloaded the latest version on the switch .

Yes , I did . I think we might have talked about this on air . Uh , yeah , playing through that and to some degree I'm enjoying it . The challenge is real . It's the same as it is on ps5 , but the two frames per second presentation has me gagging for a switch to upgrade . Please don't make me buy again .

I'm just hoping that would fix all of it , and it would . It would then be one hell of a nice experience . The last thing you want to see after charles of clerk coming out the car looking like a burns victim when he's not crashed his car once it's just the shady looking graphics is .

You then don't want to look at a loading screen for two hours , and that's pretty much my full manager experience . Yes , I'm over egging it a little bit , a lot , but you catch my drift .

I've been really tempted to get back into jeff graman's f1 grand prix now , if I was that way inclined , I think I would be punching very hard in the stomach of the f19 stealth fighter from micropros . That's something I really would like to get back into .

I saw some footage not that long ago and it's like literally five frames per second , but there's some nostalgia here .

yeah , I'll get my dad around , I'll get him on the keyboard as a co-pilot and selecting weapon systems and putting the gear up and doing the flaps and ILS as required , and all that and changing waypoints , and I'm literally sat there as a stick jockey .

We've been through some tough times but no well , once again I want to take the time to thank you , rgt , for everything you do .

Listers , as always , thank you for your time and we look forward to the pleasure of speaking to you again next week . Until then , happy gaming , and remember there's nothing wrong with being given the unofficial controller . It's what you do with it that counts . See you , rgt .