Game Mess Mornings 08/18/23

You'll be bed. It's the internet. You're busy. Let's do this for
August eighteen, twenty twenty three. For the next hour or so, let
me help you sort through the world of gaming on Game Mess Mornings Live with
Me Jeff Grubb. Today, Sony is probably gonna make another God of War
and Call of Duty is finally official. But first please join me and welcoming
today's co host a Game Mess Mornings. It's Tamore who's saying, everybody,
tam how are you doing? You know, Jeff, I've been better.
It's Treg's day. I'm gonna do my best to raise the spirits, but
I'm gonna be coughing my way through this. You my understanding is you were
the four time COVID champion. I am the full time COVID champion. No
one can come from my boat because nobody wants to come from my vote.
No one wants to everybody is the belt wide birth. Yeah, I'm like,
I'm the four time COVID champion. Everyone goes yep, hopefully says that
way. How you doing? But that's fucking sucks. That's insane. So
sorry, man, it's not great. I keep that I have to say
it repeatedly, but like each time has like fundamentally changed my body in a
way that it hasn't recovered from like I have. Last time I got it,
I got fatigued pretty badly, and now I've got permit fatigue. So
I've just got a lifelong debuff. Now that's what COVID is for me.
Someone costs a lifelong debuff. And now I have this cough, which is
like I'm hoping it will go away, but so far it's been quite severe.
Like yesterday I had to like I went to lay down to sleep and
the coughing was so bad. I just was like, I just have to
sit up and let this play out until there's like a pause, sucking trying
to fall asleep again. Yeah, that terrifies me because I'm when I get
like just a normal cold, I cough for like months literally after. Yeah,
and I don't think I've had COVID yet. Somehow, some insane way,
apparently all the COVID I was getting I just gave the instead. It's
like how I think it works. I've been taking the hit. People are
like I tweet about this just to explain it, because like I was on
a bunch of things yesterday and I was coughing a lot, and I was
like, that probably sucks to kind of see and watch and listen to.
So I explained it a bit and everyone was like, what, it's your
fault for not masking up, and I was, I am. I took
it. I took it very seriously, like I took COVID. Yeah,
but also it's not how it works, like I still don't get how people
like masking is protecting other people everybody, guys, come on, but we're
it's it's been three years. Catch on like, cutch up, we're grow
up in fact, figure it out. Yeah okay, but either way,
Tam, I you know, I'm glad you're you're up an atom and you're
recovering as much as you can. But man, I'm sorry about that.
That really stinks. So gravy baby, let's do it. It'srega. It
is Dregs Day, Tam as a president to you. I I'm coming off
a cold shower and I'm fucking ready to go. I was gonna say,
you look great, like you look like very smart, you look refreshed.
I love it. I want to ask you. I'm wearing just there's this
it's two buttons? How slutty? Should my shirt be just one or two?
But no? I think you should open one more buttons. Okay,
here we go, There we go, there we go. All right,
now we're good. That does feel fresh and fancy free. Maybe let's go
Oh my god, it's not I can do some game news. This is
some eye show speed levels of reveals. Who next time, I'm gonna show
some ankle meat everybody? Look at all right, let's get into this and
explain what we do here most weekdays, I, Jeff Greb, will help
piece your gaming life back together. That includes breaking news and maybe even some
of our own original reporting. For all these topics, I'll get the input
of a bona fide expert who will make me look smart. If you were
watching live on twitch welcome. You can always listen to the show later on
podcast feeds by searching for Game Mess Mornings, or find the RSS on giant
bomb dot com. You can also catch the show later with chapters and timestamps
on YouTube. Hello, Hello YouTube. Okay, we have a lot to
get into, so let's start the Morning Mess with there's a rumor that there's
a new God of War game and development from Alex Hopley at Game Reactor.
Big surprise, but here we go. It appears that Sony Santa Monica they
already be working on a new God of War game and a new John listing
looking for a combat designer, fans have found some hints that could point to
the studio gearing up for a return to the franchise. While there isn't any
specific statement saying the combat designer will work on a new God of War,
there is a mention that the candidate must have knowledge of God of War and
God of War Ragnarok. Also, they'll be working on a new unannounced title.
This is probably I mean Sony Santa Sony Santa Maka is going to make
another God of War probably next right, That still makes sense even though you
know the last two were like that's a duology and it wraps up a bunch
of stuff there. They will probably just take what they did with that game
and put it in a new setting, have some other other ways to refresh
everything and get right back into it. Right. Oh yeah, almost certainly,
Like I mean, Sony Santa Monica is a stage now, I think
they could probably they probably are doing like multiple titles at this point like,
so it wouldn't be because like Corey is supposed to be working on something like
he wasn't he's doing this like sci fi game right or whatever. Well,
I don't know if there's any like concrete reation. I don't think there is,
but a little bit. I don't know exactly what. Yeah, yeah,
exactly. So that leads me to and as far as I know,
he hasn't like left selling Santa American staff a new studios, So there are
a team where they were. They are making something new and also holding it
down by making the thing that most people know and want and probably Sony once
as well, considering the success of Ragnarok and the God of All reboot.
So this makes perfect sense, and like it, evolving it to the next
kind of like setting or whatever it may be, and figuring out new ways
to approach the mechanics and that kind of stuff makes perfect sense to kind of
revitalize it. If they do the exact same thing again, I think that's
when it becomes more of an issue. If they had a third Norse game,
I think that the the the idea of another God of All game would
feel less exciting than I agree the idea all of a duology is done.
Now something new is happening, right, something unpredictable, right, something I
mean, uh, you know I've mentioned this before, but now I'm forgetting
his name, but the guy that directs the Mission Impossible movies with Tom Chris
Christopher McCorry saying like, but he's like he was talking about like the Star
Wars sequel trilogy and he was like, you know, the difficulty here is
for this kind of thing, you got to give people what they want in
a way they don't expect. And that's what God of War twenty eighteen did.
And then obviously you follow that up because people will do want more,
but by the third game you're gonna see diminishing returns because now it's people it's
what they want, but it's not it's not in a way they're not expecting.
So like that, by you know, nailing those two games and then
now going back to that, like resetting that a little bit and doing things
that people might not be expecting, now you have a chance to wow everyone
again, and that like makes me want is that kind of what's happening with
Spider Man Marvel Spider Man two right now? Where it's like everyone knows what
to expect from it, so that's why there's everyone's a little bit ho hum
about it. I think that game is going to be an amazing seller,
but just the excitement for it right now, maybe that's just because there's so
many other games to play. But is there something else there? Like,
is there are these other Sony franchise is going to be in a similar situation
suit soon Tam where they're gonna have to look to do the kind of reset
that God of War is done. I think that there are a couple that
will. I don't think Spider Man is among them. I feel like Spider
Man is like a persistent world that is growing. Is something that is expected
from the Spider Man I p with, regardless of where you come for it,
come from it, like in the movies currently and previously as well as
well as in the comics, there's always just you know, the world of
Spider Man, and this is a new story within it. So I think
in this case, like moving to another villain after this latest Man is done
is is probably the way to do it. I'm sure like they will introduce
Yeah, I'm sure they'll introduce like a new thread like in the way that
you know, they brought in miles and now they combine them into one game.
You know, maybe Gwen shows up in this, or maybe like you
know, a Spider Man appears from a different dimension or whatever at the end
of it, hinting at that, and then that's where it goes next.
I think that Spider Man franchise doesn't need a crazy like table clear of a
reset. Yeah. I think a franchise like Horizon probably does, or a
franchise I don't know, yeah, like Ratchean Clank or something like that,
where something more drastic needs to happen. Yeah, I think I'm right there
with you where where it's uh. I think Spider Man people are home.
I'm about Spider Man right now, and the second it's available, they'll be
like, well, I love Spider Man, I'm and I'm going to show
up for this. This is going it's going to be completely fine. Certainly,
we'll see that reflected in the numbers of sales and the excitement and selling
ps vibes, and they'll bet we can Spider Make could be the thing we
rely on, and that it could be a known quantity and it's going to
be fine almost no matter what as long as the quality of the games is
going to be there. And I think we can assume that's a safe assumption
because of Insomniac the other games. See, it's like, yeah, there's
always that risk of of of that diminishing returns at a certain point. For
going back to God of War and you know this this news, these rumors.
You know, I think there's a lot of stuff that they could do
with with Kratos necks that could be I think unexpected and exciting. But I'm
like when I when I think about it, it's like, you know,
they did Nurse, and my mind merely goes, Okay, what would be
like basically that same thing, but new and different and exciting. I go
to like the Egyptian gods, the Egyptian pantheon. I think that would be
fun. But there's something more exciting than that. I mean, I think
at this point it should. My personal idea would be to do the middle
guess at it too, And you know, Melga sold to. One of
the best things about it was like you got to witness the legion legend of
Solid Snake instead of make the legend of Solid Snake. You know, write
in a lot of people hate him, but like, the coolest moments in
that game is when you are fighting alongside Snake or he's giving you back up.
And that idea of witnessing the impact of a character from outside of it,
impact that you know, is something that I really love. I think
in this game Creatos has become a god multiple times. I think it's time
for him to be the god. Right you are trying to hunt down or
something like that, and in the process, I feel like you could still
maintain his kind of current values and the idea of discovering that the gods are
more duplicitous than they then we realized, and they are more like evil than
we realized, and flawed then we realized could be told through the journey of
like trying to get to kill and create. By the time you get there,
you realize this dude is not all that bad, because I've the people
who put me on this path are way worse. I don't think he needs
to be evil. I still think that he can maintain the antagonist lean but
also have like the kind of like protagonist that you hate protagonists that you're designed
that is designed for you to feel like, oh, this guy sucks,
but actually is you know, more reasonable than you might realize. Like I
would love to see like the the gravitas of a world where Kratos is God
God. I think that's a yeah, that's a really good idea. I
think in a perfect world where we could, you know, spend all the
money required to make a game like this, but do something that is completely
unexpected, I think, yeah, playing as a different character and and and
and seeing that stuff. Uh, you know it, there's I think that
yourself too is the best example that there that that would be very interesting.
I think it would give people chance to step out and and understand the character
in different ways. But you know, that would be the kind of thing
that would be very difficult, I think to pitch internally, like they would
be like we we got to play as Credos. But you know, if
they could get away with it just one time, I think they probably should
go for it. I don't know, I think the idea of Kredos being
like a full god, I'm like, maybe it should just be black and
white, a black and white game black and white three with Krados up there
just using his big hand throwing little people around or something like that. I
don't expect this game anytime soon. Uh, but you know these games take
years and years now, But do you think that they try to like get
it out before the end of the PS five general like like like twenty twenty
eight? Is that realistic? If I think there's one more left four generation,
I think they can get one out and maybe have like a transitional one
as well. Yeah, well, I think that's right. I think that's
the kind of thing that they could. Uh, because you know, we're
twenty twenty three right now. They you know, I'm sure they're spinning stuff
up right as we're speaking as this comes out. I think we get it
by twenty twenty eight. That sounds right, and then that's that's also around
the time we are hearing about the PS six and then they're moved on.
Uh all right, let's see here. Call of Duty Modern Warfare three officially
announced launches with sixteen maps from two thousand nine so Modern Warfare two. Some
Eddie mccou at game Spot Activision is officially announced Call of Duty Modern Warfare three,
following a week long teaser campaign that culminated in war Zones Shadow Siege event.
This is a direct sequel to twenty twenty two's Modern Warfare two, and
that's notable because it's the first time Activision has ever done that. In back
to back years. We've talked about this a whole bunch. I might have
talked about it yesterday, but just overall, they came out and they confirmed
everything all the rumors we've heard. Basically the big things being like the multiplayers
got all the sixteen maps from Modern Warfare two two thousand and nine remastered for
this game. There's gonna be zombies. Zombies is gonna have a larger sort
like element to it, where it's like it's a more open area. There's
there's gonna be new multiplayer systems, a lot of the stuff from your that
you've got in a Modern Warfare two is going to carry over. It's the
campaign, Uh, it will be able to You'll be able to play the
campaign a week early if you pre order the game, things like that.
So yeah, they're they're going for it. But man, this is something
about it still really feels like this was a DLC pack turned into a full
game somehow. It also at the same time it feels like a full game,
right. I do like they put a lot of stuff in there.
Yeah, it's clearly like content rich. But what's the campaign based on?
Is it a new one? It's it's it's a Modern Warfare campaign of some
sort. So I think, uh I Macarov is that the name of the
character. I think he's coming back and this is the story's gonna revolve around
him. I'm just going off memory now. Oh so it is a new
story, right, it's a new story. It's a new story. Yes,
this is not remaster of like Modern Warfare two story that's for the multiplayer
mode. Yeah, okay, got check out to that makes most sense.
I was no rushing guys, that's right, Thank you everybody. Yes,
yeah, yeah, yeah, so yeah, I mean like, yeah,
it does feel I mean, there's nothing inherently wrong. We're looking at DLC
aging. This can be much bigger like that. Yeah, but it does
feel like that. Yeah, it's I mean, as long as you give
people the amount of content they that needs to justify it. Yeah, there's
like I think that's kind of like where Call of Duty has been for a
while now, and this one is just like the most bold and in your
face about it, where it's like, yeah, we do these updates every
year. We're gonna make sure there's enough content, and it's like this one,
they're like, it seemed like they worked up from the bottom of like
we are making a lot of content for DLC. What if we just put
packaged it all together again and sold it as a full game, and here
we are. Yeah, I think that it's probably not going to be too
much by that, even that insinuation. I think people are going to show
up Call of Duty like normal, and this is almost it could be a
really good thing for the for the you know, the series, because Modern
Warfare two and war Zone aren't a weird place where fans aren't super happy with
it. They really liked Modern Warfare one. I can't remember. The game
in between was at a World War two game I don't even remember anymore.
Or it was a planning it was a black ops, I can't remember,
but either way, like they're not super thrilled with the Vanguard, thank you
everybody now, I'm super thrilled with the state of Modern Warfare two and war
Zone right now. So they can adjust a few things, put out a
new game, get seventy dollars from everybody again, and maybe make everyone happy
to come back to war Zone three point zero wherever they're gonna call it,
and we'll see. I dam I was a big modern warfare player back in
the two thousand and nine, you know, starting with like Call of Duty
four Modern Warfare in two thousand and seven, but by this point I was
definitely still playing a ton of Call of Duty and so these maps are going
to be very nostalgic for me. So I'm probably going to check in on
this. Yeah, I think this is the era where I was most into
it as well. So I feel like it makes sense that they're doing that,
Like they are making a big nostalgia play here, especially full multi player.
That's why you can really leverage the history that people have with modern warfare
and use it to your advantage, to the benefit of war Zone. I
feel like it makes perfect sense, even though it might seem like they're just
remaking the same stuff over and over again. Yeah, they pretty much all.
But yeah, can you really blame them if it's going to bring back,
you know, people into who people like us who are like, oh
I remember that map. I'm kind of into that. What a mind checking
it out again? Yep, exactly, Yeah, And I'm this I'll at
least be poking in and that's what you know, that's kind of what they
need to be doing because they've grown so much. There's so many people who
played Call of Duty. You can't just be like, well, I'm like,
we'll get the new players, like, yeah, there's a lot of
young people coming up who are going to get into Call of Duty. But
you gotta get some of that Uh, you know, we've got to recapture
some of that old spirit to keep make sure that you're making enough money on
these huge investments that they're making. Because Call of Duty is still their primary
investment over at Activisions, so the growth still makes to happen, and for
growth to appen, you've got to maintain that foundation and get some of those
players back. Uh. Call of Duty or Modern Warfare three beta. Everything
we know. This comes from Eddie mccood at game Spot. A multiplayer beta
for Call of Duty Modern Warfare three has been officially announced as part of the
game's wider reveal. Like in past years, the beta for Modern Warfare three
will will begin first on PlayStation, but will eventually open to everyone. Here's
everything we know so far about the beta. The beta dates. The dates
for the Modern Warfare three beta have not been confirmed yet, but a previous
report from Insider Gaming said there will be multiple beta weekends taking place October sixth
through the tenth for PlayStation and October twelfth through the sixteenth for everyone else.
These dates are not confirmed. This would be a few weeks later than the
dates from twenty two for twenty twenty two so Modern Warfare two, but that
game also released in October and not November, like Modern Warfare three will to
get in Modern Warf for three, the beta is free and open everyone.
However, people who pre order will get early access and what's in the beta.
Activision is only said that there will be a Modern Warfare three beta and
has not shared any details on what will be included, but if history is
any indication, should contain a selection of maps and modes. Modern Warfare three
will launch with sixteen modernized maps from two thousand and nine Modern Warfare two,
so it's a safe bet some of those will be featured in the beta.
And then don't expect your progress in the beta to carry over that. They've
never really done that before, although it'd be cool if they started. Uh
yeah, I don't know. I like the progressions, so maybe not.
This is you know, this is the company that I think it's like created
the idea of the beta as a demo, like, you know, going
back to two thousand and seven and Call of Duty four Modern Warfare, I
remember rushing the game spot to get a code. Uh, and like they
were handing out thousands of codes and rushing out to get one. Uh and
game Spot we were given out code. Yes, absolutely, yeah that's like
I was like, I was like, oh man, yeah, all right.
I don't even remember, like because that was like before Twitter, and
I have no idea how I felt. I think I was listening to a
podcast and so I talked about it and uh like I'm okay, I'll go
get on that and uh yeah I got a code and it played on my
CRT and I was like, man, this is really good, and you
know you get to only like level fourteen or something like that, and then
I'm like, okay, well, I guess that's the game I'm getting this
holiday, because you know, I was poor. I can only for a
few games, so yeah that's the one I got. Yeah, this is
you know, still that same strategy, the beta as a demo and they'll
take it from there. Yeah. Uh, all right, another Steam Deck
competitor might be around the corner. This is from Claire Jackson at Kotaku.
If the steam Deck or Roger Ally have caught your attention, but you said
I'd like something more Nintendo switchish, first I tell you not to say the
words switchish. Then I'd tell you about a possible new Steam Deck competitor from
Lenovo called the Legion Go Portable. Like the Deck and Ally, it seems
like it will also feature switchish and then damn it, removable controls and a
built in kickstand. Valve Steam Deck had pressed us all with a mini PC
form factor connected to one of the largest PC gaming storefronts out there, Steam,
choosing to run a Linux operating system called Steam Os. However, the
deck has been somewhat restricted in what games it can run line, instead on
an impressive though limited compatibility layer to translate Windows games. While more than enough
games run on Valves hardware, many mini gamers have desired a fully functioning Windows
device which would have access to titles that Deck can't run, like Destiny two
or Diablo four or Call of Duty because of the anti cheat stuff. Asus
has made an impressive and largely successful attempt to do so with the Roger ally,
but it looks like it won't be the only PC manufacturer to deliver a
portable solution for PC gamers. First reported by Windows Central last month, details
about the Legion Go indicated that Novo's device would utilize AMD's Phoenix processor to push
pixels to an eight inch display while running Windows eleven. That's a whole inch
larger than the switch Deck and Ally. Other details like pricing and potential launch
timeframe aren't known at the moment, but shortly after Windows Central's first report on
the possible device, some images leaked and it would seem the device will feature
two detachable Joycon like controllers with a kickstand to prop the screen up. Have
you seen the images of this thing? It does look a lot like a
switch, especially when you take off the controllers attached to the screen in the
middle. Uh, that's the kind of thing, Tam that I would assume
Nintenda would have a patent on. But then you know, I think,
I guess other things have probably done that in the past, so maybe I
don't know, maybe someone someone does have a patent and they're like, these
companies are just going out and paying the fee to get it. But either
way, yeah, I am very happy that more companies are going into this
space. That's a good thing. And for one thing, it will encourage
companies like AMD to continue to make more and more efficient processors. And I
think that's a great place for AMD to be focused because they tend to lose
the fight with the Nvidia on the high end, but they can make a
lot more money by focusing on the low end and efficiency, and that seems
to be where they're aiming. There there, there, you know their resources,
and that's a very good thing. Where are you at with these mini
pc? Would these handheld PCs? So I actually talked about this yesterday on
uh kind of panty games eily with Blessing, But I so uh cause some
transparency as has sent me a rogue ally say recently. And I've been giving
it, putting it through his paces, and I really like it, Like
I enjoy that thing a lot. I've been playing it quite a bit compared
to my Steam deck, mainly because I want to put it through his paces
and check it out, but also because it feels easier to move around and
it's not as bulky and heavy and for longer sessions, So I've been playing
a decent chunk of Bowls Gate three on it, which runs well and better
than well, it runs great even and he also like plays pretty much everything
else. So but I do still go back to my steam Deck now and
then and frequently find myself thinking about playing a game on steam Deck because I'm
one of those people who I like the idea of a PC in a handheld
device, but I don't want it to feel like a PC one million percent
degree. Yeah, my main, my only, really main issue with the
rog ally in terms of beyond its hardware itself, there's something's there, but
like in terms of the software is that it boots up into Windows like and
I am not a fan of that. It Like there's something about that element
of it that really puts me because it's bad. It's bad Windows on a
touchscreen PC with no mouse and keyboard. It's bad. It's not fun to
use. It's not it's not fun to use, and it still looks like
a Windows device and it feels like you're like doing something illegal with it.
It's like weird, and like sometimes I like the things that you have to
do to like on a PC, to make things work when they break you
still I don't like the amount of times I've gone on my rog ally to
like the speaker icon in the bottom and like hit the toggle through the various
sound devices that are like it's trying to connect to. I was like,
I don't want to do this, man, Yeah, what it feels like.
It feels like, you know, how like China would have like Bespoke
in sixty four controllers you plugged into your TV, like could it feels like
a gaming device that came from a country that's not allowed to have gaming devices,
is exactly. It feels like a bootleg device, yes, and very
powerful. It is awesome once the games are up and running in Plane,
but uh boy, I really dislike Windows. So it's like I think I'm
right there, Like Lenovo, yeah, sure, getting the space a sus
Yeah, and keep like Asus has their you know, their own skin on
top of Windows to the Armory Crate stuff Amory Crate that doesn't work that great
either, it's not very good software, but that it's like, clearly they
need to be That's what they need to be focusing is put your own stuff
on top of Windows and then hopefully at the same time Microsoft sees a bit
like they've already said that they're going to invest in like handheld gaming PC like
versions of Windows hopefully, but in the meantime, like steam Os has already
figured this stuff out. The Steam decos is all the consolized version of this,
and it's it's it's great. I think it's really great. It's except
for the compatible compatibility then, because it's running Linux, and even that's like
getting better every single day. You know. At the same time, I'm
not like one or the others should be the only one exists. I think
we'm glad that we have both these tracks happening at the same time. They
should push each other forward and uh and yeah. But for me, it's
like I'm glad I have both. Keep testing them out and I'll Lenovo,
I'll look into it. We'll see. I feel like it's interesting because it
feels like there's a very familiar fork being created in these devices where it's like
the companies like Lenovo and and Asis are basically creating the high end PC version
of gaming handheld PC game devices where it's like these ones are beefy, they
feel like a computer, they're like a little more for the technical people,
and that is amazing. But I think where Valve will continue to have the
edges it appeals to a much broader audience because one, it has a name
recognition, but also the experience of playing it feels more welcoming to people who
don't have the inclination to be like super tech savvy or have the understanding of
the lineage of PC gaming and what you need to do that the ins and
outs of it. They just want a almost Nintendo like experience where they turn
the thing on, it makes a nice noise and then when you move around
it makes sense and it's got big tiles on it and you hear it.
And I think like that's the edge that will for now keep Valve ahead for
as long as people are trying. Until someone presents an alternative to that that
is as welcoming and as easy to pick up and play. It's I feel
like the steam deck is going to remain the market leader. Yeah, and
I think that's right. And like, if someone comes to me and hey,
I've never, you know, had a PC before, there's a lot
of people that ask this questions. Why I'm framing it this way. I've
never had a PC for before, I've an interest in the Steam Deck.
But now I see the Asus Frog Alli or the Lenovo Legion, go which
one should I get. I'm going to almost always point people to the Steam
Deck for now because it is so much easier to use and more welcoming.
Like you said, you know, of course I'll ask, well, what
are you going to? Are you trying to play Call of Duty? Are
you trying to play Destiny too? It's dey two like what you want to
play on there? Clearly, clearly at that point go with one of the
Windows machines. But otherwise that Steam deck is just going to be much more
friendly, you know. But that's you know, it's not like that the
Windows ones are so impossible to use. It's just they're a little bit more
annoying, and I think that my people might get a little bit of frustration
out there. But at the same time, I know a lot of people
who have been completely fine with them, so I don't want to overstate the
problem. H Grand Theft Auto five AI NPC mode has been nuked from the
internet. This comes from Ethan Gootch at Kotaku. In case you thought rock
Stars Games is acquisition of Grand Theft Auto five creator group A cfx dot or
meant a brave new error for opening open moding and to hit open world game.
Don't worry, publisher Take two is still going after fan projects it doesn't
like. Case in point is it's recent sacking of a mod called Synthient Streets,
which used AI technology to generate NPC conversation dialogue on the fly. Take
two had the mods out scoured from both YouTube and Nexus Mods, leaving its
creators confused and discouraged. The Synthient Streets mod, which was previously covered by
you by a number of sites like IGN and Eurogamer, had a story that
revolved around an AI worshiping death cult and MPCs whose dialogues was randomly generated by
tool called in World Character Engine. YouTuber user Block, who created the gt
F five mode a videos showing it off head over excuse me one hundred thousand
views before it was removed, while the mod itself had apparently been downloaded over
three thousand times before Nexus Mods, where it was hosted, took it down.
This is not too surprising. This feels like the kind of thing that
rock Star would have gone off, gone gone after in the past, and
now here it is doing it again. It also feels like the kind of
thing that rock Star is probably gonna want to do itself eventually. This is,
you know, ais very new but world where NPCs are smart and know
how to react to certain things in certain ways is differently something we've benefited a
Grand Theft auto game, and so I just wonder if they're like, no,
we're gonna do that ourselves. We don't want people to get certain expectations
or what. But I think it's unfortunate rock Stars should lay off this stuff.
I don't know, it's it's pretty stupid. You could probably still find
this somewhere, it's just not on Nexus Mods. So it's frustrating. Yeah,
I think it's like, it is unfortunate that it looks like a gutting
of a small community, you know, like and from the outside looking and
it definitely does not look good when you purchase the you know, a team
that is known for this thing and then kill the thing that they're known for.
Like, even if the intentions are, hey, we're gonna put this
team to work on something that is sanctioned and official and supported by us,
from the outside looking in, it does not look good At the same time,
Like what you said was about expectations is also kind of a major factor
from their side. I'm not saying I agree with it, but there is
a I'm able to put myself into their shoes and Okay, yeah, if
they if they are making their own version of it, and people have this
other one to compare it to, then it does create this conversation that's difficult
for them to have or control. And if they're implementing it in a new
game, while that whole thing exists, there's going to be an expectation of
why don't you put make it so that works with this as well, you
know, and or whatever it may be. People start having a lot of
issues with it, with like keeping their own game and the expectations around it
under under reasonable you know degrees, while other things that are you know,
exciting are out there. So that's probably why they're doing this, but right
it's not it's not great to see. I would prefer or if it didn't
happen, especially given that, you know, some of the coolest things that
come out of or some of the coolest implications of what a new grand theft
or could be are things that fans of the current one are making. Yes,
exactly like I expect the GTA six and GTA Online too to look a
lot like what the stuff you can find on NEXTUS modes and obviously are the
Yeah, if the RP stuff isn't somehow like at the core of the next
GTA, even if it's not supported, but like a thing that's possible.
I mean, like people have always figured out how to make RP work on
GTA since like San Andreas, even before that, I think. But if
it isn't there, I would be extremely surprised, like that, the success
of RP is unreal. Yes, uh, the there is some speculation that
maybe this has to do with the the origin of the of the you know,
the deep learning audio and it's stuff like oh you know, where does
that come from? Who has the rights to that? But mods a flout
copyright constantly. That's the whole point of mods in a lot of ways,
for a lot of people, it's to put the thing I like that they
could never sell in the game in the game, and now I can go
play with it. And these companies never try to almost never try to do
anything about that. So I'd be surprised that that was the reason. But
that I mean, it's definitely a concern for sure, but Rockstar would not
be liable for that if that with that even if that were the case,
because it's it's happening outside their purview, but whatever, Alright, Sega to
reveal Sonic Superstars news at Opening Night Live. This comes from Liam Dowlan and
at Nintendo Life. Sonic Superstars will be launching at some point in the near
future on the Nintendo Switch and multiple other platforms to build hype for this brand
new multiplayer platform or there will be apparently be a world premier for the Blue
Blur's new game at Opening Night Live next week. According to the show's host
and hype man Jeff Keeley, Saga will be sharing some Superstars news then and
there. While the game has been rated in certain locations around the world,
Sega hasn't actually locked in a release date yet, so we could finally get
one. Sonic will be in good company with Keiley previously revealing there will There
will also be a Mortal Kombat one trailer airing at Opening Night Live. All
that stuff and this included is in line with what Keiley's been saying tom about
how there's going to be a lot of updates on games that were previously announced,
and this I think it's it's going to be at this range of kind
of game of like Sonic Superstars and Mortal Kombat one, games that are just
about to come out and people and like, this is a big marketing beat,
a chance for them to market and that's what we can expect for Opening
Night Live. You're gonna be there, I'm not gonna I know that you
probably have some appointments to see stuff, but outside of that, you have
any expectations for Opening Night Live beyond like I'm talking about this funny enough,
like the latest episode of spot On that Lucy and I had done and will
be available today is about expectations for shows like this. Okay, yeah,
how how like as a community, we've allowed ourselves to kind of get run
away with what our expectations are four shows like this, like we are we
drum up something that we want to happen and then turn it into something that
is going to happen, and then when it doesn't, it like we get
very upset about it. And the whole episode is is about that kind of
element of it. But I don't really have any expectations beyond what is being
told to me. You know, and that's the kind of way that I
approach it. Now. I've definitely been in the situation where I have done
exactly that, especially with elden Ring. Like I always believed elden Ring was
going to show up, and a lot of times it didn't. Now it
was supposed to tam and then they just kept putting it exactly and it would
kept moving. And that was partly why I was excited, because I was
like, I would know that it was about the last minute, the real
bad exactly. But these days I look at what people are saying, like
Killy is we talked about this in the episodes. Well, Kelly is way
more focused on being like, hey, this is what it's going to be.
Like, this is the tone. Sometimes he'll outright say I have these
games. Sometimes he'll be like I can't. He's clearly saying I can't tell
you what's going to be there, but just manage your expectations. It's going
to be updates and that kind of stuff. And these days I'm just taking
that and using that as the core of what to expect. So I expect
there to be updates like this on a bunch of games on MK on Sonic
probably some other ones that will be somewhat of a surprise, and if I
get those, I'm already excited about it. We're going to see Alan Wake.
That's pretty awesome. Like, I'm excited about that. There's a few
other games that are likely to pop up if we get a major announcement or
a major surprise beyond that, I'm excited. That is like a cherry on
top of something that over that I'm already enjoying, if you know what I
mean. Yeah, yeah, And I think Keeley's shows are in a place.
We talked about this yesterday, but I'm interested in how you feel about
it. He's in a place where I think he knows people are gonna watch.
There was a time where he had to sort of whatever he had he
had. He was just like, no, we have like thirty thirty forty
games are going to be there, and then that's people would be like,
Okay, well let's start trying to figure out what that is. And then
they get their hopes way up because you know, three of them were big
deals. In the rest were you know, kind of things we knew about.
Let's say a number, never say a number. Yeah, right,
And I think he's at a point where he I think he knows that,
right, and he seems to be at this happy point where people come to
these shows now because Jeff Killy's putting on a show, and you know,
there's a chance that could be exciting or at the very least it's a fun
reason to get everyone together and watch together on Twitch or however however you're going
to consume it. And so I don't think he feels the need to make
those big promises anymore. And I think that's a good thing, right,
Yeah, I think so it helps manage, like we said, what people
expect from it to a degree, and it also it creates a good diversity
of the kinds of shows that he's making, Like we know that now Games
Calm, where opening that live happens is likely to be the show he does
updates, yeah, and Game Awards his way, he's gonna pop off and
show like the big thing. You know that he's he's worked well year to
secure and I think that that helps us in a major way as well.
Yep. And I you know, there could be always could be like other
weird surprises like AMD's probably gonna announce their new GPU there or whatever, So,
yeah, there will be things to talk about it. It might not
be Got of War, you know three or yeah, okay, let's see
here. Sega has successfully acquired ro Vio. This is reminding Tindo News.
Sega has announced today that their acquisition of mobile video game maker ro Vio has
been successful. The finished developer is best known for its ultra successful Angry Bird
series of games, which initially initially took the world by storm due to its
simplistic and addictive gameplay. Uh dam, I forgot that they did this,
completely, forgot that Sega forgot that they were trying to acquire ro Vio.
Yeah, it's a it's a good it's a actually a good fit in my
brain lamp for some reason, like Sonic and the Red Bird from Angry Birds
occupied the exact same spot, like they are. I mean, they should
be buds. Take Angry Birds, but replace it with Sonic doing his spin
dash yeah, and flick him into like you know, I don't know if
pulls of robotics yeh, of cute animals Yeah, yeah, exactly. And
and and you're golden easy makes its money some sounds something, but it's just
like it feels it feels right. U. Ro ViOS like always kind of
struggled to figure out what to do after Angry Birds, but you know that
now they can be like, we'll just do We'll just ro veo up a
bunch of Sega stuff and that That's what I mean. They did Angry Birds
Angry Birds too, and then they did that bad Piggy's spin off. Yeah,
there was the Angry Birds movie. For a bit, there was Angry
Birds. Yeah, they did Angry Birds Star Wars at one point, and
yeah they didn't. Yeah, so they know how to work with licenses and
such, but yeah, they they do. They do do one of my
favorite mobile games of all time called Retry, which is no longer available,
but I still have it on my phone because I always just re download and
sideloaded on there. It's just like one where you plays the plane and like
if you hold hold it down it'll spin around, and then if so you
have to kind of like just tap it to get it to go in there.
It's it's similarly like other early games, but I just really liked it
has really good music. Minecraft has been rated for Xbox Series X and S.
This is from Tom Ivan at VGC. It looks like Microsoft could be
gearing up to release a native Xbox Series X and S version of Minecraft,
as spotted by VGC contributor Andrew Marmow, Minecraft as it was classified for Xbox
Series consoles in Germany earlier this month. Currently, the Xbox One version of
the game is playable on Xbox Series X and S via backward compatibility. One
feature that could potentially be supported in an optimized version for the game on Xbox
Series consoles is ray tracing, which Microsoft has been teasing since before the platforms
launched in twenty twenty. This. Yeah, I it's weird because thisst of
like was a big pot contention, like during the trial about oh Minecraft,
it doesn't have an XT generative version. That's why there's no PS five version,
there's no Xbox Series X and S version. But now it seems like
that's probably gonna happen. This is a game that is probably gonna get announced
the games come you think, right, uh maybe, Yeah. I just
love the idea of Mike Stoft being like, we have not made a next
gen one. That's why we don't have a PlayStation one. And then the
court's going, all right, you can buy Activision and they're like, whoa
is that? Next? You go for it? The oldest trick in the
book. We've always had a Minecraft next Gen version. Minecraft Tracy looks fantastic.
I really really like that tech and in that game specifically. I still
am not convinced that that's what this is going to be. Then it's just
he think Xbox Series X on the shelves or whatever. I think a great
deal of it is also a future proofing it because Minecraft is, to their
mind and historically proven, one of those like perennial things that is popular and
it needs to always be around, like a Lego or even like a Snakes
and lad whatever it may be, like a game that always needs to be
there. And they're probably starting to do the work on Hey, at some
point we're gonna have to phase out the Xbox One and the architecture involved on
it. Maybe not now, maybe not next year, maybe five years in
the future. But we want to be in a position where we don't have
to stress about moving Minecraft, one of the biggest games in the world for
the last multiple years, to a new architecture or a new device, and
you know, the architecture or like the from what I've heard and what we've
been led to believe. The moving you know, games from Xbox One to
Xbox Series X and S is not super hard. It's not like PS three
to PS four. The kind of like common architecture is good enough that they
can do it without too much issue. But I think they're just probably covering
their arses. And also they could probably chuck in aque few things updates since
sell it again and put it on boxes and that kind of stuff as well.
But to my mind, I think the major work is probably for to
make sure that it's just there and available on platforms once, you know,
the tide turns and they don't need to think about Xbox one anymore. Right,
The benefit of like using the same hardware basically you know, more powerful
hardware, but the same the same family of hardware between Xbox One, Xbox
Series X and S is that these a lot of these games could happily keep
their backward compatible version going as their main the main going concern for years and
years. You can't do it forever. Eventually, you do. You want
to get moved on to data for There's a bunch of reasons, I'm sure,
but all the stuff you laid out there's probably the biggest stef And and
also like if they're thinking about like the future of like cloud gaming and that
kind of stuff, it might just be like that it's better to use like
the the series X and the series S as the foundation for some of that
stuff. And if it's just on the one it might you know, it
might not be as optimal as they want. So there's a bunch of like
initiatives and ideas or like a kind of future ideas that that it could be
for as well. All right, moving on, Zelda, Tears of the
Kingdom's blood Moon has a secret purpose. I like the story a lot times
from Anna Diaz egg Polygon the Blood Moon and the legends all the Tears of
the Kingdom is one of the game's creepiest moments. Scarlet clouds paint the sky
and a ghostly aura reanimates monsters from the dead. The scene is among the
scarier parts of the game, but beneath its red ooze, this event hides
a practical application. The blood Moon functions functions as a way to refresh the
game's memory use and stop link from pushing the Nintendo Switch to its limits.
The regular, non glitched blood Moon rises every one hundred and sixty eight minutes,
the equivalent to one week of in game time. Once the cut scene
plays, enemies in Hybral respawn and Link gets a refresh batch of monsters to
fight. Although waiting for the elapsed time is the more common method to experience
a blood moon, it isn't the only way. Players can force a blood
moon scene by overloading the switches memories. Fans have dubbed the phenomenon a panic
moon because the games uses the moon as a fail safe to stop things from
crashing when players push the game's memory usage to its limits. And a previous
article, Polygon spoke to mister Stage, an expert builder from the Hiral Engineering
subreddit. In his work, the builder explained how the game itself can be
a limiting factor in what can or can't be built in the game. The
builder explained to Polygon how the blood moon is actually used as way to wake
to wake to make the makeup for the switches limitations. The game has a
built in memory refresher which automatically triggers a blood moon once you start pressuring the
game with, for example, too many objects in links Vicinity, the blood
moon. The blood moon then removes all objects around you that cause this overload
and resets enemies all because the switch is not powerful enough. There's examples of
like how people are triggering this town with like attaching like opals to arrows,
using a linelbow that fires three arrows at a time and firing it all at
a breakable wall. So you're breaking the wall and you're shooting all these arrows
that are causing all these waterfall effects to happen because opals cause water to spread
out of the arrows, and it's like once that you do with that a
few times, and the game's like, oh, here's a blood moon.
We're racing all this because that we just can't handle that. Yeah, damn
for me, this is an example of just really good design if you have,
if you have limitations, and you built it into like the lore of
the game to explain it, that's cool, right, Yeah, I thought
this was like relatively well known. Isn't this the same thing that they might
it was it was doing in breath of the word it might have been doing.
It's easier to trigger in this because they're like, there's so much more
you can do. Yeah, I imagine. So I love that the community
has like embraced it and caught it a panic moon. Stuff. That's that's
the real fun part of this. But yeah, it is is I mean
like it's Nintendo being brilliant again. Yeah, big surprise, good for them,
Wow wow, because Nintendo did something amazing, right, But is the
experience of playing that game. It's like every sort of you could tell the
limitations were considered and they're like, how can we work that to our advantage
or at least have a fun way of explain it. And it's like,
you know, the switch is only going to be able to have so many
people on the screen at once. So this is a post apocalyptics kind of
high Rule where there's a lot of ruins and it's like the remnants of civilization
and the game like completely embraces that. In the whole game is built around
that. So it's like God just really well thought out from top to bottom.
And this is another example of that. I'm gonna go try to cause
a panic moon tonight, if you know what I mean. All Right,
Pickman four comfortably holds onto it's thrown in Japan. I'm gonna keep hyping up
Pickman for sales because I'm excited about it. This is from Ali Reynolds at
Nintendo Life. The latest Japanese charts are in courtesy of Famitsu, and once
again Pickman four. It takes the crown with an additional sixty nine thousand units
and unit sales. Nice. This takes the game's total sales to a rather
ominous looking six hundred and sixty six thousand. Uh that the following this,
we've got Mario Kart eight of course, always always still there, but that's
just physical sales in Japan again, really really good for Pickman four. A
game is so smash success now, it's just kind of there's no other way
to say it. They have really found their footing with this franchise, especially
in Japan, but it seems like worldwide. So I'm just very excited about
it. Yeah, I'm happy that Pickman has finally caught on. Yes it
really had, because it had not before, and that it definitely had not
caught on. It did. It did fine, It did okay, you
know, it's it's not like it was never like some failure. It's why
they kept making them. But it has caught on. It's got that switch
bump, and it's really coming to its own and that Pickman four really really
love that game, just absolutely adore it. All right, So let's see
here and I have the last story. Open World Paw Patrol game is available
to pre order. As a parent, I'm legally obligated to point that out.
I think more children's games should be open world games, TAM, because
I most most the way kids play games the way when I watched them.
They're looking for sandbocks, they're looking for playgrounds just to like play around in.
They don't like so much care about what the game wants them to do.
They have ideas about what they want to do. So I hope this
game facilitates that. But also that seems like a lot. It would take
a lot of time and money, so it's probably why we don't get it
too frequently. I don't know, you gotta play it. You gonna play
an open world Paw Patrol game? To am? Hell? No, you
know you're not. You're not down with that copaganda shit. No, I
am supporting no cops, whether the dogs or not. What it was?
What was the thing? What was our new a cab? All cops appreciate
bubbsy? I can't remember it was all right? I got I gotta Paul
bring it up here in a second. But before I do, Tam,
why don't you tell people what you've got going on, what's happening the rest
of the week, all that stuff where they could find you on the internet
at two more h everywhere. I am preparing to go to Games Calm.
Thankfully. People have pointed out should you be going into games com if you've
got a cough? I am COVID free. Yes, this is I have
been very careful, so I just have this cough and various other things.
And the doctor has been like you might have that forever, so I can't
like stop life. Yea, yeah, yeah, I'm going to Games Calm,
so please be excited for content around that next week. Spot On is
up today very soon. Hopefully we're doing UPF. I don't know what we're
doing for UPF. I think I think we're gonna play some Boulder's Gate three
multiplayer again, and I think that I have a couple of slots left on
my my saved for that. So if you want to create a character,
I think you can hop in and then maybe someone could take over Dan's doorf
on golf as well. So interesting, Yeah, have you have you tried
to play multiplayer on a handheld device? No, I'm not. No,
it should be, it should work. I might try that. That would
be fun. If you're like, yeah, just hopping with the you canna
do with the Roger? Yeah, I'll say, okay, that would be.
That would be interested to have that happened that because is is it best
for me to create a new character? So for the multiplayer mode, if
you are joining someone else's game, you have to create a new character.
That's the way it works. It's it's uh, you are joining someone else's
campaign and you have to Okay, you can't just bring it up. So
that process will that process thought when I try and join you or think so
okay, cool, I think so I have to do anything ahead of then
yeah I don't. I don't think so. Yes, I'm not exactly sure,
you know what. Let's figure it out, I think because I will
tell you the multiplayer of Walter's Gate three is amazing, but also it's a
bit of enigma of like how exactly does all this stuff work? So let's
make that part of the string today. I'll be fun to figure that out.
All right, Let's see here, I'll still have the blue beetle.
There, blue beetle Mania. It's sweet Me and Tam. We're talking about
nothing but blue beetle. Before the show started, of course, people are
wild about this thing. In the meantime, though, will you use mods
on your first run of Starfield? Five percent said yes, so many of
them. Thirteen percents said yes, but quality of life only eighty two percent
said no. Uh yeah, that sounds about right. I am definitely in
the yes, but quality of life only. Uh. I say that though,
we'll see. For me, it's like first run of Starfield? What
does that mean? Because I am I tell you now, I might have
zero interest in beating a game like that. I never have. I like
making my own store, exploring the world in my own terms, so I
might get to a certain poem. I'm like, I've done that. Now
let's start putting some crazy mods in here and see what happens. So yeah,
yeah, good stuff you Uh do you play with mods on the first
run? Absolutely? No. No. That's for me as someone who's like
got to, you know, praise a game to a degree and understand it.
I feel like quickly modifying it to be something developers didn't intend it to
be is probably the worst way to do my job. Yeah yeah, I
would uh install something like sky Ui on Skyrim, but but that's you know
again, I'm not going to be reviewing a game like that. So yes,
all right, new pole that we are going to put up for you
your consideration. Which gods will create us kill next Egyptian Santa Celtic Shinto or
American American parentheses presidents? Yeah, parenthesis presidents jan if you if you need
to get that in there, yes, create as destroying Abraham Lincoln. That's
what I need. I need that be a good fight. I think it
could be a pretty good fight. I did everything right and Cradles destroyed me.
You did everything riding ripped out my spine. God damn it. Listen
dumb show we do here, Tam, and I'm very glad we do it
every Friday Dregs Day. Thank you so much ranging out and talk with me
about video games. Man, you know, I love it, my pleasure.
I apologies to have everyone for the coffin. I'm sorry, It's just
this is how I exist now, ye know. No no apologies needed,
Tam. I'm I'm glad you're here. Glad you typed someone just for Ben
Craos on the Grassy Noo and I just I just need to see that.
I just need to see that. Okay, ah, everyone needs a weekend.
I think I think that's what that means. Thank you everybody for watching,
your the best audience and gaming despite what is happening in the chat right
now. Until next time, I have a good one, Take care of
yourself and goodbye. Go see Blue Beetle