Latest / WASD and Beyond / Episode 241: Looking at 2026, our hopes and fears.

Transcript

Episode 241: Looking at 2026, our hopes and fears. · WASD and Beyond

0:15
Welcome back to the show, everybody.
0:16
We're host Nick and Brody and this is the WASD and beyond
0:21
podcasts right at the top. We are sponsored by final boss
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So thank you all for your support.
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Please. Yeah, go check out everything we
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just talked about. Emails at WASD and beyond.
1:00
WASD, beyond@gmail.com, WASDBEY, ond@gmail.com.
1:06
Let us know what game is you're most excited for for 2026.
1:11
We're here. It's coming.
1:12
Let's go, Brody. Yeah.
1:15
Clean. Not as good as last.
1:16
Week it was pretty clean. Still there.
1:18
There's still a flow it. Wasn't bad.
1:19
It wasn't bad. They got that 2026 flow.
1:22
I'm feeling hell yeah, you know. Oh, I like that shirt.
1:25
Oh, I like that bottle. Soju.
1:26
Oh, I didn't grab alcohol like an asshole.
1:28
I wanted to. That's a good thing.
1:31
That's a good thing. I made a bad decision.
1:34
I'm punishing myself for literally punishing my body for
1:37
the last 20 years so I deserve this.
1:40
So anyways. I, I will be right there with
1:44
you in like a month, so it's OK. The day you have to go in the
1:50
cut, like cutting booze and all that shit.
1:54
Let's. Get fucked up that night.
1:59
Let's. Get right before it so I feel
2:01
like shit as I try to eat less food.
2:03
Yes, awesome. Sounds great.
2:06
We'll play repo a lot of repo. I'm in, I'm down.
2:09
Fuck it. Hell yeah.
2:11
So before the episode started I was trying to get Brody into
2:14
Warhammer. No.
2:17
You guys should also e-mail me the minis you paint.
2:19
I'm, I love painting. I'm a world leader player right
2:23
there. Show me your minis and I'm not
2:25
talking about your wieners. Oh, I got the audience.
2:29
I'm silly. That's enough radio voice.
2:32
I'm not doing that shit. I thought it was going to be
2:35
like a funny bit and in my head it was, but I need to workshop
2:38
that I think. Yeah, maybe run it back in a
2:41
couple episodes here. Yeah, I think I had paint on my
2:44
finger as well and I itched my eye.
2:46
So this is going to be a fight to the, you know what I mean.
2:51
Holy shit. Anyways, Brody, what have you
2:54
had time to play this week? Oh, let's see, I have still been
2:59
putting a bunch of time into Unicorn Overlord.
3:01
I am nearing the end of it. I, I think I really only have a
3:09
couple main missions left, getting all my my teams built up
3:14
and everything. It's, it's a, it's a grand old
3:17
time, honestly, you know, in the, it's kind of in the vein of
3:21
like a Warhammer, kind of like, I'm just saying like you, you
3:25
make a, you make a little squat. I, you probably would fucking
3:28
hate it if I'm being perfectly honest.
3:30
But you make a little squat of like 5 people and then you send
3:34
them into battle. And yeah, it's kind of cool, but
3:37
I'm enjoying the fuck out of that game.
3:39
I wish I would have played it earlier, but I just kind of knew
3:43
that I was falling off of playing games on the switch and
3:47
vanilla Ware does not release their games on PC.
3:50
So I finally there was like a really, really good sale on that
3:54
and 13 Sentinels, which is another vanilla Ware game picked
3:58
them up both for I don't right. It was like $30 maybe, which is
4:03
crazy. It's normally a full price game.
4:06
I think, yeah, maybe it was 30 or 40 or something like that,
4:09
but regardless, fantastic. I have like well over 50 hours
4:14
in in Unicorn Overlord. I think 13.
4:18
Cents. Yeah, I've played.
4:22
A. Lot honestly, the the nice thing
4:25
is like with it being on switch, like I have been playing a lot
4:28
on my switch light and I can it's easy to just kind of carry
4:32
around and play when I have some time.
4:35
And then I've actually got it hooked up to a capture card so I
4:38
can play on the PC and still talk to everybody and hang out.
4:42
And then other than that, I've been putting a little bit of
4:47
time into marvel rivals right at the tail end of the season.
4:51
We played some last night trying to finish up this pass and then
4:56
at which I'm not going to, but I just trying to make as much
5:01
progress as I can get ready for the next season to drop the
5:05
Today if you're listening to this this episode.
5:08
But yeah, I I I want to get back into it.
5:11
I like playing it with friends. Playing it by yourself fucking
5:13
sucks. And I want to say I put a little
5:18
bit of time into some Battlefield last week since we
5:23
recorded a little bit of battlefield and I think we
5:27
played, did we play some repo last weekend as well?
5:29
We did, yes. I got.
5:31
Tore up and played repo, yeah. Hell yeah.
5:35
But I think that's pretty much it for me, The Unicorn overlord
5:39
being the primary one for sure about you.
5:42
Yeah, the big one I'm playing right now is Mugenix.
5:45
I can't talk about it at all until embargo lifts.
5:48
I can say I'm playing it say that.
5:52
Hell yeah. So expect a Mugenics review for
5:55
myself and the laughing madman himself, John.
5:58
He'll be back on the show to do a Mugenics review.
6:04
Other than that, I've been playing a lot of Baldersgate
6:08
still. I'm trying to really whittle
6:09
this save down. I need to.
6:11
I want to finish it, dude. I love this game.
6:13
I love the atmosphere. You got to be getting close.
6:16
You've been in Act 3 for a while.
6:18
Granted Act 3 was like incredibly long if you do
6:22
everything but. Steel Watch and Gortash are my
6:25
last two things. Oh yeah, you're.
6:27
I I've already, I've already gone to the Iron Throne.
6:30
I've already done, I've done all of that.
6:32
So really it's just that I love it.
6:37
Baldur's Gate. You don't need to hear me talk
6:39
more about that, though. It's literally fantastic.
6:41
We played a little bit of Repo Battlefields, man.
6:45
I've been playing a lot of shit. Obviously I've played some Half
6:48
Life, got just a little bit. I make sure I'm offline when I'm
6:51
playing Half Life. Those who know dog me, but you
6:56
know I can't stop. I want to play some more Counter
6:58
Strike, I really do. I don't.
7:00
I've been itching to play Counter Strike lately and I
7:02
don't know why. I have not.
7:06
Well, yeah, I know that. I know that.
7:09
I, I if, if you get a group of people to play it, I will play
7:12
it. But I'm never itching to play
7:15
Counter Strike. Usually you're pretty fucked up
7:18
when you play counter Strike too and you're like.
7:20
Yeah. Are they akimbo good?
7:24
I wouldn't use the dualies. I'm using the dualies and then
7:30
you always pop. Somehow the new guys always just
7:33
get these crazy shots. I'm like, OK, how about that?
7:37
Great. Respect on my name, you son of a
7:39
bitch. Dude, I'm not that great a
7:42
counter strike anymore. I'm like the guy who literally
7:44
is at the bar who's like I I was almost a star athlete.
7:51
I'm that guy. But like I broke my ACO tore it
7:54
the last minute so coach had to bench me.
7:56
I knew the guy who said that by the.
7:57
Little bit of Uncle Rico action. Yeah, dude, it's like I was good
8:02
at Counter Strike when it was 1.6 and Source and a little bit
8:06
of go, and then I stopped playing.
8:09
And then I met Evan and I started playing with Julian and
8:12
Evan and Elliot and all those guys.
8:14
I was like, huh, my reflexes are not what they used to be.
8:20
I have noticed reflexes are falling off big time it it's
8:24
painful. It's a load of shit.
8:26
It's a load of. Shit sucks.
8:30
So let's, I want, I do I, I would love to say I want to
8:38
start with our like most anticipated games, but can we,
8:46
can we talk about the game that capped off the Game Awards this
8:49
year? Yeah.
8:52
What's that called again? Like high ground or some shit
8:56
like that? Yeah.
8:56
High guard I think. High guard high.
8:59
I think it's high guard the high tail game or?
9:01
High Guard. High guard.
9:03
There's high guard and there's hightail, right?
9:06
There's that's another game that's out or something.
9:09
I don't whatever dude. We run a gaming podcast.
9:12
We know games. That game has not said shit on
9:18
their social media since that day and.
9:22
And it's supposed to enter beta like soon.
9:25
Two weeks, maybe a week from here, yeah.
9:28
Yeah. That's not good.
9:30
I, I, I, I'm Jeff Keeley, kind of put them in a rough spot if
9:37
I'm being entirely honest. Like something?
9:39
Looking. Dropped like yeah you
9:42
everything. Every time they have a big
9:45
presentation like this, though, that the one more thing at the
9:48
end is usually something people have been fucking salivating
9:52
over right, not another hero shooter that I I honestly, if
10:00
that if that game was in any other slot in there, I think it
10:03
would have done OK, but the fact it was the one more thing got it
10:07
a lot of negative press, which it sucks right like I I have no
10:12
ill will towards it. I'll try the beta.
10:14
I I don't or yeah, the beta. Is it the beta or is it just
10:19
dropping? I can't really.
10:20
I know it's yeah, it's free to play.
10:23
I'll try it. Fuck it.
10:24
I don't like. It's not going to hurt me to
10:27
install it and then just if I don't like it, I'll jump out,
10:30
which I probably won't like it, let's be entirely honest.
10:34
It does not look good. It does not look fun to play.
10:37
And I've seen a couple people who have played it already.
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One I can quote, it was played high guard.
10:46
It's just as ass as you think it's going to be so and I want
10:52
these devs to do good. But here's the problem.
10:54
You you hit the nail on the head where if it wasn't that one last
10:58
thing, the one more thing, I think it would have been like
11:01
kind of like, OK, that's I'm not going to play that or I'll try
11:04
it. But I think something dropped.
11:07
I think there was an announcement.
11:09
I don't think so. From what I from what I have
11:12
heard about it is it is in indyish studio, right?
11:17
Like it's a bunch of devs from from like Titanfall 3 and Apex
11:21
and stuff that went out, created their own studio and then made
11:24
this game. It sounds like it was like a a
11:27
favor of sorts. I don't know if they even wanted
11:33
that spot that they got. Like I I'm sure that that.
11:37
Was no. Yeah, I'd have been like, no,
11:40
no, no, no. How about you put, you know,
11:42
the, the, the, I don't know anything.
11:46
Other. Reveal right like of of the the
11:49
multiple character paths and and getting to play as Leon again or
11:52
whatever like yeah OK, that would have been a really cool
11:55
one more thing. Granted, that was pretty much
11:58
Rubert prior to anyway, but but yeah, you know, there's there's
12:02
so many other games that would have fit that slot better.
12:05
And I think it it's an unfortunate right for that
12:10
studio because I I think if it was smack dab in the middle of
12:13
this, people would have been like, yeah, I don't think that's
12:15
my cup of tea and moved on to something else and but no big
12:18
deal. But yeah, that that spot really
12:21
put it front and Center for everyone to be like what in the
12:25
actual fuck is this? Guarantee it does crazy numbers
12:29
the day it releases them. Oh I'm sure people will hate
12:33
play it if nothing else. Which?
12:36
Fair enough right, I that's that's still OK for them, but
12:42
the the free to play hero shooter is going to only make
12:45
money off of skins and and things like that.
12:48
Battle passes something like this is not going to be able to
12:51
retain it. It it something like Marvel
12:53
Rivals works exceptionally well because it is it's.
12:56
Also an actual IP though. Yeah, you have beloved comic
13:01
book characters in a game, Like, yeah, fucking people.
13:04
I'm, I'm, I'm a sucker for it, right.
13:06
Like I'm I've been playing a long time.
13:09
But I'm playing tomorrow. I'm the biggest mark for that
13:12
shit. But yeah, I don't know, man.
13:16
It, it's unfortunate. I, I, I don't want to see this
13:18
game fail. I don't want to see this team
13:19
fail by any means. But boy, that announcement could
13:24
have gone a lot better. Yeah.
13:26
Thank you, Jeff Keeley. There's a lot of things to be
13:31
excited for though, right? And obviously we're not hoping
13:34
for this game to fail. I just don't think it's going to
13:36
do well. There's tons of good shit, right
13:40
from cool games to awesome hardware coming from Steam or
13:44
Valve rather there it's it's all over the place.
13:48
And there's some negatives too. We got the rising cost of PC
13:51
gaming, which is going to affect the console market eventually.
13:55
Oh yeah, absolutely. And and tariffs are already
13:58
affecting the console market, right?
14:00
Like the Xbox has had how many price raises in the last year?
14:05
3, two or three? And it it's a console that
14:09
doesn't even sell exceptionally well.
14:11
Sony how much the PS five? I thought it was like 699 now.
14:15
I think they did a $50 price increase if I remember
14:20
correctly. The only one that has actually
14:22
not increased prices which is surprising is the Switch, except
14:26
for they increase the price on the Switch 1.
14:29
But switch 2 is. But Switch 2 has stayed the same
14:32
price so far. It's none of it makes any fun.
14:35
Their own sandbox. I I also don't know who is
14:40
buying a console from 2017 in 2026 like but people are like
14:47
it. It's still sold quite a few
14:49
consoles. Nintendo still sold quite a few
14:52
consoles last year for the Switch 1 and that's insane to
14:56
me. It's a 10 year old thing, dude.
14:59
Yeah. What are we doing?
15:01
Yeah, I don't know man, but yeah, the the the price of RAM
15:08
has gone through the roof, the price of GPU's has gone through
15:10
the roof, the price of storage has gone through the roof.
15:13
Like I am very fortunate that I upgraded the RAM in my son's PC
15:18
earlier last year, I upgraded his storage, I upgrade I, I
15:22
built a fucking emulator PC and, and I got in within months of
15:30
all of this shit happening. So that that worked out well for
15:34
me and I don't foresee myself needing an upgrade for a little
15:37
while. I've I've got a a decent GPU and
15:42
everything, I can run almost anything I want to on high and
15:44
have pretty minimal issues. Or at least good enough for me
15:48
right? I'm not one of those crazy I
15:50
need 240 fucking FPS on every single game I play, but if I can
15:55
get a solid 60 I'm pretty happy. Most of the.
15:57
Time. Neither am I, man.
15:58
I'm not. Yeah, I know.
15:59
I I know what you are. I'm like where I'm when it comes
16:03
to computers, dude. Yeah I need 900 FPS on Half life
16:06
2 like. Which looks nice.
16:09
It looks nice When you see that number, You're like Jess, I did
16:12
that. No I do like I got lucky as
16:14
well. I I upgraded my ram, CPU and
16:18
graphics card last Christmas. I upgraded my graphics card.
16:22
So I squeaked by in 2025 to get everything because I'm on DDR.
16:28
Are you on DDR5 or DDR? 4 I'm still on 4.
16:31
OK, so I'm on five, so I got is exceptionally lucky then.
16:36
I I listen I know a lot of people are all gung ho on having
16:43
insane fucking megahertz and shit for for their ram and being
16:47
on DDR5 and everything. I have never noticed a problem
16:51
being on DDR4. DDR4 is great.
16:53
And I don't even have like the maximum fucking speeds for DDR4
16:58
and I I've never had an issue. Never.
17:01
Yeah, DDR4 is great. Some of that feels like a Dick
17:04
measuring contest if I'm being entirely honest.
17:06
Like some of it's just like, oh, I have fucking crazy speeds on
17:10
my RAM and I have fucking 100, 128 fucking it's like.
17:15
There's points in which there's points in which it matters,
17:19
right? But like if you're playing
17:20
Battlefield, like the I shouldn't say it doesn't matter.
17:24
Having better hardware will ultimately help.
17:28
But there's, there's a point of diminishing like cost, right?
17:32
Like yeah, yeah, I I get it, PC gaming is fun, but there's a lot
17:39
of Dick measuring contest shit that happens in PC gaming that,
17:43
you know, I've got $6000 rig and it's like, yeah, cool, we run
17:49
pretty much the same shit. With the same settings.
17:52
I do love bumping and those people are like, and we actually
17:56
I run a duel and I'm like, oh that's cool, man.
17:59
I don't know. I got this thing that's sweet.
18:02
I love what I built. Like I wouldn't have put it in
18:05
that chassis and I'm like, it's a just call it a case or I'm
18:08
going to punch you in your fucking nose called a chassis.
18:12
It's not a Gundam you dickhead. I I do think some of the PC
18:16
gaming snobbery is starting to die out as more and more people
18:19
get into it or it at least it's getting drowned out a little
18:22
bit. But then again, now we're in the
18:26
the current situation that we are in where everybody's going
18:29
towards AI and driving the costs of PC parts through the fucking
18:33
roof, even though consumer PC parts should not fucking be
18:37
affected by the parts that are being sent to Microsoft for
18:41
their fucking copilot bullshit. But regardless, here we are.
18:47
And most of it's because the manufacturers are actually just
18:51
changing gears to where they're now making more parts for these
18:56
these people that are chasing AI.
18:58
And God, I cannot wait until it falls flat on its face.
19:02
Oh, it's going to bring me so much joy.
19:04
Oh, it will. It's going to take big.
19:06
It's going to take a bit though. I think we're I think we're
19:09
stuck in this loop for a while. I, I think AI will not be going
19:13
away, but I think the focus will shift just like we've seen
19:16
change 1000 fucking times in the gaming industry, right?
19:19
Like a few years ago it was NFTS.
19:22
Like that was the big fucking thing everybody's doing.
19:24
NFTS. Granted, that didn't necessarily
19:26
affect the price of most things, but.
19:29
NFTS are so flame. Oh my God.
19:33
The best part was at some point last year there was a company, I
19:36
fucking might have been Square Enix that was still trying to
19:39
push. I was Namco.
19:41
I think that's still. Trying to well Square was doing
19:44
it too, but Namco was like the last one going because Todd
19:48
McFarlane does it and I'm like dude, do not put Spawn as an NFT
19:53
man. And then people buy it.
19:56
The problem is they're still Dick heads who buy it.
19:57
I'm like, not that. Stop buying it.
20:00
Yeah, stop. You post it, I'm going to steal
20:02
it, Sorry. Yeah, I'm just going to nab that
20:05
shit. It's fine.
20:06
I yeah, I don't know. Everything in gaming is just as
20:11
susceptible as anything else, if not more susceptible to these
20:14
weird trends that take over and capture everything.
20:18
You know, we had the the the years of the battle royales and
20:21
which is still happening to some.
20:23
Extent looter shooters and. That looter shooters like yeah,
20:26
extraction shooters, it just keeps going like it.
20:30
This industry is very susceptible to that shit and
20:34
eventually it will somewhat die out.
20:36
Like I said, AI is probably here to stay in some capacity, but I,
20:41
I think eventually these companies, like Meta, for
20:45
example, right, went fully in on their fucking VR bullshit.
20:50
And like the Metaquest 3 is not selling exceptionally well.
20:54
And now they're like, hey, we're we're doing AI now.
20:57
It's like, yeah, cool. Mark Zuckerberg, you lizard
21:00
human fucking whatever the fuck you are.
21:03
Yeah, and now they're going in on AI and eventually all of this
21:08
will fucking just fall. And I I hope they all get caught
21:14
holding the fucking bag because this, this is ridiculous how
21:18
this has gone. Yeah, then these facilities are
21:21
so stupid and ugly and it's like they, then they're being,
21:24
they're like popping up. I don't get it.
21:26
Because they're huge. Oh yeah, they're massive.
21:29
But they're just popping up. We have a huge one around here,
21:34
and they're right saw on LinkedIn there was a job posted
21:37
for it of like some manager position that pays quite well.
21:42
But I'm like, God, like that's like around here.
21:47
Oh yeah, that'd be awful. And on top of that, you'd almost
21:50
have to have security around here because God, none of the
21:53
people around here like it, let's be real.
21:55
They're trying to build some near us and everyone's like no,
21:59
yeah, like don't. But anyways, anyways, on to nice
22:05
things, yeah? Yeah.
22:07
With the rising cost, we'll start with hardware.
22:09
I feel really quick get into the Steam Machine, Steam Frame and
22:15
the controller. With the rise of hardware, I
22:17
think obviously that's why we the prices is what I mean.
22:22
That's why we didn't get a price for the Steam Machine Frame and
22:27
the controller yet. But it's still slated for Q1.
22:31
So it's, it's close. It is, it is close to release.
22:36
I there was a leak quote UN quote which was debunked.
22:41
Where I was going to say it all came from unreputable sources.
22:45
And Valve doesn't sell their hardware like that.
22:49
No. They it's in house, they that
22:52
you, you buy from Valve. And when I saw that price,
22:57
everyone was like, you see Nick, you see I'm like, yeah, I see
23:00
that it's going to, they're going to buy the this hardware
23:04
from Valve and sell it in their store for that price.
23:08
I see that Valve is not going to do that.
23:11
So no, people are expecting now. Weird thing to do as well
23:15
because Valve is just going to sell it on Steam and it they
23:18
really have not had that many times where their hardware is
23:22
like sold out. So there's not there's not
23:25
really any reason for a third party seller for this,
23:29
especially with a a markup in order to make their money out of
23:33
it. Like none of it makes any sense.
23:34
It's I know what the Steam Deck, it took time for it to get to
23:39
different regions. Yes.
23:41
So maybe that's what they're accounting for.
23:43
But if the Steam Deck is selling those regions, I got to imagine
23:47
there's warehouses for Valve in said regions that can ship this
23:53
hardware. I have to imagine that.
23:56
So the price point everyone's thinking right now, and there's
24:00
been a couple reputable sources really talking about this is for
24:03
the 500 GB, people are speculating around 6:50 or so
24:09
dollars, it could be 700 for the two terabyte.
24:13
They're saying like 7750. I think that's fair.
24:20
I I've heard higher. I I've heard like 700 and 900.
24:26
So I've seen 6. 50 and 900 ish. So I've seen that as well.
24:33
I'm going to just buy the 500 GB and then upgrade the SSD which
24:39
they told you you could do. Yeah.
24:44
I mean, what's the point unless it comes in like Half Life
24:47
Orange? I'm like, OK, get me?
24:50
Out. That's where they're going to
24:51
get you. Yeah.
24:53
I, we, we talked about this before that I mean, the price is
24:58
going to sink or, or, or make this whole thing.
25:03
I, I, I think 6:50 is pretty fair.
25:10
I, I, I would like to have more storage, but also the, the
25:14
PlayStation and the Xbox or PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X
25:17
like right out-of-the-box, those things have no fucking storage.
25:23
I, I mean, I constantly deleting shit off of those for my kids so
25:28
they can play other games. And I, I went to the PlayStation
25:31
the other day and was looking at it and he was trying to download
25:34
an update for a game and it wouldn't do it because it
25:36
wouldn't download the whole game and whatever, right.
25:40
But it it he doesn't even have any games he can delete and it's
25:46
fucking full. Like there's like 5 games
25:49
installed on that fucking thing and it's full.
25:51
Whereas this you can just buy it and then upgrade it.
25:54
Right, which the PlayStation you can too, right?
25:57
You can throw A and throw AM .2 in there and call it a day,
26:00
which is something that. Comes with a little bit more
26:02
memory. Right.
26:03
And then, you know, Xbox made the stupid decision to do their
26:07
proprietary fucking memory card that's $200 and.
26:12
Yeah, it's dumb. But yeah, I, I don't think it's
26:17
a bad price point. I don't, I, I think it might be
26:20
a touch higher than I was maybe hoping for, especially for the
26:25
larger storage version. But it's same vain as the Steam
26:30
Deck, right? The you, you pick your own
26:32
poison and then you can upgrade the storage if you want to.
26:35
Like I, I would much rather have that versus something akin to
26:41
like the Xbox where it's like, yeah, you got to get this
26:43
proprietary fucking bullshit. If I can just throw a Nim .2 in
26:46
that bad boy and call it a day. Which you can.
26:49
Yeah, I just, I just buy the cheaper one and upgrade my own
26:52
storage and how happy it is. And honestly, it'd probably be
26:57
faster storage, right? Like you could get a, a better
27:00
drive than what they're probably going to use from the factory,
27:04
you know, throw a, throw a Samsung in there or whatever
27:07
and, and call it a day. But yeah, it's, it's a touch on
27:11
the pricey side, which I kind of expected, even though I was
27:15
hoping it wouldn't be. But I don't know.
27:18
I, I, I think the other thing that will make or break that is
27:21
the, the games that it can play on it, which it has been rumored
27:28
now or not even rumored. It has been explicitly said that
27:33
games for the. The that are verified on deck.
27:40
Well, yes, the, the, the, the Steam Deck games will be able to
27:43
be played on there pretty much universally.
27:46
But the biggest thing is that it sounds like there's going to be
27:50
a lot more games that maybe are not Steam Deck verified that
27:55
will be verified for this. So yes, I, it, it sounds like
27:59
it's in a good place. It sounds like it's going in the
28:01
right direction. Also though, some of the games
28:05
that are Steam deck verified run like fucking dog shit on there
28:08
so it's. We'll see.
28:12
But a lot of a lot of companies are now making concessions for
28:17
these kinds of things because a lot of people do want to play on
28:19
the Steam Deck or they do want to play on the Steam Machine.
28:24
Yeah, Steam. Machine.
28:25
Yeah, thank you. Don't worry, I didn't sound
28:28
right in my head. It sounded like some made-up
28:30
shit, right? But we'll see, I think.
28:35
There was a rumor that I liked and I don't think it's going to
28:39
happen because I I do think there needs to be a game
28:40
released with this, whether it's half life or they give you
28:43
Deadlock. It's which deadlock's already
28:45
going to be free, but it's like, hey, deadlock releases too.
28:48
Something here, right? But then somebody was like what?
28:51
It was a he was talking, he's like the black box.
28:55
It's like the new orange box, right?
28:57
Steam Machine Plus half, like 3 or whatever they're going to
29:02
give you. And I was like, yeah, that's
29:04
what they did with fucking the Steam Index.
29:07
You got the Index to play Half Life, Alex.
29:10
Yeah, I think that's the play here, but I'm not.
29:13
Whatever. It it definitely needs a game to
29:15
release it along sided or shortly after One of the two I I
29:20
I think they could get early adopters, big steam fans like
29:23
yourself or valve fans right? I'm buying it no matter what.
29:27
So I know I, I, I think they could get that initial wave, but
29:33
if they released something within four months of the, the,
29:37
the Steam machine actually releasing, I think they would be
29:39
fine. I, I don't think it has to be
29:42
ready directly upon release, but if they want to move as many
29:46
consoles as quickly as possible, that's the solution, right?
29:50
And even even something like like you said, the the the black
29:53
box or something that you know, you get portal, Portal 2, you
29:57
get all of the Valve games essentially bundled with this
30:01
thing with. The new game.
30:03
Yeah, especially when they sell these games for.
30:05
Fucking a dollar during the Steam fest.
30:08
Yeah, like this thing and they, they're barely making money off
30:13
of these games anymore. You just throw them in there as
30:16
a freebie or something. That would be great, especially
30:19
if you're a first time PC, because this is again a big
30:22
thing for newcomers to the PC ecosystem.
30:25
Yeah, it's it's it's APC in a console form that runs big
30:32
picture mode all the time and is relatively easy to use, right?
30:39
Like it is the console experience but being APC also
30:43
and. Welcome to Steam.
30:46
Welcome to the Steam Machine. Welcome to the PC gaming.
30:51
Here's your Steam account and here's all of our games that
30:53
we've ever created, plus Half Life 3 or Deadlock.
30:56
Deadlock is go again. It's going to be free, but how
30:58
crazy would that be? That'd be great.
31:01
I think if it's if it includes Half Life 3 or whatever it's
31:08
going to be, I think it would be bundled in a way that's like you
31:14
get the game for like $50 instead of 60 like I don't.
31:17
Think it's. Yeah, it's not going to be a
31:19
freebie. I think it's going to take the
31:21
Nintendo approach of being like, hey, you get this game also and
31:25
it's like slightly discounted like 10.
31:27
Bucks and it's just it with included in the price of the
31:29
fucking whole bundle anyways. I, I think it's more of the
31:32
selling point of having the game there, yeah, alongside it, more
31:36
or less, but. I'm excited.
31:39
I, I, I'm excited for the controller.
31:40
I'm excited for the VR. The VR is looking like it's
31:42
going to be priced very fairly, by the way.
31:45
Yeah, yeah, this seems less Steam Index where it's the Super
31:50
high end version. This seems like a much more
31:54
affordable but also still very solid VR platform that I I think
31:59
will do exceptionally well. The controller looks
32:01
interesting. I'm curious to hold the fucking
32:05
thing because it it's one of it's a very valve thing where
32:10
this thing kind of looks like in a fucking abomination that is
32:14
awful to hold, but you know when you hold it, it's just going to
32:17
feel right. I.
32:18
Feel like butter, dude. You're going to be like, OK.
32:21
Yeah, I'm not a big trackpad guy, so I'm like, I wish.
32:24
You could buy a version without it.
32:26
Yeah, I would much rather just have a Steam Controller that had
32:29
no trackpads, but I I get it, some people love the trackpads,
32:33
so yeah. So all right, bud, we're in the
32:37
middle of the episode. Yes.
32:40
Let's talk about the games coming out this year.
32:43
There's potentially some big hitters here, but also this
32:50
year, probably more so than in a year I've seen in probably the
32:55
last five years. There's not a ton revealed or
33:00
not a ton revealed with release dates.
33:04
We, we have some release dates for especially smaller games up
33:07
through like May, not even April.
33:14
And then it kind of tracks off and there's a lot of games that
33:18
are supposed to come out this year that have no release date
33:20
yet. There's a handful of games,
33:22
especially looking at you Microsoft, that we hope these
33:27
games are coming this year, but we also don't know for for me,
33:31
my biggest anticipated game, and nobody would be surprised by
33:35
this is Fire Emblem fortunes. We've I was going to buy a
33:41
switch to for this game. I'm going to be entirely honest,
33:44
I am a big Fire Emblem fan, a huge mark for something like
33:49
this. If Fire Emblem and Zelda are the
33:52
the console sellers for me on the Nintendo side of things.
33:56
I, I just so happened to get the, the switch to cheaper than
34:01
what I had ever anticipated. So I, it was a no brainer to get
34:06
it when I did. That being said, I've barely
34:09
touched the thing. I, I do I, I, my kids got Donkey
34:14
Kong for for Christmas and I do want to check that out.
34:17
But basically this is the game that was going to sell me on
34:20
this console and get me back in to playing games on Nintendo
34:24
consoles. Aside from Unicorn, Overlord and
34:27
13 Sentinels. But yeah, that's that's my
34:31
biggest 1A. close second would be Marvel's Wolverine.
34:36
Yep. Which I would much rather just
34:40
play on my PC, but we know Sony's not going to do that.
34:44
I'll be upstairs in my living room.
34:47
Yep, there. There's a 0% chance that I don't
34:51
pick this up immediately. I am a huge fucking Marvel fan.
34:56
A huge Wolverine fan. That's my boy.
34:59
I will be playing this on release hands down, but we don't
35:05
know when it's coming out. This year, supposedly.
35:08
Yeah. And, and same for Fire Emblem,
35:10
right. We, we don't have a date for
35:12
that either. And speculation is that it's
35:14
going to come out in the first half of the year, but we don't
35:18
know. Those are, those are my 2 like
35:21
heaviest hitters. And there's I, I have a bunch of
35:25
other things kind of strung out here that I'll, I'll kind of get
35:28
into. But what, what are your big
35:30
heavy hitters for this year that, that is known?
35:34
No, not a Half Life 3 situation. Obviously, if you know me, I
35:38
want Half Life 3 this year, right?
35:39
Like this is supposedly our year, but we're not going to
35:42
talk about that. Resident Evil 9 Requiem is huge
35:46
for me. I absolutely.
35:49
I want some soju. I'm sorry, sorry.
35:51
I'm going to get a whiskey after this.
35:54
I'm going to be naughty. Resident Evil is a game that I
35:58
love and hold near and dear to my heart.
36:01
You guys heard me talk about the first time I played it either
36:04
here or an OBO, so I'm not going to go into that, but this looks
36:06
great. I'm super, super pumped for
36:09
this. Honestly dude, after Resident
36:13
Evil it really is between Gears and Fable.
36:18
Yep. But like, there we go with
36:20
Microsoft, though I don't fucking know what Gears we know
36:26
Gears is this year. Yeah, allegedly.
36:32
I think it's supposed to be holiday season, is what they're
36:35
saying. But holiday season games always
36:38
kind of in that weird window where it's really easy to slip
36:42
into the next year, especially because it's still within the
36:45
same fiscal year right up until what, March?
36:48
So they they realistically could absolutely shift that into
36:52
January or February without it really being a major problem for
36:56
him. I just, I really want to play E
36:59
day. I think it's going to be cool to
37:00
see Marcus and Dom's story prior to the actual fucking events of
37:06
the first game. Especially during the Cog wars
37:08
and all that shit. Love Gears of War, it's been a
37:12
minute since I've played them, but I'll never forget playing
37:15
Gears of War one through three. Yeah, I'll never forget those
37:19
moments. Those were huge pivotal points
37:20
in my gaming life. Right?
37:24
Fable though is another close, close second for me.
37:27
Because again, I'll never forget playing Fable 1 and 2 at least.
37:34
But. One and two, dude, the the
37:38
coolest shit to me was this is a game that very much felt like
37:42
your actions had weight and you could see it literally either
37:46
you get your little Halo or you get your horns and you become
37:50
really bad or really fucking good, or you kind of stay
37:53
neutral till you get a little bit of both.
37:55
And I love Fable. I think it's one of the the the
37:59
best are like RPG style games I've ever played in my life
38:02
other than New Vegas. New Vegas is one of.
38:05
The Yeah. Fucking games I've ever played.
38:10
Wait, really? Are you caught up on Fallout
38:11
season 2? No you fucking bitch dude.
38:15
Why? We've been watching.
38:17
We've been watching Severance. Fine.
38:20
And then we watched the first episode of Fallout and Amber
38:25
could not fully get into it. She said she will continue to
38:28
watch it. But we, we got, we, we, we have
38:31
one more episode of Severance and then we'll be back.
38:34
Kill. It her man I'm.
38:36
Addressing her right now. Listen here of Brody.
38:40
You will. Jesus.
38:42
I'm Amber. I don't mean that.
38:44
Not a single ounce of me meant that.
38:46
If my wife ever hears that I called you that, I'm going to be
38:49
fucking killed. Listen here, Amber.
38:52
Holy shit, dude. It was.
38:54
I got to watch my jokes. That's what I got to do of.
38:57
Brody is so funny though. Handmade steak.
39:02
So damn, I'm in so much trouble from your wife.
39:06
Nah. Oh yeah, Oh yeah, she'll she'll
39:08
talk shit. The she'll hit me up, talk shit
39:10
the DMS. She'll laugh, but she'll also
39:12
talk shit. Anyways, those are my games.
39:19
I don't know where I was going because I started laughing way
39:21
too hard. Yeah, you were talking about,
39:24
yeah, about the Fallout Season 2.
39:28
Oh, it's Immaculate. Everyone needs to go watch it
39:30
right now. I, I am excited to get back into
39:33
it. We will, I promise.
39:35
Thank you. Yep, Fable, yes, Gears and Fable
39:40
were too that were on my list that I am really excited to
39:45
play. But they're also in that weird
39:48
space and also Xbox is in a weird space right now where they
39:53
just raised the price of of game Pass and the amount of people
39:59
that cancelled that day crashed the fucking website.
40:02
So it it's a very strange thing because I am very excited for
40:07
these games. I will just be purchasing them.
40:09
I will not be picking up game pass.
40:12
I will be probably buying them through Steam, which I am glad
40:16
is an option. But there I I am excited for
40:19
both of them, especially Gears of War Fable I am concerned
40:23
about I feel like. We have seen things about Fable
40:27
for a long time now. It's being made by a studio that
40:30
does not typically make these kinds of games and everything
40:34
we've seen so far has been predominantly just CGI and and
40:39
like cutscene type stuff. We've seen I think a super small
40:43
amount of of gameplay. I do know that Xbox has an
40:48
event, I want to say next week or yeah, next week or two weeks
40:53
from now. I'd I'd I'd have to look up that
40:55
date specifically that they're supposed to talk specifically
41:01
about Fable and Forza Horizon 6, which is another game that I am
41:06
very excited for, seems to be taking place in Japan from the
41:11
leaks and everything that we've seen.
41:13
I'm super stoked for that. I played the shit out of Forza
41:16
Horizon 5. I will play the shit out of this
41:19
one as well. But Fable specifically concerns
41:23
me because I am. It seems like it is potentially
41:30
going to fall victim to the same thing that Dragon Age the Vale
41:34
guard felt victim to the more. But that being said, Fable has
41:41
always kind of had a little bit of a cartoony art style, so I
41:44
don't think that's going to turn off fans necessarily, but.
41:48
Hit my mic right? Dragon Age the veil guard came
41:52
out and people fucking hated that game.
41:54
Well, that was such a big leap from what Dragon Age was though.
41:58
Oh yeah, it was, it was a huge leap.
42:00
And that's a game that I still want to check out because I'm
42:03
curious if it's as mediocre as everyone says, like because the
42:07
IT trailered. Well, like I thought so at least
42:10
I I thought the trailers were really cool.
42:12
I have the game in some capacity.
42:15
I don't remember where it was like a free, I think it was
42:17
free, I think. It's on abject, dude.
42:19
I think it's probably on Epic too, but I, I, I just hope that
42:24
Fable can succeed with what they're trying to do here.
42:29
Again, with it being the, the Forza studio that is making it,
42:34
It's, it's very weird. Like turn 10 would would not
42:37
have been my, my initial thought for the, the people to make this
42:43
game, especially when they make Immaculate car models and then
42:47
the people in that game look awful, so fucking bad.
42:54
And you have to create a character and it looks so bad.
43:00
But yeah, Xbox is in a weird spot, a very weird spot.
43:04
And I, I hope these three games really do succeed for them.
43:09
They, they obviously had the big hit with Saint Paul Interactive
43:13
with Expedition 33 last year being on Game Pass like that was
43:16
a massive game for them. But as far as everything else,
43:22
it's been pretty lackluster. Games come out and they're like,
43:24
yeah, it's fine. About came out, it's fine.
43:28
Like I don't know man, Xbox seems to be making the wrong
43:34
move at every possible turn and just doubling down on that shit
43:39
and I don't know what. They keep making the same
43:43
fucking game. They keep making the same
43:45
fucking game and the same fucking mistakes.
43:48
And it's like, dude, stop. Like both do something
43:50
different. Like the game Singularity.
43:52
Did you ever play that? There's like a bunch of those
43:55
cool ass games from back in the day, man.
43:57
Like it's just just make cool shit or revive something like
44:02
brute force. I talk about it all the time,
44:04
dude. Yeah, let's just let's just
44:05
revive something sick. I think they had a huge hit with
44:08
psychonauts too with double find.
44:11
And now, now they're done, aren't they?
44:12
Like they're not doing the three like so.
44:14
I think double finds gone. Oh my God.
44:19
Well. You know, I could be wrong on
44:21
that, but I I was thinking they they were one of them that got
44:25
axed recently. So stupid.
44:30
Anyway, Microsoft, you pissed me off.
44:31
But now we're getting fucking information that there's
44:34
Wolfenstein 3 and we, which you and I have called out.
44:37
We, you and I have known. Yeah, Wolfenstein 3 and the
44:42
Machine Games is also supposedly working on a like Rainbow Siege
44:47
type game. And then ID is working on a
44:50
secret project that everyone suspects is either Quake, Hexen
44:54
or Heretic. And it's like, OK, so are they
44:57
going to be Microsoft's fucking like studio?
45:01
Yeah. Like, yeah, 'cause if you you
45:03
drop Wolfenstein, then you drop Quake, Hexen or Heretic.
45:06
Plus Machine Game is dropping like a Rainbow 6.
45:09
Like dude. It, I would imagine it, it has
45:13
to be quaked, right? Because we just got remasters of
45:16
Hexen and Heretic. So yes, I, I, I would think
45:20
Quake is probably Next up on the slate, but I don't know.
45:26
I would imagine, could I dude, if you give me Quake in by 2027,
45:31
a full fucking multiplayer Quake all over again, I think you
45:35
would start. I think that starts like the
45:38
arena shooter RE phase. Which they tried to do with
45:43
Halo. Kind of.
45:45
Oh yeah. Right, which honestly, I I don't
45:48
hate Halo Infinite. I really don't.
45:51
I don't think it's not. That great, but.
45:53
It's not amazing, but I think a lot of that was they, they, they
45:58
did not get content out like they should have.
46:00
And some of that has been a promise.
46:02
Yeah. And they've attributed it to
46:05
the, the engine that they used, right?
46:07
Which neither here nor there. Like it is what it is.
46:11
But I, I really think they, they fumble that so fucking bad.
46:16
The campaign was a blast. I actually had a lot of fun with
46:19
the, the open world campaign. It was something unique,
46:22
something different or not unique, but unique for Halo and
46:27
I, I didn't hate it, but yeah, they just could not get any
46:29
traction with that multiplayer and like I've said a million
46:32
times, bring it to fucking PlayStation, breathe some life
46:37
into it again. But I think they're just kind of
46:39
moving on, right? It it seems like that studio is
46:42
having such a hard time building in that engine that it's not
46:45
even worth. Putting everybody also hates
46:48
them right now because they're fully embracing AI.
46:51
So thank you Halo studios once 343 once Bungie right.
46:55
So like that. So like why is Master Chief
46:57
getting butt fucked Microsoft? I don't understand it.
46:59
That is your poster boy and you have no respect for the
47:03
character because if you did, you wouldn't have let that
47:05
television show come out. You are correct.
47:10
Because Sony the we got we have our first peaks of Kratos and
47:18
Lara Croft. Granted people are pissed that
47:21
Laura's boobs aren't as big as they should be.
47:23
Guys chilled. The fuck?
47:25
I just saw people complaining they weren't fucking triangles.
47:28
I've seen people complaining. About triangles, First off,
47:30
we're not doing that. This is not the Madonna era.
47:33
Secondly, chill out. But like people were talking
47:36
about like Kratos Kratos. Why am I saying Kratos, Kratos,
47:40
Kratos and Kratos and they're like, well, he doesn't even look
47:46
like I'm like yeah, 'cause he has a full fucking head of hair.
47:49
No makeups, markings, or or. Yeah, you you pulled a picture
47:54
of the actor prior to being in Kratosified, right?
47:58
Like I, I'm pretty sure the large man with a beard can
48:05
probably pull off Kratos. So let's be really.
48:07
Honest, isn't that? Isn't that his mocap?
48:11
No, no, I don't know. I.
48:12
Was going to say Christopher Judge did a lot of his mocap
48:15
because he got hurt. Yeah, in the filming of the
48:18
second game, I believe. Yeah.
48:22
But yeah, but the guy they picked is the voice of Thor
48:28
second game, which is kind of fucking cool.
48:31
Like, it's a neat little thing, but I wonder how.
48:34
He's going to do his voice. Yeah, I, I, I really don't hate
48:39
the casting. I think it's a good casting and
48:41
I'm. I'm stoked on it and I can't
48:44
wait to see we know who's playing BJ though.
48:47
Yeah. If the if, that's going to be if
48:50
you don't get the motherfucker who plays Reacher to play BJ
48:55
Blaskovitz. Yeah, it has to be easy, Alan.
48:58
Rich Richardson. Richardson, Whatever.
49:01
He does. Alan Rickman.
49:03
Alan Rickman. Yeah, the the massive human
49:08
being who? Literally looks like BJ.
49:11
Yeah, he's fucking perfect for it, Absolutely.
49:14
Dude and Laura looks great too I'm I think.
49:16
So I, I, I honestly really did like the the, the girl that they
49:21
got for the last Tomb Raider. I, I thought she did really
49:25
good. I understand that some people
49:27
were mad. It wasn't the classic look, but
49:29
she matched the look of the new games.
49:31
The the biggest thing this is the.
49:32
Classic look and they're mad still.
49:34
Yeah, well, yeah, but the the biggest thing with that last
49:37
iteration of the Tomb Raider movies was the writing and
49:41
everything else sucks really bad.
49:43
But I thought she did great. She was great as, as, as Laura
49:46
Croft, like, just Yeah, it was unfortunate.
49:49
I think it should be adult. I think this should be an adult
49:52
series. I don't think it should be kid
49:54
friendly really. I I think keep it within like
49:57
the TVMA. I I was going to say I but even
50:01
then Tomb Raider has never really been that.
50:05
Out the last of what games were. The last ones were pretty rough.
50:09
Yeah, you're right. So like, I don't want it to be
50:12
like over the top violence or like sex or it, I just want it
50:15
to be. I want it to have its fun Tomb
50:17
Raider moments while also having moments where it's like, oh,
50:20
that was fucked. Like because that could happen
50:23
while it was like spelunking a goddamn cave where Laura breaks
50:27
her fucking ankle through her skin.
50:29
That would be cool to watch her fucking figure out how to fix
50:31
that because she, if anyone could do it, she could.
50:34
Yeah. Like, fuck Nathan Drake.
50:36
Fuck him. He's a pussy.
50:39
Like Laura Croft is so much cooler than Nathan Drake.
50:42
I agree. I agree also.
50:44
I mean they fucked up the casting.
50:46
On that movie, Mark Wahlberg was wild in that.
50:50
Movie that was wild and and Tom Holland was a weird choice like
50:55
I, I I had nothing against Tom Holland.
50:58
He was a weird fight choice great Spidey yeah he's a
51:02
fantastic spider and Peter Parker, like he he pulls that
51:05
off exceptionally well Weird casting for Nathan Drake.
51:09
Oh. My God, Eddie.
51:13
As far as other games coming out, I have a lot of question
51:17
marks this year. I'm going to be entirely honest,
51:20
there is a lot of question marks, one of which is Marvel
51:25
1943, The Rise of Hydra, a game that was supposed to come out
51:29
last year. We have not heard much of
51:31
fucking anything about this game.
51:34
It's concerning because it's a Marvel IP and historically we
51:39
haven't been doing super great with those games.
51:44
It, it, it has potential, right? It sounds like there's some
51:47
development hell going on there right now.
51:50
I, I am very hesitant on this game, but I, I dig the idea that
51:56
they're going for. I dig the, the setting, the,
52:00
the, you know, being Cap and being Black Panther, It, it
52:04
could be really cool, but we know nothing about it.
52:07
And it's in this weird indefinite delay that I, I, I
52:12
doubt at this point they completely can it.
52:15
But I also think at a certain point they're going to pull the
52:18
plug on it and say just fucking put it out, make what money can
52:21
and be done. Another one that I'm a little
52:25
concerned about, the Dusk Bloods, a From Soft game that is
52:30
solely going to be on the Switch.
52:31
It's a multiplayer type of game. Yeah, you look at how night Rain
52:38
was night rain was fun, but also it wasn't exactly what I was
52:42
looking for. And that seemed almost like a
52:45
test run for for this to some extent.
52:48
Also the fact it's on Switches adds a a certain.
52:52
Only on switch too. Only on Switch, which doesn't
52:57
really excite me. There's a lot of people upset
52:59
with Nintendo right now, especially in our friend group
53:02
where there's people that are just straight up boycotting.
53:05
Which regardless of how silly I think that may be, that means I
53:10
don't really have friends to play this game with.
53:13
I'm not going. To grab my wife's switch to to
53:15
play Dusk Bloods. Yeah, I will hopefully wait
53:17
until the contract to keep this on the switch to is up.
53:22
I But that's not typically Nintendo functions, yeah.
53:25
No, it's not like a Sony or a Microsoft with their you know
53:29
where they, it's like it's going to be exclusive here for a year,
53:32
then everyone else gets their hands on.
53:34
It yeah, Nintendo has done some of that, but I I have this
53:41
sinking feeling that this is going to be only on on the
53:46
Switch to which I don't know also you know the the the switch
53:50
to is significantly better than the switch one right as far as
53:54
power and everything else but from is also not very good with
53:58
optimization. So little concern for this one.
54:06
One more question of two more question marks that I have.
54:10
One of them is absolutely not your game.
54:13
And I'm fully aware actually both of them are not your games.
54:16
Code Vein 2 I, I dig the idea of what Code Vein 1 was trying to
54:22
be, but it didn't, it didn't hit the mark.
54:26
It's a game that I thought looked really cool in the
54:29
trailer, but it's that anime Dark Souls type of game.
54:33
It it, it screams my kind of game.
54:36
But after the first one, I'm real hesitant to get real
54:39
excited about this one. And then the second one that I
54:42
was thinking of is Crimson Desert.
54:45
No that game I am. Oh really?
54:48
I did not expect that. Black Desert had a really cool
54:53
combat system. It had a lot of really cool
54:55
things there, but it got bogged down by its greediness and its
55:01
desire to be this MMO and whatever the fuck it had going
55:05
on there. This is not that.
55:07
So it if it comes out, I think this could be really, really
55:11
fucking cool. Like it.
55:13
It is taking the style, the the graphical like fidelity of what
55:19
black desert is and putting it into a single player campaign.
55:23
I it could be really cool, but I don't know.
55:27
I I just don't, I don't trust Pearl abyss like.
55:31
No. Not after Black Desert.
55:33
No. Yeah, but yeah, those are my big
55:37
like question marks. As far as other games I am
55:40
excited for, I do have a couple, a Double O 7 first light seems
55:46
cool. I I'm curious how IOI can break
55:50
away from that Hitman formula to do something different, or if
55:54
they even do, or if this is just Hitman and the James Bond
55:57
universe. But it seems like a cool game.
56:00
Phantom Blade 0 is a game that I'm pretty excited for, but I'm
56:03
curious how that game actually plays.
56:05
That's the one that looks absolutely batshit insane when
56:08
you watch it, and there's like no feasible way that you could
56:11
be even be doing those inputs. But it looks really cool and I I
56:15
want to see more of it. Grand Theft Auto is the the
56:20
fucking elephant in the room here, right?
56:24
I I want to say that I won't pick this up because I want to
56:27
play it on PC, but I know who I am and how I am and I will
56:31
absolutely pick this up I have. Purchased every GTA on launch
56:35
day so starting at 3 when I was able to get them so.
56:38
Yeah, and then the the last game on my list is actually I, I
56:43
believe a fully indie game. It's called Romeo is a Dead Man.
56:48
Yep, I'm I'm actually kind of excited for the game.
56:51
Oh I I have one other one too I guess.
56:53
Sorry. Another indie game, Orbitals,
56:55
which is that Co-op game that was shown off during the game
57:01
awards that is the 90s anime style that I think looks fucking
57:05
gorgeous. But that that is most of my list
57:10
so far for this year and where I kind of am on games and what I'm
57:14
excited for or even somewhat anticipating.
57:18
But man, I don't know it it it seems like a weird year so far.
57:24
It just seems very sparse and a lot of question marks.
57:32
I feel like we are going to have surprises, surprises this year
57:36
that's going to make everybody happy in every spectrum of
57:38
gaming. I also feel like this could be a
57:40
big year of disappointment. I feel like there's going to be
57:43
a lot of delays with everything going on and that bums me out.
57:48
But I would love to be proven wrong.
57:50
I would love for these teams to hit the finish line, release
57:53
their products the way they want them to be released.
57:56
Don't listen to your shareholders.
57:58
I know it sucks and you have to sometimes or most of the time.
58:00
I. Was going to say most of the
58:02
time given help, but man businesses.
58:04
Shareholders, yeah. But shareholders need to learn
58:06
from what Cyberpunk, what happened there.
58:09
Because yeah, cyberpunk is now being revered as like, one of
58:12
the best. Because it is one of the best.
58:14
Yeah, four years. Five years later or whatever it
58:18
is now right? So I'm excited for double O 7
58:22
first light I I'm a big fan of the hitman series.
58:24
I remember playing silent assassin 2 for the first time
58:27
love that game. I'm concerned though, that is
58:30
it's just going to be James Bond in a, you know, just.
58:35
Doing hitman shit. Yeah, so I'm concerned about
58:38
that. I would say Gears of War, Fable
58:41
Pragmata. I'm very excited for that game
58:44
that that is right up my weird alley.
58:47
A weird fucking guy it. Has some Death Stranding esque
58:51
feeling to it at which oddly enough it was actually the last
58:57
time I was shown off I think during game awards.
58:59
I was like, you know what? I think I could get into this.
59:03
Yeah, Mouse Pi for hire. Yeah, that is a game I cannot
59:08
wait to play. I am foaming at the mouth for
59:10
that. I can't.
59:11
Believe that's not out yet. I feel like we've known about
59:14
that game so long. We have and it sucks that it got
59:17
delayed but you know for them it's like take your time.
59:22
Release is how you want again release this how you want people
59:25
to remember it. Re animal looks cool Sorrows.
59:30
RE Animals, the Game Freak game, right?
59:33
I believe so. I'd have to look that up.
59:36
Re animal. Re Animal, That sounds great for
59:41
y'all. Reanimal is terrace your studios
59:46
I think. No, no, no, no.
59:47
If I'm not mistaken, reanimals the sequel to that little
59:55
nightmare. What the fuck?
59:56
Beast of Reincarnation is the game I was thinking of, which
1:00:01
the title is incredibly similar in meeting.
1:00:05
That's sick. Yeah, Beast of Reincarnation is
1:00:07
that that Game Freak game, which supposedly is also going to be
1:00:10
in that Xbox showcase. That game looks wild.
1:00:14
Beasts of reincarnation? Yeah.
1:00:16
Incarnation or reincarnation? Reincarnation.
1:00:18
Reincarnation. Yeah, yeah, that game looked
1:00:20
fucking crazy when we saw a little bit of it.
1:00:22
Yeah, and very far from what Game Freak typically does.
1:00:27
Granted, I have absolutely 0 faith in Game Freak, let's be
1:00:31
entirely honest. Oh the greediest motherfuckers
1:00:34
ever, dude. Yeah, but this is also not the
1:00:36
Pokémon IP, so I maybe it'll be good.
1:00:39
I, I know that that, that that horse jockey game that they
1:00:43
released pocket horse, pocket, pocket pocket card jockey or
1:00:47
whatever the fuck it was. Apparently that game's
1:00:50
fantastic. So I don't know, maybe maybe
1:00:53
they just hate make Pokémon games at this point.
1:00:56
They just fucking hate to make them and they just do it out of
1:01:00
pure spite because it makes them so much goddamn money eating up.
1:01:04
Little Piggies, Soros looks dope.
1:01:10
And then Mugenics again. I can't talk about it, but this
1:01:14
I've been. I love.
1:01:16
I love Edmund. Yeah, I love Super.
1:01:18
I love Super Meat Boy and the Xbox 360 and New Grounds, which
1:01:23
if you were a child of the 90s or 2000s, you were using New
1:01:26
Grounds not to play Super Meat Boy pornography.
1:01:32
But I do remember playing Super Meat Boy I on New Grounds and
1:01:35
all those sites and I loved that fucking game.
1:01:38
Loved that game. I had a ton of games from the
1:01:42
The Game Awards that I have in my list, but just so many of
1:01:46
them don't have release dates. We don't even, we, we have no
1:01:49
idea when they're coming, right? Like and.
1:01:51
The price for the Valve hardware.
1:01:53
So dude, this is a fucked up year.
1:01:54
It's. It's, it seems like everything
1:01:57
is in flux constantly and we not hit it, don't know any prices,
1:02:03
we don't know any dates because they don't know any prices.
1:02:06
They don't know any dates. It just feels fucking weird
1:02:10
leading into this year and it seems like each year has kind of
1:02:13
progressively gotten more and more this way.
1:02:17
And it just, it feels like this is the culmination of, of what's
1:02:21
been going on for the last fucking 5-6 years.
1:02:24
We. Need we need to have another ET
1:02:27
moment where something is promised that's going to be so
1:02:32
GTA it's the could you what OK we're going to end this episode
1:02:38
in a minute because I whatever could you imagine if it comes.
1:02:44
Out and it sucks. That is our new ET moment.
1:02:49
If that happens, that would. Be insane they would still make
1:02:53
all of their money back. Though, Yeah, that's fine.
1:02:56
But like, that's a stain. No, it's not.
1:02:59
They don't. Is it a stain though in the in
1:03:02
this day and age? Is it a stain because they could
1:03:05
fix? It people would play it for
1:03:06
clips. People would play it for clips,
1:03:08
it'd be a streamer game. People would be fucking.
1:03:10
There's no ET moment. It would make they could fix it
1:03:14
over the course of four years and then it be touted as this
1:03:17
all time great game again. There's looking at shoe, CD,
1:03:21
Project Red, CDPR who have who have pulled it off at least
1:03:27
twice now. Maybe three times.
1:03:28
Right? If you count the Witcher 2,
1:03:31
Witcher 3, Cyberpunk and everyone fucking forgets it.
1:03:35
I bring it up so often on the show because it drives me
1:03:37
fucking crazy. That being said, I loved
1:03:40
Cyberpunk once I finally played it four years later.
1:03:44
Oh, it's so good, it is. Five years later, whatever, it
1:03:47
was great. DPR if you all listen to us,
1:03:50
anybody from there, please listen.
1:03:54
Learn from the mistakes, release the Witcher 4 in a great spot
1:03:58
and then when Cyberpunk comes out in 20-30 which stop talking
1:04:02
about the games you're working on just.
1:04:06
Make this off just. Do it, do it just learn to just
1:04:10
make the next great thing because I I love the stories,
1:04:14
but just don't promise shit and then be like, Nah, here's big
1:04:16
floppy Dick like I don't for what it's like anyways.
1:04:23
Yeah, so, Tony, there's supposed to be a we're supposed to be
1:04:29
happy. What happened?
1:04:31
I, I am, I am happy. I am happy.
1:04:34
And there's some good shit coming out this year.
1:04:36
There's shit I am excited for. There's a lot of unknowns.
1:04:39
There's a lot of shit that we haven't even heard about.
1:04:41
There's probably going to be some in a handful of indie
1:04:45
darlings this year that we play the absolute shit out of that we
1:04:48
know nothing about because the team doesn't have the the the
1:04:53
money to market in the same way that these giant AAA studios
1:04:57
have. And I'm sure there's going to be
1:04:59
a ton of them, right? There's a there always is the,
1:05:02
the, the mega bonks, the the fucking looking over at my list
1:05:06
here that the RV there yet the repos.
1:05:08
Like there's going to be a ton of games like that that will get
1:05:11
to play throughout the year and have a good time with.
1:05:14
There will be announcements from studios that, you know, people
1:05:18
didn't even think of or, or whatever it may be.
1:05:21
I don't know, maybe we'll get some fucking like a like a
1:05:25
Psychonauts 3 type of thing. I doubt obviously that's a not
1:05:29
the the best example, but something in that that vein that
1:05:32
would nobody was really expecting or hoping for
1:05:35
necessarily, but it would be excited to have, like I said,
1:05:40
similar things last year, right? Like at the beginning of the
1:05:42
year, it's there's not a ton that I'm excited for, but a
1:05:46
handful of games and it ended up being a really damn good year.
1:05:49
So I don't know, man, we'll, we'll definitely see I'm it's
1:05:55
another year, another another year of podcasting and playing
1:05:58
games with friends and, and having a good time and at, at at
1:06:02
the end of the year, I'm sure we'll look back and be happy
1:06:05
about the games that we played this year and.
1:06:07
We always are. And that's the beauty of this
1:06:10
industry, man. It always seems disappoint you.
1:06:12
And then at the last moment, you're like, all right, yeah, I
1:06:14
get it. It's one of those moments like a
1:06:16
post not clarity thing. Yeah.
1:06:20
Side note, do you have deodorant on your desk next to you is.
1:06:23
That damn it, I did that again. Damn it, it's just, it's like
1:06:29
that. Looks like Old Spice.
1:06:31
It is Old Spice which I just. Which flavor?
1:06:34
I don't know which flavor. It's sunrise scent, not flavor.
1:06:39
Thank you all for listening to the shit doubt I'm not gonna do
1:06:42
that, but we're not we're not getting paid.
1:06:44
We're not getting paid yet do anything.
1:06:46
Thank you all for checking out the show.
1:06:47
As always, please, please, please subscribe, follow like
1:06:51
just show us to your friends emails at wasdbeyond@gmail.com.
1:06:56
Let us know what you're most excited for in 2026.
1:07:00
What will come out what won't come out.
1:07:01
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1:07:04
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1:07:21
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