Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - 2021 Video Game Predictions - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 58

Episode Date: January 28, 2021

Tim, Greg, Blessing, and Imran predict video games in 2020 including GTA 6, Zelda, Nintendo Switch Pro, Halo Infinite delays, and more! 00:00:00 - Start What We’ve Been Playing 00:02:00 - Maiden 00:10:15 - Persona Strikers 00:17:04 - Judgement 00:24:30 - Topic of the Show: Predictions 2021 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up guys. Welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games cast. As always, I'm Tim Getty's joined by one of the coolest dudes in video games. Greg Miller. Ahoy, hoi, hoi. The former informer, Imran Khan. Ahoy, hoi. Oh, damn. And the new face of video games blessing at Ayoe, Jr. Ahoy, hoi, hoi. You had all that time to come up with something original. Bless, that's what you end on. You'll love to see it. That's the type of magic you'll get here on the kind of funny games cast for each and every week we get together and talk about video games and all the things that

we love about them you can watch the show live as we record it just like our patreon producers james hastings sancho west gaming and julian the gluten-free gamer can by going to patreon dot com slash kind of funny games you also get the show ad free you also get the exclusive post show so much value so little time but if you don't have the money but you do have the time guess what youtube dot com slash kind of funny games that's where the show will come later also podcast services around the globe and bruceytheid dot com we'd like to give you many options any options you want to consume this content uh today we're doing our infamous i would say 2021 video game predictions i'm very excited to get into all of it of course we're brought to you by express bpn freshly and me yundis but i'll tell you all about

that later let's get into some stuff before we get into the 2021 games i want to talk about what we've been playing just a little bit, mainly because I want an excuse to talk about Resident Evil. Did any of you guys play this at all? I watched a play through. I've not played it myself yet. Okay. I mean, it's watching a play through playing this.

Pretty similar experiences, I would say. It's about 10 minutes long. But like if you get a little confused with some puzzles, it can be, you know, 15 or 20. I'm not saying I know that from experience, but, you know, it did take me 20 minutes. No, but it's a visual showcase is what they were calling it, where it's kind of like there's no combat, there's some puzzles in it, and it's more just kind of like to give you an idea of the look,

feel, and general vibe of Resident Evil Village. Blessing and I reacted to the Resident Evil showcase they did last week, and they showed a lot of it. That was where they announced the Maiden thing. And my first gut reaction to it, like after beating it was, I really wonder what Capcom strategy is with these Resident Evil demo releases.

Because they've now done it a couple times in the past where Resident Evil 7, they announce it that same day. We get the expansion of the kitchen demo, whatever it was. And then, you know, Resident Evil 2 and 3 both had the demos, the one-shot demos, whatever that you can play. But this obviously goes way more back in line with the RE7 thing of like, hey, here's something that's like not from the game, but it's like kind of around the game and also pre-order now.

but it's interesting to me that we don't see that strategy from many other developers or publishers but it seems like it works because I played this and I'm like I'm I mean I was already excited for Village but I'm like this fucking thing is beautiful like I want this now it strikes me as a thing that's good for horror games because like PT is probably the biggest example of that and obviously we didn't end up getting Silent Hills after that but PT came out and it was viral and it was a showcase of hey this is how good the Fox engine looks and this is how good, or this is what is leading into Silent Hills, and here's the reveal of Norman Redis and all this stuff.

And for horror franchises, I feel like that's a potential thing that could possibly go viral in order to market your game. And I'm down for those because I also tried the kitchen demo when Resident Evil 7 was coming out. And I didn't really have much interest in playing Resident Evil 7, but the kitchen demo is enough for me to go like, oh my God, this is like, this is cool and it's free,

and I can play it in 30 minutes and have my time with it be done, which I might get into Maiden just for that. Just like you saying that it's 20 minutes has me like, oh, I might just download it. Yeah, it's worth playing through because it goes by so fast. And like there's enough different areas you go in. Like the goal of it is showing off how beautiful in next gen it is. And with that, my God, R.E. Engine on next gen is, it's insane. It's just like utterly gorgeous and spooky is all hell.

And I definitely prefer the third person, Resident Evil games, especially the modern ones to the first person, but there's no denying first person scarier. Like, there's no denying that it has the ability to kind of like freak you out, especially with the use of sound and the environments that they put you in, in even just the maiden demo. I was like, oh, damn, village has the potential to be creepy as hell while not necessarily relying on it being dark and dirty and like, you know, like assess pool for fear. It's kind of like, oh, this is a pretty, pretty man.

You know what I mean? It's not like to run down or anything. And it's like just a it's a different vibe than RE7. Obviously we've seen it in other Resident Evil games. But you know, playing through seven so much of that was swampy, dirty feel or like even when you're in houses, they're shaki and like it's elapidated in a lot of ways. They're like literally a little by you house. Totally.

Whereas this is like a dope ass castle. And it reminds me more of devil may cry type environments, original DMC1 than than Resident Evil that I'm used to. And I'm like, oh, this is kind of cool and different, different. But it does start off in like, in caverns of the castle and like the cells. And it's like, you know, there's shit hanging and like blood and all and stuff. It's definitely a Resident Evil game. But I was I was pretty impressed with what we saw from, from Maiden.

Although it still has the same problem that I had with Seven that I don't necessarily love the way that the puzzles play out in first person. I think that the scares and the, there's no combat in this, but like the running away from potential combat, that is a lot more interesting to me than here's some bolt cutters. I wonder what you do with those, you know, but at some point, that's just what the game is. Yeah, that's got to be what Blessing finds out when he has to play R.E.7 on stream. Like that, we already know he's going to have to do. Is that on PlayStation VR, you coward? No, absolutely not. But yeah, like, it

I know Tim used to that looks really nice and like maybe it was just because I was watching just a video of it, but like, it looks great. Don't get me wrong, but it doesn't look like a general leap, generational leap over seven, which may be because seven were just such a great looking game. Dude, that's my thing, man. R.E. Engine at this point can do no wrong.

Devil May Cry 5, all the modern remakes and Resident Evil 7 are also gorgeous, but it really does look better. And like, you know, it's just me actually playing it on the next-gen console and like having all the next-gen like features that I have. I was like, damn, like it somehow looks even better.

And like, do I have any dual sense stuff at all? Not that I noticed. Okay. At all. If it did, it was very, it was minimal. But having just played medium, uh, which I probably should not talk about.

You cannot talk about it. That is a redacted game. You cannot talk about. Well, anyways, you guys could what I mean like, no, like, If we're behind the curtain, obviously we record all the shows live on patreon.com slash kind of funny games. So we're recording this live. Clearly this episode is going live on Thursday. So that is when the medium comes out.

But there's days in between there. So you could not talk about it. Yeah. I don't think it shocks anyone watching that we've played or have played or have. Yeah, regardless. My bad. But my point being that Resident Evil made and didn't do anything too interesting that I, that took me in or out of the experience when it came. So it didn't catch you off guard.

It's just what you expect. But not even what I expect. It just didn't even notice. It wasn't a factor at all. Okay. Because my thought with it, like, obviously I loved Resident Evil 7, which was unheard of at the time,

but I loved it in PlayStation VR. I loved the not having to know a bunch of backstory. Since then, Resident Evil 2, I adored. Resident Evil 3 had fun with it, but I didn't think, you know, we've talked about that to death. So Resident Evil Village here has totally been a, awesome.

That's coming out. And I couldn't do the, reactions with you guys so I didn't watch it and I haven't looked into it and I didn't download demo because I'm just going to play it anyway so I'm kind of I'm not I'm not I'm just black out on it like you know what I mean like that's a game I'm gonna play and I'm gonna enjoy but I can this one be playing a PlayStation VR2 I haven't even checked in that now why would I and like there's a PS4 version which I imagine be the only one you can play on PSVR yeah exactly but they have not said for like that is VR so okay I would

doubt it but you know who knows like Capcom's done stranger things sure But yeah, as long as it's just continuing on with what Resney was going to do lately, I'm all aboard, let's go. Also, are we just straight up calling this village? Like, I know that's the name, but it's eight, right? Like, we're not pretending it's not eight. Is it not just title Resident Evil Village? It is Title Resident Evil Village, but it's like where they did like with Seven where they had like the DIY. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, you mean, type it on Google, like the Wikipedia, I think is what Resident Evil Village, right? I'm going to check Steam. I'm going to see what's going to go to Steam. Go to Steam, of course, they always have you. Well, because technically Seven's call. biohazard. Yes.

Right. But I think that was still style. When you go to Capcom, when you go to Capcom's website, it's Resident Evil Village. When you go to Wikipedia's Reson Evil Village. Yeah. The article is called the Evil Village. This is 8 erasure. We're not going to pretend the 8's not there.

Like, is it going to be like Resident Evil Grand Prix for nine, but no one ever calls it nine? I'll try to think. How are they going to fit the nine in their next one? I do like Resny Evil Grand Prix. Where it is. Mr. X. Be careful what you wish for.

man. Yeah, and Lady Demetriski or whatever her name is, doing like a race. Demetriski. Oh, Lord. All right. Moving on from Resident Evil Village, eight, whatever you want to call it,

Maiden. Persona Strikers. Imron, you've been playing a bit about it, a bit of it. It's been a long-ass time, so this came out in Japan. What are your thoughts? So, to be clear,

this is all preview coverage. It's not in any way reviews thing because we're still at that point. I think the game is really neat. I think it's, Timmy, how much of A, age of calamity did you end up playing? Age Clamity? A handful of hours.

Okay. So, like, I think Age of Calamity is a very cool game where, like, it does the big battlefield thing of Zelda or of Hyrule Warriors really well, but, like, it didn't feel like a, like, a complete enough game, really. Like, it just felt like some, like, aspect of what I wanted from it was missing. Proserative Strikers is, like, the opposite of that, where I really, it feels like a persona game in a lot of, like, there's walking around town, there's the, I know you guys talk about it's on PSI love you already but like it does feel like a more complete persona game the problem is

where it beats up on age of calamity it also is like weak to things like it doesn't feel good like the actual battles don't feel like big battles they're not supposed to just like smaller kingdom heart style things but the actual act of like mashing buttons

I don't know when I'm hitting things or when I'm being hit by things so it just feels a little too mushy for me especially coming right off age of calamity which I thought was like say what you will about the complete package, the actual like fighting was good. But yeah, I don't want to step on too much of what has already been said,

but like it is a really cool, if you're into percent of five, this game is more persona five. It's just not, it's not a, it's not a standout Muso game, really. And the actual things that you'd come to a Muso game, like those action,

that action for, it doesn't really quite fill the circle there. But who knows, maybe that changes. That's kind of my thing with it so far is I've been looking forward to it as a person, game more so than a musso game because traditionally I'm not a big musso game person

but playing the demo and now doing the preview it very much still holds that persona energy and presentation that it's done so well that I wouldn't have known it's being done by a different developer like the best description I've heard of it is Barrett saying that it does feel like

an anime movie version of an anime series they really like the My Hero Academia movie it feels like that in a way that is true to what we've gotten before but in a way that also doesn't step on or interfere with what we've already gotten. And to them, like, I, the combat so far hasn't, uh, interest me, interested me that much in a way that I'm very excited about it.

I do like the ways in which they translate some of the battle system from original persona five into, uh, Persona Five strikers because they do, they do keep like the, uh, different like elements and all that stuff and summoning different personas and, uh, baton, well, actually, I don't know they have baton pass, but like, they do. There's a lot of, they do, yeah, they have, they have, also that translates from Persona Fy's battle system into strikers in a way that feels very cool and well translated that said every time I get to a combat sequence I'm like all right

cool yeah let's let's go through the motions so that I can get more story like I just want to hear I just want to hear these characters interact that's kind of what I'm here for well translated okay Barrett's not here so I wanted to ask Barrett about this but I guess I'll get to it later why did they pronounce the Japanese names wrong both in this and persona 5 which name like uh they say all the main characters have like very anglicized like pronunciations of their names like Ryuji Sakamato or something like that like that's okay yeah like it seems like a very deliberate decision I don't

get it. Hmm. Greg Miller. He would just get really defensive about it. No, this is an actual question for a blessing off of what he just said, right? Of like you're in this game for the preview obviously. You play, you're just getting through the fight to get to the next part of the story.

You're not really engaged by it. I don't want to be attacked. But isn't that somewhat similar to Persona 5 period? Like for me with JRP's, it always gets to eventually, right, where I don't feel like I'm making a choice. Like, oh, you're weak to this, so I do that. You know, especially for persona, I find out their weakness. And it's like, cool, you run Zio, you run Zio,

you give me a health buff. Let's go that way around it. I mean, I did enjoy the combat systems in Prona 5 Royal quite a bit, especially with the stuff that they added off. that for me, I was looking forward to the dungeons and exploring and going through those motions. And I think part of what made that exciting also was that you would have a lot of bits of story sprinkled on top of that and character interactions and reveal the dungeons that would string that stuff along in a way that felt interesting. And I think the same stuff seems to be here in Persona 5 strikers. But the combat, I feel that I am less, so far, less engaged by the combat than in Persona 5, strikers.

And I think part of that is the combat comparatively feels like it is stripped back a bit because, or not stripped back, but it's not as deep and as, you can't, you can't dive into it as much because Persona 5 strikers comparatively is going to be a shorter game for the type of game that it is. And so Perronipipiprile, right, is a hundred and something hour game, which means that over the course of however long, they're building on top of these systems, the, the stuff that you're doing outside of the dungeons. like social links and all this stuff or confidence will then feed back into how you're upgrading your character and Personafi Strikers doesn't really have If you want to say social links You have a lot of everything Yeah like you're going in there and pretty much using what you got

And like interacting the combat system in a way That just doesn't feel anywhere as deep as Persona 5 Royal I don't think it's that I think it's a like a link thing or like a depth thing It's just it doesn't feel good Like you can compare it directly to Age of Calamity Which is another Russo game that came out a month and a half ago It'd be like, okay, this doesn't, like, there are ways in which when you press a button and you expect a certain impact come out, Perciano 5 doesn't do that as well.

And like, you can compare it to other Muso games. I put it this way. If I were playing a Kingdom Hearts game and I was just playing it for the story and the actual every individual battle, not just some, but all of them were like, I can't believe this is another one of these or this doesn't feel good. That would be a bad Kingdom Hearts game, of which there have been several. There have been several bad game of arts games. This kind of feels like that to me of like, I want to see the story. I want to hear the music. But like this, the battle system just like, you can design something by just messing with the sound effects or stuff like that.

It's a little bit more than that, but it doesn't feel like if I were to, this is not a good character action game or like a great action RPG. It's a, wow, I can't believe they managed to get like a something that feels like percent of five into this like style, but not quite into the game. in play. Greg, before we move on to, before we move on to the topic of the show, I want to talk about judgment. Okay.

Have you not heard my whole rant about this? The other, a couple weeks ago, I guess two weeks ago, last week, whatever, Jen and I finished the Nightstocker on Netflix, the thing about the nightstocker case. It's a great document,

really good. And it was one of those things that, you know, Jen puts on true crime crap all the time. And usually I just, I half listen, I look at my phone or something like that. And it was for this one,

it was that way for episode one, episode two is paying more attention. Episode three, I was asking if we could watch it. And episode four was like this, you know, like thing we had to do. And so when we were wrapping it up, I tweeted like, hey, I'm in the mood for a detective game. Like what am I not thinking of? And a bunch of morons put out Batman. Some of them just to troll me, of course, some of them, because I guess they legitimately forgot that I reviewed most Batman games.

But then there was a bunch of stuff got shot out. And one of the ones that kept getting shout out was judgment. And it was judgment. Why is that familiar? then I looked and I was like, oh, right, the game from the Ecusa folks that we did on the showcase that I was excited for that when I got, I started and fell out at the end of chapter one. I couldn't remember why. And I popped it in last week, started it up and I've been totally addicted. It's like, it's one of those things that I love it when I put a game aside and actually do say, oh, the mood's got to strike me for it. And then the mood actually hits and I go back and I'm all in. Imron, I'm going to catch this panty thief. I'm going to make friends with everybody in the red light district. I'm going to get this goddamn killer. The mole is going down. I will tell you right now, I am taking comprehensive notes as I run out there as I'm all over the place out there doing it.

And it's just like, it's hitting all the, it's exactly the game I wanted right now and didn't know that I wanted it right now. It's the actual story of chasing down the serial killer of the mole. I actually am enjoying the cutscenes for it. I, of course, have always appreciated and enjoyed the Yakuza over the top fighting. So it's fun to be out there doing the, you know,

the X attacks and slamming bikes into people's faces and doing crazy. ass kicks off the wall. I'm investing all my points into it. I'm, you know, leveling up my guy. I'm just keeping my, uh, my whatever, invisible backpack full of bento boxes and everything else. Like it's, you know, I was talking about this of like the current popularity of yakuza. I love to see. But I feel like I missed the boat because I reviewed them, the initial ones that were coming over to PS3 back in the day at IG. And by the time, it really started to take off. I had kind of been yakuzaed out. I kind of felt like I had seen not all of it. enough of it. And so judgment had always been exciting because at the time, it was going to be the

first one that came over with an English VO track, which I thought would be better for me. It was mixing in all these things that aren't in the Yakuza games, right, of doing detective work and actually sitting there and, like, you know, examining crime scenes and doing these different things. And basically just putting a new lens on the whole thing. And so it's nice to be back in there. And the things that I do love about the accusa series are there. Obviously, it's super quirky. There's a bunch of weird stories. You know, it's so akin to the Imron tweet that he put out a couple weeks ago, right, about Yakuza like a dragon where it's most games challenge, you want your hero to save the world.

And Imran put up a bunch of screenshots of like, can you save my cat? Can you do these like boring tasks? Right. And it's the same thing for talk in this game where it's like, you know, I am trying to hunt down this serial killer. I keep getting running a foul of the Yakuza in the world. They keep beating me up. I'm on the run from them.

But at the same time, like, I make a friend with the guy who runs the fried chicken restaurant. He's just like, I don't know why people aren't here. Can you figure it out? I'm like, yes, I have a guy. who can go on social media and crack it all for you. It's like, it's a weird world of Yakuza, and it's just a fun world to be lost in right now.

Yeah. I really like the judgment. I don't think I ever finished it, and I think maybe now that you're playing it, I might go ahead and do that. But like, it's such a, it's such a good way to get people on board with like, hey, we know this is like a seven game long series over here.

People keep praising it, but you don't want to jump in even though people are telling you, like, maybe, like, just a good jumping in Sparta. This one might be good, too. There's still history there. So, Jedmer's this good spot to go with, like, check out the writing of this series. And if you like that, maybe go to Yakuza. But like here.

It's a palaklender, too. Yeah. They're really good palisclenter. Like, I don't know if you were ever aware of the, uh, the controversy that happened with in Japan, Greg, where they ended up replacing one of the actors because he was caught with like Coke. But like, on one hand, it's like, wow, that's a really weird overreaction. But on the other hand, like, it's really impressive that they managed to just like completely replace a character in this video game. They bottle and everything. And just be like, all right, no, the other guy didn't exist.

Here's what we're doing. Yeah, they took, I remember reporting on that, right? They had to take it off the shelves and stuff because of whatever the laws or the, at least customs are over there to do that and put it back out. Yeah, and I'm surprised, like, I'm surprised as popular as Yakuza is now. And the fact that it just keeps getting more popular that judgment came and went. I really do feel like it came out and people didn't really talk about it. And it kind of moved on.

Even, you know, Lucy, who's a big Yakuza fan, popped down. I was like, are you playing judgment? I'm like, yeah, she's like, yeah, I never picked it up, which I thought was interesting. because for me it's what I wanted. It was something different. Like I understand Yakuza and I get Yakuza and I understand there's seven great games there. But like I was ready for a different lens

on the entire experience. And that's what I'm getting here. And I'm really enjoying it so far. I imagine people had to like are people have put up so much investment into the Kuryu story, the Tojo clan and all that stuff. Sure. Like when you change characters, it's going to be a little bit of a steep curve for people. I think you, I'm sorry, go ahead.

I was just because I like probably a judgment two or a judgment three. if I do do that, I assume I will, is going to have more like, more of an audience glabbing on to it. Thank you, and that's the thing about it too when you talk about judgment, especially for me of why I didn't, why I fell off so early. I think that judgment is such a different and even more. I mean, if you always give shit, I've seen it going around lately. I forget if it was Matt Piscuitler or somebody else, but one of our friends on Twitter tweeted about like, man, I really like a dragon. But it sucks that when I get to the culmination of something, I know I'm going to get into a 30 minute cut scene. and have to go through all that before I get to actually play in the game.

And so this is a thing where I can totally see me picking it up, putting in, expecting Yakuza meets detective, but the way they do detective is such a hard stop. And it is so much listening to people and remembering what they say so then I can choose the right dialogue option or getting into an empty parking lot and looking around to figure out what thing it is. And then I hear the cat meowing and I'm looking for the cat just for the hell of it. You know what I'm like, but it's like right now it's what I want is I'm in this world

then I'm, you know, leveling, talk up, and I'm doing all these different things. And now a word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by mey undies. I've been talking about these for years. Of course, wearing the meandie shirt, got the lounge pants, got the undies, got the socks. Meandies from head to toe,

feeling so soft, so fresh, so clean. Now they got their Valentine's Day additions, which means you get to match with your significant other, with your special partner, with whatever you want to call them. Me and G, finally convinced her to get some. of these meyundies and we have been matching she got some little koala bears guess what i got koala bears too

very fun stuff meandis are made with sustainable breathable softer than soft fabric and available in a range from sizes from extra small to four xl meandis has a great offer for you guys any first time purchasers you can get 15% off and free shipping meandies also has their problem free philosophy and of course you know i love that if you're not satisfied with any product for any reason they'll refund or exchange it. No caveats, no questions. I even got me undies slippers, guys. I don't know if I've talked about that, but yeah, I have them. To get your 15% off your first order and free shipping, go to meundies.com slash kf games. That's meundies.com slash kf games to get 15% off your first order and free shipping. Next up, I want to give a shout out to Freshly. Last year was

insane. This year, let Freshly's chefs take care of your meals a few nights a week and take the pressure off of you. What's really cool about freshly is you don't need to cook. They just send you the stuff and you heat it up and then you're eating good meals. Cool Greg has been absolutely loving this. It is a godsend to him. Freshly offers chef-made nutrient pack, delicious meals delivered fresh to your door. No cooking required.

Grocery shopping and cooking can be a pain, especially right now. With freshly, you don't have to. Your meals arrive cooked and fresh every week so you can keep your fridge stocked and skip the trip to the store. Ordering is easy. You visit Freshly. com you can choose from over 30 delicious satisfying better for you meals like steak peppercorn sausage baked panache which i had a little bit of and it was fantastic or their chicken pesto bowl right now

freshly's offering you guys $40 off your first two orders when you go to freshly dot com slash kinda making eating better your new year's resolution and get a special limited time offer go to freshly dot com slash kinda for $40 off your first two orders one more time that is $40 off your first two orders by going to freshly.com slash kinda. Finally, shout out to ExpressVPN. We all know that an ExpressVPN protects your privacy and security online, but until recently, you might not have realized that you could also watch a whole bunch of content on different streaming platforms, whether it's Netflix or, you know, Hulu or Amazon

or any of that stuff. You can trick your system into thinking you're somewhere else so you can access Ireland's Netflix. What type of content do they have? I don't know. You can have to use ExpressVPN to find out. It's so easy to use. You just fire up the ExpressVPN app,

change your location to where you want to go, refresh your Netflix, and then boom, you're checking out new content. If you love anime, you can use ExpressVPN to access Japanese Netflix and be spirited away. There are hundreds of VPNs out there, but you should use ExpressVPN to watch shows because it's ridiculously fast.

There's never any buffering or lag, and you can stream an HD. No problemo. Lamo. ExpressVPN is also compatible with all of your devices, phones, media console, smart TVs, more. So you can watch what you want on the go or on the big screen wherever you are. If you visit the special link right now, which is expressvPN.com slash kind of funny. You can get an extra three months of ExpressVPN for free. Support the show, watch what you want and protect yourself at ExpressVPN.com slash Kind of Funny.

All right, guys, it's time. 2021 video game predictions. It's going to work like always. We're going to go around taking turns. Each one of us gives a prediction. We will be giving five predictions each. And the way that each prediction works is you need to lock in your prediction. And you can have the multiple parts at some point.

This will be tallied. All of the ands and butts will be counted up. If you get part of it right, you get part of the points. That feel fair? That makes sense to everybody. You can add qualifiers. You can do whatever you want. and the people here will be able to judge whether or not it's bullshit.

Fair? Fair. Fair. Let's get into it. Greg, we've given you the least time to prepare for this. We're going to start with you. I apologize for that.

It was that thing. I think we talked about it last week and forgot all about it. And then today, Blessing was like, hey, do we need predictions? And you were like, yes,

and I was already on the road to something else. And then I've been on two shows or whatever since then. So I'm going to start with the easy one and take it from all you. No God of War Ragnarock this year. It ain't happening. Get out of here. That game's not going to be ready in 2021. Cory Barlog as usual, lying to you.

And you really got a feel for Alana Pierce, who threw away her entire career to go over there on a boat of lies. And now she's there, and it turns out there isn't even a game I heard. And I made that part up. At least on the journey on the boat, they were telling great stories, you know. Yeah, I did that. Yeah, I hope I'm wrong. I hope it, I hope I'm wrong.

I hope that Goddow Ragnonok totally comes out this year and kicks the shit out of everything. And it's amazing. But I don't think that's going to happen for a number of reasons. I think it was one of those games that they announced and had the best intentions of getting here, but I bet with just regular video game development, let alone distanced, let alone COVID, let alone everything else. I don't think it's going to make this year. Literally right before you said that, second before you said that, I erased one of our predictions, which was God of War Ragnarock will come this year. Yeah. Because I'm not confident enough in it.

I'm feeling good about it. And maybe it's just because, you know, Tim Getty's going to win the kind of funny games cast fantasy league 2020. Dude, I went to the subreddit the other day and it It was just one of the ones is like, Lull, Tim filled his entire team. Tim, when after the show, did you bet a dollar on everything and just go in and get all those games? Right after the show, I bet a dollar on all the, and I was like, I don't want to keep this fun. So I'm going to keep it in the Tim strategy of going for the games that. If you'd miss last week's episode, right, you can go to kind of funny.com slash gamescast league. You will see the blessing Greg Imron and, of course, Tim Getty's league here as we've gone through for this fantasy draft.

But yeah, Tim, everybody else kind of just stopped. Because I'm saving my books for games that aren't announced yet. Tim did not stop. I got so many bucks. Well, you only have some, but you filled your thing. So now you get rid of four. I thought it was three and then two. I don't know, whatever.

Yes, you can't get rid of you. Three from this year. Yeah, anyways, you can drop us. Yeah, no, no, it's not crazy. It's a strategy. I'm not against it. I just thought it was hilarious that I looked back and it was like, what, where? What's the last one you picked on the show?

Was it Metroid Prime 4? No, I didn't pick Metrood Prime 4. That wasn't one. I got for a dollar. Okay, so maybe out of three, it was the last one you picked on the show. Probably. And then for a dollar,

you picked Metroid Prime 4, a dollar for Grand Theresa 7, a dollar for Axi and Verge 2, a dollar for Starfield, a dollar for Far Cry 6, a dollar for Pokemon, Diamond and Pearl remake unannounced, a dollar for Delta Rune,

a dollar for Last of Us two factions. There's like one or two there that I probably would have been against had I known. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But I'm more of the thing that's just going to let it sit. I want to see what happens.

There's a whole lot of year ahead of us. I think Tim is screwed. I'll have to wait and see. You know what? I'm going to go next with my predictions here. Oh, look at this. Because it goes off of one of those. So the year was 2006.

Everything changed when Pokemon came to the Nintendo DS with Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl. Now, many years have passed since then. And Pokemon has changed in some ways. In some ways, it stays the same. And in those ways of staying the same, it always goes back to the original well. which from that we have the mainline Pokemon games we have the Pokemon remakes but then we have the Let's Go games

and everybody here wants everyone here especially you Greg Miller can't wait Pokemon Diamond and Pearl remakes they want it to finally happen ladies and gentlemen are here to tell you that that is not going to happen this year instead we are in fact going to get Pokemon Joto versions of let's go now here's me locking in my statement to get the points I'm not just going to say that that's happening. I'm saying titles here. Pokemon, let's go Togapy, and Pokemon, let's go Pichu. Take it to the fucking bank.

Dude, you just shot one of my, like the entire prediction I had. I would have said Meryl instead of Togap, but yeah, I could see it. Also, Tim, your strategy for this is immense of like, you were literally conflicting between your fantasy draft and predictions. Tim was going to win, though. Tim's going to win something. Tim's a dichotomy. No one can stop him.

If I lose, I still win, which I think is fantastic. Uh-huh, uh-huh. I'm really- I'm feeling good. And real quick, I didn't want to say, Amron, to your point about Meryl. I think,

like, that was also where I was going with this, where I was trying to think, I'm like, who would be the reps? And I think that Meryl to people like us that were around back then, that remember the, you know, pre-jodo thing.

Like, Meryl was Pika-Blue. Like, that was like, oh, shit, Meryl's going to be a big fucking deal. Meryl wasn't shit. Meril never turned into shit. Meryl was a semi-big deal with the Pokemon cards.

because it was like the first of the new Pokemon that were seen. But besides, well, besides Ho-oh in episode one. But Togapis' like anime representation, I think makes Togapagic much more of like a Joto face than Merrill. And also I was thinking about let's go Evie and Pikachu. That's a normal type and then Pikachu electric type. Togapy's normal type. So it was fairy. Well, wasn't it normal?

And then they changed it to Ferry when they added Ferry. Yes. But regardless. Like, we'll see what they do there. Merrill, also fairy. That's true. It's going to throw it out there. Could have two fairies.

Yeah. I don't know. I had written down here that we'll get a new Pokemon game this fall. It'll be called Pokemon, let's go Togapy and Pokemon, let's go Merrill. And it'll also come with a fun Switchlight special edition. And so congratulations on stealing my prediction. Hey, I mean, hey, we'll still have the, you can make it a prediction. if we're going to have the fight here on who gets the points.

Is it going to be Merrill or is it going to be Pichu? It's not what I'm worth taking. Because I think you're right. I think if they had to choose between Merrill and Pichy for a title of a Pokemon game, Pichu makes way more sense from a marketing perspective. So then if you're not going to do that, coward. What's your first prediction, bless? Oh, man.

All right. So that was like one of the ones that I had that was realistic. I have multiple get hype predictions. I have a couple of predictions that I actually do think might happen. I'm going to start with a get-hype prediction. Do it. PlayStation announces

a new exclusive original Star Wars game in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games the title, Star Wars Knights of the High Republic, developed by BluPoint and Japan Studio. And this all be wrapped up in the announcement that Sony will officially acquire BluPoint. You're fucking up a lot of this.

There's some gold there, but then there's just some wrong information. Let him take his decimals. Let him get a 0.11. If we're anywhere in the ballpark. Okay. So I also have a very similar prediction. Do you want to make it to lock in a prediction of yours? I'm going to make it to lock in because I think Blessing has some right things,

but I think he's messed up on the title. Or the not title, but like the actual game being made. I think Sony is buying BluPoint. I think that we're going to announce us here. But I also think it's not a new original title. I think they're going to remake MGS 1. God, please, please, God. We're banking you.

You gave us this damn pandemic. Give us something to look forward to. God, I'd want that. I'd want that so bad. But Satan, if you're listening to. Either one. Whoever gets it. To talk about both those predictions for a second,

I do think that it's going to be Knights of the High Republic. We were talking about that on games. On Game Day. I think that that's a safe bet. It's not a lock, but it's a safe bet. As in a game that exists, not necessarily from these people. I don't think it's going to be from BluPoint. And I also don't think it's going to be a PlayStation exclusive.

I think the Knights of the High Republic has a better chance of being Xbox exclusive, specifically given the lineage of Knights of the Old Republic. I throw this in there just totally as like if I get this right, I'm God. of thing, but likely I'm going to get it wrong. Jesus declared himself God. It just makes it. Star Wars Night's RPG to be on Xbox. The thing I struggle with is

who would develop it on Xbox? Because in exile seems to be working on something else, and they also have actually, I don't know if in exile has anything announced, but they are working on something else. Obsidian is working on a Vowd and they got grounded, and it seems like they're going to be too busy to work on a Star Wars game. But that is

obviously working on Starfield and Elder Scrolls. And in the end of, oh, I mean, exactly. Indiana Jones. It's machine. It's machine. Yeah, and then Playground is working on Fable. It's like,

who over at Xbox is going to work on a Star Wars game? And then if we are talking about Lucasfilm games and the strategy in terms of giving out games and who's going to develop what,

right? We've talked about Indiana Jones being developed by machine games, which there is a potential there, unconfirmed, you don't know shit, obviously,

but there's a possibility that maybe Indiana Jones ends up as an Xbox exclusive game. If that's the case, what's going to be PlayStation's exclusive game from Lucasfilm games could be

Star War who would develop it for PlayStation. This is where I kind of struggled of like, okay, who's the developer going to be? Ben Studio came to mind for a sec. But for some reason, I don't feel like it would be a good fit for Ben's studio. Then BluPoint came to mind. Blue Point, obviously,

like, they're amazing at making remasters and remakes. They did great with Shadow Colossus. They did great with Demon Souls. I think if they are going to make their own game, if they are going to join PlayStation, make their own game, that is something original. It has to be a banger. And I think a banger could be a new Star Wars RPG.

And I think them working on Demon Souls probably gives them a bit of that pedigree in terms of, all right, we know how an action game works. We know how to make a game with RPG mechanics. Like we know how to do all this stuff. All right, let's staff up. Let's go for it. Let's make a Star Wars game for PlayStation.

I think that's how that ends up. I feel like everyone's always like, oh, Blue Point's going to make an original game next, which I don't know where that comes from besides just assuming that they've earned it, which I don't think that's the way it works. I think when you do it, a bunch of good remakes so he doesn't go hey good good job kid you've earned right to make a new game

they go good you're making remakes let's make making remakes let's make you when they merge you into another company they're going to work at blizzard stuff the first thing is like I think if they merge in a playstation that then is going to change the core of who they are and like what playstation we want to do with them but then also when we talk about metal gear solid remake you can't make a metal gear solid one remake without integrally changing that game and it's something different you're not going to make that in the top-down game that it was on PS1. Bless. Can you tell me who made the MGS remasters

that were really, really good on PS3 and 360? Blue Point, but was MGS 1? Wait, was M-GS-1 part of that? No. No, MGS 1 was not. They have a good point, though, but I think they just change it, and then people are like, oh, no, Twin Snakes.

Wouldn't it be like, I guess they didn't change as much for Shadow the Colossus, though, right? But the things they did change or add or, you know, expand for Shadow the Colossus. Everybody's like, those were good. And it is in line with it. Like, you could rethink that. Like, again, Twin Snakes doesn't get enough credit for being fun and having ideas.

I think Sixth is good, but I think Twin Snakes is way too close to MGS1. We're now like 20 plus years away from it. Now it's going to be like, okay, they changed it. Fine. Yeah, exactly. They have to change. Shadow Colosses was pretty much one for one with that game on PSD, aside from the art and visuals.

And, like, I mean, that's why a lot of people's big complaint with Shadow Coloss's remake was that it controlled too similarly to the PS2 game, which a lot of people have problems with. I think if we're going to remake MGS1, it wouldn't be a typical BluPoint remake where it is. We're going to keep the soul. We're going to keep the controls. We're going to keep the gameplay of the original game, but change everything else in terms of art and assets and visuals. For MGS1, you got to like go from the ground up and if you're going to remake that game. I think they absolutely changed things, but I think the key. to avoiding a backlash is going to be the words overseen by Hideo Kajima.

Like, I don't know, Kajima's just like calling in like once a week, be like, hey, you guys are in business? Cool. Then like leaving.

Like, I think that's how it happens is. And they throw those words on there. And I, 100% agree with you is I think, and I think that's the best bet. And I think that is exactly how Sony would do it because they know what a success that would be of being able to be like,

hey, we've, you know, we've licensed it from Konami. We're, we're taking care of it. We're giving it to blue point. and we've been able to bring, you know,

Kajima Productions, Hadeo Kajima over to, yeah, check in. And this is very clearly their vision of my game, but I get to approve and I get to be a part of it. Yeah, and that would be enough that. Everybody would be like, great, let's go. I think that would be awesome, and I'm 100% with you. I would way prefer that game than even a Star Wars game.

I do think that is still a new game, though. Like, to the argument of a Star Wars game from BluPoint would be a new game for them, and we don't know why they would make that shift when they do remix so well already. A Millier Solid from BluePoint, I still feel like would be a new game, right? Like, it would be a game inspired by new.

There would be more Final Fantasy 7 remake than. Yeah. Exactly. That's what I'm saying, yeah. I think it would still be, it would turn a difference between like a, a Blue Point style remake that they've done before and a FSM. I think it would be more along the lines. It would be further along the lines of the Demon Soul, like Shadow Classes' Demon Souls

thing they've been doing already, except this time they actually put some design work into it. Not like whole new game design work, but some design. quick question that I can't find the answer to googling if you guys remember was shadow colossus remake $40 or was it $50 or 60 it was below full price I remember being $40 yeah it was 40 because I I can't see them putting out Metal Gear Solid at $40. Yeah the demon was 70 but that's my point is I don't think that a remake of Metal Gear Solid can pass for $70 these days that game's just not big enough

There's not enough going on. To be good at least, we design some things. But, like, it's not going to be, you know, it is not from the ground up kind of thing. It's not a brand new game. It is going to be, here's the story of a good solid. It's like the characters you know, but we're redoing the gameplay decent bit. Interesting. I'm excited.

I hope some parts that are true. Greg, back to you. Second prediction you're locking in. Mm-hmm. It's like, do I want to get the obvious ones off? the point, the table here, get the points. Or do I want to start swinging for the fences? I guess it's, you know, number two, you got to go with probably the most important,

the most important prediction of the episode. The prediction that you all, and not you guys right here in the, in the audio, and not you guys on the show with me, the people in the YouTube comments, you know what I mean? The people who will want to laugh at this, but time will tell that I'm correct. by the end of the year Avengers will be seen as a good game people will enjoy it there will be a lot of content

we will be playing it it will be back on track there will have been a bunch of drops people it will be one it'll not it's not I don't think it's in such a dire situation as no man sky was so I don't want to say it's that kind of thing but I think Imran I'll let you be the judge when we get there I think that if you put the thermometer

you do a temperature check on it the temperature check will be like Avengers pretty good now. I think it's either going to be Avengers, they just completely drop support after Spider-Man, or it's going to be like, this game is good now. Like that's amazing,

not like rush out and get it, but like, you know, this game started like kind of shitty, but it's pretty good now. This is a coin flip of all coin flips, because I would tell you, it's either Avengers's pretty good now

or Avengers dead. Like they pulled the plug, admitted it, it's over, it's done, it's gone. Forget about it. Chris-Sahn Amix is working on another fucking Tomb Raider.

Or close. Do you think like, when would they have to get started to like, because right now we don't know when Hawkeye is, much less Spider-Man, much less Wakanda. Like, push way off on Spider-Man. When do you think they had to really start hitting those notes before,

like for a redemption story this year? My, again, it's a coin flip. Like, because I know, I was talking to shows about, oh, man, people act like this is a binary decision or whatever. It's black or white. This is a black-and-white situation on what's happening right now, these gentlemen. We are already in, we are already either in the good place or the bad place.

The good-place version of this, Imran is that everything we're talking about and like what do they have to do to get back to it we're already on the track and the reason they're so quiet and the reason you haven't gotten anything is that in the next I mean I would have to see it by now obviously I think it's kind of late but in the next month we'll say but in the next couple weeks we're going to get the announcement of hey the next Avengers war table is on this day we will go to that war table and they will say hey Hawkeye is coming out on this date hawkeye is coming out alongside the PlayStation 5 Xbox series version.

It is also coming with the Wakanda Raid. It is also coming with AIMS Secret Lab that Fran played accidentally. Seven months or no, no, no, that's that. I'm sorry, sorry. Three months ago, four months ago? Four months ago? Yeah, four months ago. Yeah, four months ago.

Fran accidentally played, right? All of that content we talked about, we have been sitting on because we have been getting the game to actually be playable and good and ping systems and all the base level foundation shit that we didn't deliver, that we should have at launch,

is now in the game, which means we can now build on that and give you cool shit. So you're getting Hawkeye, you're getting the secret lab, you're getting the patch for the next gen version, you're getting the Wakanda stuff. That is this, and here's the roadmap for 2021.

It will come with bad news. It will come with bad news of, Spider-Man has been pushed drastically back. Spider-Man is now a fall second half of the year thing for sure, as we have now had to do all this different stuff, and we figured out how long it actually takes us to make characters. We're not where we need to be. But here's a roadmap with tent polls that show you.

We've taken all your feedback from it. We've put it into this game. We are committed to this game. Again, that's the good place. The bad place is a month from now, there's still no war table and that game is fucking dead. And like it is that they just, where is all this shit?

Nobody fucking knows. But I don't see that happening. My next one is a weird one. But I'm going to put some rules to make it a little more fair for myself. We're going to talk Smash Brothers characters, okay? There are three more characters to be revealed. My prediction is all three will be released in 2021, despite delays and despite any of that.

All three will be 2021. And I'm going to say six characters right now. And my prediction is that the three will be three of those six. And I'm putting the asteris that I only get points if all three of them are of the six that I name. Is that fair? Wow. That is fair. You're a crazy person, but I like it.

It's making it a little easier for me up front, but it's double or nothing. And those six are. Sora. Ryu, Hayabasa from Ninja Guiden. Crash Bandicoot. The dude from Doom. Doom Guy. Captain Toad.

Wow. Wow. Wow. Okay. Wow. And he can't jump. So that'd be some weird, interesting gameplay mechanics.

I bet you that Sakri has at least thought about Captain Toad and being like, that could be interesting because he's so different than everyone else because he can't jump. And the moment he figures out, if he can come up with a fun gameplay mechanic, Captain Toad's in for sure. If you can't, he won't.

And the last one is Rayman. Rayman. I know, I know Rayman. We've now seen Western games. They can make it in. So Bethesda, Yuby, getting some love, I think that would make a lot of sense. So those are my six.

Riu, Doom Guy, Rayman, Saur, Crash Band, Acute, Captain Toad. I need three of them to be confirmed for me to get a point. Fair, and I respect it. I can believe that. I think you'll get two. I don't think you get three. Who is he going to get, Blas? You'll get Ryu from Ninja Guyton.

And then the other one's a toss-up. I have no idea which of those other ones. But it'll be one of them. It'll be one of them. I don't think you'll get Sora, even though I would love Sora. I think Sephroth makes Sora less likely, but at the same time, it somehow makes it more likely. That's true. And I don't know why, but that is true.

That is exactly what it feels like. And then I'll say you'll get Doom Guy maybe. Yeah, where is doing? What's your next one? Hey, real quick, too. Sorry, Portie's acting a fool. I'm going to pill him, but I can still hear you. Cool.

Should I go hard on the second one? I went hard on the first one. Always go hard. Let's go hard. But GTA5 is finally not consistently in the top 10 game sales, which means that it's finally time. It is, but it's not. Like, take two stop reporting digital sales. So it's still there.

Okay. So it's still killing it. Either way, it's time. GTA 6 is announced this year. We get a tone piece establishing a sunny, scenic setting that highly resembles Vice City. We're introduced to a grittier version, though. Well, it was once a colorful, lively city is now plagued with violent neighborhoods, class disparity, and your main character is at the center of it all. As the trailer closes, we get a transition effect.

It's a similar effect to the zoom out from GTA5 when you're switching between characters. However, this time, the zoom out depicts the entire country. We zoom back in on the West Coast, where a nameless character in Los Santos says the phrase, quote, we're in this job together. And this time, it's worldwide. end quote. GTA 6. Batman. GTA 6 is Vice City, but GTA Online is an expanded version of online where Rockstar ads in new cities and locations over years and years with a 10-year plan. GTA online will be released separately from GTA 6.

Your prediction is almost word for word. A prediction. Well, you got a little more specific than I did, but the prediction I made last year, which was GTA6 will be announced this year. It'll have single player, which will be said in Vice City, but eventually it'll turn into world of GTA, adding whole areas to travel between you. Yeah, you might have sold that. It's all good.

It's all good because I think it's crazy. You're locking that one in. So now I just get to say this. I was going to lock one in that we get a trailer. And it says G-T-A. We get the V-I for six. But then you also get a C-E, C-I-T-Y, baby. Let's go.

So between me and you, I think we have a really, dope trailer. Now we just need to be if they actually make this a game. It's time because like GTA 5 came out in 2013. Red Dead came out in 2018. That's a five year five year gap right there. If we're going by that, that means GTA 6 is probably 2023. 2021 seems like a great year to reveal that game. And so you keep saying it's time, but I feel like no, it's not like if GTA is still selling super well? They literally haven't launched five yet. Five is coming later this year on PS5.

What are you guys say by that, smart guy? I would be, I would not be shocked if we never even see a GTA6 at this point. Like, we have the conversation about Steam recently, and it's like, I do think we're going to get a GTA6,

but like, if it never happened, I'd look at that and be like, all right, they found their money. And like, why would they just keep making games, even if they're going to sell? They already have some of that sells

for like less work and less money and investments. But my, my thing is, I think if they expand on what they have with GtL Online, they could get those numbers back up because I know those numbers are still currently up, but GTA Online, when you go back to it, it just feels so archaic in so many ways.

Like the matchmaking and loading still kind of sucks. The game doesn't feel as brand new anymore. There's so much in it that feels like a game that was developed for PS3 and Xbox 360 because it was a game that was developed for PS3 and Xbox 360. A lot of stuff can be updated in a way that gets a lot of people who have probably lapsed by now back in and makes that thing the most popular

popular thing since sliced bread. Slice bread very popular. Imron. What's your next one? Let's see. I'm going to actually re-up one with some matter of details I did last year because I was wrong about 2020. But I do think it will be true in 2021. I think that we will get a Switch Pro this year.

Whatever they call it, maybe like New Switch, whatever. I think, and this is where I start adding more details and like guesses, I think it has a version of DLSS in VINV's like upscaling technology. I think it's where we're going to get like a lot of how Switch Pro is going to keep up with modern games.

And I do think that it launches with Breath of the Wild too. I think all those are very, very fair assessments. Yeah. This might be one of the way to the end of the year to find out on, but I think it's going to happen this year. I'm going to use one of my locking ones

to give my version of yours, which is I do think we're going to get the next switch. this year. I'm not going to say it's necessarily tied to breath of wild I'll let you keep that part. But what I will say to add on to it is that the switch will be the highest selling

family of consoles in 2021. And that the we will get the next switch and it might be the pro, but I think that it's going to function more as an actual next switch than just a pro. I don't necessarily think it will be 100% backwards compatible and they're not going to get rid of the install base that they

recently gained from Animal Crossing in that mainstream kind of vibe. They're going to want all the games to be able to be playable going forward. But I can see this being more of an Xbox type ecosystem for Nintendo. But I do think that it'll be a sizable, a noticeable increase, a almost next gen type increase for Switch. Like I kind of agree with you there. I think it'll be like an iPad sort of thing of, oh, this is just the next iPad. It still plays all the old stuff the old iPad does.

but as time goes on, eventually the old iPad is not going to play everything. Totally, yeah. I think that's kind of, like they're not going to call it Switch 2. It'll just become like Switch, and at some point the old one gets cheaper

and this one goes to 300. Or also go cheap, I guess. Greg Miller. Hi, how are you? You know what I mean? Because I have it on here. I know what you mean. I know what you mean.

It's a boring one, but it's just fun to fly in the face of you guys. I say no Switch pro this year. Hmm. I say no, no Switch pro. Don't worry about it. You know, that's not happening. Don't worry your pretty little head.

Just enjoy Breath of the Wild 2 or whatever on your normalized switch. No new Switch Pro. No Switch Pro. Off of that, I also have a prediction that involves the Switch Pro, but it's more focused on Zelda because this year's Zelda's 35th anniversary. And I think they're going to go harder than they went for Mario during his anniversary. So that's going to start with ports and remasters of Ocreeno of Time, Majoris Mask, Winwaker, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword.

we're going to get a limited edition of a Zelda Switch along with new Zelda Apparel. They're going to get a Zelda Nintendo Switch Online Battle Royale similar to Mario 35. And then finally, we'll get an announcement of Breathful Wild 2's release date, which is going to be spring 2020. And that's going to be the same time where the Switch Pro comes out. A lot of that's believable, but it's too much, I think. You're going to get points. It is. I'm dreaming.

I'm dreaming in this. but I feel it with so many details because there is stuff in there, I believe. And are we going to get the remasters and ports? Probably not. But I do think they will do some sort of thing to celebrate Zelda. And I think Switch Pro and Breathful Wilde are both spring next year.

Yeah, Rob? Let's see. I'm thinking Microsoft makes a major Japanese acquisition. In the vein of these are not just the examples of what I think I will do, but in the vein of Kaua Techmo or Platinum Games. I know, Tim, you were hot on the idea of Sega last. Sega, I was.

I thought you were crazy, and I still think you're crazy. But I do think, I do think Koea Techmo makes a, like, the only reason I could see them maybe backing off that is that a lot of their best stuff, their best work comes to working on their licenses. Like Fire Emblem, the License Warriors games, you know, Dragon Quest Builders. Like, but I do think if Microsoft were coming to Japan with their wallet open, being like who should we look at. I think Koi Techno is a good example. But I do think they are going to make a major Japanese acquisition this year. Greg.

Hi, how are you? Good. Having a good time with this. I want you know. You're doing really well. Thank you. There's one that I know Greg has that I also have, and I'm very nervous he's going to say it because that means I can't probably say it.

No Last of Us Part 2 factions this year. Oh, this year. Yeah. Yeah. Damn, I thought that was going to be the one blessing was talking about. No, it's not the one. It's close to the one. the one.

But that's a fine prediction. But like, real talk, does last of us factions happen? Ever? Yeah. Don't depress me. I'm having a good Tuesday.

What's it? I'm having a good Tuesday. I think factions versus a good pallet cleanser for naughty dog. Like it lets them work on a smaller thing while they're turning ideas for the next game. I think you get factions. I think they've worked long enough on that. They've done enough,

not subtle. I mean, Oh, we're working on. Like, I think they've done enough with it that they'd want to do it. And I, and I, I feel honestly saying no last of those factions is one of my weakest for this year. It's just something, you know, to put out there to, you know, to tantalize, you know what I mean? To scintillate. But it's not when I fully believe in because I do think there's a great chance they could put it out this way.

And I think you put out a PSN version, or not a version, you put out a PSN last of those factions. People are excited. You know, it's something for NoddyDard to do this year before they fully, yeah, move on to next thing that you assume is in pre-production or at least spun up probably now. For my next one. I don't know my fucking blessings one is. Oh. I feel like I'm next to the line.

I've like lost count now. No, no. Tim goes next. Yeah, it goes great. You turn. Gotcha.

So in line with a lot of Imrod stuff about the mergers and acquisitions, I think that we are just seeing a taste of the beginning of a much, much more consolidated gaming future. I think what's happening on the streaming war side of entertainment of, you know, all the different production companies in Hollywood and whether it's TV or movies, kind of consolidating to fit in line of either the Peacocks or Paramount Plus or HBO Max, Disney Plus, all that stuff. We're going to start seeing that a lot more on the game side.

It's going to continue not just in form of things like GamePass, but also just in terms of portfolios of titles like PlayStation has. But I think that if I had to predict one, it won't be Sega. I do think at some point PlayStation or Microsoft are going to get Sega. But for this year, I'm going to say Microsoft will acquire Deep Silver. Because those games very much feel like GamePass games. And that it will just kind of pat out their library with just like, hey, man, here's just a bunch of content.

Like, here's just a bunch of games to play on GamePass. So you think like they'll buy them from T.HQ Nordic? Mm-hmm. I could see Microsoft. If anyone could make the argument, it would be Microsoft. I don't, yeah. Yeah. I don't see it.

It's a bold prediction. I like it. They will more than likely make a game pass deal with them more than they would require them. But yeah. I was going to say T.HQ Nordic just as a whole, but I just don't think that that's... Oh, my God. No way. No way.

The Embracer group, you think they're going to let them go? No way. There's 14,000 games that are currently in development. I'm going deep silver. It's Microsoft. I wouldn't even want to do that. It's like y'all have too many games. We're not managing any of this.

We're not touching y'all. Imran, do you, I know you got to go. Do you want to give your last two predictions now? Yeah, sure. I think Squirrel release something like a playable FF7 remake two demo like they did with Kingdom Hearts 3 with that Aqua demo. But instead of like, it'll not won't be a demo of the game, it'll be a thing that starts Zach.

Be like, here's a little bit of like, oh, do you think that's what the after crisis is or whatever? I don't know. That would kind of make some sense. But I think they would probably attach it to a pre-order. of another game. Do you think that that other game would be Final Fantasy 7 remake on NextGen and Xbox? No, I think that's too soon.

I bet that what they're doing for that is like, they were talking about a TIFA episode that never actually, Teva chapter that never made into the final game. I bet that makes it into that version. Ooh. Oh, man. A reason to play FF7. I dig it. Let me look at it.

Okay, I'll be this one. I think Spider-Man too gets teased at the end of this year. Like the God of Hort. Got a go rag rock style thing of like, hey, there's just a logo, here's a Spider-Rand music, then like a little web flip, and then like, that's it.

That's why you're gonna hear for it. And y'all motherfucker is gonna be happy. Yeah. I think, yeah, I think when I had first heard about the Spider-Man sequel, what was described to me was a little bit like Miles Brownellus was what was not entirely

what Miles Brownless was. So I bet that sequel is not as far away as we think it is. Hopefully, I'm speculating completely here, but hopefully it's going to be, a thing that might come in like within the next two years. I mean, I'll want up,

you get it, but it's not just a thwhip and a logo going away, right? It's the black suit. Yeah, I can see that. Yeah, like,

that's what you get. If anything, you know, just a quick thing of him. I guess similar to how they did Miles Morales, right, where they showed him blowing the thing up in slow motion. It's maybe a bunch of dudes getting webbed.

And we're just excited at Spider-Man, but then boom, he lands after being the shit. And he really beats the shit that he lands, right? He starts dancing in the black suit. I also bet that a, a new game has both characters that you can switch off between them.

Oh yeah, totally. Yeah, I'll love that. What a good future we have. I can't wait for that game. All right. I got a dip, but. All right. When I dip you,

we dip, I am round. So then Greg, is that, is that, was that your fifth? Or are you just adding on to, uh,

I was just out adding on anything. That's what's going to happen. Okay, cool. So then what is your, what's your next one? I definitely got skipped, by the way.

Go for it. I got like multiple ones. Here come the fucking excuses. I got multiple ones because I was ready to go out. after Greg, because Greg talked about his naughty dog prediction. I got a prediction that relates. Sony's San Diego studio, Sony's new San Diego studio, let me clarify, will be unveiled this year.

They are working on a new uncharted game. It'll be either Uncharted Lost Legacy 2 or some sort of spinoff slash reboot of the franchise. This is a prediction I believe Greg made last year. I'm stealing it. It's mine. It's fine. Take it. You know what I mean?

Yeah, I left it there. Obviously, you know, there's a lot of rumors about Sony San Diego. We've had a lot of good conversations on PSI, I love UXOX, X, about it and what it actually is working on over there. Do you think it, so, so I'm sorry, so you're saying Lost Legacy Part 2 or just some other spin-off, right? Yeah, some sort of uncharted, uncharted game. I'm saying Uncharted Lost Legacy 2 because I kind of want Uncharted Lascacy 2,

and I think that's something that you can work on and put out that won't get you as judged as like a mainline or brand new Uncharted experience. I feel like you kind of use that as a testing bed to see, okay, how do people feel about this? All right, people are blown away by it. Cool. Now let's make Uncharted colon, Solie story. or Uncharted 5 Nate's daughter spoilers or something like that. I think that would be the move for them.

And I think for how long there have been rumors about that studio, I think that, and especially rumors that it seem to be now turning into things that we can identify and confirm as, all right, this is the thing that's definitely happening. More or more safe. This fire's got to be there. Yeah. And I think they want to probably unveil that sooner than later

so that they can control and capitalize on that message as opposed to people talking about it over the, course of however long and having that be just an open thing that people know about. And so I think that's unveiled by the end of this year. Man, I hope whatever Sony San Diego is working on is unveiled by the end of this year. I still think I'm with you that if it's uncharted, I think it's going to be just a brand's making new uncharted. I don't think I do not think it'd be lost legacy too.

I think you'd go off and I think they're done with that. I think especially because Nottie Dog would feel ownership over that. That's the thing where I think you're maybe you're doing. I could see it that you're doing an uncharted that is a brand new character. And then you have Chloe as like the Sully figure. You know what I mean? That she's not even that much of the game, but she's the touchstone between the worlds.

Yeah, Tim. I just got chills. Right. That's fucking awesome. I want more uncharted. And I think that what you guys are saying is exactly what we need from it. Where it's like get it as far away from Nottie Dog as possible when it comes to, like the core character story of like,

get away from as many comparisons as possible. Let it be its own thing, have a new cast of characters, but still have that pulpy vibe and everything that makes uncharted good and having to be made by people that understand what makes uncharted good. And obviously we don't know much about this team,

but I think that there's a reason that Sony is building them up and Sony understands what their catalog looks like. And I think that having uncharted there, especially now that PlayStation Studios is a thing, and it has its intro with the different characters and stuff. You need to represent those characters. You know, it's like you need to not let people lose their attachment to these things. And I think that characters can also just be games and titles or whatever.

And I think Uncharted is one of those ones, especially with the movie coming out. Yeah. And I think, like, with that, you can still keep the power of Uncharted as the franchise because Sony obviously wants to keep doing that because, or theoretically, they would want to keep doing that because it is such a powerhouse for them. but you can add a new character to that roster of like last year we got like miles morales and jinzikai and abbey and these folks right what does that look like for this year and next year i think you can add a new uncharted character in that and have have it be this ever-growing thing of PlayStation studios is ever evolving and it's turning into this not cinematic universe in the way that things connect but cinematic universe in the way that we all know what this is we all know this is PlayStation and that has an identity it's gonna happen i hope it does i really really really really really really do i think that'd be cool and i think it'd be a great way to keep the make uncharted a brand and keep it going but i also wonder if we talked about this i know to death on psal of you but if sonny st a ago is working on something not uncharted but another playstation ip but i would assume it's uncharted yeah i mean my thing there is i think that new ip's

always great not always but it's a great idea like as we want new ip right we want to give new ip a chance and all this stuff uh but you also need to kind of support establish things because they're established for a reason. And I'm interested looking at Sony's different developers. And earlier, I'm talking about, like, at what point,

why do people look at BluPoint and say, oh, you're going to eventually be able to make a new game that's your own. Yeah. Yeah. Remakes. It's kind of like when we look at Gorilla, it's like they did Killzone until they did Horizon.

And I feel like it might be the more established groups that are getting the chance to go out there and make new IP. I think it's more likely that Noddy Dog gets to make a new. IP after Uncharted for and Last of Us 2, then Sony's San Diego, not Sony's San Diego, the new San Diego studio being able to do a new IP, right? Especially after like with Day's Gone's an interesting one, you know, because like it's sold well, but it didn't sell on the level of like these established things. That's to be expected from new IP, but compared to even a horizon, right?

Like it's, it didn't hit those levels. Sure. It didn't. It wasn't a breakout success like that. That's what obviously you wanted. Sony Bend wanted their moment like Gorilla had their moment. After working on a bunch of great games, I mean, again,

the Seifilter franchise, but I mean, especially coming off of the two PSP games and then getting to do Uncharted Golden Abyss, which I think was good and bad for them because I think that Siphon Filter PSP games were so good and underrated and underplayed because, of course, PSP,

but then to move over and do Uncharted Golden Abyss and immediately have it be to clap back of like, it's good, but it's not naughty dog good. It's not a naughty dog uncharted game, which of course I think is, a chilling effect for whatever San Diego is doing if they are doing an uncharted one. But if you didn't do Nate, different ball of wax, right?

Again, if we're talking about characters I'd love to see happen in the San Diego uncharted game, I would say Madison Page. Of course, after nailing the character name from Golden Abyss, I can't remember the actress. Christine Lakin. Christine Lakin was Madison Page in that,

and I'd love to see her get a crappy being that adventurer, have her be in that Pope adventure, have her be the star of San Diego, have that be the tie in roots, right? See a little bit across over here and there. But yeah, I think, you know, Sony Bend is in the exact same position of, yeah, what do you do with that? And where do you go with that? And Days Gone, yeah, they wanted it to be it.

And, you know, Days Gone is this weird thing where the critics didn't love it. I would say, like you're saying, it wasn't this major hit. But the people who did get into it from PlayStation really do love that game. Yeah. That's my thing with Ben and Days Gone is we've had conversations before about are we going to see Days Gone too and all this stuff. and I've always been doubtful because my thing is always like, I don't know if I, like, is there a purpose of days gone to in the way that Ghost Shima to everybody wants, Horizon Zero Dawn, everyone wants to see Horizon

Forbidden West, Days Gone just feel like it has that staying power. But to all you kind of talk about in terms of what Ben Studio probably wanted from Days Gone, like for it not living up necessarily to being the breakout success comparative to Horizon or even Ghost Shima, like still a good game that a lot of people enjoy. and as Sony, you've got to look at your studios and probably be like, all right, not everybody can deliver a horizon, right? Like, not everybody's going to be able to deliver

a ghost or a last list every single time because these are our biggest franchises. These are some of the biggest breakout single player franchises available in the industry right now. We can't expect that certain level of great, and I feel like I'm like shitting on Ben and I don't mean to do that. We can't expect that every single time

for every single studio and for what Ben did coming out of doing games like Uncharted Gold of this and coming through and making their own IP and delivering their own game. They did a very good job, you know, and I don't think that's a, I don't, but you, I wonder what their own, like, view of themselves are with, with that, you know? It's not even what the view of themselves are. It's what PlayStation's view of it is, right? Because, again, I'm, I'm talking here very specifically to the audience that loves days gone, because I know you're out there and I know whenever we come up, it's like, oh, you didn't

give it a chance or, and I, I'm not here to bag on Days Gone for what it was. But I would like to point out is that the people, and not all of them, because of course, a friend of the show, Eric Jensen is still over at Sony Ben, but, you know, Jeff Ross, John Garvin, the people who were up front and center for this game left, they have left. And it's not that there's no, they left in this giant thing, blah, blah, they actually had been gone for a while before they announced, hey, by the way, we left, you know, yada, yada, and they left and have their own reasonings for why. But you look at that, and John Garvin was there forever. And so, like, For them to go, was it, hey, we've been here forever and we've made a lot of stuff and it's time for us to go chase our own dreams?

Or was it that Days Gone didn't hit and PlayStation wasn't happy with that and they were like, fuck you. And there was more of a thing, a push and pull there between or was it that we really want to do Days Gone to or we really want to do whatever else. And they were like, listen, you can't do that because you didn't prove it here. And I'm, this is all, by the way, just speculation. It could totally have been that both Jeff and John are like, you know what? Like, no, I'm good. Like, it's time for a different thing. It's time for a different project.

It's time for something else to chase. But I think it's interesting that, you know, there is this chasm between what reviewers thought of it and what the hardcore days gone, people thought of it. And then to see the people who were really at the forefront of it, again, a nice takeaway from my friend, Derek Jensen, who's also at the forefront of it and the talent of the team at Bend, who worked on it, you know, hundreds of people working on this game.

I don't know. It's going to be interesting what they do next and where that goes. Yeah. So moving on to more predictions here. Sure, sure, sure. bless try to count how many have you done i have done one two three four i've done four okay i'm on my like i'm on one more gregg i've done four myself yeah i have one more left in the in the thing here okay cool do you want to do that then sure and again do i swing for the fences and get hype

it's your last one it's the last one you got to do it keep it spicy oh you want a spicy one It's spicy. Halo Infinite is delayed until 2022. Wow. I put that one as well. Wow. I fucking hope it is because that's the worst part of my fantasy draft. Looking back, now that I actually understand it, the counterpick, I'm like, why'd I do that?

That was stupid. But yeah, my gut tells me it's 2022. You think so? With all the director shifting, with all, or, you know, not director, but, you know, the lead. all the leads out of it yeah yeah it's like and you know especially with the feedback and we can only say it so many times but hey Xbox can't fuck this halo up yep yep yep yep yep yeah they just fucking can't or they can and halo is just what it is from here on out and that's kind of unfortunate i think

that's part of a bigger conversation of what xbox's offering looks like but uh i yeah i think 2020 is not a sure thing, but it's a safe. It's exactly. I don't think it's a sure thing, but I think with the writing on the wall already that we've seen, it is a calculated bet because you can, it's what we've said. They know they can't fuck this up.

And so if they get close to it and they're like, we still need more time, no one's going to force them to push this game out. They're going to be like, take your time. What does this year, next year for Xbox look like then? Especially this year. That's a big question.

That's like, that's no, the medium, and then, and I'm sure they have things announced I'm not thinking of, but there's not really any big game. Grounded comes out of early access. And I don't really expect, I don't, I don't really expect them to come out and announce a game to come out this year, like later in the year, either. Hellblade.

That's not going to be 20. But even at, yeah, there's the debate of if you actually think it'll come out this year. I don't see, I think Helplade is less likely to come out this year than Halo. Interesting. This morning, was talking to Gia she was asking me like what am i doing today and i was like oh we're doing our games cast predictions uh and she's like oh do you have anything like spicy for them and i was just like the weird thing is like this is the first year ever that like we are there she is making her guest

appearance so um but uh this is uh the such a weird year for predictions where even last year it was uh it was COVID free but we didn't know about this shit so we could predict against uh an e3 and against sure Nintendo directs and you know like these things that kind of have some level of understanding to our minds but uh here it's like there is nothing this is the first time it's like cool next gen's out so there's not really predictions about pricing and boxes and skews and all that lineups it's just kind of like well shit we don't even know if there's going to be places to announce games and if there are showcases at any moment it can just pop up on Twitter that a game's announced you know Yeah. So it's a little harder to make the prediction. So like what's Xbox doing in 2021? We don't fucking know. But next week they can come out with something and announce a whole bunch of shit.

And then it's very clear. Yeah. I mean, I'm looking at an article right now that's from Tech Radar. I was written by Henry St. Liger that says two secret Xbox series X exclusive games are coming in 2021. Rumors suggest, which. Cool.

Maybe that's true. Like maybe that happens. So when I look at their studios, right? Like it seems like we could we could probably deal down what most, if not maybe all the Xbox game studios are working on. Because we're really looking at the Beth's the lineup, right? But that's does that, Bethes is doing Starfield and Elder Scroll 6.

Neither of those are coming this year, right? Starfield isn't coming this year. I assume Starfield isn't coming this year. Then you got machine games or Indiana Jones. That seems like a far out thing. You got it software who just put out Doom Eternal. They're not putting out anything this year. You got Arcane, which is putting out Deathloop on PlayStation.

You got the Tango GameWorks that's putting out Ghostwire Tokyo. on PlayStation, then you go to the actual proper Xbox studios and it's like, cool, Halo is this year. Our prediction is that it gets delayed. We'll see how that goes. You got Fable. That's not this year. Hellblade.

I don't think that's this year. It could be. I doubt. I like have heavy doubts about Hellblade coming out this year. You know what? It's coming this year. You think so? That's not one of my like locked in predictions, but it is coming.

At it. Make it like a half point. man do it i'm down i'm down i'm down and i have one that i want to actually commit to okay uh and then you look at every while and you look you go through the list and it's like cool these games it seems like your studios are busy and spoken for in a way that i can't i don't know who i could see out of these folks especially the ones i just mentioned right putting out a game this year unless you do partnerships and stuff which is very very possible because that happens all the time i mean the medium right bluber team's not owned by don't so yeah exclusives can be

There's an article from, Jesus. There's an article from January 15th, Will Tuttle put up over on news.exbox.com that there's, here are the games coming exclusively to Xbox in 2021. Sal just read through them if you want. Adios, the artful escape, the ascent, the big con, Crossfire X, Dead Static Drive, Echo Generation, Exomecha, XO1, the gunk, Halo Infinite, the last stop, Lake, which I can't fucking wait for,

Little Witch in the Woods, the Medium, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Psychonauts 2, RPG time, Sable, scorn, she dreams elsewhere, shredders, Song of Iron, tunic, 12 minutes, what a-do-l-l-l-explored, unexplored to the Wayfairns legacy, Warhammer 40K, Dark Tide, way to the woods, the wild at heart, the Yakuza remastered collection. Some of those definitely weren't exclusive, but Psychonauts 2 is definitely a good shout-out. Did I stutter when I said, here are the games coming exclusive to Xbox in 2021? She dreams elsewhere isn't coming exclusive to Xbox.

I mean, according to Will Tuttle, who I worked with and is never wrong. I mean, are you counting PC or are you trying to say that it's coming to PlayStation? It's at least coming to Switch. I'm like almost positive that she dreams elsewhere is coming to switch. If you're wrong,

you need to eat your little Butterfinger Cloud back there. Wow. If you're an audio listener, it is not made of Butterfingers. It is just a thing Butterfinger game. Interesting. Yeah, she on, on studio. Studio Zver, yeah, thanks, severe.

Thank you very much. It does say Steam, PC, Mac, Xbox 1 and GamePass, Nintendo Switch. There you go. That list of games, like, with rare exception, does sound like it's Thursday on a kind of funny games daily. We're just naming a bunch. Yeah, of course, of course.

Yeah, you're not there. I mean, there's games on there that we're excited about, but like Lake isn't going to be a fucking system seller. Yeah. It's, it's an interesting conversation for sure about what this is all going to look like my final prediction here that I'm going to do. I wanted to get a little bit weird with this one. But last year saw Among Us and Fall Guys kind of become these cultural phenomenons in in terms of social gaming. You know, like there you guys feel me, right? Like there's a category we'd put both of those games in.

I'm going to say then 2021, we get three games of that caliber, not counting among us for Fall guys. I think that there will be three games throughout the year that we look at and talk about at the end of the year the same way we talk about fall guys in among us last year. Would you put Animal Crossing in that category? No. What makes it different? Nintendo.

The level of Animal Crossing is a weird one where I'd say Animal Crossing to me is a AAA game. You're talking about games that are like small indie games that are coming and getting this giant spotlight. Small games that break out, but because they're social. Yes. I dig it.

I hope it. Real quick. There's streaming side to it too that's important. What's up? Sorry, to close the loop on she dreams elsewhere. The FAQ says what platforms will the game be on when is it coming out? It will be available on PC and Mac via Steam and Itch. Dot I.O.

As well as Xbox 1 and Nintendo Switch. It'll also be premiering on Xbox GamePass for PC and consoles on day one. So I don't know if there's an exclusivity thing or else to be pushed out for Switch. And maybe that's what they're saying if it's not coming to Switch in 2020. Maybe. But maybe Xbox is just wrong. There's also a couple of other of those games that I'm not sure is Xbox exclusive, but it could be a GamePass thing.

Hey, if you think Xbox is lying to you, take it up with filming. No, I think World Title is lying to me. Damn, man, we ain't crazy here.

And that's it, right? Yeah, I still have a fifth one. Okay, I never remember you. It's so forgettable. It's okay.

I have to pick between one. I have one that I think is a hype one. Then I have another one that is very much a for me one. I'm going to go with the hype one. I'm going to save the for me one for the post show. The hype one is this. Hideo Kojima reveals a new project. It's not Silent Hills, but it is weird and creepy.

It's a smaller episodic release that plays into breaking the fourth wall and making players work together to figure out solutions to a horror puzzle similar to PT. However, it will have an overarching narrative and mystery that will string along an entire season of releases. It's not the only game, Kojima is working on, but we'll learn more about his other project later. I love that. I love so many elements of it. I think that it's just weird enough that it could be real. The only major hesitation I have is where does that live?

Because I don't see episodic titles working in 2021 if they're not tied to a game pass type system. I think he just puts it on PlayStation. I think Kojima just does whatever the fuck he wants. And so I think if Kojima went to PlayStation was like, hey, I have an idea for an episodic. It's going to be five episodes. Don't think of it as like a telltale or like a don't not episodic thing. Think of it as a Kojima episodic thing, right?

Like where it is. He doesn't even call episode one. He calls the first one darkness or whatever he wants to call it. Not like the game of the darkness, but like his own whatever Kojima calls this weird thing. The second one is called lights. The third one is called shade. Like what, like, it's packaged as this weird Kojima artistic video game experiment that he wants to do because he's because he's Kojima and he has the ideas. And he just puts it on PlayStation because he's Kojima and I don't think they're going to say no to him.

But what do those releases look like in terms of price in terms of like are they $40, titles that are coming out? No. I see it being either a $30 thing or free. Like somewhere in that range of free from $30

I can't, it depends on what they actually are because in my head, I think of PT-sized experiences. Like, he releases five different PETs that are episodic and looking together in some sort of way. If it's going to release five

them though you probably pay for them and so i'm going to say you know what i'm going to say twenty dollars i'm going to say twenty dollars i think there's something there i don't think you're going to get full points but i think you're going to get some i'm going for all the part points i'm going for all the decimals i'm not getting anything off that one this has been the kind of funny games cast can i tell you the two that didn't make the cut the two that didn't make the cut you can't break you can't because that's what the post shows for you got a patreon dot com slash kind of funny games to get our poster where we'll give the ones that didn't make the cut. Thank you all for watching.

Until next time, love you guys. Bye.