Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Xbox Developer_Direct Post-Show - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: January 23, 2025

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What's up and welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Tuesday, January 23rd, 2025. Of course, I am Tim Getty's. I'm joined today by Blessing at E.O.EA Jr. Good day, Tim. Snowbike, Mike. What up, Tim? Andy Cortes. Hello.

And Greg. The Dominoes be falling, Tim. Finally happening after all this time, Gray. And they're falling right. They're falling good. I'm excited to talk about each and every one of those dominoes. Of course, we just watched the Xbox Developer Direct for 2025, spring 2025. You can watch.

our reactions over on YouTube, or you can just stay where we are right now, listening to us, talk about everything we saw and giving all of our thoughts on it, because this is the Kind of Funny Gamescast each and every weekday. We get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews, and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch, and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, support us with the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon, YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts to get all of our shows ad-free. Watch us record them live and you get a daily exclusive show.

Greg Way. Today's Greg. Where's about? I mean, who the hell knows? Who the hell knows? I was on an embargoed Zoom call on the way in. And then, of course, all this Xbox information, all the Assassin's Creed stuff.

I'm going to be looking through the comments on Patreon.com slash kind of funny games in the chat room on the Patreon post, on the YouTube post. And I even look at the Spotify comments, everybody. So you tell me what you want me to talk about right now. Well, not right now. Now I'm talking about Xbox, but I'm going for this. Yeah, right now, to be a part of this show,

you can submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chat. So let us know what you thought about the, Xbox Developer Direct. What games are you most excited for? Are you bummed that something wasn't there? Please let me know. And remember, we are an 11-person business all about live talk shows like today's Kind of Funny Games Daily where Greg and Barrett gave their hands-on impressions of Assassin's Creed Shadows. So be sure to check that out. Like I said, we did a reaction video to this direct. So if you want to see our genuine authentic in-the-moment reactions, you can check that out. And then after this, the stream is going to be a blessed takeover as he tries out. Hand your guide in two.

Black for the very first time. The shadow drop of the day. You excited? Oh, I'm very excited. It's never been a better time to be an action game fan. So we're going to do this. Tell them. So check on the stream.

Let them know after this. And then the day's not over, everybody. We got some big stuff coming up later. Of course, you get the Greg way that we were teasing earlier if you're a kind of funny member. But you also get to watch Alien in Review. Episode one. It all begins for the kind of funny members today for everybody else. tomorrow. Thank you to our Patreon producers Delaney

Twining and Carl Jacobs. Today we're brought to you by Shady Raisin Rocket Money, but we'll tell you about that later. For now, let's start with the topic of the show. Tots, Tots, Tots. I was trying to get your attention. One more thing, of course, is a call out for housekeeping. We are once again, partner to Square Pie Guys. They are once again supporting our

Extra Life campaign for UCSF, many off here in San Francisco. So if you're in the SF area, of course, you can go to Square Pie Guys. You can buy the kind of funny pizza, which is the Buffalo chicken pizza and support our extra life campaign, 3% of every pizza bought goes to our extra life. But if that wasn't enough, Mark from Square Pie guys is here right now

cooking pizzas out there in the parking lot for us getting ready for it. So we're going to have some fun out there. I'm going to go out of the mic to go stand there with him at least. Somebody, Jesus. Somebody. Once he doesn't look like he's making pizza. It looks like he's on a computer. Well, that's the classic thing where Kevin said, I'll tell him to start at 11.

I say, well, tell him when I start with the games cast in. So then I slacked Kevin and I text to Kevin. And I don't know where Kevin is. Listen for the squeaks. The death whistle. Whatever, guys. Topping of the show time, all right. Tots, toss, toss.

All that good stuff. We just watched Xbox Developer Direct. I want to get everyone's thoughts. Mike, let's start with you. What did you think overall? And what would you give it on the kind of funny scale? Tim, I thought it was a great presentation. I had a lot of fun today.

Xbox really nailed it. This is three years now that we've been doing the developer underscore direct. And each year, we've seen that the presentation has been fantastic. Going to developers, seeing the studio. seeing the human beings that make the games that we love. They've nailed that side of it, right? Each year, certain games speak to certain people.

Sometimes they'll speak to me. Not all of them have ever lined up where it goes. Oh, man, all of those games you showed right there are the games I want to play right this moment. This year, all four of those games, technically five lined up and were perfect for me. I really, really loved all of the content shown there on the game side of things, which makes for this perfect blend of the presentation being fun, uplifting, cool to see the developers smiling and having fun and showing off their hard work. And then on the flip side, to see games that really speak to me that are my kind of style of games that I want to play

and have them all dated for the first half of the year, Ninja Guy on the second half. But truly and honestly, to have those Xbox first party exclusives be there, exclusives no more, but we'll talk about that later. But really having the first party is the first half. That's a big deal, right? We've talked about Xbox, not having the stuff in the first half of the year. the past couple of years now and really backloading their kind of games on game pass for the second half now to have that. And them showing us maybe more of a well-rounded year that they could have

is a big deal. And of course, to have the tagline at the beginning, all these games are on game pass day one, right? We're talking about Team Ninja and Platinum teaming up for Ninja Guide and that's on game pass in the fall. You have Expedition 33. That's going to be on game pass in April, south of midnight, doom the dark ages, both dropping April and May to fill out and start up the year. Really, really great. And so, yeah, for me, this is a, I mean, you might as well say this is a 10 out of 10. They finally nailed and dated all these games.

They have four, they had five great games that they showed. It was awesome to go into the Manor at Expedition 33 and see that. But like, yeah, this was a perfect showcase for them. This was finally them saying, hey, we have a great presentation style. Now we can nail it down with some actual firm dates and some great games to show you. This was a 10 out of 10 for me. Bless. Yeah, I'll say it's a 9 out of 10 for me, right?

I think this is the best developer underscore direct that we've gotten so far. I think the one note I would give is, I think, to Mike's point, all four games, all four like presented games hit. And I love that they had that secret five in there, right? But I would have maybe flipped around south of midnight and, what was after? Expedition 33. Just because I think coming off of the hype of Ninja Guide in such like a fast, flashy action game, as much as the art style, I think, you know, uplift.

South of Midnight. I think watching the combat of South of Midnight after watching the combat of Ninja Guidon made me go, oh man, that looks slow in comparison. So I think expedition could have broken that up and then you get to South Midnight and you're reminded of like, oh man, this looks beautiful. And then you get into Doom and you're back into like 10 out of 10

fast-paced like high gear again. Aside from that, I think it was perfect, right? Like the 10 out of 10 I kind of reserved for like all timers. I'm going to think about this all the time type showcases, which is why I don't think it hits that 10 for me. but I think for what a developer direct is and what it's supposed to be, I do think that this is the best you can do it, right? I think the

production team of this should be proud. I love visiting the studios. I love how you present the developers. I love, I think one of the things I love most that showcases can do that a lot of the times I think we miss out on is humanizing the developers. And so, getting to actually hear them and see them talk about their games,

talk about the things that they're excited about. I love that ending of the Doom, the Dark Ages part of the showcase where, you know, you see the developers gather around the the two dudes that are presenting, and then you get to that room with everybody and they announce a release date together, that felt like such a good emotional moment for that crew, a crew that's been working on this game since 2020, right, when the Doom Eternal came out, them getting to do that together and have it be such a moment. I think it's such a beautiful thing and something that's underrated

as far as like the amount of time and work people get to put into these games, like, let's acknowledge the people that are actually behind this. So I think having a format that does that is wonderful. And I think this has been the best one so far. And the fact that like, you know, I think it would have been the best number so far even without a surprise drop, right? I wasn't expecting the Ninja guiding thing, and I know High-Fi Rush was such a great one the first time, but even having that in there is like a nice cherry on top of, oh damn, y'all presented these games in the best way possible, and then he add in the shadow drop in there. It was like a little gift for me. Oh, let's freaking go. So, uh, absolutely love this. Andy. I'd give it a nine. This is a fantastic

showing great collection of games. And again, like I mentioned before, uh, we ended the reaction was, you know, usually there's always a genre in there that isn't my type of vibe. You know, it's always like a SIV 7 or, what was that one sort of RTS, Mike? Our history, yeah. There's always one of those games and it's like, that's ever quite my jam, but I get why they're showing this, because there's obviously a large audience for that.

But this collection of games just totally is my shit. I'm super stoked about all of these titles. really, really visually impressive and yeah, hearing from the devs is always great, kind of seeing a lot of behind the scenes and what their line of thinking is when making certain decisions

and why we made the art this way and what I wanted to get across to the audience while building this level. All that stuff is so cool. I love deep dives like that. And yeah, had a great time hanging out. Gregory. Hey, Tim. How are you?

Good, how are you? Good. I'm not like Mike. I don't need to talk myself into it. I think this is a 10 out of 10. I think for a developer direct, what more could you want? I think even for me where I'm looking at games that aren't my jam, right? Ninja Guy, and I'm just never, I'm never that action game guy, right? But I can sit here in the presentation with stunning the power of what they're talking about,

the surprise drop of Ninja God and 2 Black being available today. This Batman Beyond thing. Like, there's a lot for me to visually look at me like, damn, this game looks awesome. And even though I'm not the action game guy, I can see why this is going to fucking kill and why people are really going to like this. For me, who was so adamant last year in 2024, I'm just like, I need, to admit I'm not the turn-based guy. I just don't like turn-based RPGs

to look at Expedition, be like, fuck, I need to try. That looks awesome. I need to try that. Maybe, you know, the story and what they're doing with the gameplay will pull me in, let alone then to have Doom, another game that I'm just not the shooter guy for, but God damn, what a great presentation for that. What a great commitment from them. What a great looking to id. And then, of course, for me,

being so excited for South of Midnight, to get another deep dive on that, to get a release date of April 8th, to see more of that game. Awesome. And again, I think even taking your personal interest out of it, It's just, what a presentation. It moves so well. It was so entertaining throughout the quality off the charts of what they're doing,

leaving those humanizing moments in there for these devs. Like, I think it's a masterpiece in terms of how you do a presentation. I'd like to see all of them be like this from here on now. I agree. I think this is a masterpiece, a 10 out of 10 presentation from Xbox here. I think it is the best use of the developer direct format we've seen so far. And I feel like all of them have been great, or at the very least great so far on our scale.

I love everything that they did in this presentation are the things that I look for in a presentation. Answering the questions we've been asking, what are the release dates? Having them be answers that are good. These are all very, very close, very soon release dates in a cadence that we don't look at and go, oh, why are you doing that?

You're stepping on your... We're not criticizing the choices they made. We're happy with the choices they made. A shadow drop of consequence with Ninja Guideon 2 Black. The announcement of Ninja Guideon 4 with the partnership between Team Ninja pled them. This is all just like amazing good news, good news, yes, yes, dream type of stuff. This feels like when we predict things and we're like, wouldn't it be cool if?

You know what I mean? And so I'm like, yeah, that's exactly what I want from this. And then every single game they showed, I'm kind of with the majority of the people here. I'm like, I'm at least interested in trying every single one of those. I'm excited for all of them. Doom looks great. Ninja Guide looks great. I think they did an amazing job of kind of selling expedition as being more than just a cool looking game. I mean, diving into the story. Actually, I think for each one of these games, they focused on the right things to really kind of sell the games to people

and also sell Game Pass and show, hey, that this first half of Xbox in 2025 is going to be freaking awesome, potentially. And having the developers actually talk, all the hype moments of them together announcing the dates, like, that's what this is all about. But on top of that, just giving them the opportunities to pitch the game the way they want to, I think goes such a long way than just seeing a trailer. answering all these questions, but without the human element,

the human element goes so far to tell us why Doom is different than the last two dooms, but also everything we loved about the last two dooms. And that's just, I think, a necessary thing missing from most showcases these days. And on top of that, like, I feel that Masterpiece doesn't mean perfect. I'm with Blest that I think that the jump, the ordering of Ninja Guideon going first, which I thought was fucking awesome. But I'd say, hey, we're in answering the question of what's the surprise at the beginning. But jumping to South and Midnight just because of the third person actioning, boss fighty type stuff.

It's like, okay, it just looks a little slow, but still looks awesome. Moving it would have helped that. And I also think the Ninja Guide bit went on just a little too long. We started seeing the same footage a couple times too many. But I think that especially with the translation and the subtitles and them speaking directly to the fans that they have of Ninja Guide, and they were answering questions that people had. So, hey, man, very, very, very hands off to y'all that. You all crushed it.

one more round of applause. Hey, come on now. Love that, Tim. Give him two. That was great. You want to get into your thoughts on, let's start with you, Greg, Ninja Guide, and you talked a little bit about

overall not being an action guy, but what do you think of seeing that? I mean, I wish, it's one of those where I wish I was an action guy. I wish that, I looked at that and was like, oh, man, I can see myself doing any of that. It looks fucking cool.

The Batman beyond nature of it. That's one of my things for the old Ninja guidance, which were the turnoff to me on top of how increasingly difficult they were. I remember Dave Clayman and Eric Brutvig at IGN, ranting and raving every morning about being stuck on bosses and stuff like that. It was also like, I don't know, the time period doesn't interest me. This cyberpunk look, you know what I mean?

Having the neon, having the dragons husk up in the air, and that's why it's raining and all that. Like, that all is awesome. This looks cool. It looks like Metal Gear of vengeance when it's going, right? Like, I think this is an incredibly impressive game. And of course, you'd expect nothing less in terms of visuals and action from Team Ninja then to get Platinum games involved as well.

well, right? Like, I think this was a killer start. Again, what a way to, hey, here's the loading one and we're going right into it. We're not making you wait. It isn't the one more thing. Let's get into something you didn't see coming if you were, or maybe guessed if you were Tim. But let's get into what this game looks like, how cool it looks. And it looks fucking insane. Yeah, I mean, just real quick, I want to jump off that. Like, I'm so happy I was right. That was me predicting and just trying to be a little off the beaten path of the Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy. Also, speaking of that, surprise Final Fantasy 16 wasn't here. Hey, now. But at some point, I'm sure that, coming soon.

Anyways, yeah, I mark the fuck out, seeing the team ninja opening with the waves and stuff, and it's funny because I know that opening so well from starting up Ninja Guyton 1

countless times and having it just kick my freaking ass back in the day. And then I remember at E3, 2010, when Metroid Other M was revealed and at the Nintendo conference, that logo starts

and it was a Metroid game and we're like, there's no way this is going to be bad. Ah, man, what an innocent time that was. But this looks awesome. I'm surprised to go with Ninja Guide and 4, but I love that they're doing this kind of dual time

thing and this Neo version of it all. This looks absolutely incredible. I love the bullet hell boss fights. I've been saying for a while that with all the Souls like push that we're getting, like I want to get back to the more DMC Ninja Guide like fast-paced action, action, action, action shit. And good Lord, I'm so

excited for you guys to be able to jump into this because, correct me if I'm wrong bless, you haven't really played the Ninja Guide games, right? I'm not. I remember back in the day, when I say, back in the day, I'm talking about 2009, picked up, I think it was Ninja Guyton Sigma from like the GameStop $10 bin

and I played a little bit of that. And like, at the time, I was just like, oh, it's too hard for me. I can't play through this. Like, this isn't going to work for me. But like, I think current me, I think would take to Ninja Guideon. Like that, if I went back and played that game, which is why I'm very excited to do the stream, I think that would work for me for the kind of action game that it is.

And everything about the, how Ninja Guyton 4 showcased here excites me because it brings me back to kind of what you just said as far as like, how, I think, Action games have made the strong move toward like Soulslikes. And even like when we talk about Team Ninja and Koa Tecmo, Tim, you've talked about this on KHG as far as if they brought back Ninja Guide and what kind of game it would be. And I kept trying to tell you that like, dude, it's going to be like a Neo.

It's going to be a wall-long-fallen dynasty. It's going to be Rise of the Ronan. Like I've been playing Team Ninja games and Koai Tecmo games like, you know, for the last few iterations. And this is their bag now. So to see this and have it be a thing of, oh no, you know, Coe-Tecmo and Team Ninja are bringing back Ninja guidance. but we got platinum. Like we got the guys that make the fast action games that you love. And like I think pairing them with this IP is so fucking smart.

It'll be so fucking fresh for the Kobe Tech mode, Team Ninja catalog as well. I love the kind of game it is. I love how fresh it looks. I love even that I can see all the platinum games elements. And it down to the bullet hell stuff, right? Because I look at that and I immediately think of near, right? I think of playing near automata. And I'm like, dude, they're going to rock in this game.

Like in the same way that back in the day, you're like, oh, team ninja other rem, this can't go wrong. I see platinum. I see platinum and I see Ninja Guidein 4 and I'm like, there's no way that this can be bad. There's no way that this can be bad. The bad, Amy Superman Guarantee. Do it's a big smile.

Eddie? Yeah, it's super exciting. As somebody who only really played the old NES guidance back in the day and like never getting through those because they were just like so punishing, playing them as like a four-year-old, not understanding shit about it. And knowing the legacy that Ninja Guideon 2 Black has

with so many people, and knowing that like, you know, even when, as you're playing a lot of action games nowadays, the easiest buzzword is Soulslike, and I always get the pushback, like, it's not a Soulslike, Annie, it's like, okay, but it's like the easiest thing to compare to. You get it though. Nowadays, like, you know what I'm talking about when we're talking about, like, boss fights that require pattern recognition and being punished if you decide to attack instead of Dodge or whatever.

And after watching the trailer for Phantom Blade Zero and even after playing the dead demo for the first Preserker Kazan, having a lot of people in my chat and in my comments, man, this reminds me a lot of the old Ninja guidance. And that's, this is kind of like a perfect melding. And it is, this isn't just Platinum games. I know like Team Ninja is like the logo on there, but it is like co-developed, which I think is even cooler that you're just having this awesome little like co-op project for both teams because, you know, maybe platinum excels more at this, but we excel more at this. Let's combine these powers to bring back. this awesome franchise. And I think that

this cyberpunk look is the best thing that they could have done. I totally agree. We've seen the, we've seen the Koe Techmo logo pop up, followed by the Team Ninja logo pop up. And then it's always a period piece. It's always

sometime in the past, and it's something that you've seen before a million times. And when we're trying to talk about a lot of these games, we go, was that WOLONG or was that Rise of the Ronin? And you run into those, you know, sort of like, just complications a lot with like, man, these games look very, very similar nowadays.

But going for this futuristic, sci-fi, look, this looks unbelievable. It's the perfect choice they could have made. And you're still going to kind of have these, you know, reaches into the past with Rio Huyahabusa and seeing how the past and the future sort of meld together, awesome as hell. I'm so freaking jazzed about this game. Can we talk about the cape for a second? Because Mike, that's the coolest cape of me. me about the cape, Tim.

The cape is a one-winged angel situation. Let's fucking go, dude. Mike, what do you think about this? Yeah, Tim, this is really exciting to me because I've never played a Ninja Guiding game. So I'm pumped up. This got me excited for the high-speed violence that they were promoting on all of this,

that I can't wait to try out. And most importantly, having the shadow drop of Ninja Guiden 2, right? Like, I think that is the big selling point for me as, oh, you got me. I'm super jazzed up for Ninja Oh, wait, I have to wait till fall. Okay, cool. I'll put it on my, I can't wait for that.

But then for them to follow it and be like, well, actually, you can play some right now. It's like, oh, that's awesome. You had me on the edge of my seat. I want to download this right now. Boom, I get to play Ninja Guide and 2. So I'm all about it. I can't wait. Ninja Guideon 2, Black, includes extra elements from the spin-off titles released after the

original game's debut, including the ability to control three additional characters. The remaster also includes hero play style, a mode for beginners that provides automatic support in the most difficult situations, making the notoriously challenging title. even more accessible to those who have, may not be so confident in their action skills. Great, very cool. I mean, I think that's the way you got to do it, especially for those older games that I,

the new game I imagine is going to be designed from the ground up to be a little bit more. Inviting. And inviting, but like, I'm happy that even going back to the old one, it's like, oh, yeah, I know. Like, we're thinking through that. Tim, somebody in Chad mentioned, like, why two? Why not one or three?

Is there something about two? I am not the expert on this at all, because, like, it is confusing. I'm going to get some of this wrong. but Ninja Guyton came out on Xbox, then they eventually re-released it as Ninja Gaiden Guidein Black, and then there was Sigma. And I think one of them was on PlayStation 3,

and then one of them was, when they then reported the PlayStation version back to Xbox or something like that. They just kept enhancing the game, like over and over and over. Maybe it was a black was an enhanced version also on the Xbox. That's what they're saying. The OGXX. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, and then Sigma was just the next gen, quote-unquote, version of it on PS3. And then there was a Sigma 2, if I remember correctly as well. Yeah, Sigma 2 in 2009. So, yeah, with all that, it is a bit bizarre that they're jumping to two, but maybe that's like a gameplay thing. And they've already remade one twice. Gotcha.

But I don't know. Really quick, before we go on, just want to shout out to the pizza guy. You just saw them put your little cheese on the on the outside of the pizza there. Because that's going to melt and burn just a little bit. Yeah, they put the chat on the outside. You know, just want everybody to know if you're watching out there. Remember. You're looking at an artist.

If you want to see the Buffalo chicken pie and you're listening later, Kindofunny.com slash pizza, you can go to the amazing websites where Pyekeyes made where they did a whole bunch of stuff, promoting, of course, extra life for us and what we're doing. Of course, it is a brand new year, which means it's a brand new year for extra life.

You can join us at Kindof Funny.com slash extra life to play video games and raise money. He's cutting it. It's a coming in. That piece is about to come in. Oh, God damn. Oh, God damn. Yeah, what if this is the year of Ninja? That's what they said.

It was literally bad. They did say this is the year of the ninja. The year of the snake, though. Yeah. Right, Andy? Phantom Blade Zero. I mean, this might be the... Non-babies, what's up?

I feel like that we can crown this year, like the action game year. Hold on. Be careful with everything you're saying, because I did put in Kind of Funny Games Daily a Sonic press release for tomorrow's thing. But Sega is saying, furthermore, this fiscal year is themed fearless year of shadow for the Sonic IP, focusing on global initiatives that highlight shadow. Wait, the fiscal year? So, last year was year of shadow.

Are they continuing it? Up until March or all the year of Shadow. I'll take it, everybody. Let's let the few years. I don't continue. That's great. But yeah, the action renaissance. We've got to find a name for like all the action games that are coming out right now.

Because it's a, it's great. It's been a wild couple of years for sure. Yeah. Before we get into the rest of the games, though, I want to take a quick word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by Shady Rays. Get ready for the season ahead with quality shades built to last. Our friends over at Shady Rays have you covered. with premium polarized shades that won't break the bang.

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Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and match your financial goals faster with RocketMoney. Go to RocketMoney.com slash Kind of Funny today. That's RocketMoney.com slash Kind of Funny. RocketMoney.com slash Kind of Funny. Hi, Tim. Greg. The pizza's ready. Are you excited? I'm so excited. Everybody at home round of applause for Mark. Hi, guys. Hello, Mark. How are you? I'm great. How are you? Great. Thank you for once again partnering with us for Extra Life. You guys. It's the best. We love Extra Life. We love you guys. So we want to do it for the kids,

make some great food and do some good stuff. So as always, yeah, the deal is that you make a kind of funny pizza. Yep. I've, of course, harassed you long enough that you just make it the Buffalo Chicken pizza after a very old 16th. But we keep improving it for you. Exactly. So talk to me about this year's Buffalo Chicken Pizza. Let's do a little reveal on it. Can we see it? Yeah. Yeah. I'm Wow. Yeah, without it going. Oh, yeah, look, here comes to digital Zoom. Digital Zoom.

Digital Zoom. And again, like I said, you can go to Conn. Chicken nuggets on this one this year. So previous years, we couldn't figure out how to get the fried chicken on there. We unlocked it. Nice. That's a game of shit. That's gamer talk.

Unlock it. And then, boom. Buffalo sauce on top, ranch. Unlocked the buffalo parm that we put together on the bun. It's delicious. You're going to love it. Get them in here. Get them in here.

Like I said, everybody, Kondofofofofi.com slash pizza. So you can go straight to the square pie guys website for it to get it. This is the greatest day ever. Great. Does anybody have lactate? Your boy, Kevin will. Oh, my gosh. I don't think Kevin does.

Kevin, are you running this? Oh, my God. He'll have a pocket full of random pills. Yeah, you just got to guess what it is. Mark, God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you.

There's one for me. Oh my God. You're going to keep slinging pies out there you said? Yeah. We'll bring some special ones out there. We're trying this like thin and crispy thing that we're doing. So tease you with that and the spice pepperoni. Oh my God.

Round of applause. Square by guys, everybody. If you're in San Francisco, come get it. Come get it. Thank you, All right. All right. Next up, compulsion game south of midnight.

You play as a weaver. A whole bunch of magic going on. There's strands going on. A lot of get over here type action going on. April 8th, getting a release date for this one, 2025. Coming to Xbox Series X and S, Xbox app for Windows PC, SteamCloud, and day one on GamePass.

No mention at all of a PlayStation 5 release. And you can play it up to five days early, starting April 3rd, and get access to digital extras with a premium edition, and you can upgrade if you purchase the standard edition or playing with Xbox GamePass Ultimate or PC. Who wants to kick this one? Me, baby. Go for it.

Come on. Now, this is the one I, when they said they were doing this, and it was going to be Doom and it's going to be Claire 33. It's like, all right, cool. For me, it's South and Midnight. That's what I was excited for. Even when they were like the return of a Japanese IP or it was like, okay, cool, probably not going to be at my alley, but I know South and Midnight is.

After the last presentation of South and Midnight, I was so intrigued that I tweeted or Blue Sky to the Devs, I forget, and was like, hey, like, the folklore you're talking about sounds awesome. Is there a book you'd recommend? Because I'd love to read these stories and stuff. And they responded back like, well, no, it's kind of. the whole backbone of the game, right? The fact that so many of these are handed down through oral history.

Like, they're not actually recorded, which is why we have done, you know, their last presentation was about all the research they were doing and all the things they were diving into for it. And it's like, that sucks for me right now, but that's awesome.

And getting yet another deep dive into it, but this time being focused on how the combat's going to work, what the world looks like, them starting from an argument with the mom in a hurricane and then being like, it's going to get more fantastical the deeper she gets into it as hazel as a weaver. I'm so in. And the one thing in the lead up to this, I saw it on Games Daily people talking about it. And then even in the chat at the time, some naysayers are in there being like, this just looks so much like forespoken to me.

And I just, as somebody who reviewed for Spoken For us, don't see that. I think this looks. Because that's a black female protagonist is why they're saying that. Oh, okay. I think it's the third person running and jumping and dashing. And I think that's kind of where it just ends. It looks, I don't, I think it's one of those where people didn't, and I shouldn't, I'm not, I'm painting with a broad brush. Based on my own things, this does not look like forspoken to me.

this looks so much more alive than first spoken. This looks so much more interesting than first spoken, both in story, I think action, you know, what they're doing here with the stop motion, the outfits, the world. Like, this is such a Greg-ass game that I really, really, really, really hope they nail it. Because it is still that thing of what I thought in this presentation,

maybe we spent a bit too much time going through combat. Because we really were getting into some minutiaeer of what we're doing, how we're fighting, blah, which is interesting. But at some point, no matter what game, you're talking about, you get to that where it's like, you got to feel it. I got to get on sticks. I got to feel what this actually feels like rather than just keep seeing it. But the narrative, the stuff they're doing with the music, the story, the ghosts of the past,

like this speaks to me on so many different levels of a world and folklore. I really want to get lost in, Mike. Yeah, I'm really excited about this one, Greg. We've been waiting on compulsion games and what they would be doing ever since Xbox acquired them. And it is really exciting to see what they're doing here, jumping from We Happy Few to this. I love the art style. I'm drawn to it. I love the southern folklore that I want to learn more of.

I want to hear these stories. The music every time it picks up, how that just grabs your attention immediately. And the idea of when you're in these boss fights, there will be different phases and the music will ramp up at certain moments. I really, really love, and I can't wait to get lost into that one.

The combat looks good. The movement looks good. This is a game that it's like, yeah, let's see what they got. This is a big moment here for compulsion. And I'm excited. It looks like they're going to And I'm happy to have the date. I'm happy to have.

Let's just go. I think letting this gestate longer. People think about it, talk about it. What is it? It looks like for it. Let's get done with that. Let's get it out. Let's get it in people's hands.

Let's go play. This one's very high my list. I'm very excited for it. It reminds me a lot of Canada Bridge of Spirits, which I loved as well. I'm very hopeful for this. I don't have the highest expectations of it being game of the year. But I think that's the right place for me to be where if it is, that's going to be even more awesome. It is $40, which I think is very interesting.

Yeah, a couple just interesting things about the game shown today. The only, this is the only game not also coming to PlayStation 5, but $40 on- Outside of Black. On Steam. Sorry what? Outside of black, right? Didn't we not have confirmation on? Oh, no confirmation on that, but sorry, of the newer games coming out.

Perfect. Let me sure we're clear. But yeah, the four that they showed come into, there are, sorry, this is the only one not coming to PS5. And $40 price tag, which I, I'm super into. Because if I'm like, okay, this, that combined, with them being like there's the four different areas with the different like animal bosses you're fighting.

This is about to be a seven hour game. Let's fucking go. Let's fucking go. So incredibly excited about this. I thought it looked so great. Really, really stoked for the music. If it's super jam packed, just full of substance. I think normally whenever I see.

Yeah, whenever I see sort of adventures like this, I go, all right, I'm going to play Final Fantasy, Origin, Stranger, Paradise. Not really for the story. I'm there for the combat, right? I you know something like ninja guidance don't have a care in the world for the lore and the story I'm there for the combat this one I'm here for the story and it just so happens that the combat looks really fun and interesting itself and it doesn't even though ninja guidance looked absolutely fucking bonkers this game still looks like it has a lot to its combat to kind of make your own

fun with the jumping the dashing the ground pound it's like it kind of just has all the abilities that I want in one of these melee action games looks like a lot of fun weaving the, you know, scorpion, get over here sort of shit. And what I'm super happy about is seeing a bit more enemy variety. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Seeing more than just that two-to-tom, son of a bitch, and seeing that floating lady with the big ass arms, all of that stuff looks really damn good. And the art style and the art design of the creatures translate so well and look incredible

in this world. And also just seeing that skill tree, I love it. I'm like, that's the amount of abilities I want to get. I don't want to look at a menu that fucking freaks me the fuck out, Claire Expedition 33. I'm talking about you. We'll get to that a second. Bless, what do you think about South and Midnight? Oh, yeah, I think it looks wonderful, right?

There was one chat that went by a lot earlier talking about the dialogue and talking about, like, man, this sounds like people I know. And I think that right there connects to me so hard because, like, as the trailer started and you're hearing the daughter and the mom talking to each other, I am like, man, I don't think I've heard people sound like this in video games before, right? Like, I don't think I've heard like an area captured so well, a top of four. folklore captured so well, right? And like, I don't know. I think that's something special. The art style, I think is absolutely hidden. And I'm with you guys as far as I think this is

one for me that I need to get my hands on the controller to see how it feels. But outside of that, like, I am so all in on this game as far as how it's presenting storywise and worldwise. Your reference to Keene, I think is so apt, right? Where again, let's make a smaller game, let's make a cool game, let's have a focused vision and let's go do it. That's always been the promise of Xbox buying these studios, making, letting people make art, make smaller experiences. you know, I saw people, like you're talking about in the chat, balk at the $40, right? It's on Game Pass, right?

You don't need to pay $40 for it. They're doing a special edition. You don't need to buy that. But it is the idea of- Oh, I thought they were stoked about it. I thought chat was popping up. When I glanced over, there were people like, oh, it was too much. Oh, people are doing too much?

Hey, man. Hey, man. My God. I'm just saying that I'm, everything I'm hearing about south of midnight, I'm stoked. Then moving on after that, we got a look at Sanfall Interactives, Claire, Obscure, Expedition. 33. Incredibly weird name.

For a game that just looks unbelievably amazing. It's so wild and there's another one. $50. What? $50 for this freaking game. Let's fucking go. Again, the power of Xbox and what they say they wanted

to do, right? Like bring these people in. Let's make smaller experiences. Hopefully this is a turn-based RPG that isn't 900 hours. God, please. Yeah, so this is, it takes place late 19th century France. It is coming April 24th.

2025, day one on GamePass, $50 otherwise. It's come on Xbox Series X-S, Xbox app for Windows PC, and PlayStation 5. But Greg noted it was not on the Xbox rundown for some reason. Yeah, PlayStation 5 has been known for it. That's been out there that's on Google and everything else. But for some reason, maybe it's just a typo on Xbox's breakdown where they ran through everything they did today. They did not have it listed.

I think they showed it on the presentation, though. I'm just saying what I see here, okay? I'm just saying what I saw. And I'm not saying you're right or I'm wrong. I'm just saying what I was seeing right there. Do I see it? Do I see it? He's seeing it.

Are you reading from Xbox's thing? Yeah. Because I wonder then if it's the thing of this is a, this is a game that they're not publishing, right? Like this is published by somebody else. Maybe because. But no, there are every other one. Well, there's everything else that published. But no, they're not publishing Ninja Guidon, right?

That's technical. Oh, I guess not. Yeah, I guess you're right about it. They call it out there. Probably just type one. No, we do. And also, I love that when you're talking about, like, people getting mad. There was, like, there was YouTube chat being like, ah, I must be those Twitch folks.

And then I saw a Twitch trap pop up That was like, that's probably those Those bitches over there on YouTube What I read about this Dr. Seuss book called The Sneaches You should all read it After seeing this game many times And every single time

It being like, what? This looks crazy. Like this looks like one of those fake video games. It still feels that way. It does. It's one of those games you look at you. How does it look this good? The story bit though here is what really got me.

Like I think they did a great job in this direct of kind of diving into what this is all for and like sure we had this all-star cast but like what are they actually going to be doing and I love a story that reminds me a lot of Final Fantasy 10 going on a pilgrimage to kind of fight back against this

force of nature that is against their will and like really destroying their lives and worlds and all that. Very cool thing. The idea of people getting snapped whether it's leftover's end game, whatever, it's cool. It's always cool. That shit.

So yeah, I really really stoked on that stuff. The full 3D world map, that looks awesome. Also, real gamers know that DLSS is working hard on that hair. Like, that hair is like looking real kind of like glitchy here and there, yeah. Yeah, very stoked for this. April 24th seems very early. I'm very interested in how big this game is. Like, it seems like it's impossible for it to be this gigantic RPG.

It's very ambitious for this small team. I hope it's like, I hope it's 20 hours or less. If it's 10 hours, I'm happy on. Can you imagine? I mean, I'd be down. God. Also, I do want to shout out, Ninja Garden. published by Xbox.

My apologies. Xbox seems to be. And I want to shout out to you, Ninja Guy Got Into Black is on the PS5. I think I was confused about that when I said something earlier. And I want to shout out.

I like Blessing shirt. Oh, thank you. Yeah, I saw this. Where does this Peace Walker shirt come from? Uniclo? It was like, it was like the they're, I think, selling the rest of their

like rest of these shirts. I don't think they carry them anymore. Got a cool back. A good little run. It does have a cool back. Any Quotez, what do you think about Expedition 33? Yeah, it just looks

visually incredible. Like every shot, every lighting. every, and I think that's a real nice benefit that you have with turn-based combat is that you are in control of the camera, you get to set the scene and you get to art it the fuck up and have the lighting shining at certain areas and you're not going to see the player camera turn their way that may be unflattering to the game's visuals. But one thing that really kind of stuck out to me, and maybe I'm just kind of stereotyping

Hollywood actors that get into games. But Charlie Cox here kicks ass. Like in any of the line deliveries that I heard, you can always kind of feel when the Hollywood person who's in big kind of TV shows and reading in a voice acting situation. You can always kind of tell that they're not, you know, they're rarely kind of doing the voice acting thing

for games or animations or something like that. But Charlie Cox here sounds awesome. He sounds great. The performance is fantastic. I got to assume he was doing also mocap for it because there was just a lot of real good emoting with the animation. This overall looks super neat.

I'm just really excited about this one. And I agree to him kind of giving us these story bits and showing us how silly these characters can be in that one NPC that has seen many expeditions before you and is like this dude's hell of old. I don't know, I'm just super kind of, I'm fascinated by this world. As the kind of big biggest doubter of this game, especially when we're talking about it in like the fantasy critic draft and stuff, seeing all this, I'm way more sold of seeing the full vision.

Because beforehand, the little that we saw it felt like, okay, they see how popular persona is. And they're trying to get on that like more active term-based train. But seeing their full vision here, seeing the world, seeing more of the story, seeing a bit more of, how dynamic the gameplay is. I'm like, okay, I think they might have something here. I'm still a little bit worried of how big and ambitious it is. Chat was saying, they're saying somewhere between 25 to 30 hours. I don't know where they got that.

I can do that. But still, I just, with how beautiful it is with the story premise, I just, I do wonder if it's all going to hit in the end of the day. And Tim, like you, there's a lot of menu stuff going on. A lot of menu stuff. do like that it seems like one they're big fans of like jrpg's and they're going not like to the persona thing i do like that the only persona thing about this game seemingly is the how the battle system is a bit more quicker right in terms of like the button presses and stuff and like the flashiness

of the battle system but then you get to the overworld and it is final fantasy right and then you look at how like they're you look at the style of it you look how they're exploring the world and it seems like they're taking the best bits of what they love about video games or there'd be persona of final of fantasy and then mixing that in with what feels very original, right? What feels like an original story, what feels like an original world. And so far, everything we're seeing visually is speaking to me. I love what I'm looking at, but then I think the nice thing about this being a turn-based your RPG is that, like, you know, you don't necessarily need to nail something like

combat feel like an action game as long as you nail like the combat, I guess, rhythm of an RPG and-rhythm and balance. Yeah, the balancing of an RPG and making that feel satisfying to like upgrade your character and do all that stuff and sound feedback to make you feel happy when you hit a crit or whatever,

all that stuff. And now I can't unsee the numbers ever since Andy pointed it out. That is the thing that is going to bother me is I also can't unsee the numbers. This world is so freaking cool, man.

Like, just such a fun thing that we so rarely see and that does harken back to them being such fans of what these RPGs mean to players and like,

for the different generations of this as well. Can you go to like the menu that was overwhelming? While you do that in this trailer, I'll try to find it somewhere. I want to go to an auction. October tweet, where from the Expedition 33 account.

We've seen a few questions regarding the price and expected playtime of Expedition 33. We are a small team with an indie spirit and we're creating something we believe is truly special. We are in a AAA studio. This is our first game. We want as many people discovering our world as possible. To be clear, we poured all of our hearts and souls into this game. When you play Expedition 33, you can expect 30 plus hours of main game and as much side content for our completionist expeditioners. Interesting.

There you. Yeah. More than I'd like, but that's because I'm a little baby back bitch. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, I was hoping for like 25 hours. I'll take it. I'll take 30 hours. You have the, uh, when I think Blessing.

That's Dev Math. That is true. 25 hours. It's right. 20 to 25 is where I bet that actually that's down. I hope so. When Blessing posted on Blue Sky over the Christmas break, like, finished Persona 3, I'm done with these long JRPs.

I was going to reply with the AJ Styles Undertaker meme of like, blessing with like Claire obscure. Dude. Finish 33 behind him. Like I'm a very high for Zito Blade Chronicles. right now. I'm so happy for you. Barrett,

if you pull up the trailer that, the long trailer that you had, or sorry, it wasn't a long trailer, if you pull up to direct, the menu specifically I want to point out was when they were talking about all the different status effects.

Yeah, it's just, with it being an hour long thing, it's really hard to find where it's, well, whatever, exactly. I could just say it. It's just like, I don't like when it just seems like the status effects.

There's just so many of them that it's like, okay, what's the difference between all of them, right? It reminds me of a lot of the buffs in God of War Ragnarok where I'm just like, all right, cool, the numbers are going up. But like, I don't really understand why. I like when numbers go up, though.

That's the thing is, I saw that menu. And for a second, I was like, oh, that's a lot of numbers. But then I was like, oh, that's a lot of numbers. What's the stronger version of Poison and Pokemon? We got real confused by that, Mike, right? Isn't there like a stronger, like a different version, a step up? Mega poison. Maybe I dreaded it.

Toxic. Yeah. Toxic inflicts poison. Poison's a status effect. Yeah. That toxic gives. y'all don't know shit yeah like here we go this is insane

yeah no man I fuck with this that's a lot of I fuck with this heavy yeah I'm gonna be in these menus for a while yeah blessings on his magic arc so he likes getting deep into the number

that is very true right now yeah I know most people do I just know that I don't but I also know that many games give you an option to just hit a button and optimize and move the fuck on and I'm like thank you for that

I think this is maybe to show people hey we know we're $50 but look how deep this can get like this is not going to be This doesn't have to be this sort of diet, streamlined experience. Like, you are still getting a lot here because we really care about how deep this combat can go. Also, I just got a lot of questions about, like, some of these terms. So, like, everything is energizing or empowering, yeah.

Yeah, it's like, uplifting. But like energizing jump? Is that an attack? Is that an ability? Are you spending that? By the fucking game and find out. I'd like to know more about the manner if I could really quick. You know, I find that pretty dope.

We're in France. we have a manor. I've assembled my Avengers stream here. This is kind of sick right now. I'd like to learn more about the manner if I could. Really quick, I just also, I also enjoy that the main character kind of looks like a weird Robert Pattinson

elseworld version of it. Sure, sure. It's Robert, throw it back up, it's Robert Pattinson playing Zach Ryan. Whoa. All those status things. And then like the chart on the right

feels like you barely put anything into it. It's like how many more do you need to collect? Goddamn. Next up, the final game, Doom, the Dark Ages. A prequel to 2016. It comes out May 15th, 2025 on Xbox, series X-N-S, and

Steam, PlayStation 5, and it's day one on Game Pass. It rocks. It rocks, man. This shit's cool. Thanks for watching this podcast, everybody. I just loved how they gave us like the lowdown on.

Here is here's what we're kind of expecting from the player. Here's what we think feels cool and what we think feels good while playing the game. And kind of like our, what our sort of like mantra was with Doom 1, with Doom Eternal being more jump base. And now this just kind of, you know, heavy on the parries, heavy on the getting up in dudes faces,

standing your ground and shooting these enemies. I loved any time you would see multiple freaking like, particle things go into the air and you have to pair the green one because the other yellow ones will probably damage you. I love like in the middle of high fast-based action having that little bit of strategy still being there. All of the parries look great. Of course, you get to control a mech, which is freaking fantastic.

All of it, I just like, this game's going to be an absolute winner. I cannot see this game being bad. This is another one that I don't think they had to do much to sell people on just because it's like, we know what this is. but I think that they were like, we're going to take that as a challenge and sell them on it anyway. I loved the way they talked about this.

The Doom 2016 was about running gun. Eternal was jump and shoot and this is stand and fight. And they showed that off and made it look incredibly fun. Like, Blas, are you more hype for this seeing this? Yes. Oh, 1,000% right? Like I think the change of setting and then I like how they bullpointed

of combat expiration story, right? And like focusing on those two things, especially exploration in combat. I think those are the things that we hear for the most. And I think Doom Eternal, I thought was fantastic. But I personally, I thought the platforming stuff was a bit too much. They went a bit too much in the direction of like, all right, double jump here. Like here it seems like I think they rolled that stuff back or made it at least more interesting.

I like throwing the shield and then teleport into the next thing. Awesome. I love how that breaks up some of the what might be platforming stuff, right? Very much love that. The one thing I will say is that I don't know if I loved how the glory kills presented as much in this trailer as they have in the past. I don't know if you guys remember back in what, Bethesda showcase 2015. It probably was.

It was the same one where they debuted fallout and all that stuff. There was a Doom trailer there. And that trailer, fucked because it was just Doom Slayer going around, ripping people open and like every, like every Glory Kill had an animation. As I'm watching this trailer, one, like they kind of changed the way they highlight like glory kills of

instead instead of it being like, you know, you're kind of blinking red instead. There's like a big circle. And I'm sure that's just to make it more visible. maybe they in play testing there was something there where they're just like oh we got to make this more visible or something but even the executions of it felt a bit more quicker and I wish I wish we could have seen a bit more of like

what those actually look like unless this is what Lori Kills are now which if that's the case I don't know if I'm the happiest about it that said like I'm here for it I'm here for doom the dark ages right like I again I love the setting I love them introducing more characters with actual faces and it feels it feels like it's being it's taking the step to become a bigger game. I mean, them talking even about the story, right,

it being more in the cutscenes than just in the codex. Like that with characters and faces. I'm like, oh, shit. Like, that seems like a good step forward for this. Mike. Yeah, I mean, you didn't have to sell me on this game, Tim. This was already one of my most anticipated of the year from Xbox. But what got me was the release date, right?

Like, I had the worry that this was going to be their big fall game. I thought, man, where's Doom going to line up? We have a lot of question marks still with so many games that they've announced. where does Doom fall? Is that just going to be the big fall game? And for this to be in May, it's like, oh, yeah, of course I want to play Doom. I want to play Doom now. I love that we get it in the first half.

That leaves a big wide open six months of like, what's next? Can't wait to see what is the big fall game. So yeah, I'm all about this. I'm very happy. One thing I'm really happy about that there is not going to be some sort of like forced multiplayer thing in the, you know, there wasn't any mention of a tie-in of, hey, you can also play this, multiplayer mode that we're also packaging into the video game. Not because I think that those were horrible experiences or whatever,

but it just shows me there's more of a focus there. And that's budget that they likely see is like, we're probably not going to make money back from this multiplayer thing. What if we just, you know, didn't hire all of those side studios? Because I believe that a, the studio in Austin that does a lot of porting for like Halo and Blanking on their name. Certain affinity. Certain affinity.

Edge of reality sounds like pretty similar, though. I believe that they worked a lot on that multiplayer suites. And I'm just glad that this feels like this is what the game is. This is what Doom is. It's a single player, gory, high action, intense experience. Super cool. Anyone else have thoughts on Doom? Very curious about the soundtrack.

I think they have the largest, the new studio that is doing the music has like the largest shoes to fill because Mick Gordon fucking made some of the soundtrane. tracks of the year with Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal, even though I know Doom Eternal had weird shit with like compression and how the music quality actually was. But as far as those compositions, oh, those shit. That shit was essential to the Doom experience. And so I'm really hoping that stuff hits. It sounds from the trailer like it, it sounds good, right? Like it sounds what I know Doom to be. But yeah, I'm curious on what some of those tracks sound like once we get into the actual game. And there's also not really a whole lot of games that I have or studios that I have the most

faith in when it comes to this game's going to be released. And it's, is going to be extremely streamlined and efficient. Yeah. Like, this is not going to have, you're not going to have a shitload of frame drops and perform, like, for some reason, I think just with my experience with Doom Eternal and Doom 2016,

playing those games on PC, it's like, dude, these games somehow look this incredible and I'm getting 150 frames per second. How is this magic happening? And that's them and their confidence in the, in their it engine and just having so much experience with it. And I think that's just,

massive for that team because it just shows you and shows other developers and publishers hey when you have a team that is so familiar with what they're doing and their environment and their teammates and the engine that they're working in magic can happen and like this game's going to come out look amazing

and run incredibly well yes any thoughts on it Greg it looks awesome again I play Doom 2016 I never touched it or maybe I touched a turn a like a judge's week preview because that's how long ago it was this is one that I look at I'm like to try it I don't think I'd stick it through the credits,

but I'd enjoy tearing some stuff up for a little bit. Yeah, I love the tearing stuff up bit where they're just like are moan motherfucking down. I was like, damn, dude. I want to get to a bunch of super chats before we leave the games cast today. Starting with Travellis, who says,

hype aside, just booked everything to go to GDC for the first time this year. If any KFBFs or devs are going, I'd love to meet up at Travellis on everything. Hit up Travellis, everybody. Kabob says, Easy Doom on PS5?

Hell yeah. Yeah, I thought that was another cool thing too. Adjustable sliders. Yeah. It's a big deal. That's huge actually because Duma Eternal when you get toward the end of it, that shit rams up in a way where I kind of got, I got actually very frustrated towards the end of Duba Turtle.

And I think I ended up just turning it to easy. I would have loved to have sliders where I'm like, all right, I'm just overwhelmed with this thing. Those hunter dudes? Yeah. Oh my, fuck those hunter dudes, man. They were hard, bro. God, I forgot about them.

But yeah, I would love to just get in there and tweak a bit more. But now that you could parry, you know, easy peasy. Yeah. This looks so, Andy. Yeah, man, it's just like, come on. Rishi, the Alien says, not enough Todd Howard. Jovin Gant says, did Xbox just set the tone for 2025? I mean, yeah, Xbox just kind of was just like, yo, here's the first half of 2025 gamers.

Like, look at this, like, many games coming out in the next couple months. Like, this is impressive. Following up to June showcase, too, like, going from June to now year. And, like, you know, don't forget about coming out next month. And then if this year rounds out with, what, Outer Worlds 2 and Fable, like, this might be the best Xbox year in a decade. Yeah. Incredible stuff. Heroic Headgear says, how do we feel about

Gordon not composing the music for Doom the Dark Ages? And then we got another one about the music. I'm sad, but we knew that was going to happen. D-Big Fluffy Bunny saying I hope the soundtrack for Doom doesn't just blend into another metal soundtrack and stays unique to itself. Yeah. Maring what Boss was saying. And I also, yeah, I think the change in setting could present an opportunity to do

something that's a bit fresh and different and not have to be so directly compared to Mick Gordon's work. But we'll see. orchestral metal sort of shit yeah uh volksasher uh right saying

saying something that we don't agree with but saying i said before but south of midnight's 100% it south of midnight 100% is just for spoken l. well same double jump effect same empty area same secluded combat was hoping for more maybe i mean i said no maybe when we play it

I will be like oh i see what you're talking when i felt it looking at it i don't see it but maybe i when i get on sticks like i do for spoken it's also just fundamentally like different games because at least from what we've seen of south of midnight, it's also seems to be more linear base and all this stuff, whereas Forspoken was correct, Greg. Yeah, you get outside the walls and have to shoot across over there.

It was like open zones kind of thing. And I think in terms of exploration and game flow, like I just don't know what you see there. Wagerman says one thing that speaks to me is that all these games are play anywhere in a cloud. It's the vision finally coming to life. This is an Xbox makes sense. Man, we taught bless about it during the commercial brand.

That's an Xbox right there. Yeah, this is the next box. We can play Ninja Guide on this. Right now. Right here. How sick is that? It will not run. That's it. I can melt my laptop.

For reals though. I mean, we joke about it, but these are the dominoes falling, right? And like now it's, we'll see how they hit. Are they well received? Like, are people happy with these? But like, I think that this is a very, very great lineup right now that they have that include some things like Doom that are like, okay, cool.

Like, we know, that is pretty much as, big as it gets for these type of things. So, like, awesome. And a bunch of new stuff. Very cool. Golden Gamer says is Ninja Guy in Black 2 on PS5? Yes, it is. Mr. Hawks says, 10-on-10 event.

All the devs seem super stoked on their games, and that just makes me happy. Yep, another great thing to see. The prize of Out when the show says Alex Martinez. I mean, I'm not. They said what they are going to show, and also, A Vout also had another moment at the other developer direct, right? Last year? Yeah.

We've been there. Yeah. Yeah, you run the risk of, again, I think South and Mid-Nadding it, talking about it too much, right? We've done the deep dive on Avowed. There's been the preview cycle, hands-on previews of Avowed. Now it's time to give me fucking review code and let me talk about it, Xbox. That's what it needs to be. Give me.

And then we have conflicting things here. I don't know. Alien and aliens. Oh. Volgash. Review this afternoon, everybody. Holdgosh said Black is on PS5 and is Pro enhanced for $40. But then Christopher Benetian.

says Ninja Guy and Black 2 is on PS5 for $50. And King Ryan also says 50. Maybe different countries or something. Yeah. Bobby Lynch says, can we stop emphasizing the underscore in Xbox Direx? No. No. They put it there. Absolutely not.

If they put it there, we got to say it. We're journalists. Wilfredo says it looks like Expedition 33 is to persona. What Liza P is to Dark Soul. Spiritual rendition of the genre. Yeah, this is a really good developer underscore direct, apostrophe 25. Yes. I disagree just in the sense that, like,

Like, I think there's literally only one part of, like, one part of Expedition 33 that, like, feels inspired by persona, but the rest of the game, like, looks nothing like persona. You know, persona, when you're talking about, what is that game at its core? It is, like, you know, going out to the city, hanging out with friends, doing, like, the school social simulation of it, right? Like, there's the dungeon crawling of persona. Persona is so much more than just how that turn-based combat system looks. Yeah. I see where you're coming from, but I would make the comparison not to persona, but just more the modern, uh, JRP genre in general.

Then Garrett says Steam Doom Sale up to 80% off going until January 30th. Damn. And Volk Dasher has a final one saying this is what Xbox can be if they go full publisher mode and third party. They have the money and now devs to be the very best third party publisher in output.

Yeah. I mean, they essentially are at this point, right, while also maintaining their own first party and hardware and all that, like kind of best of both worlds. I'm very fascinated about Xbox publishing the Ninja Garden game instead of it being Coe Tecmo publishing it, right? And like what that conversation looks like,

what that deal looks like. Like, I think that's just, it's very interesting that it happened that way. Because they own Team Ninja, right? And Team Ninja owns Ninja Guide. Like you're saying, Coe Techmo owns Team Ninja and Team Ninja owns Ninja Guide? Does it?

Does Xbox own Team Ninja? I don't think no. No, you're thinking Ninja Theory. You're right. I am. I am, in fact, thinking that. It's the year and the Ninja, everybody. So I got Ninjas on the Mine.

All right. Well, everybody. Is Shadow a Ninja? Shat, no. No, he's not, unfortunately. Is he a snake? You're the snake, baby. Don't forget.

Let us know in the comments below, what are those games you are most hyped to play? Which one are you thinking is going to be the best? And are you playing Ninja Guy in Black 2 today? Let us know. And for everyone watching, stay tuned. We're about to do a stream of Ninja Gaden Black 2. Bless is going to play for the very first time.

If you're on Twitch, you can stay where you are. If you're on YouTube, you're going to have to be. make the jump over to the other YouTube video. It might be a couple minutes because Bless has to stuff this pie in his mouth. Mark says he's working on special one, spicy pepperoni pies. Oh my gosh. So I think that's going to be on the stream too.

Get the freak out. Great stuff. Kindofuny.com slash pizza. Exactly. Thank you, square pie guys. And thank you for hanging out with us on this beautiful Thursday. Until next time. Love you all. Goodbye. Bye.