Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - YOUR Summer Game Fest HOT TAKES - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: June 15, 2026

Video Game Town, a truly indie website that is constantly striving to employ and pay some of your favorite writers to build a new community for smart and fun gaming coverage. Check them out at http://videogame.town for daily pieces! You can directly support them on Patreon at http://patreon.com/videogametown for exclusive articles and podcasts.Experience HITS technology with the new PRO X2 Superstrike, the fastest mouse Logitech G has ever built. Head over to http://kindafunny.com/logitech to grab yours and start clicking faster than the competition. Thank you for the support! Run of Show - - Start - Topic of the Show: YOUR Summer Game Fest HOT TAKES - I dont think we can hit a 10 out of 10 anymore - Jeff Keely is too cocky for his own good - A cleaner delineation of whats an ad - Ads - Bethesda is the wet blanket wet fart - I think it is that the all the MMO or announcements just feels like its the new life service push Im not really sure If its going to last long -  Ocarina of Time - Nintendo really fucked it this year - Where is EA? - the winner and the loser of Summer Games Fest its Xbox - I'm not completely impressed on how Halo looks - Facial animations - Superchats Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you one of those media strategy people clicking through slides, scrolling spreadsheets? Yes? Good. This is for you. Because on Spotify, there's an audience that's different. Locked in. Loyal, invested. They're called fans. Fans don't just listen to music. They feel seen by it, like it belongs to them. So when your brand shows up on Spotify, that's who you're talking to. And you're right next to artists like me, Lizzo. So, are you ready to talk to fans? Spotify Advertising. You're among fans. This episode's brought to you by Video Game Town, an independent website that strives to pay some of your favorite writers to build a new community for smart and fun daily gaming coverage.

Check them out at Video Game Town and on every social media platform. Experience hits technology with the new ProX2 Super Strike, the fastest mouse LogitechG has ever built. Head over to Logitecg.com to grab yours and start clicking faster than the competition. If you want to get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows, go to patreon.com slash kind of funny. What's up everybody? Welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Monday, June 15th, 20, 26. I'm one of her host Greg Miller alongside Forbes 30 under 30. A.K.A. The third best baby blues in San Francisco, A.K.A. Samira's father at Tim Geddes. What a weekend we had, Greg.

What a weekend we did have, Tim. You and me out there and being dads. Yeah, what a world. You and I have dads with our kids together. Who would have thought about it? That was weird. We had a playground. Ben's running around causing chaos in a way that I'm looking at.

I'm just like, I see me and Kevin and Cool Greg. Yeah. It takes you back where it's like some things change and some things, perspectives change. Yeah. You know, it was a lovely time.

It was. I was happy as I texted you. I usually have to hang out at the playgrounds with strangers. Yeah. You just bump into the, and then your kids are playing together. You, me, Simon Cardi, just watching Ben play while your daughter's way too small to be out there. I know.

She's just chilling there. Yeah. It's so funny though. Like Simon Cardi there who y'all lovingly referred to as brother Simon. Brother Simon. That's right. Yeah, yeah. Of course, Simon Cardi has stayed in the Miller household many times.

And when he does, or did, I should say, Jen and I was referred to him as our son, Simon. He was so we take care of him, whatever. And so now that we have a real son, he's brother Simon to Ben. And there's nothing funnier than that. seen them at like brother. Beets the shit out of him. Beets the shit out of Simon. It was ridiculous.

That really doesn't punch other people, but he punches the shit out of Simon Cardi. Oh, man. It was fun, though. It was fun. And luckily today's, uh, gaming news has been fun too.

Yeah. What a, what a day. Oh, it hasn't been fun. What a guy. Pretty terrible out there. The Ray of Sunshine,

Ray of hope there of maybe, you know, Reb saying maybe compulsion is going to be able to get itself or whatever. Yeah, I was talking about that. I don't know if you heard me on games daily. Like my, the brief take I have on that.

is I love hearing that and sure it's hard to be hopeful where we're at. And I think the toys for Bob story that it would be very similar. They found independence. They were able, I think, to do that because of their prior experience and working on Spiro Reignited Trilogy and the previous things. The results and the numbers again, both critically and saleswise, to hang their hats on. Compulsion doesn't have that. Yeah.

You know, they might have one, they don't have the other, depending on what game you're talking about. So I am a bit concerned that they not only don't have their own IP that's hidden that way, and they don't have access in the way that, you know, Toys for Bob doesn't have Spiro, but they have access because of their prior stuff. So if you don't know what we're talking about, check out, of course, kind of funny games daily talking about Xbox maybe shutting down compulsion. Xbox finally being held in the fire to make money. Xbox maybe being spun out.

It's a big Xbox shit show as it has been recently and will continue to be on games daily. But we're not here to talk about that. we're here to talk about the biggest topics in gaming, whether they be reviews, reviews, or just things we need to talk about because that's what the Gamescast does each and every weekday on Twitch, YouTube, and podcast services. I remember the globe.

If you like that, I need your SGF hot takes on YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games. Right now is Super Chat. Go, throw them in if you're watching live. You can still be part of the show. We can have a great time. Remember, we can do this without our producers on Patreon.com slash Kind of Funny.

So thank you, Carl Jacobs. Omega Buster Delaney the Sompatining and Lacks Nomad. For now, let's begin the show with what is and forever will be topic of the show. Tats, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, so let me. Not a lot of us here. Not a lot of us here, but we don't need it. No. You mean the brain trust here.

Everybody else can go on their assignments. Yeah. Rest. Not me. No, no, no. Not us. That is the thing, of course. This is, I know you probably say two weeks removed from SGF.

A week removed. No, SGF continued all. last week. Sure. Keely Show on a Friday, go see the games on a Saturday. One week ago, Monday, start your previews, and then Nintendo Direct on Tuesday, and then previews throughout the week, and we have just been going

non-stop. You didn't even mention Xbox on Sunday. I didn't, you're right. I forgot. I didn't, but I just included wild. It's like just the S-J-stop stuff. But what I'm saying is, this was our first weekend break. That was my first day off in 12 days. And it was nice to have a weekend and recharge and come back. But of course, over on all the socials,

we asked you to call into our hotline to give us your SGF Summer Game Fest hot takes. Now that the dust has settled, what did you all want to talk about? And so many of you rode in with crazy and interesting takes. Before we get into that, top level question that I don't think we've had a conversation about. Sure.

What do you think about Summer Game Fest this year, 2026 as a whole? Not just the key leave, and the same thing we're doing that hot day. Sure, sure, sure. All of it. For the past week of showcases and announcements and whatever and yada, yada, yada. I think it was great.

I will give it an 8.0. I think what held it back was so many announcements leaking and thank you. So many announcements leaking or being known quantities or being follow-ups to things we already knew about when you think of a Wolverine or something to that effect, right? Not double-dipping, but dipping in. And then, of course, I go back to what I already said,

the leaks of like, okay, Ocarine is going to be, or we think it's arguably. And then it gets there. It's like, cool, I wanted more. that's like not as exciting as it could have been. We would have been floored. You would have been floored if you didn't know that was coming.

This is a conversation and a refrain so many of us had on different showcases. Like, think of what this would have been like if we didn't fucking know, you know. But it was great. It was solid. I have had a firm 10 out of 10. Wow. I think that it is a, you know, the sum of its parts type situation where, and it's always hard. It's silly to review showcases.

It's silly to review, put scores on many things. Like, there's a lot of conversations to be had of like, and the most important thing is explaining what you are assigning a score to. Yeah. And when we review showcases, we are reviewing the presentation as well as the games announced. And the question of how much of that is for me, that's up to us of how much we bring in. And when we are explaining our scores and how we got there and all of that.

And how much surprises matter to you versus just raw data of getting release dates, of getting, you know what you mean? Yeah, yeah. the questions and all that. So it's like such a hodgepodge of stuff, but I think that overall, as a summer game fest season, like, I don't think you get much better than this because you're never only going to get hits. You're never only going to get the best things of all time. But we had such a solid week of announcements. I don't think any of the showcases were even close to bad. I think that all of them were closer to that great, to amazing kind of status.

And when you compare what people miss the most about E3s, it's like I'd compare this to any week E3 ever had and be like, I think that it had more good news and was more entertaining to watch. And also, compared to other summer game fest seasons, I think this was the most concise where I don't think that we've had a true gaming week of showcases that included all the big dogs this way. And that's usually because Nintendo does weird shit. Yeah. So having Nintendo right after the other ones, like I just, I loved it, man. Well, then Kevin, I threw a curve well, I've already laid it out for you, but instead of starting where I with the first one, because I'm going to go in order, Kevin,

can we go to the 902 Friday 157 p.m. for our first hot take voicemail call in. 902 area code Friday, 145 p.m. Hi, this is Cameron Kennedy from Canada. My hot takes in general for showcases is if we're taking presentation into account, and we're not grading on a curve.

I don't think we can hit a 10 out of 10 anymore. Like, we had God of War introduced with an orchestra back in 2016, and now we just get a bunch of dudes on green screens. I don't think we're ever going to get something. We're never going to get something that hits the same way again. All right. Love you.

We love you, too, Cameron. Love you too. Tim, you just gave this whole week a 10 out of 10. How do you feel about this conversation about individual showcases? I mean, look, Cameron's not wrong in the sense that that, That specific E3 Sony conference, I do think, is the greatest single conference of all time. And I don't think that will ever be touched for a multitude of reasons. I think the presentation that they gave, like, we probably will not see something like that ever again.

It was amazing. Like, did you see the clip going around recently? Like, because it was the 10th anniversary of this. So the last couple of days, a lot of social posts have been making the rounds of what they showed there, including Insomniac Spider-Man and God of War. and like so many heavy hitters, Crash Bandicoot Insane Trilogy. Like we saved the Bandicoot.

Like, so many things happened there. But that was also the return to Hadeo, Kajima. Remember him? Like, I'm going to have a link that I,

I need to send over to Kev. I just tossed assets if you're talking about the presentation. I'm talking about, no, hold on. I'm specifically talking about Kojima. So I just want to watch this with you, Greg. It's one minute.

Kev, I'm sending it to assets. And you had that ready to go. Yeah, I made a note to watch this on Games Daily, but didn't hit the vibes. Let's watch it with audio, please. Please join me in welcoming one of the most creative talents in the history of gaming. The thing lighting up as he walks down. This is fucking insane.

I know. Let it play out. Because we need to hear what he says. All right, you can pause there. Like, quiz. That happened. Kojima productions with that level of showing off

Kojima. That's the same showcase that gave us crash and gave us God of War and gave us all of these things like that's things just adding up in a way that like I just don't think we'll ever get all of that together again. So I think that yes, that is true. Having said that, I feel like I've given multiple tens to

showcases in the last couple years. A lot of the Xbox game showcases during the summer season come to mind where Not every single one in the last four years, but I think it was like two out of four of them had so, like the one where they debuted south of midnight, actually. I remember being probably their greatest showcase they've ever had. And that was more because the presentation doesn't need an orchestra,

and it doesn't need people on stage and all that stuff. Sometimes just the presentation of the showcase and the way that you tee up the world premieres and the pacing of the segments, that can also, in addition to what games you have. Yeah, of course. That gets you to that 10. Yeah.

I don't agree. I think we can still do 10 out of tens. Are they going to be like that? Are they going to be 2016? To your point, probably not. Like, I don't think you can say never say never. But I think, yeah, the orchestra, the announcements, the caliber. I also wonder if, like, some of it, Tim speaks to,

stick with me and let me talk this out with you. If some of it speaks to the identity of a playstation, Nintendo, Xbox gamer, not being the same thing anymore. I think 2016, you're looking at the PlayStation Roundup and what we're going to do that and how you're going to talk about what PlayStation is. And PlayStation is still so defined by that core audience

of single player narrative adventures. That's what we want, right? And for Xbox right now, current day to be, in some degree, trying to swing back or have a presentation at least at SGF that was very old-school Xbox player focus. of hey, it's gears, it's Halo, it's a bunch of other shooters and things like that. That doesn't resonate. I don't think the same way that 2016 did when the communities were smaller.

I disagree with that. I think that it's more that the concentrated, the concentration towards that audience. So back then, that was the one showcase a year of PlayStation did. We're now getting multiple state of place. We're now getting countless Xbox things because they own half the industry. So it's like we're getting a ton of small director, developer directs, and then single game directs and whatever you want to call them. I do think that that means that we are, it's the, you're spreading out the ammunition.

Yes. And that makes sense. And I think that, you know, that also spreads out that audience that you have, whether it's bigger or smaller than it used to be more passionate than it used to be. I don't know. But I don't stand with that. because look at Nintendo. Like, Nintendo has never wavered

in terms of the way that it's done its directs since they started this whole thing in 2013 or whatever it was. And the Nintendo community has only gotten bigger and only gotten more fervorous over these Nintendo directs

for better or worse over the years. But like, I do think that like, the fact that that hasn't changed for them, it's like, okay,

well, doesn't it? But hasn't it? Like, I think you look at the last direct from SGF, right? Like,

talk to 10 different people. I feel like you've, not 10 different reactions, but several different reactions that aren't all, it was greater. It sucked. Yeah, but I think the reality there is, to your point about the PlayStation community and Xbox community, if you talk to the Nintendo community, that's not the case at all. And the Nintendo community is vibrant and online. And they're in the same way that like back when you guys were doing beyond and stuff,

and there was this like PlayStation audience, there's been a Nintendo audience that entire time and they all got clowned out, you know what I mean? It was just like they felt like the little kid brother of it all. And I think that as we've seen, especially with the Switch, kind of changing, getting more, quote, unquote, grownups playing Nintendo than I think they have in a long time. The fact of the matter is the Nintendo community, the Nintendo influencers, the Nintendo YouTubers, the Nintendo podcasters, like, they all have their own thing going with their own audiences. And I think that you'll never going to get like a unanimous everybody thinks is the greatest thing ever for these things. but I do think that any dissension on the quality of this Nintendo direct is from the people that are covering everything, not from Nintendo.

But haven't they been welcomed in by Nintendo? That's what I'm saying, right? Nintendo audience has grown and has glommed on to that core audience. There is a group of people who are like me that have no nostalgia for Nintendo but are here now because they love the Switch 2. Yeah, but I watch and I go, this direct sucks, but I have to, you know. Yeah, but you're also a PlayStation gamer. It's just like you start, you need to look at like the numbers of how many of the Nintendo Switch 2 gamers are just Switch 2 gamers.

And I think it's very high. And I think that when you look at the numbers of YouTube views that these things are getting and stuff, it's like there is an audience that is there for the Nintendo of it all. And there's brain rot within a lot of this too. And there is the things of like, if it's not Mario, Pokemon or Zelda, it's worthless or Smash Brothers. It's worthless. Like there's always going to be those type of conversations. But I do think that it is a completely different way of thinking and conversation.

And that's not me defending the quality of these Nintendo directs. I think we are at a point that like, they, they should be embarrassed by the way that they're presenting these things. I think that they'd look at me and say, I don't care. Yeah. And they'd say that in Japanese, you know,

because we look at this and we're like, we know why these decisions are being made. It's because it is not Nintendo of America making these decisions for how the showcase should be presented. It is a very traditional, very Nintendo way of doing things. And that comes from Nintendo Japan. Do you think we ever get back to?

Get back to maybe too far. But like, I'm looking forward to inevitably when someone does an E3-2016 style presentation again where it is that we are going to go back and when it is going to be a live presentation we are going to have people hearing announcements and stuff

and it'll feel so novel I think when people actually double back to it yeah I mean it's interesting because like I think years from that I think that they did it just did we didn't have an audience for a couple different reasons but like I do think that the PS5 the two PS5 showcases that they did within that same

I forget exactly when they happened, but I want to say it was like May and August or something like that, that year leading into the PS5, like off the top of my head, I would say in terms of quality, those were also 10 out of tens. And that didn't have live audience, that didn't have all this stuff,

but it did have those super sweet, CGI PlayStation interlude things. We're watching this stuff the way that they shot it. We're like, are these real people? Are they running on the PlayStation? There was so much there with the presentation. that doesn't require a live studio audience and all that stuff.

Like I don't think that the live audience thing and of course I love that stuff, but I also think that we need to be honest with ourselves if we're talking about these showcases. Like that E3-2016 from PlayStation was a fucking all-timer. The one that, like the best of all time. Then we look at the year that they,

the last time they did the big live stage thing and it was Ghost and Spider-Man and Last of Us 2 with the kind of like set activations and sets and sets and that's them getting incredibly ambitious and trying something awesome didn't really translate that well necessarily yeah it works if you're audience yeah but even if your audience it I remember hearing it being a very awkward thing a lot of breaks between transitioning all that stuff I personally love that stuff and I think that's super cool um but let's go back before then what are the other 10 out of 10 live audience uh e3 conferences we're not talking about men

Konami every time like we're like let's just be real it's like we have this rose to glasses about like how good these E3 showcases were. The vast majority of them were very bad compared to the showcases we're getting today. Yeah. In terms of presentation and quality of games. I think we're going to see somebody. This is all said and done. And I've said this before.

So just to quickly beat the drum, it's going to get so much worse. As you see it happening every day on Games Daily, we're going to go through this giant just shedding of people, of jobs, of studios, of companies. And I think when we get into our next golden age, then, age of, all right, cool, we're doing it, and we're getting small profits, and we're happy being a video game publisher, then you're going to see somebody go back,

and I think do something cool live again to their audience, speak directly to it. Even though I say that, and again, this year I am, I know this is like, we'll see. I don't expect it to be a 10 out of 10. I'm trying to get to BlizzCon this year, and I'm excited to be in an audience with people. I was excited to be at Xbox this year,

SGF, where it was, sure, you're in the Dolby Theater watching a presentation, but having an audience there, cheering at their announcements. They cared about that. That was fun to be a part of it. And that's amazing, yeah. I mean, it's funny, too, because I think back of Nintendo and, like, man, I struggle to think of them having an exceptional E3 press conference.

Like, there was a lot of ones that had a lot of bad ones. Great amazing moments and huge reveals. Like, we can talk about Twilight Princess all day and great moments, but the... Remember we music? Like, yeah, I'll never fucking forget that, you know? And, like, I'll never forget even, like, I'd say that one of the better E3s was one that I was at where it was like the big 3DS, I mean, I was there for the 3DS blowout when it was first revealed, but the 3DS

when it was at its kind of peak where they were talking about Mario 3D land and Mario Kart 7 and a ton of different things and they had a very cool stage setup that had like this 3D element with video wall stuff. They really went all out for it, but like the lineup of games overall wasn't really that good. This we're talking firmly in that Wii U era

DHS era. But to get to the Switch and after years of Direx having that live in Japan infamous red couch showcase. Like, that sucked. That was so bad. So I just want everyone to understand. Like, just having an audience is not inherently a good thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no.

You still need to produce a good show that is paced to evoke emotion out of people. Let's talk about producing a good show. Kevin, take me to 806 area code Friday 157 p.m. Hey, kind of funny, this is Colby calling in from Lubbock, Texas. Let's go Red Raiders. My Summer Game Fest hot take is, I just think that Jeff Keely is too cocky for his own good. Every Summer Game Fest, he always hikes it up and saying that it's going to be the best Summer Game Fest ever. And while I think that he does have some good things to show every Summer Games Fest, is it like the biggest thing in the world?

no. But I mean, I shouldn't discredit him too much because he does have some genuinely good things. Like we just saw Resident Evil as the first thing showing up there. So, hey, you get some points there, Jeff. There you go. Colby giving you some points, Jeff. Is Jeff Keely too cocky for his own good, Tim? I could not disagree with the statement anymore. I'm with you. I think not only is he not too cocky. I also think that he

has done an incredible job of setting expectations for these shows. I don't know that he always has, but I know that the time that he might have messed that up ever since then he didn't. And he's been, I think, very good about navigating people's emotions that are reasonable. You're never going to make everybody happy. And that just kind of is what it is. There's a lot to criticize and there's a lot to ask for in terms of improvement in a lot of elements about how the shows are ran and everything.

think, but I don't think you can, in good faith, watch the last five summer game fest and not see incredible improvement and also a unification of the industry. No other showcase is having announcements at the level that they are across all the different platform holders together. And for him to get to the point that Resident Evil and Final Fantasy seven announcements are being made at that show. Like, yeah, that wasn't the case a couple years ago, but he earned that.

And like, that's from a level of trust and respect that these developers are starting to put in them over some of the platform holders. Yeah, 100%. I don't think Jeff's too cocky. I think, you know, the chat's been quick to point out the times where Jeff's been, all right, not that it's a bad show, but like expectations

and check kind of thing. And I don't think this SGF was marketed as your ass is going to be blown out of your chair. Like, it was like it's going to be a great show because it was a great show. Jeff didn't lie about that. He came out and did it. You know, I think something interesting you just said was there's a lot of things to ask for or criticizing that kind of thing.

And criticism, of course, that's all we do here. But ask for I kind of push back on a bit, not on you personally, but at large. Of like, I don't know what SGF show number we just saw in terms of a show. But like, this show has solidified. You know what this is. It is no longer me texting Jeff or emailing and be like,

how long is this show going to be, you know, it's going to be two hours. It's going to be two hours. It's going to be all this stuff. there's going to be these ad breaks that are just like trailer to back in the back to back back. They're going to make a big deal when it's exclusive. They're going to have people on stage talk. Like in the same way I feel us moving games cast daily really set the cadence away. This is what kind of funny is.

This is what the programming day looks like. This is what our slate's going to be. This is how 11 people are going to like I know what SGF is going to be. And I do think, you know, I, you know, what was it? She's SGF 2 maybe SGF 2 where I remember we were really disappointed in the presentation. and gave really, really low scores. And I remember being like, I said something effective, like this is going to hurt the reputation of SGF going forward.

And really what I think that did in terms of now the backlog of SGF's is set what SGF's reputation is, what SGF. You know what this show is. I don't think we show up to watch SGF expecting the game awards. We don't expect that caliber of announcements. We hope for some of those. I mean, I agree with you, but I think I'm at a point out that I disagree. after this show.

We got Resident Evil Code Veronica remake and we got Final Fantasy 7 Revelations. Those are in, I don't care what tribe you're in when it comes to this video game stuff. You can't argue that those aren't two of the top 10 announcements that could be possibly made this season. Yeah. They were here.

They opened and close the show and there was a ton of great stuff in between. Like I think that we, I'm not saying, oh, we expected it. If it's not there, what a shitty showcase, but it's like, they proved to me anything can happen.

Yeah. And I think that's where he wants to be, where he should be. And I think, again, where this gets marketed the correct way as a celebration of it. I think game awards is where the hype does still get out of control and sometimes lives up to it and sometimes doesn't. But even that, I don't blame Jeff on. Like, he's, again.

I mean, even that, let's look at the last couple game awards. Hold on real quick. Game Awards is also solidified. You know what this is. I don't need you on Blue Sky or Twitter fucking talking about, like, I can't believe it's all ads. like it's what it fucking is. That's what we do. Yeah.

Last game, a few game awards. I mean last couple of game awards, I don't think they're, they're not all equal 10 out of 10, whatever. But it's like when you think about some of the giant announcements that were made on that stage. Yeah.

It's like, yeah, you can expect anything to happen there, except something Nintendo related. I want to stick with this train of thought thought, and go to area code 814 Friday at 5 p.m. Kevin. Hey, Greg. This is Tom Blackburn from Erie, Pennsylvania.

My hot take is that this has been the best year for the ad trailers in SGF. But there needs to be a cleaner delineation of what's an ad and what isn't. Thank you. Goodbye, Tom. You clap, Sam. What are you clapping about? I love it. everything you said here, I feel like this shouldn't be a hot take.

I think that this is a take that we should all stand by. I was shocked at how few giant sections of, oh, this is clearly an ad and this is dragging. I feel like the ads that they got for this year's Summer Game Fest were so much more interesting than some of the just slop that we've gotten in previous years that just lasts way too long. The length of the ad durations was so much better than it has been in previous. years. And like I'm happy that you noticed this time because I did as well. But we need a cleaner delineation about what is a true ad and what is being shown. And I understand this whole

thing is ad. I was good. That's my that's my one. Yeah, go ahead. That's my one thing. People need to understand. There's a difference. And Jeff knows it. We all know it. We can see it. And we know that these are just the level of ads like we have for podcast ads, which is different from sometimes when we do bigger sponsorships or, you know, whatever, like things are placed in a certain way. But that's cleanly delineated that that is what's happening. Like, I feel like when we're watching these, we should know that these are the commercials, not part of the show. Like when they're on stage and now, essentially, you can say it's just marketing.

It's just commercials. But it's like, no, it's part of the show. The Nintendo Switch family ad is not part of the show. That's a commercial. Yeah. Do you disagree? I do because I think people do pay. And this is where we're speaking out of Turner.

I have not looked at this. This is just what I've heard. Yada, yada, yada. You still, not everybody pays for a spot on the. game awards as we saw with the fucking multiplayer game that's dead as a doornau but like lots of those are paid in sgf as well of like it is a partnership you're buying the booth that play days to also get a moment here and you can get i think from what i understand okay i'm you know i'm sure at sgf in the show someone was there for free because jeff loved it and yeah yeah so i'm not trying to say

everybody's that way so it's like when you're doing that i feel then i i just do what would you want you want lucy be like we'll be back with more announcements after a word from our sponsors Yep. Yep, that's it. That's it. Or some bug. The reason you would never see that is because then you'd have to sell those sponsorships at a lower rate probably than what you're selling them for already. Because nobody wants to just be the sponsor. They want to chair. They are. Like, I guarantee those. Well, yeah, they're playing. Yeah, there's. But that's what I'm saying.

I'm saying, though. I'm saying even less than that. But those are, I don't know. I think that I think that I bet you that there is a rate card out there for those that is totally separate from the being part of the show. Yeah. There's a delineation. And there, it is a, it's one of those, it's like porn, you know. You see it. Yeah. We know every time. As soon as they say whatever and then it ends and then it rolls into, here's some gotcha game.

You're like, okay, yeah, we all get up. Here's an update for whatever fallout 76. Like, okay, cool. We don't have to,

you know what I mean. Yeah. I just think that there's a, there's such a clear difference that, yeah, like here's a word from our sponsors. Like, we'll be right back after a quick break.

Just some delineation. Like, there is a delineation. It's there. And yes, they have paid sections on their shows and stuff, but they're being presented as a show. they're not being presented as just a block of commercials

that could run in any order, you know? Yeah. It's like there's a pacing to it all. When you look at that, there's no pacing. It's just commercials. Yeah. I just feel like even though those are just paid commercials,

the people paying for them don't want you to think of them as paid commercials. And I think we all know that when they start rolling, they're paid commercials. But I don't, I don't, what you're saying might be true if they don't want to be seen that way. Tough shit.

That's not what. that's not how commercials work in any of these spaces. Like, whether it's podcast, whether it's TV, whether it's the things that play around trailers and movies. Like, that's just not how it works. There's like, there's a, we call them host red ads for how we do it, right?

That's different than we get, when we get a partnership or a sponsorship. And the way that we present that stuff is different. Clearly, Nintendo Switch commercials that they, they run at all these different shows. Like, they're not looking at that of like, this needs to be presented as if it's part of the show. That's...

Nintendo? Yeah. I'm sure they want it. But like, yeah, of course I want, I want them to play that 10 times during the show. But like, that's not what deals are. That's a commercial spot that sole purpose is there's going to be a lot of eyes on this thing. So we're going to, like, we want our commercial to play during this thing. Whereas like being part of the show, I understand it, there might just be playing a trailer for their product and that is a commercial.

That is different. that is them placing their product in the showcase. But I mean, that's also the interesting argument we're making of like comparing it to our content is that surrounding the sponsorship, whether it be an integration or whether it be a host red ad or whether it be a bug over here, right? We're giving you content that isn't an ad, whereas the entirety of the show of SGF is advertising the next big game. Like I'm not trying to be up to, so I understand the difference.

And I totally understand that like as a viewer, you'd want that. I guess this literally comes down to how do you perceive this show. And I perceive this show as I am sitting down and opening up the Sears catalog for Christmas, where I'm just looking at ad after ad, even if it's not. But it's not how it's presented. It's presented like it's a show. It's presented like there is, there's a run of show. I guarantee, like, I guess this is the best way

for me to put this. Like, I would love to see what the run of show looks like. Their Excel spreadsheet. Because it looks like a run of show of like, then there's this segment, then there's this segment, and then there's this segment. And then it'll say commercial. ads, yeah, right? That's the difference. You're not wrong.

They're producing the show, and sure people are paying for some of those segments differently than others, but like there's some level of value where it's like, all right, it's worth it for us presenting this as a performance, and not just a series of paid ads, which sometimes it is, but I think that we're getting more and more to a point,

as evidenced by some of the big guests that they have here, like, I don't know how much of that is the giant paid things. okay so you you know interesting so i think i'm looking at it more from i'm a small pop whatever publisher putting my trailer in there yetty yet yada you're looking at more from i'm the person on the main stage and how i want my stuff to be perceived versus how i want the ads to be perceived yeah the perspective fair enough but i'll tell you what this whole world of online advertising wouldn't exist if people didn't need it i mean to know everybody we have sponsors

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And we're back. I want to give a shout to the chat. As you know, I'm not going to be, I remember. One of the games in one of the showcases we talked about was a kairosoph game, the Sim game. Oh, the one that's based on like the anime, the cooking, it's a restaurant. Oh, one piece. Yeah, right. And Kairosoft makes game dev story.

I looked at it. I was like, that looks like them. And then it popped up. It was them. Someone in the chat was like, does Greg know that Kairosoph made a pro wrestling simulator game like that? I said, no, pro wrestler story's been out since May 2025. I'm buying it on Steam. Don't you worry about it.

I am excited about that. I do appreciate them quite a bit. I also appreciate, of course, your hot takes. Let's get back to it. Kevin, can you give me 727. Saturday, 406 p.m. Hey, kind of funny. This is Joe from Orlando, and my hot take is that Bethesda is the wet blanket,

wet part of SGS every year now. Ever since they put out fall in 76, they made the game good. I know, Greg, you like it. They made it good in, like, a couple of years. It was fine. They should have stopped, like, six years ago. And they're still supporting it. We don't need more seasons of fall out of 76.

We don't need more Elder Scrolls online. They should take those developers and put them back. into with the other mainline fallout, mainline elder school games so that those games don't take 10 freaking plus years to make. That's my hot take. Joe from Orlando, I can't agree more.

I'm on the same side. Like literally, it happens every fucking year at the Xbox presentation or showcase. But it happened in a live studio. I'm getting a ride. Everyone's excitement. They're excited for gears.

They're excited for all these Xbox franchises that really aren't Greg Miller's thing. And I'm sitting next to my wife. and boom, Bethesda, and I grabbed her hand, and then I went, oh, right, fuck.

I was like, ah, fuck, right. This is just, insurer's shit, it was fall out 76, or it was Elder Scrolls or line,

or eventually it was Doom, which isn't my thing, but it's just like, I get so excited for that hot second, I'm like, all right, then I have so much stuff

to show me that isn't going to be Elder Scrolls, that isn't going to be a new fallout. And I know, you know, you know how much I love Bethesda. You know,

I do enjoy fall at 76. I just don't need to hear about fall at 76. I understand you need to promote fall at 76. This is strictly being a selfish what I want person, not a hey, everybody in the industry go. I don't think they needed to pull the plug and move to different teams do different things. It's a whole, you know, I don't know if 76 is getting in the way. And 76 is currently Xbox, as you see them flailing in the water. Their only way to monetize their hit TV show is to put out new content into 76. So it's a thing and whatever, but it's like, I feel this one of my bones because it happened. I was like, I was

like, fuck, like, you do that instantaneous. I let myself for a second believe. And then I was like, all right, shit, fuck. Yeah, I'm with you that it's like, I don't think that the answer is to stop supporting Fallout 76 or Elder Scrolls online. Like, I think that they do have audiences and continue to make stuff for them. But I do think that they should not be shown in showcases like this,

specifically the June showcase. And if they're going to be, I think it should be presented in a very clear way of just like, here's a quick montage section about our live service products and... Which is like when there was the... Bethesda conference, I felt did a good job of doing that. Well, yes and no. I feel like the Bethesda conference was, you know, it didn't always exist. It kind of came into existence because they had Fallout 4 to talk about, right? And they had Doom.

They had so many exciting products. And then some of the years felt like, oh, you didn't really have anything to say here. And even then, it's like those hour-long conferences were, they were then being very indulgent in talking about all the little updates coming to all of the different forms of all the different things. and like you can make the argument that it's like well this they're trying to get people to watch this thing I still think that you take those elements and you apply it now to the Xbox showcase when they they now own so many more teams as well that stuff we see Xbox all the time go even for this

hey afterwards there's going to be a 20 minute gears breakdown maybe that section should be reserved for hey after this there's going to be a a deeper look into all of the ongoing things of the updates you should expect and then that's kind of like you're still promoting that thing to the people watching the showcase when you have all those eyes. Yeah. Because I do think that the little post show things aren't working anymore. Like I don't think that they had the same impact that they did when it was Starfield. It being Call of Duty a couple years ago.

And now it being gears, especially when we got as much gears as we did. How did you feel about outer worlds? Same thing. Like it's like out of worlds. It's like they had enough time in that showcase that getting all more of that. It's like, you know, I'm saying this is us sitting here reacting to all that stuff. Like think about the things. things we reacted to and things we didn't react to.

We know. Like, we kind of understand that there's a deeper dive here. Cool, that's a YouTube video. Everyone always says, though, it could have been an email. And I fucking hate that as a phrase. Because I feel like it's, yes, so many things can. But I think that there's a time and place for different ways to showcase news about games. And I think that the way that they do it for the, but just a presents. And then it's a fall at 76 update.

It's like, this ain't it for how many different showcases they have. We're back to as well. I think a very interesting, albeit different flip of the argument we just had about SGF and ads there, where it's like, let's talk about the worth of these announcements, right, and the prestige of it. And it is that idea of, I get that 76 Elder Scrolls online. These are ongoing things that you do want to tantalize people and do going, oh, man, Walter Gagans. Oh, the Thieves Guild is back in ESS. Like, there's things there that could speak to an audience outside of the established thing.

but also what is the real conversion on that? And it does feel like a commercial inside of the commercial I'm already watching for Xbox, but for something like even you aren't taking seriously because it isn't a person coming out and giving a demo. It isn't a person saying what's up. And I do think if you have something, you can't just have an update.

It needs to be an update that speaks to the new audience. Exactly. If you have Walt Goggins, hey, the success of fallout, the show, Walt Goggins, now he's in the thing. I get that. You just need to give them a hook. And if you don't have a hook, Yeah.

Don't do anything. Just stop. Or do something like in a different place in a different way. Because I do think it kind of hurts the overall impact. Kevin, I'm going to throw you a curve. I know you've been prepping. So I'm sorry. I want to go to 303 Friday to 221 p.m.

Instead of, yeah, you got it right there. You're grabbing that one. Because it's in line with what we're talking to a degree as we jump off of, man, a 76 and Elder Scrolls online. These games as service that are still going. See if thieves. Go, Kevin, you do great. Howdy, I'm Gula from Montana.

I'll try to speak more clearly. Sorry, blessing. And my SGF hot take, I think it is that all the MMO announcements just feels like it's the new life service push. I'm not really sure

if it's going to last long with the older Bible that's like, you build wars. But that just could be because I'm a little pessimistic. You all say awesome. You can stop it, Kevin. So that was buddy, I believe, from Montana, who started with,

I'll try to speak more clearly this time, blessing, because he got dogged on last time for not to speak. You did worse. We got to buy you a mind home. I don't know what's happening there. The idea is, though, that all of the MMO announcements, it felt like the new live service push because of Guild Wars, because of us getting into.

it. And I wanted this one in here, and I think it's interesting to piggyback off of 76, because while there is no excitement juice, I feel, for a 76, or even an ESO, which again, two games I've had a great time with. I'm not insulting them, but I'm talking about grabbing a new audience. Guild Wars 3, this SGF, Tim, getting that big pop is interesting, I feel. And when I don't agree that it feels like a new lifestyle push, because first off, what was the other one? What is the other MMO we're even talking about that got announced? I don't know. Dune? Are we talking about Dune? Like, it doesn't matter.

But Roomscape? Runecape, sure. Well, that's, is that even a, I don't know this time around? Let's just go off of Guild Wars 3. This is going to sound crazy. Crazy everybody. But Greg Miller's money would feel better invested in an MMO. And I mean as a producer, somebody funding a video game,

better in an MMO than I'm chasing whatever live service bullshit battle pass. Well, and more than that, we're talking about Guild Wars 3. Of course. and I was trying to expand it to an MMO in general, just for a second, of in an age right now where we talk about only 16% of gamers who are buying games, are buying more than three or whatever the Sarkana stat was a year, right?

You want to find those games that people do want to come in and live in. And it's what I, even when I see the updates now for DC Universe online, I go, man, I wish I was still playing DCU. I wish I was still up. I wish I was part of that community, right? Like, there's something about getting invested in living in a game, And live service games, I feel, have gone in and really warped that. It made it be fast food, instant gratification.

I'm going to buy the battle pass and buy the next 24 levels. And I'm not saying that doesn't happen in MLOs. But I am saying that MMOs bring a very specific audience with a very specific, interesting desire list of what they want. And so I think they not all obviously can stand the test of time, but when you look at a DCUO, a wow, a Guild Wars 2, like, Guild Wars 3, I look at it. I'm like, man, I'm going to, I want to try that, and I hope it clicks.

I hope I stick around. I'd love to live in a world for years, years and years and years. Yeah, I think that there's a place for these games right now. And I don't think that too many of them have been revealed or announced or talked about during the Summer Game Fest. I think that this, it's especially when you have a brand like Guild Wars. It reminds me a lot. I understand it's not an MMO, but in terms of a relatively niche

genre in terms of how the games media talks about the stuff, right? Like we're not covering we're not covering Guild Wars are kind of funny. You know, that's just not our bag. But it reminds me a lot of Baldur's Gate 3 where, you know, Baldur's Gate, huge

franchise, but the third one became game of the year. Became like such a, oh, now's the time. I can see Guild Wars 3 getting that level of Walt. Everyone's going to try it. And I don't think everyone's going to stick with it. Yeah. But I do think it'll have a,

the biggest audience, Guild Wars has ever had. Yeah, 100%. I think that's going to be a huge moment for them in a coming out party. And I think that we all kind of expect it to be good. Yeah. We look at a lot of the live service games and we, fair games. We don't expect that to be good. I don't expect to see it. But you see what I'm saying? It's like there is that kind of. 100%, 100%. Yeah, it'll be interested to see. I know Gill Wars just put up a dev diary, I believe over there today or over the weekend.

Kevin, take me to Polk Friday, 158 p.m. It's coming from Texas. The Lone Star State. What they're sorry. Jeff Ramsey, I think lives there. He's the lone star. He is, that's what they call him. Hey, kind of funny, this is Heath from Texas.

Thank you. My SGF hot take is that Nintendo does not need to show anything else for the Okerina of Time remake that revealed trailer was all they need to do. And I truly believe that they will be able to compete with GTA this year. And then side action, roughly six months from now, we will get a Majores mask remake as well. Thanks, guys.

Six months. Six months. That's the wildest thing you said. Garbage take. Kevin, run me 805-635 a.m., please. That's 805-635. This comes from the Central Coast of California. Not L.A.

Not the Bay. Hey, everybody. This is Jackson Hanson from the Central Coast of California, where I grande. Not L.A., not the Bay. Anyway, Nintendo really flunked this year. You can't have a summer of games best and not show something from Okra Radio time

besides just, I don't know, the screen shot, basically. And then it's a whole bunch of... rematches remakes and then what was to deal with a thumb Resolade video? Come on Nintendo you can do better. Xbox said great, places you did okay. Nintendo really flubbed it this year. Yeah, so 8.05 there, Jackson Hampton, he's got the right idea. You're just so wrong. Like, you're just so ridiculously wrong about this. Like, this, I think really comes back to like, what are we grading showcases for?

And it's like, how many games are for you? Do you only have this console? how did they show the announcements and like how awkward is the thumb wrestling and all that stuff like there's just so many factors at play but like for me to look at this as like a like Nintendo really fucked it this year it's like I'm looking at Nintendo and I want Nintendo to succeed like there's been a lot of conversations recently

specifically about the Xbox thing about like like why are we talking about this about like wanting Xbox to sell consoles like why do we care it's like well because if they don't sell consoles they stop making games and they don't survive like and again I don't need to remind you this Like I've been with Nintendo from the beginning through the ups, through the downs, and there's been a lot of downs.

And even when there's ups, there are downs. The Nintendo 64 had a grand total of 28 games. Not many games. You know what I mean? Nothing. And we're talking about some of the best games ever. But the third party support was incredibly lackluster. And when it was there, there had to be a lot of concessions made to get Resident Evil 2 running and to get Tony Hux Pro Skater, where the songs were 30-second loops or whatever it was of the songs.

It's like Nintendo has constantly made decisions that have made it hard for third parties to work well with them. You even go further to the GameCube and it was like, all right, cool, well, they had the stupid small disks. So it didn't have as much storage space and capability as PlayStation and Xbox did. Then you get to the Wii. I don't need to explain all that. Then you get to the Wii you and it's like, hey, we're going to partner with a bunch of third parties and we're going to get Batman, Archimus City, and we're going to get like a bunch of that stuff too little, too late. And they're not even good versions of the games.

We're at a different point where you can look at this direct and just be like, it's just a bunch of ports. You need to have a little bit more critical thinking than that and apply it to what ports they're showing and what the story is that they're building. I look at this Nintendo Direct and sure, it might not be the most exciting thing to us sitting at the table because we've played these games on other consoles already. But we're getting so many of the best games of the years from the last couple years, metaphor, refantagio and a lot of the stuff. coming to the Switch 2 in addition to a final round of maybe not final round one of the final rounds of ports like the Xenoblate games that need Switch 2 editions to run better on this iteration of hardware but then more than that we're getting Capcom

announcing proving Resident Evil Requiem works proving Pragmata works a brand new IP and it runs great on Switch Onimusha way of the sword coming all this says to me is day and date all this is day and date. Going forward, Capcom games are day and date, right? You look at the square side of things. Final Fantasy 7 Revelations. They put on remake. They put out rebirth. They're both selling great. They both reviewed great. They both performed great. Revelations, day and date is going to be on the Switch 2. That's the story of this direct. It's like they are building a compelling reason for the Nintendo Switch 2 to be your console of choice. And that if it is your only console,

you're going to get the vast majority of games you're going to want to play. There will always be the PlayStation exclusives. There will be two Xbox exclusives. And you won't be able to play those. But like we're slowly getting to the point that like the big dogs, even Ubisoft supporting. And we're getting things that's not just like Ubisoft supporting with Zombie You or stuff like that.

It's like we're getting the Rayman. Remain game. Like you get the point that I'm building. And you're making a great point. You're doing a great job there. Yeah. I like what you said there. Okay.

Don't worry about it. Calm down. And the Zelda side of things. It's just like, we just want more. We just want more. but like we don't need this whole is.

Everything that we need to know about this game. The one thing is the actual release date. And we know why we didn't get it. Grand Theft Auto. Don't be afraid, Nintendo. Be afraid. Don't make bad choices. Don't be stupid.

Do not be stupid. Two weeks before, two weeks after, stay away. You're fine. Let's talk about staying away. Let's go to the 512 Saturday at 3.32 p.m. We're going to Nick from Texas. Hi, kind of funny. This is Nick from Texas. I thought SGF was great this year.

Honestly, a lot of good games. My hot take is, where is EA? What happened? Where are you? There was nothing. Like, I'm not a huge EA fan, but there was nothing. No EA original. No Iron Man. No Jedi 3, which I feel like we're coming up on Jedi 3 because

Fallen Order was in 2019, Survivor in 2023. We're coming up, so maybe we see them at Gamescom or Game Awards, but yeah, where's the EA? I believe they're packing their bags for Saudi Arabia. Yeah, but I mean, even with that, where is Jedi 3? Where is Iron Man? We have two games that are known quantities, one officially announced, one very likely to be announced. have they confirmed a Jedi sequel follow-ups happening like somebody said something

I don't think there's been an official official and hey any of this doesn't matter you can get Black Panther in the blink of an eye and just not exist one day but you know we're at a point that from what we've heard Iron Man still exists I find that hard to believe

but it does and at what point is it going to reveal itself again you know I am a little surprised it wasn't here. I think game awards could also make sense. Like, I just, I don't know. And then, yeah, Star Wars. I don't know.

It's a great question. I don't know what's going on over there. And, yeah, I mean, Iron Man and Black Panther, like, I feel like there's not, Black Panther's dead, right? Yep. Yeah, and so I feel Iron Man's probably on the way to the graveyard as well, but I don't know. But I mean, like, yeah, I would think so too. That's what it seems like you'd be doing.

Yeah, Jedi, I'm reading from Screen Rant. It looks like, yeah, somebody from Disney did confirm. but it's one of those things. As a first reported in an exclusive by Game Rant, a Disney representative shared strong confirmation that Calcastus is key part of their plan, saying, never say never, we've got a lightsaber in the park,

we've got more Cal Stories coming. Now it's known third and final games underdevelopments, so I don't know if that accounts is official. I know, I mean, yeah. I would guess, yeah, I mean, for Jedi at this point, game words, yeah? Yeah. That seems like you have,

that'd be a great point to have, you saber turn on, both sides. Calcastus awesome. them. Yeah. To go and rock it and talk about the final chapter there. But yeah, it is shocking, really, in terms of EA and how they've just wound down to just being sports for right now and what they're talking about, right? Not actually, well, I guess, of course, I'm sorry, skate. Don't forget, season four is upon us. We're all out there. We've got our finger flips now. We're all out there. We're doing the goddamn thing. We're having a great time.

X games collaboration right now. It's free to play, everybody. You can just jump in. I don't know if you know that about skate. You can go play it right now. Help us out. Help me and Mike out, please. Okay. One day it's not going to be there. It's going to be your fault. You can be It's a very, we're in very much of an Avengers situation, except this one's free to play. You could just go right now. I'll wait, download it, boot it up, redeem your free tickets,

and then just like, don't turn on, but like, let's spike it. Let's spike the skate traffic today. Let's just spike it. So they say, oh, man, we should keep skate around. Loyal Freaks says, I imagine we see Jedi 3 at Star Wars Celebration. That would make sense.

See that next year and it being a fall game. I just, I guess that leading into this year, I would have bet on Jedi. three being this year. But obviously that's not the case. Yeah. Fair enough. Let's close out with a section dedicated, of course,

to the one, the only Rock and a Hard Place. Xbox. Can we go to the 508 Saturday 118 p.m. Kevin. This is Massachusetts, is where we're going. Hi, kind of funny. This is Mario Correllis from Fall River, Massachusetts.

So you want to know the winner and the loser of Summit Games Fest. I do. It's Xbox. Okay. Because what a presentation that was. I loved it. I absolutely hated the Xbox, the Xbox exclusivity for Gears of War and Clockwork Orange.

They released Gears of War reloaded for PS5. I thought it was coming there. I sold my Xbox because it's a piece of junk and I got a switch to. And now I can't play gears. Hey, I gambled and I lost, but I love SGF. And I love you guys. Take care. In this vein, Kevin, go ahead and give me 404 Saturday at 10.01 a.m.

This is going to be Rob from Atlanta, Georgia, home of Momocon, who has not invited us back in many years. Not Rob, but a Momocon. If you know what me at MobileCon, we'd like to come back. Hey, kind of funny. This is Rob from Atlanta, Georgia. That's R-A-V, Rob. You guys killed it this summer game fest with the coverage and everything.

Good job on everything. My hot take is Gears of War looked awesome, looked new, looked fresh until it didn't. They had me. They had me in. I was like, damn, I'm going to have to buy an Xbox again. I traded mine in years ago. And then they did the direct, and I'm like, huh, it's more of the old same thing. The first part looked great, new city, the lighting, everything.

and now 20, 30 minutes of that direct. I'm like, never mind. I'm good. Thanks. Bye, guys. Timothy, is there any denying that Xbox was the big winner and big loser of SGA? Oh, man. Oh, man.

Because now we even have the hindsight 2020, all the news has happened since the Xbox show. I mean, I can just say this. Xbox in no way, shape, before him won summer game best. Sure. No, they lost. Yeah, yeah. I think their showcase was really good. Yeah.

what I mean? But I think that that's a rel- but I don't like I that's no but the games are great but it's just like as a brand absolutely not like they fucked up. I think even in that showcase like the choices they made in the emissions and the direction and all that stuff. It's like no I think that

that that was not at all a win. It's I know people are just going to be mad at me for my takes on this and it like in games daily yesterday it was a very anti-Xbox sentiment that I had that I stand.

by, sorry, today, last show we did is what I meant to say. And I saw a lot of chats like saying like, oh, Tim's a fanboy, Tim's a whatever. And it's just so funny to me because whenever I see that, I'm always like, what are you implying I'm a fan boy of? Like, I get that you're not Xbox. And that's the thing is just like, I guess cool. Yeah, I can definitively say like, I think that Xbox make horrible decisions. And I, we've talked about Domino's. I've praised when Xbox does good things anytime they do. And I bring this up all the time. there was a moment towards the end of last generation.

I was playing on Xbox 1x because it was the most powerful best way to play third party games in particular. It was the only place that had Dolby at most. It was they were doing something that actually spoke to me and gave me a reason to choose it over other systems. Yeah. I have all the systems. Like that we're talking about people, most of us at this office own all of the different platforms. So for us to have any bias one way or another towards things, There has to be a reason for that, right?

Yeah. And I just think that I struggle so deeply to understand why you would have that bias towards Xbox at this point in time, given all the decisions that they've made or, again, not made and showing all the stuff. There's also the side of it where, and this just comes back to, like, how we grade showcases and stuff, if we're grading showcases on what's there for me, yeah, I would have graded that Xbox showcase pretty low because I am a dork gamer that likes the genres I like and I like Nintendo games and I like the dad third person

PlayStation games. That's just an opinion. You don't see me grading the showcase low because of that. I think that they did a great job, showed great games to sell the platform and all that stuff. So I just think that I look at gears and I really agree. I like gears. I like gears a lot. I would never consider myself a Gears fanboy. I would never consider myself a Gears expert. but I've enjoyed every gears game that I've played at the very least I've loved some of the gears games looking at this, it was very exciting and it was like, well, this looks different

and then it looked exactly like it's just more gears. What's that mean to me? It's going to be a good game. It's not going to be the thing to save Xbox. Yeah. Well, that's why you make it exclusive, of course, because that'll save Xbox. That will motivate people to go buy the system.

They've traded in. You know, let's give me a 707 Friday 308 p.m. Kevin looking for Darren in Vallejo, California yours is amazing but it's not going to sell console even who deserves to

says Uncle Death Hi team this is Darren from Belayo California and my SGF hot take is I'm not

completely impressed on how Halo looks I love the Halo series but I replays combat evolved very recently like last month

and a lot of it was just narrow hallways that were rins and repeat. So I just need to see more. I know new missions are coming, but

I'm not sure if I'm completely sold on it. Thanks, guys. This is just the one to throw in, you're not a Gears fanboy. You are a Halo fan boy. As long as I've ever known you, you've talked about how near and dear Halo is to you and how you've previewed it obviously. We've talked about this. Last week you get your gamescast

on it of what we're talking about when it comes to Halo. Where are you at right now with Halo post-Sg? I'm specifically a Halo combat of all. fanboy. Like Halo 1 is my shit and both the single and specifically multiplayer, which is not part of this project, so I'm sad about that.

If you're not impressed with how it looks, I don't think anything is going to change your opinion on that. And if you just replayed Halo Kombat evolved, like this isn't a different game. This is, it's going to be the same rinse and repeat hallways you're talking about, but now you can sprint through them. Which I do think will improve

the game feel a lot. I think it'll also upset a lot of different people. But I'm of the camp of I can't wait. think the game looks incredible. It plays incredible. I know that because I just played it last week. And I think that the graphic enhancements they made look so good. What we saw from the SGF

Xbox showcase that did show us the three new levels and the Sergeant Johnson Focus, that shit looks freaking bonkers awesome. Like that's what I want. This is dream shit for me. So I'm very, very excited for it. But it's kind of sad to see where Halo's at now that

like this, I, I hear this and I'm like, hey, dude, I'm not trying to convince you otherwise. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This isn't the one I'm putting my, I'm not putting my, my flag that I capture down on this one. I see what you do there. No one is because there's no multiplayer. But, um, yeah, I, I am not looking forward to many more gaming experiences this year more than sitting with the boys and playing through co-op. Like, that's, I can't freaking wait for that.

Fair enough. You don't want to put your flag down to defend Halo For our final call I'll put my flag down to defend Fable Can I get 514 Friday 735 PM Coming from Oregon Hey this is Wyatt out of Oregon Law type listener first time caller

Summer grades that looked great, had a great time, was great Game of the show for me was Fable easily I loved it and we all think it was great It looks great. Looking forward to it like crazy. But the facial animations are stiff as shit. What are we doing? It looks like Mass Effect Andromeda.

That came out like 10 years ago. You know, it gave him the benefit of the out the first time they showed it off. But after that 30-minute thing, it still looks that stiff. We've got to get that fixed. I don't know what we're doing with that. The rest of the game was great, you know, but let's get those facial animations tight up a little bit. Go Spurs. Go Seahawks.

Love you guys. Adios. Adios Wyatt. Go fuck yourself. All right. Listen. Listen, Tim. I'm listening.

We can't sit here all the time and talk about how we don't need the latest hardware and everything's great and we should support all developed. Like, yeah, the game has 1,000 NPCs that don't go on a walk cycle. They live their lives and make choices and do all these different things. And you can buy their houses and you can talk to them and you can marry them and you can kill these guys and you can kill the pig and do it. The last thing. I'm getting hung up on is the fucking facial animations. Can we just enjoy the breath of technology happening behind the scenes on it? Does it always have to come down to what the fucking mouth looks like?

Like, we got to let something go at some point if we want the, and I want the game to come out to him. I don't want it to be just gestating another fucking decade while they try to make it work. Like, I understand it's Xbox first party. I understand, but it's playground. Just let them make the game. And if it's the fact that the faces can't animate to the fucking degree that goddamn Deborah and Wolf's face is animating when she's out there as Luffy.

You know what I mean? I ain't got time for this. Let me just play the fucking game. I don't care how the face looks like. It looks fine. It looks fine. Does it look fucking perfect? Does it look like when I went and saw infamous second son?

And they showed me all this animation of Troy Baker's face and moving the shit? No, it doesn't need to. I don't give a shit. I don't care what this fucking random ass NPC in the goddamn fucking house where she's selling me. I don't care what she looks like. Make Haley Atwell's character look great. Let make Haley Atwell great again is what I say.

Like, let it just be Where I can go in the main I don't care that the NPCs Who aren't the main characters Don't look as good as everybody Let me play the game Let's just all play games in that fun What I like here is the game of the show is fable

And I do think that that's a great sentiment to have And not a surprising takeaway, right? Like they had such an amazing showing During that Xbox showcase Then doing the 30 minutes A couple days later Yeah, like really wowed everybody Like that's,

They did it. They did what they needed to do. Yeah, the game is a little further out that I think our modern sensibilities would make us happy about. With Summer Game Fest, we kind of expect the games getting this type of blowout to be this year. But we understand why. Of course.

Right? And I think that they're making the absolute right call by delaying this and shooting the shot, calling it out. I mean, like, this is coming early 2027 with the date, whatever it was, February 23rd, I think. Could be wrong there. But I think all that's great. My devil's advocate point to you

where I don't disagree with you. Number 23rd, nail that. God, you're smart. Look at him. It's my brother's birthday. That's the only reason I remember that. But I do, I do wish that we were at a point that everybody could kind of just get together

and just be like, hey, the hardware and the tech is where we need to be with video games. We don't need to keep pushing the standards higher and higher and making all the fucking foilage and everything like crazier because it's causing so many damn problems. And it means that we're not going to be able to get games in any reasonable type of time frame without a bunch of concessions

or a bunch of weird shit or insane budgets that require the game to sell five more million copies than is reasonable for them to expect in order for it to be seen not just as a success but as even a viable thing to continue.

All of that is true. But that's not the world we're living in and we are living in the world where they are pushing it and they are demanding these things. And so it is kind of disappointing to me to see a game to the scope and scale of a fable and to be allowing it to be like,

well, these things don't need to look that good. It's like, well, this is a giant AAA game. This is one of the biggest things that they are pushing. I do think it's fair to have a level of expectation for it to hit. I don't have a problem with it personally. I'm not saying that. But it's just like I do think that we all need to be reasonable and understand the levels of what needs to go in

to make these games function this way. But then maybe let's have a different art style, if that's the case. Maybe let's not, you know, try to make it look this way if we're not able to make it look the way that you're trying to. And I think that there's a lot of examples of games over the last generation that hit that problem. And then there's also a lot of games that decide to go the directions and are better off for it. Fair enough. You know, it's that quote, I want shorter games with worse graphics made by people who are paid more to work less and I'm not kidding.

I do understand. I'm hamming it up here as we're just throwing on hot takes or whatever. but I also don't think it looks that bad. I don't think we have to sit here and be like, I mean, yeah, I want to be clear. I play a lot of fucking open world RPGs. There's a lot of bad facial animations that I'm like, I don't give a shit.

The dialogue's killing the story is interesting. I have cool powers. Let's get into some super chats before we send you on your way to Game Showdown. Of course, so many people have written in on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games while we're alive. Thank you so much. Aaron Lyme says,

is someone looking forward to Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, maybe half the time could have been spent on it. Also, would have like to see something from Konami. perfect place to show off a Silent Hill One remake or a teaser for Metal Gear Solid One. Yeah, that's dreaming. Yeah, give me Metal Gear Solid One for sure. That Final Fantasy 7 showing was not ideal from a presentation standpoint. Like, just going back to it three times with translators on stage and just like an awkward

presenter situation. Like that just wasn't ideal. And to come back to something you were saying earlier when you put that out as one of the things of like, oh, the Game Awards caliber announcements. at game awards, I would think we would get a much hotter and sicker reveal of it than what we got. I think, I think again, like the presentation

of the back and forth and Matt Mercer and stuff, who I love, don't even wrong. But like, I just feel like the pacing wouldn't have been that for game awards, but I'm just... I think it would have been the same. Like, I think, like, think about what they did with Neil and with the intergalactic and all that stuff, right? Like, I don't know. They, the shows are very different, but that's only

because they are shoehorning awards into what is the exact same show? otherwise. Fair enough. Sammy Superchat says, I thought the extended gameplay trailers stole the show and loved it all from gears to Final Fantasy 7 R.

It made me disappointed Nintendo with no extended look at Ocarina of Time or Fire Emblem. Sorry, I forgot to call frowny of face. It's okay, you forgot to call. You super chatted.

That's fine. You're not the person. So one of you motherfuckers texted your hot take. I texted right back. I was like, what the fuck are you doing? This is not what I said.

That is a wild thing to do. Oh, big spoilers. you don't know if you text that number when I go through and do the voicemails, I text back. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Great. Not anything that gave me in trouble. Don't worry to them. Yeah, this, this is interesting. I mean, Nintendo, they do the tree houses. They, they do a tree house right after the direct. And they did deep dive gameplay stuff. It was an Ocarina. But it wasn't an Okerina. But they were not that. But they did that for other games. They weren't that interesting. So we didn't watch them. We didn't react. We will get that for Okina. Now is not the time. Now is not the time. But one day it will be the time. Very soon. Live and crying probably while it happens. M.J.R. M. Jr. Monkey, I'll say. Love you guys. Just now heading home from our chip in San Francisco for my wife's birthday. Next time we'll say hi, Greg. Well, thanks. Love you. Kind of funny. I got an Instagram DM Friday night. Yeah, Friday night. That was like, I'm in town for my wife's birthday. We come here every year for SF. It's always my dream to meet you. I was walking around Gear Deli Square. And I saw Simon Cardi. And then I saw Simon Cardi. And then I

saw Ben and then I saw you and you were all eating ice cream Sunday and I didn't want to interrupt your sweet family moment and it all goes out to all of you. If you ever see me and you see me out with Ben and Simon Cardi, you're welcome to come to say hi. Don't worry about that. Don't worry about that. I appreciate you making

boundaries, but it always is hey Greg, big fan. Oh hey, you want a photo? What's he what are you playing? It's fine. Love it. Ben would have told you to, you know, show us our fucking game. Kobe says, I think the perfect thing for games like Fallout 76 and Elder Scrolls online announcements,

is to move them to QuakeCon, because the diehards of those titles will be all eyes on that convention and announcements. You're not wrong, but the announcements and trailers for these at Xbox are never meant for the diehards. They already know. I knew all about infestations from Fallout 76,

because they've been talking about it for a while. It's the idea that this is meant to show person who has an Xbox, there is a fallout you can go play right now that has X, Y, and Z going on, or lapsed fallout 76 player, this is going on. Remind you it exists. Yeah, but this goes back to I already

kind of made this point, but to make it in a more direct way, it's like, unless you let's you see if thieves. Jack Sparrow's here. Hi, for the Caribbean. Boom. Come on. Let's go. Right. Yeah. That's in Sea of thieves now. Cool. That is speaking to the mainstream audience. Telling them what they did this year for

see of thieves. Hey, you play. Hey, we're out of, we're out of stuff. We're now at the point. You can build the game. We're now at the point of our journey with this live service game that we're just going to let you guys keep making the game, right? We've seen this story so many times. That's not exciting to the general audience. That's not going to get them in to see if thieves. Is that going to excite people of see if these? Maybe, probably, like, that's not the point I'm making. The point I'm making is that is, we can all decide and all understand, not the way you get new players in to see if thieves.

Yep. Aaron Lime, Super Chats again says real hot take. Rataton was in the Japanese direct, not the English direct. What's going on, Greg? Do they hate us? Nintendo doesn't believe English speakers will love Rassetan, the spiritual successor to pat upon as much as they will. It's already in early access. I've already played a bunch of it. It's really great.

We'll see how it is in the final 1.0 version when it gets out there. And then Gonduras Condor is our final superchats. Sorry, real quick. Both Kicker and Sunny Side Up says Jack Sparrow's already in Sea of Thieves, but I guess what you mean? And then Sunny Side Up says

they already did pirates on Sea of Thieves. That's my point. That was a big deal. It brought me in. I had never played Sea of Thieves. That was exciting. Exactly. Exactly.

But like what they did here, It's like, nah. I don't give it shit about building my own fucking max three game. Gondor's, Condor's Final Super Chat says, as somebody who got to play at a fan fest, Halo pleasantly surprised me, and I feel dumb for counterpicking it, even though it was just silent cartographer.

It'll be interesting, right? Because are people going to hold it against it? The fact that it doesn't have multiplayer and yada, yada, and what will that do to review scores in X, Y, and Z? Nothing good. We'll all wait and see because we'll be reviewing it here on the kind of funny games cast. Just like we review, preview,

and talk about video games each and every weekday. If you love that, of course, like, subscribe, share wherever you can for free. And of course, pick up a Kind of Funny membership, Patreon.com. slash Kind of Funny, YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games. Apple, Spotify. Of course, you can go do all of that. Get everything we do add free. Get your daily dose of me and get good karma.

Supporting 11 person, 11-year-old small business. For now, though, Games cast is over and it's time for Kind of Funny Game Showdown. But until next time, it's our pleasure to serve you. Hey, y'all's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair.

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