The Besties - Summertime Funtime Gamefest Time

Episode Date: June 14, 2024

Hundreds of games were shown during the Summer Game Fest. The Besties spotlight some of their favorites, while discussing the strange and messy state of the video game industry in 2024. Is SGF the E3 replacement of our dreams? How should we feel about Xbox’s big moment? Are small games the future? We attempt to provide some answers! Get the full list of games (and other stuff) discussed at www.besties.fan. Want more episodes? Join us at patreon.com/thebesties for three bonus episodes each month! Use code BESTIES at the link below to get an exclusive 60% off an annual Incogni plan: https://incogni.com/besties

So we've been using video for the show for, I guess like two months now, right? It's been about two months since we used video recording. Yeah, give or take. I am just kind of curious when you and Plant are going to give us a camera angle that doesn't look like you're sending us ransom instructions.

It's just that you guys, right now, I'm looking at Chris Plant, the angle is like from the floor up to his face. He's mostly covered in shadow. He looks like a fucking noir villain. And it's like, how much do you want to get my daughter back? Because it's demented. And Russ, you're not much better.

It's just guys, this isn't how people look at each other. And it's, you know that, and it's really upset. Griffin and I are over here giving you dead on eye level, perfect. Rule of thirds, it's fucking gorgeous. And you guys are looking down at me and just like we're a couple little bugs. We didn't catch you with a surprise Zoom, guys.

This is the angle you get when you forgot a meeting and you're taking it in your kid's bedroom while they get dressed, okay? I will say from a consistency standpoint, it's very good because Griffin never gives eye contact on these Zooms, it's always off to the side. So it's very consistent. Well, I think Griffin's camera is not where we are.

That's true. That could be something that could be adjusted to if. You know what, that doesn't bother me as much as you telling me I need you need ten million dollars You're gonna detonate the bombs Bring me John the McClane is like he's 80 years old. Are you sure bring me John McClane? I just want to thank Justin for giving me such great advice It is great to get style advice from the man with two Funko Pops hanging right over

his shoulder. Oh and they're in box still because he's maintaining the values. And they're in box. Mint condition. And I have two mint box Frazier's and a wear a Pandora t-shirt. Let's do it! My name is Justin Macara and I know the best game of the week. My name is Griffin Macara and I know the best game conference of the thing. My name is Christopher Thomas Plant, and I love LA.

You love it. My name is Russ Fruskin, and I have the best game of the week. Look, to the besties, where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment. It's a video game club, and pal, just by listening, you have become a member, and we're so happy to have you here, welcome to the Besties.

Do the people know, before we get into this, do the people know that the reason we do video is just from a coordination standpoint so we don't talk over each other? Because I don't want them to think that they're missing out. On some integral part of the fucking Besties product. We do not, no.

Please, let me assure you, friends at home, as someone who makes the show with these three fellas, there is nothing gained. There is nothing gained by seeing us. Oh, in fact, I would say only loss. Also, people don't know what you're referring to. That wasn't part of the show. We were just kind of recording, you know what I mean?

It was just like leftovers or whatever. I don't know what you're referencing. They didn't hear that earlier stuff. I didn't know there wasn't continuity between the cold open and the actual that's it. Those are different guys Oh, it's a different guys in my in my fiction. They're different guys. What are we talking about this week? Not e3 Hey, well you got I I come to bury e3 not to praise I am almost certain we praise it. I am almost certain we're talking about Summer Game Fest. Summer Game Fest. We are talking about marketing baby. Normally we talk about playing video games. This week we're talking about watching commercials for them, which some of them a lot of fun and some of them big time not. But to find out

which is which, you'll have to stay for the rest of the show. which you'll have to stay for the rest of the show. Twice a year, the illegal gamers gather around Uncle Jeff's feet. They say, Uncle Jeff, tell us of the games. And Uncle Jeff says, might not have the goods this year, but that's okay. We'll manage. You'll come back to me in December. What choice do you have? Look at the landscape.

It's, I describe it as blasted. It's just me. In the lead up to Summer Game Fest, and when I say Summer Game Fest, I specifically mean the Jeff Keighley portion of Summer Game. I don't know if it's all Summer Game Fest, but his portion. This is the blight that E3 has left us with,

which is like- A lack of branding. They can act like they're not timing it to Papa Jeff's incredible carnival, but it absolutely is. Papa Jeff's called all the shots. To refer to everything that happened this week as Summer Game Fest is like when older people refer to all video games as a Nintendo.

Yeah. It's funny. I think, I think if you, here's what I say. Here's what I say. If Jeff, if Papa Jeff's like, I'm gonna talk about the games this week and you're Microsoft and you're a multi-billion dollar company and you go to Jeff and you're like, us if Papa Jeff's like, I'm gonna talk about the games this week, and you're at Microsoft, and you're a multi-billion dollar company,

and you go to Jeff and you're like, us too Papa Jeff, thank you. You're part of Summer Games Fest, it's Jeff's Fest, we're just living in it. Well, that's fine. I will say in the lead up to Summer Game Fest, Jeff, who is certainly not shy about tooting his own horn, rightly so in a lot of situations,

was, I would say say underselling the excitement level of his personal life. I would actually say he was exactly selling the excitement level of the Summer Games Festival. He was definitely lowering expectations as much as he could. Just as like, there was some stuff in there, in his livestream in particular, there was some stuff in there in his live stream in particular

There was some stuff in there, but it did open with Lego Horizon which all credit to the people that love both Lego and Horizon two very popular things Just a weird not necessarily the banger open you want to start with well, okay Not the banger open for sure But I was into as someone who likes the idea of Horizon, but doesn't like the playing of Horizon, I saw this and I was like, now this one's for me. I think it's a great idea to say,

we made a game about robots and dinosaurs, what if we actually made it for its target audience, which is children? And then they did that, And I'm excited about that. The problem is, in this post Fortnite Lego world, if you see any character that's not like a normal Lego character, you expect fucking Master Chief is going to swoop in and do an elbow drop on some other metaverse character, right just

like an entire game based on I did think it was going be an all Sony Lego game. But it turns out that's just Astrobot, so they've got that covered. This is interesting. I didn't feel like we were, there's a shift, right, when something becomes Lego. We're kind of saying that this is like a canonical, right?

This is like a culture, like a tent pole. Can Horizon, does Horizon have the goods to back that up? I feel like what's really lacking is like, is characters, right? Like things you want to see represented in the world. I just, I don't feel like it's got enough iconic imagery where you're like, oh, like you see Aloy in Lego and some of the dinosaurs in Lego and you're like, huh, cool.

I'm not like, oh, I you see Aloy in LEGO, and some of the dinosaurs in LEGO, and you're like, huh, cool. I'm not like, oh, I wonder about that one eastern, south, southeastern village. I wanna, man, the one near the plains. I can't wait to see that, LEGO. Shadow Karja, is that that game? Maybe. It is, if you had asked, I don't think any of us would predict it,

if you had said, hey, they're announcing a new LEGO partnership game from a game franchise, a Sony game franchise. Yeah, right. If you made it that specific, I still don't think I would have guessed this one. God of War would be pretty cool. Hey, listen, in my book, if Ashley Burch is getting more work, I'm happy.

That's right. Keep Ashley Burch as busy as we can, that's what I say say We're not gonna dive into every single announcement as part of this stream You know, there was some big save seven seven was announced and there's like you have to check what number yeah I did it took me a second. Yeah I was excited about wander stop, which is a new game written by writer Brian Stanley parable. Yes with which is a new game written by the writer behind Stanley Parable. Yes, with stuff from C418 also. I saw that trailer before I saw actually the whole thing.

I thought that that game was great. You're like a tea shop owner. With PTSD, seemingly. With PTSD, basically, yes. Why not? Did any of you get to actually try the Alan Wake 2 DLC? Because that came out over the weekend. No, it didn't.

No, we should't. It did. It was surprise launched effectively. He was like, what's his name? Alan Wake came on stage. Mr. Alan Wake. Mr. Alan Wake came on stage and was like, we're going to drop this tomorrow. So that night springs, the DLC, I want to play it.

There was a moment where I was like, am I going to free up space on my PS5 to play this game? And then I was like, maybe I'll just wait until both DLCs come out. Because- That's, hey, Russ. What? What you just said is maybe one of the most demented sentences I've ever heard a human being say.

Why? Do I want to experience this? Well, maybe, but I would have to press delete twice on my controller. I'd have to delete it. I'll probably just wait. That's, what on earth are you using? Excuse me, Russ.

I let you continue that insanity. What is your metric? That's the stumbling block is the leading thing? You don't understand. He needs to also wait until he has too much other stuff to play. Yeah. Well, I also, I'm gonna blow through my minutes

if I do that and that's gonna be. Right, exactly. The honest- You've only got 30 gamer minutes left. The honest answer is, I had a moment where I was like, I'm gonna install this and I'm gonna play it right now. And then I was like, but I know the ramp up to start a game and the ramp up to stop a game is slow for me.

And I'd rather, I think it's more likely that I would play it all together than I would if I stopped and started it. I get that for sure. And also every time you erase a deleted game from your hard drive, all of the characters inside of it die for real. They do. As someone who has been saying that I'm gonna go back

and play the DLC for Control for several years. I respect your position, Rob. Yeah. I'm afraid that you didn't, because talk about something that's much worse in the core game. You dodged a bullet on that one. Oh, is it bad?

Yeah, it was bad. Oh no. There is one trailer that I wanna make sure everyone's, it was bad. There is one trailer that I wanna make sure everyone saw as part was bad there is one trailer that I want to make sure everyone saw as part of Jeff Keighley's Summer Game Fest and it is the trailer for Killer Bean yeah that was uh interesting no I didn't I didn't catch that one you want to just pull it up real quick Griff yeah you should watch it yeah watch the first 10 seconds of it I mean if it doesn't

have fucking Mr Bean in it I'm gonna be pretty disappointed. Are you saying that not- Are you saying Mr. Bean? Sorry, can we just- Spiritually? While we're looking, while he's looking for that, can you all clue me into the, it seemed really, what is the problem with the Night Springs thing? I haven't played it. It seemed very like, the way you guys addressed it,

it seemed like it was like common knowledge that it was like bad. What was wrong with it? Night Springs DLC for Alan Wake 2 who knows neither of us have played it The DLC might very very comments. Oh the control DLC. Yes. Yeah, I heard that that was not great Thank you for clarifying that yes, I was like I was disappointed for a second. Yeah, this looks pretty fucking lit guys Yeah, but it looks yeah killer bean looks pretty good I listen what's interesting

The only problem with killer bean right was I spent that entire trailer thinking it was a chicken nugget And I was getting so jazzed about what happens in this from the people who are listening I mean it kind of looks like just cause a little bit But you're a huge bean like yeah like a absolute unit of a bean and you're doing a lot of jump flips with guns and stuff. Yeah. There's gunfu in there. There's bullet time, all the stuff your body craves. All the gamervitamins your body needs.

I think that this show was great. I think that there's a lot of like weird double A size stuff which like I am all about. It's a weird thing when you are sort of coming on the heels of E3 or like the heir apparent to the E3 throne and to not have like really a single, huge oh shit blockbuster like announcement. But I don't know, there were a lot of games

in this thing that I thought, I guess that looks good. I get it since you didn't watch it from beginning to end. That is inadvisable. The hit to miss ratio. So yeah, so I would say that trailers were released during this week and some of them appeared during this, and that is nice, I am happy.

Summer Game Fest as a product, as a like gauntlet from hell of marketing. Do you mean the specific two hour show or the... Yes, I mean the idea of like tuning in to watch a big event that is supposed to be comparable to the game boards. Right now, it needs a big rethink. Yeah. And the reason why it needs a rethink is because people pay to show their stuff in it and it is increasingly unclear when we are getting something that is just

cool and exciting and quote part of a show and curated. And when we are getting 10, 15 minutes straight of some of the biggest, you know, garbage you've ever seen. When I say garbage, I'm not even talking about games. I'm talking like the trailers themselves. Here's a, here's a commercial for a gamer TV, followed by a commercial for like. Other weird hardware followed by three straight commercials for mobile games. Like it, it just, it doesn't, it doesn't gel as a curated experience.

Yes. And I think that's the big problem. A hundred percent. If you're, it creates a bad vibe. And I actually think it undermines a lot of the good things that are in here. I think it's telling that once they switched to a day of the dev, it's right afterwards. It's one, I think those games look really promising, but two, they are curated. The people who are deciding what goes there have decided

these are things that we want to champion and we want to celebrate, versus just if you pay enough money, you get to be in the show. There is something sort of personal ads about it. There is something kind of Craigslist space about it. And I think, that being said, I think if Kojima showed up to Jeff's house and was like, here's a new trailer for Death Stranding 2, he would run it for free. He would run it for free, but unfortunately, it would be surrounded by all these other things. And I think the challenge with where the

industry is right now, the big studios making the games are financially in trouble. The indie games which would eventually go into Day of the Devs don't have the cash. So what ends up happening with Summer Games Fest is you get ads for the things that happen to have cash right now in the industry. And what that is, is like random VR, random mobile for V for hero based shooters.

Yes, whatever can attract VC money three years ago and you just get a ton of it. And it makes for a really underwhelming experience. But it's probably made people involved a lot of money. Well, it's just, I'm like, I'm in your target demo. Like I wanna see new stuff. I just think that I don't even have a problem with the, the like pay to play model. I just feel like you've got to be offering people something of value that isn't a four

minute long commercial for like a Valorant on console or metaphor refuntazio or like- Hey, fuck off. That was the highlight of the whole show for me, man. I was baiting you. No, you're spot on. But like, I love Tim Robinson, right? I genuinely think the dude's a genius.

I don't understand why there's just 10 minutes of him. It wasn't even a skit or anything funny. There's two minutes of Tim Robinson. I mean, just I guarantee they turn a camera on him and they're like, be funny for two minutes. And he's like, okay, I guess like I'll try but is anything gonna happen? That's funny. Nope. It's just you doing your like thing. Just do your thing, Tim, for two minutes and I'll show it to everybody. I want to watch and see this stuff. Like I'm a sucker. I'll watch all the new commercials, but you at least have to have enough respect for my time that we're not gonna sit and ruminate

in like 10 minute long chunks of fucking Ken Jeong in a chicken soup because mobile game spins are wild. Like stop. Well, it's a weird thing where like the rules actually help. When I think of like old FTC rules and things like make it clear when commercials are happening. Right. They actually are good for the product too.

You know, in this like blurring the lines of this to the point of obscenity, it actually makes just the overall product worse. And I get why like companies would be like, I won't, I want it to be unclear if my thing is a paid for commercial or one of the cool selected things, I get it, but it does make for an overall less compelling product. And again, if I were Kojima and I can't even say

that was true. If I were somebody who had like this great game that I was excited to show, it would really watching that I'd be like, I don't even say that was true. If I were somebody who had this great game that I was excited to show, it would really, watching that, I'd be like, I would not want my game to be revealed during that. I would much rather be revealed during the Xbox thing, or something else where I know, wow, it's gonna be surrounded by other good stuff,

and it's gonna feel nice. Unless you were first. I think if you were first. Unless, yeah, if you were first, sure, yeah. I think a big part of the problem too is that there is no cogent narrative. And I think that if you think about an Xbox show or PlayStation show or any of those E3s

that we're used to seeing, even if it's, I mean, it's all corporate nonsense, right? But like almost always there is like a narrative theme that they have tied it to, right? There's a thought line through the show, right? It's here's some new experiences we're creating, here's the part where we talk about FIFA and you know we gotta do it,

or I guess in this case, FC 2025 or whatever. But like, there's some parts that we gotta do, but there's like a thread. There's like, here's what we're doing at Microsoft. I've sat through 60 fucking E3 press conferences and couldn't tell you a single thread. But as an audience, when you're watching something, you want, you need a bit of a gimmick or a trick

to trick you into making you feel like you're not watching two straight hours of commercials. Right, and that's why I think Devolver does that like perfectly, but they also only do it for like 15 minutes at a time. I actually feel kind of the opposite, where it's like, if you watch the Microsoft press conference, the through line is, these are all games

I'm gonna play on my Xbox or my PC. There's like, there's gonna be reveals. There's gonna be some trailers for the new DLC for this big game that came out this year. That's kind of boring. With a Jeff show, it's a fucking grab bag every time. And you're playing Yahtzee, basically And you're playing Yahtzee basically. You're playing Yahtzee and sometimes you get Ken Jong

in a chicken costume who has been paid $35 million to talk about a mobile MOBA. And then sometimes you get something cool in there too. It's a fun little mix. The show should be an hour for starters. It shouldn't be two hours. It's painful fun little mix. The show should be an hour for starters. It shouldn't be two hours. It's painful to watch. And it should be new big games

that people paid money to put in that some people will care about. And then some smaller things that are just being elevated because it's a value to the indie and also to the consumer. Like here's something that if you hadn't tuned in for this, you would have never known existed. That kind of vibe, like there's some of that within, right?

It's all the components for this thing to work are in it. They just need to cut out a lot of the crap. That ain't gonna pay Jeff's health insurance. Yeah, no. Did you guys watch it live? Did you guys like actually watch the whole thing? Yeah. See, that's unthinkable to me. I skipped around. I like having it on.

I mean, I'm not not watching it, you know, but when you're driving and you just need something to watch. You know? Justin, if you had fucking died in a car accident and got to the pearly gates and fucking St. Peter was like, how'd you go? And you're like, well. Well.

Jeff had it created. Metaphorically, Fantasia is looking good. The cops walking up on the car crash and Killer Bean is just playing on his iPad. Hey, Lieutenant Carlson, tell me if I'm wrong, but this doesn't look like a chicken nugget, right? Is this a chicken nugget? Sid, poor Sid Meyers.

Poor Sid Meyers. I don't mean that, I mean this game's mega successful, but it is like in the context of the show, to just have Sid Meier's pop up like, yeah, I'm still at it. I'm in this gray cable net sweater, and I'm still making tiny tanks. It's my thing, baby.

Still on my shit. Griffin sort of alluded to it, but I do want to talk about the... Do we want to talk about the... Do we want to talk about this now, or should we save it for B segment? I want to talk about Microsoft and Ubisoft. Yeah, man. Obviously the much bigger, much wilder shit happened in those two shows. Yeah. I'm sure you don't want to spend a little bit more time on...

Well, Street Fighter VI, Fatal Fury, you guys excited about that? We like Street Fighter VI around these parts. Is that new? I mean, they're just adding Fatal Fury characters Are you guys excited about that? We like Street Fighter VI around these parts. Is that new? I mean, just adding Fatal Fury characters to Street Fighter VI, right? That's sick! Don't you guys like that? All right. I don't know. I love me a Terry.

I don't know what anybody likes. I don't know. It's weird. There was a Mighty Warfare Power Rangers. That was cool. That does look very good. Oh, that's cool. I'm into that.

I will say the two games before we, we'll take a quick break in a second and jump into the big shows, but the two games that we will take a quick break in a second and jump into the big shows But the two games that jumped out for devolver There's a game called ten jutsu which is made by one of the designers of dead cells that looks fucking sick it's like a top-down rogue like with like meta progression stuff and They're also making a game called anger foot We're like you kick people and the shoes have different classes of perks and things.

Both of those games look fucking sick. The Devolver press conference, if you've never seen one, every single year is fascinating, and this year they basically made an episode of Mindhunter, but with a mix of new video games thrown in. Yeah. Really fucking incredible. That's a hit. Um, okay.

We've got big announcements actually happening in the second half of the show. Uh, so I guess come right back. We made the same mistake. You know, just like Summer Game Fest, we started with the Croft, and now people have suffered for 25 minutes and they're like, oh, now you're waking up. Now you're ready. Now you want to tell me about Doomguy going back to the Middle Ages and punching demons in the throat? I was ready to spitefully not enjoy the Microsoft press conference. And it is honestly still kinda hard to get stoked

for any games coming out of Microsoft when the possibility exists that they could do great and then the studio still gets fucking shut down. It's hard not to be still extremely upset about that, but hot fucking damn, this is one of the, I think, in terms of content, one of the better press conferences they've done in recent history.

Yeah, and also in terms of the games, we can all remind ourselves as listeners, people made these games too. Right, exactly. And those people are super excited that their games are coming out and finally being shown to the world. So like, if you need that comfort,

you know, you don't have to like Microsoft to like that the team who's making the new Dragon Age is really excited to have you play that game. Yeah, exactly. All right, listen guys, I'm gonna go through the entire Microsoft list. You tell me when you wanna stop talking about stuff. Doom.

Okay. You got a shield that you can throw, thank God. More games where you can throw shit and then shit comes back to you, please. It's basically Connecticut Yankee and King Arthur's Court, but for Doom. But does it look like they changed the game quite a bit? Because in the trailer, there is lots of these

massive mobs of characters that you're blasting through. I'm curious how it feels if it is kind of a change from previous Dooms. I mean, I'm pretty sure that you've fought a lot of guys in previous Dooms. You would fight a lot, but I felt like it was a lot of zipping between one person to the next, not like, oh, I fire a hand pistol that kills 20 dudes at once. I am glad that this is announced, I will say, because I have known about it for six months,

because Travis got a voiceover audition for it. It's been really hard to remember not to talk about it, because I couldn't remember if it was a real thing. Travis is Doomguy. He's Doomguy. He's Doomguy, he is Doomguy. Did he also play the Kako Demon or not so much? State of Decay, three.

Never really got into those. I think we'll enjoy them. Those should've made it. I think that Dragon Age looks terrible. It's of no interest at all for me. The tone of that trailer was not what I wanted from it. It's very sassy. People who saw it at the actual like play days

seem to really enjoy it. In that like the game, saw the game? Yes. It's possible that it's just not a great trailer, but it was just very, I don't know man. The art style is not working for me. I was thinking it was gonna be a, oh I always get this confused, not Darkstalkers.

What's the other one that's kinda like that where you're playing as war and the horsemen and. Oh, Deathstalkers? Deathstalkers? Darksiders. Darksiders, is that right? Sure. I think so. Yeah, I think so, god.

Yeah, it was just very, I don't know, it felt very like. It kind of looked like an illumination movie. Yeah, kind of, I don't know. I don't want to be rude, because it's just a trailer. Well, it's tough. Right, it's a trailer, and like Dragon Age, as it has been, I think a lot of people

have chomped that flavor. Like, I don't know if there's a lot of room for a game like Dragon Age tonally. So maybe try to distinguish the time makes sense. But at the same time, but the fact that there isn't a lot of stuff out there, like Dragon Age has a certain expectation of like fairly hard fantasy in it.

And that was like far from the vibe. I'm just saying there's a lot of that now, and they probably need to mix it. Well, here's what I would say. I have no connection to Dragon Age whatsoever. I've played none of them. And even though the writing of that trailer was like, whatever, fine, it was like a very winky, silly.

Visually speaking, I was like kind of intrigued by it because it did feel different and like something unique. And like, so I was like, okay, I would check this out. different and like something unique and Like so I was like, okay I would check this out and I'm like and I think that's what they were trying to do is make a trailer that would be Appealing to people that aren't gonna be drowning in Baldur's Gate look-alikes I'm not gonna talk about starfield shattered space because I Mean I'd like for them to that to that to turn into a good game. That would be cool Yeah, they work on it enough, maybe they'll make it good.

I continue to be kind of in perpetual state where I kind of wish I was playing Fallout 76 a little bit. Like, I don't know. It's like, I kind of wish that I was playing it. I feel that way a lot about MMOs when they get advertised. Like, I do that with Elden Ring too. And they're like, 10 years, all of Tamriel's. Like, why am I not playing Elden Ring all the time online?

Elder Scrolls, not Elden Ring. That would be sick, let's do that too. Come on guys, someone give us 100 milo. Hey, if you wanna get into ESO, let's strap in, let's get wild. No, but it looks, so that is also happening. They had a new expansion start, well man, the name's escaping now. Skyline Valley.

Yeah, that's for far too many things. Appalachia is expanding. I mean, you live there, so you don't know this stuff? No, I'm in the only state that is completely encompassed by Appalachia. So yeah, it's my backyard, man. I know. Hey, Camden Park's's my backyard, man. I know.

Hey, Camden Park's in the game, like I live there. Claire Obscura, this looked kinda cool. I don't know, it looks like a, is it a role playing game? It looks like a turn-based RPG, but it's got really interesting, like, the camera work that they're doing, like, during the battles feels very kinetic and cool. Yeah, it looks really neat style

Hey There's a new perfect dark game coming and it looks sick as hell, man That might have been surprise highlight of the show for me that they're doing a new perfect dark with like immersive sim I mean we knew they were making a new perfect dark, but we didn't know that it would actually be kind of good I don't know that I knew they were making a new Perfect Dark. Oh, yeah, it's been... I'm pretty far outside of the industry outside of this show, which, let's be honest, barely counts. Yeah.

So that was a wonderful, delightful, delicious surprise. I like the joy in the dark is like our age. Yeah. That gives me like hope. Yeah, maybe we're not dead. Like maybe we just... Yeah, at any moment I could. Yeah, maybe we're not dead. Like maybe we just- Yeah, at any moment I could decide to go, you know, like uncover an alien mystery.

Yeah. Yeah, I thought that looked really, that was a fantastic trailer. I mean, like in terms of showing like already getting you excited and then adding layers on like, oh, oh, oh, this looks fun. I really hope that it's legit and not like, cause it really is like a choice cuts like, and then you're going to jump out the window

and fall off the balcony and there's a guy under it and you take his gun and you kill that guy. It's like, I hope it's like that looks fun. Yeah, I don't know what the like 30 second loop of that game is. I think that's great. Yes, Russ, yes, exactly. People were making illusions to like, oh, it kind of looks like Deus Ex Right, that's great. Yes, Russ, yes, exactly. People were making allusions to like,

oh, it kind of looks like Deus Ex. But really, based on that trailer, for all we know, it's like a super linear shooter that happens to let you see through walls. We don't know. The parkour kind of felt kind of Mirror's Edge or like Dying Light maybe. No, not quite Mirror's Edge.

Dying Light maybe a little closer. Anyway. Yeah, it looked great. Gears of War today? I guess so. I think in the lead up to this, Chris Plant mentioned the possibility of a new Gears of War game.

I know there are people that love Gears of War and I'm actually really happy for them. I'm actually more- The possibility to do a Gears of War game that is not a sequel and here's going into the, something touching on something that has been a sequel and like a, and here's going into the, like something touching on something that has been kind of like alluded to a lot, I think is a cool idea.

I think it's smart to start over. I think it's smart. It's the only thing, it got me kind of interested, which I think is a huge achievement for the Gears of War franchise. I think that's the exact thing they had in Nail, though, Griff, I think that's exact, I think they had to say, I know a lot of you don't care about Gears of War,

it's been a little bit, a lot of people found off, let's start over here. I think it's a good, I think it's the only thing, I don't know if it's a good thing, I think it's the only thing they could do. I am worried because they're not fully starting over. That's the only bummer for me, is it's not a reboot. They still seem to think that they're going to do Gears of War 6.

And this is these same characters. But before Gears 1, and I'm hoping that maybe that they just have not committed to their marketing message yet and that they're going to come back and be like, actually, no, we truly are starting over. This is not the exact same Marcus Phoenix that has already had five games worth of story. We are doing a like redo. No, I don't think that's what, I think this is Better Call Saul, basically.

Yes, correct. That's what I'm saying. It's not a full start over. It's not a reboot. But that's fine. But you gotta start it, it's at a starting point. It's at a starting point, but I wish it had been, I think what bugged me out.

What of the rich fiction of Marcus Fenix are you hoping to leave behind that you think is going to hold them back? No, all of it. That's what I'm saying is like, you could start over from the beginning and then start to do a new, like God of War, I guess God of War actually does connect.

So maybe it works. Maybe they find a way to like be able to have all of the terrible lore of past games fit into like this. But they don't need to like, why like just start from, like this is starting from zero. I mean, it does need to eventually connect, but all you need to know is Marcus needs to live and Dom needs to live.

And then you're covered in terms of the content. Yes, but what I'm saying is like, if we spend this game doing The Last of Us, which is what it looks like they wanna do, and it is like the darkest, saddest game possible, and then the next experience is Gears of War 1, that's a weird ass, as a collective story. No, they're not leaving themselves a lot of daylight,

maybe, for like continuing this in a different direction. Yeah, I don't think they will. I get that, that makes sense to me. I don't know what the fucking different direction. Yeah, I don't think they will. I get that, that makes sense to me. I don't know what the fucking different direction is for, yeah, you would need to be on a different fucking planet and someone needs to have a better day than they've been having. It really feels like they just want the last of us,

which is maybe not a bad idea. You keep saying last of us, but I think it's still gonna play like Gears of War. I don't think it's gonna be like that. I think it will, but I think story-wise, it is the day that after like a big war, I guess there's like peace in this land and then monsters start coming out of the ground and killing everybody.

And it's about them walking through a world that still should look like a normal-ish world that is now being attacked by like people destroying monsters. It's a tough needle to thread, but I trust that Cliffy B is going to figure it out. He was very excited. I saw him on Twitter being like, oh, good for him. They did it.

That's got to be killer, actually, to make something and see it kind of continue. It's very satisfying. Can I ask you guys about Fable? Yeah. It looks good. It looks real good. I thought it was great.

Yeah? Yeah? Yeah? Justin is looking at us skeptical. Wow. Okay, I don't mean to be mean, but like, are you guys suckers? That was all CG. Like, what do you mean?

It looks great. Oh yeah. So does Inside Out 2. What's your point, man? I don't, here's what I'm saying. My senses, my Justin senses are tangling about Fable. I think it's a mess. I think it's a mess.

Think about this guys. We have seen- That is not a CG trailer. Let me just be clear. Like that is not a pre-rendered trailer. I'm not talking about pre-rendered. I'm talking about show me what is fun in the game that is not how good your face animations are.

Because I feel like that has been the main focus of all. You wanna see someone plant a tree in the game that is not how good your face animations are because I feel like that has been the main focus of all. You want to see someone plant a tree in the open world for them to return 20 years later in real time and for a tree to be? No, I tell you a single, like a good joke might be good or like showing you what interacting with the world is like. See, this is why I'm harping on this. Sure. Mala Niu's whole thing for the Fable series was over-promising interactivity and the amount of like, we all got these pitches at various E3s where you're like, all right, then you're gonna jump onto the bar

and there's different kinds of cups. You can kick one cup at this guy and then you flip over to the Antlers and you, no, you hit A, that's what you're sorry. But like, that is what I need. I wanna know what they're doing with this, because like, they haven't shown anything about what will make this an interesting game to play, right?

I don't know anything about the experience of playing Fable. And like, there's lots of games like this in this sort of like fantasy setting. And if they've pulled the sort of like humor, I don't know, it's still like lighthearted, but it's not like humor in the same way. Thank you, my dear. Um, I thought the, the original trailer, not this trailer, but the original

trailer with Richard Iowade was pretty funny. I agree actually. And I was more encouraged by that. I guess what I was kind of expecting is like a continuation of that with like more of what you'll actually be. Like what their thought is, like what do you know about the game Fable? What is the game?

What is the game? All right, yeah. That's all I'm saying. And maybe this is my fault for filling in the blanks, but I basically just saw, I put all the trailers together. I pictured that initial trailer, and then I saw this trailer, which had like actual gameplay in it, theoretically, like walking around gameplay.

Walking around, yeah. One second. And then I folded in, I remember playing Fable 3. And if they can just do the Fable 3 gameplay with these visuals and funny writing, I'm into it. Like that's a game I wanna play. I'm assuming you mean Fable 2, but I see what you're saying about.

Whatever the- You just accidentally said the wrong one. Whatever the good Fable is. Fable 2 was the good one. No, you know what? I'm realizing in this conversation I think I have some inbuilt Epigenetic skepticism when I see fable. It's like alright Peter. Oh, yeah

Okay, I'll believe it when I see it you're going to start new fable It's gonna load up Peter molly do being like, gotcha, it's my game. And then the only piece of interactivity is digitally signing a contract that says this game is not on Rails, followed by a game that is entirely on Rails. There may be folks at home who are like,

I don't know, disheartened by this conversation. I cannot think of a game franchise with which Justin has more of a love-hate relationship. I have really strong feelings about that. Just tremendous expectations. Like in Sky High, because the fable came out. I don't even say the expectations are great. I'm really interested.

I'm super interested in it. And I'm not saying that it, it just to me, if they had some really great thoughts about what this game is, like why it makes sense to do this game, especially if maybe they've only made car games until now, I would really like to know like what it is that they're thinking because so far I have no idea. I will say they've only made car games and great action and open worlds, but they have not proven that they know how to write and get performances out of people and they've done made card games and great action and open worlds, but they have not proven that they know how to write

and get performances out of people. And they've done that for me with these trailers. Okay, that's a really good point, Plant. That's actually a really good point because that is the stuff that you don't know that they can do necessarily. And they're definitely, I really love, if it has the patience to sit in moments

like have been in these trailers where it's not like full bore all the time and like they're actually showing the performances and that could be really fun. I could be into it. I just wanna- Also, the farting chickens, you gotta make sure that that's in there. The chickens must fart.

Yeah. The chickens must fart. Snake! They must fart. Snake! Yeah, snakes back. Oh God, we really fucked up. We should have just waited a little bit longer. We could have played. No kidding. We could have played good snake eater. Yeah, they're making. Oh, God. We really fucked up. We should have just waited a little bit longer. We could have played-

No kidding. We could have played good Snake Eater. Yeah, they're making a new Snake Eater. I mean, it's not a new Snake Eater. I guess it's just Snake Eater. Interestingly, there's a triangle instead of a three. I'm not sure- It's a delta. It's a delta, okay. The full name of the game is Metal Your Solid Delta. Kickass, man.

I don't know why I think it's because they're redoing the whole series Resident Evil style But they want to go in chronological order. Okay, and is Delta the first letter in the alphabet? I believe Delta is three Okay, so it's like a way of conveying three without have three points. So that doesn't make sense. Yeah, it looks sick I'm sure it's more a control standpoint, more playable, and from a fun standpoint, more playable. I actually like Snake Eater for the record. I know everyone else here hates it, but I do 100% agree that the game would be dramatically

better if the controls were good. I'm very looking for, I love, I don't dislike anything in Snake Eater except playing it, so I'm very excited about it. Yeah, same, I think this is a very promising opportunity. Okay, you all, can I ask a couple of things about a couple of things that are on this list that I just wanna know super quick

if you guys have any quick thoughts? Super quick. I thought Mixtape looked really cool. Yeah. That was like, and they showed a lot of it. It was like, I don't really know what it is. It looks a little bit kind of like a Life is strange kind of a vibe, but if there's definitely like a Nostalgia they're going for some of that

Has the game ever targeted us and I know demo more though. Yeah people actually fucking time Yeah, finally we're catered to hey and listen if you all think I'm gonna let you go without telling me Would you if you're excited to get that whip enough Dora get out there with your best friend in the end? Hey, can I say can I it's giving fucking the King Kong movie tie-in? I am fucking stoked for the Indiana Jones game I think that looks so good. Who is doing the sound alike for Harrison Ford because it's pretty fucking spectacular.

It's working, man. It's working. The same Harrison Ford. I thought that looked so fucking good. No, hey listen, again, God be with you all. I think that, I do wanna say though, one complaint I have, the last visual they have in the Indiana Jones

and the Great Circle trailer is he's running from the boulder again. I guess he got himself into another boulder based scrape. He's running from the boulder. So he runs away from the boulder and then it says, Indiana Jones, the Great Circle. And it kind of makes you think like, is that the Great Circle?

It's just the boulder again? That's your Great Circle? For the record, it is Troy Baker doing the voice of Harry. Oh my goodness. Wow. Wow. What a talent. That dude has it.

Last one. He's got a big career ahead of him. Last one. Did you all think Flintlock looked cool? They described it in the trailer as a soul's light, which I didn't know we were doing, like in marketing materials. I don't remember. I don't remember that. Just look at it real quick.

Just look at it. I think it looks... It looks... Yeah. Can you describe the aesthetic? So, there is another game coming out like this that has this... that is like similar. It feels like sort of a... what would you say? Revolutionary war era fantasy

kind of vibe, is that like, is that fair? It's very much like, kind of looks French revolution. Oh, that's good, yeah, yeah. I don't know, I just thought it looked kind of neat. If you guys didn't have anything to say about it. The thing about all of the, whenever there's like a Souls-like,

you really can't know until you've played it. It's 100% correct. Like you'll know in a minute of playing it if it's gonna-like, you really can't know until you've played it. It's 100%. Like you'll know in a minute of playing it if it's gonna be good, but you can't tell before that. Like, Lies of P is the perfect example of that. I'm also saying, I know we don't need to talk about it, but I think South of Midnight, I have good vibes about that one.

I think it looks really cool. It does look cool. I think the animation's neat, it looks cool. We referenced it earlier, but Metaphor Re-Fantazio, every single thing I see from that fucking game gets me so, so, so stoked. It is fantasy persona. I keep forgetting that it is what it is, and I see the trailers without knowing what it's for.

I'm like, oh my god, this looks good. They're like, oh, it's Metaphor Re-Fantazio again. Excellent. Yeah, I am really, really really really looking forward to that one. Yeah, that's the game from the Persona team, but now they're doing fantasy. Right. Fantasy is, they're doing their own thing. I know they gotta do it because they're Microsoft and they own Activision now, but it is really, as somebody who's been out of the game for so long, it is wild to see a trailer for World of Warcraft content where there and it doesn't say like

This is the last one ever seriously we promise like I thought for sure They're about to drop a two on there. I'm like no fucking way. It's like oh another one. That's wild that that's still It's gotta be the most stable development cycle on the planet because they know exactly how many subscribers they have. Good on them, man. I'm glad somebody's working. Theoretically, just maintain that for as long as it's possible. Also, the sequel would have to be called Worlds of Warcraft, right? That would take a lot longer. There is one more press conference and thankfully, there is really only a couple things to talk about it from it. one of which was Star Wars Outlaws,

which is the open world Star Wars game that I have had basically no expectations for because I kind of figured it was just the fucking whatever. And it looks really fucking good. Like I was, it looks like a Splinter Cell open world sci fi Star Wars game. And I was really into it surprisingly. I don't know, the vibe of it is so dope. I am so here for any Star Wars based media that is not about, you know. Jedi.

You have to find the Star, the Star Forge so that the balance of the Force. That is absolutely, if you have completely written off Star Wars, cause there's so much of it, I get it, but trust me, if you go away from the Jedi stuff, there's a lot of really great storytelling that's happening on the fringes of the Star Wars universe right now.

That would've rimmed if you will. If you will. I am, I don't know, my appetite for huge open world games is quite low, and I feel like it needs to bring something special to the table and outside of like the Star Wars vibe and and writing and just the way the game looks and stuff I wasn't I didn't necessarily get that at sort of first

blush with what they showed but I mean here's the here's the thing they also showed Assassin's Creed shadows which is the Assassin's Creed ninja game and again on paper it's like, okay, everyone's been asking this forever. And then you show it in a trailer and it's like extremely Assassin's Creed. It looks a lot, yeah. And at least the Star Wars experience

feels like something different and evolved. Also, I wanna say call out to Ubisoft because it was the biggest dunk on Starfield for the entire show because they intentionally showed a ship going from space directly into Tatooine without a load screen. Very intentionally like just shooting Starfield in the face right that's Ubisoft doing what it does best. And I say this sincerely as a compliment, taking lots of great ideas from other games, grafting them together and then being like, I think you'll enjoy this. You enjoyed these 20 things elsewhere. And I, I'm like, cool. Actually, yes, that does look enjoyable to me.

There was very little I saw in that trailer that surprised me. And that's where I credit to Starfield. It was trying things. It just didn't work out for me. But it looked like an interesting concoction of flavors I enjoy. I agree with Assassin's Creed though, just while they resisted it for so long. And now there are other games doing Assassin's Creed in Japan that are just seem more exciting. I feel like we're in Feudal Japan a lot lately, right? Is that, was there like a memo or a note? Am I wrong?

It feels like there's a flash. It feels like it's a trend. Hey, I don't really have, I don't know how to feel about this, but I do want to call attention to the fact that during this press conference, Ubisoft is marketing three distinct Prince of Persia bridge. It is a franchise in three parts that is going in three different,

like I've never seen anything like it. And again, I'm not even complaining necessarily. It's just like, here's three different Princes of Persia. Not since the year of Luigi have we seen anything like this. Right. This guy went from a fringe character that they kind of forgot about to, what if we made three of them at the same time? Like, how would you feel about that? Like, actually pretty good. As long as they're fun, I don't really care. Yeah, the Prince of Persia Sansa time remake won't be until 2026, which is probably 2027.

Gives you plenty of time to play the seven other Prince of Persia games. Well, if anything was about time. They're also doing a new The Crew, but with cop, where you're the cops. Chris Plain loves The Crew. I also enjoy the crew. I don't enjoy how they revoked the license of,

I think it was the first game in the series, so that if you owned it, it's not playable. Yeah, you had your fun. They shouldn't have put in those LCD sound system songs. That is what I mean, I guess. They're very litigious. The L stands for litigious.

It's a troubling precedent to set, but sure. Okay, there's really only one person here that has firsthand seen any of Summer Game Fest, and that's Christopher Thomas Plant. Oh, wait, before we begin Plant's segment, can I just do one more joke that they've got to stop showing skull and bones until they release that thing, I mean. No, it's out. They got me. Was that the joke?

Oh, that's the joke. Fuck, you guys are terrible at this. Let me try again, okay? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They gotta stop marketing skull and bones until that thing is out. Just stop talking about it and get it done. Yeah, totally.

And that's better. It's not, that wasn't better, guys. I don't know what the proper reaction to that joke busing up. You can't buy something twice. It's not funny anymore. You miss it That's my bad. You know, we have one killer bean. I would have laughed with it been chicken nugget challenge. That was a good Anyway, sorry. What was the what was the vibe plant? Well, I saw UFO 50 Well, I saw UFO 50, the non-game, co-created by Derek Yu, has an actual release date. Isn't it co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co video game system from I think like the late 1980s to the early 1990s and yeah it looks real. I mean that's the only question I had seen was did you really create 50 games? And I watched as tons of people played their pick and yeah each one looks like a damn full game. I don't know how they did it including one that looks like an open world version

of Kirby's Dream Course. Jesus Christ. Which is like quest-based Dungeons Kirby Dream Course. It looks sick. Do you think Derek knows that like from a sales perspective, the game would sell just as well if there were 20 games? I get the sense that this is the project that you can make when you've sold Spelunky and Spelunky 2, and you can kind of do what you want. I guess so. But why not just make two UFO 25s? Russ, at the angle you're sitting at,

you look like the corrupt CEO of Big Games Inc. Like, why don't we split it into two? Maybe it's a season pass. Zach Snyder's new movie worked out great. Um, yeah, the, but as for summer game fest playdays for people who have not done E3 in the past, E3 used to take place a long time ago in Atlanta, most recently in Los Angeles at the Los Angeles Convention Center in downtown. It's right by the Staples Center where like the Lakers and the Clippers play. It is ginormous and it is where lots of conventions happen, including

like the anime convention. Doesn't happen there anymore. Now, Summer Game Fest is in an alley, not too far from Skid Row. Um, and it's a deeply bizarre. It is, it is genuinely weird going to a, like, not the greatest area of Los Angeles to go into a tiny alley where they have crammed in what they're trying to feel like is the whole games industry. And on one hand, it's- Is it, wait, is it literally an alley? It is an alley. So there is a- So there's no roof.

There is a, imagine a square block of a city, right? Sure. And then you, in the middle of that block is an alley, and you go through that alley, and then you can get access to like kind of the back doors of a lot of buildings. And that is how you get into like different rooms to play- Oh, I see, I see.

Games. It is very nice, it is very well done. I believe it is the I am 8-bit people who run it. It's just so weird to go from this industry that purportedly has a gajillion dollars, right, to go from a convention center to a place where most of the games are on a single TV, which not great if you just want to like go up and try some games. Makes it a little tough. It's all about like scheduling. Um, but I say that and here's my counterpoint to myself.

Uh, in an industry that seems to be like pretty shit with money lately, it is nice to see them being like responsible to some degree, um, where you're not spending millions of dollars on, uh, newly fabricated, um, giant sets where you have Ubisoft playing Just Dance at your splitting volumes while you pay professional dancers to perform Just Dance dances for four straight days. I'm going to propose an alternative to the alleyway though, because I get what you're saying.

You're keeping it cheap. Just find an empty CompUSA. They've already got the TVs. You plug them in and you're fucking set and you've got a roof over your head too. Well, you don't have to worry about rain. Yeah. I mean, what are we looking at, Justin? I brought up, this is the shortest thing

in the whole Ubisoft press conference. And I just wanted to call attention to this poor man that they had stand in front of a faux wood backdrop and just play Rocksmith for 50 seconds. On a, it looks like it was shot on an iPhone 3. It's just a dude standing there rocking out the inner sand man. It's like-

I hope they never stop making Rocksmith. I know, it's just- Despite the fact that I don't know who play, I love rhythm games the most. And I don't know who's out here shredding. I feel like Rocksmith, they're like, we'll put you in the show, but we have no money to let you make something.

And then this showed up and Ubisoft was like, so this is the best you got, huh? This is the thing, okay. This looks neat. It's like a weird hobbyist section of the industry, it feels like, that I wish I was, I don't know, it looks- It's like Kensha Hall all over again, basically. It's like bringing Kensha Hall back.

I'm really glad it's going, a thing that I heard from a number of people from like the PR and marketing thing is that this is actually like saving the games industry. Is that there are a lot of people who just would not be showing their games to the press right now, if not for, Jeff, I think to some degree,

but I think really, I am apid, gets a lot of the credit here, for making it easy to turn key solution at a reasonable price, show games to the press. So I don't wanna sound ungrateful at all. I think it is overall like a net good. I just think it's it's more just kind of a bummer when you think of what's going on in the industry. It feels, you know what it feels like? It feels like a very literalization of the industry's woes to

not have this big event that represented an industry that was like growing in on the up and instead do something that feels like a pretty serious step back from its potential. And are you doing the whole thing like writ large or do you mean like the Ubisoft? The event itself represents to me like it's like we don't have E3 anymore. We have this. And I ran into Jason Schreier from TripleClick and from Bloomberg and was talking to him about it. And I was like, you know, like, what do you, what do you kind of make of this in terms of the industry?

And his point kind of like what we saw at Summer Game Fest and what was actually advertised there is the, the games industry is huge. It is making a ton of money but most that is like mobile right it is not actually the things that are here and the companies that are here are in a pickle so yeah I don't know it's just it it was it was kind of a sharp reminder of the very just strange moment though there's like part of me it feels like no matter what it is, it's important that something happened every year.

It feels like even if it's just a placeholder, like even just to get people all together, I mean that was I think, and this is selfish, but like I feel like a lot of the industry happened in that week when everyone was in one place. Like it was a lot and I think that's a loss. I think Summer GameFest, I think the Game Awards, for what it's worth, does that too, just for the industry. I don't think it's for the public, I mean, public can go. But mostly it's a nice event.

I went last year for the first time in ever, I think. And it was fucking lovely to see human beings that I've known and worked with for decades in person. And so having that opportunity is really nice. But I do agree with what Plant said. The days of giant fucking obscene expenditures for conventions and parties at Dodger Stadium are long done. Not a bad thing.

It's actually kind of great for this show because it means a lot of small, very creative titles are coming out there, but it also means, again, a lot of people that are working at these big, big studios are definitely at a risky situation where their studio could get shuttered if their one game comes out and it's not like the smash hit. So weird, but hey, better than the music industry, right?

That's what we all fall back on here in the Games Press. We have a few, reader mail will go real quick. This is just like games that people were excited about based on the announcements. Some of these we've talked about already. This one comes from Casey. Mixtape looks right up my generational alley. Shame they got Smashing Pumpkins instead of Pavement though.

I think Smashing Pumpkins does the job. It just depends on how cool you were at the time. A lot more people like smashing pumpkins. That's true. More expensive. Does that make them a better band? You tell me. I don't know. But that is a better band. No, that's Zwan's band. This one comes from Mark. Gonna be honest, it didn't have my Gears of War CG trailer making me emotional on my bingo card. I haven't played anything else in the series since Gears 2, but that E-Day trailer and its music hit hard.

That's a good call out specifically because that trailer directly references the marketing campaign from Gears of War 1, where they played fucking Mad World, and they haven't been able to depart from that marketing campaign since it happened. It's maybe the most indelible marketing campaign in video game history. There's so many better Gary Jules songs

that I could recommend for them. There's like a hundred, I doubt Gary's even getting money from this at this point. I don't think Gary's getting his beak wet fucking even a little bit. That was more of an homage than it was a direct quote from that song. Steven, I'm so freaking excited for Citizen Sleeper 2. That first one was incredibly special to me

and I can't wait to see what they have in store. Also did you see- Where did that Citizen Sleeper 2? I missed it. Was it one of the shows? I think it might have happened during the PC game show, which we didn't necessarily. Oh man, that would have been a good one

to get the poll up to, because I'm really excited about that. I loved that first one Yeah Also, Stephen mentions the GLC fallen aces that shit looks looks so cool though. I'm not sure what I feel about the episodic nature I don't know what that is either We missed that one I'm looking hold on. Let's take just take a second Wow was this in the PC gaming show? Should we be been watching that instead?

Yep, this is in the PC gaming show too. All right, well next year, sorry guys, there's a lot of these, you know? What is it? It's like a, you're wanting me to describe a trailer to you. I'll tell you. I don't know what it is. It's like a comic book.

And then there's a guy punching another guy and now he's grabbing him. And then he's hitting the guys. It's by Trey Powell and Jason Bond. And you're shooting guys. It looks cool. It's like killer B. It's terrible.

Why are you making these? Great, I'm thrilled. Okay, last letter. Go watch it, it looks neat. Really neat, actually. Okay, that's pretty much it for Rear Mail. We've gone, we've talked a lot about Not E3. Any quick honorable mentions before we wrap?

Wait, Frush, I see that you, your honorable mention. Tell me what's going on here. I watched the movie Sicario. Have you guys seen that movie? Oh cool. A feel-good movie. This is great. I loved it.

Man. Did it come out 100 years ago? Yeah, I watched it at my movie club and I hadn't seen it before and I'm a big fan of Denny Villeneuve and he was, it was great. It was a great movie. I love Del Toro, getting some work. Great. 10 years ago.

I've, I mean, I've been playing the Destiny 2 final shape expansion. Yeah, we're gonna talk a lot about it next week. Yeah. It's fucking great. Real fucking into it. I also played Destiny for the first time in six years, so I'm excited to dive in. It'll be interesting to hash that out, yes.

I think it is going to be a discussion that is all over the place, but my personal feelings is I think it's the most fun maybe Destiny's ever been. I'm having myself a great time with it. Chris Plant is desperately scrambling for something else to talk about. So hopefully he finds something that will create heat. No, I'm not. You want to talk about Destiny? Oh, you mean that week.

Yeah, I am. Anything else? I mean, just a reminder that the next Fest on Steam, you can download a bunch of different demos We're gonna be talking about them on upcoming rest ease But there's a lot of cool stuff. Yeah, I played some dope shit. Um Yeah, I haven't had any I'm sorry come see my play. I'm doing Directed Willy Wonka in the chocolate factory this weekend. Yeah. Are you covering travel costs? What are you covering travel costs for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory this weekend. Hell yeah. Are you covering travel costs? What?

Are you covering travel costs? For Willy Wonka? No. Yeah, they're in town. They're in town. They're local. No, just drive down, just like anything else. Not everything's in New York, Russ.

Okay. Sorry. Some things happen outside. Some things are in the Bible Belt. I don't think we're in the Bible Belt, actually, but you get the idea. No. Hey.

To wrap things up, everybody, we talked about a lot, a lot of video games this week. So rather than say every game that was announced, I'm going to put a whole bunch of these inside of the newsletter, and you can go and check them out. That will be at besties.fan and if you haven't subscribed yet what are you doing please go ahead and do that

I want to thank the following people for being patrons of the show and getting access to the dope ass content we have on the patreon uh mc xanthus red baron video g, and someone who I agree with, Sonic Garbage. Wow. Thank you for being patrons of the besties and sharing our love. We have a new episode of The Resties, which is live. We talked about, what did we talk about? Celico.

Oh, yes, Celico. That game rules. And Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip, which is also very good. Yeah, some really good games in that episode. Yeah, for sure. Okay, we did it. Next week is Destiny 2, we already mentioned that. Who, should we gonna find something else

to talk about during that? No, buddy, I'm gonna get into Destiny. No! Yeah, baby! Wait, listen, it's the final shape. Yep. Yeah. What am I waiting for? Another shape after this one? No way. Nope. It's not happening

It's gonna do it for us this week invests Be sure Joyce to get next time for the besties because should the world's best friends pick the world's best games Besties!