Transcript
neocharge: What's up, everybody, and welcome to Shapes of Gaming, the weekly conversational podcast all about video games that's unedited, unfiltered, and unhinged. I'm one of your hosts, as always, Matt Stinson, NeoCharge on PSN. And joining me remotely from Las Vegas is Bob Harriman, Leon Lionheart, Leon, on PSN for episode number 49, Bob. We're almost there.
neocharge: And you are the retro gaming encyclopedia, of course. What's up, man?
Leon Lionheartly: Viva Las Vegas, baby.
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: is What's up?
neocharge: You know what they say.
Leon Lionheartly: ah ah You know what they say is you do what I did. We drove in this morning or yeah, we got in as as we got it in this morning.
neocharge: m
Leon Lionheartly: I was like, hey, I need to see your my buddy Mike who's driving. i like, let me see your phone. I need to I need the aux real quick as ah my kids would call it. And as soon as we hit the city limits. you know i took played big iron.
Leon Lionheartly: You fucking know I played big iron, man.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: I had to as a new Vegas.
neocharge: Love it.
Leon Lionheartly: I was like, yep, we're doing this.
neocharge: Hell yeah. Yeah, I've been to Vegas quite a few times. I never gamble. i'm not a gambler, but i just love the architecture and all the shit to do. Of course, the highlight of it, we've been talking about it all day, the sphere.
neocharge: I think I talked about it on one of the episodes when I came back from Vegas last, ah I think it was May. So yeah, it's crazy.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah yeah it it's it's wild you you're describing it and that is amazing and it sounds impressive and you can see pictures but it still does not do it justice until you see it in person um we saw it from the convention center where we're at i was on the second floor and i walked outside and i'm like oh i can't wait to see this bitch lit up at night
neocharge: Screen is four acres big, Bob.
neocharge: Exactly.
neocharge: Oh, dude, it's something else at night for sure. Yeah, that's ah that's kind of like the gem of Vegas now. And you got the Logsaur, you got Excalibur, you got Caesar's Palace. Dude, it's it's like an adult playground there.
neocharge: So, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh.
neocharge: ah Like I said, I don't gamble. I just go for the food, the experience, um the the the hotel amenities. Oh, man. There's like a wave pool in one of the hotels I stayed at. Vegas is a experience. It's it's amazing. I love it there. I got go back.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, it absolutely is, dude. And it's so easy and cheap to get here. You can get a, what, a two hour flight for like a hundred bucks from the Springs.
neocharge: It is.
Leon Lionheartly: um Or you do like we did load up on energy and it's a 13 hour drive straight shot through, through Utah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: It's, and which isn't that bad when you think about it.
neocharge: There you go.
neocharge: There you go. And you're there for a gaming-centric convention. So talk a little bit about that.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. So this ah kind of came up on my radar um back in October as we were making and finalizing plans for MagFest. um A good buddy, a really good friend of mine. I've known him for almost 20 years at this point. um He is a community member, Chaos Creations. Mike, love you buddy. He hit me up and he said, I am going to level up Expo next year.
Leon Lionheartly: i have never been. um I'm planning on going as a panelist, which you got approved for. And that means, Hey, you can get a, I get free tickets.
Leon Lionheartly: You want to come along? Um, we've never been here. This is our scouting year. And I said, sure. um and we got in today to go set up the booth because he's part of the, uh, and I'm going butcher this and he's going to be mad at me, the 405th, which is a cosplay group, uh, that deals with, uh, halo and things of that nature.
neocharge: so
Leon Lionheartly: um And we went to go set up their booth and get everything ready for his 3D printing and everything else. And I'm telling you, man, I started looking at the floor. And I started getting flashbacks to January.
Leon Lionheartly: um I started seeing vendors ah booths pop up. um In particular, and we talked about this before the show, but ah for the audience, I saw a red booth. It was all red except for one little fucking logo at the bottom of a little bird. And it just said CD Projekt Red on it.
Leon Lionheartly: um there is a an entire area dedicated to tcgs from what i can see so i've seen like riffbound lorkana which means everybody else is going to be here um there's an entire segment i saw i'm building it matt all arcade just like at magfest thing we're talking will see it tomorrow but i think it's either going to be as big or potentially bigger
neocharge: Hell yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Get all the pics, send them, put them in discord if you want. So everyone can see them.
Leon Lionheartly: you you know i will man and this this is a pleasant surprise we we're going in blind and i've only gotten a small preview and uh i've got a feeling it's going to be a great time everybody here it's there's a mix of anime it always happens at these conventions it's not just a video game convention but when you see people and they're wearing a shirt with a chocobo on it and you got a guy with a master chief and like uh Mike's kept role walking around with a 6'7", 14-pound gravity hammer from Halo right now.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: yeah
neocharge: It's so cool.
Leon Lionheartly: good
neocharge: well I mean, it sounds right up my alley, so count me the fuck in next year.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: Dude, you are so on this list. We are doing this. It's an easy, short trip. um
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Caleb, if you're listening, come on, buddy. Yeah.
neocharge: Yep. Come on. Come on to Colorado Springs and we'll pick you up. We'll hang out here and then go to Vegas. Yeah, dude, i love conventions. They're so fun. I like, you know, Springs Comic Con here is cool. Mag Fest is, of course, always a good time. Looking forward to that, but i yeah i wouldn't mind more conventions in my life, especially gaming-focused ones.
Leon Lionheartly: That's the big thing. You need the gaming focused ones.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: so I like Colorado Springs con. I like Denver comic con.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: I like those conventions, but they are focused on pop culture of anime and comic books specifically and things. And you don't get a lot of video game people.
Leon Lionheartly: I mean, we got David Hader one year.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: Um, but you know, who else is going to be here?
neocharge: Yeah, we did.
Leon Lionheartly: Um, this year it's not video game related, but I, uh, necessarily, but I think it would, so Michael Rooker.
neocharge: Oh, okay. Very cool. Guardians the Galaxy.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep. There's a few voice actors here from ah some other games that are due to be here as well. We can look through that list ah together later. But um yeah, dude, it's that it's it's a fucking video game heaven here.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Hell yeah. That's awesome. Well, I'm glad you were able to record from the hotel room and we'll get this we'll get the show on the road. What's... Oh, go ahead.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, yeah, I was going to say, and that's for folks that aren't aware of the reason we're doing this. We could have recorded early, but we wanted to wait because we got a big news item. And we we we pretty much knew, folks, we knew, but we want you want to confirm.
Leon Lionheartly: And I wanted to get it off the presses, so no sense in guessing.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: So, yeah, definitely.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: And I appreciate you being accommodating for this because we get we got to get keep this ah train of rolling, man.
neocharge: Powers, man. For sure. For sure. Yeah, we were going to do, ah we were going to record last night and ah basically report on the event as if it happened. And we were caught we were recording Thursday, just as a gag, you know, we probably would have told everyone, but I would have nailed everything, honestly, because they' So much shit leaked except that one, the actually two exciting things that I like squealed when, when it was revealed. So we're going to get all into what we, uh, the event today, yesterday, if you're listening to this, when it comes out Friday, ah that, uh,
neocharge: we got something big revealed, which is, uh, which hits close to home for me. So, uh, what, what's going on with shapes? What's new with shapes? Uh, nothing. We're, we're still going at it. We, we skipped a, a week primarily because of the April clusterfuck.
neocharge: Uh, we have so many games this month and we wanted to game. And also we wanted to line up episode 50 with our one year anniversary, which our first, uh, ever,
neocharge: podcast went live on May 1st, 2025 and was labeled Hello World. So I think we did a little bonus one too before that just to test. So if you've been here since episode one, thank you so much. We are going to be recording episode 50 next week with two special guests. ah you probably know who they are already if you've been listening to this cast long enough. ah But we appreciate everyone. ah The Discord has been fun. We've been having a blast doing it. We love drinking, talking video games with you.
neocharge: ah you know We've made a ton of connections. People have become friends in our community, which is awesome. And that's kind of what we set out to do. So look forward to episode 50. It's going to be an awesome one. We're going to wrap State of the Draft ah into it.
neocharge: And spoiler, Caleb's going to be on the the show. so And we're also going to have Alex.
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: so And dude, Alex has been dropping some bangers for his album. And he's he's got some new EPs. And he's got a new one coming out shortly.
neocharge: And he's he's been busy. And ah there might be an update to our intro. It'll be the the same intro you know and love created by, of course, Alex.
neocharge: And, uh, but it might be a little enhanced, you know, he might've been working something for our, for our show.
Leon Lionheartly: no
neocharge: So look forward to that. Uh, other than that, yeah, we, uh, we're going to go strong in year two. We're still going to try and do video. Who knows, uh, if Zencaster can cooperate with us, but a lot of people like the audio. Uh, it's mainly for the community and the discord we've created and we love you all. thank you so much for listening. And if you aren't part of the community, you can join us.
neocharge: Where can people join us? Bob, where do they go to see all the things, Shapes of Gaming?
Leon Lionheartly: Well, all you need is a good internet connection. and Not even a really good one, you know, and just go into that browser and check out shapes of gaming.com. That's going to bring you right into our home landing page.
Leon Lionheartly: That's going to give you all of the links you need to hear our beautiful voices. Hopefully see our beautiful faces soon too. You get to be a community member on the discord.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: You get the, There's a link for, and we'll get to that. I'll get to that here in minute, but there's a link for our Twitch as well. That's there. um This is where we make the magic happen. So go check it out while you're listening to us Go ahead and leave us those good comments, thumbs ups, hearts, whatever that platform is. And this does include all of our social media platforms as well. And Alex has been out there working and grinding that as well.
Leon Lionheartly: um I don't think we pay him in enough beer, honestly. yeah, He's been killing it. Keep it up, man. But once again, just go to shapesagaming.com.
neocharge: Yep, yep. And speaking of beer, ah you're you're sticking with water because you just got off of a long road trip. But I'm actually drinking a Crowler. It's a canned Crowler. You can basically buy canned ah tap beer from breweries and bring them back and then drink them. And I am actually drinking and a It's funny you say that because when we were at Urban Animal downtown...
neocharge: ah I bought you a birthday beer and Alex a beer in celebration. So, I mean, we've been buying a beer. We'll, we'll get, we'll have to get them a six pack though, for sure.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: But that was, that was a fun time. That was, I think two Thursdays ago or something. But I got a to-go crawler and it's called the 520 mankini.
neocharge: And it is a i was at the brewery and I was like, guys, dude, do I get a, do I drink a mankini at the bar with you guys? Nah, nah, I'll get it to go. Uh, but it's a passion fruit hibiscus ale and it's, ah brewed with,
neocharge: with a passion fruit and has a hibiscus notes. So it's great. It's a little more bitter than I thought it would be. But ah as you can see, or well, we'll explain it to you, but I am drinking out of my urban animal glass as well. What a fantastic fucking brewery. That was, they're great.
Leon Lionheartly: They really are, man. I love the Stouty McStout. um is fucking It is a thin...
neocharge: Alex got that.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, it is a thin mint in a cup without the sweetness.
neocharge: It is.
Leon Lionheartly: I don't... It's wizardry. um I will give you this much. Since I'm drinking water, I'll give you a little bit of good beer story for you. How about that, folks?
neocharge: okay
Leon Lionheartly: We'll replace it with a beer story. um My wife... loves to do Pokemon trading. or he loves She loves the shiny cardboard. We've talked about this before. um But she was discussing with one of the people at our local card shop.
Leon Lionheartly: They do a trade night on Thursdays. And through the conversations, a beer was brought up. And apparently, um I'm going to get his information and pass it along to the community and see what I can get.
Leon Lionheartly: Because ah He needed a qt ah QC tester for beer. And i got a, I drank it this last weekend, man. It was a amber rye ale. It's a six and a half percent.
Leon Lionheartly: It was a little bit, had a little bit of a bite from my taste, but it was really smooth still, surprisingly smooth. um So I was like, free beer?
Leon Lionheartly: And you want me to taste? Like, what's the catch here? Like, what?
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: But yeah, definitely. I'm going to be getting some more and we'll be definitely discussing some of that because ah i like, look, we like local beers, man. Look brews.
neocharge: Oh, yeah. Yeah, love local beers, love supporting local breweries because God knows that they've been closing recently. So got to get out there and support your your local breweries, coffee shops, anything local, support it.
neocharge: so and And Springs has some amazing local food spots and local breweries, local coffee shops. So I try and get out there and support them. When I can. So yeah, if you're in the Springs, urban animal, awesome beer, great selection and Doki Doki food truck.
neocharge: Shout out to him. Right. He, he caught wind that it was your birthday and we not only got a discount, but he like brought you a little treat, right?
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
neocharge: A little treat to the table and was like, and we got to talk to him and he's like, how you liking it? And that's why I love local spots, man. Like you get to talk to the people and they actually create it and you get to know the,
neocharge: the um i don't know the vision and the creation behind the product.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, I definitely shout out to Tokidoki. And that that food truck, if you like curry or if you like katsu in Japanese style, um it is to die for.
Leon Lionheartly: He's making burgers now, which I'm so feeling one day I'll get adventurous for that. But i go for I go for that katsu or the curry fries where they just covered in the cheese and the curry.
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: So, oh man, I'm hungry for it again already.
neocharge: Right? I'm down to go when you are. what And they they have so many different... ah A different variety of brews on tap. Like last time I went, there was a pickle beer. ah Before the Mankini, I drank a smoked beer.
neocharge: It was like a forest fire beer or something they called it. They have like that thin mint beer. They have experimental beers. I like when breweries do that. Because beer shouldn't be boring.
neocharge: It should be exciting. So... Yeah, can't wait to go back. ah How's life? You're in Vegas. How's life been? Anything new? Anything crazy?
Leon Lionheartly: Uh, no, just the, the craziness that is, i mean, you you, you hit the nail on the head, Last week we skipped, not only do we have the chaos release, I had my birthday. I went to the range on Saturday, um, and got to meet, uh, meet up with a couple of Alex, uh, was there as well as, uh, another friend of mine, Nick.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: Um, and we also met with solo, um, and who was part of the draft last year, but he brought out his Beretta and he put some customization in there and it looks like, let's just put it this way. There's a certain compensator on it. If people don't know what I mean, it's a barrel modification at the end. Go play some shooters first off. number two, he put a wood grain,
Leon Lionheartly: a handle on it as well as inside of that little custom hand a grip is a umbrella logo so it is a resident evil beretta it's amazing it fires beautifully um the only thing that topped it was my buddy um nick who he's
neocharge: Beautiful. Love that.
Leon Lionheartly: Let's just say he found a hobby he really likes. um And as soon as he saw Solo's Beretta, he's like, hey, you want to see mine? And so Solo's like, yeah, sure. And Nick pulls out this thing with this red dot or green dot sight on it.
Leon Lionheartly: He's got us he's got a silencer on this ah bad boy.
neocharge: Oh, man.
Leon Lionheartly: It's presser. That's almost the size of the thing. Extended Magazine. It is the most Gucci Beretta. And... I'm like, well, I've always been of the opinion that like, why would you do that to your pistol? Because pistol marksmanship is pretty ineffective after a certain range. um And i've fired this thing, Matt, at 100 yards.
Leon Lionheartly: I was hitting targets with a pistol.
neocharge: Oh, wow.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm like, this is unreal.
neocharge: That's pretty far away for a pistol.
Leon Lionheartly: Uh-huh. Not necessarily 100% accurate. You can't hit a certain part target, ah body part, but you can hit the target.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And I'm like, that's unreal for a pistol, man.
neocharge: Wow. Very cool. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, but what about you?
neocharge: That sounds like good name.
Leon Lionheartly: i i'll Yeah, how's your week been, man?
neocharge: It's been good. It's been good. I'm gearing up for a life change at some point. ah you know an evolution when I land and somewhere, I'll fill people in on that, but, uh, just a ah change in my life, uh, for the good, of course. And I'll still play video games. Mike's coming with me.
neocharge: So, uh, but I'm probably staying in Colorado Springs most likely. So, Yeah, just ah just a move at some point and ah just something new.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
neocharge: And dude, I've been just gaming a lot. Haven't been able to get on the mountain. I think think the last time I so ah was able to snowboard was a month ago and I think it's not gonna happen.
neocharge: It's just too hot. It was like 75 degrees. Yesterday, so I like hot, but I mean, when it comes to snowboarding and trying to get on the mountain, that's not ideal. So I have been one wheeling a little bit.
neocharge: That's fun. If you don't know what a one wheel it's like a is it's like a segue with a one wheel in the middle and two foot pads on either side and you lean to go forward and you lean back to go back.
neocharge: Uh, it's fun. It was like 15, 20 miles an hour, about an 18 to 20 mile range. Uh, and it's like, it's like floating. So one wheels are fun. I've been doing that. Other than that, man, just been gaming.
neocharge: we're going to talk all about a game. We, just got and one of the reasons we skipped last year or last week's episode not only i mean we did want to line up 50 with may 1st but uh we were inundated in some ah fucking games which we're gonna talk all about so but before that let's get into this news because we oh my god the event today just has me gleaming just oh i'm so fucking excited
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep. i'll tell i'll tell you I'll tell you what, buddy. We'll we'll save that for the end. um And i will go ahead and um we will do a quick start with the first item here um because I know you're a movie buff, my friend.
neocharge: Yeah, love that.
Leon Lionheartly: um And this is coming from Variety.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: It's been circulated around online. um but plate bo you know Oh, I hate those sites. Please don't allow our ads. No, I don't need your...
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Anyways, ah PlayStation's Bloodborne video game is being developed into an R-rated animated feature for Sony Pictures that the studio says will embrace the carnage that made the game so popular.
neocharge: Thank you.
Leon Lionheartly: Sanford Panachik, president of Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Group, promised during the studio's CinemaCon presentation that the long-rumored film will be very true to the glory spirit of Bloodborne, which follows a traveler who journeys through a gothic city of nightmares creatures.
Leon Lionheartly: Now, here's the catch here's the catch um there, buddy. um the One of the producers um that hasn't specified what type of producer, executive assistant, whatever, um is going to be a well self-proclaimed fan and well-known gamer, um Sean McLaughlin, better known as Jacksepticeye Online, um who's going to be
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: guiding this in whatever producer capacity it has. So um I, you know, you're more of a cinema buff that than I am, man. um And I know you've played but Bloodborne. so are you are you, you're in on this, I assume?
neocharge: 100%, especially since it's not live action. I think video game adaptations shine when they're animated. ah And the fact that this is rated R as well and is being produced, a producer just kind of funds the project and lightly ah contributes to the creative process. so But he's a huge fan of Bloodborne and he has the the history to prove it. So yeah, get get a fan in there, ah make it animated.
neocharge: and rated R dude. Bloodborne's my favorite souls. Like all time, incredible game, uh, originally on the PS4, new IP for the PS4. And if it's PlayStation productions, they, they usually correlate a game release with their media releases with uncharted. We got the uncharted remastered with, uh, new dawn. What is fuck? What is it called?
neocharge: Uh, The Dawn game. the um
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, Blood of Dawnwalker.
neocharge: No, no. the The Choose Your Own Adventure.
Leon Lionheartly: What?
neocharge: Fuck, it's something Dawn. I don't know. But that was correlated with another remake of the original or remaster of the original. With The Last of Us, we got the part one and the part two remaster. So they correlate...
neocharge: ah media releases with new game releases. So my God, can we please just get a Bloodborne, just a remaster, just a little remaster. Maybe they're trying to show, cause f FromSoft is blocking this.
neocharge: FromSoft is like, nope, right we don't want touch the IP. And Bloodborne is 30 frames on PS4. And if they brought it to PS5, unlocked it, it could be 60 frames. do new things with it, even a remaster, man, because it's an incredible, incredible ah Souls-like.
neocharge: so
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Just dark and an amazing gameplay. I've played it three times. I still don't have the Platinum because I refuse to save Scum.
Leon Lionheartly: i mean if so if if playstation only had a i don't know a party or studio that could fucking make that happen real easily i'm sorry i know i'm opening an old wound there but you you're you're right i i think there's i see the potential uh with this um obviously we're still early on we don't even have promotional material for this um so and i know
neocharge: um
neocharge: a Right?
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: jacked septic eye by name um and since the fact i haven't heard his name spewed by the kids of oh did you hear what this youtuber did in spoiler it's usually they committed fraud or touched a kid this tells me that he might actually have a clean record and that's good you know he's passionate about the game
neocharge: a
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I agree. Bloodborne is my favorite Souls-like to this day. ah There's something about that parry system that they developed. the You go to get hit and you just say, parry this, you filthy casual, as you hit him with a fucking blunderbuss.
Leon Lionheartly: There's something about that that I love. It's so visceral. ah um And I'm like you.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I don't have the platinum. I just play it because I fucking love the game.
neocharge: Exactly. Yeah. And it's got incredible enemy design, super cool level design. Just awesome. Just a creepy, creepy atmosphere. The game is dripping with atmosphere until dawn is what I was thinking of.
neocharge: Until Dawn.
Leon Lionheartly: That's it. Yes, yes, yes, yes.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: the one that
neocharge: So they released movie. Not great. But then they also on the heels of that, they released a remake stir. You should, we can say of the, until Dawn original. And I think they green lit a sequel maybe, but I don't know if it's happening because the movie didn't do well. Because it wasn't like the game.
neocharge: like Make it like the game and make it fucking animated. None of this God of War, Last of Us, Horizon, live action bullshit. Just animate it In my opinion, the best video game adaptation so far has been Castlevania, the animated TV series on Netflix. Devil May Cry, close second.
neocharge: Incredible. Also animated. And we're getting season two. We got a season two trailer.
Leon Lionheartly: Okay. I might have to check out that Devil May Cry because I agree with you it about the the praise that Castlevania deserves.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I joined it later. um Didn't know it was coming out. um That's how much I had my head on the ground with playing games. And then all of a sudden there's two seasons of Castlevania, an animated series on Netflix.
Leon Lionheartly: And I'm like, wait, what is this?
neocharge: There's five now.
Leon Lionheartly: What? Yeah, ive I've watched them all and all their chef's kiss.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: That's how that's how you do it.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: and And when you're talking about high fantasy and you can do it, I mean, you look at Lord of the Rings, there's a way to do that. But there's something about the
neocharge: It really works.
Leon Lionheartly: It rarely works and you have to have a really passionate team and the stars have to align. It's a very big gamble. just Just animate the hell out of it.
Leon Lionheartly: Let us get that visual flair.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um We can use our imagination. We're video gamers. We use our imagination to put ourselves into a virtual world and enjoy it and escape. We can we can do that with a TV show.
neocharge: Exactly. Yeah. The next adaptation um I think is my most anticipated is Hyper Light Drifter.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, they're really doing that.
neocharge: Yeah, for Netflix. Yeah, animated.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh.
neocharge: That game has a crazy fucking story. ah But Hyper Light Breaker didn't do well because they kind of deviated from the formula. Hyper Light Drifter is like a Zelda-like pixel art.
neocharge: Incredible game. ah
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: But they started going live service and like I wouldn't say Battle Royale. Co-op. Arena shooter, it didn't do well. Shocker, right? but
Leon Lionheartly: Heh heh heh heh.
neocharge: Switch to your roots. just give Give us the sequel of Hyper Light Breaker. But yeah, I think that they're doing an animated Hyper Light Breaker TV series on Netflix. So Netflix has a lot of the video game adaptations. But yeah, Bloodborne, I am excited for. If it was live action, I'd be less excited. But the fact that it is...
neocharge: And it's helmed and produced by a big fan of Bloodborne and someone that knows what Bloodborne is and how it should be. It's animated and it's rated Yep.
neocharge: Hitting all the things. I'm in. Excited.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, I love that, man. Let's let's see it happen. um And well, you know, we'll see when we get the first promotional material because, you know, it's going to come and then everybody's going to dissect it So we'll see it when it comes along.
neocharge: yeah.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: Um, all right.
neocharge: Very cool.
Leon Lionheartly: Uh, anything else about Bloodborne? Cause if not, we will jump into our next piece of news here. Um, uh, we'll, we'll go with the, with this one here, uh, because this is a relevant, um, hopefully we're starting to see some promises, uh, come to fruit ah fruition.
Leon Lionheartly: Um, a, this is actually coming from Xbox wire. Um, it was sent out to the entire Xbox, uh, direct team.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: so you can go look at, uh, over there. Um, this is coming from Matt Booty and Asha. Um, the two new lead heads of, uh, the Xbox, uh, organization ah for a lack of better terms.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: Uh, Sorry, folks, I'm running on slow sleep.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: But anyways, um they laid out a plan ah for the future of Xbox. There's a lot of good stuff in here. um talking about the Specifically, they talk about players are frustrated.
Leon Lionheartly: New feature drops on consoles have been less frequent. Our presence in PC isn't strong enough. Pricing is getting harder to keep up with. And they also go on to talk about the potential exclusivity um and bringing that back as well.
Leon Lionheartly: And more tangentially to this article, it's not in here, but it was followed up immediately after this article. um Xbox Game Pass is dropping in price. Ultimate's going from $30 $23. you're getting savings um if you're still on that.
neocharge: Yeah. ah Does that mean they might pull some content too? Probably. he
Leon Lionheartly: Hmm. Don't you pull Master Chief. you Don't do you dare pull up now.
neocharge: No, no, no, not the exclusive, the Game Pass. Like, the the day and date, a like, big titles, right?
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, the game pass?
neocharge: though You might not see those as much.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes, in fact, thank you for jogging my memory on that one as well, um because that was the other half of the Game Pass decrease.
neocharge: So...
Leon Lionheartly: Call of Duty is no longer going to be on Game Pass for the first year that it's released. ah So you got to put it...
neocharge: Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.
Leon Lionheartly: wow Pony up the dough, folks. But yeah i i think as I heard this, I started thinking, I'm like, why why are you doing this? You're backpedaling. And then I realized Call of Duty had soft sales, this latest Black Ops 7. It got trounced by Battlefield 6.
Leon Lionheartly: And honestly, you know people are going to buy it. Despite the fact that Call of Duty Black Ops 7 objectively got beat up in critical scores outside of UIGN, looking at you, to Battlefield 6, Battlefield 6 kind of had ah its a day in the sun, Call of Duty still ended up in the top...
Leon Lionheartly: I want to say the top five or top 10 best selling games of 2025. So at the end of the day, Asha and Matt, I think probably looked at this and said, people are still going to buy Call of Duty. They don't care.
Leon Lionheartly: They're going to do it anyways. Just like people are going to pay $100 for GTA six in November. um So ah go ahead and pay the price of admission because we know you're going to pay it. And they called, I think they're calling a bluff here to the gamers.
neocharge: Exactly. ah And kind of a bait and switch a little bit, but they are reducing the price. And this overall news, it looks like the new leadership Xbox might be getting serious again.
neocharge: And they might they they are revisiting the the exclusivity stuff, which sucks.
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: But I mean, I don't care about day one exclusivity, but it is if it eventually comes to PlayStation, That's all I care about. And I don't i don't know if they're going to do day and date stuff anymore. And they're really taking stock of what they literally said. We know fans are frustrated and or we're here to fix things. So this is great news for gamers of all kinds, including us, you know, PlayStation centric gamers, because competition is very good for the consumer.
neocharge: And if they can get their shit together, it keeps PlayStation on their toes. It keeps Nintendo on their toes. You know, even though Nintendo is like, oh, we don't we don't comp compete with Xbox. Yeah, you do. Shut up.
neocharge: You do. You're a video game company that makes consoles and games. You compete directly with PlayStation Xbox. So full stop. ah But PlayStation, man, PlayStation has been s slipping a little bit this generation. We're still getting incredible games, but they've been making some interesting moves and they had a shake up with leadership too. So if if PlayStation did what they did in the last two or three years and fumbled so heavily, you know, with Concord and probably Fair Games coming up,
neocharge: With a strong Xbox, oh it would have been dire. It would have been bad. But Xbox fucked up even more. So the fact that PlayStation fucked up, but it it wasn't as bad because, I mean, their competitor was almost like non-existent at at one point and they were going the Sega route. which was third party game development. I love to see Xbox taking games more seriously. They're talking about their new console.
neocharge: I'm never going to go back to Xbox. I was big on 360, but, you know, I had always had a PlayStation. PlayStation was always, you know, home. And it's it's my only home now. Nintendo is secondary. So whatever Xbox makes, if it stays on Xbox, it's staying there. And I'm never going to play it. But if it eventually comes to PlayStation, I'll definitely play it. Like Gears of War and stuff like that. But expect to see their big you know Halo, Gears of War, even Forza. You're already seeing with Forza.
neocharge: Expect to see those big titles. We're not getting them day and date. we me We still don't have the release date for Halo, Bob. Halo Combat Evolved, or Halo Campaign Evolved.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep. Campaign involved.
neocharge: So i I think this is their opportunity to say, it's not day and date.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
neocharge: If you want to play Halo, a remake of Halo, day one, you got to have an Xbox or a PC, right? And then we'll eventually get it. So I think they're going to go back to the middle ground, right? The... the Main thing they were doing was exclusivity only on Xbox. You never saw Halo on PlayStation. Never saw Gears War on PlayStation. It was unheard of. And then they said, okay, timed exclusively. And then they were like, oh, yeah, day and date. You're getting Halo on PlayStation, which we were like, holy shit. I think they're going to go back to the middle ground. I think they're be like, nah, if you want to play our exclusive games online, On day one, you got to have an Xbox. But in six to eight months, they'll eventually come to PlayStation. And then you can get the better, more optimized version.
Leon Lionheartly: Well, you you say that, but there's there's that double-edged sword, man. i think yeah Starfield, the PS5, kind of just went into like a fart in the wind, dude. um
neocharge: It was a better version than the launch one on the Xbox One.
Leon Lionheartly: a Did you see...
neocharge: It's still ah it's still a fart, but
Leon Lionheartly: did you did you Did you see some of the the the issues people were having?
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: they were they were They were getting four minutes into the game and the game was fucking hard crashing on them on the PlayStation 5.
neocharge: It's Bethesda.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: So there's there's ah there's ah a piece of this that could go because you don't want to build a narrative around a game and then nobody buys it on PlayStation because it's mediocre mid.
Leon Lionheartly: Take take your take your verbiage there. um But there's a chance there.
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: But you know what? Just... just finish it. I don't care what you do Xbox because at the end of the day until you go pull full exclusivity and you bring back ah the Master Chief and you expand that universe. Don't give us the Master Chief collection. You give us a good solid system. You give us Fable. You give us every bit of rare uh ip out there you give us the forza you give us the exclusives not just one but i'm talking the whole buffet i still have no reason to buy your ah your product because i'm not spending 700 just to play halo uh campaign evolved it's not going to happen i'm sorry i love halo i love master chief but i'm not doing that i've got to be realistic here
neocharge: Everyone's hoping and wishing it's going to be $700, but try doubling that for their next console.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, yeah. We all know that there's a possibility.
neocharge: it's Yeah, they they said they're going that, well, I don't know, because the new leadership, they're they're kind of changing course. So they might say, oh, we're not going to do the PC route, and we're going to do an actual console that competes with PlayStation. So they will probably compete with the PS5 Pro price at $800 now.
neocharge: So yeah, we'll see.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Yeah. There's, there's something there where there's something there. I'm not smart enough to figure it out because I wouldn't have went, I wouldn't have bet on the game pass. You don't bet out the, like you don't do that.
Leon Lionheartly: And subscription on a, on a product like that, it doesn't work out in the long run. um But.
neocharge: and I've always hated subscription models, and they've been training their ah fan base to not buy games. And that's why Pragmata has like sold 6% of its sales on Xbox, and all the other sales are on PC, PS5. You've been training your gamers not to buy your games. So...
neocharge: Good luck backpedaling that again. well We'll see how it shakes out for him, but I think this is a step in the right direction, and I'm glad they're back in the game and they're taking the competition seriously in the gaming space.
Leon Lionheartly: 100% agreed, man. that I couldn't said it better myself. All right. Well, without further ado, my friend, um i had something else I wanted to kind of talk about.
neocharge: Awesome.
Leon Lionheartly: We'll we'll hit it up another time. um um Yeah, well.
neocharge: You sure?
Leon Lionheartly: if you want to talk, are you sure? Because I'm more than happy. I think this is, I think this is important and um I haven't seen really much chatter about it ah because we all, kind the the community kind of agrees um in a similar the ah idea mindset, but I don't know why nobody's talking about this, which is Shuhei Yoshida.
neocharge: Yeah, dude.
Leon Lionheartly: This is coming from Video Games Chronicle. I saw it circulating in a few other sites before it was finally picked up. um As listeners might know, Shuhei is a 31-year veteran of so ah Sony or PlayStation, um and he recently quit um in the last ah last year.
Leon Lionheartly: And he, 2018, I'm sorry. And he's been kind of circulating, doing some interviews. um he's a very He's a very well, still being very grounded and talking to the community. um telling stories about games, things of that nature. And he's been kind of unleashed. um And it was reported that he was in um Australia ah recently um for um the Alt Games Festival. um And he was talking about um some indie game what ah what makes indie games successful and a few other things. But this Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: i helped santa monica to make god of war naughty dog to make uncharted and the last of us and soccer punch to make the beautiful ghost of tshima ah yoshida reportedly said ghosts suhihima was one of the last games i worked on as president of worldwide studios But in 2019, after 11 years of leading first party development with all of those games, by the way, um I was fired from the role. Jim Ryan wanted to remove me from first party because I didn't listen to him. He asked to do some ridiculous things, and I said, quote, no.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. What do we think of these ridiculous things are? Because I have an idea of what they were.
Leon Lionheartly: it It was exactly what yeah what it was. I personally think it was Jim Ryan said, let's buy some studios. Let's make some live services. Big vision and plan. And Shuhei stepped back and said, you need to foster your environment. You need to have people like me who can say, um no, I don't think this game's going to work. And you trust that individual. And I don't think Jim Ryan did. I don't think he, which is fucking stupid. You had Shuhei Yoshida on your side, man. You're ah how incompetent can you be?
neocharge: h Exactly. And i I think he was trying to push the live service stuff and saying, oh, yeah, let's let's get some more live service stuff. And Shuhei was like, no, this this I mean, it's good that we do this, but let's focus on our our single player and first party narrative driven titles. And he was like, no, no, no, it's all it's all live service. But then, I mean, they're both gone, unfortunately, and they really need to bring Shuhei back because he's a fucking legend.
neocharge: ah that has fostered some of the one of the best generations in PlayStation, PS4, and has ah greenlit some of the best stuff on PlayStation.
neocharge: But yeah, they were going in the wrong direction. Shuhei was like, ah this isn't the direction I want to see PlayStation going in. I'm fighting back. And they're like, all right, we'll see you. and He's like, all right, we'll see you. So big mistake on their end.
Leon Lionheartly: i
neocharge: And and yeah, fuck you, Jim Ryan. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Bye, Felicia. Now, can we just go ahead and do the same thing with Herman Holst and toss him out um for a bit?
neocharge: Uh-huh.
Leon Lionheartly: but
neocharge: Put Shuhi in charge.
Leon Lionheartly: Uh-huh. Yeah. And this goes back to what i this goes back to what we said, which is Jim Ryan obviously did bad generational damage to to PlayStation.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um But after a moment, he's been gone for four years what four years now?
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: ah Two or four years?
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um After a certain amount of time, you got to stop kicking and putting his name out there and saying it's his fault that that we're going to If Fair Games flops, which quite frankly, if it does come out, I think it's going to.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: All right.
neocharge: When. When.
Leon Lionheartly: Um, if it comes and for loops, look in a little so struggle and then horizon hunters is gathering, you got to look and say, that's not Jim Ryan, man.
neocharge: And for loop. For loop.
Leon Lionheartly: He he's been long gone. You like you stop bringing up the ghost of the dead, um, and let Herman go, but bringing this back, this is a shame.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: And I think the most interesting piece about this, uh, Matt is Shuhei is a Japanese businessman first and foremost. Um, And then you look at other Japanese business ah and the way it's ran culturally.
Leon Lionheartly: This is and this is what reportedly said. I haven't found a video on it online. But the fact is, this is some heat coming from um ah from a culture that typically does not speak ill of a situation.
Leon Lionheartly: They're usually tight lipped.
neocharge: Right. Especially previous employers, for sure.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes. So if this is the case and we just got Jim Ryan dropped as a, you're the reason why Shuhei's gone, or this is the reason I left.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: That's a huge middle finger to Jim Ryan and company.
neocharge: Yeah. we've seen PlayStation kind of lose their way. I mean, dude, having Concord not only score in the 60s for a PlayStation game, PlayStation usually hits like 80s, 90s, but they pulled it.
neocharge: They pulled the fucking game. We own a copy, sealed. We own a part of PlayStation history.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
neocharge: I still might frame mine. don't know. didn't play it. i I saw the trailer and I was interested until they went into the arena shooter stuff. and I'm like, I'm not interested anymore. Look like Guardians the Galaxy. Now it's going to fail.
neocharge: I can tell you right now. like Put me in the fucking board of PlayStation and I can make better decisions than these asshats.
Leon Lionheartly: You're, you're right, man. I don't know business, but I can make decisions and I'm a leader. And that's like, uh, I'm not so sure, man. You got to also have a tastemaker, somebody who understands games.
neocharge: Exactly. Exactly. And give the the gamers what they want and you know Follow the trend and be true to your roots, most importantly. so Yeah, you need a live service game. and Dude, Marathon's hitting on all cylinders, it sounds like. Helldivers was great. They kind of screwed that up a little bit, but...
neocharge: You need maybe one or two in the chamber, live service, but then keep focusing on what you're focusing on.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep. Mm-hmm.
neocharge: we've We've had so many canceled. I mean, dude, it's just a matter of time for fair games. It's when it fails, not if. For loop is going to fail. i hate to say this. you know People lose their jobs and everything, but these there's a time economy.
neocharge: there's a time economy in the video game space. And even in the video game series, in your life space, you have a time economy. And if you bring out, like, let's say you have marathon and for loop, uh,
neocharge: yeah someone Your gamer has to choose. They're not going to play both. right They might play both, but then they might lean to one or they might play a lot of For Loop and then go back to... mayor like It's cannibalizing each other if you have too many live service games out at once. and du Fortnite is huge. Grand Theft Auto is coming out. Grand Theft Auto Online is going to be huge. We got leaked numbers for that. They make like fucking...
neocharge: 10 million a week or some shit like that. It's crazy. So yeah, fair games is going to fail. Unfortunately, uh, they scrapped the last of us, uh, factions. They scrapped the God of war multiplayer. They scrapped the Spider-Man multiplayer, dude. I would have played a Spider-Man multiplayer, like a multiverse fucking thing where you were Spider-Man and like co-op or even PVP.
neocharge: And do it twist to did they scrapped the twisted metal one.
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: Like I would have played a twisted metal battle Royale. It's probably one of the only battle Royales I would have played, but I would have played that. So yeah, um that, that kind of touches back onto the failures that, that PlayStation has encountered in this generation.
neocharge: But all in all, you know, we're, we're still getting great games. we're going to talk about one of those shortly. And, ah we're still, yeah, we're still getting fed very well, but bring shoe. Hey back.
neocharge: He was, he was a gem. I've met him. I shook his hand. I thanked him for what he's done for this generation at PSX 2015, either 15 16. Uh,
neocharge: ah He's just a really nice guy in person. couldn't understand anything he was saying because he didn't speak English and I don't speak Japanese, but I've heard him do a lot of interviews. I've heard him on a lot of podcasts and he really cares.
neocharge: about gamers and video games and keeping the art form alive. And I bet Jim Ryan came to him and he was like, we're in this for money. And Shuhei's like, well, you know, I know we're a company and we want to make money, but we're in this for games.
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: And Jim Ryan's like, money. And he's like, games. was like, you know, Shuhei got booted because of what he believes in. And I respect the hell out of the guy for that. So bring him back, have him turn PlayStation around.
neocharge: God, would that be awesome?
Leon Lionheartly: i would love I would love that so much. it just It's like, this is the they i don't know this hit me in a way. like This is like Shintuoro Furukawa, the current Nintendo CEO, being like, hey, Miyamoto, I appreciate all you're doing, um but you I need you to go.
Leon Lionheartly: We've got other things.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: where We're going to in a different direction. Are you fucking high?
neocharge: Right, exactly, exactly.
Leon Lionheartly: but But yes, he's a legend.
neocharge: Yeah. He's a legend. He's a legend in the video game industry.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, absolutely. And they don't age out. They're not quarterbacks for the NFL. You let them keep going, man. But all right.
neocharge: Yeah, exactly.
Leon Lionheartly: Well, my rant is over. Thank you. And I think it's time to let you have your your day in the sun, if you will, my friend. um This is the big thing we were worried. This is the worst kept secret, um as everybody knows, in in in video game, ah recent video game memory. um Assassin's Creed Prince of Persia.
Leon Lionheartly: the sands of time remake was scrapped so that the assassin's clee creed black flag resynced could live And I'm not, ah well, I'm still sad.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm okay with that trade-off, man. We finally got the the video. We got the announcement. It's coming July 9th to all platforms. This is amazing.
Leon Lionheartly: You were watching it better. You probably had a better view than me. I was on the road watching this live and was just like, oh, you're saying all the right stuff. So I'm going to let you in. This is in your top five games. Fucking have your moment.
Leon Lionheartly: You even drafted this shit. So take her away.
neocharge: dead A long time ago. it was ah It was a pickup, and I think it's it's going to be similar to your tactics pickup because I drafted a while back. Almost dropped it because of Ubisoft and what they were going through, and they scrapped the Prince of Persia remake, but this has been rumored for a while. I think I drafted it last year as well. I thought we might be getting at the Game Awards, then Summer Game Fest, then the Game Awards, then Summer Game Fest. It's been like a couple years, so this has been cooking for a while.
neocharge: ah Assassin's Creed Black Flag is being remade from the ground up and...
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
neocharge: They had an awesome event. Today, 10 a.m. Mountain Time, ah they dove into it. So i the the headlines, launching July 9th, 2026. The original launched in 2014, I believe. So 12 years later, ah remade from the ground up.
neocharge: And with Ubisoft's modern ah Anvil engine, So the same engine that was made in Shadows. I know I haven't played Shadows just because I had to pick between Ghost Yote and Shadows because they're two very similar games.
neocharge: ah But Shadows, that they i don't have I haven't heard anyone bitching about the ah fidelity and how it looks. So Ubisoft's Anvil engine is gorgeous. And from what we saw today, there's a trailer. They dove into it. They talked to the devs. They brought Edward Kenway's voice actor. And yeah, it's launching for PS5, Xbox Series X and S and So yeah.
neocharge: so Yeah. Ground up remake. And it's not just a remaster or a visual upgrade. They remade this from the ground up and you can tell, you can tell.
neocharge: So like Bob said, Assassin's Creed four, black flag is one of my, in my top five favorite games of all time. I think we talked about it in one of the episodes, uh, early episodes where we talked about our top 10 games of all time.
neocharge: Assassin's Creed four is up there.
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: It's my like fourth or fifth most played game on PlayStation. I have beat it on the Xbox 360. I have beat it on PlayStation four twice.
neocharge: I have not platinumed it because of the multiplayer bullshit. And that is not coming back. So thankfully, ah they are not bringing the multiplayer stuff or the modern day storyline. We're still going to they're still going to tell it. They have to.
neocharge: No spoilers, but they have to tell the modern day storyline. But it's not going to be playable from what we know. And also, we're not going to have the DLC either. So they're scrapping the DLC.
neocharge: um The DLC was okay. It was a lot of recycled content. So I'm glad they're doing this. ah It, it focused on Ottawa, your, your first mate, which you find out in like the first fucking five hours of the game and it's in the marketing.
neocharge: So, ah but yeah, I dude, I'm so excited for this.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. obviously the animals
neocharge: Assassin's Creed is one of my favorite IPs. They've kind of fell on off the fallen off the wayside with Ubisoft. in the last, I don't know, decade. Uh, but I recently played Valhalla.
neocharge: Valhalla brings a lot of what black flag, had. And that was the reason I loved Valhalla so much. It's my sixth favorite or six most played game on PlayStation.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: Uh, so yeah. And I platinum that one. Ooh, a hundred
Leon Lionheartly: oof
neocharge: 46 hours or something like that. I don't know I had a blast. I had a blast. And Eivor is awesome. So, yeah, what's what's new in this remake from the ground up?
neocharge: Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag. Or Assassin's Creed. They dropped the 4. Did you notice that?
Leon Lionheartly: They did. Yeah, I noticed that. That's okay.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: we We know what you're going for, buddy.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: We don't need the numbers.
neocharge: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they don't like doing numbers anymore. they They'll either hide it or make it small in the the marketing because they want people coming in with a fresh outlook, and they don't want people thinking, oh, well, I'm not going to play this because I have to play the first three. You don't.
neocharge: Assassin's Creed doesn't work that way. There aren't a lot of Assassin's Creed. They're all linked, but they're they're individual stories. So this story is ah set in the the the Pirate.
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: era in in the Caribbean and in the 1500s. So when when pirates were very prominent and if you love pirates, if you like being an assassin, if you like sailing ships, dude, this is the best by far.
neocharge: And I'm a huge fan of pirates. The best pirate simulator by far. Like i I don't see if Thieves doesn't touch it. They created skull and bones from the ship combat of Assassin's Creed 4 because it was so good.
neocharge: So we're we're getting modern visuals. It's gorgeous. You can check out the trailer and the screenshots. We're getting lighting, animation, to new weather. on In the Caribbean?
neocharge: Fuck yeah. We did not have weather before. We had scripted weather in some of the the sequences, but we didn't have weather. um Updated gameplay systems, comp new combat, new stealth, new parkour, new naval combat too. We're getting new characters, we're getting new first mates, so you can allocate a first mate and it gives you specific abilities for your ship, which is cool.
neocharge: Expanded story elements, which is awesome. They're going to go into more of Edward Kenway's story and not spoiling anything on here, but his character progression is some of the best I've ever seen.
neocharge: Honestly, he starts as a... I'll tell you how he starts. He starts as a greedy, just ah reckless pirate, and he evolves into something, something.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: I'll just say that. He's one of my favorite characters. He's up there with Leon Cloud, Link,
Leon Lionheartly: Really?
neocharge: Top five, easily. Oh, yeah, dude. Edward Kenway's amazing. He's on the level of Ezio. He's on the level with Ezio. And... Yeah. He's very important, too, in the Assassin's Creed timeline. Let's just say that.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, I love that, man.
neocharge: Very, very important. The things in Assassin's Creed 4 are very, very important to the overall Assassin's Creed timeline. So... ah
Leon Lionheartly: i'm I'm so glad you you know that information um because Black Flag for me, and this is what really got me with this, is Black Flag was my not my introduction into Assassin's Creed.
Leon Lionheartly: I did three and back in the day, and I thought it was it was great. And then I said, oh, hey, wait, Assassin's Creed was fun. We're doing this in Pirates. Yeah, let's go fucking do this. And let's hope they nail stick the stick to landing.
Leon Lionheartly: And they did in the original. You really felt like it with the sea shanties.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: Almost screwed that up there, folks. ah And the the ability to strategically figure out how you're going to attack your targets because you had multiple options between ramming and broadside attacks and all this other cool stuff.
Leon Lionheartly: And then now we're seeing with Resync, they're like they understand the assignment, which was there's a good story there. but a majority of players that played Assassin's Creed Black Flag, the original, remember the number of hours i you roamed the sea and you hunted for targets and you did all of this cool pirate stuff that quite frankly got built on when you when you played Odyssey and particularly Valhalla, um really built upon a lot of that.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: um So they understand the assignment. Remember what made Black Flag fun? And fucking develop that and make that a gold mine. And and i'm I'm convinced it's good. The only thing that I would be concerned with is at the end of the day, this is still Ubisoft, man. And their first, they tend to stumble out the gate. Let's be honest.
neocharge: Yeah, I'm getting a day one. ah If it has major issues on launch, I might not play it day one. I'm buying it day one. I already have the collector's edition pre-ordered. You know how many collector's editions I get? Last collector's edition I got was Final Fantasy Rebirth. one of The best one I've ever bought because you get a 19-inch fucking Sephiroth statue, which is incredible.
neocharge: I do not buy collector's editions. This...
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: I... Folks, you... I don't think you understand how much I fucking like this game. Like, it's in the echelons of Final Fantasy VII, Zelda, Horizon, Metroid.
neocharge: it's It's up there. I love Assassin's Creed, and this is by far my favorite Assassin's Creed. I like this over Assassin's Creed 2. Because it's it just resonates with me.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: i don't know. i i' I might have been a fucking pirate in my previous life. Who knows? But yeah, the the thing I liked about this event, it was like 30 minutes or like 20 minutes or something like that. And they really emphasize like we're not changing a lot. We're just making what was there a lot better and a lot prettier.
neocharge: We're adding new content and we want to stay true to the original because that's what our fans love. So yeah, The rumors of this being an RPG, not an RPG.
neocharge: they're They're staying true to the original, and it's going to be... ah they're They're enhancing combat, but it's not going to be an RPG. So I'm thankful for that. I didn't want it to be an RPG. ah We're getting ray tracing, modern lighting, improved textures, dynamic weather, seamless world transitions. The load screens are going to be non-existent. Better audio, more cinematic presentation.
neocharge: ah More action-focused with Perry's takedowns and reactive combat. ah And it feel they they're saying it feels close to modern AC, but not a full RPG. So, oh, the thing was that that was a little stinky in the original.
neocharge: And they had a lot.
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: Were the were the the tailing eavesdropping missions. Uh, you, it, it was just an insta fail. If you got too close or too far and the room for error there was not great.
neocharge: And like, you would just be doing these, it's just eavesdropping missions where you have to listen in to ah multiple people talking to each other and you had to be a specific, uh,
neocharge: length away from them, like above or below or in grass or something. And the the slightest move, if you fucked it up, it would reset it and you'd have to do it all over again. They fixed that.
neocharge: And they literally said, we know that was a big pain point in the original and we know you didn't like it. So we're fixing it. And for a company to admit that is so awesome. And to acknowledge that is so awesome. So if you're spotted in these missions now, ah the mission continues dynamically instead of a...
neocharge: ah it desynced you. It, it fucking like it was a game over.
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: So yeah, that's awesome. Um, and the new movement, uh, on, on the, the par of Assassin's Creed shadows, uh, it looks gorgeous and dude, you get new animal companions and you have, you have two choices and they sit next to you when you're, when you're on the ship, when you're,
Leon Lionheartly: Hey.
neocharge: the captain of the ship and you can either do a monkey or a cat. Oh my God. I'm choosing the fucking monkey. I might name it Alexios or Ezio. I don't know, but it has, the monkey has a little fucking pirate jacket, a little pirate pants.
neocharge: Shit.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, yeah. i I knew you would pick that monkey. I am always going to be, I'm going to default to team cat.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Like that's just who I am.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um And I'm going to be like, yeah, let's bring it. Also, I thought about this. I'm not saying necessarily this is a, a absolute reason, but it is a reason in my head is cats were on ships at this time.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: because they helped with the mice control.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: So for me, it's kind of like you're being even more immersed into, into this. um At the end of the day, you're still Assassin's Creed and you're stabbing, you're committing mass murder, quite frankly, and nobody seems to stop you.
Leon Lionheartly: Uh, uh,
neocharge: But it makes so much sense in this setting because that's what pirates did. They were bad.
Leon Lionheartly: uh,
neocharge: Pirates were bad. They're not they're not good. and i mean, some good pirates, but they they were thieves and they they stole and they they were... sometimes evil. And it makes so much sense that, you know, pirates do that.
neocharge: ah And they're mainly against the Templars and they, They wrap this, the Templar story up in this game beautifully. ah So, yeah, man, dude, the exploration, like we have a friend that didn't even, he played like 50 hours of Assassin's Creed for Black Flag. And he didn't even, he didn't even get past chapter three because the exploration of the Caribbean in the ship is so awesome. I like to say the Jackdaw is one of the best ah supporting characters in the game.
neocharge: because it's so fun just sailing around.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
neocharge: You have so much to do. You have diving missions. You have whaling missions. You have all kinds of collectibles. The map is fucking huge. It's on the scale of ah probably Odyssey, I'd say.
neocharge: And for that time... ah It was amazing. Like around every corner, you're you're finding a collectible, you're finding a secret. And it's just, God, it's a gem of a game. And I cannot wait to dive into this adventure again. After five years, I played it again five years ago.
neocharge: ah July 9th. My July is cooked, bro. It is just done.
Leon Lionheartly: you're going to be on that all the whole time we'll well we'll see yeah absolutely you should um I will it all depends on a few other things that shake out I will be very interested in getting this game day one if I can do it um not necessarily play it right away because April kind of
neocharge: Done. oh yeah. And I'll stream it too.
Leon Lionheartly: like Let's be honest, folks. It threw it through everything through a loop. And then July is I'll just say it this way. July is rumored to be another big game to potentially drop.
Leon Lionheartly: And yeah, that one wins over Black Flag.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: Um,
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: For me, for me personally. So we'll see. um But I will definitely be on here. you The diving, by the way, and I saw in the promotional videos. Holy shit.
neocharge: The bell?
Leon Lionheartly: that is the That is the biggest upgrade that I've seen visually. It looks amazing. It looks exactly what I wanted what i wanted before because it was kind of grainy and a little weird in the OG.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: um It was a little jarring, but here it... off Foggy, that's it.
neocharge: foggy It was foggy. They made it foggy. Now it's super clear. ah Yeah, they they use fog and they obscure graphics to for like high ah rendering objects, especially underwater.
Leon Lionheartly: Uh-huh.
neocharge: You have to render a lot. You have to animate a lot. There's shortcuts they use, but not here.
Leon Lionheartly: yep
neocharge: And then, dude, the the Mayan temples that you explore, there's a screenshot of it. Yeah. There's so much, dude, you like pirates. You like sailing around on a ship.
neocharge: You like fucking just chilling on an Island, drinking rum. Assassin's Creed black flag. Resynced is for you. And yeah, you got the rum.
Leon Lionheartly: I love drinking some rum, man. And please, Ubisoft. Yes. Yes, I do. still have some in the freezer, I think.
neocharge: Dude, we got to crack that open July 9th.
Leon Lionheartly: oh
neocharge: We got to crack that open, right? That's the perfect, perfect timing.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, yeah, I still have some. Let's fucking do it. It's not the greatest, but I think it's symbolic enough.
neocharge: Yeah, no.
Leon Lionheartly: Let's but let's fucking do it.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. And.
neocharge: Yeah, it's probably shitty rum.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh,
neocharge: It's probably shitty rum in an AC4 bottle. But hey, symbolism. And mate hey, dude, we'll have ah we'll have a ah collector's edition opening party.
Leon Lionheartly: o I like this.
neocharge: Because I have it, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Let's let's let's let's do this, man. I like that. Let fucking set it up, Scotty.
neocharge: Yeah. i
Leon Lionheartly: Let's do this.
neocharge: I have a pirate outfit that I wear.
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: and Literally, behind me... Oh, where is it? Oh. Well, I have a captain's hat that I wear at Renfest ah in in Colorado, which is like pirate themed and Celtic themed and all kinds of shit. But I'll wear my pirate outfit. We'll go all pirate in this bitch, you know?
neocharge: So love it.
Leon Lionheartly: but let's do it man let's set that let's set that up i love that let's let's make that happen um yeah man assassin's creed black flag resync you've it's on your draft um i think it's going to score you very well so um out of all of your predictions you finally got one and i don't think you could have gotten a better one to be honest
neocharge: Hell yeah, we'll do it.
neocharge: I think so. I think so. The original got an 85. It has like a 90s user score, but there were some ah improvements that needed it on the original, and it sounds like they know what they need to improve, and they are improving it, and they're making it pretty, and they're adding story content, and they're adding diet like all kinds of shit.
neocharge: i think I honestly think this might score in the... the early nineties or the, the low nineties, honestly. So I think this is a hit for me and I do, I, I just can't wait to play it.
neocharge: It's one of my favorite games, one of my favorite Assassin's Creed games and just ah dive in with our boy, Edward.
Leon Lionheartly: <unk> done
neocharge: He's amazing. So.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep, absolutely, man. um But yeah, that's that's all there is. for oh I do want to say one last final thing. Please, Ubisoft, take advantage of the PSSR 2.0 on the PlayStation 5 Pro.
neocharge: Mm.
Leon Lionheartly: That's all I ask.
neocharge: Mm. Mm.
Leon Lionheartly: if you please Please take advantage of that.
neocharge: Yep. We've gotten PC specs, and it it looks like it's it's not as heavy, ah but we'll see. So, dude, all the screenshots, all the video we've seen, it's gorgeous.
neocharge: And the first game was ahead of its time, man.
Leon Lionheartly: ah
neocharge: It really was. And just incredible water dynamics. So, yeah. ah Less than two months away. Can't wait.
Leon Lionheartly: i can't wait to I can't wait to see that collector's edition, man.
neocharge: Fuck yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: So um we'll do it we'll do a party.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: We'll we'll see it um and and show it off to the to the community.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah. We'll get some video and we'll throw it on discord. So, uh, yeah, that's been the news this week. Let's talk about what we're playing. Let's, let's gush over another game that we're playing.
Leon Lionheartly: I got three of them. All
neocharge: I have two. i just have an update for one. I've been playing.
Leon Lionheartly: right. You want to?
neocharge: like ah I'll go first since you have a lot more and,
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, go ahead.
neocharge: Well, i'll I'll do my one, you do your two, and then we'll wrap it back up with the game we've both played that we need to talk about.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, let's. I like that. Let's do that.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
neocharge: So I i had still played Vesperia, um Tales of Vesperia. It is now my 11th most played game on PlayStation. I fucking love this game. It's my second favorite Tales game of all time now. I'm in the end game. I never did end game on 360. I never even beat it on 360. Like I got close, but like now I'm in the end game and I'm like breaking the game.
neocharge: Like I'm, I think a level one, one 15. It's really interesting to see stuff that no other person has seen in the game. Like you, when you get to end game, you get past the credits and you, you overcome all these challenges.
neocharge: You see stuff like 5% of people have seen when they play this game, you know?
Leon Lionheartly: Ooh.
neocharge: So the end game is super fun. I'm in this dungeon. Take this dungeon takes about 10 to 15 hours to complete. Uh, I can't beat the last boss. The last boss is level 200. I'm level 115. You have to be level 200. And even then it's hard.
neocharge: Talk about a fucking super boss. So I got to the last boss and I got my ass handed to me. Just immediately wiped. And I have a good team and I've broken the game. But yeah, I'm doing the dungeon.
neocharge: um I might, after we're done with the game we're about to talk about, play a little bit more and play like Labyrinth of Memories, which... brings old content from other tales games. So I'm really excited for that.
neocharge: Cause I'm a big tales fan might do that. And then after that, going to be playing eighties too, but I've greatly enjoyed my time with tales of Vesperia and it's in my top three easily.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Ooh.
neocharge: My, I think it's better than Bergeria, man. It's not better than symphonia. doesn't be symphonia. Symphonia is damn good. ah I think it's second.
neocharge: It's second. So I've had a blast with it. I'm glad I revisited it. And I don't know when going to put it down.
neocharge: Because
Leon Lionheartly: That's your live service game.
neocharge: maybe, i mean, dude, even there's even a new game plus and there's a way to farm grade. and like, I think I'm 60 ish percent. No, I'm 68% in trophies because I found out if I get one more bronze, I can do a, so I can have 69%.
neocharge: So I know I'm trying that, but i yeah, I've played a shitload of it about 120 hours and it's been fun.
Leon Lionheartly: Ooh, giggity.
neocharge: I I'm not putting it down anytime soon, but I put it down for one game that we're going to talk about and I'm going to put it down ah briefly for the next game, Hades two. So what have you been playing, Bob?
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, so we'll talk about one game in particular together because I think it's worth the discussion together.
neocharge: oh yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: but um But while I was waiting for that, particularly since I'm traveling and a few other things, I needed easy pickup in plays.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And I'm sorry, MousePI looked good, but you cannot outdo what Hades 2 was going to bring to the table. So... I said, let me check this out. I need to get a taste. I need to know what I'm missing. um I'm a quivering with anticipation on Hades 2. Ever since it, quite frankly, got into what is early access two years ago, um I've been on this game. This is coming from Supergiant. The follow-up to Hades, which...
Leon Lionheartly: Quite frankly, was not the game that got me into Roguelites, but the original is the game that made me really see what Roguelites can do, like really stretch their legs, so to speak. But yeah, picked up the sequel. I'm going to dance around this as best as I can. Roguelites, you always have an objective that you're presented with. I have completed you have to complete this objective multiple times. You always get stronger. You get different results. You have to do certain things on your way. This is how you progress your story.
Leon Lionheartly: This, I have completed the objective once or twice um on there. um There's a lot more to this game. That's still there. There's an entire, another story segment. I think it's the best way to put it. ah And I got to tell you, I'm This game succeeds better than Hades won in every fundamental way possible.
Leon Lionheartly: And I didn't think you could do that. ah
neocharge: i I still don't understand how it does. Anytime I'm launching the game we're going to talk about, I just kind of flick over to Hades 2 just to listen to that title music a little bit. Sometimes I accidentally launch it and it's like, no, you're playing it now. And I'm like, no, not yet.
neocharge: But I can't fucking wait, dude.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Dude,
neocharge: I've been waiting like six months. I mean, it was announced two and a half years ago and then it was released for the Switch. And I was like, nope, I'm going to wait for it to come to PlayStation. And it just hit at the worst fucking time.
neocharge: And I am just, God, I can't wait to play that.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes. And and and i looked Hades 2 open on OpenCritic doesn't do this. Metacritic does. They break down by based on the platform. um The PlayStation 5 version of Hades 2 is sitting at a 93 with the Switch 1 version being at a 98.
Leon Lionheartly: I think that's criminal null here, folks. This game is a almost perfect 10 out of 10 game. um I haven't come across anything that made me say there's not.
Leon Lionheartly: So I have to say it's almost because I'm not finished yet.
neocharge: Hi.
Leon Lionheartly: um But the music is a stellar upgrade, pun intended there. um the The artwork, um like the character models, you and I mean by that, and particularly because it's gods, it's in the marketing, you're talking about gods, the their artwork is great and better. The writing, like I love Zagoras from the first one.
Leon Lionheartly: Melanoi, and I think I'm saying in it right, we just call her Mel in the s sequel. She's got a little bit of a like her writing and the voice acting. She's got a little bit of quip to her and i ah I really respect it. She's like very, very feisty um with people and doesn't take their shit. And I love that ah for her as a character, particularly when you learn about her backstory.
Leon Lionheartly: um So it's it's amazing. It's really cool in that regard. There's returning cast members from the first one. I'm going to leave it at that. um You have a very similar.
Leon Lionheartly: the Now, the combat system in this is got a really big overhaul that I actually appreciate here. um So you have your standard, just like you would with the roguelites, you have your attacks, you have your special attacks. um And that's what Hades one centered around and then you got your boons. um And then those boons could be used to enhance your attacks and specials and your dash as well, right?
Leon Lionheartly: That's really cool. Here you have a mana bar as well. And when you hold down an attack, a special or um your cast, which is the circle on PlayStation, um you hold it down, you get to cast a specific spell and it uses your mana bar. That can also be affected by boons.
Leon Lionheartly: And it's also can be every weapon has its own unique special attack and and style.
neocharge: Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: So you are literally build crafting almost an infinite amount of yeah of ways to play this character, ah to play these runs. And it's, ah it's,
Leon Lionheartly: It feels good. It feels overhauled in the right way. Not adding too much complication, but just enough to like keep you from getting bored and saying, oh, it's the same thing.
Leon Lionheartly: um you collect You can collect stuff and you've got to use your you've got to use your collecting of resources to craft, and this is best the but best way I'm going to say it without spoiling, craft things that then unlock...
Leon Lionheartly: other stuff that allows you to do other things within the story that chains together off of this makes you stronger. It is awesome. I can't wait to get back to this game, Matt. um And it's probably on my list when I get back from ah from my road trip here. um So by probably this time next week, you will be hearing more about Hades 2.
Leon Lionheartly: do
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: This game, if I had played it last year, it would have been really up there in the conversation of, of Cody. I'm not saying it would have won, but it would have been up there for just being a game ass video game.
neocharge: It was nominated at the the Game Awards along with Claire and Death Stranding 2, Donkey Kong Bonanza. It was there. So, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Okay.
neocharge: I mean, we we fired up Hades 1 and we were just gushing like, oh, I can't wait for Hades 2 to to come to PlayStation 5. And it's here. ah Bought it day one. It's been sitting on my fucking dashboard.
neocharge: I've been teasing myself with it. I can't wait, man. I can't wait to dive in. And i'm I'm glad you started it. But it what happened, what I said would happen is exactly what happened.
neocharge: You started it and then the the game came out and you're like, ah what and it pulled you and now you're going back in. So I just didn't want to start it.
Leon Lionheartly: And that's fine.
neocharge: Yeah, So, but yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: If we were talking about a Resident Evil or a Death Stranding or a Last of Us, that'd be a different conversation. But we're talking about Hades 2.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: It's a roguelite. It's a pick up and play.
neocharge: It's true.
Leon Lionheartly: um And you know what else is a pick up and play? The... um
neocharge: no
Leon Lionheartly: the
neocharge: The cracked out fucking UI.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes. ah The successful follow-up, ah and I'm saying successful, to Vampire Survivors, Ponkle, which has expanded their team now, um made Vampire Crawlers. um While Vampire Survivors was a roguelite, top-down action-style game where you literally just ran around and auto-shooted, here they said, let's make this three d Let's make it old school dungeon crawler where you go one square and then you go to the next square and you can turn and then you can interact with objects on the map.
Leon Lionheartly: You can fight enemies that are sitting on the map and that. But instead of just giving you the weapons and kind of doing what we did in the first one where you roll for them and stuff like that, um let's make it a deck builder.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: um where you start off with your your little deck and then you have your certain number of cards and each card has a mana cost. And the idea is you want to chain your mana costs. So you go from a mana cost, a free card that's a zero. And then as soon as that's done, you want to chain into a mana cost of one, which then you want to go into a two. And then that's how you repeat that cycle um until you can no longer play cards out of your hand. And then the turn goes to the next, whether the enemy attacks you or you win or whatever, right? um
Leon Lionheartly: And it allows for some extra if Hades to has some good customization, um vampire crawler says, hold my beer and watch this. um Because you not only have your character that you're running that you're making these runs and they have their own stats and and things that that, weapons and things of that nature. They also you pick up the other cards. They confuse together to create new things.
Leon Lionheartly: You can add um gem slots to your cards eventually that you can upgrade with gold that you find. And those gem slots can add additional effects to your to your cards, but they're not permanent.
Leon Lionheartly: So they reset after every run, which means now you are doing this. And the game knows when you're breaking it because I've had a situation where I was playing cards in such an order that they would start cycling through. And then I would just play them again. And I would play him again and I play him again and I play him again. And after a while, the card cracked.
Leon Lionheartly: Like it had a piece of, like it was covered in glass and all of a sudden it cracked. And that was the game.
neocharge: Interesting.
Leon Lionheartly: That was the game telling me you're doing this too much. Stop it. um It was, it was amazing.
neocharge: awesome.
Leon Lionheartly: ah Don't ask for a story in this, in this game. ah I truly do. You're not going to get one. and This is a arcade game from my generation.
Leon Lionheartly: um But if you like to be able to turn off your brain, um this had the same effect as Hades two, where I said, Oh, am, I'm going to play a run and I want to see what it's like.
neocharge: okay
Leon Lionheartly: And I started at seven at night. So i was like, all right, I'll do this. And then I'll go to bed early and see what it's like. Next thing I know, it's 1230 in the morning.
neocharge: Yup.
Leon Lionheartly: ah
neocharge: That kind of game.
Leon Lionheartly: It is that kind of game. um I looked and it is currently sitting right now because it was drafted by Caleb. ah It is sitting at an 84 on OpenCritic.
neocharge: Solid, very solid.
Leon Lionheartly: um Very solid. I think that's that's perfect. um The music in this. There's a couple of things that I have a little bit of gripes about, um like the evolutions of your weapons. um If people know what I'm talking about with roguelites, you have your primary and subs and then it can evolve into stuff. The evolution's carried over one to one from vampire survivors.
Leon Lionheartly: And it's a little frustrating. I really wish they would have kind of changed it up a little bit. um I know that may not be part of the design and the vision, but it's kind of like ah when you finally discover an evolution, you're like, oh, that's what happens when you combine these two and that these two cards are together. But because I put a hundred and some odd hours or something like that into vampire survivors um on PlayStation five alone and not just mobile, um it's kind of, Oh, I know what those do. I just need to get these two and boom. It kind of takes that, that surprise. um And then the final thing I'll tell you, um Matt, I'm going to go look this up ah right now on PSM profiles ah because you're going to, you're going to laugh again.
Leon Lionheartly: um Do you remember the first vampire survivors? ah There were um a boatload of trophies.
neocharge: That's ah putting it lightly. Yeah, there weren't there like 300 something. Crazy.
Leon Lionheartly: 238 or something like that. The, which didn't include D which includes all its DLC.
neocharge: please
Leon Lionheartly: This does not have DLC yet. um Officially, there are others things that are kind of like parts of the game that are broken down and they look, they appear in a trophy list like their DLC, but they're not. um There's 162 trophies in this game.
neocharge: On the base list.
Leon Lionheartly: yes
neocharge: Holy shit. I didn't even know that was possible. I thought it was a 50 cap. What the fuck?
Leon Lionheartly: I, I don't know, but it, it kind of gives you that poppy, that trophy pop.
neocharge: That's nuts.
Leon Lionheartly: Almost every time you play and you're like, ding, ding. So the, the, the, the neuro, the, the dopamine hits and I'm like, Oh, I got another trophy.
neocharge: Dopamine hit. Yeah. yeah
Leon Lionheartly: Um, and it, they come at you fast. I've already gotten 98
neocharge: Wow.
Leon Lionheartly: um
neocharge: You already got almost 100 trophies with, what, five hours?
Leon Lionheartly: um i'd have to go look at my no it's not no no no you you misunderstand i i so i may have lost some sleep uh in uh this recent week um and um i would have to look again but i think i'm approaching 12 hours at this point um
neocharge: Oh, more. oh yeah My God.
neocharge: Okay, still, 12 hours with 100 trophies is nuts.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Yep. It's stupid. I know it's stupid.
neocharge: I think...
Leon Lionheartly: And if you if you accept that, uh, it's like, who cares what, what, what's, what's it as long as you know what you're buying folks, uh, this is a $10 game, uh, by the way.
neocharge: Yeah, yeah.
neocharge: Right. Hmm?
Leon Lionheartly: So you are looking at a, oh, 10 hours, by the way, vampire crawlers.
neocharge: Hmm?
Leon Lionheartly: Um, you are looking at a $10 game, which is, for 20 to 30 hours worth of content, depending on when you want to drop it. Um, it's a great time. Go check it out.
Leon Lionheartly: It's worth your value.
neocharge: That's awesome.
Leon Lionheartly: $10, man. Fucking you pay that for your coffee in the morning, skip coffee one day and go play vampire crawlers.
neocharge: Exactly. Right. But, I mean, time is a resource too, and one of the most important. So think I have like 32 trophies in Tales of Vesperia Definitive Edition, and I've played 120 hours.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Uh, yeah. Yeah.
neocharge: not Not all trophies are are built the same, folks.
Leon Lionheartly: And you know what? ah
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: they're they're they're They're absolutely not. And we've we've talked to that but about that before with the market and these PlayStation, or would you call them? You called them platinum poachers?
neocharge: Platinum poachers.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um you know what's ah And then you'd compare that. You know a game doesn't have a lot of trophies?
neocharge: What?
Leon Lionheartly: our our last one of the, of this evening. Um, 36 trophies, uh, pragmata, man.
neocharge: Oh. Pragmata.
Leon Lionheartly: Um, I and further than you.
neocharge: me
Leon Lionheartly: So I'm going to let you take that.
neocharge: Beat it.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, you did.
neocharge: Oh. No, you beat it.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes. I beat this.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Um, I will let you lead it. I'll, I will say this much. It is currently sitting at an 86 on open critic. Um, I think that's criminally underrated.
Leon Lionheartly: um And this game has a special sauce that hasn't happened since Claire Obscure um or Death Stranding rather last year. And this is that special sauce of a game where you boot it up and within the first little bit, you feel the emotions hit.
Leon Lionheartly: um I within the first hour, I laughed, I cried, I got mad. And then I was still stunned with the beauty of this game. So um you're still playing it.
neocharge: It's gorgeous.
Leon Lionheartly: i kind of want to hear where you're at, man, because um i want to replay this game even more.
neocharge: Yeah, um we won't be spoiling anything for Pragmata at all. We'll talk about stuff in the marketing and light mechanical things. Early game. ah But this game is a fucking gem.
neocharge: It's beautiful and it's special. And it's ah it's a game-ass video game, honestly.
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: So it's ah you follow Hugh. Let's just call him an astronaut. And he goes there to investigate a lunar base and something happens.
neocharge: And then you connect with a little AI girl named Diana. Diana. And Diana, ah you there's an running the show there called Edis.
neocharge: And there are bots that are linked with him that are trying to you know eradicate you. and you know you And this happened in the demo, right, too. You shoot him doesn't do anything.
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: And Diana's like, oh, I can hack him. And this is where the hook is for this game. And Diana can hack the robots. And when she hacks them, it brings up a grid pattern of nodes where you navigate with the face buttons. ah In our case, circle, square, X, and cross, or circle, square, X, and triangle, or cross, whatever the fuck you want to call it.
neocharge: ah And this is a very unique gameplay element to this game that I haven't seen pretty much anywhere. And my, can I wouldn't say even a concern. I was sold on this game day one when it was announced in 2022.
neocharge: I was just hoping that they would flesh out this combat hook. And boy, oh boy, have they. i was, there's so much build crafting and they, they just give you like upgrade after upgrade after upgrade.
neocharge: ah just constantly. And they're like, oh, you well you like this element of the gameplay and the combat? Well, here's something to make it even better. Oh, here's something to make it even better. Here's another treat. Here's another treat.
neocharge: And it just, at where I'm at, I don't even know how far into the game I am. ah I assume I'm close to the end. I would say maybe 80%. I don't know.
neocharge: But I, every level in this game is gorgeous. The skyboxes are just breathtaking. ah you're You're on the moon, you're on a lunar base. So you can imagine what kind of visuals you you get. ah Huge seller blade vibes.
neocharge: I'd say a big dead space vibes that they call it dad space because you have this little girl, Diana, which I would die for, by the way, like I would die for this girl.
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: She is awesome. And they just nail the, the concept of like the character,
neocharge: ah relationship with Hugh and Diana. Because at first, you know, she can hack bots and he's like, oh, I got this a i girl. And he's not a fan of robots.
neocharge: He actually calls them tin cans and clankers. And I don't even i don't even know.
Leon Lionheartly: ah see
neocharge: mean he He's like, ah, fuck these robots. I hate them. And he's kind of like, he's 40. And he's like a gruff guy that is, ah you know, blue collar and doesn't like AI or robots. And man, he's awesome.
neocharge: But he he finds this girl, this AI girl, Diana, and he's like, oh, you can hack robots? Oh, hop on my back. And she just starts as a tool with him. But the relationship kind of evolves.
neocharge: And if you played games like The Last of Us or any companion game, just that, that relationship blossoms and, you know, more than I do. And I assume I just hit a really big story beat, uh, yesterday, which I was like, Holy shit.
neocharge: So, um, story's incredible. Gameplay is incredible. Uh, we're both playing it on the PS five pro. This is, uh, published by Capcom developed by Capcom as well. And man, are they hitting, uh,
neocharge: I'm not going to talk about my game of the year ah yet because there's so many games. ah But this is going to be in the conversation. I'll you that right now.
Leon Lionheartly: I agree with you.
neocharge: I'll tell that right now.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, this is it. This is in that circle between that and a few other Capcom is on a God run right now, a generational run.
neocharge: Dude.
Leon Lionheartly: just... then i
neocharge: And I love they they you put out a thing on Twitter. They're like, because they're in they're releasing four games this year. We've gotten Resident Evil 9. We've got Monster Hunter Twisted Stories or whatever, Twisted Reflections.
neocharge: And we recently got Pragmata. And they're like, oh, we ain't done yet in 2026. And we still got Animusha, Way of the Sword. So they know.
neocharge: They know they're cooking because they every single one of their games has scored high 80s. That's hard to do, especially consistently. So they're doing doing something right, man.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes. Yes. I should have just drafted Capcom in the beginning. I mean, I got two out of the four, but still I should have just went full to full yeah Capcom.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: good um But you're right, dude.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: And I say I looked at your pro ah trophies. I would say you are correct about the 80 mark.
neocharge: I can tell because of the collectibles.
Leon Lionheartly: um
neocharge: There's a ah ah a lot of great collectibles, but I can tell because of like the, you can see the missing collectibles you have. And I'm like, i think I'm getting close.
Leon Lionheartly: you're you're You're getting there. um I will tell you, i will say this. What really kind I appreciated about this game, because you mentioned the the other three games that Capcom is releasing or has released already this year. um This game is...
Leon Lionheartly: the developers were self-aware of who they are and what company they work for.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm going to leave it like that. When you look at Easter eggs specifically, and you look at things that are alluding, you're going to see stuff and you're going to be like, you didn't actually specifically say this game or this trope or this thing, but we kind of know what you're talking about here.
neocharge: oh yeah
Leon Lionheartly: um So it's, and it's subtle. I like when you do that stuff, but make it subtle, right? Mm-hmm.
neocharge: Yeah, it's beautifully done, and it's like, if you know, you know. It could be obscure to someone else, but if you know, you know.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: And yeah, there's there's so many different weapon types. There's so many different hacking methods. ah They really fleshed out this combat. And it's just, these devs for this game were like, let's make a fun game to play.
neocharge: Let's focus on the fun aspect and and the gameplay, and then work on top of that.
Leon Lionheartly: Can I say one thing?
neocharge: Because it's just fucking fun. It's so fun to play.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. It is. There's one thing I'd like to say about what you have coming up, and it's not a spoiler. It's just a get ready. That's all i'm going to say.
neocharge: ah
Leon Lionheartly: Because this game this game is going to
neocharge: Yeah, I can imagine.
Leon Lionheartly: do
neocharge: Great.
Leon Lionheartly: ah but like that, um, in regards to, um, know how do I, in regards to how you're going to be playing that game, it's going you're about to get, yeah, you're going have some fun, but I really appreciate where you're at, man.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Right. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Um, this game is, it is special. Um, and, and this game encourages you to play it over and over again.
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: um
neocharge: Yeah, and it's got Metroid elements too. So each level has a a collectibles and then they have a percentage next to them. And then you have you get abilities that allow you to revisit the levels to overcome a specific barrier.
neocharge: Metroid! Not Metroidvania, a Metroid aspect to it.
Leon Lionheartly: Uh-huh.
neocharge: And when I saw that, I was like, oh man, this is a mad-ass game. Oh. Oh.
Leon Lionheartly: And they even give you a percentage in the area and tell you what you're missing. Like that checklist built in was so satisfying. it scratched a part of my brain and I, and I can tell you this much, man. Um, um, uh, wherever chaos is at, oh, he's probably passed out by now. he Um, he reached out to me last week and he's, uh, he's like, Hey, have you played Prague Bada? And I'm like, fuck yeah. Um,
Leon Lionheartly: You absolutely should play this game. It is a very good game and you'll appreciate it. He's been playing it on the Steam Deck, on his OLED Steam Deck.
neocharge: oh okay.
Leon Lionheartly: i'm going to see it tonight but i've been ahhu I'm going to see it tonight, but I've been told it runs beautifully and looks amazing in hand out on a Steam Deck, which is even, that's even more nuts considering what this game is already doing out the gate.
neocharge: Because it's for all platforms.
neocharge: Interesting. Interesting.
neocharge: Wow. Yeah, I'll have to send you an off-screen shot of one I got on my OLED. Dude, this game sings on performance. It's just, I think i think it's 60 on PS5 Pro.
neocharge: Upscaled 4K, PSSR 2.0. Just got a patch to make it prettier. I didn't notice the difference because it was already just gorgeous. The detail, the level of detail in the enemy design, even the weapons, just everything is so detailed and just high fidelity.
neocharge: it's It's amazing.
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: Dude, and the soundtrack. The soundtrack, it's when the when you get in the combat, just like this synth, like electronic, ah amazing. And then the part I just went through, I think it's a critical story part, the the soundtrack behind it.
neocharge: was very unique. Let's just say that. And then when you when you go through those parts, you get the track to unlock to play in your shelter. Your shelter is like your home base. And it it upgrades too.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes. Yes.
neocharge: And you have ah like challenges there. You can see all your collectibles. You can get specific collectibles that Diana can interact with, which is really fun. You can always interact with Diana.
neocharge: and she The voice acting in this game is incredible for Hugh and Diana.
Leon Lionheartly: yes
neocharge: ah Like after I'm done and they encourage you to go back frequently to the, the safe room, um, or the shelter. And every time Diana is just like kind of hopping around and I always go talk to her cause she always has new shit to say. And she, she's so adorable. She's modeled off of a six or eight year old.
neocharge: Uh, they just did an incredible job just making you want to like, guard this child with your life as a, as a daughter, honestly.
neocharge: So yeah, I would die for this girl.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, immediately. You're just like, oh, I will lay down my life. I will lay down my life to defend you immediately.
neocharge: Uh, mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: And you have, they they somehow did it. and And that's saying something considering from a model perspective, like there's a little something uncanny valley.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: Something is kind of like off.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: where their facial features, but at the same time that you know, it's there, but you don't care because you're like, Oh, she's the sweetest, cutest girl in the world. um And as a father, and as a father, dude, Oh my God, it hits so a father to girls.
neocharge: It's adorable.
neocharge: But it hits different.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh my God. It hits so hard, man.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: It, it took me back a few years. i will say a few times a a good 15 years.
neocharge: Aw.
Leon Lionheartly: I'll tell you that much.
neocharge: That's awesome. Yeah, it's ah it's incredible. and the yeah just Man, I'm having a blast with it. ah we're probably going to do a spoiler cast on it because of how special and how awesome it is.
neocharge: We'll most likely wait for Caleb because we like him part of our spoiler cast. We like the spoiler cast an hour longer. So we, we bring Caleb on, ah um but yeah, he's, he's, he's ah delayed a bit in playing this.
Leon Lionheartly: okay
neocharge: i think ah most of us have finished it. um'm I'd say close to finishing it. Seems like it, but yeah. Yeah. it's It's special. It's $60. sixty dollars So not full price nowadays. And for everything, really.
neocharge: so And there's a demo too. I was sold by the announcement. But once I got my hands on that demo, I was like, okay, Alright, this is what I was hoping it'd be.
neocharge: and It's just polished. It's fluid. It's gorgeous.
Leon Lionheartly: And that's
neocharge: It has incredible story beats on like the the level of The Last of Us, honestly. ah It's just a great fucking game. It is 100% in talks, in in my talks of Game of the Year, for sure. But it's not even it's not even the mid-year. um But yeah, it should 100% be nominated. I think it might get shunned like Stellar Blade did, though.
Leon Lionheartly: i I think it will. And I think i it goes back to what Bo said to us, which is this is how the this is the kind of year we're getting in gaming. I didn't think 2025 could be topped, but out of 2026, the worst game I played that's released this year was Neo3.
neocharge: You played High Guard.
Leon Lionheartly: That we don't talk about him.
neocharge: no No, you and Bo, we're not going to forget.
Leon Lionheartly: Okay.
neocharge: you You fired that up.
Leon Lionheartly: How's that Sons of Sparta for you? Hmm.
neocharge: that's that's what I loved that game, and that's technically the worst game I've ever played. It's great. It's fucking great. I gushed about it shortly after it was and was released. but Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: yep
neocharge: Yeah. Oh, man. If you like sci-fi, if you like just fun-ass gameplay, third-person shooter, really unique hacking, combat mechanics, engaging story, gorgeous ah performance and presentation, Stellar Blade.
Leon Lionheartly: Absolutely.
neocharge: dear Not Stellar Blade. Pragmata.
Leon Lionheartly: Damn it. I was going to let you roll with it for a while.
neocharge: Stellar Blade's on the...
neocharge: It is.
Leon Lionheartly: Good catch. Good catch, buddy.
neocharge: im dude I'm getting heavy Stellar Blade vibes. I love Stellar Blade. I think it was shunned for Game of the Year. ah And I think it... Yeah, I think it should have took Black Myth Wukong. I Platinum'd both of them.
neocharge: I plan to Platinum Pragmata. I haven't even looked at the trophy list because I haven't rolled credits. That's kind of my silent rule, if you will. ah But yeah, Pragmata. It's just a gem.
neocharge: And it... I'd say it exceeded my expectations. And I was already... sold and super hyped for it. Uh, I can't wait to play more and I'm, I'm going eat dinner and play more. And I, dude, I've been, I just got an ability that I think is maybe the last ability of the game. So now I'm going back and clean it up. It's like that, that, uh, time where like, Oh, I can do everything now. So that's, and I've been trying to one hundred percent, all the levels, uh, going as I go.
neocharge: So I'm just that kind of gamer. So, yeah, And I've been 100% all the challenges and perfecting them, which has been fun. So, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh man, some of those challenges.
neocharge: Oh, my God. I was raging last last night at one of them. I spent like a good 30 minutes on one of them.
Leon Lionheartly: ah there was There was one or two of them. I was like, nope, nope.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: i'm not I can't do this to buy ah to myself, man.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah. So, what a what a wonderful game and keep it up, Capcom. Keep it up. I think, yeah, it's just, ah what a what a great year for games. There's been some shakeups in the industry, but we are still getting incredible games.
neocharge: And that's that's really all that that matters.
Leon Lionheartly: Uh-huh.
neocharge: Like, if we still keep getting good games that are fun to play and maybe some remakes of our beloved titles, you know, every every year.
Leon Lionheartly: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
neocharge: Like, shit, next year we might get Final Fantasy VII Part 3 or the year after. if they If those keep coming, I'm not i'm not complaining.
Leon Lionheartly: well
neocharge: I'm not complaining. It sucks when people lose jobs, it really does, but If we keep getting good games and dude, the last two years have been a banger and this year is shaping up to be another one. Like we so still have first light.
neocharge: We still have beast of reincarnation. We still have Wolverine. We still have Saros in a week. Like, well, fuck.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah ah Yeah, we still have.
neocharge: this
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, dude, it's it's it's too much.
neocharge: We're not even midway through the year. And we already have easily two game of the year contenders.
Leon Lionheartly: Uh-huh.
Leon Lionheartly: Uh-huh. and And we still got a lot of other.
neocharge: Um,
Leon Lionheartly: You don't know what else is coming. we Yeah, you know what's going to hit there.
neocharge: Unknowns, right?
Leon Lionheartly: um it's It's wild, man. I'm i'm loving 2026. 2027, please just sit on the bench.
neocharge: too.
Leon Lionheartly: i need to play
neocharge: yeah Right?
Leon Lionheartly: All right.
neocharge: I think we'll have some breathing room because you and I aren't going to play GTA 6. I think we'll have some breathing room and ah in fall. so Which I'm probably going to go back play Rebirth.
Leon Lionheartly: ah ah oh that's amazing dude but yeah go play pragmata go enjoy it dude i i i'm i'm looking live from uh i checked live i'm being snoopy um i i psm profiles didn't update all the way but your psm app does not lie and you are uh how do they put it uh you how did ah the iron man put it we're in the end game now
neocharge: So, yeah. Yep.
neocharge: Ah. Yeah.
neocharge: We're in the endgame now. Yeah. It feels like it.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
neocharge: The story beat I just went through is like, okay, I think we're starting a new act. So think I'm on the last one. We'll see. but it's i'm I'm just enjoying every bit of it. And you beat it. You love it.
neocharge: It's it's ah up there with you.
Leon Lionheartly: yes
neocharge: So, yeah. We'll have a spoiler cast on it. And, yeah, all these unannounced games coming out this year, will we'll report on all those. Summer Game Fest is coming up.
neocharge: We've got a state of play on on the horizon at some point. We've got Xbox's event. We're going to be here i reporting on it for you all. This is our passion.
neocharge: This is what we love to do. and we're gonna drink, and we're going to talk video games and all of the video games announcements with you all on our podcast. So, yeah. ah go Go out. Get out in Vegas and explore or sleep.
neocharge: i don't i don't know. Get some sleep, maybe.
Leon Lionheartly: I don't know. got to go get food and then I got to get a shower. So we'll see.
neocharge: Yeah, there you go.
Leon Lionheartly: We'll see.
neocharge: ye
Leon Lionheartly: I'm going to crash eventually.
neocharge: Do you have anything planned for food? Do you have a place you're going?
Leon Lionheartly: um We got suggestions from you and Bo, but I'm thinking we looked so we looked based on where we are, and we're like a mile away ah from that um buffet.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Oh yeah, Vegas has amazing buffets.
Leon Lionheartly: the with the wind And I've been eating road food for the last 36 hours, so I'm ready to, like 24, rather, and I'm ready to eat a full thank you.
neocharge: Right.
neocharge: Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Go get some food. Enjoy Vegas. This has been episode 49. Next time you hear us, it's going to be our anniversary episode with Caleb and Alex on episode 50.
neocharge: next Friday, May 1st, it's going to drop. So ah check out the Assassin's Creed Black Flag re-synced trailer. Check out Pragmata. Check out Hades 2. All these games are amazing. We're going to talk all about them more ah when we play more. So keep the conversation going.
neocharge: i Keep getting all those trophies on PlayStation or achievements on Xbox. I don't know. and ah enjoy the rest of your night, evening, morning, day, whatever time whatever the hell time it is
Leon Lionheartly: Peace.
