Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 11 - Xbox and Sony Showcase, Summer Games Fest, Switch 2 Impressions, Witcher 4
8 Plays3 months ago
Episode 11 - Xbox and Sony Showcase, Summer Games Fest, Switch 2 Impressions, Witcher 4
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Recent Gaming Events
00:00:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
What's going on everybody? It's Detroit Gamesters for episode 11 and uh to Shamir starting us off. I got my buddy Arjun here. i love G. And uh all right it's been an eventful two weeks so lot for us to talk about.
Switch 2 Release & Issues
00:00:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
Uh so you know you know me as an Xbox fan boy I wanted to go straight to talk about Xbox but Arjun felt like we should go in the order of announcements so uh but I guess first we could probably start with Switch 2 right? Yeah. So uh You know, Arjun is a frigging trooper over here, hooking up him and all of his friends.
00:00:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
How many Switch 2s did you buy? got four. Can you say that on record? I can say on record, I got four. I'm a bit spoiled. So for all the people that couldn't get one, yeah, probably took yours. Okay, but it's not like you're flipping them, right? You're giving them for fair market price to all your friends, which kudos to you, bro. To be fair, fair market value, MSRP. What a guy, bro. I don't know anyone who does that.
00:00:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like I stood in line at a couple of different stores, GameStop, Best Buy, Walmart, you name it. To be fair, I got a couple of them delivered to me through through the mail, through the postal, or through Walmart.
00:01:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
And Walmart, I didn't even know if I was gonna get it for certain because they basically canceled my orders due to fraud charges. And I know this was all over Reddit too, but Walmart did a really cool thing where basically when they canceled your item, they allowed you 24 hours to re-add it to your cart and repurchase it a day before.
00:01:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I thought that was pretty cool, the fact that Walmart was able to figure something out. so I got mine delivered to me six in the morning by a local Walmart and they gave me free Pringles. I was working hard, bro. And free Coke. And you know what? That's kind of legit out of So not only did you make that guy show up or girl show up at 6 a.m., you took his breakfast too. Yeah, I legit did.
00:01:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
Honestly, I've had great experiences with Walmart now the last several generations. I got my PS5 through Walmart. It did not fail me. I got my Nintendo Switch, I think, through one through Walmart.
00:01:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I think I got maybe an Xbox through Walmart. And I can't remember if it was the One X or the Series. I can't remember. it And now I've gotten the Switch here. No problem with Walmart. Honestly, I was going to ask you out of all of them, what do you feel like is they're reliable?
00:02:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
if If you had bet... Me, if you had tried to make me have a bet to try and guess, I would have totally guessed wrong. I would have never guessed Walmart in
Switch 2 vs Other Consoles
00:02:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
a hundred years. Dude, I know. I would honestly think Best Buy would be the smoothest process, right? That's what you would think.
00:02:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
So Best Buy, I passed by Best Buy after i went to GameStop Midnight Release, which by the way, my local GameStop had 200 plus people. Dude, it was raining, like pouring and people did not have any shelter and they were getting drenched.
00:02:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
And there was a line wrapped all the way around Best Buy and they weren't letting people in. until they were ready to start distributing. So this was even past midnight. They still hadn't left people until like 1230, I think.
00:02:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
So how does that work? Like people pre-order that they have their code or their receipt or something and then they just show up? Yes, but they had extra units for people that didn't pre-order. So it was probably a crapshoot and maybe a couple of people got lucky.
00:03:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh, wow. Oh man, that's pretty daring for someone. Yeah, I would not have done that. But would say for sure Walmart was the smoothest because their website was, their infrastructure was, could handle the traffic.
00:03:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
Best Buy's website basically crashed in April and it was really hard to get. And same with Target. Target canceled a bunch of re-orders and never got it back to anyone. And for those that have pre-ordered from Target, a lot of you I know or still don't have your Switch 2 yet.
00:03:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
A lot of the people are complaining that you're getting them by June 11th. So sorry for everyone that kind of got into Target. Man, oh man. So I know you are the freaking collector over here. i mean, this man is so successful. He got, what, the 20th edition? Is it 20th or 30th edition of the – I think it's 30th, right? 30th, yeah, yeah. For the PlayStation 4.
00:03:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
5, right? That looks retro. So this man somehow has the skills with the computers. i do i Honestly, when I had these four Switch 2 consoles in my house, ah basically at one point in my house, I had maybe...
00:04:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
nine handhelds, maybe ten. Oh my god. I had multiple Switch ones, I had a Steam Deck, I had a two Rogue allies. So I think that you would be a good estimator on this. Yeah. Okay, how would you compare this launch and especially the amount of inventory compared to others? Because I know, like, Nintendo made a bunch of announcements saying, don't worry guys, we're gonna have it enough inventory. Yeah, so the rumor is right now, and it hasn't been substantiated or confirmed yet, but it sounds like they sold three million in their first day, which...
00:04:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
Is that good? It's really good. So two to kind of
Switch 2 Game Performance & Sales
00:04:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
compare, PlayStation 5, I think, sold two to between $2 and $3 million. And it looks like Switch going to have sold maybe $4 to $6 million within in another week or two. i think the estimates right now is that within the first month, it'll be reaching $6 million. So does it look like it's selling better than the Switch 1 or too early to tell? But it looks like it's selling better than the Switch 1.
00:04:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it looks like it's going to outpace potentially at least PlayStation 5 in the first month. That's insane. Yeah. So, you know, I'll be honest. I did not expect the switch to, to sell this well. You know, I thought that a lot of people would, you know, kind of be put off by the fact that there isn't like like a marquee title other than like Mario cart, you know, that demands that you upgrade. It doesn't look that different. You know, I feel like the hardcore gamers that are plugged in are going to know for sure that it's like, you know, the next console, but like some casual people, you know, they'd be like, Oh, can I just get you a switch OLED? Cause OLED is better.
00:05:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
So i I didn't expect it to sound like hotcakes. I think the appeal here was that, you know, there's been what, I think 150 million Switches that have been sold now. And a lot of those people are converting to the Switch too, because I think at least Nintendo did a good job of showcasing that.
00:05:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
your Switch 1 games would run better. Yeah, that's also true. And I think through word of mouth, people were playing this days before too. And honestly, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, they run so extremely well on this.
00:05:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's such a new experience for that I'm actually considering repeating the entire game. Dude, you taught so much smack about Scarlet and Violet. Dude, it was so cool. So if I'm remembering, I actually really liked Sword and Shield, and you hated it. yeah That was actually my favorite.
00:06:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
Because I don't know, I just really liked the Legendaries. i thought they were yeah super bossed. I did not like Scarlet and Violet as much, but I think overall I enjoyed the game a lot more than you. Really?
00:06:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, it's it's funny. The game actually is smooth enough that not only does it run at faster frame rates, you're getting more density and more objects appearing on your screen. So whether it's handheld or on TV, you're seeing more Pokemon, so it looks more lively. Like it doesn't look like a dead open world.
00:06:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
I guess one thing I'm wondering about, you know, with some of the Switch games, you're having to pay like $10 to get you know a good amount of upgrades, like Legend of Zelda.
00:06:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
But here it kind of feels like with Pokémon you're getting those upgrades and you don't have to pay extra for it. So some upgrades are free and some are you have to pay. i think the effort they put into Zelda Breath of Volunteers of the Kingdom is that it supports HDR, it supports the new memory storage so it's faster in loading.
00:07:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
And on top of it, it runs at 60 FPS and I think 1440p or 1080p on the portable n four k and 4k and dock mode. So that was such a substantial update that like, okay, can I understand the $10 upgrade? Yes.
00:07:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it's free for those that already have the NSO online membership with the expansion pass. So if you already have the membership, you're already getting it. includ yeah But if you don't, you can buy it piecemeal.
00:07:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I think I was like, kind of okay with that. Now you're basically better than PlayStation. Like I feel like PlayStation will charge you 10 bucks and you'll get nothing. yeah And like, Here, you're getting something that seems valuable. It's just, I mean, Xbox really does it nice with the upgrades. Yeah, now Xbox is like, most of it's free. It just determines what system you're on and says, okay.
00:07:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I still think Xbox is the most consumer-friendly. Am I okay with this? i'm Again, I'm still stuck in the middle because games like Mario Odyssey had free updates. Zelda Echo's Wisdom and a Link's Awakening and Pokemon, all free.
00:07:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
But when you look at something like Zelda again... Again, if I was on a PC and then I had a game that had an upgrade, like that's just a patch. They're not going to charge you an extra $10 unless they remaster the game and maybe even constituate this as a remaster, but it's not a full remaster. You know, it's just that with more of like a cleanup. Yeah.
00:08:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
and So it's like, okay, but it is what it is. I think they did a phenomenal job. And I think if you put this into perspective, I think some reports were currently out there, report that for PC handhelds, there's only maybe like four to 5 million out. Yeah. And two to 3 million is the steam deck and maybe one to 2 million right now is the raw ally. Um, ally.
00:08:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
Put that into perspective, 3 million already Switch 2 is already outselling. Yeah, it's already outselling. So I think it's just kind of crazy. It's like first-party brand and first-party IP for Nintendo. I mean, Nintendo has worked tirelessly for decades, right? Like, this is the fruit of their labor. Like, you know, everybody knows Mario, everyone knows Zelda, and Pokemon especially. I feel like Pokemon is really, like, you know, one of the things that's going to keep people just glued in and locked into the Nintendo system. Yeah.
00:08:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, I guess for me, someone who hasn't really been a Nintendo fan, ah you know i think this has been kind of the most boring ah ah like release for me. you know i'm I'm happy I have it. I do like the fact that the screen is massive.
00:09:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think it's going to get some getting used to for me. know the r ROG Ally is bigger, you know, but i don't know, something about the Switch 2 just seems off for me. Like, I think it's a combination of it being way thinner than I expect and also way, what like, longer and wider.
00:09:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, because I'm used to the ROG and I'm like, right, this a thick, chunky boy, you know? And so I have, like, good grips. Yeah, so if it because of the length, I was hoping for it to be a little more wider and heftier.
00:09:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
Cause then it would feel more comfortable. But now as I'm holding it a while i lay in bed, I feel like I could drop the thing and just break it. Right. And in a weird way, like, even though I feel like the build quality for the switch to is better.
00:09:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
I am more afraid of breaking my switch to right because it makes me feel like I'm holding half an iPad. Yeah. Well, I post to the switch OLED is like struck a balance between feeling like a toy and also feeling like a game like a Fisher toy. like something That's like just the right plastic Lee and clicky yeah that makes it feel like a hybrid, right?
00:10:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
But here I'm like, oh, no, this is like a smart device. You know, this is like a high end consumer product. Like it does. I don't want to break this. Yeah. An ironic kind of twist.
00:10:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
So, yeah, I guess maybe I'm just too used to Chunky Boys, you know, like the ROG ally. And I think with time, I'll get more used to this one. right now, just feeling in the hand, it it felt like premium, but it it really felt weird.
00:10:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, I bought, I purchased a D-brand case that goes around the Switch 2. Is it the kill switch or whatever? Not the kill, yeah. Actually, the kill switch for the Switch 2, so it will ship in a couple weeks. It's not here yet, but it's unique in the sense that it adds like these grips to the side that feel more comfortable. Yeah, would kind of nice.
00:10:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
I hope that thing does it justice because the kill switch is pretty popular for all their other products. So I think that's going to help solve my problem because the way it does is it adds like a grip to the side. So it makes it feel like you're holding a controller rather than just like, you know, the sides of the switch console.
00:11:07
Shameer Mehdikhan
So think that's going to fix my problem, but I agree. I highly
Nintendo's Game Strategy
00:11:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
recommend anyone that gets the switch to, to probably buy some sort of protective cover or replacements to the joy cons. Cause for the switch one, I had the, the Hori split pad and that thing was a game changer. So, you know, one thing I'm also wondering about while you were saying all that, you know, do you think it's odd that Donkey Kong is not coming out on day one? it's weird. Because i was thinking about it. Like, if it was coming out a few months later, I'd be like, all right, they need the time to really clean up. But, like, what is it, like, four weeks away? Yeah. You know?
00:11:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, they definitely wanted Mario Kart to have it shine. Right? I feel like they spaced it out because right now... you know, if you're getting a Switch 2, you're getting Mario Kart. You know, because what else? you I mean, you can get Cyberpunk, but like yeah a lot of people have already played it beats Cyberpunk. really, what else are you gonna buy with your Switch 2? Yeah, I know. I think there's definitely like overlap in the audience. So if I had to choose, if I was limited on money because I thought the console is already too expensive and I had to choose, I'm getting Donkey Kong over Mario Kart.
00:12:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. so So I wonder if they did that because they're like, oh, they might cannibalize each other and we'll space them out. So that people will just play Mario Kart, right? And they'll be like, oh, I got it for 50 bucks. It's a steal. And then they'll go, Donkey Kong. Yeah, it's like a double dip.
00:12:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
And on top of it, it's diabolical because they made more Switch 2 consoles with the Mario Kart bundle than the one without. So on top of that, they mean they basically forced you to buy Mario Kart, even though it's 30 bucks cheaper. And then they're going to make you get done good because you might not like Mario Kart.
00:12:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, I mean, that's how you get, what is it like? 50, 60 million? How many copies of a Mario Kart 8 were sold? Something absurd. They're at 60 plus million, 63 million. Something absurd. oh Now will this game sell as much? I don't know.
00:12:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
But what I will say for sure is that was a... Whoever is like ah ahead of their like business and finances, that's diabolical. know what I'm saying? a good business strategy. I don't think it's going to sell as much. I don't know. Yeah, I don't think so. I do think the price is going to turn some people off. like If you're not buying this...
00:13:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
as a bundle, I mean, that $80 is really going hurt, you know? What's to stop people from not playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe anymore? Like, the people going to continue play that. Normally, when you have a great game and then you make a sequel, you're not going to all of a sudden just switch. whatever Like, people continue to play the OG, like Counter-Strike and Team Fortress, and they don't want to, like, you know... And the thing is, like, at its core, Mario Kart is Mario Kart, right? So even if they make it open world, like... but Which, by the way, is disappointing. Most people already said this, that the open world aspect is the most underwhelming portion of the game. Yeah, I was hearing that there isn't really much You just basically drive around.
00:13:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so, I mean, the the fact that there's, what, double player count, like, that could be different enough. But, again, like, it doesn't seem like it's such a massive advancement that you have to buy right? It doesn't feel to me like a must-buy game in the same way that Breath of the Wild felt, like when Zelda came, right? yeah So, like, as a non-gamer, as soon as I saw, i had, honestly, after bought the Wii U,
00:14:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I was so hyped for it. And then that was, you know, that was my first Nintendo console. i was like, I'm never buying the Switch. But just the hype after Zelda, Mario Odyssey, and then Super Smash Bro, I was like, I have to. Well, I think they made a mistake in calling the new Mario Kart game Mario Kart World because that is signifying that, hey, this is an open world. Yeah, it kind says it's a live service name.
00:14:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
Well, I think they called it World because it's like an open world. And... Basically they're trying to signify like this is the main cell. They should have called it Mario Kart knockout tour because everyone is basically saying that the knockout tour mode is the best thing.
00:14:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
And now does that justify me upgrading from eight deluxe just to play a new mode and with 24 people? Maybe, maybe not. But if they had called it Knockout Tour specifically, people would have said, oh, I know specifically about this one mode that revolutionizes the game a little better. I never even thought about that, but that would be an interesting way go because they have used names like that, right? yeah Deluxe or was it wasn't like uh seven or one of them yeah it was called uh i mean i'm already forgetting but yeah some mario kart trivia over here yeah so i just think that they should have called it they could have said hey mario kart knockout tour and hey guess what it comes with an open world but it's not that yeah yeah i get what you're saying so so we'll see i mean i think when donkey kong comes out gonna have a blast with that you know i'll probably enjoy metroid but
00:15:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know, to be honest, I feel like the main reason I was i knew I was going to get this was because I know the new Pokemon game is going to run terribly on the Switch 1, and I know I want to play it. yeah And as dumb of a reason as that is, i know that... It's a Look, i it's inevitable.
00:15:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
I will eventually upgrade because I don't want to play... the next Pokemon game at 15 frames per second. Or five, or whatever is. Or five, whatever. So then, in an ironic way, because of how badly optimized I knew it was going to be, I knew I would have to upgrade. But if Zeta A was actually running pretty well, and I knew, okay, every game is going run really well, so the only real exclusives are Donkey Kong and Mario World, no way. I would not upgrade. I probably wouldn't either, because...
00:16:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
yeah like don't get on looks fun too but it doesn't look as a big of a game changer as mario odyssey was so and i'm again i'm judging this based on just gameplay and haven't touched it myself so maybe it's going to be a great game but as of now like yeah if mario if pokemon and metroid ran really well then yeah i wouldn't have done it but just just for the sake of that i know it's going to be a game changer so i guess with me you know and i think it's kind of hard to like give a letter grade to like a console
Future of Switch 2 Hardware
00:16:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
release. But to me, this is kind of like a B, you know, like, that's you know, it's, it's, it's not an A, you know, there's things I think they could have made it done better. Like there's no breath of the wild game that gets me hyped up right away.
00:16:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know, there's a lot of questions people are having about, you know, price and stuff that. And i agree so I get that, you know, but you know, at the same time, if I had to make a new Nintendo console, what would I do? You know, I think the only thing I could,
00:17:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
potentially do differently like i would have maybe made the bezels a little better yeah know oled if that was gonna tank the battery life i can see why they would make that compromise so okay fine i probably wouldn't do that and yeah i can't think of oh and then i would probably make sure the joy con trigger the things were Not.
00:17:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
Hall effect. Hall effect. I think that's the big thing. um um Yeah. I mean, again, and mean I expect that they release another version with an upgraded battery, maybe OLED, mini OLED.
00:17:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
bezels, better battery. Better bezel, better battery. And maybe they also have a light version like they did with Switch Lite. feel like that's the move now. Yeah. Because I'll be honest with you, but okay, while the Switch Lite isn't actually that good performance-wise, whatever, it just, it doesn't run games well. The thing that they did great about it is the form factor is so small. It almost feels like a 3DS XL. Right. But it feels so good in your hand. Like, to lay in better and be in car with such a small unit, I actually have a hard time not wanting to go back to that. Yeah, yeah.
00:18:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I don't know if they're going to do that with the Switch 2. I don't even know if it's going to be feasible. I'm just thinking about like my younger cousins. like I can't see them just holding a big chunk. Yeah, they'll drop it. They're going to drop it, especially if they're 8, 9, 10 years old. you know give them Give them a you know mini and
Sony's Showcase & New Games
00:18:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
they'll be good. so Well, all right, I think that pretty much covers Nintendo. yeah So I guess we could talk to, you know, the next, you know, big pillar of gaming, Sony.
00:18:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
So, what did you think of the new showcase? Yeah, so there's a stand-up play. Did it deliver, bro? Because I know the the beginning of the year, we I was little disappointed. I know you were a little more hyped for Borderlands 4, but I was, so...
00:18:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't want to say it delivered, but there were some interesting announcements here. it was about a 40-minute stay to play. There were some interesting... Yeah, it was a Bloodstained, the Scarlet engagement, a new Bloodstained game, which I thought was interesting.
00:19:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
know you definitely liked that Baby Steps game. I did not. know you're going to love that Baby Steps game. Baby Steps is so bad. God, that game is so ridiculous. But they they did have another trailer for Digimon story, Time Changer, which honestly kind of got me hyped again.
00:19:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
It looks like they put a lot of effort into the story, like more so than any of the shows I've ever had. And it's been a while. And don't get me wrong, that that show is nostalgic to me, but they seem to have put a lot of effort. So very hyped for that.
00:19:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
Everybody's Golf Hotshot, which I think was interesting, they finally announced Final Fantasy Tactics, the Avalanche Chronicles. I think that leaked, didn't it? It didn't exactly leak, but then... The Nvidia leaks from years ago.
00:19:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
So this is it's been five years in the making, I guess, in a sense. Now, they're doing something interesting where they're providing the original version of the game and the remastered version. The remastered version has voice acting, which is also interesting.
00:19:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
But when I look at the differences, like, yes, is there an upgrade to the remastered version? Clearly, yes, but... I thought there was going to be more of an effort to write to upgrade the graphics and maybe do redo rendering. do you remember how good Link's Awakening looked? Yeah. like Could you imagine and if you... Yeah, a different approach, maybe like a 3D approach or something. which made You could have done a 3D models on the landscape. I mean, it's just still the same thing. Exactly. but And then if you had like a toggle to switch back and forth, so purists would still get what they want. but Hey, I mean, if people haven't been able to play that for a long time and now they are like, you know, they're going to be very like' excited about that.
00:20:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
There was a really weird mini teaser for ghost of your time where they basically said, we're to have more in July. What did you think about that? I thought that was dumb to even put a teaser in just to remind people that just like when July came, you could have just said a week before, and Hey, we got a 15 minute state of play. So again, I feel like this is the scenario where like, don't know, maybe I'm,
00:20:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
reading too much into the tea leaves, but I feel like Sony was so dominant when it came to, you know, the end of the PS4, beginning of the PS5, that they really could dictate when they were going to announce things, right? Because they were just releasing banger after banger. And I feel like now, even though they're they are releasing good games still, it's like, it's been slowing down a little bit. And I feel like Sony has to be a little more, more cautious,
00:21:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
And, you know, they have to think a little bit more about what their, you know, opponents are doing, right? And, like, their adversaries because, you know, I feel like they would have probably wanted to wait until July, right? Yeah, like, I just don't.
00:21:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
I mean, you also have Death Stranding coming out again within a couple weeks. Like, let that get its shine. Right? You don't need to remind people this heavily. Like, they want as many people as possible to be hyped for the game, but you have time. coming October. Like, I don't, I didn't see a need from the, just tease it the way they did. Right? And I don't feel like that's a very Sony move because I feel like,
00:21:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
What Sony does is like what they did with Astro Bot, like make your mind completely focused on one game to hype that up. And then the second you're done digesting it, then, oh, here's what's coming up next, right? Like the next, you know, course in the yeah seven course meal.
00:21:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
I just thought that was amazing. a weird kind of move. Yeah. But, you know, I guess they felt like they needed to do it. I'm surprised you haven't brought up what I thought it would be your game of the show. okay. You're saving the best for last. Yeah, chill, dog.
00:22:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
So there was 007 First Flight, which, honestly, when I first saw the trailer for this game, I was not impressed. But then as I've been watching it more and more, i had to watch it like four or five times.
00:22:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
I'm actually kind of hyped now for this game. yeah Like legitimate. And i hate to say this because I think I've said this multiple times. Anytime I see now like a decent third person shooting game that reminds me of Uncharted, I'm like, oh, it's just Uncharted with a yeah the skin on it.
00:22:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
I guess I didn't expect you to say that, but now I feel like it kind of makes sense because... it's probably something to do with the art style and the graphical fidelity. Yeah, exactly. Right? Like, it doesn't, like, just hit you, like, pop you, right? Yeah. Oh, my God. Especially because Sony has released such amazing looking, you know, like, third-person games like Returnal or even Uncharted, right?
00:22:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I get what you're saying, but, I mean, man, it actually, i feel like this is the Sony type of game, right? Where, like, it's right on the border between a movie and a game, right? Yeah. and I mean, I thought it looked pretty good. I do too. It's being made by IO Interactive, the people made Hitman.
00:23:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's a 26-year-old Bond, so it's a younger Bond, but he's not right at the beginning of his career. But it's they made him that age to make him more relatable to gamers. I don't know if we've had a Bond that young before. No, I don't think we have. And I don't even know if in the books he's that young. like I'll be honest with you, or the novelizations or the older movies. Yeah.
00:23:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
Again, i'm I'm actually cautiously optimistic about this. The developers doing it are really good at what they do. so And again, the art style interesting, but there's it didn't feel like it had its own flair or pop, but the gameplay looked yeah good. So hype there. Yeah, I mean, I think you know that team has done pretty good work with Hitman. I think they're going to deliver. Yeah, I think they're going to deliver it.
00:23:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
uh marvel token fighting soul so this one was funny so this is what i thought you were gonna start off talking about i'm surprised that you had the patience because thought this would i thought this would do it for you bro yeah now this definitely did when they announced it now i i kind of got confused because i missed the first couple seconds i didn't realize it said arc arc systems and so honestly when i saw him'm like is this marvel's capcom 4 that's what i was i'm like there's no way But this makes sense that Sony's funding it. So it looks like it's a second party studio collaboration because they're funding the game. What did they make before they made a Dragon Ball?
00:24:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yes, Dragon Ball Fighters. Okay. And they made Guilty Gear. I want to say a Guilty Gear fighting game. Both were great. I love Dragon Ball Fighters. That game has sold over 5 million copies for sure. And maybe close to 10 million. It's very good for Dragon Ball game. And the Guilty Gear game sold really well.
00:24:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think it's either Guilty Gear or i'm mixing that with up with a different one. But they made another one after Dragon Ball Fighters. Both were great. Technically. This looks good. You can tell it's in the early stages. The one unique portion of this game is that it's going to be 4v4, but it's not your traditional, like, all four characters have to die.
00:24:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
They're allowing you some freedom. So you could technically, one character could die and you could lose the whole battle and the three can act as assists. Or you can just swap in with all four. So it's interesting. you only have really one health bar.
00:25:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
So they're making a unique twist on the tag team genre a bit, more so than the other games. And on top of it, I just love the art style. I love the art style, dude. Iron Man looks so cool. Iron looks like a Gundam.
00:25:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
Iron Man looks so sick, And there's been so many memes online of people just, like, modifying the gameplay to, like, don't know. It's just been funny seeing people modify these clips. But I think overall this makes sense because didn't Sony buy, what's the thing that's hosted, the event that's hosted every year for fighting? Oh, they did. Yeah, yeah. I forgot the name of it, but they did buy that a while back. Yeah. What's it called? Not I don't remember. So the the event that's held every year for fighting games that Sony ultimately purchased out a couple years ago, I think they're now doing this to now have, to basically promote it. They saw an opportunity and now they're working with a great developer.
00:25:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
Honestly, like I think this was just a great move on there. They're so smart. Arc Systems is so good. And the fact that, again, they're getting that funding and to use the Marvel LP, they actually kind of showed off or they had a little commentary.
00:26:07
Shameer Mehdikhan
And the funny thing was Arc Systems was like, Hey, Sony approached us about potentially using the Marvel IP. And we were so scared because that's so such a precious, you know, set of IP that we didn't want to mess this up. And then when they thought about it, they're like, yeah, we think we can get this done.
00:26:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
I'm glad that they showed up some of these characters like Doom, Spider-Man, Captain America, Ghost Rider, Storm. this This release floored me. Like I did not expect this at all. yeah You know, and I think this was a ah ah massive W for for Sony. Yeah.
00:26:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
I do hate the fact that Sony like means evil. That's what it is. Yeah. I do hate the fact that Sony leans into things that are definitely going to give people FOMO. Right. Cause you know, Marvel is so important right now yeah that, you know, you make a game like this and anyone who doesn't have a PlayStation is going to feel some FOMO. Like I don't even like fighting games and I felt FOMO, you know, for, you know,
00:26:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
for my Xbox buddies and my Nintendo buddies. So, well, think think about this. They didn't go to our system and say, can you make a fighting game based on our Sony? i Yeah. They said, they specifically said, think about Marvel. And so it was crazy because they know that in Evo, like the biggest games have been Marvel versus Capcom two and three and infinite, uh, mortal combat and like a couple other ones. So they were so pretty strategic about this. I think the, interesting part about this too, is that,
00:27:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
Okay, I was about to say something and I completely forgot. That's okay. So I think for me, like, this is such a massive W and I feel like this and Helldivers for me have been such massive Ws for them because it fills a specific niche in their catalog that they just do not have, right? Like, you know, Helldivers, now you're having, like, the one live service that actually worked, but more importantly, you're having a shooter, right? Like, we don't have cooperative shooters.
00:27:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
And how long has it been since there's been just a banger fighting game that everyone's talking about that's linked to a console like Yeah, Street Fighter. I mean, maybe Street Fighter V, right? Like, was it that exclusive, right? And so... Five was, but then it came out in a horrible state at first yeah until they fixed it. And so I just feel like the time is right. You know, it's been a little while since I feel like and someone was talking about a new fighting game because probably Dragon Ball FighterZ was the last one.
00:28:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
Well, no, it didn't. Tekken came out last year, right? Sorry, Tekken. Yeah, but still, it's been a... That's going to be a year and a half at least, right? Yeah. So... Well, I think two things. One is Arc System has always created these fighting games really balanced. So when I play Dragon Ball FighterZ, even though it you could be very good and and it could be very complex, it was easy for beginners to get into it. So I think if they play it smart, they're going to be able to get a ton of people to get into the game. It's going to sell well.
00:28:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then you can master the game too. It doesn't have to be super complex from the get-go. And Arc System is great at that. So I just think that that that that's a thing there. Yeah. And on top of it, they announced a fighting stick. So Sony has now announced they a new wireless fight stick. They're getting into it, man. They're getting into it. So good for them. So so I thought that was a pretty big one. announced another trailer for Metal Gear Solid Delta Snake Eater, which is out in August.
00:29:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
Now Konami just announced another showcase on June 12th for a 40-minute thing. They're going show off more Delta Eater, or, snake sorry, since Snake Eater. And they're going to show off Silent Hill and some a couple other surprise announcements. Okay, so it's kind of like...
00:29:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
spacing out E3 a little bit. Well, I'll say is this, this trailer didn't do a whole lot for me, but I'm already excited for this game. i'm Honestly, I am very hyped. I feel like the people who are going to buy this have already decided they're going to buy it. There's not much more they need to do.
00:29:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
Now, they did tease that there's going to be some more multiplayer coming back to this game for both Xbox and PlayStation. I'm kind of shocked that if they introduced PvP in this, I haven't played Metal Gear PvP since Metal Gear Solid 4 on the PS3, and that was amazing. Yeah, man, I don't even remember what that was like. It was so good. So if they bring back a full PvP or multiplayer suite, I'm actually going play it.
00:29:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, I guess I just haven't been the biggest Metal Gear fan, so i maybe this is just... For whatever reason, I'm not the biggest Hideo Kojima fan. Hater, hater, hater. I don't think I'm going to play it, but
Critiques & Announcements in Gaming
00:30:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
we'll see. you know i could My mind could change when the game comes out, depending on the reviews, but you know probably I'm going to skip that one out. Hater, hater. I can't pay everything I do. So another interesting one, this was interesting, was Mortal Kombat Collection.
00:30:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
they're basically you know They've done this a couple times in the last two generations, but they're bringing back a lot of the original Mortal Kombat games, like 3, Ultimate, or three ultimate and two and one and this time they're bringing back mortal combat four which has been abandoned since like forever and you can't play that on only on like the old consoles um emulation and on top of it what was really interesting about this video and saying we're bringing this stuff back is that they got tobias the the co-creator mortal combat so it's been pretty well known that ed boon and tobias have like
00:30:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
gone their separate ways in the last decade and they just were not on good terms. And in this video, they show them come in at the last minute or last 30 seconds and they're collaborating together to get this huge legacy collection out. So i was like, wow, okay, i guess they settled maybe some other differences.
00:31:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
So that was cool to see. It's probably been decades at this point. Yeah. I mean, it's been a while. But it's just interesting because you can have so much to be with someone and then decades later be like, alright, let's put this shit aside and really figure it out. I kind of like this one-two punch that all these companies are doing where it's like, okay, let's bring back what's retro and then also move forward with the console, right? Or move forward with this brand. And look, I've played so many... I've played the old Mortal Kombat games so many times, but...
00:31:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
Seeing this probably be a more comprehensive set on the current gen, I'm definitely going to get this. This was my childhood with my sister. i played all the old ones all the time, and I kind of do miss it. and i mean That's why you're so freaking good at Mortal Kombat. remember the first time I played you, and I was like, man, screw this guy. Dude, yeah, people get so upset with me. They don't want to play ever with me, so it's kind of annoying. but What I will say is this. is I didn't like Mortal Kombat 1, the one that recently came out. and i kind of have I'm feeling nostalgic to play the old stuff.
00:32:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
What didn't you like about Mortal Kombat 1? Honestly, the whole multiversal thing, it's getting so overdone. Complicated? Yeah, not even comedy, it's just overdone. And I feel like with Mortal Kombat 1, they just redid the story and it's like, we've seen this story before. So you redoing it makes no sense to me.
00:32:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I'll say this, that I think Mortal Kombat Legacy Collection might have online multiplayer. I can't remember if they announced that. So if they do, that'd be kind of fun. Yeah, yeah. No, I'm with you. I mean, I feel like Marvel got everyone interested in multiversal stuff. And then few years later made the audience hate multiversal stuff. So anyone who decided to jump on that.
00:32:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
got burned yeah because now everyone is done. It was, it was a fad. Okay. And the only way to like, you can only make so many sequels to a game and then be like, how do we restart? Oh, let's reboot. Oh, to let's build it into the story. Oh, there's five other universes out there. It's like, dude, it does not matter.
00:32:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
but that's to me, it's somewhat lazy writing in my opinion. You can do it right, now but kind of lazy. It's a cop out. So they also announced what I was shocked about Neo 3. I did not expect that because, uh, but That's Team Ninja, right? Yeah. Yes, Team Ninja. Yeah. Man, how many games are these guys making? I love how, and I guess is something we're going to talk later. You know, you watch the Xbox showcase, you see Team Ninja. You watch the Sony showcase, you see Team Ninja. So...
00:33:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
But man, like i did not expect that game at all. Yeah, so they announced, I remember as as I was watching this, is there's going to be two playing styles now. you can You can switch between a ninja playing style and a samurai playing style. So it looked unique when they were showing gameplay, but it didn't look as good as I thought. It looked clunky when you were switching between both of the fighting styles.
00:33:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
But you know what? The Nioh 1 and 2 combined have sold over 10 million units. So this has been actually pretty big for Team Ninja Turtles. think it's going to be a big hit for them. Yeah. Now, what I will say is, again, those games were somewhat releasing during the pandemic. So I hate to say I don't think this game is going to sell as well. Well, the thing is, the genre has really evolved too, right? Like with Elden Ring and then now Liza P and the expansion of Liza P. What's the other game from FromSoft or the Ninja Samurai game or whatever? Oh, Sekiro? Sekiro. So it's definitely evolved a bit.
00:34:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
and don't know Saturated to some degree. And then there there was that Wulong game that came out that kind of had a say similar vibe. so you know i think this is I think this is big for Sony because...
00:34:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
a lot of people have been you know clamoring for something. you know yeah And so Nioh 3 is going to deliver for a lot of people. but you know It's always been a difficult game too. yeah But I will say this. like The fact that nit Team Ninja is doing this is because we already know they have another game in the works. And we'll talk about that later. But the thing is, this one did not announce that they have a collaboration with any other developers.
00:34:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, so just them. It's just them. So therere either they're spread thin or I don't know how they're getting this. I think probably the majority of their studio is working on Nioh 3. And I feel like for Ninja Gaiden, I think it's probably really Platinum.
00:34:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
like I feel like Platinum is doing a lot of that. Which kind of, and not to say it's disappointing, is like I hope Ninja Gaiden is a good story though. I hope it's not a basic ass story. yeah that'ss I'm scared. I'm cautious there.
00:35:07
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I guess one other thing I wanted to say about Neo, and I don't know if this is going to brand me as a hater. I'm not trying to you know piss off the people who love Neo. But if I didn't see the sign for Neo 3, if they yeah name they just threw the name of some random you know new studio making some random game, I'd be like, right, whatever. This is...
00:35:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
a dime a dozen, you know? And because I saw Nioh 3, I was like, alright, here we go, here we go. Now I'm getting excited. Okay, it's not to say that like you're hating. What's funny is that in the last several years, there have been Nioh-like games coming out from Indie Studios. What's the Wukong?
00:35:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
Now Wuchang is coming out. All these games that legit look the same. So, again, you know, it's not me totally just hating on Nioh and Team Ninja. It's just... yeah you're definitely not racist.
00:35:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
I mean, you know I love their games. just kidding. How much did I love Ninja Gaiden 2? I'm kidding. but But yeah, man, it just the the trailer alone didn't do it for me, but I know this game is going to deliver. like I know people will be happy with it. I know I'm not going to... I was very excited when Nioh 1 and 2 came out, and I tried it. It was too difficult for me. I'm just not that good when it comes to these action games.
00:36:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I'm not going eat it. You know, I play Nioh, normally I like games like that. I just, for whatever reason, I couldn't get into Nioh. And I think I was just still too much in my Bloodborne nostalgia. Probably. And I just really It's different type of speed. I just wanted Bloodborne.
00:36:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
And that too. For a long time, even when I was playing Dark Souls, even when I got in the Elden Ring, i was like, man, I just i just want Bloodborne. Yeah, exactly. I can understand that. What I will say is that that game like those games are a different type of speed.
00:36:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
And with Nioh, too... Again, difficult enough. I like the fact that like Liza P is going to adjust its difficulty. And if Neo3 said we're going to have difficulty levels and stuff, I would consider it. But any of these things that don't, they're already adjusted to be very complex and hard. yeah I don't want to be frustrated when I play games. You need to play Liza P you know now that...
00:37:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
they have the difficulty slider because I feel like in a game like that you really need dedication right and it almost becomes like a second job because if you step away from that game for a little bit you your skills get a little rusty yeah and and it's so frustrating to get back into it just like return like you have to blast through the game yeah just like how people like I remember to listen to a lot of people that played Returnal that it was it's a frenetic shooter you have to be pretty good at but if you took a break for a month or a couple weeks it was never back yeah you're never gonna I mean, that's what happened to me. Like stopped playing for a while and then I just didn't want to play. And then one day I was just really bored. And was like, man, I feel like Returnal was talking some shit to me because I couldn't beat it.
00:37:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
So then I got back into it and I i beat it over the weekend. That's funny. So, okay, and I guess we can move on to the next game. Yeah, Pragmata. Pragmata. pra Or Pragmata, whatever.
00:37:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
ah ah Interesting announcement to come here all of a sudden. They did announce a 2026 release date. I thought it was hilarious that they showed that little image at the end, said 2022, crossed out 2023, crossed out, oh, this is real, 2026. I thought that was funny. thought that hilarious. Now, the little girl has even more detail to her, so if you compare her to the trailer from 2023, oh, my God, it looks...
00:38:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
The hair looks way better. i was shocked by how good this game looked. yep and do it To me, this game legit reminds me of Dead Space. with the body suit and whatnot. And the gameplay looks interesting. like It looks slow methodical, but you can hack, you can slow down these robots and stuff.
00:38:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
And honestly, it looked so beautiful. I was just like astounded. When I saw the Dead Space remake, I was like, wow, they did a great job. This kind of gave me that same feeling. like The story doesn't look super crazy interesting, but the fact that it looks amazing, i' like it has my attention.
00:38:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, I get what you're saying. I think I had a lot of mixed feelings about Pragmata. You know, this has always been a game where I've just been like, what in the world is this about and what is going on? You know, like some games will just sell you on the premise right away. Right. And you're like, oh my God, that's so badass. I need to play it.
00:38:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
But Pragmata has been more mysterious to me. Honestly, if Capcom, did because this is a Capcom game. Yes. So if Capcom was not on, you know, just the tear of games it was, yeah i'd be like i would probably be not interested in this game.
00:39:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think because of how good their games have been lately, I'm like, all right, I'm interested. You know, I'm curious. The quality control is pretty good because I just don't understand or know the game well enough.
00:39:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
And again, I think this is a game that's suffering from like the dime a dozen, right? Where there's so many new studios that are popping up, you know, especially in Korea and China. that are making games that kind of feel like this, right? Right. Like, what was it? Was it the First Descendant or whatever? You know, a lot of games that kind of have this, like, you know, futuristic, you know, third-person type of look. so that one is a game that I'm actually very curious about. You know, I want to see how that plays out. I want to see, you know, what an extended deep dive looks like. So that's definitely on my radar. But, you know, I would have thought that this game would be an exclusive, but it's not. It's it's on Xbox, too, yeah. Wow.
00:40:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
So lot of these a lot of these games, you know other than NEO, Token, lot of these games are multi-platform. Honestly, I would have been kind of, not hyped, more hyped, but I think this would have been a good get for Sony. I think so. you know the The thing about Sony is like they're kind of curators, right? So when they decide to make a game like a second party you know platform exclusive, it's like they're putting their stamp of quality control, right? And so...
00:40:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
then they're like, okay, you know our name is on the line, we have to make sure like this game actually delivers. like It's not often that so like a Sony-stamped game will have an open critic score in the low 70s. You're pretty much going to get 77 and above. yeah So, and I would think they would jump on something like this, but I guess Well, it's probably a Capcom thing that now, if you're investing in a new IP that's taken you so many years to get out the door, and again, it's still not out yet, they want it on as many platforms as possible. And it's a new IP. So, it's not like it's
00:40:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
Final Fantasy, and hey, we're going to gatekeep this to Sony because we've been associated with you for two decades. You can really start that association anywhere. Yeah, they want to make their money and their ah ROI. They want to get their return on it. Now, what I find interesting about this game is the director of Pragmata is Yonghee Cho, which those of you don't know, he's a He used to work on Nier Automata, Metal Gear Rising or a Revengeance, and the Resident Evil 3 Remake. So he's actually well known for the last decade to have worked on really prominent games. I actually love Nier Automata.
00:41:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
heard a lot of their cult following for Metal Gear Rising Revengeance and Resident Evil 3 Remake is not bad at all. So I actually am kind of hyped that they got someone pretty good now. work It's not a nobody, it's just like they have someone really well known working. Yeah, so I think that one could be you know pretty promising.
00:41:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think another game I wanted to talk about that I thought looked pretty promising was Romeo is Dead. Yeah, Romeo is a Dead Man. This game is interesting because it's being made by, you isn't it Suda? Suda, yeah.
00:41:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, so the people the guy who made No More Heroes, which have always been unique games, and honestly, I got that same feel in this trailer. You know, I didn't realize this was No More Heroes, but the second you said it, i was like...
00:42:07
Shameer Mehdikhan
oh it just clicked was like oh yeah yeah it's the same guy when i saw the trailer was like like the camera angles i legit thought normal heroes and then what i found interesting is this gameplay looks so good like yeah legitimately caught my attention in such a unique way it's such a mishmash of stuff like at some point i was kind of getting dead rising yes yeah and then i love the way they started because i thought as soon as i was watching i was like oh it's just another one of those indie games that like but for whatever reason, Microsoft and Sony always pull off and they're like more like movie TV shows or something like that.
00:42:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
And all a sudden, like the guy is dying. yeah And then i'm like, wait, what in the world is going on? I think it's funny because it definitely still clearly looks like a double A game. And by that, I mean like his budget will always be limited. Like he's not going to have this huge budget to make these crazy open world or like big games. Yeah.
00:42:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
But it looked big enough that it looked bigger in scope compared to his previous games. So what I was happy about was that he was finally making a ground up game for PlayStation that looked high quality and that could almost teeter between double and triple A. His No More Hero games, guys, I love them, but they've not been like the best quality.
00:43:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
So, like, for me, this kind of made me think of, like, the older Yakuza games in yeah terms of scale and scope, right? Like, the the newer ones are definitely, like, bigger and bigger. Like, the the Hawaii one, you know, that seemed pretty grand. But, you know, some of the older ones that are really cult classics, right? Like, it it kind of had that kind of niche vibe. So, that's on my radar. Again, that's a game that as soon as this was you know done i wanted to see what other platform is coming out on and it's on the xbox too no surprise and and to me like the fact that prigmata and romeo are both on the xbox were kind of big deals because those were the two games that i was really interested in and surprised about and you wanted to know more so yeah i mean again this game is coming out next year is what they're saying hopefully there's no delays but i love i just love the name romeo is a dead man like
00:44:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
And and like the the artwork for it looks so cool. I just really like that. Now, there was some more for Silent Hill. often i just announced or I just said earlier that there's going to be a separate broadcast in a couple days, but not too excited about this, honestly. Yeah, I'm not a Silent Hill guy. Yeah, I didn't play the Silent Hill 2 remake, and this is being made by a separate team. It's not being made by the Bloober team.
00:44:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
To me, this didn't get me excited and in in any way. I don't know if there was much more from the showcase that really got me excited. Yeah, that's really about it. So so what would you grade this one?
00:44:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
I mean, I'd give this also like a solid B. I think there were some unique announcements that really just spoke to me. And I think were probably big enough for other people to recognize that this like felt like the start of an E3 season again.
00:44:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I think it was a good time to release this or do this. But I'd give a solid B. Yeah, I'd give this a B-. minus Honestly, i was debating C+, plus but I think the Marvel token game was just such a big surprise and big get that I'd give it a B-. minus You know, if you included, like, you know, Ghost of Yotai in here, then it would feel like a bigger game. Yeah. But the thing is, a lot of the, you we really didn't see much from Sony first party at all, right?
00:45:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
this A lot of the interesting third party games were multi-platform and for Sony, I think it matters when the game is multi-platform because their whole strategy is first party for the most part, right? And console sellers. So that's why I think it's important to bring that up. And, you know, i don't know. It just, even the games that I thought would like really hit hard, like Neo3 just didn't hit as hard as they maybe would have a few years ago. I just feel like, you know, those series, you know, kind of that,
00:45:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
the souls like game have really changed after elden ring has come out right so yeah i'd give it a b minus it was a lot better than i anticipated honestly yeah i didn't have my hopes up but like it was good and i think again maybe i'll sound like kind of a fanboy but i think if i saw this in isolation i'd probably give it a b plus but when i look at what nintendo's doing and when i look at what xbox is doing like It kind of doesn't seem as much of a big deal, right? Sure.
00:46:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
I mean, we there's rumors that there'll be another Nintendo Direct soon, but I think Sony has been consistent in their level of delivering announcements the last year or two. The thing is, like so in even though Sony has, in in my opinion, really been struggling this generation,
00:46:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
they're still doing very well because they're still pretty much always consistently giving us two very good games. Yeah. Right. Which is like, I can't complain. Somehow they're still pulling that off year after year after year.
00:46:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
And this year we're going have that stranding. We're going to have ghost of Yotai. Right. And so somehow they always deliver one in the first six months, one in the second six months. yeah I'll say this too.
00:46:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
We still know based on the state of play from earlier this year, when they announced Soros, that, they're going to show gameplay later in the year. This tells me there's going to be either another big state of play or but potentially, hopefully, a showcase. We haven't had a showcase in a couple of years now.
00:47:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
So it's like, come on, Sony. Let me see all the part of game is. I don't even remember the last showcase. It's like hard for me to keep track of what's the state of play and what's the showcase. It'll say specifically Sony showcase. Now, the thing is, it's all basically first party games.
00:47:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
Now, the thing is, there was rumors that there a God of War game was going to be showcased during the state of play. didn't happen. It's supposedly a 2D or a 2.5D game coming out this fall.
00:47:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
smaller in scope. But we didn't see that. So I don't, I would, again, I would could only assume that maybe in the fall, we might actually get another state of play and it might be a lot of, could be the Scott or game could be sorrows gameplay could be.
00:47:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
And again, this is what worries me is that in this state of playing, they did not show anything Wolverine related. It's been five years. What is going on at this point? I'm telling you that project is trouble. don't, didn't their creative director go over to the
Console Lifecycles & Future Releases
00:47:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
initiative? Yeah. They just left not too long ago, like a year ago, a year and a half.
00:47:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
and there And yes, okay, did Insomniac get hacked and a lot of shit was leaked? And maybe the the prototype looked decent? I'm telling you, this game is definitely in trouble. I don't want to development hell, I'm just saying I'm very worried for it. I think Insomniac is good enough that I trust them, and I know they'll push through it, and I don't think Sony is going to really be breathing down their throat that much, but...
00:48:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
you know Insomniac, in spite of how well they sell, it's not like they're sitting on a billion dollars yeah because everything costs so much to make in California. yeah So it's not like they have an unlimited amount of time either. Definitely not.
00:48:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
i I don't think they're going to ever cancel Wolverine. i I'm like pretty confident that absolutely it's going to come out. I am too, but I think what they did, and I think this is where they might have shot themselves a bit in the foot, based on the leaks, they put all their eggs basically in one basket.
00:48:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
They're not going to probably do a new Ratchet and Clank game, and they basically know that after Wolverine, they're going to do two more sequels to it and it's going to be an X-Men game. So if they basically can't cancel this. And they also know they have to pay off the wazoo for the licensing. yeah to So this has to go well. They have to release it.
00:49:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
They then have to create a sequel that could take years. And then it's ah ah a full-fledged X-Men game. yeah And I don't see this game releasing on the PS6. You need a good install base. So I feel like this is...
00:49:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
Probably two years old, 20, 27 game. I would have been very confident in 2026, but and I don't know what the Sony pipeline. If they're not showing it now and and in at least a two minute trailer, it's not coming next year.
00:49:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
Unless, unless they do an Astro bot, you never know what Sony, you never know. But like, I'll say this when Spider-Man two just came out, they advertised it the year it came out. So they announced it the year prior or year or two prior.
00:49:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then they said, Hey, 2023, all of a sudden they started advertising. like wait where did all these advertisements come from so maybe 2026 they all of a sudden next year january go oh and here's wolverine so maybe but i'm just worried about it so yeah so and who knows when to me the big three are gorilla naughty dog and sony santa monocon so who knows when we're going to get anything new from them and Honestly, those are the three studios I'm really waiting on. Honestly, I'd be very disappointed if Sony Santa Monica's next game is a 2.5D God of War game. Maybe like kind of a small thing that 30 of the developers made. Yeah, maybe. no They definitely have to have something bigger cooking. I don't think Intergalactic is going to come out until 2027. And I think Sony is going to stretch out this console as well. Because...
00:50:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
they're not going to see a big need to jump to a PS6, right? Especially if they're still sell outselling their competition, right? So I think they're going to drag this out. I wouldn't be surprised if they even pushed all the way to 2028 and maybe look at what that's like an eight year cycle, right? Just like the switch.
00:50:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
I can see them do. I can see it. Yeah. And I wouldn't be upset by it. The games are already good. I don't need better looking games. I just want the games they've announced to come out and I want the games they haven't announced that they're cooking, like except for Sony Santa Monica,
00:50:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
and Gorilla to be shown off. I just want to see. And especially if like Grand Theft Auto is going to come out in 2026, you know, if, if somebody was going to release a new console in 2027 and the best selling game, you know, theoretically it's coming out right at the, basically the tail end.
00:51:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
I just don't see that happening. Right. Because what's the need? Like, you know, you're going to sell an insane amount of PS5s and PS5 pros, and yeah the pro is what one year old right so then that makes it a three-year life cycle so i'm thinking 2028 man so i think i think wolverine um think intergalactic i think these are going to be like the bangers you see at the end of the generation right like just like we saw with the ps4 like you just got like hit after hit after hit like right in the last year yeah i agree with that again i don't think it's a problem give them more time now do you have
00:51:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
the money to burn through. You've been burned by so many different live service initiatives that if you're just trying to save money at this point, you either have to pump it out or you have to continue to give them time. I think what they're going to do is just keep finding these like ah diamonds in the rough, you know, like kind of how, I mean, you know, I don't really like stellar blade that much, but I can objectively say it's like a diamond in the rough, right? Like it sold very well. People like their review of well.
00:52:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so they're going to keep finding things like that to keep their player base, you know, happy and engaged. And then eventually all those things are are really going to hit later. So I feel like that's kind of the state of where Sony's at, you know, and I guess, I don't know if you want to talk about Xbox next, but you know, after the Xbox showcase, I did feel pretty hyped as an Xbox fan board. And I think as you know, someone who has been repping Xbox for a while, like it was kind of cathartic for me, seeing how many games are coming out on Xbox, especially since,
00:52:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
I remember how many years I've been seeing comments of people just saying Xbox has no games. But honestly, I left just really wanting more first-party PlayStation games. Like, I really missed that. Yeah, I do too. I want to talk about one game before we get into the Xbox showcase.
00:52:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
it's not part of any of these three, but it was right about the same time. Unreal had their own showcase to show off a game specifically utilizing their new engine and how they've kind of enhanced their engine and that witcher 4 there was a tech demo for that jeez i forgot that it's we haven't even had a chance to talk about there's been so much stuff in these last two weeks now again what cg project red said it was this tech demo was running on a base ps5 but that's what it is it's a tech demo so will all of this that they showed off make it into the final cut of the game and how many users are we still off i don't know
00:53:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
But what I was happy about was I was impressed by the work they were showing off. like Legitimately, I don't think the game will look like that when it comes out. But it's the and there ah fact that they're working on Unreal at Engine 5 and then pushing that, and they're trying to help Epic saying, hey, we want to make enhancements to your engine. loved what they did with Nanite when it came to the trees. i was like, oh my god, this is why it looked Unreal is so sick. Because if every developer adds to it along the way,
00:54:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
as they're making their game. Oh my God, that's insane. Now everyone can benefit from Nanite trees. Yes, exactly. So now that whatever they end up implementing, everyone else can use. And it's, hey man, that's the more the merrier. Like if you're willing to help out, you know, enhance their engine and let everyone else use it, that's great, you know?
00:54:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
sharing that knowledge so i think witcher 4 i'm excited that we got to see something so early i don't feel a lot of people have been complaining about how siri looks like i don't think had any problem with it know sometimes i feel like you fine in the internet like there's these fringes that i don't know if it's like motivated by like political beliefs or or what but they just like latch on to something and then just go crazy about it and Especially with The Witcher, it does not make sense, right? Because it's not like anyone is trying to push an agenda. Like, have you read the books? Like, have you actually listened to the interviews of the writer who is still alive? Yeah. Who is still writing, right? Like, Ciri is such a pivotal character.
00:55:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
if If the actual writer, who is still living, unlike J.R. Tolkien, right? Yeah. If he had a problem with it, he would say something, right? would say it. no, because Ciri is like one of the most...
00:55:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
she's basically as important if not more important than gerald right which is why they're continuing the like i never thought they would do a sequel to three but they also realize and they go like we're starting a whole new but i don't know like a trilogy with uh siri i think maybe i think so yeah and the thing is like am i sad that i'm not playing as gerald like of course yeah you know like i'm like the biggest halo fanboy and witcher 3 was the first game that made me think oh my god is there a game out there that i like more than halo like that's how much i loved witcher and so obviously i mean you even have a witcher 3 xbox yeah i wonder i got that yeah so it was just my birthday you know my boy arjun hooked me up with the doom controller and the witcher 3 controller and that witcher 3 controller is pretty sick pretty sick i mean i have like a witcher 3 display in my office i think uh
00:56:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know, on my phone, I used to have, like, one screensaver was my wedding photo, and the next was an anime picture of The Witcher 3, and he's, like, you know, beating up a wolf, a bear. so So I say all that because have a lot of mixed feelings about, like... And we're going to a Witcher 3 orchestra. Oh, yeah, Witcher 3 orchestra. That's going to be dope, you know? So if anyone's out there in August, you know, come say hi. We're not telling where we live, but, you know, you know what I'm saying. You you'll tell by our voices, but...
00:56:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
But no, I have a lot of mixed feelings about Witcher 4 because a part of me i was like, okay, do they really need to resurrect this and destroy it, you know, and ruin it? And then, you know, of course, I want to, you know, Gerald, like he's such a badass, you know, I'd love to, you know,
00:56:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
plays him more so when i was like oh it's just siri was like uh i don't know i don't know right but honestly i feel like that is the logical place for the story to go right like and there's actually meat there there's actually things that you can you know explore when you're the writer the fact i mean it's not like the other characters of the witcher have just magically disappeared right now you're basically going to be able to see the story through another perspective right and so that's going to be fascinating well so i think okay not only is it seeing another perspective for the story or through another perspective.
00:57:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
Look, we also know CD Projekt Red is very talented. If there was any studio out there that said that that I could say, I want this studio to continue making a game every five to seven years, because I know that they're gonna completely enhance, it's like like Rockstar. Every single time they release a game, it's a generational leap from their previous game. don't know, man. I still remember Cyber 20 to the seven set. No, I'm talking specifically about Witcher. So if you look at it technologically speaking,
00:57:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
when Witcher 1 came out and I looked at gameplay and then Witcher 2 came out, it was such a big jump. And then Witcher 2 to 3 was such a big jump. And now 3 to 4, it's like, again, I understand if, if someone even said to me, there's not that much story to tell. Right. And I said, okay, but you know what? I still get to play a game that's phenomenally changed since the prior one. And and the thing that was really fascinating about that presentation, like, you know, obviously I'm not super techie. I'm not engineer. But the way they were able to present, you know, the technology they're using and why it matters, I was like, oh my God, like that is a great place to go with the technology. Right. And so just like, you know, when you play Richard three and you realize how dense the side missions are, you're like, oh my God, why don't all, you know, video games have this. Right. And then everyone now has it. Right. And so then when I thought about like, you know, that reactivity that the world has on its own, even when you're not around, that just brings so much more life into the game. Right. And i was just like,
00:58:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
Damn, that's That's why I'm saying that they're going to push the boundaries of gaming yet again. And it's probably going to come out, what? I think Witcher, they came out in 2015. So by this the time this comes out, I'll have been 12 or 13 or 14 years.
00:58:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
They will have pushed the boundaries. I think it's a 2027 game. yeah like you know I think early 2027, I think Grand Theft Auto is going own next year. And then Witcher is going to own 2027. I'm super looking forward to that.
00:59:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
Well, I'll say this too again. Look at the way they presented the changes. And just tell me that you're not excited for this. Like, again, they barely showed off anything. Yeah. I think people were also, like, hating on Ciri and what her face looked like.
00:59:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
And, you know, in an ironic way, I feel like they were trying to be too one-to-one with Witcher 3. And it kind of backfired because... some of the characters in Witcher 3 do not look that great, right? And I don't think that Ciri was a great-looking character. right right and just like you know i'm I'm not saying she's ugly, but i'm just seeing like the way like it was animated, right? like It was a little blockier you know like compared to you know when you look at like the Last of Us characters and things like that. Witcher is an old game, right?
00:59:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
But as far as I can tell, like you know what the studio was saying is they basically took the model from Witcher 3 and then they just tried to spruce it up. And so to me, like, maybe it feels a little uncanny, right? Because it's like when you take, like, an older game and you take the model and you try and, like, remaster it, but then it feels kind of uncanny. You can kind of tell. You know, you can kind of tell. It feels like there's, like, a sticker wrapped around the old yeah model. and it's just like So I feel like I got a little bit about that of that, but honestly, i was perfect that passed away. like And maybe that's just, like, my nostalgia. You know, like, I'm just so used to Witcher 3 that when I see Witcher 4, I'm just like, well this is a little jarring for me maybe someone who's never played witcher would just be like bro like have you met a woman before what is wrong with you but yeah i mean honestly i think it's a non-problem that's funny too because when witcher 3 came out originally was like wow this game looks so phenomenal i was like so shocked and impressed and now i go back to him like isn't that insane isn't that insane yeah and now and i'm like what the and then now i see with this which protect them again i'm not saying it's gonna this is how it's gonna look i'm like
01:00:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
Holy hell. If this game looks like 80% as good as that, yeah oh I'm going to be so happy. And that's on the PS5. That's not on It's not even on the PC, dude. So that's going to be dope. And honestly, like if it's a tech demo, like does that mean that, yes, the consoles will be degraded, but the PC is still going to look that good? Maybe. And maybe even by that point, we'll have 6090s. Yeah.
01:01:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
Two years out, right? Two years. Yeah. but So I thought that was, I'm happy you brought that up. i I totally forgot about that because of all the news that's been coming out.
Summer Game Fest Highlights
01:01:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. So I guess we should also talk about Summer Game Fest right before we get to exact Xbox and maybe we can talk about how little there is to talk about Summer this, look, Summer Game Fest now isn't really treated like the TGAs, the Game Awards, which is ah every end of year. And I think Jeff specifically saves big announcements for the end of the year show.
01:01:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
he knows this is kind of fluff, but every year he gets like one or two decent announcements. So just to talk about them first, and i don't want to start with the biggest one, but i'm gonna start with Liza P. Overture was available today or the day that the announcement was made. So I thought that was pretty cool.
01:01:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't know how much the expansion is itself and the review is already out. So I don't know if it has good reviews. It got pretty good reviews. I think that's like pretty much in the eighty s You know, the reviews for Liza P are kind of strange because...
01:02:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
it From what I'm remembering, a lot of people gave it eights. But then it was a Game of the Year nominee. Most people put in their Game a Year discussion. They think it's like one of the best games of this generation. So I feel like this is a game like Black Myth Wukong where the review scores don't accurately you know capture the sentiment. For whatever reason, you know I think critics are a little bit harder on it.
01:02:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
Okay, that's interesting. Again, I'll take a look and now that this update has come out to change the difficulty. Another thing they announced was Dying Light the Beast release date. So originally, Dying Light 2, by the way, came out a couple years ago.
01:02:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
And they initially announced that... Essentially, this DLC was part of like an expansion pass. But instead of that, they decided to delay it for like a year or two. And now this is a complete brand new like set of DLC. It completely changes the gameplay.
01:02:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
whole like It's a pretty big, beefy story. And I think it's free for people that initially bought the expansion pass. And you can buy this separately, too. So they announced their release date, which is August 22nd. And it actually looks good. They released a 30-minute demo.
01:03:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
it honestly looks pretty good. So I don't know. I always wanted to get into Dying Light too, and I never did. And people had a lot of gripes with it. Like there were some good ideas, but I think Metacritic wise, it was like in the high seventies, low eighties.
01:03:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
This actually looks decent. And honestly, if this gets good reviews, like in the eights, I might actually pick it up. Yeah. You know, Dying Light is one of those games where I'm just surprised I've never played it. Right. And A lot of times I'll be randomly scrolling something, like you know going through Instagram or Facebook or ah ah YouTube, and I'll come across some gameplay that looks sick, right? And I'm just like, MySpace.
01:03:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I'm just like, oh, man, this looks so freaking sick. What is this? Yeah, and it's always Dying Light. And I'm what? I'm like, what? And I've been telling myself for the last five years, like, out I want to play Dying Light. And I'm not picking up because I have, not that I have a nostalgia for this, but I played, what was the game before they made Dying Light called again, the the zombie game?
01:04:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh, I don't remember. It's not Dead Island. Dead Island. They made the first Dead Island. You love game. Yes, Tecline. And then they made this, and I'm like, I really want to play this game. So I think finally I'm going to pick this stuff up. I'm sure it's already on sale, and I'm sure that if I get the one with the expansion vest, I can just get this for a really cheap.
01:04:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
So there's that. And
Upcoming Game Announcements
01:04:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
then there's... Well, I guess before we can get to that, I wanted to talk about this Wu-Tang game, Rise of the Deceiver, because I don't know if you've been keeping up with the leaks, but a lot of people kept saying Brass Lion is making this Wu-Tang game that you know Xbox is teamed up with.
01:04:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then, so I was expecting you know that to be announced at a show of the Xbox showcase. All of a sudden it just got announced here and i don't see any Xbox branding. yeah I don't know what happened there. and I'm scouring the internet. I'm like, I'm like asking myself, am I crazy? Like, did I read the Reddit?
01:04:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
I am. Like, did I not read the Reddit post correctly? But I even went back and looked and definitely like for, want to say for years, people have been saying that this is tied, I think it's Project Belfry or Project Stoic, something like that.
01:05:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
they've been saying that this is, you know, what going to be one of those Xbox games. And then there's no mention of Xbox. So I wonder if this is something Xbox dropped halfway through, you know, I wonder if anyone's going to look into it.
01:05:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it makes me think like, if this was something that Xbox was originally tied to, and then later they change your mind, could that be something like contraband, right? Like, is that, you know, is, is that possibility? Right. So I just thought I'd bring I thought that was interesting. Interesting. Yeah. looked like an interesting game.
01:05:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
Hanimusha, Way of the Sword got a new trailer. Again, i i really like their kind of drip feeding with this game. 2026 release date. I've never played any of the Onimusha games, but this seems more modern. Again, they're already claiming that it's going more of a linear focus. It's not going be an open world thing.
01:05:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I like the gameplay. It doesn't look like your typical... So we've been talking about all these games like Wu-Chang and all these action. And like this game... It doesn't feel like a carbon copy. It does not feel like a carbon copy. It's setting itself apart.
01:06:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
The gameplay yuke looks unique. The sword fighting looks unique. So like I think I'm going to get this a shot. And again, the fact that it's being made by Capcom... So I like that now some of the old action games that people loved in the PS2 and 360 era are coming back and they're not just copying the Souls-like, right? Because as much as I love Souls-like, like I feel like Elden Ring was kind of like the icing on the cake, right? Like that was the ultimate culmination of like 10 years or 15 years, maybe more are actually, honestly, at this point, of Souls-like just developing, developing, developing. And it's like, where do you really go now, right? Like I feel like
01:06:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
maybe, who knows, form stuff might blow my mind, but I feel like most of the moves now are going to be lateral, right? Yeah, of course. Because it's just so refined. Yeah, it's refined. This seems to be somewhat methodical in its combat, but and it also looks like it has a story, which is what I care about.
01:07:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
And Capcom is so good at not only making unique gameplay, but also having unique stories. So yeah I am hyped kind of for this, like cautiously optimistic, and I am probably This is a game where I have to wait to see what the reviewers say. Yeah, for sure.
01:07:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
There was a Game of Thrones War for Westeros announced. honestly didn't really care much about it. Ark Raiders gets an October release date. And then there were some updates for Hitman, which I wasn't too worried about. And a new Scott Pilgrim game, which interesting. I think made by one of the developers that made one of the original games. Again, looks interesting.
01:07:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
But the only one other thing that wanted to talk about, which was... Oh yeah, there was a new trailer for Death Stranding 2 at Summer Games Fest. And then, by the way, Hideo Kojima just did a walkthrough of the game after that.
01:07:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's like a two-hour walkthrough with a lot of the actors and the musicians and stuff. I mean, that's interesting, but I would also argue that the people who are buying Death Stranding 2 are already buying it, you know? But what was cool was they announced that this game has dynamic music.
01:08:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
So when you're running and gunning and fighting, the music ramps up. And then when you stop and slow down and walk, the music kind of calms down. It was really cool, like, the systems they've implemented in this game. But isn't that, like, already a thing? Like, doesn't Halo already do that?
01:08:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
No, I think it's, like, more like the music just kind of plays and just ramps up. I mean, guess I'll have to see what it's... High tension. But this is dynamic that any time you run, any time that you it it ramps i mean, I think I'll have to see it in action. Yeah.
01:08:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
So again, we'll see the review should be on a couple of weeks. people By the way, for people that don't know, there was already a preview event last month where people got to play 30 hours of Death Stranding 2.
01:08:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
So most people already have an idea of probably how good the game is. We'll get reviews pretty early. Now, here's interesting. Stranger Than Heaven is the new Rio Gotugu's official name for Project Century.
01:08:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
So Project Century was announced, I think, early this year in PlayStation State of Play, I think. And it was like an interesting looking game. These are the people that made... Yeah, the Yakuza games. And so this is their new game called Stranger Than Heaven. now I understand. Okay, so now I'm connecting the dots because I didn't realize what in the world I was looking at. yeah this is And I didn't understand why people were talking about it. Yeah, so again, this has been kind of re-revealed. So...
01:09:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
But again, isn't it kind of... like What's the point of calling it a project and then six months later just giving the actual... Yeah, that was dumb. Did you not know the title six months ago? Maybe not, but I would i would assume they did.
01:09:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
They were just still calling it because that was its codename. It was weird to announce it with the United States. I feel like maybe they were trying to... that was like their unique advertising angle to i don't know i just think it's kind of a weird but they're not the ones that do it a lot of developers will come up with project names it's just dumb i but either way stranger than heaven interesting name i didn't care i think the trailer looks somewhat interesting again they're clearly trying to flex their muscles and the amount of like npcs you're interacting with and stuff and i think the time piece like the the the era is set in looks interesting kind of reminded me a little bit of um of that red dead 2 in it it was like interesting the town the air um set piece i was like okay um then oh yeah this was interesting sonic racing's crossworld announced a bunch of uh characters that are going to be in the game from like minecraft persona like a dragon so this was leaked before the game uh before summer games fest announced it and then forgot who came out i think someone from sega basically said like hey this is really upsetting when leaks come out like this because it can ruin
01:10:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
licensing deals and maybe it doesn't happen at if if it gets leaked. So it's like you guys have to be very careful. like Please try not to leak this stuff. So I don't know how accurate or true that is. I mean, I'm happy they said it like that because I'm sure it can be, right? Like if, you know, the person you're making that deal with kind of decides to get cold feet, right? You can get really screwed. so And then the last thing that I just want because everything else was kind of crud here really was Resident Evil 9. So this has been teased for long time by Golem Dusk or whatever, that that one prominent linker who's been talking about Resident Evil 9 for a long time.
01:11:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it was so funny because the way they did it in the showcase, was straight up like, hey, I know you've all been waiting for a new Resident Evil announcement, but if you blink your eyes, you might have an announcement real soon.
01:11:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then 20 minutes later, they're like Resident Evil 9. It was the weirdest thing you could do. I don't know. I feel like it's this weird like marketing mood. I don't get it.
01:11:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
I didn't think that was Resident Evil at first. Yeah, it doesn't look like it. There's still like rumors that like Leon is going to be the main character. We don't know. It's called Resident Evil Requiem. And I think they they didn't they didn't announce release date. No, they did February of 2026. So they said they're showing up more in August. 2026 is going to be a stacked year.
01:11:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
yeah So again, I'm not a huge Resident Evil fan, but I know it's... But also the fact that now Capcom is having three huge releases in 2026. Animusha, Resident Evil, and Pragmata. Like, it' insane output. I kind of get the feeling that these studios and companies are realizing that it's not necessarily cannibalizing, right? Because... Yeah, they don't yeah step the channel.
01:12:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
They might not actually, you know, the same power user is going to buy all of them, right? And for someone who's not a power user, they might not buy any of them or maybe buy one of them. And it doesn't matter if they're all next to each other, right?
01:12:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
But when everything is stacked next to each other, they can kind of feed up hype, right? Because everyone's like, oh man, Capcom's on fire, right? And then they play one game. And then it's like, oh my God, Capcom's crazy. And then they play a second game, right? And so it just kind of like feeds into that, right? As opposed to like if someone releases a banger and now you're waiting like six years, right? Like, you know, only a couple of like the most prestigious studios really get away with that, right? Like Larian, you know, you release your game. It does not matter how long your next one comes out, right?
01:12:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
but I just think Capcom's output is so insane that like they were working on Resident Evil remakes and new Resident Evil games in parallel right with different teams.
01:13:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
On top of that, they're like, oh yeah, we're having three huge games come out all within the same year. And then they're like, yeah oh yeah they're i'm like i'm so confident that they didn't even show gameplay yet a resident evil knight and i know that whatever it ends up being is going to be good i just feel like something something clicked for them yeah at some point something clicked and they were just like no we're we're doing this you know and they're just going all in so they had monster hunter released this year too so yeah Dude, that they're probably making bank, you know. and And I feel like what happens is they make money off of one game and then they use it to fuel all the others.
01:13:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so they're not just milking one franchise, right? And then all the other franchises, they're just screwing around with some stupid project leaders, right? And then whatever, they lose, but whatever, we're still up, right?
01:13:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
I just feel like they're doing such a good job, like just growing their garden And I feel like a lot of these other Japanese companies like Square Enix, right? Like Sega, they have to be noticing, right? I feel like Sega's been doing a good job of this too. Sega's doing better. And it it's not a surprise, right, that, you know, Sega is killing it with Atlus, right? Now they're branching Atlus beyond Persona. And guess what? Now they're bringing back so many of their old franchises, right?
01:14:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think they're taking... uh you know something out of the playbook of capcom and i feel like square enix is probably noticing too you gotta kind of go in your bag of tricks they're bringing back sonic in a really good way it's been really doing well in parallel with the movie oh yeah and the fact that sega announced all those games last year that that we know are coming out from old ip so like if they can deliver on all of that i'm not saying they're going to be capcom like but they're in the right direction as a Compared to Square Enix, it was just falling off a cliff.
01:14:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
they yeah Speaking of like, because they had that random like murder in an endgame whatever like that. And it just feels like, you know, they get a lot of flack for just basically doing the same thing again and again.
01:14:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
So then instead of like taking a cautious step to the side, you know, and doing something and growing, they go so far to the left. You know, they go from like, let's make a million Final Fantasies to...
01:15:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
let's make foam stars. Yeah. And then two, let's make this in game. That tells you what little direction they have and they don't believe in their strategy and their vision and purpose anymore.
01:15:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
And whoever's running Square Enix obviously isn't doing good. They don't know what they're doing because when I look at Capcom and you tell me you release a new Resident Evil game almost every two years and you've done that now for the last six to eight years and they all sold incredibly well.
01:15:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
Why can't I get that for high quality Final Fantasy games? can't get one every years? When they come out, they're really bloated and They're not as good as you know the past. yeah And they're not meeting any sales expectations. Yeah, and then it takes you 10 plus years to release a new Kingdom Hearts game.
01:15:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
You can't even get that down. They just released new images of Kingdom Hearts 4 a couple weeks ago. And it looked like the same crud I saw the year prior. it's so bad forgot that game is still so bad and it's been so long it's like if you're gonna announce something get it out within two years of announcement give me a kingdom hearts 4 and a 5 you couldn't do that give me okay you can't say final fantasy remake because it's split into three parts counts as separate games don't do that that that is so dumb and then they go oh a final fantasy 6 and didn't to meet expectations
01:16:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
okay, so we're just not going do 17 because we don't know what direction had in because we thought this was the right direction. Like, you can't put your eggs in one basket. ah ah You just got to keep innovating and keep rolling with the punches sometimes. Yeah, you know, worried this is funny. so And I guess, you know, maybe with that we can switch gears and talk about Xbox. yeah So, you know me, I feel like I'm kind of biased, but you know, maybe I'll start by asking, how did you feel about the Xbox showcase?
01:16:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
What do you feel like stood out? Because there's quite a lot of stuff for us to talk about. Honestly, I just kind of want to get your like big picture thoughts. Definitely like a B- minus for me. Oh, that's lower than I expected. Almost like a C+. plus They, they teased some stuff in here that I think was a little disingenuous.
01:17:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like specifically when they made an announcement that like there are other core franchises coming in 2026, like don't talk to me about something that's a year and a half away. You already set a precedent to say whenever we talk about games in our showcase, it's within the next 12 months.
01:17:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
If you're not going to show them, then don't talk about them. you know So I don't like that Phil Spencer came in and then was like, yeah, Gears of War, Forza, and franchise that's been with us since the beginning and doesn't say what. like Don't tease something without saying what it is.
01:17:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it's like... So I guess for me, I had the opposite reaction. Like, I like that take because, like, what's the alternative, right? So, you know, I feel like it's one of those situations where, like, no matter what you do, someone's going to be unhappy because it's like a rock and a hard place.
01:17:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, if you release something and you pull resources away, right, like, let's say they gave us a little mini, you know, trailer of all of those big hits, it's going to take away from all of the games they have right now and everyone's going to have, like, the Ghost of Yotai effect. Like, why are you giving me a five second clip of something.
01:18:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
If they say nothing, then people on the internet are just going to be restless and they're going to be like, oh my God, Xbox is dead. you know So i think they I think for Microsoft, they're experimenting. you know I think like every year they have a slightly different tactic on like, how am I going to show off my information? right So I mean, it didn't bother me too much. I just thought their wording for what we're presuming is Halo was really strange. You know, yeah I think like Halo gears and Forza, like that was cool because that's kind of a surprise announcement in there. Like no one knew for sure next Forza game was coming out next year. right yeah so ables
01:18:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
Right. Yeah. So that was already like a big announcement, but like, why are you so cryptic about something that's been there from the start like you know it's halo we know it's halo but you won't tell us it's halo and then like unless you're so scared that like the last time you announced halo that you got burned that you're like you don't want because if you don't say it and it doesn't deliver in 2026 you're like read it we didn't we weren't talking about so it it just doesn't make sense to me you know and i feel like i didn't have a problem with Microsoft doing that technique, like, hey, we don't want to take away from the 2025 games, right?
01:19:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
We're just going to give you a little snippet you know to salivate. But why leave the fourth a question mark? That was a bad decision. It was so dumb because if it is Halo, the rumor now, like Tom Warren just came out after the fact saying, oh, and I know for sure they're talking about Halo Combat Evolved Remastered for 2026, which most likely means it'll come out PlayStation as well as Xbox.
Microsoft's Xbox Strategy
01:19:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
But if you're going to do that and it's literally a year away, why not just show it? yeah Legitimate. But that's what I mean. So, like, unless you're thinking, okay, we don't want to show it because, you know, we don't want to tie away resource development, right, to make a trailer. Because it does take a lot of effort to make a trailer. but ah Because people used to complain about, hey, these E3 trailers, the reason why they come out so good and the game comes out shit later. Yeah.
01:20:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
is we put so many resources to the rewards of the trailer. So I get that. But at the same time... you're going pre-rendered but if trailer? But if Halo is in such a time crunch that like you cannot pull resources aren't off, then it's... Let's be honest, it's a 2027 game that you're trying to push into 2026. Exactly. like If you can't even make your own a two-minute, a one-minute trailer, and on top of it, you could have just outsourced a trailer to a third-party company to make a pre-rendered cutscene.
01:20:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's like, hey, this isn't representative it's going with you. I think if... I think now would have been the time. you know If you were going to release Halo in 2026, you should have given us something in this. So I thought that was a ah ah really weird choice.
01:20:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
and um Unless the only thing I can think of, because this is being done so quickly, is the remaster of Halo Combat Evolved isn't the UE prototype stuff that we've seen. It's what they did with Gears of War yeah on PlayStation. I have...
01:20:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
but So I have a feeling, this is just my kind of you know suspicion, I don't think it's CE Remake. I don't think that's coming out next year Well, don't think it's Remake. I think it's Remastered. I think it's they upscaled Gears of War to go on PlayStation. They didn't change a whole lot. But the thing is, like if they did that, right? Okay, sure. I think the backlash would be so toxic. there I don't think they're that stupid. why would it be so toxic?
01:21:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
Because Halo has already been remastered, and then if they re-release it, and then they say, like, this is our big game, right? Like, you go to like think about it this way, you know? Like, Halo, Fable is getting a new installment.
01:21:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
Gears is getting a new installment. Forza, we can assume, is getting a new installment. you know A remake does not feel the same as all of those, but I think people will let it slide if it looks and feels substantially different.
01:21:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
But if you take Halo 1, which has already been remastered, right and then you're re upscaling and remastering a remaster, sure then it's going to piss so many people You're extending it to a bigger fan base that hasn't played it. so you're If that's the case, why not just release Master Chief Collection?
01:22:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
on on ps5 that might be a lot more effort than they thought but if it's so but if they do that if they just release Halo 1, but then they're going to bring Master Chief Collection, then they're like dragging it out. So i don't know, it could happen. But personally, what I think is going to happen is I think Halo CE remake is making progress.
01:22:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
i I think it's possible it can come out at the end of 2026, right? But I think probably it's going to be a 2027 game that they're trying to force into 2026. Again, i think they're trying to just make that perfect like Infinity Stone punch.
01:22:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
I wonder, and maybe I'm giving Xbox too much credit. I probably You normally do. But I know certain affinity has been cooking up something for a while. Dude, I haven't seen them put out. Look at Jagd Bidley's squad. Because they're helping everybody else. So, you know, all the rumors, and a lot of these rumors have been substantiated. Like, I was watching Sean McDoug's videos, and he was totally right on so much stuff, right?
01:23:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, they were working, and they were pretty far in a battle royale. And then they switched gears, right? And then, They decided... Yeah, here's... Ironic, right? But then they switched over to Unreal and so because the engine just wasn't working out, right?
01:23:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I get that. But all of that work doesn't just get scrapped, right? So I feel like Certain Affinity is working on something that might be a standalone project, right? Maybe. And I think people are just jumping the guns you know a bit, and they're just assuming it's CE Remake. I think there's a possibility it's a CE Remake, but I also think it's a possibility it's a standalone multiplayer only experience for Halo.
01:23:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's been rumored for a long time. Yeah. And, and so I think Microsoft has multiple Halo projects cooking, and I think it can be either one of them. And I think Microsoft does not know which one is going to come out first.
01:23:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. That's why they're in cryptic. Now that could make sense. Because they don't know if it's going to be the next installment of Halo. And then it ends up not being the next installment of Halo, but a standalone multiplayer project.
01:24:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then everyone is like, Phil Spencer, you lied. right And they don't want to release a trailer for a Halo CE remake because what if that gets pushed to 2027? And then everyone's like, Phil Spencer, you lied. So I think they purposely kept it cryptic.
01:24:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
How do I tell my fans that my favorite franchise is coming next year without telling them what it is? I think both there's multiple Halo projects cooking. And I think there are various different sizes.
01:24:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
because they realize that they can't just put all their eggs in one basket because 343 and now halo studios is just not that guy right and i think this is my suspicion i i think they don't know which one's gonna come out first that's fair i didn't think about it that way but you know what that's probably why they're saying but it's still it's still a weird thing to do you know and if you had just said we're celebrating with gears fable forza and and maybe a surprise.
01:25:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think that would come off better than say something that's been with us since the start. And then the funniest part is that after the show ends, immediately Tom Warren's like, yeah, and I know what the surprise is, it's this game. like yeah It's so hilarious. But if you think about it, like how would they get CEU Remake done in time? right Because if it's taken them like three years or two or three years just to get their shit together for Halo Infinite, right And then they basically released that video, switched to Halo Studios, their Unreal Engine now.
01:25:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
And they are basically asking for help. And they're calling people in. How can you then release a game that's high quality, that's faithful enough in two years? Yeah, doesn't make sense. It has to be a minimum of three years. like i just This looks like a 2027 game that I think Microsoft is trying to push into 2026. So we'll see. And honestly, if Halo didn't come out next year, I would be totally fine without it because we already have Gears E-Day, yeah the new Fable, and Forza, not to mention all the other Xbox announcements, right? So yeah why even set up that expectation? So it's just kind of strange.
01:26:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I guess we can talk about the rest of the show, because I think rated it kind of higher than you. probably give it a B+. plus I was pretty excited with the show overall, and I think, for me, the biggest disappointment of this show is the fact that there was no surprise announcements, right? yeah Well, there was.
01:26:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
Let's not bullshit. Are you talking about the handheld? No, Call of Duty 7. Let's go! no no I feel like that's where they really let down the most people, because Call Duty 7, why did that trailer look Too good. It looked too good for a time in game. Yeah, it started unique, and what is this? And then it was just like a weird simulation kind of. It's like Black Ops 7. It's like, dude, this isn't even a surprise. I mean, the thing is, Black Ops does get kind of weird, right?
01:26:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I did felt like it was oh a little on-brand, but still, like that looked like an amazing new IP. And then you find out it's Call Duty. And it's just a strange like thing to end on. So I just felt like that was a little weird.
01:27:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
think it was a little weird for their selection of words, you know, for Halo. Other than that, I was generally pretty happy with the the overall showcase.
01:27:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think last year's showcase was a lot better for me, but that's because it had to be better, right? Because they needed to make big announcements. Oh, last year was insane, utterly insane. and And so the thing is, like, in a weird way, again, maybe I'm too much of a fanboy.
01:27:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
I feel like this is a good problem for Microsoft to have. this This showcase did not lack games and it did not lack good games either. Right. It just was not surprising. Like it felt almost formulaic because it just felt like Microsoft is going to business.
01:27:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like they're just sitting you down and they're just presenting because they're just doing business. But see, this is now a little bit relative. Like I can compare to last year's showcase, which was utterly an A plus, like knocked out of the park.
01:27:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
This isn't a B plus to me. This is like a BB minus because. But the thing is like how many of those type of shows can you have again and again? Because even if you have 26 studios, how many surprise announcements can you have if you're also having a developer direct every six ah ah In between, right?
01:28:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, if you didn't have a developer direct, then you could have taken all those surprise announcements and shown them off. But at this point, like... No, I mean, i don't I didn't expect them to follow it up with the same type of showcase from last year. But again, I can compare relative. The bar has been set.
01:28:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
This, to me, wasn't a big place. So that's fair. I mean, you know, we can agree to disagree. But, you know, to me, I think you also need to have showcases like this. And it's I don't think it's a bad thing. thing. um Because I think you do need showcases that just do business, right? Like they answer questions and they don't have to answer them in like this hyperbolic way. They're just getting the job done. yeah so And for me, like the biggest surprise of the show was probably the Game Freak game.
01:28:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
i did not expect that game to be on game pass well also because everyone is now making fun of them by saying this is the output you put on the switch it looks like utter garbage it's scarlet and violet and they go this is what you put out on playstation xbox yeah like dog shit like dude so the thing is i don't really know how good the game is gonna be because you know it's kind of the action rpg you know souls like you know type of game we're getting that feels like a dime or dozen at this point yeah so i don't actually know if i'm gonna love it but the fact that you know it's a very big developer and they're making their first game really right out of pokemon that's really big game that's got pokemon on game pass yeah big that kind of like opens the horizons right so like now it's not just like
01:29:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
indies or traditional like double-A developers like you could even consider like studios that we consider triple-A that now want to do something totally different yeah come on over to game pass right so you don't have to uh be as worried about the risks you might take right so i really love that they announced hollow knight silkson which no one thought was ever going to come out this year and it's a launch title for the rog ally or xbox ally x and x um yeah li so that was interesting because this game has been on ice forever and i don't know if it's actually going to make it but the fact that they're very commonly like yeah it's coming out of this hall i just don't know why they're not really showing stuff off for it but i guess it does its own marketing right like people don't really need to do anything which is weird how that game becomes that popular like people love it so um guess other things i wanted to talk about there were two uh two new uh xbox game studio games that got announced
01:30:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
I did not expect Grounded 2. That was a huge surprise to me. and i Three games in one year. That's insane. And I did not expect Grounded 2 to basically be a partnership with Eidos Montreal. Yeah, that's weird. And then I remember they said the line that, you know, you know we felt like Eidos Montreal...
01:30:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
is similar to us and kind of like their workflow and and stuff like that. Am I missing something? Like I would never think Idols Montreal wanted to make a game about spiders and ants. yeah know So that was a surprise. I like the way they're expanding Grounded. I think it's interesting that they're deciding to make it like an early release type of game, early access.
01:31:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's also crazy to me how many people play Grounded because I think they were saying it's like 10, 15 million, maybe more than that. it's mind blowing to me that that was a game made by just 10 or 12 people. So I think that's going to be a huge hit for them as well.
01:31:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
I mean, I'm surprised they didn't announce Perfect Art again or like just show off more gameplay. It was nice to see it last year, but like man, another year goes by and there's utter silence. like It's another game of Warhead, just like Wolverine. But why do you get worried about things like if you don't hear about them in a year?
01:31:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
Because you show it off last year, particularly with no release date. And then you would hope that they would just say, coming 2026. You just say, look, here's progress.
01:31:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
But if you're not consistent on that, it's okay. It's just that this was a game you were touting a reason for like fans to be happy about. This isn't like a double, like a doubling. It's big game, yeah. They called it a quadruple a back in the day.
01:32:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, I mean, i do I think that terminology is really kicking them in the butt. But the thing is, like, you know, don't know, maybe I had a different opinion. I feel like I saw enough of Perfect Dark that, you know, there's still some questions about it, right? But I'm not going to really get those questions answered until we see it close to release date, you know?
01:32:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think we should just let them cook, you know? And again, I think Perfect Dark is probably something that if it's not coming out 2027, we're going see it in a developer direct. Yeah. You know, I think it's the perfect type of game for that.
01:32:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I really think Microsoft is trying to emulate Sony and they don't want to overcrowd. Cause you know, if they have so much, it gets diluted out. Right. And so like perfect dark, they're probably just going to show it off three to six months before it comes out. And I think that's what Microsoft is trying to train your brain to do. And I think right now we're so used to the Xbox where we have to constantly see what they're doing because we think they're going to screw everything up and they want to be seen as Sony. We're like, don't worry. We got you.
01:33:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
We're going to show you this game. It's going to come out three to six months from now. Yeah, I agree. I don't think they've earned that reputation yet, but they're trying. Another game they announced is Final Fantasy is finally coming to Xbox.
Xbox Game Library Expansions
01:33:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
So you got Remake Integrate coming out of this winter. And that it's also launching all the at the same time on the Switch, too.
01:33:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then Final Fantasy XVI is out today. That was a shadow drop. Interesting that XVI came out before Remake. Yeah, I don't understand where the recent... who's doing the reporting in-house because why would 16 first? I don't know. I was just actually watching some stuff from a digital foundry and I can't, they kind of were giving the perspective that final fantasy 16,
01:33:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
The port is not that great. The Xbox port. The Xbox port is not that great. The PC port wasn't great either. So there's something going on where they did a quick, either they outsourced it or they just, shit. Because again, they've had so many years, so.
01:33:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, like what going on? But whatever. But I also think it's interesting that Rebirth, sorry, Remake is getting so much attention and Rebirth just came out. Yeah. It makes me wonder, like, how long do we have to wait for Rebirth to come out on all the other consoles? Like, if it's, ah ah like, a 2027 thing, like, I feel like that's the latest you could do it. But, like, man, if it's later than that, like, come on. well People are going to be over. Actually, sorry. Let me let me phrase this differently. There are rumors that Rebirth is going to come out the Switch 2 next year. Rumors.
01:34:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
That was reported by credible leakers. So I mean, if they do that, then I feel like it would come on Xbox right away. So this is both coming same time. I think this addresses like a big weak point of Microsoft, which is the lack of the Final Fantasy games, right? Especially after 15 was on everything.
01:34:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I think that's, helpful but again I've already played both of them right and I feel like the hype has died down on them so I think it's a good get good announcement you know little too but it just it kind of feels like again doing business right like a lot of this stuff felt like a little too uh Too little, too late, right?
01:34:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
But at least they're going to business and getting these things done. so And I guess another one of the the games that I wanted to talk about was Keeper. you know I know you haven't really gone to play Psychonauts 2, but I absolutely love that game. Yeah, it looks interesting. I did not expect...
01:35:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
to like Psychonaut 2 as much as I did and it automatically went really high up on my list. You know, maybe I overhyped myself, but I was personally kind of disappointed by the Keeper reveal. Yeah, I was too. I was seeing it and I was like, alright, this is like like a fascinating vibe, but like from a game per perspective, like how cool is it going to be to be a lighthouse.
01:35:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
like like How much am I actually going to be able to do and How much storytelling can you do? Because you give them so many years to not work on their next game. I would have loved to see them do Banjo-Kazooie. I just feel like they were primed to do a game like that.
01:35:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
And again, let them give them the freedom that they want. But if this game doesn't do well, I don't know how much longer the studio is going to be around. I mean, I think Double Fine will survive. I don't want to be hyperbolic. like Think about it. They've survived.
01:35:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
So can not sell well, but think about it. Like psych double fine has survived through so much and through so many decades. I don't see double fine and Tim Schafer like going anywhere, maybe not but I think like, I don't think this is their only game. I think there have multiple things cooking. I just think it's interesting that they would rather stay in the double a space and make multiple games as opposed to trying to build up towards a banjo or, you know, like a psychonauts three.
01:36:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
I'm going to definitely play this game, but you know, to me, it kind of looked a little more mid to me, but we'll see. I think it, I think I was reading somewhere that there's, there's no like conversations, right? So yeah. that's i And so how are they going to start? telling And so this is the type of game where either it's going to be just absolutely insane. And people going to talk about like, this is the most like emotional, magical experience I've had, or it's going to be like, Oh my God. Like, you know,
01:36:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
what happened like i feel like this is either i think i don't think sinkchra swim you know i don't think so i don't think they've ever put out i mean i don't say ever they haven't put out in a bad game in a while so i actually am confident that regardless of what it is it's going to be pretty decent like it's going to be a unique idea me like i kind of feel like i mean this is not the same as pentiment you know but like kind of that thing you know we're like you know, you have a studio that has a pretty long history and they're trying to make like kind of a passion project or something unique.
01:37:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
So, you know, I'll see, I think it's interesting when it's being released because this is coming out at the same time that in October. And I think within this,
01:37:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
Same two weeks, we have this coming out. Ninja Gaiden. Ninja Gaiden 4. And a bunch of other game And then Outer Worlds 2. Yeah. they're so big And some stuff from Sony as well. Like, there's a lot of games. So October's going to be crazy, right? And it's interesting that April was crazy. Pokemon on October 16th. Oh, my God, yeah. So everything is just coming out in that week. So that's going to be an insane week.
01:37:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
I'm definitely going to play this. I'm definitely going play Ninja Gaiden 4. But I guess, like, that kind we can go on next to what I loved the most about the show was two things. The freaking RPGs, man, I felt like, uh, auto worlds two and, in exiles game clockwork revolution, they really showed up, man. And I feel like they looked so freaking good. So polished.
01:38:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't even know which one I liked more. Um, I absolutely adored the way that they presented. Out of Worlds 2. I don't know who the actor is. Isn't that the guy that is the Sonics voice in the live action film? he might I think he was also in that Space Force TV show yeah on Netflix before it got canceled.
01:38:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
Bro, that was hilarious. like The whole way they presented it, I was laughing the whole time. yeah it was good and I've never had that much fun watching a presentation. like I think a lot of people try to bring humor into like their presentations, but it sometimes comes off like a gimmick.
01:38:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
But man, Obsidian just nailed the tone of that entire presentation. The gameplay looks fantastic, right? To me, like the gunplay looks great. There's so much variety in what you can do.
01:38:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it was such a subtle, it was such a smart way of, you know, just having those interviews about, you know, the deficits that people can have. And one is like staring into the sun and one is bad me's. And then you look at the game and you look at the real world, yeah like ramifications of those things in the game. I was like, oh my God, this is... It was funny. it was good yeah and i think like that game is probably gonna like sharp a lot of people who are just hating on obsidian because i feel like this is the internet you know like they just like it's like a rage bait title like oh the once great studio is dead right because they saw avowed they didn't feel like avowed was all about obsidian right and meanwhile obsidian's cooking outer worlds 2 which is basically giving you everything that you want from an obsidian game but obsidian is dead you know and
01:39:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I feel like, you know, sometimes developers want to do something a little different, right? Doesn't you like they're dead, right? So I thought that was interesting. In Exiles game looked interesting. In ex an Exiles game, like, definitely had such a glow up, you know? I felt like, I mean, and I really have to watch the trailer again in four k But man, it just looks so good. Like the textures, the lighting, like I love the steam pack, a punk aesthetic.
01:40:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
love the way they presented the game as well. The story sounds really fascinating. The choice and consequence are interesting. And I love that it kind of has this like humor. It's almost like British humor. It's like this yeah dark kind of dry humor and,
01:40:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
man, I thought that looked amazing. And I was so disappointed when they didn't even give us a release year because yeah based off I was so shocked based off of that presentation. I was like, this looks like it's ready to go in 2026. There's definitely a lot there. and again,
01:40:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
Is it going to be a beefy game? Every time an exile releases a game, it's our huge... They're pretty beefy. Wasteland 3 was beefy as hell. I don't want to glaze too much because you now you never know, right when especially when someone is transitioning from like a CRPG you know to first person shooter rpg that's a pretty big transition so we don't know how it's going to go but man if this hits the way i think it's going to hit like it's really going to elevate in exile into kind of the you know higher stratospheres of the rpg world and it's just fantastic to see that glow up and you know it's you know i think as someone who's a manager like you could probably speak to this like it kind of makes me think about like
01:41:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
you know, the role of a manager and like what happens when you give all these different creative studios, like, you know, a bunch of money. Right. And it's interesting. It's almost like a case report and how everyone goes a different way. Right. Like some people fizzle out, some people, you know, kind of do more of what they're doing. They make more lateral moves. Some people reach for the skies and then they burn.
01:41:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
Right. And some people just really, all they really needed was resources, right? That was the main thing holding them back. And everyone else is having other things that are holding them back. But these people just need resources like Obsidian.
01:41:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
They just needed resources and exile. and They just needed resources. I forgot out who said it. One of them said it in the trailer. They're Oh, with more money and time, this is what we're able to, they literally said that in there. And so I love that. And you know,
01:42:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
I liked Hellblade 2 a lot. I know how you feel about Hellblade 2. One of the worst games I've ever played. I know how you feel about Hellblade. But I say that because like you know I feel like the way Ninja Theory reacted to having a bunch of money.
01:42:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
you know Yeah, I know, right? More news. But the way Ninja Theory kind of reacted to getting like a bag full of money is so different, right? Because, you know um mean, we've got to see what Project Mara looks like.
01:42:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I felt like Ninja Gaiden 2 was... lateral if not downslope, right? Like I think we can both agree on it being more of kind of a downward curve for that studio. You mean held late too? Oh, what did I say? Indigrating.
01:42:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
My, ooh, oopsie. 40 and slip. You know I love Ninja Game 2. So I was thinking about gaming 4, but yeah, I mean, I'm really excited to see how both of those RPGs pan out. And I think Microsoft is really happy with those stats, man. I think those really paid off. Yeah, I think so too. They're unique. You don't see those style and flavors of games like often. And again, i kind of trust in exile. I didn't play Wasteland 3 a whole lot, but it was kind of fun for some time.
01:43:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it's not my style of game, but I think they can translate well. You just have to give these teams the freedom to try something else. and like what It's like when Guerrilla went from Killzone to Horizon. like They knew they could kind of stretch themselves, and they wouldn't have known that if Sony ah didn't say, like, okay, you got one shot.
01:43:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
They just needed that one shot. It's the same thing with Naughty Dog, when they went from like you know Crash Bandicoot to Uncharted to Last less of Us. You just got to believe in your teams, right? Yeah. And I think it's so interesting now that, you know, you have multiple studios making multiple RPGs that all are kind of in different settings, right? Like how cool is it that we get a fantasy RPG setting, right? Like Avowed and Skyrim. And then we also get, you know, space RPGs like Starfield.
01:43:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
and now Outer Worlds, right? And then now we have a Victorian, you know, like... And we're still getting Fable. RPG, right? and And so we're getting so much variety in the settings of the RPGs too, right? And so... They can kind of all learn from each other too. It's not like, you know, they don't all have to work in a silo. I think that's the best thing about Microsoft and kind what comes from there. especially like if a lot of them are using like similar engines right like if that's in tech or under engine and just knowledge sharing if yeah if you're using same tech but also if you aren't you go hey here's good game design this is how we like use work with ah in our within our pipeline you might want to try that this way you can make your development more efficient if you go about it this way and you know i really do hope that you know i think outer worlds 2 is going to be a big hit for them and i think microsoft is doubling down on outer world that's why you know
01:44:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
you're, you're seeing them not. Yeah. Yeah. It's an October. And that's why they're not giving as much attention to some of the developer direct afterwards or no. Uh, yes, I did. I haven't watched yet. So did the gameplay actually look good?
01:44:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh dude, you need to go watch it. It's the funniest thing. And the gameplay looked great. You're going to love it. So, and that's also when they were showing off grounded. So they did kind of like a double feature. So I would say that was, that was hilarious and that was super worth it.
01:45:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
But the reason I bring it up is, you know I feel like a, Obsidian double down on the Obsidian DNA with Outer Worlds and with Avowed, they were trying to go more in that Mass Effect, like RPG, light action RPG type of thing. Right.
01:45:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
And, you know, I hope they make an Avowed too, because I really did enjoy Avowed. And I wonder, you know, how they'll morph that, right? Like if now they'll take that action RPG, which really really I thought the gameplay of Avowed was fantastic. Right. And I felt like it was easy to digest. It wasn't overwhelming.
01:45:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
But now they'll bring in some of the learnings that had with Outer Worlds 2 and kind of get the best of both worlds. Yeah, that's fair. And if you think about it, like, you know, look at the way Outer Worlds 2 feels like a glow up from the first one, right? And so you can have the same thing. Also, they probably had, if they've split their teams up, their A team was probably working on Outer Worlds out of all three of the games.
01:46:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
So we're probably going to see, which is, again, why they're advertising and marketing more than any of the other games. And now Granted 2 kind of just speaks for itself. It's kind of like Sea of Thieves where, hey, people just liked it and they know more people will play and they don't have to say a whole lot about it. But Outer Worlds 2 is the one game where they're like, we had our A team on it, we've worked it for years, and you're going to now fully experience like what Obsidian brings. And About you know it was kind of there. It's just that it didn't really speak whole of people.
01:46:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, I mean, it didn't hit the same way for the general gaming audience, right? And it also makes me wonder, I think his is Josh Shoyer, right? like ah And ah And I wonder what he's up to because he was very focused on Pentiment, right?
01:46:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so I wonder how involved he's been with Outer Worlds or if really he's now creating a whole other project, right? Because they wanted seven games in seven years. That was their goal, right?
01:46:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
And my God, they might actually deliver because they got Auto Worlds 2. They have two grounded games. They have Pentamint. And then they have a about, that's already five games. Two more games. And so that's two more games. They get the shutdown afterwards. And so, right? It's like, how many more ideas can you add?
01:47:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
But that makes me wonder, like, is Josh cooking something else, right? Like, what could he be cooking? Probably, yeah. so So I thought all of that was was pretty good. Yeah, there's a couple games i want to talk about. So Ninja Gaiden 4 comes out October 21st. You know, this is a multi-platform, so it'll be on PlayStation as well.
01:47:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
What was interesting is they showed up another trailer, which... Again, looking at the gameplay has me pretty hyped for this. It really does look like they didn't change a whole lot for Ryu. Legitimately, the stuff that I'm playing right now in Ninja Gaiden Black 2 is legitimately what I'm seeing here. And it's like, okay, fine. The new protagonist is probably what they want to focus on.
01:47:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I do expect that this game fix a lot of the problems that were in Black 2. Yeah, just the camera. The camera specifically. Now... There's also, can't believe this, a Super Meat Boy 3D reveal. Okay, do you know what Super Meat Boy is? I'm not familiar with this at all. 10 or 15 years ago, when Super Meat Boy first came out, super popular game.
01:48:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's like 2D, almost like platformer, but like it's unique in the sense that like you can die really easily. and In some weird sense, it's kind of like quarry. But they they're basically it's like them transforming Mario it from 2D to 3D. This is what this looks like to me. So this to me somewhat revolutionary for this franchise because the last one that came out was so long ago and it was so popular.
01:48:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
this is like a Mario moment for me. And i maybe and not a lot of people are talking this, but this to me was a Mario moment. It was like, was like wow, here's Mario Galaxy. like This is what I saw when I saw this. trailer so i'm honestly hyped that they show this at the xbox game but now is this multi-platform i don't know i think it is yeah and i don't think it's on game pass but still i feel like one of the big holes that microsoft has is lack of platformers right and so you have astrobot you have mario like you know banjo apparently no one wants to make and so and we're probably far off from spyro crash so you know it doesn't feel like there's a lot of
01:48:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
even third-party you know platformers right because for whatever reason a lot of the platformers we're seeing now are mascots right for their respective console brand so we're not really seeing a lot of just platforming games for kids to play yeah i agree um thing was there was an update to see if they set season 17 kind of crazy because i feel like feel like this is doing better than destiny ever has like in some weird ways where destiny has flopped up and down his head you see if this has just been like continuously growing and it's just crazy and now they have like playstation you know all of those people playing as well i'm sure i think they have like 40 million people or something 30 or 40 another thing that was announced was the raw raw ah xbox ally x and the raw xbox a this is kind of crazy because there's been rumors recently that from like incredible leakers that xbox was working on their own handheld and they decided to kind of shelf it for the time being
01:49:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
And they're just focusing on getting a unified windows 11 experience on the raw guy with the Z, the Zen two or the Z two AMD processor. or What is it called? forgot called the Z two extreme.
01:50:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then on top of that, they announced the silk song is going to really stay in date when this comes out. Now, right now the current version with the Z one extreme is about a thousand dollars. Like the raw guy has up their prices, which is kind of crazy. So, you know, when this comes out, it'll probably be roughly around the same price.
01:50:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
But you can play Xbox PC games on this natively cloud stream, and you can still launch other storefronts. So I think this is interesting. They made this the the shape more ergonomic. and It has now the rhombus, the Xbox. I really like the way they presented it in the trailer, yeah like how it just kind of comes in and it morphs to your fingers. Like, man, that marketing team is is great.
01:50:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know, I have actually thought a lot about this, you know, and I've been wanting to talk about it for a while because I feel like I'm hearing takes all over the place, right? And I think like very realistic plate people, and I think you mentioned this too, Digital Foundry was talking about this as well.
01:50:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know, if you think about, you know, how much of a system mover this is going to be, it's not going to sell much, right? Like, but I kind of feel like what this is for gaming is what, you know, my Galaxy Fold is, right? You know, that but that really, that enthusiast, that hardware device that kind of shows you what gaming could be, right? Like, remember back in the days when we had,
01:51:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
the Surface Studio, right? And I mean, that was a low volume thing, but it really shows sold you on the vision and got you excited for where this company is going, right? This does not seem like it's a high volume type of thing.
01:51:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so because of that, I don't think Microsoft is going to eat a lot of costs, right? Like if they thought that they were going to sell tens of millions, you know, 50 million, 70 million of these, then they would probably eat the cost and try and make it competitive, right? With the switch.
01:51:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't think they're going to do that. I think this is more kind of a statement piece. And I think it's a much needed kick in Microsoft and Windows ass to finally optimize so they can actually fight SteamOS because SteamOS is just this is running away with things. And the thing is, like the Steam Deck does not sell much, right? But think about how much the narrative has changed for Steam, right? yeah Think about when there was all those Steam computers, right? And then Steam Big Picture and stuff like that.
01:52:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
And people weren't talking about that in the same way, right? But now Steam Deck, they're talking about it in such a way where you can't even imagine Steam vanishing, right? And like, we've always felt that way. But like now the distance between Epic Game Store, really Epic, I feel like is one of the competitors.
01:52:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
It just feels even grander, right? And and bigger. And so I think like this is kind of the move Xbox has with the Ally X, I don't know if I'm going to buy it, to be honest. I'm not sure yet either.
01:52:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
Because i do if I didn't already have an ROG ally, then I would probably buy this. Yeah, then I would have bought it. But you know after getting an ROG ally, I feel like for me personally, i really enjoyed playing it for a while, but then I really got sick of updating it and charging it and having to deal with it not resuming from standby. And even if Microsoft cleans up a lot of that, they're not going to clean up all of it, right? And I don't feel like spending that large sum of money for something that feel to me is going to be an in-between product because I i don't think, and I think Digital Foundry made this argument, like like when you make a switch, like you expect that switch to carry you for seven, eight years.
01:53:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
When you make the Xbox Ally X, does anyone think that this is going to carry, you know, Windows handhelds for seven to eight years? No. Anyone buying this, thing are is probably going to realize, yeah, I mean, is going to be outdated in like three years, you know, tops.
01:53:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
But whatever, I want the enthusiast device. Yeah, I mean, I wonder also if, is the new Windows 11 UI and OS going to be compatible with the older versions of ROG Ally?
01:53:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, if this is truly just specifically to, really for the form factor, let me just update my older ROG Ally. Microsoft kind of answered that. Like, they were giving a lot of, like,
01:54:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
Vagish answers, but they said maybe probably like things like that So I think they don't know because they haven't cracked it yet So they haven't actually figured it out completely and so they're like, okay, we're gonna figure it out.
01:54:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
She'll be first and then know what the pipeline looks like to bring it to everything else. But I think Microsoft has every intention of bringing it to everything else. because because like i don't but Because it's not like they're going to withhold it to make people upgrade. Because how many people are actually going to be pissed off enough that they're not getting the new software?
01:54:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
that they'll upgrade from an ally, that one of the old allies, to the Xbox Ally X. It's such a small fraction of people. I agree. And it's also not easy to – there's no resale market. Exactly, right?
01:54:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's such an enthusiast device, right? And so, okay, like you you make a little bit more money because you force people to upgrade, but how many people going to hate you, right? And you sold what?
01:54:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
200,000 more copies, 500,000 more copies. Like it's not going to push the needle for Microsoft. So I don't think they're going to do that. I think if, I think they have every intention that if they have the resources to move to other things, they will, but Microsoft is finicky and they move fast.
01:55:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I think the reason they can't tell us concretely is they don't actually know their roadmap for three to four years. And, you know, it's like, okay, what if, Everything they want to do with the Xbox Ally X takes a year and a half. And then it would take half a year to a year to bring that to a different console, you know, to the older ones.
01:55:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
Where are we going to be in two and a half years? Are we going to be like 75% into the development of a handheld, right? A true handheld. And can we even make that happen when we have Xbox Play anywhere?
01:55:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I think Microsoft is in this weird zone, which is very, very much a double-edged sword, where they're moving fast and they are trying to really change a lot and do very unique things.
01:55:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
And because of that, like, it's kind of chaotic, right? It's kind of messy, but at least things are changing. right And we could end up, and I think we will, we will end up with a pretty good result because this is how Microsoft does stuff. right like This is how Windows became such a big player the early ninety in the 90s.
01:56:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I'm excited for it, probably not going to buy it, but I'm excited for it. And I'm really excited for how this is going to shape the future like two years from now. Yeah, I agree. The more the more the time goes on, the more advanced. from I never thought Xbox would have branded with someone like Asus to do that.
01:56:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
But it just tells you that like, we're going to get even more and more in the coming years. And one thing I thought that was fascinating, and I only noticed this with Digital Foundry. So how many times did Microsoft tell us play anywhere, play anywhere, I felt like it was all over the place in this showcase, even more so than older showcases, right.
01:56:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I think it can actually give you some insight into what Microsoft is thinking. Like, I feel like in years past, like Game Pass was the biggest thing, right? Here, Game Pass is still a big thing, but I think they really want you to know you can play anywhere.
01:57:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
And at first, I didn't understand the whole point. But then I realized that a lot of third-party games that are coming out on Xbox are not playing anywhere, right? And so when you buy the Xbox copy, you do not get the Microsoft Xbox copy as well.
01:57:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so that's a big pain because a lot of their first party games, you don't have that problem. And so now a lot of these games that they're announcing will have that Xbox play anywhere. So you buy on the Xbox, you play it on the And so that way you don't have to run into the issue because if you buy an Xbox LAX and you buy the Xbox digital version of the game, you might not be able to play it.
01:57:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. Right? Because unless it's Xbox Play Anywhere, there's no way you're going to play on that. right yeah And that's going to piss off a lot of people. But I think if, like, this is that transition moment, right? This is, like, not as big as, like, the M1 Mac, obviously, but kind of that movement towards getting Xbox Play Anywhere i think across the board, which I think would be a very good result if all developers end up in the point where you buy an Xbox copy and you get both the Microsoft Store copy on PC and the Xbox. That'd be amazing. I don't know how the contracts look like. Like, are they paying the public, the developers a little more because like most games now are multi-platform. So when they come out on Xbox and PlayStation, they also come out on Steam.
01:58:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
So they're like, if you're already making a PC version, we want you to make an Xbox PC version, not just a Steam version. We'll link it and make it play anywhere. They get a free copy. But wait, you put in a little extra effort to make an Xbox version, here's some extra money. Yeah, I wonder, I don't know what those numbers look like, but, you know, I don't think developers are making a lot of money from the Xbox yeah and i store. Because I think and almost everybody will buy it from Epic Game Store or yeah Steam for good reason because the Xbox ah ah store version oftentimes pretty broken yeah and inferior, right?
01:58:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think this is a ah ah good way of kind of forcing like a certain standard to be met, you know, and if the end role is basically you're getting a PC version and an Xbox version for every game that you buy and you can play on any PC like device or Xbox like device and the two eventually pretty much merge. Yeah. mean that I feel like that's your vision and that's going to be a big moment for them because yeah, it won't be now. but have.
01:59:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
you'll you'll probably be able to boot in the Steam then Yes, well, it's not now, but eventually you'll be able to play native Xbox games, eventually in handheld PC devices. So they're not there yet, they're trying to figure it out, and that's like some translation. Yeah, this is probably like a halfway step. It is a halfway step.
01:59:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
And they can't do it all the way, right? Because, you know, those older Xbox games would be a pain yeah with backwards compatibility to now make them all Xbox, you know, store, you know, Windows, you know, compatible, especially since Windows keeps evolving. yeah And so that would be, I don't even feel like it's worth it. That's such a nightmare.
01:59:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, maybe. But there' they're getting, like you said, this is a half step. It's a good start. And this is a kind of a rush to the market because I'm telling you, Steam OS has forced their hand in a good way.
02:00:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't think there's any coincidence that, you know, the, you got the numbers on what the, the steam version of that r ROG looked like. And then the windows version. And when it was just so clear as day more than ever before, how much better steam is. yeah perform I think at that point, Microsoft's like, Oh my God, there's no way, you know, if we're already this far behind,
02:00:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
There's no way that anything we'll do will be successful because Steam is going to be a bigger threat because they could easily pivot and kill us, right? Like, Steam could easily pivot into consoles and you could have a Steam console, Steam handheld, Steam everything running on Linux.
02:00:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
You have basically out Microsoft, Microsoft. Yeah, because, but again, this all came about, look, they both coexisted for years, right, in the last 10 years where... People would still buy games on the Steam. They're like, we don't want to buy the Xbox PC version of it.
02:00:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
But people were playing primarily on a PC. Now that they made Steam Deck, it forced them to find a new use case that said, oh, like we need to make an enhanced version of our OS that's more streamlined, that strips away a bunch of these processes.
02:01:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
There's a need now. So the fact that Valve put out the Steam Deck and then said we can now... take our OS and put it on third party devices too. Like the Legion go. yeah That's what scared them. feel like steam, like people focus so much on the different, like, you know, the rivalry between, uh, Xbox and Sony, but I think probably I'm just totally guessing here, but I feel like what probably scares them more is steam. Right. Because I mean, again, if steam made a console, right. Yeah. They're going to, and they they want to, and they honestly, if steam made a console,
02:01:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
What is the purpose of an Xbox other than Game Pass? Yeah, then there isn't anymore. makes it obsolete. Because it makes it obsolete. yeah Because now you have the same... And think about the synergy. Think about how well everything will work together because it's already working yeah together but between your Steam console, your Steam handheld, your steam library on your Steam PC that you've been slowly collecting for decades.
02:02:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
Valve would... be more of an existential threat to Xbox yeah than Sony ever could. Because Sony's not in the same way. Because they they went their whole PC strategy route with the Play Anywhere and the Game Pass PC.
02:02:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like said, Steam screws them more than Sony does. And the funny part is, again, laughed, and it's a little disingenuous, that Sarah Bond comes on, talks about the Xbox ally, and She goes, we're pushing the boundaries and we're innovating. It's like, no, you're doing this because you're being forced to. Isn't it kind of funny that talked about like all the compatibility with like the other battle, you know, battle man, all this type of thing.
02:02:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
Specifically did not say Steam. Yeah, did not Steam. So I think that really goes to show you like Microsoft, you know, they they they kind of have this like love-hate relationship with Steam where like obviously the fact that Steam is as successful as it is keeps people buying Windows PCs. Keeps something. which helps Microsoft fight off Apple, which is another existential threat for them.
02:03:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
But then at the same time, Steam is too strong, then it can be an existential threat to Xbox. Which is funny because we've said this a lot, that a Microsoft and Xbox is probably the now most consumer-friendly of the three OEMs, or now four, if want to say.
02:03:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
But here's the funnier part. Every single time they go in a different direction, they're Oh, we're going to innovate in this space. No one else has it here. Psych, Steam Deck, and Valve. Oh, we go portable. Oh, Nintendo.
02:03:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh, we go to consoles, PlayStation, Sony. But that's the thing. That's the thing. We go to PC. That's the tech world. You know, like everybody has iPhone. Well, not everybody. I don't. But most people love iPhones, right?
02:03:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
And they'll always say, well, I know Apple does it later and last, but they do it best, right? And so people in the end of the day, just they just want the best. Well, it's funny that like Microsoft's trying to carve out their own space. And every single time they do it, they go, someone keeps knocking in the front door. It's like the Grim Reaper's like, not today, you know? it's like Again, like i I will, this sounds like such a dig on Microsoft.
02:04:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I have to give Microsoft credit because they are really, really innovating. Like they are trying, you know? And a lot of people, they're so complacent. Like I looked at, you know, the new iOS update and i'm like, really, it's a glass, you know, like animations, like we're Windows Vista, you know, like seriously, that was like the whole thing. So, but I say that because like, as much as I have to give Microsoft credit for trying to still be innovative, like Microsoft sometimes really does work harder, not smarter. Yeah, yeah. Work harder.
02:04:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
It feels like they are always like pushing a ball up a mountain. Yeah. You know? And then they're like, look at us. Look at what we did. It was so crazy. It's like, you didn't have to. And meanwhile, Steam is just like, well, you know, I got these Steam sales, right? You know, Game New and just it. like, you're right. And it's just...
02:04:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
like steam is the definition of working smart or not. Yeah. you know but anyways, you know, so I think like, those were some of the things I really liked about the showcase. I think to kind of just wrap up on a few more of my thoughts, you know, I thought some of the third party games were cool. Like I liked the fact that like flag's tail high, high on life too. They're getting released, uh, sequels or one of them, I guess. Can we, can we talk about this? Cause we just said this like moments ago or minutes ago, high life too.
02:05:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
They didn't show actual gameplay. You know what they did? Pre-rendered. Yeah. And you couldn't do that for Halo. You legitimately... Hey, but if you think about it, that means that Highland Life 2 felt like they needed to show
Halo's Influence & Microsoft's Strategy
02:05:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
something.
02:05:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
Agreed. But hey lo you don't think you needed to show something? I guess not, man. They just want to cook. But the thing is, if you think about a lot of like, you know, I know Halo has really had a lot of low moments, but it's still a recognizable IP, right? I mean, think about how much we're talking about Halo...
02:05:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
And they didn't even name Raphalo. yeah they evening And how much we're talking about it just to go to show you its repertoire, but like a lot of these smaller studios, like they have to lean on these flashy type of things for us to even, I don't know.
02:05:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
They think they need to do that to get our attention. You know, I think it kind of shows more of an insecurity. yeah But I say all that because I'm happy, like they are releasing sequels.
02:06:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
I'm happy that they're going to be on game paths because it's showing, you know, part of the strategy where it's just like, okay, We have these homegrown franchises that, you know, we're kind of these more indie darlings and now they're developing into like whole big franchises that have a more recognizable Xbox name to them.
02:06:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
So i'm happy they're doing that. But again, it wasn't like a drop the mic type of moment. It just felt like doing business, right? I thought some of their third third party stuff looked really good. And I think they were trying to kind of say, hey, you know, we're Microsoft, we help you find these amazing indies that are like basically better than AAAs like Clear Obscure and Lies of P. Let ah me show you this vampire game for the people who made Witcher, right?
02:06:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
which okay the game looks really cool right but it didn't also hit the same way as those games and second it's not on game pass yes so okay and then chronos all right yeah you know that's interesting look cool you know i'm not gonna lie but again you know it just felt like kind of odd timing and placement because again these are are games that are going to be on every platform. And I think Chronos has been shown on PlayStation. Yeah, I think it already has. So those were, i don't think they were like the best bang for your buck, you know? And so that's why i rated it kind of lower. Yeah, I'd give it a B- objectively. I get it, but I give it B- plus objectively.
02:07:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I think the reason why I kind of settled on that is because i really felt like Clockwork and Outer Worlds... exceeded my expectations. Even though I was disappointed in the keeper game and grounded to is not my forte.
02:07:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
Microsoft was still able to show off more first-party stuff than Sony. see, you can't you can't do that. This is an Apple's orange comparison. I don't There was a joke. No, because Xbox was a showcase. Sony's was a state of play. but There's a difference. I know, but Microsoft can have showcases every year. PlayStation can't. I know, but I'm i'm saying, to me, it's an Apple's orange comparison. it is It is. It was a joke. It was an Apple's to orange comparison because, ah ah come on now, like, you know, I would...
02:08:07
Shameer Mehdikhan
rate Marvel token over, you know, those other games. I'm more interested in token versus those games. But my point being is like, but you see why I gave this a few minds? Cause it's not a good show. I don't agree with you because i think, I think if you're focused a lot on like surprise reveals and things like that, like I get it. But for me, like I'm fine with a showcase that just does business because what I was trying to get across is the first six months of this year were so stacked from Microsoft. That's insane.
02:08:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
like their first six months from a first party perspective has been better than pretty much any year that I can think of. Right. And the fact that even after all of that came out, Microsoft still had two games that are going to be pretty successful for them in their back pocket that they showed off. Like to me, that's pretty impressive. Even if they're not the biggest things, like it just goes to show you that Microsoft has an insane amount of content. yeah
Future Xbox Releases & Showcase Shifts
02:09:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
So, you know,
02:09:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
I was happy to see that. You know, I think the games that will come out in the fall, like I'm going be happy with Ninja Gaiden. I'm going to be happy with Outer Worlds. So all those things made me happy. And I guess in the end, knowing that Gears of War E-Day and a new Forza are for sure coming out, as for sure as we can in 2026, are pretty big announcements. Now, the way you delivered that information was really weird. Yeah, it was dumbass.
02:09:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
you know But like if outside of that context, we had just found out that, oh my God, like there's a new Forza game and Gears E-Day is confirmed 2026. That is pretty big news because because before now I was thinking Gears E-Day was in 2027.
02:09:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
But then if if this is 2026, then is the developer direct in January going to show up Gears, Forza and then potentially Halo? So I think the developer direct is, I don't think they care anymore how big a game is.
02:09:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think they do not care at all. like weird i think if all three of those are scheduled to come out in the first six months of this year, they will show all of them. No, I think they'll, even if, I think even if it was the later half of 2026, they would still show the developer direct. So I think this year Ninja Gaiden was an exception only because they wanted to do the whole surprise with Ninja Gaiden 2 remake. and mitig educatated I think, yeah, Microsoft and all their other developer directs has shown things that have been the whole year, but I think their intended goal has always been the first six months. And a lot of times games are just slipping. Right. yeah
02:10:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I think Microsoft probably has enough content next year I think they'll probably show off like Gears and Fable. Oh, Fable. I keep forgetting about Fable. And that's going to be huge, right? Yeah. then they're probably going to show off like two big games in the beginning of the year and then, you know, like another two in the showcase. you showcase and Which is insane to think about because if now we're having a showcase and it's like four to five games and two of them are potentially...
02:10:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
A Fable in Gears. That is a stacked year. That would be like Sony showing off you know like God of War and mar yeah god of war Wolverine for the first six months knowing that Last of Us is coming later in the year. like Of course, I think God of War and Last of Us have that repertoire that they're bigger than all those Xbox games.
02:11:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
So it is the apples to oranges comparison. But you know those are your best cards. yeah right That's my point. That's fair. That's good point. Yeah, I overall still enjoyed it. I liked this week. It felt like E3 all over again. Yeah.
02:11:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I can't wait until we see it more later in the year. So from Sony and obviously the TGAs. Yeah. So I guess the last thing we could kind of say in closing, how do you like this format? You know, now that E3 is officially dead, you know, the fact that we're getting...
02:11:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
The Summer Games Showcases. Well, I like that, like, both. All of the three platforms are still kind of leading the way. Besides the Summer Game Fest, which is honestly, like, pointless to have someone mediating it, the State of Play and Xbox Showcase literally was back-to-back-to-back-to-back trailers.
02:12:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
They do not stop. You get a trailer, and then as soon as it's done, it's another trip. And then Phil Spencer comes out for a second and Sarah Bond, but... They don't waste time the way do not So honestly, i am so – am enjoying this way more than E3 now. So again, E3 was a fun event, but you got so much fluff and bloat.
02:12:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
So this is more streamlined. I like I'm happy with that. I think the nice thing about E3 was getting everybody together and just having that bam, bam, bam like three days in a row, right? Like knowing that weekend is going to be E3.
02:12:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I like that part of it better. But I think like by design, now that you don't have to fill up like a whole day, right? Yeah. um things are getting so much more streamlined, right? And you're not just tied to E3 anymore the you way you used to be.
02:12:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
And back then people would really, you know, force themselves to have something to show off for e three Where now it's like, okay, if a game's not ready to be shown at E3, that's fine. We'll show it off three, four months later in a mini showcase, right? So I like that
Evolving Gaming Strategies & Personal Reflections
02:12:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
transition, but I do still miss, you know, the three days, the conference, everybody's there, you know, and And really at the end, we're all debating, okay, which of the three were the best conference, right?
02:13:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
And now you can't really do that and because like, you know, Microsoft, like how do you say Microsoft's conference was, you know, overall better than Sony's? You kind of can, but like at the same time, like most of those Microsoft games are going to be on PlayStation, right?
02:13:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
So then there's a lot of overlap. Yeah. And then, so Nintendo could not care at all what anyone else is doing. So we're just in a different world now. Yeah. I agree with that. Like said, it's not for the worst. It's just that things, the landscape changed and they all pivoted to kind of align with ah ah the the new landscape.
02:13:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
And again, everyone's strategy is different. Game pass changed everything for Xbox. Sony, while they dominated initially, like the console wars, what's they've gone through some turbulence.
02:13:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so they're trying to ah really really acclimate to that. And then Nintendo always starts the next generation, like three to four years early now. So this is a new trend for them too. So it's like, Hey, I'm understanding of all of it and I'm okay. It's not like we're missing out on a bunch, right?
02:14:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
I like the fact that all these companies shadow drop when they do their next presentations. It's kind of fun that we were like, Oh my God, another one's coming out the second half. So okay with that actually. so i'm okay with that actually yeah Yeah, I feel you.
02:14:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
All right, think that's a wrap for now. so know These last two weeks have been not as crazy for us, I think, in terms of gaming and watching stuff because there's just been so much showcase stuff.
02:14:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
And we've been busy personally. You went traveling. Yeah, it's summertime, so people want to get out of the house more. heard you were going blind or something. Yeah, my doctor told me, it was funniest thing. She straight up told me, your eyes are so bad we can't do LASIK. And like, right, doc, what do I do? How do I get better? And she was like, there's this thing called walking outside when the weather is nice. I know it's Michigan, but you basically go outside in your neighborhood, go in a circle, look at things far away. And I was like, damn, okay. you don't think I get any sunlight? Thanks.
02:14:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
so So I've been getting a lot of crap from, you know, the wife and, you know, everybody. Like, hey, you need to stop staring at a small screen. Well, I'm kind of glad then I got you the switch to continue staring. Well, the screen's bigger now. Yeah, that's true. But also in the wintertime, what else are you going to do? Yeah, come on, man. We live in, I mean, sorry, state that where there's a lot of snow. I know it's Michigan, but...
02:15:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
So, yeah, so I think next time, you know I was finally able to play Claire and Doom, right? So I'll give some updates on that and go from there. Yeah, and we we might have a special guest on the next episode to talk more about Claire Obscures.
02:15:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
So, all right. Take care, everybody.