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Episode 18 - Keeper, Halo CE remake, Ninja Gaiden 4, Witcher Season 4, Pokemon Z-A
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Episode 18 - Keeper, Halo CE remake, Ninja Gaiden 4, Witcher Season 4, Pokemon Z-A
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Transcript
Introduction and Halloween Tales
00:00:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
Hey everyone, it's the Detroit Game Series. Arjun. We're back in business. I'm here with my partner, Shamir. What up, what up, everybody? it's been about three weeks. i Hope you guys are all enjoying your fall. You know, staying out of the cold. You know, going to some haunted houses. Hope everyone had a good Halloween. Yeah. Arjun, did you dress up at all? I did I went in a onesie. I went in a Lilo and Stitch. I was in a Stitcher.
00:00:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
But have you watched the Stitch movie? I have not yet. Bro, how are you going to go in a Stitch onesie and not dress up and not watch the movie? Funniest thing, the first thing that came to mind like, oh, I know Shimeon Jui loves Stitch. I'm getting a Stitch onesie. That's like the first that came to my mind. It was a really good movie. not going to lie. Even though everyone hates on it, but I'm just too much of a fanboy.
00:00:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
I was super lazy. I was busy
Gaming Adventures and Updates
00:00:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
working. So I just rummaged around the house to look for anything. So i I took my Microsoft helmet that you got me and then, uh,
00:00:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know, I got the Xbox jacket. I just wore that out. You know, we get to go to Michigan Central Station, which is actually pretty cool. You know, they lit it up and everything. I actually had, like, a couple of people, like, shut me out and be like, oh, my God, it's Master Chief.
00:01:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
They're bad. Yeah, although it was really miserable walking around in that helmet. Oh, I can imagine. It like a bobblehead, so I'm never going to do that again. at least you tried it. Right, right. And I guess it's fitting because we're definitely going to be talking about Halo and Microsoft this time around. so right so All right, I guess we can catch everybody up with what we've been up to. I'll start first.
00:01:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
I have not played a single thing for the last two weeks because I've been so busy. Bro, why are you adulting so hard, man? I was on such a good streak with Doom the Dark Ages, especially now with my ROG at Xbox LiX. And i I'll just say this, just to give impressions it, because I forgot I did get that, and i didn't get to talk about last time, is I love this thing. It plays well. The software's a little janky. The OS, the UI, they're going to improve on that over time.
00:01:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
Some minor quirks, like with the updates and the way things happen. Like, I had an update. they said an update was available. I said, okay, i accepted it. And I started updating a bunch of apps. I didn't need like calculator alarm. It's so annoying. i was like, come on guys.
00:02:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
But overall, I think playing the games on there, I did two things. I tried two tasks. One was I've been playing doom, the dark ages via cloud. And I've been playing, I tried playing Ninja Gaiden natively by downloading it through Game Pass.
00:02:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I think they're both great. So there's someone online that's made a website that says, that shows you the types of profiles you should use while playing your games to get the best bang for your buck in terms of performance and quality when you play it. So he's putting in a lot of effort. I've been following that.
00:02:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
Game runs very smooth. The controls are great. It feels ergonomic.
Tech Talk: Performance and Optimization
00:02:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
I love the screen size. I think a lot of games are really made for seven twenty p to eight hundred p on this. I don't think that 1080p display was really needed in my opinion.
00:02:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
But you know what? It is what it is. And that's probably a little costing a little bit of that price there. But I think overall, both cloud and that, I've had very little issues with cloud. There was one session out of like six where I got some latency issues, some interrupts, and you know the streaming started breaking up. But overall, I've thoroughly enjoyed it. And I think it's it works well for what it is. And I think that being part of Game Pass is like a great benefit.
00:03:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
So i've I've been enjoying it. So I know you're more into the techie stuff and understanding specifications and all that stuff. So with that said, I know it's early impressions for you having played a lot, and but do you feel like on a hardware and software level, this came in at your expectations, below expectations, above expectations?
00:03:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't know about you, but I wasn't expecting that much. And I think some people were really expecting like a portable Xbox. So I'm just kind of wondering where you're at with that. Yeah, I still need to be a little more integrated in the ecosystem because I need to try games that are Xbox play anywhere.
00:03:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
Now, supposedly some of the advanced features like advanced shader delivery were supported at launch. So this just should help a ton of games being optimized from the get-go, but I need to play more to like see if that makes a difference.
00:03:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then there's going to be more updates to enable like super resolution, like I think past 2026, with some of the hardware that it's capable of. It has specific silicon to enable enable things similar to DRS. So I think I'm just going play a handful of games and get my hands really dirty with it. now Right now, I just can't say because I haven't played a enough. no But what I will say is,
00:04:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
Again, this kind of goes back to Windows and how bloated it is. The difference they made in the changes to the UI and subsidizing and taking out a lot of the processes has really helped. so you get extra RAM to play now with your games.
00:04:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
But it's still an issue because someone had a test comparison where they downloaded Bazite, which is that Linux OS-capable or compare compatible layer that you can download onto this device.
00:04:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
And dude, you get significant gains still, which is crazy, which still tells you Windows isn't optimized. mean, expected as much, right? like But I don't want to download love this and play Linux games. If guesstimated, I'd probably say it has to be, like, 50% or 20%. Yeah, like, so there was games that were running. Okay, so the OG Xbox LIX, sorry, the OG ROG LIX without this update was, I forget what game, 30 frames per second, the new one, 40 to 45, and then with Bazite was, like, 50 to 60. I'm like, dude, this is, like, yeah kind of ridiculous.
00:05:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, but I mean, I guess it depends on, like, what you value, right? Because, like, if you want Bazite and all that stuff, like, you know why are you even buying this in the first place? You should just get a Steam Deck, right? seems So i mean I get that like comparison. It's like, oh yeah, you know this this is good, but not really that good. But like the whole reason you're even interested in that is to have the flexibility of Windows, right? Exactly.
00:05:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
Flexible Windows, I have easy access to Game Pass and I can play my native games. And I do think one day in the future, they will have some sort of forward compatibility or translation layer that will allow me to play my old Xbox games. They're definitely going to do some sort of emulation, right? And I guess this kind of jumps into...
00:05:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
Some of the news, right, where, what's name? It's Sarah, right? Sarah Bonn. Sarah Bonn. She basically was hinting that, if not directly saying, that the next Xbox is going to be basically the
Gaming Preferences: Pokemon Focus
00:05:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
ROG Ally X, but in a console form, right? Yeah, in weird way. And so, and if they're going to do that, they have to figure out the emulation in two years, right?
00:06:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. So... Okay, and then do you feel like from the hardware standpoint, like it was what you expected? It was an improvement. So I had the Raw Gally X, and then i upgraded to this.
00:06:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think having this with the little sensitive triggers that that mimic the Xbox controller, as well as the little ergonomic sticks, like the handles, I think it is a significant improvement. Like I can legitimately now not play with my hands cramping up.
00:06:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
Do you think all handhelds should be like that? Yeah, I really do It looks ugly as hell. as say It looks so weird when I first saw it. But everyone's saying they really like it. And even though it's heavier, they're saying that the weight distribution is great. It was really great. I'm surprised at how not heavy it is for how heavy it looks.
00:06:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
Right. You know, so yeah, I think they did a great job with that. They nailed it. I guess the last question, and I guess this is a subjective thing, right? and When we're talking about value, but $1,000. thousand dollars I mean, what do you think? I think they know that with what they're putting out now, they're not subsidizing it because they know they're not really putting out their own native games, which means that any game that's purchased on this right now has to be from a third party store where they lose a bit of the cut.
00:07:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
So most people are probably getting downloading games from Steam or other launchers, not really the Xbox PC store and whatnot. And I think In the future, if they decide to do an Xbox handheld, they're going to have to go all out and make this powerful enough. I don't think technology has caught up quite yet, like battery density, along with like our APUs.
00:07:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I think... Yeah, because none of these have solid state, right? like Yeah. and Like phones barely have that, but that would be a huge, huge advancement, right? So they do have flash memory here, but like... Your batteries still only last for maybe an hour. Don't they have like the solid state batteries now? Yeah. yeah those things are you had to give me like more compact Yeah. And that's something that's still being researched. And if that comes into play, you'll get way more playtime. Like right now for a heavy intensive CPU and test for GPU intensive game, one hour, one and a half hours, no which is still not ideal. Like if I was on a long flight for a bus ride, that's like two to three hours or four hours, which is common. It's typical.
00:08:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
I'm not going to be able you know, yeah. So there's improvements that need to be made. i don't think it's worth $1,000, but like $800. When I got the ROG Ally X, that was $800. So I really wish it was $800. Yeah, I mean, I was actually considering getting one. Like I have the original, right? And I got the, God, I get so confused with these stupid names. Just the ROG X. i no no you No, you had the stuff. No, I just had the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme. yeah So real old school. And i I got an open box when it pretty, I think about two years ago.
00:08:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
got it for like 400 bucks, which I thought was like a pretty good deal at the time. Right. And so for me, when I just think about it, I'm like, yeah, this is going be a better experience. We're is it $600 more better? You know? And it's like, especially if in two years they're going to come up with know something new.
00:08:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
Right. And then I'm like, oh, it's going to feel outdated by then. Right. yeah And I just don't know if them the value is going to hold. Right. Because like the switch, it still retains its value, right? Like MacBooks retain their value, but like this is not going to retain its value. I will say this maybe, and I just got lucky because I just sold my ROG LIX.
00:09:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
I got almost like 90% of what it was worth. So it didn't drop and depreciate. Has it even been out for a year? it It was out for like a year and a half to two years. Okay. I thought it was out for less time than a while. Okay.
00:09:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. I got lucky, but you're right. Like if you're on the fence at this point, you might as well wait to see what next generation looks like. Cause if they do their own handheld, that's what, and it's when it's worth it. And I guess this kind of ties into another thing. man, I feel like cloud streaming has gone so much better than i expected. So I did a similar test and I guess this will go into my impressions for Ninja Gaiden 4.
00:09:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I played an Ninja Gaiden 4 both cloud streaming and natively, right? And for whatever reason, I haven't figured this out, but there's a glitch on my ROG where I'm trying to load the native application for Ninja Gaiden 4 and it just doesn't load like 80% the time. It's really annoying.
00:09:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
But when I was finally able to get it to run, absolutely the native version is way better. But man, the cloud version is totally playable. yeah The image is soft and and definitely there's like anti-aliasing and all that's all those artifacts and stuff.
00:10:07
Shameer Mehdikhan
But honestly, I don't mind playing it. And like, it's so annoying to download your game and update it and all those things. And the nice thing about the cloud streaming is now like the initial weight you had.
00:10:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's so small. It's so small. You're like 20 seconds to log in, right? As opposed to before, like when it was bad, was like 10 minutes. was horrible. And so I did not mind it at all. And mind you, like Ninja Game 4 is a pretty fast-paced game. And like I was able to beat like some of the harder bosses, at least in the beginning, and I was fine.
00:10:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
But obviously, like I'm still better if I'm playing natively. Like I would say like I'm probably like 85% as good as like how I normally am. sure And for a lot of the game, like that's fine. Like I'm getting by.
00:10:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
For a game like that, you would probably want to play it natively because of how fast it is. But the thing is, like I wanted to test that. like I wanted to test the games that demand precision.
00:11:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then I paid Doom the Dark Ages. I don't know how your experience has been if you've cloud streamed it. Mine was good, but there were times where I would like lose a frame here and there, and then I would miss a shot, right and it would be like just a little laggy.
00:11:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so I would play Ninja Gaiden 4 most of the game, on cloud i don't know if i would play doom because i've been playing doom the whole time on cloud and it's been fine for you a couple hitches but for most part it's been fine ninety yeah percent i guess for me like those hitches can get really annoying in doom because like one hitch could mean death right and like an integrated four like kind of can mean death but not always you know but in like that one someone just comes up behind you you're screwed you know so but no i've been really impressed and i there's a huge tangent but the reason i bring it up is because honestly like
00:11:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
Do I need all that raw horsepower? You know, if I'm just going to cloud-grade. It's so convenient to just start the game up through cloud, not have to download shit. Start wherever you save from because it syncs across cloud.
00:11:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
And like you can play on your Xbox and then immediately go on cloud. ro So I'm kind of in this weird way, a weird place. And I wonder if other people feel this way online where The original ROG Ally actually seems like a good deal to me because it's like,
Innovating the Pokemon Franchise
00:12:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
you know, they had that Longitech G Cloud streaming thing, which was like two, 300 bucks, but it's only streaming. Right. And this is, yeah I'm sure you can find those really cheap, right? Like the ROG originals.
00:12:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
So it might be around that price, if not a little more, and you can stream and, you know, That'd be great. And then you can still actually run some stuff natively. So I feel like this is kind of where we're getting into that territory where you just said, do I need to play games natively? Probably not, which is why the proposition of the PlayStation portal is so tantalizing. It's less than $200.
00:12:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
You can just play your game over in your living room and then you swap over to your bed. Well, don't if fixed it where like now, even if you're not at home, you can stream on. Because I remember you couldn't pop up the internet browser originally and it was like annoying able to connect. Yeah, they made changes.
00:12:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
They made changes to it. But I guess we'll just tie this in really quickly because the PlayStation portal just got an update, which has made it more tantalizing now. select If you have PlayStation Premium, so you have the paper subscription just like Game Pass, select digital games you own will now be streamable through their cloud.
00:13:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
So their servers. So you don't have to connect to your PS5. It'll just stream them. through their client thank god yeah i mean i'm happy they did that i feel like that should have been there originally but for me and i guess this might seem like kind of a small thing to be all nitpicky about but the fact that they wouldn't let you really just use whatever fucking headphones you wanted and you know the proprietary the proprietary stuff which is just like okay i can like turn a blind eye to a certain level of greed and like you know you me i'm like okay gamers just kind of freak out over stuff it's like just just buy it you know just enjoy it you know stop freaking out
00:13:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
But when like Sony does those scummy moves, I'm just like, dude. And like, I remember it really pissed me off when like, you know, way back before Microsoft bought Call of duty you know, Sony had clearly won and they had, you know, a specific, I think it was zombies mode on one of the black ops.
00:14:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it was like a one year time exclusive for just about. And I'm just like, Why? Who is going to buy this on PlayStation instead of Xbox just for this? And like one year, like called next call is coming out of here. Like it's just, you know, it just seems like, yeah and it's not like it's just Sony. Everyone does anti-gamer stuff. But for some reason, like that just really pisses me off because I'm just like, why can't you just let me use any Bluetooth headphones? So I think for that reason alone, I just, I just refuse to buy it.
00:14:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
Well, I mean, we already know, too, that Sony is working on their own handheld that can play games natively. Whether it's PS5 or PS6, I don't know. But that'll be interesting to see this next generation how everything launches because we're so close.
00:14:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
I really wonder what that's going to look like. It's it's going to an interesting next generation. yeah But not to get too distracted off point. So I think I wanted to go over some of the stuff I played, too, and then we can get into some of the the breaking news stuff.
00:14:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
I've actually been gaming a lot. I think I was telling you that, like, feel like i'm not really gaming much i'm kind of just doing other stuff and i knew this month like this last month i was going to be gaming a lot so i beat two games and i've kind of sunk my teeth into two more so going over the games that i beat so the first one was keeper man i have a lot of mixed feelings about this game i would actually rate it like an eight out of ten but i can see it swing anywhere from a seven to a nine it is just a very strange game you know
00:15:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
I won't spoil too much of the game, but there later in the game, there are significant like gameplay variations that happen. And so because of that, like it doesn't feel as stale the whole time. And I think that was very much so needed because if I was basically doing all I saw in the trailer the whole time, i would be like, oh my God, I can't do this.
00:15:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
But the game, it's like the designers had a pretty good sense of when you're getting bored with something, how to mix it up, right? Like kind of how Astro Bot was doing it, you know, like, oh, you're getting bored of this. Okay, let's switch it up.
00:16:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
So like, you know, you're walking around as a tower, you know, the lighthouse and all of a sudden now you go through this pink, you know, cloudy stuff and now you're like flying in the air, right? And and so they they varied that. I like that.
00:16:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
Now, where have a kind of hiccup with the game is you could clearly tell that at a certain point in the game development of this game, they had to make a conscious decision. And either they were going to stick to their original vision and make it more of almost like an art project, right?
00:16:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
Or they could have made it a more traditional game that was more marketable. And they chose chose to make it more of an art project. and i And I respect him for them for that because they were able to fully realize their vision I kind of feel like I would have enjoyed it more if they had made it more of kind of your standard game.
00:16:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
Right. And so I feel really weird about that. Right. Because I want to applaud anyone where they really doubled down on their creativity. And this is one of the most creative things I've in a long time.
Witcher Season 4 Review and Adaptation Challenges
00:17:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
But yeah, I mean, sometimes I like the type of stuff that you see in psychonauts, right. Like where you can die when you actually have to beat opponents, right. You can level up some of your abilities, right. Like, you know,
00:17:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
it's It's basic, and but like, I don't know, it just rounds out the game more. And so even though they varied things enough that it didn't feel like a walking simulator the whole time, I was left thinking, man, I wish they kind of beeped off some of those gameplay elements and made it more like Psychonauts.
00:17:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I think that's why I leave it with an eight, you know? You can't die in the game, right? And so... You can imagine if you're playing a game where you can't die, there's no real failure.
00:17:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't know, do you think you're going to check it out, Arjun? Probably not. Not for you. my My goal right now is to hopefully, over the next couple weeks, beat Doom, the Dark Ages, over Thanksgiving break. Oh lord. Then really speedrun Ninja Gaiden and then play Pokemon Legends.
00:18:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
I'm surprised you' want to jump right into Pokemon Legends. I've stuck to this other bullshit and I'm going to go through it. I love your determination. So I guess that's what I have to say about Keeper. In closing, the last thing I want to say, if this was the only thing they were working on and I had to wait like seven, eight years, right, then I think I would be disappointed.
00:18:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
But because I know Fine is cooking up multiple projects at the same time, like to me, it was like a nice diversion. You know, it was like a nice... a different meal. And I'm like, okay, now I want to see what they cook up next. And to me, that studio is resembling kind of what Rare used to be in the 90s, right? It's like, they're just coming up with these ideas and just generating them. And, you know, you know sometimes they're wacky, sometimes they're not wacky. It's just whatever works, right?
00:18:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I'm curious to see what else they do. Second game I beat recently was Hades 2. And yeah, I think right now that's on the front runner to be my game of the year.
00:19:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
which I did not expect. Oh man, that game is so addicting. And I beat the lower levels. And then I went to the, and I think I had beat that last time I was here up for the podcast. So this time I was just focusing on the upper levels and they kind of varied up the gameplay a little bit, where instead of just having like one path, like, you know, kind of like your roguelite's,
00:19:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
you kind of had some more flexibility in the paths you took, which was kind of cool. And it was still pretty epic. Final Boss was a bit of a letdown, but still pretty good.
00:19:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
Read it on my first try. so But no, that was that was epic fun, man. And yeah, I don't know if people are sleeping on Hades 2 right now. I feel like I'm not hearing people talk about it as much.
00:19:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
But man, that game really delivered. Next month is the Game Awards. I can't believe we're so close to it, but we'll find out, I guess. Yeah, I feel like Hades 2 is going to get a lot of representation there, but I think everyone's going to vote for Claire. I think that's kind of like the the darling right now, and I think it's going to sweep.
00:20:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
I feel like overall probably 60% to 70% of the awards are going to go to Claire. Yeah, I can see that. But yeah, Hades 2 is good. I think it definitely deserves its 9 out of 10. 10, I don't know, but 9 out of 10 for sure.
00:20:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then kind of giving you some of my impressions on some of the other games I played, which one you want to talk about first pokemon zah and ninja gated okay so ninja gated so i kind of have uh it's interesting so i overall am underwhelmed by ninja gated four and for pokemon zah it's better than i expected so right yeah so ninja gated four gameplay is good You can tell that it's kind of a hybrid between Platinum and and Team Ninja.
00:20:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it seems like an obvious thing to say, and I kept hearing it in the previews, but now that I've played it quite a bit, like I understand what it means, right? So it feels like you're playing Ninja Gate 2, Black, but on 1.5 times the speed.
00:21:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
So everything feels faster, and you're like moving horizontally, horizontingally quicker and so because of that that subtly changes up the flow and these new raven abilities are really different and so when you add in like how you're blocking and you're adding in your raven abilities it does kind of fundamentally change a lot of meningi gated like feel i think the reason it still feels like ninja gated overall is because you have like those iconic moves like azuna drop think it's like the
00:21:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't know. It's like when you leap forward, you cut off the person's head. I forgot the this flying swallow, I think it is. And so because those moves are there, or like the move for like the enemy will grab you and explode and do a lot of damage.
00:21:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like it has the like DNA of Ninja Gaiden. But I don't know, maybe I'm too much of a purist. Like it's objectively a good action game, but I enjoy the action more of Ninja Gaiden 2 Black. Like I think I would have wanted like a refresh Ninja Gaiden 2 Black that had a better camera as opposed to kind of like a hybrid of platinum and team ninja.
00:22:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
that's my preference. Uh, but overall the game is objectively very good and very fun. I'd give an eight so far. i' beat like two, three bosses.
00:22:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
Boss battles are pretty cool, but, I don't know, man. Maybe I overhyped myself, but I was just expecting more playing the normal mode. That's probably why. This is a game that's meant to be played on a harder difficulty.
00:22:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
so you know why they play on the harder difficulty? So I was looking at all these YouTube videos and like Destin's, and they were like, dude, Ninja Gaiden 4 is hard. And then they were like, I've played the old Ninja Gaiden's on hard, and this one's hard. Playing on normal. The normal now is a hard back in the day.
00:22:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I played it, and yeah, maybe you're right because... I feel like the checkpoints are so frequent. I get all my health back. so I'm kind of like, that's too I don't have to like master the game in the same way.
00:23:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I just haven't been enjoying it the same. And like the graphics are good, but they're not like mind blowing. So, you know,
Nintendo Switch 2 Success and Market Comparisons
00:23:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
so I mean, I'll play it, but I think like, it's not like fiery hot, like, oh my God, I have to beat this. Yeah.
00:23:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. We were hyper at the beginning the year. So it seems like a little bit of lockdown. Yeah, but you know, that's not, 8 out of 10 is not necessarily like a terrible thing, right? Like, I think like the open critic score reflects where this game could be. And like, you can always try and like revitalize a franchise and completely fail, right? And so like, you know, as much as we all want everything to be a 9 out of 10, like honestly, if you give me an old franchise that's been dead and gone for a while, and it comes back, and it's an 8 out of 10 objectively across the board, I'll take it, you know?
00:23:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
and it's kind of sad to say, but that's like where my expectations are. Right. We're like so many revitalizations and like, what are we talking about? Halo. We're talking about Witcher, all this stuff, Pokemon. Like how many times have people try to like bring something back and they just don't stick the landing? Like I'm good with average. No, agree with that. It's just, I think we were over hiking. Like we were so, we had high expectations because when we saw in January, my mouth dropped. was like, Oh my God, this is insane. So you're right. You're right.
00:24:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
I expected so much when I saw it, but it's just one of those things you never expected, you know? And like, I think in a way that did it some disservice. Cause like, for instance, like everyone talked about final fantasy seven remake for so many years.
00:24:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
So then when they finally did it, you're just like, can't believe this is reality. Right. And so that's a bit of a letdown. How can you ever follow that up? Like whenever half life three comes out,
00:24:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's going to a letdown. It's going to be a letdown because there's no way that like, it's like, it's a fantasy. It's like a dream at this point where you don't think it'll actually ever come into existence. And when it does, like, it's never going to be the same. And you don't have actual real expectations. Like it's, I don't want to say on real estate. It's like, you don't know what the game you want to be or what it should be. So when it comes out, you're like, oh, this all it is. It just kind of, the physics are a little better, but like. Yeah.
00:25:07
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. Cause it's like, okay, if, I wanted a new Uncharted game to come out. Like, I kind of have an understanding of what that's going to be like, right? But if now all of a sudden you're like, oh we're going to remake Chrono Trigger.
00:25:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
I'm like, what is that even going to be like? You know, and it's like, I have a fantasy, but like, Yeah. You know, it's just so nebulous. I mean, it's actually smart that they came out with like Half-Life Alyx because that was using a new medium. So that felt fresh. and That was smart. That was smart. But when it's just a first person shooter with some advanced, like said, physics and some advanced gameplay mechanics, it's not really innovating or really doing anything crazy. Yeah.
00:25:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
So, and that's how think, like, for God of War, it worked because, like, you kept your DNA, but you tweaked enough of it, right? That, like, it felt like a different product, Yeah, agree with that. So they nailed that.
00:25:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
So that's how i feel about Ninja Gaiden. And then I guess, though, the one I really have been wanting to talk to talk about is when I left last is Pokemon Zah. Because... Pokemon P-Zah. Honestly, I think... And people might think I'm crazy, but my three favorite games so far this year have been Hades 2, Avowed...
00:26:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
avowed anded And Pokemon Zah. And like I'm not playing Ghost right now. That's crazy. I'm not playing Ninja Gaiden. I'm not playing all these things. I'm enjoying Pokemon Zah so much. And I did not expect to enjoy it this much.
00:26:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
so So I'm in this probably small minority camp where I hated Legends Arceus. Like I could not... Arceus. I could not... That's how know a real Pokemon Zah. couldn't beat it. Like for so long, i had to force myself back into it.
00:26:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it was painful. And I was just like... I don't know why people like this game so much. And for me, I think, I don't know how everyone else is with their Pokemon games, but I've actually never really liked catching Pokemon.
00:26:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, I don't care for it. I don't care for collecting Pokemon. I just care about, like, getting a boss team, like, training them until they're killers and decimating everyone. And I will only feel accomplished if the Elite Four is challenging, you know?
00:27:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, that's what I want. So, like, when I'm, like, oh, filling out my Pokedex, getting shiny, it's like, i don't care, you know? That's not me. And then I don't want to do all the competitive stuff because it's going to take over your life. And then EV training and all this stuff, like, not worth it, you know?
00:27:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
So, it's like, I just want, like, hard boss battles, hard trainers, hard, you know, Elite Four, and then it's fun. And so, that's why didn't like Legends Arceus because I was like, the battling here is lame, right? Like, there is...
00:27:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
because I can sleep through half the battles, right? And so, like, what what am I playing this for? yeah The only only hook I had was it's cool to see, like, some of these old school forms of Pokemon.
00:27:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
The catching was kind of interesting, but, like, also kind of
GTA 6 Delay and Economic Impact
00:27:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
straightforward, you know? So i it just wasn't for me. But I could understand why people love the vision of it.
00:27:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
That's fair. Yeah, I mean, I've got to start the game. definitely will. Like, the thing they announced today was the new DLC expansion. So, story expansion, $30. thirty dollars It comes out December 10th. That's kind of expensive.
00:28:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, it comes out December 10th. I don't know how hefty it's going to be. Is it to three-hour story expansion? going to 10-hour, 5-hour? I have no idea. I had to guess, it's going to be about 5 to 7 hours. But they're introducing new Megas. They already showed off a Mega for Bax Caliber, so that's getting a new Mega. that sounds sick.
00:28:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
And Omega for Chimeco. That looked really interesting as well. What's a Chimeco? Is that like the windmill? Yeah, that from two So it might look good, but Max Calibur, I'm kind of surprised because that's a Gen 8, Gen 9. It's so recent.
00:28:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it's already a pseudo-legendary. It's already broken. it's like, come you to this in gun? Well, I was actually just watching a YouTube video where they were like, the last generation was trying to like hype up Ice because Ice has been garbage for so long.
00:28:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
So maybe that's why they wanted to make him like you know a Mega because whatever whatever other good Mega... Ice type is there? Only... Maybe Glalie? don't even know. Is there a Mega Sneasel?
00:29:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
that a thing? No. Yeah, so like, what is there? Yeah, there's nothing. So I found it interesting because Vax Calibur, it's cool. It has a sword that are going through its stomach to its back and it looks like the Excalibur sword. Oh, that's cool. And then it has like a beard out of like ice and stuff. So, so like okay, this looks really cool.
00:29:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
But they showed off like you go into a different dimension. There is like a story there. They brought back a gym leader from x and Y. So they're bringing back some familiar faces. Again, is it going to be worth 30 bucks?
00:29:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't know. I highly doubt it. So I bought the expansions for sword and Shield. I did not get the ones for Scarlet and Violet. I might get these ones, honestly. And I think that goes to show you like how I feel about these games. I know a lot of people who hated Sword and Shield.
00:29:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
I really love Sword and Shield. But keep in mind, I missed everything from Diamond and Pearl to like Sun and Moon. So for me, i was like, oh, I'm back into Pokemon, guys. And they have Steel Fairy types? What is this?
00:29:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
This is crazy. Right? So I actually really enjoyed it. But I get why people who have been with Pokemon the whole time, they don't like it. It makes sense. But, like, when I was, like, looking at, oh, man, look at these, like, three legendary birds and other, they like, kind of variants of that. That's really cool.
00:30:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
So then that got me into it, you know, and that made me decide to buy those expansions. And then I just wasn't impressed by the expansions for Scarlet and Violet. Yeah, Scarlet Violet. I think so you didn't get that.
00:30:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, i was saying I wasn't impressed by the Scarlet and Violet one, so I never bought them. Okay, so the funny part is like the Scarlet and Violet expansions
00:30:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
seem pretty hefty, but I haven't played through them yet, so I don't know. like some I've seen a very mixed dialogue online where some people like hey, this was actually fun because in the expansion for Scarlet and Violet, the second one specifically, forget what it's called, the Terrarium, you can play as the Pokemon and control them.
00:30:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh, that's interesting. In this weird Terrarium thing. I'm like, oh, that's cool. Yeah, maybe I'll check it out. I don't know. I just sit all i just feel like I got so... I got burned by that game. That's probably my least favorite Pokemon game.
00:31:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
and so yeah sam And so because of that, i was like, eh, it's not worth it. But I guess that goes right back to Zaw. It's actually one of my... Honestly, I'm really enjoying this game.
00:31:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
I may like Scarlet and Violet more. that's sortant Sword and Shield. God, their name's... Tripped me up so much. So many yeses. But yeah, I think I like Sword and Shield better just because I really like Zamiin and Zamazenta. Yeah, and Zacion. Yeah, Zacion. I really like them.
00:31:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I really feel like they kind of nailed the battle mechanics. Like, it's actually really fun. Like, I remember i was explaining it to a friend, and I was like, it kind of feels like a Final Fantasy, like, 16 game, but Pokemon. yeah Because you have, like, you get to choose your abilities, and you get the you have to wait until they recharge.
00:31:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
and you And it actually, like, some moves that were, like, pointless now make a huge difference. Yeah. And actually, it reminds me more Final Fantasy VII remakes of Battle of Because, again, you're back it's called active battle.
00:32:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
You have to move around until your moves recharge. and And then you do it. Yeah. Good point. That's a better example. And so so, for instance, like, quick attack. I'm like, oh, my God, quick attack is amazing. Because, like, you actually have to pay attention to how fast is the attack animation. Yeah.
00:32:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
And how fast is the recharge? It makes a huge difference. You don't have to really worry worry about, oh like it's only 85% chance of landing because you actually have to worry about placement and the timing it takes to charge up the attack. You know, like if you're going launch like this massive attack, but it's like really easy to sidestep, the attack becomes kind of pointless, right?
00:32:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
The one downside to it is the AI is not great. So like it's it's not precise enough for it to feel like, You know, it can be competitive. I don't know how the competitive players feel, but like a lot of times I'm like, oh, this guy's charging up an attack. Let me back off.
00:32:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I ran away, but my Pokemon is just standing there. Right. And so then my Pokemon gets hit. So there's like no point, you know, because you're not actually moving the Pokemon. You're moving yourself and Pokemon's following and Pokemon note doesn't always what's follow. Yeah. Or you have to command them and that takes a while, the animation to. Yeah.
00:33:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so so that's kind of a problem. But I'm having a blast with the fights. The battles are easy. I'm not struggling at all in them, really. And it's for a similar reason. You can just go to whatever zone you want, catch the strongest Pokemon, and then just destroy everyone in the game with it. Yeah, it makes sense. But it's just fun, you know?
00:33:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
One downside to the game, it does feel repetitive because it has like a similar structure where it's like, okay nighttime, you fight all these trainers. Now you fight the challenger. Now you go up a rank. Now you go evolve, you know, catch some megas.
00:33:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
So it's very repetitive. So you're you're stuck in a point of the game where they end up skipping a lot of that once you hit a certain point? Already past that. Oh, you went from K to... No, I'm on like Okay, so you're getting close to the end of the game. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm like level Okay, I thought you meant like you both before K. I mean, didn't want to ruin it for everybody. Yeah, yeah, you get to skip a whole chunk. Yeah.
00:34:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
But still, it feels repetitive because, okay, I didn't have to go through every letter of the alphabet, but I still have to go through like 12, you know? Yeah. The other part that I have right now an issue with, again, i haven't played the game, but I know of some of the things, is they've locked behind certain Mega Shards and Mega Stones in competitive play.
00:34:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
So if you want to get Mega Green Ninja now, Mega Delphox, Mega Chestnut, and now in Season 4, which Mega was it? Oh, mega it's going to be Mega Bax Calibur for the new expansion.
00:34:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
You have to beat play competitively and get a certain amount of wins before you can get them. Oh, man. And I'm like, these are the most popular Pokemon. Why are you forcing people to play competitively? but they could have done microtransactions. That's true. guess this maybe is a little better.
00:34:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
They're better than EA, at least. I guess. It's just, like, frustrating. But, you know, to add to that, this game is selling well. It's already sold 5.6 million copies. No f freaking way. Yeah, within the first week. How did we think it was going sell? I don't think we thought it would sell 5.6. I don't think that much. That's insane, dude. That was crazy. How many Switches are even out there? Switch 2. 10 million.
00:35:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
Wow. but I mean, it's on the Switch as well, but damn, 5.6 is crazy. It's crazy. So it's selling well. selling good. And... Yeah, I think this expansion probably will sell well. I think people, whether it's divisive or not, and i think it is somewhat divisive.
00:35:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
We have another Pokemon game that's going to be announced right around the corner. And for those that haven't heard. I mean, overall, I would notch Pokemon Zah as like a victory. Like, I know I was watching some reviews and people were like, oh, you know, the buildings look like kind of like crap and this and that.
00:35:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I'm like, dude, it's a Pokemon game. What do you expect? And also, like, some people are complaining about playing on the Switch. It's like, I understand that this game was originally in the Switch, you know. you know develop for the switch but come on we love pokemon but we know what it is right and so like unfortunately if you want a game from that company that runs decently well you have to go to the switch too even though it should run very well on the switch because tears of the kingdom proves you can do it yeah that's that's just how pokemon is you know Yeah, I mean, I don't know, man. Like, you have a new game, like i said, right around the corner.
00:36:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't think it's going to be any better or worse than Scarlet and Violet. I think it's going to just be somewhat similar, and I think I'll be disappointed yet again. I don't know how they... To innovate with this franchise, it's, like, more of, again, changing up the battle system. Not really, like, graphics and stuff, and it's, like, different types of mechanics, like Megas, Gigantamax, and what's the terrestrialization... It's weird. Some people don't like that. They want something different in terms of innovation, and I don't think everyone's happy. Yeah, i mean, it's kind of hard because I think they've grown to such... They've grown so much that their player base is fragmented and they all want different things, right?
00:36:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, I would argue that terrestrialization is one of the biggest things that anyone could have done for competitive. Like, that changes completely changes everything, right? And so, I mean, that's as that's insanely innovative, right?
00:37:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so those people might be very happy, right? But then, you know, other people who are more interested in the campaign, right, you know, the story and catching Pokemon, they're like, oh okay, what is this package? You know? it was And then other people who really just want like a great polka-ducks and they, you know, they're like, okay, there's actually not even a Pokemon catch, right? And so what am I playing this for, right? And so so when your fan base has grown that large and they all want something different, hard. kind of have to have different games. Exactly. And it's hard to deliver, right? Because...
00:37:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
and I think we we compare Pokemon to like what we expect it to be, but like I guess this is modern gaming. like We know how else it could turn out. We could have five-year development cycles for games, and then they get canceled. like At least Pokemon has been consistent. you know like if There's other fans of other franchises who never get to eat. Pokemon fans always are eating. Yeah, every year, too.
00:37:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
I'll say this. So now that they have two clearly mainline games, you have your Pokemon Legends games. there's already It's already been leaked that they were they're working on another one. and then now you're going to get your traditional generations right of 10 11 etc going forward i think one more thing i would love to see them add as a third entry in the mainline series is whether it's remakes or just another spin-off the old 16-bit you know 32-bit or 8-bit like traditional art style and just make that old reminiscent pokemon game like again get a another company to do it i don' think it totally make that happen yeah i mean pokemon is a franchise you have so much like variety in what you can do right like
00:38:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
That'd be so cool. Like, it could be kind of like Octopath driver. Yeah, like Octopath. People would love that. i yeah look If you did, like, red and blue and yellow and like hot i like that, oh, people would eat that up. Yeah, and and again, if you have those three in parallel, then I think you satisfy a lot of people because they just announced another game called Pokรฉutopia, which is like almost like an Animal Crossing-style Pokรฉmon game. So you they're clearly branching out.
00:38:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, and the thing is, for as much crap as we get Pokรฉmon, people like to get Pokรฉmon online. Name me a franchise, well, Mario, maybe, but name me a franchise that has, like, you know, a fan base of all generations, all age groups, you know, all sexes, you know, like... Nothing thing really. What, you know? Yeah, there's nothing. So...
00:39:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
But, okay. But, no, I've really been enjoying it, so I think that's the game I'm probably going really focus in on next. So my my plan is to really hammer out Pokemon Zaw. I'm going on a vacation. I'm bringing all my stuff with me, so I'm to play that. I might get the Hyrule game.
00:39:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it came out with decent reviews. And then other than that, you know, I'll see how the ROG is on the plane, but I was going to hopefully play some Ninja Gaiden 4 in Outer Worlds.
00:39:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
So that's that. I guess I can kind of fly through a little bit of what I've watched. Because really the only thing I watched has been Witcher Season 4. and So I haven't finished it yet, which I think is indicative of how I feel about it. So they've released all the episodes? Oh, yeah.
00:39:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
I'm on the last episode and I just have tried to finish it twice and I keep getting bored. And I watch random... Lions videos and then I get distracted and and never finish it, which really goes to show you that is not captivating me.
00:40:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
Well, they're they're only going to do one more season. Yeah. And so I am not like super well versed in the books. Right. So the people who are like the real, you know, Witcher fanboys will correct me.
00:40:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
But honestly, the season does seem like overall it's following the books more than I expected. But they've also made some incredibly this divisive decisions that are so left field of the book and the game that the only reason I feel like the director did it was just to basically say, oh, you guys are hating on me.
00:40:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
Well, let me double down and stamp on this show that this is mine. And I'm just like, why? Right? And without spoiling too much, like, you know, fan favorite characters and they just did them dirty.
00:40:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I'm like, even someone who hasn't like really delved into Witcher, like they are going to get upset about this. And when I look at the fan base for Witcher, you have like the hardcore fans who have read the books, played, you know, one and two maybe, right?
00:41:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then to me, you kind of have like, I would call myself this, the bandwagoners, you know, who jumped on board on Witcher 3 and fell in love, right? And for me, it's my second favorite video game of all time. Like, almost was my number one favorite video game. You came in and at the peak.
00:41:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
I never thought I would find a game that almost that I loved almost as much as Halo until Witcher came. and And so then I jumped on board at Witcher 3. And so now I'm going backwards and loving everything else about Witcher from there, right?
00:41:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
But the reason I bring this up, even the bandwagoners like me are going to be upset about this show because they're making these divisive changes for no reason. And it's like, why?
00:41:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
Now, kind of telling you what I think about the show overall, the first question I had, how is this now that Henry Cavill is gone? a Honestly, what's his name? Liam Hemsworth.
00:42:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
He's actually not bad. He's actually pretty good. And I think that if the show started off with Liam Hemsworth, people would actually be praising him and they would say he's really good, right?
00:42:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
The problem is Henry Cavill was 100% what I would expect, right? After you get someone who nails The Witcher so good so perfectly, nothing else will compare, right? So, like, if I used to think Liam would be 9 out of 10 in isolation, now, compared to Henry Cavill, he looks like a 7, right?
00:42:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
Is that his fault? No. You know? But it's like, you there's no way. Like, the way he looks at people, looks off, like, Henry Cavill, the way he looks at people, looks off screen, like, the way he growls, you know, just his mannerisms, it's exactly it's exactly what I would expect from the video game. And, like,
00:43:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
Those in like kind of intangible things like are so hard to nail. So I don't want to be too mean on Liam, but what did you expect? It's as well it's a lofty task. He signed up for it.
00:43:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
We knew for the most part, he probably wasn't going to live up to it. And it would have been a pleasant surprise if he did. Yeah. So am I, my opinion, Hey, he's at least trying. He's doing enough that I'm not so angry. I want to burn the show. Yeah. You know, like,
00:43:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
I will always be upset that Henry Cavill did not stay because of, you know, the freaking director and everyone, which, you know, I get it. but But Liam is good enough that I can still enjoy the show. Yeah. That's good. You know what? At the end of the day they're trying to salvage the show anyways, and they want to have some sort of arc.
00:43:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
let them finish it out with these last two seasons. And if they salvage it, they salvage it. Like, if I had to compare it, I look at, like, House of Cards, and at the end where they had to finish it without Kevin Spacey, right? Yeah.
00:43:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
like I would say this is better than that. I actually think it's a 7 out of 10. And for most of the show, I was thinking it was an 8 out of 10 until the last like three episodes. And then I was like, oh my God, what happened?
00:44:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, I mean, look, if I had to say, if I had to compare again, that's good because when I watched Amazon's Lord of the Rings, the what's the show? Oh, it's much better than that. It's much better than Rings of Power. Rings of Power, the second season.
00:44:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
It was awful. Dude, I watched it in 15 minute chunks because it was so bad. yeah So if you're saying that about this, that's... It's much better than wings of power Rings of Power. So I think a lot of people are just like bashing it instantly and giving it a 3 or 4 out of 10 because they're like... yeah oh this is so different like i hate this but then like i've actually been trying to read some forums i'm what is different right and then there's obviously some changes that are clear that i think are incredibly stupid and i agree with everyone yeah that's right valid criticism i understand why the director did it right i just don't like it right but i'm biased but then there's other things that people are freaking out about and i'm like it doesn't really change the story that much you know like
00:45:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
okay, like this one character is dating someone and she's nice. And in the story, she's toxic. Okay, fine. I get it. That's pretty big difference. But like, it kind of like, to me, like it still works, you know, like, yeah, it would be a slightly different impact on, like you know, the character, but it works. Right. So I'm not going to like freak out about it.
00:45:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
so unless like unless that portion of the story was so pivotal where that person's toxicity was like crucial to something happening so that's the thing everyone who read the book read read have read the books will say yes that's how it is like that character's toxicity was so important to the evolution of the main character without it it's not the same person but for me having not read the book right yeah I don't have that experience. I'm watching it and I'm like, yeah, I can see how this character becomes what they were in Witcher 3.
00:45:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
Right? So, i mean to each their own, right? I think you're going lot of people watching show that haven't read the books. Yeah. And i think I think people who have never read the book and who have not played the games are going to enjoy this.
00:46:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
And they may rate it like an 8 out of 10. For me, it's a 7 out of 10. I mean, you've actually got me now interested. I might actually watch this. Yeah, well... Watch it, but just know that there is some incredible stupidity.
00:46:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
like And I don't know why writers do this, right? There's like, okay, good character has the opportunity to kill the bad character. But instead of doing it, they're just like, blah, blah, blah, let me talk about my feelings.
00:46:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then guess what? Because they didn't kill the bad character... guess what? Someone dies that you loved. And it's like, this is so stupid. This is like... okay that's a little... And it's like this corny writing that Hollywood it has had for decades. It's like, why can't we move past this? I mean, that's almost something I would expect from a book, actually, and not an actual like representation within a show or movie. Yeah, I feel like that's something I would write. Exactly.
00:47:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
But no. So that's how i feel about The Witcher. But I'll finish it, you know. I'm actually... I'm looking forward to last season, kind of because I've spoiled the book for myself.
00:47:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I guess I have to say this, I don't know if everyone, this might you know give me some hate. The Witcher books are weird. like you know I didn't realize this, but like you know CD Projekt Red actually kind of cuts some stuff out from the books.
00:47:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
Because if you're actually just being faithful 100% to the books, The books get really weird sometimes. And the ending of the book is like the weirdest thing ever.
00:47:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like it was the same with Game of Thrones and then the way they adapted it. They cut out a lot of stuff too. it's like I mean, I want to tell you, but don't want to ruin it for people. But it's like when you actually read and comprehend what the ending of the Witcher book series is, you're just kind like, okay, that's weird. So I don't know, but apparently people love it.
00:47:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
You have to remember these are mature books. like These are for very mature audiences. Oh, yeah, yeah. All right, guess we can go through some of our breaking news. What do you want to talk about first, Arjun?
00:48:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
Let's talk about some of the smaller things first and get them out of the way before we get to the bigger. Yeah, I guess we'll talk cause we were talk about the PlayStation Portal. Switch, too. Nintendo had their earnings, and they they put out some numbers. It was pretty interesting. roll. Brr-brr-brr-brr-brr-brr-brr-brr-brr. They sold almost, I think about 9.57 million, I want to say, units of the Switch 2, which was way more than they expected. So how many months has it been out?
00:48:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
Since June. So four and a half months. Four and a half months. So you're telling me that the Switch 2 may outpace the Series act was less than half a year Almost has outsold the Wii Oh my god, bro, that's wild because the but the Series X is at like 30 million, right?
00:48:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
And this is at like 10? Yeah. So like... By the time it's early... Let me add to that. They're now up their forecast and they think they'll sell 20 million units by spring of next year. Oh my god, that's insane. So by the end of this console generation, Microsoft will have not only lost to the Switch, but also the Switch 2.
00:49:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
That's bad, dude. Oh, that's bad. I love Halo and Microsoft, but I just gotta say, that's really funny. And it's also really crazy how much the Switch 2 is selling. I did not expect in this financial climate, yeah how are people affording the Switch 2?
00:49:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
I know. Well, you have to think about it. It's still cheaper than an Xbox Series X. This is true, but like... A lot of the games are still on Switch, so I didn't think people would be able to come i think convince their parents to buy them a Switch 2. I think the compelling reason was Mario Kart. So it was almost a one-to-one attach rate. Mario Kart World has sold roughly 9 million units as well. Wow. so Insane.
00:49:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
Either people bought it because they bought the bundle, or they bought it separately. But you know, like i mean I don't have kids right now, so maybe I don't get it. and Plus, I'm a gamer, so i would have it anyways. But...
00:50:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't know. I feel like that might be a hard sell to get from your parents before Christmas even hits, right? Yeah. Because you would think that like in Christmastime, you're going to convince your parents to buy that the new console, right? So then it's probably not really kids. It's probably millennials that have money. Probably, right? Because how else? $450 is not cheap, right? cheap. $500 when you can buy a game. And if I was a parent, right, and I was like, man, okay...
00:50:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
uh, this console only comes around eight years. So i only have like one out of eight years to buy a freaking console. Let me wait till Christmas. I think it was smarter than them to pack and game. The last, when's the last time any console manufacturer but doing a pack and game?
00:50:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like imagine if Xbox series X came out and says, we're giving Halo for $50. fifty dollars If you buy it well together, no no one has done that in a long time. So I think they were actually a pretty brilliant idea. I don't know why people don't do that. Yeah.
00:51:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
and Well, they used to back in the, was a GameCube Xbox era, right? right Like they did the Halo 2 console launch thing, I think, or maybe i'm I can't remember. something That kind of seems like a really good idea, honestly, because, you know, the first exclusive you have that launches with your console is not often like the cream of the crop, you know, like,
00:51:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
Mario Kart World is a big gun for Nintendo, but it's not like Mario Kart World is so difficult to develop as compared to Tears of the Kingdom, right? Like, I don't think you'd ever want to bundle Tears of the Kingdom with it, but Mario Kart World kind of makes sense to me. Makes sense. It's for the casual audience, not as disrespect, but it's their fastest and best-selling game. Like, Astro Bot. Like, Astro Bot is a game, you know, and they had Astro's Playground, right? Yeah.
00:51:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
That makes sense. And I think... Right now, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the best-selling game on the Switch. It's like $60 million. So this makes sense. So the other thing is they announced that Donkey Kong Bonanza sold about 3.49 million units. That's more than I expected. Pretty great for bringing this IP back.
00:52:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
So that means one out of every three people who have bought a Switch have bought Donkey Kong. Yeah, that's pretty strong. That's insanely strong. Mario mario was a galup sorry Odyssey sold about...
00:52:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
I want to say between 25 to 30 million units. I want to say 30 million units on the Switch 1. I don't know if Donghae Hung will reach that height. But if it can reach between 10 and 20 million, that would be success. That would be huge hit for Now, the real question is, do we go a whole generation without another 3D Mario game? If we do, this is a letdown. I mean, I think... And I'm doing a lot of speculation here.
00:52:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
Okay, but if you're telling me the rumors are saying that a Pokemon game takes 15 to 20 million dollars to make, okay How much does a Mario game take to make?
00:52:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
Double that, $40 million? dollars nothing And how many billions did you just make? like I just don't see how it could you cannot make that happen. And your your studios are not that big.
00:52:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
you know Japan has a lot of people. right like How can you not get that many people to make? Common sense says that. That's the case. But they made Odyssey and then they went seven years without making another one.
00:53:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
But maybe this is just me being dumb, but I want to believe that it took eight years because they probably wasted a couple of years trying to make Donkey Kong work. Which is what it was. Because it's like a new franchise and maybe the Switch couldn't handle it, right?
00:53:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
So, you know, I want to say like if they just started off the bat trying to make Donkey Kong with a clear vision, it would have been shorter. And so I see that because like if you already have experience with the Switch 2 hardware, right, I feel like you could knock something out of my four years. Yeah, so they admitted that. Donkey Kong did start on the Switch 1. Obviously, they couldn't do as much as they could on Switch 2. And then they swapped over to the Switch 2 hardware. So that's probably the main reason.
00:53:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
It was in the middle of the generation and they decided to... But I agree with you. If now we have to wait eight years for the next Mario game, like, yeah, I'm going to be very disappointed. we're disappointed. But I think you're right. So the other thing Nintendo announced is, like, starting now, that, like, we're focusing all of our development effort now on the Switch 2. So they basically said... They didn't say we're abandoning Switch 1, but all their primary focus is going come That's what it should be, you know? I feel like Nintendo's doing it right, you know?
00:54:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
And maybe some games, you know, hey, they can start running the Switch one, so we'll make it more you know cross-platform, you know. i can't imagine, like, a Super Mario, what is it, the the board game thing? Mario Party.
00:54:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
Excuse me, Mario Party. I feel like that's not going to be that intensive, right? So you can make that cross-platform, but like other games that are really pushing the physics and the graphics, like you're not even going to try and bother to make it cross-platform. Yeah, I think they did something smart here.
00:54:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
They took a bunch of Switch 1 games that released over the last 34 years, and they were like, here's a Nintendo Switch 2 Enhanced Edition. And it's like you're in between. If you didn't play this on Switch 1, you can get it on Switch 2 with new features.
00:54:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
And if not, you still have the Switch 1 edition. like they did a good they They understood the cross-generation period, and they're not going to make it last like three to four years. I think they're smart. And now going forward, it if they make a new Mario Party game, just make it Mario a Switch 2 only. Like, there's no need. Yes, you can sell a fuckton if you make another one. yeah There's no need to at this point.
00:55:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
I wish that, like, Sony and Microsoft would learn from Nintendo because Nintendo's done it in such a way that it doesn't feel like the boomer bust cycle that you get, right? Where, like, the PS5 comes out and you're like, okay, when do I upgrade, right?
00:55:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then you're halfway to the generation and Call Duty is still running and it's the best-selling game it's still running on the last generation, right? So it's like, what's the point, you know? Yeah, exactly. And watch there be a watch when the PS6 comes out, the next Call Duty game will run on PS4, PS5, and PS3. know, that'd be insane.
00:55:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
I believe it. But the thing is, like Nintendo has just made it feel like it's business as usual. like I would argue that the last year of the Switch was a little slow. didn't really care for p the Peach game or the Zelda game and stuff. But they still had you know pretty good games. right And mike you could argue like the first year of PS5 and x and the you know Series X were slow. right Just like the last year was slow for Nintendo. Yeah.
00:56:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
But they were still good games. yeah And other than that, it's just been very consistent. yeah so So good for them, man. That's insane. I don't know how many consoles sell overall. But this, I definitely called this one wrong.
00:56:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
This one is selling, the Switch 2 is selling way but more than I expected. i Way more than expected. And the games are selling way more than I expected. Yeah, it's insane. And I think like another another wind they'll have next year's and Pokemon winded wave now comes out or so I can say window with the next Pokemon generation is coming in next year and that will increase sales again. Wow, you're so sure about these leaks bro. dude Yeah, dude, don't say Nintendo will take us down. I know.
00:56:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
But so it's just a game after game and they they actually have a steady cadence of dropping great first party or second party. game So like you just mentioned earlier, Zelda Hyrule Wars Age of Imprisonment.
00:56:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, that like looks interesting. Like, it might not be a great game. Yeah, that pads things out for Yeah, pads it out for you. So, and then Yoshi coming out at the earlier game. Mario Tennis Fever. They got it down. You know, they really do.
00:57:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. All right, I guess we can talk about some delays next. Yes. Because we went from good stuff to now bad stuff. Breaking news. GTA 6, not 5, has been delayed to November of 2026. Yeah.
00:57:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
Hey, you think they just waited an extra year so it would line up? GTA 6 and 26? Let's go. Yeah, maybe. Wait, actually, they they already had it made, my joke doesn't land. But the thing is, kind of sucks because if they do nail that landing, which I don't think they will, it sucks for Wolverine.
00:57:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's coming out right around the same time. Oh my god, I just realized that. that's like I mean, I think Wolverine will still sell well. I don't think they cross, but dude, it's going overshadowed very quickly. yeah You think Sony moves their release date? Yeah, for sure.
00:57:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
like you're going to release it in two weeks before. you know Yeah, maybe like a month before a month. Yeah, I think they would do a month before, like October or September. Man, and they're releasing in the wintertime. Oh, it's going to kill that winter.
00:58:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
I wonder, you know, this is going to piss off so many companies because they probably strategize and plan their entire year around the launch of GTA 6. And GTA 6, bro, like they just go wherever they want. They do not care. I love that kind of energy, bro yeah Like they're like, whatever. The whole industry listens to us. Yeah, it's crazy, man. Again, like what Sucker Punch said about GTA 6 not launching with Ghost of Tsushima launch.
00:58:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
They were like so elated, like so happy. They're like they couldn't believe it, you know. They're like, oh my god, we were so I do feel like Ghost of Yotai would have gotten overwhelmed or overshadowed. I think Wolverine is such a pop culture icon that it will survive, right?
00:58:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
And might even fuel each other a little bit, but you just don't want that attention. You really don't. Because GTA 6 is going to just smash every record, right? Everyone's gonna be talking about it. going to be the game of the century, right? And so...
00:59:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, I mean, definitely it's going to be like the best game of this generation. yeah like People are going to talk about this generation. They'll talk about GTA 6 and Baldur's Gate. yeah you know Yeah, exactly. But yeah, I'm kind of surprised because they seem so confident in May, right?
00:59:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
It was May, right? Yeah, it was May. And so six months is actually pretty sizable, and they're not that far out. They're only six months away to begin with. So at this point, the game should be done.
00:59:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
So really they they must be thinking, oh we need more time for QA and polishing. and Which is what they said, QA and polishing and performance. See, the thing is, this is what Take Two does, like every other company. If you're public facing, you you are beholden to the shareholders.
00:59:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
You're going to come out saying confident in whatever date you give. But internally, you know things could be a mess. You know, they probably did. They probably knew. And they're like, you know, we're just doing this for share the shareholders. I don't think anyone is actually upset about this because like, I think,
00:59:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
with GTA, everyone's like, when it comes, it comes. We're going to love it Just don't release it early. So like, if all a sudden, if GTA 6 says you're coming in 2027, I'm still going to fine with that. But like,
01:00:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
I'll be a little frustrated at the fact because then it will feel like the big moment for this generation is at the end of the generation. yes Yes, because if it's in 2027, you're getting the next generation. Because then it really feels that way, right?
01:00:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
Because I'd be pissed because I'm like, this is clearly a cross-gen game. I want the native PS6 version. Yeah, exactly, because then I know they're going to release it the next year, 2028. with all the advanced features, so then I'm like, do I want to play the game right and I'm not going to want to play it. So do, for those selfish kind of reasons, I would want it to launch in 2026, right?
01:00:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
But if it gets delayed again, whatever. you know And you know there's going to PC version a year later. Yeah. It's just going to come out. People will play it on their rigs.
Industry Struggles: Delays, Layoffs, and Quality Concerns
01:00:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
They're super advanced rigs. So I don't know. that's it's It's interesting. I'm not upset at all. And Rockstar is still making so much money. They don't care. Yeah. and They're like rich.
01:00:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then another game that was just announced today, which I'm not surprised because we haven't barely seen any of it, is 1943 Rise of Hydra. This is the game being produced by Amy Hedding, the lady who worked on Star Wars 1313 that never made it out and that worked on a all of the Uncharted franchises and left her on the Uncharted 4 series when things got really messy at Naughty Dog. So it's just kind of disappointing to see this because now seeing GTA get delayed, this game to get delayed,
01:01:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
seeing square enix announced today a bunch of layoffs in their us and uk studios it's like i do feel like we're in a recession in the economy right now and no one wants to maybe admit it and everyone is having a hard time like the mark is being flooded with a ton of engineers developers etc no one knows where to go games are not coming out like 1943 doesn't even have a new release date it's an indefinite delay so they don't know when they didn't commit to anything So it's like, this game could get canceled.
01:01:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know? I don't know. And if it does, that sucks again. And I feel like even Motive. Motive is working on that new Iron Man game they did, Death Space Remake. haven't seen lick of it. That thing is totally going get canceled. And you know, out of all the things I was seeing that was kind of tied into, like, you know, superhero franchises, you know, this one actually looked really promising, right? Yeah, very promising.
01:02:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I think you had, like, messaged me, and you're like, oh, yeah, there's this person who made Uncharted is making this a superhero game. And i was like... okay, that's kind of cool as Uncharted, but like that's weird, dude. like How do you make an Uncharted game and now make like a superhero game? like I don't know if I want that. And I was i was honestly like not really that interested or hyped. And then I saw that trailer was like, oh man, this looks good.
01:02:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
like The tone was great. you know Obviously it was like pre-rendered, but you know the promise was so tantalizing. you know And she's not just the like like owner of the studio or like creative director. She writes stuff.
01:02:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
She writes the scripts for these. So, you know, and i just a writer maybe we'll never know, right? But she seems like she's pretty competent. Like i anything that I've seen that she's been a part of that's been released, the writing has been good. The characters feel genuine. They have like actually like good banter. They don't feel like video game characters.
01:03:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I don't know what happens with these projects, you know? It just sucks. Maybe the supporting cast she had when she did Uncharted 1, 2, and 3, that was just a phenomenal team and she just hasn't been able to find people like that again. don't know. But Uncharted, if you had to compare, Uncharted 1, okay, but 2 and 3 were just straight out of this earth. I think it's fair to say that most people think 2 and 3 is where the franchise peak.
01:03:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
And 4 was good, right? like I feel like there was a bit of a drop-off, but the height of two and three were so good that even a little bit of a drop off was still an amazing day. You know? Exactly. Man, that sucks.
01:03:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't know why they're saying indefinitely. Why can't you just say it's canceled? Yeah, just say it's canceled or Why do you have to like give, it's like 99.9% of my hope is dead. Why do you have to let the 0.1% remain? Exactly. Especially when you're, okay, again,
01:04:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
They've been given a ton of money to make this game. They hired a lot of prominent people. If you're not putting out a date on it, tells me maybe internally you're going to have a restructure, reorder, and you're to have to make a much leaner game now, which means you might have cut out parts that you had before. Which means that whatever comes out is just going to be garbage. you garage Because at that point, I feel like you know you're going to take a hit.
01:04:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
But it's like, do I want a $500 million dollars hit or $350 million dollar hit? I feel like that's what Suicide Squad was. That's what all these a lot of these games are like. At a certain point in the game development, you know you're cooked.
01:04:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
And you know, you're looking at your numbers, you're like, the quality's not there because a lot of these developers are gamers. yeah They know you know there's no way this is going to come together to be the dream I wanted. And we're running out of time and We're stressed out. yeah And so then, you know, the management is like, okay, now like we just got to cut our losses and move on.
01:04:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then it sucks for the developers because that's their resume that was resume. And it's like, not their fault.
Upcoming Gaming News and Exciting Announcements
01:04:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know, it's not their fault. that sucks. So, all right, I guess maybe we can talk about the big news. yeah Let's go.
01:05:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's on the PlayStation.
01:05:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
go
01:05:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
Halo, dang, Halo Combat Evolved, or Campaign Evolved, sorry, coming to PlayStation. Well, I need to know which dad in that studio made that joke. Dude, that is the biggest.
01:05:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's like so cringe, but it's like, okay, this works. So Campaign Evolved, meaning... They're remaking, they said from the ground up with Unreal Engine 5, the campaign only for Halo 1 and coming to both PlayStation and Xbox and PC all at the same time in 2026. This was showed up at HCS, Halo was the championship.
01:05:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
It was the last Halo championship. Yeah, which was interesting. That too for Infinite, last championship for Infinite. The thing is, there's rumors right now, and I can believe this, rumors right now are saying that this is being co-developed by Virtuous Studios who, guess what, made Metal Gear Solid Delta in UE5, who made Oblivion Remastered, and who's made, what was the... I think those are the two main. Oh, maybe those are the two mains.
01:06:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
I have a fan that Virtuous is just going all over the country like we can take your old game and we and if if this is the case this is not a ground up remake this is to give us your engine we'll wrap it with a painted coat well so they actually elaborated on that I don't did you watch round table?
01:06:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
no never so I actually watched the round table and stuff and there's actually some interesting information in there too that we'll get to as you can see I'm really in on this dude this I haven't wanted to talk this for a while but it is running on the original engine right ahha but it's not the original Halo 1 engine Because my understanding is they don't have that code.
01:06:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
So it's running on the original Halo Reach engine. So that's why like the people who are like really into Halo, like a lot of them have been freaking out. And they're like, oh my God, this elite is not rolling the way that it's supposed to roll in Halo 1.
01:06:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
And the developers are like, yeah, we can't do that. This is the Halo Reach engine. So the elites function the way they function in Halo Reach. Interesting. And so I'm actually okay with that because I felt like the AI was very good in Halo Reach. like They were like they're actually pretty menacing. They were pretty tough.
01:07:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
but I say that because all of the physics, all of the the gameplay, like all of that is all Halo Reach. actually interesting. But then it's skinned like Halo CE. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's running on Unreal Engine.
01:07:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
So all the like the graphics, right, that's all Unreal. Yeah. But then the Halo Reach, that's, you know, actually, I don't like that because Halo Reach, by the time Reach came out, it was actually a big improvement over even three. People didn't like it as much, but it was, it's very special in people's hearts now. It's very like cult now.
01:07:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I was like watching this guy who was like really into this. I wouldn't even think about testing this, but he's like, if you actually crouch and you burst fire with the assault rifle, you realize it has like kind of similar blue like mechanism. It's not like the bloom bloom.
01:07:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
But it's similar to Halo Reach. That's so funny. And like the people who really know Halo Reach, they like tested certain attributes about the grenades and how they explode and everything. And they're like, yeah, this is Halo Reach. Which is crazy to me that like you can just tell what is Halo Reach and what is Halo CE just by playing it, even if it's reskinned.
01:08:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
Man, kudos to those shoot goes guys. I mean, would I have loved them taking the Halo Infinite engine, like Slip Space, and then remaking one through that and then putting a Code of Pain... and maybe but the thing is people would crucify them for that because like i think there's a lot of people who are already unhappy that it's not running on halo cd engine but that's so antiquated and old now but this is funnier so when they added sprint it wasn't like a brand new thing it was already part of halos because you could run it yeah regray yeah yeah so this so and it's not the same sprint as halo uh infinite right so so there's a lot of those kind of like weird weird quirks
01:08:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't know. Like, i feel like online people are just all over the place with this one. Right. And like what I'm hearing, like I'm hearing a lot of people who are very upset at the art style for this game because they're saying that they don't like the fact that the grunts and the Marines are the Halo infinite grunts and Marines.
01:09:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
And they're like, they're like, listen, Halo studios. Like we want you guys to be authentic. And, you know, they're asking for their feedback and they're like, we want you to change all the Marines and from the Halo Infinite ones to the Halo CE one.
01:09:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
And this is just me. Like I'm all in for making it authentic. But if you're telling me like, that's where we want to put our resources, I'm going to say like, no, right. I'm going to be like, look, let's not put our resources there. Let's make the frame rate better. Let's make the graphics run better.
01:09:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
Right. Let's get the next game out sooner. Right. Like let's, those things to me are like, you can't have everything. Right. Like at this point, So like, let's just get the things that are important. And I think people are upset because they're like, yeah, like it kind of feels like a lazy project where you're copying the needler from Halo Infinite, you're copying this and that. And I'm like, okay, I'm with you. Right. It would be nice if everything was done from the ground up, but would I rather have some cheats and now this game is 50 million and we don't have to worry about making such a huge profit versus no, now the game took a hundred million and it takes six months longer to release.
01:10:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
No, man, take the shortcuts. I'm fine with Take the shortcuts. I like the extra coat of paint. And it does something to my brain psychologically that says I do want to play it again now. Yeah. I don't want to play the old ones, even if it has been remastered.
01:10:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
the My opinion has changed so much. When I first watched the trailer, I was kind underwhelmed. Yeah, you were going to tell me that. And i was like, I don't know, man. Like, it looks cool. But, like, I've already played Halo.
01:10:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't know if want to replay it. But then more and more, like, I watched it a few times. And I was like, man, I'm actually excited. Like, I want to play this again. And I learned from watching the developer documentary, The Roundtable, they're actually changing quite a lot in this game.
01:10:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
So it is... To me, it actually seems more like a remake. Yeah, more like a Because you can have four people play co-op. You have the extra seat on the car. You can pick up weapons now. yeah What else did they say? They have three prequel missions.
01:11:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
They have three prequel missions they're adding with the kernel. it's like, okay. And then they actually said... and maybe I'm reading into this too much, but they said in those three prequel missions, there is new characters, locations, and enemies.
01:11:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh, okay. So like, what? And they're bringing the flood from Halo 3 into this. Yeah, they have like the Brutes and stuff and you can see, not the Brutes, I don't know. The whatever they're called, they look like Brutes. The tank forms. The tank, yeah. Yeah.
01:11:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so in the round table, you should watch it real quick when you have a chance. Like you can actually see the screens of some of the developers as they're working on some of the levels. And you can see like 343 Guilty Spark. Like it seems like a bit of it.
01:11:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it's like dark and moody. And you can see like a bit of it, little bit of the flood forms. They look creepy, man. Like they actually look like, yeah, they look really creepy. Okay. Yeah. I'm excited. So that's going to make that level look really amazing. And I'm curious to see what they'll do with the back half of the game because the back half is pretty repetitive. Right.
01:12:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I wonder how much they'll change that up. I think for me, the reason I'm so happy overall, i did not expect them to say that this is coming out in 2026, you know?
01:12:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
even though Microsoft said, oh yeah, something that's been with us from the beginning, right. Will be with us in 2026. You know, from some of the things I was reading online, i was like, I don't know if Halo studios can actually get this game out, you know, in 2026. Right.
01:12:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
And the fact that they were able to show off like a live demo. Yeah. It's, there's a lot of jank in it. Right. But how many people let you play a live demo of a game?
01:12:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
a year before it's going to be released. No one does that. I can give it some grace. It's like, it'll fix a lot. And they'll iron some of those things out. But i I really thought that this would be 2027. I did too. And I thought, like, even though they have not announced it, I was pretty convinced that Seren Infinity had a Battle Royale that they were going to announce in 2026 and release in 2026.
01:13:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
So the timeline to me seems faster. Like I think when you zoom out, like Infinite to the Halo remake seems like ridiculous, right? Because you're like, oh my god, we're waiting five years from Halo Infinite and now we're getting a remake.
01:13:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
That's pretty shit, right? But if you actually look in the studio, like the studio basically died. Yeah, died. Came back to life and they basically fixed their old game, which took them like three years.
01:13:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so it was, I feel like they only really started the moment in 2024. Yeah. So here's another thing I'm confused about. Like, was it only a year ago when they said hey, we're working on a new Halo project and we're using Unreal. And then they show off that little 10 second clip. Yeah, yeah. and it made they made it look as if they were the ones prototyping it.
01:13:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
And if I have to believe these rumors, I do think Virtuous is the one that's probably doing the work with the Halo Studios leading in this effort, which means they have a lot of people now within the studios probably working on something else.
01:14:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
So if this comes out in 2026... Yeah, so the studio was rebranded to its current name October 2024.
01:14:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
has you It's just been a year. it's been a year. So something I think Virtuous is leading. It must be. Yeah. And then if this is the case, the question is, do they do a Halo 2 and 3 remake? And if they do a Halo 2 and 3 remake and they're supposedly working on a live service multiplayer aspect, which means going forward, any new game that's part that continues the storyline will just be campaign only and they just continue to add to a hub.
01:14:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
So what that that's what think we're going to do. I think Microsoft is copying Call Duty and I think they'll have a hub. And they'll have like Halo 1 campaign involved, Halo 2 campaign involved, Halo 3 campaign involved, whatever, right?
01:14:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
And they're going to be discrete experiences that Virtuos is going to make and with know Halo Studios' help, right? And then they're going to have their Battle Royale that Sir Infinity has made, right?
01:14:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then the next Halo game will eventually come out. And that'll be Halo 7. And that is going to take a while to come out. Now the question is, whatever this new Halo game ends up being, let's say 7, whatever, will that be non-real?
01:15:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh yeah. But then you're going to to either start from scratch. So what I'm not sure about is are they going to do, and there's been conflicting speculation reports. Some people are saying that they are going to stick with this modified engine where underneath the game is running the physics of, you know, original and, you know, over top, they're going to get unreal.
01:15:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
Right. And I don't know if that's like something they can sustain in the longterm because the reason they want to switch to unreal is so they can make the developmental pipeline easy. Yeah. But down the line, if they want to make some fundamental changes, how are they going to do that? Yeah. So I think I now know what they could be thinking.
01:15:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
They're going to three remakes. Maybe they'll come back to back to back year after year after year, 26, 27, 28. Let's just assume. That would be great. Great. We get three remakes. they go And then they announce in 27, you know what? We are working on a new Halo.
01:15:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
That is from the ground up with with Unreal 5 for the physics engine. So the project they showed last year of us prototyping, that could be the start to their new Halo game. Yeah, I mean, that could make sense. And then that way they have time to make sure the the feel is right. Yeah. know And I think the key thing is going to be, when do you announce that multiplayer project? And for me, and I know we talked about this outside of the podcast, if they have that cookie, I don't know why you don't just announce it right now. Like, you know, why can't you just say we have halo campaign involved, here's what it is.
01:16:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then at the end, just give a tease, just like you gave before. And I know there's no multiplayer here, but don't worry. We have some exciting news for you coming up. So I think it depends. if If they took what certain Affinity was working on and they took that over, it makes sense announce it sooner because you have something to work off of. If they scrapped because we don't know if it's still being worked on, yeah then you announce it when the next Halo...
01:16:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
up seven or whatever it comes out says it's launching at the same time i guess i'm just hoping that certain fanities uh whatever they're working on is not completely dead because not only is that a huge waste of resources that would have been huge waste of halo talent because certain affinity has that halo talent right but because then there's not going to be any new multiplayer until until until halo 7 and halo 7 i don't want and and the the worst thing is when when Halo Studios and Microsoft ends up in that situation, they try and force it.
01:17:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
They try and rush it, you know? And for me, I'm like, okay, if you have certain Affinities game, you have Halo Infinite Live Service still kind of surviving somehow, you have these campaign remakes that Virtuos is making, there's not as much immediate pressure to get Halo 7 out the door, yeah right? And so then you can actually let that cook.
01:17:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
which Which, you know, again, maybe if we line this up, just speculation, if this is the last Halo championship for Infinite, why announce that now? Like, Halo 5, when it came out, multiplayer lasted for five years, then Infinite came out.
01:17:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
Why not just let... That's what I truly feel, that like we're probably going to get both in 2026, if not 2026, 2027. And I feel like Microsoft's not necessarily going shadow drop it, but they're just going to announce it on moment. Yeah, I could think they're going to be like, yeah, guess what?
01:18:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
We have a Battle Royale that's coming out three months. And I'm going to be like... And you know what's going to be funnier? Even if they do that, that's not going to be their main multiplayer. That might last for three years. And then when Halo 7 comes up, then it's the premier multiplayer package again.
01:18:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
The competitive PvP. Yeah, but I mean, I feel like as as silly as that sounds, because that sounds really silly, that's kind of what Battlefield and Call of Duty are doing, right? like Which goes to show you how powerful Fortnite was. yeah Because now you have to make something that competes directly with Fortnite and another product that retains your legacy. You can't fuse them anymore because that's how powerful Fortnite is. right Like in Battlefield 6, they just released their game and then out of nowhere,
01:18:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't even know if they announced it ahead of time. They're just like oh, by the way, free-to-play Battle Royale, Battlefield. Oh, they announced that? it's a thing right now. yeah it And it it did really well. And I think it like brought up Battlefield's numbers to like over 500,000. Wow, that's crazy. and But that's what I mean. It was like out of left field. also It's called RedSec.
01:19:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, and most of their players are on PC. That's even crazier. Yeah, well, I mean, PC players have always loved it. But just think about it, most still on PC, but Call of Duty, most players are consoles. It's like crazy.
01:19:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, I really feel like they released their game first, and then later they just announced, out of nowhere, we have a Battle Royale, and then it did amazing numbers. yeah so So who knows? Maybe Halo Studios does the same thing when they release Campaign Evolved, and then a month later, they're like, oh, you finished the game? yeah Here's the Battle Royale. Yeah, like I could see either in January when they do their next Direct,
01:19:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
or in summer of Xbox showcase. They could shadow drop it because now the Halo remake is going right next to GTA 6 because Halo remake is not moving out in November yeah because that is their month.
01:20:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
That's the month. so That's bad. Oh, what about Fable 2? oh that's oh what about fable too Yeah. That's going to be a fall thing. I don't know when Fable is going to I feel like other franchises can move to other months, but like Halo has very iconically been sitting on and November for the anniversary.
01:20:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like Halo 3 was in September, right? So it's not like every Halo game is then, but for the anniversary, Microsoft tries to be cute, right? And so I think they're going to... Dude, no one's going to buy it.
01:20:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
That comes out at same time. Watch, there's going to like five games that released a week before GTA 6 and then no games for like 12 weeks. Oh my god, that's so true. That's so funny. But no, overall, I'm happy and excited for Halo. I'm happy it's relevant.
01:20:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, happy it's relevant. It's on PlayStation and yeah, like there's a part of me that can say like it's it's the fall from grace, but like now it's like all right, we're done. yeah you know We've all accepted that like Halo has fallen from its grace. It's no longer what it was.
01:21:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
Can we just stop talking about like the doom story of Halo because like everyone knows it and we can just like move on? And I guess like I was thinking about this and I think it's kind of fitting. like In some ways, I feel like the way I feel about that franchise is how I feel about the city of Detroit.
01:21:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
So many people talk about, oh, this was Detroit in the 1950s 60s. We're the fourth or third biggest you know city in the world or in the country. and like look at... how much future we had and everyone wanted to be like us.
01:21:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then for X, y and Z, you know, reason, and look at what happened to Detroit between 1950 and 2020, right? And then they'll take some pictures of like decayed ruins and they're like, okay, look at what happened. This place sucks, right? And then everyone just wants to look use Detroit as the punching bag to compare themselves to when they're actually not doing that great, but they're just like at least we don't have buildings like Detroit, you know?
01:21:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then like, it's kind of nice that like now we're entering an era of Detroit where it's like, yeah, I mean, like this is old news. Like we know what happened to Detroit. Like, can we move beyond that and talk about how cool Hudson's is? Like, obviously, like we're not going to be like the alternate reality you know, 2025 Detroit, that's like New York. Yeah. But like, hey, this is so cool. We can enjoy this, right? So I wish we were.
01:22:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
Right? But, so I say that because like, you know, to me, Halo's going to be like that. Like, Halo, I... It's accepting what it now is. I'm the biggest fanboy of Halo amongst the people I know, right? As you know.
01:22:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
But i've I've come to the realization and the acceptance that like those days of Halo are gone. And I think a lot of people who are so angry online, they're angry at Halo as a franchise in Microsoft, but they're also angry at the fact that their childhood is gone.
01:22:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
right Because like that was their childhood, right? And they just can't move past the fact that those days are gone. Those communities we had on Halo 3 and Halo 2, those Xbox Live you know type of, you know that's that's dead and gone. But like that's okay you know because you have the memories and you can move on to something else, right? Maybe they're angry at themselves.
01:23:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, I don't know, man. I agree with that. And also, it doesn't matter. Even if Halo comes back into form, the online community is not what it once was, yeah regardless. I was reading somewhere, and it was talking about, like, if you look at Generation, at, like, who's talking about what franchise, like, below the age of 18, like, nobody knows where Halo is. Yeah, no one knows.
01:23:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so... And the people who know Halo are all the people who are like in their 30s. Yeah. And they're probably not even playing games. Yeah. So here's the thing. The people that are nostalgic for it that are between 30 and 40 or late 20s, I'm just saying this. I'm not trying to generalize, but I am.
01:23:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
You don't have friends to co-op play it or land play it with. I don't. I'll be honest, bro. If Halo... Call of Duty is still, you know, doing so well. don't feel it's like I'll do it like used to. None of us have any... We all stick to single-player games and we play multiplayer, but we all are very disparate when we play. We do not play with each other barely anymore because we don't have the time. And i mean it feels nice where, like, you get the boys back and you're like, oh, yeah, let's run Battlefield or Halo like to be used to, but, like... For what? Two matches?
01:24:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
Exactly. Like, you're not playing as consistently as you used to, right? Like, even if I get the game back because, like, the joy of that moment was the fact that you didn't have responsibilities. Right? Like, I could enjoy Halo in that time capsule because like it was it was a Saturday and what else was I going to do?
01:24:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
I'll play some Halo, go play basketball and that's it. Yeah. Your life revolved around that. Yeah. Now it does. But now it's like, that's like a hobby that I have on the side that I have to find time for. right So it's just, it's just different, you know? And so I hope this is an opportunity to like make Halo relevant for other generations and have them enjoy what we enjoyed.
01:24:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
And when I came to that realization, I was like, you know, I want to see how the younger generation reacts to Halo. and Because like the story is good. The gameplay is good. I wonder how they'll feel playing a game like that, being so used to Fortnite. right Like, oh, I can't pull out my shovel. you know like What am I going to do? right so So I'm curious. I mean, I'll say this. I'm not hungry for new story right now because...
01:25:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
We got a show that was an ultimate fail. It was an alternate timeline. We got yeah infinite story, which was an ultimate fail. We got five. That was an ultimate fail. So like, I'm not hungry for something new because even if this is a new leadership and a new team, no one has delivered for the last 10 years. So when it comes out, it comes out. I'll definitely touch it. I'll play it, you know, whatever. But I'm actually excited for these remakes because Halo 3 is near and dear to my heart. That's nostalgic. And when that gets remade, which I hope it does. Oh, I will be very happy when they come to Halo 3.
01:25:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
And Sprint with that will feel so nice. And and Halo 2, like when they remake that cool. But the Halo 2 anniversary you already had was pretty good. So I don't really care.
01:25:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
For me, you know, I am actually one of the few who actually really enjoyed Halo Infinite. So I'm really excited for Halo Infinite 2. And I would love for it to come tomorrow. you know But I know that's not going happen.
01:25:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so for me, I'm okay with waiting because I would rather wait for the game and have it be good than rush it. I also am in the minority probably that I do feel like if you gave Halo Infinite two more years, it would have came out in good state.
01:26:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
And which goes to show you how unfinished it was, right? Because if it actually had two more years, you could have had different biomes in the campaign. You know, you could have had a more fleshed out multiplayer. And it's no surprise that it took really until 2024 for the game to be the product you need to be at launch, right? if That's the assumption that whatever they were doing was the right, like they were on track.
01:26:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
The reason why they, cut it short is because whether it was scope creep or something else, yeah the direction wasn't straight. So they, they narrowed down the scope and then when they launched it, it actually kind of worked, yeah but had they given it two extra years, it probably wouldn't have looked the same.
01:26:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
So, so I say that because I feel like if they gave it two more years, they could have at least finished the multiplayer of the forge and release the complete package. Yeah. Sure. And I think that's how far out they were from releasing a complete package. The fact that they were able to get Halo Infinite out the door in the shape it was is actually kind of miraculous. Kind of miraculous. For where that... For where that game was, right? That's right's par for the course for that studio. I know.
01:27:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
But the fact they were able to release it like that, is it says a lot. Sorry, franchise. Not studio. Yeah. But I do think that if they released a game two years later, I think it would have been received in a totally different way.
01:27:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
But at the same time, I think people... have just been so obsessed with what is Halo because like, I think when people talk about Halo, it's symbolic of them talking about Microsoft.
01:27:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
Right. And so, that i and so I think that's why people obsess so much about Halo because they're like, you know, I don't even need to have a conversation with you about how Microsoft is doing because look at where Halo is.
01:27:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
And that's like the end of the conversation. Well, again, it's synonymous because they launched the console with that as one of their premier games and it lasted for three decades so or two decades. So it's like when I look at Nintendo and I see Pokemon or Mario, it's when I see Sega and I see Sonic.
01:28:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like even it became irrelevant for 10 years, Sonic's popular again because that's the first thing they started with. So... To me, like it's going to get a lot of shit. Halo's going lot of shit because you're an OG. You started this. You cannot die out this way.
01:28:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I also think it's it cuts both ways, right? Because, for instance, maybe this is a hot take. Okay, Microsoft releases the Halo games in an unfinished state.
01:28:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
They don't sell while, you know, doom and gloom. Everyone wants to cancel the company. How fuck does the Pokemon company get away with this? They get away with a lot. Scarlet and Violet. That's because their leadership is corrupt and they accept it. Scarlet and Violet, right right? And it's like that game, more so than any game,
01:28:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's so broken. You want me to tell you how? You want me to tell you how? Pokemon cards? No. It's because Pokemon Sky and Violet with all the jank sold 27 million units. That's my point. That's my point. Like, it still sold so well, right?
01:29:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I think that's also a reflection of how people feel about Nintendo. So I think with Microsoft and Halo, it cuts both ways. People hate Microsoft, they take it out on Halo. People hate Halo, they take it out on Microsoft.
01:29:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it's just like a double-edged cutting. Because it's like, people can hate Pokemon-ish, right? But they don't actually hate Nintendo, right? And so it doesn't actually cut both ways, right? that's fair and it's And this is true for all of Microsoft's franchises, right? Like,
01:29:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
People hate gears. They hate Microsoft. you know But like for Halo, it's more emblematic than any other. And I mean, it makes sense. You're right. It's the poster child, right? But I just think that's a curious thing.
01:29:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
So we'll see what happens. But you never know because I think even if Halo will not always be... there Halo is not always judged on the merits of itself.
01:29:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
it's always It's judged on the merits of what it was and what it could be yeah and what microsoft how people are feeling about Microsoft. <unk>s like look It's like when you're dating your ex-girlfriend and you thought they were going the of your life and you thought they could be so much more, in reality, you realize they weren't the person you thought they were going to be. Yeah, exactly.
01:30:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
And the thing is, like let's say this Halo remake is looking good, right but then all a sudden Microsoft jumps up their price. you know, of game pass from $30 to $35 out of every game they're releasing, which is the one that's going to be getting the most crap, and which is the one that will suffer the most. and Everyone will just swarm on it. Yeah, that's so true.
01:30:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
Because gamers do talk with their wallets, right? Like, I don't know the numbers, but I think Outer Worlds 2 is suffering right now because of timing. they They increased the prices and then Outer Worlds came out and they kind of send Outer Worlds out to die because, and it's so ironic because Outer Worlds talks about, you know, a capitalistic company that destroys everything. No, barely any marketing. And like, it's funny that like, it's not funny. It's kind of shitty actually that I feel like even though people aren't saying this online, like gamers are kind of taking out a lot of the anger about Microsoft on some of these studios, right? And like,
01:31:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
auto worlds i feel like it's kind of catching it yeah but like if there's any group of developers who are going to sit with you and agree that like these capitalist corporations suck it's it's obsidian because look at their games it's literally what they're saying it's a satire it is it's funny it's ironic so but all right and i guess we've been going for a while last thing i wanted to talk to you about and i think this really cements everything surprised you didn't You haven't really read the article, right, from Jason Schreier? I mean, I remember it a little bit, but I didn't look into it too much. About the Microsoft 30%. Yeah, lofty expectations for Microsoft on many divisions within, including Xbox. And I mean, i don't know if it's been fully confirmed, but if that's the case, profit margins 30%. That's lofty for Xbox who's been losing money on hardware generation after generation and who's barely making now $100.
01:31:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
a profit with acquiring Activision. so So I think that was the news that hit me the most. Like there's been a lot of crappy news, you know, as a Microsoft fanboy, right? That that sucks.
01:32:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think the Perfect Dark cancellation really hit me hard, right? But this one, man, it just felt like the knife was in and that twisted it. Like when Microsoft increased the price to $30 for Game Pass, like, eh.
01:32:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
you know Whatever. We talked a lot about that. you know i think standard is still, the premium is still a good deal. But this, I was like, God, this just makes sense. right This makes so much freaking sense. And I think they had mentioned that in 2022, and mind you, what did Microsoft have in 2022?
01:32:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
Would it depend on it and grounded? They made 12% profit.
01:32:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
On their Xbox division. Which I would say being what, like PS5 outselling you double. Yeah. And only having those two games. That is the worst year of Microsoft.
01:32:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
And you had 12% profit. Yeah, that's pretty good. It's actually pretty good. So when when Phil Spencer and everyone is saying Game Pass is profitable, Xbox is profitable.
01:33:07
Shameer Mehdikhan
That's actually true. They're not lying, right? Probably, yeah. But then, you know, Amy Hood coming in, this is, again, speculation, but if it's true, and telling all of Microsoft that you have to be at the 30%, you know, Mark, this is why these big corporations suck, right? yeah You try and be hard and you say, we're holding everyone accountable to the same standard and the standard is the standard.
01:33:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
But it's not fair that you are actually a conglomeration of five companies that should be separate. In separate industries, you cannot measure them all the same, right?
01:33:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it's not fair for you to judge AI on the same way as you're judging games. AI doesn't need to do much to make your 30% profit, right? right and But gaming does, right? And it's just, these should be separate companies.
01:33:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so you want to bring them together to create synergies, but then you you want to measure them all together. And so... I think that is the worst decision possible. And it makes so much sense because the timeline makes sense. After that announcement, if it's true in 2022 for Lamy Hood, what happened?
01:34:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
Games are going multi-platform. Studios are getting canceled. Games are being rushed out the door like Redfall, right? These projects that look really interesting and fun, now they're getting canned. They're getting canceled.
01:34:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
Everwild, no way that's going to make 30% profit, right? right And it's gross, right, for everybody, right? So, okay, let's say you want to make some interesting things like Keeper, right? You want to make Hellblade 2. You want to make some things that make people think that, hey, you're kind of artsy and different.
01:34:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
Well, now you're going to have to double down and make three college duties, right? Or else there's no way your whole brand is going to have 30% profit. So that's a lot of unfair stress if it's true on Phil Spencer and stuff because I'm sure they want these jewels to survive, right? Like these you know really you know kind of unique games because you know Phil loves that stuff.
01:35:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
How much has he played Vampire Sniders? Why? But then now you're going have to double down on all these things that make money. Yeah, mean, this is the churn of the tech industry since the dot-com bubble.
01:35:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
And Microsoft has been like this for decades. So with Xbox and without, like, they've had lofty expectations on many of their divisions. Often they go through a ton of churn, they lose a ton of people, but I think they probably are boastful and the people within their C-suite say, we've always survived in weather the storm.
01:35:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
So sometimes they tell themselves, I think, this is just me just speculating, like, If we're not harsh within ourselves, to sometimes that we won't survive. yeah And again, they they admitted themselves during the the court case when trying to acquire Activision, they said they were about to exit yeah the gaming industry.
01:35:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
So if they're going all out, they're going to be lean as possible now. They're going to try to do everything they can, but everything at the window see what sticks. But it's like you're setting yourself up for failure.
01:36:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
Doesn't matter. Because it's like... They were ready to leave. I know. But you're ready to leave. But like now you're jumping back into it. But like you're having unrealistic expectations. That's fine. For instance, I want to be a basketball player. no I can work harder than every human being on the planet.
01:36:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
but why should I ever create an expectation that I'm going to dump? Okay. So what if your doctor comes to you, okay? Because this is out of your control. And says, you have... six months to live and your dream is to become a basketball player. Are you not going to try to take steroids? Are you not going to try to, are you not going to take a bunch of drugs? Are you not going to do everything you can? And you're probably just going to have basketball game. i agree with right?
01:36:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
But, And that sounds like a crazy expectation, but there's a difference between a crazy expectation a real expectation that's not going to happen. So i can take I can inject steroids into every muscle of my body individually, there's no reason I should ever expect to dunk in every game.
01:36:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
five seven but not you said not every game but there could be some games this is the point the point is you inject yourself a steroid so you get to dunk once and tell yourself before you die you lived your dream this is the point you played basketball with me what have i been able to dunk that's not the point that's not the point it's physically impossible from the outside in that's what i'm seeing as a consumer to microsoft but from the inside the team that was ready to die three years ago is saying we have one last chance this is their you have to look at as this is their last opportunity or they're leaving the industry why would you not they at this point don't care because the other divisions within microsoft make a ton of money for them cloud all the global product development for all their other products software services i just don't get that logic because it's like
01:37:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
Okay, you want to push them as hard as you're possible because this is like your last minute chance. This is like, hey, we would be dead anyway, so let's go for broke. It's a Hail Mary, yes right? But like if you have five seconds left, right, and you have one play, there is no world where you should be able to expect making 15 points.
01:38:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
This is point. right like you can You can bet like, oh my God, that would be crazy if we made seven and got an onside kick and made another seven. Okay. No, six and six. on like We made 12.
01:38:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
But 15? I
01:38:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
i get it. So that's my point. So I'm like, okay, if we took Microsoft and you are the loser right now and you were going to exit and let's say you know, a good year for people is 20%. We want you to make 20% every year.
01:38:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
And you guys were the worst. Maybe even 25%. Okay, fine. But guess what? i guess hunt but guess They went so lean and so hard and they stressed it so much that you hit 20 or 25, then five or 10.
01:38:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
Because everyone said we were okay with 12%. Everything was dandy. I let you make your stupid evergreen and wild game. You sounded like a Microsoft manager. I am because I'm in the corporate world and I see it. It's bad. So I get it. If you don't push them and you make them stick to a standard and your deviation is 15 or 17% fifteen or seventeen percent away yeah They're going to do stuff like that.
01:39:07
Shameer Mehdikhan
Irrationally. Yeah, it's irrational. But then like, that's what makes me upset. Cause it's like, you can be a leader that pushes people beyond their limits to get to, you know, to help them grow to like the best version of themselves. Right.
01:39:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
But when you are doing things are, you you know, irrational, right. It seems to me like it's short-sighted and you're just trying to make a name for yourself and leave. 100%. Right? and so And so that's disappointing to me because there is a a world and there is a way of doing this that could have made you know financial sense and made everyone happy. Sure.
01:39:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
But also made Microsoft the powerhouse in gaming. Sure. But it's like you you set yourself up for big failure. That's right. You are living now with the harsh reality that you grew up with a game when you were a little kid that spoke to you. you didn't you All the outside noise did not bother you, right, from a business perspective.
01:40:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
You're now an adult and you think logically. And now you're like, wait a minute. I want an experience for someone like that again. Maybe my kids, next generation, millennials, or i mean, Gen et cetera. all you had to do is X, Y, and They've been doing that for the last 20, 30 years. You just didn't realize it when you were a kid.
01:40:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
Now you're starting to see like how these businesses operate, and unfortunately. Yeah, I mean, everything is a business in the end of the day, right? Like we are enjoying a part of it that feels like magical and stuff like that. But in the end of the day, like it's entertainment, i like it's a business.
01:40:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
I just think my whole critique of this is it's just a bad business, right? Like, I just think it's a it's a bad business. with like If I was analyzing the same move, but it wasn't in gaming, it was in healthcare, care or if it was in car manufacturing or whatever, i would look at them and I'd be like, you guys are idiots, you know? like and you guys don't have to be, right? Like, you have the opportunity and you have the means to get it done, but like, why are you doing it in this way? I mean, I also think that like,
01:40:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
the people in charge of Microsoft, so the people above Phil, they're power hungry. Like, you know, I think when you can just cut people left and right, you can put lofty expectations and then you tell people to work hard, just like you did, like whoever executive is saying that, it's power hungry. You feel like you're on a power trip.
01:41:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
And in this economy, you can justify letting go of people because as you say, look, everyone else is doing the same thing. So I just feel like... And now I feel like things are starting to make sense because...
01:41:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know, you set this profit margin, you're not going to get it. So then, you know, what do administrators do? Be like, hey, it's all good. We wanted it this way.
01:41:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
Actually, let me tell you about this $1,000 console. This is going according to plan, guys. I really feel like it. And if their goal is to migrate as many people to Windows as possible, they're then going to be like, see this is always part the plan. And in the end, when everything is said and done, Xbox can turn in their keys to the Windows people and be like, you're welcome. yep They said it was impossible for Windows to get optimized. Guess what?
01:42:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
We're out. Thanks to us doing what we did it's and destroying all these franchises, Windows is now optimized. I'm not going to lie. You're hitting me.
01:42:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
Because that's where we're ending, right? Yeah, that's where we're ending. Because Windows has always been the home of gaming from the beginning. always been that. And then no one liked Windows because it was unoptimized and people liked Steam. And now when everything is said and done, we're just going to have an optimized Windows that lets us play games. Yeah, that's so... a full circle moment. It took 30 years to get here.
01:42:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
Honestly, though, I really love your analogy about the 15 point and five seconds. That's not the funniest shit I've ever heard. but Look, I'm all for pushing people. You know me. I'm always trying to go above and beyond what I can achieve, right? I want to shoot for the start.
01:42:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
But... You know, there's there's like certain barriers, right? Like it's it's limits, you know, like it's not going to happen, you know, like you're not releasing Grand Theft Auto this year. Like it's like Rockstar expecting to make the same profit on Grand Theft Auto as they did the first year. yeah Like why would you expect the same profit on year five as year one? Like,
01:43:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
I'll personally, but I'll tell it for the podcast. So, you know, where I work at GM, something similar happened where our us senior vice president of software and services just immediately stepped down. No reasoning given.
01:43:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
They just announced that our next generation electrical architecture will be launching in 2028. So a brand new type of car with a new streamlined, efficient design. And everyone knows internally, like, we're so far behind, we're probably not going to deliver.
01:43:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
But Mary Barley goes, yes, you are. And if you can't, you're gone. And our SVP just said, I'm out. And it's like, this is what, like, it's corporate America. It's corporate America, basically.
01:43:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
So, I mean, it sucks to say, like, I'm not so naive to realize that, like, this isn't going to you know, bleed into the entertainment world. And like, you know, the stories I love, it's not going to bleed into it because we need the business people to be able to make the art. So I don't want to get rid of the business people. sure I just wish that like you could have your cake and eat it too. yeah I feel like that's what Nintendo accomplishes. Right. And like, it can be done, but what it is, you know, we'll see what happens. right I'll say this. andnten Nintendo has kept both Microsoft and Sony honest in the sense that, like you said, it's a direct com comparison. and You have competition that while Nintendo has their their own problems, they've done it right.
01:44:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
So even if it's the same rehashed IP, they've kept those alive and relevant for a long time, and that's done for reasons. Yeah, i mean, overall, I think you can get upset about Nintendo for so many reasons, but you're still happy as a Nintendo fan. Yeah, I'm overall so happy.
01:44:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think Sony has generally kept its fans happy. I don't know. There's been some times I've been quite upset at Sony as well. but I'll say this. As I've grown up, my main console went from Xbox to PlayStation to non Nintendo. It is wild how that has happened.
01:45:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I never thought that would have been. So I went from loving the Xbox one the xbox original. I never had a PS2. And then I was an Xbox 360 fanboy. And then I clearly remember after Bungie left,
01:45:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
I was like, screw this console. There's nothing exciting going on. There's Connect Fable, right? And so I turned into a massive PS3 fanboy. love Killzone.
01:45:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
I love Uncharted Resistance. I completely jumped over and I love my PlayStation. and I loved it for quite a while, well into the PS4 era. But then for me, like even though PS4 had a lot of great games, I was actually kind of unhappy with Sony because like, man,
01:45:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
Sony is doing a lot of like anti-gamer stuff. And that just kind of like rubbed the wrong way. And then I hop back on board with, you know, Xbox. And now it's, I'm kind of in this weird zone where like, I like Xbox the most because I just love game pass. Right. I think it's just revolutionized my game gaming experience and cloud gaming. And then after that, right now, I feel like I'm most happy with Nintendo yeah and with Sony, I'm just waiting, you know, and i'm like I'm sure my rankings will change when Wolverine comes out and some of the other games.
01:46:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I just feel like this generation with Sony, I have just been waiting. Yeah, same. After, you know, God of War and Horizon, I've just been like, all right, now any day now. PS3 is my favorite generation, then 4. And there's a big gap between what I liked in both generations and 5, just enough.
01:46:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
So would you say right now it's fair to say that out of the three, the one who's peaking, so to say, is Switch? Yeah, I think. I feel like they are in their prime. Yeah, they're in their prime now. This has been it.
01:46:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, I thought the Wii was it, but no, it's the Switch. It's amazing how Nintendo pulled that off. Like, they they peaked in the Wii, they fell off, but they quickly yeah fixed that. And then they they peaked, and now they're peaking even more. And I can't imagine them being more successful than what the Switch 2 is looking like right now, because this is crazy. It's crazy.
01:47:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
So, all right, man. Anything else to talk about? that's not. Any exciting games coming out in November, right? So I guess it's just Call of Duty? Kirby Air Riders and Metroid Prime 4.
01:47:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
That's December, right? December 4th and November 20th. Yeah, so I feel like it's kind of going to be quiet rest of the year, just going to be catching up on games. I am looking forward to Metroid.
01:47:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
That's pretty much it. All right. Talk to you later. Peace out, everybody.