Hello everyone.
Oh no, stop, absolutely not.
No, don't do that.
No, no, this stays.
No, it stays.
No, it doesn't.
No, stop it.
No, because now we made it.
You're gonna ruin it by doing nothing.
No, now we've made a commotion.
Look at them sound waves.
It needs to stay.
This is it.
No. Fantastic.
No. No.
Raw, raw dogging it.
This is how it works.
Say hello.
Hello.
Say hello.
Hello.
It's perfect.
It's what people want.
Is it?
What's with that?
Nothing.
We don't need to carry on.
Look, we've moved past it.
It's happened.
It's there.
It's out in the world.
We're done.
Let's get straight into it.
We've prepared.
Well, I've prepared.
We're bringing you the news.
You've sat around and done niche.
No, I prepared by preparing you to be prepared.
True.
And I've briefed you on this preparation.
So I have a little list.
We'll go through the list.
Not in order.
I'll group some bits.
There's one big fat juicy bit at the end
that I cannot wait to talk about.
Because I feel like the pair of us,
our minds will meld and we'll be bouncing.
I'm gonna have to turn to you.
It'll be decent.
So June is a big day for gaming,
which normally is, I don't,
we tend to make somewhat of an effort
to watch the showcases or at least bits of it.
Or if we don't catch it,
you normally get the highlights.
Is it always in June?
I couldn't tell you.
No, they're kind of all throughout the year, really.
There's just some big hitters in June, isn't there?
Well, June 7th, Summer Game Fest.
June 9th is the Xbox Showcase.
And then June 10th is the Ubisoft,
I'll call it a showcase.
They call it something else.
I don't really know what goes on with the Summer Game Fest.
I can't say I've ever caught it.
All that research, my friend.
But, no, but the other two,
so the Ubisoft one is one that I'm interested in
purely because of Assassin's Creed Red.
Yeah.
So I don't really know.
I would imagine off of the back of Mirage,
that was sort of when they said that they were after Mirage.
That's when they're trying to have that centralized hub.
Yeah.
Wasn't there something called Infinity with that?
Yeah, which was like what the hub was.
Yeah.
I think it was like the hub is Infinity
or something like that.
And then that's where all the games would be
and how they would all link.
It's really, really confusing stuff.
Yeah.
But obviously Assassin's Creed.
And they're gonna sort of enlighten us on that, are they?
I don't know because I've-
Codename Red, next big flagship.
Flagship.
The next big flagship game in long running stealthy series.
April, 2024, everything we know so far about AC Japan.
Yeah, yeah, because it's set-
Feudal era Japan.
Yeah.
Which is what people have been asking for
from Assassin's Creed for-
Back to the roots, isn't it?
Very long time because Mirage, obviously,
they did, in essence, go back to their roots.
And whilst I absolutely slated it
and think it is one of the more terrible
Assassin's Creed's I've played,
still played it, still completed it,
still bought the collector's edition.
And there was enjoyment to be had there.
You could see the direction that they're going in
in that they were going back to what they used to be
pre Odyssey, Valhalla-
Origins and what not.
Origins and when they started to change face a little bit.
So you could sort of get little glimpses of the past,
but wrapped up in this future fucking suit.
Because obviously you saw quite a lot of me playing it.
Yes and no.
And I remember specifically the free running
and me constantly whinging about it.
And then you were like, it looks fine until you played it.
Oh God, yeah.
And you're like, oh my God.
Cause it was really janky and just not fucking nice.
But it had aspects of the game where it's like,
no, I do quite like it.
It's a very short game.
But alongside that, I thought that that was when
they were gonna delve more into the,
what was it, what was it, Infinity?
Oh, uh- What was the hub thing?
Did it say?
No, I just typed in red, hang on.
Because it's just very confusing what their goal is
with that.
And I remember looking at it before trying to figure out
what the fuck it was.
And we just couldn't make heads or tails of, is it?
Everything you need to know.
A video game adjacent experience.
Mysterious, I can't fucking speak.
Whoa.
It's a very warm day.
Hot weather.
A single entry point.
An adjacent, a game adjacent experience
as an interactive hub that also features narrative aspects.
Whilst it's not a game in a traditional sense,
it looks to represent the future of the series
by acting as the single entry point for our fans
into the Assassin's Creed franchise.
So I don't know what that means.
That's kind of, and if you remember at the time,
I think I remember either listening to the pod
or speaking on the pod about how it was,
like what the fuck is it?
Do you remember?
Like this was like last year.
Yeah.
Because I can't-
It's described by the exec producer as not a game per se,
but a single entry point.
But I don't know what the-
So-
Keep saying the same thing.
So single entry point, does that mean, in my head,
that means a game launcher like Battle.net
or like Steam or Game Pass.
Housing the ongoing evolution of the franchise
and connect future game releases
into a single interwoven experience.
Really don't know.
I don't know.
Like I say, that-
Perhaps it is that something where you'll get something new
and you'll load it in and there'll be stuff to do that-
What?
I suppose potentially it could be a really good way of
kind of like linking back, like not DLC essentially,
but you would be able to, so say,
I'll use existing ones just cause it's easier.
But say you're playing Mirage and through this hub,
you're able to then go into the world of Syndicate
and do some sort of quest there, linking back in that way.
If they're going forwards, creating games where you can then,
so it is, you're going back into that kind of land
and having more stuff to do there,
but then going back into the game you're playing now,
I can see how that kind of makes sense
and would be quite cool.
I reckon what it screams for me is,
is you have this central hub
that is on your PlayStation console or whatever,
where it would be, sorry, what was it called?
Did it say it was-
Infinity hub.
So you have the infinity hub like a launcher
and then you go into that
and then there's all the Assassin's Creed games,
whereby I'm saying that, so when Mirage come out,
I don't know if there was a physical edition
or if it was just with the collector's edition,
it was a digital code for me.
Yeah, what you're saying is just a launcher.
That'd be a bit wet though.
No, I'm saying launcher, go into the launcher,
there's Assassin's Creed Red, there's Mirage,
there's fucking, there's Black Flag.
Obviously you have to pay for the newer ones
and then rather than there ever being a physical copy
of that game, it's now all digital,
but you access them through, are you not following me?
I am following you.
You access them through the hub, so-
But what would be the point?
Because then that would be how you would link them up.
So like you just said, if there's little tips,
let's say Assassin's Creed Red comes out,
they might add a section where you go
into the world of Mirage.
Yeah, that's what we were just saying.
Yeah, but I'm saying that if all of those
Assassin's Creed games are within the hub now,
rather than you having individual discs to play them,
they're all digitally downloaded.
Yeah, you can access any game at any point,
any Assassin's Creed game at any point.
Yeah. Yeah.
We're both making the same point, yeah.
We're on the same page.
Good grief, yeah.
Yeah.
It's 26 degrees, leave me alone.
We're on the same point.
Yeah.
So that would be-
That would be cool.
Yeah. That would be cool.
Yeah.
And also I think kind of a way of rewarding people
who have got stuff.
I can't imagine, I don't anticipate.
What was that noise?
Oh, sorry.
Yeah, no, sorry.
It's like a train coming.
The thunder.
I can't imagine it's gonna be as in depth
as everyone they've ever made.
Yeah.
But it would be cool in the sense if there was,
and I know there are rewards for owning previous games
throughout the games, isn't there?
There's outfits, there's quests and shit.
Yeah, like Ubisoft rewards and shit like that.
But that would be kind of a cool way going forward
to kind of reward people who have all the previous games.
Get more.
Yeah.
I'm hoping that it's obviously off the back of,
Mirage was a separate entity compared to Valhalla,
which was the latest iteration before Mirage come out,
was at a point where me personally,
I think a lot of people were saying,
fucking drop the Assassin's Creed franchise,
turn it into something else.
So this isn't Assassin's Creed anymore.
Like keep the games by all means in their format,
but the likes of Origins Odyssey and up there,
they're not the standard Assassin's Creed games.
So remove them from that franchise
and have that as something else
and then continue if you'd like to.
And then obviously Mirage then comes out,
drags it back a little bit.
So I would love, but I have no faith because it is Ubisoft,
that Assassin's Creed Red is the definitive turning point
of the franchise going back to what it used to be.
And then you'll be looking at the Assassin's Creed brand
in five or six years time going,
oh, thank God they stuck with it and continued
rather than just letting it go is what I'm hoping,
but I can't see that happening.
I think it's very difficult because as we've said,
countless times, you and I,
or unlike a number of our friends,
we're very much the pre-Origins Odyssey kind of vibe.
But there are so many people that love those games.
Like I know multiple people who have a hundred percent
in like shit like that.
Yeah, yeah.
And we can't like, it's almost, where do you draw,
a bit like we were speaking on in the Patreon
about how, where are you drawing those lines
with regards to making these decisions?
And it's always gonna feel like
when someone's made a decision that you're not happy with,
you feel what the fuck, what are they doing that for?
Like, oh, you're gonna lose so much money,
you're gonna lose this, that and the other.
But for every one of us, there's gonna be,
people that love it and people that haven't been playing
for the start don't have that like pre-existing bias of,
hang on a minute, this isn't the franchise I'm used to.
I'm not, whereas the format that I've known and loved
for all these years, they're just taking it for what it is,
which ultimately they are still great games,
they're just not our cup of tea.
And actually, it kind of feeds into that point
of calling it something else,
because had they come out and not called it Assassin's Creed,
we'd probably been all over it.
Difficult to say, it's impossible to ever truly know.
Because I mean, I think-
No, quite possibly to be fair, because it was-
You cannot disconnect that bias that you have.
Yeah, because you were going,
this isn't Assassin's Creed 2, this isn't Black Flag.
Like, how am I Assassin's Creed
running up a snowy mountain with an axe?
How is this, how am I Assassin's Creed?
Yeah, there was a serious disconnect there.
But yeah, and then you can't give-
Give me the animus, give me Desmond back.
Yeah.
I mean-
But then, I don't know, I just feel like we're,
it's annoying because you're never gonna know.
It's one of those franchises where it's so ingrained
that I feel like, like Pokemon fans,
regardless of what comes out,
you're gonna be interested in it,
at least in a tiny little aspect.
So, Assassin's Creed Red comes out, I'm gonna buy it.
I'm gonna buy it, and I'm gonna play it.
Off of the back of what Mirage was like,
and it being so-
At which point you went, that's it, I'm done.
That's it, yeah, exactly, I said, that's it, I'm done.
But because it was so unsimilar to Valhalla,
Origins and Odyssey, and more similar to Assassin's Creed 2,
Revelations, Brotherhood,
if Assassin's Creed Red follows that recipe,
and doesn't fucking, I feel like Mirage was kind of like
a test to see the turning point,
that crossroads Ubisoft as to, right,
do we continue following the new format,
or do we try and go back to the old format, but evolve it?
And it's mixed, I don't know which direction
they would go with.
Yeah, and I think they're almost,
it's like they're trying to do both,
they're trying to keep everyone up.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So what date again, remind us?
So that is, the Ubisoft one is June 10th,
which is where you'll see Assassin's Creed Red,
there'll be more on Star Wars Outlaws.
Oh, nice. Outlaws, Outlaw, Outlaw, Outlaws.
Because that's in Hot Water as well, sort of,
because one of the, I think it's like one of the quest lines
with Jabba the Hutt is locked behind the season pass.
I think it is season pass or something like that.
You basically have to pay extra to gain access to more.
I think there's a Jabba the Hutt storyline
already in the base game,
but there's further intricacies
that are locked behind a paywall, essentially.
So I know that a lot of people were kicking off about that.
I might be wrong now
because I haven't actually looked into that for a long time,
but I know me and Ash were talking about it
when it first sort of come out,
maybe like a month, month and a bit ago.
And we were both like, it's fucking stupid.
So yeah, I'm not really sure.
I'm interested in the new Star Wars, Outlaw.
Is it Outlaw or Outlaws?
I think it's Outlaw, whatever.
But yeah, it's one of those where if it's not good,
I'm not gonna be upset about it.
Yeah.
I mean, it's interesting, but at the same time,
I'm not a massive Star Wars fan,
so it's not unlike fucking Lord of the Rings Gollum
when that come out.
And I was like, oh my God, it's gonna be good.
And it comes out, it's like, no, it's really shit.
So shit that they've all scrambled together
and are like, look, we need to put a new film out.
We can't, this'll be our legacy.
But that's an interesting one.
It's in itself in that you've got
Riders of Rohirrim ended this year, it's coming out,
and that's like an anime styled, well, it's just animated.
And then yeah, 2026, you've got Lord of the Rings,
the hunt for Gollum is what they're caught,
is what it's been coined.
And that is Peter Jackson said to you the other day
and Andy Serkis is producing it as well.
So that's a very, very interesting one.
And I really, really hope that they do it justice.
I feel like when you've got someone like Peter Jackson
running the show.
Yeah, yeah.
I don't know how, because they know what they're doing,
but he's also the man responsible for the Hobbit.
Right.
The Hobbit wasn't good, wasn't that good.
What?
Yeah, I didn't like it.
What?
Not as much as Lord of the Rings.
You could leave the Hobbit.
No, to be fair, I was actually gonna say that in a way,
but more so with how it was filmed.
So you was about to hit me with fucking angst and bias.
No, no, how it was filmed,
in the sense that Lord of the Rings is filmed better.
But I don't think, I think I...
Because Lord of the Rings was filmed 30 frames, wasn't it?
And I think it was the Hobbit was filmed 60 frames.
Well, it's that blue light shit as well.
Yeah, there was something that changed
how it actually looks,
because obviously when you put them side by side,
they do look very, very different.
The Hobbit was good,
but when I think of Lord of the Rings,
I don't think of the Hobbit attached to that.
Actually.
Yeah, I don't.
What are you judging?
What are you doing?
As a trilogy, the Hobbit wasn't very good?
Yeah, yeah, I just wasn't...
No, you know what really pissed me off?
I wasn't a massive fan of it.
And I appreciate, I haven't read the Hobbit book,
but I'm assuming it follows it quite closely.
But to this day, I will never get over the fact
that Thorin walking over the ice,
like watching him be dead and then,
oh, spoiler, spoiler, spoiler.
If you haven't watched or read the Hobbit,
this is the biggest spoiler I could possibly fucking tell you.
I'm sure he'd say it.
There'll be one person.
Yeah.
There'll be one person.
Oh, no.
Sorry.
But when he's walking out, what is it?
That's not Yaz, I guess the other one, Azog.
Azog.
And he's walking over him, like, dude, everyone's dead.
Just stop it.
Just let him go.
Let that fucker float under the ice.
But no, he has to walk over him,
giving it the big I am, stab him through the foot,
like sewing shoes, what ultimately leads in.
Spoiler, he's deaf.
Deaf.
Like, and I just, it really, really made me really angry.
That's because that's that standard fucking,
like when the villain is giving a big old speech
when they got- It's just a cop out in it.
When Batman sat there in a chair, fucking tied up,
and you got a shotgun to his head,
but you're doing a fucking 10 minute monologue.
So just pull the trigger, man.
Just pull the trigger.
Just kill the geezer.
It doesn't matter.
So we were watching that film, that shark film,
and it was the girls, and then they're with their dad,
or one of them with their dad.
And then he's like, they finally get up into this, like,
rock pool or wherever they are.
And they go, he goes, it will be okay
as long as we just stick together.
And then not even a millisecond later, shark,
eats his entire torso, drags him under, dad's dead, gone.
You know, and it's like, you just need to do this
and not panic.
And she panics, runs out of oxygen,
gets stuck in a tunnel, dead.
Like, oh.
But yeah, that's the one thing I will,
and I appreciate it's for like,
you know like how when you're watching something
and they go, you know, I'll meet you at lunchtime
or whatever, I'll meet you by the third rock on the left.
And then, you know, inevitably, you know,
it's not like, oh, even though it's 2023 or 24,
wherever we are.
Jesus.
You know what I mean?
And everyone's got a phone.
No, no, no, I'm not gonna give you my number.
I'm not gonna tell you an actual time or place.
I'll give you this obscure location.
And you appreciate that ultimately,
if they did do that, there wouldn't be a film to watch.
But it's lazy.
Or Gandalf on the first light of the,
what was it, fifth day or something?
Bro, was that Monday? Wednesday?
When you've blown your nose for a third time.
Saturday afternoon. Exactly.
When?
When are you?
Just tell me.
There must be, I know we're in Middle Earth.
I know that there's dragons and there's all sorts of shit.
There's Uruk-hai and there's dwarves and goblins
and all sorts of shit, right?
But we must have facilitated days of the week.
We have to have.
There is no way in hell that you've got someone
like Saruman controlling fucking hordes of orcs
cutting down trees that can talk and kill people.
And we haven't figured out Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
There is no way.
There's no need for first light on the fifth day
or whatever the fuck it was.
Just tell me what day you're coming, mate.
And I'll be ready.
I'll be at the doors. I'll be waiting.
It's ridiculous.
I know exactly what you mean.
Stop walking over your fucking victims.
You know what I mean?
Literally five armies, my friend, five.
Everyone's battling.
Nephew, dead.
And Fract actually, were they both dead by that point?
I can't remember if-
How did he, didn't he just fall into the water as well?
No, they'd had this big fight.
And then Thorin, I think Thorin gets him,
he falls through or whatever it is and his eyes are shut
and he's like floating away under the water.
And then he's up with a knife and it through Thorin's boots.
Who you are, what you've done, right?
Unless you've lost all of your limbs
and you're bleeding out profusely,
if you fall into water, you're not dead instantly, are you?
I think his eyes are shut when he goes in.
You're gonna have to find the scene
because I'm pretty sure he just falls through the ice.
You think he's dead.
And then he's suddenly dead.
Everyone thinks that he's dead.
You think that he's dead.
Because then Thorin's like,
like walking over.
And then boom, his fucking stubby axe, stubby sword.
Yeah, he's had knife.
Yeah.
Hang on.
Takes the piss, doesn't it?
Cause you're like, why, why have you gone and.
Because they've been fighting for fucking ages
at this point.
Like this scene is five minutes long.
Sorry everybody.
Let's get to the bit where he fucking falls in.
Right, here we go.
Yeah, like it's pretty hardcore.
Hang on.
So fucking.
Oh, so he's giving him, he's giving him the rock.
He's throwing a rock at him.
Yeah, see?
So he's just, he just falls through the water.
That's what I'm saying.
Wait for it.
Yeah, he falls through.
He's falling through the water.
Yeah, right.
So he's like sunk down.
I suppose the emphasis is he's got this huge rock
that he wouldn't be able to lift.
So he can't then get out of the water.
And then, oh, here we go.
Look, slight time jump.
That's probably why.
Do you reckon there's a slight time jump?
Yeah, of course there's a little time jump.
And then it's him.
Because he's gone from standing up and now he's picking up.
And then it's foreign fucking walking over the ice.
Yeah, because he's now floating back.
There is Azog.
Dead.
But still, if someone who's literally hunted down,
killed most of my family,
and has nearly just killed me, floats back to me,
you'd fuck off, wouldn't you?
You wouldn't fucking stand there.
I don't know though, to be fair.
Because you'd want to make sure that he's dead.
Right, but stay out the fucking way.
Why are you following me over the ice?
Yeah, there's no need to be that close.
No.
There's no need.
You can be off to the left.
You know, that is danger, danger.
You know what I mean?
Well, of course it's danger, danger.
Because then sure enough, his eyes are gonna open up.
His eyes are fucking already open.
Here you go, there you go.
He's now closed his eyes.
So his eyes were already open.
Now they're closed.
Well, that's even worse.
I know.
So he was alive at that point.
And he's literally just, see?
Bang, up through the fucking wall.
That's what I'm saying.
There was no need for it.
It's ridiculous.
And then how he gets the leverage to do that is beyond me.
He's obviously untied himself from the thing.
Very lucky that those swords have them little gaps on.
Okay, all right.
Yeah, I know.
But then now you've got his fucking arm sword
in your fucking chest.
I don't know.
So there'll be another movie.
So Lord of the Rings is better than The Hobbit.
Yeah, I'll give you that.
2026.
And I'm very excited for it.
But I've got that where you can actually
have that where you can have excitement,
but not that much excitement
because you haven't seen anything.
Do you know what it is?
I'm so disconnected with movies lately
because I feel like Marvel has been...
Someone put it really well.
They were like,
once there was a time when a Marvel movie would be announced
and everyone would be like, oh my God,
and it'd be so exciting.
Everyone would rush in there.
And now Marvel is synonymous with a joke.
Yeah.
I couldn't give a shit what thing comes out next
as someone who...
It's because Marvel sort of...
Pushed it too far, dragged it out.
Chris didn't...
Fucking...
What's his face?
And like all the mini series.
Gaze at the place four.
Chris Hemsworth.
He even said, yeah, he hates Love and Thunder.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He said his next iteration of four
is gonna be more serious, gritty,
and more of Anne God,
which is how it fucking...
Which is exactly how it should be.
Hold tight. Exactly.
Okay, sorry, we're back.
It's just Amazon and you don't wanna hear
the doorbell going ding, ding, ding.
Ding, bong, ding, bong.
But yeah, and that was...
It did make a joke of Thor.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, that's a really embarrassing amount of breath
from going downstairs.
Yeah, because it did turn...
It was shit.
And you had...
Too family friendly.
Well, not even that.
Not even that.
It's like a kiddie.
You think you've got Christian Bale on board
as this like tortured, you know,
one of those kind of villains where you're like,
oh, I kind of see his point,
but like this is really bad and whatever.
And then again, spoiler, spoiler,
Jane is fucking dying.
And you know, has this...
She kind of becomes like Lady Thor or whatever it is.
And it's just gag after gag that isn't funny.
Nope.
Yeah, it was really odd.
Very, very odd.
Yeah, not good.
But that...
Yeah, I see what you mean.
You sort of do lose that disconnect with movie.
Or almost like there's just been too many franchises
now that have just gone on too long.
And I feel like Lord of the Rings currently has that status.
I mean, aside from the Gollum game,
which I feel like is really embarrassing,
because it has taken something
that's such an iconic character.
And just fucked it.
And marred it with a bit of shit.
Why in the fuck with a Gollum game,
you wouldn't try and get hold of Andy Serkis to...
I don't think he could have saved it.
I don't think he could have saved it,
but fuck me.
Like the geezer lives and breathes Gollum.
You know what I mean?
He's all for it.
He loves that shit.
But it's almost like that, you know, it's...
If you imagine Gameloft taking on Dreamlike Valley,
you know, you've taken something huge.
And there's that fine line between building
on what is already an empire and a cash grab.
Like, oh, well, how can we make a game successful?
I know.
Pick something iconic and just base it around that.
And I feel like what they've done there
by going with Gollum, thinking, yes, okay,
there's an element of a guaranteed audience
who are gonna see, oh, Lord of the Rings based game.
Like I'm on board.
But you still have to back that up with actual quality.
I feel like the Lord of the Rings franchise,
they done right of three movies, finish it on three movies.
A lot of times past, let's have prequels to those movies,
another three movies.
Oh, it's the book, isn't it?
Yeah, exactly.
So, and then for a long, long period, leave it there.
And obviously, because it's such a lore rich universe
and they're so, because the hunt for Gollum
is going to be not taken from,
basically they've got the rights.
Looking for a good Gollum, like a game is actually decent.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Hunting for Gollum.
No, they've got the rights to J.R. Tolkien's works.
Yeah, it's not like they're just creating their own thing.
They've got access to everything they need.
So that fills you with a level of confidence.
And the fact that it's most of the original people
that were on Lord of the Rings producer-wise
and creator-wise.
So it's like, okay, cool.
We've got like the building blocks that they had
when it was Lord of the Rings
to make something fucking fantastic.
So like I'm all for it.
But the Gollum game was just a fucking tragedy.
Yeah.
It's a catastrophe.
Fucking absolutely awful.
And that kind of overdoing the franchise,
like we just said, with Assassin's Creed,
Far Cry's definitely overdone their fucking franchise.
They've done far too many of them now.
Leave that.
Leave that alone.
It doesn't need to be touched.
Assassin's Creed is teetering on the edge of,
and I genuinely feel it depends on how red comes out
as to whether they need to just stop it or continue.
A game or studio that has done exceedingly well
and has chosen the option to leave it there
and pursue other things is Larian Studios.
Yep.
By not continuing Baldur's Gate.
Yeah.
Which I feel as a studio is a very,
an indie studio, mind you, a big one,
but still technically indie,
is a very admirable thing to put your heart and soul
and years of work into something as big as Baldur's Gate III
and as popular as it was.
And to see the earning potential of doing more
and turn around and go, nope, we cannot top that.
We don't want to put the effort in to try and top that.
So we're not going to.
Someone else wants to take it, which they are,
then by all means,
but I feel like Larian's done the right thing and gone,
we're gonna go back to doing what we were doing before,
which I feel like is such a like, I'm him fucking move
where they've like come into the scene and gone,
here's Baldur's Gate III.
This is the best game that you will ever play in your life.
We're not doing it again, see you later.
Yeah.
And it's very brave.
This is crazy.
It's so hard to time that, to work out like,
how you're gonna actually facilitate that
in the sense that like say, I mean, talking from,
you know me, you know it's gonna be something Nintendo,
but also happy one year to Legend of Zelda,
Tears of the Kingdom.
Is it today, is it?
Happy birthday.
Oh, lovely.
Haven't completed it though, have you?
No.
Get off my back.
Maybe on 10 years.
Yeah, maybe.
But take like Animal Crossing.
So that's a franchise that everyone waited years
and years and years.
You know, it was, what was that?
Three years after the Switch came out, nearly four.
Actually no, tell a lie, I think it was three.
Anyway, yeah.
And then to then release, you know,
I think they did obviously ignore him little patches.
It was two big updates and then they were like,
and that my friends is it.
And everyone's going, what?
Like because, and yes, okay, they had the DLC,
which was ultimately a similar but different version
of what they did with New Leaf.
But what gets me about that, on the one hand, I get it.
They're very busy and whatever,
and maybe they're, you know, creating something else,
but it's like to have waited so long
and then like even something as simple as,
you get a blue notch at New Year's, right?
I've got a 2021 blue notch and I've got a 2022 blue notch
and then that's it.
You don't even get that.
Is it that hard?
Could you not employ like four people
to just crack me out?
A couple of new Easter gifts,
a couple of new Christmas gifts and a blue notch.
And they drop it, they drop it, man.
You know what I mean?
It's like, and so because then
they have killed their own game.
You've got a real time game.
So things, as I say,
they have multiple events throughout the year.
Yeah, once you've done them once, there's no point.
Yeah, but they still happen every year.
So I still can't fucking play the game on Halloween
because everyone's coming up to me asking for fucking candy
or whatever it is,
but I'm not gonna get any new stuff for that.
So what that equates is,
well, I'm just not gonna fucking play it.
And I think, yeah, like, so that's an example of where,
again, they've made that decision.
They're obviously looking at that and thinking,
well, yeah, we don't need to carry this on.
But when you're on the other side,
when you're on the side of it that doesn't want that
to happen, it's in the sense of like,
I'm kind of unaffected that Larry has stopped,
you know, like, it's cool and I get it.
I know a lot of people will be sad.
But you've got what you wanted out of it.
But it's a fucking impossible situation to navigate,
like who are you gonna piss off
and who's not gonna mind and, you know, oh, I do.
I don't envy people at the top to be fair
because all you do get is shit.
Because what you seem to have is,
it's predominantly the games that aren't good
or the franchises that just seem to fucking continue
going on and on and on and on and on,
where they like had a couple of decent hitters
and then just fucking just rinse it.
Like what?
Well, Assassin's Creed does it.
Yeah, but what, so when you say they're not good.
I say they're not good for me.
They're not good just because you don't like them.
No, I know, I know.
But you have a greed there.
They're big games.
They have been big games.
Valhalla has been a big game.
Odyssey was a big game.
Valhalla was a big game of fuck all,
is what Valhalla was.
A very, very large game.
A big game of doing nothing.
A very, very large game of empty mountains.
But ultimately, we cannot discount
that they have been big games.
Agreed.
So they aren't looking at it like that.
They're not sat in an office going, this game is shit.
You can't, you can't.
They think that it's a good game.
Millions of people think that it's a good game.
You can't win, ultimately, because it's,
don't over rinse it, but then, because we'll complain.
But then, when you have a very, very, very good game,
when you stop it, we're gonna complain.
Elden Ring, from software, fucking.
Did they actually bring out DLC for that?
That's coming, that's coming out.
Shadow of the Earth tree, right?
That's this year.
And they've said that is the only DLC they are doing for it.
That is it.
You get Shadow of the Earth tree, and that is it.
So, which, Elden Ring is,
quite possibly one of the best games that I have ever played.
And it's a very, very difficult game to be topped.
And this DLC, from when I first started playing Elden Ring,
and Ash told me, he was like,
from software, do not rush their DLCs.
He was like, they create some of the best DLCs in the world,
but they take their sweet ass time with it,
which is exactly what they've done
with Shadow of the Earth tree.
So I have absolutely no doubt that this DLC
will be fucking fantastic, and it's massive as well.
And I'm kinda like, I'll be happy that that's it.
Yeah, I know what you mean.
I'll keep it good, keep it really good,
and then just leave it.
Because I find it more satisfying that way.
But it is that rock and a hard place
where if you love a game so much, you want it to continue.
Fucking wow, how many expansions have come out
and people are like, this game's gonna die soon.
No, they're still plodding along.
The fucking next three expansions have been announced, three.
The Dragon Soul Saga, or whatever it's fucking called,
three expansions, but they're gonna be slightly shorter
than the normal ones.
And it's like, so they've got no intention
of stopping anytime soon.
And I love that, but at the same time,
it was like, you start to see cracks in different places,
but it's like, fucking hell, we're patching over it.
So yeah, it's an interesting one.
Shadow of the Earth Tree is gonna be fucking cool.
They brought out a,
remember Melania?
Well, she's on the fucking thing
and she's got that prosthetic arm.
They brought out a, to scale, replica of her arm.
I think it was like, what was it, like 600-something quid?
Something ridiculous like that.
And it was just like this bust of her fucking arm.
And then a while ago, they brought out a bust of her head.
Reddit thread was like, something like,
one of the first things I saw was like, Melania's feet?
Just question mark.
And then someone was like, soon enough,
I'll be able to put all the pieces together
and have a life.
So it was very funny, very funny.
But what else have I got on my little list?
Lots of stuff to be fair.
You've got, I don't really wanna talk about it
because it can't be asked,
but Starfield's got an update coming May 15th
and then it's got DLC coming in September.
Sort of like a resurgence for Starfield.
Not a game that I actually enjoyed.
A game that many people didn't really enjoy.
Seems like Xbox is trying to make that their flag.
This is our number one.
So they obviously haven't let it die,
which is fair enough
because they did a shit load of marketing on it
to get it out.
And what I've just wrote down here is that
they've done a lot of quality of life improvements
in terms of like with the map,
there's now markers for locations and so on.
So you can actually see what it is,
the fuck that you're looking at,
because for some reason they never had them before.
And then when you're actually playing the game
and not in the map, you can press a button
which will pop up all of the things on the map
in your peripheral.
So like if there's a vendor,
you can see that they're 200 meters away,
we'll buy an icon and things like that.
Just like make life a little bit easier.
But other than that, I haven't looked into that much
because I just didn't.
Did you play the Cyberpunk update?
Well, the DLC?
Yeah, I still didn't finish it.
Why?
I don't know.
You're a menace.
Mark says I'm very fickle with games.
He's like, you do not finish games.
I know.
Ladies and gentlemen, if there's a game
that I am absolutely glued to and finish it,
that's how you know it was a good game.
Because if it's fucking held me,
then fair enough.
In Shrouded, me and Connor playing in Shrouded.
Yeah, ring some bells.
That's fucking survival that we bought.
We're seeing early access.
Oh, well that log cabin thing that you had.
Yeah, and we played it to a point.
Oh, and you can't go in the dust.
Yeah, and we played it to a point
where you can't physically, we've done everything.
There's been updates since, but we'd stopped playing
because we had literally done everything.
I think I put in like 50 or 58 hours
or something like that in the span of like a week.
Absolutely ridiculous.
Because I was telling Connor about it
on one of the last episodes,
and I was like, we didn't book any holiday for that either.
That was literally like working full time
and then coming home and sinking the hours in
and at the end of the week,
there was a full fucking almost 60 hours worth of game play.
I was like, that's ridiculous.
But yeah, so skirt over that.
The one PlayStation showcase at the end of this month,
apparently possibly 22nd, maybe 29th.
So normally get to see some cool shit.
I don't really know what is coming
from PlayStation to be fair.
Well, that would be telling you on that day.
One thing I do know that is coming from PlayStation
is, which I didn't actually know was a thing,
the Horizon Zero Dawn remake,
which is off the back of, they're doing a Netflix show on it,
which I feel like I caught wind of ages ago.
What is that game like, six years old?
It would come out in 2017.
Yeah, so seven.
Horizon Zero Dawn.
If you do a side by side from Zero Dawn
and Forbidden West, obviously graphically,
there is a difference.
Because Zero Dawn was very good to look at anyway.
And Forbidden West was fucking-
Not that you finished it.
Really good, yeah, I didn't finish it.
Again, boring ass fucking story.
Boring story, boring characters,
and most people share the same thoughts.
And-
Did you play the, has there been a God of War DLC?
Haven't played that either.
Did you?
You're out, well.
Haven't played that either.
And apparently that's got a lot of lore in it
that is very, I'm just gonna watch a video on it
because I can't be bothered.
Racelink.
I can't be bothered.
I might do, I don't know.
You won't, we all know you won't.
I probably won't.
I've affirmed my love for the game anyway,
you know what I mean, like,
it was a free DLC though, very cool.
Very happy that it was free.
Maybe have a look.
I might have a look.
I won't.
He will not have a look.
I won't.
But I wanna Google about the,
About the what?
About, because I didn't know that Horizon Zero Dawn.
I'll cover up your Dead Space with,
I'm very excited about the new Professor Layton.
Everybody, get ready, get your little puzzle heads going.
I hope it's not shit.
Cause the one, there's like a Katerina one
that has been in the interim
and it just doesn't cut the muscle in the same way.
So everyone get ready for Professor Layton on Switch
cause it's gonna bang.
Is it only coming on Switch?
Oh, it isn't, yeah.
Is it just Switch exclusive?
No, Professor Layton's only on Nintendo I think.
So it's exclusively.
Who makes it, Player Five or something like that?
I think Five.
So, so, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,
the cinematic and, right.
Well, can you just, a live action Horizon series
is in development at Netflix.
It says there is no release date for the Netflix series yet.
It will likely not come out until at least 2026
as it hasn't started filming.
But at the tech event, 2024,
Sony said that writing on the series has begun on May 26th.
Sony confirmed that a Horizon show was being developed.
The working title could be Horizon 2074
according to Giant Bombs' Jeff Grubb.
Level five, that's what it makes it.
But he said that's just a rumour for now though.
But even then, does that not sort of smack off,
oh, The Last of Us did really well.
What other game can we make into a fucking live action series?
That is exactly what it is.
Details are likely to change,
but some believe that it could be Horizon 2064
instead of November, instead,
because November 1st, 2064 is a significant date
in the game's narrative.
And that, exactly what you just said,
leads perfectly into the other tidbit of information
I've got which I already spoke to you about
in that Horizon Zero Dawn was taken off of the PlayStation
plus premium fucking thing
where you get access to a catalogue of games.
Which is what they did with Spider-Man
when Spider-Man 2 was announced,
they removed it a week beforehand
so that when the drive was built up for,
oh, new Spider-Man, that gets me really excited
to fucking play Spider-Man again.
People would have to buy the game again
if they didn't already own it.
And that's gonna be the same scenario with Horizon
in that when the series comes out
or when they're, when, I'm gonna assume
that when the showcase is at the end of the month,
they'll be talking about that.
And then all of a sudden, oh, wow,
there's a fucking Horizon series coming out.
Let's play Zero Dawn again.
Nope.
But that is also why they're doing a remake.
Because you think if you're doing a Horizon Zero Dawn remake
but you've already got Horizon Zero Dawn on the catalogue,
well-
Oh yeah, no one's gonna want it.
No one's gonna want it, to a point.
But there's also the speculation of will they do the same
as what they did with The Last of Us
where it's 10 quid and then you can upgrade
if you've already got Zero Dawn.
We'll have to see.
It's a, again, it's a remake that-
Remake, remaster.
Remake.
Why?
Why? I don't know why.
I don't know why.
Let the series come out.
Live action series sounds like it could be pretty cool.
But you don't need to remake that.
I don't see the point.
This weird, weird from Sony.
Makes me feel old.
Yeah, I don't understand it.
Yeah.
But now, we have the juicy one.
We have the juicy, juicy, juicy one.
So again, we've already briefed you on it.
So, Assassin's Creed Mirrors,
a topic that we haven't touched on for a while.
We literally was talking about it.
I know. Oh, sorry.
It's the sarcasm.
I know, oh.
I never know with you because you literally-
I have it on here in my notes.
Assassin's Creed Mirrors release June 6th
for iPhone 15 Pro,
iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPad Air, iPad Pro,
and all iPhone stuff with an M1 chip or later.
This game-
I might have an M1 chip on my Mac, you know?
It will have touch controls, cross save,
and cross progression.
It will be free for the first 90 minutes of the game,
and then it will be 50 pounds after.
Assassin's Creed Mirrors is coming to the iPhone
because the iPhone 15 Pro is one of the most powerful
and lightweight phones released by Apple
with a focus on next level mobile gaming.
So the company that you never thought
would try and delve into gaming,
well, to be fair, they tried very hard
and failed very miserably.
Who?
Apple.
You don't game on Apple.
No one games on Apple.
My first Assassin's Creed game was the Altaïr Chronicles
or whatever it was on iPod Touch.
You don't game on Apple.
They tried to break into that scene
by creating their own CPU and stuff like that.
Again, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry to anyone listening
who's probably gonna disagree with me,
but you hate on Apple.
No, no, this isn't-
And that clouds your judgment.
No, this isn't-
There are people who play-
No, this isn't a clouded judgment thing.
This is a simply-
Yes, I appreciate it.
It's not at the top.
It's not a front runner,
but it's not completely absent from gaming.
It's nowhere near the front.
I just said it's not a front runner.
Good, because it's not-
Do you wanna fight?
Is this what this is gonna turn into?
No.
So, however, mobile gaming has obviously been quite a,
not a niche aspect of gaming because it is quite large.
Like the-
It's getting bigger.
The PUBG mobile fucking tournament is fucking huge.
And Fortnite on the iPad.
And Fortnite, yeah.
And that's the thing,
Fortnite came out at the same time.
Yeah, Minecraft and things like that.
Yeah, yeah.
So it's Roblox.
But in the mobile gaming phone world-
If you're also about to say that Apple is behind,
I will have to choke you out, I'm afraid.
No, but for a long time it was.
You're not listening to me.
For a long time it was,
because you had things like the Lenovo Legion,
the Razer phone, the Asus ROG.
No, no, no, no, no.
They are the minorities.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
You're not listening.
Let me get the point out.
A very powerful phone that nobody owns.
Yes.
Let me get the point out.
With mobile gaming,
in order to play a lot of these types of games,
you would require a phone like the Asus ROG, right?
But all they are is specialized for gaming.
So in the real world,
with things like the camera and actual user interface
and things like that,
they don't stand up to the likes of an iPhone or a Samsung.
Get the fucking look off of your face.
I'm listening to you.
Yeah, but you're listening to me
like you're gonna fucking be angry
about what I'm saying. No, it's just my face.
Right, so you can't,
it might have changed slightly now,
but, oh no, it hasn't.
Those mobile devices were specifically designed for gaming
and that was about it.
It was a gimmick, is what they were.
No, they weren't a gimmick.
They were.
I think they were a-
Well, no.
And they did for gaming.
I think they were a nice gateway
into that scene of companies like Samsung and Apple
looking at their phones
and thinking that they could break into the gaming space
with their phones.
Because obviously they don't have consoles,
but phones were getting more and more powerful
and gaming is obviously an avenue
where there's so much money involved.
It would be silly not to look down that sort of pathway.
Yeah. Right?
So what I'm saying is with the iPhone 15,
extremely powerful, very, very, very good for gaming
to the point where when you look up lists
of what are the best phones for gaming specifically,
iPhone 15 is always at the top.
But I would-
Stop sucking the fucking cock of Apple.
I'm not. All right, you are.
You don't even know what I was about to say.
Yeah, but just your face.
I know what's gonna come.
You're gonna, we're not arguing here.
I was actually gonna say,
I would, how about you get the look off your face.
You've been doing it.
Yeah, but I would argue that Android and iOS
have led mobile gaming because
the predominant place where you would,
like in the sense of on average,
the average consumer will have games on their phone.
And actually I would argue that the percentage
of people who are having a Lenovo Legion
or a Razer phone that you really wanted
because it had a light up back.
Really wanted it.
I know.
It is the minority and actually that
they have facilitated that.
And I would argue that Apple has been,
how many things do you and I come across
that I can play and you can't or I can do and you can't
because the developers themselves
have focused all of their money on an iOS application
and not an Android application because ultimately
they have made themselves the leaders of that.
That's not me being up Apple's ass.
And they're not, I don't mean it in the sense that
they're the best phone for gaming or anything like that.
But I do think that if I was an app developer
or like you can see app developers,
there's a clear line.
If Apple's got the monopoly, then yeah.
Where they are heading for that.
And there is a, I have probably,
it's probably only just starting to overtake
the amount of years I've used Apple over Android.
I used Android until I was maybe like 20, 21, no 20
or something like that.
So, and it is far more comprehensive of a system.
It's, it's a, my world gaming is obviously a space
that we haven't interacted with.
How have you not, I have a very successful island
on Farmville, Tropic Island.
Tropic Guild.
But I'm talking like, like actual games,
actual games that you could.
But then.
No, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not talking about
little farty fucking applications that are free
or cost you a quid.
I'm talking about games, actual games that you could
play on that, games that you can play on any of them
consoles and then games that you can play on your phone
that are all the same.
I'm not talking about fucking Doodle Jump.
Neither am I, I'm just taking the piss.
No, but I'm, proper games.
Proper games, that's not fair to say though
because it is a genre of gaming.
No, I know it's a genre, but you know what I'm saying?
Yeah, but Apple Arcade contains games like that.
So you're telling me like PUBG, Fortnite,
not that they're in Apple Arcade,
but those games are those games.
Fortnite is one of those games.
Yes, yes, yes, Farmville isn't.
No, I was taking the piss.
I was joking, oh my God, I can't.
Professor Layton isn't, right?
Is that the time?
I believe you said 25 minutes, look at that.
No, no, no, we're not done.
We're not done, we're done.
Oh, we're done.
I would imagine that now Apple is owning that space
and what I'm trying to fucking get the point across is
we've, because I only found out today
that Assassin's Creed Mirage was coming to iPhone
which sounds very, very cool
and I'm very interested in how that would actually play out
because obviously it's all touch screen and things like that.
So I Googled, is anything else coming?
And here is the list.
It already offers a range of demanding
and popular video games thanks to its one terabyte storage
and high performance CPU.
Upcoming games like Death Stranding,
Director's Cut, The Division Resurgence,
Assassin's Creed Mirage, and Resident Evil 4
will showcase the iPhone's capability in mobile gaming.
Those are some fucking decent games to throw on
because we've always said where's gaming going
and I feel so stupid that mobile phones,
we've spoke about it multiple times
but never really taken it too seriously
but now the technology to run these games
and the things that you require
obviously getting far better and getting far smaller.
So you're able to put them in different things.
The idea that you could play Mirage
or fucking Death Stranding or Resident Evil on your iPhone,
like that's so exciting to a point
because it's like, yeah, it's lovely having a Switch,
a Steam Deck, a ROG, but at the end of the day, they are big.
I know the Switch is a bit smaller
but still you can take that wherever you want
and play it whenever you want
but it's not as easy as just pulling this thing
out your fucking pocket and going, oh, here's whatever.
We spent all of our teenage years,
well, I don't know if you, I think you did,
like you would have your phone and you would have your iPod
until they became the same thing.
Yeah, which I, yeah, fucking hell,
you guys have them separate.
I would always walk around with two.
Yeah. Always.
Yeah, so would I for a long time.
Yeah, because you had two, didn't have a choice.
Your phone didn't have the storage.
Yeah, I'd put my phone in my bag
and then have my iPod in my pocket
because I'd be listening to music constantly.
Yeah, my phone was basically just a hotspot for my iPod
because I had my iPod, I had, again,
because I had Android and Snapchat wasn't on there yet
but you could get Snapchat on the iPod touch.
So I had like Snapchat and all those things
and there was like the dots game and stuff like that.
Sorry, the dots app, not real game.
And yeah, because it is, again, and that's,
I don't know, I've kind of lost what I was saying but.
Sorry, I'm reading up on the article about it.
It says the A17 Pro chip and the iPhone 15 Pro
makes it a powerful handheld device,
redefining the expectations of what mobile devices
are capable of within the gaming industry.
The phone is able to run expansive and highly detailed
releases with Death Stranding Director's Cup
being on the current roster of upcoming 15 Pro games.
Death Stranding was a blah, blah, blah.
So it was, Death Stranding was set to come out late 2023
but is now pushed back to 2024.
Oh, right.
And it says the Division Resurgence
is one of the most unique titles
set to come to iPhone 15 Pro
being developed purely for mobile platforms.
A third-person RPG set in the Division universe,
Resurgence is set to offer familiar PVP gameplay
set in New York and is aiming to release
at some point during 2024.
Ubisoft has not revealed many details
around the title as things stand
but players can expect the iPhone 15 Pro
to offer the best graphical fidelity
and performance for the mobile release.
And then yeah, it goes on to talk about
Assassin's Creed Mirage having released on console
in October, blah, blah, blah, is set to release 2024.
Do you wanna know how much the Pro Max,
one terabyte is?
No, sorry, Pro, not Pro Max.
Go on.
1,499.
Fucking hell, mental, innit?
But the 128 gig model is literally,
model is less than this cost.
Oh, is it?
Yeah, it's only grand.
You can just bang an SD card in it.
No, you can't.
Oh, you can't?
You can't put SD cards in them.
No, it's in the cloud, innit?
I've got two terabytes in the cloud, so I don't know.
Oh, right, so you don't have to do that.
I always get the lowest one, yeah.
It is crazy, it's got,
trade in my iPhone 12.
6.1 inch OLED display, eight gigabyte of RAM
and then yeah, up to one terabyte storage,
4,422 milliamp battery.
Eight gig of RAM on a phone is quite cool.
They could give me up to 190 pounds
for a trade in.
So you may well hear about those mobile games
in any of these showcases that are coming up
in June, especially the Ubisoft one with,
the Division Resurgence sounds pretty cool
because what you also have is where you create games
like that specifically for mobile,
it must cost less than doing it for wide console release.
So it's almost like a test of the waters
if Resurgence is very, very successful.
Never know, maybe that kind of stuff does come to,
because I'd love to see another Division.
Yeah.
I'd absolutely love it because it's such a good game.
It just lost its.
Yeah, but they're now already available on Luna.
Yeah.
As like cloud games.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, one and two, ain't they?
Do you know what I mean?
That in itself is, I think is quite cool.
I think.
The concept of that shit like that
can actually run on the cloud is.
Nvidia has announced a streaming,
like a gaming streaming service thing.
All very cool.
Lots of food to fall.
Lots of exciting things coming up.
So there was your weekly wrap up.
There you go.
Fantastic.
No arguments and we've got some lovely information
across, didn't we?
Of course.
Your face.
Yeah.
You wait till these mics start rolling.
Right.
We'll speak to everyone later.
Maybe.
Uru.