AR Gaming Glasses To Xbox Showcase Highlights

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AR glasses that put a “TV” in front of your eyes sound like sci-fi nonsense until you try to picture them on a flight, on a train, or in a hotel room with a handheld. We talk through the ROG X-Real glasses, how they connect over USB-C, what surprised us about using them, and why this kind of portable gaming tech is starting to feel genuinely practical. We also get nerdy about the home setup side, docking a handheld into a proper capture and streaming chain with HDMI switching and a 4K capture card.

Game chat is stacked this week. Lego Batman lands as a real joy, with Arkham-flavoured combat, stealth, brilliant voice work, and that “one more objective” pull after the credits. Forza Horizon 6 remains the perfect comfort game for clearing maps, chasing seasonal rewards, and zoning out in the best way. We also check back in on the James Bond game, where the stealth and set pieces sing, but the scraps can be punishing, and we make the case for a photo mode because the visuals deserve it. Plus: Junkster arrives on Game Pass and completely wins us over with comic-book levels, clever building and an adorable robot lead.

Then we get serious. We recap the big showcase moments and pivot into the tougher headlines: Lunar Abyss layoffs, rumoured Microsoft studio shutdowns, and what all this means for the future of Xbox and exclusivity. If you care about Game Pass, Xbox hardware, and where the industry is heading, there is a lot to chew on here. Subscribe for more, share the episode with a mate, and leave us a review: what game or piece of kit has surprised you most this year?

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Transcript

Welcome Back And Life Updates

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Hello, and welcome to episode 184 of Gamers of the Lost Spark Podcast. I'm your host, Mr. Stuart Burgess, and joining me this week is not Mr. Stephen Carter. The OG is back himself for a second week in the row. It's Mr. Anthony Cheson. Anthony, how are you?

SPEAKER_03 0:35

I'm not too bad, Stu. I'm not too bad. How are you? I'm a poor man, Steve Carter, as well.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

I am as well. Can you get some drawings like can you get Nicola to do some draw hand paintings and things like that and stick them on the wall for me? I I've got my pad here.

SPEAKER_03 0:48

I'll just quickly sketch something. I'll put my hand in paint or something.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Make an abstract. But yeah, no, I mean um Steve uh sends his apologies. Uh he had to do a last minute checkout to watch the football. Sorry, sorry, to go and look at some primary schools for Seb is what he told us anyway.

SPEAKER_03 1:07

Yes, we don't believe him for a moment that he is what is it? It's it's half past seven on the the night of England game. I'm sure he's kind of getting ready to watch some footy.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

He wasn't he wasn't like confident that we would get this podcast done in an hour and a half, so he could uh finish at nine o'clock on the dot. He even went to a boot fair the other week and bought a second, sorry, a third monitor. So now you can have three monitors in front of him, one to pod on, one to play on, and one to watch football on. Holy moly, that man is committed. Oh, he's he's certainly committed to the passion. But uh but how are you? Have you had a good uh a good couple of weeks since we last poddied with our prediction show?

SPEAKER_03 1:45

Yes, it's been really good actually. I've had a really good uh really good couple of weeks. I've been playing lots of games, which we'll get into in a moment. Uh, it's quite nice actually, because I've been working from home today. Where last time we potted, I was hot footing it back from London, but I've actually been working from home, so it feels a lot nicer, a lot more civilised this time. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Well, I did that classic thing this morning, which was uh, yeah, I should be back. I'm only going to Surrey to do a service call. And then as I sort of sent it, I'm like, oh no, I've jinxed myself now because it's a service call. But uh luckily it was one of those weird ones. I got to the client's house and the problem that I thought was there had fixed itself without me actually doing anything. So I sort of tested a few bits and pieces and swapped a skybox around because I mean this is a massive, massive system that we've got in this house. We've had it for probably 10 years, right? Um and it and it's distributing multiple signals to like 14 TVs around the house. Um, and uh, but no, we I managed to solve it, and then I'm like, okay, right, let me do what I need to do. So I did what I needed to do, and then slowly just walked out of the house after checking everything, got in the van, and right, I can get home. But then I came here and I had a massive issue last time we podded with the audio and uh where it was doing something weird my end, and I could not get it to do it this afternoon, but I've managed to fix it. I think I mean I've tested it a few times before we started recording, and I think we're okay. So uh but but we'll we'll see tomorrow when I come to edit this and start them smacking my head against this the wolf.

SPEAKER_03 3:15

Only time will tell, only time will tell. I see one thing that has, well, I have done since we last poddied is we've had um air conditioning installed at the uh at home. So for the first time, I am podding and I'm cold, and it's lovely because you know when we used to do the pod in the summer, way back when, especially like this show, like kind of breaking down showcases and stuff like that, we would I'd be so hot. I'd be so hot, my ears were sweating, you know. But but we've had uh air conditioning put into this office and also into the main bedroom as well, and it is absolute bliss, it is just so lovely. It was really quick and easy. They came round on a Monday. I'm glad the weather's getting like hotter because it's been raining since we had it installed. But they came round the Monday after the pot, and it only took them about I think it was probably about five hours, and they just kind of got it done. And it was it took longer to put the scaffolding up than it did to actually kind of like put the egg on in, but they've it's but it's so nice. Like today's been like the first real day that I've been able to kind of have it on, and I've just been because there are days when I'm up here and it's like when it's 30 degrees in the in the UK, I have to come out at one o'clock, you know, because it's just too hot. But today it was absolute bliss, it's cold. I've got chilly feet right now, which I absolutely love.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Yeah, thanks for that. I've shut the office door so I don't hear my daughter next door, and I've started to sweat already, and it's only four minutes into this. I'm as cool as a cucumber. But you may have air conditioning, but I've got something. Ready? Uh oh. Might not work with my headphones on.

SPEAKER_03 4:50

What do you reckon about that, baby? Oh my god, that's just like so for the audio listeners, you're looking cool right now.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

You can actually we can you can actually see us in the reflection of the glasses. They're very cool. What what are they?

SPEAKER_03 5:07

What have you got there?

ROG Xreal Glasses Explained

SPEAKER_01 5:08

So these are, let me see if I can bring them up. So these are the ROG, um, these are the ROG XRIL glasses. Right. So these are some fundamentally they're the glasses that XRIL have been around for a few years now, and they basically project an image in front of your eyes. Um so you can you can plug your phone into it and bits and pieces like that. But what's happened is uh ROG or Asus ROG have sort of like collaborated with them to produce a gaming set which is ideally matched to the uh ROG Ally X, so onto the Ally. So fundamentally there is uh I don't know if you'll be able to see it on camera, but there is uh it's basically there. There's a little USB-C there, and then what you do is it's basically right-angled USB-C into the top of your um ROG ally. Uh it works with the normal and the X, I believe. And then literally it just mirror mirrors the image of the uh ally. So you can play on your ally like you're holding it like normal, but the image is in your eyes, so fundamentally it's like beamed up on the wall or the whatever's in front of you.

SPEAKER_03 6:25

Yes. That is so awesome.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

That is so I I I can just imagine that like on a flight, on the train, just kind of just anywhere, you know, just kind of that that is such a good that's a good purchase to it's um I mean fundamentally it was I I when I went to France recently and I took it with me, took the handheld with me, I was struggling with my glasses on to sort of play Forza, uh sort of really to get immersed into it, because obviously, I mean it's a good size screen, but it's obviously not a a TV. So when I was away, I was pretty much hunting XP boards and just doing those bits and pieces, which I was thoroughly enjoying because that's what what Forza's good at. But I was sort of like, do you know what? I'd love to be able to play uh something bigger, I'd like to be able to, you know, if I go away, like I was away last week, I think, for a few nights in a hotel. I'd like to be able to just you know put this on and then just beam it up in front of me. Also, because because it's USB-C, it will talk to anything that's a USB-C device, so it will talk to my iPhone. So I think um I think it was Manny was saying that he's got a similar sort of pair and he plugs it into his phone and then he watches watch films on the train to work and things like that. Um it's uh I haven't tried it on the MacBook yet, but I'm assuming it will work because it's USB-C. And then they also with the uh with the ROG version, um they give you or they send you like a dock which then takes a HDMI in. So what you can also do is hook up any pretty much anything that's got a HDMI connection on it. So um I've watched I watched a few videos before I got them, and they had put uh a PlayStation on them, they'd put an Xbox on them. Um so far, so good. They they were a little bit of a oh okay, this is not really what I expected when I got them, because and I think as Manny confirmed was because you could still sort of see, like you know, like when you wear sunglasses and you pull them slightly away from your face, you can still very much see around what's going on, which is good and bad. Um it was a bit weird to sort of like get used to them, but then I used them a little bit more and I sort of scaled the size down a little bit more so it was a smaller screen inside it, and then they seem to to work a lot better.

SPEAKER_03 8:43

That's perfect, that's awesome. So you you can watch videos, you can just you not only play games, you because I guess you can you can uh uh connect a USB controller or a Bluetooth controller to your rock, so you could actually just like put the rock down and then just like play it with a controller if you want it. Oh, that's so cool.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Sitting in front of me here, I got the I can't forget what they called it now, but I've got the dock for the um because I wanted to we got a couple of uh keys off of um uh key mailer, I think it was, to play some Steam games um for the pod. And and I'm like, okay, so how can I get the the ROG on the here, the streaming setup in the office, and play it just like on an Xbox controller but on the monitor in front of me. So I did a little bit of searching around and this one's got hardwired Ethernet connection. So think of a switch dock, but uh on steroids a little bit. Um so it's got like two USB C's into it, it's got HDMI out of it, it's got uh an Ether 10 gig, I think it's a 10 gig Ethernet connection into it, plus it's got a few USB Cs, uh sorry, USB A's. So you sort of dock it. Um I took a picture the other day, I'll put it up on the screen. Um, to dock it, connect it into the monitor. So let me let me remember this. I've got it going from the dock into an HGMI switch, into the Elgado 4K capture card, up to the monitor. So I've got the ability to record and or stream from both the Xbox and the Ally, I believe, at the moment.

SPEAKER_03 10:15

That's really cool. That's really I like that. That's really cool. Because yeah, because the the rock will just instantly switch into Steam, won't it? You can just you can just stick into Steam and then you can then just run your Steam library from there.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Yeah, and and and that's I think we'll get onto it with some of the stories, but like although I would like to get the Steam machine, I don't think I will, and actually, if the the ROG could do that, for the limited games that are play, if I can get that on a bigger monitor like the 32-inch one I've got in front of me here, then will I sit downstairs and play a Steam game on the 77-inch TV? I to be honest, I'm not sure at the moment. So for me, it sort of actually fits quite well my my wanting to play some Steam games, you know, wanting to play the Xbox or the PlayStation wherever I am in the house sort of thing.

SPEAKER_03 11:05

That's really cool. That's really cool. I love it. You know, I just it's great that you can just I love the rock. It's just it's such a nice kind of form factor, and like I say, we're having that additional feature because because you know I had a Steam Deck for a while um and I bought a whole load of Steam games, but now I can just play that. I was playing God of War on it the other day on because God of War is a game that I just especially after what we saw at the Sony state of play, I just want to play God of War, but I kind of get as far and then I hit a brick wall every time. I'm just like so I just I really need to just kind of like hunker down and go, right, I'm playing God of War now, you know, whether it's on the PS5 or on the rock, I just need to play it. I just need to kind of get through it because I was talking to some friends about the new game, um, and they said you really need to play like the first two to um to kind of appreciate it, you know. It's really one of those to kind of real to hit where you're where it needs to hit, and to you really need to play like the uh the two new God of War games.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

I was gonna say, is that uh that the two new ones, not some of the OG ones, but the two new ones, right?

SPEAKER_03 12:04

I'm not going that far back. I'm not like it's just like I'm like, no, I'll do that. No, but though the two new ones, because I think it's very much about the fact that um his wife has died at the right at the start, so it's kind of very much about that one.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

So you're not Mr. James Thomas then who will happily go back and play like a Nintendo game or something from uh years gone by to uh and play it for like six or twelve months when no one's probably played it in like 20

Nostalgia Trips And Demo Reality Checks

SPEAKER_01 12:30

years.

SPEAKER_03 12:30

I I um uh last week Nintendo, straight after the Nintendo Direct, they had uh Donkey Kong 64, was available on um the Nintendo online store, so it fires up the N64 Ember later and went straight into Donkey Kong. You know, you had the really cool Donkey DK rap, which was awesome. And I jumped in and I was just like, oh, you know, my heart sank because I remember how good the graphics were back then, but how bad they are now, and I was just like, oh, I just wish they remastered this. I really am, I really am old as old, and I will play an old game for like a probably about five or ten minutes, and then I'll just want I just want new and shiny. I just you know, that's it for me. I'll just so I kind of played it. I loved the rap as it started, went into went into the game and started like even the controls are fine, but I just I just couldn't get over the the graphics, and I literally just played it for about 10 minutes, so I'm just like nope, played it, loved it, thank you. Yeah, and that was it. But back in the day, Donkey Kong 64, I put so many hours into that. I think I played through it about twice because it was just so good, you know. It's one of those ones where you you probably had already played banjo, you'd played Mario 64, so you were just desperate for like another another 3D platformer had helped us flow. It was it hit the just found your pang, but that lasts for about 15 minutes and then I'm out. So so it was really cool.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

It was really cool. Jumping ahead to what we've been playing, did you say on message the other day that you'd been playing the Star Fox demo?

SPEAKER_03 13:57

I played Star Fox demo, yes. And so I I jumped into because again, after that, um after that direct, they released a demo for Star Fox. They also released a demo for um Kingdom Hearts as well, so there was like a couple of demos. So I jumped into the A of the Star Fox 64, went through the tutorial, and again, I'm just like, no, it's just not for me. It was honestly, I was on the train coming home playing it on the handheld. I I never dock my switch, I never put it on the the TV. I'm always the handheld. Same with switch, same with switch too. Um, so I was playing it kind of on the handheld, and it was just like I was bored. I was actually bored playing a brand new video game, and I was like, I'm so glad they put that demo up because I was ready to to buy it. I was ready to jump in because I quite liked the demo, the trailer that they had. I quite liked it showing off some of the demo, but when you're actually playing it, it's just boring. It was just boring. So I was just like, sorry, Nintendo, you're not getting my money now. You know, I'm just like, but you know, obviously the demo was was fantastic, you know. And if anyone's on the fence, I'd urge you to try that demo because it takes you through the start of the game, so you've got like the real kind of like opening levels of the game. Um, but it just again that's another game on the N64. I loved it. I actually thought it was groundbreaking, but this one just oh so tedious, it was really tedious.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

I think that's what's good about you know, I think we've said before, me and Steve have said on the pod, it's like back in you know, back in our day when you used to get uh Xbox magazine and get the disc on the front of it, and and I think demos, game pass, PS Plus, they all are good in a way that it just gives us the ability to try some new stuff because I think I looked at Call of Duty the other day, um, the new Call of Duty this year, and I mean I think I was was it with or without a discount? I can't remember, but that's like 90 pounds now. And yeah, and and even for me, you know, it's like £69.99 or £70, £70 or £90, I'll happily spend £70 maybe, but £90 is a bit like do you know what? I I'm just not ready to commit to that, especially with like Call of Duty at the moment, uh being a bit hit and miss. And so having been able to have the demo and being able to have you know a few minutes, whether it's 20 minutes, half an hour, of just going, I wonder if this is for me. I know some people might look at that and go, Well, you know, that's a missal if they don't buy it. Also, that's not an annoyed customer like me with Red Dead Redemption that you spent £110 on the game and then you're two hours, three hours, four hours into it, and you're just like, Do you know what this is not for me and there's nothing I can do about this now?

SPEAKER_03 16:36

Absolutely. That's one of the reasons why I love uh like the PlayStation Plus, because if you're on a certain tier of PlayStation Plus, they allow you to trial a game for a couple of hours. So there's this it's not every game, but you could play, you can like jump into the first couple of hours of Cyberpunk or the first couple of hours of and I think there was a game called I think it was uh Wukon with the ever like look stunning, you know, it just looked absolutely amazing. I played the trial of that, and again, it's kind of not for me. I appreciate this game, but it's not for me. You know, it's kind of you you know I've done that and I've gone, oh my god, I want to play this game, like just give this to me now. But there are some games, as you say, you know, you're not you're not worried about it because you there's plenty of other games, but it's just it's good just to be able to jump in and just give it a try.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Well, that's that's what's beautiful about it, and uh and getting onto the games we've been

Lego Batman Wins The Week

SPEAKER_01 17:25

playing. I was gonna put him, but he was a bit weird. He was gonna be this close to me, and he just looked a bit weird. Ah, Mr. Lego Batman. So uh so you have still been playing. Actually, you've completed, didn't you roll credits on Lego Batman at the weekend?

SPEAKER_03 17:37

Absolutely. On uh I think it was Monday night. Monday night I rolled credits on uh Lego Batman. I could feel it ramping up over the weekend, but I um I rolled credits on this it's a superb game. I was I was waxing lyrical about it last time I was on the pod, and I it just kept going. I mean last time I had my I had the Prince moment that was fantastic. There are so many more moments in this video game, you know, that it just keeps it just keeps going. You know, one of the one of the best bits about the back half of the game is Matt Berry from the IT crowd. He does the voice of Bane, and his Bane impression is just superb, and it's what he's saying as well. It's not that he just kind of nails the voice, I'm not gonna do the impression, but he nails the voice and he nails the kind of thing, but it's what he's saying as well that just had me. I was belly laughing. I was literally playing this game, headphones on, just belly sitting in the corner, just like belly laughing to it. But I I've rolled current credits on the main game, so they they do take you through like a story. So there is there is a story that that lends itself from all of the movies and also um also the animated show as well, and they kind of like take you through that, and then you get to a certain point. So I rolled credits and the credits when the credits started as well, it was just superb. So I just sat there, sat there, watched the credits, had a little bit of a clap to to uh to TT games and uh and to that Lego game, and then I just kind of went jumped back in because now I'm kind of like what I'm doing is I'm now at that point where I'm looking at the achievements to kind of go, right, what do I need to do? What what you know switch to this character, do this thing. So I'm kind of now using the achievements to kind of get more fun from an absolutely superb game. My favourite game so far this year, you know, and we've had fours like Horizon 6, but Lego Batman is is absolutely fun for you know it's just a fun game, and it just doesn't stop giving, and it's just amazing. And I the characters you unlock, the the abilities that each one of them have, they're just absolutely superb. And and you never kind of so far throughout the the story, you never kind of go, what you're never frustrated going, what do I need to do? And just watching my favourite one of my favourite bits is like what just stealthing, similar to Arkham Night, Arkham City, where you go up on a little gargoyle and you just wait for them to walk under and look at their path and then just jump down, kill them, jump back up again. This is available in Lego form, and I was just loving it every I was spending so long just like just in those areas, going from gargoyle to gargoyle and just taking them out kind of one by one, and it's just superb.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

It does seem to be like I mean, the Lego games have always been good. I mean, I've played a few Star Wars and things like that, and they've always got their own little edge to them, but I think a lot of people were saying early on with this one that it's very Arkham, it's very it's very Batman, and it's also Lego and it's got the Lego element to it, and but it's also got some really, really good you know elements for you know Batman fans basically, like the Prince Song and all those little bits and pieces. So I think anybody looking at it and going, Oh, it's a Lego game, I'm not gonna play that, it's more of an Arkham game than a Lego game. It's just a Lego disguise, really, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 20:53

It absolutely. I mean, you are the combat is straight out of um straight out of Arkham. It's straight out of the Arkham games. You have the why to to kind of melee when someone comes in, you have the why to switch your focus, you have a whole skill tree as well. So I'm I've just been going through my kind of battering and kind of like upgrading that. So you have skills for you, but you also have skills for your equipment as well. And then each of the characters, whether it's Batgirl or Nightwing, you know, you have the skills for them as well. So it really is just like an archive game. It really is just like and one of the so I'm so what I ended up kind of for most of the game. I had the Dark Knight Returns, the Frank Miller Dark Knight Returns Batman. I either had Robin in his new 52 outfit, which was amazing, or I had Nightwing in kind of maybe the animated series outfit. And I spent a lot of the time either driving around in the 1989 Batmobile or the Tumblr or even the animated one as well. It put me in the it put me in the Batman Robin kind of, you know, the one with um with Arnold Schwarzenegger. It put Me in that one, which is really elaborate, I just couldn't get on with it. I was like, no, I hate this. Why am I doing this for myself? And I just went back to the 1989 or the Tumblr. I I tried the Batman versus Superman because you know I love I love Batfleck. He's like my favourite Batman. And it's it's really grey for some reason. And I actually I actually saw the kit in Sainsbury's because I almost I almost pick started going, right? I need to start collecting these Batmobiles in Lego. I'm like, it got me to the point I lost and Nicola went, don't look over there, there's the Batman versus Superman one. And I was like, ooh, but it's really grey for some reason. It's like it's not black, it's grey, and it's just really it's bizarre. So but uh but it's such a great Batmobile.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

No, it's uh it's a game that I've got to get back into.

Forza Horizon 6 Comfort Gaming

SPEAKER_01 22:44

I mean, I've pretty much been my life pretty much has been Forza since we last potted. I just I I think I've I've been busy generally doing lots of bits of pieces. I've I've been away once or twice since we last potted, I can't remember now. So and because Batman wasn't on the ROG, or you could cloud it, and you know, and I okay, I was staying in a premier inn where I had the unlimited internet type thing, so I probably could have, but I just took the rock with me, or here downstairs I've just been playing Force of Horizon Six, and I think I think this year I I forgot about the the little competition that we did, you know, find all the roads, find all the XPs, find all the mascots. I wonder who got all those. Which I I won every single one of those. Thank you very much. I I will now scroll on the screen all of the messages he feels satisfactionary. I got all the roads, but I I think I've just been like, I don't know, I've like on a Saturday morning. I've just been waking up and going, Do you know what? I don't really fancy watching something, but I also don't really fancy playing something. I know I'm just gonna chuck on Falls Horizon, I'm just gonna go and get some mascots. So I think it was Saturday and over Saturday and Sunday, I just I just cleared everything off the map apart from the mascots off the treasure map. I just went and found all of them and crashed into those happy little bowls of ramen and those little um peas in a pod. And uh and I just thought, right, okay, I did that. And then I started to go and do a couple of more difficult XP boards, and then I also did, I think after we podded last time, uh I went off and did a one of the full seasons, the was it the winter season, because I think we're in spring or we're in spring now, I think.

SPEAKER_03 24:24

We're spring now, aren't we? Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Yeah, so I went off and did all the seasonal events and unlocked like the flashy Mazda car and a few bits and pieces like that. So it's just been quite nice. I mean, even this morning I had to go and see this client and drop sank in someone before, but I just went on there and it just so happened the last thing I searched on the map was um cross country, seasonal, and um um jumping, the jumps, I can't think what they call them now, uh the dangerous zones. And uh and I just thought, do you know what? I've only got about four cross-country rides to do, so I'm gonna go off and do some cross-country rides. Um, so I just and it's just I'm finding I'm just dipping and out of it, and it's just doing my five minutes, ten minutes, two hours that I want to play, and I'm not having to think about anything. I'm just driving and just cruising around.

SPEAKER_03 25:10

Yeah, that's so cool. And that is that's that's one of the reasons why I'll keep coming back to Forza, you know, even though I've kind of completed it, you know, kind of rolled credits on Forza. Um, I I will keep coming back. There's still a few, there's still I think I've still got about 200 points worth of achievements to get. And again, they help to drive. One of them, one of them is like I think turn, I think um, turn 10. I think playground games are gonna I think playground games are gonna fix um one of them because they've realized it's gonna take too long, you know, for everybody to do. So I think there's an achievement on there where you've kind of got to rack up hundreds and hundreds of hours or something like that. But apart from that, I'm just jumping in, doing a little bit kind of at the weekend, especially if I'm listening to a podcast, because I found another game that we'll talk about in a minute, which is like James Bond. I found uh I cannot listen to a podcast and play that game. You know, there's so much going on in that game, and you have to listen for all the little noises and nuances that if I want to listen to a podcast on like a Saturday morning, then I'm gonna put Forza on. Then I'm gonna kind of like you say, like just kind of try and do I'm doing those delivery jobs at the moment because there's a an achievement to go all the way to the top, so I'm doing those at the moment, and I love that. They are just so good, especially when you've got to drive like 90 miles an hour and you can't slow down. That is freaking awesome, it's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

I think that's probably gonna be my because I think I'm I think I'm about 300 points away from unlocking Legends Island or the gold wristband or something like that for my next one. You sort of go, you sort of creep up, creep up, creep up, and then there's this mahoosive section you have to points you have to get to then get any further. So I've just got to that point, but I sort of thought, right, I might unlock that tomorrow because I'm working from home tomorrow. So I thought I might unlock that in the morning, and then um, but then yeah, those delivery trucks and the stories, as they call them. I'm like, that's a little bit like the XP boards. I might just go off and do some XP boards this weekend and then maybe do a couple of stories. And I'm almost like, you know, I don't drink anymore, but I would imagine it's like a save savouring of wine. I'm finding with Forza Horizon 6 that I'm savouring it a little bit more and taking my time with it a little bit more.

SPEAKER_03 27:24

Exactly. And I'm glad, you know, I'm glad one of my predictions, but I'm not glad because I really wanted Godzilla, but I'm I'm glad that one of my predictions didn't come true and they didn't give us DLC right there and then, you know, take your time. There's plenty in that game, and you're absolutely right, you know, going from purple to gold wristband, it is quite, I won't say slog because I really enjoyed it, but it is quite a jump. You know, they've got a lot of racing to do. I found just doing those big events, you know, the big like Titan things, you know, once you do some of those, it really kind of helps to kind of get those. But once you get onto um Legend Island, you've got more roads that you can unlock, and there's a couple of XP boards there and stuff like that. I don't know if there's any mascots on there.

SPEAKER_01 28:06

No, because I've got I've got all the mascots. Yeah, I've got all the mascots, and I've not I've been on there because I've gone on there on a couple of um the uh Forza live events where you race against other people. I've gone on there on a few of those, but uh so I've unlocked some of the roads, but no, I got all the mascots without being able to freely go on there.

James Bond Stealth And Set Pieces

SPEAKER_03 28:26

Superb. So you've also been playing James Bond as well. I mean you you've also been like you've been playing it as well, I mean you've been jumping in.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

Yeah, I had I jumped into it again the other day because I don't know what it is, it just mentally I've been doing so much stuff with work, it's almost like oh I just I don't want to think about it, I just want to play something. But on Saturday, I was like, uh I was like, right, I wanna I haven't played it on the big screen. I've played it up here, you know, which is the 32 inch and you know, and it's been phenomenal. But I thought I really want to play it downstairs on the big screen. So I went back into it and it's uh I'm still pretty much at the beginning, so I'm still doing a couple of training bits, but um I went off on um they went into the apartment. It's the first time they all get together in the apartment, and uh and then you end up in the nightclub, which I absolutely loved because I think I think I've got a feeling it's Chase's status or someone like that. It's uh wow who did the music in there. So uh I I put my cans on and literally turned it up to 11, as they would say, and I'm just like, yeah, this is really good on a Saturday morning.

SPEAKER_03 29:30

Such a good level, it is such a good level. I love all the I mean that kind of really opens up like the hitman-y side of it as well, because there's so many little things that you've got to do, you know, stick near someone to like download their phone, you know, all of that sort of stuff, try and make your way around the back, and and it's just such a great level. It really kind of I was after playing that, I don't know about you, but after playing that, I was like, Oh yeah, I'm getting to this game. You know, that was kind of that point, that tipping point for me that I just was like, Yeah, I like this.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

Well, I think it's uh you I think you go to the toilet out the back to meet someone. Oh no, you go to the toilet out the back to get something, and then you end up having a fight with someone who thinks you're chatting up his bird, and then then they give you the assignment, and as you're walking to the back going, Okay, do I go to the bar or do I go off to that side? You just see that hitman thing where there's just a couple of little audio waves near a person, and you you instantly go, That's an eavesdrop, I need to go and eavesdrop. And I don't know whether it's just hitman or I think they've done it in um they did it in uh Star Wars Outlaws, I think the Ubisoft game, where when you went near someone, you saw a little wave and you're like, Oh, I need to eavesdrop and listen in. So you sort of okay, so they said you could do this and you could do that, and and again, it that was really good. And then I I did get to the next training level where they decided to go and get the flag at night so they could have the next day off. Yes, that frustrated me a little bit because I kept on coming across a bundle of people and then finding myself in 50 cuffs with about 12 people and they're dying. So I've got to think on that one, it came up and kept on coming up telling to me. You can put the level, the hardness down if you want. No, I'm gonna do it with this one. I'm gonna do it with this one. But uh, but no, I mean I've really, really enjoyed it and I'm gonna try and jump back into it again this week. How far are you in it? Are you have you rolled credits? You do you think you're near the end or?

SPEAKER_03 31:24

No, I think I'm I think I'm probably about the midway point or of the of the game. So I've had like there's uh I think Steve got to it last night as well. There's a big kind of set piece that they showed in the demo. I think it was in uh kind of a state of play for Sony where they showed like an airport level. So I got past that, and then after that, it opens up. So I've I've met um Lenny Kravitz, his character. So he's kind of one of the bad characters in this, he's one of the baddies, and I've met Lenny Kravitz's character, which is very cool. And that area I played it on, I think it was like last Sunday morning, and I just played this area, and I it was so good. I just I really happily because James Bond does this thing where you kind of like you can stealth around, and then every now and then you'll get to a bit where you can go all guns blazing. So and then it goes back to a bit of stealth, you know, and you you always have that option, but I do find that that James Bond is a little bit fragile, so I try not to, where possible, I try to do a lot of stealthing, taking them out, making noise so they come over, distract them, set traps, and all of that, rather than really kind of like getting hand-to-hand fisticuffs with with with the because I find that I die very quickly. I find I'm either dodging out the so I'm I'm really slick, I'm really cool doing all the espionage and the shooting. The moment I get into a fight, I'm just like I'm just some stupid idiot that starts dancing around. I keep jogging out the way, but it I I just die a lot. I've seen the um I've seen the mission failed screen way too many times. I'm just like, so I've just done Lenny Kravitz's area and I just finished that and I got to the end of that, and that was like the end of my kind of like play session. Because what I'm trying to do is because James Bond is just it's visually stunning. I'm all I want to do is play it on the big TV. So so when we when like Nicola and I game, I'm always playing on the smaller TV, Nicola's on the bigger TV. So I just kind of that's why I've been playing Batman or another game that I'll get to in a moment. You know, I've been playing that there, and I'm just almost leaving um Batman. I'm sorry, I'm leaving Bond for like maybe the weekend, you know, and just like when I kind of get up early and play it there, and it's just quite nice that every now and then I'm looking forward to kind of jumping in and playing that on the big TV.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

Well, I did see the I don't think we I think we discussed it, but I don't think it was part of our predictions. But I did see there is some DLC coming for it with with Lenny Kravitz in it as well. So they they were like Lenny Kravitz will return as in the DLC, but I'm not sure if they gave a date on it. So they are they are doing some DLC for this. Um although the I don't want to say bad news, but I did see the comments from Amazon saying that they were gonna take over the game or distribute the game or and just look, please just let IO just do their thing. I mean, yeah, publish it, do all that, but just don't think you can make this game yourself now. You've got a hit on your hands because IOR IO, and you know, and it's yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:22

Now that you've got this template, don't think you can just go file save as for the next one, you know, because it's just not gonna work. I think I think that's what I'm saying. Like the you know, James Bond's a little bit fragile, and I'm not sure I don't think I don't think there's a way to kind of update the skill tree or kind of give him kind of a bigger life bar, maybe drop the um maybe drop the difficulty by help. But the one thing that I desperately, I mean you'll be pleased it's not, but the one thing I desperately want is a photo mode in this game. God he hasn't. Because because it is, I haven't found a water tower yet, but it is just absolutely stunning. I there was this one bit where you very small bit where you're driving through London and it looked amazing. You know, I just wanted it, but the problem is because I'm playing it on the PlayStation, whenever you try and hit go, I'm like, oh my god, that's gorgeous. I'll hit the screen capture, it goes to the pause screen. So what it captures is the pause screen. It's just like it's all like jam you, there's gotta be a way to do this. But obviously, on Xbox you can just hit it and it doesn't even worry, but on PlayStation, it kind of almost pauses the game to allow you to do what you're doing. So I have to wait for a photo mode. I think the same happened with um Resident Evil when I was playing Resident Evil. It didn't do that then. They brought out photo mode like kind of a month later or a couple of weeks later. But uh I really could do with a photo mode in JSON right now.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

But it does seem to be that they are updating it, so I'm hoping that they will bring some stuff

Fortnite Fatigue And Sonic Rumours

SPEAKER_01 35:47

to it. Uh talking about water towels, that you did know there's water tower in Fortnite this season, don't you? It doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_03 35:53

It's still not it's it's not a good one. You sent me a picture, I'm like, that's not a good one. If it was a New York water tower, then I would I'll just grab my water tower, let's say we're here. No, if it was a New York, well, but no, I'm still not jumping in.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

I need one I need one I needed to get my Fortnite mentioned in, even though Steve's not here.

SPEAKER_03 36:12

I'm so glad he's not here. But also I noticed that Sonic the Hedgehog's coming to Fortnite.

SPEAKER_01 36:17

Uh yeah, I think it's been a rumoured for a while. I mean, I I'll be honest with you, I have actually not played the the latest season of Fortnite because it's a whole again, I don't know what it is with me lately. It's a bit like Bond, it's just this whole mental block. It's like, oh, I've got to learn a new map, I've got to learn these sprite things, I've got to learn this. So I just just I just can't be bothered to jump in at the moment. Let's just play Forza. So I don't even think Steve's been in, so neither of us have got into uh the new Fortnite, but I was watching something, I think it was like a a rundown of the new season on YouTube or something like that, and then all of a sudden this water tower appeared, and I'm just like, quick, pause it, pause it!

SPEAKER_03 36:56

Snap it and put it on the group. Nope, I'm still not. I'm still not even to see that. I've seen it now, thanks very much. You should have you should have teased the leg or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

I should have put across copyright Stuart Burgess, so you can't now take that image and put it on your Twitter feed. Damn it.

Junkster On Game Pass Surprise

SPEAKER_01 37:12

So you've been playing another game called Junkster?

SPEAKER_03 37:15

I have indeed. So Junkster came to Game Pass yesterday. So I you know, I was finished work, Nicola was Nicola's playing two-point museum. Um, so I just was like, I'll just jump into a game. And I was like, do I jump into Batman? Do I jump into Forza? But I noticed that there was a brand new game um on Game Pass called Junkster. So I thought, I'll give it a try, I'll just jump in. It intrigues me because it had a bit of very kind of almost comic book style art style to it. So I just thought, I'll just jump in. This game is absolutely superb. So I played it for probably about an hour and a half last night. I'm probably gonna play it after we finish podding. But it's kind of so it's a it's a 3D open world platformer where you play this tiny little robot, and each level is a comic book. So each level is a comic book that has a little kind of like uh something on it, so it has a little kind of collectible on the on the comic book, and if you finish the level, the the little character takes the comp the collectible off and puts it into a diorama. But each level you have like your building, your jumping. The mechanic of this game is that you can take items from around the world and you can just suck them in, and then you can reuse them to kind of do a bit of building. So a bit like probably Fortnite. So you can if there's a a gap, you can build a bridge to go across that gap. If there is if there is a wall that you need to maybe uh traverse, you can add panels to the wall. And it is so last night on I think the second or third level, there was this comic book, which is one of the collectibles in each level, and it was really high up, and I was like, How the hell am I supposed to get that? And then I noticed there was this little robot suit that you could build. So I built a robot suit with like little legs, and then there was and then there was like two blocks that gave it its height, and then I put the control mechanism on top of the two blocks, and I was able just to walk over there and get to this comic book. It is absolutely superb. You've got a little hammer, so it's a bit like Ratchet and Clank with a hammer, but then you've also got this kind of like build mechanic as well, and the character who's this little kind of orange robot is absolutely adorable, you know. He's this like really cool, so it's it's such a great little game, and I again it's one of those like joys that come to Game Pass, and uh, hadn't heard anything about it, hadn't seen it in a showcase or an indie, and then I just thought I'm gonna jump in and I really like this game. So it's junkster on on Game Pass. I'm not sure if it's available on other platforms, but it's it would do well on Switch.

SPEAKER_01 39:47

Yeah, I just had a quick uh I just had a quick look at it, look at some of the images while you're talking. It does look like it's on PS and it does look like it's on Switch, and I think it's on Steam as well. So it's on all platforms. So I'll I'll download that and have a have a play.

SPEAKER_03 39:59

So uh it's play anywhere as well, so you can play on the Rogue if you want as well, so which is really cool.

SPEAKER_01 40:05

I've just put on my glasses now and play while we're podding.

SPEAKER_03 40:08

Exactly. You can just do while we're podding, and I can just happily just talk about like other stuff. But no, it it's it's really worth it. It's worth a jump. Like I say, I've only I've done three levels so far, and I'm really looking forward to just kind of like continue playing this game. Um by the looks of the kind of comic book collection, it shows you which ones you've collected and which ones you've got left. There's still a lot of levels to go, so which is really cool.

SPEAKER_01 40:30

Excellent. Well, I'd say it's it's nice to vary it, doesn't it? I mean, I know like we'll probably get on to where we talk a bit later. It's like I think all of us, you know, all of us play a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and it's quite nice to sort of jump into a bit of Forza, jump into a bit of first light, jump into a bit of junkster, or or just uh there was one which which uh I think a few people think kind of funny were doing it on a stream, and I think uh giant bomb might have done it as well, which was um it was like you were running the blockbusters, so it was like it was like yeah, uh video store manager or something like that. And it I looked at it and oh it's a steam game, and that has also been a little bit of my catalyst to get the steam up here because I've got my nice new office chair that my wife bought me, and I'm like, okay, I can sit in here and actually play some games now with the door open because it's getting really hot. Um, but um, but yeah, so right, so that's what we've

Xbox Rewards Points And Console Prices

SPEAKER_01 41:20

been playing. Um, a quick update on my uh points.

SPEAKER_03 41:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:25

So I have I have broken the quarter of a million barrier, not pounds, at least a pounds that I wish. Um so uh just a very quick update. So my previous total was 743,000 and some change. Um my current total is 756,133 points. Nice, well done, well done. So basically that equates to at the moment 609 pounds and eighty-eight pence in good old British pounds Xbox vouchers. Um so that's up uh about 15 pounds when last time we potted. So uh uh I I've worked out, I mean I know Helix is not gonna cost 700. We don't know at the moment, obviously, with all the news of what's going on or whatever. Um so at the moment I need if I'm if we're if I'm going to the 700 pound barrier, I've worked out I need 111 yeah, 111,736 points, or if it comes out at Christmas next year, about six thousand two hundred and seven pound points a month, which is perfectly achievable. So uh I should I should be at my eight hundred and sixty-seven, eight hundred and seventy thousand points by this time next year, but either it ain't gonna come out, it's gonna be really expensive, or Xbox doesn't exist anymore, and Microsoft just drained my count of points and I start crying.

SPEAKER_03 42:50

You'll wake up one day and there'll be a there'll be a uh there'll be a tweet from uh Asher Sharba saying we're stopping the rewards program and we've like we've set them all to zero or something like that, you know. From the You could download your points now, but only to a maximum of £150. Yes, no more, you know, it's just a maximum one. But it's you know, and it's and it's uh we laugh, but that could actually be I think it's quite exactly you know it's it's really interesting because you know previously I kind of thought A that we would be getting we'll be getting Helix, you know, kind of like late next year, and also that there was no way that they could go beyond a thousand pounds. I'm not so sure now. I just I just don't know if A we're gonna get one, B what the price what the cost is gonna be, or if they're gonna revisit it and actually go, no, we're gonna go back to another console, or if at all. It's it's really bizarre at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 43:43

It does seem to be with what we're hearing on the grapevine, it does seem to be that they're either gonna say, Look, because of the the memory price and all this like which is quite sort of like ironic because the Microsoft are so heavily invested in AI, they're arguably putting the price up of memory. But anyway. We won't go there. Um, but it's uh it's either gonna be they say, look, we're pushing it back a year and we're just gonna continue with the the Series X and the Series S, which I sort of believe Sony might do as well, obviously, because they've got the pro, or they'll just revisit the spec and they'll go, Look, I tell you what, we were gonna do the all singing, all dancing, I don't know, BMW M series, but now look, I tell you what, we're just gonna do a middle of the range option because that's gonna fit where we want, and maybe we'll release a more expensive version later on, sort of thing, when prices come down. I just don't know at the moment, but uh we'll we'll see. We'll we'll find out. I mean it's not light when one not getting good games, and two, the per cot the consoles are perfectly good as they are at the moment for Bond looks fantastic, Forza looks fantastic. You know, how can how can it get much better?

SPEAKER_03 44:52

Exactly. That's what we always I mean I'm so glad I I'm so glad I invested in the PS5 Pro when I did. You know, I bought I bought that at launch, so when that came out, I kind of bought that straight away, and I'm so glad I did because A, I've probably saved a whole bunch of cash on that. I don't know what it was originally to what it is now, but also it is that just that kind of nice little refresh of uh of of the console. And and I have I will be playing kind of like all of the games that are like um control resonant, all those games that are kind of coming out across platform that are PS5 Pro enhanced. I'll be playing them over there, you know. I'm just like, I know I won't get my achievements or my reward points, but I'm just you know I'll sacrifice both of those for some for some good old-fashioned visuals.

SPEAKER_01 45:35

Yeah, I was just looking on Amazon. Currently, uh uh PS5 Pro is £779.95. Yikes. So it's not a thousand dollars that I think Amerigron have into play, but um oh, I'll get a 1% commission if you buy it with Amazon affiliation affiliation. How generous of them. 1% too lovely. But I mean, whilst so actually, whilst we're here, what is a uh what is a Sirius X at the moment, if I can see around my mic. Uh yeah, see Sirius X is £479.99p. So actually, the Sirius X is still at a cheap. I mean, actually it's it's cheaper. It was £499. So um and it will arrive before Father's Day. Um, but um it's uh it's actually that that is a price of a console that you would potentially go, oh do you know what, little Billy, we'll buy you that for your birthday and Christmas present. But I understand that the PS4 Pro is a is a a beast, and um, but you know, that is you know, that is a nearly £800 for a games console. Even I look at that and go, yeah, that ain't happening.

SPEAKER_03 46:43

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's raised since when I bought mine as well. So that's gone up since I bought mine. I have no idea what it was when it kind of came out, but it wasn't that expensive.

SPEAKER_01 46:52

I would imagine it was probably about 599, 649, something like that.

SPEAKER_03 46:56

Something like that. Yeah, so it's just it's definitely kind of added an extra 100 pounds to it. Easy. It's well worth it, you know. Getting, you know, the uh Ghost of Yotai, James Bond, you know, those games just look absolutely stunning. And I did notice that, you know, we'll get to our first story in a bit, but I did notice that Halo campaign evolved, um, is coming, still coming to PlayStation 5, and it's also a PS5 Pro enhanced as well. So it would be quite interesting to see what that looks like on the uh PS5 Pro.

Showcase Recap And Bingo Card Scores

SPEAKER_01 47:25

That's awesome. Well, talking about the news, uh, let's get on to the news. Before we get on to the news, don't forget you can rate review this very podcast on the platform that you're watching, listening, dancing to. So if you're looking at on YouTube, please rate and review us. If you're we're listening to it on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us. Uh it helps the podcast get discovered and helps uh other people listen to us mumbling on about Fortnite. Obviously, when Anthony's on, not so much. So the first news story, uh the first news story, the first fun news story. Let's let's just go there first. The first, because a lot's happened, is uh is literally a showcase recap. Uh obviously the last pod we did was our predictions, which went really well. Um, so uh we're gonna do a little bit of a recap. So obviously you discussed uh or you mentioned like uh we had gears, we've got we've mentioned Halo um and a few other bits and pieces. What what were sort of standouts from the the showcase for you?

SPEAKER_03 48:24

I yeah, I mean for me, I mean first of all, you know, the the showcase I thought was a really good showcase. I know there's there's very much mixed opinion, but I kind of it's not all for me, but I think you know, in the when the right at the start, the first four games that they showed, you know, they showed Gears, they showed Halo, they showed Fable. It was kind of like a constant kind of like one, two punch of really good, great-looking games as well. So I kind of like Fable looked amazing. I've jumped into the I've watched the the half an hour um Fable playthrough, which which kind of came. I think it was what was shown behind doors at the um at the LA event, and they've now put it up on YouTube, and that's really interesting, you know, but it's really good to see that. But you know, going through all the games, there was Clockwork Revolution as well, so that looked absolutely stunning. We've had a tears of tease of that before, but that absolute looked absolutely amazing, you know, and just just seeing all of these games that were basically are coming over the next um year or so were were just funny. I know I was just sitting there going, yeah, okay, not for me. This one looks like that other one, but but you know, I can't wait to play. I can't wait. I watched um I watched the Gears of War trailer in the showcase. I didn't, however, watch the deep dive afterwards because I had seen enough. So Gears is like very you know, I absolutely love playing gears, you know. I have I've played every single one of them multiple times, so I'm quite invested in gears. It's something that Nicola and I play together a lot. Um, so I just decided that what I've seen they showed quite a lot. Considering there was a 45-minute show afterwards, they showed a lot of gears at that start of that game. But seeing that they've built it from the ground up, it's got a whole new mechanics, you've got traversal, you you know, there there is there's a whole load of new stuff in there. I was like, I've seen enough now. You've got my money. I'll probably be paying the early access money, you know, so to get that. Um, but they've got my money, and I want that game as soon as possible. I've got to wait until October. They did date it, so which was really good. But um, so I think really kind of Gears, Fable, Halo were kind of my standouts. What about YouTube? What was kind of uh what kind of really grabbed you?

SPEAKER_01 50:43

I mean, yeah, as you said, it was a little bit like when it started and it went straight into e-day. I'm like, oh hello, this this looks good. And and again, I was a little bit surprised, like you, that they went on so long with it. I did leave the the deep dive afterwards and I was watching it, but then I was also doing a few bits and pieces so it was on in the background, so I was paying attention, but not sort of paying attention. But that looks absolutely stunning. Um, I had no intentions of playing uh Halo again, campaign evolved. Um, because I you know I've not got a PS4 Pro, so it's like there's no point playing it on the the PlayStation because I don't perceive it to be much different from the Series X, but after watching that, I'm like, right, yeah, this is this has got me all over. I really want to dive back into this. Um Metro 2039, that looks good. I mean, I think I said on one of the pods with Steve, I actually went back and bought the previous two, two or three Metro games because it was sort of a bit of a discount. So I'm gonna go go back and play a few of those. I mean, yeah, it was it was one of those classic cases where to buy the the last game, the last metro game was I don't know, let's say $29.99, or to buy the box set was $24.99, so it's like oh much just buy the box set. So that I really enjoyed. Um Fable, I'm looking forward to. I honestly I I'm not sure if that actual what they showed at the showcase did any favours to me. I think I preferred it when they did the deep dive. Um so we knew Fable was coming, so I suppose they had to show it, but I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_03 52:15

Well they've given it another date, haven't they? I mean they've I mean they've openly said, you know, Microsoft openly now, isn't it? Yeah, 23rd of February, yeah. So they've they've openly said they've got out of the way of GTA. They've they've basically said, you know, Fable needs its time and they have moved it so they're out of the way of GTA.

SPEAKER_01 52:34

Can I can I just say this because Steve's not here? Uh everybody's talking about getting out of the way of GTA, and like yeah, I'm gonna play GTA and I'm looking forward to playing GTA, but quite frankly, if a Gears E-Day or a Fable or a Call of Duty lands anywhere close to GTA, I would potentially play that over GTA. I I'm just like Steve's now punching the table or throwing a screen out of the way.

SPEAKER_03 52:59

He's like, why? Why stupid? I mean, I I mean the one thing that I think might upset Steve's little Yorkshire pudding cart is um is the fact that Nintendo in their showcase showed Ocarina of Time remake. Well, they didn't really show it, that actually made me rage. For the very first time for this year, I raged um because because I've been waiting for it. They built up to it, and then they just showed a little picture of Link, fast asleep, and then they left it. I thought, oh, here they go, they're gonna show the they're gonna show that opening level where you go through, you see the dooku tree, and then but they didn't, they just left it. They went, you know, I know they're gonna have a a Nintendo showcase about it soon and probably show the movie at the same time, but that's coming this year. Would Nintendo come out in November with that? They said it's gonna be 2026. Are they gonna go? Do you know what we'll go toe-to-toe with GTA? And that will I mean it's gonna be really interesting because if Nintendo do make Ocarina of Time this year, if they do get it out this year, game of the year discussions is gonna be really interesting because a lot of people are gonna go back and this is that nostalgia that I like, which is the nostalgia, but with really good graphics. So it's gonna be really interesting to see kind of what happens if they do end up bringing it out.

SPEAKER_01 54:19

Yeah, definitely. I mean, uh, but again, Nintendo will do what Nintendo does, so I think they would just go, we're gonna put it out here, and then whatever's whatever type of thing. They'd be like, What's a GTA? Yeah, what's what's that game everybody's talking about? I quite liked it when Crazy Taxi turned up, but I've seen slurp that that was AI generated, that whole trailer, apparently. Yeah, it was it was all sort of uh generated within AI, I think. So I don't think it's got any realism on the game. I think I think it was kind of funny. I was listening to, and they sort of said that the day after it was sort of was announced that it was a it was a created demo, not an actual sort of demo demo. Um I want to speak to Mr. Thomas about uh Sea of Thieves uh custom C's. I want a Sparks Island, you know, a place where all of us Sparks can go and hang out and shoot some cannons and sail some boats. So uh I I quite like the look of that. As someone who's not not hugely played Seer Thieves, because obviously when it initially came out, it was play with your mates, and it was a bit of a sort of a multiplayer game where you know I quite often don't find myself in a position to play many multiplayer games. So, but no, I mean I think that there was there was a lot of stuff in that that I thought was really, really good, and I enjoyed it. Yes, I was slightly disappointed they ended on Modern Warfare, uh DMZ was just like the one last thing was something that we knew was coming, and yeah, it looks stunning. Um and uh yes, it was a little bit weird because it was like this is real player voices, and it's like that's not real player voices. I've never been in a multiplayer game of Call of Duty where you know people are speaking like that. But so it looks good, but it was just a shame not to have that one more thing.

SPEAKER_03 55:58

Yeah, I was really I was really hoping. I mean, you know, my prediction was banjo. I was really hoping that one. I was like, right, we're gonna have banjo. We're gonna I mean they showed Spyro, didn't they? They showed kind of like and Spyro, I think Spyro was that one where I thought this is banjo, and I think they set that trailer up to make people think that it was banjo as well. Definitely. There was definitely a oh, that's a backpack, that's feet. I'm like, you know, and it turned out to be that that dragon instead of that bear. But I think there were two standouts for me, two indie standouts. One of them was Bad Crow, so which was which was absolutely superb. It kind of reminded me a bit of the untitled goose game, um, but with a little with with a uh magpie, wasn't it? Bad magpie. That was one of James's favourites. That really kind of like started stood out to me, and then the other one was Vivarium as well. So Vivarium had a uh studio ghibli uh dog Tanyon and the Muska Hounds kind of look to it, and and straight away it was like I was one of those ones I was kind of maybe at that side that point in the showcase, slumping a little bit, but then when that started, I was like, oh hello, set up. I was like, yeah, this is this is interesting, this is for me, and um, so yeah, though Vivarium, Bad Magpire, and Vivarium, and then there was one last one that really kind of deserves a mention because it looked it's one of those ones where I'm like, I want to play this game, I really want to know what the mechanics like, and that is it's called Magician's the Devil's Deal. And that kind of looked like a cross between like Bioshock, but with kind of like magician elements to it, supernatural, and it was really interesting, and that was another one where I'm like, Oh well oh, you know, this has really kind of like piqued my piqued my interest.

SPEAKER_01 57:46

And I think they say is a lot of them are gonna be coming to Game Pass or will be you know day one playable. I think there's a quite a few games in there which you'll go, do you know what? I'll uh I'll play this and give it a go. So I I downloaded Steve's beautiful AI generated bingo card. Oh yes. So so so we can go through that also with the aid of some sound effects. So um, first of all, on our bingo card was the new Elite 3 controller.

SPEAKER_03 58:13

So that was a definite You did you did get a controller though, because they did show that 25th anniversary controller, the green one.

SPEAKER_01 58:23

So yeah, we so we did get a controller, so maybe it's a little bit of a a little bit of a uh uh happy cheer as well. Um the Call of Duty on Game Pass. I think they've just announced yesterday or today that is it Vanguard's coming to one of them's coming to call Game Pass. Vanguard is available on Game Pass today, right? So I'm gonna give that to Steve. So Steve, Steve can have that one. Um Kojima announcement. That's definitely not gonna happen. No, we didn't see Kojima at all. No uh Fallout 3 New Vegas remakes. I mean that's a little bit but also because we did see some Fallout stuff. We did we did see some uh what was it? I can't think what it was now, but they did they did announce a little bit of uh uh oh Fallout 76 Infestations.

SPEAKER_03 59:21

That was it, yes.

SPEAKER_01 59:23

Yeah, so uh State of Decay, I think we all knew that was coming, so gonna give myself that. Um new Halo game.

SPEAKER_03 59:33

Technically, there was a new Halo game, but it's that is a new Halo game, and they've also got new levels on on there. So there's three new campaign levels that have never been seen before.

SPEAKER_01 59:44

Yeah, so that and again, that was one of the things I looked at and thought, do you know what? I'm gonna jump into that. Um Blade announcement. That was a definite one. Uh same for Ghost Recon Rainbow Six, uh, same for Banjo Kazooie. Um, it then gets to the bottom and and it's cut off what we were talking about. So there's three images at the bottom. One looks like a potato sitting at a desk, one looks like a guy with some guns, and one looks like a teddy bear with a reflection on the wall. So the only the only other thing I can think of. So I predicted I predicted there would be an anniversary uh I think I said about having an anniversary edition of the ROG Ally X. Right but because obviously Rogue had done the 20th edition, so I thought well they could just rebrand it as a 25th edition, not put the limited edition X real glasses with it. So I am going to give myself an applause because I did preempt a new console, but it was just a green Xbox with a green controller, which looks bloody stunning, and I think it's it's something like the 7th of November or something like that. I am literally taking a day off of school for that. I'm gonna sit at home pressing the refresh button to try and get myself one of those.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:04

Gotta get it, gotta get it, gotta get it. You know, it's just like so is that when they reckon that the pre-orders would go live.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:09

Yeah, I think so. I'm just looking at the website now because I don't think uh I don't think they've actually physically announced when it's coming up, but no, they haven't. But it's I I'm pretty sure I saw somewhere.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:23

Will that be Gamescom? Do you reckon? That'll be like because that's coming up soon, isn't it? August time, got Gamescom.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:29

Yeah. I think I think it was sort of like saying I think they were saying this will be available to order, because they're doing the controller on its own, and then they're doing the controller on the Xbox. I mean, I did think, oh, if I can get my hands on this, it would be cool to have like the OG green Xbox as well. And they're going for a thousand pounds on eBay. So that ain't gonna happen.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:51

But it that wasn't even the first iteration though, was it? Because the first one was the ginormous X, which was just lovely. I've still got I've still got mine, mine's in mine's all packaged away. It still works as well. Yeah, it still works. I got I got it out recently to just kind of test it and it still works, which is like which is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:08

Yeah, well, maybe that actually maybe that last one was your Forza Horizon Godzilla, which looks like Teddy Bear. Yeah, so that that obviously didn't happen, but there's definitely gonna something coming. So maybe, yeah. I mean, maybe that would be Gamescom, or maybe they maybe it was just a little bit too close to the release.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:22

So uh Yeah, so all in all, I thought it was really good. What did you think?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:26

What did you think like I really enjoyed it? I I think um to be honest, I think I quite enjoyed all of them. I enjoyed the PS, the PlayStation one. I thought that was really good, which we discussed slightly on the last part. Um I was really happy with the Xbox one. Um I think a lot of people have been saying sort of B plus A. I'm a definite A person. I think I think yes, they could have shown more in the future, but then hey, what's the point? I mean, let's say Crazy Taxi, you showed Crazy Taxi, which is currently potentially in early development, so you ain't seeing that till 28-29, probably. So um, do they want to get into another situation like Perfect Dark where they go, you know, and one more thing, and then the uh you know that as we'll get onto in a minute, the game gets canned or it just doesn't happen. Yes. Um so I think they played it safe, obviously, with Asher coming in, and and this is probably recorded before she came in anyway, but they they did a good it was good, but I think they did play it safe and just purposely didn't show us anything coming up because I don't think they really can at the moment. Um so the next next news story is the start of a downturn in our happiness, unfortunately.

Layoffs, Studio Closures And Exclusives Debate

SPEAKER_01 1:03:41

Um so this one is off of IGN and it's uh about the game Lunar Abyss, which I think Steve did talk about on the last part, or I think he's played it. Um but it's like uh entire Lunar Abyss development team laid off in uh one month after launch, is the headline. Um, the entire development team of Lunar Abyss, a well-received shooter that was released just a month ago has been laid off. Um Holly Emery, the CEO of Kawi Labs, uh, revealed the news on LinkedIn Pros. Emery claimed that the decision to make the development team redundant was completely outside of her control. The decision was uh made despite piles of criticism, sorry, uh piles of uh critical praise for Lunar Abyss. The game currently holds an 81 on Metacritic. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to have made a commercial splash with Lunar Abyss peaking at just 178 concurrent players on Steam, suggesting it hasn't found a big audience. So unfortunately, it's uh I don't know, I don't really don't. I mean, it wasn't even I mean, it's it's still available on Xbox, on PlayStation, on PC at $29.99. So it's not like it was a hundred dollar game. And I think that when we discussed it, I'm pretty sure it was the last pod, we all sort of looked at it and thought, oh, it looks good. Yeah, that's really good. It was on Game Pass. So unfortunately, as we'll get onto the next story, it's uh we're just seeing more and more of this.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:11

Absolutely. You know, the it's it's really interesting because you know, the the next news article where we're talking about kind of Microsoft Studios, it just really does seem that we've got a lot of studios at the moment where they're releasing a game and then they're closing. You know, it's not even like it's a while after, it's like it's almost like their last ditch attempt to just get that game out. I don't know what they were expecting Lunar Abyss to make. And so did they look and say it just hasn't made the numbers, you know, and then that was it. But I don't know, you know, it never really the first time we heard about it. Well, well, first time I heard about it was from Steve, you know. So so it hadn't really had a big uh marketing push. So I don't know what they were expecting, but it's just such a shame, you know, with that and other um news items that are headed around at the moment, you know, the gaming industry it just feels a little bit unsafe at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:59

Yeah, it doesn't really. Really say to be honest, it just sort of like says about the layoff and then goes on to a few other stories. Um similar sort of thing that we're gonna touch on. But I think it was, yeah, I think Steve played it because it just was on Game Pass, so he jumped into it and played it. And and you know, there will be people that will argue the fact of that, well, if it wasn't on Game Pass, maybe then people would have plu bought the full money for it and played it. But then I could say on Steve's behalf, he wouldn't have even played it if it wasn't on Game Pass, I don't believe. So uh, but yes, so unfortunately the the that's a a scenario, and then uh the news ain't getting much better with you uh for the next story about Xbox.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:38

Yeah, absolutely. Um so this is this was a news item that was doing the rounds um yesterday, and I'm sure kind of at the time of we're doing this, I just quickly checked some social media feeds, and I'm sure by the time we post it there will be more information around this. But Microsoft are reportedly, according to Bloomberg, um, shutting um South of Midnight developer compulsion games and also Psychonauts and Keeper developer Doublefine. So right now, both of those studios are negotiating their kind of almost their independence. Um, so obviously we all know that Doublefine were previously independent. They did an amazing documentary series on YouTube about the making of psychonauts, but even Tim Schaefer, who heads up um Doublefine, said that coming into the Xbox family allowed them to put allowed them to put more polish onto Psychonauts and add more inform more levels, more detail, and just in in extended the gameplay. So now these two developers, you know, Double Fine and Compulsion Games, you know, South for Midnight was amazing. You liked South for Midnight, didn't you? You really enjoyed that game.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:45

I love that game, and I think I'll echo what I heard on a couple of podcasts, which was uh I think it was Paris L Paris Lily was saying that yeah, when you got to the combat side of it, it it sort of lacked a little bit, and it was a little bit sort of like okay, but the other side of it, just the the feel of being in the deep south, the music, the just it was just it was a really, really good game. It was one of those games that just it was pulling me back in to play it and see where it was going, and I really, really enjoyed it. And I think that a lot of people, including myself, were like, okay, so they've got this new sort of IP out, they've got this new game out, it's really good, I quite like it. Um what can they do with number two? With number two, they could do this, they could do that, and unfortunately, unless something happens like they can get spun off, I don't think that's gonna happen. And then obviously, yeah, I I agree with what you said about Tim Schaefer and saying with Psychonauts 2 that the factor that enabled them to put more in it and more levels with more bosses because of Xbox taking it over, and obviously, if both these studios go off, you know, um if they go uh south of midnight and um compulsion, they all go off and just do their not to their own theme, but they get spun off, then are they gonna start going back onto the um uh are they gonna start go back onto like what's the what is it?

SPEAKER_03 1:09:09

Um like go from the pages, yeah. Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:13

Is it gonna be that again? And then obviously you've got that whole stress of coming out of this game, making the page, making that, and raising money. So um, but then you know it it has worked good for some platforms, and some platforms have thrived again from doing it, so yeah, you just don't know, it's so uncertain at the moment.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:31

Yeah, and uh along with those two, there's also the one that surprised me the most was Ninja Theory. So Senua sacrifice um uh developer Ninja Theory is also in this mix, and by all accounts, you know, because they showed Senor at the Xbox um showcase the the week before, um, according to Eurogamer before we came up to Pod, that was basically shown to almost like potential investors. So it was like they were giving them that kind of like big floor, the big showpiece, going, look what these guys can do. Because their games, you know, they may not be for everybody, but their games are absolutely stunning, you know, and they're they're incredible both visually and audially. They're they are absolutely amazing. So those three studios are kind of up, and also the the rumour that was coming from Bloomberg and and other sources was that there are other studios as well. So, as well as this, you know, we also um some people were let go over the weekend, or some people uh have left, have now left Microsoft as well, including um you know Craig Duncan, who um headed up Rare, who who headed up Rare for years. He went over to head up all of the game studios, and he's been heading up the 20 game studios for about two or three years. He's gone, you know. Um Louise O'Connor, who was the voice of Leafos in Viva Pinata, um you know, and she was she was responsible for Viva Pinata, she was obviously part of the Everwild team, but then went over to uh the US. She's also left Microsoft as well. So we're losing some really big players, some really big studios are being jettisons from Microsoft at the moment. And for the first time, normally when I watch this, I'm like, yeah, no, everything's gonna be fine. I can see why they're doing this. And I even gave uh you know Aisha Sharma kind of the benefit of the doubt, going, all of these changes were probably in her hundred-day manifesto. She got that job because of what she was saying, and she seemed to right up until this showcase, Xbox. We can't just say it's Aisha, it's always it's all of them, but Xbox seemed to be right. Yeah, we're back guys. I still I still don't get the exclusivity, I don't get the tribalism behind exclusivity. The the reason I own the box pretty much is because I love Xbox and I'm invested in Xbox and the controller, I like the controller, you know, probably not as much as used to, but I like the controller, you know, and um and that's why, and because I decided to go for Xbox when we when everybody made this digital choice, my choice was Xbox. I play on I play on PlayStation a lot, I play on Switch a lot, you know. But Xbox was mine, and I thought, you know what? If you've got to do what you've got to do, but for me, if they need more money, if if Xbox as a brand needs to make more money, stop with the exclusives. You know, like Gears of War. I know that there was a couple of my friends who are own PlayStation and they're very invested in PlayStation. They were looking forward to Gears of War and they wanted to kind of like go through that campaign. And and you know, for me who's like a uh a Gears advocate, they wanted to kind of do it with me. And so I was like, yeah, absolutely. They're not in the situation where they can buy an Xbox, you know. Like we're we're very unique, you know, us and and our friends that we own all of the consoles, you know, or most of the consoles. Not everybody has that situation. So bring the games to them, that's where they are, it shouldn't matter. Those those people that want exclusivity for their own platform, I don't understand it. You know, I wish that my Xbox only friends could play Spider-Man because Spider-Man's incredible, but you know, we will never get that. They have to stump up the money for the PlayStation. But so we don't we don't hear these stories from Nintendo, we don't hear these stories from Sony. Xbox are third, and they're really feeling it at the moment, and they just keep throwing stuff out there, trying to be transparent, but it's it's worrying, it's absolutely worrying what they're doing at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:43

Well, I think that it there's a couple of ways of looking at it. It's like I completely agree with your exclusives, it is just it's stupid to basically go, Oh, we want an exclusive for this console, we want an exclusive for that console. I can honestly say I you know the next Mario comes out, I really enjoyed Odyssey. Would I buy a Switch to play the next Mario Odyssey game? Probably not. You know, would I buy a PlayStation to play Wolverine? No. So it won't get me to buy uh, you know, something like Wolverine, which I looked at and I will play because I have got a PlayStation, would I buy a PlayStation just for that game or for you know Ghost of Yotar, things like that? I don't think I would because I am heavily invested on the Xbox side, and like you know, for people on the PlayStation side, would they buy an Xbox for Gears? No. Would they buy an Xbox for Halo? No, but when you've put like Seer Thieves and when you've put Forza onto the PlayStation, they've been rave, rave successes. And I can imagine Halo, you know, Combat Evolved is gonna be a really big success on PlayStation, and and fundamentally, if if you are an Xbox fan and you don't want Xbox to die, you you you've sort of gotta go, look, let's put the games elsewhere because the more money they make on the other platforms means that the console that you love and the network you love and the games that you love will exist. It's as it's as simple as that, really. And and and then and also the other thing I heard which was quite interesting, because obviously some people don't know, but obviously Microsoft own LinkedIn and but LinkedIn is treated as a completely separate company with just a thread of a tie to Microsoft. So I think they have to pay like a royalty or a license fee and Azure cost back to Microsoft. So there was a few rumours going around that well, will Microsoft spin off Xbox like LinkedIn to be its own business, which I quite like the idea of in respects of the if it's Xbox and not necessarily all the tax studios, I don't know how that would work. But you know, if they spin Xbox off and then it's in its own control, it doesn't have to ask Satya for you know permission, it doesn't have to go to Amy for costs, will it actually be a lot more profitable like LinkedIn is and actually things get turned around a lot quicker? I mean it's ludicrous that Fortnite um not Fortnite Fallout has had such a great show, but yet as far as we know, there's not anything in development to accompany that. So I just don't I don't know. It's it's I'm you know, obviously some of the people that listen to the pod and and have been on the pod before work for Microsoft, and you know, we feel for those people that are friends of theirs that are you know potentially you know lost their jobs or could lose their jobs, and it's a worrying time, but uh it's just it's it's got to change because I don't believe children of my daughter's age are playing games like we did when we were kids. Um, and if they are they're playing games that they're just gonna rinse all the time, they're playing Roblox, they're playing Minecraft, or they're playing Fortnite or FIFA or or things like that. They're not playing all those little games and not playing the Halos and the Wolverines and things like that. So I think gaming's got to change, and maybe you know, we will see a box that does everything one day, hopefully.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:10

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, you're you're absolutely right. I think it's more kind of you know our age and maybe slightly younger, you know, that is the real kind of like this gaming hardcore. You know, I've you know, I've got some friends at work and and they just play there's one guy just plays GTA 5, you know, all the time. He's so excited for GTA 6, but that's it, that's all he plays. You know, he played Harry Potter, you know, he played Spider-Man, but he doesn't play it enough that if something cool came out, then you know, that he would go off and buy another console. You know, it's just so I just I just don't get it. And you're absolutely spot on, you know, when Horizon, Sea of Thieves, um all came out on PlayStation, they were like one-two in the best sellers, you know, they were they were there, you know. It was almost like Microsoft had, I think Microsoft had something like three or four of the of the top ten of PlayStation at one point, like Minecraft Dungeons, Minecraft, the O Sea of Thieves, uh Horizon, they were all there. There was like so just just continue that. It doesn't it as an Xbox fan, it doesn't matter to me if I see Xbox on actually what I want is I want to see Xbox on Switch. You know, I'm just like I want them to put that on Switch. I want them to put Viva Pinata on the Switch, but I just want it on Switch, you know. And you know, I joke, but if they want to make money, they just do my new Viva Pinata, stick it on Switch. It will on Switch and Switch 2, it will sell gangbusters. It will absolutely there you go, there's all the money you need.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:40

Like right there in the There you go, James. When you go to work tomorrow, go in and say, look, I've got an answer. This is what we need to do. My mate answered.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:48

Yeah, I've got a plan.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:49

But it's just like all his colleagues are gonna turn around and go, not him again.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:53

But it's just it's you know, that's what they need to do. They need to kind of they have a they have a great catalogue. It it worries me slightly that the the the the noise that's coming out of Microsoft going, we're gonna give you what you want, you know, we're gonna fast, we're gonna make these games. And no, what I want is I want all those other games that kind of come out. I want all of those, I want those, I want the risks that they took with like with Viva Pignata, with with other games, you know, the blinks with all of those other games that they have kind of created and and really kind of here, they've swung and they've here. I don't want them just to kind of keep rinter repeating. As much as I love Halo and as much as I love Gears, um, I don't just want to keep playing those all the time. I want stuff in between, and that's why I thought, even though Phil went crazy spending, it it's so impressive the studios that Xbox has. If they just allowed every one of those studios to make their own games, make the games they want, you know, get Toys for Bob making banjo or something like that, or rare, as I said last time, I want rare to make banjo, then you're gonna empower people to make the games that they want to make, and that's just gonna bring joy, and that's what gaming's about. And I just it you know, it's really funny because obviously we all we're all kind of like get invested in this, like Nicola knows none of this, you know. She's like, Oh, when can I play Halo? You know, like when can I, you know, and I'm like, Oh, you know, I say, Well, there's turmoil, Xbox. She's like, Oh, yeah, so when does gears come out? You know, doesn't care, you know, and I think sometimes, you know, we we maybe look too hard under the rug that we shouldn't be looking, but Xbox at the moment are are being very open, they're being very transparent, you know, good and bad.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:38

Talking about Nicola, how many hours or days did she have in Two Point Museum?

SPEAKER_03 1:20:44

Was it she's still playing? I mean, it's got a new DLC that's just come out, and she hasn't played that yet at the moment because she's going back through her museums. So right now, I'm just gonna because she's playing it right now as we pod. Um where is it? Where is it? So, yeah, there she is. So she has so two point museum, she's almost got all of the achievements. She has played it for 499 hours. So she's been playing two point museum for 499. She's almost getting up to I but I should tell her soon that she's almost getting to 500 hours.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:17

That's just that is just I'm gonna do some maths now.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:20

So uh her museums are a work of art, I tell you.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:24

So that's yeah, so she's she's basically been playing it for 20 days, straight. Yes, so you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:31

Absolutely. She has been playing that is like she's gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:34

Sounds like the perfect marriage to me.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:36

Her what happened? Her her museums are a work of art. You know, you go in, it takes you through the uh prehistory, it takes you to this. You know, there's uh honestly, it is she should she she's missed a vocation in life, I think. She should be a museum curator because her museums are incredible.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:52

I hope I hope she never, well, she can't, because I think the island went, but she should never come to my museum on Animal Crossing because my museum was a shambles. It was like broken glass, things everywhere, things in the wrong place.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:03

So uh Do you ever wonder about those islands in Animal Crossing? I just imagine why like everyone's about to be eating each other or kind of like Lord of the Flies.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:13

But it's completely overgrown, cannibalism, you know, some weird pirate was taken over the island. But no, I think I moved, I think I unsuccessfully somehow went to move from the to the OLED switch and uh and then lost the island. And I mean to be honest, I got a bit sort of like when Terraformer came in, I was a bit like you know, I haven't actually got to do anything now, and I quite liked going and doing something every day, but uh but you know, it does amaze me people are still playing it. So uh but um right, so the next story is uh we're gonna go on to a bit of Forza.

Forza Series 2 Patch Notes

SPEAKER_01 1:22:47

Um so sort of taking it up a little bit in sort of like uh cheeriness. Um so Forza Horizon 6 Series 2 update tweaks opponent behaviour and makes it's no interest to you, road discovery easier easier. The game season 2 live challenges start on Thursday the 18th, so tomorrow as we record this, um with new batches of weekly challenges allow allowing players to unlock new cars and other rewards. Um before then, an update has been rolled out which tweaks AI opponents' behaviour and makes road discovery easier, among other things. According to patch notes, the new update makes improvements to balance uh difficulty balancing and changing the way that driver tar's opponents behave at the start of raises. Well, you mean not ramming you off the road most of the time. Um players who still have to reach the hundred percent road discovery will also get assistance with road-driven percentage being added to region overview screens, making it easier for players to see what regions they have the roads remaining in. Uh, the players horizon play mode, which is where online players' races can be found, has also released received tweaks to rate at which players level up with uh the developer playground game saying players now earn more XP between levels 26 and 100, uh, and then there's loads of other general fixes, performance stability, um, fixes an issue where launching the game after running benchmark mode would take longer than expected. There's AI fixes, there's audio fixes, there's a new Lamborghini, there's loads and loads of bits and pieces in there. So I think the end of the day, I mean, I'm scrolling down on uh VGC's website and there's a ton of updates. Wow, wow. I mean it I know it's only a it it well, I say not only it's a new game, but it's quite nice to see that there's lots of fixes and tweaks going on. I mean, I noticed the other day they kept on they put up a message saying that Eliminator had been turned off because um there was uh I don't know if you've played Eliminator in it, but Eliminator's a little bit like a battle royale where you all you all start off in like a I don't know a Robin Reliant for one. I think it's a little Honda, and then as you drive around the island, you see these drops, and so you'll see like a a Subaru or you'll see a Mishubitti or a Porsche drop and you drive up to it and then you swap your car over, then what you do is you challenge people in races, right? And then fundamentally the last race, the person who wins it, wins the eliminator. But apparently there's some sort of glitch where you could earn like a million XP just by playing one game or something like that. So so but again, what what's great with Playground is they turned it off and said, sorry guys, we've got a problem, we're just gonna turn it off for the minute. Uh and then I think they turned it back on, and then they just look, we're really sorry. Look, here's a load of XP or here's a free car as an apology for the time.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:45

So that's really cool. That's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:47

But I've I mean I do love I mean Forza Horizon is one of my all-time favourite games, always going back to the the first one. I think this one I'm definitely gonna spend more time dipping in and out doing the the seasons because I really enjoyed doing the seasons the other day, and I think that's the first time I've really sort of like cane a full season, but uh but no, it it's good to see new cars, new new bits and pieces, and then obviously at some point we'll get the update for it. But uh, but yeah, no, really hats off to them for for keep on you know updating it for us.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:22

Yeah, I I must admit I really enjoyed spring. Spring, I mean I the winter looked incredible, you know. I think we were talking about that last time, but when spring hit, you know, obviously Japan's like kind of very famous for the cherry blossoms, but just having it everywhere, it was absolutely gorgeous, especially over the roads as well. And I really enjoyed just kind of I love when you jump into the game and you're playing, they may have may have left it on the um on the the standby mode, and then suddenly it just refreshes and you get that kind of new season, and it's just really lovely when that kind of happens. So obviously, next one we're gonna go it's summer, I guess, which is because far on Thursday. Um but that'll be really interesting to see what they do with that.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:58

Yeah, I've done my full uh sprit so done my full winter, my full spring. Uh I was last night I was cursing actually. I think I did I think I finally did it this morning, but there was a speed trap where you had to race an A700 Japanese car, and I was going through my Hondas, I was going through my Subarus, I was going through everything trying to I was getting like 159 miles an hour, and of course the benchmark was 160. Oh my god. I ended up managing to do it. I was like, yes, I've done it.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:29

But that's it though, isn't it? The elation when you try those and you have to do it again and again. It's like when you have an XP board, you know, when you're close to an XP board, you rewind, you tweak it just a little bit, and then you go for it. It's like the elation you get once you hit that is just it's just you second to none.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:44

Thank God for that rewind button. Yes, uh. But and also a little tip for anybody who's playing it there is a uh an MX5 or a Mazda Miata somewhere in the game. I found it on the end of one of the uh drag strips. Um If you get that, I think it's it's sort of like a I'll put it up on the screen now because I took a picture of it. It's a uh Mazarevx 5, it's purple, and I think it's got like the engine out the front of it. If you boost that up to X999, which is the highest upgrade you could do, that thing will do any jump and will do any of the danger zones and speed traps you want it to. It's nice, absolutely like jump this for 400, you end up doing 600 in it.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:27

Lovely. Just have good handling as well. Because I find sometimes when I do like X99 a car, you'll get the speed, but the handling is just like, you know, it's all over the place, it's just like snaking everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:39

Yeah, no, it's not the what's the Lotus Savora, the the like multi-million pound, that is undrivable in it. You get to a certain speed that it just wants to kill you. Um but no, it it it yeah, it's a bit lively, as you can imagine, in a Mazda MX5 uh X999, but uh it is it is a really good car if you go and find it. So uh so uh we also we mentioned before about the uh the Valve Steam Machine, and our last story is about that,

Steam Machine Leak And Pre-Order Talk

SPEAKER_01 1:29:07

Anthony.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:07

Absolutely. So Valve have been teasing for a while, um, the brand new Steam Machine and also Steam Frame as well, which is their VR uh headset as well. So they've got both the the the um Steam, they've got the Steam Cube that they have uh they have the Steam Machine and also the uh the frame are coming out sometime this year. They put it back because of component parts, which we've been talking about before, but there's been a couple of leakers um that have kind of got a couple of predictions correct in there in the past, have both said that so so according to Steam Hardware updates on Twitter, um I've just uh so they basically just said that reviewers and content creators are currently receiving review units of Steam Machine and also Steam Frame, with the rebu review embargo is lifting on the 23rd of June. Um this leaker Steam Hardware Update believes that the console will be announced on the 23rd of June at 6 pm BST. That's quite that's like that's that's a real kind of you know sharp um uh prediction with game with gamers being able to reserve a console on Tuesday the 30th of June at 6 pm BST. So it's it's so if you know if this is to believe, then people are starting to get it, they're starting to use it, starting to play around with it, um, and uh it looks like the the the uh pre-order date is imminent. So what are we now? We are the 17th of June as we pod, so this it's not it's not long away, you know, it's only six days away.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:40

Yeah, it's um I'm just looking at my calendar to see what I'm doing that day. Uh I mean it it's it's one of those classic ones where if it comes out around about what they were saying of potentially 700-800 pounds, uh I don't know, it I am tempted because it is a little box and and it will sit in the AV rack downstairs and connect connect to the TV. But uh yeah, I mean it's it's one of those ones where it comes out. I mean, I think that I saw the other day that there was a shipping manifesto or something like that into the States where it was like 30 tons of electronics came in with with like the the word computer consoles on it or something like that. But as they've said before, Steam did use the word computer console for for a lot of their products. So that the old VR headset, obviously the Steam Deck. So there must be out there, and I do like the little square form factor with the interchangeable and the LED and all that lot. So do you do you think you'll pick one up?

SPEAKER_03 1:31:41

I probably won't because I'm like I say, the the reason why I went for the rock was because I was I didn't want to double dip constantly in games, so I like having a handheld because I do a lot of travel, so I just wanted to be able to kind of like play those. So when the rock came out and it had a game pass on it, I'm like, that's that's a no-brainer, you know. I'm like, I'm already paying that, so I don't have to double dip. So I don't think I'm getting it as much as I love it, I think it's great, a great little form factor, as you say. You can switch out the way it looks, you know. And the one thing that I hope that um steam do again is they're really good at um handling pre-orders as well. So their their website sells out quicker than anything, and you can't get to it or refresh it. Um, but it does um they do allow you. I think you have to have an active account on Steam. So you have to have an active account on Steam, you have to have actually used Steam for a while and maybe even got a couple of Steam achievements before you can pre-order. I think that's what they did with the um to stop scalpers, because you know what it's gonna be like. You go to eBay, can't get one on Steam, but you go to eBay and you can see one for double the price. So they try to they try to stop that from happening and try to uh kind of get around that.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:51

Right. Well, thank God that's the end of the podcast because I need to go and play some Steam games quickly, quick with my game.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:56

You really do, you really need to start. I I think I think when the um because I was never a Steam player, when I tried to get the Steam Deck, when the first Steam Deck came out, um I I I couldn't get it in the first round of pre-orders because I hadn't registered enough like kind of gaming time on Steam because I just didn't really have it. You know, so so uh there was no way of me for me to play it. Um so that's what they did. Similarly with Nintendo as well. Nintendo had a whole kind of convoluted way before you could pre-order a Switch 2 directly from them. Um and I quite like that because I think it really kind of stops the scalpers, it gives it gives the uh the get they cut the new hardware to the real kind of hardcore fans first.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:38

Well, and going to a positive story about Xbox was that everybody at the was it the Los Angeles or San Francisco fanfest who had a uh a fan badge uh got given one of the limited edition X25 consoles or or a voucher to redeem it when it comes out. Uh because so yeah, I mean it's like some of those people obviously they won a prize to get into that, and then they've obviously travelled wherever they are in America or maybe even the world to go to it, and then to be given that is is brilliant. It's just tarnished a little bit with the other stories at the moment. But uh, I mean I I think I think that yeah, I think I'm probably the same as you. I there were part of me will be like, oh yeah, I'd love to get it to have a play with it, you know, for the pod, uh you know, downstairs. But no, I've got the ROG, you know, I've got the deck in front of me which I can dock it onto the OLED. So actually, if I want to sit and play like video game simulator or some of those little games that are $6.99 or $9.99, I could just do that, play it on the ROG or come up here and dock it and just put my feet up on the desk and play it on that. So uh it'll be interesting to see. And obviously, if it's going out to reviewers and testers, obviously we have a gaming podcast, which is okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:56

I was gonna say, have you got one as uh as Gabe Newell, as Gabe Newell give you a did you miss a call today from Gabe Newell? No, but there's a massive yacht in Rye Harbour, and I'm not sure whose it is. He's he's he's hand delivering it. Didn't he do that? Didn't Gabe deliver the first Steam Deck? He did, didn't he?

SPEAKER_01 1:35:13

Yeah, the the the first there was a video of him in a car, and it was like the first sort of ten Steam decks around wherever he was, San Francisco or something like that. He actually went to people's doors, and it was funny because I know like I'm sure I remember he went to one door, rang the doorbell, and it was obviously whoever bought it, it was either his wife or his mum. So the so it it you know, it'd almost be like Nicola answering the door to Gabe Newell going, I've got a package for you. Oh, cool, thanks, Mr. DPD driver. Thanks, DPD Gabe. You know, as if he gets home and looks at his ring doorbell and goes, That was Gabe Newell! Did you invite him in for a cup of tea? So yeah, no, I remember that, but it'll be interesting to see. But uh, but yeah, but that's it.

Where To Find Us And Sign Off

SPEAKER_01 1:35:57

That's the the podcast for uh today. It's 10 minutes past nine, so I've only missed that funny five minutes of the football. So there you go, there you go. So that's fine. Um, so uh if people want to catch up with you, Anthony, where do they find you online?

SPEAKER_03 1:36:11

So for me, I'm a mixed bag. I am chess man on Xbox, I'm PS hyphen chess man on PlayStation and a whole mix on social media. I think I've got Anthony Chessman on threads and and various things around, but mainly chess man on Xbox and PS hyphen chess man on PlayStation 5.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:28

Excellent. I am on mainly on Xbox, I am General Letdown on Xbox and PlayStation. Uh, but you'll mostly find me on Xbox in the uh Japan Japanese roads in Fool's Horizon. Uh on social media, I'm mainly on most platforms of Mr. Stuart Burgess, and then the ever-present Mr. Steven Carter uh can be found on most platforms at SteCarter91. So uh uh if you have any feedback for the show, uh please leave a comment wherever you're watching or listening, but you can also email us at Halo at gamersandlospark.com. So uh thank you, Anthony, for jumping back on board for your second episode. I know after we finished the pod last week, you were it was almost like winding the back uh days back, six years, and you were as uh like on the the WhatsApp afterwards, you were like, Oh, that was amazing. It was so good to talk about games.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:23

I was bouncing off the walls all the way down to the movie room. I'll tell you, I was like, I couldn't get enough of it. It was great fun. Lo, thank you very much for having me back. I've really enjoyed it. Thanks for the Natas too.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:32

Excellent. No, thank you for taking the time and uh we will catch up with you soon. Excellent stuff. Talk to you later on.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:37

Thanks very much, chap. Bye.