Xbox Layoffs, Halo Cancelled, Game Pass In Crisis?

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A single crash shouldn’t be able to erase a week of progress, but that’s exactly what pushes us into a proper rant about Forza Horizon 6. We go from happily “mopping up” online races, rivals, seasonal challenges and car photos to the kind of save sync rollback that makes you question the whole idea of always-online progression. If you’ve ever chased a clean lap, a three-star speed trap, or that one last achievement, you’ll understand why this one stings. 

From there, we zoom out to the bigger picture of subscription gaming. Game Pass still shines when it puts weird and wonderful games in front of you, and we’ve got a stack of examples: Junkster’s charming platforming and building puzzles, Quarantine Zone’s Papers, Please-style infection checkpoint with brutally final choices, and Moss delivering that rare cosy platformer energy where two hours disappear in a blink. We also talk first-hour, no-commentary uploads for games like Doom DLC and Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, plus why we’re considering showing gameplay footage on the video version of the pod. 

Then it’s news time: Xbox layoffs and fan backlash, a reported Halo multiplayer cancellation, GameStop shrugging at physical game discs, and Bethesda teasing Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas remasters while Fallout 5 sits on the horizon. We round it out with the latest PS Plus catalogue additions including Rise of the Ronin and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and the real question underneath it all: which subscription model actually respects your time and money? 

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Transcript

Welcome And Heat Check

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Hello, and welcome to episode 186 of Gamers of a Lost Spark Podcast. I'm your host, Stuart Burgess, and joining me as always is the other Spark on the pod, Mr. Stephen Akata. Steve, how are you? I'm very good, mate. Thank you. How are you this week? Um, I'm hot again now.

SPEAKER_03 0:34

I've just shut the door to this bloody office. We just discussed before recorded, it's absolutely not that warm at a minute either, but it's like it feels like the residual heat in the house. It's just it feels like it's never ever going to be cold again.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

No, I think we've we've got used to it being really hot, and and I can always remember walking around with a jumper on, going, you know, in a few months we'll be we'll be walking the dog with just a t-shirt and shorts on, and now we're very much here. I'm like, I can't wait to put a jumper back on again. I want to I want to sit hug hug huddle down on my sofa under a fleece and be cold.

SPEAKER_03 1:04

I know if people think, oh, these people are weird that like sort of autumn and winter. I'm like, no, I quite like that. Like like for me, the perfect combo is a hoodie and shorts because then I'm regulated, then I'm warm up top, but my legs are cool. It keeps me regulated then. So yeah, around sort of 20-ish, 25 degrees is about right for me. Uh any any warmer than that, no, I I'm out, I'm tapping now.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Yeah, I think I did the podcast with uh Simon, the other podcaster last week, I can't remember now, the week before, and literally as soon as I left here, I went downstairs and jumped in my ice barrel and was in there for like 20 minutes with about four or five bags of ice in there just to bring the core temperature down a bit. But um, yes, but it's uh it's very hot in the world of gaming. I have a new background. Unfortunately, it's not real. Um I I was just uh I was I was getting challenged each week to finding something to put behind, and then for the Inside CI podcast, uh I created a background on Chat GPT

AI Background And Viewer Preferences

SPEAKER_00 2:00

or something like that. So I sat down the other day for about 20 minutes and created a background, which uh which I quite like. I might might try and replicate this apart from the window over here, which is not possible. I might try and replicate this at the office at some point.

SPEAKER_03 2:13

It's like a gamer's dream, mate, that honestly it's like it's what what could more could you possibly maybe slot a Nintendo bit in the middle, but yeah, like you've got the neons, you've got the consoles, you even got like a little spark sign, everything you could possibly need and want right there, mate. It's it's perfect.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Well, it took a little bit of sort of like um re-editing because it I went I was sort of telling it a few bits and pieces and it just kept on coming up saying, Can't do that due to copyright, can't do that due to copyright. And I'm like so annoying, isn't it? Yeah, and it was like make this side green, make that side blue, so the blue is PlayStation and the uh green is Xbox, don't put Nintendo in because it just sort of messed it up a little bit. I thought, oh yeah, you could have put Nintendo up here somewhere, but um, but then anytime I mentioned Sony, PlayStation, Microsoft, Xbox, Switch, Nintendo, it just threw up an error. So I had to go liberally put up a green games console with a brand that works with green, and then it it created this, and then yeah, I've got me me lost spark plagued down there because originally it sort of put it right behind the back of me, and I'm like, yeah, great, but you're not gonna see me. I didn't see that. Yeah, so I'm in a way, so um, but uh no, I thought I'd uh I thought I'd just it up a bit, but actually, while we're talking about backgrounds, I have got a question for the listeners stroke viewers. Um I I sat down and played a game earlier today, and I played it for about two hours in the end. So, what I would like to know from anybody listening or watching this podcast, Steve's got a very confused look on his face. Blindsided bit of this, yeah. It's literally just like there is a there is another podcast out there, Xbox Two, I think it is, with Rand and Jez, where what they do is they don't show their faces and they just show like whatever, an hour, two hours worth of game footage whilst we're podding. So, as a listener or a viewer of this podcast, are you happy seeing our ugly mugs, or would you like to see like an hour or two of the latest game? Like we could have put up uh we could have put up Moss or we could have put Assassin's Creed or we got Halo coming as we record this next week. So let us know whether you would like to just see like two hours of gameplay footage or whether you would like to continue to see us, or whether you'd like a mixture between the two. Uh you know, just so we we're sort of like you could listen to us and see us, or you could listen to us and watch a game which you may not have purchased yet.

SPEAKER_03 4:38

Yeah, it'd be interesting. I mean, it made the edit easier for used to, wouldn't it? Let's be honest. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

So from from a selfish point of view. It does, it does, but I as we'll get on to the games in a minute, I just sit down and play a game this morning for two hours. So it takes probably about two hours off the edit, but it probably puts about two hours back on my day in respect I've now got to play a game up here, which oh oh wow, that's a real, real tour.

Junkster On Game Pass

SPEAKER_00 5:06

So uh so talking about games, um, what have you been playing? You your first one, Junkster. You did a we've got a stream up on the YouTube channel. Uh you sat down and uh set the world on fire the other day. How did you how did you find it? Because I know Anthony's been playing it.

SPEAKER_03 5:20

Yeah, I um I I've been trolling through a sort of game pass to tick my um obviously my four pack and eight pack off monthlies. Um so yeah, so I figured it was just something that I had an hour spare, so I thought let's try something that's you know relaxed as I thought it might be. Um as it turns out, as if you watch the um the video, um it turned out to be a little bit um different than relaxing in certain parts. But yeah, I think I think it was either yourself or Anthony that was talking about it, and I was like, yeah, let's try it out. You know, let's give it a go. Um so it's just this um sort of 3D platformer, very much seems to be inspired a bit like sort of you like a ratchet and clank, that sort of thing. Um your little robot, you're going around these um little levels, puzzles, collecting um bits for a diorama. Um you're collecting bits for a ship, there's like a toilet, you collect a vending machine, that sort of thing. You're collecting cogs um uh as as for completing the puzzles, stickers for a comic book collection, that sort of thing. Um but there's also a little building element to it as well, so you collect these pieces, you construct little sort of towers, passageways, platforms, that sort of thing, to overcome your obstacles and the levels and such. Um but yeah, the camera can be quite finickety, like in terms of controlling it, um and the the blocks that you're building, you have to put it in very specific places. Um so that that's the thing that trips me up a few times that I end up arguing with because it almost like the the camera defaulted to a weird angle in certain places and like you couldn't and you couldn't see it properly. I ended up getting trapped inside my own construction at one point. I built on top of myself, so I was trapped. Um nice little chilled out game, don't get me wrong. Just the the building element was quite like say a bit um a bit sort of tricky in places just with the controls.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

But it was funny because I think you were it was one morning you streamed, wasn't it? You really one morning. And I I've been working from home quite a lot this week. So uh the office which I'm in now is mainly my wife's office, which is sort of her desk is behind me. Um and uh so I was sitting downstairs on the the the Mac doing my work, sending my emails, making phone calls, and then you sort of messaged me so I'm going live. So went on to Xbox, it came up saying, you know, you are you were playing. So and it was just hilarious watching you sort of like trying to build your ramps, then move those rec those triangles around. It's like what it wouldn't work like this. Why won't it work like this? It works like that. If I lose that, it works, but why why won't it and just in this massive sort of Yorkshire accent? It was like that that remote control is getting thrown against the wall in the minute if he's not careful.

SPEAKER_03 7:58

Yeah, it's just it's like it's there's literally uh uh a verbalised in a dialogue of my brain, like when I'm playing like even if I wasn't streaming, these are the conversations that I'd be having with myself. Like it's so it's almost like if I'm recording it. Well, I'm gonna say this stuff anyway, because I'm almost talking it out, I'm talking it through whilst I'm playing. Um but yeah, I I enjoyed it. Like it is just an experience to play on Game Pass, you know, it's just a nice little game. I don't know how long it will be. I played that hour, I've played a little bit more since. Um but there's elements where you can um which I I clipped it out actually and put it on um put it on uh Instagram and uh YouTube and and TikTok is you can build your own little robot. Um you can have bits where it's got um machine guns on it, it's got some spinning blades on it, so there's some puzzle elements, there's a little bit of combat, um blades cut down um like these plant tentacle things, which obviously would sting you otherwise that you can't get through without the robot. Um the bit that I was chuckling to myself at is like I built quite a tall tall robot, like you could be like scaffolding and put it right really high. And I was like, I could just basically build this as tall as I wanted to. Like and just have like this little guy sat in his little cockpit and his little perch. Perch way up in the sky. Uh so I had a little chuckle to myself about that. But yeah, just I except from the sort of the little sort of tricky building mechanic. I I thought it quite a fun little game. Like I said, I don't know how long it lasts beyond maybe quite a you know, a handful of hours, maybe I'm not sure. But yeah, just a nice little one sofa games that if you've got a spare hour or two, sit down with a podcast, you know, just as a bit of background gaming, something maybe. Um just a nice little chilled-out game, except for the building mechanic. But yeah, um I will go back and play more of it and finish it. Um I think so I finished my um I finished first light recently, so that's sort of one of my bigger games I've been playing recently that I've finished. Um so yeah, so I'll go back and uh polish that off, I imagine, at some point.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Yeah, I think Anthony's I'm not sure if he's finished, but I saw it when you were building your very tall tower. Maybe you should do like some of the you uh the YouTubers do with Fortnite, which is I built the world's biggest tower, or you know, I I see I see those popping up on YouTube all the time, like but in the gaming section. So maybe you just see how tall you can get with your your uh your rig.

SPEAKER_03 10:11

Biggest or widest or most stupid thing that I could possibly build, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Yeah, you know, you make good content.

SPEAKER_03 10:17

That's what it's about. Content is content too. That's that's my philosophy.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

Yeah, well we're talking about content.

Forza Horizon 6 Online And Challenges

SPEAKER_00 10:24

I'm I'm like at the moment, I am I'm fighting with myself because I am still playing Force Horizon 6. Um, I am thoroughly enjoying it after the little faux par it had with me and the faux pas it had with you. But um too soon. Um but uh I yeah, I mean I I I'm I'm as I put I'm mopping up on my mopping ups. So I literally like now I'm just going through I'm stupidly trying to master the game, I'm trying to get like the achievement which is like 0.01 people have completed it at the moment, but because inevitably at some point I'm gonna have to do drifting, and then there's also one trailblazer and one speed trap on there I cannot do, and it's getting to the point where like the other day I sat here for an hour just trying to do it, and it just kept on coming up saying, You need three more miles an hour more to get three stars. I'm like, Yes, you keep on telling me every time I do this bloody thing. So so what I've been doing with Forward to Horizon 6 at the moment is I've been going through and doing like uh online, which I've been thoroughly enjoying. Um, I just find it a little bit annoying online because if someone crashes into you, they they sort of ghost you, it misses you, um, which is good. So if they're purposely trying to hit you or they like you're going into a corner, they steam into you, they go it ghost you out the way so they don't um clash with you. But what is annoying when you're like three abreast and you're doing a rally, if you get knocked and then you hit the wall, it thinks you've hit the wall on purpose, so it makes you go slow for about 10 seconds, which means that you know the whole race is over, um, which is okay, but at the end of the day, it's annoying. But I'm not doing it for wins, I'm doing it to try and get to level eventually level 100. So uh so no at the moment I'm doing the mixture of online, then I'm doing a mixture of the the takeaway challenges, you know, the delivery truck challenges, which are quite fun. And then I'm also the I'm also I've just started cross country, but I'm going through and doing every so what's it every track on arrivals in a A-class car, which is only one I've chosen, and you can't hit anything. As soon as you hit something, you have to do it again. It has to be a clean lap. Um, so yeah, I mean I'm I'm absolutely rinsing that within an inch of its life, um, but but thoroughly enjoying it. But but you had an issue the other day, didn't you? Didn't it lose some progress?

Save Sync Disaster And Taking A Break

SPEAKER_03 12:55

Yeah, so I I was I I wanted to get to Legends Island, like that was my goal. Like uh I think I did it on like a Monday and had like seven and a half thousand XP um to unlock, and I was like, oh god, it's gotta take it. Because I was doing like the jumps, speed traps, um, you know, the speed zones, that sort of thing. And I was like, oh, this it gotta take no time, or then I realised we were getting like literally like 50 or 100 at a time. So no, this is gonna take this might take a while, um, and I had to do some more races and things. But I I did it and I got there, got Legend Island, did the you know the excellent race leading up to it. Um I purchased the Ferrari FXX, like the Enzo Ferrari, like the proper Beastie version, that's like two and a half million credits or something. Um and I was like, brilliant, I can get my XP boards, I can do that, then I can start chewing the roads up, you know what I mean. I've done the mascots, I'll get the XP boards and I'll make a start on the um the roads now, now that the full map is unlocked. And I sent you a message, I literally sent you a message saying, right, I can do the what is it, the Bayemoth, whatever I can't remember the name of it now.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Uh the Goliath or the Colossus, I think. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:59

The one where it's like the entire perimeter of the map. And I was like, well, I need to do like 20 minutes to do my game pass task anyway. And I've got this Ferrari, if I can do it in that, or somewhere equivalent, then it won't take very long. So I went to buy it's like this you might have seen it, but it's not I can't remember the name of it now, but it's like a little it's almost like a go-kart, but with a massive front, it's almost like a m like a mini F1 car that looks like a go-kart.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

Yes, I know I'm not sure what it is, but I recognise it.

SPEAKER_03 14:26

Yeah, I went to buy that, and then I was installing um an upgrade kit for it to make it like the obviously the highest it could be towards the fulfill the category. I was like, yeah, that'll do it. I bought it, it was installing, and then it froze midway through its installation of the upgrade. I said, No, no, okay. This has happened before, and I was like, alright, I'll just have to start again. It's happened before when I've been installing a uh an upgrade to it. Backed out, closed it, right, I'll start again. Loaded it. I've got a wartog on my screen rather than my Ferrari that I've just bought, or the car that I've just bought. I'm like, hang on a minute. Like, I won't use the water glass, and it put me right up to the top of the island where the snow is. And I'm like, hang on a minute. I went, I opened the map, and I was back to seven and a half thousand XP away from Legends Island. And I was like, no, no, sorry, no, I'm done. Like, um, Fausha, you've you've really done me dirty at this point. Like, it wasn't even just at getting Legends Island or just before getting Legends Island, it was like it had forgotten the whole week of me playing, which is like surely at some point during that week, granted I'm playing Quick Resume and so on and so forth, but surely at some point in that week you've saved my progress to not send it all the way back.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

It should do, because I mean I I had an issue here where I I can't remember what I was doing now, but I was doing something up here. I I I closed it down, I'd closed it down downstairs, so I I finished it and then I came out to the home screen and quit the game. But then came up here and did some work, and then about an hour or so afterwards I just basically started it up again. Um then I sat up here and played, I don't know, I don't think it was about 45 minutes of some bits and pieces. Just I think I was doing some of the the road rival tracks. I think I had like five to go. That's it. I had five to go before I did all the rival tracks, and then I unlocked a Porsche GT4 RS, I think. And in a similar fashion, was like, right, so I did that. I think I was recording the footage, I can't remember now, but um I did that and then I stopped it and I didn't close it down because it's a quick resume. So I I sort of stopped it, I did a few bits and pieces, I turned the Xbox off after about five, ten minutes, went downstairs, you know, started cooking some dinner. Um, while Pasta was cooking or something like that, I then decided just to jump in and then it came up with that screen you sometimes get, which is like, you're playing somewhere else. Which one would you rather play here or there? And I went, Oh, hold on a second, I don't want to mess this up, I want to play there. So I quickly shut it down, came back up here, started it up again up here, and it had gone all the way back to the save I had downstairs. Um, so that was annoying because it was about 45 minutes worth of playing, but uh you know, I knuck that out the next morning, I think it was. But to yeah, to get to Ledger's Island and and the behemoth and all that lot, and then now all of a sudden you haven't got it. I mean, you got your two million credits back, Liz, that's a bonus.

SPEAKER_03 17:34

Well, yeah, and I and I got the achievements, like I've got the achievements to prove it. Like I've got all the XP boards, I've got the Legends Island and so on and so forth. But I thought, oh, it at worst it's gonna take me back to you've unlocked the race for Legends Island, isn't it? Well, well, it's not a bad thing that I have to do it again because that race again to get to Legends Island is a is a real masterpiece. You know, the build-up is fantastic. Oh well, at worst I'm gonna do without, or just come in by my car again and blah blah blah. But no, to take me all that way back and do all the work I'd done that week, I was just like, no, like I like I actually I've genuinely uninstalled it. Like I'm like I like I was genuine I'm like no. Like I I'm not even I'm not even gonna go back to you anytime soon because uh even if I go back in a month's time, I'm still gonna think, oh no, I'm gonna have to do all that again. So yeah, so it just it was just such a shame because I I've thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed that, and I've probably seen that out more than one of the last sort of Forza Horizon games, and I was like, it was the fact that I'd made such an effort to knuckle down, do it, put everything else to one side to get to where I wanted it to be. But yeah, I'll I'll go back, I think I mentioned a group, I'll go back at some point when there's maybe next batch out, you know, next DLC or something, and then I've probably had a chance to forget about it. I'm like, oh yeah, do you know what? I'll just go back. But for now, I've got plenty of other things to play, and I was like, yeah, let's just let's just get on with other bits of Bob's instead.

Season Three Photo Hacks And Leaderboards

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Well, I'm gonna mention the fact that we've just started season three. Um, I've completed week one of season three, which is uh Italian exotics, so uh you have got some really, really cool cars to unlock. I mean, if you've got the car pack premium bundle, you know, you get the new Ferrari F 80, I think it is, um, and a load of cars like that. And and and it is quite good because you get some cool little Italian cars, because I I'm trying to go through and get all the uh photographs. I mean, this is how sad I am. I sat down the other day, and again, going back to my point, I sat down the other day and I was like, I need to start playing the Rog a bit more because I've really not played it because I haven't been anywhere. So I'm like, ooh, I found when I was in when I was in um France recently, I found that the Rog was really good at buying at doing stuff quickly, so like pressing up, taking a photograph or something, and then it got back to gameplay really quickly, like two, three times quicker than an Xbox, even both of my Xboxes. This one here is newer, the other one downstairs is the Halo Infinite edition. So I thought, I know what. So I thought on my TV downstairs, I put up what I needed to photograph, cars I needed to photograph, and then on my Ally, I was logged into Forza as well, and I was basically going through taking photographs of the cars in my library that I hadn't taken photographs of, cross-checking it with what was on my TV. That's how sad I am.

SPEAKER_03 20:24

That that's just a hack. That's just that's that's that's a Forza hack right there.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

And I and I got look, good thing was is I got I got me 15 points for Xbox and I got me well, 15 minute points for Xbox, and I got me 15 minutes points from uh for my rock. Um, but I did notice uh it's a it's a news story, but I'll I'll cover it now. I did notice uh um uh VGC had put up the a thing that um 4's horizon 6 leaderboards are being wiped as playground games patches out exploits. So I've noticed that there are some ludicrous. I mean it was to say with Fours Horizon 5, but but basically there are some absolute ludicrous um sort of like glitches in it where people are doing jumps of like, I don't know, 10,000 feet, or they're getting um uh they're doing speed traps and they're getting, you know, I can see you've done it and you've got like, I don't know, 92 miles an hour. I've done it and I've got 92, Anthony's got like 85 or and everybody's around about the same. And but then if you look at the world leaderboard, you know, Joe blogs from wherever's got 450 miles an hour, you know, and then everybody else below that is really clear. And then I noticed on YouTube the other day there was a hack where I can't think what it was now, but you you went through it, then you reversed, then you drove to the other side of it, but you didn't go through it, and then you did a burnout, and then that gave you the speed of that checkout zone. So um basically, um, playground games have said uh we understand this is a disappointment for some players with a little Legitimate lap times, the studio has added, we have chosen this approach so that everybody has a clean sheet to play from going forward. Regardless of legal leaderboard deletions, any clean time posted to earn an associated collector journal item for the rivals will not be lost and will remain unlocked. So what they've done is they've literally just gone through and I think they've just zeroed every leaderboard and then everybody starts again, sort of thing.

SPEAKER_03 22:28

I I get I get the reason why they've done that, because obviously it's the I guess easiest and also fairest way of doing it. But like for you that spent all that time like doing these things for like an hour, like or if somebody's done like the like the Goliath race or something, oh I'm gonna do it and I'm gonna like set this fastest lap in whatever category to have that nulled and wiped again. It's like it's frustrating. I get why they do it though, because like I I like I say it's the only real way to do it, isn't it? Because can you imagine how long it'd take to find each individual person that's done it illegitimately? That'd be a nightmare. So I get it, you just to wipe it is the the the best way to do it. But how do people figure this out though, Stu? Is what I want to know. It's like do you remember back in the day, like these like um you know, bugs or glitches in like COD maps and stuff where somebody'd escape the map and there'd be on this like crane or skyscraper? Like who's finding this? Like, is who's finding like just play the game? Like, people just literally running at things to try and like well, if we run at this wall at this angle and jump here and duck here and crawl, like da da da like how how do you even think of like I'll drive through it, then I'll reverse and I'll do a donut, I'll go back it this way, da da da da. It's like how how do you even figure that out?

SPEAKER_00 23:37

It's a bit like everything else in life, isn't it? It's like who was the first person to ever eat a kiwi? You know, it's like how did someone how did someone come across a kiwi and go, do you know what? That looks good, I'll try that. Or who who discovered that an oyster was suitable to eat and things like that. So it's um, yeah, I mean, for me it doesn't bother me too much. I I I'm not so I'm not so passionate about leaderboards, I'm just trying to tick off my journals. Um the one the one thing I am the one thing I'm toying whether to do or not, and uh if anybody's listening to this, actually probably more watching this because it would be a YouTube thing, is since the beginning, I don't think I've redeemed a single wheel spin um either super or ordinary. So I've just getting up to 200 uh wheel spins in total. Yeah, it's a collector maniac here in front of you. We've already we've already established that with my points and that I can't get rid of my babies. Um so so I found a new thing to collect, but I'm toying with the idea because apparently some really cool cars that you can get only from the wheel spins, one of which I think is a I think it's a Ferrari sub figure, it's about 66 million credits. Um, and I've been watching a few people do these unlockings, and I I'm toying with the idea of doing a Twitch stream, which is like I'm gonna wait until I get to 200, and then I'm gonna just do a Twitch stream, which is what do you get? What do you get for 200 wheel spins in Forza Horizon? So uh if that's something you would like to see, let me know in the comments of this YouTube video, uh, and then I will record it probably it might be a little bit after this podcast goes live, because I think you get uh a wheel spin for every three levels you go up, and it's really hard to earn super wheel spins unless it's festivals or things like that. So I think I was I think I looked this morning, I think I'm at a hundred and a hundred and seventy-nine with both. Um so yeah, so that's another thing I'm collecting.

SPEAKER_03 25:39

It's like I don't know you have the is that just because you've chosen chosen not to do it or because you didn't realise, or a bit of both?

SPEAKER_00 25:46

I think it was just a bit of both. I think I just was just wasn't doing them because I was sort of doing the mainline game and I was enjoying that, and you know, they were going up, they were going up, and I thought that's fine, but I had plenty of credits, I had loads of credits, but I think now I've got to the end, or I've I've sort of completed the game, and I'm now doing like the photographs, the rivals, and I'm doing the online. I'm I'm starting to run out of money basically. I think I've bought all the houses apart from one. Um, I've put I've fitted out all the houses with core garages apart from the one I haven't bought, and the one I need to buy is about one and a half million, but then I I'm like this morning, I went through and just bought all the Audi's that I hadn't got to take a photograph of and things like that. So I know there's gonna be some serious money in there. I'm hoping, I'm hoping, you know, there's there's potentially I don't know, like five to ten million in there. But I've now got it's got to that point where it's gone that it's that tipping point where it's gone like I could do a stream out of this, this would actually be quite cool. And it'll be quite fun to see how many Forward to Horizon edition cars I get. Can I unlock the 66 million credit Ferrari? And exactly what do you get if you don't do a single wheel spin in Forward Horizon and you've got 200 to collect, what does it give you? Um it's just I thought it was a quite good question.

SPEAKER_03 27:09

Oh, definitely. And the fact that you've actually got to this point without actually redeeming any as well, like that just shows how much time and effort you've put in to grind to get to this point because I was like you say you get the cars, you get the credits and all the other bits. I mean, you'll get a lot of the um like the extra horns and the outfits and stuff in there as well, but you'll never ever use or need.

SPEAKER_00 27:28

I'll get a few, I'll get a few pink dresses, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:31

But yeah, like the amount of credits that'll be hidden in all that, that that's amazing. That'll be brilliant.

SPEAKER_00 27:36

No, and it and it's just to say, it's just been it I've just been doing it. It's just been like I think I looked, I think I looked at the stats yesterday, and I think I've played it for 49 hours. It's probably over 50 hours now. Um my most expensive car is my Porsche, um, electric Porsche, the Mission R, I think it is the concept car they did. And my most used car is the Aeryl Atom, which I have put up to A700, and I've just completely done all the mystery points on it, so you know I can crash and not lose a million pound streak. Sorry, is that too soon a game for you?

SPEAKER_03 28:12

God damn it.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

God damn it. Right, let's get off, Forza.

First Light Finale And The Backlog

SPEAKER_00 28:17

So uh you have completed First Light, apparently, and you did a stream the other day which is on our YouTube channel as well.

SPEAKER_03 28:22

Yeah, I did, yeah. So um it was quite uh I had to dart actually, which was annoying. So I just got to a bit where I'd like spent building up to it, then it got to the bit where I was actually doing a fair bit of combat, but I had to go get lunch before I started work. So but yeah, I finished that the other night. I um yeah, I sent this in the group the other day. I absolutely loved it. Um I think it was such a a great build-up to a fantastic finale uh of that game. Um I think the it's one of it's do you know when you kind of like almost have a bit of dread or anxiety when you know a boss fight's coming, you're like, oh I've got I'm gonna have to fight this guy. Like I'm gonna like and I'm really not gonna like this. And the the boss fight at the end was clever, it wasn't too intense. But obviously, as we discussed in last pod, I'm playing this on the one of the easier settings, so maybe that had something to do with it. But I felt like it was challenging, but not to the point where it was gonna kick my backside, and I was gonna like I'm I'm gonna have to duck out of this. Finished it on the first run through um of the final boss, um and it was kind of like it without spoiling it too much because it's quite new, but like you basically threw every it basically gave you the keys to the kingdom at one point, like everything, like you can do everything. Um there's a really good set piece as well. Um but yeah, I loved it, like the actual closing sequence um and his his ending like line is just like it just sets it up perfectly for hopefully, hopefully more Bond games from IO. Um yeah, because obviously it was the buildup, and this is how James Bond became to be. And I always thought it it didn't feel overly Bond. Do you know what I mean? It felt like it like it made some references, like the trophies and achievements, they had the same, you know, some of the key quotes from the games and things, and obviously like throughout as well. But I feel like that was the jump-off point of it ended with the proper da. You know, and then it did the outro sequence of him walking across and shooting the camera and so on and so forth. So I feel like the intention is now the next game, hopefully that'll come, this is gonna be full-on, like intense James Bond more that we come to know. But yeah, I really enjoyed it, Stu. Like I think it's probably gonna be up there in a lot of people's game of the years so far. Um you know, really good looking game, played really nicely. Um I don't really have many negatives to say about it apart from the last said about the the hand-to-hand combat, you just felt a bit fragile, you know, you you took a couple hits and you were down and out. Whereas I think it was at its best with the stealth um stealth mechanics and then the shoot like the actual shootouts and the set pieces with the um with the guns and things. So yeah, I liked it, really enjoyed it. I think it'd be great to see what else they can bring in terms of more gadgets, more locations, stories, etc. Um but yeah, I um finished that, that's on its way back to boomerang now, um, to obviously get get more from them uh whilst I can uh still live that uh renting games dream. Um but yeah, so that's done and dusted. So yeah, on to the onto the next one of whatever you know we've got uh I've got Assassin's Creed on that list to play, Halo's coming out this month to play. Um so yeah, so I've finished that off with the intention of playing a couple of other bigger, bigger games before the month is uh is out.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

Uh junkster is five to six hours according to Bing, uh point. Um so yeah, according to Bing, it's about five to six hours, depending on how good you are, I suppose.

SPEAKER_03 31:45

Yeah, I think you spend arguing with it.

SPEAKER_00 31:47

Yeah, yeah. If you can get all your blocks in a row at the same time, then it's five to six hours. If you can't, then it's six to sixteen hours.

First-Hour Uploads Doom And Black Flag

SPEAKER_00 31:54

Yeah, yeah. So uh um, but no, um you mentioned Assassin's Creed, so I have done a couple of um since we last podted, uh I think now we've got we've got um game about digging a hole, we've got we'll follow the light, we've got um Assassin's Creed Black Flag Flag and Doom DLC all up as one hour uh play playthroughs now. So I've basically done the first hour of those games and then put them up on YouTube. Um no commentary, no talking, just literally the first hour. So if you're thinking about buying Assassin's Creed Black Flag, or if you're thinking about buying the Doom DLC, then you know pop onto the YouTube channel and then there's the first hour there, no waffling, no talking. It's just literally the first hour-ish of the game. Oh my Lego Batman as well. Um Doom DLC, oh my god, I need to lie down after that. I mean, and and and and and say, going back to our point was I think it came up with how do you want to play this? And I think I played the, you know, the not like the child's play, but the next one up. Nowhere near like this is gonna hurt, this is really gonna hurt, oh my god, you're going to die. And I thought, right, I've got to play, I've got to play an hour. So you you start, I think you're in hell, and basically it's you play a level called the or levels called the proving ground. Oh my god, you literally are going fight to fight to fight to fight. And you walk for a you walk for a bit, and then you you know what it's like. Every game like this is the same. You walk into an area and you're like, oh yeah, here we go. This is set up to be a fight. And then it just gets progressively harder and harder and harder. And I and I think I looked at the timer on OBS and I was like 23 minutes in. I was like, oh my god, I've still got another 40 minutes to go. And then anyway, I got through, and actually the hour worked out pretty well because you you finish proving grounds, you get in front of the I can't think of, I can't think it's the character's name now, but you get in front of this character who was in the main game, and then he turns into this beast, which you cannot beat, and then you're literally sent further into hell, and that's when I stopped. Um, so that was good, but as the YouTube thumbnail sort of lays off, I needed to lay down afterwards. It was like real, like um, and then um I think that was the Tuesday, as you know, that I was the Wednesday because I couldn't do Doom on the Tuesday because I was busy, and then on the Thursday, uh Assassin's Creed Black Flag came out, so I did an hour of black flag. I don't think I played the original because it looked all doesn't look familiar to me, but uh I was really, really, it really hooked me within the first 20 minutes, it sort of sort of got me back to my Assassin's Creed uh Odyssey, Valhalla, sort of like, oh this is really good. I'm really enjoying this. This is like this has got me all over it for my Assassin's Creedeness. Um, where obviously in the last one, um can't think what's called now, uh, but the last one, I think we both zoned out of that.

SPEAKER_03 35:02

Shadows, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 35:03

Shadows. Yeah, I think you sent the game back, and I've still got it, but I'm just like got no desire to go into it. So uh so they've they've been both good. I mean Assassin's Creed Black Flag, you'll really enjoy that when it comes in.

SPEAKER_03 35:13

Yeah, I mean I I thoroughly enjoyed it when it first came out. I mean, I think it was because it was such a uh like a detraction away from the main Assassin's Creed storyline and obviously the settings and the worlds that we'd become accustomed to. Like we'd had no sort of build-up to this. We'd we'd really had no pirate game where you could basically take on a ship. Like from the get-go, you were literally thrown in a pirate ship within the first what ten minutes.

SPEAKER_00 35:41

You you start on a you start on a pirate ship, and you're you've got to blow up the other pirate ships around you, and then you then you crash, and then you pick up you you kill the assassin, and then you put on the assassin's uniform, and then you go to a meeting where the person thinks you're an assassin. That's sort of how it starts.

SPEAKER_03 35:59

Yeah, so and and we'd never seen that before, so we'd had like we've had ship combat from once since then, but yeah, it was almost like this is such a uh you know, a a different direction to the previous games that yeah, I really, really enjoyed it. So and I watched the first hour um that you put up, I was like, they've done a really good job from what I can see of like remaking it, you know, it looked fantastic, so yeah, I'm really looking forward to that because yeah, Shadows just really, really wasn't for me. You know, I don't I don't know what about it just wasn't, but it just I just didn't didn't vibe with me at all. So yeah, so I'm really looking forward to going back to that. And to be honest with you, like I've I said to you, like, I'm I'm really looking forward to like actually playing some older games as part of this, you know, either through Game Pass, picking up some PS4 games, 360 games, and playing them on these consoles, which obviously gives it that little boost from playing it on the Series X or the PS5. So I'm actually quite looking forward to going back and playing some old games. So this will be a good itch to scratch of this is how I remember Assassin's Creed, and yeah, it'd be nice to get some other um, you know, or a return to that sort of thing, you know, maybe a sequel to that or you know, just a return to how Assassin's Creed once was. I'd like him to really explore world like World War II, World War One setting for an Assassin's Creed. I know that's sort of been banded around a bit. I don't know how it'd work, but to explore that world I don't know. But yeah, it'd be nice to go back and play an Assassin's Creed that I really, really enjoyed again.

SPEAKER_00 37:21

Well, I think you will. I think I if it wasn't for the fact that I was trying to get these first hours up and then you know, I will get on to my last game. Um that sort of snuck up on me, and then I also know that Altars has got DLC out now, and I really enjoyed Alters when that was on game pass. I think it still is on game pass, but so that's another game I want to get to, and then I've paid the £20 to go up to the um Halo Combat Evolve this Thursday coming, I think. Um so two days if this goes, no, actually no, yeah, this should go live as tomorrow as we call this, so next week sort of thing, that comes up as early access. Um, but yeah, if it wasn't for that, and it wasn't for that that I was trying to rinse Forza, uh, I would definitely be playing Assassin's Creed because I really enjoyed that hour and I really only just sort of broken the service surface, got into the character, got to my first sort of meeting with the person that I was trying to go and meet, and then I sort of stopped because I had to do some work. So I am looking forward to get uh going back, and you you will really, really enjoy it.

Quarantine Zone Ethics And Base Defence

SPEAKER_00 38:26

Um, but another game you've been playing is uh uh quarantine zone.

SPEAKER_03 38:30

Yeah, so that's just come out on Game Pass recently, and I was again just sort of rifling through Game Pass to see what come out, and you know you get the alerts of this is now available and so on. So let's have a look, see what it is. Um and it's you you are basically just um a checkpoint or security guard on um on a an as it says a quarantine zone. So I'll be apocalypse hit you've basically got this compound of survivors and so on and so forth. Your job is to scan people and check them for infection, and you either let them into the camp, they're fine, they're not infected, you can put them in quarantine to see if their symptoms get any worse, or you can send them to the incinerated straight away, Stu. If you think they are a danger to you and the camp, you send them straight to the incineration pin and they get torched straight away. Um so yeah, so it's I this might be the same people. I haven't researched it, but you might be able to check while we're recording. But there was a game a lot of it called Papers Please.

SPEAKER_00 39:23

I was literally, literally just about to say it this reminds me of Papers Please.

SPEAKER_03 39:28

Yeah, so again, if if it's the same people, it might well be, but again, where you had the you were um uh an immigration or passport control um in that game, you had the authority, you're either in or you're out. This is a bit more brutal because there's you you are actually like you're sentencing people to death almost immediately in some cases. Um but yeah, I I did uh maybe about an hour and a half, at least I'd say. Um so you like say you're on the checkpoint, you weave people through, you check them, you look at their eyes, the skin, uh the body, have they got bite backs, have they got any wounds, that sort of thing. You get some more tools to check the symptoms, so you get a uh reflex hammer to hit them with, see how the reflexes are. Um you get a little scanner that you can scan underneath the clothes to again see if there's any hidden bruises, scarring, that sort of thing. A gun that checks their temperature and uh heart rate. So again, infection control, different symptoms and such. Um so yeah, there does it there's a little bit of base management, you know. You can upgrade your base, you know, the size of the quarantine zone, you have to manage your stock overs of your food, your medical resources, etc. Um there's a like um almost like a tower defence bit as well, so you control the drone that obviously infected zombies will try and attack your base. You fight with a drone and you shoot them down, you've got different guns and such to take them on with. Um again, it's just it's just a little sort of quirky little game that you know again, if it wasn't on Game Pass, uh you'd probably never really come across it. And I'm I'm imagining it probably came to Steam first, it seems like that sort of thing that would have come on Steam originally. Um but yeah, it it's like I say you earn money for the amount of people that you've let through, you have a quarter to meet of people survivors, you send them to either be soldiers or to put them towards research, and it just builds from there. But yeah, you you can get your base infected and it all just ends in disaster, or like say you could I accidentally I think I took a screen recording of this. You can put people in like this chamber that's quarantined, and there was a button. I was like, How does this button do? And it basically just incinerated everybody that was in quarantine. And inadvertent, inadvertently, everybody that was in there had the infection, and I was like, Oh, okay, like fair enough, that worked out well. Um, because you get punished if you kill people that you shouldn't have killed, basically. Um but yeah, I was like, Oops, I didn't mean to do that, but then it worked out alright in the end. Um so yeah, so it's just like say it it's I I imagine it might sort of die off a little bit, his appeal quite quickly, because I don't know what other tools you can really get to test these people beyond like checking their eyes, the heart rate, the temperature and the bodies and such. I don't know what else it's got to give beyond that. Um, but yeah, just a little check off for the the old monthlies and and and what have you. It's quite good. So I'll probably nip back to that and see what else it's got to give, but it's definitely worth it again, just a bit like jumpster, really, for just a an hour or two's worth of just see what it's about. It's definitely worth checking out.

SPEAKER_00 42:18

Yeah, so it was uh looking at um the internet, it was uh it was pencil for November 2025 release, but everything else looks like it came out on uh January 2026 um on most platforms. And uh no, it's not by the same people. Uh Quarantine Zone was developed by uh Brigadier Games, uh, whilst Papers Please was created by solo developer Lucas Pope. Fair enough.

SPEAKER_03 42:49

It's very much of that ilk sort of that it just crossed my ideas like it very much could be like maybe they found their niche. This is their thing of the they found a niche of this is the type of game that we make, so it could have been them, but yeah, it's just a a fun little thing of just um yeah, just uh that sort of a different sort of vibe of the zombie apocalypse and uh survival genre.

SPEAKER_00 43:09

Yeah, and uh talking about sort of like nice little

Moss As A Saturday Morning Game

SPEAKER_00 43:13

games. Um Anthony made me aware yesterday, I think it was, or the day before, that Moss uh had came come out for um Moss the Relic of Something. I can't remember the full name of it now. Um but Moss has come out. So Moss was a PSVR game, and um they had two, book one, book two, and it was a obviously PSVR where you were um a watcher and there was a little mouse that you controlled in front of you, and then you sort of picked the mouse up and you moved things from the mouse and you sort of interacted with the mouse to help it go along its sort of platformer journey. And then a few weeks ago, a few months ago, I'd heard that it was coming out as a you know full on platformer game on. All the different consoles. And Anthony jumped into it and I literally downloaded it straight away. I mean, it was six, I think it was just under 17 uh Great British pounds. Um, and that was a no-brainer for me because it was like knowing what I played of the VR game, this was like, this has got me written over. This is a Saturday morning, cup of coffee, pan of chocolat, you know, just literally like just doing something which is just getting the brain working, but not really hard. So I have recorded two hours of it, and I was planning on overlaying this podcast with that, but now I've got my nice new background. I didn't want people not to see that. So I will put up or have put up, so live on the YouTube channel now is the first hour of it. Um, and then I might actually sit up here and play the rest of it up here and record it. And and it it's it's a great little game. It's just the levels are relatively short. You just walk through the levels. Um you have to pull a block out or push a block in for Quill. Uh Quill the mouse makes this adorable little like noise as he lifts himself up, like straining, and then a few times because obviously, you know, we're all we're gamers, and most of the people listening to watching this is gamers. So when you're when you start a level and your character starts off facing straight, the first thing you do is go back because you know that you know there's a secret or something like that there. And it's just got this adorable animation where you think, is that water or is that is that a bank site? So you jump into it, you kill Quill, and he comes out and he just sh looks at you disapprovingly, shakes like to get the water off of him, and then goes, right, let's carry on. And uh and it's just such an adorable little game. And and yeah, I mean, I've got I've got two hours in, um, I've got there's like three different things I've had to get, and I've just changed like where I am on a beach or something like that. But honestly, unlike Doom, which I enjoyed, but I was waiting for that hour to end. Two hours playing Moss this morning just went like that. Really, really good game.

SPEAKER_03 46:17

Yeah, it's strange, isn't it? How something like obviously, like you say, games can be quite intense, can't they? And it's like, oh my god, this feels like it's quite quite hard work. But yeah, when you just it's nice to be absorbed in a game, isn't it? Where you just like blink and it's like, oh my god, like I've where's this time gone? Do you know what I mean? Where you just like you say, it's getting your brain working, but you just zone off, you don't check your phone, you don't look at anything else, and just in your own little world. So it's nice that it does that because it's it's rare that that actually happens now, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 46:44

Yeah, and it's sometimes you just want a game which you don't have to think. And I think that's why I've quite I've I've sort of really cane in Forza because I'm sort of busy with work and the limited time I've got to play, I've almost been like, look, do you know what? I I just want to play something that I could just not really think about. And Moss, you do have to think about, but you don't really have to think about it. There's if you stand there hard enough and you press those buttons enough times, you realise, oh okay, what I've got to do is move A to B and B to C, and then go through there, come back, and then do that, and and you sort of get that dopamine rush of like unlocking that level, and then you just carry on to the next one, and then you can just dump in, dip in, and dip out whenever you want.

SPEAKER_03 47:30

Yeah, yeah, it's just it's just yeah, it's just rare that you get those games, isn't it? Like you say, just when when you you you don't want to have to worry about complex, you know, patterns of button sequences, and again, you because you haven't got the time to dedicate, you don't want to feel like you're the rubbish at it, or it's kicking you backside every time, do you? So yeah, it's just nice to be able to nip in and out to these things and just lose lose yourself for an hour or so and and then just be able to do the same again when you come back to it.

SPEAKER_00 47:54

Yeah, and it's a perfect, it's a perfect um rewards game. So you know, if you've check your Microsoft rewards, check your big rewards, because if you've got a five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five pound dollar voucher sitting there, it's that perfect game where it's just like, oh, I might not have played that, but it's you know, in my opinion, if you like sort of that type of game, super lucky's tale, that type of platformer, then um it's it's worth a 17 pounds and whatever that, what would that be? Sort of 21, 22 dollars or something like that. Um, it's it's definitely worth it.

Rate Review And Send Questions

SPEAKER_00 48:32

So um, but uh, but right, that's us talking about us, what we're playing. Uh now onto the news. But before we get on to the news, uh, if we could please ask you to rate review, leave us some feedback on whatever platform you are listening or watching on, that would be greatly appreciated. Um, our message from Marcus last week, I think it was, about playing easy games. We actually had a conversation about that on the other podcast the other day because I was asking people to send in questions and and I used his question as an example on that podcast uh about this is the question we had. And uh Simon, who I do the podcast with, is uh very much for the fact of yes, playing games on easy is cheating.

SPEAKER_03 49:18

We can try and just justify it. Yeah, we can try and justify it as much as we want, but no, you just need to grow up, grow up, uh, get on with it.

SPEAKER_00 49:26

No, and I and I think I think we did have a YouTube comment. I'll see if I can find it when you're doing the first story, but I think we did have a YouTube comment about it as well. Um, but um no, uh yeah, so please do send in your questions because actually it's quite it's quite interesting when you have conversations like that and see how other people play games. Um but uh yeah, but on to the news.

Xbox Layoffs Game Pass Reality Check

SPEAKER_00 49:47

Um the first news story, uh Steve, is with you, and Xbox fans are not happy.

SPEAKER_03 49:53

No, well, obviously, given given the recent news that we've had and following the last podcast that we had about you know, I I think didn't we say this would come in? You know, we we it's what everything that we podded, and then it came out with the news broke again just a couple of days afterwards. That it was predicted that we're gonna see a massive, you know, lot of layoffs from Xbox and Microsoft. Um, and we did, um, you know, as it happened a couple of days uh after. Um with was it 3,200, I think, in total, uh, across uh 3,600, I think it was, across two hits, yeah. So in two separate waves of Xbox struck Microsoft employees that were uh being let go and made redundant. But yeah, this is basically um Xbox fans and players voicing their um upset and discontent. Um so they've uh they've got um a fan feedback website which obviously as it says clues in the title. They ask for suggestions, comments, feedback, and things. Um but uh this has gone sort of to the next level of uh they're calling for an end to these layoffs um and the sort of the negative news that's coming out. Um obviously just it it's uh it's a complete not a knee joke, it's it's a protectionist sort of mentality of people like oh my god, like this needs to stop. Like if we want to keep Xbox um as as a brand, as a platform, you know, we want to protect it so please stop sort of uh hurting itself in a in a way, I guess. You know what I mean? Stop doing sort of damage to your own brand and your own reputation before it might be repairable, um which obviously is we knew from that that this sort of large-scale redundancy sweep playoff sweep was gonna come, you know, just to recover some cost for Xbox and and Microsoft to in the hope to um level it off. Uh a separate news article that has we haven't picked up on that at all was that their projected number of game pass subscriptions was nowhere near what they expect. I think they wanted 70 million and they've got 30 million or something like that. Or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 51:56

Yeah, they expect it to be at 70 million by now. Uh I mean come on, guys. I mean you put the price up by double. You're not gonna what's that gonna do? Get more people to sign up in column A or get more people to leave in column B. So you you you really made an F up there.

SPEAKER_03 52:13

Yeah, and I know some people that had it, cancelled it when it went up, and they've still not gone back to it, even though it's got cheaper. You know, so again, it's one of the things, you know, it you you might say it's people are cutting the nose off to spite the face, maybe, but it's one of those, isn't it? Is that don't mess with this, you know. I've got some things in life that you know, you mess with my fuel prices, my electricity prices, and food prices don't mess with my Xbox, you know. My gaming time is prices, do not mess with this. This is the one thing that I love in life that allows me to escape from how bad the rest of the world is.

SPEAKER_00 52:45

But um, yeah, this this you didn't say your family then escape from your family.

SPEAKER_03 52:49

Well, yeah, yeah, there is that. That's what I've got to work for. Um but yeah, it's um yeah, it it's just it's had like um, you know, the some of these things have had like over 3,000 votes, you know, expressing frustration with Xbox's decision making. But again, we knew hard hard decisions were coming. You know, this next phase was never going to be easy. There's not a magic wand, there's not a magic money pit, you know, it's a lot of industries and businesses saying we when a new sort of I guess party or government comes in. There's gotta be some, you know, do you know what I mean? There's got to be some levelling off, you know, balancing the books, and and it's not easy, it's not nice, it's you know, you these are people that are losing the jobs, but whether you know the the comments from Xbox fans is making a difference to Microsoft, whether it makes them change opinion, gives them an idea that they might not have thought of, do you know what I mean? Of can we do this instead of this? You know, and it sounds ridiculous, but they might not have thought of it. You know, they might not have thought of these things, especially when in the nicer respect Charms come in that's not experienced in the uh video game industry, you know, having that bit more of inside fan feedback might make them change tack a little bit or maybe not be so brutal in some ways or change something. I don't know, but Xbox fans are clearly making their voices heard on their official fan feedback website. It's not just forums or things that they could probably just disregard and ignore. This is their official feedback website where someone somewhere is gonna be like, Oh, like, yeah, this this is not making great reading, guys. Like what are we gonna do? They might ignore it, you know, they might ignore it, but uh Microsoft and Xbox fans are definitely staying quiet on this one.

SPEAKER_00 54:31

I think the thing is at the end of the day, you know, I think we've said it on a previous pod, which is when you but make big acquisitions like um like uh Call of Duty, you know, when you take over Activision Blizzard King, you're gonna have doubles of people, and and you could run those businesses separate entities or you can amalgamate them into one business. So unfortunately, everybody was happy and everybody sort of looked at COD and was like, oh, COD's coming on board. But I think that actually that's was a massive mistake for them. And I think that with Jama coming into it, you know, a lot of people initially said, Oh, she's been brought in to get it to a point where they can sell it off. And I don't know, part of me, part of me doesn't think that's possible, it's more a fact that it would get broken up, but I do think that it will stay together as an entity, and and look, let's look at Sony. Sony made the massive faux pas recently with the physical discs, and everybody was throwing that was it 2013 commercial back in their face on how you share PlayStation games, and then literally, was it it was about the same time uh Microsoft inadvertently, I don't think, on purpose, announced that they were trying to find a way to digitize discs you actually have and make them available on their consoles going forward. Um, so if the Helix doesn't have a disk drive, um, which uh it's more than likely probably gonna not have one, is can we take a copy of you know Halo on the original Xbox which is backwards compatible, rip it somehow into the device which lives on a storage which is connected to the device somehow. So um yeah, I just it's it's a hard time. I mean, and again, we've said it before gaming is I think in a hard place. I think not many not huge numbers of people are playing games, a lot of people are sticking to just playing their subscriptions um in the same way that people aren't buying movies, they're just watching when it comes to Netflix or if it comes on Sky. You know, I wanted what was the one I wanted to watch recently, Michael, um, the Michael Jackson sort of biopic, because it's made by the same guy who did Bohemie Rhapsody, but that came up on Apple for like £20, that came up on um Sky for £20, that came up on Colliderscape, which is my movie server for about £20, and I just sat there and went, No, do you know what? I pay £9 a month for Sky Cinema, and I'll just wait for it to come out to Sky Cinema. Molly, my daughter, recently did the same with Wicked, the second one. She really wanted to watch it, and she said to me, No, don't worry, Dad, don't buy it. I'll just wait for a few months and wait until it comes on Sky Movies and I'll watch it on there. And of course, now it's come on Sky Movies and she watches it. I think people, unless it's something they really, really want to buy, I think that they're just gonna hold off. And unfortunately, that is gonna affect it on the bottom line of where studios are gonna basically get sold off or moved around. And I think that I think Xbox got in a bit of a mess with all these acquisitions they were making, keeping fans happy, and and I think the inevitable has happened, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_03 57:39

Yeah, that's it, innit? And just like many other things, gaming's very much a luxury, you know. It's if if you can afford to buy a new game every now and again, fantastic. But a lot of people, sadly, given everything that's happened around the world, that they might not be able to, you know, like with energy costs and food costs and fuel costs and everything else going up exponentially, it's you know, it it's probably made it not not possible, but like you say, so the spending, you know, all everyone's like, oh yeah, Xbox and going and buy these people and blah blah yeah, it's great, but clearly nobody was keeping an eye on the the pounds and the pence or the dollars and the cents, you know. Well, we're spending this money, but realistically, what's it bringing in? You know, it and it's great that we've bought these games, but well, it's not gonna actually make us that much money.

SPEAKER_00 58:24

Well, especially like with COD with the amount of money they they never said, but the amount of money they lost because COD was free. I mean, people like myself and Anthony who would buy it on day one were getting it free on Game Pass for whatever we were paying £22 a month um when it when it came out, and then we weren't buying the £50, £60, £70 version of it. So straight away there, you've there's a hundred and a hundred and well, let's say worst case scenario, £140 worth of lost income just from me and Anthony, who would would be day one purchases.

SPEAKER_03 58:58

That's it. And and even people that would, I think I had said it to you about maybe doing the same we saw premium plus, about maybe getting the free month or whatever it is to get um black flag, the remaster. Well, how many people signed up for a month for, like you say, 16 quid, played the campaign that they would normally play anyway, then canned it, you know, to save themselves 50, 60 quid, whatever it is. You know, it just it just makes sense to do it that way. You know, if there's a cheaper alternative, then why would you not do it?

SPEAKER_00 59:25

Exactly. And it yeah, exactly. It's like, okay, I'll just get this, can it, you know, do it in a month. Worst case scenario, two months. Even if it takes me two months, what you know, two months at 20 quid, that's 40 quid. You know, the game's still 60, 70 pounds, so they still lost revenue. So uh, but uh but talking about game pass, uh Anthony put up a really cool um, it was True Achievements website the other day, um, put up the uh top rated uh Game Pass debuts of 2026 so far. Um, and I thought there was some quite interesting reading in there. I mean, obviously, Forza Horizon 6 is number one, there's no shadow of a doubt there. Um, but Subnautica 2 was number two, uh, NBA 2K26 was number three, EA Sports FC was number four. Then number five was I found quite funny, which was uh RV uh RV There Yet, which is a co-op RV driving simulator game, which I I looked at the other day and I'm like, oh, that looks good. That could be a fun little thing, a little bit bit like your quarantine game. But then I realised it was a co-op two-player game, and I'm like, oh, do you know what? I I can't be bothered to try and say, Oh, you know, let's play with someone or find someone. So I just didn't play it. So to see that was at number five, I thought that was quite cool.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:43

Yeah, I mean, I dabbled for about 10 minutes and gave up on it, I'm not gonna lie. Um there was one of those where it's like you've got to keep you have like a fatigue meter and health, uh uh like hunger and hydration. Oh no, I just can't be bothered. Um I dialed out of that pretty quickly. But it is nice, like you said, it's nice like that you've got like you say inevitably falls is gonna be the biggest one. If you do this in a month's time, Halo's gonna be up there inevitably in years later in the year. So but it's nice that you like you say you've got RV there yet, Higher on Life 2 is number six, um, card shop simulator seven, um escape the backrooms nine, Star Wars Outlaws number ten, which is that's that's that's good. Um bit of um slightly older game, Cyberpunk 11, which again a game that's a few years old. That that's quite interesting. Um Avatar Frontiers, again, that's quite hype. Anthony's favourite game at number 18. Uh yeah, Vampire Crawlers, yeah, which he's just absolutely rinsed, completed 100% edge for the achievements, so fair play to him for that. Um but yeah, but again, it these are the sort of games that historically you'd you'd probably just see on Steam, you know, that it's nice that they're coming to Game Pass that you can play on console. So again, if you've got the Rogue, um either version, these are the games that you could probably just tick off quite nicely. Um but yeah, it's good to see a nice mix in there, um, which I think uh is a nice way and place to be for Game Pass. Do you know what I mean? That it's not just oh look, the Call of Duty's there, oh Halo's there, or Forza's there, or Gears of Wars there, da da da da da da da da da. And I think that's what Xbox did really well in the early days of like the arcade. You know, they these are smaller games that otherwise you will not experience anywhere else. Stick them in here, and you know, people get to play your game, which I think again that's a nice reflection of what's going on with Game Pass there. So, yes, you've got your big first parties, but your smaller third party titles are actually getting a good show-in of clearly they're doing a good job of putting them in front of people because otherwise they wouldn't be in this top 20 list.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:42

Yeah, and I mean Avatar, Avatar Frontiers and Pandora, that is a very um Far Cry. That's that is pretty much Far Cry with uh with blue people. Um and you can fly. And actually, I did play it. I mean, I probably put I probably sunk about 15 hours into it, and I was enjoying it. And I don't know why I stopped, but I'd stopped it for some reason. I've not gone back. I think I I paid it, paid for it, I bought it. Um I think it was a Christmas discount or something like that. But that was quite good. Um and um yeah, but things like roadside research and those type of things, which were those we saw at the the Expo and those bits and pieces, though it's a a prime example of what Game Pass and PS Plus, if this was PlayStation, is is good for. So going back to our story on the last pod about you know potentially stripping out third-party games or reducing some third-party games from Game Pass, this is proof that people play third-party games, not just Madden and NF NFL and those type of games. They do play those little games that you just look at and you go, Oh, I know, I'll give it a go. And that is what Game Pass is.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:53

Yeah, exactly. And it's finding that balance, isn't it? Like we said, it's the balance of the big, the little, the in between. Um yeah, but it it'd be a shame, it'd be a real shame if then suddenly that these smaller games just were lost as part of this. Um, yeah, so it would be, but yeah, it it's clearly evidential that it's working in some way, shape, or form.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:12

So uh to our next story, talking about games not getting

Halo Cancelled And Physical Games Shift

SPEAKER_00 1:04:16

canned. Uh oh, hold on second. New Halo multiplayer project canned. Right, okay, all right, all right, Steve. Over to you, mate.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:23

Scrap that, over to you, let's rewind. Yeah, uh yes, so in a continuation of uh Microsoft and Xbox um canning things, um yes, um Halo Studios reportedly um having a multiplayer Halo game cancelled. Um so again, as part of the layoffs, the studio losses development team losses. Clearly, projects, upcoming titles that uh in the works and pipelines are clearly been very, very stringently and strictly uh uh considered. And well, where are you with this game? How far is it gonna go? How much does it cost? How much will it cost, etc.? And if it ain't gonna work, well sorry, it ain't gonna it ain't gonna see the light of day. And it it's a strange one because obviously Halo multiplayer as part of the main games historically has been a massive a massive thing, you know, and and whether or not it's you know been based on what people have seen of it, you know, is it necessarily anything new, anything different, is it gonna be worth it, etc. It's been canned, but um yeah, um this is obviously just a a separate uh just a mul multiplayer standoff basically or standalone project. Um but yeah the the the news has been sort of verified almost have been a hundred percent true. Um so yeah, so it was called co-named it was uh been worked on by certain affinity. Um so these have done these guys have been like support work for Halo and Call of Duty before. So two big games with prowess, uh and obviously multiplayer um you know, significance that they'd have a lot of experience to maybe deliver something. Um, but yeah, it's yeah, it it it's a shame to lose something that was described as um like a super big team battle idea, which obviously I'm guessing is like sort of these massive multiplayer online things, you know, sort of quite expansive, large-scale warfare um type type deal.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:17

But yeah, it's um I noticed there it's sort of the game origins began with a totally different project, which was known as Tatanker, which I remember because uh it was Jez Corden who stated this is a hundred percent true. Um don't know Jez Corden is I think he's editor of Windows Central. Um so I was thinking, oh, is this just to tanker again? But then they say in this, which was a Battle Royale-esque Halo game. So this looks like it's sort of been made out of the ashes of that. I mean, I would have I mean I loved it. I mean, I played Halo Infinite multiplayer, was probably one of the only Halo multiplayers that I really, really got into, you know, you know, Fortnite falls the horizon sort of obsession of 2026 sort of standards where I was playing it, I was I think I even bought some gaming pad thingies for my joysticks just to try and make me better. They didn't work. Um, so no, it's a it's a shame.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:16

Yeah, it does it. If you further down the the article that we've got here from IGN, it does say that staff were pulled from this project to go to the campaign evolved um development. So I'm guessing maybe it's just been not half baked because they're probably doing it a disservice, but it does say as well that it's it doesn't seem like it was kind of a result of the recent Xbox for reset. So I I I don't know. I kind of find that hard to believe. You know, I I I feel like if it was something that was worth saving and keeping going, they probably would be like, well, we've got the campaign of campaign of all, but we're working on this as well that's going to come at a later date. For it to just be canned in its entirety by the team itself seems a bit like a decision that I don't think they would make really. Um but yeah, obviously we've no idea what condition it was in, what state it is in, how close it was to be completed, that sort of thing. So yeah, it's a shame because again, that would have been something else to bolster Xbox in terms of another spring to its bow in terms of trying to maybe revive and keep things afloat, maybe in light of everything that's happening. But yeah, it just seems to be sadly a continuation of things that are gonna get lost um at the wayside recently.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:22

Yeah, and I think at the end of the day, you uh uh whether you what your stance on exclusive is is your stance, but obviously Halo Camp and Evolved is coming out on PlayStation. Um, so that's gonna be a money earner that is gonna go. I I will put it that that will easily make top five on PlayStation. You know, if I was a PS only person, I'd buy arguably one of the best games ever made um as a remake to just to see what it's like. So it's gonna be a top five, you know, PS charts game. So actually taking people onto that, and that's gonna make you money, you could see why they did it. But it's just a shame that it's uh at the cost of another game that looks like it's already come out of the ashes from another game. So when will we get another Halo? Probably around uh Helix, but you know, we don't know when that's gonna be.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:15

Who knows, Stu? Who knows? But like you say, it's just yeah, it'd be it's a shame given that it could be so successful. There'll be so there'll probably a lot of PlayStation gamers that, like you said, never played Halo. They're probably quite new to Halo, might even not be familiar that this is a remake of a remake of the original game. You know, to them it might be a brand new game, you know. So getting a brand new multiplayer with it as well would have been like brilliant result, you know. Again, probably a nice little money spinner, but yeah. There we go.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:41

I can't wait. I mean, annoyingly, I've got to go to a meeting on th Thursday morning now, because I was plan, I was playing plan on playing it Thursday morning. So uh, but I'm gonna play it, I'm gonna do the first hour of it, so cannot wait. So uh right, so we've done quite a lot of news about this side of my studio. So we're now gonna go over to this side of my studio um-ish. So uh the next story is uh from the amazing GameStop CEO. Um sarcastic laugh. Uh so Sony killing physical game does not matter, says GameStop CEO. Physical video games are no longer a significant or important part of GameStop's business. Says Ryan Cohan, as he shares his thoughts on Sony ending physical disproduction, saying it doesn't matter at all, he continued, uh software in the past mattered. Today, software makes up less than 12% of our business. And collectibles makes up the other half of the business. I'm sorry, over half of the business. I was going to say, if he thinks the other half of the business is at 12%, I don't think he should be a CEO. But makes up over half of the business, so it is totally irrelevant. Collectibles like Pokemon trading cars have become much more a large chunk of the business, accounted to 41% sales. And it's no different. I mean, I don't I don't think do we have game over anymore? I know like I know like when when I went into game in Tunbridge Wells, Anthony's favourite game shop. Um if you and I'm on I'm not even gonna try and guess what episode of podcast that was on, but there's a great story about Anthony and game. Uh I'll get him to tell it on the podcast one day. Um but um but yeah, I mean I know the last time I went in there, it was literally like there was a smattering of games, but all the games were like like GTA 6 is alleged to be, it's a game case with code in it, and the rest of it was Funker Pops and t-shirts and and the same format, really, that places like HMV and all that lot of posters that all that lot are. So it doesn't surprise me, but then if you your business is not physical disc based because most people are buying online, then then yeah, it's it's sure of course it's not gonna matter. Still doesn't mean that people are not peed off about it.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:59

No, well this is it's a it's a bit of a misleading title because it doesn't matter to him and his business, you know. You know, and this obviously, as we knew, we discussed previously where they're stuck that massive bidding for eBay. Like they're clearly making money elsewhere somehow to to be able to even be considered to buy eBay out. Um but yeah, it it like you say game over here was they all disappeared into Sports Direct, and I'm fairly certain they've all gone from Sports Direct now. I'm fairly certain. Um but yeah, you walked in there, like you say it's Lego sets, it was Yu-Gi-Oh, Volcana, Pokemon, Funko Pops, blah blah blah. It was everything else but games, they stopped doing secondhand games like some trading. So um yeah, it look it it's not surprising because the world has changed, you know, and we don't have physical real bricks and mortar gaming places anymore, anyway. It matters on the whole, but to him it doesn't matter. You know, he's I guess he's trying to be whether he's trying to do it as some sort of like making some sort of point and stand, like, yeah, do what you want, mate, it don't matter to us. Like I don't know whether he's just trying to be bold about it, but yeah, it it matters to the wider industry, to his particular business and game stuff now. Probably doesn't. Um but yeah, yeah, it like you say you can still sell the cards, the digital they probably make the money more, I guess, on maybe buying people buying gift cards maybe for Xbox and PlayStation now. I want to buy a £20 gift card or you know, V-Books or FIFA, whatever nonsense now.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:26

I don't think we I can't know if we talked about it on the pod, but I remember hearing somewhere the other day that Steam are stopping selling physical cards because of um copying counterfeits. So I I I did hear the other day um on a, I'm pretty sure it was on another podcast, that they were sort of that Gabe was sort of said that they will stop making physical cards with codes on it because they're getting pirated or getting copied so badly um that it's costing them money. So they're only going to go down the route of being able to buy them digitally from I mean, I don't know whether you've you've ever bought a card from Amazon, for instance, but you you get emailed a code, you redeem the code. Um CD Keys is the same. You you you buy it, you get you get the code, you redeem it. And I think that's the way that they're going. So that may be a way that some of those other things go. I mean, I personally am quite surprised that if GTA does come out as a physical addition with a code in the box, uh uh that's like rife for piracy, or at least sort of selling like you know, like fake concert ticket type people. Yeah, easily people counterfeiting it, selling it down the pub, thinking it's a 20 quid game to someone they've never met before, but realizes the code doesn't exist and they've just copied a code that's official code 20, 30, 40 times. I've got an idea now. I need to go get printer out.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:48

See, that's a that's a good version of the story we last spoke about. You've not actually really spent any money there, have you? So yeah. That's uh they've done up. Do do not do piracy. Do not do not do piracy before we get shut down.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:00

Do not do piracy. Do not do piracy, do not get your Netflix discs through and copy them. Actually, no, you can't do that anymore either. Right. Let's get let's quickly get out of this hole. Let's reverse out this hole. So the the next the next story is back to our greenish side, uh, which is with you, and it's about fallout.

Fallout Remasters And Fallout 5 Update

SPEAKER_03 1:15:20

Yeah, so um obviously, as we well, I hope we predicted that as part of the Xbox showcase, like um that we might see some fallout news. We did, but not what we wanted.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:31

We um in a sort of Twitter or X thread as it is now, um I still I still I still I go on Twitter every morning to put stuff off inside CI up, and I every morning I will type Twitter in rather than X. I still call it Twitter.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:47

Well, I didn't realise a separate group and part of this. And until very, very recently, you didn't have to update it from Twitter to X. If you just didn't update the app, it stayed as Twitter and they weren't forcing it to change. Until now, I think basically they've basically forced it to say, Well, look, you've you've had long enough now, it has to be done as X. But anyway, yeah, I still call it Twitter because X is just a stupid name, but that's that that's a different different story altogether. But anyway, uh Bethesda um put out a statement about um their future, um, like basically road mapped out what's coming. Um so they basically said that Starfield continues, um, basically that they're going to continue with Starfield. Um Fallout 76 is still continuing. Obviously, they've just done the new DLC for it, but there's um plans to obviously keep um going with that. Um but they did um also say this, which was very interesting. Um, we also know many players want to revisit previous Fallout experiences. While we're not announcing any dates today, we have been working on remasters for both Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas. Um, so they also they confirmed that. Um, and they also said Fallout uh is one of our biggest priorities today. Fallout 5 remains our long-range destination, and we have multiple Fallout projects in active development right now. So Fallout is clearly, or Fallout 5 sorry has clearly been worked on in some capacity. They have an idea for it, how much resource has been put towards it, who knows. Same for these Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas remasters, which again we discussed this before. Why they didn't come out at the time of the Fallout TV series, you could have done one another, like Fallout 3 came out with the first series, New Vegas came out with the second series, or whatever variants you might want to do, which would have made sense because Fallout the second series actually features quite a bit from New Vegas, you know, it's got Mr. House and the whole kitty and caboodles, that would have been the perfect tie-in. Um but yeah, it uh they clearly are doing it, but uh again, this we haven't put this in this um channel of news that we've got, but uh it was sort of clear that they were going through the fur uh Xbox were going through the first party studios are basically shoving a rocket with the backside of what you're doing, get on with it, and let's just get some games out, which I know it's easier than that, and it's not quite as simple as make a game. But if you've got a r a a project, let's double down on it, let's get it, let's get it gone, let's let's get on with it, let's not have five projects on at one time. Do that, finish it next one, next one, next one, next one. Because again, as we know, uh people want games, you know, they want the series, they want the games, they don't want to wait ten years for the next fallout, the next oblivion, the next whatever. Just put everything into it. Let's get it gone, let's get it on with, and and I hope that that does happen in the nicest way possible. That you know, again, you don't want people working to the bone and working silly hours and blah blah blah. But just this this is the perfect thing to help Xbox right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:48

Well, you can't you can't help but wonder whether there was a conversation between Phil and Todd at some point, which was like, Todd, we want you to make Fallout 5, and Todd's like, Yeah, but I want to finish Elder Scrolls first. But we really want you to make it, let's give it to another studio, they can help you. No, no, no, I want to make it. Oh, okay, that's fine. We'll get round to it when you get round to it. And then obviously, I think the new brooms come in, Sharma's come in, and just gone, like, guys, what are we doing? I mean, I reading on your uh your Twitter feed here, um uh that you know, we'd like to congratulate uh Kelter Films and Amazon Studios on the 10 Emmys nominated for Fallout season two and production free is already underway. You know, Fallout is in people's minds if they have Amazon Prime. So, and obviously they've done a great job with get getting Fallout 76 there and constantly updating it. But to go, look, here you go, here's a re like we just talked about with Assassin's Creed, here's a re-jigged game. It's a you know, it's a little bit nicer, we've put it through the washing machine, we've cleaned it up. Sorry, James is now shouting, going, you don't just put a game through the washing machine and clean it. Do you know how much it takes? Um, but he's you know, you to get something out, even if it was in between the middle of fall season out season season two of Fallout, because I think there was a bit of a delay, but uh but yeah, I mean reading down here as well. I mean, it's um let me just move it up. Um uh Fallout shelter continues to be the most popular way to experience Fallout on the go with more than 250 million players. Um, you know, season uh where was it? Um Starfield, over 17 million players have logged in with over a billion hours today at Starfield remains an important part of our future as we end in year three. And it, you know, it's all really, really good news. So, you know, let's just, you know, there's some fantastic studios out there. You know, let them do some weird and wonderful things with the Fallout, you know, like Halo Wars and do some weird stuff. You know, we had the Go games, didn't we? Completely different, but we had like the Go games, which were like mobile games for key brands like Hitman. It was still very much Hitman, but it was a very different idea of a game and got people still talking about Hitman. So, yeah, let's let's get let's get some more Fallout stuff there because I'm itching to play some more.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:17

Yeah, definitely. And if you look further down, it's like Fallout 5 is currently in pre-production. The Elder Scrolls 6 is our primary development focus today, with the majority of our team currently working on the next chapter of the franchise. So I just obviously Fire 5 is coming, but again, it's as and when. And I like you say the new brooms come in, and I know they won't be doing this, but it's almost like they've come in, they've opened Dorothy Office. A lot of people sat with the feet on like the feet on the desk and just playing games like oh no, like uh-oh, uh-oh, like look busy, like quickly, da da da. And obviously, it isn't like that, but it's like why like you say, we've got like we're losing these development teams, can't they be redeployed? Like there's you're not like phone of it for you're a floating team. You are a team of developers or talent or what have you. You go to a studio that is requirement is required for you in terms of whatever, right? They need you for fallout, go work on fallout, they need you for call of duty, what if you go work on that? So you don't have a a set aboard, I guess, is what you or what I'm saying, but at least you can be redeployed to say, well, I'm a talented coder, developer, level designer, writer, whatever, animator. And I've worked on these various projects. And that surely breeds creativity, you know, diversity, you know, a lot of new ideas that people might not have apart from the same team that's working on the same franchise again. Why can't we do that? You know, if uh you know Xbox was to become a a publisher or like you know, get out of more console in like we're gonna just make great games. Well, right, this is what we're gonna do. Work on that, work on that, work on that, work on that, you know, and and yeah, I think this is the thing when uh one studio has many different great titles, like Bethesda. You know, they've got Fallout and they've got Elder Scrolls, they've got Starfield and so on and so forth. But yeah, but just get on with it, just have a bit of urgency. Do you know what I mean? It's ten ten years is a long time to wait for a sequel, a very, very long time.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:11

Yeah, and I think it's just it's like sometimes you have everything in life, you you give that same brief, that same thing to someone else, and they come up with a completely different idea. It doesn't matter what job you do, what business you're in, it's exactly the same. You look at it a certain way, someone else comes and look at it a different way. So, you know, there could be some really cool games out there, you know, there could be some really good versions of you know, Halo of Gears, of Fallout, that people could just go, do you know what? We've always thought that we could do a Fallout style X, Y, and Z. And and yes, that may not be Fallout 5, that may not be Halo Infinite 2, but it's still keeping that um, you know, that that that IP in front of the people, so yeah, and and I and I I believe that it's gonna be a painful year for Microsoft, for Xbox, um, and I hope that once this turmoil is over, it might be a leaner, meaner machine, which does have the ability to turn out games, and yeah, maybe it's like no no, you need to get around to doing that. We're gonna bring someone else in to do it, and actually the powers that be sort of say, right, this is what we want. We're gonna give you some assistance from this team, because this team are really good at doing X, and and uh Anthony will get another Viva Pinata.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:36

That's that's all we need, isn't it? Realistically, that's all we need, you know. And and and a separate tangent, but obviously playground working on fable, you know, who made Farza. So clearly, you can go from we do this really well, but we can also work on this game as well. Do you know what I mean? So widening the horizon and scope of what people can do. So yeah, I I think it like you say it's gonna be painful, but surely in amongst all of this, something good has to come out of it. That we're a collaborative unit, everyone works together. You might go to a different project and work on a different game, but something that good is gonna come out of the end of it. Do you know what I mean? Rather than unfortunately being lost or let go. But hopefully, once this is done and the dust settled a bit, we're gonna get some good games and the whole division and branch is gonna be much better for it.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:20

Did you do that on purpose, by the way?

unknown 1:25:23

What?

SPEAKER_00 1:25:23

When you went playground working on something new on the horizon? I did not. No, I did not. No. No, I'm just gonna I've got Forza Horizon on my brain. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:33

No, I didn't think no, no, it just reminded me now I'm angry about Forza again. I'm angry now. I'm angry now.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:39

Yeah, you better not do me, you better not do me disjustice when I'm playing Fable like you've just done in Forza.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:46

Oh no, that'll be at them. I'll never play any of their games again, I swear.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:49

I put 48 hours into Fable and I'm just wiped out the last 40 hours of it.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:54

Oh, imagine. Raging.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:56

Right, so our last story is with me, uh, and it's a uh it's just a very brief PlayStation

PS Plus Picks And Subscription Value

SPEAKER_00 1:26:03

one. Um so July's PS Plus games catalogue titles include Rise of Ronin and Avatar Frontiers of Pandora. PlayStation has announced that this month's PS Plus games catalogue titles include the forementioned. Uh joining them are Firefighter Simulator, Ignite, Mighty Morph of Power Rangers, Dying Light, Citizen Sleeper 2, the Snow Bros Wonderland. Uh two Retro Pierce 2 games are also included uh to the classic catalogue this month. Uh Pierce Iops, the Mind Gate Conspiracy, and Indigo Prophecy or Fahrenheit as it was known in Europe. Every game in the catalogue will be available for Pierce Plus Extra and Pierce Plus Premium subscribers, with the two retro games only available for the premium tier. Um, so yeah, it's uh so yeah, Avatar Frontiers is coming out on July the 21st, Rise of Ronin is coming out on the 15th for the US and the UK, and the 16th for Japan. Uh Firefighter Simulator on the 21st, uh Mighty Morph and Power Rangers uh is on the 28th, um, Dying Lights is on the 28th, Citizen Sleeper is on the 28th, and uh Snowbros is can you guess the gate date when it's gonna be?

SPEAKER_03 1:27:28

Uh is it the 28th? It's the 28th, yep. How did you guess that? I just had a feeling, just had a feeling.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:34

Uh PSOPS is or Pierce Night Ops is the 21st, and Indigo Prophet Prophecy, can't say that word, is the 21st. So again, it's um it's like we touched on earlier, it's just it's giving you those some of those games, uh, you know, um, like your firefighter simulators and and you sit and say dying light is one of them I don't think I ever played. Um, and it's just again, it's giving. The the ability as a a PS Plus member, a Game Pass member to jump in and go, Oh, do you know what? I fancy something different today before this game comes out or I finish that game and and uh yeah, it's giving you some more stuff to play.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:13

Yeah, it it definitely is, and I and I must admit I did briefly look at um PS Plus when the whole shenanigans were um game pass was happening and obviously becoming more expensive. I still don't think there's enough to make me do it. I think it just I think it just needs I I d I still believe, and I'll I'll live and die by this sword and down this hill. If they said like the PS2, PS3, PS4, whatever bat catalogue was on it, and obviously PS portal, you could play remote now and play these games. If I said, right, your PS3 classics on there, right, your PS2 classics on there, you've got me, you'd have me. And I don't know that sounds ridiculous, that it's not the new stuff that's getting me. But again, like it's almost like what Minecraft is your first party stuff. Your first party should be your bread and butter. Do you know what I mean? Is that should be on there in terms of like this is available now. And even if it's in waves, and even if it's just a month, like one month it's this, one month it's that, and so on and so forth. But yeah, like I I there's just not enough, and I think it's still a little bit confusing the different tiers and the different levels um to make me jump in. Um, maybe if it does that, uh having the portal element would be more appealing. Um, but yeah, it's nice that there's that bri that broad mix, but to me Game Pass still just does more than PS Plus for me.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:29

I think, yeah, I mean I had PS Plus premium, I think it was, for a for a while, for quite a few years, and I can honestly say, okay, yes, I know I'm more green than blue. Um it's just but it is my go-to console. I've got one downstairs, I've got one up here, and I've got the ROG. Um, and my PlayStation is my exclusive. I will play Wolverine on it, you know. I do play Ratchet and Glank and God of War and things like that. Um but I do find that when I switch on and look at Game Pass once a week or once every couple of weeks, and I go, I wonder what's coming up, or wonder what's new. There's always something which is like, well, do you know what? I'll jump into that. And I see Anthony do it all the time. I mean, if there's any when you look on the app who's played this game, I can guarantee that virtually all games that are on Game Pass, maybe apart from Barbie rides a horse, Cheston's.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:23

And Fortnite.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:24

Yeah, and Fortnite. Any games that's played Fortnite, Cheston's actually dived in and played it. So um, but uh, but yeah, so it's uh yeah, I mean, we don't know. Sony, Sony and Xbox or Sony and Microsoft are two very different companies and they look at things very differently. So, but hey, if you whatever you're subscribing to, enjoy it and enjoy your games. And uh with that, Steve, our podcast for this week, um, episode, what were

Football Chat And Sign-Off

SPEAKER_00 1:30:51

we? Episode 186, I think. Uh it is, yeah, is uh is completely over. Uh, thank you very much for your time. It is uh it is a Saturday night because we both wanted to watch England get through to the World Cup final. Oh, the second. Hold up, hold up. No, wrong one. No, no, wrong one.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:09

No, wrong, no, oh, lost it. No, no, he's bottled it, he's bottled it. I'll find it now. Where's my sad trumpet when I need it? There you go. There it is. There you go. Yeah, instead, Stu, we can go watch him playing the most pointless third place playoff game known to man. Yay!

SPEAKER_00 1:31:28

Yeah, and it's all about I mean, I did I heard a statistic. Sorry if anybody doesn't listen to what listen or watch football, but I did hear a statistic the other day, which was like um FIFA have made the perfect, found the perfect marriage with America. You know, the hydration breaks I think was 350 million Power Aid paid for that. Tomorrow's final is half an hour, half time.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:51

Because the halftime show isn't there.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:52

Because Justin Bieber or someone like that is singing, and it's just like I think I heard something along the lines of Qatar four years ago made 400 million, America has made close to 900 million.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:07

It's just that they had some sort of press conference today, and uh there's a real phrase that only was that I want to keep this more of a PG podcast, but honestly, it were Trump and what's his first one FIFA just like, oh, it's just it's just you couldn't make it more obvious that you are you've got some sort of back-handed dodgy deal between you if you tried, oh it's been great, and oh yeah, it's been the best World Cup ever, and blah blah blah. It's like, oh mate, just shut up. Just I I'm not it's not even a fact that I'm bitter about England not being in the final. I wasn't really geared up for this World Cup anyway for this very reason. Do you know what I mean? You just knew it was gonna be American and they're in the back pocket, and it's just yeah. You will change everything to suit America. Why America's building interest in football, granted, but this is gonna turn into a football and sports podcast separately.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:54

But it was it was to end up end on one one funny note was that the morning of the on the on the Wednesday morning, my wife turned around to me and went, So are you watching tonight? And I'm like, Yeah, she's like, You've never you haven't watched one single whole England game because you've fallen asleep through it, because obviously they were on past me bedtime. That sums up the football we've been playing thus Julia, to be fair. It was like she's like, You can't watch tonight. And I'm like, why are we because if you watch tonight we'll lose and we're and it's bad luck. And no, we won't lose, and if we lose, it's not because of me. Of course, when we when we were like when we went 2-1 down, and we I just looked at her and went, Yeah, well, but when we were 1-1, I looked at her and went, This is over, this is gonna end 2-1. There's no way we're gonna win this, and then they scored to 2-1, and she just turned around and looked at me and just gave me this look of disapprovement, like, this is all your fault. And I'm like, Right, time to go to bed.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:54

Yeah, I was true. I entered two Facebook competitions like the the the few days beforehand, and uh both I went, it's two and Argentina, it's two and Argentina, and it's like it happened because I just knew it would be E and whether you think it was I don't think we got cheated out of it. I know there was a steer that we would I think I think we just they were just a better team, you know. It's I don't I wasn't even upset, I was more annoyed that we just succumbed to the inevitable England every single time that we just let ourselves down.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:22

Well we just we just we just played defend we just we tried to defend against the world's best team for 20 minutes. Law of averages says it's not gonna happen. So uh but anyway, right. So this is a game. We've lost everybody now. We've lost everybody. Well, maybe we could just say we were playing it on FIFA, or not FIFA, uh what's it called? Uh FC or something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, Steve, thank you very much for taking your Saturday night to pod with me. Uh, where can people find you on the internet?

SPEAKER_03 1:34:53

Yeah, people can pretty much find me everywhere at uh Steak91. Uh that's on PlayStation, Xbox, YouTube and Instagram, TikTok. I think I'm Steak1991. Um, but yeah, if you just search me um Steak91, you'll pretty much find me everywhere. I think they say for Twitch as well. But yeah, you'll find me if you look up me up under that uh that handle.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:14

And uh thank you for doing the um socials for gamers. I nearly said inside CI then. I need you to start doing that as well. Uh but uh don't start getting paid. Don't find it's not getting paired. You've got a billion subscribers. No, actually goodness of my heart. In fairness, I I logged into TikTok for the first time in ages today, and uh and there's quite a good smattering of like views across all those type of things. So so if you are listening to this, do look at Gamers and Lost Spark podcast or Lost Spark Podcast, I think it is, uh, on all socials because Steve's been putting up some clips and some bits and pieces, uh, which has been very much appreciated.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:53

Um just a nice bit of fun. It's a nice bit of fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:56

Yeah, and and um and it's been there's been a few ones on there that he's been playing Rage Baity, like you know, uh like is this the is this the way to play Forza or something like that? But it's uh it's been quite interesting seeing the statistics. Uh and then obviously on the YouTube channel, um uh we've got Steve's doing some streams on Twitch, which we I then downloading and putting up on YouTube. I've been doing the hour play, so do go along to Lost Parts Podcast on YouTube as well if you're not what they're already watching this. Uh I am uh general letdown on Xbox or PlayStation, but as I said, you'll probably more likely find me playing Forza on Xbox and on social media, you'll find me uh at Mr. Stuart Burgess. Um, he's still on the dock, so I'm still gonna read him out.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:43

I'm gonna say, are you gonna end up saying that you'll find me under chess man? Is that yeah, you're not chess man.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:48

He's still he's still on it. So if you want to find the OG himself, um Anthony, you can go and find him on chess man on Xbox, PS hyphen chess man on PlayStation, and a whole mixture of social media uh handles to find him on the interweb. So uh, but uh yeah, but thanks for listening, thanks for watching. If you've got any feedback, please click on the link in the notes or send an email to Hallow at GamersLustSpark.com and we will speak to you again in a couple of weeks, and thank you very much for your time, Steve. No, you're very welcome, mate. Looking uh looking forward to the next one already. Excellent. Cheers, guys, have a good weekend, see you soon.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:23

Bye bye.