Unofficial Controller Podcast
Your number one weekly gaming podcast for all the latest Sony Playstation , Microsoft Xbox , Nintendo Switch and PC News. Retrospectives , Readers Mail and Industry Chat.
Unofficial Controller Podcast
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Discovering an Epic RPG Universe
Gaming solo doesn't mean gaming alone. This week, RGT takes the helm for a more intimate journey through his recent gaming adventures, bringing the same passion and insights our community has come to love.
Fresh off completing Lego City Undercover after a satisfying 15-hour campaign, RGT reflects on how this accessible open-world title balances simplicity with genuine fun. While not challenging, the game offers surprising depth with its collectibles and side missions that could easily extend playtime to 30+ hours for completionists.
The heart of this episode lies in RGT's unexpected love affair with Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition. Despite limited previous experience with JRPGs, he's become completely absorbed – logging an impressive 10 hours in just two days. His approach of mastering one system at a time offers valuable guidance for anyone intimidated by complex games. From the intricacies of combat to the sci-fi narrative of humanity rebuilding on an alien planet, RGT's enthusiasm for this former Wii U exclusive is infectious.
Gaming news brings promising developments across all platforms: Assassin's Creed Shadows surpasses 2 million players in 48 hours, Monolith Soft strengthens Nintendo's first-party lineup, and Xbox continues its commendable focus on game preservation and backwards compatibility.
Whether you're curious about Xenoblade's complex systems, contemplating your next open-world adventure, or simply looking for gaming companionship on your commute, join us for this shorter but content-rich episode. And remember – there's nothing wrong with being given the unofficial controller. It's what you do with it that counts.
hello and welcome to the unfinished Podcast, your weekly gaming podcast, and joined by well me, rgt, just a solo show today. We're a bit short, a bit thin on the ground of presenters at the moment so unfortunately you're just going to have to work with me doing a solo. But you know we'll go through what I've been playing um, a little bit of news, what I'm hoping to play subs list. You know usual bits and pieces, but bear in mind the show might just be a little bit shorter, but, um, yeah, we'll see how we get on. So hope you're well. I'll be able to good week. I'll be able to good gaming week. Um, for me personally, I suppose I just better ask myself what have I been playing? Well, um, you'll be pleased to know you um, especially regulars listeners to the show that I've um finished lego city undercover. Um, I think about 15 hours. I think I'm putting up, I think it's about 15 hours. Um, but really good. Um, by all means not a tough game, um, but really good fun. Um, I know I spoke about it on previous weeks. Um, I thought the the end game was particularly good. Um, there were some good little battle scenes. There was a little boss battle. Um, not, I say not challenging at all. I suppose they have to keep it fairly um, simple for different ages, but for an open world game it was really good, fun, um.
Speaker 1:If you've got playstation premium or I think it's even on extras as well, definitely recommend playing it. Um, but no, really good. I mean, I think I'm what 25, 28 through trophies. So there's definitely scope to go back um and definitely play through some more. Pick up some more trophies. There's plenty of collectibles, um, there's plenty of side missions. There's collectible cars or rarity cars and bits and pieces you can do. So there is that option of of going back and getting more in depth in the game.
Speaker 1:I would imagine, if you want to 100 or um, platinum this game, especially on the playstation. I would imagine you'll be 25 hours plus. I would imagine 30 hours to do it. But I think it'd be a good game to do and definitely something I'm not ruling out in the future of of going back and trying to get those trophies. But, like we say, when you're doing a weekly podcast, you're under quite a bit of pressure to change your games up. So I don't really want to be playing it too much, maybe a bit behind the scenes, pick some trophies up here and there, but, yeah, good, I'd recommend it if you want something easy going, if you want something that's open world, not too challenging, something you ain't got to think about too much over a weekend.
Speaker 1:This is a good, fun game to play and, like I say I know I said I think it was last week. I said to Shane I didn't do a second one, but I did look up and I think there was a prequel on the 3ds. I might be wrong, community corrections on our discord, let me know. I think it was DS or 3ds. Um, which is sort of a prequel, which which, uh, you know, it might be worth, might be worth getting and having to play on that. But yeah, but that was good. That. But yeah, but that was good. Um, but there's only been one other game this week, um, and I know I was talking to a few of you guys on discord. Um, they asked me what I've been playing that's on the switch, and I said, well, wait and see, I'll tell you. Tell you on this week's show, um, but I know I think a couple of you other guys have picked it up as well. Um, I got it on release and that is Xenoblade Chronicles X, the definitive edition.
Speaker 1:I've never really been a Xenoblade player. I've dabbled with the first one, I believe, which I've got remasters on the Switch. I think that was definitive edition as well. Whatever it's called, um, I've dabbled with that. Um, I struggled with that time. I struggled with the combat, the way the combat worked. Um, I found it. It was a different way of doing combat and I sort of played for a few hours and I came away and I didn't go back. But for some reason I've got Xenoblade Chronicles X on the Wii U, which was what that originally came out on, but never tried it.
Speaker 1:And then this Definitive Edition came out and I thought, do you know what? I quite fancy it and being as more of a spin-ff, not even a spinoff, more of a separate complete game, I thought, well, I'll watch a couple of playthroughs and walkthroughs on YouTube and I just liked I watched someone playing through and the introduction and the storyline of the Earth being caught in this war between two alien parties and escaping with the ship. But they called it NLA because it had. Well, the ship was called the white whale but inside had NLA, which is new LA, which is like a almost like a small town sort of within the ship which so they can rebuild on a planet, and I loved all that and that sort of sci-fi twist. So I thought, hmm, I quite build on a planet and I loved all that and that sort of sci-fi twist. So I thought, hmm, I quite fancy this and I know they can be in depth and they can be complicated, but you know, I'm gonna try and give it the time. So I finished the day before I finished, uh, legacy undercover, the game came, um came actually day before my day off. So that evening before my day off I put about four hours in and then on my day off itself I put like another six hours in. So I've played 10 hours. So I'm enjoying it.
Speaker 1:There's a lot to learn in these games, as you guys know who have played the Xenlade games. I mean the story's deep, um, the law's deep, the, the menus and things you can do, from anything from weapons to armor to um probes you can put out in the ground, you can change them over. There's so much going on and I'll be honest, um, most games that I've played have been similar to this in the past. I probably would have put down now. If I'm being totally honest, I'd have gone oh, this is too in depth. Do you know what I mean? You've got to sink the hours in just to work bits out.
Speaker 1:But for some reason, with this game, I just can't seem to put it down at the moment and I'm still a complete novice. I'm learning as I go, but I thought, rather than it being an overwhelming experience where you just look at every single thing and think I can't learn all this, I'm giving up. I thought I'm going to concentrate one section at a time, concentrating on that, what I'm doing for a few hours, and then that'll teach you how that works and then move on to the next. So, for instance, you play a lot of prologue and they teach you the basics of combat and the art system and the auto attack and bits and pieces which I'm really getting to grips with now. They teach you a bit of that. And then they teach you a bit of the story and the lore and about, and they show you around the White Whale and how New LA is built and bits and pieces, um, which is all really good. And then when I came out of that, I'd done two of the story missions um, I should say two of the story mission. I've done two of the chapters. I think there's about 12, 15 chapters. I've done one and two.
Speaker 1:Um then went into the third chapter where to go? There's this alien presence and that captured a few of our uh, a few of our humans from the base who'd been out in their mechs, um, um, or scales as they call them they call them scales in this game um, and they'd captured, I think they'd killed them. You have to go in and and take out these, these aliens, and I mean I'm I'm getting me bum handed to me on this um three times over. So I thought, no, I mean I think that was, I was going in at level eight. I think it was recommended level nine, which I found in this game If you go in at the same level or just under, unless you're really good at the combat, you are going to get a hide. And so I thought, well, what I'll do is then I'll go and do some of the side missions. So I thought, well, what I'll do is then I'll go and do some of the side missions so you can go into New LA and you'll.
Speaker 1:You know standard, you'll see the question marks, and there are various different side missions. Some of them are quite basic. To get parts for someone that works in a coffee shop or in the town, you have to go out and find these parts out in the wild and come back. Or in the town, you have to go out and find these parts out in the wild and come back and yeah, and there's, you know, your standard sort of side missions. For some reason, that world just intrigues me and even though the side missions are quite almost fetch quests or combat quests, that sort of thing, you always feel like you're trying to help build the base and things to help build the base and things to help you know humanity carry on, and I quite like that. So anyway, I've done those, I've done those side missions for until I'd run out. Basically, there was one left which was level nine.
Speaker 1:I thought that's too much for me. So then in in a little, uh, in in your base area, you've got like an armory street and then you've got another place with big screens you can do basic missions um, go off and collect this, go off and get this meat, go off and get, you know, discover this area, um. So I've then been doing those and it's a quite basic missions, but it's teaching me exploration. It's teaching me a bit more combat, easier combat. That's involved, um, so I'm just trying to take it step by step and learn as I go along. Um, but yeah, it's just, it's grabbed me a bit, I think. So 10 hours in two days is something that I very rarely do. Um, not often have I put that amount of time in a game, especially fan time, which is quite hard. But when it was delivered and the evening before and the day on the day off, it was, uh, yeah, it was, it grabbed me and I've been enjoying that.
Speaker 1:Um, it's, it's gonna be a big game, um, and it's. I mean, I know people are talking story, story wise, 90, 100 hours. Um, I think I will probably put a lot more in that, being a novice that I am in the Xena Blade universe, but it's not. I don't find it overwhelming. As I say, I've broke it down in these little areas. It's a complex game there's a lot to learn with and, like I said before, without repeating myself, from changing your weapons regularly to the next level up, you've got your class of what warrior or fighter you are, or blade as they're called, the blades, um, and then you've got your, you've, you've got your, your armor, you've got um, you can change classes as well, but then that affects your arts, which then you can upgrade art. You know there's, there's a whole in-depth world of built in here, um, and fair play to them, because I mean I think this quote me if I'm wrong I think this was, I'm sure this was a I think this was about a 30-odd gig game on the Wii U.
Speaker 1:Obviously it was on disk, but now obviously on the Switch, it's cartridge and I think they've improved the frame rate and the graphics and it's now down to like a 12, 14 gig download, which amazes me, because this game is, the map is huge. I mean, I was when I first I'd done a side mission for this woman called Kirstie and I'd put these probes in, and you can put these probes in the ground and you can link the probes up if they're the same. You can put different probes in, one for mine and one for um, discovery and bits, and you can link them up and then you'll get a reward from back from doing that. And I'd traveled out and put these three and I felt I was traveling in our time for hours and I, literally I was just round like a semicircle of where the base was in LA. The map's massive. I mean it is huge.
Speaker 1:I'm sure someone said to me it's bigger than Breath of the Wild, map Hyrule, which, again, with what's going on and your complex battles and a lot going on on screen, if it's really complex you'll get frame drops. I mean it runs. It runs it well. It aims to run at 30 fps, which I think for the most part it pretty much does. You get the odd frame drops when it gets complicated. But even so, how they've got that massive world on on a like that, I don't know. And fair play to them, because, yes, it's HD and everyone's got 4K TVs now and your Series X and your PS5s are 4K, but still looks good. I had to tweak my TV a little bit. I mean, I've got a 65-inch 4K telly and it's still a world where you think do you know what I mean? The draw distance, everything is really good. Yeah, it looks fantastic.
Speaker 1:So I think after about I'm sure I saw on a on a playthrough after about 20 hours, you, you get the chance to get your own scale then so you can fly around and take on missions in your in, like your big mech, um. So that's all going to be my own point to get to that, that sort of level of the game, master the combat a bit more than what I am now. Um, because I'm dying quite a lot, but it's not I'm dying, but it's not um, it's not putting me off, it's just wanting me to learn more about the experience in this world, um, and because you can save whenever you want as well, which is such a godsend, rather than just checkpoint markers. So you know, if you think you're going into a battle, which is a bit hmm, this could be, this is going to be a tougher year. I'm likely to die, but I'm going to do it for the experience, to save just before you go in and you can come back to that point. So that makes it a lot easier, rather than trekking. And then, obviously, once you unlock the areas, you've got fast travel points as well if you need to travel around. But yeah, so far, I'm rating it highly.
Speaker 1:For the first time being in that sort of Xenoblade world and not really being from a background of JRPGs, yeah, I'm really enjoying it. It's a different experience to your Horizons or your Breath of the Wilds. It's that open world. But Xeno's their own sort of thing and you can tell they were passionate when they made this for the Wii U for the in-depth, how in-depth this game goes. Yes, it can put some people off and it's put me off xenoblades in the past, but I was hoping if I can play this one and really get into it, then I've got one, two and three to to go back through on the switch and enjoy, you know, and plenty of rpg goodness there. But yeah, so xenoblade chronicles x um. If you're a jpg fan or open world fan and you want something, you know, a good story, in-depth story, then yeah, I'd definitely definitely recommend that um. But that is pretty much what I've been playing. So you know. And there's two games, one done and um, one started. But I feel like 10 hours in I've barely touched the surface, but looking forward to more um.
Speaker 1:But we'll get into the news. We've scaled the very darkest regions of the internet to bring you this latest news first up. This is over on push square. Good friends at push square, assassin's creed shadows now surpasses two million players in two days. Wow, wow. I mean that's a lot to say. That hasn't been out long. The numbers keep going up for Assassin's Creed Shadows, which has now surpassed 2 million players across all platforms in two days. This puts it ahead of Assassin's Creed Origins and Assassin's Creed Odyssey in terms of player counts around release. We would assume that this number will peak over the weekend, followed by official sales figures next week, but right now it's looking like Shadow is a hit. Whether that'll actually be enough for Ubisoft, though, given the company's recent financial troubles, only time will tell. Original story. Assassin's Creed Shadows, though, given the company's recent financial troubles, only time will tell. Original story.
Speaker 1:Assassin's creed shadows has at long last arrived, and the players have come out swarming out of the woodwork on launch day to support it, not even 24 hours after going live, and ubisoft has already reported that more than a million players had begun Nao and Yuzuki's adventure through Food World Japan. It's an impressive turnout. Perhaps those nefarious individuals trying to stir up controversy have had the opposite effect, inadvertently pulling Ubisoft's bacon out of the fire. We can glean even further insights from players on Steam, where GamesRadar plus have been faithfully crunching the numbers, which have doubled since their initial report, with a peak of over 44 000 concurrent players on a weekday. That means shadows has repeatedly niced valhalla's efforts, which were at 15 431 at best, which would go in to be the best-selling entry in the series, and just managed to slip past the fan favorite origins at 41,541. Only odyssey 61,984 stands in the way of shadows achieving the series highest ever concurrent player count, and we think cassandra and alexios had better brace themselves for a kenobi battering over the weekend. Oh, and it currently enjoys a very positive rating from over 3 000 players. Perhaps the threat of reprisals from ubisoft for any unwarranted review bombing campaigns has had bad actors running scared.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to think the last Assassin's Creed I played was probably Valhalla and I know George is playing Valhalla now and he's well. It's the second time around I'm playing it. I found Valhalla a bit. You know more of the same from Ubisoft of their recent efforts and I just sort of I ground to a bit of a halt with it. Um, origins, as I always say, was sort of my favorite.
Speaker 1:Assassin's creed was origins. I loved that. That was the first in in that change from. You know they were shipping out assassin's creed yearly near enough, as always the open world FIFA, you know. And then I had that bit of a break and come back with that sort of more RPG-like style which Origins was. I loved that game, got the platinum, jumped into Odyssey and just couldn't get on Odyssey for some reason. And then my next experience was Valhalla and blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:I did try what was the one I released before Shadows Mirage. I put a couple of hours in Mirage and it didn't really click either. Maybe something I could go back to. But I mean I know there was a lot of controversy around this Shadows game, which probably you know hasn't helped with ubisoft's current situation.
Speaker 1:Um, it's been a struggle for them of late. Um, so they really need to pull something out the bag and I don't think outlaws star wars outlaws they released really hit the figures they wanted it to hit, although george um loved that game. Um, he put serious hours into that and we just had Ginge on our Discord, the Platinum King he's just platinum that and he said it's one of the best Star Wars games ever played. High praise indeed. So they're doing something right at the moment. Is it too little, too late for Ubisoft? Don't know. Time will tell. We'll see in the next few weeks, few months. But I mean this is a good start. I mean two million players in two days is, yeah, that's impressive and everyone seems to be enjoying it.
Speaker 1:I see a lot of content on YouTube about the game. It's definitely had me curious about the game. Um, I also think it's. I mean, I say I'm not a sport gamer now it's a funny time for games at the moment. Um, you know, xbox have sort of changed their route a bit. Although releasing and releasing good games, they obviously changed their way a bit and their sales have been hit a bit. Um, but then with playstation, I mean, their first party stuff is, you know, used to be regular, now it's, you know, it's missing, missing in action at the moment. So, yeah, you know you've probably got more players because of the current triple a situation, but even so, um, it's a good sign for them. Um, like I say that many players online can currently play and it is good. I mean you can see it probably getting more because, with the amount of stuff on YouTube and the amount of people doing playthroughs and walkthroughs, it's just going to encourage sales because they're all enjoying it. So, yeah, let's hope, let's hope this is a bit of a banger for them now and it gets more sales and hopefully it will help. Hope this is a bit of a banger for him now and it gets more sales and hopefully, you know, help Ubisoft out a bit and we can hopefully see them in a bit more of a better financial situation in, you know, in the coming months.
Speaker 1:Me personally, will I buy it? I don't know, I'm quite intrigued by it. I mean, from I've tried to sort of stay away from spoilers and bits, but, um, from what I've seen of it, um, it looks, it looks good Graphically, it looks nice. Um, I don't know too much about the story, but I'm thinking, you know, like I say, with current game situations, out in a minute, I mean out in a minute. I mean I think most of us, especially over here at the ucp, have been sort of hitting our backlogs a bit and trying to clear a few of the games. You know, I've been playing legacy undercover, for god's sake, um, but yeah, it's definitely something I think I could have a look at, maybe get into. But we'll see. I think if I hadn't, if I hadn't have sort of, you know, bought xenoblade, if I have jumped on that day one, then maybe Shadows could have been an option. But yeah, we'll see, we'll see when I've finally put all the hours into Xenoblade, where I am, but yeah, so hopefully fingers crossed for Ubisoft and yeah, good on you. You obviously made a good game. Next up over at Nintendo Life, they've done a story sound funny enough.
Speaker 1:Nintendo's Monolith Soft updates its Switch portfolio with latest release. Monolith Soft has become a huge part of Nintendo's software division and this week it rolled out Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition for Switch. Now that the game is available, it's followed this up with its usual website update, where it's now added this project to its already incredible lineup of games. This same page also features Nintendo projects. It's assisted like the Splatoon series, as well as the company's past games dating back to the GameCube and the PlayStation 2 era. The Switch generation alone has been an amazing period for Monolith Soft, and this is hopefully set to continue during the Switch 2 generation, now that Nintendo finally owns 100% of the company.
Speaker 1:The release of Xenoblade chronicles x definitive edition follows on from monolith soft's work on the legend of zelda tears of the kingdom in 2023. If you're curious to know more about the definitive edition of xenoblade chronicles x, be sure to check out the review on nintendo. Life definitely has a brilliant review, but award-winning switch version, um, and it gets an outstanding score. While it's already early days, the switch release should give this former wii u exclusive a much needed sales boost, and it appears to already be needed sale always excuse me already appears to be top of nintendo's e-shop charts in locations like the us and japan, as highlighted on social media. Um, yeah well, I mean firstly, on them updating it.
Speaker 1:When you actually look, if you go to nintendo live and look at this article, um, that's quite incredible the games that they they have done over the years, and I mean obviously now nintendo owns them there. You know it's a big, big dev for the, for nintendo, um, but I mean you look back and there's there's games that they've got a big back catalogue, you know, and you think you can see where I mean they've done many. You know different styles of games as well. You know with like they've worked on, you know like Pikmin 3 and Zelda on the 3DS and bits and pieces, but obviously you've got Xenoblade and their work on Tears of the Kingdom. But I mean it is a portfolio. I mean you sort of look at all them games and think the ones you probably hadn't heard of probably could be hidden gems and the rest is just, you know it's a brilliant back catalogue and I can understand why, especially at the moment, why that is selling as well as it has, obviously, the Wii U. I mean you know we all know the troubles that had that console and failed. And to think of that, you know this brilliant game being locked to a system that not a lot of people bought in retrospect to everyone else, yeah, it was going to be quite sad. So for them to rework that and get it back out again on the Switch and different to Assassin's Creed Shadows.
Speaker 1:This isn't because there's a bit of a shortage of good games. It's because it is a good game. There's a lot of hype around it. It's a big game as well. You know £49.99, you know pounds and dollars, whatever it is that that's released at, it's a big game for that money. So yeah, I can understand why it's doing well and I do think I think if you read a review on Nintendo Life, I think they gave it a 10 out of 10. So I know the SwitchUp boys done they were sort of late 80s percent. So they were sort of 88, 89 percent. So, yes, getting good scores across the board. And you've got to remember this is just a reworked old game, so it proves how good it is, how in-depth it is in the world they've created.
Speaker 1:Um, and it's going to be interesting to see where, where monolith, you know, go next and what they're working on. And, you know, will there be another xenoblade games, xenoblade chronicles 4, maybe, I don't know. Maybe there's going to be something in the pipeline for switch 2, um, you think, sort of them bigger open world, them sort of of RPGs, maybe, you know, for working on bits of Zeldas as well. I think that's going to be Nintendo's go-to dev for getting these games out and, yeah, that's going to be interesting to see, to see what they come up with. But I think, if this is anything to go by, I don't think Nintendo got to worry too much with Switch 2, because I think with that added power and you know, under nintendo got to worry too much with switch tubes. I think with that added power and you know, under the bonnet, these guys are probably going to make a pretty epic rpg. That same again, you can take an handheld mode on the go, so superb, yeah, brilliant.
Speaker 1:Um, a last story and lots of. I'm sorry the show was shorter this week, but I ain't got no one to bounce off, it was just me, but anyway. Our last, last story this week is from pure xbox. Xbox is seemingly hard at work on backwards compatibility for the next xbox consoles. Backwards compatibility has been a massive part of xbox one and xbox series x and s eras and we've already heard from the likes of Microsoft Gaming CEO, phil Spencer, how it's going to remain a key part of the brand moving forward. However, it may need to change along the way.
Speaker 1:Xbox is obviously embarking on a new strategy now, where every device is essentially considered an Xbox and, with rumours of a planned xbox handheld alongside a new xbox console in 2027, we're assuming one of the goals is to try and make console games playable on as many systems as possible. Windows central talked a little bit about this in a report on xbox and steam integration yesterday, mentioning that the next mainline xbox consoles are expected to make win 32 the preferred development environment, with microsoft working hard to integrate xbox and windows game development more closely into the future. However, it remains to be seen how backwards compatibility will be handled as the next generation rolls around. Where that leaves our existing library of Xbox One Series X S-era games remains to be seen, but it seems emulation is one avenue Microsoft is exploring for backwards compatibility and game preservation.
Speaker 1:Is exploring for backward compatibility and game preservation. Will it allow those games to run on windows devices like the rumored 2025 xbox handheld and the rog ally or any average gaming pc, though it's hard to say because there are some legal hurdles contractually about exactly what microsoft is allowed to do with third-party titles in its store. It appears that Xbox is working hard on backwards compatibility for the next Xbox consoles as we speak. Last year it was revealed by Xbox president Sarah Bond that a new game preservation team had been set up internally, and Windows Central's Jez Corden has advised that he's focused on compatibility for future Xbox devices. Right now, the handheld is going to be a particularly interesting case, as we've heard from some Xbox fans how they are not massively interested in a device that can't play console games natively. Xbox Play Anywhere will fill in for the for the time being, with over a thousand supported titles, but we're still holding out hope for native console support eventually. Whatever ends up happening, it's great to see that xbox remains extremely committed to backwards compatibility and game preservation going forward, and we're fingers crossed for some exciting innovations and announcements around this topic over the coming years?
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, with with all X-Boxes ups and downs and, um, what microsoft is doing with that with them at the moment? Um, that's one thing they've always been pretty clued up about and that's backwards compatibility and especially now with, you know, conserving titles and conserving old games, and I think we were talking about this. Um, we talked about a few weeks ago, I believe, on the show. Um, and I said to george, obviously they got their games passed. At the moment, you got your backwards compatibility as well, which is, you know, it's no mean feat to program this into consoles where you can limit numbers. But, you know, if your xbox 360 game or your xbox one game is on the list, pop it in the system and play, you know, I know the ps5 has got the back compatibility with the ps4, but if you can go back to your 360 as well and play, um, it makes a big difference, you know. Yes, it's just, I remember playstation releasing stats years ago saying, you know, less than 10 of people actually used it, but I still think it's brilliant to have it there. Um, for instance, I've been, you know, over the last 18 months. I'll keep dipping into the hailey marsh chief collection which I've spoke about, to end on the show. But having to plan that on your series x is is a big thing. You know that's nice, it looks good, it upscales it, um, and it's it's great going forward and not a sale.
Speaker 1:I think we were talking on the show, um, I think it was a few weeks ago, and I said I think it would be brilliant if they made like like a games pass, but a retro one, so they put in, you know you go back to the, the og xbox. I mean there is a lot of exclusives on that console. If you could get them running even. You know, like just as a emulation pass. You know retro emulation pass. You had all them old xbox exclusives and jade empire and things like that playing on there. And then you go up to the 360 with you know, gears of war and bits and pieces and your halos. I mean you could have a really good sort of retro library. One, you've preserved these games. Two, you've brought them up to a modern standard where you haven't lost the essence of the game but it's still playable. You can tweak them so the controls are a bit more. You know quality of life and it brings, you know it gets people back into them. You know, I noticed with when they just done, you know announced the ninja gaiden 4 and then they, you know, done the remastered ninja gaiden 2 black I believe it was um, you know, it's things like that that gets people to look at the back catalog when a new game comes out, if it's the first time people have played it and I think, oh, I wonder what the originals were like. Well, if you've got a retro games pass there, that may be brilliant to go back and play these older games, but looking good on your Series X or even a new console.
Speaker 1:As far as the handheld, it'd be interesting. I think there's. I might be wrong here, but I think there's two handhelds they've got planned for. I think one is, I think it's basically like a reskinned rog ally, I think so. I think there's going to be a bit of problem with playing your xbox library on there, um, but I think next year, 2026, I think, they're going to be releasing more of their own handheld, which will be interesting, um, because I mean, you know, although steam deck hasn't sold the numbers, they wanted it to it it's, it's pretty unique to have, you know, have that big, powerful handheld and all you need is your steam library on while you go. You know, yes, I know battery life, bits and pieces is a problem, but still still your PC gaming at a decent level that look good in your hands. So if Xbox next year can release this decent handheld with Games Pass on, I mean that's what you're going to need, isn't it? With the games coming onto Games Pass day one, new releases and the vast library that's already there, I mean it's going to be decent. So that's going to be interesting.
Speaker 1:But yeah, like I say for this Games Preservation, I think sometimes you've got to hold your hands up and say well done, I think it's brilliant what they're doing. I'd like to see a bit more talk about the game preservation from the other big two, nintendo and Sony. You sometimes hear whispers but you just think, look, you know it's probably when you know the big three could probably sit there around the table and say, look, we need to preserve our old titles, get something in place so they get saved, the ROMs get saved, whatever, because you know there's a lot of games that get lost. You know the guys over at GOG, they do a great job bringing back all the old PC titles and work tirelessly to bring up the modern spec and so you can still play them today. And if it's locked to old hardware, you know, going back to Xenoblade Chronicles X, for instance, you know if you'd played the remastered 1, 2, 3 Xenoblade on the Switch, then wanted to play X and they hadn't remastered that you know you've got to go and find yourself a Wii U, you know, and you can buy them easy enough. But they're getting scarcer and you get a few more years down the line. They're probably going to be a rarer console. So a console. So yeah, it's great, it's great to have, have, have these games saved, have these games playable for, for a new audience. Um, yeah, I think fantastic, I think well done. Rexbox um, that's great to have a division doing this as well. Um, and just, yeah, it's going to be interesting to see what you know, what they come up with, um, as far as playing these old games, preservation of these old games, and seeing what the handhelds are like. So watch this space, I think end of this year, you know, 2026, just to see where Xbox are. But that's all the stories done in the news this week, one from you know, each one from Nintendo, one from PlayStation, one from Xbox.
Speaker 1:This brings me round to doing our subs list. Now, if you're new to the show, you're probably thinking what's the subs list? Then these are just our supporters, who help us financially. We have a tier system. If you ever want to know the tier system, jump on our discord or email us, or you can contact us questions at unofficialcontrollerpodcastcom. Dm us on Instagram, dm us on Twitter. I mean, I'm on Instagram as RetroGamerThomas. We've got the Unofficial Controller Podcast is on Instagram. Dm us.
Speaker 1:We can give you the tiers. We don't read them out every week, you don't need to read them, but we basically have the four tier levels. Basically, all tiers are covered with the inclusive stuff. So we do a Zoom meetup, quarterly Zoom meetup, and we do an unglorious little chat, which is a little section subscriber area chat in Discord. But then after that, as the tiers come up, it's basically just a little bit of extra merch each level you go up. Um. So that's going to be good. We've got our um new bits of merch coming out within sort of the next four weeks, I would imagine. Um. So if you're on that sub lift, don't forget I'll be messaging you for your t-shirt sizes if you're top tier, but if not, then I'll be asking for addresses so we can send out your new bit of artwork or your mugs or whatever tier you're in, so that'll be good. And then part of that, from the very lowest tier, is we get to read them out on the show each week, which is what I'm going to do now.
Speaker 1:So we start off with Seanox, our friend from Sweden. Thank you very much, seanox, much appreciated, as always. And then we have the one man George fan club. That's Carlos, who works tirelessly to be the one man george fan club. But yeah, bless you. Thank you, carlos. Then we've got the wonderful firm returns. Um, thank you very much, mate. All your insights and everything are brilliant. Um, ever need a question, always a trouble to him. And, yeah, awesome, great support. Then we've got the wonderful trestles, new New York. Thank you, tressels. As always, long-term support of the show. Then we've got the wonderful and I won't be doing the accent, george is good at that, but I aren't. We've got the wonderful Badabingster. Thank you, mate. All the bits you do behind the scenes and your support, as always, is fantastic.
Speaker 1:Then we've got the awesome Digital Monkery. This guy is an absolute legend. He does our. We have a challenge accepted every month. He does all that. So he sorts out the challenges, does the score tables, winner gets a custom sticker. He also sorts out our um. Uh, we have a lot of screenshot competition each month, um, which was truly one last month. Thank you very much, much. So yeah, and he sent me through a key ring, a UCP key ring. So I was very pleased with that because I didn't actually have one which is weird being a presenter, but I didn't have one. But he also sent Mrs RGT a 3D movie because he knows she collects 3D movies. So, bless your heart, thank you very much for that.
Speaker 1:Digital Monkery he's also one of the enforcers on the discord, so if everyone gets a few swores in or gets a bit agitated, you'll be answering to him. And you'll be answering to boba, who you'll see further down the list as well. So you have been warned um. Next up we have the game gram. Thank you very much, mate. Another long-term sport very much appreciate. Then we have the wonderful board border, as always, thank you, mate. Awesome sport then we have I suppose george is going to want me to do this germ brand. It's a wonderful bogle over. Yep, here's. The other is our sort of community manager runs discord. He's always lurking there under the surface making sure there ain't no trouble. You know he's not Dan, he's not coming in, pew Gurnbrand. So, yeah, thank you, boba. As always, brilliant.
Speaker 1:Then we have George's red-headed stepson, ginge, the platinum god as we call him. So he must be, I think he's, I can't even remember. I think he's 616 platinums now. So I mean absolute platinum machine. And yeah, he was talking about earlier who's just done Star Wars Outlaws. So well done again, ginge, brilliant work as always. And we have the lord of darkness himself, harvey Retro. Check out his youtube channel brilliant, absolutely fantastic.
Speaker 1:Long-term support of the show, um, and uh helped us of artwork bits and pieces. Um, yeah, real clever guy and a wonderful guy as well. Then we've got the lovely emma sharp. Thank you, emma. As always, your support is uh, very much appreciated. And uh, keep rocking that UCP t-shirt. You'll have a new one soon, don't worry about that.
Speaker 1:And then we've got well, as we say every week, we have no idea where Greg is because he ain't nowhere near Berlin. But, as always, brilliant Greg, thank you very much for your support. And I hope over at Forever Sky he's there. Hope the game's going well for you guys. Next up we have Mumsy. We're there. Hope the game's going well for you guys. Next up, we have Mumsy. All I can say on that one Mumsy's always going to support us. Bless her. Then we have the ultimate the RGT fan club. Thanks to everyone for that. That's absolutely brilliant. Then we've got the awesome Pete Brocklehurst. Thank you, Pete, the hardest man in the UK. Rather than juggle footballss, he juggles breeze blocks. That's the sort of guy he is. Then we've got love and hate in Billy Marmite. Thank you, billy. Then we've got awesome Simon Pryke. Thank you, simon, another brilliant supporter of the show. And then, as I'm contractually obliged to do but I will try and tone it down a little bit because it is getting a little bit out of hand is, uh, fat sangief. Thank you, mate. Very much appreciated and they are our subs and just like to say thanks for you guys.
Speaker 1:Um, you know, week in, week out, we know we put the show out very occasionally or rarely. Do we miss a week? Um, yes, we have five presenters. We sort of rotate. Obviously a bit thin the ground at the moment, but it is a lot of work.
Speaker 1:Um, behind the scenes, with the merch and the writing, the shows and stuff, um. And then we've got our equipment, um, so the the, that little extra help. I know you know people who are just at the lowest tier, three bucks, um. You probably think, oh, you know, I'm not. You know, it's not really much of a difference. It makes all the difference, um, from the bills of the show, from, from our utilities, from everything, from equipment. Like I say, it makes a massive, massive difference to us. So just a huge thank you to you all. Your support's wonderful. I know a couple of people have increased their support lately. It's brilliant.
Speaker 1:But don't forget, the show's always free. It's always going to be free. We live in tough times. We're not expecting anything from anyone. If you just like listening to the show, just listen to the show. There's no, you don't miss out on anything from not being a sub.
Speaker 1:But I will say don't be a lonely gamer. If you listen to the show and you love the show, you like talking games, you want to meet more people who are gamers, who you can chat to in a very friendly space. Try a discord, jump onto our discord, come and say hi, come and have a wave, and we've got various things in there from. Um, we've got things from a little section we call listener stingray, which you can show your latest pickups. We've got swap shops you can swap games with people. Um, we've got. We've got movie section. We've got music section. We've got general nonsense. We've got culinary delights. Even your holidays, we chat about anything on there, but obviously the essence is is gaming. So if you want to join, join a great little family, just jump on there, come and say hi, um, and and yeah, you won't be disappointed. Everyone's so friendly on there.
Speaker 1:Um, and that probably makes me move on to what I'm hoping to play. Um, well, I think we can probably decide where this is going. Um, seeing the blade chronicles x, obviously. Um, gonna have six more hours than that. I feel like this game and this isn't a gripe, by the way way, this is a plus point I think I feel like I could put another 10 hours in this game and have barely moved the needle on it. But that's a good thing, because I'm learning as I go. But yeah, I'm just fascinated by the world, intrigued by how big this game is, and I just keep looking at that little tiny cartridge and just thinking, wow, that's impressive, that's well played. You know, monolith, you've done a turn there, well done. So there'll be a lot more of that.
Speaker 1:I would imagine I need to get back onto Dishonored on my PS3. I've got a weekend off next weekend so I think, other than getting a show out, I've I will try and um get some more dishonored done, because I was really enjoying that game and, you know, looks really good on a on a ps3. There's something alluring about the ps3 with me at the moment. I just love playing it. So, yeah, I'll get back onto that um.
Speaker 1:What I also forgot to mention in my um what I've been playing. I've been playing my last in gem um, so that I was going to do that this week in gem, but obviously, with um a percent it's not been able to make it and some of them being poorly in bits and pieces. I will just say I'm thinking about you guys. Don't worry, I know you'll all be back soon. Rgt's here, I'll hold the fort till you're back. Do not panic, no worries, um.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so I wasn't doing this week, but I hadn't quite. I'd done one play through years ago, so I wanted to play back through just to make sure I'd got it right and you know anything you want to talk about um, so I've been. I've been playing that um. All I'll say is it's on a handheld again, um, but yeah, wait and see for that. That's a good in gem, a cheap hidden gem, um as well. So something a bit different, um, so that'll be good.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I'm hopefully gonna play, play more of that um, which will be good because it is, you know, although you know with um, with um xenoblade, it's um, it's a, although you know with Xenoblade it's a big. You know, sometimes I feel a bit overwhelmed and it's a big game. This is something a bit more chilled, just in the background, and I just think you know what, yeah, that's going to be nice to keep playing in between, but I think that is pretty much that. Like, I say sorry it's a shorter show this week, but you know, we always say we try and come out every week and we're down to one, but I've managed to get you one out. Give you something to listen to on the way to work, take the kids to school, you know, whatever. Just, yeah, give you a little something to listen to, a little bit of news, a little bit of what I've been doing a little bit of what I've been playing. So, yeah, thanks everyone. I'll say thanks to the subs again.
Speaker 1:Thanks everyone for listening. I mean, if you're a first-time listener, please give us a like on YouTube, because this will be on YouTube as well. Give us a like on YouTube, because this will be on YouTube as well. Give us a lot on YouTube. Give us a sub on YouTube. If you're a podcast listener, if you could like the show and give us a little review, even if it's just 10 words or just two words great show. These little reviews really go well for our algorithm. So if you could do that, that would be very, very much appreciated. And it just leaves me to say just remember everyone, there's nothing wrong with being given the unofficial controller. It's what you do, that that counts. That's me out rgt done and I'll see you next week, guys later. Outro Music.