Everybody.

Welcome to Gameless Mornings with Me Jeff Grub, your host from giant bomb dot com.

Thank you for tuning in.

In this episode, we're going to be talking about a big game getting a second chance with updates and new platforms, and how bad are things going to get at Naughty Dog in the next year or two.

It's gonna be a good one because we have Jason Finelli on the show.

Jason, how are you doing?

I am fantastic.

I can smell the holiday break, it so freaking close, and I am glad to be here with you on what I understand is to be the last Game mess Mornings of twenty twenty five.

Because Grub I happened to remember this morning and I took a screenshot.

I'll put it in our chat.

You and I started the year.

If you call back in the alternate lifetime, that.

Was January of this year.

Wow.

Yes, January sixth was a Monday and you and a much Nothing's happened since then, not.

A damn thing.

It's been a slow year.

Nothing happened with y'all.

Everything went according to plan.

But yeah, we were the first GMM of the year.

You reached out and invited me and now here we are on the very last one booke, ending the year with with a with A with a taste of Finelle, which.

We make a make it a tradition, the taste of Finelle tradition.

Everybody that we're all looking for.

Fantastic.

I'm glad we could make it happen that that That is right though, last show of the year, everybody for Game Mess Mornings.

We're going to be taking the next two weeks off.

It's Christmas next week, New Year's the week after that.

Uh, you know, A big part of that is the industry kind.

Of takes those weeks off.

There won't be that much news and if there is, well we'll talk about it when we come back.

We'll hit the New year running and I'm looking forward to it.

Love doing this show.

Love everybody who's stuck with us and kind of made it really work this year.

And and yet thank you all so much, and thank you Jason for starting it and and ending it with us.

Yeah.

Yeah, any plans for the holidays, any games you're going to catch up on, any any you know, travel, what do you got?

What do you got going on?

Mostly staying around this area.

A lot of our Christmas stuff happens here in Delaware County.

It'll be we host Christmas breakfast, we go to Christmas even at my parents Christmas dinners in a different spot every year.

I think it's in laws this year, who are right down the road, not not doing, not going anywhere majestic, anywhere far and nothing like that.

But as far as games go, I usually take the week to try and catch up on things, finish things from the year before.

I have a couple of short games I want to get to that I haven't played yet.

I don't know how to pronounce this, and I'm so sorry.

Is it desk below tea?

Yeah, that's how I say it.

Yeah, that's one that I have not played yet.

I want to probably do that in one sitting.

I understand, you give you that in one two to three hour sitting.

That's one.

I do need to finish the Game of the Year Claire Obscure at the TGA's because I probably we should right nine out of twelve awards.

It's it seems pretty good.

I want to Yeah, yeah, there you go.

That's when I want to finish, and a couple of other odds and then maybe start Metroid.

I do want to play that too.

Oh, it's it's worth playing.

It's it's got great mechanics, gameplay, really fun to play.

Yeah, but mostly it'll be, you know, hanging out with the family, just relaxing, recharging, and then hitting the ground running on.

In twenty twenty six, already have some things believe it or not, in the pipeline for the beginning of the year that came from the Game Awards, both online and in print.

Wink.

So we're we're we're excited.

We're excited here in house finale.

It's a good time.

I love it.

Yeah, it seems like it seems like things were happening at the Game Awards this year.

Really.

Yeah, I've never been.

First time.

Yeah, oh okay, god, yeah, first time.

And like if I were to say to you, I was up at five point thirty in the morning and didn't go to bed till two, you would think I was dead.

But I was energized and entire time good.

It was nuts.

I saw a bunch of cool people.

I did the game Spot announcement recap from a watch party, like in the room, like there's a bunch of suits to my left, bunch of people like pr to my right, and then myself and a couple others are just hammered away at these things.

I'm the only one reacting to things too, Like when when Jenny Kidd takes the stage for that Game of the Year medley at the end.

I have championed that woman since that game came out, Like she came out on stage, I lost it and I was getting looks and I don't give a shit.

That sound is awesome, She is awesome, That game is awesome.

Yeah it was.

It was wild, and I need to go every year now.

I think, good, Yeah, I think.

I definitely kind of think.

I'm like, nah, we were busy, we had some stuff going on.

We kind of couldn't piece together any like big event at the end of the year.

Kind of used that as an excuse not to go, and you know, it was nice to relax.

I'm glad Jan got to go and rap us a little bit, but definitely had not just fomo, but being like, oh, we could have made more happen.

We've been there and people were expecting.

To see us.

So I think I'll see you there next year.

We'll see I'm not gonna go with the show itself, but I'll see in La at the very.

End the show.

Either it turns out turns out for guys like us, we don't need to.

No, definitely don't need to, don't want to, won't do it?

All right, let's see, Uh it was one a couple of things.

Oh yeah, thanks everybody for all the well wishes.

It was a very simple cavity feeling.

But I was a little bit of rough shape yesterday because it was like one of those ones where he's like, I'm gonna have to use like like body force, body weight to like get in there and get something with this tooth, and like that's always a bad sign when like the dentist like clean in and.

There, and it's like, you know, they did a good job.

I didn't feel the pain in the moment.

But yesterday it was like, oh, I can feel like where something did happen.

And now the nova cane's worn off.

Feeling a lot better today.

It's like a little bit sore still, and if by chew on it a little bit too much, that sore spot comes back, but it's like, clearly it's so much better than it was.

So feeling pretty good about that.

And then of course it's Christmas time and that means one of the kids I think is gonna GE's sick and be sick for Christmas.

And it's funny that you say that, yeah, because he No, you may while we're talking, you may hear voices coming from my medicone.

My younger stayed home from school today.

She's up in her bedroom but we have I have the little monitor here so I can hear her if she needs me.

But it's not a big deal.

She had fever last night, woke up this morning a little bit better.

We don't think it's anything particularly serious.

It might get a little bit worse, but then she'll be fine.

But she had like her first grade was doing a performance today.

One of her one of her friends won a free like special lunch and chose Charlotte to be her friend that accompanied her.

And now she can't do that.

So she was kind of bumming about those things.

But fingers crossed, everybody will be being rare in shape for the holiday itself, which is most important.

Yeah, it's last year Immy was sick for Christmas and open presence And then we're like, do you want to just keep going?

She's like, no, I'm going to.

Go sleep for a little bit.

Like in the middle of opening presents.

Like, oh, it's the saddest thing in the world.

Hoping that doesn't happen again.

She went to school because she didn't want to miss anything because it's their big Christmas party stuff, And I'm just.

Like, Okay, I hope she hopes she's all right, but.

Yep, got a bad feeling about it, so we'll see.

I hope she's okay when she gets home.

Last thing, did you see this mister a game show over here?

Did you see this Jeopardy clue that was going around Blue Sky yesterday?

Fantastic?

Everybody check check out Chris Coler's a Blue Sky page ire you want to see it.

But I'll just repeat it basically, or I'll do it.

I'll paraphrase it basically.

With the clue was a spider lives on a farm and talks to their non Japanese friend about how much they love Japanese stuff.

And the question is, what is Charlotte.

Charlotte's weeb incredible stuff?

Was unfamiliar with your game Jeopardy?

That is incredible?

All right, let's explain ourselves.

We're Giant Bomb.

Go to giant bomb dot com, slash Joy and become a premium member because we are independent games media out here on our own.

No corporations are at our back, just you and the forces that you guys bring up bring to bear to ensure that we can continue doing cool stuff like our Game of the Year discussions.

We had a many, many hours of talking about our favorite games of the year.

You could start looking forward to those popping off next week and the week after that to kind of end up the year.

We were also able to gather up.

A bunch of our friends who have written games of the Year list for us that'll start going up on the site next year and or next week, next week and the week after that.

Thanks to Marino and Lexi for helping with that.

It's makes a huge difference and actually makes it possible for us to do that stuff.

But again, we can like dedicate some time to these sorts of things and you know, pay Marino and pay Lexi a little bit of you know, scrill on the side, because you guys all support us and want to say, hey, we want a home base on the internet.

We want to be your home base.

Go to giant bomb dot com and then go to giant bomb dot com slash join and become a Premium member.

Thank you to everyone who has As far as this show goes most weekdays, I Jeff Grubb will help you your gaming life back together.

That includes breaking news and maybe even some of our own original reporting.

For all these topics, I'll get the input of a bona fide expert who will make me look smart.

If you are watching live on Twitch welcome, you can always listen to the show later on podcast feeds by searching for Game Mess Mornings, or find the RSS feed on GiantBomb dot com.

You can also catch the show later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube.

Hello YouTube.

All right, we have a lot to.

Get into, so let's start the Morning Mess with Butesa's newest IP is still reportedly on course for switch to.

This is from Liam Dulan at Nintendo Life.

Following a rumor in August about Bethesda's newest original IP, Starfield, landing on the switch To in twenty twenty six, A new story now is making the same claim.

This information comes from Windows Central Executive editor Jess Corden.

Shouts out to Jess, who says the action role playing game Space Game will not only be arriving on PlayStation five in twenty twenty six, but also Nintendo's new high ybrid system.

Starfield will not only be getting its PlayStation five version in twenty twenty six, but also in a Nintendo to switch to version on top, he said.

He added or He mentioned also that hopefully this will be a good experience on the portable unit, as the title has now undergone severe optimizations for low power devices like handhelds.

Yeah, it does feel like about time for Starfield to make this happen.

Starfield, of course, is the one that is so interesting Jason, because leading up to its release it was a very different like Xbox and that this they were still like intending to have games like Starfield be forever exclusives, be system sellers, be a game that can you know, we're gonna give up some money by not being on these other systems because we're gonna sell Xboxes and sort of bolster our our our ecosystem.

And Starfield was the game that like that had to happen, and when it didn't, ever since then we've seen this different Microsoft.

Everything is an Xbox.

That's when the change happened, because the idea was if our Field can't move, the needle on this stuff?

What can and you know, obviously it's like, well, if.

Starfield had been a better game or whatever, things could have been different.

But they've it wasn't.

They struggled to do it.

It needed to be that it wasn't.

Now here we are so we're on the other side of that.

Are they are going to bring this thing to other platforms and of course PlayStation five obvious, but why not also bring it to the switch to if you can.

They've had success on the switch with a lot of their games Bethesda, so I'm expecting to see that, how about you.

I am also expecting to see it too.

I think we saw it also last week.

South of Midnight got the same treatment, which is good.

But I don't think that switch To will ever be left out again.

I think I know Indiana Jones is on its way, But I think that that Xbox now is viewing the two of them, PlayStation five and switch To as like a joint package, right, especially with something like the rog the handheld, they have a little more familiarity with putting their games on handheld now and they can adapt that.

Not that the switch To is as powerful as the Xbox Rock is, no of course not.

But yeah, I don't think I think this is just par for the course.

I think this is just them trying to make everything an Xbox.

This the whole, This is an Xbox campaign put as many of their games and as many platforms as possible.

Honestly, no one should be surprised by this anymore.

Once Halo.

Once Halo hit PlayStation, all bets were off.

Well, I mean once Foorza, I guess hits PlayStation, all bets were off.

Halo was just the next step in that.

The more universally paid attention to step I guess you would say would be the Halo one.

I think the bigger problem with Starfield forgive Me, is making it so that the game is more interesting.

It's a lot you could pourt it to whatever you want, but until the expansions of the game, and I loved I had a lot of fun with the first one, the base game, don't get me wrong, but it it just doesn't have the staying power as a Bethesda RPG should.

And I think that, to me is what should be a bigger focus, Like are there more expansions coming or are they just going to port this to another ecosystem of players who may be slightly disappointed by it.

I'm saying, yeah, I oh good, Yeah, No, that's I mean, that's it as long as this new DLC might be coming, if it's a brand new expansion, the upgrade space travel as it says here in this article, also too, they may want to avoid the performance issues that Skyrim had.

I know they said that it's been optimized for low power devices like yandelds, but they probably thought the same thing about Skyrim switch to.

Port and that goes so, well, Yeah, that's such a weird thing because that game does run pretty okay on Switch one, and then they did something and cost problems on switch to I don't know what the latest is on that.

I hope they've updated and fixed that.

But yeah, for Starfield, I mean, you're right, the problem was always very foundational, like they chose early on to build this game that like in such a way they're like, hey, let's make it ten year game.

And I was always worried about that.

I think I probably said on this show and other shows as they were going into that game, it's like, well, make the base game fun the way you did with Skyrim, and the ten year plan will take care of itself, Like that's how it worked with Skyrim.

You just made a really good game and then people wanted to keep playing it forever, and it's instead this time around sounds like they just kind of got in their head about making a game that people would play for ten years, and the moment to moment that base game had a lot of gaping holes in terms of its quality of experience now to that point, secret presentation sparks excitement for Starfield's future.

This is from Jonas Mackie at Game Reactor.

We already know that, but there's working on new content for Starfield, but we haven't received any further information about it.

The studio also hinted on several occasions that they have more things in the pipeline for the space RPG, and there are rumors that it will be released replaystation five and switched to Now.

Several sources are reporting that something is in the works, and star far Field News That's Capital N claims that a secret presentation has recently impressed attendees.

This is a quote.

A behind closed doors showing of upcoming Starfield content took place recently, making those who attended very excited for the future.

Of the game.

Windows Central editor Jess Gordon shouts out to Jess says he has heard similar information and it seems that a fairly significant update to Starfield is in the works.

Apparently it won't quite be on par with the treatment like cyber twenty seventy seven received, remember when that happened and kind of like really changed the story on Cyberpunk, but the comparison still shows that we may have something really exciting to look forward to next year.

Some of those changes, think you alluded to it.

The space travel, They are going to make it more seamless, so instead of the loading between going to different spots in space, apparently it's going to be much more like you just free form fly from where you're at to your goal and there is stuff in between without loading sequence is or at least most loading sequences, I don't know, And it's like, okay, that is better in my opinion.

That is an improvement.

We'll fake it will make it feel more immersive.

It's not the problem with the game though, the problem is just you know, landing on a planet and not that there's nothing interesting.

It's like, if there is something interesting, there is usually a five minute walk where it is not interesting first, and nothing really to do in those and in that five minute walk other than fight cemenemies, it was just, yeah, I didn't quite get that designed at all.

And then there was a bunch of other stuff like the customization and the spaceship not really feeling like a home.

I'm sure they're trying to improve.

All of that it does.

Does this sound like enough for Starfield?

Do you feel like this could be one of those games that has a No Man's Sky sort of like trajectory of Hey, in a couple of years, we're gonna be looking back and be like, wow, look how far this game has come.

Or is this too little too late?

I hope so.

I thought No Man Sky was a little too late.

I thought tryer Punk was a little too late.

Both of them made the turn.

So I hope for Starfield that this does happen.

But there are two things in this story that make me kind of give me.

Pause, please.

The first one is Starfield News not exactly the most unbiased of Outlet's no offense to them.

They covered what they do, You're right though, But but for them to say that the secret presentation recently impressed attendees, I did know of the secret presentation.

I saw some people talking about how they were there, and I did see some people talking about how, hey, this is some cool stuff.

You should give it a chance.

Fine for both of those things, But forgive me for the grain of salt.

I will have that people who were specifically brought to Xbox to see this, you know what I'm saying, They may have put it.

They're skeptical, right like you have.

They're skeptically when once you go in there and you start seeing it and they're presenting it in the best like possible, and everyone else is excited around you, it's very easy to get caught up in that like micro climate of hype and yeah, like I don't know everybody, this feels pretty different, and it's like, yeah, of course it feels different there.

It's gonna be.

You gotta let the tannin's mellow.

You got to open the wine bottle and let it settle and stand back and then come back to it and see what's really going on here.

And you just know one at that event would have had the time to let something like that process, right.

I get caught up with that microhype all the time that I like to do but that's fine.

I get it.

That's what I'm saying.

Like, this is not being like this is something wrong with them, It's something that happens to all of us.

So like, I understand how something like this could happen.

If it's still gonna end up being disappointing, who knows.

Maybe they're right, maybe this is the fixed moment for Starfield.

I don't really believe that either.

I think what is probably the most likely scenario here, scenario here, Jason, is this is a noticeable market improvement that could be the start of bigger improvements to come, if they like see an uptick in sales, if there's a positive sort of sentiment shift, and they're like, let's really throw down, let's do the cyberpunk thing here for real.

But I bet somewhere, I bet it falls some we're short of that, and instead they end up making a game that is okay in a lot of ways, much better but still not great.

Yeah, And the second thing is that it won't be quite on par with the treatment Cyberpunk twenty seven to seven received.

Now, Cyberpunk needed it right, It was fundamentally broken in when it first launched on most platforms.

I would not say that my experience with Starfield was funding fundamentally broken.

I would not say that the game was as far gone as Cyberpunk's initial launch was.

However, does that also mean that they think that they don't have to make as many improvements, like fundamental improvements of the gameplay.

I think Cyberpunk's issues were technical.

I think Starfield's issues are content.

Does that make sense?

Yep?

I agree, And I don't know that this update is going to touch those things as much as I want them to.

It also helped the Cyberpunk put these technical fixes in with a massive content update, and I yourselba whoe everyone just likes to look at, So those things kind of helped.

Are they going to bring out edg yourselfa here or are they gonna let people know that we back up with the man himself let's say.

But I'm rooting for them.

I never a game of this scope and a game that was this hype to come out and kind of fall flat the way it did.

If they can turn this around and get the ten year game that they want, I will be very happy for them.

But for now I sit skeptical.

Yeah.

I mean, in the reality is like they are a little bit between.

There's some tension on which direction they should go, because they probably the safe bet is to put all resources into Elder Scrolls six and kind of wash your hands of Starfield.

But if you could still release Elder Scroll six on in a reasonable timeline and get Starfield to a point where it's like becomes a perennial seller, maybe not on the scale of Skyrim, but still like one that like a minor fallout level of success in a long term on a long term scope, that would be great to have.

But and they have an opportunity.

With the game launching on switch to and PlayStation five, you're getting a bunch of new players.

They will be looking at it with fresh eyes.

You can promise you can tell those people your version is getting these updates, it's a better game out of the gate and then and the ross, so we have more expansions to come and things to improve the game even further.

There's an opportunity there.

But again I just don't know if that opportunity cost excuse me, the opportunity costs.

Could it will take away from them betting on the bigger potential opportunity of Elder Skull six we'll see okay.

Next story here, Naughty Dog has mandated heavy overtime for seven weeks.

This is from Jonas Mackie at Game Reactor.

Last time Naughty Dog released a new game series was just over twelve years ago when they launched The Last of Us in twenty thirteen.

But right now they are hard hard at work on Intergalactic the Heretic Profit.

The Heretic Profit Intergalactic, which was announced at the DAM.

Awards twenty twenty four.

While the studio's previous games were immediately regarded as highly anticipated, Intergalactic the Heretic Profit received a less enthusiastic reception, but the trailer was flooded with the dislikes on YouTube.

Can't remember why.

Probably weirdos.

I don't know.

The game looks pretty good to me.

A lot of weirdos, A little bit of actual targeted products.

I think there was some products.

I don't know.

I thought, I thought they did a pretty good job, like nailing that tone.

We haven't heard anything more since then, but now Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreyer reports that things are starting to heat up at Naughty Dog.

According to him, they are currently finalizing an internal demo to be shown to Sony Interactive Entertainment, but apparently they are behind schedule and production, and as a result, mandatory overtime of at least eight extra hours per week has been been enforced for the.

Past seven weeks.

This has obviously not gone down down well with staff who want to spend time with their loved ones over Thanksgiving and Christmas preparations, and this has led to some staff wondering if they're crunching now, what will next year be?

Like The game is not expected for twenty twenty six, but sometime in twenty twenty seven, maybe we'll see how that actually goes down.

But either way here, yeah, I think that is that that's the story.

Also, this is I think it's a little bit of an insight into how things go down and why.

Like it's hard for Sony these days to put together a PlayStation showcase as opposed to a state of play, because it takes seven weeks of overtime in the middle of your development cycle just to make the demo for internal review at Naughty Dog.

For Sony, like that is a huge amount of time, a huge amount of resources that will derail the production of the actual video game.

While they're doing this demo like obviously that some of that work will pay forward, for sure, but not all of it.

It is a distraction in a lot of ways, and not too I mean they need this, they need to like explain the sony, but they're not working on the game proper when they're doing this in a lot of ways.

And it's it's why like getting even getting assets, getting trailers, external trailers that are rendered uh you know, pre rendered cgian ones.

Those are still like huge drains one resources because the developers have to be involved in that.

So something like this is going to be even more of a problem.

And you know that that's so when they have to do stuff like this and get the game out in like a year or so, you know, year plus.

You could see them like looking forward at this calendar Jason and going if we are if we are crunching now, and yeah, it's eight hours of overtime a week, not not some unheard of thing.

Doesn't sound like the crunch of your of you know, the olden days.

But still it's like, I think this is a.

Precursor to what is to come, and I don't blame them for viewing it that way.

How about you not at all.

Uh, this story from Game Reactor left out not probably not on purpose.

Uh have you heard about the coin?

Yes, I've heard about coin.

Fucking coin.

Let's talk about the coin, shall we.

It's a very weird thing.

It's a very weird thing.

So so the development team.

This was in the Kataku piece.

I think that, of course, that the same story.

The team was.

Given coins to commemorate the game's ongoing development, which is we're on its own right here.

Here's a gift for doing the work you are doing, more work that has been doing.

You've been doing.

It's very strange.

But the coin has a quote from the game on it, and let I'm going to read that quote to you now.

Are you ready?

Get ready?

It's it's very up like you should do it anyhow.

You're you're going to be uplifted.

No, the suffering of generations must be endured to achieve our divine end.

It's a quote from the game, folks.

To quote from the game.

They put on the quote from the game, and then the coin.

To these people, that are sounds.

Like they took for those who come after and turned it into an AI translator, and back and forth ten times.

And like it's it's, you know, the tornament nextus thing, this tear thing from our game is something we're going to like make reality and be prideful about.

It's so bizarre to see.

Uh yeah, you kind of can't make a lot of this that we make this sort of thing up.

It's it's what is the point of the coin?

It is it?

Like?

What is it?

Like?

Is it like a two faced thing?

Heads or tails?

Heads?

You still have a job?

Tails you crunch until you die?

Like what death or death by crunch?

Yeah?

Yeah, yeah.

Somebody mentioned in the chat that when Neil Druckman took the stage at the Game Awards last week, his his reception was less than rosy.

As a reminder, I got in early on that everybody when he was rude to my friend Mike Manatti at e three clock.

This fuckers, I know what you are, and it is someone who doesn't like Mike Manati right exactly, right, right exactly, Like that's honestly, I'm like, I'm not joking.

I could tell right away when like you're rude to someone like Mike Manatt who goes in with a lot of respect and is not like one of these uh slobbering fan boys just said something really respectful, and the way that he was dismissive of him has always bothered me.

And I feel like, you know, I you know, I could be like, oh, that's unfair.

You're judging him in one moment, maybe at a bad day.

I don't think so.

I think that's kind of.

Who he is.

And so when whatever I like, see him making decisions or the way he's perceived, or him talking about Israel or whatever, I'm like, yeah, that sounds like the guy that I thought I saw in that moment.

Yeah, it is.

He's not going to be doing himself any favors with with this, with these kinds of news stories.

I also don't know how much he cares right now because I it's it's my opinion based on a little bit of what I you know, I've talked to some people that you know, worked at Sony and when he kind of went back from Hollywood two games, it is my opinion that he is doing so with kind of his tail between his legs, like I can't believe I have to go back and make games for these people again.

So I could see that, or he's miserable, so he's going to make everyone else miserable.

Again, this is my This is definitely me, like projective projection, mapping emotions onto this manner, trying to figure out what's going on here.

But that's just how I feel, and that like when I see this happen.

Yeah, or or I or even in the in the in the similar vein.

He could come back thinking that he's hot shit because he spent so much time on either way claimed HBO.

Either way, he's coming back with it, with it, for lack of a better term, ship on his shoulder.

But when I first read that quote on that coin, I had three thoughts.

One, holy shit, these poor developers.

Two what the fuck is this coin?

Why are you giving this to them?

What is the point?

What is the pal like?

Is it just hey, a pat on the head?

How about you give him some real coins in their bank accounts?

It fucked?

And then number three the first quote after I thought of the clare ob sure thing.

The next quote I thought was Westworld, which you do not These violent delights have violent ends, And that is not a quote you want to be associated with.

What the fuck is going on with this thing?

I'm sorry, very.

Yeah, And like, let's you know we can put it back in context.

Eight hours of overtime to get a project done for two months, and that's eight hours of overtime per week.

That is not some unheard of thing.

There's going to be a lot of people listening to this.

Jason, who will hear that be like, yeah, I'm doing that right now because we're at the end of our year.

We're trying to get stuff done before we go on Christmas break as well, like that, This is totally normal stuff.

I think that's right, But I also think it's worth pointing out the video gaming's history of this stuff escalating very quickly, and we're not that far removed from that timeframe, and Naughty Dog has been notorious for having pretty rough crunch in the past.

I think these people are just saying, we're doing this for a demo, we expect it to actually spiral out of hand and next year's awful.

And then somebody points out in chat we may have to check a couple other supplemental pieces after the fact.

Apparently eight hours of overtime was the minimum and it was actually eight to twenty hours.

That's how it always goes right right where it's always like everyone's got to do eight hours overtime.

But you know when the person's saying that is like, if I'm here and I come to look for you and you left after arch just eight hours of overtime, like it becomes understood pretty quickly, you're here if I'm.

Here exactly, And that, to me is already setting the table for a terrible, terrible foundation for this game.

And I feel like we have the same goddamn conversations every year.

It's people being taken advantage of in service of a bloated system when and scope creep, a little bit of scope creep probably too, when all it needs is better management at the top to make sure these people don't kill themselves.

I would much rather.

Play Intergalactic in twenty twenty eight and have healthy and happy people working an audi dog than play it in twenty twenty seven and hear horror stories of people being mistreated by crunching into oblivion.

Fucking just.

Again, we're already talking seven weeks.

That's like at the end of the year, Jeff, it's Christmas season, right, that's.

Already kind of pretty That's quite a lot actually.

Like all things consider, I think people when they think of a sprint to get a project done.

You're you are thinking, like, all right, the next two weeks, let's really go crazy.

Maybe the next three week, maybe the next month, like, let's get let's get let's look look at each other, let's get serious.

We all want to make sure this is done well and then really enjoy our holiday.

Let's get it done.

Almost two months straight of that of eight hours of overtime.

And if you don't do, if you don't, if you just do eight hours, you're still gonna look bad.

Yeah, very quickly that spirals out of hand.

And how how quickly do you think we hear about from shry or somebody else?

People working on Christmas Day?

That's gonna happen.

I mean yeah, I mean right, we will hear something.

We'll hear something along thost lines.

I bet ye.

Like it's working every morning, you think, yeah, all right, well we'll see Intergalactic.

I still think that game looks pretty good.

I do think that they are doing some stuff that I'm interested in.

I hope that the people who are working on it can keep some of their dignity when it comes to their professional lives as they deliver this game for us in twenty twenty seven, probably twenty twenty eight.

All right, let's take a break.

When we come back, plenty of more headlines to get into.

We'll continue with the story de jure of what's going on over at Lariyan Plenty more.

If you want to skip out on these ads, we do put out ad free versions of the video and audio shows.

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Hi, dog, it's time to start the show.

Are you ready to go?

Yeah, dude, I'm ready.

No, grum, you look like you are in a den of iniquity right now.

I don't know what that means, and I don't know what you want.

It's not like I have a home studio, jan, Yes you do.

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Oh yeah, I guess I have a fan on.

Well, it's hot.

I'm not going to turn that off.

Let me just hit this right here.

Is that any better?

Jan?

Much better?

We can clean up your shot with auto frame and video noise removal and Grub.

You can even make it look like you were paying attention using the eye contact.

Tool so I can still watch my stories.

Yes, yes you can.

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Jan, I'm not even looking at the camera.

At all right now, Grub, stop stop looking at me.

I haven't looked at you forever.

Game mess Mornings, we are back, Jeff Grub Jason Finelli, We're not looking at you.

We swear we're not just staring right in your soul.

Oh I am we s we should uh get some of that Christmas Ale from Great Lakes Jason.

It's real good stuff.

Yeah.

Where did you have it?

Oh?

I've had it many.

I think the first time I ever had it was like twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen.

Great Lakes has always been distributed here And I really like the Christmas El, I really like it.

Did they do that?

Is it?

Dortmund Gold?

Is that them?

All right?

Dortman Gold is them?

Yep, Dormant Gold is them.

That's a good one too.

Yeah.

They They've always been a top tier brewery for me, top five in my yea in.

The march, the springtime, early spring seasonal beer, Conway's Irishale, that's my that's my actual.

Do they do Hibernation as well?

I don't know hibernation Old Ale?

Was that them?

That might not be them?

I remember that, but I don't know.

I went I went to a bar once they had that on tap.

Oh boy, that was a fun day.

That was stronger than I thought.

But anyway says that's not them, and Mike is my Great Legs expert, so yeah, it's not them.

Okay, I'll have to see who that is though, But Great Great Lakes does good work.

I really enjoy them.

Uh give us some money, Great Legs.

I wear your stuff on the show all the time.

You should advertise on here.

I don't know if we fit your business profile, but why the hell not?

Larry And promises in Ama to clear up AI usage in the new year.

This is from Alex Hopley at Game Reactor.

You mentioned AI once and suddenly everyone's calling for your heads.

Ven Venk, CEO at boulders Gate three and Divinity maker Larry and Studios has found himself in hot water after a Bloomberg interview which he revealed the team is allegedly pushing hard into AI.

That's in quotes.

Vinc on Twitter specified that the team is using AI at Larium, but it isn't replacing artists.

You can read the whole debacle.

Here, but it seems that the controversy is still lingering around the studio like a bad smell.

In another post, Vinc has again decided to clarify Larian's relationship with AI and the use of new technologies.

Larian's DNA is agency.

Everything we work towards is to benefit our teams, games and players a better work day and a better game.

Our success comes from empowering people to work in their own way and bring the best out of their skills and craft so that we can make the best RPGs we can possibly make.

In that context, it would be irresponsible for us to not evaluate new technologies.

However, our processes are always evolving, and where they are not efficient or failed to align with who we are, we will make changes.

He then says that they will hold an AMA in the new year with all their department heads to kind of come and explain how they are and aren't using.

This stuff it is.

It's going to be messy.

For all these companies for the next little bit because there was a story yesterday and chat help me remember where this is at of a bunch of concept artists, and that's where the story started.

Was Spinn saying we were just using AI for reference materials that we would then draw new original concept art based on, and that's where AI was.

That's it.

It was just the reference stuff.

And there was a great story from concept artists who said that's missing the point of concept artists.

And I felt very like moved by this, and it's like, oh, this is the whole deal here.

And it was basically them saying the process of a concept artist who does spend fifty percent of their time gathering resources and reference materials, the process of them going through old books, the process of them going to the library and finding these things their own, is crucial to them discovering things they would not have otherwise known to look for.

This is not just like saying that when you put an idea into an with an AI prompt and it spits out kind of exactly what you asked for, and then you kind of draw something based on that.

Even if you used AI to just say as like a search tool, to say, give me a list of reference materials that I should begin to look at to help me get an idea here, even that might take away some of that human magic that has led to some of the best concept.

Art that is really crucial to the process and to a person.

Every single one of these concept artists said either it is not helpful or detrimental to our jobs.

And it's like, oh man, the consensus here is unanimous.

The explanation is really the point that we've all been saying, we want humans stuff made for humans by humans, And why wouldn't that go all the way down to the very foundations of the concept art and then work done to create that concept art.

So when that is the argument against it, these people in leadership positions that come out and just say we should be experimenting, It's like, I don't know, it doesn't sound like a lot of these people who have made your games so special up to this point want to experiment with it.

What is you going to be your argument for it?

And so far I think they've failed to come up with anything that feels that compelling.

No, they haven't, and the creative side, the concept artists side, are dragging them through the coals, as they should.

I'll tell you the best quote I heard from this whole situation yesterday came from one Austin Walker on Blue Sky and he said, most of us did not choose to write or draw yet, of course, or designed so that we could put products on the shelf.

We chose to do it because it's a set of skills we enjoy exercise and that give us fulfillment.

It's like asking a pro pitcher to let a machine pitch for them, fuck off and give me the ball.

Austin Walker, you are in the hands.

Yeah, you are a poet for our generation.

That is yeah, perfect as a perfect analogy and for me when it comes to gen AI usage at all, because it all produces the same sort of imagery, right, Like these things aren't And I think you alluded to this actually on Blue Sky too, about why Triple A is not really getting into it.

All of the images they produce fit the same aesthetics.

So if everyone starts using it, there's no copyrights to claim because they can't say we created it or they create it because they all use the same fucking program.

So eventually everything's going to look the same if everybody, you know what I'm saying, Even.

If they none of they are able to make it look different.

It's like the soup that it comes from will be the same thing.

So you're really yet, there's going to be some complicated legal issues.

And it's not every Triple A.

It's a handful of very conservative companies.

At least from what I've heard of.

The like this is circumstantial, but like you start to realize, it's like, oh, why haven't we heard some of those big Japanese companies kind of talk about this stuff, And in my opinion, it is because those are the companies that very likely listen to their lawyers, and their lawyers are looking at us going like, in five years, I don't know how we're going to defend using this, or I don't know how we're going to go after someone who steals our stuff if our stuff came from this, and we want to have every legal option possible.

And these companies go.

What lawyers said, we can't do it, We're not doing it, and that's that's just a couple of companies.

All these other companies are much more gung ho and they are like kind of they're doing the thing of well, the speed limit is sixty five, sure, but the speed of traffic is eighty five, so I'm just gonna go with I'm gonna go with the speed of traffic, and like there's something to be said for that when you're driving a car, when you are playing fast and loose with your company's future.

A lot of these companies feel like they are are building up a legal debt that they are going to have to pay one day, and they don't know what the.

Cost is going to be that driving analogy is perfect for like those what are they, I guess player cards that showed up in Block Ops seven that were clearly AI generated.

That's I think that the exact sort of mindset that they were in.

Everyone else is doing it, and we're putting it here in this little innocuous space.

We're not going to do any more bullshit.

I and with Larry and specifically Sven has cultivated himself to be this like champion, right, which I think is making.

This so disappointing for people, as somebody here.

As somebody put in the chat his speech two years ago, as not aging well, because now the fundamental basis of divinity is or I assume divinity is now based on this technology that is taking work from actual creatives.

How and I had this thought last night, how funny, were ironic or whatever would it be to find out that that statue was created with generative AI.

Right?

Yeah?

People would mean like like this big thing out in the desert, you create all this light with it, and then we find out you didn't design it yourself.

I mean the patent would suggest otherwise.

But like there's no guarantee now and that I think is the problem.

There's no guarantee.

Boulderskate three.

Now people might even question because that's when things were starting to get their footing.

Maybe maybe not in the beginning of development, but towards the end, in the in the like bug cleanup phase.

Now, people are always going to question their games as to whether or not it creates uses this technology.

And that question alone from a guy who was such a champion out there in his suit of armor talking about you can't replace it two years ago or whatever it was, is that's I think what makes this so.

And I think he knows it because he keeps coming out with these statements.

They're going to come out with an ama that they know he know he fucked up.

He is very much tasting foot in mouth.

So I if this, if this is not sorry not to interrupt you, but if this creates a wave of transparency where Larryon says, okay, maybe we just need it's going to happen.

No, I doubt it in.

My opinion, is just that it's going to be the situation where it's like you get you touch the stove, the stove is hot, and what you do is you clamp up and you don't touch the stove anymore, instead of like let me find the safe way to show you all how we touch the stove, like they that's that's how these things go.

Right m hm, Yeah, it's it's it's disappointing, especially from this company that seemed like such a a advocate for the people working in it to be.

To be using this stuff just yeah, and it's in the list.

And I like, I think he tried to like thread a need a little bit there where I'm like one of his earlier statements he talked about machine learning.

I still think there's a place for machine learning.

You know, machine learning is the kind of thing that powers DLSS, that's deep learning super sampling.

They there's a bunch of models they trained like games should look like this, So let's like like kind of bridge the gap using some magic there, some some math, and it's.

Like, yeah, that's that's cool.

I also, I am like sort of sympathetic to people who are just like you were having all these conversations about cool ways to use the Internet, and you want to like have the old Internet where you have to go and like know how to do Google searchers to find what you're looking for.

And that was a skill set and that's something I enjoy doing.

But there are I think the vast majority of people when they come to the Internet to look for something.

You know.

I have a friend, Dave Tech, who kind of set up Polygons Guide's features back in the day, and one of his guiding editorial principles was, don't get cute.

The person who paid money for the video game and who's now searching for something on the Internet wants to get back to the video game they paid for.

They want to get back to their lives.

They don't want to get into your system and go and like, hear your ideas about this thing.

Just give them the answer they're looking for in the guide so they can get back to playing the game they paid for.

And I think that's how most people are doing things.

They have that they want to lay down the tile in their kitchen, and they go on the Internet and they do a Google search, and they get overwhelmed because they find conflicting information and they want a search that it's just going to be like, hey, we've done the work for you, and you don't have to go all these websites and go through all these forums, and you don't have to go through Reddit, you don't have to be good at navigating human interaction on the Internet.

We've just done the work for you.

I get that.

That's why I do feel a huge part of like the AI mode on Google taking over the search thing feels inevitable.

That does not mean that in this moment people should not be yelling to get every inch of like guarded off and sanctioned off places where humans can still be humans and we can because it's if it's inevitable, all right, well, that means we're not gonna be able to stop it through financial means.

The only ways to do that are by creating the political reality where people say, oh, I'm willing to stand up for this, because I know every time something like this happens, there's a lot of people yelling, and I can harness that political energy and do something here and maybe eventually we get regulations and.

All this other stuff.

So all the criticism coming spends what he needs to recognize he's is going to be a lightning rod for and there's a way to harness that and be like, we have looked at this, and here in that transparency round that you talked about is probably the best thing they can do.

It's difficult.

What is the return on investment for that?

I don't know.

Maybe maybe there is one of like having the good the good looks of being a company that is willing to say, yeah, we were a champion for people making games.

We are standing against the way publishers doing it, and now the AI has become this thing that we are trying to navigate.

We've done so and we've explained, we've listened to all of you.

But I don't know if that's a big enough return on investment that they would actually do that.

So I'll be cynical and imagine here that in a couple of months they just clamp up and they never talk about AI publicly again, and then continue doing whatever they're doing with it behind closed doors.

I think you're right, all right.

Next Playground CEO says it wants to fix the problem Nintendo had with the Wei.

This is from Chris Scullion at VGC.

CEO of Next has explained how it has taken inspiration from Nintendo Wii, but also wants to improve on some of the business decisions Nintendo made with it.

This is the Next Playground which was that little device that sold really well through November.

It is a motion control sort of connect camera the box that has a subscription service where you can get a bunch of games.

I've had one for a couple of years now.

I like it.

It's all right.

I don't love the business model, like having to have a subscription.

I think to get all the games is cumbersome for the way I do things.

But it seems like it's working, and I do think that, you know, seeing this, it's like, oh yeah, obviously this is appealing to that audience now.

And the idea here is just to like make is to keep things on this service sort of very curated for that audience specifically, and not force them into a situation where it's like they go to Best Buy and there's forty mini game collections and you don't know what the good ones are, which was one of the problems with the Wii.

Do you think this is like a new, burgeoning sort of side business to gaming, and one that may, like even like a Nintendo could re enter one.

Day if it continues to be successful.

I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo tries to buy it and just makes it the Nintendo Next or whatever, the next Tendo, whatever that name would be.

I haven't had a chance to try this thing out yet.

I understand that Santa might be putting one under the tree this year, so hopefully my time will be coming soon.

But but I'm very surprised.

I'm not surprised by this, honestly, let me, let me take it back.

And I'm not surprised because of the price tag.

I think if you if that Piscatella report from earlier this week, is any indication people are experiencing sticker shock at historic proportions right now, especially in a industry that is extraneous for most people, it's extra.

It adds to their lives, it's not essential.

So if they're making cuts, they're they're not buying the high priced consoles.

They're looking for another way to entertain their kids, and two fifty retail Next play Round is the way to do it.

I think that has a lot to do with this device's success.

But also they seem to have some big ip underneath it.

Blue Pepper, Pig and Ninja Turtles, Sesame Street, Barbie all listed on this, and I think that if they're smart, they will capitalize on it.

On a way that yes, the other companies may try and dabble with it once again, and it turns out I stress.

I hate to say this Connect might have been onto something.

Oh yeah, we may have.

We may now be talking about Connect as ahead of its time.

The problem was they marketed it to the wrong people.

Connect was made for kids.

Connect was made from the younger families, and they tried to push it for the gamers.

And Battalion for Steel Battalion and Milos the only one that remembers Milo.

But I.

And you remember Milo one day, we should say, kid, He's still just in some Xbox somewhere.

He's still there.

So maybe they had they had something going on.

I do think though, that the the minigame thing is an interesting angle that I hadn't thought of because I just ignored them, right Like I didn't play There's I was playing the Mario Galaxies and the Mario Carts and things like that.

But Carnival Games is an example of one that was decent enough on the Wii that it sold tons and created a whole franchise for a while.

If they can do something like that, maybe and maybe two these this might be a place for developers to try something and if they figure it out, put it on a VR system or or put controller support, or put it.

On a console.

And it's like, oh, there is a little bit more wiggle room to work with stuff here, because you, like, you aren't in a situation where Okay, everyone gets the next playground and then they are all looking for a list online that just says, get we Sports, get we Fit, and get Carnival games, and then and then that's all anyone ever buys.

It's like it's ongoing subscription and and I personally just like that business mounks.

I don't like, I just want to buy the game I want to have.

But in the situation, what happens is people like, okay, well I have the subscription, so I have this library of games, and a new one pops up here, so they can kind of keep making new stuff and being like, we're just going to add it and you're going to get it and you can try it and see if that's something you and your family want to play.

That's what they're saying is going to set them apart.

So wait, so, not only was Xbox right about Connect, was Xbox right about Game Pass too?

Yeah?

I mean I think, you know, their lunch, and it's obviously like a scale thing right where it's like, yes, sure, it's just work on the Microsoft scale, it's working on the next playground scale.

Right, That's fair, that's fair.

What this will go at real quick?

And then I'll point.

If they keep the big names in there, like if K pop Demonhona shows up on next playground, you never to be able to buy one a shelf again.

Yep, yep, that's yeah.

So it's like I think them you know, going to Bluey, going to Turtles, that is the kind of stuff where it's like we can be a home base for some of these things.

I think, what what I maybe expect to happen here is this is a sign to Nintendo that maybe their next you know, they've done the mini consoles, they've done the game and watch stuff.

They did the Alarmo.

They usually have something that costs between one hundred to one hundred and fifty dollars.

That is this small device that is ideal for a Christmas present.

The next thing they should probably do is the WI as much as like they could go the N sixty four route or whatever.

It's like if they made a all in one Wii system sort of thing where it's like you just plug it into the back.

It's got the you know, their equivalent of the Dolphin emulator ready to go, and they could just have Wi Sports and a handful of other games sort of built into there.

I think that could be something they could sell for one hundred to one hundred and fifty dollars and it would do very very well.

And maybe because this has been successful now for a little bit of time, maybe Nintato could go even further and build some alternative like marketplace or subscription or make it part of their n s O service where it's like part of that you get some extra games added into here on your on your Wii or we many.

I don't know, what do you.

Think, man, Well, wouldn't they just put the Wii games on the switch a n s O because it happened?

Do they could?

Yeah?

They absolutely could, and they probably they probably will.

I mean, obviously if the GameCube games can run, they could because.

But but that but having the separate we many also they just.

Like right, and I think it's like, you know, there's a huge price to get into the switch to sure, and so this and they could make a small little device that can run we and and you know, market that as their holiday you know, hot item in a year or two.

And yeah, and they they love having something like that.

They've always and.

They never they never stick with any one thing for very long.

You know.

The Alarmo was you know, a thing.

For a couple of months before that game, and watched things for yeah, Labbo, the game watch things were like around for about a year.

You can still see them, but they it's not an ongoing thing with Nintendo.

I forgot about this and I forgot about it, right, And those things tend to do very well for Nintendo.

Yeah they do.

And you know what, and the more the more that you say that a we many does make a lot of sense.

But didn't they have to name it something else?

Didn't they have a we Mini?

Wasn't there a mini version of it?

Was?

I don't know if they.

Called it the we Mini.

I think it's what we called it.

But there was the I call it the Canadian Wei.

That one that like was I think maybe a little bit smaller, but it was like Ren and it didn't have Wi Fi and it was.

I don't know, it was a bunch of like cut features from it.

It was really yeah, yeah, I don't hate that idea, because like you would get that whole audience back again, not just gamers like us, but like the senior citizen homes would probably jump.

All over that.

The the daycares would jump all over that.

Schools would jump all yeah, oh wow, that does it.

You should work for Nintendo to let you back in.

Cut the check.

I gave us a give us Metrod to review, so who knows, maybe maybe at they did.

Oh yeah, it's all coming together.

Last couple of stories here.

Sony and Honda have announced the first car to offer PlayStation remote play.

I don't know, this feels like a story from like twenty five years ago.

Remember, like we get like video games pop it up in cars.

I don't know who this is for, but I guess the Honda.

What's a Feila one.

It's a production model.

It's coming in twenty twenty six.

It is going to have screens in the back that can stream PlayStation through PlayStation remote play.

Okay, I guess why not?

So you're just encouraging distracted driving?

Is that what clear?

I think they should just give me one of these cars and I could be the poster review.

The car, Yes, review the car.

First of all, a Fela, what kind of an I feel that's a weird brand names that's what I feel.

That's God damn it that.

But no, so so what are gonna do?

You're gonna drive it with a dual sense?

I was kind when I first saw the headline.

I was like, that's pretty fun.

I like that.

But the it's gonna be like the the we remote wheel where you put the weird about just stick the dual sense in the wheel and you're doing both at the same time.

It only works with the PS three dual sense controller.

Actually you got to use the all right, yeah, yeah, the emotion the six axis controller actually there it is.

Yeah, yeah, six axis.

Oh god, I said it like that.

But but if anyone tries this, I stressed.

I cannot stress it enough.

If you're gonna try and play your PlayStation games while driving your Honda Aphila, do not play Grand Tarrismo.

It's not gonna go well for you.

No, Yeah, play play something else, Play a classic game, play U two Ball number one instead.

Wow.

Yeah, wow, that was a proptology exam before you pulled that out of your.

Yeah, it went all the way down went elbow deep.

Paul King, you direct the La Boo Boo movie.

Uh.

This is from Oscar docale at game reactor Paul King who did Pennington and the Wonka movie.

So he's got some stuff under his belt.

That's those are some good movies.

Yeah, I know that that Wonka movie is really good.

Make it.

Make a La Boo Boo movie.

I'm sorry, We're very la boo boo now in this house, Emmy.

That's all she asks.

She has pencil the yelf for when she.

Yeah, I think we have a lot of We have a lot of requests for La Boo boos too.

I have a feeling that's going to happen as well.

I could make any jokes I want about this, but I know my ass is seated in that theater with my children, So what can I say?

Good?

I bet it's actually gonna be good.

Because it better be It better be good.

Paul King, you better take that Paddington.

You better not tarnish that Paddington Uh pedigree that you have made for yourself.

I haven't seen walk yet.

That's why I'm not saying Wonka, but.

Cool good?

You know what, I hope this is the age of stupid.

I P like stupid fun.

I P movie street Fighter looks dumb, and that's kind of plementary.

It looks good dumb, exactly what I don't want a super serious take on Street Fighter.

I want the wonky shit.

And that's that trailer gave me the walky shit.

It's exactly what I was hoping for.

You see the Instagram reels of the Street Fighter cast, like driving in the limo to the Game Awards, and they're like just so clearly out of their minds, drunk and breaking windows and stuff.

Very obnoxious.

I can't wait to watch the movie.

Well I was too.

That was one of the moments where I was talking about the stuff shirts in the viewing party when Loran Rains comes out.

I stood up and threw the ones up.

You throw the ones up to your tribal chief.

Guy behind me did it too, And then the people like all these blue suits next to me are like, what the fun?

Why is he having fun?

What's going on?

That's disrespectful?

Now, what's your tribal chief?

I think I held it one of them.

Well, good, h I they were.

They seem like they're having a good time, all right, So we are back everybody a little tech hicup, but we're good to go.

So we are going to go from the news stories now to get I do the Bomb twelve here in a moment.

That means we've got to clean up a few things.

Yesterday we had a poll question are you all digital generally speaking for your console games?

We had more just nearly five thousand votes and fifty four percent of people said yes, forty six percent said no.

And this is all digital, So even if people are buying a couple of physical games, they could have said no, how about you, Jason?

You digital?

These days, I basically am yeah the rare occasional physical game mostly if it comes in like a collector set that I want something cool, or if it like like the Pokemon I got Pokemon Za.

I got physical because it came with a cool mat for my desk, so I use that as like my big mouse pad now.

But yeah, I mean, if it's just the convenience, you know what I mean, like, oh, I want to play this, I forgot it was out, I have it now.

It's that Ever since the yes it was like three desk, I still think I prefer the way it does the digital than anything else where it's just like tied to the system.

I mean, it's obviously there's some dry back to that, but now that the system is done, just having that device be like I open it up and it's like the library exists inside this specific device, as opposed to being tied to an account.

I don't know, there was something kind of neat about that.

Okay, let's see here.

We did the new poll question.

There's no new pole questions, especially since we won't be back until after the New year, but we do have the Bomb twelve Before we get to that, Jason, why don't you tell people where they can find you on the internet, what we have gone, what you have going on and all that good stuff.

Jasonfinelli dot com on Blue Sky, big Man, Finelle, everywhere else.

A couple things coming from the Game Awards today.

As soon as I've done this, I have to look at final edits and then post.

I sat down with Martin Mbor, the narrative director of Double seven First Light, to talk about the things that came from that.

I also spoke to a couple other people.

While I was DGAs one, I shadowed one of the Game of the Year nominee Studios, met with them a couple times throughout the day.

Did we die again?

We're still recording OBS is having.

A problem byes, so that is OBS.

But I I shadowed one of the Game of the Year nominees.

I'm went grutting that up for a pretty cool publication.

I also got to speak with one of the two, uh, one of the three I should say, celebrities that were involved with Io's announcements.

I'm not going to say which one, but that that'll come out soon.

And then I also got a chance to play Fantom Blade zero no embargo on that one, that.

Preview going up.

You know what, They are trying to straddle this line between Soul's games and Hack and Slash, and honestly, I kind of like where they're going.

So I said, I thought looked good.

I said to the guy s from s game.

It's the name of the developer.

I said to him, I don't souls games don't really sit well with me.

I'm not very good at them.

And he said, well, that's good because we're not a Soul's game.

I said, oh, you need more hacking slash.

He said, no, we're not that either, because like there's combos for your weapons.

Press square and triangle and you'll do the actual combo.

You can't just mash.

You have to be a little more deliberate.

But that or once you're activating them, those combos look really flashy, look really cool, I think the most.

The biggest indication I had that they're trying to ease people into what might be considered a soul's formula is I got to the final boss of the demo, which had a two phases, two full life bar phases.

You dropped the one life bar, it transforms you go to the second life bar.

Took me a couple tries on the first one because it was like one main guy and seven like busha blade dancers, and they were doing all this crazy choreography and they would feed him health.

So I had to kill all seven of them first before I could kill him.

Very cool boss fight, and then it turned into like this monster demon that's being held by ropes and swinging all around this arena and bouncing back and forth.

The second phase killed me.

I went back to the checkpoint, and when I went back to the boss fight, he was at second phase.

I didn't have to do the first phase again.

Okay, that all right, that's set well with me.

That kind of game, you know what it is kind of based on that.

Yeah, that kind of game.

I think it's I think it's going to be it's gonna surprise some people.

I do.

I would like more time with it.

Only had about an hour in this demo, but I had a great conversation with s Soul frame is what he calls himself.

So I have to go through that.

It's a They sent me the video that I have to go through and transcribe.

It's a fifteen gig video that I have to pus through.

So that'll probably going up on Monday, I assume.

And then I played a game that I am embargoed on and the preview goes live on the first Monday of the year, and I'll agree with it.

That cool, good deal, all right, Well, Jason's staying busy now.

That means it's time for everyone to kind of start taking it easy.

But don't do so until after today.

We are going to work on a couple other things to kind of fill out our calendar for the end of the year.

Everybody post some stuff other than just the Game of the Year stuff, but we're also going to do upf that will be later today.

We're gonna probably do Peak or something.

I don't know, maybe Depo.

I don't know if we've actually fully decided, but we're gonna hang out.

We'll just do a fun you guys stream kind of decide in the moment, and then we'll be out for the rest of the year, everybody.

So that means one more time, Let's do the Bomb twelve.

That's right, these are the twelve games that really matter to people who are really playing games.

Let's go through it.

We have at number twelve, Warframe number eleven, at the Outer World's two, number ten, Diablo four, number nine, Pokemon Legends ZA number eight, Hollow Night's Silk Song number seven, Skate Story number six, Ghost of Yota.

Number five is Arc Raiders.

Number four is Secretory number three, Clear Obscure Expedition thirty three, which has been regularly in the top twelve but kind of continues to see a little bit of a pop after the Game Awards and just people kind of checking out before the end of the year.

Number two is Hades two, and number one still after a couple of weeks Metroy Prime four.

All right, that's the Bomb twelve.

I'll put up a new link.

I think what I'll do everybody is we will update the Bomb twelve for next week during Christmas week, so you can vote about what you're playing for Christmas.

But we're not gonna have a show, so it'll just be on giant bomb dot com.

So look out for that.

That'll be updated.

I'll get a new link on giant Bomb.

That's where the link is now.

Everybody, So if you want to vote, if you want to submit your game, just go to giant bomb dot com.

Scroll down a little bit.

You'll see the current Bomb twelve and over to the left underneath the logo there's a button that says vote here, and you can submit your game by clicking on that link.

All right, Jason, thank you so much for hanging out with me today and talk about video games.

Man, I really appreciate it.

Always a pleasure to see you in the new year, my man, Yes, see you.

Then maybe we can kick it off.

Well, she'll see what you're doing.

I'm sure I'm not busy for first day we're back.

And then thank you all for watching and listening.

You are the best audience in game.

And until next time, have a good one, Take care of yourself and goodbye