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This video sponsor GreenMan Gaming is kicking off their annual summer sale and you can save up to 75% on over 4,000 games. It's their biggest sale of the year with insane savings on not only back catalog but also more recent releases like Resident Evil Requiem for 30% off. Click below to start saving or stick around to the end of the video to learn more. Gamers, for once the biggest news of the week dropped before we finalized our episode giving us the rare opportunity to complain about Rockstar's scammy [__] in the week that they announced it rather than a week later when
everybody's already pre-ordered. That's right, after many years of speculation we finally know how much GTA 6 is going to cost and it's what everyone feared, $100 for the full package that gives you access to all day one content with a cheaper $80 version also on offer if you're willing to have various in-game shops refuse you service for the simple crime of not wanting to put up with Rockstar's [__] Rockstar is calling the $100 offering the ultimate edition and we're used to that sort of nomenclature since plenty of games offer them. Locking off a few cosmetics, some early access to items that can be unlocked during a play-through, maybe a few days early access since that's all the rage these days. Not so for 6's $100
edition though. If you skimp out and get the lowly discounted version you're missing out on several exclusive weapons and vehicles and also a number of shops that provide access to exclusive customizations including car mods, hairstyles, clothing items, tattoos and there's even a special mission of sorts that sees you restoring abandoned cars. So some of that can be called cosmetic sure but I don't argue that stores being closed for business unless you pay an extra $20 is a lot more immersion breaking than some simple digital items appearing in your stash when you log in. But even beyond those cosmetics, exclusive weapons, exclusive cars, exclusive missions. These are core gameplay elements. These are the red
line that most publishers have sense enough not to cross because they know how strong the player backlash will be. But do you really have to care about the whining of people in the comment section and on Reddit when you're GTA 6? Take-Two is wagering that they don't and honestly, as much as it pains me to admit it, they're probably right. Take-Two knew they could get away with this [__] because people were going to buy it no matter what and here we are. I do think the response to it has been interesting in the sense that it shows the tolerance that different gaming communities have for this sort of thing.
Sports gamers, for example, they've long given up the fight against egregious monetization, and they just accept the fact that EA is going to try to milk them for every penny they're worth. Forza Horizon 6 is an equally interesting comparison, since their VIP upgrade is $20, and it feels almost mandatory, since that offers two times as many credits earned whilst playing, plus exclusive cars, exclusive customization, and an exclusive residence. Should we be outraged about that? Well, I was when I started reviewing Forza games a while back, but I quickly learned that the audience simply doesn't care. And in fact, if you look at Steam, the VIP upgrade pack has
an 81% very positive rating. People literally went out of their way to give Microsoft a thumbs up for charging them more money for stuff. That is how skewed this entire conversation about game monetization is. Rockstar and Take-Two can do this, and we certainly expected that they would do something like this. But did they need to do this? No. GTA was still going to make more money than the entire world's drug trade combined. How Strauss Zelnick is going to be able to afford to buy a small European country when his bonus comes in. So, why not have a little class and not charge people this way? The answer is so tiresome and obvious that it's not worth
saying aloud. Anyway, if that were it, we'd have reason enough to complain, but that is not it, not by a long shot. In addition to this shitty pricing, Rockstar and Take-Two announced that the physical version of the game will not include a disc. It will instead, quote, "contain a download code inside the box," end quote. Awesome. The benefits to Rockstar and Take-Two for this move are numerous. Lower manufacturing and distribution costs, no need to have a gold master locked down months before a release date, no risk of a disc leaking and the entire game being spoiled prior to release. But while the benefits to them are numerous, so are the disadvantages to consumers.
Obviously, this sucks for people who value physical media, but it also completely removes the second-hand economy for this game. There literally can't be a second-hand copy of GTA 6, since no discs are getting printed. At the same time, it really can't be overstated just how disastrous this is for physical retailers who are already on their last legs. I imagine game stores the world over were expected to have lines out the door filled with people excited to pick up and forever own one of if not the most anticipated game of all time on disk. But who's going to do that now when you're literally getting the same thing as buying it online? Not to mention that buying it digitally will probably let you preload the game as opposed to
having to spend the launch day waiting around for the thing to download. There are unconfirmed reports that Rockstar will be offering a disk version of the game later on and these reports come by way of a customer service response to inquiries. Until that is officially confirmed by Rockstar though, we really have no idea what's actually going to happen. So do watch this space. But wait, there's more. As was true for both GTA 5 and Red Dead 2, Rockstar has confirmed that GTA 6 will not have a GTA Online component at launch. The game is listed on its store page as being a quote single player experience quote. That specific wording has led to lots of people speculating that GTA Online might
be a premium product sold separately. Since it's not like Rockstar said that GTA 6 is a single player experience for now, that wording was pretty close and given how Rockstar and Take-Two are approaching the rest of this package, I would not be at all surprised if GTA Online also had a price tag attached to it. So that's the news. It's $80 for the poverty pack, but $100 if you don't want to be missing out on day one content. You can't buy a physical version of it, at least not a real one. There's no word on GTA Online's availability and pricing and the PC port hasn't even been announced yet and nobody should be expecting that anytime soon. Modern
gaming ladies and gentlemen, look how far we've come. Hey, speaking of expensive things, the Steam Machine. Prior to the GTA 6 stuff, the main discourse going on was surrounding that of the Steam Machine's price tag. Talk about sticker shock, the base 512 GB model would sell for $1,049 or $1,128 when bundled with the Steam Controller. While the 2 TB model is going to run you $1,349 or a princely $1,428 with the Steam Controller, which equates to $2,228 for those of us in Australia. A price equal to like 4 weeks of rent or like 30 minutes of weekday parking in Sydney City. So, yeah, that is a lot, especially when compared to the current console market. The 2 TB PS5 Pro, for example, would run you around $900 US,
and not only is that $100 cheaper than the base Steam Machine, it also comes with a controller, it's got nearly four times as much storage, and it's more powerful, according to early tests from those who have already gotten their hands on the Steam Machine. So, who should we be angry at here? Is Gabe just looking to buy another $70 million yacht, another $80 million Florida property? Well, maybe, but if he is, this pricing has nothing to do with it. This price tag is an expected response to the memory crisis that's forced the hand of all hardware manufacturers. Gamers Nexus broke down the Steam Machine's components and compared their prices to similar PC parts, and yeah, it
works out to be about the same cost. Valve isn't doing any sort of crazy markup here. Further, a curious tidbit to come out of an interview from Gamers Nexus with Valve was that apparently Valve can't actually negotiate on prices with RAM manufacturers, because if they ever say no to their prices, the RAM manufacturers just cut them off completely and never talk to them ever again. Truly insane times. Now, a proper PC is definitely going to give you better performance since its power won't be throttled to reduce noise and thermals like the Steam Machine will, but on the other hand, you're going to have to spend a lot more to build a PC with a Steam Machine's incredibly small
form factor. That's ultimately what you're paying for here, a tidy compact little box that lets you play PC games on your TV while also allowing you to do things you can't do with a console. You can hook up a mouse and keyboard to work off this thing if you wanted to. You can tinker with it. You can shop around other online storefronts for cheaper games, etc. And that's the main point Valve want you to consider here. While the Steam Machine looks like a console, it is, at the end of the day, a PC, something that Valve themselves have repeatedly acknowledged, writing, "We think of the Steam Machine as an extension of PC gaming, not as a console. The traditional console model is to sell hardware at a loss and make
up the revenue with subscription services or by selling games that are locked into the hardware. We think this can make sense for a single business in the short term, but that open ecosystems are better for customers over the long term." End quote. Now, one thing they're missing here is that the closed ecosystem of the console market is fueled by a desire to fund ambitious AAA games. But, I understand why Valve doesn't think on those terms since their game-making practice and hardware business are so separate, the latter of which has barely existed until recent times. Valve also said that they don't want to subsidize this device because it would have a negative impact on the overall PC hardware landscape. And I
actually agree with them. I mean, if a Steam Machine costs less than a comparable PC, what happens to the PC market? To those companies that themselves sell pre-built PCs? What happens if people decide to open up their Steam Machines and sell the individual parts for profit, something you can't really do with a console. So, I am quite sympathetic to the argument that Valve can't navigate the memory crisis in the same way that a console manufacturer can. Still, while they may not categorize the Steam Machine as a console, it doesn't change the fact that's how many people see it. And certainly, many people expected the price to be much closer to a console. That seemed to be Valve's intention,
too, by the way. In an interview with IGN, two Valve engineers were asked how much the Steam Machines price was increased due to rising memory costs. And they said that it was similar to the roughly 35% increase the Steam Deck received last month for the same reason, which would have put the 512 GB Steam Machine at around the $750 to $800 mark. At that price point, within striking distance of consoles, the Steam Machine would have made a lot more sense. All told, this is a good piece of kit. It's a good entry-level PC for its size and a product that bridges the gap between consoles and PC gaming. It was always going to be niche and unlike the Steam Deck, it wouldn't have been something
that I would have recommended to everyone, but it would have made for a compelling offering to a narrow subset of the market. Not so at this current price point. Right now, it's really only for super enthusiasts. And even then, those people are savvy enough that they can easily find affordable ways to play PC games from their couch, like through Steam Link or hooking up a laptop, etc. In case the price tag hasn't scared you off, though, and you're still interested in picking one of these up, Valve has implemented a randomized reservation system to avoid what's happened with the Steam Controller, where in scalpers immediately bought up all the stock.
Steam accounts in good standing can now register their intent to purchase, and on June 29th, Valve will run a lottery which will either assign users an offer to purchase their Steam Machine of choice or be put on a waitlist for future shipments. I wish you and your wallet the best of luck. If you thought we were done with news about [__] getting more expensive, then I got bad news for you. I got one more in me. Believe it or not, Xbox has announced yet another price hike for Xbox consoles this week, which will take effect once August rolls around and there are a few studios lighter. The 1 TB Series X and S models will jump by $150,
while the 512 GB Series S will jump by 100. They haven't confirmed global pricing at the time of writing, but you can keep an eye on the This Week in Video Games website for when those details do come through. Of course, this is following on from big, big price hikes for the Steam Deck, PS5, and Switch, too. In fact, this will be Xbox's third price hike in 15 months for the US market and the second globally. What's interesting is that although they previously cited vague reasoning of like market conditions and the rising cost of development, this time Xbox was not at all shy talking about the causes. Here's what they had to say, quote, "We had
hoped another price increase would not be necessary and we have spent the last several months working with suppliers on options. Unfortunately, console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5 times and we are expecting another doubling by the fall of 2027. The entire consumer electronics industry is struggling with the current components crisis, but the effects are particularly hard on consoles. Unlike phones, computers, speakers, and other consumer devices, consoles are typically not sold at a profit, but instead for less than they cost to make." End quote. Interesting that they dropped that little tidbit after Valve's recent announcement. In the same breath, Xbox
also talked about options for financing and payment installments. But let's be real, man. The Xbox was already a very, very tough sell before these price hikes and now it genuinely seems like it's completely priced itself out of the picture. While that's a reality that hits a device already in third place pretty hard, it's going to affect the other platforms, too. And given how competitively priced the PS5 and Switch, too, are right now relative to the cost of components, I would not be at all surprised if we got price hike news from teams red and blue very soon. Somehow, none of those previous stories take the cake as the most depressing story of the week though. No, we saved that one for
last because just today, Herman Hulst of Sony confirmed the previous reports by announcing that Sony would be laying off a significant number of employees from Bungie, affecting developers on the former Destiny 2 team, the Marathon team, as well as some of the teams at Sony that were working to support Bungie for the last few years, likely those who were initially split off last year. Hulst later did not get into specific numbers, but we do have some official data on the ballpark. Sony Interactive filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification in Washington State. That's a notice you have to give the government when you're laying off
more than 100 people. And the official number given by Bungie is 292 people. Just look at this notice which lists all of the employees affected. Their names are blacked out, but you can see their job titles here. We're talking about juniors and seniors and directors from all across the different game dev disciplines. Design, engineering, art, sound, production, you name it. It's complete bloodbath. And guess what? This doesn't even include contracted workers. Bloomberg's Jason Schreier also reports that Justin Trumond, the studio head that replaced former CEO Pete Parsons, has also stepped down. Paul Tassi also reported that there were supposedly over 400 people in a communal layoff call
when they were all informed. By his estimates, this equates to roughly half the studio, which makes sense considering that Destiny 2 is no longer on their plate. Even though we all knew this was coming, seeing the blast go off like this and seeing all the people affected listed in a document like this is incredibly bleak. To imagine that a dramatically reduced Bungie keeps trucking along trying to make Marathon suddenly work with its upcoming PvE update. Like, that's just not going to happen, man. Sony had a golden goose in Destiny 2. And yeah, it was suffering the hangover of long-term mismanagement, but it still had potential. Massive potential. The current player base is
more than 10 times the player base of Marathon. But I guess Marathon is cheap to update where Destiny is extremely expensive, and so Sony are looking to de-risk their investment in the studio. On Marathon, Hulst said, quote, "It remains an important part of our portfolio, and we will continue to support the team as they build on the strong foundation established in Season 1 and 2." End quote. Do note that for the past 2 days, Marathon has been unable to break 10K concurrent players, and that's after the launch of season 2 featuring all new content and a free weekend giving people the chance to try out the game and maybe stick around. It looks like they didn't. Hulst also briefly mentioned, quote, "incubation
efforts for future projects," end quote, as previously stated when they announced Destiny was wrapping up. And on Destiny, Hulst paid it some lip service by saying, quote, "What Bungie has accomplished with Destiny over the past decade has been truly remarkable. The franchise has left a lasting mark on players and the industry, and everyone who contributed to its success should be proud of what they helped create," end quote. Yeah, thanks, man. You can put Destiny's mounted head on your wall right next to Concord's. To be fair, though, it's not really his fault. Bungie managed themselves into a position where Destiny was too expensive to make and it burned through too much goodwill. Long-term mismanagement saw
money go to bad bets that never played out instead of being reinvested in the game. I do think that Sony are making a huge mistake by not trying to keep this franchise alive, but I also don't see Sony as the ones that killed it. This really is on Bungie's leadership. And the reality is that the Bungie we knew is likely forever gone, and given how influential the studio has been over its 35-year history, this is a very sad day for the video games industry, both for the people who make the games and those who play them. Time for the lightning round now, and over the last week or two you might have seen clips doing the rounds of the latest sensation, Mecha Chameleon, which is essentially Prop
Hunt except instead of turning into furniture, you've got to paint yourself to blend into the surroundings. Great concept and the game's done very well for itself, but I don't think anyone was ready for just how well. Lead developer Lamorian announced it's sold a whopping 7 million copies less than 2 weeks after it launched, outselling games such as 007 First Light, Subnautica 2, and Crimson Desert, and that's with zero marketing spend, as posted by co-developer Hagenero over on Twitter. It also registered a peak of over 340,000 concurrent players on Steam, eclipsing the likes of established games such as Apex Legends and Rust.
Interestingly, it has a disproportionately low number of user reviews with just 18,000 reviews counted across all languages, but Game Discover co-founder Simon Carless told us at This Week in Video Games that isn't too unusual, saying, quote, "Previously, other leading Friends Club games have had sales ratios as high as 250X reviews." end quote, adding that they also have other data points and metrics that line up with the reported sales figures. So, yeah, congrats to this team. Don't spend all your money in one place. Ahead of the final hearing in the ongoing legal battle between the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain and Rockstar Games, the UK Employment Tribunal has ruled that blacklisting claims will not be struck
from the case. As a quick recap, in October of 2025, over 30 Rockstar developers across multiple UK and Canada offices were abruptly fired as a result of alleged union busting efforts as per reporting from Bloomberg. Impacted staff were all either members of a trade union or attempting to organize a new union at Rockstar. The IWG B then filed legal claims against Rockstar in November of last year with the final hearing now set for September of this year. But just this week, the IWG B announced the results of a preliminary hearing on the 17th of June saying Rockstar quote, "Sought to strike blacklisting claims from the case being brought against it." end quote. And for those unaware,
blacklisting is essentially creating a dossier of sorts with the purpose of keeping an eye on union workers. Thankfully though, the tribunal has ruled against Rockstar's attempt to quote, "Narrow the scope of the case." end quote, which will allow the IWG B to continue leveling blacklisting claims against them. end quote, "Confirms that every one of the union's allegations related to union busting can proceed to trial." end quote. Still watching this one very closely. As part of my Game File, Sony have updated its wording around its strategy for PlayStation. Every year they send a lengthy business report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and there appears to have been some changes from last year's
report. The most notable of which was found in the business environment and strategy section where new sentences have been added about the adoption of AI tools such as quote, "In addition, Sony is utilizing AI to unleash the creativity of studios and further enhance the PlayStation experience. In the platform business, Sony is working to leverage AI to route transactions more efficiently and to personalize and recommend content for individual users in the PlayStation Store. Sony also aims to push visual fidelity forward and deliver high quality gameplay experiences through continued investment in AI and machine learning." end quote.
The new report also removes a line in the report that reads quote, "Additionally, Sony plans to continue its efforts to deploy its first-party titles to multiple platforms such as PC." End quote. Seemingly confirming Bloomberg's reporting that claimed all first-party single-player titles will be launched on PS5 as exclusives and will no longer come to PC. Elsewhere, the previous year's financial report mentioned that Sony quote, "Aims to achieve sustainable and profitable business growth." End quote. Then in the new report, the word profitable has been removed because yeah, I imagine it's tough to promise profits after the whole Bungie situation and the hardware crunch and everything else going on right now.
This one's a real bummer. The entire team behind single-player narrative shooter Luna Abyss has been laid off less than 1 month after the game's release. The CEO of developer Quali Labs, Holly Emery, announced the news on LinkedIn writing quote, "We are enamored by the love and support Luna Abyss received both by our industry and critically by journalists and media. While we faced many challenges along the way, it's been the highlight of our careers. Unfortunately, as of yesterday, the entire team has been made redundant, a decision that was completely outside of our control." End quote. Luna Abyss was the debut title for Quali Labs, a team of just nine members. It launched
to a positive reception sitting at 87% very positive on Steam at the time of writing. But with just 600 reviews counted, it seems like they didn't sell enough copies to keep the studio operational. Hoping those affected are able to get back on their feet real soon. More layoff news sadly. Game developer reports that OtherSide Entertainment, the developer of Thief series by immersive sim veterans Warren Spector and Paul Neurath, has laid off 17 employees and canceled an upcoming game code named Argos according to a statement from an OtherSide spokesperson. This appears to refer to Argos: Riders of the Storm, which was mentioned in an IGN interview with Spector back in 2022. It was said to be a multiplayer immersive sim, but was never actually revealed by the studio.
The spokesperson told Game Developer that Argos quote, "Could have been a huge success in normal times." End quote. But that the game was quote, "Unviable for now." End quote. Due to the current industry landscape. And yeah, they're not wrong. The multiplayer market has become increasingly saturated and difficult to break into. Something that actually prompted OtherSide to pivot Thief series into a single-player and two-player co-op game when initially it was intended to be a multiplayer PvEvP immersive sim. Unfortunately, this scrapping of the Argus project isn't the first cancellation the studio has suffered. Back in 2015, they announced they were working on a System Shock 3, but that was canceled in 2022 after
Tencent acquired the rights to the IP. Hasbro also announced in 2022 that they were working with Otherside to develop a licensed D&D game, but that too was canceled by subsidiary Wizards of the Coast back in 2023 alongside several other D&D projects. So yeah, the studio's really been through it. Hoping they're able to find some way to stay afloat. Finally, this week also saw the tragic news that Ubisoft co-founder Claude Guillemot has died in a plane crash. Per various French outlets, the accident took place on the 19th of June in Western France. The plane was a twin-engine Cessna 421, of which he was reportedly the owner. He was one of two people killed in the crash. Guillemot
founded Ubisoft in 1986 alongside his brothers Christian, Gerard, Michel, and Yves, and was appointed as chairman of the Guillemot Corporation, the parent company of hardware and accessories manufacturers such as Thrustmaster and Hercules. In a statement to Bloomberg, a Ubisoft spokesperson said the company was quite deeply saddened to learn of the death of Claude Guillemot, co-founder of the group and chairman of Guillemot Corporation in accident. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones during this difficult time. No further statements will be made at this time, end quote. So, what got announced or delayed this week? Well, you know it's a quiet one when the most notable
thing we have to mention is something related to Guild Wars. But man, I don't even know how many actual Guild Wars fans are excited about this one. It's called Misbound Guild Wars card game, and everything you need to know is kind of in the title. Okay, well, I can give you a little more than that. ArenaNet, the developers of the MMO, are in fact not handling this one as they're clearly busy juggling three separate Guild Wars games at the moment. Rather, Guild Wars publisher NCSOFT is taking the bulk of the development duties after licensing the property from them. But making things even weirder is that the publisher for Misbound is actually Bilibili, a name which you might have heard before because Bilibili is
essentially Chinese YouTube. So yeah, a very weird project. It's targeted at the Chinese market first and foremost, and this trailer clearly has some very questionable assets in it. Enjoy yourself, Austin. Picking up a few pieces from the previous week, over at the Treyarch Twitter account, the studio announced last week that the original Black Ops and Black Ops 2 games are being ported to quote PlayStation end quote with the help of Iron Galaxy Studios and these ports will include campaign, multiplayer, and zombies. These ones were originally released during the PS3, 360, and Wii era.
Guessing Treyarch meant both PS4 and PS5 for these ones and they might have left Xbox out of it because backwards compatibility still works fine for these titles. A broad July release window for these. And lastly, speaking of upgrades, Rockstar last week announced that they're going to be making the current gen upgrade path for the digital PS4 and Xbox One versions of GTA V free for all players who own them. They were already free at one point then they got a price tag slapped on them. But with GTA 6 coming up, there's every reason for them to get people back onto the wagon here. Will they offer the same free upgrade path when the PS6 and the next Xbox comes out? I highly doubt it. One delay
to speak of this week and that's for Lords of the Fallen 2 which has been pushed to Q1 2027 after originally being slated for Q3 this year, right around the time of GTA 6's release. CI Games says they're looking to buy themselves some more time for polish and getting themselves out of that end of year period is just a bonus. We'll see, I guess. Okay, so what came out last week? A whole lot more games than are coming out this week, that's for damn sure. But we'll get to that later and kick off with Dark Scrolls from Doin Software Devolver Digital which was that challenge-focused side-scrolling retro
shoot 'em up roguelike. A lot of genres mixed up in unique ways, but judging by the small handful of critics that actually got it for review, it's not a sure fire combo. On OpenCritic, it's sitting at a fair 67 which is a particularly low score for a Devolver Digital title. Here's Nintendo World Report who gave it a six saying quote, "A bit too much is left up to the player to figure out and I would have welcomed more transparency while I struggled through the first couple of hours of the game. By the time I hit my stride, I was bored of fighting the same enemies and bosses over and over. Short bursts of co-op play feel like the best ways to enjoy Dark Scrolls. Even then, there's really not enough charm or polish to
shine through an experience that references the classics without containing what gives them staying power." end quote. At the time of writing, it's just launched on Steam and it's sitting at a mixed sentiment with just under 50 reviews counted, 61% of them positive. But it's worth noting that they priced this one at $8 dollars, it's bundled with two of Doyinssoft's previous games, Gato Roboto and Gato Gabrella, and those games are both legitimately great. A really weird strategy that seems like they kind of maybe knew Dark Scrolls wouldn't land particularly well, but hey, it's a good deal. Moving on to something equally divisive now, sand. Personally, I don't like it. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. But
how about Sand Raiders of Sophie, the new survival game that's just gone into early access and revolves around cowboys and mech platforms? Well, this one's also been quite divisive with a mixed sentiment 62% positive after 700 reviews counted. A lot of people are pointing out issues with the servers and the typical early access bugs, but more to the point, they're highlighting things that have been persistent in many of the earlier playtests. Here's Steam user at Retro Gamer who started off with a positive review, but says they eventually had to flip it. Quote, "I played almost every playtest and server slam and I'm loving the full release, but I just feel like this game needed another two to three months to get it
just right. There's frame drops and stuttering, the lighting looks weird, and somehow there are issues that weren't in the playtest. I love this game, but it's got so many issues that I think can be fixed really easily. Dot, I'm changing my review to negative. Don't buy this game yet." Emphasis on the yet. "There's an issue right now that's caused all the servers to go down, the same issue that's persisted in all the playtests for over a year, and somehow it hasn't ever been fixed or looked into. I have zero clue how something this bad slips through the cracks for an entire year." End quote. Oof. Last week also saw the release of the emotional platformer DEER and BOY, and it fared a bit better than the last
two games with a strong 81 on OpenCritic. Though that is only after nine reviews counted, and honestly, that spread here was also kind of mixed with perspectives varying wildly. I guess there have been enough games where they can make a big impact the first few times, and then they might start to seem a little samey as you play through more. We'll look at one of the more positive reviews though, which is from Gamer Social Club who gave it a nine out of 10 saying quote, "DEER and BOY is a fantastic polished cinematic platformer with a huge heart, but what impressed me most was how much it surprised me. What starts with a gentle, almost peaceful energy of a timid fawn grows to a
crescendo as powerful and majestic as a full-grown stag, carrying its message of companionship and healing proudly upon its back." End quote. And finally, from a game about a deer and a boy to a game about a fox and a star, Nintendo's full-blown remake of Star Fox 64 / Lylat Wars with the bulk of the work handled by Vellum Studios of Knockout City fame. A solid effort for this one with a strong 82 on OpenCritic about what we'd expect knowing exactly what this game is, no surprises here. All the reviews are generally in that ballpark. We'll take a look at Eurogamer where former
Edge editor Chris Schilling took the lead. He landed on four out of five stars with this one. Here's what he had to say, quote, "I approached Star Fox with a healthy degree of skepticism and came away thinking, 'Hooray for advanced graphics.' The reason it works as well as it does is twofold. For a kickoff, it's built on the bones of a game that didn't have much wrong with it. Vellum Studios, a team founded by Vicarious Visions alumni themselves no strangers to Nintendo ports, has recognized this and sensibly taken on board the age-old maxim, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.' The other big reason this Star Fox works has been made by a developer that fully understands the genre it's working
in and leans hard into its strengths. Vellum gets that the on-rail shooter is an opportunity to wholeheartedly embrace cinematic spectacle and boy does Vellum ever seize that opportunity with both hands end quote. As for myself, I enjoyed this, but I think that's owed in no small part to the fact that I grew up playing this and I'm still a mark for these old arcade style games. Will modern audiences embrace it as wholeheartedly? I suspect not. This is ultimately three hours worth of content that you're meant to play again and again to discover secrets and deepen your mastery. I think the game itself is still great and I do recommend it, but only to the niche subset of people who
know what they're getting into. Everybody else, I think you may find this one a little out of step with modern day design philosophies. Regardless, here's hoping Nintendo commits to a sequel since a huge amount of work has gone into creating all of these assets and it'd be a real shame to waste them on just a remake. So, what's coming out this week? Man, I regret saying not a lot was releasing in last week's show because clearly we thought a few games were going to sneak in during this quiet lead up to the 4th of July holiday in the States. Maybe it's the end of quarter and financial year and
too many companies care about that or maybe everyone was just super afraid of Nintendo's best and most powerful original franchise coming back after 11 years. Anyway, we'll rewind the clock a little and give a shout out to Impulse, which came out into early access this week. Case you weren't aware of this one, this is the next live service shooter from the developers of Splitgate and Splitgate 2. Essentially, they're an attempt to build a spiritual successor to Titanfall, as much as they might deny that. It's 6v6, heavily focused on movement skills like wall running and grappling, and of course, you can pilot giant mechs. But no, it's definitely not a Titanfall spiritual successor,
definitely not. Now, according to Valve, Impulse was one of the top 50 most played demos during Steam Next Fest, but the Steam DB charts markets peak concurrent play base of around 4,300 people. Granted, it was a demo, but given it's a multiplayer game, we think it's still important to consider for this one. It's only fair to be better than Splitgate 2 at the time, but didn't reach the lofty peaks of the first Splitgate 5 years ago, which seemed to set 1047 Studios on this heady trajectory they've been on. We'll look back on how this one did during its opening weekend during next week's show. Looking forward to next week now, the Switch 2 takes the reins as we charge into the second half of the year,
starting with a port for High on Life 2 for Nintendo Switch 2. I mean, sure, I guess. This one came out early in February and settled on a fair 73 on OpenCritic, a similar thumbs up ratio on Steam to give it a mostly positive sentiment. And if you've been dying to try this one out, but you've only got a Switch 2, then, hey, this is your week. Moving on to Thursday, July 2nd, we've got a far more notable Switch release, Rhythm Heaven Groove, or Rhythm Paradise Groove, depending on which part of the world you're in. Some of us are more god-fearing than others, it seems. Rhythm Heaven is a collection of challenging rhythm-based mini-games set within a charming and often bizarre cartoony world. It's a series that
originally came from one of the designers of the WarioWare series, and it's definitely one of Nintendo's more niche titles. But those who love it really love it. Nintendo's currently in the mode of bringing back quite a few of its more cult titles from the DS and Wii era, Tamagotchi, WarioWare in the form of that Pikmin 2 mobile game, and Metroid Prime. That last one was a joke, relax. Rhythm Heaven is just the latest, it's the first one in 11 years, and even then, the last game in the series was more a compilation of everything that had come out before. So, there's lots of new stuff here, including several dozen multiplayer games, and even a rhythm RPG mode. On our team, Ed is super keen for
this one, so do expect his report sometime next week. All right, Steam Next Fest is officially over, but some developers still have their demos up right now. So, we thought we'd give you one to check out. Put this on your radar. This is Blood Dungeon, and it's the next game from the indie developers Messhof, best known for their excellent sword-fighting game Nidhogg, their chill cycling game published by Annapurna called Wheel World, and now this gross, crude, and chaotic thing that we can't stop playing. This one was recently revealed at Day of the Devs during Summer Game Fest, and to be honest, it seemed a little off-putting at first, but Stu got his hands on it during the
show and absolutely raved about it. When the demo became widely available, we could totally see why. This is in essence a game that mixes roguelike survivor-style auto shooting and build craft with a 2D platforming of something like Spelunky, plus an art style that looks like a 5-year-old kid drew it in MS Paint. Separately, these things aren't particularly inspiring, especially in a world where there are like 100 Vampire Survivors clones, but put them all together with some chill tunes and some smooth animations and some great juice from an indie developer that's spent a decade focusing on good game feel, and you've got something seriously satisfying and very moorish.
This is one of those demos you might find yourself quickly booting up again here and there for another quick run. That whole Tony Hawk PS1 demo disk feel thing. Love it. No solid release date for this one yet, but they have said it's coming sometime in northern hemisphere summer, so it shouldn't be too long, and the demo is out right now. If you do like the look of this one, we've left a link to it over on our Steam curator page, which also has links to all of the other Put it on your radar stuff we've recently covered. I'll leave a link to all of that below the like button. Our feel-good story for the week is one that involves one of the industry's most beloved figures, Space
Mom. Recently, Warframe game director and voice of the Lotus, Reb Ford, decided to do what all grown-up adults do, play some Roblox. Her first stop, the Roblox version of Warframe. Now, I don't know about you guys, but I think the Roblox version is so good that I struggle to tell it apart from the original, especially with such convincing voice acting. Oh my god, Tenno, there's a issue on the planes of Eidolon. Go right away. Tenno, explore the planes of Eidolon for Grineer. Kill them all. There's no time to lose. Bullet jump, Tenno.
Bullet jump. You're going to die, Tenno. Be careful. Tenno, no. Tenno, don't die. No. All right, ladies and gentlemen, that is it for this one. God, it feels like it's been 2 weeks in a row with nothing but bad news. So, fingers crossed next week brings better tidings. But, the rumors are that stuff at Xbox is about to go down, so I suspect next week will make it three on the trot. Oh, well, that's how this business goes, I guess, especially at this point. But, no matter what happens, we're going to keep covering it week in, week out right here on the weekly show, every single day on the website, thisweekinvideogames.com, and maybe even with a little bit of short-form content, too. But, we'll talk
about that a little later. For now, a big thanks, as always, for tuning in. And if you stuck it right through to the end, we'd love it if you could drop the video a like, and don't forget to subscribe and ding that notification bell if you haven't. Oh, and by the way, have you checked out Green Man Gaming Summer Sale yet? Right now, everything is getting more expensive, right? Well, not everything, because thanks to this video's sponsor, Green Man Gaming, you can get big games at big discounts during their annual summer sale. The summer sale at Green Man Gaming has plenty of great discounts from the biggest publishers around, like Capcom, Square Enix, 2K, Ubisoft, Warner Brothers, Sony PlayStation, and many
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