Week Gta Gameplay and New Features

Open the door to a new career on your own terms with this video sponsor boot.dev. Click the link below and use offer code skill up 30 at checkout to get a 30% off your entire first year of an annual plan. That's an even bigger discount than usual. So do get in quick. More details after the video. Gamers, let me ask you one important question. Is your Netflix subscription active? And if you're still using your ex-girlfriend's login, is there any chance she notices and boots you off before August 27th? I asked this because just this week, Rockstar announced that our first proper look at GTA 6 will happen exclusively on Netflix on the 27th of August, 12 p.m. PT. That's right, ladies and gentlemen. We're officially in the territory of

paywalling trailers behind subscription services. Not even Markx himself could have predicted capitalism going this far. If you were planning on just watching this on YouTube at some point, then don't worry, you'll still be able to do that, but not for 6 hours since the gameplay deep dive will be exclusive to Netflix from 12:00 p.m. PT until 6 p.m. PT. Rockstar and Netflix will no doubt have an army of bots ready to troll YouTube, copy striking any channel foolish enough to serve up the trailer for those who didn't pay for it. That's not new for them, by the way, and I'm not sure if you've noticed this, but Rockstar is the only developer I know of who will claim your video's revenue if

you use certain Rockstar trailers, even if you mute the audio. This is actually why we exclusively use still images when talking about Rockstar games. And honestly, I would not be at all surprised if Rockstar plans to claim the revenue for all sorts of YouTube content both in the leadup to and after the game's release. Anyway, I'm sure this won't be the last time game publishers pull this sort of [__] since GTA has a bit of a habit of breaking down the barriers of convention and common sense. Do look forward to the reveal of Elder Scrolls 6 available exclusively through Microsoft Teams. Jesus, I wish I didn't say that. I don't want to give them any ideas. We started last week's show with

Team Green's financials. So, how about we kick this week off with Team Blue. Sony reported their earnings for quarter 1 FY26. And in the games and network services segment, which encompasses PlayStation, the company reported that sales exceeded 937 billion yen, approximately 5.8 billion and operating income was up 37% reaching $22 billion yen or 1.26 billion. These numbers sound exciting, but the company remarked that its game sales were essentially flat, impacted by a decrease in the sale of hardware and in third party games. They say they sold 1.6 million PS5 consoles during this period. That's to retailers, not consumers, and a total of 66 million first and third party games with 82% of those being

digital. That number no doubt being used as justification for Sony's disappointing decision to abandon physical media. More on that soon. So, what about that 37% increase in operating income then? Well, Sony attributes that to the US tariff refunds and favorable exchange rates and notes that income would have been higher had it not been for their investments in developing their nextg platform and restructuring costs related to the recent Bungee layoffs. What else is likely costing them a pretty penny is that Sony are also currently dealing with a consumer class action lawsuit regarding those tariff refunds with accusations that the company is double dipping by raising PS5 prices to account for the tariffs, then later pocketing the refunds, something Nintendo

is also being targeted for. Looking ahead, the company increased its revenue forecast for the full year by 3% and its operating income expectations by 10% but says they'd be negatively impacted by quote adjustments to the FY26 firstp party title roadmap end quote. That line is kind of curious. Note that Sony's 2026 financial year ends March 2027 and the only first party titles with release dates before then are Wolverine and God of War Laf. I guess there is a chance gets pushed back, but I think that is unlikely at this point. The only other first-party titles we know of then are Forloop, Horizon Hunters Gathering, Fair Games, whatever the hell's going on with that one, and Intergalactic. So perhaps

one of those was slated to be released this year. Point is, it seems like there were supposed to be more first party titles releasing this fiscal year, which now aren't. For what reason though is anyone's guess. Coming back to that point on going discless, Sony CFO Lintau shared the rationale behind the decision during the Q&A portion of Sony's earnings call. Their response was about as insubstantial as you might expect. When asked by a reporter from Nikay about whether the decision to end production of physical games was related to nextgen plans or to increase profit margins, TA said through an English translator, quote, there are various reasons we made this decision. The biggest being the digitization

of content overall has been progressing. That's the big factor. It's not just for PlayStation, but for all kinds of content. End quote. It is true to a point, but the video games industry has proven to be remarkably resilient in this regard with many people still preferring physical and preferring to shop at local retail. To that point, one investor actually asked about how Sony perceived the impact on retailers to which Tower replied, quote, "Retail partners have always been important to us. With the completion of disc production, we communicated this at an early stage so that we have enough time to be able to listen to various partners' voices. In North America, this

has already happened. Without discs in the package, there's a code included. That's how we sell in North America." End quote. Well, there you have it. They totally care about retailers. That's why they made this decision without consulting them. They gave them lots of notice about implementation so those retailers could pivot to AI or try but fail to buy eBay that sort of thing. As for the commercial impacts of going all digital unsurprisingly tower is unfazed saying quote up until 2028 at this point in time we are not seeing any impact on our business as of now going forward about the content sales I think a large part is already digitized and therefore as a result of the discontinuation of

disc we don't see there will be any negative impact on our business end quote. How true that is certainly remains to be seen. It certainly is a reality as shown by their financials that most people are buying digitally these days and that percentage was inevitably going to climb higher as more individual developers opt out of selling physical editions and the younger generation who've grown up in an all digital age make up a greater portion of the gaming population. That said, we certainly shouldn't stop making our voices heard. I've noticed the collective push back has encouraged some developers to promote physical discs as a selling point for their games. So even if we don't win against Sony and Co,

there's still a chance that independent developers can keep the dream alive. Plus, it does create a big opening for Xbox. Let's see if they're wise enough to walk through it. I mentioned earlier that Sony's profits were hit by the 292 layoffs at Bungie. But how's Sony feeling about Bungie overall? Well, speaking in the same earnings call, Tower is trying her best to stay positive, claiming that Marathon has quote maintained a high user retention rate while also acquiring new players end quote. But that is just not true. Let's look at the numbers, shall we? Obviously, we don't know console player counts, but Steam player counts are always a decent enough yard stick to gauge trends. And according to Steam DB, after its launch peak of 88,000

concurrent players, which itself wasn't anywhere near the numbers Bungie needed to warrant the resources spent on it, we can see the game's been trending steadily downwards with its daily concurrent player count sinking to around 11,000 players by the end of the first season. In June of this year, the game held a free weekend that coincided with the launch of season 2. And that's where it saw the biggest spike since launch, peing at just over 40,000 concurrent players. Still, that was less than half of its peak versus launch. Within 3 weeks, though, the game had returned to levels comparable to the end of season 1. Then came the hotly anticipated PvE mode, Vault Breaker, a mode meant to appeal to the masses with

no PvP and its own self-contained progression system, and that caused a spike of just shy of 15,000 players. Since then, the game has once again settled to a baseline player count similar to where it was before season 2. At the time of writing, the game has a 24-hour peak and current player count of less than 5,000 players. Destiny 2 right now has a 24-hour peak, eight times that amount, despite literally being a dead game. So, I ask you, does that sound like a game with high user retention and that's requiring new players? I don't think so. I think Sony is very deliberately playing things up here so as not to scare shareholders, preferring to not acknowledge the precarious position that Bungie is in so they don't

have to explain how they're going to get them out of it. All I'll say is Destiny sitting right there. It's in a good state. It just needs a little bit of love. Not much, just a little. Have a think about it, Sony. While Sony is the front line of the show, there were a couple of notable developments from Xbox this week. You might recall that back in June of this year, Xbox announced price hikes for all Xbox Series models in response to the ongoing RAM shortage. The third price hike since the conso's launch, I'll add. Well, these changes are now in effect as of August 1st. And while previously Xbox had only announced the new US prices, now we can see how the hikes have been reflected in other

countries, and it's not looking good. The Xbox Series X 1 TB, for example, has moved from $650 to $800, a 23% increase. Whereas here in Australia, it's gone up 29%, breaking the $1,000 barrier and now sitting at $1,100. Europe appears to be hit hardest by these changes though as the Xbox Series X1 TB has climbed 33% from €600 to €800. But it's the Xbox Series S models where things get truly ridiculous. While the Xbox Series S5 12 GB has gone up 25% in the US to €500. In Europe, it's been bumped 42% from €350 to €500. And the 1 TB model has jumped a whopping 50% going from €400 to €600. Man, remember when consoles got cheaper over time? Those are the days. Feels like Xbox have all but given up on this console generation since there's no way

they'll be able to consistently move units at these price points. I mean, this price hike makes the Xbox Series X over 20% more expensive than the PS5 with basically nothing going for it over its competitor. Like, unless you're part of that very specific demographic who doesn't have a capable PC nor a PS5, and you're in the market for a new console and are eyeing a very select number of upcoming exclusives like Gears of War, Eday, and Clockwork Revolution, then the thought of getting an Xbox isn't even crossing your mind at this point. Curious to see how this pans out for them. But yeah, if Xbox was struggling with console sales before this, I imagine they're going to struggle a hell

of a lot more now. What about their next console then? Well, it does have one cool thing going for it now. Remember last week when Xbox made a bunch of original Xbox games backwards compatible for the PC? And there were hints they'd eventually do the same for 360 games? Well, it's happening probably, and not just for PC. Xbox 360 games will reportedly be able to run on PC, handheld devices, and the nextG Project Helix console. That's according to a report from The Verge, who cited a leaked document sent to developers of Xbox 360 games. Developers will reportedly be able to opt into making their 360 titles backwards compatible and will retain control over things like the game's price and whether it's available on Game Pass. The Virgin Tim

Warren also adds on Twitter that the process should be pretty easy for developers, writing, quote, "It looks like devs won't have to do any engineering work to get Xbox 360 and Xbox games on PC. Microsoft's Xbox PC emulator handles it all." End quote. The leaked document goes on to say that the full launch of original Xbox titles on PC is expected in October of this year, while the backwards compatibility of Xbox 360 games is set to have a more gradual roll out across nextG devices between 2027 and 2028. Note that it has been previously reported that Project Helix would also be able to run PC games with Microsoft Gaming's VP of NextG, Jason Ronald, staining that Microsoft was working towards quote breaking down

the barriers between console and PC games end quote. Overall though, this is a good news story for Xbox at a time where they really needed one. Enabling backwards compatibility for Xbox titles is a big win both for game preservation but also the nextG console itself since it does make it a more attractive offering. I mean between Xbox 360 games, PC games, and Xbox exclusives provided Xbox stick to that strategy mind you and Project Helix is going to have a pretty hefty library from day dot. Given the memory shortage though, I guess it remains to be seen whether that'll be enough to outweigh its equally hefty price tag. Time for a lightning round now and Zenamax Online Studios have this

week spoken about the future of The Elder Scrolls Online after some 200 roles were eliminated at the studio as part of Xbox's round of layoffs. The good news is that the game isn't closing shop anytime soon, it seems. Game director and co-studio head Nick Gamini writes to the website, quote, "We've seen a lot of questions about what these changes mean for ESO, so let me be clear. ESO is here to stay and our team is dedicated to the future of this game." End quote. The bad news, however, is that these cuts have meant the studio has needed to delay several of its most anticipated upcoming features. Giocomini says, quote, "Instead of rushing to hit a previously announced deadline, we are

giving our teams the runway they need to do things right." End quote. He went on to outline what's been pushed back to 2027. Things such as the Crimson Felt trial, so their next raid, basically planned refresh to classes and combat, which hopes to smooth out one of ISO's major pain points, as well as update 52, which is set to bring a new PvP zone and open world events. That one's been pushed back to Jan next year. As well as adjusting to a smaller team size, it was recently announced that Zenamax Online would be working closely alongside Bethesda Game Studios on the broader Elder Scrolls franchise. So, they've definitely got a lot on their plate.

Let's hope ESO doesn't suffer too much as a result. Speaking of layoffs, you might recall a game announced at 2023's Game Awards called The Last Sentinel, pitched to be an openw world narrative-driven action game set in a dystopian Tokyo. While the 10-centent owned studio Lightseed LA confirmed that it'd be laying off staff as it shifts the quote creative and development direction of the game end quote. with Games Beat later reporting that some 80 roles would be impacted. A worker adjustment filing would more or less confirm this, stating that 68 full-time employees had been let go, including several director roles such as the art director, narrative design director, several lead roles across multiple

departments, and staff at their separate LA based mocap studio, with the remaining roles making up the reported 80 likely to be remote workers. While the studio previously stated that these layoffs were the result of a directional shift, it's since come out that the game may have been canned entirely. A post from a senior producer praises the efforts of colleagues who were quote impacted by the cancellation of Last Sentinel end quote. And another post from a QA tester also claims that a quote project got cancelled end quote. This was followed up by a report from Bloomberg that claims Tencent have indeed decided to not move forward with the Last Sentinel. It also says that staff that avoided being cut have been

quote assigned to work on other projects including a different game end quote one led by Todd Papy who was reportedly brought into Lightseed LA to improve Last Sentinel following play tests. We have asked 10-centent for further clarification, but no response yet. Hey, here's a shutdown that's actually worth celebrating. Ubisoft is shutting down their NFT PvP game, Champions Tactics. Writing on Discord, they say, quote, "After careful consideration, we have made the decision to sunset the game. The Champions Tactics servers will officially shut down on October 30." End quote. No surprise there, given the

broader gaming community immediately and vehemently push back on NFT games when they first sprung up, causing Ubisoft to pull out of the Grift entirely in May this year. Goodbye and good riddens, I say. By the way, you guys remember no [__] thanks? I do miss that segment. I don't miss NFTs, mind you, but I do miss making fun of them every week. Those were good times. Wizards of the Coast President John Height is stepping down from the company as noticed by games industry.biz. A new US Securities and Exchange Commission report states that height will transition to an advisory role after September 1st where he'll support quote the successful onboarding of a successor president of Wizards of the Coast and quote no

president had been named at the time of writing. I joined the company back in August of 2024 overseeing Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons as well as upcoming video game projects including sci-fi RPG Exodus. As what will happen to those things, a statement to games industry.biz from Wizards of the Coast reads, quote, "There is no change to the strength of the wizards business. Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons continue to perform incredibly well, consistent with our most recent earnings release, and our upcoming 2027 video game slate, including Exodus and Warlock, remains on track." End quote.

Project Zomboy, the indie survival sandbox that spent some 13 years in early access, has just hit a new Steam peak concurrent player count of 121,000 players. Was it because it finally released into 1.0? No, it wasn't actually. It was due to the release of build 42.20, the first major build in half a decade, which overhauled the game setting, doubled the map size, reworked some towns, added various animals, made long requests changes to its hunting, trapping, and crafting systems, added new challenges and game modes, as well as a whole lot more. The game currently sits at 93% very positive with over 150,000 reviews counted. Congrats to the team, but I think you can probably do away with that early access label now.

Grafton has reported record high half-year profits, largely thanks to the success of Subnautica 2. According to their quarter 2 FY2026 financial report, the company's half-year revenue reached approximately$ 1.8 billion US, up 73% year-onear. For quarter 2 specifically, revenue has gone up 94% year-onear and operating profit is up 67%. While PUBG growth contributed towards crafting strong financial results, the release of the long-awaited Subnautica 2 was the key earner here. The report highlights that the game has already sold over 5 million units and that when combined with the original Subnautica and its spin-off Below Zero, the IP has already generated approximately 161 million US

to date. Do note, however, that Subnautica 2 has cost Craftton a lot more than it's earned. as the big winner here is actually the Subnautica 2 development team Unknown Worlds who after their messy legal battle against Craftton CEO finally received their promised $250 million earnout following the game success welld deserved after all they've been put through Craftton you guys can kick rocks put that into your chat GPT and smoke it finally also reporting on financials is Roblox who just in this quarter have reported revenue of 1.5 billion US which is just insane they say they had roughly 123 million daily active users for the quarter up 10% after being sued by LA County over child safety concerns earlier this year. They also made sure

to note that 57% of global daily active users have been age checked by the end of this quarter. Roblox says quote 4% of global gaming revenue is running through Roblox end quote and that it is quote unquially positioned to capture 10% of the global gaming market end quote that is a truly terrifying thought. So what are they putting all of their near endless stacks of cash into? AI of course. Roblox go on to say they doubled down on AI usage on the platform with adoption rates up 15% quarteron quarter saying it was quote using AI to turn everyone into a builder end quote a builder of what though gambling slop

cash shops dressed up as games chat rooms because if that's the case job well done I guess so what got announced or delayed this week quite a lot actually mobile gamers stayed winning this week with the surprise announcement and release of Luminous Remastered on iOS and Android and a Powerw World MMO called Powerorld Online was also announced also exclusive for mobile this one's being handled by a third party developer and publisher. However, they're called Greener and Hail from Singapore, so it might be worth waiting to see how that one evolves before getting too excited. If you like video game grind though, why not try adding some real life grind to it? Saber Interactive have used their publishing

label to announce a new game this week called Ride Share Stimulator with the word stimulator being in quotation marks. What does it mean? Nobody knows. Anyway, this is a simulation game where you play a ride share driver and it involves both managing your finances and your vehicle, actually driving the cars through traffic and you have to like sit in the traffic lights to wait for them to change and listen to the weird wacky stories of your passengers. Honestly, if they went too hard on the true-to-life aspects of this one, it could be depressing as hell. So, hopefully they're bringing at least a little bit

of levity to it. No release date for this one just yet. It comes to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series consoles. Before there was rid share, there were taxis. Crazy ones in fact. And Crazy Taxi World Tour is getting a closed network test in mid-Sepptemeber. So if you're curious about how they're rebooting this cult classic, you can register your interest until August 31st. Couple of other new games. Now, if you've been enjoying the recent trend of bleak rogue lights recently, Pin Bomb should probably be on your radar. This is a very clover pit and buckshot roulette inspired take on pinball, but you try to meet the score thresholds each round and then physically upgrade your machine to take

on the next. Broad 2027 release date for this one now, but if they can nail the tactile joys of pinball, this could be pretty cool. Next up, Thimbleweed Park came out almost 10 years ago now. This was the retro point andclick adventure game from Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert that was a mix between the XFiles and Day of the Tentacle. It was pretty damn good. And this week, Gilbert and his team announced a sequel coming in 2028. No other details just yet, but it's on Steam for wishlisting. And finally, Stupid Never Dies is that upcoming punk infused action RPG from GP Track50, a Japanese studio funded by Netis and led by former Capcom producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi. He's had a hand in Resident Evil, Dino Crisis, Devil May

Cry, and Dragons Dogma, so that's one hell of a CV. They just announced a release date of October 21st for this one, plus a worldwide publishing deal with Sega. Not bad. All right, so what came out last week? Well, one of the big ones we wanted to check in on last episode was Misfall Hunter, which came out just as we were locking down the show, so we'll talk about it now. This is the game that was essentially a Soulslike Extraction game. One week on, and it's sitting at a mixed sentiment on Steam after 6,500 reviews or so, and it seems like technical issues and some questionable in-game transactions are mostly to blame for the sour notes.

Here's some perspective from Steam user Catastalis, who's put 26 hours into the game already. quote, "Almost every time I entered combat with real players, my FPS dropped by 30 to 40 and I started rubber banding all over the place. Balance is also pretty janky. But if performance issues and balance can be fixed, haven't been fixed in multiple play tests, the true killer of this game is probably going to be its developers philosophy. What bothers me is that this pay-to-play game somehow incorporated every malicious practice of an average gacha game. You have login bonuses, a billion different currencies, a battle pass at launch, you have some strange semi- loot box system that makes you

crawl through a pile of junky rewards just to get a shiny cool skin. And of course, you are showered with pop-ups about new awesome promotions and events you don't really care about. I think at some point the game asked me to download some sort of VPN from a third party company as part of a collaboration to get in-game currency. What I'm trying to say is as a game heavily inspired by the tacetern yet magnificent Elden Ring, Mediocre Misfall surely spouts a lot of nonsense at you while trying to pry open your wallet. End quote. Ouch. Developer Bell Ring Games have announced they've hit 1 million players in their first week of launch, though. But they have acknowledged some of the technical

issues with an eye to fix them ASAP. Don't think those in-game purchases are going away anytime soon, though. Another one we really had our eye on from last week was Beast of Reincarnation, the next game from Pokemon developers Game Freak, and its first foray into a fully 3D cinematic action RPG with an interesting combat system. The review embargo for this one lifted at launch, which is usually the sign of a more divisive title, and that certainly seems to be the case here. This one sitting at a strong 76 on Open Critic with quite the spread of reviews with many of them sitting in that middle ground. Reviewers did note the fact that there are some good ideas here, but it's very

inconsistent, which is either going to be a really big turnoff for some or really intriguing for others. Here's friend of the show, Jake Deca, who reviewed this one for GameSpot, and ultimately landed at a 6 out of 10, saying, quote, "Be of Reincarnation is an ambitious game that overextends itself. The lack of polish taints its versatile combat, the mundane performances, and wear dialogue suffocate its tantalizing story, and the uninteresting areas drag down strong art direction. That isn't to say Beast of Reincarnation is a total miss, though. The combat, despite my nitpicks, feels and looks great when you're chaining together combos and deflecting ferocious attacks. And aside from the cutscenes, my 25-hour adventure didn't feel like a

slog. I was eager to improve Emma and Coup's skills to take down tougher enemies. But everything surrounding the core loop falls flat, despite Beast of Reincarnation's enticing mix of high-quality inspirations. It fails to reach the same heights as those experiences. End quote. GameSpot was kinder than I was in my own review, which went up last night. Link below the like button, by the way. Don't forget to hit the like button. DLDDR. This just feels like 10 hours worth of content stretched out over 20 plus hours, and the result was an experience that felt slow, repetitive, and padded. Honestly, the single worst sin a game can commit at this point is wasting my time. And Beast of Reincarnation feels like it is

deliberately trying to waste my time with its slow-paced dialogue, empty levels, and reuse boss encounters. I know this is hit and right for some people, and more power to you, but for me, this is one of the easiest do not recommends I've written up in a long time. And that's honestly a real shame because I like the look of this one and I was cheering for Game Freak to break free of their Pokémon shackles and prove they can make something truly contemporary feeling and wonderful. Sadly, Beast of Reincarnation feels like it suffers from many of the things that hold Pokémon back. And that really is just about the worst place that this thing could have landed. Moving on to some happier news now. Big Walk, the new

game from Australian developers House, who made Untitled Goose Game. This one is their cooperative puzzle exploration game that we've talked about on the show many times before. Don't you dare call it Friends Slop. And wouldn't you know it, it's landed at a mighty 87 on Open Critic, notably a little higher on Metacritic at 93 with a strong reception all round. Restart Run was one of the outlets that gave this one top marks, five out of five. Here's what they had to say. Quote, "What Big Walk does that's so compelling is that it grabs that little part of your brain that is begging to be enriched by curiosity and interaction and massages it ever so gently with your friends in

the background. That is not something you can simply drop people into and hope it happens. It's meticulously crafted and planned by expert hands. It's a game about little victories and the calm, quiet space between them. Maybe you have to luck into that context a little bit, but I think that's true for any game when you really break it down. If you can put all the pieces in place for an ideal time with Big Walk, you're likely to find one of the best games of the year waiting inside." End quote. That review snippet hints at the elephant in the room with Big Walk, which I think is worth talking about a

little. This is strictly a co-op campaign with a beginning, middle, and end. One that you're meant to play through together with a consistent group of friends for around about 15 hours or so. One person hosts the campaign progress. It's not fit for solo play and there's no online matchmaking. That's going to stop a lot of people seeing this through to the end or even getting to try it in the first place. I mean, even on our team, we've all been busted to play this one together, but the last couple of weeks have been so busy that it's been impossible to find a block of time when everyone's been free. I personally think that's a huge shame, but Kitaku spent some time in their coverage reasoning through that

decision. Here's what they had to say. Quote, "Yes, it sucks that if you don't have a group of gaming friends or family members willing to play Big Walk with you, you might never get to experience what I think may be one of 2026's best games. And yes, it does mean you will need to own copies of the game and devices to play it on, as well as headsets to communicate through. That ain't cheap or easy in 2026. And yet, the addition of a solo mode would completely ruin Big Walk. This isn't a game about being alone at all times and solving random puzzles miss style. It's a game about managing a group of friends, having fun with them, solving puzzles together, and sometimes getting lost, and having to work to find each

other. Big Walk only works as a co-op game and only works if you aren't able to chat with your friends at all times, the way you can if you're in the same room or on a Discord call, for instance. That does limit who can play Big Walk, but it also lets the game be something truly special and unique. End quote. Couldn't agree more with that. Hopefully some of you out there get the chance to try it. Now, the other big release we really wanted to cover this week was, of course, Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls, but given that we only received a review code on launch day, and we assume it's the same for other outlets, too, don't expect too many in-depth reviews until next week at the very earliest. Seems

like Sony considers this one an online multiplayer game primarily, even though there is a lot of offline single player stuff in there, too. So, we'll check back in on this one next week, especially that PC port, which was looking pretty shaky during the most recent beta. So, what's coming out this week? Well, it's a very big week for indie games this week in addition to Bethesda, who were taking their first step toward putting Oblivion Remastered onto every platform humanly possible. We'll get that one out the way first. Oblivion Remastered releasing on the Switch 2 next Tuesday, August 11th. Will they also make the much requested fixes for the people still playing on those other platforms? I hope so. Otherwise,

the community might reflect the title of this next game, Hell Let Loose Vietnam. Okay, maybe not so much the Vietnam thing, but Hell Let Loose Vietnam is the follow-up to the intense World War II FPS that released a few years ago and was very wellreceived. This one is 50 verse 50 players, and it's coming out after a short delay spurred by some feedback from its internal testing. PC, PS5, and Xbox Series consoles for this one also on Tuesday, August 11. Also coming out the same day is the early access release of Echoes of Mistralia, which kind of sounds like Australia, but more mysterious. This one is an action RPG in the vein of games like Diablo and Path of Exile, only in a rog light

format with Haiti style storytelling and a focus on crafting your own spells. Looks pretty cool and also looks like it was made in a lab just for Austin. PC only for this one for now. Speaking of made in a lab, if you've been wondering why someone hasn't just tried to recreate the retro FPS magic of Golden Eye 007 from back in the day, well, this is your week. Also coming out on Tuesday is Agent 64: Spies Never Die, which is exactly what I just described, a Nintendo 64 inspired FPS complete with blocky character models, about as many polygons as you can carry with two hands, and lots of spray-andplay gunplay. It supports co-op for its campaign that takes you across a variety

of loces, online multiplayer, and local split screen, too. And yes, there is a slappers only mode. And to the British listeners out there, that word means something very different here in Golden Eye, so don't get too excited. PC only for this one. Speaking of Nintendo 64 throwbacks, we just had the Star Fox remake come out on Switch 2 last month. And you may find yourself wondering, hey, what's Godard, one of the original programmers of the original Super Nintendo Star Fox up to these days? And the answer is this. He's about to release a spiritual successor to Star Fox with his latest studio, Chuhee Labs, and it's called Wild Blue Skies. As you can see, it's an on-rail flight shooter

starring a team of aces called the Blue Bombers made up of a dog, a lizard, a deer, and an ox. Look, man, you don't mess with what works. The demo for this one was really fun, and the upside is that it's coming to all platforms that aren't the Switch 2, PC, PS5, and Xbox Series consoles. So, that's a nice little alternative there. Thursday, 13th of August for this one. Something a little more cerebral in your week, you might be into this next one, Servant of the Lake, which is the latest in the long-running Rusty Lake Mystery Adventure series, which has a bit of a cult following. The series is known for being quite eerie and macabb in its vibe with good puzzles and some seriously

wild lore underpinning all of it. On top of being cheap and or free, there's about a dozen games in total. Most are overwhelmingly positive on Steam, so that gives you some idea. And that includes the demo for Servant of the Lake, which sees you play a new servant at a mysterious estate. PC, iOS, and Android for this one, August 13th. Something a lot less cerebral, slot machines. Folks, who made the bleak rogike clover pit last year announced this week that'll be coming to PlayStation and Nintendo consoles next week. So, if you need something for your second screen playlist, there you go. Near and dear to my heart is the release of the latest Magic the Gathering set, one based on the Hobbit. Not going to

lie, I wasn't too into the Marvel superhero set. And the less said about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle set, the better. with the Hobbit is a really nice fit for Magic given its setting, its magic, its artifacts, and its waring races. Actually went to a pre-release event this week in Sydney and had a blast playing Draft, but I'll be playing more of it when it arrives on Arena next week, which is the digital version of Magic. I've said it before, but if you're looking to get into the game and learn the rules, then Arena is the best possible place to start, especially since it's free to play. Anyway, Hobbit pre-release events are happening at your local game store this weekend, and the

set officially launches August 14th, and it will be available in Arena 3 days before that on the 11th. Don't go spending too much money on singles, okay? Post Malone famously spent $1 million buying the one ring card the last time a Lord of the Rings set came out. So unless you got that Post Malone money, enjoy yourself. Okay. And finally for this week, a game called Rivage is also coming out on August 13th. A firstp person puzzle adventure set on a space station where you wake up all alone and you have to unravel what happened to everyone. A nice classic premise. It's been developed by a new outfit called Xnilo Studio and it's being published by Raw Fury, who certainly know a good thing when they see it. So, you know,

pay attention to this one. Speaking of paying attention to stuff, put this on your radar. This game is called Memoirium and it's an indie souls like from a solo developer named Paulo Villain Noeva who hails from the Philippines. The big hook for this one is not only the retro 3D aesthetic, which reminds me of nightmare creatures on PlayStation 1, but the weird dreamlike world environments that mash up modern and fantasy environments for that eerie liinal feel. There's also a focus on gear sets that change not only your abilities, but how the world and enemies react to you rather than just pure stat shifts. Also, there's a homebased bedroom you can decorate and journal in for some reason. Why not?

Definitely a unique take on this genre that's taking some big swings. And taking a big swig on this one is Outer Sloth, the publishing arm of Among Us developers Inner Sloth, who funded the development from this one to make sure it could get out to the world. Memoirium comes out next Thursday, August 13th. And if you like the look of it, we've left a link to it over on our Steam curator page, which also has links to all of the other Put this on your radar stuff we've recently covered. I'll leave a link to all of that below the like button. Now, feel good story of the week is pretty damn feel good, let me tell you. Kingdom Come Deliverance is full of memorable characters, but it's pretty

clear that old mate Hans Capeon is stealing the show every moment he's on screen. That's due in no small part to the fabulous writing behind the character. But it doesn't hurt that the voice actor, Luke Dale, does a pretty incredible job of bringing this murial, obnoxious, magnetic scoundrel to life. Dale says that as much as he enjoys acting and performance, he's long had a desire to create something more tangible, a physical place where people can come together to build community and kinship. So, he did what every English voice actor would do in that situation. He bought a pub in the Czech Republic.

Well, it will be a pub once he's fixed it up a little or a lot since it was clearly pretty rundown when he bought it. And so he and a group of friends are restoring it before its planned October 1st opening date. He's actually chronicling the whole thing on his YouTube channel, which is just called Luke Dale. And best of all is the name of the pub. He's calling it the Nobleman in honor of his character that brought him so much notoriety. It's a great name and honestly a great idea. I wish I could be there in Prague for the opening. But sadly, that's a long way from Australia. So I'll just be clicking like and all of his YouTube uploads since that's about the most helpful thing I can do from all the way over

here. Speaking of which, have you clicked the like button on this video? If not, then now's your last chance because the video is almost over. Get in quick because that like button won't be around forever. That subscribe button's not going anywhere though, so do be sure to click that if you haven't yet. Two big exciting previews dropping on the channel next week. Not allowed to say which yet, but you will be interested in them. I promise you that. And Austin is eyeing Mortal Shell 2 for his next review since he had a really great time with the open beta. Lots to look forward to, so I hope you'll join us. Thanks again for watching the show, and a big thanks to Boot.dev for sponsoring it.

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