December 22, 2023 • 59 mins
This week's episode looks at Naughty Dog's highly anticipated standalone online project of TLOU being canceled, the unfortunate mega leak for Insomniac Games, and Bobby Kotick's resignation and what that means for Xbox and Activision Blizzard moving forward.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the fifth episode of Digital Downtime.
(00:07):
We've been doing this for over a month, man.
Time flies, eh?
I'm your host, Gilly.
And before we get into a lot of news in the gaming world lately, I just wanted to say
to everyone, I hope you have a happy holidays, Merry Christmas, and whatever else you celebrate.
(00:27):
It's time of the year, special for a lot of people, happy for a lot of people, hard slash
sad for others.
So regardless of what you're feeling, I hope you enjoy your time the best way possible.
That's best for you.
(00:47):
Enjoy the time off from work.
Spend it with some loved ones if you can.
Reach out to them.
Just do something, you know?
So I just wanted to say that first and foremost.
Secondly, I just wanted to say thank you for everyone who's been tuning in every week or
tuning into a singular episode or listened to part or just even just clicked and listened
(01:09):
for a minute, whatever the case may be.
Do appreciate has given me a chance, given Digital Downtime a chance.
And we started the podcast pretty late into the year here.
So I'm hoping 2024 will be a bigger year for growth overall for the podcast.
(01:32):
And I'm starting to look into bringing guests, fellow gamers, streamers, hopefully some developers
if I hear back from them, just to bring you more, you know, rather than just me sitting
here talking about stuff on my own.
Just to have a second voice, more insight into the industry and more opinions and exploring
(01:56):
the other side of, you know, it's part of gaming, but streaming, you know, this other
side of what it is to be a content creator and whatnot.
So we'll be diving all into that in 2024.
So appreciate the patience and I appreciate the support.
Thank you.
A lot of things to look at today.
We're going to be talking about The Last of Us online being cancelled.
(02:19):
I know I mentioned talked about Naughty Dog in episode three and how I'm looking forward
to the online game.
So obviously I have a lot to say about this matter.
Obviously we're expanding our conversation of Naughty Dog's output for the current PS5
generation.
You know, after hearing about this cancellation.
Insomniac got hit by some major leaks.
(02:42):
Out of respect to them, we're not going to be talking about the nature of the leaks or
the specific details of it.
But more so just the overall view of overview of what got leaked and how unfortunate it
is for the 400 employees that got affected.
And my heart and best wishes go out to the team over there.
(03:03):
Knowing Insomniac and how long they've been in the gaming space, you know, they'll bounce
right back up and have their head on their shoulders as they always do.
Bobby Kotick, Activision CEO, finally resigning, which it's good news to talk a bit about that.
(03:24):
After talking about, you know, these kind of two, three major gaming news, I'll just
be talking a bit more about my 2023.
I looked at my PlayStation year and reviewing Nintendo and not a whole lot there, especially
the PlayStation side.
Nintendo is mostly just to the kingdom and Splatoon.
But I'll be looking at my Steam in review for 2023.
(03:48):
Kind of just, you know, majority of my time wasn't spent primarily just on new releases.
But we'll talk a bit about, you know, what I played and what I like to just, you know,
it's a nice sort of reflection piece on that.
Then, of course, as always, following all that, we will have our Have You Played?
segment, which we'll be talking about another licensed game.
(04:11):
I know we talked about Scarface, The World Is Yours previously, and Spawn Armageddon.
And today we'll be talking about another licensed IP in the wake of all these, you know, in
the wake of Marvel's Blade getting announced and how Marvel is being more put into the
gaming limelight as they're shifting their focus towards gaming more so.
(04:35):
So a lot on the agenda and always sit back, relax and don't go nowhere because we got
a lot to talk about.
Thank you once again for tuning into Digital Downtime.
(05:15):
So Naughty Dog's plan for a standalone multiplayer game, The Last of Us Online after six years
of development faced cancellation in late 2023.
The ambitious project lacked a set release date and platform details.
The decision, driven by studio priorities, aimed to prevent a shift away from single
player games.
(05:37):
And this came on the midst of an update earlier this year where they said they're scaling
down on the project and the worry there for a lot of people was the game would end up
getting a shafted slash cancelled, which is exactly what happened.
So it's kind of unfortunate.
So Last of Us Online never really secured a release date or window.
(06:01):
Development back at development began in 2020 apparently with the pre-production proceeding
it giving it, you know, that six year timeline I just mentioned.
You know, Neil Druckmann, or as I like to call him Neil Kuckman, assured us gamers at
Summer Game Fest 2022, which is about a year and a half ago now, that there'll be more
details than in May of this year of 2023.
(06:25):
They announced a delay citing the need to give the game a bit more time to cook in the
oven followed by the cancellation recently on December 14, 2023.
Unfortunate news really.
The reason behind it was, and I quote or cite Naughty Dog from Naughty Dog is a divergence
(06:46):
in priorities as a reason behind the cancellation.
They said, you know, balancing the demands of a live service game like the Last of Us
Online with the commitment to single player narrative games was deemed unsustainable for
the studio.
And you know, as I mentioned in episode three, if you haven't heard it, I don't think any
(07:07):
of us were really asking for it to be this big live service game.
You know, we weren't expecting the Last of Us to be like, you know, following a free
to play model like the finals or Fortnite or Halo Infinite and be this law, you know,
live action game that's going to, you know, keep going years and years and, you know,
battle pass after battle pass and update after update.
(07:29):
We just wanted something similar to what factions offered in the original Last of Us and Last
of Us Remastered.
And as I mentioned in that episode, episode three, would have been a perfect time just
to attach a multiplayer mode with the Last of Us Part 2 Remastered.
And I just kept it simple, simple 4v4, you know, obviously support the game with some
updates here and there, some maps, but it needed to be nothing crazy.
(07:52):
It just had to be a traditional experience because, you know, I've mentioned this many
times before, the third person shooter genre, especially in the multiplayer realm of things,
it's kind of lacking and would have been cool because I loved the pace of Last of Us factions
and the way the game played and a little slower, you know, reminded me of my time with Gears
(08:13):
of War.
I also enjoyed the Uncharted multipliers quite a bit.
Really, really enjoyed Uncharted 2, Uncharted 2's multiplayer and Uncharted 4.
And like again, you know, there's nothing crazy, just fun.
And you know, I really missed that era where games came with like a nice little like Uncharted
(08:33):
and Last of Us are both great examples.
It came with a kick-ass, well-designed, you know, like 10 to 15 hour single player campaign,
accompanied with just some fun basic multiplayer.
And Sony did a lot of that on the PS3 with the Killzone series and Resistance, RRP to
both of those as of late, especially Resistance.
(08:54):
So I just missed getting those full packages of fun single player, fun multiplayer.
But obviously now in the multiplayer realm, the focus is free to play models with high
monetization and you know, games as a live service.
So yeah, just overall disappointed.
I understand that the commitment to single player narrative games is awesome.
(09:20):
That's Naughty Dog's bread and butter.
It's PlayStation's exclusive first party bread and butter.
If you're looking at Insomniac's doing with Spider-Man, if you're looking at Santa Monica
doing with God of War, Sucker Punch and Ghost of Tsushima, Naughty Dog and their games.
My only concern is, and I'm starting to see conversation about this on Reddit and Twitter,
(09:43):
and I know they're both not the greatest place to get gaming opinions, but sometimes there's
some insightful conversation there.
He's got to look past the fanboy-ism and typical gamer complaints and whatnot.
Sony as a whole, PlayStation as a whole is really doubling down on these third person
action adventure, open world, semi open world, narrative focused games.
(10:09):
Some people are dubbing it B movies, B plus movies, maybe too much focus on the cinema
narrative.
The part of me agrees and they did it on the PS4 era successfully and with The Last of
Us tail-ending the PS3 and the Ghost of Tsushima's and Spider-Man's and Horizon's whatever.
(10:33):
It worked because it felt fresh, especially the God of War reboot.
I know it blew my mind when I got to play through that game because it was fresh, just
that perspective.
But even then the memes are starting to rise up, like God of War is just turning into The
Last of Us, like how Joel and Ellie was, now you have Kratos and Artemis I think.
(10:53):
I still have to play Ragnarok and it's been a, you know, Kratos and his son.
So I think the concern and complaints are valid in terms of Sony's exclusive first
party studio output kind of all being in this same third person narrative B movie umbrella.
But that's the bread and butter.
(11:17):
So I don't want anyone attacking me like, hey man, you really wanted a multiplayer game
from Naughty Dog over what they do best?
And that's not what I'm saying at all.
I just said it didn't have to be this big live action multiplayer commitment, which
is making a heart for the studio to balance the two between live service and single player.
(11:42):
So yeah, all around just a bummer.
You know, the platform details remain undisclosed.
I was, you know, the swirling rumors was it was going to be a PS5, PC release cross-plat,
which would have been cool.
And as I mentioned earlier, you know, the original Last of Us multiplayer was an extension
(12:07):
of action.
You know, originally what this game was when they first announced it was supposed to be
an extension of action from the first game.
And the Last of Us part two was promised to have an involved multiplayer experience.
And then Naughty Dog decided, hey, the project is expanding beyond expectations and scope.
So they wanted to work it as a standalone release.
And you know, even directly to emphasize that a scale was going to be comparable to what
(12:30):
Naughty Dog does on the single player side of things.
And we haven't got concept art.
I remember two pieces.
One was like a devastated San Francisco, you know, kind of seemed like they were suggesting
maybe a third person battle royale, which it would have been cool too.
So as Fortnite will continue to dominate that space for the till the end of time.
(12:50):
And then the second showcased characters on a decaying cruise ship, armed and equipped
for survival.
So you know, we were promised a fresh story in San Francisco with a new cast of characters,
storytelling approach, you know, I guess it's all speculation now.
It could have been through seasonal updates or other means now remain unanswered and undisclosed.
(13:14):
And with this cancellation, I mean, the narrative and the fate of these characters from a mystery
kind of making, you know, us fans wonder like, what were the untold tales that Last of Us
Online was going to bring?
What were these characters' stories and backgrounds and how they fit into this, you know, shitty
world surviving?
(13:37):
What would there have been stories, you know, you met all the cool characters, you know,
the Bills and the Sams and whatnot and the Last of Us would have been cool.
Would have been cool.
But yeah, just to recap, you know, it's difficult choice between balancing a live service game
(13:57):
studio or prioritizing the legacy of the single player narrative games.
And the decision ultimately came to prevent resource diversion.
So my thoughts on that.
If you look at Naughty Dog now, they did the Uncharted Legacy Collection, whatever it was,
(14:18):
which was Uncharted 4 Remaster and Lost Legacy Remaster.
So remaster there for the PS5.
Last of Us Part 1 Remake for the PS5 and now in January we're going to have the Last of
Us Part 2 Remaster as well.
So you're noticing a trend here with Naughty Dog and their current output on the PS5.
(14:39):
So here's hoping they do produce and release something during PS5's run here.
But what I'm sensing is going to be something similar to the original Last of Us where it
comes at the tail end of the generation and then it gets remastered again.
Or what I would suppose be the PS6 because why would Sony name it anything different?
(15:03):
So that's that.
Switching gears a bit, a little bit, not necessarily.
Still talking about Sony's first party studios.
Insomniac Games suffered a significant chunk of their future games, earnings, and personal
information leaking online.
(15:24):
So once again, my heart goes out to all the devs, 400 plus, getting their personal info
leaked online.
That's probably the worst part of this and their earnings and kind of their roadmap.
Sleek comes from a previous series of events where the hacker group known as Residia or
Reseda, who cares man, bunch of fucking losers, acquired confidential information from Insomniac
(15:46):
Games using ransomware on December 12th, 2023 and demanded 50 bitcoin, which is an estimated
value of about 2 million.
Within a week, otherwise they released all they had gained access to publicly.
The ransomware attack was found out by Sony, however, it unfortunately seems that they
were unable to circumvent the situation and therefore the big leak happened.
(16:11):
This unfortunately lays out Insomniac's roadmap all the way up until 2035, so 12 years, over
a decade.
And again, not going to go into the details of the games and whatnot.
And personal information on the developers, which is shitty.
So regardless, I've seen the speculation on Twitter, whether the information is intriguing,
(16:34):
fun or exciting to you.
Remember, it's really important to remember that what has been leaked is confidential.
The developers of Insomniac, whose hard work was not only revealed early, but also ruins
element of surprise and reveals as gamers, you know, when we watch the Summer Game Fest
now or the Game Awards or other, you know, PlayStation show cases or, you know, whatever
(16:54):
the case may be.
Very, very unfortunate, but they're the ones personally dealing with the repercussions
of their personal information, like their passports and addresses being readily available
by anyone anywhere.
So just keep in mind that when you're out here spreading of all this.
Yeah.
So a lot was leaked.
(17:17):
Insomniac's roadmap of future IPs and licenses, all their future projects up to 2035, Insomniac's
budgets and revenues, PlayStation Studios, Steam sales, Insomniac's projected sales,
information on the company.
And then obviously a lot about Marvel's Wolverine.
That's the only game I'll talk about because it's the only one that's been previously revealed
and announced.
(17:37):
But from Marvel's Wolverine with character and scenes, concept art is leaked, missing
play testing footage, gameplay and combat play testing footage, the characters list
and cast, playable build, which is absolutely crazy, the development and release roadmap,
a drawn cut scene and a potential plot.
Now furthermore, there's future games, like I said, I'm not going to name, but there's
(18:03):
not, unfortunately not much we can do as gamers because most gamers are pieces of shit.
And most of the Twitter discourse now is going back and forth between these games look like
shit.
Oh, what is Sony doing?
Oh, blah, blah, blah.
Or like this looks super cool or ha ha ha this that.
But yeah, absolutely devastating for them.
(18:25):
I feel for them.
I really do.
And yeah, just please be sensitive and keep in mind what these devs are going through.
But yeah, I mean, so much personal information, like full on builds of Wolverine playable
(18:46):
people just playing it, which is what?
And yeah, their entire roadmap for like the next 12 years.
So heart goes out to Nintomniac once again.
I know you guys will bounce back and I know the team and PlayStation, obviously, and Sony
overall supports the studio quite a bit.
So I think they'll come with creative ways to tackle the future games that have been
(19:09):
leaked here on how to announce them and whatnot.
But again, it's not going to go into further details than that, but just to overview of
everything that kind of got leaked from a general overhead basis.
And the reason I did that is just to signify the importance and the amount of detail that
did get leaked.
So very, very unfortunate.
(19:33):
Now shifting more gears.
Aside from PlayStation News, huge Microsoft News.
Microsoft announces more Xbox leadership changes as Activision's Bobby Kotick finally fucking
departs.
Fuck you, Bobby.
That's all I got to say about him.
Especially stepping down on December 29th of 2023 of this year.
Microsoft is not appointed direct replacement instead has rolled the suit of Activision
(20:00):
Blizzard executives, including Blizzard President Mike Yabara, Activision publishing president
Rob Kostjic and Activision Blizzard Vice Chair Thomas Tippal under Microsoft's game content
and studios president Matt Booty.
So Matt Booty will be overseeing Activision Blizzard as a whole, it seems, with those
(20:21):
executives right behind him.
Kotick's departure comes after two months after some big Xbox leadership changes.
Big Xbox leadership changes.
Pardon me.
I'm tired, man.
Usually I record these podcasts on the weekend.
I'm all ready to go for the subsequent following Friday.
I'm doing this one on a Wednesday after work because yeah, just yeah, I'm just bad with
(20:47):
time.
But bear with me.
But yeah, it comes two months after some big Xbox leadership changes that saw Sarah Bond
promoted to Xbox president, leading all the Xbox platform and hardware work.
And Matt Booty promoted to president of gaming content studios, including overseeing Bethesda
and Zenimax Studios.
Now Booty is getting even more responsibilities with Bethesda, Activision Blizzard and Xbox
(21:10):
Game Studios all under his watch.
So three big publishers with like, you know, dozens and dozens of devs under the umbrella
of the three.
So Matt Booty's got his plate full.
Microsoft's largely keeping the leadership team of Activision Blizzard in place with
some executive level exceptions.
Microsoft Communications Officer Lulu Mizzurri will leave the company at the end of January.
(21:34):
And Humam Sakini, vice chairman, will also depart at the end of December.
And a number of Activision Blizzard executives will depart in March too.
Brian Abolato, chief administration officer, Julie Hodges, chief people officer, Armand
Zerza, chief financial officer, and Grant Dixon, chief legal officer, are all reporting
(21:54):
to their Microsoft gaming equivalents.
So yeah, that's kind of what's going on there.
Phil Spencer shot off a full internal memo earlier today, which we'll get into in a bit
here.
But Microsoft's still kind of finding ways how to integrate Activision Blizzard into
(22:16):
an expanded Microsoft gaming business.
And with Matt Booty now taking more responsibility than ever before, it'll be interesting to
see how they fit Activision Blizzard into their Xbox portfolio.
Obviously a lot of Xbox slash PC Game Pass fans are now waiting to hear from Microsoft
on its plan to add Activision Blizzard games to the Xbox Game Pass.
(22:38):
Phil Spencer previously blamed the deal's long regulatory process for not having a back
catalog of Activision Blizzard games available in Game Pass.
Warning we'd have to wait until 2024 for news on game editions.
Activision Blizzard also revealed on X ahead of the Microsoft deal closing that Modern
Warfare 3 and Diablo 4 won't be coming to Game Pass this year, but 2024 is just around
(23:03):
the corner.
So I think Xbox will start adding, especially with Matt Booty now running the helm, I think
starts seeing a lot of Activision Blizzard games on the Game Pass, which whether you love
Bobby Kotick or hate him, we'll probably more on the hate side.
And Blizzard, Activision Blizzard as a whole, that's definitely going to drive up the value
(23:25):
of the Game Pass given that the prices and what they're offering now remains all where
it is.
Constant having that COD backlog, having the new CODs yearly on there, Diablo 4, future
StarCraft or Overwatches or whatever they do.
It is quite big.
(23:47):
You also have Crash IP and Tony Hawk IP among other things.
So it is big.
But Phil Spencer's full internal memo basically just says Bobby Kotick formally announced
that he's leaving on December 29th.
His team created many beloved franchise such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Candy
Crush Saga, yadda yadda yadda.
(24:08):
He thanks them.
And then, you know, as I mentioned, some of the executives before from Blizzard, Activision
Blizzard will remain in place.
No changes to the structure of how the studios and business units are run.
And with Matt Booty overseeing it all now.
So for most people, he says the day to day work will remain the same, still business
(24:30):
as usual and bringing more groundbreaking experiences to players around the world at
the leadership level.
These changes will provide the clarity and accountability is necessary to achieve our
ambitious goals and foster a culture that is welcoming, empowering and committed to
gaming for everyone.
And these are, you know, these press releases often, you know, follow the same kind of business
language.
(24:51):
But I think the language expressed here, the gaming for everyone, especially is very critical
given what we've heard coming out of the studio in the past in regards to Activision Blizzard.
So I hope Xbox can turn around the culture in that sense.
He says we have an exciting 2024 lineup of games across Activision, but as Blizzard,
King and Xbox Game Studios.
(25:13):
And I know that we all look forward to sharing more details with our player communities when
the time is right.
Matt Booty also sent off an eternal memo.
Pretty much I'm going to recap.
He says, you know, thanks all the executives and leadership people that are going to be
now reporting under his watch while they remain in their company structure.
(25:34):
He says he's excited for 2024 and our slate of games over the next 18 months is looking
strong.
Together, we can create amazing memorable experiences for our players built in a culture
that empowers everyone to be their most authentic selves and do their best work.
And you know, I mentioned Sony kind of following this single player formula that's working
(25:56):
for them.
One thing I will give credit to Xbox for, it seems like with all their studio investment
games that they're announcing, that they're looking at a more portfolioed approach.
And you saw that with the surprise release of Hi-Fi Russia this year, Forza, Starfield,
etc.
(26:16):
Now we just need them to release and get them coming, you know, and see what they can do.
But that kind of wraps up the gaming news that was on top of the agenda for me.
Stay tuned though.
After this, we'll be talking about my Steam year in review.
(26:37):
My PlayStation 1 was pretty minimal and the Nintendo 1 was pretty much Cheers of the Kingdom
and Splatoon, as I mentioned, started the podcast.
So I'll touch bases on that and also touch bases on some other games I've kind of been
trying out lately.
The Finals being one, as I promised previously, Lethal Company and Grand Blue Fantasy vs. Rising.
(27:00):
GBVSR?
Yeah, Grand Blue vs. Fantasy Rising.
Hopefully I didn't get that backwards the first time, but if I did, apologize.
And more.
So stay tuned.
So shifting focus completely from the gaming news, sorry.
I just like to explore those things and kind of let people informed, you know, like if
(27:23):
you're using this as an informative gaming podcast, I do want to cover those things.
So bear with me if that's not really what you're here for.
But now we're going to get into more of the fun stuff.
Gilly's Steam Year in Review 2023.
So quick overview.
Apparently I played 24 games, 17 new ones, 82% with controller.
(27:44):
So I don't even know why I really have PC as my platform of choice when I only use a
keyboard and mouse 80% of the time.
Anyhow, some top games here.
Most, according to what games you play, the Spider Graph shows 2.5 TD, 3D fighter, cyberpunk,
puzzle platformer, precision platformer and word games.
Sherman, probably just a little bit of Tekken hours I put in this year, kind of put that
(28:09):
toward that.
And maybe Steam is considering party animals to be a 3D fighter of some sorts as well.
So maybe that's why the spider web is looking this way.
Regardless, you know, top played game of the year.
It was Elden Ring.
I did buy this last summer, hopped into it for like about two or three hours, never touched
(28:31):
it again.
Waited, waited, waited.
And then finally played it this year.
50% of 57% of my total playtime in the Elden Ring was in February and the following 43%
in March, got through the game in those two months.
The game took up 22% of my total playtime for the year, had 28 sessions and had a six
(28:54):
day streak, which I could play in the game.
Got 33 achievements, which is pretty much fighting all the bosses that had achievements,
like the main bosses, including the secret ones.
And you know, Elden Ring hasn't really been something I've talked about much before, but
quite the experience, I don't know if I mentioned my first From Software game was Bloodborne.
(29:20):
Probably not the best choice for their first From Software game.
It was a difficult game.
It was 30 FPS, obviously.
Everyone knows that.
And I streamed it, I suffered, and I had people kind of help me in, help me out, help me out
with the co-op and whatnot, so I kind of cheesed that game.
(29:42):
But regardless, it's a fucking great game.
It's, you know, following that, I played Dark Souls 3 completely on my own.
No co-op there at all.
So got through that, got through all the main bosses and whatnot.
So that's dope.
(30:03):
So Dark Souls 3 was the second From Software game.
And then third was Elden Ring.
And I think out of the three, if there's one From Software game I would recommend over
anything else, definitely would be Elden Ring, just due to the open world nature of it.
(30:24):
If you find a boss or an area too difficult, hey, you can bounce out and do something else
and cheese or level up or explore the grand map and, you know, all of the intricacies
of the little dungeons and whatnot and the underground world and yada yada yada.
The freedom of choice is what makes Elden Ring difficult.
(30:44):
And I think that's what kind of, you know, the game is still hard, but because you have
that freedom to go around and come back to areas and whatnot, I think it makes it a more
accessible and fun experience.
And you know, eventually there's Dark Souls in the open world, which kind of speaks for
itself.
That's why it sold as well as it did and received the critical acclaim it did.
And I wasn't a believer at first, that's why initially when I played it last summer
(31:08):
of 2022, I was like, okay, whatever, you know what I mean?
That's all it is.
Just Dark World's open world.
When I finally sat down, started getting through it in February and March of this year, I was
like, okay, dope, dope, dope, dope.
So the tagline Twitch has for me is you and Melania have a relationship, a toxic, abusive
relationship.
Fuck that boss.
But Elden Ring, ladies and gentlemen, and I do look forward to the expansion slash DLC
(31:34):
in 2024.
I'm excited to see what From Software does next.
Another came out with Armored Core, which maybe I'll try it someday.
Just not on my radar, not really.
Not like, wow, that game looks fun.
I need to play that to stick out to me.
But more in the Souls-born like genre, I'm excited to see what they can do next.
(31:56):
I think they have to switch it up.
You know, obviously they took Dark Souls and made it open world.
Elden Ring and it worked, it worked very well and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
But I think they're going to have to switch up the formula a little bit regarding this
genre.
I think they will.
They always do.
They always find a way.
(32:17):
But Elden Ring, top game.
Second was Cyberpunk 2077.
More than 23% played in October and 77% of it played in November.
And again, I talked about this.
I was talking about the game where nominees, if you haven't played Phantom Liberty, go
(32:37):
play it.
It is that good.
I don't think, like I said, the 2.0 update or now 2.1 or whatever they're at is enticing
enough for me to go through the whole entire main story again.
Who knows, maybe one day, because I'm already having the itching feeling of going back into
the world.
I don't know why, because this is a game I did not like when it originally released
in 2020.
(32:58):
Or it didn't live up to my expectations.
I think it gave like a 6 out of 10 or whatever.
But I'm trying to feel kind of feel that itch.
But I have so much in my backlog and so many future games that are coming out that probably
won't.
But yes, if you've not played Phantom Liberty, go check it out.
Awesome.
Awesome.
Awesome.
Awesome.
Third on the list was Party Animals.
80% of this was played in September.
(33:19):
I played a lot of it in release.
20% October.
And I haven't touched it since.
I haven't touched it in two months.
I thought this game obviously would have more longevity.
I think it will still.
But I think it's going to be kind of be that party game that friends kind of hop on and
play occasionally from time to time.
Like I said, the matchmaking is fun.
Fun game overall, just sweaty.
And you know, they took their sweet time releasing this game and they didn't ship out with X
(33:43):
amount of maps.
But obviously some of the 4v4 game modes are not everyone's cup of tea, the sports modes
and stuff like that.
And that's kind of what fleshed out the rest of the map selection here.
But still fun game.
Check it out.
Don't let the steam review bombs initially that occurred bug you.
(34:04):
Another honorable mention here since I mentioned Sony and Nintendo, I did have Xbox here in
review as well.
But that was just Starfield because I got the game pass just for September and then
hopped on Starfield.
Came through that game before I started my new job and played that.
So Sonoran mentioned just, you know, recapping everything that I kind of touched this year.
(34:26):
About 44 or 45 hours on that.
And that's doing the main question, all the faction quests.
So I guess for the I guess, you know, I did play a lot of new releases this year, aside
from Elden Ring.
Final Liberty was new.
Party Animals was new.
Starfield, Tour of the Kingdom, whatnot.
But back to the steam in review here.
(34:47):
So Party to Animals, the third game.
Vampire Survivors was the fourth.
100% of total play time in January.
I think I played a bit of this in December as well.
If you've not played Vampire Survivors and you're a gamer.
Just play it.
That's all I got to say, man.
(35:07):
It's a rogue like bullet hell survival game.
I'm sure you've heard of it.
I'm sure you've seen it.
I'm sure you've seen, you know, cheap as fuck.
There's a bunch of DLC out that I haven't checked out yet, which I probably should.
Let's go play it.
All I can say.
So I'm glad to see that made the list.
Fifth game on my fifth game on my list here is Outer Outer World Spacers Choice Edition.
(35:31):
And 69% of the time.
69, by the way.
Nice.
Sorry, I had to throw that joke in there.
69% of it played in August and the remaining 31% of it in September.
I really was kind of just playing this game to get prepared for Starfield.
And my buddy Ricky was able to provide me a code for the Outer Worlds.
(35:53):
And I respect Obsidian as a game studio as well.
So shout out to Ricky.
Shout out to Obsidian.
And ultimately, I enjoyed this game as much as I did Starfield.
And take that as you will, whether that's good or bad.
But I played this game prepping for Starfield thinking Starfield is going to be like this
game but 10 times more in terms of the polish and the detail and how expansive it was going
(36:15):
to be.
And obviously they have this big studio budget behind them compared to Obsidian pre-Microsoft
acquisitions.
We'll see what their budgets look like now with the Xbox Game Studios funding.
But I enjoyed this game as much as Starfield.
Obviously it's smaller in scope, less planets and all that.
But I think overall it had better dialogue and cooler characters.
(36:36):
And it was neat.
Not the perfect.
The gameplay is a little boring.
It's not the best Obsidian game.
It's not New Vegas or Pillars of Eternity or anything like that.
But still fun.
So I played that as well.
My most played time was in the winter, January, February, March.
And then October, November with the summer months kind of being less played, which makes
(36:57):
sense because it's summer.
Also doesn't make sense to me because I was unemployed.
But anyway.
But yeah, top five games being Elden Ring taking 20% of my total play time.
Cyberpunk, which is pretty much Phantom Liberty, 14%.
Part Animal taking up 13%.
Vampire Survivor taking up 11%.
And then the Outer Worlds Bracer Choice Edition taking up 9%.
(37:18):
So top five of the year for this team.
Exploring the rest of the games I played, that was the top five.
Red Dead 2, which is for RP purposes.
I remember earlier in the year I checked out Undisputed, which is made by Indie Studio
being a fight night kind of spiritual successor.
I was very hyped for it.
Bought it.
I did have a little bit of fun with it, but it just wasn't quite fight night.
(37:43):
And they had a lot of kind of just clunkiness to it.
And just some weird gameplay pacing and whatnot.
So yeah, if you're interested in boxing, it's probably the best thing you'll get on PC right
now.
And it's only on PC because it's an early access, no consoles for Undisputed.
So check that out.
Played a bit of BattleBit Remastered, which is a fun game.
(38:05):
Just not, you know, just that style.
Just didn't hook me in in the long term.
But BattleBit Remastered, if you're a Battlefield fan, go check it out.
It's probably the best Battlefield in years and it's not even a real Battlefield game.
It's BattleBit made by Indie Team.
Played Holocurse, Save the Fence.
It's just simply because it kind of looked like the VTuber anime version of Vampire Survivors.
(38:27):
That's essentially what it was.
And I put a couple hours on this game, nothing too crazy, but enough to get some achievements
and beat three bosses and whatnot.
But it is a fun game and it's free to play.
So if you're looking for another, you know, well, first play Vampire Survivors.
If you're looking for more cutesy, you know, VTuber anime girl kind of version of that
(38:48):
game, check out Holocurse.
And outside of the bullet hell survival like gameplay, you know, you can do the Hollow
House stuff, which is like, you know, running a garden, having workers harvest the plants
and you do fishing.
It's just nice and relaxing.
So I also played the original Fallout this year.
(39:09):
I didn't beat it, but just wanted to see what Fallout was like before it became this big
3D phenomenon it did with 3 and that was an interesting game.
Super hard though.
Another pleasure I had this year was finally playing both Inside and Limbo.
Both games made by the same des with Limbo coming out first, then Inside.
If you're looking for super creative indie platformers with some of the best artwork
(39:36):
I've seen ever, Limbo and Inside, I'd recommend both.
Both have a very unique identity to them.
Right away, you know, it's, you know, Limbo and Inside.
Even the dev team behind it.
Sorry, I gotta visit the store page real quick.
(39:56):
Play dead.
I wonder what they make next because all they have is Inside of Limbo and Inside was released
back in 2016 and Limbo was released back in 2011.
So I wonder what they're cooking up, if they're even cooking up anything.
But, you know, if you're a gamer in general, man, kind of just like how Vampire Survivors
was, you just owe yourself to play those two titles if you're not yet.
(40:19):
And if you're a platforming fan, then you really have zero excuse but to check those
out.
What else did I play first time?
I played some Tekken 7.
Played some Cart Rider Drift, which was disappointing.
Played Downwell, which is an interesting take on the roguelike genre.
(40:41):
So it's more like an indie game where you're just going downward and you have to dodge
the obstacles coming in your way and stuff like that.
And it's fucking hard.
But if you're looking for an interesting, unique spin on the roguelike genre, I'd recommend
Downwell.
Scribble it, which is pretty much just like Scribble.
Tried out some Halo Infinite just to see what all the updates and stuff were.
(41:05):
Still not my cup of tea.
And yeah, recently I tried out Lethal Company in the finals.
I haven't played enough of both games to give a full opinion on.
I guess I can give an opinion on the finals based on the beta, but I think I should play
the base game more.
But what I did play with Lethal Company was a group of friends, four man squad, and I
(41:28):
do recommend having a four, at least minimum three or four person squad to play Lethal
Company, man.
It's a fun game.
It really is.
If you enjoyed Phasmophobia but didn't enjoy the concept of it, just being a paranormal
investigator, but you like the idea of playing kind of like a game that you'll laugh and
(41:48):
be scared about all in one package.
Lethal Company is it.
You know, you're just like these space explorers pretty much working for this big corporation,
kind of just selling your soul out to the corporation, just working for them recklessly.
Kind of reminds me of a lot of people in their everyday jobs.
(42:09):
A little bit of such a reality there in the theme of the game.
But yeah, you have to collect scrap, bring it back to your ship, and sell it.
The issue is here, scrap is in like these lethal planets and these weird little dark
corridors and buildings and abandoned factories and stuff like that.
(42:32):
That's the horror element.
And when you see one of your friends do see the unfortunate death and whatnot, some of
that shit can be fucking hilarious.
So I highly recommend Lethal Company.
And finals, like I said, I played the beta more than I have the base game so far.
But how do I explain the finals, man?
It's kind of like the COD's plunder mode with the Halo's multi-team format, like the 3v3v3v3
(43:00):
with kind of like battlefield, bad company destruction, which makes sense because it
is ex-DICE developers.
What's trying to make a high-paced game like Overwatch or I don't know, Quake or Fortnite,
you know, something along those lines.
But the movement is also battlefield-like, so it doesn't really translate as well to
(43:24):
what they're trying to go for, which is this high-paced, heist FPS.
But regardless, if that funky mix of games is what sounds interesting to you, or you're
just a shooter fan in general, that sort of thing, I would recommend trying it out.
It is free in all three of the games using the free-to-play model with hopes of high
(43:47):
monetization via cosmetics and battle pass purchases and whatnot.
Did have a strong launch.
I forgot how many concurrent players I had at the time at one point.
I want to say it was like 250k plus.
In fact, earlier today it was around 120, 130k.
That's not a factor for console players, so you know, there's interest there.
We'll see the longevity of it.
(44:09):
I think that the two game modes they have available plus the tournament style, which
is kind of like the ranked mode, will not be enough for the longevity of the title because
it needs to be more than just cashing out vaults and whatnot, I think.
But like I said, if you're looking for an FPS, a little bit different, but feels familiar.
(44:34):
That's the finals.
And then a couple other games, but don't really need to be touched upon or anything.
So that was kind of my 2023.
Gaming wise, at least.
So on this week's Have You Played This, I mentioned in previous episodes, we talked
(44:56):
about the Scarface, the world is yours.
Also talked about Spawn Armageddon.
Both licensed games that were kind of overlooked and underrated, to be honest, because they
were fun to me.
In my nostalgic glasses.
But today we're going to talk about another licensed game.
Also overlooked and underrated.
(45:17):
And I kind of thought about it after I saw Bethesda's Arcane Reveal Blade.
And it also follows suit with Scarface being a badass, but not quite a superhero.
Spawn being the super cool badass superhero.
And also Blade being this cool super badass superhero.
(45:39):
More mature, violent, kind of gory type of works and whatnot.
The Punisher.
And I'm not talking about the Netflix series that got canned, which was phenomenal, by
the way.
And I'm not talking about the movie that came out back in the early 2000s.
I forgot it was 2004 or 2005 now.
(46:02):
With Tom Jane and John Travolta.
Also an underrated and overlooked movie.
If you haven't seen The Punisher, I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Seen it multiple times.
It's got Kevin Nash in it.
So shout out to Big Kev Diesel.
So if you're not seen the movie, go check it out.
There was a game as well during the PS2 Xbox era.
(46:24):
Simply titled The Punisher.
And for the previous Have You Played This, I kind of pulled up the fact sheet a little
bit on the games.
But I don't think I needed The Punisher.
You know, maybe I can pull it up just to see who the dev team was.
But it was like this third person linear shooter game.
(46:46):
Kind of the same vein as how Spawn Armageddon was or anything like that, because Spawn Armageddon
was more and the devil may cry lens kind of things.
This was more of a third person shooter action adventure game.
Kind of like a Max Payne slash Gears of War before Gears of War.
(47:07):
Came out in 2005, sorry.
But obviously not that quite level of polish and budget and quality, but still fun.
And it was actually developed by Volition.
Don't know who Volition is.
(47:29):
They're behind the Red Faction series, which went from FPS to a third person shooter over
the years, which confused me.
But I played the original Red Faction quite a bit with my friends in person, which came
on 2001, which was one of the very first games I got on the PS2.
(47:50):
But yes, I was a first person shooter and they followed up by Red Faction 2.
And then they came out with The Punisher.
And they came out with Saints Row.
So the OG Saints Row developers, Saints Row 1 and 2.
Then Red Faction Gorilla and Armageddon, where they put Red Faction third person and they
came out with Saints Row the third, Saints Row 4, Agents of Mayhem, and finally the rebooted
(48:14):
Saints Row of last year.
So over time Volition kind of fell off, I guess, in better nowadays terms.
But nevertheless, a solid portfolio of games that I all pretty much enjoyed other than
the recent reboot of Saints Row and Agents of Mayhem and even Saints Row 4 was a little
(48:38):
wacky.
But you know, the three Saints Row games, the Red Faction games, they didn't really
get to...
I played Gorilla a bit, but I really played Armageddon.
So I haven't played the third person Red Faction games too much, but I did play the shit out
of Red Faction 1 and 2, the original FPS and the PS2.
But they did make The Punisher and it was published by THQ, which makes sense because
(49:03):
their games were published by THQ, all the Saints Row and Red Factions and whatnot as
well until recent times where Deep Silver kind of took over, starting from Saints Row
4.
But yeah, man, they made it, man.
They made The Punisher, Marvel Comics anti-hero, of course.
For anyone who knows the plot of Punisher, it's not really a spoiler, it's kind of just
(49:24):
like the plot of his backstory anyways.
His family is murdered by the mafia and then Frank Castle, the Punisher, devotes his life
to punish these criminals, hence The Punisher.
And just like the movie, Thomas Jane does reprise his role as Frank Castle, the Punisher,
in the game as well, which is cool to get that voice acting license.
(49:46):
Many characters in the game, I remember there was Iron Man, Nick Fury, Kingpin, I think
Matt Murdock, which is Daredevil, right?
A few others.
A little bit of exploration, but mostly linear combat.
You can attack and you can do one button quick kills.
(50:06):
There's numerous fatal assaults.
The environment kind of had these interrogation hotspots where you can interrogate your enemies,
like death threats, torture and whatnot, forcing them to share information that might help
you.
And at the end of the level, you also get punished or your score gets a minus for shooting
innocent people or killing innocent people, because obviously he's punishing the criminals
(50:29):
that did him wrong or the society wrong.
Hence why he's an antihero.
Even those methods might be brutal.
He's doing it from the good of his heart.
So reading more about it here, the game ended up doing something around one million copies,
which isn't a lot, but it was profitable because I'm guessing Marvel at the time licensed
(50:50):
it for pretty cheap compared to what The Punisher would be licensed for now.
And they also probably thought of it as a way to promote the movie at the time as well.
So it makes sense to me.
And there's a lot of torture and gore.
I probably shouldn't have played it as a kid, but eh.
Other than that, the controversy of the game originally had adults only rating, similar
(51:12):
to how Manhunt 2, because the interrogations and the tortures and all that stuff.
But they ended up revising the game to make sure they hit that mature rating.
Yeah, like I said, I know it's hard to find PS2, Xboxes nowadays, but I think there is
a Windows version available to game too.
(51:33):
If you can tell me I'll find it.
But yeah, if you're looking for like a third person action adventure game that you play
as the badass Punisher, kind of in the vein of Max Payne, Manhunt, kind of gory shooter,
third person shooter, I recommend the Punisher.
I enjoyed it quite a bit.
And he's actually one of my favorite Marvel characters of all time.
(51:57):
So when I thought of Marvel's The Blade getting announced recently, I was like, oh yeah, didn't
they make the, wasn't there a Punisher game?
So I'm hoping this opens up the window to maybe the Punisher and Daredevil for that
matter being possibilities for future games as well.
Just don't know who would quite make the Punisher.
(52:17):
It'd be sick.
Oh, now my brain's rolling as I'm recording this podcast.
Bear with me.
It'd be sick if Remedy kind of took control of the Punisher.
Yeah.
Or even the Coalition.
The Gears of War devs now.
That'd be fucking sick.
Talk about, you know, like how Microsoft got the blade for Arkane if they're able to get
(52:40):
the licensing rights of the Punisher.
You have the Coalition.
That would be fire.
But yeah, that's this week's Have You Played This Game, The Punisher.
You know, underrated and overlooked licensed game from that same PS2 era once again.
(53:03):
So make sure to check it out or at the very least YouTube it and see what it's kind of
like.
So that's kind of episode five.
Talked a little bit about Last of Us Online, Insomniac League, Spopukotek, kind of my 2023
year of gaming.
(53:25):
My little call to action here.
I don't like to go overboard on this, but if you do listen to the podcast and you enjoy
it, please tell a friend.
Word of mouth goes a long way.
Whatever you're listening on, whether it be Spotify or Apple or any other streaming podcast
directory like Podbean or whatever else, YouTube, right?
(53:51):
Just give it a like.
It goes a long way.
I would appreciate it or leave a rating, I should say, on the Spotify and Apple side
of things.
And you know, follow the Twitter at Digital Down Pod.
Once again, that's Digital Down Pod.
Again, that helps me a bunch.
(54:13):
Also going to be restructuring my Discord to be more focused on the podcast.
So whenever you see the link tree for the Digital Down Time podcast, which you'll find
anywhere when I share it on my personal Twitter, I give you PG or the Digital Down Pod, Twitter
or wherever else.
(54:33):
I'll make sure to put the Discord link there and I'll also make a separate post about it.
But yeah, you can also join the Discord.
You can hop in there.
You know, we have many different various chats you can participate in and then it will also
be used kind of as feedback for the podcast.
If you have any podcast ideas, you can discuss them there.
(54:55):
I look into them.
Any questions or answers you have about you have for me about me or about my thoughts
on anything gaming.
And also I figured it'd be good for future guests and whatnot who will be coming on the
stream.
Good place for them to kind of hop in and we can just have a voice channel there for
the podcast.
Also a good way for fans to ask their questions to any of the guests that do come along.
(55:20):
We will do that on the Discord end.
But yes, like I said, word of mouth is key.
So make sure to please tell a friend, leave a rating, leave a like on the YouTube, follow
the Twitter again, digital down pod, follow the, you know, subscribe to the YouTube.
And if you want to be more in touch with me, just follow me at gillipg, the G I L I E P
(55:45):
G on all platforms, Instagram, Twitter, Twitch, YouTube.
Recently made a TikTok, so we'll be doing some things on there.
Hopefully I'm trying.
I'll try to think of some ideas.
It's also Gilly PG.
So a little call of action there.
So I do appreciate, bear with me through that.
(56:08):
Again if you're looking to be a guest on the podcast, best way to reach out is on the Twitter.
You can also reach me at digital downtime podcast at gmail.com altogether.
So again, digital downtime podcast at gmail.com if you're looking to be a guest on the show.
And also it might not be the biggest podcast yet, but if you're looking, we are looking
(56:31):
for advertisers slash sponsors.
If you are interested in that sense as well, you know, again, hit me up on Twitter or shoot
an email off, whatever it refers, whatever works for you, whatever you prefer sort of
thing.
In 2024, like I said, hoping to expand, you know, get some guests on here, whether they
(56:52):
are fellow gamers and talk about topics that are important to them.
The biggest thing for me, they really want to start interviewing the devs.
Obviously it's going to be like independent studio devs and whatnot, but that's something
I really want to get down into in 2024 and kind of talk to them and get their perspective
(57:12):
on things.
And then also streamers as well, just so we can talk about the linkage between gaming
and content creation.
And if content creation even, you know, is Twitch even, you know, really revolved around
gaming, we all know it isn't anymore, but still there's a wide array of streamers slash
YouTubers that do promote games.
So obviously want to talk to them as well.
(57:36):
And yeah, just keep on doing bigger and better things.
We'll love to grow the fuck out of the podcast as much as possible.
If you know me personally, or you've been following me for a while, you know, I stream
and I've done YouTube videos in the past, gaming reviews, music and whatnot.
But I think moving forward, I'm going to, you know, especially with working and stuff
(57:56):
now I'm going to focus more on the podcast and really get it to the place that I want
it to be.
And I just want it to grow.
Right now the podcast is growing, you know, started off from like, you know, like eight
to 10 listeners first episode to now about 25, 30.
So there's, you know, I'm seeing the gradual growth there and I would like to grow it more.
(58:18):
I'm very transparent with the numbers.
So, you know, I mean, there's no reason for me to lie to you or I want to stay transparent,
right?
You know, even if one day magically that said we have, you know, a thousand viewers per
episode, I'll be open about that because it's open.
It's just easier for guests to see this, you know, where the podcast is at, you know, how
it helps them to promote their games or ideas or whatnot, and also sponsors and whatnot
(58:41):
as well.
So all that funky stuff for sure.
So again, I wish you guys a happy holidays.
Spend it with your loved ones, do some fun things.
And of course, there will be another episode, the last episode of 2023, the last Friday
(59:02):
of the year, which is December 29th.
So we're not quite done.
But yeah, again, this was episode five of Digital Downtown.
I'm your host Gilly.
See you guys next week.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the fifth episode of Digital Downtime.
(00:07):
We've been doing this for over a month, man.
Time flies, eh?
I'm your host, Gilly.
And before we get into a lot of news in the gaming world lately, I just wanted to say
to everyone, I hope you have a happy holidays, Merry Christmas, and whatever else you celebrate.
(00:27):
It's time of the year, special for a lot of people, happy for a lot of people, hard slash
sad for others.
So regardless of what you're feeling, I hope you enjoy your time the best way possible.
That's best for you.
(00:47):
Enjoy the time off from work.
Spend it with some loved ones if you can.
Reach out to them.
Just do something, you know?
So I just wanted to say that first and foremost.
Secondly, I just wanted to say thank you for everyone who's been tuning in every week or
tuning into a singular episode or listened to part or just even just clicked and listened
(01:09):
for a minute, whatever the case may be.
Do appreciate has given me a chance, given Digital Downtime a chance.
And we started the podcast pretty late into the year here.
So I'm hoping 2024 will be a bigger year for growth overall for the podcast.
(01:32):
And I'm starting to look into bringing guests, fellow gamers, streamers, hopefully some developers
if I hear back from them, just to bring you more, you know, rather than just me sitting
here talking about stuff on my own.
Just to have a second voice, more insight into the industry and more opinions and exploring
(01:56):
the other side of, you know, it's part of gaming, but streaming, you know, this other
side of what it is to be a content creator and whatnot.
So we'll be diving all into that in 2024.
So appreciate the patience and I appreciate the support.
Thank you.
A lot of things to look at today.
We're going to be talking about The Last of Us online being cancelled.
(02:19):
I know I mentioned talked about Naughty Dog in episode three and how I'm looking forward
to the online game.
So obviously I have a lot to say about this matter.
Obviously we're expanding our conversation of Naughty Dog's output for the current PS5
generation.
You know, after hearing about this cancellation.
Insomniac got hit by some major leaks.
(02:42):
Out of respect to them, we're not going to be talking about the nature of the leaks or
the specific details of it.
But more so just the overall view of overview of what got leaked and how unfortunate it
is for the 400 employees that got affected.
And my heart and best wishes go out to the team over there.
(03:03):
Knowing Insomniac and how long they've been in the gaming space, you know, they'll bounce
right back up and have their head on their shoulders as they always do.
Bobby Kotick, Activision CEO, finally resigning, which it's good news to talk a bit about that.
(03:24):
After talking about, you know, these kind of two, three major gaming news, I'll just
be talking a bit more about my 2023.
I looked at my PlayStation year and reviewing Nintendo and not a whole lot there, especially
the PlayStation side.
Nintendo is mostly just to the kingdom and Splatoon.
But I'll be looking at my Steam in review for 2023.
(03:48):
Kind of just, you know, majority of my time wasn't spent primarily just on new releases.
But we'll talk a bit about, you know, what I played and what I like to just, you know,
it's a nice sort of reflection piece on that.
Then, of course, as always, following all that, we will have our Have You Played?
segment, which we'll be talking about another licensed game.
(04:11):
I know we talked about Scarface, The World Is Yours previously, and Spawn Armageddon.
And today we'll be talking about another licensed IP in the wake of all these, you know, in
the wake of Marvel's Blade getting announced and how Marvel is being more put into the
gaming limelight as they're shifting their focus towards gaming more so.
(04:35):
So a lot on the agenda and always sit back, relax and don't go nowhere because we got
a lot to talk about.
Thank you once again for tuning into Digital Downtime.
(05:15):
So Naughty Dog's plan for a standalone multiplayer game, The Last of Us Online after six years
of development faced cancellation in late 2023.
The ambitious project lacked a set release date and platform details.
The decision, driven by studio priorities, aimed to prevent a shift away from single
player games.
(05:37):
And this came on the midst of an update earlier this year where they said they're scaling
down on the project and the worry there for a lot of people was the game would end up
getting a shafted slash cancelled, which is exactly what happened.
So it's kind of unfortunate.
So Last of Us Online never really secured a release date or window.
(06:01):
Development back at development began in 2020 apparently with the pre-production proceeding
it giving it, you know, that six year timeline I just mentioned.
You know, Neil Druckmann, or as I like to call him Neil Kuckman, assured us gamers at
Summer Game Fest 2022, which is about a year and a half ago now, that there'll be more
details than in May of this year of 2023.
(06:25):
They announced a delay citing the need to give the game a bit more time to cook in the
oven followed by the cancellation recently on December 14, 2023.
Unfortunate news really.
The reason behind it was, and I quote or cite Naughty Dog from Naughty Dog is a divergence
(06:46):
in priorities as a reason behind the cancellation.
They said, you know, balancing the demands of a live service game like the Last of Us
Online with the commitment to single player narrative games was deemed unsustainable for
the studio.
And you know, as I mentioned in episode three, if you haven't heard it, I don't think any
(07:07):
of us were really asking for it to be this big live service game.
You know, we weren't expecting the Last of Us to be like, you know, following a free
to play model like the finals or Fortnite or Halo Infinite and be this law, you know,
live action game that's going to, you know, keep going years and years and, you know,
battle pass after battle pass and update after update.
(07:29):
We just wanted something similar to what factions offered in the original Last of Us and Last
of Us Remastered.
And as I mentioned in that episode, episode three, would have been a perfect time just
to attach a multiplayer mode with the Last of Us Part 2 Remastered.
And I just kept it simple, simple 4v4, you know, obviously support the game with some
updates here and there, some maps, but it needed to be nothing crazy.
(07:52):
It just had to be a traditional experience because, you know, I've mentioned this many
times before, the third person shooter genre, especially in the multiplayer realm of things,
it's kind of lacking and would have been cool because I loved the pace of Last of Us factions
and the way the game played and a little slower, you know, reminded me of my time with Gears
(08:13):
of War.
I also enjoyed the Uncharted multipliers quite a bit.
Really, really enjoyed Uncharted 2, Uncharted 2's multiplayer and Uncharted 4.
And like again, you know, there's nothing crazy, just fun.
And you know, I really missed that era where games came with like a nice little like Uncharted
(08:33):
and Last of Us are both great examples.
It came with a kick-ass, well-designed, you know, like 10 to 15 hour single player campaign,
accompanied with just some fun basic multiplayer.
And Sony did a lot of that on the PS3 with the Killzone series and Resistance, RRP to
both of those as of late, especially Resistance.
(08:54):
So I just missed getting those full packages of fun single player, fun multiplayer.
But obviously now in the multiplayer realm, the focus is free to play models with high
monetization and you know, games as a live service.
So yeah, just overall disappointed.
I understand that the commitment to single player narrative games is awesome.
(09:20):
That's Naughty Dog's bread and butter.
It's PlayStation's exclusive first party bread and butter.
If you're looking at Insomniac's doing with Spider-Man, if you're looking at Santa Monica
doing with God of War, Sucker Punch and Ghost of Tsushima, Naughty Dog and their games.
My only concern is, and I'm starting to see conversation about this on Reddit and Twitter,
(09:43):
and I know they're both not the greatest place to get gaming opinions, but sometimes there's
some insightful conversation there.
He's got to look past the fanboy-ism and typical gamer complaints and whatnot.
Sony as a whole, PlayStation as a whole is really doubling down on these third person
action adventure, open world, semi open world, narrative focused games.
(10:09):
Some people are dubbing it B movies, B plus movies, maybe too much focus on the cinema
narrative.
The part of me agrees and they did it on the PS4 era successfully and with The Last of
Us tail-ending the PS3 and the Ghost of Tsushima's and Spider-Man's and Horizon's whatever.
(10:33):
It worked because it felt fresh, especially the God of War reboot.
I know it blew my mind when I got to play through that game because it was fresh, just
that perspective.
But even then the memes are starting to rise up, like God of War is just turning into The
Last of Us, like how Joel and Ellie was, now you have Kratos and Artemis I think.
(10:53):
I still have to play Ragnarok and it's been a, you know, Kratos and his son.
So I think the concern and complaints are valid in terms of Sony's exclusive first
party studio output kind of all being in this same third person narrative B movie umbrella.
But that's the bread and butter.
(11:17):
So I don't want anyone attacking me like, hey man, you really wanted a multiplayer game
from Naughty Dog over what they do best?
And that's not what I'm saying at all.
I just said it didn't have to be this big live action multiplayer commitment, which
is making a heart for the studio to balance the two between live service and single player.
(11:42):
So yeah, all around just a bummer.
You know, the platform details remain undisclosed.
I was, you know, the swirling rumors was it was going to be a PS5, PC release cross-plat,
which would have been cool.
And as I mentioned earlier, you know, the original Last of Us multiplayer was an extension
(12:07):
of action.
You know, originally what this game was when they first announced it was supposed to be
an extension of action from the first game.
And the Last of Us part two was promised to have an involved multiplayer experience.
And then Naughty Dog decided, hey, the project is expanding beyond expectations and scope.
So they wanted to work it as a standalone release.
And you know, even directly to emphasize that a scale was going to be comparable to what
(12:30):
Naughty Dog does on the single player side of things.
And we haven't got concept art.
I remember two pieces.
One was like a devastated San Francisco, you know, kind of seemed like they were suggesting
maybe a third person battle royale, which it would have been cool too.
So as Fortnite will continue to dominate that space for the till the end of time.
(12:50):
And then the second showcased characters on a decaying cruise ship, armed and equipped
for survival.
So you know, we were promised a fresh story in San Francisco with a new cast of characters,
storytelling approach, you know, I guess it's all speculation now.
It could have been through seasonal updates or other means now remain unanswered and undisclosed.
(13:14):
And with this cancellation, I mean, the narrative and the fate of these characters from a mystery
kind of making, you know, us fans wonder like, what were the untold tales that Last of Us
Online was going to bring?
What were these characters' stories and backgrounds and how they fit into this, you know, shitty
world surviving?
(13:37):
What would there have been stories, you know, you met all the cool characters, you know,
the Bills and the Sams and whatnot and the Last of Us would have been cool.
Would have been cool.
But yeah, just to recap, you know, it's difficult choice between balancing a live service game
(13:57):
studio or prioritizing the legacy of the single player narrative games.
And the decision ultimately came to prevent resource diversion.
So my thoughts on that.
If you look at Naughty Dog now, they did the Uncharted Legacy Collection, whatever it was,
(14:18):
which was Uncharted 4 Remaster and Lost Legacy Remaster.
So remaster there for the PS5.
Last of Us Part 1 Remake for the PS5 and now in January we're going to have the Last of
Us Part 2 Remaster as well.
So you're noticing a trend here with Naughty Dog and their current output on the PS5.
(14:39):
So here's hoping they do produce and release something during PS5's run here.
But what I'm sensing is going to be something similar to the original Last of Us where it
comes at the tail end of the generation and then it gets remastered again.
Or what I would suppose be the PS6 because why would Sony name it anything different?
(15:03):
So that's that.
Switching gears a bit, a little bit, not necessarily.
Still talking about Sony's first party studios.
Insomniac Games suffered a significant chunk of their future games, earnings, and personal
information leaking online.
(15:24):
So once again, my heart goes out to all the devs, 400 plus, getting their personal info
leaked online.
That's probably the worst part of this and their earnings and kind of their roadmap.
Sleek comes from a previous series of events where the hacker group known as Residia or
Reseda, who cares man, bunch of fucking losers, acquired confidential information from Insomniac
(15:46):
Games using ransomware on December 12th, 2023 and demanded 50 bitcoin, which is an estimated
value of about 2 million.
Within a week, otherwise they released all they had gained access to publicly.
The ransomware attack was found out by Sony, however, it unfortunately seems that they
were unable to circumvent the situation and therefore the big leak happened.
(16:11):
This unfortunately lays out Insomniac's roadmap all the way up until 2035, so 12 years, over
a decade.
And again, not going to go into the details of the games and whatnot.
And personal information on the developers, which is shitty.
So regardless, I've seen the speculation on Twitter, whether the information is intriguing,
(16:34):
fun or exciting to you.
Remember, it's really important to remember that what has been leaked is confidential.
The developers of Insomniac, whose hard work was not only revealed early, but also ruins
element of surprise and reveals as gamers, you know, when we watch the Summer Game Fest
now or the Game Awards or other, you know, PlayStation show cases or, you know, whatever
(16:54):
the case may be.
Very, very unfortunate, but they're the ones personally dealing with the repercussions
of their personal information, like their passports and addresses being readily available
by anyone anywhere.
So just keep in mind that when you're out here spreading of all this.
Yeah.
So a lot was leaked.
(17:17):
Insomniac's roadmap of future IPs and licenses, all their future projects up to 2035, Insomniac's
budgets and revenues, PlayStation Studios, Steam sales, Insomniac's projected sales,
information on the company.
And then obviously a lot about Marvel's Wolverine.
That's the only game I'll talk about because it's the only one that's been previously revealed
and announced.
(17:37):
But from Marvel's Wolverine with character and scenes, concept art is leaked, missing
play testing footage, gameplay and combat play testing footage, the characters list
and cast, playable build, which is absolutely crazy, the development and release roadmap,
a drawn cut scene and a potential plot.
Now furthermore, there's future games, like I said, I'm not going to name, but there's
(18:03):
not, unfortunately not much we can do as gamers because most gamers are pieces of shit.
And most of the Twitter discourse now is going back and forth between these games look like
shit.
Oh, what is Sony doing?
Oh, blah, blah, blah.
Or like this looks super cool or ha ha ha this that.
But yeah, absolutely devastating for them.
(18:25):
I feel for them.
I really do.
And yeah, just please be sensitive and keep in mind what these devs are going through.
But yeah, I mean, so much personal information, like full on builds of Wolverine playable
(18:46):
people just playing it, which is what?
And yeah, their entire roadmap for like the next 12 years.
So heart goes out to Nintomniac once again.
I know you guys will bounce back and I know the team and PlayStation, obviously, and Sony
overall supports the studio quite a bit.
So I think they'll come with creative ways to tackle the future games that have been
(19:09):
leaked here on how to announce them and whatnot.
But again, it's not going to go into further details than that, but just to overview of
everything that kind of got leaked from a general overhead basis.
And the reason I did that is just to signify the importance and the amount of detail that
did get leaked.
So very, very unfortunate.
(19:33):
Now shifting more gears.
Aside from PlayStation News, huge Microsoft News.
Microsoft announces more Xbox leadership changes as Activision's Bobby Kotick finally fucking
departs.
Fuck you, Bobby.
That's all I got to say about him.
Especially stepping down on December 29th of 2023 of this year.
Microsoft is not appointed direct replacement instead has rolled the suit of Activision
(20:00):
Blizzard executives, including Blizzard President Mike Yabara, Activision publishing president
Rob Kostjic and Activision Blizzard Vice Chair Thomas Tippal under Microsoft's game content
and studios president Matt Booty.
So Matt Booty will be overseeing Activision Blizzard as a whole, it seems, with those
(20:21):
executives right behind him.
Kotick's departure comes after two months after some big Xbox leadership changes.
Big Xbox leadership changes.
Pardon me.
I'm tired, man.
Usually I record these podcasts on the weekend.
I'm all ready to go for the subsequent following Friday.
I'm doing this one on a Wednesday after work because yeah, just yeah, I'm just bad with
(20:47):
time.
But bear with me.
But yeah, it comes two months after some big Xbox leadership changes that saw Sarah Bond
promoted to Xbox president, leading all the Xbox platform and hardware work.
And Matt Booty promoted to president of gaming content studios, including overseeing Bethesda
and Zenimax Studios.
Now Booty is getting even more responsibilities with Bethesda, Activision Blizzard and Xbox
(21:10):
Game Studios all under his watch.
So three big publishers with like, you know, dozens and dozens of devs under the umbrella
of the three.
So Matt Booty's got his plate full.
Microsoft's largely keeping the leadership team of Activision Blizzard in place with
some executive level exceptions.
Microsoft Communications Officer Lulu Mizzurri will leave the company at the end of January.
(21:34):
And Humam Sakini, vice chairman, will also depart at the end of December.
And a number of Activision Blizzard executives will depart in March too.
Brian Abolato, chief administration officer, Julie Hodges, chief people officer, Armand
Zerza, chief financial officer, and Grant Dixon, chief legal officer, are all reporting
(21:54):
to their Microsoft gaming equivalents.
So yeah, that's kind of what's going on there.
Phil Spencer shot off a full internal memo earlier today, which we'll get into in a bit
here.
But Microsoft's still kind of finding ways how to integrate Activision Blizzard into
(22:16):
an expanded Microsoft gaming business.
And with Matt Booty now taking more responsibility than ever before, it'll be interesting to
see how they fit Activision Blizzard into their Xbox portfolio.
Obviously a lot of Xbox slash PC Game Pass fans are now waiting to hear from Microsoft
on its plan to add Activision Blizzard games to the Xbox Game Pass.
(22:38):
Phil Spencer previously blamed the deal's long regulatory process for not having a back
catalog of Activision Blizzard games available in Game Pass.
Warning we'd have to wait until 2024 for news on game editions.
Activision Blizzard also revealed on X ahead of the Microsoft deal closing that Modern
Warfare 3 and Diablo 4 won't be coming to Game Pass this year, but 2024 is just around
(23:03):
the corner.
So I think Xbox will start adding, especially with Matt Booty now running the helm, I think
starts seeing a lot of Activision Blizzard games on the Game Pass, which whether you love
Bobby Kotick or hate him, we'll probably more on the hate side.
And Blizzard, Activision Blizzard as a whole, that's definitely going to drive up the value
(23:25):
of the Game Pass given that the prices and what they're offering now remains all where
it is.
Constant having that COD backlog, having the new CODs yearly on there, Diablo 4, future
StarCraft or Overwatches or whatever they do.
It is quite big.
(23:47):
You also have Crash IP and Tony Hawk IP among other things.
So it is big.
But Phil Spencer's full internal memo basically just says Bobby Kotick formally announced
that he's leaving on December 29th.
His team created many beloved franchise such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Candy
Crush Saga, yadda yadda yadda.
(24:08):
He thanks them.
And then, you know, as I mentioned, some of the executives before from Blizzard, Activision
Blizzard will remain in place.
No changes to the structure of how the studios and business units are run.
And with Matt Booty overseeing it all now.
So for most people, he says the day to day work will remain the same, still business
(24:30):
as usual and bringing more groundbreaking experiences to players around the world at
the leadership level.
These changes will provide the clarity and accountability is necessary to achieve our
ambitious goals and foster a culture that is welcoming, empowering and committed to
gaming for everyone.
And these are, you know, these press releases often, you know, follow the same kind of business
language.
(24:51):
But I think the language expressed here, the gaming for everyone, especially is very critical
given what we've heard coming out of the studio in the past in regards to Activision Blizzard.
So I hope Xbox can turn around the culture in that sense.
He says we have an exciting 2024 lineup of games across Activision, but as Blizzard,
King and Xbox Game Studios.
(25:13):
And I know that we all look forward to sharing more details with our player communities when
the time is right.
Matt Booty also sent off an eternal memo.
Pretty much I'm going to recap.
He says, you know, thanks all the executives and leadership people that are going to be
now reporting under his watch while they remain in their company structure.
(25:34):
He says he's excited for 2024 and our slate of games over the next 18 months is looking
strong.
Together, we can create amazing memorable experiences for our players built in a culture
that empowers everyone to be their most authentic selves and do their best work.
And you know, I mentioned Sony kind of following this single player formula that's working
(25:56):
for them.
One thing I will give credit to Xbox for, it seems like with all their studio investment
games that they're announcing, that they're looking at a more portfolioed approach.
And you saw that with the surprise release of Hi-Fi Russia this year, Forza, Starfield,
etc.
(26:16):
Now we just need them to release and get them coming, you know, and see what they can do.
But that kind of wraps up the gaming news that was on top of the agenda for me.
Stay tuned though.
After this, we'll be talking about my Steam year in review.
(26:37):
My PlayStation 1 was pretty minimal and the Nintendo 1 was pretty much Cheers of the Kingdom
and Splatoon, as I mentioned, started the podcast.
So I'll touch bases on that and also touch bases on some other games I've kind of been
trying out lately.
The Finals being one, as I promised previously, Lethal Company and Grand Blue Fantasy vs. Rising.
(27:00):
GBVSR?
Yeah, Grand Blue vs. Fantasy Rising.
Hopefully I didn't get that backwards the first time, but if I did, apologize.
And more.
So stay tuned.
So shifting focus completely from the gaming news, sorry.
I just like to explore those things and kind of let people informed, you know, like if
(27:23):
you're using this as an informative gaming podcast, I do want to cover those things.
So bear with me if that's not really what you're here for.
But now we're going to get into more of the fun stuff.
Gilly's Steam Year in Review 2023.
So quick overview.
Apparently I played 24 games, 17 new ones, 82% with controller.
(27:44):
So I don't even know why I really have PC as my platform of choice when I only use a
keyboard and mouse 80% of the time.
Anyhow, some top games here.
Most, according to what games you play, the Spider Graph shows 2.5 TD, 3D fighter, cyberpunk,
puzzle platformer, precision platformer and word games.
Sherman, probably just a little bit of Tekken hours I put in this year, kind of put that
(28:09):
toward that.
And maybe Steam is considering party animals to be a 3D fighter of some sorts as well.
So maybe that's why the spider web is looking this way.
Regardless, you know, top played game of the year.
It was Elden Ring.
I did buy this last summer, hopped into it for like about two or three hours, never touched
(28:31):
it again.
Waited, waited, waited.
And then finally played it this year.
50% of 57% of my total playtime in the Elden Ring was in February and the following 43%
in March, got through the game in those two months.
The game took up 22% of my total playtime for the year, had 28 sessions and had a six
(28:54):
day streak, which I could play in the game.
Got 33 achievements, which is pretty much fighting all the bosses that had achievements,
like the main bosses, including the secret ones.
And you know, Elden Ring hasn't really been something I've talked about much before, but
quite the experience, I don't know if I mentioned my first From Software game was Bloodborne.
(29:20):
Probably not the best choice for their first From Software game.
It was a difficult game.
It was 30 FPS, obviously.
Everyone knows that.
And I streamed it, I suffered, and I had people kind of help me in, help me out, help me out
with the co-op and whatnot, so I kind of cheesed that game.
(29:42):
But regardless, it's a fucking great game.
It's, you know, following that, I played Dark Souls 3 completely on my own.
No co-op there at all.
So got through that, got through all the main bosses and whatnot.
So that's dope.
(30:03):
So Dark Souls 3 was the second From Software game.
And then third was Elden Ring.
And I think out of the three, if there's one From Software game I would recommend over
anything else, definitely would be Elden Ring, just due to the open world nature of it.
(30:24):
If you find a boss or an area too difficult, hey, you can bounce out and do something else
and cheese or level up or explore the grand map and, you know, all of the intricacies
of the little dungeons and whatnot and the underground world and yada yada yada.
The freedom of choice is what makes Elden Ring difficult.
(30:44):
And I think that's what kind of, you know, the game is still hard, but because you have
that freedom to go around and come back to areas and whatnot, I think it makes it a more
accessible and fun experience.
And you know, eventually there's Dark Souls in the open world, which kind of speaks for
itself.
That's why it sold as well as it did and received the critical acclaim it did.
And I wasn't a believer at first, that's why initially when I played it last summer
(31:08):
of 2022, I was like, okay, whatever, you know what I mean?
That's all it is.
Just Dark World's open world.
When I finally sat down, started getting through it in February and March of this year, I was
like, okay, dope, dope, dope, dope.
So the tagline Twitch has for me is you and Melania have a relationship, a toxic, abusive
relationship.
Fuck that boss.
But Elden Ring, ladies and gentlemen, and I do look forward to the expansion slash DLC
(31:34):
in 2024.
I'm excited to see what From Software does next.
Another came out with Armored Core, which maybe I'll try it someday.
Just not on my radar, not really.
Not like, wow, that game looks fun.
I need to play that to stick out to me.
But more in the Souls-born like genre, I'm excited to see what they can do next.
(31:56):
I think they have to switch it up.
You know, obviously they took Dark Souls and made it open world.
Elden Ring and it worked, it worked very well and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
But I think they're going to have to switch up the formula a little bit regarding this
genre.
I think they will.
They always do.
They always find a way.
(32:17):
But Elden Ring, top game.
Second was Cyberpunk 2077.
More than 23% played in October and 77% of it played in November.
And again, I talked about this.
I was talking about the game where nominees, if you haven't played Phantom Liberty, go
(32:37):
play it.
It is that good.
I don't think, like I said, the 2.0 update or now 2.1 or whatever they're at is enticing
enough for me to go through the whole entire main story again.
Who knows, maybe one day, because I'm already having the itching feeling of going back into
the world.
I don't know why, because this is a game I did not like when it originally released
in 2020.
(32:58):
Or it didn't live up to my expectations.
I think it gave like a 6 out of 10 or whatever.
But I'm trying to feel kind of feel that itch.
But I have so much in my backlog and so many future games that are coming out that probably
won't.
But yes, if you've not played Phantom Liberty, go check it out.
Awesome.
Awesome.
Awesome.
Awesome.
Third on the list was Party Animals.
80% of this was played in September.
(33:19):
I played a lot of it in release.
20% October.
And I haven't touched it since.
I haven't touched it in two months.
I thought this game obviously would have more longevity.
I think it will still.
But I think it's going to be kind of be that party game that friends kind of hop on and
play occasionally from time to time.
Like I said, the matchmaking is fun.
Fun game overall, just sweaty.
And you know, they took their sweet time releasing this game and they didn't ship out with X
(33:43):
amount of maps.
But obviously some of the 4v4 game modes are not everyone's cup of tea, the sports modes
and stuff like that.
And that's kind of what fleshed out the rest of the map selection here.
But still fun game.
Check it out.
Don't let the steam review bombs initially that occurred bug you.
(34:04):
Another honorable mention here since I mentioned Sony and Nintendo, I did have Xbox here in
review as well.
But that was just Starfield because I got the game pass just for September and then
hopped on Starfield.
Came through that game before I started my new job and played that.
So Sonoran mentioned just, you know, recapping everything that I kind of touched this year.
(34:26):
About 44 or 45 hours on that.
And that's doing the main question, all the faction quests.
So I guess for the I guess, you know, I did play a lot of new releases this year, aside
from Elden Ring.
Final Liberty was new.
Party Animals was new.
Starfield, Tour of the Kingdom, whatnot.
But back to the steam in review here.
(34:47):
So Party to Animals, the third game.
Vampire Survivors was the fourth.
100% of total play time in January.
I think I played a bit of this in December as well.
If you've not played Vampire Survivors and you're a gamer.
Just play it.
That's all I got to say, man.
(35:07):
It's a rogue like bullet hell survival game.
I'm sure you've heard of it.
I'm sure you've seen it.
I'm sure you've seen, you know, cheap as fuck.
There's a bunch of DLC out that I haven't checked out yet, which I probably should.
Let's go play it.
All I can say.
So I'm glad to see that made the list.
Fifth game on my fifth game on my list here is Outer Outer World Spacers Choice Edition.
(35:31):
And 69% of the time.
69, by the way.
Nice.
Sorry, I had to throw that joke in there.
69% of it played in August and the remaining 31% of it in September.
I really was kind of just playing this game to get prepared for Starfield.
And my buddy Ricky was able to provide me a code for the Outer Worlds.
(35:53):
And I respect Obsidian as a game studio as well.
So shout out to Ricky.
Shout out to Obsidian.
And ultimately, I enjoyed this game as much as I did Starfield.
And take that as you will, whether that's good or bad.
But I played this game prepping for Starfield thinking Starfield is going to be like this
game but 10 times more in terms of the polish and the detail and how expansive it was going
(36:15):
to be.
And obviously they have this big studio budget behind them compared to Obsidian pre-Microsoft
acquisitions.
We'll see what their budgets look like now with the Xbox Game Studios funding.
But I enjoyed this game as much as Starfield.
Obviously it's smaller in scope, less planets and all that.
But I think overall it had better dialogue and cooler characters.
(36:36):
And it was neat.
Not the perfect.
The gameplay is a little boring.
It's not the best Obsidian game.
It's not New Vegas or Pillars of Eternity or anything like that.
But still fun.
So I played that as well.
My most played time was in the winter, January, February, March.
And then October, November with the summer months kind of being less played, which makes
(36:57):
sense because it's summer.
Also doesn't make sense to me because I was unemployed.
But anyway.
But yeah, top five games being Elden Ring taking 20% of my total play time.
Cyberpunk, which is pretty much Phantom Liberty, 14%.
Part Animal taking up 13%.
Vampire Survivor taking up 11%.
And then the Outer Worlds Bracer Choice Edition taking up 9%.
(37:18):
So top five of the year for this team.
Exploring the rest of the games I played, that was the top five.
Red Dead 2, which is for RP purposes.
I remember earlier in the year I checked out Undisputed, which is made by Indie Studio
being a fight night kind of spiritual successor.
I was very hyped for it.
Bought it.
I did have a little bit of fun with it, but it just wasn't quite fight night.
(37:43):
And they had a lot of kind of just clunkiness to it.
And just some weird gameplay pacing and whatnot.
So yeah, if you're interested in boxing, it's probably the best thing you'll get on PC right
now.
And it's only on PC because it's an early access, no consoles for Undisputed.
So check that out.
Played a bit of BattleBit Remastered, which is a fun game.
(38:05):
Just not, you know, just that style.
Just didn't hook me in in the long term.
But BattleBit Remastered, if you're a Battlefield fan, go check it out.
It's probably the best Battlefield in years and it's not even a real Battlefield game.
It's BattleBit made by Indie Team.
Played Holocurse, Save the Fence.
It's just simply because it kind of looked like the VTuber anime version of Vampire Survivors.
(38:27):
That's essentially what it was.
And I put a couple hours on this game, nothing too crazy, but enough to get some achievements
and beat three bosses and whatnot.
But it is a fun game and it's free to play.
So if you're looking for another, you know, well, first play Vampire Survivors.
If you're looking for more cutesy, you know, VTuber anime girl kind of version of that
(38:48):
game, check out Holocurse.
And outside of the bullet hell survival like gameplay, you know, you can do the Hollow
House stuff, which is like, you know, running a garden, having workers harvest the plants
and you do fishing.
It's just nice and relaxing.
So I also played the original Fallout this year.
(39:09):
I didn't beat it, but just wanted to see what Fallout was like before it became this big
3D phenomenon it did with 3 and that was an interesting game.
Super hard though.
Another pleasure I had this year was finally playing both Inside and Limbo.
Both games made by the same des with Limbo coming out first, then Inside.
If you're looking for super creative indie platformers with some of the best artwork
(39:36):
I've seen ever, Limbo and Inside, I'd recommend both.
Both have a very unique identity to them.
Right away, you know, it's, you know, Limbo and Inside.
Even the dev team behind it.
Sorry, I gotta visit the store page real quick.
(39:56):
Play dead.
I wonder what they make next because all they have is Inside of Limbo and Inside was released
back in 2016 and Limbo was released back in 2011.
So I wonder what they're cooking up, if they're even cooking up anything.
But, you know, if you're a gamer in general, man, kind of just like how Vampire Survivors
was, you just owe yourself to play those two titles if you're not yet.
(40:19):
And if you're a platforming fan, then you really have zero excuse but to check those
out.
What else did I play first time?
I played some Tekken 7.
Played some Cart Rider Drift, which was disappointing.
Played Downwell, which is an interesting take on the roguelike genre.
(40:41):
So it's more like an indie game where you're just going downward and you have to dodge
the obstacles coming in your way and stuff like that.
And it's fucking hard.
But if you're looking for an interesting, unique spin on the roguelike genre, I'd recommend
Downwell.
Scribble it, which is pretty much just like Scribble.
Tried out some Halo Infinite just to see what all the updates and stuff were.
(41:05):
Still not my cup of tea.
And yeah, recently I tried out Lethal Company in the finals.
I haven't played enough of both games to give a full opinion on.
I guess I can give an opinion on the finals based on the beta, but I think I should play
the base game more.
But what I did play with Lethal Company was a group of friends, four man squad, and I
(41:28):
do recommend having a four, at least minimum three or four person squad to play Lethal
Company, man.
It's a fun game.
It really is.
If you enjoyed Phasmophobia but didn't enjoy the concept of it, just being a paranormal
investigator, but you like the idea of playing kind of like a game that you'll laugh and
(41:48):
be scared about all in one package.
Lethal Company is it.
You know, you're just like these space explorers pretty much working for this big corporation,
kind of just selling your soul out to the corporation, just working for them recklessly.
Kind of reminds me of a lot of people in their everyday jobs.
(42:09):
A little bit of such a reality there in the theme of the game.
But yeah, you have to collect scrap, bring it back to your ship, and sell it.
The issue is here, scrap is in like these lethal planets and these weird little dark
corridors and buildings and abandoned factories and stuff like that.
(42:32):
That's the horror element.
And when you see one of your friends do see the unfortunate death and whatnot, some of
that shit can be fucking hilarious.
So I highly recommend Lethal Company.
And finals, like I said, I played the beta more than I have the base game so far.
But how do I explain the finals, man?
It's kind of like the COD's plunder mode with the Halo's multi-team format, like the 3v3v3v3
(43:00):
with kind of like battlefield, bad company destruction, which makes sense because it
is ex-DICE developers.
What's trying to make a high-paced game like Overwatch or I don't know, Quake or Fortnite,
you know, something along those lines.
But the movement is also battlefield-like, so it doesn't really translate as well to
(43:24):
what they're trying to go for, which is this high-paced, heist FPS.
But regardless, if that funky mix of games is what sounds interesting to you, or you're
just a shooter fan in general, that sort of thing, I would recommend trying it out.
It is free in all three of the games using the free-to-play model with hopes of high
(43:47):
monetization via cosmetics and battle pass purchases and whatnot.
Did have a strong launch.
I forgot how many concurrent players I had at the time at one point.
I want to say it was like 250k plus.
In fact, earlier today it was around 120, 130k.
That's not a factor for console players, so you know, there's interest there.
We'll see the longevity of it.
(44:09):
I think that the two game modes they have available plus the tournament style, which
is kind of like the ranked mode, will not be enough for the longevity of the title because
it needs to be more than just cashing out vaults and whatnot, I think.
But like I said, if you're looking for an FPS, a little bit different, but feels familiar.
(44:34):
That's the finals.
And then a couple other games, but don't really need to be touched upon or anything.
So that was kind of my 2023.
Gaming wise, at least.
So on this week's Have You Played This, I mentioned in previous episodes, we talked
(44:56):
about the Scarface, the world is yours.
Also talked about Spawn Armageddon.
Both licensed games that were kind of overlooked and underrated, to be honest, because they
were fun to me.
In my nostalgic glasses.
But today we're going to talk about another licensed game.
Also overlooked and underrated.
(45:17):
And I kind of thought about it after I saw Bethesda's Arcane Reveal Blade.
And it also follows suit with Scarface being a badass, but not quite a superhero.
Spawn being the super cool badass superhero.
And also Blade being this cool super badass superhero.
(45:39):
More mature, violent, kind of gory type of works and whatnot.
The Punisher.
And I'm not talking about the Netflix series that got canned, which was phenomenal, by
the way.
And I'm not talking about the movie that came out back in the early 2000s.
I forgot it was 2004 or 2005 now.
(46:02):
With Tom Jane and John Travolta.
Also an underrated and overlooked movie.
If you haven't seen The Punisher, I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Seen it multiple times.
It's got Kevin Nash in it.
So shout out to Big Kev Diesel.
So if you're not seen the movie, go check it out.
There was a game as well during the PS2 Xbox era.
(46:24):
Simply titled The Punisher.
And for the previous Have You Played This, I kind of pulled up the fact sheet a little
bit on the games.
But I don't think I needed The Punisher.
You know, maybe I can pull it up just to see who the dev team was.
But it was like this third person linear shooter game.
(46:46):
Kind of the same vein as how Spawn Armageddon was or anything like that, because Spawn Armageddon
was more and the devil may cry lens kind of things.
This was more of a third person shooter action adventure game.
Kind of like a Max Payne slash Gears of War before Gears of War.
(47:07):
Came out in 2005, sorry.
But obviously not that quite level of polish and budget and quality, but still fun.
And it was actually developed by Volition.
Don't know who Volition is.
(47:29):
They're behind the Red Faction series, which went from FPS to a third person shooter over
the years, which confused me.
But I played the original Red Faction quite a bit with my friends in person, which came
on 2001, which was one of the very first games I got on the PS2.
(47:50):
But yes, I was a first person shooter and they followed up by Red Faction 2.
And then they came out with The Punisher.
And they came out with Saints Row.
So the OG Saints Row developers, Saints Row 1 and 2.
Then Red Faction Gorilla and Armageddon, where they put Red Faction third person and they
came out with Saints Row the third, Saints Row 4, Agents of Mayhem, and finally the rebooted
(48:14):
Saints Row of last year.
So over time Volition kind of fell off, I guess, in better nowadays terms.
But nevertheless, a solid portfolio of games that I all pretty much enjoyed other than
the recent reboot of Saints Row and Agents of Mayhem and even Saints Row 4 was a little
(48:38):
wacky.
But you know, the three Saints Row games, the Red Faction games, they didn't really
get to...
I played Gorilla a bit, but I really played Armageddon.
So I haven't played the third person Red Faction games too much, but I did play the shit out
of Red Faction 1 and 2, the original FPS and the PS2.
But they did make The Punisher and it was published by THQ, which makes sense because
(49:03):
their games were published by THQ, all the Saints Row and Red Factions and whatnot as
well until recent times where Deep Silver kind of took over, starting from Saints Row
4.
But yeah, man, they made it, man.
They made The Punisher, Marvel Comics anti-hero, of course.
For anyone who knows the plot of Punisher, it's not really a spoiler, it's kind of just
(49:24):
like the plot of his backstory anyways.
His family is murdered by the mafia and then Frank Castle, the Punisher, devotes his life
to punish these criminals, hence The Punisher.
And just like the movie, Thomas Jane does reprise his role as Frank Castle, the Punisher,
in the game as well, which is cool to get that voice acting license.
(49:46):
Many characters in the game, I remember there was Iron Man, Nick Fury, Kingpin, I think
Matt Murdock, which is Daredevil, right?
A few others.
A little bit of exploration, but mostly linear combat.
You can attack and you can do one button quick kills.
(50:06):
There's numerous fatal assaults.
The environment kind of had these interrogation hotspots where you can interrogate your enemies,
like death threats, torture and whatnot, forcing them to share information that might help
you.
And at the end of the level, you also get punished or your score gets a minus for shooting
innocent people or killing innocent people, because obviously he's punishing the criminals
(50:29):
that did him wrong or the society wrong.
Hence why he's an antihero.
Even those methods might be brutal.
He's doing it from the good of his heart.
So reading more about it here, the game ended up doing something around one million copies,
which isn't a lot, but it was profitable because I'm guessing Marvel at the time licensed
(50:50):
it for pretty cheap compared to what The Punisher would be licensed for now.
And they also probably thought of it as a way to promote the movie at the time as well.
So it makes sense to me.
And there's a lot of torture and gore.
I probably shouldn't have played it as a kid, but eh.
Other than that, the controversy of the game originally had adults only rating, similar
(51:12):
to how Manhunt 2, because the interrogations and the tortures and all that stuff.
But they ended up revising the game to make sure they hit that mature rating.
Yeah, like I said, I know it's hard to find PS2, Xboxes nowadays, but I think there is
a Windows version available to game too.
(51:33):
If you can tell me I'll find it.
But yeah, if you're looking for like a third person action adventure game that you play
as the badass Punisher, kind of in the vein of Max Payne, Manhunt, kind of gory shooter,
third person shooter, I recommend the Punisher.
I enjoyed it quite a bit.
And he's actually one of my favorite Marvel characters of all time.
(51:57):
So when I thought of Marvel's The Blade getting announced recently, I was like, oh yeah, didn't
they make the, wasn't there a Punisher game?
So I'm hoping this opens up the window to maybe the Punisher and Daredevil for that
matter being possibilities for future games as well.
Just don't know who would quite make the Punisher.
(52:17):
It'd be sick.
Oh, now my brain's rolling as I'm recording this podcast.
Bear with me.
It'd be sick if Remedy kind of took control of the Punisher.
Yeah.
Or even the Coalition.
The Gears of War devs now.
That'd be fucking sick.
Talk about, you know, like how Microsoft got the blade for Arkane if they're able to get
(52:40):
the licensing rights of the Punisher.
You have the Coalition.
That would be fire.
But yeah, that's this week's Have You Played This Game, The Punisher.
You know, underrated and overlooked licensed game from that same PS2 era once again.
(53:03):
So make sure to check it out or at the very least YouTube it and see what it's kind of
like.
So that's kind of episode five.
Talked a little bit about Last of Us Online, Insomniac League, Spopukotek, kind of my 2023
year of gaming.
(53:25):
My little call to action here.
I don't like to go overboard on this, but if you do listen to the podcast and you enjoy
it, please tell a friend.
Word of mouth goes a long way.
Whatever you're listening on, whether it be Spotify or Apple or any other streaming podcast
directory like Podbean or whatever else, YouTube, right?
(53:51):
Just give it a like.
It goes a long way.
I would appreciate it or leave a rating, I should say, on the Spotify and Apple side
of things.
And you know, follow the Twitter at Digital Down Pod.
Once again, that's Digital Down Pod.
Again, that helps me a bunch.
(54:13):
Also going to be restructuring my Discord to be more focused on the podcast.
So whenever you see the link tree for the Digital Down Time podcast, which you'll find
anywhere when I share it on my personal Twitter, I give you PG or the Digital Down Pod, Twitter
or wherever else.
(54:33):
I'll make sure to put the Discord link there and I'll also make a separate post about it.
But yeah, you can also join the Discord.
You can hop in there.
You know, we have many different various chats you can participate in and then it will also
be used kind of as feedback for the podcast.
If you have any podcast ideas, you can discuss them there.
(54:55):
I look into them.
Any questions or answers you have about you have for me about me or about my thoughts
on anything gaming.
And also I figured it'd be good for future guests and whatnot who will be coming on the
stream.
Good place for them to kind of hop in and we can just have a voice channel there for
the podcast.
Also a good way for fans to ask their questions to any of the guests that do come along.
(55:20):
We will do that on the Discord end.
But yes, like I said, word of mouth is key.
So make sure to please tell a friend, leave a rating, leave a like on the YouTube, follow
the Twitter again, digital down pod, follow the, you know, subscribe to the YouTube.
And if you want to be more in touch with me, just follow me at gillipg, the G I L I E P
(55:45):
G on all platforms, Instagram, Twitter, Twitch, YouTube.
Recently made a TikTok, so we'll be doing some things on there.
Hopefully I'm trying.
I'll try to think of some ideas.
It's also Gilly PG.
So a little call of action there.
So I do appreciate, bear with me through that.
(56:08):
Again if you're looking to be a guest on the podcast, best way to reach out is on the Twitter.
You can also reach me at digital downtime podcast at gmail.com altogether.
So again, digital downtime podcast at gmail.com if you're looking to be a guest on the show.
And also it might not be the biggest podcast yet, but if you're looking, we are looking
(56:31):
for advertisers slash sponsors.
If you are interested in that sense as well, you know, again, hit me up on Twitter or shoot
an email off, whatever it refers, whatever works for you, whatever you prefer sort of
thing.
In 2024, like I said, hoping to expand, you know, get some guests on here, whether they
(56:52):
are fellow gamers and talk about topics that are important to them.
The biggest thing for me, they really want to start interviewing the devs.
Obviously it's going to be like independent studio devs and whatnot, but that's something
I really want to get down into in 2024 and kind of talk to them and get their perspective
(57:12):
on things.
And then also streamers as well, just so we can talk about the linkage between gaming
and content creation.
And if content creation even, you know, is Twitch even, you know, really revolved around
gaming, we all know it isn't anymore, but still there's a wide array of streamers slash
YouTubers that do promote games.
So obviously want to talk to them as well.
(57:36):
And yeah, just keep on doing bigger and better things.
We'll love to grow the fuck out of the podcast as much as possible.
If you know me personally, or you've been following me for a while, you know, I stream
and I've done YouTube videos in the past, gaming reviews, music and whatnot.
But I think moving forward, I'm going to, you know, especially with working and stuff
(57:56):
now I'm going to focus more on the podcast and really get it to the place that I want
it to be.
And I just want it to grow.
Right now the podcast is growing, you know, started off from like, you know, like eight
to 10 listeners first episode to now about 25, 30.
So there's, you know, I'm seeing the gradual growth there and I would like to grow it more.
(58:18):
I'm very transparent with the numbers.
So, you know, I mean, there's no reason for me to lie to you or I want to stay transparent,
right?
You know, even if one day magically that said we have, you know, a thousand viewers per
episode, I'll be open about that because it's open.
It's just easier for guests to see this, you know, where the podcast is at, you know, how
it helps them to promote their games or ideas or whatnot, and also sponsors and whatnot
(58:41):
as well.
So all that funky stuff for sure.
So again, I wish you guys a happy holidays.
Spend it with your loved ones, do some fun things.
And of course, there will be another episode, the last episode of 2023, the last Friday
(59:02):
of the year, which is December 29th.
So we're not quite done.
But yeah, again, this was episode five of Digital Downtown.
I'm your host Gilly.
See you guys next week.
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