336: DOOM The Dark Ages Reviews And A New Grand Theft Auto VI Trailer

This week we talk about BioWare hiring for Mass Effect, Grand Theft Auto VI’s new trailer, DOOM: The Dark Ages reviews, Death Stranding 2 previews, the ASUS Xbox handheld has been leaked and much more. Click this link for my socials, all of my other content and ways to support: https://linktr.ee/baundiesel

00:00:00 | Intro

00:00:22 | Opening

00:07:29 | News

00:52:58 | Updates

00:54:46 | Wrap Up

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is the Bonfire gaming podcast episode 336.
I am your host Morgan AKA Von Diesel, and this week we'll be
talking about a new Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer, Doom, the Dark
Ages reviews, BioWare hiring forMass Effect, and much more.

(00:22):
OK, so this week I want to open it up with a discussion about
game of the year and two things about it.
I know it's a pointless, mostly toxic discussion, but I also
like to have it. So even though I like to stay

(00:42):
away from those kind of topics as much as I can and I really do
try to push away from the real click baity kind of thing.
I, I think with game of the year, what, what I've tried to
or what I would like to get awayfrom is giving a crap.
What IGN names their game of theyear, what summer game fest or

(01:04):
or not even summer game fest, but Jeff Keely's the game awards
names their game of the year or this outlet or that outlet or or
this website or that website. I, I only really kind of care
about mine, you know, and, and Isay that in the context of like,
I don't think that my game of the year is the game of the
year. You know, I think my game of the

(01:26):
year is my favorite game. And what I've often tried to do
is name my like, you know, four or five favorite games each year
and, and kind of rank them for myself and give my opinions on
them and why they worked for me and, and why they may not have
worked for other people. All that like when Starfield
was, you know, I love Starfield.It's my game of the year, that
year. So cool.
Still love it. Can't wait for more DLC, still

(01:49):
jump into it here and there. But it wasn't everyone's and I
understand that. I get why to a point.
There's also conversations to behad about games that I think get
kind of done over. You know?
Like, I think last year, Hellblade 2 was a game that
really should have been considered at least gotten more

(02:10):
praise for its art and tech and voice acting and just everything
about that game, which then you pull all those things together
and you're like, oh, this shouldhave been, you know, at least in
the conversation. And it wasn't really.
But lots of things around that. And I think those conversations
are good to have this year. Game of the year.
And so far has been really interesting.

(02:31):
We're 1/3 of the way through theyear and we're in May and
there's already, you know, like four games.
I think have a really, really good argument and, and, and more
really to other people. I, I think the, you know, the
kind of general for would be Expedition 33, especially

(02:51):
Kingdom come, Deliverance 2. I think that's a little bit more
of a niche thing, especially when you talk about like the big
award shows and stuff where likeyou, you're going to have people
in those, you know, IGNS and stuff.
Like you'll have someone in the room being like, Hey, Kingdom
come was amazing. And then you'll have the rest of
people being like, Oh yeah, I heard that.
And then moving on, right blueprints, a game that I think

(03:15):
is insanely overrated, but I getit.
Like it's a cool game. Don't get me wrong, it's one of
my favorite games this year. I just I think it's I think
someone spoiled the well on thatgame in a good way for the game.
And and I I think someone know the whole games journalist

(03:36):
really gave that game like a onelike a like a one up bonus
before it even came out just offof hype, which great, you know,
good for them, good for that dev.
And I think it's like a single person.
I could be wrong. And then split fiction, which
like I I think in other years orif the game came out later this
year, that came with like and should be in the conversation

(03:57):
for game of the year. And I'm not going to lie, even
though there's games I have a much higher preference for this
year to win it. It would be like, I would rather
see split fiction when then likeDeath Stranding 2 or Kingdom
Come Deliverance 2 or something.It's just that Studio Hazelite

(04:19):
is very unique and it's the factthat even a few years ago with
their previous game It Takes 2, I believe they won it.
And the game didn't have the best graphics that year.
It didn't have the best story, it didn't have the best voice
acting or the best this or the best that, but it was just the
best game. And and it seemed like that was
pretty much inarguable. I I didn't ever play if I

(04:40):
watched full playthroughs of it and like every few minutes you
were playing a different game. And it was a really good version
of that game and had a nice narrative around it.
Like it had some really, it was really funny.
It was hilarious and kind of dark as well.
And so I, I will say there's a big part of me that like, if the
game I want to win, which is probably expedition 33, at least

(05:03):
as of this point, if, if it can't win, I, I would want to be
split fiction. There are more games coming this
year. We, we've got, like I said,
Death Stranding 2 is coming. Ghost of Yotai trying to stay
away from the console worry stuff.
Those two games are going to be PlayStation exclusives.
Those games tend to get a bit ofa boost in my opinion, back when

(05:27):
God of War be that Red Dead Redemption 2, like I get it,
that God of War that, that, thatkind of reimagining of it was
really, really good and very cool and people loved it.
I, I don't think maybe it's my own bias.
You'll ever hear anyone say thatthe God of War, you know, that

(05:47):
that kind of reimagining is one of the best games ever made.
It's really, it's a very, very good game.
It was one of the best games that year, but I don't think
you'll get that conversation where like I think Red Dead
Redemption 2 is. I would I would be willing to
argue objectively is one of the best games ever made.
And it's just still in hindsightfor me, like, you know, like the

(06:09):
Game awards and some of the big award shows.
I believe they traded a bit. I think both of them want some
awards, but I just it's stuff like that where you have to kind
of let it go. And it's why, like I said at the
beginning, I think you can pay attention.
You know, the game Awards is interesting to watch.
I only really care about it to to argue about who won game of

(06:29):
the year and to see all the new trailers.
But you know, it has it has worth, I guess.
But really, I think it's your own.
And I feel like a conversation around that should be so much
more about, you know, what I like this year compared to other
people Like, oh, wow, that's in your top five?
That's crazy. I didn't even play that, which
nowadays it's so hard to play everything.

(06:50):
So game of the year. It's a fun conversation to have.
It's an interesting thing to do,especially on the larger stage.
But I really do implore people and myself.
This is a message to me as well,to relax, just enjoy the ride,
be happy. There's so many great games to
play. Hope that the people who make

(07:11):
them get treated better and and kind of try to not be
pessimistic about that ever happening and just just roll.
Just roll with it and try to enjoy it a little bit.
Let's jump into the rest of the show.
OK, let's jump into that gaming news.

(07:32):
There's a lot of stuff this week, a lot of smaller topics,
so we'll see how quickly get through all this.
I'm going to indulge myself a little bit.
I try to put the stories in order of how like how big of a
deal they are, and we'll get there after the first story.
But this first one, it's for me.I'm going to talk about Mass
Effect. There was literally the tiniest

(07:54):
amount of news this week. I also did put out a video of
some kind of, I would argue withthe breaking news about the next
game or about BioWare in general.
Nothing huge, but we'll talk about it.
So I'm going to lead off with that.
We're probably even going to have a, a Mass Effect thumbnail
this week because I don't care. I, I actually, I care a lot, but

(08:15):
that's fine. Mass Effect project director and
executive producer Mike Gamble puts out a call for devs to join
BioWare to work on the next game.
Now when he posted this, if you don't know, somehow I really,
really like Mass Effect. I'm a newer fan though, as of
the Legendary edition back in 2021.

(08:36):
That, that game and that, that release, that remaster is what
prompted me to change this podcast, which used to be called
the Echo Cast, from a The Division focus podcast to a
general gaming podcast. And it's led to me focusing the
most, I would say, in the last four years on Mass Effect.

(08:58):
I still talk about The Division a bit.
Obviously I cover everything else as well, but it's been a
big deal for me. And it's, it's also been a fun
conversation to have for the last four years because I'm a
new fan. I've been aware of, of Mass
Effect forever. In fact, I worked at least one
of the games midnight releases when I worked at GameStop, which
is a is a fun story, But I, I, Ihave a different perspective on

(09:23):
Mass Effect and a lot of, you know, OG fans do for better or
worse. And, and that, and it's been a
fun conversation to have for thelast four years.
And going back to my division coverage, I, I really loved
covering the Division two beforeit came out, looking for all the
little clues, any little hints, any leaks of info.

(09:43):
And then that really only lasteda year or two before that game
came out. The Division 3 is so far away.
There's nothing I think to, to get leaks on or anything.
So, you know, Mass Effect has been fun to follow for me,
especially the next game. It's been kind of frustrating or
sad or upsetting because EA and BioWare are going through it.

(10:03):
It has been interesting to be doing this while BioWare put out
a different game. It was the first game they'd
released in years with Dragon Age of the Vale Guard, a game I
actually really enjoyed. I'm not a Dragon Age fan, I
actively don't like Inquisition and I think Origins and Dragon
Age 2 just. They're just so old there's no
way I'd be able to enjoy them. I I really struggle with high

(10:25):
fantasy games in general, like caring about them and then games
with mechanics that dated. I, I, there's no way I feel, I
don't like the way Inquisition feels and it's not even that
old, so I'll spare myself that pain.
But I really like the Vale guard.
Not so much like, you know, I'm not super invested in that
world. I just thought they put out a

(10:46):
really well made game. There's lots of issues around
it. Even fans of the franchise and
the BioWare didn't universally love it.
I think I actually liked it morethan much many of them.
But that's what kind of led us to this spot.
So I'm going to keep doing this.I, I, I have a whole other
podcast, if you have never heardit, it's called the Mass Effect

(11:08):
hype cast. I only do a couple episodes a
year, at least for now. I'm sure that will pick up
hopefully eventually. But every now and then I talk
about here as well. And this is one of those
stories. So right now BioWare is hiring a
senior tech artist position. If you read through it and and
after me kind of touching base with some some other folks I

(11:28):
interact with, I just assumed this was like someone who makes
stuff in the game, not knowing that the senior tech artist or
at least the listing they have is much more of like a like a
liaison or like a manager. It's kind of hard to describe
it, but it sounds like someone who kind of is like a go between

(11:49):
but with a bunch of different teams who all, you know, kind of
trying to help everyone bring this ship in together, right.
So that makes sense that they'd be hiring for that.
That's the only job currently. I anticipate this next Mass
Effect going into full production in 2025.
It's been in pre production in some capacity back to 2019

(12:13):
really. Or 20/20/2020 is when they
officially announced it and during the Game Awards actually
showed the, the first trailer and the only real trailer for
the next game. And, and even then it was, you
know, very just conceptual, I'm sure, and more of a, a teaser
and nostalgia bait piece than anything.

(12:34):
There was technically a trailer in 2023 during their yearly
celebration called in seven day,which takes place on November
7th, but it was literally a 32ndtrailer that shows essentially
nothing, at least nothing we candecipher today.
But I, I, I think it's interesting.
I do think this game goes in thefull production this year.

(12:55):
I I suspect clues of that will include them jumping up their
hiring quite a bit. If you haven't been paying
attention, BioWare, after the Vailguard released last year,
last fall, they at the time temporarily sent a bunch of the
BioWare devs to other studios like EA Motive, who's working on

(13:16):
Iron Man, Ripple Effect, who's working on Battlefield, as well
as I always forget what the studio is called, the Skate
studio who's making that game. The initial impression was that
they were going to those studiostemporarily.
And then at the beginning of 2025, A blog came out from Gary
McKay, who's the head of BioWare, saying, by the way,

(13:38):
we're kind of refocusing and we're just going to do one game
at a time. They've always, in the history
of their studio worked on more than one game at a time, most
recently just two at a time. But back in the day, they used
to work on like four or five games at a time.
This blog by Gary McKay said, hey, we're going to focus down
the next game is Mass Effect andwe're in pre production on it

(13:58):
still. We're getting that going.
And you know, that unfortunatelymeans we're laying people off
basically. It sounds like the vast majority
of people had been placed in other jobs.
I actually know and spoke to specifically a few people who
went to BioWare to work on Mass Effect.
Like they literally applied for jobs for Mass Effect a few years

(14:20):
ago and got hired for that and now they're at other studios.
So that obviously wasn't great. I will.
I'm under the impression most ofthese people were told like,
hey, you'll have an opportunity to come back to BioWare once
we're ready, once full production begins, we'll see how
that plays out. So that's been kind of rough

(14:42):
because now BioWare was at one point fairly recently thought to
be around 4 or 500 plus employees.
They're likely closer the one or200 now, which is still a full
studio. Like I, I think sometimes people
don't understand like you'll hear about like 1000 people
working on Call of Duty or, or the way that like Ubisoft does
their stuff where they have like8 different studios work on one

(15:04):
game and that totals, you know, hundreds of people, you know, 1
or 200 people working on a game isn't that crazy, especially if
there's a long term plan to rebuild that team.
Just recently, a former BioWare employee and developer, Mark
Dara, who was, you know, near the top of the studio at one
point and recently helped with the Dragon Age game, even said

(15:25):
in it himself in the comments ofa recent video about BioWare
that it seems like they're rebuilding.
Which if you know, if you've, ifyou've seen marks of videos or
seen kind of his affect, you would know that really him
giving any kind of hopeful spin on something is, is interesting
because it's, he's very blunt. So I'm expecting to see a big

(15:45):
hiring push this year as they approach full kind of full
production on that game. I, I assume a public call for
hiring by the head of the next Mass Effect is that's the first
time I think they've ever done that.
So this is also the first Mass Effect job they've posted in a
couple of years, I think since 2023.

(16:07):
More recent jobs they posted were specifically for Dragon Age
and were like short term contract jobs.
So, you know, something notable I anticipate, I, I still think
at this point, if you're a Mass Effect fan, you're looking for
more info. I think we'll get some kind of

(16:27):
blog or something this summer and then likely a fairly
substantial in seven day tease this year.
If you, you know, aren't paying attention to this in 2024, they
basically didn't have in seven day.
They put out a graphic with sometext on it that was like, hey,
thanks for being a fan. To shorten, you know, we don't
have much to show this year, butyou know, hang tight.

(16:51):
And we found out later that thatwas because the whole Mass
Effect pre production team, which we anticipate are 50 to
100 people. We're all working on Dragon Age
for like the year and a half before that that Mass Effect
hasn't been worked on or or had a like year and a half window
where it made 0 progress or at least nothing substantial
because they were shipping another game.

(17:13):
So they almost went to that model of one game only before
they even talked about it. By a couple years actually.
So I'm very curious to what happened.
The the most recent news I was able to find, I made a video
about it last week, was Benoit Jule, who's the 19 year veteran
of the studio, started work backwhen I assume when they were

(17:35):
working on Mass Effect One. But his first credit is for Mass
Effect 2. He's been promoted to studio
head of operations at BioWare. That's a fairly big deal.
I'm trying to talk to some people who are kind of in the
know about this stuff. They're saying that someone
who's been there that long goingfrom, you know, they helped on
Dragon Age as you know, on production, like actually making

(17:58):
the game to a operations job at the studio.
That's a big deal. I also talked about in my video
I made how big of a deal it can be to have someone in a
management position like that who did what you do.
How big of a deal that is even for my own job where I work as
my, as my real job, when I'm notmaking videos for, you know, 1

(18:19):
or 200 people to watch, which isplenty for me.
I'm, I'm, I hope this is a good thing is I, I'm, I anticipate
any movement at BioWare that isn't layoffs is a good thing.
So, you know, everyone can have their own take on that.
And there were layoffs just a couple weeks ago at EA.
As far as I can tell, none of the people that either are still

(18:43):
at BioWare or who were recently placed other places were
affected. I did see that there are a, you
know, at least a handful of devswho were those devs who were at
BioWare got placed to other studios temporarily and then
permanently that some of them have moved on.
There was 1 specifically that looks like they moved on to do
the same job at Larian Boulder'sGate 3 studio, so good for them.

(19:06):
AT is probably an upgrade. As much as I love BioWare and I
wish the best for him, if I had to bet which studio is going to
be around 10 years from now, I would say Larian is probably the
higher chance there, though hopefully BioWare is as well
obviously. So lots of stuff there.
This kind of gets into one my own side obsession.
So if this was too boring I apologize, but it's exciting.

(19:29):
I'm I'm hoping to see this play out.
I, I don't want to see an IP like Mass Effect in the studio
like BioWare go down the drain, so let's hope it doesn't.
Moving on to more pertinent news, the Grand Theft Auto 6
trailer 2 has been revealed. This comes on the heels of them
announcing that the game's coming out next year, about a

(19:50):
year from now, next May. And, and that's and that's cool.
This trailer is insane and theirtrailers always are right.
Like a Rockstar trailer is always going to be good.
It's always going to have good music, it's always going to be
compelling, it's always going toshow off things that you will
eventually see in the game. I feel like most of their
trailers do tend to be pretty representative of the game they

(20:12):
will release. This one features Jason and
Lucia who are the 2 main protagonist.
They are a couple. It seems like they're setting up
that Jason's just a dude who lives in Florida.
She something seems like they'rein a previous relationship.

(20:34):
She gets out of jail, they get back together and start heisting
and doing all their criminal activities.
I it's, it's just the trailer's insane.
It's so good that everyone is sohot in this.
They they're making, you know, all the people hot who are
supposed to be hot, all the people weird and grotesque, who
are supposed to be weird and grotesque.
But they especially the the two main characters here made sure

(20:57):
they make them extra, extra thirsty looking.
It's it'll be interesting to seehow adult theme this game is.
I I anticipated being extremely adult themed as the previous
games have been in their own way, but this one maybe even
more so. So we'll have to wait and see.
It's been really funny. There's been some weird

(21:17):
reactions to this of like one ofthem was because the main
character or one of them isn't white.
There are people being like, oh rockstars woke.
It's like, oh man, this is goingto be like the most like
heterosexually coded game it's ever made.
Like they'll include like they are inclusive, like they're an
inclusive company. They'll, they'll, they'll give

(21:38):
other, you know, types of peopletheir, their fair share, both
good and bad. I'm sure my favorite reaction to
this was some people getting on the the train and being like,
oh, Grand Theft Auto was anti police.
It's like, whoa, talk about a complete misunderstanding of
what this franchise has always been about.

(21:59):
That's always been dogging on cops.
That's always been really, you know, kind of satirical about
violence on police and law enforcement and all that.
Not to mention that if you watchthis trailer, the main character
Jason, the the male is the most undercover cop coded character
I've ever seen. If the if, if we play this game

(22:22):
and by the end we don't find outthat he was an undercover cop
the whole time or he gets, he got flipped or something, he's
working for the police or the FBI or something.
If that doesn't happen, I'll be amazed because even from the
very little footage we've seen these trailers, he's got to be a
cop. Like, it's just one of those
things where maybe they're intentionally trying to clue us

(22:43):
into that. Maybe the, the was it Lucia I
believe will end up being the cop or something.
We'll have to wait and find out,I guess.
But yeah, that that reaction wasfunny.
So that that trailer just on YouTube has almost 100 million
views in just a couple days. Like this game, like when it
comes out next year is going to sell.
It's just, it's going to be hilarious.

(23:04):
Like it's going to be very funnyhow many copies this game sells.
Like in the 1st 24 hours. It's going to be, it's going to
be insane because I believe Grand Theft Auto 5, which has
been out for like over a decade now, I want to say it's like
over 100 million copies sold or something, maybe 50 million,
whatever the number is, it's so many that it's unbelievable.

(23:24):
I think the only game that sold more than that is what like
Tetris and maybe Minecraft or something.
It's just it's crazy. So the last bit that was cool,
the trailer they showed which looked insane, it was mostly
cinematics. They said it was 5050 like
captured gameplay and captured cinematics.
So it's kind of hard to pick outwhich is which even though I'm

(23:47):
sure it's mostly like B roll. That was probably gameplay or in
game footage. It was all captured on base PS
five. So they didn't use PC to
capture. They didn't even use APS 5 Pro
to capture. It was all PS five base.
We'll see how this plays out. Supposedly this game is going to
be on Series S as well, which isjust insane because I don't see

(24:10):
how this game is anything more than like 900P or 1080P30FPS on
the Series X and PS5I can't evenimagine the magic they're going
to have to do for the Series S and then we'll probably see some
kind of performance mode on the PS5 Pro.
The thing is, is that I've seen a lot of people being like, oh,

(24:31):
PS Five Pro is going to be the best way to play this because
it's not coming to PC, at least not for a while.
It's worth considering that yes,the PS5 Pro will likely be the
best place to play this if you want anything, even sniffing
60FPS at any resolution. It's worth remembering that
there's a really, really good chance that in 2026, more likely

(24:54):
27, Xbox is likely releasing their new console and it's it's
you know PlayStation will have the the jump early for sure when
it comes to that, but it may notbe as long lived as people
think. And honestly, the PS 6 is
probably not as far away as you think either.
So we'll have to wait and see about that.
I thought that Grand Theft Auto trailer looked awesome.

(25:16):
And yeah, I'm, I'm excited to play it when it comes out a year
from now. In the meantime, everyone's
going to be announcing their games for the rest of 2025 and
maybe early 26. And then you're going to see
like a big like month gap on each side of Grand Theft Auto
that you probably won't see any like huge releases.

(25:38):
But we'll have to wait and see. But I do think a Devolver, the
publisher has claimed that that they're going to release a game
on the same day just in opposition.
OK, do whatever you do to get attention.
I guess that's that's what they always do.
Next story is Doom, the Dark Ages.
The review embargo is up and those reviews are out.

(25:58):
It has an open critic score currently of 86.
I anticipate it'll hang around there.
Might go up a point or two. We'll have to wait and see.
But I watched a couple of reviews this morning.
I did apply for a code to test this or to review it.
I didn't get it, unfortunately. It seems like if you like Doom,
it's a great Doom game. They, they talked a lot about

(26:19):
how the 2016 Doom kind of, you know, reimagining or whatever
they did was, you know, you werelike a like a Mack truck, you
know, and then in the the more recent game Eternal, you were
more like a fighter jet, Like itwas very high mobility, stuff
like that. They've compared this, this new
game to being like a tank and the reviews I saw, you know,

(26:42):
corroborated that that would between your shield and the more
damaging weapons and the changesthey've made to like the
finisher kills and all that, that this game you, you feel
powerful, you feel feel applauding, even though there is
sprinting in it and the movementis, you know, fairly quick.
But I guess just the environmental variety, the enemy

(27:03):
variety, the actual gameplay, and the feel of everything is
just masterful. I'm surprised this only has an
86 honestly, because at least the reviews I've seen so far
we're very glowing. Like even more than 86, which is
still very good. I'm assuming there must have
been some people who weren't as impressed and and they're kind
of dragging that score down. But 86 or anything in the mid

(27:26):
high 80s is nothing to complain about.
Really. Anything the 80s at all.
This only continues to reinforcehow insanely good Game Pass has
been in 2025, in the last year, honestly, in the last three or
four years. It's I, I suspect if I would
calculate the number of hours I've played and the number of
games I've played since I got Game Pass a few years ago, I

(27:48):
there, there's just no way that I'm not way ahead on money when
it comes to, you know, games like Starfield and stuff.
I've played hundreds of hours ofor, you know, games like this
where like I, I would have paid 70 bucks for it, but instead I
didn't. I'm going to play it South of
midnight expedition 33, like allthese games over the last few
years and you know, a couple years ago, a play till requiem,

(28:09):
like a game I would have never purchased, but I played a day
one on game pass and it was my game of the year that year.
I'm pretty sure. So it's you know, this doom, the
dark ages looks like it's awesome.
Another great entry by the team over at ID the the the engine
looks great. I'm seeing people being very big
about how there's like no bugs, that it runs extremely well even

(28:32):
on the Series S, that it's just a great experience overall.
You know, they just keep making Game Pass more worth it and they
keep making that conversation about their console sales not
being great and they jumped the prices on recently about stuff
like that. It kind of becomes irrelevant
when you see how much money they're pulling in.
I saw someone make a point, you know, today on threads I think

(28:54):
of like, oh, one thing you neversee about the conversation about
how much money Xbox is making ishow much they spend on ABK.
Like, yeah, they spent like $75 billion.
It's going to take years and years and years to recoup that
money, but they will. And it'll pay off big time.
And what I think a lot of peopledon't realize that that person
who made that comment is, at least from my impression, is

(29:16):
that the way corporations work is like, that wasn't them just
paying money for a thing. It was an investment.
So they know that that is going to take time to pay off.
What they care about is that they acquire the thing and now
that thing is making them tons of money.
And even if they're still in thered for a few years, they don't
care because they, they don't like I, I feel like consumers

(29:38):
like me and like anyone who listens to this are very focused
on the next, you know, week or the next month or the next year.
And that's because in our day-to-day lives, I assume the
average person who listens to this is, you know, if not, if
they're not living paycheck to paycheck, they're living, you
know, maybe month to month, right?

(29:58):
And so that's how we have to think, right?
These corporations like Microsoft and stuff, when they
acquired Activision Blizzard King, they were probably doing
projections on the income that they're going to make from that.
And, and today they probably still are 10 years, 20 years
from now, like we, you know, as as, as these little finite human
beings, you know, just have a different perspective, right?

(30:20):
Like these big giant corporations, you know, there
are these monoliths. So these monstrosities, they
aren't, even though the US government says they are, they
aren't people. And while they can die and they
can go away and they can fail and they can disappear, they,
they don't, not very many, a lotof them stick around and things
like Microsoft and Google and all these companies, you know,

(30:41):
Microsoft probably has a long lifespan ahead of it unless
things go really bad. And so you know that this, you
know, this conversation, that code that goes around of like,
you know, like right now Xbox isthe the biggest publisher in the
world money wise. The last report I saw is the top
three games sold in April on PlayStation were published by

(31:02):
Xbox. Like that's great.
Like that's insane. Now there's a whole different
conversation to be had about Sony putting out like no games
for the last three years. It's insane to me that it's a
conversation that isn't bigger because if if the roles were
reversed, this is my console warside coming out.
If Xbox was had the production had the number of releases first

(31:25):
party not the third party paid exclusive stuff.
If if Xbox had the first party release schedule of PlayStation
for the last three years it would the the dumorism talk
would be insane. But instead they've been
releasing like new games every month or at least every couple
months and they've mostly been really good.
The only complete failure has been Red Fall.

(31:47):
You know, as much as people wantto paint Starfield as a failure,
it's not. It's really, really good game.
It just wasn't the revolution people hoped it would be.
It was, it was more Bethesda game.
It was more Fallout, right? But that's still really good.
It's still better than most games, right?
So yeah, doing the Dark ages open critics sort of 86 seems
like it's doing really well. Another great addition to Xbox's

(32:10):
lineup to Game Pass. And if you're on PlayStation you
want to play it, Xbox will happily take your 70 bucks or
whatever. So cool.
Death Stranding 2 previews are out.
Sounds like it's basically DeathStranding one but with more
action. The the The most I heard from
this was from Blessing Adyoyi Junior over at Kind of Funny,

(32:34):
though. I've seen some other previews as
well. He claims that he played 30 plus
hours of this during a trip to Japan a few weeks ago where he
met Kojima. They did like a big group
interview with them. Yeah.
I mean, and they showed a bunch of footage yesterday as well
when the embargo on this previewwas up.
And it literally, it was funny about it is, I know that towards

(32:55):
the end of Death Stranding, it becomes more action oriented.
And it seems like with two, theykind of got the message from
people being like, OK, people just want to do that from the
start. And, and my, my guess is it's
just going to be a more action-packed game in general.
I've tried to play it actually came out on, on the, on the Xbox
not long ago. The theory is, is that Kojima

(33:17):
retains the rights to all of hisgames.
And with like Death Stranding 1,he had a five year deal because
it's been five years, I believe,since the first one came out and
it just recently popped up on Xbox.
It's cool. Like it's pretty and it feels
nice to play And it's you know it, it's a Kojima game, right?
Like if you play Metal Gear Solid 5 or any of the other

(33:38):
ones, it's got that feel to it. But man, it was mind nominally
boring. And like, Kojima's really kind
of crafted this like, auteur status over the last, you know,
so many years of like, he wants to do movies and he pals around
with all these artists and theseactors and musicians and all

(33:59):
this stuff. And he's kind of like created
this legend around himself. And like, I get it.
Like, he is one of, you know, the one of the, you know, most
known gaming figures ever. And, and he's made, you know,
the Metal Gear series itself, ifyou play them is legendary in
its own way. I, I will say it's, it's gotten

(34:19):
very like pretentious and kind of cringy to me.
It really makes me think back tohis whole saga with Konami and
how like with Metal Gear Solid 5, they had such differences
that, you know, they basically didn't finish the game and they
just kind of pushed out what wasdone.
And to this day, if you go play Metal Gear Solid 5, like it

(34:39):
technically ends there. There there is technically a
resolution to the story, but it very clearly wasn't the way it
was meant to end. And it was cut off short.
And ever since then, like, I lost a lot of respect for
everyone really in that situation.
And then the way he's, you know,kind of did his own studio
cozied up to Sony real big with Death Stranding.

(35:00):
One, because like Death Stranding 1 uses and two, both
use the same engine as Horizon 0Dawn in in in the newer games as
well, which was kind of wild because I think that means that
that was the first time that engine had been played on Xbox
when they did the Death Stranding one there, which is
kind of neat. But I just, I don't know, like

(35:23):
I'm a little disillusioned by it.
Like, I'm sure Death Stranding 2is going to be amazing.
You know, it will get good reviews guaranteed.
I'm sure the majority of those reviews will be very well
justified by the actual game, but it's just a simple fact that
it being a PlayStation exclusive, at least for now, you
know, Konima, Kojima status amongst the people who tend to

(35:46):
do these things. You know, it's, it's going to
probably get, you know, you know, maybe four or five points
of Metacritic score that maybe it wouldn't get without him on
it. But that's OK.
There's nothing wrong with that.It's just it's an interesting
thing. So it it's also implied that
this game could be, I believe the first game was around 25 or
30 hours of gameplay. This new one, people did 30

(36:09):
hours of preview and didn't believe they were even halfway
done with the game. So it's a long game man.
So we'll see how that plays out.I'm very curious.
Oh and Kojima said that he has an idea for death straining 3
but doesn't know if he'll be able to do it because he's got

(36:29):
OD, which is the game that will be on Xbox.
I don't know if it's necessarilyan exclusive.
Those details have been kind of mushy right now because we
haven't even seen the game yet, but that he is making a game
that will be on X and that will be on Xbox currently.
And then I believe he also has aproject planned another game.

(36:52):
So there's a really, really goodchance and he's in his 60s
already that if it takes 10 plusyears to put these next two
games out, you know, he he may be done.
He may be retired man like it's it's weird that I'm getting old
enough that the the legendary gaming figures that I know of
are going to start going away one way or the other in the

(37:12):
next, you know, 10-15 years. So oh God, aging moving on to
the Xbox Asus handheld possibly leaked.
So this is some pictures that came I believe from like an FCC
filing it it it looks like in a so so Asus is putting out Asus.

(37:34):
Asus, I don't know they're putting out they have an ally
and it's this really powerful handheld PC that people are
pretty high on that they have anally 2 coming out.
And what's interesting about that is that they also have they
have two versions of it 1 is going to be the Asus ally 2 and
it's just going to be the next iteration of them, it sounds

(37:54):
like but then there's also goingto be an Xbox version.
So this is not the Xbox in househardware handheld that is
rumored that's not rumored to come out until after the next
Xbox like desktop console. This is a partnership with Asus
to make a basically an ally to that has some extra stuff to

(38:20):
make it, you know, more compatible with Xbox.
So from these pictures we saw, there's like dedicated buttons
just for Xbox stuff. And the rumor is, or the hope
is, is that and due to a bunch of updates to the Xbox app
recently, they believe it's going to have some ability to
either use like the Xbox OS or to at least have integrations

(38:40):
into the system that make it wayeasier to access Xbox games, the
Xbox PC app and game pass. So we'll we'll have to see how
that plays out. I'm going to be honest, like the
fact that these handhelds, you know, for them to be, for them
to be useful, they, they just have to be 5 or $600.00 if not

(39:01):
more. And I, I just, I don't know, I'm
not doing that. Like it's a cool idea, but even
the switch to being 450 bucks now and and likely more do the
tariffs soon, you know, I, I just, I can't do it.
So I for people who want that mobile experience, the Ally, I

(39:23):
believe can also hook up to a screen.
So in theory, if these new pieces of hardware fast enough,
you could use it as a desktop aswell.
That's super cool. Not really my alley, but I'm
happy for everyone who wants that.
PlayStation has announced a new studio LFG that was previously
within. Bungie is now working on a

(39:45):
social MOBA. So PlayStation is continuing to
go down this path of trying to do the live service game,
multiplayer game thing. I mean, it has always been one
of their weaknesses thing and they've never been good at doing
that stuff. But the way that it seems like
they've taken resources, like taking resources away from their

(40:10):
best studios and their best franchises to go whole hog into
this live service push for the last like 3 or 4 years now.
I mean, you look at their release cadence of first party
games, it's hurting them now. They've sold 70 million
PlayStation fives or whatever, and even though that doesn't
make them really much money, it's still a big conversation

(40:32):
point. You know, they still have put
out some good games, like in arguably Astrobot, last year was
game of the year for many. And you know, even though it was
kind of a small experience still, but there is like this
underlying kind of weirdness about like, man, PlayStation has
shut down a lot of studios and canceled a lot of games.

(40:55):
And it's looks like it's all been around this issue with
their life service push. Now they have all new studio
studio thing is funny. So the LFG is looking for group,
but to a lot of people, LFG, whether it's because of Tom
Brady, the football player or whatever, it's let's effing go.
So, and they, they were like very ambivalent to that being
what some people thought stood for.

(41:19):
I, I don't know, I don't know what they're doing.
I don't know what PlayStation isdoing.
I, I know that, you know, the media isn't holding them to any
account doesn't seem to be ringing any alarm bells.
So I don't know. I just, I don't know, it's
strange that everything they're doing is strange to me.
But you know, they must not be too worried about it yet.

(41:40):
We'll see what happens in the next couple years.
The Powell World devs state thatthey have removed various
features from the game due to a Nintendo lawsuit, including
flying on or like gliding with your pals, which are like their
version of Pokémon, as well as deploying a pal that you have
using a ball. Now they just appear.

(42:01):
You used to throw a ball and they would pop up.
This is one of those funny stories because Nintendo has
done such an insane job of controlling the conversation
around them where they keep releasing these consoles that
are literally multiple generations behind the other
platforms. They release games that while

(42:25):
good games technically look awful, run awful.
They have all these terrible systems for the online system,
for how you do various things ontheir platform.
It's just a complete mess. They're borderline incompetent
with a lot of these things. And they're one, they're they
are the most litigious platform and you can't do anything with

(42:46):
anything. And to this point, you know,
they, they, they managed to force another company to take
away a really basic game mechanic just because it was
similar to something that they did.
The, the, the whole thing about power world just being a copy of
Pokémon, which it's obviously a heavy reference to it.

(43:07):
If you've actually played power world, it's, it's just like a
survival game that happens to have some like Pokémon ish
mechanics in it. But at the end of the day, it's
a survival game where you collect materials, you build
stuff, you upgrade things like, and if you enslave these pals,
it's super. I, I played it for quite a bit.
I definitely got over it pretty quickly as well.

(43:28):
But I, I just, I think it's so wild that Nintendo is like
arguably kind of evil and you'lljust never hear anyone talk
about it because of various reasons.
So is what it is, I guess. Gears of War Reloaded has been
announced for all platforms. This is a Gears of War One

(43:49):
remaster and it will be releasedon PlayStation.
This has led to another one of those blow UPS of, you know,
PlayStation fans being like, oh,why would I even need an Xbox?
So I can just my Playstations and Xbox and then, you know,
weird Xbox fans who I don't evenbelieve are really fans being
the go. I give up.
I'm still on my Xbox. I'm buying, OK, Like I don't, I

(44:13):
don't know, I don't care what you do with your systems.
And, and, and I think eventuallypeople are going to realize that
Xbox making these choices means that they don't care either.
They are just happy to take yourmoney.
I'm at the end of the day the way I take it.
And it's what I kind of said before about Doom, you know, buy
it on PlayStation for 70 bucks. That's awesome because all

(44:35):
that's doing for me is paying. You know, it's it's it's making
sure that my game pass stays alive.
It's hopefully means that the next Xbox will still be
subsidized. Cool.
Play their games and other platforms.
Literally doesn't bother me at all.
Especially as they expand like cross play with multiplayer and
stuff like OK by doom on PlayStation.

(44:57):
I literally don't care at all and I think Xbox cares even
less. So cool Gears.
I've never been a gears guy. I am curious about a remaster of
the first game. Obviously this is a lead up to E
day the new game coming out I assume in the next couple of
years. I am surprised that this
remaster doesn't have two and three.

(45:19):
The rumors for months or years now was that it was going to be
a trilogy remaster. From what we've seen so far, it
looks like a pretty substantial upgrade.
So this may be one of those games that kind of borders on
remaster or remake. And I just assume that either
because of time or resources or just scope, they decide just to

(45:40):
do the one game. They will certainly release, you
know, remastered two and three eventually, but we'll have to
wait and see it Having them do one makes sense because the next
Gears game, the next new one will be a prequel to 1.
So it kind of makes sense that they want they want a modern

(46:01):
version of Gears of War one for people who play E day to be able
to go on and play the oh wow, what happens next and to and to
play a modern version of it. And then by the time that all
happens, I wouldn't be surprisedif two and three have their
remasters as well. So it it makes sense what
they're doing. Tim Sweeney, head of epic,

(46:23):
states that Unreal Engine 6 is 2to three years away from pre
release builds. If you're someone who pays
attention to game dev or followsgame developers and stuff a lot
this like made me like pucker upbecause it seems like studios
and developers are just now getting their hands around and
then figuring out Unreal Engine 5.

(46:43):
And so the idea that a new engine version is coming in just
a couple of years is terrifying.I, I will say from reading
through more of it, it sounds like, and I didn't know this
Fortnite is a basically just a, an advertising platform for
Unreal. It's basically showing people
like, hey, look what Unreal can do.

(47:04):
And it obviously brings in a tonof revenue as well.
It sounds like from what I read that this Unreal Engine 6 will
be more trying to combine thingsfrom the Fortnite version of of
Unreal in the base version, which I didn't know there was a
difference. So it almost sounds like the six
isn't going to be a true like next generation of Unreal.

(47:24):
It's going to be more of like just trying to kind of bring the
various development lanes into one.
I don't know, I don't know enough about this to speak to
positively on it, but I just thought it was interesting after
seeing I, I think developers finally, you know, taking in

(47:44):
Unreal Engine 5 just just to seeUnreal Engine 6 even mentioned
was like a shock. The FTC case against Xbox's
acquisition of Activision Blizzard King is officially
over. Even though it's been
effectively over for a couple ofyears now, the case was still
technically in the courts and it's now been dismissed.

(48:04):
They, they did not get a finding.
The FTC did not get what they wanted to try to block that
deal. And we'll see how that plays out
in the long run. We'll see.
I think it's going well so far. But you know, things change.
You never know what world the situations can do to stuff like
this. EA has reaffirmed their plans to

(48:26):
release the next Battlefield game in fiscal year 2026.
So their fiscal year goes from, I believe it's May of a year to
through the April of the next orno, it's it's April through
March. That's what it is.
So that means that the next battlefield should be expected
before April of 2026. I think they've already affirmed

(48:48):
that, but this was kind of reiterated this week.
We've gotten some more of their testing, both leaks of footage
leaks, quote UN quote. I don't think they're punishing
people for posting these leaks. If you want me to be honest, as
well as they've been doing pretty consistent blogs about
what they're working on, what the next test they're going to
do, adding more people. I'm hoping to get picked

(49:08):
eventually and yeah, I'm super excited for this.
I've liked basically every battlefield game.
I love 2042, even though a lot of people didn't like it.
But from what they've shown so far about this next one, it's
much more in line with what I actually want from a battlefield
game and I'm really excited to see, you know, see that whether

(49:29):
it's to test it or when it comesout.
My guess is that Battlefield comes out this fall.
I, I don't think they're going to wait till next year.
I I think this will be a fall game.
It's just they got to stay away from Call of Duty, man, I, I
know they're very different games.
I don't think they compete as head on head as people think
they do, but they probably stillcompete enough head on head that

(49:49):
you probably don't want, you probably don't want to be
putting them out like in the same month, but we'll have to
wait and see. Personally, I'd rather play
Battlefield the rest of my life than ever play another Call of
Duty. I get they're very different
games. Like I I think I understand why
some people would prefer one over the other.
For me it's not even close. It's Battlefield by a long mile.

(50:14):
Sandfall Interactive, the developers of Clair Obscure
Exhibition 33, have cleared up some conversation around DLC
where I think on discord or something one of their devs said
that you know it's likely they'll get DLC.
They have cleared up and said that they have no current plans
to do DLC for the game. It sounds like from some of the

(50:35):
quotes I saw. If they feel completely empty
and exhausted from the development of that game, so
something tells me they're taking a break for a little bit,
I could see DLC for the game. I would honestly rather see them
just work on their next project.There's definitely room for a
sequel to Expedition 33. It would be interesting how they
would do it, but I could see it or they may just try something

(50:58):
new. So we'll have to wait and see
what they do. They also had their first bit of
controversy there. There was a build you can make
with a specific sword with one of the with the one of the main
characters where it basically broke the game.
Like you couldn't be killed because of it.
And so they're balancing it to take that away because it was
unintended to be played like that.

(51:19):
Bunch of people threw up their hands.
Oh, it's just a single player game, who cares blah blah blah.
Look, it's their game. They can do what they want and
if people are breaking it in a way that wasn't meant to be
broken, I think it's perfectly fine for them to to make some
adjustments there. Fallout Season 2, the Amazon
Prime show has finished filming and is expected in 2026.

(51:42):
So from the teases at the end ofthe first series, the first
season, it implies that this is going to be going to New Vegas.
So I'm really excited about thatbecause it's probably not going
to be the New Vegas from the game.
It's probably going to be a postgame New Vegas.
And it'll be really cool to see how they handle that.
I still think that first season of the Fallout show is the best

(52:03):
adaptation of a video game thingever.
It's it it tells its own story. It has its own characters with
some references to characters weknew, but it just, it understood
that world and the feel of that world through the game so well
that I'm just, I'm extremely excited for this second season.

(52:24):
And then finally, the Division two remove the ability to pay
for season pass progression due to people abusing the system to
get exotic gear. I, I got to talk about Division
two as often as I can. Unfortunately, it's often not
great news. And this is one of those I don't
know what they were thinking. They've done this stuff before.
Sometimes I feel like these guyshave the memory of Goldfish, but

(52:48):
I also know they're doing their best and they're trying to just
keep that game going. All the power to them.
Good luck. OK moving on to some content
updates. We have some upcoming game
showcases. Summer game Fest and the Xbox
showcase are already announced at the very beginning of June.
I do plan to be able to live stream those to Co stream them.

(53:11):
So be on the lookout for all of that when it happens.
Come and hang out. I would love to have some people
to watch with. I did just finish my Mass Effect
2 modded playthrough. The Vods are all on YouTube now
so if you want to check that outyou can.
And I started on my Mass Effect 3 playthrough for mods.
I'm mostly doing this so I can update my mod video on YouTube,

(53:33):
which is my most watched video, or at least my most watched
recent video. So I'm, I'm excited to do that.
I love making those little guides like that, even though
it's not really what I do. And then that's, that's kind of
what I got for updates. It's going to be things will
this month will start getting busy for me again, or at least
my time will be more limited because you know, family will be

(53:55):
around the house a bit more thissummer.
But we'll figure it out. We always do.
And I plan on continuing this podcast, doing the Mass Effect
hype cast whenever there's something to talk about.
And I've been trying to get my Twitch going again a little more
often. YouTube I've been posting pretty
consistently. Twitch not so much, even though
I have, I did stream on there what, like 4 times this week?

(54:17):
Probably another time tomorrow on Saturday.
I'm recording this on Friday. I have had a couple streams
without anyone saying anything the entire couple hours.
So please stop by my stream. At least lurk.
I appreciate that at the very least.
But you know, say hi, you know? If you have any questions or
thoughts on the podcast or anything else, I'm happy to hear

(54:38):
it and give my takes on it. But for the love of God, please
come hang out in my stream. And that's where we're going to
wrap this thing up. So thank you so much for
listening or watching, listeningto or watching this episode.
Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast app, leave a
review on Spotify or iTunes, andsubscribe to the Von Diesel

(55:00):
YouTube channel to get all of myvideos, including this podcast.
Thank you to everyone who supports as a YouTube member or
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the links in the show description.
If you have any questions or feedback, comment on Spotify or
YouTube, let me know on my Discord, or hit me up on social

(55:25):
media at Von Diesel or at the Bonfire.
That is all I have for this episode of the Bonfire Gaming
Podcast, so until next time.