May 23, 2025 • 40 mins
This week we talk about Hellblade 2 coming to Playstation, Xbox’s Game Pass having an amazing year, Naughty Dog has a second game in development, Expedition 33 reissues their special edition, BioWare is hiring again 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
00:00:21 | Opening
00:05:39 | News
00:38:02 | Updates
00:39:27 | Wrap Up
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This is the Bonfire Gaming Podcast episode 308.
I'm your host Morgan, AKA Von Diesel.
This week we'll be talking aboutHellblade 2 coming to
PlayStation soon. BioWare is hiring again for Mass
Effect, Naughty Dog is working on a second game, and
legitimately a bunch more. OK, so like, there's too many
(00:23):
games, right? I'm not even talking about
backlog. I'm talking about like actively
coming out. I've run into this weird
situation where I noticed it themost with DLC.
The and I have an extended storyabout this, but the Star Wars
Outlaws DLC came out and I went to go play it and really I
(00:46):
thought enjoyed it again, stick around for the rest of that
story. But I kept finding myself, you
know, doing that and then playing Hell Divers too, just
had a big update where now you get to fight on Super Earth
where if you've played that game, you know why that's a big
deal? It's really, really neat.
And I'm doing a, you know, another playthrough of Mass
(01:08):
Effect Legendary Edition, the whole trilogy.
And I'm in Mass Effect 3 and I'mtrying to, you know, stream
that. And I'm getting towards the end
and I'm catching myself playing all these old games and then
like feeling guilt that I'm not playing things that have come
out more recently, things that, you know, like Doom, it didn't
really click with me. I think if I played it more, it
(01:29):
probably would. But I'm not playing it more
because I'm playing other stuff.And it's it's really
interesting. That's not even to add on the
backlog I have of second playthroughs.
I want to do Hellblade to send you a saga, which we'll be
talking about shortly. That there's when you play
(01:49):
through that game the first time, you have the sirens or
whatever they're called in, in your head the whole game, right?
That's happened in the first game as well.
It happens in the second game. It's it's, it's one of the
really cool parts of that game. Well, if you don't know
spoilers, I guess when you beat the game, one of the characters
in the game who's very importantbecomes the voice in your head
(02:12):
for a whole playthrough. And it gives you a different
perspective on the entire game. And then I'm under the
impression that if you play a third time, there's another set,
there's another voice in your head.
I don't, I can't even remember or I don't know who it is, but
I've heard. And because it's a fairly short
game, you know, it's got some replayability.
(02:34):
Not to mention that I want to dosecond playthroughs of God all
the way back to play till Requiem.
I want to play through that again.
I don't have time for that. I want to do another playthrough
of Dragon Age the Vale Guard. I just don't have time, right?
I want to do another playthroughof Mass Effect Andromeda.
I've only ever played it on XboxSeries X and it plays like crap
(02:55):
on there. It's terrible.
So I want to do APC playthrough and it's just all this stuff it
it's just like it's so overwhelming, you know?
And it's great. You know, whether you have Game
Pass or not, even if you don't have Game Pass, there's still
tons of games coming out if you're willing to pay full price
for them. It's just it, it's really
interesting. It just feels so different than
(03:17):
even 5 or 10 years ago where youwould have like a couple
blockbuster hits every year. And then in between that, you
know, there wasn't much. And often those games came out
like in the holidays where, you know, end of the year,
second-half, you know, last third of the year.
And you would literally have entire droughts where maybe some
weird little indie games or something small would come out,
sports games, things like that. But not like it is now.
(03:40):
You know, there's all this talk about release timing and
delaying for Grand Theft Auto 6 and all this stuff.
And, and you know, I've made theargument for quite a while now
that you kind of can't delay around other games anymore
because every month there's a big game.
So at some point you just have to pick a day and go for it
(04:01):
because you'll never release your game.
You know, the days of Titanfall one and two, especially 2, you
know, kind of getting screwed over by releasing around Call of
Duty and Battlefield. You know, that's just how it is
now. You know, it's just, it's really
interesting, It's overwhelming. It's but it's an embarrassment
(04:21):
of riches, right? How can we complain about having
too many good games? It's why I get really frustrated
when I sometimes see people do the whole like games these days
so bad. Like what are you talking about?
Like, sure, lots of mediocre games get released, but lots of
really good ones get released too.
A lot of those games are indie games or games from, you know,
(04:41):
lesser known studios and stuff. But even the big names are still
releasing good games as well. You know, like Assassin's Creed
shadows just came out and it wasawesome.
It's a great game. It's really good.
Last year Vale guard was awesome.
Star Wars outlaws was awesome. You know, just, there's good
games. There's just good games all the
time. And it's it's, it's a great
(05:03):
problem to have. I'm glad we have it.
I just fear for what the next, you know, 5-10 years brings of
like there's just going to be constant releases of these big
games. We may see some retraction in
the market or in the studios andstuff.
We'll have to wait and see. But as it stands right now, it
seems like it's only going to get worse.
So it, it just makes me wonder, you know, especially in the
(05:26):
future, but even now if like really good games are going to
get passed up and and missed simply due to too many.
We'll have to wait and see. OK, getting into the gaming news
for this last week. Hellblade 2 Sydney with Saga is
coming to PlayStation 5 this summer.
(05:47):
This was officially announced byNinja theory.
They've not given a date quite yet, but they did confirm that
there will be it's, I believe it's called the Enhanced Edition
and it will have PS5 Pro specific features and it will be
coming out on the PS5. They've also said that it's
going to have other features andimprovements and stuff.
(06:09):
I would say the most likely thing they're going to add even
to Series X, maybe S, will be a performance mode.
It's a performance heavy game that there's a reason that, you
know, even to this day I believethey still don't have a 60FPS
mode on console. My guess is that they will have
figured out how to do that. I would say less likely
(06:31):
additions would be maybe some cut content they're adding back
in if there was any sections of the game they feel like they can
put in and and maybe other smallfeatures like that.
I'm not expecting like a DLCII. Don't.
I don't think that Ninja Theory is a DLC company and I don't
think Hellblade 2 that it would that it would make sense if they
(06:52):
wanted to do like an extended edition of the game or maybe
they put back in some cut content or something to make the
game a bit longer. That's cool.
It may be, you know, per my discussion before would maybe
give me a reason to come back and play through it again.
But I loved Hell Blade too and personally I really really hope
this is an opportunity for them to get the recognition that game
(07:17):
deserved. In my opinion that game and
still to this day set the standard for graphics, audio,
animation, voice acting, music. Like it's a really really really
good game and and even gameplay I thought was awesome.
And I, I still to this day believe that at least some of
(07:38):
the reviewers I saw the game they reviewed was the first like
3 hours of Hellblade 2. And during said reviews, I find
it super hard to believe those people finished the game, which
is weird. And it's a weird accusation to
make because it's famously a short game.
Like it's, you know, 8 to 10 hours is pretty easy to be then.
(08:00):
So it's like of any game that would be hard, you know, that
that it's hard to say someone didn't finish it.
It's such a short game. But that also makes me wonder,
like, did they get a few hours in and be like, OK, I know, I
know what this is. And I at least I believe that
the second-half of the game really does evolve where the
first half is pretty similar to the first game in a lot of ways.
(08:21):
Even though I think it's really good, I, I still think that, you
know, I, I think the reviews were unfair of this game and
it's still reviewed well, but I think it should have been much
higher than it is. And I also wonder if it coming
out on PlayStation, we'll adjustthose conversations a bit.
It's, I find it hard to not acknowledge that Hellblade 2
(08:44):
suffered from Xbox exclusivity and the bias that comes against
a lot of the games in that situation.
You know, I, I, I hate the wholeidea of, you know, the, the, the
conspiracies and stuff around that.
It's, it's likely not even like a concerted effort, but whether
it's subconscious or bias or whatever, I just, I don't think
(09:07):
it got a fair shake. And as someone who played
through the game and really enjoyed it, many of the
criticisms I heard felt like things that maybe wouldn't have
been an issue if the release wasdifferent.
But maybe that's my own bias. This continues A trend that Xbox
(09:27):
hasn't really been shy about. They are releasing their games
on all platforms, or at least any platforms.
I'll take them. It seems like we've already had
multiple games go to PlayStation5, some of them months after it
comes out or a year later like Hell Blade.
Some of them day and date like Doom, the Dark Ages.
It sounds like Xbox is kind of letting studios make that
(09:48):
decision, make that call. I personally think that there's
still value in them having like a six month to 12 month
exclusivity period. So far a lot of them have been
even longer than that. Right now we're still waiting
for like Starfield to come to PlayStation, which has been
pretty widely rumored literally for years now.
(10:09):
And that's cool. Like my whole thing is that once
a game is no longer selling GamePass Subs or, and or hardware,
then why not put it everywhere? Hell, Blade 2 is almost
certainly not selling consoles and not selling Game Pass Subs
anymore, right? It probably did right when it
came out, at least a few. But once that's over, you're
(10:31):
just losing money by not allowing everyone to buy it.
And that's kind of how I feel about everything.
You get into some weirdo territory there with like
ongoing games, live service games and such.
But then you sell like Sea of Thieves went to PlayStation a
while back and it's been hugely successful for Xbox and that
studio and that game. And you know, you have a bunch
(10:52):
of new people who get to play this great game, right?
I just, I, I don't have an issuewith it.
I think the day and date like doom, the dark ages is a little
tougher to swallow because you do want to see that that company
who, you know, invest all this money and all that benefit.
If you're a fanboy, you want to see that that exclusivity
happen. But you also have to wonder like
(11:16):
if if it mattered, if it really made, if it if it did help, they
would do it right. No one's forcing Microsoft to do
multi platform and in some ways it doesn't make sense, but it
kind of does and it seems like it's working.
We've been seeing what it's like4 of the top five games sold
last month or something on PlayStation were published by
(11:36):
Xbox. Like that's crazy.
Like imagine if it that was the other way around, right?
The the only PlayStation published game on Xbox for years
has been MLB The Show. A few years ago it became multi
platform because the MLB forced it.
So it's interesting. I'm excited to see Hubli to get
(11:57):
a bigger audience. At the end of the day, I think
that should be the goal. You know, these studios, these
developers, I don't think many of them really care about the
console or stuff. I think they want as many people
to play the thing that they madeas possible and and I think that
should be the priority as well. Speaking of Xbox, we have game
passes having quite a year already and it looks like it's
(12:21):
going to continue being crazy through the rest of the year.
The upcoming releases are metaphor Refantazio, which to a
lot of people was game of the year last year, The Division
two, which we'll get back to that, and STALKER 2, which is a
game that just came out, you know, less than a year ago and
was not on game Pass or no, it was on game Pass, wasn't it?
Or was it not? I can't remember.
(12:42):
I think it was. I don't know why it's on there.
Well, let's figure that out now that I think about it, but The
Division 2 is an interesting onebecause they have DLC coming out
next week the day after this hits Game Pass And and in
theory, I assume that means you can get the game Pass version
and then pay the 10 or 15 bucks or whatever it is for the DLC.
Play it all and you're good to go.
(13:05):
Like it's super smart, especially knowing that they're
putting a big emphasis on makingthe entry into that game easier
and more streamlined for new players.
They would only be doing that ifthey're getting lots of new
players and if they anticipate on getting more with moves like
this. This just kind of continues the
conversation for me that Xbox isquietly like really making a
(13:28):
huge, I don't know if I would even call it a comeback
necessarily because they're justkind of doing their own thing.
All three of the major console platforms, as much as people
want to compare them and and they're in the same industry, so
I get it. But they truly are kind of doing
their own things and they're becoming harder and harder to
compare, you know, Nintendo literally doing their own thing,
(13:50):
like almost completely lower endhardware, relying heavily on 1st
party exclusive games and havingOK third party support.
Seems like it's going to be a little better with the switch
to, but probably not forever andprobably still not that much.
Well, you have PlayStation doingthe old school thing, selling
(14:11):
Playstations and in theory relying on their first party to
keep them going. But then they're in a weird spot
because they've been releasing very, very little first party
games. Right?
We we had Astrobot last year andthat was a cool game, but sounds
like it didn't sell that well and it was kind of AI think kind
of a gimmick to the journalist to be like, oh, look at this
(14:34):
thing. You should vote for us for game
of the year, even though this game isn't going to be like a
huge thing for us, right? And they're still selling lots
of consoles. They cross.
They're at almost like 80 million sold of PS Fives.
That's really good. You can't deny that.
But it's on a product that makesalmost no money.
Now. They make more money from things
sold on it than on other stores.So it makes sense that they care
(14:55):
about that. But that's becoming less of a
factor, I think. And then with their games, they,
you know, they had Astrobot. What was the last big one?
Spider Man 2. They have Death Stranding coming
out this year, which will eventually come to Xbox and it's
like a third party thing and youknow, maybe we have Wolverine
coming eventually. They do have Ghost Studio Thai,
(15:17):
which is probably pretty popularand loved.
It's just weird. It's weird how little they're
putting out, but it seems like as long as they keep selling
consoles, you're not really going to see that conversation
change. And OK, like good for them.
I just, I wish it was consistent.
I feel like if the two, if Xbox and PlayStation were reversed
(15:40):
right now and their fortunes were reversed and the way things
are going were reversed, the conversations would be very,
very different, especially amongst journalists, but even
amongst the the kind of gaming community.
Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it's all in my head.
I have no idea. Naughty Dog is working on a
second unannounced game. Neil Druckman was on Sacred
(16:02):
Symbols podcast of Colin. I think it's Moriarty.
I think it's his last name personally not not my favorite
podcaster in the world, but to each their own.
That's fine. He this was a pretty cool
interview for him to get. They, they said that.
So they're working on the Interstellar Galactic, whatever
(16:24):
game that's coming out. I think it's been talked about
next year or the year after. It's their first title since The
Last of Us 2. Knowing that in between there
was an online game that was worked on and then cancelled,
which is the theme for PlayStation Live service games.
That's a whole different discussion that we've had a lot
(16:45):
lately. This new project, we literally
know nothing about it. Another thing that came from
this interview that I thought was interesting is that he
confirmed that. So if you're the Last of Us fan
at the end of The Last of Us one, sorry, spoilers for a 15
year old game that's been remade15 times.
The one of the main characters, Ellie, the younger girl, is
(17:07):
captured or taken in by this group who thinks that they can
take her, these growths in her brain that have made her immune
to this worldwide pandemic. They can use that to create a
cure to inoculate people and, you know, potentially save
people who were like, recently affected or something, right?
(17:28):
And at the end of the game, the other main character, Joel, the
the kind of fatherly protective figure that you play as in the
first game, goes on the rampage in this hospital and kills
everyone, including the doctors who were trying to perform this
procedure to try to make this cure.
Well, for years since then, there's been a debate of like,
would this cure have even worked?
Like, I think the doctor was like a veterinarian or
(17:50):
something. It was something along those
lines. There's a lot of questions of
like, could they have really made a cure by killing this girl
and ripping these things out of her brain that they thought
maybe would have helped? And so that conversation's
always been interesting because if you, you know, there's a side
of the community who thinks thatJoel and Ellie are kind of the
bad guys. They kill a lot of people.
(18:11):
They ruin a lot of lives on their own mission.
And then there's other people who love those characters and
think they're the good guys, right?
And a big part of that discussion has always been,
well, Joel, it it didn't make a difference that he killed all
those people to save Ellie. He was saving an innocent girl
and it the pure wouldn't have worked.
There's no way it will have worked.
And then people on the other side, right Well, now it
(18:31):
confirms that one size, right? Basically, you can still have
your opinion, obviously, but like Joel act, you know,
objectively did a bad thing, right, by preventing this cure
from coming out and preventing at least future infections.
And you know, the the eventual getting back to normal in
theory, right? So that's just a weird thing for
(18:52):
him to do, for Neil Druckman to do, at least in my opinion.
Like why? Like it doesn't benefit anyone
to clarify that situation and and and now it's in there and,
and as if the conversation around the Last of Us 2 and the
show and the casting of the show, as if that stuff couldn't
(19:13):
get more toxic. Now it is more toxic because
we've been given this answer that we like didn't really need,
but Neil Druckman gun. Neil Druckman, man, I don't have
a personal problem with him. It seems like he's a you know,
he's obviously made some of the best games ever made.
There are at least some really, really respected games.
But it really does seem like he gets kind of drunk on his own
(19:35):
farts every now and then and andkind of pokes the bear a bit too
much. But maybe that's just me.
Claire Obscure Expedition 33 is getting a re release of their
monolith statue and art book. It is expensive.
I will tell you right now that if you want to order this it's
going to be almost $200.00 with shipping at least here in the
(19:56):
states. It's also a pretty unique game.
It comes with an art book I was going to get anyways.
So if you want all that stuff it's available for pre-order
right now. You just need to go to their
website and look for the links. I think.
Expedition 33. Is a very special game in the
history of games, especially recent history, but just in
(20:18):
general as well. And I just, I, I think it it,
it's fair to want this. Maybe that's me doing a little
bit of a of copium. We'll see.
Mario Kart world was meant to bea cross Gen. game at one point.
So in a recent, I believe it wasan interview or AQ and a or
something, they were talking about how they were originally
(20:39):
going to kind of dial back some of the graphics and all of that
of Mario Kart World to make it aSwitch 1 and Switch 2 game.
And they decided to make it a Switch 2 game exclusively.
Like, yeah, duh, have you seen this game?
Like it looks for their art style, for what they're doing,
it looks fine. I'm sure it it looks great.
Maybe the switch to versions going to have some, you know,
(20:59):
higher texture quality and some some of the the shaders and
stuff will be higher quality particle effects and so on.
But like, yeah, like obviously it's a switch one game.
Like, come on. I I don't think anyone was
saying like, wow, that's that Mario Kart world sure looks
revolutionary. I can't believe this is even on
(21:20):
the switch to like, I don't know, I just maybe I'm being a
little antagonistic about this, but I just, I don't know if they
thought people were really goingto be like like, gasp, what that
definitely switch looking game was meant to be on the switch.
I'm surprised they're doing thatbecause there's like 160 million
(21:41):
Switches out there and Mario karts one of their biggest games
ever. But I also get that it's going
to be a big push for them to tryto get people to move up to the
Switch to it. It it it's a little dirty
because it even by their own words, it sounds like it's kind
of a force thing that they couldput it on the old consoles.
The dirtiest thing they could do, the funniest thing I think
(22:04):
would be for them to do the Switch to version through like
the holidays for like 6 months and then like in early 2026, be
like, hey guys, we figured out how to make this work on the
Switch also. So now that we've sold our, you
know, 30-40 million Switch twos,a lot of people doing it just to
play this new game. Oh, by the way, you can actually
(22:26):
still play it on the Switch. It would be hilarious to have
like the reverse exclusive deal,but I wouldn't put it past them.
But I don't think that's going to happen.
I think they're going to they'regoing to ride that game very
much into selling a bunch of Switch twos.
I mean, this is what PlayStation5 did.
Like, you can't convince me to this day that Ratchet and Clank
(22:48):
Rift Apart couldn't have been onPlayStation 4.
And we know it could be because when it came to the big thing
with that was the gimmick of like, oh, these portals can only
be done with PlayStation Fives exclusive or whatever SSD set
up. And then it came out on on on PC
(23:08):
and it it worked on like old school hard drives.
Not as well. Obviously, you know, it wasn't
as smooth, but it worked. You know, where I felt like they
kind of claimed that it wouldn't.
So it like ripped apart even gavel or Ragnarok, like a bunch
of these games that came out andwere big games for the
PlayStation 5 probably moved a ton of consoles were games that
(23:29):
100% could have been crossed Gen. especially on the PS4 pro.
But even on the base of game they because they were they they
were all sequels. They were all continuations of
PS4 games. They almost certainly could have
may have crossed Gen. probably sold more copies, but probably
wouldn't have sold as many consoles, which at the time and
seemingly still today is still Playstations.
(23:51):
Like main focus is moving units and they've moved almost 80
million. Can't blame them, right?
So yeah, this just reminds me ofthat so much of this thing we're
like, they could have made thesegames cross Gen. you know, any
third party definitely would have, but when your goal is to
move units of your new hardware,you do what you got to do.
I can't even blame them. I just I, I wonder how that
(24:14):
strategy will work in the long run and I'm glad that my console
of preference is extremely good about backwards compatibility
and cross Gen. support and all that.
So there's my little Xbox entry Ano 117 gameplay trailer showing
(24:35):
ground combat more It was revealed this is the the the
Roman Ano game. If you don't know what this is
the Ano series. I've only played 1800
exclusively or extensively and it's it's a city builder where
you have to balance the happiness and the cleanliness of
your city with monuments and manufacturing and farming and
(24:58):
textiles and you have to it's a city manager.
It's a SIM City to the extreme, but it also has other
components. So there's natural disasters and
there's things like that. And, you know, 1800 there's like
pirates and, and rival towns and, and, and cities that you
can have like naval warfare withor, and siege their cities and
(25:18):
things like that. What's really cool about, you
know, 1117 or once 117 is it's going to involve ground combat
as well. So, you know, which kind of
makes sense for, you know, thosefactions and it looks like, you
know, that in this trailer they talked all about how you can
focus on economics and trade and, you know, keeping yourself
(25:41):
powerful or you can go on expeditions out to other lands
and conquer other places and things like that.
So it looks super, super cool. I really love ANO 1800.
It is a very beautiful game, a very satisfying game to play and
a very frustrating game at times, but in the best way.
And I'm sure Ano you know, this new one's going to be very, very
(26:01):
similar. And I'm really, I'm super
excited to play it. They don't have any release
dates yet. My guess probably late this
year, but they're being pretty vague about that so far.
I, I can't wait. Star Wars Outlaws.
So it has a new DLC called A Pirate's Fortune and I was super
(26:24):
excited to play it. I was like, hey, you know, I I
like this game. They've improved it a ton.
The quality of life improvementson outlaws.
If you played when it came out, I got to play before it came
out, but if you played when it came out, they have improved the
quality of life of this game so much, especially in the combat.
Even the speeder. Now you can shoot on the speeder
without only, you know, without the stupid mechanic they had
(26:46):
before where you can only do like the dead eye thing.
Now you can just shoot if you want.
It's great. They've also kind of changed the
game up. You can definitely feel it where
it used to be like a kind of a pseudo stealth game and like
literally there were missions where if you failed the stealth,
you would it would end the mission you'd have to restart.
I believe there are still some very, very specific situations
(27:07):
like that, but for the most part, they've made it so you can
just go in guns blazing and if you just want to run in there,
use your abilities, use your special gun gadgets and all that
blow everything up shoot everybody you can do that.
It's it, It seems like it's not really discouraging that
anymore. So anyways I played through this
whole DLC. I'm like man this is great.
It was so much fun only for me to realize like wait a second I
(27:31):
just played the Lando CalrissianDLC from last year and the new
DLC isn't even showing up in my game.
Only for me to realize on Xbox Ineeded to go to like the game
store in Xbox and install the DLC and then it popped up in my
game. So what's funny is I played
through the whole DLC from last year, the Lando Calrusian one.
(27:53):
It's great. I loved, I had so much fun with
it and I thought I was done playing Outlaws for a while,
maybe forever. Well, now I've got a whole
nother DLC to play and so I'll be jumping into that soon.
So I don't have a review of the new DLC because even though I
thought I played it, I didn't. I will talk about that here in
the next couple weeks, but I really enjoyed the last one.
(28:13):
So if you if you generally enjoyed Outlaws but didn't like
some of the small things, it might be worth checking out
again to see if that's been relieved.
I liked it from the start. I think K Vest is a cool
character. The music in this and that came
as insane. The visuals.
It's a very pretty game, especially the more like
interior areas. The outdoors look pretty rough
(28:34):
on console. I'm I'll be honest, it's it does
not look great to the FSR is doing some heavy work on the
exteriors of that game, but the interiors look great.
And in general, it just has a cool design.
Like I said, the music's great, has some really fun characters.
I like the gameplay. I think it's fun to play.
It's very satisfying. So yeah, Star Wars Outlaws, new
(28:56):
DLC, make sure you actually download it and you play the one
you think you're supposed to be playing.
BioWare. I always kind of, whenever I can
talk about this, I I throw it inhere when I can.
They are hiring a senior animator for Mass Effect 5.
They still have a senior tech artist job that's been up for a
couple months. So I'm curious if they're hiring
(29:18):
like multiple people in that position or if they're having
trouble getting that position filled.
I don't know enough about the industry to know how common that
position is, so maybe there's other factors there.
This is cool, you know, like I I, this is exciting for me.
Any signs of life for Mass Effect 5 or the next?
Mass Effect is a good thing to me.
(29:39):
Someone who only recently on 20/21 got into the trilogy and
got really into it. Someone who I don't hate
Andromeda, it's fine. Like I said before, I want to do
APC playthrough of it. So it's at like 60 FPS and has
much higher texture resolution than on Xbox.
I hope I, I, I'm excited for this game.
(30:00):
You know, if you have been around for a long time, you'll
know I covered all of the production years of the division
two as well. I just kind of enjoy it.
I enjoy paying attention to hiring listings and developers
leaving little hints and and winks and nods right.
I, I just have a good time with it.
So I, I did make a little video about the senior animator job.
(30:21):
It it, it's interesting because it's the first time they've put
up a listing in a really long time for Mass Effect,
specifically the tech. The senior tech artist job
doesn't actually mention Mass Effect at all, where the senior
animator job specifically says working on new Mass Effect
experiences, which I'm assuming is them just being like, we
(30:45):
yeah, we haven't said what the game is called yet, so we're
just going to be very vague. Maybe it means they're working
on multiple things or that's theintent.
I have no idea. That would be really cool.
But I feel like that's one of those things where I, I, I feel
like most of us should just be happy to see BioWare stick
around long enough to make another game and hopefully that
game is super good so they can stick around much longer.
(31:06):
But yeah, so I'm trying not to take too much from that.
If you want a more in depth video on that, you can check out
my YouTube where I just did a video about that senior animator
job being posted. I think this game is probably
going to be a next Gen. game at this point.
If the next consoles come out in27 or even 28, that's about what
I'm expecting this game, if not even a hair later.
(31:28):
At this point it's seeming more and more like some of the
speculation a couple years ago by Jeff Grubb and others may end
up being right. To my to my chagrin, I'm I still
think they're going to announce that the next Mass Effect will
be in full production this year,2025.
I kind of thought they would do it already though.
(31:48):
So at this point, I'd be pretty amazed if we hear anything
significant about this game before N7 Day in November.
I would be very amazed if if that if we get like, I'm not
expecting a Mass Effect teaser during summer game, Fester
Games, Calm or or anything like that.
So we'll see. I would love to see more.
(32:10):
We will probably get some blogs through BioWare directly before
N7 Day I would imagine. Maybe a production announcement
or something, who knows. Anything but layoff
announcements, which most of their blogs have been for the
last couple years, or at least some of them.
So yeah, hey, for me, like I said, signs of life from
(32:31):
BioWare, that's a good thing. I am.
I am rooting for them and I'm hoping they can make a a cool
Mass Effect game to continue that series.
Arc Raiders is a possible launchdate of June 6th.
This comes from people doing some sleuthing where they the on
steam there's a new EXE file that got put on and people found
(32:54):
a way to download it and open it, and I guess some of the text
in the file eludes to possibly aJune 6th release date.
That same day Summer game fest it.
It wouldn't surprise me that game felt so finished during
that last Test. I, I, I assume they're doing
some polishing, some balancing from that test and then they'll
(33:15):
release it. It wouldn't surprise me at all
if during summer game fest they,they do a shadow job and say,
hey, it's available right now onall consoles, all platforms, go
go nuts, go go raid arc people or whatever.
They would say, I loved that game.
I had a ton of fun with it to the point where I stopped
playing it because I want to wait for the full release.
(33:37):
So I get to keep my progression because I could tell I'm like,
oh, I like this, this is fun. I'm going to spend a lot of time
in this game, but I I don't wantto do it because I've done this
before where I play the like Diablo was 1 like this and a few
other games where I played so much of the beta or the test or
the demo that by the time the game actually came out, at least
at first, I felt kind of burned out by it.
(33:59):
So I'm trying to, I, I stayed away from Arc Raiders to a point
to, to try to preserve that. So hopefully it does come out in
June. I think that'd be a great summer
game for me. I would love to have that
available, but I also want them to finish it.
So let's see, let's make sure itgets done first.
Kind of hit into the the last few stories here.
Embracer Group realigns their studios once again.
(34:21):
I couldn't even figure out the way that they're reorganizing.
Long story short, they're movingstuff around once again and they
claim that they're going to release 76 games in the coming
fiscal year. Mind you, this is a publisher
who has barely released anythingfor years since they have since
they've existed. So, you know, we'll, we'll see.
(34:43):
I, I, I'm not super hopeful thatthat's a thing that is actually
going to happen, but but we'll have to wait and see.
So I, I, I, I will not be holding my breath for that.
The Stellar Blade developers in a big kind of their financial
disclosures and they had a presentation where they showed
(35:04):
that they're expecting to launchthe sequel to Stellar Blade
before 2027. So I guess in 2026 that'll be
interesting. So this game, if you remember,
this has been kind of like the gooner bait game.
It it from all accounts are is that the gameplay is
legitimately fun that it's a good kind of not like a souls
(35:25):
game, but maybe a little bit, but more of like an action
oriented 1. You know the story, and I know
this for a fact from watching a bunch of summary videos on and
stuff is hot garbage. The characters are terrible like
it's basically like near automata, like dollar store
version. They they've tried to do
something similar and it's not the most inspiring thing in the
(35:47):
world. I have 0 doubt in my mind that
this is going to be a complete cash grab.
I'm I'm sure it'll have great gameplay and, and, and maybe
even better, right? But the idea of them turn out
another game in a couple of years, I, I wonder how.
I wonder what lies they'll tell about it not being on Xbox next
time. Maybe it'll be an Xbox exclusive
(36:08):
for all we know. What we, we never know where
they're going to go with this stuff.
Or no, that's Woocom, not stellar blade.
Stellar Blade's pretty they're they're clearly an exclusive,
but anyways, like good for them if the I know people are excited
about the PC release of this game so they can do all their
mods. Keep an eye out for that.
Maybe have your not safer work filter on.
(36:30):
And then the final story, which I found to be kind of an
interesting 1 is a SAG AFTRA is suing Fortnite production
company that used an AI to create lines for Darth Vader and
a recent Fortnite update or somenew content.
What's interesting about that isthat James Earl Jones, the voice
actor for Darth Vader, who has passed away, signed over the
(36:55):
rights to Disney to use AI to recreate his voice for future
projects, which I assume was used, you know, the licensee on
that was used here. And so that kind of negates the
lawsuit a little bit. Except I believe that even
though the rights are signed over, I guess there's still
agreements that sag after. I will be notified when that
(37:16):
gets used. So even though they can't stop
them from doing the AI voice, they're still supposed to be
notified or something. I mean, this seems the headline
is what it's all about because the actual workings of it is
just like a procedural dispute. It seems like, you know, again,
Disney and whoever they license it out to are allowed to
(37:38):
recreate James Earl Jones's rendition of Darth Vader however
they want as often as they want forever.
I assume there's some dividends or, you know, some kind of fees
that get paid to James Earl Jones's estate, his family,
whoever's controlling his his properties.
But this was kind of a non story.
But that's OK. As for content updates, I did
(38:04):
open up my new Von Diesel Archive channel on YouTube.
That's where all my live stream videos are going to go.
Vods and and so on. I just, it was cluttering up my
main channel so much I I had to get rid of it.
I am nearing the end of my Mass Effect 3 playthrough, my modded
legendary edition playthrough. I believe I'm getting we're
(38:25):
starting to ran Knock Arc. So if you've played the game,
you know that that's getting towards the end.
I've done most of the side stuffalready.
After that, I don't know what I'm going to play.
I do have a vacation coming up and you know, I'll be busy this
summer doing family stuff, but I'll still make sure.
And you know, we do this podcastand I stream every here and
there. We'll be covering the the big
(38:46):
showcases and all of that for sure.
And I'll try to be doing my gamereviews and impressions and some
game playing all that as I can. So just, you know, kind of keep
an eye out. Oddly, you know, I'll probably
I've been trying to stream more lately, which I've been
relatively successful at. So make sure to go over to
twitch and look for Von Diesel and follow me on there to catch
(39:08):
those. I always love chatting with
people about the podcast or things that are going on or kind
of really anything. So be sure to catch me there.
But yeah, that that's kind of the the content updates for this
one. Nothing super definite besides
that we do have the showcases coming up here very soon.
OK, And that's where we're goingto wrap this episode up.
(39:29):
Thank you so much for listening to this episode.
Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast app, leave a
review on Spotify or iTunes, andsubscribe to the Bond Diesel
YouTube channel to get all of myvideos, including this podcast.
Thank you to everyone who supports as YouTube members and
Twitch subscribers. If you are interested in
(39:50):
supporting this podcast and all of my other content, please
check out the links in the show description.
If you have any other questions or feedback, please hit me up on
the Spotify or YouTube comments,let me know in my Discord, or
hit me up on social media at VonDiesel or at the Bonfire.
That is all I have for this episode of the Bonfire Gaming
(40:13):
Podcast. O until next time.
This is the Bonfire Gaming Podcast episode 308.
I'm your host Morgan, AKA Von Diesel.
This week we'll be talking aboutHellblade 2 coming to
PlayStation soon. BioWare is hiring again for Mass
Effect, Naughty Dog is working on a second game, and
legitimately a bunch more. OK, so like, there's too many
(00:23):
games, right? I'm not even talking about
backlog. I'm talking about like actively
coming out. I've run into this weird
situation where I noticed it themost with DLC.
The and I have an extended storyabout this, but the Star Wars
Outlaws DLC came out and I went to go play it and really I
(00:46):
thought enjoyed it again, stick around for the rest of that
story. But I kept finding myself, you
know, doing that and then playing Hell Divers too, just
had a big update where now you get to fight on Super Earth
where if you've played that game, you know why that's a big
deal? It's really, really neat.
And I'm doing a, you know, another playthrough of Mass
(01:08):
Effect Legendary Edition, the whole trilogy.
And I'm in Mass Effect 3 and I'mtrying to, you know, stream
that. And I'm getting towards the end
and I'm catching myself playing all these old games and then
like feeling guilt that I'm not playing things that have come
out more recently, things that, you know, like Doom, it didn't
really click with me. I think if I played it more, it
(01:29):
probably would. But I'm not playing it more
because I'm playing other stuff.And it's it's really
interesting. That's not even to add on the
backlog I have of second playthroughs.
I want to do Hellblade to send you a saga, which we'll be
talking about shortly. That there's when you play
(01:49):
through that game the first time, you have the sirens or
whatever they're called in, in your head the whole game, right?
That's happened in the first game as well.
It happens in the second game. It's it's, it's one of the
really cool parts of that game. Well, if you don't know
spoilers, I guess when you beat the game, one of the characters
in the game who's very importantbecomes the voice in your head
(02:12):
for a whole playthrough. And it gives you a different
perspective on the entire game. And then I'm under the
impression that if you play a third time, there's another set,
there's another voice in your head.
I don't, I can't even remember or I don't know who it is, but
I've heard. And because it's a fairly short
game, you know, it's got some replayability.
(02:34):
Not to mention that I want to dosecond playthroughs of God all
the way back to play till Requiem.
I want to play through that again.
I don't have time for that. I want to do another playthrough
of Dragon Age the Vale Guard. I just don't have time, right?
I want to do another playthroughof Mass Effect Andromeda.
I've only ever played it on XboxSeries X and it plays like crap
(02:55):
on there. It's terrible.
So I want to do APC playthrough and it's just all this stuff it
it's just like it's so overwhelming, you know?
And it's great. You know, whether you have Game
Pass or not, even if you don't have Game Pass, there's still
tons of games coming out if you're willing to pay full price
for them. It's just it, it's really
interesting. It just feels so different than
(03:17):
even 5 or 10 years ago where youwould have like a couple
blockbuster hits every year. And then in between that, you
know, there wasn't much. And often those games came out
like in the holidays where, you know, end of the year,
second-half, you know, last third of the year.
And you would literally have entire droughts where maybe some
weird little indie games or something small would come out,
sports games, things like that. But not like it is now.
(03:40):
You know, there's all this talk about release timing and
delaying for Grand Theft Auto 6 and all this stuff.
And, and you know, I've made theargument for quite a while now
that you kind of can't delay around other games anymore
because every month there's a big game.
So at some point you just have to pick a day and go for it
(04:01):
because you'll never release your game.
You know, the days of Titanfall one and two, especially 2, you
know, kind of getting screwed over by releasing around Call of
Duty and Battlefield. You know, that's just how it is
now. You know, it's just, it's really
interesting, It's overwhelming. It's but it's an embarrassment
(04:21):
of riches, right? How can we complain about having
too many good games? It's why I get really frustrated
when I sometimes see people do the whole like games these days
so bad. Like what are you talking about?
Like, sure, lots of mediocre games get released, but lots of
really good ones get released too.
A lot of those games are indie games or games from, you know,
(04:41):
lesser known studios and stuff. But even the big names are still
releasing good games as well. You know, like Assassin's Creed
shadows just came out and it wasawesome.
It's a great game. It's really good.
Last year Vale guard was awesome.
Star Wars outlaws was awesome. You know, just, there's good
games. There's just good games all the
time. And it's it's, it's a great
(05:03):
problem to have. I'm glad we have it.
I just fear for what the next, you know, 5-10 years brings of
like there's just going to be constant releases of these big
games. We may see some retraction in
the market or in the studios andstuff.
We'll have to wait and see. But as it stands right now, it
seems like it's only going to get worse.
So it, it just makes me wonder, you know, especially in the
(05:26):
future, but even now if like really good games are going to
get passed up and and missed simply due to too many.
We'll have to wait and see. OK, getting into the gaming news
for this last week. Hellblade 2 Sydney with Saga is
coming to PlayStation 5 this summer.
(05:47):
This was officially announced byNinja theory.
They've not given a date quite yet, but they did confirm that
there will be it's, I believe it's called the Enhanced Edition
and it will have PS5 Pro specific features and it will be
coming out on the PS5. They've also said that it's
going to have other features andimprovements and stuff.
(06:09):
I would say the most likely thing they're going to add even
to Series X, maybe S, will be a performance mode.
It's a performance heavy game that there's a reason that, you
know, even to this day I believethey still don't have a 60FPS
mode on console. My guess is that they will have
figured out how to do that. I would say less likely
(06:31):
additions would be maybe some cut content they're adding back
in if there was any sections of the game they feel like they can
put in and and maybe other smallfeatures like that.
I'm not expecting like a DLCII. Don't.
I don't think that Ninja Theory is a DLC company and I don't
think Hellblade 2 that it would that it would make sense if they
(06:52):
wanted to do like an extended edition of the game or maybe
they put back in some cut content or something to make the
game a bit longer. That's cool.
It may be, you know, per my discussion before would maybe
give me a reason to come back and play through it again.
But I loved Hell Blade too and personally I really really hope
this is an opportunity for them to get the recognition that game
(07:17):
deserved. In my opinion that game and
still to this day set the standard for graphics, audio,
animation, voice acting, music. Like it's a really really really
good game and and even gameplay I thought was awesome.
And I, I still to this day believe that at least some of
(07:38):
the reviewers I saw the game they reviewed was the first like
3 hours of Hellblade 2. And during said reviews, I find
it super hard to believe those people finished the game, which
is weird. And it's a weird accusation to
make because it's famously a short game.
Like it's, you know, 8 to 10 hours is pretty easy to be then.
(08:00):
So it's like of any game that would be hard, you know, that
that it's hard to say someone didn't finish it.
It's such a short game. But that also makes me wonder,
like, did they get a few hours in and be like, OK, I know, I
know what this is. And I at least I believe that
the second-half of the game really does evolve where the
first half is pretty similar to the first game in a lot of ways.
(08:21):
Even though I think it's really good, I, I still think that, you
know, I, I think the reviews were unfair of this game and
it's still reviewed well, but I think it should have been much
higher than it is. And I also wonder if it coming
out on PlayStation, we'll adjustthose conversations a bit.
It's, I find it hard to not acknowledge that Hellblade 2
(08:44):
suffered from Xbox exclusivity and the bias that comes against
a lot of the games in that situation.
You know, I, I, I hate the wholeidea of, you know, the, the, the
conspiracies and stuff around that.
It's, it's likely not even like a concerted effort, but whether
it's subconscious or bias or whatever, I just, I don't think
(09:07):
it got a fair shake. And as someone who played
through the game and really enjoyed it, many of the
criticisms I heard felt like things that maybe wouldn't have
been an issue if the release wasdifferent.
But maybe that's my own bias. This continues A trend that Xbox
(09:27):
hasn't really been shy about. They are releasing their games
on all platforms, or at least any platforms.
I'll take them. It seems like we've already had
multiple games go to PlayStation5, some of them months after it
comes out or a year later like Hell Blade.
Some of them day and date like Doom, the Dark Ages.
It sounds like Xbox is kind of letting studios make that
(09:48):
decision, make that call. I personally think that there's
still value in them having like a six month to 12 month
exclusivity period. So far a lot of them have been
even longer than that. Right now we're still waiting
for like Starfield to come to PlayStation, which has been
pretty widely rumored literally for years now.
(10:09):
And that's cool. Like my whole thing is that once
a game is no longer selling GamePass Subs or, and or hardware,
then why not put it everywhere? Hell, Blade 2 is almost
certainly not selling consoles and not selling Game Pass Subs
anymore, right? It probably did right when it
came out, at least a few. But once that's over, you're
(10:31):
just losing money by not allowing everyone to buy it.
And that's kind of how I feel about everything.
You get into some weirdo territory there with like
ongoing games, live service games and such.
But then you sell like Sea of Thieves went to PlayStation a
while back and it's been hugely successful for Xbox and that
studio and that game. And you know, you have a bunch
(10:52):
of new people who get to play this great game, right?
I just, I, I don't have an issuewith it.
I think the day and date like doom, the dark ages is a little
tougher to swallow because you do want to see that that company
who, you know, invest all this money and all that benefit.
If you're a fanboy, you want to see that that exclusivity
happen. But you also have to wonder like
(11:16):
if if it mattered, if it really made, if it if it did help, they
would do it right. No one's forcing Microsoft to do
multi platform and in some ways it doesn't make sense, but it
kind of does and it seems like it's working.
We've been seeing what it's like4 of the top five games sold
last month or something on PlayStation were published by
(11:36):
Xbox. Like that's crazy.
Like imagine if it that was the other way around, right?
The the only PlayStation published game on Xbox for years
has been MLB The Show. A few years ago it became multi
platform because the MLB forced it.
So it's interesting. I'm excited to see Hubli to get
(11:57):
a bigger audience. At the end of the day, I think
that should be the goal. You know, these studios, these
developers, I don't think many of them really care about the
console or stuff. I think they want as many people
to play the thing that they madeas possible and and I think that
should be the priority as well. Speaking of Xbox, we have game
passes having quite a year already and it looks like it's
(12:21):
going to continue being crazy through the rest of the year.
The upcoming releases are metaphor Refantazio, which to a
lot of people was game of the year last year, The Division
two, which we'll get back to that, and STALKER 2, which is a
game that just came out, you know, less than a year ago and
was not on game Pass or no, it was on game Pass, wasn't it?
Or was it not? I can't remember.
(12:42):
I think it was. I don't know why it's on there.
Well, let's figure that out now that I think about it, but The
Division 2 is an interesting onebecause they have DLC coming out
next week the day after this hits Game Pass And and in
theory, I assume that means you can get the game Pass version
and then pay the 10 or 15 bucks or whatever it is for the DLC.
Play it all and you're good to go.
(13:05):
Like it's super smart, especially knowing that they're
putting a big emphasis on makingthe entry into that game easier
and more streamlined for new players.
They would only be doing that ifthey're getting lots of new
players and if they anticipate on getting more with moves like
this. This just kind of continues the
conversation for me that Xbox isquietly like really making a
(13:28):
huge, I don't know if I would even call it a comeback
necessarily because they're justkind of doing their own thing.
All three of the major console platforms, as much as people
want to compare them and and they're in the same industry, so
I get it. But they truly are kind of doing
their own things and they're becoming harder and harder to
compare, you know, Nintendo literally doing their own thing,
(13:50):
like almost completely lower endhardware, relying heavily on 1st
party exclusive games and havingOK third party support.
Seems like it's going to be a little better with the switch
to, but probably not forever andprobably still not that much.
Well, you have PlayStation doingthe old school thing, selling
(14:11):
Playstations and in theory relying on their first party to
keep them going. But then they're in a weird spot
because they've been releasing very, very little first party
games. Right?
We we had Astrobot last year andthat was a cool game, but sounds
like it didn't sell that well and it was kind of AI think kind
of a gimmick to the journalist to be like, oh, look at this
(14:34):
thing. You should vote for us for game
of the year, even though this game isn't going to be like a
huge thing for us, right? And they're still selling lots
of consoles. They cross.
They're at almost like 80 million sold of PS Fives.
That's really good. You can't deny that.
But it's on a product that makesalmost no money.
Now. They make more money from things
sold on it than on other stores.So it makes sense that they care
(14:55):
about that. But that's becoming less of a
factor, I think. And then with their games, they,
you know, they had Astrobot. What was the last big one?
Spider Man 2. They have Death Stranding coming
out this year, which will eventually come to Xbox and it's
like a third party thing and youknow, maybe we have Wolverine
coming eventually. They do have Ghost Studio Thai,
(15:17):
which is probably pretty popularand loved.
It's just weird. It's weird how little they're
putting out, but it seems like as long as they keep selling
consoles, you're not really going to see that conversation
change. And OK, like good for them.
I just, I wish it was consistent.
I feel like if the two, if Xbox and PlayStation were reversed
(15:40):
right now and their fortunes were reversed and the way things
are going were reversed, the conversations would be very,
very different, especially amongst journalists, but even
amongst the the kind of gaming community.
Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it's all in my head.
I have no idea. Naughty Dog is working on a
second unannounced game. Neil Druckman was on Sacred
(16:02):
Symbols podcast of Colin. I think it's Moriarty.
I think it's his last name personally not not my favorite
podcaster in the world, but to each their own.
That's fine. He this was a pretty cool
interview for him to get. They, they said that.
So they're working on the Interstellar Galactic, whatever
(16:24):
game that's coming out. I think it's been talked about
next year or the year after. It's their first title since The
Last of Us 2. Knowing that in between there
was an online game that was worked on and then cancelled,
which is the theme for PlayStation Live service games.
That's a whole different discussion that we've had a lot
(16:45):
lately. This new project, we literally
know nothing about it. Another thing that came from
this interview that I thought was interesting is that he
confirmed that. So if you're the Last of Us fan
at the end of The Last of Us one, sorry, spoilers for a 15
year old game that's been remade15 times.
The one of the main characters, Ellie, the younger girl, is
(17:07):
captured or taken in by this group who thinks that they can
take her, these growths in her brain that have made her immune
to this worldwide pandemic. They can use that to create a
cure to inoculate people and, you know, potentially save
people who were like, recently affected or something, right?
(17:28):
And at the end of the game, the other main character, Joel, the
the kind of fatherly protective figure that you play as in the
first game, goes on the rampage in this hospital and kills
everyone, including the doctors who were trying to perform this
procedure to try to make this cure.
Well, for years since then, there's been a debate of like,
would this cure have even worked?
Like, I think the doctor was like a veterinarian or
(17:50):
something. It was something along those
lines. There's a lot of questions of
like, could they have really made a cure by killing this girl
and ripping these things out of her brain that they thought
maybe would have helped? And so that conversation's
always been interesting because if you, you know, there's a side
of the community who thinks thatJoel and Ellie are kind of the
bad guys. They kill a lot of people.
(18:11):
They ruin a lot of lives on their own mission.
And then there's other people who love those characters and
think they're the good guys, right?
And a big part of that discussion has always been,
well, Joel, it it didn't make a difference that he killed all
those people to save Ellie. He was saving an innocent girl
and it the pure wouldn't have worked.
There's no way it will have worked.
And then people on the other side, right Well, now it
(18:31):
confirms that one size, right? Basically, you can still have
your opinion, obviously, but like Joel act, you know,
objectively did a bad thing, right, by preventing this cure
from coming out and preventing at least future infections.
And you know, the the eventual getting back to normal in
theory, right? So that's just a weird thing for
(18:52):
him to do, for Neil Druckman to do, at least in my opinion.
Like why? Like it doesn't benefit anyone
to clarify that situation and and and now it's in there and,
and as if the conversation around the Last of Us 2 and the
show and the casting of the show, as if that stuff couldn't
(19:13):
get more toxic. Now it is more toxic because
we've been given this answer that we like didn't really need,
but Neil Druckman gun. Neil Druckman, man, I don't have
a personal problem with him. It seems like he's a you know,
he's obviously made some of the best games ever made.
There are at least some really, really respected games.
But it really does seem like he gets kind of drunk on his own
(19:35):
farts every now and then and andkind of pokes the bear a bit too
much. But maybe that's just me.
Claire Obscure Expedition 33 is getting a re release of their
monolith statue and art book. It is expensive.
I will tell you right now that if you want to order this it's
going to be almost $200.00 with shipping at least here in the
(19:56):
states. It's also a pretty unique game.
It comes with an art book I was going to get anyways.
So if you want all that stuff it's available for pre-order
right now. You just need to go to their
website and look for the links. I think.
Expedition 33. Is a very special game in the
history of games, especially recent history, but just in
(20:18):
general as well. And I just, I, I think it it,
it's fair to want this. Maybe that's me doing a little
bit of a of copium. We'll see.
Mario Kart world was meant to bea cross Gen. game at one point.
So in a recent, I believe it wasan interview or AQ and a or
something, they were talking about how they were originally
(20:39):
going to kind of dial back some of the graphics and all of that
of Mario Kart World to make it aSwitch 1 and Switch 2 game.
And they decided to make it a Switch 2 game exclusively.
Like, yeah, duh, have you seen this game?
Like it looks for their art style, for what they're doing,
it looks fine. I'm sure it it looks great.
Maybe the switch to versions going to have some, you know,
(20:59):
higher texture quality and some some of the the shaders and
stuff will be higher quality particle effects and so on.
But like, yeah, like obviously it's a switch one game.
Like, come on. I I don't think anyone was
saying like, wow, that's that Mario Kart world sure looks
revolutionary. I can't believe this is even on
(21:20):
the switch to like, I don't know, I just maybe I'm being a
little antagonistic about this, but I just, I don't know if they
thought people were really goingto be like like, gasp, what that
definitely switch looking game was meant to be on the switch.
I'm surprised they're doing thatbecause there's like 160 million
(21:41):
Switches out there and Mario karts one of their biggest games
ever. But I also get that it's going
to be a big push for them to tryto get people to move up to the
Switch to it. It it it's a little dirty
because it even by their own words, it sounds like it's kind
of a force thing that they couldput it on the old consoles.
The dirtiest thing they could do, the funniest thing I think
(22:04):
would be for them to do the Switch to version through like
the holidays for like 6 months and then like in early 2026, be
like, hey guys, we figured out how to make this work on the
Switch also. So now that we've sold our, you
know, 30-40 million Switch twos,a lot of people doing it just to
play this new game. Oh, by the way, you can actually
(22:26):
still play it on the Switch. It would be hilarious to have
like the reverse exclusive deal,but I wouldn't put it past them.
But I don't think that's going to happen.
I think they're going to they'regoing to ride that game very
much into selling a bunch of Switch twos.
I mean, this is what PlayStation5 did.
Like, you can't convince me to this day that Ratchet and Clank
(22:48):
Rift Apart couldn't have been onPlayStation 4.
And we know it could be because when it came to the big thing
with that was the gimmick of like, oh, these portals can only
be done with PlayStation Fives exclusive or whatever SSD set
up. And then it came out on on on PC
(23:08):
and it it worked on like old school hard drives.
Not as well. Obviously, you know, it wasn't
as smooth, but it worked. You know, where I felt like they
kind of claimed that it wouldn't.
So it like ripped apart even gavel or Ragnarok, like a bunch
of these games that came out andwere big games for the
PlayStation 5 probably moved a ton of consoles were games that
(23:29):
100% could have been crossed Gen. especially on the PS4 pro.
But even on the base of game they because they were they they
were all sequels. They were all continuations of
PS4 games. They almost certainly could have
may have crossed Gen. probably sold more copies, but probably
wouldn't have sold as many consoles, which at the time and
seemingly still today is still Playstations.
(23:51):
Like main focus is moving units and they've moved almost 80
million. Can't blame them, right?
So yeah, this just reminds me ofthat so much of this thing we're
like, they could have made thesegames cross Gen. you know, any
third party definitely would have, but when your goal is to
move units of your new hardware,you do what you got to do.
I can't even blame them. I just I, I wonder how that
(24:14):
strategy will work in the long run and I'm glad that my console
of preference is extremely good about backwards compatibility
and cross Gen. support and all that.
So there's my little Xbox entry Ano 117 gameplay trailer showing
(24:35):
ground combat more It was revealed this is the the the
Roman Ano game. If you don't know what this is
the Ano series. I've only played 1800
exclusively or extensively and it's it's a city builder where
you have to balance the happiness and the cleanliness of
your city with monuments and manufacturing and farming and
(24:58):
textiles and you have to it's a city manager.
It's a SIM City to the extreme, but it also has other
components. So there's natural disasters and
there's things like that. And, you know, 1800 there's like
pirates and, and rival towns and, and, and cities that you
can have like naval warfare withor, and siege their cities and
(25:18):
things like that. What's really cool about, you
know, 1117 or once 117 is it's going to involve ground combat
as well. So, you know, which kind of
makes sense for, you know, thosefactions and it looks like, you
know, that in this trailer they talked all about how you can
focus on economics and trade and, you know, keeping yourself
(25:41):
powerful or you can go on expeditions out to other lands
and conquer other places and things like that.
So it looks super, super cool. I really love ANO 1800.
It is a very beautiful game, a very satisfying game to play and
a very frustrating game at times, but in the best way.
And I'm sure Ano you know, this new one's going to be very, very
(26:01):
similar. And I'm really, I'm super
excited to play it. They don't have any release
dates yet. My guess probably late this
year, but they're being pretty vague about that so far.
I, I can't wait. Star Wars Outlaws.
So it has a new DLC called A Pirate's Fortune and I was super
(26:24):
excited to play it. I was like, hey, you know, I I
like this game. They've improved it a ton.
The quality of life improvementson outlaws.
If you played when it came out, I got to play before it came
out, but if you played when it came out, they have improved the
quality of life of this game so much, especially in the combat.
Even the speeder. Now you can shoot on the speeder
without only, you know, without the stupid mechanic they had
(26:46):
before where you can only do like the dead eye thing.
Now you can just shoot if you want.
It's great. They've also kind of changed the
game up. You can definitely feel it where
it used to be like a kind of a pseudo stealth game and like
literally there were missions where if you failed the stealth,
you would it would end the mission you'd have to restart.
I believe there are still some very, very specific situations
(27:07):
like that, but for the most part, they've made it so you can
just go in guns blazing and if you just want to run in there,
use your abilities, use your special gun gadgets and all that
blow everything up shoot everybody you can do that.
It's it, It seems like it's not really discouraging that
anymore. So anyways I played through this
whole DLC. I'm like man this is great.
It was so much fun only for me to realize like wait a second I
(27:31):
just played the Lando CalrissianDLC from last year and the new
DLC isn't even showing up in my game.
Only for me to realize on Xbox Ineeded to go to like the game
store in Xbox and install the DLC and then it popped up in my
game. So what's funny is I played
through the whole DLC from last year, the Lando Calrusian one.
(27:53):
It's great. I loved, I had so much fun with
it and I thought I was done playing Outlaws for a while,
maybe forever. Well, now I've got a whole
nother DLC to play and so I'll be jumping into that soon.
So I don't have a review of the new DLC because even though I
thought I played it, I didn't. I will talk about that here in
the next couple weeks, but I really enjoyed the last one.
(28:13):
So if you if you generally enjoyed Outlaws but didn't like
some of the small things, it might be worth checking out
again to see if that's been relieved.
I liked it from the start. I think K Vest is a cool
character. The music in this and that came
as insane. The visuals.
It's a very pretty game, especially the more like
interior areas. The outdoors look pretty rough
(28:34):
on console. I'm I'll be honest, it's it does
not look great to the FSR is doing some heavy work on the
exteriors of that game, but the interiors look great.
And in general, it just has a cool design.
Like I said, the music's great, has some really fun characters.
I like the gameplay. I think it's fun to play.
It's very satisfying. So yeah, Star Wars Outlaws, new
(28:56):
DLC, make sure you actually download it and you play the one
you think you're supposed to be playing.
BioWare. I always kind of, whenever I can
talk about this, I I throw it inhere when I can.
They are hiring a senior animator for Mass Effect 5.
They still have a senior tech artist job that's been up for a
couple months. So I'm curious if they're hiring
(29:18):
like multiple people in that position or if they're having
trouble getting that position filled.
I don't know enough about the industry to know how common that
position is, so maybe there's other factors there.
This is cool, you know, like I I, this is exciting for me.
Any signs of life for Mass Effect 5 or the next?
Mass Effect is a good thing to me.
(29:39):
Someone who only recently on 20/21 got into the trilogy and
got really into it. Someone who I don't hate
Andromeda, it's fine. Like I said before, I want to do
APC playthrough of it. So it's at like 60 FPS and has
much higher texture resolution than on Xbox.
I hope I, I, I'm excited for this game.
(30:00):
You know, if you have been around for a long time, you'll
know I covered all of the production years of the division
two as well. I just kind of enjoy it.
I enjoy paying attention to hiring listings and developers
leaving little hints and and winks and nods right.
I, I just have a good time with it.
So I, I did make a little video about the senior animator job.
(30:21):
It it, it's interesting because it's the first time they've put
up a listing in a really long time for Mass Effect,
specifically the tech. The senior tech artist job
doesn't actually mention Mass Effect at all, where the senior
animator job specifically says working on new Mass Effect
experiences, which I'm assuming is them just being like, we
(30:45):
yeah, we haven't said what the game is called yet, so we're
just going to be very vague. Maybe it means they're working
on multiple things or that's theintent.
I have no idea. That would be really cool.
But I feel like that's one of those things where I, I, I feel
like most of us should just be happy to see BioWare stick
around long enough to make another game and hopefully that
game is super good so they can stick around much longer.
(31:06):
But yeah, so I'm trying not to take too much from that.
If you want a more in depth video on that, you can check out
my YouTube where I just did a video about that senior animator
job being posted. I think this game is probably
going to be a next Gen. game at this point.
If the next consoles come out in27 or even 28, that's about what
I'm expecting this game, if not even a hair later.
(31:28):
At this point it's seeming more and more like some of the
speculation a couple years ago by Jeff Grubb and others may end
up being right. To my to my chagrin, I'm I still
think they're going to announce that the next Mass Effect will
be in full production this year,2025.
I kind of thought they would do it already though.
(31:48):
So at this point, I'd be pretty amazed if we hear anything
significant about this game before N7 Day in November.
I would be very amazed if if that if we get like, I'm not
expecting a Mass Effect teaser during summer game, Fester
Games, Calm or or anything like that.
So we'll see. I would love to see more.
(32:10):
We will probably get some blogs through BioWare directly before
N7 Day I would imagine. Maybe a production announcement
or something, who knows. Anything but layoff
announcements, which most of their blogs have been for the
last couple years, or at least some of them.
So yeah, hey, for me, like I said, signs of life from
(32:31):
BioWare, that's a good thing. I am.
I am rooting for them and I'm hoping they can make a a cool
Mass Effect game to continue that series.
Arc Raiders is a possible launchdate of June 6th.
This comes from people doing some sleuthing where they the on
steam there's a new EXE file that got put on and people found
(32:54):
a way to download it and open it, and I guess some of the text
in the file eludes to possibly aJune 6th release date.
That same day Summer game fest it.
It wouldn't surprise me that game felt so finished during
that last Test. I, I, I assume they're doing
some polishing, some balancing from that test and then they'll
(33:15):
release it. It wouldn't surprise me at all
if during summer game fest they,they do a shadow job and say,
hey, it's available right now onall consoles, all platforms, go
go nuts, go go raid arc people or whatever.
They would say, I loved that game.
I had a ton of fun with it to the point where I stopped
playing it because I want to wait for the full release.
(33:37):
So I get to keep my progression because I could tell I'm like,
oh, I like this, this is fun. I'm going to spend a lot of time
in this game, but I I don't wantto do it because I've done this
before where I play the like Diablo was 1 like this and a few
other games where I played so much of the beta or the test or
the demo that by the time the game actually came out, at least
at first, I felt kind of burned out by it.
(33:59):
So I'm trying to, I, I stayed away from Arc Raiders to a point
to, to try to preserve that. So hopefully it does come out in
June. I think that'd be a great summer
game for me. I would love to have that
available, but I also want them to finish it.
So let's see, let's make sure itgets done first.
Kind of hit into the the last few stories here.
Embracer Group realigns their studios once again.
(34:21):
I couldn't even figure out the way that they're reorganizing.
Long story short, they're movingstuff around once again and they
claim that they're going to release 76 games in the coming
fiscal year. Mind you, this is a publisher
who has barely released anythingfor years since they have since
they've existed. So, you know, we'll, we'll see.
(34:43):
I, I, I'm not super hopeful thatthat's a thing that is actually
going to happen, but but we'll have to wait and see.
So I, I, I, I will not be holding my breath for that.
The Stellar Blade developers in a big kind of their financial
disclosures and they had a presentation where they showed
(35:04):
that they're expecting to launchthe sequel to Stellar Blade
before 2027. So I guess in 2026 that'll be
interesting. So this game, if you remember,
this has been kind of like the gooner bait game.
It it from all accounts are is that the gameplay is
legitimately fun that it's a good kind of not like a souls
(35:25):
game, but maybe a little bit, but more of like an action
oriented 1. You know the story, and I know
this for a fact from watching a bunch of summary videos on and
stuff is hot garbage. The characters are terrible like
it's basically like near automata, like dollar store
version. They they've tried to do
something similar and it's not the most inspiring thing in the
(35:47):
world. I have 0 doubt in my mind that
this is going to be a complete cash grab.
I'm I'm sure it'll have great gameplay and, and, and maybe
even better, right? But the idea of them turn out
another game in a couple of years, I, I wonder how.
I wonder what lies they'll tell about it not being on Xbox next
time. Maybe it'll be an Xbox exclusive
(36:08):
for all we know. What we, we never know where
they're going to go with this stuff.
Or no, that's Woocom, not stellar blade.
Stellar Blade's pretty they're they're clearly an exclusive,
but anyways, like good for them if the I know people are excited
about the PC release of this game so they can do all their
mods. Keep an eye out for that.
Maybe have your not safer work filter on.
(36:30):
And then the final story, which I found to be kind of an
interesting 1 is a SAG AFTRA is suing Fortnite production
company that used an AI to create lines for Darth Vader and
a recent Fortnite update or somenew content.
What's interesting about that isthat James Earl Jones, the voice
actor for Darth Vader, who has passed away, signed over the
(36:55):
rights to Disney to use AI to recreate his voice for future
projects, which I assume was used, you know, the licensee on
that was used here. And so that kind of negates the
lawsuit a little bit. Except I believe that even
though the rights are signed over, I guess there's still
agreements that sag after. I will be notified when that
(37:16):
gets used. So even though they can't stop
them from doing the AI voice, they're still supposed to be
notified or something. I mean, this seems the headline
is what it's all about because the actual workings of it is
just like a procedural dispute. It seems like, you know, again,
Disney and whoever they license it out to are allowed to
(37:38):
recreate James Earl Jones's rendition of Darth Vader however
they want as often as they want forever.
I assume there's some dividends or, you know, some kind of fees
that get paid to James Earl Jones's estate, his family,
whoever's controlling his his properties.
But this was kind of a non story.
But that's OK. As for content updates, I did
(38:04):
open up my new Von Diesel Archive channel on YouTube.
That's where all my live stream videos are going to go.
Vods and and so on. I just, it was cluttering up my
main channel so much I I had to get rid of it.
I am nearing the end of my Mass Effect 3 playthrough, my modded
legendary edition playthrough. I believe I'm getting we're
(38:25):
starting to ran Knock Arc. So if you've played the game,
you know that that's getting towards the end.
I've done most of the side stuffalready.
After that, I don't know what I'm going to play.
I do have a vacation coming up and you know, I'll be busy this
summer doing family stuff, but I'll still make sure.
And you know, we do this podcastand I stream every here and
there. We'll be covering the the big
(38:46):
showcases and all of that for sure.
And I'll try to be doing my gamereviews and impressions and some
game playing all that as I can. So just, you know, kind of keep
an eye out. Oddly, you know, I'll probably
I've been trying to stream more lately, which I've been
relatively successful at. So make sure to go over to
twitch and look for Von Diesel and follow me on there to catch
(39:08):
those. I always love chatting with
people about the podcast or things that are going on or kind
of really anything. So be sure to catch me there.
But yeah, that that's kind of the the content updates for this
one. Nothing super definite besides
that we do have the showcases coming up here very soon.
OK, And that's where we're goingto wrap this episode up.
(39:29):
Thank you so much for listening to this episode.
Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast app, leave a
review on Spotify or iTunes, andsubscribe to the Bond Diesel
YouTube channel to get all of myvideos, including this podcast.
Thank you to everyone who supports as YouTube members and
Twitch subscribers. If you are interested in
(39:50):
supporting this podcast and all of my other content, please
check out the links in the show description.
If you have any other questions or feedback, please hit me up on
the Spotify or YouTube comments,let me know in my Discord, or
hit me up on social media at VonDiesel or at the Bonfire.
That is all I have for this episode of the Bonfire Gaming
(40:13):
Podcast. O until next time.
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