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Season 18, Episode 10

I really do miss arcades. I know they still exist in some form or another but, even now, they just can’t hold a candle to the arcade you can have at home. And I’m not even talking about building cabinets and such.

We talk about this on the show but I’ll say it again here – arcades, as a kid, were like walking into the future. You had your games at home, sure, but they were nothing like what was in that arcade. That’s where the most advanced tech was. The best graphics and games you’ll NEVER get to play at home. Only at the arcade.

That’s how it was for me, anyway. Then it all changed and morphed and sort of went backwards. I’ll give credit to the arcade/bar synergy thing that happened, but I don’t run around those places wide-eyed at all the cool games like I did way back when. Now I look for whatever will give me the most redeemable tickets…or pinball. And that’s only if I make it out to an arcade to begin with. Not everyone has those places within reach and mostly, if you do, it’s full of just redemption games. Actually, it’s been forever since I’ve been into any local arcades here so I don’t know what they stock them with now.

Given the way technology is going and how great we have it at home, we’ll likely never see arcades be, to me, what they once were. And I’m okay with that. I absolutely love what we have at home on our consoles and PCs and handhelds. I also love that we can bring over most of everything we had at arcades into our home with custom built cabinets housing hundreds of games and even pinball tables too.

Which reminds me, I need to really work on building those two things, actually.

You can probably easily spot the transition here. You know what else used to be great but is not a ghost town of nothing – the Splinter Cell franchise. Ubisoft, it’s been 3,843 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released.

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Season 18, Episode 09

The amount of people losing their jobs in this industry is staggering. I don’t have an exact number but it’s likely pushing into the five figure range. If you combine it with last year’s loss you’re easily over ten thousand jobs.

And I wasn’t sure if I would use this as a topic to talk about it, but just as much as I did on the show, I don’t have any kind of an answer for it. Smarter business decisions, sure, but I don’t know that it would have helped much. With each new game (mostly the upper triple A type games) that pulls in tons of awards and accolades, I wonder how much was spent to develop and then market that game. This hobby for us is expensive for them. Making a new console is the expectancy of a loss of revenue out of the gate. Making a new game for that console is also a MASSIVE money sink. And the marketing for both is just a deeper hole.

The cycle was that after a game would release you would then lose a good chunk of the dev staff as they were brought on almost like contractors to help with development. Once the game was released, so were they. But that’s not what has been happening lately. Game sales haven’t really slowed down but the cost to make them has completely gone up. And one solution to bridging that gap is an increase in the cost of the game to the consumer. But there’s likely a limit to that. I’d say the current $70 is probably close to that limit. But I will not be surprised when this massively developed game of some sort releases at a base price of $99.

Like I said earlier, I don’t have a solution for this. And there are probably darker days ahead for the people working in the gaming industry. There’s a domino effect here and they only just started falling over.

There’s no way for me to tie this subject matter into my usual Splinter Cell closing. There is a remake on the way and I hope that can produce enough revenue to bring about a brand new game. But, in keeping with tradition, Ubisoft, it’s been 3,836 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released.

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Season 18, Episode 08

Pick a card…

Once this gets posted around everywhere, I plan on streaming for the first time in a while and it’s a game we talk about in the opening segment of the show. A little card game called Balatro.

The idea to stream it came to me as I was trying to explain it on the air and just figured streaming would be an easier way to show you how it plays. I may dip back into some pinball today as well – just for nostalgia sake. Maybe.

But that’s about today, what did we talk about on the show? Well, not really one specific thing after trying to explain Balatro. We covered Nintendo’s dev showcase thing they did earlier this week with not much to mention from that. There’s also the Elden Ring DLC but, again, not much to mention from that.

Then there’s the position Sony is sitting in. With no new franchise games being released until the midway to latter half of next year, what are they gonna do? My guess, given that GTA6 is coming next spring, is that we’ll get our midway revamp of the PS5 sometime this fall. GTA6 will not get a release on the previous generation consoles so those who want to play it are going to need to have a Series X or a PS5. And that game WILL absolutely move console sales. Having yours out there touting the best on the market is probably a good way to get that system sold for that specific game. And I don’t think Microsoft has any plans to release a Series X.5 just yet.

Something else with no plans of a release anytime soon…is Splinter Cell. Ubisoft, it’s been 3,822 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released.

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Season 18, Episode 07

Cool. Cool Cool Cool.

The PC is running again and not having any overheating issues as before. Totally something borked with the AIO. I do NOT recommend the Lian Li Galahad AIO (at least anything from 2021 or before). They actually discovered a manufacturer error in the build so avoid those AIO’s from the years mentioned. I have no idea how they perform since then and they’ve made quite a few advancements so, who knows?

As for gaming, it’s been a low key week for myself, personally, just because of the PC issues I was having. Now that it’s all fixed I plan to dive into a lot of demos from the Next Fest that happened last week (if they still work) and put more time into Baldur’s Gate or, maybe, jump into Helldivers 2 since that seems to be the big thing at the moment and may actually scratch my Destiny itch.

As for this episode, we talked about my AIO issues but also all the news from Xbox and Playstation this week. Xbox expanding their exclusives outside of their ecosystem and Sony dialing it back on what to expect from Playstation in the coming wee…mont…well, year, actually.

But you know what could immediately fix that for Sony? Splinter Cell.

Ubisoft, it’s been 3,815 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released.

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Season 18, Episode 06

Our apologies for the tardiness of this post and the complete lack of a video to accompany it.

I’ve recently run into computer issues so, for now, you’ll only be getting the audio portion of the show. I’ve got all the video stuff saved and ready to go, it’s just going to have to wait for now. We talk about the issues in this episode and, honestly, it has dominated my thoughts over the last few days.

That’s mainly because I can’t really do anything with my PC outside of maybe browsing a tab or two on google and some work related things. Gaming is, sadly, off the table for now. I’ll know in a few days when the replacement gets here but it seems to involve the CPU cooler. It’s an AIO and I hope to have more info to you by the time the next episode comes around – it’s a whole process with RMA and what not.

In the meantime, I got to spend a very short amount of time with some Steam Next Fest demos. And now I get to really put in some work on the steam deck and the consoles given they’re the only way I can game on anything currently. Hell, I’m even writing this on a laptop so I can spend as little time as possible with my main PC on and running.

Yes. It has gotten that bad.

Oh well, the waiting never ends.

Speaking of waiting, and waiting, and waiting…Ubisoft, it’s been 3,808 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released.

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Season 18, Episode 05

https://youtu.be/07uOOjV37PA

Lead me not into temptation…

The amount of times I have said that to myself in relation to gaming. I’m currently being lulled into the new Rocksteady game. I shouldn’t be, but I am. After seeing so many previews of the game leading up to this release I was NOT on board for it. I had no interest and was pretty sad that Rocksteady had gone in this direction and just didn’t stick to Batman.

But I get being tired of doing the same thing over and over again and we should applaud risks – especially in gaming where a lot of the time we get more of the same. And there’s a place for that and other teams who can work on that, but you’ve got to branch out and try something new. I think Rocksteady were doing that, but Warner stepped in and told them they could but it needed to be wrapped up in a DC comics skin.

Regardless, after launching and reading forum posts of people who’ve played it, I find myself falling for their hype. Hype anywhere else for this game is nonexistent. Reviews are tanking it (although I’m about to give the Digital Foundry video a look) and most other people who haven’t actually played the game are crapping on it as well. Still, I look to the folks who have actually played it and I’m not getting the stink like I am from everyone else.

There could be something there. Something fun for a little while at least, but something that, for me at the moment, isn’t worth the SEVENTY dollar price tag they want. You take thirty bucks off that and I’m probably in. Maybe. Perhaps. Possibly.

One game I’m certain I won’t wait for a sale on is Splinter Cell. Ubisoft, it’s been 3,801 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released.

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Season 18, Episode 04

A copy of a copy of a copy.

Palworld is, probably, not my thing. There are some aspects to it that I’m totally interested in. The idea of crafting materials on this assembly line like system with the Pals you capture in game. It almost looks “city builder”-ish, in a way.

That and flying around on one of your Pals is the only thing drawing me in that might, and it’s a very big MIGHT, get me into the game. But it’s gotta do a lot more than that for $30.

The reason there is any draw at all is just how massive this game has become over the course of a single week. It has exploded everywhere. Not just as a game a bunch of people are playing but the discussion around it and what it’s doing is leading the conversation. Especially where copyright and AI are concerned at this point.

Thing is, either Nintendo is gathering material for a lawsuit, or they’ve already looked at it and decided otherwise. I can’t figure any other way as to why it has taken so long for Nintendo to even say anything about this.

Then again, Square’s getting away with Foamstars so I guess anything’s possible if you change it just ever so slightly. That and the amount of people playing Palworld right now is not the number of people you want mad at your brand because you took something away from them.

After all, Ubisoft took away Splinter Cell. It’s been 3,794 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released.

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Season 18, Episode 03

The things you own end up owning you.

Recently the guy at Ubisoft in charge of their subscription service said that he hopes gamers can come to terms with not owning their games the same way we do with music and movies now. Where we own them digitally. Of course the guy in charge of a digital subscription service would say such a thing.

Physical media is still a thing. Even so much so that physical media on its way out has resurged and become a thing again (vinyl albums). I don’t know that we’ll ever see an all digital future (in my lifetime, I suppose). Where nothing is physical except the boxes that allow us to enjoy our digital purchases.
Then again, maybe it’s sooner than I think if more and more titles decide to go the all-digital route (Alan Wake 2 and now Hellblade 2).

For me, I go where the price is cheapest. And they’ve yet to really nail that down in most cases to where digital is more enticing than physical. They do not incentivize it at all. In fact, it feels almost the opposite in some cases.

My Steam library begs to differ, however.

Regardless of whether I own it (physically) or not (digitally), I’m still waiting on Splinter Cell. Ubisoft, it’s been 3,786 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released.

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Season 18, Episode 02

Where dice flows like water…

Oftentimes we’ll talk about mobile games. It’s not a genre many of us are familiar with. Mostly the games I play on mobile are quick little things I can get in and out of. However, mobile gaming year over year has DOMINATED the gaming market.

It’s easy to see why with almost any mobile game you download. There’s not an entirely free one among them that doesn’t offer some way for you to spend money on some aspect of it. A lot of them are pretty benign about it. But most of them will never stop reminding you and even bake it into the gameplay near forcing you to give them money. But always remember: NEVER GIVE THEM MONEY.

The game already hooked you into playing it somehow so don’t let them hook you again when you spend money on it. It is one of the worst of slippery slopes. If the game isn’t fun unless you’re spending money on it then delete the game.
I get it. This is coming off more like a lecture than a show post but it’s more just something to keep in mind. Like when we’ve talked about video game trailers – whatever you’re seeing is meant to sell the game to you. The editing of the trailer, the music, the visuals – remember that you’re watching a sales pitch. Keep that in mind when you think back on a trailer you were excited for but didn’t see any gameplay. Always look for the actual gameplay. Except with mobile gaming, the entire game you’re playing is a sales pitch to spend more money on it.

By the way, keep all this in mind when Suicide Squad launches in February. That whole thing followed the trailer example above and probably will follow the mobile examples when it launches.

Something I am willing to throw money at, however, is a new Splinter Cell game. Ubisoft, it’s been 3,779 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released.

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Season 18, Episode 01

Welcome to Season 18!

Right out of the gate we jump into the whole situation that happened right after we finished shows for the year – the Insomniac situation. We could have made this the whole show, to be honest, and I don’t think we’re done discussing what was released. This is information we don’t normally get but always talk about wishing we could get our hands on. I don’t mean the leaks of game footage or even upcoming titles. I’m talking about the numbers. The contracts. The inner thoughts of a studio or (and the one I’m more interested in) the publisher – that being Sony.

We also cover what we’ve played over the past two weeks (or longer in some of our cases) and what we picked up during the sales and over the holidays.

Here’s to a new season and a new year! Maybe this will be the year we’ll get a new Splinter Cell. Ubisoft, it’s been 3,772 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released.

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Season 17, Episode 42

Welcome to the final show of the year. While normally this is where I tell you a bit of what we talked about and maybe go a little more into the topic, I’d rather use this time to tell you how much we appreciate you.

We’re going into our 18th year of doing this show. And we absolutely could not be doing that without your tremendous support and loyalty. And it doesn’t matter if you’ve only just started listening, catch it from time to time, or show up every single weekend – we appreciate all of you who support us and listen.

We’re coming back after the first of the year and we hope to see you there with us again.

To all of you reading this now, we want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year to come.

Thank you, all of you, for listening.

Maybe next year we’ll get a new Splinter Cell. Ubisoft, it’s been 3,751 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released.

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Season 17, Episode 41

Another awards show in the books for gaming.

Another lengthy list of issues but also game reveals as well. We give you a pretty good run down in this episode, not that you likely haven’t already seen the highlights. Or maybe read the complaints as well. We try to cover all of that as we usually do, but at this point it’s becoming the old broken record playing the same song over and over.

If they actually did an awards show for gaming that was the length of this thing and never showed off a single new game and just gave out awards, I would still be glued to it and taking notes. With likely a lot more positive things to say than negative as is the case when they keep doing it this way.
Honestly, they’ll never get it right as long as they keep trying to be two things at the same time. A place to showcase new games/reveals and an awards show. Mixing the two doesn’t help either one. Though it isn’t an equal mix by far. Near 90 to 95 percent is game reveals and trailers. And don’t think the other 5 to 10 goes to the awards because there’s also ads and music performances.

Look, having anything at all is better than nothing, I guess. I just wish that if you’re going to have the word “awards” in your title that there actually be awards. If you’re going to tout celebrating the creatives of the industry that you actually do that. Otherwise, just call it Winter Games Fest and move on.

Speaking of moving on, I haven’t. I’m still waiting for a new Splinter Cell. Ubisoft, it’s been 3,744 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released.

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Season 17, Episode 40

Brace yourself…cringey awards and a MASSIVE amount of game reveals are happening this week. Including GTA 6, finally. Honestly almost feels like a snub to that awards show happening two days later. I’m curious how much thunder it steals.

As for this week, we’re not really going over our Black Friday hauls because there were none. It wasn’t the greatest of deals to be had out there, and that’s overall. Not just for our gaming tastes.

While these past two weeks may have been somewhat sparse on news stories, I refer you back to the opening of this post as to what’s in store for next week’s episode. There’s only two shows left in the year!

Sure would be really nice to get a Splinter Cell reveal at the game awards. We won’t, but it sure would be nice. Ubisoft, it’s been 3,737 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released.

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Season 17, Episode 39

As a reminder we will not be doing a show next week due to the holiday weekend here in the states.

Speaking of that holiday weekend, Black Friday this year seems to have been a bust. Between the end of this episode and this post going up, Target released a few more BF deals but most were quickly gobbled up and are currently awaiting a re-stock.

The bust I’m talking about isn’t that everything is already taken but that the deals this year haven’t been great. Not where gaming is concerned. I haven’t really looked over much else. Movies have a great discount and there’s some HDD/SSD deals here and there be it for your PC or console. Also, if you’re looking to get a Series X console then you’ve got some really great options. Overall, however, it’s been lacking in really great deals for just the games themselves. Maybe the steam sale will freshen things up a bit.

We hope you have a great holiday weekend and as this one is about giving thanks, we’d like to thank all of you for so many years of continued support. You keep showing up to the live shows, keep watching the videos and keep downloading the podcast. We really do appreciate you more than you could ever know.

We’d also really appreciate it if Ubisoft would finally release a new Splinter Cell game. Ubisoft, it’s been 3,723 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released.

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Season 17, Episode 38

I was surprised by the Steam Deck refresh. Well, not surprised by the fact it exists, but just how…out of nowhere it came. Seems Valve is REALLY good at keeping their own stuff under wraps. It’s also not a bad upgrade.

I remember the Deck being compared a lot to the Switch initially. But I don’t think anyone is making that comparison anymore, but if I could – the Deck, like the Switch, got a mid-generation upgrade (even though it feels way too early to say this is middle anything for the Deck) by adding in an OLED screen. Just like the Switch. But that’s where the comparisons end. The Switch just changed out the screen and maybe one or two tiny little differences. The Deck, on the other hand, changed out the screen but lowered the weight, increased the battery life, updated the WiFi, improved the audio, etc. It feels like a better 1.5 than what the Switch did. In fact, it’s a better mid-gen refresh than most anything of what the consoles do.

But I already own a Steam Deck. And I’m fine with that. I’m glad this new version exists and it’s a good sign for whatever’s to come from Valve when they get around to the Deck 2. Although, given how surprising this was, that might be next year, who knows?

I’m almost certain, however, that whenever the Deck 2 releases, we’ll still be waiting on Splinter Cell. Ubisoft, it’s been 3,716 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released.