Author: Scott

Sometimes…there’s just nothing to talk about. This is normal for this time of the year. There’s a few of these here and there throughout the year where, well, really nothing is happening. Nothing newsworthy at the moment anyway. Kind of a lull in releases as well.

So we look at our back catalog and, for me, that’s been Red Dead Redemption 2. And while I want more of that, say a third game maybe, we already know Rockstar is working on GTA6. When what they should be working on…is Bully 2.

I say that without ever having played the first game. I only know from the reception the game received to the revival years later and yet again years after that. It’s cyclical but a TON of people look back fondly on that game and wonder if/when we might get another.

Probably never. But Rockstar has surprised me before. Table Tennis, anyone?

Speaking of ‘probably never’ – Ubisoft, it has been 3,618 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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A Long Time Ago…

However many years ago it was when Jedi Fallen Order released. I’ve finally jumped into the game and well, not a lot to complain about from a ever how many years old game but there are some issues. Mainly the map.

I mention this on the show but the level of confusion early on is not so much the getting to a place on a planet but getting BACK from that place. The different paths to take weren’t too bad early on because I didn’t have the abilities to really do any of the branching but as I got more into the game, I’ve opened up paths that have confused me more than giving me a shortcut or new pathways to explore. At this point, I’m actually glad to see a path that moves the story along rather than something that has a collectible or whatever.

Also, the Wookies are nightmare fuel in that game. I hope the sequel did a better job with them.

In other news, well, there isn’t much. Mostly more of the Microsoft/Activision thing and this deal made with Sony for Call Of Duty to stay multi-platform. But really, it was a slow week gaming news wise. Which is fine. There’s always a few lulls during the year between news, releases, and whatever else. This happens to be one of those for the time being. We’ll see what happens next week.

Speaking of waiting for things to happen – Ubisoft, it has been 3,611 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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At long last, that poor dead horse can finally stop being beaten.

Microsoft is now in the clear for buying Activision. This is likely to happen on Monday at some point or that week anyway. It’s going to be very interesting to see what happens from here on out. I mean, Microsoft will still buy more studios (but nothing like this, not 67 BILLION dollars) and they will likely buy them within the year, but this is the big one. The biggest one, really. It’s historic the money being spent here and what’s happening.

While the conversation of courts and stuff will die down, new ones will come about in regards to what will happen with the games of Activision/Blizzard as well as the people there. We’re all expecting Gamepass to explode with more content (I think it’ll be minimal for the most part), it’s likely going to mean that going forward whatever was planned from these studios/publishers will show up on Gamepass and may actually be exclusive – unless deals were already in place.

It’s a bit odd to think that 67 Billion was spent on this deal and the top two game names that come to mind are Call Of Duty and Diablo. I mean, there’s WAY more than that, but it really feels like they spent that much money just to have those two franchises. As big as they are, I suppose.

Anyway, this horse is dead. Bring on the next one.

Oh hey, here’s another dead horse. Ubisoft, it has been 3,604 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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Over the past two weeks I’ve been giving my Xbox console some more love than I usually do. It’s on the big TV and there’s Gamepass so there’s bound to be something worth playing or a lot of somethings, actually.

Turns out while there were a few games there worth my time, I ended up going back to Red Dead Redemption 2. The last save state for that game was from 2018 and for whatever reason this time the game stuck with me and I’ve been moving forward in it daily. Even made it finally to Chapter 3.

There was also Flight Sim. This was something I built my PC for but never got around to playing on PC but thought I would give it a try on console. It blew me away and now, more than ever, I’d finally like to play it on PC.

Speaking of PCs and consoles, we kind of have that discussion here again. And I notice as time goes on the line gets thinner and thinner when it comes to needing to own a console to play certain games. With Sony jumping in to publish on PC, there seems to be only Nintendo left.

Although the mod/emulator community have certainly helped to thin that line as well.

But I’ll play Splinter Cell wherever they decide to release it. If they ever do. Ubisoft, it has been 3,597 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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I really wish they’d spread this out.

I’m speaking mainly of all the reveals, updates, expansions…just all the announcements. Spread out that stuff, please. It’s like overeating at a restaurant or a movie that goes on WAY too long. I know it’s an odd thing to hear, but I’m not asking them to cut back (as helpful as that might be), I’m just asking them to spread it out over the course of the summer or even the month.

It is amazing to see all the games being announced, but it’s overwhelming. By the time I’m done watching the 90 minute presentation, I’ve forgotten about most of the games shown off. This is followed by another 60 to 90 minute presentation. And I’m writing this on a Sunday morning, with 2 more shows today and more coming this week. It’s just…it’s a lot.

And really, I’m only saying this because of ALL the games that kind of fall through the cracks here. Lots of interesting looking games, but they’re either buried under other interesting looking games or aren’t scheduled for release until much later. And, sometimes even worse, they get released now or in the next few days and are buried again under all these other announcements and shows.

I know it sounds like old-man-complaining here, but it’s more about everything being done within a week when there’s a month or two where it can be spread out.

Even still, it is nice to see so many games on the horizon or sooner. And by that I just mean the amount of different types of games to cover all kinds of genres and interests. It doesn’t matter what type of games you like, there is easily something (or multiple somethings) coming soon for you.

This is the part where I continue to count how many days since Ubisoft released a new Splinter Cell game. Keep in mind they are working on what’s been called a remake of the first game and we might actually see that show up this week. But, if it isn’t new, we’re still going to be counting the days. And for now it has been 3,569 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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What do we call this now?

I guess we’re in the E3 season, but we can’t really call it that anymore since E3 is all but dead at this point.

So the new game announcement season? I don’t know what to call it but someone with much more creativity than me will figure it out. And it’ll be simple as hell and staring us in the face the entire time. Whatever it’ll be called, we just got our first taste of it with Sony’s PlayStation Showcase.

It was…okay. I mean, they showed off a lot of new games but how many of those are going to be selling PS5’s? Very few of them we saw were exclusives to the system and even some of them coming from first party studios were also getting PC releases (mostly the live service games we saw). Other than that it was a lot of multiplatform games and Spider-Man. And Spidey didn’t feel like it was moving the needle into killer app territory.

Sony does seem to be putting in a lot of work into the live service game category. Now, I know those will have a PC release as well as a console release and may even get multiplatform releases on the Switch and Xbox, but this wasn’t a move I was expecting from Sony. There were, at the very least, 3 different live service game announcements all from Sony, two or more maybe from first party studios. And I’m not including Destiny in that mix. It remains to be seen how they’ll market those. Free to play? Subscription service? Will we see some sort of Sony storefront on PC or maybe a PC PlayStation Plus, perhaps?

We’ll find out in time, of course, but all in all, it was kind of a weak showing from Sony. Because while there were a lot of games, it was hardly a handful that Sony could claim as their own and point to for a reason to buy their system. Not that I’ve got much faith in Microsoft either, but that’s coming in the next few days and, well, they’ve got Starfield so…yeah.

None of them, however, have Splinter Cell because it has been 3,562 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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Freedom isn’t free.

The new Zelda game is just running rampant across the internet, gaming news, reviews, whatever…it’s all over the place and a LOT of people are playing and enjoying it. I’m highly tempted to join them, except, and this is weird, I’m kind of intimidated by it.

Open world games are a wonderful concept. Giving the player the freedom to do whatever they want in the game. Even more so in Zelda with the construction/build aspect. Except that large open world games kind of make me a bit nervous. When it’s vastly open as with Zelda or maybe Elden Ring, I get a bit overwhelmed by my options and tend to turn off the game. Maybe it’s the thought of starting the journey that gets me, I’m not sure, but with no sign pointing me to a direction I tend to feel lost.

In fact, thinking about it now, I’m almost sure it’s the start that gets me. That small bump in the road of where to go and what to do, the lack of restraints keeping me from doing whatever I want without following the main story line, it’s all a bit jarring at the outset – for me.

But Zelda, like Elden Ring, is really REALLY big. And I haven’t played either of these games, I just know the incredible size of their maps and I know how I play open world, well…ANY game, for that matter. I cover every possible inch I am able. Which can also be a point of concern when starting out one of these things knowing how I approach them. The last Zelda game I played (at least up to the final boss) was Wind Waker. And I know the time that took me and how much I explored.

But I loved it. And I’m sure, once I eventually get started and settled into it, I’ll be just as in love with this Zelda game as that one. I’m looking forward to it, even if it’s with a little hesitation knowing what I’m getting myself into.

Speaking of looking forward to things I love…Ubisoft, it has been 3,548 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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A PC in every port(able).

A year ago if you told me that a year from then we’d have competing PC handhelds, I don’t think I would have believed you. When the Steam Deck launched I didn’t see or hear of any competitors around the corner for Valve. It was just them.

A year (and some months) later and we’ve got our second one about to hit the store shelves. And I think there’s about 2 or 3 more just on the horizon to be released. And better yet, they all have something to offer that’s different from each other. They aren’t carbon copies of any one system and they all do what they do in different ways. And better still, none of them, for the most part, seem to really be skimping on how they deliver a really good gaming experience on their device. At least from the reviews and previews of what’s available.

And really, all this means is that over the coming years you’re going to hear of improvements and updates to the existing hardware and better releases of the next version of every one of these that stick around long enough (and are successful enough) to make. This is great news for any of us interested in these PC gaming handhelds.

More so, if you never jumped into the PC gaming space because of what it took to build or just outright buy your own machine, a lot of these are a great secondary choice of doing just that. Although I’d argue that some of the pricing on these devices could warrant a better desktop PC than a handheld (even a laptop in some cases), but that’s totally up to you on that.

It’s already great that I have a Steam Deck where I can play a portable (but old) Splinter Cell. Still, Ubisoft, I’d really like a new one to play on-the-go. It has been 3,541 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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Redfall. More like Redfail…

That’s a bad joke. There’s really no reason for dogpiling on the game at this point. The whole thing is bad and you don’t have to look for very long to see that in the reviews.

But I am ALL KINDS of curious as to how it got here. From a studio that has had its share of successes and back to back to back at that – what went wrong?

How did it get through testing? How did it get through any sort of Microsoft quality assurance or whatever they may have. How do you have a game from this studio slip through the cracks like this? It doesn’t feel rushed. This doesn’t seem like a game that was running on hype or anticipation, so I can’t figure they wanted to get it released as soon as possible.

Quality control is my big question here. Especially given the video reviews I’ve seen of how badly it controls, and how sparse the areas are of enemies at times. Look, it’s not the biggest failure of a game. I’m quite sure there’s some real champs that outshine this particular game, but it’s usually from a first-time studio. Not a company that’s put out bangers time and time again.

I don’t know if we’ll ever know the real reason, but I do hope they are able to fix this or do something to get this game to the polished shine they’d like it to be. I’d love another success story like Hello Games with No Man’s Sky. I hope we get that.

But I really, REALLY, want to know how we got here to begin with.

This is normally where I connect what was written above to something about Splinter Cell, but I’m not able to find that bridge at the moment. So yeah, blah blah blah… Ubisoft, it has been 3,534 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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Microsoft really wants to spend A LOT of money.

But that’s actually on brand for them, however. The odd part of this whole MS buying Activision thing is the decision of the UK to not let it go forward. And to dig a bit further, it’s their reasoning for it: the cloud.

It’s so kind of out there in that decision that it almost seems a bit suspect. Or at least that someone has an odd perception of cloud gaming to think this purchase would be bad for it. I mean, essentially they’re saying it’s perfectly fine for MS to buy Activision for physical games and mobile games and every kind of gaming you can think of EXCEPT…the cloud.

Huh?

And maybe I’m oversimplifying it or, more likely, don’t know exactly what I’m talking about, but it is still really strange. And this issue with the cloud part of things totally holds off MS from buying Activision at all.

I’m either/or on the decision here to purchase Activision. I don’t feel like it’ll affect me in any way and I don’t see it as having a negative impact for consumers. Maybe other companies, but, as we’ve said before, Sony seems to only be concerned over Call Of Duty and seems to be the only company I know of who are really pushing against this purchase.

Someone should buy Ubisoft and then finally make…you know, a Splinter Cell game. It has been 3,527 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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How realistic do you want your games?

I’m kind of torn on this a little bit. On the one hand, I’m completely fascinated with how ultra/hyper/photo realistic we can make a game look or play. On the other hand, I’m perfectly fine with a game looking, well…like a game. Something you don’t have to question when you see it that it’s a video game.

That isn’t to say I don’t want us to advance the tech and the tricks behind them, but, I dunno, maybe give me an ultra/hyper/photo realistic city builder, or a platformer.

Giving me all of that realism and making it a shooter, like with Unrecord (give it a google if you haven’t seen it yet), kinda puts me off of it. Fascinated as hell by the tech behind what I’m seeing but I think, for me, there’s a line in the realism of my video games, and it’s a combination of looking incredibly real and the kind of gameplay you’re going to mix with that.

Feel free to keep your ultra/hyper/photo realistic Splinter Cell game. Stealth games like that already get my anxiety going and I don’t need it to feel real. Not that I need to worry because, well, Ubisoft…it has been 3,520 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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Just as a heads up, there will be no new episode next weekend. We’ll be back in two weeks.

I’m really having a hard time coming up with something to talk about here in regards to the show. We went in so many different directions that it’s a little troublesome to focus on just one thing.

To sort of cover them all a little bit would be to say that we talked about retro gaming, but also retro storage as well. And we venture into the past during a time when we would spend thirty bucks or so…on a screensaver. We talk about RE4, emulation, and the Steam Deck. In fact, we talk about handhelds a lot given we got new ones from ASUS on the way as well as, possibly, from Sony too.

Speaking of Sony, we dive back into the whole Microsoft/Sony/Activision weird love/hate triangle going on there. Mostly thankful that we’ll be done talking about this after this month. Well, maybe not done, but at least it’ll be decided and none of the back and forth will matter after that.

We DID NOT talk about a new Splinter Cell game. Mostly because, well, Ubisoft…it has been 3,506 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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