Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced Reveal Reaction - Kinda Funny Games Daily 04.23.26

Summary

Kinda Funny Games Daily Podcast Summary

Episode Title: Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced Reveal Reaction
Date: April 23, 2026
Hosts: Snowbike Mike, Roger Piccor, Barrett Courtney
Main Theme: Deep dive discussion and first-reaction impressions to the reveal of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, followed by broader industry news including AI use in game dev, Mass Effect’s ongoing silence, upcoming orbital co-op puzzler gameplay, and a lightning round of the day’s smaller news.

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Episode Overview

On this energetic Thursday, the hosts focus on Ubisoft’s reveal of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced, offering both a live trailer reaction and an in-depth discussion about what’s changing in the remake and what it means for fans—old and new. Elsewhere, the crew discusses the rising presence of AI in AAA studios, BioWare’s ongoing silence on Mass Effect updates, early gameplay for indie co-op game Orbitals, and a “Wee News” roundup of smaller but notable stories. The tone is lively, humorous, and occasionally introspective as hosts share both excitement and skepticism about where the games industry is headed.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced – Reveal & Reactions

[09:22–25:38]

• Live Trailer Reaction (09:22–11:24):
  The crew watches the newly released game overview, immediately impressed by the graphical upgrades.
  • Roger: “Looks exactly like how I imagined this game looked as a kid… when I was playing on the PS4.”—[11:24]
  • Mike: “God, you play as Captain Edward Kenway, a rebellious scoundrel eager to make a name for himself…”—[10:41]
• Major Changes Summarized (11:34–14:28):
  Summarizes IGN coverage by Tom Phillips. Key changes:
  • Purely single-player focus: No multiplayer, no Freedom Cry DLC, and modern day ‘Abstergo’ segments removed.
  • New story content: Additional missions and characters like Blackbeard and Stead Bonnet.
  • Combat and gameplay updates: Modernized with a parry-focused system, improvements to parkour, eavesdrop missions no longer auto-fail, and new Jackdaw cannon upgrades.
  • $60 price point rather than a new-gen $70.
• Balance of Old and New (14:28–17:04):
  • Roger: Praises Ubisoft for not “shoehorning” in RPG systems. Appreciates a refined version of the classic formula.
  • Mike: Glad eavesdrop missions won’t be as frustrating; wishes the Freedom Cry DLC was included.
  • Barrett: Adds his playtest impressions—admires modernization but expects the heart of the original is maintained; excited but cautious about changes to pacing, modern day content, and new Jackdaw character recruits.
• Audience Reaction / Expectation (20:24–25:38):
  • Black Flag’s popularity—over 34 million players as of its 10-year anniversary (2023).
  • Discussion about whether the remake will draw old and new fans; nostalgia is expected to play a huge role.
  • Addressing Black Flag’s historic pacing and repetition. Barrett hopes new features and recruitable crew will reduce monotony; new sea shanties are especially exciting (“Anytime I hear that song, I want to cry.”—[24:15])

Notable Quotes:

• Mike: “Nostalgia wins, right? Always.”—[20:58]
• Barrett: “Seeing a really pretty version of that today with some slight adjustments, it’s… a cool way to preserve one of the most beloved games in the series.”—[16:27]
• Roger: “Look at that detail right there. Rebuilt from the ground up to deliver the most thrilling pirate adventure.”—[10:11]

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2. AI in Game Development – Industry Openness and Controversy

[27:51–41:49]

• Google Cloud Exec Interview (27:51–31:50)
  • Jack Buser claims “almost every” big studio is using AI tools, but many avoid publicizing it due to expected backlash.
  • Capcom cited as using Google’s AI for “low value assets” (e.g., environment details) while concentrating artist effort on main characters and key assets.
• Host Commentary:
  • Roger acknowledges this is credible—AI use is increasingly mandated in tech and gaming. Emphasizes this often means fewer jobs for humans.
  • Mike: “The divisive side is cutting jobs… trying to cut every dollar and save every penny. So the share price goes up and the shareholders are happy, right? That’s the divisive side. We’re not happy with that.” [34:18]
  • Roger: “You can’t just be like, we’re gonna type in ‘pebbles’ into Nano Banana and get the right pebbles… all of this is cohesiveness when it comes to art. You have to have an artist’s touch.”—[35:12]
• General Audience Awareness / Pushback:
  • Hosts debate when/if the wider gaming audience will care about AI-generated content. Roger predicts a “cultural revolt” when AI-generated media feels ‘hollow’ compared to genuine human art.
  • Barrett: “Are we talking to the people actually making the games, or to the execs and investor types?”—[58:16]

Memorable Moment:

• Roger: “You can’t put the genie back in the bottle. But I do think there will be a cultural revolt where it’s really cool to make things with your hands and your minds…”—[40:49]

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3. Mass Effect Update – Continued Silence from BioWare

[41:49–46:27]

• Michael Gamble (BioWare EP) again confirms: Mass Effect development heads-down, nothing to show; not prioritizing teasers.
• Hosts acknowledge fan thirst and high expectations for the next entry, given the letdown of Andromeda and BioWare’s recent struggles.
• Predictions for Reveal:
  • Roger bets the earliest we’ll see anything substantive is late 2027 (likely at Summer Game Fest/TGA), with a possible 2028 release.
  • Mike predicts a “small pizza bet” that there will at least be in-game visual tease on N7 Day 2026, but admits it could just be a screenshot.

Notable Quote:

• Mike: “Give me something juicy. Let me obsess over something, Michael, help me out.”—[43:35]

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4. Orbitals Gameplay Reveal – Indie Co-op Space Adventure

[46:54–50:40]

• The team watches and reacts live to the new gameplay breakdown for Orbitals, an upcoming anime-style space co-op puzzle game.
• Impressions:
  • Beautiful art style, “old school 90s anime aesthetic.”
  • Core gameplay focuses on co-op problem solving—working in tandem to achieve goals, clever puzzles, and tool combinations.
  • Positive preview buzz; slight concerns about frame rate or resolution, though possibly just compression.
  • Mike jokes about personal loneliness—playing co-op games with “one man, two controllers.”
• Release:
  • Launches Summer 2026, with hopes for a “shadow drop” on a future Nintendo Direct.

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5. Wee News – Quick Hits

[50:51–52:34]

• Annapurna ports for Nintendo Switch 2:
  • Stray (May 28), To a T (June 11), Wanderstop (June 28).
  • Sayonara Wild Hearts and Lorelei and the Laser Eyes available now.
• Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream tops Japanese charts with 565K+ sold.
• Crimson Desert patch 1.04 out, adds difficulty options and new features.

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6. Super Chat Highlights & Community Q/A

[52:54–59:41]

• Viewers react hype for Barrett’s new video essay (“They Want You To Fight Back”; covers Metaphor ReFantazio, Hollow Knight Silksong, and more—[07:20]).
• Continued pirate fandom: “People are into the pirate adventure right now, man. And I think, like, Black Flag coming out right now is like, almost like a perfect time.”—Barrett, [24:22]
• AC fans request remakes of earlier titles (Assassin’s Creed 1–3).
• Fun tangents on One Piece, Queen Latifah in Sayonara Wild Hearts, and the nuances of shanty DLC.
• Community skepticism on AI: “Google’s statement is self-serving. We have more games yearly than we can play; we don’t need AI for more quantity.”—[59:24]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps):

• “[Black Flag Resynced] looks exactly like what I want, how I imagined this game used to look like when I was a kid.” —Roger, [11:24]
• “Nostalgia wins, right? Always.” —Mike, [20:58]
• “Anytime I hear that [shanty] song, I want to cry.” —Barrett, [24:15]
• “You can’t just be like, we’re gonna type in ‘pebbles’ into Nano Banana and get the right pebbles… all of this is cohesiveness when it comes to art.” —Roger, [35:12]
• “I want great games. I don’t want some crap game that you tested and thought, ‘oh, maybe Mike will spend $40 on this.’”—Mike, [34:18]
• “You can’t put the genie back in the bottle. But I do think there will be a cultural revolt.” —Roger, [40:49]

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Timestamps for Important Segments:

• [09:22] – Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced trailer + main reveal
• [14:28] – Ubisoft’s focus and what’s cut/added
• [16:27] – Barrett’s hands-on impressions
• [20:24] – Black Flag’s legacy and 34M player milestone
• [27:51] – AI in AAA studios industry discussion
• [34:18] – The ethics/impact of AI in development
• [41:49] – Mass Effect: why no updates/expectation management
• [46:54] – Orbitals gameplay reveal impressions
• [50:51] – Wee News quick hits (Annapurna ports, Tomodachi, Crimson Desert)
• [52:54] – Community super chats and Q&A

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Summary for First-Time Listeners

The April 23, 2026 episode is a must-listen for Assassin’s Creed fans—offering not just surface-level hype but real discussion around what’s changing (and what’s missing) in Black Flag Resynced, plugged into the broader context of Ubisoft’s evolving strategy. The hosts blend their trademark humor and personal stories with industry-savvy skepticism, especially regarding game industry’s silent (and not-so-silent) adoption of AI tools and its effect on game creators.

Between coverage of big franchises (Assassin’s Creed, Mass Effect), spotlighting promising indies (Orbitals), and keeping a finger on the news pulse, Kinda Funny Games Daily provides sharp, personable, and opinionated conversation sure to resonate with both diehard and casual gamers.

Transcript

[Roger]

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[Roger]

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[Mike]

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[Roger]

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[Mike]

Degree in Nursing program that prepares you to become a registered nurse. Take the first step toward your nursing career. Save your spot [e-mail] events. For information on program outcomes, visit carrington.edu sci. Buy one prescription pair and get 20 off any additional prescription [e-mail] kindafunny if you want to get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows go to patreon.com kindafunny Today's gaming news stories include Assassin's Creed, Black Flag Resynced has been revealed Most big game companies are allegedly using AI and Mass Effect dev. Explains why why they've been so silent. We'll have all this and more because this is Kind of Funny Games Daily. Welcome to Kind of Funny Games daily for Thursday, April 23rd.

[Roger]

A little early.

[Mike]

I never know if right there they can hear my microphone or not.

[Roger]

They can't.

[Mike]

So you got to wait for the camera to turn on. Yeah, what's up everybody? Kind of Funny Games daily for Thursday, April 23rd, 2026, I'm one of your show host Snowbike Mike. And today I'm joined by my 1.1 you gonna be my number one Roger Piccor.

[Roger]

Feeling good, Mikey.

[Mike]

Look. Hey, big Rog, how are you?

[Roger]

I'm feeling great, man. It's a big one today. Lot of, lot of good content today.

[Mike]

We have great content.

[Roger]

Probably the best game Z ever made. I can tell you right now.

[Mike]

Okay.

[Roger]

It's one of the goats right now

[Mike]

we're talking about AI. So we'll see how that goes.

[Roger]

Yeah, I mean that's every episode now then we have of course the games cast which is going to be Elden Ring casting that. Then of course after that we're. We have the in review. What was it? That's the name of the Lord of the Rings.

[Mike]

Two towers.

[Roger]

Two towers.

[Mike]

All time classic banger.

[Roger]

And then of course Mikey, tell him what is the party mode? Not the party mode.

[Mike]

Shafter and the crew from Double Finer coming into the building to play the hit multiplayer online party party brawler with Snow Mike. Mike and Andy Cortez. I'm so pumped to play kiln once again. I played the open beta. I got lost in the pottery. Wow. I had so much fun that we're going to go right back to it. We're going to bring in Tim Schaefer and the crew, ask all the questions, play the game, get real creative.

[Roger]

Hell yeah. I'm excited to be a big one today. Why the fuck did you bring this?

[Mike]

I got a little show and tell.

[Roger]

You know a lot of.

[Mike]

I like the opening show. I know a lot of people like we got to cut down on the opening show but I like to get it out because I don't talk with my friends here at kind of fight. I don't get to talk to you, the audience out there about enough of my life. And right now, Roger, I'm in two things. One, I'm in a Z hole, okay. I'm deep into Zelda games right now. Chat. I've played two Zelda games back to back. Ocarina of Time and Majora's Master completed both of them.

[Roger]

Wow. Congratulations.

[Mike]

Changed my life, Mikey. Changed my life, everyone.

[Barrett Courtney]

Not to ruin possible future content, but which one over the other?

[Mike]

Yo, this Majora's Mask game is really good. Chat. This Ocarina of Time has got the dorf and the master sword. A lot of conversation to be had. We'll see. I'm going to save it for maybe when Tim gets back. And so I'm deep into Zelda I'm deciding, do I continue, go to Wind Waker, maybe Twilight Princess? Do I keep playing it? Or am I onto something else? And then also there's always another part of me, Roger, because every single day I think about Warcraft 3. Every single day, I think about my beloved RTS game coming in the Battle chest, and I just think about the Goat. One of the greatest games of all time. As Blizzard celebrates 35 years. I think, man, this game really shaped my gaming life and I just wanted to like, share it with everybody out there. Did I buy these on ebay? Yeah, I bought them.

[Roger]

Okay. Okay, cool. Your life is. You have so much shit on your desk at all times.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah.

[Roger]

That I just thought this was here for like four years and then you just have randomly were like, hey, this is the day I'm going to show it off to everybody.

[Mike]

And so like, the cool part about Warcraft 3 on the PC boxes in particular, Roger, is they have all four of the races in game here. So I got to get the Night Elf one and I got to get the undead box to complete my sets.

[Roger]

Okay.

[Mike]

Pretty sick, right?

[Roger]

Pretty cool.

[Barrett Courtney]

I know.

[Mike]

Thank you.

[Roger]

I mean, next time we do kfg, I will bring all of my Splinter Cell games and we will do the same thing, but in reverse.

[Mike]

Thanks, Roger. I would love that. I'm going to leave those up there just for funies. Just to let everybody know I'm thinking about you every single day. Every day for the Horde. Now, Roger, I've been signed out of my Google account, of course, right as the show starts. You knew it was going to happen. So, Roger, I think we have a really fun thing to promote as we get in to the nerdy news that everybody needs to know about. Can you. Can you please tell everybody what we're promoting this week on Blue Sky? Because I think my good friend Barrett Courtney has a big announcement.

[Roger]

Yeah, Barrett. I mean, honestly, let's just let Barrett.

[Mike]

Okay, Barrett, tell us.

[Roger]

Tell us about it. Tell everyone.

[Barrett Courtney]

I'll just. I'll show you. Oh, if you don't know, I'm Barrett Courtney. I'm known here at Kind of Funny for replaying games and making in depth videos about them. I've tackled Zelda, Persona, God of War, and a few other franchises. And while I love making videos like these, I eventually got burnt out and told myself after a while that I was done, retired, more or less. So I'm here one last time. So that was kind of a lie.

[Mike]

Wow.

[Roger]

Exciting. A brand new video essay from Barrett. 9am tomorrow, YouTube.com kind of funny games. Barrett. We're not. We're not telling the topic to everybody, right? Because people are asking in the chat, what's the topic?

[Barrett Courtney]

It's a weird one. It's about a lot of things. It's about a lot of games that I've been thinking about lately that, you know, I've. I've been wanting to break down. And it's not necessarily a series that I'm tackling. That's usually what I'm known for tackling. Like every Zelda game playing all the Naughty Dog games. This is more about like seeing a cohesive thread of messages from very recent games. So I'm gonna be, you know, to. To give it away a little bit. I'm gonna be talking a little bit about metaphor refantaggio. I'm gonna be talking a little bit about Clair Obscure. I'm gonna be talking a little bit about Hollow Knight, Silksong and a few other things around those. So, yeah, I guess, you know, I'll say the title of the video. Cause I'm gonna put the premiere live later this afternoon so you'll see it. Anyway. The title of the video is they want you to fight back. And so look forward to that tomorrow, 9am Pacific right here on YouTube.com kind of funny games.

[Roger]

Exciting. Everybody look out for it.

[Mike]

I'm very excited about that. Anytime on and cooking up something awesome on the video essays. I'm excited.

[Roger]

And going right into games daily. So 9am and then boom. Get, get. Start your Friday off right.

[Mike]

Are you ready to rock and roll, Roger?

[Roger]

I'm ready to rock.

[Mike]

All you ready. Don't forget, if you are watching live, you can be part of the show by super chatting on YouTube.com kind of funny games. We couldn't do this without you. The kind of funny best friends audience all around the globe and of course our Patreon producers for the month over on patreon.com/kind of funny. So thank you to Carl Jacobs, Omega, Buster and Delaney. The Psalm twining for now, let's begin with what is and forever will be the Roper Report. We have five stories today.

[Barrett Courtney]

A baker's dozen.

[Mike]

Thank you, Barrett.

[Roger]

I always forget to add the number of the story. So I'm happy that I made Baron

[Mike]

go along because I need to catch my breath.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah, you need to catch your breath.

[Mike]

Let's jump into story number one. Assassin's Creed, Black Flag resync has been finally revealed. We're gonna watch over a little bit of the game overview trailer that has just been released. As of 9am today. And I have a awesome article that will go in depth from Tom Phillips at ign. Let's kickstart this because I haven't seen anything about this. Yeah, I've been daydreaming, dreaming about black. Really coming back into my life. You're a black guy, Roger. The Xbox One era with. With Black Flag. That was a big dealing out of

[Roger]

my PS4 for a while. That and knack man.

[Mike]

Watch it. What? This was. This was peak Assassin's Creed. Maybe like towards the end of the peak, but like this was peak.

[Roger]

I think this is the peak.

[Mike]

Then it went downhill from.

[Roger]

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

[Mike]

Okay.

[Roger]

All right, let's watch a little bit of it.

[Mike]

Hello, pirates. Matt Ryan here, the voice of Edward Kenway. And this is Assassin's Creed black flag. Resynced 13 years after the original. This remake brings the closest. Okay, look at that detail right there. Rebuilt from the ground up engine to deliver the most thrilling pirate adventure. Okay, for those listening out there, let's look in. Looking modern, looking up to date right now. Grand one, if I may say so. Full of adventure. God. You play as Captain Edward Kenway, a rebellious scoundrel eager to make a name for himself in the pursuit of glory, freedom and a search for a better life.

[Roger]

Damn that ocean. I want to drink that water.

[Mike]

It looks good. Everything so far is catching my eye. Makeup. I'll fill it with shot.

[Roger]

You hear me?

[Mike]

Edward, is it? Get that sweet blonde hair. Yeah. After crossing paths with the assassins and Templars, Edward is drawn into their centuries old conflict with secret locations. Hey, as of right now, looking at this, it looks looks like what I want.

[Roger]

Looks exactly like what I want. Looks how I imagined this game used to look like when I was a kid when I was playing it on the PS4. Yeah, I'm sure it does not look like this if you saw the before, but Mike, you have some more details on it?

[Mike]

Yeah, Roger. Let's dive into story number one. Assassin's Creed Black Flag resync has major changes. This coming from Tom Phillips at ign. Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resync Ubisoft's long awaited pirate game remake will feature major changes when it launches on July 9th with the addition of new story quests and characters, but the removal of several key features. In a detailed presentation on the game attended by ign, Ubisoft explained that it had decided to focus solely on the single player story of Black Flag's pirate tuned invent pirate turned assassin Edward Kenway. Meaning that the game's Freedom Cry DLC has not been integrated, its original multiplayer mode has been ditched and the previously playable modern day sections have been excised. Some small modern day story offerings will still be included, it sounded like though the exact details of this are unclear. One thing's for sure though, you won't be wandering around the offices of Abstergo Entertainment as you once did, something that leaves unanswered implications for for the game's bloodline. Related Story Quote Sorry, I was just Bloodline quote With Resynt, we made a clear choice, resync creative director Paul Fu said. It's a pure story driven adventure and we are fully focused on Edward's adventure in the Caribbean. As a result of this focus, we have elected to not have the multiplayer or DLC. Resynt is a 2026 take on the original legend, and for those of us who are curious, the original will still be available, end quote. Additional scenes have been recorded with Edward himself once again played by the returning actor Matt Bellamy, with other new Other new story moments for two of the original game's characters, Blackbeard and Stead Bonnet. Alongside addition additions to the game story, Ubisoft has COR has of course been tinkering with its gameplay mechanics. Combat has been rebuilt to resemble the Perry Focus system seen in more recent entries, though without the addition of fancy special attacks that would have seemed out of place. Rather than a desire to make the game systems play exactly like the series recent RPGs. The developer is keen to impress that the original Black Flag still lies underneath. Familiar parkour options are also now available, including free jumps, side ejects and back ejects. You can toggle crouch too. All of which should feel familiar to shadow players. The original games Fiddly Eavesdrop oh, the original game's fiddly eavesdropping missions will no longer auto fail if you get detected, and these fresh alternate fire upgrades for the jackdaws cannons lot there. Roger A lot of exciting stuff.

[Roger]

Yeah, no, I mean this is exactly what I I want and I was a little nervous originally hearing about them remaking this if they're going to keep on adding the RPG systems that we've seen later on in the Assassin's Creed franchise, that has just really lost me. You know, I'm sure it's for certain people, but I even though it's it had a lot to be desired and there's a lot of modernizations that they could have added, I do appreciate what the original Assassin's Creed games were going for when it comes to combats. So to see that they're adding kind of all the best stuff around it to make it more modern, but also not just trying to make it, you know, Valhalla or Shadows, I think is really great. So, yeah, this seems like everything I want out of this. And also something that is in the article, the game, 60 bucks. So, you know, not going for the 70 premium title, 60 bucks. I think that's right around where I want to be for the specific title.

[Mike]

I like that price tag there, Roger. I also love seeing some of the things that they're talking about, of course, the eavesdropping missions. I think all of us have auto failed that way too many times. And I love that we're. Hey, let's address this. Let's fix this. Let's knock it out. But the game looks pretty as can be. What you brought up with the RPG systems, that feels like a black flag too, is right, Roger. Like, let's focus on what this is at its core. The dlc. Okay. I wish we had that.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah.

[Mike]

With you. But the multiplayer, of course. I knew I wasn't going to get that.

[Roger]

Yeah, no, the multiplayer I completely forgot existed. Also the Abstergo stuff, I also forgot existed.

[Mike]

Bear knows I don't like the absurd.

[Roger]

Yeah, I knew. I remember now as they're talking about it was first person and that's what they were going for there. But it was completely forgettable for me at least. So. Yeah. That being out there. Yeah. I. I know that that DLC was beloved for a certain group of people and I. Maybe there's one day where this game hits and then eventually they do the DLC update or whatever. But focusing on the core game is. Is the right move. But I mean, enough about us. Yeah, I mean, we. We are Assassin's Creed people. But like I know the Assassin's Creed person who actually saw this a little early, so maybe you can give his impressions on this. And that's Barrett. Courtney. Barrett. What'd you think about all this?

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah, surprise, surprise. I. I got to see this a week ago when it was, you know, kept leaking about the event, about this, all the details about this insane. I. I like what I see so far. Obviously, the game is gorgeous. And like you were saying, Roger, it's one of those. It successfully makes you feel like the, you know, this is what it looks like back then type of thing. Everything around that I'm. I'm really interested in, but it's one of those. It's hard to have a lot to say without having my hands on the six I'll bring it back here to some combat for the video people here. Yeah. One of the main things being combat. I, I like what they're saying so far at least of hey, we're not going to do the full rpg, the full system of what you've known in the last few Assassin's Creed games. But I think there's a smart kind of modernization, maybe adaptation of what the original Assassin's Creed combat system was back then, which if you go to today, you know, as someone who did Assassin's Creed in review back in five years ago already. Jesus. Even back then it was like, man, this is really outdated eventually a little bit mindless of like kind of what you're doing and auto killing everybody so easily and all this stuff. So I'm, I'm excited to see what their take is on trying to modernize that and make it a bit more engaging and then not, you know, like trying to overcorrect and bring in like a bunch of RPG elements which doesn't feel like the, the spirit of what the not just Black Flag was, but the OG Assassin's Creed games were. Right. The modern day stuff. I'll be interested to see the way they talked about it in the, the 30 minute special presentation. It made it almost sound like it wasn't that there was no modern day stuff, but that they were doing something to refocus on like the core of Edward story. And while I, I'll agree that like the modern day stuff with Black Flag was the first game where it was really like, oh yeah, this, this really like what are we doing here? You know, we, we killed off the main character who was like kind of the original like main emotional pole for the modern day stuff. What are we doing here? But there is still like a cool thing at the end of the modern day stuff that like ties into like a big chunk of what Edward was doing and like figuring out as a newly recruited assassin. So it's like I'm. I'm curious to see how that they make that still work as like an emotional kind of like to get the same kind of or similar emotional reaction from you when you get to some of that later stuff. I'm fascinated, I'm fascinated to see what they do differently and if they can still make something like that work. Jackdaw stuff seems interesting with some of the add ons that they're going for with some of the different like shop types that you have to use during combat which are tied to new characters that they're introducing into the game. That you can recruit. And these are optional characters that I think you can recruit to the Jackdaw. So that'll be fun and interesting to see. Like, it'll be interesting to see, like, all right, you want to cut some things, but now you want to introduce some different story elements. Can you make that all kind of work and feel seamless and make this still feel like, kind of genuine to why am I Bl. Edward's story? Right. And then, yeah, outside of that, it's like, there's not much else to say. This game kicked ass 13 years ago, and seeing a really pretty version of that today, with some slight adjustments, I think is a, you know, it's not a revolutionary thing, but I think it's a cool way to like, kind of preserve, I think one of like the most beloved games in the series. And I can't wait to get back to it in a couple months here. So, yeah, let's.

[Mike]

Let's talk about right now because, yeah, I think it's interesting, Bear, that you bring that up. Back in 2023, Ubisoft announced that Assassin's Creed Black Flag had reached over 34 million players. Right. And of course, that's a long lifespan as Barrett brought up Ubisoft plus 10 years. So that would have been the 10 year anniversary of that with 34 million players. But Barrett, Roger, what do we Expect here on July 9th when this comes out? Will this be a big boost to the franchise of old players coming in, new players getting excited for another Assassin's Creed entry, but also maybe one of the more beloved titles from beyond?

[Roger]

Yeah, I think this game is going to do really well. I mean, it gets me excited more so than any of the new ones that they've done. Even Shadows, which is in Japan, like, this gets me so excited to see. I mean, nostalgia wins, right? Always. Right? Like, and to see this is again, as we've said, like, it looks like how you imagine it. It's gorgeous. Seeing that combat looks so fucking sick. Like shooting out the grappling hook, putting people down. And I love. I was laughing earlier, not, not because of Bear. I was laughing because the video that he was showing, which was the. It was like, oh, here's like what the original game looked like when it came to the eavesdropping segments. Right? It's like him sneaking around. It's like, this is what we're doing now and it's just fucking guy stabbing him. It's like, awesome.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah, it'll be interesting to see, like, how they play that out and it's seems to go into the ethos of what they've been trying since like unity of like, you can do this in any sort of different way. And so I'll be interested to see, like, if you do fail the tailing section, like, what do you need to do to like make up for that? Because usually you're doing those to like find information to. To find your next target or what have you.

[Roger]

So you just find a note on the ground?

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah, we'll see. But I think it would be cool to see maybe something slightly more interesting than just that. Right. Because then we. What is really the motivation other than to like, oh, okay, I'll just automatically fail this, kill the dude and then just do it like right there and then where the way they talked about it made it seem like there might be a little bit more involved afterwards. So that'll be interesting. Also, the. The final thing I'll point out is you can recruit a cat to the jacked off, which is of course, you know, they're cheating there.

[Roger]

Yeah, it is.

[Barrett Courtney]

But like, I guess I still with it.

[Mike]

My final question for the both of you, right. As we talk about bringing Assassin's Creed Black Flag to the modern day and bringing it back into the forefront, what were the downfalls of the game? Right. I think to myself a lot of the ship combat, right, can get repetitive and a little bit stale at the end of it all. It's a large journey and you are jumping from island to island. What are some of the things, Barrett, that maybe new players might find a little bit annoying? Or like, what are some things that maybe the team over at Ubisoft needed to address to make sure the modern day player that maybe never played this and doesn't have nostalgia needs, I think

[Barrett Courtney]

just like varied it. Like, you know, it. It did feel like you were going through the motions eventually with how like lengthy this one was, which I think a little over 20, maybe like closer to 30 hours. Right. And I think eventually after a while it's like, okay, like I'm kind of doing the same moves over and over again and I think it seems like they're trying to address that with some of the new abilities that you get through some of the new people that you're recruiting. So I'll be interested to see how they mix that up. And then maybe also just like different variety in how enemies like take you on. Because I think like, eventually it just turned into like, you know, there'd be like, it's silly to say, but there'd be like boss Battle ship. The things.

[Roger]

Right.

[Barrett Courtney]

Where it's like a really tough ship, but really just like a really big health bar. And then, like, outside of that, like, there would be a couple different moves here and there. Yeah. I'll be interested to see how they kind of, like, make that still like, kind of a continuous thing, but also, it's like, I didn't mind that back in the day, and I didn't mind that when I replayed it in 2021. Right. But I'm also just a pirate sicko.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

And. And so. And then the other big thing, they're. They're bringing new shanties into this, which I'm fucking stoked.

[Mike]

Okay, tell me.

[Barrett Courtney]

I'm going to, like, like, sail out and, like, hear the shanties again.

[Roger]

Isn't Wood Kid involved with that or just in general?

[Barrett Courtney]

Wood Kid is involved some way, shape or form? I'm unsure how or why. Apparently, Wood Kid did a lot of Assassin's Creed. Oh, I don't know that music back in the day, which I was unaware of, but, yeah, it'll be interesting to see what Wood Kid does there. What was the. To go back to your early question, though, Mike, I think the. The other reason of, like, I agree with Roger. I think this is going to do very well. Think about the big hit, the cultural phenomenon that is broken out of our little nerdy corner of the world and has gotten to people who watch Netflix who have fallen in love with One Piece. And people are fucking into the pirate adventure right now, man. And I think, like, Black Flag coming out right now is like, almost like a perfect time for people to, like, capture something about, like, wanting to go on their own pirate adventure.

[Roger]

I love that One Piece dlc.

[Mike]

Roger, anything to add on that?

[Roger]

No, I'm extremely excited. Like, I. Out of nowhere, I like the idea of. It sounded exciting to me, but looking at that, I'm like, oh, no, that's must play. I'm so excited to, like, actually finish this game because those eavesdrop sections just got me so annoyed. So I'm excited to actually do it. You plan it.

[Mike]

Yeah. It's interesting because I'm just like, you have, like, before this. I was like, yeah, another Assassin's Creed. Yeah, bring back Black Flag, whatever. And then you see and you're like, oh, I remember all the moments.

[Roger]

Yeah.

[Mike]

And how special this game was at the time. Right. And so it'll be very interesting to see how far I get in. I remember this one being the more lengthier feeling one out of the series when I was young baron of like, oh, I I felt like I got I could handle most of them and then I got the black flag. I was like, oh, this feels much bigger than a lot of them for me. So we'll see if I have the time where I fall. But nothing better than this game. This game is something special, exciting. Let's move on to story number two. But before we do that, this one coming up is a lengthy one, so we're going to take a quick word from our sponsors. This episode's brought to you by Warby Parker Buying eyeglasses was always a whole to do before Warby Parker came into so many of our lives. Greg, Gia, Joey, me, all of us hated how buying glasses always felt so complicated and overpriced and often the styles were just super outdated. But Warby Parker, total game changer. Nothing comes close on parents. Quality price selection and customer service. You can literally try on glasses from your phone before you buy it. With their virtual try on, Greg says it's wild how well it actually works and a super cool thing is wary. Parker's covered by major I insurance plans. That's how Gia got hers. They make it incredibly easy to use. You just enter your information to see if you are eligible for benefits on frames, contact or eye exams and if you are, they automatically apply them for you right now. Buy one prescription pair and get 20% off any additional prescription [e-mail] kinda funny. That's 20% off additional prescription pairs when you go to w a r-by parker.com kinda funny.

[Barrett Courtney]

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Welcome back. Let's jump into story number two. Google exec says almost every big studio uses AI, but but not all disclose it. This coming from Chris Scullion at vgc. In an interview with mobile gamer Biz, Google Cloud's global director for games, Jack Buster said a lot of studios use AI powered tools to help the develop help with development but a number of them are unwilling to confirm this publicly for fear of backlash. Busser says bustle Busser says Google's own tools like Gemini and Nano Banana Pro are used by some studios to remove, quote, the drudgery and repetitive low value work, end quote in game development. But that while many studios use them, the fact that AI is a divisive topic means they keep quiet about it. Quote I think what players don't realize is that their favorite games right now were already built with AI. He claimed those games have shipped. We did a survey around Gamescom last summer with studios all over the world. Roughly nine out of 10 game developers told us, yeah, we're using it now. You'll see other surveys from other organizations that have more around like 40 to 50%. And you might ask yourself, well, that's still a large number. It's still almost half of the developers out there. What's that gap? And that gap is basically the developer's willingness to tell you whether the fact of the matter is it's being used or not. Buster also suggested that if players realized that AI had been used for some of the games they currently already play and enjoy, they may be more willing to accept it in development. Quote. They'll start to realize that this is actually helping me get my favorite games faster, he said. And also I'm also getting more innovation in the industry because there's more room to take risks. And now it's not seven years waiting for one game. But that studio can make five games and maybe they understand that only two of those five will be a hit. But that's okay because these other three games are really interesting and cool and would have never been made with the old model. Once that stuff starts happening, and it's already happening now, you'll start to see the sentiment change. Elsewhere in the interview, Buster cited Capcom as an example of a company that uses Google's AI tools in development, claiming it uses, it uses them to make less important assets so it can focus on, focus its creativity on the main aspect of its games. Quote One of the big problems that they have is they're building these massive worlds and they've got to fill it with content, he said. Just coming up with all the ideas for every pebble by the side of the road, every blade of grass, and having those, having those art reviews, the manual labor just piling up in pre production. What they're doing is using Nano Banana and Gemini to rapidly generate just countless ideas and then they're taking to Gemini to actually go through those ideas and curate them. And of these thousand of thousands of things, here are the ones that are probably most interesting. To you as the art director. And then the art director takes that and then gets the art team going on these I these items. The AI is already pre filtered and pre selected by probably really good looking pebbles on the side of the road. And then all of their creative energy gets focused towards the high value creative tasks, the main character, the big enemies, the main scene objects and that kind of stuff, end quote. Roger, that's a big one and I would recommend everybody go read this one, get informed and let's have a conversation about it. Because of course right now the Google exec, of course, let me bring it, bring it back over here. Google's cloud global director for games, Jack Busser, said all of that about AI and studios using it, but being unwilling to talk about it.

[Roger]

I mean he's not wrong. Like I don't think he's lying here. Like I completely understand and believe that most tech companies in general are, are using AI in some fashion, right? Are they using Gemini, Nano Banana? Probably fucking not, right? They're using Cloud, Claude, they're using ChatGPT, they're using things when it comes to programming, they're using things when it comes to image generation that probably isn't Nano Banana, but in general it's, it is true. Like these companies, all tech companies, all big major companies that are trying to, you know, cut wages, cut people, cut working hours, cut creatives from their teams are of course experimenting and I'm know from firsthand, secondhand, thirdhand knowledge of you know, smaller teams that aren't in the video game industry, right, that are 11 person, 12, not, not this company, but just smaller companies in general that are

[Barrett Courtney]

talking about 11 person, 11 year old business.

[Roger]

No, but I know smaller companies in general that you know, don't have the overhead of this and are still looking into AI and trying to figure that stuff out because of course the, these corporations are right, they're trying to cut as much of the unnecessary work as possible. I think our opinion on this has been pretty vocal, right? When you start to cut out the easy things, you are undercutting artists, you are undercutting creatives, you are undercutting human work and value. And I don't think that, I think a lot of people in the chat, I saw them, they were like, oh, he's just lying because he's an AI tech company, you know, CEO or whatever. I think this is happening actively and him naming Capcom who has apparently has not denied it necessarily, but he says specifically Capcom. Yeah, I would assume that most companies are doing this and they're not being vocal about it. Are they using generative AI art? That's a different question. Right? I think our brain goes to, you know, generative AI, we think, you know, generating the photo, right? The video, the, you know, Nvidia DLSS5. Right. We think about that stuff. But are they using generative code? Probably. You know, I mean, that's what a lot of programming is. That's what a lot of mandates are in tech companies. You know, I have friends that work at tech companies that are like, hey, like our company is literally telling us, like my job as a programmer, but now I have to use AI to program because that's what they want. That is their. That they're telling me I have to have it hit a certain quota of AI prompts in order to, you know, be good in my next review. So I am not surprised that I don't think that the. Because gaming is a creative field, that it would be immune to these. This type of.

[Mike]

Yeah, I think the big one here on the divisive side, right, is cutting jobs and cutting creatives out of the space by using AI. That's the conversation that we've been having, right? Trying to cut every dollar and save every penny. So the stock market, so the share price goes up and the shareholders are happy, right? That's the divisive side. We're not happy with that. The consumers and the fans of games out there are not happy with you cutting jobs and every single day. That's what we're getting at. We understand AI is being used. We want it used in the proper ways. We want it used so these people aren't losing their jobs to some AI chatbot that is now generating games, right? The guy goes, well, we can make your games faster and give you five in seven years instead of one. And maybe two of them will be hits and the three of them, you'll go, oh, maybe they were cool. I don't really want that. I want great games. I don't want some crap game that, that you tested and thought, oh, maybe Mike will spend $40 on this.

[Roger]

I mean, if we're talking about the ideal universe, right, it is the same amount of creatives that are working at Rockstar 2K that are able to locally and sustainably use AI on their own servers that are not going up to a fucking thing that is, you know, destroying the fucking universe when it comes to these data centers that are sucking up all the water in the middle of the country, right, it is being able to use 250, 250, 500 people to make two to three games every, you know, seven years instead of two years. Right? That's the James Cameron quote. When he talks about AI is like, hey, what's the. He was asked, like, what is the amount of people that it should take to make Avatar 3? When it takes. Avatar 3 last time took, I think a thousand people. He's like, should take a thousand people. Thousand people should be working on these movies. We should just be making more of them and faster. And I would like the tools to be better so then we don't have to go through these revisions. But. But he's like, I don't want anyone to lose jobs. I don't want. I want a thousand people. I want as many people, as many creatives in this world to work on these projects as possible. Because the collaboration is important. It's important to, you know, have these people from the ground up. You don't want to just be like, okay, well, this is a low value art. It's like, you don't know what the fuck you're talking about. You don't know. Like, this is all, this is all cohesiveness when it comes to the art design. You can't just be like, we're going to type in Pebbles into fucking Nano Banana and get the right pebbles so that I can focus on the main character. It's like, no, all this stuff works together. And that is the. Again, the thing that I always talk about, we Talked about Nvidia DLSS5 is like a lot of people in the chat, not a lot of people. Some people in the chat were saying like, oh, it looks better. It's like, I don't think you like video games. I don't think you like art, is that you are looking at all these. They all look the same. They're all trying to maximize realism. You have to have an artist that goes in there and has their touch and is making something that is not realistic, but is their interpretation of realism. And it is. Has their touch, has their feeling. Like Resident Evil 9 looks like that because it's Resident Evil. It's artists that are working on it that have a vision, that know how sexy they want Leon to look. They don't want to put just an old person filter on it or a human filter on it like this. These are human beings working on these things from the ground up. And that's what's beautiful about video games. Not because, you know, they're typing in pebbles and they could put pebbles, you know, I mean, like, that's such A false flag, you know what I mean? Like, it's like focusing on the. The Pebbles. Like that's like that is something that is actually going to revolutionize game production. Like, no, like that is. I think that's CEO fully.

[Mike]

Well said, Roger. Of course, in the article we have our exec going on, Jack says roughly nine out of 10 game developers told us, yeah, we're using it. And then other organizational surveys will show you like 40 to 50%. Roger, we are starting to see a little bit of a difference now. We've seen some game companies get called out for not talking about their use of AI or maybe leaving in placeholder items at the end and then catching it and having to change that. We see other companies now coming out early and saying, hey, we use AI, we talk about AI, this is what we're going to do, right? And the public sentiment seems to switch on each one of those decisions and how they come out. Do you see anything in the future? I mean, I guess I start to think of the general audience. Do they even know? Do they even care? We have this conversation of like what we do on this podcast and the audience that we reach are the people who do care, the people that do understand and know. But. But I don't know past that where the breakthrough is if they're aware of this.

[Roger]

I think right now, right, like let's say Capcom is using AI and let's say they used it and this is me just talking on my ass, right? Of like, let's say in Praguemata they used AI to help the back end code or whatever, right? Of course, we will never know that. We didn't know that. You know, normal consumers will never know that. But I think there is a line that capitalism and these companies are trying to find, right? When it comes to DLSS5, when it comes to know a putting Val Kilmer, who's passed away in movies, right? Like all of these things, they're trying to test the audiences. And I do think there is a line where normal audiences, not just the people that are online like us, that love this stuff, that is like entrenched in all these things as it was happening, are going to revolt against it, right? There is going to be a game, there's going to be a moment where

[Mike]

I think that Val Kilmer is a great one of like, hey, here's Val Kilmer who, you know, has passed away. Rest in peace right now, like you're going to look at him on a movie and they're going to try to pass this off. Yeah, and you're going to go, do I like this?

[Roger]

Yeah, exactly.

[Mike]

And I wonder if this will be one of the first moments of like, hey, hold up. Don't really like that.

[Roger]

No. And then on top of that, when some, I'm, some company is going to try to make an AI generated animated movie, I think that's gonna be the first thing that's probably going to pop off. And that's probably going to be. Some companies be like, fucking Skydance or some shit is going to be like, hey, we made an AI generated movie, animated movie. It's in theaters right now. And, and then you're going to see people look at that and be like, this is, there's something hollow about this. And that is the pervasive. I think people want real human art, even if they don't know they want real human art. You know what I mean? Like, they're going to feel it.

[Barrett Courtney]

Shout out to the Val Kilmer thing reminded me of like, shout out to Disney for normalizing that shit 10 years ago with the fucking rogue one. And the guy who plays Tarkin. Yeah, Tarkin. And then also Princess Leia and all that shit. Yeah, Real, real cool stuff.

[Roger]

Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

That they did.

[Roger]

Scanning the faces and everything.

[Mike]

Yeah, that's, I, I, I'm looking forward to the day where we get to it, where the companies are out in front of it and the general audience is now making that decision of like, hey, I stand by this. Or I don't. Right. Because I don't feel like we've got to that point yet. We're still, hey, I'm hiding it. Oh, an asset fell through the cracks. And all of a sudden the gamers have stood up and said, hey, what's up with that? But I don't think we've gotten to the point where it's like, hey, I'm Whatever company, we're making this AI and everyone's like, you know what? I'm turning my back up.

[Roger]

You can't put the genie back in the bottle. You can't close Pandora's box with AI Right. Is always going to be around in some fashion form. But I do think that there will be a cultural revolt or maybe just a situation where everyone's like, no, it's not cool to have AI or to. It's really cool to make things with your hands and your minds and like doing this shit the hard way. Like that is going to come back in fashion. Like handmade things, people that are focusing. And it's already happening right now where it's like people make incredible art. They have to be in the beginning be like this is not AI. And you know, it's both depressing, but it's also kind of cool because it's like, hey, like someone could do that by fucking typing shit into a fucking AI chat bot. But then you decided to spend, you know, thousands of hours to make something really awesome and have that people appreciate that. Like there's going to be that cultural revolution. I think it's already happening because yeah, I don't think that AI is always going to be around, but I do think creating with AI and creatives are going to continue to in the mainstream push back against it.

[Mike]

Well, I don't know if this story is ever going to leave us, Roger. I think we're going to be talking about AI for quite some time. And you know what else we're going to be talking about? Story number three, Roger? We're going to be talking about this game for quite some time because Mass Effect devs are are too busy working on Mass Effect to tease Mass Effect. This coming from Eddie Machu over at Gamespot. A new Mass Effect game is in development at BioWare, but the esteemed RPG studio has not said much about it. That continues to be the case, so fans are trying any way they can to get more info and that includes asking executive producer Michael Gamble for an update via social media. Asked if he could provide, quote, something juicy, end quote, for fans to obsess over, Gamble said the only update he can provide for the next Mass Effect game is that the team is just busy working on it. Not a lot of time for a tease. He said people have been yelling at Gamble for a long time now, demanding more information about the next Mass Effect. He said in November 2025 that he understands fans are thirsty for updates on the game, but the team was heads down and focused and exclusively on the next entry in the Space Faring series. On last year's Mass Effect holiday and Seven Day, Gamble said, quote, we have a lot of universe to cover, lots of features to build and lots of romances to figure out. We're excited by what we're building and we promise you when we're ready, it'll be a lot of fun to show. End quote. The next Mass Effect game has been in the works for years, but we still don't know much about much about much of anything about it. It's BioWare. BioWare's follow up to Dragon Age the Veil Guard, which came out, which came up short in terms of sales.

[Roger]

Roger Juicy and thirsty in the Same article. That's pretty dope.

[Mike]

Give me something juicy. Let me obsess over something. Michael, help me out. I mean, this is a beloved franchise. This is one that everyone is excited to get back in their lives. They're very pumped up about it. Of course, coming off of the last Mass Effect, there are a lot of things riding on this and there's a lot of expectations to meet, to meet the original trilogy and say, hey, can we come back and make a big swing on this? Right.

[Roger]

Yeah. And weirdos on the Internet have. Have it out for BioWare right now, so I'm sure they're very unfortunate. They're very much aware of what they're trying to do here and what they're building. Yeah, it's. It's cool. I appreciate the honesty. I appreciate the eyes of, like, you're working on something. Yeah, we don't got time. Like, we always hear the stories of, like, hey, why didn't you have a trailer at Summer Games Fest? It's like, hey, we're in the middle of development and like, literally us making a trailer to, like, get all the assets and, like, get picture, lock on certain situations, like, that is a lot of effort. You have to kind of stop development a little bit just to kind of focus on the trailer of it all. Yeah, I. I think it was Wolverine. They were talking about that a while ago, but, yeah, either way, it makes sense. That's very honest. That's how game development works. So I don't think we're going to see this this year.

[Mike]

So. Yeah, let's get real really quick. We have Summer Game Fest right around the corner. We have an N7 day all the way out in November. A TGA out in December. Is this year the year we see anything Mass Effect, Roger. Or as Michael said, the team is working hard.

[Roger]

I think it's a 2027 showcase at least, and maybe a 2028 release.

[Mike]

Okay.

[Roger]

Like, I don't think we're seeing it this year again. I don't think he would be on Twitter responding to people asking for some juicy if he knew two months from now you were going to get a trailer. So I, I think the earliest I can see it is maybe TGA, but realistically, maybe Summer Game Fest or TGA next year for 2027 and then 2028, like, actual release. What about you?

[Mike]

I. I was going to give you a pizza bet, but, like, it's. It's a small one. I think it's just a layup of, like, pizza when it comes to N7. Day. I think you'll get something. Now. What is that? I don't know if that's a. A trailer. I don't know if that's just a screenshot.

[Barrett Courtney]

Right.

[Mike]

But like, I do think on N7 day this year you will get something for Mass Effect that is beyond just a. Hey, we're working hard and we got a lot of things to go off of. Probably like you'll get. You'll get a Twitter post of four screenshots.

[Roger]

You want to do a pizza? A small pizza. Let's do a small pizza specifically.

[Mike]

Okay. You have to buy a personal pan.

[Roger]

Somebody. Okay, so what you're saying is on

[Mike]

and seven day this year, you will get something. Mass Effect. That is not just a tweet saying, hey, we're working. I think it's screenshots or screenshots visuals. Some visual visuals are above.

[Roger]

I'm saying you do not get that. And what is a visual? Is it in game stuff or is it a poster? What are you thinking?

[Mike]

In game? It has to be in game. Oh, yeah. Okay.

[Roger]

Well, you're definitely losing. So yeah, give that.

[Barrett Courtney]

Record it down as a small pizza bet.

[Mike]

Small pizza bet.

[Roger]

Small pizza, small personal pizza bet.

[Mike]

Everybody one slice from Costco.

[Roger]

I can do that.

[Mike]

Very excited for Mass Effect. Can't wait to see where we're going with that. Riding the high off of Project Hail Mary. We Talked about Artemis 2 returning to planet Earth. I mean, we just talked about the Expanse video game. We saw Exodus, the video game we were talking about with Andy as well. Lot of space in my life and I'm exp. I'm excited to go out to space.

[Roger]

Lot of space.

[Mike]

Because I can never go out to space.

[Roger]

I thought you transition.

[Mike]

Oh, story number four. Let's talk about space.

[Roger]

Okay, there we are.

[Mike]

Orbital's gameplay reveal. Let's give a little quick trailer reaction because now we get to see gameplay of Orbitals, which we saw a little bit of already.

[Roger]

Yeah, I'm excited. This is a full on gameplay overview trailer. I think it's four minutes.

[Mike]

I want to watch.

[Roger]

Really very excited for this. I saw some previews go up. Very jealous. I want to replace

[Mike]

killer look, killer music. Do you have the co op puzzle solving mechanics?

[Roger]

Apparently one of the developers is. Was a level designer at T. Okay. This is huge.

[Mike]

My name is Safe and I'm the

[Roger]

game director of Orbitals. I think pretty sure was J. I

[Mike]

think we've seen that name before. We're going to be playing through some

[Roger]

sections of the game and show you

[Barrett Courtney]

how the Co OP works.

[Mike]

Let's go. Game Oozes style. Roger. Yeah. All right, so there's one person pulling or heating up, and then you pull. Yeah, yeah. It's all about working in tandem in these games and making it fun. Roger. It's easy to be like, hey, one person does object A, the other person does B. You got to make it fun.

[Roger]

In order to succeed on this, their first mission, M and Omura have chosen different tools. Maki is carrying the scrap hook and

[Mike]

Omura the beam cannon.

[Roger]

So here I need to use the beam cannon in order to keep this drone charged. Otherwise it will explode. All right, wait there.

[Barrett Courtney]

Need to clear the path.

[Mike]

Here we go.

[Roger]

Nice and shut up.

[Barrett Courtney]

Okay.

[Mike]

Okay. Get ready.

[Roger]

Yes. SW to exclusive.

[Mike]

Yeah. And we're going.

[Roger]

Oh, my God.

[Mike]

Oh, nice. Okay. That looks fun. Nothing too crazy yet that you haven't seen before in these co op games that we've seen. But, man, the beautiful art style just really brings this along, huh?

[Roger]

Yeah, I think it's the art style, it's the. It's the music, but it's like just that anime old school.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Roger]

90s aesthetic right there. So cool, man. Yeah. We could skip around just a little bit. I want to see just some more visuals. Look around maybe.

[Mike]

Oh, so they're opening up the flap so you can keep that drone alive. That was cool.

[Roger]

That's nice.

[Mike]

Clearing the gunk.

[Roger]

Gorgeous. Man, you excited for this one?

[Mike]

Yeah, Roger. Well, you know what? I need someone in my life to play these games with. Because my best friend, my 1.3 right now, he ditched me when it came to Split Fiction.

[Roger]

He did ditch you.

[Mike]

And my best friend, best friend, my 1.1 has a loving fiance.

[Roger]

That's true.

[Mike]

So I don't have someone in my life to play these games with. And like I was about to play Split Fiction. One man, two controllers. That's how much I wanted to play this game. It's the saddest thing I need to find someone in my life to be able to play these games with.

[Roger]

That's depressing as fuck. That's the. Maybe the sad. Are you going to do that here with Orbitals?

[Mike]

One control, two controllers, one man?

[Roger]

Yeah.

[Mike]

Yeah, probably.

[Roger]

That's disgusting.

[Barrett Courtney]

Saddest follow up to two girls woke up.

[Roger]

Orbitals has a summer 2026 release date. So no specific date here, but they showed up a lot of gameplay. So I'm assuming we're gonna get some type of release date announcement maybe at Nintendo Direct type.

[Mike]

Okay.

[Barrett Courtney]

I could see. Because we've been seeing a lot of like, this is a big drop here. I could see an out today on the next big Nintendo.

[Mike]

Oh, that would be a blast.

[Barrett Courtney]

That would be.

[Mike]

That would be a great way because

[Roger]

we were feeling it during. What was it, tga. Whenever they announced this officially for the first time, we were like, fuck now, Today, out today. Please give it to us right now because this game looks so fucking cool. But yeah, again, the. I didn't put any of the preview round up there, but it was all really positive. A lot of people being like, hey, like this is really. This is what we're looking for to scratch that itch. It was super exciting. Gorgeous. I do think the frame rate's a little bit tough right now, but maybe that's just the recording. Maybe that's just. Maybe they'll. They'll iron that out a little bit. But I'm very excited.

[Barrett Courtney]

Is that like not a part of the art style as well?

[Roger]

Yeah, maybe. Yeah, maybe it's just also the resolution just feels a little low. But again, maybe these are all things that will be ironed out. You know, these things work. Compression and all that jazz. That's exciting.

[Mike]

That's big, Roger. Orbitals is big in my life, and me playing it by myself with two controllers is even bigger. But if I need something small, if I needed something smaller to get me through the day, where would I go?

[Roger]

You go to our last story, the Wii News Channel, where we cover all the small news items you need to know about Roger.

[Mike]

Let's jump into we news. Annapurna announces Nintendo Switch 2 ports for a lot of their awesome games. Stray is coming out May 28th to a T is coming out June 11th. Wonder Stop is coming out June 28th. And my favorite, Sayonara Wild Hearts and Lorelei. And the laser eyes are out now

[Roger]

I'm definitely gonna play Lorelei. I'm gonna try that out. I know it's hard to suck, but I'm gonna try it.

[Mike]

You let me know how that game is, cuz Lore the laser might be the goest of Goest. Video game titles.

[Roger]

Dude.

[Mike]

The greatest video game tit I've ever heard. No, I've never played it.

[Roger]

Oh, I was about to spoil something for you. You got to play. That's an after. That's a. That's an hour hour long stream. That's super quick. Okay, super quick.

[Mike]

Anything. I like it.

[Roger]

Yeah, there a. There's a fun moment at the ending. I. Don't spoil it. Don't let the chat.

[Mike]

You know about the ending of Sayar. Wild Hearts.

[Roger]

Yeah.

[Mike]

Good Game. Good game.

[Roger]

What are you talking about? What you.

[Mike]

Queen Latifah is in it.

[Roger]

Okay, that's what I was talking about. So you do know about it.

[Mike]

Oh, Loreline, the laser eyes outside of Signar Wall Darts. Oh, I'm sorry. One of my number, number one games. I love that game.

[Roger]

Oh, okay.

[Mike]

Yeah, yeah.

[Roger]

I was talking about Sidearm Wall House the entire time.

[Mike]

I apologize.

[Roger]

I think we're split up there.

[Mike]

According to Famitsu Tomodachi, Life Living the Dream has topped the Japanese physical game sales charts for the month with565.565.400. 405 sold. Thank you, Roger. Huge sales right there for physical copies.

[Roger]

Huge, huge. I think the second was Pragmata which was only like 54, 000, so like they're crushing over there. So I'm excited to see like the full numbers next month for America.

[Mike]

And Crimson Desert version 1.04 Patch is out now on PC and it's massive, adding difficulty options and a host of highly requested features. And if you're playing Crimson Desert, let me know in the chat right now. You got a big patch coming your way. Roger with that, that is the end of the show. Let's dive into some super chats.

[Roger]

Yeah, we got a lot.

[Mike]

Kick it over to your wrong to see what we got wrong.

[Roger]

We're going to do a rapid fire of super chats, everybody. We got a lot. Mr. Person, super chat says. Holy hype my goat. Barrett is making peak. Love that Silver J. Hawkins. Barrett's new video title is Spoiler over here. Everybody get ready. The complete breakdown of Skibidi Toilet. You heard it here first.

[Mike]

Read it. Read it one more time.

[Roger]

Barrett's new video title is the complete breakdown of Skibidi Toilet. He is going to.

[Mike]

Barrett deep dives into brain rot.

[Barrett Courtney]

I am not young enough nor that brain rotted enough to.

[Mike]

You know what would be cool though, Barrett? What? If you, me and Roger deep dive into Roblox, we kick off with Skibidi Toilet and brain rot gets us into Roblox. And then we learn the inner workings of Roblox and how they make so much money. Why is there such a player base? And what the hell is going on right now? I think this is just going to

[Barrett Courtney]

go back to your. Let's investigate World of Tanks. World of Tanks.

[Mike]

Turns out it's a fun game.

[Roger]

We should do it backwards. We should start with like gmod. Cuz that's where skibidy Toilet ends. Like the pinnacle of it all. Whatever the postman Super Chat says, love that shirt, Mikey. I started watching one piece a month ago and just finished Alabasta. Cried my eyes out.

[Barrett Courtney]

Hell yeah. He's also. He's wearing like the shirt for the cops.

[Mike]

I got the mar. Yeah, but know what the cool part is? The back part? The back part of it is like the cool.

[Roger]

I'm going to be honest, I look at these. I thought these were titties.

[Mike]

Well, I have gigantic titties, cuz.

[Roger]

Well, no, I.

[Mike]

You making fun of me right now? No. Are you making fun of.

[Roger]

I mean the blue thing? I. I mean the. It just looks like some weird titties.

[Mike]

I think it's a bird.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah, it's like. What is it, a seagull?

[Roger]

I just. Titties Willie the Deuce. AC1, next please. It's so hard to play the OG play an OG form.

[Mike]

Yeah, we didn't talk about that.

[Roger]

That's a good one.

[Mike]

Are we going to go back to the original trilogy, Bear, do you think with these remasters and remakes of like, hey, do we look at 1 through 3 or whatever and start identifying them

[Roger]

to fix 83, bro, I would love them to figure out, yeah, 83 had

[Barrett Courtney]

so much promise, but it just.

[Roger]

It's just.

[Barrett Courtney]

It did not have it. It was close. A lot of cool ideas.

[Roger]

So many cool ideas.

[Barrett Courtney]

Maybe a little too many ideas that made that game not feel great to play. Yeah, I would. I would love that. But I think that's. That's where you get into the time investment of like, if we're gonna do that, why not invest in, you know, like, part of what made those original games particularly so special was the modern day stuff. And if you start going back to that, it's like, well, should we just start investing in this kind of stuff again? And like, I don't know. I don't know if that's where they would go. I agree that like, I think it's the only one that's like really hard to get is AC1 on modern consoles. I think everything else has like some sort of remaster that was released on like PS4 and Xbox One that you can, you know, get through the store today still.

[Roger]

Yeah. Are you body shaping me? Night Live Super Chat says. What's that? Was that a grappling hook? That's awesome. It was. Looks sick. We have D. Davis becoming a member for 30 months. Hell yeah. Shout out. I'm just a Billy says somebody tell. Bless that Edward Kenway is voiced by Constantine from Legends of Tomorrow. Lol. Hype. Tell me that as well. Cuz I watch that probably more than Blessing.

[Mike]

Hell yeah. Tomorrow.

[Roger]

Oh yeah. My grandma was watching Constantine, bro. You had a family, bro.

[Mike]

You were part of the Arrow verses.

[Roger]

I was a big deal because it was NBC.

[Mike]

I know.

[Roger]

Constantine was NBC. And then it went over there. Hundreds of monkeys. Super Chat says on the AC remake, I would have loved the ability to for two hands, hand off the ship piloting to an npc. Otherwise it does look pretty great. Interesting. I think that was like pretty much the funnest part of the game.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

It's like. What makes that unique.

[Roger]

Yeah. Just having like.

[Barrett Courtney]

Or are you saying like maybe like auto sale? Kind of like a auto. Like horse riding and stuff. Not necessarily like battles. I could see that. Like I. I understand.

[Mike]

I like that. So I could appreciate it. Take some cool screenshots.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah, I love, love taking screenshots, Mike.

[Mike]

I do it.

[Roger]

Joshua Bowen. A bit of WE news. Lego Party devs had to find a new backend provider for their multiplayer as their former Hathora was bought up by an AI firm. Fireworks AI well, sucks for that.

[Mike]

But I like those devs a lot for switching over to us. We like that game.

[Roger]

Shout out to them though. Really quick. Please get us a Switch 2 version. Like we have this game on. I just need the Switch 2 version. That game rules. Okay. We got T. Das he super chatted a few times but said we need Binks Brew One Piece Shanty dlc. I don't know what that means. I can't.

[Barrett Courtney]

I can't have Binks's brew in. In Assassin's Crew. That'd be great because like not just like Mikey. We have a kind of anime to record in a couple weeks. And like that episode is going to be us talking about pretty much getting almost halfway through One Piece. And so like we're gonna talk about Banks's Brew. But like anytime I hear that song, I want to cry.

[Mike]

It's a great song.

[Barrett Courtney]

I want to burst out into tears.

[Mike]

They should put that in there.

[Barrett Courtney]

I can't.

[Roger]

Falcon. Super Chat says no. He's lying. All the AI CEOs are lying. That pebble and grass stuff is just procedural generation that has existed long before this crap. That's very true.

[Mike]

Trying to sell the AI of like.

[Roger]

That's right.

[Mike]

I'm making a lie.

[Roger]

Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

Because they weren't being specific.

[Roger]

He was the same example. Yeah, I think he was using it as a fuck ass example. I'm not saying that that is happening. I'm saying he's probably right in terms of people are using AI I Don't think he's lying that he talked to a bunch of developers and they all said yeah, we're using AI in some.

[Barrett Courtney]

Did he talk to a lot of developers or. Or are we talking to a lot of executives who are also like that? That's where you get into the whole like that's fair. What the fuck are we doing? And are we differentiating between the different types of AI and are we actually talking to the people who are actually making the games or are we talking to the other execs and investor types who are just, you know, wanting that nice sniff of the. I don't know where the category is going, but like you know. You know what I'm saying.

[Roger]

I know what you're saying. Aaron Lime says tomodachi life is super selling super well. Yep. Talking about exactly what we were talking about before. Why I don't buy Greg's argument about PS5 and family games make the space and family show up. It sounds a little bit different, but I agree not Calvin Perez. Lorelei is amazing. Great game to play with someone sitting next to you taking notes. Same as Payne's Creek killings. Never heard of that one.

[Mike]

I wish I had someone to sit next to me.

[Roger]

One more, maybe two more super chats Bode L y K We knew some Tom Warren scoop circulating right now. Microsoft gaming as a division is no more. Xbox's focus branding now. We'll talk about that tomorrow on.

[Mike]

Yeah, I just pulled it up there. I'm sure we'll talk about it in a little bit.

[Roger]

Yep. And then Phil the trucker says Google's statement is self serving. We have more games released yearly than we can play. We don't need AI for more quantity. We need devs getting a higher wage for better quality. AI dilutes art and pay. Fucking preach. I love that. That is the final super chat.

[Mike]

Let's jump into. You're wrong. Of course we ask you while you're watching us live here on twitch and on YouTube to keep us honest by going to your wrong. Anytime that we screw things up and we only have one you're wrong. And it's not even a you're wrong. Just my friend Jeppo writes in and says mike when are we doing a Dangan Rompa games cast and will you be on it? No, I've never played a Dangan Rompa.

[Roger]

Maybe by two by two I'll put

[Mike]

it in my back pocket. You never know. I've been playing a lot of video games. Chat let me know. Of course this has kind of been kind of funny games daily kind of been.

[Roger]

I like that. That's really good. We might have to add that.

[Mike]

If you love what we do, consider supporting us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to help keep the lights and mics on to get the shows ad free. And get your daily exclusive show from Greg, which is also me. I have a lot of shows to do today.

[Roger]

We have a lot of.

[Mike]

Oh man, I forgot that. So we gotta keep this going. Chat. We will be back with the Gamescast right after a fun run of the buzz and a reset. We'll see you on that one. If you gotta go. Hey, guess what? It's been our pleasure to serve you. You can't reason with the sun. Trust us, we've tried. This summer, it's time to put that angry ball of fire on mute. Columbia's Omnishade technology is engineered to protect you from the sun's harsh rays that can burn and damage your skin. The sun is relentless, but so is our gear. Level up your [e-mail] to spend more time outside and less time slathering on aloe lotion. You're welcome, Columbia. Engineered for whatever.