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Kinda Funny Games Daily: Video Games News Podcast
The Witcher 4, Elden Ring: Nightrein New Details After TGAs - Kinda Funny Games Daily 12.13.24
01:08:12
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- [00:02]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime. There's nothing sweeter than baking cookies during the holidays. With Prime, I get all my ingredients delivered right to my door, fast and free. No last minute store trips needed. And of course I blast my favorite holiday playlist on Amazon Music. It's the ultimate soundtrack for creating unforgettable memories. From streaming to shopping. It's on Prime. Visit Amazon.comprime to get more out of whatever you're into. Today's stories include the Game awards recapped. Geralt is confirmed to be in the Witcher 4 and Elden Ring Night Rain has bosses from other fromsoft games. While all this and more because this is kind of Funny Games Daily. Yo, what's up? Welcome to Kind of Funny Games daily for Friday, December 13, 2024. I'm one of your hosts. Bless Addie OA Jr. Joining me is the master of hype, Snowbike Mike. Bless.
- [01:02]
Snowbike Mike
Happy Friday, big dog. Happy Friday spending with you, getting ready for the weekends coming hot off of the Game Awards 2024. It has been a fun end to the week. We're looking at one more week of content here. Kind of funny before we go on break for the holidays.
- [01:17]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
It's a very good time. Very good time. How are you feeling? Like is your energy up after last night or I know you're here late playing.
- [01:22]
Snowbike Mike
We, we stayed late, me and Greg Miller until about midnight here on the west coast. Best coast playing Hell divers. Two new updates. I'm feeling good. Bless. You know me, I usually stay up late anyways so I've, I've turned on here after games cased games games cast. Thank you. But I'm turning on right now. I'm a little tired but I'm feeling still good.
- [01:41]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
- [01:42]
Snowbike Mike
Because I got a lot of things I want to do. Oh yeah. I want to take flight. Microsoft flight sim. I want to play Marvel Rivals with my best friends. I want to rank up in Call of Duty. I want to play more Indiana.
- [01:50]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I want to play more that Fortnite ballistics.
- [01:52]
Snowbike Mike
I want to play more Fortnite. I can't rest. Bless. Okay, I'll rest when I'm dead.
- [01:58]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
We're gonna play my magic. We gotta play magic. That's all I can think about. Being introduced to magic was such a detour for what I thought my December was gonna be because I've just, I've not been getting shit done. I had plans, I had games I wanted to play. I wanted to catch up on things during the year. I still, I've I've not had a game that I have procrastinated on playing more than Prince of Persia, the Lost Crown. And I'm at the point where I'm just like, give it up. Like, I. Maybe I'm just not gonna play it by game of the year.
- [02:24]
Snowbike Mike
You know What? You're right, Bl. I opened up about 14 packs of Magic cards two nights ago because of you. And as I'm reading all the cards descriptions, I'm seeing the beautiful art on each one of them. I'm putting them in sleeves. All I'm thinking about is what deck can I build? How can me and Bless just sit down and just look at all these cards, shuffle through them, organize them, build decks, play against each other. How do we just play magic?
- [02:48]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Like, there's not really a real way that I can track my hours in playing magic because it is a physical game along with the amount of arena I'm playing. But, like, if I think about it this way, my Steam hours for Magic arena say probably around 30 hours. And I am playing a lot on my phone as well.
- [03:04]
Snowbike Mike
That's awesome.
- [03:05]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And so I am playing. I'm playing probably maybe equal on my phone or maybe close to equal on my phone. So let's say maybe I have at least 40, 50 hours in magic Arena. Then you add in the hours I'm playing in person. Your mic. Your mic is all freaking out. Oh, God. You plug it in. Hello? Hello? Check 1, 2. Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? Yeah, we can hear you. I think it came out. I think it might have came out. But, yeah, like, if I. If I factor in the physical times that I played Magic, I played a lot of magic opening packs.
- [03:39]
Snowbike Mike
Bless.
- [03:40]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I spent a lot of hours playing.
- [03:42]
Snowbike Mike
Assassin's Creed packs, a little bit of the Jurassic park packs. It's been fun. Bless.
- [03:47]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I'm a different person than I was earlier this year, Mike, because it's for the better. Because right now, it is magic. It is wrestling.
- [03:54]
Snowbike Mike
Wrestling.
- [03:54]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
It is anime. That's not who I was in January.
- [03:58]
Snowbike Mike
I love that. Bless.
- [03:59]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I'm a different person.
- [03:59]
Snowbike Mike
I love that. And you know what else I'm going to play this weekend? Y'all have been talking so much about it. Everybody's been hyping it up. I downloaded the demo for Metaphor. I'm going to play through the demo of Metaphor.
- [04:09]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Wow.
- [04:10]
Snowbike Mike
Because remember, 2024 was stepping out of the box. Mike isn't in the box anymore. He's trying all sorts of games. So I'm going to. I'm going to beat the demo and I don't know if I'll play the whole game, but I'm at least going to play the demo.
- [04:20]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
All right, we'll see. I'm proud of you, of course. Remember, this is kind of funny Games daily. Each and every weekday we run you through the nerdy news you need to know about live on YouTube, Twitch and on podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, support us with the kind of funny membership on patreon or on YouTube to get all of our shows ad free. Watch us accord them live and get a daily exclusive show for a chance to be a part of the show. Submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats as we go. Housekeeping for you. We're an 11 person business all about live talk shows. You just got a games cast, which is the fantasy critic finale. One of us won that trophy right there. We're doing this out of order because guys of course had to go see Craven today so we had to get them out the door quicker.
- [05:03]
Snowbike Mike
Pretty jealous of that.
- [05:04]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah. So you can go check out that episode of Games Cast. Right now is khd. And then after kfc, if you're watching live is the stream where the crew is going to play some of that Fortnite. If you're a kind of funny member, you can get today's Greg Way and you can get Craven in review this afternoon and tomorrow on YouTube and podcast services. Thank you to our Patreon producers Delaney Twining and Carl Jacobs. Today we're brought to you by Imperial and Aura Frames, but we'll tell you about that later. For now, let's begin with what is and forever will be the Roper report. It's time for some news. We have five stories today. Five stories, starting with our number one. We got the game awards recapped. Of course. We did a live reaction. We did our big games cast talking about each and every one of these items one by one.
- [05:58]
Snowbike Mike
I want to do massive games cast.
- [05:59]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Massive games cast. I want to do a quick, you know, run through of the notes I took. So I'm going to miss out on some things because there are points during the game awards where I got so excited that I stopped taking notes. Okay. But I got most of everything in here and like chat. You can shout at me if I forgot anything made. But then I just want to have an overall conversation a day later. Okay. One day later. Okay. I'm going to put out the super chat question out there too. If you guys want to write in what was Missing from the Game Awards for you? I'm curious because we got so much, but I always know that people always want more. So for you, what was something that wasn't at the Game Awards that you would have liked to see at the Game Awards and something that you want to see soon? Going through the announcements though, we got Ninja Gaiden, Ragebound, that's coming from the Blasphemous devs and Dr. Moo and that's coming out summer 2025. We got one move away. We have Slay the Spire to a new trailer that's coming out in early access in 2025. We got Dave the Diver in the Jungle, which is a new DLC coming late 2025. We got Vegas Thieves Shadow Labyrinth, which is that Pac man game. We got Steel paws that's coming 2025 in partnership with Netflix Games. We got Tales of the Shire that has a March 25th release date. Midnight Murder Club, the new game from Vellon got another trailer and it's an open beta right now. Kiora is a new game from the Core Keeper dev that looks kind of like Terraria. Rematch was announced. Coming from Slow Clap, which are the devs of Sifu and Absolver. That's coming summer 2025. It's a soccer game. Let's fucking go. We got Solasta 2 the Witcher 4 got its first reveal, its first trailer starring Ciri of course. Coming from CD Projekt Red. After that was Elden Ring Night Rain, the new co op standalone Elden Ring game coming out in 2025. After that was Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth coming to PC. That's coming January 23rd. We got Catly. We got the new gen design game or gen design, I'm not sure. But that is the team Eco folks. It is their next game that involves mechs somehow and it looks fucking cool and I'm all about it. Outer Worlds 2 is coming in 2025. Split Fiction was announced. It's a Joseph Ferris and Hayes light game that's coming March 2025. We got game Changer, which was the new kind of award given to somebody in our industry who is the game changer which which came with a very very good speech. Steel Hunters was announced. The long Dark 2 was announced. Borderlands 4 got a trailer. Clive is coming to Tekken 8. Virtual Fighter, the new one is coming just got announced. Project Century was announced. Kojima came on stage. Turok Origins was announced. Helldivers 2 got a huge update that is out now. Warframe 1999 was shown off we got pal World Fae break announced for December 23rd. Onamusha Way of the Sword was announced for 2026. Made Tim go crazy. The first Berserker Kazan was announced for March 27th. Arad Dungeon and Fighter was announced. Dying Light the Beast got a trailer. Hunt Showdown Murder Circus got a trailer. We got Stage Fright which got a trailer. Game of Thrones Kings Road a cool third person action adventure that we learned was from on mobile and made us all go. Oh oh. Sonic Racing Cross Worlds was announced and shown off. Mafia the Old country got a summer 2025 window. Dispatch was announced for 2025. It is a game from people formerly of Telltale and it stars a lot of people that you know. Okami the sequel was announced and it's coming from Capcom and Kamiya somehow. And lastly, Intergalactic the Heretic Prophet was announced and got got a big showing. It has a soundtrack from Trent Reznor. That's the new Naughty Dog game. It's been in development since 2020 is starring top T Gabrielle.
- [09:30]
Snowbike Mike
Nice.
- [09:30]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
God damn.
- [09:31]
Snowbike Mike
God damn.
- [09:32]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And that is the game Awards announcements. We're going to go through the winners, but I'm going to pause here for a second. Mike a day removed now from the Game Awards. How do all those announcements sit with you? Let's talk about them one by one.
- [09:43]
Snowbike Mike
The announcements were amazing, right? I'm still sticking with my 9.5 out of 10. Of course, I think the announcements overshined the awards themselves and where we really were coming for. But at the end of the day, this was an incredible announcement. This was an awesome lineup that rivaled any showcase we had ever seen, right? For 10 years of the Game Awards, Geoff Keighley worked with all these different developers and companies to come together and give us every announcement, teaser trailer, trailer that you could ever ask for. It was too much. It was a lot right there. You just named all that and I'm sure you got tired reading all of it, right?
- [10:18]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And I know I missed things too.
- [10:19]
Snowbike Mike
It was crazy, I will say, like it was awesome. Blessed. There's so many games to talk about. It was a great time sprinkled in with the of course awards that I'm a big stickler for. I think Jeff has taken all that criticism, he's taken all of the feedback and said, okay, let me find the perfect balance. And I think the balance was just a little heavy on the announcement side. But I think next year, I mean.
- [10:42]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I want to dig into it on the money because of course you mentioned that yesterday during the show. And because there's so much to talk about, we don't always get to dig into things kfc. We got all the space in the world. So I want to, I want to dig into that because Mike, me and you are hired at Kind of Funny as host slash producers.
- [10:55]
Snowbike Mike
Yes.
- [10:55]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Right. And I feel like we both, we both have that production side to us that wants to, like, tweak things, that want, that want to make things better, that like, can see the vision as far as what the dream version of the thing can be. So for you, putting your production hat on, what, what are the tweaks you would make to make sure that the show wings aren't overshadowing the awards for you?
- [11:16]
Snowbike Mike
I think I would just take a couple away. I think when you read that list, there's just too many. I think we got lost in the sauce of the announcements and the trailers and the world premieres and it was exciting, don't get me wrong. But we definitely put a backseat to the awards. And I think the issue for me is if you ask people coming out of that award show, if you ask people who watched it, they would probably be hard pressed to tell you who most of the winners were, if not maybe one or two categories. And I think that was where I've always appreciated the game awards and shows like Dice, where it's, oh, we get to see the hardworking human beings that make the games that we love go up on stage, get their flowers or spend that moment of like, here's the nominees and pan across. You know, we talked about it on the Gamescast, how you would improve the game awards. And I know I was a little more quiet on that, but I do think complimenting that with maybe a red carpet kind of opening interview would maybe benefit a show that was so announcement heavy might have been a little bit better of, hey, we got all the different developers coming down on a red carpet. You can see them live and in person, they talk a little bit. We get to know and see them more than, hey, these are just faces on a screen that come on for half a second or, hey, I don't really know who makes the games that I love. I want to get to know them more. I think that would be a better compliment to this. And that was what I was going to add. But yeah, I mean, also at the same time, like, you have a legend in Faker who wins Esports athlete of the Year again, right? This is a guy who is like at the top of his class, who has dominated the League of Legends world for decades, right? And like, no sign of Faker. Now, I'm sure it's very tough to organize travel, get someone over here like that. But, like, that's an award that like just comes and goes and no one ever thinks about. I do think there's like four that could probably be tossed out. That's one of the. Doesn't really match the show. But, like, if you're going to have it on there, Faker should probably be in the building receiving the award. That guy is like the goat of video games here. So, yeah, that's my only complaint about it all. I think when you do the announcements, if you want the hype moments, Jeff nailed it. That was too much. It was amazing.
- [13:17]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, yeah, I hear exactly what you're talking about.
- [13:20]
Snowbike Mike
Right?
- [13:20]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And like, I think it's tough to figure out how to fit. Fit in in a way that allows people to who are watching to care and not feel like it's being drawn out or not feel like it is. Oh, man. All right, like, here's the dip in the show. Because usually when there is the dip in the show is usually Jeff and the bills. Bills, right? It's usually like, okay, here's the Zenless trailer.
- [13:40]
Snowbike Mike
Stand up, go use the restroom, walk away from this.
- [13:42]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Here are the commercials, here's the mobile stuff that's going to come out and come through. I think yesterday's show for me was the most tightly produced and like, I think best paced show. And I totally, I totally hear you. And with you as far as there is a leaning more towards the announcements than the awards. But I think this also goes back to the Greg Greg conversation that we had during our how to Fix the Game Awards conversation. Our games cast, which was Greg being like, yo, you're looking at a duck and wondering why it's not a chicken or whatever the fuck he said, right? Like, I think, I do think that the way in which they dish out the words awards kind of is the duck portion of what this is, right? Like, this is about the hype. This is about, like Jeff throwing all of his production effort into a thing and he's trying to make something that is as entertaining to watch. And I think the thing that I do appreciate about it is that I think more so than all the previous years of the Game Awards, it did feel like I was getting speeches that I was invested in. I was getting moments like the game changer thing, I was getting killed. The orchestra killed it. But I do think that you, you might, you might be onto something. As far as the Like a red carpet situation. Yeah, I like that they call the Open the opening act. The opening act. I think that maybe that does give room to a 30 minute portion before that. That is the pre show and that could be a red carpet. Let's talk to the developers. Let's actually talk to the studios. Like I know me and you. I assume maybe I'll speak for myself. Right. I don't need to see that many celebrities. Like it's always fun to see Snoop Dogg and all that stuff. I get more excited about hearing what Sven Drink has to say from the Baldur's Gate team. Right. Like, I get more. I get excited to hear what the. I didn't write down his name, but the guy who won Game Changers and gave such a great speech. I loved hearing what he had to say or what Nicholas Doucet had to say about, um, how much he loves Nintendo when he's accepting the award for Astrobot. For me, those are the best moments of the game awards. When you're talking about personalities being given a microphone. Yeah, like those are the best moments. We should be able to figure out how to make more of those moments happen as opposed to a celebrity on stage going on and on about whatever it is.
- [15:48]
Snowbike Mike
I like that. Well, let's get back to the fun because I'm sure people don't want to just hear me critique about the award winners. Let's talk about the cool announcements for just a little bit because yeah, that's where we're going. There was some really great ones there. Bless. I mean, too many to go over. But I will highlight one. I'm still blown away that we are getting rematch the Sifu soccer game. I cannot believe that there was a meeting where this team came together and they said, how do we follow up Sifu? And someone raised their hands and was like, let's make a soccer game that is such a big bet on yourselves. Let's make something that we're passionate about type idea. When we live in such a world of like, no, you would follow up Sifu with the sifu too, because that's going to sell and people are going to want to jump by that now you kind of go, well, we're betting on ourselves to make something great here. We got to prove to the world that we can make a soccer game in 2024 and beyond. Which is insane to think about right now with a game like FIFA who dominates the conversation. You have these very small, just tiny sports games that don't really break out. I think of three on Three freestyle. Right. Which is very similar to what this game will be. It's like, can that break the mold and be bigger than what it is, or is it just going to come and go? I'm very interested to see this, but the announcement is hype, right? Because you think of Sifu like you brought up the movement, the controls, the art style. Right. It has the making of like, oh, I could understand it being a soccer game. I could see them doing this.
- [17:12]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
- [17:12]
Snowbike Mike
Can they nail that?
- [17:13]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I mean, I think I'm so fascinated by the talent of that team and how well I think that could transit. Translate to a sports thing.
- [17:22]
Snowbike Mike
Right.
- [17:22]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Because like, I know when we say. When we say action game, Sifu was an action game.
- [17:26]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah.
- [17:26]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Oftentimes when you hear the word action, you think about fist flying, you think about guns blazing, you think about somebody getting stabbed.
- [17:33]
Snowbike Mike
Right.
- [17:33]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
You think about like violent actions. But I think when you. When you're talking about video game design, I think action is even more so. Like, I guess the mechanic translation of pressing a button and action happening on screen. And so in Sifu, you press a button and you punch, you press a button and you dodge. You press a button and you roll. You do. You do whatever. Right. Like, what that comes down to are mechanics feeling good in action. I think that translates so well to a sports thing.
- [18:01]
Snowbike Mike
Right.
- [18:01]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Like, it doesn't have. I think just because they're not making a game that's not punching doesn't mean that them making a game that is about a sport or whatever isn't going to translate as. As cleanly. I think it's actually a very clean translation of their skills. And I'm super excited for it because I think. I think there is the side of it as far as. What was the game you mentioned? 3v3 freestyle. Yep, freestyle. Like, we see a lot of those sports games that are like the more arcadey ones, I think, come and go and try and fail. This to me feels more along the lines of Rocket League meets FIFA pro clubs in a way that I'm like, that's genius.
- [18:34]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah.
- [18:35]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
That has potential to go big. And one of the reasons I really like this is this is a team that doesn't strike me as we got to do this for the money or we're doing this to like, get a bigger player base so we can pay the bills or whatever. Of course they've tried and failed with multiplayer stuff. Like Absolver came out and Absolver was the game before Sifu. That was their multip. It was essentially multiplayer Sifu and I tried that shit and I was like, ah, this ain't it for me. And it feels like I. I don't think I heard many people talk about that game beyond that. Right. They've tried and failed with that. And I think for me, fifu, which is what I want to call it, this game feels like a. A more of a passion project than a we got to pay the bills sort of thing. I think they really want to make a multiplayer, like, fun action thing happen for them. And so I'm really. I'm really rooting for it.
- [19:17]
Snowbike Mike
There's so many blasts. I mean, you go to the Witcher with the big trailer, the big CGI trailer, of course. I mean, it's wild that Jeff Keighley got CD Projekt Red to give him something so all out. I don't think any of us. You and I were on the story of Kind of Funny Games Daily when they announced the next part of the Witcher going into full development. I don't think anyone thought that they were going to be at the Game Awards a week later with such a big showing. Right. And the excitement of it's going to be now the main character of Siri and we're going to follow her as we go on her Witcher journey right from the beginning and onward. Like, that's going to be a wild saga to go off of. And I'm very happy with the character choice. I'm CD Projekt Red. We talked about the learnings of, of course, cyberpunk and moving forward on that and how well that has now become. I'm excited to see what the next saga of the Witcher can be. That's going to be a great time.
- [20:05]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah. I think there, I mean, there's so much to talk about, of course, Games cast. We talked about this all already. So much. The one I wanted to talk about. I'll shout out of Elden Ring, Night Ring or Night Rain. I got so many thoughts and like, I think there's so much there that could have potential. Even though for me, this is the one that is like a. Are you paying the bills here? Like an Elden Ring, Like Co op Roguelite? Like you're going to mash up some of the other games. I love it. But I'm also like, what a weird. This doesn't feel like a I. It's just such a weird choice as far as what you're doing with this IP here. I love it because this sounds like my exact type of shit. I'm going to play the shit out of this game. Hopefully if it comes together and it's clean, it's good. Which come on. It's from software so you expect it to be. But it is such a weird.
- [20:51]
Snowbike Mike
Wow.
- [20:52]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I wouldn't expect this from them. But we're going to talk about that later because there is a story about Eldon Ring that was a wild one.
- [20:57]
Snowbike Mike
Of like we just came off of last week as well. Them talking about next DLC for Elder Ring, how they were like, no, there's no more DLC for that. We're going to move on to the next one. I didn't think we'd see an Elden Ring multiplayer game that mismatches different Dark Souls bosses and areas as well. This is going to be a lot of fun to see this come together. I like the test subject of what does it look like multiplayer. How do we really blend this a little more smoothly than what I've experienced with Andy and Kevin. A sex when we usually play multiplayer Dark Souls and Elden Ring. I'm pumped up for this. This is going to be. That's a win in my book. Another one, Dispatch. Right. Dispatch was very exciting to me. I've always loved the Telltale Games. I've loved those. Choose your adventure games. And the idea of these superheroes with that art style. Aaron Paul, of course in there. That is a cool mix up of a lot of great voice actors and talents with a fun story. I'm interested in that one. That one's.
- [21:52]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I've missed Telltale Games. Right. Like I'm me. Me and Greg and you know, Janet and folks are super into games like Life is Strange and I think there's something that is. I don't know, there's something that is very charming about games that are about making those choices and stories that feel unique in video games. Stories that stand out because they're going for something that you can't really maybe get out of an action game or like other genres. Right. Hey, let's do a narrative. Choose your own adventure story game that is giving us something that we might not be able to replicate in other ways. This one looks super unique. I love the art style. I love the overall tone and tenor of it. The cast they have is insane. The. I love the games that they mentioned too because they're what they say they said. From the makers of Tales from the Borderlands. And I forget the. Oh, they said Wolf Among Us.
- [22:37]
Snowbike Mike
Wolf Among Us.
- [22:38]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And I actually haven't played Wolf Among Us. I probably should. But I love Tales from the Borderlands and I think if you're shouting out video games of hey, these are the things that we've worked on. I feel like those two in particular, I know Wolf Among Us has like a very strong fan base and Tales of the Borderlands people, I think love and respect the writing in that game because it's very funny and very good and so I have faith in that one.
- [22:57]
Snowbike Mike
There are so many announcements.
- [22:58]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, I want to, I want to bring in some super chats because of course I asked you guys what was missing from the Game Awards. Calvin Perez writes in and says, I would have loved a moment to have Sam Lake introduce who's adapting Alan Wake at Annapurna. I'd love Sam to do instead of just a trade report. I don't know what you mean by the last part, but yes, that would have been cool to see more from Sam Lake and what that team is working on with Annapurna.
- [23:19]
Snowbike Mike
They were great with Sam Lake though. How he presented that award was a ton of fun.
- [23:23]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Joshua Barnett writes in and says thank you for being positive. Somehow the anti woke grifters have been calling this award show awful. And of course every game shown is woke.
- [23:34]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah, I mean we got to get away from that. That's just insane to I, I, I'm sorry. To everyone who has to open up Twitter and different social spaces and see that all the time because it's bullshit and ridiculous. Like games are fun. People who make games are awesome. We all share this great community together and we should be highlighting that. But of course that doesn't pay the bills. That doesn't push your social media engagement for some reason. Right. Saying congratulations to developers doesn't get you a bunch of likes as saying, oh man, I'm never going to play that game because there's a woman on it. It's like, that's bullshit.
- [24:05]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Especially when the game is the Witcher. Like being like being like, I'm not going to play the Witcher 4 because it stars Siri. That's the dumbest shit. It's like, bro, this is the dumbest shit.
- [24:17]
Snowbike Mike
Nothing but hey, CD Projekt Red this looks fucking awesome. Hey, Naughty dog. This is amazing. Hey, Molina, congratulations on winning voice Actor of the year. You were so talented. Hey, freaking shout out to Astrobot. Winning game of the year. That game was so much fun. I never see that on my feed.
- [24:34]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
- [24:34]
Snowbike Mike
See a bunch of crybabies.
- [24:35]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
That's why you got to get off Twitter, man.
- [24:37]
Snowbike Mike
Well, I'm just saying that's the way it's become and it Sucks that, like, in a social space where it should be positive, like, that positivity is not pushed. And when you're positive, for some reason, you're called a positivity peddler and you're made fun of and it's like, yo, bro, that's not the circles I run in.
- [24:51]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
We got to.
- [24:51]
Snowbike Mike
I'm here to. I'm here to share the enthusiasm. Here to hear your enthusiasm. I'm here to have the fun with it.
- [24:57]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah. Gotta be pushing P, Mike, push. You gotta be pushing P. And that's the thing is I think there's a. There's a large conversation that we can have about spaces online and in the world, in real, real life and stuff. Right? Because I think for me and you, we've been to conventions, we've been to packs, we've been to game awards, we've been to places where we're seeing people face to face. And guess what? We meet so many great people and we meet so many people that are like, oh, no, these are the people that play video games that are passionate in that care and that, like, man, there are so many normal people, right? There are so many good people that love video games. I'll venture to say that most people that play video games, normal people, right? Like, there it is. Pockets of people in specific spaces online that are the ones that are, you know, vocally being like, oh, anti woke shit, right? Or trying to grift other people. And we got to like, take them and put them in a fucking vacuum and have them yell at each other and like, escape it.
- [25:52]
Snowbike Mike
Right? We got to do the new TikTok trend where we just don't engage with them and we just. We just leave them behind. You know what I mean? They'd be doing that to TikTok now.
- [25:59]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
If we can like, put them all in a fucking, fucking bubble, have them yell each other and then kick the bubble to space.
- [26:03]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah.
- [26:03]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And then like poke a. Poke a hole in the bubble. Let all the air fucking. But yeah, it's, it's. It's a sucky thing that I think Twitter has become that, right? Like, it's been such a boom to my mental health. Going to other places and not opening up Twitter in a day and, like, I just feel better.
- [26:22]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah.
- [26:22]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
You know, my brain is not taken up by.
- [26:25]
Snowbike Mike
I've always been lucky because I have all of you and the awesome community that we have, but I've always come from that 9 to 5 workspace where you've bonded with the three other people that play video games. And the coolest part for me has always been coming off of E3 or the game Awards, where I would look forward to going into work the next day because I get to hear what Steezy Steve has to say about that, what Daryl thought, what James thought. It was always fun of, like, we get to come in and share this enthusiasm. And I was always excited of, like, where are my fellow nerds at? We're going to get to talk about this. And that was what made it fun for me. So I hope all of you out there in the real world have people in your world, in your sphere that you get to go talk to and share. It sucks that, like, you know, we've gone through a lot with a COVID lockdown to now we're trying to get back out into the world that a lot of people don't have that around them. And so social media is that for people.
- [27:13]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And it's like there's a large conversation as far as, you know, people being lonely, right? People not having people in their real life that they can connect with, people not having friends or people not, like, oftentimes, I think loneliness and like, lack of therapy and lack of access to, I guess those resources make you turn to the Internet, right? Make you turn to creators that might be speaking to your insecurities and allowing you to connect with them because they are angry about something. And so you can connect with them because you're angry about something. And guess what they're angry about women being. Being put as main characters in video games or they're mad about, oh, man, white people are being taken out of main character roles or whatever, and you go, oh, man, that's something that I can be mad about. Me and this person connect and really what it comes down to is that you're lonely, right? And you don't have people to connect with. And that sucks. I think that's the thing that really breaks my heart is that there are so many people where if you just were able to connect with more people in your real life, it would be so much better for you. You wouldn't have to fall down this rabbit hole. And like, we can get into politics. We want to, but there's. It breaks my heart so much, and I wish better for people. And I'm.
- [28:16]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah, thanks for the super chat. Bring me, bring me back let's bring.
- [28:18]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
It back let's bring it back let's.
- [28:19]
Snowbike Mike
Bring it back Bring me back.
- [28:21]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Let's see here. Joshua Mitchell says, be careful on the packs. Mike. The cardboard crack is very strong.
- [28:29]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah, I have a problem. I have a problem. And Blessing. Blessing brought back the problem because he was like, oh, man, I gotta be opening up packs. And I, you know, I've been holding on to my packs.
- [28:39]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
- [28:39]
Snowbike Mike
For this day where we all get together for magic. So now I have packs open. I'm so excited. We'll do it together. It'll be more fun. We have magic here.
- [28:46]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
It was very dangerous introducing me to magic. I just need you to know that, Mike, I don't know where this one.
- [28:51]
Snowbike Mike
If we were riding the high of Pokemon TCG Pocket, so you were already so into, hey, give me a new card game. Let's do this. To then introduce you to magic. It was like, oh, let's keep this going. Right. Were you ever into Hearthstone? I loved Hearthstone back.
- [29:06]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I remember trying Hearthstone, but it didn't click for me. I know.
- [29:08]
Snowbike Mike
One of my favorites.
- [29:09]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I know right now, if I played Hearthstone, I'm sure crazy with Hearthstone, I would be going nuts.
- [29:13]
Snowbike Mike
I mean, the announcement of the Witcher. More Gwent.
- [29:16]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I know.
- [29:17]
Snowbike Mike
More Gwent.
- [29:18]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
There's a new Yu Gi oh collection coming out early next year. We're gonna play that, too. I'm not. I don't think I talked about the riot card game that they announced. That's gonna be.
- [29:26]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah, we'll. We got a lot of card games. We'll talk about it.
- [29:28]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Jeff Bull says, I convinced myself Half Life would be there. I blue balled myself. I saw that going around a lot, and I saw people disappointed that Half Life 3 wasn't there. And I need y'all to look inward and think about that. It's Half Life 3, guys. You can't be mad that Half Life 3 isn't showing.
- [29:43]
Snowbike Mike
You know what? We were riding a high, though. Like, Jeff had an incredible slate of announcements, and we were. We were on this tear for, like, two and a half to three hours, where at the very end, you could have believed anything was going to come on stage. And we did, like, on. Throughout that entire show, you were at the 90% mark and going, he could have anything.
- [30:01]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yep.
- [30:01]
Snowbike Mike
He was about to bring out Snoop Dogg for Def Jam. And I was going to be like, oh, my God, it's back. That was going to be crazy.
- [30:06]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yep.
- [30:07]
Snowbike Mike
That's how high we were riding that. It was a great time.
- [30:10]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Or El Sanchez says, for me, TJ's were missing a montage of the best awards moments from the past 10 years. One of them to celebrate their own history a little more. I think that's. I Think that's very good feedback.
- [30:19]
Snowbike Mike
That's very well said.
- [30:20]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
That would have been really cool to see. Yeah. Like even if it is just a three minute thing of the best award acceptance speeches. We can see Greg accepting his speech. We can see like the game maybe I was going to say like the Elden Ring accepting their game of the year. Maybe not that one because the weird thing that happened there but like I think, I think that would have been awesome to get some kind of montage of the game.
- [30:37]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah, that would have been nice. That would have been a good pre show opener right there. But yeah, maybe, maybe one day we'll see that. I'm sure Jeff has that in his back pocket probably at the 20 year mark.
- [30:47]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I'm sure they discussed that that had to be had been in the meeting.
- [30:50]
Snowbike Mike
Those early years, you know with Spike and the Hydro Bot.
- [30:54]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
We can, we can probably you know.
- [30:56]
Snowbike Mike
To the side we get the good years here.
- [30:59]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Bam writes in and says thank you all. You made an amazing game awards a 10 to an 11 because of you all. Maybe show people get their awards even when they don't do a speech. Yeah, I mean we just, we talked about that earlier. All about the like hey, best action. All right. Best fighting. All right onto the next one.
- [31:16]
Snowbike Mike
Right.
- [31:16]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And like you'll. You kind of move on with the categories and you don't get to even see the winners. It'd be cool to at least yeah. See them get handed award or something.
- [31:24]
Snowbike Mike
It's the bounce that we always talk about and I spoke about and I know a lot of people are more on the side of gimme the announcements as I'm on the side of I want the awards and I want that. But like it will always be a bounce that Jeff and his team will continue to tweak. Right. Some years it's going to be a little more award heavy. Sometimes it's going to be a little more announcement heavy and he's going to find that balance. This year was their best. He continues to improve. That's all you can say.
- [31:46]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Mike, I want to talk about the winners from last night but before I do I want to talk to you, the audience about how you can be a winner by going to patreon.com kind of funny and YouTube.com kind of funny games so you can go and get the kind of funny membership which allows you to get shows ad free. Speaking of ads, let us tell you.
- [32:02]
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- [34:11]
Snowbike Mike
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- [34:41]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Focus Features invites you to succumb to.
- [34:43]
Snowbike Mike
The darkness from director Robert Eggers Comes.
- [34:47]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
A masterpiece of horror.
- [34:49]
Snowbike Mike
He is coming. This creature is a force more powerful than evil. It is death itself.
- [35:02]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Faratu we did R under 17 nanometer without parent only theaters Christmas day special engagements in dolby and imax. And we're back. Mike, let's talk about the winners. I want to go through all the winners of the awards from last night, starting with players voice that was given to black myth Wukong. The game changer award. I meant we talked about earlier. That was won by the one and only Amir Satan. What was that? Kevin, do you want to go in order of this or like, do you have an article? No, I'm going from bottom up just because I would like to end with game of the year.
- [35:35]
Snowbike Mike
Okay, cool, cool, cool, cool.
- [35:36]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Best esports team was T1.
- [35:38]
Snowbike Mike
What's up? Let me go back to that game changer award really fast. I know we've spoken multiple times about it, but like, just to reiterate, if you are listening or watching this podcast right now, if anything you take away from this, you should go watch that. That whole segment. You should learn about this gentleman and how awesome he is. You should learn about what he has done for the video game industry as a whole. You should listen to the speech. This is the only thing right here out of the whole game awards that you would love every person to retain and go, oh, I should make sure I check this out and acknowledge that.
- [36:10]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
1000 and I think it's a good answer. So, you know, of course I'm part of the game awards feature class. I wanted a few years ago when they first introduced the program, congratulations. There's been a lot of feedback with the game awards feature class. Right? Like, the future class hasn't necessarily been always happy as far as like how it's been handled. And like, you know, last year there's the whole debacle of us, like the game awards future class section being placed behind a camera. Boom. And us not being able to see the stage. And like, those are tickets that we still pay for. Like, we get a discount, which is cool. But like, people are still paying money for those tickets. And like there I think there was enough feedback to that made Jeff and the team go, all right, what do we. How do we do this? What do we turn this into? Do we take away future class do a different thing? I think game changer, the way they just did it. Here is a good answer to the complaints that people had to future class.
- [36:55]
Snowbike Mike
He's done a fantastic job highlighting young voices like yourself and many others from the beginning of future class of hey, it seemed like a lot of games, media to content creators to developers. Then it felt like the next year was, hey, we're going to highlight developers. Actually that's where I want to be with this. So now this year, if this is going to be what it is, fantastic job.
- [37:15]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
- [37:15]
Snowbike Mike
And I think he's always done great.
- [37:17]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
On that figure just to speak to it more too. I think the big thing here that I do do love about game changers is it is about highlighting somebody, putting them on stage, giving them a microphone and allowing them to speak and allowing them to do something that, that inflicts change, that inspires people that actually feels like it matters. I think the problem with future class in the future Future class is a concept is it does feel like a, an award that is not even an award. Right. It feels like, I guess an honor. That is, hey, we got a bunch of people. Here's 30 people and they're diverse and put them on a webpage. All right, cool. Onto the next thing.
- [37:53]
Snowbike Mike
Right.
- [37:53]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And it almost feels like a, hey, here's how many diverse people that I can highlight as opposed to actually highlighting them in a way that matters. It's not. Last year there was a whole thing of members of the future class wanting to get that space to be able to talk about what's going on with the genocide in Gaza and what's going on with layoffs and other things. And it very much felt like the future class was ignored and not paid attention to. I think that made a lot of people mad and a lot of people upset. So I think this is the right way to do it the way you did it this year.
- [38:22]
Snowbike Mike
I'm sorry you felt like that. And that's how I'm not talking about me. No, no. Like on the outside, I like, I appreciate a future class because it put people on the map for me as just a general jabroni out in the streets. Right. It was very cool to say, hey, here's 30 people that you might want to know about that you should know about. And yeah, I wish you got further more than that.
- [38:40]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Right.
- [38:40]
Snowbike Mike
On the outside looking, it was very cool to be like, oh wow, I should probably look these people up and see what they do, follow them and see what they're all about.
- [38:47]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah. And like, obviously I think it's a good hearted concept and I think there are a lot of cool things about future class. Right. I think that first few years of it was like a. Oh man, it's nice to be acknowledged for something. Right. But I think when you take a deeper look at the program, it's one of those things where it is we can do this better and I think game changer is a better way of doing it.
- [39:03]
Snowbike Mike
Cool.
- [39:04]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
You got best esports athlete. That was won by Faker. Best esports.
- [39:08]
Snowbike Mike
The goat.
- [39:09]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
The goat right there.
- [39:10]
Snowbike Mike
The goats. Let's reiterate that he's the goat.
- [39:13]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Best esports game was League of Legends. Best VR game was Batman Arkham Shadow. Best sports slash racing was EA Sports FC 25. Best sim strategy game was Frostpunk 2. Best family game was Astrobot. Best community support was Baldur's Gate 3. Innovation in accessibility was Prince of the Lost Crown. Best fighting was Tekken 8. Best action was Black Myth Wukong. Best action adventure was Astrobot. Best content creator was Queso. Games for Impact. Winner was Neva. Best role playing game was Metaphor E Fantasio. Most anticipated was GTA 6. Debut indie was Balatro. Best independent game was Balatro. Best Multiplayer Helldivers 2. Best Adaptation was Fallout. Best Audio Hellblade 2. Best Score Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth performance was Molina Jurgens of Senua Saga. Hellblade 2. Best Narrative Metaphori Fantasio Mobile Balatro. Arc direction Metaphor Ongoing Helldivers two game direction Astrobot. And then the game of the year was Astrobot. Mike, how you feeling about these winners?
- [40:17]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah, fantastic. You tore through them. So I'll highlight a couple that really stuck out to me as I. As I would love to highlight and shout them out. Of course. Keeping it going here. Bless. I mean a big shout out to Balatro. Winning a couple of awards made by one person game is fantastic. So much fun. Awesome to see Balatro. This tiny little game about poker of all things up on the big six for the game awards in the medley. That is just wild to think that no matter who you are, no matter what size your game is, if it's great, it's going to be recognized and it can be up there. And that was a really special moment right there. Going on, of course you talked about best sports game. I know the world really was let down that college football wasn't in there. Right. Like I think college football should have been there. EA Sports FC continues to be a strong choice though. But college football should have been up on that one. Best sim. I loved Frost Punk. I thought that was a ton of fun.
- [41:11]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I'm.
- [41:12]
Snowbike Mike
I'm happy to see that highlighted right there. You go down the list. Of course, Camouflage games, we've had them multiple times on this, on the show, but Asgard draft Two, last year we highlighted how great of a VR experience that was to see Camouflage win with Batman, Arkham Shadows VR. There are games there that justify getting the headset or putting on the headset and trying at least. And Batman is definitely one of those. I thought that was really, really dope to see them get their recognition in flowers on that one. Baldur's Gate Best community support. Coming from game of the year last year to them being recognized as best community support, Pretty amazing, right? There's so many mods now in that game. Continues to get its flowers and love. People spending thousands of hours in that game, it's just absolutely insane. And a great speech from the head of that team over there, which is really, really good. I mean, and then the Astrobot game of the year, the speech was perfect, right?
- [42:05]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
- [42:05]
Snowbike Mike
This is going to be many people's first game and we're happy that we can be a part of it and give them something to play, share and love. And I loved that game. It is one of my favorite games of the year. Very few games made me smile, laugh and giggle like that game did. And so to see that go up against Black Myth, Elden ring, Final Fantasy 7 metaphor and win, that's pretty amazing. And yeah, that's third person platformer is always something that I think speaks to a lot of people, gets a lot more people engaged in into it because there's a low barrier of entry on that and it's just fun.
- [42:38]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, 1,000% agreed. Right. I think Balatro and Astrobot winning big were two of my favorite things in the game awards last night. Right. Like Balatro again to your point, being this small indie game about poker of all things, but being such a well developed game and being, I think something that took a lot of like the gaming audience by storm, well deserved and also just really cool that a game, a game that looks and plays like that can be honored to such an extent. And then with Astrobot, I really hope that this reverberates through a lot of Triple A as far as how to make a good ass video game. It doesn't always have to be Elden Ring or God of War. Even though I love Elden Ring, God of War, don't stop making those. But like an Astrobot can be just as legitimate and like It Takes Two can be just as legitimate as long as you're putting in that creativity in that polish in there. Like these are games that can have the ability to really connect with people and games that you can put out and you know, not necessarily not have to worry about them being overlooked or worry about them not connecting. Like, I love that Astrobot. A game that plays like that. A game that looks like that. A game that has such charm to it. A game that is family friendly. A game that is all these things is able to beat the games that were listed right there for a game of the year that's very.
- [43:46]
Snowbike Mike
So good. Best audio design Hellblade 2. There is that game. Playing it at night with the headphones on. Goosebumps all the time, you know, feeling the whispers on the back of my night, my back of my neck wondering, is someone else in the room with me? That's how good that audio design was. It was fantastic. And best score. Final Fantasy 7 How do they have so many songs? Why is crazy amount of songs incredible? Every single p. Every single thing is so good on that one. So, yeah, a lot of great winners there. A lot of fun to go through and just highlight some awesome games and awesome teams making them.
- [44:21]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, man.
- [44:22]
Snowbike Mike
Brought up what was missing. Yeah, you know what was missing.
- [44:26]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
What's that?
- [44:27]
Snowbike Mike
I was surprised that Xbox only brought one without a World's two. They brought a lot of ads with. This is not.
- [44:32]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, no, dudes. The dark Ages. That shocks me.
- [44:34]
Snowbike Mike
I was a little surprised we didn't see more Xbox in the mix, especially after last year. I thought this year about. We've heard it many of times from developers and teams of like, it's very difficult to look at one of your teams and say, hey, cut me this trailer by this date. Let's do this right. So, like, no matter where they are in the pipeline, but they have so many teams. That's where I'm at. Well, that's why I would highlight them of like, I was surprised they're missing because they have so many games, so many teams, so many things announced during the summertime that I'm surprised that at the biggest stage in December when we start wrapping up the calendar year and all of the highlights that they've had, that this is not one of their, like, kind of mainstays. And I think Greg touched on it at the end of the night of like Naughty Dog showing up big here of like, maybe next year other teams look at that like Nintendo and an Xbox and go, we want to be there too.
- [45:23]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Do you think there's more. There's more reasoning to it? Like, do you think this is them maybe holding off for a developer underscore direct? Or do you think maybe it is a thing of. I don't know. Like, I don't know how this would happen but like maybe they're like oh, we know Naughty Dog's thing is going to be there and going to be the closer. We don't want to put Doom the Dark Ages next to it and have it feel like it's in a shadow.
- [45:43]
Snowbike Mike
Because you just highlighted 20 plus games.
- [45:45]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Right.
- [45:45]
Snowbike Mike
And so like I would want my games to be in the mix. I think they do have a lot of. They have a lot of events and communication tentpoles that they go through throughout the year that maybe they are. They don't have any more to share there. I think it's always on the developers of like can I get this team to create something for this and have them spend resources while they should be developing the game and you know, maybe enjoying a nice holiday break. It's. I think it's tough for that one too. But yeah, I'm surprised with all those teams and games that they weren't there. No. Nintendo.
- [46:14]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
- [46:15]
Snowbike Mike
Switch 2 is looming. Where's that? I know that's.
- [46:18]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I mean they're not. That's the thing is they're not going to talk about shit right now.
- [46:21]
Snowbike Mike
Like that's true.
- [46:21]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I would want Nintendo to be there too. But to talk about their big upcoming games they will need to talk about the Switch 2 and they're not going to talk about the Switch to here. Right. Like I imagine hopefully in the next month or two we finally get that reveal.
- [46:33]
Snowbike Mike
No I.O. interactive with James Bond. We still just patiently wait for that to get excited of like we all know and we want that. I can't wait to see that.
- [46:42]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Let it build up, man.
- [46:43]
Snowbike Mike
I know it's. It's already building.
- [46:44]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Listen, the longer you make me wait, you make me wait. IO like the hotter it's gonna be. Tease me.
- [46:51]
Snowbike Mike
Of course. You know your boy Mike really wanted Rockstar to work with Jeff and bring Grand Theft Auto. We always talk about GTA is way bigger than anything. They don't need anyone. But like yeah. Rockstar continues to sit on after a year since the trailer. We haven't gotten anything since as you guys did the games cast. It's like wild to think of like where's Grand Theft Auto? When do we start talking about this again?
- [47:13]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
There is Grand Theft Auto.
- [47:14]
Snowbike Mike
So excited.
- [47:15]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Very exciting. Kevin, I got a question for you.
- [47:19]
Snowbike Mike
How.
- [47:20]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
How far are we into this episode? Because I, I didn't do a good job of seeing what time we started because usually we're at 10am but this is a weird one. We're 45min minutes and 57 seconds. Oh, yeah, we got time. All right, let's move on to story number two. Geralt is in the Witcher 4, and that is indeed Doug Cockles voice in the trailer. CD Projekt confirms. This is Wesley Yenpool at IGN. If you watched the Witcher 4's debut trailer during the Game Awards 2024, you'll have heard a line of dialogue that sounded very much like it was coming from the previous protagonist, Geralt. Quote, time for a new saga. See you on the path. End quote. While Ciri is confirmed as the main character for the Witcher 4, fans were left wondering whether Geralt would appear in the game, which is set after the events of the Witcher 3. IGN can confirm that Geralt is indeed the Witcher 4 in the Witcher 4, and that is indeed the voice of veteran Geralt voice actor Doug Cockle. Confirmation from CD Projekt itself, which told ign, quote, geralt will appear in the game, but we don't want to spoil his role. Precisely. You'll have to wait to learn more for now and. Well, we're going to end the article there. But Mike, Exciting, of course, he's got to be in there. It's Carol.
- [48:29]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah, of course. And with coming off of the Wild Hunt, we know that he has a very big piece in series life right there. So it's like, where will he be used? How much will he be used? A mentor? Will he just be another Witcher that maybe we meet at certain areas and we catch up with? I. I don't need him to be the star as it is all about Siri, and that's what I'm here for, is that next her journey. But, like, yeah, of course, you want the mainstay of all the Witcher games that you remember from before to have a nice little appearance in this. It'll be fun to see how they use him. Very little.
- [49:02]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
A lot.
- [49:03]
Snowbike Mike
Where's that at?
- [49:04]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, I mean, I know I didn't play enough of the Witcher 3 to be able to be even able to, like, predict. Right. But I'm so excited for this. Like, this is one where I. I mean, they got big shoes to fill here or not big shoes to fill because they're making. But, like, it's a. It's a big thing to live up to. The Witcher 3, when it came out in 2015, I think immediately sent ripples through the industry as far as how much of a step up it felt as an rpg. And time has move on. Right. It's going to be by the time this comes out. Over a decade since the release of the Witcher 4 or since the release of the Witcher 3. I mean, and a lot has changed. A lot has been innovated on Baldur's Gate 3 came out, you know what I mean? Like cyberpunk came out, right? Like, I am so fascinated to see what the Witcher 4 looks like because I believe in them with this, like, I think they're going to knock this out the park. And I had to put an asterisk on that because we're coming off of cyberpunk, which had a very, extremely rough launch and all that stuff. But the Witcher 4 is one that I think has. That is going to be one of the biggest games of the year, the year that it comes out. Right. It is going to be very highly anticipated by the time we get there. So I'm just very excited and curious to see what that looks like in 2020.
- [50:14]
Snowbike Mike
I can't wait. Seven or eight stories to tell, monsters to slay, combat to be elevated, gameplay to be taken to the next level. Graphics world. Like there's just so much you go down the list of like, can't wait to see that. Can't wait to see that. How do you improve this far out.
- [50:29]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Prediction for you, right? The last time this came out, came out, Witcher 3 came out in 2015, the same year as Fallout 4. And I'll say, I think it's safe to say that Witcher 3 was the winner there. As far as like the game of the year conversation. If this comes out same year as the next Elder Scrolls, you read my mind. What do you like? What do you think ends up happening? What do you think? Do you think they continue?
- [50:50]
Snowbike Mike
We as gamers eat big. We have a great year of video games.
- [50:54]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Mike, Mike, Mike, get controversial. All right? Pick a winner. All right. I know, I know we eat. I know. We, the gamer win. That's not what I'm asking.
- [51:03]
Snowbike Mike
We have a great time.
- [51:03]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
That's not what I'm asking.
- [51:06]
Snowbike Mike
People go, oh my God, the Witcher is so great. And they forget about Elder Scrolls because they're always forgetting about Elders. If you want me to get controversial, I'm giving you.
- [51:14]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Nobody's forgetting about Elder Scrolls mad.
- [51:17]
Snowbike Mike
Because Elder Scrolls is still stuck in the past with the Bethesda ways, just like we saw with Starfield, where they love what they get from Bethesda games, but they want something more. They want to somehow elevate these systems that have been built upon and the normal ways that we go about it, and they wish that it would be taken up to the next level. That's the only controversial thing.
- [51:35]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
No, that, that I think I agree with now.
- [51:39]
Snowbike Mike
I think we all are extremely pumped because it's more Elder Scrolls, which everybody loves and adores, and Witcher, it's like, man, what a great time.
- [51:46]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Add in the next Larian game to the equation, put all of them out in the same year so they're not making Baldur's Gate.
- [51:52]
Snowbike Mike
It's pretty exciting to see what their next thing is, but I feel like.
- [51:54]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
People would want a Baldur's game.
- [51:55]
Snowbike Mike
Of course, I agree, I agree.
- [51:56]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I mean, I'm excited. It's probably going to be what, another divinity or maybe something entirely different.
- [52:00]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah.
- [52:00]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
But yeah, I don't know. I think we're in a great time for RPGs. They're like RPGs in the last generation.
- [52:08]
Snowbike Mike
With two RPGs next year out of Worlds 2 and Avowed. I mean, that's very exciting. If you love RPGs, you've had a great year with them this year. And yeah, RPGs continue to really shine and it's going to be a lot of fun.
- [52:21]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Let's talk about Elden Ring with story number three, Elden Ring Night Rain features bosses from Dark Souls this is Ryan Dinsdale at IGN From Software surprised everyone at the Game Awards 2024 last night with the reveal of co op spin off Elden Ring Night Rain, but if that's not shocking enough, it also features bosses from Dark Souls. Fans were quick to notice the debut trailer for Elden Ring Night Rain appeared to feature one of the Dark Souls most infamous bosses, the Nameless King from Dark Souls 3. And game director Junya Ishizaki confirmed to Famitsu in an interview translated by Automaton that baddies from Dark Souls will in fact appear. Their appearances will be limited, ishizaki said, as they represent creatures that have strained into or strayed into this twisted version of Limgrave from other universes. While you only mentioned Dark Souls, this theoretically opens the door for other fromsoftware games such as Demon's Souls, Second Shadows Die Twice, and, dare we say it, Bloodborne. The cameo Elden Ring Night Rain drops up to three players into a condensed version of Limgrave from the main Elden Ring and tasks them with surviving enemies, and structures are procedurally generated to allow for a varied experience, with players encouraged to battle to grow stronger and survive the night. When a boss appears, surviving three days and Nights spawns a major boss for players to take down. And the game has eight in total for players to conquer.
- [53:47]
Snowbike Mike
So you're fighting essentially four bosses, three mini bosses and then the big boss at the end. Yes, every single run we'll call it.
- [53:55]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yes.
- [53:55]
Snowbike Mike
They have pre made character classes that you choose from yesterday. I think that's what Greg read yesterday. It's. It seemed like there was character classes that you choose from as opposed to just. We just choose what we want to build and kind of build that out. It seems like they're pre made. I'm into this. Bless. I'm very excited. I'll just call like an Elden Ring boss Rust mode. I'm interested in that especially with my friends.
- [54:21]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I mean demon hacker in chat says Elden Risk of Rain. Like it has that vibe of like it seems like it is just a roguelite, like an Elden Ring co op survival roguelite game. Which is exactly what I want out of a video game. Even though I still stand by. I think it is kind of a weird one. Like I think it is a bit of a bizarre turn, a bizarre path from software as far as what you can do with the Elden Ring ip. Because I mean this strikes me as very non canon. Right. And this might be more of an Andy question, but yeah, he brought up.
- [54:53]
Snowbike Mike
The lore in the story.
- [54:53]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
It feels like fan fiction.
- [54:54]
Snowbike Mike
It doesn't feel like that. Yeah, it will be really interesting to see what you look at it like that. I. I don't know, it just it feels right of like this is a very small project. It's clearly not Elden Ring dlc. It's going to be its own standalone thing testing multiplayer to make it smoother and better. A much smaller project of will we just take the bosses we've already had, shove them into these tiny arenas.
- [55:17]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Like it feels so much like Metal Gear Survive. And I don't mean that derogatory like I mean that just in the way of like, hey, you're a game developer, you want to make something. You want to like continue to feed the Elden Ring fan base that you know, loves this game and loves the combat. Maybe as a game developer you have some gameplay ideas you want to mess with, right. And like you come on the combat that they have in these fucking games I think would work so well in a roguelite setting, could work so well in a boss rush slash co op setting that I think they look at that they look at the assets that they've made already with Elden Ring and go yo, we can make something and put it out into two to three years if we wanted to.
- [55:53]
Snowbike Mike
We can start with X amount of bosses and we can just add bosses.
- [55:55]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
We can just add bosses when they want more.
- [55:58]
Snowbike Mike
It seems like an interesting win and it feels like a good, hey, we stay in the popularity. People are excited. They get more while we build something else while we get to the next one instead of going, oh man, they haven't had anything in a year. Two years, three years, four years on a normal dev cycle that we would experience with these games. Now you continue to get more of the games you love.
- [56:20]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I'm excited for this. This is exactly what I want. Remove Nick from the Elden Ring squad. Put me in there. I want blessing.
- [56:26]
Snowbike Mike
You have my word. You're on it.
- [56:27]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Thank you.
- [56:27]
Snowbike Mike
Yep.
- [56:27]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
That means I'm not on it. Story number four, Cat Bailey and Moore are leaving ign. This broke recently, like during gamescast and so I've not been able to like look into it that as deeply as I'd like for this, but I'm pulling from a tweet from Ethan Gotcha from Kotaku on Twitter. He tweeted out. IGN news director Kat Bailey is leaving today along with an exodus of other employees following buyout offers from Ziff Davis, an incredible talent and games media veteran whose work I've loved and followed for what feels like forever. Wild stuff, of course. Kat Bailey, super talented. She's been kind of funny before. I've hung out with Kat Bailey plenty of times before. An exodus of other employees as well. Right. Following buyout offers from Ziff Davis. What is going on here? This is why.
- [57:15]
Snowbike Mike
Nothing good. Nothing good.
- [57:17]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Bless.
- [57:17]
Snowbike Mike
Nothing good at all. I mean, that is one of your top talents right there. That is someone that you don't want to lose off your team. You would do anything to try to keep them on there. I don't know what's happening over there. Bless the slow crumble, the steady fall of it all that we've been witnessing over the past couple of years and a decade now of as things start to move away and people start to go towards their favorite YouTubers, content creators for their reviews, opinions, thoughts, gameplay. As that starts to slowly go, we've seen just the slow decline of do people still go to mega sites like this? Do they want that? And there's pieces of it where it's like, yeah, I go to my news from all these journalists that are breaking the news, that have the, the press media briefings that know all this stuff, but it still feels like the world has clearly said, no, we're going over here on the opposite direction, right?
- [58:10]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah. Like, how many people just get their news off of Twitter or get their news off of youtubers and podcasters? Fuck them. You know? Like, this is, I think, concerning and scary for what it means for video games media. And like, video games media barely feels like a thing anymore anyway. Right. Video games journalism barely even feels like a thing anymore anyway. But I think for me, IGN always felt like the final boss of. Once IGN falls, then it's all just gone. It's all just over. And this feels like IGN falling, which is scary. Like, I hope. And I, and I, like, I hope I'm overreacting. I hope, like, you know, this is just another. Hey, this is a handful of people. Like, whatever it is, like, they're still gonna sustain or do whatever. I don't expect IGN to fully go away within the next few years. Right. But, like, I do. I think what I expect is based off of this is for IGN to become a bit more of just a. We're pumping out content, we're pumping out guides. Maybe less personality focused, maybe less the opinion pieces and the less of like the investigative reporting and stuff like that and more. So just top 10 bosses in Elden Ring, top 10 Magic arena decks that you can make with the new command. Yeah, like the. We've seen so many websites turn into that, turn into click farms, as opposed to, I think, actual worthwhile content with personality with, you know, like, tangible benefit for the readers and all this stuff. Right. Like, I'm. I'm so scared that that is what the, the road we're entering with this.
- [59:41]
Snowbike Mike
So what is Ziff Davis doing here offering a number of buyouts to all of these employees? Just saying, hey, you can either leave or six months down the road you're gonna leave because we're. We're out of this.
- [59:51]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
- [59:51]
Snowbike Mike
Like, what, what is the move here from them? Are they getting ready to shut this down? Are they getting ready to sell? Are they going to cut it so low where it's like, hey, we just do guides and we're only going to do this. Everything else is gone. That's what it feels like. It reads like right there.
- [60:04]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah. Like, I'm sure there was a. Probably a meeting that is. Hey, this is the shift that we're making. So as a website from the top down, if you want to leave, we'll give you however much money right now and the rest of you guys can stay on. But, like, I think that when you're offered something like that. Yeah, I think in the back of your head, you're like, oh, well, layoffs are going to happen in a few months anyway.
- [60:21]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah.
- [60:21]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
So I might as well take the money and go. As supposed to be being a part.
- [60:24]
Snowbike Mike
Of the layoffs, it's heartbreaking because I know you were just like me where you grew up reading and looking at IGN and other game websites like this as that is the dream, that is the Mecca, that is the coolest place to want to work and be a part of. And to see that just crumbling and falling apart right in front of our eyes is wild to be a part of.
- [60:43]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Right.
- [60:43]
Snowbike Mike
Like, and it's happening now and it's hard to get a grip on it of like, oh, this is real two months a year, three years down the road, when it's totally different, we'll look back and go, wow, we witnessed that happen in real time.
- [60:55]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
- [60:56]
Snowbike Mike
And it was crazy to be a part of.
- [60:58]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Very scary stuff, Mike. A lot of big changes happening in the industry. Big scary changes.
- [61:04]
Snowbike Mike
Big scary. Go, go support the people you love. If you have certain people that you see on that list that are leaving.
- [61:10]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Has her podcast, Blood God. Yep. Acts of the Blood God, I believe is what it's called, which is an RPG podcast. Go check that out. Go support that. Kev, I think your mic is on.
- [61:19]
Snowbike Mike
Use your social media to say, hey, you have been incredible. I've loved your work. Go uplift them, go encourage them. Go tell them how much they meant to you. These are the times right there where it's like you want to see something positive on your feed. These people want to be rallied behind and deserve to be rallied behind for all their hard work.
- [61:36]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Show them some big support.
- [61:38]
Snowbike Mike
Big support.
- [61:39]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
But Mike, if I wanted something smaller, say the tiniest news I need to know about, where would I go?
- [61:43]
Snowbike Mike
You'd go out and give a small little hug and some love to the WE News Channel where we cover all the small news items you need to know about. Bless.
- [61:51]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Story number five is Wii News. Squid Game Unleashed will be free for everyone at launch. And then from vgc, the Epic Game Store and GOG have announced new PC game giveaways. Epic is giving away the Lord of the Rings return to Moria free of charge, while GOG is giving away the Whispered World Special Edition.
- [62:09]
Snowbike Mike
You if you are somebody who is on a budget who likes just free things in general with maybe subscriptions you're already paying for, you should always be keeping an eye out for what a lot of these companies are doing. From games to Amazon prime and Prime Gaming. They are during the holidays, they're just giving away games. So now is the time. Take advantage of them. Just collect them as we always say. At least just take them, put them in your cart, put them in your library. You don't got to download them, but just take advantage of this stuff. And also shout out to squid Game shout. We did talk about Netflix and how Netflix has games and they're trying, they're trying. They are still trying and they sometimes they say they're not trying hard enough or like make a big enough impact. But like if you turn on your phone right now and scroll through, you'll see there's a list of like here's our games and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas is on there. Talk about Hades on there. Like they got games, they're trying mortality. Take advantage of the subscription services you're paying for.
- [63:04]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And that is it for we news. I checked. You're wrong. We ain't got no your wrongs. But we do have some super chats here that we can end the show with. Let's see, John Van Peltz writes in and says what witcher should I start with? Haven't played any, but I'm hyped for four.
- [63:22]
Snowbike Mike
Start with three. Yeah, go, go into three. Two and one are a little old. If you're jumping in for the first ever time, this is the moment that you should be jumping into. You know, it's hard for me to recommend 2 and 1 if it's really, really first time. So 3 is good enough. I think you would enjoy 3 a lot.
- [63:39]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Biggie Bakes writes in and says, My 8 month old son started our day to day at 5am But I got to enjoy the reaction vod as we had our breakfast. Thanks guys. Video games are awesome. Thank you so much for watching.
- [63:52]
Snowbike Mike
A lot of reaction. A lot of a great podcast there. And if you're waking up early, turn it on, have it in the background and enjoy the moments with your son. That's beautiful.
- [64:00]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Sea Village writes in and says, card gamers give Arkham Horror, the living card game, a shot. Oh, I think I've heard of that, but I've not actually looked into it.
- [64:08]
Snowbike Mike
We'll look it up. We'll look it up.
- [64:10]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I like that Demon Hacker writes and it says hot take Elden Ring Night Rain counter pick in 2025.
- [64:17]
Snowbike Mike
I like it smaller, condensed thing, multiplayer focused. Right. Like there's only what you read, like eight bosses there. So I think maybe people will be like, oh, there's not enough content here. Maybe a lower score than what we would normally see.
- [64:30]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
But A lower score.
- [64:30]
Snowbike Mike
I'm just saying. Hey, that's for the counter pick argument there.
- [64:34]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
If I had a guess based on just what we know about Elden Ring Night Rain. Like this isn't based off of anything I like. I've not previewed the game or seen it or anything. Right. Just based off of the details we know. I'm saying throw it in 83.
- [64:46]
Snowbike Mike
I was going to go with 85.
- [64:47]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, I was thinking 85 too. Say we're in the same mind of like this isn't going to be like an elder.
- [64:52]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah, I would. I don't think this is a 70 which is like a counter pick area.
- [64:57]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Right.
- [64:57]
Snowbike Mike
You want 70 or lower not to release. But like to me, if I look at that, I go, I don't know if I want to counter pick that. That feels like an 85.
- [65:04]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Like this isn't going to be a round. Elden Ring Night Rain. Not a round one pick for me. Yeah, maybe, like, maybe my last round, C.J.
- [65:10]
Snowbike Mike
Says 75 to 80. I like that.
- [65:12]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I mean maybe somebody says, I think it's in 78.
- [65:15]
Snowbike Mike
Maybe we'll see.
- [65:16]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I don't. It's definitely not impossible.
- [65:18]
Snowbike Mike
It's very different from what they're. What people want from them.
- [65:21]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Right.
- [65:21]
Snowbike Mike
So we'll see.
- [65:22]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And it's like it's the kind of game, if it wasn't from software, if I read this from any other developer, I'd be like, oh, that's going to fail.
- [65:27]
Snowbike Mike
It's like the Turok 3 Player co op game that we saw. Maybe it's 3 Player, I'm not sure.
- [65:31]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
But it's a repeat of Metal Gear Survive like it legitimately is. Yeah, I think that might be it for Super Chats. Let me look. Give me one more look.
- [65:41]
Snowbike Mike
Super Chats coming.
- [65:43]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
We talked about halfway. We talked about this, we talked about that. Yeah, I think we're good on Super Chats. I think we read all of them.
- [65:49]
Snowbike Mike
I love spending time with you. Bless. I hate Fridays, Mike.
- [65:53]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Be real. Fridays are the best.
- [65:54]
Snowbike Mike
I hate Fridays. They suck.
- [65:56]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
You don't want to. You know what? You're not ready to sleep in tomorrow.
- [65:58]
Snowbike Mike
You know what the best part is? We're going to continue the streams and the content here and kind of funny Twitch TV kind of funny games, YouTube.com kind of funny games. We are going to continue to play games and hang out with you. The best audience here on the Internet. We're going to talk games, we're going to have some fun. We're going to jump into Fortnite maybe even play some ballistics mode with Kevin and Joey and Blessing and so we should have a really good time. But yeah, it's going to be a great time, y'all.
- [66:23]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Of course, like I mentioned before, there are no you're wrongs in there. Some of you. Mike Nailed it. This has been kind of Funny. Games Daily each and every weekday we run you through the nerdy news you need to know about live on YouTube, Twitch and on podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, support us with the kind of funny membership on patreon or on YouTube to get all of our shows ad free, watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive show. We've got the stream next Games cast is up right now. Go check it out. But until next time, Game Daily A handshake on the one.